It's Saturday once again, and that means time for the next chapter!
(Excuse any weirdness with this chapter; my computer and Wattpad are both being a little finicky at the moment so technical difficulties involving uploading images and saving chapters may occur. I'm trying my best to sort everything out.)
Our heroes have made it out of Lumiose and are on their way to Dendemille Town! But of course, there's a certain place they're bound to run into on the way...
~
Things could not get worse for our heroes. They had passed the same landmarks at least three times in the dense forest, and the rain was pelting down, a relentless storm not giving an inch for the weary travelers. Zenith squinted, once again wishing sorcery wasn't illegal so that she could unleash one big blast of wind and get rid of the clouds and rain.
To make it worse, Serena had been making up ghost stories, which seemed to be spooking Clemont and Ash, even though it was obvious she just wanted attention. "The Scary House?" The "worst experience of your life?" It was crazy- Serena was crazy! She wanted to tell the girl off.
Alas, Zenith was stuck marching through the mud with her head down, hardly able to see in front of her. "We're so lost," she muttered. "I wish we could find some sort of shelter."
"Uh, sis?" Crystal prompted, pointing forward. "Look!" Everyone looked forward to see a house...
They collectively sighed in relief and hurried over. As soon as they stepped foot on the porch, an old man opened the door with a smile.
"Oh, you poor things! You must be freezing out there, come in!" He gestured to a small cart beside him, which held exactly nine towels. Zenith took one gratefully as she stepped inside, but began to wonder. Wait, there were nine towels... there's exactly nine of us. Weird... "Oh, miss? Is there something wrong?"
Zenith was a little startled that he so easily noticed her apprehension, but she shook it off and chuckled nervously. "Nope, just very thankful for the towels," she reassured him as she dried the water droplets from her clothes.
He nodded. "Alright then. Come, come, I have some dinner waiting. In here," the man said as he led them to a room where nine plates of food sat. Once again Zenith was suspicious, but she took her seat and began to eat. At least the food is good and warm.
Ash looked up at the man. "Wait, aren't you gonna eat?"
"I've already eaten," he informed them. "My name is Lon."
As she was about halfway through, Zenith looked up to see the chandelier shake, and the lights flickering. Wary, she pulled the silver egg closer to her chest and continued eating. She was still somewhat apprehensive, but not nearly as scared as the others seemed to be.
Once everyone was finished eating, Lon told them to go to the living room while he made tea. On the way there, Ash came up beside Zenith. "Lon's a pretty nice guy, huh?"
"Yeah... but something doesn't feel right," she replied slowly. "It's supposedly called the Scary House, like Serena said, right? It can't be without a reason..."
They continued walking, not noticing Bonnie wander off. The young blonde ended up in a room full of toys, but when she reached out to touch them, they began moving on their own. Suddenly, a Gastly, Haunter, and Gengar revealed themselves to her, where she began to play with them.
Ash looked back. "That makes sense, right Bonnie?" However, she wasn't there.
"Where's Bonnie!?" Clemont yelped, suddenly looking around in fear.
Ash looked forward, but Zenith was gone, too. "Zenith, too!"
"All four of the quadruplets are gone, and so is Red!" Serena gasped.
Then, there was a scream that no doubt belonged to Crystal, and the remainder of the group whipped around, following the sound to its source. However, they were soon scared half to death by footsteps, turning around in relief to see Bonnie.
"Why is everyone panicking!? Lon told me not long ago, there's some trickster Ghost-Types living her and they just want to play..."
"But then where are the Sawyer sisters and Red!?" Ash asked worriedly, looking around but seeing nothing. Perhaps they walked into the wrong room looking for the girls and his brother?
Just then, there was another scream, this time sounding like it came from Zenith, from the room across the hall. Everyone except for Bonnie jumped in surprise and fear, but Bonnie shook her head. "Scaredy cats..." She then lead the way towards the next room, which was pitch dark when they first entered, Clemont racing after her to tell her to be careful.
Once inside and having their eyes adjusted to the light, they looked around wildly, soon noticing glinting red eyes and horns. Serena nearly screamed in terror, shakily looking beside the glow to see three more semi-visible figures, the first with glowing bones and a skull to go with it, the second a glowing jack-o-lantern, and the third holding a bubbling cauldron with a sickly green glow.
The one with the jack-o-lantern began walking forward, but everyone was frozen in fear. Suddenly, it jumped forward. "BOO!" After a collective shriek, the figure fell to the ground, laughing hysterically. Suddenly, the lights flicked on, and Ash whirled to see Red with a cloak and fake vampire teeth standing by the door with an amused shrug.
When he turned back, he realized that Zenith was the one who jumpscared them, holding a fake, battery-powered jack-o-lantern prop. Near the back of the room, Shadow had doubled over in laughter with a pair of Houndoom horns on a headband on her head and red contacts in. Beside her, Crystal holding a cauldron prop and Pine- who had thrown on a glow-in-the-dark skeleton hoodie and put said hood up- were having similar reactions.
"I can't... believe... you guys fell for that!" Zenith giggled. "We figured the spooky atmosphere would be a perfect place to pull a prank, and after we found these costumes everything fell into place. Oh, and also, Red caught the whole thing on video so we can upload it to our YouTube channel!"
As the rest of the group facepalmed and realized their embarrassment would be posted for multiple million people to see at least, the girl got up from the floor, jogging over to Crystal to get her egg (which had been hidden inside the cauldron) before pointing towards the hall.
"Anyways, we should go find Lon!" Then, she rushed out. Ash was the first to follow her, the others not far behind, before they heard a scream from her and she was nowhere to be seen.
"Is this another one of your jokes?" Serena demanded, but Crystal put her arms up innocently, walking ahead of the rest of them. "We didn't plan any more, honest! I think it's for real this- AHHH!"
She, too, disappeared, which confused and shocked the rest of the group. They began searching, and Ash and Bonnie disappeared, too. Serena began to scream for him as they slid down the secret trapdoor tunnel.
Zenith had been the first to land, her sister falling on top of her moments later. Just as they were about to stand after laughing it off, Ash and Bonnie came crashing down. "Hey, now I'm at the bottom of the pile! There's three of you on top of me," Zenith groaned, trying to wiggle her way out.
As soon as she was free, Zenith bolted before Crystal could grab her ankle and drag her back, noticing a small table with a journal on it. She quickly flipped through it, picking up a photo with the intent of studying it. However, there was soon Clemont's voice interrupting her thoughts, from the other side of a door.
"Ash? Bonnie? Is anyone in there?"
"Yeah!" The black-haired boy yelled back, climbing off the pile to try to pull the door open, to no avail. "Now, how do we get out?"
Pine's voice sounded from behind the door. "It looks too rusty to open with just the handle... Perhaps you guys in there should try using Pokemon moves to open it."
Zenith nearly smacked herself in the face. "Why didn't I think of that!? Water-Types will probably be best, but Ice-Types probably won't hurt. Get your Pokemon ready, folks!"
With a chuckle, Crystal shook her head and released her Greninja, shiny Vaporeon, and her Azumarill, sure to keep the egg in the crease of her elbow safe, while Zenith released her Glaceon and Ash released his Frogadier.
"Alright, stand back everyone! Now, Greninja, use Water Shuriken! Vapor, use Scald, and Azu, use Bubble!" Crystal commanded.
"Glaceon, Ice Beam!" Zenith exclaimed, hugging her egg to her chest protectively.
Ash gave his Pokemon a reassuring smile. "Frogadier, use your Frubbles on the door!"
The attacks all combined to break down the door. Clemont was the first one in, running inside to embrace Bonnie, while Red, Serena, Shadow, Pine, and Lon followed. Pine and Shadow both held their eggs firmly but gently as they stepped in, Red approaching Crystal while Serena went to blab to Ash. "Ash! I was so worried about you!"
Practically everyone rolled their eyes at her, and Zenith began walking away. However, she quickly remembered the photo she picked up, looking down to study it, grabbing the notebook as well. She scanned the entry about a young boy's father built secret passages to a basement to escape some mischievous spirits, but failed in the end and eventually moved away.
"Hey, Lon? I found this, does it belong to you?" She asked him, handing over the two items. "But who's that in the picture? He almost looks... like you..."
He held it up close to his eyes for a moment, then smiled in sudden recognition. "That was me as a young boy... I had forgotten completely..."
Bonnie suddenly tuned into their conversation. "Wait, Lon lived here as a little boy? Lemme see the picture!"
The man handed it to her, where Zenith decided to take a second look. They did resemble one another quite well, but something else was catching her eye.
"Hold on... this picture... it dates back to... 1794!! That would make you over 200 years old!"
He only laughed. "Yep, that's because... I'm dead."
This time, Zenith couldn't blame Serena- nor anyone else, even the normally quite Red- for screaming at his sickly grin.
~
Ash shot up, sweat dripping from his forehead as he woke up. He looked around frantically, only to see the rest of the group sleeping peacefully around him, Zenith right beside him.
However, hardly a moment later, she also woke up with labored breaths and wide eyes, and the others did the same- except Bonnie, but with all the sudden noise, she woke up anyways.
"Wh- Where's the Scary House!?" Serena yelped, shivering in fear.
Bonnie looked at them confusedly. "What are you talking about?"
Shadow gave the young blonde a deadpan stare. "We were all just... Lon was... Don't tell me I dreamed all that..."
"No, I remember it clearly, too!" Zenith exclaimed. "Weird..."
"You guys probably all just had the same dream," Bonnie dismissed, rolling over. "Well, it's morning now, so we may as well get up."
Both she and Zenith sighed, blowing the event off as some sort of freak event, but as Bonnie ran ahead to Laverre City and noticed a photo of herself with Lon and three Ghost Pokemon, and Zenith found Red with her phone and opened her gallery to see a brief video showing the girls dressed up and scaring the rest of the group, she couldn't help but let out a long breath.
~
The whole Scary House experience, complete with the sisters playing a joke or two!
(I'll also remind you guys that the name submission for the Eevee eggs are still open, and a thanks to the three lovely readers who've already left me some suggestions! I look forward to any and all new ones as well!)
Anyways, stay safe! Goodbye for now,
Zenith