Misty was still encased in a blue glow which the locket seemed to be emulating, only much brighter. Ash wasn’t sure what to make of it. He had panic spread all over his face. She too had a panicked look on her face.

Ash took action. He grabbed her around the waist and led her inside the house. “Get me a towel.” she ordered, rubbing her still blue glowing body off with her hands.

He noticed a stack of towels a top a stool and quickly brought one to her. She began to dry her self. “What’s going on? Why are you glowing blue?” Ash asked with fear and concern.

“I don’t know. During the past several years when it rains, I’ve flashed blue.” she responded whilst still drying her self off, causing the glow to vanish.

“And you never went to a doctor to see what’s wrong? Cuz that is really wrong.” Ash was freaking out about the situation.

“I have. They can’t explain the reason for it. They said it doesn’t seem to be harmful. They’re reason for me turning blue they suggested might be due to chemical or radiation exposure.” she explained, still drying her self.

“You had me scared out there.” Ash said with his hand on his heart.

“Well I’m okay. Okay?” Misty reassured him, and tossed the towel on to the couch. Ash nodded in response. “Can I get you something to drink?” she asked, walking towards the kitchen.

“Uh…ok. Water will be fine with me.” he said slowly, still not completely mind-free of the glowing incident.

Misty sighed. “Ok. Be right back.” she left the room and disappeared into the kitchen.”

Ash had watched her as she left. ‘She still has a killer body.’ he thought, before turning his attention to the house he had never once been in until now. He walked around the enormous living room, gazing at the set up.

He walked around the blue sofa with blue lacey pillows with matching blanket. Just about everything in the room was blue. He noticed many framed pictures on the wall of Misty and her sisters.

One of them looked to be on Halloween, from quite a few years ago. It also happened to be Halloween on this particular day. In the photo, Misty’s sisters were each dressed casually in front of a sign that read ‘Casper’s Playhouse.’ Misty was very young, she was dressed as a princess in blue. She was smiling and pointing to a cardboard standup of Casper.

Ash continued to gaze at the photos. Another one featured Misty and himself hugging. He remembered the photo well…

“Ash, Misty. I want you two to hug this instance.” his mother had been arguing with them for some time.

“But Mom, I’m hungry. Could you make some cheeseburgers?” Ash complained, while rubbing his stomach.

“No Buts, and I mean that in you don’t have a choice and also there will be no butt touching in this hug. It has to be clean.” Delia got the camera ready.

Ash and Misty each made a disgusted face and then finally hugged, the flash went off and Ash’s flash back was over. He smiled and continued looking at all the pictures.

There were hundreds of small pictures which concealed almost all of the blue wall behind it. Then he noticed a plaque amongst the sea of pictures. It read “In memory of Misty Waterflower”

Misty returned with two glasses. “Here’s your water.” she walked towards him.

“What’s that plaque for?” Ash pointed to it, while taking his glass of water from Misty.

She took a sip of soda from her glass. “That’s what the city gave me for my service as the Cerulean Gym Leader. My sisters got jealous.” she smiled as she considered that a victory amongst her siblings.

“Where are you sisters?” Ash asked. “They’re out of town on business. There’s a meeting of the Kanto Gym Leaders at the Indigo Plateau on contract extensions, or something like that.” she explained, taking another sip of soda.

“Why are you drinking soda? I thought that was just your situation drink. Like for parties or something. You usually drink water.” Ash noticed this odd yet simple detail so importantly.

“People change, Ash. I want to live it up. Doesn’t hurt to get some sugar in you every now and then.” she took another sip. “Hey where’s Pikachu?” she almost forgot about the little cutie.

“Uh…don’t know.” they didn’t have to search for long. Pikachu was sleeping on top of the towel Misty used to dry her self off with earlier.

As hours passed the two were now situated on the sofa. They both starred ahead at a turned off television, awkward silence all around them. Ash glanced at his watch: 5:47pm.

Misty was singing ‘Scars’ by Papa Roach silently at the other end of the sofa. “But you never realized, that I’m drowning in the water, so I offered you my hand. Compassions in my nature, tonight is our last dance. I tear my heart open, I sow myself shut. My weakness is that I care too much, and my scars remind me that the past is real, I tear my heart open just to feel.”

Though Ash enjoyed Misty’s soothing singing voice, he had something he had been meaning to ask her. “So Misty…why didn’t you meet up with me by the lake that day?”

She froze in her place and avoided eye contact with his. “Because…because I got sidetracked:”

(4 years earlier…)

“I can’t wait to see Ash.” a very joyful Misty walked along a dirt path beside a lake. She took out her heart shaped locket and placed it around her neck. “I love Ash’s gift, but it’s really heavy. He paid a lot of money for this and I can’t be seen without it now.” she giggled to herself.

The moment of joy was broken as a loud buzz from behind her skimmed over the top of her head. She shrieked at the sight of a beedrill. It hovered above her. Misty was freaked out. And things weren’t about to get peaceful, as many many more beedrill’s emerged from the trees and hovered over her. At once they all dived at her.

Misty was quick to react. She herself dove, into the lake next to her. She swam to the bottom, and looked back up to get a view of what was happening above.

(back to the present)

“I waited there till they were gone. When I returned to the surface. I got a call from my sisters, reporting a poke’mon drowning at the gym. I rushed back right away. It turned out that it was goldeen. She had gotten caught on something at the bottom of the gym’s pool. She didn’t make it.” a tear ran down Misty’s cheek as she explained her story with much emotion mixed in.

“That’s too bad.” Ash scooted closer to her and erased the tear trail with his finger.

“What’s past is past.” she responded.

“Indeed. So what exactly did you invite me over for?” Ash asked, interested.

“Does a friend need a reason to invite a friend over?” she asked, starring into his brown eyes.

“A girl friend does. Heh heh. Just a dumb joke. I don’t mean to be feminist.” Ash said.

“Sexist.” she corrected him, wearing a smile.

“Right.” he nodded and expressed that he knew the correct term. Another run of awkward silence followed his response. “So…see any good movies lately?” he finally asked.

“Yes. I have a lot of free time on my hands. I’ve seen every movie out right now. You could call me an unofficial movie critic.” she said.

“I guess the movie idea is out of the question. Do you want to go out to dinner?” he asked.

“NO!” Misty yelled immediately following his question. She noticed the puzzled and shocked look on Ash’s face. “I mean, no. it gets really crowded this time of day. And I just remembered there’s a movie I haven’t seen yet.” she corrected her earlier response.

“Are you afraid to be seen with me?” he chuckled.

“Yes.” was Misty’s response, with a chuckle of her own. “But that’s not the real reason. I haven’t seen Saw 3 yet. I’m too scared to go by myself. And the fact that three people passed out during it doesn’t make me that much more comfortable.” she explained her reasoning.

“So you want to go see Saw 3 then?” Ash asked.

“Yeah. And it has a surprise ending, like the first two.” Misty informed him.

“Those are the best kinds of movies.” he responded.

“My favorite is Fight Club.” she said.

“That one had a good twist. Unbreakable had a nice surprise too.” he brought up.

“We could go on and on about this, Ash.” Misty tried to get off the topic.

“All right. Let’s go.” Ash smiled and the two headed out the door to go see the movie.

They had arrived at the Harkin’s theatre now and were inside with their tickets. “Ash could you hand her my ticket? I need to go wash up, my hands are sticky.” Misty shoved the ticket into his hand.

“Uh, sure.” he said, and handed both tickets to the woman, and she told him which direction their theatre was in. “do you want pop corn? Soda?” he asked Misty.

“No thanks.” she shook her head twice.

The two were inside walking along the rows of seats. It was packed. They were about to watch a horror movie on the night of Halloween which advertises this day in every one of it’s movies, and it was after 7pm.

Ash noticed two seats, the only problem is a man sat in between the two. “Let’s take those seats, Ash.” Misty pointed to them.

“I’ll ask that guy to scoot over.” Ash told her. “No, that’s ok I don’t-” but he wasn’t listening, as he was already in the guy’s space. Misty sighed and walked down the isle to catch her friend.

“Excuse me, sir. Do you mind scooting over so I can sit by my friend here?” Ash pointed behind him with his thumb.

The man looked to Misty and gave her a puzzled look with an eye brow raised, then he looked behind the him and to the entrance of the theatre, he seemed as if he was looking for someone. The man eventually subsided his search, sighed, and made room for Ash and Misty to sit beside each other. “Horror fans are so weird.” was Ash’s final words before the movie would start.

Two hours later after the movie was over, Ash and Misty were walking back home. Ash noticed they were taking a different path home then they took to the theatres. “Are we going the right direction?” Ash asked, but got no response from his friend.

They were now walking by a cemetery, Misty was closest to it on the left side of Ash. She starred in through the fence at the graves. She soon came to a stop at the entrance, and Ash imitated. “What are we doing here, Misty?” he asked, looking at her face, though she was concentrating on the cemetery. She did not respond to him. “…Misty?” he asked.

“Huh?” she quickly turned to him, snapping out of a seemingly trance.

“Are you ok?” Ash asked with concern.

“It’s the fourth year anniversary of my grandma’s death.” she responded, her bottom lip trembled.

“Oh. Sorry.” Ash became disappointed, understanding her loss.

“I was close to her. She took care of me and my sisters after our parents passed away.” she explained. The two were then as dead silent as the cemetery they stood at. “I want to go visit her grave.” Misty suddenly spoke.

“O-o-ok.” Ash nodded nervously. “Are you scared?” Misty smiled. “Well…we just saw a scary movie. And now we’re going into a grave yard at midnight.” Ash explained the reason behind his fear, still nervous.

“It wasn’t about ghosts. Come on. Let’s go.” she grabbed his arm and led him into the cemetery. They walked down the isles of tombs, looking for Misty‘s grandmother. There was an entire row of Waterflower’s.

“Here’s her grave.” Misty knelt down in front of it. The name on the tomb read ‘Ivy Waterflower.’

“1914 to 2002. She lived a long life.” Ash said surprised at the age of 88 her grandma passed away.

“Yeah…unfortunately not all of us do.” Misty turned to the graves beside Ivy’s. there was Maury ‘Brian’ Waterflower and Kasumi ‘Satoshi’ Waterflower. the two graves were very dirty and had mold growing amongst them. Letters from their names were worn away, or covered with dirt and mold.

“My mom and dad. They died in a boating accident. Their boat sank in a collision.” Misty explained while tears dripped down her cheeks. Ash saw this and comforted her as he bent down and wrapped her up in a hug.

It was then when he noticed another grave next to Kasumi’s. “Why is there two Kasumi Waterflower’s?” Ash asked.

“Oh.” Misty wiped her tears away. “That’s my aunt. Her middle name is Kasumi. Milly ‘Kasumi’ Wateflower.” Misty explained, still wiping tears away.

“The mold and dirt has covered up her first name.” Ash noticed, and the two separated from their hug.

“Knowing her, it’s what she would have wanted. She was a very secret and mysterious woman and often just went by Kasumi for some reason. But if you want you can clean it up.” she explained and got up off her kneeling position.

Ash scooted over to the grave and prepared to clean the dirty surface when a voice stopped him. “Hey you! The cemetery is closed, sir. Get out and take Kasumi with you.” the grave keeper shouted.

“Huh?” Ash was confused. “I’ve also been known to go by Kasumi around here.” she explained. “Sorry Mr. Graves, we’ll be on our way.” she told him while waving.

“…Well then go.” he pointed to the exit. Ash and Misty collected themselves and left the cemetery.

The two now lied beneath the stars on a hill in a wide open field, the ocean was in front of them. They could hear the sound of waves washing up against the beach. Ash’s arms were stretched out behind his head.

“I wish I would have met back up with you all those years ago at the lake. I died knowing I missed my chance.” Misty said, as she cuddled up with him.

Ash placed his arms around her. “Try not to think about that now.” he said.

“It’s too hard not to. I wish I could turn back time.” she said, and then sighed.

“Don’t we all? Things might actually be worse though, if we were some how able to do that.” Ash responded.

“I don’t agree. There’s so much I could change for the better. I wouldn’t make the same mistakes Ashton Kutcher made in ‘The Butterfree Effect.” she said.

“I think things are pretty good right now. I’m here with you. Everything worked out just fine.” Ash thought aloud.

Misty on the other hand did not agree. “No it didn’t.” she shook her head in disgust.

“Put the past behind you, Mist.” he told her.

“I can’t…but I’ll try for you.” she said.

I swam across
I jumped across for you
Oh what a thing to do
'Cos you were all yellow

I drew a line
I drew a line for you
Oh what a thing to do
And it was all yellow

And your skin, oh yeah your skin and bones
Turn into something beautiful
D'you know?
For you I bleed myself dry
For you I bleed myself dry (“Yellow” by Coldplay)

They were back at Misty’s house now. They sat on the couch, and the radio was on. The song “Somewhere Out There” by Our Lady Peace was playing.

You’re falling back to me
The star that I can see
I know you’re out there somewhere out there
You’re falling out of reach
Defying gravity
I know you’re out there
Somewhere out there

“Hey! That’s the song I listened to over and over when we were apart.” Ash excitedly mentioned.

“Really?” Misty chuckled. Ash nodded in response. Suddenly, for some unknown reason to Ash, Misty broke out and started crying.

“Misty what’s wrong?” Ash asked very concerned, scooting closer to her.

“I’m just so happy I’m with you again.” she and Ash hugged once again that day. It wasn’t getting old though. When the hug faded, they lied down on the couch to sleep. Misty with her back to Ash’s stomach. He pulled a blanket down from the couch’s top/back and threw it over their bodies.

They began falling asleep. “I love you, Ash. And ill always remember you. Will you remember me?” Misty said very quietly, as she was almost asleep.

“Yeah” Ash yawned “I will.” and the two were out cold after that.

The song “I just died in your arms tonight” by Cutting Crew played as they were off in slumber.