Author's Note: This is where things start to get creepier. One thing I forgot to mention in the intro that the title of this story is a bit of a pun. Though maybe a few of you have figured that out by now.
Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon.
Chapter 2: The Old Chateau
Ash and the others continued to quickly follow Bolt through the woods as the sky overhead became darker and darker with thick clouds. Before long they came before a tall stone brick wall that was chipped and covered in moss and vines. In the middle of this wall was a large rusty iron-barred gate. The gate was not only open, but part of it was completely off its hinges. Bolt led the group through the broken gate.
Upon passing through the gate, the group found themselves standing in a large courtyard with an old stone path leading around a large fountain in the center up to a massive two-story mansion with an east and west wing. The fountain of course was not running, and depicted a statue of a Water Pokemone, a Gyarados, that would have been beautiful to behold when it was new and in use, but had since become broken and chipped with age. The grass of the courtyard had grown wild and out of control, and in a few places there were statues of both humans and Pokemon that were in the same sort of condition of the fountain. The mansion itself was covered with vines and had broken glass in a few of the windows. Before long, Ash and the others were standing before the large wooden doors of the mansion.
"So this is the Old Chateau, huh?" Ash observed.
"This is the place." Bolt confirmed. "You wouldn't believe some of the stories that I've heard."
"What, what kind of stories?" Lisa asked in a somewhat frightened tone.
"Oh you know, just the usual haunted house kind of stories." Bolt answered. "Ghosts walkin' the halls, lights moving around behind the windows, that kind of thing. Why, you aren't scared, are you Lisa?"
"Scared? No, of course not!" Lisa denied frantically. "Why would I be scared of something so stupid?"
The rest of the group all gave Lisa skeptical looks, all except for Marie that is, who looked at Lisa with concern. Lisa meanwhile was doing her best to keep her composure.
"Well haunted or not, this is the only place around to take shelter from the storm." Ash pointed out. "So let's go in."
With that, Ash and Bolt pulled open the large wooden doors of the Old Chateau. The smell of dust, mold, and age hit everyone like a wave. Bolt went inside first, followed closely by Dawn, Piplup, and Misty. Pikachu and Lucario went ahead in while Ash stayed behind a moment with Lisa, Marie, and Zoroark.
"You sure you're okay for this Lisa?" Ash asked.
"Of course I am." Lisa insisted. "Why wouldn't I be?"
"…Well in experience, nine times outta ten the stuff that happens in haunted places are just the work of Ghost Pokemon playing around." Ash told her, and with that he went inside.
"Yeah, that makes me feel a whole lot better." Lisa whispered sarcastically to herself.
"Lisa, I'm sure there's noting to be afraid of." Marie tried to assure her. "This storm probably won't last long anyway."
"I hope so." Lisa admitted. "Just stay close to me though, okay?"
"Okay." Marie said as she took Lisa's hand.
Within moments, Lisa, Marie, and Zoroark went into the mansion. Ash and Bolt closed the wooden doors behind them once they were in. The large main hall of the mansion, which was probably beautiful in its time, was dark and covered in cobwebs. The only source of light was the front windows. It seemed less like a mansion and more like a tomb. Piplup started to act a little more frightened inside the mansion, while Pikachu, Lucario, and Zoroark seemed more on edge. Lisa held onto Marie's hand tighter than before.
"You know it's probably going to get pretty dark in here once night comes." Dawn observed.
"It'll be darker sooner than that once that storm hits." Ash pointed out.
"No sweat dude, I got an electric lantern here in my bag." Bolt said as he held up the black duffle bag he was carrying in addition to his guitar.
"We might need a little more light than that." Ash told him. "Especially if that lantern of yours goes dead."
"We could search the house for candles." Dawn suggested. "I'm sure there are a few lying around."
"That's a pretty good idea." Ash agreed. "Plus we could explore the house. I mean it is creepy, but still kinda interesting."
"Sounds good to me." Dawn agreed.
"Hey, I'm up for rummaging through the past." Bolt concurred. "Let's do it!"
"What do you think Misty?" Ash asked.
"Well… sure, why not?" Misty said hesitantly.
"Great! We'll split up and start looking around then." Ash decided.
"Um, you guys go ahead. Lisa and I will stay down here." Marie told them.
"Okay then, we'll be back in a bit." Ash replied.
Several minutes had passed since Ash, Misty, Bolt, and Dawn began searching the Old Chateau. Already the storm outside had begun, the sound of the wind and rain whipping against the house could be heard from inside. Every now and then was a crack of thunder, and the flashes of lightning could be seen through the windows. Misty wandered down a hallway in the west wing of the mansion, when suddenly she heard the sound of whispering voices. She walked a little further down the hall to find that a door near the end was open a crack. Quietly and hesitantly, Misty approached the door to hear the voices better.
"How long… waiting?" the first voice whispered. Misty could recognize that the first voice was Dawn's.
"Don't know." Whispered the second voice that Misty did not recognize. Though Misty could tell that it was the voice of a little girl. "But I'm sure… come back."
"Ya Yamask Ya Ya Yamask." Said a third high feminine sounding voice, and right away Misty knew just what that voice belonged to.
"Helen's right." Dawn whispered, presumably to the little girl. "They might… for you… somewhere else."
At this moment Misty decided to peek in through the door, opening it slightly wider. Sure enough there was Dawn, kneeling down close to talk to a little girl with curly brown hair wearing an old style pink dress and a pink bow on the top of her head. The little girl's skin looked as white as a sheet. Floating next to Dawn's head was her Yamask, Helen. Suddenly the girl turned her head and saw Misty peeking through the door. Dawn quickly noticed that the girl was looking at Misty and then beamed Misty a warm smile. Misty could see that Dawn had the same crazed looking eyes she had earlier that day.
"Hey Misty, come check this out!" Ash called from a room down the hall.
"Be right there!" Misty called back as she quickly headed away from the unsettling site before her.
Moments later, Misty joined Ash and Bolt in what looked to be an old bedroom. Bolt was busy looking through what looked to be an old photo album while Ash was looking through an old shoebox full of knickknacks. It was not long before Ash noticed Misty's arrival.
"You okay Misty?" Ash asked, noticing the somewhat frightened expression on Misty's face. "You look a little spooked."
"I'm fine." Misty assured him as she managed to bring a smile to her face. "So what is it you wanted me to see?"
"Check out the corner over there." Ash said, pointing his thumb towards a small table in the back corner of the room.
Misty went over and saw on the top of the table a display of several Pokemon figures. Each one was wearing a decorative kimono.
"Oh wow! An old set of Pokemon Princess Dolls!" Misty said with a look of awe.
"I thought you might like seeing those." Ash assumed.
"I've never seen a set like this before." Misty said as she carefully picked up one of the dolls to examine it closer. "And they're all in such good condition."
"What's in good condition?" a voice suddenly asked, startling Misty and almost causing her to drop the doll she was holding. Misty turned to see that it was Dawn.
"I found a set of Pokemon Princess Dolls over there." Ash explained.
"Wow, I've never seen a real set of those before." Dawn said as she went over to where Misty was. "What amazing detail!"
Misty tried to take a good look at Dawn's eyes in the dim light of the room. Though it was hard to tell, Dawn's eyes seemed to look normal. Still, there was a question that was burning in Misty's mind that she was afraid to ask, though she felt she needed to know the answer.
"Um, Dawn? Who was that girl you were taking to?" Misty hesitantly asked.
"Girl? What girl?" Dawn asked with a quizzical expression.
"That little girl in the room back there." Misty explained. "Was she lost, or just some girl who likes to play here?"
"I honestly have no idea what you're talking about." Dawn told her.
"Hey, if you ladies like cute, and I know you probably do, check out this picture." Bolt interrupted as he handed Misty the open photo album he was looking at and pointed to a certain picture.
Misty went pale when she saw the picture and almost dropped the photo album. The picture that Bolt showed her was very old, perhaps over fifty years. Yet it showed the very same little girl that Dawn had been talking to earlier.
"Hey, you okay Misty?" Dawn asked. "You look like you've seen a ghost."
Before Misty could respond in any way, a scream was heard from downstairs. Ash and the others quickly rushed out of the room to see what was wrong. When they finally got downstairs to the main hall, they saw a frightened looking Lisa standing behind Marie and Zoroark.
"What happened?" Ash asked.
"Nothing, Lisa was started by a wild Ghastly." Marie informed him. "Zoroark managed to scare it off. Sorry to worry you."
"Did… did you find candles?" Lisa asked as she regained her composure.
"We found a whole box upstairs that looked like they haven't been used." Bolt told her. "Plus a few kerosene lanterns that might have some juice left in 'em."
"Bolt, why don't you go back up and get the candles and the lanterns?" Ash suggested. "When you get back we should probably have dinner."
"Check, be back in a flash." Bolt said as he headed back upstairs.
"You know what? In might be fun to have dinner in that big dinning room I saw down here earlier." Dawn suggested. "Especially with those candles lit."
"Hey, that's not a bad idea." Ash agreed. "What do you think Misty?"
"Um, sure. Sounds good." Misty agreed, though the dinning arrangements were far from her mind.
A few minutes later, the whole gang was sitting at the long dinning room table eating a simple meal that Marie had prepared. The light of a few candles dimly lighted the room. And the once white tablecloth spread over the long table had yellowed with age and been filled with holes. The raging storm outside and combined with the age of the whole room somewhat shattered the intimate atmosphere of the room. There had been little conversation during the meal, and both Misty and Lisa seemed to have very little appetite.
"So…" Dawn began in an attempt to start a conversation. "Could you imagine what it would've been like to have dinner in a room like this every evening?"
"You mean without all the creepy?" Bolt asked.
"Well yeah, obviously." Dawn told him.
"A couple of us don't have to imagine." Bolt replied. "Bolt Lisa and Marie are loaded, so I'm sure this isn't new to them."
"You two are rich?" Dawn asked Lisa and Marie.
"My family owns a successful company in Hoenn that makes technology for deep sea exploration. And Lisa's father runs it." Marie explained. "But for the record, Lisa has spent much of her time traveling the world as a trainer and has rarely gone home. And as for me… let's just say I've lived a hard life up until now."
"What do you mean by that?" Dawn asked.
"It's a long story that'd I'd prefer not to get into." Marie told her.
"…What do you think happened to the people who used to live here?" Misty suddenly asked after a brief pause.
"Oh, well there have been a few stories about that." Bolt told her. "It's part of the whole ghost story thing. But the gist of it is that there was this family that one day just up and disappeared."
"There's more to it than that." Dawn suddenly cut in. "From one story I heard, they say that the family that lived here was murdered."
There was another pause after Dawn's little correction. At that particular moment lightning flashed outside the window with a loud crash of thunder.
"What… what happened to them?" Lisa asked with a tone of fear in her voice.
"Well, from the story I heard, this house used to belong to a rich couple and their little girl." Dawn began. "One day the couple went on a trip and left their daughter in the care of the butler. But the butler killed the little girl, and they say he cut up her body and burned it in the furnace. They say the butler did it to get his hands on the family fortune. Then when the couple came back, the butler killed them and got rid of their bodies the same way he got rid of the little girl's."
"…Did they ever catch the butler for what he did?" Misty asked.
"In the story I heard, because the police never found the bodies they assumed that the whole family just disappeared." Dawn continued. "But the rest of the story says that the butler was haunted by the ghost of the little girl. In the end he became so wracked with guilt that he hung himself. Now to this day it's said that the ghosts of both the little girl and the butler can be seen walking the halls of this very house."
There was another pause with the end of Dawn's story. In that moment there was another big flash of lightning outside accompanied by another equally loud crash of thunder.
"But, it's only a story." Dawn pointed out with a smile.
"Well, it doesn't look like that storm is going to let up anytime soon." Ash observed. "Looks like we're stuck here for the night. Why don't we go out to the main hall for a bit?"
"Sounds good to me." Misty concurred. The rest of the group nodded in agreement and got up from the table.
As Misty was following the others out of the room, she glanced back behind her as the lightning flashed yet again. When the lightning flashed, Misty thought she briefly saw a tall and very slender old man with sheet white skin wearing a butler's uniform. Misty tried to brush the image off as a trick of the light and quickly went to catch up with the others.
Author's Note: So the version of the Old Chateau in this story is closer to the version that appears in the games rather than the anime. I've never played Diamond, Pearl, or Platinum, but I have read about the Old Chateau a few times and know about the "ghosts" that dwell there. I ended up making a little story about what caused those ghosts to haunt the house. But I should point out that not everything in this story is as it seems.
Please review and let me know what you think.