Chapter 18: Oooh! Foreshadowing

The sun was an orange disk over the ocean as they set off towards the sound of distant music, past the ever-present black and orange decorations that nearly every home in Lavender wore. As the cemetery drew nearer, the Victorian style street lamps flickered to life, some sending up short bursts of blue sparks and startling a few jumpy tourists.

When they reached the town square, where the light purple cobblestones rose up towards the mountains, the Tower became an omnipresent beacon. It rose five stories above the road, just to one side of Route 10 with the mountains at its back where the lights from the mining camp gleamed like malevolent eyes in the darkness.

Though the Tower was an eerie place at the best of times, its residence had somehow made it more so with the approach of Halloween. At the top of the Tower, a constant ring of ghosts danced around it like a dark halo before slowly descending part way down where several of the ghosts would either flee into the tower, or disperse into the night only to be replaced a new batch of eager specters looking to continue the blatant display. As the now wailing band of dark shapes spun about in their strange game, eerie lights flickered to life in many of the windows. They alternated colours from an unpleasant sickly green to hot pink, and were accompanied by the occasional scream or burst of baleful laughter.

Misty shivered and held Miranda's hand a little tighter as the incoherent sound of the festival's music became clearer, and she could make out the aging brickwork of the Tower. With morbid fascination she watched as it grew nearer as they ascended, not daring to ask where the strange array of what appeared to be bleached white bones came from that suddenly shot out a West-facing window accompanied by an ear-splitting belch that rattled the Tower's other windows.

"They're just showing off," assured Miranda, squeezing Misty's hand reassuringly, as the bones pelted a crowd of all too curious tourists, "They get like this every year."

Misty nodded, now noticing as the huge wooden double doors began to rattle in response to the blinding white light that shined just beyond them and streamed out through the cracks.

"Believe it or not," Miranda continued as they made a sharp left and Misty's gaze fell upon the more reassuring sight of the festival grounds, "They're usually pretty quiet the rest of the year. Especially in April, that's when the mana level's at its lowest and they tend to sleep a whole lot."

"I see," replied Misty, trying not to think about the Tower too much, but finding that the excited tone in Miranda's voice made it and its ghosts somehow less threatening. Infact, the entire festival seemed to be trying to make the Tower and the ghosts more of a tourist attraction than anything else.

As promised, the unoccupied areas of well-groomed grass between the rows wide causeways of hard packed earth were decorated with papier-m∞ch≠ tombstones and a few of the concession stands looked like mausoleums and crypts. Those same stands sold the obligatory over-priced festival food, consisting mostly of fast food with Halloween themed names. Misty was afraid to ask about the allegedly vat grown hamburgers at one place called "The Darkened Kitchen". She especially didn't want to know what went into their secret sauce, known only as "BTX101".

Beyond the concessions and hoard of tourists there were a gaming booths, run by the usual band of shifty characters who seemed more intent on taking people's money than handing out the prizes they'd all inherited from their grandparents in order to lure the gullible. Most of the games they had set up were of the usual sort, except that the proprietors had changed them to be more in theme. Some were simple, and almost laughable, like the game where the object was to knock over a set of glass bottles. Only the owner of the booth had filled them with a clear liquid in which floated a small handful of eyes. But even Miranda had to admit that the game where festivalgoers were challenged to test their strength was a bit tacky. When the contestant smashed down the enormous mallet, the small round ball traveled up a hastily constructed replica of the Tower. At the top, instead of a bell, they had placed a replica of a gastly. One the one occasion that someone did manage to thwack the small round orb all the way to the top, though, the gastly let out a blood curdling scream and its eyes lit up.

"This was a lot better when I was kid," Miranda sighed, leading Misty down another path that lead through and area populated small carnival rides, "We didn't used to get as many outsiders setting up shop here... I mean, this isn't supposed to be about making money, it's supposed to be about having fun, right?"

"Almost every holiday gets commercialized to-" Misty stopped herself from saying it and quickly pointed to a large open area with a stage, "Hey, look at that!"

Miranda smiled as she noticed the small platform that passed for a stage where most of the more interesting events often took place. Upon it was a band of actors playing out some story that seemed to involve the use of a lot of jack o lanterns.

"That takes me back," Miranda laughed as they joined the crowd of mostly out of town children watching the play, "We did this in school one year."

"What is it?" Misty inquired as a man dressed as an old decrepit farmer staggered merrily away from a group of angry looking people in dark cloaks and masks that made their faces seem twisted and horrible.

"Ever wonder why we carve pumpkins?" whispered Miranda as the aged farmer hovelled about the stage; appearing to be turned away at every door he came to.

"Not really," Misty confessed, glancing at the closest collection of jack-o- lanterns and noticing a 1st prize ribbon on one of the more twisted looking ones.

Miranda smiled as a huge papier-m∞ch≠ pumpkin was brought up onto the stage and the old farmer, whose name was apparently Jack began to rejoice before pulling out a huge knife and making broad sweeping motions at it in a dramatic fashion.

"Oh, it involves this rather unsavory farmer treeing some dark malevolent spirit," the courier explained quickly, keeping her voice low as several children applauded as prearranged sections of the fake pumpkin fell away until it looked like a jack-o-lantern, "He made a deal with it in exchange for helping it out of the tree that he'd never be allowed into-"

"Treed?" interrupted Misty as half the children cheered and the other half cringed, "How do you get a dark malevolent spirit stuck up a tree, exactly?"

"Well," confessed Miranda as the play ended and all the actors and actresses came out on stage, "That part's a little vague. But anyway, Jack wasn't a nice guy, so when he died, he couldn't get into Heaven. But, because of the deal he made, he wasn't allowed anywhere else either. So he wound up wandering the land being turned away from every door he came to until he found a place to live."

"A pumpkin."

"Well, err, yeah... Kinda."

"Lavender Town's a strange place, Miri," Misty replied with a warm smile as Miranda cast her a helpless look, "But I think I could get used to it."

"Well, you can't expect much from a kid's fairytale," the courier confessed with a shrug, "And besides, our teacher wouldn't let us do MacBeth."

"Too much for kids to handle, I guess."

"I suppose."

"But making them afraid of lit-up pumpkin carvings is all right though?" Misty teased as the stage was cleared and people started setting up folding chairs before it.

"Hey," Miranda laughed, "we're Lav'Brats, remember? We're not afraid of anything. Or at least that's what we like to tell people..."

Misty smiled. "I'll try to keep that in mind," she promised as the workers started jabbing tall torches into the ground and lighting them in response to the gathering darkness, assembling a double parallel row with the chairs between them.

"So I guess this is where your Aunt's doing her thing tonight?" commented Misty as they grabbed a pair of seats in the third row, watching idly as the two people who'd set up the torches hurriedly joined those clearing the stage.

Miranda nodded. "Yeah, being so near the Tower always kinda adds to the ambiance," she replied, feeling suddenly guilty as Misty's fingers clenched, cutting off her circulation.

Misty let out a stifled exclamation, leaning forward and looking past Miranda and shuddering as she saw just how close they were to the Tower. "S-sorry," the courier stammered, desperately searching for the right words.

"It's okay," Misty replied, her tone quiet as she stared in disbelief at the dark, imposing pillar that was now only a hundred yards or so away. Far above her, the ghosts had ceased their screeching and had vanished, but as she looked up into he sky above the Tower, dark clouds moved in from seemingly nowhere, turning the sky into a swirling mass of dark gray.

"I guess when you live here you just kinda ignore it," said Miranda, trying to sound reassuring as she slipped her arm around Misty's shoulders, "it doesn't really do anything to anyone. If you ignore it, the chances are it'll ignore you."

"That's true," Misty sighed, leaning against her beloved and feeling a familiar sense of dread as she pried her eyes away from the haunted structure, thankful that Miranda was so close by.

"Hey," laughed a familiar voice that made them both jump in their seats, "It's just a dilapidated old building. Heck, if it weren't for the ghosts, it'd probably collapse under its own weight!"

The two immediately looked behind them and saw Zack, accompanied by a short, muscular woman with almost the same shade of flaming red hair as him. The pair were walking down the aisle created by the double blocks of chairs that had been set up, and now stopped as they spotted Misty and Miranda.

"Hey, Zack," Miranda replied with a smile, glancing at his companion with a reverent nod, "Hi, Angela. Nice to see you made it back into town."

The woman smiled back, her grin seeming somehow less mischievous than Zack's, who was now taking advantage of the their substantial difference in height by leaning upon her broad shoulder. As he did so, she glanced up at him and shook her head, revealing the long, waist-length braid she'd tied her hair into.

"Yeah, I heard my son was causing trouble again, so I thought I'd head back early," said Angela, her tone sounding more amused than disapproving, with a bit of an accent that was hard to place.

"Who, me?" Zack inquired innocently, looking down at his mother with a shocked look that made the others laugh, "I'll have you know that I've been here all week and I haven't been arrested yet-"

"The night is still young," Miranda replied slyly, causing Angela to nod in agreement.

"And I haven't broken anything!" added Zack.

"Does teaching Joy's blissy to self-destruct count?" inquired Misty, happy for the distraction.

"I- I-!" stammered Zack as his mother glowered at him and more people began arriving, taking whatever seats were available, "Oh, look! It's Joshua! Hey, Joshua, over here!"

His mother blushed and tried to compose herself as the elder courier hovelled down the aisle, arm and arm with a short, slender woman who seemed to be near his age, but in much better condition.

"Angela had a crush on him when she was a kid," Miranda whispered to Misty as Joshua and his wife came closer and nodded respectfully to the couple, "It's what made her join the Couriers."

"Gee," giggled Misty, pressing her lips close Miranda's ear, "And here I thought he was kidding about being married."

Miranda shook her head, a look of respectful reverence gleaming in her eye as Joshua and his wife took a seat just behind them. Although he was still wearing his tattered traveling clothes and wide brimmed hat, he'd removed his long leather duster and had draped it about the woman's shoulders. His wife smiled at Miranda and Misty, somehow making the oversized coat with the Courier Crew badge on its shoulder not seem too out of place with her long dark blue dress and artfully styled silvery hair.

"Joshua never lies," Miranda replied as Zack and his mother quickly grabbed the seats next to them as several other couriers descended on the area, taking the best seats possible.

"That's right," the man replied, his left arm going protectively about his wife's shoulders as Zack poked his mom in the ribs teasingly, "I just exaggerate from time to time."

Misty laughed at the comment, finding the imposing courier less intimidating the more she saw of him. "Aren't you a bit chilly, though?" she inquired as a cold wind blew down from the mountains and sent Joshua's thinning hair billowing out behind him.

"Naw," the old courier replied with a shake of his head and a shrug, "I recon the grave'll be colder than this. So I might as well get used to it now. Besides, I've had worse. Why I recall this one Winter. There I was, three days outside of-"

"I've already heard this story."

"Oh, so sorry," said Joshua, lowering the brim of his hat and smiling toothily, "I forgot."

"I think we've all heard that story," his wife Nancy chuckled, her quiet voice sounding as carefree as her husband's seemed world-weary. "Ah! But I see that the rumors are true!"

Misty felt suddenly self-conscious as the woman glanced down at the lapel of her jacket to where she'd proudly pinned the badge she'd won from Laurna. "I'm sure there's a new story behind that," the woman continued, glancing up at Joshua teasingly, "Alas, my husband's are getting a little stale."

Joshua shrugged as Misty laughed, amused to see the look of sudden embarrassment on the old courier's face. "Now, now," he said, patting her hand and meeting her gaze with a look of dismay, "It's not my fault that the most of the adventure in the world's all but dried up. What with all these new routes and that blasted suspension bridge from Fuchsia-!"

His wife only laughed, even as Joshua's face became red and his remaining eye blazed with annoyance. "Well I think you've brought home quite enough evil little critters," she assured him, "And I know that I don't want anymore of you being bitten, freezing or otherwise falling off! It's bad enough you almost died the first time we met, and so help me, Joshua, you're not leaving me alone in this town for the rest of my life!"

"Yes, dear..." the man mumbled looking downcast for a moment as everyone else tried not to laugh, especially Nancy, "Oh, look! That Laurna kid's about to start the show!"

Miranda had to laugh as she turned towards the stage again. Though her Aunt Laurna was in her early forties, Joshua pretty thought of anyone younger than him as still being wet behind the ears.

The small, unimposing woman stepped onto the stage with the spring in her step that she'd adopted since Frank's return to Lavender. As promised, she was once again wearing the long black and silver dress she'd worn at the challenge, and again she wore a silver chain with the pyramid/pentagram emblem on it.

Just behind her, someone had put up a set of dark purple curtains, hiding the view of the mountains behind the stage, making certain that all eyes were focused on the politely smiling poke'prof.

"Hello, everyone," said Laurna in a quiet tone that somehow echoed loud enough for all to ear, "and welcome to the fifteenth annual Lavender Town Halloween Festival."

She smiled as the large block of couriers near the foot of the stage all cheered, called out her name or generally made fools of themselves. "So nice to have a fan club," the professor sighed, her silver earrings swaying as she shook her head in bemused dismay, "But for those of you from out of town who don't know me, my name's Professor Laurna Wyght. Although you've probably all met at least one of us poke'profs in your lives, I'm currently the only one who takes ecto-parazoology seriously."

A murmur came up from the crowd as most of the couriers whispered comments and Misty heard Zack mutter, "Stupid tourists."

"Now," Professor Laurna continued undaunted, "how many of you out-of-towners believe in ghosts?"

There was a chuckle from the crowd as only about half the tourists raised their hands. Misty glanced over her shoulder and began to raise her own, only to have Miranda stop her. "You're family," she whispered, causing the trainer to smile happily.

Laurna nodded thoughtfully. "I see," she said, pushing her glasses back up her nose melodramatically, causing them to shimmer in the flickering torchlight, "Now, how many of you believe that ghost-types are just sentient balls of gas? Kinda like a grimer or muk is just a sentient puddle of ooze?"

Only a few hands went down and Laurna smiled toothily, her magenta eyes gleaming with amusement.

"Well," she told them with a degree of satisfaction, "I suppose I'm going to have to give you all a quick education before we begin, for the tale I'm about to tell you involves ghosts. And if you're going to believe my story, you're going to have to believe in them. For they are real, and they are NOT just a strange freak of nature. Believe it or not, ghost-types are indeed the souls of departed pokemon, and you'd be wise to respect that."

Laurna ignored the murmuring of the crowd and the shouts from the back, some demanding proof as others simply heckled. Instead, she raised her small hand and snapped her fingers, the sound carrying much farther and sounding much louder than seemed possible.

Instantly, three ghosts appeared around her, and causing several people to scream as others broke into conversation. "They're just ghosts," muttered Zack, and even Misty had to agree that Laurna's trio weren't that bad.

"Say hello, everyone," laughed Laurna as the spectral trio circled above her head before turning their attention towards the crowd and receiving a few more quieted screams as several people ran off, "To Nightfall, Nox, and of course, Viper!"

As the ecto-parazoologist spoke their names, the three ghosts floated down and hovered near Laurna's feet. "Now then," said Laurna in a more serious tone, her fingers running idly through Viper's ephemera, causing him to make a contented hissing sound, "My gengar Viper is proof of the facts. I received him from my mentor Professor Joyce of Neon Town when I was apprenticing under her. Viper was an ekans then. A very loyal, and very beautiful serpent whom I loved very much..."

As Laurna spoke, the three ghosts concentrated, and huge illusionary scene formed above her. It showed a much younger Laurna, receiving an, at the time, rather small purple scaled serpent. In the phantasmal picture, Viper was only about three feet long, having only hatched a few weeks previously, but the bond between them seemed to form almost instantly. The look in Laurna's eyes as she was handed the ekans caused most of the crowd to make approving sounds until the image of the girl hugging the serpent happily shifted to one that seemed to take place some time later.

"I had only been with Professor Joyce for a short while when it happened," Laurna explained, her tone reminding Misty of Vivian's as Miranda's fingers suddenly tightened their grip, "Viper sacrificed himself to save my life..."

The image had now changed to one that was difficult to see, having been formed from Laurna's own painful memories. It showed a dark, shadowy figure standing over Laurna in what appeared to be a small bedroom that made Misty's look spacious by comparison. As the dark figure neared, and Laurna's image screamed silently, a huge serpent reared up behind him, and without hesitation, sank his fangs into the attacker's shoulder as his long, thick tail wrapped around the human.

"Viper fought valiantly for me," continued Laurna as the crowd's absolute silence was broken only by the distant sounds of the rest of the festival and the image of Viper rolling around on the floor with Laurna's would be attacker changed to one where the man now had his hands around Viper's throat, "But in the end, he was strangled to death... Not before his venom killed the man who tried to hurt me, however."

Laurna paused, wiping her eyes on the sleeve of her dress and motioning for someone in the front row not to move. "As he died, though," she said after a moment, "I asked him to stay. To never leave me. Little did I know that he would."

The woman smiled sadly down at the gengar whose gleaming red eyes glanced up at her adoringly as the scene changed to one showing Lavender Town as it had been nearly thirty years ago. Then, as Laurna spoke, the scene shifted so that the Tower was the main focus until it filled most of the viewing area.

"A dear friend took myself and my sister to Lavender Town shortly after Viper's death," she continued as Miranda glanced at Misty and gave her a concerned look, "Once I arrived here, however, I started having dreams. Visions almost, of the Tower. I mentioned it to my predecessor Professor Samuel, but he wasn't as interested in the field of ecto-parazoology as I was. Infact, he warned me not to go into the Tower under any circumstances, and told me a story that I'd like to also share with you tonight. That, however, can wait."

The tension in the air settled a little as she smiled and a few people chuckled nervously. "But his warnings fell upon deaf ears. I was determined to retrieve Viper no matter what the cost. So, without telling anyone what I was doing, I went into the Tower one night to retrieve my dearest ekans."

The scene showed an image of Laurna, wielding a flashlight and carrying a heavy backpack of supplies as she entered the enormous double doors of the world's most haunted structure and vanished within.

"I, however, was lucky," Laurna told the expectant crowd as the image vanished and she smiled at their sudden disappointment, "I found a friend in the Tower. A gengar known only as 'The Guardian!'"

With that, a loud, piercing shriek filled the air, followed by what sounded like the wailing laughter of a thousand banshees. As most of the remaining crowd glanced up at the real Tower, witnessing the arrival of an enormous dark shape from one of the upper windows, Miranda leaned closer to Misty.

"That was new," she whispered, her stormy gray eyes tracking the descending shape as it formed into an unusually tall gengar and floated towards her Aunt.

"What was?" inquired Misty as Laurna spread her arms wide, smiling happily as the ghost that was nearly as tall as she was, floated into her arms and gave her a hug.

"Aunt Laurna's never had them show that image of Viper's death before," Miranda explained pensively, "She's also never really mentioned how he died, either. But it meshes with some of what I read in my father's diary."

Misty glanced over at the courier with an alarmed look. "Should we be concerned?" she inquired worriedly, "Um, I mean, that's some pretty personal stuff she's revealing to the general public."

Miranda glanced at her Aunt, smiling sadly as she saw the look of joy in the woman's eyes as Laurna exchanged a few quick words with the Guardian. "It's her decision, I suppose. But at least she didn't give the whole story."

She glanced back at Misty with a sudden sadness reflecting in her eyes and quickly gave her beloved an embrace that was meant more to reassure herself than anything else. "That man was her stepfather," Miranda explained, causing Misty to curse under her breath and hold Miranda a little closer, "That's what made my father so angry. It's what made him take my mother and aunt away. Their mother actually wanted to press charges against Laurna because of what Viper did, irregardless of what her husband tried to do."

Misty clung to Miranda shaking as several conflicting emotions fought for dominance inside her. She wanted to cry, run up on stage and hug Laurna, cheer for Viper, and pummel the woman's long dead stepfather into dust at the same time.

"Now I know," Misty managed, her eyes burning with tears as she buried her face in Miranda's hair and breathed in her beloved's reassuring scent, "Now I know why you love your father so much."

Miranda nodded slowly, running her fingers through Misty's hair reassuringly as she glanced back at the stage. "He barely knew my mom and Aunt Laurna back then," she whispered, "but he said that he loved my mother the first time that he saw her. And when he got the call from Laurna, he rushed right over and drove them out of town that very night. He didn't even stop until he was back here. He said in his diary that it was the only way he could stop himself from going after their mother. My father wasn't a violent man, but that night, he knew he had to take them away or do something he'd regret for the rest of his life."

"He's still a hero in my eyes," Misty replied, moving back and smiling sadly as she gave Miranda a gentle kiss, "Your mother is a very lucky woman, and so am I."

Miranda closed her eyes and sighed contentedly, smiling happily as Misty rested her head upon her shoulder, holding her hand as they watched the rest of the show. "He saved them, and you saved me," she heard Misty whisper after a moment, causing Miranda to squeeze her hand, "And I thank you. I thank you both, because if not for your Father, I would never have met you..."

Upon the stage, Laurna's ghosts were now weaving a new set of illusions. Overhead, the mostly spherical shape showed an area that looked only vaguely familiar. A small village sat near the foot of the Lavender Mountains, surrounded by a dense forest. It appeared to be a small mining town with a narrow trail that lead down to a rather hastily constructed wharf. It was obviously Lavender Town, only hundreds of years ago.

"When our ancestors came here," Laurna was now saying, "There was no Lavender Tower. However, the two ley-lines that intersect here did exist. The souls of departed pokemon, still clinging to this world came here even then. However, there was no Tower, so they simply inhabited what we still call the Haunted Woods.

"This lead to problems when the miners and fishermen started to clear the land of its trees. The ghosts were NOT happy about loosing their only home to say the least, and many people died as a result. So when word of this area spread, it caught the attention of a man named Professor Spengler."

The scene shifted so that more of the forest had been cleared, revealing the desiccated looking corpses of those foolish enough to try to destroy the ghost's only home before shifting to an image of a rapidash drawn cart.

The equine seemed nervous and very displeased as trotted along, snorting small flames from its nostrils as it's master drove it onward, down the winding path that now ran West and would one day be know as Route 8.

The man urging it on was surprisingly tall for his time, with short dark hair and small round spectacles on the end of his thin nose. As the Guardian added to the illusion, the audience could hear the sounds of the pokemon's hooves literally grinding the stones along the path to dust beneath its hooves as it reluctantly pulled the wagon. They could hear its displeased snorts as its fiery red eyes gleamed with primal fear in the growing darkness. But they could also hear the man's quiet, reassuring words as he urged the steed on. Promising the equine that no harm would come to him, that soon their journey would be over.

"Professor Spengler was a something of an anomaly at the time," came the now happy sound of Laurna's voice as she continued to narrate, "five hundred years ago, pokemon had very few rights, and most people treated them as tools and weapons instead of as friends. But Spengler was different; he loved them and never mistreated his small menagerie.

"He came here not only to study the ghosts, but also to fight for their rights. He even brought his wife and three children with him, and was determined to settle here and teach our ancestors to respect pokemon. Deceased or otherwise."

There was a chuckle from the crowd as the scene shifted again to one a few months later. It showed a more organized looking village with several dozen people laboring over what appeared to be some kind of structure.

"The professor started out, by commissioning the construction of what would one day be the Lavender Tower. He had a substantial amount of silver saved up, and paid the workers well. But it was his promise to deal with the ghosts in a way that wouldn't endanger human lives that made them all work so hard.

"Then, in less than six months, the Tower was completed, and Spengler and his family moved in to what was to be their home as well as the professors laboratory."

The crowd oohed and ahhed as they were shown the Tower as it once had been. A tall, proud, pristine structure that seemed friendly and not at all ominous. They were also greatly pleased to receive tantalizing glimpses of the interior, including the enormous play room Spengler built for his children, and the science facilities he put together in the basement.

"That was when the a nameless gastly came to professor Spengler," explained Laurna, smiling over at the tall gengar who looked away almost shyly, "and claimed to represent the forest ghosts. He demanded that the humans move on or be destroyed by the ghosts who greatly outnumbered them."