Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon!
The Beast in the Cage
I had done it again. How did I know? I sat in a steel cage for unruly Pokemon in Professor Oak's basement, which was a second lab that held the overflow. Five other cages lined up next to mine, boxes of bulk Pokemon food were stacked against the white wall, and a bookshelf stood between the stairs leading up and a desktop. Why was I locked down here, you ask?
I killed another innocent. Well, not exactly an innocent because he had been a jerk to Ash. He was precious to the professor, though.
Gary Oak. I killed Gary Oak, and the worst thing was: I didn't remember doing it. All I remembered was setting the table with him for dinner...then he had accidentally cut himself on a knife. That was when everything turned red. When I woke up, I saw Gary's body gutted like a Magikarp and surrounded by a puddle of blood. A steel pan's reflection had shown my bloodstained mouth. I hadn't known how to explain when Professor Oak had burst in. I just needed someone to restrain me so the creature inside me wouldn't take over again at the wrong time.
That was why I was caged. I was a monster, a demon if you will. Changed by another driven by the very thing I was fighting.
I had just returned to an empty Pallet Town from running an errand for Professor Oak until a woman had attacked me in the middle of town. I hadn't gotten a good look at her beyond the pale skin and red eyes. The same skin and eyes I had now. She bit me before I could react, causing me to black out. When I came to...three days later, I was tethered to an IV in the hospital.
Then the doctor entered...only for him to accidentally cut his hand on the corner of the cart by my bed. Upon the bloody scent smacking my nostrils, scarlet had claimed my vision and consciousness. The next thing I knew upon waking, my doctor had been reduced to a picked Corphish. I then saw Professor Oak in the doorway, horrified expression on his face.
Professor Oak had rushed me back to his lab, where I explained everything though not understanding it all myself. Yet Oak hadn't seemed all that surprised, as if he had seen someone kill that way before.
It turned out he had. According to him, it had been a regular thing in Kanto for about a month. Unlucky people like me being attacked by creatures with red eyes, becoming the monsters themselves, and breaking open the bodies of those sorry enough to get close. May, one of Ash's friends from Hoenn, had become one of those demons according to Oak and killed a customer at the Pewter Museum. The professor had been there in its lab. At least, he had been on the videophone with the staff before he had seen May on the screen, face covered with blood. Then the line had gone dead. He didn't know what was causing it, though.
Neither had any Officer Jenny, one of whom had come by an hour after I tried to settle in bed following my murder. Of course I had to lie, no matter how much the thought of dishonesty toward the law made me sick to my stomach. I told her I didn't know because I was heavily sedated and woke up only to see the doctor's mauled corpse.
Yet we both knew who it really was, and it would stay a secret between Oak and me.
Now Gary had faced that same fate. I didn't care if I had to spend the rest of my life caged as long as the rest of my friends were safe. I was willing to disappear from the world. I even left Marill, Scyther, and Venonat in the professor's care. All three had objected, but it was for their own safety.
"Tracey, how are you doing?" Professor Oak came downstairs to check on me like he did everyday. He promised to find a way to save May and me, starting with where it started. Or who it started . All we knew right now was that I snapped at the smell of blood, I could only drink blood, and I slept during the day.
"I'm doing fine, Professor," I replied. "I haven't seen or smelled blood, so there's no way I'll snap."
"Did you sleep well today? I'm still getting used to your schedule, Tracey, so it'll take some time to keep track."
"Join the club..." I did. "The sun must have that effect on me now."
"That's the only thing we know so far: a sort of hypnotic effect to lure you into slumber."
I smiled halfheartedly. "I guess."
"I have some blood upstairs if you're hungry," the professor said. "Since it's evident you can no longer eat regular food."
"Don't remind me," I muttered, remembering my attempt at eating a banana and vomiting shortly after. I refused to feed from a human, so Professor Oak gave me blood he squeezed from meat he bought on his outings. Anything to sustain me and fend off the creature, who unfortunately continued to insist on something warmer and living.
I was hungry, though. "Sure, I'll take some." I stifled a grin to prevent my predator from having any ideas.
"Will you be fine if Brock came down?"
"I don't know..." Brock had come to visit shortly after I had killed Gary, where he was both horrified and shocked at what he had walked in on. Once we explained everything to him, he joined the comfort club, assuring me that it hadn't been my fault or it wasn't me. But the truth was it had been me; it was me on the outside, no matter how many times someone told me otherwise.
"Look, Tracey, it wasn't your fault." There it was again. That broken record assurance. I heard it more than enough times to memorize it. "You couldn't control yourself. You weren't yourself."
"It may have been a monster wearing my skin, but it still doesn't change the fact that I'm the reason you have to make funeral arrangements." I tried to keep my tone as even as possible. "You cared for Gary. He was your grandson! What I did was unforgivable! You should be pissed and kicking me out at least! Hell, you should've turned me in or even killed me! You should be hating me!"
The professor shook his head. "No, Tracey." He took a step closer to my cage, and I took one back. "You and that creature are two separate beings. I'm angry at the monster inside you for killing my only grandson, which is why I am doing this research. To save you and others who may have been infected."
"What if you can't? What if there isn't a way?"
The professor appeared tempted to take my hand in his, but remembered the dangers of that. "Tracey, I promise you I'll find a way to cure you, but that starts with you believing in me. If you keep up with that attitude, the creature will break through without difficulty. Interacting with your friends is good for you, starting with Brock. You can't be alone down here all day everyday. Understand?"
"Yes." Though the pessimistic tides continued to wash over what few ripples of hope I had. Not that I had any in the first place.
"I have a feeling even Gary knew it wasn't you."
"You don't know that, and even if you did, it wouldn't make me feel any better. That's why I don't want to be in the same room as my friends. I'm afraid of losing control."
"You're not losing control around me, Tracey," Oak pointed out. "You're talking to me like a human, so why not give yourself a chance with Brock?"
Professor Oak had a point; otherwise, I would've tried to bust out of my cage. And Brock knew I had been changed. Still, it didn't mean I couldn't try to break free. Imprisonment by iron could only go so far, but I guess I could humor the professor.
"Is Brock alone?" I asked. If Ash or Misty was with him, I would deny the offer. Brock knowing was already walking a fine tightrope over hot boiling lava. Involving Ash and Misty would push me off of that tightrope.
"He is," the professor responded. "Ash is with his mother, and Misty's taking over Cerulean Gym while her sisters are away."
I let out a sigh of relief. "Thank you. He can come down."
"And I'll be back with your blood." The professor headed upstairs to fetch Brock and the blood. I curled into a ball in the corner of the cage, hoping no one else would find out about me. Details about me stayed in the lab. It was bad enough Brock, my best friend, knew. But Ash and Misty? How would they react? Would they be scared of me? Would they hate me? My mind raced with so many negative possibilities I thought it would self-destruct like an Electrode.
I began to twitch at that moment. My left foot shook, followed by my right. No, I couldn't! It couldn't! Not now! Please don't come out! Brock was on his way down with the professor! I knew the creature was hungry for blood, but not from humans. Not again. Never again.
"Take deep breaths, Tracey," I said to myself. Despite not needing to breathe, it always alleviated stress. Why not my bloodlust? I inhaled and exhaled, willing my hungry side to back off. "In and out. In and out." My other self refused to listen, however, as it pushed harder.
"Tracey, how's it going?"
I reluctantly uncurled from my ball to see the Pewter City Gym Leader coming downstairs. Just the slightest peek at him fueled the predator's appetite even more. I hugged the back of my cage as tightly as I could to maintain distance.
"This isn't a good time, Brock," I whimpered as he neared my cage. I gripped the bars so hard my knuckles turned whiter than they already were. My entire body writhed in response to the creature threatening to attack. No!
My hunger resumed the wrestling match with my human will, causing me to collapse on the cold metal. The convulsions strengthened, and my heart matched the magnitude of an earthquake with the bloodlust waiting to overcome me.
"Tracey! Hang in there! Look at me!" Brock grabbed the front bars.
"Just a little longer..." I breathed heavily but looked away. Making eye contact would be a big mistake right now. "I know you're hungry, but Brock isn't food." I hazarded a glance at the Gym Leader. "Brock, get the professor! Go!" The creature was pulling me farther and farther away from the steering wheel to my body, intending to take that wheel itself. "Please don't! Not now!"
Unfortunately, the creature's hunger was clouding my human mind, too. My rational thoughts ceased one by one. The innocent doctor, Gary, Professor Oak, Brock, Ash, Misty, and even my three Pokemon. Suddenly, none of them mattered anymore. Only the taste of blood. Warm human blood.
"Tracey, here you go."
I managed to look up at Professor Oak coming down with a bottle of blood, and that was when the last shreds of human Tracey Sketchit dissipated.
"So...hungry..." I hissed, the entire room turning red. "So...so...hungry..."
