Tulip Glasslip here.

Last entry I proudly declared that I was not being followed. Things have changed since then.

I discovered something strange while reading the comments on my website. As I mentioned before, most are either from fans or idiots trying to scare me by writing cryptic bullshit and riddles. Normally I wouldn't mind, but…

There's a special plugin installed in my laptop that allows me to track the IP of anyone who comments on my page. Not the exact location or anything of the like, since that would be illegal, but it gives me a rough estimate of where the user is. I mention this because the other day I noticed a particularly strange comment by a user nicknamed Pruner. It read as such:

Where does thunder go after a storm?

Look outside when the lightning flashes.

It caught my attention, though not as much as what I discovered when I looked at the IP. I will not reveal the exact location for personal reasons, but it was the same city I'd been staying in less than two weeks ago.

It was surely a coincidence, but just in case I searched for any other comments made by that user. I found two more:

Can you hear the ground rumbling?

Can you hear the voices beneath the earth?

And:

You're pointing that pen the wrong way.

Tell us more about yourself.

Each one was written from a different IP and they corresponded with other two places I'd been staying in previously. Needless to say, I moved again as soon as I learned this information.

I'm still not convinced I'm safe, or whether this was a huge coincidence or not. Whatever the case I will further limit my interactions online and I'll be watching over my shoulder twice as much from now on. I can't be too careful.

In other news, I managed to find another person to interview. I will put the result of our meeting here below:

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[Kate's apartment is uncomfortably familiar, for an ex-college student such as myself. The walls are grey, the painting starting to fall apart, and there are few pieces of furniture to be seen other than the computer stand and the dingy table in what we could call the living room. Water is the only thing she can offer me, which I graciously accept.

As she sits in front of me I get a better look at her. Hollow cheeks, hollow eyes. Hollow voice too, if that makes any sense. I struggle to listen to what she's saying; her tone has an almost soporific effect on me.

There's an oddity about her, compared to the other people I've interviewed: she was not a citizen of Wysteria, which explains her young age. Still, the story she wants to tell me is tangentially related to the city, so here I am.]

I'm not gonna make you have to console me like those other two you interviewed. I don't care if anyone reads it or not; I just want to get it out of my chest because no one else has believed me so far. And if whoever was responsible comes for me… well, they can try to kill me they want to.

This happened four years ago, right after I turned eighteen. I was lucky to finish high school; my grades have always been shit because I'd have trouble concentrating or I'd fall asleep in the middle of class. Not entirely my fault, but you go explain to my parents what mental disorders are and if they listen for more than a few minutes without calling you a liar then I'll give you all the money I have. Not much, but I figure you could use it.

[If she notices the way I glare at her, she doesn't let it show.]

I never knew if it was narcolepsy or something to do with dreams, and I don't have the money to find out now. The gist of it was that I was tired all the time, and at night I wouldn't be able to fall asleep for long because I got some pretty ugly nightmares. The vivid ones, where you can't move and… ah, I'm sure your readers can look that stuff up. Suffice to say, I fell asleep at random times during the day and I had constant bags under my eyes.

So summer came, and I was ready for my last three months of freedom playing games and being a social Slaking before I had to head for college and have my life ruined. Problem was, a friend of mine had another idea; you see, she'd recently gotten a summer job in the woods near Wysteria.

Apparently the Ditto around the area became kinda crazy that time of year and people didn't want them to reproduce too fast. It would throw off the ecological balance or something. So they sent a random teen with free time there, gave them anti-pheromone spray to use on the vicinities once a day and paid them a lot better than anyone would've expected. They also gave them the keys for a shitty cabin that used to belong to some ranger.

You can see where this is going; she invited me and Denna to go with her and have a pleasant camping week since it'd be the last chance we'd get before heading to college.

Oh right, I should've probably mentioned: I used to have friends. You probably wouldn't know by looking at me. Anyway, there were was Merry which was the one who got the job, she was the kind you look at and think 'Damn, that girl must've been raised by lumberjacks or Ursaring'. I was absolutely crazy for her, not that I ever got to tell her. Anyway, Denna was the one I got along better with since we were both geeks and spent pretty much all our free time playing games and watching T.V shows.

We weren't exactly the camping type, which is why it took a while for us to be convinced by Merry's insistence. In the end, after a couple weeks of battering us over the head with the idea, we had no choice but to accept.

I'll spare you the details nobody gives a shit about, like the preparations and all that. We bought what we needed, loaded the trunk with more canned beer than a group of frat boys would've known what to do with, and three days later we were on the road at first hour of the morning. Merry was the only one with a car, and most importantly the only one who could drive, so we let her do her thing while the road blurred around us.

Her car was a red convertible, really old but looking as if it'd been made less than a year ago. Not that I know shit about cars, I mention it because I remember how much of a pain in the ass the wind was while we traveled. We could barely hear each other talk and the radio was turned on just because, we couldn't hear it either. And we weren't exactly close to our destination; it'd be at least ten more hours until we got there.

Still, we made conversation here and there and stopped occasionally to have some snacks at the side of the road. I was in the back seat; on the outside I claimed that it was because it would help me sleep easier if the narcolepsy came back, but to be honest I was nervous of sitting next to Merry for the whole trip. I wasn't sure I could hold a conversation with her for so long and I've always been an anxious wreck. Denna called me a dumbass for that, and she might've been a bit more than right. But hey, at least I got to actually lay down to sleep during the night.

Yeah… the night, that's when it started to happen. Everything was pitch black except the cones of light in front of the car, and we'd stopped talking about an hour ago, when Denna fell asleep. I asked Merry if she wanted us to stop for now and keep driving in the morning, but she just smiled at me and said she would've preferred to get there as soon as possible. I didn't complain, since I've never been one to snooze at night anyway.

I got comfortable against the seat and just listened to the radio for a few hours, while I looked out at the sides of the road. There wasn't much there, but I dare you to find a time and place more beautiful to just… be silent and do nothing. Folk underestimate how nice silence can be. Merry had always been the loud and extroverted one out of our group, but even she understood.

I couldn't tell you when I fell asleep. I'm not even sure I did, really, since I didn't dream and I could actually hear the sound of the radio. It felt really far away, like I was listening to it at the other side of a tunnel or while wearing a helmet or something.

Who knows what the program was about. All I remember is that there was a woman talking about… something related to celebrities, I think. The kind of thing old people listen to because they wanna live through a famous person's life and get mad or happy in their behalf.

Anyway, I kept listening to that woman's voice while I was sort of asleep, but at one point it changed. That's the part I remember clearly; first the background noise disappeared and it sounded like she was talking someplace outside, I could hear the wind and the rain. Then her voice changed… I didn't notice at first but after a while she started to sound like… Denna.

When I had that thought the program stopped being that, and it was like I was hearing something completely different. Denna was talking really fast, high pitched and all that. Like she was running out of breath, or she was really desperate, I don't know. Then I heard her gasp, and the sound of the rain morphed into… the steps of something. They were heavy and wet, like when you get your shoe out of a puddle of fresh mud.

I could hear us running and those steps were chasing behind us. Merry was saying something but I couldn't pay attention because Denna started screaming.

Then I heard… I can't properly describe it. Like the sound of steam blowing out of a kettle but… more musical I guess? Next thing I know I was screaming bloody murder in the car and Denna and Merry were staring at me like they'd seen a ghost.

Merry had stopped the car on the side of the road. Both of them were so worried I… I didn't know what to say. I just told them it was a bad nightmare and that I'd drink some water and I'd be fine. I sure as hell wasn't gonna go to sleep again after that. I'm sure they didn't believe me, but they pretended to because they were better friends than I deserved and they didn't wanna push the issue.

"You've mentioned before that you occasionally suffered from sleep paralysis. Is that what happened in the car?"

Yeah, I recognized it as soon as I woke up. That's the worst part, you know. I couldn't do anything but be frozen while all the horrible shit happened around me, I just prayed that I'd wake up soon. Though to be honest I never had a nightmare as bad as that one before. I chucked it up to the stress of the trip and of the exams for finishing high school.

We got to the base of the camping grounds at noon. The cabin wasn't on the side of a mountain per se, but the ground did go up at enough of an angle that we couldn't drive there. We walked up the predetermined path with our bags and whatever else we needed. Merry carried the beer exclusively; we told her we could come back later for it but she was having none of it. God forbid the drinks became hot because of the sun; I'm pretty sure she would've killed us all if that happened.

[An actual, non forced smile appears on Kate's face, relaxing her expression. Until now I hadn't noticed the constant frown she had before.]

The place we'd be staying in was as shitty as it could be before it stopped reaching the minimum requirements of being a cabin. Still, there was electricity and hot water. And the beds were bug-free, so at least it was slightly civilized.

We spent the first few hours unpacking and getting to know the place. Merry told us to make something for lunch while she went ahead to the place where she was supposed to do her work. According to her there was a small valley in between two of the… god, I don't wanna call them mountains because I know they're not that, but I also don't know the real name. That's gonna drive me crazy.

"A hill, perhaps?"

It was a bit bigger, but let's go with that.

Anyway, the valley. It wasn't big, maybe the size of a football field, and there was a small lake in the middle of it. The people that hired Merry told her that's where all the Ditto gathered at night and it was where they mostly got their water to drink from. So all she needed to do was go there once a day for a week, sprinkle some of that chemical shit they gave her and it'd spread all over. I think it was supposed to make the Ditto infertile without harming them. Who fucking knows if it was true; we weren't there for long enough to find out.

She came back at around two, when the sun was starting to get really bad. I'm not gonna say I didn't kinda choke on the sandwich I was eating when I saw her walk through the door. Her hair was messy, she was covered in dirt and dust from all the walking and… well let's just say I was thinking of what every teenage girl thinks at that age when they see someone that attractive and leave it at that.

She grabbed a few cans from the freezer and sat down to eat with us. We talked about menial things, asked her about the job and all that. Then after a while she said something that gave me pause.

«I think I saw another cabin at the other side of the hills. It's weird, I don't think there's anything past there until the ocean.»

It was an off-comment, and we just shrugged and thought it was weird before moving on. She was right, though, there shouldn't have been any other kind of building past the valley. Not only was it not in the map but it was in a place surrounded by trees and it was almost impossible to see unless you were close to that lake.

"How did you know this if you hadn't seen it?"

Because we went there, obviously. We were eighteen, drunk and fucking dumb at the time, what did you expect?

Anyway, we spent most of the day setting up and exploring the perimeter of the place. I'm not gonna bog this down by telling you every type of tree or rock or the species of Pokemon that lived there. Just imagine your nearest patch of woods, add a shit ton of heat and Beedrill and you get the gist of it. The only important thing is that autumn wasn't far away, so the floor was covered in dried, crunchy leaves. It made an awful sound every time you stepped on it.

Merry was determined to make us work so we wouldn't sit on our asses all day, which we probably would have without her. She told Denna to spray Repel all around the cabin and the nearby area just in case, and told me to go find some wood for the bonfire we'd be making outside.

I asked her why we needed a bonfire if we had a cabin, and then I asked her why hadn't she brought some wood before coming. To both those things she replied that it was a lot more fun if we did the work ourselves. I tried to hide a smile and told her she was a dick for making me do the hardest work, and she smiled back and said I know.

She… probably knew about how awful my condition was, and she must've figured that the more tired I was before falling asleep the lesser the chance of nightmares happening. Always looking out for me, like good friends are supposed to do.

I went looking in a circle around our camp, and by the time I'd gathered enough wood to make a good fire the sun was already going down. There wasn't much trouble, aside from a few Rattatas that ambushed me and tried to eat the candy bar in my pockets. Bastards got a face full of Repel.

The only weird thing I noticed was that the more uphill I walked the less I'd hear Pokemon cries or the leaves of the trees rustling. That wasn't how it was supposed to work; the more I went up the more things should've been living there, right? And… now that I thought about it, I didn't remember Merry mentioning running into any of the Ditto she was supposed to stop from mating. It'd been the middle of the day and in their favorite hiding place, how were there not any there?

Just as I thought that I almost fucking fell into the entrance of the valley. I took a step back, sweating bullets, and I looked down at the lake. I couldn't see a single Pokemon there, not even a Rattata nibbling on the fruit thrown in the ground.

Then I looked up, towards the other side of the hills. Just like Merry said, there was a house there. It didn't look fancy, but it was well built. The walls must've been made of solid concrete and the roof was metal. It was painted black, so it would've been impossible to see it at night, and even now I was having trouble focusing on it. I swore I could see… mist? It was rolling downhill from the top towards the house, and advancing in all directions. It was almost transparent and… pearly white, I think is the best way I could describe it, almost enough to be pink.

I stared at it wondering why the hell was there mist in the middle of the day when it wasn't even cold, until I remembered I had to go back to the camp. So that I did, and I tried to forget all about the house, even if it gave me the all overs.

They were worried I came back a little late, and by the way they were looking at me I knew it wasn't just because of that. I told them everything was fine and tried to put on my best smile. That seemed to relax their nerves a bit.

The fire we made was amazing, and the satisfaction of seeing the flames almost as tall as us made looking for the wood worth it. Not that I would've admitted it to my friends, I still had a grumpy reputation to maintain. We basked in the heat as the sun went down and the temperature dropped. We got some chairs from inside the cabin and sat around it while we ate and drank far more than our bodies were used to processing.

The least I speak of that night the better. Not because anything bad happened, far from it. It was one of the most enjoyable things I've ever done, and it was all thanks to Merry and Denna. They were the best kinds of friends.

I'd like to keep the memory of that night to myself, if that's okay.

"Absolutely."

The only important thing is that, at some point, my inebriated self suggested going to that strange house over the hill. I'd been curious about it all night, and I thought it'd be a cool way to pass the time, since we were stuck in that damned place for an entire week. I don't know if my friends were drunker than me or were just surprised because I never was the one to make the plans, but they accepted.

Then we passed out, I think. I don't remember it very well, all I recall is one of us throwing up on a tree that ended up being a Trevenant. That caused some problems, but other than that it was an enjoyable night. I fell asleep before I even hit the bed.

I didn't dream that night. Wait, that's not right. I… felt like I did, but I couldn't remember a single thing about them. I woke up feeling like I was missing a part of my mind, but I thought it must've been the drink and the awful hangover.

As you can probably guess from the previous night, we didn't do much until way past 2 PM. I was the first to wake up, though I stayed in my bed for almost an hour growling to myself. Denna was next; she made the effort to go to the kitchen and brewed some coffee for all of us, bless her soul. Strangely, Merry was the last to get up but the one who looked the least affected by the alcohol. I guess being both more sturdy than us and accustomed to drinking anyone under the table helped her with that.

"Did you bring up again the plans to go to that house?"

I didn't, because I didn't remember proposing that the night before. Denna mentioned it a few hours later when we were feeling a little better, and we had a short discussion about it.

I was apprehensive, even thought I'd been the one to propose the idea. Denna looked really excited; she'd always loved the idea of discovering new things in the woods, especially if they were grim and creepy. Merry thought it over for a few minutes; she looked worried. I wondered if she'd seen that mist too, but I didn't ask out loud.

She told us she'd take a good look at the house next time she went to the valley. Check if the hills were too steep or if there was a river blocking the path. If not, we could go take a look later during the night.

"I don't mean to… be rude, but could you explain why you three through this was a good idea? None of you had Pokemon to protect yourselves, did you?"

Of course not, do you know how expensive that would be? We'd either have to be trainers, which was a spending our families couldn't afford, or we'd have to bring in a Pokemon that was considered by the state to be just a pet, which was illegal. Still, Merry had a good knife and knew how to defend herself. We thought that's all we'd ever need.

As for why we decided to go… well, we were young, stupid and susceptible to peer pressure. Denna was excited, I just shrugged and said why not because hey, it was something to do. I didn't want to admit it, but I was also terribly curious about the place. As for Merry… she'd been the one to invite us here, and I'm sure she just wanted us to have a good time. If that meant going to a creepy abandoned house at night then it would be so.

And finally… well, people in horror stories don't usually know they're in one until something bad happens, do they?

"So you ended up going that night?"

Yeah, but like I said before, Merry had to check the perimeter first. That afternoon Denna and I didn't have much to do; it would be a waste of time if we went looking for wood and then it turned out the path to the house was clear. So we just sat around the corpse of the previous bonfire and… talked.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

I won't repeat what we talked about. I'll just say that it was one of those rare moments when two friends get a bit more honest and serious than usual, and both end up learning a few things. You know the ones; they usually happen at late hours of the night or in places completely unfamiliar to both of you.

It was the last one of those conversations I ever had, so I'd rather keep it to myself as well.

Merry came back an hour later, looking as exhausted and sweaty as the last time. However I didn't have much time to admire that since she also had a pretty noticeable frown on.

We asked her what was wrong, and she told us that not only were there no Ditto around, but no one had drank the water from the lake since yesterday. She could tell because the chemical she'd sprayed still sat in the top layer of it, and it should've dissolved if a big group of Pokemon drank from it.

She theorized it might be because of the change in climate; this summer hadn't been quite as hot as the previous ones. We decided to go with that and told her not to worry; she was gonna get paid either way. We then asked her about the house and she nodded; she hadn't seen anything blocking the path towards it, and it wasn't as steep as it appeared at first sight. We could get there in forty minutes, no problem.

Then her frown came back for a single second, and she said something that put my hair on end:

«I also saw a weird mist, it almost looked pink. I guess it's something with the sun heating up the ground after a cold night or something. Maybe there are some weird plants there that make that happen.»

She was like that; you couldn't get a word in before she told you what she thought almost too fast to understand.

I told her I'd seen the same thing, but we acted like it wasn't a big deal. At worst it was some weird kind of gas and we did bring gas masks just in case we ran into a pest of Koffing. I personally was beginning to have second thoughts, and I suspect Merry did as well, but we tried our best to ignore it. We packed all the food and beer we'd need for our even more than usual outdoors camping, grabbed a flashlight each and left the cabin as soon as the sun went down.

Question, do you know the difference between an empty, lit room and one that's completely in the dark? How would you feel if you were in either of them?

"I… don't think I'd feel any different. I'm used to being alone in the dark. I like it."

Alright… not gonna read into that as much as I should, but here's another comparison. How about a big room full of people you don't know, and the same thing but all the lights are off? What's the difference there.

"I'd want to be more careful."

Of course. And if the idea just happens to pop into your head that maybe, just maybe, there's a reason the lights are off and one of those people might be dangerous, who can blame you for freaking out? Who can blame you for jumping at every little sound and wanting to find a source of light as quick as you could?

That's how the trek was, at least for me. The distant cries of Pokemon and the sounds of crunching leaves weren't charming or distracting anymore. Every pair of eyes I saw atop the trees gave me a mini heart attack. I was as tense and jumpy as a first time whore and unlike them I wasn't getting paid.

Merry walked in front of me, pointing her flashlight forward with clear experience. She stomped the ground like she owned the place and her face was remarkably blank. I could see her shoulders tense, but that was about as much as her nervousness showed. Denna was another story, her eyes were as wide as a Hoothoot's. I'd never seen someone so excited and anxious at the same time.

In the intersection between two small hills we saw the small riverbed that told us we were close to the valley. It wasn't very wide, as much as a truck you could say. We had to cross it; normally I'd have no problem with getting my feet wet but…

I stomped the shallow, running water, and the sound my shoe made when I lifted it was terribly familiar. The nightmare; the screams and the rain and the growling stomp against mud. It wasn't exactly the same; just close enough that I stood there frozen for a moment. I could feel the cold of the riverbed climbing through my entire body.

I forced myself to keep walking. I didn't want to bother my friends again with my dream nonsense and we were close already. There was nothing to worry about.

Merry stopped a few steps after clearing the riverbed. She frowned, looked up and breathed in deeply. As if she were sniffing for a familiar scent. Then she turned towards us and spoke:

«Rain's coming. Let's hurry.»

There was an edge to her voice that would've normally worried me, but considering what I was just thinking about it fucking terrified me. I wasn't in any place to argue; if anyone could sense a coming storm then that was definitely her. Still, I chastised myself for being superstitious and stupid and told my legs to keep walking.

We crossed through the valley, circling the lake until we got to the other side. I tried my best to contain my curiosity, but before we left I shone the flashlight at the surface. Pale yellow. The color of the chemical Merry sprayed earlier that afternoon. Untouched, just like the day before.

[Her hands are so strongly wringed together that her knuckles have turned white. She's not as above this as she think she is.]

"Did it take you a long time to find the cabin?"

Not as much as we thought. You'd expect a black building to be harder to find at night, but once you shine a light at it you can see it from pretty far away. It freaked me out at first; I thought it was a solid shadow or something, then I told myself I was stupid and alerted the rest.

It wasn't easy to get there, which should've raised a few flags on its own. No path leading to the place, no sign of any human presence and, unless I didn't shine the flashlight at the right place, no footsteps anywhere near the door. That might've calmed my nerves if it weren't for that fucking mist all around us. It was so faint that I barely noticed I was walking through it until I saw it turn thicker in the distance. I shook my head and concentrated on the building.

Now that we were closer I noticed you couldn't peek into the place from outside; no windows nor peephole. It wasn't a house, I realized, but some kind of weird shelter, like a miniature hangar. Who the hell would build something like that in the middle of a forest?

"Was there any kind of identifiable mark on the outside?"

Yeah, a weird symbol on the left side of the wall. It was like… a circle, with two vines interlacing inside. It was painted white and pretty much the only thing you could see without shining a flashlight at it.

[I inhale sharply, and try my best to disguise it as a cough. Kate stares weirdly at me for a moment, but continues with the story shortly after.]

Anyway, when Merry went to open the door I noticed it was twice as wide as a normal one and made of metal. There was a big handle that connected with a similar one on the side of the entrance, where a lock would normally be. But there wasn't anything like that and with a bit of force she managed to open it. It slid to the side with an awful whirr, like the sound a Magneton makes. Made my damn teeth hurt.

The inside was the maw of a fucking Arcanine. None of us wanted to be the first to raise the flashlight, and I could feel a clear tension in the air that was definitely not my imagination that time. Finally Merry raised her hand and the cone of light showed us about five percent of what was inside.

I'm not proud to admit that I was a bit disappointed, even if that makes me a dumbass. The place was maybe twice as big as the living room of our cabin, and at first sight there wasn't anything odd lying around. A couple metal tables, a thrown chair close to us, a bed on the far side of the room and a wardrobe that doubled as a place to put books in.

«Someone's been living here.»

We'd been in silence for so long that Merry's voice scared the soul out of me. She spoke with authority, as if she couldn't possibly be wrong, and then stepped inside. Denna followed excitedly. Me, not so much.

Three cones of light moved all around, revealing the rest of the room. I noticed a small pile of canned food and water bottles on the left corner of the room, and I almost tripped on one of them as I walked. The top of the nearest table was covered in something like… white goo, lots of droplets. It took me a few seconds to realize they were melted candles.

At my right hung a metal box the size of a T.V, formed of about twenty filing cabinets. Against my better judgment I opened a few, but there didn't seem to be anything inside. I pointed the light at the ground again; there was some sort of book in the ground. A short tome, leather bound and with a small lock like that of a diary. I'm pretty sure that's exactly what it was; in the cover there was something written with sharpie:

Property of Mark Reagan.

"Interesting. What was written inside? Did the diary belong to the owner of that building?"

I just told you it was locked, didn't I? I didn't get to read it.

"Couldn't you have opened it with a knife or some tool at your disposal?"

[I realize a little too late just how irritated I sound. I try my best to control the voice of my volume, though Kate is already staring strangely at me.]

I had no reason to waste time on that, and I've never been good with tools anyway. I just picked it up and left it on top of the table.

I heard Denna speak from in front of the bed:

«There's a light switch here, but it ain't working. Bulbs must be busted.»

So that's what those clicking sounds were. I kept walking towards the other side, and if it weren't for Merry catching me I would've broken my fucking head open when I fell.

There were stairs, and I took the first step into them without realizing. Once I gathered my wits and told her and Denna that I was okay, we all shone the light in front of me. They didn't lead into any kind of basement; in fact they stopped after going down no more than seven feet. The only thing at the end of it was… another door.

"Like the one at the entrance?"

Not even close, even if both were made of metal. This one was… fuck, I don't even know, out of a movie or something. You know when they go into some top secret facility and the door is super thick and locked and the edges are marked with yellow and black tape? Kind of like that, it even had a panel and a keyboard to input a password on the side.

It began to rain then, and the sound of water against the sheet roof startled all of us. In less than a minute it went from a light drizzle to an all out storm, lightning and thunder and all the fucking charade. It started to pour a bit on the sides and through a few holes, though not enough to be a problem.

«I guess we're staying here for the night.»

I tried to make it sound like a joke, but my voice betrayed me. Merry and Denna did not fail to pick that up, and at least the first mirrored the discomfort in my expression.

«This is a good refuge, even if we can't light a fire inside. Let's look for candles and start drinking, I guess.»

I did not protest to that, anything to get my mind off this creepy place. We unpacked in the middle of the room and sat on the floor, since there weren't enough chairs anyway.

"You did not investigate the door further?"

We gave it one try, but the thing wouldn't budge and the panel was also busted. And, as far as we knew, there wasn't anything else around to entertain another triple flashlight search. If anything of interest was there, we would find out in the morning.

Or would have, anyway. Never made it to that point.

[Kate noticeably fidgets. Even though she tries to hide it I notice her breathing getting shallower.]

Can we… move this along a bit? I'm sorry if I kinda distort the feel of the story or whatever, but I'd really like to get this over with. I think I'm starting to get a headache. S'been a while since I talked so much.

"Of course. Did you all spend the night in there?"

Tried to, anyway. Conversation didn't get far that night. We speculated for a while about what the hangar might be, but it was clear Denna was the only one really eager to talk about it. I was nervous; anxious. For the first time in my life I actually welcomed the chance to go to sleep, even if it had to be on a concrete floor.

We extinguished the candles a few minutes after and lied down in a triangle, just in case. Merry tried to be subtle, but I saw her grab the knife from her pocket and put it under her pillow. Denna moved nervously, but she was the first one to fall asleep. I was the last.

The pitter patter of the rain made a little rhythm when it fell on the metal roof, and it was a sound so consistent it actually helped me relax. As I sunk into unconsciousness I started to wonder things my mind didn't have the energy to solve. What was this place? What use did it have? Why was it so warm and cozy if there was a rainstorm and it was the middle of the night?

The last thing I remember before falling asleep was the smell of something sweet and sharp, like a sitrus berry.

"Did the nightmares come that night as well?"

I… am not sure. I still don't know if my dreams were what caused it or if that thing was already outside, waiting for us.

"What thing?"

The creature… from my nightmares. I can't describe it, not because I'm scared but because I wouldn't know where to begin. It never had a real shape, it always hid in the shadows and let me fill the gaps with my imagination. Sometimes it would change from dream to dream but it was always there, at the foot of my bed. Staring with empty eyes. Waiting.

The next thing I remember is Merry kicking me awake. I know she meant to just move me over a bit with her feet, but I fell to the side on my face and woke up tasting dust and dirt. I got to my feet like a spring, the memory of my dreams still fresh in my mind.

«There is no way it could've opened by accident, Denna!»

Merry was arguing, pointing at the door leading outside. Her eyebrows were so knitted they looked like it was just one, and I recognized that as a sign of danger.

I asked them what was going on, and they told me that Merry had woken up a bit and saw that the door had been opened. Just a few inches, but it still alarmed her enough to wake everyone up. She told us the door was too heavy for the wind to have slid it open, and that it had to be either a person or a Pokemon capable of opening doors.

"What did you think?"

I was not in the proper mental state to do much thinking, half terrified and half asleep, but I tried my best to come up with a logical explanation. Maybe someone did live in this place, and when they came back at night and found three teenagers sleeping in the floor... well, what would you do? Stay outside and wait? Wake them up and chance getting murdered? Or perhaps walk to the nearest town and ask the authorities for help? Wysteria wasn't more than a couple miles away.

Denna said it was probably just an ax murderer, and I noticed she was only half joking. Merry glared her down and said that we would go with my theory. I asked what were we supposed to do now, since I sure as fuck was not going to go back to sleep.

After a bit of arguing we decided to head back to our cabin, for safety's sake. It would take at least twice as much to get there with all the mud and rain, and we'd have to be careful not to tumble and accidentally break our necks. Still, we felt it was better than waiting in a cold hangar for some guy to come and slit all our throats in the middle of the night.

"Were you not worried about hypothermia?"

It wasn't that cold, and we had heaters in the cabin. Pokemon would also be more wary of attacking anyone, so as long as we walked slowly and carefully the worst that'd happen is we'd get our clothes soaked. We would also lose the beer, unfortunately, but there were plenty more where those came from.

Finding the valley wasn't difficult from that side, though we had to go slowly since it was uphill and there was mud all around us. Even though we were surrounded by tress the rain just wouldn't let on. It made it impossible to see anything more than a few feet ahead with the flashlight.

The only exception was the mist; it was all around, thicker as we went ahead and thinner behind us. I'm an idiot for not realizing back then what that meant, hell it even smelled citric like before. We kept walking, and even through the sound of the rain I heard the breathing of my friends next to me. They were stiff and their arms were shaking, and not because of the cold.

We saw it for the first time when we went over the hill and into the valley. I didn't notice it at first, and I might've walked right past it if Denna hadn't shone a flashlight at it. She did it unconsciously, moving it away for a second before her brain registered what her eyes had seen. Then, with a yelp, she pointed at it again. We all turned towards it.

There was a dead man laying on his back, close to the edge of the lake. His eyes were closed and his face looked so peaceful one could think he was asleep, were it not for the fact that his ribcage was torn apart. There was something on top of him, burying its snout on his insides.

"Was it a Pokemon?"

No, at least the one we saw right there at the lake. At first I didn't even realize there was a creature, until it noticed us and raised its snout. Our lights seemed to bounce off its body, just like with the hangar, and to this day I'm still not sure of its exact shape.

All I know is that it had four limbs, and they were folded like those of a Spinarak. Unlike them, however, they were as thick as human limbs and similarly fleshy. Its body was thin and suspended under its knees. There was a crack where its stomach should've been, and inside there was nothing but shadows.

I recognized it. It was the creature from my nightmares.

"You said you'd never seen it, and that it sometimes changed shape. How can you be sure?"

The eyes. They were the same ones I saw every time I went to sleep. The hollowness, the depth, the fact that they seemed punctured in with burning coals almost too deep to see. I remember them so well I can picture them right now without even closing my eyes.

It saw us. The body lowered a bit, like those of some animals do when they notice a presence. For a moment it looked stunned, as if it couldn't decide whether to run away or attack us. I could swear the silence of that moment lasted for like an hour, until Denna let out a scream.

It wasn't the kind of scream you hear in horror movies, all high pitched and fake. This one was… potent. Her body shook as it went from her lungs to her lips, and it was like no sound I'd ever heard before. I guess I wasn't too accustomed to the sound of people screaming for their lives.

[A faint, dry smile flashes across her lips. Her eyes are faded and hollow; I've never seen someone look so tired.]

It ran towards us. The way it moved… it was as fast and swift as an Ariados, but every time one of its feet stomped and left the ground it would make this wet, suction-cup noise that I recognized from my dream in the car. That was the second thing now; though I wasn't in the right mental state to even consider that. Horror hadn't even crept in yet; I was still simply in shock.

That changed when I saw it head towards me, as if it knew who had created it. I simply shook and let out a noise that I'm not proud of, and would've surely died if it weren't for Merry.

She jerked me from the arm to the side with so much strength she dislocated my arm. Not that I'm complaining; it was enough to get me out of the way so that thing would trip and crash into the ground. Pain flared up in my shoulder, and between that and the sudden horror, not to mention the constant noise of the rain, I became so dizzy that I almost fell right on top of that thing.

Merry screamed something into my ear, and next thing I know we were running. I couldn't even see from the pain, I had no idea what direction we were headed. I could've very well tripped on any small rock or root or even mud, but I guess I'd already used all my bad luck for the day so I was miraculously free from that.

After almost a minute of running my vision became less blurry, and I saw that we were headed downhill towards what I prayed might be our own camp. Couldn't be sure, since the mist was so thick I could barely see a few feet ahead of me. I still wasn't quite myself, but I recognized my friends' voices next to me; Denna was crying and yelling desperately while Merry told us to keep quiet.

It wouldn't have helped anyway. As soon as she said that we heard a growl coming from not too far behind us. No wait, a growl wouldn't be the right way to describe it. Imagine the sound of someone throwing fresh meat, glass and wood into a shredder, and you'd have something remotely close to what that thing sounded like. It turned my veins to fucking ice.

We unconsciously stopped when we heard that, and the two seconds gave it enough time to reach us. It jumped from the mist behind one of the trees, landed with a yelp of pain and extended one of its long, spear-like arms towards me.

Something crashed against it before it could pierce me, and not a second after that thing shrieked in pain. Looking down to what might've been its wrist I saw smoke coming of the cut, and next to me Merry stood with her knife held tightly with both hands. She was covered in dirt and soaked to the bones, and her face was a terrible mask of rage.

I saw hope flash in her eyes for a moment, but then it happened. The wound in that thing's arm closed in a matter of seconds, leaving it good as new and able to stand up again. That was the first time I ever saw Merry take a step back out of fear.

Denna was, unfortunately, the closest one to it. In the time it took us to recover from the shock it lunged forward again, and this time its limb connected with its target. It… it went straight through, about as smoothly as knife on a paper napkin. I didn't hear the sound thanks to the rain. My mind didn't even register what had happened until I heard Merry scream so loudly she must've surely hurt her throat.

Denna didn't scream, though. She just looked down at the sharp limb through her stomach and opened her mouth to say something. All that came out was a choking sound, and then her body went limp.

Merry was on top of the creature a second after. It must've took it by surprise because it didn't react at first. She buried the knife right between the eyes and the thing's head just… dissipated, like fucking smoke. Then it reformed again a couple of seconds later and Merry did it again. She kept stabbing and stabbing with all the strength in her body, yelling at the top of her lungs. Next to her and in front of me Denna laid face down. The puddle of blood under her was being washed away by the rain.

I don't know when I did it, or what willed my body to move, but I grabbed Merry by the collar of the shirt and I pulled her back. At first she looked like she was going to stab me too, but something in my expression must've calmed her down a bit. I was crying, I was yelling that we needed to get away, that I didn't want to die. I was still in shock, and I hadn't yet fully internalized the fact that my best friend was dead next to me. My mind refused to accept it, so it tucked that fact as deep as it could and put me into auto-pilot. The only thing I wanted was to survie.

It wasn't easy to drag Merry away, but she must've noticed the creature's body would keep reforming. Eventually I managed to get her up and we began to run downhill again.

Logically speaking, we must've spent at least fifteen minutes running, but I remember next to nothing of them. The only thing that existed were the growls of the creature behind us, the ever-present mist and the vague hope of making it out alive.

The mist was as thick as smoke now, and part of me realized we were moving towards its center, to whatever was spewing it out. Whatever it was, it couldn't be worse than what we were dealing with right now. Or so I would've liked to think.

We were less than two hundred yards from our cabin when we saw the Pokemon; a few feet at our right, in between two trees. I only noticed it because it was glowing pink and floating in the middle of the air. I didn't stop to stare at it, and I'd say I barely caught a glimpse of it, but I still remember it clearly to this day.

At first it reminded me of a sleeping Phanpy, though the skin of those Pokemon wasn't purple and pink and they didn't levitate. It was curled into itself almost… almost like a fetus. Hell, that's exactly what it looked like, down to the pulsing flesh and small size. It had a small hole above its eyes and trunk, from where the mist was being expelled. Every time it did I would hear that musical sound, like steam coming out of a teapot.

It looked… peaceful. I didn't get much chance to appreciate that, because Merry dragged me along and we kept running until we reached the cabin and then the car.

"Do you think this Pokemon was responsible for what happened? For bringing that creature into reality?"

Fuck if I know, go ask the ones who investigated our case if you want to know. Oh wait… you can't! Those fucking assholes never finished it!

Merry and I made it out, miraculously, and you know what happened when we got to the car and drove off? You wanna take one fucking bet as to what the authorities did when we explained what had happened? When we were forced to describe in detail how we'd seen our friend get skewered in front of us!?

"According to my research the investigation was closed due to…"

They fucking ignored it! Oh sure, they went to take a look and promised us they'd find Denna's body. Never brought it back, nor found any other corpse or bloodstain or anything. They didn't bother with the weird cabin or the lake or that pink Pokemon either.

And why the fuck would they? Everyone knew summers were dangerous in the woods near Fucshia and Wysteria; it wasn't uncommon for people to die up there, eaten by wild Pokemon. Sure they'd act surprised and caring, but why would they bother looking through that enormous place for evidence? It wasn't like a human had killed us, and they assured us that the thing we saw was nothing more than a local Pokemon, and that our scared minds turned it into something it wasn't.

There was nothing we could do, so we had to accept that. Had to go to Denna's funeral while knowing everyone thought us responsible for her fate, and after a while even Merry got that idea.

I haven't seen her in two years. At first she tried to act like nothing had happened but… we were in different cities now that we were in college, and she must've put two and two together. It was my fault Denna was killed; that monster was my monster. If it weren't for my nightmares she might still be alive today, sitting in front of me instead of… you.

[I'm about to assure her that it wasn't her fault when I notice the anger behind her eyes. I'm sure that if I were to do that she'd throw her glass of water to my face.]

Wanna know what's funny? Wanna know the reason Merry's job hadn't been done by anyone the year before? Apparently there had been some construction in that part of the mountains during the previous summer. No information online about what was being built, or who'd paid the workers to build it. All I could find out was that the zone had been restricted, and no one with less authority than a Gym Leader could enter.

Makes you think, doesn't it?

[She glares at me, and I nod weakly. The cabin, the wisteria logo on the side of it and the mysterious door inside. I have the clues I came here for.]

"Is there anything more you'd like to mention?"

I think I'm starting to get migraines, and my throat hurts from speaking so much. The only thing I want right now is for you to leave so I can get some food and sleep.

"I… understand. Thank you so much for the interview, and I am terribly sorry for what happened to you and your friends."

[She eyes me up for a few seconds, probably trying to determine whether I'm sincere. She seems to realize I am, and a flash of anger gleams behind her eyes.]

Go fuck yourself.

----------------------------------------

Tulip Glasslip here.

I believe I know exactly what my next step is. I'm not looking forward to it, but if there's even the smallest chance that the diary Kate mentioned is still there …

Of course, I'll head there during the day just to be safe, and I'll take preemptive steps so that no one can follow me. Kate's story, unlike that of many, happened after the Wysteria incident, so the place might not be guarded in any way.

Just to make sure, I'll program this entry to be posted two days after I presume I'll be back from that journey. If I've made it safely to my hotel by then, I will write so here below before the entry goes up: