Chapter VIII: Good Lord...
The three of us walked back to the drive of my house and waved goodbye to Josh as he carried on towards his own home.
"Alright then. Let's get you something to eat." I said to Latias. Her stomach growled in agreement.
I saw the blinds in the living room move a little out the corner of my eye. Ignoring it, thinking it was just my eyes, I walked up to the door reaching out for the handle.
Suddenly the door burst open making Latias turn invisible and me jump backwards as I wondered what the bloody hell was going on.
"YOU'RE SAFE!" someone shouted,
"I should certainly hope so." I replied as I looked up,
The person that was standing in the doorway, and had given me a damn good scare, was none other than my own mum. All of a sudden tears started forming under her eyes. As I stood up she grabbed my arm and pulled me inside the house and into the living room.
"Jeez. What's a matter?" I asked in confusion,
"Watch this." She said as she started playing something that had been recorded on sky,
It was a news report. Namely to do with a strange group asking people if they'd seen something and showing them a photo. There was even a guy who'd recorded them at a distance doing so.
"Wow. They are dumb. They asked loads of random people if they'd seen Latias." I thought to myself.
It changed to an interview with a guy who said that he saw the group head towards the woods shortly after two boys went in. A squad of police went in to find the boys but all that was found was an old doused fire.
"Good God!" I thought, "It's all over the news and everything."
I took a mental note of the time in the corner of the screen. September 5th.
"Crap." I thought, "We've been missing for ages."
My mum turned the news back off and sat next to me. I could tell what she wanted to know.
"What happened?" she asked,
I was dumbstruck. I hadn't a single clue on what to say. I thought it wrong to not tell the truth due to the nature of the situation but felt it idiotic to tell the truth. I had to choose between my thoughts and my feelings.
"It's kinda hard to explain..."
"I need to know." She cut in,
Taking a big breath knowing that this wasn't something that I could wangle my way out of I cracked, for once in my life, and told her everything, mentally, slapping myself every time I had to mention anything to do with Latias. I could see in her eyes that she thought I was lying.
"And I suppose you expect me to turn around and say 'oh alright then that's fine'." She stated once I'd finished,
"Hardly. I know that it's hard to take as truth but..."
"You're damn right about that!" She butted in whilst raising her voice.
"But honest to God, you have to believe me." I said, trying to reason with her,
"And why's that then? You don't have anything to prove it. As far as I'm concerned you're covering up for something." She replied sternly,
Taking what she said into consideration I thought back to how I was pulled back into the house...
Hot damn! I've got just the thing!
"Be right back. I've got someone I want you to meet." I said smiling,
I rushed back out the living room, skidding on the light brown wooden flooring and ran to the door and unlocked it.
"If this doesn't convince her God knows what will." I laughed, "Hey! Can you come in for a moment?" I said to the empty air outside,
Suddenly I was greeted by a smiling face which faded into view directly in front of mine. I took them by the arm and brought them into the house, being careful not to let them hit the door by accident. Leading them into the living room where my mum was I presented them.
My mum had the look of sheer shock on her face. Mouth agape she kept on staring at her.
"Don't stare." I laughed, "It's rude!"
She promptly turned her gaze towards me.
"Believe me now?" I asked,
Latias turned to face me as if to say 'big mistake' as she hovered above the floor.
"What's that?" my mum asked suddenly,
"Not what. Who. This is Latias. The big, red dragon I've been on about for the past fifteen minutes." I replied smugly,
"I see. One question though. Is she friendly?" she asked cautiously,
"Would I have brought her into the house if not." I said,
"Well you've done a few stupid things in the past." She huffed,
Latias covered her mouth as she started to giggle to herself.
"To be perfectly honest I thought you'd be a lot more shocked than you were." I stated,
"Trust me. I'm a mother. I've seen some things in my time." She replied,
I was taken aback by her comment but decided it best not to think too hard about it for the fear of self scarring.
"Changing the subject now. I don't want to leave you in this kinda state but we're gonna get something to eat. We're starving." I said,
Me and Latias left the room and went to the kitchen whilst my mum mulled over what had just happened.
I opened the cupboard by the sink to have a look what we had.
"Well I'm not sure we've got a fat lot to be honest." I said as I peered into the dark expanse of cans. There was the odd can of fruit among the cans of soup and beans 'n' sausage. "I guess we've got cereal, but, that's probably the only thing at this time of day." I continued whilst looking at the microwave clock.
Latias looked rather interested when I said the word cereal. I'm not sure she really knew what 'cereal' was. Nonetheless I opened a cupboard further to the left which was full of things meant to, supposedly, start the day right. What better time than at ten AM?
"Well, I guess, I should leave you to pick what you want to eat. After all, you're the guest ha ha!" I said, backing away from the cupboard,
"Whoo!" She smiled in a cheery way despite the incessant growling her stomach made,
She peered inside the small box-like area where we keep the breakfast stuff and sifted through some of the things we had there. She seemed to move the box of 'Sugar Puffs', rather quickly, out of the way. I don't think she liked the way the honey monster looked. She finally settled on Cheerios, and funnily enough it they were the plainest thing we had other than porridge.
I poured her a bowl, as well as myself, and we had breakfast together at the breakfast bar. Latias seemed to be struggling to hold the spoon I'd given her, making my laugh a little.
"It might be easier if you use psychic." I suggested,
She simply smiled at me as she dropped the spoon back into her bowl once again.
When we'd finished, I cleared up the bowls and walked out the kitchen gesturing for Latias to follow. Just then the door knocked. Latias' ears pricked up at the horrendous noise we have as a door bell.
"Who's here this early?" I asked myself,
Latias turned invisible and sat by the stairs, watching intently. I grabbed the door handle and opened it slowly.
"Hey!" the person said,
It was none other than another of my friends, David. He was carrying a bag with him and, by the looks of the lump by his pocket, his pokéwalker.
"Err...hey. You alright?" I asked, a little confused as to why he was ringing at my house at ten in the morning,
"Yeah, good thanks. You look tired. Get any sleep?" David laughed,
I just laughed half-heartedly back,
"Not to sound rude, but, why are you here exactly?" I asked,
"You invited me over like last Saturday." David laughed again,
"Crap!" I thought, "I'd forgotten about that!" I panicked. I smiled and nodded despite being completely panic ridden due to my sieve-brain. I moved to the side letting him pass.
"So what you want to do?" David asked,
"Err...I don't mind." I heard a bump in the kitchen. I could tell Latias had moved, "Let's go upstairs." I quickly suggested,
"Errm...Sure, whatever's best." David shrugged as I darted upstairs.
I heard the back door close, quietly. At least Latias had gone outside, out of the way.
"So, yeah, I brought my DS with me, like always, and some PS2 games." David said as we sat down on my bed,
"Cool. You wanna go on Heart Gold? Haven't been on that in a while." I asked,
"Sure! I need to trade something from another ga..." David hesitated,
"What's a matter?" I asked, confused,
"Something was in the garden but it's not there anymore." He replied,
"What colour?" I asked, worried,
"Not sure. Think it was a reddy colour or something." David said, trying to pass off what I already knew was true.
'Crap.' I thought, "I hope that's the only thing he noticed." I said as I picked up my DS and turned it on,
"It's like it disappeared or something." He continued,
My face dropped at the statement, resembling something that was about to be hit by a pan.
Considering that David wasn't paying much attention anyway, and the fact that he hadn't been watching the news, it was all good. For the time being.
"So you want to have a battle for old times' sake first, or, trade over first?" I asked, thinking that David would reply spontaneously.
Unfortunately, I forgot that, David is the type who sees something and stays quiet for a while, mulling it over. Unfortunately, this was one of those times.
"I can swear that whatever that was looked familiar." David said,
"I'm sure it was nothing. Just seeing things." I argued,
"No I'm sure I saw it. It looked familiar." David responded,
"You're just seeing things." I argued again, "Just see..."
"Latias" David cut in,
"Huh?" I replied, taken aback,
"Latias. It was a Latias." He repeated,
"How can it be?" I laughed meekly, "It doesn't exist!" I continued weakly,
"Well I thought so but they do..." David replied,
"How so?" I asked, trying to catch him off guard,
"I'm looking at them." He stated,
Turning around, I saw, Latias' furry, little face out the window. On the first floor. Trust her to be so damn curious when you least expect it. She'd poked her nose around the side of the window whilst I was too busy swapping things about in my party. Damn it.
"I hope I'm not dreaming." David said smugly,
"Why?" I stammered,
"Because this is so damn cool." He replied heartily,
'Why the hell isn't anyone surprised to see a freakin' Pokémon!' I screamed mentally. 'It's like the whole world doesn't really give a crap if something weird happens, nowadays!', I continued, raging in my thoughts.
"Why the hell aren't you surprised, exactly?" I asked,
"Because this means that there's probably other Pokémon too." He smiled,
What...the hell. Surely that's the last thing you'd expect when going over someone's house, right? 'Oh hey! Wanna go on Heart Gold? Oh hey! A random Salamence in your garden! Cool!' It just doesn't happen for goodness sake.
"Let me get this straight. You came over to play the DS and PS2, you see a Pokémon, randomly, and all you can think of is, 'cool'?" I asked, in dismay,
"Well surely this means you're happy that there really ARE Latias in the world, right?" He sniggered,
"Hang on." I said, kicking myself mentally as I left the room to go downstairs,
"You two having fun?" My mum asked,
Looking through the door, into the living room, I noticed she really didn't care that I brought a female, flying red and white dragon into the house. How? She was sitting down with a box of 'Celebrations' watching 'Murder She Wrote'.
I went to the back door, in the kitchen, and opened it.
"Latias. Come here a minute please." I said as happily as I could, desperately trying to hide my unbelief,
"Whoo?" She replied as she greeted me with a warm smile,
"Look. How many times have I said, 'no one can see you unless I specifically say so'?" I asked rhetorically.
She just cocked her head to the side and stared into my eyes, still smiling.
I just chuckled.
"Come with me." I said taking her paw, "You might as well meet him properly."
Taking her back upstairs, past the living room, my mum called back, 'I saw you holding her hand. Don't do anything you'll regret.'
Sick. Just...sick.
Ignoring the statement, as best as I could, I told Latias to wait outside my door until I say so. She just nodded in acknowledgement. God knows how much she actually took in.
"David. I need to tell you something before I let you in on a secret." I said, walking back into the room,
"What? Either that you already know that Latias or you 'charmed' her in about five minutes somehow." He replied,
"Huh?" I thought, "Oh for goodness sake!"
I knew it. She hadn't taken in anything I'd said at all. She followed me in and was trying to grab my hand again.
Today was going to be a long day...