A/N: Longest chapter so far! But my favourite too. Finally, that guy makes his appearance. Enjoy.
Chapter 4: Promise
"Hi! Welcome to the Pokémon Center! You're out late."
The nurse at the Poké Center said her usual welcome as I walked to the counter. I had HURRY sitting on my shoulder. It was 5 pm and he was tired…poor thing.
"Hi" I replied.
"We can heal your Pokémon to full health if you want. Would you like me to do that?" the nurse smiled gently at me. She was probably wondering what a kid like me was doing with a Pokémon. I knew her smile was just fake and artificial, too.
"No…Actually, I came because I'm the one who's got a problem." I felt my heart beating faster.
"Oh?" she said. "What kind of problem do you have? Wait."
The apron-clad nurse walked from behind the counter to come close to me.
"Come with me" she said, putting her hand on my shoulder. She led me to the comfy hospital sofas that were near the small Poké Center's entrance. We sat down.
"Okay. So. Tell me what's wrong." I looked at my watch absent-mindedly as I began speaking. 5h42 pm.
"Well…that's a pretty unusual case…I don't know if you can do something about it…"
"Go on" she said. "I'm a nurse after all."
"Okay" I smiled sheepishly. "I've been…CURSEd."
The nurse gasped, as though she didn't hear right. "Pardon me? You said you've been CURSEd?"
I nodded and then proceeded on telling her the whole story.
"And then I came here" I finished. She looked at me with wide eyes.
"Okay…well, we've never experienced this before. However, I'll go talk to the other nurses to get information. You should book yourself a room, kid…And we'll tell you tomorrow, okay?"
The nurse smiled. She was trying her best to help me. She left the room and disappeared into a door. It had a small plate on it saying "employees only".
I walked to the counter to talk to the other nurse. I wanted to book a room for the night.
"AHHHHH!" the startled nurse tumbled back in horror. She glanced at me with shifty eyes.
"M-MONSTER!" she yelled. "GO AWAY!" I approached her. Now the people surrounding us were all horrified too. But why? I looked around.
"What? What's wrong? A monster? Where?" I said.
"YOU'RE THE MONSTER!" a women shouted. "What are you?"
"LEAVE!" a man said.
I ran out of the center. Everything went too quick in front of my eyes. The center, the people. Screams, tears, my arms expanding. Black, white, everything spinning all around me and I felt like my legs were about to give out. What's going on?
I tumbled to the floor and rolled on my back. I had rushed to the first place that came to mind: the beach of Cherrygrove City. I was lying on the sand and the black sky was facing me. My long arms rested there beside me on each side of my pale body.
Suddenly, all was calm. Everybody hid in their houses after they saw whatever was wrong with me. I closed my eyes for a second, just to think everything out. I laid there for about two or three minutes, just trying to calm down. I opened them back and looked at my watch: 6h06 pm.
Then, I heard footsteps. Small, quiet. Someone walked on the sand.
"…"
A shadow hovered above me. The moon was hidden by this person's head, and I could only see the outlines of its body in a sort of backlight way.
"Who are you?" I asked weakly.
"Who are you." The person replied.
"…Gold…"
The boy—I could tell it was a boy from his voice—crouched next to me. Small hands ran across my face, feeling every detail in the process. It felt kinda good, but I was a little bit flustered by the boy invading my privacy like that and—damn, it's not the time to be thinking about that…
Suddenly, the hands stopped at my eyes. He seemed to be carefully inspecting them…
"Where did you get those?" he said, his voice almost inaudible. There was an hint of eagerness in his voice.
"What…do you mean?" I asked.
"Well…"
The boy, still a shadow from my point of view, scurried around a little bit, searching his shirt pockets. He took out a small, circular mirror. He held it in front of my face.
"OH!" I gasped. "O-Oh no…D-…Don't tell me…"
The boy put his hands on my mouth, preventing me to whine anymore.
"Keep it down" he said. "Look, I just want to know: where did you get those voids and how?"
He let his hands fall to his side. He stared at me, and for a moment I saw details of this unknown person. He just turned his head a little bit to the side, allowing the moon to shine on him: but it was enough for me to notice.
Bright red hair, a piercing glare with pale, steel-like eyes. They seemed almost white under the moon's faint light.
He turned right back at me and his features became dark and mysterious again.
"So?"
"Huh…well…I could make this a long story, but…okay. I've been CURSEd by a Gastly. At night."
The boy remained silent. I think he was expecting something else.
"Now, then…" I said timidly. "Would you mind telling me your name?"
"Don't push your luck." He replied, and I saw him smirk slightly.
He extended his arm and his hand opened in front of me.
"Thanks…" I reached out and pulled his hand to get up.
"AHH!" An intense pain formed on my hand the moment it touched the other boy's. I grasped my wrist and held my hand wide open in front of my face. There was a deep, bloody cut right there, in the middle of my palm.
The boy looked at me and frowned. He had blood all over his hand because of me.
"Leave it to me" he said. "I'll heal that in no time."
"Urg…" My face was twisted in pain.
He put his hand behind my back and gave me a little push to help me keep going. He walked slowly towards the Poké Center.
"No…" I said. "We can't go in there!"
"You prefer having to sleep outside?" he said, giving me a glaring look.
I shut my mouth and kept walking. When we entered the place, we went straight to the nurse's counter. She was terrorised.
"One room for two" he said. He took out from his pocket a few pennies and pushed them on the counter.
"What?" she said, her eyes glancing at me from time to time. "Do you expect to get a room for that cheap? Our smallest rooms cost 300 pokédollars."
The boy grumbled and took out the necessary amount of money.
"Listen, can you just just hurry up?" he snapped. "We're kind of in an emergency right now."
He grasped my sleeve-clad wrist and tossed my bloody hand violently in front of her face. She gave us the keys to our room with a trembling hand and the redhead led me towards the door. As for me, I admired in my head his attitude and straightforwardness.
"Gold…" he breathed along the way. "Are you still okay? Those eyes of yours looks painful."
I looked at him and I could now clearly see his features. Long red hair and pale grey eyes. He really was noticeable.
"Yeah" I replied, smiling a bit, the best I could. "Actually, they're not that painful."
He thrust the key into the door knob and opened the door. I continued my speech as we went inside the dark room.
"The only thing that really bothers me is that they only come out at night, apparently."
The boy glanced at me, his thoughts seemingly elsewhere. I sat on the bed.
"That's not interesting you, is it…" I said, quite disappointed. He did not reply. Instead, he began taking out medicine and bandages from his pockets.
"Can you please tell me your name so I could stop calling you 'you'."
The boy sat next to me and gripped my wrist. "Gimme your hand."
I opened my hand half-heartedly. "Hey…don't ignore me." I said with a small voice. He sighed and I looked at him.
"Just call me whatever ya want."
The mysterious redhead was carefully putting medicine on my hand. He rubbed a piece of potion-sprayed cotton against my wound and I cringed.
"Urg…okay, then…how about…"
I looked at his outfit: black shirt and dark pants.
"…Shadow?"
He finished tying up the bandages on my hand and pushed me down on the bed.
"Just sleep, long arms." He muttered and looked away.
"But there's only one bed" I said plainly, ignoring his comment about my expanded arms.
"Whatever, I don't need one…"
I got up, outraged. "What? No! I'm the one who's going to sleep on the floor."
He turned around from his corner of the room and glared at me.
"Gold. I said, just sleep. In your state, you can't afford to stay awake all night."
The redhead walked slowly to me. He pushed me down again, this time more gently. He pulled the covers over me.
"Don't mind me. I'll sleep on the floor." He said. I pouted. I stared yet another time into his face to discover apparent signs of fatigue. His steel eyes were pouched with black circles.
"…hey, Silver." I whispered. I 'changed' his name according to his most outstanding feature. He gasped for some reason.
"What?" he replied. I could distinguish a small hue of red forming on his cheeks. "H-how do you…Never mind. What's your question?"
I smirked: I had figured out his name. "Aren't you scared…of me? Like that nurse Joy earlier."
"No" he said quietly. "I've seen things worse than that."
My heart beat faster for some reason and I was feeling very warm inside. Someone actually accepted me for the first time since that incident.
"Thanks."
He did not reply. I stayed quiet for a while.
"Promise me we'll see each other again!"
Silver looked at me and smiled: an actual real smile.
"I promise. I'm sure we'll run into each other soon enough."
I closed my eyes and slowly fell asleep, clinging to the idea that Silver and I could be friends someday.