Chapter Text
“Are you sure we're going the right way?” Perry asked anxiously, eyes darting from one dark space to the next. She pulled her witch hat down in a feeble attempt to block out the wind. Her Dragonite followed uneasily, watching for any unwanted threats.
“Yeah, D-bear, I don't recognize this road! And I’ve been all through this place with my bros!” Kirsch added, treading behind his Stoutland. Jigglypuff stood alert on Stoutland’s back, eyes wide and ears twitching. Audible whimpers could be heard from Stoutland.
Laura sighed. She knew taking a shortcut wasn't a good idea, especially this late on Halloween night. Bear, her Arcanine, and Bubbles, her Onix, shuffled beside her, watching the street wearily. Even her Squirtle was quite, trembling in her arms.
Laura pulled her hufflepuff robes tighter around her. The wind howled down the quiet street. A lone street light illuminated the old, abandoned buildings that lined the street, shadows of the forest dancing eerily on the broken bricks. Squirtle whimpered.
“I swear we went the right way…” Danny mumbled, staring at her phone, fiddling with one of the stakes that hung on her vampire slaying belt. Her Charizard shared a glance with her Lucario. “We must have taken a wrong turn….”
“Well, I have a GPS that J.P. and I made!” Lafontaine said, their Pikachu squeaking in agreement. They looked almost manic with a strange mix of fear and excitement in their mad scientist costumes. “We could use that to find our way back.”
The others gave them a questioning look. Their experiments almost always ended in some sort of explosion or fire.
Suddenly, street light flickered and all of their phones buzzed in unison, sparked, and went out. The pokemon jumped.
“I would like to say, if I may, that while it may not be the best option, it just so happens to be the only option at the moment,” J.P. put in, his accent flooding his words, nearly masking his fright.
“Well, I guess it’s worth a try,” Laura conceded. The lone street light let out a his and went out, darkness swallowing the street, fingerlike shadows stretching and drowning everything they touched. Stoutland and Arcanine whined in terror.
***
“Um… Laf? Were we supposed to end up in the middle of the forest?” Laura asked. She was pretty sure Laf hadn't meant for them to end up in the middle of the woods.
The woods themselves seemed normal, amazing even. The tall oaks and sharp pines and leafy sycamores mingled among each other, the wind carrying the whispers of their leaves. The skittering of Pokemon in the trees, the scuffling of small creatures in the undergrowth, the hushed bubble of a river that ran nearby, the occasional Noctowl hoot or Mightyena howl. Everything in the forest was bathed in an ethereal silver under the moon. And the stars… words could not express how beautiful the stars looked through the spaces in thick canopy of branches.
But Lafontaine clearly hadn’t meant for them to end up here.
“Huh… maybe the programming was a bit off…” Lafontaine mumbled.
Perry gripped their arm. “It’s probably nothing more than a little bug. It’s not likely that something too malicious could just attack us that we couldn’t fight off, right?” She tried to sound optimistic, but the fact that she believed they were stuck for the night was written all over her face.
“Don’t worry guys, maybe we can see if anyone who lives in that house knows how to get back!” Kirsch said, pointing just past a thick cluster of trees. In the clearing, a sliver of a house could be seen.
“Well, bro-for-brains, I would say that that’s a good idea, but we don’t know who lives there! For all we know, that place could be some psycho’s hideout!” Danny snapped. Kirsch’s face fell, and Charizard elbowed Danny in the side. “It’s true though!” She protested.
Laura stared at the visible part of the house. She had heard something about a house in the middle of the woods somewhere off campus, but the memory was hazy. She didn’t remember who said it or when it was said.
“I think we should check it out,” Laura said, hopping onto Bear’s back. “It’s our best shot at getting back to campus before it gets too late.”
Kirsch looked up with a smile.
There was just something about the house that made her want to explore it. It was a light, and she was but a moth. She was drawn to the house.
“Perhaps we might find some rare pokemon along the way,” J.P. added. “I believe they enjoy hiding in such places.”
Laura gave him a thankful smile. She could always count on J.P. to back her up.
“Oh, ah, before we go, how about we have some snacks? I brought some brownies! We don’t need to be falling asleep while exploring a perfectly normal house, now do we?”
As soon as Perry brought out the little tupperware container filled with chocolatey goodness, Laura grabbed one, and a pair of dark, shadowy hands grabbed the container and pulled them away from Perry and up into the air. Perry’s eyes went wide with fright.
“Hey! You! You leave Perry alone!” Lafontaine tried attacking the invisible being, but had no avail. The tupperware container floated towards the house.
“Bear! Use bite on the container! Try to take it back!” Laura said, hoping her Arcanine would be strong enough to tear the container away from the phantom.
Bear grabbed the container and pulled with all his might, nearly crushing the brownies in the process. The phantom, no doubt some kind of pokemon, countered with what looked like a confuse ray. Bear immediately let go, a dazed look glazing his eyes.
Shoot. “Bear, return!” The dazed pokemon retreated to his pokeball. When Laura looked up, it appeared that Stoutland, Jigglypuff, Charizard, Lucario, Dragonite, and her Onix had all taken it upon themselves to get the brownies back.
Her friends exchanged glances, and hurried after their pokemon.
The tupperware container had disappeared by the time they had reached the clearing the house stood on. The house, however, caused Laura’s jaw to drop, brownies long forgotten.
The house was an intricate mix of modern and gothic architecture. Tall, clustered columns separated floor-to-ceiling windows on each floor. Sweeping ledges ornamented with statues of panthers and Persians jutted out of balconies. The walls seemed to be made of equal part marble and fiberglass. It was the perfect balance of old and new.
The house sat a few hundred yards away from a large lake, facing west. Laura could only imagine the breathtaking views of the sun set.
The house looked vaguely familiar. She didn’t know why though.
“Well, I have this pokemon scanner thing that Professor Oak gave me… I think we could use it to try and see unseen pokemon.” Lafontaine brought out a strange looking device.
“And you couldn’t have told us that earlier?” Danny glared down at them, exasperated. Her hands tightened around her stakes, knuckles turning white.
Laura sighed. Danny was a nice person, but she could say some pretty harsh things whenever she was irritated.
“Look guys, I know we’ve had a long day, but let’s lay off on the snapping. Let’s go inside, find whoever lives here, get our directions, maybe find some nice pokemon, and go home.” Laura let Bear out again, and coaxed Squirtle out from her arms and onto Bear’s back. Bubbles followed Bear closely- for an Onix, she was surprisingly quiet.
The others prepared their pokemon, and as soon as they were done, they stepped onto the front steps.
Laura lifted her hand to knock on the door, but before she could, the door swung right open.
As soon as she stepped in, she knew why she recognized the house.
It was the place Betty was talking about before she disappeared.
The lights flicked on, and a collective gasp filled the room.
Dead bodies, stripped of most of their flesh and almost no blood, were piled up in front of the wall across the hall. A Darkrai, a shiny Umbreon, and what appeared to be a black Persian sat near the pile, eyeing the group. Words started appearing in blood on the wall.
'What the frilly hell are you doing in my house?'
“Bear! Use fire blast!” Laura yelled out of instinct. Before Bear could move, the Darkrai stretched out a hand. Darkness filled the room, and Bear fell into a fitful sleep.
‘Uh guys? I think we should get out out of here,” Kirsch said, voice trembling in fear.
The door slammed shut behind them as a girl with pale skin, dark hair, and clad in leather descended from the magnificent staircase.
“Who the hell are you?” Laura tried to keep her voice from trembling.
The girl tilted her head, giving the tiny human a fanged smirk.
“Carmilla. And you just broke into my house."