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Only Hope - Espeon TF short story

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   A bell rang when Emelia opened the door to a shop which was concealed in an alleyway. The sign suspended above the door read Madam Teek’s Future Sight Shop of Antiques and Magic. Normally Emelia would never set foot in such a grimy and shady establishment, but she had become desperate.

   A barrier of scented smoke blasted her nose with its sickly sweet stench, her eyes watering, she forced herself to step inside and closed the door behind her. Knitted human shaped dolls hung by their necks underneath one of the shelves next to her, some of the dolls still having the knitting needles inside of them. Everywhere she looked there was a display of ugly items stolen from Voodoo to Medieval culture and everything in-between. No single shelf was left empty, any shelf that didn’t hold a bizarre antique instead had an incense stick burning on it.

   Emelia made it to the front desk of the shop. She placed her ruby leather handbag on the counter then rapped her knuckles on the hard wood surface.

   “Hello. Does anyone work here?”

   No answer. Maybe this was a good thing she thought. On the other side of the counter she saw that there was another room beyond that was partly hidden by bleak, worn-out curtains. The weak light of a candle flicked inside. Perhaps someone was in there who just didn’t want to be seen. She went to knock again when she saw her reflection in a sliver hand mirror that was on the counter.

   Heavy black bags stained her eyes like dark clouds bursting with rain. Her once bight and flowing blond hair now remainder her more of clumped up wet straw that sagged down from her head. Sleep had become hard to obtain for Emelia so she wasn’t surprised to see how tiered she looked. After years of looking for her son, her appearance was exactly the same as anyone else in her predicament.

   “Please, I need your help… you’re my last hope. I’ll pay anything.”

   A shuffling sound came from behind the curtains. They were pulled open and standing before Emelia was a stout old woman. Dead white hair fell from the woman’s visible scalp and passed over a solitary red dot on her forehead. Huge hoop earrings clinging to her lose earlobes and the old lady wore an assortment of layers, all a different colour that culminated into a frilly mess.

   “Mighty sorry my dear, you see my ears aren’t what they use to be. You’d think I’d be expecting you since I’m a psychic.” The old woman chuckled to herself. “You shouted something about needing my help?”

   Emelia nodded.

   “Well then, don’t just stand there gawking at me. Come, come. In here is where the magic happens.”

   The old woman turned and went back inside the room behind the curtains. Emelia followed, making sure to pick up her handbag when she did. As she went behind the counter she spotted a large collection of knifes and daggers. Most of them seemed to be decretive, but a few were authentic and Emelia could tell that some of them were sharp enough to slice through flesh. Trying her best to ignore the weapons, she continued to follow the old lady and slipped passed the curtains.

   This room was smaller than the shop yet was filled with the same sweet scented smoke. Emelia had inhaled so much of it by now that throat had started to burn, leaving a charcoal taste in her mouth. The room was also much darker, light only coming from a few candles placed about randomly, most being set on a table that was placed in the centre of the floor accompanied by two chairs. Besides the candles there was a crystal orb and an ashtray brimming with incense dust leftover from hundreds of sticks that had burned down to the core.

   “I know this might be obvious, but are you Madam Teek?” Asked Emelia.

   “That’s me alright. The one and only mistress of the past, present and future. You on the other hand are Emelia are you not?”

   Emelia didn’t answer. She was going to ask how Teek knew her name, but that would playing right into the old woman’s hands. Emelia was well known throughout the city. She wasn’t surprised that this old lady knew her name from just looking at her face.

   Teek had already taken her seat in front of the crystal orb and was beckoning Emelia to sit with her. Emelia sat and placed her handbag on the floor beside her.

   “Tell me why such a beautiful woman such as yourself has come seeking help from someone like me.” Said Teek leaning forward into the candle light, her hoop earrings glinting.

   “I’m searching for my son. I’ve been searching for over five years. The police couldn’t help me so I’ve come here hoping that you will succeed where they have failed.”

   “Give me your palm child.”

   Emelia held out her palm and Teek began to run her bony fingers along the cresses.

   “I can see a lot of suffering in your life, but I can also see hope. Your son, he isn’t the only child you have is he?”

   “No. I also have twins. A boy and a girl. My son who is missing is my eldest.”

   “I see.” Said Teek as if it had been written on Emelia palm. “I also see someone else. A husband? But not you’re first.”

   “My first husband died in the war.” Emelia was starting to get annoyed. “If I wanted to bring up bad memories I could’ve without your help. Can you tell me where my missing son is or not?”

   Teek chuckled. “All part of the process dearie. But yes, I can show you your son. I must warn you though, this service won’t come cheap.”

   “I have ten thousand pound in my handbag. You find out where my son is, it’s yours.”

   Teek’s eyes lit up. “Then let us not waste any more time.”

   Reaching forward Teek caressed the crystal orb. Her eyes closed shut as she swayed from side to side humming. A deep darkness set into the room with only the fickle light of the candles to keep it at bay.

   “Come, gaze into the glass doorway and see what you desire.” Said Teek, not stopping her swaying. “Gaze into my crystal ball and you will see your son again.”

   Leaning forward Emelia gazed desperately into the crystal orb. Then, began to cry. Her son was trapped inside, thick evergreen tress surrounded him as he stood in an empty clearing. He was exactly as she remembered him. Blond hair the same as hers and pure blue eyes like a clear sky. Emelia wanted nothing more than to reach out and hold him close. To kiss his forehead and to tell him that everything was going to be alright.

   “Speak to him. I have connected you both, but be quick about it.” Mumbled Teek through clenched teeth. Beads of sweat had started to form on her forehead and her hands had started to shake.

   “Mam, is that you?”

   Emelia brought her attention back down at the orb to see her son looking up at her. His voice sounded far away and echoed as if he was standing on the other end of a cave.

   “It’s me baby. Mammy is here.” Said Emelia trying to sound brave.

   “Mam, I’m scared.” Tears began to well up in his eye.

   “Don’t cry baby, just tell mammy where you are and she’ll come and get you.”

   He looked around then shook his head. “I’ve been lost for so long. I don’t remember where I am anymore.”

   The orb began to shimmer and it became harder to see her son inside. Teek was starting to slow down, she seemed to be in pain.

   “Mam, I can’t see you anymore. Its cold mam, don’t leave me…”

   Emelia was inches away from the orb, her nose almost touching it. “Don’t worry baby mammy will find you, she will save you and everything will be…”

   The orb turned dark and the old woman collapsed onto the table, knocking some of the candles to the floor. Emelia hurried to her side. In her mind Emelia wished she could bring herself to care for the old lady, in truth all she cared about was her son. She had seen her son for the first time in years and yet she was no closer to finding him. She needed the old woman to try again. She cautiously picked Teek off the table until she was resting on the back of her seat. To her Emelia relief the old woman was still breathing. 

   Teek huffed. “Don’t mind me dearie. This old body is simply too weak for that kind of connection.”

   “I need you to do it again.”

   “I told you I can’t, I am too weak.”

   Emelia went to her handbag, took out the ten thousand pound and placed it on the table. “You can have this now and I’ll give you double if you show me my son again.”

   Teek pushed the money away. “It’s not a matter of cost dearie. I simply can’t connect you with your son. Maybe when I was younger, but not anymore.”

   Defeated, Emelia slumped back to her chair. “You where my only hope…”

   The two women sat in silence as the candles continued to flicker and the tears on Emelia’s face glimmered in their light. Teek tried to turn away from the crying woman, but she seemed conflicted.

   It was Teek that broke the silence. “I can’t just sit here and watch you cry. There is one thing we can do but it’s dangerous. I don’t even know what might happen.”

   Emelia wiped the tears off her face. “What is it?”

   “Instead of using my body to summon the connection with your son, I can use yours. This type of magic is forbidden, but it may be the only way.”

   “Do it. All I care about is finding my son.”

   Teek chuckled. “Your son is lucky to have such a brave mother.” The orb flicked to life as Teek extended out her hands. “Now, this is important so listen. You have to touch the orb the same time as me. If you don’t I have no idea what might happen.”

   Emelia nodded. Teek closed her eyes and began to sway again. Once again the room darkened and when Teek opened her eyes they were pure white.

   In a booming voice Teek spoke. “It is time. Touch the orb and allow me to use your body.”

   As Emelia reached forward so did Teek. Their finger met the smooth surface of the orb at the same time and in their meeting the orb flashed with red light. The room was illuminated with a red aura as the orb began to swirl and change the tint of blood.  Emelia felt it draw at her soul, trying to tear her away from her own body. She wrestled against it, but maybe this was just part of the magic she thought. She had to let it take her, it was the only way to find her son. With this in mind she stopped fighting and the orb dragged her into is tides. A stillness consumed her. She was spinning in the orb, she felt it, yet without her body she could no longer hear, taste, or see anything. As she spun in an endless whirlpool she could not see, she wondered, was this what death was like. A never ending dance with feeling of loneliness to guide you to the next life: if there is one at all. It didn’t matter, before she could think on it any more the orb spat her out and once again she was in the realm of the living.

   Breathing was difficult, her lungs felt enclosed in cobwebs. Every muscle in her body strained to move and all her bones groaned in disapproval. She managed to lift her head up enough to see the orb. It was broken. A large fractured slip it up the middle, blood seeping from its cracks. Emelia looked passed the orb. A woman was standing there. It wasn’t Teek, this woman had blond hair and was much better dressed. Emelia forced herself up to get a better look. Then, she realised, Emelia was looking at herself. Not in any mirror or refection of any kind, but her own body, moving and breathing without her.

   “Good, you’re awake.” Said Emelia’s body with her voice. “I was worried you died.”

   “How is this possible?” Emelia’s own voice was different, weaker somehow.

   “Don’t you see? The magic didn’t just let me use your body, it give it to me. It swapped our souls around.”

   Emelia looked down at the bony hand of Teek’s body which she now possessed and understood. “This is not what we agreed to. Give me my body back.”

   “Look at the orb, it’s broken, without it I can’t change us back. Besides, now I’m human I can’t use magic.”

   “What do you mean human? You were always human.”

   Teek didn’t answer. She was staring at Emelia’s hand. Emelia looked, the flesh on her hand was boiling away under ugly black bubbles. She screamed and tried to pull away from her hand only to slip off the chair and fall on the floor.

   “What’s happening to me?” Cried Emelia as the bubbles travelled further along her hand and up her arm.

   “You don’t have control over the magic, you cannot hold your form so you’re changing back.”

   “Changing back into what?” Yelled Emelia, but again Teek didn’t answer.

   No longer content with its form her skin lashed out. The hungry bubbles attacked the flesh, flaking it away like an eraser on a mistake. Emelia went to scream, waiting for the pain to come, yet none welcomed her. Like a kettle of boiling water her entire arm was now frothing. Her hand - the first target of the bubbles onslaught - had sprouted short, purple fur as if being dipped in a vat of purple paint. The boiling of her arm subsided as the new found fur made its way along it, crawling ever closer to the rest of her entire body. Soon it had consumed her completely, her skin now hidden beneath a layer of warm, soft fur. When it reached the forehead – where Teek’s red dot was – a red orb, like that which was on the table, pushed its way clear of the skin and began to glow.

   Emelia was helpless. Her mind now disconnected from the rest of her body. In some respects this was a good thing she thought. Her brain had expected the pain and severed the nerves in advance, saving Emelia from the agony. This however did nothing to stop the body’s attack on itself. Moving to her insides, her bones began to heat up like meatal in a steelwork. The magic bent and twisted her frame into new shapes, slowly shrinking them down to size. Her organs shrunk with the bones as the rest of her body followed.  The re-forging began to effect smaller part of her body. Her feet and hands melted down to rebuild themselves into three smaller toes which eventually became paws. Her nose and jaw were pulled out into a muzzle as her head shrank to become more proportionate. Her ears were treated the same and pulled to almost twice the size of her head. Two tuffs of long fur sprouted from her cheeks, taking the form of whiskers. Then her spine was drawn out until it was the length of her new body and split into two separate tails near the end before it too was covered in the same purple fur. The bundles of shabby clothes she had been waring slipped off her now smaller body with ease until she was completely naked, laying on a warm blankets of her attire.

   Feeling in her body trickled back in. Emelia’s new smaller stager made the once small room huge in comparison. Teek – or was it herself – stood towering over Emelia. Teek was covering her mouth, her eyes wide. She looked franticly from side to side trying to find a way out of her predicament.

   “What am I going to do? I’ve stolen Emelia’s body and now she’s tuned into an Espeon.” Said Teek covering her face now.

   “Help me, change me back.” Emelia’s voice was scarcely a whisper and her voice had changed again sounding completely alien now.

   Teek lifted Emelia from the floor and carried her to the table. “I told you I can’t. It’s impossible. You have my body and I your human one. Your body doesn’t have magic so I can’t help you.”

   “Then go and get help.”

   Teek ignored her as she began to talk to herself. “What am I going to do? I could run, skip the city and live in the forest, but I’m not welcome there anymore and I’m a human now. I could take her to the forest, let her live there, but they would just kill her.”

   Emelia shouted. “Didn’t you hear me, I said go and get help. You stole my body and now you’ve got to give it back.”

   “You humans would know all about theft wouldn’t you?” Teek spat, her voice now venom.

   “What are you talking about? You’re the one who stole from me. Stealing my body wasn’t part of the deal.”

   Teek smiled. “It had just occurred to me that you are in no position to be giving orders. I’m Emelia now. I’m one of the most important and powerful people in the city. Thinking about it, I also have a family now.”

   “I won’t let you get anywhere near my family.” Said Emelia picking herself up into her four unbalanced legs and trying to jump to the floor, but before she could Teek grabbed her in mid-air and slammed her back onto the table.

   “You forget, I’m the human now and you’re the weak little Espeon, isn’t that right master.”

   “I’m not your master.”

   Teek wrapped her fingers around Emelia’s windpipe, squeezing just enough to halt her breathing. “You’re lucky. If I was a true human at heart I’d have already killed you. You humans are discussing. You’ve stolen everything from me, except this time it’s me doing the stealing. Now you just stay here, I know exactly what to do with you.”

   Teek released her fingers and Emelia was able to breathe again. Then Emelia grabbed Teek’s hand with her paw.

   “Please, all I want is to find my missing son, if you Pokémon are kinder then humans then please show me and tell me where he is.”

   Teek snatched her hand away. “He’s dead. The vision in the orb I showed you was just that, a vision. I kept telling you I would show you your son, but I never promised to tell you where he was. When I looked at your palm I found an image of him in your mind and I just used that. Why do you think he hadn’t changed in all the time you’ve been looking for him?”  

   Teek turned her back on Emelia and left her on the table when she slid back the curtains and disappeared into the shop.

   Blood pumped though Emelia’s veins and her lungs filled with air, but inside, she was dead. Nothing left to live for her brain had begun to shut down. For over five years her life had been devoted to finding her son and now... she was too late. A thick fog clouded her mind, taking up refuge in the empty space where her son once lived. She was hollow, a void husk of a person – not even a person now – there was nothing left. Except for whatever Teek had planned for her. It didn’t matter, Emelia had already accept it.  

   Her phone rang from inside her handbag. It was her husband. She knew because whenever he called her phone played the first song they ever danced to. It reminded her of her wedding day and it remaindered her of her twin boy and girl. She struggled back up. Teek could steal her body, but there was no way in hell Emelia was going to let her seal her family. The memories of her son would never truly fade, yet she was content with that fact. She would have to learn to live with it and move on, for her family’s sake, but if she was going to live she would first have to escape from Teek.

   Emelia looked for something she could use to defend herself, she spotted the ashtray filled with incense dust and a plan formed in her head. Teek had said that she was a Pokémon and so she could use magic, psychic magic to be exact. She concentrated, bringing all her energy to focus on the ashtray. The orb on her forehead began to glow and the ashtray floated off the table.  

   The curtains slid open and Teek entered, her back facing Emelia who could see a Pokeball in Teek’s hand.

   “This is my Pokeball.” Said Teek. “My old master used to use on me, but that was before I killed him. Now it can be your Pokeball and I’ll keep you in it forever.”

   Teek turned to see Emelia aiming the ashtray at her head.

   “Take this you bitch.”

   She let the ashtray fly. Teek tried to dodge it but Emelia has planned for that. The ashtray sped through the air like a bullet and smacked Teek in the upper lip. Incense ash flew everywhere, enough of it was directed into Teek’s face that she screamed in anger as the ash attacked her eyes.

   Emelia leapt off the table and landed with ease. Teek thrashed and screamed as she searched for her, fingers clenched into claws ready to grasp her. Emelia darted passed the curtains, ran passed the collection of daggers and knifes and headed straight for the door. She jumped for the handle and slipped off, cursing the fact she didn’t have hands. She turned to see Teek had made it out of the back room and was leaning on the shop desk, staring at her with red, hate filled eyes.

   Emelia jumped again, this time getting a solid grip on the handle and forcing the door open. With her hind legs she kicked the door open just enough to slip through. She was in the alleyway that led to the main road and her freedom. She was almost away, she could smell the fresh air.

   Teek grabbed her tail and yanked her back. Emelia kicked and struggled to free herself, but it was useless. Teek reached over and clutched the back of Emelia’s neck then lifted her off her feet. Holding her tight to her chest to stop her from struggling Teek took her back inside the shop and locked the door behind her. She carried Emelia to the shop counter, used a free hand to knock everything on the counter to the floor, and then slammed Emelia onto it. Her eyes were red from the incense dust and her fingers were once again wrapped around Emelia throat.

   “I see now that you’d make a useless Pokémon. But I can’t just let you go, good heavens no. I’ll just have to kill you instead.”

   Emalia tried to fight. She scratched at Teeks arms until they were red with cuts and blood, but nothing fazed her. Emelia vision began to fade, her body slowly dying. Once again she found herself thinking of death. It was silent, almost peaceful. In the quiet she had time to think of her family and what it would be like without them. She couldn’t, she wouldn’t allow herself. One of her sons had died today, she was not about to let herself be kept away from her husband and twins by dying to this witch.

   “I won’t let you win.”

   The orb on her head burned bright. Using the last of her energy she summoned her psychic powers to focus on one of the medieval daggers and in one decisive slice, the dagger sank deep into Teek’s neck. The fingers around Emelia own neck loosened as Teek face twisted into a scream of anger and disbelief. Blood oozed down her front and onto her attire as she staggered back. Her legs failed her, she fell to the floor, then remained still.

   Emelia breathed, her chest and neck in agony. Weak, she rolled off the desk onto the floor. She dragged her tired, battered body back onto the back room and continued until she reached her handbag. She pushed it over, allowing the contents to spill out. Her phone was there, showing one missed call. With some difficulty she unlocked her phone with her paw and managed to call back her husband. It rang twice before he answered.

   “Hello my love.” It was good to hear her husband’s voice again.

   She tried to reply, but her own voice had been destroyed. All that escaped her lips was a raspy whisper.  

   “My love, please tell me you’re there.” Her husband said. She could hear he was worried.

   “I’m here…” She managed to say. “And I’m ready to come home.”

   Emalia knew that when he arrived it would be hard to explain what happened, yet she wasn’t concerned. Then she did something she hadn’t done in years… she smiled. 

Enjoyed writing this one, though it took me much longer then normal. This is one of my longer stories, I enjoyed it so much I didn't notice how much I was writing. Tried to work more on the TF itself and also the story. I also tried to make it darker, but I think a lot of my stoires are dark. 

Anyway, hope you enjoy. 


As always I do not own pokemon. 

I do however own this story.
© 2016 - 2024 The-Writing-Raichu
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is there a part two and if not do you think i could write one?