The Family Adventure 6: A Night In The Old Chateau

Skully and Keekayani had heard that there was an injured Pokemon in the Old Chateau in Eterna and they had also heard that the Pokemon would feel intimidated by other Pokemon, so they didn't bring any.
Having ventured so far, they decided to spend the night in the abandoned country
house. That is, unless the Pokemon needed to go to the hospital, in which case their plans would be changed, but not by much.
Then there were the rumors about how people who went in and never came out.
Skully knew it could be true, but the safety of that Pokemon was worth finding out. As for his cousin, he didn't quite know how she felt about it. They hadn't really talked the whole way there.
Well, there they stood in front of the doors. The paint had peeled off of almost all of the house, leaving a dirty, black exterior. Some of the windows were broken in places, but other than the missing shards of glass, you couldn't even see into the old house due to how dirty and dusty the house was.
Skully looked at his cousin and nodded. "I'm going in first." he said calmly and pulled open the door, which was surprisingly heavy and made an eerie creaking
sound. As he walked in, he heard silence. There was a set of stairs a dew rooms at the bottom and a few rooms at the top. Slowly, he looked around without leaving the spit he was in; inside the house, but right by the doorway. "Hello?" he asked, not really expecting a response, but quite aware that there might be one.
After five minutes of waiting, he motioned for Keekayani to join him.
"You've got this girl..." Keekayani told herself stepping over the threshold into the Old Chateau. The air was stuffy, like the air in a library or a museum. She looked about noticing some stairs and a few rooms on each floor. "Wow..." she breathed and looked at Skully, "I've never been here before."
She felt kind of vulnerable without her Pokemon so she resolved to stay as close to Skully as
possible without letting on that she was scared. It was really dark in the building, the dust choking off any light from outside. Keekayani looked around for a lantern or candle, something that could shed some light on the matter. Not seeing anything right away she huffed, "Darn.. Skully.. Do you have a flashlight or something?"
Skully shook his head. "No.... No I didn't...." he said and looked for a light switch. When he found one, it was covered in cob webs, like everything else. The likelihood of the light switch working was very slim, but he decided to try it. To his surprise, the lights downstairs came on, but only around the stairs and near the doorway. Soon after the lights came on, they dimmed quite a bit and certain ones flickered.
Skully shrugged and walked past the stairs and into the room directly ahead. It was pitch black in the room and it was silent as well, but with the help of the light behind him, he could make out some wooden chairs and what looked like the edge of a table. He took a few more steps inside and stopped when he thought he heard something. Again, it was silent for a while, but then he heard the sounds of inaudible whispering. It sounded like two different voices. "Hello? Is someone there?" he asked and it got silent again. He flicked the light switch on and a fully prepare table was in front of him. "Hmm... No one here...." he said and walked around in the huge dining room.
With nothing really screaming , "RIGHT HERE! LOOK AT ME!", he decided to check out the room to the left, in which, he easily found was the kitchen. He flicked on the light, but the light in the room was going in and out. It would go out for a few seconds, stay on for a second, and then go back off.
He turned around to face Keekayani and made a nervous smile. "This place is creepy." he said and jumped when he heard a door slam. "I think the front door just closed..... No way the wind could close that heavy thing.... Someone's here....." he said, unaware of the butcher knife that had slipped out of the knife holder and floated behind Skully in a stabbing position. The knife was stained with dried blood.
Keekyani stayed close behind Skully when he moved forward into the adjoining room. Even with the dim, flickering lights not helping her see the details of things in the Old Chateau she wished she had never asked to see. Dust and cobwebs covered everything. Who knew what lurked under that layer of nastiness.
Keekayani walked into the next room behind Skully just as he found a light switch. The light never stayed on more than a few seconds before throwing the pair into the dark. Suddenly the front door, which had taken Skully at least a minute to work open, slammed shut with a heavy thud. "Someone's here." she heard Skully say. Her skin rose up in goose bumps as a wind passed her. Skully hadn't left the kitchen part of the dining room kitchen area. As she looked at him to ask if he had just passed her the lights flickered on and she saw a floating knife behind her cousin. "Skully! Look out!"
Skully turned around and stared at the knife for a few seconds, before ducking and rolling to avoid the stabbing knife. "Keekayani! Run!" he said grabbing her hand and running to the front.
Right before they got there, the lock slid closed. Skully desperately tried to pull the lock open, but it wouldn't budge. "Crap!" he said and ran over to the window and tried to kick it out, but he was only thrown backwards into the statue by the dining room entrance. "Ow...." he said regaining his sight and getting up slowly. "Keekayani.... we have to find another way OUT!" he said, with the word out being louder as his feet were pulled out from under him and dragged into the library near the front. "KEEKAYANI!!" he screamed.
Just before the door slammed closed behind him, he saw some eyes in the darkness behind Keekayani.
They looked sad, as if sorry for whatever was happening. The eyes disappeared a few seconds after.
Skully was thrown into the book case over and over again, knocking books off the shelf. A book landed on his lap and fell open to a page. He only got to see the picture for a few seconds, and because his vision was still returning, he didn't get a good look. All he saw was a couple and they didn't look happy. He was then slammed again the door and pelted with books.
Keekayani ran after him, the door locked itself. Suddenly he was thrown into a statue and as he stood up he said there had to be another way out. His feet where swept from under him and he was dragged out of the room.
Keekayani tried to get to the door in time but it slammed shut in her face. "Skully!" she called through the door, panic rising in her chest. When she didn't hear a response she started to cry. The last thing she wanted to be was alone in a haunted house.
Keekayani looked around the house, it was huge, cold and empty. She could hear slamming in the room beyond the now locked door. "Skully!" she called again, hoping he'd manage to answer this time. Keekayani was at that point when fear turned to anger. With no way to get to her cousin from the main area she decided she could try and piss the ghost off and get it to bring him back out. "Give him back!" she screamed furiously, "Let him go you stupid ghost!" She hit the door hard enough to rattle it slightly. He hands throbbed from the recoil of it though. "Show yourself! Coward! You can only win when you take us by surprise! What are you going to do if I know where you are? Huh?!" She screamed into the darkness between angry sobs. She wanted her Pokemon, she wanted to be able to defeat the Pokemon that had stolen Skully.
But she left them at home, with a promise to be home safely. She had to get out, she would save Skully and they would flee, with or without the Pokemon for all she cared.
A gleam in the darkness caught her eye, a pair of red eyes stared at her from a corner, "What?" she snapped, still coming out of her rage, "Are you the one that took Skully?" The eyes moved left and right; it was shaking its head. Keekayani wiped her eyes, making sure she wasn't imagining it. "Do you know where he is?" The eyes moved up and down this time. "Where?" Keekayani's voice cracked with the tiny relief. The eyes came closer but then drew back, as if it was as scared as she was. "Please, he's my cousin... I have to save him. If you help me we will leave you in peace." The eyes moved left and right. "No... You can't leave..." Keekayani jumped as a whispery voice came into her head. "You have to save us too... We can't defeat the darkness... "Keekayani didn't understand, didn't ghosts live in the dark? "Okay, we will help you! Just tell me how to save Skully!" Keekayani agreed hastily, noticing that the banging in the other room had stopped. The eyes moved up and down and came closer before veering to the right and up the stairs. Keekayani followed, the staircase creaking under her weight. She coughed as she inhaled the thick dust on the upper level. The ghost Pokemon went through the first door on the landing, a moment later the door seemed to open by itself. In the room was a hidden stairwell, the eyes stared at her, sad and regretful. "This is as far as I can lead you, perhaps the others will realize your kindness as I have… And not kill you..."
Keekayani shuddered as the Pokemon blinked out of existence. She took a deep breath and headed down the staircase without knowing where she was going.
The door creaked and cracked with all the weight and force hitting it. Eventually the door broke and Skully fell on some shards of wood, which impaled him in the back.
He got up slowly and started pulling them out. Small slow-moving rivers of red snaked their way through the sea of cloth. "Keekayani? Keekayani! Where did you go? What did they do to you!" he yelled and ran upstairs. With only four visible doors, he tried the first door on the far right. He kicked it open and looked around. There was no one inside, but the picture on the wall had red eyes. He quickly made a U-turn to leave, but the door closed behind him.
"Help us....." the raspy voice said. "You cannot leave until we are free..... If you cannot defeat them, they will kill you....." another eerie voice said. "Your friend is in the secret passage towards the left side of this floor..... She went looking for you....." a third voice said.
Keekayani stumbled down through the pitch black of the stairwell. "Skully?" Keekayani coughed, slapping down spider webs. While in the stairway she heard a crash. Thinking something really bad had happened to Skully she ran down the remaining steps, nearly falling on the last step. Her hands found the wooden door and searched for a doorknob.
Finally after searching across the entire surface of the door and receiving several painful splinters as a result, she located a handle in an odd place. It was in the bottom right corner of the door. Keekayani bent down to pull it, with a groan, the door gave way to a dark library. She groped around for a light switch, finding one she flicked it on. She was momentarily blinded by what was probably the only light that really worked in the abandoned country house. The room was trashed, books lay open with torn pages. Book cases leaned precariously.
One book lay on top of the others, pages opened to a picture of an angry looking couple. "Who is this..." Keekayani wondered aloud. She picked up the book to examine the picture more closely. Right as she touched the page the lights flickered out. The door to the staircase slammed closed. "What is it with doors.." Keekayani yelped and pulled the book close to her. She felt it held importance to their search for the injured Pokemon. A pair of angry green eyes stared through the darkness. "What do you want?" Keekayani asked the eyes, feeling the beginning of panic again.
A hand reached out for the book, deep purple in color. "No!" Keekayani stumbled backwards, falling over the piles of books. The Pokemon followed her, reaching for the book. "No!" Keekayani screamed at the Pokemon, seeing the busted down door she stumbled to it, book in hand. She fled the room and ran behind the statue, seriously hoping the Pokemon wouldn't see her. She heard a door close upstairs, "Skully..." Keekayani breathed in relief; he must still be alive then. She bolted up stairs after making sure the cost was clear. The green eyed Pokemon was nowhere in sight. Keekayani prayed her cousin was still upstairs, "Skully?" Keekayani called out quietly, not wanting to draw attention to herself. She waited for his answer hoping he was near enough to hear her.
The door opened again, allowing Skully to leave the room. He peered out and saw Keekayani. Quietly, he ran over to her and hugged her. "That's the book I saw earlier...." he said and kept walking. It was silent in the house again. The light was flickering in the hall way as well. "I think someone set us up...." he said and walked through the hall.
He opened the door second to last on the left side. He tried to turn the light in the room, but it didn't turn on this time. Instead, when Skully and Keekayani walked all the way in, the door slammed shut and the TV turned on, but it was just a flickering white light. Then the sound of loud static was heard. Spots appeared in the white screen as it flickered, forming eye sockets and a mouth.
"Help us and we will help you...... Set us free and we will help set you free....." the face mouthed and said over the static. Then the face disappeared and the screen was just a flickering white screen.
"How do help you? Hello? Come back!" he said getting frustrated. "Keekayani, I can't tell if they're just messing with us or if they're serious.... But there is a ghost, maybe two, trying to kill us..... I've heard different voices though....." he said and looked around. The only things in the room were the TV, a window, a picture, some papers, and a trash can. "The trash can..." he said and picked it up. It wasn't plastic, like he thought; it was actually metal with paint over it.
Skully walked over to the TV and began to bash the TV screen with it. The screen started to crack. He stopped for a moment when he heard a scraping sound on the wall that was getting closer to the door.
All of the sudden, the door swung open and the knife lunged at Skully. He quickly dodged and hit the TV screen again. The screen broke and light disappeared from it. A deep creepy "NO!" was heard from right next to Skully as the knife was plunged into his stomach. "K-Keekayani..... We have to free all of the Pokemon from their imprisonment.... There are three behind the picture frame in the second to last room on the right....." he said pulling the knife out, but holding onto it. "I have a suspicion that there is a basement to this place.... I think the way down is under the statue......"
Keekayani breathed a sigh of relief, "Oh thank god... You're okay..." She hugged her cousin tightly before he pulled away and commented on the book she still held gripped to her chest. "Set up?" she asked perplexed, "Do you mean you think there isn't an injured Pokemon after all?"

Keekayani followed behind him to the next room. As they got all the way inside the room the door slammed closed. Sadly enough, Keekayani was sort of getting used to the customary slamming of doors and  dark rooms with flickering lights.

This time a tv flickered to life and a face appeared among the static. It asked for help.. Just like the pokemon that helped her before. Skully picked up a metal trashcan And banged it against the tv. Soon the screen had cracked, when it was almost completely shattered the door swung inward. The floating knife was back! Keekaani yelped and moved out of the way, expecting Skully to follow suit but instead he continued to bash the TV. Something loud and furious screamed the word 'No' as the TV shattered and the knife plunged into Skully's stomach. "Skully!" Keekayani exclaimed. Skully told her that they had to save the other Pokemon from their imprisonments. Skully pulled the knife from his belly.
Keekayani swallowed and looked at her cousin, apparently whatever had plunged the knife into his belly had fled, for the moment at least. "Are you okay, Skully?" Keekayani's heart was pounding from the experience. "A basement?" Keekayani questioned after a moment, "Well we better get the Pokemon trapped inside the picture frame first right?" Keekayani making a mental checklist trying to keep herself calm.
Skully nodded in response to his cousin's question on his health. "I'm fine...." he said holding his gut and walking into the hallway. He kicked the door in and walked into the room where the picture hung on the wall. "Time for you guys to be free....." he said and broke the picture frame over his knee. "Let's go check out the statue...." he said and walked to the stairs. "Where are the rest of you imprisoned?!" he yelled before being pushed down the stairs.
"Owww....." he said and pulled the knife out of his arm. Blood poured out, but he stood up and kept walking. As he got to the statue, he heard whispering again.
"The basement..... Come and free us......." the voices said.
Skully counted two different voices as he listened. He tried to push the statue, but it didn't move an inch. "There has to be some way to get it to move......" he said looking all around it.
When he looked at the eyes, he noticed how they were red rubies, which seemed completely out of place for a stone statue. He pushed both in simultaneously and the statue moved to the side, revealing a dark hole and a ladder.
"Down here Keekayani!" he said and went down the ladder. It was pitch black and there was no light switch. He noticed he was stepping on something that seemed like rocks. Slowly, two eyes from different bodies moved toward him and then disappeared. He quickly started running in a different direction and stopped when he saw some light coming from a slanted surface. He pushed it open, and light filled the basement. It was a storm cellar. As he looked around, there were bones of people littered across the floor. "Oh my Arceus...." he said.
Keekayani followed her cousin, keeping an eye on him because she worried that maybe he wasn't fine. He quickly snapped the photo in half and freed three Pokemon who fled the room as soon as they could. Keekayani nodded as he said to check downstairs. Skully called into the darkness, asking where they were at. That's when he was pushed down the stairs; the sound of a knife slicing through flesh filled the silence for a moment. She heard shuffling feet and peered down into the darkness, stepping down the first few steps of the stairs.
Keekayani heard something heavy slide across the floor, and Skully called for her. She quickly descended the stairs and nearly bumped into her cousin. She watched him crawl down into a dank hole in the floor. She followed after him, heart pounding. She heard the crunch of his feet on damp dirt as he searched the room. As she got to the bottom of the ladder light flooded the room.
Keekayani heard Skully's words faintly as she came further into the room. Skeletons lay on the floor around them. Keekayani gasped and covered her mouth with her hand. "Once you go in... You never come out... All these people..."
Keekayani looked at Skully and felt a twinge of guilt, he was bleeding all over but she hadn't really gotten hurt yet. She was scared to death but Skully, who probably was feeling more pain than she'd ever known in her life, stood there with a grim determination.
"Hello?" Keekayani called to the room, "We want to help you, tell us where you ae please!" Keekayani met Skully's eyes as an ear piercing scream filled the room. "Stupid children! You're ruining everything!" a woman's voice screamed as the storm cellar's hatch flew shut, engulfing the room in darkness again.
"Oh hell...." Skully said and looked around for something that would tell him where the rest of them were imprisoned. As he looked around, a shiny glimmer of light shined through a cloudy snow globe. He quickly grabbed it and through it down, shattering it. "Is that all of you guys?" he asked.
"No... There are two more....... Quickly........ Break that stained glass piece in the corner......." the voices said.
Skully started walking over, feeling weak from blood loss. He picked up a skull and chucked it at the stained glass, shattering it into tiny pieces.
A large, bright, white light formed in between the two, now noticeable Darkrais, and Skully and Keekyani. The light separated into smaller lights and then became Pokemon. In front of them was a Ghastly, a Haunter, two Misdreavuses, a Shedinja, A Spiritomb, a Dusknoir, a Rotom, and two Sableyes.
"We will hold them off. There is a book in the small cave behind the house. It's a book of spells. There is one for destroying evil spirits. Find it and say the phrase to these two!" the Shedinja said.
Keeayani watched as Skully broke a snow globe and them the small voices told him to go break the stained glass. Suddenly the voices became ghost Pokemon. Keekayani looked around and saw that Skully was getting kind of pale with the loss of blood.
Worried for her cousin, she took his hand, his skin was getting cold. "Skully.." Two Darkrais appeared, one shiny the other not.  The Pokemon told them to find a spell book in a cave at the back of the house. Keekayani pulled Skully out of the way just as the regular Darkrai picked up a large piece of the stained glass and threw it towards him. It gashed her arm and she winced as her blood poured through her shirt sleeve. "Come on, before you get hurt any worse!"

Keekayani pulled him towards the cellar door. She shoved it open, revealing the room again in detail. Keekayani crawled out of the cellar and turned around to help Skully up.
Skully was really limp; he had lost way too much blood. If he didn't get to a hospital soon, he would surely die. "Keekayani? I'm too weak to really move much. Leave me on the lawn....... Go get that book and destroy those Darkrias. Save the injured Pokemon as well." he said and lay down. His breathing decreased more and more every few minutes. Blood pooled around him as he passed out. He only had a matter of minutes to live.
The two Sableyes looked back and ran over to him. "We got this.... Go get the book!" they said in unison. They started using recover. It was a slow process, because of how much damage he had to him.
Keekayani looked at her cousin with tears in her eyes. "I can't.." she started but stopped when the two Sableyes started to use recover on him. "O-okay.. I'll try..." Keekayani stood up and ran off away from the house. She looked for the cave, unsure of where to look. To the west she spotted a small hole in the ground. She ran over and cleared the grass and limbs in front of it. She got on her belly and crawled in. After a few feet the tight space got larger and Keekayani could get on her hands and knees. She could see a faint light at the end of the tunnel. She crawled towards it, because she was focused straight ahead she didn't realize the floor dropped down suddenly. She fell forward, landing hard on her back after the three foot drop. She coughed as the wind was knocked out of her. Her head swam for a minute or two before she got up again.
"Crap! Crap! Crap!" she exclaimed realizing the time she had wasted.  Lucky she had toppled right into the room with the book. She ran towards it and picked it up. It was covered in dust, she quickly wiped it off, The Book of Spells was the title of it. She clutched the book to her chest and turned around; the tunnel was three feet above her. Keekayani pushed the book into the tunnel first before she climbed up the three foot ledge. Keekayani pushed the book ahead of her back the way she came. After a couple of minutes of crawling on her hands and knees, she had to duck down and squeeze through the remainder of the tunnel. She shoved the book out and it hit the ground with a thud. She slipped out of the tunnel and coughed, catching her breath.
She picked up the book and ran back to the house. She pulled open the storm cellar and dived in. She crawled over to Skully, panting, "Are you okay?" She opened the book. She had left the cellar door open so that there was some light to read by. "What are we looking for?" Keekayani asked as she glanced up as one of the Darkrais threw a Pokemon into a wall.
Skully regained his consciousness and looked around weakly. "I'm going to be fine....." he said as he reached his hand up to do a thumbs up. "You got the book..... Go do the spell.... Where is the injured Pokemon?" he asked softly.
The two Sableyes were still using Recover on Skully, trying to heal his wounds. His arm was almost better at this point.
Keekayani nodded flipping the pages searching for the right one. "Here!" she exclaimed as she came across a spell with the title To Banish a Spirit. She read it out loud, "Orb of light, I conjure thee with all my might, help me defeat my enemy let this darkness part from sight." Nothing happened, "Maybe we have to say it together! All of us! Even the pokemon!"
The Haunter shook his head. "That's the wrong spell!" he said and used his psychic powers to flip the pages to the right one. "All of us ghost Pokemon have to leave while you read the spell or we'll get hurt as well." he said.
The Sableyes finished healing Skully and then ran over the rest of the ghost Pokemon.
Skully got up slowly and made his way over to his cousin. "We're ready." he said and watched all the ghost Pokemon leave. "Burn these evil spirits; send it to hell. Band them from the place that they dwell. Get rid of the ghosts that are only shells. Put them in their place; put them in their cells." he read.
The two Darkrais caught fire and burned for a few seconds before exploding into nothing.
"We did it!" Skully yelled and was soon surrounded by eight of the ten ghost Pokemon.
The Haunter motioned for Skully to follow him back outside. "This way....." he said, floating over to a crevice that was too small for Skully to go in. "The Pokemon is in there, but it's not injured and you'll have to try and get him out...." he said.
Skully nodded and looked into the hole in the wall. He saw a very young Sneasel. "Hey there little guy...... What's wrong?" he asked seeing as it was crying.
"I don't have a mommy and daddy anymore..... They..... died last year...... I have no one......" the male Sneasel said as he cried.
Skully reached his hand in and smiled. "Take my hand. I'll take care of you......" he said with a calm, kind voice.
"Will you be my new daddy?" he asked trying to smile as he took the boy's hand.
"Sure...." Skully responded and gently pull the Sneasel out.
They hugged and the eight ghost Pokemon surrounded him again.
"Can we join you wherever you live? This house brings too many bad memories for us to stay here anymore." the Haunter asked.
"We'll pull minimal pranks, I promise!" the Misdreavus said.
"We'll help out where we can!" the Shedinja said.
"We won't scare the others at your house!" the Dusknoir said.
"We'll protect your house!" the Sableyes said.
"We'll protect you!" the Spiritomb said.
"Please?" the Rotom begged.
"Whoa, whoa guys! You can stay! You didn't have to beg." he said laughing a little. "Alright, Keekayani. Looks like that Ghastly and Misdreavus like you! Also, I say we keep that book." he said.

He turned back to the ghost Pokemon before him. "You guys are going to need names though. Haunter, you'll be Spirit. Misdreavus, you'll be Missy. Shedinja, you'll be Holly. Rotom, you'll be Plasma. Spiritomb, you'll be Tombstone. Dusknoir, you'll be Gravemind. And you two will be Jewel and Mineral." he said to the Sableyes.
Then he looked at the Sneasel in his arms. "You'll be Pepper."
Keekayani said the spell the haunter had pointed out with Skully. She watched as the two darkrai burst into flames. They disappeared banished to whatever hell they'd sent them too. Skully said they should keep the book, "Okay," Keekayani smiled, the relief that their stay in this place was at an end. Skully coaxed a young Sneasel from the wall.
Keekayani smiled as Skully named the eight that surrounded him and the Sneasel. A Gastly and a Misdrevous floated near her. "Hmmm, what should I call you guys?" She looked at them thoughtfully, rubbing the Misdreavus's head. "I'll call you Shayde," she told the Misdreveous, who giggled happily. "And you can be Hunter," she smiled at the little Gastly. Hunter smiled and spun around in a circle, "Hunter! Hunter!" he repeated happily.
Skully smiled at their little group of friends they had made. "Oh, Mineral and Jewel, can you heal my cousin's arm?" he asked.
"Sure thing!" they said and healed her arm. "Fun fact. Sableyes are the only ghost types that can learn recover, but the parents have to be a Sableye and a member of the Abra family."
"Cool!" Skully said. Well, Keekayani, are you ready for the six hour drive home?" he asked and laughed.
They all went back through the house and walked out of the front door. "Let's go guys." he said and left the forest to get in the car.