Phantoms Lost
Snot and tears rolled down Charlie's cheeks as he wandered through the forest.
"Mummy?" he said, edging his thumb into his mouth for comfort. His lip quivered. "Mummy, where are you? I'm scared. I want to go home."
The trees loomed over him, their branches blocking out the sky. Their trunks were so thick he couldn't see anything but dense, endless forest. He stumbled across the mossy ground, feet catching in gnarled roots and sliding over the uneven ground. From low hollows slitted eyes watched him, unblinking and hidden.
A noctowl hooted and Charlie jumped, fresh tears wetting his face.
"Mummy I don't know where I am. I want to go home."
Ahead he saw a clearing with a single, lopsided stump. He tottered towards it, slipping on the leaf litter, one of his shoes coming off.
"Mummy?"
The sounds of the forest enveloped him.
...
"Charlie? Charlie where are you!" Esme yelled, dashing through the trees. Her husband jogged alongside her, shining the torch into thickets and at the base of decomposing logs.
"Esme, slow down, he might be hidden somewhere and we won't see him at this pace."
Esme rounded on him. "Darryl, our son has gone missing, he's not playing hide and seek. We have to find him."
"Calm down."
"This situation doesn't call for calmness! This wood is haunted. You know what the stories say."
"Those are just stories – you're letting panic get the better of you. Charlie will be fine, we'll find him."
The two parents lurched between the trees, shouting their son's name. The darkness grew thicker.
...
Charlie awoke with his face resting on the grass. He felt numb from cold, strangely dislocated from his surroundings. He heard the noctowl hoot but it didn't make him shiver. His head was stiff, oddly rigid, and yet his body felt transparent. He sat up, rubbing his eyes.
The stump had gone. Above the clearing the stars still shone, cold and distant like the lost souls of children.
From the ring of trees came the sound of snapping twigs and low voices. Charlie tried to stand up, but couldn't feel his legs. Instead he had the sensation of floating, drifting away from the earth. He panicked and shut his eyes.
"Charlie!" shouted a voice. Two people came crashing through the underbrush, their faces wild, arms streaked with dirt and scratches.
"Mummy," Charlie said, but the words came from his mouth garbled.
The woman froze. "What's that?" she said to her husband, pointing into the clearing.
Charlie turned around, but the space was empty.
"Mummy," he said again, but his voice emitted only a low wail.
"It's a ghost," said the woman, taking a step backwards. Charlie noticed that she had a small, white shoe dangling from one hand.
"You found my shoe," he said, drifting forwards.
His mother and father looked stricken, and the torch beam swung into Charlie's face.
Charlie shielded his eyes with one hand – only, it wasn't a hand anymore. he hovered on the spot, staring at the ghostly black material that had taken the place of his arm. He screamed, and the noise went on and on, an unearthly wail.
The noctowl hooted.
"Let's get out of here," the man said, taking his wife by the shoulders.
"No, Daddy, it's me," said Charlie. The two people seemed unable to hear him. They turned and ran, and he followed, finding that his body glided through the air with ease. Wind slipped through his ethereal form, and bounced off the hard surface of his face.
"Get back," shouted the man, waving the torch. "I have pokemon. I will attack you."
"Daddy," said Charlie, tears coming into his eyes.
The terror in his father's face, the anguish in his mothers, made him pause. As he floated there they collected themselves and disappeared into the forest.
Charlie drifted down to the mossy floor, scrunching into himself. His body shook as he sobbed, tears sliding into the cracks of his wooden face.
There was a flutter of wings, and a noctowl landed beside him.
"Wha-what's going on?" Charlie asked it.
The noctowl turned its head to one side. "You're a ghost," it said.
"But I don't want to be a ghost. I want to go home."
The noctowl ruffled its feathers. "There is no home for you anymore. You are lost, in more ways than one. You're a spirit inside a stump, now to wander here forever."
The bird flew off and Charlie remained on the ground, his whole body trembling. An eerie green light glowed from his branches, suffusing the trees, and he felt himself lost in a world that was no longer his own.
...
Phantump, Pokedex entry Y: According to old tales, these Pokémon are stumps possessed by the spirits of children who died while lost in the forest.