Here we are in the double digits, in terms of number of chapters posted. The chapter title comes from one of the most frightening stories I ever had to read for school; I think it was either 8th or 9th grade when we read it, so the fact that I can't remember which year shows my age.

Also, if there is a specific Pokemon species you'd like to appear in the story, just PM me here or on Discord and I'll find a place for it.

Thank you all for your support, and here's the chapter.

CODY HARVARD, 19

From the moment I was picked up by my parents and driven home from the Pastoria City courthouse, there was an unspoken understanding that things wouldn't be the same between us.

Yes, my mother and father still loved me unconditionally, or at least, I think they did; I can't speak for them. However, my actions had driven us apart, and it would take some time to mend this relationship.

Traffic was fairly heavy that morning, since it was a Monday. Since I wasn't the one driving, I had plenty of time to think about what I had done, just like I had in the jail cell. Really, the back seat of the car didn't feel much different than the cell, since in both cases I was trapped with nothing to do.

My mother, who wasn't the one driving, eventually turned to face me. By this time we were probably about halfway home.

"Look, Cody. I think I speak for both of us when I say that we're not mad at you."

"You've got a funny way of showing it, since you've been giving me the silent treatment ever since we saw each other in the courtroom" I replied grumpily. It wasn't the best tone to use against my parents, but my frustration wasn't really directed at them. Hopefully they understood that.

"We're not mad" my father said, not taking his eyes off the road, thus being a responsible driver. "We're just disappointed. We thought you could go through the semester without biting anyone; well, I guess we were wrong."

"I just don't understand. As far as I know, you never infected anyone over the last five years. You were always able to restrain yourself, and then you go off to college and attack another student two months in."

I felt the need to defend myself here, but make no mistake: It was hard to argue with my parents. They were my parents, after all.

"Something was different this time," I responded quietly. "The wolfsbane didn't work properly."

My mother raised an eyebrow at me. "Why didn't it work? That medicine is pretty well-tested, is it not?"

I dreaded telling my parents about the specific mistake I'd made, the one that had led to this chain of events. And yet, I owed them the truth. They'd been honest with me so many times, so it was time for me to return the favor.

"I didn't refrigerate the wolfsbane" I told them. "There's only one communal fridge in the residence hall, and anyone could have seen what the medicine was and instantly knew that I was a were-Lycanroc."

"But now the whole world knows anyway, or at least the whole Greater Pastoria region."

Thanks for reminding me, Mom. Just what I needed.

"Was my decision to hide the medicine a short-sighted one? Yes. Did it make sense to me at the time? Also yes. I think I can be forgiven for making bad choices once in a while; we all do."

"Well, Cody," my father said, "everyone makes mistakes, it is true. But this particular mistake is a pretty egregious one. I know you've had a lot of time to think about it, though, and…".

I could not resist the urge to snap back.

"Of course I've thought about it! That's all I did yesterday, and chances are that it's all I'm going to do today! I've got nothing else!"

Neither of my parents responded, which in itself sent a clear message. Their silence said more than any actual words could.

The message was the following: Maybe you should have thought of that before you did something that couldn't be undone. Maybe you need to be less impulsive. Maybe you need to be willing to sacrifice SOME pride in exchange for the rest of it.

We arrived home at last, which should have felt good. I should have been relieved that that night, I would get to sleep in my own bed. I'd get to have a home-cooked meal rather than the mediocre food in the dining hall. I'd get to experience a semblance of normalcy once again.

Alas, there was going to be no normalcy for me, not in the way I'd known it the last few years. Definitely not the way I'd known it before age fourteen.

The moment I entered the house, I immediately ran up to my bedroom and shut the door. I didn't have any desire to talk to my parents, even if self-isolation meant that I was effectively running away from my problems.

Running away would work, in the short term. But in the longer term, I could practically feel the giant two-headed Ekans breathing down my neck, reminding me that I could run from my demons, but I couldn't hide from them.

I would not be able to escape them forever. Indeed, I wouldn't be able to escape them for very long at all.

That day was even more interminable than the previous one. I might have only been in an official jail cell for one of those two days, but my home was effectively just that: A jail cell.

My father, in one of the few instances that afternoon where he said a word to me, told me that I'd been placed on house arrest as a condition of my bail. If this had come up during the arraignment hearing, I hadn't been paying close enough attention to hear it.

So here I was, a caged lion, or in this case a caged werewolf, pacing back and forth in my room. I didn't even have any homework to do, since Greater Pastoria University didn't anticipate me coming back. According to my mother, they had every intention of expelling me if I were convicted.

Although I was legally labelled as suspended, I considered myself an ejected student. It was this realization that led me to another observation.

When you're a student in middle or high school, or even elementary school, you often fantasize about not having to do any homework. School is the bane of your existence, but little did I know, I would miss it now that it was gone.

If a genie came by and let me have three wishes, I would wish for Bella and myself to be healed of our lycanthropy, and for myself to be unsuspended from GPU. Those are my greatest desires.

The lack of homework made me feel as though I had a lack of purpose. The day dragged on, but nothing was accomplished, and I began to feel lethargic from not doing anything.

What is going to happen to me? That question kept hitting me in the head like a hammer, as though I were a mole in that arcade game. My future was looking pretty bleak, no doubt about that.

After the afternoon faded into evening, I returned to the dining room to eat dinner with my parents. This in itself I dreaded, since, as stated above, I didn't want to face my mother and father any more than absolutely necessary.

To make matters worse, dinner tonight was steak. That might sound awesome, and steak was indeed one of my favorite foods. However, the instant I bit into the steak, which I could tell was my favorite brand, I was disappointed.

There's not enough blood in it.

I was aghast at my own thoughts; hell, it felt almost as though they weren't my own thoughts, because it didn't make any logical sense. Why would steak that was sold at the grocery store have blood in it?

Leaving that question aside...why was I so concerned about blood being in the steak? Also, while I normally liked my steak well-done with ketchup, I found myself wishing it had been cooked only to a rare degree.

"Cody? Is everything okay? I thought you loved this kind of steak."

That was my mother talking, and her voice at that moment was one of the last things I wanted to hear. It's not that I didn't love her anymore, but I just couldn't handle how worried she sounded.

I dipped another small bite of steak in ketchup. Although ketchup doesn't taste anything like blood, I was hoping that this would make it more bearable.

It didn't.

Almost as soon as that piece of meat passed my lips, I spat it out. It just didn't satisfy me, and tasted almost as bad as the wolfsbane I had to take for a week out of every month.

"Again, are you sure you're alright?" my mother asked me in between sips of water. "If you're not hungry, you don't have to eat now. But I don't mean to make you feel like a child, either."

I knew that she'd expect a response before long, so I gave her one.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I'm just...not hungry, like you said. And I'm also feeling pretty tired; I didn't get much sleep last night."

My parents looked at each other worriedly, and then my mother turned back to me.

"Are you sure you aren't coming down with something, Cody? Obviously, I'm not going to make you keep eating if you don't want to, I just worry sometimes."

I nodded. "I'm fine. I just don't want to eat."

With that, I stood up from the table, pushed my chair back in, and headed back upstairs to my room. Tears were forming in my eyes as I did this.

I'd been a were-Lycanroc for five years, and yet not wanting to eat meat without blood in it...that was new. Of course, the other thing that was new was the fact that I had now bitten Bella Fox. I'd transmitted lycanthropy to someone else.

Are those two things connected in any way?

I didn't want to believe it, but it would make sense. And that would also mean that if I wasn't careful, I'd make others suspicious of me.

But there's no need to hide it anymore. I've already been outed as a werewolf, so what difference does it make?

A few minutes later, I decided to go to bed. It wasn't even 8 PM yet, but part of what I'd told my parents was the truth: I was exhausted after a long day of doing next to nothing. My body was demanding some decent sleep after having nothing but the floor for a mattress last night.

Within minutes of getting beneath the covers, I did sleep. But it can't be said that I slept "well."

The first thing I saw upon entering the land of dreams was a hospital room. It wasn't like the one I'd woken up in the morning after biting Bella; this room was considerably larger and had more machines next to the bedside.

Lying on the bed, looking rather pale and clammy, was a blonde-haired girl. If I hadn't met her before, I would have guessed that she was at most fifteen years old, but I knew she was older than that.

That young woman looks just like Bella Fox.

Bella was probably asleep, or at least trying to sleep, since her eyes were closed. Even so, it was plain to see that her rest was fitful. She'd toss and turn every few minutes; it was a wonder that the IV in her left arm didn't fall out.

Speaking of her left arm, it was covered in numerous ugly black sutures, and the whole area looked red and inflamed. The bite might well have been infected, although I was no medical expert.

Probably the most disturbing part of it all was that I knew this was my fault. If I had kept my wolfsbane in the fridge like a good boy, as some would say, none of this madness would have happened.

Bella would not be suffering so much. I would not be suffering the way I was, either, but I had to remind myself that Isabella Fox was the true victim. Only when I acknowledged that could I feel as though I might be able to live with myself.

Just as suddenly as I'd ended up at this hospital room in my dream, the scene changed. Now, I was somewhere completely different, somewhere I didn't recognize.

I found myself in an underground cave made of stone the color of peanut butter. There were a series of jewels all over the walls, and the whole area was dusted with a fine layer of sand.

It looked beautiful in an earthy sort of way, but as Murphy's Law would indicate, I felt the most powerful sense of foreboding the instant I laid eyes on the wolf.

This wolf wasn't a Pokemon; that much I could tell, because...I just could. It's hard to describe, but I had a sixth sense of sorts that told me which creatures were Pokemon and which weren't. While I couldn't see aura, I didn't have to be able to in order to feel the malice practically radiating off of said wolf.

The wolf, probably about eleven feet tall, was sitting on a throne made out of what appeared to be hardened sand. Being that it was made of sand, it was surprisingly sturdy, but that wasn't the main thing I paid attention to.

His fur was dark gray, so much so that it was nearly black, and his eyes were a bright color that reminded me of mustard. He bared his fangs at me the instant I looked up, and I saw that those fangs were soaked in blood.

In the wolf's lap, there was what appeared to be a Lycanroc carcass. I'm not going to go into too much detail, because you don't want to know just how horrific the sight was. Suffice it to say that I was thoroughly disgusted, and it also raised a lot of questions, such as…

"Where am I?"

I spoke those words aloud, but the golden-eyed wolf didn't seem to hear me. That, of course, was a good thing, because I didn't want him to become angry and pounce, an action which would be followed by him devouring my sprinting heart.

Instead of acknowledging my words, the wolf continued devouring the carcass. Blood flew everywhere as he did so; he didn't seem to be concerned with table manners any more than he was concerned with ethics.

It was incredible, and incredibly disturbing, just how big an appetite this creature had. He could practically inhale every last bite of bloody meat without coming up for air, and I wondered how fast his metabolism must be.

When it seemed as though he were finally done eating, the wolf bellowed out, "Come on in!"

Who is he talking to? It's definitely not me.

A Zoroark entered the room seconds later, his giant crimson ponytail swaying back and forth. He then looked up at the wolf, who might have been his boss. But this didn't look like a workplace.

"Good evening, Master Goldenheart" the Zoroark told the wolf, grinning maliciously and showing his fangs. There was a glint in his teal eyes as well, one of excitement.

"Wipe that smirk off your face, Calvin!" the wolf king, whose name I now knew was Master Goldenheart, shot back. "You have no reason to be smiling right now!"

Calvin the Zoroark stopped smiling; clearly, he had been conditioned to do whatever his boss demanded. That being said, it was clear that he'd displeased Master Goldenheart somehow.

"What did I do?" Calvin replied, suddenly sounding desperate rather than thrilled. It's amazing how quickly he went from seemingly having the time of his life to pleading for his life.

"You know exactly what you did. You spent the day slacking, when you were supposed to be cracking the Lycanroc clan's secret code. I thought you were reliable, Calvin, but you're a piece of shit."

Even though Goldenheart didn't seem like a pleasant wolf to be around, I was still taken aback by his use of a curse word. Of course, that wasn't nearly as despicable as him devouring a Lycanroc carcass right in front of me, even if he didn't know I was there.

"Sir, I tried...I really tried! Don't punish me for that, I did my best! And if you strike me down now, it'll be that much harder for you to break the code! It makes no sense to…".

Goldenheart stared directly at Calvin, his golden eyes glowing. There were no whites to these eyes, which made the scene even more disturbing; it was as though I'd been transported into a horror movie.

One of those golden eyes seemed to blink, and there was a flash of lightning within the cavern, along with the characteristic sound of it. It was so bright that I had to shut my eyes; I just couldn't bear to see it in all its "glory."

When I opened my eyes again, the Zoroark was lying on the ground, evidently semiconscious, but he was also twitching. Electricity coiled off of his body, and every time there was a sizzling noise, Calvin groaned. There was no sign that he was aware of his surroundings, though.

"That's what you get for plotting against me!" Goldenheart bellowed. "That's what you get, and the king stays king!"

Wow, that's quite an overreaction, isn't it? Mr. Wolf King, he was trying to help you out, and you decided to smite him like that! Do you have no decency?

Goldenheart snapped his fingers, and a scepter appeared in his right hand. It was probably about seven feet long, roughly the color of his eyes, and had a light blue orb at the end.

"Ah, yes, the Dominion Rod" the wolf king said to himself. Looking down at the now-unconscious Calvin, he muttered, "I've had enough of you freeloaders. If you want to be appreciated around here, you have to contribute, or else you know what's going to happen!"

It was then that one of the most bizarre and unsettling things I'd ever witnessed occurred.

Goldenheart pointed the Dominion Rod at the senseless Zoroark and blinked, much the same way he'd done when summoning the lightning bolt. And when this happened, Calvin's unconscious body suddenly rose into a standing position, hovering a few inches off the floor of the cavern.

The Zoroark showed no signs of revival at being hoisted up by the scepter. His head, and thus his giant ponytail, lolled back and forth, but Calvin did not stir.

"Time to head back to your quarters. Oh, you don't want to be carried around like a baby? Well, too bad!"

Goldenheart stood up out of his chair and, holding his scepter skyward, he began stomping towards one of the cavern's exits. As the wolf moved, so did the Zoroark in the same direction, but still showing no signal that he was even aware of the movement.

The pair made their way out of the room, presumably to Calvin's quarters. This left me with one major takeaway, which drove everything else out of my mind.

Master Goldenheart sure doesn't treat his servants well. If I worked anywhere, and my boss talked to me that way, I would quit, even if I really needed my salary.

I didn't have much time to think about it before I woke up, enormously relieved that it was just a dream. The idea of what I'd just witnessed being real...well, let's just say that it terrified me to no end.

As my eyes opened to find myself in my dark bedroom, in the middle of the night, I couldn't shake the inkling that I was being watched.

ROYAL REDMOND, 25

My alarm was beeping, but it wasn't doing so very loudly. I felt as though I could fall asleep again pretty quickly if I didn't get up; my eyes were still glazed over, and I didn't have much energy yet.

But then my least favorite song came on the alarm: "Float On" by Modest Pikachu. Getting up was the only way to silence it, unless I wanted to be stuck in an infinite loop of that song.

Of course, this was by design; I had set my ringtone to a song that would get me moving in the morning, since Arceus knew that's what I needed. I had also placed my phone on the hotel room's desk, so I couldn't just lean over and tap it; I had to actually walk over there.

I wish I could sleep in more often, I thought to myself. But then again, how much would I miss by not seeing the sun come up? Probably a lot, especially here.

My hotel room was located on the fourth floor, also the highest floor of the boutique resort I was being put up in. Clearly, some faction at the URI had wanted to ensure my loyalty by letting me live in the lap of luxury here.

Everybody wants to think that there's no way they'd let themselves be influenced by something like that. They would like to believe that they're a perfectly independent thinker, someone who will choose the interests of the many, or else their moral compass, over their own selfish motives.

It's just not true, though. When push comes to shove, nobody's going to bite the hand that feeds them. That being said, I did not know the topic of today's meeting yet, so I wasn't sure how much I would care about the outcome.

Once I'd walked over to the floor-to-ceiling window, I had a pretty good view of the central traffic circle, known as Statue Circle, in Coronet City. That was another good thing about my particular hotel: It was centrally located within the city, meaning that it wouldn't take long for me to get to my meeting today.

As for the traffic circle itself, there was a golden statue of Sir Aaron, roughly twenty feet tall, in the middle of Statue Circle. It was surrounded by grass covered in a thin layer of frost, not unlike the icing on a cake. The statue itself, of Sir Aaron with his staff, glinted in the rising sun.

Coronet City was located in Central Sinnoh, right on the edge of the Coronet Range; it should come as no surprise that the city got its name from those majestic mountains. Due to the city's northerly location and high elevation, the mountains adjacent to the city were already blanketed with deep snow.

I took a glance at my phone once more. It was ten minutes past seven in the morning, so I had almost two hours until the meeting. It was a good thing, too, that I had time to spare, since I was still in my pajamas and didn't like being rushed.

As I was brushing my teeth and surfing the Internet on my phone, it rang.

I was so shocked that I dropped my toothbrush, and it fell into the toilet. One thing was clear: I would not be using it again. However, that was hardly the most pressing matter at hand.

"Hello?" I asked. I recognized the number; it was that of my fellow diplomat, Felipe Matamoros. Why would he be calling me at this hour?

"Morning, Royal. I've got some news for you, and you're not going to like it."

"Wh-what's that?" I stammered. The mention of bad news made everything seem more urgent, and I spoke too quickly to string my words together properly.

"The meeting that was scheduled for nine in the morning? It's now at eight in the morning, so if you're still in your room, you'd better get going."

I leaped off the edge of the bathtub as though it were a trampoline. I knew that my superiors didn't like it when people were late to the meetings, so it would behoove me to get there as quickly as possible.

"I don't get it," I replied. "Why would they reschedule the meeting on such short notice?"

"Royal, you know that I don't make the rules. I follow them just like you do. I'll meet you in the lobby in five minutes, how does that sound? I called a cab for us."

I was about to shoot back at Felipe, to chastise him for not giving me enough advance notice. However, I knew that this wouldn't be productive, so I instead confirmed that I would be in the lobby ASAP, and hung up.

I threw on my formal attire, but I didn't have time to brush my hair or shave my beard scruff. The diplomats at the URI would just have to accept my current appearance. And if they didn't, that was their problem, because it wasn't my fault I couldn't prepare.

A few minutes later, I was in the lobby of the Hotel Minimar, which contained a wooden carving of a Houndoom, as well as one of Sir Aaron with his Lucario partner. (In case you couldn't tell, Sir Aaron was basically the patron saint of Coronet City; the residents' admiration of him bordered on worship.)

Felipe, a guy about my age with much darker hair and brown eyes (as compared to my fair hair and blue eyes), stood just outside the sliding doors of the hotel. He was also shivering, which made sense; Felipe was from southern Hoenn, a much warmer region than Sinnoh, so it was no surprise that he was less comfortable in the frosty northern climate.

"I don't know if I'll get used to this," he told me. "It was so cold this morning, I didn't even want to get out of bed. I almost didn't get out of bed, period, but then I remembered how important our presence was at the meeting."

I shook my head. "You'll have to, Felipe. After this meeting we can buy you some long underwear and the like, but like you said, we don't have time. Where's the taxi?"

Felipe pointed to a vehicle right next to the curb. It wasn't currently moving; its hazard lights were on, and the driver was waving at us to get in.

"I guess that answers it" I said.

"Get in, we don't have all day" Felipe insisted. I didn't need to be told twice, and I followed him into the back of the taxicab.

Although it was early in the morning, traffic was more severe than I would have expected. At one point, I wondered if taking the Coronet City Metro would have been quicker, but I dismissed that thought almost immediately. After all, I didn't know this place very well.

It took about twenty minutes to get to the venue for the meeting, which we'd been told was at City Hall. Along the way, we passed a number of gorgeous sights, such as the city's Purple Bazaar and a few of the city's many public parks. Even though we were in a hurry, I almost wanted to get out and smell the roses a bit. Hell, there's no need for the "almost" qualifier.

A few minutes before we arrived at City Hall, my stomach growled audibly. I realized I hadn't had anything to eat since lunch the day before, "lunch" being airline food of questionable nutritional value. I'd arrived in Coronet City last night after the restaurants were all closed, and besides, I'd been too tired.

"Ha, you must be hungry," Felipe remarked. "Well, apparently they have some food there, so you're in luck."

As if more reason were needed to get there quickly.

Finally we arrived in front of Coronet City Hall, which was by far the largest city hall I'd ever seen. It looked more like a cathedral than anything else, since there was a golden dome on top being warmed by the sun. What was it with this city and the color gold?

In front of the city hall/cathedral, there stood a garden with a hedge maze, a fountain, and a frosted-over lawn that was nonetheless extremely well-kept. There were also any number of taxis that had sent other diplomats to the event.

I felt rather self-conscious upon seeing the nameless ambassadors get out of their cars, because most of them were wearing tuxedos and carrying briefcases. As for their hair, it certainly looked much less unkempt than mine. Even Felipe appeared much more telegenic than I did.

They're not even going to take me seriously. I'm going to be laughed out of City Hall!

The first thing I noticed upon exiting the cab was just how cold it was. It had to be well below freezing, and it was also very dry, with a slight breeze.

For some reason, the weather didn't feel so frigid in the middle of the city. But once we got out of downtown, the temperatures were far more forbidding.

I noticed that Felipe's face, ears, and hands were red from the cold. He wasn't even wearing mittens, so it was no surprise that he was shaking almost violently. Clearly, he wasn't meant for this.

"Let's get inside before you freeze up" I said. "But don't move too fast, because then you'll start sweating, and you don't want to sweat when it's below freezing."

Felipe nodded; he really didn't need me to tell him that. Both of us walked briskly towards the front door of City Hall, the same point at which we saw other diplomats entering the building. While I was nervous about Felipe and myself being clear outliers when it came to our attire, I couldn't help but be excited at the same time.

If this building looked so spectacular on the outside, surely it wouldn't disappoint on the inside. Didn't it have to be big enough to accommodate the meeting of the URI?

Sure enough, the interior of City Hall delivered on my expectations.

The moment we entered, we were in a small room with a low ceiling. It wasn't too dissimilar from the foyer of a Church of Arceus building (any number of which could be found in my hometown, Jubilife City), but the real architectural wonder lay in the next room.

The chamber (because calling it a room doesn't do it justice) looked like a cross between the interior of a cathedral and a university library; of course, the line between the two blurs frequently. There were dozens of tables arranged neatly around the marble floor, each one with two or three diplomats at it.

"Find our names," Felipe said quietly. "That's how we'll know where to sit."

It took some looking to find the right table, for the name cards weren't arranged in alphabetical order; indeed, even calling it alphabetical chaos wouldn't describe it properly. It simply made no sense; Ashland was next to Zora, which was next to Nickelback, which was next to…

"There we go!" I exclaimed, not realizing that sounds echoed powerfully around the cavernous chamber. "Felipe Matamoros, Royal Redmond!"

There were a few peeved looks shot at us; okay, maybe more than a few. The other delegates to the URI meeting were either engrossed in pamphlets, massive books that I'd never have the discipline to get through, or their phones. They looked pissed that we'd distracted them from what was truly important.

Ignoring the other diplomats' evident disdain for us, Felipe and I sat down at our appointed table. On the table, there was a black pamphlet with the image of a full moon, and text in a bone white color.

Before getting into what this pamphlet said, it needs to be known that the URI, which stood for United Regions, Incorporated, is an international organization where delegates from all corners of the world came together to debate the issues of the day. However, we did more than just debate these issues; we worked to help resolve them, or at least, I liked to think we were doing something.

I became aware of just how drafty the building was as chills wracked my entire body. Beyond the wintry weather, however, there was something else that made me feel cold.

The pamphlet provided read: Werewolves of Sinnoh.

In a way, the last sentence of this chapter reminds me of the opening to Paper Mario 64 and Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, where the game's title just appears, not unlike a movie. That's kind of what I was going for.

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