Author's responses:
-To Melchior the Mewthree: Thanks for yet another review. ^_^ (And I was quite amused by your muse. =D)
-To DarkCatXX: Thanks again for the compliments. It's alright to not have much to say. ^_^
Further note: This chapter contains lyrics of "Wind's Nocturne" from Lunar Silver Star Story. It's a beautiful song that's worth your time, and yes, I think it could be the theme to How Bizarre... ^_^
---
Night Six: Haunted
Morpheus opened his weary, golden eyes and looked up from where he sat under the shelter built into the boat. His eyes gazed with a slight glance at the Meowth leaning over the edge of the boat, staring at the crystal-clear waters under the galaxy-filled sky. A smile drew across the god's lips at this sight.
"You're beginning to figure things out," he murmured, more to himself than to Bill. "It will only be a matter of time until we reach the Lotus Temple..."
With that, Morpheus closed his eyes again and attempted to sleep.
Meanwhile, Bill looked over his shoulder, trying to decide whether or not he had heard Morpheus say something. Eventually, he simply shrugged it off, thinking that it was yet another figment of his imagination. With a sigh, he looked back out at the black waters and the starry, somewhat multi-colored sky. He recalled over and over again the words that Morpheus had spoken to him earlier.
"You aren't alone... You don't have to think that the only person you can turn to is yourself."
But... People can come and go, and they can lie to your face and use you while they're at it. That's the way things were, and Bill knew that. How could he trust someone if the next day, they would just disappear from his life?
It wasn't just about Alice's death, either, nor was it about the thousands of promises his father had broken to him. It was about how, throughout his life, people used him. Throughout his years at school, he had always been the top of the class, and because of this, he would always wind up doing someone else's homework or help them with schoolwork, either because he couldn't refuse them or because he was bullied into doing it. Never was it out of friendship; he had no friends during that time, save for Alice up until his senior year at the academy he had attended.
But it didn't stop there. When he became famous as a researcher, just because he was in the newspapers, there had been relatives who tried to use that as an opportunity to become something themselves. Even if Bill didn't always see proof of this, he knew what was going on whenever a cousin that previously treated him like nothing would grin at him like he had always been a favorite cousin of theirs. Call it paranoia, if you will, but it was true.
That's why he cut off contact to civilization and isolated himself in the middle of nowhere. People had a tendency to hurt him, so if he stayed away from them, he knew he would be alright.
He closed his eyes and sighed, then opened them to watch streaks of light going across the sky. He craned his neck to look at the dazzling show the heavens were putting on for him.
"A meteor shower," he said with a breathy voice.
Suddenly, when time previously seemed to have gone too slow, it picked up speed at last, and the heavenly rocks plunged into the sea. However, that was not all of it. The meteors were bigger than they looked, and as they fell into the ocean, the force of their landing caused the water to rush out from beneath the cosmic stones, creating great tidal waves that traveled out, towards everything around the shower... specifically, the boat. Bill gasped and rushed under the shelter to awaken Morpheus with the false hope that the god could do something.
However, Bill only touched Morpheus' arm when the tsunami picked up the boat and tilted it, causing the Meowth inside to tumble past the god of dreams.
"Not again...!" Bill cried as he was flung off the edge of the boat once again.
He closed his eyes and braced himself to be engulfed by darkness once more. However, that event did not come. Cautiously, he opened his eyes and looked about him in confusion. All around him, frozen in time, was the turmoil of the water. The great waves were motionless, and their transparent blue-green color made them appear almost like giant sculptures of glass.
Bill stood and tapped one of his hind paws on the water cautiously, then jumped up and down on the ocean's surface to make sure that everything beneath him was solid. Not only WAS it solid, but it felt strange to the bottoms of his paws. Almost like ice, but not as frigid. Somewhat like the smoothness and coolness of glass (it even produced the sort of sound solid glass would make when Bill tapped it), yet it still found a way to feel... like liquid.
The Meowth glanced up to see the boat embedded in the top of a wave. Carefully, he made his way back towards it and began climbing up its side, slipping every so often. Morpheus, who had just then awoken, yawned and watched Bill's ascent.
"Time froze," Morpheus muttered with boredom in his voice, as if it was a normal occurrence for the clock to be erratic.
A chill went down Bill's spine. Everything sounded like a museum. Quiet. Too quiet.
"How long until it unfreezes?" Bill asked.
Morpheus shrugged. "Maybe a few moments, maybe it won't at all."
Bill frowned as he mounted the top of the wave and looked out all around him. He squinted his eyes straight ahead, at a thick, brown line along part of the horizon.
"Land..." Bill grinned with growing excitement. "I see land! Morpheus, is that where the Lotus Temple is?"
Morpheus didn't respond. He only stared straight ahead, at the line of brown on the horizon.
"Will I make it there if I ran?" Bill inquired. "Will the ocean stay frozen long enough for me to set foot on solid ground?"
Again, Morpheus said nothing. This time, however, the silence endured for awhile.
"Morpheus, what's the matter?" Bill asked cautiously. "Should I not go there? Is that not where the Lotus Temple lies?"
"What does your heart tell you?" Morpheus finally asked.
Bill fell silent. He wasn't expecting that kind of answer, and he was left to stare at Morpheus with a surprised look on his face. He closed his eyes for a moment and tried to form an answer in his mind. Morpheus, sensing the youth's confusion, rephrased his question.
"Do you think, with all your heart, that the way to go is that way, or are you simply thinking that it is with your head?"
Bill opened his eyes. "What do you mean? How can I think with my heart?"
Morpheus shook his head. "Bill, you understand many things, but it's surprising that you cannot comprehend something as simple as that. Your heart knows as much as your mind -- perhaps even more. Learn to trust it. You have done so thus far with relying on your intuition to get us here. It is now time to realize what you are doing, and it is time for you to begin doing it more often.
"Although one cannot live by trusting his heart alone, no one can rely on their minds alone either. You, a man of facts and figures, have no trust in the decisions made by your heart; I have sensed doubt and anxiety every time you continued on because that's what your heart said you should do. You must realize that even if your heart cannot provide evidence and reasons to why it tells you something, the decisions it makes are just as safe as those made by your mind. And this goes especially for you, with a heart so pure, wise, and innocent -- certainly one that would do no wrong to others or the rest of you.
"And so, I ask you again. Do you FEEL that the Lotus Temple is beyond the horizon before us, or do you simply THINK it is?"
There was a pause as Bill allowed Morpheus' words to sink in and as he tried to come up with an answer. He closed his eyes and cleared his mind, forbidding it to make his decision as he attempted to let his heart speak, though he wasn't sure how. It seemed like hours passed before he could finally say something, something that came from deep within his soul, not within his consciousness.
"It's that way," he said, pointing to the brown horizon. "I know it. Deep inside, I know it."
Morpheus judged the youth's answer by the tone of his voice and smiled. The god could tell that Bill understood and let his heart speak for once. With that, the horned being floated down, away from the wave. When he realized he wasn't being followed, he turned his head and glanced up at the Meowth, who was watching him with curiosity.
"Well? Come on!" Morpheus called. "I can't get to my destination if I don't know the way! However, I'm sure YOU know EXACTLY where we're going!"
Bill grinned sheepishly and scampered down the frozen tsunami on all fours before leading Morpheus to the horizon, across the frozen sea.
He didn't notice how Meowth-like he was beginning to act...
---
He didn't know how long he had been running, but it seemed as if the landmass ran towards him at the exact same speed. And for this, he thanked all the gods he knew of as the air he took in painfully stung the inside of his throat and his lungs. He noticed a soft tune flowing into his ears, but he didn't think much of it. Not until he finally reached the sandy beaches of the landmass and collapsed on his stomach did he listen to the familiar voice sing softly to him. His ears perked up as soon as he heard her sweet voice...
"Wishing on a dream that seems far off
Hoping it would come today
Into the starlit night, foolish dreamers turn their gaze
Waiting on a shooting star..."
Bill closed his eyes for a moment and frowned in perplexity. It couldn't be... Could it?
Slowly (and painfully), he rose to his hind paws and began walking towards the source of the sound. He didn't care whether Morpheus was by his side or not; he somewhat forgot about the god. He didn't even notice as he stepped off the sandy beaches and into a hilly meadow full of lush, green grass and beautiful flowers swaying in the pure, spring breeze that blew past to cool the land down. He didn't notice the beauty of anything. Nothing except the innocence of a child's voice, singing in the distance.
"But... What if that star is not to come?
Will their dreams fade to nothing?
When the horizon darkens most,
We all need to believe there is hope..."
It didn't take him long to find the singer. She was a young, plump girl, not thin and not obese, but somewhat off normal. Her pale skin was covered in an Alice in Wonderland attire -- a light blue dress covered with a frilly, white apron, white, knee-high socks, black shoes, and a black headband in her chin-length, dirty-blonde hair. She stood on a tree stump, singing to a bunch of Rattata, Pidgey, and Taillow as well as a few white rabbits, all looking up at her intently. Bill stood behind her, waiting for a chance to approach as he listened to her continue to sing.
"Is an angel watching closely over me?
Can there be a guiding light I've yet to see?
I know my heart should guide me, but...
There's a hole within my soul..."
Bill took a step forward. He cautiously inched towards the girl, wanting so badly to touch her and make sure she was real...
"What will fill this emptiness inside of me?
Am I to be satisfied without knowing?
I wish, then, for a chance to see
Now all I need, desperately..."
Bill reached out to touch the hem of her dress. It was a bad move, and she disappeared as a flurry of pale, pink flower petals dancing in the wind and swirling about the Pokémon and the animals as they scampered away into oblivion. Bill knelt down in front of the stump, feeling quite empty inside as the girl's voice finished off the song, regardless of whether or not her body was present.
"...Is my star to come..."
There was a long period of silence. Bill wasn't even aware that Morpheus -- or anything else -- was around at that point as he stared at the spot where the girl formerly stood.
"That was Alice, wasn't it?"
Bill looked up at Morpheus with wide eyes, completely surprised by the god's voice. With weak and unsure movements, he nodded. He looked down at the ground once more, not wanting to glance up at Morpheus' face.
"She used to sing to me that way," Bill recalled. "All the time... by the river. She had such a sweet voice. It wasn't the best, but it was sweet, just like her."
He stood up.
"Alice... Never was a Pokémon trainer. She didn't care about Pokémon, much like how I didn't care all those years ago," Bill told Morpheus as he stared at the blue sky with white clouds stampeding across it. "No one said she was pretty, and she wasn't the most intelligent person I know. But she... She had something about her. Something no one else could have. A warmth deep in her heart. I could... I could see it every time she smiled. I could feel it whenever she was around. I could hear it whenever she laughed... It sounded like wind chimes. And... nothing else mattered about her, except that warmth. It didn't matter that she couldn't handle a Pokémon if she had been given one; it didn't matter if she didn't quite make good marks in school... It didn't even matter that she wasn't flawless. It didn't matter. Whenever I was around her... She made me happy. And then..."
Bill tore his eyes away from the sky and pulled himself onto the stump to sit down. He stared at his hind paws before he continued.
"...And then she was gone," he said extremely faintly. "Leukemia. She was... She was in pain for months, and there was nothing anyone could do for her. Her parents... Her parents had gotten a divorce not long before. She lived with her mother most of the time, and her mother didn't have a great job. There was barely even enough money to make her comfortable during those last few weeks. But... But I visited her every day and sat by her bedside, always hoping that there was a chance, a shimmer of hope... Something that could say that she would get better..."
His body shook as he held back his emotions. He couldn't show them. Not in front of someone. No, never. He couldn't...
"Then... One day... I came to visit her. She was having a hard time breathing. But I stood there and kept her company; my visits made her smile during those days. But that day... She smiled at me... She gave me a look that I can't even describe completely. It was as if she was trying to tell me that everything was going to be alright... That she was going to be okay... And then... And then... She sang to me. She sang that song to me. And at the very end... She said that I didn't have to worry about her. After that she... She closed her eyes... And fell asleep... And I waited... And waited... And... I felt her wrist... There was nothing. No pulse..."
Bill trailed off as his voice broke up. He cleared his throat and stood.
"I-I'm sorry," Bill muttered. "I shouldn't be this emotional."
"On the contrary," Morpheus replied. "Why do you think you've come to this meadow?"
Bill looked at Morpheus with wide, surprised eyes.
"Do you not realize it?" Morpheus asked. "You have a hard time showing your true emotions to others. You fear it and fear that people can use it as a weapon against you, and therefore, you find it hard to express it." Morpheus paused and glanced at Bill. "Is this so?"
There was a long pause before the faint shred of a saddened look crossed Bill's face as he gave a small nod.
"Do you think it could be possible, then, that you had been brought here to help you correct this?" Morpheus inquired. "After all, no human can go their entire lives without expressing any emotion. Not unless they live their lives asleep to the real world. And even then, they can express themselves in wonderful dreams. Do you agree, Bill?"
Again, the youth nodded.
"Then I ask you this," Morpheus said. "How do you truly feel about Alice?"
Bill began walking away, into the green wonderland as Morpheus followed. The Meowth shuddered and touched his chest with a clawed hand, trembling with the emotion building up inside him.
"It's hard to let someone go when you have few people to hold on to," Bill commented in a soft manner. "I don't want to linger in the past, but... she's always there. In my dreams. Haunting me. And yet I... I want to be that happy again. I want to feel the sort of thing I felt when she was near me. I..."
Bill dropped to his knees and bent over, nearly touching the tips of his triangular ears to the soft, green grass. He struggled to hold back all emotion, but he couldn't help it. Tears dripped from the tips of his whiskers as they pulled from his eyes and tangled themselves up in the long, thin strands.
"Morpheus..." Bill murmured.
"Don't resist, Bill," Morpheus responded. "I understand."
And with that, Bill broke down his defenses and let his emotions rush forward like water from behind a broken dam.
---
Ellie poked her head into the hospital room. It was very risky coming in there, especially since it would be the first place her parents looked for her. But a promise is a promise, and she promised her brother that she would visit him every day, no matter what. And even if he was cataleptic and couldn't hear her, she still felt obligated to carry out her self-appointed duty.
She crept forward and stood next to the bed, watching her brother sleep for a long while. Carefully, she reached over to touch his warm hand, as if that would let him know that she was there.
"Big Brother, I kept my promise tonight," she stated. "I came out of my hiding spot to see you. It's been hard to hide because I don't have much with me. But sometimes, I get money from strangers to buy food, or I sneak back home to get something. But I'm good at hiding! Mama and Daddy don't know where I am..."
"We do now."
Ellie shrieked as her father grabbed her by the arm.
"Where have you been!?" he demanded angrily.
"Davis, please be kind to her!" Rose begged from behind him. "She's just a little girl!"
"It doesn't matter!" Davis boomed. "What was she thinking, running off like that and worrying us to no end!? She could have been hurt! Does she have any sense at all!?"
Ellie began to cry, sobbing and hiccupping as the tears flowed from her eyes, down her face, and onto the linoleum floor.
"What's wrong with her this time!?" Davis yelled.
"You're upsetting her!" Rose replied with a voice equaling his in volume.
Ellie pulled away from her father and ran to her mother, embracing her. Tears still slid down the young girl's face as she tried to say what was on her mind.
"Don't kill Big Brother!" she cried between hiccups. "I don't want him to die! Don't let him, Mama! Don't let him!"
Rose's face fell as she knelt down and hugged her daughter. "Is this what this is all about?"
Ellie nodded. "I ran away so you would forget about Big Brother being a problem. I want him to wake up! I don't want him to die!"
"No one does," Rose assured her softly before standing up and taking the child by her hand. "And I promise, no one will let William die." She glanced over her shoulder at her husband with a harsh look on her face. "Now, why don't we get ice cream?"
Ellie wiped her tears and nodded as she walked with her mother out of the room, leaving Davis in silence.
Davis plopped in a chair in the room and stared at his only son, lying there, unchanged since his birthday months ago. Davis certainly didn't want his son to die; Bill's death would mean an end to the continuation of the McKenzie name. And as a typical father, all Davis wanted was to have his surname continue on through the ages, as it had been for countless years already, dating as far back as medieval Scotland.
But did he actually feel any sadness or helplessness? No, not really. His son, to him, was just another person. Another being on that planet who just happened to share a similar genetic code. But they were foreign to each other and had no real relationship. But were there regrets? No. Why? Because Bill was something that Davis couldn't be. He was a success, while Davis was a failure. Never would someone associate the McKenzie name with anyone except Bill. But why did Davis feel no pride in saying that he produced someone of such mental talent?
...Because it made Davis feel as if he couldn't help his family.
The middle-aged man had always hoped to hit the jackpot at the slots to make his family rich, and because of that, he spent most of his time in front of the dazzling machine, pulling the lever and hoping to god that he would be a winner.
But that never happened. His son went to college, was inducted into the Pokémon Symposium (THE most prestigious association of Pokémon researchers in the world), and generally passed the father without any effort. And to top it all off, Bill began to support his family, always sending half of what he made from his books, articles, inventions, and occasional radio shows back to Goldenrod to give his family something to live off of.
And this all made Davis feel like nothing. He was ashamed. He wanted his son to be perfect, and now that he is, Davis only wished he was flawed.
And so, he's faced with the decision... Waste money to keep the person who humiliated him alive or pull the plug and break the hearts of the people he loved most?
Davis sat there, contemplating over what to do. At last, he stood up and walked towards the bed, staring down at his son's face with a tilted head. With a snort, he turned and walked out of the room, leaving Bill in his cold silence.
-To Melchior the Mewthree: Thanks for yet another review. ^_^ (And I was quite amused by your muse. =D)
-To DarkCatXX: Thanks again for the compliments. It's alright to not have much to say. ^_^
Further note: This chapter contains lyrics of "Wind's Nocturne" from Lunar Silver Star Story. It's a beautiful song that's worth your time, and yes, I think it could be the theme to How Bizarre... ^_^
---
Night Six: Haunted
Morpheus opened his weary, golden eyes and looked up from where he sat under the shelter built into the boat. His eyes gazed with a slight glance at the Meowth leaning over the edge of the boat, staring at the crystal-clear waters under the galaxy-filled sky. A smile drew across the god's lips at this sight.
"You're beginning to figure things out," he murmured, more to himself than to Bill. "It will only be a matter of time until we reach the Lotus Temple..."
With that, Morpheus closed his eyes again and attempted to sleep.
Meanwhile, Bill looked over his shoulder, trying to decide whether or not he had heard Morpheus say something. Eventually, he simply shrugged it off, thinking that it was yet another figment of his imagination. With a sigh, he looked back out at the black waters and the starry, somewhat multi-colored sky. He recalled over and over again the words that Morpheus had spoken to him earlier.
"You aren't alone... You don't have to think that the only person you can turn to is yourself."
But... People can come and go, and they can lie to your face and use you while they're at it. That's the way things were, and Bill knew that. How could he trust someone if the next day, they would just disappear from his life?
It wasn't just about Alice's death, either, nor was it about the thousands of promises his father had broken to him. It was about how, throughout his life, people used him. Throughout his years at school, he had always been the top of the class, and because of this, he would always wind up doing someone else's homework or help them with schoolwork, either because he couldn't refuse them or because he was bullied into doing it. Never was it out of friendship; he had no friends during that time, save for Alice up until his senior year at the academy he had attended.
But it didn't stop there. When he became famous as a researcher, just because he was in the newspapers, there had been relatives who tried to use that as an opportunity to become something themselves. Even if Bill didn't always see proof of this, he knew what was going on whenever a cousin that previously treated him like nothing would grin at him like he had always been a favorite cousin of theirs. Call it paranoia, if you will, but it was true.
That's why he cut off contact to civilization and isolated himself in the middle of nowhere. People had a tendency to hurt him, so if he stayed away from them, he knew he would be alright.
He closed his eyes and sighed, then opened them to watch streaks of light going across the sky. He craned his neck to look at the dazzling show the heavens were putting on for him.
"A meteor shower," he said with a breathy voice.
Suddenly, when time previously seemed to have gone too slow, it picked up speed at last, and the heavenly rocks plunged into the sea. However, that was not all of it. The meteors were bigger than they looked, and as they fell into the ocean, the force of their landing caused the water to rush out from beneath the cosmic stones, creating great tidal waves that traveled out, towards everything around the shower... specifically, the boat. Bill gasped and rushed under the shelter to awaken Morpheus with the false hope that the god could do something.
However, Bill only touched Morpheus' arm when the tsunami picked up the boat and tilted it, causing the Meowth inside to tumble past the god of dreams.
"Not again...!" Bill cried as he was flung off the edge of the boat once again.
He closed his eyes and braced himself to be engulfed by darkness once more. However, that event did not come. Cautiously, he opened his eyes and looked about him in confusion. All around him, frozen in time, was the turmoil of the water. The great waves were motionless, and their transparent blue-green color made them appear almost like giant sculptures of glass.
Bill stood and tapped one of his hind paws on the water cautiously, then jumped up and down on the ocean's surface to make sure that everything beneath him was solid. Not only WAS it solid, but it felt strange to the bottoms of his paws. Almost like ice, but not as frigid. Somewhat like the smoothness and coolness of glass (it even produced the sort of sound solid glass would make when Bill tapped it), yet it still found a way to feel... like liquid.
The Meowth glanced up to see the boat embedded in the top of a wave. Carefully, he made his way back towards it and began climbing up its side, slipping every so often. Morpheus, who had just then awoken, yawned and watched Bill's ascent.
"Time froze," Morpheus muttered with boredom in his voice, as if it was a normal occurrence for the clock to be erratic.
A chill went down Bill's spine. Everything sounded like a museum. Quiet. Too quiet.
"How long until it unfreezes?" Bill asked.
Morpheus shrugged. "Maybe a few moments, maybe it won't at all."
Bill frowned as he mounted the top of the wave and looked out all around him. He squinted his eyes straight ahead, at a thick, brown line along part of the horizon.
"Land..." Bill grinned with growing excitement. "I see land! Morpheus, is that where the Lotus Temple is?"
Morpheus didn't respond. He only stared straight ahead, at the line of brown on the horizon.
"Will I make it there if I ran?" Bill inquired. "Will the ocean stay frozen long enough for me to set foot on solid ground?"
Again, Morpheus said nothing. This time, however, the silence endured for awhile.
"Morpheus, what's the matter?" Bill asked cautiously. "Should I not go there? Is that not where the Lotus Temple lies?"
"What does your heart tell you?" Morpheus finally asked.
Bill fell silent. He wasn't expecting that kind of answer, and he was left to stare at Morpheus with a surprised look on his face. He closed his eyes for a moment and tried to form an answer in his mind. Morpheus, sensing the youth's confusion, rephrased his question.
"Do you think, with all your heart, that the way to go is that way, or are you simply thinking that it is with your head?"
Bill opened his eyes. "What do you mean? How can I think with my heart?"
Morpheus shook his head. "Bill, you understand many things, but it's surprising that you cannot comprehend something as simple as that. Your heart knows as much as your mind -- perhaps even more. Learn to trust it. You have done so thus far with relying on your intuition to get us here. It is now time to realize what you are doing, and it is time for you to begin doing it more often.
"Although one cannot live by trusting his heart alone, no one can rely on their minds alone either. You, a man of facts and figures, have no trust in the decisions made by your heart; I have sensed doubt and anxiety every time you continued on because that's what your heart said you should do. You must realize that even if your heart cannot provide evidence and reasons to why it tells you something, the decisions it makes are just as safe as those made by your mind. And this goes especially for you, with a heart so pure, wise, and innocent -- certainly one that would do no wrong to others or the rest of you.
"And so, I ask you again. Do you FEEL that the Lotus Temple is beyond the horizon before us, or do you simply THINK it is?"
There was a pause as Bill allowed Morpheus' words to sink in and as he tried to come up with an answer. He closed his eyes and cleared his mind, forbidding it to make his decision as he attempted to let his heart speak, though he wasn't sure how. It seemed like hours passed before he could finally say something, something that came from deep within his soul, not within his consciousness.
"It's that way," he said, pointing to the brown horizon. "I know it. Deep inside, I know it."
Morpheus judged the youth's answer by the tone of his voice and smiled. The god could tell that Bill understood and let his heart speak for once. With that, the horned being floated down, away from the wave. When he realized he wasn't being followed, he turned his head and glanced up at the Meowth, who was watching him with curiosity.
"Well? Come on!" Morpheus called. "I can't get to my destination if I don't know the way! However, I'm sure YOU know EXACTLY where we're going!"
Bill grinned sheepishly and scampered down the frozen tsunami on all fours before leading Morpheus to the horizon, across the frozen sea.
He didn't notice how Meowth-like he was beginning to act...
---
He didn't know how long he had been running, but it seemed as if the landmass ran towards him at the exact same speed. And for this, he thanked all the gods he knew of as the air he took in painfully stung the inside of his throat and his lungs. He noticed a soft tune flowing into his ears, but he didn't think much of it. Not until he finally reached the sandy beaches of the landmass and collapsed on his stomach did he listen to the familiar voice sing softly to him. His ears perked up as soon as he heard her sweet voice...
"Wishing on a dream that seems far off
Hoping it would come today
Into the starlit night, foolish dreamers turn their gaze
Waiting on a shooting star..."
Bill closed his eyes for a moment and frowned in perplexity. It couldn't be... Could it?
Slowly (and painfully), he rose to his hind paws and began walking towards the source of the sound. He didn't care whether Morpheus was by his side or not; he somewhat forgot about the god. He didn't even notice as he stepped off the sandy beaches and into a hilly meadow full of lush, green grass and beautiful flowers swaying in the pure, spring breeze that blew past to cool the land down. He didn't notice the beauty of anything. Nothing except the innocence of a child's voice, singing in the distance.
"But... What if that star is not to come?
Will their dreams fade to nothing?
When the horizon darkens most,
We all need to believe there is hope..."
It didn't take him long to find the singer. She was a young, plump girl, not thin and not obese, but somewhat off normal. Her pale skin was covered in an Alice in Wonderland attire -- a light blue dress covered with a frilly, white apron, white, knee-high socks, black shoes, and a black headband in her chin-length, dirty-blonde hair. She stood on a tree stump, singing to a bunch of Rattata, Pidgey, and Taillow as well as a few white rabbits, all looking up at her intently. Bill stood behind her, waiting for a chance to approach as he listened to her continue to sing.
"Is an angel watching closely over me?
Can there be a guiding light I've yet to see?
I know my heart should guide me, but...
There's a hole within my soul..."
Bill took a step forward. He cautiously inched towards the girl, wanting so badly to touch her and make sure she was real...
"What will fill this emptiness inside of me?
Am I to be satisfied without knowing?
I wish, then, for a chance to see
Now all I need, desperately..."
Bill reached out to touch the hem of her dress. It was a bad move, and she disappeared as a flurry of pale, pink flower petals dancing in the wind and swirling about the Pokémon and the animals as they scampered away into oblivion. Bill knelt down in front of the stump, feeling quite empty inside as the girl's voice finished off the song, regardless of whether or not her body was present.
"...Is my star to come..."
There was a long period of silence. Bill wasn't even aware that Morpheus -- or anything else -- was around at that point as he stared at the spot where the girl formerly stood.
"That was Alice, wasn't it?"
Bill looked up at Morpheus with wide eyes, completely surprised by the god's voice. With weak and unsure movements, he nodded. He looked down at the ground once more, not wanting to glance up at Morpheus' face.
"She used to sing to me that way," Bill recalled. "All the time... by the river. She had such a sweet voice. It wasn't the best, but it was sweet, just like her."
He stood up.
"Alice... Never was a Pokémon trainer. She didn't care about Pokémon, much like how I didn't care all those years ago," Bill told Morpheus as he stared at the blue sky with white clouds stampeding across it. "No one said she was pretty, and she wasn't the most intelligent person I know. But she... She had something about her. Something no one else could have. A warmth deep in her heart. I could... I could see it every time she smiled. I could feel it whenever she was around. I could hear it whenever she laughed... It sounded like wind chimes. And... nothing else mattered about her, except that warmth. It didn't matter that she couldn't handle a Pokémon if she had been given one; it didn't matter if she didn't quite make good marks in school... It didn't even matter that she wasn't flawless. It didn't matter. Whenever I was around her... She made me happy. And then..."
Bill tore his eyes away from the sky and pulled himself onto the stump to sit down. He stared at his hind paws before he continued.
"...And then she was gone," he said extremely faintly. "Leukemia. She was... She was in pain for months, and there was nothing anyone could do for her. Her parents... Her parents had gotten a divorce not long before. She lived with her mother most of the time, and her mother didn't have a great job. There was barely even enough money to make her comfortable during those last few weeks. But... But I visited her every day and sat by her bedside, always hoping that there was a chance, a shimmer of hope... Something that could say that she would get better..."
His body shook as he held back his emotions. He couldn't show them. Not in front of someone. No, never. He couldn't...
"Then... One day... I came to visit her. She was having a hard time breathing. But I stood there and kept her company; my visits made her smile during those days. But that day... She smiled at me... She gave me a look that I can't even describe completely. It was as if she was trying to tell me that everything was going to be alright... That she was going to be okay... And then... And then... She sang to me. She sang that song to me. And at the very end... She said that I didn't have to worry about her. After that she... She closed her eyes... And fell asleep... And I waited... And waited... And... I felt her wrist... There was nothing. No pulse..."
Bill trailed off as his voice broke up. He cleared his throat and stood.
"I-I'm sorry," Bill muttered. "I shouldn't be this emotional."
"On the contrary," Morpheus replied. "Why do you think you've come to this meadow?"
Bill looked at Morpheus with wide, surprised eyes.
"Do you not realize it?" Morpheus asked. "You have a hard time showing your true emotions to others. You fear it and fear that people can use it as a weapon against you, and therefore, you find it hard to express it." Morpheus paused and glanced at Bill. "Is this so?"
There was a long pause before the faint shred of a saddened look crossed Bill's face as he gave a small nod.
"Do you think it could be possible, then, that you had been brought here to help you correct this?" Morpheus inquired. "After all, no human can go their entire lives without expressing any emotion. Not unless they live their lives asleep to the real world. And even then, they can express themselves in wonderful dreams. Do you agree, Bill?"
Again, the youth nodded.
"Then I ask you this," Morpheus said. "How do you truly feel about Alice?"
Bill began walking away, into the green wonderland as Morpheus followed. The Meowth shuddered and touched his chest with a clawed hand, trembling with the emotion building up inside him.
"It's hard to let someone go when you have few people to hold on to," Bill commented in a soft manner. "I don't want to linger in the past, but... she's always there. In my dreams. Haunting me. And yet I... I want to be that happy again. I want to feel the sort of thing I felt when she was near me. I..."
Bill dropped to his knees and bent over, nearly touching the tips of his triangular ears to the soft, green grass. He struggled to hold back all emotion, but he couldn't help it. Tears dripped from the tips of his whiskers as they pulled from his eyes and tangled themselves up in the long, thin strands.
"Morpheus..." Bill murmured.
"Don't resist, Bill," Morpheus responded. "I understand."
And with that, Bill broke down his defenses and let his emotions rush forward like water from behind a broken dam.
---
Ellie poked her head into the hospital room. It was very risky coming in there, especially since it would be the first place her parents looked for her. But a promise is a promise, and she promised her brother that she would visit him every day, no matter what. And even if he was cataleptic and couldn't hear her, she still felt obligated to carry out her self-appointed duty.
She crept forward and stood next to the bed, watching her brother sleep for a long while. Carefully, she reached over to touch his warm hand, as if that would let him know that she was there.
"Big Brother, I kept my promise tonight," she stated. "I came out of my hiding spot to see you. It's been hard to hide because I don't have much with me. But sometimes, I get money from strangers to buy food, or I sneak back home to get something. But I'm good at hiding! Mama and Daddy don't know where I am..."
"We do now."
Ellie shrieked as her father grabbed her by the arm.
"Where have you been!?" he demanded angrily.
"Davis, please be kind to her!" Rose begged from behind him. "She's just a little girl!"
"It doesn't matter!" Davis boomed. "What was she thinking, running off like that and worrying us to no end!? She could have been hurt! Does she have any sense at all!?"
Ellie began to cry, sobbing and hiccupping as the tears flowed from her eyes, down her face, and onto the linoleum floor.
"What's wrong with her this time!?" Davis yelled.
"You're upsetting her!" Rose replied with a voice equaling his in volume.
Ellie pulled away from her father and ran to her mother, embracing her. Tears still slid down the young girl's face as she tried to say what was on her mind.
"Don't kill Big Brother!" she cried between hiccups. "I don't want him to die! Don't let him, Mama! Don't let him!"
Rose's face fell as she knelt down and hugged her daughter. "Is this what this is all about?"
Ellie nodded. "I ran away so you would forget about Big Brother being a problem. I want him to wake up! I don't want him to die!"
"No one does," Rose assured her softly before standing up and taking the child by her hand. "And I promise, no one will let William die." She glanced over her shoulder at her husband with a harsh look on her face. "Now, why don't we get ice cream?"
Ellie wiped her tears and nodded as she walked with her mother out of the room, leaving Davis in silence.
Davis plopped in a chair in the room and stared at his only son, lying there, unchanged since his birthday months ago. Davis certainly didn't want his son to die; Bill's death would mean an end to the continuation of the McKenzie name. And as a typical father, all Davis wanted was to have his surname continue on through the ages, as it had been for countless years already, dating as far back as medieval Scotland.
But did he actually feel any sadness or helplessness? No, not really. His son, to him, was just another person. Another being on that planet who just happened to share a similar genetic code. But they were foreign to each other and had no real relationship. But were there regrets? No. Why? Because Bill was something that Davis couldn't be. He was a success, while Davis was a failure. Never would someone associate the McKenzie name with anyone except Bill. But why did Davis feel no pride in saying that he produced someone of such mental talent?
...Because it made Davis feel as if he couldn't help his family.
The middle-aged man had always hoped to hit the jackpot at the slots to make his family rich, and because of that, he spent most of his time in front of the dazzling machine, pulling the lever and hoping to god that he would be a winner.
But that never happened. His son went to college, was inducted into the Pokémon Symposium (THE most prestigious association of Pokémon researchers in the world), and generally passed the father without any effort. And to top it all off, Bill began to support his family, always sending half of what he made from his books, articles, inventions, and occasional radio shows back to Goldenrod to give his family something to live off of.
And this all made Davis feel like nothing. He was ashamed. He wanted his son to be perfect, and now that he is, Davis only wished he was flawed.
And so, he's faced with the decision... Waste money to keep the person who humiliated him alive or pull the plug and break the hearts of the people he loved most?
Davis sat there, contemplating over what to do. At last, he stood up and walked towards the bed, staring down at his son's face with a tilted head. With a snort, he turned and walked out of the room, leaving Bill in his cold silence.