With the gentle sun rays endlessly forcing their way through the barred bedroom window, a phone begins beeping signaling that it's seven am and it's time to get up.

A grumbling man clicks the phone off then curses when he realizes that he had forgotten to plug the phone in last night.

Seeing the battery in the red, he decided it would be wise to plug it in the charger while getting himself ready for the day.

He went through his usual morning routine unhurriedly. He was still feeling a bit shaky from yesterday, so he chose to take it slow and easy.

Feeling a bit better when he had his fill of tuna and rice despite the taste, he was soon out the door.

Jared knew exactly what kind of neighborhood he lived in, so he took a glance around the alley and sighs in relief when not a single soul can be seen.

He then turns his eyes and glances up to the broken window next door, where he had once seen a small child.

He reels back in shock when he sees an impossible occurrence!

Deep inside the shattered window, a strange shapeless creature stares out from the darkest part of the room!

With two sharp teeth, the disembodied shadow smiles sinisterly, making Jared reel back in shock. The surprise nearly toppling him over.

Rubbing his eyes, Jared looks back, but he finds the terrible visage was now gone.

With a gulp, he laughs nervously to himself in an attempt to dispel his unease, but a chill creeps up his back despite the warm morning sun.

Jared clenches the straps of his backpack and quickly makes his way out of the alley in the direction of the school. He was still feeling lingering adrenaline.

Once out of the poor distract, he finds the familiar sight of busy people and their pokemon going about their lives. This filled him with some reassurance, and soon his fear is completely forgotten, evaporated, like a puff of smoke.

Ten minutes later he stands before the school gates.

A few smiling children greet the pidgey that was perched on the deadpanned security guard's shoulder. As they make their way past, the pidgey gives a happy squawk from all the attention.

Checking the time, Jared noted the bell will ring in fifteen minutes.

He made his way to the room from yesterday, he knew he had plenty of time, so he took it slow. He unknowingly opened the door to the small room and turned on the lights, while waiting patiently for his young tutor to arrive.

.

He hears the bell ring sometime later, and after a few more minutes of waiting, Koi barges into the room unannounced. He was carrying a couple of large books, along with a stack of paper and writing utensils.

While looking as serious as ever, he elegantly places the objects on the desk opposite Jared.

Normally each room would have one small, and one large table, but due to their larger statures, they had wisely replaced the smaller desk with one of the larger ones, since neither of them would fit.

After a greeting, Jared showed him the books he was lent, upon Koi's request.

Koi then took a seat across from his older student, then he spoke, "Sorry I'm late, the school is having a field trip, and as a tutor, I had to help manage the signups. "

Jared asked with interest " When is it?"

Koi replied seriously, "The trip is going to last all day, and that would take time away from your study"

After the chat, Koi explained what he would be teaching Jared for the next two hours.

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

With that done, he then begins reading from a large heavy tome of a book. The book was called "The Habits Of Pokemon And How They See The World"

The text was dry, but he added in his own insights to break up the monotony so it wasn't too bad. While the experience was far more enjoyable and less painful than the rice method, Jared still felt he didn't retain nearly as much information in the entire two hours, as he did with five minutes of the masochistic method.

Before the session was over, Jared remembered a question he had wanted to ask since yesterday, but he frowned when the answer was somewhat... unhelpful.

The reason there are so few cars is due to the fact that the general public is not allowed to own a vehicle, and when Jared asked why, Koi said it had always been that way so he's not sure.

With the session concluded, Jared borrowed the same two books again, and he exited the nice air-conditioned school back into the warming Alola sun.

This time he decided not to waste any time sightseeing, and he chose to head straight home to study. Turning off his phone he stuffed it back in my pocket. He noticed the phones battery was close to death.

(Yes, this is all the more reason to not dilly dally!)

Turning into his narrow alley, he gets a pang of fear. He had forgotten it, but now that he was back, he remembered the scene of shifting shadow.

Nervously, he makes his way to his house. He unconsciously looks up towards the broken window where he had seen the shadow, but he sighs in relief when nothing strange appears.

Dragging his feet, he heads inside the humid room, and locks the door.

Dropping his backpack on the cracked concrete floor, he gets a quick drink of water.

He then looks over at the bag of uncooked rice and clenches his teeth unconsciously. The sight of the rice now giving him phantom pains from yesterday's agonizing experience, but he soon shook his head and decided to suck it up.

He then sprinkled some rice in the usual spot, then firmly took the partially memorized book, before kneeling down with a light sigh, "Here we go again."

The process felt no less painful than yesterday, but he struggled through it as best as he could, and since he had more daylight to work with, he managed to memorize an additional fifty percent of the book, for a grand total of seventy-five percent!

Noting the time had grown late by the waning sun, and confirming his suspicion by looking at the phone, he shakily took a few minutes to sit back on his bed and thought about what he had memorized through the whole painful process.

Trying to cheer himself up at his progress he scowled when he remembered the larger book that will soon take its place in his masochistic memorization spree.

With the sun now set and a full belly, he was soon back in bed.

A lightbulb went off in his head, as he remembered his mistake from yesterday, so he pulled the blanket off himself, and strained himself up with a sigh, and with shaky hands, he turned the light back on.

He took a few seconds to hook his phone up to the charger, and after a small beep of confirmation from the phone itself, he then turned off the lights and laid back down to snuggle into his blanket.

Before he knew it, sleep had him firmly in its grasp.

.

An unidentified amount of time passes when he feels something stir him awake.

Keeping his eyes closed, he begins to hear a strange bubbling sound like a steam engine, but quieter, and feeling an odd gust of wind above his head, he finally decides to crack open one of his eyes.

Peering through the darkness, and in his direct line of sight right above his head, he barely makes out a strange shapeless blob.

The blop hovered not three feet above his head!

He notes the large faintly glowing white eyes, the eyes were paired with a large fanged mouth. The mouth began opening in a toothy smile!

In the mouth itself, he sees a large purple tongue dangling out it as the creature stares straight into his fearful eyes.

Too scared to scream, he just stares at the constantly shifting blob of gas and shadow, still too sleepy to fully process what's happening.

He then hears a voice in his head, a voice that is not his own.

It laughs like rustly leaves and crackling paper.

As if reciting an ancient curse the voice echos in his head, " Why do you do that to yourself human?"

As if the answer would bring the creature the greatest joy, its toothy grin smiles even wider as it inches closer.

After a moment more, the sleep begins to shake from the awestruck man, and while screaming, he leaps off the bed and turns on the light. Cold sweat drips down his back despite the still humid room.

He turns back to look, but finds nothing out of place! the shapeless creature was gone... as if it never was there at all!

He grabs his chest in an attempt to tame his fear, and calm his breathing, and after half a minute he succeeds.

With half his fear tamed, he's now questioning what he had just experienced.

(Did I imagine it?)

He feels his heart begin to beat faster, as he recalls the memory of that dark sinister shadow smiling from that shattered window, and soon he draws his own conclusion.

He then shakes his head with a nervous smile, as logic and understanding begin to overpower his fear.

Keeping the light on, he grasps his shaking right hand with his left, and then he timidly takes a seat on the hard mattress with a plop. He looks up at the shining lightbulb above,

(No... I don't know what I saw, I'm probably just feeding my own fears with pointless speculation, yes I'm sure of it! This is probably just a nightmare playing out from what I THINK I saw yesterday morning.)

He nods to himself, and then he croaks out a half-hearted laugh in an attempt to finish off his fears. He then smiles to himself, and speaks slowly to none in particular, "Yes, this is nothing more than my own mind playing tricks on me."

Feeling his emotions now under control, he boldly turns off the lights and gets back into bed.

Te fearful emotions leave, but soon they were replaced with a new emotion,

(Tomorrow is going to be another long and painful day.)