Hey, everyone! Sorry for taking so long to finish this chapter. I started a new job recently. I work weird hours, and I've been struggling to manage the little free time I have now. I think I'm starting to get the hang of it, though. As always, thanks for reading!


Eldritch's house was nearly quiet, save for the TV, which quietly aired the JLKV late night report and filled the downstairs with soft, shifting light. I reviewed my notes as I sat at Eldritch's kitchen table. I realized, reading over them, how poorly-done they were. Past Lucas had not written notes as comprehensively as he thought he had. Eldritch was in the kitchen, boiling a pot of tea and murmuring the lyrics to an old sea shanty about being a long way away from home.

An unnatural noise, like a broken brass instrument, rumbled from somewhere in the distance, hung for a second, and then echoed away. I thought I felt the ground shake ever-so-gently, but I can't say for sure that I wasn't imagining it.

I knit my eyebrows, and when the noise faded, I said, "… Did you hear that?"

"Sure did," said Eldritch, gazing out the little window in the kitchen.

"Was… that a ship?"

"It didn't sound all that much like a ship. It was too far off. And in the wrong direction. It sounded like it came from the east. If that was true, it'd be right next to us."

"Right."

"Can I get you something to drink?" offered Eldritch.

"Are you making enough tea for two?"

"For sure." The sailor entered the kitchen, leaving the pot to boil. "So, where 'ya from?" he asked as he lowered himself into his chair. "You know what? Dumb question. You're Rowan's aid. You're from Sandgem, right?"

"Not a dumb question, actually. I'm from Six Island."

He wrinkled his nose. "And you moved to Sinnoh?"

"Not my first choice, climate-wise. But I came here specifically because the Professor offered me a position after reading some of my notes about the Pokémon that lived in Pattern Bush. Which, don't think I'm a prodigy or something. The moment he was comfortable doing it, he pointed out tons of ways to improve my writing and note-taking."

"I'll be damned. Good stuff. You have any Pokémon of your own?"

"One. I have a Yanma."

"Really, now? One of those big red things? They give me the creeps."

I sighed, wishing someone on this chunk of frozen mud appreciated Bug Pokémon. "So, uh, not to rush straight to the point here, but can you tell me anything about Pokémon and nightmares?"

Silence practically became the third person in the room. The only sound was Jenny Norito's coverage of a convenience store robbery allegedly committed by two men with green bowl cuts. Eldritch cleared his throat, but before he could speak, the teapot started hissing. He looked relieved. He said, "Oh, tea's on," and then went and poured the tea into two mugs. He sat back down, placing the fancier of the two mugs in front of me. It was crimson ceramic, and covered in traditional artwork etched in gold.

"Thank you," I said, sipping the tentatively and burning my lip.

"So," said Eldritch, "I know a thing or two about Byron's Pokémon problem."

"What is it?"

"I've had something like it happen to me." Eldritch took a long, borderline-superhuman sip of his tea. "It must've been… what, six or seven years ago? My son falls asleep one night and won't wake up. I try damn near everything I can think of to wake him up, but nothing works. He just keeps shaking and talking about something watching him.

"Sailors are a superstitious bunch. Ask any of us. Travelling all around the world opens your mind, I think. You see all kinds of stuff you don't see walking around on land like most folks do. So, one of my sailor buddies tells me one day about an island north of here. He says there's a Pokémon who lives there that can wake people up from bad dreams.

"So, I go to the Poké Mart and buy me some Poké Balls, so I can catch this thing and help my son. I sail up to the island. Not far. Maybe a twelve hour trip, there and back? I disembark and… the Pokémon's nowhere to be found. But…" Eldritch walked to the cupboard in the living room. He opened it and pulled out a glass bottle with a shimmering green feather resting at the bottom. He brought it back to the table and placed it in the center, particles of sparkling dust settling inside of it. "I find this. I figure I'll take it. It's pretty, and when this blows over, I can give it to my son for show and tell, or something. And, wouldn't you believe it, the moment I bring it in the door, he wakes up!"

"So, what you're saying," I said, internal clock begging for mercy, "is that I need to go to the island and find a feather like that one."

Eldritch took another sip of his tea and stared at the feather. "Frankly, if you want this one, you can have it. I think that Pokémon knows it's not welcome here. It's been years, now."

"Do you know anything about what Pokémon it was?"

He shook his head. "Can't say I do, sorry. All I know is that it was strong. Just being near my son made me shiver."

"And are you sure you want me to take that? I don't want to indirectly invite the Pokémon back into your home. Maybe we could cut it in half, or—"

"It's no big deal. I wouldn't wanna risk it not working anymore."

"Hmm. That's a good point…"

Eldritch pushed the bottle towards me. "Go on, you can have it. I insist."

"Well, thank you. I'll make sure Byron knows how much of a help you were."

Eldritch laughed. "Tell him I say it's been a while!"

I left Eldritch's house and made the short walk to the Canalave Gym. My eyes stung from the brightness of the fluorescent lights in the lobby. I was greeted by a muffled boom, followed by the sound of crumbling rock hitting the floor. I walked down the hall and into the challenge hall, where I found Byron. A huge Steelix, one of the biggest Pokémon I'd seen I my life, stood beside him, reared up to attack a crumbling boulder in front of it. Byron extended his arm towards it. The Steelix moved slowly, lumbering forward and bringing its massive head down onto its target, its jaw and the bits of steel protruding from its underside pulverizing the stone like a dirt clod.

"Byron!" I shouted, my voice coarse from exhaustion. Steelix slowly turned its head to stare at me, and maybe it was the exhaustion that convinced me that I was closer to dying than I had ever been.

Byron held a hand up, and the beast relaxed. "Did you find something?"

I approached him and retrieved the bottle with the feather from my backpack. "I talked to a sailor named Eldritch who said his had a similar problem to yours. He said that feather woke him up when he brought it into his house."

"Eldritch, huh?" Byron hefted the bottle, examining the feather inside with his tired, baggy eyes. "It's been the better half of a decade since I talked to that guy. You think this'll work, huh?"

"I believe him," I said.

"Mm. Assuming I'm thinking of the same guy, me too. Why don't you go catch some shut-eye, son? You've done good."

"Thanks," I sighed. "If it doesn't work, just let me know tomorrow, and I'll—"

"No, it's fine, son. Just get some rest. You did plenty. Any way I can make it up to you?"

"Don't worry about it. I just need to go to bed."

After leaving Canalave gym, I walked back towards the Pokémon Center, where I assumed I'd find hotels. There were none. I asked around town, wandered a bit, and finally found rest in a small local inn. The inside hadn't been updated in decades, I thought, or it was intentionally old-fashioned. The lobby was mostly open space, with a small, dark wood reception desk, manned by the sole person in the lobby.

"I'd like one night, please," I said.

He looked up at me from his paperback. "We don't usually book people after midnight," he said. He had a thick accent from somewhere I couldn't place. He laughed to himself a bit, "But I'd be a rude host to turn away a weary traveler such as yourself."

"If it's too much trouble," I said, "I can find somewhere else."

The receptionist stuck a folded sheet of paper in his book and dropped it on the counter. "No, really, I wouldn't turn you away! In fact, there's a bed up there, all made and ready for you. I insist." His mouth twisted into a grin. I wondered if he thought he was being charming. If maybe he'd used that grin for years, and no one had ever gathered the courage to tell him it was unsettling.

"Okay, well, if you insist. How much do you want?"

"Oh, no, it's on the house. You clearly need your rest. By all means, get it!"

I put my wallet back in my pocket. "… If you're sure."

"I insist!" He seemed deeply unnatural to me. Maybe I was tired, but his body language and his speech seemed rehearsed, like an imitation of how a person should act learned from how-to videos. Regardless, I accepted his offer and went upstairs to my room. The Harbor Inn was small enough that the rooms weren't numbered. I was staying on the last room in the left hallway on the second floor.

My room was cramped, with a portion of the wall jutting out to make room for the shower. The towels were hastily folded, and one of them had fallen off the rack when I first entered the bathroom. The bed was snug, but the sheets were too smooth. Or, that was what I thought, until I passed out.


The place I stood in only nominally resembled a place. I stood on something that resembled the ground. My surroundings were a churning, dark purple chaos. I could have sworn I saw the shapes of hands and fingers in the swirling patterns, but when I focused on them, they vanished. I was dreaming, I realized. Everything I felt and saw seemed to match the description Byron and Eldritch had given to me.

It was watching me.

I was curious. I wanted to know more about the nightmare Pokémon, and how it operated. If its nightmares were based on the host's own fears, or if it was a catch-all nightmare it used. I wondered why it gave people nightmares, and why it seemed to like terrorizing them so much.

There was a figure not far off, but far enough that I didn't notice it at first. A monochrome human form curled up and sitting on the ground. I walked forward, lurching and dizzy. I couldn't feel my heartbeat. I couldn't really feel my own body at all.

The figure was completely motionless, about my size. They didn't even seem to be breathing. They looked up at me. Their face was yellow. Too yellow to be natural. Their face was vaguely human, the eyes and mouth somehow larger than they should be. Their expression was somewhere between neutral and nervous.

They were gone suddenly, with no explanation. They were not the one watching me. That was something beyond what I could see. My surroundings slowly formed into something that looked like a forest, still roiling and turning. I looked down at my hands to see them blending with my surroundings, like paint in water. I ignored it and walked into the forest.

Telling myself it was all a dream was starting to wear off. My mind was actively turning against me. I saw more of the people with the uncanny faces out of the corner of my eye, but couldn't see one directly. I heard a boy's echoing laughter, but couldn't tell where it was coming from. I made the mistake of wondering how long it would be until I woke up.

A dark circle sat at the floor of the forest, black coils rising up from it and disappearing into the air. I approached the circle, shaking. I wasn't curious anymore. I didn't want to know anything about how it worked or why it was there. I only approached it because I hoped it might get me to wake up faster.

Something slowly emerged from the circle. Darkness dripped off its frame as it emerged, its frigid blue eye staring at me. Its body was as black as the shadow it had emerged from. Black shadows trailed from its shoulders, and something like white steam rose from its head. A jagged, red shape encircled its small head. It made a noise. Something between rumbling and static.

I'm not sure if it was out of fear or desperation, but I spoke. "Why are you doing this to people?"

The creature didn't reply. I was paralyzed under its gaze. It didn't blink. The pupil of its eye jumped around, but kept its focus on me. Its crooked fingers flexed idly at its side.

"We never did anything to you! Leave us alone!"

Even looking at its shape and trying to comprehend it filled me with fear. The kind of irrational fear you don't even realize is irrational. I felt like a kid being afraid of the monster under my bed. Only, that monster had paralyzed me and was now sizing me up for its next meal.

"Just let me wake up. I don't even know what you are!" I didn't know if the creature could understand me, or even hear me. I realized it probably wasn't going to kill me. If Eldritch's son had spent what sounded like days being stalked by it, and Byron's family had spent at least a week, it would have killed them by then. But logic didn't work for me, in front of this living nightmare. I couldn't convince myself to calm down, to feel anything other than primal fear.

The creature raised its arm slowly and extended one of its three fingers at me. I lost my center of balance. I fell backwards. When the back of my head hit the ground, I was in my bed again.


I sighed. My limbs still felt heavy, but I was back in my bed, and it was still dark. Someone was playing an old, slowed-down vaudeville song downstairs. I tried to sit up, but my limbs were too heavy to move.

It was then that I saw the beast floating at the door. It drifted towards me slowly, its form rippling like it was blowing in the breeze in the windless bedroom. I felt sweat coursing down my foreheat. My chest burned with urgency. The creature made that awful noise again. It levitated above my bed and gazed down at me.

It lunged.


I was in my bed again. Sunlight shined through the thin, red curtains. My heart was pounding. I could move again. A foghorn sounded from the harbor. I sat up and rested my head in my hands and convinced myself I still wanted to do this whole travelling thing. This was exactly the kind of hardship I didn't trust myself to wade through, but I knew I had to force myself to. The voice in the back of my mind insisted that this was forever. I wouldn't be able to sleep because that monster would always be there. I ignored it. I gathered my things and left as quickly as I could. There was no one behind the counter, so I left without checking out. They'd probably figure it out when they came back.

I went to the Pokémon Center and called Professor Rowan. He picked up after a few rings.

"Professor," I said as soon as I could see him on the screen. "I have a lot to catch you up on."

"Oh, hi, Lucas. It's a surprise to see you. I'd stopped expecting you."

"What do you mean?"

"What do you mean, what do I mean?" Rowan craned his neck forward and raised his eyebrows. "I haven't heard from you in four days."