Chương 10: Strange Drawings and a Voice
An unknown amount of time passed by, though it felt like only a few hours at most.
Gunne's eyes gradually opened, still feeling a delightful warmth spread across his body. Smiling, he looked down to find the officer sound asleep, her soft body laying against him as she breathed softly.
As much as he would love to admire her cuteness in her sleep, they needed to find out what was going on and most importantly, how to get out of this mess.
Not to mention, leaving her alone just so she could get some extra sleep would be the worse decision imaginable; splitting up was seldom a good idea.
Gunne gently shook her shoulders, hearing a soft moan escape her lips as her eyes fluttered open enchantingly.
"Huh? HUH?!"
Upon seeing Gunne and realizing she had not only laid against him as she slept but also moaned just now, her body stiffened while her face blazed a crimson red.
Her eyes snapped wide open and feeling more awake than ever, she jumped backwards, shifting her face away in embarrassment.
Coughing awkwardly, Gunne stood from the ground. He looked at the officer with a tender look in his eyes, "We, uh, haven't really introduced ourselves yet... My name's Gunne Magni...."
Shyly, she refocused her gaze on him, whispering softly, "Gunne... Magni..."
"Y-Yeah..." Gunne stumbled over his words.
His heart was beating faster and he blinked his eyes in wonderment, 'Why am I getting so worked up over a girl whispering my name? I'm not falling for someone this quickly, right?'
"I'm Officer Jenny, but... you can just call me Jenny...." she said, averting her gaze as she bit her lips, twirling her hair around her fingers.
"Un... It's nice to meet you then, Jenny...."
The two continued quietly, until suddenly interrupted.
"Arf! Arrf!" Riolu barked out. He waved his tiny paws around in madness like a rabid dog as he scolded Gunne.
Gunne understood the obvious meaning behind his words.
They needed to get moving and find a way out of this damned place. Their budding romance could wait until then.
"Oh, yeah, Jenny. These are my partners: Riolu, Zubat, and Aron."
Jenny knelt down, petting them on the head. They cried out happily, a smile blossoming on her face.
"It's nice to meet the three of you, here's my partner."
She threw out a Poké Ball, a beam of light flashing as a small figure took form.
"Grrahf! Grraah!"
It was a canine with orange fur and black stripes, looking around curiously with its grey eyes.
"I only have one partner right now. His name is Growlithe and he's also a canine like your partner, Riolu. Hopefully, they can get along pretty well."
"My partners are very friendly; I'm sure they'll get along great!" Gunne quickly agreed, taking in Jenny's brilliant smile and caring nature.
Together, they started to explore the mansion, cautiously walking down an old violet carpet.
The surrounding walls were covered in a torn red wallpaper while the wooden trim of the walls was a stark brown.
Lining the walls were old portraits and family photos, primarily of a mother, father, and a young boy. In their photos, they wore fine clothing as expected of those who would live in a mansion.
Still, Gunne felt an uneasiness creep up his back with every step he took. It was like the lifeless eyes in the paintings were looking at him with penetrative gazes, following his every movement.
'They're just paintings,' he couldn't resist facepalming, 'I'm really this paranoid now, huh?'
Despite his paranoia, he certainly felt much safer now that they were away from that 'thing'.
Speaking of which, Gunne couldn't resist asking, "Back there, what was that 'thing' chasing us?"
Jenny sighed, her eyes half closed as she explained, "All I can say for sure is that it's a ghost type pokémon. A very strong one."
"A very strong one? And you're here alone... why exactly?"
"There have been many missing person reports lately and our information on the situation was... lacking. And there's also our current shortage of officers in the city, leaving us with very few options but to send me alone."
She let out a drawn sigh, before giving a tiny smile, "Well, it's not all so bad. If I hadn't been sent here, we wouldn't have met."
Gunne blushed, hurrying ahead as inspected all the surrounding doors; they were all locked and even stranger, their knobs didn't budge in the slightest.
Furthermore, despite the passing of time, the interiors in the mansion were in much better condition than any of the houses in the village. In fact, while dust coated the walls, itching at Gunne's nose and throat, the build up was nowhere near as bad as those houses either.
Gunne covered his mouth, coughing into a fit. "It's hard to say this place is in good condition, but compared to the rest of this village..."
He went on to talk about the ravaged corpse and asking of its connections on the missing persons reports.
"The corpse was so fallen apart and it had an old knife stabbed into it. I can't imagine it took place recently..."
Jenny took in a deep breath, furrowing her brows, "An old knife inside the corpse? You only saw what happened in one house, but at this point it's probable everyone in this village faced the same ending, including those who had recently gone missing."
Sharing their thoughts, they eventually reached the end of the hallway.
"Another door, but it's locked—"
SCHREW!
A high-pitched squeal sounded out as the closed door creaked open suddenly.
Gunne grabbed Jenny's hand, holding it tightly in his. He stared ahead blinklessly in alarm, watching for the slightest movement.
Seconds passed by and the expected movement never came. But then, a chill assaulted Gunne's body as he began to shiver uncontrollably.
A hollow voice lamented from within the room, "Come inside... It's been a long time since I've seen people... How lonely it is..."
Frozen in fear, the situation was beyond normal and the voice calling them was eerily frigid. It had requested their entry without being the least bit welcoming.
Gunne bit the inside of his cheek, forcing himself to calm down.
"Well then... Let's go on in and find out what's going on here." Gunne said quietly.
Jenny nodded, feeling that the warmth of Gunne's hand was the only thing keeping her strong in this haunting place. She stuck close to him, almost as if she and him were held together by glue.
The first thing they noticed upon entering was—no one was in there.
'No one's here? But, who was asking for us to enter?' Gunne's thoughts raced, his eyes darting around the room vigilantly.
The second thing he noticed was that the room appeared to be a child's bedroom.
Plushies of various pokémon were scattered all throughout the room: on a small bed, desk, and the floor. There were also various toys, such as train sets, battle stadiums, and small pokémon figurines.
Examining the desk, Gunne found strange penciled drawings of a dark grey figure. Its eyes were a purplish-pink with a set of pupils that were like tiny slits. Weirdest of all, its mouth was a tiny zipper.
Oddly enough, there weren't just three or four drawings of it, no, there were dozens. Whoever's room this was had to have a very specific obsession with this one 'pokémon' out of all of them in the room.
"Jenny, do you recognize it?"
Shaking her head, she answered, "No, but considering just how many species there are, it's not easy to remember all of them. Though, it looks like it's a drawing of some kind of... doll?"
"You can't see me...?" The frigid voice unexpectedly sounded, this time with an audible sense of disappointment.
Gunne spun around, facing the direction of the voice and sure enough, there was nothing in sight.
'This voice has to belong to a ghost,' he thought, 'Maybe I can find something in the System Shop to reveal it?'
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