“The old Mirmire manner was built in the late 1920s, The owner of the estate, Mr. John Mirmire was an old man who lived alone in the building after he commissioned its construction, he had no close relatives, family or children of his own, apparently he wasn’t very good at making friends either, because when he died it took them a whole month to discover his body after passing away in his sleep.”
The time hit nine o’clock in the evening, the sun had long set on the Halloween night, leaving the lamps to dully light the ground level Neighborhood streets of old Sandelwood.
Pulled up along the side of the curb, sat a large black van with no back windows, implying that its purpose was more for cargo then it was for passengers. An assumption that would be confirmed, as any passersby would find the back occupied with a small work station, equipment and monitoring feeds.
“After Mr. Mirmire passed away, the home was bought by someone else, and since then has gone through a number of owners, each one reporting that there was something unusual with the building. Strange noises at night, items disappearing, and there was even some reports of a strange old man being seen in the house, Making this one of the most highly sought out hunting locations in Kodo!”
A small group of people were assembled on the dark sidewalk next to the van, occasionally a late night trick-or-treaters would walk past, giving the group a curious look, but otherwise continue on their quest for last minuet candy in their last reasonable hour.
The group clustered together was paying attention to a women speaker, a short kindly looking women with brown curly hair pulled up into a pony tail, her eyes were wide with excitement as she spoke, standing before a set of rusted gates with a plaque that read
“M M” in a faded greening brass.
Though as the story progressed, the eyes of the group would drift up to the building that lay just beyond the gates.
It certainly didn’t look like an unlivable location, even with its run down appearance, the home was old, and elegant, but clearly had signs of unkempt wear on it.
The blue paint along the door and window frames was warn and peeling in spots. While the lawn was over grown with weeds and ivy stretched up along the red brick that made up most of the home's walls.
It was a bit unusual to see in these kind of ground level neighborhoods, Though it seemed appropriate, as the stories of ghosts certainly pitched the grimy windows and deep red brick of the house in a much more ominous light.
“The current owner doesn’t live in the home, but rents it out to ghost hunting groups from time to time, so it’s a super special treat that we’re going to get to investigate it tonight! And I’m really glad you get to join the team on Halloween.”
A few sparse grins met the small women’s excitement.
“Now for your equipment, I’m sure you don’t need too much of an explanation for those, but to those holding the voice recorder, I would recommend that you keep them on as much as possible! Sometimes they pick up noise that we can’t hear with our own ears, you might also want to try and ask questions, giving a few second pauses after each one. We’ve caught some pretty neat things doing that technique!”
Four people were holding voice recorders; each of them looked down to their device, and fiddled with it a bit to help understand the control, volume, folder selection, play, pause, -so on.
One of the guests in particular simply set his sharp yellow eyes on the tool with a bored look, and shoved it back into the pocket of his coat.
“Now for the rest of you, we’ve got cameras! Don’t be shy about taking lots of pictures! You’ve got a sixteen gigs card to fill, so you’re going to have pleeaaanty of space to try and catch something.” She added with a broader grin as the others now looked down at the small black cameras they had been given upon sign in.
“We’ve also got EMF readers and thermometers, keep an eye out for cold spots, that might be a good indication that something supernatural is happening and a good time to ask around with your reorder.”
Just as soon as she had finished going over the equipment, a blond head poked out from the back of the van, and a young man with green eyes waved to get the curly haired women’s attention.
“We’re all set up on this end Maggie.”
Perking up in a way that caused the beaded necklaces around her neck to crackle the women clapped her hands together, returning her wide eyes toward the group.
“Great! It’s time to get started then! Why don’t we get inside and out of this cold air huh? Once we’re inside, you know your teams, let’s split up and find us some ghosts!”
The first to follow after the women as she turned to move past the gates were a group of three teenagers, the only girl, with long red hair looked to be nearly as giddy about ghost hunting as the lead investigator was, the two men with her seemed a little more subtle, if flat out disinterested, Though one in particular with fluffy brown hair strode with a long almost mechanical stride. It seemed he had something to prove.
The last to start moving was a taller man, who’s striking yellow eyes dulled as his eyebrows settled over them, his lips turned down lightly.
“I don’t know why I agreed to this.” He grumbled to a shorter man in a blue sweater and gray jeans standing by his side, who seems particularly fascinated in the camera he had been given for the hunt.
“Uhhh-” Looking up from his camera with a thoughtful expression that implied mocking to the taller man then actual consideration for the question “Because Jaimee won the pot, and this is what she picked for our holiday.”
“You won last time Kyle, and none of us complained when you took us to a party that none of us could afford any of the drinks at.” a dark haired Asian paused just inside the gateway with a pale girl, to glance back at the two men that had yet to catch up.
Kyle sneered, sparing only a glance in the Asian direction on his way to level a cool glower onto Jaimee, an overly thin dark haired women, whose response was to flip him the bird in front of a wide eyed stare, and slip purposefully onto the houses’ property.
Not the least bit pleased with the mocking gesture from the women, Kyle narrowed his eyes dangerously, his shoulders tensing as he followed after the group, joined closely by an awkwardly grinning partner.
It all sounded like superstitious nonsense to Kyle, it always had, not to mention made him wonder about the sanity of the person who chose this as their profession, or hobby.
Pulling the voice recorder back out of his pocket, staring at it with a very firm resolve that he would NOT be asking questions to anything, especially not for the sake of something that didn’t even exists to respond in the first place!
He wasn’t even sure why he even bothered coming, an overnight ghost hunting tour sounded like a terrible waste of time, not when one could be finding a real Halloween party to crash and some hot girls in those sexy Halloween costumes to hit on.
Team bonding he supposed, Jerome always tended to insist on that… easy for Jerome to say, he was the only one not here!
With a light slouch he glanced instead over to the man standing next to him, who was still more preoccupied by the features on the camera as they stepped into the large manner.
"Oph... old houses smell so bad." The teenage girl complained, waving her hand lightly in front of her nose.
Not to say she wasn't wrong, Kyle definitely picked up a pungent stench from the unkempt house.
“Yeah a bit," Maggie agreed with a light smile, but moved on "Okay let’s do this! Each team has their radios?” She asked, looking toward where Kyle and his group were standing, while at the same time holding up one pare of the gray radios, a rosy cheeked smile met Jamie as he held up the matching set. “Good! Keep in contact, happy hunting!”
Kyle didn’t opt to take the lead, good enough for him that Jaimee seemed more than willing this time to step up to the task.
For the time being Kyle allowed himself to linger back, a moment to take in the main hall that they all had moved past.
It looked as though either a lot of the original furnishing had been kept in the home, or- more what he assumed- was that the current owner decided to furnish it that way. It gave the room a dank and old kind of smell, and an uncomfortable aesthetic.
From the main hall was a tall looming ceiling with a wide crystal chandelier hanging just over a wide set of steps that lead up from the center of the entrance hall to a long second story landing, no doubt leading off in either direction to other rooms.
From the map they had seem of the house already Kyle knew there was another set of rooms on the first floor, as well as both a cellar and an attic. No doubt these gullible idiots would want to go to the cellar to further psyches themselves out, but for now it seemed that the team he was with, that consisted of his partner Ryan, and Jamie and Jaimee, was going to be taking the first floor, while the teens with the instructor would be taking the second floor, on the opposite end.
Already the night was going as spectacularly dull as Kyle had anticipated. A quick look down to his phone told him that they were only half an hour in, and this was supposed to be an overnight experience? Great.
The others seemed to be enjoying themselves, oddly enough, randomly taking pictures In the rooms, and moving around with their flashlights leading the way.
There was no end to fooling around, as they didn't seem to be taking this as seriously as Maggie probably would hope.This meant that Kyle had to now put up with Jamie skulking around from time to time with the flashlight held under his chin, making obnoxious ghost noises, and Jaimee pulling her head deep into her hood to pretend to be headless.
Kyle didn't join in, after this night was over, he was just going to do his best to completely forget that any of it happened in the first place.
He still had a hold of the voice recorder in his pocket, and there it stayed as he casually walked across the squeaking flood board of the sitting room.
It was a very simple room, a few old musty looking sitting chairs with aged red velvet, age wearing down the nobs of the legs and arm rest, a tall bookshelf laden in heavy looking books sat next to the dark pit of a fire place.
They sat over an old overly intricate pattered rug, the tassels on either end thoroughly knotted beyond any help.
Other than that there was little in each of the rooms Kyle noticed, a few lazily placed nik-naks on the mantel, a small clock set in an elegant wood frame, and a mirror place over a stool table. There were no pictures on the walls, and the curtains seemed to just barely be attached to their rod.
The place won points for the creepy factor, that’s for sure. Simply because how uninhabitable and vacant it seemed.
“There isn’t even anything interesting to look at.” Kyle muttered in a drawl, pulling his hands out of the pockets of his brown jacket, so he could reach out and pluck up a small glass figure from the mantel place.
“It’s not lived in, so I can’t imagine they would keep anything particularly valuable in here. Especially if they rent it out to strangers on Halloween.” Ryan offered with a pitying shrug. Had this actually been a residences maybe there might have been valuables to find.
“Nothing even worth stealing.” Kyle signed, turning over the small glass horse in his hands before slowly reeling his hand back, and in one sharp movement, flung the glass ponyta across the room.
“Stupid”
It exploded against the wall with a light scatter of partials that drew the other two’s glances to the mess.
“Don’t think they won’t know who did that.” Ryan reminded his partner, to which the taller man rolled his shoulder.
“Yeah? And what exactly are they going to do about it by the time they find out?” Even if they did know it was him, the information they have on him is fake. Ryan just shrugged one shoulder with an agreeing nod, ignoring his partner chastising tone.
Before rolling his eyes, Jamie returned to meandering around the room.
“Oh hey, do you guys feel that?” He asked, holding his arms out as he stepped forward and then taking a step back again “It’s really cold in this one spot.”
“It’s a draft.” Kyle remarked with disinterest, now examining the books in the book shelf idly.
“It doesn’t feel like a draft, I’ve already checked the windows and the hall.” Jamie returned with an exasperated look.
Jaimee, who seemed much more excited about this news then she usually did about anything, rushed forward with her camera. “Kyle! Kyle ask it something!” She hissed in a slight whisper.
Kyle, not bothering to whisper or even straighten up from where he was looking at the books gave her an offended look “I’m not going to ask questions to nothing.”
The female grunt gave an exasperated sigh,“Kyle, come on, just do it.”
“No, this is stupid, and if you really think that this is real, then you’re stupid too, Nothing supernatural is going to happen because there isn’t such thing as ghosts- Hey! GET off!”
Jaimee puffed herself up, or as least as much as she could with as thin a frame as she had, before she stormed over to where Kyle was straightening up, forcefully digging a hand into his coat pocket to get the recorder out. “Why do you always have to be this way?”
She had to flinch back as Kyle withdrew his hands and swatted at the women in retaliation for grabbing something out of his pocket. Thankfully she was fairly quick and avoided getting hit from the more than predictable Grunt.
She gave him a pointed wide eyed stare as she flicked the recorder on herself.
“How about this- next time, don’t drag me around! Did you think of that?” the scars along his cheekbones flushed brightly over his face, indication of his thinning patience. “Idiot.”
“Maybe that’s not a bad idea!”
“So cold….” The argument stopped in a split second, and both Kyle and Jaimee jerked their heads around to look toward Ryan and Jamie, Both of the men had wide eyes and were staring with opened mouths looking just as surprised as Kyle felt.
That had not been a voice that Kyle recognized, it was horse, and tired, with a much older quality than Kyle had ever heard from Ryan or Jamie, Yet it had spoken as if coming directly from them.
“What the hell was that?”
“You better not be messing around.” Kyle said in a low growl, scars still burning in frustration.
Ryan held his hands up and shook his head, opening his mouth to speak, but before he could say anything more, the odd voice spoke again.
“I’m so… Cold.” “Holy s**t where is that coming from!?”
“Oh my gosh!” Jaimee squeaked, rushing back over to where the cold spot was and holding out the recorder.
"Hello? Is someone here with us?"
“So cold…”“s**t s**t!”
“Ryan shut up! Shut up and let it talk!”
“This is bull” Kyle sneered, though there was a growing pit in his stomach,
Using his flashlight, he searched the walls and corners of the room for some kind of speaker system, determined to debunk this. But as the old voice spoke again, Kyle couldn’t help the dread of realization that it wasn’t coming from the walls, or even from the floor that Jamie was investigating. It really did just sound like someone was standing among them.
The longer the grunts searched for a source, with no success the small team of Grunts became increasingly still, the weight of what was happening finally settling in on their shoulders, and running back down their spine as the words spoken soon turned into soft mournful sobbing.
With it, showering the grunt with the full weight of hopelessness as the crying filled their chests with an understanding of worse times, facing a situation where you’re stuck, with nowhere else to go and no one to help you.
The crying of a man who was alone, and facing his death.
Kyle instantly remembered the story the instructor told of the first owner of the home, and the lonely way he died, and for a split second wondered if maybe this was the ghost of that man.
That was, before Kyle realize that this would of course imply he did belive those stories, and he shook himself out of it.
No, This wasn’t a ghost, this was some kind of trick that this home owner was playing on gullible pricks who paid money to skulk around in the dark trying to find something that didn’t exists!
Eventually, the crying did stop, but the stunned silence from each of the rockets continued to linger for a long time after, the whole room seeming to hold their breath as if expecting it to start up again.
Kyle narrowed and eye, he could tell from the looks on their now pale faces that they honestly bought into this.
“Oh come on-“ Kyle started, but his words went completely ignored as an outside sound seemed to jerk the others back into action, and soon enough Jamie was contacting the lead investigator over the radio.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“We caught something! We caught something!” Jaimee, in a rare excitement, burst forward as she reached the top of the steps where the hosting investigator, with the other three guests were walking toward, each of them looking intrigued. “It’s incredible! You need to hear this!”
Unable to contain the excitement of having possibly caught some evidence on tape.
Much less thrilled, but with an increasing chill running up his spine from what they had just experienced, Kyle remained silent a distance away from the others, his arms crossed over his chest and a light frown as she made to replay the recording, unwilling to admit that he was still somewhat keen to see what kind of reaction would come from the instructor.
The guide seemed interested to see what they had found, and stepped closer to Jaimee as she located and played the file they had recorded.
The recording started right when jaimee had first heard the sound.
“How about this- next time, don’t drag me around! Did you think of that? Idiot.”
Maggie’s mouth opened in a small o, her eyes widened as she looked across to Kyle brifly, and was met with a cold stare that quickly caused her to drop her gaze back to the recorder.
“Maybe that’s not a bad idea!” silence…
“What the hell was that?”
“You better not be messing around.”More silence and then a shifting of agitated bodies moving around the room.
“Holy s**t where is that coming from!?”
“Oh my gosh! Hello? Is anyone here with us?” More silence.
“s**t s**t!”
“Ryan shut up! Shut up and let it talk!”Silence….
Kyle’s brow furrowed.
“… Hey.” Ryan started cautiously.
“What… no wait, there was a voice.” Jaimee said, her eyes growing wider as she looked up to Maggie, then over at the others for support.
Reaching her other hand up to grip the recorder in her hands quickly trying to turn up the volume as much as she could so she could try and replay it.
Again, the gaps with the Rockets speaking where there should have been another voice were filled with more silence.
The lead investigator leaned forward, as if tying to closely listen to what Jaimee might be trying to show them.
Kyle noticed right away that the two teenage boys smirked, and motioned as if to chuckle mockingly.
Cold yellow eyes stared them down, but only one stopped and averted his eyes, the other continued to smirk back.
Jaimee wilted.
“I think… I hear something.” The instructor offered, clearly just trying to be sympathetic. “We’ll be able to find out more once we’re done and can go over it more closely with our computers, It can see for sure if you picked anything up.”
“No… you don’t understand, it was a clear voice.” Jaimee tried to explain, “As clear as I’m talking to you right now, it should have showed up.”
Kyle frowned, at least the instructor was being reasonable, had he not hear the voice himself he might have mocked Jamiee too, but he
had heard it, and these snickering teenagers were starting to piss him off.
Maggie could only reassure Jaimee that they would check the recording on the computer once they were finished for the night, something the smaller girl seemed to have to accept more then she simply wanted to.
Kyle didn’t much sympathies with his team mate, but he could at least tell how disappointed she was.
“Let’s get back to some more hunting huh? This time we’ll take the other side of the house, okay?” Maggie said to the groups, offering a supportive hand on the shoulder to Jaimee before heading back off down the upstairs hall. The three teenagers moving past the rockets to follow after her.
It was here that Kyle found himself in an opportunity he had been hoping for, as the others moved on, one of the teenagers, the one with the fluffy brown hair, bumped past the tall Rocket, giving the undercover criminal the ideal angle to slip a foot out right in time to tangle the teens step.
A smirk curled the man’s lips as the kid scrambled to gain his footing, only to find that he had ran out of level ground.
Kyle and a wide eyes Ryan watched the boy let out a strangled yelp as he came face to face with the stretch of steps before him.
At the top he teetered for only a split second, flailed his arms, topped RIGHT over the wide stair case… and exploded.
That’s right. Exploded.
The moment the boy hit shoulder first on the first step down there was a dramatic popping squelch and the staircase was suddenly splattered with thick red dripping ooze, and chunks of deep red meat bouncing and squishing over the stairs and banister.
“HOLY s**t!” Kyle and Ryan lurched back with flailing arms, shock and alarm covering their faces just as shrikes suddenly filled the rooms from the girl who had been accompanying the boy. For a moment anything any of them could do was stand in horror at the scene before them, the stench of blood starting to fill the air very quickly, and the sound of someone staggering and vomiting in the hall. The other teenager, no doubt just witnessing his friend getting spread up and down the house collided with the wall, buckled, and emptied his stomach content.
“What the ******** kind of trick do you think you’re pulling!?” Kyle snapped, his long strides turning and advancing his tall frame up onto the smaller lead investigator.
She screamed and shrank with Kyle’s presence her eyes were budging and her hands were clasped tightly over her mouth. In her panic all she could do was shake her head, staring from Kyle to the gore covered steps.
“Bull s**t!” Kyle snapped back at her, and again she pulled away from him
“We don’t do this kind of thing!” She screamed from behind her hands “This wasn’t us! Oh… oh god, oh god we need to call the cops!”
No. No there was NO way something like that could happen. Not to this caliber, People didn't just EXPLODE! but it was hard to see how this would happen, with how real the blood looked.
The grunt bristled at the mention of cops, almost prepared to grab the phone out of her hand to keep from the cops getting involved; he did NOT need that at all!
Only what she pulled out wasn’t a phone... but a chunk of flesh that looks suspiciously like someone’s kidney.
It quivered and dripped in her hand for a second before Maggie let out a blood curtailing shrike, flinging the organ out of her hand and without even a second though, took off down the hall, in a frantic panic.
“Hey wait! WAIT! Don’t run off!” Jamie called after Maggie, hurrying after her to keep her from separating from them. “I’ll get her guys!”
Jaimee remained with the other girl, who was cowering in the nearest corner, clutching her face and screaming.
“Enough of this we’re getting out of here.” Kyle turned to Ryan, who, other than looking pale, seemed very responsive.
“Will you SHUT UP!” Kyle yelled savagely to the screaming girl “You’re giving me a god damn head ache. Jaimee, ******** leave her here!”
He honestly didn't care of Jaimee listened to him at all, but the girl's screaming was starting to stress him out.
Grumbling, and completely disregarding the usual wide eyes stare that Jaimee gave him, Kyle turned back, pulling his pokeball out of his pocket, and with the press of a button released a shiny Sylveon onto the landing
Roman’s mouth fell open In horror at the dripping sight that met him.
Jerking his head around to look back at Kyle, pink eyes wide in a silent query as to what in the hell happened here.
“We’re getting out of here.” Kyle announced, looking around at his pokemon. He knew the others would follow, so he had no need to explain what HIS plan was.
“SYL!” Roman suddenly called out in alarm, though he hardly needed to announce the warning.
Kyle had been visually picking the least bloody way possible down the steps, only to be immediately distracted by the discovery of a shadowed man standing int he darkness at the bottom landing.
Kyle’s lips parted as he stared at this stranger, the form looked withered and grungy, nearly rounded in shape form the layer of clothing around his shoulders and bundled over his arms. Dark, beady sunken eyes were staring at the bloody mess on the steps.
“HEY!” Kyle barked, firmly jerking his light down to further illuminate the stranger “Who the hell are you?”
The stranger did not look up, but slowly, very slowly he began to lift his arms out of the draped mess of blankets and coats.
The hands quivered violently where they hung, old and warn, and completely dripping in blood.
Kyle couldn’t do anything but stare wide eyed at the man, his mouth slowly falling open, and just barely able to make out the quivering words that were now uttered from his old cracked lips “I’m so sorry… I’m so sorry.” Slowly the man lifted the hands, placing the quivering fingers against his face, before he began to sob into them.
“That voice…” Kyle noted in a breathless tone, his shoulders jerking before he managed to put more strength back into them.
“It was him! Roman! Catch him!”
This was perfect, this guy was probably the one to kill that teenager, or more likley was messing around in this house to try and psych them out. If they could catch him, maybe it would put the cops off of their trail.
Roman didn’t need to be told twice, the flighty light pokemon darted forward, leaping delicately into the air and soaring over the steps almost in slow motion, the pokemon let loose a shrill battle cry as he coiled his ribbons up furiously for attack.
Just at the arch of his leap, in the blink of an eye and a sick crash something from the ceiling snapped and dropped like a stone.
The chandelier, screamed down in a dead fall, catching the Sylveon in its tangles on its way down, and shattered deafeningly on the steps right in front of the old man.
For a breathless moment, Kyle could only stand there and stare, trying to comprehend what had just happened. Suddenly his pokemon was no longer on his attack… Roman… where was Roman?
Slowly his brain caught up with him, and he found his pokemon. The bloody mess of blue and white fur, tangled into grotesque knots. Broken and splattered under twisted metal and shattered crystals.
Kyle took a step forward, completely unaware of the hair now falling into his eyes or the sweat staring to form over his forehead. Yellow eyes so wide it was starting to strain his face.
There was a horrified gasp from somewhere next to him, but he didn’t hear it.
Kyle didn’t hear his name spoken; he didn’t feel the hand taking his arm. All he saw was the mangled form of his broken pokemon.
Kyle’s face twisted into a form of unhinged rage, the scars on his face burned scarlet along with the rest of his features, a look that was turned onto the man still sobbing at the bottom of the stairs.
The Rocket wrenched himself away from the hands that were holding him, and all but flew down the bloody steps.
Coat billowing behind as his hands lurched forward, primed to grab and BREAK anything they could get a hold of. He was going to break this man’s NECK! He was going to pry out his eyes and shove them down the b*****d’s throat so he could slowly choke on them!
Just as the man was within arm’s reach, Kyle gave forth one last lurch in the hoped of knocking the man off of his feet in the most violent way possible.
Only as he was merely inches away from the man, the form was suddenly gone, vanished within a blink of an eye.
Leaving Kyle with a single feeling of surprise, and the intense buildup of momentum.
In a last attempt to stop himself, Kyle threw a foot out, knowing it wouldn’t be enough for him to even slow himself down. This was realized the moment his foot made contact with the ground he lost his balance.
coiling his arms closer to him to try and brace for the impact, the man was thrown forward, crushing a shoulder into the ground and toppling bodily across the entryway, just barely avoiding hitting any limbs or his head in the door frame as he rolled painfully into the room they had just been last investigating.
The ground creaked loudly upon impact, shaking the whole room before Kyle finally came to rest, flat on his back on the groaning floorboards, his mouth gaping as he tried to catch the breath that was knocked out of his lungs.
“U-Uh s**t-“
Kyle hugged his arms around his torso, dragging himself onto his side and letting out a long wheezing cough,
Though his rest was short lived, as deep groaning and a slow movement alerted Kyle to another danger, wide eyes snapping up in time to see the bookshelf he had come to rest in front creaking forward slowly, spilling books from the middle shelf as it went.
It was dark, but Kyle could see the shadow looming over him. It was moment's like this that made the grunt thankful for the training he got in both those criminal organizations he worked for.
Thus he reacted to the object nearly falling on him before his mind even comprehended that he was about to have a very large, very heavy bookshelf crush him.
Feeling the tremendous force of the shelf hitting the ground, sending a gush of air and dirt right into his face, and a sick CRACK of the ground below.
“Uh- Arrh” A breath of relief escaped Kyle’s lungs, the adrenaline and awareness that he had nearly missed being crushed catching up with him.
From the staircase there came another scream, though this time it was of his name. Yelled by the man he recognized as his partner.
“I’m fine!” Kyle yelled back, lifting his head as he managed to gingerly push himself to his feet.
“Oh s**t! KYLE!” Again the yell of his partner met Kyle’s ears, causing the grunt to snort.
“I’m fine! Stop yelling!” Kyle called back, looking up to see his partner struggling in an unusually frantic way to get down to the steps.
For a moment Kyle had to wonder why he was so frantic, it wasn’t like Ryan to get all worked up over near misses like this. They had been in worse scrapes before.
But Kyle just watched as Ryan nearly skidded into the room, without even glancing at Kyle, and still wearing a look of panic collapsed onto his knees by the book shelf, and started to try and pry it up.
“No no no no no. Oh god no!”
“… Ryan, what… what are you doing?” Kyle asked, bewildered at what his partner was even doing.
“Ryan… Ryan!” still the man did not reply to Kyle’s voice, continuing on just trying to pull the book shelf up.
“What the hell man, I’m right here!” the lack of response he was getting from the blond Grunt prompted Kyle to push himself to his feet again, with every intention of making his way over to Ryan and decking him in the shoulder until he stopped freaking out.
He didn’t make it one knee up when Kyle's attention was forced onto the movement of a tremendous dark shadow moved into the doorway.
Kyle jerked his head up and back in alarm.
Whatever it was it was massive, and completely black, somehow managing to further block out the already darkened room beyond the door. In the darkness rolled forward a head... at least Kyle though it was a head.
A featureless face that hunkered down low over the hulking body, and gleaming white in what little light was coming in through the windows, staring eyeless at Kyle.
The crippling rush that jolted through Kyle’s body at the sight of this creature managed to helped Kyle jerk back onto his feet. The creature didn’t seem at all intent on the idea of Kyle getting any closer to Ryan though, before Kyle could even react he was frozen again in horror as the form abruptly hunkered itself low to the ground, the faceless white mass letting off a chilling growl before streaking forward toward Kyle and a grotesque rush.
The Grunt staggered backwards with a scream, just barely seeing glinting claws in the darkness coming straight for him.
“SYLVEON!”Over the dark lump. Something bright, and blue, glinting with an elegant shimmer in the darkness leaped high over the nightmare, pink eyes burning and furious.
Kyle could honestly say he had never before felt such a sense of blissful relief as he recognized the pokemon, the one he had moments before seen get crushed... But.. wait... how?
"Roman!"
Four ribbons ripped out in a frenzy, one of them catching Kyle around the neck, pulling him back just enough so that the claw aimed for him careened past and into a old wood flooring instead. It gave a thick hollowed crack on the impact.
Kyle slid his stance away from where the creature had plummeted, mere inches away from where the claws had sunk in, Kyle could feel the bristle of its body along his side, the rush of its breath as it howled in surprise, and the stench, reeking of mildew and old trash.
Yellow eyes wide as the moment hung in the air, Kyle preparing to push himself off away from the attacking creature, as the monstrosity made to pry its claw loose for another attack.
Neither would get the chance however, as a fury of blue and pink ribbons, gleaming in the light as the lithe pokemon bore down over the dark form, and with sickening cracks and a howl of agony stuck down onto the back of the attacker with unforgiving savagery.
The form reeled up from the attack, towering up over the hunched form of the shocked human Rocket, and throwing its thin arms out as it cried in pain.
Ryan, who had been pulling up the book shelf suddenly jerked back with a shocked holler, acting as he was then suddenly aware of a massive monster pulled up to its greatest height, with Kyle and Roman standing among it.
Another crack from overhead, Kyle found himself just behind Roman as the pokemon landed on front of his human, ribbons splayed and cracking in defense.
One of them struck the white face of the creature.
The monster gave a lurch as the white piece was flung from its face and for a shocked moment the monster just hung there.
So... It did have a face, and Kyle was getting a full view of it. Though he wasn’t so sure that knowing that was anymore of a comfort.
No… No, with this mutated thing now staring at him, Kyle felt that he much preferred the white faceless mask.
The skin over its flesh was raw and scarred, one of the eyes was bulging, as if sustained serious injury to the eye socket, leaving it completely un-guarded.
it teeth poked out at horrifying angles, its nose nearly burned completely away leaving the creature in what Kyle had to guess was a very painful deformity, or injury
The creature itself seemed to be just as horrified by this sudden display of its face, because as Kyle only got a second to stare into the monstrosity, just as quickly a claw came up to guard it, and with a panicked jerk slammed its body into the ground where it could finish prying out its claw.
As it did so, the ground suddenly buckled, Kyle, Roman and Ryan all looked down for only a split second, before a crunching noise, and a violent lurch, caused the ground to give way, and they fell.
