I gulped, unable to do anything but stare straight forward as the semi-familiar Pokémon hovered behind me. Though I couldn't see it (note I'm mentally forcing myself to call the mysterious creature 'it' rather than he, though he did have an inherently masculine voice when he spoke inside my head), the rising hair on the nape of my neck told me it was, indeed, there. Despite the fact that he hadn't been visible, I now realized that, contrary to my earlier beliefs, it had never left my side. I supposed, being a ghost, it must have the ability to consciously make its presence detectable or not.

"Yeah, probably not, but I thought you left me, Ghost." I murmured, my voice sharply cracking as I said its name. A hollow, humorless laugh resounded in my head, causing me to feel as if my brain itself was shaking with fear from the noise. I didn't see any reason to laugh.

'Oh, I'll never leave you.'

Ever heard that phrase, 'it's not what you say but how you say it'? Something about the stressed syllables in 'never' made me queasy.

"I-Is that so?" Again my voice betrayed my fear. It didn't matter much, though; since he seemed to be telekinetic, or at the very least able to get inside my head, Ghost was probably already aware of my rising fear. It was obvious enough that he frightened me. "Well… I appreciate that. I c-could use your strength on my team." I stated truthfully, though I was honestly unable to tell whether I was happy he'd reappeared, or a little bit upset that I had to deal with how terrifying he was as he loomed over me and talked in my head.

'…'

Ghost didn't reply to my statement, but moved in front of me, the same creepy, ear-to-ear – or, what would be ear-to-ear, if he had any ears – smile on his face as before. My effort-free cardiac workout continued as he circled me once and then stopped behind me again, his chilling silence continuing as I gathered my bearings and tried to get my heart to beat at a normal rate again.

One good thing had come out of all of this; I was most certainly ready to battle that Bug Catcher now! With Ghost on my team, I was likely unstoppable! My chest heaved in a heavy sigh, and I shook my head rapidly for a second to clear my thoughts before marching towards the boy still quietly crouching by a nondescript tree. I could tell he was keeping watch for any Bug Pokémon that might show up, so it was fairly likely he would get angry and agree to a battle if I disturbed his focus – so, naturally, I did.

"Hey there! Let's battle!" I called, despite being quite close as I stood behind the shorter boy. The moment we made eye contact, our next actions were set. It was time for a Trainer Battle. After complaining about me scaring off the Wild Bug-Type Pokémon, he drew a PokéBall and tossed it out. I mirrored the action quickly, sending out my new Pikachu, Static, to try and toughen her up some. The first creature he sent into battle was a Weedle. It used Poison Sting on command, which didn't do much damage, and thankfully didn't poison my Pokémon. My trusty Pikachu tackled it, also doing very little damage. This pattern continued until Static was nearly too weak to fight; I withdrew her and let Bird take over, and the Flying-Type quickly took down the next Pokémon, a Metapod. The third was another Weedle, and partway through the battle I heard the familiar voice I still hadn't become accustomed to.

'Send me out.'

It was more of a command than a suggestion! Taken aback by the bluntness of Ghost, I obliged, pointing my finger forward and watching the Weedle begin trembling as I said, "Go on, Ghost, your turn! Return, Bird!" He swapped places with my Pidgey, the PokéBall in my hand sucking Bird back inside itself while my opponent's Pokémon quivered in absolute terror. No matter what command the Bug Trainer gave, it was too scared to move, and Ghost barely waited for my command of 'do your thing' when he blacked out my vision and I heard the pained cry of the horned insect.

Strangely, this time my vision didn't come back immediately afterward. Brows furrowing in confusion, I blinked a few times, though to no avail. What was it doing?

'There's still an attack to be made. We can leave, or you can tell me to finish this.'

It was bad etiquette to run from a Trainer Battle; naturally I'd go along. I'd only seen three balls connected to Bug-Boy's belt, but I wouldn't argue. Why would Ghost lie? "Alright, then! Attack, Ghost!" I called, my voice showing my confusion. This time, I didn't hear any Pokémon call – and that was when I realized that I'd never heard one to begin with, when the next Pokémon was supposedly sent out. When I regained my ability to see, the Bug Catcher had disappeared. Huh. What a sore loser. At least he'd left the money for the battle behind.

Picking up the coins off of the ground, I looked over at the floating Ghost. Its ghastly smile seemed even more smug than it typically did – which must have taken some effort! Curiously, I held out my hands, reaching forward as if cupping the strange Pokémon in mid-air as it hovered in front of my face. It moved closer, resting in my cupped palms. "Good job in that battle." I stated softly, wondering where my ghastly companion had come from, and why it had decided to follow me around rather than someone else.

'…'

Gently releasing it, I shot Ghost a smile and a thumbs-up in an attempt to get a positive reaction. Still I saw nothing in those blank, emotionless eyes. Turning away to hide my disappointed frown, I started further down the path. Ghost and I took on several more Trainers, each one running off at the end of the battle just as the previous ones had; the same strange occurrence where Ghost left my vision black until I confirmed a final attack also came with each of the battles.

Though it was strange, I chalked it up to them being children, even younger than I was, being typically childish. They left the money that the loser of a battle was always expected to pay, so there was nothing to really complain about; therefore, for the most part, I kept my mouth shut. Save a few angry mutterings under my breath, the rest of the walk through Viridian Forest was strangely silent. Previously heard insect noises had quieted down to a barely-there hum, and Pidgeys were no longer chirping in the trees. I pressed forward as fast as I could, glad to get out of the eerie woods once I set foot on Route 2.

Our next path was fairly straightforward. More Trainers appeared, more runaways occurred. This was too much, now… Something was wrong, and I could sense it. Was Ghost scaring them off while he kept my eyes blocked? "Ghost! What's going on? Why do they keep running off!" I demanded, stopping dead in my tracks and spinning on my heel to face the following spirit.

'They are not running off.'

What? That didn't make any sense, they were gone quickly and yet they weren't running off? "Well where are they going, then?"

'Blackness.'

Nausea bubbled in my abdomen, and my thoughts were once again moving faster than my brain could process. What could Ghost possibly mean by that? Was it making them blind, too? Or, perhaps, was he making me blind to them?

I made the mistake of not wanting to chase him off again, and refrained from asking the obvious question: was Ghost the one responsible for whatever was happening to the Trainers? I wasn't prepared to lose him, nor was I mentally strong enough to handle what I believed was the answer. I felt stupid, yes, but I was frightened. What if he did the same thing to me he had done to them? I might be naïve, but I wasn't stupid; positive was an understatement for how sure I was that he was involved.

But I was greedy.

I was selfish.

I wanted Ghost all to myself, and I wanted him to help me complete my Pokédex and one-up my number one rival, Blue. I knew what he'd done, and therefore what I'd done, was wrong, but I didn't care.

Winning was the only thing that mattered.