Saturday, September 1st 2001
DARK PASTS, HOPEFUL FUTURES: THE AFTERMATH
Jessie awoke with hot, angry tears spilling from her eyes, another night spent yearning after the partner she used to have, who used to love her no matter what. It was exactly a year on from when she'd kissed him for the first time, now he didn't want anything to do with her, or so it transpired. She swallowed four strong sedatives without water, finding punishing her body in this manner a source of empowerment for her heartache; it was all her fault she lived alone. She drove him away by everything she ever did, including when he'd first tried to go out with her—he'd hit on her, she'd hit him. Typical, she angrily thought. All revenge seemed meaningless now, and she wondered why she'd spent so long on trying to hurt other people instead of looking after those close to her all her life. She looked at her hand, thinking how much prettier it would appear to her if she were to have the wedding and engagement rings still on it, knowing it could never be, or at least not with him as her fiancé. It had been approximately five months since she'd last clasped eyes on him, that fateful day where she'd learnt he was a bigamist on top of some of his darker past. When the trouble had disappeared, he had as well and refused to contact her, not even a single word uttered in all those minutes since then. More hot tears wound their way over the contours of her cheeks, the tablets forbidding her from making a sound. She felt like a stone narcotic; a cold unemotional creature dead to the world to look at and she needed the medication to make sure she acted like it.
She dragged herself out of bed and viewed her pathetic reflection in the dull mirror in the bathroom in her cheap flat, unable to afford any degree of comfort in her life, not that she felt she deserved it. Haunted eyes returned her glance, her once sparkling sapphire eyes now glazed-over, lack-lustre and bloodshot. Her sunken appearance made her all the more unhealthy looking, her gaunt physique horrible where once it was attractive. Her hair was limp, dark strands matted together from sweat. She'd given up on managing it like she used to a long while ago, seeing it futile as there was nobody on this planet which she bore any desire to impress, not when the man she wanted wasn't interested in the slightest. She'd always maintained she'd do anything to hold onto him, but her refusing to grasp the truth about his past had been what he'd needed, and when she'd denied him it, he denied her contact. Petty through the eyes of the outside world, but it was a deadly serious rift between them. It was her fault, it always would be, and nothing would change that. Nevertheless, she decided to call upon where he dwelt, to see if he'd reply to her one final time.
He sat against a tree, watching the people around him talk, cry or laugh…everything to show they shared a part with someone else here, not like him. He was forbidding himself to speak to his wife, knowing it would make it harder for them both, for they could never hold anything special again. His decision was harder for him, as he knew nothing could erase Jessie's memories of whatever she'd heard or seen. A sharp wind savaged the landscape but he didn't feel it. He felt nothing now; his emotions had numbed him to everything. The only thing he really needed was to hold her in his arms, the warmth of her flesh against his own, knowing it would never happen. He heard a baby starting to cry and another pang of paternal feelings washed over him, making him wish his child was still alive. Even after six months, he felt it surreal to have a daughter and yet not have one, wishing to cuddle her when she woke in the night. Alyssandra was never awake at any time though, he bitterly reminded himself, another wave of pain hitting his soul. He wasn't even two decades on this planet, and whenever something positive had come his way, it had turned around determinedly and smacked him hard on its retreat. He was exactly as he'd been when he'd been born; he cherished nothing, he possessed nothing, he knew nothing for certain. His distrust stemmed from years of him never knowing what was truth from an evil person's fiction, always the victim of trickster Fate's whims.
He saw her enter the area, walking right in front of him, looking into his eyes. He hardly recognised her; instead of a chrysalis creating a beautiful creature, her time away from him had created a bedraggled urchin. She looked twice as weary as she felt, her soul as fatigued as his, knowing that their relationship would never rekindle its passion. Not now. He looked at her thin body, her huggable body now just a bag of bones as she'd really allowed herself to become dangerously anorexic, nothing to fuel her happiness, nothing to make her feel life was worth living. She knelt before him, so she was at his eye-level, then she averted her gaze slightly, and he knew why. She choked out a harsh-sounding 'hi', her emotions overwhelming her yet the tablets refused her the act of weeping. He felt awkward around her, wanting to touch her but knowing it would bring more confusion than anything else—that was the etiquette he'd supplied himself with when he started this stage. He knew anything he'd say would betray that guideline, so he struggled to remain silent as she sat near him.
"I know you can hear me, maybe you're just pretending you can't to spare my feelings. I know you don't want to be with me, it's completely my fault you're like this now anyway. I can't get over you. We've spent too long together to separate like this. Is this what you really wanted when you did what you did?"
She buried her head into her knees, wanting to cry to vent her depression, unable to do so from both the medication stripping that option from her and her desire not to appear too weak against him, especially when he was clearly a lot stronger than she. He longed to soothe her, but to do it would be incorrect. She didn't need to suffer more than she clearly already was.
"Please talk to me, I deserve at least something from you, don't you agree? I'm made a lot of mistakes over the course of my life James, please don't punish me more. Are you still mad because I couldn't accept your past before it was too late for us, or that I lost your baby through a job I once took? Is it because I'm not desirable? I'll change, I swear I'll change. Let's swap places, see how you like being ignored like I am, and see how you love living like…"
She trailed off, feeling like the conversation made her sound like a weak, babbling idiot. He outstretched his hand to embrace her, but she didn't take it. He wasn't entirely sure if she'd seen it in the first place, he prayed she hadn't, as it would show she wasn't making him hurt more than he already was. Another burst of wind cut through her, and he noticed her necklace was still around her neck, accompanied by the rings he'd given her, knowing they still held an incredible amount of sentimental value to her. She fingered a piece of broken glass and pulled the sleeve up from her left wrist and made to insert it into the vein, when he broke his law and told her she was stronger than that, and to leave if he really made her feel that badly. She jumped and it seemed she'd forgotten she wasn't alone. She shook her head to remove the haze that fogged up her thoughts, pushing the ground firmly with her palm to gain enough leverage to get up. She removed her necklace and placed it in front of where she'd sat, saying in a half-hearted tone:
"I have these to remember you by. Maybe if you have them, it'll be easier for me to get over you. You clearly don't want me to join you, so I can't be good enough for you. Thanks for making me feel so special, James. Take care of yourself, wherever destiny may take you. You had a dark past, you promised me a bright hopeful future, but all you succeeded in giving me was a grey void. You had my heart, know that"
It pained him to watch her go, but he knew she was right. He picked the trinkets up and pocketed them, to stop any potential thieves from seeking plunder with them. He tried to follow her, but he felt queasy when he attempted to ignore the obligation to stay where he'd sat. He stopped, unable to wander any further and screamed her name loudly. She thought she'd heard something as she thought about how she'd imagined her first anniversary with James would be like, but his voice was lost in the bitter wind as she left, knowing she could not survive another bout of pain she'd endure were she to return again. The leaves blew furiously in the gust, a few of them smacking loudly against his face, or rather the photograph of his face that rested on top of his grave.
◘ Butch never regained his sanity. He became deathly afraid of anything to do with pokémon and refused to sleep in case he wasn't alone in the dark. He died in an insane asylum aged fifty-three years, without a break from his cell by choice ever since he'd entered aged eighteen years old after the police discovered him babbling on the street where he'd hit the lamp post.
◘ James' mother became the world's oldest woman, though her competition died suddenly in their sleep from what was assumed to be natural causes. She never recovered from the loss of the son spawned by her rapist and although she wasn't what could ever be deemed as friendly, her icy demeanour was now a bitter lead shield.
◘ Hopkins continued to serve his mistress, secretly admiring her but never acted upon it, seeing it as inappropriate with regards his profession and thus never knew the touch of his soul's mate.
◘ Elora was subsequently arrested and charged as a result of various allegations from customers about the company she selected. Her pub closed down and she was diagnosed with cervical cancer. She lived life to the full after that, and died in a head-on collision with an eighteen-wheeler truck, aged twenty-six.
◘ Kiera developed a stomach ulcer, ignored the advice of doctors and continued to eat spicy foods, drink like a magicarp and smoked like a chimney whilst working ridiculously long shifts every night of the week. It burst and she died aged twenty-one, slowly and extremely painfully.
◘ Du Paor received a hefty sentence and spent his life in jail, with his ex-minions exacting revenge at their whim. He was found dead in his bed aged forty-six with a look of terror across his face and his hands rigid in the air. The case remains an open verdict, in spite of suspicious circumstances.
◘ Tyra was eventually discovered when her credit card ceased holding funds, and was given a small funeral where nobody attended it in spite of the story being in all of the newspapers.
◘ After the closure of The Silver Bullet, Matt joined a rock band, slept with as many of his groupies as possible and developed AIDS. He failed to enjoy the irony as he suffered a long, drawn-out illness for seven months before losing his battle.
◘ Gary became the world's greatest pokémon trainer and surpassed every record imaginable. Ash became reclusive and not much was heard of him, though a few children were told of the creepy old man that lived at the end of the road with an ancient Mr Mime and a stuffed Pikachu.
◘ Misty found the freedom she yearned and whilst not becoming overly famous, she used her victories and prize money to help cease cruelty against pokémon until her secret of eating a Togepi omelette every morning for breakfast was discovered.
◘ Brock never recovered from his revulsion of women after seeing the damage on Jessie's body. He became a monk and took a vow of celibacy, as since the incident occurred women of all ages threw themselves at him. After a homosexual assault by another monk, he became a hermit and lived on a rock in the rough ocean. He died when a wave swept him out to sea and into a Gyrados' mouth.
◘ Sasha died mysteriously a few days after James did, foul play the obvious suspect but her sister-in-law was never discovered as the perpetrator of the deed. She was seen as a disgrace to the family name and was destroyed for her past attempts at incest with her nephew, though her death was kept relatively silent.
◘ Giovanni stayed awake as he vowed until fatigue allowed him to stay awake no more a week later. He awoke in a new cell, strapped to a table upright against the wall to add more pressure to his tired body, alone in the room with the light on bar one other occupant. Lindsey had taken the liberty of having scientists awaken his mother from her coma, and she wished to vent her anger for his foolish and irreconcilable actions.
◘ Lindsey reigned as leader for many years until she became fed-up with it and passed it onto the winner of that week's lottery for a bonus, one of her tactics at keeping workers willing to work for the same pay under a new leader. She left and lived life easily in an enormous mansion which her predecessor had also 'agreed' for her to keep upon his demise, and she later married a man her own age called Daniel who knew nothing of her devious past. He later crossed her path and little is known of what happened, though their corpses were discovered with an indication they'd shot each other at the exact moment with a look of extreme anger on what was left of their faces.
◘ Nothing is known about what treatment Anthony underwent in the laboratory, though two years into Lindsey's reign a pathetic looking Spinarak took to living in the corner nearest her desk. Since she suffered from tremendous arachnophobia and didn't want her colleagues to learn this, she took time in mentally preparing herself before squashing it. She could have sworn its dying scream sounded like her name.
◘ Special Agent Pryer successfully gave birth to a girl whom she named Jade Beryl, after her two favourite stones. Her husband was forbidden from assisting her in the naming process and indeed anything other than agreeing to a divorce when his affair with his friend Andrew became apparent. She retired from her job after thirty-seven years devoting most of her hours a day to it. She became famous for her controversial contributions to society, mainly making children's programmes acceptable for the older audience, if not a little too adult at times.
◘ Her younger sister quit the workforce after the bloodshed, and became an interior designer, notably adept at turning what could be described as tiny cages into roomy palaces, with a personal spa available to ensure the clients were treated like royalty. She married her short-term boyfriend Maxfield only to discover on her honeymoon that her sister's unspoken concerns had been true, and her partner was actually Maxine.
◘ Drax, du Paor's pathetic flunky, went home that night and whimpered everything out to his friend Brian, who requested he left him alone as he didn't feel he could become more of a disappointment until that incident proved him wrong. He attempted to woo a woman one night, which ended up in him being driven to her house in her car, but halfway there she threw him out into a ditch, laughing he was so ugly he should have understood nobody in their right minds would go near him. He stayed in the ditch where even the wild creatures avoided him, and when he died of starvation, the hunting bird-types refused to consume his carcass.
◘ The dittos did not merely evaporate as suspected; instead, when their bodies reached a cooler temperature, they reformed again. Instead of three bodies, however, there was a creature where each droplet of their flesh landed. At present, there is a steadily growing army, awaiting the perfect moment to launch their attack against the humans.
◘ Meowth escaped his bargain with the pokémon, where he had to sacrifice his life for them to absorb his body and grow further in strength. Had he known of their existence he would have made good his oath, and they never sought him out as they knew his battle skills only truly existed when his rage was pushed to its extreme limits, or when he was resurrected, neither of which were practical enough for their desires. They wished for him to live out the remainder of his life in peace, as they were aware he would only survive another two months naturally anyway. He stayed with Jessie for much of that time, trying to grasp their bond of friendship again after such tragedy, until one day he left, promising to return as soon as he could. He left knowing he was reaching his last day alive, but didn't want to burden her further as she was constantly fraught as it was.
◘ Jessie found it too difficult to live without either of her former team-mates and her daughter and visited where Meowth had claimed to have buried the bell-jar. She found it and smuggled it back to Viridian City, part of her wanting to bury it beside her husband, yet she couldn't bring herself to undergo such sorrow again. Every time she thought about him another part of her soul died, but death was a long time in coming to her. She failed to attempt to overcome her dire anorexia and ended up in a clinic with social welfare's intervention. The staff ignored her desire to discharge herself, and eventually her appetite returned sufficiently to keep her alive. She was supervised constantly by a male worker who she would once have considered attractive, but she ensured the last person to kiss her was her husband and made sure he went nowhere near her in that sense. She lived for three more hard years before her insides collapsed from her anorexia's long-term abuse to them. She was buried beside her husband with the bell-jar, as had been requested in her will, but their spirits never met. Her soul involuntarily went to where Alyssandra's was in Sunset City, and she stayed there for all eternity, bonding lovingly with the tiny infant which had been torn away from her.
◘ The bullet travelled through James' left shoulder blade and embedded itself in his vena carva. The members of the police force present called for paramedic back-up, which arrived almost instantaneously to everyone's relief. He struggled for survival in the operating theatre, but a medical miscalculation ensured it was indeed a losing battle he fought as a scalpel accidentally caught with an artery and refused to cease its bleeding. He died two hours after being admitted to hospital, having remained fully conscious for most of the evening. His body refused to allow another foreign substance take control when he was administered the anaesthetic and his body denied the liquid the ability to combine with his blood. The operation was required to be carried out right away, which added panic to the doctors as well as unbelievable agony to the patient as he was awake almost the entire time, causing the irreparable mistake with the artery. He fell unconscious only mere minutes before his death, and his last request to see his wife when he knew he wasn't going to recover was rejected on the grounds it would cause trauma beyond relief to Jessie. His soul was trapped beside where he was buried for all eternity, and if he moved more than five feet away from it in any given direction, including vertical if he rested in the tree, he suffered from a vicious pulling sensation in his abdomen. After their first anniversary when she visited his grave, he never saw his wife again in any shape or form, which made his disappointment even more crushing when he noticed her funeral taking place a few feet from his own grave when he saw it as an opportunity to spend the endless state of existence together.