To Melchior: I swear, I don't know how I wound up using that spelling. I usually type offline (I have dial-up, so I can't be on 24/7, though I try to be. ^_^;), and for some reason, I had it misspelled in my mind. I apologize deeply for misspelling your name all along. I swear, I'll try not to do it again. ^_^;
Anywho, I appreciate your comments very much, and I'm quite happy to meet yet another one of your muses. (I'm also amused by what Odin and you have planned to do with Davis. Seems like I got the effect I wanted after all. ^_^)
To DarkCatXX: It makes me very happy to hear you say so much as "Poor Bill." The reason why is because I know what I'm doing is taking effect; I'm getting someone out there to look past the whole Dragonite crap (and it IS really crap, in my opinion -- sorry for the brusqueness) and see that Bill is more than that... even worth sympathizing over. Or maybe it's just that that he's knee deep in trouble. Um... Either. ^_^;
Anywho, other than that, I'm glad it's making sense to SOMEONE out there (Yay! I'm being understood! =D), and hopefully, I'll get this and the last chappies up quickly. (As always, I'm typing this BEFORE I start into the next chapter. Yay for ego boosts!)
Foreword: Sorry it took me awhile to get this up. I ran into a combination of midterms/schoolwork and writer's block after the scene where the Phobia Sisters are introduced in the chapter.
By the way, cookies to whomever gets the joke with this chapter's title. And a hint: It has nothing to do with the content of the chapter (for once). ^_^
---
Night Seven: Wishing on a Star of Hope
The meadow ended abruptly after awhile, dumping itself into a desert of scorching, golden ground and a relentless Emperor Sun sitting in his throne of cerulean blue. Bill stood, staring at the ground in uncertainty until at last he lifted a hind paw and passed into new terrain, allowing it to sink into the sands a little. A strange sensation shot up his leg, and from his throat escaped a startled gasp as all his fur stood on end. He withdrew his paw and lifted it up in such a way to allow him to blow on the underside. It didn't hurt; he felt no pain in this world. It just felt... Different.
"Is there something wrong, Bill?" Morpheus asked for the umpteenth time since Bill literally fell into this world.
Bill shook his head and placed his paw into the sand again, flinching at the sensation before putting the other hind paw in. He stared at his feet in amazement as he continued forward, away from the green meadow until it was nothing by a jade line far behind him. At that point, he smiled, noticing that the sand felt rather good between his toes. Almost instinctively, he dropped to all fours, allowing the sand to wash over ALL of his digits like water in a pond. He held his head high as strange urges ran through his mind -- almost as if something inside had told him to run back to the meadow and prowl. As if... As if...
Morpheus looked at Bill with concern.
"Normally, I would tell you to embrace whatever happens in your dreams," the god muttered. "However... Don't lose yourself, Bill. If you lose your mind in here, you will never return to the real world."
Bill shot an inquisitive glance at Morpheus, unable to understand what the god meant. Then, with a second look at his paws, it hit him with more force than a Blastoise's Skull Bash. A shudder ran down his spine before he shot up, back to standing on only two paws. He dusted the sand off his forepaws and stared at them incredulously.
"What's happening to me, Morpheus?" Bill asked hoarsely. "I... I feel so strange... Like... This isn't what I'm supposed to be doing... I have these strange thoughts running through my head... I keep remembering life in the wild... Like a... Like a..."
"Like a wild Meowth," Morpheus finished with a sigh. "I was afraid of this."
Bill looked at Morpheus fearfully. "What's going on? What does it all mean?"
"We must hurry," Morpheus replied. "I didn't think it would take this long to return you to the real world, but your Lotus Temple is much further away from your consciousness than those of any other person I've visited in the night. We have taken too much time, and your imagination is beginning to eat away at your sense of reality."
"In other words...?"
"Your imagination is forcing you to think you are a Meowth," Morpheus told Bill. "If we do not bring you into reality soon, then the sense of who you really are will be erased within you."
Bill's eyes widened as he quickly ran forward, nearly tripping in the process. He noticed that his body was beginning to tell him to use all four paws again, but he refused to give in. He had to keep himself separate...! He had to remind himself that his current form was not his true form!
"How much further?" Bill asked desperately.
Morpheus made no response. He only floated quickly to keep up with the Meowth. Bill glanced back at his silent friend and soon realized too why he said nothing.
He groaned and muttered, "Of course. Distances aren't a set thing here... What a damned place!"
He didn't notice as a pair of shadows watched him.
"Sister Ornithophobia has told us that the dreamer has assumed the form of a Meowth," one of the shadows recalled. "Could this be the one we seek?"
"It could be none other," the other replied. "Shall we stall him, Sister Agoraphobia?"
"Why shouldn't we, Enochlophobia?" the first responded.
Both giggled and disappeared into the desert afternoon.
---
His breathing came in shuddering gasps, as if his lungs would explode. His mind told him to continue, but his legs felt as if they moved through gel. Bill couldn't take it anymore; he couldn't run. He dropped to the sands not more than thirty minutes after he had started, and it was there where he gasped for air like a fish out of water. Even in his dreams, he wasn't athletic.
His head rose slightly as his feline eyes scanned the horizon, praying for some sort of structure that resembled a temple. All he saw was a large, wooden shack not far away. His head lowered in disappointment.
He felt the sun's heat beating down on his fur and scorching the skin beneath. It all felt so real to him -- so real that he could barely tell that it was all simply a dream. And deep inside, this fact tugged at something...
The sunlight bothered him, so he stood and began walking to the shack, kicking up the desert sand beneath his hind paws slightly, not caring that it flew on the occasional cactus or Cacnea now and then. Morpheus watched him move, floating silently behind him with a smile, not giving a hint to what's about to happen.
Bill approached the wooden door of the dilapidated structure, and slowly, he lifted a paw to its rough, wooden door. He paused before pushing it open, allowing to swing forward as its hinges gave a sickeningly loud creak. Carefully, he stepped inside, into the shadow, only to find that he wasn't the only one there.
Sitting in a wooden rocking chair in a dark corner of the shack, lit up only by the beams of sunlight that wormed their way through the cracks between the boards of the wall, was a Gardevoir. She rocked back and forth and sat hunched over as she sewed something together. This and the shawl made of multi-colored (and multi-sized) patches around her shoulders made her appear like a grandmother, though she otherwise didn't seem old.
"Oh! I'm sorry," Bill apologized as he backed out of the shack.
He would have left if Morpheus hadn't been behind him. Bill looked up at the god, only to have him give the little Meowth a small nod. The youth looked back into the shack, noticing that the Gardevoir only gave him a short look with one red eye and continued to sew. Moments later, she nodded, telling him it was alright to come in. Reluctantly, he stepped forward, back into the shade of the shack.
Bill stood awkwardly in the shed, unsure of what to do at that point. Well, save for a small bit of curiosity that worked its way into his brain. Acting on this, he inched towards the Gardevoir, wanting to know what she was putting together. As soon as he was close enough, though, he wished he hadn't.
There, in her lap, was a human heart. Or parts of multiple hearts, all being stitched together carefully by the Gardevoir. And to make things even worse, while blood dripped from it, it beat rhythmically as a normal heart would.
Bill backed away in horror and revulsion. He felt his stomach turn as bile began to climb up his throat slowly. Soon, he backed away, into another wooden object. He carefully turned around to see a row of cradles behind him, all swaying silently by some unknown force. He stood on tiptoe to see the contents of them, only to find children -- babies, all sewn together the same way that the heart was being basted together by the Gardevoir.
Bill's eyes narrowed in disgust as he turned away, facing what he hoped to be an empty corner. It wasn't; the last corner held a wicker basket which contained limbs, organs, and heads, all cut up into smaller pieces, waiting to be sewn together as flies began swarming around them.
He couldn't take it anymore. He turned towards the door and ran, pushing Morpheus aside and kicking up sand in all directions. When he was a good distance away, the vomit rained from his mouth. Morpheus floated up behind him, giving a sympathetic look to the feline's back.
---
The desert sun became increasingly vicious as the pair trudged on. Bill pushed himself to continue, wishing with each step that the Lotus Temple would finally appear to him. And the more he wished, the more he became anxious in that form. He didn't notice as his shadow grew longer or as four eyes opened within it. He DID notice, however, when he heard a strange laughter that seemed to come from nowhere and everywhere all at once. His head shot up, and he gazed around in an attempt to find the source but found nothing. Quite irritated, he glanced up at Morpheus.
"Don't tell me the desert laughs for no apparent reason too," Bill half-stated, remembering the door knob incident from what seemed like ages ago.
Morpheus only frowned, but he made no reply.
Bill backed away a bit. "Morpheus...?"
Suddenly, the shadows burst from the desert floor and surrounded Bill. He gasped, startled out of his wits as whispers and laughter echoed through his pointed ears. He couldn't make out what they were saying, but he didn't it like it nonetheless. His paws slowly drifted up to his ears to cover them as his wide, feline eyes stared at the sky. At that moment, it became obscured by the heads of shadowy figures wavering around him, all staring down at him and crowding him. His breathing became somewhat labored as his blood ran cold with fear. Suddenly, he heard the voices of two women, muffled and faded, but coherent.
"Enochlophobia," one murmured.
"Agoraphobia," the other added.
The first one spoke. "We are two of the Three Sisters."
The second added, "We are twins, never separated."
"Where one is inflicting tragedy..."
"...The other is sure to be nearby."
"The fear of crowds..."
"...And the fear of open, crowded places..."
Their voices became intertwined as they harassed Bill even further.
"What are YOU afraid of, Dreamer...?"
Bill curled up on the sands, unable to move. He was literally frozen in terror as he was attacked by two of his largest fears at once. He preferred not to reveal it to anyone, but he couldn't stand crowded places because he was afraid of them (his enochlophobia). Likewise, he didn't particularly like being out in a crowded city, far away from someplace safe (agoraphobia). Both pulled at his nerves, and both were the sole reason why he lived so far from civilization. He never even went to Goldenrod City during the day -- always at night when everyone was safe in their homes and apartments. The voices and the concept of being all alone in a vast sea of people jostling him and enclosing him put him at his wit's end. It made him think that there was no air to breathe, no way to escape if he wanted to -- as if he was a farm animal in a pen, just waiting to be slaughtered for meat.
And it was all because of...
"Mommy..."
The sound echoed above the crowd's murmuring. Bill's eyes widened until they could grow no larger. He knew that sound. It was imprinted in his mind, but he couldn't figure out where it came from or who it was.
"Mommy, where are you?"
Bill didn't move. He couldn't, save for a small twitch. At last, he craned his neck to look at a space that was created beyond his head. The sea of shadows parted as it flowed around him, revealing a confused child of only about three or four. He was crying. He was alone. He was... He was...
Yep. He was Bill himself, as a young child.
All of a sudden, the Meowth remembered this so clearly, as if it had just happened. It was just days before Christmas, and his mother had taken him with her to finish shopping for gifts. He held his mother's hand obediently and walked beside her, taking in that certain naïve joy that the holiday season seems to maintain up until you reach about college age. The breeze was cool, but not cold, as the Johto air during that time of year never brought arctic winds.
Suddenly, the child felt a low rumble in his stomach and a certain emptiness only one general thing could fill. He tugged on his mother's sleeve to get her attention, causing her to look down at him with her large, dark eyes.
"Mommy, I'm hungry," he told her.
The youthful Rose smiled and looked about, eyes searching for something. After a moment, she continued walking, through the winter air. She pushed through the holiday crowds, pulling her son along closely so as not to lose him until they arrived at her destination, a small pretzel stand nearby. For a brief moment, she let go of her son's hand to dig into her pocket for payment as the other hand held a bag, but that instant was all that was needed.
A Pidgey flew overhead, and the child's gaze followed it. Curious to see where it went, he walked into the crowd, following it further and further away from the pretzel stand. At last, the Pidgey flew over a building, out of sight of the small boy far below and oblivious to what she had just caused. The boy's eyes tore away from the sky, and a sudden, dark realization set in.
He didn't know where he was.
The crowd pushed him further away. Further away from where? He didn't know. He just knew that he wasn't where he was supposed to be, and he wasn't going where he was supposed to go. The crowd surrounded him, suffocated him, and dragged him deeper into the urban jungle. It was relentless. And he wandered for what seemed like hours and hours, confused and frightened. The shadows of the people around him seemed to tower over him, and no one would have seemed to notice or care if he had tripped and fallen. He would only be crushed beneath the beast's million feet.
There was more to the memory, but it eluded Bill at that moment. His younger self disappeared within the darkness of the crowd, never to be seen again. He trembled in fright, unable to grasp any logical thought at that very moment.
"Help me," he managed to whisper to no one in particular.
And then, he heard a faint response, coming from nowhere and everywhere, just like the voices of the Phobia Sisters. Only this time, it was familiar and friendly.
"It's okay... Don't be afraid..."
A figure parted from the crowd and looked down at Bill. Her face was shadowed, but he knew who she was. Suddenly, he remembered the rest of that fateful afternoon long, long ago. How could he let his fears make him forget? It was the day he met Alice...
"Are you lost?" she asked him with a concerned tone, just like she had that day.
Bill nodded, rubbing his cheek into the desert sands.
"Don't cry," she told him with a soothing tone. "You'll find your way back."
She held out her hand to him, offering to help him stand up.
"It'll be okay," she assured him.
Bill stared at her hand for a long moment before reaching up to take it. It felt the way he had remembered it: warm, soft, and gentle. Her smile was as bright as it had ever been as she helped him literally get back on his feet (or hind paws, in his case).
"Don't worry," she said to him. "These crowds aren't anything to be afraid of. There's lots of nice people in them; you just have to know where to look. You see, even if there are bad people in this world, there are good people, too. People who would want to help you if you let them. And if you look hard enough, you'll be able to find some of those kinds of people in these crowds."
It was an incredibly naïve outlook on things, but... somehow... she had a point. Bill's eyes glanced away from her face to find that some of the people in the crowds stepped out of the shadows and gained kind, smiling faces. Albeit, they were strangers, but they seemed... warm.
Suddenly, Bill felt a warmth of a different kind. Alice had wrapped her arms around him, holding him to give him a sense of security. And it worked, though a look of shock lingered on Bill's face. He wasn't quite used to being touched in such an innocent way.
"It's okay," Alice mumbled in one of his pointed ears. "It's going to be alright. You'll see. You'll see..."
And in that moment, Bill felt as if something had been removed from inside him. He didn't know whether it was Alice's words or embrace, but something triggered a change in what he saw. The shadows retreated, and the terror fled from his heart. And for reasons unknown, he wasn't afraid. His eyes looked over Alice's shoulder and into the crowds around them, and suddenly, it didn't seem so big.
Then, Alice added one more thing. "You know, you're not alone, and you'll never be alone. I'll always be with you because we're friends. Trust me."
Bill tensed. He remembered that as well, though it wasn't in a crowd of sorts. It was by the river. It was during one of those times when Bill felt frustrated and saddened because his father had told him that his best wasn't good enough. But... he didn't tell Alice that. He wouldn't; she probably didn't want to hear it since she very rarely saw her OWN father. But then, as Bill watched the Magikarp swim by in the river, he felt her put her arms around his shoulders gently as she leaned forward, against his back. And, in that moment, she told him those very words.
In the distance, Bill could hear a pair of voices cry out very faintly -- supposedly the Phobia Sisters -- before at last, they vanished into oblivion as the last shadows at the edge of the crowd were crushed. It didn't matter anymore. It was alright. Bill closed his eyes and enjoyed the moment, that precious moment in the arms of his childhood friend.
Then, suddenly, she slipped away from him and disappeared in a cloud of pink smoke that followed the wind. The crowd disappeared with her, leaving Bill once again alone in the desert sands. However, he was not left without any last words from her.
"I'll meet you at the Lotus Temple..."
Bill knelt in the sands, hanging onto the thought of Alice -- her touch, her warmth, her voice...
"Bill?"
The Meowth opened his eyes and looked up, staring at the god's golden eyes.
"Are you alright?" Morpheus inquired.
Bill stood up. "O-of course."
Morpheus smiled. "Good. Because in your wanderings without me, you got a little closer to the Lotus Temple."
The immortal moved aside, allowing the youth to view what was ahead. Before him, purplish gray mountain rose to the sky. Atop it was a Chinese-style temple that just touched a rose-colored moon, as if it held it in the sky. And surely, it could only be one thing.
"The Lotus Temple," Bill muttered in awe.
Morpheus only grinned and nodded in response, filling Bill with an incredible sense of joy and relief.
"Well, what are we waiting for?" Bill asked rhetorically before parading forward. "The sooner we get there, the sooner we can leave this dream!"
As Bill walked to the foot of the mountain, a half-hearted smile drew across Morpheus' face. The god gave a sigh as he watched Bill walk forward in confidence and excitement.
"If only it were that easy," Morpheus whispered to himself. "I've kept you from giving in to insanity thus far, but the Lotus Temple will be the hardest trial you will face yet..."
---
Ellie walked into the room alone, as she had been for the past few weeks. She looked sadly at her brother before she walked up to the side of the bed and touched his slowly cooling hand. Her eyes were brimming with tears as she spoke.
"I've come like I always have, Big Brother," she stated. "But... Mama and Daddy were fighting over you. Mama wants to keep you, but Daddy doesn't think we have enough money to do it. It's been going on like this since the day we found out that you weren't going to wake up, but it got worse. And now, Daddy's been staying away from home longer and longer. This time, he hasn't even been home for three days, and some of the things around the house that Daddy really likes are gone. I miss Daddy, but what should I do? Daddy will go away if... If..."
Ellie trailed off, not wanting to say it. Tears streamed down her cheeks. She loved her brother, but she loved her father too. She didn't know which one to choose, and she didn't know how to carry out her choice.
At last, after moments of turmoil within her young mind, she came to a decision. She walked around to the other side of the bed, where the machines that kept Bill alive all stood. Carefully, she slid behind one and looked in front of her to see a large, black plug belonging to a surge protector which connected all the machines to a source of power. Her tiny hand reached up and curled around the head of the plug before she hesitated. She wiped her eyes from her free hand, whimpered, and tugged until the plug was pulled free from the wall.
The silence was deafening. No longer did machines whir or beep. No longer did anything move. Ellie slid out from behind the machine and looked at what she had done with tear-filled eyes.
"Good bye, Big Brother!" she screamed before running out of the room in tears.
Anywho, I appreciate your comments very much, and I'm quite happy to meet yet another one of your muses. (I'm also amused by what Odin and you have planned to do with Davis. Seems like I got the effect I wanted after all. ^_^)
To DarkCatXX: It makes me very happy to hear you say so much as "Poor Bill." The reason why is because I know what I'm doing is taking effect; I'm getting someone out there to look past the whole Dragonite crap (and it IS really crap, in my opinion -- sorry for the brusqueness) and see that Bill is more than that... even worth sympathizing over. Or maybe it's just that that he's knee deep in trouble. Um... Either. ^_^;
Anywho, other than that, I'm glad it's making sense to SOMEONE out there (Yay! I'm being understood! =D), and hopefully, I'll get this and the last chappies up quickly. (As always, I'm typing this BEFORE I start into the next chapter. Yay for ego boosts!)
Foreword: Sorry it took me awhile to get this up. I ran into a combination of midterms/schoolwork and writer's block after the scene where the Phobia Sisters are introduced in the chapter.
By the way, cookies to whomever gets the joke with this chapter's title. And a hint: It has nothing to do with the content of the chapter (for once). ^_^
---
Night Seven: Wishing on a Star of Hope
The meadow ended abruptly after awhile, dumping itself into a desert of scorching, golden ground and a relentless Emperor Sun sitting in his throne of cerulean blue. Bill stood, staring at the ground in uncertainty until at last he lifted a hind paw and passed into new terrain, allowing it to sink into the sands a little. A strange sensation shot up his leg, and from his throat escaped a startled gasp as all his fur stood on end. He withdrew his paw and lifted it up in such a way to allow him to blow on the underside. It didn't hurt; he felt no pain in this world. It just felt... Different.
"Is there something wrong, Bill?" Morpheus asked for the umpteenth time since Bill literally fell into this world.
Bill shook his head and placed his paw into the sand again, flinching at the sensation before putting the other hind paw in. He stared at his feet in amazement as he continued forward, away from the green meadow until it was nothing by a jade line far behind him. At that point, he smiled, noticing that the sand felt rather good between his toes. Almost instinctively, he dropped to all fours, allowing the sand to wash over ALL of his digits like water in a pond. He held his head high as strange urges ran through his mind -- almost as if something inside had told him to run back to the meadow and prowl. As if... As if...
Morpheus looked at Bill with concern.
"Normally, I would tell you to embrace whatever happens in your dreams," the god muttered. "However... Don't lose yourself, Bill. If you lose your mind in here, you will never return to the real world."
Bill shot an inquisitive glance at Morpheus, unable to understand what the god meant. Then, with a second look at his paws, it hit him with more force than a Blastoise's Skull Bash. A shudder ran down his spine before he shot up, back to standing on only two paws. He dusted the sand off his forepaws and stared at them incredulously.
"What's happening to me, Morpheus?" Bill asked hoarsely. "I... I feel so strange... Like... This isn't what I'm supposed to be doing... I have these strange thoughts running through my head... I keep remembering life in the wild... Like a... Like a..."
"Like a wild Meowth," Morpheus finished with a sigh. "I was afraid of this."
Bill looked at Morpheus fearfully. "What's going on? What does it all mean?"
"We must hurry," Morpheus replied. "I didn't think it would take this long to return you to the real world, but your Lotus Temple is much further away from your consciousness than those of any other person I've visited in the night. We have taken too much time, and your imagination is beginning to eat away at your sense of reality."
"In other words...?"
"Your imagination is forcing you to think you are a Meowth," Morpheus told Bill. "If we do not bring you into reality soon, then the sense of who you really are will be erased within you."
Bill's eyes widened as he quickly ran forward, nearly tripping in the process. He noticed that his body was beginning to tell him to use all four paws again, but he refused to give in. He had to keep himself separate...! He had to remind himself that his current form was not his true form!
"How much further?" Bill asked desperately.
Morpheus made no response. He only floated quickly to keep up with the Meowth. Bill glanced back at his silent friend and soon realized too why he said nothing.
He groaned and muttered, "Of course. Distances aren't a set thing here... What a damned place!"
He didn't notice as a pair of shadows watched him.
"Sister Ornithophobia has told us that the dreamer has assumed the form of a Meowth," one of the shadows recalled. "Could this be the one we seek?"
"It could be none other," the other replied. "Shall we stall him, Sister Agoraphobia?"
"Why shouldn't we, Enochlophobia?" the first responded.
Both giggled and disappeared into the desert afternoon.
---
His breathing came in shuddering gasps, as if his lungs would explode. His mind told him to continue, but his legs felt as if they moved through gel. Bill couldn't take it anymore; he couldn't run. He dropped to the sands not more than thirty minutes after he had started, and it was there where he gasped for air like a fish out of water. Even in his dreams, he wasn't athletic.
His head rose slightly as his feline eyes scanned the horizon, praying for some sort of structure that resembled a temple. All he saw was a large, wooden shack not far away. His head lowered in disappointment.
He felt the sun's heat beating down on his fur and scorching the skin beneath. It all felt so real to him -- so real that he could barely tell that it was all simply a dream. And deep inside, this fact tugged at something...
The sunlight bothered him, so he stood and began walking to the shack, kicking up the desert sand beneath his hind paws slightly, not caring that it flew on the occasional cactus or Cacnea now and then. Morpheus watched him move, floating silently behind him with a smile, not giving a hint to what's about to happen.
Bill approached the wooden door of the dilapidated structure, and slowly, he lifted a paw to its rough, wooden door. He paused before pushing it open, allowing to swing forward as its hinges gave a sickeningly loud creak. Carefully, he stepped inside, into the shadow, only to find that he wasn't the only one there.
Sitting in a wooden rocking chair in a dark corner of the shack, lit up only by the beams of sunlight that wormed their way through the cracks between the boards of the wall, was a Gardevoir. She rocked back and forth and sat hunched over as she sewed something together. This and the shawl made of multi-colored (and multi-sized) patches around her shoulders made her appear like a grandmother, though she otherwise didn't seem old.
"Oh! I'm sorry," Bill apologized as he backed out of the shack.
He would have left if Morpheus hadn't been behind him. Bill looked up at the god, only to have him give the little Meowth a small nod. The youth looked back into the shack, noticing that the Gardevoir only gave him a short look with one red eye and continued to sew. Moments later, she nodded, telling him it was alright to come in. Reluctantly, he stepped forward, back into the shade of the shack.
Bill stood awkwardly in the shed, unsure of what to do at that point. Well, save for a small bit of curiosity that worked its way into his brain. Acting on this, he inched towards the Gardevoir, wanting to know what she was putting together. As soon as he was close enough, though, he wished he hadn't.
There, in her lap, was a human heart. Or parts of multiple hearts, all being stitched together carefully by the Gardevoir. And to make things even worse, while blood dripped from it, it beat rhythmically as a normal heart would.
Bill backed away in horror and revulsion. He felt his stomach turn as bile began to climb up his throat slowly. Soon, he backed away, into another wooden object. He carefully turned around to see a row of cradles behind him, all swaying silently by some unknown force. He stood on tiptoe to see the contents of them, only to find children -- babies, all sewn together the same way that the heart was being basted together by the Gardevoir.
Bill's eyes narrowed in disgust as he turned away, facing what he hoped to be an empty corner. It wasn't; the last corner held a wicker basket which contained limbs, organs, and heads, all cut up into smaller pieces, waiting to be sewn together as flies began swarming around them.
He couldn't take it anymore. He turned towards the door and ran, pushing Morpheus aside and kicking up sand in all directions. When he was a good distance away, the vomit rained from his mouth. Morpheus floated up behind him, giving a sympathetic look to the feline's back.
---
The desert sun became increasingly vicious as the pair trudged on. Bill pushed himself to continue, wishing with each step that the Lotus Temple would finally appear to him. And the more he wished, the more he became anxious in that form. He didn't notice as his shadow grew longer or as four eyes opened within it. He DID notice, however, when he heard a strange laughter that seemed to come from nowhere and everywhere all at once. His head shot up, and he gazed around in an attempt to find the source but found nothing. Quite irritated, he glanced up at Morpheus.
"Don't tell me the desert laughs for no apparent reason too," Bill half-stated, remembering the door knob incident from what seemed like ages ago.
Morpheus only frowned, but he made no reply.
Bill backed away a bit. "Morpheus...?"
Suddenly, the shadows burst from the desert floor and surrounded Bill. He gasped, startled out of his wits as whispers and laughter echoed through his pointed ears. He couldn't make out what they were saying, but he didn't it like it nonetheless. His paws slowly drifted up to his ears to cover them as his wide, feline eyes stared at the sky. At that moment, it became obscured by the heads of shadowy figures wavering around him, all staring down at him and crowding him. His breathing became somewhat labored as his blood ran cold with fear. Suddenly, he heard the voices of two women, muffled and faded, but coherent.
"Enochlophobia," one murmured.
"Agoraphobia," the other added.
The first one spoke. "We are two of the Three Sisters."
The second added, "We are twins, never separated."
"Where one is inflicting tragedy..."
"...The other is sure to be nearby."
"The fear of crowds..."
"...And the fear of open, crowded places..."
Their voices became intertwined as they harassed Bill even further.
"What are YOU afraid of, Dreamer...?"
Bill curled up on the sands, unable to move. He was literally frozen in terror as he was attacked by two of his largest fears at once. He preferred not to reveal it to anyone, but he couldn't stand crowded places because he was afraid of them (his enochlophobia). Likewise, he didn't particularly like being out in a crowded city, far away from someplace safe (agoraphobia). Both pulled at his nerves, and both were the sole reason why he lived so far from civilization. He never even went to Goldenrod City during the day -- always at night when everyone was safe in their homes and apartments. The voices and the concept of being all alone in a vast sea of people jostling him and enclosing him put him at his wit's end. It made him think that there was no air to breathe, no way to escape if he wanted to -- as if he was a farm animal in a pen, just waiting to be slaughtered for meat.
And it was all because of...
"Mommy..."
The sound echoed above the crowd's murmuring. Bill's eyes widened until they could grow no larger. He knew that sound. It was imprinted in his mind, but he couldn't figure out where it came from or who it was.
"Mommy, where are you?"
Bill didn't move. He couldn't, save for a small twitch. At last, he craned his neck to look at a space that was created beyond his head. The sea of shadows parted as it flowed around him, revealing a confused child of only about three or four. He was crying. He was alone. He was... He was...
Yep. He was Bill himself, as a young child.
All of a sudden, the Meowth remembered this so clearly, as if it had just happened. It was just days before Christmas, and his mother had taken him with her to finish shopping for gifts. He held his mother's hand obediently and walked beside her, taking in that certain naïve joy that the holiday season seems to maintain up until you reach about college age. The breeze was cool, but not cold, as the Johto air during that time of year never brought arctic winds.
Suddenly, the child felt a low rumble in his stomach and a certain emptiness only one general thing could fill. He tugged on his mother's sleeve to get her attention, causing her to look down at him with her large, dark eyes.
"Mommy, I'm hungry," he told her.
The youthful Rose smiled and looked about, eyes searching for something. After a moment, she continued walking, through the winter air. She pushed through the holiday crowds, pulling her son along closely so as not to lose him until they arrived at her destination, a small pretzel stand nearby. For a brief moment, she let go of her son's hand to dig into her pocket for payment as the other hand held a bag, but that instant was all that was needed.
A Pidgey flew overhead, and the child's gaze followed it. Curious to see where it went, he walked into the crowd, following it further and further away from the pretzel stand. At last, the Pidgey flew over a building, out of sight of the small boy far below and oblivious to what she had just caused. The boy's eyes tore away from the sky, and a sudden, dark realization set in.
He didn't know where he was.
The crowd pushed him further away. Further away from where? He didn't know. He just knew that he wasn't where he was supposed to be, and he wasn't going where he was supposed to go. The crowd surrounded him, suffocated him, and dragged him deeper into the urban jungle. It was relentless. And he wandered for what seemed like hours and hours, confused and frightened. The shadows of the people around him seemed to tower over him, and no one would have seemed to notice or care if he had tripped and fallen. He would only be crushed beneath the beast's million feet.
There was more to the memory, but it eluded Bill at that moment. His younger self disappeared within the darkness of the crowd, never to be seen again. He trembled in fright, unable to grasp any logical thought at that very moment.
"Help me," he managed to whisper to no one in particular.
And then, he heard a faint response, coming from nowhere and everywhere, just like the voices of the Phobia Sisters. Only this time, it was familiar and friendly.
"It's okay... Don't be afraid..."
A figure parted from the crowd and looked down at Bill. Her face was shadowed, but he knew who she was. Suddenly, he remembered the rest of that fateful afternoon long, long ago. How could he let his fears make him forget? It was the day he met Alice...
"Are you lost?" she asked him with a concerned tone, just like she had that day.
Bill nodded, rubbing his cheek into the desert sands.
"Don't cry," she told him with a soothing tone. "You'll find your way back."
She held out her hand to him, offering to help him stand up.
"It'll be okay," she assured him.
Bill stared at her hand for a long moment before reaching up to take it. It felt the way he had remembered it: warm, soft, and gentle. Her smile was as bright as it had ever been as she helped him literally get back on his feet (or hind paws, in his case).
"Don't worry," she said to him. "These crowds aren't anything to be afraid of. There's lots of nice people in them; you just have to know where to look. You see, even if there are bad people in this world, there are good people, too. People who would want to help you if you let them. And if you look hard enough, you'll be able to find some of those kinds of people in these crowds."
It was an incredibly naïve outlook on things, but... somehow... she had a point. Bill's eyes glanced away from her face to find that some of the people in the crowds stepped out of the shadows and gained kind, smiling faces. Albeit, they were strangers, but they seemed... warm.
Suddenly, Bill felt a warmth of a different kind. Alice had wrapped her arms around him, holding him to give him a sense of security. And it worked, though a look of shock lingered on Bill's face. He wasn't quite used to being touched in such an innocent way.
"It's okay," Alice mumbled in one of his pointed ears. "It's going to be alright. You'll see. You'll see..."
And in that moment, Bill felt as if something had been removed from inside him. He didn't know whether it was Alice's words or embrace, but something triggered a change in what he saw. The shadows retreated, and the terror fled from his heart. And for reasons unknown, he wasn't afraid. His eyes looked over Alice's shoulder and into the crowds around them, and suddenly, it didn't seem so big.
Then, Alice added one more thing. "You know, you're not alone, and you'll never be alone. I'll always be with you because we're friends. Trust me."
Bill tensed. He remembered that as well, though it wasn't in a crowd of sorts. It was by the river. It was during one of those times when Bill felt frustrated and saddened because his father had told him that his best wasn't good enough. But... he didn't tell Alice that. He wouldn't; she probably didn't want to hear it since she very rarely saw her OWN father. But then, as Bill watched the Magikarp swim by in the river, he felt her put her arms around his shoulders gently as she leaned forward, against his back. And, in that moment, she told him those very words.
In the distance, Bill could hear a pair of voices cry out very faintly -- supposedly the Phobia Sisters -- before at last, they vanished into oblivion as the last shadows at the edge of the crowd were crushed. It didn't matter anymore. It was alright. Bill closed his eyes and enjoyed the moment, that precious moment in the arms of his childhood friend.
Then, suddenly, she slipped away from him and disappeared in a cloud of pink smoke that followed the wind. The crowd disappeared with her, leaving Bill once again alone in the desert sands. However, he was not left without any last words from her.
"I'll meet you at the Lotus Temple..."
Bill knelt in the sands, hanging onto the thought of Alice -- her touch, her warmth, her voice...
"Bill?"
The Meowth opened his eyes and looked up, staring at the god's golden eyes.
"Are you alright?" Morpheus inquired.
Bill stood up. "O-of course."
Morpheus smiled. "Good. Because in your wanderings without me, you got a little closer to the Lotus Temple."
The immortal moved aside, allowing the youth to view what was ahead. Before him, purplish gray mountain rose to the sky. Atop it was a Chinese-style temple that just touched a rose-colored moon, as if it held it in the sky. And surely, it could only be one thing.
"The Lotus Temple," Bill muttered in awe.
Morpheus only grinned and nodded in response, filling Bill with an incredible sense of joy and relief.
"Well, what are we waiting for?" Bill asked rhetorically before parading forward. "The sooner we get there, the sooner we can leave this dream!"
As Bill walked to the foot of the mountain, a half-hearted smile drew across Morpheus' face. The god gave a sigh as he watched Bill walk forward in confidence and excitement.
"If only it were that easy," Morpheus whispered to himself. "I've kept you from giving in to insanity thus far, but the Lotus Temple will be the hardest trial you will face yet..."
---
Ellie walked into the room alone, as she had been for the past few weeks. She looked sadly at her brother before she walked up to the side of the bed and touched his slowly cooling hand. Her eyes were brimming with tears as she spoke.
"I've come like I always have, Big Brother," she stated. "But... Mama and Daddy were fighting over you. Mama wants to keep you, but Daddy doesn't think we have enough money to do it. It's been going on like this since the day we found out that you weren't going to wake up, but it got worse. And now, Daddy's been staying away from home longer and longer. This time, he hasn't even been home for three days, and some of the things around the house that Daddy really likes are gone. I miss Daddy, but what should I do? Daddy will go away if... If..."
Ellie trailed off, not wanting to say it. Tears streamed down her cheeks. She loved her brother, but she loved her father too. She didn't know which one to choose, and she didn't know how to carry out her choice.
At last, after moments of turmoil within her young mind, she came to a decision. She walked around to the other side of the bed, where the machines that kept Bill alive all stood. Carefully, she slid behind one and looked in front of her to see a large, black plug belonging to a surge protector which connected all the machines to a source of power. Her tiny hand reached up and curled around the head of the plug before she hesitated. She wiped her eyes from her free hand, whimpered, and tugged until the plug was pulled free from the wall.
The silence was deafening. No longer did machines whir or beep. No longer did anything move. Ellie slid out from behind the machine and looked at what she had done with tear-filled eyes.
"Good bye, Big Brother!" she screamed before running out of the room in tears.