Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Virah felt conflicted.

Actually no-

Her thoughts were a mess and the confused, chaotic, and barely coherent emotions that went along with them acted as gasoline being poured directly on top of a blazing campfire. If steam could come out of her ears, they would be whistling like she was a train about to depart.

Where? Virah had no clue.

Where was she going with this? Where did her emotions think they were taking her by making her feel all of this towards Whitney? Where and what is that girl doing right now?

‘Probably doing something with a smile,’ Virah's stupid, traitorous thoughts whispered traitorously to her ears, their tone smooth and seductive. Alluring. Virah scowled in anger but that didn't stop her head from putting up more of the annoying thoughts, ‘she would be giggling right now too, how cute would that have been to see?’

“Shut up!” Virah slammed her head on her pillow and yelled at it. Poor thing wasn't even her head too but she can't hurt herself, or maybe she would?!

“Weedle?” Virah sat up and turned to Nitro, he tilted his head, a concerned question marking his following silence, the Pokemon tilted his head, “Weedle?”

“No, Nitro,” Virah replied, voice tired, “I- I'm not in pain or anything like that,” she sighed and slumped, making her head fall back to the pillow with a soft thump, “I'm just-” she scratched her head, “it's complicated, Nitro, now let me be,”

“Weedle.” Nodding, Nitro went on to waddle to the Ratata chewing on a small pile of Pokefeed piece by piece as if they were a bowl of popcorn and Virah's suffering is a particularly entertaining show. The Ratata watched Nitro waddle over in suspicion and when the Weedle neared, he moved his bowl of Pokefeed away from the Bug Type.

Virah quickly looked away to hide her smile, damn it, her Pokemon- and guest, - were just too cute weren't they?!

'As cute as Whitney whenever she laughed,’

Virah glared at the wall and then closed her eyes.

All her senses felt sharper than before, and- and her racing heart thrummed alongside the cold sensation of her pillow pressing against her cheek.

When she opened her eyes again to distract herself, her brain decided to just focus on that instead and she noticed that the wall next to her bed had these tiny bumps that formed on the surface of the otherwise smooth, white paint.

Her skin also felt so smooth against the bedsheets that she was tempted- tempted to wiggle around like a Caterpie who found a bed of loafy leaves.

Whitney appeared in Virah's thoughts and she slammed her head against her pillow and violently shook it back and forth.

The night went on and as expected Virah found herself still unable to sleep, it was annoying and she was starting to feel anxious about waking up late tomorrow morning so, instead of reading her notes and hoping she'll fall asleep that way- she couldn't- no, won't fall asleep like that because WHITNEY (her written accounts and observations, that is,) was written directly on the fucking pages of the notebook.

Which in retrospect should have been a damn sign!

“Ughhhhhh,” like a Parasect that has been taken over by the mushroom on its back, Virah drawled her words slowly, her tongue flapped about within her cheeks, gurgling non-existent spit, “uwuwwuwuwwuwuwu-”

She stopped being weird when light suddenly blinded her, she covered her eyes and saw a... guard- she heaved a sigh and waved, “hello sir,”

The man- who looked to have been as surprised as her, but that was most likely because of her... sounds just now, - tipped his hat and smiled, “hello to you young miss,”

Virah's eyes looked away from the guard's face and towards his still-lifted hand, he had white gloves uncommonly seen on police officers as well as a black, long-sleeved shirt underneath his standard police uniform, it looked glossy, oddly enough.

She heard a sound and looked up, she saw Ratata up on the rooftops, glaring at the man while letting out a very audible and angry sounding growl.

The guard bent down and threw a rock at him, sending the Ratata scurrying away and all the while, Virah simply stared, she did her best to hide just how suspicious she was of the guard though.

Said guard wiped his gloved hands on his uniform, causing a trail of brown dust to form on the pristine purple surface, he shook his head at Virah, “Ratatas are everywhere around here aren't they?”

“Yeah...” Virah nodded, “I guess they are,”

String Shot would slow this man down, but she doubts that the Pokemon in his Pokeball would just sit back and not burn it away- assuming that the man in front of her has the standard Growlithe of the day-to-day police officer.

“Well, I'm off,” the man chuckled nervously, and as he started walking away, he suddenly stopped and turned back to her, “take care alright? And be careful of the Ratatas, they're very violent, they also like to form packs- or gangs, as the professors call it, it's why criminals like to take care of them, this place can be very annoying to navigate if they hate you,”

Virah made a show of relaxing, she faked a nod, “and I guess that's why that one was growling at you? Since criminals hate police officers?”

“Pretty much,” the way the man visibly relaxed at her non-suspicious reply got Virah to feel even more skeptical and she couldn't wait to get away from him.

The guard was the one who thankfully turned his back on her, he walked in the opposite direction too, but Virah still waited for him to disappear in the distance before moving on.

An orphan around here didn't grow up without being suspicious of disguised people, and they were more common than one might think. Usually though, people didn’t bother to dress up as a cop and Virah thought the dealer she saw was either the stupidest man on the planet or the smartest.

Which one is which, she honestly wasn't sure.

Undeterred by the rather strange encounter, Virah continued on and made her way to the nearest convenience store, she bought two cans of soda as well as a few bags of chips, the night was long, and studying her notes would take a while, and writing down ideas on how to improve would take even longer so energy-burning sugar and a lot of calories could only be a good idea.