AN: A quick shout to DarthSukiMomo! Thank you for the first ever review of my story and all your wonderfully kind words! I definitely appreciate it, and if you have a story you'd like me to take a look at let me know and I will return the favor!
XxxX
When my eyes cracked open, the sun was already out and the rainstorm had ended. Somewhere between staggering exhaustedly under the safety of a large oak tree and lying down fully-clothed on a tattered spare blanket, I had fallen asleep. The grass surrounding me was still wet with morning dew and the remainders of the late-night showers. Even my face and hair were moist. But aside from all that, I didn't feel too refreshed. My dreams were restless and my sleep was interrupted a thousand times over by the sounds of the forest and my own paranoid thoughts. Even so, the second my eyes popped open, there was no going back to sleep.
I rolled over with a tired groan and rummaged through the front pocket of my backpack. I took a quick glimpse at my watch; it was seven o'clock in the morning. The sun had just poked its head over the horizon not so long ago.
Confident that I was utterly alone, I grabbed up a spare shirt and exchanged it for the tank-top I had outworn through the night. After picking a few stray leaves out of my hair and rubbing the sleep from my eyes, I became coordinated enough to fold my blanket back up and lace it between my backpack and the straps around my shoulders.
Before sleeping, I had left a tiny mark on the tree beside me; an arrow pointing in the direction of travel for the next day. It was a good thing I had done so, because with the new brightness of the morning sun, nothing looked quite the same. The eerie, damp feeling I remembered from the evening before was replaced with glistening shades of green and gold along every spectrum of color. Beautiful as it was, it just didn't fit. A little piece of me wanted to wake up to the same dreary, dismal feeling I had known. I was like a stranger in a foreign land, clinging to my negative emotions and my worries while surrounded by such beauty. The ugly duckling just couldn't conform.
XxxX
The morning after the break-in, mother and father were shocked to come home to a group of police cars gathered around our house. The wet thump I had heard was in fact the intruder's lifeless body hitting the pavement below, and all the while that I tended to Knox's wounds and shook off the initial fears, the corpse was still bleeding out onto the concrete. Neither Knox nor I were held accountable. Although, as the police questioned the both of us, I could feel a little tremble in Knox's hands.
"This was the fourth one this month," the police officer said with a glance at the sheet-covered body a few feet away. "This guy was on a marathon or something, breaking into homes all over the county. Already got three rape charges against him. You're lucky, little miss."
With the mention of this man's history of assault, I didn't feel quite so sorry for him anymore. Still, my spine went cold as ice thinking about what might have happened if he had found me sleeping on the couch, or waited in the upstairs bathroom for me or my mother. Hundreds of ideas crossed my mind of how he could get one of us at our most vulnerable. But that didn't matter; it was over, and the danger was gone. We were safe now.
Knox squeezed my hand tightly, always so protective.
"Thank you," I said in a murmur barely above a whisper. I gave the hitmonchan a gap-toothed smile, wrapping my fingers tightly around the thumb of his glove.
"Chan." Knox nodded to me with a little smile across his face. He had no idea how much I loved to see him smile like that.
Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I believe this is the moment I should point out above all others. This wasn't quite the beginning or even the build-up to our climactic pattern of events, but rather this was the prerequisite for all that was to come. I can recall the very smile on Knox's face and the ambient sounds that swirled around us, but most of all I recall a feeling in my gut that both delighted and disturbed me. You must understand, gentle people of the jury, that emotion is the first and foremost flaw of human nature. Fear cripples us, envy swallows us, and love of all things eats us whole. Just as my head was flooded with the realization that Knox was much more than my friend and protector, I had already been devoured. I knew, right then, that what we shared was destined to become more than it already was.
In everything we did, Knox and I were creating our own path towards scandal.
And now—there was no way that we could stop it.
We were already eaten alive.
XxxX
I didn't even think to bring a compass. Why? There's really no method to my madness. It all came down to irresponsibility. I left without an inkling of where I would go, being unprepared and careless, and this is how I would pay for my many mistakes. Every tree looked the same and every shrub was just like the one before it; it's safe to say that I was lost.
"Shit!" In a fit of immature frustration, I whipped my bag off my shoulder and threw it up against a tree trunk. "Goddammit!"
It would seem that my tantrum stirred up more than just my insides. Somewhere above me, wings were fluttering and a cloud of Pidgeys set off for the sky while the eager eyes of the Caterpie watched them, recoiling back into their nests like fearful prey. A hanging Metapod gave a shiver inside its cocoon. Was I that loud?
Something else was stirring in the forest nearby, though; something much more powerful than I was. At first, all I saw was a flash of light which disappeared just as quickly as it came. Then, there was sound. People. I heard voices, distinctly, and the chatter of Pokémon companions. A few final flickers of lightning filled the surrounding space like embers of a flame dying away, and I could see them. The shadows of three human figures.
XxxX
God knows how long I had been lying awake in bed, just listening. Every now and again the house would settle, but in my head it was the burglar's ghost coming back to get his revenge. Of course it was a ridiculous idea. I was sixteen. Ridiculous thoughts were the only ones in my head.
What happens to a girl the year she's sixteen stays with her forever.
If I were any other child, I would remember crawling into bed with my mother and father. But in my case, there were no such memories. My childhood instincts were still there, however, and a piece of me knew I wouldn't be able to lie here by myself much longer.
Almost against my will, I pushed my blankets away and sat up on the edge of my bed. The carpet was cold against my bare feet. Standing up was a clumsy endeavor, almost as though I were drunk. I rubbed my itchy eyes, bruised blue and purple with insomnia, and staggered haphazardly towards the door with one hand outstretched to lead me.
Into the dark, empty hall I wandered, led only by the steady tick of a grandfather clock. It grew a bit louder with each step. For once, the ever-creaking floorboards were silenced as though watching in awe. Perhaps the speed of sound had slowed for me. Again, I can't stress enough the ridiculous ideas that pop into a sixteen-year-old girl's brain. My age and my spontaneity would be my only excuses for my actions, because there is no doubt in my mind that I was perfectly awake and aware every second of that night. I knew where I was going even before resting my hand upon the doorknob leading me to Knox's room. I knew it would be him I saw even before I spotted his sleepless body tossing and turning beneath the dark blue sheets of his bed.
He was awake before I even opened the door. The moment I poked my head inside, Knox looked up with an expression of terror as though I were a ghost. We stared at one another silently for a moment or two while I nervously rubbed my ankles together. I could see his wide eyes following the length of my stout, curvy legs and all the way to my face. With that eye contact, I could almost read his thoughts. He was nervous. He was scared of me for a split second, and I'll never really know why.
I shut the door behind me with a light click and leaned against the cold wooden surface. "I can't sleep," I said simply. Such a useless thing to say; it would do no good. It wasn't a question, a proposition, or even a clue. But all the same, Knox understood. He gave me the smallest, blushing smile and scooted to one side of the bed, pulling down the sheets in welcome.
It had been years since my hitmonchan and I had slept in the same bed. The last time we did, I was still just a little girl with no intent to become a woman.
Now, things were a little different for both of us.