On one side, the horizon was taken over by the brilliant orange glow that radiated from the sun's setting. Opposite to the ginger shine was the light blue benevolence of the moon and her children, filling the newly risen nocturnal sky. Recently, it seemed that the beauty of the world was even more prevalent than it once was. The world had once seemed so gray and pointless before now. Still, the absence of Blair and Astra bears a weight on my heart. It's hard for me to fully focus. Despite everything that Ismene has told me, I still had no resolve. And here I am, standing on the foot of the monument. It seems so… nostalgic to stare at. Despite the obvious years of environmental decay present on the statue, its figure is still incredibly apparent. It is a man holding a book at his side, and pushing his spectacles back upon his nose. In the morning, I am supposed to push upon the panel and enter the end. There is still extreme fear filling each crevice in my body. The moment I enter into the monument, there will be no more returning. There will be no chances of me returning to the island. This life will be over, permanently. The night air is so empty and beautiful, yet these dreadful tears stream down my face.
"Life as you know it in this world is not going to last." The look on Ismene's face was full of remorse. What is she talking about?"
"Ah, calm down. It's just a rough burn." I told her, looking down at the brush burn lining my arm. "Don't act so dreadful."
Rather than moving on from the subject, she took a deep breath and continued speaking. "Drew, do you understand why you were sent here?"
Such a question has run through my mind hundreds of thousands of times, but this is the first time someone else had asked me rather than my own subconscious. I wasn't entirely sure what she meant by the question. I opened my mouth to answer, but the words stayed in my throat. Instead, I sat there like a fool with my mouth open.
"The answer is… simple." Her voice trembled, her eyes were void of life, and her stance was stern. "Your only purpose in coming here was to avert the great disaster before us." Almost in a dramatic fashion, she faced the sun and its rays almost engulfed her whole body. "The monument is the entrance to the end, as it is appropriately called. We will go into it tomorrow morning. There is an extremely limited amount of time. About 22 hours are left at this point. It's my fault that we are so short on time. Being the fool that I am, you were astray for a long period of time."
Nothing in the speech seemed to be cohesive. It was all rushed and ridiculous. "Yeah, as if, this could be some big, stupid, and fake lie you thought of."
"Would I really have to time to mentally insert the thoughts of Bishop into your mind before we even met? Look above the sun, and see our demise before you meet your own."
She continued walking down the mountain, mumbling something about needing to catch a breath. Once she was out of my sight, I looked above the setting sun once more. There was an object far in the distance, presumably in space, that was hardly distinguishable from the wavering, blue sky, an object that I was unable to identify. Silently, I sat against a tree looking down at the broad landscape. Occasionally, I'd look up to see the ever-present entity in the sky.
"It's about time we stop, don't you think?" Blair asked me as the sun finally receded into its resting place behind the planet. We were about three-fourths up the colossal mountain at this point. It's been a long time since I had seen Drew. Blair went to collect firewood as I moped around the spot we set up at. The night temperatures were dramatically colder due to the amount of air flow on this mountain. I wonder how he's doing.
It was finally time to enter the end. The time was right, as she called it. I refused to look her in the fast. With the hours, my internal wrath had grown to monstrous proportions that I could hardly contain. I felt betrayed by her. Never did I intend to look into those once soft eyes, for the image would be forever corrupted as a symbol of treachery from a forgotten friendship. In my calmest state, I believed that disliked was a strong word when describing my opinions of others. However, in that moment, I loathed the bitch. Anger had won over my previous levels of level-headedness; I knew it wasn't her fault. In fact, this all was the cruel plot of some deity elsewhere. That didn't matter to my dark side; all that mattered was the unleashing of my hatred upon another being. My lighter side crawled deeper into the depths of my mind, being pushed by the evil tendencies of humanity, as it always had been. The few things that remained were the ability to resist the crushing of her skull, and the resistance against hurling myself off of this godforsaken mountain and out of this once happy world.
I've never truly been hated before; I was never in the same spot long enough for someone to tell me. Most Pokémon simply approached me and would say, "Ismene, you're alright." Nothing more was ever said, or anything less. My life was spent as a mere existence (and a convenient tool for Bishop). In that moment, when I realized that Drew refused to place his gaze upon any part of my body, I felt hideous. It seemed to me that I was a monster in his eyes. Something so absolutely vile, that no happiness could ever be felt towards me. He stood there, arms extended at his sides and hands clenched into fists, motionless. The eyes on his face scanned the surroundings, deep in thought, while the eyes on his soul focused on me intensely. I turned around, towards the hole in the statue. "Come on," I told him with sharpness, "You have a job to do." It became difficult to see as we walked towards it. My eyes were filled with silent tears of a lost love: my first love, the one that could never stay in this world long enough for me to even apologize to him. Once he was gone, my purpose will no longer exist. I'll just be a vagrant with no uses. When that happens, I can fade away into nothingness. Only then, will I be at peace forever.
Right before I entered the portal, I did one last thing. I turned around and screamed, "Good-bye Blair! Good-bye Astra! Though we may never meet again, I hope that we just might! If you can still hear me, please don't try and share my blight! Don't come near, please stay away. I'll try and—"
Find a way to stay. Those were the words that caught in my throat. It occurred to me that I had no chance of staying in this enchanted world. And with that, my lighter side vanished from sight again, only to be filled with rage and spite.
So, uh, been a while. Dear everyone, I am sorry. I have few excuses this time. The only one being that I did not know what I would end this story with. I have one more chapter after this and I'll finally be finished! THANKS FOR ALL OF YOU WITH PATEINCE! I really appreciate it! Once this story is done, I will work on my own original story. I may or may not return and write an after-story. To those that are interested in the story I am going to write, please message me! It will need some *seasoned* readers. (Also, please wish me some safety. I live in the south where there is Mardi Gras. For those of you who don't know what that is, look it up. I march in a specific high school band that dances and shit. Beyond the point, wish me safety.)