The Speed of Sound

by MyDarkMaterials

Pokémon, for many kids, is when they first make their venture into a world designed to teach you that while life can be a breeze, it might just as well be a hurricane. In this world, people know you shouldn't walk through the grass but not that you should

13. Chapter 13

I slept fitfully that night. I could know that for certain; not only did I find, upon waking, the sheets thrown around like a particularly violent bedbug war had been going on, but I'd also dreamt the whole night.

It was a strange dream. There was nothing in particular about it that was scary or frightening, except... Except the whole thing.

When it started, it was like I was waking up. I headed out of bed, but not any bed I'd ever seen before in my life - I didn't realise this until much later. And I went into a foreign bathroom, and looked in the mirror, and gasped out loud as I saw somebody twice my age stare back at me from it.

But the gasp was... Well, it just wasn't there. I felt I had almost screamed, but my arms still reached for the spring and turned it on, and splashed my face gently with water. And they reached for the comb, and combed, and it took almost devilishly long, and I suddenly wondered... Is this... me? In ten years? Or...

I tried to wrangle with it, to think my way out of it, but the person I was trapped inside, me or not, didn't even pause, except once or twice as though trying to dislodge a thought.

And then, after a very long time in the bathroom - by now, I was prepared to believe that it was me, it had to be, since I was in here, but it wasn't me now - opened the door out, and a brilliant white light shone, and in it I saw a round, black shape surrounded by a cloud of grey, and its shadowed form had horns like half-circles, and I could barely see the glint of fangs lined in its mouth...

And it spoke in Caldera's voice: "Hey, you all right in there? Y'zzzeem a bit, well, off..."

And I jolted upright in bed, the same bed I had gone to sleep in. There was no more bright light, but a mere lamp, and Jolene was staring worriedly at me, and Caldera was standing beside me with a concerned expression.

And I fought with myself, against the impulse in my head that shrieked "That thing's tail is on fire! What's going on?" and to ignore the quiet voice, somewhere at the back, that asked if it had come to the right mind.