~Chapter Three~

My heart dropped to my stomach when I realized someone was in the room with me. I went all the way downstairs for nothing, Brendan was in my room the whole time. I reached for the light switch, in an effort to scare him. But he wasn't the one that was scared.

The light filled the room, but it wasn't the only thing. I was face to face with a Mightyena standing upright, brushing its giant ears against the ceiling. It had shining red eyes and horribly long claws. It wasn't a normal Mightyena. It was ten times as terrifying.

I was paralyzed with fear. I couldn't move at all. My eyes were locked on the giant beast that stood in front of me. I wanted to turn off the light, but the switch seemed so far away. The beast finally made the first move, toward me. Its paws and nails scraped against the wood floor and made a hideous noise. I stood my ground, I didn't move. The thing got closer and closer until I felt its warm breath blowing my hair.

Suddenly, I heard a howling outside. Obviously the beast heard it too cause it turned its head to the window. Luckily, I always had it wide open. The thing jumped over to the window then jumped out. My knees gave out as I fell to the ground and fainted.

"May? May, wake up!" I opened my eyes to find that I was in Brendan's arms. The memory of last night suddenly rushed into my head. I wrapped my arms around Brendan's neck and held onto him.

"Brendan! There was something in the house last night! It was horrible!" I began to cry a little as my voice got hysterical.

"It's okay, it's okay..." He squeezed me back and held me.

"No, it's not! It was awful and it would have attacked me if it hadn't left!"

"Why did it leave? What happened?"

"I was looking for you and-" I pulled away to look at him. "Where did you go last night?"

"What do you mean?"

"You weren't in your bed last night when I woke up. You were gone, and that made me go downstairs."

"Yeah, I went back to talk to my dad cause my head was hurting. I figured it was a symptom, so I went over to talk to him and ended up falling asleep in the lab. I just got back and found you on the floor."

My mind instantly shifted. "Are you okay? What did your dad say?"

"Well, first he said that I was freaking myself out. Almost like thinking too much. I think that's what it was. As soon as I put my head down I kept running what happened through my head, then I got a killer headache. But I feel fine now."

"Are you sure?" He nodded. "Okay then, but I can't explain what I saw."

"I wouldn't doubt that you were having a nightmare. Remember when we were kids and you always used to sleepwalk and end up in the kitchen or in my bed?"

He was right. From the time that I can remember, I've had a sleepwalking problem. Since I was eight years old, Brendan and I had always slept in the same room.

"It just felt so real..." My head was spinning.

"You always say that. Everything's going o be fine."

"Alright," I got up out of Brendan's arms. "I think I'll go make breakfast."

"Sounds great!"

We decended the stairs together to see an empty kitchen and a note. I approached the table and read my mother's scribbles.

"Well," I said, "Looks like mom went out to Lilycove city..."

"It's probably for the better. You know how she hates you sleepwalking."

"That's probably why she left... I remember being downstairs last night." I groaned, "That dream was just so incredibly real!"

"Don't worry about it," he poured me a glass of berry juice. "You'll be fine. You know what though, I'm really not that hungry..."

"Yeah, something is making me loose my appetite."

"Maybe we should just-" Suddenly my navigator rang upstairs. I slammed my glass on the table and ran upstairs. My navigator was in my bed in case it rang during the night.

"Hello?" I answered it out of breath.

"Hello May! It's Birch, can you two come down to my lab. It will only take a second."

"We'll be right there!" I hung up and started to pull my clothes on. "Brendan! Get dressed!"

My heart was racing as we got to the lab, mainly cause I never stopped running. Brendan had a hard time keeping up with me.

"Hello, again," Birch greeted us. He seemed cheerful, so I figured he had good news. "The funniest thing happened last night."

"You don't say..." Brendan wheezed.

"Yeah, I was doing research when suddenly my computer completely shut down. I tried booting it back up, but it wouldn't respond to anything. So I went outside and found that all the wires had been chewed up," he laughed. "I can't tell you how many of those wires I've been through."

"What chewed it?" I asked.

"Well, I can't be sure. Usually it's a Zigzagoon or a Poochyena. I caught them a few times, but not this time. Anyway, I wanted to tell you that so far I found nothing. Honestly. But, pokemon bites are all different. If you would have been bitten by something poisonous, it would have festered, not healed. A paralysis pokemon would have had an instant effect. Same with one that would have caused you to sleep. So, I don't think you had any status effects," he laughed. "Brendan, I think the best thing you can do is not dwell on it. If you start to feel funny just come to me. Now, I'm giving you two permission to leave town, but I still want May with you always."

"Not a problem," I said. I was very disappointed that Birch found nothing. I really wanted the chance to say "I told you so."

When we left the lab, we stopped by my house to grab our things, then heading into Route 101. I had a rough idea of where I wanted to go.

"Let's go to Meteor Falls! We haven't been there in years!" I was trying to get over everything that had happened in the last couple of nights.

"Alright, that sounds fun!" Brendan released his Skarmory and once again pulled me up with one arm. It was so weird. Usually he made this big deal about how heavy I was. But now he lifts me up no problem. I decided not to say anything, how would I mention it?

We landed in Rustboro city. After the flight, I had to admit that I was hungry. Especially since I calmed down a little. We stopped at a resturant and planned out our trip inside of Meteor Falls.

It was actually much different being there for training then fighting to get through it. The last time we were here, we were trying to collect badges. Now that we were here again, it looked more beautiful than I imagined.

"This is great!" I said as we walked through the sand.

"I know, I don't remember it being so cool," Brendan said fixing his eyes on the waterfalls. "So what do you want to do?"

"I don't know..." I really didn't. "You want to search for some trainers?"

"I guess."

We actually didn't find any trainers. But we did manage to walk the entire length of the cave. Eventually, we sat down on the sand against a wall to rest. I rested my head gently on Brendan's shoulder, I was completely beat. After a while, I heard his snoring softly. I laughed a little as my mind began to wonder. I was trying to think of where to go next when something caught my eye across the cave.

I got up carefully and quietly. When I finally got over to the sparkly stone, I dusted it off to reveal it as a moon stone. I picked it up and put it in my bag. I figured it would be a cool thing to hold on to.

Brendan began to stir. "What's up?"

"Nothing," I answered. "I found a moon stone. So I wanted to pick it up."

"Oh," he stood up and stretched. "So you have any idea how to get out of here?"

"I guess so, I think we should head this way." I could see light up above us. It just took a little climbing.

Finally we got to the light, but it was just another part of the cave that was much lighter. It was moon light I was seeing. "Brendan, I'm thinking we should set up camp. I don't think I have the energy to make it out of here tonight."

"Yeah, no problem. I'm starting to get a headache anyway."

"You are? Are you okay? Should we call your dad?"

"No, no, I just think we should get some rest."

"Alright, fine." I decided not to talk about it further. Birch did say that not to dwell on it. We sent up camp on a dry part of the sand. Because of our adventuring, I was out withing seconds of laying down.