Fanfiction Zoroark's Pendant, Chapter 2: The Mirror

All right! We are now going to raise the bar with Chapter 2 of Zoroark's Pendant! In this chapter, I will start distinguishing between whose POV it is, just to make things more clear.

Answer: I meant this to be along the lines of "where do you live?", but people always said what device they were using. I suppose that I read fanfiction from my iPad, write it from the laptop that I got for Christmas. (Yes, I'm an atheist. Yes, we can still celebrate Christmas).

Question: Where do you live? Just country or region, not city.

I'm also going to respond to reviewers! They will be listed alphabetically by username.

hollowman96: You'll have to find out. Glad you're enjoying it!

HoppsHungerfan: This is not the Lucas from the Pokémon games. This is an OC.

Thank you guys for 100 views! That's a good milestone to start with.

LUCAS'S POV

Looking back on it, it wasn't logical for what happened to happen. Normally, people don't collapse when they see a necklace with a Zoroark head on it. That's just not usual, but more on that later.

I opened my eyes to find myself looking up at a white ceiling, with bright lights. Trying to remember where I was, my brain was working overtime.

"Lucas? Can you hear me?" asked a male voice.

I looked around me. I was lying in a hospital room, on a bunch of pillows. Someone must have placed them underneath me after I had passed out, which explained why my body didn't hurt like hell. I seemed to be on the floor, or right above it, not on a bed.

"What...happened?" I managed to croak. My mouth felt surprisingly dry for having only been out for...however long it had been.

"You just passed out" Michelle said.

"I could ask you what happened" said the doctor standing next to me. "Do you have to be admitted as well? Because there's plenty more beds in this hospital".

"I'm good, thank you very much" I said, sitting up. "Could I just have some water?"

"That request will be granted" said the doctor. A nurse went over and filled a cup from a bubbler, handing it to me.

I drank the water greedily. "So, what did happen?" I asked the doctor.

"Pretty much just what your sister said. You seemed to go crazy, and just fainted. We caught you, though. You've only been out for about a minute".

"Wonderful" I said. "Just wonderful".

"What's going to happen?" Michelle asked. "Are you going to admit him or something?"

"That depends" said the doctor. "Does he have a history of fainting episodes?"

"I think it was just a fluke thing" I said. "Really, it's not a problem".

The doctor went over to a computer and began sifting through what I assumed was my medical records. Really, I wasn't quite sure.

"I think we can let him go" the doctor said. "He doesn't have a history of this, just like he said. Just make sure he eats a nice dinner and drinks plenty of fluids".

"Trust me", Michelle said, "Lucas eats like a horse. I swear, he must still be growing two inches a year. He's going to be crazy tall".

"In any case, your mother has been notified. She is going to come pick you guys up, will be there within the next few minutes. Are you sure you can go home, Lucas?"

"It's cool" I said, pointing at the unconscious Lucario on the bed. "I'm not in nearly as bad shape as he is".

"True, true" said the doctor.

After that, my sister and I walked down to the lobby of the hospital. We looked at all of the other patients, many of whom didn't seem to be in nearly as bad shape as the Lucario I had saved earlier. Really, it was kind of depressing that it had been injured so badly, but it was getting the help that it needed to recover. At this point, I shouldn't really be worried about Samuel Cranmore.

Finally, my mother came. She looked over at me and Michelle, and said, "All right, guys. Let's go home, your father is not going to be happy".

Based on what she had texted me back after I had texted her about going with the Lucario to the hospital, I had thought that my mother was fine with it. Evidently, I was wrong. What price would there be to pay when we got home?

"I mean, really, we were terrified when we found out that you were going to be late getting home, Lucas. You didn't need to help that Lucario, you could just have left it to die. That would have been the best thing to do. Why worry your own parents?"

"Mom, I'm not a child anymore. I'm seventeen, and you know that".

"Of course, I know your birth date. What I'm wondering is, what possessed you to travel to the hospital with the Lucario?" she said sternly.

I didn't see the point of arguing with her anymore. I wasn't going to win, after all. Besides, I hoped that she would eventually come around and see my side of things. There was a certain degree of uncertainty about that, but the hope was still there.

MICHELLE'S POV

Up until that point, I had had a fairly uneventful day. Really, not much of interest was happening.

Of course, there was the certain intrigue that came with it being the first day of eighth grade for me. The middle school was right next to the high school, so Lucas had sometimes walked home with me. Neither of us could drive yet, myself because I was too young, Lucas because he had never bothered to go to driver's ed.

Today, we weren't doing that. I was hanging out at the house of my friend Olivia, during which we were watching reruns of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. Olivia had even brought her Eevee into the room with us, and I was taking the opportunity to pet her. We were having a very good time with getting over our first day of school.

"Is this the part where she kisses him?" I asked Olivia. I wasn't at all familiar with the show, but I could only assume that was going to happen.

"Yes, it is" my best friend said.

Olivia also had an older brother, but he played on the varsity league in lacrosse, so he wasn't at home right now. By contrast, my own brother was at home, while I wasn't.

As we continued to enjoy the show, drinking root beer, my phone rumbled in my pocket.

"I think I just got a text" I said. Looking at the screen of the phone, I saw that it was from Lucas. What had my brother gotten into this time?

The text read, I FOUND A STABBED LUCARIO ON THE ROAD NEAR OUR HOUSE. I'M RIDING WITH IT TO THE HOSPITAL, SO I'LL BE HOME A LITTLE LATE TODAY.

"What?"

"Let me take a look" Olivia said. She looked at the screen, and she instantly knew what it was that was going on. "Wow, that's not good. Are you going to go home now?"

The thought of leaving my friend's house wasn't even on my mind until then. At that point, however, I knew that this was what I was going to do. As much as I was enjoying watching Friendship Is Magic with Olivia, a show that it could be argued we were both too old for, I wanted to help out my brother, if he really did need help.

"I'm going" I said. "I have to".

Olivia nodded. I could see that she understood, and knew that I was going to come over tomorrow if I could.

I got on my bike, a light purple seven-speeder with a basket on it, and began pedaling for home, which was only about half a mile away. As soon as I had made the quick detour to get home, I was going to tell my parents what was going on, and then I was going to meet Lucas at the hospital.

Half an hour later, I was standing at the entrance to the hospital. Knowing that it might be difficult to find Lucas, I decided to go to the front desk and ask where the Lucario was.

"Excuse me? Where is the Lucario that got stabbed?" There was a high Lucario population in the White Mountains, so it was very possible that there might indeed be another one in the hospital. But I was deciding to assume that was probably not true.

"He's in the ICU, which is room 54C. Just go up there, and you'll find him".

I started to head up the stairs to the room, which was on the third floor. When I was there, I noticed that there was someone I recognized back in the waiting. That fluffy, light brown hair, the tall stature...yes, it was my brother.

I tapped him on the shoulder, but he was completely engrossed in whatever he was looking at online. Really, Lucas can be like that a lot of the time, so it was no big surprise. Sometimes completely engrossed, sometimes not interested at all.

Eventually, he turned to face me.

"I heard that a Lucario got stabbed, and you came here to visit. Is that true?" I said.

"Michelle, you know how OCD I am. I'd never step foot inside a hospital willingly, except for something like this" he said, rolling his eyes at me.

Eventually, the doctor came back out, telling us that the Lucario, whose real name turned out to be Samuel Cranmore, was stable, although he had needed three blood transfusions. Right now, we were just glad to hear that it was still alive.

"Let's go up there and see him" I said.

We followed the doctor up to the room that the Lucario was in, and we saw just how bad it was. He was absolutely covered in bandages, and you could still see some blood underneath them. There were several IVs running into Samuel the Lucario, and it was such a pitiful scene. It should be noted that I hate hospitals almost as much as my brother does, but for a different reason.

Lucas is primarily a selfish person, and he makes no bones about it. Whenever he is at a hospital, whether as a patient getting a check-up or as a visitor, he's always worried about catching something from one of the patients who actually has a problem. Whenever I am at a hospital, my heart always goes out to everyone there. It's kind of depressing, and this was what turned me into an atheist. Dan Barker said it best, "All you have to do is walk into any children's hospital, and you know there is no god".

I was pretty surprised, based on what I knew about my brother, that he would do that, that he would call for help for the poor Lucario. I supposed, however, that this was the way it went. He could be selfless when he wanted to be, and I supposed that this was one of those times.

As soon as we were in the room, the doctor came over and showed us a beautiful necklace with a bust of a Zoroark's head on it. Apparently the Lucario had been wearing it when he had been stabbed. It looked pretty ordinary, other than the fact that it was so ornate. I didn't know what it had been doing on this Lucario's neck.

Out of nowhere, a little bit of red light came out of its eyes. I noticed Lucas, who seemed to start sweating as soon as he had seen it. He fell backwards, but I managed to catch him just in time. It was pretty shocking to see him pass out like that!

For a moment, I'd thought that he'd have to be admitted as well. However, he had quickly turned out to be fine, and so we'd gone on home.

Dinner was pretty awkward that night. It was clear that my parents were still not very happy about my brother, just because of what he had done. He might have texted my mother, but it didn't seem to matter.

Even though he was always reminded about table manners, he reached for the chicken without asking for it to be passed to him. This wasn't something he usually forgot, but I suppose he was just under a lot of stress today. Of course, both of us were. It's not every day you see a Lucario get stabbed.

There wasn't much conversation going on, either. Really, both of us were just waiting until we could go up to our rooms and not think about this for a while. It was just far too upsetting to think about the possible implications. Was there a murderer in Hanover? Would they target humans as well? There was just no way to know.

LUCAS'S POV

It was a relief when dinner was over. As soon as my sister and I were dismissed, we both went up to our rooms and didn't look back. As much as I loved Michelle, she could be irritating sometimes. I just wanted some time to think to myself.

What had happened to the Lucario earlier was regrettable. It had been stabbed pretty badly, and it was not in a good state at all. I'd called the ambulance to save it, and it seemed to be fine now. However, the fact remained that things hadn't exactly gone perfectly from there on out.

Right now, my parents were barely talking to me. This was no surprise. I had never been a target of abuse, but my parents definitely seemed to love my sister more than me. I had no idea why it was. Maybe I was just harder to raise than she was, with my having Asperger's, but it was just the way things were going. None of us had any control over it.

I sat on my bed, crossing my arms over my chest, brooding at the ceiling. At the moment, I wasn't really liking my life.

Admittedly, it had been pretty embarrassing to pass out in front of my sister and those doctors. To my knowledge, I was not dehydrated, underfed, or anything else. My parents weren't neglecting me, as much as they did favor Michelle.

Why did my parents favor Michelle? I wasn't sure, and I didn't know how I would find out. It wasn't like I could just ask them, I thought, watching the sky darken outside of my bedroom. Soon enough, it would be time to get ready for bed (my usual bedtime was 10:00 sharp).

I decided to put on my pajamas, which I did. Then, I saw something that looked unusual in my mirror in my bathroom. What was that?

I didn't know what I had just seen. To do that, I would have to go closer to my mirror, something I was reluctant to do. But I wanted to know the truth above all, so into my bathroom I went.

Staring into the mirror, I noticed something strange.

There were parts of my hair that seemed to be dark red as opposed to its usual brown.