"Mom? Dad? Where are we going?" I ask as I've just awakened from sleeping. I look out the car window, the setting sun in the distance and the landscape blurred by the speed of the car.
My mom turns around from the seat in front of me. "Nate, how could you have forgotten? It's your tenth birthday and we're going stargazing. You've been asking for months to do this, don't you remember?"
"Nate, you okay?" my dad asks, not keeping his eyes off the road in front of him. Minute after minute, the sky is getting darker, allowing the night sky to take over.
"Yeah, I'm fine." I rub my eyes to get me out of my drowsy state. "I think sleeping just affected me." My mom turns around to stare at the road ahead of her, sighing in relief.
"Okay, that's good. Wake up your sister now, we're almost there," my dad tells me as we pull off the paved road and enter a dirt road. Though the car does have great shocks to absorb the impact of the rough road, the uneven road can still be felt inside the car.
Even with the car vibrating, my sister still sleeps like a rock. Grabbing her shoulders and shaking her a little, I say, "Wake up Lucy, we're almost there." The uneven road is almost making me bite my tongue.
Lucy stirs awake, but is clearly upset from being disturbed from her slumber. "Why did you wake me up? I had a dream that mom and dad finally got me a pony." She looks out the window on her side of the car, the moon rising from her side. "And it was a beautiful pony too..."
"Lucy, you know we can't afford a pony nor do we have any place to keep a pony," my mom tells her in the same annoyed voice when Lucy asks for the impossible.
The car slows to stop, ending the bumpy ride. "We're finally here," my dad tells us, turning off the car engine and killing the headlights. "Put your jackets on and stretch before we set up for the night." He gets out of the car and begins to stretch his cramped muscles which we follow suit right afterwards.
The night air is cold, but not unbearable for my young body. "Ah, this feels good, much better than being in that car," I say, stretching my body. My mom and sister are also stretching, saying similar things to what I said.
As we're still stretching, my dad pops open the trunk of the car and starts pulling some stuff out. "Help out guys, I ain't doing all this work and Nate, since it's your birthday, where would you like to lie down and observe the stars?" my dad asks me as I go to the trunk and pull out a blanket for myself.
I think about it for a second before answering. "Can I lie on top of the car?" I ask with a pleading face, though he doesn't see it in the darkness of the night.
"Okay, you can go up, but make sure you don't fall off," he tells me, lifting me up and putting me atop the car. I lay the blanket parallel on the car then lying on the blanket myself, putting my hands behind my head to cushion my head from hitting the hard surface of the car.
The entirety of the heavens lies before me, the stars twinkling from the atmosphere distorting the light received by them, the planet rotating on its axis, allowing the night sky to rotate with it.
Though I'm the only one I know who truly loves astronomy, my parents and sister partake in observing the night sky, but eventually fall asleep, leaving me the only one left to observe the night sky in all its glory.
Hours go by while I'm entranced by the beauty of the night sky, undisturbed by human civilization. The millions of stars burning their finite supply of hydrogen light years away, not knowing that I'm watching them, their past selves as that light is just reaching me.
Though staying up much longer than the rest of my family, sleep soon begins to take over while I struggle to keep my eyes open just a little longer. Just before I fall asleep, a shooting star blazes across the sky in a streak of blue.
I know that I must make a wish because I've just seen a shooting star. "I wish for ..." I say to the heavens before dozing off to sleep.
"Now, what did I wish for?" I ask as I awake from the sunlight as it seeps through the drooping branches of the willow. An arm is wrapped over me, preventing me from getting up. Turning my head, I see Layla sleeping comfortably next to me, her sleeping face showing the innocence of the world. Gently pushing away Layla's arm, I get up and cover her with the rest of the blanket before doing my morning stretches to awaken my body for the coming day.
Finishing my morning stretches, I crouch down next to her sleeping body and gently poke at her cheek to awaken her. "Layla, it's time to wake up now. Our journey can't end because someone slept in," I say jokingly.
She opens her eyelids slowly; her eyes dart around to find something familiar until they land on me. Her eyes show guilt as she heard what I said. "Nate, you're not mad at me are you?" she asks, her eyes filled with remorse. Her eyes start to water, sending me on a guilt trip for waking her up.
"Geez Layla, if you say things like that, I'm going to feel guilty for waking you up!" I tell her while dropping my head to express that I feel apologetic. The moment I do this, she starts to feel even worse. Tears begin to well up in her before I stop her. "Layla, relax. It was a joke"
Her eyes slowly stop watering up, leaving the rims of her eyes red. "Nate, do you feel better now?" she asks as if nothing happened just right now.
I sigh. "Firstly, do you feel better?" I ask her because she was about to cry her heart out. "I will answer your question though: yes, I feel better now, thanks to you."
She lights up to my compliment. "That's good, you were really sad last night," she tells me as I remember my episode the previous night. "I think I feel better now," she says as she starts to get up from lying down.
Seeing that the blanket isn't staying to her body, I yell, "STOP!" She freezes in place, unsure as to why I just yelled. "Please make sure the blanket is properly around you or we'll have the same problem as yesterday."
She grabs the blanket and makes sure it properly wraps around her. After fixing it, she sits down in front of me, her stomach making a large rumble. Embarrassed, she says, "Nate, I'm a bit hungry."
I smile and pull out a sandwich from the bag besides me, splitting it in half like last night. "Here you go," I say as I offer her half of the sandwich. Taking my half, I bite into the sandwich, the same taste as the one last night: turkey.
Finishing our sandwich in silence, I grab a water bottle and take a swig, offering the rest to Layla. She takes it and finishes the bottle, giving the empty bottle to me which I crush and place in the bag.
Getting up, I offer my hand to Layla to help her up. "Layla, for travel conveniences, I think it's best if you return to your Pokémon form," I tell her as she gets up.
"Okay, Nate, I understand," she says, downcast. She closes her eyes and a yellow light engulfs her entire body as the blanket falls away from her. Just as quick as it began, it ends, leaving a Pikachu under a blanket. A muffled voice can be heard under the blanket, "Nate, can you help me out of here?"
"Alright then," I retort as I pull the blanket from her. Layla's just lying down on top of her belly. "You ready?" I ask her as I fold the blanket and put it in the bag.
She looks up at me. "Yes Nate, I'm ready," she says as I then pick her up and put her on my shoulder. "Nate, won't your shoulders hurt again?" she asks me while sitting upon my shoulder.
It's still weird how a Pokémon can just talk nonchalantly. I guess this is something I'll have to get used to while here.
"Nah, don't worry about it," I tell her while turning my head to face her. "It doesn't bother me and I doubt we'll have to go too much farther to get to Cherrygrove City." Splitting the branches to let Layla and me through, we tread on towards the next city.
It has been an hour since we left and there's still no sign of Cherrygrove City. I wonder what those bikers meant by "not much further" since we haven't come across the city yet and tall grass is on both sides of the road, hindering both our fields of vision. This kind of gives me the creeps since anything can pop out of the grass without us knowing.
I prick my ears up to try and hear anything rustling in the grass. Nervous by the silence, I ask, "Nate, do you find it weird?" My voice sounds higher than normal. I try again to listen but to no avail, silence is everywhere.
He slows down and finally stops as he turns to me. "What's weird?" he asks, oblivious to the silence surrounding us. A stray wind strikes against the top of grass causing them to rub up against each other, creating a shrill-like sound. I drop my ears and cower into the side of his head. "Is that what's weird?" he asks, unperturbed by the sound.
The wind stops and so does the sound, releasing me from being paralyzed in fear. Still shaken up, I say, "Not that." I prick my ears up again, hearing nothing but our breathing. "This silences that envelopes us is weird. It's like we're the only ones here." I look around to see the city, only to be disappointed that the grass is too tall to see over.
"I think you're just experiencing paranoia, Layla," he says as he starts to walk again. "We've all experienced it at one time, even I have experienced it a couple times before," he says, as if he's just a normal person, no different from anyone else except he's from a different world. "I can tell you a story if you like."
Interested as to what his story will be, I ask, "What type of story?" Curiosity takes over my mind and body. No longer am I shaken up by the wind. A flock of Pidgeys fly in V-formation as they look for their midday meal.
"Oh, just a typical story of paranoia with my own little twist," he says casually before continuing on. "It was a couple of months ago and I was home alone at night. Great start, ain't it?" He continues to carry me on his shoulder as we walk, the tall grass seemingly endless.
I nod; I want him to continue on with his story. He catches my drift, forwarding the story.
"So, I've always been interested in the supernatural, the paranormal, and the otherworldly stuff, since my world is fairly uninteresting," he says the last part pessimistically, though I'm unsure as to why. "Whenever I was home alone, I'd look up videos of these supernatural beings: Sasquatch, chupacabra, ghosts, and aliens among other things. This time was a little different though. I decided to look up something called Slender Man." He takes a sharp inhale, his body tenses slightly as he mentions this being called Slender Man.
I notice his reaction as to mentioning that being. "Nate, is there something wrong?" I ask him, my voice full of concern.
Should I tell him he can stop if he doesn't want to continue on? He seems uncomfortable with this topic, but this doesn't seem to me like a case of having paranoia.
His eases back to normality. "Nah, I'm fine. Just not a fan of horror." He slowly breathes out, taking a slow intake of breath. "Alright, so this Slender Man character is a human like me, for the most part. In his human form, I think he's six to seven feet tall and wears formal attire," he breaks off, "and he has no face."
What type of stories to people from Nate's world make up? That's scarier than most of the stories I've heard here.
"Like I was saying before, I was looking up videos of this, mind you I was home alone and I turned off the lights for more effect of scaring of myself. Yes, I'm weird like that but it's kind of fun every once in a while," he tries to justify his reasoning by laughing it off a little. "With my previous description of what I gave, that's all I knew of him and so I watched a documentary plus some "true" footage of him on camera." The grass sways with the wind, giving an eerie atmosphere around us.
"Going on with how this relates to paranoia, while I was watching these videos, alone, at night, I kept feeling like something was behind me. Every time I turned around, nothing was there but I kept feeling like I was being watched. So I had trouble sleeping that night, and the next night. Whatcha think?"
God that gives me the creeps! I didn't even say everything about Slender Man and what his true form is and what he does to people. That'd probably give her nightmares. It gave me nightmares! I don't think I'll be saying any more horror stories for a while.
Layla, upon my shoulder, begins to answer the question, "Slender Man appears to be terrifying, but there's probably more to i-" she's cut off as the grass behind us to our right shakes. I turn around abruptly out of fear and prepare myself in case of an attack, but nearly cause Layla to fall off.
"Layla, do you know how to fight?" I hastily say, since she may be the one protecting me from anything that may come out of the bushes. The shaking of the grass intensifies as footsteps could now be heard pounding away at the floor.
"A little," she tells me; my spirit lightens as she says that. "I know how to control some electricity, but nothing major."
"Okay, that's more than enough," I tell her as my first trial of being a Pokémon trainer is about to begin. She jumps off my shoulder onto the ground in front of me as something jumps out of the grass and onto the road.
On all fours, its canine structure stands at about one-and-a-half feet tall. Orange fur with streaks of black along the legs and back. A short, bushy, cream-colored tail with its muzzle, chest, and a tuft of fur on its head sporting the same color as the tail. Its fierce eyes and fighting stance appears that it's going to fight us.
I kind of wish I had a hat right now so I can flick it back like Ash Ketchum did in the anime. Oh well, time to hopefully defeat this Growlithe.
Layla looks at me as I look at her, her body shaking in fear. "Layla, get ready. We can do this, I believe in you," I tell her confidently which allows her to ease her body, though I can tell she's still scared. The battle theme from Pokémon Gold begins plays in my head.
Shut up! This isn't a game anymore. Any one of us can get hurt badly and there's no hospital nearby as far as the eye can see.
The music fades but is still playing slightly in the back of my mind. "Layla, attack," I command her as sparks of electricity are being emitted from her red pouches on her cheeks. Electricity engulfs her body as she releases the attack, sending a ball of electricity the size of a fist flying quickly towards the Growlithe. With little room to maneuver, it evades by jumping over the ball of electricity and charging straight for Layla.
This isn't good. It's going way too fast and dodging would be quite hard due to the limited maneuverability this terrain offers. It's about thirty feet away; I've got an idea.
Quickly, I say, "Layla, store electricity in your body and wait for me to tell you to release it explosively." She doesn't ask questions as I see her cheeks sparking. The Growlithe is now twenty feet away, its paws kicking up the dirt below it.
Fifteen feet...
Ten feet...
Five feet...
Three feet...
I yell, "Release!" as an explosion of electricity creates a three feet radius around her, engulfing the charging Growlithe. The light blinds me temporarily as I turn the other way. As my vision returns, I turn around to see the Growlithe lying unconscious on the road. Then I see Layla with a gash along her cheek, bleeding profusely as she lies on the ground, whimpering.
"Nate, it hurts," she whimpers on the ground, blood escaping from her cheek.
I run over to her pulling off the backpack. "Layla!" I say, fearful, as I pick her up in my arms, my hand pressing down on her cheek to slow the bleeding. Searching the bag, I find one of the two potions in which I spray onto her bleeding cheek. The gash heals right before my eyes, the profound bleeding no longer there. Leaving only a two inch scar underneath her red pouch on her left cheek, her injury is virtually gone.
Layla is no longer whimpering in pain but she's not currently awake. Her body exhausted from the fight, she sleeps in my arms as I look for an empty Pokéball in the bag. Grabbing a ball, I let it extract some blood from my finger and toss it at the unconscious Growlithe. The ball opens up and the Growlithe turns into a red energy, getting absorbed into the ball. The ball rocks once before stopping, signaling that the capture was a success.
Still carrying Layla in my arms, I pick up the Pokéball, "It's a Brosky," I say as I remember what I named my Growlithe in my Pokémon game. My hands bloody, I pocket the ball and continue to walk towards Cherrygrove City with the unconscious Layla in my arms.
As I walk in silence, the tall grass starts to recede and I begin to see the human civilization: houses, fences, and about a quarter of a mile away, a town with a tall building with the letter "P" at the top.
Glad to see human settlements again, I quicken the pace. I leave Route 29 and enter Cherrygrove City., "We finally made it," I say to the unconscious Layla in my arms.