Chapter Twelve
Fright Night

Paul's only reaction to Route 36 was that it was busy. Too busy. Much too busy for what he remembered as nothing more than a strip of road framed by a series of trees. Paul just watched blankly as gaggles of trainers sped up and down the paved road, laughing and jostling. He felt his mood sour. It was too early for this shit. Why were people in such insufferably good moods at this time of the morning?

Seeing his grumpy face, Annabelle once again adopted her 'tour guide' persona. "A lot of trainers use this Route as a trading or meeting point." She explained. "It's pretty much ideal for it. Nearly every trainer uses Route 36 at some point to get to Goldenrod, and Violet is a big hub in its own right. There's good opportunities to trade rare or unusual Pokemon. Don't get any ideas," she added, spying Paul's hopeful look. "People here will either be too far out of your league or will have stuff considered even worse than Ledyba."

"Typical." Paul muttered.

He readjusted the straps of his bags, desperate to relocate some of the pain on his shoulders. Before leaving, Annabelle had insisted on Paul parting with a chunk of cash for his own tent, some proper outdoor clothing and a stash of high energy, low maintenance food for the roads between Pokemon Centres. And it was heavy. It felt like he was shouldering a bag of boulders instead of what boiled down to just a pop up tent and a few clothes.

"I think Goldenrod is about a week, maybe a week and a half away?" Annabelle was talking and Paul zoned back in to reality just in time. "We'll get to Route 35 in a few days, then it's a really long stretch down to Goldenrod. Course if you want to stop off at National Park, it'll be a bit longer."

"National Park? What's that?"

"It's just a big park between Routes 35 and 36. Bug-catching contests are held there. Don't you remember that from your precious games?" she added with a snarky grin.

"Never bothered much with Bug Catching contests. And even I can't remember every little detail. I'm not a freak."

"Hm," Annabelle shrugged. "Suppose not."

Initial annoyance aside, Paul was finding himself oddly fascinated by the comings and goings of the trainers along the Route. Everybody was on foot, travelling either in big, encroaching groups or side-by-side with a Pokemon. Every now and then, groups would mingle and merge, briefly exchange in trades or battles, then split apart again and be on their separate ways.

A thought struck him. "We're not likely to get… challenged out here, are we?"

Annabelle chuckled. "Don't worry. You can make eye contact with people. Trainers don't just pounce on other trainers and demand battles. Well, not usually. People do have manners for the most part. They'll normally just ask or find other ways to communicate that they're actively seeking opponents."

"Such as?"

"Differs from trainer to trainer. Some routes even have bits cornered off for trainers to go to for battles. Heck, I've even seen trainers running around with signs saying "Will battle" or "Challenge me". Trust me, if someone wants to battle, you'll generally know about it."

Day dulled and night drew in quickly with an unseasonal chilly wind that made them both shiver. Thinking it unwise to travel any further if the weather turned nasty, Annabelle chose a spot to camp on a flat, grassy plain peppered with flowers and framed with protective trees. As the night grew colder and darker, and many hours were wasted wrestling with Paul's new tent, other trainers moved in and pitched up.

There must have been twenty or thirty others squashed into the clearing Annabelle chose. Half a dozen campfires sprang up, some roaring too fiercely to be safe in the strengthening winds. Amidst the chatter and crackling of dried wood, Paul and Annabelle ate in silence. They huddled close to their own meagre fire, the embers in danger of being extinguished with an errant gust.

"Why are all these people here?" Paul glowered as a stranger from another campsite walked straight in front of them, his Psyduck waddling after him. The fire flickered dangerously in his wake. "And don't they have any concept of personal space?"

"Safety in numbers, really." Annabelle stretched her skinny legs out and shivered as another breath of wind blew past. "And let's face it. A good camping spot like this is going to be popular. Whether we like it or not…" she added, barely shielding her annoyance as two teenage girls ran screaming with laughter behind their tents.

Paul snorted. "This is gonna be a long night, isn't it?"

"We'll wait till they go to sleep. Shouldn't be too much longer," Annabelle said, tossing Paul the last of her packet of crisps.

"I hope so." Paul said, cramming the last handful into his mouth.

Annabelle's hopes fell flat. Three hours later, the other campsites were still going strong. Undeterred by the cold, or even the threat of rain hovering over their heads, a party of six trainers were becoming rowdier by the minute. With their campfire in danger of roaring completely out of control, the trainers - hyper on endless cans of energy juice and what Paul heartily suspected as a bottle of vodka stashed in a nearby bush – had somehow connected their Pokegears to a local radio station and were blasting cheesy pop music at the loudest volume possible.

"Can't we go and tell them to shut the hell up?" Paul asked for what was probably the twentieth time.

"There is seriously no point. No point." Annabelle stifled a yawn. "They'll get tired. Eventually… I hope."

"Hopefully before my foot goes up their arse…" Paul glowered and Annabelle let out a crazed guffaw that likely Paul attributed more to exhaustion and delirium than any witticism on his part.

Annabelle gave up shortly before 1am. She crawled into her patterned tent, trying to ignore the lingering noise and hilarity, and there was no further movement from her. Paul had gone past the point of tiredness and stayed rooted in the same position, staring at the charred bones of the fire, and hoped nobody would try to talk to him.

Calm finally descended just shy of half two in the morning. As everything fell into awkward silence, broken only by the deep rumbling of someone snoring, Paul pulled his stiff new jacket further around him and contemplated.

Night-time out here was disorienting. On his many all-nighters, he had never really acknowledged the passing of time – never saw it as night, just an extension of the daytime hours. But out here there was no escaping it. No escaping the darkness, the mystery, the suspicion that the dark shape in the background was something other than shadows or rocks. He took a deep breath in, the icy air searing his lungs, and tried to steady his nerves. The fear was in his blood.

He thought about going back to his tent. But it was cramped and uncomfortable and still smelled of the dusty department store he had bought it from. And any movement would no doubt wake many of the slumbering campers around him.

He pulled Ledyba's Pokeball from the pocket of his jeans and, holding his breath, popped the button on the capsule. The Pokemon came out, already sleeping, and Paul sighed.

He poked the bug. Then again, this time harder. Then again. The bug shifted, just slightly, and let out a loud snore. Paul dropped his head into his spare hand. Typical he was stuck with a Pokemon that preferred sleep to literally everything else.

Then, he heard a noise.

Goosebumps burst over his skin. He slowly lifted his head up to face the murk of the night. He listened, at first only detecting his own breath coming in haggard gasps. Then, he heard it again. A rustling, like something moving through the grass ahead of them.

He poked Ledyba again.

A few minutes passed and all was still and quiet. Paul felt himself relax. He must have imagined it.

At the corner of his eye, he glimpsed movement. Something standing stock-still and hulking several feet away. He heard a voice. Or perhaps just the suggestion of one, distant, like a gust of wind carrying faraway conversation.

He shook Ledyba and the Pokemon woke up squeaking. "Shush, shush, shush!" Paul hissed, pushing himself to his shaky feet. "There's something out there!"

A glimpse of light within the inky black. Paul squeezed Ledyba so tightly the Pokemon squealed. He looked around in panic, his heart hammering, wondering if he should wake someone. But there was nobody there to wake.

Suddenly, he was ensconced in blazing white light. Not even shielding his face with his hands helped. Ledyba fell to the ground, landing on his back, and flailed uselessly.

"Who's there?"

The light faded as quickly as it came and Paul came face to face with a man. And a stern looking Vileplume.

"Easy, man. Night patrolman on duty." He flashed some sort of badge that Paul couldn't quite discern in the limited light. The Vileplume puffed itself up, showing a similar badge somehow stuck to the front of its body.

"Night patrolman?" Paul frowned.

"Don't tell me you've never heard of night patrolmen?"

"Buddy, apparently what I haven't heard of in this godforsaken community could fill a book." Paul grumbled.

"Right…" The night patrolmen said. "New trainer, I take it?"

"Very new."

"Right. Well, basically we're just… Hm. Think of us like security guards. Basically we wander around routes that a lot of trainers camp out by and just watch out for any trouble between Pokemon trainers or wild Pokemon."

"Huh. Well, where were you a few hours earlier?"

"Sorry?"

Paul threw his thumb over his shoulder in the direction of the campsite. "We had a bunch of trainers set up camp right next to us. You know, they didn't even ask, they just shoved their way in and set up. They were screaming and playing music all night and me and my… travelling companion couldn't sleep for ages."

The night patrolman frowned, plucking out a notebook from his messenger bag. "I take it you mean the lot that have all the rubbish strewn all over the camp?"

"That's the ones."

"Well, we're not exactly anti-social behaviour officers, but I'll see what I can do in the morning, okay? At the very least, leaving food and litter around could attract wild Pokemon."

"Plume! Vile! Vile! Vile!" The Vileplume nodded in agreement.

Ledyba, who had somehow pivoted himself back on his feet, swept up to the Vileplume and squared up to it. "Le! Le! Ledyba!"

"Ledyba, pack that in…" Paul hissed.

"Le…" Ledyba sounded disappointed.

"Right," the night patrolman finished what he was jotting down in his notebook. "You should get some rest. We'll swing by in the morning. Won't do you to have no sleep by the time you move on."

"Yeah. Thanks, dude."

After circling the campsite and noting a few more things down, the night patrolman and his Vileplume disappeared from sight, leaving Paul and a rather confused Ledyba in their stead.

"This has been such a weird night…" Paul remarked to himself. He felt tired now, his whole body heavy and tingling with exhaustion. "Come on Ledyba. Let's get some sleep."

Ledyba looked quizzical as Paul clambered into the tent. Paul poked his head out when the Pokemon made no movement. "Are you coming in or not?"

"Le! Ledyba!" Ledyba squeaked, darting into the tent so quickly he almost slammed straight into his trainer.

"Jeez…" Paul muttered, shutting the tent flap. "I've never known a Pokemon so eager to sleep of all things,"

The Ledyba was already curled up in the centre of Paul's bedclothes and he had to brush him aside before he could lie down on the hard ground. Shuffling about, trying to find any position that was even vaguely comfortable, he checked the time. Nearly 4am. It would be morning before he knew it. He shut his eyes against it all and waited for sleep to take him.

.-.-.

"Paul! Paul, wake up!"

He felt like he had only just shut his eyes when the entire of the tent started shaking like he was in the middle of an earthquake zone. An earthquake zone named Annabelle. Rolling over, still in the safe, warm clutches of sleep, he wondered if he could safely ignore her.

"Paul! Wake up!"

No chance. Not while she was doing her best impression of a foghorn.

"What? What is it?" he blearily stumbled out of the tent, Ledyba attached to the top of his head, still asleep.

"Look," She had her hand over her mouth, trying to suppress giggles, as three patrolmen in identical uniforms swept through the troublemakers' campsite.

"You have to move along now. Come on, rise and shine, rise and shine. Move along. We had a number of complaints last night about noise and breach of the peace. Move along, please, move along. This area needs to be cleared of rubbish before it attracts any wild Pokemon. Move along, please."

The troublemaking trainers were groaning in pain and frustration, but did not argue with the patrolmen shepherding them away. Perhaps it was tiredness. Perhaps it was resignation in the face of authority. Or perhaps it had more to do with the presence of the Growlithe and Houndour tagging along with them.

Paul caught the eye of the night patrolman he had been talking to last night. The patrolman raised his hand and flashed a grin as the last of the troublemaking trainers staggered away. Paul smiled and stuck his thumb up.

The other patrolmen went to work on the burned out campfires and rubbish that was strewn around. The one Paul had been talking to passed by with his Houndour and smiled. "Feel free to stay as long as you like, folks." He said with a wink.

He didn't even get a chance to step away before Annabelle turned to Paul. "Paul, did you have something to do with this?"

She didn't look angry. She was still dressed in pyjamas, long, powder blue trousers and a fluffy fleece with a hood sporting Cubchoo ears. Her face was heavy with tiredness, her eyes puffy with sleep and framed with red, but she had a short little smile tugging at the corners of her lips. Paul just smiled and put a finger to his lips.

"Hah!" Annabelle let out a burst of laughter. "Oh man, that is wonderful! Great! Well, if that's the case, then I'm going back to bed for a bit."

"Annabelle, that's the smartest thing you've ever said." Paul laughed, ducking back into his tent, Ledyba still clinging onto his hair.

After a few hours of peaceful, uninterrupted sleep, they were up and on the move again. Annabelle cooked lunch over a tiny stove – eggs and bacon served with bread and lashings of butter – and Paul ate greedily, like he'd been starving for months.

The route had thinned out; they were only passing trainers every twenty minutes or so. The extra hours of sleep had done wonders for Annabelle and she was bouncing along the trail, nattering away to herself, the Pokemon walking by her side, and Paul, when he bothered to listen.

"You know, I've never actually even seen a Sudowoodo here." She chattered. "I know it's like the only reason ever to go near this route in the games, but I've never seen one. I'm almost convinced they're just an urban legend!"

Paul murmured noncommittally, watching Ledyba chase Dusty the Shroomish right into the bottom of a tree.

"When I was on my own journey, I got lost on this route a few times, you know. I was going up and down, up and down, for about a week trying to find a Vulpix. Never got one."

"Oh?"

"Nope. I had Stantler for the first, what… two months? Then I traded a Hoothoot I had accidentally caught for my Abigail and Dusty was a complete and utter stroke of luck. A swarm of Shroomish had escaped from the Johto safari zone and I came across one."

"And that's all the Pokemon you've ever caught?"

"Yup!" She didn't seem ashamed of this, just spoke matter-of-factly. "When I opened the Little Stars, like I told you, I ended up getting loans of Pokemon to get eggs to breed. They were never actually mine."

"Wouldn't that be… difficult? Trying to work with Pokemon that weren't actually yours?"

"Can be, yeah. But it's like anything else. You keep your head up and get on with it."

They continued their walk in silence. Flat ground was merging into grassy hillocks and it was difficult to walk and talk at the same time. Gnarled roots caught Paul's clumsy feet more than a few times. Bushes and some peculiar, feathery-tipped grass Paul had never seen before, which reached as tall as his shoulders, sprung up along the sides of the trail. The trees had grown thicker and larger, the branches stretching right across the horizon.

A chilly wind picked up and Annabelle stopped in her tracks.

Paul nearly walked into her stationary back. "What? What's wrong now?"

"Just… just shush a moment." Annabelle's breath was coming in short wheezes. "Look. Look up ahead."

Paul glanced around her shoulder and felt his heart twist.

Blood. Lots of blood. Splattered across the fronds of thick, leafy grass just to the left of them. Annabelle's hand found the crook of his arm.

"What is that?"

"Blood…" she murmured.

"I know that! But where… where has it come from?"

"I… I don't know." Her voice was a strangled whisper. "Abigail, Dusty. Please, be on your guard."

"Fletch!"

"Shrooom!"

Even the Pokemon were tense. Ledyba, picking up on the shift in atmosphere, clung to Paul's leg.

Annabelle took a cautious step forward but Paul grabbed her elbow. "We should leave it alone." He urged. "What if it's dangerous?"

"What if it's not? What if it's something that's hurt? I have to at least… go and look."

She had left his side and was picking her way through the grass before he could even protest. Abigail and Dusty followed her. By his side, Ledyba squeaked in worry.

His limbs seized in protest. He did not want to follow her. The image of the blood, splattered like spilled ink, would not leave him alone. But he couldn't let her go alone. "Come on, man." He picked up Ledyba. "We need to go after her."

She had gone far into the bushes and he couldn't see her. Picking his way through the damaged grass she had left in her wake, he felt his body tremble and pressure form in his stomach. He swallowed and tasted bile. The burrs and exposed thorns scratched at his skin, making movement painful and difficult, but he pushed on.

When he emerged into a small clearing, his eyes instantly picked out the figure of a long, purple, serpentine Pokemon only a few feet away from where he and Annabelle stood. For a moment, he was transfixed, mainly at the sheer size of it. Never had he thought he could get this close to such a dangerous Pokemon before. Nor one this big. He had never imagined Ekans could grow to this size. Stretched out, it could have easily reached over two metres in length. Facing away from them, the head was bowed into the earth and its back was hunched, like a Meowth licking milk from a bowl. It still hadn't seen them.

Then, it jerked to the side and tore something with its teeth.

And he saw more blood.

He swore. Partly from fright and partly because there was nothing else he could do.

The creature turned around, its head still low. Something dead was hanging firmly between its mammoth jaws. Paul fought the urge to gag. The Ekans bit down on the dead thing and blood sputtered out, splattering the grass around them.

"No!" He heard Annabelle scream. "Abigail, chase it off! Chase it off!"

Flames erupted from somewhere behind them. Paul saw nothing more; his stomach betrayed him and its contents found themselves sprayed all over the ground.

The Ekans hesitated in face of the assault, unwilling to part with its meal, but another burst of flames from the Fletchling sent it scurrying back into the undergrowth.

Annabelle took some shaky steps forward and saw what she hoped she wouldn't. A horrifying uncoiling of flesh – she saw bone, silvery intestines and chunks of blood. She could not even identify the species.

She left the half-eaten dead creature and followed the path the Ekans had taken. A wind blew cold into her face and made breathing difficult. Her gaze fell downwards as her foot nudged something hard and solid at the edge of the grass.

Paul was still throwing up the last dregs of his lunch when she returned to the clearing. "Paul, please… you have to come and help me."

Paul looked up, ashen and pale. "W…what?"

"I… I found eggs."

Author's Note

Well... this chapter turned out a little more gory than I thought it would.

I quite enjoyed writing something a little darker and more realistic. It was a nice change of pace. Sorry to anyone who found this a little too much xP

Nothing really new with me here. Back to work this coming Monday and I'll try really hard to get another chapter out for you soon. And possibly publish the new story The Neverending Meep and I are collaborating on. But especially the new chapter as we explore the arc with the eggs Annabelle finds. Anyone want to hazard a guess what Pokemon they are? It's not going to be revealed until the eggs actually hatch.

See you on the next one, guys! Hope you all enjoy!