The metallic taste of blood still overpowering his senses, Touya tread through a musty, grotesque basement. He did not remember how he got there - he just remembered running, running, grasping onto his now dead twin sister's bloodied and tarnished hat for dear life. Now, he was basically a zombie.

What happened? What caused this? What brought him here? Before he found himself trapped in this accursed elementary school, he and his friends were gathered around with their Pokemon, having a great time. It was the first time his childhood buddy Cheren even minded his new friend (and, he had realized that day, crush) N hanging around the group. His twin sister, Touko, mentioned a charm, one that would make them be friends forever. Cheren was a bit reluctant, but a little bit of persistance from Bianca convinced him to join along. It was called Sachiko Ever After.

And now...

Touya was alone when he first woke up in this dark place. He woke up near the pool, rain pouring down and drenching him in the face of a decayed corpse. A real, decayed corpse. A smell so undefined, so foul it made Touya puke into the algea-ridden water. He found his twin right inside, in the shower room, and Touya whimpered in her shoulder for a few moments, thanking Arceus that she was there with him. Touko was always the tougher one, anyway.

It wasn't long after...

They meandered the halls of the school, calling for their fellow friends and trainers names. They recieved no response, only the sounds fo creaking, rotting wood and an occasional scream. Blood curdling screams that made Touya quiver in his shoes. What's worse, they didn't have their Pokemon - their Pokeballs were gone, missing. Their Pokemon were missing, and they only had themselves. Themselves didn't last long, for when they wandered into a vacant classroom with desk strewn everywhere, they met eye-to-eye - or more, eye-to-jaw - with a ghost girl with the top part of her face brutally ripped from it's hinges. Touya screamed. The girl lunged at him, and Touko jumped in front. The little ghost girl tackled her. Touko yelled for Touya to run before the ghost girl grabbed her neck, pinched, and ripped out her esophagus.

Touko had dropped her hat. Touya picked it up and ran.

And now he wanted to die.

He, the older brother of the two, allowed for his twin sister to take his place in death, and it was a price he could never repay. Touya, the one who would tell the ghost stories and frightened little Bianca until she peed, the one who would suggest a horror movie much to N's dismay, chickened out. He was scared. He was alone. Where were his friends? Probably dead. They're all probably dead. He's probably the only one alive. Why is he still alive? He doesn't deserve to live, not after his sister's sacrifice. He kicked up some dirt that lined the floors of this damp basement. Why? Why did this have to happen?

That's when he heard chuckling to his right. He turned his head and found a wooden door. Chuckling...

He knew that laugh anywhere. His heart leapt.

He creaked open the door to find the one person he truly wanted to find - N, his back faced him, shivering. But he wasn't chuckling.

"N!" Touya stuttered, tears blurring his vision. He recognized that green mane anywhere, the odd cube hanging from his belt. The room was empty, clean, free of any contamination of death. Touya sighed - maybe N hasn't been faced with the horrors of this place. Touya knew N wouldn't be able to handle any of it. N was alive. He wanted to wrap his arms around the boy and just sob; he was alive and unharmed.

"Touya?" N muttered. His voice was like a breath of fresh air.

"N! N, I'm so glad to see you-!" Touya cried, but right when he took a step towards him, N turned to Touya. Touya gasped, tripping on his own feet and falling back onto the ground.

In N's arms, cradled like a baby, was a crumbling severed head with its eyes gouged out. N smiled, his eyes lost all the glimmer that Touya loved.

"Touya? Touya..." N mumbled. "I missed you, Touya."

"N... W-What the hell?!" Touya exclaimed, pointing at the head. "Why are you holding that?"

"Oh...this?" N said. His voice was quiet, monotone, soulless. "Isn't it...beautiful, Touya?"

"B-Beautiful? It's dead!"

"And that's why it's beautiful. So picturesque," N chuckled. "Death is so...pretty. Death is like a painting, and our bodies are forever frozen within death's time... Frozen... You can see the last moments of someone's life forever through a corpse, don't you agree? Those last moments of their lives...are so beautiful..."

"N..." Touya quivered, his voice trembling. What's happened to the boy that he grew to love so deeply?

"Touya..." N said, taking a step towards the shivering boy. Touya stumbled to his feet, keeping Touko's hat firmly grasped in his hand. "Touya... I want to be beautiful with you... Beautiful, the both of us... That would be the most gorgeous painting of all."

Touya's eyes widened. "You...You want to...k-kill..." Stuttering his words, Touya reached his hand for the door handle. He twisted, but it was locked. He was about to puke his heart.

"No." N's eyes almost seemed to tear up. He dropped the head, letting it roll off to the corner of the room. "I want us to stay here, forever. I want our souls to leak from our embracing bodies, forever in a sense of matrimony. Don't you want that, Touya?"

Touya wanted to scream in his face. Why would he say such a thing? N's Pokemon were probably waiting for him somewhere, and all he could think about was rotting away with him? Touya wanted to grab his collar and shake the boy to his senses, back to reality, back to the N that he knows and loves. But suddenly, N gently brushed his finger against Touya's hand...

Something seemed to engulf him. Something that wrapped his heart into an eternal darkness and made his muscles weak. Something shaded over Touya's mind so dark, so demeaning that he could no longer create a coherent thought. His fingers entertwined with N's, and he dropped Touko's hat. He bagn to lose his senses - taste, smell, sight, touch. It all fell into a black abyss. The last thing he heard before his soul went black was his own voice: "Yes, N. I want to be beautiful with you forever."

Kyouhei was brought here by a ghost in his dreams. He recalls meeting the man before, but he can never remember where. Whoever he was, he begged for the young trainer to come to a forbidden plane and rescue the love of his life - one that he failed to save. He introduced him to a charm that would open the door for him to enter, but he warned: he may become trapped, and he will have to endanger someone close to him. Kyouhei, however, felt as though he needed to help the spirit and obliged to help

Kyouhei and his cousin, Mei, woke up in the basement, in the room the spirits of the school now called "The Chamber of the Lost Lovers." That's when Kyouhei feasted his eyes on the corpses themselves - the two embracing, decaying bodies, almost skeletons, one enveloping the other with their grimy, bony hands entertwined. Not far from them was a pink hat, eaten up and away by bugs and moths, and splattered with blood. Kyouhei heard Mei scream, but he did not falter - he knew who they were, because there was a message hastily written in blood on the floor: "I let his soul darken. He will not wake up. I want him back. Please help us."

"K-Kyouhei..." Mei cried, hugging her knees and trembling where she sat. "Are you sure about this?"

Kyouhei took a deep breath. "Yes, I am."