For those rereading this story, as of April 2023, the Girl and the Giratina has been officially REWRITTEN. Most of the chapters themselves have not been changed, nor has most of the formatted plot. But some details of the story (such as location and pokemon caught) have been tweaked in hopes of avoiding Mary-Sues and writer's block. This was my first story, and I only want to make it better for you guys and myself. I hope you will still enjoy the chapters.
Chapter 1 The Real World: Reality is Overrated
The world is riddled in mystery. Science has constantly sought out all its secrets, but mankind is still left in the dark about the many wonders of life. New discoveries are being made every day. Advancements on technology, new galaxies are discovered. Even time travel is slowly starting to become a possibility, but no one could begin to imagine the possibility a young girl's fantasy of experiencing a world that does not exist to be true... but the possibilities are endless.
The sun seared with intensity as hot sunbeams lit the surrounding area, the air thick with anticipation to the point of becoming almost unbearable as the two pokemon trainers were down to their final pokemon. Despite the heat, Diana felt an anxious shiver as she recalled her fallen Tropius. She thought she could have out-speed Laura's Blaziken with Tropius's ability Chlorophyll, but it hadn't been enough. She knew going into it that it was a gamble after using Sunny Day, but in the end the damage from Flamethrower timed with the increase of fire type moves from Sunny Day had been too much. Her long, dark hair pooled over her shoulders as she shifted in place, steadying her quivering fingers as she sent out her final pokemon. She was unable to hide her expression as the edge of her mouth stretched into a smirk as a large, blue mudskipper popped out of the red pokeball, letting out a daunting roar. Laura's green eyes narrowed at the Swampert and the inconvenient type match-up it posed but was otherwise undaunted as she ordered her pokemon to strike.
"Blaziken, use Bounce!"
"Quick, Swampert, wrap this up with Hydro Pump!" A vortex of jet-stream water shot from Swampert's maw and blasted his opponent with enough force to pluck the feathers off a chicken, but the attack missed by mere seconds as the bipedal bird pokemon leapt into the air. Soon the Blaziken came crashing down, barely putting a dent in the mudskipper as it launched another Hydro Pump from its mouth square at the Blaziken's chest. It had done less than half the damage she had wanted, thanks to Sunny Day being in effect, and with the Blaziken being faster than her Swampert, it was only a matter of seconds before his trainer executed the finishing move.
"Blaziken, use Solarbeam," Laura smirked as an icy feeling of panic spread over the brunette as her opponent quickly gathered light and fired a powerful green blast into her Swampert. Anticipating for the numbers to quickly fall to zero, Diana had thought it was the end until she saw that her pokemon was still barely hanging on, his HP miraculously stopped at 23 and deep in the red. Down but not out. She smiled to herself, grateful that her pokemon had amazing special defense against his one weakness and gave the final order.
"Awwww yeah! Way to take the hit, Swampert! Use Earthquake!" she cheered as the ground began to shiver and crack like fractured broken glass before it quickly trapped and crushed the Blaziken, his HP dropping instantly until it trickled down to zero. Digital text began scrolling over both the Gameboy SPs, displaying the victory icon of Trainer Diana's win against Trainer Laura. Both girls sighed, finally able to put down their consoles, though it was for different reasons. Diana fist pumped the air.
"Ah ha, YES! VICTORY!"
"Oh, come on! No way he should have lived after that! It was four times the damage!" Laura argued, tossing her silver Gameboy to the bed as Diana confidently posed in front of the gaudy pokemon posters plastered on her bedroom walls.
"Swampert can just sense my love."
Laura gave her a deadpanned look. "Now that is full of crap. What did you do to it? Use a Game-shark and supe him up with rare candies and EV training?"
"Don't even joke about that, dude. You know me better than that. I don't cheat. Hacking games with cheat codes sucks all the fun out of it. I'll admit that Sunny Day had me worried, especially when you used Solarbeam, but nothing can beat my Swampert's stats," Diana smirked before doing the cabbage patch, reveling in the satisfaction of once again beating her best friend, whooping and hollering as she did her victory dance, loudly singing "We Are the Champions" off-key."
"Okay, dork, stop being such a sore winner. I didn't even want to battle you anyway."
"That sounds like looooooser talk~," Diana grinned before Laura playfully shoved her friend so that she plopped onto the bed with a bounce.
"One day that big mouth of you will get you into trouble."
"It's just part of my charm," Diana shrugged in a-matter-of-fact way, folding her hands below her face and gave her friend a coquettish smirk. "You know you love me."
Laura rolled her eyes. "And you make me question that fact every day."
"I mean, who else would be able to put up with you as a stand partner for band? Surely you wouldn't replace me so easily. It's not like you could have been stuck with Bad-Breath Betty."
"I don't know. Betty's got a pretty cool manga collection, though I'm sure it would be hard to find someone as much as a dorky, immature show-off as you-" Diana responded with a quick punch to the shoulder. "Oww- plus there's the whole you still playing Pokémon as a high school sophomore. Hard to find kids these days who are fifteen and still playing pokemon."
"If I'm a child then you must be a baby because you're only a year older than me and you still play Pokémon," Diana pointed out.
"Yeah, but I was coerced against my will. You wouldn't stop bugging me to buy the game after months of subjecting me to drawings, books, and talk about Pokémon. It was subliminal mind control!" Laura sighed and then sat up in a lotus position. "I mean Pokémon was made for little kids. I've seen five year olds play this game."
"That doesn't mean we still can't enjoy stuff as adults. Why do we have to grow out of everything anyways? There's nothing wrong with wanting to enjoy things you liked as a kid as an adult..." Diana mumbled the last part almost to herself, even if she didn't fully believe it. Most of the people her age didn't play Pokémon, but her rule of thumb was that no one was too old for Pokémon, and she was going to stick to it. "Admit it. I got you invested."
"Fine, fine. I'm a little interested, but only because it's been ages since I've actually played the games," Laura admitted begrudgingly. "But you have to admit that not exactly common for kids our age to play Pokémon, and we're among band geeks."
"Why do we have to grow up so fast? What's wrong with being a kid?"
"Outside of not being able to drive and do what we want? That's a bigger question than I'm prepared to answer. Who knows why things are the way they are. It's just something we have to do eventually. We gotta grow up sometime..." Laura trailed off before flopping onto her back. "Anyways, Digimon is much cooler than Pokémon-"
Diana gasped in mock offence. "Blasphemy! I would never DARE compare a superior game series like Pokémon to Digimon! The sheer cheeky audacity! That's like comparing apples to tomatoes. They're both fruits, but you're more likely to eat one as a dessert than the other."
"Uh huh, you keep telling yourself that." she said before looking down at her console. "Hey can you disconnect our Gameboys already? My battery is going to die, and I can't leave the Union Room until you do."
"Oh right. Sorry." Diana exited her avatar from the battle room, saved, and shut down her Gameboy. She had just won her fifth wireless battle, but after the high wore off, she was left with an empty feeling as her thoughts returned to how little time she had left. Rolling off the bed and stretching her arms out, Diana tried to shake off the somber feeling that seemed to chase her when she remembered how much time she had left. "Been playing for a while... what time is it?"
"Uhhhh..." Laura replied, looking down at her wristwatch. "It's one o'clock. Why?"
One o'clock!? The Pokémon Galactic Battles Marathon is on! Ignoring her friend's confusion, Diana sprung from the bed with catlike agility and slid out of her bedroom before dashing towards the living room. In her excitement, Diana had rudely abandoned Laura in the other room, but she couldn't find it in herself to care. Diana knew Laura would forgive her. She always did. She was, after all, Diana's best friend- her only friend -for six years.
After fumbling for the remote, she quickly clicked the TV onto Cartoon Network, displaying the screen of Ash and company relaying their past adventure from last episode. The network had gone pretty far downhill on cartoons recently, and because of the unfortunate time slots they had for Pokémon, one of the few good shows, she had missed some of the episodes, but through some stroke of luck, she had managed to watch all the important gym battles up until now. The beginning clip of the episode transitioned into the opening theme song as Diana prepared to sing into the remote as the first couple of synthesized notes played.
"Sometimes it's hard to know (da-da),
Which way you're supposed to goooOOOO,
But deep inside, you know you're strong,
If you follow your heart, you can't be wrong..."
"YOU ARE SUCH A DORK!" yelled Laura from the other room. Diana smiled through the notes and took that as a compliment as she sang louder and more confidence as the song progressed to its epic conclusion.
"...And if we come, together as one,
Complete the quests that we've begun,
We will win the battle, Galactic Battles POKEMON!"
She squealed and rolled on the couch, hugging her legs to her chest as the episode started. God, she loved that song so much! Music was always a comfort, but this particular song always got her pumped up, giving her a rush of nostalgia and adrenaline. Guess that's why the song was called "Battle Cry."
"You have to be the loudest flautist I've ever known," Laura said as she walked into the living room. "Are you sure you shouldn't have been a French horn player? You've got big brass energy."
"Nah, brass is too loud for me. Plus, I couldn't stand being a section near the trombones. The boys do nothing but make fart noises and try to prank each other."
"Fair enough," Laura admitted before reluctantly joined her friend on the couch anyways. "I still can't get over how much you like this series. There are better anime out there than this cheesy garbage. Digimon Data Squad, for one-"
"Don't start that again. You know I have my preferences, even if it is cheesy TV shows. I have a long history with this series-"
"Yeah, yeah, Pokemon 2000 inspired you to take up the flute despite your mom's original plans to make you a concert violinist which led to your obsession with the games, blah blah blah."
"You know it. Pokémon is my passion!" Diana announced. Of course, that isn't to say that she didn't play other games as well. Videogames were a core part of who she was, but Pokémon was her life. She enjoyed the plot, the art, the music, even the intense rush of fighting against big bosses like the Elite Four, even when you had a million revives to keep you alive. It was... exhilarating, and it made her feel good about herself. Not to mention, it was one of the few game series she and her father had played before he left.
"Speaking of passion, did you ever hear back from Curtis yet?"
"Umm... yeah, I didn't make it."
"Oh... I'm sorry."
"It's fine. It was a longshot anyways. Who would be talented enough to get into the most prestigious music school in the world as a teenager? It's hard enough that I'm skipping two years of high school. Performance wise, that's an unfortunate cut back on musical experience. The technical and music theory exams damn near burned me out," Diana waved off, forcing a smile. "Just be glad you don't have to worry about stuff like college entrance exams for another year or so."
"Yeah..." Laura trailed off, her eyes trailing back towards the TV as the onscreen gym battle progressed with Dawn cheering from the sidelines. "Ugh, why is this girl so annoying?"
"Right!? Dawn is the worst," Diana agreed almost immediately.
"Yeah! I mean, we get it. 'Don't need to worry' is your catchphrase or whatever, but do you have to say it every single episode?"
"Makes me have an intense need to jump off of something tall," she said before doubling back. "Not that I have anything against her personally. She's just a poor replacement for May as the female protagonist. She's so overconfident and headstrong, not to mention vain and girly. I can't imagine having her kind of life and only caring about how my hair or outfits look in the morning. The only good aspect about her is her diverse team of pokemon and the fact that she doesn't win every contest."
"She needs better writers."
"For real." They continued their light-hearted heckling, Diana sometimes joining in and making fun of some of the really cheesy acting lines while Laura sat back and was quiet during the more intense moments. After the marathon grew to a close, the latter was alerted by her phone alarm to leave for a babysitting job and the fun was abruptly put to an end.
The two girls looked at each other in the doorway, unsure of what to say to the other. "You've got Petrie, right?" Diana asked gesturing to Laura's flute case. Her stand partner nodded. "We should jam together again sometime."
"Yeah... I feel like I should give you my Ruby game, since... you know," Laura said, holding out her Gameboy cartridge before Diana pushed it back.
"No... You trained them all, and I wouldn't feel right taking it from you," Diana shook her head before displaying a small, confident grin. "Besides, you need to get stronger so that we can have another rematch, that is, if you think you'll be able to beat me."
"Dream on," Laura rolled her eyes. They stood there for a moment before they quickly pulled each other in a tight hug. "Ugh, why am I getting so emotional? I'm going to see you Tuesday."
"Of course. You still have until the next trimester, plus there's still the winter concert and the spring musical before then. All of this stuff is not for months from now."
"Yeah. Can't wait to sit through another round of playing 'Dance of the Reed Flutes' for the Christmas concert."
"Hey now, don't besmirch the Tchaikovsky name. His music is classic."
"Okay yeah, but not like every year. There are other flute pieces that we could be playing other than the Nutcracker," Laura groused before her smile turned wan. "Anyways I'll see you later, Di."
"Yeah..." Diana said before leaning in for a brief hug. Diana chuckled though her voice had little joy in it. "So glad you didn't say goodbye."
"Never."
"...See you later, then," Diana smiled as she let her friend go to her beat-up Moped. She didn't move from the doorway until Laura pulled out of the driveway. As the feeling of loneliness began to creep in, Diana went back into her room and tore open her new Pokémon Platinum game, feeling the inspiration and excitement of a brand-new game to play pull her in.
She hadn't bought Diamond or Pearl because she had no money to buy the system for it, but the night before during her sleepover with Laura, she was surprised with a Nintendo DS lite and a Pokémon Platinum game to go with it. Diana had wanted to play it ever since she had received the game earlier that day, but she didn't want to ignore Laura the whole time, although it was literally killing her inside not to rip open the box like a lion tearing open a gazelle.
Right as she was about to pick her starter, she was interrupted by her mom yelling to come down to dinner. Although Diana was frustrated at stopping so early in the game, the rumble in her stomach called her to the meaty smell of spaghetti and meatballs downstairs. Not even bothering to save the game, she huffed and turned off the DS and sat down to one of her favorite dishes.
YUM! Mom's home cooking! she thought, inhaling the intoxicating smell of brown sugar meat sauce and fresh, steamy pasta.
"So I saw the Curtis Institute envelope in the mail. What did they say?"
Diana's fork paused. "Oh umm... they said that they already had a surplus of applicants this year but were thankful that we applied and said that there's always next year."
"That's a shame... Well, no matter. There are other schools. It just made more sense to apply to the best first before going to our back-ups. Musical talent can only get you so far, even if prodigies are lazy with their practice." The slight barb did not go unnoticed as Diana briefly looked up to meet her mother's 'I-Told-You-So' stare. The taste of pasta began to turn foul in her mouth, like she was chewing on phone cords instead of spaghetti, becoming hard to swallow. Diana focused back on her plate.
"You have everything packed for the trip tomorrow, right, Diana?" her mother said, not looking up from her Blackberry knock-off and plate of food in front of her. She hated the way she said her name. It felt too formal, too cold, like she was addressing royalty like the deceased princess she was named after. It made her sound like she was supposed to be regal and fair and proper, things that Diana felt did not describe her at all.
"Yeah, I'm already packed. I did it before Laura came over last night."
"Good... And I should hope that you picked something suitable to wear, which means no wrinkles or anything that's too small for you. I don't want another fall concert fiasco."
"Yes, Mom, the usual orchestra pit black sweater and Eileen Fischer pants," Diana sighed, twirling balls of spaghetti anxiously on her fork, turning the loving home-cooked meal into a bloody battlefield. She had heard this lecture time and time again, whether she had done everything right or not. Was there any escaping it? Deep breathes...
"I don't want us to be late like you usually are for school. Your audition at Berklee is on Monday at 9am, and the Greyhound won't wait for us if you slack off on getting up for it tomorrow. That means I don't want you to be playing that game all hours of the night." Diana fought back the word vomit as the food went from bitter to acidic as she violently began to take it out on the garlic bread, tearing it in pieces before shoveling it into her mouth. Her mother continued, "I only bought you that junk because I thought you would need something to do on the bus ride over to Massachusetts. Your birthday isn't even for another five months, so I would be grateful that you're getting anything at all right now. And I don't want to hear that you've been playing it instead of practicing or doing your homework, you hear me? You're lucky that your school let you take a day off to audition without affecting your perfect attendance record."
"Yes, mother," Diana grunted, unable to help the eye roll at the end. Something that her mother unfortunately noticed right away.
"What's with the tone? Don't you dare take that tone with me, young lady. You know better than to act so disrespectful," her mother warned, pointing a finger in Diana's direction. "In fact, you don't sound very grateful for my gift. I didn't have to get it for you, you know. I could have bought myself a new pair of boots with the amount I spent on that useless crap. Maybe I should take it back. I've got no problem bringing it back to the store and getting my money back. So maybe you should say 'thank you' instead of acting like a spoiled, ungrateful brat." Her mother and her traded glares across the table, waiting expectantly for the other to answer. "You know, if you're going to keep acting like this, then maybe I shouldn't let you have games and friends over-"
Finally, Diana had had enough. Her utensils clattered onto the plate as waves of hostility flooded over her. "Thank you? You want me to 'thank you' for leveraging a gift against me so that I act like a mature emotionless robot, after criticizing and lecturing me?! How am I supposed to feel, Mom? Tell me! How is the problem child supposed to feel? You're the psychiatrist now. Am I supposed to be grateful that you let Laura come over, even though you hate her mom? Thankful that you gave me a video game to buy me off just so you can quietly ship me away thousands of miles away from home like I'm a freaking FedEx package, even though I'm not ready or good enough for college?"
"Don't you raise your voice at me, young lady! You would be better prepared if you had just practiced instead of playing those stupid videogames-"
"I can't focus! You keep rushing me to do all of these things-"
"I only want the best for you-"
"No, you only want to not have a headache every time you come home because I embarrassed you at school with my behavior. Who cares about how wrinkly my clothes are?!"
"Stop acting like a child!"
"I am a child, Mom! I'm fifteen! I don't even have a learner's permit yet."
"Only because you refuse to learn how to drive-"
"I'm overwhelmed! All the advanced AP classes, clubs, and extracurricular activities- it's exhausting trying to be perfect for you!"
"I'm not asking you to be perfect. I just want to you to have everything I didn't get growing up. You think it's easy raising a child alone with no degree and no prospects, to struggle to pay bills while your husband goes off on deployment every six months for years? I won't let you have that kind of life!"
"Do you even know what those professors said to me during the audition? You have no idea the psychological mind games I have to deal with, having people watching you, judging you for every little mistake, even if you play it perfectly!"
"Oh, get over it! You've been playing music since you were five. You shouldn't even have stage fright at this age. You need to grow up and pull yourself together. You're going to go to college, get a degree, and get a job with a respectable income. I don't care how many schools reject you. You're going to keep trying until one of them says yes."
"Why!? What's so wrong about waiting a few years until I'm actually supposed to graduate, or are you afraid that we'll lose our benefits when the military decides to revoke Dad's military status?"
"I just want to be ready in case the military decides we don't need the support anymore. We won't have these benefits forever, and- don't you have an attitude with me, missy!" Her mother shouted, but Diana kept going as she felt the anger rise and bubble over, getting into one final row with her mother before she left for the next four years.
"And that was just the perfect excuse to go back to school, wasn't it? Until he's reported dead, you can use his benefits all you like. It was perfect timing, because having me kept you from getting your dream job, right? That's me! Problem child and destroyer of dreams! Well, I'm sorry, but I didn't make the choice of getting pregnant in high school! Just because you sacrificed your childhood doesn't mean I should have to-!" At that point, she had known she had gone too far judging by the fury in her mother's eyes. It could melt solid steel.
"You shut your mouth, right now," her mother hissed, her venom like ice in Diana's veins. "You say one more word, and I will take away all your videogames, and you can go on that bus and spend the next four years with nothing, do you hear me!?" Diana could do nothing but mutely nod, her mother's words as cold and intimidating as a hard slap to the face. "You don't understand anything about what your father and I have had to sacrifice to get to where we are now. I am trying to make a better life for us, so you're going to go to Massachusetts tomorrow and you're going to nail that audition, and if I hear you bombed it because you didn't want to go to a fancy music school because it was far away, then don't bother coming home."
After her furious declaration, her mother stood up from her chair and put her dish in the sink before returning to her study. Dinner was over.
It didn't used to always be like this. Before her father had gone MIA, they had travelled the world together, changing location every couple of years for military assignments. Because of that, her mother was open to Diana having boundaries and despite her father being in the military, he was hardly the cliched drill sergeant. In fact, her dad was actually pretty cool. By day, he was a military officer, but by night, he was a pro gamer. He could master any videogame you gave him, even level three of Battle Toads. He would play videogames with Diana all the time, even though her mom didn't like how little her daughter would spend outside. Then, one day, that all changed. Her mother spent more time at work and became more irritated at Diana's Laza Faire behavior, leaving Diana with nothing but her videogames, empty reminders of what was long past. Virtual tombstones.
She wasn't a bad kid. She didn't do things like go to crazy parties, drink beer, or get high, but she did get into a lot of fights, being short tempered at the worst of times. She was still angry. Angry at her mother, at herself, at the whole world for the unfairness of her situation.
As she finished her dinner and put her dish in the sink, Diana wanted to push all of her feelings away. Drown her sorrows into something mind-numbing. She thought of grabbing her DS, but it didn't seem enough. She already had two broken controllers from venting her frustration into Super Smash Brothers, and she didn't want to add her new game to the collection, not to mention her mother seemed keen on her being productive. She needed to channel her anger into something else, something more physical and less fragile. Her therapist Debbie had been trying new exercises in channeling her anger. Breathing in through the mouth and out through the nose, squeezing a squishy ball, even listening to relaxing music. Breathing was okay, but the squishy ball just alerted other people that she was getting angry, and she couldn't listen to music all the time.
Her counselor thought about getting her to try out for competitive sports, but she wasn't very athletic, her body weight being a puny ninety-five pounds at most, so she found marching band. She discovered that playing the flute taught her patience and self-discipline. It took a lot of effort and concentration to play the flute, not to mention it was the reason she had gotten the scholarship; ten years of practice had finally paid off. Granted, the army was already more than willing to cover all of her education costs, but with her track record of school incidents and her father's five-year MIA status slowly dwindling their hopes to KIA status, she was essentially walking on a tight rope. No one wanted to invest in a hopeless cause.
Even after skipping two years, her grades were average at best, that is, if she ever did the homework, but her music she practiced almost as diligently as she played her videogames. Right now, she didn't know which urge was stronger, to play the flute or to play her new videogame. After moving around a large number of suitcases in a corner of her room, Diana resolved that a bit of music prep wouldn't hurt and lifted a small black case out from under a sleeping bag and snuck out the backdoor. Dusk was quickly setting in, and she wanted to vent with her music without her mother complaining about the noise. Small, crumpled bits of notes and sheet music stuck out of her case as she assembled her flute.
At sunset, the pond behind her house sparkled like a million diamonds on its platinum waters as the skies above hewed in a pearl-like pink. Sitting in the cool grass, the smell of freshly mowed lawns filled the air as she lifted the flute to her lips and began to tune and play a series of scales. After she finished her warm up exercises, she regressed into her warm-ups by playing "Lugia's Song," always enjoying starting off her serious music with a light-hearted cover. Pokemon The Movie 2000 was what had gotten Diana into music all those years ago, watching it in theaters with her dad after trying to find something good to watch at the dollar theater after a recent PCS. It was, ironically, also the reason she was moving away.
This thought made her unconsciously transcend to her audition piece, Debussy's "Prelude to the Afternoon of the Fawn," before stopping mid-way through playing, unsatisfied with the piece. Years ago, she would have performed something simple like "Adagio in G Minor" by Albinoni, but it wasn't impressive enough. She had to play something technically harder, something her music teacher would give her for music competitions instead of stuff you saw on television like people butchering "Flight of the Bumblebee" for a world record or America's Got Talent. Pieces like that were only impressive to people who didn't know how to play the flute.
About ready to toss her flute into the pond all-together, Diana began working on her old solo piece that had won her a state wide competition a few years ago, Rachmaninoff's "Vocalise No. 30, No.14", something that required more circular breathing and breathe control for intonation, the long gloomy notes echoing around the lakefront until dusk turned to twilight as the sun disappeared behind the thicket of trees. Thoughts of her expressions translated into her music, finally receiving the tonality she longed for, her long hours of practicing had finally paid off as she hit the notes perfectly, hearing them dance around the lake bank's acoustics, the cattails almost swaying and dancing to the lovely mournful piece. She could almost hear the operatic voice that usually accompanied the opus, the song in and of itself dedicated to an opera singer. If only it were that easy when it came to talking to people, like her mother. As she came to the final bar of music, Diana finished playing the song with one long decrescendo note before disassembling her flute and placing it back inside its case.
While the music had calmed her down, it did not quell her aversion to the dark, the evening shadows causing an anxious need to rush home before she heard a jump in the water. It was normal for the fish to be feeding at this time of day, but it still scared the living daylights out of her. Her anxiety and overall jitteriness made a cold shiver go down her spine, feeling the uneasy paranoia of someone watching her.
"Come on, Di, don't be such a chicken. You're afraid of nothing but your own shadow," she mumbled, trying to shake off the intrusive thought of someone watching her that sometimes liked to creep in when she was alone. She warily stared down at the reflecting pond, thinking how dark and deep the waters looked, how pollution could ruin such clarity of water. You couldn't see anything... except, she did see something, although she thought she had imagined it. Down into the pond, she saw two glowing red spots resembling something like eyes. At first, she thought they were airplane pilot lights reflected in the sky overhead, but there wasn't a jet to be found.
Help me...
She jumped at the faint voice whispering inside her head, a foreign sound within her own mind of repetitive stimuli like catchphrases and musical earworms. She must be really be going mad... She had to be. Only crazy people heard voices inside their heads. She was a lot of things, but crazy wasn't one of them. She wasn't hearing voices, and she didn't see anything in the water... except she did. However instead of eyes, there was instead a dark shadow circling in the water, swirling around like a shark circling its prey, only instead of a fishy shape, it resembled more like a centipede with tentacles, grow closer and larger with size to the point that it looked like a great lizard.
LET...ME...OUT!
Without warning, a huge geyser shot up out of the lake like a waterspout, the tornado opening up a hole in the lake. "HOLY SHIT!" Diana exclaimed, reeling back from the jump scare and landing hard on her butt. What the hell was going on?! The first thought of a portal to hell came to mind as a ghostly black tentacle shot out and clawed at the ground around her and the gaping whole in the pond. The five more shot out as it tried to pull itself out of the whole. The force of the wind lifted her up in the air and sucked her towards the spatial vacuum that pulled the earth and water around it. She screamed bloody murder, but found that her voice was almost sucked dry from the sheer intensity of the wind. The last thing she remembered was her screams being drowned out by a deafening roar that seemed to pierce the sky as she was swallowed up by a black void that she had plunged headfirst into.