Talk with Jack.

“I’m so sorry,” you blurt out already on the verge of tears. Between your teary eyes and the steam in the room, you can’t quite make out Jack’s reaction.

“No, I’m sorry I shouldn’t have left you there with him,” you can hear the wavering in her voice, she’s close to tears as well. It feels odd to think of the strong confident Jack being in this **** state. You watch her cross the room and take you in a caring embrace. You hold her sweaty naked body against yours.

“You have hair,” you say as you run your fingers through her hair. She laughs as she pulls away.

“Yea, I accidentally traveled to a spirit realm,” she grabs a loose string and pulls. The tie holding her hair up is undone in a fluid motion and her hair falls reaching half way down her thighs. You can see wispy streaks of white throughout her hair. “I don’t know why but now I have hair and these white spots.”

“Wait a spirit realm? Like with ghosts?”

“Yea there was a flame, and I followed it and there was another trainer, but he was actually a . . . what is that!” she stops midway through her story, grabbing your arm and turning your tattoo to her. “Why would you ever get something like this?”

You don’t want to tell her. You don’t want to even say Blue’s name to her. You stand frozen in the steamy room. She looks up at you, and must be able to read your expression, “Oh. I’m so sorry A. I shouldn’t have let you do that.” She hugs your head comforting you.

“I’m okay,” you try to ease Jack’s regrets about leaving you to Blue’s whims. “Plus I got him back after everything was done. I challenged him and won. We made a bet and now he’s not allowed to fuck Misty.” You and Jack laugh together and it feels good. “So when did you get to Cerulean?” you ask trying to figure out why she hadn’t tried to contact you.

“This morning. The spirit realm felt like I was stuck in there for weeks maybe even months but I came out just about a week later. I made it to Cerulean but my entire body ached so I decided to come to the spa to relax. My phone was dead, I only found out what day it is by asking people in town. I still haven’t got a chance to charge it. But I was going to call you as soon as I got done here, I had plenty of time in the spirit realm to regret leaving you.”

You feel relieved to know that she wasn’t ignoring you. The two of you take a seat next to each other. She tells you more about her time in the spirit realm. She asks about what else happened with Blue. You try to make it not sound as bad as it was in an attempt to not make her feel any worse.

You tell her about your gym battle tomorrow. She’ll probably have a wait before her own battle can be scheduled. She tells you that the whole experience with the spirit realm has made her consider dual-type specialization rather than her original mono-fire typing. She was going to be a fire/ghost specialist.

After you leave the sauna, the two of you take quick showers and leave the spa. You take her to the gym so she can get her appointment made. She’ll have to wait a week and a half for her chance to battle Misty.

When you stop for a bite to eat, you overhear the conversation at the next table. One guy is talking loudly about how he was attacked by ghosts on route 25. The people he’s talking to don’t seem to believe him. But Jack is ready to go hunting and find the mysterious ghost. She starts pulling you away rushing towards the northern route. You grab her and pull her to stop. You explain about Black Jack and his goons. But you tell her about the hidden way around the bridge.

“It’s a good thing you’re here,” she says with a smile. This time you take the lead pulling her along to the side passage around the nugget bridge. You follow the path you had taken back to the city from Bill’s house. Standing outside the Sea Cottage, you can see lights on through the windows. The sun is setting and the time for ghost hunting is now. You and Jack go into the woods outside Bill’s house. You make an effort to remember which way you came from this time, not wanting to get lost all over again.