Underdog (Pokémon Fan Fiction)

Chapter Twenty-Eight

               Gold stared, crying silently as Seth's chest stopped moving. He looked as though his entire world had just crumbled before his eyes, and in a way, it had.

              I didn't say anything, comforting or otherwise. I knew better. If I was Gold, and some onlooker said something stupid like, 'he's in a better place now,' I'd probably kick their ass. Until now, the two had been inseparable. That was all taken away by a single girl who couldn't care less. 

              Suddenly, Gold reached out and pulled the headband off of Seth’s head. It was about the only thing he wore that wasn’t completely covered in blood. Gold’s eyes filled with tears, and he clutched the headband like a lifeline. “It’s not fair,” he whispered. “This is all my fault. I- I couldn’t protect him. What good is being strong if you can’t help the people you care about?”  

              “Don’t do this to yourself, Gold.” I said quietly, sitting up. “You know Seth wouldn’t want you to.”               

           “How the hell can you say that?!” Gold whirled around, his golden eyes flashing. “You don’t know what Seth would have wanted! No one does! And they never will, because he’s dead!” His shoulders shook. “He’s dead. He’ll never tell me what he wanted.” 

              Gold cried, holding the headband tightly. I struggled to hold back tears as he sobbed, and I crawled over to him, wincing as my muscles protested against the movement. “We…we should get of here, before…” I didn’t want to be the one to force him to leave his friend’s body, not this soon, but we didn’t have time to grieve. We had to leave, or we’d be next.

               “Before other people are hurt, too.” He whimpered. “I know. I just- I just wish…” he buried his face in hands. “I never got to say goodbye! And I- I lied to him while he was dying. I told him he would be fine, and he- he believed me. What would he say now if he could?”

               “He…” I sighed. “I don’t know what he would say. I honestly don’t. But I do know that he wouldn’t want you to meet the same fate.” I felt horrible talking about Seth like this, especially since his body was only a few feet away.

               Gold looked down silently. “You’re right,” he said finally. “But I just…he shouldn’t have had to! It’s not fair! I tried to save him, I did, and I was too late. He died because Team Rocket wanted to hurt me. If it weren’t for that, he would be fine right now.” Tears cascaded down his face.  

              “Gold…I know how you feel. Really. None of my friends have died before this, but I told you before, I do know what it’s like to feel responsible for them being hurt. But it’s not your fault. It’s Team Rocket’s.” Now I felt like a hypocrite, too, since I blamed myself for Kimi and Luna’s current predicament. But that wouldn’t be the best thing to tell Gold right now.

               He nodded quietly, and looked back at Seth. Then he suddenly stood up and walked quickly to the door. “Let’s go,” his said with an air of finality. He refused to meet my gaze. “We have to hurry.”

               I shook my head, standing up. I supposed that this was his way of coping, but I still couldn’t believe that Seth was gone. He was alive and well not twenty four hours ago when we battled. How could he suddenly just- not exist?

               It was a few minutes before I realized that Gold and I were running. When I noticed, I looked around, and saw that we were attracting a lot of attention. People kept trying to point the strange devices at us, but we were running too fast for them to reach. Then we turned a corner, outrunning them and thundering down a creepy hallway not unlike the tunnel we came in through. It all felt surreal, like I was in a dream. And quite frankly, I didn’t really care. I just wanted to find-