A/N: This is it, everybody. The moment we've all been waiting for. We'll finally find out the mystery of the Lewis Manor. Which means the identity of who the murderer is and what was the caused to one the Lewis Siblings' death. Okay, I'll admit, we won't know the full mystery since one of the sibling's deaths won't be revealed until later. But hey, we'll know more now, won't we?
StreetRacer-Sam: Should've gone with that feeling, my friend. ;) Um, I don't think Clemont's Luxray is going to help our heroes in this situation. I looked it up myself and Luxray is just a full Electric-type, not to mention Clemont's own Luxray doesn't know any Dark-type moves, so...
thor94: I promise you, there will be a scene where we see Ash's point-of-view of his torture. But it won't come as soon as you think.
Juster of Rivia: You're kinda late on that suggestion there, buddy. XD I already saw Resident Evil 7 by watching Markiplier play it. And all I can say it's giving me some great ideas for one the characters. ;)
Steel Heart Alchemist: Steel, no chainsaws. Or I'll send either Wendy or Willy after you! Joking, or am I? XD Anyway, you know me. The sadistic writer that shares the cliffhanger's pain to everyone!
ginnylovesharry5: Thank you! It's so awesome that you don't usually read horror stories and yet you're reading mine! I hope you enjoy this chapter!
The moment she recognized her raven-haired friend, Bonnie immediately launched herself onto him while she wrapped her little arms around his legs. "Ash! You're okay!" She shouts in pure relief, her grip firmly around him. "We were so worried about you! We had no idea where you've gone too or if you were really dead!"
Clemont wanted to voice his own opinion on the matter but he then noticed the way Ash looked. The boy became completely rigid once his sister's arms were around him. The way Ash's eyes looked told him that he didn't actually believe that where he was right now wasn't actually real. A part of him should have suspected this since Ash was the one to suffer the most inside this horrible place. The idea of finally being safe with his friends was probably hard to believe.
Upon seeing that Ash's hands were trembling as he returned Bonnie's hug, Clemont decided that it was enough so he taps his sister's shoulder. "Bonnie, give him some space," he said gently. "He's probably still in shock after everything he's been through." Although she pouted, Bonnie eventually let the raven-haired boy go while smiling up at him.
Ash - Clemont noted - was still staring at them like they were illusions to haunt him. Although, it looked like he was staring at Bonnie more than himself and Greninja. Clemont frowned at that, wondering why seeing Bonnie would seem to frighten him the most.
He decided to ask the important question that's been plaguing them for a while. "Ash, what happened when you were in your room? There was hair, real hair, all over your door so we couldn't get in. Then you sounded like you were choking on something and when we finally got the door opened, you were gone!"
"I-I don't know..." Ash answers, his voice coming out small as the whole events came back on him. "I blacked out so I couldn't remember who or what was choking me, t-then I woke up all alone in this weird room. I thought that those ghosts were gonna kill me later so I escaped and... Oh man..."
Clemont could feel his guilt creeping up on him. All those times of leaving Ash alone had taken its toll on the poor boy and now he couldn't even look at them in the eyes.
Dropping that conversation, for now, Clemont decided to talk about something else. "Ash, did you by any chance encounter Serena or Pikachu when you were escaping?"
Ash looked up with slight confusion in his eyes. "No, why?"
"They fell down a hole a while ago, we've been looking for them along with you this whole time!" Clemont explained.
Ash's eyes slowly widen in horror. "Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go find them!"
"Yeah!" Bonnie cries before grabbing Ash by his hand and began to lead him down the hall. "We'll find them in no time!"
Clemont was about to follow after them when he noticed something off. For this whole time, Greninja made no move to acknowledge that he was grateful to see his trainer again. In fact, Clemont couldn't even tell what the Ninja Pokémon was thinking since Greninja was keeping a blank look during this whole encounter.
"Is everything alright, Greninja?" The lemon-haired boy asked, but Greninja didn't reply as he began to follow the two humans down the path. Completely dumbfounded, Clemont quickly followed after him.
Serena backed herself against the wall as she stared at the body before her in fear. If Ash's reactions had told her anything, seeing a corpse was never a good sign. If a corpse was here then a spirit wouldn't be so far behind to attack her or the spirit within the corpse could attack her if they wanted too. Due to the sudden scare and everything that was going on, Serena was completely frozen and made no move to pull the lever as she waited with trembling doom for something to happen.
Seconds went by and nothing happened.
Finally calming herself down, Serena looked at the corpse with slight curiosity while slowly removing herself from the wall. Looking at this more closely, Serena wouldn't have thought it was a corpse in the first place. The skin - from what she could see - has retained its natural tone and it didn't rot away like most corpses. She could've easily mistaken it for someone that was sleeping if she didn't know what happened inside the Lewis Manor.
Serena grasped the gates and slowly opened them. Since nothing happened yet she deemed it to be safe and walked out of the elevator, taking a few small steps at a time in case something does pop out while making sure she doesn't strain her ankle any more than she already did while hearing the small pitter-patter of Pikachu's feet against the floor right beside her.
As she grew closer to the body on the table and had a more clear view of the person's face Serena did everything she could to hold back a scream. Right, where the eye sockets should be are large gaping holes on each side of her - Serena assumed it was a girl due to the white nightgown she was wearing - face as if someone had used a pair of scissors on them. After the near-death experience a while back, Serena could already guess who did this.
"Oh my..." Serena whispered in horror. Other than the holes that were clotted up with dried blood, the girl looked entirely peaceful before the moment she died. It made Serena feel guilty that while everyone else in the world was living their lives she had hers cut so short. It made her wonder why would the murderer do something like this to a bunch of innocent people - although, she shouldn't really question the motives of a psycho maniac.
While she took in the girl's features Serena thought she noticed something familiar about this girl. She had originally thought it was one of those marked girls from before but she realized there was something more about this girl. Serena had thought she saw this girl somewhere before, in a picture of some sort. But since this girl obviously had her eyes gouged out Serena had no idea where she saw this girl from.
"Where have I seen you before?" She mumbled to herself as she began to look around the room for clues. A drawer with a picture frame caught her attention. Taking one last look at the corpse before her, Serena made her way over to the drawer with Pikachu quickly following behind her. As she grew closer to the drawer she saw the picture in more detail, but once she saw who was in the picture she gasps.
In the picture are two kids - a boy, and a girl - sitting down on some grassy fields. The girl appeared to be older since she was way taller than the boy. Underneath her brown corset vest, she wore a white shirt with sleeves that were leg-of-mutton while a small black ribbon was tied around her collar. A long, flowing green skirt was spanned out across the green grass, almost blending in perfectly. The girl was beautiful, Serena decided, with the way blue eyes shone with a special gleam in the light and how her short-bobbed, black hair flew against the visible wind while her fair skin glow against the sunlight.
"Wait..." Serena finally realized where she's seen that girl before. She turned back to the corpse, almost an exact replica of the girl in the picture.
She took a few steps closer. "You're..."
"You're Maya Lewis..."
It was a fact, not a question. There was no doubt in her mind that this was the body of the first victim inside the Lewis Manor. But looking at the corpse confused her; she knew that nobody figured out how Maya died - she even saw a picture of her body a while back and it showed no signs of injury or a sickness. However, it looked like somebody had gouged out her eyes. What could this mean? Did the murderer take her eyes out as some sort of prize?
"Why would they do this you?" Serena whispered, not knowing who she was talking too but some part of her told her that she wasn't exactly alone in the room with just Pikachu.
She turned back to the drawer, taking in the rest of the picture. The boy in the picture was sitting on Maya's laugh, having this goofy little expression on his face. He had the same black hair and fair skin as Maya - thus made Serena believed that this was her little brother that died just as mysteriously - but the only difference between the two was the eyes. While Maya had beautiful ocean orbs, Thomas - as she remembers - had two amber orbs that reminded her of one boy. That one person she hurt the most.
She shook her head to get away from those thoughts. As far as she could see, this looked like to be some sort of shrine for the kids since there was one small lit candle that was right next to the picture. Why would the murderer build them a shrine since they were the one who killed these innocent kids? Maybe there really was a human underneath that horrible monster.
Serena opened the first slide, intending to find more about what happened to Maya Lewis and to figure out who this murderer was as a human. The drawer only had two piles of paper on each side but upon reading the titles she could feel her blood freezing. One title read: How to Mend Amputated Body Parts Together. The other said: Alchemist's Guide to Body Possession.
Her hand immediately found the first one - she decided that she read that one first due to some part telling her that she wasn't ready to read that, not until she finds out what these pages were about. Apparently, these pages are a guide on mending amputated body parts - as the title suggested. She skimmed through a few parts, trying to find something that could attract her attention when she found one certain paragraph. It told her how a few certain amputated body parts can be welded together to create a new body. Although the body won't be alive, it will still look as if a person was sleeping peacefully.
Thoughts of those marked girls and Maya Lewis entered her mind as she slowly turned her head to stare at the body laying on the table with realization. Now it made sense why this body had her eyes gouged out even though Maya Lewis died from mysterious causes; someone made tried to make an exact replica of the original. The only person who popped into mind was the murderer, but it still didn't make sense. If they killed her, why would they want to create a replica of her?
Some part of her believed that she will find her answers she will need if she read that other paper. But the other part didn't want to in fear of what she might read.
Eventually, one side had won and Serena picked the paper up with trembling fingers as her eyes scanned through each word.
The term Possession came from the old Latin word: Possidere. It means "take hold of". Others believed that ghost, spirits or even demons had the power to enter the living and bend them to their own desires. Over time people believed the concept of possession to their problems despite the possibly of a mental illness, thus causing many deaths due to many attempts of an exorcism...
Serena already knew how possession works - the Hoopa incident taught her more than enough - but she kept on reading. She didn't want to miss a single detail.
...Possession was always thought of a supernatural power between the mind and the soul. The only way to completely tell if a person's possessed is by looking at changes in the eyes. Because of its unnatural causes, no human had thought of physical creatures be capable of such power. However, a recent discovery was found by one alchemist that the power of possession can be possible for physical creatures, even humans. It will only be possible only through intense mental training and focus. If possible, a physical creature can be able to transform itself into a different state of matter that will allow them to possess another living being.
It is not always easy to possess a host. There are times where one will fight back and expel the possessor. You must find a weak host so that this does not happen. If you were to possess one with a possibly strong will that won't be easy to possess, then you must break their spirit. Some sort of traumatization to render their senses completely useless. It will be difficult for the host to fight back since their mind will not be entirely focused on...
Serena had stopped reading as the papers slipped from her grasps. Thoughts of everything that happened to a certain raven-haired flash through her mind. How every single time she and the others found him he was slowly slipping away from being that cheerful boy that they all admired. He had already lost it when she found him in that hallway, she just only added more fuel to the fire.
She felt weak in her legs - and it wasn't because of sprained ankle - as hot tears began to burn her eyes. What had she done? She had let this house used her as it's puppet to hurt the boy she cared about the most. She let her anger for Ash's sudden distant behavior take over while being ignorant to the reasons behind his whole behavior. Apparently, she didn't love the boy as much as she thought.
"Pikachu-Pi?"
She looked up to see the familiar mouse Pokémon staring at her from the drawer in front. His eyes shone with concern and understanding.
"You knew, didn't you," it was a statement, not a question. "You knew that this whole time, the Ash that attacked us was really him."
Pikachu nodded, unable to meet her gaze. He had figured out that the person who locked him up was definitely his Pika-Pi - the scent was unmistakable. But he had also caught a whiff of another that was in the same place as his Pika-Pi, so he knew that his trainer was in trouble. He wanted to tell Serena sooner, but after everything that's happened he didn't know how would the honey-blonde girl take it.
He jumped slightly when he felt a warm hand patted his head. Looking up he saw Serena smiling softly at him.
"It's okay, Pikachu," she tells him, continuing to stroke his head. "I understand why you didn't tell me, it would be too much after everything going on. Thank you."
The mouse Pokémon smiled softly before leaning into her touch. "Cha..."
Serena let out a small chuckle before her attention was turned back to the papers she had previously dropped. Oh, Ash... She thought about how she found him back in that pathway back upstairs, how he was on his knees and knees while seemly in very deep pain. He was trying to warn me, she realized. He knew I was in trouble and tried to help me even after everything that I did to him. These thoughts only made her guilt go above its limit.
Her eyes then shone with determination as she went up to the second drawer underneath the one she found the two papers. Despite everything that happened, Serena was bent on making up for it. Besides, she couldn't dwell on her past actions. Ash wouldn't want her to do it. When she opened that second drawer, she didn't exactly suspect to find an old, worn-out journal with a cover that read: Maya's Diary. Don't touch, Tommy.
Serena picked it up carefully, this thing was probably as old as this house so she had to be careful in case she might accidently rip the pages and ruin her chance on finding anything else that could be useful. If this really was Maya Lewis's diary, then maybe she could find some clues on how she died while figuring out who this murderer really is.
She opened the first page the read the first thing she saw:
Day 1
It appears I have died.
Serena tilted her head slightly. Who would write something like that in their diary? She still kept reading, however.
I didn't realize it until I was able to walk through a door without even opening it. For this whole time, I was trying to catch a staff's attention and asked where my brother was. They never answered me. I found out that he died after me. Stabbed himself in the heart. He didn't want me to go so he went with me. I watched as my color-drained body was put into a casket. It made me wonder, where was my brother?
Serena flipped the page.
Day 2
I finally found my brother. My parents wished to cremate me so that they will never have to look at my face again. Even though I was their favorite because I was the "normal" child, they despised me for loving Tommy. When Tommy found out about that, he wasn't happy.
She flipped the page again.
Day 5
They finally found my parents. They were almost unrecognizable, even I couldn't recognize them. I haven't heard from Tommy in a while. I don't think he even knows I'm still in the same house with him.
The page flipped once again.
Day 1820
He killed that poor lady. My brother used Willy to kill that lady. She didn't do anything wrong. Why did you kill her, Tommy? Why?
Another page turned again.
Day 4375
I finally found out why my brother was killing all these people. He wants to bring me back. He used Willy as his puppet to possess the strongest person in a group that would enter the house. He will chop off everyone's body parts and try to find the one that matches me. He's making me a new body. Stop this, Tommy. I don't want this. I want us to be together, but not like this.
After that, it was just a blank page. But Serena felt glad it was over because she didn't want to read any more of those disturbing journal entries.
It all made sense regarding Tommy's death. After his sister's death, Tommy didn't know what to do so he did the only thing that was logical to him; he killed himself so he could be with her. She didn't know what his relationship was like with his parents, but she could only imagine it. He killed his own parents for unfairly giving her a cremation even though Maya wasn't contaminated during her death.
For those past years, Tommy and Maya both roamed the halls as lost spirits, both in the same house but were unaware of where the other one was. Somehow, Tommy must have figured out that his sister was with him and possibly wanted to give her another chance of life. So, he found those pages that can teach him not only taught him how to amputate and weld body parts back together but help a physical creature - who probably goes by Willy - possess other living creatures. It was Tommy Lewis this whole time and nobody in Kalos knew it.
But that still didn't change one question; how did Maya Lewis even die?
Before she could ponder further on this, a sound from one of the pipes caught her attention.
"-do you remember exactly-"
She freezes. That voice, it sounded just like Bonnie.
"-not really-"
And that other voice. The same voice that tried to trick her a while back but she saw right through it. But would it be the same for the others?
Immediately, Serena stumbled over to the pipe - ignoring the way her ankle flared up - and started to shout into it. "Clemont? Bonnie? Can any of you hear me?!"
"Clemont! Bonnie!"
Hearing their names being called through a ventilation wasn't something they expected to happen in their lives. But to hear the sound of a familiar honey girl's voice summoned a wave of relief over the two siblings as they and Greninja quickly made their way over to the vent where they heard Serena's voice. They failed to notice didn't move from his spot while her amber eyes began to dull.
"Serena, you're okay!" Bonnie cried in excitement.
"Bonnie is that you?!" Came the frantic voice of Serena through the vents.
"I'm here too, Serena! And so is Greninja," Clemont says with Greninja making sounds of acknowledgment. "Is Pikachu with you?"
"He is," a small "Pika" echoed through the vents, confirming this. "Guys, there's something that you need to-"
"You won't believed who we ran into, Serena," Bonnie caught her off before she could say anything. "I'll give you a hint, he as those dreamy eyes that you can't but stare at all the time.
The young girl was actually surprised when she heard a sharp tone that didn't exactly fit someone like Serena. "Now's not the time, Bonnie! You guys have to listen to me, that person you're with is not Ash!"
Now they really didn't expect that. "Excuse me - what?" Clemont managed out.
"It's not Ash! T-There's something inside him, guys! The murderer's possessing Ash!"
Once again, more bombs were dropped on their heads and they had no idea on how to react. To know that the friend they've been searching for wasn't exactly him was something they were not prepared for.
"Serena," Clemont slowly turned his head to face the raven-haired where they had previously left him. "What are trying to say-?"
The moment he turned around Clemont was meet with a blow to the head which made him crumble to the ground.
The last thing he remembered was hearing his sister screaming in fear and seeing a few dots of red in his vision before he blacked out completely.
Is anyone else getting destroyed by these cliffhangers like my friend, Steel Heart Alchemist? Really, I gotta know.