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