Rise of the Nightmares

Chapter 12

After reading the letter she received from the Babylon Rogues the previous night, Kate had a difficult time sleeping, so when she woke up, she felt just as exhausted as she was when she tried to get any sleep. When she woke up, she felt groggy, and to make matters worse, the mark on her right wrist was stinging worse than before. In fact, it was the burning feeling on her skin that made her wake up, and as she opened her eyes, she took a look at the mark.

She couldn't tell if it was worse than before or just the same, and at this rate, she felt like it didn't even matter anymore. All she knew was that the stalker marked her before she managed to escape him and ended up here without her memories. Unable to go back to sleep because of the burning pain on her wrist, Kate got up and headed to her bathroom to get ready for the day.

She did the usual routine to change into clean clothes, brush her teeth, fix her hair, and apply the medicine that Doctor Toad gave her to ease the irritation on her wrist. As she finished rubbing some medicine on her mark, she formed a sad look and let out a sigh, staring at the mark as she did so.

Now that she understood that this was a cursed mark of some sort and not an abnormal bug bite, it was no mystery to why it continued to get worse and the medicine did nothing to make it go away. But now she had new questions regarding this strange cursed mark.

She got this before she came here to Mobius, so why was the mark suddenly starting to affect her now? She had been on Mobius for a couple of months before the mark suddenly resurfaced and brought pain into her arm. What was the significance of this mark? And most importantly, how could she get rid of it?

Maybe it was meant to mark her in terms of possession, judging by the nightmare she had a couple of nights ago. The stalker gave her this mark before she managed to escape him, and based on her nightmare, that meant that the stalker wasn't human. But maybe he wasn't a Mobian either, so that meant that he was something far worse. Perhaps some sort of monster.

The thought that an inhuman creature was the stalker and wanted to claim her as some sort of soulmate of their own made Kate shake. She even hugged herself to try to calm down, reminding herself that she had her friends, especially Mario and Sonic.

As she thought about her friends yet again, Kate recalled the nightmare she had a while ago. The one where her friends suddenly turned against her, calling her the monster instead of the stalker who was so desperate to kidnap her.

But these past couple of days, the way that they took care of her and kept her company as she was recovering from getting slightly sick, thanks to a lack of sleep, it reminded her how much her friends cared about her.

Mario, Sonic, Knuckles, Tails, Luigi, Amy, Princess Peach, Cream and Cheese, Vanilla, the Chaotix, Silver and Blaze, Princess Daisy, Team Dark, Marine, Toad and Toadette, Yoshi, Big, Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong, Rosalina, and even Sonic's siblings and mother.

All of them were her friends, and they cared about her. They all were staying here at the castle, running patrols to protect her and train with her to help her prepare for her destiny when it comes. The odds of them suddenly turning against her seemed impossible now, and she had to remind herself that.

The thought of her friends, who were practically her family now that she had found a home here in Mobius, made Kate smile. Whether or not she can go back home to Earth, her friends were her family here on Mobius, and they were always going to be a part of her life.

As Kate smiled, the stinging feeling on her wrist slightly calmed down. Though, because of how dark her skin was on the spot where the mark was, she still rolled down her sleeves to hide it.

Kate exited the bathroom and sat down on her bed. Meloetta had woken up and hovered over to her. The mythical Pokémon nervously eyed the girl's wrist.

"Lo me ta?" she quietly asked.