Chapter Thirty-eight: Monster

Fighting For Everything

I opened my eyes, half expecting to see light flow throughout my room, but it was dark and grey. Another gloomy day in Celestic, as usual. I was cocooned in my blankets. I flung my arm out, ready for it to be enclosed in cold. It wasn't. It was the same temperature as under the blankets. I made a face, but didn't question it. I moved my blanket and stepped out. I stood up. Something didn't feel right. I looked down at myself. I was wearing my usual pajamas, my hair hung around my body, I wiggled the toes on my bare feet.

Why wasn't this right? I looked around my room. Everything was fine. Then I realized what was wrong. Where was my Pokémon?! I had Togekiss and Roserade out last night, my usual sleep buddies. Then I took another sweep for my bag. It wasn't here, either. What's going on? I pushed my hair behind my ears. Then something clicked. "Sinnoh! Grandmother!" I shot out of my room.

When I made it to the living room, tears made its way into my eyes. The table was broken, the chairs were thrown across the room, the sofa was in shreds, the television had a huge hole in it, Grandmothers pots and pans lay scattered all over the floor.

There was blood that covered the ground. So much blood.

I covered my mouth. My hand was shaking. "Volkner!" I shrieked. I prayed that he was around somewhere, although last I saw him he slept on the now shredded couch. Volkner didn't answer, he didn't come to my rescue. I tear skidded down my face. I didn't understand what was going on. I ran to the door. I must find out what's going on! I grabbed the handle and swung open the door, then everything made sense.

"Hello there, Cynthia Marie Everheart." Lea stood there. He wore all black, his brown hair a mess and hanging to his shoulders, and his eyes blood red. He stepped in. "Don't mind if I come in, okay?" His tone was genuine, but I didn't see through it. Tears poured out of my eyes. My lips were smashed together.

"Where is she!" I growled.

"Who, my dear?" He cracked a half smile.

"You know who!" I screamed, my voice cracking. I wiped my face, my tears were replaced with sheer hatred and anger.

"Your precious grandmother and that back-stabbing, no-good gym leader are being well taken care of."

My eyes clicked to the pool of blood, then back at Lea. His eyes were still red, much like they were in my visions and nightmares, and now black smoke began to swirl around him. "Liar!" I accused. There was no way they could be 'well taken care of.'

"Me?" He looked offended. He made the perfect face, put out the perfect amount of emotions. His emotions were so genuine, so clean. "I would never!" True flowed around him. Genuine and love joined in; he was controlling his emotions.

Then, a light yellow light outlined him. I was confused at this, but ignored it. "Stop lying!" I yelled. He grinned. His emotions changed back to sinister, and the yellow light turned black, it blended in with the black smoke that circled him. Wait a second. I thought. I…Can read his emotions. Then it made the slightest bit of sense. I could read his emotions and see his aura. I didn't believe in auras, but I was surely seeing something. And when his black aura turned blood red, and the smoke got thicker to the point I couldn't see him, I knew something awful was bound to happen.

He's going to fly at me with a sword, when he's two feet away, jump up and hit his back. I thought to myself. What? I thought again, then Lea shot out of the smoke, with his long, blood-covered sword, and his black wings. I stood there, amazed and terrified, and then jumped up. He shot under me, and I put my palm out towards his back. Light beams shot out of my hand and pushed Lea to the ground. He hit the floor so hard, the wood cracked. I landed and spun around. Lea growled and flew up to face me. He's going to come at me with a claw, but I can easily keep him away with my light beams. It was definitely me thinking to myself, but how did I know? I didn't know. Yeah, it's confusing for me too.

His hand turned into a huge Garchomp claw, he flew towards me. I held out my hand. Weird powers, go! Beams shot out and kept him from coming closer. He fought hard, but soon gave up and crashed to the ground. The scene changed. We were in a huge battle arena. I was on one side, he was on the other. The problem? I had no Pokémon. Did that mean he expected me to battle him like Pokémon?

"Now I have the home-court advantage!" He growled, his voice hoarse and husky. The League. I thought. His hands were clenched at his sides, his black, ghost-like wings grew larger, his eyes were blood-red, and so was his aura. His sword reappeared. Then his aura changed back to yellow. His wings disappeared, and he straightened his body, looking less like a savage and more like a human being. He held up his hands. "Why fight?" He asked, genuine leaking out of him.

"Because you're a monster!" I yelled.

"Am I?" He asked. His aura changed to a new color, green. "I don't think so." His tone was filled with sincerity. I nodded my head, too angry to speak. "Let's take a look." The scene changed again. We were in the mirror room, the room in my reoccuring nightmares. My bloody ball gown was on, and I had blood covering my face. I looked behind me for hanging, dead bodies, there were none. The slightest bit of relief hit.

Then Lea appeared, and it went away. I was sitting on the ground, and I couldn't stand up. I lifted my hand and hoped my beams would work, they didn't. I could no longer read his aura, either. I began to worry.

"Am I the monster?!" He yelled, his voice dripping with evil. Then his skin disappeared. The blood that filled his body crashed to the floor, leaving only a skeleton. He didn't have eyeballs, only gaping holes. He bent down and reached his boney fingers out to me and touched my face. "Am I?!" I screamed bloody murder.

"Miss Cynthia!" I heard in the distance. I continued to scream. "Miss Cynthia!" I stopped screamed. Volkner! Everything went black. I felt someone shaking me. My eyes shot open.

"Cynthia!" Grandmother shrieked. I looked around. Roserade, Thumper, Grandmother and Volkner all looked down at me. Grandmother was crying. Volkner looked worried, and Thumper was shaking and whining. I reached out and patted his head.

"What happened to you?" Volkner asked.

I grabbed my head. I had somewhat of a headache. I remembered all that had happened. The blood. So much blood. Leas skeleton. My powers. I fought the urge to cry. I made it a rule for myself never to cry in front of Grandmother. I closed my eyes. "Nightmare." I muttered, trying to keep my voice straight.

"Are you alright, dear?" Grandmother asked, attempting to tame her tears. I think she made a rule, too, to never cry in front of me. I had only seen her cry a few times in my life, and never when something awful happened. Not when Mother and Father died, not when Grandfather died, either. She really held herself together when those really bad things happened.

"Yes, I'm fine now." I took a deep breath, the tears went away. I opened my eyes. Grandmother took a step closer and touched my head. "You have an awful fever, and you're as pale as a ghost. You must have caught something up in Snowpoint, and now you're ill." She sighed. "That's probably the reason for your dream, too. You had us worried sick!" She placed a hand over her heart and took a few deep breaths. I took those breaths with her. And then sat up and hugged her. A nice, deep and long hug.

"I love you." I said. It was awful thinking I had lost her, she was more a mother to me then a grandmother.

"I love you more." She said in her gentle way. "I'll heat up some water for you, and then some soup. Nothing cures a sick baby more than a good pot of hot soup." She patted my shoulder and left the room.

Volkner looked at me. "Now, what really happened to you?" I didn't say anything, because I wished I knew.

I woke up for the second time that day. After my hot water and soup, I was exhausted. I went back to bed and slept for a few more hours. I felt much better when I woke up this time. I felt something heavy laying on my legs. I raised my head, Thumper peered up at me. He whined. He was really worried about me. I patted his head and scratched his neck. Roserade got up from her sleep on the floor. "He knocked you off the bed, huh?" I asked her. I petted her with my other hand. I smiled. I got out of bed, cold hit me hard. But it wasn't terribly cold, nothing like Snowpoint. I quickly got dressed. It was nice not having to wear my sweater and jacket. I put on my old jeans and a tee. I raked through my hair, threw it up in a bun, returned my Pokémon and walked out to the living room. Volkner and Grandmother sat at the table, chatting away. I looked around, everything was completely in its place. I sighed happily and walked over to them.

"How are you feeling?" Grandmother asked.

"Much, much better." I smiled. I looked at Volkner. "We should probably head to Sunyshore soon."

"Can you fly?" He asked in disbelief, or was it worry? Probably both.

I nodded. "Yeah, I'm able to fly. That nightmare took a lot out of me." That was the truth. I was mentally broken after it, but was fine now. I did believe it was a nightmare, but slightly that it was a vision. Either way, it was probably provoked by my presence, which I thought I had gotten rid of. But I couldn't feel it around, it normally was a bit present when I was having nightmares or visions. When I wake up, it normally greeted me. If it came back into the picture, I would rid it again with no hesitation. I made it through a war, snowstorm, and so much else without it, I didn't need the thing around.

"Alright." Volkner said, snapping me back to reality. "I'll get my things ready."

"I'll make some lunch before you go." Grandmother got up and bustled around the kitchen. I went to my room and got my clothes and quickly washed them in the bathroom. Then took a quick shower, which helped wake me up, and readied my bag. Half an hour later, after we ate cold bread with berry jam on it and Grandmother insisted I have the rest of the soup, we left off on Thumper, leaving that nightmare behind.

Authors Note: Hey look, the shortest chapter so far! I hope you enjoyed, even though it was short and weird. Short and weird is a good thing, right? Welp, only with some things, I guess. Heh.

Thanks for reading!