I have always had a fascination with Pokémon, when I was a young lad I remembered asking my mother when I could go out and become a trainer. A Pokémon master! What a wonderful dream, I was so young, so innocent. I was ten when I first ventured out into the forest behind my house. It was in the early morning, the morning mist having rose out and surrounded the area. Normally I wouldn't have dared venture into such a foreboding place, but something drew me closer and closer. I dressed in my small Rapidash slippers and walked out into the damp grass without telling a soul. I wandered forward's, step by step until I came to the forest's entrance. The huge dark roots that blocked me from the area in front of me marked it. I could feel something. A pull, a longing to venture in after something that I was too young to understand. Slowly I climbed over the root, turning to take another look at my home, feeling a small urge to return to it's safety. A sad noise suddenly shattered the air, coming from the forest. I had never heard something so frail, so upsetting in my entire life. It pierced my heart like a thousand knives, breaking my young heart. I don't know what told me so, but I knew it was a Pokémon. I wouldn't or rather couldn't turn back now. The idea that a Pokémon was hurting brought me enough courage to venture forwards. I don't remember exactly what happened, my memories of the event are one's of stumbling along the darkness, the tree branches whipping at my face and the sharp thorns stabbing at my soft and fragile skin. I remember losing a slipper at some point, and not wanting to turn back for it. I felt the pull grow stronger and stronger as I drove myself deeper into the forest. I was found days later by a group of Pokémon biologists. They say I looked feral, my hair was messy and wild looking and I was nearly naked. I was covered in dirt too, and full of small cuts. Apparently they had to forcibly drag me out of the area, I screamed and yelled profanity as they rushed me to the hospital. I don't remember any of it.

I'm sixteen now, my mom hasn't let me go out ever since the incident, even at daylight. My door now locks from the outside, my mom thinks I might sneak out again and so she shut's me in every night. The kids at school don't like me either; everywhere I go they judge me. They had all heard the rumors about no one and me wanted anything to do with the wild child. I spend my days like any other teenager, oh what a joke. I spend my days at home, helping my mom with housework and playing my Gameboy from time to time. I still have yet to get my first Pokémon, apparently I won't be allowed till I'm eighteen due to some reports of Pokémon abuse from a few years prior, committed by a group of Satan loving teenagers. Recently I've been having these odd little dreams, they only occur for a moment until I find myself awake, clawing at my sheet's and shivering in terror. They always involve the forest, I feel the pull again. Something's in those woods, I can tell.

I'm playing my Gameboy now, the same old game. Rapidash Rush, it was my brothers before he left for his journey. I always loved Rapidash, I still don't understand how riding one won't leave you burned. Suddenly I heard a melancholy wail from outside my window. I crawled over to the panel of glass and peeked outside curiously, searching the darkness of night for the noises source. As I suspected nothing was there. I sighed and moved back to my Gameboy, which I had left lying on my floor. Upon picking it up I realized that it had shut off, I made nothing of it. I heard it again, the same heart breaking wail. I walked over to my window a second time, my heart racing to discover the source. Nothing. I unlatched my window's lock, pushing It out slightly. A rush of cool night air hit me before settling to a gentle breeze. The darkness stretched out before me; in the distance I saw the forest. The wail remained in the distance. For a moment I thought about my mother, how scared she had been at the hospital. Then I let my curiosity overtake me. I wouldn't be able to rest until I knew what was making that noise. I slipped outside onto the soft ground. The moon's brightness gave me just enough light to navigate to the forest entrance. It was the same place as before, the large roots. I felt a shiver run through me as I felt the pull again.

I climbed over the roots, this time it was easier. I slipped over, walking into the undergrowth with more caution than I had my first time. I ventured forth; I could see my breaths clearly as a sign of the cold air around me. Every step I made left a small imprint on the ground below me. The constant wail grew louder with every step I took, the air growing colder and colder. Suddenly I heard a loud crack in front of me. My head shot up, not far in front of me I saw a huge bolder, one I couldn't hope of climbing. On this bolder sat a black silhouette. On it lay several ring's, once they might have shown brightly but now they gave off only a small eerie glow. I hadn't realized it yet but the wailing had stopped, the silhouette was watching me quietly, I didn't dare move. It turned it's head and gestured to the right silently before disappearing into the dark night. I turned to the right, looking but not seeing anything. Everything up till now should have terrified me, made me run home in search of safety. But I just didn't feel like it, I felt safe. I felt like I had to keep going, and so I did.

I turned and noticed a small path, one that hadn't been there before. I walked for what seemed like hours, though in reality it had probably only been but a few minutes. Suddenly the path opened up and i noticed an old building just ahead. It reminded me of a Pokémon gym. It was huge, yet showed signs of decay and rot. A sign hung limply overhead, Petersburg Gym. Petersburg was the name of my hometown, yet i never knew they had a gym. Judging by the multitude of equipment outside I made an educated guess that it hadn't been finished. I walked forwards towards the gym's entrance, pushing the large wooden door aside and taking a few steps onto the ruined carpet. It was so old, foliage had collected along the ground and it seemed that Mother Nature wanted to return this land to what it used to be.

I walked deeper inside, finding my way past the destroyed lobby towards the arena where the battles were held. The skylight had been shattered long ago and the nightlight illuminated the ground below. Rubble littered the arena, eluding to the idea that somehow there had been a collapse. In the center I saw something clear as day. Two something's actually, both of which ended the pull I had before. An Umbreon sat silently, as if asleep it's head drooped. It was a dark outline though, as if it weren't alive. Suddenly it looked up and saw me, it's lips cracking into what I could only describe as a smile. It stood up, circled and laid down. As it's body lay in rest in grew more and more see through before finally disappearing.

Beside it lay something that radiated sadness. A small skeleton, a human skeleton. I stumbled over before falling to my knee's in front of the bones. By now the bones were clean, stripped away by time. I noticed drawings on the boulders around the skeleton. Drawing's from a boy lost in time. They were crude, depicting his young hopes and dreams. He played with his flareon under his parent's watch in one chalk drawing. In another he showed his hiding from his father, who carried a long walking stick. Though worn over time, the rock still showed a small etching, Leland Jaymes.

I didn't know him, but I did know the Jaymes family. You could say they were old family friends. My father had known them before going on his journey. I hardly see them nowadays; they didn't really leave their home anymore. Then again neither did I. I stood up, examining the bones a second time, wondering how the skeleton had got here in the first place. I frowned as I realized that one of the leg bones was broken. I pieced the story together in my head, a wave of sadness overcoming me as I realized this kid had died here, in pain. He must have discovered this old gym, it must have looked like paradise for him. He must have played on those boulders, the laughs and the fun time's he probably had with his Pokémon seemed to radiate around the room, making the area even more melancholy than it already was.

I felt tears roll off my face before I had even realized that I had began to cry. I wept for I don't know how long before standing back up. I walked back outside, finding a shovel leaning against an old bulldozer before walking back inside. I wasted no time digging; I dug and dug and dug until finally I had a wide enough hole. Carefully I moved the bone's, doing my best not to forget any. I was becoming tired, I had been out for hours and I knew that soon light would spill out over the horizon. I shoveled in the dirt, burying the child's bones and allowing them the rest they so rightly deserved. Leland had suffered, he'd probably cried for as long as he could, crying to someone who didn't even know where he had disappeared to. He had died here, either from the pain, blood loss or maybe even thirst. He didn't deserve what had happened to him, and so it was only right he find peace in the place he had spent so much of his time in. Finally I finished my work, the grave neatly packed. Yet something was missing, it didn't feel right just leaving them like this.

I walked around the boulders until I came to a rather thin slab of rock that had apparently broken away during the collapse. I heaved it over my shoulders before making my way back to the grave, slowly I lowered it into the dirt. Pushing it down I walked over to the ancient chalk pieces that sat near the bolder. Taking a small piece I walked back to the grave. Leland Jaymes died here, he died painfully after many long hours. May his soul find peace in heaven. I lay the chalk next to the grave and the unhappy feeling's I had encountered in this place vanished, replaced by a feeling I could only describe as finality. I stood up, walking back to the lobby before turning back to take a final look at the grave. The Umbreon had returned, it watched me once again, it's eyes portraying a multitiude of emotion's before finally nodding as if to thank me. It lay down beside to grave as if to protect it's old master. It lay in rest before disappearing a third time in the morning light, which had began to stream into the building. "Rest in peace". I turned to leave, allowing the mysteries of this place to remain unsolved. As I walked back to my home, I could feel the path behind me close up and disappear. I made it home without a problem, and I never felt the same pull I had before. However, on occasion I can still hear a child's laugh in the distance, it's happy and I smile, Rest in peace.