Pedestal: Chapter 36

“Le-Let me go!”

“Shinx! Shinx!”

“Dusk?”

Ike and I both froze when another Pokemon suddenly appeared right next to my head. All I could see is a similar-looking red eye, shifting lazily between two otherwise empty eye sockets in a skull. I wheezed mutely, too scared to even scream properly.

“Clops!” rumbled the thing holding me.

“Duskull, skull,” the thing beside me--it was floating, and the name Duskull rang a bell as well--said in a high, amused voice. My captor growled and set the top of its mouth (or what I assume was its mouth, though it looked kind of more like a mustache) on the top of my head. I wheezed again, and this time, Ike joined in with a screech. The Duskull beside me screeched in response, floating back away, glaring suspiciously at Ike, apparently just noticing him.

“Dussss…”

“Duskull!”

“Dussss…!” It tightened its hold on me to the point of pain. I grit my teeth and tried not to cry out as to try to avoid their attention for just a little bit longer.

“Duskull dusk!”

“Clops!” It tightened its fingers again and this time, I couldn’t help but bite back a scream. It hurt. My shoulder was already messed up, and I didn’t need this creature crushing me to remind me of that. Unfortunately, the noise drew both Pokemon’s attentions back towards me. Ike ducked down in my shirt, growling threateningly as he peeked out.

“Dusk,” the Duskull said softly, hovering over my uninjured shoulder, glaring at the thing holding me. What was going on between these two?! And why couldn’t they do it without squishing me?

“…Fine, you win,” the Pokemon(? Pokemon don’t talk in English though!) holding me said, sighing in defeat. I wheezed some more in fright. The maybe-Pokemon took its mouth off of me and set me gently back down on the stone, where I promptly sunk to my knees and continued wheezing weakly.

“Are you okay?” the thing above me asked. The Duskull floated down towards me worriedly, shaking. From what, I didn’t know, nor did I care to find out.

“NoI’mnot,” I snapped. “Wh-Why are you speaking?!”

“Hau hau hau! Haunter, haaaauuuuun?” All coherencies once again went out the window as another ghost sidled up to our little group. I highly doubted Ike could get any more fluffed up, but he was trying, apparently. I simply bent over, covering the back of my head with my good hand, and hoped dearly that they all left.

“Dusclops!”

“Duskull, skull-duss!”

“Haunter, haun?”

“Duskull!”

“Hau hau hau!”

It was becoming rapidly obvious that they weren’t going to leave. So instead I shifted until I could move better, and began crawling out while they argued above me.

That only lasted about two steps before I was hauled into the air by a purple hand and was held in front of the Haunter’s jagged grin. “Haunter!”

Ike couldn’t run on his hurt paw, otherwise I would’ve tossed him and told him to head for the hills (and hopefully help).

“Dusclops!” I was pulled in another direction by the largest of the three ghosts and set gently back down on the ground, where I collapsed and wheezed again. “Stay behind me. We’ll take care of the Haunter.”

“Wh-Why are you t-talking to me.” Still, I followed the orders and skittered around to the other side of the Dusclops. “Ike, do you know anything about this?” I whispered, hoping they wouldn’t hear as they continued arguing. Ike shook his head, ears still pinned to the back of his skull.

Things just got better when a pair of Gastly floated on over and decided to pick on us as well. Ike finally managed to wiggle out of my shirt and stood valiantly on my knee, snarling at them both. They laughed and stuck out their tongues at him. He took a swipe at them, but predictably, his paw went right through them and they laughed even harder.

One of them floated closer, glaring down at Ike with wide eyes and an even wider smile. It did something with its eyes, and suddenly, my Shinx fell onto my lap, asleep. “I-Ike!” I shouted in a voice much higher than I would have otherwise liked.

“Dusclops!” Above me, the Dusclops turned around and swung at the two Gastly. It missed, but the pair fled, giggling nervously. I was picked up again. The Duskull hastily flew over. “Dussss!”

“Duskull!”

“What’s going on?!” I demanded shrilly. Wild Pokemon often attacked me without warning or provocation, I got that. But this was the first time they’d argued about doing so.

“You smell like cold ghost. It’s very rude to steal someone else’s target.”

“…What.” The Froslass wasn’t even here and she was spiting me?!

The Dusclops’ one eye flicked down towards me. “…That, and the fact that Katerina wants to speak to you.”

“Who is that? And why are you talking to me?!”

“How else am I supposed to get children’s attention?” the Dusclops asked dryly, smacking the Haunter that had floated back over out of the air like one would a fly. It then turned and lumbered deeper into the fog, the Duskull following us mutely.

“Um.”

“I am Ivan and this is Konstantin. I am the chief of the Duskull and Dusclops in this area.”

“I am just a trainer, and I was looking for a place out of the rain--”

“Obviously.”

“We’re injured, and I can’t find my other two Pokemon--”

“Again, I can see as much.”

“…You’re a very snippy ghost,” I told him shrewdly.

“I can give you back to the Haunter, if you’d like.”

I crossed my arms beneath my sleeping Shinx and let myself be carried as far as he wanted. I couldn’t do anything, anyway. It was obviously just my time to go. I had dodged death from the Froslass several times, the Abomasnow, Ike, and most recently, my first would-be human murderer. Now I was simply to die, probably eaten by these ghosts in this forsaken place, lost, cold, injured, and I’d never find Des or Carlita…

I was dropped in front of another room’s middle pillar. I didn’t bother getting back up. “So are you all going to eat me?” I asked sullenly.

Ivan laughed, but it was not a pleasant or happy laugh. “That had been the plan, until Kostya pointed out that Katerina has been looking for trainers.”

I gulped. So I was going to be fed to this Katerina? Was that another ghost, or something even worse? If I had Ike’s ultra ball, I could at least return him, or if he was awake, he could do something… But it seemed as if we were both toast in this situation. Ghost food. (It wouldn’t be for the ghost I would have guessed, though. Irony.)

“Here is Katerina. You may ask her any more questions if you feel them necessary,” the Dusclops beside me rumbled, bowing to the whiteness. I turned and saw the smallest, weakest, greyest Duskull ever float through the fog, followed by another Dusclops, one that seemed to be even larger than Ivan. What really struck me as odd, however, was that the Duskull’s red eye wasn’t red; it was grey, switching sightlessly between eye sockets.

So an old, blind Duskull was going to eat me. At least outside I could have died of pneumonia or something, and that would look so much better on an autopsy report. …If they ever found the body.

“Dussssssssskull?” Katerina rasped, her voice low and even older than how old she looked.

“Yes, this is the trainer. Trainer, this is Katerina and her aide, Vladimir. He will translate her words for you.”

“Why not you?”

“I am not her aide.”

I squinted at Ivan, trying to figure out if he was really going to ditch me after trying to eat me. Apparently so. He lumbered off and sat down when he was just a hazy silhouette, red eye fixed on Katerina.

“Dusssssssss?” My face was yanked rudely to the side as the ancient Duskull grabbed me. Her sightless eye continued roaming, but I still felt unnervingly like she was staring at me.

“Katerina asks if you came here for Giratina, like the others,” Vladimir dutifully translated, hands clasped behind his back.

The name rang a bell, but I couldn’t quite place it. Even if I had, I wasn’t here for anything. “No… I was dumped here.”

“Skull?”

“Clarify.”

“A man wanted to kill me, and he threw me off of the dock to try that. I… survived,” I replied, unable to help the bitterness that seeped into my words.

“Dusssssssskull, dussssssssss!” Katerina breathed, leaning forward until her skull touched mine. I flinched back instinctively from it. She giggled softly. “Skull?”

“First, Katerina proclaims that he was unable to kill you because you were meant to be here. Secondly, Katerina asks if you are afraid of ghosts,” Vladimir deadpanned, red eye swerving down to stare at me.

“Of course I’m scared! I’m scared out of my mind!” I snarled, trying to jerk free from the Duskull’s grasp, but to no avail. Her grip was like iron. So instead, I defended myself with my anger and words. “I’m lost, I’m injured, I’m cold, I’m surrounded by ghosts who have admitted that they want to eat me! Not to mention the fact that I’ve already been strung along and threatened by a Froslass for several months now!”

Katerina and the other Pokemon all stayed silent.

So I continued fuming and ranting. Maybe they’d actually feel sorry for me and snap my neck quickly. “Then there was that man, that stupid, awful man who tried to kill me! He’s probably carted Cossette off again by now, too! I can’t find Des or Carlita because of him, and Ike is hurt because of him! Plus, I just can’t seem to get a break, can I?! I’ve been attacked by Pokemon, lost more times than I can count, and beaten throughout this entire journey!”

I was glaring daggers at Vladimir the Dusclops, mostly because he seemed to be slightly amused by my continued outburst. What I did not see what Katerina’s sightless grey eye stop moving and fix itself on me.

“I could stand the rest, usually, because there are other people around to help, you know? But the second I get on my own, this happens! And it’s all that man’s fault! I hate him! He’s dumped me here to be devoured by ghosts and so no one will ever find the body! An-And it’s Froslass’ fault, because she couldn’t stop him, because he was too calm and just kept going on and on about that psychic of his, who could see the future and he probably used that to win! That stupid, stupid psychic Pokemon!” I realized that I really did hate him and that psychic Pokemon of his, the one that looked like a female Jacques.

The second thing I realized was that I suddenly understood the Froslass. She wanted to save her trainer before he became something like that man. I felt sympathetic and worried at the same time; how could I stop something like that?

The third thing I realized was that Katerina was laughing at me.