Chapter 4:
Scars of being Heart abused


Ash woke up to the taxi driver, being a bigger burly man with a thick handle bar mustache, lightly shaking him and helping Ash out of the car. Ash pushed his blood stained cloth into the deep wound, and lightly stumbled out of the car with the help of the driver. Ash looked at the hospital and saw it was all white with light blue accents with a giant red cross in the center of the main building. He saw the sliding doors begin to open and he began to black out, the taxi driver began to hold up Ash, Ash then blacked out to the sight of a nurse touching his eye.

Ash opened his eyes and all he saw was a blinding white light, he immediately closed his eyes again, he tried to slowly open them back up but there was a hot burning light over his face. He began to move but found himself lightly tied down, with his eyes still slammed shut he tried to lift his hand to his face but could not. He could hear muffled voices around him, but he could not recognize them. The voices started to clear as he heard a soft voiced woman.

“ He is beginning to stir, I am almost done…”
“ Put him back to sleep” said another soft voice.
“ But… I only have a few more stitches”
“ He needs the rest, from what the taxi driver had said, it sounds like this boy needs the rest.” Ash tried to open his eyes again but still saw the blinding light, but with two outlines of what seems like a pair of nurses over top of him. They were fuzzy and he could not make any distinct details on what they looked like.

“Mr. Ketchum, we are going to sedate you again, just breathe and relax, no one is going to hurt you. Just think of a happy thought and go to sleep…” Ash could feel a cold sensation going up his arm and to the rest of his body; Ash took a deep breath and let his eye lids drop effortlessly. He let out a whisper.

“Misty…..”

“Ash! Ash wake up!” Ash woke up drowsy to see a girl standing over him, his vision was still dizzy.

“Ash! Come on! You said you would pay me back my bike!”

“That….. voice….!”

Ash opened his eyes and saw something that gave him a rush of nostalga, a red headed girl standing with her hands on her waist. She wore a yellow tank top with jean short shorts and her signature red suspenders. Her hair was short and was tied in a side pony tail that was frizzed and spiked at the tips. Her green eyes shined as they always did to Ash, it was no other…. Then…

“Misty?” She rolled her eyes
“Duh! You awake yet? Come on we got to get to Viridian city!”
“Viridian city?” Ash has not been to that town in ages, not ever since he was….
“Woah!” Ash looked at his hands and saw his old green gloves, looking brand new. He looked at his old rugged jeans and his sneakers. He felt his old blue jacket around him, fitting him now with slightly cold pieces of metal on the inside of it, knowing they were badges. Ash stood up slowly and looked at Misty, she too did not look the same as the last time he saw her, then he realized something.
“I’m ten again…..” Misty looked at him with a queer look
“ Ash, are you ok?” Ash nodded
“Yea im fine! So where are we….” Ash did not realize his surroundings until now. He stood on a patch of grass that was very small, and was it was floating, in a white nothingness. Ash looked around and awed, where was he? Was he in another dimension? How was he suppost to get off the floating patch of grass? As he wondered this he could hear whispers all around him, whispers of memories, of ideas, of thoughts.

“Ugh come on lets go!” Misty grabbed Ash’s hand and started to run, Ash panicked at first thinking they were going to fall off into nothingness. But as Misty stepped off the patch of grass, the grass expanded, to compliment her running. The grass kept growing as they ran together, making them a path to, well, nothing that Ash can see at the moment. Ash could see something off in the distance, but did not know what, as he got closer he saw it was a tree with an old wood swing attached to it. Misty giggled and ran towards the tree, she sat in the swing and looked at Ash.

“Well? Come on! Push me Ash!” she said with a grin. Ash jogged over and started to push Misty, she swung forward and back like a pendulum. She laughed and giggled and smiled with joy, Ash felt a rush of red to his face as he heard her giggle. He felt so happy that she was happy, more than even May. Ash started to laugh as well as he pushed Misty in this odd white abyss, As she swung back, Ash wrapped his arms around her hips and lifted her up. The swing slipped from Mistys grip and Ash twirled her, she started to cry out.

“Ash!” She laughed and screamed in a childish way, Ash lost his footing and he fell backwards, she landed on his chest with a thump and Ash landed on the ground. They looked at eachother to reassure that they were ok and then they burst out laughing. Misty stood up with a smile.

“Come on silly, we still need to get to the next city.”  She took his hand again and they started to jog into the abyss again. For what seemed like miles they jogged, Ash still did not see anything other than wisps of white passing him. Misty began to slow down her pace, her breath became exhausted and she looked incredibly tired
“Misty? You look so tired! Here, let’s just sit for a bit.” Misty nodded as Ash sat down, he crossed his legs and patted the ground beside him, inviting for Misty to sit beside him. She smiled and sat down beside him, she looked him in the eyes and a small grin crept across her face.

“What?” Misty looked away and giggled.
“What?” Ash repeated, Misty took Ash’s hat off, and ruffled with his hair to make it look like the disorganized mess it normally is. Ash’s face copied Misty and they started laughing, Ash saw some Goosebumps on Misty’s arms, he slid his jacket off and wrapped it around her. She smiled and snuggled into his coat.

“Thank you.” Ash had come up with a thought that flushed his face red, but he enjoyed it. But Misty for some reason looked up to Ash, Ash looked at her but for some reason she nodded. Ash raised his eyebrow, she laughed.

“Its what your thinking, you can do it, I would like it if you did.” Ash was in awe, how did she know? How did she read his mind? But Ash dashed these questions away quickly, he wrapped his arm around her shoulder and leaned her towards his chest. She cuddled up to him and closed her eyes, he could feel her delicate hands on his chest and took a deep breath. Ash just wanted to snuggle with her, he just wanted to hold her close and show her that she would do anything for her. May left his mind, he did not care about her, it was just him and Misty. Misty let out a yawn and mumbled something.
“Pardon?” Ash questioned
“Its too bad you have to wake up…”
“…..What?”


Ash could feel a numbed pain on his face, but could feel he was in a bed. He slowly opened his eyes and everything was fuzzy, he blinked several times to clear his vision but it took some effort. Finally when his sight came back to him almost clearly, he could only see out of one eye. He put his hand over the darkness that covered his left eye, He felt a bandage patch covering it and could feel some blood on the outside. He rose slightly up from his bed and he felt dizzy, he could hear nurses foot steps quickly shuffle over to him.
“Ash, its ok hun, lie back down and take deep breaths.” Ash followed what she said, he lied back and started to take deep breaths, he began to feel better. He looked up and saw two nurses, of course, both nurse joy. One Joy had the bright pink hair and the nurse outfit with a stethoscope around her neck. But the other joy was different, her face showed wisdom and age, her pink hair was faded and some wrinkles showed. She wore a longer skirt then the other joy and her outfit was a very pale teal colour. She put her hand on Ash’s shoulder and smiled at him.
“Ash? Sweety do you remember anything? How you got here? What happened?” Ash closed his eyes and tried to remember what happened.
“ I remember being at the mall…. I remember being in the cab….” Ash strained to remember what happened, the whisps of his dream where still in his head.
“Do you remember going out with your girl friend? May?” Ash’s body stiffened, everything came back. Like a rush it hit him and he remembered everything.
“Yea I remember now….. she melts down, throws spikey shoes, spikey shoes to my face, face has lots of pain and blood. Yea I remember…” Ash looked up at the young joy
“Note to self, spikey shoes hurt” The nurse giggled at his remark and then left the room.
“Nurse…. How is my eye?” Ash felt a feeling of sickness well up inside him.
“Well, lets take a look.” She pulled out a flash light and put it over the bandage
“Do you see any light?”
“Yes”
“Ok, so you can see light, that means you are not blind. Lets get you up here Ash, nice a easy.” Ash rose up from his bed, his body felt like it was an extra 10 pounds and numb. She brought a mirror over and for the first time Ash saw the bandage. There was a small line of blood going across the white bandage.
“Now close your eyes for a minute, we don’t want to have one eye be dilated and the other not.” Ash closed his eyes and he could feel the bandage come off, he felt pain as a stich got caught but the nurse fixed it. Ash felt the bandage off and air hitting his wound, it stung for a seconds but he was ok.
“Ok now Ash, open your eyes slowly….” Ash slowly opened his eyes to see his reflection.
A cut from his left brow, down diagonally to the bottom of his eye, almost touching his nose. It was swelled slightly and blood still lightly oozed from it. The black cross stitching was perfectly done and kept the wound together nicely.
“Thank you Nurse Joy, its sore right now but im sure it will get better.” She smiled looked at the wound one more time.
“Because you needed stiches on your face, we are going to keep you over night, plus its almost midnight, just rest up, and you will be out after breakfast tomorrow morning.” Ash smiled and nodded, she lighted pushed him back into his bed and brought up his sheets and blankets.
“ I am just going to give you just a very light dose of this medicine just to help you sleep.” Ash yawned and nodded.
“Oh and Ash?”
“yes Nurse Joy?”
“You may want to find a new girl friend soon.” Before Ash could reply, she had administered the drug and Ash drifted off to sleep.