Lachlan and Florian were running down a grassy hill, emerald blades spreading in every direction, swaying in the wind with a rustling whisper. Lachlan was laughing, leaping from tussock to tussock, jumping in the air as high as his legs could carry him, inhaling the sweet cold smell of the wind. Behind him, Florian bounced as fast as he could, crying, "Bell! Bell!" as he tried to keep up.

"Come on, slowpoke!" Lachlan shouted with a laugh. "I'll beat you to the bottom." He ran on, his feet pounding against the ground with satisfying thumping noises, the green slope zooming past underneath him until it became nothing more than a green blur, his eyes fixed on the destination, every muscle in his body straining to propel him faster and faster.

At last he reached the end of the slope and he cheered, raising his arms in the air, his legs slowing down and releasing their built-up momentum, until he threw himself down on the grass and lay there, panting for breath.

After half a minute or so, he picked himself up again and turned around with a big grin on his face. "I beat you, I beat you!" he announced happily to Florian – but Florian wasn't there.

"Florian?" he called, taking a step forward, then another. He ran up the hill a little way. "Florian! Where are you?" The grassy slope was empty. Puzzled, he turned around again and saw, with a jolt of surprise, three shadowy figures standing behind him.

It was his parents and Blaine, but something was wrong. They were all wearing black robes and their eyes were red. Blaine was holding a bundle in her arms.

"Mom? Dad? " He took a step towards them. "Blaine? What're you guys doing? What's going on?"

"Lachlan," said his mother, "you've been a bad boy. A very bad boy."

"What?" said Lachlan. "But… I didn't do anything."

His father said, "Bad boys like you must be punished. Blaine?"

Blaine stepped forward, moving closer to Lachlan. She hissed, "Why should you get to have a pokemon, when I haven't got one?" She opened the bundle and let it drop to the ground.

It was Florian. He was dead. Someone had slashed off his leaves and torn open his rubbery yellow belly. Green, sticky sap was oozing everywhere and his eyes were staring at nothing.

Lachlan screamed.

"This is your fault," Blaine said.

Lachlan opened his eyes, sick to his stomach. He struggled up, and a heavy blanket fell from him. He was sitting in a large bed in a strange room.

So it was only a dream. A deep feeling of relief washed over him. Florian wasn't dead, he was still alive. It had just been a stupid dream.

Gradually, the feeling of relief became replaced by one of fear and uncertainty. He was in a strange room, in a house he had never seen before. He was all alone. He didn't know where Florian or his family were. And he felt… bad. There was something bad here, something in the air like a bad smell, except that it wasn't something that could be smelt, touched, seen or heard. It was a different sense that was making him uneasy. Something was watching him.

Slowly, he eased out of the bed and crept along the warm wooden floorboards. He reached the door and turned the doorknob ever so gently. For a long while he stood there, afraid to open the door, sure that something would jump out from behind it and get him. Eventually, he gathered up his courage and pulled it open a crack.

Nothing happened, so he opened the door a little wider, then wider still. Behind the door was a short dark corridor. He slowly walked through it and found two other doors leading off it, and a flight of stairs. Cautiously, he held onto the banister and descended the stairs, step by step until he reached the bottom. At the bottom he found a wide living room with sofas, cushions, a big carved wooden box, a reading table and a merrily burning fireplace. To the side of the room was a wide archway leading into a dining room. Inside the dining room was a wooden table covered with a white lacy cloth, and sitting at the table was a woman in a bright red silk kimono.

"Hello, Lachlan," she said. "I've been waiting for you."

Lachlan paused at the archway, hesitant to go inside. The woman's voice was cool, low and soothing. Actually it was barely more than a whisper, so he couldn't tell if it was a man or woman's voice, but he assumed it was a woman's, because the kimono was in a feminine style. He couldn't see her face, either, because it was covered by a bone-white mask with two black holes for eyes, and red lines trailing down like tears, red as blood, red as her kimono.

The woman scared him. Although her voice was kind, there was something about her that made the hairs rise on the back of his neck. The creepy feeling that had been with him since he'd awoken in the bed only grew stronger in the woman's presence. This whole house felt dark and evil, and somehow he knew that the dark feeling was connected to the woman in the red kimono, like she was a spider who had spun a web of darkness into this whole house, and he was a fly who had blundered into her trap, and now she was sitting at the centre waiting to pull him in and devour him.

"Don't be afraid, my dear Lachlan," said the woman. "My name is Aunty Shikyo. Come, you must be hungry." She raised her right hand, and a tray of food suddenly appeared on the end of the table opposite to her and closest to Lachlan. The cover floated off the tray and set itself down on the table, revealing hot, steaming dishes of bread, soup, meat, fish and eggs.

"How did you do that?" Lachlan asked, his curiosity momentarily overriding his fear.

The woman modestly held her right sleeve up to cover her masked mouth as she gave a little laugh. "Aunty Shikyo has many secrets. And in Aunty's house, everything follows her rules. Now, sit and eat your meal before it gets cold."

The food looked so good, and Lachlan's stomach was pinched from hunger, but the sense of danger kept him lingering at the archway.

"I said, sit," Aunty insisted.

Suddenly, Lachlan's legs began moving of their own accord, carrying him straight to the dining table. A cry escaped his mouth and he tried to stop himself, but his body ignored his wishes and kept on moving until he reached the table and sat down in a wooden chair.

"Good," said the woman. "Good boys always do as they're told. It's rude to keep Aunty waiting, and we wouldn't want to be rude, would we? I know you're a good boy, Lachlan. Now eat."

Lachlan was really scared now, but he didn't want Aunty to mess with his body again, so he picked up a fork and spoon and began to shovel food into his mouth. There was roasted miltank steak, doduo drumsticks and eggs, braised magikarp, oddish-leaf soup and milk and apple juice to wash it all down. While he ate, the woman sat absolutely still at other end of the table, her white mask impassive. He ate continuously for ten minutes, and it felt good to fill the aching emptiness in his stomach. When he was finished, the tray floated up a few feet into the air and vanished.

"Good," said the woman. "You feel better now, don't you, Lachlan?"

"How do you know my name?" he asked.

"Aunty knows many things."

"Where am I? What am I doing here? Where's my family?"

"So many questions. My dear Lachlan, there are some bad people out there who want to hurt you. That's why Aunty brought you to her house, to keep you safe and look after you. As for your family, I'm afraid they don't want you any more."

"What? That's not true."

"Isn't it? Mummy and Daddy don't have any time to spend with Lachlan, do they? And your sister Blaine hates you. She doesn't want an annoying little brat tagging after her, does she? She's always telling you how stupid you are, and she even hit you. Why, she hates you."

"I… no… how do you know about my family?"

The woman raised her sleeve to her mouth to laugh again. "Aunty Shikyo knows many things. She can see into your heart and into your dreams."

Dreams. That reminded him. "Where's my weepinbell, Florian?"

"Oh... Poor Florian." The woman shook her head. "He's not feeling very good at the moment. He's sick."

"What?" Lachlan demanded, half rising from his seat. "What's wrong with him? Where is he?"

"He's nearby, resting. You can see him later, if you're a good boy."

So Florian was somewhere close. That was good. Lachlan would find him, grab him and get out of this creepy house and away from Aunty Shikyo.

"You can see Florian, if you're a good boy," said the woman. "If you're a good boy, and do whatever Aunty asks you to, and stay inside this house so that Aunty can protect you from the bad people out there who want to hurt you. But if you're a bad boy, if you don't listen to Aunty, or try to run away, then you won't be able to see Florian after all. Why, he might even be so sad that he won't ever get better. He might just get sicker and sicker and die. And maybe the same will happen to you. And won't that be sad? So be a good boy, because Aunty will know if you're not. Aunty can see into your heart and dreams. She always knows."

On the walls, the shadows flickered and danced, curiously alive.