Chapter 15
Travalers' Manor
Hey everyone sorry for the slow update. Really I am making this story up as I go I don't even know how I want to end it so please if you have any sugesttions please leave them in a review. Thanks for reading please R&R also I have a youtube channel now I sing my own original songs, I dub vocaloids and I do covers of other songs please check it out here is the link user/Sapphiredragon123 please check it out it would mean a lot to me if you commented. And thanks enjoy the story. By the way I made this chapter up on the spot tell me if you like it. By the way this is my last week of summer vacation :'(
I clutched onto the Charzard my father's words playing again and again in my mind. He was right, I couldn't run forever and what would I do once I stopped? Return home? Pretend everything was ok? Would anything ever be the same ever again? After a while clouds gathered and it looked as if it was going to rain we couldn't let the charzards tails get wet so we landed on the outskirts of a city called Fusha city. Lighting zipped across the sky and the thunder rolled and we decided to hurry and try and reach town before it began to pour but we were to slow. Town was about 2 miles away and the rain began in thick sheets.
"Now what?" Lance called to me over the sound of the pouring rain.
"I don't know!" I replied spinning in a complete 360 looking around for shelter.
"Let's stay there." Ruby said innocently point to a large manor that hadn't been there a moment ago when I looked around. A shiver ran down my spine. The manor looked old and abandoned, wood appeared to have rotted away in places and it looked frightening. Lighting flashed around it adding to the haunted house look.
"I don't know." I said unsure but thunder clapped and we all found ourselves sprinting towards the house. We didn't have a choice. We banged on the door but no one answered. I glanced behind me to look into the grey abyss behind me. I couldn't see anything. When I turned back the door was open and Lance stood tense. I grabbed Ruby by the shoulder and stopped her from walking in. I slowly entered first looking around cautiously. There was no one in sight. The others followed me in. the mansion was large and the parlor was elegantly decorated. A large crystal chandelier hung from the ceiling and the stairs on the left and the right led up to an indoor balcony.
"Hello is anyone here!" Lance called his voice echoing through the empty house. All that greeted us was silence. Ruby clutched my hand and we all took one step at a time. We walked around the house and found the Kitchen and sitting room and ball room and once we went upstairs we found a couple of bed rooms. The three of us settled down in the largest master bedroom. And had a small picnic on the floor eating our sandwiches in silence, and when we did talk it was in a hush whispered voice. Once we finished eating Lance went across the hall and took one of the smaller rooms leaving Ruby and me to the large bedroom each of us with our own bed. We got ready for bed. I was eager to go to bed so the night would end and we could leave the eerie old house. I had another nightmare that night, this time of Ruby understand everything and hating my father with a burning passion. It broke my heart.
"Claire told me everything." She spat at him. "She was honest with me. I hate you father I HATE YOU!" dad looked broken. He made no remarks, didn't move, he just stood there sad and pitiful. "Claire told me didn't you Claire, Claire, Claire." I bolted awake, scaring Ruby who was standing by my bed calling my name.
"What's wrong Ruby?" I muttered groggily.
"I had a nightmare, can I sleep with you." She asked the outside the window lighting flashes and thunder boomed causing her to flinch. I scooted over giving her room to crawl up. She lay down next to me still clutching her squirtle who was gently snoring in her hands. It took father forever to find her that squirrtle when he found out she loved water Pokémon he spent months trying to find it and eventually bought an adorable one from a Pokémon merchant a few cities over. He'd told me about it when I saw the squirrtle with a birthday bow on its head.
Ruby quickly fell asleep quickly but I remained awake the manor seemed to creak and moan and I curled up under the covers trying to block out all the noise.
CRASH! I heard something collapse in another room somewhere down the hallway. My eyes bolting open.
He, he, he, something laughed sounding as if it had come from right beside my ear. I clutched the blanket pulling it up over my head. It sounded again this time as if it were by the door. I looked around slowly peeking out from the blanket. There was nothing there… wait no…was that a face by the door! I yelped and made sure I didn't wake up Ruby who mumbled something in her sleep before falling silent.
I turned back to the door and nothing was there…no, something HAD been there. I slowly got to my feet, the plush carpet soft against my bare feet. And in my pajama shorts and tank top I walked to the door quietly pushing it open. There was nothing in the hall. I listened another moment and heard something coming from down stairs.
"Lance," I whispered. "Lance if this is a joke it's not funny." There was no response. I slunk across the hall and peeked open his door a crack and saw Lance lying spread out across his bed dead to the world and snoring quietly in his boxers. I quickly shut the door quickly, embarrassed. I slipped back into my room I could still hear something on the first floor, laughter maybe? I picked up my poke ball holding Evee and I slowly went down the stairs tensing myself for whatever lay ahead.
When I reached the bottom of the stairs I froze, the sounds coming from the kitchen. I took a deep breathe preparing for whatever lay ahead and I dashed into the Kitchen. Something purple flew at my head and I yelped and squeezed my eyes shut preparing for impact. I waited a moment and nothing happened. I slowly opened my eyes there was nothing there, I was utterly alone. There was a crash from behind me in the parlor. I clicked the poke ball and released Evee her presence comforting.
Evee yawned and stretched before turning happily to me. There was another crash from the parlor and this time even Evee tensed she hissed her hair standing on end and she stayed close to my legs almost causing me to trip as I stepped out towards the parlor. Red eyes stared at us from the shadows. My eyes bulged and Evee hissed again circling my feet. I turned around to dash from the room but I saw a face only inches from mine and I stumbled back a scream escaping from my throat.
But I tripped over Evee and fell flat on my butt the scream cut short. The face gained texture. It grew a small purple body and hands. And let out a eerie laugh that made my skin crawl. I was too terrified to move and Evee wiggled her way out from under me and into my arms, hissing and shivering. More voices joined in on the laughter and I saw two more faces appear, they looked similar to the first only one had a little less body and the other had more which included legs.
I squirmed and tried to back away only to notice red eyes watching me from the dark corners. More voices joined in on the laughter until it sounded like hundreds of voices, echoing down the halls and the stairs and rooms as if the manor was alive! My mind reeled and panic and fear bubbled up inside me causing a lump in my throat.
They were, they were ghosts! I screamed mentally and inched away. There was a crash behind me and a fancy plate flew from its place in the china cabinet landing inches from me shattering. I buried my face in Evee's fur to protect us both. Shards scatter around me I felt them cut my skin and scrape my arms. Are they Pokémon? I wondered staring at their strange appearance. Can I fight them? Desperately I scrambled to my feet.
"Evee," I called out my voice shaking. "Use tackle." Evee hesitated a moment before charging full speed at the middle ghost, she sailed right through it and tumbled into a heap behind it. The ghosts laughed, and it readied over to Evee and flicked her in the nose. Evee cried out either from pain or terror, I couldn't tell. "Evee!" I screamed and took a deep breath as I ran through the ghosts and slid to my knees beside her taking Evee gently in my arms. She was trembling.
I wish my dad was here, he'd know what to do. I thought desperately trying to think. I looked up at the ghosts who were laughing again as if this was all just a big joke. The two with arms exchanged glanced and charged at me. Their small cold hands wrapping around my arms and pulling me. I screamed as Evee and I were lifted up into the air. The ghosts sped full speed at the wall and I felt my back collide with the wall the hands vanished and disappeared and I fell 5 feet collapsing to the ground Evee still in my arms. I hit the ground hard and gasped as pain jolted through my body again.
The room erupted in laughter again. The smallest ghost lunged at me and I curled into a ball holding Evee tightly against my chest. I waited for the attack but nothing happened. Something black flashed in front of me and I looked up in time to see Lance. He was wearing pajama shorts and a black under shirt, his hair was disheveled and had a rugged look to it, he was gasping as if he had run all the way from upstairs.
"Are you alright?" Lance asked between breathes. I nodded gripping Evee tighter as she snuggled against my breast.
"Yea, w-what are those things?" I asked as he reached for a poke ball on his belt. When he released it, it a Dragonair flew up into the air coiling and flying around the room letting out a beautiful but mighty cry.
"Quick use thunder wave!" He called out and a flash of electric energy filled the room radiating from dragonair. All of the voices rang out in pain and I was able to make out outlines from the shadows.
"What are they?" I asked Lance.
"They are ghost Pokémon, Ghastly, Haunter, and gengar." He replied watching them very carefully. "Ghost Pokémon have a strange sense of humor, they enjoy haunting and scaring people. There is a legend of a manner that appears only to people lost in the woods. I suspected this was it but in our predicament we really didn't have a choice."
"I wasn't able to hurt them." I confided "Why can you?"
"You used Evee?" he asked me. I nodded. "As you can tell these are ghost Pokémon. Normal attacks won't work against them. Only attacks with elements will, water, fire, physic, air, etc. not something physical." I nodded and we both climbed to our feet as the Gengar let out a wild cry and shadows raced towards Dragonair when they met Dragonair let out a cry and collapsed to the floor.
"Night shade," Lance growled under his breath. "Quick use hyper beam," Dragonair opened its mouth, light began to gather around it growing brighter and brighter until the light became a solid beam and fired towards the ghosts which let out a cry and seemed to vanish inside the light. Lance grabbed my hand and started running pulling me along, Dragonair flying close behind. We were about to run into the kitchen when I heard laughter coming from down one of the side hallways, but what was that? I paused and strained to hear, was that an additional voice, A whimper? Oh-ho no! Lance stared at me a moment confused but I pulled free from his grasp and dashed down the dark hallways disappearing in the shadows. I heard Lance's footsteps as he tried to catch up but couldn't.
I sped down the hallway, the voices growing louder and louder, until I shoved open a door and was flooded with light. I froze shielding my eyes and stared inside. It was a play room, like a nursery. There were at least 10 ghosts in there and just as I expected sitting on the playground was my little sister Ruby. She was on top of the slide squirtle tensed and ready to battle in front of her. one of the ghosts flew at her but was shot out of the sky by squirtle's water gun. Ruby seemed amazingly calm, though I could see the fear and confusion in her eyes as well as her gentle trembling. Each time a ghost flew at her she let out a little yelp before commanding squirtle to use water gun, it seemed to be one of the few attacks she knew about.
"Ruby," I muttered to myself though she didn't seem to know I was there. I took off running towards her full speed, Evee held tightly in my arms. The room was absolutely huge and it didn't seem possible that it could fit inside the manor and I realized it had to be one of the ghosts illusions. Ghosts flew at me I dived, dashed, and sped around them until I was at the foot of the playground. I took the stairs two at a time and ran across the small rope bridge. A ghost appeared in front of me and with a laugh it began to undo the rope holding the bridge up. Evee leaped from my arms and let out a cry, calling out to squirtle who immediately turned and shot the ghost with a water beam.
"Claire!" Ruby called relived. I climbed the final part of the jungle gym to reach her embracing her in a hug. "Here," she said handing me my belt with all of my Pokémon and poke balls. I took them gratefully and returned Evee, exchanging her for ponyta.
"Let's go ponyta, flame thrower!" I demanded a wave of fire erupting flying at the nearest ghost. Ponyta's fire and Squirtle's water worked together in perfect harmony, attacking the ghosts while defending each other. I saw Lance open the door and watch us. a smile tugging at his lips at the harmony in our fighting. When the last ghost charged at them the water and fire combined sending a twister of fire and water pummeling the ghost until it fell to the ground unconscious. I quickly climbed down taking every shortcut I could. I picked one of my empty poke balls and chucked it at the Gengar. But another poke ball hit it before I could, knocking my poke ball to the ground. I looked up at Ruby her arm poised after throwing. The Gengar vanished in a red light and the poke ball rocked, blinking as the three of us stared at it intently. It settled and Ruby climbed down to claim her first self-caught Pokémon a large smug smile plastered across her little face.
She picked up the now quite poke ball and smiled at me excitement flashing in her eyes. I opened my mouth to speak but was cut short when the room began to shake. We all stumbled trying to hold our balance when the entire room began to shift and shrink and move. Lance waved for us to follow and we all ran out the door. The hallway I had run through to get there was gone, replaced by a labyrinth of short dark hallways, twisting and turning, in a never ending maze. I glanced back behind me and behind Ruby I could see the candles that lit the way extinguishing, as if blown out by an unknown source, following us, chasing us, catching up. I pushed Ruby in front of me and we all ran faster. Finally we turned one last corner and a door came into view. It opened and a bright light shined through. I felt the darkness whip around my ankles like tentacles as if threatening to pull me back in.
We all dived through the door headfirst throwing ourselves out onto the ground just as the door shut and closed in on itself leaving nothing in its place. We all slid through the mud, rolling and grunting as she slid across the mucky ground. It had stopped raining and we all climbed to our feet as the sun began to shine out from the tree tops. We turned around to look at the manor. Nothing was there, the building was gone. All that was left was our stuff in neat piles in the middle of a dead dry, dirt clearing, where not even grass dared to grow. We slowly walked over to it picking up our things making sure we had all of our Pokémon. We looked at each other; silently making sure everyone was ok. I was exhausted the experience had defiantly drained all the life out of me.
"I think we should get going." Lance said eyeing the area distrustfully. "But I don't think traveler's manor will be appearing again, to anyone." I nodded. He looked down and seemed to notice that neither of us were properly dressed and Ruby was the only one who was dressed to travel she must have changed after I left her. I gave a silent prayer thanking Mew that I was wearing pajama, pants and T-shirt rather than some of my other, more revealing PJs. We both uncomfortably and reluctantly went to different ends of the clearing vanishing in the forest and I quickly changed into my jeans and nice shirt Ruby staring at me asking me why Lance and I didn't like our PJs.
"We just can't travel like this," I lied. "It's just we don't look professional and its weird." I said trying to think. Ruby shrugged and we walked back to the clearing, by the time we got there, Lane was sitting in the middle of it his back to us his cheeks scarlet. He turned to me stuttering. And I realized from here I would have been in view when he walked up. I blushed and crossed my arms trying to move off the subject.
"We should get going." I offered quickly. He nodded a faint smile appearing. He pulled out his poke balls, this time two dragonite appeared and I gasped at the sight of the legendary Pokémon, not one BUT TWO! We climbed on and I fell asleep as we rode our way to meet with my brother.