Everything fast happened at a snail's pace, and vice-versa. Glowing claws slashed the air at frightening speeds. My initial distance was the only thing that prevented me from getting hit.

"Help," I breathed out. It wasn't as much a word, more of a reflex. My mind felt blank, like I wasn't even a person anymore. Like I was a body piloting on its own for the first time, and instinct and muscle memory were powered only by shock and fear.

A low and throaty growl rumbled its way into my ears. A high-pitched ringing sound tried to counter it, along with my racing heartbeat. A fog of voices tried to reach my brain, but dissolved into wisps before doing so. There was only laser-focused hearing left, and barely registered sights filtered through slit pupils.

Then, a lunge. Toward my deafened body.

Something tackled and stopped the Charizard: a white blur with a dark blue face and extremities. Lola landed clumsily back on all fours, with those piercing red Absol eyes suddenly unfocused. Mr. Henry collapsed dangerously close to the cliff.

"What do we do?!" Gab shouted. No response. As Mr. Henry got back up, my eyes unfocused again. If anyone said anything, I didn't notice.

That respite lasted eons and a few seconds. It allowed me to catch the smallest of breaths. My eyes darted between my friends.

Then back to Mr. Henry and his still broken wing.

He had barely any less awareness than I did. And so, I ran. I ran and ran, making as much noise I could, catching as much attention as I could, all before the ground disappeared from under me.

Did I trip or did I jump? Oh, it would be so much more reassuring and excusable if it were the former.

And there I was, hyperventilating with too much air around me and not enough solid ground. I barely managed to catch my breath before my body slammed into the lava stream.

The heat sank into me instantly. The lava made its current known, and I remembered that I had no idea how deep the river was. Given how heavy lava was compared to water, if I lost my sense of direction, any way could be up. Even if the magma became as clear as water, I wouldn't want to open my eyes and burn them off. I didn't know for a fact that that wouldn't happen.

Luckily, my feet brushed against hot igneous rock from under me. Good for me, because I didn't want to think of drowning in lava, especially when it would mean choking on it and maybe cooking my lungs from the inside. I pushed upward and breached the surface some seconds later.

My ears were instantly assaulted by a Charizard's roar upstream. Thank God, he did follow me! He was barely a few meters away from me, and was able to use his size and one functioning wing to his advantage. The current, which was stronger than both of us, helped him along.

"S-snap out of it!" I implored, but no signs of his recognition or my hope were to be found as I did. There was a snarling beast in front of me, thrashing and coming closer while ignoring orange streaks of molten rock clinging to itself. Red pixels joined drops of lava as the Charizard roared again in a blind rage. I saw the land's edge close by, but knew that if I could reach it and my friends, he could follow. I clenched my eyes shut as I dove down once more, holding onto those rocks at the bottom for dear life. I knew then that my decision would mean Mr. Henry falling down a cliff. I wasn't much better off.

I held my breath for as long as I could. What was at most twenty seconds felt like hours. Had he passed above me yet? My lungs burned and my gut churned. I faced the brunt of the current, it being stronger than me. I was able to hold on, but just about. There was no swimming back or crawling with footholds' help. I knew I'd have to face the lavafall.

I let go.

I didn't notice when I started falling, but I knew that at some point, I resurfaced. It was crazy how fast everything turned so cold. My half-lidded eyes squinted through the frigid, rushing air around me. I was maybe halfway down, but things looked bad from here. If Mr. Henry made the fall, I couldn't see him.

Arms wrapped around me and yanked me out of my path. I jerked and struggled, writhed and tried to scream, but didn't manage more than grunts.

"Quit it, Micheal, it's me!"

The voice split the air. Kieran. Although my senses were hazy, I could tell it was him, and that his staggered breaths weren't only from exhaustion. He kept breathing out hisses and grunts from pain, my exposure to the torrid lava the likely culprit.

"Are you—" I sputtered, forming as many words as I could. "Are you okay—"

"Am I okay?!" He exclaimed, then winced again. Nothing else needed to be said. The winds roared in my ears. The rock and lava ran under us as Kieran kept dropping in altitude and catching himself, and I shivered. I shivered while inside a volcano, while my friend endured burns to hold onto me.

Finally, oh so finally, I found myself on solid ground, freed from winds and magma currents and the utterly gutting sensation of falling. I was so dazed and, in my mind, I might as well still have been at the mercy of gravity. I laid on the floor, seeing a blurry Gab grab some Oran berries and a Persim. I barely tasted them, and even though my vision got clearer, my eyes didn't focus any more than before.

Next to me, Kieran was munching on a Rawst berry, but still winced at every movement of his arms. His wings twitched every now and then.

"Hey— how're… how—" I started, before breaking into a coughing fit.

Silence.

"I-I need… I need to catch my breath," I heaved.

"Take your time."

Even after I could fill my lungs and keep the air in, the words didn't find me. If anything, it got quieter as I stopped coughing. After a terribly, terribly long pause, he spoke again.

"When I said the things about him being a boss—"

I cut him off. "Yeah, I remember."

"You know I didn't know either, right? That… that something would happen."

His words grew quieter until they caught in his throat and he didn't say any more. He wouldn't say what happened, or how I'd reacted. Not yet. Better to detach from it all for now.

A cold facade. What I was doing. And it started thawing when I realized it was there. It might as well have been a dam, as all the racing thoughts came pouring down.

The facade was down, but how could I deal with blood on my conscience? I could keep telling myself that it was the Magcargo's fault. It shot the deadly blow. It saw through those disgusting red eyes and took aim at someone, not considering if it was a person. It didn't consider this person could be worth anything to anyone, or that they were struggling. It just struck and killed and injected its curse. No empathy, no hesitance, only an unfathomable desire for harm.

There is evil in the world. You may think of it as a concept, but until you've experienced it, you don't know the fear of it. The memory shakes you up inside and worms its way throughout your veins into all your organs. You're changed and…

… not a person.

It had taken so much from me. It took Henry's life! And it didn't care. But was I better if I did the same and knew full well it was horrible? Maybe he wasn't past saving. There could be a cure, or if I'd tried harder, I wouldn't have had to murder him. Maybe if I'd taken more time to think, the others would've managed to do so. And yet the clock had ticked by while we waited at his side.

The thought resurfaced like it would never go away.

You still killed him.

Facade up.

Gab kept stroking Chloe's back comfortingly, but her eyes reflected the opposite set of emotions. You could count horror, anger, and, prominently, exhaustion. All in all, that gaze was my thoughts conveyed outward.

Stop that. Feel.

I tried to stop looking everywhere around me. I really did. It felt unfair after Mr. Henry didn't have a witness to his fate. He was gone and I hadn't even done him the favour to see how it ended. The knot in my stomach grew tight enough to make me nauseous. My pupils shrank to slits as my eyes bore into the wall.

It felt like hours before I could focus or talk again. In my reverie, other individuals took action, some slower than the rest.

They can't believe what you've done.

They believe you're good.

I faced a wall we'd passed several times before, but the group had gathered in front of it while I was out of commission. The carrion bell sounds, and the voices, and everything had come from there after the lavafall jump. Upon looking back, this wall was horrifying. There were two portals in front: one red and impressively camouflaged into the wall, and one a vibrant green. The second portal in front of us made my heart sink. It wasn't even as if his death had mattered. We'd always had a way out of here. That dark red portal taunted me with how obvious it was now. Valérie had gone into the newer portal while I was out, though, and Kieran had followed after her. We wouldn't use the one Henry didn't die for. Maybe it was an honour thing.

I stood, shaky but healthy. I walked toward that sparkling green portal.

Just what have we stumbled into?