[journey] killer in the mirror

Looking in disbelieve, you watch the house appear from the fog, piquing both your interest and making you cautious about what is going on. You decide to go check it out, while you sent your Dragapult to go after the spectre.

Guided by a natural curiosity, you step closer to the house, or the top down view of it. For it to be seen better, you decide to let yourself glide down the 6ft into the pit. The moment your feet touch the soil underneath you, you feel that something is amiss. Having Hēixié with you, gives you some relieve, but maybe it wasn't the best decision after all.



You feel a rumbling underneath your feet and when you set one step in the direction of the house, the following happens.

A small portal opens up under the house, expelling bright red light to the heavens. It disappears when reaching the sky high enough. With in the middle, on the ground, a woman.

What will you do?

When you ask the question to the woman, she turns towards you. Her head making a snap towards you, her silvery white eyes glaring at you. Fresh blood still dripping from them as she opens her mouth. For a few seconds, not a single thing can be heard. As if you watched in slow motion, the sound hits you a few seconds later, almost trying to blast you back into the dirt behind you. You look up, see the woman pointing at you. With a stretched out hand, she comes towards you on high speed, like a ghost being drawn to a bad person. You find no way out as the finger collides with your body and the woman disappears.







When you open your eyes and look down, you see a gaping hole in your chest where your heart is supposed to be. Trying to touch it makes you feel nauseous. Looking up, both the woman and the house are gone and your Dragapult is floating in front of you, with the spectre right behind it. Now that it is this close, you can almost see through the fog what the spectre is.

With panic setting in and your repeating of curses, both your pokémon and the spectre behind him take a step back. It is only Hēixié that stays at your side, seeing the comparison with what happened last time. It barks to the spectre, as if it's trying to ask for help. The spectre hesitates, as if its unsure what to do with you in this condition. Slowly, it moves forward, the fog still obscuring your vision of her.



The curse that took your heart is taking root in your mind, making you unsure about what you see is true or false. Memories from your earlier encounters make your decision making troubled. As you look up to the spectre, a memory of the hag flashes before you, filling you with fear. Your mind and body working as one, both not listening to your commands, and you run. Past your pokémon, past the spectre, deeper into forest.

Coming to a halt in front of a tree, one as big as one of the building in the city. It has a whimsical glow around it and while you stop  just twenty feet in front of it, you can clearly see something sitting between its roots. Slowly, your troubled mind eases, letting you think clearly again now that you're removed far enough from the cursed place. But when you look around, you're alone.

Pain is making you almost unable to think, it is blurring your vision as you heave for air, trying to suppress the pain coursing through you. Without your pokémon around you, you feel utterly alone. A feeling that you haven't had for some time now, as you take a look at the tree in front of you. Fog rolls in around your ankles and when you look over your shoulder, you can see the spectre gliding in behind you. It gives you one look, before gliding towards the tree. Your pokémon, however, are nowhere to be seen.

A few feet in front of you, the spectre looks around, motioning you to come closer. As you look at where the figure is going, you see how the fog falls from its shoulders, revealing a Gardevoir. The pokémon gives you one last look, before continuing its way towards the roots op the tree.

Walking up to the tree, the Gardevoir is sitting between its roots, a circle of smaller pokémon all around it. You recognize the pokémons to be Ralts. When the Gardevoir notices you coming closer, it ushers the Ralts to gather behind it. It doesn't seem to be trusting you entirely.



One of the little pokémon walks from behind the Gardevoir, it wobbles a little bit, falling over while walking towards you. The Gardevoir holds out its arms, trying to stop it. You think they are communicating through telepathy, as there is no sound to be heard. However, the Ralts is still making its way towards you, stumbling and falling over. Almost as if its sick and weak, maybe that is the reason the Gardevoir doesn't want it to come close to you.

When you kneel down before the Ralts, it looks over its shoulder towards the Gardevoir. The pokémon shaking it's head softly, as if it doesn't want it to come closer to your. Your soft words however have piqued the interest of the Ralts. It stumbles further, before falling into your arms. Looking up at you, you can see its eyes looking at you, growing bigger with the second. The Gardevoir, however, is looking at you with a watching eye as a mother looking at its child doing something that its not suppose to do. It has a worried look on its face, with its eyes flicking from you to the Ralts, making sure that nothing is happening.

The Ralts however, raises its hands, trying to climb on top of you. With its head only inches in front of yours, it heaves it hands to place on your temples. You see the pokémon glow for a moment, and a warmth feeling is flowing from the Ralts towards you. When you close your eyes, you feel the panic and the pain in your abdomen subside, as the Ralts is using Heal Pulse, to calm you down.

The moment the glow disappears, the Ralts falls into your arms, breathing weakly. The Gardevoir immediately rushes into action, snatching the Ralts from your arms. Its body glowing blue as you feel the Psychic energy around you. It looks at you with hatred in its eyes, as if you just made the condition of the Ralts even worse.

With the sense of tranquillity washing over you by the powers of the Ralts, you notice that it also erases the illusion that had been placed over your mind, as the hole in your chest slowly disappears. But you can't have peace for so long, as the Gardevoir snatches the Ralts from your arms when the healing stops.

The pokémon looking at you with hatred filled eyes, your pleas falling on deaf ears. The blue glow of psychic powers extending from the pokémon to you, filling your head with the voice of the pokémon. "Devil touched by darkness. How dare you come to this tranquil place. Cast your shadow elsewhere."  

The Gardevoir raising its hands, with the blink of an eye, both your pokémon land besides you. "Take your pokémon and leave this pla-" The words disconnect abruptly when the Ralts in the Gardevoir's arms reaches out to the bigger pokémon, a soft childlike voice filling your head this time. "N-no. Leave him. No devil. T-there is life in darkness." But the voice is weak, a whisper compared to that of the Gardevoir.

While not using your words, it is the actions that you decide to take that makes the Gardevoir lower her guard a bit. It genuinely thought you would snap at your pokémon when it was ready to pounce. But you handled with care and gentleness, not with aggression as it had expected. But it was the Ralts' voice that filled your mind once more. "You're touched by darkness, but there is a spark of life hidden away." The Gardevoir sat down, the Ralts was still weak but it could sit up and lean against the body of the bigger pokémon. Both of them look up at you. "You're not yet consumed by darkness, something is keeping life within your grasp."

Next it is the Gardevoir that speaks to you. "This Ralts is a special one. Where most of our kind shy away from the darkness, this one seems to be drawn to it. But it is making it sick. It is in need of good care, life and light. Not a devil like you." While it's tone of voice was softer then before, you can still clearly hear the disgust that it harbours for you.