To say that we'd all been having a bit of a rough day was an understatement, Roxanne thought. First, we fall off a cliff, then we meet that creepy child thingie Dennis, and Skidmore still hasn't woken up to fix everything.

"Miss Roxanne, I understand that we've all had our trials today, but since we agreed to listen to Mr. Douglas, we should do him the courtesy of remaining silent."

Oops, Roxanne thought. "…I said all that out loud?"

Terrance, like the nice guy that he was, Roxanne thought fondly, nodded and forced a smile.

"Sorry. Douglas-"

"Get on with it, would you?" Snapped the Angry-Shouting Girl

Douglas wrapped his arm around Dennis a bit tighter- It was so cute, how they loved each other, Roxanne mused- and started to say something, but then stopped. "I-I don't know where to start, actually…"

The Shouting Girl- had to remember to ask her name sometime- looked like she was on the verge of saying something really nasty, but her Skarmory laid a wing on her shoulder and Terrance gave Douglas a look that said very clearly: I'm-running-out-of-patience-here, and said "The beginning, perhaps?"

"And STOP STALLING!" The Shouting-Girl- well, shouted.

"Right. OK. My name is Douglas Parr, and this is my younger brother Dennis. When I was ten and he was seven, our parents took us on a trip from where we lived in Unova to a dig site here. Our parents are both Archeologists, and they were curious about the carvings that had been found in a cave on the Route nearby.

"It was my job to watch Dennis. But…I was ten, OK? I didn't know what could happen- I got bored of watching Dennis, and I went off to see if Beheeyem could take the Pokemon here. So I left Dennis with Ollie- he was just a Joltik then, really tiny- on the edge of the dock that we fell off of.

"I was on the other side of the ridge surrounding that pool, when I heard Dennis scream and fall."

Roxanne, hearing Douglas's voice thicken, looked down at Skidmore and patted his fur awkwardly. Douglas's voice shuddered for a few moments before he regained control and began to speak again. Relieved, Roxanne looked back up again.

"I went into the water after him, of course. I slid down the side of the ridge and swam around for ages, looking for him. I sent Beheeyem to go find Mother and Father, and then they were in the water too, trying to find Dennis and Ollie. Father even sent out his Swanna and Stunfisk to check down where we couldn't reach."

"But they couldn't find me." Dennis whispered. "Nobody found me, till Roxy and Terry. And Ray."

"Ray?" Roxanne asked, "Who's 'Ray'? Did he fall in here too?"

"I believe that you said that 'Ray' had a Hypno, Dennis, is that correct?" Terrance said sharply.

Douglas and Dennis both nodded, to the bafflement of Roxanne. And, she guessed, by the looks on Terrance and the other Girls' face, to the shock of them to.

Douglas began to speak again, a haggard look coming over his face. "Once my parents couldn't find them, they called in the local Police and Rangers. They got their water Pokemon looking too, but no matter how far they went down, there were no bodies to find. And…after a few days, they stopped trying. They put Denny- they put my little brother and Ollie down on a list of 'Missing Persons and Pokemon, presumed dead' that they had for Silent Springs.

"My parents and I stayed another week at the camp. I think that they were hoping that Denny and Ollie were just going to wander back into the camp one day, safe and sound. I staked out the Springs and the woods around it. My parents- they tried not to blame me for not watching Denny better, but…it was hard to be around them. It was…it hurt them to be around me, I think."

Roxanne gave an impatient sigh, and the Skarmory clacked her beak in a menacing fashion. Douglas hastily resumed his story.

"It was the day before we were going to leave when I found Ray and his Hypno. I was sitting on the edge where Denny and Ollie had fallen, and the two of them literally fell from the sky and landed in the water below me. The moment I could, I grabbed ahold of him and started asking questions about Denny at him, but they both shook me off and ran to go roll in the grass. It took me about an hour of badgering before either of them said anything to me.

"Ray was older than I was then, about thirteen or so. He was tall too, and I could count his ribs through his shirt. But what I remember most was that his eyes were blue and they were older than any eyes that I had ever seen before. He and his Hypno scared the hell out of Beheeyem and me, even though we didn't know why."

Angry Girl cracked her knuckles in a meaningful way. Douglas glared at her, and snapped, "Kim, I'm getting there."

"Well, "Kim said, "Get there faster."

Kim, Roxanne thought, Kim, I've got to remember that- Skidmore isn't here to remind me, so I've got to remember people myself.

Douglas resumed his story again. "When I finally got Ray to talk back to me, he told me that he'd seen Denny and Ollie. Ray had been- well, Ray had been here for a long time. He told me that he'd gotten Denny and Ollie to help him and his Hypno out, and that they'd 'taken their places'. I tried to get Ray to give me the way back in, but he told me that it only ever opened up once every eight years."

"It's because of the turning," Dennis whispered. Roxanne jumped at his voice, she'd almost forgotten that he was there, he'd been so quiet. "Every eight years, this place and Outside turn enough to line up to each other. And when they line up, the two of them can snag on each other, and holes can open up. And when they have holes, then things can fall through." His voice had a monotonous tone to it, like he had spoken the same words many times before.

Roxanne exchanged nonplussed looks with Terrance and Kim. Douglas, however, nodded. "Actually," he admitted, "That is fairly close to how it works. After I talked to Ray, I went and looked at the list of 'Missing and Presumed Dead' that the Rangers and Police kept. I checked back ninety-six years, and I found that on the same day that Denny had vanished, June 16, there was a thirteen year old boy named Ray De Santis who went missing with his Hypno in the same place as Denny and Ollie did. But this happened back in 1987. And if you keep going back by factors of eight, then you get five other people and Pokemon going missing back to 1915, with Lavinia Thompson and her Magmortar. There've probably been other disappearances, but they just weren't listed until around the 1900s."

"As fascinating as this story is," Kim snapped, "What does it have to do with us?"

Roxanne nodded in agreement. "Dennis said that he had a way out, and from what you said this Ray person found a way out too. And I'm getting worried about Skidmore, so let's skip the story and get going!"

Douglas gave Roxanne a blistering glare and visibly reined in his temper before he spoke again. "I said that I'm getting to it. However, I'm concerned that the way out that I give you may not be what you want to hear."

Roxanne stared at Skidmore. They'd never gone this long-however long it had been- without talking to each other, never. Even when they were arguing with each other, they'd always talked. And this place… "This place…," Roxanne whispered, "This place is tearing at us. It is turning us into jerky people who shout at each other all the time. And not just like friends do, either. I mean in a way that says you want someone to get hurt."

Roxanne took a deep breath, and met the eyes of each person and Pokemon in turn. Kim. Kim's Skarmory. Terrance. Amberly. Dennis. Dennis' spider-thingie. And Douglas. They had all become quiet, and were listening to Roxanne with an almost nonplussed intensity.

"I hate it here. I want to go home, and I want to argue with Skidmore about where we're going to go next.

"Dennis said that we have to face something. Fine. I'm tired of this place, and I'm tired of talking about Douglas's feelings. Terrance and I were being led by Dennis to a way out when you three barged in here and stopped us. WHO CARES about whatever Douglas says that we're not going to like! How can it possibly be worse than what we're knee-deep in now?"

Douglas dropped his head, and Roxanne watched him stare at the grotesque face of his brother. Terrance and Kim began to exchange meaningful stares over them. Skidmore and I used to do that, Roxanne recalled. We'd stare at each other for hours, just stare at each other in the middle of a crowd, and by the time we were done we'd have fought and made up at least six times.

Douglas jerked his head up again, his jaw set in a way that told Roxanne very clearly that whatever issue it was that Douglas had been struggling over had been resolved. There was a grim look in its place now, like Douglas was getting ready for a long battle.

"You're right. It doesn't matter anyway." Douglas shifted Dennis so that Dennis was riding on Douglas's back. "Let's go and get the hell out of here."

. . .