Author's note:

The oldest and strongest fear known to man is that of the unknown. One shot (maybe?) about one of my favorite locations. R&R

I should have taken my friend Matt's words of wisdom more seriously when he told me to be careful about entering Reversal Mountain. I didn't think much of it as I had explored nearly all known caves around the region, believing my experience would make up for it.

Wrong.

Oh so very wrong.

The place was hotter than hot springs on a warm summer day, and it's not like Miccy, my minccino, could be of any help with that. Bearably hot though, bearable enough for me to delve deeper and quickly deplete my fresh water and lemonade reserves.
Ultimately, we got lost. And having our thoughts blurred by nearly suffocating heat and a growing dehydration, we mostly ended up running in circles.

After a while, luck struck and we found an exit. I quickly recognized the area as being route leading to Lentimas town. I reached for my back to take a look at the map for directions, but I couldn't find it. I probably had lost it a while back in Reversal Mountain when searching for any remaining water bottles.

Taking a wild guess, I decided to head left. Chances were we would walk by some trainers along the road I could ask for directions anyways. After a few minutes of walking, we saw a young girl walking further down the road. I smiled as Miccy ran up to her to get her attention.

Miccy quickly stopped in his track and looked at me with a puzzled look as the sandstorm picked up, engulfing the girl.
I shrugged and concluded it'd be better we head in the direction she was going, thinking it'd get us to town eventually.

Shortly after, I could see the girl further ahead looking at us though the subsiding sandstorm. As I waved to her, she turned around and walked out of sight again. Surprised of her behavior, I told myself that maybe she only looked back because she heard some noise but didn't actually see us.

"MISS, PLEASE WAIT!" I shouted in vain.

After a while, we found ourselves at a dead end. Nothing but a large stone wall could be found up ahead. I heard Miccy yelp for my attention on my left and I followed him up to a big house.

"Good job Miccy! We'll be able to ask for some help here!"

The house was large, probably 3 stories high, and looked like it belonged to a rich family. It was carrying the same distinctive architecture as the nearby town we were looking for.

I knocked on the door, but to my surprise the door wasn't properly closed and opened a little. I pushed it open, asking if there was anybody in.

There was no answer. The place was completely abandoned.

Well at least we could rest, couldn't we? And with some luck, we'd find some water or other goods left behind by previous trainers and squatters.

I took a look around while Miccy tucked himself under a dusty rag to take a nap.
The place had been left to decay for quite a while. The white paint on walls was discolored and flaking, carpets and rags partly eaten by bugs and rodent, some wooden furniture having collapsed on themselves, former flower pots containing blackened dry plants that would turn to dust upon being touched, and a certain inconstant layer of sand covered the floors, having seeped through doors and cracks in the windows over time.
The walls held several portrait paintings (some of which either fallen and broken, or were dirty beyond recognition) which I concluded probably represented the last owners of the place.

Except for the natural wear of the place, everything was extremely tidy. The beds' sheets were neatly arranged, all objects stored in their respective place, and nothing was missing. The kitchen startled me a little though. Plates full of blackened, calcified rotten food, cups filled with a brownish hard substance reminiscent of coffee stains...
It was as if a whole family had completely vanished as it was about to enjoy dinner on another casual day. Had there been a war or a kidnapping, hints of violence or quick departure would have been visible around the place, but that wasn't the case here.
Without much hope, I twisted the kitchen sink knobs to see if some water would come out. It was an older sink, those with two taps: one for hot water, and one for cold water. Not a single drop of water came out of any of them, they were completely dry.

Yawning, I headed out to the main hall and laid down on a couch that hadn't collapsed on itself and tried to go to sleep.

As I was about to fall asleep, I started feeling myself sinking strangely into the couch. I jumped out, alarmed, thinking the thing was about to collapse under my weight...
...but it was undisturbed.

I glanced at Miccy, peacefully sleeping under the old mat, smiled and laid back down on the couch, blaming my imagination and fatigue for what I previously felt.

One again, as I started drifting to sleep, something eerie happened. This time I was not only sinking, but I could feel cold hands slowly grabbing onto my body, and pulling me down into the couch.

I jumped out, only to find the couch perfectly normal once again.

I couldn't really figure if I was dreaming, if the house was playing on my imagination so much as to cause hallucinations near sleep, or if the feeling was real (and if so, what on earth caused it).

Miccy was still in a deep sleep, exhausted from the previous adventure. I was happy that at least he was able to get some rest.

I walked to the front door to check if the sandstorm was subsiding or picking up in power, somehow managing to smash my right knee onto the edge of the flower pot in the process.

Trying to hold in the various screams and swearing that were fighting their way out of my mouth since I didn't wanna disturb my little friend's sleep, I walked to a nearby chair to check the damage on my knee. It was okay, though it was bleeding a little. I put a small band-aid over the bleeding to prevent infection and stood up and headed back to the door.

I stopped, baffled, as I saw the pot I had just smashed myself into now standing on the left side of the door.
I looked around me, then back at the pot, then back around me... then back at the pot.

What the...?
I walked to the pot to inspect it, maybe the house's floor wasn't stable and the pot could have slid on the dust... or something. Even though that seemed ridiculously impossible.

It was a very large and heavy ceramic pot I could not even lift on my own. There's no way it could have moved, slipped, fallen, or whatever without any kind of help.

And Miccy was still fast asleep.

Not being a believer of the paranormal, I told myself I was either dreaming or both fatigue and the house were playing games with my mind. I'd go to sleep, wake up and everything would be fine.

I couldn't sleep. Way too many things were now bothering my mind for me to be able to sleep, no matter how tired I could have been. I stood up and resumed exploring the place.

The good news was the pot was back to its original place on the right side of the door, and I successfully convinced myself I had hallucinations earlier. It was dark, at least 2 hours had gone since we arrived to the house, and the sandstorm was no more. I walked out and sat on some rock stairs further down to get some fresh evening air. Dust isn't good for one's lungs. It was calm, much less warm, and the sky was crystal clear.

I must have stayed there a good 20 minutes before I went back inside the house to check on Miccy. Also, I didn't want to run the risk of being attacked by nighttime pokemons without any way of defending myself.
I walked in, refreshed and in a better state of mind, closed the door carefully behind me, and turned around.

Something seemed... different. Different in an odd kind of way, but I couldn't figure what.
Then it dawned on me: the paintings I had been looking at before...

...they were all hanging upside-down.

This time I knew I wasn't another hallucination, something was going on. I tried to find a logical reason as to how they could have moved this way on their own.

I slowly walked upstairs, checking every painting, and being careful as to not fall though some rotten wooden floor planks.
In the corner of my eyes through the door of a bedroom, I saw the girl we were following earlier. I shouted at her to wait, and ran to the bedroom.
Although I didn't see her exit the room, she was nowhere to be found. I even checked out the window, in vain.

I started being creeped out. Something definitely wasn't right about this house, no matter how hard I would tell myself that there must be a logical explanation to everything.
The door closed behind me and when I looked back, I saw that a large armchair had made its way in front of it. I tried pushing it aside, but it wouldn't move. My heart started to race as I began worrying about Miccy's safety. I yelled for him to wake up and come upstairs, but for some unknown reason he couldn't hear me though the old rotten and holed thin wooden wall.

I heard the sound of a clock's bell ring several times, though I did not remember seeing any kind of clock in the house, even less a mechanical device still active and working. It seemed to come from the main hall where Miccy was sleeping.
I don't know how long it took me, maybe a dozen of long silent seconds, maybe a few minutes, but I managed to push the armchair aside and struggle my way out of the room.

The horror.

The large mat under which Miccy was sleeping was floating in mid-air and fell back to the floor as I walked out of the bedroom and back onto the balcony above the main hall.

I screamed for my little friend, who apparently was still sleeping since he jumped up and ran terrified to the other side of the room upon hearing my voice. I ran downstairs to get him.

A cold chill ran up my spine. I felt someone or something close behind me, watching me, threatening me. So close in fact that that I started expecting the chilling breeze of its breath brushing against my neck anytime soon. Frozen in place and in time, I looked behind me.

The paintings, they seemed to be staring at me.
The furniture, all lined up facing me, blocking access to the rooms I had previously been in.

I had enough of the place. I wanted to run out of there with Miccy as fast as I could and never look back, but the front door had been locked. I asked Miccy's help to force the door open.

Every time I'd turn around to take a look behind me, the furniture was getting closer.
Plates,knives, forks, and other various objects started to fly out of the kitchen in our direction, smashing against walls as we dodged them, creating a wrecked mess all around the house.

Finally, the door opened, and we rushed outside. Without even slowing down, I grabbed the poor exhausted minccino in my arms and ran as fast as I could for as long as I could, until I saw the faint lights of the city on the horizon...