Shuppet

On one side of the doorway was a woman with long black hair. She wore the white uniform of a Channeler, the priestesses who specialized in ghostly matters. On the other side of the doorway was a man with short brown hair. He looked ill with his face paler than it should be and dark rings around his eyes.

"Thanks for coming so quickly," the man said. "I was going on a trip, but these things..."

She glanced in the kitchen. There was a rolling suitcase suitable for a weekend trip, a broken plate, and several signs of thrown vegetables. "What kind of ghost do you have?"

"I, I'm not sure. I hear strange whispers at night and they keep throwing things off shelves."

The Channeler came inside and looked around closer. It was a typical middle class bachelor's house. Everything was in a pile, but the piles were placed where they were convenient. There were pictures on the walls of the journey he made in his teenaged years, of him, another boy, and a girl. Furnishings had been picked out for any reason other than it matched the current decor.

But there was a definite feeling of something being off. It may have been the dust on all chairs except a rolling office chair and a turmeric yellow couch. It may have been the feeling of uneasiness that accompanied the presence of wild ghost Pokemon. Or it may have been the Sceptile who was cowering behind the turmeric yellow couch, stirring up little clouds of dust with his twitching tail.

The man scratched his head. "Eh-heh, sorry about Sceptile. These ghosts have him completely spooked."

She half-ignored the comment and stayed in the living room. She knocked two rods together, the tools of her trade. One had two black ribbons tied to it, which would attract the attention of ghosts when waved around. The other had one white ribbon tied in a loop and could catch a wayward ghost if it attempted to escape. "Cooooo, you sly little spirit," she called. "Show thyself."

The reply was like a sheet being ruffled in the wind. It was definitely in this room. There was a new flat-screen TV, a disorganized bookshelf, a contest ribbon in a display case, a blue-green chair, a wooden rocking chair, the turmeric yellow couch with the Sceptile behind it, a stained coffee table, a brick fireplace... the fireplace. There was a buildup of ashes and charred wood, as well as a bin of dry logs ready to be burned. The ruffling sound had come from there.

Fearlessly, the Channeler went to the fireplace and flicked the attraction stick into it. "Come hither."

Nothing could be seen, but the energy of the room shifted, tugged on at one point.

She swung the capture stick right where she felt the shift occur. The ghost finally appeared; it was a small ghost Pokemon that looked like a party balloon wrapped in a black cloth. A scorched piece of paper seemed to be attached to it. Upon realizing that it was caught and visible, it screeched and attempted to flee the room. The Sceptile yelped and dashed to hide behind his trainer. The Channeler struggled to hold onto the capture rod. She clasped it in both hands and stood her ground.

"Take that paper," she said firmly, "and read it out loud."

"Ah, okay." The man snatched the damaged paper from the ghostly Shuppet. It nearly tore in half, but he held on to it. "Not many words are readable. 'Dear... have great, excellent, exciting news and... should come. Guess... came back?' Wait, this? I thought I burned this!"

The Channeler pulled the Shuppet closer as its panicked struggle weakened. "What was it about?"

"It's just a personal letter, nothing important to this."

Abruptly, the Shuppet stopped struggling. The Channeler stumbled backwards into the brick fireplace. After regaining her balance, she replied, "You see how interested it is? You'll either tell me or you won't be rid of them until too late."

"Them?"

"Them."

"Well it's a long story, but," he saw the strict look on her face, "I, I can shorten it up some. I've had these two friends since way back, practically since we were born. When we were fourteen, we went on a journey together. But things changed then. The two of them would argue a lot, but then be kissing by the end of the day. I kinda got shunted aside as the comic relief guy, seemed like it. Despite that, I had a crush on her too and I figured that I had to be better for her than him because I wasn't so argumentative.

"But it was hard competing with him. Sceptile and I struggled through the Gyms while he always trounced them. He always trounced me too when it came to practice battles. She'd cheer me up, but then get back into her love-hate thing with him. And he got real nasty about it too, becoming the most awful arrogant jerk. Somehow he became League Champ and got it into his head to go on a crazy world journey. He invited us, but she wanted to go to nursing school. And me, I came back home to take care of my granny, because she needed me.

"I thought that since he was gone, I could try getting her to fall for me. I wrote her letters all the time when he wouldn't so much as give us a call. I was getting her to really warm up to me. But then he comes back out of the blue and proposes to her the moment they saw each other again. And wouldn't you know it, she accepted despite the fact that I got her to admit that they argued way too much. It's just..." He clenched his teeth. "I don't under..."

The Channeler abruptly put her attraction rod to his lips. "Shh."

He nearly got mad at her, but then saw how the Shuppet was staring at him as if hungry. With a chill running down his spine, he stepped back. Sceptile clutched his hand.

"It feeds off your jealousy," she explained. "As it drains your spirit, your body and mind grow weaker. It finds ways to lock you into jealousy, such as keeping you up all night and whispering reminders in your ears. It will continue to do so until you act on your jealousy, after which you are no longer of any use to it. You were leaving to attend their wedding."

"B-but it can't really do that," he said weakly, not wanting to accept that explanation of his currently poor state of health.

She pointed her rod at him in a no-nonsense manner. "Do not go or you may do something that you will later regret. Explain that you are sick and they should accept this. Instead, you should go to the church and spent as much time as you must in order to purify your mind. Then you shall recover. I'll drive these Shuppets away, but unless you let go of your jealousy, you will attract more."

"Ssessri," the Sceptile hissed quietly.

"But I..." he stopped himself and sighed. "All right."

Sapphire entry: Shuppet grows by feeding on dark emotions, such as vengefulness and envy, in the hearts of people. It roams through cities in search of grudges that taint people.

The guy is no one in particular. Some readers have claimed he's like one of the anime characters, except I only ever saw the first Pokemon movie. And that was years ago.