Tumgik
writtingmistakes · 3 years
Text
The Amity Park Haunting Series
Danny Fenton and Dash Baxter have always been at each other’s throats, but the tension between them sky rockets when the two of them are forced by circumstance to live under the same roof. But the two of them don’t yet realize that they might not be so much like oil and water as they might think, and as volatile as the living situation is, it might help them gain an understanding of one another that they hadn’t had before. But first they have to deal with a bunch of ghost problems.
Thanks to @bepisbee for letting me know that the previous link wasn’t working. You’re awesome!
54 notes · View notes
writtingmistakes · 3 years
Text
Amity Park Haunting Update
Hello! Since I am using my tumblr as the platform to get all of my series updates out of the way, I wanted to get this out here first and foremost. I am so glad to have gotten the experience to write this series for this audience and I thank you so much for reading. Unfortunately, I won’t be continuing to update this series.  I originally started writing this story a few years ago, but for a while, I didn't really feel like writing it anymore and I couldn't understand why. The reason, I realized was because I didn't like the story I had created anymore. I was proud of it, sure, but I didn't like where it was headed and created it on a shaky foundation to begin with. In the beginning, I honestly didn't even know who the main ship was gonna be. Now, I am much more confident in the potential of the story and where I want it to go, but for me to do that, I can't work on the unstable foundation that I've already laid. For that reason, I am going to be rewriting the story, start to finish and will slowly be publishing it on all the different fanfiction platforms that I am on, including this one. Although I have new plans for the series, I also recognize that others may prefer the original version, or might just want to keep it around, so I will be leaving it up to read her on tumblr and on my AO3 account. Thank you all so much for the experience and I can’t wait to show you all what plans I have next for Danny and the gang. Have a great week and happy reading!
4 notes · View notes
writtingmistakes · 3 years
Text
The Amity Park Haunting Part 6: A Box to Die In
The town of Amity Park is under attack by ghosts, but everyone knows that by now. Under the watchful eye of their hero, Jason Baxter, the town was kept safe, until he was ruthlessly murdered by an unknown entity. Now, his son Dash is left to pick up the mantle, and that means training with the parents of the kid he hates most of all, while grappling with his tumultuous relationship with a random ghost kid.
...
When Danny takes Sam and Tucker out to investigate the strange ghostly activity happening at some of the local warehouses, they run into the Box Ghost. It was supposed to be a minor threat level, but the ghost gets the better of them, trapping Danny in a box and threatening to kill him if Sam and Tucker don’t track down what he’s been searching for, but without any clues on where to start, it is going to be a lot harder than it might at first seem.
Pack it Up
The frigid air of the hospital blasts across my skin as I step through the doors and into the lobby. I wave to the nurse behind the counter with my freehand, the other occupied with a bundle of flowers, then make my way to the elevator and up to the second floor. As soon as the elevator stops I head down the hall to one of the observation rooms, where Tucker lays in bed being coddled by Sam.
“Hey, Tuck,” I say as I step into the room, waving the flowers at him and Sam. “How’re you doing?”
“Great,” he replies. “But my doctors disagree.”
“He has a concussion,” Sam tells me. “The doctor said he can go home tomorrow, though.”
“I swore that I was fine, but my parents got all freaked out,” he sighs. “I bet they’re gonna be super protective over me after this.”
“I’m sorry,” I say, leaving the room in silence.
“It was an accident,” Tuck responds. “Don’t feel bad about it.”
“I should’ve been more careful.”
“You saved us,” Sam defends, but I can’t bring myself to listen to her.
“I’ll come visit you tomorrow,” I say, giving his knee a light tap before I leave the room. I can feel my heart in my feet as I walk down the polished hallway, trudging into the bathroom, where I hide out in one of the stalls. Rubbing my hands over my face with a sigh, I let the guilt of everyone that I’ve hurt wash over me.
“I’m going ghost.”
After I transform, I zip out of the bathroom, cloaked in my invisibility, when I come upon the room that I’ve been looking for. Inside, a man lies comatose, his face covered in bandages. I fly over to the end of the bed, getting a better look at him. Aside from the injuries to his face, his arm is wrapped in a cast as is his leg up to the knee, and he is intubated with a tube down his throat. For a moment, all I can do is float there, staring at his limp body and listening to the steady rhythm of the heartbeat monitor, but a pair of voices in the hallway snaps my attention away.
“Good morning, Damon,” a nurse says as she enters the room, completely unaware that she’s passing in front of me. Another nurse follows behind her, not saying a word as he attends to the saline drip. “I feel so bad for him,” she says, getting a sympathetic nod from her coworker. “His daughter came to visit him, she was a mess.” My throat tightens and pain rips through my chest as I listen to their conversation. “I hope that he makes a quick recovery for her.”
As quickly as I can, I zip out of the room, out of the building, taking advantage of the flight home to clear my head. Inside my room, I detransform into my human-self and flop down into my desk chair just as mom walks into my room with a pile of laundry. “Oh, Danny!” she shouts, startling me. “I didn’t know you were home. How was the hospital?”
“Eh,” I shrug. “It’s a hospital so it’s not all that cheery.”
“Is Tucker doing alright?”
“He has a concussion,” I tell her. “They are keeping him for observation for another day.”
“Oh no,” she sighs, setting my clothes on the dresser and taking a seat on my bed. “Are you alright? It’s been a long week for you hasn’t it?” I feel a twinge in my chest as the emotions I’ve been bottling up threaten to spill over.
“Yeah,” I whisper, relief flooding through me at the simple admission. “I guess I’m just glad that I don’t have to go back to school for a bit.”
“I get it, honey,” she says, leaning over and giving me a hug, which I don’t have the energy to resist. “I’m sorry you’ve had to deal with so much.”
“Thanks mom.”
She gives me one last squeeze and a kiss on the head before leaving me alone in my room. Shortly afterwards, I follow her out, heading downstairs and into the backyard to get some fresh air. I find that the pots are still hung up on the line outside, since I didn’t care to take them down before school yesterday. Frustration surges through me as I step up to the shooting line and pull my blaster from my hip. I can’t help but picture myself on the pans as I line up the shot.
Idiot. I fire and land the shot on the rim of one of the pots. You almost killed your friends. Another shot lands on the pan, far from the center. You’re so stupid! Why can’t you just control it? I continue firing, my aim growing more and more unsteady, hitting the pans unevenly and making them clash together in a disjointed chorus of banging sounds. Damn it! Why do you even have these powers if all they do is hurt people? You killed Ms. Patty! You hurt Tucker! You put that guy in the hospital! What makes you think you can protect any of them?
“Danny! Danny!” Someone grabs me and pulls the gun from my hand. When I turn to look, I see Jazz, her face riddled with concern. “What’s wrong? Why are you crying?”
Crying? I hadn’t noticed until she’d pointed it out, but my eyes burn with tears and my cheeks are soaked in their salt water. As I come back to myself, I notice my parents standing on the porch with worried looks on their faces, then I look around the yard and notice the damage that I’ve done. Scorch marks have burned themselves into the fence, the grass, the shed, and every other surface out here. My eyes continue to scan the yard when my gaze falls on the kitchen window, where Dash stands, peeking in on our conversation from inside the house. My blood boils seeing him standing there, that stupid, smug look on his face, as if he’s reveling in the fact that I’ve finally cracked.
“Danny?” Jazz calls out to me again, but I just fix her with a sharp glare as I wipe the tears from my face.
“I’m fine, Jazz,” I say, brushing past her. “Why don’t all of you just mind your own damn business!” I shout, loud enough for Dash to hear and when I glance back at him, he’s disappeared from the window, trying to pretend that he wasn’t there at all. I storm out the back gate and head down the main street, not sure of where I’m even headed, when I wind up at the park. I sit down on one of the benches next to the water fountain, covering my face in frustration and embarrassment, though the rushing water does help to clear my head. “What is wrong with me?” After I’ve finished sulking, I sit up and take in my surroundings. It’s nearly dusk, but a lot of people still roam the park, parents with kids and strollers, runners trying to get their steps in, couples holding hands, though I try to avoid looking at them out of a strange sense of jealousy that I feel as I remember my non-existent love life. Two men wearing white suits stand next to the water fountain, though their conversation is drowned out by the noise, they look as though they are having an argument. They move from the fountain and sit down a few benches away from me.
“You know that Fenton Works has their hooks in this town,” one of them says, making my ears perk up. “We’re never gonna get any jobs here.”
“This place is a hotspot for ghostly activity,” the other argues. “They can’t possibly have time for all of them.”
“If there’s a ghost attacking you, who would you call?” The first one starts. “The trusted professionals and pillars of the community, or two random guys from an unknown organization?”
“Well, I have a lead on a ghost,” the second says. “It’s a minor nuisance, some warehouse managers have said, rummaging through their storage and boxes and leaving a mess. Nothing so serious that the Fenton’s would have to get involved.” The first guy pauses in thought.
“Alright,” he says. “I guess we can try it, see how it goes.” I stand up from the bench as discretely as I can, walking away from them as I try to shut out the curiosity that burns in my mind.
By the time I get home, It’s already dark out, but the light in the living room is still on. I peak inside, checking to make sure that mom didn’t wait up for me, but Dad is sitting watching baseball on the tv, or was, as he’s currently slumped over in the recliner with drool coming out of his mouth. “Dad?” I call to him.
“Huh? Who? Wh...” He sits up and looks around, finally landing his eyes on me. “Danny! You’re home, great!” He pops up out of the chair and rushes me, grabbing my arms with his giant hands and looking me dead in the eyes. “You wanna see something cool?” I feel a wave of relief wash over me and find myself nodding along with him. “Great! I finally got the lab cleaned up.” He spins me around and steers me toward the basement, giving me a cold flashback of the night that I got my powers and making a chill run down my spine. “Don’t know how it got so bad, I suspect it was ghosts.”
“We’re going down to the basement?”
“Yup, its down there.” He rips the door open and starts to descend the stairs.
“What is?”
“It’s a surprise, now come on!” He grabs my arm and drags me down the stairs, opening the door to the lab up and pushing me inside. To his credit, the lab is much cleaner than it usually is, as I can actually see the floor. “Look here!” He grabs a remote and slams the button to the portal open, making me flinch. Then he grabs a fishing rod and casts the line into the portal. “Are you watching?” I gulp down my anxiety, trying to hide how badly I’m shaking, but he doesn’t seem to notice. The line tightens as the end that is inside the ghost portal begins to pull against dad’s rod, but he is much stronger than whatever force he’s going up against as he manages to pull it through the portal with ease. That is until it gets stuck halfway through and the front half of a dragon is flaring its nostrils aggressively at us.
“Dad!” I screech, hiding behind him as it roars.
“Whoops!” He says, dropping the fishing line and punching the dragon back through the portal. “There we go. That was a big catch. Guess night fishing is the way to go.” I cling to him, feeling like if I let go, I’ll pass out from fear, but he closes the portal up and drags me over to the work table without another word. “I call that the Fenton Ghost Fisher.”
“Wow,” my voice cracks as I feign interest.
“Look at this,” he digs through the pile of scrap on the table and pulls out a little metal lunch box. Unlocking it, he flips the lid open and pulls out a grey thermos. “I just finished this one, was working on it for a while.”
“Dad, that’s a just thermos.”
“Not just a thermos...” he pauses for emphasis. “The Fenton Works patented Ghost Thermos!” He uncaps it and shows it to me. “See, it sucks up ghosts in this little vacuum when you press this—” I grab his hand and wrench the thermos away from my face.
“I get it,” I say. “It’s all really cool.”
“You think so?” He says excitedly. “I’m so glad. Your mother and I thought that you’d be just like Jazz and not want anything to do with ghost hunting. I’m glad we were wrong! You even got your friends into it!” I stiffen, reminded of Sam and Tucker and of how I definitely did get them into ghost hunting.
“Yeah...” I sigh. “Dad, aren’t you ever worried about us getting hurt? Aren’t you worried about you or mom or Jazz, or Dash even? Aren’t you worried that they’re going to get killed... like Jason did?” He takes a deep breath.
“Yes,” his eyes haze over as he speaks. “Every single day. But I love ghost hunting, so does your mother. And as much as I want everyone to stay safe, I know that it’s not for me to decide if they are going to hunt ghosts or not. So the way that I know how to keep everyone safe is by fighting my hardest along side them.” I pause, thinking about yesterday as regret boils up in my stomach and makes me feel like I have heartburn.
“But what if you’re the one who hurts them?”
He pauses, staring at me a moment before saying, “Well, I’ve accidentally hurt your mom a dozen times and Jason… practically half his scars were put there by me in some freak accident!” He laughs, reminiscing in his head. “I even accidentally put my old college roommate in the hospital. Terrible case of ecto-acne, never seen before.” Smiling down at me, he continues, “I know that I’ve caused my friends and family some harm, I am a bit of an oaf… but I know that I would never intentionally hurt them. And they know that too. So I make sure that they are okay and help them however I can… and I promise to be better next time.”
“Aren’t you scared you’ll hurt them really bad?”
“Sure, I am pretty clumsy.” He laughs. “But if I spend all my time worrying about whether or not I’ll make a mistake, I won’t be focused on not making mistakes!” I can’t help but chuckle, which makes him beam with pride.
“Ha… thanks dad.”
“I’m happy to help!” He grins. “Why don’t we head upstairs and say good night to your mother? She was so worked up about you.” I pause, feeling my face flush hot at the memory of my breakdown this afternoon.
“Alright…”
Boxed In
A few days later, I meet up with Tucker and Sam at his house like Sam texted me to, but only Sam is sitting outside. “Hey.” She waves, standing from the steps.
“Where’s Tuck?” I ask, stuffing my hands in my pockets nervously.
“Inside, dealing with his parents.”
“Oh boy...” I glance at the door, feeling relieved that he’s well enough to argue with them.
“You look better,” Sam says.
“What?”
“I mean, you don’t look so upset,” she explains. “Last time I saw you, you looked sick, like you were gonna throw up.” She mimes herself barfing.
“You mean like you did after being shoved into that meat locker?” I laugh, though she isn’t amused.
“Shut up!” She blushes, though she tries to hide it by smacking me a couple of times. “You know how I feel about meat!”
“Guess steakhouse is off the list of first date ideas,” I chuckle, glancing over at her to see her reaction, though she just rolls her eyes at me.
“You know it’s not like that between us,” she says, looking back toward the house. “He’s just my friend. Plus, it’s pretty obvious he likes someone else so even if I was interest—”
“What?” I whip my head to look at her. “Who?” I ask, but our conversation is cut off by the sound of Tucker emerging from his parent’s cocoon.
“Mom, I swear, I’m fine,” he says as she walks him out. “I’ll be careful and I won’t push myself too hard. If I feel worn out or get dizzy, I’ll call you, I promise.”
“Oh...” Mrs. Foley looks concerned, glancing between Sam and I, but she eventually concedes with a sigh. “Okay... don’t do anything crazy, okay?” She hugs him and gives him a kiss on the cheek, but he shies away in embarrassment.
“Okay mom,” he wiggles out of her arms and walks down the stairs slowly, for his mother’s benefit.
“We’ll take good care of him, Mrs. F,” Sam says as we hurry away from his house before his mother changes her mind. “You escaped!” Sam cheers sarcastically.
“Ha ha,” he rolls his eyes, then glances over at me. “You know, Danny’s not an ass to me.” Tucker wraps his arm around my shoulder. “Your witty comments have just downgraded you to second best friend.”
“Dick,” Sam says, but he just wraps her up in the hug with us.
“Why’d you ask to meet up?” I ask Sam, feeling a bit confused at how the energy has shifted so quickly around us.
“What do you mean?” She asks. “We’re gonna go ghost hunting, duh.”
“But Tuck’s parents just told him to take it easy,” I say, swallowing my guilt as I repeat my father’s advice in my head like a mantra.
“Nothing too big,” Tuck says. “Plus, I’m seriously completely fine. I don’t even get dizzy when I run anymore.” Taking a deep breath, I nod, recognizing that he can make his own decisions.
“If anything happens to you, to either of you, we’re packing up and going home, okay?” I look them dead in the eyes, hoping that they’ll understand how desperately I am trying to keep them safe.
“Okay,” Sam says quietly, giving me a reassuring smile.
“Thanks for not benching us, Danny,” Tucker tells me.
“As if he could even if he wanted to,” Sam scoffs, looking to me with a smug grin, her arms folded at her chest. “Sorry, you’re stuck with us.”
“How sentimental,” I tease, making Sam roll her eyes.
“So... where do we start?” Tuck asks?
“I... might actually have a lead,” I start to explain. “I overheard these two guys, I guess they were ghost hunters, saying that there’ve been reports of some ghost messing around with warehouse storage and stuff. Like, rummaging through boxes, making a mess, that kind of stuff. I thought it’d be a good place to start.”
“Wait, you heard this from two ghost hunters?” he asks. “What if we run into them? They’ll definitely try to hunt you down.”
“They seemed pretty clueless,” I say. “If things get bad, we’ll just bolt.”
“Do you know where we should look for this ghost?” Sam asks.
“Well, from what I could find, the ghost is making his way through downtown.”
“That’s all you got?” She asks snidely and I just shrug. “I guess we’re staking out those warehouses then.”
“There’s a lot in the north-side district, we can start there,” Tucker says, pulling out his phone and getting us directions. “We can each take a different warehouse and if we notice anything off, we’ll call for help.” Sam and I nod in agreement. “Okay, I’ll get us a ride then.”
We split up as soon as the cab drops us off, each of us heading into a different warehouse while we message each other updates. Tuck’s warehouse comes up clean and practically empty, Sam’s is a complete mess, but she’s not sure that’s from any ghost, and mine seems to be relatively in order. My phone pings with a message from Tuck, telling me that he’s moving on from his warehouse and I send him a quick reply before pocketing my phone and investigating the warehouse further. There are a few crates and large cardboard boxes lying around, though none of them seem to be disturbed. The main room seems to be otherwise in order, but the upper floor and back office area have more things in them. I start with the office, checking inside to see if anything is misplaced, but it seems clean. The upper floor is a lot more cramped, making it hard for me to navigate the area. Nothing seems suspicious to me as I reach the end of the platform and look down to the floor, quickly realizing how high up I am.
“No railing,” I murmur. “That’s dangerous.” I update Sam and Tuck on my luck and head back down to the lower floor. Just as I’m about to leave, my phone rings back at me with a call from Sam.
“Danny…” she whispers, her voice so low I can barely hear her. “There’s a ghost.”
“I’m coming now,” I tell her, careful to keep my voice quiet. Not hanging up, I set the phone on the ground, in fear of somehow loosing it when I transform, and speak my catch phrase, “I’m going ghost.” Then, I feel my body transform, a sensation that I am quickly growing used to, pick up my phone again and race out of the building. Flying as fast as I can, I weave through alleyways and empty buildings until I find the warehouse that Sam is in. “I’m here,” I whisper into the line as I pop in from the wall to meet her, pocketing my phone when she sees me. She squats behind a packed crate, clutching her phone in her hand as she shakes like a wet chihuahua.
“Tucker’s not responding,” she mutters, her fingers flying across the keyboard on her phone.
“Let’s get you out of here, Sam.” I try to lift her up, but she stops me.
“No, Danny,” she pleads, looking into my eyes with an intensity that I’ve never seen before. “He said he was gonna meet me here.” I suddenly understand why she’s worried, and I’m too late to do anything about it as, to our horror, we hear the metal doors open with a loud creak and Tucker steps inside, completely unaware of what he’s walking into.
“Sam?” He shouts. “You in here?” Sam stands, posed to yell, but I beat her to the punch, racing forward just as a large moving box is launched at Tuck from across the room. It crashes into me, knocking me back as I take the blow in his place. I recover quickly, getting up from the floor to confront the ghost and find myself in front of what looks to be an incredibly plain looking man. He is average height, heavy set and relatively muscular, with a large, bulbous nose. He almost reminds me of my father.
“What the hell?” I say, irritated.
“WhO DAreS diSTUrb THe BOX GHOST?” He screams in an almost comical voice.
“Why’d you hit me with a box?” I ask.
“BEcAUse I aM THe BOX GHOST!” He bellows, puffing his chest out in pride.
“We didn’t do anything to you, though,” I say. “Look, you’ve been causing chaos around town rummaging through boxes—”
“BOX GHOST!”
I feel my blood pressure rising as I let out a deep sigh. “Okay… Box Ghost…” I pause, waiting to see if he’ll interject. “We’re just here to help. If you can tell us what you want, maybe we can help you.”
“The BOX GHOST does not reveal his PLANS to silly ghost children,” he says. “LEavE nOW! Or fACe mY wRaTH!”
“I’m not going anywhere,” I say.
“Then TAKE THIS!” He shouts, throwing something at me, but I’m able to fly over it and miss the impact as it clatters against the floor.
“Danny! Look out!” I hear Sam scream from her spot behind the crate, drawing the Box Ghost’s attention. I look down at the thing he threw, which sizzles with a bright green energy. Then, before I know what’s happening, the device splits open and envelops me in a large, green box.
“HAHAHAHA!” The Box Ghost screams in laughter. “I, THe BOX GHOST, have TRAPPED you!” I slam myself into the wall of the box in an effort to free myself, but am met with a strong electric shock that knocks the wind out of me.
“Danny!” Tucker and Sam yell simultaneously.
“NOW you have to do EVERYTHING that I SAY!” Box Ghost yells at them.
“Guys, run!” I scream, but the Box Ghost is a step ahead of me, using another large moving box to scoop them up and plant them in from of my cell.
“If you want your FRIEND BACK, you will go find MY BOX!” He shouts.
“What?” Sam asks, looking to me in distress. “What box?”
“MY box,” Box Ghost exclaims. “YOU will find it, or I WILL DESTROY YOUR FRIEND!” He laughs maniacally as he pulls a remote out of his pocket and slams his finger down on the only button, making the box erupt with ghostly electricity that surges through me painfully, making me scream out in distress.
“Stop!” Sam cries.
“Okay!” Tucker shouts at the Box Ghost. “We’ll find your box!” Box Ghost smiles, pressing the button on his device and powering the box down. I collapse to the floor, clutching my chest in pain as I look up at my friends. “We just need to know where to start.” The Box Ghost remains silent in thought, but he doesn’t come up with anything.
“I am NOT SURE,” he bellows.
“Well, what does the box look like?” Sam asks.
“THAT is ALSO UNCLEAR.”
“So we don’t know what we are looking for, or where to look for it?” Tuck bites. “How do you expect us to find it?”
“I have YOUR FRIEND,” Box Ghost screams. “YOU WILL find it, FOR HIM.”
“Guys...” I cough.
“Okay,” Sam says resolutely, staring straight at me. “We’ll be back for him, don’t you dare hurt him.”
“FInD mY BOX!”
Sam and Tuck turn and hurry out of the warehouse, leaving me alone with the Box Ghost as he continues to rummage through boxes and crates. Floating in silence, I’m seething with rage and frustration when I get a call from Sam. I hurry to silence my phone, glad that the Box Ghost didn’t notice, then answer as quietly as I can.
“Hey,” I whisper.
“Are you okay?” Sam asks, out of breath from what I can only assume is running.
“I’m fine,” I say, ignoring the sinking feeling in my gut. “How are you guys? Is Tuck with you?”
“I’m right here,” he replies. “We’re gonna go to Sam’s house to regroup. This might take us a while...”
Issues to Unpack
Trigger Warning: Brief mentions of self harm.
Later that night, after the Box Ghost has left, I call my parents and explain to them that I’ll be staying with Tucker for the night, which they thankfully don’t question, the benefits of their training Dash being that they are too distracted to notice my lie. After it passes midnight, though, the boredom starts to creep in. To make matters worse, it doesn’t seem like I can get tired enough to sleep, which makes sense seeing as I’m dead. Unfortunately, that also means that I have nothing to do but think for the next few hours. Bored out of my mind, I decide to call Tucker and check in. It rings twice before he answers with a groggy voice.
“Hello?”
“Hey.”
“Are you okay?” He asks, his voice still cloaked in sleep.
“I’m bored...” I whine, flipping to float on my back as I hold the phone to my ear. He laughs quietly.
“Well, you shouldn’t be wasting your battery,” he scolds. “Who knows how long it’ll be till you can charge it...” The line goes quiet as he realizes what he said. “Shit, I’m sorry.”
“You’re right,” I say, feeling my anxiety pull at me once again. “We aren’t sure when... if I’ll ever get out of this thing.”
“We are gonna get you out, Danny.”
“Yeah...”
“Don’t do that.”
“Do what?”
“Blame yourself for this,” he says. “This isn’t your fault. If anything it’s mine.”
“No it’s not, Tuck,” I reassure him. “I... I felt so guilty after that ghost attack. I couldn’t control my powers and I almost killed you. That broke me. And now, you and Sam have to rescue me and all I can think about is whether or not I really deserve it... Maybe everyone would be safer if I just stayed locked up in here.”
“You sound like one of those boys in the metal music Sam listens to,” he jokes, making me smile. “Don’t think like that. It was an accident, you’re not some monster. And we aren’t safer without you around either. At least, I know I’m not. You saved my life today.”
“You sound like my dad.”
“He’s a pretty smart guy underneath all that goof,” Tuck chuckles, but immediately goes quiet. I hear Sam grumble something in her sleep and I quickly realize that he’s sleeping in her room, flashing me back to the conversation I had with her earlier.
“Hey, Tuck,” I find myself speaking even though I had no plans of saying anything in the first place.
“Yeah?” he whispers.
“You and Sam aren’t dating, right?”
“Wh—” he cuts himself off, realizing that he almost started yelling. “What are you talking about? No. No, no, we are not dating.”
“Do you like her?”
“No...” he says quietly. “Danny, Sam and I are just friends.”
“But you’re sleeping in her room,” I say. “And you guys are always over at each other’s house. You’re always together, like pretty much inseparable.”
“That... doesn’t mean that we like each other,” he says, though he doesn’t sound very confident. “Besides, even if I did like her, she doesn’t like me.”
“You sound so sure.”
“Because I know who she does like,” he says, making my ears perk up in interest.
“Really? Who?” I pry.
“Nope, not gonna tell you,” he says, sounding smug. “If she wants you to know, she’ll tell you herself.”
“Jerk.” I roll my eyes. “So if you don’t like Sam, who do you like?”
“I-I don’t like anyone,” he lies.
“Sam said that you did.”
“W-Well!” He starts, but cuts himself off, lowering his voice. “I don’t know what she’s talking about...”
“She said that it’s pretty obvious, to her at least,” I tell him, a stupid grin on my face.
“...it’s not that obvious, not to them anyway,” he mutters. “Whatever, I’m going back to bed now, good night.” He hangs up the phone and leaves me stunned, baffled at the thought that just popped into my head.
Is it me?
The rest of the night passes in a blur of confused and panicked thoughts, my brain unable to stop thinking about the prospects of Tucker having—potential—feelings for me. I bounce back and forth between feeling flattered and intensely worried about the state of our friendship, until the sunrises through the windows of the warehouse and wakes me from my train of thought. I check the time on my phone and see that it is almost ten in the morning and I still haven’t heard anything from Sam and Tuck about what their plan is, but just as I’m about to text them, my body recoils in shivers and a soft plume of smoke flutters out of my mouth.
“YoU! YOunG GhoST KID!” The Box Ghost shouts out from behind me. I turn to face him, feeling my blood pressure spike as my eyes land on him. “WHERE are your FRIENDS?”
“They’re out searching for your stupid box.”
“IT IS NOT STUPID!” He bellows, for the first time sounding honestly intimidating.
“You didn’t give them any clues where to search, so how are they supposed to find it in only a day?” I ask. “You’ve been searching for it for much longer and haven’t turned up anything.” The Box Ghost stills at my words, his face clouding over in darkness. “Why are you even looking for this box anyways?”
“It has something,” he says, his voice quiet. “Something I lost.”
“Why have you been searching for it in warehouses?” I ask.
“I am The Box Ghost,” he shouts, his voice still not as energetic as before. “BEFORE I do not remember. I AWOKE in a building much like THIS ONE.”
“So you think that the thing you lost is in a box inside of a warehouse?”
“YES!” He screams, completely revitalized. Then, he turns to sort through the few remaining boxes in the warehouse, his appearance making my body go still. I hadn’t seen it because he’d always been facing me, but his head, the back of it, is completely caved in. The collapsed area tries, but fails to cover the cavern of his skull, where his brain is supposed to be. Instead, the brain matter leaks out from around the pieces of his head, a dark red color that contrasts with his lifeless flesh. I turn away, feeling repulsed, but the image has etched itself into my memory and threatens to make me sick.
Did somebody...brain him?
The sound of my phone pinging with a notification snaps me out of my morbid thoughts. I check it quickly, finding a message from Sam, who tells me that they are coming to the warehouse to meet me. When I look back up again, Box Ghost is facing toward me, hiding the back of his head from my view as he eagerly continues his search, but with every passing moment that I’m trapped with him, I feel my unease growing.
“Hey,” I call out, trying not to sound meek and afraid. “My friends are still looking for your box. They want to know if you have any other clues of where it could be.”
“I dON’t KnOw,” he yells, finishing up with the last box and punting it across the room in frustration. “The BOX GHOST can control BOXES. BUT I CAN’T FIND THE ONE BOX THAT I NEED.” His screams echo throughout the room, dampened only by the piles of clutter that he’s left on the floor. “TEll yOUr FRieNds, THEY HAVE UNTIL TONIGHT!” He phases through the wall of the warehouse and disappears from sight.
About half an hour passes before Sam and Tuck finally meet me. They creep inside the building with their blasters raised, entering in what seems to be a spy movie stealth walk. Tucker is the first to drop the persona, gesturing towards me for Sam’s benefit.
“I think we’re all clear guys,” I snicker. “How’d you all do on narrowing down the search?”
“Horribly,” Sam says. “We mapped out all the locations that Box Ghost struck,” she holds up a map to me. “And we tried to find patterns in the places he was hitting.”
“And all the stuff he was looting, too,” Tuck interjects. “All boxes or boxed things, of course. Which gives us nothing we don’t already know.”
“I talked to him,” I say. “It’s not a lot, but he said that he remembers waking up as a ghost inside of a warehouse. And…” I hesitate in telling them the graphic information about him. “His head… the back was caved in.” They freeze, their bodies going stiff as they register what I just explained.
“What?” Sam swallows down the sickness that shows on her face. “Does he know how that happened?”
“He doesn’t remember,” I explain. “I think that’s why, though. The blow to the head knocked his memories out.”
“You said he woke up in a warehouse,” Tuck says. “Does that mean that that’s where he died?”
“It could be,” I agree. “That’s what happened with me anyway.”
“But did he say why he was looking for a box?” Sam asks.
“Doesn’t remember that either,” I sigh. “It seemed pretty important to him though.”
“Ugh…” Sam groans, putting her head in her hands. Tuck rubs her shoulders in comfort.
“At least we’re better off than we were before,” Tuck tries.
“Better off, how?” Sam asks. “We know that the guy had his head bashed in, that’s pretty much all the new info we got.” Tuck rolls his eyes.
“You guys are doing awesome,” I reassure them. “But I think I have a plan to get me out of here.”
“Oh?” Sam asks.
“Yeah, but I’m gonna need you guys to get something for me first,” I coax them in, letting them in on my absolutely desperate plan.
“You can’t seriously think that’ll work,” Tuck says in distress.
“It’s the only plan I’ve got,” I say. The two of them look at each other, sharing an understanding that I can’t interpret.
“Okay,” Sam nods. “We’ll be back as soon as we get it, okay?”
“And lunch,” Tuck adds. “Sorry but I’m starving.” I nod and they turn to head out, leaving me alone once again. I’ve just about resigned myself to another hour of boredom when I hear the warehouse creek open.
I shoot up into a sitting position, my eyes flash green in distress as I try to take stock of my surroundings in this dimly lit room. A figure approaches me, their face cloaked in shadow against the harsh light of the outdoors, but once they step close enough, I realize who I’m looking at.
Jazz.
“You…” she stops, taking me in as she glances from me to her phone. “This isn’t right…” her eyes snap up into mine, boring straight into my soul.
“What are you doing here?” I ask, my voice echoing off the walls in a way that I hope sounds menacing.
“I…” she stops a few yards ahead of me, slack jawed as she looks me up and down. “You’re that ghost boy…” I don’t respond, hoping that she’ll just go away if I ignore her. “W-what happened? Why are you trapped here? And where’s my brother? What happened to him?” I stiffen as she says this, turning away from her so that my eyes can’t give anything away.
“You should go, it’s not safe here,” I say.
“I’m not leaving until you answer—”
“I don’t know!” I snap. “I don’t know where your brother went, for gods sake I don’t even know who you are!” I hope that my anger will hide my poor acting skills. “And you never answered my question either; what are you doing here?”
“I…” she pauses. “I was looking for my brother. I had a bad feeling and thought that he might’ve gotten hurt.” Folding my arms over my chest, I turn away from her once again. “So I tracked his phone and it led me here.” Her response makes my hypothetical heart race, as I subtly reach into my pocket and silence my phone.
“I don’t know what to tell you,” I try to cover my ass. “Your brother must not want you to find him.” My words seem to end the conversation, leaving the two of us in an uncomfortable silence.
“My parents talk about you a lot,” she says, cutting through the quiet. “They say things like, ‘he’s a menace!’ or ‘I’m gonna take him down!’” She laughs and I can’t help but smile thinking about the two of them. “But now that I see you like this, you don’t look so scary.” I turn to glare at her with sharp, glowing eyes, which only makes her laugh.
“Why would you think that your brother was hurt?” I ask.
“He’s been really distant recently,” she admits. “And the other day… I don’t know, it was like something inside of him was broken. I was worried… maybe he wanted to hurt himself… or maybe he wanted to take it out on someone else.” She stops, gulping down the tears that threaten to spill from her eyes. “He won’t talk to me… he won’t tell me what’s going on… I just…” her voice breaks. “Please let me help you Danny...” She stares up at the ceiling, her tears getting the better of her. As I watch her wipe the droplets from her face, I can’t ignore the gnawing sense of guilt that eats away at me.
“I-I’m sure he’ll come to you when he’s ready,” I say, despite how unsure I feel about keeping her in the dark. “So… just wait until he’s ready.” She nods, looking me in the eyes once again.
“You don’t seem so bad, Ghost Kid,” she says, forcing a smile.
“Thanks,” I reply genuinely. “Now get out of here before that ghost comes back and hurts you.”
“There’s another gh—”
“Go,” I say more sternly this time and she nods in response. She turns to leave when the warehouse door creeks open once again, stopping us both in our tracks.
“Well, well, well,” I hear a distinctly familiar voice that makes me sigh in frustration.
Can’t I just have one day?
“Dash?” Jazz calls out, far more surprised than I am.
“Jazz?” He replies, looking stunned. “What are you doing here?”
“What are you doing here?” She questions. “Aren’t you supposed to be training with my parents?”
“Aren’t you supposed to be studying for midterms or something?” He bites back. Though neither of their comments are anything remotely close to witty remarks, they seems to have irritated each other well enough. Unfortunately for me, our party of three is interrupted by more guests.
“Hey, we’re back—” Tuck starts, but drops his thermos on the floor in surprise when he sees who all stand in the room. I collapse my head into my hands as the world around me begins to crumble, when Sam finally speaks.
“What the hell is going on?”
Outside the Box
The five of us stand in a circle, Tucker staring at Jazz, Jazz staring at Dash, Dash staring at Sam, Sam staring at me, and me silently weeping into my palms because I have nothing better to do.
How did this happen? How did this become such a fucking mess? How did a ghost as unthreatening as the Box Ghost cause me the most grief of anyone else I’ve faced?
“Alright, one of you three needs to explain what’s going on,” Jazz says, indicating Sam, Tucker, and I.
“Well it’s pretty obvious isn’t it?” Dash remarks. “I heard you talking when you came to the house. You three are working together to stop some ghost. And I’m sure Fenton doesn’t know anything about this, seeing as you guys haven’t been training together. Am I right?” The four of us blink in surprise as we stare at him.
“Okay, look,” I try to use the time I’ve spent to come up with a good excuse. “These two helped me fight that last ghost, the Lunch Lady.”
“Ms. Patty,” Sam interjects and I nod.
“Yes, Ms. Patty,” I continue. “They helped me defeat her, so I asked them if they could help me with this new ghost problem that I have.”
“Which is…?” Jazz pries and I roll my eyes, knowing that she isn’t going to drop it.
“He calls himself The Box Ghost,” I begin. “He’s been looting through boxes, looking for something that he lost. When I came to confront him here, he surprised me and trapped me inside of this thing. He’s using me as a bargaining chip so that they’ll find him this box that he’s looking for.” I don’t finish, not sure of how I’d explain the situation further.
“You can’t just phase out of the box?” Dash asks.
“I’ve tried,” I say, turning my hand intangible and attempting to pass it through the wall of the box. I am met with a strong electric shock that I frankly forgot hurt as much as it does. “Ow…”
“So once you find this object, the Box Ghost will release you?” Jazz asks.
“So he says,” Sam snarks.
“I’ll help you,” Jazz says.
“Yeah,” Dash nods. “Me too.”
“Why would you do that?” I ask.
“Why would these two dweebs help?” Dash asks as Sam and Tucker glare at him.
“Alright,” I sigh, unable to do anything to stop them.
“So what have you got?” Jazz asks. “Where do we start looking?” Tucker and Sam glance to me, and I give them a small nod.
“Not much,” Tuck says, drawing their attention away from me. “We think it’s in a warehouse around here, but other than that...”
“That’s all you’ve got?” Dash asks snidely.
“Well if you’d like to ask him for more clues on where to search, I’m sure he’d be happy to help you,” Sam says, making Dash roll his eyes.
“Actually...” Tucker begins, but Jazz interrupts him.
“Why can’t we just take this guy down?” She asks. “Force him to—”
“He has a button that can electrocute anything inside the box if he presses it,” Sam says bluntly.
“Well we can’t just go looking in all of the warehouses in the world!” Dash shouts.
“We won’t,” I say, looking to Tucker.
“We have a plan,” Tuck finally manages. Before he can explain, the box alights with energy and my body seizes with the electric current running through it. I let out a scream that rips through the warehouse and silences everyone’s voices.
“YoU brOUghT GuESts,” the Box Ghost’s voice rings out through the hollow space. “ThAT WAsn’T PaRT oF OuR dEaL!” The current continues to flood my body, sending immeasurable pain throughout my limbs, and my screams continue to haunt the empty space, despite how I try to hold them back. Sam approaches the box, banging on the surface and calling out something that is drowned out by the sound of my cries. Dash pulls his blaster aiming it to the rafters above our heads where the previously invisible Box Ghost floats. He fires off a shot without hesitation, the blast sailing up to the ceiling, only barely missing the ghost’s head, singing his cheek with the excess energy and exposing his dark green blood, which drips down onto floor next to me.
“Let him go or the next one goes between your eyes,” Dash says, an anger in his voice that I don’t quite understand. I’m barely cognizant of the conversation happening around me, as my body has gone limp from the shock and threatens to give out on me, but I’m suddenly released from the electrifying pain and collapse onto the floor of the box. It takes me a second to recover, but when I manage to refocus my eyes I become aware of the standoff happening just outside of my cage.
“ONE DAY LEFT, I SAID,” the Box Ghost bellows to me. “YET YOU WASTE IT ON YOUR SQUABBLING!”
“One day?” Sam looks to me and all I can do is nod.
“I know,” I say weakly, trying to divert his attention from the rest of the group. “I know, but it wasn’t enough time. They can’t help you find it—”
“Hey,” they all call out in unison, but I ignore them.
“I can,” I say. “I’m a ghost, I can fly, phase through walls, turn invisible, just like you. They are only human, but you and I can search for your box together.” I pause, waiting to see the Box Ghost’s response. He seems conflicted, as if he’s considering my request. “I can’t help you from in here though.” He looks to the box, biting the nail of his thumb as he ponders. “I just want to help you. That’s why I came here in the first place. To help you.” The Box Ghost seems surprised by this, but he it looks to have made up his mind for him. Using his powers, he dismantles the box and the energy with in it dissipates, leaving it a broken heap of garbage on the floor. I crash to the floor on top of it, unable to gather my strength enough to float off the ground. Sam rushes to help me sit up, and she holds me upright as I face the Box Ghost.
“YOu WiLL COmE wITh ME,” he says.
“Not quite,” I reply looking to Tucker, who lifts the thermos and tosses it my way. I pull the cap off and press the button on the side that makes it burst to life, shining a bright ray of ectoplasmic energy toward the Box Ghost, which sucks him in with the power of the vacuum. He screams curses at me as he shrinks and swirls into the canister, but I ignore his hollering and close the cap over top of him. The room is finally quiet, making me heave a huge sigh of relief and collapse back to the floor.
“What was that thing?” Jazz asks, more out of excitement and curiosity than malice.
“Those two nicked it from that Fenton kid,” I let out a dry laugh, handing it to Sam with a knowing smile. “You should get that back to him.” Completely out of energy, my lying skills are much worse than they are normally. “Hey, you guys should get out of here.” I wince, my skin still stinging from the pain of being electrocuted.
“We aren’t gonna leave you,” Dash says, his expression sour.
“Just go…” I sigh, looking to Sam. “Please, get them out of here.” She nods, standing and facing off with the rest of them. Tucker concedes, turning and exiting the building without a word of objection, but Jazz and Dash stay put.
“Let’s go, guys,” she tries to usher them away.
“No,” Jazz asserts, looking to me. “You have to let us help you.”
“How?” I ask weakly, feeling my strength fading as I try to keep myself from passing out and transforming back into my real self.
“We aren’t just gonna wait outside and be helpless,” Dash says. “We’re not just gonna let you die.”
“If you don’t leave,” I start, my words getting cut of by a raspy cough. “I just might.” I feel my body starting to fade from consciousness as I grow desperate to slip into the security of my old body. “Please.” I don’t turn to watch them go, but hear their footsteps receding into the distance, leaving me behind and shutting the warehouse door to give me privacy. Without so much as checking to see if they’ve left, I shift back into my original form, which feels significantly heavier than my ghostly one, a change I only notice now that all my nerve endings feel like they’ve been awakened.
It doesn’t take me but a minute to fall asleep, but when I open my eyes again, I notice the distinct lack of light streaming in through the warehouse windows. Pain seers through my body as I sit up, reaching into my back pocket for my phone to check the time, but I notice that it is missing and am reminded of the fact that I left it in my other pants. Using my catch phrase, I shift back into my alter ego and grab my phone, which is thankfully right where I left it before.
5:43…shit.
I stuff my phone away, reminding myself to remove it before shifting, and fly towards the warehouse door. Phasing through as soon as I get there, I’m stopped in my tracks by the person leaning against the door, his eyes closed restfully. Dash, framed in the light of the setting sun, looks incredibly peaceful, as if he’s having a relaxing dream.
“Hey,” I call to him, making him snap his eyes open as he looks for the source of the noise. “What are you doing here?”
“Well,” he says gruffly. “Someone had to keep watch over you, Sleeping Beauty.” I roll my eyes at his attempt at an insult.
“I would’ve been fine—”
“You almost died,” he cuts me off.
“I was fine,” I say smugly, rolling out my shoulder. “Just needed a quick power nap to regain my senses.”
“Not here.” His voice cracks in what I can only interpret as pain. When I look over to him, I find myself shocked by his grim expression, one that I recognize clearly even after all these weeks, that I recognize from the day of his father’s funeral. “When you fought Skulker, I thought you’d died.”
“I…” I can’t think of anything to say.
“Why didn’t you tell me that you were alright?” He says, his face contorting in pain. “You could’ve dropped by the school, the Fenton house…for gods sake you were gone for almost a week! We’re there no other ghosts to fight then?” He turns on me, his voice louder and more aggressive.
“Honestly,” I start, not breaking eye contact. “I didn’t think you’d care.” He lets out a deep breath, as if he was holding it in waiting for my response, then covers his eyes with the palms of his hands, as if he’s trying to push them back into his brain.
“Of course,” he laughs dryly. “Why wouldn’t you think that?” He pauses, turning to look me dead in the eyes. “If I didn’t care, I wouldn’t have helped you stop Skulker.” His gaze is so strong, so honest that it surprises me. Of what I know of Dash, I never would have expected him to be capable of such honesty. He turns away, rubbing a hand over his face as he collects himself. “But you survived, so that’s good.”
“Thank you.”
“For what?”
“For saving my life,” I say and he turns to me in surprise. “I never got to tell you thank you for that.” He shifts uncomfortably, looking away from me as the glow of embarrassment sets on his cheeks. “Aww… are you blushing?” I tease.
“No.”
“It’s cute.” My compliment only makes his face flush a deeper shade of red, which makes me laugh.
“W-whatever!” He scoffs, pushing off the wall and walking away.
“Aw, don’t run away!” I call after him, my voice light and taunting, which is a fun change of pace in my opinion, though he would probably disagree.
“What did you find, Operative O?”
“He seems to be protected by a group of humans,” O speaks into his earpiece, sneaking along the walls of the warehouse as he watches the ghost boy fly away, tagging along after the boy from the news, Dash Baxter. “I’m going to investigate the warehouse now.”
“Negative, wait for backup,” the earpiece responds, but O is already inside the building, scanning his surroundings.
“There’s a broken box on the floor,” O recalls for his device. “The scanner indicates a high level of ectoplasmic energy.” He scans the floor around the box and pauses. “Wait… what’s this?”
“Operative, wait for backup,” the device repeats, but O ignores it. He reaches down and picks up a small remote with a single button on it. Pressing the button seems to do nothing, so he flips it around curiously. On the back of it something is imprinted into the plastic casing.
“Hmm…” O squints to read it. “What is… DALV Corp?”
6 notes · View notes
writtingmistakes · 3 years
Text
The Amity Park Haunting Part 5: All Choked Up
The town of Amity Park is under attack by ghosts, but everyone knows that by now. Under the watchful eye of their hero, Jason Baxter, the town was kept safe, until he was ruthlessly murdered by an unknown entity. Now, his son Dash is left to pick up the mantle, and that means training with the parents of the kid he hates most of all, while grappling with his tumultuous relationship with a random ghost kid.
...
Danny finally reveals his secret identity to his friends and they react even better to it than he’d ever dreamed. So when they beg him to let them help him fight ghosts, Danny full-heartedly agrees, training them in some unconventional ways. But the appearance of a new ghost might just prove to him that they are in over their heads.
Shared Secret
I hover in the space over Tucker’s bed, arms and legs folded as I look back and forth between my best friends. Tuck sits across the room in his gaming chair, leaning forward onto his steepled fingers like he always does when he’s processing something. Sam just leans against the wall with her arms crossed over her chest, wearing her signature scowl that can’t quite hide how emotional she seems.
“Okay...” Tuck begins, finally speaking after I’ve told them the whole story. “So you’re dead?” I let out a frustrated sigh and lean backwards, holding my arms up in the air emphatically.
“No,” I clarify. “Like I said, I am still alive, just not when I’m in this form.”
So then you are dead,” he repeats.
“More like... half dead.”
“That makes no sense,” he says. “You can’t be half dead! You’re either dead or alive.”
“Well I’m alive sometimes and dead the other times, so what would you call that?” I snark.
“Do you have a limit to the amount of time you can stay ‘dead?’” Tucker questions. “And you can clearly sustain injury while in that state, so can you die? Are you sure you’re actually dead and not just barely alive?”
“I don’t know Tuck!” I snap, sitting up to look at him as he recoils back in fear. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Sam do the same. “Look,” I let out a heavy breath. “I know just about as much as you do. I’ve only been like this for a few days.” The room goes silent, filling with the unspoken tension.
“Well...” Sam cuts in. “I don’t know about you guys, but I need a drink.” She grabs the bottle of vodka off the end table, where she’d stashed it after Tucker disinfected my wound. After my third transformation between forms, my wound has almost completely healed into a small gash, though Tucker still insisted he wrap it with gauze.
Sam unscrews the bottle and takes a swig, wincing as the liquor burns down her throat. After she’s adjusted, she shakes her head out and sighs, locking eyes with me as she takes in my disapproving look. “What?” She scoffs. “I just learned that my best friend died—fucking died—or half died, or whatever the hell you wanna call it. But he’s a ghost now! And I just had to watch him almost bleed out on my other best friend’s floor. Oh! And, side note, this is the first time I’ve seen said best friend, who is a ghost, in almost a week. So I think I deserve a drink.” Tucker and I stare at her silently as she unscrews the bottle once again and takes another drink. “You guys want some?” She asks, looking between us as she holds the bottle out towards the middle of the room. Tucker shakes his head to decline, making her turn towards me. “You? Wait, can you even drink in that...” she trails off, looking me up and down.
“I don’t think so,” I say before she finishes. “But I haven’t tried.”
“Wanna try now?” She smirks devilishly, knowing that she can peer pressure me into doing practically anything. Before I have a chance to answer, our conversation is cut short by the sound of footsteps hurrying up the creaking stairs. The three of us immediately start to panic; Tucker trashes the bloody gauze pads and kicks the first aid kit behind his bed, Sam, on the other hand, holds the bottle out away from her in panic, not sure of how to dispose of it before Tucker’s parents enter the room. Without hesitation, I zip towards her, grabbing her from behind and clamping my hand over her mouth as we fade away into invisibility and Tucker throws himself into the desk chair just in time.
“Tucker!” His mother’s sing-song voice calls out as she throws the door open, blocking our view of her. “I’m home.”
“I, uh... I see that,” he says with a smile as he tries to avoid looking over at us. I slowly remove my hand from Sam’s face, trusting that she won’t blow our cover by making any noise.
“Are you okay, honey?” His mom asks. Sam wiggles around uncomfortably in my grasp, but I can’t let go yet or else the invisibility will wear off.
“Yeah... I just... forgot.... something... at school.” He nods after getting the words out.
I feel myself growing fatigued, unsure of how much longer I’ll be able to keep this form up.
“Oh no!” His mom panics. “Was it important?” I watch her pace toward Tucker in the room, her back turned away from us.
“Oh, no! No, it was nothing. I can just get it tomorrow.”
“Oh good,” She pauses, making my anxiety soar as beads of sweat form at the nape of my neck due to strain. “How was school?”
“Good.” The air sizzles with anxious tension as his mother stands staring plainly at him, not moving an inch until he speaks. “I had an algebra test.”
“Oh, how’d you do?” I squeeze my eyes shut, trying to sustain the energy around Sam and I for a little bit longer.
“Good.”
“Anything else?”
“Nope.”
Please... please... hold this form...
“Okay...” his mother hesitates before turning around and leaving the room, shutting the door behind her and allowing me to breathe a sigh of relief as let my powers fade away. As soon as we’re in the clear, Sam pushes away from me, looking towards Tucker with a fervent blush on her cheeks and I quickly realize that I made her uncomfortable.
“Sam I’m sorry—” I start, but she cuts me off.
“It’s fine,” she shakes her head turning back towards me, her scowl returned to her face. “Thanks for the save there. You can turn things invisible!” Her barrage of comments distracts me, making me smile a bit at her excitement.
“Yeah, I’ve only ever used it, like, once and that was unintentional,” I chuckle. “But I used my phasing power on me and Dash before so I thought it would work the same.”
“You used it on you and Dash?” Tucker asks, looking over to Sam, who seems just as shocked.
“Oh yeah...” I decide to avoid telling them about his drunken escapades on the west side. “He helped me fight against Skulker. Shot his eye out, actually.”
“Dash? Dash helped you?” Sam chortles. “You, the ghost who terrorized the school and made him look incompetent in front of the entire student body?”
“Yes.” I narrow my eyes at her.
“It’s not a slight on you,” she explains. “I‘m just wondering why he’d help a ghost, especially considering his... position.”
“Well...” I have been asking myself the same question, actually, so I have no clue how to respond.
“Well whatever his motives,” Tucker interjects. “We’re just lucky that he helped, or we might never have been able to have this conversation.”
“Oh, god...” Sam presses her fingers into her temples. “I don’t even want to think about that.”
“Don’t worry, I’m fine,” I smile, placing a comforting hand on Sam’s shoulder and looking over to Tucker. “But guys, you have to promise me that you’ll keep this a secret. From everyone. Not just your families or other friends. Ghosts and ghost hunters too. If anyone ever found out, everyone I care about, including you two, would be in danger.”
“We know,” Tucker says confidently for the both of them, putting his hand on both of our shoulders, while Sam just nods stiffly with a half smile on her lips. “We won’t ever tell a soul. You can trust us.” I feel a smile tugging at my lips as Tucker pulls Sam and I into a hug.
“So what now?” she asks, pushing awkwardly out of the hug.
“Well,” I think for a second. “I guess I continue ghost hunting.”
“With our help right?” Tucker asks, Sam behind him nodding in agreement.
“If you want.” I smile as they high five each other excitedly. “But first you guys need to learn how to protect yourselves. If you’re gonna do this you’ve gotta be safe.”
“We could say the same about you,” Sam says, lightly poking me in the side where they wrapped my wound. I yelp, less out of pain and more from surprise, and the two of them don’t even try to hide their laughter.
Family Bonding
Saturday morning I walk with Sam and Tucker towards my house, pushing open the front door and heading inside, letting them follow behind me as I try to sneak us up the stairs without being stopped by my family. I only make it to the first step, though, when a voice rings out across the room. “Sam? Tucker?” My mom shouts from where she stands in the hallway.
“Sam and Tucker are here?” Dad barrels in from the kitchen and I roll my eyes in embarrassment. They both bombard my friends with hugs, lifting the two of them into the air as if they weigh nothing.
“We haven’t seen you two in weeks!” Mom says, beaming with excitement.
“Hi Maddie, Jack.” Sam smiles and Tucker just waves.
“So what are you guys here for?” Dad asks. “A school project?”
“Uh...” Sam panics. “No, we’re—”
“We were just here to hang out—” Tucker tries, but I cut them both off, an idea spawning in my brain.
“Actually,” I smirk from my position on the landing. “They’re here to see you.” All the heads in the room shoot up at me, but I take particular notice of how Sam glares at me, as if she’s asking me what the hell I’m planning. “They want to train to hunt ghosts.” Mom and Dad snap their heads over to look at them so quickly that I’m surprised they don’t break their necks.
“You want to learn ghost hunting?” Mom shouts, while tears well in Dad’s eyes as he tries to hold back his sniffles. “Oh my goodness, we’ve been waiting for this day to come!“ She reaches over and pulls the two of them into a suffocatingly strong hug.
“I’m so proud,” Dad whimpers through his sniveling.
“We’ll start right away! Are you kids hungry?” Mom asks, her scattered thoughts flowing out of her mouth at light speed. “Jack! Get the gear, I’ll get the snacks.”
“Yes honey.” Dad wipes his tears away as he follows her command without hesitation, while Mom speeds past him into the kitchen. Once the hallway is cleared, Sam and Tucker turn to look up at me.
“What the hell, Danny?” Her voice is quiet, but bursting with anger.
“I thought you said we were gonna train with you?” Tucker asks, noticeably less upset.
“You are,” I say, leaning over the railing to look at them. “But they taught me everything I know. It won’t hurt to learn the basics from the masters.” They turn to look at where Mom cores apples at breakneck speed, while Dad, still crying, trudges up from the basement, arms loaded with supplies. “They’re just excited, give them a chance.”
Mom sprints in from the kitchen with a plate full of apples and peanut butter, holding it out to them. “Here you go,” she says, barely giving them time to react before pulling them along toward the backyard. They glance back at me in fear and desperation while I watch them get dragged away, laughing as I follow behind.
Out in the backyard, Dad stands with Sam and Tuck in front of our homemade trading arena, where he fits the two of them with the makeshift armor that we store in the garage, the most egregious of which are the too small bike helmets that rest on top of their heads. I sit on the steps watching them with an amused grin when my sister comes up from behind me and sits down too. “What’s going on?”
“Tuck and Sam are training with Mom and Dad,” I state.
“What?” She whispers, but I just shrug in response.
“So this is an obstacle course,” Mom explains. “The objective is to make it out of the course without getting captured or killed by any ghosts.”
“Killed?” Tucker squeaks, but Mom just waves her hand dismissively.
“Not actually killed,” she says. “You’ll just get blasted by a low voltage ectoplasmic beam.”
“No way. Not doing this.” Sam shakes her head and turns away, but Dad redirects her.
“Don’t worry, Sam,” he tells her. “It won’t hurt a bit, just ask Dash.” I hadn’t noticed until now, but Dash is sitting on the grass, leaning into the shade of the far wall. Aside from a bruised ego, he doesn’t seem to have any injuries, though he looks pretty exhausted from the strenuous workout. He ignores my parents’ instructions and instead focuses on his tray of apples, pouting while he attempts in vain to scoop peanut butter onto one of the slices. I can’t help my laughter as I watch him, the hulking brute that he is, be defeated by a simple snack, which he responds to with a sharp glare in my direction. Suppressing my giggles, I return my attention to Sam and Tucker as they prepare to descend into the course.
“You guys ready?” Dad asks and they shake their heads, but he just pushes them through the open door and into the first obstacle.
“Twenty minutes, starting, now!” Mom says, pressing the button on her stop watch that projects the time onto a large monitor above the course.
“This thing’s timed?” Sam screams as the main entrance slams its metal door down in her face, closing the two of them off to the rest of us. Instantly, I see a flash of bright green from within the walls of the course, followed by Sam’s over dramatic screech and Tuck’s surprisingly deep scream, making me burst out laughing. “You’re fucked when I get out of here, Danny!” I hear Sam yell, but it only makes me laugh harder.
“Let me out! LET ME OUT!” I hear Tuck pounding on the metal walls and feel my body contort in pain from how hard I’m cackling. I take a deep breath, trying to calm myself, but rush into a coughing fit, and though Jazz pats my arm to comfort me, it doesn’t exactly help. After I’ve managed to calm down, I wipe the tears from my eyes and take a deep breath. Still giggling in delight, I steal a glance toward Dash, wondering why he’s still out here if he isn’t interested in this anyway. He is turned away from me, his gaze locked on the training course and a hand covering his mouth, but my eyes widen when it falls away to expose a smile. It’s subtle and hardly there, but he’s smiling, no, laughing at them as they scream in horror from inside the course, and I can’t bring myself to look away.
Fortunately, my attention snaps away at the sound of a buzzer, signaling that the timer has run out, though neither of them managed to make it past the first obstacle. “Are we done now? Can we leave?” Sam heaves breathlessly from inside the course, then Dad presses a button and opens the main door once again, allowing them to stumble out of the arena and back into the yard where it’s safe. “Oh, thank god.” She collapses on the grass and glances up at me as I move to greet them.
“You... suck...” Tucker gasps in exhaustion. I smile over at them as they lay looking up at the sky.
“Oh, come on guys,” I tease. “That was the easy course.”
“Oh, I’d love to see you do it.” She glares. I squat down closer to her face and smile coyly.
“I’m sure you would,” I say with a wink and she responds by rolling her eyes.
“I hate you,” Tuck says, rolling onto his stomach to sit up.
“You guys did great!” Jazz approaches behind me, holding out water bottles to the two of them. I grab Sam’s and help her sit up, handing it to her while Jazz holds the other one out to Tucker. “If you want some tips I can give you some advice for next time.” He doesn’t move, staring up at her unblinkingly.
“There won’t be a next time,” Sam grumbles. “Once is enough for me.” Jazz just shrugs and sets the water bottle down in front of Tuck, walking away immediately afterwards. “Look, if that’s what training with your parents is like all the time, then I’d rather just train with you.”
“So you’d rather go up against a real ghost that’s not gonna hold back?” I say cryptically, not wanting anyone to hear something suspicious, but I end up sounding unintentionally terrifying, making them real back in shock.
“Sam! Tucker!” Dad shouts from the porch. “Great job!” He rushes over with Mom at his side, holding something behind his back. “We wanted to give you two a surprise.”
“For completing one day of training in the Fenton household,” Mom starts, smacking Dad’s arm as a cue to pull out two individual boxes and hand them over. “You two have earned your very own blasters!” They pop open the lid to show two small white and blue blasters engraved with each of their names on the side.
“Wow,” Tuck gapes.
“Thank you,” Sam says for the both of them.
“Aw...” I goad. “You guys got baby blasters.” Mom smacks me on the back of the head, making my friends laugh.
“Those are beginners blasters,” she clarifies. “They are easier to control and hold a lot less juice than blasters that an expert would use. Dash has the same type.” I glance over to Dash, who picks at the grass in boredom.
“We had those made for you when you were younger,” Dad says. “We’re so glad that you took an interest in ghost hunting so we can finally give them to you!” As soon as he finishes, he bubbles up with tears again, leaning into Mom as he sobs.
“Thank you so much,” Tucker says earnestly.
“Yeah, thank you,” Sam smiles. Mom nods in response, leading Dad back into the house to recover and leaving the three of us alone. “As much as I love your parents Danny, I am never doing that again.”
“Yeah, no way,” Tuck agrees.
“Don’t worry,” I wave their concerns away. “I have a better idea.”
Target Practice
I stand in front of my homemade training course in the backyard with Sam and Tucker by my side, both exacerbated at the fact that I’ve called them out of the house on a Monday morning to train. In front of us are a few rows of pots and pans that I stole from the kitchen, all hanging up on a clothes line that we had in the shed for some reason.
“Alright guys,” I say, putting on my best impression of a drill sergeant. “Today we are going to learn how to shoot. You brought your blasters, right?” The two of them nod, pulling their weapons out from behind their backs as if they’re performing some magic trick. “Good. First things—” Sam breezes by me, racing towards the shooting line without even stopping to listen.
“Hell yeah!” She whoops, thrusting her blaster into the air carelessly, while Tuck follows behind her, just as excited.
“Wait guys!” By the time I catch up to them they are already firing of shots at the pans, though after a barrage of firing, not a single one makes it onto any of the targets. “Yeesh, you guys have terrible aim.” Sam levels the gun at me.
“I bet I could make it from here.”
“Sam!” Tucker shouts, pulling the weapon away from my face.
“Let me show you how it’s done,” I say, glancing at Sam as she rolls her eyes. Pulling my blaster out from the holster around my thigh, I level it on the pan, holding it steadily in both hands as I stare down the length of the gun, lining up the shot evenly on the first pan, then I pull the trigger. The blast rockets into the pan, swinging it back around the clothesline and slowing long enough to see that I’ve hit it close to the edge, though still on target.
“Oh wow, you showed us,” Sam mocks.
“At least I hit it.” She sneers at me, turning back toward the pans and trying to imitate my movements.
“Can I see that again?” Tuck asks and I nod, showing him my form once again, this time, hitting the pot square on. “Okay, I think I’ve got it.” The two of them practice their shooting for a bit longer as they try to get a feel for it, though neither of them make much progress.
“Line up your shot eye level,” I instruct. “You aren’t going to aim well if you can’t see well so open both eyes, Sam. Tucker, you’re too stiff.” I sidle up behind him and grab his shoulders, rolling them back as I speak. “If you tense up your body each time you fire, it’s going to completely negate everything else you’ve done to line up the shot. Sam, you too.” I reach over and grab her blaster through her hand. “You don’t need to grip it so hard.” When I realize that they aren’t shooting I glance up at their faces, realizing that both of them sport a strong blush. I pull my hands away quickly and hide them behind my back, feeling my face flush along with them. “Um... yeah, just... try to relax.” Taking my advice, the two of them fire a line of shots at the pots and for the first time all morning, a loud chorus of clanging noises responds.
“Look!” Sam shouts. “We hit them! Tucker we did it!” The two jump up and down in excitement as I feel myself swell with pride.
“Good job guys,” I give them both a high five before we settle down on the grass to take a break.
“I could get used to this kind of training,” Tuck says with a sigh.
“Now that you say that,” I can’t help the smile that spreads across my face as I watch the two of them sink in disappointment. “You’re getting a bit too comfortable. Why don’t we try making things a bit more difficult?”
“No,” Sam says, defeated. “Danny, please don’t do this.”
“We just got the hang of shooting these pans...” Tucker whines. “What more can you expect from us on our first day of shooting?”
“Don’t worry, it’s not gonna be so bad,” I shrug, glancing around the backyard area to make sure no one is around, then peeking my head into the door to see if someone is in the kitchen. “Helllooo?” I call out into the silence, hoping that I don’t get a response. After a minute of waiting, I shut the door and jump down the back steps, hurtling myself into the yard and standing in front of my friends. “Alright, let’s do this. I’m going ghost!” My body becomes enveloped in light, morphing from within to transform me into my ghostly counterpart.
“That’s so cool,” Tucker says once I’ve finished my transformation.
“I don’t know... that catch phrase was pretty lame,” Sam says.
“Lame?” I scoff, hovering in the air as I prepare to show off my skills. “Is this lame?” I turn around, facing the targets as I make a gun with my hand and line up my arm with the center of one of the pans, then let loose a beam of energy from my index finger. It slams into the side of the pan, launching it backwards, but I continue to show off, firing rapidly at the other hanging cookware on the line and hitting every single one of them. I blow on my finger like a badass cowboy and turn around to face them.
“Woah, good job man,” Tucker says, but Sam just rolls her eyes.
“I’ve been practicing,” I tell them. “So here’s idea, you fire at me with your baby guns, I dodge them all with my sweet skills. Whoever hits me first wins.”
“What does the winner get?” Sam asks.
“The glory of being the best.”
“Lame,” she responds.
“Does the loser get punished?” Tuck asks. I think for a moment before settling on an answer.
“Loser has to take one shot from me,” I respond, sporting a mischievous grin.
“That sounds dangerous—” Tucker tries to object but Sam cuts him off.
“Then shoot him before I do,” she says, leveling her blaster at me where I float a foot away. She fires off a shot, which surprises me, but I react just in time, dodging out of the way with a backflip. It doesn’t end there, as Tucker has joined her, firing on me with precise and timed shots, which are admittedly hard to dodge. Sam, on the other hand, is firing erratically at the space in front of my head as I sail towards the edge of the yard. Their shots bing off of the pans as I fly behind them, using the momentary cover to my advantage as I slip into my camouflage. The two stop firing, spinning around in search of me, but I’m able to fly around the edge of the yard without being detected.
I can’t help but chuckle as they nervously back into each other, momentarily teaming up for security. “I’ve gotten much better at this,” I say as I fly up past Tucker, making him whip his arms towards the sound of my voice and fire frantically. Laughing, I fly up into the sky and dive down, careful not to slam into the concrete as I whip by Sam. Their strategic stance could make it difficult for me dodge their shots if I run out of stamina, but I sneak by their defenses for the time being, letting out an eerie chuckle that rings out across the yard. My body begins to drag from exhaustion, as I’m not used to using two powers together, let alone for such a long period of time, so I eventually give in and uncloak myself, giving them the opportunity to fire.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t ready for Sam’s sharp reaction time, as her gun is leveled on me before I know it, firing a line of shots that chases me out of the yard and into the open air above our house. It’s not that her aim has gotten sharper, it’s the fact that she is able to predict my movements like a pro that leaves me defenseless as she fires a shot straight towards my midsection. Well, almost defenseless. My body seems to have a solution for every problem, as it splits apart as if it’s been cut by a magician, letting the beam soar harmlessly through the space between my halves.
“What the fuck?” I hear Tucker gasp from across the yard, but I don’t have a response for him.
“How the hell did you do that?” Sam shouts, covering her mouth almost immediately afterward, recognizing that she’s being too loud.
“I don’t know!” I exclaim from where I float around in the sky, analyzing the split as both halves of my body move in tandem with one another. I poke at my wound, but the area isn’t sensitive to my touch and doesn’t seem to be damaged in any way. A rush of excitement bubbles out of me, making me chuckle as I spin around in the air, watching my bottom half follow behind at an even pace before snapping back together, leaving nothing behind as evidence for the transformation. I float down to where my friends stand slack-jawed and detransform in a flash of blinding blue light.
“That was totally cheating,” Sam scoffs. “I think I won.”
“Let’s call it a draw and pick it up next time,” I say, still excited about my new ability. “Don’t want to call any attention to us.”
“Looks like you found a new power,” Tucker says giddily. “How many is that now?”
“Well I can walk through walls,” I start as we turn to head back inside the house. “I can disappear... I can fly too.”
Cause of Death
I was expecting a relatively normal day when I walked out the door this morning, but standing on the school lawn watching paramedics wheel a body bag out of the front doors of the school completely shattered that idea. “What happened?” I ask Sam and Tuck once I find them in the crowd.
“I have no clue,” Sam starts. “We were at my locker when we heard the sirens. Then the ambulance guys ran through there into the cafeteria.”
“Then Ishiyama escorted us out here,” Tucker clarifies. “Who do you think it was?”
“I think she might know.” I point toward the blonde girl who is crying as she’s being escorted out by the principal. I push through the crowd and toward the base of the steps where the girl is seated, head in her hands. “Star?” Her head snaps up at my voice and I can see the fear in her eyes.
“D...Danny...” she mutters through her sobs.
“You saw what happened?” I ask her, crouching down to be eye level with her and she nods at me gingerly. “Do you wanna talk about it?” She turns away, biting her lip in thought. “Hey, you’re safe...” I gently reach out to take her hand, surprising her, but her grip settles, holding onto me tightly.
“I...I was in the cafeteria,” she says, settling herself. “Eating breakfast while I waited for Paulina. I got up to throw my tray away and saw her... she was on the floor, holding her throat and gasping for air. Her face was...purple.” She shutters, her body overcome with sobs.
“Saw who? Paulina?”
“The lunch lady!” She cries. I rub the back of her hand with my thumb, trying to comfort her, but not really sure how.
“Star?” I hear a distinctly familiar voice behind me and before I can turn around, I feel myself being yanked away from her, making me tumble to the ground. I look up at Dash from where I sit on the concrete, scowling at him, though I decide to stay put for the time being. “Are you okay?” He completely ignores me, cupping her face in his hands as he tries to wipe away the onslaught of her tears.
“I watched her die...” she weeps, collapsing her head into his chest as he wraps her in a tight, comforting hug.
“Danny,” I hear Sam’s voice behind me and take her hand to help me up, brushing off my clothes as I try to focus on what Star told me.
“What did you find out?” Tucker asks me. I watch the ambulance as it pulls out of the parking lot, pausing to compose myself.
“It was the lunch lady,” I tell them. “She choked on something.”
“That’s a bit ironic,” Sam snorts and I turn to glare at her. “Sorry.”
“Students!” Principal Ishiyama calls out to the student body, clearly flustered. “There has been an accident in the cafeteria that we need to clear up before you can return to your normal schedules. Therefore, classes are canceled until further notice.” Many of the kid around us begin to cheer, whooping sounds ringing out across the front of the campus. “No cheering! Ahem... We will be sending out emails of clarification to your parents, but please call them to let them know that you are safe. If you need a ride home, we will be running the buses on their normal routes in thirty minutes.” She finishes speaking and turns to head back into the building, followed closely by a pair of police officers.
“Wow... someone died at the school,” Sam says in shock. “And it wasn’t from a ghost attack?” I shake my head as I move away from the flood of students being washed down the sidewalk. “What are the odds?”
“I mean, it’s not impossible,” Tucker says. “But you’re right, it doesn’t seem likely.”
“You think that a ghost killed the lunch lady?” I ask.
“I don’t think that it’s something that we should just rule out,” Tuck responds. “Maybe we should investigate?”
“What do you mean?” I ask him.
“Well, your dad gave me this thing.” He pulls out a round, handheld device that has two antenna wound together at the top. “It tracks outputs of ghostly energies and maps out a pattern of frequencies that can help to determine the movements of a ghost throughout the space.”
“So if you can get into the cafeteria, you can figure out whether or not a ghost was involved in the lunch lady’s death?” I try to boil down the information in a way that I can understand.
“Probably,” Tuck says. “The only problem is, you’re energy might interrupt the feed if you stay in the same room as the device. It’s a problem that I’ve been having when I’ve tried to use it before.”
“So you two have to stay in there by yourselves,” I sigh. “Okay, I can stand watch I guess.”
“Do you think you can sneak us in?” Sam asks.
“I’ve only ever used my powers on one person at a time, aside from myself,” I say. “I haven’t ever tried going intangible with more than one object, let alone another person.”
“Then we’ll just have to sneak in by ourselves,” Tuck says.
“I’ll distract Ishiyama for you,” I tell them. “Try the art room entrance. The teacher sometimes leaves it unlocked.”
“We’ll be right back,” Sam says and Tucker gives me a sharp nod before they turn and head towards the back entrance of the school. While they walk off, I head back up the steps of the building to distract Ishiyama, who is finishing up talking with the police.
“Oh, Daniel,” she says once I walk up, turning her attention away from the cops. “I thought you’d headed home.”
“Oh, I called my mom and she said that she wanted to pick me up,” I lie, trying to come up with something reasonable on the spot. “I think that she wants to talk to you about the school’s ghost policies.”
“Oh does she?” Ishiyama looks pale, glancing around as if waiting for mom to pop out of the bushes and ambush her.
“She was also wondering if there has been any ghost activity recently,” I prod. “There hasn’t been anything suspicious, right?” Ishiyama clears her throat, obviously nervous about something. “Oh! I talked to Star, she said that she saw the lunch lady choke to death. Is she okay? Did she go home?”
“Ah, yes!” She seems relieved for the change of subject. “Dash said that he would walk her home. I believe they’re at the gym getting their stuff now.” She looks off toward the football field, but snaps her head toward me as she remembers something else. “Your mother is training Dash for his ghost hunting, right? If you don’t mind, I’d like to give you an at home curriculum plan that I’ve proposed for his training regiment that would fit well with his schedule.”
“Oh...” I’m quickly realizing that my distraction plan is spiraling out of control. “Well, my mom should be here soon to pick me up so maybe you can discuss it with her.”
“Good idea,” she says. “I’ll just go grab the papers from my office.”
Her office... right across the hall from the cafeteria...!
“Um!” I turn to stop her but she is already rushing inside.
Shit. Tuck, Sam, I hope you’re finished in there because you don’t have a lot of time left.
I hustle around the side of the building toward the art room entrance, but stop in my tracks when I find Star, sitting on the ground with her head buried in her hands. “Star?” I approach her carefully, not wanting to scare her even further. She slowly cranes her head up to look at me with puffy, red eyes.
“You’re still here?”
“I was gonna ask you the same thing,” I smile at her. “What are you doing out here?”
“Dash needed to head inside to grab his stuff, but I couldn’t go back in,” she admits. “I told him I’d wait here.”
“Do you want company until he gets back?”
“Thanks Danny,” she sniffles. “I’m fine though. He’ll be here any minute.” I want to stay with her despite her answer, but I know that Sam and Tucker are still inside and might need my help, so I just give her a soft nod and head inside. I sneak through the hallway and duck into the empty bathroom so that I can transform.
“I’m going ghost.” I say as quietly as I possibly can, then my body flashes that distinctive blue light shifting me into my ghostly alter ego. As soon as the light subsides, I burst through the bathroom door and sneak my way through the hallway in my invisible state, but once I get into the cafeteria, I find that it is completely empty. “Sam... Tucker?” I whisper, floating through the air as I take in the scene. It is pretty much completely normal looking, save for the makeshift barricades made out of tables that cover the kitchen door. Phasing through the door, I pop into the kitchen to take a look, though the only thing that seems out of place is a broken plate and various breakfast foods scattered across the floor, likely from where the lunch lady collapsed.
Maybe they left already? I almost leave the room before I notice something hiding underneath one of the counters, something familiar. Is that Tucker’s ghost tracker thing? I reach down to pick it up and notice that it is behaving erratically. The images flash onto the screen in a blur of red and green light, mixed in with a majority static, it flashes across the screen so quickly it could give someone a seizure, but I can’t tell what it all means. He wouldn’t have dropped this and left... he was right, there is a ghost...
“It took them...” I whisper, squeezing the device in my hand, but I’m shocked by a chill that rushes through my body forces a small hiccup of blue smoke from my mouth.
“So you’re who sent them?” A menacing voice calls out from behind me. I turn toward the ghost’s voice and come face to face with a grotesque wall of what looks to be discarded meat and other food that has formed like play dough into a human-like shape. “Looks like you didn’t make it in time.”
Rotting Away
The giant blob of meat hovers over me menacingly, its jack-o-lantern smile breathing hot, rancid breath into my face that makes me feel as though I’m going to gag, if I even can in this state. It takes advantage of my shock, using the time to level its fist into my body with a grotesque thunk. My body propels backward, slamming into the kitchen wall and making me slump over in pain.
“You sent those ghost hunters after me, didn’t you?” It bellows, its booming voice echoing through the kitchen, loud enough to draw some attention. “You sent them to hunt me down and finish me off!” The ghost slams another fist into my stomach. “But I won’t let them! I’ll finish you off and then I’ll take care of them!”
It swings its fist again, but my body involuntarily reacts, becoming intangible and allowing its punch to phase right through me. Unfortunately, because I am resting on the ground, it also forces me down through the floor and into the school’s basement. I can’t help but scream as I fall toward the ground and land square on my back, forgetting my flying abilities in the chaos. As I recover myself, I glance around the room.
I wonder why it didn’t follow me? Not that I’m complaining.
My thoughts are interrupted by muffled shouting, which I follow back to the industrial freezer on the far wall of the room. “Hello?” I call out, hoping that it’s not a trap. “Sam? Tuck?” I pry open the ice-box door and find the two of them, huddled together and shivering amongst the meat. “Guys! You’re okay!”
“Th-hat-t’s-s r-r-rel-a-t-tive,” Tucker says, while Sam pushes past us to get out of the freezer, making it five feet before she hunches over and vomits. I grab her hair and pull it back away from her face, rubbing her back as she pukes, waiting until she’s finished to continue.
“Are you guys okay? It didn’t hurt you, right?”
“We’re fine,” Tuck says, recovered from his bout of shivering. He offers Sam some water as she wipes her mouth in disgust. “What about you? Did you see the giant meat ghost?”
“Yeah, it attacked me in the kitchen. Looks like you were right about a ghost killing the lunch lady.”
“It gets worse, though,” he says. “When we were in the cafeteria, I was reading the device and I saw this energy. I thought it was from some random ghost, but we followed it back into the kitchen and the energy trail just stopped.”
“So what does that mean?” I ask, confused as to what he’s implying.
“The ghost seems to have just disappeared,” Sam cuts in.
“That’s weird...” I say. “Why would it just reappear to kidnap you guys and attack me?”
“Maybe it’s trying to cover its tracks?” Tuck suggests and I nod, though I’m not fully convinced.
“Well, no matter the reason, we still need to stop this ghost,” Sam says with a scowl, probably feeling personally offended at the fact that it locked her in a freezer with meat.
“Do you guys think you’re ready?” I look between the two of them, wondering if they will want to opt out of the fight, but their determined faces correct my thoughts. They don’t hesitate in pulling out the blasters from the holsters around their belts. “If we get out of here, we need to get those blasters registered with the school.”
“When we get out of here.” Surprised by her sudden positivity, I turn to look at Sam, and find my gaze softening when I see her face.
She’s scared.
A chill runs down my spine and, predictably, a plume of blue smoke bursts from my mouth in a hiccup. “It’s here.” We spin around, searching for the for the ten foot tall meat monster.
“Where is it?” Tucker asks, both hands white knuckling his blaster. “It’s giant! How can we miss it?”
“Tucker—” I’m cut off by the sound of metal screeching so loud that it could make my ears bleed. Sam and Tucker clutch their hands over their ears to block out the noise, rendering them defenseless as the shelving unit beside us begins to topple forward. Cans and bags of food slide off the shelves and crash to the floor, bursting open and covering all of us with the food inside. “Guys! Look out!” I jump to grab them before the shelf falls on top of them, then use my intangibility to shield us as it hits the ground, crashing with such a loud bang that it makes my ears ring. I phase the three of us through the damage, flying us to the opposite side of the room and setting them safely on the ground. “Are you okay?” I ask, cupping my hands on both of their cheeks and forcing them to look at me.
“Look out!” Sam screams as a bag of flour strikes me in the back and sends me hurtling forward, forcing me to catch myself on the wall as to not hurt my friends. I feel my body erupt in rage as I spin around to face the ghost, eyes glowing in fury.
“How did you do that?” It bellows. “How did you not get crushed?”
“Shut up,” I say as my hands power up with energy. My anger bubbles over and I fire off a shot of energy from my left hand. It surges through the air, its energetic charge making the hair on my arms stand on end, then lands directly in the stomach of the ghost. It screams out in pain, falling backward and lying still for long enough to make me believe that I’ve defeated it, until it’s body begins to writhe around on the floor. Around us, scraps of meat and food from the shelves fly forward, collecting around the beast and sticking to its body, doubling, then tripling the ghost in size. It stalks toward me, raising its fist and sending it slamming down onto my arms as I try to block its punch. Unwilling to let the monster get past me, I push back against it, propelling myself forward with a ghostly energy in the soles of my feet. It stumbles backward and I take the opportunity to fly forward and slam my fist into its face, pushing it back further to give Sam and Tuck time to recover.
I seem to have taken it by surprise though, because once it recovers, it snatches me around the waist, lifting me high up off the ground until I’m eye level with it, then begins to squeeze. My breath instantly hitches in my throat as my body begins to collapse in on itself and I struggle to escape from being crushed.
“Let him go!” Sam screams from the ground below me, while pain surges through my body, making tears trickle in my eyes. Tucker stands next to her, aiming his blaster at the being’s face and shooting, but the power of the gun does hardly any damage. The ghost growls in irritation and moves it’s hand down to grab them both in its other hand.
No... Guys run...
The adrenaline in my system kicks in and I feel myself begin to bubble over with a power that floods out of my body and shrouds me in a lime green glow. It’s as if I’ve turned myself into a bomb that explodes with all the force of my powers, demolishing the ghost’s hand and sending seared chunks of meat and food waste flying across the room. The energy wave slams into the ghost’s body, sending bits of it careening off into space as it falls back into the wall in exhaustion. I come back to myself only to realize what I’ve done: Tucker is lying unconscious on the floor while Sam cradles him in her arms.
Shit. I fly down to the ground as quickly as I can to check on him. Please be okay...
“We need to get him help,” I say to Sam, who seems to be in shock as she’s staring off toward the ghost with a dazed look on her face. “Are you okay, Sam?” She doesn’t respond, still staring off into space. I reach up to cradle her face in my hand, but we are interrupted by the sound of the basement door slamming. When I look up, none other than Dash is standing with his hand on his blaster and his eyes wide in bewilderment. He looks between me, Sam, and Tucker, then pulls his gun and levels it at me. I put my hands up in submission and back away from them.
“What did you do?” He yells, hands shaking on the weapon. He progresses forward, but stops in his tracks when he sees the trash monster behind me. I glance back at it, noticing for the first time the pool of green blood that surrounds its body, which is separated into multiple pieces of rotting flesh, the body bisected at the stomach and it’s arm lying on the floor beside it, with chunks of its flesh missing in multiple areas.
“That ghost,” I say, turning back toward Dash, who looks like he’s going to be sick. “It kidnapped them and attacked me when I tried to save them.” Dash stares into my eyes, reminding me of what he said. ”You remind me of him...” I can see confusion registering on his face as he pulls his eyes off of mine.
“I thought...” he cuts himself off, turning his attention back to the ghost. “What’s happening to it?”
“I don’t know.”
“Why is it here in the first place?” He asks, holstering his blaster.
“I think it killed the lunch lady—” I try to explain, but am cut off by the ghost.
“No...” it says, it’s voice loud and echoey. “You don’t even know... don’t even care...” it’s breathing is ragged and labored. Dash looks to me, but I am just as confused as he is. Meanwhile, Sam has gently set Tucker on the floor and is making her way toward the ghost.
“Hey!” I call out to her, but she doesn’t look back. “What are you doing?”
“You...” she hesitates. “You didn’t kill her...” she strides up to the ghost, stepping through the sticky puddle of ghost blood and stopping at its side.
“No...” it says, it’s voice fading quickly.
“If it didn’t kill the lunch lady, then why is it here?” Dash asks. I think back to before, when Tucker explained how the ghost just disappeared from the kitchen and my eyes widen in realization.
“The ghost trail didn’t vanish...it appeared,” I say, my voice level and remorseful. “You are the lunch lady.”
“They all cheered...” the ghost says, it’s voice breaking as cooking oil begins to leak from its eyes. “No one even remembers my name...” it wept, it’s cries echoing off the walls of the basement, her haunting wail striking a chord in my heart.
“That’s not true,” Sam says, placing her hand on its arm. “You’re Ms. Patty. You’re the lunch lady who gives Tucker extra meat on his sloppy joes, who makes sure that the veggies don’t get cross contaminated with cheese, who shows up every morning to feed all the kids who need breakfast...” Sam goes quiet, as the ghost stills. “Ms. Patty?”
Then, a beam of bright blue light erupts around the body and the clumps of meat begins to melt away. Beneath the surface of moldy, stinky food lies the body of a ghost. Her legs are separated from her body and both halves ooze a sickly green blood, while her hand rests over a gaping wound on her chest, which spills more blood over the front of her apron. I fly over to her, standing next to Sam as she holds onto Ms. Patty’s hand with a vice grip.
“Am I dying again?” Ms. Patty asks, but I can’t respond because I’m unsure. “What’s going to happen to me?”
“...I don’t know.” I answer honestly, feeling a twinge of pain in my chest. Ms. Patty relaxes, as if my answer gave her some piece of mind. “I’m sorry...” I don’t even realize what I’m saying until the words tumble out of my mouth, but I mean every word.
“No, I’m sorry,” she says, looking into my eyes for the first time and I notice how tired she looks. “I was so angry about my death...” she pauses. “Sam...go take care of your friend.” Sam stares down at her in surprise. “I know all of your names, dear... I...never forget one of my students.” Her breathing is labored as she speaks, but it still holds the command and heart of the woman she once was. “Now go.” Sam follows instructions and leaves me alone with Ms. Patty.
“Daniel Fenton,” she says, a certainty in her voice that catches me off guard. “You had better hope that no one...catches onto your little rouse.” I nod in agreement looking back toward my friends, who are helping a newly conscious Tucker. “You’re...a human boy and a...ghost? Half dead...and half alive? ...It’s hard to wrap my head around.”
“It’s hard for me too,” I say.
“You have a...gift,” she says. “You can...protect your friends...” She grabs my hand and stares me dead in the eyes. “Use your gift wisely...Daniel the phantom...” she takes a few more labored breaths, holding my hand tightly before she closes her eyes and her breathing stops. Her grip loosens on my hand and I hang onto it, setting it down on the floor gently and leaving her to rest in piece, but her body doesn’t hold up. It quickly begins to decompose as a bright blue light envelopes her soul and she slowly fades away, only leaving behind the puddle of blood that has pooled beneath my feet.
I turn around to face my friends, who all stare up at me in varying degrees of shock, and only then do I realize that I am just as stunned as they are. Snapping out of my trance, I fly over to where Tucker rests on the floor and kneel beside him. “Are you okay?” He nods reaching back to touch his head.
“I just bumped my head,” he says. “I think it might be a concussion.”
“I’ll take him to the hospital,” Sam says. “You should get out of here before anyone else shows up.” I glance over at Dash, who avoids eye contact, as if he’s pretending that I’m not even there, and I silently thank him for letting me get away unharmed once again.
“Okay,” I nod in agreement. “Heal up quick.” I give Tucker’s wrist a light tap, trying not to seem too intimate for people who are supposed to be strangers. Then, I turn away from them, flying out of the basement and back outside, where I detransform and sneak myself back to the front entrance, just in time to see my mom pull up to the school.
“Danny!” She shouts, jumping out of the car as rushes to meet me. “Are you alright? We got the call from the school that somebody had died!”
“I’m fine mom,” I tell her, letting her pull me into a bone crushing hug. That’s when I realize how incredibly sore I am, after all, I was almost snapped in half just a few minutes earlier. “Too tight!” I wheeze and she lets go of me instantly.
“Oh, sorry, sweetheart.” She gives me a kiss on the cheek. “I would love to have a chat with Principal Ishiyama—”
“Oh I’m sure she’d love that,” I say. “She’s in her office I believe.”
“Perfect!” She beams, giving my cheek another kiss before scurrying off into the building. “Love you, honey!” I follow her up the steps, peering inside to see if my friends have made it out yet, but I don’t see them anywhere.
“Danny!” I hear Sam shout and whip my head toward the noise. They are approaching from around the side of the building, probably having come from the art room entrance. Tucker is trudging along beside Sam, his arm slung around her for support, and Dash walks beside him at a safe distance, but I’m shocked to see Star trailing along behind them. She looks stark white, almost lifeless, and sick beyond reason, but she still follows them.
“Wh-what happened?” I ask, trying to feign innocence.
“There was—” Sam starts, but is cut off by Dash.
“He fell,” Dash says vaguely, obviously not wanting to admit to me that he let the ghost boy get away again.
“Oh fuck,” I strain, my acting skills wavering with every word. “Did he trip down the stairs or something?”
“Yeah,” Dash affirms. “We we’re gonna take him to the hospital.” I look over his shoulder to where Star twiddles her thumbs.
“We can take him,” I say. “You were gonna walk Star home, right?” She doesn’t even glance up when I say her name. “We’ll be okay.” I duck under Tucker’s arm and let him lean some of his weight on me. “Thanks for helping him.” I don’t look at Dash as I speak, but I’m sure that my gratitude comes as much of a shock to him as it does to me.
After we’ve dropped Tucker off at the hospital and called his parents, Mom comes rushing to pick me and Sam up to drop her off and take me back home. She talks the whole way about what a chaotic day it’s been and how she hopes that Tucker will be okay, but neither Sam nor I can say a word, instead I opt to stare out the window and she puts her headphones in to listen to music. Once we get back to the house, I trudge up to my room and close the door, locking it just in case someone gets any ideas of barging in, then I strip my shirt off and stare at myself in the mirror. My torso is lined with slightly faded bruises in the general shape of a hand and my arms are covered similarly. Sighing, I grab a change of clothes, slipping into a sweatshirt and pajama pants at a slow and even pace, wincing with every movement. Afterwards, I lay down carefully on my bed and let myself just stare up at the stars.
Daniel the phantom, huh? I can’t help but laugh, despite how it hurts. That’s not half bad.
1 note · View note
writtingmistakes · 3 years
Text
Amity Park Haunting Update
Because my keyboard hates me, it decided to bust and now the only way that I can write, edit, and publish my stories is on my phone so that will probably lead to the story coming out later than I’d planed. I’ll do my best to copy everything, but the next chapters are coming, don’t worry.
Moral of the story? Fuck you Apple.
3 notes · View notes
writtingmistakes · 3 years
Text
The Amity Park Haunting Part 4: The Ghoul and the Game
The town of Amity Park is under attack by ghosts, but everyone knows that by now. Under the watchful eye of their hero, Jason Baxter, the town was kept safe, until he was ruthlessly murdered by an unknown entity. Now, his son Dash is left to pick up the mantle, and that means training with the parents of the kid he hates most of all, while grappling with his tumultuous relationship with a random ghost kid.
...
After escaping from Skulker and Dash, Danny hides out in his human identity, resolving to stop using his power in order to protect himself from being attacked, until his ghost form begins to try to overtake him, making it harder for him to go about his daily life. Now, Danny has to use his powers to stop Skulker from killing him, with just a little bit of help from a certain ghost hunter.
Damage Control
I slowly open the front door, hoping that no one is around to scold Dash and I for disappearing, then drag him inside and up the stairs. We stumble down the hall, almost managing to make it to Dash’s room when we’re stopped by Jazz, who exits from the bathroom just as we are passing by it. I make eye contact with her, her wide-eyed stare matching my own, and give a guilty little grin before continuing down the hall. Dash swings his door open, shoving off of me to flip down face first on the bed, mumbling something through his pillows.
“What?”
“Thanks,” he says, rolling his face to the side to look at me. I hesitate for a moment, debating about whether or not I should question him, deciding to close the door to keep out any prying ears. “What are you doing?” Dash’s eyes are as wide as saucers as he looks at me, while I lean on the door, recognizing how suspicious this all seems.
“Do you remember anything from earlier?” I ask, ignoring his concerns.
“Huh?” He pauses for a moment, thinking over the events of the last few hours. “I remember bits a pieces,” he replies honestly, sitting up to get a better look at me. “Why? Something happen?”
“It’s just that you were pretty drunk,” I explain, dancing around the issue. “Why were you even out there in the first place?” Dash doesn’t respond, turning his gaze away from me, his jaw clenched in frustration. “It’s just that I know that you and Kwan drink all the time at parties and you guys could probably get beer if you wanted some, so I’m wondering why you’d have to go out to the worst part of to—”
“Do you ever stop talking?” Dash glares at me, indicating that I crossed a line.
“Sorry...” we sit in awkward silence for a bit waiting to see if the other one will do something.
“Your parents,” he starts, rubbing a hand through his hair. “Are they always so... intense?” I chuckle a bit, remembering all of the times that my parents had been too “intense.”
“That’s an understatement,” I laugh. Glancing over at him, I wring my hands nervously, wondering if it’s okay to ask him another question. “Hey can I ask you something?” I don’t give him time enough to reject my request, and charge forward into a battle field. “Did something happen? Like, with my parents?” He looks at me with furrowed brows, as if he is unsure whether or not he should share his secrets with me.
“I-I don’t...” he pauses, scanning me up and down with his eyes. “It was nothing. I just got frustrated with this whole thing and stormed off... I should probably go apologize to them.”
“Maybe wait until after you sleep off the hangover that you are definitely going to have.” He smiles at me, a genuine smile that I’ve never seen him wear before, not even when we were little, and it makes me smile too. I turn away from him before he realizes what’s happening and gets pissed, glancing at the mostly barren walls with a few signed football posters hanging above his desk. “You haven’t unpacked.”
“Not much to move in,” he replies, flopping down on the bed in exhaustion. “Not much that I’d want anyways. My old room still had decorations up from when I was a kid, so I just left it behind.” His admission makes me blush upon remembering my room, which is covered end-to-end in memorabilia from my childhood.
“Don’t you have anything from your dad that you want to keep?”
“He wasn’t much of a collector,” he replies, arm slung over his eyes to block out the light. “The stuff of his that I didn’t want I just gave to your parents. I’m sure that Montez’ll probably take them to the house sometime soon to look over everything.” The cavalier way that he talks about his childhood home makes my heart hurt, but I decide not to press the issue.
“Well, I’m gonna go,” I say, awkwardly wrapping up the conversation. “Drink lots of water and get some rest. I’ll tell my parents that you aren’t feeling well.”
“Please don’t tell them that I was drinking,” he begs, his voice soft and unrecognizable.
“Okay.” I turn around and leave the room, shutting it quietly behind me while I try to wrap my brain around our new rapport. As I walk down the hall towards my room, I run into Jazz, who stares at me with a cocked eyebrow, arms folded across her chest.
“What was that all about?”
“Dash got sick, so I helped him home.” I don’t explain any further, leaving Jazz behind to draw her own conclusions, but she stops me.
“Danny you’re bleeding,” she says, concern evident in her tone, and when I look down at my shoulder, I am suddenly reminded of my encounter with Skulker and how I got shot. While it is bleeding, the wound actually doesn’t look that bad, though it might end up leaving a scar. “Let me clean it.” I don’t object as she pulls me into the bathroom and takes out the first aid kit from underneath the sink, pulling out alcohol and some gauze pads to wipe it down with. She lightly dabs at the wound, cleaning the blood away from the immediate area and letting me get a better look at it. The part of the skin just beneath the outer layer is singed and blistering, while the deeper parts of the wound are just fleshy and red, a stark contrast to the bright green bodily fluid that I was oozing earlier.
It seems to have healed pretty quickly. I wonder if it has something to do with my ghost powers, or if it stitched itself together when I transformed back. Whatever the case, it’s a good thing that it healed or I would’ve had to go to the hospital.
“Danny...” Jazz interrupts my train of thought. “If you got this from a fight, you’d tell me, right?” My stomach sinks, making me feel almost ill as the lie tumbles out of my mouth.
“Yes.” She doesn’t say anything more, likely knowing that I am lying, and finishes cleaning my injury, wrapping a bundle of gauze around the area to control the bleeding.
“You’re all set.”
“Thanks Jazz,” I tell her earnestly, hoping that she forgives me for not being truthful. She smiles and nods, clearly worried and upset for me, but doesn’t say anything more as she walks away, leaving me alone in the bathroom to clean up the mess she left. After I leave, I head downstairs to report in to Mom and Dad, bumping into Dad in the kitchen.
“Danny!” Dad grabs me by the shoulders and hoists me into the air as soon as I enter the room. “Where have you been all day? You missed that ghost kid again. He was right there in Skulker’s hands and he didn’t kill him.” He clenches his fist in anger while looking off into the distance, as if he is still there.
“Yeah...” I say, waiting for him to put me down. “Um, I was with Dash. He’s pretty sick, so I helped him to his room.”
“Oh no,” Mom butts in from where she’s washing dishes at the sink. “Is he alright? Does he need anything?”
“I-I made sure he was okay,” I stammer, overwhelmed at her sudden barrage of questions. “He just wants to sleep, doesn’t really want to be disturbed, so you should probably leave him be.”
“Poor kid,” Dad says, taking a seat at the table. I move to sit across from him, wondering what he is going on about. “He seemed to have gotten frustrated with our training today. I might have pushed him too hard, but considering that he’s sick, it’s no wonder he couldn’t manage it all.”
“With school and ghost hunting, he’s gonna be pretty strapped,” Mom explains. “I hope he’s not going to stay on the football team.”
“Yeah, he won’t be able to handle all of that work,” Dad sighs and I can’t help but feel like I’m missing a part of the conversation.
“The football team?” I ask.
“Dash joined the team over the summer, before Jason passed,” Mom tells me, finishing up with the dishes and wiping off her hands with a towel as she moves to sit next to me. “He’s taken a small leave of absence, but hasn’t quit yet.”
“We’ll talk to him about it, so don’t you worry Danny,” Dad says.
“So what happened with Skulker?” I quickly change the subject before things get too solemn.
“We’re not sure,” Mom says. “Last we heard, he was on the west side hunting that ghost. I doubt he managed to catch him, or else he’d be rubbing it in our faces.”
“But if he can’t do it, I doubt anyone could,” Dad admits. “The only person who stood a chance against Skulker in ghost hunting prowess was Jason.” My blood runs cold.
He’s as good a hunter as Jason? Ghost Slayer Jason? I gulp loudly, feeling sweat beads at the back of my neck as the stress of being hunted to the death begins to wear on me. How the hell am I supposed to stand a chance against that?
Delaying the Inevitable
Over the next few days, I forgo using my ghost half for any reason, worried that as soon as I do use it, Skulker will sneak up on me and that’ll be it. He isn’t the only one that I’m avoiding, though, as Sam and Tucker are still mad at me, but with the stress of a lingering psychopath on my tail, I don’t feel like dealing with that problem. Dash continues his training with Mom and Dad, which keeps him preoccupied in the evenings so that we don’t run into each other, even though I can’t help but wonder what we’d say if we did.
Snapping out of my daze, I force my eyes to focus on the textbook in front of me, trying my best to absorb the words from the sentence that I’ve read over for the tenth time now. “Ugh!” I groan in frustration, giving up on my attempts to study and heading downstairs to get a snack. Since Skulker put his hit out on me, I haven’t been getting much sleep, and my schoolwork has been suffering because of it, but my biggest worry is that as soon as my parents are able to, they’ll be obsessively hunting me as well, meaning that I’ll have three highly trained ghost hunters on my tail at all times when I’m in my ghost form. Luckily, though, I don’t actually need to use my ghost form, so I can just stop using it, at least until everything calms down and Skulker gets off my back. Once I make it into the kitchen, I pass by Jazz, who is finishing up her, no doubt, incredibly difficult math homework, meaning that she doesn’t look up at me as I prod towards the fridge. “Hey Jazz.”
“Hey,” she says, her gaze unmoving from where she looks at her notebook. I reach to open the door to grab some juice... and can’t find my hand. I look down at myself, hoping that my sleep depravation is just causing hallucinations, but my fears are realized as I stare down at my transparent figure. I slap my hands over my chest, trying to make sure that I’m still here and feel the thin fabric of the t-shirt that I was just wearing. I duck down underneath the island, hoping to crawl out of the kitchen without being noticed, but Jazz’s voice stops me in my tracks. “Hey Danny, have you... where’d you go?” I hold my breath, not wanting to make a sound as I slowly creep out of the room and into the hallway, breathing a sigh of relief when I manage to get out. I hold my hand up to my face, trying to discern it from my surroundings, but if I didn’t know better, I’d think that my hand had completely vanished. Exhausted, I rest on my knees, trying to will my body back into visibility.
“What are you doing?” I hear Dash’s voice behind me and I spin around to look at him. He stares directly at me, indicating that he can, in fact see me, and I feel my face light up in joy.
“Ah, I was looking for something,” I lie, too relieved to care much about my excuse. “Are you done with your training?”
“Uh, yeah...” he seems a bit weirded out by the animated way that I am speaking, so I try to tone my excitement down a bit. “Your parents gave me the rest of the afternoon off. I guess they are going to visit the mayor.”
“Probably to get their ghost hunting ban lifted,” I reply. “Well, I have to finish studying.” I turn to leave, placing my hand on the railing, only to realize that it is still missing, so I spin around, hiding them behind my back as I come up with something to say. “Um, actually, I have a question.”
“Yeah?” I rock back and forth on my feet, trying to focus my energy on distracting Dash and controlling my powers simultaneously.
“Um... I don’t know how to ask this...”
“Well just ask it already, you’re starting to piss me off.”
“I-I was wondering if you’re gonna stay on the football team?” I blurt out the first thing that comes to mind, leaving both of us completely stunned. What the FUCK? Why ask him that of all things?
“Why do you care?” He asks, folding his arms over his chest in an intimidating gesture.
“Oh, you’re right, I don’t,” I backtrack, immediately regretting my decision.
“Then why’d you ask?” He questions, securing me in place with a sharp glare. I reflexively put my hands out in submission, to stop him from coming near me, but he doesn’t move.
“I...I shouldn’t have... I’m sorry.” I look away from his face and down towards the floor, doing a double take when I see that my hand has returned to normal. “I-I should go.” I scurry out from underneath his sharp gaze, racing up the stairs as quickly as I can and slamming the door to my room when I get there. I am a fucking idiot.
I don’t get a chance to brood any longer, as I feel my body begin to float off of the ground uncontrollably. I swing my arms and legs violently, trying to maneuver myself towards a surface to anchor myself, but just end up flailing around awkwardly in the air. Folding up my arms like a pouty toddler, I surrender to the absurdity of my power, laying still on my back and staring up at the translucent stars that are situated on my ceiling until I calm down. Finally, my powers let up and I come crashing to the ground in a blur, landing on my side with a thud.
“Danny?” Jazz yells from beneath the stairs. “You okay?”
“Yeah I’m fine!” I make a break for the door, pulling it open and leaning over the stair railing to speak with her. “I just dropped my text book.”
“Oh, okay,” she pauses. “Hey how’s you’re arm?”
“Fine now,” I smile at her. “Thanks for the help.”
“Sure.” She turns back towards the kitchen, leaving me alone in the hallway to deal with my malfunctioning powers.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” I ask my ghost self, as if it is standing in the room with me. “You were working fine a few days ago, so why is everything going to shit now?” I try to calm my anxiety as I descend the staircase, heading towards the living room to take a load off, but I suddenly fall through the floor, as if my ghost half is responding to me. When I land, I’m in the basement, for the first time since the incident, staring straight at the ghost portal that gave me my powers in the first place. I gaze into the empty metal hole, with deep shadows cast across the inside of the machine, making it look angry and menacing. As I stare into it, I feel my anxiety getting the better of me.
Damn it. I can’t stay here. I have to get out of here.
Looking around, I notice the garage is in even more disarray than it was when I was down here the other week, and that I am trapped in by a pile of garbage that doesn’t let up until it hits the far wall of the room. Body trembling, I try to make my way up the piles, crawling towards the basement door as quickly as possible, but as I make some progress, the clutter eventually collapses in on itself and pulls me down with it, trapping me within a landslide trash. As I take stock of all of the trash surrounding me, a random tv crushing my arm, old fast food containers pressed against my chest, random metal ghost hunting equipment piled just above my head, I feel my breathing start to quicken. I try to pull myself out from underneath the rubble, forcing my arm from underneath the tv, but it makes things worse, as the rubble from up top falls at the sudden motion to barricade my body even more. Closing my eyes, I try to come up with a solution, despite the loud pounding of my heart distracting my brain.
All of the sudden, there is a flash of blue light that snaps my eyes open and I feel my body starting to shift into the ghost form involuntarily. “No-no-no-no— Wait!” I yell, but my body won’t listen to me. Soon, my transformation is complete and I don’t even have to look down at myself to know that I’ve become my ghost half; I can feel the difference by this point. Okay. It’s okay. Calm down. I close my eyes and shake my head, ridding my mind of as many thoughts as I can. I’m already transformed, nothing I can do about it now. Let’s just use this to get out. No one will have to know.
I try to phase myself up through the rubble and out of the basement, but can’t control my power yet, so it ends up sending me through the floor against my will. Unsure of what exactly is happening, I turn off my phasing power and feel myself being launched upwards, breaking through the Earth’s surface and flying up through the air until I come crashing down onto the hard asphalt. When I’ve recovered my senses, I open my eyes to see where I am and find myself in the middle of the street, looking up into the headlights of an on coming car, who swerves to avoid me, crashing into a streetlight as he goes. I hurry to stand up, checking to see if the driver is okay, but he’s passed out on the steering wheel with blood trickling down his face.
“Oh god...” I mutter, running my hand through my hair. “Someone! Someone get help!” The crowd of people that has formed around the incident stands back in horror, looking at me with terrified expressions. “Please! One of you...” As I reach out to them, people start to lurch away from me, a few of them even running off down the road, but no one calls for help. I reach towards the man in his car, avoiding looking at his face while I dig around in his pockets for a phone to call the police with. When I find it, I pull it out of his pocket and quickly dial 911.
“911...y...emergency?”
“There’s been an accident!” I shout, but all I hear on the other end is static. “A man drove into a light post and he’s unconscious and bleeding from the head. Please... come help him.” I hang up the phone before I can do anymore damage and fly away from the scene. Shit. SHIT. I fucked up. Shit! I don’t notice that I’m flying erratically until I crash into the roof of a random apartment building, which knocks me down onto the rooftop and leaves me sprawled out on my back, head spinning with regret and fear. I-I might’ve killed that man. If I could’ve... if I could’ve done something... if I would’ve just... Once I’ve had time to calm down, I move to take stock of my surroundings, sitting down on the edge of the building for a better vantage point, while the reality of the situation settles into my thoughts. I see the lights of an ambulance and hear the ever approaching siren pass by the building beneath me, making me feel slightly relieved, despite all of the guilt. Suddenly, I feel a chill run down my spine that makes me shiver in the cold night air, and a small plume of smoke forces its way from my mouth as I let out a gasp.
“Ghost child,” I hear Skulker’s low, menacing voice from behind me as I feel the presence of a gun leveled at my head. “You have evaded me for longer than any prey has. It is commendable, though a bit disappointing. I thought that you might try to put up a fight.”
“If you’re gonna do it, then stop talking,” I say. “I don’t want the last voice I hear to be yours.”
“It’s a pity,” Skulker mocks, ignoring my request. “For all of the potential that you have, you would waste it on running away until you can’t run anymore?”
“I’m not running,” I retort. “I’m just tired.”
“And that’s your excuse?” Skulker cackles.
“Are you done?” I ask, turning around to look at him, but our conversation is disrupted by a loud blast. A line of green energy surges between Skulker and I, making me lose my balance and fall off the edge of the roof, but I catch myself midair and fly out into the middle of the road to survey my surroundings. Skulker is up on the roof, hunched over in pain and covering his right eye, while the source of the blast stands shaking in his position on the sidewalk a few feet away. He turns to look at me, arms still extended towards Skulker, but slowly turns them to level his blaster at me. I hold my hands up in surrender, hoping that he will back off if I don’t resist, but as I examine him, I notice that he has tears streaming down his face.
“What are you doing here?” I ask.
“I saw you...” he says through gritted teeth. “That man swerved into the post because of you.”
“I know,” I say solemnly, still in too much shock to fully register what happened. “I didn’t mean to.”
“You’re evil!” He shouts.
“I’m not evil...” I whisper, hardly loud enough for him to hear.
“You’re a ghost.”
“I’m not evil,” I speak a little louder this time.
“Urgh...” Skulker growls from his position on the roof. “You...” he stands upright, still clutching tight to his metallic eye socket, but something is wrong. Beneath his grasp, bright green blood oozes from the cut on his eye, the same kind that I bled just a few days prior.
“Dash, we have to get out of here!” I fly over to where Dash is still holding his weapon up to me, and grab his wrist, pulling him along behind me as we try to get away from Skulker.
“Get back here, Welp!” Skulker bellows from behind us, but I don’t stop to look back and neither does Dash. After a few minutes of running, I feel him start to lag behind me, and duck us into an alley to let him catch his breath.
“Why...” he breathes heavily, bent over with his hands on his knees in exhaustion. “He was... bleeding green... what the hell is going on?”
“I don’t have time to explain, Dash,” I say, peering out around the corner to check for Skulker’s presence. “But we have to stop him. He’s gonna have you in his sights now that you’ve managed to hurt him.” I turn around to look at Dash, who stares at me with a blank expression on his face. “Did you hear me?”
“This feels... familiar,” he mutters, snapping me back to last week when he was drunk. “We’ve done this before...”
“No we haven’t,” I dismiss, turning around to avoid his gaze. “Listen, we have to deal with Skulker, right now. What ever else you want to talk about can wait until this is all over. Like I said, Skulker is going to come after you now, so you have to help me defeat him.”
“Why would he be attacking me right now?” Dash asks. “I’m a human. Why would he attack his own kind?”
“No, Dash, you don’t get it,” I face him once again, this time more determined. “Skulker is a ghost.”
The Most Dangerous Game
Dash runs behind me on the path towards the house, while I explain to him the plan. “Skulker isn’t going to be targeting me so much, now that you’ve hurt him, so we can use you as a decoy—”
“A decoy?”
“Yes, I said that,” I scoff. “And you will distract him.“
“Wh...what?” He huffs, completely winded. “That’s not fair! Why don’t you... be the decoy? I’ll be... the one taking... him down.”
“Well if you wanna try that and see how far you get, be my guest,” I say, fully aware that he’ll still be succumbing to my intent either way. “The plan is, we get him out in the middle of the city, which is close to Fenton Works, then, I expose him as the ghost he is in front of the mayor and everyone else.”
“Then what?” He pants.
“Then...” I think for a moment, considering my options. “Either one of us could probably take him down. Or maybe the Fentons will do something about it.”
“They can’t... they’re on leave...” he remarks, making me smile a bit. “Wait!” He stops in his tracks, grabbing me by the tail and lurching me backwards, compressing my body into my tail like a slinky.
“Hey!” I slap his hand off of me. “Don’t grab my tail!” The words tumble out of my mouth before I realize how insane they are.
“This way...” he breathes, pointing down an empty and darkened street. “It’s faster and more discrete.”
“We don’t need discretion, we need to attract his attention.”
“And how do you assume we’re gonna keep all of these civilians safe if we don’t use at least a hint of discretion?” He asks, folding his arms over his chest in frustration. “Let’s just use this side road until we get over to Fenton Works, it leads us right there.” He starts running down the road ahead of me, forcing me to book it to catch up.
“Why do you even know about this shortcut?” I ask.
“Because, I used it the other day,” he explains. “I... snuck out... didn’t want the Fenton’s tracking me down.”
“Where were you going?” I ask, trying to get him to admit that he was drinking; trying to tarnish his image as this brave, bold hero, at least to myself.
“I didn’t know...” he says. “I just... ran away. Then... I made the mistake... of getting drunk in... an alley... in a bad part of town. This kid came... he helped me home.”
“Oh.”
“He’s a Fenton,” Dash continues. “Name’s Danny... I was being an idiot... drinking my pain... away... and we fight a lot... but he still... helped me... so...”
I didn’t even know he knew my name, let alone thought this way about me.
“You remind me of him...” he says.
“What?”
“Just... you look alike... and you talk similar... but that’s why... I didn’t shoot you... in case you were wondering...”
“I thought you said that you fight a lot?”
“That doesn’t mean... I want him to die...”
“Oh,” I mutter.
“Almost there...” We make our way out onto the main road right in front of the house, stopping just before we step out into the open for Dash to catch his breath. “We... we should wait here until we see him.”
“Yeah, I should,” I say. “You, on the other hand, should go out and be the bait.”
“We didn’t agree to that!”
“Well, either you play the bait, or we wait until Skulker comes and surprises us.” He stands with his arms crossed, considering.
“You have to make sure you don’t let him kill me, got it?” He threatens.
“Fine, fine.” I push him forward onto the street and dart back into the shadows.
“Hey everyone!” Dash screams, trying to gather as much attention as he can. “Get off the streets, there’s a ghost!” He runs up to couples and tries to push them away from the damage zone. “Seriously get out of here!” A loud bang interrupts him, coming from Skulker’s heavy metal boots that concave the asphalt underneath where he lands. Before Dash even has a chance to react, Skulker fires his weapon on him, landing a blow on his shoulder and making him fall back onto the concrete. Around him, the panicked crowd begins to disperse, running away as fast as they can, none of them stopping to check on Dash’s condition. I almost act on my urge to go and help him, but know that I need to stick to the plan.
Okay... just focus on phasing through the armor. Just focus... Focus... I calm my mind and close my eyes concentrating on my phasing power, then open them again, narrowing in on Skulker as he marches towards Dash with his arm raised. Before he has a chance to shoot him, I launch myself over to their location, activating my power, before colliding into Skulker’s suit and dragging him out of the metal capsule, landing on the ground on my back with him on top of me. I did it! Oh my god I really did it!
I realize that I reacted preemptively when I see Skulker’s ghost body. His skin is pale, almost translucent, especially at the tail, and is stretched out over a thin skeleton, as if it has been compressed down by a vacuum seal. But I can’t focus on that, as I’m distracted by the massive hole protruding from his chest, with blackened blood surrounding the wound and bright red veins winding along the inside of his chest cavity, like a bunch of hyper-realistic tattoos. His face, however, is hollowed out around the skull, with only bits of skin hanging off of the bones, eyes protruding out from the empty sockets like snail’s eyes, one of which is now mangled and bleeding green, sticky blood, which drips down his face and onto my body.
“Oh god,” I hear Dash whimper from his place on the sidewalk, before he starts retching, reacting in the exact way that I want my body to.
“Welp...” Skulker growls through gritted teeth. “Even in this form, even as weak as I seem, I am still stronger than you could ever hope to be.”
I am suddenly reminded of my last encounter with a ghost, the tentacle ghost; his words to me during that fight bounce around on the inside of my skull. “You created a rift between the ghost world and the human one.” An idea pops into my head, forcing me to use all of my strength to kick Skulker’s ghost form off of me and phase down through the ground towards my family’s basement.
He’s right. I can’t beat him in a fight. I don’t know how. But maybe I can send him through the portal.
I hurry over to the device, which is still wide open and investigate the inside. All of the lights on the interior buttons are off and they don’t turn on when I press them. It’s not working... I fly out of the machine and look around the outside, settling my gaze on two large buttons on the right exterior, but before I’m able to approach them, a wave of energy crashes into my back and rockets me into the wall.
“You thought that you could buy yourself some time by hiding out in here?” He bellows angrily, firing another blast into my shoulder and making me bleed. “You cannot outrun me. It is your fate to die by my hand.” I stagger to my feet and lean against the wall, clutching my shoulder as I stare at the fully equipped Skulker in his suit of armor.
“I exposed you to the world,” I say weakly. “You’ll never be the famous ghost hunter that you once were. You’ll never be Skulker: the greatest ghost hunter the world has ever known.” He raises his fist to fire another blast at me, but I am standing close enough to the button to hit it without breaking eye contact, and the machine whirs to life.
“You think you’ll be safe inside the Ghost Zone?” Skulker baits. “I will hunt you down and kill you over and over and over again, until you finally return here, where I will hunt you down and kill you permanently.” He fires another shot, narrowly missing my face, but singing my ear in the process. “And then I will kill that pathetic excuse for a ghost hunter for shooting me in the eye.”
Next to me, electricity crackles while a large, swirling void of green nothingness forms within the walls of the portal until it completely encompasses the frame. I have to find a way to trap him inside... As I am thinking, Skulker fires another shot, this time hitting my stomach, and I fall to the floor in the fetal position, crying out in pain.
“Pathetic,” Skulker spits as he stands above me, but he’s cut off when Dash suddenly appears behind him, ramming his shoulder into Skulker’s metal body and sending him flying into the portal. Before I have a chance to thank him, Dash reaches out and smashes his palm into the button marked ‘close’ and the large steel doors slam shut. We both breathe a sigh of relief, reveling in the moment of silence that we’ve just earned, before Dash begins to laugh.
“Ha!” He smiles down at me with a goofy grin on his face. “I told you that you’d be my decoy.” I glare at him for a moment, but he just shrugs his shoulders and continues to chuckle, his laughter becoming contagious and forcing me to join him. We stay where we are, laughing deliriously at our situation, until we finally manage to calm down. He leans over to help me to my feet, while I clutch at my stomach.
“You okay?” I ask.
“Just hurt my shoulder a bit,” he shrugs, wincing as he rolls it out. “You?”
“Just...” I pull back my hand from my stomach to see a trail of blood on my arm, hiding a relatively large gash above my hip.
“Oh god...” his eyes widen as he stares into my wound. “Wh...what do we do? Should I take you to the hospital? Wait, you’re a ghost, you’ll be fine, right?”
“I’m fine...” I groan, resting against the wall.
“...No you’re not.”
“Just leave me alone.” I push Dash away from me and stagger off, pushing off the ground and forming my tail on my way out of the basement.
“Wait!” I ignore his protests and phase through the wall of the basement and out onto the streets. As my vision starts to get blurry, I only have one destination on my mind, so I fly through the air as quickly as possible to get there before I pass out. Once I get to the red bricked apartment complex, I phase through the wall of the top floor, third window to the back, and collapse onto the floor, feeling myself de-transform just before I pass out.
...
“Danny!” Sam’s voice snaps me awake as she hovers mere inches from my face. “Are you okay?”
“Danny what happened?” Tucker asks, leaning over her shoulder. I blink a few times, regaining each of my senses, my sense of pain returning last of all and forcing a low groan to escape my lips.
“Danny?” Sam looks down at me with furrowed brows, her eyes filled with worry while she examines my face from far too close.
“Hey,” I whisper. “You’re kinda close.”
“Oh!” She jumps back, almost banging her head into Tucker’s face had he not been blessed with such quick reflexes. “A-are you okay?” I gingerly press my hand into my stomach, where I feel a small gash that makes me flinch back in pain. Sam takes the cue and lifts my shirt for me, seeing the injury and immediately dropping the shirt down and stumbling away. “O-oh my god.”
“Let me take a look,” Tucker offers, pulling my shirt up once again and examining the wound from afar. “It’s a pretty bad cut Danny. Probably needs stitches. Sam, go get a rag and some rubbing alcohol.” He takes charge of the situation seamlessly. “And wash your hands before you touch anything! Hang in there, Danny, I’m gonna call 911.”
“No!” I grab his hand before he can pull out his phone. “Please just let me explain. Help me stand up.”
“Danny...”
“Please, Tuck?” He pauses for a moment, trying to deny my request, but fails, rolling his eyes as he admits defeat and helps me stand up. Sam walks back into the room with a towel and a bottle of vodka in hand, almost dropping them when she sees me standing.
“Tucker!” She yells.
“Shh!” I hush her.
“You’re not supposed to let him stand, are you?” She asks with a whisper.
“Sam, it’s okay,” I say. “Shut the door for a minute, I need to show you something.” She does as I ask, setting the alcohol down on the table as she approaches me. “I know you guys deserve an explanation first, but it’s probably better if I just show you.” I push away from where I’m leaning on Tucker and limp to the middle of the room.
“Danny...” Sam mumbles, but I don’t give her time to finish before I speak my lousy catch phrase.
“I’m going ghost.”
...
So sorry for the cliffhanger, but it was just too tempting to resist. This has been a pretty massive project that I’ve undertaken, as I’ve been copying my story over to both Fanfiction.net and Wattpad, so it’s taken a lot of time for me to get these out. But the fact that people are sticking around and reading is just so amazing. So thank you all so much for the support! Happy reading!
4 notes · View notes
writtingmistakes · 3 years
Text
The Amity Park Haunting Part 3: Raising Your Spirits
The town of Amity Park is under attack by ghosts, but everyone knows that by now. Under the watchful eye of their hero, Jason Baxter, the town was kept safe, until he was ruthlessly murdered by an unknown entity. Now, his son Dash is left to pick up the mantle, and that means training with the parents of the kid he hates most of all, while grappling with his tumultuous relationship with a random ghost kid.
...
It’s day two of Dash living in the Fenton house and he is already getting more attention than Danny believes he deserves. But as his parents are distracted with their training, Danny is free to test out the limits of his powers against a new adversary: the famed ghost hunter, Skulker, who pledges to hunt down and kill Danny.
What a Day
The breakfast table is surprisingly empty as I sit and eat my breakfast, likely because Mom and Dash went to report their progress to the mayor this morning at 7 am, meaning that he’ll likely get to skip out on his morning classes. “The perks of being the town hero I guess...” I stir my cereal around in the bowl, watching it get soggy as my thoughts wander to yesterday’s events. I found out after I woke up that my dad suffered a concussion from the blow and my mother sprained her wrist, and though both of them were lucky to have gotten out with such mild injuries, they’ve still been put out of commission by the mayor for two weeks. Mom is at city hall now to contest that order, but I doubt it’ll be overturned. In any case, it gives the two of them a lot more time to train Dash, especially if they want him to be a ruthless ghost hunter like Jason. But, for some reason, my interaction with Dash yesterday is bugging me.
Why didn’t he shoot me?
I finally snap out of my thoughts, looking down at the mostly disintegrated cereal in my bowl, and toss it in the sink before heading to get ready, when I run into Jazz as she races down the stairs with a binder full of loose papers. “Watch out, Danny! I have to get to school.”
“What for?” I ask.
“My science club had to change rooms because the attack yesterday damaged property and now our meeting time moved from morning to afternoon!” She explains while racing around the room and collecting her things, before booking it out the door without so much as a goodbye.
“See you later?” I roll my eyes, turning and heading up the stairs to get ready for school. I leave the house about thirty minutes later and when I walk out the door, I see Sam and Tucker waiting for me at the bottom of the stairs. “H-Hey.”
“Hey,” Tucker replies, but Sam remains turned away with her arms crossed, not wanting to make eye contact with me. I don’t say another word as I walk down the stairs to meet them. Keeping pace with their walking speed, we head towards the school, me not daring to say a word with out prompting.
“We heard that you got sick yesterday,” Tucker leads into a long string of questioning, like he always does. “Is it from the day before? You know, when...” he pauses, trying to think of how to put his words.
“It...” I don’t want to lie, so I don’t say anything more, just keeping my eyes glued to the sidewalk beneath me as I continue walking. On the opposite side of Tucker, who acts as a buffer between us, Sam scoffs, not hiding her annoyance.
“Of course he has nothing to say.”
“Sam...” Tucker scolds, though I doubt it’ll do anything. “He said he would tell us when he’s ready.”
“And when is that gonna be?” Sam stops in her tracks and we all follow her lead. “Danny, w-we saw... heard your screams. You were...” she can’t finish, which genuinely surprises me. Even more surprising are the tears that streak down her face as she cups her mouth, horrified and traumatized by what she saw. Tucker grabs Sam by the arm and pulls her into a hug, trying to comfort her in all of the ways that I’d failed.
“I’m sorry,” I can’t say anything to relieve their stress, all because of my fear. I’m a fucking coward. I clench my fists in frustration, secretly wanting them to ream me out.
“Danny, we just want to know what’s going on,” Tucker concludes. “We thought that you died in there and... we blamed ourselves.”
Hit that nail right on the head.
“I am just...” I try to tell them, force the words from my mouth, but all I can do is speak in sentence fragments. “I’m so damn confused right now. And I know that you guys wouldn’t understand cause I don’t even fucking understand. But...”
“What the hell could possibly be so bad that you can’t tell us?” Tucker shouts, still clutching Sam as she rests on his chest like lump of clay.
“If you’d just let me figure that out for myself then I would tell you!” I yell back, releasing my pent up anger from everything that has been happening onto them. “I need you guys to trust and support me right now! I need you guys to be my friends!”
“Well what about what we need from you?” Sam regains her strength, the cold anger of her voice just as terrifying as the other two times I’d heard it.
“I think I get to be selfish now,” I tell her and march off, not feeling particularly angry at them, more so myself for being like this to my best friends. Once I get to school, I put my things away in my locker and head straight to class, not waiting for them to join me. As soon as I get to English class, though, I kick myself for not having my friends for support when Mr. Lancer comes up to me.
“Mr. Fenton,” his voice echoes throughout the room in a taunting manor, as if begging me to act out. I turn around to face my teacher, noticing how intimidating he is as he stands over me, and struggle to come up with an excuse for whatever it is he’s yelling at me for. “You promised me last week that you would turn in your ghost safety protocol form.”
“Uh...” I try to think of something to say, but Lancer cuts me off.
“Yesterday we had a ghost attack, as I’m sure you’ve heard,” he lectures. “If you would have been at school, you would have detention right now.”
“But I don’t?” I ask in surprise.
“I’m still debating it,” Lancer replies, walking past me towards his desk in preparation to start class. “Have it turned in by tomorrow morning. And I expect you to be on your best behavior today.” He glares at me, prompting me to shuffle into my seat, where I stay seated quietly for the remainder of the class, avoiding eye contact with Sam and Tucker the entire time. After the bell rings and Lancer finishes assigning us the literature homework, I book it as fast as I can out of the classroom, but am stopped at the door by a terrifying force of strength that knocks be back before I am able to make my escape.
“Fenton.” I don’t even have to look up to know who is blocking my path. Just as I am about to respond, Mr. Lancer interjects.
“Is there a problem here?” I don’t even turn around to face my teacher, swallowing my pride and peering up into the face of my enemy, who glares back at me.
“S-sorry, Dash,” I stutter before nudging past the jock and rushing as fast as I can down the halls, feeling his eyes burning through the back of my skull as I scurry towards my next class.
After a few more miserable classes and a lunch period spent in an empty classroom, I am finally allowed to go home, deciding to walk back with Jazz for the first time in a while. “How was school?” She asks, and I know full well that she is wondering if Dash and I had another fight.
“Fine,” I say, but immediately regret it, as if my body is begging me to vent to her about my problems. “I just got reamed out by both my best friends and my teacher.”
“Wh-why?” She seems completely stunned by my admission.
“Well, Lancer almost gave me detention for not turning in my ghost attack form thing,” I begin, not stopping the words as they flow out of my mouth. “I know I should’ve had mom and dad sign it, but I don’t want to bother them with this with everything that’s been going on.” I pause, wondering when Jazz is going to scold me for ‘neglecting my responsibilities’ or something like that, but when I look over at her, she has her eyes trained forward, waiting for me to continue. “Um... and Sam and Tucker... they’re angry with me. And honestly I don’t blame them. After everything that they’ve been through I would be pissed at me too, but...” I sigh, unable to finish what I was thinking. “Are you really not gonna say anything?”
“Do you want to know what I really think?” She asks and I nod in response. “It was stupid of you to neglect your responsibilities just because you wanted to protect Mom and Dad’s feelings. I mean, it’s not like they’ve stopped fighting ghosts just because Jason died.” She makes a pretty good point. “And I don’t know what happened between you, Tucker, and Sam, but I do know what they said when they called me.”
“What do you mean when they called you?”
“They called me the night that you went missing for a while,” she starts. “When you went on your ‘walk’ around the neighborhood. They didn’t tell me any details, but they said that you might have gotten hurt and wanted to know if you were okay. When I told them that you were missing they seemed devastated, like they’d just lost you.” I stop walking, looking down at the ground with clenched fists.
“I know that,” I tell her through gritted teeth, my voice barely louder than a whisper. “I know how much I’m hurting them, but... they don’t know what I’m going through. They don’t understand what it’s like to be a—“ Oh my god, I almost told her.
“A what?” She doesn’t just let it go, which is pretty in line with her character but not exactly what I need right now.
“Nothing,” I brush her off. “My point is, I need time to figure things out. And...” Deep down, what I’m most worried about is that they’ll hate me when I tell them. “I just want this miserable day to be over.” We continue walking, the lull in the conversation making me feel a bit awkward.
“Um...” she seems to be choosing her words carefully. “Did something else happen today? Like with Dash?”
“Surprisingly no,” I laugh despite myself. “We only ever saw each other once, and that was hardly even an encounter compared to last time.”
“I’m still so pissed at that douchebag,” she says, clenching her jaw in anger. “He didn’t even wait to see if you were okay yesterday on the way to school; just darted off like a scared gazelle.” A flash of last night returns to me, Dash’s ‘feel better’ ringing through my ears. “God! What is his problem?”
“I was just wondering the same thing.” Our conversation sputters to a halt once we get home, where we can hear very loud and potentially dangerous banging noises coming from the backyard. We enter through the rear gate, looking to see what could possibly be making so much noise, and see our parents, as well as Dash, assembling what looks to be a target arena, with fake ghost cutouts to boot.
“Hey kids!” Mom yells, dropping a large steel barrel into Dad’s arms, who almost falls over due to the weight. She runs up to us and scoops us into a warm hug.
“Mom, be careful with your wrist,” Jazz scolds, trying to talk her way out of being crushed.
“Oh it’s fine, dear,” she says. “That coward mayor couldn’t be convinced though. So we’ve just been here.” Once mom releases us, we turn to watch Dad as he teaches Dash how to properly hold his gun.
“He’s here?” I ask, not taking my eyes off of them.
“Oh, yeah,” Mom says excitedly. “Dash gets to come home early from school everyday so that he can train. It’s part of the plan that the mayor put together for him. It’s so wonderful getting to train a newbie again. I remember when you two were kids just learning how to hold your ecto-blasters.” She sighs, reminiscing on the past.
“Okay, enough of that,” I say, turning my eyes away as Dash misses his shot, making him look around wildly at the shock of the recoil. “I’m gonna go do my homework. Oh, and I need you to sign something for me, Mom.” I don’t wait for a response before turning to head inside, pulling the form out of my backpack and setting it on the counter for her to sign, then steering out of the kitchen and trudging up the stairs towards my room, which has an impressive view of their backyard training session. I flop on my bed in exhaustion, feeling like I’ve aged a few years in just the span of three days and wondering if my heart can take anymore stress.
A New Threat
“Danny!” Mom yells from downstairs, breaking my attention away from my homework. I stand up from my desk and rush down to meet her in the kitchen, where Dash sits, recuperating from their intense drilling. He doesn’t even glance at me as I come into the room, which I am partially grateful for and partially annoyed about. “What’s this form here?” She asks, holding up the paper to me.
“Oh.” I scratch the back of my neck, glancing at Jazz who sits at the bar doing her homework, avoiding my gaze as well. “It’s the ghost attack protocol that our school has put in place. I just need you to sign it cause I have to turn it in tomorrow.”
“Hmm...” she mutters something inaudible under her breath as she reads, scanning every word to the letter. “What is this, Danny? ‘Leave all personal items and filter out of the classrooms in an orderly fashion, heading towards the streets and police barricades.’ That’s completely improper! What if the students were to run into the ghost?”
“Mom, I didn’t make up the rules—“
“If students stay inside the classrooms, doesn’t that then put them at more risk?” Dash asks, engaging in our conversation as if he has the right to butt in. “They could potentially be injured from the ghost, ghost hunters like yourselves, or even debris from the fight. Plus, being within the vicinity of the ghost puts you at more risk of being taken hostage or kidnapped, and ghosts can phase through anything so they could easily maneuver about the building to find targets and escape routes. Staying inside the building is likely only going to get people hurt, so it makes sense that they would want to get us as far away from the fighting as possible.” I stand there gaping at his words, trying to pick my mouth up off the floor as I look around to see my family’s reaction. Jazz sits stunned in her seat, glancing between Dash and my mom, who seems to be deep in thought, her expression unreadable, and Dash... he seems to have realized the gravity of his mistake, looking at me to help him rectify things.
Why do you always look at me for help? Goddamn my bleeding heart.
I turn towards mom, ready to defend Dash, for whatever reason, but before I can say anything, her face morphs into an obscure smile and she looks over at him with wild eyes. “How clever you are!” She laughs, her bloodshot eyes bulging from her head in interest, a look that dissuades me from speaking. “Oh! You are well on your way to becoming the finest hero this town has ever known! You’re acting just like your father would!” She beams at him stepping forward to pull him into a hug, leaving Jazz and I utterly floored. Dash gives her a light squeeze back, seeming a bit relieved, but something else is there. Something... sad, I just can’t figure out why. She pushes him away suddenly and returns to the counter, snatching the paper up and quickly signing on the line at the bottom, then hands it to me with a sweet smile, the craziness that she was displaying earlier vanished completely.
“There you go, honey,” she beams, sliding the paper into my hands when I don’t immediately take it. “You should thank Dash, otherwise I wouldn’t have signed this. Though I do still think I should be going over ghost safety procedures with Principal Ishiyama.” She turns away from the three of us and pulls out her phone, all the while muttering under her breath, rehearsing what she’s going to say to the principal. I turn back towards Dash, who sways where he stands, staring down at his shoes as he kicks them out anxiously.
“Uh,” I begin, not sure what I’m going to say. He looks up at me expectantly, seemingly prepared for me to lash out at him, but I don’t plan to. “Thanks.” I leave the room without waiting to see his response, my pride getting the better of me, but stop at the base of the stairs to look back, watching Mom and Dad as they set up more machinery outdoors, and feeling a pang of jealousy as Dash joins them.
Just as I am about to go up the stairs again, I feel the shiver run down my spine, fully expecting to have an attack like last time, and try to make it to the bathroom before anyone can see me, but only a small amount of smoke leaves my body this time, coming out in a small plume and immediately dissipating. It somewhat reminds me of when that Tentacle Ghost flew by me in the parking lot, almost as if my body picks up on the presence of other ghosts and alerts me. Wanting to test my theory, I lock the bathroom door in a rush, leaving me alone to focus all of my attention on turning into my ghost form, but nothing happens.
Come on. Why isn’t it working? I open my eyes, looking into the bathroom mirror at my, surprisingly, disappointed face, but I ignore my internal concerns, shaking my head as I refocus. Maybe I can cue it up somehow. I close my eyes again, concentrating as hard as I can on the image of me becoming my ghost self.
“Turn on ghost form!” I say. It doesn’t work. “Go, go ghost form!” Another failed attempt. “Come on ghosty! Uh, I’m turning ghost! I am going to become a ghost. Let me die.” I grasp my hands on the bathroom sink and let out a long, irritated groan. In a last ditch effort, I lift my head and think of one more phrase that might trigger the transformation. “I’m going ghost!” I suddenly feel my body start to tingle, and again my torso is encompassed by the bright blue light, this time, though, I watch myself transform through the mirror. My body starts to shift into the other form, starting at my waist and progressively working down towards my toes and up towards my head at once, all the while, the tingling sensation continues, spreading throughout my body as I change, once the transformation is complete, I stand in the white boots of the jumpsuit that my parents designed specifically for me, tugging at the fabric on my arms in assurance. “Of course I would have such a stupid ass catch phrase.” I sigh, settling to worry about that later.
I jump into the air a few times, trying to force my tail to form, then test out my phasing power as I float in midair, trying to gauge my speed and how capable I am with my abilities. This is actually pretty cool. Once I’ve had my fun with my powers, I focus as hard as I can and phase through the wall with no complications, emerging onto a backroad and regretting my decision immediately when a couple spots me and runs off screaming. Damn. At least it was just those guys. I focus as hard as I can and reform my legs, dropping down onto the concrete gracefully and feeling very proud of myself at the simple achievement. I don’t get much time to gloat though, because in the next instant, I hear a loud whirring sound followed by a gust of wind and electricity that whirs by my head in a bright green ball, nicking my shoulder and ripping through my jumpsuit as it passes by me, leaving me with a small gash. I whip around, looking for the source of the blast, when my attention is caught by a strange figure standing on the building across the street.
“Hello, Ghost Child.” He smiles dangerously at me with his metallic arm raised and a blaster protruding from the forearm, clearly indicating that he is the one who took the shot. “Come out and greet your audience, they’re all waiting.” I nervously step out of the alleyway and into a small crowd of people who have formed at the base of the building. They stand in awe below Skulker’s perch, parting cautiously as I make my way towards the red bricked building.
What are you idiots doing? Run away!
“I am Skulker,” he declares raising his arms theatrically as the crowd stares on in awe. “The greatest ghost hunter the world has ever known.” He turns to level his gun at me, making the crowd around me stiffen, but they still don’t leave. “And I plan to mount your head on my wall.” Everyone around us bursts into raucous applause, but I can’t help but be distracted.
Skulker. Why does that name sound familiar?
My parents burst through the door to answer my question, holding their blasters and aiming them towards me. “Skulker! What are you doing? Shoot the ghost!” My mom cries out to him, but he just rolls his eyes.
“But what would be the fun in that?” Skulker’s arm transforms into a claw looking thing and a giant net shoots out from it, collecting me within itself and forcing me off the ground to confront him. “I want a challenge. Can you offer that to me?” I can’t help but stare at the hulking brute in front of me. With an entire body made of metal, it forces me to wonder how he managed to survive getting his flesh replaced with hardware, and what kind of beast could’ve dealt so much damage.
“Stop playing games with it and kill it!” Dad yells from the ground, but Skulker completely ignores him, focusing only on me, with his glazed over eyes being the only indicator of his humanity.
“It seems that I will have to slay you before they can,” he smiles, his teeth covered in aluminum caps.
That’s right, Skulker is the guy who deemed himself my parents’ rival. I didn’t recognize him without any skin, though. Why is he targeting me? I’m hardly a threat to him, so what kind of challenge could I pose?
“That shouldn’t be a problem,” my self-defeatist retort takes him aback. “Aren’t you guys banned from fighting ghosts on order of the mayor?” I turn to look at them, a shit-earring grin plastered on my face, and the crowd follows suit. Both of them bristle at the attention, knowing that word has likely already made it to the mayor, and Mom drops her weapon.
“We will get you, ghost fiend!” she shouts before grabbing Dad by the collar and pulling him inside. I breathe a sigh of relief at their departure, but don’t have the time to relax, due to my metallic adversary holding me hostage.
“Now, I will give you a head start,” Skulker explains, then the net rips apart from the bottom, allowing me to escape and fly as quickly away from the area as possible. I manage to hide behind a dumpster as I try to collect my thoughts and calm my beating heart, but as the adrenaline dies down, I am quickly reminded of my injured shoulder. When I look it over, all I can see is bright green blood oozing out from the cut, a deep gash that might require stitches from the looks of it. The blood runs down my arm, staining the cloth bright green, despite my attempts to wipe it off.
“It’s official, folks, I am, in fact, dead.” I clamp my hand on my shoulder to slow the bleeding and continue holding onto it as I try to put as much distance between me and Skulker as I can.
Lowest Point
After being chased around by Skulker for most of the afternoon, I wind up resting between two inconspicuous buildings on the bad side of town, though the events that lead me to wind up here are a bit hazy. It’s a strange feeling, being tired when you’re dead; it’s not as though I’m out of breath or that I’m sore, my body just feels like it is being slowly drained of energy the more that I move. To make matters worse, my wound only seems to be draining my powers faster, though it seems to be healing relatively well for how deep it was. In a desperate attempt to further protect my self by escaping from this endless cycle of fleeing Skulker and his arsenal, I try to come up with a plan. Skulker doesn’t know that I can transform back into a human, so now is the perfect time. I just have to make sure that he isn’t around here anywhere. As I scan my surroundings, careful not to be spotted by anyone, I hear a strange giggling sound come from behind me and startle in place, worried that Skulker, or my parents for that matter, might have found me.
“Ffff...” the voice coos and I spin around, terrified, eyes landing on a slumped over figure in the corner of one of the buildings, the bright blonde hair an unmistakable feature.
“Dash?” My eyes widen in concern as he whips his head up to look at me, as if he hadn’t realized that I am here. For a moment, he just stares at me, a blank expression on his face, but something washes over him and his face transforms into over-exaggerated shock.
“Fenton!” He gasps, but I’m the one left shook to my core. Forcing myself to stay calm, I try to come up with an excuse as I float closer to him, but he cuts me off. “What are you wearing? Some kinda costume? You got green eyes man!”
Hold on... does he not recognize me?
“Uh, Dash are you alright?” I ask him as I take in the surrounding area, dropping out of my tail and onto the ground with my human legs. There are bottles of beer scattered around him, all of them empty, and his breath reeks of alcohol. “Did you drink all of these yourself?”
“Fenton,” he doesn’t respond but his demeanor is so casual and friendly compared to how he normally is that I can only assume that he is completely wasted. He reaches up to grab me, pulling me down to his level and staring me in the eyes. “Are you wearing contacts? Your eyes are glowing man.”
“What are you doing here, Dash?” I try to push him off of me but he holds me down with the strength of bodybuilder.
“I needed to come here to buy alcohol,” he admits. “Never been here before and got lost, so I just started drinking.”
“Dash, you shouldn’t be wandering around down here, especially if you don’t know where you’re going. Someone could try to mug you, or murder you, or kidnap you.”
“Ha!” He bellows right in my ear. “I would love to see them try that.”
“You’re the new symbol of hope for Amity Park, you can’t be running around recklessly like this,” I scold him, making his eyes change into a sad, darkened shell of their former selves.
“I know,” he admits, surprising me a little. “Ha. I thought maybe I could escape you Fentons for a bit. Your parents are so damn obsessed with ghost hunting!” He hangs his head, covering his face with his hands as he continues to ramble, and I can do nothing but watch the events unfold, equally confused and troubled by this side of Dash that I’ve never seen. “Why’d it have to be me? Why do I have to replace him? Damn. He’d be so disappointed in me right now, would probably knock me upside the head and tell me to suck it up. It’s my responsibility now.” He goes silent and for a moment, I can do nothing but stare at him with wide eyes, genuinely shocked that he feels comfortable enough to tell this to me, of all people. “Danny, you—”
A thunderous clanging sound cuts him off, and we both look back towards the main road, trying to deduce what’s going on, when I quickly realize that I’d been chatting away my opportunity to escape from that psychopath. I whip my head towards Dash, who looks at me with droopy eyes, as he is clearly on the verge of passing out. I can’t transform back in front of him. He’ll definitely notice something’s off if I do.
“Ugh, I don’t feel good.” I ignore his muttering and rush over to peer out around the side of the building, looking towards where the sound is coming from, to see Skulker pounding the concrete in underneath his feet as he walks, likely trying to conserve fuel for his thrusters.
“Dash,” I spring back over to him, putting my hands on his shoulders and bringing his attention back to me. “Listen, something is coming for us and we need to get out of here, okay?”
“What?”
“I don’t have time to explain, but I need you to stand up,” I direct, pulling at his arms to try to get him to move, but he remains seated. “Dash—“
“I know you’re here, child,” Skulker’s voice sounds much closer to us, which incites a panic inside of me. “This has been quite the chase, I will admit, but you are nowhere near powerful enough to stop me. And I will keep hunting you until one of us is erased from this earth. Make this easier on yourself and stop running.” His words hit me hard, leaving me stunned in fear as I cling to the limp Dash’s sleeve, unable to think properly, unable to come up with a plan. I’ve almost resigned myself to my fate when I feel a hand on my forearm, and look down to see Dash pushing me off of him.
“Just go,” he whispers, head sagging towards the ground in defeat, as if he understands perfectly what I am feeling.
Why? You hate me, Dash, so why aren’t you being the selfish prick that you always are? Why aren’t you trying to protect yourself? His words ignite something in me, and I feel myself regaining the will to fight again. I look down at him as he rests limply against the cold concrete floor and realize what I have to do. Just focus on protecting him. Don’t worry about yourself right now. I lean down and grab Dash around the waist, heaving him onto my shoulder and almost collapsing at his weight.
“What are you doing?” He whines but doesn’t move a muscle to oppose me. “I don’t want to be carried.”
“We have to get out of here Dash,” I hear the metal footfalls of my opponent closing in and I feel my resolve strengthen. I can’t fly away while carrying him. He’s too heavy. But if I could just transform back... “Please just stay still, I’m gonna try something.” I try my hardest to float myself into the air, hovering mere inches off the ground so that I can make my attempt at phasing through the wall. If I can just make it through here, I’ll have bought us some time. I put all of my strength into phasing both of us at once, feeling my body shift in a different way than I had before, then force the power through Dash as I hold him up. “Dash, hang on.” He doesn’t respond, instead just grabbing onto the back of my jumpsuit, assuring me that he is listening.
Skulker’s footsteps begin to shake the ground, indicating that he’s only a few steps away from noticing us, so, abandoning my sense of caution, I plunge forward into the wall ahead of us, collapsing to my knees once I make it through with Dash still hanging onto my clothes, his grip far tighter from the traumatic turn of events. “Oh... god... I’m gonna be sick.” Dash releases my back to cover his mouth and I move quickly, trying to get him away from me before he pukes, setting him on the ground as gently as I can without breaking my back. “Ugh...” he groans in agony, still suppressing his vomit, while I rest on my hands and knees a few paces away from him.
“Are you okay?” I ask him after I’ve recovered enough, but he doesn’t respond, and when I look up at him, he’s slumped against the wall, unmoving. “Dash?” I cry out, weakly crawling over to check his condition, but my arms fail me and I collapse right in front of him. With all of the excitement, I hadn’t realized how exhausted I was, but now, my body is completely unable to sustain the ghost form any longer and I transform back into Danny Fenton. For a moment, I worry that I might faint, but I manage to remain conscious as I stumble over to check on Dash. He’s still breathing and he has a pulse when I check for one, but he’s completely passed out, likely because of a combination of the alcohol and the rush of adrenaline that he just experienced. Relieved, I sit down next to him on the wall, a flurry of questions running through my head.
Why is he even out here? Doesn’t he know how dangerous it is? And is Skulker going to find us? I don’t hear his footsteps anymore, so he must’ve passed by. Did he see us? No. If he had, he’d be here by now. But how the heck am I gonna get this dumbass home?
...
I feel Dash stir on my back, and his breathing becomes softer, alerting me that he is awake. “What are you doing?” He asks coldly.
Looks like the beer wore off.
“You were passed out in an alley on the west side,” I explain. “So I’m carrying you home.”
“Put me down.” I bend over and set his legs down and he staggers away from me, but quickly reaches a hand out, grabbing onto my shoulder to steady himself when he almost falls. He doesn’t remove it when he regains his balance, instead leaning in slightly, as if he wants to use me as a crutch.
“I’ll help you.”
“...I don’t need you,” he looks away, frustration building on his face as he leans on me for support, but I don’t respond, just letting us continue on in comfortable silence, the sunset lighting our way home.
...
Thank you all so much for reading! I’ve loved writing this series so much and I’m happy to see that people want to read it. So thank you again!
10 notes · View notes
writtingmistakes · 3 years
Text
The Amity Park Haunting Update
Part 6 of this series, A Box to Die In, is up on AO3 now! Check it out there if you want to read it early, or if you would rather read it here, it should be up sometime next week.
4 notes · View notes
writtingmistakes · 3 years
Text
The Amity Park Haunting Part 2: A Grave Mistake Part 2
The town of Amity Park is under attack by ghosts, but everyone knows that by now. Under the watchful eye of their hero, Jason Baxter, the town was kept safe, until he was ruthlessly murdered by an unknown entity. Now, his son Dash is left to pick up the mantle, and that means training with the parents of the kid he hates most of all, while grappling with his tumultuous relationship with a random ghost kid.
...
After the accident in the lab, Danny wakes up to realize that he possesses the powers of a ghost and struggles to deal with the after effects as well as the crippling existential dread. Knowing that he’ll likely be murdered by some ghost hunter, if not his own parents, if he reveals this fact, he decides to keep it a secret, especially from Dash. But things only get more complicated when a new ghost arrives in town and Danny realizes that it’s his responsibility to stop it.
Waking Up Dead
The intense pain and head splitting confusion, gives way to a deep seeded sense of fear that overtakes my body, leaving me stiff and unmoving. My first instinct is to open my eyes, but I can’t, instead I am trapped in a sea of pitch black darkness, surrounding me completely, save for a few quick flashes of green at the edges of my vision, though subtle and barely there for a second. The presence of green light grows in my sights, until I finally manage to open my eyes and find myself surrounded by an endless green void.
My direct surroundings seem to be completely empty, but I can see a few complex structures in the distance in every direction that I look, which I take note of as I spin around in a confused circle. Eventually, common sense hits me and I hurriedly check my body for any wounds, finding none, but noticing something odd as I take stock of the suit I’m wearing, confused by the black body and white gloves. “Wasn’t this thing white before?” I ask to no one in particular as I stare down at the inverted suit that covers my body.
“Danny!” My mother’s voice snaps me out of my trance and back into reality. I spring up out of my position on the ground, groaning as I feel the force of the ghost portal effecting my whole body, but when I look down, I notice that I’m still wearing the weird suit. Ignoring that problem for now, I collapse back onto the floor and wave my hand in the air.
“Over here mom...” I sigh, my voice barely above a whisper, while a wave of exhaustion hits me like a ton of bricks. “Please help me...” In a last ditch effort of self-preservation, I call out to my mother, feeling the last of my energy drain away with those words.
“Danny? Are you down here?” I hear mom calling to me again, but don’t have anymore strength left in me as I sit motionless on the cold metal of the machine. “Where did he run off to?” The only thing that I can move at this point are my eyes which slowly move around the room, taking in all of the excruciating details of the room despite the darkness, and I remember the moment just before I passed out, when the machine was about to explode, and considering the state that the room is in, it looks like it blew up despite my best efforts to contain it. I hear mom traipse across the room, crunching broken glass beneath her feat as dad tries to turn on the light switch behind her.
“The lights aren’t working honey,” dad states.
“I’ve got a flashlight, dear,” she responds sweetly, turning on the light and nearly blinding me with its sudden presence. “It’s such a mess down here!” The shock in her voice leads me to believe that she wasn’t expecting anything when she came down here.
Did they seriously not hear the basement explode?
“Must’ve been the ghosts!” Dad shouts grumpily.
“This is one mess that we can’t blame on the ghosts, Jack,” mom corrects him. “I didn’t see him leave, did you?”
“Must’ve slipped out when we weren’t looking, probably went to Tucker’s house,” Dad responds. Frustrated, I try to call out to them again, but my words don’t come out. Finally, the lights in the room switch back on, and I fully expect them to see my body lying on the ground.
“Oh my god, Jack!” Mom yells. “You really left a mess! No wonder Danny didn’t want to stay down here.”
They can’t see me?
“I promise I’ll clean it all up,” he reassures her, though it’s only wishful thinking, especially since I completely destroyed most of the room. By some miracle, though, the portal around me seems unharmed. I manage to turn my head to a more comfortable position on its side where my reflection startles me, or lack thereof. Alarmed, I reach a shaking hand up in front of my face and see that there is nothing there.
“WHAT THE FUCK?” My voice echoes off the walls, startling my parents, who pull out ghost guns from their matching utility belts.
“Who’s there?” Mom tries to rationalize the situation. Meanwhile, dad jumps to the most extreme conclusion immediately.
“GHOST!” He yells, his gruff voice making him sound far more intimidating than he actually is, especially when I am the one that he is targeting. A strange tingling sensation overtakes my body, and suddenly, I am falling through the floor.
“Woah, wait!” I shout, hoping that it will stop me. Gaining control of my muscles for as long as I can, I propel myself towards the surface by my arms, swimming through the ground as if it were water. Once I break through the ground, I find myself a few blocks away in an alley, and my power fades away in time for me to collapse once again, lying on my back from exhaustion. I notice a rain water drain along the side of the alley has collected a large puddle beneath it, so I roll onto my stomach and crawl on all fours over to it and stare at my reflection, shocked by what I see.
I have snow white hair and glowing green eyes, the opposite of my normally black hair and blue eyes, and my suit is in fact inverted as well. Panicked and disbelieving my eyes, I fall backwards, struggling to get out of the suit as quickly as I can, my normal clothes hidden underneath, surprisingly the colors are not inverted, then I turn the suit around searching the collar for the evidence that this is in fact my body. I freeze when my finger slides over the delicate stitching that my mother added to the inner layer of the suit, heart sinking as I come to a disturbing realization. Did I die? Falling onto my hands and knees, I scurry back over to the puddle, touching my face and dragging my fingers through my hair, trying to brush off the white coloring to no avail.
Panic sets into my body and I squeeze my eyes shut, trying to drown out my busy thoughts, hoping that when I open them I’ll see something different, but no matter how many times I blink them shut, it doesn’t change anything. Oh god... I-I died in that portal... I was so stupid... my own stupidity killed me... I knew that’s how I was gonna go out, but I didn’t expect it to be this soon! Oh god...What about my parents and Jazz? And what about Sam and Tucker? I’ll never be able to see them again. Oh— oh god... I feel myself gasping for breath and clutch my chest in pain, hoping to find relief, until I collapse face first into the puddle as my body shuts down on me and I lose consciousness.
I wake up sputtering, spitting the puddle water out of my mouth and coughing after getting some of it in my lungs. I scooch over to lean on the wall with my arms wrapped tightly around my knees in comfort, feeling the stress of the day getting to me. I thought being dead meant that you didn’t have to worry about things like drowning. Casually, I glance back at my reflection in the puddle to wipe the water off my face, not expecting to see anything special, but surprising myself when I see a pair of bright blue eyes staring back at me. I leap towards the water and hover over it, pulling at my face to make sure that it is truly me and that I’m back to normal, as tears of joy form in my eyes and I can’t help but sob with my head knelt against the ground, the emotions overcoming me. I breathe a heavy sigh of relief, wiping the tears from my face as I look at my reflection from every angle that I can see, running my hands through my hair in excitement and letting out a weak laugh.
Once I’ve calmed down, I hurriedly stand up, feeling rejuvenated after my nap, and rush home, leaving the jumpsuit behind in a dumpster. When I pull out my phone to check the time, I see that I broke it at some point during the chaos, as the screen is shattered and falling off, while the phone itself won’t even turn on. “Damn it,” I breathe, picking up my pace to a sprint as I make my way back towards the house. When I get there I see Sam and Tucker standing at the door, talking to my parents.
“What are you guys doing here?” I call out, praying that they haven’t already said anything about the portal.
“Danny?” Sam races down the steps and throws herself into my arms, making me flinch at another strong impact against my already fragile body. “We were calling you and you weren’t picking up! Your parents called to ask where you were and we—”
“Sam, it’s okay,” I smile gently at her, calming her nerves. “I just went for a walk. I needed to get out. But I fell and broke my phone.” I show everyone the useless device.
“Oh, honey,” mom comes down the stairs to give me a hug and dad follows, sweeping mom and I up into his arms. “We were worried about you since you didn’t say anything. From now on you have to tell us where you are!” She whacks me on the head and I whimper softly in pain. “We get that you’re upset about everything that’s been going on...”
“Mom, I’m okay,” I tell her, then direct my attention towards the rest of the group, noticing that Jazz has appeared in the doorway. “I’m really fine guys.” I squeeze mom into one last hug and proceed up the stairs, gesturing towards Sam and Tucker. “You guys wanna come in?” They follow me wordlessly as we head to my room, passing by Dash, who leans casually on the stair railing, pretending he wasn’t just listening in on our conversation.
Once we get to my room, I shut us in and lock the door so that no one can come in while we talk. “I’m sure you guys are wondering what happened,” I say without turning around.
“You bet your ass we are!” Sam says, her voice dripping with anger.
“What the hell happened, Danny?” Tucker asks, seeming more worried than anything.
“Th—” I stop myself, wondering if it’s safe to tell them, especially in this house. Feeling emboldened with courage, I turn around and approach the bed, looking between both of them as I speak. “Can I trust you guys?”
“What?” Sam spits.
“Of course you can!” Tucker sounds even more offended than Sam does.
“Do you trust me?”
“Yes,” they both speak simultaneously and without hesitation, which warms my heart.
“Then,” I pause, trying to find my words. “I don’t know how to explain this to you, but I just need you guys to give me some time. I promise that I will tell you once I figure this out.”
“Figure what out?” Tucker inquires.
“We just wanna know what happened down there!” Sam shouts.
“And I promise I will tell you, so please drop it for now?” I plead with them both. “You said you trust me.” They both look away from me in that moment, rightfully pissed.
“Fine.” Sam stands up, pulling Tucker along with her. “Call us when you’re ready to share.” Her voice is filled with spite, but she still respects my decision, which makes me feel a bit better about this all. Once they leave, I crash onto the bed, feeling the fatigue hit me like a truck, but I’m too restless to sleep.
Maybe it was all just a dream or a hallucination. All the damage down there could’ve been done by dad. But I did wake up in that alley. And Sam and Tuck saw the portal blow up, at least I think they did. I probably should’ve asked them, but I just didn’t want them to pry. And I don’t want to talk about it here, since anyone could be listening in. One mention of the fact that I’m a ghost and I’m dead. Oh... oh my god... my parents! What would they do if they found out? Would they try to run tests on me? Kill me? Probably. Would they still even love me after I mutated myself into the thing that they hate most? But if I’m a ghost then how can I still pass off as a human? That other form with the eyes, that is definitely a ghostly form, or at least it looks like it, but this form looks exactly the same as the old me. So am I half dead? But you can’t be half dead! My heart is still beating and I’m still breathing so I’m alive! I’m still alive... I have to be... right?
Cold
I hadn’t realized that I’d fallen asleep until I wake with a start when I hear the door to my room open, looking up with groggy eyes to see Dash standing in my doorway like a deer in headlights. “What do you want?” I groan, plopping my head back down on the pillow.
“Uh, sorry, I thought that this was Jazz’s room,” his apology throws me off guard, but not long enough to ignore his follow up.
“Why are you looking for Jazz?” My body cries as I stand up and walk forward to meet Dash at the door. “And you should knock before barging into someone’s room.”
“I did knock,” he says plainly, his face looking more innocent than usual, likely because he wants my help.
“Whatever.” I brush my hair out of my face, waiting for him to continue. “Well? What is it?”
“Oh.” I watch as he wrings his hands shyly, looking like a completely different person from the confident jerk he is at school. “I can’t find my room. Your parents said they put my stuff in there and I wanted to take a shower.”
“It’s...” I go to point out where his room is to him, but worry that if I let him wander around aimlessly, he might barge in on Jazz like he did to me. “I’ll show you.” I push past him through the door and head down the hall, trying to avoid looking at him too much. “Did my parents give you a tour of the downstairs? I mean, there’s not much, just the kitchen, living room, their bedroom and the stairs to the basement.” I awkwardly attempt to be a good host, giving up at my miserable failure and leaving us to walk in silence for a bit before Dash breaks it.
“Uh, your house is really big, I forgot that,” he says, his voice strained in discomfort.
“So here’s the bathroom,” I change the subject, pointing to the opened bathroom door and not stopping to show him the inside. “And across the hall is Jazz’s room. I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that you’re not allowed in there unless she says it’s okay. You know what? Just make that a rule for all of our rooms.”
“Okay...” we continue down the hall quietly, passing by a few more rooms that my parents use for storage or ghost hunting stuff, until we reach a door near the end of the corridor.
“This is your room.” I open the door to the guest room for him, giving him a brief look of the interior before turning to leave. “I’m sure my parents would be fine with you decorating it and such if you want. And we will respect your privacy if you respect ours.” I begin to walk away, but remember something important. “Oh! And if my parents didn’t tell you, all three of us share that bathroom so don’t waste too much time in there if you can help it.”
“I won’t,” he assures me. Suddenly, I feel a chill run over my body and when I exhale, my breath comes out in a pale blue fog. I look towards Dash, hoping he didn’t notice, but he only looks down at me with a confused frown. “Are you cold, or something Fenton?”
“Ah...” I try to brush it off, wondering what the hell it is myself, but can’t come up with a good enough excuse. “Yeah a bit.” I feel the chill run down my spine yet again and brace myself for the cold rush of air, letting it escape from my body like a hiccup. “Um... I’m gonna go. Have fun in your new room.” I awkwardly wave to him as I scurry back down the hall, slamming the door to my room when I get there.
What the hell was that?
My body convulses and I collapse against the door, dry heaving up the pale blue smoke from before as my body is overcome with a bitter cold sensation. After a few minutes of vomiting up air, I slide down the door and onto the floor, curled up and shivering in a ball, my breathing ragged from exhaustion. Before I know it, I’ve slipped away into sleep and don’t wake up until the sun is streaming in through my windows.
“Ugh...” I grunt, slowly sitting up, the effects of sleeping on the floor becoming apparent as my muscles and joints ache with every movement. Once I manage to stand up, I quickly prepare to head down stairs, changing out of yesterday’s clothes and throwing them away after noticing how tattered and dirty they are from the explosion. As I stand in front of the mirror above my dresser and start to fix my hair, pulling clumps of dirt and ash out of it, I begin to feel a tingling sensation pass through my limbs. Before I know what is happening, I’ve fallen through my bedroom floor, landing in the living room with a loud thud.
“Danny?” My mother yells from the kitchen, rushing out with dad and Jazz on her heels, while Dash loiters in the doorway. “Are you alright?”
“Yeah,” I brush them off, taking my father’s hand to help me up. “I just tripped.”
“What are you doing in here?” Jazz asks, her eyebrows knitting together in confusion.
“I... was looking,” I pause to think of a lie, not wanting to tell them that I just fell through the floor. “For my homework. I thought I might have left it in here.”
“You may have left it in the lab,” mom offers and I smile at her.
“I’ll check there after breakfast.” We all wander together into the kitchen, where Dash is seated, silently eating a bowl of cereal. Seeing him here is so surreal, even eating breakfast with him, a relatively normal thing, is something I’d never imagined I’d do in a million years, but now, I might be doing it for the rest of my four years of high school.
“Thank you for the meal, Mrs. Fenton,” Dash says, scarfing down the bowl of plain oats like it’s the best thing he’s ever eaten.
“Of course, honey.” She pats him on the shoulder gently, making him pause a minute before returning to his food.
Kiss ass.
After finishing up breakfast, Jazz, Dash, and I collect our stuff and begin our walk to school, as I didn’t wake up early enough to escape on my own, and it’s just as uncomfortable as I’d imagined it to be. Jazz has never really liked Dash, mostly because she thinks he is a conceited jerk and knows that we don’t get along, but the fact that she is so stand-offish to him now is surprising, considering how happy she seemed about everything last night.
“Uh,” Dash tries to break the awkward silence, for whatever reason. “I didn’t know you guys walked to school. I figured your dad would take you guys.”
“He doesn’t want to waste gas,” I reply without thinking, which surprises Dash a bit.
“Oh...” he scratches the back of his neck. “It’s just that he picked me up yesterday and—” Jazz stops in her tracks, turning to face him.
“Well how good for you,” she scoffs. “You seem to be fitting in comfortably with our family.”
“I didn’t mean it like that,” Dash backpedals, unsuccessfully, it seems. Suddenly, I feel the chill run down my spine again, my body shaking involuntarily, and Dash seems to notice this.
Oh god. No... please! Not now!
“I’m glad you didn’t,” she bites.
“Um, did I do something to you?” He asks her, hands raised in submission.
“Tucker and Sam told me what you did to Danny yesterday, you ass!” The conversation becomes background noise as I try to maintain my composure holding in the weird smoke for as long as I can, but I can’t help but keel over in pain as it tries to escape from my mouth.
“I-I didn’t... it’s not...” Dash looks at me out of the corner of his eye, doing a double take when he sees me. “Uh, are you okay?”
“Oh, don’t think you can...” Jazz trails off when she notices me in pain. “Danny? What’s wrong?”
“I’m fine!” I shout, the smoke trailing out of my mouth and up my face. “Just leave me alone!” I stand upright and race down the street, ducking into an alleyway and hiding behind a dumpster as I begin to vomit.
“Danny!” I hear their footsteps chasing me, and know I’ll be caught if they hear me, so I try to stifle my retching, but can’t. The heaving turns into heavy convulsions, as if something is trying to escape my body, and I begin to feel myself transforming into something else, a bright blue light emanating from around my torso area. “Danny, what’s wrong with you?” Jazz makes her way down the alleyway, pacing warily towards me. I look down at my hands and see the inverted colors of the jumpsuit covering my body, and without stopping to think, I phase through the wall in front of me and fly as fast and as far as I can with my eyes sealed shut, blocking out the world.
After I’ve calmed down, I open my eyes to figure out where I am, and see that I am in an empty grocery store parking lot. Taking a moment to compose my thoughts, I sit down on a curb next to me, staring unamused at the newest surprise brought to me by my death.
I have a fucking tail. It moves about in curled arcs like a weightless tentacle, as if it has a mind of its own, which I realize makes it impossible for me to get rid of at this point. Defeated, I drop my head into my hands and rest them on my lap, trying to mentally sort things out. So I have a tail now. And I can transform into this ghost form from my human form. Hopefully I’ll be able to control that in the future. So does this mean that I’m dead or not?
I reach up to my neck to feel my pulse, but can’t feel anything through the gloves of the suit. I wonder if I can take this thing off? Though I should probably wait to try until the tail leaves. My tail wiggles as if in response to my thoughts. Also, I can phase through things in my human form, this morning proved that. So I’ll have to be careful that I don’t my powers in front of people. But how did I transform into this... thing? It must’ve had something to do with that smoke stuff. It made me feel really cold and... well, dead.
I shake my head, feeling like I’m going nowhere. As I sit on the curb silently, I try to prevent myself from thinking about these things anymore, settling to worry about the classes that I am currently skipping. “Shit,” I sigh, but my wallowing is interrupted when I feel myself gasp, releasing a large plume of the blue smoke from before, but it doesn’t have the same effect on me as it did earlier. “Damn it! I hate this stuff!” The words are barely out of my mouth before I feel a large gust of wind blow past me, almost sending me out of my seat with the force.
What the fuck was that?
Ghost Hunting
On instinct, I bolt out of my seat and chase after the creature, flying through the air at full speed, trying to catch up to the creature with no idea about what I’ll do when I reach it, but I can see it in the distance, it’s body pulsating with bright green light, inspiring me to fly faster. I notice that we have looped around and are heading back towards the high school, passing by a mass of people at mach speeds, most of whom turn their heads to look at us as we charge forward. Well, great now everyone knows that there are ghosts around.
The chase continues as the ghost barrels past city hall, where the mayor no doubt saw and immediately reported it. “Hey!” I shout, barely behind the figure, who dives into an alleyway to shake me off, while I barely manage to make the turn, colliding into the far wall before continuing my chase. “Who are you? What are you doing here?” The ghost doesn’t stop, even though I’m gaining on it pretty quickly. It swims through a few buildings and I follow, barely able to phase through each time, until we get to the street just in front of the high school. The ghost slows upon seeing the sign for Amity High, giving me just enough time to grab one of its tails, which feels slimy and slippery to the touch. It resists my grasp, but I pull it backwards and slam it into the sidewalk, hovering over it as it cries out in anguish, meanwhile the pedestrians around us begin to panic, screaming and running for cover.
It’s not gonna be long before they get here.
“What are you doing here?” I question. While it tries to recover, my eyes drift down the ghost’s body, analyzing it. It has multiple tails— no, tentacles on its body that squirm around and produce a strange goo, but his body seems to maintain a human like shape, though its head is obscenely large. “Hey, come on, you’re not hurt that bad.”
“That’s where you’re right,” it says, reaching out a tentacle towards me and wrapping itself around my waist. I writhe around, trying to get free as its grip tightens around me, toying with the idea of crushing me. “So you’re the stupid kid who opened the portal for us.” It analyses me, moving its bobble head closer to my face.
“What do you mean?” I gasp, struggling to breathe.
“When you turned on that device that those idiot hunters have,” he chuckles. “You created a rift between the ghost world and the human one.” My eyes widen in shock. “You didn’t know? We assumed that’s what you were trying to do in the first place.”
“I...” it’s tentacle is wrapped so tightly around me at this point that I can’t speak, and my words come out as a high pitched wheezing sound. I let this thing out? I opened the ghost portal? That can’t be right, it wasn’t working when I left the lab last night.
“You seem distracted,” the ghost shakes me around, bringing my attention back to the present moment. “Don’t be rude, focus on our conversation before you die.” Before I have time to react, I hear a loud whirring sound and both me and the ghost turn to see my mom firing off an ecto-annihilator, which rips through the ghost’s tentacle and drops to the ground with me in it, where it writhes around for a moment before melting into goo. The tentacle ghost scoffs in irritation, diving into the concrete, while my mom reloads and aims her gun at me, and all I can do is just sit there like a ghost in headlights, until Tentacles pops up behind her and dad. I manage to find my strength, flying forward as fast as I can to stop him from attacking them, but the ghost hits my dad into the side of van, knocking him out before I can reach him and distracting mom so that she misses her shot at me.
“Stop!” I scream, charging at the ghost and tacking it towards the ground, inadvertently pushing us underneath the surface together, and when we pop up, we are within the school gates. In response, he reaches out and grabs me again, choosing to slam me into the roof of the building instead of crushing me to death, which I almost appreciate. Luckily, I just barely manage to phase through, landing inside one of the classrooms and breaking a table in half when my power wears off. I roll onto my side and prop myself up to look around, scanning to see if I’ve hurt anyone, when I lock eyes with Sam, who stares back at me with mouth agape and eyes widened. After forcing myself to look away, I notice the octo-ghost lifting it’s arm up towards the wall, preparing to cave it in, and I manage to knock the students next to the impact zone out of the way just in time for me to get buried underneath the rubble. Without thinking, I phase myself through the floor and fly through another populated classroom, only to emerge in the main hallway, where my mother is situated with her weapon, making me question if I should’ve just let the ghost knock her out.
The classroom ahead of me opens its doors and a class files out, heading towards the exit in far too calm a manner. Among them is Dash, who tries to slip out the door only to get stopped by my mom. “Dash! Great, you’re here! I’ll show you how to kill a ghost, just like your father did!”
“Uh...” Dash shifts nervously in the crowd, who waits for him expectantly, as do I. “Okay...” His response surprises me a bit, but the momentary distraction gives Tentacles enough time to sneak up on me, diving in through the ceiling to attack me and knocking the wind out of me as he slams me to the floor.
“Oh, look, Dash!” Mom aims her gun at the ghost in excitement. “Another one!” As she takes aim, I focus on coming up with a plan, settling on something slightly risky, before turning my attention back towards their encounter. Mom fires, shooting a bright green beam of light towards the octopus, but it passes harmlessly through him. “What?” She stares at him in confusion, looking towards Dash who gapes bewildered at his first real encounter with a ghost. Tentacles cackles, releasing me in order to swim towards the two of them, while mom hastily reloads her gun, which is rendered pointless when the ghost snags the device and shatters it beneath his tentacled grasp.
“It was a nice shot,” he snickers. “But your flimsy weapons are no match for a ghost like me—” mom whips out a gun from her holster firing it on him in a split second, not giving him enough time to dodge and leaving him with a singed eye. “Gah!” He lashes out, reaching a tentacle towards them, but I manage to grab it in time, throwing him down the hall. Mom takes aim at me, but I duck out of the way and fly down the hall, landing a fist on the ghost before he grabs me again. This time, however, I flip him over and kick him into the air, just as my mom fires her pistol, landing the shot right in the middle of the ghost’s chest. It cries out in pain, landing across the room, but the gun wasn’t enough and it gets back up before I can catch my breath, making my plan an ultimate failure. Angrily, he whips his arm out and knocks me into a wall of lockers before sailing down the hall to take out mom in the same way.
“No!” I shout, but she’s already trapped under the pile of metal. I duck under the floor and pop up in front of the ghost, swiftly punching it back down the hall, but he continues his pursuit towards us.
“Dash!” I hear my mom yell, making me spin around. She tosses him the gun, which he promptly picks up with shaking hands, locking eyes with me when he looks up, the fear apparent on his face. And in that moment, despite all of the bullying, despite all of our arguments, despite all of the pain between us, I feel an overwhelming sense of duty, a responsibility to protect him. Stepping in front of him, I raise my hands, ready for a fight, ready to take on the ghost in front of me, and my hands begin to glow a bright green color. When I swing at the ghost, my arm seems to move much quicker than before and the punch hits much stronger, leveling the ghost into the floor. My next swing sends him back into the air and my final hit sends him flying into pieces, the remnants of his body scattering across the room with a splat.
The room is completely silent, save for my heavy breathing, but when I turn back to Dash, checking to see if he is okay, the only thing I notice is the gun that is leveled at me. “Shoot Dash!” Mom yells, but neither of us really seem to hear her, instead, we stare each other in the eyes, communicating through our unblinking gaze. I wait a moment to see if Dash will do something, and when he doesn’t, I quickly move to phase through the nearest wall, waiting in shock on the other side, trying to wrap my head around this afternoon. “Why didn’t you shoot him?” I can still hear my mother through the thin classroom walls.
“The gun jammed,” Dash lies and I can feel his eyes lingering on the spot that I left through. Not wanting to give them another opportunity to kill me, I phase through the outer wall of the building and fly off down the road towards my house, but despite everything that has happened, I can’t help the smile that forms on my face. Now all that I have to do is think of a good alibi for where I was today.
As I fly discreetly towards my house, sneaking down a back alley and avoiding main roads in an attempt to stay out of sight of the public, my vision begins to fade and my body starts to sink lower to the ground. I shake my head, trying to keep awake until my tail can no longer form anymore and I crash to the ground with barely enough energy to stand. Dragging myself along the wall of the alley, I try to make it home before I collapse, but my legs give out on me and I drop to my knees, helpless as my body begins to transform back into its normal self. “Huh...” I say, staring down at my hands as I wiggle my ungloved fingers, before collapsing into a heap as I loose consciousness in a dirty alley for the second time in as many days.
When I wake up, I’m on my living room couch with my mother holding a thermometer over my forehead. “He doesn’t have a temperature,” her voice sounds worried. She notices my open eyes and nearly falls off of the couch in surprise, holding her chest dramatically. “Danny! You’re awake!” She grabs me by the shoulders and hugs me tightly.
“What happened?” I ask.
“Jazz found you in an alley a block from the house,” she says, placing the back of her hand against my forehead, as if she can determine something that the thermometer can’t. “You were passed out and were bleeding from your nose!” She grabs my face and analyses it thoroughly, pressing hard into the side of my head where a bruise is forming. Reflexively, I flinch back and push mom’s hand away, which makes her look even more concerned.
“I must’ve hit my head when I passed out,” I explain, then try to change the subject. “I heard there was a ghost attack.”
“Yes there was! And you weren’t at the school!” She chastises me. “If you weren’t feeling well, honey, you should’ve just told us. I should’ve known something was wrong when you fell in the living room this morning.”
“I’m okay,” I tell her, placing my hand on her wrist. “I’m really okay, mom. I think I’m just really tired. I haven’t been sleeping well lately.”
“Sleep is important, honey!” She works herself up again, standing up abruptly in distress. “I’ll go make you some chamomile tea.” She walks off into the kitchen, muttering to herself about melatonin production and insomnia, which I tune out. As I go to lay back down, I notice Dash standing at the bottom of the stairs, staring at me from outside the living room. Strangely enough, he steps forward into the living room with me, never taking his prodding eyes off of my face.
“What do you want Dash?” I groan, flopping back down on the pillow, trying to avoid the small pulsing headache that is starting to come on. “I’m not feeling well so if you—” He turns around and leaves the room before I can finish my sentence.
“Feel better,” he mutters, though I can barely hear him, then he heads back up the stairs without another word. Mom paces back into the room with tea and a bowl of almonds, which I take a large handful of as soon as they are within my reach.
“Oh, Danny,” she sighs, sitting down on the couch with me as I drink the tea, which makes me up my nose at the bitterness. “You won’t believe what I had to deal with today. Two, TWO ghosts Danny! They were fighting each other, maybe some kind of terf war, I don’t know, but one of them got away, that menace. When I catch him, I’m going to have an interesting little experiment with him in my lab.” I almost drop my cup in terror, imagining what she’ll do to me if she catches me. “Oh, but don’t worry, honey, I won’t let any ghosts hurt you!” She reaches over and hugs me again, squishing my face into her shoulder and making me feel a bit more relaxed.
“Heh,” I sigh, forcing myself to smile at the irony. “Thanks mom.”
...
Part 2! I’m excited to upload again! Thank you so much for reading this and again, if you want to read it ahead of my slow uploads, it’s up on AO3. I’m releasing chapter six on Sunday there so I hope to have caught up on the uploads here by then.
13 notes · View notes
writtingmistakes · 3 years
Text
The Amity Park Haunting Part 1: A Grave Mistake Part 1
The town of Amity Park is under attack by ghosts, but everyone knows that by now. Under the watchful eye of their hero, Jason Baxter, the town was kept safe, until he was ruthlessly murdered by an unknown entity. Now, his son Dash is left to pick up the mantle, and that means training with the parents of the kid he hates most of all.
...
Dash Baxter, son of the legendary Ghost Slayer, Jason Baxter, is thrust into the world of ghost hunting when he is officially coined Amity Park’s first future hero. On the other side of the coin, Danny Fenton, who’s entire world has revolved around ghost hunting since he was a kid, has to cope with the repercussions of a freak lab accident. Things only get worse for the both of them when Dash has to move in with the Fenton family to train for his new responsibility to society.
A Fallen Hero
I stand around a coffin smashed between my mother and older sister, listening to the mayor give a eulogy for the former hero, Jason Baxter. Behind me, I can hear sniffling sounds and look up to see my father towering over me with tears dripping down his cheeks as he quietly sobs while my mother stands beside me clasping my arm, trying to prevent the tears from escaping her eyes, though they escape anyways, leaving trails of water down her cheeks. My sister stands strong on my opposite side, though it still seems to effect her as much as it does my parents, if her knitted eyebrows and clenched fists are any indication.
Me on the other hand, I can’t quite explain why I don’t feel the sadness that everyone around me does. The pillar of our community... Amity Park’s protector... the Ghost Slayer... he’s gone now. My parent’s partner... the man who ate dinner with us on Saturday nights... my old friend’s father... he’s never coming back. And yet I can’t feel anything. My gaze floats over the crowd, settling on the tall blonde haired boy who stands mere feet from the coffin, his father’s body just inside the closed lid. Looking at his red puffy eyes, messy hair, and clasped hands, I feel my heart throb in my chest, an overwhelming sense of sympathy overcoming me.
Dash turns away, a new line of tear streaming down his face, when his eyes settle on our group, scanning the four of us before his eyes land on me, staring at me with a look I’ve never seen him wear before. His glassy eyes gaze into my own, confusion and heartbreak covering his expression as he slowly turns away from me and turns his gaze towards the ground, not looking up for the rest of the ceremony.
Mayor Montez wraps up his eulogy, which I completely tuned out, though I assume it talked about how Jason was a hero and he died a brave death protecting the city. That he will be dearly missed and the community will not be the same without him. That he is thankful for his service to the town. Hollow words from a man who saw Jason as a pillar of peace before a human being. After they’ve lowered the coffin into the ground and covered it with dirt, Dash steps forward, placing a small key chain on the dirt in front of the tombstone. As he drops it, I notice the bottom of it has a decorative X on it, the same one as the symbol his father wore when fighting ghosts, and can’t help but wonder what the story behind it is, though I seriously doubt that Dash will ever tell me.
After the ceremony ends, most people file out of the cemetery, but Mayor Montez stays to talk with Dash, while my parents settle in front of the grave to leave flowers and mementos for their old partner. “Danny.” Jazz tugs on my sleeve. “I’m gonna head to the car.” She doesn’t look at me as she speaks, instead staring after our parents, who grip each other in a tight embrace as they sob over his grave.
“Okay,” I respond, watching her as she turns to leave, fully expecting that she will break down when she gets to the safety of the car. When I turn back around, I see that the Mayor and Dash have wrapped up their conversation, and I try to stop Dash to talk before he leaves. “Dash, wait.” I step towards him, but he doesn’t even look at me, his eyes no longer empty as they were before. “Dash...” He continues his march as he passes by me, narrowly missing the opportunity to shoulder check me like he always does. Dejected, I turn back towards my parents with a frustrated sigh, watching from afar as they talk with Montez. When they return to my side, we all walk in silence back towards the car. I slip into the back seat next to Jazz, whose eyes are rimmed red and her sleeves covered in tear stains, but I don’t say a word as we drive solemnly back towards the house.
The next day, I wake up early to help make breakfast, whipping up some blueberry pancakes for the family, when Jazz descends the stairs and wanders into the kitchen, chasing the smell of my cooking. “You’re up?” She asks.
“Yeah,” I reply. “I woke up an hour ago and couldn’t get back to sleep, so I decided to help mom and dad.” Jazz comes up and rubs my head, while snagging a handful of blueberries.
“You’re a good kid.”
“Alright, that’s it,” I say. “Now you don’t get any blueberries in yours.”
“Wait, no I’m sorry!” She cries, tossing the uneaten berries back into the carton. “I won’t steal anymore! I promise.”
“Fine,” I tell her, sprinkling a small handful into her pancake.
“More than that!”
“Stop back-seat-cooking!” While we bicker, mom and dad enter the kitchen with tired expressions on their faces, my father sitting down at the table while my mother comes up to hug us.
“Look at my two wonderful children!” She squeezes us tightly in her arms, gripping my shoulder so forcefully that it might leave a bruise. “You are so responsible Danny. Thank you for making breakfast for us.”
“Of course,” I say, flipping the pancake over in pan before adding it to the plateful of them, then taking them over to the table, while Jazz brings the whipped cream and chocolate sauce. The four of us grab at the toppings lain out on the table and scarf down our pancakes, almost contented, if not for the deep void within our hearts. After we finish eating, Jazz goes to grab the plates but mom stops her.
“Wait,” she says, her voice serious. “The memorial service... it’s today. The mayor asked us if we would give a speech, so we’ll be going, but you two don’t have to.”
“No we’ll go,” Jazz says for the both of us, speaking my mind without hesitation.
“You kids shouldn’t be forced to go,” Dad says, holding back his sobs.
“I think it would be nice to see them commemorate Jason,” I pipe in, unintentionally setting the somber mood that would follow us for the rest of the morning.
“Okay.” Mom rests her hand on my own, giving me a nod of approval before helping Jazz clean up the dishes. We all depart from the kitchen, going our separate ways throughout the house to get ready for the service. After an excruciatingly long car ride due to traffic, we make it to the memorial site, where we are ushered into a tent next to the unveiling site. I look around for Dash, wondering if he is going to speak during the ceremony, but don’t see him anywhere. After a few minutes, we hear the mayor cue my parents up to the stage and they leave Jazz and I in the tent to watch.
“Firstly,” mom starts. “Thank you for being here with us today to mourn the loss of our dear friend and protector, Jason Baxter. But we are also here for another reason, to celebrate his life and his legacy. This isn’t easy for any of us, as we all loved and cherished Jason for the wonderful man that he was. I can remember the day that Jack and I met Jason. We were such huge fans of him, and he came by our home to commission some equipment from us, a ghost particle disintegrator, but when he used it the first time inside, it blasted a hole right through our bedroom wall.” The crowd lets out an amused chuckle. “He begged us to let him pay us back but we refused. After that, he came by almost every day for new equipment. Eventually, we became partners in the ghost hunting game.” She paused a moment, tears welling in her eyes. “He was a wonderful ghost hunter, well deserving of the name Ghost Slayer, but... to me, he was just a friend.” She pauses again, tears streaming down her cheeks. When dad goes to comfort her, he starts crying to, then the crowd below them breaks into sobs as well. Beside me, Jazz turns away, walking towards the other side of the tent to get some water.
“Fenton,” Dash’s voice is unmistakable when he calls out to me. I turn around to see him dressed in his father’s old leather flight jacket with his Ghost Hunting symbol on it, reminding me of the keychain Dash left on Jason’s grave.
“Dash, what are you—”
“You’re in the way Fenton.” He pushes past me towards the stage, where mom and dad have recollected themselves to the best of their abilities.
“But now that Jason is gone, we need to look towards the future,” she says, turning to look at Dash as he steps up on the stage. “That is why we would like to give the stage away to Jason’s son, Dash.” The crowd claps courteously as Dash takes the mic from mom with a smile.
“Hello everyone,” he greets the crowd, his distress from the previous day vanished completely. “Loosing my father has been incredibly rough for me. I’m honestly surprised that I made it out here today. And I don’t know if I will ever fully heal. I’m sure all of you feel the same way. When you loose someone that you love, it leaves an emptiness in you that nothing can truly replace. But we can’t dwell on the past if we want to move forward, no matter how hard that might be. And even if it doesn’t seem that way, Jason Baxter will be with all of us so long as we remember him.” There seems to be more that he is supposed to say, but he doesn’t finish.
“With that said...” Mayor Montez rushes up and takes the microphone from Dash, who steps to the side of the stage, close enough for me to notice how tightly his jaw is clenched. “The unveiling of the memorial!” Montez turns back towards the giant statue, and as the curtain falls away, it reveals a shiny, gold statue depicting Jason shooting a ghost into oblivion. While the crowd cheers, I glance over at Dash, who stares up at the statue with furrowed brows.
After the crowd dies down, Montez takes to the microphone again, “It’s beautiful, right? Beautiful.” He lets the crowd cheer some more. “I know that we are all saddened by our loss. I also know that as we look into the future, we can’t help but wonder what will happen to our fair city now.” I look over at Dash, who can’t even stand to face Montez because of how angry he is.
Oh no.
“Who will protect us?”
You’ve got to be kidding me.
“Who will take up the mantle of Ghost Slayer?”
Goddamnit, he’s serious.
“That paragon of heroism is here with us ladies and gentlemen,” Montez pauses. “Our second generation Ghost Slayer, Dash Baxter!” The crowd let’s out a roar of applause while Dash tries and fails to look excited.
Dear god, he’s fucked.
Checking In
Back at home, we all settle in to the living room, an uncomfortable tension in the air. “Did you guys know that Mayor Montez was gonna do that?” My parents don’t answer me. “Did you even ask Dash what he thought about it?”
“The mayor said that he agreed to train as a ghost hunter so that he could take his father’s role as Ghost Slayer,” Mom explains. “That reminds me, we have to tell you guys something—” My phone rings, interrupting the conversation. When I check the caller id, I see that it’s Sam’s number.
“I should take this,” I say.
“But honey,” Mom starts, but Dad stops her.
“Let him talk to his friends honey,” he says. “We can tell him later.” I nod a thanks to him before turning and heading up to my room.
“Hey Sam,” I say as I pick up the phone.
“Danny!” Her voice rings out on the other end of the line.
“Hey Danny,” Tucker’s more calm and subdued voice calls out to me as well.
“You’re both there?”
“Of course we are!” Sam shouts, trying to comfort me. “How are you doing?”
“Yeah, we watched the ceremony on tv...” Tucker sounds apprehensive as he says this.
“Yeah, that was...” I try to find the right words. “A mess, really. I can’t believe that they would make Dash take up ghost hunting just so that he could take Jason’s place.”
“I can’t believe that they would make Dash of all people have any sort of responsibility,” Tucker snarks. “The only thing he is responsible for is maintaining his popularity.”
“And all he has to do to do that is beat you up in the halls, Danny,” Sam adds.
“That’s true,” I sigh, letting a moment of silence pass over us. “Is there something wrong with me?”
“What? Why?” Sam asks.
“It’s just...” I pause, unsure. “I just don’t understand why I don’t feel anything. I’m supposed to be sad, or angry, or hurt, but I just feel... fine.”
“That’s not weird Danny,” Sam explains. “Some people handle grief differently. And considering how distraught the people are around you, it isn’t surprising that you might feel the need to be strong for everyone else’s sake.”
“Just make sure that you don’t cover it up when you do feel something, okay?” Tucker sounds concerned, for good reason. I’ve always had the tendency to bottle up my feelings.
“Have you talked with Dash yet?” Sam asks, breaking the silence.
“No,” I groan. “He doesn’t want to talk to me. Of course he doesn’t. But I guess I’m just wondering what he’s gonna do now. Where he’s gonna go, how he’s gonna train to be a ghost hunter, you know.”
“Yeah.” The conversation dies with Sam’s words and I suddenly realize how tired I am as I release a yawn.
“We should let you go,” Tucker says.
“See you tomorrow Danny,” Sam says and ends the call. Tomorrow we have school again. I haven’t thought much about the future since these events took place, but I can’t help but wonder what things are going to be like now.
That night, the time I spend sleeping blows by in a breeze, and when I wake I still don’t feel rested. I manage to pull myself out of bed after the fifth time pressing snooze, then patter around the room getting dressed for the day, trying to avoid looking at my reflection as much as possible, until I make my way into the bathroom with its wall of mirrors forcing me to stare at myself. Putting aside the fact that I have messy hair and eyebags, I just look pale and sickly, something that I hope will go away as I start my day. I take my things down stairs, meeting up with my mother and father who are sitting in the living room.
“Hey honey,” Mom calls to me. “How’d you sleep?”
“Fine,” I lie. “Sam said she’s gonna meet me early to walk to school. She has to return a book to the library.”
“Before you go,” mom stops me. “We need to talk to you about the ceremony.”
“Can we please talk about this later?” I snap. “I’m not in the mood to talk about that right now, okay?”
“Danny this is important,” Dad steps in, his frustration apparent on his face, yet I don’t care. My phone pings with a text from Sam, telling me that she’s in front of my house.
“I have to go.”
“Don’t you walk out that door Daniel!” Mom yells.
“Danny get back here!” Dad tries to catch me before I race out the door, but I’m too fast and I make it down the steps to Sam before he can even get to the door.
“Hey,” I say.
“Hey.” She looks me over with suspicious eyes. “What’s wrong?”
“This has all just been a lot,” I sigh, combing my hand through my hair. “Plus my parents are trying to psycho-analyze me about Jason and... it’s just exhausting.”
“I get it,” she says, putting a hand on my shoulder. “You don’t need to tell your parents everything, but if you are feeling something, you should talk to someone. If you wanna talk, me and Tucker are here for you.”
“Thanks Sam.” I smile at her as we walk. I didn’t tell my parents the real reason why we came to school early, but as we get closer to our destination, I can’t help but wonder if our plan to avoid Dash will work. “You think that he’ll even be here today?”
“Amity Park’s new hope?” She asks sarcastically. “No doubt. I just wish that everyone else knew what he was really like. Everyone thinks that he’s some sort of saint just because the Ghost Slayer was his father. It pisses me off, especially with how much he attacks you, Danny.”
“I can’t help but feel bad for him,” I tell her, resulting in an appalled expression on her end. “He just lost his father and now the whole town is expecting him to be some sort of... hero. I don’t know, I just can’t help but think that it’s too much responsibility for someone who’s still a kid.”
“You’re just projecting your feelings for his father onto him,” she corrects. “I do agree that it’s a lot of responsibility, but why else would you care aside from the fact that you loved his father. He was like an uncle to you, but Dash... the only thing he is to you is a bully.” Her words are all true, but it doesn’t keep me from feeling worried for him.
Why am I even thinking about him right now?
“You’ve always cared so much about people, Danny,” Sam says, averting her eyes. “Sometimes too much. Sometimes when all that will get you is pain. It’s what I... it’s your fatal flaw.”
“Your talking about me like I’m some Greek God,” I laugh, elbowing her in the arm. She glances back up at me with reddened cheeks, felling a bit bashful from all the emotional talk, I assume. “Alright, enough with the sappy talk. How was that book you were reading?”
We make it to the school in no time, quickly passing through the gates, lucky to avoid seeing Dash or any of his friends. “We made it,” Sam whispers. Once we get inside, we make it to my locker, hoping to grab my books and rush to our home room class before Dash gets here.
“So why didn’t Tucker come with you?” I ask, trying to avoid the conversation. “I mean, he is your boyfriend after all.”
“He is not!”
“I can only imagine how jealous he is to see the love of his life hanging out alone with another man,” I tease.
“He doesn’t even like me!” She shouts. “And I don’t even like him!”
“Miss Manson!” Sam whips around to see Principal Ishiyama, who stalks towards us. My blood runs cold as I see Dash following behind her, not breaking eye contact as he glares at me. “You should know better than to raise your voice so loud in the halls, especially this early before classes begin.”
“I-I’m sorry ma’am,” Sam looks back at me after noticing Dash, her eyes filled with guilt. “It won’t happen again.”
“Good,” the principal says with a firm nod before turning back to Dash. “I will check in with you again tomorrow to see how you are acclimating. The mayor wants me to report on your training status as well, but we can discuss that at a later date.”
“Thank you Principal Ishiyama,” Dash says dismissively, turning back to me as soon as he finishes speaking. Ishiyama turns away slowly, not bothering to intervene, instead stalking off to yell at some students down the hall.
“Uh, hey Dash,” I try to break the tension.
“Don’t ‘hey Dash’ me, you prick.” Without another word he picks me up by the front of my shirt and slams me into my locker, knocking the wind out of me. “It was your idea wasn’t it?” He bellows.
“Dash!” Sam grabs at his arm, trying to rip him off of me, while I struggle against him, pushing at his face to get him away from me. By this point, the few students who are in the halls have gathered around to watch, none of them trying to stop anything, likely assuming that I provoked him. “Let him go! Dash, put him down!” Sam punches at Dash’s arms, but he stands undisturbed.
“You little shit!” He leans in closer to my face, and despite his position of superiority, I don’t break eye contact with him. Finally, he drops me, leaving me on the floor for Sam to tend to. I breathe deeply and fall into a coughing fit from being choked, but don’t shy away from Dash’s gaze. “I’ll settle this with you later.”
“Is that a threat?” Sam asks from where she kneels beside me. He doesn’t respond, instead just marching off down the halls with a deathly scowl on his face. “Danny, are you okay?” She cups my face in her hands, wiping my tears away.
“Yeah,” I pant, turning back to stare at Dash as he marches away. “What the hell did I do this time?”
New Housemate
I end up skipping my last class in order to head home early so that I can avoid Dash, hoping that if I run away he won’t try to track me down to “settle things later.” Once I get home, I head right up to my room and flop on the bed, staring up at the glow-in-the dark stars still firmly planted on my ceiling from my childhood, which manages to settle my nerves a bit, though my mind can’t help but run ramped.
“What did I even do to him?” I ask no one in particular. “He can’t just choke people out just because they piss him off. It doesn’t matter that he’s the town hero now. And why does he even get that title, huh? He hasn’t even done anything heroic!” I grab the pillow behind my head, press it to my face, and scream out in frustration. “Damn it!” After I’ve calmed down, I pull the pillow from my face and squeeze it at my chest.
“I’m so damn tired,” I sigh. I’ve hardly even closed my eyes before I’m out like a light, having the most restful sleep I’ve had in a while, only waking up at the sound of the front door closing heavily, signaling that my dad is probably home. I stand up, dreading the fact that I need to face him after this morning, and head down stairs, where I hear voices coming from the kitchen. Who did dad bring home with him?“
“Hey dad I’m back,” I call out as I walk down the hallway. “What was it you wanted to talk to me about this morning?” I ask as I turn into the kitchen, stopping dead in my tracks when I see him standing in the kitchen with my father, who’s bent over with his head stuffed in the fridge. “What the fuck?”
“Fenton,” Dash’s voice is much softer than it is when we’re at school, likely because he doesn’t want to break my father’s facade about what our relationship is like.
“Oh, Dash you’re here!” A voice startles me from behind. My mom walks past me with my sister in tow. “It’s been so long since you’ve been over. We used to have dinners together all the time when you were younger.”
“It’s the same as always, Mrs. Fenton,” Dash affirms. “I remember spending Saturday nights in this kitchen.”
“Why’d we stop doing that, mom?” Jazz butts in, clearly to spite me.
“Well you kids went and grew up,” she responds. “You three would always be hanging out with your friends and we would stay out late fighting ghosts...” I see Dash bristle at the mention, but he scowls at me when he notices that I’m watching him.
“We should go back to doing that,” Dad adds in.
“H-hold on!” I shout from the doorway, watching my family huddle around Dash like he’s a celebrity. “Can I talk to you three for a minute?” I point at my parents and Jazz, who follow me out into the living room. “What is going on?”
“This is what we were trying to tell you Danny,” mom scolds.
“You ran out before we could get a word in,” dad supports.
“Yeah,” Jazz echoes, earning her a glare from me.
“You said you wanted to talk about the ceremony!” I raise my voice. “I just thought that you wanted to talk about my mental health or something!”
“Well it was about the ceremony,” mom responds, her voice level and undisturbed. “Mr. Montez asked us if we wanted to take care of Dash while training him to take his father’s place and we agreed.”
“Why not tell us after the funeral then?” I ask, my frustrations boiling over. “Or at the very least, just tell me, ‘hey Danny, Dash is gonna be living with us while he completes his training.’ It doesn’t need some grand speech!” I find myself shouting and bring my voice down. “You didn’t even ask if I was okay with this.”
“Well you two are friends,” dad says. “We assumed that you would want to help him out.”
“That’s...” I clench my fist in anger, not wanting to disrupt the image that my parents have of us. “We aren’t super close or anything. It just makes me feel a bit uncomfortable that he’s gonna be living here.”
“Well if that’s the case then we can talk to Montez about putting him in a foster home.” My blood runs cold at my mother’s words, realizing that I am the only thing that is keeping Dash from being abandoned to the system. “He would still be training with us, though.”
“I...” I take a deep breath, trying to settle my frustrations. “Fine, he can stay.” I say, turning my back to the group and marching towards the basement staircase, wanting to ignore my problems with some video games.
I head downstairs into my parent’s laboratory, which is a cluttered mess, in search of the game console that my dad took. As I search amongst the piles of trash, tools, and other oddities that occupy the tables and floors, I find the console tucked away under a plastic box of hazmat suits. Curious, I meddle around inside the container, looking to see if they have a suit for me, and find one with my name stitched onto the inside of the collar, a sentiment that makes me chuckle a bit. As I run my fingers over the careful stitching, I wonder if I overreacted, but then I remember that Dash tried to choke me out this morning and my frustration bubbles over once again. I toss the suit onto a pile of clutter on the table and pick up the console, moving over towards the giant game station that my dad made for us to play on, setting the device up and turning on my favorite game. Once I log onto Doomed, I connect with Tucker online and a video feed pops up in the corner of the game. “Tuck, is Sam there?” I ask before he has a chance to start the game.
“Yeah, Danny, what’s up?” Sam’s head pops into view on the screen.
“You’ll never guess what happened,” I begin, feeling so overwhelmed that I want to cry. “Dash just moved into my house!”
“What?!” They yell simultaneously, their faces registering both horror and confusion at once.
“Apparently Mayor Montez asked my parents to train him to become the next Ghost Slayer,” I elaborate. “So they just put him up in our house for convenience, I guess.”
“Oh my god,” Sam mumbles. “That must be why he attacked you in the halls today! He must’ve been pissed about having to live with you!” I groan at her reminder.
“Is he there right now?” Tucker questions.
“Not in the room,” I reply. “He’s upstairs with my parents and Jazz... I just can’t believe how unlucky I am!” I scream out, slapping my hands over my face and curling into a ball in my seat. “This isn’t fair! I can’t even tell them about Dash today!”
“Why not?” he asks.
“Because if he tells them then their perception of their partner’s son, and in turn their partner, will be ruined,” Sam explains.
“Ugh...” I feel like crying.
“Can we do anything?” she asks with concern.
“No...” I finish wallowing, settling to ignore my problems with mindless video gaming. “Let’s just try to beat this level.” I pick up my controller and begin playing a round, not waiting for the two of them to catch up. Eventually, I start to feel better, the frustrations from the day melting away as I mess around with my friends, and the conversation shifts towards more normal things.
“Hey, Danny,” Sam grabs my attention. “I’ve been meaning to ask, what is that thing behind you?”
“Ah, no Sam,” I laugh. “I’m not falling for it. I’m not that gullible.”
“No really,” she starts, hardly looking up from the monitor.
“I see it too,” Tucker says, leaning in towards the screen to investigate my background, after getting taken out of the game by Sam. “It’s this big, hole in your wall. With like, wires hanging out of it and stuff. It looks like one of the portals from Doomed.” I eventually succumb to the prodding and whip my head around, only to hear a loud Game Over signal from the game.
“Agh!” I shout. “Sam! You were just trying to trick me!”
“No but there really is something behind you.” She says, sporting a cocky grin on her face that makes me roll my eyes. I turn back around again, looking at the portal that I managed to miss when coming down here for the first time (though in fairness the room is pretty congested). The device looks familiar to me as I stare at it, the dark, empty hole in the wall that I remember my parents talking about a few weeks ago.
“Oh, that’s just my parents newest experiment,” I sigh, turning back to face them. “They say that it’s supposed to be a Ghost Portal.”
“Ghost Portal?” Sam giggles.
“You mean that theoretically, right?” Tucker quizzes. “Cause the idea of an inter dimensional portal between us and the ghost realm is... well how would you even go about making that?”
“They said that they were using the ectoplasm and stuff from the ghosts that they’ve captured,” I explain. “I don’t know how it’s supposed to work but I guess they’ve been trying a lot of things on this for the past few months. It still doesn’t work, though.”
“So how have you not noticed it until now?” she snarks.
“It’s not like I come down here ever! I just wanted to get away from Dash and I knew that this would be the last place on earth that he’d go.” My explanation seems to satisfy them.
“So what are they planning on doing with it exactly?” Tucker investigates.
“I don’t know,” I say, turning back towards the device.
“Hey,” Sam breaks the silence. “I dare you to touch it.”
“No way!” I refuse.
“Oh, you’re just scared.”
“Sam, that portal is infected with ghost ectoplasm and probably a million other nasty things,” Tucker chastises her. “He could get possessed, and that’s the best outcome of that scenario.” The room goes silent for a minute.
“Still scared,” Sam eggs me on.
“You know what?” I stand defiantly. “I’m gonna touch it, not because you want me to, but because I want me to.”
“Sure...” she rolls her eyes, but I ignore her.
I step forward towards the portal, hesitating a moment. “You’re not really gonna touch that are you, Danny?” Tucker asks, though I don’t respond, my fear still holding me back. Suddenly, I remember the jumpsuit that my mom made for me and quickly rush towards the table in that I left it on, pulling the suit on over my clothes and zipping it up, hoping that the gloves will at least protect me a little bit. I hop back into view of the monitor, placing my hands on my hips in a confident stance.
“How do I look?” I ask, a broad smile on my face.
“Like your father,” Tucker jokes as Sam scrunches up her face in disgust.
“Ouch.” I put my hand on my chest dramatically, making them laugh. “Well it’s not for fashion it’s for protection. I probably should’ve put one on the minute I got in here if I’m honest.”
“Boo...” Sam teases. “Are you gonna go or what?”
“Okay, okay, I’m going in.” I take a deep breath to psych myself up as I leap over the pile of scrap metal and other garbage that my parents should definitely clean up at some point, arriving in front of the portal. I look into it’s depths, unable to resist its pull.
“D... nny,” I hear only static behind me as I continue forward, compelled by some invisible force to touch the device. “Da... d... ny!” I can’t make out what they are saying, but don’t bother turning around to figure it out. Instead, I reach my hand forward towards the metal bolted strip along the exterior and touch it quickly with my index finger. Nothing happens.
“See?” I shout to them behind me. “No problem! I’m not scared!” Feeling extra confident, I take a step into the machine.
“St... Da... on’t!” I can hardly hear their voices as they scream at me, my mind running blank of all things except for the portal. Walking inside, I look around at all of the strewn apart pieces and unfinished buttons, trying to figure out what they all are. As I continue deeper into the machine, my eyes are unable to adjust to the darkness and my foot catches on an exposed panel, sending me crashing to the floor.
I groan loudly, the sound startling me, until I realize that it is not coming from me. The machine whirs to life, surrounding me in a bright green light, and I scramble to stand up, trying to escape from the blast radius, but the force of machine nails my feet in place, and all I can do is stand there, looking out at the lab, trying to find my friend’s faces on the screen across the room, which has gone silent, a static image cemented on the monitor. And I am helpless to do anything as the portal starts up with me inside. A pain surges through me, an electrical shock of an other worldly force, dragging an ear splitting scream out of my mouth, while the energy expands outwards, not being contained within the bounds of the device. Fear spreads through me as I realize that the portal’s energy might destroy the entire building, with my family inside, so I do everything that I can to harness the power within myself, making my body cry out in pain as I feel myself splitting apart. I feel a snap and suddenly, the sensation of white hot death overcomes me, making me collapse to the floor in agony, with no control over my own body. I lay on the floor, looking out at the beam of green light as it continues to escape the portal despite my best efforts, when a jolt of electricity surges through me and the last thing I feel is my limbs seizing beneath me before my consciousness fades completely, silencing my screams.
...
Thank you so much for reading! If you aren’t familiar, I originally published this fic to my AO3 account, but I wanted to upload it here in case anyone prefers this format to that. I will probably be uploading more quickly over there so if you want to read ahead, I’d check out my link. I’m so happy at the positive reception this got and am excited to keep writing!
18 notes · View notes
writtingmistakes · 3 years
Text
The Amity Park Haunting Update
I’m back on my bullshit! I’ve been gone for a bit, but right now I’m writing the fifth part to my APH series and it will be released on May 9th!
1 note · View note
writtingmistakes · 3 years
Text
Danny Fenton and Dash Baxter have always been at each other’s throats, but the tension between them sky rockets when the two of them are forced by circumstance to live under the same roof. But the two of them don’t yet realize that they might not be so much like oil and water as they might think, and as volatile as the living situation is, it might help them gain an understanding of one another that they hadn’t had before. But first they have to deal with a bunch of ghost problems.
13 notes · View notes
writtingmistakes · 3 years
Text
Welcome!
I love to write fan fiction for all of my favorite shows, movies, and other media. I have a lot of different fandoms so here is a list of the fandoms that I might end up writing for:
Teen Wolf
Voltron: Legendary Defender
Danny Phantom
Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Chat Noir
Julie and the Phantoms
CW’s Arrowverse
Over the Garden Wall
Star vs. the Forces of Evil
Gravity Falls
The Owl House
My Hero Academia
Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun
Subzero (Webtoon)
Purple Hyacinth (Webtoon)
Castle Swimmer (Webtoon)
All for the Game (Book Series)
Here’s my list of NOTPs, even though I don’t actually hate most of them:
Peter/Living (Teen Wolf)
Allura/Lance (Voltron)
Shiro/Keith (Voltron)
Vlad/Anyone Else (Danny Phantom)
Marinette/Chloe (Miraculous)
Marinette/Lila (Miraculous)
Oliver/Laurel (Arrow)
Barry/Iris (The Flash)
Kara/James (Supergirl)
Soos/Wendy (Gravity Falls)
Mineta/Happiness (MHA)
Clove/Aaron (Subzero)
Neil/Kevin (All for the Game)
Kevin/Aaron (All for the Game)
DISCLAIMER
I don’t write about underage relationships, non-con, or incest.
2 notes · View notes