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<TITLE>Run for the Sun Chapter 1: The Extinguished Candle</TITLE>

Chapter 1: The Extinguished Candle

The chill breeze danced with my fur. The trees vanished in blurs of red and gold. My scraped paws begged me to stop. But I couldn’t. My beating chest told me otherwise with threats to burst wide open. What I wouldn’t give to be in my own body right now.

How ironic. That wasn’t how I felt a few days ago.

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The hitmonchan’s arm fell once. My opponent was pushing against my pin. My elbows were burning as I continued to press against him. The fighting pokemon counted another second. His arms found my forearms and gripped them. Three seconds. He was pushing my arms back. I gritted my teeth and tried to put more pressure. Four seconds. His shoulders slowly rose. I looked to the hitmonchan. His arm couldn’t be moving slower than it was now.

The bell rang. I let up and sat back, sighing in relief. The referee walked over to the scorekeepers next to the scoreboard that now showed a score of three to three. I walked to the center where I met my opponent’s hand shake. The hitmonchan reached forward and lifted my arm into the air.

“We award Tyler Young the time advantage,” the ref declared from the score desk. “Violet City High School will be moving on to the regional semi finals of the Johto Region Wrestling Association!”

The roar of the crowd was deafened as I walked down the hall, trying to keep my messy blond hair out of my eyes and adjusting my glasses on my soaked face. I felt a hand pat me on the back and turned around to see the blue eyes of Carlos gazing back at me from under his curly black locks.

“I can’t believe it, Tyler,” he said. “One more victory and we’ll be leading Violet High all the way!”

I couldn’t help but grin. It had been a long road, but we were really going to do it. We were going to fulfill the promise we made four years ago and bring home the world cup for Violet City. We had to. After all, it was our senior year, so this was our last chance.

And, I had another dream.

I looked out the window to see Sarah with the rest of my classmates who had come. I have had a crush on her ever since we met in junior high. In fact, I don’t understand why anyone wouldn’t like her. She’s quiet, compassionate, and never had anything bad to say about anyone. Not to mention, she had the cutest face and softest looking waist-long blond hair. I just wanted to reach out and run my fingers through it.

“Forget it, man,” Carlos interrupted my daydream when I noticed my fingers were pressed against the window. “You know you can’t win against Jean,” he added jokingly.

I sighed and looked at the little brown pokemon curled up in her arms. I couldn’t name one time out of school that it wasn’t with her. I envied that eevee. What I wouldn’t give to be in its place, even if just for a day. As Sarah disappeared around the corner, my arm dropped and I turned to Carlos.

“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” I said and halfheartedly joined in on his laughter as we walked into the locker room.

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A crisp wind hit me in the face as I stepped out of Violet High School onto the sidewalk and a siren blared in my ears. In a flash of red, the fire trucks passed by and shot around the corner. I looked up to Carlos and realized from his shocked expression we both had the same thought on our minds. We took off at a dead sprint.

A sea of black smoke billowed into the sky and joined with the layer of gray clouds. Sure enough, a row of wartortle was lined up on the side walk, sending gushes of water into the flames scaling the blue, two-story house at the end of the street.

A firefighter assisted a staggering Sarah through the front door. When he removed his hand from her mouth, she coughed and took a tearful glance behind her.

“J-Jean!” Sarah stammered through sobs and coughs. “M-my eevee! Jean! He’s still inside!”

The firefighter patted her shoulder. “Don’t worry, we’re searching,” he said and turned to look at the burning house as it uttered a screeching groan that Sarah nervously moaned in response to.

I watched on helplessly as two more firefighters ran out of the front door. “That’s it, the house is about to go,” one grunted. Sarah gasped and cried into the chest of the firefighter holding her up.

A pain spiked through my chest. The flames licked the walls hungrily. My heart skipped to a double pace. I felt a force more powerful than my fear. My feet were lifted.

“Hold it!” one of the firefighters shouted.

I ignored him. The flames enveloped me. Smoke greeted me. My eyes stung and were forced shut. I pulled out a handkerchief to cover my mouth. My hand found the wall. I started trotting through the charred debris.

Absolute darkness closed in. It deprived me of my sight. The cackles of the fire took my hearing. They only allowed the dark’s whispers of bereavement. I had no target. My fingers were my guide. I was scared and helpless. However, something was driving me forward.

Sometimes the wall would give away to another room. My eyes burned when I opened them. Unfortunately, no room would reveal the pokemon. Tears further blurred my vision. I finally saw the bundle of fur. It didn’t respond to touch. Its back didn’t rise with breath. Its glass eyes reflected the fire around us.

I fell to my knees. My heart broke down. Grief and regret came from nowhere.

The house groaned again. I grabbed the pokemon and ran out of the room. Jean couldn’t be dead yet.

The ground shook from under my feet. I feel over. My legs were covered in fallen wood. I lay there. The hand of pain held me. Gasps came from down the hall. Sarah’s sobs beat into my ears. The immobile eevee rested under my arm. I dropped my head in hopelessness. Then a light shone through. Ferocity beat with my heart.

I pulled myself and Jean along the floor. The wreckage fell to the floor. My body screamed in pain. Each stride sent a shockwave through my bones. I couldn’t gasp. The smoke waited to finish me off when I would open my mouth. But my body was a time bomb. It was ready to go off.

My glasses slipped off my nose. My eyes throbbed. My face swelled. With every stroke along the charred carpet, I could feel my grip weaken. My arms and legs started to numb.

I had lost my grip on the eevee. I cranked my head. My neck roared in protest. My eyes burned and leaked. I couldn’t see anything. My head fell lamely. I couldn’t move.

My world went white. I scrambled back. My shirt drifted off. My spine stiffened. My body prickled all over. I dropped the handkerchief. Smoke flooded in.

I heard mumbling over my coughing. Footsteps started getting closer, every thump thundered in my ears. I felt a hand gently touch my back. I must have been going crazy because it felt ten times bigger than any hand I ever felt.

“Jean!” Her voice fell like a ton of bricks. “Are you alright?”

The giant hands were now rubbing back and forth across my shoulder blades. The impression intensified the feeling of a thousand needles piercing my back.

“Please, wake up,” Sarah pleaded through more sobs.

I wanted to apologize but, defeated, I finally let consciousness slip away from me, before I could even realize that more than one life had already come to an end.

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