Chapter 3

When we arrived in Lavender Town, it wasn't the Silent Hill-esque place that Professor Bonsai said it would be. I mean, the town was lavender. He wasn't wrong about that. But the town also seemed very...orange.

A festival raged right near our van, people cheering, dancing, singing, playing carnival games or buying things from booths lined up from one end of the town to the other. All the booths were decorated with purple and orange streamers, and a parade walked through the middle of the road, also with floats adorned with orange and purple. They all seemed to be floats related to things of the dead; skulls, skeletons (human and Pokemon), graveyards, crosses-they had everything you could think up. Halloween colors were everywhere, seeing as how it was close to Halloween.

"They must really love Halloween, huh?" I said.

"Hm? Oh, yes! Lavenderans love Halloween-no, they positively ADORE it!" Bonsai smiled.

"But...why?"

"Didn't I tell you already? This place holds this region's BIGGEST Pokemon cemetary! The people of this town are very religious and believe in the afterlife deeply! They celebrate the dead all the time here, especially when Halloween comes around, since it is the day the spirits of the dead are said to return to the living world for a short period of time." Bonsai sighed with content as he looked upon the parade. "You know, this town is named after lavenders because originally, way back when this town was founded, lavenders were the only flowers on hand at the time to bury the dead with..."

Zack didn't stick around long enough to hear Bonsai's little history lesson as he dashed into the huge Halloween party. "I'mgonnagolookaroundisthatokayyeahitisokaybye"

The Professor looked to me. "Well? Don't you wanna go have fun?"

"...Are you sure I can go?"

"Of course! I brought you here to have fun, Boove!" Bonsai smiled and winked at me.

I smiled back and ran into the crowd. There were a lot of people laughing and cheering as the floats drove by. One particular float was Day of the Dead themed, and girls in bright orange spanish dresses either danced on the float or held baskets of candied skulls that would be given to children as they passed by. One girl with golden blond hair met her baby blue eyes with mine and ran over to me to give me a candied skull. She smiled, and teeth like pearls shined through. The girl was so pretty she was positively dazzling. It was inhuman how beautiful she was...I mean, it is the Day of the Dead, after all. She could be dead. I never knew being dead meant being movie-star beautiful.

I blushed and took the candy from her. (Sorry, mom.) "T-Thank you..."

The girl winked at me and ran back into the crowd. There were tons of other floats, too-one dedicated to ghost-type Pokemon, one that had the names of every Pokemon buried in Lavender Town carved into it, and one that was dedicated entirely to one Marowak for some reason...? I wasn't quite sure why, but even so the parade was quite the party. I wondered why I hadn't heard of this event before.

"Yo! Champ in the making!"

I turned around to see where the voice was coming from.

"Yeah, you! Come here!"

I looked behind me to see a girl in a small purple booth tucked in between two bigger orange booths. I walked up to her and I saw she had long purple hair, wore a matching Victorian style dress and had dark eyes. A crystal ball sat in front of her, and she had mystical items for sale such as dream-catchers and good-luck charms. I soon realized what Trainer class this girl was in. "You're a Hex Maniac, huh?"

The girl nodded. "Give me your hand."

"Hm? What are you-"

"Don't worry, foolish mortal girl, I will not curse you. Just give your hand."

I awkwardly put my hand out for her. She read my palm and made a sound of approval. "You have a bright future ahead of you. Your Pokemon will become great friends with you, and you have the potential to become a Master Trainer." The smile on the girl's face faded. "However...dark clouds swirl over your future. If you do not act fast and clear them, darkness is sure to curse your happy future."

"Really..." I said in disbelief.

The Hex Maniac looked around like she was trying to make sure no one was listening. "You know...strange things have been happening around this town. The spirits are growing restless."

"Uh-huh..."

"Believe me, mortal girl! Their graves have been disturbed and they seek revenge. These spirits are a part of the dark clouds looming over your future! Beware; if you do not leave this town soon, you will become a victim of the ghosts searching for vengeance!"

"...I suppose you're going to ask for a tip know, huh?"

"Why am I the one telling you your future? You seem to know the future already!"

The girl looked at me with puppy eyes, and she guilted me into slipping her a buck. She laughed happily as I walked away. "But within all honesty, human girl! Beware! Bewaaaaaaare!"

"Yeah, sure..."

...

After Zack had ransacked all of the places in the festival you could get candy, he finally came back to meet up with me and Professor Bonsai at a small cafe for lunch. No one but us were in there, I guess since everyone else was outside. A petite waitress came up to us. "Can I take your order?"

Professor Bonsai blushed. "Um...I...uh..." I elbowed him. "Oh! I-I'll have the Daily Special, please!"

After the girl had finished taking our orders and walked away, Bonsai leaned in to whisper to me. "Oh my god, did you SEE her?!"

"What, are you into her?"

"SHHHHHHH! Don't say too loud! This place is super quiet! She could hear!"

"Sorry!"

"Anyways...I've been by this place a couple of times and seen her. Do you think I should ask for her number?"

"I guess it couldn't hurt to ask."

"How should I say it? Should I crack a joke to break the ice?"

"Well, gimme an example of one of your jokes."

"'Are you from Tennessee, 'cuz you're the only ten I see!'"

I inhaled deeply and bit my lip.

"What? Is it a no-go area?"

"...Yeah."

"Then what do I do?!"

I'll laughed nervously. "Be yourself! You'll be fine!"

Bonsai groaned. "I can't just-"

"-Here's your order!"

The Professor gasped in surprise as the waitress set the food on the table. He looked up at the woman, opening his mouth to say something, catching the waitress' attention, but then got to nervous to speak. The waitress just smiled back and walked away.

Bonsai buried his face in his hands. "Ugh, I'm such a dumbass."

"Well...we can try again!"

"What if she says no?"

"Like I said, there's no harm simply asking! If she says no, who cares? There are plenty of other fish in the sea."

"Oh, now you're using the 'other fish in the sea' charade on me, huh?"

I cringed. "I'm sorry, I know it sounds really cliche, but I-"

Suddenly, Bonsai patted me on the back. "Don't sweat it, kid. I was just joking."

"Oh...whoops..."

"You know, you seem like a really good kid, Brave."

"HA! So you DO know my name!"

"Dang it, it just slipped out!"

Zack groaned. "Where's my food?..."

Later after everybody was done with their meals, we went with Bonsai to check into a motel for the night. This would be the end of his short time be generous, however, because he said after tonight we all would be winging it, either camping outside or sleeping in the van because if were traveling around in the wild trying to catch Pokemon there would be no hotels to rest at. I had a hard time believing him, since I was sure he just didn't want to spend tons of money every night renting us a room. I couldn't blame him though.

While we were walking to the motel, I saw people dancing and cheering outside of a tall building. It took me moment to realize they weren't cheering-they were rioting, yelling things like "This is cruelty to the dead!" or "If you were buried, you wouldn't want your grave to be ruined!"

The Professor tsked. "They're still protesting, even on a day as festive as this."

"What are they upset over?" I asked.

"Remember how I told you this town has a great respect of the dead? Well, that building over there, Pokemon Tower, was once where all the graves of deceased Pokemon were, and then they were all plucked out so that the tower could be turned into a radio tower. The graves were moved to a place called the House of Memories, but now the graves are being moved again by the same people who did it last time, and they're planning to tear down the house to build a huge shopping center while the bodies of dead Pokemon are being reburied in a small corner in of this town since no other spots are free."

"That doesn't seem so bad."

"But that's not it," Bonsai continued, "the corner is so small that the Pokemon won't even get their own graves. Basically, what they're going to do is dig up a huge hole and then toss the bodies on top of each other. Then they'll throw some dirt back on top of the Pokemon, like they're burying trash in a landfill." The Professor sighed sadly. "They're carting out the bodies as we speak."

"Oh."

"No wonder they're pissed." Zack said, biting into some cotton candy he got from a booth.

Suddenly, a man in a fancy magenta suit walked out of the front doors of the radio building. Two men walked alongside him, obviously looking like the man's bodyguards since they both were dressed in dark suits and wore dark sunglasses. They were super tall and strong looking, and when the protesters booed and tried to yell at the rich dude, the two bodyguards would scare them off.

"That's Alonzay Magenta," Bonsai said, pointing at the blond man in a fancy dark pink suit. "He's the guy behind all this 'grave ruining' business. He tells the public that the reason he's doing all of this construction is because he wants to make good things for the people of this town, but I think it's obvious that's not the real reason."

"He seems to be making a ton of money off of this."

"If you can make money off of 'grave ruining', then if I piss on a grave will I become a millionaire like him?" Zack laughed.

The Professor stared at Zack in disgust. "Dude." Zack just shrugged and went along on his merry way.

...

Dear Mama and Dad,

It's only been a day that I've been away as I'm writing this letter, and I already miss you 's been weird, but it's been fun, too. The Professor is a little...shall we say, "different", but he's nice. It turns out that this other kid named Zack is working to be a Trainer too, and he's being chaperoned with me, so we're stuck together. He doesn't seem to be all too interested in how other people feel, though. Can you get Dad to come beat him up for me?

Love, Brave

P.S ; I caught a Pokemon! It's an Eevee, and it's really low level, but I'll work on it.

I licked the tip of the envelope to seal the letter in, and then I slipped the envelope into my bag. I looked back inside the room where Bonsai and Zack were sleeping on the beds. I was thankful that Bonsai was sane enough (at the moment, anyways) to get us decent motel. I sat outside in the hallway, holding the Poke Ball that held the Eevee. I couldn't wait to use it battle.

A roll of thunder roared outside the building. A storm must have been starting. What a great thing to happen in a town supposedly filled with apparently angry ghosts. Guess that Hex Maniac was right about something, at least...

...

A shadow crawled across the walls of Lavender Town, skulking around, searching for the place. It came to a bright little house, the only place in town at this time of night still alive with its lights on. Two men carried mutiple boxes that looked like miniature coffins out of the house and threw them into the back of a truck where they would be carted away to a place they obviously should not be.

"Hey!" One of the men shouted to the other. "Be careful with those! Have some respect for the dead!"

"Who cares? They're dead."

"That's the point, asshole."

This is the place. The shadow thought to herself. She, without one of the men noticing, put a hand on his shoulder.

The other man gasped. "Th-there's..."

"Hm? What?"

"There's a white hand on your shoulder..."

"Huh? Oh, sure. You're just trying to scare me 'cuz I set your little dead friends down too hard."

"No...I think we should leave..."

"Why? Mr. Magenta said we needed to get all of these bodies out of here before morning, and we're not even close to being-"

The white hand went from the man's shoulder to his neck, crushing it with inhuman strength. The man fell to the ground, blacking out as the other man screamed and took off running. The shadow girl decided to let him live. At least he respected the dearly departed.

The girl became more visible as she turned to speak to the other spirits behind her. Long, wispy purple hair trailed down her back, and a matching Victorian dress blended in with the darkness. Dark eyes that looked as if they hadn't got sleep in years stared widely back at the souls of the dead Pokemon floating from out of their coffins to greet the shadowy ghost girl.

The girl grinned an evil smile. "So...do you wish for revenge, my friends?"

The spirits nodded and squeaked in agreement.

The ghost laughed in response. "Well, then...I will give you the power to do so."

The Pokemon giggled and cheered, until the girl held up her hand. "But...you must do something in exchange for your gift. If I give you your revenge, you must promise to search the land for my special one."

The spirits looked confused. The girl sighed. "I passed long ago, and I couldn't find my special one before I died. They said they would meet me in the usual place we would meet in, but I...I couldn't find my special one...now I ask you for this favor. Since I am confined to haunt only the places I lived in during my time in the living world, I cannot search for my special one in other places. I will finally be at rest when I find the right one. And since you are Pokemon that lived in other parts of this world until you died and were brought here to be buried, you can search in the places you once lived in for my special one. So...do we have a deal?"

The spirits nodded eagerly, and the girl smiled. She raised her hands up in the air, and the spirits began to glow. "Now, my dearly departed...be free!"

Hundreds of lights of different colors shot across the night sky, illuminating the darkness. Some of the spirits stayed in Lavender Town to get revenge on the humans that ruined their resting places, while others simply wanted to help the girl find her "special one" and rocketed to other parts of the land to begin the search. But most of the spirits broke their promise and didn't plan to search for the "special one"-they just wanted the power to torture the living for fun, and off they went to other regions to do just that.

The ghost girl from Lumiose City did not know this, however-but she was delighted to see the souls travel across the sky as a thunderstorm broke out, lightning being one of the many lights that shot across the clouds. Living in Lavender Town as a small child, then moving to the Hoenn Region, and then finally meeting her "special one" in Lumiose City before dying, the ghost girl didn't really have quite that many places available to look for the "one". But maybe someone could find the one for her...