Chapter Twelve

Key for this chapter:

'Delia's other reality/thoughts' (these thoughts are in the reality that Satoshi clearly remembers.)

The present Delia and the reality Delia believes she lives in most often. (Satoshi doesn't know this reality he only understands it subconsciously)

—Both Delia's reality— (Both reality Delia agreeing on something.)

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'She wasn't wrong.' Delia smiled softly at the small newborn of her best friend in town. How she just adored children, especially babies. They were the best thing in the world, proof of a couples love.

'That's what she had told herself every night as she lay in bed.' She cooed at the small delicate little baby. She was so glad she could be here with them in this moment. She'd always wanted one of her own, she hoped she'd get the chance to now that, that thing she'd been raising had left.

'She wasn't wrong.' She sat down beside her best friend as she reluctantly returned the baby. They chatted on and on.

'That thing hadn't been hers. It was practically identical to that man. Not an ounce of her in it.' She laughed as the couple beside her argued about who their baby looked most, the father or the mother. Personally, Delia thought the little one looked most like the mother, her best friend, but she may have been biased.

Absently she wondered if her own child would inherit her auburn brown hair, or maybe they would inherit her kind temper. Maybe they would even inherit the odd but loving red eyes of her own mother. How she would love for her child to have her dearly departed mother's eyes.

She paused as her friends started going over what the doctor had told them about their baby's health. She thought back to her childhood. The doctor had said she had a bit of a mental problem, to obsessive and violent on occasions, something about her being slightly narcissistic or whatever else.

Her parents didn't believe that fake. She didn't either. Even now everyone said she was a kind woman and made a wonderful mother. She often wondered why they say she was a wonderful mother, she didn't even have a child. But they were right, she would make a wonderful mother.

'Indeed she wasn't wrong. He had tricked her. Probably used one of those despicable Pokémon of his to do it.' She laughed as her friends husband said another joke. They reminded her of her husband before he had disappeared nine years ago.

She'd been engaged to her husband for two years then when she got news she was pregnant. 'She didn't understand how. He had only arrived mysteriously in town for around a week at that point they hadn't even held hands at that point.' She had been sure they would make a wonderful family but than he had run off with some whore that claimed to be his childhood friend. 'No he had stayed with them for two years before he left without a word there was no whore he wouldn't leave her for another woman but he would for his Pokémon.'

She said goodbye to her friend and her husband, giving their adorable baby a kiss. Her memories were always so muddled now a days. Her dad had called during her pregnancy, worried about her going through it all alone. 'She didn't understand his concern, she wasn't alone her husband had been with her then.' She was angered that he thought she couldn't do it alone, of course she could raise that thing all by herself, it wasn't like it was a human baby.

'Indeed it looked practically identical to her husband. She had heard the whispers that they looked more like siblings then it hadn't bothered her, but now it disgusted her.' That thing looked just like the man that had abandoned her for a stupid woman. She hated its inhuman red eyes, and that wretched black hair.

She unlocked the front door and closed it with a sigh of relief. She didn't have to see her husband's clone any longer. She didn't have to see that man's offspring any longer. It had finally left.

She ignored the ringing of her phone. It was probably just her dad worrying about some thing stupid like the report of her last doctor visit. That quack had the galls to say she was mental, her mind unable to determine between reality and fantasy. What was he even talking about?

She was perfectly stable thank you very much. She was doing well for a single woman who was husband had abandoned her for a whore shortly after she became pregnant. 'No her husband hadn't abandoned her, she remembered him taking care of that thing alongside her for two years with such love.'

She nodded to herself that sounded right. Heading upstairs, she entered her room and prepared for bed. Listening absently to her thoughts.

She had been so eager to spend the rest of her life with him. 'Her wonderful quiet husband.' The man was so talkative and he would always try to make her laugh. 'She had planned to trap him with her, and it had worked well he had been struck with her.' They had been engaged for two full years then and she was crazy in love with him. 'She had discovered she was pregnant shortly after she met him.' She had just gotten news of her pregnancy when that man ran off with another woman. 'They had never slept together but she was sure it had been his after all her fiancé had abandoned her for another woman a few days prior.'

She had been devastated when she learned he had left her for another despite her being pregnant with his child, she had thought he was as crazy about her as she was him. 'She hadn't even been devastated that her fiancé had abandoned her either. She'd been crazy in love, a kind of unconditional love she'd never felt before, the kind she had thought was only between a mother and child.'

Back then she missed him everyday, his jokes, his smile the way he would fill the silence trying to make her smile, but now she was torn between hate. 'Back then she didn't mind his silence either, he was a very stoic person. She didn't mind that he didn't love her the same way either, as long as he was here with her it didn't matter.' But then that stupid child came along, labour had been long and painful. The baby wasn't even cute it looked just like that man who had abandoned her. It had his black messy yet controlled black hair, and even had the same face. 'It was like a carbon copy of him, expect with creepy unnatural ruby eyes and black hair instead of the brown hair of her beloved husband.'

She hated it. How much it resembled that man. What was the point of it looking like him when he wasn't even her to laugh and brag about it. 'She didn't mind the resemblance then either she loved the fact that he cared so much for her child.' He hadn't even been present when she had been forced by the nurse to pick a name, Ash Ketchum, this thing was merely the ashes that man had left behind with her. 'He even named the little boy, Satoshi Ketchum, intelligent just like her mother had been, the joy she had felt at that he'd named their child in honor of her mother.'

She was forced to spend every waking hour with the loud thing which demanded things she didn't want to provide it. 'He'd spend every waking hour with their child.' She did her best to ignore the whispers about how that man and that thing looked so alike. 'She'd ignore the whispers that her husband and son looked more like siblings then father and son. Even the whispers that her baby looked like her old boyfriend as well.' Nothing made her angrier then being told to treat the child with love. 'She enjoyed watching from the side as he treated her child with such love.'

He never came back to her. Left her with the cursed thing. 'And then he suddenly disappeared. He left without a word, without telling her. And he left her their baby as well.'

She hated that thing. 'She hated it.' That man was taunting her! 'Her husband was taunting her!' —He'd used her! Left her to raise this copy alone. This thing which looked at her just like his father like it didn't quite love her! She didn't want it!—

—She hated the stupid clone which seemed to taunt her constantly. Even as that thing grew older it just grew more and more like that man/her husband. It's eyes held the same distant look, it liked the same kind of outfits, it liked the wretched things called Pokémon. He was purposefully taunting her! So she wasn't wrong.—

—She wasn't wrong when she beat that thing. When she punished it for looking like that man/her husband, for acting like him. She didn't care about the small differences between them, like the intelligence behind the ruby eyes, the disinterest and deadness, all things that the chestnut ones had lacked, nor the fact that in the beginning those eyes had held life and a yearning to be loved by her.—

—She wasn't wrong. She never was. Everyone around her had agreed. She was kind, caring, and didn't deserve to be stuck with that thing. She kept it though. She'd keep it until it could survive on its own then she'd be rid of it and it'd be proof towards the man that abandoned her, that his taunts hadn't worked, they hadn't broken her.—

—She was merely a struggling single woman trying to raise something that was not human. Yes, she wasn't wrong. She'd make a wonderful mother in the future, her friends had said so when she helped raise their adorable children. It made her wish that thing would grow up faster so she could have her own children. She'd raise her children with such love, she couldn't wait to start a family of her own.—

—And she hadn't been wrong. That thing had left finally. It had even attacked her with a stupid rat, much like the one it's creator had, though this rat was smaller than her husband's. It had left her alone for three months forcing the poor Daisy girl to care for it. But it had left town. She was sure it wouldn't be able to fool anyone that it was human and she had kindly warned it such before it left. Now she was free from that thing and her husband's/that man's constant taunts. She was free.—