Contrary to what Inyssa expected, finding the forest turned out to be quite easy. Getting through it, however, proved to be a challenge.

Hers and Barry's shoulders were practically glued together as they walked, eyes peeled for any enemies that might jump out from the shadows. In front of them Enma walked proudly, hands balled into fists, while Pedri stood behind them carefully watching their backs as they advanced through the thick flora. Above them two other Pokemon cast shadows on the poorly illuminated ground; both Steven and Paulette had been released to keep an eye on their surroundings. This deeper part of the forest was unusually dark, the frozen morning dew giving way to moss, darkness and humidity now. And with all the trees pressed so tightly together, barely any sunlight could filter through their crowns. They were practically surrounded by shadows.

"Maybe we should've taken another path," Barry said through ragged breath. "This place is insane, how many Pokemon was that?"

Inyssa felt the need to scold him, though she couldn't deny that they were in rough shape. As soon as they set foot in the forest the rate of aggressive Pokemon increased tenfold. Before they knew it they were fighting an all out battle from every front as a bunch of Gastly, Misdrevous, Dustox and Beautifly appeared from behind the shadows of the trees around them.

"There is no other path," she said. "Besides, this will be good experience for our Pokemon. Sure, it's been more... intense than we planned, but we can manage." She looked at her starter, whose flame was still burning brightly. "We'll get through it, no problem."

"Yeah, but I don't even know where we are. It's all green and black as far as I can see!" Unconsciously, he grabbed Inyssa's hand. "What if we're lost?"

She raised her wrist to his face, showing him the Pokétch. "Dude... there's a GPS on this thing. We're not lost, in fact we're almost the..."

A shadow jumped from the trees above and raced towards Inyssa, only the shimmer of white fangs visible. She barely had time to blink before the Pokemon was on top of her, the only reaction she could muster being a quick gasp. Then she felt her body violently pushed to the side as Pedri intercepted the attack for her, his tough skin proving almost impervious to the Gastly's bite. The penguin Pokemon shot the ghost a furious glare as he sent him upwards with a swing. A second after, a sudden flame fell upon the Ghastly, forcing it to retreat. Enma let out a short, mocking laugh as he turned around with hands behind his head, clearly satisfied.

Inyssa placed a hand against the ground and forced herself up, heart pounding in her chest.

"See? That's what I'm talking about!" Barry hurried over to her. "I don't get it, they're not attacking our Pokemon, they're attacking us!"

"I don't get it either." She cleaned the dust off her coat and straightened her hat. "But it doesn't matter, we're here already."

From between two fatter, older oaks they saw what appeared to be a dusty and worn stone path which led to a worn-out mansion of sorts. The forest had taken hold of the place, and what in other times might have been a beautiful chateau was now covered in green and brown as roots overrun everything. All the front windows were broken, pieces of glass adorning the floor around the main entrance, and from this angle they could see that parts of the roof had collapsed, giving the impression that whatever happened to the place hadn't been just due to nature.

"This is where Metchi said she lived?" Barry asked, incredulous. "Looks like it's gonna fall on itself any second now."

She felt the eyes on her disappearing one by one as they approached the entrance; she wasn't sure if it was her imagination, but it was a relief either way. They finally reached the door, and both of them simply stood there, staring at it. It was twice as tall as them and made of some kind of dark wood which somehow hadn't rotten compared to everything else. Inyssa slowly raised one arm to the doorknob, but she stopped before grabbing it, her hand shaking for some reason. She felt a knot on her throat, and when she turned to look at Barry she found him pale.

"Yeah I'm not feeling it," he confessed. "Let's turn around Niss, this is a bad idea."

"What's gotten into you? You're usually braver than this," she chastised him, an eyebrow raised. "There's nothing bad h..." She wanted to finish the sentence but something told her she shouldn't. "Well, if there is something here we'll take care of it."

"...Fine." He swallowed, and with a movement of his hand he returned both Petri and Paulette to their Pokeballs. "But just for the record, bravery is not the same thing as stupidity."

"Now that's something I didn't expect to hear from you." She smiled lightly as she also returned both her Pokemon. "Not the same thing? I don't believe that for a second."

And with that she grabbed the doorknob with fierce determination and opened the doors, plunging into the darkness of the abandoned Chateau.

The smell hit her like a punch to the nose. An almost metallic, noxious stench that made her eyes water just from contact with it. Inyssa looked down and noticed the wooden floor giving in beneath her feet, revealing the moldy cement under it; but it wasn't just rotten wood, there was something else, something much more potent. She couldn't quite make it out but it smelled like something... electric, like burnt wires.

"Motherf... what is this?" She put both hands against her nose, squinting due to the smell. "My nose feels like it's burning!"

Barry raised an eyebrow. "It's not that bad. Kinda smells like grandma's house."

"Remind me never to go to your grandma's," she whispered as she raised her scarf to her nose. "Let's go, the hidden exit should be in one of the rooms in the back."

The foyer they walked into was quite impressive, or it would have been if the place weren't so run down. From the doormat at their feet began a thick, expensive looking purple carpet that extended to the other side of the room, where a tall, broken door opened to another room covered in darkness. At both sides of such door were two robust mahogany staircases, their steps luckily made out of marble instead of the broken wood that was crumbling beneath their feet. Many of the rails had fallen off and were now adorning the floor like teeth fallen out of the mouth that was the upper floor. They could barely glimpse another broken door up there.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

They proceeded with some caution, dust dancing around their feet as their steps unearthed the true floor under the decaying, rotten wood. Inyssa had a steady hand on her belt, gaze darting all around as if trying to uncover something hidden; but everything was still and dead, almost unnaturally so. She closed her hands perhaps too strongly, and her breathing became a bit more shallow, though she didn't notice it herself.

She was still entranced by that smell, the absolute breadth of it, how it pulled her mind every direction but forward, the way its strength took her out of her thoughts. She felt that burnt stench sensation inside her, like she was breathing cold fire. But where was it coming from? Unlike the rot and blight that plagued the wooden floor it felt like it was in the air itself, inside and all around her, impossible to escape. It clung to her body like cold, like a long, silent autumn night. Nothing but death and stillness and extinguished fires devouring the air...

Her walking suddenly came to a halt when she felt Barry's fingers close around her arm, the sudden jerking taking her out of those thoughts. Mind hazy, she blinked a couple times and looked in front of her, noticing that they were already at the door at the other side of the room. How long had she been walking? That door couldn't have been more than a few feet away, but somehow it felt like an eternity. When she gave Barry a side glance she could see a worried expression pasted on his face.

"You almost walked into the wall." He smiled, though his eyes did not reflect that. "And you're kinda pale. What's wrong?"

She swallowed, her lower lip trembling. What had happened? It felt like a momentary time lapse.

"Nothing. I don't know." She put a hand against her face and sighed deeply. "The smell is messing with my head."

"It's really not that bad," he said, sniffing around. "Are you sure you're okay? We can go back."

"No, I'm fine." She stood up straight and raised her chin. "We're here already, let's just find the hidden exit."

Without waiting for his response she set foot inside the room, pushing away a half broken door, which collapsed the second she put her hand on it. The wood fell to the floor, breaking into a hundred pieces, and the rusty copper hinges dissolved into thick dust. She did her best to ignore it and walked forward, the gloomy entrance opening to an enormous room, easily twice the size of the previous one. In front of her she could see a long, once majestic mahogany table sitting in the middle of the room. Roots grew up from the ground under it, circling the feet of it and making it look like they were trying to drag it underground. A wide ray of sunlight came from a hole in the roof, illuminating the center and giving it the look of an antique, ominous painting.

She approached the table with cautious curiosity and studied it from up close, strangely fixated by it. All the plates and cutlery were still where they belonged, twisted into rusty pieces of metal and moldy ceramic. But just where the main dish was supposed to be there was now an empty spot, marked by all the dust around it; someone must have taken part of it recently. Something inside her sparked, and for a moment she felt furious that someone would disturb such a beautiful table; but the moment passed and she was left confused. What was she thinking about? It was just a table, who the hell cared? She shook her head lightly and took her eyes away from it.

There appeared to be another, smaller room at her right, possibly leading to some kind of kitchen. In front of her the walls were adorned with paintings of varying sizes, all of which were too affected by time to make anything of them. Somehow the windows of the room had survived, though they were so foggy and dirty that not even a speck of light could come through.

"I don't think this is the place." She sighed. "We'll have to explore the upper floors, let's just hope it doesn't collapse on..."

She turned around to face Barry, the haze of the previous room already clearing from her head, when her heart jumped. Her friend wasn't there.

She felt the air in her lungs escaping her, and for a second she thought she would suffocate. But she took another breath and looked around, trying to find any trace of Barry, to no avail. Her body jumped like it was woken up by a jolt of electricity, and she ran towards the exit of the room, her heart pounding in her chest. But just when she was about to get out she clashed against something hard and cold. She slowly opened her eyes and she could almost swear she felt her veins turn to ice.

The exit wasn't there anymore. Where before stood a broken door now was a black, colorless wall, its darkness as thick as the silence surrounding her. Unwillingly she extended a hand to it and touched it, and the cold that she felt was almost painful. Breathing heavily, she took a step backward, her entire body trembling. She reached for her belt, like she had done in the past when faced with something dangerous, and she almost had a heart attack when she didn't feel anything there. Her Pokeballs had disappeared.

"Wha... huh?" Her mind felt heavy and foggy. "What the... where are they!?"

She walked backwards into the table, almost toppling it over and sending a couple of plates flying into the ground, the smashing sound bringing her back to reality. Desperate, she looked toward where the windows used to be, but similarly to the door now all the other walls of the room were black slates. Her fingers gripped the edge of the table with enough force to turn them white, and she felt a cold sweat cling to her body. She closed her eyes for a few seconds, taking quick erratic breaths, but when she opened them the sight didn't change a bit, in fact... were the walls getting closer? The thought made her skin crawl and forced her body to move, running to one of the walls and slamming her body against it.

"Barry!" Her scream was guttural, coming from the deepest part of her. "Barry! Can you hear me!? Hey!"

She kept screaming but for some reason it felt like she wasn't. She couldn't feel the air vibrating around her, almost like the silence was swallowing her words the moment they came out of her mouth. It was closing around her, turning her body colder and invading her mind and eyes, darkness consuming everything in its path. Her body curled and she began to feel dizzy from her ragged breathing. This had to be a dream, she thought. This couldn't be happening, it made absolutely no sense. The smell, the darkness, the cold, it was all too surreal, almost like...

Her eyes shot wide open, and for a second she stopped shaking. Almost like something was messing with her head. Suddenly she remembered the forest, how all those Pokemon had been attacking them ever since they set foot in the place. The way they were fighting felt almost... defensive, like they were trying to guard something, to keep them away from someplace. Perhaps they knew about the Chateau and wanted to protect them from what was inside it.

She had a hunch. With one hand she looked inside her bag, quickly rummaging through all of her stuff in search of a specific item. Finally her fingers touched something cold and metallic, and she smiled for the first time since entering that place. She grabbed it and raised it over her head, the small iron lighter almost shining in the surrounding darkness.

"Whoever is doing this, listen to me!" She yelled, and this time her voice penetrated through the dark. "I'm not afraid of you! I'll burn this whole fucking place down if you don't let us go! I'm not joking around!"

She flipped the lighter open with one hand, releasing a flame which cut through the void around her like a knife through butter. She stood still, the fire on her hand keeping away the cold and reinvigorating her somewhat. She was hoping that whatever was causing this would take the bait and release them from fear of letting the house be burned down.

Inyssa waited for several seconds, each one feeling like an eternity as the shadows grew around her. She knew her father's lighter wouldn't last forever, and once the flame ran out she had a feeling she wouldn't like what would happen next. Her arm was getting asleep just holding it over her head. She looked around desperately, and for a second she thought that her plan wouldn't work, and she would just collapse into the cold around her. Cursing under her breath, she closed her eyes as the flame died, and waited for something to attack her.

There was a creak, followed by the sound of something wooden shattering. Inyssa's eyes flew wide open, and as she looked up she saw Barry falling through the ceiling, smashing into the table behind her.