Author's notes:
Eru878: I'm FOND of dark types, so there'll be one. And those witch birds are annoying...
I'm putting in a less annoying (and pathetic)dark type. But it'll be black... heh.

B Boi:Sandstone does a short portion of the steps for'Break Down': Well, thanks. Yays, I get compliments... :)


Chapter Twenty-five: Death of the witch


Chris sighed, shouldering his backpack. The thing was heavy (he had to study physics AND math last night). He walked out the door, with noises coming from the bedroom. His mother had another hangover, apparently.


After a rather nasty walk, he arrived at his school. It actually wasn't a crappy school, like the ones near home. They'd admitted him for some bizarre reason, and never said clearly why.

"High school. Well, at least I'll be able to work at somewhere besides a mart."

A guy in Anime club walked by. Chris knew him fairly well, so he called out to him. "Yo! Jim! 'sup?"

Jim turned, and was apparently surprised to see Chris. His eyes widened, and he walked faster into the school. Chris blinked, looking for the blood on him. The way Jim reacted, it was like he'd killed someone, and was covered in blood.


It wasn't just Jim. EVERYONE was acting weird. The whole day was grinding on him. Every teacher (including the one he'd had a class with for THREE YEARS) had some issue with him, and ripped on him. Even the people he normally got along with insulted him.


"Chris?"

Chris wearily pulled his head from his desk. He blearily saw an outline of a fairly plump girl, with homely features. "Oh… hey Shelly." She was one of the girls that hung out with him occasionally. She didn't have a lot of guy problems, but she still liked to hang around him for some reason. He didn't know why.

"Chris… you really shouldn't be here."

He sighed, and blinked his eyes into focus, looking at the clock. "No…. I didn't fall asleep. This is Humanities, isn't it?" He let his eyes loose their focus again, tired from the day.

Her face was serious as she shook her head. "Not that."

"Then who did I supposedly beat the crap out of now? What, another charge of Assault and Battery?"

"Stop it. That only happened twice."

Chris sighed. "That's the trouble though. This is the burgs, and I'm from the slums…"

She cut him off, before he could go into his usual rant. "Chris… get out of here. Don't you know you're possessed?"

He rubbed his eyes, then looked at her. "Wha…"

"You… are… possessed. Everyone here knows it. They're looking for an excuse to kill you."

Chris blinked, not believing it. She'd never joked about something like that before. He arched an eyebrow, and she nodded. "Believe it. Remember when you bitched about religion?"

He nodded grimly. "Yea, I remember. They still burn heretics in the no law zones, don't they?"

"Well, that's going to happen to you. Take a look at yourself!" She grabbed his hand, and held it up to his face.

He blinked, looking at the bizarre tattoo that had appeared on his wrist to upper third forearm. "What the hell?"

She looked him over, then shook her head. "That's why! Only possessed people get that mark!"

Chris swore softly. Luckily, he was right near the door, the class was near the stairwell that lead to outside, and no one in class cared about him being there too much. He shot her a look of gratitude, then slipped out the door. He could hear a sigh, as he jumped down about seven stairs, trying to get out as fast as possible.


He looked at the tattoo again. "What the hell is going on?"

Chris sighed, as he rested at a small park. He'd found the place within the burgs, and it was on his walk home. No one used it because there was no kids equipment, and nothing else besides some grass and two trees. Exhausted, he nodded off under the tree. He eventually fell from a sitting position to flat on his face.


He blinked, looking at an exquisitely beautiful face. Well, it would have been, were it not scrunched up in grief. Apparently, he'd nodded off, and she'd snuck up on him. She had gray eyes, and her hair was the color of silver… but despite the length (it was quite long), it managed to stir in the wind. It looked like she was weeping… "This is all my fault…"

Chris blinked, confused. He slowly got up from his lain out position (how he'd fallen into that, he didn't know), into a sitting position.

She noticed his movement, and gave him a massive hug, burying her face in his shoulder. "I'm so sorry!"

Chris sighed, and returned the gesture gently. It took a bit of effort to free his arms, actually. "Look… what did you do?"

She only pulled tighter to him. "I… I'm… I'm… I'm the one who's possessing you…"

Chris blinked, and looked at her. He could defiantly feel his whole body, and move it. All the stupid possession stuff he'd read about always talked about loosing control of your body. "Possessing me? But…"

"Not like that. I… was hurt. Badly. I needed somewhere to recover, and a sympathetic soul that would let me reside within… yours was…"

He blinked. "So that possession stuff they preach…"

She nodded (he could feel the motion, though he couldn't see her face), a few tears falling from her eyes. Chris could feel the dampness of his shoulder – she must have been crying for a while. "Yes. I… I scarred you for life. I'm so sorry…"

He sighed, and squeezed her gently, then freed her from the embrace. "It's alright. I don't blame you." He shut his eyes, trying to think out what to do next.


Chris felt a feathery touch on his cheek. He opened his eyes, and blinked in surprise when he saw her face right next to him.

She smiled sadly, and kissed him.


"Witch. Now what do you have to say for yourself?" The man was dressed as a holy man, but Chris doubted he ever saved a soul. Just condemned everyone to hell, like most the lunatics in the church. Chris smiled sadly, and shook his head. "I don't care what you say. Kani's done nothing wrong! She's there because she needs to heal, and I'm not going to let you kill her!"

Someone in the mob the 'holy man' had gathered cried, "He's a witch! Kill him! He's willingly sheltering the devil!"

A shot ran out, and a corpse hit the ground.

The 'witch' was dead.


A ghostly form floated over the corpse. She sighed, and kissed the still body one last time.

The mob froze, looking at the beauty of the figure. The holy man sprayed 'holy water' at the spirit, but it passed right through with no harm.

She turned to them, her eyes damp. "Why must you people kill? This man did the most noble deed in the universe, and you killed him for it!"

The man backed away, but regained his resolve. "Be gone, devil! Plague us no more."

She sighed. "I am no devil. I am merely a sprit…" The man threw something at Kani, and her form shattered into motes of light. Two screams were heard, but they faded when the motes disappeared.


A bloodcurdling scream cut through the air. Chris woke up sweating and trembling, his eyes leaking tears. "No…" He looked at the marking on his arms, and passed out.


Kani awoke to a scream. Chris was looking at his arms in horror, then apparently fainted. Disturbed (that was an understatement), she probed his mind.

"Weird… it's so vivid! It's like he lived this in a past life or something…" Ridiculous as that sounded (the only spirits in THIS world were just ghost type pokemon), it seemed to be right.

She sighed, and curled up next to him. Something was wrong, and for once, she didn't have an answer. It didn't feel like a nightmare to her, but something more. And why did that spirit have her name?