This chapter was delayed because of my two-week vacation away from the internet. But it was sort of necessary, really. I needed some time away to relieve some stress for once. Haha.

Enjoy!

Chapter 48
Second Thoughts

A definite clap rung as Marina closed her little orange diary. She buttoned the clasp of her book and put both it and the pen away. One of her Pokémon, little Amber the Plusle, watched her from the desk beside the bed.

Alright, that's it for today's entry, thought Marina with a small smile. She leaned over to drop her pink backpack on the floor, and coughed once before petting Amber's fuzzy head only a few times.

"Plasu...pla," Amber smiled fervently and then frowned as Marina's hand moved away.

"Sorry, Amber, but I'm still sick. I don't want you to catch it too," Marina said and lied back down on the bed.

The Plusle tilted her head in curiosity and resorted to cuddling herself in the small nest of blankets Marin had made for her. Marina gave her a soft grin before turning to the window portraying the harsh wintry evening outside. She released a sigh before closing her eyes, breathing evenly.

Nurse Joy strode down the hall without a glance behind her, where a black-haired Trainer followed. Kenta looked around as they proceeded past the rows of doors. Most rooms were medical bays for Pokémon, but others contained ordinary beds. He could see some people resting in them, their Pokémon loyally lying on the floor. A frown formed on his face.

"Why is she here?"

"She's sick," swiftly the nurse replied, "If she weren't so careless, I wouldn't have her bedridden."

He looked at her in mild alarm. "Bedridden?"

"It's only a cold," Joy assured. Catching the boy's eye, she stopped before an open door to their right. When her eyes darted inside the room, she seemed satisfied with a light smile. Kenta, tensing at the gesture, rushed toward her and looked into the room as soon as he could.

The blue-haired girl he knew so well rested soundly on the single white bed. There came a few softly quiet moments, in which Kenta waited for her to look up, to notice them and smile at him as she normally would.

But she did not; her eyes were shut softly, and she slept in silence.

"Marina?" he asked hesitantly.

"Pla!" A little Pokémon, sitting next to Marina's sleeping figure, whirled around to them. Kenta made eye contact with it curiously and walked further into the room toward their bedside. The Pikachu look-alike merely watched him with its mouth open, tilting its head to the side.

"Marina," Kenta again said the girl's name. "Are you awake?"

"No, she's asleep," Nurse Joy corrected, pulling out a chair from a corner. "Please don't wake her; she's been restless lately."

The boy turned to her soon after. "Why?"

"She's been having plenty of nightmares as of late."

"Nightmares?" He shot a soft glance at Marina, whose head was turned away toward the window. "I have to talk to her, Nurse Joy."

"You will not wake her."

"But you don't understand—."

"No," snapped the nurse with a stern finality. Joy placed the chair beside Kenta and she shuffled past him before he could even open his mouth to argue.

"What are you doing on the bed again? Did she let you back out?" she chided to Amber with her hands on her hips.

Eyes wide and ears twitching, the little Pokémon scrambled to the edge of the bed, panicking as it slipped and fell to the floor with a thud. "Plasu!"

Ding... dong... ding...

The antique clock announced the time with six dull rings in total. It then continued clicking as always, the sound of the brass pendulum only accompanied by the howling winds outside. This peaceful little duet was interrupted by the shuffling and talking coming from the pharmacy's manager, who said his goodbyes to the most recent umbrella-bearing customers.

"Whew, that might be the last of them," he said loudly as he bolted the front door shut. He nodded, turning to his employee with a jocular grin. "Good business recently, you know? Probably because of the holidays and the storm. But seeing people out is beyond wild; I'm glad we don't take house calls."

Keel paid no mind to the talkative man. He rested at his usual spot behind the desk. His sharp eyes looked at the hi-tech device in his hand without so much of a positive or negative temperament. The device opened its many covers as he pressed a button on its side, revealing the screen that lightly lit up. On it were a few tidbits of information and options; most notably, below a small picture of himself was his real name, "Wes," followed by a Trainer ID. However, before one could look at it clearly, Keel pressed the button again, snapping the device shut.

"Hmm, I wonder if that Trainer girl with pigtails is still around," the manager went on nonchalantly. He advanced further into the room with his hands at his sides, scratching his red crew-cut hair as he went to fix a few picture frames. "Even though I told her to come back soon, she hasn't shown up at all. I thought she'd come right back; she seemed to have taken a real easy liking to you."

The light sliding of metal continued to be the only response, as Keel had continued to open and close his PDA repeatedly. His boss crossed his arms.

"I wonder if she's still around," he repeated in an airy sigh.

Again Keel didn't cast a glance; he made no notion that he was paying attention, for that matter. He just messed with his handheld device. The man before him walked over to the desk, a twisted grin on his face now as one of his eyebrows were raised.

"You know that you're wasting the battery if you do that, right?"

No reply came.

He sighed at his young colleague. "What, are you nervous? Expecting a message from your big boss or something? ...Or maybe you're pissed at me? I guess telling the kid to come back was something I said without your consent, but I'm willing to deal with any suspicions if any are thrown on me or this pharmacy in the future. You know that, and I wouldn't let you work here if it weren't the case."

The same opening and closing of Keel's little device proceeded without stopping or slowing, and this time the man made a deep frown.

"Hey."

At the single austere word, Keel finally stopped. Though it wasn't a verbal reply, the single gesture was adequate and signaled that he was at least listening now.

"I've tried giving you the benefit of the doubt, but I'm getting kind of sick of this 'cool guy' indifference," the man said in a dead serious tone that grew less intense, "You weren't like this at one point, so what happened? Something biting you in the ass?"

The blond kept looking at his PDA deeply yet blankly, rooted in his static pose; he was a statue if not for his breathing. Roughly sighing, his employer took off his black sunglasses, forcefully tossing it on the desk. Keel glanced.

"Is it your mission? Does it really bother you that much?"

At last, he turned off the device and turned away, resting his chin on his hand. He made a little smirk.

"You could say that," he finally replied.

"I get why you'd be uneasy. That boy earlier was a friend of...er, what was her name again? Well, the—."

"Marina," Keel cut in, correcting him dully. He would never forget the name of a target.

"Haha, right, that was it. All I can think of are the marinas for boats when it comes to that name, being near the water and all." Then, realizing he was heading off track, he shook off the subject. "Anyhow, if you knew you were going to be so hung up about it, then why did you accept it in the first place? So you could leave Orre?"

There was a pause, as if Keel was allowing the words to breathe and sink into his thoughts. His frown somewhat snapped his emotionless composure.

"Thought it would be fun," he said. "Turns out it wasn't."

"Did you overestimate yourself?"

"No. Everyone's easy as hell to con around here."

"Then have you ever stolen…well, kidnapped—?"

"I have," Keel's eyes chilled darkly, "But so far, they've all been Pokémon."

"...Well..." The blond boy could sense his hesitation. His manager crossed his arms, looking around at his little pharmacy. "There's no need to sweat about what happens to her after you turn her over. It's not like they'll treat her badly, unlike...the...we...eh..." He attempted to say more, but none of the vowels strung to form true words, so he silenced.

This time, Keel failed to respond.

Without meaning to, he manipulated his handheld device to close and then open again, but he intentionally repeated the process a few more times.

"Hey! Don't start that again."

Keel stopped, smirking since he had expected the response. He slipped the PDA away in his pocket and stood, grabbing his deep blue trench coat from the chair.

The red-haired man took this action with surprise, watching him walk past. "Whoa, where are you going, all of a sudden?"

"Pokémon Center," answered Keel accordingly. He slipped on his coat that fit him snugly, letting the wintry weather in as he opened the door without caution.

"Wait, so you're going now to—?" His boss stopped, however, as Keel had already made his leave.

Both girls stood in the shadowy abyss, where only they and the enigmatic snow moved. As they were shrouded in the light drizzle of fairy lights, neither spoke a word. The girl whose face was hidden by shadows began to move her hands in another set of various movements that were slow but lucid. But Marina shook her head sadly, causing the other girl to stop and rest her hands on the white dress she wore.

"I'm sorry," Marina softly breathed, "But what are you doing?"

Even though she was still unable to see her, the blue-haired Trainer could tell that there was a delicate drop in her spirits.

"...Don't feel bad, I just can't understand..." Marina froze, surprised as the girl nodded a little in response, showing her deep dissatisfaction. "Um...you can't speak?"

There came no notable reply as the dark-haired girl only lowered her head.

Is she mute?

Clutching her fists in the numbed coldness, Marina decided to advance closer. She paused when the wind grew harsher, and she took a few moments to regain her courage and continue. But another snarling gale stopped her in her tracks; the memory of the murderous needle appendages remained fresh in her mind.

"Are..." Marina glanced around them, uneasy. Only seeing the odd snow along with her usual surroundings, she asked, "Are you May...?"

The girl made no movement at first. Eventually, she shook her head. Marina took note of her dark purple hair, set in those high pigtails, those prominent locks of hair that resembled her sister's... but only that lattermost segment of her appearance was familiar to that of May.

"Who are you, then...?" Marina questioned, her voice dampened to a whisper.

Twitching, the unnamed girl moved her hands to her chest, as if gathering her wits. Then she moved her fair hands higher, slowly yet smoothly. Her fingers tenderly touched the choker that resided on her neck. Marina followed and mimicked her motion with bated breath. The sleek leather of the rose collar passed her fingertips. Pausing and ignoring the bits of illuminated snow, Marina's green eyes reached the face of the girl.

"You're...in here...?"

Again the girl merely reverted to her previous submissive pose, shy and watching. She inclined her head in a nod, sending a chill down Marina's spine.

So...what exactly does that mean? Hiding the automatic fretful frown she made, Marina cut through the snow and walked once again.

"Here she is."

Keel, partly damp from the sleet outside, stood at the doorway of a small room with Nurse Joy standing beside him. A stern expression was on his face as he looked at the vulnerable girl that slept in the single bed. As he eyed Marina's slightly untidy hair, he relayed the information that the nurse had told him.

The day she visited the pharmacy, she got sick, and that's why she never came back. Keel's yellow eyes shifted to the girl's bedside, where a boy looked back at him. A small Plusle—a young one—sat on his lap and gazed at both boys with wide eyes.

I figured her friend would be here.

"You're from the pharmacy," Kenta began with rising surprise. "Why are you here?"

"Dropping by," he said, keeping his words concise. Glancing behind his shoulder once, to see that the nurse had swiftly let them be, Keel remained at the door.

Kenta's expression went somewhat blank, though a lurking concern remained and he raised an eyebrow. "Why?"

"I guess you're her boyfriend after all," he mused. He watched as the young Trainer snapped to attention and shook his head vigorously.

"What? N-No! I'm-I'm just her...friend," Kenta turned back to the sleeping Marina in front of him, "We grew up together in the same town."

"That's what I meant. You're a boy, and her friend. Aren't you?" Contradicting the slightly witty—but certainly not his best—remark, Keel made neither a smirk nor any other sign showing that he was playing around. He made the comment solely to further distance his reason of why he came. He could come up with a lie with ease, but decided to save it only if he needed to. It helped to stall for time.

Kenta didn't question him further with suspicion, only looking at the girl solemnly.

Keel almost—he wasn't concerned with the girl's health—did the same for a few moments. He then stole another glance behind him and at the wintry storm outside. The handheld device slipped into his hand, now displaying a stopwatch that counted down by the second. He put it away soon after, smirking briefly; his actions went unnoticed.

"Pla," voiced the little Plusle as she snuggled on the bed's sheets, twitching her drooping ears. Reaching out, Kenta lightly petted her head, causing the spastic critter to topple over and gawk at him. He grinned only a little bit and eventually turned his head to Keel, who was leaning against the doorframe casually.

"When do you have to go back?" Kenta asked after a while.

"Who knows," muttered Keel. "It's freezing out there." There was a final brief look at his PDA, appearing as if he was only checking the time, before he stood up again.

But before either of them could say anything else, the florescent lights on the ceiling flickered. The black-haired Trainer locked his navy eyes on the dying electricity, watching warily.

With a cackling fizzle, the lights went dead along with all the others in the halls—or perhaps the whole building. Brief exclaims and screams were heard a couple doors down, wild in the confusion of the blackout.

Amber's voice soon followed suit in this as she cried out in fear.

"It's alright! We'll be fine—." Kenta's voice was cut off as the sound of an opening Poké Ball softly erupted behind him.

"Bura!"

There was a faint yellow glow that caught his eyes in the darkness, and a sharp pain hit the back of his neck. He could feel his head hit the soft sheets before his consciousness fleeted from his mind, his hand instinctively held tight on another's.

The unknown light source in the distance went out completely. This would've left the girls in utter darkness if not for the dimly radiant snowflakes. Marina glanced around with a start, holding her hands tight as she grew apprehensive.

What's going on? Why did it suddenly get dark?

"Do you know what's...?" Marina began to ask, but her voice fled in fear. Every cell in Marina's body froze still when she returned her gaze to the girl, who remained politely in place. However, gone was the flawless, jewel-adorned dress; it was once again in pitiful tatters. Like the bits of shimmering light, the girl's eyes could clearly be seen, nearly giving off their own glow in the darkness.

Marina gazed, aghast as she nearly fell back at the sight.

"Y-Your..."

The unknown girl's eyes were incredibly bizarre, resembling that of a wild cat's—but her irises were of a frighteningly blood red.

Plenty of mysteries happening here!

Until next time, dear readers, in the pitch-black darkness of the Pokémon Center...