Chapter 8: Once Again with Feelings. (Former Title: Walking Nightmare.)
Satoshi gently placed down Hikari on the grass and checked the time on her Poketch. It was still functioning, as it was waterproof to some levels. It showed 4 am. Satoshi, still not wanting to sleep, started up the fire again, as it was starting to die. He put Takeshi's bag near it, trying to dry it.
Several hours passed when Hikari woke up. She got up slowly, and stretched her muscles. She slowly straightened out her hair and clothes. She took off Satoshi's vest and placed it on top of the log where they were sitting the night before.
"Feeling better?" Satoshi asked from behind her.
She gasped in surprise, as she didn't expect Satoshi to be up before her, and she certainly didn't expect him behind her. "Holy crap! You scared the Hell out of me! Whew...yes; I feel much better, thanks." she replied, catching her breath. "Did you sleep well?" she asked, noticing the fatigue on Satoshi's face.
"No. Didn't sleep at all...I just couldn't sleep." he replied, yawning. "Anyway, let's keep moving. We're almost at the forest." 'Hmmm... she doesn't seem to have hypothermia anymore...That's good.'
They walked South for an hour, but Satoshi kept yawning once every minute.
"Hey, maybe you should take a break before we continue. You look awful." she suggested, worried that Satoshi might collapse from fatigue.
"Maybe you're right. I'll just close my eyes for a few minutes." He replied, lying on the grass.
Hikari looked at him, leaning on a tree. She started to think about possible events to come, when she suddenly heard a voice.
"Ssssssssssssss fight...sssssssssssssssss"
"What the Hell?" she wondered, looking around for the source of the sound. It wasn't Satoshi's voice. 'Who are you...' she thought, looking around.
"I'll give you a hint..sssssssssssss...I am a ghost, and I have two big hands, and I love mischief ssssssssss..." the voice replied.
'Hmmmm... a Pokemon that can read people's minds, also can use telepathy, a ghost type, loves mischief and has two big hands...a Haunter?' she thought.
"Yesssssssss...Now I will watch you two fight until one falls..."
"Two? Me and Satoshi? But why? And how? He loves me!" she said, still looking around "There is no purpose in trying to find me. I am a ghost. I am invisible...and can fly through stuff...Anyway, why you ask? I already answered that question...I love mischief...and how? You'll just have to see for yourself..."
All of a sudden, Hikari felt a presence in her head, giving her a serious headache. "AHHH! Get out of my head! I will never fall into your tricks! He will never try to hurt me!" she yelled, clutching her head, calling in agony.
"Hmmm...will he now? Well, you seem to have a stronger mind than he does...in that case..." the Haunter hissed.
All of a sudden, Satoshi jumped up, with his eyes still closed. He slowly opened his eyes, and walked towards Hikari. She looked at him, and noticed that his eyes were red, as if he was affected by Hypnosis.
"Satoshi! Wake up! Don't fall into Haunter's control!"
"No use...Tell you what. Knock him off his feet, then I'll let you both go."
"What! No! I will never hurt him!" she cried, looking at Satoshi's glowing red eyes.
Then, Satoshi thrust his fist at her, punching her in the stomach. Hikari gasped as the fist made contact. She never knew that Satoshi was so strong. She coughed for air, but Satoshi prevented her from getting any, as he started to strangle her. Hikari felt as if she was going to pass out, when she swung her good arm around, smacking Satoshi in the face. He let go of her, shocked from the sudden attack. Hikari dropped to the ground, coughing violently. She quickly rolled out of the way, as Satoshi stomped the ground where she was a second ago. She quickly pulled a giant branch, bending it. Satoshi advanced towards her, not noticing her trap. She let go of the branch, which flew and smacked Satoshi in the face. Out of force, he was knocked off his feet.
"Hmmmm...You're obviously way smarter than him..." the Haunter hissed.
Hikari quickly ran towards him, worrying if she hurt him. Satoshi jumped up, and glared at Hikari. He put both his hands on her shoulders, as if about to embrace her. This made her relax a little, but she gasped again, as this time, Satoshi rammed his knee into her stomach. She gasped for air again, but Satoshi still didn't allow that, as he started to choke her from behind her. Quickly, she jumped up, and pushed her head back as fast as possible, making contact with Satoshi's bottom jaw. Again, Satoshi released her, and rubbed his jaw with his hand.
Hikari started to bleed from her mouth, indicating that she received some internal injuries. "I thought you were going to let us go!" She managed to yell while coughing up blood and gasping for air.
"I lied sssssss" the Haunter hissed, seemingly taunting her.
Satoshi came up to her and grasped her throat with one of his hands, while using the other to punch her in the injured arm. Hikari yelped in pain and tears started to stream down her eyes. She started to believe that the only way to get out of his situation was for one of the two to die. Hikari was slowly raised above the ground as Satoshi continued to choke her. Desperate, she thrust her good leg forward, ramming her knee into Satoshi's chest. Again, he released her, out of shock.
Hikari started to run away, but suddenly felt an extremely sharp pain on her injured leg. She screamed as she fell on the ground. She reached down to see what hit her in the back of her left thigh. She moaned as her hand pulled out whatever was stuck in her leg. She looked at it; on her bloody hand, was Takeshi's knife which Satoshi had in his pocket. She quickly buried the knife into the ground, as she didn't want to die as much as she didn't want to hurt Satoshi.
For the third time, Satoshi punched Hikari in the stomach, causing her to cough more blood. She felt as if she was going to pass out from frequent punches to her stomach when Satoshi's head came crashing down on her forehead. Satoshi head butted her again, irritating the cut already on her forehead. Her forehead started to bleed again.
'Is this what my dream several days ago meant?' she thought, as Satoshi kept head butting her.
Eventually, he tossed her like a rag doll towards a tree. Gasping at the impact, her mind started to fade away...
Suddenly she yelped, as something fast and sharp came tearing at her back. She looked up at Satoshi with tears streaming down her face; he was standing right beside her, holding a large branch in his hand. He furiously swung his arm, striking Hikari with the branch all over the place. As a finishing blow to his streak of attacks, he kicked her in the ribs, knocking her down to the ground. She was still looking up at him with a desperate look on her face.
"Please...This isn't you, Satoshi! Wake up!" she pleaded. Just then, she saw Satoshi's red glowing eyes flicker, and he hesitated for a moment.
"Huh? What's happened? I couldn't control him..." the Haunter hissed.
Satoshi's eyes were still red, so he was back under the Haunter's control. He reached over and grasped Hikari's throat again. He held her high over his head and glared at her. Hikari began to lose all hope, as she coughed for air under the grasp of Satoshi's strong hand.
She saw his eyes flicker again, and thought of it as her last chance to snap him out. "You...said that...you loved me...yesterday...But it...seems like a...lie now...The Haunter said that...if one of us dies... it will let the other...go...so do what...ever you want...my love for you ...will die...with me..." she cried using her last strength. She didn't make any attempts to break hold of Satoshi's grip. Her tears streamed down her cheek and fell on Satoshi's hand. Her blood from her forehead flowed down past her eyes, to her cheek. The blood from her mouth flowed onto Satoshi's hand, too. Her wound in the back of her left thigh was now bleeding badly because of the knife wound. The blood was already down to her boots.
"...Well, I did say that I'll let you go when one of you falls...I'll let you go now ssssssss..." the Haunter hissed. Satoshi suddenly released his grip on Hikari's throat, dropped his arm at his side and looked straight ahead, with his eyes blank. Hikari dropped on the ground, but she didn't cough for air.
All of a sudden, Satoshi yelled in pain as he felt all the retaliation attacks from Hikari at the same time. His eyes returned to their normal brown color. He looked around, wondering where the sudden pain came from, why he was standing up, and why he had a large branch in his hand. He looked at his other hand, and found traces of tear drops and blood. 'What the Hell? Whose blood is this?' he thought, as he checked his body for any injuries. He seemed to have bruises on his face, jaw, and chest, but that was about it. Suddenly, as if remembering something, he looked around frantically. He remembered something about a Haunter, dying, and love. Then a friendly voice came to him: 'You...said that...you loved me...yesterday...But it...seems like a...lie now...The Haunter said that...if one of us dies... it will let the other...go...so do what...ever you want...my love for you ...will die...with me...' He took a step forward, trying to find the girl whose voice just came to him. But when he raised his foot, he felt something heavy on it. He quickly looked down at his foot, wondering what the heavy thing was.
He looked down only to find Hikari's injured body, with her head on Satoshi's foot. Startled (so much that he almost fell backwards), he dropped on the ground and rolled her over so that he could see her face. Her eyes still had traces of tears falling, blood was still on her cheek and chin, her forehead was bleeding, and there were red marks on her neck, indicating that someone strangled her. Shocked, her looked at his hand, and moved it over to Hikari's neck and positioned his hand as if he was strangling her. The tear and blood marks that followed down her face matched the marks on his hand. Shocked, he pulled his hand back and picked her up. He noticed that her leg was bleeding too. He looked where she got hit by the Pin Missile before, and found a mark that appeared to be made by a knife. He quickly reached for his pocket, but he didn't find the knife that he carried. He dropped her on the ground and backed away in shock. 'Oh crap! I killed her! But how? I would never do such a thing! No way...no...what have I done? How could this happen? What do I do now?' he thought.
He tried to gather his thoughts, but he was too upset. He ran over to Hikari's body, picked her up and checked her pulse; he could feel something, but barely. He found the knife which Hikari buried when he stepped on something and dug it out. He just put the knife back in his pocket and continued to look for a spot to set Hikari down. He set her down on the grass under a tree, pulled out the water bottles, and poured one on her face. Her blood and tear marks were washed off her face, but nothing else happened. He was a bit relieved when blood started to form on her forehead, indicating that her heart was still functioning. He tried to get her lungs to function again, but he couldn't remember how. Angry at himself for being such an idiot, he tried anything that came up to him. He just shook her by the shoulders before pouring another bottle full of water down her face.
Seeing no results, he just ran South with her body in his arms, in hopes of finding the Celebi that can take them back home.