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Dreaming in Me

You could say that I was just a little obsessive about Pokémon. Okay, a lot obsessive. The kind that results in bothering one's parents until they take him up to the official Nintendo store in New York just for the release of Pokémon X and Y. It was an eight-hour drive, and it took about that long to convince them to even consider it a few weeks prior.

Probably longer now that I think about it. My father works late nights, and mother dislikes leaving my kid brother alone with a babysitter since that costs money. We can't take him anywhere with us since the little devil practically relishes the opportunity to throw a good tantrum when around large groups of strangers.

In the end, I had to play the birthday card. I hadn't wanted to do that, since I had been keen on asking for a new 3DS that year. My old one worked fine, just the screen was really small and I'd heard the 3D feature was better on the XL version. Fortunately the game had a midnight release on Saturday, so father wouldn't miss any work. They cracked.

Success. Or so I thought.

The road trip up to the city took longer than what Google Maps had said. There was already a lot of traffic, and matters only got worse when some idiot a few miles ahead forgot to tap his breaks and rear ended the car in front of him. It wasn't a serious accident, but the safety crews took ages to clean up the glass off the road.

Under ideal circumstances, I would have just driven up there myself. I had a driver's license, but mother always insisted that I stay off the highways because of people like the guy who caused us to be late. And then there was the issue of needing the family car to drive since I didn't have enough to buy my own. Yeah, wasn't going to happen.

Due to the delay, and my parents being slow about getting our stuff into the hotel room, I showed up at the Nintendo store at 12:45am. I was greeted by a massive crowd mostly made up of two groups of people; super fans like me who wanted to get their hands on the game the moment it came out and little kids with their parents.

I was greeted by a neon-red "Sold Out" sign over the blown up box art images of Xerneas and Yveltal, the mascots of the two new games.

I ran up to the counter where an older man, who clearly didn't want to be up at that late hour, stood. "Are there any of the new games left?" I asked.

He raised a hand and rubbed at an eye, probably trying to wake himself up. "Sorry kid, but we sold out a while ago."

"How can you sell out? You're the official Nintendo store!"

"I'm sorry, you'll either have to wait until the next shipment arrives or order online. You'll still be supporting Nintendo either way."

The last bit definitely sounded like it was scripted, something he'd said to loads of other people that night. Needless to say, I was quite upset. Not only had the whole drive up here been for nothing, but now I had to go back and tell my parents that it had been for nothing.

I turned around and left the store. All that was left to do was wait for the bus to come back around that would take me back to the hotel. I slouched down on the bench and glanced down at my watch.

1:05am.

The bus wasn't scheduled to arrive until 1:30. I sighed. "Worst night ever."

I guess being so close to the ruckus down at the Nintendo store overshadowed the soft footsteps approaching me from behind. When a wrinkly old hand grasped onto my shoulder, I about jumped off the bench. I whirled around.

Standing there was a little old man bundled up in a long gray trench coat with a blue scarf around his neck. He kept his weight on his left side which was supported by a cane. He looked harmless enough. "Sorry to frighten you there, sonny. But I couldn't help but notice you looked a bit blue."

"Oh, you just caught me off guard is all. And yeah, they ran out of copies of Pokémon X and Y. My parents drove me here from Ohio to get one of the new games."

I didn't expect the old man to known what Pokémon was, let alone that the new games were releasing today. Sure there were signs up everywhere, but there were signs for clothing around that I didn't pay any notice to. They could be selling the Crown Jewels and I probably wouldn't know.

"Well that's a shame now," he said. "I tell you what sonny. I own a shop right across the street, and we sell some Pokémon things that I'm sure they don't carry down at that chain store."

At first he sounded like he legitimately cared about my story, but now it seemed like it was more of a sales pitch than anything. Besides, that wasn't a chain store. They had loads of official merchandise that you couldn't find in Walmart. I looked at my watch again. 1:10am. Twenty minutes until the bus arrived. I suppose it couldn't hurt to oblige the old man for just a short while.

"Alright then. But I dunno if you'll have anything I don't already have. I'm a big fan."

The old man just smiled and walked past me towards a little shop nestled between two large outfitters with fancy dresses on mannequins in the windows. His little shop didn't seem to fit in with the rest of downtown New York. It was made of wood, and didn't even have a sign on the front of it. I had no idea how he was still in business.

Nevertheless I followed him into the little old building. The inside looked just like the outside. The floor creaked and groaned with every step I took, and long abandoned cobwebs decorated the dusty corners of the ceiling. There were some tables set up like grocery store aisles, on them were antique toys, dolls, and some fine china. Nothing I was interested in, and certainly nothing Pokémon-related.

"Right back here sonny," the old man said.

I followed the sound of his voice around a couple bookshelves and to the far corner of the store. My jaw dropped when I saw what was concealed there, far from the view of the street.

Sitting on its own table was an absolutely massive Shadow Lugia plush toy. Almost instantly it brought back memories of playing Gale of Darkness on my GameCube, a game that featured the corrupted Lugia as the tool of the primary antagonist, some short bald dude whom I can't remember the name of.

I approached it initially with caution. If it weren't for the clearly mischievous expression on its face, and the zipper on its mouth, it would have looked as if it had flown straight out of the game and into the old man's shop.

The Shadow Lugia was in a seated position, and its wings were flopped down at its sides in an almost playful manner. That added to the mischievous effect the thing was giving off. Placed in front of its left foot was a small fold-up sign which read in big capital letters: "DO NOT TOUCH."

Had the old man not reached for the sign at the last moment, I probably would have overlooked it. He folded it up and pocketed it. "Don't worry sonny, I had to leave that out just so guests wouldn't try and take it down to play with. You can touch it if you like."

I didn't need to be told twice. I placed a hand onto one of its wings and squeezed one of the "fingers" experimentally. I'm no expert on how these things are made, but this one clearly wasn't as hastily put together as some carnival prizes or mass produced plush toys. Whatever was inside it was high quality.

What's more was that it was slightly warm to the touch. Maybe it was positioned near a heating vent or something. Just as the palm of my hand moved across the dark purple plush surface, the eyes began glowing. I looked up at them, dismayed.

"I take it that you don't own one of these then?" the old man said.

"No, I've never seen anything like this. Did you make it? Is it for sale?"

"I didn't make him, no. He's been here for quite a long time." He paused for a moment, as if considering my last question. "He is for sale, but you'll have to forgive me, I've long since forgotten the price. Give me a moment and I'll go and check for you."

I returned my gaze to the plush after the old man had disappeared behind his cash register. I had no idea how I was going to convince my parents to let me buy it, or how we were going to get it home seeing that it was larger than I by a good margin. But what I did know was that there was no way I was leaving the city without it. I had to have it.

I ran a hand across its stomach, and squeezed one of its toes. The eyes were still glowing faintly, and I found myself drawn to their gaze. They must have been powered by some sort of LED wiring. I still didn't know what purpose the zippered mouth had.

"Hey, why does it have a zipper on its mouth?" I asked.

No answer.

He must have gone back into the "Employees Only" section, or whatever this store's equivalent was, I thought. Curiosity got the better of me; I reached up to the edge of the Shadow Lugia's grin and pulled the zipper down and around until it was completely open.

I didn't see any dust come out of its maw when it had been fully unzipped, but I felt something blow into my face, like a heavy breeze. I yawned.

Sure it was late, but I had made sure to get plenty of sleep the night before so I could stay up and play the new games the next night. I hadn't been tired at all until just now, but boy was I tired. The plush in front of me was starting to look like quite the comfortable pillow. I glanced over my shoulder again; the old man still hadn't come back.

I didn't even think to check my watch when I raised a knee to hoist myself up onto the table. It seemed to hold my weight well enough, so I slid fully onto it. Even now that I wasn't as far below its eye level as I had been before, the Pokémon still seemed massive. I pushed against its stomach to try and move it into a position where I could lean on it more comfortably. As I did so, I felt more of the heavy breeze blow across my face.

My eyes shut for a moment, and I collapsed against the Shadow Lugia, cushioned neatly between its wing and side in an almost cradled fashion. I forced my eyes open. I felt disoriented, and barely questioned it when one of the wings folded around me on its own. The warmth radiating from inside the plush overwhelmed my senses.

I felt myself being lifted up towards Shadow Lugia's open maw. I'm not sure why I didn't question how this was happening, it just seemed... right. My last view of the shop was of the windows in the distance, and they did seem quite far away now, much farther than they should have. They were fogging up, or maybe that was just my vision fading.

I couldn't see anything after my head slid into Shadow Lugia's gaping maw, but the soft plush interior felt warm against my skin. It wasn't the type of warm that you feel when you're outside on a hot summer day; rather it was the heat from a blazing fireplace felt from an armchair after you've come in from a frigid winter night. I closed my eyes, finally succumbing to their will to shut.

My body was a snug fit down Shadow Lugia's throat, but once my feet had finally slid through the process sped up. I was in a larger chamber now, and I curled up against the walls of my cushion-like prison. I practically sunk into them; they were like one of those foam pillows that match the shape of your head, except this was my whole body.

I heard the distant sound of something zipping closed; I knew it was the Shadow Lugia's mouth closing once more, but I didn't care. I didn't want to leave. The walls surrounding me shifted around, filling the previously empty space in front of me with more soft cushiony plush material. I felt it press against my chest, securing me in place. It wasn't at all uncomfortable, more like being tucked in.

I couldn't have stayed awake for another second even if had wanted to. I snuggled into the dark, warm void and drifted off.

***

The Shadow Lugia's zipper curved back into its mischievous smirk, and the store faded away into the night.