A Haunting in Ecruteak | HallowMEME Drabble
A purple scarf, with classic pin, a headband to tie one’s hairs In city of old, brass, tin, and pine, preparing for all the scares In black and white, a spooky time, the telling of campfire tales On Hallow’s Eve, amidst the trees, you hear those ghostly wails
You’ll go to the Dance Hall, and deliver the masks And I’ll take the Tower of Bells The rest of you each have your tasks We must make sure it sells Our Morty’s soul has been quite down But soon, his spirit will lift We will chase the nightmares, turn the frown And open up the rift Now ghosts from each and every realm From cemetery and night We call to you to take the helm And deliver us a fright A haunting there will be in this our city of Ecruteak In any way we inspire fear, by trick, in shadows we sneak And I will play the best of parts From Burning tower beyond We will shake the city, stir its hearts And sing this midnight’s song Now Samael and Hellion, go fetch the souls from off the plane And Lune and Hazel plague the air, bewitch our guests to be insane Now fright the air Alight this lair And let our ghosts do work For in this mist We’ll take a risk And earn ourselves a smirk
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“Gengar?” Morty asked the darkness, having awoken promptly at midnight, wanting to begin festivities early. He would decorate in the depth of night before sleeping away the morning, as the festival would begin when the sun began to dip below the trees. And yet, with his ghosts, the atmosphere could be made for the whole of the day. Despite any rumors people may have spread, when Morty rose on Halloween not a soul in the city would do much but sing his praises, besides perhaps to scream.
But Gengar was not in the darkness of his room. Morty lit his lamps, calling for a few more ghosts, and finding none of his haunts available. How troubling. Morty dressed, noting his scarf was missing. Gengar must have been trying on his costume. He always dressed as Morty. In any case the Gym Leader stole into the night wrapped loosely in his robe to find his friends, but when he came outside, he was met by a different sort of sight.
Gastly swirled around the sky, and ghosts of all species ran the streets, with pumpkins, mist, and skeleton creatures hidden in places around the whole city. Morty’s smile inhumanly bright amidst the darkness of the lateness of night. Ecruteak was haunted, alright, and he’d done nothing to help it along.
In the center of town sat a boiling cauldron, pouring fog and heft in varying colors, swampy ones, that might make a child nervous to touch it. Emerging from the cauldron was Gengar himself, wrapped in his scarf, with a devilish grin and an echoing, booming laughter piercing the whole city. People came out of their houses. Shrieks of delight and surprise filled the air.
Someone asked if Morty had got to work early, marveling at the extensive decor, remarking that as the sun rose and set it would look even scarier.
“No,” he said. “This year I had a dream, and it distracted me from celebrating. Gengar, did you do all of this?”
Obi burst from the dance Hall, each dancer clad in a Kimono resembling a different ghost. Mismagius, Dusknoir, Golurk, Chandelure, any ghost you could think of seemed represented by a young woman in a skull mask, dancing about the cauldron, and around Morty, the haunted chanting of music coming from each of the towers.
And Morty was given his own kimono of rich purples and flash red, resembling a Gengar in its beauty. And he joined them. And as they dance, as Morty brought great terrifying revelry to the scene, his power mixing with the ritualistic dance, his dusknoir brought a multitude of spirits to the place. The city had twice its population that night, if one might count the dead.
The past long buried dared not be unearthed, but the spirits of those he had loved, had helped, had prayed for, they came. It was frightening, to be certain, and children screamed with glee, but when Morty made up Ecruteak like a haunted house, there was always a strange beauty to it. Gengar always helped, they all did, and though they gave it their special flair, spooky and gorgeous and all of it, they had learned from him.
For even to make something scary to others, Morty always saw the city as a piece of art this season. The dangerous, the frightening, the macabre, he loved it all. And the people of Ecruteak? Now seeing ghosts come back scared even the grown and the brave, but they could see, perhaps the only day of every year, a happy gym leader without care. And none could believe much of rumors then. It didn’t much seem to matter. Ghost, or demon, spirit, or man, when Morty dance with his friends and laughed openly, everyone believed in magic.
Thus ends the tale of a haunting in Ecruteak, as told first by Gengar, and then by a friend.
