A/N: I am back with more. Finally, I've come up with an idea for it, and the perfect plot so…hope you all enjoy!
Chapter 1: The Soul
"I told you before, it's not haunted," Danny said to Tucker with a huff. "So what's the point of daring me to go in there if it's not?"
They were in front of the famous maze at a dead exit in the highway. The plants that made up its walls were legend to be possessed and have a voracious appetite. There was a whole book on the subject as well, albeit in the local myths section of the Amity Park Library. Such things it did eat were things that people had in the middle ages, like any food, material, string…and unbelievably, it also ate candy. It was something about the syrup…
"Come on, aren't you curious?" Tucker said animatedly. "There might really be an evil ghost in there, like the legends say!"
"Tuck…" Danny gave him a deadpan stare.
"Aw come on. Besides, if there aren't any ghosts then you get the money, and I won't call you a coward. But if you're too scared…"
"Of course not! You'll just be giving me free money, since it obviously isn't true."
"Come on…please? For your best friend in the entire world? And there's only one way to find out…" He was doing his usual puppy dog look again. Too bad that worked.
"Fine…" Danny sighed, and then reached into his pocket.
"What'cha doing, Danny?" Tucker inquired.
Danny pulled out a spool of wire.
"Getting this." Danny said, smirking.
"Why'd you bring wire?"
"Just in case the legend is true. You can never be too careful…"
"Hah. Just go in there man." Tucker laughed slightly.
"Ok. Here, hold this for a while," Danny handed him the end of the wire. "Attach it to that tree right there." He pointed to the tree that was three inches away.
"Ok. Good luck."
"Look forward to paying me!"
Danny waved at Tucker, and then walked inside the maze.
As soon as Danny set foot in the maze, the plants on the walls stirred from a nonexistent wind.
Creepy. Danny then started walking again, his hand wrapped tightly around the spool.
When the wire seemed to not rock as much, he pulled it again, turning around the corner. From there, the air turned stiff and dry. He looked up and saw the sun rising even though it was six 'o clock in the afternoon.
Is this all there is? Changing weather? Well it still might be "haunted", I suppose. Or maybe it's some special effects…
He came to a fork in the trail then closed his eyes. He walked forward and stepped on each of the entrances to the different paths.
Slightly different compression. But which way is right? I need some kind of…
The bricks on both sides weren't even, and each was indented at different levels. But the left bricks on the ground didn't compress at all. When he stepped on the ones at the right entrance, they went into the ground unevenly…like the walls.
So…right it is.
He walked down the right path and came to a stop. The plants here were all dead. He looked up and saw a moonless night sky.
Oh well, since there's a "ghost" down here, this must be the right way. After all, why would it want to make its home by living things?
He walked onwards, treading his feet carefully amongst the brush on the ground just in case there were any traps—which were also mentioned in the legend. This time the maze branched off in a few steps, but if he continued straight, there was another branch-off at the end. He walked up to the first fork. In front of each there was a rectangular plate, shaped like the one a pitcher stood on. Getting an idea, he closed his eyes, tapping his foot on each.
The left is hollower, but straight is dense…I'll continue straight instead.
He walked back onto the path and then continued straight. As soon as he turned, there were black and gray worn-down bricks instead of plants, covered with some sort of plaster-type substance. He looked up, and the sky was pure red.
Considering the time in which this thing was rumored to be made, I'm not surprised.
He continued on, noticing that only the slight leaf here and there littered the path. He could now easily tell which path the right one was, for the wrong ones still had plants on them. As it winded down, he took a quick glance towards the spool that he was holding.
It better be ending soon, I'm running out of this stuff.
He turned again, and was confronted with a steel door, which was covered with dead vines. The key lock had long rusted away. He pulled it out, and then pulled open the door, only to bring a beautiful but ghastly sound to his ears:
"Sunlight, Moonlight, fading in circle
Time goes forwards, then comes backwards
All to my whim and tell
Mix and Match all souls in my bottles
It's your time now to shine once more
Only to fall to that darkness which killed you hence
I bring you forth; twice hour then you'll be one again
My charm has lapsed enough, prepare yourself."
Danny peered into the dank room, only to see a glowing young girl in pigtails, a black pinafore, and blood red Mary Jane shoes. Suddenly, she turned around, revealing acknowledging gray eyes.
"I see you have come," she said, glaring ominously.
"What do you mean?" Danny gulped, suddenly feeling nervous. "What are you doing here, anyways?"
She snapped her fingers, painted red, and gave a smirk.
"I am the one and only, the controller of the PH system in the Ghost Zone."
"PH system, what's that? Don't tell me this is chemistry class, I almost failed that one."
She chuckled at the word "failed". "It is not my place to tell you. Are you the one who has come to fight me?"
"You?!" Danny said incredulously.
"Yes. If you do manage to defeat me, I will grant you one soul, of one who I have sent to die again on this fateful day."
"One…what? You're confusing me." What did she mean by soul?
"Confusing…?" The girl twitched, turning her head to the side. "I hope someone comes after you. You will definitely not defeat me, clueless one."
"Hey! I am not clueless!"
"What I say goes, boy!" The girl suddenly morphed into a colossal gray rag with large grey eyes in its center.
"You're a ghost?! Stupid thing to decide to turn into…"
"Yes, I am a ghost, and I you will die for your ruthlessness!"
She dived and covered him in an attempt to suffocate him. Danny transformed into his other half and phased through, causing the rag to tumble to the ground. He flew up into the high reaches of the maze. The walls were really high through, so he wasn't exactly out.
"Is that all you've got?" Danny asked.
"Not nearly, child." She then shape shifted into a small hawk.
Danny blasted ectoplasmic rays at her, but with her lithe form she could easily dodge them.
"Would you quit being a wuss?" Danny said, thoroughly annoyed.
"I'm not being a 'wuss', as you stated so elegantly, I am merely in a wily mood."
"Uh huh," Danny snorted, and then started firing again, though she continued to dodge.
She darted in at a crucial moment and dug her claws into his shoulder, then tore.
"Ahh!" Danny screamed, and then shot her dead on.
She tumbled down, only to turn into a bear.
"What's a bear gonna do?" Danny said, raising his eyebrow. "It can't touch me from up here."
"Oh really?" She said lightly. "How about if I make you come to me."
Her eyes glowed red for an instant, and then Danny fell to the ground.
"What's this, a magic show?" Danny spouted, and then scrambled off the ground to block her from barreling over him.
"I guess so. After all, I am an enchantress." She growled fiercely, and then increased her output force, pushing at him with glowing, sharp claws.
She's tough, Danny thought, sweating. At this rate, I will lose. And that's definitely not going to happen!
"Giving yourself a speech of encouragement, I see hither," She said airily.
"So you read minds too…what else do you have underneath that hairy sleeve of yours?"
"More than you can imagine." She grinned.
"Woah, breath alert! I know a few million years can do this to you, but this is inexcusable! You can poof your bad breath away, like in that commercial, whatever it was called…" Danny started to scratch his head.
"Silence boy!" She screeched. Then catching him off guard, she swiped her paw which sent him flying into the left wall. He struggled to get up amidst the rubble, clutching his chest.
She then transformed into a luxurious grey cheetah with a tough coat, appearing battle-worn with scratches all over. She dashed towards him and swung at his leg. Fortunately, Danny dodged it and flew into the air once more.
"Take this!" Danny yelled, then blasted ray after ray at her.
She dodged for a while and then she stopped suddenly, causing Danny to stop as well.
"This is getting quite boring." She sighed with a flick of her long tail. "Let me finish you off, this is taking too long."
Then, she shapeshifted into an enormous dark blue dragon with sharp claws. A chain collar was wrapped around her neck. She grinned maliciously.
"Time to end this nonsense!" she said, then rose up in the air and flapped her wings twice, creating a strong wind which caused Danny to hit the wall again, knocking the air from his lungs.
"Oww…" Danny rubbed his head and coughed out some ectoplasmic blood. "Can you please stop doing that? It's not good for my health…"
"So you feel that it must be done quicker as well, hn? Fine by me!"
All of a sudden, chains appeared seemingly out of nowhere in the dark room and wrapped themselves around Danny, trapping him and disabling him from moving.
"Magic tricks…again? This shouldn't be allowed," Danny muttered, grimacing at the tightness of the chains.
"But by my rules it is quite acceptable. But unfortunately, these are the magic chains that adorn my wall. So they were here before."
She grinned once again.
"Ok, in a moment that smile of yours will fall off your face," Danny said in an attempt to distract her while he thought of a plan. "It's way too gorgeous for your type."
Ice will be ineffective against these metal chains. The ghostly wail is my only hope at this point. But provided I have enough strength left, and it weakens her significantly, then I can finish her off.
"What are you talking about, child?!" she screeched angrily. "I am the most beautiful enchantress in the world!"
"How do you know that?" Danny said, smirking. "You've never left this place. I've seen many girls that are twice as beautiful as you." He almost laughed as she shivered in pure anger. "But you don't need beauty. You just elude yourself by using your little spells…"
"I don't need spells to be beautiful! I don't need spells to finish you off, wretched boy!"
Her nostrils flaring, she flew in towards were Danny was on the floor.
Come on, come on…now!
Danny then released his ghostly wail.
All the glass mirrors and bottles broke while the enchantress was thrown back against the other side of the room, rearing in agony. It lasted for a moment or two, until Danny lost enough energy to sustain it, and fell to the ground. The dragon slid to the ground with numerous wounds all over her body.
"Darn you kid…" she growled, holding her head while struggling to recover from the ringing in her head, and then slowly got up.
"Uhhnn…" Danny muttered, struggling to get to his feet.
"So that last attack drained you, eh?"
"No," Danny denied, finally managing to stand up. "I have just enough to take care of you!"
"Oh see…this reminds me of a little story I heard, so let's play it out before you die, child. Except, dear Theseus will lose the poor battle. How sad…"
She then tried to transform into a bull, but she was so drained of power that only her top half changed.
"Oh well, guess I have to be the Minotaur," she said, shrugging.
Well, the only way to defeat the "Minotaur" is with the "magic sword". Danny then tried to concentrate his spectral energy into a point.
He felt a release and then looked at it.
Came out a little crooked…oh well, it'll do.
Danny turned back to face the enchantress.
"Hey little girl! This is it! I'm taking you down!" he yelled just for the fun of it.
"No. You will be the one who listens for the bells, child."
"Uh…what the heck does that mean? Ah, still recovering from my Ghostly Wail? Let's get on with it."
The girl reared her horns, and Danny positioned his energy sword in front of him. Then in the strike before the next hour, they charged. When the clock hit 7:00, Danny's sword pierced the enchantress.
"Eh…" she said blankly, looking at her pierced chest but seemingly not in pain. "You've won after all. One soul it is, as promised. Take care of it, as it is now yours."
She smiled at him, turning back into that creepy little girl from before. She stared into him with those wide, glowing grey eyes…it was creeping him out. Then she disappeared in a cloud of smoke. Danny blinked twice.
"Aw man," Danny said, wiping the sweat off his breath. "That was a waste of time. Now where did I leave that piece of wire…?"
Danny stood outside the maze with his cell phone in hand, talking into it angrily.
"Tucker! Where the heck did you go off to?"
"I was tired…so I went home! It's not like you needed my help anyway. How did the maze thing go?"
He sighed. "I owe you the money."
"Easy or hard?"
"A total waste of time. There was a ghost in there…" One that scared the bejeebers out of me…
"I told you so!"
Hearing Tucker's smug tone made him scowl. "…and she said that if I defeated her, which I did, but I think she kind of let me win, that she would give me one soul. What do you think she meant by that?"
"Um…she's gonna give you an extra life?"
Danny sighed. "This isn't a game Tuck."
"Or maybe she's really given you someone's soul…"
"Well that's literarily speaking. Wouldn't she have given me like a bottle or something? You know, like a genie."
"Maybe you have to find it…"
"But what would I need with a soul, Tucker?"
"I have no idea. Listen, my dad wants me to do some errands, which I have to do; otherwise I'm not getting that new game!"
"And let me guess, conveniently after these errands are done, you will finally remember that you have a date with your lovely girlfriend."
"I forgot! Thanks for reminding me, you know Val can get seriously angry and attack me!"
"Yeah I know…and I got the worst of it. Actually, I still do. Well, talk to you later Tucker." He used to date Valerie for a while but they had a big fight and it ended up frizzling out. How she got with Tucker, he had no idea. It wasn't like he was mad at his good friend though. As long as they were happy with each other, he didn't care.
"Bye. Drive back safely; I heard it was going to rain on the weather broadcast on my PDA."
"Thanks for informing me, Tuck."
-2-
Danny walked all the way back to the parking lot, though his muscles were killing him. The moon was fully out now, no way was he making it back by curfew. When he spotted his dark blue 2007 Jeep Patriot, which he affectionately called his baby, he walked over to it, and then took out the keys to open the door. Afterwards, he got inside, turning on the ignition and switching on the night lights. This was the car he had gotten for his sixteenth birthday. For some reason, he wanted to get his own car, so he had to save up for half. His mom was just glad he wanted a car at all, instead of wanting to drive the family's RV forever. It's not like he could just take Jazz's; it just wasn't his style. He sighed, then started the car and drove out of the parking lot.
A few minutes after he got on the road it started to drizzle.
Couldn't you have just waited a little longer, rain?
He hated driving on slick roads; it was easy to have an accident, not that he was a bad driver in this type of weather. He automatically flicked the lever for the windshield wiper and then continued on his way. A few minutes later, the popping sound of the rain became more and more evident, and he had to turn up the windshield wiper speed to the highest it could go to keep a clear view on the road.
He felt his car starting to swerve a bit. How hard is it raining now? Gotta keep my concentration…
He turned around only to see a fire on the side of the road.
Guess someone already crashed. It hasn't even been raining for that long…
He drove past a little more, only to see a smashed up black Lexus GS 450h across the road in the left corner of his eye. It looked like it had been run into quite forcefully.
That couldn't be just the weather, Danny wondered, but he looked closer, half taking his eyes off the road. There was heavy rust on the car and it was covered by brush from the trees lining the road.
Based on the debris, it must have been here for a while. Maybe the car's just one of those dated clunkers…hmm…But who would just set fire to a random crashed car on the road?
All of a sudden, the windshield wipers froze and the air became extremely foggy. The car began to swerve as Danny struggled to control it.
Did I drive over a puddle?
He saw a shadowy figure staggering just ways away from the middle of the road, right in front of him. He tried to control the car to maneuver it out of the way, but it continued to swerve.
Darn it…no! Stay still darn car! Ahhh—
He couldn't close his eyes. He saw the shadowy figure walk into the middle of the road, and as his eyes widened. He couldn't help the bitter dread piling on him. Time seemed to be slowing.
Is this really happening to me? Hitting someone with my car?
Through his foggy front window in that fraction of time, he could barely see that it was a girl, probably his age, with long raven hair and closed eyes. She opened her eyes to reveal startled purple ones.
Purple? Do eyes come in that shade? Odd.
When Danny broke out of his stupor, he quickly slammed on the brakes as hard as he could. The car swerved some more and then stopped. The girl was shocked speechless. She was partially on the hood of the car and shivering heavily, her head leaning against his front window. Danny blinked twice, seemingly frozen, and then darted out of the car, grabbing the girl and shaking her slightly.
"Miss, are you ok? I almost thought I would…I hate to sound like a parent but, don't walk out on the road like that! I almost… I hit you, darn it! I was so scared…" The girl just blinked, pure shock creeping into her vivid eyes. He struggled to breathe normally; his nerves and guilt was getting to him. "You're all wet, come in the car where it's safe…"
Danny grabbed her by the arm a bit forcefully then walked back to the car, opening up the right door and sat her inside, before slamming the door and getting in on the other side. He couldn't stop his hands from trembling as he sat. The girl slowly turned to face him, and then he rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly.
"I uh…hope I didn't sound all creepy like a stalker or something. Was that your car, by the road?" The girl furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. "The black one?" She nodded. "Well, I'll take you home if you want. It is kind of late, and I'll pay you back for almost running you over… A-are you bleeding?"
Danny gasped. A stream of blood was running down her left cheek. How could he have not noticed? He hurt someone. His hands shook uncontrollably.
"I have a first aid kit, don't worry!" he said, and then was about to open the compartment to get it, until the girl gasped, startled. "What's wrong, miss?"
"I…I…this is…impossible…"
"Whadda you mean?" Danny asked, thoroughly confused.
"Why the heck aren't I dead?!" Her whole body started to shake.
"You…you…?" Danny said.
"You were supposed to run me over, like the guy did last time! How were you able to stop? It's the system! How did you break me from the system! How am I…I'm alive, aren't I?" she said, sighing and looking extremely tired all of a sudden.
Danny finally got what the ghost had done in the maze, but he still wasn't sure what the meaning of this was. "I… I guess you are. I guess you can stay with me then."
"A-alright…who are you, anyway?"
Fair question, especially since he was taking her in his car. "My name's Daniel Fenton. You can call me Danny if you want. What's yours? Unless you don't remem—"
"My name's Samantha Manson," she said, shrugging, and then smiled a bit. "Though I never dreamed of saying this ever again, I'm pleased to meet you."
1. Listen for the bells: Nordic god Religion: when a death carriage came for a soul on earth, there'd be a bell sound, and then the soul would leave the body and go to Hel, the daughter of Loki.