The trees shook in the wind, the leaves crunched beneath feet, and the lycanroc howled in the mountains. Contrary to the atmosphere Moon smiled as she dragged Gladion to the haunted house Acerola had planned and executed. Behind them was a hesitant Lillie and an excited Hau.
When Acerola told Moon about the haunted house she thought it was a great idea. Moon went to haunted houses every year when she was growing up in Kanto but hadn't been to a single one since moving to Alola.
As soon as she got off the phone with Acerola she called Gladion to tell him and Lillie about it. At first Gladion tried to refuse because he was in the middle of doing paperwork for Aether but Moon pulled the 'girlfriend card' and he soon agreed. He promised to get Lillie to come too but reminded her that Lillie could be pretty jumpy. Moon waved off his concerns and told him she'd meet them at Aether at seven before hanging up to go talk Hau into coming too.
Hau was the easiest to convince, he was all for the idea and agreed to meet up at seven.
When everyone was together outside the paradise they boarded one of the foundations boats and set off for Ula'Ula.
And that's how they found themselves walking down the winding path to the old abandoned house Acerola had seemingly took claim of. "Oh, there's Acerola, let's go!" Moon called excitedly as she tried to drag Gladion off faster. Gladion stood his ground and pulled her back, the momentum knocking her into him where he caught her and held her still.
"Moon calm down, you're acting like Hau running off. Wait for the others." Gladion raised and eyebrow at her confused look and turned her so she was looking father back down the trail where Hau and Lillie were a significant distance behind them.
"Sorry. I'm just so excited, I haven't been to a haunted house during Halloween since I was back in Kanto."
Gladion smiled at her and held her closer as the wind whipped past them. Lillie and Hau caught up to them now. Moon couldn't tell if Lillie was shaking from the cold or nerves and seemed to be the only reason Hau wasn't racing Moon to get there first.
"Come on." Gladion said as he let Moon goo and took her hand again.
Moon looked between her three companions. Lillie was clearly scared but her stubbornness refused to let her back out, which was shown on the boat when Gladion told her she didn't have to go in and she got huffy with him for 'babying' her. She got nothing more than an eye roll for that and the conversation was dropped.
Hau acted no different than usual. Even though he hadn't run off yet there was a buzz of excitement surrounding him.
Gladion was the hardest to decipher of them all in general but Moon had found that she could do it pretty well. He didn't have much of an opinion on the prospect of the haunted house either way. He wasn't scared, at least not from anticipation like Lillie was, but this wasn't something he would have thought to do on his own. The easiest thing to see though was that he was content that Moon was happy and glad that he was able to share something with her that she loved so much from growing up.
By the time Moon came out of her thoughts they were walking up the steps onto the old houses porch and meeting Acerola.
The spirited girl quickly hugged both Moon and Lillie and shared greetings with the two boys. "I'm so glad you guys came. I worked really hard on this and I can't wait for you to see it. I did the costumes myself and all the pokemon in there are mine too and we trained for weeks just for this. The special effects are to die for."
Lillie cut off her rambling. "Die?"
Acerola waved her concerns off with a shake of her head and a smile. "Just a figure of speech."
Lillie nodded and held her head high, mentally preparing herself for what was to come.
"Well then, welcome and enter… if you dare." The menacing edge was softened by her giggles but she held the door open and the four walked in before it slammed shut behind Hau making him jump and then immediately after laugh, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly.
"Well what are we waiting for let's go?" Hau led them through the front room into a hallway of to the side.
The hallway was short and by the time they entered the next room there had yet to be anything scary jump out at them. Surveying the room informed them that they were in a dining room. Cautious glances around the room provided no insight into what was waiting for them. Seeing nothing out of the ordinary the group started walking past the table.
Hau looked on in amusement. "Pfft, this isn't all that scary." It was at this point that the chairs started shaking and rattling but as far as they could tell there was nobody else around.
"Aaahhh!" Hau shrieked as he jumped into the nearest persons arms. Unfortunately for him that person was Gladion and he was not amused. Hau gave him an innocent smile as Gladion glared down at him. Seeing that Hau had no plan to move anytime soon Gladion dropped him and he hit the floor with a thud before he quickly hopped back to his feet.
Summing it up to special effect or one of Acerola's pokemon, maybe a psychic type, they turned to leave and move on. Lillie had just started to relax, maybe this haunted house wouldn't be so bad after all? The thought went through her head too soon because as soon as she turned to walk away she let out an ear-piercing shriek. Her cry of distress caught the attention of her companions who all jumped at the sound of her voice and then jumped again when they saw what made her yell.
Blocking the door was a girl. Her long dark hair hung limp, covering most of her face. She was wearing a dress that was ripped, torn, and had what was made to look like blood stains. Her feet were bare and facing inward as she shuffled toward them. She had makeup on to appear like cuts, and scrapes covereing her skin. The only part of her face that was visible was one eye that was covered with a blood red contact.
Moon, Gladion, and Hau were surprised at her arrival but shook it off quickly enough and told themselves it was only a costume, makeup, and colored contacts. Lillie was harder to read, she still had yet to move as the girl inched closer to her.
The girl was no more than a foot away from Lillie when she yelled, in turn causing Lillie to yell and then sprint from the room. The others again jumped and quickly ran by the newest occupant and after Lillie.
The door led into yet another hallway with several doors on either side. Lillie was nowhere in sight. They started walking down the line of doors looking for the terrified blonde before she got hurt or hurt someone else.
They didn't notice the paintings of the ghost pokemon on the wall until two on either side of them suddenly dropped and four people popped up and leaned out of the pictures over them causing all three of them to shriek. Moon tripped over Hau's and Gladion's feet as she instinctively tried to back away from the people jumping out of the wall and fell to the ground taking the boys down with her. Moon leaned further back into the two boys she was sitting on top of and turned her head into Gladion's chest as the people with sharp toothed grins leaned in closer.
In the next second they pulled themselves back and the holes were covered by the pictures again except now the pokemon depicted in the paintings were watching them, following their movement with their eyes.
When she heard no more laughter Moon peaked a glance out of one eye before sitting herself up and apologizing the boys she was still sitting on. They only nodded still shocked from what had happened between the people popping out and ending up on the wooden floor, in Hau's case for a second time.
An ear-piercing shriek sounded from around the corner that was instantly recognized as Lillie. Without a second thought the three were racing around the corner and stopped dead in their tracks at the sight before them. It wasn't anything scary that they were looking at. At least not to them anyway, Lillie however looked to be close to a melt-down. That's what it looked like from their perspective at least but they didn't exactly have the best view of her facial expression from her position on top of a dresser.
Even the haunter floating by then wasn't sure what to make of it. They had taken off the masks they had apparently been wearing at this point and had their hands up in front of them to show they meant no harm but Lillie didn't care.
The most curious thing wasn't the fact that the actors had broken character, no, it was how exactly Lillie got on top of a dresser that was easily twice her height.
Gladion stepped forward to try and coax her down. "Lillie, you can come down now. They're just wearing costumes, see?"
Lillie shook her head refusing to open her eyes and look for herself. "You guys abandoned me!" she shouted.
Gladion raised an eyebrow at her before he replied. "Lillie, you ran off ahead of us. If anything, you abandoned us."
Not wanting to listen to reason Lillie ignored the truth of this and huddled with her legs pulled up against her chest. "That's not the point."
"Lillie open your eyes. I promise no one is going to scare you in this room. Right?" Hau directed the question to the others in the room who still had their masks off and hands up and they all agreed.
Lillie opened her eyes cautiously and saw that nobody was trying to scare her. "Okay… can someone help me down?"
After a quick huddle to figure out how they would get her down Gladion and Hau stood on either side of the dresser ready to catch her and Moon stood a few paces in front of it to grab onto Lillie's hands as she jumped down so she wouldn't fall forward. Soon Lillie was back on the ground and blushing furiously at all the eyes that were trained on her. "How exactly do you get up there in the first place?" Moon asked out of curiosity.
Lillie opened her mouth to speak but her brother beat her to it. "No, I don't even want to know right now. Let's just get the rest of this thing done with before someone else ends up on top of a piece of furniture.
He made a fair point so after asking how much farther they had to go, and the groan when they heard they hadn't even made it half way yet, they walked out of the room with Lillie between Gladion and Moon clutching at their arms and Hau following closely from behind.
Alolan rattata scurried past their feet and misdreavus and ghastly floated around their heads and through the walls.
Without their knowledge, someone had snuck out of a door and was following Hau. "Hi." The masked figure whispered in Hau ear. He turned to greet them on instinct when he saw who or what was talking to him and grabbed on to Moon dragging her away from the blonde siblings and brandishing her as a human shield and he let out a high-pitched squeal followed shortly by Moon both at being grabbed and dragged away and from coming face to face with the man, only inches separating them.
When the shock wore off Moon pulled herself out of Hau's grasped and hit him upside the head before walking back to the font and grabbing Gladion's hand. Hau rubbed the back of his head as he followed, now as cautious of Moon as he was of anything else in here.
As they turned yet another corner and entered a large room with several couches and side tables fog started spilling into the room coming from the only exit. The fog covered the entire hall they stepped into and was so thick they couldn't see in front of them so they made a human chain to keep from getting separated. Gladion was in front with one hand out to find their way and the other holding onto Moon who was behind him, behind her she held onto Lillie's hand and Lillie used her other hand to keep a hold of Hau who once again was bringing up the rear.
It had been a solid minute and they were still making their way through the seemingly never-ending hallway. "This was a bad idea. I should have known how bad this would be, I did her trial and I still have nightmares about that. Haunted houses were never this scary in Kanto." Moon started rambling until a cold chill went down her spine as a giggle could be heard up ahead.
When the fog cleared they were no longer in the winding hallway. It looked like they were in a child's bedroom. There were drawings covering the walls and dolls laying on the bed. The giggling continued and the four looked around desperately searching for the source. It sounded as if It were coming from the room but none of them could pin point an exact origin.
As she looked for the source Moon's gaze landed on one picture in particular that made her gasp. It was one of the drawings from the back room at Acerola's trial, the room she claimed to have known nothing about. "There must have been another way we could go, I want to get out of here." Moon told the others already backing toward the door.
Seeing her panic rising the others quickly agreed and followed her out. When they were all out and turned to walk back through the fog a loud slam from behind them had them yelping and whipping around.
It sounded like the door had slammed shut on its own but when they turned there was no door in sight. They all froze and paled slightly. "Let's go, let's go now!" Moon gasped out trying to calm her erratically beating heart to no avail.
They grabbed one another's hands again and made their way as far from the door as quickly as possible. Hau's head shot to the side. "Did you guys see that?" he asked.
"Did you seriously just ask if we could see something in this fog?" Lillie asked him incredulously.
"Oh right, I guess it was just my imagination." He sighed out in relief.
"What did you think you saw?" Moon asked him cautiously.
"My mind must have been playing a trick on me but I could have sworn I saw a pikachu."
Moon stopped in her tracks dragging Gladion back from where he was taking another step forward and causing Lillie and Hau to knock into her. "Did you say pikachu?" she gasped out, voice barely above a whisper. "Uh yeah, come on Moon I think this place is getting to you. Let's go." Hau gave her a slight shove in Gladion's direction to get her moving.
Had it been a little less foggy they would have seen just how pale she had gotten.
Compared to what they had already seen the rest of the house wasn't too bad in comparison. Of course there were still plenty of jumps and shouts but nobody ended up on top of the furniture again. There were more people hiding behind corners and more pokemon hiding around. Whether it was a bug type falling down in front of them from a web attached to the ceiling, a psychic type moving things around or making them think the room itself was moving, or a ghost type popping out from seemingly no where they had seen it all.
When the exit finally came into view they sprinted for it.
They each took a moment to breathe in the cool night air. "Well that wasn't so bad." Hau said trying to show some confidence. He didn't get any laughs or even chuckles. Just glares.
"Don't even go th- ahh!" Moon was about to tell him off when someone put a hand on her shoulder. She turned on her heel and reeled her arm back with a closed fist, prepared to let it fly. The only thing that stopped her was Gladion grabbing onto her arm with one hand and wrapping the other around her waist. "Relax, it's just Acerola."
"So, how was it?" Acerola asked innocently looking at them for their feedback.
The four friends looked to each other before looking back at the purple haired girl blankly. "Horrifying." They all answered. Acerola squealed in joy. "Oh good. I worked so hard on it."
"Well you definitely got the job done." Lillie told her weakly.
"I do have one question though. What happened to the bedroom door? How did you make it vanish?" Hau asked.
Acerola tilted her head to the side in confusion. "What bedroom door? We broke down the walls of all the bedrooms to make more space for the hallways."
They froze again. "Are you sure you didn't miss one?" Gladion asked. "It had drawings all over the walls, dolls, on the bed, a pink carpet…" Gladion listed off descriptions of the room.
Acerola looked even more confused than ever. "There were never any rooms like that." She squinted her eyes in thought. "Oh, I get it, nice try Moon."
"What?" The girl in question asked, unsure of what she had to do with this.
"Just like that 'back room' at the trial sight that you said 'disappeared'. I have to admit you almost had me this time, but if you try again try to come up with something other than rooms that were never there in the first place." Moon stared at her wide eyed as the others looked between the two in a mix of confusion and fear at the implications of what Acerola said.
"Well I better get back to the front to greet visitors. I'm so glad you all came." She hugged Moon and Lillie who each returned it stiffly before she ran off to her place on the front porch.
"Um, so does that mean…" Hau trailed off not wanting to finish the thought.
"No, I don't even want to think about it. I'm sure Acerola's just trying to scare us. Let's just forget about it and move on." Moon said firmly though not quite believing herself.
"So, anyone up for a sleepover at Aether?" Lillie asked, preferring to be in a larger group after the nights events. Everyone quickly agreed and they walked back to town to pick up some malasadas, per Hau's request, before paging their ride pokemon.
They never saw the yellow blur scurry through the grass behind them.