Haunted Night

See? It’s longer… I kept my promise. Though they might not stay long…

Dark shapes, swirling in a misty fog… cracked earth beneath her…dark shapes, reaching, all reaching for her…running, running, running…a laser gun… more blurry shapes, these not threatening… call out…warn…words won’t come…one by one… laser stops firing…blood…covered, covered… dead… no…no… dead again… no…

“NO! Not again! Don’t go!” Kaci screamed, thrashing around in her sleeping bag. Immediately Misty was there, holding and comforting her.

“Shh… it was only a dream…” she soothed. Brock and Ash sat up and looked over sleepily.

“Don’t leave me mommy…” Kaci sobbed, still caught in her nightmare.

“What’s up with her?” Brock yawned.

“Bad dream,” she answered briefly, before turning her attention back to Kaci.

“Mommy… promise you’ll never leave me?” she begged Misty. Ash’s eyes flew open, startled.

“Shh…I promise…” Misty answered softly, causing Ash’s eyes to widen even more. Kaci, reassured by her words, fell back to sleep. Gently, Misty laid her down, sighing in relief. Brock had fallen asleep, but Ash was wide awake. And staring at her.

“What?” she asked crossly.

“Umm… well, she called you “mommy.” Isn’t that kind of weird?”

“Ash, she was half-asleep and terrified.”

“But her parents are dead,” he pressed, “Why’d you tell her her mom was never going to leave?”

“Ash! She was half-asleep! She didn’t know what she was saying. She probably won’t even remember this tomorrow morning. What’s your deal?”

“I’ve never seen you act that nice to a human before,” he confessed, readying himself for a blow on the head. However, it didn’t come. Obviously Misty didn’t care or was too tired to bother with him, because she had already went back to sleep. Maybe a little bit of both. Relieved, Ash resolved to keep his mouth shut and fell asleep. Unnoticed, a Haunter grinned evilly in the shadows, and it’s eyes glowed red.

A beach…nice and warm…jumping waves…laughing…fog rolls in…beach is gone, a jungle in it’s place… walking…a Pidgey lands in front of her and is trapped by a net which electrocutes it… scared, she runs… can’t stop…

“Ow…stupid tree,” Kaci mumbled faintly. Misty stirred.

“Go away…no…I don’t wanna come…” she said, starting to move around. Misty sat up for the second time that night, having been woken up by Kaci’s cries once again. This time, though, she woke up Ash.

“Five more minutes…” he muttered.

“Ash, she’s doing it again!”

“Who?”

“Kaci.”

“What?!” he asked, sitting straight up.

“Daddy! He’s got a knife! He’s got a knife! Don’t let him hurt me!” she screamed, still asleep.

“Go to her!” he whispered urgently.

“You need to! Remember? She said you remind her of her father!”

“But… but I…”

“Please! Don’t let him hurt me! Don’t go, please! No! Stay away! NO!”

“Ash!” Misty yelled franticly, setting him into action. He went over to Kaci and tried to shake her awake. She looked so scared, kicking and hitting the covers in an effort to escape whatever it was, that he pulled the tiny girl into his lap instinctively, even though she fought like an animal.

“Kaci! Wake up! Wake up!” She stirred, but before she was fully awake, a blue glow surrounded her, and she was plunged deeper into the nightmare.

“Misty, did you see that? Something’s wrong!” The blue glow had just confirmed what Ash had known inside the whole time.

“That looked like some sort of psychic attack!” she said, in answer to his question.

“Grab my pokèdex!” Misty crawled over to the jacket, which was next to a still-sleeping Brock, and, pointing it at Kaci, opened it.

“Nightmare. A ghost type attack that only works when the opponent is asleep, giving the receiver nightmares.”

“Ash, there’s something using an attack on her!” Both of the teens were worried about this little girl that they felt a strange connection to.

“Noctowl, go! Foresight!” Ash called, releasing the bird pokemon. It directed it’s gaze to the trees, where a Haunter became visible.

“Haunt?” it asked, confused and distracted from Kaci, who started waking up again.

“Kaci, are you okay?” Ash asked worriedly, forgetting about Haunter for a second. Misty didn’t, though.

“Noctowl! Use your psychic attack on this stupid ghost!” she called. Noctowl, realizing these were special circumstances and knowing she was a friend of his trainer’s, obeyed, sending Haunter wheeling.

“All right! Psybeam!” The bird attacked, and the ghost retreated.

Meanwhile, Ash was busy trying to calm Kaci, who had thrown her arms around his waist and was crying uncontrollably, her face buried in his shirt.

“Kaci? What’s wrong?”

“A man was coming at me with a knife and my dad just walked away when I asked him to help me. He doesn’t love me, I knew it before!” she sobbed, her voice muffled.

“Kace, it was just a dream. Of course your dad loves you!”

“No he didn’t! He just watched as that guy tried to kill me and then he turned around and left! He left me again…” she cried, burying her face deeper.

“What do you mean, “left again?”

“I’ve seen him seventeen times in the past three years, and five of those were on T.V. The rest were a day or weekend long stay. And now he’s gone for g-g-good!” Ash winced; he’d forgotten that her parents were dead.

“But he’s not gone. Have you ever heard of angels?” Misty asked softly, sitting down next to them.

“He’s not an angel yet. He won’t be for a long time.”

“How do you know?”

“It’s complicated, and I can’t explain.”

“Well, if it makes you feel any better, me and Misty’ll always be here for you.” Kaci let out a short, painful laugh, but it went unnoticed because she still had her face buried. Still, it was nice of him, without him even knowing…

“Thanks. I’ll hold you to that,” she said shakily, straightening up so that her eyes met his soft, chocolate-brown ones. Ash was surprised to see just a little bit of his own determination in her.

“Well, we should get back to sleep. We want to get to Pewter soon, and we don’t want to be too tired,” Misty said, yawning. Ash and Kaci agreed, and settled into their sleeping bags. But Kaci was reluctant to sleep, because of the fear of another nightmare, and Ash and Misty were feeling the same way, just in case she had another nightmare and nobody was awake. However, one by one, all three drifted off to dreamland.

Sorry for not updating forever! I was visiting someone (in another country) and didn’t get back until a few days ago. And then I couldn’t send anything. Sorry! Oh yeah, there’s this new PFAAMR (Pokemon Fans Against Ash and May Romance) If you want to join contact Bookworm or Charmander&Pichu. Sayonara!

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