Facing danger head on

[Red]

Most people would probably not consider it a good idea, walking into a place like Stormcross Castle with only a torchic and her meganium daemon for company, but then, Elizabeth Joy had never been much of one for making the safe and easy choice. The pink haired woman whistled as she looked up at the massive stone walls. "God, this place must have been fantastic before it was abandoned" She said. She'd always loved old places.

~Are you sure this is a good idea?~ Seraphina asked Rhys as their human went to push open the doors. "No" The daemon replied "But we're going to do it anyway" He moved to follow his human half as she finished pushing the heavy door open enough for them to slip inside. Sera paused a moment, and then quickly hurried after them.

"Wow, look at this place" The door had opened onto a what must have once been a grand hall. Now the place was clearly abandoned, ancient stone tables whose accompanying chairs had rotted away centuries ago, empty spaces on the walls which must have once held great tapestries. Light poured in through windows which had crumbling edges, dust playing in the beams. "Up or out?" The woman's blue eyes turned to her daemon and her partner. "Out" ~Out~ They answered at the same time. Liz grinned "Out it is then"

The trio set off through one of the halls which came off the massive hall they had entered into, looking to see if they could find themselves a courtyard.

[Birdybot]

Light filtered into the dining hall through stained glass windows caked with dust. The odd pane was missing. In the hallway outside, the narrow windows on the side separating the castle from the outside world had never housed glass, being meant as arrow slits. On the other side, there were no windows at all, simply the odd door to rooms beyond. The lighting was dim here as the window slits did not allow much through. In most doorways leaned a rotten wooden door which would have been impressive and strong in its day. In many the doors had rotted away entirely, leaving yawning caverns to inky blackness. Despite the darkness being so pitch nothing could be seen beyond a few inches of the door frame, in some rooms there was an odd sense of movement, like seeing something move out of the corner of your eye only for there to be nothing in sight when you turn your head.

The hall echoed with every footstep. That courtyard did not appear to be coming up any time soon. There was a deathly silence across the building, every slight noise the small party made deafening in comparison to the crushing lack of sound. It was as if the castle was watching in anticipation, waiting in the quiet for something to happen. Yet there did not appear to be anything around. Stormcross was just a ruin, abandoned, empty.

A high pitched whining sound began without warning. There was still no sign of life. A moment after the whining, a breeze could be felt in the hall, stirring dust motes into whirling dances of gold specks under the shafts of sunshine from outside. The wind had picked up outside and was hissing as it forced itself through the narrow gaps of the windows, nothing more. Still, it added a sense of life to the castle that otherwise seemed to be dead and resting. The wind played at the doors to the dining hall, shifting the heavy things and battering them with abnormal ease for just a breeze to be capable of. The doors creaked as if they had given up on the very existence of oil and had resigned themselves to complaining quietly in the breeze to the empty halls. The wind threatened to close them.

There was another sound, besides the creaking and whistling of the wind and loud thud of footsteps, which were exaggerated by the echo. It was definitely there, but it was hard to tell exactly what it was. It was a sort of squeaking, but that could just be the hinges. Was it a whining? No, it was more like a groan. Whatever it was, it was just on the edge of hearing, in the range where it was questionable as to whether or not it was real. Just for a moment, the tattered rags hanging from faded gold sticks on the walls appeared to elongate into fully formed brightly coloured tapestries lit by warm orange candlelight, depicting knights and beasts alike. This happened in a fraction of a second so small it could have just been the imagination making things up.

[Red]

"Wow. Creepy" Liz tugged her jacket a bit closer around her as the trio of human, daemon and pokemon continued further into the castle. From her tone, Liz wasn't finding creepy to be a bad thing. In fact, if anything, she sounded like she was enjoying this. ~Is she always like this?~ Seraphina asked, looking at her trainer. "Unfortunately." Rhys replied dryly. "You'll learn to live with it". Elizabeth's occasional lack of a self-preservation instinct had been something that had been present all their lives and Rhys had always been the cautious one of the pair.

For a moment the world seemed to change around them. The light danced and became the warmth of candles, the empty spaces seemed for a moment to be filled with bright tapestries of ancient knights facing off against pokemon with their daemons at their sides. Then the moment was gone and the trio each dismissed it as simply their imaginations, not realising that the others had seen it too.

It might be her imagination, but Liz was certain she was hearing something, something that was more than just the sounds of a creaky falling apart ancient castle. A sound, a squeaking and groaning. Was something hurt up ahead? 'Come on" Liz urged Rhys and Sera, this way" She headed out in the direction of the sounds, listening closely to try and follow them, thoughts of a courtyard abandoned in favour of seeking out what created these sounds.

[Birdybot]

At first, the sound remained on the edge of hearing. This was the case for some time, as if whatever was making the noise was moving away from the trio. After a while, however, the sound developed into muffled and inaudible words. They sounded like simply a rising and falling sound, but it grew clear that who - or what - was speaking was speaking the words very rhythmically. Each syllable lasted exactly the same as the others down to surgical precision. It was not quite like chanting, since the pitch varied erratically.

The hallway was long. The castle was large, true, but it seemed odd anyone would design a hallway to be so extensive. The door to the dining hall was small now, but the end was in sight. This end was a wall much like the others, bare crumbling stones which looked only marginally stable. Effort had been made by humans to preserve the castle as a historic monument, and unlike most other castles in the world it had not been demolished in any wars. Even so, it was a wonder it was in as good a condition as it was. The large stones looked less organised than the cut and shaped ones lining the rest of the hall. The window slits stopped a little bit before the end wall, casting it in shadow. A musty, damp smell lingered around it. Within this wall was a door. Far less impressive than the door to the dining hall on the opposite side, it consisted of some identifiable wood decaying quietly in a frame, swollen with age and the damp to lock itself into its stone frame.

The chant-like voice was clearly located behind this door. It was muffled, but not inaudible any more, not that this helped understand the words. Whatever language it was, it was harsh and cruel, as if speaking of horrors too terrible for words fashioned by mortals to describe. A faint whimpering sound could just be made out at close proximity to the door. The chanting increased in volume and lowered steadily in pitch, the whimpering also increasing in volume. The sobbing sound was desperate. A loud screech filled the air, either not quite human or a human so tortured they had lost all idea of humanity. The chanting did not waver.

[Red]

Liz swiftly became terribly lost as they raced through the hallways and corridors, Rhys and Seraphina dogging her steps, her daemon and her torchic both following her closely as she ran heedlessly towards the sound. It was obvious now, no longer possible to dismiss as anything other than what it was. They couldn't yet make out the words, but it was clear that they were indeed words. As Liz started running harder, Rhys reached out and swept Seraphina up with his vines, pulling her steady as she lost her footing scrambling around a corner.

They came to a door. Large and old and clearly not going to mvoe easily. Liz tried to the handle anyway, hoping, and then, when it didn't move. She threw her shoulder against it, despite knowing that there was no way her realtively slight figure could move the ancient door.

As a sound which could only be described as screaming started up, Elizabeth gestured to Rhys. A typical meganium stood just shy of six feet tall and weighed just over one hundred kilograms. Rhys, being significantly larger than a standard meganium, weighed more. With a snort, he threw his weight against the door, the daemon intending to force it open so that they could stop what ever was happening within.

[Birdybot]

It was a wonder the wood did not splinter and buckle under Rhys' huge force. It gave suddenly, smacking the wall as it swung open on its hinges at high speed. As soon as the door opened, a stifling silence fell. The room was pitch black. No windows were within, and light from the corridor only touched a small area around the entrance. Once the group's eyes adjusted, they would be able to see a dim and dusty room, the stone floor worn by countless feet. The edges of the room were too dark to see so there was no telling how large it was. No movement could be seen apart from a thin trickle of dust stirred in what could have been the centre of the room, as though something had been in here recently. The rest of the dust around that spot was untouched.

Lifelessness returned to the castle, but there was no mistaking the screams and chanting for what they were. Something was here. But where was it now? There was no sound of anything stirring in the shadows. The temperature did seem to drop a little, but that could just be the imagination interpreting the situation in some strange way. Or the draft that seemed to be coming from somewhere in the room. If it was a draft. There was a path where the dust was thinned, carved out by what felt just like a thin breeze escaping from some crack low down - like the one between a door and the floor. There was no light creeping into the room to indicate such a thing. A thin sigh started as the draft blew stronger. It was somewhat suspicious as to why there was dust there in the first place - dust was bits of dead skin and the like, wasn't it? There weren't any people around to make dust, so how did it get here? From the direction of the draft, a thin shaft of light was cast on the ground, barely noticeable. Perhaps it had just appeared. Perhaps it had been there all along. It was strangely inviting, as if asking the group to go and investigate.

[Red]

The door gave way under the force of Rhys's weight. The meganium staggered slight, Liz instantly at his side, one hand stroking down the long neck of her daemon as they entered the dark room. It took time for their eyes to adjust, but once they did, all they saw was an empty room, layered thickly with dust.

"What the..." The pink haired woman looked around herself, confused. The chanting and the screams had definitely come from this room. She tugged her jacket closer to herself, feeling suddenly cold. Seraphina puffed herself up, fluffing her feathers. As a fire type, she wasn't feeling the cold, her own internal warm burning more then bright enough to keep her warm. But still, there was something indefinably creepy about this place.

There was a path through the dust, Rhys leaning down to examine it, the meganium daemon's long feelers shivering with agitation. "I don't like this" He said, voice echoing in the empty chamber. ~This place is creepy~ Seraphina said, puffing hot air at the dirt and watching it swirl upward a moment before falling back to the floor.

"Come on" Liz called to the pair, already starting to follow the path through the dust. There was a tiny bit of light, showing a way through the darkness. Had it always been there? The group wasn't sure. Quickly Rhys caught up with his human, Seraphina hurry to walk alongside the trainer.

"Hello?" Th woman called out, hearing another sighing sound "Anyone out there? I promise, we're not here to hurt you"

[Birdybot]

All remained quiet when faced with the voices of Rhys, Seraphina and Liz. Why shouldn't it? After all, nothing malicious was likely to reply when asked if it was there. At least, nothing that was hiding like this. At first the only response was the door behind the group creaking shut, leaving them in total darkness aside from the thin shaft of light on the ground a couple of feet away. As it was now the only light, it seemed much brighter. The base of a door identical to the one they had just stepped through could just be made out. As could a pair of angular red eyes.

A response came now that her prey was safely trapped. "You might not be here to hurt me, but who's to say the same is true of me?" the owner of the eyes spoke with amusement in her voice. The eyes neared the group slowly, biding their time. She liked to draw things out. "Now, what to do with you? You've got some guts coming in here with such a weak Pokémon. New, are we? Easy prey. Shame. I like to win, but I do like some resistance," a low chuckle fought its way into being, harsh and cruel.

The door with the light underneath shook. The eyes' focus left the trio and turned on it, narrowing as a thin growl escaped their owner. "Gengar, I won't let you do this. They have done nothing wrong," a notably human voice called from the other side of the door. The door shook harder. Gengar, as the voice had addressed the eyes, remained still and silent, all her efforts on the fight over the door. Finally a victor emerged. Gengar let out a deep breath as the door swung open reluctantly. A man stood in the doorway, bathed in light from a corridor which ran alongside a courtyard as Liz had been searching for earlier. He was dressed in a torn cloth shirt and trousers, his hair messy and brown, eyes a piercing blue. A trickle of blood ran down the right side of his face. The knuckles of his hands resting on the hilt of a dull sword were rubbed raw. Even all this was of less note than the fact that he was entirely semi-transparent. "Run!" he shouted a simple command at the trio as he launched himself at Gengar, now illuminated with the light flooding the room. She wasted no time in retaliating, twisting to try and get herself close to the trio anyway.