“This is where the trail of blood ends, so that buried over here must b-HEY! What’d grandma say? Don’t touch dead people!”

  A boy no older than twelve tugged at his younger sister’s arm with disgust, while a third kid approached with a long branch in hand, poking the corpse a couple times. There was no reaction.

  There were no signs of last night’s brutal blizzard save for the snow still on the ground. The sky was a pristine blue and the sun shone with no cloud to hide behind. The trio of children -all siblings- were badly dressed for the weather, not to mention dirty from playing in the mud and snow all day. By pure coincidence, one of them had spotted a dried-up trail of blood. They followed it toward a large tree, and a person buried in its shadow beneath the snow.

  Only a speck of black fabric could be seen under the pile of white.

  “Must be an old man that didn’t make it home last night,” the older one guessed.

  After doubting for a moment, the siblings knelt down and began to dig up the poor bastard. Under the sunlight filtering through the leaves above, they noticed that their arm was quite skinny; maybe a child or-?

  “It’s a woman,” muttered the one with the branch. “Young.”

  “What happened to her?” asked their sister.

  “Maybe… she sat down to rest, and never opened her eyes again.”

  A beat of silence. Then, the older one noticed something.

  “That hat… hey, did you hear? Earlier, the radio. There was something last night, yeah? A fight or…”

  His brother nodded. “They said something about treason. The Gym leader… No, not the one from T.V.” he cleared up, seeing the momentary ray of hope in his sister’s eyes. “The ‘other’ Sabrina… they said she escaped after making a mess. A lot of people died… I think the mafia was looking for her.”

  “Maybe she’s…”

  Wondering, the older boy placed the branch beneath the girl’s chin, lifting up her face a little. Yet to their disappointment, she looked like a perfectly ordinary girl.

  All three of them, however, screamed when she opened her eyes suddenly.

  “G-G-GRANDMA! Go get grandma!”

  The first thing Sabrina noted upon waking up was that she was freezing.

  She pushed herself up as much as she could. Beneath her lay an old, torn-up sofa; her arms, one of her shoulders and most of her torso was covered in multiple layers of bandages. Her forehead, too. Her face and cheeks were covered in band-aids, and a handful of old, dirty jackets were piled up on top of her upper body, trying to shield her from the cold.

  Sunlight filtered through a window overhead. She tried to sit up, but the moment she put weight on her elbow she let out a grunt of pain.

  …I’m alive, she noted, indifferent.

  There were footsteps. Slowly, she turned to look at the person under the sill of the door.

  “Good heavens!”

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  The old, chubby woman ran back toward the kitchen, making a whole lot of racket.

  She closed her eyes; maybe she’d be able to sleep a little m-

  “Here, girl! Please eat something, you’re all skin and bones!”

  The woman was by her side before she could complete the thought, carrying a tray full of what little food she could gather. Bread, cheese, even a bit of fruit. Before she could even think about whether she felt hunger or not, more footsteps rang. A trio of little kids surrounded her, looking both excited and scared at the same time.

  “You’re on the outskirts of Saffron, in case you’re wondering,” the oldest-looking one declared proudly. “I brought you here on my back!”

  “Bleh, don’t lie,” the other boy muttered under his breath.

  “I looked after you all night!” the smallest girl said excitedly, trying to make way through his siblings.

  Sabrina stared at them listlessly, the people who’d saved her life. Yet she felt no gratitude toward them, toward her own luck. She felt nothing. Behind her eyes lie nothing but a boundless emptiness. Something had been lost. Something irreplaceable.

  “By the way, this must be yours,” the old woman said, taking a glittering silver cross from her pocket. Sabrina grabbed it as she finished siding her own hoodie over her body. “You were holding onto it so tightly! We thought we’d need a crowbar to pry it off, haha! Oh, and this too, of course…”

  To her surprise, she was also given the Pokeball she’d stolen from one of her captors. And as she took it, she glanced at its surface for the first time, gleaming the silhouette of a small, triangular Pokemon inside, looking up at her with happy round eyes.

  Voices. Outside, faint at first yet slowly growing higher in volume, clearer. There were many of them. Sabrina didn’t move. What did it matter?

  The old woman and the kids exchanged a quick, silent look. Sabrina scanned their expressions with an empty gaze.

  She understood, of course. Such an old woman, taking care of three young kids? They were clearly dirt poor too. Anyone in their shoes would’ve been interested in the reward Azure had surely dangled over the whole town for her capture. She couldn’t blame them.

  The footsteps grew louder. Someone was knocking furiously at the door.

  Not knowing why, Sabrina looked past the window at her right. It must’ve shown the side opposite to the door, because there was no one there, there was nothing but snow, hung clothes drying in the sun and a few dead plants. Yet something caught her eye. In between the dried-up shrubs, barely rising above the snow, a minuscule green sprout fought to receive even a single ray of sunlight.

  The girl’s eyes grew wide.

  “Can you promise me that?”

  It was like something burst inside of her.

  In a flash of movement, she jumped to her feet and grabbed the small girl by the shoulder, turning her around and pressing the knife from the tray of food against her throat. Her only Pokeball opened behind her. The small, triangular creature inside jumped toward the window, shattering it with its body, opening a way out.

  The little girl let out a choked cry. Sabrina pressed the edge of the knife tighter against her jugular.

  “Move or scream and I’ll slice her throat open,” she said with a serene voice. The family knew it was no boast. There was absolutely no doubt in those cold green eyes.

  Three more knocks on the door. Sabrina didn’t wait; she kicked the girl forward, on top of her grandmother, and grabbed a piece of bread from the tray before running toward the window and jumping out, hearing the distant sound of the door being brought down. Screams, angry and fearful in equal measure.

  And she ran. She ran as fast as her legs could manage. Without thinking, barely stopping to breathe. She ran until she could hear nothing but the rush of the wind and her own furious breathing. She ran perhaps for a full hour, until her body gave out and she collapsed face-first into the snow.

  It took her long minutes to bring her heart under control, her muscles loudly complaining all the way. When she finally rose to her feet, she noticed the silhouette of the whole city in the distance. Somehow, she’d made her way toward the peak of a distant hill.

  …Now what?

  First off, she’d need to get as far away from Saffron as she could; Kanto too, if possible. She made a mental list of her belongings. She had a single change of clothes, a weak-looking Snorunt, a kitchen knife and a piece of bread.

  She had no idea what her next steps would be, but one certainty burned bright inside her. She would stop for no one, for nothing, ever again. Humans, Pokemon… to stay alive, she would use both if the need arose.

  With one last glance over her shoulder, she captured as much as she could of Saffron behind her eyes before turning around, throwing the silver cross around her neck, and walking away. The Snorunt followed closely behind, hopping happily along.

  Shit… I’m gonna need some cash.