“You want to do what?” Kai asked, not believing what he had heard.

  “I asked if you want to gather some Beedrill Honey with me.” She answered, almost confused by his reaction.

  Both of them were still lying on the ground, hidden in a bush and waiting for the Beedrill swarm to pass by, so he didn’t know where this idea came from.

  “Why?” He finally asked after failing to find an answer on his own.

  “Because it would be fun?” Her eyes were full of excitement as she spoke.

  “Besides, don’t you feel like this is a great opportunity?” She pointed at the Beedrill swarm, “Most of the colony should have left by now, so it will be relatively safe.”

  Relatively safe, huh?

  He didn’t like how much power this ‘relatively’ had over the sentence, but she had a point.

  He ignored the part about this being fun and focused more on the Beedrill Honey.

  In Pokemon Extreme Red, Beedrill Honey was an item that you could find being held by wild Beedrill. It wasn’t very common, with only a 5% chance of appearing, but it had a very interesting effect.

  When given to the first pokémon in the party, the ratio of being attacked by a wild Pokémon increased significantly, and so did the chance of swarms appearing.

  There were some pokémon that would only appear in swarms, and more importantly, in the game, if a player defeated 100 pokémon while on the same route, they would attract a Boss pokémon.

  He hadn’t considered this before, but now that Jo mentioned wanting to get Beedrill Honey, a plan began to take form in his head.

  ***

  Kai and Jo were not gifted in tracking, so they decided to follow the tracks left by the Beedrill swarm to find the colony.

  Some broken twigs, scattered scales, droppings that could have been from any pokémon, but they felt that Rick would say that these ones came from Beedrills were good signs that they were on the right way.

  Kai grabbed Rick’s backpack with an increased admiration for his friend’s strength. This thing was very heavy, so for Rick to have walked so much while carrying it showed how strong he truly was.

  He stifled a laugh after imagining Rick as a bodybuilder in the future. For some reason, he was still at the same height and had the same face, only his body had changed into an ’80s action-hero build.

  Jo looked at him curiously, but he ignored it.

  As they delved deeper, the noises of the forest gave place to a suffocating quietness.

  In this silence, the trees seemed to grow taller just to oppress him, the rustle of their leaves a dark whisper that taunted him constantly, and the sound of his footsteps turned into a loud scream that signaled his position.

  Fear crept into his flesh, searching for his bones.

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  He didn’t understand it at first, but soon realized why he was afraid.

  This was the first place he appeared after transmigrating. His memories of time were hazy, but his body seemed to remember just fine.

  Coming back to this part of the Viridian Forest made him feel like prey, with a predator out there hellbent on hunting him.

  All the better to eat you with, my dear!

  He was reminded of the time his mom had told him the story of Little Red Riding Hood.

  A little girl must cross a forest to deliver a basket to her grandmother.

  The trip through the dangerous forest goes smoothly, but when she reached the grandma’s house, a place that should be safe, she was confronted with a big wolf who had eaten her grandma and was pretending to be her.

  At some point, the path in front of him had morphed into the mouth of a big bad wolf, one he volunteered to walk into.

  His mother had never been one to sugarcoat things for him just because he was a child, which he found surprising, considering that she was an elementary school teacher.

  She was a tough woman who didn’t want to lie to him even for the smallest things.

  She couldn’t be bothered to think of something.

  One of the things she liked to do when he was little was read him stories to help him fall asleep.

  You had nightmares because of that.

  In those moments, he could feel how much she loved him, and it always made him happy.

  She abandoned you.

  She really loved him.

  She abandoned you!

  Until the end.

  SHE ABANDONED YOU!!!

  He stumbled on a root, almost falling to the ground, but Jo held him up.

  “Are you ok? What happened?” She yanked him to the side and asked in quick succession.

  Her eyes were of a pure anxious concern that made him feel embarrassed to tell her the reason.

  Then he laughed a strange, manic laugh. It was hoarse, almost like it was his first time laughing in his life.

  He found his own situation to be ridiculous and hilarious.

  “I’m okay, I was just a bit distracted, don’t worry.” He swallowed his fear, finding it awfully bitter as it went down.

  Then he closed his eyes for a moment and visualized himself, just like his therapist had once said.

  He relinquished the tight control he had over his mind, allowing it to conjure up the images it wanted freely.

  In his mind, he was a little boy once again, no older than 7. He wore a red hood and crossed a forest, finally finding a big bad wolf.

  The wolf taunted him with many things; he told him many bad things about him, about his mother, and about his father.

  In its words, he was a weak, cowardly child who couldn’t even face himself, his mother a deadbeat, strong on the outside but weak on the inside, who didn’t love him and chose her own pain over him.

  His father was painted as an absent figure, someone who was only mentioned, but never seen.

  The wolf spoke of his future, its voice full of a prophetic tone that didn’t allow any doubts.

  The wolf told him of many bleak things that would befall him, and he believed it, because these were his own thoughts, this was his own pessimism, his worldview.

  For him, those were facts. But at this moment, they seemed meaningless; it didn’t matter what his future would be or what he felt.

  He didn’t like it, so he would kill it.

  He removed his hood, and with it, he was no longer a child, but a hunter.

  He felt the weight of a knife in his hand; it was heavy, almost too heavy for him to brandish, but it made him feel strong, strong enough to face the wolf, strong enough to kill it.

  The fight was fierce; his movements brought with them the awkwardness of inexperience, while the wolf’s claws were sharp and its fangs were long.

  They traded blows, both getting hurt, until he saw an opening and struck it in the heart.

  Feeling the blood gushing out of the wound, he still felt unsatisfied. The words of the wolf echoed in his ears, and he felt his anger exploding, so he brought the knife down, tearing the wolf’s belly open.

  But from it didn’t come a grandmother; instead, it was his own mother who walked out.