Pokemon Fan Fiction / Pokemon Fan Fiction ❯ Deception ❯ Near Death Experience ( Chapter 4 )

Chapter 4:  Near Death Experience

As James got nearer to Pokemon Tech, he though he could see smoke coming from the treetops.

 "Just another forest fire from the storm I expect." He thought to himself

 But as he got closer, he realised that this fire wasn't in the forest, in fact, it was a building. He turned the corner and went through the Pokèmon Tech gates, only to find that the building that was on fire…WAS Pokèmon Tech. A sudden burst of emotions flew through him and he ran to where the crowd of people were outside, watching Officer Jenny's and some Squirtle's fight the fire.

 "What happened?" he asked one of his friends

 "Don't know, some technical fault when they tried to repair the phone lines I think.  The electricity must have sparked and caught fire."

 James stood there and watched.  Normally, he would have enjoyed watching something like this, but something inside him made him feel un-easy, something wasn't right, apart from the soaring flames in front of him.  Then it hit him.

 "Hey", he said, looking around at the crowd, "Where's Jessie?" James walked quickly around the crowd, shouting Jessie's name, with no answer.  Oh great, Giovanni will be pretty mad if I fail this, I can't let her be killed in some flimsy fire.  I'm the one who does the killing.

 He had convinced himself that this was the reason…but was it?

 "Excuse me?" he asked, walking up to an Officer Jenny.

 "Yes, what is it?" she asked impatiently

 "Is everyone out of the building?"

 "Yes, everything's fi…"

 Before she could finish, someone from the crowd pointed at a flaming window and shouted. "Hey look!  There's someone still up there!!!"

 Officer Jenny and James looked up to the window, and sure enough, there was someone up there.  She was trying to get out of the window, but something exploded behind her, and she vanished.

 "Oh my God!" James said out load, "That's Jessie!!"

 Before any sense could enter James's head, he ran towards the flaming doors of Pokèmon Tech.

 "James!!! What the hell do you think you are doing!?!?"  Screamed Clara.

 But James wasn't listening; he coughed as he made his way through the thick smoke and the menacing crackling of the hot flames by his sides. He peered up through the black smoke and saw the elevator and the stairs.  Well, he couldn't use the elevator; the stairs were the only option. He dodged a piece of burning wood as it fell from above him.  He fell to his knees coughing so much it hurt his throat.  He eventually got up to Jessie's floor and began to slowly make his way down the burning corridor.  He found Jessie's room and the door was on fire.  Still coughing, he tried to push the door with his boot, kicking it.  As the door was so weak from being burned, it crumbled back to reveal Jessie lying on her front of the floor, unconscious.  He made his way over to her, watching as his foot fell through the floor.  Grabbing quickly on to the bed, he pulled himself up, only to burn his hand.  Cursing himself, he picked Jessie up in his arms and staggered back through the door. As he made his way down the corridor, careful to where he trod, he could feel his eyes watering and it was becoming very difficult to breath.  His vision became blurry as he started to make his way down the crumbling stairs.  Fire spurted out of every corner.  As he stepped on the fifth step from the ground, the stairs collapsed and James and Jessie fell through.  He cried out in pain as he landed on his spine, but looking down at Jessie, helpless and unconscious in his arms, he found the strength to carry her the rest of the way and out the doors.

As soon as he clambered out of the doors, the front of the building collapsed, as did James.  He fell to the floor exhausted, as doctors came and put Jessie on a stretcher. Clara, Daniel, Sarah and Katy came running to James side, who was in the middle of a deep chesty cough.

 "James are you insane?!" screamed Sarah

 "You could have been killed in there!!" screamed Clara

 "What the hell were you thinking?!" screamed Daniel

 "Well I thought you were very brave." Said Katy softly, putting her hand on James shoulder while he finished his coughing fit. 

 He looked up at her weakly, his face covered in ash, and smiled softly.  One of the doctors came over and put a blanket over him. "That was an incredible thing you just did." He said, "But lets get you checked out too, come on."

He helped James get up and go into the ambulance that Jessie as in.

James sat down next to Jessie in the ambulance, pulling the blanket over him.  He looked down at her, helpless and weak as an oxygen mask did the breathing for her.  That time was too close, far too close. As two doctors fussed over Jessie, one doctor took a look at James's hand as they made their way to the hospital.

------

He was running.  Never had he run so fast.  The dark clouds rolled over ahead and split, spilling their heavy load of water.  It poured so heavily as he ran, the wet sand sticking to his boots. Suddenly, there she was again, screaming for help.  The same man in the dark clothing held a knife to her throat…it was himself. James stood there once again watching, but this time, he had to do something, he had to try and save her. He pulled out a gun from his pocket and ran towards them.  The other man looked up and saw him in time.  He quickly turned around and slashed the knife at James, slashing his shirt, and his flesh. Before he even had time to fire the gun, James fell to the sand, blood pouring.  He looked once more time up at Jessie, just in time to see himself slit her throat once again…

James woke up with a start, sweating profusely.  He was breathing heavily as he darted his eyes around too see where he was.  He was in a cubicle at Viridian Hospital.  His right hand was bandaged and in a sling.  He calmed down slightly and tried to steady his breathing.  It was the same dream, only this time he tried to help, but only ended up killing himself as well as Jessie.  As he sat there thinking about this dream, one of the nurses came in with a clipboard.

 "Are you James?"

 "Yes."

 "Good." She looked down her chart for a moment, and then looked back to James. "Well, for someone who's just risked their life in a fire seems to be in pretty good shape." She walked over to his left side and took his pulse. "Hmmm, I think you'll be alright to leave. Just make sure you don't abuse that arm okay?"

 "Sure." As she turned to leave, he remembered Jessie. "Oh, excuse me but did another young woman come in with me?  Red hair, blue eyes?  Her name was Jessie."

 "Oh yes, she's in the cubical next to you."

"Is she alright?"

The nurse smiled at him. "Why don't you see for yourself?"

She walked over to the curtain separating the two cubicles, and pulled it back slightly.  There was Jessie.  She still had the Oxygen Mask on, but she looked better than she was.  Her burns were bandaged and her hair was a mess, but as long as she was alive, and going to stay that way, he didn't care.

"She should wake up in the next half hour.  If she's alright after that, she can go home."

The nurse walked out of the cubicle leaving James to tend to Jessie.  He walked past the curtain and sat next to her bedside on a chair.  Making sure he didn't put any weight on his right arm, he lent forward and gave her a small kiss on her forehead.

 I must be going crazy he thought, this is nothing like me. No one cares about me, why should I care about them?

He sat there stroking her hair thinking about his changes in behaviour.  He thought back to how he originally came to be how he used to be.

 Jessiebelle.

 Even now that one named made him angrier than ever.  All those times she had used that Oddish of hers to use its Stun Spore on him so he couldn't run while she whipped him.   When he was younger he was petrified of her, after he had finished acting school, he was stuck in that mansion all day.  All day with Jessiebelle.  In other words, all day in hell.  He had always tried to hide from her, but there was that one-day when she had found him, and told him that because he wouldn't even try to become the perfect gentlemen, he would be punished even more than he already had been. At the age of 11, with the help of his own parents, they dragged him down to the dungeon, and to start the day off, locked him in what he used the call the 'Black Hole'.  The black hole was literally as it sounded, a hole in the wall with no light.  His parents had deliberately put a hole there to put him in.  Once the door was closed, there was not a single drop of light that could get in.  He would spend hours down in that cramped hole, screaming, begging for them to let him out.  But all he heard was their maniacal laughing as they left him their on his own for hours on end.  Because of that, he had become seriously claustrophobic, his only weakness. When they finally got bored, they would open the door and drag him out. 

But that was just the beginning. 

Jessiebelle would get her Oddish to use it's Stun Spore, then whip him over and over, as his parents just stood there and watched, repeating the words, 'It's for the best' and, 'It will teach him a valuable lesson.'

That's when it happened. 

By now he had been whipped and kicked so many times he was bleeding everywhere he could see.  As he huddled in the corner, unable to move from the Stun Spore, he focused away from the physical pain, to the mental pain, knowing his parents just stood their laughing at him.  They didn't care about him.  Jessiebelle didn't care about him.  No body cared about him. After all this time, he finally accepted this, and he turned his head to Jessiebelle…eyes flashing with maniacal anger.  As the whip came down again, James grabbed it.  The Stun Spore had worn off, and now it was time to stop.  No, not to stop, to have revenge.  He wasn't scared any more, he was furious. His emotions were going haywire.  He grabbed the whip from Jessiebelle and kicked her to the floor, whipping her over and over again.  The soft light that was in his heart had gone.  The Nightingales song had faded completely away, and the harsh cry of the black crow had taken its place.  Although he was only 11, he whipped both his parents and Jessiebelle until there were dead.  He didn't care at all.  He didn't even feel guilty.  They had driven him over the edge, and they didn't deserve to live.

After that day, he swore to himself he would become the thing his parents despised the most…a Team Rocket Member.

He joined up and fought and fought to become the best.  At the age of 13, after only two years of training, he was the best Rocket Giovanni had ever had.  Every other member was terrified of him.  Never before had they seen such a blackened heart in such a young boy.  Even Giovanni wasn't that cold.  He would go out on the most dangerous missions, and always come back alive.  He became a master with his hands, a master with a gun, and master at disguise.

 James sighed.  All that training, all that hard work, and now, one girl, one girl he was supposed to be secretly training, one girl he was supposed to be teaching, one girl, was showing the light in the darkness.  However, the crow still had the advantage over the nightingale, and its cry still drowned the song.  He still had a job to do; he still had to complete this mission. He then realised he still had a trademark to keep.  Getting up from his chair, he walked out of the cubicle. When he came back, he found a nurse talking to Jessie gently.  He walked in and they both looked up.  Jessie smiled at him as she saw the huge bouquet of red roses in his arms.

 "I heard about your heroic stunts James." She smiled.  James blushed and looked down.  He walked over to Jessie and placed the roses in a vase by her bed.  Jessie took his hand in hers as she looked up at him. "But seriously, thank you James."

 He smiled down at her, "Hey, what are friends for?" He looked back across at the nurse. "When can she leave?"

 "Well, she still needs to rest for now, but it won't be long.  You can stay here with her if you like?"

He nodded at her as she walked away, leaving Jessie and himself to talk through their near death experience, still holding hands.

 To be continued……