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The Story of Cubone II - Cries in the Night, Ch. 7

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It was the dream again. Cubone felt himself being lead by his mother back to the main hall, where not a single Pokeuman could be seen. To the grassy patch near Mr. Steele's room they went again. Cubone dug the trapdoor he'd seen before out again. Since the dream did not stop, he lifted it up on its hinges.

There was a dark crawlspace beneath. There was just barely enough space for Cubone to stand up. Had he been a human still, he would have found it nearly impossible to traverse. The crawlspace was a short, dry passageway leading to a sort of grating that appeared to be a rusty storm drain. Cubone pushed on it experimentally. It heaved reluctantly. Finally, Cubone threw his shoulder into it, the grating snapping open with a light clank.

What Cubone saw then took his breath away. It was his mother, standing on top of a grassy hill, gazing up into the moonlit sky. She seemed almost not to notice him at first; merely gazing into the moon as if absorbing and pondering its great beauty. She stood tall in her marowak form, poised and strong. Something still seemed missing, but Cubone's mind was still too addled from the dream to quite tell what it was.

Finally, she turned and beckoned to him. The outdoors were eerily quiet - insubstantial, almost. But it WAS the outdoors. And that was his mother. Dream or not, Cubone believed in his mother. He carefully stood up and walked toward her.

Under the gaze of a moonlight that seemed impassive and yet caring for all it shown upon, Cubone hugged his mother. She felt cold, like... hugging a breeze made of ice. Something there, but NOT there. As if she were made of a foam that could turn to fog if one pushed on her too hard.

She hugged him back, and in a whisper he head not in his ears but in his mind, Cubone heard his mother's voice. "Remember the word I told you, Cassidy," his mother said quietly. "Say it back to me..."

Cubone shivered all over... not from the cold, insubstantial embrace, but from hearing his mother's voice. His mother's voice saying his HUMAN name. But he wouldn't let her down. He remembered. "Courage..." he said, his voice broken into something torn between a sigh and a gasping sob.

"When the time comes for you to be through with me, you will need to remember that word. And when things seem absolutely hopeless - and they WILL - remember that word. Remember it now and forever, and I will be able to move on with a happy heart. People will be depending on you, Cassidy. You were always destined for great things. Believe in yourself, believe in your friends, and have courage."

"Mom... I don't know what to do..." Cubone said, crying deeply, "I feel so weak... I'm lost without you..."

"Remember the word, Cass. Say it out loud if you have to. Say it when the pain and the heartache become too much to bear. Say it when everything in your body and soul makes you want to give up and give in. When you're lost and afraid and you don't know what is right or wrong."

"Courage," Cubone said again, still feeling weak.

His mother nodded.

"Will you be here to guide me, Mother?" Cubone asked hopefully. When the question was finished, however, he knew that the desire was utterly foolhardy.

"No longer, Cassidy. I've stayed too long already. I thought I was ready to move on all those months ago, but... Something has held me back. Something that must be done away with. My body must be put to rest... before I can move on."

Cubone had already felt chilled and strange during this dream, but now he felt a frozen terror and shock that he'd never expected to have. Something beyond all feeling and reckoning. "Your... Your body hasn't been...?" It was too ghastly to even speak of! Even in their cruelty, surely they'd autopsy her... perhaps experiment on her tissue. But... then they'd dispose of the body! They'd burn her or bury her. They wouldn't... They couldn't...

She was nodding. There was such a iron-fisted certainty in her expression that all at once, Cubone believed everything. Even if this was a dream, he believed it in his heart and soul.

His mother was beginning to fade away into the night sky. Cubone panicked and clung to her tightly, but it was starting to become more and more difficult for him to feel like he was gripping anything. "Mother... please... don't go! Please... I don't know how to go on... I don't know what to do..."

"Courage, Cassidy," she said in a whisper that could almost be mistaken for a breeze. "Courage. There is one final thing you must see. One thing that you have to know..."

Cubone fought with all of his willpower, mustering up something inside to make himself listen to his mother without begging or pleading. She seemed to see this as she continued to fade, and her eyes shown with approval. Finally she ascended into the bright moonlight, a wisp of shining breeze on the night air.

Cubone chased after it, following it up the hill as far as he could go. Then he was alone, gazing up into the welcoming moonlight. On the shining white hue of the lunar sky, he felt he saw the same luster of a marowak's skull.

He looked at it for a long, long time... And then he realized he was being watched.

---

His subscription radio feed was not doing anything to ease his nerves. As he drove up the highway, wondering what brainwashed compulsion of madness and cruelty was overcoming him now in the guise of sane rationality, the man kept his eyes on the road.

He was practically a full member of Pokextinction, he felt. He might as well be, at least. While most brainwashed citizens were unaware of their spray cans, he was all TOO wary of the silver can hidden in his pocket.

He'd tried to get rid of it before. But it didn't work. At first he'd mustered up the courage to do so, but then he felt himself lose track of a full two weeks, waking up with another spray can in his pocket as if nothing had happened. Now he was aware that his brainwashing was so complete he was unable to bring up the willpower to remove the spray can from his person. Whenever he tried, his body would be wracked with chills and terrors, like he was coming down with and incredible illness or withdrawing from a powerful drug he'd been addicted to for years. He had to keep it on his person. And that's why he was alone.

This didn't feel like THOSE kinds of brainwashing sensations, though. Something felt different about this whole thing. This felt... well... "cleaner," for lack of a better word. Like... he was driving home to safety instead of some vacant lot by the hillside. He felt as though... everything would be alright if he could just get there.

While "positive reinforcement" wasn't completely unheard of in brainwashing of his kind, it wasn't the norm by any stretch. Pokextinction dominated their humans and Pokemon alike through fear and ignorance... through mental repression and cruel experiments. This was a mental manipulation, but it was a different kind than he'd become all too familiar with over the last decade and a half... well... close enough to that much time anyway. So he drove, trying his best to keep his mind blank and off of what he was doing. Off of his dead wife.

It occurred to the man not for the first time and he fearfully rubbed his chin, which bore the stubble of a 5 o'clock shadow that had taken an extended stay, that he had been in the unique position of being one of the few... if ANY... humans that knew completely well that they were being brainwashed. That knowledge... the knowledge of the warning signs... had been what had saved his wife and newborn son from being destroyed by his own hand.

Not that it mattered anyway. In the end, Martha and little Cassidy had died. And even his sacrifice couldn't protect them in the end. He was once a family man who had expected great things in his life. Now he was a lonely editorialist whose only companions were fear, guilt, and loneliness... Companions whom had long overstayed their welcome.

Feeling hopeless and stupid, Callahan pulled off to the side of the road. This was the place. But where WAS this place? He didn't know. It was just a vacant lot surrounded at all sides by grassy hills and lonesome stars. He'd once seen the beauty in this night sky. Once... when he'd been by his wife's side. She'd saved him one fateful night by the light of the moon.

---

He'd gone hiking in the mountains on that night so many years ago and had strayed from the path a little bit. It wasn't far... just enough to get a quick view of the horizon and look at some interesting plantlife. When all of a sudden, he heard from growling from behind him. He was no nature expert so he couldn't tell if it was a wolf or a coyote or something... but he had a fair guess that it was canid. He had a MORE than fair guess that it was feral and desperately hungry. And he had an utter certainty that it was not alone.

Every single rule and lesson on how to handle an encounter with a wild animal had melted and poured away from him in a puddle of sweat and terror. He took a couple of tentative steps backwards, then he broke into a mad dash, tearing through the woods and hills in a blind panic. Three steps into his dash he had finally done the arithmetic that demonstrated their four legs to be better than his two, but he couldn't exactly take back his decision by then.

He stumbled and rushed forward, knowing that at any second, those animals would catch up to him and that would be that. He expected one of them to bite his calf of his thigh first... maybe even his shin. Then he'd be taken down in a snarling fit of hair, claws, and teeth.

Instead, his apparent doom had come in the form of a heavy rock, which sent him sprawling forward. He landed on his nose, causing it to trickle with warm blood. He spun around to see his canine pursuers, doing his best to face his death with some dignity and bravery. When suddenly the most curious thing happened.

The beast leapt with vicious intent on his jugular, when all of a sudden it had been struck hard by some kind of massive white... stick? bar?... something, and to his utter shock, he caught a figure chasing the wolves off.

"GET OUT OF HERE! NOW!" it had called, carefully hiding itself in the shadows. It was clearly struggling and fighting with the animals from the sound of things.

"Who... who are..." he'd begun, but the voice gave no pause.

"RUN! NOW!!!"

He felt the slightest twinge of an idea that he was somehow a coward for running, but he was a practical sort who knew when he would just be getting in the way, and he wasn't so insecure as to need to make some show of fighting.

So, he had run. And he continued to run for some time. That was when misfortune found him again, for he had tripped on something and tumbled to the side again; and this time it wasn't solid ground he ended up on.

He had gone off of the side of a steep cliff and had only just caught himself on the rocky ledge below. While he wasn't a weak man, he also was no fitness champion, and he struggled mightily to try to reach the uppermost ledge again. Finally he put half of his strength into just hanging on and half of it into screaming "HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELLLLLP!!!!"

It had seemed like a useless, futile gesture, but it had come from his gut, an instinct that would be silenced for nothing. He had had time to think "This is it... I am going to die," when all of a sudden he heard a screaming call again. It was that same woman's voice!

"I'M COMING! JUST HANG ON!"

She clearly was unaware of her ironic choice of words, and yet hearing that gave him just enough resolve to continue clinging for dear life. Finally, he caught the barest glimpse of a beautiful young woman... tall and thin. He had not been able to make out more than that, for his view was obscured and a lot of his mental faculties were dedicated at the moment to keeping himself alive.

He heard her curse, sort of light and in her throat. Then a slight pause that had been around a tenth of a second, but felt more like a week to Callahan, she let out another breathless curse, swearing with the sound of desperate futility.

When all seemed lost, that had been the moment that would change Callahan Rhodes' life forever. From above him he caught a glimpse of an incredibly bright white light appearing in a dazzling flash and then ending just as quickly. Suddenly something was thrust out in front of him.

"GRAB ON! HURRY! I'LL PULL YOU UP!!!" she'd said. And he did so without a peep of argument.

He clung to to item and had just the shortest second to think "...Bone...?" before he was hauled up, his weight being hefted to terra firma by as if it were nothing.

He had been gasping and panting and just so relieved that it had taken him a moment to realize that his savior was desperately looking through the grass for something. He turned to look up at the tall woman he'd seen... when all of a sudden time froze.

There she had been... half crouched and searching, her tail twitching nervously. She had caught his gaze and they simply stared at one another, completely at a loss for what to do next.

A few century-filled seconds later, he found that he was now in a sitting position, while she had stood staight up and turned to face him. She was just a little bit above eye level to him this way. There she had stood, a tan-bodied monster with a white head that looked like it was crafted from some kind of thick pearl.

He reached out tentatively to her and she dodged back. "No, wait! I'm sorry!" he said. "I just..."

Suddenly he felt something under his hand. He looked, and there was a small ring. He picked it up and... knowing how she'd wanted to keep her distance from him, he tossed it to her.

She caught it with one hand. In the other hand was a massive bone. It was incredibly thick and was as tall as her when stood lengthwise. That had been what she'd used to save him.

Through a miracle, he had somehow managed to find his tongue. And when he spoke, he sounded as if this was a casual conversation with his friends. "I just... wanted to say thank you... Thanks for saving my life. ...If there are more... creatures like you in this world, then it's a far better place than I'd ever guessed."

She looked at him for a very long time, sizing him up. Finally, she put the ring over her fingerless hand and in a flash of light had become the tall thin woman who'd rescued him.

"Come on," she said, offering a hand to help him up. "This isn't going to be worth all the trouble if you bleed to death. Let's get you to the hospital."

That was his first experience meeting his wife.

---

Now, Callahan stood, thinking of her. About how beautiful she'd looked in the moonlight, both as a human and in her true form of a marowak. How his heart ached to see her... to thank her... to apologize to her.

But there was no chance for that anymore. She was dead. His son was also dead, tainted by her mother's genes... no, that was the brainwashing again... taking after her mother by becoming a Pokemon as well. They both had to be killed because they wouldn't simply turn themselves over.

Why am I suddenly thinking of all of this? he asked himself. HOW am I suddenly able to think these thoughts so openly...?

He sighed and leaned on his car. Well, at least it was a beautiful night out tonight. And while he was at least partially in control, he would enjoy the moon that his wife had loved so much. Even as a newborn, his son had seemed destined to take her, because even when he was newly born, his crying could often be eased by one of them simply sitting in the path of the moon's beautiful glow.

Now, he looked up at the moon himself... It was beautiful. It felt like he was home. Like he was just a little bit closer to his lost family. It was as if he could see...

...As if he could see...

"My god..." he uttered. He impulsively reached for his spray can. But something stayed his hand. ...But... how? Nothing had stopped him before. he knew that all too well. Why now?

"My god... My god in heaven..." he began again.

It's one of them a voice rose inside. But again it was curiously muffled. Insubstantial. Meaningless. He ignored it.

There, standing in the light of a bright, full moon, a lone cubone stood, looking up at the skies in just the same way as his family had done in some ancient time in a long lost past. It had to be an illusion. It was a ghost or a trick of the light. It was...

Slowly, it turned to face him. So far away, so close... All at once.

Tears trickled down his face. The cubone had seen him. They looked at each other for a long, long time.

Callahan had no words... Nothing he could say could possibly give voice to his heart. It had to be a mirage or an illusion of some kind.

But it wasn't. He knew that as well as he knew his own name. That cubone was THERE. It wasn't a trick of the light. It might have been a ghost with that strange bluish glow that encased him, but Callahan KNEW the cubone was right there.

Suddenly, the Cubone vanished without a trace, disappearing as if blinked out of his sight. He felt his hand still half reaching for the spray can, and he lowered it again with only the faintest notice of his irritability. Had it been a ghost? Was that his son's ghost?

He didn't know. But he wasn't going to miss his chance. This was what he'd wanted for so long... the chance to say what he needed to say.

He called out as loud as he could. He screamed them. "CASSIDY! PLEASE FORGIVE ME!!! I WILL ALWAYS LOVE YOU!!! ALWAYS!!!"

---

Cubone awoke in his bed the next morning, shivering in terror and confusion and crying louder than he'd ever cried before.
Chapter 7: Pokemon in the Moonlight

Okay... There is no easy way for me to talk about this chapter. This one along with maybe the next two are going to be very challenging for me to get through. 

I've been thinking about how this chapter was going to play out for a VERY long time now, and have approached it from many different angles, trying to make sure I got the timing and the perspective the way I wanted them. A lot of planning and fretting and worrying about whether this chapter would be any good.

In the end, I did what I always do on The Story of Cubone; as well as most stories - I sat down and I wrote what came to mind. Then I went back and edited it. And this is what it was finally shaped into. There is a LOT said in this chapter and even more that I did NOT say. 

Whatever the case, I sincerely hope that you enjoy this chapter and look forward to the next one!

---

This is the second book of The Story of Cubone, a tale in the "Pokeumans" series, originally created by :iconpokemonmanic3595:. Though The Story of Cubone should be considered self-sufficient and doesn't require prior knowledge, I highly suggest you check out pokemonmanic3595's stories as well as the user group, :iconpokeumans:, as there are many other well-written stories to be found there.

Book I: ryusuta.deviantart.com/gallery…
© 2014 - 2024 Ryusuta
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KeeperLink's avatar
May Arceus save the souls of all who've been brainwashed... poor guy...