The man with the cross slumped weightlessly next to Sabrina, having used the last of his strength to shield her from that attack. Almost in a trance, she looked down at him. He wheezed painfully, choking on a mouthful of blood, the rest pooling beneath his chest as he shuddered with the cold…

  Her gaze returned to her old Pokemon, who met it with the apathetic coolness of living weapons. They’d… they’d really forgotten it all. Or maybe they’d never… Maybe it’d only been an illusion, a lie.

  All the time they’d spent together…

  She saw them approach, heard voices as though at the other end of a long tunnel.

  “Maybe if we take him alive Mr. Azure can have a little fun with him. I’m sure he’d like to ask him a few questions.”

  “Fuck, do something about the girl first. Don’t want her going all Jedi on us again.”

  Sabrina barely heard -past the rush of blood in her ears- as a hand lowered itself toward her, but before it could touch her a blinding flash of purple lit up the night.

  Pushed by an invisible force, the Noctowl on the man’s shoulders was thrown aside like a ragdoll, leaving behind a handful of feathers. The man soon followed. And then the Hypno, who despite managing the hit better than the other two still hit the ground hard, rolling over a few times.

  “What!? Who the fuck is-!?” One of the men cried out, looking all around in a panic.

  “There!” cried another, seeing the flash of light come from behind them, taking Starmie out of commission. “It came from there, come on!”

  Several hurried steps, furious screams. A flash, then another.

  And then silence.

  Sabrina was unsure of how much time passed. A couple of minutes most likely; the blood loss had left her somewhat lethargic, but a weak cough next to her returned -with a jolt- the light to her eyes.

  Run. We have to run, I have to… get him out of here!

  She didn’t even stop to think about the miracle that had saved them. Kneeling down, she threw the man’s arm over her shoulder again and -letting out a raw, guttural scream- pulled him up with monstrous effort, putting one foot in front of the other. Their clothes were drenched in blood. Sabrina barely made it five steps before her knees gave out, sending them both to the frozen asphalt.

  “Gh… no, no! Sh… it…”

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  Despite fighting with everything she had to lift them both, Sabrina failed. In a second they were both on the ground again, panting furiously.

  “Sabrina…”

  “Shut up!”

  “Sabrina-”

  “NO! I can… I can do it! Just shut up and wait! I’ll get us out of here…”

  “...”

  “I’ll… SHIT!”

  Her fist slammed against the ground, though it was so weak it barely made a noise.

  “...They’ll be on us soon.”

  “I know! I… I know.”

  A brief silence. Wind whistled through the space between buildings.

  “Could you… search in the pocket of my jacket?” the man asked then, barely a whisper.

  She obeyed, unable to give it much thought, and furrowed her bloodied brow in confusion when she pulled out a small knife, identical to the one the man had used to immobilize Azure and kill those men in the Gym.

  “I’m not good with these types of weapons,” she said, frustrated. “And it’s not gonna be any good against Pokemon, in any case.”

  Another beat of silence.

  “It’s not for them,” was the simple answer.

  Sabrina slowly turned her head toward him, eyes widening.

  “Heh… When my little brother finds out about this… I’m sure he’ll hate me.”

  “W-what? You’re… You don’t mean-You c-can’t expect me to…!”

  The man’s pale, frigid hand closed around her shaking fingers with the strength of a vice, centering her. Slowly aiming the knife.

  “This poison’s… not something I can be saved from at this point. You know that, right?”

  “You don’t know that!” she bellowed. “This woman’s an expert on poisons, if we can just reach her…”

  The man’s black eyes changed, they were pleading now.

  “Don’t… don’t let them take me, please…”

  Trembling uncontrollably, a deep, gnashing fury took hold of Sabrina “You son of a bitch… After doing… after doing… this,” she said, unable to find a word for the change she’d suffered since he’d arrived. “You think I’m gonna let you die!? Like hell!”

  “If you stay with me, you’ll die too… and that’s…”

  Sabrina opened her mouth, but he interrupted her before she could say what they both knew she was thinking.

  “DON’T YOU DARE SAY YOU DON’T CARE!”

  The scream clearly took a lot out of him, because the man immediately suffered a fit of coughing, wet and bloody. His voice much weaker, he fought to keep talking.

  “Before them… I’d rather the last thing I see is your face, even if y-you’re not gonna cry for me, ha…”

  The blade of the knife shook violently beneath Sabrina’s fingers. Wrapped around them, the man’s hand kept tugging it toward his own chest, but she resisted with everything she had.

  “For giving you this sort of burden… I’m sorry. But, one last time, let me…” He smiled. “Let me be a little selfish… yeah?”

  Sabrina’s eyes fell closed. She stopped seeing, hearing. Her hands gave out. And as the knife fell, a brief scene flashed before her eyes. Gone were the night and the blood and the frozen wind; she saw herself sitting beneath that oak tree alongside him, surrounded by piles and piles of books, the lethargic cries of Pokemon humming in the branches above…

  She almost didn’t hear the sound of the blade burying in his flesh.