"Hello, welcome to Goldenrod Department Store! My name is Jill. How may I be of assistance?"
Lyra shot that now-familiar placid face, the first thing she saw upon entering the Department Store, a look of hatred.
"You! You're the cause of all my misery!" Lyra began, advancing menacingly on the unsuspecting and still-smiling shop assistant. "I have no idea-"
"I have sounded the alarm," came a crisp, cold voice from somewhere to her left, cutting her off. She turned and saw the vacant-looking man speaking to her from behind the customer service counter. "The police are on their way. Security will take charge of you in the meantime."
"You're under arrest, miss!" said a gruff male voice from behind her and she whirled around, just in time for the two security guards standing behind her to seize her and handcuff her hands in front of her.
This was almost like the events of the first time she remembered waking up in this store. Instead of directing her to the Department Store's administrative offices though, they brought her to a counter adjacent to the Information counter where a deliveryman stood, waiting.
"Good day. Lyra, isn't it? I have a package for you," the deliveryman intoned pleasantly, patently ignoring the fact that Lyra was under arrest. "Would you please sign here for me?" he asked, placing a brown paper package on the counter while indicating on a piece of paper he handed her for her to sign. She did so with some difficulty since both her hands were tied together, while noticing from the paper that the package was from her mom. With some excitement, she ripped open the package with her restrained hands while the deliveryman and guards stood by her side, watching.
Inside was a vacuum-packed solid plastic container and inside…
Her mom had bought her Occa Berries again.
FREAKING. BLOODY. OCCA. BERRIES. AGAIN.
She felt a seizure coming on.
She didn't know what was happening but something visceral stirred within her. Deep, dark feelings of pure hatred engulfed her. Unspeakably immense malice and wrath flooded her mind, all of a sudden and for no apparent reason. She had no idea what was happening to her but it felt like she had been possessed by a violently malevolent spirit of some sort. And with nothing to stop her, she lost control of herself.
"THAT… BITCH!" she spat. Hurling the container full of Occa Berries to the ground, she stomped on it multiple times, though the hard plastic did not yield.
"HOW COULD SHE DO THIS TO ME?! ALL MY BLOODY HARD-EARNED MONEY WASTED ON A HANDFUL OF FREAKING OCCA BERRIES! AGAIN!" she roared. The fit of anger that had sparked in her like an ember now overcame her like an inferno of rage. "NONE OF MY BLOODY POKÉMON ARE EVEN WEAK TO BLOODY FIRE!"
She was beside herself with manic fury and began jumping on the box with her full weight. Eventually, the box cracked open and the berries were crushed underfoot, spilling their juices everywhere. The juices flowed freely, spreading in all directions and turning the wooden-brown polyvinyl chloride flooring of the Department Store a brilliant scarlet.
…
Her rampage was suddenly curtailed and she stood totally still, transfixed by the blood-red liquid oozing from under her feet. Strangely, the juice continued flowing like a mountain spring, until the entire ground level of the store was stained red. Such a beautiful crimson, so much like… blood.
Blood! Everywhere, lots of it. Everything and everyone covered in blood.
Like a shark that had taken a whiff of a single drop of blood, Lyra suddenly went wild. With inhuman strength, she snapped off the metal handcuffs, rending them asunder like a simple pair of chopsticks and let out a vicious roar. She needed blood. Badly.
And now that the animal named Lyra was loose and on the prowl, the other shoppers in the crowded store went wild too. People fled in all direction, slipping on the juice and trampling on each other, causing real blood to flow. Incongruously, explosions started going off in the background, knocking everyone off their feet and sending shards of debris and broken glass flying everywhere, causing injury and drawing even more real human blood. Lyra was bathed in a bloodbath of pure mayhem and she revelled in it.
Pouncing on one of the fleeing guards, she knocked him onto the ground and sank her teeth into his jugular vein. Instead of blood, warm Occa juice flooded into her mouth. Deliciously sweet, yet intensely spicy. Drinking deeply, the fiery aroma filled her nostrils and left a tingling in her mouth while prickling her skin. She needed more.
Whipping her head round, she pounced on another fleeing person and began ravaging her victim. The skin was tough, just like how an Occa Berry but the flesh inside was fruity and tangy. The alluring and exquisite flavour of Occa flooding her senses was overwhelming, its torrid spiciness driving her even crazier still. She was on fire, and she couldn't stop. And she certainly didn't intend to.
Standing up and wobbling on her feet, intoxicated with Occa, she surveyed the room and spotted Jill standing completely still in a corner, her face to the wall. This would not do; why wasn't she panicking like everyone else?
Infuriated, Lyra galloped on all fours towards the oblivious shop assistant and leapt, aiming for her neck as well. But Jill was not oblivious at all. Spinning around just as Lyra was in the air about to land on her, Jill's fist flew out and connected with Lyra's face between the eyes, sending the cannibalistic vampire-girl smashing into the ground, unconscious.
A strong spasm shook her body and she coughed violently, her eyes fluttering open. She was lying on a hospital bed and an IV drip was connected to her left arm.
"I see you're awake, miss," came a clinical female voice from somewhere behind her. Lyra thought she sounded familiar. Straining to look while lying down, she saw the back of a nurse who was checking the readings from a machine behind the bed. "How are you feeling?"
"A little dizzy but fine, I guess…" Lyra hesitated, shuddering at her last recollection. "What happened? Why am I here?"
"You had a seizure at the Department Store. They said you hit someone and did quite extensive damage."
"Did I?"
"Ahh… It doesn't matter. Anyway, someone left something for you, right over there." The nurse, still with her back to Lyra, waved toward the small beside table.
There in the middle of the table was a get-well-soon hamper, consisting of a small bouquet of flowers, a doll and a card. Bringing it closer to inspect, a chill ran through Lyra as she noted its contents. The beautiful bouquet consisted of only one kind of pretty white flower – Occa. Setting aside the doll, which was a Clefairy doll of the kind she was looking to buy from the Department Store, she picked up the card. Opening it, she found a neat and simple line of text printed in italic Times New Roman typeface: Goodbye, Lyra!
Shaken, Lyra turned back to the nurse. "Who sent this?"
Instead of giving an intelligible reply though, a low animalistic growl came from the nurse.
"… Nurse?"
Turning around to face her, Lyra immediately recognised her and recoiled in horror. It was Jill.
"You bitch," Jill snarled menacingly in a warning hiss. "You tried to kill me."
"I-I thought you said I had a seizure…"
"Seizure my ass! Do you even have a medical history of epilepsy?!" Jill roared. In one swift motion, she seized the IV drip and ripped it out of Lyra's arm. Lyra screamed, before realising that it was more out of fear than pain, for she barely felt a thing.
The worst was yet to come though as Lyra felt the bed rocking from beneath her. Before she could peer over the side to see what was happening though, the heavy hospital bed was heaved effortlessly into the air by Jill, who let out a barbaric cry. With a grunt, she flung the bed with full force across the ward, with Lyra still lying on it. The heavy metal bedframe smashed through the full-length windows on the opposite wall and before she knew what was going on, Lyra felt herself tumbling and free-falling through thin air.
She thought she heard herself scream before she hit the ground below with a loud crash, surrounded by twisted metal and broken glass.