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Honest Denial

"Fuck!" I let out, as I tripped over a root sticking out of the ground, sending me head first into the muddy dirt, knocking me out of my senses for a moment, which was already at their reserves. As I slowly regained my senses, I realized that I much preferred feeling nothing as a barrage of rain drops pelted me from above, each drop feeling like hail the size of a baseball. God, and to make this all better, my senses left the best for last.

Before I knew it, a huge sting of pain struck my left upper arm, causing me to let out a groan and gritting my teeth, only reminding me of what I was running from, and most of all, WHY.

I tightened my grip around the sore and painful area of my arm as I rolled onto my back. Even this little movement made me feel extremely exhausted. I let out whatever breath I had and inhaled one more time before I, only with the greatest of efforts, made it up to a sitting position. I let go of my broken arm, as grabbed onto a nearby tree, using it to pull myself up again and back on my feet. The pain and exhaustion was unbearable, but something in me kept me going, despite my pity state.

I didn't even bother looking down at myself, as I heard that devious and murderous bark once again, being closer than ever before. I spun around on my heels and stumbled forward, trying to regain my balance as I quickly sprinted onwards, trying to regain whatever distance I had lost to that beast. Geez, if I didn't knew better, I'd think that Houndoom wanted to kill me.

The thought of the joke send a quick chill down my spine, as I realized that that was probably what it was going to do to me.

You probably wonder how I got myself into this mess, hm? Well, I might as well give you the whole story...

Two week earlier...

I sighed. Great, another excursion, I thought to myself as I glanced out the window for a moment, looking out at the school building and at my classmates entering the bus, before turning my attention back to my DS. I was just about to continue playing Pokémon Pearl, as I heard a very familiar voice coming from up front. "Hey, Axe!" I shut down my DS, putting it into its little bag which I had strapped onto my belt.

As I looked up, I saw a much too familiar face, Jakob. He was a well build guy, not very tall. You could say that he was my opposite. I wasn't as well build, not as strong, probably because I rarely exercised. He'd been my best friend since kindergarten. Boy, had he gotten me into a lot of trouble through the years. One of the things I remember the best was the time I was asked to remove a wasp hive under our neighbor's garden table when I was 14.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ It was an early summer morning, when my mother told me that our neighbor had a wasp hive under his garden table. Everybody on our street knew that our neighbor in particular was a wealthy man, and very generous.

Because there was a new game out that I desperately wanted, I took the job without hesitation. Finishing my breakfast and putting on my shoes, I made my way to our neighbor's house. (He must've been in the middle of his 50's back in those days.)

I was greeted by him when I reached his house. He was standing in his front yard, and I quickly asked him about the job he had for me. He showed me into his backyard where he lead me to where the hive was. He allowed me to use whatever was in his shed, as long as I didn't break anything. It took some time for me to come up with a plan on how to remove the hive at first, but I managed to come up with an idea that would've worked, were it not for my friend, Jakob.

Out of nowhere, with no warning whatsoever, Jakob came into the backyard where I was, and greeted me, as if we had planned on meeting here. He took me by surprise, and I was even more surprised when he wanted to help out. I tried to talk him out of it, but he was a persistent person even back then. As quickly he came into the yard, he left again, only to come back a few minutes later, holding a lighter and a spray deodorant. At first I struggled to see what his idea was, but I was less than up for his "Genius plan," as he put it, when I found out what he was going to do.

"We'll flamethrower those bastards, Axe."

"Are you nuts?! That's the worst possible plan for a situation like this. What if you set fire to the table?"

"Come on, Axe, it's like you don't trust me."

And of course, like any sane person, I didn't, but when Jakob set his mind on something it's hard to stop him. It went well in the start, to be honest. The table didn't catch fire, and the deodorant didn't explode, but I kept my safe distance. It was all well until we looked away for one moment, and when we looked back, the flames was licking the bottom of the table. We did nothing in sheer panic, and it was only with a bit of luck that we managed, together with the neighbor, to get the table off the lawn, and onto his paved terrace.

This proved to be an even less effective idea and almost burned down his house, after one of the wooden window frames had caught the fire from the table. It was only because Jakob managed to call the fire department that he still has his house to this day. My mother was so pissed and worried out of her mind over me, that she began to cry. I understand her, I was terrified over the experience myself. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I often find myself wondering why I am still friends with Jakob. It was just one of those questions you couldn't answer with logic, and that bothered me a lot. I was a man of logic which also meant I wasn't religious and every time there was a question or anything that I couldn't answer with logic, I found myself dearly frustrated.

He began speaking to me again as he reached the row of seats which I had chosen to sit on. I had chosen the seat closest to the windows of the bus as I liked to look out the window when driving in any vehicle. "Hey, ready for the excursion?"

I nodded, "Yeah."

"It's going to be boring as hell I think, but hey, I'm sure we can find a way to amuse ourselves with, right?"

I knew what that meant, and it usually meant that he would do something stupid, and I, being a great friend, too great sometimes, followed him and got myself into trouble, despite continuously saying that it would be a bad idea.

I didn't even get a chance to say anything before he sat down on the seat beside me, and we, nearly instinctively, greeted each other's with a fist bump. I shook my head for a moment, retracting my hand to place both my hands on my lap. I send him a pleading look as I spoke, one which he clearly didn't take much notice of. "Please, keep your shit to yourself this time, alright? My mom's still pissed on me for what happened last time."

He seemed to just shrug my worries off as he would usually do. "Calm down, Axe. You know what, if it makes you so happy, I'll not be causing trouble, just for your sake." I raised an eyebrow, a little surprised by his respond. Yet, I was not going to let him go off that easily. "Really? And this is not just some trick you're playing on me?"

He picked on an expression which made him seem a little offended by my words, but I knew him well enough. "How can you think such about me? I haven't done anything bad my entire life!" He said.

I stared at him. My expression could probably have fooled him to believe that I really was suspicious, but after a few seconds we both broke out into laughter. We kept chatting and small-talking as we rode on the bus with the rest of the class. Time passed by quickly, and as I glanced out the window for the first time in 15 minutes, which had only felt like five, I couldn't even recognize where we were. I let out a small chuckle before I turned my head back to Jakob. "I know I'm no good at geography, frankly, I'm shit, but I can tell this much, we're far out in who-knows-where."

My words sparked a chuckle in Jakob, despite it being a terrible joke, and I felt a hand patting my on the shoulder in a friendly manner. We started chatting again, and before we knew it, a voice came from up front. "C'mon, class, let's go learn something," I heard my teacher yell down the rows on rows of seats in a voice a first grade teacher would use towards the kids.

Some movement from the corner of my eye caught my attention. I looked to my left to see Jakob, lifting his arms up, so that his hands were just barely reaching over his head. "Hurray..."

I couldn't help myself. His overly sarcastic voice and the pessimistic expression on his face made me laugh. God, he was unbelievable at times. Jakob had clearly seen me laughing my own ass off, and began laughing with me.

As our laughter died down, he got up from his seat and I followed behind him, and we both went out of the bus right after the others. We were quickly attacked by a far too enthusiastic guide who was to tell us about this ancient burial mound. Jakob tapped my side with his elbow and whispered to me. "Hey, did you give him some of your mushrooms?"

I chuckled. That old joke had been going for years and it never failed. It didn't mean anything, and I wasn't on mushrooms or drugs for that matter. I suppose it just came from being a little... weird from time to time I suppose? I barely even remember how it started.

We slowly started moving over towards the burial mound where the guide told us to take a look around and enjoy the wonderful view. Yeah, right... Jakob and I had placed ourselves close to the burial mounds entrance. I didn't notice his head turn around to look at the opening into the darkness. He turned to look at me and tapped me on the shoulder. He had this smile on his face, one which sparkled with excitement. That was the smile he wore when he was about to do something really stupid.

I had no chance to deny any request on following him while he did his stupid deeds before he interrupted my thoughts. "Hey, let's check what's inside."

I grabbed him by the arm, and gave him a serious look. "Dude, no. Don't."

"Calm down, I'm not doing anything stupid; I'm just looking around, like he told us to."

"We can't go in there; we're not allowed to do that."

"Yeah, yeah. You just stay out here and be a pussy, then I'll go inside and check this place out."

I had no chance to talk him out of it. Before I knew it he was inside. I looked around; to make sure nobody had seen him go inside. I was--No, HE was lucky nobody had seen him. I moved my head a bit closer to the entrance, my voice lowered to a whisper. "Dude, get out of there! Before somebody comes and notice you!"

I got no answer from him, only a teasing: "Wow! This place is cool! You're really missing something here!"

This was starting to get annoying. I leaned a bit closer, and raised my voice a bit more. "Get out of there you idiot, now!"

"Wow! Look at this thing! Cool!"

I looked around again to make sure nobody was staring suspiciously at me. I picked off my black fedora, and started scratching my head thoughtfully through my uncombed brown hair. God... Why am I doing this?

I put my hat back on, and stepped inside.Quick looks around made me realize how cool there actually was inside this thing. Despite the lack of space to move around in, it was actually a little comfy. That was until the stench of death and decay hit my nostrils like a fist to the face. God, over five hundred years and it still smells like shit. What had they been eating?

I chuckled a bit. Heh, that one was actually pretty good.

I saw Jakob poking at something, so I went over to him and place my hand on his shoulder. "Dude, let's get out of here already. What if somebody comes and sees us?"

He just waved my hand off of his shoulder. "Relax, man, nobody will notice. But if you want to get out of here so quickly then let's go, I'm done looking anyway."

He had already started walking towards the exit as I let out a sigh of relief. "Good, final...!" I didn't get any further, before I heard Jakob whisper to me from the exit, "Shit, dude! Quick, hide, the teacher's coming over!"

I realized now how deep shit I was in. Jakob had, yet again, got me into trouble, but it was far too late. My legs reacted before I could make it to think it through. I jumped backwards, quickly side stepping as I landed on my feet, and got into another room. I took no chances; I jumped over to some rocks, as silently as possible, and hid behind them.

What a bad idea that was.

I suddenly felt the floor underneath me give away, as I found myself shortly after falling down through some sort of underground tunnel. There wasn't far until I found ground under my feet again, but just as I thought it was over, oh no, fate wanted to mess with me a bit more. Once more, the ground seemed to slip away from my feet. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, I'm an idiot.

Unfortunately for fate, I was no idiot. I instinctively grabbed onto the side of the rocky wall and now found myself hanging as the rocks underneath me gave away. I held my eyes closed tightly, as I heard the rocks soon after hit the ground. I opened them up, looked down to see that there wasn't very far again. I let out a low chuckle of. It wasn't because it was funny that I nearly died, but that I actually survived! I braced myself as much as I could and let go.

I landed on the ground safely and without much of a problem, yet, I suddenly felt a pain sting in my upper right leg. It was nothing too serious, but just enough for me to find it a bit uncomfortable. I looked down at my leg, to find that a rock had ripped a hole in my jeans and has given me a bruise. As my mind slowly paid less attention to the damage I had gotten on the way down, my pupils widened in a mix of confusion and fear. Only one thing was screaming through in my head at that moment: Fuck. I'm in deep shit now, really deep.

I looked up, only to find that the way I had come through, was impossible to climb up through again, I sighed. "This is really getting on my nerves. Why did I even do this in the first place? My mom's going to kill me..."

I shrugged, seeing as my only obvious way out was impossible to get back out through. Despite how much my mind screamed at me not to do it, something in my urged me to go and explore a bit. I m_ight as well find another way out. Help isn't coming anytime soon._ I quickly realized the lack of light within the cave I found myself in, so I pulled out my iPhone. I scrolled over a page or two to find my flashlight app. I turned it on, putting the iPhone up in front of me, as to illuminate the cave. I turned my head to look around in the cave I was in. At first glance I found out that it wasn't a cave, but rather an entrance. Before me was a little stone archway, about the size of a large door's frame. It wasn't anything spectacular, but it was certainly odd.

Now this is definitely strange. I thought to myself, as I was walking towards it. I let my hand slide down the side of its rocky side. This thing is ancient! I mumbled inside my head as I tried to shake off the thick layer of cobweb that had stuck onto my hand.I walked past it and into the hallway that it led to. Despite that it was so ancient, I found very little to no cobweb on the inside as I went on.

You...

I jumped up in a mix of surprise and fear. "What the fuck was that?! " I took a few deep breaths as I began to rationalize with myself. "No, it couldn't have been a voice. Meh, it was probably just the wind or something..." It didn't quite make me relax but it helped a little.

Suddenly, I found myself facing a wall. A wall? No, that can't be right... And as I turned my iPhone's light a bit, I found that the hallway split into two directions, left and right.

The light from my iPhone just barely reached the wall before me, but I was certain that I saw something run through the light, and across to what was the right turn from my perspective.

"Okay, this is starting to freak me out... I better find the way out, quickly!" Yet, my curiosity got the best of me. I wanted to know what that was. I knew I saw something run across, and I had to find out what it was. I walked up to the wall and turned to the right, following the path that... that thing, whatever it now was, had run down through.

As I walked onwards, the light which radiated from my iPhone seemed to illuminate less and less of the hallway before me. It had reached a point now, where the light was as good as gone. I was greatly confused, so I took a look at my iPhone, to see if it had run out of power. "Nope, it still got 90% power left." This is getting really strange. I decided that it would be best to head back, and wait for rescue. I placed my hand on the wall to my right, or so I thought. I managed to get my balance and not to fall down. Shouldn't there be a wall? I took a few steps back, my hand still reaching out, trying to find something solid, but found nothing.

A sudden realization hit me like a tsunami, and fear rushed over me. Fuck! Shit... No, this can't be happening... I turned around myself a couple of times; trying to comprehend what was happening.

And then I saw light.

For a moment I swear I thought I was dead but the bruise on my leg quickly rid my mind of that idea. Yet, the light was so... weird. It should easily be able to illuminate an entire gym hall; yet, nothing seemed to show up out of the darkness.

Do not be alarmed. I will not hurt you.

I jumped again in surprise. "Geez, where the fuck was that voice coming from?" I wish I hadn't asked because right as I did a figure emerged from the light. It had a horse-like body, but all of its features suggested that it was something way different.

I am Arceus. You have nothing to fear, but I have a favor to ask of you.

My eyes were blinking rapidly for a moment, trying to adjust to the bright light which seemed to light up the front of this creatures body as well, even though the light source was behind it. My expression turned from fear and terror to one of surprise and curiosity.

"What? A favor? Arceus? What is all this?"

Then it hit me. Arceus! The Pokémon god! Wait... No, no. Gods don't exists, they don't! My mind was tearing itself up, unable to understand it all. Through my life, I had never believed in gods or religions and now a god, a god from a GAME stood right before me! A freaking game! And it was just standing right there! I was snapped out of my internal fighting as I heard his voice again.

Calm yourself. You will come to understand soon enough.

"Wait... did he just...?" It took me some time but I finally saw that his mouth was not moving and the voice wasn't even coming from him, but instead from inside my head. I shook my head trying to get rid of this stupid idea. All this about Pokémons and a god amongst those talking to me was simply too much for me to handle. There was no way that I was going to believe that this was real. I had probably just hit my head against something back in the cave and this was all a dream.

Go, I will talk to you when the time is right. Use my gift as you please but be careful.

I was just about to let out a laugh, not because it was hilarious in any way, but because my mind simply couldn't comprehend this. This was ridiculous! But I didn't get the chance to say my mind. As soon as the voice stopped, Arceus disappeared back into the light, which as he did, brightened to such a level that I was momentarily blinded. As the light began to fade a little I was able to open my eyes.

I saw the clear blue sky above me, the trees bellow me, and felt the wind rush past me... Wait... trees bellow me? I was ripped out of my thoughts as I felt my body hit a large branch and I fell through a tree's thick leafy crown. I suddenly felt myself falling through the air again once more, but just briefly, before I hit the ground under the tree, hearing a loud CRACK!! And everything went black for a moment.