Flourish (A Pokémon Fanfic)

Chapter 14: Cliff*

I went to the hospital to see how Serena was doing, but by my arrival, everyone was freaking out saying that she went missing. I snapped at a few nurses for being reckless before catching myself and hurried off somewhere I could possibly find her.

"How am I going to find her at a huge place like this?!" I screamed at myself, not knowing where to even start "Come on, Calem... think!" I groaned, pulling my hair

"Voir..." I jumped when Gardevoir met me at the park

"Gardevoir!" I hurried over to her facing the fountain in the middle of the park before turning to me "Quick! Where's Serena?!" She didn't say anything "You have to tell me! She's in danger! You know this!" She pointed at me "Me? Am I a an endangerment to her?" I guessed. She looked a bit annoyed and shook her head "I know where she's at?" I guessed again, earning a nod "You haven't given me any good leads, Gardevoir. You've only gave me a handful of images"

Gardevoir used her other hand to show me something I didn't see her having. I reached out to take the card stock and turned it around to see Serena and myself as kids!

"I didn't know we took pictures together" I rubbed my head "for someone who had a brilliant mind, I can't believe I hardly remembered my childhood" I crossed my arms "the brain is a complex organ and memory is a multifaceted process that involves various regions and systems working together. While a genius mind that can learn quickly and adapt to the information my excel in the in acquiring and processing knowledge, memories are stored in different parts of the brain compared to a part that learns-" I looked at Gardevoir staring deeply into my eyes, like she was saying to focus "I got ahead of myself..."

I looked back at the picture, recalling the area we took the picture at "That looks like..." I looked back at Gardevoir nodding and turned around to disappear "Gardevoir!" I looked around for her "Why would you leave?! Take me to Serena-!" I accidentally almost stepped on something from the spot she disappeared from. It was a shoe box

"What's this?" I sighed, upset that Gardevoir left without taking me with her, and opened the lid, seeing dozens of letters inside that were sent back to the sender, addressed to my home address "huh?"

I bit my lips, whether to prioritize reading some of the letters when I have Serena to think about. If Gardevoir left these to me, I should at least see what was sent but never received.

These letters dated back to 15 years ago, around the time Serena moved to Hoenn when she was 5 and I was 6. It was the typical little girl letters talking about her day and how nice Hoenn was. The letters stopped 3 years later and she started writing again 2 years after being gone. She didn't explain why she was gone for so long, but it was clear in the letters how different she was.

She still had me in mind and wanted to send letters, even if they were sent back because nobody was ever home. My parents were strict when it came to protection of our safety, so they didn't allow mail to come to the address. Only a P.O. Box was used. Any mail sent to the house was immediately sent back without notice from us if we weren't expecting them. 

When Serena started sending letters again, even if she knew they were never seen, almost like a diary without secrets, she was more bubbly and talked about the most random things. Some of the letters even had tear stains on the paper, not matching the energy on the letter

I frowned at all the letters, sad that I never got any of it. If I were to have gotten at least some, I would know she was out there thinking of me. I would had wondered why she stopped sending the letters for 2 years before mysteriously coming back.

It was painful to read these. I didn't want to spend too much time reading all the letters that were about a month apart for the last 15 years or so, but I found the most recent letter from a few months ago before she arrived to Kalos