Chapter 1 – Work before Play

It was a November midnight, but the streetlamps gave a faint yellow shine to the lonely alley in downtown Amity Park. The shadows were long, fooling the eyes that the red, yellow and orange leaves blowing in the chill wind were alive, an animated herd of rodents that were scattering before some unseen predator.

Now, a real predator was stalking the shadows. A tall and muscular, two legged predator that had been following the short shopkeeper, who had just locked up. The thug stood quietly around the corner in the alley. He knew his victim's routine. The shopkeeper had worked late balancing books and lost track of time. Now it was very late. The predator stepped quietly onto the sidewalk behind the shopkeeper, his sneakers making no sound.

The short, middle aged and overweight man began crossing the street in front of the alley. He had no perception of anyone being near, until he saw the door to a green Cadillac open up across the street. Out stepped a young, dark haired man in a black trench coat.

The shopkeeper, instincts alarmed at the dark appearance of this young man, turned around, and saw the thug behind him. Surrounded! He could only go to the right or to the left. The street lights were brighter to the right, and his apartment lay in that direction anyway, so to the right he now turned, watching the first young man, and trying to put distance between him and the man in back of him with hurried steps.

To his puzzlement, the young man from the Cadillac didn't come after him, but seemed to be staring at the man in back of him. His hand was suspended inside his trench coat, holding something. The thug scowled at the young man, and turned around and went back in the alley. A motorcycle could be heard starting, its throaty roar fading off into the distance.

Now the shopkeeper was under the brightest light, and almost to his second story apartment above the pharmacy across from his shop. He turned to look back at the young man. He was back in the car, it started and pulled away from the curb and headed down the street, red tail lights fading away.

"Thank you" he quietly said.

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"Thanks Sam." Danny was getting a back and a shoulder rub from Sam as he sat at the table. His trench coat hung on the chair back. His sister Jasmine was setting some reheated, leftover pizza in front of him.

"Thanks Jazz."

"Any ghosts today Danny?" Jazz asked.

"No. Only stupid people." His answer led to new concerns, Sam and Jazz exchanged questioning looks.

"A mugger almost got a guy downtown. He wasn't a ghost, but he was the only action going on tonight. The coward didn't have the guts to pick on someone his own size."

Danny had become obsessed with patrolling and guarding Amity Park. He had taken to going to the old places where ghosts had been a problem before, but if ghosts were not around, the weight of his power obligated him to defend the weak and helpless against non-ghost attacks too.

This more mature, and dangerous direction Danny's life had taken concerned Sam, and she worried, even though she knew he was safe, he could become intangible and dodge bullets, knives, whatever criminals might use against him. He could frighten them by merely appearing in front of them.

But she knew too well what knives and bullets could do. As the mortician assistant at the Amity Park Funeral Home, she saw broken and abused bodies come in, as well as the aged and expired.

Her morbid fascination with this kind of work also made her Danny's biggest admirer. Since their graduation from Casper High two years ago, her college studies made her appreciate Danny's powers even more. He was the love of her life, and the most amazing study in afterlife and supernatural phenomena in her career.

Danny knew this too, and accepted it. There was no other girl that could know both parts of his halfa life, human and ghost, and still love him like a normal girlfriend. He valued this relationship, it was a fragile link to any sense of normalcy his life could have among the complicated and bizarre experiences of his day to day living.

"How was your day Sam?"

"I think I am ready for the midterm. Thank goodness I have tomorrow off from work. Wanna watch a movie?"

"Sure." Danny smiled, knowing that when Sam was burning the candles at both ends, work and school, that she would pass out fifteen minutes into the show. He didn't mind. He loved her gentle sleeping on his shoulder. His mom and dad had gotten used to coming downstairs in the morning and seeing the young adults passed out asleep on the couch with the TV on.

"How about The Crow?" He knew her favorite.

"Sure."

They sat on the couch. She took her boots off, and folding her legs, leaned against his shoulder. He put his arm around her, and they watched…