It was a horrific day when the
news broke. A horrific day in the entire town, but even more terrible in two
households.
Rae awoke early to shouting, and
she couldn’t help wondering what her brothers had done now. She slipped out of
her bed, and grabbed her silk robe. Wrapping it around herself she crept along
the hallway to the top of the stairs.
Below her, her father slammed the
door behind someone, and turned around. His face a mixture of emotions, hurt,
anger and sadness. Her heart went out to her father, and she climbed down the
stairs quickly, running towards him, “Dad, what’s the matter?”
Her father looked at her,
surprised to see her up so early. He looked at her with his angry and sad eyes,
“Sweetheart, I’ve got some bad news for you.”
She pulled at her bangs and looked
at him, breaking his heart. She looked so much like her mother…
He sighed heavily, “Sweetheart,
I’m sorry, your brothers are…” He paused and took a breath, “Are dead.”
Rae’s eyes widened and she gasped.
Her lower lip trembled, and one of her hands crept up to her mouth. “They’re…
dead? No! They can’t be!” A tear fell slowly down her cheek, followed by
another.
“Come on,” Her father put his arm
around her, “I’ll explain.”
He ushered her into the living
room slowly, to explain several things that would change her life. She would
later describe that conversation one of the saddest of her life.
That conversation took place on
her sixteenth birthday.
~*~*~*~
It had been late at night when the
fight had begun. How is started isn’t really known, although Butch seemed to
recall that one of his brothers had said, jokingly, something about Rae’s
mother. Words were exchanged, then punches, and then the fight began to get
more violent.
Two of them were dead before the
fire broke out, and Butch was the only one to escape from the fire. Damaged
physically from the fight and fire, his voice would remain damaged from the
smoke forever. He was also damaged mentally for what he took part in, and the
sight of the death of his brothers, and people he thought of as brothers.
Rae’s father blamed Butch and his
family, and desperate to protect his daughter he forbade her to see her friend
again, or for Butch to get anywhere near her ever.
The death of his wife, all those
years ago, had broken the man, and he was pained at his daughter’s resemblance
to her, but now with his two sons dead his pain rushed back again, and changed
into irrationality. He did all he could to do what he saw as protecting her,
making her almost a prisoner in her own home.
Rae understood how her father was
upset, she had been as unhappy and distraught as him, but she knew how to move
on with it. Her father, for some reason, didn’t seem able to do that. And as
much as she loved him Rae was angry with her father for taking away her right
to see her best friend. And as much as she hated to disobey him, she, one day
got a note to Butch, saying she wanted to meet with him.
Behind the town’s Pokémon Centre
was a small woodland, where wild Pokémon were released back into the wild after
being treated. This was where Rae was meeting Butch, and she stood fingering a
locket around her neck. A locket her favourite brother, David, had given her,
or rather would have given her if he had lived.
She turned at a noise, and saw
Butch standing not far from her. He looked at her ruby red eyes, filled with a
million raw emotions. The thought that she must hate him crossed painfully
through his mind, and he lowered his head, so he didn’t have to look at her.
“I’m sorry about your brothers,
Rae.”
His voice was so different to what
it used to be, not deep and masculine now, but raw and grating. Her heart
broke, and she ran forward and wrapped her arms round her startled friend’s
neck. He stood stiffly for a second before wrapping his arms around her.
“I’m sorry too Butch,” She
whispered in his ears. He felt a tear fall against his flesh. “Oh my dear
friend, I’ve missed you!”
He pulled back, shocked. He wasn’t
sure what he had expected, but this wasn’t it. He coughed nervously, “Rae, I
had a part in the death of-”
“It doesn’t matter,” Rae said
quickly. “I forgive you. I don’t know why you were fighting, I don’t know how
the fire started, I don’t know who was dead before it started, but as long as
one of you survived I don’t care! I forgive you, because I’m sure they would
have wanted it, and I forgive you because I cannot be mad at you.”
He hugged her tightly, “If only
everyone thought like you.” He sighed, “Almost everyone in town treats me like
a criminal.”
“Especially my father,” She said,
speaking the words he hadn’t wanted to. “I don’t care what he says, I can’t not
see you! You’re my best friend, you’re like a brother to me! I don’t want to
lose the only brother who came out alive.”
“You forgive me?” He asked
huskily, just to be sure.
“Of course I do.” Rae smiled
reassuringly at him. “I could never be mad at you.”
Rae and Butch kept in touch as
much as they could, using Rae’s Pidgey to courier messages between them.
However Rae’s home life was upsetting her more and more, and she was getting
depressed. Then her father decided on something that would send her over the
edge.
Butch woke up one evening to a tapping
on his window, he blearily opened it and looked into the dark garden. Rae stood
outside looking up at him, “Butch! I need to speak to you!” She called as
loudly as she dared.
Butch yawned, and motioned to her
that she should walk to the front door. He led her into the house quietly, and
up to his room, in case anyone should hear or see her. Still slightly tired, he
lay back on his bed, scooting as far over as he could so she could lie beside
him.
As she sat beside him, leaning
against his headboard he noticed she was wearing a coat over her flimsy
night-clothes, and embarrassed turned his glance to his own hands, and then her
face. She had tears in her eyes now he looked closely, although she seemed she
was trying to compose herself.
“What’s wrong?” He asked her
worried.
“It’s horrible,” She whispered.
“He’s gone too far this time, I swear it.” Her fists clenched and unclenched
almost involuntarily, and a small tear ran down her cheek.
Butch wiped it away, “Why? What
has he done?” He knew they were talking about her father, and a rush of hatred
flared up inside him.
She looked down at herself, and
then spoke in a broken voice, “He says he is going to choose who I am going to
marry.” She looked up at Butch. “I don’t want to get married! I’m only sixteen!
If I was going to marry I’d want to choose myself, not someone who my father
has decided is suitable for me! I can’t even do that he keeps in the house
nearly all the time!” Anger flashed in her red eyes, and her fists clenched
again, “I hate him! I hate him! He can’t do this to me!”
Then she started to sob, and Butch
pulled her to him, and held her as her tears fell down his bare back. They
stayed like that for a long time, Rae crying for so many things which caused
her pain and cost her her freedom.
Butch was almost drifting off when
she spoke in a cracked voice, “I’m an awful person.”
“No!” He said fervently. “Why
would you think that?”
“I hate my own father. I hate my
life. Everyone chastises me for not mourning the death of my brothers for
longer and… Oh, I wish I was dead. I wish I was anywhere but here,” She
muttered, her eyelids fluttering, visibly distraught and exhausted.
“You’re not awful,” Butch
whispered, holding her close. They lay still for a while, and he soon realised
she was asleep, and they had slid from a sitting position to lying on the bed.
His arm around her shoulders as she curled on her side into him. Her hand
between his chest and her head. Her other hand on his chest, and his free hand
on it. Her dark lashes were damp as they lay against her pale skin, with some
tears suspended in them.
“You’re not awful Rae,” He
whispered huskily. “You deserve so much better then all of this.” He lifted her
hand and kissed it lightly, she stirred, but didn’t wake. “I hate it here too,
but with you I can cope with it.” He sighed heavily. “You’re so sad these days…
it’s not like you. I’m losing who you are because of him.”
As he lay there, holding her
against him for fear he would never feel it again, waiting for sleep to find
him too, he decided on something he had contemplated several times before but
never thought of carrying out. Now he didn’t care.
Leave town, run away were the
words he told her early in the morning when they both awoke. It the answer they
were looking for, and it seemed so simple.
So they did. A week after that
night they each packed a bag, and slyly left their homes and met at the train
station. They took the train to Viridian City, and then began a trek through
the forest, their plan being to eventually make their way to Vermillion City
and then to one of the Seafoam Islands.
However once they discovered the
abandoned cottage they both decided to stay for a while. Free from her
oppressions, Rae became happier everyday. Everyday Butch’s pain of loving Rae
grew.
He knew she thought of him only as
her friend, or even her only surviving brother. She’d never think of him as he
thought of her.