Ghost Story

Pairings: PokéShipping, Ash/Misty.

Setting: AU.

Rating: Eventual T for language, death-related themes, and violence.

Ages: This story is split into four parts. In this first one, Misty is five. Daisy, Violet, and Lily are between eleven and thirteen. Also, because she's five, bear in mind that this part is written from the POV of a young child. So things will be a little unclear just because she doesn't notice everything. In later parts, she'll know more and things will become clearer.

Disclaimer: I do not own, nor am I affiliated in any way with the Pokémon franchise. This story is merely for entertainment. I only own my OCs and, of course, the story.

A/N: The ghost story at the beginning of the chapter was fully inspired by the creepypasta Duskull and Dusclops on the Pokémon creepypasta wiki. With the nature of this story, it only seemed right to start off by paying homage to creepypastas. Also, many thanks to the ever-generous C'sMelody, my beta!

Part I: The Folly of Youth

Play with Me

"He who is not everyday conquering some fear has not learned the secret of life."

–Ralph Waldo Emerson

"If you see a skull, you must run away as quickly as possible. For when you look into its lone, red, bloodshot eye, you will begin to fall under Hypnosis." She shivered as there appeared a red light in the room, pointing right at her, soaking her in blood. Was that the eye of the ghost? She brought her legs in closer to her chest, praying that it was not.

"You must not allow yourself to fall asleep, because that's when it strikes." The word was accentuated by clap, making her flinch. "While you sleep, the skull of the ghost bonds with your own face. You can grope and grasp at the bony mask all you want, but pull and rip at it though you try, it is impossible to get off. No, you must crack it by slamming your face onto one of the jagged rocks marking your path on the mountain."

Again more slaps were heard, these ones lower in pitch and followed by an eerie scraping sound, echoing in multiple places in the room. Her head darted around as she tried to find the source of the noises, but it was too dark to see anything except the glowing light—now thankfully returned to a soft yellow-white.

"But you don't have much time, because as soon as that skull chooses you, black, living bandages begin to wrap themselves up you from your feet all the way up to where your face once was, paralyzing every part of you they touch as they go." She now felt a raspy cloth wisping its way from her feet up to her knees, sending shivers down her spine as she chewed her lip raw so as not to make a sound.

"If you do not wake up and get the bandages off, the ghost will strangle you, tightening the bandages around your neck until you can no longer breathe." The voice of the story became very raspy, trailing off at the end as though suffocated itself. There was a moment of silence and she thought—hoped—the story was over. But the voice came back, continuing with a ghostly monotone, "It is in control of you now. You will feel your body creak as it picks itself up from the cave floor, strangled, lifeless, but not dead. No, because your body has been filled with the new life of the ghost, overpowering yours until your soul is completely snuffed out. Dusclops will use your body and soon you will forget that you were ever human.

"And that's why you should never go atop Mt. Pyre; you never know if you'll become a ghost's next victim."

Abruptly the lights flicked on and Misty heard the jeering laughter of her sisters, as well as the click of the spooky flashlight going off.

"That was a good one, Vi!"

"You even got me shivering a little bit!"

"Thanks, guys; I try!"

The sisters were all sitting in different corners of the room, holding various props in hand. Violet was folding a red film in her hand and holding a snow globe she had assuredly been scraping against the wall. Daisy and Lily also held trinkets that had been used in a similar fashion.

Misty swallowed, tears burning her eyes as she struggled not to make a peep. She didn't want them to know that she was afraid. But as her lower lip quivered, the words couldn't help but spill out. "I don't want a ghost in me!" she wailed, a few tears dribbling down her face as she squeezed her eyes shut.

"Then, like, just don't go to Mr. Pyre," Violet said, putting a hand on Misty's back, producing a fresh batch of shivers.

"Or Lavender Town, or the Lost Tower, or the Celestial Tower," Lily added, wiping tears of laughter from her eyes. "Seriously, Vi, that was great! Did you write it yourself?"

"Like, sure did!"

"Anyway, it's time for you to go to sleep, Misty," Daisy said, reaching for the light switch again.

"No!" Misty shouted, sitting up rigidly in her bed. When you sleep is when the mask takes over your face and then you die! "I mean…could you keep the light on?"

"Sure," Daisy said with a playful smirk.

The three of them left their room, not ready to go to sleep themselves quite yet, while Misty lay in her bed, clenching her sheets in her fists for dear life. Yeah, there was no way she was going to sleep.

Lest she have ghost-filled nightmares.

"Seel, use Headbutt!"

Misty watched Seel hesitate, still wincing at the aftershocks of electricity coursing through the water and its body. But this was its last shot. An Emolga at a Water Gym was an almost guaranteed loss, and Seel was doing its best at this point just to stay afloat. Misty had been hopeful after Seel had managed to pull off an early Blizzard but the Emolga had withstood that without losing altitude and now Seel was dropping fast.

But Misty saw that the Emolga was on its last leg too. So Seel dove under the water, swimming around a bit to gain some momentum, as well as throw off its target. Then, in a glittery burst through the water's surface, Seel flew out of the water, striking its young horn right into the Emolga gliding through the air, causing Misty to gasp.

With a squeak, the Emolga's wings closed in around its body reflexively and it fell into the water. Seel fell in soon after, doing all it could to right its body into a proper dive so that it wouldn't knock itself out at the water's impact. If only it could stay swimming for a few more moments, Misty knew the match would be won.

Seel swayed in the water, watching the Emolga for any sign of movement, wary of the stray electricity that could discharge from its body. But there was none. It floated for a few moments, unmoving, before the referee lowered a green flag.

"Emolga is unable to battle. The Gym Leader, Fleur Waterflower, is the winner."

Fleur gracefully stepped off the platform, her bright red hair flowing behind her in the light breeze of the Gym and approached the dejected Trainer. Doing its part, Seel had scooped Emolga up onto its back and was ferrying the fainted Pokémon over to the challenger's platform. Misty smiled at that. Good ol' Seel.

The kid bent over and gently picked up Emolga, being especially careful around Seel's horn, now that he had seen its power. He made an effort to wipe most of the water from Emolga's dripping wings. "Sorry, Emolga," Misty overheard the kid sniffle softly.

"Hey," Fleur said sympathetically, waving the kid over to join her on the Gym floor, "you did a great job. It was a really close match." She paused. "What did you say your name was again?"

"Benji," the boy said after collecting himself.

"Benji," Fleur started again, "Promise me that you'll come back and challenge the Cerulean Gym again after a little more training, okay?"

"Okay." Benji nodded his head and returned his Emolga to its PokéBall, leaving the Gym with just a small twinkle of hope rekindled in his purple eyes.

Speaking of twinkling eyes, Misty had just bounded down the stairs of the bleachers, and ran to her mother's side.

"How'd you like the Battle, Misty?" Fleur asked, a giggle escaping her mouth at the awe that Misty knew was simply radiating through her green eyes.

"It was so good!" she gushed, her attention turning to Seel, whom she was leaning over the pool to pet. "Seel was the best!"

Seel was probably her favorite Pokémon in the whole Gym. He was the best swimmer, after all. Sometimes when Misty was swimming she would pretend that her feet were stuck together like a tailfin just so that she could be more like him.

"Yes, Seel really is the best," Fleur agreed, pulling Misty away from the tired Pokémon. "But now Seel needs to heal up, okay?"

"Okay," Misty agreed, albeit a bit reluctantly. She watched her mother return Seel to its PokéBall and began following on her heels. The excitement of the Battle now over, she let out a sloppy yawn as she asked, "Mommy, you know I wanna be a Water Pokémon Master just like you, right?"

Fleur smiled down at Misty. "Well, I wouldn't call myself a Master, but I think that that's a lovely goal, sweetheart."

"And I wanna have all Water Pokémon, just like you too."

"That's wonderful, Misty, and wonderful for the Cerulean Gym that you want to train Water Pokémon." Fleur then paused, causing Misty to almost run into her. She crouched down in front of Misty and looked her in the eyes. "Water Pokémon are beautiful and you know that they're my favorite, but don't ever limit yourself as a Trainer. Just because they're my favorite doesn't mean they have to be your favorite. You might have a deep connection with another Pokémon that isn't a Water Type."

"Okay, mommy," Misty agreed flippantly.

She didn't know why her mother was saying that. Water Pokémon really were the best. Why would she ever want anything else? Well, Jigglypuff were cute…Maybe she would make exceptions for some cute Pokémon.

Misty told her mother this, who returned with a melodious giggle. "Sure. Just keep your options open." She then smiled and ruffled Misty's hair playfully before standing up and continuing on her way out of the building and to the Pokémon Center. Misty started right up behind her again. "Misty, why don't you see if your sisters want to play? You can tell them all about the match."

Misty pouted a bit before her mouth broke open into another yawn and she rubbed the sleep out of her eyes. She didn't really want to be with her sisters right now. Not after last night. Besides, they probably wouldn't want to play with her and they definitely wouldn't care to hear about the Battle.

"Are you tired, Misty? You always could go take a nap."

"No, I'm not tired!" Misty quickly defended, throwing her fists to her sides.

Fleur arched her eyebrow at Misty, a look that made her turn away so that she couldn't tell that she was lying. "Okay, then you still need to go to your room so that I can go to the Pokémon Center, alright?"

Misty kind of dreaded the thought of hanging out with her sisters. She didn't want them to tell her another scary ghost story. But…maybe since she had listened to them yesterday they would listen to her tell them about the Battle! Enthused, Misty started leaving the room, careful not to run, because she knew she would be chastised for running on the slick tile.

As her excitement built, another idea came to her. Maybe they'd let her play with them in turn for making her listen to their story! That had to be fair, right? Further excited by the thought, Misty started running up the stairs to their room, getting down on all fours and using her hands for extra speed and balance.

She went into the room that they all shared and found the girls on Lily's bed, painting their nails. Misty plugged her nose at the terrible smell but approached them anyway.

"Hey, guys," Misty called, her voice muffled. But her sisters paid her no mind, not looking away from the new nail polish colors they were experimenting with or halting whatever it was they were talking about for a moment. Either they didn't hear her or they were ignoring her. That idea made Misty mad, so she stomped her foot and took her hand off her nose so that she could shout louder this time. "Hey, guys!"

The three sisters turned to look at her with varying looks of irritation on their faces.

"What is it, Misty?" Daisy finally asked with a heavy sigh in her voice.

Misty perked up at finally getting her sisters' attentions. "Mommy just had a really good Battle and she said I could tell you guys about it," she informed them.

"Sorry, Misty," Lily said, not looking apologetic at all, "but we're in the middle of something. Maybe you can tell us later."

"But—"

"Misty, shh!"

Misty felt disappointment welling up inside her. They didn't even listen to why they should listen to her. And she knew there wasn't going to be a later. That meant she would have to find something to entertain herself. So she looked around the large room for anything to catch her interest, finally laying her eyes on something.

Her sisters had finally passed on their princess dolls to her after only letting her watch while they played in the past. She didn't play with the dolls very often because most of them were broken and missing clothes, but Misty still had a fun idea. Sometimes she would pretend that the dolls were Pokémon Trainers or even the Pokémon themselves, and that would occupy her for at least a little while.

This time, the doll with the cut and markered hair, all courtesy of her sisters, was a Seel, and Misty was the Trainer and she was reenacting her mother's Battle. The doll with the ripped dress was making a particularly good Emolga, since the dress had at one time been yellow.

"Misty, could you, like, keep it down over there. You're ruining my concentration," Violet called over, annoyance laced heavily in her tone.

Okay, maybe Misty had gotten a little loud with the sound effects, but she couldn't perform Blizzard without making the whooshing noises that went with it! Misty pouted, but continued the Battle with minimal noise. She had to get to the end—it was the best part!

"Misty, pipe down over there!"

They couldn't be mad at her for that one; the crowd had to cheer for Seel! Seel was amazing! She tried explaining such to her sisters, but they weren't listening to her.

"Misty, what did we just say?" Daisy asked patronizingly.

"Yeah, like, Misty, why don't you just go play outside," Lily suggested as she waved her hands around to dry her nail polish.

Clearly she couldn't play in here, and she was already bored. Maybe her sisters had a good idea for once.

"Fine," Misty huffed. She dropped the already forgotten dolls on the ground and went downstairs. Hopefully Seel was recovered from its Battle so she could play with it in the ocean. Or maybe her mom was back and would play with her. She wasn't allowed to go outside by herself.

So she trotted downstairs to the pool. But there was no one to be found. No Seel, no mother, no whimpering Trainer. Well, that meant she couldn't go outside. Maybe she would just watch TV.

Then again…

No mother…No Pokémon…And her sisters were upstairs…

Maybe she could go outside and play anyway. She'd been out there a million times before, she knew the rules, and she was already a better swimmer than any of her sisters. No one had to know.

Excited, Misty ran outside. She never got to play by herself outside. This was going to be the most fun ever!

The ocean was a decent walk away; it wasn't like it was right outside. But Misty still knew how to get there by herself. Despite having a giant pool and a number of aquariums, Misty's mom still brought her and her sisters down to the beach all the time. It was great to see the water Pokémon and nothing made Misty happier, so she begged to go every weekend and her mom usually gave in and said yes, since her sisters frequently wanted to go too. Something about tanning.

Before long she started seeing Wingull and Pelipper and she started running. "Hi, Wingull, hi, Pelipper!" she shouted out to them. They squawked at her, as they always did, and Misty carried on gleefully. This was going to be the best day ever.

Her feet hit sand and she started laughing. She practically fell into the water and began splashing away giddily. Since it didn't cross her mind to change into her beach clothes, Misty was still wearing the dress she had been wearing earlier. It was soaked a dark blue and the cotton was clinging to her legs but she didn't care. Water made everything better.

But now she really wanted to swim. She hadn't gotten to practice yet today and she wanted to be an amazing swimmer. You couldn't be a Water Pokémon Master if you weren't a fantastic swimmer too.

So she began kicking her legs and sweeping her arms through the water. The water got colder and soon she couldn't feel anything brushing against her feet except for the occasional scaly or squishy Pokémon.

This was Misty's favorite part. It felt like she was flying but the water felt softer than air. Her limbs were chilled by the cold, yet the cold water washing over them felt more relaxing than anything else. Even though she'd been swimming for a while, she couldn't bring herself to feel tired yet. And the smell of the salty air was so much better than the chlorine in the swimming pool at the Gym. Even the non-chlorinated aquariums smelled more like algae and PokéChow than they did of the ocean.

Suddenly she caught view of a bright red light peeking through the water. Immediately shivers went down her spine, remembering the red eye of the Dusclops from her sisters' story. But this was the ocean, not Mt. Pyre. So the red light couldn't be a Dusclops. No, it had to be a Tentacool! She was sure of it!

Usually this was about as far out as Misty would go; usually by this point her mother would force her to come back. And Misty was usually fine with that, but a Tentacool? Tentacool were beautiful and one of the Water Pokémon that they didn't have at the Gym, so Misty couldn't give up this opportunity to swim out just a little further to see if she could get another look at it.

Besides, it was exhilarating to be out this far. There were sheer cliffs on either side of her, but the beach was so far away. Close enough that she could see it, and she was sure she could make it back, but far enough away that it felt like it was just her and the ocean.

There it was again! A little flash of red.

And something pink. Tentacool weren't pink. And the pink Water Pokémon that she did know wouldn't be here. Slowpoke stayed mostly on land, as did Shellos.

Oh, maybe it was an Alomomola! That would be even more fun than a Tentacool. Eagerly, Misty swam out even further, and the pink thing wasn't swimming away from her like most of the Water Pokémon she met in the ocean did. No, it actually seemed to be moving closer to the surface.

Suddenly it burst through the water, blinding Misty temporarily with little water droplets. Misty wiped them out of her eyes and blinked a few times. What was in front of her definitely wasn't an Alomomola. And it wasn't a Pokémon Misty knew from the Gym either. But it definitely was a Water Type. And it was smiling at her!

And now she knew where the red spot was coming from. It wasn't a Tentacool, though it was a similar shape. But this Pokémon had a little red crest on its chest.

"Hi, do you wanna play with me?" Misty asked, more than a little out of breath from all of the swimming.

The Pokémon blinked, the smile never leaving its face, and nodded before returning immediately under the water's surface.

Misty smiled too. This was such a pretty Water Pokémon! It had frilly little appendages that looked almost like a dress and it actually wanted to play with her. It was like a life-size doll she could play with.

"Do you want me to follow you?" she called out to it, hoping that it could hear her.

From what Misty could tell, the Pokémon kept on smiling at her, so she took that for a yes and took a really big breath, following it under, just a little bit, though. She couldn't even swim to the bottom of the deepest part of the Gym's pool yet, so she knew better than to go too deep. Besides, the Pokémon was just a few feet underneath, waiting for her. She just swam to it and smiled at how its dress-like form floated in the water, just like her own dress did; wetted with water, yet able to flow in the waves like it weighed nothing.

Misty trod water in the same place for a little bit but she felt her breath beginning to become short. So she started kicking her legs to get back to the surface. But then she noticed the water beginning to turn purple around her. It was the darkest right around the Pokémon and seemed to be spilling out of it. Was it scared? Misty knew that some Pokémon used ink when they were scared, but what did it have to be scared of? Her?

But she didn't want to scare the Pokémon away just because she was kicking around it so instead she tried to float slowly to the surface. But she wasn't floating as easily as she usually did. Maybe she didn't have enough air left in her to float? She tried just using her arms but she found that they were reluctant to move, as though the water were as thick and hard to swim through as syrup. But the water didn't feel different, it only looked different.

It was her that felt different. Her head felt light and her arms felt stiff and tingly. She must have been under water too long. She wanted to scream or cry for help but she knew that that would get rid of the last bit of precious air that she had in her so she tried to muster up all of her strength and kick her way to the surface but she couldn't move.

Not knowing what to do, she looked over at the Pokémon, her new playmate. Maybe it would help her. In the past whenever Misty had gotten hurt or started crying Pokémon around her would rush to help—they were always so nice and always knew when something was wrong.

But this Pokémon…was still smiling. Its expression hadn't changed since she had first seen it, save for the occasional blink when they had been above water. It was starting to scare her.

Why wasn't it helping her? And why was it turning the water purple? Was that why she couldn't move? The panic was swirling around deep in her stomach as the purple water swirled in her vision.

Where was her mom? Where were her sisters? She needed them, she needed help, she needed…

Misty's head suddenly felt exceptionally light in the heavy water and her vision went spotty momentarily before going completely black. Finally she felt something other than inky water wrap around her.

Oh, good…Something was finally helping her…

She would be fine…She would be…

A/N: Well, this one has been a long time coming. I've been writing it for about a year and a half and dreaming about it for a lot longer. A lot is written, but a lot is currently being rebooted. So chapters won't be months apart-I'll post on my profile if ever a long break is being taken-but they won't be regular either. But I'm gonna make this brief, because I have a lot of notes about the reading of this story, so before I get on to that, let me just say, thank you so much for reading!

Before anyone starts commenting on some of the choices I make in this story about timeline, location, distance, history, characters, etc., I want to say that this story is AU. I am trying to anchor basis in both the games and the anime as much as I can, but this story doesn't fall perfectly into any existing universe that the franchise has to offer. I am creating my own head-canon here as well as my own mythos. That being said, I am doing everything I can to make our characters in character for these sets of circumstances. I just want to take this time to address that I'm aware of the differences I'm making to canon as well as where I'm crossing worlds. I'm down to talk about these choices with anyone who's interested, concerned, or confused. But I ask that no one tell me that I'm wrong. I know that I am, but I've decided that these choices make a more compelling story. Thank you, if you read all this!

Cover image cred goes to MadeleineInk on deviantArt!