Pokeumans and Personas Chapter 1

This is a story about my adventures through the TV. My battles against the shadows. And the mystery of the world in the TV. My name is Fenrir and this is my story.

I fell asleep on the train ride to where I was going. When I felt like I woke up I looked around and saw myself in what looked like a limo driving through a thick cloud of fog. In front of me was a table, a couch, and an old man with a long pointy nose and bugged out eyes sitting in the couch and a woman sitting next to him with blonde hair and a big book in her hands. I was very confused about what was going on.

“Where am I?” I asked.

“Welcome to the Velvet Room.” The man with the long nose said. “Ah, it seems we have a guest with an intriguing destiny.” He said with a chuckle.

“My name is Igor. I am delighted to make your acquaintance.” He continued. “This place exists between dream and reality. Mind and matter. It is a room that only those bound by a contract my enter. It may be that such a fate awaits you in the near future. Now then, why don’t you introduce yourself?” Igor said.

“My name is Fenrir.” I said.

“Hm…I see. Now, let’s take a look into your future shall we?” Igori said.

He held his hand over the table and a deck of tarot cards appeared.

“Do you believe in fortune telling?” Igor asked.

He moved his hand and all the cards spread themselves across the table on their own as if waiting to be looked at.

“Each reading is done with the same cards, yet the result is always different… Life itself follows the same principles. Doesn’t it?” Igor said with a chuckle.

He flipped the first card over.

“Hm… The Tower in the upright position represents the immediate future. It seems a terrible catastrophe is imminent. The card indicating the future beyond that is…”

Igor flipped the next card.

“The Moon in the upright position. This card represents hesitation, and mystery… Very interesting indeed. It seems you will encounter a misfortune at your destination, and a great mystery will be imposed upon you. In the coming days, you will enter into a contract of some sort, after which you will return here. The coming year is a turning point in your destiny… If the mystery goes unsolved, your future may be forever lost. My duty is to provide assistance to our guests to ensure that does not happen.”

He moved his hand again and all the cards disappeared.

“Ah, I have neglected to introduce my assistant to you. This is Margaret. She’s a resident of this place, much like myself.” Igor said motioning to the woman next to him.

“My name is Margaret. I am here to accompany you throughout your journey.” Margaret said.

“We shall attend to the details another time. Until then, farewell…” Igor said.

I blacked out and woke up again on the train. It was just coming to a stop. I looked outside and saw where I was. North Carolina. On the Smoky Mountains Railroad. It had just pulled into the station in Sylva. A town in North Carolina. I got off the train and walked out into the town. I was going to be going to school here since my parents were working overseas so I was stuck here for a year with someone who was a friend of my parents. In fact he was coming here now. His name was Evan. He was a friend of my parents in high school or something. And he was kind enough to let me stay here while I went to school. He drove up in a SUV and parked nearby. He got out and walked over to me. Evan was about six feet tall, wearing jeans and a t shirt, and he had a ring on his finger that seemed really strange.

“Hello there. You must be Fenrir. I’m Evan. Your parents’ friend.” He said.

“Hey Evan. Nice to meet you.” I said.

“Sucks that you have to spend a year here cause of your parents. But they always were workaholics. Don’t worry. I’m sure it could be worse.” Evan said.

“Right. Well let’s go.” I said.

I got into the SUV and Evan drove us to the mall. He figured we’d grab some lunch first since I hadn’t ate on the train. We drove to the mall and got some burgers in the food court. While we were eating we made small talk, mostly about what the school here would be like and such for me. After we finished eating Evan got up from his seat. I got up as well and we drove to his house. I grabbed my backpack and some boxes I brought with me and went upstairs to my new room. All that was in there was a futon and a small TV. I set my stuff down and sat on the futon. Evan walked into my room.

“Settling in alright?”
He asked.

“Yeah I’m alright. Thanks.” I said.

“No problem. Oh and if you want to try something fun, ever hear of the Midnight Channel?” Evan asked.

“Midnight Channel?” I asked.

“Some new rumor I’ve heard about. We’ve been getting a lot of rain lately so we might be able to see it tonight if the rumors are true.” Evan said.

“Rumors? What rumors?” I asked.

“A couple friends in college told me about it. You look at a TV that’s turned off when it’s raining at midnight, and supposedly you see your soulmate or something. I never believed it but you’re welcome to try it if you want.” Evan said.

“Yeah I guess. Thanks for checking on me Evan.” I said.

“No problem. You should get some sleep. You have school in the morning. I’ll be downstairs if you need anything or have any questions.” Evan said.

He walked downstairs and I looked at my TV. I had gotten here late so it was close to midnight by now after driving around. I wondered if the rumor was true and figured why not. I sat down and looked outside. It had started raining a few minutes ago. I looked at my watch. One minute to midnight. I waited for a few minutes. My watch struck midnight. At first nothing happened.

“Just a rumor. Figured as much.” I said to myself.

Suddenly my screen flickered and turned white. But the TV was off so I had no idea how it did that.

“Evan are you playing a prank on me?” I asked.

I got no answer. Suddenly an image came onto the screen. It looked like a woman. She seemed familiar but I couldn’t place it. Suddenly I heard a ringing in my ears and I had a painful headache. Suddenly I could hear a voice amongst the ringing.

“Thou art I. I am thou. You will soon open the door. The time will come soon.” The voice said.

I placed a hand against the TV screen for support as the headache was making it hard to stand up straight. Suddenly my hand seemed to sink into the screen. I looked and it seemed as if my hand was sinking into it. Going through the screen, but it wasn’t breaking. The screen turned white and I saw the image disappear. I pushed my hand in further to see if I could. I managed to get my whole arm in up to my shoulder. Then I lost balance and fell backwards, hitting my head on the futon. I held my head to numb the mild pain. Evan came running up.

“Hey you alright Fenrir?” Evan asked.

“Yeah. Just tripped and fell. How did you pull that prank off?” I asked.

“What prank?” Evan asked.

“The midnight channel. How did you make that image on my TV appear?” I asked.

“Fenrir I didn’t do anything with your TV. Are you saying you saw the Midnight Channel?” Evan asked.

“Yeah. It was weird. I saw some woman who looked really familiar but I can’t place it.” I said.

“You too? I thought it was just me. I tried it and saw the same woman. She’s a famous reporter who was found out to be having an affair. She went missing a couple days ago.” Evan said.

“So what does this mean?” I asked.

“I don’t know. Come on it’s still on my TV downstairs.” Evan said.

We walked downstairs to the living room and saw his larger Plasma Screen LCD TV still had the Midnight Channel on it. I tried sticking my hand into the screen again and it went through.

“What the hell!? How did you do that?” Evan asked.

“I don’t know.” I said.

I pushed my hand in deeper and got in up to my shoulder. I stuck my head in and saw nothing but empty space. Evan grabbed my arm so I didn’t fall any deeper, but I went deeper anyway and fell into the TV, pulling Evan with. We fell through and into what looked like a TV studio. But it was filled with a thick fog and we couldn’t see anything. I looked at Evan and saw an arcanine in the place where Evan was. His ring had broken when he landed and was in two pieces.

“E-Evan!?” I asked.

“Ah crap. Well now you know. Yeah I’m a pokeuman. Yes your parents know they didn’t tell you in case pokextinction brainwashed you.” Evan said.

“Pokextinction? Pokeuman? I’m still trying to comprehend that we fell through the TV while watching the Midnight Channel.” I said.

“I’ll explain later. Let’s find a way out.” Evan said.

We started looking around and walked out of the studio into what looked like a darkened version of the town of Sylva. Only no people. All buildings and such. We weren’t sure what was going on. Suddenly we heard something behind us and turned around. Standing there was an Ursaring and he was rubbing his eyes as if he just woke up.

“Mmm…what’s going on?” He asked.

“Easy big guy. I’m Evan and this is Fenrir. We fell in by accident.” Evan said.

“Fell in? But I didn’t think anyone could get into here. And where did you come from?” The Ursaring asked.

Before we could answer the Ursaring froze and started looking around.

“Oh no. They’re here.” He said.

“Who’s here?” I asked.

“The shadows!” He said.

Suddenly two strange creatures walked out of a building. They looked like black puddles of goo with masks on. The creatures made of good formed into two big balls and solidified, then turned around to reveal giant mouths with the tongues hanging out. They charged at us clearly trying to kill us. Suddenly I heard the ringing and got a headache again.

“I am thou. Thou art I. The time is come. Open the door.” It said.

Suddenly my mind seemed clear. A light surrounded me and Evan and the Ursaring looked at me. A blue card that looked like the tarot cards Igor used earlier was spinning in the air over my hand. It had the symbol for The Fool. I knew what to do.

“Per.”

The light grew brighter and the card began glowing brightly.

“So.”

The symbol from the back of the tarot cards appeared below me in a circle of light and a powerful wind seemed to come from nowhere.

“Na.”

I crushed the card in my hand and a creature appeared behind me. It towered over me. It had a long sword in its hand and claws. Blades for feet and it seemed like some kind of masked warrior wearing a gray helmet that hid its face and showed cold yellow eyes. The creatures charged forward and swung its sword into one of the creatures the Ursaring called Shadows. It cut the shadow in half then used the sword to block a tackle from the other remaining shadow. I felt the force from the tackle and realized me and the strange warrior were connected. I felt two words go through my mind. The first was the warrior’s name.

“Izanagi.”

The second was some kind of spell.

“Zio”

Izanagi’s eyes flashed for a moment and a lightning bolt fell from the sky and hit the shadow frying it. It was destroyed and there were no more shadows to fight. Izanagi vanished and I felt it return to me. Evan and the Ursaring looked at me with shock and surprise in their eyes.

“Persona. This is my power.” I said to myself.

I began to wonder, if this had something to do with what Igor had mentioned before. Only time would tell.