Where shall I begin? At the genesis of it all, I suppose.
I did eventually find Violet deep within the belly of Mt. Moon. She sat there against the cave wall looking strung-out as ever, her cheeks sunken and dark, her skin a wan yellow. When I approached, all she could do was turn her head meekly to me and lift those glassy, distant eyes to gaze in my direction. Beyond her lips, a soft croak emanated from deep within her like a distant scraping of metal. Rushing to her, I held her tight and thanked Celebi she was okay. I questioned her about where she had gone, but I couldn’t get any real response. Checking her pulse and breath, I deemed her alive enough to survive a journey outside. Still affected by the various harmonies buzzing about my blood, I hefted her onto my back, forcing my weak legs to stand as I slowly made my way out.
After passing the same rock formation for the third time, I realized I had been going in circles. My chest on fire and my knees set to explode, I lay Violet gently onto a rock and tried to analyze my surroundings. But all the rocks simply screamed in agony, and if I grew too tired the floor began to melt away beneath me. Blinking hard drove the phantasms away, but only briefly. Violet let out a hard cough that shook her wizened frame. I knelt down next to her, hoping to lend some comfort.
Just then, the oddest look overtook her. The waxy screen over her eyes fell away, and she looked at me with perfect clarity, those brown eyes soft and gentle as I always remembered them to be.
Reaching into her pocket, she cupped in her hand a fair amount of some of the oddest-looking dust I’ve ever seen. It glowed with a strange light that seemed to pulse like the rhythms of a heart. Taking my wrists, she pulled my hand towards hers and deposited the mysterious powder upon me.
“Moon stone,” her voice seemed to come from another planet altogether, “don’t do. Bad idea.”
With that, her eyes returned to their previous cloudiness, and her body sunk back against the wall, her head falling at the oddest angle. A soft whine came from the stillness of her body. I knew then that the life had left her forever.
For the first time in many days, I felt my eyes burn as tears blurred my vision. I held onto her hand, rubbing my thumb in small circles over her palm. My tears, a big, globby mess, patterned the dry ground around me. I sat there for what seemed like days with my gentlest flower, silently weeping to myself.
It was then that the neurosis hit. Everyone in the town surely knew that I was trying to find her. I had made enough of a fuss about it already. Were they to find us like this… well, no good could come of it. I needed to act quickly. In my head, the footsteps of an angry mob were just around the next corner, their dark eyes darting this way and that, searching for someone to blame.
Dragging the body, I pulled her off to some distant corner of the place. Using my own hands, I scraped out a shallow hole in the hard ground, and lay her within. Hastily, I threw small piles of earth onto the long mound, my fingernails worn to the quick and bleeding all over my hands. When I thought I had done enough, I grabbed up my pack and fled from the cave as quickly as my legs could carry me. I didn’t know where to go, but a distant wail told me where to avoid. After hours of twisting and turning, climbing ledges and rolling away boulders, I made it to the mouth of the cave.
Stumbling out, my clothes in tatters, my skin covered in scratches and blood, I gazed at the sick new world I had been thrust into. This would be my second birth, though not to a better place. My exit from that rocky tomb of torment weighs upon me now with such a pressure that I’m sure my head might implode at any minute.
The setting sun burned me with its bright glow, and it was only when the blazing beams subsided that I was able to perceive the world around me. This wasn’t Cerulean City. A nearby sign filled me in, “This way to Pewter City.” I’ll go there then, anywhere else would be fine. As long as I don’t have to travel back through that mountain again, I shall go wherever the wind takes me.
Shattered,
Cool Andrew ♂
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