"Cade, it's time for bed,"
Cade didn't respond from the caretaker's voice, just sitting on his bed and staring abyss at the night sky out his window.
It had been two days since his uncle died. His uncle was his past family after his parents died. Since that day, he felt...empty. Like his life has no meaning anymore.
Reina sigh sadly at the sight. Not even the caretakers know what to do. He had been isolating himself from all the other orphans in the building. Cade rarely left his room except if it was mealtime or to get him to at least be active.
Carefully, she walked in and to the boy, then sat next to him. The room itself is mostly filled with some boxes that were untouched, a closet on one corner and a simple desk next to his bed with a shelf left vacant on the high walls. Staring out the window, she gently spoke.
"Cade, let me tell you what my Grandmother once told me, "No one is ever gone once they...passed away,"," Reina said to him, "She told me that if we loved them with all our hearts, they will never-"
"Never be gone, always there within us and around us," Cade finished, catching her by surprise, "I know that. Uncle Logan told me the same thing,"
Gently, Reina wrapped an arm around him and brought the boy close to her. Cade didn't went against this and let her comfort him.
Minutes went by and it wasn't long until the boy soon fell asleep. Reina smiled sadly for him and carefully placed him in bed with the blanket over him. Once it's done, she went towards the door. Before exiting, she took one last glance before shutting the door behind her once she walked through.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The night is mostly silent.
Young Cade turned over his sleep. Or at least tried to.
The sense of a sudden weight on his chest sluggishly awoke him, his mind still half a sleep. He heavily opened his eye and looked down to his chest. His vision was blurry, but he could distinguish a hazy yellow color and lines of brown...
'Oh, it's just my Pikachu plush,' his mind dismissed and lay his head back down and went back to sleep.
…For only five seconds.
His eyes shot open and looked down again. Blinking a few times, he distinguish it was indeed the back of a Pikachu figure.
A living, breathing, peacefully curled sleeping, real-life Pikachu.
Cade didn't know what to do, or what to think of. Other than there is a real Pikachu sleeping on him.
He looks around the outer environment around his bed and confirmed that the Pokémon is in his world, in his room, sleeping on top of him.
'But is it actually truly real though?' his mind stated, 'It might be a trick,'
Despite the thought, the weight of the Electric-Type on him seemed to suggest otherwise. Still, Cade made a move and brings a hand over.
Trying so hard not to make a noise, he cautiously moved his hand closer. He stopped when the mouse shifted in its sleep, then proceeds slowly when nothing else happened.
He's close, he could feel his heart thump-
Its ear perked up.
Pikachu sat up...
And the back of their head made contact with something.
'What is it now?' Pikachu thought, annoyed and half asleep as he rubbed an eye and turned his head, 'I swear, if that Geezer Oak is up to something-'
Still in a daze, he was soon staring at a brown-haired boy laying on bed. Said boy is staring at him. Pikachu then noticed the odd angle of the boy's right shoulder. With still a hazy, unawake mind, the Electric-Type traced his eyes at it to the boy's hand on his head.
'Oh,' Pikachu mindlessly thought, 'That was him touching my head-'
Then it all halted.
'...That was him touching my head,' Pikachu, fully awake now eyes as wide as a Magikarp's, realized a dawning conclusion, 'He's touching me...I could feel his fingers on my head. But that could mean...'
Slowly, he glanced back at the boy, who was still staring at him.
'...He can now see me,'
At that moment, Pikachu did the most appropriate and inappropriate reaction that night that doesn't include thousands of volts in the whole situation.
Screaming loud that wakes up everyone in the building.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Reina rushed through the halls in a panic, still in her sleeping gown, as she passed through various children who are looking out their doors after being woke up by the very loud scream.
Reina reached the only door whose occupant didn't open it from the scream. It was where the scream had come from.
"Caden?!" the caretaker called as soon as she opened the door.
Said boy, up and awake, eyes unfocused with fear, and hyperventilating in bed. Quickly, she went to his side and started rubbing his back.
"Easy, Caden," she gently spoke, "Just breathe, remember to breathe,"
Slowly, Cade's breathing went down to a more shaky, but stable condition.
Reina sighed in relief, then looked at him with concern.
"Caden, what happened?" she asked.
"I..." the boy hesitantly spoke, before swallowing a lump in his throat and continued, "I saw them..."
"Who?" Reina asked.
"M-my parents, Uncle Logan, they were waiting for me. I-I tried to come to them, but I couldn't," Cade choked, tears now trailing down his cheeks as he sobbed, "S-something is pulling me away from them. No matter how much I tried to move my legs, I couldn't..."
Reina didn't let him continue and brought him to her embrace. The boy seemed to be one of those children who doesn't adapt well to the loss of their guardians, especially having to witness the cause of his uncle's death.
"It's okay, young one," Reina whispered softly.
Moments passed, and Cade pulled himself out of her embrace and starts wiping off his tears.
"I think I'm good now," he said.
"Are you sure?" Reina asked, a little surprised and worry of his response.
"Y-yeah," Cade said, looking up at her with a small, grateful smile on his face. "Thank you,"
The caretaker smiled back at him and gently kissed his forehead.
"Alright, now go to bed,"
With that, she stood straight, then turned and walked towards the door. Taking one last glance at the boy, she went out of the room and shut the door behind her. From there, she was greeted by other fellow caretakers.
"What happened back there?" One of them asked.
Calmly, she explained what she had experienced in there. Afterwards, she and the others ordered the other children to go back to bed as it was already as late as it is.
Reina let out a tiredly exhaled as tonight was quite the experience.