Chapter 1: The Right Place at the Right Time
Florence had been dreaming of Fortree City again. Staring across the
rippling canopy below, she stood on a swaying platform that encircled the
top of a tree taller than any building she had ever seen. In her dreams,
the city was always empty and silent save for the soft rustling of leaves
and creaking of wood. And there were stars. Some would consider it a
lonely scene, but to her it was a blessing. Florence could only feel that
level of peace in her dreams these days.
She awoke suddenly and for no discernable reason at all. For a moment,
Florence didn’t know where she was. The narrow, white walls of her
childhood bedroom were a stark contrast to her forest dream. Lace
curtains at the windows fluttered like wings, revealing glimpses of a
bloated moon. She could tell it was very late, but she was wide awake.
And she already that knew Katie was gone.
All the same, she slipped out of bed and tiptoed down the hall, as if
there were anyone else in the house to wake up. The emptiness of her
house chilled her in a way that the solitude of her dreams did not. She
peered into her sister’s doorway, calling, “Katie?” Florence wasn’t
surprised by the sight of the empty, neatly made bed, but it still made
her stomach clench. She quickly checked the other rooms in the house in
hopes that Katie had gotten up to make herself a peanut butter and jelly
sandwich as she sometimes liked to do. Just in case. However, as Florence
walked into the kitchen, a breeze stirred the hem of her night gown and
she turned to see the front door stood open like a wound.
This wasn’t the first time Katie had wandered off by herself. A couple of
times Florence had found her pacing in front of a random store, unable to
remember how she’d gotten there. Other times, a friend or neighbor had
apprehended her and it was the phone call that woke Florence in the
middle of the night. Katie had begun disappearing often enough that
Florence was considering hiring someone to help watch her, or at least a
chain and a padlock. So far, they had been very lucky and Katie had come
home safely within a few hours every time, but Florence wondered how long
that could last.
She took a breath to steady herself and then closed the door. The good
news was that at least Eve was gone too, which meant that she had to be
with Katie. Fueled by that thought, Florence returned to her room to yank
on her dirty hiking boots and belt, which hung with two loaded pokéballs
and Eve’s empty one. Wearing her old trainer gear made her feel more in
control. With that, she set out to find her little sister.
Mauville was alive at night. The casino was the throbbing heart of it
all, luring in all manner characters, particularly trainers from the
outreaches of Hoenn come to try to make their own luck or to taste the
kind of adventure their hometowns couldn’t offer. Really, it was just
another face to the same old desperation. Brawls—pokémon battles and
people—often broke out on that street. The streets themselves glowed—
Wattson helped see to that. Neon signs fought for attention just as hard
as the trainers who made pilgrimages to the gym.
Florence moved like an arcade puppet to each of Katie’s past haunts. Each
time she passed a bar, she heard the growls and catcalls, felt the eyes
sliding across her thin nightdress—she’d heard the stories about what
could happen to a girl on the streets late at night—but she hardly paid
attention. Months on the road had made her lean and muscular, and she
always had her pokémon if she needed them. It was thoughts of her sister
that kept her heart thumping like a defective washing machine, but she
tried to put them out of her head.
After an hour of combing the city, Katie was still nowhere to be found.
Mauville wasn’t as big as Lilycove or Saffron City in Kanto, but there
were still a thousand places for a girl to hide—or get lost. There was
still one place left for Florence to try. It was on the other end of town
from the casino, near their house, one of the less garishly lit areas.
The corner of Aspear and King Street. Aside from a set of skid marks a
few feet from the light, there was nothing distinguishing about it—just
another road.
She stared at those skid marks as the ghost of sadness spread through
her. This place should probably mean more to her, but there were no
actual memories to connect her to it, just other people’s words. She
wondered if it was different for Katie—she doubted she would ever ask. At
any rate, her sister wasn’t there. Florence turned away.
“Now what?” she wondered aloud. Florence was just one person—what else
could she do? She was preparing to go back home on the off chance that
Katie had come back on her own when she felt it, like being tapped on the
back of her brain. Eve. And she was close by, Florence could tell.
Then a series of images flashed through her mind, the edges blurred: a
set of stairs, Katie’s face, the silhouette of someone standing against
the glowing skyline.
Pulse quickening, she spun around and craned her neck up at the building
behind her, some kind of office complex. She could feel Eve’s presence,
delicate as a thread of spider silk, emanating from there and gently
pulling at her. Florence had heard other trainers talk about something
similar with their psychic-types—they all had a way of getting into your
head after a while. Relief flooded her—good old Eve—but also a spike of
adrenaline. There was something urgent in Eve’s “voice.”
“I’m coming,” Florence said, though she knew that Eve understood by
reading her thoughts before she even spoke. “Just keep an eye on her
until I get there.” An image of Katie sleeping soundly in her bed sprang
up in Florence’s mind, Eve’s way of saying her sister was safe.
She strode quickly to the door—it was unlocked. Deadbolts lost their
meaning when pokémon were involved. The smells of dust and furniture
polish wafted from inside. Gray shapes of desks and
cabinets loomed out of the black guts of the building. Since returning
from her stint of training around Hoenn, most buildings made her feel
constrained, but the darkness made this one particularly unnerving.
Sensing her panic, Eve sent Florence an image from her Fortree dreams.
Florence breathed deeply and entered the room.
Immediately, Eve commanded her with the picture of the stairs again and
the one of the silhouette, which was electric with alarm. What was that
about? Florence didn’t have long to wonder; with a few images at a time,
Eve guided her through the dark room until she half-stumbled into a door
marked “Roof Access.” She clattered up seven flights of stairs, egged on
by flashes of confused and distressed images from Eve. At last, panting,
she came to a door that burst open to fresh air and the starless, murky
Mauville City sky.
The flat expanse of the rooftop was broken up by a few odd knots of pipes
and vents. “Katie?” Florence called, peering around the tangle of pipes
directly in front of the doorway. “Eve?” Please be okay, she
thought with all her might. The images flowing from Eve were even more
discordant and brief: Something about broken glass. A sidewalk.
Florence’s heart was nearly strangling itself with fear.
They came into sight just around the corner, standing with their backs to
her. The light made the two look like sisters in matching nightgowns,
though one was far thinner with shimmery green skin and hair. Katie’s
hair was short and curly, spice colored. “There you are!” Florence cried.
Katie turned just in time to be caught in a ferocious hug. She looked
unscathed by her escapade alone in the city and she was aware of her
surroundings enough to huge back. That was as much as Florence could dare
to hope for. “What were you doing up here?” She meant to scold, but she
was too glad to see her to be angry.
“Eve said we should,” Katie said in the quiet, oddly calm voice she’d
adopted since Florence came home.
Florence peeled away from her, the hair at the back of her neck
prickling. “What do you mean ‘Eve said you should’?” she demanded, though
she suspected she already knew. The image-based communication she shared
with her pokémon was nothing like what her sister had, even though the
two hadn’t even met until Florence’s return a few months before. Her
sister and her gardevoir had come to understand each other better than
she understood either of them. She couldn’t explain it.
Had it really been Eve leading Katie out into the night all this time, or
was that Katie’s sickness talking? She shot a glance at the gardevoir,
who was shivering and darting her head from side to side. Maybe it was
wrong for her to trust her with her sister so easily. Eve was pushing at
her mind, but Florence shoved her back and shut her out of her thoughts.
“Let’s go home,” she said. She’d have to figure it out in the morning—she
was suddenly exhausted.
“But we have to help that boy,” Katie said.
“What boy?”
At that, Eve slammed her with a chain of discordant images, and she felt
like something inside her tore. Her head twisted to the side without her
permission. Fear iced her insides. Florence tried to scream but couldn’t,
couldn’t even open her mouth. Eve! She batted in vain at the
gardevoir’s crushing force on her mind, but it was like trying to break
down a brick wall with a feather.
But then Florence’s eyes focused where Eve was forcing her to look, and
she saw him: on the ledge, a spread-eagle silhouette. Eve released her
grip on her, and the barrage of chaotic pictures ended abruptly.
Someone was about to jump off the roof.