Prologue: Enharmonic
"Come on, Alanna. It's just an old warehouse. Grow a pair and get over here."
Under normal circumstances, she might've made a huffy remark about anatomy and how that was most likely impossible. But Alanna Verdi was, to be quite honest, terrified.
Perhaps it was the general nighttime ambience that spooked her, or maybe it was the way people never talked about the building, like it was a subject inappropriate for the dinner table. Either way, she was positive that breaking into it took the cake for Stupidest Plan Ever Devised by Chester Schumann and Hani Glinka.
(Then again, that also meant it topped Stupidest Plan Ever Accepted by Alanna Verdi, so she only had herself to blame for letting them convince her.)
Chester waved his hand impatiently. "It's not haunted. Moltres, Alanna, how old are you—four?"
Fifteen years of exasperation sent a glare his way, but she stomped over to join him at the entrance of the dreary stone building. It didn't look all that bad for being abandoned, she noticed; the grass was rather overgrown and the ivy snaking up the walls had gotten a bit wild, but all of the windows were intact (and so had been the door until Chester and Hani had kicked it in several minutes earlier). Inside, a flood of fluorescent light erased the angular shadows beneath the windowsills. She could almost see employees leaving their late shifts, calling out their flying-types in the grass to take them home.
Except no one had entered the building in over ten years, Alanna reminded herself as she stepped through the doorway. Not since—
"I've disabled the floor panels," said Hani, who was facing a large grass-colored lever. "We should be able to walk without interference."
Chester reminded them of the game plan as they entered what had once been a masterful arrangement of boxed merchandise and packing tools. A conveyor-belt system seemed to have been built into the floor for easy transportation, and Alanna realized somewhat belatedly that it would also have been an excellent way to keep out intruders like herself.
Right. The plan. She made her way to a pile of boxes stacked near the far wall and opened one, rifling through XS-sized monochromatic garments in search of—
"Found something!" yelled Chester, making her flinch.
She followed the sound of his voice to a metal door that must have been at least a foot thick, given how far it jutted from the wall on either side. Hani was inspecting what looked like a giant combination lock made of concentric rings, set in the door where a knob should have been.
"This is it," Chester said with a wide grin. "It makes sense, don't you see—what else would they need to lock up?"
A soft click from the door made him clasp his hands together in excitement, something Alanna privately thought made him look sort of like an oversized cherub bauble.
"You're a genius, Hani," he said gleefully, clapping a hand on the smaller boy's shoulder and almost making his knees buckle.
The three of them stepped into the darkened room, squinting at the barely-visible edges of what looked like even more boxes.
"Is there a light switch in here?" Alanna started to say, but before she could finish her sentence the heavy door slammed hard and threw the room into complete blackness.
"Alanna, what the hell?" Chester fumed from somewhere to her right.
"It wasn't me!" she hissed back.
"Shut up, both of you, and look what's going on!" Hani blurted out. Because there was something glowing faintly in the darkness in front of them, and it was moving—inching closer, getting brighter as it glided—
And then there was a voice, a gravelly, booming wall of noise that crashed into her with such intensity it rattled her twinkling earrings:
"Hello, brat."
She was unconscious before she hit the ground.
A/N: This is the first time I've ever followed through with Nuzlocke plans, and I'm so excited :D I'll explain my sort-of modified rules in the next chapter; since it's mainly taking place on the Sevii Islands, it's going to be a bit different. Also, I promise the actual chapters will be longer than this.
(I will not apologize for the musical themes in this. Kudos to you if you catch them.)
Please review! The next chapter will arrive sooner and you'll make me very, very happy :)
Ebaz