The pond was larger than it looked from the car up close. It had lots of white water lillies covering most of it, too. And he hadn't noticed a small river flowing out of it. Maybe it was natural? That made it more interesting. It smelled of plants and slightly like pond water, but it didn't stink like the ponds he'd seen before at Saffron City. There was a big rock on the other side too! He would have to cross some tall grass to get there. Seemed exciting. It was so quiet he could only hear himself breathing and his footsteps creaking the tall grass. Somehow, he couldn't see any living being other than the plants, which was weird in a pond.
-Gary!
Did the pond smell so much like mud before, or is it because he had run to the very edge of it? The voice was eerily familiar too, but, it couldn't be! ...Could it?
-Dad?
-Gary, we've missed you so much! -his mom and dad appeared to be swimming in the pond, yet he could only see the water ripples in the middle of it.
-Mom! Where are you?
-We're here, Gary dear! - They dove up again. There they were smiling at him from the middle of the water, surrounded by white lillies. A few tears started to blurr Gary's vision. He wiped them quickly, as he was afraid they'd disappear the second he couldn't see them.
-I'm coming! Don't go again, please! - The child put one foot inside the water, testing the depth.
He could see up to his parent's waists, so maybe it wouldn't be a tiring swim. Oddly enough, there had been white earth lillies around their coffins... and he could only see their bodies up to the waist during the funeral as well... he found this assosiation unsettling, but continued anyway... he'd missed them so much!
But the water smelled worse from the inside of the pond. Something wasn't right; his parents were smiling, laughing and beconning him, and didn't seem to have noticed they'd been out of his life for an entire week. He was already knee deep when he noticed this, and stood still all of a sudden.
-Hey... are you my parents? Who was in the coffin then? - it hurt him to ask that, but did ghosts appear at daytime too?
-Of course we are, Gary! -his father's voice had never sounded this cave-like, either... but it had been normal just a moment ago! What was going on?
-Don't you want a balloon? We brought one for you... - now mom sounded a bit like a man... Gary didn't remember that.
He then realized something was seriously wrong, and remembered the clown from the day before. One step backwards, without getting the eyes off the sort of ghosts of his deceased family. Another one... and as he was about to get the last footstep out of the water, a lily root shaped like a hand wrapped around his left ankle and pulled him down.
Gary screamed in terror as he tripped and lay face down on the sticky, greenish, bubbling mud, but nothing reacted; not even a bird flew away scared by the noise. He was all alone, and it seemed he wasn't strong enough to drag himself through the mud, which worked like a quicksand and threatened to get him into the water, and after a while without breathing, below the ground. His hands were getting stiff from the cold water and earth covering them. He hoped that maybe, just maybe, his real parents would come to help him, so he turned his head to the middle of the pond to see if they'd appeared again, but he only saw the owner of the plant-like hand: a skelleton covered in mud, lama and lily roots.
- When you're down here with us, you'll float like us too! - it called in his father's voice in glee
Gary, after disolving his last hope for help in a torrent of tears, saw a sharp stone right before the lower half of his body had been dragged into the water.
Enraged a monster was using his dad's image, he cut the lily "hand" off his leg and it let go of him with a shrieck of animalisitc pain. The child dragged himself into the tall grass to hide, and in the pond, instead of his parents, he saw the clown from the trashcan standing on the lilypads. He was laughing with his big, blood-red painted smile at him, pointing his white gloved index finger. Next thing, the clown jumped into the water in slow motion with some balloons in hand and waved goodbye. He sank in a spiral. When he was gone, Gary could still hear his sinister laugh. He chose to remain hidden behind some bushes for a bit more. Else, another hand would probably be coming to get him down into the coffin water.
After a while, around the time the sun starts to go down, birds started chirping again, and some frogs could be heard. Gary stood up with caution. No trace of the evil ghoul or whatever it was. He sighed in relief, but it didn't last long, because he heard footsteps behind him.
He turned around in rage, but it turned into joy and relief again, because it was a Poliwag. It was wagging its tail like it wanted to play.
