Phantom Kat
06-18-2009, 08:53 PM
Here's my entry. :3 I'll go over this later to check for typos and the likes again. I'm just glad that I managed to finish it before the deadline. ^^; *doesn't want to be as useless like in the last WAR*
_____
Haunting You, Protecting You
I felt a tug on my lighting bolt-shaped tail, and flicking my elongated, black-tipped ears in slight irritation, I ignored it. Gripping the tree branch I was stood on with tiny claws, I leaned my chubby yellow body farther out, small snout twitching as I tried to detect any predators that could sneak our way. Anything could be hiding behind the trees of Viridian Forest or in the thick, thorny shrubbery that lay underfoot, especially now that night had settled. Beedrill could be nesting in the close-knit canopies. Raticate could be hiding in their dug burrows, out of sight beneath the thick and snaking roots of aged trees. With Milo with me tonight, I could not, would not, let anything slip by my radar of senses. One small slip could prove fa-
-Sharp fangs sunk themselves into my erect tail, and I only managed a few electric sparks of surprise before I was sent hurtling eight feet towards the forest floor. Landing in the brush, I groaned as briars dug into my fur, ears, and paws. Seconds later, a screaming fur ball landed on my stomach, stealing away any remaining breath I had. Wrapping my paws around the shivering blob of yellow and black, I painfully rolled from the bushes and onto the moist earth. As I pushed myself to my feet, I faintly wondered if I had bruised the cherry-red electric sacs on my cheeks; small bolts of electricity kept jumping out from them and disappearing into the ground.
“I didn’t think you’d fall!” the Pichu in my arms cried out suddenly, bottom lip already quivering. “You were just so quiet, like Mom, so I was scared! Honest, Jed, honest!”
I slapped a paw over Milo’s mouth. His owlish amber eyes widened, and his diamond-shaped ears flew back in shock. I was so busy checking our surroundings and lowering both of us into defensive, four-legged stances that I didn’t notice the Pichu’s pink cheeks alight with electricity and his eyes swimming in unshed tears. It wasn’t until I had deemed the area free of anything that might eat us and looked back at my little brother that I noticed he was on the verge of crying.
“Oh, Milo, don’t cry!” I guiltily whispered, immediately embracing him in a hug. My heart broke in two when I felt the black fur around his neck standing on end and his stubby, midnight tail shaking like a leaf. I wanted to tell him that it wasn’t safe to speak so loud, but he was already scared out of his wits. “There are no bad Pokémon here. I promise.”
The sparks of electricity that surrounded his face died down, and his tiny, yellow body stopped its quaking. I set him down near the bushes we had fallen on, my own oak eyes staring into the innocent depths of his.
“There are no bad Pokémon here,” I repeated, “and there won’t be if we keep our voices down.” I put a claw to my lips to show him, and he imitated me with dawning understanding. Smiling, I nodded in approval. “That’s it, and even when we get to the city, we have to be as quiet as possible.”
“Why do we have go there anyway?” he whined softly, his gaze lowered when, somewhere in the distance, the cawing of a Pokémon shook the air.
“Because,” I began, bringing him closer, “Mom’s really, really sick right now. Her Pikachu body isn’t strong enough to make her all better, and even that Antidote one of the trainers dropped didn’t help. If we get a Thunderstone from the city, she’ll evolve into a Raichu, and Mom will be stronger and get better.”
Milo whimpered when I mentioned our mother, and I couldn’t blame him. The poison from that Muk that had come with those group of traveling trainers crippled her, weakened her to the point of chronic exhaustion. Lustrous fur had dulled and fallen off in some places. Her once brilliant smile was now a constant grimace of agony. Most unsettling of all, her shining almond eyes were now black, a deep black that haunted Milo every time he thought about it. The sky, his shadow, all of it was black, and thus, all of it made him cry out in fright. Milo had begged to take him with me; he couldn’t stand seeing into those infinite depths again and feel hopeless, weak, and afraid.
I hugged my brother tighter, feeling helpless myself. I couldn’t take him back to the safety of the nest. Mom’s poisonous condition was contagious, and to a five-week-old Pichu, bringing him back would mean instant death.
“Are you scared of the shadows, too, Jed?” Milo asked in response to the tightened hug, his voice muffled in my breast fur as he nuzzled closer to me.
“No, Milo,” I assured him, giving him one last squeeze before facing north. “Let’s go. We’re almost there.”
The small Electric-type let go of me and obediently followed me through the trees, shaking paws holding my tail in an iron grip. It wasn’t until he saw light from the city houses piercing through the bleak blackness of the forest that he let go.
_____
We arrived at Viridian City’s Trainer Shop: a place where they sold everything and anything for the traveling trainer. Unfortunately for all of those trainers, the one-story building had been abandoned for months. The trees it was nestled in between had extended their roots until they had collapsed the wooden stairs that led towards the porch. The garnet moth-eaten canopy fluttered lazily in the breeze while dust from the weathering bricks danced in front of the boarded up windows. All in all, nobody would interfere with our searching.
“Come on,” I told Milo after withdrawing back to the safety of the bushes that lined the rickety, metal fence of the property. “It’s almost over.”
“I like this place,” he commented as I dragged him towards the porch. “Even when it’s night, there’re lights. Can’t we stay here, Jed? Can’t we bring Mommy and stay here?”
I looked at him as I helped him jump over the fungus-infested stairs. He was grinning from ear to ear. Since we had taken off from the burrow, his eyes had been clouded with fear and had always been on me. Now he was gazing at the street, the houses on either side, and the streetlights that illuminated it all with fascination and hope.
Biting my lip, I gently shook my head. “We can’t stay here, but I promise that after we get that Thunderstone, we’ll live happily again. The darkness won’t seem so scary anymore.”
His ears drooped slightly, but Milo still kept his smile. “Okay, as long as you promise.”
After that, he happily scurried after me as I searched for a way to get into the store. With the windows boarded up and out of reach, I turned towards the door. The few wooden boards that had kept thugs from entering were hanging on by badly-hammered nails. After making sure Milo was out of harm’s way, I backed up towards the edge of the porch and sent myself hurtling towards the door. All of my body weight met the crippling wood, and the result was a harmony of cracks that filled the still air. Smiling, I backed up for another Slam. A running leap later, I felt the wood groan and give from underneath me: my body completely shattered the boards. Shielding myself from the rain of splinters and wood chips, I picked myself up and cleared away the debris to see the small hole in the hanging door.
“Come, Milo,” I told him, one paw outstretched towards the unsure creature. “I know it’s dark, but I’ll be there with you.”
Hesitantly, he came nearer, and when he saw me wiggle my way through the hole, Milo let me help him through. A muffled cry of alarm rose up in his throat when he truly saw how the ebony shadows covered everything in the room. I could only make out the shadows of the shelves that lined walls to our right and behind the counter at the end of the room. I wrinkled my nose as the smell of rotten food wafted from the direction of the fridges in the corner. Everything else just smelled like the thick layers of dust that covered the wooden floor and every other surface.
“I want you to stay here, near the door, Milo,” I ordered him, gently positioning him to where the light from the outside filtered through the makeshift entrance I had created. “I’ll be back quickly.”
“You’re leaving me here?” he squeaked in terror, his tiny claws immediately grabbing on to my fur.
“Just for a little while. It’s going to be pitch black where I’m going, and Pichu can’t see as well as Pikachu in the dark.” I redirected his paws to my glowing cheeks. “Don’t worry; you’ll see me.”
I let Milo hold me for a while before he nodded and let me back away. Giving him one last smile, I darted deeper into the store, my face alight with the electricity brimming in my cheeks. I refused to look back. The faster I found a Thunderstone, the faster I could take Milo out of this place and the faster Mom would be on her way to recovery.
First I let my eyes scan the shelves above me, and when I found nothing but medicine and Poké Balls, I moved on past the fridges and towards the store counter. Evolution stones were rare, so it would only make sense if they were hidden or locked away somewhere. With that in mind, I broke the glass of the counter to rifle through every box I saw there. After finding nothing but amulets and bracelets used as battling items, I resorted to jumping into the shelves behind the counter and knocking bags and boxes to the floor so that I could investigate them later.
“I think I might have found one,” I shouted back to Milo after sniffing a velvet-lined box. “I won’t be sure until I crack it open, though.”
When no answer came, I frowned. I was glad Milo had been quiet; it showed that he was getting used to the dark. However, it wasn’t like him to be silent after someone had talked to him, scared or not.
“Milo?” Jumping off the shelf and onto the counter top, I leaned forward worriedly. I could make out an unmoving shadow against the door, but something was off about it. It was too big, too still. “Milo? Are you alright?”
My heart leaped to my throat when he painfully whimpered my name. Like lightening, I darted towards him, paws barely touching the dust-covered floor. Now I saw the shape for what it truly was: an Ekans that held my precious brother in his damned, scaly grip. I was furious at myself for not hearing it sneak in from outside, but the anger was clouded by the rage that made me grind my teeth against one another and my cheeks burn with unshed attacks.
Milo, trapped within the coils of scales, gasped upon seeing me then silently cried out as the Poison fiend tightened his hold. The maroon snake arched his head and brandished his saliva-coated fangs, making me skid to a halt. He shook the golden rattle at the end of his tail, hissing at me with a forked tongue. In my fury, I was shaking and letting out huge bolts of electricity that lit up the room and made the dirt on the floor jump and dance in front of us.
“Jed….” Milo squeaked faintly, eyelids fluttering with each pained, intake of breath.
And that was all it took to send me over the edge.
With the fiercest growl I had ever heard ripping itself free from my throat, I lunged and buried my fangs deep into the Ekans’ neck. The reptile yelled out, but I didn’t give him time to lash out. The moment my four paws hit the floor, I thrust my head back, jaws still clamped tightly around the snake’s airway. Milo’s limp body tumbled free as Ekans thrashed to make me lose my grip. Avoiding his fangs, I braced myself and sent him flying towards the wall.
The impact shook the shelf above the crumpled Ekans and ultimately sent it crashing to the floor. Potions and Repels shattered and spilled while Poké Balls rolled all around the place. Ignoring the mess, I walked over to the Snake Pokémon, showing my fangs and the electricity that rebounded off the floor and made my fur stand on end. I tasted blood but didn’t care. Ekans, dazed by the hit, wasn’t quick enough to avoid the Thunderbolt I let loose. The blinding-white bolt forked in the air for a split second before it enveloped him in a flash too bright for me to bare. Looking away, I only heard agonized hisses that soon died down. I heartbeat later, only the occasional zap of energy could be detected; the rising odor of burnt flesh rose to meet my nostrils.
“Milo,” I breathed, catching his twitching form in the corner of my vision. “Milo!”
When I was at his side, I cradled his head in my arms and stroked his fur. Milo was now shivering and thrashing, screaming about the deep gash he had running across his abdomen. Skin had been brutally shredded to reveal delicate, ivory bones beneath. Fur had been ripped away and carelessly tossed to the floor in tufts. My own stomach turned at the sight of the warm, garnet blood spilling free, and I wanted nothing more than to take away the pain that was racking his body. I kissed his forehead, trying to keep myself from crying. He was losing too much blood. The fight that had just ensued resulted in all Potions being spilt. The chances of me carrying him to help in time were mocking me in the face.
Dear Arceus, I couldn’t do a thing!
Milo, my little Milo, was slipping away, and I couldn’t do a thing to stop it.
“Everything’s going to be okay,” I lied when he managed to open his eyes. I was unable to do anything else but hold him, feel his warm fur, look into those terrified orbs.
“I-I’m cold, Jed,” he whimpered, a sob hitching in his throat. “And it hurts. It hurts so bad.”
When tears flooded my vision, I had to look away. I couldn’t let Milo know I was scared, stone-cold horrified, about what was happening.
Through the sea of tears, I saw a glint of ruby. Raising my head, I made out a Poké Ball inches away. Not knowing why, I reached out and rolled it over towards me. The red and white sides reflected the little light that filtered into the store. When I saw Milo’s paling face mirrored back to me, something clicked. I grabbed the sphere in my paw and pressed the button in the middle to enlarge it. Solemnly, I let the Poké Ball touch Milo on the forehead.
The Pichu was gripped by the orange energy that cascaded from the opened ball. He began to struggle against the pull, yet it wasn’t until he was transformed into nothing but light that I heard his frantic screams.
“Jed! It’s getting darker! The shadows won’t let me go!” He was out of my arms and steadily trickling into the Poké Ball I held. Part of me wanted to let it go and stop this. But when I saw Milo’s blood on the floor, on my own chest, I brought the ball closer to me.
“Don’t fight it, Milo!” I cried, shutting my eyes but unable to block his echoing pleas of help. “It’s going be over soon, I promise!”
With that, the Poké Ball closed and dropped to the floor. The blinking button went dark, and the sphere was still.
“The Poké Ball will stop you from bleeding any more; it’ll freeze you in time until I can get you help,” I sobbed. I picked it up and held to my chest, hoping Milo could hear me. “Oh, Milo, the shadows will protect you. Don’t be scared of the black that surrounds you.”
_____
Haunting You, Protecting You
I felt a tug on my lighting bolt-shaped tail, and flicking my elongated, black-tipped ears in slight irritation, I ignored it. Gripping the tree branch I was stood on with tiny claws, I leaned my chubby yellow body farther out, small snout twitching as I tried to detect any predators that could sneak our way. Anything could be hiding behind the trees of Viridian Forest or in the thick, thorny shrubbery that lay underfoot, especially now that night had settled. Beedrill could be nesting in the close-knit canopies. Raticate could be hiding in their dug burrows, out of sight beneath the thick and snaking roots of aged trees. With Milo with me tonight, I could not, would not, let anything slip by my radar of senses. One small slip could prove fa-
-Sharp fangs sunk themselves into my erect tail, and I only managed a few electric sparks of surprise before I was sent hurtling eight feet towards the forest floor. Landing in the brush, I groaned as briars dug into my fur, ears, and paws. Seconds later, a screaming fur ball landed on my stomach, stealing away any remaining breath I had. Wrapping my paws around the shivering blob of yellow and black, I painfully rolled from the bushes and onto the moist earth. As I pushed myself to my feet, I faintly wondered if I had bruised the cherry-red electric sacs on my cheeks; small bolts of electricity kept jumping out from them and disappearing into the ground.
“I didn’t think you’d fall!” the Pichu in my arms cried out suddenly, bottom lip already quivering. “You were just so quiet, like Mom, so I was scared! Honest, Jed, honest!”
I slapped a paw over Milo’s mouth. His owlish amber eyes widened, and his diamond-shaped ears flew back in shock. I was so busy checking our surroundings and lowering both of us into defensive, four-legged stances that I didn’t notice the Pichu’s pink cheeks alight with electricity and his eyes swimming in unshed tears. It wasn’t until I had deemed the area free of anything that might eat us and looked back at my little brother that I noticed he was on the verge of crying.
“Oh, Milo, don’t cry!” I guiltily whispered, immediately embracing him in a hug. My heart broke in two when I felt the black fur around his neck standing on end and his stubby, midnight tail shaking like a leaf. I wanted to tell him that it wasn’t safe to speak so loud, but he was already scared out of his wits. “There are no bad Pokémon here. I promise.”
The sparks of electricity that surrounded his face died down, and his tiny, yellow body stopped its quaking. I set him down near the bushes we had fallen on, my own oak eyes staring into the innocent depths of his.
“There are no bad Pokémon here,” I repeated, “and there won’t be if we keep our voices down.” I put a claw to my lips to show him, and he imitated me with dawning understanding. Smiling, I nodded in approval. “That’s it, and even when we get to the city, we have to be as quiet as possible.”
“Why do we have go there anyway?” he whined softly, his gaze lowered when, somewhere in the distance, the cawing of a Pokémon shook the air.
“Because,” I began, bringing him closer, “Mom’s really, really sick right now. Her Pikachu body isn’t strong enough to make her all better, and even that Antidote one of the trainers dropped didn’t help. If we get a Thunderstone from the city, she’ll evolve into a Raichu, and Mom will be stronger and get better.”
Milo whimpered when I mentioned our mother, and I couldn’t blame him. The poison from that Muk that had come with those group of traveling trainers crippled her, weakened her to the point of chronic exhaustion. Lustrous fur had dulled and fallen off in some places. Her once brilliant smile was now a constant grimace of agony. Most unsettling of all, her shining almond eyes were now black, a deep black that haunted Milo every time he thought about it. The sky, his shadow, all of it was black, and thus, all of it made him cry out in fright. Milo had begged to take him with me; he couldn’t stand seeing into those infinite depths again and feel hopeless, weak, and afraid.
I hugged my brother tighter, feeling helpless myself. I couldn’t take him back to the safety of the nest. Mom’s poisonous condition was contagious, and to a five-week-old Pichu, bringing him back would mean instant death.
“Are you scared of the shadows, too, Jed?” Milo asked in response to the tightened hug, his voice muffled in my breast fur as he nuzzled closer to me.
“No, Milo,” I assured him, giving him one last squeeze before facing north. “Let’s go. We’re almost there.”
The small Electric-type let go of me and obediently followed me through the trees, shaking paws holding my tail in an iron grip. It wasn’t until he saw light from the city houses piercing through the bleak blackness of the forest that he let go.
_____
We arrived at Viridian City’s Trainer Shop: a place where they sold everything and anything for the traveling trainer. Unfortunately for all of those trainers, the one-story building had been abandoned for months. The trees it was nestled in between had extended their roots until they had collapsed the wooden stairs that led towards the porch. The garnet moth-eaten canopy fluttered lazily in the breeze while dust from the weathering bricks danced in front of the boarded up windows. All in all, nobody would interfere with our searching.
“Come on,” I told Milo after withdrawing back to the safety of the bushes that lined the rickety, metal fence of the property. “It’s almost over.”
“I like this place,” he commented as I dragged him towards the porch. “Even when it’s night, there’re lights. Can’t we stay here, Jed? Can’t we bring Mommy and stay here?”
I looked at him as I helped him jump over the fungus-infested stairs. He was grinning from ear to ear. Since we had taken off from the burrow, his eyes had been clouded with fear and had always been on me. Now he was gazing at the street, the houses on either side, and the streetlights that illuminated it all with fascination and hope.
Biting my lip, I gently shook my head. “We can’t stay here, but I promise that after we get that Thunderstone, we’ll live happily again. The darkness won’t seem so scary anymore.”
His ears drooped slightly, but Milo still kept his smile. “Okay, as long as you promise.”
After that, he happily scurried after me as I searched for a way to get into the store. With the windows boarded up and out of reach, I turned towards the door. The few wooden boards that had kept thugs from entering were hanging on by badly-hammered nails. After making sure Milo was out of harm’s way, I backed up towards the edge of the porch and sent myself hurtling towards the door. All of my body weight met the crippling wood, and the result was a harmony of cracks that filled the still air. Smiling, I backed up for another Slam. A running leap later, I felt the wood groan and give from underneath me: my body completely shattered the boards. Shielding myself from the rain of splinters and wood chips, I picked myself up and cleared away the debris to see the small hole in the hanging door.
“Come, Milo,” I told him, one paw outstretched towards the unsure creature. “I know it’s dark, but I’ll be there with you.”
Hesitantly, he came nearer, and when he saw me wiggle my way through the hole, Milo let me help him through. A muffled cry of alarm rose up in his throat when he truly saw how the ebony shadows covered everything in the room. I could only make out the shadows of the shelves that lined walls to our right and behind the counter at the end of the room. I wrinkled my nose as the smell of rotten food wafted from the direction of the fridges in the corner. Everything else just smelled like the thick layers of dust that covered the wooden floor and every other surface.
“I want you to stay here, near the door, Milo,” I ordered him, gently positioning him to where the light from the outside filtered through the makeshift entrance I had created. “I’ll be back quickly.”
“You’re leaving me here?” he squeaked in terror, his tiny claws immediately grabbing on to my fur.
“Just for a little while. It’s going to be pitch black where I’m going, and Pichu can’t see as well as Pikachu in the dark.” I redirected his paws to my glowing cheeks. “Don’t worry; you’ll see me.”
I let Milo hold me for a while before he nodded and let me back away. Giving him one last smile, I darted deeper into the store, my face alight with the electricity brimming in my cheeks. I refused to look back. The faster I found a Thunderstone, the faster I could take Milo out of this place and the faster Mom would be on her way to recovery.
First I let my eyes scan the shelves above me, and when I found nothing but medicine and Poké Balls, I moved on past the fridges and towards the store counter. Evolution stones were rare, so it would only make sense if they were hidden or locked away somewhere. With that in mind, I broke the glass of the counter to rifle through every box I saw there. After finding nothing but amulets and bracelets used as battling items, I resorted to jumping into the shelves behind the counter and knocking bags and boxes to the floor so that I could investigate them later.
“I think I might have found one,” I shouted back to Milo after sniffing a velvet-lined box. “I won’t be sure until I crack it open, though.”
When no answer came, I frowned. I was glad Milo had been quiet; it showed that he was getting used to the dark. However, it wasn’t like him to be silent after someone had talked to him, scared or not.
“Milo?” Jumping off the shelf and onto the counter top, I leaned forward worriedly. I could make out an unmoving shadow against the door, but something was off about it. It was too big, too still. “Milo? Are you alright?”
My heart leaped to my throat when he painfully whimpered my name. Like lightening, I darted towards him, paws barely touching the dust-covered floor. Now I saw the shape for what it truly was: an Ekans that held my precious brother in his damned, scaly grip. I was furious at myself for not hearing it sneak in from outside, but the anger was clouded by the rage that made me grind my teeth against one another and my cheeks burn with unshed attacks.
Milo, trapped within the coils of scales, gasped upon seeing me then silently cried out as the Poison fiend tightened his hold. The maroon snake arched his head and brandished his saliva-coated fangs, making me skid to a halt. He shook the golden rattle at the end of his tail, hissing at me with a forked tongue. In my fury, I was shaking and letting out huge bolts of electricity that lit up the room and made the dirt on the floor jump and dance in front of us.
“Jed….” Milo squeaked faintly, eyelids fluttering with each pained, intake of breath.
And that was all it took to send me over the edge.
With the fiercest growl I had ever heard ripping itself free from my throat, I lunged and buried my fangs deep into the Ekans’ neck. The reptile yelled out, but I didn’t give him time to lash out. The moment my four paws hit the floor, I thrust my head back, jaws still clamped tightly around the snake’s airway. Milo’s limp body tumbled free as Ekans thrashed to make me lose my grip. Avoiding his fangs, I braced myself and sent him flying towards the wall.
The impact shook the shelf above the crumpled Ekans and ultimately sent it crashing to the floor. Potions and Repels shattered and spilled while Poké Balls rolled all around the place. Ignoring the mess, I walked over to the Snake Pokémon, showing my fangs and the electricity that rebounded off the floor and made my fur stand on end. I tasted blood but didn’t care. Ekans, dazed by the hit, wasn’t quick enough to avoid the Thunderbolt I let loose. The blinding-white bolt forked in the air for a split second before it enveloped him in a flash too bright for me to bare. Looking away, I only heard agonized hisses that soon died down. I heartbeat later, only the occasional zap of energy could be detected; the rising odor of burnt flesh rose to meet my nostrils.
“Milo,” I breathed, catching his twitching form in the corner of my vision. “Milo!”
When I was at his side, I cradled his head in my arms and stroked his fur. Milo was now shivering and thrashing, screaming about the deep gash he had running across his abdomen. Skin had been brutally shredded to reveal delicate, ivory bones beneath. Fur had been ripped away and carelessly tossed to the floor in tufts. My own stomach turned at the sight of the warm, garnet blood spilling free, and I wanted nothing more than to take away the pain that was racking his body. I kissed his forehead, trying to keep myself from crying. He was losing too much blood. The fight that had just ensued resulted in all Potions being spilt. The chances of me carrying him to help in time were mocking me in the face.
Dear Arceus, I couldn’t do a thing!
Milo, my little Milo, was slipping away, and I couldn’t do a thing to stop it.
“Everything’s going to be okay,” I lied when he managed to open his eyes. I was unable to do anything else but hold him, feel his warm fur, look into those terrified orbs.
“I-I’m cold, Jed,” he whimpered, a sob hitching in his throat. “And it hurts. It hurts so bad.”
When tears flooded my vision, I had to look away. I couldn’t let Milo know I was scared, stone-cold horrified, about what was happening.
Through the sea of tears, I saw a glint of ruby. Raising my head, I made out a Poké Ball inches away. Not knowing why, I reached out and rolled it over towards me. The red and white sides reflected the little light that filtered into the store. When I saw Milo’s paling face mirrored back to me, something clicked. I grabbed the sphere in my paw and pressed the button in the middle to enlarge it. Solemnly, I let the Poké Ball touch Milo on the forehead.
The Pichu was gripped by the orange energy that cascaded from the opened ball. He began to struggle against the pull, yet it wasn’t until he was transformed into nothing but light that I heard his frantic screams.
“Jed! It’s getting darker! The shadows won’t let me go!” He was out of my arms and steadily trickling into the Poké Ball I held. Part of me wanted to let it go and stop this. But when I saw Milo’s blood on the floor, on my own chest, I brought the ball closer to me.
“Don’t fight it, Milo!” I cried, shutting my eyes but unable to block his echoing pleas of help. “It’s going be over soon, I promise!”
With that, the Poké Ball closed and dropped to the floor. The blinking button went dark, and the sphere was still.
“The Poké Ball will stop you from bleeding any more; it’ll freeze you in time until I can get you help,” I sobbed. I picked it up and held to my chest, hoping Milo could hear me. “Oh, Milo, the shadows will protect you. Don’t be scared of the black that surrounds you.”