Alola, amour!

Chapter 12 ~ Nightmare

Serena felt hovering. Expect she was not in the air but underwater. Everything around her was a beautiful blue and sunlight shone from the surface illuminating the water.

She realized she was naked, but it didn't bother her, actually, it felt even more right than being wearing clothes. Her hair waved around her and to her surprise she noticed that they were again as long as at the beginning of her Kalos journey. But even weirder was that she was able to breathe underwater without any problems.

Serena made a few swimming moves and she felt her move in the water naturally, as if she had been created to live there. She swam forward in the beautiful turquoise water and gradually found that she was the only living creature there. Not a single water Pokemon came up. It was just her, the water, and the endless silence.

Actually, it was pretty nice. It was nice to just swim in silence in the nice warm water without disturbing anyone. The water didn't seem to be salty, so she was able to keep her eyes fully open and look around without her eyes starting to sting. This is nice, she thought. I could stay here forever, just floating in this warm water with nothing to think about.

But just as she had formed the idea, the environment suddenly changed. The water was a no longer beautiful turquoise, but dark, similar to stormy weather. The sunlight was no longer shining beneath the surface and Serena noticed that it had become completely dark around. What was really going on, she thought in distress.

The water was also no longer warm but cold and Serena noticed that she was shaking. She wrapped her arms around her and tried to warm herself. It did not help. But an even more horrible feeling was that Serena felt how she could no longer breathe underwater.

Panic struck her. She tried to go swimming towards the surface, but realized in horror that she was not moving anywhere. She also realized that her beautiful, long hair, which had recently curled beautifully around her, had now curled around her neck and face, as if trying to suppress her. She tried to detach them with her hands, but realized in horror that the hands did not affect them in any way, but went straight through them as if there were no hair in it.

Serena felt how she could no longer retain oxygen for long. Darkness began to entwine around her and she felt her hair tangle tighter around her neck, suffocating her moment by moment.

And then, she could no longer hold her breath. She felt her lungs fill with cold and dark water and she felt the cold grapples of death cling to her ankles and they pulled her slowly towards the endless darkness and coldness. She had time to look at the surface once more before there was nothing but endless blackness and she felt herself sinking towards the bottom, where nothing but darkness and death awaited...

Serena startled awake and got up to sit down. She was sweaty wet and her sore ankle ached. She had apparently circled in her bed with the sheets and blanket wrapped around her. It was just a dream, she thought with relief. A disgusting nightmare that is not true at all.

Serena lay down again but couldn't fall asleep. Her sore ankle ached harder and harder and whenever she closed her eyes, she was able to see the suffocating darkness surrounding her. She sat up again and looked at the clock on her bedside table.

It looked 2.24 am. She glanced at the window, but could see nothing but darkness, but she heard the rain crackling against the ceiling, so the storm had probably not yet subsided. However, thinking about the darkness made Serena remember her nightmare and as she thought about it, she trembled.

Serena felt she was starting to get thirsty, so she decided to go to the kitchen to drink a glass of water. At the same time, she decided to see if Professor Kukui had any painkiller for her sore ankle. She waved her legs over the edge of the bed and took a deep breath. Then she tried to step on the ground with her sore ankle.