enbytes
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Hi, and thank you very much for clicking! Welcome to "CASEFILES"! This is a series of Pokémon themed horror short stories, inspired by the popular horror podcast "The Magnus Archives"! While the narrative format is heavily inspired by the podcast, the story itself is very different and, quite obviously, set in the world of Pokémon! There are no warnings for now and the rating is set at TEEN, but I will add content warnings and adjust the rating accordingly as chapters come out, and there will be content warnings and individual ratings at the top of every chapter! I hope you enjoy reading!
CASE SIN022107
Subject: Martin Sims, on a strange phenomenon occurring at his place of work, Hotel Grand Lake.
Note: This is one of several dozen handwritten casefiles I’ve discovered among the belongings of my partner, Detective Reece Wallace, following his disappearance. I can’t find any record of this case or of the handful of other cases I read through in the International Police’s database, so I assume they were freelance work. Although I have to say, there’s not much actual policework going on here, as it’s mostly just tall tales and ghost stories. I never pegged Reece as the type of guy to believe this stuff. -Detective William Barnes
(Detective’s Note: I’ve corrected some grammar and cleaned up the statement, as Mr. Sims wasn’t native to Sinnoh and didn’t have particularly legible prose.)
STATEMENT FOLLOWS
Well, first off I really appreciate you taking the time to listen to my story, not many other people have. Mostly they just kinda look at me funny and then ask if I’m some crazy foreigner since my Canalavian isn’t very good.
Anyways, you asked me to start with a bit about myself first. Name’s Martin Sims, I’m twenty three, and I work and live at Hotel Grand Lake, just south of Veilstone. I’m originally from Unova, but I’m going to university in Veilstone as part of a semester abroad. I’m working part time at the resort to help pay for it all. I’m basically a janitor, but I do maintenance from time to time as well. It doesn’t pay a ton, but it’s enough that it helps take care of school expenses and food. The work is usually boring, but it’s work. I say usually, because what happened a few months back was definitely not boring, and I have to say I prefer being bored.
This all happened after I’d just gotten ready to finish up my shift for the night and clock out. It was about, oh, eleven in the evening? One of the guests who’d arrived for the holidays a few days prior had apparently had some friends over and absolutely trashed one of the larger suites, and I’d been stuck with the duty of tidying it up. There was another guest checking into it the next morning, so it had to be done that night and I was one of two janitors on duty. The other guy was cleaning somewhere else, I don’t know exactly where, but I was told that he’d be along to help sometime soon. So, naturally, I got to work. It was late and I was supposed to be off already, and on top of that I had an exam the following morning, so I was eager to get done as quickly as possible.
The room was a mess. Beds turned over, curtain rods knocked down, the whole lot. The TV was facedown on the floor, and frankly I was shocked that it didn’t seem to be busted. Whatever kind of party they’d been having it was surely a riot. It was hard to tell what was the front of the room and what was the back. That’s how tossed around everything was. I hunkered down and got to cleaning up, and boy did it take a while. It was almost one in the morning before I knew it, and I was starting to get ticked off as the other janitor had never shown up. It was unusual too, as I knew the guy. His name was Riley Schrode and he was one of the nicest people I’ve met here, so it was unlike him to skip out on something like this. I gave him another twenty minutes or so, and then, deciding that I’d be here until sunrise if I kept at it alone, set off looking for him. I told myself he probably had a good reason for not showing up, but I was still rather angry. I couldn’t find him, though. I checked most everywhere I could think of; the staff break areas, the janitorial closets, even the staff living suites, despite the fact that Riley didn’t live on site. He just… wasn’t anywhere.
It was at this point that I was deciding that Riley’d gone and left entirely, and was about to head back to the suite and try and finish up the cleaning myself. On my way back, though, I noticed something weird. You see, Hotel Grand Lake isn’t just a resort, it’s a pretty popular spot to hang out and get a nice meal or catch a late night movie, or really any number of things, so it’s quite strange that it would be empty, even so early in the morning. That’s why I was surprised to realize that I hadn’t seen anyone while I was looking for Riley. Not a single soul! Even when I’d been in the courtyards, the Shellos and the Wingull that normally wander up from the beach when the sun sets had been absent. The thought of this made a chill run down my back.
At this point I figured the room could wait and I set out to search for someone. I wasn’t really having any luck as I went down the halls, and I’d almost decided to start knocking on doors, despite the time, when I noticed one room had its door wide open.
Now, rooms being left open isn’t really all that strange by itself. Typically when people are checking in or out, they leave the door open while they cart all their belongings around. At night, though? If it were past eleven or so, you could be sure that it was a janitor, working on the room. At this point I was getting angry again. I figured it was Riley in the room and he’d lost track of time or something, which was really quite frustrating. I went over, prepared to give him an earful, but when I stepped through that door I stopped cold.
Riley was there alright. His janitor’s cart was shoved up against the far wall of the room, and he was slumped down in one of the cushy armchairs that were standard in all the rooms. My breath caught in my throat. He was just staring right past me, looking at nothing. At first I thought he was dead. I mean, sitting there unresponsive, eyes wide? Of course I’d think that. He looked very dead. I noticed he was still breathing though, a split second after I’d jumped to that conclusion. His chest still rose and fell, albeit very slowly. I tried to give him a shake, see if he’d just been, I don’t know, sleeping with his eyes open? It was all rather creepy and I was trying to rationalize I think. Anyways, Riley didn’t respond when I shook him. I figured that maybe he wasn’t dead, but that for sure something bad had happened, so I whipped out my phone and dialed for the resort’s clinic. The nearest hospital is a good forty five minutes away and the resort sure as hell makes enough to staff a small urgent clinic, so we were always told to call there in case of an emergency.
The clinic didn’t pick up. It went through the automatic message system and I dialed three for an emergency like it said, but it just rang and rang, for almost three minutes before I gave in and hung up. Riley was still breathing, still staring blankly at nothing in particular. A at this point I was convinced that something was definitely wrong, and I was more than a little spooked. I decided to try the front lobby, as it wasn’t too far from where I’d found Riley. I headed off, walking a brisk pace but not wanting to run, out of fear of drawing attention to myself. I don’t know what there was to be noticed by, as there was once again not a soul in sight, but my paranoia kept me from sprinting.
I arrived at the front lobby to a distressing sight. The three workers who should have been manning the lobby overnight were all slouched in their chairs or slumped over the counter they sat behind, their eyes empty and staring just like Riley’s had been. I checked if they were still alive after I managed to swallow my growing panic. They were breathing, which was a relief, but now I was even more lost than before. I decided that I’d definitely had enough and I grabbed my phone to call the police.
Before I could dial the emergency number, though, I froze at the sound of what I thought was bells, or at least something bell-like. It sounded almost like a Pokémon’s cry. I should have been relieved, finally encountering something that seemed to be alive, but honestly I was only even more scared. The cry came again, like a gentle wind chime, closer this time. It came a third time, this time sounding as if whatever it was stood right behind me. I wanted to turn around, to see what it was, but I couldn’t move a muscle. And it wasn’t like I was frozen by fear, either. I literally couldn’t bring my legs to move. I thought about them moving, but I just stood there. Just the thought of turning around exhausted me, and I wanted to collapse. I grit my teeth and braced myself for whatever horrible thing was about to happen to me, but all of a sudden I heard the cry again, from much further away. Whatever it was seemed to have retreated, and I could move my legs again.
I still didn’t turn around, though. I decided that I didn’t want to risk whatever it was could happen to me. I stayed and stared at the slumped workers for what must have been at least ten minutes, until I hadn’t heard the cry for some time and I was sure the creature was gone. I reclaimed my phone, which I had dropped during my encounter with whatever had been making the cry, and dialed the police as I ran out of the resort and headed for the beach. I just needed to get away from there.
The police arrived about twenty or so minutes later, and some paramedics and two ambulances about twenty minutes after that. They found me down by the beach. Apparently, all the staff were fine, and they asked if I had been the one who made the false call. I assured them that there was nothing false about it, but found myself at a loss for words when I saw a group of staff heading towards me and the officers. Riley and one of the front lobby staff were among them, none the worse for wear.
A lot of questioning followed, and then they let me go with a warning not to call on false pretenses again, despite me insisting that I hadn’t. The resort has politely asked that I see a therapist before I return to work. I suspect they think I’m quite mad. I know I’m not, though. I swear I’m not.
STATEMENT CONCLUDES
Follow-up: Well, there isn’t much follow-up to do here. I’m inclined to agree with the resort’s assessment, and say that Mr. Sims was “quite mad”, or at least was suffering from some kind of breakdown. Anyways, I had nothing better to do so I went ahead and looked into some of the details. The police were indeed called out to Hotel Grand Lake on false pretenses some weeks prior to this statement. They had no comment on it. The Hotel Grand Lake was polite enough, informing me that the incident occurred after a young employee had experienced a “stress related breakdown” after overworking himself. As for Martin Sims, it appears he finished up his study abroad program a few months after this statement and returned to Unova. I managed to get in contact with him over email, as his contact information was included in the case file. He swears that everything did indeed happen the way he told it in his statement. I find myself agreeing with the resort management’s conclusion, in the end.
As a side note, I’m keeping this statement on my laptop for now. I’ve tried to upload it and my notes to the International Police database three times now, and all three times the file has corrupted and I’ve had to start from scratch and type it up again. I suspect there’s some sort of bug. I sent an email to the department that keeps the database running. -Detective William Barnes
CASE SIN022107 - Apathy (You are here!)
CASE SIN022107
Subject: Martin Sims, on a strange phenomenon occurring at his place of work, Hotel Grand Lake.
Note: This is one of several dozen handwritten casefiles I’ve discovered among the belongings of my partner, Detective Reece Wallace, following his disappearance. I can’t find any record of this case or of the handful of other cases I read through in the International Police’s database, so I assume they were freelance work. Although I have to say, there’s not much actual policework going on here, as it’s mostly just tall tales and ghost stories. I never pegged Reece as the type of guy to believe this stuff. -Detective William Barnes
(Detective’s Note: I’ve corrected some grammar and cleaned up the statement, as Mr. Sims wasn’t native to Sinnoh and didn’t have particularly legible prose.)
STATEMENT FOLLOWS
Well, first off I really appreciate you taking the time to listen to my story, not many other people have. Mostly they just kinda look at me funny and then ask if I’m some crazy foreigner since my Canalavian isn’t very good.
Anyways, you asked me to start with a bit about myself first. Name’s Martin Sims, I’m twenty three, and I work and live at Hotel Grand Lake, just south of Veilstone. I’m originally from Unova, but I’m going to university in Veilstone as part of a semester abroad. I’m working part time at the resort to help pay for it all. I’m basically a janitor, but I do maintenance from time to time as well. It doesn’t pay a ton, but it’s enough that it helps take care of school expenses and food. The work is usually boring, but it’s work. I say usually, because what happened a few months back was definitely not boring, and I have to say I prefer being bored.
This all happened after I’d just gotten ready to finish up my shift for the night and clock out. It was about, oh, eleven in the evening? One of the guests who’d arrived for the holidays a few days prior had apparently had some friends over and absolutely trashed one of the larger suites, and I’d been stuck with the duty of tidying it up. There was another guest checking into it the next morning, so it had to be done that night and I was one of two janitors on duty. The other guy was cleaning somewhere else, I don’t know exactly where, but I was told that he’d be along to help sometime soon. So, naturally, I got to work. It was late and I was supposed to be off already, and on top of that I had an exam the following morning, so I was eager to get done as quickly as possible.
The room was a mess. Beds turned over, curtain rods knocked down, the whole lot. The TV was facedown on the floor, and frankly I was shocked that it didn’t seem to be busted. Whatever kind of party they’d been having it was surely a riot. It was hard to tell what was the front of the room and what was the back. That’s how tossed around everything was. I hunkered down and got to cleaning up, and boy did it take a while. It was almost one in the morning before I knew it, and I was starting to get ticked off as the other janitor had never shown up. It was unusual too, as I knew the guy. His name was Riley Schrode and he was one of the nicest people I’ve met here, so it was unlike him to skip out on something like this. I gave him another twenty minutes or so, and then, deciding that I’d be here until sunrise if I kept at it alone, set off looking for him. I told myself he probably had a good reason for not showing up, but I was still rather angry. I couldn’t find him, though. I checked most everywhere I could think of; the staff break areas, the janitorial closets, even the staff living suites, despite the fact that Riley didn’t live on site. He just… wasn’t anywhere.
It was at this point that I was deciding that Riley’d gone and left entirely, and was about to head back to the suite and try and finish up the cleaning myself. On my way back, though, I noticed something weird. You see, Hotel Grand Lake isn’t just a resort, it’s a pretty popular spot to hang out and get a nice meal or catch a late night movie, or really any number of things, so it’s quite strange that it would be empty, even so early in the morning. That’s why I was surprised to realize that I hadn’t seen anyone while I was looking for Riley. Not a single soul! Even when I’d been in the courtyards, the Shellos and the Wingull that normally wander up from the beach when the sun sets had been absent. The thought of this made a chill run down my back.
At this point I figured the room could wait and I set out to search for someone. I wasn’t really having any luck as I went down the halls, and I’d almost decided to start knocking on doors, despite the time, when I noticed one room had its door wide open.
Now, rooms being left open isn’t really all that strange by itself. Typically when people are checking in or out, they leave the door open while they cart all their belongings around. At night, though? If it were past eleven or so, you could be sure that it was a janitor, working on the room. At this point I was getting angry again. I figured it was Riley in the room and he’d lost track of time or something, which was really quite frustrating. I went over, prepared to give him an earful, but when I stepped through that door I stopped cold.
Riley was there alright. His janitor’s cart was shoved up against the far wall of the room, and he was slumped down in one of the cushy armchairs that were standard in all the rooms. My breath caught in my throat. He was just staring right past me, looking at nothing. At first I thought he was dead. I mean, sitting there unresponsive, eyes wide? Of course I’d think that. He looked very dead. I noticed he was still breathing though, a split second after I’d jumped to that conclusion. His chest still rose and fell, albeit very slowly. I tried to give him a shake, see if he’d just been, I don’t know, sleeping with his eyes open? It was all rather creepy and I was trying to rationalize I think. Anyways, Riley didn’t respond when I shook him. I figured that maybe he wasn’t dead, but that for sure something bad had happened, so I whipped out my phone and dialed for the resort’s clinic. The nearest hospital is a good forty five minutes away and the resort sure as hell makes enough to staff a small urgent clinic, so we were always told to call there in case of an emergency.
The clinic didn’t pick up. It went through the automatic message system and I dialed three for an emergency like it said, but it just rang and rang, for almost three minutes before I gave in and hung up. Riley was still breathing, still staring blankly at nothing in particular. A at this point I was convinced that something was definitely wrong, and I was more than a little spooked. I decided to try the front lobby, as it wasn’t too far from where I’d found Riley. I headed off, walking a brisk pace but not wanting to run, out of fear of drawing attention to myself. I don’t know what there was to be noticed by, as there was once again not a soul in sight, but my paranoia kept me from sprinting.
I arrived at the front lobby to a distressing sight. The three workers who should have been manning the lobby overnight were all slouched in their chairs or slumped over the counter they sat behind, their eyes empty and staring just like Riley’s had been. I checked if they were still alive after I managed to swallow my growing panic. They were breathing, which was a relief, but now I was even more lost than before. I decided that I’d definitely had enough and I grabbed my phone to call the police.
Before I could dial the emergency number, though, I froze at the sound of what I thought was bells, or at least something bell-like. It sounded almost like a Pokémon’s cry. I should have been relieved, finally encountering something that seemed to be alive, but honestly I was only even more scared. The cry came again, like a gentle wind chime, closer this time. It came a third time, this time sounding as if whatever it was stood right behind me. I wanted to turn around, to see what it was, but I couldn’t move a muscle. And it wasn’t like I was frozen by fear, either. I literally couldn’t bring my legs to move. I thought about them moving, but I just stood there. Just the thought of turning around exhausted me, and I wanted to collapse. I grit my teeth and braced myself for whatever horrible thing was about to happen to me, but all of a sudden I heard the cry again, from much further away. Whatever it was seemed to have retreated, and I could move my legs again.
I still didn’t turn around, though. I decided that I didn’t want to risk whatever it was could happen to me. I stayed and stared at the slumped workers for what must have been at least ten minutes, until I hadn’t heard the cry for some time and I was sure the creature was gone. I reclaimed my phone, which I had dropped during my encounter with whatever had been making the cry, and dialed the police as I ran out of the resort and headed for the beach. I just needed to get away from there.
The police arrived about twenty or so minutes later, and some paramedics and two ambulances about twenty minutes after that. They found me down by the beach. Apparently, all the staff were fine, and they asked if I had been the one who made the false call. I assured them that there was nothing false about it, but found myself at a loss for words when I saw a group of staff heading towards me and the officers. Riley and one of the front lobby staff were among them, none the worse for wear.
A lot of questioning followed, and then they let me go with a warning not to call on false pretenses again, despite me insisting that I hadn’t. The resort has politely asked that I see a therapist before I return to work. I suspect they think I’m quite mad. I know I’m not, though. I swear I’m not.
STATEMENT CONCLUDES
Follow-up: Well, there isn’t much follow-up to do here. I’m inclined to agree with the resort’s assessment, and say that Mr. Sims was “quite mad”, or at least was suffering from some kind of breakdown. Anyways, I had nothing better to do so I went ahead and looked into some of the details. The police were indeed called out to Hotel Grand Lake on false pretenses some weeks prior to this statement. They had no comment on it. The Hotel Grand Lake was polite enough, informing me that the incident occurred after a young employee had experienced a “stress related breakdown” after overworking himself. As for Martin Sims, it appears he finished up his study abroad program a few months after this statement and returned to Unova. I managed to get in contact with him over email, as his contact information was included in the case file. He swears that everything did indeed happen the way he told it in his statement. I find myself agreeing with the resort management’s conclusion, in the end.
As a side note, I’m keeping this statement on my laptop for now. I’ve tried to upload it and my notes to the International Police database three times now, and all three times the file has corrupted and I’ve had to start from scratch and type it up again. I suspect there’s some sort of bug. I sent an email to the department that keeps the database running. -Detective William Barnes
