Disclaimer: I don't own pokemon, just my characters; Comet, Skye, Blake, the region of Rhoto, "Haunter Hill" and the lot. Ask permission and I shalt be glad to loan ^^ Rating: PG-13 for language, pokemon violence. A pokemon journey from a teenager's point of view. "Tales for the Road" by A.C Chapter Five The House on Haunter Hill / Part One ~ ~ ~ "Oh ho! So if I handle the map, we get lost, ne? But noooo... when I give the map to you, look what happens! Ha! Lookit!" I waved my arms around at the canopy of leaves above my head that failed miserably to resemble Carnation City - or any city, for that matter - "Guess what!? Guess what!? We're LOST!" Skye did the smart and mature thing and ignored me, instead choosing to pour over the map, her face screwed up in frustrated concentration. When I stopped my mad rant in disbelief she could actually ignore me, I heard her mumbling under her breath; "This can't be right... I could have sworn it was the left turn we had to take... look, it even says here on the map... but this forest isn't here..." After leaving the forested path where the Team Rocket Elites had ambushed us, Skye and I had found ourselves trekking across a giant field. I found it weird that one moment we had turned left at a pair of crooked signs and continued through the knee-high grass, and the next to find ourselves deep within a forest. I hadn't seen any trees on the horizon, but I shrugged it off. I was observant like that a lot. No point in ranting to Skye if she wouldn't listen, so I turned my attention to the only one who would - Thundari. She was sitting on my shoulder, peering curiously up at the trees as if she couldn't tell whether they were growing from the top of her head or not. "You recovered from that Rocket battle?" I questioned. "Pi," she replied vaguely, lowering her gaze only somewhat to stare blankly around the surrounding trees. I took that as a yes and was about to have a seat when Skye grabbed my wrist and began dragging me onward. "Hey!" I squawked. "No pulling!" "C'mon, I'm gonna find that path again if it's the last thing I do..." I groaned, wrenching my wrist free of her (almost) iron-like grip to hurry along behind her, skipping under tree branches and leaping over fallen logs. Thundari dug her claws into my jacket to keep a grip as I struggled to keep up with Skye as her jade head continued pressing its way onward, gaining speed with each conquered sapling. "Whoa!" I stumbled backwards, away from the tree I had nearly run into. Remember the scary tree back when I was four? Yeah, well, I swear to God it was back for revenge or something. This one was freaking tall and thick, with a dark, jagged bark as hard as a rock - and yet, somehow, the bark had peeled off in some places that just conveniently looked like the tree was scowling out at me. Its bare and dead branches stretched to the sky, curling and twisting in grotesque ways. Up at the top, I caught a glimpse of a single leaf. A single, charcoal black leaf, which not only completed the scarred appearance of the tree, but had to be the weirdest thing I had ever seen. Have you ever seen a pitch-black leaf? Didn't think so. "Skye, take a look at this - the scary tree's back with a vengeance... Skye?" I leaned around the afore mentioned 'scary tree' and realized she had disappeared amongst the forest. Curse my luck - we get separated in a giant forest that magically appeared, and I have a reunion with a happy childhood memory. "Skye!" I called, hoping she was still within earshot. "Slow your ass down and get back h-!" "Are you lost?" I jumped and whirled around, thinking for a horrified second that the godforsaken tree had spoken. But, fortunately, it was only a boy around my age, with short, messy dark hair - a few long spiky locks falling over one shadowed eye. I thought that he must be a trainer, but he had no pokeballs or belt about his waist. "Whoa, you scared me.... er, yeah, I'm lost." I shot another glare amongst the trees in Skye's general direction for good measure, and looked back to the boy. "D'you know any ways out?" "That I do," he replied, offering a charming smile. I noticed his voice had a peculiar lilt to it - a slight bit British? Or Irish? It was hard to tell with the few words he had spoken. But he continued to explain, "There are two ways out of here. That way," he pointed to his left, and I briefly followed his gaze, "Or you could go this way," he pointed to the right. I looked back and forth at my options, and was about to wonder why I didn't just go blunder on into the trees (much like Skye did) when I realized that there were paths leading in the directions my companion was gesturing. No signs were anywhere to help point which way was best, so I raised hopeless eyes to the boy. He took a step back down the right-hand path. "I'm heading this way, and your welcome to come back with me." I looked again down the left-hand path. "'Go back with you'?" I repeated, "Go back where? Back out or d'you -" I paused. When I had turned back, I found myself gazing down the darkening path deeper to the forest. Mystery boy had vanished. "Cha..." Thundari growled from my shoulder, her large diamond ears flattening. I figured she was annoyed at the boy's sudden vanishing act. "Well, I'd rather not be stuck alone in this place again," I muttered, and then broke into a run down the path I was facing, following the boy. "Hey! Hey, you, WAIT FOR ME!!" After running for about fifteen minutes in that general direction, and becoming more and more stunned that I hadn't caught up with him yet (he must've been pretty damn fast!), I burst out amongst a few knots of trees into a sort of clearing, just in time to be met with a flash. I only had a second to wonder what it was when the faint rumble of thunder reached my ears. "Aw, shit," I grumbled, blinking as I looked up into the mass of storm clouds overhead, "Great. Stuck in a forest with a thunderstorm. "And a house," I added, upon noticing that, directly in front of me, was a giant slope. At the very top, silhouetted against the stormy sky, was a very old mansion. Did the boy live here or something? Curious, and thinking that he must have gone on in, and I began my climb. The hill's grass was parched and dry, and a few dead trees were scattered around the yard. One or two boulders also were crammed into the hillside. The front porch was halfway through decaying, and creaked as I stepped across it. I half expected it to fall inward and for me to go tumbling down into a pile of leaves or something. A porch swing, its chain rusted and one of them broken, was clinging desperately to its last chain, the other corner digging into the porch as it lay, almost on its side. I caught sight of a lump of something as I passed, and glanced at it to find a shoe - long worn and also rusted. After knocking on the door, I then realized what I had just seen. A rusted... shoe? Shoes weren't made of metal - shoes don't RUST! I glanced back down at it and blinked in realization that the rusty color staining its side must have been blood. Yeck... how creepy was that? No response. I turned back to the door, frowning. Well, if no one was going to ANSWER me... "Yallo?" I called hesitantly, poking my head in. The front hall of the house was impossibly dark and smelled terrible. Screwing up my face as I tried to get use to the lovely aroma of rotting wood, I crept inside, creaking some more on the floor boards, my eyes slowly adjusting to the dark. I was in some giant, high-ceilinged front room, with various lumps scattered around - furniture covered in sheets, I guessed. I could see two staircases leading to an upper hallway on the opposite side, and what looked like a huge brick fireplace to my right. I stepped in more, looking around in awe. Who had lived here, way out in the middle of nowhere? Where was Skye, and that boy? "Pi pichu!" Thundari exclaimed, her high voice echoing around. "Yeah, its spooky," I muttered in response. "And stop humming like that. You're giving me the creeps." She obliged, falling silent as I continued stepping across the threshold. But after a while, she piped up again with a questioning, "Pi?" "Stop humming alr-!" "Chaaaaa!" she wailed, ears drooping as she crouched on my shoulder. I guess she hadn't been singing after all. The music that came faintly to my ears was coming from somewhere else. In the house, or was I hearing things? I looked around, falling deathly silent, straining to hear it. Thundari's ears pricked up again as she listened too, and after a moment, pointed silently up the stairs. I hurried up them, stumbling slightly on the molding carpet, at where it had bunched up over the years. The music was obviously in this direction, but it didn't seem to be getting any louder. It still came, as if the source was skipping away. I hurried down the hall in the direction it came, and came to a corner. Light was pouring out from somewhere around this corner, and I was about to round it when I spotted the shadow, stretched across the floor, of someone standing. "Hey, how did you-?" I stopped myself. I had, of course, been expecting to see that guy again. But even more surprising, when I came around the corner into the next hall, was that it was empty. No one was standing there - and the funny thing was, there was no more light to cast a shadow, either. I looked down at my feet. No shadows or light beams or anything. But down the hall, at the very end, was a slightly open door. Behind that, I could see light, see shadows swirling and hear the music. It had finally gotten louder. Were there people dancing? Was there a ball going on? Whoever it was had obviously slipped back in the room and forgotten to close the door fully after them. I strode down the hall, really wanting to find out where I was - the music swirling louder and louder in my ears, crescendoing almost to a deafening roar. I reached forward and wrenched open the door. Silence. I was met only with a blank, dusty room as dark and cold as the main room - and a ringing in my ears. I blinked, looking around. Funny. Hadn't the lights been on a moment ago? "Geez, I didn't think I was this crazy," I muttered, stepping into the room. Thundari pressed herself more against my shoulder, also staring around. It wasn't until I felt the prick of pain that I realized she was digging her claws into my shoulder. "Owch! What the... why are you so tense?" "Chu," she replied forcefully, glaring suspiciously at the ceiling. I rolled my eyes, continuing to look around. It looked like it had once been a ballroom, for a giant glass chandelier was suspended overhead, spider webs stretched from every stem, dust gathering on the melted candles. This house was older than I thought - the chandelier still used candlelight. There was also another fireplace against the opposite wall, and although the greater span of the room was empty, a few ghostly lumps in the corners stood as chairs, covered with sheets to protect against age. The sheets themselves were a sickening tinge of yellow. The thing that caught my attention most was the grand piano at the far side - one of those old-fashioned kinds with the real ivory keys, slick wood and the top that rose, suspended, to give view to the workings within. I had taken piano lessons for a few years back in the day, but I was rusty and couldn't play much of anything. So I didn't go as far to boast that I was a piano player. I gazed admiringly at it for a few minutes before looking back around the room. The light flooding into every corner allowed me to see the shapes more clearly now, and I could also see the beautiful wooden floor - gleaming out from the spaces that my footprints had left in the dust. I didn't see the floor before 'cause it was too dark. Wait. It was dark a minute ago! Where the hell did the light come from!? At the same time that I looked up quickly, Thundari growled at my shoulder. Each and every candle on the chandelier was now lit, as if someone had come in, hurriedly lit them and left in the time-span of fifteen seconds I had explored the piano's corner. They flickered, sending shadows dancing across the walls. "Okay, that was weird," I mumbled - it was my turn to stare suspiciously at the ceiling. While I was doing so, I felt Thundari's soft weight leave my shoulder, but I thought nothing of it. A few moments later, however, her anxious cries of "Pi! Chu! Pi! Chu!" roused me from my musings, and I looked 'round to see her back at the piano. "What now?" I asked aloud, starting to walk back across the floor. But two things happened that made me stop dead in my tracks. Thundari leapt back from the piano, as if startled - and at that same moment, I heard music again. It came faintly to my ears just as it had down in the front hall, but this time I couldn't tell where it was coming from. I stopped where I was and stared at the piano. Was it one of those automatic ones? But... no... the music came from an orchestra. Like ballroom music... I stepped back, and Thundari scampered back onto my shoulder, her fur on end and ears twitching. The music grew louder, but it was like it was coming from above me. I glanced nervously around the room, as the shadows on the wall flickered more violently, and the music began a slow rise. "I'm starting not to like this house..." I murmured, walking steadily backwards towards the door. The music continued to swell, now coming at me from all sides, mingling with a faint tinkling of glass or crystal. And then, just as the music reached its peak... the night was shattered with a scream. For some reason, I looked up in shock - as if the scream had come from there. Just in time to see the chandelier dropping right towards my face. "AH!" I yelped, leaping backwards as it crashed into the floor with a shatter of glass, a splinter of wood, and a gleam of fire. The room was silent again, except for the quiet crackling of the candles. The candles that were resting on the floor now, their flames slowly spreading across the wood. "Cha!" Thundari squeaked. I smelt it too, and realized that the smell of smoke was building. The whole room was made of room - if I didn't get out of there fast, the entire bloody place would burn down! "Whirlpool," I stammered, backing away from the flames - damn, they were growing fast! - "Water Gun!" I tossed the pokeball down, but the water-type never emerged. There was a glint of red light, which was then sucked back in the pokeball. I gaped at it. What was going on!? "Pi pichu!" Thundari squeaked again in my ear, and I snapped back to my senses, reaching down to snatch it back up. The fire blew a fan of warmth against my face before I straightened up and turned to bolt to the exit. A ceiling board crashed down behind me, sending another heat wave over me, and once I made it out to the hallway, I turned to slam the door - and caught, for a split second, the sight of the magnificent room alit with fire, gleaming like Hell itself. I slammed the door, turned, and bolted down the hallway - with half a mind to scream bloody murder. But I had only made it so far down the hallway when I nearly ran into someone else. It was that boy I had met in the woods, who had showed me to this crazy place! His usually calm eyes widened only slightly when he saw me - and I imagined that the panicked look on my face didn't help. "C'mon!" I panted, "We gotta get out of here! I don't know how, but the chandelier fell and now the room's on fire..." "What?" he blinked, looking surprised, "What chandelier?" "In that - that ballroom place down the hall!" I gasped, pointing behind me, "The whole thing's on fire! We gotta get out of here before it burns the entire house down..." "The ballroom?" he repeated, STILL, somehow, not understanding what I was saying, "Yes, this house has a ballroom - but it doesn't have a chandelier anymore..." "Well, duh, thanks to me!" I snapped, "Will you hurry up already!?" And then, he smiled. That thick moron just stood there and SMILED, while the house was steadily starting to burn down! It was probably spreading the opposite direction, because I couldn't smell any smoke. We did have a little time, then... but not much, if he kept standing and SMILING! "I think you're mistaken," he replied calmly, that eerily calm smile still in place, "Come with me, and I'll show you." To my surprise, he began heading back down the hall in the direction of the room - where I had come running from. I didn't move, only turned to stare at him. He noticed I wasn't following, and paused at the corner. "Are you crazy? That's were the bloody fire is!" He turned and looked down the hall, contemplating what I knew to be the door down at its end. "I see no fire." "Yeah, well, its probably still behind the door..." I snapped, walking impatiently down to where he was and also looking around the fire. I trailed off, caught in surprise. The door wasn't closed, like it had been when I slammed it. It was slightly ajar, like when I first found the room. And beyond it was darkness. He smiled again at my shock, and headed down the hall. I followed silently, dumbfounded, as he took a candle from a shelf on the wall and lit it. With another genial smile at me, he slowly opened the door and gestured that I go inside. I did so, not knowing what to find. There was the ballroom I had entered before. But there were a few major differences. There was no shattered chandelier lying on the floor where it had crashed. In fact, there wasn't a chandelier to begin with - the ceiling was bare. The furniture wasn't covered in white sheets. The furniture had been burned to a crisp - just like the rest of the room. Everything was scarred and burnt, and an old musty smell of very faint smoke hung in the air. The piano I had admired in the far corner had collapsed, an entire half of it eaten away by fire. But the funny thing was, everything was still covered in the dust. I could see that once the boy had followed me in and held up the candle. As a matter of fact, every last thing in the room was covered in a few inches of dust, as if the fire hadn't happened for years. I looked at the scorched floor. Before, where my footprints had left themselves in the dust, was only dust. No trace left of anyone. "There was a fire here, once," my companion spoke up as he watched me gaze around in stupefied silence, "Long ago. About sixty years ago. There was a splendid party going on for pokemon and people alike, in this very room. There were a lot of people in here - this room can easily accommodate at least two hundred." He paused in his story, smiling sadly. "But then a terrible accident happened. The chandelier fell - no one knows why. It was brand new and firmly attached to the ceiling. The crash itself killed some people, but the candles lighting the chandelier caught easily on these wooden floors and walls. Everyone within was burned alive in a matter of minutes." I stared at him in stunned silence. Had I somehow slipped into the past and experienced - in a sense - what had happened sixty years ago? Bloody impossible. I shook my head, looking back around the room, as I slowly meandered my way over towards the window. The boy remained silent, also gazing around the room, either thinking about his own questions or lost in a memory of something. I glanced behind myself, making sure I was making footprints this time. Yes, there they were - still clear against the dust. Odd. I looked back up, having found myself at the window, and spotted a shadow of a person standing outside in the front yard, looking at the house. I cocked my head. "Hey, who's that?" I questioned, looking up. Was he expecting company? The boy looked over sharply at me. "What do you mean?" he asked curtly, striding over to the window and looking out, holding up the candle. I looked back into the yard. "There's someone standing out there. You weren't expecting company, were -" I stopped. The yard was empty now. As the boy continued staring out, dark eyes narrowed, I blinked at the now-empty front yard of the house. It was raining gently, and occasionally I heard a rumble of thunder. Great, so I was seeing things now? Maybe I was more psycho than I thought... "Well, there's no one there now," he spoke up in a curious tone of voice, stepping back from the window. I caught a glance of his face in the candlelight before he lowered it and his look - an angry scowl - was lost into darkness. What was he so upset about? But before I could ask, a yell came to our ears, from further down the hall. "Get away from me!!" I recognized the voice in the same split second that Thundari did. "Skye!" "Pichu!" I rushed out from the creepy room, running blindly down the hall. Again, I hadn't been running for long when I ran - this time, I ran literally - right into someone. Both of us fell backward, and I heard an echoing yelp of surprise. A moment later, the small hallway was illuminated as my companion joined us. He kneeled beside me, worry etched on his face. "Are you all right?" "I'm fine," I said quickly, looking back at the other person I had run into. "Skye? Is that you?" There was silence as the other sat up, rubbed his or her head, and groaned. At the sound of my voice, however, he or she froze. Another hesitation, and then the figure piped up curiously; "Comet?" The boy held up the candle even higher, and I saw Skye blinking at me, bemused, through brown eyes, under a fringe of jade hair. I grinned in relief, pulling myself to my feet, as she did the same. "Nice t' see you. How'd you find the house?" "I wandered around in the woods some more, and came to the clearing and saw this house on the hill. There was a terrible storm - so I figured I'd take some shelter. I didn't know you were here, though! Hey Thundari," she added, spotting the worried Pichu on my shoulder. The boy remained silent, staring at her with a stony expression on his face. "I heard your yell - what's up?" For a split second, fear crossed her face again, and she glanced over her shoulder at the empty hallway. Now, she looked puzzled as she looked back at me. "There was a wild pokemon - a Gengar. It wouldn't leave me alone! So I tried to fight it - or catch it - but my pokemon wouldn't leave their pokeballs! I couldn't do anything to get rid of it!" I was briefly reminded of Whirlpool's sudden retreat to his pokeball. And knowing my Poliwag, that was VERY unusual. "Same happened to me. And get this - it was Whirlpool." "That bugger of a Poliwag?" she asked, frowning, "He wouldn't back down from a fight." "The house is supposedly haunted," the boy spoke up suddenly in a quiet voice. Skye looked at him blankly, as if just noticing he was there, "Perhaps your pokemon were scared?" "Whirlpool doesn't get scared," I assured him, as Thundari nodded from my shoulder. Skye was still blinking, "Umm... I'm sorry, but who are you?" He looked back at her, but he still kept that stony expression on his face. After regarding her for a minute, he finally responded in a cool voice - "Nicholas. Nicholas Strand." "Well," I said (I had just realized he had never told me his name, and I never told him mine), "I'm Comet Heavens, and this is Skye Tredent. We're pokemon trainers, if you couldn't guess." His dark eyes glanced at me, and a smile crossed his face. "Yes, I could. There are a few ghost pokemon said to roam this house as well, but they don't often make themselves seen to people." "Wait, so you said this house was haunted?" Skye questioned nervously. "Like... how much?" He glanced at her, and I was surprised at the icy look that entered his eyes. "Depends on who experiences it," he answered coldly. An awkward silence fell over the three of us. Skye looked a bit scared, I was a bit confused, Thundari looked perturbed by something, and Nick seemed to be waiting for anymore questions from any of us. At length, he glanced at me and broke the silence. "Are you hungry? There's not much in the kitchen, but I could try to make something." At the mention of food, my, Skye's and Thundari's face lit up. "Yes please!" "Pichu!" we chorused. ~ ~ ~ "So where do you think we are?" Skye asked quietly. I shrugged my shoulders, settling back in the moth-eaten armchair I was curled in. "We could be anywhere. All I know is that we're out of Chestnut City, and we haven't reached Carnation City. Whether we've gone far off track or what, I don't know. That forest was the first thing that threw us off." Skye glanced in the direction of the kitchen, where Nick had disappeared to about ten minutes ago. "I don't know about you," she continued, lowering her voice even more, "But I don't trust that 'Nicholas' guy. He kept shooting me dirty looks. And does he live here or something? He hasn't got any pokemon, so he's not a wandering trainer like us." "Who knows? Maybe he does," I shrugged again, "But he's feeding us, offering us shelter, and he's been pretty nice to me so far. I mean, if it weren't for him, we'd be out in that godforsaken forest." "Or in Carnation City," Skye murmured solemnly. I rolled my eyes, putting my arms behind my head. "Give it a break, Skye. Just because he doesn't like you or something doesn't mean he's a mad-axe murderer. We have more important things to worry about," I began, raising my voice slightly at the look of indignation on her face, "Like why our pokemon won't come out. It CAN'T be because they're scared - it just can't. Whirlpool would come out no matter what." Skye looked thoughtful. She was stretched out on the couch across from me, and Thundari was on the back of another recliner to the side of us. "I tried all of my pokemon. I didn't really expect Magikarp to do anything... and Sparx has a tendency to be a bit of a coward. Still... I would have thought Charmeleon would like to go up against a Gengar..." "Its not just ghosts or anything," I protested, "See, I was in this room, and... a fire started. It was weird and a long story - don't ask. But the fire was going, and I tried to send out Whirlpool, and it was like he started to... and then went back in! I don't get it! And Thundari's been a bit nervous once or twice, but not so bad she's wanted to go back to her pokeball!" At the mention of her name, my Pichu cracked open one eye. "Pi pichu," she murmured sleepily. Yeah, so what if she hated her pokeball more than anything? I had a point to make! "D'you think we should try it now?" Skye wondered, "They have nothing to be scared of here." I reached for Everglade's pokeball. Maybe Whirlpool was just mad or something... Skye and I both tossed our pokeballs down at the same time. But it was the same reaction - a flash of red light as it started to appear, but then it was suddenly sucked back inside the pokeball. Disgusted, I scooped it up again and glared at the red and white sphere. "If this is because you're being cowardly," I demanded of the pokeball, "You're gonna get it later! Thundari's not scared!" As if not wanting to give it - the inanimate pokeball - time to respond, I stuffed it back on my belt and slumped, sulking, back into the chair. Just then, Nick walked out from the kitchen, shaking his head. Skye and I looked up curiously as he joined us, and he gave me a slightly sheepish smile. "I'm afraid the stove doesn't work. There's not much I can do." I sighed as my stomach growled. Great... there was no food to be had, and we couldn't go out and get any with that storm brewing. Skye, being the polite guest as always, replied; "That's okay." My stomach begged to differ, but I didn't say anything. After a while, I stood up and stretched. "Are you going somewhere?" Skye asked as I began to head down another hallway I hadn't yet seen. "Yeah," I replied, turning around and slowing so I was slowly walking backwards, facing them, "I'm just gonna go explore. Maybe I can find out why our pokemon won't come out of their pokeballs." "But Comet, the house is haunted," she continued, looking worried again. I rolled my eyes and snickered as I turned back to walk forward. "Oooh well, maybe I can strike up a chat with one of the resident ghosts? Maybe they'll know..." as I disappeared down the hallway, I let my laughter drift back to them. ~ ~ ~ This was originally gonna be just the one chapter, but it got to be REALLY FREAKING LONG, so I split it up into two parts ^^ All the answers will be revealed next chapter! Staaaay tuned!