Chapter 3: confession

During that night, Jake was awakened by a loud thud.

He thought that it must have been the sound of some pokemon outside in the forest and tried to go back to sleep. But after some minute, he heard it a second time. It sounded like a door shut.

He immediately turned on the light and stood up. He reached the hallway and gave a look downstairs. He was right, the main door was open. Jake's first thought was to go to Jessie and James's room to see if they had heard anything. He opened the door of the room where they were sleeping and saw James and Meowth soundly asleep together in the same bed… while the other bed was empty.

Jessie! Where was Jessie?

Jake rushed downstairs and practically flew out of the door. Where could Jessie have gone to? He gave a look around but it was too dark to see something. He moved some steps in the direction of the path which led to Viridian City when he finally noticed something.

He clearly saw Jessie's white nightgown on the dark background. She was going toward the lake.

At about five minutes of walk from Jake's chalet, there was a small lake. It was impossible to swim since it was too slimy and muddy and it froze in winter, but he used to go there to sunbathe in summer. Jessie was walking towards the lake.

"Jessie! Hey Jessie!" Jake screamed at the top of his lungs as he ran toward her.

It looked like Jessie had not heard him. She eventually reached the lake.

Jessie looked around herself in the cabin.

She was in a place in the middle of the Andes. It was snowing heavily outside.

"Mom, where are you?" Jessie said. She was alone and scared.

A wooden door caught her attention.

She wanted to reach it and see what there was inside.

Finally, Jake reached the lake too and saw what he feared the most.

A sleepwalking Jessie stood near the lakeshore wearing nothing more than a white cotton nightgown.

"Jess…" he whispered as he realized she was soundly asleep. He knew very well that yelling at sleepwalking people could be dangerous for them.

Slowly, Jessie began to walk inside the lake.

Jessie wanted to reach that door.

She began to walk in its direction as slowly as scared.

She had the feeling that something important was hidden behind it.

She had to find out, whatever it was.

She had to know the truth.

Jake ran toward Jessie and grabbed her just before she could wet her hips and gently shook her to see if she was conscious. Of course, she wasn't.

"Jessie, please wake up," he whispered to her. Jake took her outside the water and to the grass.

He felt Jessie's cold body and saw the paleness of her skin. He gently stroked her hair.

She still wanted to open that wooden door but it was like she couldn't move.

Something was stopping her, paralysing her.

She tried with all of her strengths to reach the door but she was unable to move.

Then everything went black.

"Jessie… Jessie wake up!" was all he could manage to say. He held her close to him, almost crying. Then, after some minute, he saw her eyes opening slowly.

"Jake… what… what am I doing here?" she asked in a weak voice.

"Jessie! Are you ok? I was getting worried," he said relieved.

"I… I think so. I have a splitting headache,"

He hugged her, visibly satisfied.

"What am I doing here?" she asked looking around.

"Do you want me to tell you?"

So Jake told her everything about her sleepwalk to the lake. Jessie was clearly embarrassed.

"I'm so sorry Jake… I didn't mean to scare you," she said to him.

"Don't worry. You are fine now and that's what really matters," he answered smiling.

"Jake, I feel like I have to tell you something," Jessie said. She knew she could trust Jake. He had always been her mother's best friend.

"Sure you can tell me,"

"Well… I wasn't just sleeping. I was hallucinating." Jessie told him.

"What have you been hallucinating about?"

Jessie sighed before answering. "I was in a wooden cabin. It looked like a mountain chalet. Perhaps I was in the Andes. I was alone, calling for mom, but she wasn't there. Then I saw a wooden door so I tried to reach it," Jessie explained.

"What happened next?"

"I finally reached the door. But just a moment before I could open it, everything went black. After that, I woke up,"

Jessie closed her eyes for a moment. She decided that the best thing to do was confessing the truth.

"Jake, there's something I've never told anybody," she admitted.

"You can trust me, Jessie,"

"Well… where should I begin from?" Jessie paused for a moment.

"Don't worry, Jessie. I won't tell anyone if that's what you're worried about," he put his hand on her shoulder and she felt relieved.

"I… I have a gift. A special gift," Jessie looked in Jake's eyes. "I can feel when something bad is going to happen. I have nightmares or hallucinations depending on it. It used to happen when I was a little girl. I felt this way even when mom left for her last mission. Somehow, I knew that she was not going to come back,"

Jake was speechless.

"Please, Jake, don't think I'm crazy. It's just that I am… more sensitive than the others. But nobody knows about it. Not even James or Meowth,"

Jake, in response, embraced her.

"Thank you, Jessie for trusting me," he said.

"There's a little more, Jake," Jessie continued. "This time, it has nothing to do with the future. It involves my past,"

"Tell me more. You said that you were in a wooden cabin. In the middle of the Andes,"

"That's correct. I think it has something to do with my mother's disappearance," Melissa, Jessie's mother had disappeared since Jessie was only four, during a mission in the Andes. Her body had never been found so nobody could actually state that she was dead. In fact, Jessie never talked about her 'death'. She used to refer to it as her 'disappearance'.

Jake's eyes went wide. "Do you have any ideas about it?"

"Jake, I… I think that she was not killed by an avalanche. I think that the avalanche is just an excuse to hide something."

They both stayed in silence for about a minute, then Jake was the one who spoke for first.

"Jessie… I think you are ready now. I've realized it right now. You are ready to know what can possibly be the truth," with that, he showed his right wrist to Jessie. She noticed a stainless steel bracelet with seven gold letters on it. They were: M E L I S S A. Jessie immediately recognized the bracelet.

"It's mom's favourite bracelet!" Jake gave it to Jessie.

"Yes, it is. I always keep it with me,"

"Jake… I'm ready. I want to know what you found out and what are the reasons for which Giovanni fired you. I'm ready to know the whole truth," with that, Jake decided to tell her everything.

"That snowy and cold afternoon… it was about 13 years ago… as you already know, we were on a mission in the Andes. We were looking for a rare pokemon called Mew. We were six Black Rockets plus Giovanni, who had come just because he was a friend of ours. We were staying at a cabin which was our base camp. We would leave every morning and come back for lunch, then leave again in the afternoon and come back for about 5 pm. But after a week we were there, Melissa began to feel sick so we decided that the best thing for her was staying in the cabin and not going out with us. God, it was so damn cold outside. Perhaps it was pneumonia. That damn afternoon… if I had known before, I would have never let her alone…" Jake had tears in his eyes.

"What do you think happened, Jake?"

"So… we had to leave after midday. But Melissa stayed in the cabin since she was sick. We headed to the Northern Mountain. It took about a hour and a half to get to the top. It was about 2.30 in the afternoon when my walkie-talkie sounded. I listened to it and I heard Melissa's voice. She said 'please Jake, come back! Please!' She had a desperate tone. I tried to contact her again on her walkie-talkie but nobody answered to it. That was the last time I heard her voice," Jake was about to cry while Jessie was listening with attention.

"She was alone in the cabin… You were all outside," Jessie said.

"Yes, but that's not the point. That afternoon, we were only the four of us. It means that…" but Jessie didn't even give him the time to finish his sentence.

"GIOVANNI!"

"Exactly. He didn't come with us. He said he would go to the nearest city," Jessie was speechless. "Anyway, when I got Melissa's call, I immediately rushed toward the cabin. I thought she was in danger. And actually, she was,"

"What did you find when you got to the cabin?"

"While I was running to the cabin I heard a loud rumble coming from the Southern Mountain. I could see nothing so I kept on running. It took almost a hour to get to the cabin. But when I opened the door, I found nobody. Melissa was not there," tears came down his cheek. "Some minute later, Giovanni arrived too. He said that there had been an avalanche and that Melissa had been trapped under it. But I know it was not the truth."

Jake was crying. Even though thirteen years had passed, he still suffered for that afternoon, when his friend and Team Rocket partner Melissa had disappeared. Nobody had seen her since that day.

"I looked everywhere inside the cabin… she was not there! When the other agents arrived too, we even looked in the slope where the avalanche had just been. But we didn't find her. She was nowhere to be found. It was like she had vanished,"

"What did Giovanni say?"

"That's the most important part. Giovanni said that Melissa had gone outside to try to reach us. But it can't be true! She was not feeling well. How could she think to go outside all alone and walk for more than an hour with those cold temperatures? She was not crazy! Trust me, I knew her. She would have never done such a thing,"

Even though they were talking about those particulars, Jessie felt determined. She wanted to know the whole truth.

"I also found her bracelet inside the cabin," Jake said.

"Where exactly?" Jessie asked.

"In the cellar," Jessie felt a shiver. She had hallucinated about a cellar before her mother left. "Jessie, if you want my opinion," Jake went on. "I personally think that… Giovanni killed Melissa."

There was a long pause. Jessie was just beginning to realize what Jake had just told her.

"Jake, I… I don't know what to say…"

"It's ok, Jessie, you don't have to worry about it. I know it's a big deal. There are lots of evidences against Giovanni. To me, it can't have been otherwise,"

"Yes, Jake you're right. Now it all makes sense".