The Void She Filled

Chapter 3: From The Eyes Of A Stranger

"Rosa? Rosa! Are you okay? Answer me, please..."

An arm accompanied by a distressed voice gently, but firmly shakes me out of my memory. I gasp lightly and open my eyes. Only then did N take his hand away, his face a veil of concern. I'm out of the steady file of memories, and back in the bedroom with the mysterious teenager.

"That... wasn't just a dream, was it?" I ask with a sense of dismay. My hands, I notice, are trembling pretty badly just thinking about what happened.

N sighs in what sounded like sadness. "No, it wasn't, unfortunately. Though I wish it were only a dream." He put his head in his hands for a moment, as if to block out some horrible memory. For a moment, I feel confused by his statement. How could he have known what happened? But another small detail bounces around my head and soon dominates my thoughts.

Rosa. He said Rosa. He knows my name.

"How do you know my name?" I question shakily, my voice dangerously low. His face immediately grows pale.

"U-um... Well, that's kind of hard to explain..."

"For some reason, I really doubt that," I reply, crossing my arms against my chest defensively. "I want an explanation. Now."

His face betrays his internal conflict to tell me the truth. He sighs and settles himself at the foot of the bed, giving me an uncertain stare. I meet his gaze, holding my breath in anticipation. Self-defense techniques I had learned in school were running through my head, just in case.

His eyes look nervous, and it's clear he's fighting against shifting them elsewhere. Is he so nervous because he got caught? Or because things are more complicated than what they seemed? Before I could truly mull it over, he spoke up again.

"Can I just start from the beginning? It would be easier to explain everything that way."

"Fine. I guess that's only fair."

"And... I'll have to ask that you hear me out. I know what you might be thinking, and I promise you, that isn't it."

"What, that you could have very well kidnapped me? No promises."

He releases an amused huff. "Well, you can't say I didn't try. So, I first saw you when..."

*                      *                    *

Nothing...? Hm. Guess I better turn back, then.

N, having reached the edge of the forest by Route 22, grudgingly accepted the failure of his mission. The berries around here were no doubt buried by the local Pokémon, in preparation for the harsh season ahead. While his stocks were lower than he'd like, he could afford to wait a couple more days before trying again. N sighed in defeat at the sight of the pine that marked the end of the tree line, taking it as his cue to turn back. But before he could even turn around, he heard an agitated exclamation from the distance.

"Oh yeah? That's what you think. I won't give up so easily! The hell I'll let you take my friends away from me!"

The intonation and inflection appeared to belong to a teenage girl. N went cold hearing such a claim, laced with both an icy fear and an underlying tone of conviction. The last thing he wanted to do right now was stumble upon some pointless drama. After all, why should he be concerned with the conflicts of selfish humans?

But this was a scream edged with dread... And how could he just ignore a child?

No. He couldn't. He wasn't that cold-hearted. Not like a supposed family member he thought he had known... And even beyond all of that, there was one person who taught him that anyone was worth a saving grace.