Clistare's Notes: This is my attempt at Horror/Mystery. I re-wrote some things here, all the while keeping the original idea. Since this is one my projects that had been left hanging for a pretty long time, I decided to delay the next editing chapter of ITLFTN. I sincerely thank everyone for their constant reviews, despite some criticism I've received, and would like to dedicate this chapter to everyone , and if you would notice, I used the quote below from a chapter of the Alphabet Challenge, 'Pranksters'.

Chapter Rating: T.

Shipping: Pokeshipping. (Ash/Misty)

"Our wisdom comes from our experience, and our experience comes from our foolishness."
- Sacha Guitry.

Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon or any of the characters that will be mentioned below. Nor do I own the quote you may read above.

The sheer horror on her face said nothing more than what expected. Snickering, he cowered back down the table while her face was in the verge of tears. Though he felt extremely guilty and sorry about scaring his best friend to death, he remembered how she was the one who started this 'practical joke war'. It wasn't like he wanted to bring her to this so-called 'Haunted Manor'. Of course they were teenagers, and what was expected from a bunch of hormonal-crazed 15-year-olds? Childish behavior, most probably.

"A-Ash," her voice was obviously broken with fear. "N-no more games. I promise I won't put cooking oil in your soup anymore. I swear." Misty's eyes watered, her body trembling in fear.

Just as Ash was about to leave her in the room, he stopped dead in his tracks. No way had she, Misty Waterflower just said that. There was no way she would apologize – and to him of all people! This just turned a new light to him as he carefully shut the door.

Standing up and wiping the dirt off his Sinnoh jacket with his gloved hand, he walked to her with a smirk on his face.

Misty spotted his figure, and jumped, but calmed down as she recognized him. "I'm sorry." She said with a quivering voice, her cheeks filled with streaming tears.

His victory smirk fell into a frown as he looked at her vulnerable figure. He hadn't planned it to get this far, leading her to cry and look like she was going to faint.

Walking over to her, he wrapped his arms around her small figure and squeezed her.

"No," he whispered into her red orange hair. "I'm sorry."

She stopped trembling and pushed herself away from his embrace, much to his dismay, and looked in his eyes.

Taking a step back, she wiped her tears and smirked, whipping out something from behind. Ash hadn't expected this, he hadn't even known she was good in acting!

"This," she waved her Mallet of Doom in the air. "Is for scaring me to death."

"Ithoughtyouwerereallyscared!" he mumbled so fast, but clear enough for Misty to understand.

Placing one smooth, delicate finger on her chin she replied, "Well sure I was scared to death, but you wouldn't think I would actually cry, did you?"

But before he could even utter a reply, she had already whacked him with the end of her mallet.

;;;;;;

"You are an idiot. Did you know that?"

"Well, I'm sorry Ms.-I'm-too-perfect-for-my-best friend, but we wouldn't have been here if you hadn't played that stupid joke on me."

Misty scoffed.

"We wouldn't have been here if you hadn't thought of such a lame revenge plan. Seriously, Ash, even if you read 'Paybacks for Dummies' you wouldn't have understood anything! Even with pictures!"

It seemed that Ash's navigating skills had not improved, despite his constant travels in different regions. He tried to reassure the redhead that he knew where they were going, and she had reluctantly and doubtfully agreed. Half an hour later, they were in the same spot as they were before. The only things they had with them were their Pokemon - Pikachu and Azurill - along with Misty's trusty backpack.

"Pikaa...chu!" Pikachu whined, his legs struggling to stand.

"Azurill." the little blue mouse Pokemon agreed, her eyes drooping down.

Misty and Ash simultaneously picked their partners up, placing them on their shoulders. Azurill on Misty's right shoulder and Pikachu on Ash's left.

"Hey…Ash…"

"Mmm?" he seemed to be deep in thought, since he was staring straight in her eyes.

Blushing, she turned her head straight forward and cleared her throat, "D'you really think this place is…haunted?"

He took a brief pause before answering,

"Hmm…I never really thought about that before... but I can remember when I was a little boy – my mom told me about this place to get me away from the cookies on the cupboard."

Intrigued, Misty decided to enter one of the bedrooms and sat on the plastic-covered bed. "Tell me!" Her eyes were shining with mystery and adventure. Ash was confused, but nevertheless he followed her lead and began,

"Well, it all started centuries ago. Even though Pallet is a pretty small place, there are always rumors going about."

"Like about your mom and Prof. Oak dating?" Misty interrupted. Ash made a bewildered face, causing her to laugh out loud.

"Shut up. That's not true. What about Daisy dating Bro—"

"Oh hush up!" she glared, crossing her arms. Sighing, he continued with a brief roll of his eyes.

"There used to be this family – the Graysons – that lived here – they were loaded with money and all of the 10 children were gifted with incredible training skills and not to mention, looks. On October 5th, the youngest child, Marina, had drowned in their pool. Unfortunately, she was the favorite of her parents and they just wouldn't stand the fact that they lost their daughter. So they pushed their servants into undoubtedly impossible chores to show their grief."

"Wait, wait, wait. That's how they grieve? Push others to do stupid work?" Misty cut him mid-sentence, enraptured by the story. Ash slapped a hand to his forehead, and nodding his head,

"Yeah. And, if I may continue," he shot Misty a look in which she replied with a grin. "The servants tried to protest, to stop the Grayson's abuse towards them. But it seemed like they were as stubborn as you are." Ash paused, smirking at the glaring look she was giving him.

"Go...on." she gritted through her teeth, dangerously clenching her fists.

"And the just wouldn't let the servants get away. They were enraged, and Mr. Grayson started breaking glasses and the furniture, telling them to clean it up. So, anyone would've been angry, that's for sure. And guess what the servants did?"

"What? What? Tell me!" Misty pleaded, obviously unable to contain herself from excitement. She had always been thrilled with horror, and although it freaked her out of her mind, she was always uncontainable when it came to it.

"They murdered the Graysons. All the servants killed each and everyone of them - even the poor, innocent children."

Misty's face fell, but she was obviously still interested in the story, "Aw. Poor kids. All their parents fault!"

Ash shook his head, raising a finger up to prove his point.

"No. Remember the incident that happened with Marina?" he asked, opening an eyelid. She nodded in response, patting both sides of the dusty bed.

"People said that her twin, Arina, purposely pushed her into the water. Out of jealousy, of course."

"Jealousy?" Misty asked, placing a finger on her chin and looking up at the ceiling. "Oh! I get it! It's like me and my sisters with my mom. Mom used to favor me all the time since I didn't have any triplets to go with - that's why they always treated me like dirty trash after my parents di- what was that?" A shrill, but creepy sound stopped Misty from her sentence. Ash shot up, ordering his Pikachu - which was previously playing with Azurill - to come by his side. Nodding, Pikachu and Azurill took their places on each of their master's shoulders.

The cricketing sound arose the room once more, sending shivers down Misty's spine. "Ash, you better not be playing games anymore. I apologized already!"

"I'm not playing games, Myst. I -" the sound filled the eerie room again, and a cold breeze gushed by them. The room's beautifully engraved chandelier started to flicker on and off, moving side to side with each flicker.

Suddenly, a cold-like feeling wiped on Misty's ivory skin. She shivered, turning around to find that there was a floating book. Misty screamed, jumping up and cowering behind Ash's back. This was most certainly liked by our trainer.

"What's wrong?" he asked in complete worry. Misty pointed to the direction the book was previously floating in, but found out that it was not there any longer.

"B-But I could'v-ve sworn t-there w-was a b-b-book! It was f-floating, I s-swear!" she shook in fear, her teeth chattering. Misty's aquamarine eyes flicked back and forth to the same directions.

"Let's get outta here." Ash said, pulling Misty by the wrist and running out of the room, across the long, endless hallway and the never-ending grand stairs. As soon as they reached the ground floor, the humongous doors were already opened, showering some light upon them.

"Finally!" Misty breathed a sigh, so did Azurill and Pikachu. But when they were a foot away from the door, it instantly shut. Ash tried pulling the handle open, even kicking it and sending Pikachu to thundershock it. Nothing was working.

"Damn!" he punched the door. Even he was slightly terrified.

"What are we going to do, Ash? T-This place is clearly h-haunted and we're," Misty took one, long gulp before saying. "Trapped."

Ash certainly did not like that fact either, so he tried smashing the window with his fist. As if things couldn't get any weirder, the glass never seemed to shatter at all.

Azurill shook in fear, covering her eyes with her tail. Pikachu decided that he needed to comfort the little blue ball and wrapped his arms protectively around Azurill.

While Ash was busy fiddling with his Pokegear, trying to make it work, Misty took a few steps back before cracking a broken piece of wood, causing her to fall down.

She screamed loud, taking in Ash, Pikachu and Azurill's attention. Kneeling down and pressing his face inside the dark hole Misty had previously fallen in, Ash called,

"Misty! Misty! Misty, can you hear me? Mis -" but the century-old wood broke from where he was kneeling, causing all three of them to fall down.

"AHH!"

"PIKAAA!"

"RIILL!"

While falling on his butt, Ash made an 'oof' sound, while Pikachu and Azurill safely bounced on his Sinnoh League hat, unpainfully falling on the ground, tumbling until the wall stopped them both.

Ash opened his eyes to see a smirking Misty, with her hands on her hips. "And I truly thought you were going to save me," she said, extending an arm and pulling him to his feet. "But I guess we're even more trapped than we were before, huh?"

Ash didn't reply, instead he stood up and balanced himself from his wobbling feet, taking note of his surroundings. It was obviously a little girl's room, but there was such little things inside. There was a small, dull-blue bed on the corner and countable toys scattered amongst the room. Some where tacky, some were broken, but the one that stood out in the room was a small, ragged-like doll. She had cropped, nut-brown hair and sparkling orange eyes. Her skin was obviously fragile and smooth, but her right hand only had three fingers.

The room was smaller than Ash's bathroom. The walls were smeared with an ugly shade of blue, and the floor was carpeted with a lifeless gray. Surely this was one of the servant's room, right?

"Hey, Ash." Misty called him, sitting on the small bed that looked like it was bought out of the junk yard. He walked towards her, seeing that she was observing the back of the doll.

"Whose room do you think this is?" she asked.

"Probably one of the servants." Ash replied nonchalantly. Somehow, there weren't any doors or windows in the room.

"You're nowhere near close. It belongs to Arina Grayson."

Clistare's Notes: When I was reading this again, to check for any grammatical errors, I noticed how fast things have been moving. Although the pacing isn't quite what I had in mind, I'm pretty fine with how this worked out. I didn't edit that much, seeing as I was content with the hardwork I put into this before. Anyways, the same rules apply: Reviews will be greatly appreciated, flames will be happily extinguished.

-Marie-