Pokemon Regression

Chapter 33: Chee's Story

"Chee... I won't hate you." I answered softly. I don't think she really believed me, but she nodded resolutely. 

'It all started on my 6th Birthday.' She began via the app. 'I got into a fight with my parents, and I decided to run away from home.' 

"Run away...? Why?"

The young girl softly shook her head. 'My parents were well known trainers, I think. They were training me to look after Pokemon, and it was difficult to keep up with them.'
'I got fed up with the training and asked them to take it easier on me, but my dad refused. So I ran away.'

She flipped the paper showing a crude drawing of a house with a girl running away. In the house were two vague drawings of people, one with long brown hair and the other with short black hair. I could only assume they were her mother and father, respectively. 

'When I ran away, I stumbled across a hurt monster.' Chee continued, flipping over another page to show... A blank space in a forest, where a silver scribble filled the space where a Pokemon should be. It looked vaguely like a bird, but it was extremely basic, unlike the rest of the drawing.

I frowned. "I think you forgot to draw it?"

Chee vigorously shook her head. It's too scary to draw!!

"...Is that so?" I mused. Given that information, I had an inkling of where the story was going to go from here. She'd encountered a wild and injured Pokemon, tried to touch it, and it had lashed out. It might seem childish to some, but that was more than enough to traumatise a girl at such a young age-Especially if it had done some real damage, as the Nurse had implied. 

'But, I couldn't just leave the injured Pokemon alone.' The messages continued. 'I decided to try and take care of it, and'

The words cut off abruptly, and I prepared myself for the flow of the story I'd predicted. 

'After I helped it heal, it took a liking to me.' She finally added. 'I realised that if something like that happened to me, only my parents would be able to help, so I decided to go home, and I said goodbye to the monster.'

I blinked a few times, surprised that the story ended there. Chee lowered her PokeDex for a few moments, taking a nervous breath. Just as I was about to speak again, I realised she was shakily raising an arm to her left shoulder. The palm of her hand landed softly on the top of her shoulder sleeve, and she grasped the fabric firmly. 

She pulled the shirt sleeve aside, revealing her bare shoulder to me for the first time since we'd met, and I felt my breath catch in my throat. Between her neck and the ball of her shoulder was a set of long thick scars, trailing down her torso and under the shirt. Each scar was at least as thick as a finger, and I recognised some of the scars as being talon marks-As though a large bird had dug it's talons into her chest.

'This is what it did to me when I tried to leave.' 

I looked up into Chee's eyes, but it was no use. They were swimming with so many emotions that I couldn't make out what she was thinking properly. All I could ascertain was that she remembered the pain vividly.

"I'm sorry that happened to you." I answered weakly. I thought the story would end there, but the PokeDex buzzed again.

'I wasn't strong enough to fight it.' The message read, and I saw Chee flip the paper once again, presenting a new drawing of a girl being lifted into the air by her shoulder. She let it rest for a moment, then flipped to yet another drawing-A nest in a cave, where the girl was dropped haphazardly. 

'It took me to it's home, and forced me to look after it.'
'Each day it would come home covered in wounds, and insist that I help it. Whenever I refused, or tried to escape...'