Lost in Reality [pokémon Ranger Fanfiction]

Chapter 10

"I've been here before," Kate said as she stepped through the darkness. Her arms coiled themselves, ready for a fight. The hair on the back of her neck stuck up like pins. It was the cold feeling as if someone were watching you.

However, Kate paid no mind as she trekked through the aimless eternity. Her footsteps held no echo, and not a single wind blew. There was nothing to see. Hear. Feel. Kate felt numb. The only think keeping her centered was the piercing glare in her back. She wondered if she could shake it, but nevertheless, it followed her. Never gaining an inch closer or farther away.

"I know you're there," the woman said quietly. Her shoulders were relaxed as the shadows seemed to dance, "Reveal yourself."

From the smokes, a man started to form. Kate's eyes grew flat as Blake Hall stood before her, just inches from her nose, "You called for me?"

Kate shook her head, "No. I didn't." She threw her arm, dispersing shadows across the darkness. She spun around, trying to follow the fading black wisps, "Show me who you really are."

From the distance, she could make out the image of her parents, "Have you really forgotten who we are?" They stepped closer and closer but Kate simply turned away. Denying they were true.

Then before her, Kate's young sister appeared. Not the older robotics expert who dreamed of being a mechanic. The small child she remembered playing tag with across the fields in her satin blue dress stood before her. The girl had pigtails that bobbed as she rolled on her feet, "I'm the madness in everyone that you try so, so hard to locked away."

The ranger didn't bat an eyelash as she walked through her sister as if she wasn't even there. From the corner of her vision, Kate made out the shape of her best friend. Blonde curls flying everywhere, and stray hairs coating the green school uniform.

"I'm the voice you try to quiet in the light of day," Rhythmi sung. 

Erma came to face her next, "The voice that overwhelms you when you're left alone."

Kate threw her hand threw the old woman's face as she continued to walk straight. "You aren't showing me who you are," She hissed with each stomp. Her pace picked up as all the people she met in life raced by. Ms. April, who taught her at Ranger School. Browly, her target-clearing mentor. Voices shouting all at once with words Kate struggled to understand. Isaac, the misguided kid-genius. Blake's second, the idiotic Wheeler. The shifting and forming shadows tried to lead Kate away. Tendrils reached out to snap her wrist, fruitlessly falling through.

Because Kate was real.

Finally, she came nose to nose with the love of her life. Keith smiled, an apathetic glaze over his face, "I'm the monster that hides under your bed at night. The one you think you can silence with sleep. But you know it only gets worse."

Kate threw out her arms in an X, crossing the man away. As if giving in, all the shadows melted together. Spiral pillars creating a creature she knew. His body was made out of shadows, as a white plume of smoke simmered from his red crown. A blue eye peaked out at Kate who just continued to shake her head.

"Give in to me, Kate. No matter what," Darkrai said quietly, "You can't get rid of me for I--"

Kate threw her hand into his face. Her fingers bent like claws as she tore the pokémon's face away.

There before her was a girl. Kate was looking in a mirror as the shadows dispersed, leaving the two staring tiredly.

"For I'm you," the reflection hushed, a Litten's smile curling across her lips.

Kate stretched her arm out again, but this time, the speaker was just out of reach. Her fingertips just millimeters from her reflection's nose. But each step she took, the reflection fell back in a perfect match.