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Happy Halloween everybody!
This year I opted to stick to just one story and naturally picked my favorite victim… er… protagonist Petie to star in it~ And what better choice for Halloween Tales than a good old Haunted House story…
Though which house is haunted and by who? Well that’s a question for little bears to find out isn’t it~?
I hope you enjoy, please fav & comment, and have a Happy Halloween ^,^
Characters owned by me
Pokemon NOT owned by me
————————
Petie winced as he watched his backpack fly through the air, sailing cleanly into the busted window of the old house. The running commentary from his attackers didn’t make the situation any better.
“Hah! Nailed it! Did’ja guys see that! Right through the window!”
“Yeah boss! Right through the window!”
“Great shot!”
Picking himself up from where he’d been pushed to the ground Petie struggled to resist rolling his eyes at the Meowth and Rattata fawning over the smugly grinning and preening pikachu. He did know the trio of boys, he was pretty sure they didn’t even go to the PCA… but he knew the type well enough. Immature wanna be bullies who looked for somebody weaker to mess with rather than someone who could punch back. Considering they’d harassed him on his way home before he had a feeling they thought he was a grade schooler or something and just took it out on him when they had a bad day or something… it was usually just childish taunts Petie had heard from more intimidating people but today…
“Good luck getting that back teddybear~”
“Yeah yeah!”
“You know whose house that is right?”
“He’s gotta know boys~ But no worries, heck I hear she likes babies~ Maybe she might just keep ya!”
Laughing his ass off at that comment, his cronies joining in, the pikachu turn to run off down the block before cutting across a yard and hopping a fence with his lackeys following close behind… leaving Petie alone to dust himself off. He was unhurt… heck he wasn’t even really humiliated. It wasn’t like this was the first time he’d been shoved down by a bully. It wasn’t even the first time his backpack had been swiped. He’d dealt with so much worse this was more annoying than anything else. The actual problem was…
Looking at the long broken window on the second story of the old house Petie shivered a little… partially due to the cold fall wind blowing the orange leaves around and partially cause he was well aware of this house. He’d just gotten so used to passing through this neighborhood on the way home he’d almost forgotten about it… till this reminder. He might not be a Viridian native but there was hardly a Halloween that went by that somebody didn’t get the bright idea to retell him some version of the story tied to this house for obvious, if annoying, reasons. Sighing the teddiursa started his way up the weed overgrown path to the front door of the place, even as he found himself mentally going over all the different versions of the story he’d heard over the years.
It was almost a classic ghost story… which was something Petie could only say due to having read through pretty much all the books on Momma’s ghost story shelf at least once. A woman who wanted to have a baby, she wanted one so bad she built a nursery well in advance with her husbands blessing. But year after year every time she managed to have a child it died young… really young… leaving her heartbroken over and over again. How many babies she lost and how exactly the next parts played out tended to change depending on who was talking, he’d heard numbers ranging from 5 to 10 and that the husband left, cheated on her, or cheated on her AND left, but it’d ended with her “dying of grief” as people said… and naturally taking to haunting the place looking for her missing babies and not taking kindly to any intruders she might blame for having “Stolen” them… or at least that’s how the story went…
He genuinely wasn’t sure if he believe it or not… but that was cold comfort at best as Petie pushed on the front door of the house and grimaced. The creak it made as it opened seemed loud enough to wake the dead. Stepping inside Petie was greeted by the layer of dust and neglect he’d expected… but not the darkness he’d been worried about. Either due to how tattered the drapes had gotten, all the broken windows the place had, or any other number of things the house was filled with a dim, weak twilight… which just reminded him the sun was starting to go down outside. All he needed to do was get his backpack and get home. He had to focus on that and put the other stuff out of his head.
The first thing he had to do was find the stairs, then he could find whatever room his stuff had ended up in. Taking a few steps further into the house and trying to focus on that… but his focus was shattered by the door shutting behind him making him nearly jump out of his skin. Biting his lip and feeling utterly mortified for freaking out at one of the cheapest kind of jumpscares possible, he took a deep breath to calm down… and promptly tugged his t shirt up over his mouth as he chocked on the stirred up dust in the air. Even if it left his tummy exposed it was better than having a sneezing fit and stirring up more dust.
The coughing fit however was the wake up call he needed to get his focus back as he finally took a good look around the room he was in… and started to get a mild feeling of something being off. Not in the ghostly way either. The place was dusty and abandoned and neglected yeah… but every version of the story described it like it’d been decades and decades ago. With most of the furniture either gone or having rotten to the point it wasn’t there he could clearly see this place looked too modern for that… like it’d been made and abandoned waaaay more recently. Putting the weird vibe this was giving him out of his mind Petie pushed forward… he needed to find the stairs, that’s what he had to keep in mind.
Waddling his way down the hall Petie glanced through the open doorways. Taking extra care as he peeked just in case some critter or something was making their home here and took offense to him intruding. So far it was empty rooms, empty room, pitch black darkness, room with a broken table and some chairs, and more empty rooms… he was actually getting annoyed. He didn’t know architecture super well but in his opinion stairs shouldn’t be this hard to find. In fact he was pretty sure he should have ended up on the back porch with how far he’d wandered trying to get to the 2nd floor, how big was this place?
Getting a tingling feeling on his spine Petie turned on his heels… and saw what looked like a large shadowy figure looming at the end end of the hallway. A shadowy looking figure who vanished as soon as the teddiursa laid eyes on it. Standing there Petie was torn between rubbing his eyes to see if they were playing tricks on him… and a nagging feeling this was oddly familiar, but he couldn’t place the second one. The one thing he was sure of was that he wasn’t gonna go down that hallway to see where, if there had been something there, it might have gone.
Instead he resumed pushing ahead and peeked into the rooms a little more rapidly and urgently… straining his ears the whole while to make sure if something moved he’d hear it. Empty room, another empty room, a pitch black room, a room with some chairs and a busted table… and he stopped short in the doorway of the room with furniture. That sequence that was more than a little familiar. Turning to see if he’d somehow gone down the same hallway… and promptly heard the scrape of something moving across the bare wooden floor behind him. Spinning on his heel he saw… a busted table and some chairs. It took him a moment to notice the chairs had somehow been turned to face him.
The nagging feeling of familiarity was back again even as he stared hard at the chairs to see if there was anything obvious off about them. Very reluctantly turning away again Petie was almost annoyed nothing happened as he took his eyes off them. Instead he looked up and down the hallway once more before continuing along the path he’d been walking. There was, once again, several empty rooms following the one with furniture except this time Petie counted them, turned the corner, turned another corner, and found himself in another nondescript hallway of door… and opted not to push any open this time. Instead he walked past the first three he’d have opened and pushed open the fourth… to be greeted by a familiar table and chairs, this time far closer to the doorway.
The feeling of familiarity finally starting to make sense did nothing to keep a shiver from running up Petie’s spine as he turned on his heels to see… a large shadow slide along the far side of the wall with seemingly nothing attached to it before it slipped into the doorway he’d pushed open before this one twice before. The door creaked open and the shadow vanished into the pitch darkness within… before two glowing flames lit up within, hovering like eyes in the darkness and-
“Okay, knock it the hell off. I dunno if your squatting or what but I know your a ghost type notta ghost ghost.”
Petie had hit his limit as he did his best not to sound horribly squeaky voiced or panicked as he said that (and was pretty sure he’d failed). The two flames went off like somebody had flicked a light switch and Petie waited for whoever it was to come out of the darkness… and promptly nearly jumped out of his skin as the door to the empty room next to the dark one opened instead and a large figure stepped out. A large figure who promptly tugged back the hood of the cloak he was wearing to reveal it was a houndstone guy. A houndstone guy in a black hoodie, black jeans, and the cloak which now that Petie could get a look at it was probably from the discount bin of a costume shop.
“Here I was worried I was bein’ too hard on ya, how’d ya know?”
Somehow the mellow and ill-fittingly gently voice for a massive undead doggy just made the resulting shame for having fallen for another cheap jumpscare all the worse as it took Petie a full minute of blushing and squirming before he could compose himself enough to answer. There was also the fact that while he knew what a houndstone was this was the first time he’d met one up close and the floating bone limbs were a lot more unsettling in person. After a moment he took a deep breath and steadied himself. He’d finally figured out what that feeling of deja vu had been and ironically it’d involved more of Momma’s book collection… just nothing on the ghost story shelf.
“I’ve read some mystery collections… you were ripping off almost all the hoax haunting tropes that got used in them. You vanishing was Phantom Force, the stuff moving was Poltergeist, Shadow Sneak made the shadow move, and the lights were Will-O-Wisp.”
Trying to sound as confident as he could, and making his voice stop sounding “I still get walked to 1st grade by mommy” squeaky, Petie ticked off the stuff one at a time on his fingers. Choosing to leave out he’d also had to sit through enough matches, both on TV and at school, with Rose to recognize a few of the moves from that as well and not just from literary descriptions. After a moment of silence the ghost-types bone face somehow twisted up into a genuinely amused smile, which was somehow creepier, as the houndstone broke in loud, good-natured belly laughs… save for the whistling sound that Petie struggled not to imagine was air blowing through bare ribcage.
“Ha! Well I’ll be, somebody’s mama got ‘em hooked on books early~ Nice kiddo, real nice~ So… what’cha doin’ here in the first place? Get dared? Lose a bet?”
“… some creeps pitched my backpack through a window on the 2nd floor.”
“… aw shoot now I feel bad givin’ ya the run around. Come on, lets get yer stuff.”
“Thank you… uh… h-how did you do the looping hallway trick? T-that’s the one thing I didn’t recognize…”
“Oh, that? Jus’ a weak Confuse Ray is all. Ya were walkin’ in circles for a good five minutes.”
Feeling his cheeks burn with embarrassment as he pictured that Petie just followed the houndstone around the corner… and promptly found a set of stairs waiting for him right there. Frustration adding to the burning feeling of humiliation Petie had to take a moment to compose himself before he followed his ghostly guide up the stairs he had to have walked past multiple times. The fact he noticed said guide somehow managed to keep the old floorboard from creaking at all as he walked on them made Petie focus on the doggy… and suddenly have alarm bells go off in his head. There was one important thing that didn’t make any sense what-so-ever given the situation.
“H-hey! W-what are you doing in here anyway? P-putting on the haunting act and everything? Do you live here or…?”
“Hahaaw! Nope! Jus’ doin’ some community service is all~ Kiddo there’s a whole union of ghosties who handle this kinda work~ Naw, I live next door. Easy to Phantom Force my way over whenever somebody sneaks in~”
“… community service?”
The sheer confused disbelief in his voice had to be obvious as the houndstone broke into another round of laughter before turning around at the top of the stairs. Petie was now 100% sure this guy had little siblings or cousins or something cause the “Explain how some facet of the world works to a small child complete with hand gestures to keep them paying attention” routine and tone of voice was unmistakeable. Even if the detached arms made the range of gestures far broader than Petie could have imagined.
“Ya see kiddo we ghosties have a bit of a fondness for ghost stories ’n urban legends ’n the like… good to keep the spirit of mystery ’n horror alive ya know? So if there’s a house that people say is haunted long enough? Well we do our best to give the folks a lil show to give ‘em their moneys worth~ Dun matter even in cases like this where they got the wrong house or nuthin’, long as they think this place is haunted it’s my duty to give ‘em the spooks if they sneak in~ Usually it’s just teens ’n kids who got dared to mosta the time… haven’t had any of ‘em amateur ghost hunt clubs show up but I just got this gig a few years ago…”
“So you’re telling me ghost types keep ghost stories alive.”
“Yup! … ’n I prooobably shouldn’ta told ya that… uuuuh… promise to keep quiet ‘bout it?”
“… sure. Why not. Can do… wait a minute, what was that wrong house comment about?”
“Oh that? Funny story but ‘pparently somewhere along the line? Folks went an got mixed up ‘bout which house was haunted. The ghost lady lookin’ for her babies is down the block a ways buuuuuut since everybody thinks this is the house that’s haunted well it’s the house I get to haunt aaaaand here we are. Need help pickin’ yur stuff up?”
Following the houndstone as he walked and talked Petie watched the guy push open doors on the 2nd floor, apparently checking for the room his stuff was in. He was torn between paying attention to the explanation and trying to peek around the massive ghost type to look for himself resulting in him only half listening at best. Which turned into being completely focused on being horrified beyond anything the jump scares on the first floor could manage as the houndstone finally pushed open a door to reveal a bare room with a familiar busted window and his backpack laying on the dusty floor. Specifically his backpack laying on the dusty floor where it had spilled open from the impact sending his books, homework, and his changing supplies skidding across the floor in full view of the ghostly stranger.
“…? Hey, kiddo? Ya want help? Hello? Earth to-oh! Ooooohohoho~”
Petie was jarred from his horror paralysis due to the positively shiver inducing feeling of a large, somehow far gently than it should be, bone hand patting his head and ruffling his hair, complete with clacking as it did so. The fact the houndstone was giving his whistlely belly laugh again was also a cause for confusion. The reaction at the very least utterly derailed the teddiursa’s attempt to think of some way to explain or sweep this under the rug with even a little of his dignity intact.
“Relax kiddo. I got little cousins who got problems like yurs. Heck, bet’cha ya were worried ‘em bullies were gonna open yur backpack up right? No worries, na gonna make fun a ya or tell a soul… livin’ or dead~ So no panickin’ ‘kay? Hate to finally scare ya and have this be the reason.”
The genuine care and concern in the houndstone’s voice did wonder to calm him down… though the burning embarrassment didn’t go away and some part of him just felt more humiliated by now. He ignored that constant voice to focus on just timidly nodding and scurrying over to gather his stuff back up. Repacking his bag all under the houndstone’s watchful… eye hiding bangs… part of Petie was genuinely curious if there were eyes under there and the rest of him really, really didn’t wanna know as he finally rezipped his backpack shut.
“O-okay, got it.”
“Good on ya, now lets pop over to my house for a minute.”
“Huh?”
“Sorry kiddo, can’t let ya waddle off in soggy pants. Got little cousins ‘member? Make sure they get to ’n from school dry ’n clean too~ don’tcha worry though, imma old hand at it~ Had several lil brudders~”
Petie winced and squirmed, debating where to deny it or whine about how it was the darn unintentional jumpscares that did it… but he’d dealt with this situation in many forms many times over his time in baby undies. He could tell this was a “Not gonna take no for an answer” sorta thing… and since he just wanted to get going home as soon as possible? Surrender seemed the best option.
“… fiiiine. Lead me to your house.”
“Glad to hear it~ We’re justa hop, skip, ’n a Phantom Force away~ Up we go kiddo~”
“Wait, what.”
“A one and a two and a-“
*****************
Waddling down the path from the hounstone’s house both in fresh cuddlebutts and knowing more about the realm of spirits that he ever wanted to be aware of Petie paused to take a deep breath and clear his head. Looking up at the sky he winced that it was twilight orange already, he’d forgot the sun set quick this time of year. He really needed to get going now before he worried anybody at home.
Tugging the straps of his backpack to pull it tight against him the teddiursa walked down the block at a brisker pace than usual… up until he passed by the fence the bullies from earlier had jumped. Despite mentally reminding himself he needed to get moving Petie found his feet slowing down to look at what was on the other side of said fence. Despite having passed by this neighborhood constantly he barely remembered noticing it before… but there was something nagging at him now.
Mostly hidden by overgrown trees and a garden that went wild years back and was probably feral now from what Petie could see the house was an impressive, ancient looking piece of work. Older, richer, and far more ominous looking than the “haunted” house he’d just left… even if it was mostly hidden. Looking he could just make out that the tallest point of it barely got over the trees. Which was probably why he never noticed it before. Either way it looked like it hadn’t seen a living soul for decades… which was about the point Petie noticed the oddly clear, brush free, and winding pathway past the open gate ending at a porch with warm light streaming through it’s cracked windows.
“Folks went an got mixed up ‘bout which house was haunted. The ghost lady lookin’ for her babies is down the block a ways”
The houndstones words he’d only half paid attention to came flooding back to him… just in time for Petie to realize he’d somehow crossed the street, made his way up the path, and was stretching his paw out to the house’s front door. Unable to stop himself in time his little hand rapped quietly on the door which… quietly and at a perfectly casual pace opened up with only a slight creak to it. The fact he’d been expected it to fly open left Petie caught off guard… for a second. The fact the light inside was almost blinding kept him from thinking too hard on it as he stumbled back, doing his best not to fall on his butt. In the light he could clearly see the outline of a mismagius filling the doorway…
Only for a kangaskhan to step into view as the light stopped being so blinding leaving him blinking furiously. The smiling kangaskhan lady was dressed in an incredibly old fashioned purple dress with long sleeves and a powder white apron for good measure. A broad, old fashion purple sunhat sat on her head too so for a moment Petie thought his eyes must have been tricking him to think he’d seen a mismagius’s outline… a thought that lasted seconds at most. Between exposure to Rose and her aunts Petie rapidly noticed several things off about this woman.
For starters he could tell that she was in no way related to the Giant Safari Zone Tribe like Rose’s family was, meaning she was just tall rather than massive, but that was a side thing. What really drew Petie’s notice was her face. It was done up with make-up for a prim, proper, old fashioned style to match the outfit… but that did nothing to hide the odd stuff. For starters? While she had the usual two protruding fangs on most khans her mouth was crooked… almost jack-o-lantern crooked… and far, far too wide. Beyond that her eyes were oddly bright despite being in the shadow of her hat, almost like they were glowing… and they were unnaturally yellow.
“D’aaaaaaaw~ I don’t often get guests~ And sucha little cutie~ Yes you are~ Yes you are~ Such a cuddly little teddy beddy bear~”
All of which he got to see up close as the lady promptly crouched down and began to mercilessly assault his face with cheek smooches, rubs, and pinches with remarkably cold hands making him shudder and squirm in her grip.
“Now what can I do for you sweethe-oh! No no no~ Come IN first~ Come in and get comfy~ Then we talk~”
“Buuu-aaah-I-duuu-gaa! W-wai… wha?“
Petie’s attempts to protest were stymied by the assault on his face… and when she finally let his face go? He was baffled to find himself already in the house, plopped among far too many cushions on an antique chair as he found himself sinking in among the padding and trapped as effectively as if he’d been strapped into a carseat. The kangaskhan pulled up a vintage chair in front of him, only a small table between them, and filling his vision.
“Now then, all comfy~? Good~ So tell me sweetheart, what brings you to my door today~?”
The tone was pleasant, cooing in the “grown-up to toddler” kind of way, and conversational… but there was an echo to it that sounded… off to Petie’s ears. He also found himself barely able to squirm and completely unable to look away from his host’s eyes. His mouth seemed to open against his will and worlds just started tumbling out. The only thing he had any say over was the stutter the sheer terror he was feeling added.
“I-I s-sa-saw s-some… s-some g-guys h-hop a fence i-into your yard a l-little while ago… d-dats w-why-“
“Ooooooh? That’s why you noticed my house dearie~? Tell me, what were you doing before knocking on my door since this was a little while ago~?”
“H-had… I… h-hadta… g-get my b-backpack back… t-the g-guys… pushed… pushed me down… a-and t-threw it-“
“Oh you poor dear!”
Watching the ladies grin slowly get wide and wider as he talked (and praying he was imagining it) Petie could feel something building. Sitting there helplessly answering her questions he could feel an ominous feeling building up like a pressure in the room, like something was going to explode… right up until that last moment. The pressure and ominous sensation utterly shattered as her face took on a genuinely shocked look of concern. Petie found himself squeaking as he as he was plucked from the pillows and hugged tight in the khan’s arms, his chin on her shoulder, as she snuggled him. One arm wrapped around his back to hug him close and the other very obviously patting his bottom as she gently rocked back and forth.
“I’m soooo sorry! If I’d known those naught little boys… why I never, picking on a poor little one like you… for shame! For shame!”
Petie found himself oddly limp in her arms, unable to do anything but fidget slightly in the chilly embrace and try not to picture how much this had to look like Momma soothing one of the twins to sleep. Finally he was released… to be held out at arms length, her hands under his arms and around his middle to make him dangle as she gave him another broad smile. This time though he could tell the smile was only unintentionally creepy as her tone was now nothing but sugar and nursery worker cooing.
“I think you deserve a treat after such a terrible time, yes you do~ I think I have some nice fresh cookies that’d do the trick, and lovely milk to go with them~ Now you just wait riiiiiight her and I’ll be back in a moment~”
As she spoke she place Petie back where he’d started, trapped among the cushions in the chair, but with one notable difference. Before she’d just plopped him down and let the pillows suck him down like quicksand. This time she actually took a moment to carefully arrange them for him. A cushion under his bottom, one supporting his back, another supporting his head, some on either side pinned him in place. The end result was that Petie was still trapped barely able to even turn his head, only his arms had any freedom, but it was oddly much more comfortable… and somehow made the carseat or infant carrier comparison strong in his mind.
As soon as he stopped trying to figure out if escape was possible or not and looked up he realized the khan was gone… but in the time it took him to recognize that fact and wonder if he could finally get a look around whatever this place was? She returned. Far too fast to have popped into a kitchen and prepared the large silver platter bearing a plate of chocolate chip cookies, even if that kitchen was only a few feet away or something. Alongside the plate was what he could only describe as a antique sippie cup going by just the appearance. His earlier nerves, still present terror, and the sheer number of things that didn’t add up likely saved him from being overwhelmed by the fresh, warm scent of the cookies.
“Here we are~ All for you sweetheart~ Have one~ Now be careful~ Wouldn’t want to mess up your shirt now would we~?”
She cooed, pushing one of the cookies into Petie’s paws as he held it up with both hands… barely resisting shoving it in his face via focusing on her comment. He’d heard similar things before admittedly and usually it was an excuse for somebody to put a bib on him… here? He wasn’t sure. There wasn’t any malice to the tone… but he’d dealt with baby-cooing-ladies enough to know malice wasn’t what to watch for. She was hoping he’d give her an excuse to change his clothes and he could swear he almost saw sailor suits in her eyes.
With this in mind, and fighting every instinct he had to do so, he took small, controlled nibbles of the cookie. The result was both rapturous… and terrifying since it tasted as wonderful and nummy as his Momma’s cookies but the delicious smell it had was completely off for that sort of taste. Others might not have noticed but between his sensitive bear nose and tastebuds, and long experience as a lover of cookies, the disconnect was a bright red flag. It’d be like having a hamburger that smelled like a burger… but tasted like fried chicken instead.
Not that this made it any easier for him to stop nibbling as he took another bite, it just made keeping his bites controlled much easier. And while a few crumbs fell onto his shirt as he did so… he was pretty sure he wasn’t making enough of a mess of it or his face to justify whatever the lady was hoping for. If the lady noticed, cared, or was bothered by this she didn’t show it though as glancing up at her from the cookie saw she was giving him the gushing goo goo eyes you’d expect someone watching their infant clumsily shove birthday cake in their face with their bare hands.
When the first cookie was finally gone what followed wasn’t another one… but her taking a rag, which he was pretty sure she didn’t have before, to his face and paws before gently shoving the sippie cup into them. Once she was sure he had a firm, toddler appropriate grip on both handles she gently pushed it to his mouth… making it clear she wasn’t backing off till he started drinking. Like the cookie the milk was delicious, chilly and nummy, but Petie was too on edge to be taken by that… especially as the lady started talking again.
“Drink it up sweetie, goood, good little bear~ Now as for those three… hooligans… I did know about them hopping my fence. I caught those three unpleasant vandals in my garden, the louts were making such a ruckus they disturbed my babies and-“
She stopped short as the familiar sound of an infant crying reached Petie’s ears… followed promptly by two more distinct bawls joining the first.
“And that’s them now~ A mother’s duty is never done~ Come along precious, lets check on them~”
Effortlessly plucking him from the pile of cushions he’d failed to budge, sippie cup still in his paws, Petie found himself hugged tight to the lady again as she carried him… through the house? He genuinely wasn’t sure cause the whole thing was a confusing blur. Beyond the usual issue of being carried baby style, aka head on her shoulder and only able to see where they’d gone, the whole thing felt like a fast forward foggy dream. He was left with the impression they’d gone through a well decorated, very old style house… but the details? He couldn’t recall a single one. The most he was sure of was that they’d gone up stairs at some point and the entire ride, aside from some slight swaying that seemed like it was more to simulate walking, had been so smooth it was like the lady had been gliding.
Either way the baby cries got closer till he heard a door being pushed open and found himself set down in what was unmistakably a nursery. Like everything else Petie had seen so far it was all fashioned. Brightly painted wooden nursery furniture lavished with silks and soft padding, brightly patterned wallpaper, hand sewn stuffed toys… things Petie had all seen before… just never without being extremely faded with time. All this however looked as fresh as if it was made yesterday. That however wasn’t what had captured Petie’s attention.
The room was an octagon with four big old canopy windows on the far walls. All complete with nice, thick curtains to insure that if it was too sunny the nursery could be made appropriately dim for nap time. As of the moment though the curtains were wide open letting him clearly see through the windows to outside… and that’s what had cold shivers going down his spine. If this room was in the front of the house then there should have been numerous trees blocking any view the windows might have had. If it was in the back of the house the windows still should have shown the reddish orange sky of twilight and a fast setting sun. Instead? They showed a clear blue sky on a bright clear morning.
“Hush now my poppets~ Mommy’s here~ Mommy’s here~ Hush sweeties~ Mommy will make it aaaaaall better~ Yes she will~ Yes she will~”
Turning his attention back to the lady he found her gushing and cooing over three lavish cradles. All three gently rocking likely due to the fussing infants in them going by the crying. He watched as the lady gently scooped up each of the infant boys one at a time and, while gushing and cooing them, changed them into fresh diapers. Naturally the babies were in cloth diapers and baby outfits Petie had never seen outside of old photos, bonnets and gowns had gone out of fashion for little boys ages ago, but it took him a moment to realize that his blood ran cold at the sigh of it and another minute to realize the why as the meowth, rattata, and pichu were handled in turn.
Suddenly the windows or the unnaturally fresh and vibrant nursery were fairly low on the list of concerns in the teddiursa’s mind. Especially when the lady started talking again… though whether it was to him, the babies, both, or herself he couldn’t tell.
“Yeeeees… those little vandals trespassed on my home… intruded on my home… Mommy will make sure my little angels never do something that silly, yes she will, yes she will~ They should have been taught better, at their age they should have known better… ooooh Mommies little sweeties are just so fussy~ But your too little to know better that’s why it’s so adorable yes you are, yes you are~ It’s so cute how babies think they can talk don’t you think~?”
As she spoke she loomed over one side of the pillow, cushion, and stuffed toy filled playpen she’d deposited the infants in… giving Petie a clear view of the trio through the bars. Especially when they’d turned their gaze away from her and to him. They were young enough their crawling was more creeping but they tried to crawl as close to the wall facing him as they could, all the while babbling with their toothless mouths. Between the urgency in the chirpy, adorable, and desperate noises they were making and their bit pleading baby eyes Petie was pretty sure this was something along the lines of “Please save us!”
Right up until the last sentence when the lady fished several shiny silver pacifiers out of her apron and slipped them into the infants mouths. The babbling was replaced with a familiar, due to his similar reaction to pacifiers, helpless nursing sound as he watched their eyes go half lidded and unfocused. As the lady gently pushed rattles and other toys into their chubby paws they didn’t resist and even started to clumsily play with them making their “mother” smile broadly and start talking again.
“So precious~ Mommy loves her little angels~ Her sweet, helpless little babies~ She’s going to raise you right… not like those hooligans, those intruders… but you won’t be big like that for a long, long time my precious cherubs~ Of course… today also brought us a sweet little guest too~ Didn’t it~?”
Finally looking up from the nursing, dazed infants the lady smiled to Petie. Despite her elongated, crooked mouth the smile was genuinely affectionate. It might have even had warmth. Between what she was saying and the fact she wasn’t being subtle about the yellow glow to her eyes anymore Petie found his knees knocking as he proceeded to babble out the first thing that came to his mind since he couldn’t get his legs to budge for an attempt at fleeing.
“M-ma-my-my M-Mo-Momma is e-ex-p-p-pecting m-me ba-ba-back s-soon m-ma-ma’am-“
“Oh? Oh! Of course! I’d NEVER want to make a mother worry about their little one! No no no no! I just so rarely get guests is all~ I’m sorry if I frightened you, it’s okay~ It’s okay~”
The lady was in front of him again, this time kneeling, as she nuzzled the top of Petie’s head while gently rubbing his cheeks. This actually did help him calm down… but not because it was soothing. He’d had other people do it to him before and short of Momma doing it this was never soothing. Just annoyingly uncomfortable. Especially with how chilly the lady was. Said annoyance was a familiar feeling the teddiursa could focus on to bite back the terror-
“Though lets see… hmmm… no, no, you’re still okay~ Well then… proper diapers will have to wait~”
Till the more familiar sensation of humiliation at the utter, blatant diaper check he’d just received supplanted the annoyance. The lady’s disappointment that he didn’t need a change, and what he assumed was her disapproval of disposable diapers, was just as blatant. He had to appreciate the irony of it all… having gotten a change at the fake haunted house saved him from needing one here… but figuring out whether he owed the houndstone a thank you or not would have to wait as he struggled to get his stuttering voice back under control.
“M-my m-momma’s g-gonna be m-mad if I’m l-la-late m-ma’am, m-may I go please?”
“… I insist you finish the cookies and milk first~ Such a polite little one you are~! You’re your mother’s little pride and joy I just know it~”
Petie would have sighed in relief… had the lady not been mercilessly pinching his cheek with that last comment. He found himself being gathered up once more in her arms baby style, and she was patting his bottom again, as she started for the door to apparently go back downstairs. Gazing over her shoulder Petie could clearly see the three dazed infants left in the playpen. A brief pang of guilt hit him… but it quickly died in favor of saving himself for now…
He’d worry about them later when he was out of the crazy ghost lady’s clutches.
*****************
Despite his fears the ghost, he wasn’t even gonna pretend about that anymore, was good to her word. After he’d finished the platter of cookies and the cup of milk, well aware she was watching him like a hawk the entire time… probably for any excuse to baby him or something worse, she’d snuggled him, said her goodbyes, asked him to visit again… and he’d found himself back on the street. Standing outside the shut gate of the dark and abandoned house. There were numerous things he need to consider… but he opted to wait to think about them till he was at minimum over a block away from said house.
The first thing he’d checked was his clothes and his backpack. When he’d found nothing amiss there he’d looked for the nearest reflective surface to make sure he didn’t have anything physically different about him. That was the same as normal too… which left him more on edge than relieved. He didn’t know if he’d been chowing down on ectoplasm or just nothing but he wasn’t willing to believe the little snack he’d eaten had done nothing to him even if the ghost seemed to be far nicer and kinder to him than her “Precious Babies”…
Which was something else he had to worry about now that he wasn’t ground zero for spooky stuff if he angered the restless spirit. Bullies or not he wasn’t gonna wish helpless babyhood on anybody… so he’d have to do something about that… eventually. A part of him was desperately trying to convince the teddiursa he’d just dreamed this whole mess and nothing happened. With his luck though he’d see some missing teens reports in the next few days and he’d have to go back to that house to see if the cute “Pweeeeease” face worked on the dead and during hostage negotiations… he wasn’t looking forward to that.
Sighing softly he pushed open his front door and waddled in. Naturally Momma was there sitting on the couch with a book with the twins in their playpen making him wince a little as he pushed the door shut behind him with one paw. The sun was already just about set so he was expect… maybe not the riot act but at least a light scolding. So he was a little surprised when the look on Momma’s face immediately morphed into one of concern as she got up from the couch.
“… are you okay honeypot?”
“… yeeeeah? Uuuh… why? Wha wooks… huh?”
“… sweetie, you’re sucking your thumb and your pants are drooping. Don’t try and pretend your not stressed out over something to your Momma.”
Blinking for a long moment Petie, with great effort, pulled the thumb he’d been unknowingly nursing and drooling on out of his mouth. With awareness of that came the realization his legs were broadly splayed too… along with the fact he probably now had a rough answer for exactly what snack time with a ghost had done to him. Thoroughly humiliated, both by this and the fact he had to admit it could have been worse and he’d been far less dignified probably just earlier this week, he steeled himself to ask Momma for a change-
And found himself tearing up and holding his arms up to her in a classic “uppies” pose performed the world over by babies and toddlers instead.
“That bad huh sweetie? It’s okay, you can tell me later if you feel like it. For now lets get you changed, then maybe a snack-oh? Somebody’s a needy cubby today. It’s okay, Momma’s here~”
Somehow the warmth he felt as Momma scooped him up, especially compared to the ghostly chill from the ladies attention earlier, just melted Petie as the moment she hugged him he found himself snuggling into her on reflex. The fact he knew he had homework to do was a distant thought barely worth focusing on at the moment compared to the cuddles. In fact the most coherent though he could muster up as he nuzzled into her to wipe the tears away, all while letting out a soft coo, was “This had better be temporary”…
Though he reluctantly admitted wouldn’t mind if it took till tomorrow for him to snap back.
The End~
This year I opted to stick to just one story and naturally picked my favorite victim… er… protagonist Petie to star in it~ And what better choice for Halloween Tales than a good old Haunted House story…
Though which house is haunted and by who? Well that’s a question for little bears to find out isn’t it~?
I hope you enjoy, please fav & comment, and have a Happy Halloween ^,^
Characters owned by me
Pokemon NOT owned by me
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PCA - A House Haunting We GoPetie winced as he watched his backpack fly through the air, sailing cleanly into the busted window of the old house. The running commentary from his attackers didn’t make the situation any better.
“Hah! Nailed it! Did’ja guys see that! Right through the window!”
“Yeah boss! Right through the window!”
“Great shot!”
Picking himself up from where he’d been pushed to the ground Petie struggled to resist rolling his eyes at the Meowth and Rattata fawning over the smugly grinning and preening pikachu. He did know the trio of boys, he was pretty sure they didn’t even go to the PCA… but he knew the type well enough. Immature wanna be bullies who looked for somebody weaker to mess with rather than someone who could punch back. Considering they’d harassed him on his way home before he had a feeling they thought he was a grade schooler or something and just took it out on him when they had a bad day or something… it was usually just childish taunts Petie had heard from more intimidating people but today…
“Good luck getting that back teddybear~”
“Yeah yeah!”
“You know whose house that is right?”
“He’s gotta know boys~ But no worries, heck I hear she likes babies~ Maybe she might just keep ya!”
Laughing his ass off at that comment, his cronies joining in, the pikachu turn to run off down the block before cutting across a yard and hopping a fence with his lackeys following close behind… leaving Petie alone to dust himself off. He was unhurt… heck he wasn’t even really humiliated. It wasn’t like this was the first time he’d been shoved down by a bully. It wasn’t even the first time his backpack had been swiped. He’d dealt with so much worse this was more annoying than anything else. The actual problem was…
Looking at the long broken window on the second story of the old house Petie shivered a little… partially due to the cold fall wind blowing the orange leaves around and partially cause he was well aware of this house. He’d just gotten so used to passing through this neighborhood on the way home he’d almost forgotten about it… till this reminder. He might not be a Viridian native but there was hardly a Halloween that went by that somebody didn’t get the bright idea to retell him some version of the story tied to this house for obvious, if annoying, reasons. Sighing the teddiursa started his way up the weed overgrown path to the front door of the place, even as he found himself mentally going over all the different versions of the story he’d heard over the years.
It was almost a classic ghost story… which was something Petie could only say due to having read through pretty much all the books on Momma’s ghost story shelf at least once. A woman who wanted to have a baby, she wanted one so bad she built a nursery well in advance with her husbands blessing. But year after year every time she managed to have a child it died young… really young… leaving her heartbroken over and over again. How many babies she lost and how exactly the next parts played out tended to change depending on who was talking, he’d heard numbers ranging from 5 to 10 and that the husband left, cheated on her, or cheated on her AND left, but it’d ended with her “dying of grief” as people said… and naturally taking to haunting the place looking for her missing babies and not taking kindly to any intruders she might blame for having “Stolen” them… or at least that’s how the story went…
He genuinely wasn’t sure if he believe it or not… but that was cold comfort at best as Petie pushed on the front door of the house and grimaced. The creak it made as it opened seemed loud enough to wake the dead. Stepping inside Petie was greeted by the layer of dust and neglect he’d expected… but not the darkness he’d been worried about. Either due to how tattered the drapes had gotten, all the broken windows the place had, or any other number of things the house was filled with a dim, weak twilight… which just reminded him the sun was starting to go down outside. All he needed to do was get his backpack and get home. He had to focus on that and put the other stuff out of his head.
The first thing he had to do was find the stairs, then he could find whatever room his stuff had ended up in. Taking a few steps further into the house and trying to focus on that… but his focus was shattered by the door shutting behind him making him nearly jump out of his skin. Biting his lip and feeling utterly mortified for freaking out at one of the cheapest kind of jumpscares possible, he took a deep breath to calm down… and promptly tugged his t shirt up over his mouth as he chocked on the stirred up dust in the air. Even if it left his tummy exposed it was better than having a sneezing fit and stirring up more dust.
The coughing fit however was the wake up call he needed to get his focus back as he finally took a good look around the room he was in… and started to get a mild feeling of something being off. Not in the ghostly way either. The place was dusty and abandoned and neglected yeah… but every version of the story described it like it’d been decades and decades ago. With most of the furniture either gone or having rotten to the point it wasn’t there he could clearly see this place looked too modern for that… like it’d been made and abandoned waaaay more recently. Putting the weird vibe this was giving him out of his mind Petie pushed forward… he needed to find the stairs, that’s what he had to keep in mind.
Waddling his way down the hall Petie glanced through the open doorways. Taking extra care as he peeked just in case some critter or something was making their home here and took offense to him intruding. So far it was empty rooms, empty room, pitch black darkness, room with a broken table and some chairs, and more empty rooms… he was actually getting annoyed. He didn’t know architecture super well but in his opinion stairs shouldn’t be this hard to find. In fact he was pretty sure he should have ended up on the back porch with how far he’d wandered trying to get to the 2nd floor, how big was this place?
Getting a tingling feeling on his spine Petie turned on his heels… and saw what looked like a large shadowy figure looming at the end end of the hallway. A shadowy looking figure who vanished as soon as the teddiursa laid eyes on it. Standing there Petie was torn between rubbing his eyes to see if they were playing tricks on him… and a nagging feeling this was oddly familiar, but he couldn’t place the second one. The one thing he was sure of was that he wasn’t gonna go down that hallway to see where, if there had been something there, it might have gone.
Instead he resumed pushing ahead and peeked into the rooms a little more rapidly and urgently… straining his ears the whole while to make sure if something moved he’d hear it. Empty room, another empty room, a pitch black room, a room with some chairs and a busted table… and he stopped short in the doorway of the room with furniture. That sequence that was more than a little familiar. Turning to see if he’d somehow gone down the same hallway… and promptly heard the scrape of something moving across the bare wooden floor behind him. Spinning on his heel he saw… a busted table and some chairs. It took him a moment to notice the chairs had somehow been turned to face him.
The nagging feeling of familiarity was back again even as he stared hard at the chairs to see if there was anything obvious off about them. Very reluctantly turning away again Petie was almost annoyed nothing happened as he took his eyes off them. Instead he looked up and down the hallway once more before continuing along the path he’d been walking. There was, once again, several empty rooms following the one with furniture except this time Petie counted them, turned the corner, turned another corner, and found himself in another nondescript hallway of door… and opted not to push any open this time. Instead he walked past the first three he’d have opened and pushed open the fourth… to be greeted by a familiar table and chairs, this time far closer to the doorway.
The feeling of familiarity finally starting to make sense did nothing to keep a shiver from running up Petie’s spine as he turned on his heels to see… a large shadow slide along the far side of the wall with seemingly nothing attached to it before it slipped into the doorway he’d pushed open before this one twice before. The door creaked open and the shadow vanished into the pitch darkness within… before two glowing flames lit up within, hovering like eyes in the darkness and-
“Okay, knock it the hell off. I dunno if your squatting or what but I know your a ghost type notta ghost ghost.”
Petie had hit his limit as he did his best not to sound horribly squeaky voiced or panicked as he said that (and was pretty sure he’d failed). The two flames went off like somebody had flicked a light switch and Petie waited for whoever it was to come out of the darkness… and promptly nearly jumped out of his skin as the door to the empty room next to the dark one opened instead and a large figure stepped out. A large figure who promptly tugged back the hood of the cloak he was wearing to reveal it was a houndstone guy. A houndstone guy in a black hoodie, black jeans, and the cloak which now that Petie could get a look at it was probably from the discount bin of a costume shop.
“Here I was worried I was bein’ too hard on ya, how’d ya know?”
Somehow the mellow and ill-fittingly gently voice for a massive undead doggy just made the resulting shame for having fallen for another cheap jumpscare all the worse as it took Petie a full minute of blushing and squirming before he could compose himself enough to answer. There was also the fact that while he knew what a houndstone was this was the first time he’d met one up close and the floating bone limbs were a lot more unsettling in person. After a moment he took a deep breath and steadied himself. He’d finally figured out what that feeling of deja vu had been and ironically it’d involved more of Momma’s book collection… just nothing on the ghost story shelf.
“I’ve read some mystery collections… you were ripping off almost all the hoax haunting tropes that got used in them. You vanishing was Phantom Force, the stuff moving was Poltergeist, Shadow Sneak made the shadow move, and the lights were Will-O-Wisp.”
Trying to sound as confident as he could, and making his voice stop sounding “I still get walked to 1st grade by mommy” squeaky, Petie ticked off the stuff one at a time on his fingers. Choosing to leave out he’d also had to sit through enough matches, both on TV and at school, with Rose to recognize a few of the moves from that as well and not just from literary descriptions. After a moment of silence the ghost-types bone face somehow twisted up into a genuinely amused smile, which was somehow creepier, as the houndstone broke in loud, good-natured belly laughs… save for the whistling sound that Petie struggled not to imagine was air blowing through bare ribcage.
“Ha! Well I’ll be, somebody’s mama got ‘em hooked on books early~ Nice kiddo, real nice~ So… what’cha doin’ here in the first place? Get dared? Lose a bet?”
“… some creeps pitched my backpack through a window on the 2nd floor.”
“… aw shoot now I feel bad givin’ ya the run around. Come on, lets get yer stuff.”
“Thank you… uh… h-how did you do the looping hallway trick? T-that’s the one thing I didn’t recognize…”
“Oh, that? Jus’ a weak Confuse Ray is all. Ya were walkin’ in circles for a good five minutes.”
Feeling his cheeks burn with embarrassment as he pictured that Petie just followed the houndstone around the corner… and promptly found a set of stairs waiting for him right there. Frustration adding to the burning feeling of humiliation Petie had to take a moment to compose himself before he followed his ghostly guide up the stairs he had to have walked past multiple times. The fact he noticed said guide somehow managed to keep the old floorboard from creaking at all as he walked on them made Petie focus on the doggy… and suddenly have alarm bells go off in his head. There was one important thing that didn’t make any sense what-so-ever given the situation.
“H-hey! W-what are you doing in here anyway? P-putting on the haunting act and everything? Do you live here or…?”
“Hahaaw! Nope! Jus’ doin’ some community service is all~ Kiddo there’s a whole union of ghosties who handle this kinda work~ Naw, I live next door. Easy to Phantom Force my way over whenever somebody sneaks in~”
“… community service?”
The sheer confused disbelief in his voice had to be obvious as the houndstone broke into another round of laughter before turning around at the top of the stairs. Petie was now 100% sure this guy had little siblings or cousins or something cause the “Explain how some facet of the world works to a small child complete with hand gestures to keep them paying attention” routine and tone of voice was unmistakeable. Even if the detached arms made the range of gestures far broader than Petie could have imagined.
“Ya see kiddo we ghosties have a bit of a fondness for ghost stories ’n urban legends ’n the like… good to keep the spirit of mystery ’n horror alive ya know? So if there’s a house that people say is haunted long enough? Well we do our best to give the folks a lil show to give ‘em their moneys worth~ Dun matter even in cases like this where they got the wrong house or nuthin’, long as they think this place is haunted it’s my duty to give ‘em the spooks if they sneak in~ Usually it’s just teens ’n kids who got dared to mosta the time… haven’t had any of ‘em amateur ghost hunt clubs show up but I just got this gig a few years ago…”
“So you’re telling me ghost types keep ghost stories alive.”
“Yup! … ’n I prooobably shouldn’ta told ya that… uuuuh… promise to keep quiet ‘bout it?”
“… sure. Why not. Can do… wait a minute, what was that wrong house comment about?”
“Oh that? Funny story but ‘pparently somewhere along the line? Folks went an got mixed up ‘bout which house was haunted. The ghost lady lookin’ for her babies is down the block a ways buuuuuut since everybody thinks this is the house that’s haunted well it’s the house I get to haunt aaaaand here we are. Need help pickin’ yur stuff up?”
Following the houndstone as he walked and talked Petie watched the guy push open doors on the 2nd floor, apparently checking for the room his stuff was in. He was torn between paying attention to the explanation and trying to peek around the massive ghost type to look for himself resulting in him only half listening at best. Which turned into being completely focused on being horrified beyond anything the jump scares on the first floor could manage as the houndstone finally pushed open a door to reveal a bare room with a familiar busted window and his backpack laying on the dusty floor. Specifically his backpack laying on the dusty floor where it had spilled open from the impact sending his books, homework, and his changing supplies skidding across the floor in full view of the ghostly stranger.
“…? Hey, kiddo? Ya want help? Hello? Earth to-oh! Ooooohohoho~”
Petie was jarred from his horror paralysis due to the positively shiver inducing feeling of a large, somehow far gently than it should be, bone hand patting his head and ruffling his hair, complete with clacking as it did so. The fact the houndstone was giving his whistlely belly laugh again was also a cause for confusion. The reaction at the very least utterly derailed the teddiursa’s attempt to think of some way to explain or sweep this under the rug with even a little of his dignity intact.
“Relax kiddo. I got little cousins who got problems like yurs. Heck, bet’cha ya were worried ‘em bullies were gonna open yur backpack up right? No worries, na gonna make fun a ya or tell a soul… livin’ or dead~ So no panickin’ ‘kay? Hate to finally scare ya and have this be the reason.”
The genuine care and concern in the houndstone’s voice did wonder to calm him down… though the burning embarrassment didn’t go away and some part of him just felt more humiliated by now. He ignored that constant voice to focus on just timidly nodding and scurrying over to gather his stuff back up. Repacking his bag all under the houndstone’s watchful… eye hiding bangs… part of Petie was genuinely curious if there were eyes under there and the rest of him really, really didn’t wanna know as he finally rezipped his backpack shut.
“O-okay, got it.”
“Good on ya, now lets pop over to my house for a minute.”
“Huh?”
“Sorry kiddo, can’t let ya waddle off in soggy pants. Got little cousins ‘member? Make sure they get to ’n from school dry ’n clean too~ don’tcha worry though, imma old hand at it~ Had several lil brudders~”
Petie winced and squirmed, debating where to deny it or whine about how it was the darn unintentional jumpscares that did it… but he’d dealt with this situation in many forms many times over his time in baby undies. He could tell this was a “Not gonna take no for an answer” sorta thing… and since he just wanted to get going home as soon as possible? Surrender seemed the best option.
“… fiiiine. Lead me to your house.”
“Glad to hear it~ We’re justa hop, skip, ’n a Phantom Force away~ Up we go kiddo~”
“Wait, what.”
“A one and a two and a-“
*****************
Waddling down the path from the hounstone’s house both in fresh cuddlebutts and knowing more about the realm of spirits that he ever wanted to be aware of Petie paused to take a deep breath and clear his head. Looking up at the sky he winced that it was twilight orange already, he’d forgot the sun set quick this time of year. He really needed to get going now before he worried anybody at home.
Tugging the straps of his backpack to pull it tight against him the teddiursa walked down the block at a brisker pace than usual… up until he passed by the fence the bullies from earlier had jumped. Despite mentally reminding himself he needed to get moving Petie found his feet slowing down to look at what was on the other side of said fence. Despite having passed by this neighborhood constantly he barely remembered noticing it before… but there was something nagging at him now.
Mostly hidden by overgrown trees and a garden that went wild years back and was probably feral now from what Petie could see the house was an impressive, ancient looking piece of work. Older, richer, and far more ominous looking than the “haunted” house he’d just left… even if it was mostly hidden. Looking he could just make out that the tallest point of it barely got over the trees. Which was probably why he never noticed it before. Either way it looked like it hadn’t seen a living soul for decades… which was about the point Petie noticed the oddly clear, brush free, and winding pathway past the open gate ending at a porch with warm light streaming through it’s cracked windows.
“Folks went an got mixed up ‘bout which house was haunted. The ghost lady lookin’ for her babies is down the block a ways”
The houndstones words he’d only half paid attention to came flooding back to him… just in time for Petie to realize he’d somehow crossed the street, made his way up the path, and was stretching his paw out to the house’s front door. Unable to stop himself in time his little hand rapped quietly on the door which… quietly and at a perfectly casual pace opened up with only a slight creak to it. The fact he’d been expected it to fly open left Petie caught off guard… for a second. The fact the light inside was almost blinding kept him from thinking too hard on it as he stumbled back, doing his best not to fall on his butt. In the light he could clearly see the outline of a mismagius filling the doorway…
Only for a kangaskhan to step into view as the light stopped being so blinding leaving him blinking furiously. The smiling kangaskhan lady was dressed in an incredibly old fashioned purple dress with long sleeves and a powder white apron for good measure. A broad, old fashion purple sunhat sat on her head too so for a moment Petie thought his eyes must have been tricking him to think he’d seen a mismagius’s outline… a thought that lasted seconds at most. Between exposure to Rose and her aunts Petie rapidly noticed several things off about this woman.
For starters he could tell that she was in no way related to the Giant Safari Zone Tribe like Rose’s family was, meaning she was just tall rather than massive, but that was a side thing. What really drew Petie’s notice was her face. It was done up with make-up for a prim, proper, old fashioned style to match the outfit… but that did nothing to hide the odd stuff. For starters? While she had the usual two protruding fangs on most khans her mouth was crooked… almost jack-o-lantern crooked… and far, far too wide. Beyond that her eyes were oddly bright despite being in the shadow of her hat, almost like they were glowing… and they were unnaturally yellow.
“D’aaaaaaaw~ I don’t often get guests~ And sucha little cutie~ Yes you are~ Yes you are~ Such a cuddly little teddy beddy bear~”
All of which he got to see up close as the lady promptly crouched down and began to mercilessly assault his face with cheek smooches, rubs, and pinches with remarkably cold hands making him shudder and squirm in her grip.
“Now what can I do for you sweethe-oh! No no no~ Come IN first~ Come in and get comfy~ Then we talk~”
“Buuu-aaah-I-duuu-gaa! W-wai… wha?“
Petie’s attempts to protest were stymied by the assault on his face… and when she finally let his face go? He was baffled to find himself already in the house, plopped among far too many cushions on an antique chair as he found himself sinking in among the padding and trapped as effectively as if he’d been strapped into a carseat. The kangaskhan pulled up a vintage chair in front of him, only a small table between them, and filling his vision.
“Now then, all comfy~? Good~ So tell me sweetheart, what brings you to my door today~?”
The tone was pleasant, cooing in the “grown-up to toddler” kind of way, and conversational… but there was an echo to it that sounded… off to Petie’s ears. He also found himself barely able to squirm and completely unable to look away from his host’s eyes. His mouth seemed to open against his will and worlds just started tumbling out. The only thing he had any say over was the stutter the sheer terror he was feeling added.
“I-I s-sa-saw s-some… s-some g-guys h-hop a fence i-into your yard a l-little while ago… d-dats w-why-“
“Ooooooh? That’s why you noticed my house dearie~? Tell me, what were you doing before knocking on my door since this was a little while ago~?”
“H-had… I… h-hadta… g-get my b-backpack back… t-the g-guys… pushed… pushed me down… a-and t-threw it-“
“Oh you poor dear!”
Watching the ladies grin slowly get wide and wider as he talked (and praying he was imagining it) Petie could feel something building. Sitting there helplessly answering her questions he could feel an ominous feeling building up like a pressure in the room, like something was going to explode… right up until that last moment. The pressure and ominous sensation utterly shattered as her face took on a genuinely shocked look of concern. Petie found himself squeaking as he as he was plucked from the pillows and hugged tight in the khan’s arms, his chin on her shoulder, as she snuggled him. One arm wrapped around his back to hug him close and the other very obviously patting his bottom as she gently rocked back and forth.
“I’m soooo sorry! If I’d known those naught little boys… why I never, picking on a poor little one like you… for shame! For shame!”
Petie found himself oddly limp in her arms, unable to do anything but fidget slightly in the chilly embrace and try not to picture how much this had to look like Momma soothing one of the twins to sleep. Finally he was released… to be held out at arms length, her hands under his arms and around his middle to make him dangle as she gave him another broad smile. This time though he could tell the smile was only unintentionally creepy as her tone was now nothing but sugar and nursery worker cooing.
“I think you deserve a treat after such a terrible time, yes you do~ I think I have some nice fresh cookies that’d do the trick, and lovely milk to go with them~ Now you just wait riiiiiight her and I’ll be back in a moment~”
As she spoke she place Petie back where he’d started, trapped among the cushions in the chair, but with one notable difference. Before she’d just plopped him down and let the pillows suck him down like quicksand. This time she actually took a moment to carefully arrange them for him. A cushion under his bottom, one supporting his back, another supporting his head, some on either side pinned him in place. The end result was that Petie was still trapped barely able to even turn his head, only his arms had any freedom, but it was oddly much more comfortable… and somehow made the carseat or infant carrier comparison strong in his mind.
As soon as he stopped trying to figure out if escape was possible or not and looked up he realized the khan was gone… but in the time it took him to recognize that fact and wonder if he could finally get a look around whatever this place was? She returned. Far too fast to have popped into a kitchen and prepared the large silver platter bearing a plate of chocolate chip cookies, even if that kitchen was only a few feet away or something. Alongside the plate was what he could only describe as a antique sippie cup going by just the appearance. His earlier nerves, still present terror, and the sheer number of things that didn’t add up likely saved him from being overwhelmed by the fresh, warm scent of the cookies.
“Here we are~ All for you sweetheart~ Have one~ Now be careful~ Wouldn’t want to mess up your shirt now would we~?”
She cooed, pushing one of the cookies into Petie’s paws as he held it up with both hands… barely resisting shoving it in his face via focusing on her comment. He’d heard similar things before admittedly and usually it was an excuse for somebody to put a bib on him… here? He wasn’t sure. There wasn’t any malice to the tone… but he’d dealt with baby-cooing-ladies enough to know malice wasn’t what to watch for. She was hoping he’d give her an excuse to change his clothes and he could swear he almost saw sailor suits in her eyes.
With this in mind, and fighting every instinct he had to do so, he took small, controlled nibbles of the cookie. The result was both rapturous… and terrifying since it tasted as wonderful and nummy as his Momma’s cookies but the delicious smell it had was completely off for that sort of taste. Others might not have noticed but between his sensitive bear nose and tastebuds, and long experience as a lover of cookies, the disconnect was a bright red flag. It’d be like having a hamburger that smelled like a burger… but tasted like fried chicken instead.
Not that this made it any easier for him to stop nibbling as he took another bite, it just made keeping his bites controlled much easier. And while a few crumbs fell onto his shirt as he did so… he was pretty sure he wasn’t making enough of a mess of it or his face to justify whatever the lady was hoping for. If the lady noticed, cared, or was bothered by this she didn’t show it though as glancing up at her from the cookie saw she was giving him the gushing goo goo eyes you’d expect someone watching their infant clumsily shove birthday cake in their face with their bare hands.
When the first cookie was finally gone what followed wasn’t another one… but her taking a rag, which he was pretty sure she didn’t have before, to his face and paws before gently shoving the sippie cup into them. Once she was sure he had a firm, toddler appropriate grip on both handles she gently pushed it to his mouth… making it clear she wasn’t backing off till he started drinking. Like the cookie the milk was delicious, chilly and nummy, but Petie was too on edge to be taken by that… especially as the lady started talking again.
“Drink it up sweetie, goood, good little bear~ Now as for those three… hooligans… I did know about them hopping my fence. I caught those three unpleasant vandals in my garden, the louts were making such a ruckus they disturbed my babies and-“
She stopped short as the familiar sound of an infant crying reached Petie’s ears… followed promptly by two more distinct bawls joining the first.
“And that’s them now~ A mother’s duty is never done~ Come along precious, lets check on them~”
Effortlessly plucking him from the pile of cushions he’d failed to budge, sippie cup still in his paws, Petie found himself hugged tight to the lady again as she carried him… through the house? He genuinely wasn’t sure cause the whole thing was a confusing blur. Beyond the usual issue of being carried baby style, aka head on her shoulder and only able to see where they’d gone, the whole thing felt like a fast forward foggy dream. He was left with the impression they’d gone through a well decorated, very old style house… but the details? He couldn’t recall a single one. The most he was sure of was that they’d gone up stairs at some point and the entire ride, aside from some slight swaying that seemed like it was more to simulate walking, had been so smooth it was like the lady had been gliding.
Either way the baby cries got closer till he heard a door being pushed open and found himself set down in what was unmistakably a nursery. Like everything else Petie had seen so far it was all fashioned. Brightly painted wooden nursery furniture lavished with silks and soft padding, brightly patterned wallpaper, hand sewn stuffed toys… things Petie had all seen before… just never without being extremely faded with time. All this however looked as fresh as if it was made yesterday. That however wasn’t what had captured Petie’s attention.
The room was an octagon with four big old canopy windows on the far walls. All complete with nice, thick curtains to insure that if it was too sunny the nursery could be made appropriately dim for nap time. As of the moment though the curtains were wide open letting him clearly see through the windows to outside… and that’s what had cold shivers going down his spine. If this room was in the front of the house then there should have been numerous trees blocking any view the windows might have had. If it was in the back of the house the windows still should have shown the reddish orange sky of twilight and a fast setting sun. Instead? They showed a clear blue sky on a bright clear morning.
“Hush now my poppets~ Mommy’s here~ Mommy’s here~ Hush sweeties~ Mommy will make it aaaaaall better~ Yes she will~ Yes she will~”
Turning his attention back to the lady he found her gushing and cooing over three lavish cradles. All three gently rocking likely due to the fussing infants in them going by the crying. He watched as the lady gently scooped up each of the infant boys one at a time and, while gushing and cooing them, changed them into fresh diapers. Naturally the babies were in cloth diapers and baby outfits Petie had never seen outside of old photos, bonnets and gowns had gone out of fashion for little boys ages ago, but it took him a moment to realize that his blood ran cold at the sigh of it and another minute to realize the why as the meowth, rattata, and pichu were handled in turn.
Suddenly the windows or the unnaturally fresh and vibrant nursery were fairly low on the list of concerns in the teddiursa’s mind. Especially when the lady started talking again… though whether it was to him, the babies, both, or herself he couldn’t tell.
“Yeeeees… those little vandals trespassed on my home… intruded on my home… Mommy will make sure my little angels never do something that silly, yes she will, yes she will~ They should have been taught better, at their age they should have known better… ooooh Mommies little sweeties are just so fussy~ But your too little to know better that’s why it’s so adorable yes you are, yes you are~ It’s so cute how babies think they can talk don’t you think~?”
As she spoke she loomed over one side of the pillow, cushion, and stuffed toy filled playpen she’d deposited the infants in… giving Petie a clear view of the trio through the bars. Especially when they’d turned their gaze away from her and to him. They were young enough their crawling was more creeping but they tried to crawl as close to the wall facing him as they could, all the while babbling with their toothless mouths. Between the urgency in the chirpy, adorable, and desperate noises they were making and their bit pleading baby eyes Petie was pretty sure this was something along the lines of “Please save us!”
Right up until the last sentence when the lady fished several shiny silver pacifiers out of her apron and slipped them into the infants mouths. The babbling was replaced with a familiar, due to his similar reaction to pacifiers, helpless nursing sound as he watched their eyes go half lidded and unfocused. As the lady gently pushed rattles and other toys into their chubby paws they didn’t resist and even started to clumsily play with them making their “mother” smile broadly and start talking again.
“So precious~ Mommy loves her little angels~ Her sweet, helpless little babies~ She’s going to raise you right… not like those hooligans, those intruders… but you won’t be big like that for a long, long time my precious cherubs~ Of course… today also brought us a sweet little guest too~ Didn’t it~?”
Finally looking up from the nursing, dazed infants the lady smiled to Petie. Despite her elongated, crooked mouth the smile was genuinely affectionate. It might have even had warmth. Between what she was saying and the fact she wasn’t being subtle about the yellow glow to her eyes anymore Petie found his knees knocking as he proceeded to babble out the first thing that came to his mind since he couldn’t get his legs to budge for an attempt at fleeing.
“M-ma-my-my M-Mo-Momma is e-ex-p-p-pecting m-me ba-ba-back s-soon m-ma-ma’am-“
“Oh? Oh! Of course! I’d NEVER want to make a mother worry about their little one! No no no no! I just so rarely get guests is all~ I’m sorry if I frightened you, it’s okay~ It’s okay~”
The lady was in front of him again, this time kneeling, as she nuzzled the top of Petie’s head while gently rubbing his cheeks. This actually did help him calm down… but not because it was soothing. He’d had other people do it to him before and short of Momma doing it this was never soothing. Just annoyingly uncomfortable. Especially with how chilly the lady was. Said annoyance was a familiar feeling the teddiursa could focus on to bite back the terror-
“Though lets see… hmmm… no, no, you’re still okay~ Well then… proper diapers will have to wait~”
Till the more familiar sensation of humiliation at the utter, blatant diaper check he’d just received supplanted the annoyance. The lady’s disappointment that he didn’t need a change, and what he assumed was her disapproval of disposable diapers, was just as blatant. He had to appreciate the irony of it all… having gotten a change at the fake haunted house saved him from needing one here… but figuring out whether he owed the houndstone a thank you or not would have to wait as he struggled to get his stuttering voice back under control.
“M-my m-momma’s g-gonna be m-mad if I’m l-la-late m-ma’am, m-may I go please?”
“… I insist you finish the cookies and milk first~ Such a polite little one you are~! You’re your mother’s little pride and joy I just know it~”
Petie would have sighed in relief… had the lady not been mercilessly pinching his cheek with that last comment. He found himself being gathered up once more in her arms baby style, and she was patting his bottom again, as she started for the door to apparently go back downstairs. Gazing over her shoulder Petie could clearly see the three dazed infants left in the playpen. A brief pang of guilt hit him… but it quickly died in favor of saving himself for now…
He’d worry about them later when he was out of the crazy ghost lady’s clutches.
*****************
Despite his fears the ghost, he wasn’t even gonna pretend about that anymore, was good to her word. After he’d finished the platter of cookies and the cup of milk, well aware she was watching him like a hawk the entire time… probably for any excuse to baby him or something worse, she’d snuggled him, said her goodbyes, asked him to visit again… and he’d found himself back on the street. Standing outside the shut gate of the dark and abandoned house. There were numerous things he need to consider… but he opted to wait to think about them till he was at minimum over a block away from said house.
The first thing he’d checked was his clothes and his backpack. When he’d found nothing amiss there he’d looked for the nearest reflective surface to make sure he didn’t have anything physically different about him. That was the same as normal too… which left him more on edge than relieved. He didn’t know if he’d been chowing down on ectoplasm or just nothing but he wasn’t willing to believe the little snack he’d eaten had done nothing to him even if the ghost seemed to be far nicer and kinder to him than her “Precious Babies”…
Which was something else he had to worry about now that he wasn’t ground zero for spooky stuff if he angered the restless spirit. Bullies or not he wasn’t gonna wish helpless babyhood on anybody… so he’d have to do something about that… eventually. A part of him was desperately trying to convince the teddiursa he’d just dreamed this whole mess and nothing happened. With his luck though he’d see some missing teens reports in the next few days and he’d have to go back to that house to see if the cute “Pweeeeease” face worked on the dead and during hostage negotiations… he wasn’t looking forward to that.
Sighing softly he pushed open his front door and waddled in. Naturally Momma was there sitting on the couch with a book with the twins in their playpen making him wince a little as he pushed the door shut behind him with one paw. The sun was already just about set so he was expect… maybe not the riot act but at least a light scolding. So he was a little surprised when the look on Momma’s face immediately morphed into one of concern as she got up from the couch.
“… are you okay honeypot?”
“… yeeeeah? Uuuh… why? Wha wooks… huh?”
“… sweetie, you’re sucking your thumb and your pants are drooping. Don’t try and pretend your not stressed out over something to your Momma.”
Blinking for a long moment Petie, with great effort, pulled the thumb he’d been unknowingly nursing and drooling on out of his mouth. With awareness of that came the realization his legs were broadly splayed too… along with the fact he probably now had a rough answer for exactly what snack time with a ghost had done to him. Thoroughly humiliated, both by this and the fact he had to admit it could have been worse and he’d been far less dignified probably just earlier this week, he steeled himself to ask Momma for a change-
And found himself tearing up and holding his arms up to her in a classic “uppies” pose performed the world over by babies and toddlers instead.
“That bad huh sweetie? It’s okay, you can tell me later if you feel like it. For now lets get you changed, then maybe a snack-oh? Somebody’s a needy cubby today. It’s okay, Momma’s here~”
Somehow the warmth he felt as Momma scooped him up, especially compared to the ghostly chill from the ladies attention earlier, just melted Petie as the moment she hugged him he found himself snuggling into her on reflex. The fact he knew he had homework to do was a distant thought barely worth focusing on at the moment compared to the cuddles. In fact the most coherent though he could muster up as he nuzzled into her to wipe the tears away, all while letting out a soft coo, was “This had better be temporary”…
Though he reluctantly admitted wouldn’t mind if it took till tomorrow for him to snap back.
The End~
Category Story / Baby fur
Species Pokemon
Gender Multiple characters
Size 482 x 296px
File Size 29.6 kB
Listed in Folders
Daaawww~ Hecc this was a super cute story~ Gotta say, I expected lil Petie to be the prime babyin target here as he usually is, hehe~ Big surprise ta see the teddy go to two haunted houses instead of just one. didn't expect that either ^^ Just means we got both a short cute haunted house visit and a more tricky one with the ghost momma, so i'm not complainin'~
Petie gets a short and sweet spook from a friendly doggo and his mean bullies get a new Momma. Plus they all get fresh new poofy pants, its a win win win!
But yee, super good story, love the ghost momma. Both seemingly sweet and simultaneously veerryyy spooky. I'm sure Petie will be sleepin' with his momma tonight after that scare~
Petie gets a short and sweet spook from a friendly doggo and his mean bullies get a new Momma. Plus they all get fresh new poofy pants, its a win win win!
But yee, super good story, love the ghost momma. Both seemingly sweet and simultaneously veerryyy spooky. I'm sure Petie will be sleepin' with his momma tonight after that scare~
Thought it'd be fun to subvert expectations some~ Play with the haunted house cliches some with a "Haunted" house and a Haunted house~ Glad it worked~
The bullies got what was coming to them and ghost momma won't be lonely for a while~ Win win win win~
Thank you ^///^ Worked really hard to make her that was so glad it worked~ And maybe, maybe~
The bullies got what was coming to them and ghost momma won't be lonely for a while~ Win win win win~
Thank you ^///^ Worked really hard to make her that was so glad it worked~ And maybe, maybe~
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