It comes at night. My parents don't know, because they work then. I wish they were here when it comes.

It comes from my clock. Every night, around midnight, wire arms and legs and a tail form. When the church bells ring twelve times, it attacks. I run. I run to the forest, usually. It's dumb, but I'm not thinking. Just doing. Sometimes, beforehand, I'll vow to run to the police station this time, but then the panic takes over and I make the same mistake. No phone calls, either. Other electronics stop working when it comes. And who would believe me? At least it's only for an hour. But it shocks me sometimes. It scares me- could I suffer brain trauma?

It's been three nights.

I hear it.

It's coming now.

Can I do this much longer?

Beep! Beep! Beep!

I was startled awake by the alarm on my wretched clock.

"Liza, you need to get ready for school!" I heard my mom yell.

I gasped. I had forgotten I had school today, and I was going to be late. I jumped out of bed and ran to my closet, pulling out the first things I saw. Then I rushed down the stairs and gulped down my breakfast before hurrying outside to the bus stop. A few moments later the yellow vehicle appeared around the corner. Once I got on, I was asleep within a few minutes.

I woke when it was time to get off. I plodded into school, and slept through my first class. And my second class. And all my other classes after that. All in all, the day seemed to go by rather quickly. I even ended up missing the meeting where the gym leader Korrina was scheduled to appear.

When the day was over, I went outside to wait on the bus, sitting under a large oak. I was still seething over missing the meeting. It was all my clock's fault. Because of it, I hadn't had a decent night's sleep in days. More than that, I was... I... forgot what I was saying. Dang it, I knew I was suffering brain trauma! I wondered briefly if there were treatments for it, and resolved to look it up whenever I had a chance.

I leaned back against the oak and sighed. Sunlight shined through the leaves, casting dappled shadows on the ground. I heard footsteps and looked up to see my friend Zoey approaching. "Hey!" I called out, waving.

She waved back before settling on the ground beside me. "What's up?"

I opened my mouth to tell her about what had been happening with my clock, then hesitated. Would she believe me? My parents hadn't; they had just accused me of making up stories. No, Zoey was my best friend. She had to believe me.

"Hey, Zoey..."

"Yeah?" She looked at me questioningly.

"You know that clock I keep on my nightstand? The one with the Glameow pawprints on it?" She nodded. I took a deep breath. "it's been coming to life at night."

Zoey's eyes widened. Everything about her expression was incredulous. I waited for her to laugh, to tell me that was stupid. She didn't. "That's... weird. Clocks don't just come to life." She looked thoughtful for a moment. "Ask your parents if I can come over tonight. We'll see if we can figure this out."

I nodded. "Okay!"

I couldn't think about anything but the clock the whole bus ride home. When I got off, I rushed to the porch, noticing my parents standing there. "Mom, Dad, is it okay if Zoey comes over tonight?"

"Sure," my mom said. "As long as she has permission, and you two promise to behave while we're gone."

I blinked. "I thought you didn't have to work tonight?"

"We're going to a friend's wedding, and they thought it would just be a fantastic idea to have it late at night. It's expected to go one for while." Mom sighed. "Sorry sweetie, we'd stay, it's just that it would be rude to not go after we were invited." I looked to my father, and he nodded in agreement.

"That's okay," I said. "We'll be fine." I thanked them for letting Zoey stay, then went into the house to call her. My hands shook as I dialed her number. I counted the rings before the phone was picked up and I heard Zoey's voice on the other end. "Hey, my parents said it's fine if your parents say it's fine."

I could practically hear her smiling. "We're all set, then."

It was about fifteen until five when she showed up. My parents had already left to buy a gift, so it was just the two of us. Unless, of course, you counted the clock.

"So, what's the situation?" Zoey asked. So I told about how it had started a few nights ago, how the clock would come to life and chase me and shock me but never left any marks, and how I had told my parents but they hadn't believed me. Zoey listened to it all calmly, occasionally interrupting to ask a question, but never mocking me. Gratitude welled up inside me. I should have never doubted her.

"It usually comes from midnight to one," I finished, shrugging to show I didn't know why it chose that time, so there was no point in asking.

"Shocking you... we should wear rubber, then. Know if you have any?"

I didn't know, but after some searching we found some rubber gloves and boots in the garden shed. Prepared for whatever came next, we vowed to stay up until midnight so the thing wouldn't catch us unaware.

We failed miserably. I think it might have been around eleven when I fell asleep, and the next thing I knew, I heard bells chiming twelve. Sparks were already starting to come from my clock. Zoey was curled up in a sleeping bag on the floor beside my bed, snoring gently. I leaned down to shake her awake as strange sounds began to emit from the clock. Zoey sat up groggily, muttering that it was too early to wake up. She quickly snapped to attention as she noticed the clock forming its arms, legs, and tail. She shrieked and grabbed my arm, dragging me from the room and out of the house. We stood panting in the yard.

"That is not what I was expecting," Zoey said in between gasps. "We have to get out of here."

"I thought we were supposed to figure out how to stop it?" I asked accusingly.

Zoey shrugged. "Plan B?"

At that moment we heard a loud humming, and my clock appeared in the front door. Zoey glanced at it, her face pale, before motioning for us to keep running. I followed her blindly. We ran as far as the church, whose bells had announced the arrival of the monster for several nights now. The monster was close now, and with no thought on our minds except escape, we ran into the empty church. Inside, we were sorely disappointed. There was nowhere else to run, nowhere to hide. The humming intensified and we saw the clock in the church doorway. We screamed, looking around frantically for somewhere to go. I pointed to the stairs leading to the church's roof. A sing hung next to them: "Authorized Personnel Only." I pointed to it, and received a glare from Zoey in response. "Special circumstances," she said, pulling me up the stairs.

When we made it up them, we were sorely disappointed. There was no way out, unless we chose to try jumping down the roof. I winced just thinking about all the broken bones that would cause.

The clock came up the stairs, too. It faced us, a maniacally smiling face taking the place of numbers on the clock's face. We backed up until we were at the edge of the roof. I glanced down, feeling dizzy as I realized just how high up we were.

Then I heard the sound of sirens, and saw flashing lights in the distance. The police were coming! They could help us. They could fix everything.

If they made it in time. The clock was right in front of us now. Slowly, one of its wire arms reached out to me. "NO!" I screamed, slapping it away. My footing slipped. I slid off the roof, just managing to grab onto the edge of it. Zoey reached down to me, but the clock knocked her away. It was looking down at me. Extending one of its arms towards me. I panicked. I had to escape. How could I escape?

There was a large window right below me. My eyes widened as an idea formed in my mind. I gripped the roof tightly and kicked out as hard as I could. I was rewarded by the sound of shattering glass. Next was the tricky part. I had to get the angle just right. I swung my weight toward the window at the same time that I let go of the roof.

Sharp glass caught my arm as I fell through the window, opening wide gashes. Intense pain shot through my leg when I landed on the church floor. My arm, my leg, my head... the pain was everywhere. My vision began to swim. I could hear voices outside, but it was like they were distorted. I only had a few moments to try to make sense of them.

Everything went black.

I woke up in the hospital. My leg was in a sling, and there were bandages around my head and on my arm. A nurse came into the room and explained my injuries. I had twisted my ankle, suffered a major cut on my arm, and had a mild concussion. I was lucky that I hadn't snapped something more important.

"What happened to Zoey?" I asked. "Was she hurt, too?"

The nurse furrowed her brow in thought. "Do you mean the girl who was on the roof with you? She wasn't injured." The nurse smiled. "As a matter of fact, she's here to see you."

Zoey ran into the room. "I was so worried about you!" she said. "I thought you fell, but then I couldn't see you, and there were all those people running into the church..."

"I'm fine," I said. "What happened, though?"

Zoey looked away. "Your parents were here just a few minutes ago," she said. "Then I got here, and you had woken up. I should go tell them."

"Wait!" I called as she walked out. "You didn't answer my question!"

Soon she came back, my parents in tow. After being fawned over by my parents for about ten minutes, I turned my attention back to Zoey. She held my clock in one hand and a Pokéball in the other. I gave my clock a wary look, and Zoey grinned. "Don't be like that. It's fine now. And do you know why?" Without giving me a chance to answer, she pressed the release button on the Pokéball and a Pokémon materialized from it. I recognized the Pokémon, but it took me a minute to understand the implications.

"It's a Rotom..." I said slowly. "Rotom possess electronics..."

"Yep." Zoey returned Rotom and minimized its Pokémon. "It took some arguing to get the cops to give it to me, though. They finally gave in when I told them it would be better off with a trainer, and when Nurse Joy put in a word on my behalf, saying that Rotom's not dangerous, just bored."

"Bored." I deadpanned. "It terrorized me because it was bored?"

"Also yep. It thought it was playing some kind of game, apparently." She tossed the Pokéball my way and I fumbled to catch it. "By the way, it's yours now. Just keep it entertained."

I had absolutely no idea how to react. This was the thing that had terrified me, deprived me of sleep, set my nerves on edge for so many nights. And I was supposed to just take it and pretend it never happened? I rolled the minimized Pokéball between my palms, thinking.

Zoey shifted from one foot to the other. "Hey, you know, if you don't want it, I can take it. I mean, after spending some time with it... you kind of get attached."

I sighed and shook my head. "No. I'll take it." A smile crossed my face. "Better that it's with me than hiding in my clock half the time."

Halloween came not long after I was dispatched from the hospital. My head was still bandaged by then, so naturally, I dressed as a mummy. A mummy on crutches, that is. Rotom really was the scarier of us two. And one thing Zoey had been right about: You really do get attached to Rotom after a while.

Even now, years later, I remember that Halloween. How Zoey, Rotom, and I trick-or-treated all night, how I met the guy that would become my husband at a party that night. Rotom shocks me when I start to reminisce, but I think it remembers, too. And we're both a lot happier now.