Inspired by CherryBlankets's story, "Pranks". While Ash and Misty are in Petalvine City, Dawn and her friend Niles show up, and Niles manages to convince them all to come with him up to a supposedly haunted mansion. But once inside, strange things begin to happen that make the group wonder if the house may actually be haunted. AAML! Review!
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Hiya, guys! I'm back! Sorry it's been SOOOOOOO long since I last updated anything! I was vacation, and then I was sick, and then I had a bunch of school stuff…but, anyway, now I'm FINALLY getting back to writing, and this time it's a new story! Hooray!

So, a little bit about this story: as mentioned in the summary, it was inspired by "Pranks", a great story by CherryBlankets. Also, one or two of the scenes I'm planning were inspired by bits of the trailer for "1408", a horror movie based off of a Stephen King story.

Also, it is a sequel to a non-existent re-write. I know that sounds really weird, and it is. This is a sequel to a re-write of "Artie Ketchum" which I will probably never make. By the way, DO NOT READ "Artie Ketchum". I repeat, DO NOT READ IT! THAT WAS THE WORST STORY EVER!!! It is not AT ALL necessary that you read that story, and I HIGHLY suggest you do not. It is my worst story ever, and I probably should have removed it by now.

Anyway, all you need to know about the re-write/original is that Ash is a back in Kanto with the gang, they find this weird tower, Ash goes inside, there's a ghost named Arthur, he decides to switch bodies with Ash(and gives him the nick-name "Soot"), and then blahblahblah Misty ends up helping Ash get him out they kiss poof he's gone (for now, hence the sequel), end of story. Except, in the re-write, they don't end up confessing their love and kissing, so there's still that unresolved thing going on in this sequel. Oh yeah, and also in the re-write, instead of looking like an 11-year-old, Arthur looks like a 13-year-old, and doesn't have glasses. Because I decided he's cooler that way.

And that's all you need to know, really. DO NOT READ "Artie Ketchum"!!! YOU WILL REGRET IT!!!! IT CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH!!!!

Anyway, here's some more background that you need for the story, actually: So Ash stayed in Kanto, him and Misty hang out from time to time, and now they've decided to visit Sinnoh together, and…well, that's what they're doing. I've also made up a new city in Sinnoh, called Petalvine city. Because this is my story, and therefore I am God. Woah. Now that I realize that I feel a strange sense of…power. I can make anything happen here! I AM RULER OF THIS WORLD!!!! MUAHAHAHAHAHAAA!!!!!! …Not that I can really do anything fun without making this a really crappy story. =(

Oh well! Let's just cut to the ages: Ash is 17, Misty is 18, Dawn is 14, and Paul is 18.

Now it's time to finally get to the actually story! Finally!
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Chapter 1

"Ash?"

"Yes, Misty?"

"Could you please tell me why you said earlier that I might not like this forest?"

"Oh, yeah. Well, it's got a bunch of bugs in it."

"B-bugs?" Misty said, some fear starting to show on her face.

"Yeah," Ash replied, continuing through the forest. "They're all over the place."

"Ash?"

"Yeah?"

"Could we go a little faster?"

Ash laughed. "Don't worry, Misty, I'll make sure none of those scary little wurmple kill you."

Misty frowned. "Don't you get sarcastic with me, Ash Ketchum-I still have my mallet, you know." Ash just laughed. Misty decided that she would let him live…for now.

After a few more minutes of walking, which were silent, save for the normal sounds of the surrounding forest, Misty spoke.

"A-Ash?"

"What now, Misty?" Ash turned around to see that Misty had frozen dead in her tracks.

"Is there something on my leg?"

"Hmm…" Ash knelt down next to Misty's leg to see a small wurmple crawling up her right leg. "Man, why do all these bugs like you so much? Well, I suppose you do look a lot like them…"

"Hardy har har," Misty said in a sarcastic tone. "I swear, the minute you get this bug off of me, I am going to whack you into next week."

"Well then," Ash said, standing up and grinning, "I guess I should probably not get it off you, huh?"

"Wh-what?" Misty said, hoping that she hadn't heard right.

"Well, if you're going to hit me with that mallet of yours right after I take that wurmple off of your leg, I probably should do that if I don't want to get whacked."

"Ash, now I'm going to whack you even harder…"

"Really? You were already going to whack me into next week."

"Well, then I'll whack you into next year!" Misty screamed at Ash, getting seriously enraged now. What made her even angrier was how much entertainment Ash seemed to be getting out of all this.

"Okay, fine, I'll help you out," Ash said, "but I'm afraid I'm going to need you to take off your shirt?"

"What!?!" Misty yelled. "No way! Why the hell do I have to take off my shirt, anyway!?!"

"Well, because," Ash said, "that wurmple just crawled down it."

Misty just stood there for a few moments, and then screamed louder than ever and started scrambling about, trying to get the wurmple off and away from her, with Ash laughing hysterically the whole time. After a few seconds she stopped, Ash still laughing.

"Did I get it!?!"

"Yeah," Ash said, still chuckling a bit, "except it wasn't really in your shirt. It was just on your head."

WHAM!!!!! Misty slammed Ash so hard with her mallet that he actually went flying a few feet and slammed right into a tree. It actually took him a few seconds just to regain consciousness, and it took him almost five minutes to finally get up-even when he did, he was still sort of wobbly.

"Damn…" he said, leaning against the tree he had slammed into for support. "You weren't kidding when you said you would do it hard…"

"I swear, if you ever even think about pulling a stunt like that again, I'll hit you ten times as hard as that!"

"Thanks for the heads up, Mist," Ash said, rubbing the bump on his head where Misty's mallet had hit him.

And so the two continued walking, Ash making sure this time to carefully help Misty out any time a bug crawled close to her. When the two of them finally began nearing the end of the forest, Misty began picking up pace considerably, eventually breaking into a full out run, which Ash actually found fairly difficult to keep up with.

Then, finally, Ash and Misty ran straight out of the forest and into open air.

"YES!!!" Misty screamed punching both her fists into the air triumphantly, as if she had just won a war. She then began spinning around with her arms out, amazingly glad to be out in the open again. Ash just stood, watched, and smiled. For some reason seeing Misty so happy made him just as happy. After a few minutes, Misty stopped spinning around, noticed Ash standing there, smiling at her, and blushed a little, apparently embarrassed by her previous behavior.

"Um…"

"I can't believe it," Ash said, walking up to Misty.

"What?"

"For a minute there, you actually acted like a girl."

Misty simple just smiled. "Well, don't get used to it."

Ash smiled back. "Don't worry," he said. "I know better than that."

He then turned and saw that they were standing on a small cliff of lush, green grass that overlooked a city. It was midday now, and the sun was shining brightly in the sky, shedding a beautiful light down over the view in front of them. The city seemed to glow in the light.

"It's beautiful," Misty said, looking out over the city.

"Yeah…" Ash said-but he wasn't looking at the city anymore. He was looking at Misty. She looked absolutely gorgeous standing there in the sunlight. Her bright orange hair was flowing gracefully in the wind, her wide, emerald eyes shining brightly, her skin glowing. Ash could hardly believe that this was his friend Misty, the scrawny girl who had fished him out of that lake when he was ten. She looked nothing like the old Misty anymore.

Misty looked at Ash and blushed brightly when she noticed that he was staring at her. "Ash?"

Ash snapped out of his trance at the sound of his name and his face turned pink. "Uh…yes?"

"Do you think we should go down there?"

"Uh, yeah. Yeah, sure," Ash said. And so, the two of them made their way down the cliff to the city. Once they arrived, they saw a large sign just outside of it: WELCOME TO PETALVINE CITY.

"Petalvine," Ash said aloud, reading the sign.

"You heard of it?" Misty asked.

"No," Ash said. "Probably because there's no gym here."

"Probably," Misty said, and the two walked into the city.

Petalvine City was a busy place. There were shops and restaurants all over the place, and people bustling about everywhere in the streets, some with shopping bags, some with briefcases, but one thing was for certain: everybody was headed somewhere. Ash and Misty actually got lost from each other in the crowd once or twice, but they managed to get back together relatively quickly.

"What are you we looking for anyway!?!" Misty yelled over the noise of the crowd.

"Lunch!" Ash yelled back. "I'm hungry!"

"Ash, you're always hungry! Plus, there have been restaurants everywhere ever since we walked into this city!"

"Yeah, but not any good ones!"

Misty sighed as the two of them continued pushing their way through the crowded streets. Finally, Ash found a place that he liked, and the two stopped for lunch there. While eating, the topic came up of what they should do while they were in Petalvine City.

"Well, we don't really know what there is to do here!" Ash said.

"Then we could ask someone. I mean, do you know anyone who lives here?"

"No. I told you, I didn't even know this place existed until we found it. And we can't just go up to some random stranger on the street and ask them what there is to do here."

"Oh, sure you could!" somebody said, taking a seat by their table. "The response would just probably be 'Who the hell are you?'". So, instead, how about you let the stranger go up to you? I know plenty of things to do here!"

"Who the hell are you?" Ash and Misty both said in unition. The person looked to be a high-school age boy, with medium-length, dirty blonde hair, and was wearing a bright red T-shirt, light blue jeans, and a navy blue baseball cap. Misty noticed that his right hand was missing a pinkie and ring finger.

"I'm Niles. Niles McGee." That was when Ash noticed a young girl who appeared to be the boys age, and with him, looking a bit embarrassed by his outgoingness.

"Dawn!?!" Ash said, staring at her. Everyone turned to look at her.

"No way…" she said. "Ash? Ash Ketchum?"

"Yeah!" Ash said, grinning. "Wow, it's great to see you again!"

"Great to see you too!" Dawn then turned to Misty. "Oh, hi, you must be Misty!"

"Hi!" Misty said, an obviously (at least to Ash) fake smile on her face. "And you're Dawn! Ash has told me a lot about you!"

"Yeah, same here!"

"Excuse me!!!" Niles yelled, causing everybody to fall silent. "Dawn, just who the hell are these people?"

"Oh, right. Niles, this is my friend Ash Ketchum and his friend Misty Waterflower. They're pokémon trainers. Ash, Misty, this is my friend Niles McGee. He's a trainer too."

"Thank you," Niles said. "Now, as I was saying, I know plenty of stuff you two can do while you're here. In fact, you could come with me tonight-"

"Oh, Niles," Dawn interrupted, "please don't try to drag them into that! The only reason I'm coming is because I'm worried for you!"

"Why?" Ash said, getting curious.

"Yeah," said Misty, "what are you two doing tonight?"

Dawn sighed. "Niles wants to go up to the Manson Mansion."

"The Manson Mansion?" Misty asked.

"Yeah," Niles said. "It's the mansion up on a hill near this city. Everybody thinks its haunted, and I want to go see what's up with it."

"And I," Dawn said, "do not think it's a very good idea. In fact, I think it's a very bad idea."

"And why's that?" Ash asked.

"Well," Niles said, "people have gone into the Manson Mansion before."

"And…?" Misty said, though she and Ash both new pretty well what the answer was going to be before they even asked the question.

"…None of them ever came back," Dawn finished.
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Okay! Sorry if that chapter seemed to end a little abruptly, I just felt that I needed to end it before we went too far into the story. Anyway, be sure to review and tell me what you think!!! I'll try to update more often from now on, just be sure to REVIEW!!!

And by the way, I want you to know that if there's something you don't like about the story you can say so! I'd gladly change anything that you guys think just isn't working out! After all, it's all about entertaining you guys, really!