Our lives our forever linked by tragedy.
We knew only one of us would come out truly alive... and truly loved.
Jack Fenton is dead.
You must understand that this is a day I never really imagined would happen.
You must understand what this means...
Maddie...
Life has not been easy for this half-ghost supervillain, let me tell you. I have years of occult training under my belt, and a skill set to match that belt with shiny sequins... but nothing can shine like the glow of Maddie's eyes... though often times my glances at her were while she glanced, doe-eyed and stupidly at Jack.
However... in my newfound understanding, I almost sympathize with my rival, and know that our intentions were more similar in heart than in their eventual actions. We were two primal beasts beating our chests for the affections of a girl... but not just any girl. Maddie... the girl he stole from me!
Maddie... let me teach you to fly. Let me show you a better world - a world without Jack Fenton - a world without Ecno-acne or the obnoxious fundraisers on the TV to cure it (we only raised $200 - mainly because no one knew what the hell we were talking about-) a world where you and I are finally King and Queen..
The doorbell rings...
"Maddie!" my voice confidently addresses, forgetting social cues. "You look so lovely... given such terrible circumstances."
Her eyes tear through me like ghost-obliterating lasers, and her face is pale and puzzled.
"Vlad..."
The moment is stolen by a snot-nosed little shit named Danny. His stare instantly becomes a threat of violence alone. There is a tension between us all that festers like an ever-expanding elephant in the rooms of my castle. I have to tell the truth, instantly.
"I didn't kill your father, Daniel. But please, come in! - And Maddie, I will have your coat lined up on the finest of coathangers, and-"
"Vlad-" she intercepts like Brett Farve to score a touchdown in my heart. "I-"
"You must be so tired!" I desperately try to persuade her into security of my smile. "Have you ever felt the material of a six hundred thousand dollar expandable bed on your legs before? It's... really quite divine."
"It sounds lovely, Vlad," Maddie admits, delighting me, but likewise she toys with my heart with her every word. "But I really don't know if it's appropriate to be meeting like this so soon.."
"Oh, Maddie," I say, my voice cracking in genuine concern, "Even as a grieving widow, your eyes are still no more nor less haunting than before."
"Cut the shit, Vlad!" her misfit child barks at me. "I know you had something to do with this!"
"Oh, hush, boy," I say, undeterred. "As I've been telling your mother for... exactly three hours and twenty eight minutes straight of text messages and Skype calls - I'm here to help."
"I... want to believe that, Vlad" Maddie whimpers. Such delicate pain - pain I know all too well, somehow, in longing for her. I have something for her tonight that will change everything we have ever known... my last chance at winning her heart. "Please come in."
The evening dinner goes smoothly enough, with the obvious passive aggression between me and the boy. Maddie even eats like an angel. I hope she doesn't mind me staring, in between the usual condolences and small talk about our favorite wines and cheeses. It's a touchy subject - the Jack thing, as you can imagine, and she is in a state of grief. I am doing my best to prepare her for this truth that Jack never saw coming.
(Frankly, neither did I!)
What I had not ever truly known in all these years was there was a ghost among the presence of my castle that was not only strong enough to merely kill Jack or Danny - but one that might resolve the pieces of my heart to repair - repair in Maddie's arms at last!
It was a freak accident that changed my life, but as such, I was not Jack's only mistake in the world of ghostly mischief. Allow me to ellaborate. A chance encounter with another immortal showed me what I really became on the day that ripped me away from her, and drove her into Fenton's arms. A keeper of time and potential fate, Clockwork, had mumbled to me about ghosts not always being what we think of them to be. Sometimes feelings can be ghosts, too.
(Then he tried to kill me; go figure.)
"Daniel, could you excuse me and your mother for a moment?"
"No way, dude! I am NOT leaving you alone with my mom after what you-"
"Danny, please!" Maddie's voice interrupts us, heavenly and reserved as she is stern, and so the true conversation can begin. Danny slips out of the room, watching me in his every step as he goes to what I hope is the last possible bathroom on the furthest end of the castle.
Minutes tick by, and the conversations do rightfully shift to talk of Jack and Danny, and the wheels of fate that turn for us all now.
"I know your secret, Vlad," Maddie declares. "I know about your life as Plasmius, your countless attempts on Jack's life - what you've done on your expensive beds - everything!"
I gasp. "Maddie! How could you accuse me of such awful and atrocious things? Surely you would not have come all the way out here just to toss around such hurtful accusations!"
"Danny always told me I shouldn't trust you, Vlad..."
"Danny is a fool, Maddie. He has grown up being overshadowed by that big, lumbering wall of a husband of yours. Both of you have been restraining your true potential - potential that I can-"
"Enough!" she interrupts, glaring at me with hellish eyes that I know are serious... but something behind the fire beckons me still.
"How did you find out?" I prod.
She looks into my eyes and begins our psychological game of musical chairs. Both of us are refusing to stand, now, deadlocked into cemented stance, waiting for each other's move.
"I have my ways, Vlad. I have been onto your true motives for quite some time."
"My 'true motives?'" I question. "Why did you come out here if you think I killed him?"
Maddie says nothing, her lips devoid of a twitch, and her eyes too vigilant to fall off of me with more than a blink.
"Do you also know about Danny's powers?"
She nods.
This is all going so much better than I had anticipated...
The music has long since died.
"Are you and Danny going to try to kill me?" I ask, smirking. "If you're going to take advice from him, you should ask him how many times I've died. It's honestly not many, Maddie... and never for as long as Jack."
Maddie hesitates for a moment, a bit of blood rushing to her head as she lets the wine settle in her stomach.
"I need to know what happened to him. I know that you know... Vlad Plasmius."
Hearing her call me by that name sends a quiver down my spine with the force of ten thousand Fenton-patented spiritual spine beams. I try to maintain my composure, and discipline.
"If you knew what I knew," I respond, "you'd know I didn't kill him. Jack killed himself... in a way."
"How dare you!" she screeches. "Are you saying that-"
"Maddie - what I'm saying is, we are on the cusp of something that no one could have truly understood before."
"What are you talking about?" Maddie demands.
"- What killed Jack - what gave me and Danny our powers - what compelled you here, if not to avenge him - it's all part of the same thing, Maddie. We are all summoning a great supernatural energy - here, and now. You and I are the rightful owners of this energy - not you and Jack!"
A part of the truth leaks from my lips like cosmic sludge. I wipe my mouth and wait for her to catch an interest in my information. It's a very curious game.
"You're... not making any sense... " she mumbles. "At least... not much sense. A little, I think."
"Yes," I confirm. "You know it in your heart, don't you? - On the day of the accident, a terrible crime was committed against fate... a crime that robbed me of my humanity - and of you! Yet, one was many in a list of crimes that begin and end with the Fenton name! I should be the one taking care of you - the one honing your crafts with my own. Jack ensured that all I would ever have was a bucket full of extra crispy for a head!"
"And there you go on again," she shoots down, "always the same stories, always the same people to blame. Have you ever EVEN ONCE considered that I chose Jack over you because I genuinely loved him, and NOT because your face was fried chicken?"
"Yes, Maddie," I concede. "I have considered all possible fates since that day, and all foods in which to compare my face to - hopelessly wandering through space and time to reconcile this matter - why I feel so alone without you. Why the ghosts around us all are conspiring in such anger; why you ended up with such a ... a buffoon! They say opposites attract, but my-"
"Stop talking about him like that!" she warns. "How can you say such things about my husband - your former friend - if you were not the one who killed him! He loved me - and he loved you! You were like a brother to him!"
"HA!" I deflect. "That oafish fence post couldn't calibrate a calculator! He never truly cared about my talents - or yours! It was always US, Maddie - the brains of the team - the true Masters of the unseen! Jacky-boy was just along for the ride!"
"You're insane," Maddie spits.
"I know," I acknowledge, sipping the wine and building a rather impressive statue to myself out of toothpicks on my dinner plate as we talk (one of my many hidden talents). "You always said that the 'mad scientist' thing was a turn on, didn't you?" I smile.
"Vlad..." Maddie blushes, "That ... was years ago."
"Eternities," I correct. "Each of them spent in my own personal hell without you."
"Me...?"
"You, Maddie..." I call out, declaring my undying devotion. "For all of these days and nights and years and crimes - it has always been the pain of really losing you that has driven me to these low frequencies..."
Maddie looks to the ground, for a second, slightly lost and assessing her thoughts.
"We did have some good times together, didn't we...?"
An unexpected wall has come down in her temperament. I catch her lost in reflections of a life that should have continued on with us together - days and nights of lab partners and friends and potentially so much more - Vlad... and Maddie. Unfortunately, connecting the dots reveals that our love story has always been, indeed, a tragedy.
... Until tonight?