"No there ain't no rest for the wicked, money don't grow on trees. I've got bills to pay, I've got mouths to feed, and ain't nothing in this world for free. No I can't slow down, I can't hold back though you know I wish I could. No there ain't no rest for the wicked, until we close our eyes for good" - Cage the Elephant "Ain't No Rest for the Wicked"
22 Rage
May blinked awake in the bright sunlight. The smell of pollen tickled her nose and made her sneeze. She fully opened her eyes and saw she was in a lovely meadow. Beyond the flower patch, she could see grass. Endless and endless hills of grass.
She sat up and stretched, as if waking from a long nap. Her bag was right beside her, all her pokeballs sitting inside it. Groggily she scooped it up and started walking.
May wasn't sure how long she walked; it may have been several days, it might have only been ten minutes. Either way, she walked, and she came across two boys.
They were hunched over a notebook. Squares had been roughly scribbled onto the back, like a game board. It looked as if they were playing chess.
She stared at them, silent. They still hadn't noticed her. She decided that the one on the left looked kinda like Gary, if Gary were taller and had orange hair. The boy on the right looked achingly familiar.
Her heart lurched. "Ash?" she said, amazed.
The boys turned slowly from their game. "Huh?" said the one on the right.
May stumbled. "Y-you're not Ash," she realized.
"And you're not Leaf," mentioned the Gary-look-alike. He looked disappointed, and with a sigh he moved a penny across the notebook. "Check," he announced.
The boy who wasn't Ash glanced down, moved what looked like a Lego piece all the way to the other side, and said, "Checkmate."
"Who are you?" May snapped, suddenly scared. Where was she? The last thing she remembered was plunging over a cliff, with so much water…
She jumped. "I'm dead?" she demanded.
The Gary-looking person snorted. "And I thought our names were weird. I'm Blue, by the way. A pleasure to meet you, Dead."
The Ash-looking person tipped his hat disinterestedly. "And I'm Red. Very nice to meet you."
May stamped her foot. "My name's not Dead! It's May! And where am I? Am I in heaven?"
Blue gave a hollow laugh and relaxed into the grass. "If this is your idea of heaven, then sure." A gentle wind floated by, ruffling his hair. He closed his eyes peacefully.
"And you stamped your foot," Red pointed out. "I've never seen someone actually do that."
"Keep talking in riddles and next time I'll stamp your face," she barked. "What's going on?"
Red shrugged. "If we knew, we'd be out of here already. I've been in here forever."
Blue opened a lazy eye and smirked. "Nice to have someone to talk to who's not begging me to play chess."
May looked around wildly. "I must be dead," she concluded. "That has to be it." She sat down hard, her eyes swimming. "I'm dead."
"Oh Mew, please don't cry," Red begged, suddenly alert. "C'mon, I don't have any experience with girls crying. Blue, help!"
Blue sat up. "Mostly girls cry because I turn them down on a date. I can't handle anything beyond that."
"I've left Max all alone!" she wailed, her tears escalating to heaving sobs. "He's all by himself and I'm here in this m-meadow and I can't even w-watch him to see if he's ok-kay!" She paused to allow herself some hyperventilating cries. "And—and Drew thinks I died h-hating him and I n-never told him I love him and now—now my friends are going up the m-mountain without me and I'll never—never ever get h-home!"
"Take it easy!" Red exclaimed, on his feet. He looked around frantically. "Shoot! Hey, hey, May, right? Calm down! We're not dead, we're fully alive and capable of eating and talking and playing chess, okay? And we're going to get out of here, even if I have to buy Blue a milkshake every day for the next two years when we do."
May reduced her sobs to small sniffles, staring at Red with swollen red eyes. He reached out sympathetically and patted her head. "It's going to be alright," he said gently.
She took one last sniff and nodded. Determined, she wiped her eyes. They rolled up to look at Red's hand, still resting on her crown. "Hey," she asked quietly, "have you seen my bandana?"
*****************************************************I love writing drama. It's a blast********************************************************
Drew and Max sat very close to each other. Drew held the bandana angrily in his hands, while Max sat in a stony silence worthy of Paul. They stared into the fire, not blinking, both their faces streaked with tears. However, their expressions were very different. Drew looked like he was to kill something, while Max was the saddest thing I'd ever seen.
Silently I threw another bit of cloth in the fire. There was no wood, thus there was nothing to burn but our own clothes. Kinda redundant, actually. We needed heat, so we burned our clothes.
I had tried making a fire appear out of the bracelet, but with no danger, it wouldn't heat up. We were pretty much screwed. And depressed, but that went without saying.
Paul seemed to feel personally responsible for May's… death (it was so hard to say the word). I could see it in his eyes. He thought perhaps if he had spotted her earlier, he could have saved her. Instead he had found the bandana hanging on the side of the cliff, and nothing more.
Yacaeli was truly an evil creature. How she could kill someone like May was beyond me. It left me without a place to turn. She was crueler than I'd imagined; no way could I play on her sympathies. I really would have to run a sword through her.
Or burn her, I thought, glancing at the bracelet. The firelight flickered off the gold, as beautiful as ever. With May gone, I was hella scared. The fact that we could actually die on this mountain crashed down on me like the water did earlier. One of us was already not coming back; and the rest of us could follow.
"Ash," someone whispered.
I blinked and tore my eyes away from the bracelet. Misty was standing behind me, her back to the mountainside. Her eyes were alive with fear. Quickly, I got to my feet. "What?" I questioned.
She looked extremely shaken. "Come look at this." I followed her quivering form into the darkness, the fire's light unable to reach that far. I heard her hand brushing across the rock of the mountain, using the face as a guide.
I crept after her, afraid to make noise. It felt as if we were intruding on the night, or May's spirit, even. I was almost scared of meeting her angry ghost.
Suddenly, Misty stopped. I could barely see her in the night, the strange moonlight that usually lit our path blocked by the mountain. "Here." She fumbled for my hand and placed it on the rock. "This, right here."
I felt a shiver go down my spine. Something had been carved into the rock face. I traced it with my fingers, the once sharp engravings worn smooth with age. "What is it?" I hissed.
She shrugged. "I was hoping you could tell me. Maybe that bracelet would heat up and tell us if it was dangerous."
I glanced down at the bracelet. "No. It must be safe."
Misty sighed in relief. "Good. Well, we can't see anything now. I guess we should wait till there's light."
"But what if it's some weird thing that we can only find at night?" I pointed out.
I didn't need to see to know the look she was giving me.
***************************************************So... yeah. I don't know what to say******************************************************
Yacaeli's tail swished angrily. How was she going to kill that Pikachu? Obviously it was more powerful than the average rodent, with a wide knowledge of attacks and defenses. Her paws kicked up little billows of dust as she paced in front of her cave.
The great cat growled in fury. She glared at Suicune, who was sleeping deeply in the moonlight. He writhed in his slumber with new nightmares.
Hardly satisfied, Yacaeli went back to her pacing. Arceus must have blessed the Pikachu. He must have seen potential in it. If it had his blessing, it would be that much harder for her to kill.
She stopped, suddenly horrified. What if all the humans had been sent by Arceus? What if he had created the bracelet solely to destroy her, and tried to hide his crimes behind humans? Yacaeli snorted indignantly, and resumed her pacing. She fluttered off the ground occasionally, so anxious were her muscles.
It was just like Arceus to do something like this. He never loved her in the first place! And now she was just in the way. Outraged, Yacaeli let out a snarl. She felt Pokemon halfway around the world erupt in anger. The idea that millions of Arceus's precious humans were now under attack by those they considered friends lightened her mood a little.
With a tiny smirk, Yacaeli sauntered around the summit. On the side opposite her cave, a pool of water rested. It was fully shrouded in the moonlight, making the water shimmer as if it were crystal. Colored a celestial blue, the pool exerted all the serenity and romance of a midnight stroll. It glowed luminously in the soft light. She gazed down inside it, able to see clear to the bottom. Nature had never created a pond equal of the Star Water's perfection.
Yacaeli reached out one enormous paw and delicately touched the surface. A ripple resounded from where she touched, and the water began to shimmer and distort. "Show me my prisoners," she commanded.
The pool gave an eerie wail as an image coruscated from the depths. Yacaeli's moonlike eyes drank in the scene before her, growing more furious by the minute.
Blue was picking flowers, glaring as he was unable to find any imperfections. Red was hunched over a notebook, fingering a bit of lint with his brow furrowed in concentration. Across from him sat the newest inmate to her prison.
It wasn't who she'd hoped it'd be.
The girl's hair was a mess, and her eyes were still swollen from crying. She stared intently at the game in front of her, chewing on the strings of her jacket.
Instantly livid, Yacaeli yowled and splashed the pool. Drops of the precious water flew in all directions, soaked into the dirt, and were never to be found again.
How? How in the name of Mew had she messed up? She was supposed to get Ash! Or at least the redheaded girl. And yet she was stuck with the stupid bandana wearing girl! What good was she? None. The girl wasn't significant to her friends, not in any way Yacaeli could see. The entire flood had been a waste of her power and time.
It was too often she had made mistakes like this. Everyone in her prison was there by mistake. She had thought that Blue was close to Cináed when she took him. Of course not. He was merely a part of another boy, still out of her grasp, whose grandfather had traveled to her mountain just to look at it.
Red was a mishap as well. He looked like Cináed. She'd instantly assumed there was a connection and took him. It turned out that Red was just like Blue; a part of someone else. At least May was whole.
Other than the group of humans she was trying to kill, there were two other humans on her mountain, Yacaeli was aware of that. But they were so broken and hurt that they were no threat. She dismissed them from her mind, as the thought of them only made her angrier.
Yacaeli raked her claws across the ground, creating an ear piercing screech and leaving long ruts in the stone. Nothing could calm her rage. She wanted to kill something. Particularly that Pikachu.
With a roar, she sent out her powers. Suddenly she sensed every single Pokemon on the mountain, too many for her to identify individually. Come, she told the mass. I have need of you.
She felt the mountain move as all of them answered her call. They were coming.
As they began to assemble, the Sky Cat placed another thought in their minds. She showed them the humans that were coming up her mountain. She showed the Pikachu. And she showed them what she wanted done to the humans and the Pikachu.
Their eyes shone with compliance. In their own ways, they all stated their obedience. Yacaeli was their queen. If she wanted, they would all leap off the mountain without a second thought.
All of them, save for two. An Umbreon and an Absol, curled up together and fast asleep.
*AN: I learned a new word. Floccinaucinihilipilification. It means a worthless estimate. Something no one cares about. Like, "I estimate Walmart has 16 snickerdoodle cookie boxes left." No one but the people who crave Walmart snickerdoodles cares. Which is, like, no one, because I don't think Walmart even sells snickerdoodles. And yes, I can pronounce that word. I wish you luck trying to pronounce it yourself. No easy feat, let me tell you.
I have a question for reviewer HollyBerry. I know there's probably lots of Holly Berrys in the world but this is just too coincidental. Did you attend Fairmont? I just gotta see if you're the one I know. Wonder if anyone did the poll? Imma go check. Later, homies.*