Haunted
"Is it scary?"
The little girl trembled, her hands and voice shaking. Not more than eight, the girl stood alone in a queue line, waiting to get into a tall building with cobwebs dangling from every corner. Excited voices murmured in the crowd, and everyone in the line, save for that little girl, tapped their feet, itching to go into the haunted house. The girl simply stared at it with wide eyes—not from awe but from fear.
"No, it's a lot of fun!"
The girl turned around to face a young boy—perhaps a few years her elder—behind her. She hadn't been directing her question at anyone in particular, but he answered it nevertheless. She watched him wearily, taking in his tousled blonde hair and calm purple eyes. How could he be calm at a time like this? How could he think something as frightening as a haunted house fun?
"Are you lying to me?" the little girl asked in a small voice, clearly doubting this boy's sanity. She reached a hand up to her hair, tugging on a pigtail nervously. They grew nearer to the entrance of the haunted house with each word.
The boy simply laughed, staring at the girl with a bemused expression. "Of course not! The haunted house is really fun! I've been in it twice today, and total I've been… a hundred-thousand times to it. My mom brings me to the Pokémon Carnival every year, and I always go to the haunted house first." He nodded, putting his hands on his hips and standing tall. "The ghost Pokémon in the haunted house are the best; they aren't scary at all! I have a Gastly, you know. He likes to play tricks on people, but he's just looking for a laugh."
The girl's eyes widened even more, apparently not reassured by these comments at all. "T-tricks? I don't want to be spooked! You are lying to me, you boy!" And the girl crossed her arms and stomped her foot, turning back around to face the front of the line. Seeing the approaching ride entrance, she squealed, staring back at the boy and grabbing his arm. "It looks scary!"
He jumped, trying to yank his arm away from the girl, but her grip remained firm. "Hey, it's not scary! I promise I'm not lying!" he yelled, causing several adults to stare. The girl relaxed her hold on his arm but refused to let go. The boy could do nothing but oblige the girl, sighing and submitting. "Trust me. It's not scary." The girl continued to look unsure, tugging at her pigtail again. "Friends are supposed to trust each other, so trust me."
The girl raised an eyebrow. "Nuh-uh, we're not friends. We just met."
"Well, we can become friends. You have to trust me." The boy held out his pinky, and the girl stared at for a few moments, waiting for something to happen. He laughed, wiggling his pinky at her. "You're supposed to hook your pinky on mine. Then, I can pinky-promise that the haunted house isn't scary. That's binding, you know! You can never break a pinky-promise."
Letting go off her pigtail, the girl held out her pinky. But just as the boy began to hook his pinky around hers, she pulled it back. "No, I don't want to go in there!" the girl cried, slipping away under the queue line ropes and hurrying to her mother.
The boy watched as she ran away, but he remained in his spot in line, not following the girl like he knew he should have.
"This place gives me the creeps. How can these Sages stand it?"
A little Chikorita chirped in response to the teenage girl, nuzzling closer to her leg. The Sprout Tower looked innocent enough on the outside, but Lyra had soon learned the opposite; an eerie presence—other than those purple Rattata—made the poor girl feel horribly uncomfortable. The sign outside said nothing about the place being haunted, and now she regretted coming inside.
If this was what she had to deal with to become a Pokémon Master, she could throw that dream out the window.
"Chika!" the little green monster cried out, shivering with wide eyes. Then, tipping over, the Chikorita crashed to the ground, no longer able to move. Lyra cried out, swooping to the ground to pick up her paralyzed Pokémon; she knew someone—or something—had been following her!
She nearly dropped her Chikorita when she spun around to face a giant grinning Gastly, letting out a bloodcurdling scream. The Gastly laughed, its eyes shut with apparent joy from the situation. Lyra sprinted in the other direction, running as fast as she could to the nearest ladder. That Gastly clearly wanted to see her suffer.
She screamed again when the Gastly popped back up in front of her, rising up from the floor with that same grin plastered on its face. Its eyes rolled backwards into its head, and Lyra dropped to the floor, collapsing against the wall with her Chikorita in her arms. She never expected to drop out so early, but she couldn't handle this.
No, she thought, reaching to her bag to grab a Poké Ball. I just have to battle it.
"Go, Hoothoot! Use Confusion on the Gastly!"
Hoothoot tilted its head, sending a psychic force out towards the Gastly. But the Gastly just disappeared into the floor, bouncing back up as soon as the attack ended. It stuck out its tongue, laughing at the poor bird and its master. Then, floating around Lyra, it rolled its eyes back again, laughing the whole time.
"What are you doing?" Lyra asked it, and the Gastly froze in midair, staring at the girl with large eyes. It simply grinned in response, chuckling once again. She didn't understand; it clearly didn't want to battle. So, why was it hanging around her? Could it tell that she didn't like ghosts and wanted to antagonize her?
I have a Gastly, you know. He likes to play tricks on people, but he's just looking for a laugh.
Lyra raised an eyebrow, staring at the Gastly as it rolled its eyes back and forth, laughing and laughing. Putting a hand to her mouth, she couldn't help but giggle at the poor thing. If it was looking for a laugh, it had come to the wrong person.
But Gastly noticed the giggle. Its eyes grew wide again, and it showed off its two pointed fangs, sticking its tongue out at Lyra once again.
That giggle grew into a laugh… and that laugh grew into hysterics.
"All right, all right, I surrender!" Lyra exclaimed, wiping the tears from the corners of her eyes. The Gastly stared at her, waiting for something, and Lyra pulled out a new Poké Ball from her bag. "You're sort of funny. Do you want to join my team? You just can't lick Chikorita anymore, got that?"
The Gastly grinned, laughing in response. Lyra threw the Poké Ball at it, and with a few wobbles, it clicked shut. Bending down to pick up the Ball—and carrying Chikorita still in the other hand—her Hoothoot pecked at her hand.
"I know." Lyra stared at the Ball, shaking her head. "I'm terrified of ghosts, yet I just let one join our team. I must be crazy."
"Is it scary?"
Lyra looked up at the haunted house, head tilted and eyes wide. Then, chuckling in spite of herself, she rubbed the back of her neck. Slightly embarrassed that she felt nervous about entering a haunted house, she stood at the queue entrance trying to decide whether to get in line or not. She was, after all, eighteen, not eight. A little kid-friendly haunted house should not have frightened her.
"No, it's a lot of fun!"
Jumping, Lyra turned on her heel to face the man who spoke. A wave of déjà vu swept through her as she took in the tousled blonde hair and purple eyes of the man. She knew him well, but this situation seemed vaguely familiar to her; the Pokémon Carnival, the haunted house, the boy… she had seen it all before.
"Morty!" Lyra stepped away from the queue entrance and jumped at the blonde, wrapping her arms around him in a hug. "What are you doing here?"
Morty grinned at the girl as she let him go, and Lyra couldn't help but be reminded of her own Gengar's grin. Perhaps that happens when you spent too much time with ghost Pokémon, she thought, touching the Poké Ball on her bag that held her Gengar.
"I come every year. I worked last year at one of the booths for the Carnival doing Tarot Cards, but some Psychic Trainer took that spot this year. So, I'm just here to enjoy the rides and such. I don't usually get much of a break as a Gym Leader, so I enjoy the Carnival." He glanced at the haunted house, gesturing to it with his thumb. "You going in there? The haunted house is my favorite." He laughed, adding, "No surprise there, I'm sure."
"No, of course that's not a surprise." Lyra paused, looking at the house, eyes hesitant. "I'm trying to decide whether I want to go in or not. I've never been. I mean, I always avoid the haunted house whenever I come here. But I haven't been to the Carnival since I left home… this is my first time back. Unfortunately, it still looks the same."
As if to agree, the haunted house moaned as a rough breeze passed through the Carnival. The spider webs dangling from the roof shook, the fake Spinarak bouncing at their centers. The wooden beams of the house creaked whenever someone touched them, and the door to enter the house let out terrified screams whenever opened.
Morty seemed to notice Lyra shaking in her shoes before she did. "Lyra, are you okay?" he wondered, and she jumped again, holding her hands together to stop them from shaking.
"Yeah, I'm fine," she lied, though it was clear that she was. "I just, um… I don't think I'm going to go in the haunted house this year." A silent or the year after that, or the year after that followed in her mind.
"It's not scary, Lyra. I promise." Morty held out a hand to her, and she took it without thinking twice. "We can go together."
She swallowed, looking at their interlocked fingers and the screaming door of the haunted house. "Morty… I don't think I can do this. I have phasmophobia."
Morty raised a blonde eyebrow, the sweatband around his forehead moving up with it. "Fear of ghosts?" He smiled, chuckling as silently as possible so as not to offend Lyra. "But how can you be afraid of ghosts? You have a Gengar. Who, if I may recall, has undergone some serious training. You've had that Gengar since our Gym battle."
Lyra bit her lip, touching the Poké Ball holding Gengar absentmindedly. "Well, she's different. She found me when she was a Gastly. She didn't want to fight, so I captured her. And she's been really good about not spooking me." Lyra paused, thinking she was contradicting herself. "But not all ghost-types are like her!"
Morty pondered this, staring at the haunted house, waiting for some hint. "Well, what about me? You seem completely fine whenever we battle. Why aren't you afraid then?"
Trust me. It's not scary.
"Because I trust you."
Friends are supposed to trust each other, so trust me.
Morty's eyes widened, and all time seemed to halt as he stared at Lyra, a wave of realization rushed over him. Then, without a word, Lyra gasped, and she pulled her hand away from his, staring at her pinky. It hadn't just been déjà vu. It had been a memory trying to peek through the cracks.
"You're that girl that didn't want to go in the haunted house… It was so long ago, but I remember it. You're the girl afraid of the haunted house," Morty said, watching as Lyra bent her pinky back into her fist. "You didn't trust me then."
"Well, I had just met you. I was young, and you were… a boy. Cooties."
Morty lifted his hand next, looking at his pinky. "Then, how did you trust me when we battled? It seems that neither of us remembered our meeting before now, yet you trusted me enough to not be afraid of my ghost Pokémon."
Lyra shrugged, the corners of her mouth moving upwards. "You don't have cooties anymore."
"Ah, I see," Morty said, holding his pinky out to Lyra. She watched it, the smile dropping off her face. "Well, if you trust me now, I'd like to take you through the haunted house. I promise that I will protect you from whatever Haunter and Misdreavus and… any of the ghosts that try to spook you. Do we have a deal, Lyra?"
He waggled his pinky at her, and she exhaled, crossing her arms. "This all seems very familiar. Do you trust me enough not to run away again? I trust you, Morty, but I am really terrified of what's in there."
He sighed, letting his hand drop a little bit. "Well, if you do run away again, I'll follow you this time." He lifted his hand back up, pinky pointed straight at her. "I pinky promise. But, you know, we don't have to go in the haunted house if you're really too scared. We can go do something else."
Lyra smiled, hooking her pinky in his. "No! As the League Champion, I have to face my fears. It's practically required of me." She paused, trying to pull her pinky back, but Morty held tight, moving forward as she tugged. "Wait. What do you mean, 'We can go do something else'?"
Morty pulled back on the hooked pinkies now, forcing Lyra closer to him. They were separated only by their hands now, and otherwise the space had closed between them. "I mean, we don't have to go into the haunted house. I'll go wherever you want to go."
"What if I asked you if you wanted to go in the haunted house—and remember that you promised to protect me from those ghost Pokémon, so I am expecting you to—and then go get some cotton candy? And what if I asked you if you wanted to pick what to do after that? Would you stay with me?"
"Sure," Morty replied, his voice cool. "But you asked."
Lyra gasped as Morty began to walk away, pulling on their entwined pinkies and leading her straight into the haunted house.
Author's Note: Eh, this was okay. I really enjoy the whole Lyra/Kotone and Morty/Matsuba pairing. Because Morty is really very attractive. I have this conversation a lot. So, I won't bore you with my fangirling.
So, here we are! Another experimental fic! I wasn't happy with how the whole third-person POV went over. I'm somewhat happy with the overall fic, but I felt like I didn't use enough imagery. The first section was best for that, I think.
Speaking of that, I hope this wasn't too confusing. It should have been very clear by the end with how the transitions worked, but… I dunno if it was. In the beginning, Lyra was eight and Morty was… a little older. Then, in the second section, Lyra was a young teenager catching a Gastly—which she evolved into a Gengar. And, finally, in the last section, Lyra was 18, and Morty was probably in his early-to-mid twenties. Not exactly accurate (how old is Morty, anyway?), but I prefer small age differences (and yet I like Lyra/Lance—go figure).
So. Yeah. Hope you enjoy!
Disclaimer: I still do not own Pokémon.