Disclaimer: I don’t own Pokemon, the following story is fanfiction.

An: An old story from when I was Gardie. This version has minor changes to the text.

Thoughts

<Pokemon speech.>

“Human speech.”

-----

Ryan was fourteen-years-old and had been a pokémon trainer for three years. He was back in his home town of Sunaga, on the edge of a desert. The whole town was hot and dusty, only ever cool at night. Ryan was inside an underground club with his four friends. He was wearing a pair of black sandals, black shorts with red stripes down the side and a red T-shirt. He had four pokéballs clipped on his belt.

“Are you doing anything for Halloween, Ryan?” asked Ryan’s friend Luke.

Luke was wearing blue sandals, blue shorts, a blue, long-sleeved shirt and a blue headband; he was also a pokémon trainer.

“Not really,” answered Ryan, “I only just got home. I’ll probably just go trick or treating or something.”

“That’s boring,” stated Luke, waving his hand dismissively.

“So I guess you’ve got something better planned already?”

“You bet. I thought of a great idea for this year. The other guys agree with me.”

“And what’s this great idea you’ve got?”

“You know the haunted house at the edge of town?”

“Yeah.”

“Well I say we all draw straws and the loser has to spend Halloween night in the house. The other four people will sleep around the house and make sure whoever’s inside doesn’t chicken out. What do you think?”

“Someone’s going to have one bad night tomorrow.”

Luke grinned, “Cool huh?”

“So when do we decide who has to stay in the house?” asked Ryan.

“Now,” replied Martin, a short, blonde kid. “I brought the straws with me.”

Martin held up the straws for everyone to see. There were four long and one short straw. Martin held the straws in his hand and covered the bottom so that no one could see which straw was the short one. Each person took hold of the top of a straw and on the count of three they all pulled their straw out and looked at it. Ryan had the short straw.

“You got the short straw!” shouted Martin.

“No way!” exclaimed Ryan.

“You’ve got to stay in the house,” said Luke. “That’s the rules.”

“This sucks!”

*****

Late afternoon the next day Ryan, Luke Martin, Roger and Steven were all standing outside of the old, abandoned house. There was a full moon and thin wispy clouds drifted slowly in the sky, obscuring the stars as they passed in front of them. It was still warm in Sunaga.

“Well,” said Luke, “what’re you waiting for? Go inside. We’ll be out here, making sure you don’t wimp out.”

“I’m not going to wimp out!” declared Ryan, clutching his sleeping bag tightly, “I was just... looking at the sky.”

Luke rolled his eyes, “Whatever.”

Ryan gulped and began to slowly walk up to the front door. The house was actually a large mansion and the front door was two huge pieces of wood, both with detailed carvings on them. Ryan gripped the iron door handles, both of which were models of arbok, and pushed. The door refused to budge; it didn’t even make a sound. Ryan pushed harder using both hands but that still failed to have any effect.

“Uh, guys. I think the door’s locked or stuck or something.”

“Try pulling it,” suggested Steven.

Ryan did and the door swung open easily, revealing the dark interior of the house. Grinning back at his friends, partly to convince them that he wasn’t scared and partly to convince himself, Ryan stepped into the house. Once he was inside, a gust of wind blew the heavy door closed behind him with a thud.

Ryan jumped in surprise but quickly collected himself, clicked his torch on and looked around. The first thing he noticed was that the house was cold. Outside the desert was still warm but the house was made of cold stone blocks with the windows boarded shut and had kept none of the day's heat. The entrance room was quite large, especially considering it was most likely only for greeting guests, with a tiled floor and a rotten hat stand by the door. In front of Ryan was a second door that led further into the house, but he had no intention of going any further than was necessary. He laid his sleeping bag next to the front door and sat with his back to the wood that blocked his way to freedom. To conserve the battery, he switched his torch off but continued to clutch it tightly in his hands.

*****

Ryan looked up with a start. He’d been dozing but was sure he’d heard a crash! Flicking his torch on, he glanced nervously around, surveying the dusty room lit by the beam of his torch. There was nothing unusual, but he just couldn’t shake the feeling that, from somewhere, he was being watched.

That’s rubbish! He told himself, This house is long abandoned. No one lives here. It’s empty. And anyway, even if there was something in here my pokémon could handle it.

To reassure himself he patted his belt of pokéballs. It was alarmingly flat, devoid of pokéballs.

“What the hell!” he exclaimed jumping up.

He couldn’t see his pokéballs anywhere.

“Dammit!” I can’t lose my pokéballs! I have to find them.

He steeled himself and prepared to venture deeper into the sinister mansion but stopped.

I might have just left them at home, in that case there’s no point going further in... But if I didn’t then they’ve been stolen. Everyone might call me a coward if I go and check my home but my pokémon are too important to lose!

Ryan turned around and stepped toward the door. A sound above made him look up and see a mass of falling timber and bricks. Used to dodging wild pokémon on his travels, he instantly leapt back as the debris crashed to the ground, blocking his way out of the house.

Ryan took a minute to get his breath back and control his thumping heart. He could’ve been killed if he was still asleep or hadn’t heard the noise. Glancing up at the hole in the ceiling where the junk had fallen from, he was sure he saw a pokémon glare at him and vanish.

I have to get out of here!

Ryan immediately thought of breaking a window but his efforts were stymied by the thick planks which had been used to board up the windows of the abandoned house.

Relax, he told himself. Stay calm and think. Can I clear the rubble?

He looked at it and realised it wouldn’t be possible for him alone but something caught his eye. Something in the dirt, unlike everything else, reflected his torchlight. He dug it out and ended up holding one of his missing pokéballs.

“Go!” commanded Ryan, releasing his pokémon, unsure of which ball it was and therefore which pokémon he had.

It was his espeon.

“Oh, Espeon! I’m so glad you’re fine,” he sobbed, hugging his light purple pokémon.

If Espeon is here then the others were also stolen. I have to get them back.

Ryan sniffed and rubbed his nose, “Come on, Espeon. Someone’s stolen your friends and we’re going to get them back.”

With Espeon by his side Ryan was less scared of whatever it was that was hiding in the mansion and, lighting their way, he lead Espeon deeper into the mansion.

*****

“That creature that took the pokéballs was upstairs,” Ryan told Espeon. “We need to find the stairs.”

They wandered around for a few minutes, unable to shake the feeling they were being stalked but even Espeon was unable to tell her trainer where the creature was. She mewed sadly and shook her head. There was nothing that she could detect.

“Well, here are the stairs,” observed Ryan, looking at the two curved staircases ahead of him. A faded and frayed carpet lay in tatters on the sagging steps.

“They sure l-look rotten,” stammered Ryan.

“Esp,” mewed Espeon, lightly jumping up onto the third step in a single bound.

“You’re not going alone!” Ryan reprimanded her angrily. “I don’t know what’s here and I don’t want you getting hurt!”

Ryan also knew that he didn’t want to be left alone himself. He was cold and afraid. He didn’t say it but he knew that Espeon would be able to pick it up. She always knew exactly what mood people were in. Ryan tentatively placed a foot on the first stair and, clutching to the banister like his life depended on it, began to climb the stairs.

Espeon was nervous herself, for some reason her psychic powers weren’t functioning properly. She could feel a short distance around her but then it all got fuzzy and disappeared, it had never happened to her before. It made her angry with herself. This was no time to experience a problem, they were in a highly dangerous situation as it was! Lost in her thoughts she failed to notice the next step was weakened until Ryan’s weight broke it and, with a cry, he fell through.

*****

Ryan hit the wooden floor below and broke through it, falling in a shower of dust to the basement level. In the fall his torch went out and he was plunged into total darkness. He tried to stand but the pain in his foot told him if it wasn’t broken he’d definitely sprained his ankle and wouldn’t be walking anywhere for a few days.

Where’s the torch? Where’s the torch? I must find the torch!

In a panic Ryan’s hands scurried over the ground, searching desperately for his missing torch. He felt lots of dirt, broken pieces of wood and then his torch. He was immensely relieved as he grabbed it and flicked the switch. No comforting light appeared to dispel the dim unknown.

The battery!

Once again, Ryan began to fumble, now searching for the torch's battery. Instead of the small metal cylinder his hands closed on something else. It was dry and stiff and slightly hairy, maybe it was an old coat or something. On top of it he found his missing battery, inserted it into the torch, flicked on the light and let out a blood-curdling scream at the awful sight before him.

*****

Espeon tried to catch Ryan in her psychic hold as he fell but it didn’t have any effect and she felt him slip through her grasp. The light went out and it took her eyes a long time to adjust, during which all she could do was wait impatiently. Normally, she’d see her surroundings with psychic waves but no they were no use. Her night-vision was good, however, and soon she was once again able to make out her surroundings.

<Leave here,> commanded a whispering voice.

The sound rustled like the wind, seeming to come from every direction and leaving Espeon unsure of which way to turn to confront the speaker. A metallic clattering from the top of the stairs drew her attention next. Two or three antique suits of armour where rolling down toward her. Their long-handled axes, blades still sharp, were mixed into the jumble and cut long gouges into the house's woodwork. Without time to think, Espeon leapt back and skidded around a corner as the mass of metal sealed over the hole down which Ryan had recently descended.

*****

Ryan’s cry ended as he ran out of air. He scrabbled back, a cold sweat of fear coating his forehead. Before him was an ancient chair with a woman sitting in it. She had a few wisps of white hair remaining and was dressed in faded blue clothes and a brown woollen shawl. She was long dead. Her skin was hard and brittle, pale and tightly stretched around her thin bones. A leash, attached to the leg of the chair, led to a collar around the neck of an umbreon. It was also dead and Ryan realised with horror that that was what he had felt.

Pausing just long enough to throw up in a corner, Ryan started to crawl to the only door to the room. Before he reached it, however, the dead umbreon walked into the room, through the door. Ryan was terrified. The ghost umbreon seemed to be unaware of him, walked over to the women’s corpse and nuzzled her leg as if greeting her after a short separation. Ryan began to tremble and hyperventilate as the ghost umbreon turned to face him with cold, glowing eyes. Ryan instantly recognised them as the eyes that had glared at him in the first room.

“Y-you...” he stammered.

<You shouldn’t be here, human,> said the ghost umbreon and Ryan was shocked to realise that he could here the meaning of its words beyond the normal sounds a pokémon made.

Unable to say anything Ryan just stared, quivering.

<I know what you’re going to do. You’re going to tell the police what you've seen here. Then they’ll come and separate us!> growled the ghost umbreon, baring his ethereal fangs and snarling at Ryan.

Ryan shook his head, he realised if he didn’t keep this ghost happy he’d die. It was up to him to survive.

<Don’t lie to me! They’ll come. Throw my body away with the garbage and take my mistress. She has everything that she could have here and she’s the only thing I have.>

Is he lonely? wondered Ryan, Do ghosts get lonely?

“Y-you’re lonely?” ventured Ryan.

<That’s none of your business!> hissed the ghost. <This is where I am trapped. Here with my body, unable to leave.>

“Why c-can’t you le-leave?”

<I don’t know where to go. How I could I know how to get to a place that I’m not even sure exists?>

“Maybe I c-can help?” offered Ryan, “I could-“

<Do nothing!> snapped the ghost umbreon. <You’re not a pokémon! You don’t understand me! But I can’t let you leave.>

The ghost umbreon leapt for Ryan and he instinctively lay back to dodge it. The ghost landed on his chest and Ryan realised he couldn’t even feel it.

<I’m a ghost. I can’t hurt you. The only things and I can do are move non-living objects inside this house and use a few attacks.>

The ghost umbreon’s eyes glowed and Ryan's vision started to blur. It was a hypnotise attack and he knew if he succumbed he'd be helpless. Despite all his efforts, he was unable to resist and slowly his eyelids grew heavy, closed and he was engulfed in blackness.

*****

Espeon rushed through the house, desperate to find a way to reach Ryan. The way he’d gone was blocked and she hadn’t found the real way yet. Suddenly the cloud that had obscured her psychic powers lifted. It came to her instantly. Ryan was in trouble and, with a single, searching thought, she memorised the way to him. She sprinted now, through passages and down stairs until she saw the door that separated her from her trainer. The cloud was descending again so she quickly used a psychic attack to shatter the door into a million splinters. She skidded to a stop in the room as she saw what lay inside.

Ryan was unconscious, his torch illuminating the dead bodies of an old woman and her umbreon and, sitting to the side, watching everything, was the umbreon's ghost.

<Did you do all this?> demanded Espeon angrily.

<There’s still more,> he replied, raising his eyes.

There, an axe from one of the suits of armour was hanging precariously.

<It will eventually fall and skewer him,> explained the ghost umbreon. <I’m just waiting to watch it.>

Espeon jumped but was almost instantly dragged back by ropes of dust that held her to the ground, unable to help her trainer.

<Why? Why are you doing this to us?> demanded Espeon. <We didn't do anything! Please, let us go.>

<It’s not what you’ve done but you might do. You’ll ruin my death, take all I have if you leave.>

<There’s more than this. There’s a life afterwards. You need to move on,> she pleaded.

<How?> demanded the ghost umbreon. <What am I supposed to do?>

Espeon had never realised that a pokémon wouldn’t know what to do after death. She’d known as long as she could remember but it wasn’t something that she could explain.

<If I could leave I’d have done so a long time ago,> admitted the ghost umbreon, <But I didn’t know what to do, so I lingered. This is where my body is, and my mistress. There’s nothing outside of here. No friends, no answers, no hope, no love.>

<That’s no reason to kill Ryan.>

<He’ll ruin everything.>

<Only if you stay here.>

<Then tell me how to leave,> snarled the umbreon ghost.

<I can’t tell you … but … but I can show you. If you let me save my trainer, my friend, then I’ll help you.>

The ghost looked up. The axe was about to fall.

<Very well.>

The ropes of dust fell to the ground at the same moment as the axe finally slipped. It fell towards Ryan, its blade shining in the torch light. Espeon jumped. The heavy steel edge slammed into her back and she fell to the ground. Her spine was broken and she couldn't move but Ryan would live. Blood flowed out as the axe slipped from the wound and clattered on the ground. Espeon waited as her life pooled around her. She’d miss Ryan, and he her, but this was her choice, her ultimate sacrifice.

*****

Espeon’s spirit dropped the last of the stolen pokéballs by Ryan's side.

<That was a brave thing you did,> complimented the umbreon's ghost.

<Thank you.>

<I don’t think anyone would have done something like that for me... I know I wouldn’t have done it. Ryan was very lucky to have had you.>

<Now I’m with you. You’re pretty lucky too.>

<I guess. What now?>

<Just follow me.>

Espeon’s spirit began to float away.

<Where to?> asked the umbreon spirit. <Where are we going?>

<On our final adventure.>

The End