Timeline of Errors

Part 3 - The Next Day

My mouth opened as I let out a big yawn. My eyes seemed to be surrounded by crusts and they can barely open at all. My head felt light and every step I took felt surreal, as if I was still dreaming. The skies were dark and so were the streets since only dim street lightings were put in place. Chilly winds blew past my cape and skirt, triggering some goosebumps along my skin.

Damn... it's so cold... well what do I expect... it's the start of winter... I thought as I pulled my cape closer, I wanna go back to bed...

I could barely sleep last night as I lay awake, staring at my ceiling. The scenes that just happened that day kept replaying in my head. Chatting endlessly with journalist and stakeholders. Slipping away for a breath of fresh air. The way the view shook out of the blue. Holding on to the cold, hard railing. Pushing my way through the crowd. Being stuck and pushed around in the sea of humans. The smell of laundry and perfume intruding my nose.

And falling and falling until who knows when. 

I closed my eyes only to feel myself falling through the darkness, my feet struggling in the air until I gasped for air and woke up to my plain white ceiling. I turned to lie on my side, staring at the back of the chair by my desk instead. A portable healing machine sat next to it. Four Pokeballs were neatly tucked inside, gleaming in the low lights.

I sat up and turned to the window above my head. Peeking behind the curtain, I found the stars twinkling gently as they looked back at me from far beyond the world. I hugged my knees and laid my head down on them. Closing my eyes, I tried to recall the feeling when I grasped Swanna's Pokeball once again. How it all stopped the moment I found myself slowly drifting in the sea of stars on her back.

Like I was back... to those simpler times.

I sighed as I came back to reality, watching my feet take me to a place I could navigate to with my eyes closed. Soon, they stopped in front of a tall, rectangular white building with a Pokeball logo in the entrance. I walked in, spotting some people I've seen before but never talked to as they walked past me. Took an elevator with a bunch of strangers, then out again. Tapped my ID on the card reader, waited for the door to open, and walked among the cubicles. The same thing everyday.

I walked over to the cubicle just outside the pantry and slumped in my seat as I waited for my computer to start. Suddenly, I could hear rushed footsteps and panic whispers.

"Send over the complaint report and which centres they came from,"

"It's almost all over Sinnoh now-"

"Goodness. Has Health responded?"

"I dropped an emergency call so he should be able to respond soon-"

"And the director? Is he aware of this?"

Then suddenly a group of people stopped right in front of my cubicle as they stared at me.

"Valen, have you seen Seb?" one of the men said.

"He should be back today, but I haven't seen him around," I replied, "I can pass him your message,"

"Back from where?" one of the women said.

"Conference in Unova for three days," I said flawlessly and turned to them.

"Of course," one of the men said understandingly as he rolled his eyes, "this is extremely urgent - something's wrong with the Pokemon Centres across the region. We received numerous complaint overnight,"

"Keep this down, but for some reason, none of the fainted Pokemon can recover anymore," someone else chipped in.

"What?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.