An Unpleasant Memory

Kaci awoke to the feel of cold steel against her throat. She screamed, but before it had even lasted three seconds, a cool hand muffled it.

“Shut up, or you die sooner, no matter what my orders are,” she hissed, and Kaci gasped.

“Bill!”

“I said, SHUT UP!” he said, pushing the knife closer. Kaci whimpered and prayed somebody would come.

“Nobody’s coming. The door is locked and blocked,” he said, guessing what she was thinking, and destroying her last shred of hope. She shuddered, realizing she was locked in the room with a maniac, but steeled herself, choosing the next best course of action. She bit down… hard.

“Ash, Misty!” she screamed, as a long forgotten memory flooded her mind.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Flashback~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Daddy, Mommy!” Kaci screamed, a little girl of five, a laser gun against her head.

“OW! SHUT UP!” the man shouted, his finger tightening.

“Okay,” she squeaked, scared. From outside the room, crashing sounds were heard as a man stumbled over the dog pokemon that was barking loudly at his door.

“I know, Blaze, I know! I’m going!” he told the Houndour, as he ran to his daughter’s room, followed by his wife and Blaze. He struggled with the handle to her room, before turning to his wife.

“It’s locked,” he said grimly, confirming the suspicion that it wasn’t just a bad dream, “Come on, help me knock it down.” All together, they threw themselves against the door, again and again. Finally, on the seventh try, it burst open. The three fell into the room, under the surprised gazes of both Kaci and the man next to her. The man was quick to recover, though.

“I was wondering when you would show up… Ash.” The girl’s father bristled angrily.

“Harrison! Leave my daughter alone!” Harrison didn’t move.

“Ash, Ash, Ash. You didn’t think I’m going to give up my leverage, did you? I have my orders,” he taunted.

“Harrison! Please! Doesn’t our former friendship mean anything to you?” Ash pleaded, looking intently at the man. With a sigh of defeat, Harrison threw down the gun. He turned to leave, and looked back at the last second.

“Don’t expect to be so lucky next time,” he said, just before jumping out the window.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~End Flashback~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kaci struggled, trying to free herself from Bill’s grasp. With a cry of pain, she ripped free, nicking her throat on the knife in the process. As she started shoving things out of the way of the door, Kaci heard pounding on the other side of it. She threw a chair out of the way, the last thing in the way of the door, before a quick pull on her hair yanked her backwards.

“Kaci! Are you in there?” Ash yelled through the door.

“It’s Bill! He has a knife!” she yelled back, fighting the teenage force that was pulling her slowly backwards. The doorknob was tantalizingly close, just out of reach of her fingertips. But the metal knob drifted further out of reach as Bill used her hair as a rope, dragging her closer to him. At the last second before he had her in his clammy grasp again, she whirled around and kicked him in his red-shirted stomach. He bent over in pain, but unfortunately he wasn’t so impaired that he couldn’t counter-attack, lunging at her with the knife. Kaci shrieked and twisted, the knife blade instead cutting through her hair. It freed her long enough to flip the lock on the door and tumble out, landing on top of Ash in the process. They scrambled up quickly as Bill came rushing out. Misty stepped forward, her eyes blazing.

“Leave. And if you ever come back, I swear I will kill you.” Her voice was low and dangerous, and Bill dropped the handful of hair he was still clutching and ran, jumping out the window. Her blue eyes glinting in the faint moonlight, Misty turned to Kaci. The girl had a hand on her neck, and though Kaci was trying to put on a brave front, everybody could tell she was in pain. It showed in her eyes, and in the blood seeping through her fingers, streaked down her neck, and soaked into her shirt.

“Kaci, let me see that,” Brock ordered gently, but she backed away, shaking her head. Even that slight motion hurt, and she winced. Her hair now only at her waist, she looked… different. They led her to the kitchen, where she relaxed and let Brock take care of her cut, which was kind of deep. They called the doctor, a pudgy old man with silver hair and blue-rimmed glasses, (who wasn’t very happy at being woken up in the middle of the night) but even after they explained the situation, he wasn’t much help, giving them a few instructions, all of which they were doing already. Save for one. Kaci wasn’t allowed to talk until the bleeding had been stopped for at least ten hours. He shut off the phone, yawning as he did so, and Brock left to put his siblings back to bed. The rest of the night, Misty and Ash took turns sleeping and taking care of Kaci, who wrote out the whole experience on a series of post-it notes that Brock had found in the kitchen. But unknown to them, not everything was in its rightful place…

*woods*

“I am sorry, boss. I have failed to bring you the girl, though I did manage to gather some information and bring you two diaries. They belong to the two females in the group,” Bill groveled, on his hands and knees with his head bowed. Ramesly stood in front of him, his gray-green eyes cold in the light of the cheery fire next to them.

“Give me those! What sort of information do you speak of?”

“Well, the target joined up with a group of three teenagers five or six days ago. She is protective of the friendship between the redhead and the pokemon trainer. She knows how to escape from a person holding her captive, and the pokemon breeder, last of the group, is a strong trainer, an ex-gymleader, in fact. However, he has a large family, which could be a means of getting him out of the way. The target’s Houndour, Blaze, is very mistrustful of anyone new, especially adults. She keeps him in or out of his pokeball, as the mood takes her.”

“Is that all?” Ramesly asked dangerously. Bill, shaking, nodded, wishing that he had waited longer and gathered more. Ramesly looked thoughtfully into the night sky, tinged with the reds of a rising sun, but its beauty was wasted on him. His hand rested lightly on his laser.

“Well then. I guess you are of no more use. Goodbye,” he said coldly, and fired.

The next day, a body was found in the woods outside Pewter City. No money was taken, and the wound was unidentifiable. As far as even the best authorities could tell, there was no motive. And so, the mystery was left unsolved.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Who knew evacuating could be so fun? After Katrina, we didn’t want to take any chances, so we headed off to a ranch in west Texas. It was great! I’ve never had so much fun outdoors in my life! Four-wheeling, hiking, seeing llamas and emus… Would it be wrong to wish for another hurricane?

Anyway, things have been hectic, so I haven’t updated. But here an update is, so whatever.

magicg