章節 18: Forgotten Dream
With the battle between Hanani and Botan came to a close, Jared decided that he had seen enough for the day. He bid farewell to the old fisherman and made his way back home, knowing that the impending "greater nightmare" was bound to occur at some point during the night. Not knowing when it would actually be, Jared resolved not to venture outside until then.
At home, Jared's was deep in thought, meticulously analysing the matches he had witnessed, replaying each scene in his mind and fixating on every tiny detail. Despite his less-than-stellar memory, he tried his best to decipher the significance behind every one of Botan's as well as his pokemons actions. But it was Farfetch'd's movements that truly captivated him. The way the bird Pokemon patiently waited for its opponent to make a mistake before striking back resonated deeply within him.
Jared's thoughts shifted to the final battle he had witnessed, and he found himself pondering the significance of elite-level Pokemon. He couldn't quite put his finger on what set them apart from the rest, but the fact that Hanani could recognize Botan solely by his Scizor signified their importance. "I'll have to research them later," Jared mumbled to himself.
As the day wore on, Jared mentally prepared himself for what was to come. He tried to steel his resolve, knowing that the "greater nightmare" was imminent. Finally, after four long hours, the sun began to wane, casting long shadows across the room.
When Gastly appeared before him, Jared knew it was almost time. He braced himself for the encounter and waited. As soon as the last rays of light were gone, Gastly cast hypnosis on him.
Jared opened his eyes and found himself standing in a familiar alley, clutching a lantern. As he surveyed his surroundings, he noticed an anomaly in the nearby wall. A glob of darkness seemed to be bleeding out from within the structure, expanding with each passing moment.
Before long, the glob had grown to the size of a door. "So this is what Gastly meant by connecting our dreams, huh..." Jared mused aloud. But he was unsure of what to do next.
With a deep breath, Jared reached out and pressed his hand against the glob. To his surprise, he found that it had the consistency of water and the stickiness of tar.
As Jared pondered his next move, the glob suddenly stopped expanding. Instead, it began to peel away from the outer edges, as if the source of energy sustaining it were running out.
With a sudden burst of urgency, Jared made a decision. "Fuck it!" he exclaimed before plunging his body into the glob. At first, the substance seemed to repel him, making it difficult to force his way through. But as he persevered, it gradually became easier. Then he felt a suction from the other side, pulling him in.
Jared felt as though he were piercing through a membrane, like breaching the surface of the ocean. When he emerged on the other side, he tentatively held out the lantern to get a better look only to discover that there was nothing to stand on. It was as if gravity did not exist in this place. In fact there was nothing at all, it was like a void of nothingness.
Turning back to look at the slowly shrinking bubble, Jared realized that it was made of the tar-like substance he had just emerged from.
After a moment, Jared felt a tug at his mind. Turning to look below him, he saw a familiar face looking up at him fearfully. Jared flashed an uneasy smile as he gestured to the seemingly infinite blackness surrounding them. "Nice place you got here Gastly," he said. "So this is the Greater Nightmare? What happens now?"
"Already here. Here. Here..." the voice shakily replied.
"Already here? But I don't see anything." Suddenly Jared attention shifted, as he began to hear distant voices coming from all directions. At first, he couldn't make them out, but they grew louder and more distinct with each passing moment.
Watching Gastly cower, Jared had a bad feeling, while the voices grew louder and more numerous, and he could now make out individual words: "Eat," "Devour," "Purge," "Traitor." He felt a sense of dread at the unknown, but he soon steadied himself. He was already resolved. Whatever happens, it would be sink or swim.
Suddenly, blobs of shadow in all shapes and sizes crashed into the radiance of Jared's lantern from all directions. He felt like he was in a giant plastic bubble with hundreds of angry children pushing him this way and that. Mixed into the angry voices were shrieks of pain, but they kept coming back for more, like moths flying around a lightbulb - attracted by the light, but burned at the same time.
As time passed, the burned shadows seemed to learn their lesson, but they also appeared unwilling to retreat. Instead, they began orbiting around Jared, like planets around the sun. He felt like he was at the centre of a chaotic and dangerous cosmic dance.
Then, from somewhere in the void, Jared saw a few torch-like white eyes in the darkness. He felt something from the eyes, but he couldn't put his finger on it. If he had to put a word to it, he would attribute the feeling to a fictional thing, such as killing intent. But that didn't feel right either; it was more like an amalgamation of angry emotions finally finding an outlet in him.
Side by side, the three massive shadows approached. From the corner of his eye, Jared could see Gastly shivering like a leaf in a storm, inching ever closer to the safety of his lantern's light.
Jared began to wonder if the shadows approaching him were the Haunters. As they drew nearer, he narrowed his eyes and saw that each one was distinct despite being roughly the same size. The leftmost one had a head that vaguely resembled a cat, exuding an air of curiosity. The middle one appeared more like a traditional haunter, except for the ghostly spikes protruding from its back. The final one resembled the skull of a monster, with sunken eyes that seemed to bore into Jared's soul.
Suddenly, the middle shadow spoke, but Jared didn't feel as though the words were directed at him. "Traitor," the shadow said, "did you bring this human as a sacrifice in the hopes that you will be spared?"
Jared was surprised at the fluency of the shadow's speech. He thought that maybe he could reason with them. "Hello there, I am Jared. Could I ask who you are?" he asked.
However, he was ignored. It was as if the massive shadow either couldn't hear his words or refused to reply. Then the cat-like shadow on the left began orbiting around him, as if captivated by the light. "Curious, I feel myself burning the closer I get. No wonder the traitor wasn't torn apart by the Gastly. No wonder," it muttered.
The spiky shadow spoke again, its voice dripping with malice, "Traitor, submit and your death will be painless."
Gastly shaking even more now, the fear in its eyes palpable. Jared took a deep breath and spoke in a confident and convincing tone, "You two seem quite intelligent, maybe there's no need to fight, so how about we make a deal?"
But he was once more ignored, his words taken as air.
The middle shadow seemed to come to a decision and closed its torch-like eyes briefly before reopening them. "So be it," it said, "But now your suffering will be great."
The air grew thick with hostility as a wave of anger and aggression emanated from the shadowy figures, their intent clear: to tear Jared apart.
In a sudden burst of movement, the middle shadow charged forward with the force of a raging storm, knocking knocking the bubble of light created by Jared's Gastly far away.
The third shadow then laughed, "Haha, did you hurt yourself Rend?"
"Shut up and help, or are you going to allow this traitor go free? And you, Mangle, stop floating around them studying the human and fucking help."
The three shadows suddenly grew solemn, and Jared could feel an unspoken agreement between them. He was then hit with massive emotional waves of enmity that rolled towards him like tidal waves, threatening to overwhelm him.
Then all hell broke loose, Jared and Gastly were thrown every which way, by the haunters fury. The large shadows relentlessly threw themselves towards him like lemmings off a cliff, and like piranhas smelling blood in the water, the smaller shadows also joined in too. At first Jared felt he could hold on forever, but doubts began creeping into his mind each time he was blown away.
As each negative thought bubbled forth, his lantern dimmed ever so slightly. The weight of the immense emotional pressure bearing down on him made him question if he could truly stop so many powerful enemies. The doubts continued to flood his mind: there was no chance of resisting, his aspirations were not worth fighting for, he was just one person, and death was inevitable, so why bother?
But then Jared scoffed, and the radiance of his lantern grew brighter, pushing back against the oppressive force surrounding him. He shouted, trying to make himself heard above the crashing wave of furious shadows, "You think you can break my will? Open your eyes to reality, assholes, and don't belittle me!"
The shadows relentlessly shoved the little light in the darkness, trying to drown it out with each new wave of enmity.
Despite Jared's efforts to hold on, the same thoughts began creeping back into his mind, 'It's hopeless,' 'I'm in over my head.'
But every time he felt himself slipping, his mind turned to the two dying lives in that alley, to the way Bane looked at him, or the disregard of the two murders. Over and over, he kept reaffirming his beliefs, desperately holding on.
Despite his best efforts, Jared's mind was overwhelmed, drowned with thoughts of giving up. His thoughts told him that his goals were unrealistic, impossible, and that every thought to the contrary was pointless.
Jared's mind grew increasingly muddled, and his memories faded into a blur. But even as his thoughts fragmented and dissolved, he clung to a few fragments, repeating them over and over like a mantra: "boys... alley... death... scum..."
Despite his efforts, eventually even those fragments slipped away from him, leaving him adrift in a sea of confusion. Jared looked around, trying to make sense of his surroundings, but he could only watch in bewilderment as the waves of shadows crashed against him with relentless force.
"What are they doing?" he wondered aloud, but there was no answer. Only the shadows, and the darkness, and the sound of his own breathing, harsh and ragged in his ears.
"Huh, whys it becoming darker?"
He then looked at the dimming lantern in his hand, wondering what it was.
As he observed the lanterns shape, A voice in his head began telling him to just let it go, that he didn't need it. "Huh... maybe yeah, this thing is pretty heavy, maybe I should set it down?"
However, when he tried to let go, he found his hand wouldn't listen. "Huh... what the?"
He was confused, why wouldn't his hand listen to him. Using his other hand, he managed to pry a few fingers loose, but the remaining fingers held on for dear life.
ared was confused and bewildered. Instead of continuing to pry, he began observing the lantern uncomprehendingly. His thoughts were telling him how useless the lantern was and not to look any longer, just get rid of it.
Jared scratched his head with his other hand and asked, "But if that was true, why can't I let go?"
As he observed the lantern, his eyes landed on the flame. For some reason, during his observations, his mind kept telling him to look away, but a vague thought buried deep at the back of his mind kept nagging at him.
When he finally looked directly at the flame, he found it was flickering and tiny, as if running out of fuel. Then his eyes widened, "Why didn't I look before? It's so beautiful, the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. Is that why I can't let go?"
As his admiration for the flame's beauty grew, tears began to fall from his eyes for even considering throwing the lantern away. Overwhelmed with sadness at the thought of not being able to gaze at this resplendent beauty, he watched as the flame grew brighter and more magnificent.
Suddenly, Jared found himself wishing for something with all his heart, and to his surprise, he found that this was not the first time. "Huh, so I've been wishing for this every day without realizing it?"
Then he scolded himself angrily, "How could I forget?!"
As he gazed at the flame, he felt himself developing a more selfish wish, and he couldn't help but feel a sense of shame. It seemed wrong to enjoy this flame's warmth and beauty all to himself. But the flame was still so small, so how could others possibly see it from far away?
He grew increasingly agitated. "This light, this flame, it's so beautiful, but not everyone can see it."
Jared shook his head, "This won't do, this won't do at all. I need to do something, I need to make it bigger, I need to make the flame so large that the entire world can see it!"
But then confusion overtook him. "World, what's that? Where is that?"
As he looked into the void and the shadows that encroached upon him, he asked himself innocently, "Is this the world?"
Unable to come up with a definite answer even after a long time, Jared found the void around him began wriggling, as if it were growing unstable.
Then Jared heard a voice for the first time, "Damn it."
Then another voice spoke, "Curious, the human's mind was stripped long ago, but he's still holding on. How strange."
"It's too late now. The long night is over." the final voice sighed.
After those words were spoken, the void began to tremor, before finally shattering.
Jared's eyes shot open, and as he turned his head, his wet pillow greeted him. He released his right hand, which had been clutching the blanket tightly. Wiping the tears from his eyes, Jared tried to remember why he had been crying, but his mind was blank. It was as if a veil had been drawn over his consciousness, leaving him with a sense of unease and confusion. All that remained was a vague feeling that something important had almost been lost while he slept, but try as he might, he couldn't recall what it was.
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