章 20: Even Shadows Have A Name
As Jared closed the door behind him and walked back inside, a voice, small and childlike, caught his attention. He searched for the source, but couldn't locate it.
"Thank you," the voice spoke again.
Jared spun around, "Who's there?" he asked, his voice showing alertness.
"I know many things now," the voice responded.
Frustrated, Jared demanded, "Who are you? Come out and show yourself!"
Suddenly, a thick smoke started to emanate from Jared's nose and mouth, eventually taking the shape of Gastly's face.
Jared was taken aback. "Did you just...?" he started to say.
Ignoring his question, the voice continued inside Jared's mind, "For almost as long as I can remember, they would eat us, and every time, I would lose a piece of myself. After a long time, I could no longer remember who I was..."
Raising his hand, Jared cut Gastly off mid sentence. "Wait, hold up, Gastly, is that you talking?" he asked in disbelief.
"It is me. We really, really need to find my name. It was the first thing they took from us, but I can't find it!" the childish voice responded urgently.
Jared was puzzled. "What? What are you talking about?"
"My name!" Gastly repeated, as if it explained everything.
Trying to make sense of the situation, Jared started from the beginning. "Firstly, how did you come out of me like that? Were you trying to possess me or something?"
"It was not me. I didn't do anything wrong," Gastly replied.
"Okay... Then why are you suddenly able to speak while not in my dream?"
"You are silly. I am not talking," Gastly corrected him.
Jared realized that Gastly was communicating through their thoughts. "Thinking?" he thought.
"Yup," Gastly confirmed.
Jared's disbelief was palpable as he raised an eyebrow and asked, "You can hear all my thoughts?"
"I think so, but not always," Gastly responded.
Feeling puzzled, Jared inquired further, "If you have some of my memories, then why don't I have any of yours?"
Gastly replied with a question, "Do you want to hear them very bad?"
Jared's frustration grew as he felt like he was conversing with a playful child. He took a seat in his chair, attempting to make sense of the situation on his own. As he pondered, a deep sensation in his mind drew his attention to a dark well at the edges of his mind, causing him to mutter under his breath, "So it wasn't a dream?" Then his thoughts changed to the 'strings' that he had connected to Gastly earlier that day. Intuitively, he shut his eyes and looked for them, and without much effort, he could feel the existence of a black rope unfurled before him. Following it, he gasped at what he saw.
Similar to earlier experiments in which he endeavoured to sense his arm without actually seeing it with his eyes, Jared could now 'see' Gastly entirely! Yet there was more to it than just that; he could perceive unfamiliar veins coursing through Gastly's 'body', throbbing with dark energy. Jared pondered, 'Is this what I believe it to be?'
Gastly responded to his thoughts, 'Yes, the 'elemental energy.'
Despite the discomfort of the childish voice intruding into his thoughts, Jared felt elated with this discovery. "To hell with it," he muttered as he tried to suppress his disorientation and unease. Instead of grilling Gastly with questions, he opted for trying an easier route, "Can you show me your 'memories?'"
"I think so, I will try."
The ghost then began to seep into Jared's facial orifices, causing him discomfort, but he endured it nonetheless. "Okay, I'm going to try to give you some of my memories like you did to me" a voice said.
Suddenly, a deluge of information flooded Jared's mind. At first he thought it was going to be painful, but it had easily assimilated into him as if he had been aware of it all along.
As he sifted through the memories, he noticed they were all fragmented, as if they had been nibbled away by hundreds of termites. He observed Gastly's hunger as it roamed the city in search of nightmares to consume. He also saw himself from Gastly's perspective during the Greater Nightmare. He witnessed his fear as the lantern almost extinguished, yet he somehow recovered. He also didn't miss how he had been uttering nonsensical words at the time, gazing around as if he were lost.
Continuing to sift through Gastly's fragmented recollections, he discovered new memories that Gastly believed were lost. These memories depicted a boy growing up in poverty, raised by a mother who fought constantly with his father. Despite the constant conflict, the boy seemed to accept it as the norm. Jared couldn't help but sigh as he saw the boy's mother leave him and his father to fend for themselves. His father, an alcoholic who worked at the docks, regularly beat the boy with a cane. Jared felt a pang of pain as he witnessed the boy being beaten half to death by his drunken father.
As he delved deeper into the memories, the final recollection he could extract of the boy was of him gazing at a flickering street light, before shutting his eyes. Other than that, Jared found that Gastly's memories provided no answers as to how he came to be a Gastly, but he did discover how to conceal his thoughts if he desired. However, he saw no reason to conceal anything at the moment.
"So, that boy in those memories was you?" Jared finally asked, his mind still filtering and scanning the new information.
Gastly left Jareds body to look him in the eyes before replying, "Yes, it was me."
Jared sighed, "I'm sorry..."
But Gastly stuck out his tongue happily, "Why are you sorry? I know lots of things now, so I'm happy. But I still need to find my name!"
"But the haunters have your 'name', how do you expect me to get it back?"
"We can go into the greater nightmare, and then beat them up with the light thingy."
Jared shook his head, dismissing the idea, "That's not happening. From what I can tell, we barely survived. Even if we are sent back in there, I can't even guarantee my survival, let alone a counterattack. Why is your 'name' so important to you anyway? Can't I just give you a new one?"
"It's not the same. You are 'whole', so you wouldn't understand."
"Well, at any rate, I can't win against the haunters, but if we're going to keep being forced into the greater nightmare, then maybe we can find a way... as long as we don't end up dying that is. For now, let's take this conversation to my dream, because I need to get some sleep, and my head is killing me. Cast hypnosis."
Gastly's eyes held Jared's gaze, But Jared was surprised to notice the pulsing veins within Gastly's ethereal body light up. But before he could examine it further, Jared's eyelids drooped and he fell into a deep slumber.
When Jared finally stirred, he was met with the sun's brilliant rays, though he was still groggy from his nap. Determined to reset his sleep schedule in the future, he cooked up some rice and ate before absorbing Gastly back into his body, heading out for the day.
Jared had devised a plan with Gastly before drifting off, and now he intended to set it into motion. They were going to gather intel on the Tapu Battlegrounds to better understand how the whole process worked and perhaps even participate in one of the matches depending on the situation. Even though Gastly was opposed to being exposed, Jared had his own agenda, and if that involved revealing Gastly, then he would do it. Despite his plans to potentially participate in arena battling, Jared was not willing to take any unnecessary risks, especially not at the moment. He knew that he needed to find a way to ensure his anonymity before even considering taking part. If he couldn't find a way to guarantee his safety, he would have to explore other options instead.
A man in his late twenties had just walking into the lobby of the Tapu Battlegrounds, observing the hustle and bustle around him. As the man made his way towards the attendant's desk, a bored-looking employee lazily informed him of the thirty-poke fee to watch the free matches, with a stern warning that there would be no refunds.
The man in question was Jared, "Excuse me, I'm new to this arena battling thing, and I was hoping you could tell me a bit about the rules."
The attendant guffawed, "Aren't you a little old to be this ignorant? and maybe you should take a shower, because I can smell you from here."
Jared's face contorted into a frown upon hearing the snickering of a few nearby people. He had hoped to keep a low profile, but it seemed that was not going to be possible. He then decided that he would have to seek help from Mali later and, with a bit of a struggle, he tried to stay polite, "Could you please explain how I can sign up as a participant?"
The attendant, tapping the counter impatiently, scrutinized Jared's shabby attire before growing more irritated. "You're in the wrong place bud. This desk is solely for customer admissions. For anything else, you need to take the elevators over there," the attendant grumbled while pointing in an indistinct direction. However, the sheer size of the facility and the hundreds of people bustling about made it difficult for Jared to discern exactly where the attendant was indicating.
Jared inquired, his eyes scanning the bustling lobby, "Can you be more specific about where the elevators are? Which floor is it on?"
The attendant let out an exasperated sigh, clearly annoyed by Jared's persistence, "You're holding up the line, man. It's on the first floor, now move along for the next customer"
Although the attendant's attitude was rude, Jared maintained his composure and thanked him before making his way towards the vague direction the attendant had directed him to, while Gastly pouted in his mind.
"He was very mean, I don't like him," Gastly muttered in his usual childish tone.
Jared shrugged in agreement, "It's understandable, though. I'm not exactly dressed for success. Compared to almost everyone around here, I look homeless."
"Still, mean" Gastly insisted.
After walking around for a bit, Jared found the elevators in question. There were thirty of them in total, yet despite the abundance of elevators, they were all being used constantly with many people coming and going. Some individuals were carrying small Pokémon, but there were none just walking around. Jared already knew why: he had seen a guard at the entrance politely asking someone to place their Pokémon inside a Poké Ball before entering. However, the rules seemed to be a bit flexible as smaller Pokémon were allowed to be carried.
As Jared approached two teenagers emerging from an elevator, he walked up to them and opened his mouth to speak, hoping to ask for directions. "Excuse me, I..."
But before he could finish, he heard a scoff, then noticed the disdainful glances they cast towards him. One of them wrinkled their nose at the sight of his tattered clothes, while the other whispered something to their friend, prompting a burst of giggles.
As he watched the two teenagers strut walk away, he couldn't help but notice the pokeballs attached to their belts. With a shake of his head, Jared muttered under his breath, "Figures. Of course they are trainers."
However, he was quickly snapped out of his thoughts by a voice behind him, "Don't worry about those two assholes, they just moved up to bronze, and now they think they are hot shit."
Jared turned around to discover the voice he had been searching for stepping out of the same elevator. The first thing that caught Jared's attention was the glimmer of a silver chain around the mans neck.
Jared extended his hand and introduced himself, "Hello sir, I'm Jared. May I ask for your name?"
The man, who appeared to be in his late twenties with loose brown hair, introduced himself as Makeo. "Just another copper scrub," he added with a hint of self-deprecation while shaking Jared's hand.
Jared wasted no time and asked, "I'm looking for some help. Could I ask you a few questions if you don't mind?"
"Sure thing, but let's move out of the way before that guard over there scolds us for standing here," Makeo replied, gesturing towards a uniformed guard approaching them.
They found a nearby bench and sat down, then Makeo asked, "What can I help you with?"
"I'm interested in reading the rules of this place and signing up."
Makeo raised an eyebrow in surprise and scrutinized Jared's shabby clothing. "You're not a local?"
"I am... a temporary resident you could say, is that a problem?"
"No problem at all," Makeo replied with a quick nod, "Just take these elevators right to the first floor, and then walk straight ahead. There you'll find some registration booths."
As much as Jared wanted to leave and explore, he didn't want to appear rude by departing immediately, "If you don't mind me asking, was it my clothes that made you believe I was from here?" he asked.
Makeo shifted on his feet, appearing a bit embarrassed. Then he tried to laugh it off while straightening the silver chain around his neck. "I mean no offense, ya see I grew up in the slums. You dress a lot like most of us did."
Jared nodded in understanding. "By the slums, I'm guessing you are referring to Old Town?"
"Yeah that's the place, kind of a shithole now, but it didn't always used to be so bad... until recently that is. People can't even feel safe walking the streets anymore, you hear what happened outside one of the slum markets recently?
"Yeah, I live near where it happened," Jared nodded.
The man spat, causing a glare from one of the guards.
"Brutal shit, that is. Just for stealing a little, they get ripped apart in the streets like nothing. It makes me so mad to call myself a trainer. Ever since the new mayor moved in and passed a few laws in the name of clamping down on crime, suddenly the lives of normal folk are less than shit." Makeo was about to spit again when he noticed one of the guards walking over to him, prompting him to swallow the spit along with his anger. "And just last month, you won't believe what happened..."
While listening to the man's grievances, Jared was slightly happy. Until now, he was beginning to believe that most people didn't care.
After the man was done venting, Jared nodded solemnly, "I understand what you mean. It's sad to think that anyone of us could be next."
Suddenly Makeo had a spur of the moment idea, "You should leave that place as soon as possible," Makeo advised in a hushed tone, leaning closer to Jared's ear. "My uncle has a small crab shack down by the docks, but he's not great with customers. You, on the other hand, speak well for one of our kind and are remarkably polite. He won't pay you much, but it might help you get closer to the inner city. Towards safety."
Although Jared's eyes brightened for a moment they quickly dimmed as Makeo continued to persuade him, "I appreciate the offer, Makeo," he said, "But unfortunately, I'm in a unique situation. There are certain reasons why I have to stay where I am for at least another three and a half months. However, if the offer still stands after that, I may consider taking you up on it."
"Hah, well maybe it's for the best. It was just a spur of the moment idea, and it's supposed to be my job anyways, I shouldn't be shoving it on someone I just met." he said, scratching the side of his neck before standing up to leave. "Just forget I said anything."
Seeing that Makeo may have gotten the wrong idea, Jared quickly got up to clarify, "It's not what you think. I really am interested." Jared then proceeded to give a few details about his situation, explaining that if he began working, he would lose access to the college and his tutor.
"...That college sounds like a nice deal, I can see why ya don't want to lose it. Anyways, I got no hard feelings really, but I do gotta get back to the old fish shack, you know how it is," Makeo chuckled, once again adjusting his silver chain, and smiling warmly at Jared before turning to leave.
Jared watched him go, his mind still on the offer he had just declined, but after a moment, he made his way to an opening elevator and stepped inside.
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