Jade Chronicles (Pokemon Fanfic)

Another Thing that Happened Three Hours Ago

Me: You know, today I'm feeling extra inspired.

Flip: Good for you.

Me: ...To do literally anything else than work on this story.

Flip: Cool.

Me: Are you even listening?

Flip: Yep.

Me: Oh, uh... really thought we were gonna go with the cliche joke there.

Flip: Nope.

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-------THREE HOURS BEFORE JADE WOKE UP-------

PENNY POV

"What's the matter? Scared? I would be too. In fact, I am scared, but that's not stopping me."

That was Wes. He's leading me into his secret hideout cave behind the school. And I guess... I'm following. "No," I say, "I'm fine."

I guess that was pretty unconvincing, because he replies "Sure. Just come in."

This is creepy on so many levels. But, I don't need to worry. So I walk in.

And I see the inside of the cave.

There are things - just all sorts of things - scattered around the cave. There's a small lantern in the center of the room, and decorative lights hung on the walls.

Wes walks over to a table. It's covered in scraps of paper with some sort of drawing on them.

"This is where I draw... or at least try to. It's not easily possible with no hands," Wes says.

I walk around some more. I find a lot of interesting objects. A photo of him and Lin with his face scratched out. A clock that's permanently set to 4:53 PM. A cymbal - just a single cymbal, no other percussion instruments nearby. And a locked box, locked with a three-digit code. And for some reason, I can't help but feel as if these are all... related?

Wes sees me near the locked box. "That's my box of secrets. I forgot the code. I don't know how to open it, and I don't know what's inside. As for that other stuff you found... that's all from the first time I met Lin.

---FLASHBACK---

"We were eight. We met at school, of course. I had made up a dumb plan to steal something from the music room and Lin was the only one who would help me. We stole that cymbal. We then ran far away so no one would know it was us. We went to one of those picture booths they have at the mall, and took only one picture. It wasn't until later that Lin... scratched my face out of it. She got mad at me for "not being myself" around her. And I GUESS she was right, but... she didn't have to get so mad. When she did get mad, it was 4:53 PM."

---END FLASHBACK---

Okay... cool story. That felt kind of cliche and uninspired, but whatever.

"Feel free to stay here for as long as you want," says Wes. "Some of my favorite things in the world, I found in this cave. And I always kinda hoped that maybe someday other people might too.