A/N: Happy Halloween! Surprised to see me so soon? Well, so am I! But this little story just popped in my head, and well, you know….But, in any case, I also just thought y'all would like to know the true story of haunted houses, er, at least, my version of it. And really, did y'all know the real meaning of Halloween? Well, grab a chair and get comfortable! Halloween as we know it started in the 800s and really means "(All) Hallows' Eve", which was the night before "(All) Hallows' Day", or All Saints' Day. So, really Halloween was a celebration meant to remind the evil creatures of the universe that their efforts to conquer souls were futile. So, there you have it. And I hope you have fun eating all that candy! Enjoy!
Why Haunted Houses are…well, Haunted!
It was late October and violent storm upon violent storm assaulted the little town of Amity Park and shook their buildings to their very foundations. Of course, all the townsfolk understood that this kind of weather activity heralded the change in seasons. But then, it quickly dawned on them that these relentless waves of storms, with their torrent and chilly rainspouts, were very unusual to say the least.
Still, what could the good citizens do about the tempests but bear with them? Even still, as the storms continued to pound the little city, its inhabitants began to empathize all too well with Noah in his tiny ark—minus the animal smells, that is. They didn't like to think that Amity Park was like that little boat, an unwitting ping pong being lobbed back and forth between two hostile water-powered paddles. It just didn't sit well with any of the citizens. Still, what could they do?
And so, it was not at all surprising to find Danny, Sam, Tucker and Valerie hunkered down at Fenton Works. And except for Sam, the teens were smiling at the television after hearing the weatherman promise that fair weather was on the way…
"Isn't that great news?" Tucker beamed before turning to his friends. But he then frowned at the one scowl that was among the other faces.
Danny, too, had seen his girlfriend's reaction to the news and with an encouraging smile, asked, "Hey, Sam, didn't you hear what they said? The storms should be letting up as early as tomorrow!"
"They're lying, of course!" Sam grumbled back, her frown still prevalent on her face. She then folded her arms tightly against her chest and added, "Since when have the weathermen been able to predict any of the weather? Their batting average is so incredibly bad, that I'm sure tomorrow will be just as bad as it has been for the past couple of weeks!"
"I sure hope not," Valerie piped in. "Halloween is Saturday, the day after tomorrow, of course. And at least, for my dad's sake, I hope the weather's good. Halloween is his favorite holiday; and it's the only time of the year that I get to see him get more excited than the kids! He really goes all out and he likes to surprise me each year with what costume he'll be wearing!"
Tucker chuckled and replied, "Yeah. And then, there's always the candy!" He then unconsciously licked his lips and paused a moment. Then smiling at his next thought, he licked his lips again before adding, "Uh, come to think of it, maybe I'm with Sam, then! If it's storming during Halloween, then that means there will be more candy for me!"
Danny laughed but then frowned again when Sam's face was still frozen in her scowl. But then addressing her, he chuckled, "C'mon, Sam, lighten up! There's always a chance that the weatherman will be right!"
But his girl only scrunched her face more in irritation; and Danny frowned in response.
Upon seeing the change in her boyfriend's face, however, Sam bit her lower lip and said with an 'okay-I-give' sigh, "Sorry guys. But remember that we all were hoping to check out some of those haunted places this Halloween? After all, they won't be 'officially haunted' unless Danny can prove they are! And it looks like it might not happen unless it stops storming."
"But why can't we do that either way?" Valerie suggested. "It'll make it all the more spooky if the atmosphere is just right, doncha think?"
"Sure!" Danny replied, "I want to check out more of those places, too, no matter what the weather's like. If there are any bad ghosts in there, you know we need to send them back to the Ghost Zone. Besides, I want to especially check out that house we went to last year, you know, the old Warner house. I just don't get why that even though it was spooky, I didn't detect any ghosts at all in it. That's really weird… And then there's the old railroad station, too. It looks perfect for ghosts! So, it's all set, right?" He ended before throwing an encouraging smile to Sam.
This time, the goth girl smiled weakly at him and nodded.
Tucker, however, squelched his gulp and nervously asked, "So, are there any other places you want to check out, Danny?"
"How about the old North Mercy Hospital?" Valerie offered, and then frowned in confusion when Tucker gulped loudly this time.
"Sorry guys. Standard reaction," the bespectacled boy replied when he saw Danny and Sam's worried frowns.
"Hey, we won't have to go there if you don't want, Tuck," his blue-eyed friend offered.
Reaching into his pants, Tucker then weakly smiled before he continued, "No, we can go if you all want. I'll be okay. After all, I have my four most awesome friends with me who'll help me and won't let it get to me!"
"Four?" Valerie asked in bewilderment before smirking at what her boyfriend was doing. "Oh, that's right. How can I forget 'her' ?"
The others then chuckled as Tucker, still patting his PDA, nodded to Valerie…
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Sam was right! The next day—which was the day before Halloween—was as wet and miserable as the other two weeks had been. And even though Danny, Sam, Tucker and Valerie had gotten rides to school this morning because of the heavy rain, they all still got wet by the time they met up at school. But Danny, of course, fixed that in a jiffy for them when he secretly made all of them intangible until the water slid totally off of them.
The two couples then proceeded to walk to their lockers, occasionally slipping on the wet floor unintentionally dragged in by all the other student's soggy bodies and feet. They had almost reached their designation when who should they see but a very drenched Paulina and Dash obviously arguing—loudly—and coming their way, while a just as soggy Qwan and Starr sullenly followed behind them.
Ignoring the water trail behind him, Dash protested to a very angry Paulina, "How was I supposed to know that the gutter would break from all that rain just as we were passing under it?"
"Hello!" the Hispanic girl fumed, spraying him with water as she flung her hair back out of her eyes. And when she did that, it was very obvious that her make-up was running, and dripping off her chin. "How do you expect me to look flawless if my real friends don't make sure that nothing happens to threaten that? You should've known!"
"B-But,…" Dash stammered just as Valerie snickered at the scene.
The dark-skinned girl now relished every opportunity at seeing her ex-friends in a tizzy.
But Paulina caught Valerie's response and sneered, "What are you looking at, Valerie?"
"Nothin' of importance," Valerie flippantly said just as she turned to reach into her locker.
"Oh. No. You didn't just say that I was not important, did you?" Paulina said, unconsciously blowing upward in an attempt to get her wet hair out of her eyes—without success.
The Hispanic girl's friends just cringed.
Sam, who had been leaning against her locker, amused by the scene, suddenly piped in; and her tone of voice at first sounded as if she were reprimanding the dark-skinned girl. But she was grinning. "Yeah, Valerie. This is important. Looks like Paulina is ahead of the crowd again in getting ready for Halloween. She looks positively horrible, you know!"
"ARGH! That's it! I don't have to take this from 'Suzy Nobody' and her icky outcast friend!" Paulina yelled, thrusting her hands upward—and spraying water on her friends once again. But the Hispanic girl didn't care. She immediately turned on her heels—and slipped a little—before she stormed off.
Her friends followed her in chagrin.
Danny and Tucker, meanwhile, stood on the sidelines watching the scene with tightened lips. They knew better than to get caught in the crosshairs of a female catfight, especially if that involved Sam and Valerie!
But once the soggy dust had settled, the four friends finally settled into their school routine.
Or so it seemed….
…For Paulina was now determined to get back at the two unpopular girls for daring to upstage her like they did. After all, that was so against the 'in-crowd' rules! And so, she and her friends decided to spread out on their mission to eavesdrop on the foursome...
It looked as if they wouldn't have to wait too long after all. In fact, Paulina was the very one who was able to hear a juicy bit of information after she darted into a nearby closet when she saw two of the four intended targets head toward their lockers.
"So, Danny, what time are we going to meet at the old Warner house tomorrow?" Tucker asked as he and his friend slowed their pace.
The blue-eyed boy replied, "Well, I was thinking of maybe meeting right after dark. I think we should start as early as possible so we have plenty of time to check out the old railroad station and North Mercy Hospital right after that. After all, that would make sense. The old Warner house is closest, followed by the train station, then the hospital; that is, if you take the straight shot. What do you think?"
"Sounds good. But, uhm, can we wait just a bit longer? I would like to sampl—I mean—inspect some of that candy my mom will be handing out. You know, to make sure they are well-wrapped and all," Tucker said with a sheepish grin.
Danny chuckled, "All right, Tuck. See you and Valerie around six then?"
Tucker nodded and smiled back.
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"So, why are they going to all those places tomorrow—on Halloween night of all nights?" Qwan gulped, frowning in worry.
"Yeah, Paulina. Are you sure about that? I'm not sure I want to go! Those places are, uhm, haunted!" Starr added with a quiver in her voice.
Paulina scowled at her two satellites and then turned to Dash before threatening, "And don't tell me that you don't want to go?"
Dash smiled weakly before squelching his own gulp. He raised his hands up in surrender and stammered, "N-No, of course not, Paulina! All that stuff about those places' being haunted is a bunch of hooey!"
"That doesn't matter!" Paulina insisted. "What matters is that we're going to make those four creeps think those places are all haunted and teach them a lesson. They need to remember how to sit on the totem pole!"
"Uh, you mean that they're the 'low man on the totem pole', doncha?" Qwan blurted out before immediately cowering at Paulina's response.
"Whatever!" she hissed back. "We just all need to dress up in the scariest costumes we can get and scare those four losers to the point that they'll wish they never messed with us!"
"But how will they know it's us that'll be scaring them if we're in disguise?" Dash braved to ask.
Paulina glared at him and replied, "Who cares? All I care is that we shake them up—big time! So. We all need to be ready by five-thirty and meet at the old Warner's house. We've got to be there before those jerks get there. Everyone got that?"
Her four co-conspirators nodded in agreement.
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Finally, it was Halloween. And, incredibly, even though Amity Park was still overcast, with diffuse streaks of lightening chasing each other high up in the grey clouds, it had finally stopped raining.
The children of Amity Park were full of excitement now that they were going to be able to dress up in their favorite hero, monster or imaginative costumes. They couldn't wait to show off their choices to their neighbors—and, of course, to get the sweet booty.
Danny, Sam, Tucker and Valerie were also happy to see their city finally get a chance to dry out, even if the air was nippier since the rains had stopped. And before too long, they were meeting up at Danny's house at six o'clock, well after dusk.
"So, is everyone ready to go the old Warner's house?" Danny finally asked when it looked like everyone was ready.
Tucker and Valerie nodded, but then Sam said, "Hey, I didn't get a chance to tell you guys yet, but I was reading up on those places late last night. There are mixed reports of their being haunted. In fact, what's odd is that there are no consistent reports."
"Okay, Sam. So, why did you bring that up? Don't you want to go?" Danny then asked.
"Oh, yeah, I do! But I guess if we don't find anything, we'll know why. But there was a neat legend surrounding the old railroad station, which is another reason I brought this up," Sam replied.
"What's that, Sam?" Tucker prodded.
"Well, it seems that the ghost of a conductor is supposed to haunt the station. And he's supposed to appear to 'announce' the next train. And according to the legend, there were only two trains that came into that station when it was active. Both at six-thirty. So…"
"So, the next 'train' will be here in no time, right?" Danny said, completing her thought.
She smiled with a nod and then Valerie piped in, "So, what are we waiting for? Let's go there first!"
The foursome agreed and headed to the old train station, unaware that another—but stuck up—group of teens were waiting in ambush for them at the original place Danny and his friends had first planned to go: the old Warner house.
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"What took you so long?" the male accident victim asked the female zombie as they reached the old Warner house.
"Hey! I can't be seen without having perfect make-up," the female, who turned out to be Paulina, grumbled.
The male rolled his eyes, wondering how those thick dark circles painted all around Paulina's eyes and her now grey-tone skin had to be 'perfect'.
Still, Paulina ignored the boy under the costume—Dash. She looked over to the two other teenagers who were also waiting for her. She finally smiled and said, "Love your costumes! They are so wickedly evil!"
"Thanks!" Qwan said, pulling a little at his werewolf costume.
Starr merely smiled before scratching her itchy nose, which was under a hideous mask. At least it was cool enough tonight so she wouldn't get too hot in her monster costume.
Still irritated that the girl who started this whole thing would be late, Dash muttered, "Well, let's get going! They'll be here any second!"
With that, the tall boy led the way to the front of the old dark house, turned the knob in front of him, and slowly opened the creaky door….
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Danny, Sam, Tucker and Valerie arrived to the old railroad station in plenty of time. They all agreed to hide in some bushes right across the station, with the old railroad tracks in between. They figured that the conductor would be sure to show up in this area.
As they all hunched out of sight, keeping as silent as possible, they all then noticed that, for some odd reason, the night sounds surroundings their hiding place seemed to get louder. They could hear various crickets and an occasional bull frog belting out their random blather.
The leaves on the branches sounded like a deck of cards being sloppily shuffled under the push of the cold wind. Other autumn leaves twirled noisily around the base of the station, fighting to be the first to reach the platform that jutted slightly outward.
"Whoooo," suddenly rang in the night air and Tucker squelched a cry.
His friends noticed his reaction and Sam shoved him slightly in the ribs, urging him to keep silent.
But in the next instant, all four of them jumped when they heard very loud crashing bounding through other bushes nearby! They all tensed, wondering why the conductor ghost would come that way. Suddenly, those same bushes began to rock violently back and forth by an unforeseen force!
Danny frowned in anticipation, expecting to see his icy breath at any moment since those bushes were very close to theirs.
But then….
Two armadillos finally pushed through their obstacle and the foursome chuckled slightly in relief and embarrassment for letting themselves be scared by the two animals.
They waited a little longer, and the minutes seemed to move like thick honey.
But then….
Valerie covered her mouth, gagging herself as she pointed to a lone light in the distance just beyond the old station! It hobbled randomly along as it approached the old building.
The four tensed up as all of their eyes glued themselves to the light….
Then, they heard it! A sickly crunching, as if the conductor had been run over by that imaginary train, only to have the train chew his body as it dragged him along within its clutches!
They all instantly grabbed the one beside them, their eyes never wandering from the ghostly light. They held their breath as the light grew closer…they could almost see the outline…And then…
They all sighed in disappointment. What they had seen was an old, rundown car approaching them from the small dirt road beside the station. One of its headlights was out and the car's shocks were so shot that every movement of tire on gravel gave it that sickly crunching sound.
Finally, after a few more minutes, Sam grumbled, "Well, looks like that legend is just a legend, guys! It's almost quarter 'til seven and that ghost should have been here by now!"
"Yeah, well, it was still worth coming out here," her boyfriend said. "I've never seen this place before, so it's good to know that it's not haunted. But, we'd better get going, 'cause one of the reasons why I wanted to start at the old Warner's house was because this train station was in the middle of what would've been a straight shot of all of these places we wanted to investigate."
And the foursome wasted no more time back tracking toward the old Warner place. But just as the teens totally left the area, a befuddled green-skinned old ghost, with a black conductor's hat on his wispy hair and an eerily glowing black lantern loosely swinging from his hand, appeared on the platform.
He looked around in exasperation just as he pulled out his large pocket watch and looked down at it. He then said with a well-rehearsed sigh, "Dang blast it! Late again! When am I going to remember to wind this old watch? Oh, well, time to settle in for the night."
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While the four 'out-crowd' friends were waiting at the old train station for a ghost that didn't show, the four costumed 'in-crowd' friends were still at the old Warner house, waiting to scare the pants off of their foes…
Once inside the creepy old house, the four costumed teens glanced around in the darkness. They couldn't see a thing!
"Now what are we supposed to do?" Starr whined, already very sure she had changed her mind about coming.
"Wait! I brought my pocket flashlight," Qwan cheerfully announced, only to grunt in irritation that he couldn't reach his pocket through his costume.
Suddenly, a gust of wind blew open the nearby window. The curtains screamed at the intruders as the wind whipped them around.
"Arghh!" screamed Starr, frantically—yet futilely—searching the pitch blackness for the escape back out of the creepy old house.
"Oh, come on, Starr! It's just the wind!" Paulina scolded. But she, too, wasn't sure how they were going to scare anyone when she couldn't even see her hand in front of her face.
Suddenly….
Light poured in from the open window and the teens jolted when large sheets dotting the room stared back at them.
This time Dash reflexively yelled, "Yikes!"
But Paulina merely thumped her foot in irritation and hissed, "Hello! Moonlight? The clouds must be gone! And that's why we can see all this covered furniture, see?"
"Since when is moonlight green?" Qwan gulped, pointing at the emerald-colored beam of light flooding the old living room.
"Since it was shining through the nearby swamp!" Paulina answered haughtily. Then she added with a humph, "C'mon, guys! Now that we can see everything, let's split up and…."
The Hispanic girl stopped at the site of a trio of heads reflexively wagging in disagreement. She frowned and said, "OK. So we won't split up. But we better find a room big enough for all of us to hide in!"
"This room looks, uh, nice," Starr volunteered with a gulp.
"No way!" Paulina objected. She was still on fire with how Sam and Valerie had treated her. "There must be a bigger room in this big, ugly house! So, let's go!" She turned and then moved toward the dark hallway.
Her companions instantly huddled together and reluctantly went after her…
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"Skulker! Turn off that light!" the rocker ghost girl quietly hissed just as they passed the open window of the front room of the old Warner house.
"I do not like sneaking around like this! Why can't we just go?" the robotic ghost sulked.
Ember growled back, "You know the rules. This is all your fault, anyways! So, let's just hope this place isn't that full!"
Skulker scowled at her. Was it his fault that his digital watch's battery died and that's what had made them this late?
She quickly led the way to the back of the house. As soon as she and her boyfriend reached the door, they phased in.
Once they were in the darken kitchen, Ember looked around. Smiling, she turned to her companion and said, "Good, there's no one here!"
But just as she turned to leave the kitchen, she saw movement!
"I think I saw something!" she whispered to Skulker.
But instead of frowning in worry, Skulker looked at his instruments and scrunched his face in irritation.
The rocker ghost frowned in confusion. "What?" she finally demanded, but before Skulker could say anything, a group of other ghosts came into the room—a rather large group, that is.
"What are you doing here?" the bespectacled, buck-tooth teen in not-long-enough plaid breeches asked the couple.
"Hey! We have just as much claim in here as you do!" Ember challenged back, grasping her guitar more firmly. She was already feeling very crowded. "And why did you bring that here?"
Sydney Poindexter looked back at the ghost dragon that he had ridden here. He looked sympathetically at it before glaring at the rocker ghost. "For your information, Miss Bully, this dragon ghost is my friend and we were taking a short cut on the way to her class reunion when time somehow slipped away. So, we came here. You know the rules!"
"Duh, junior," Ember hissed back before looking at the dozen other ghosts. "But what about these others? Why couldn't they…." But she stopped herself and then looked at the entrance to the kitchen. She turned back to the other ghosts and frantically asked, "Did you hear that?"
She had to find out. With the other ghosts floating closely behind the rocker ghost, Ember inched forward, slowly creeping toward the entrance of their room…
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The hallway Paulina and company had entered seemed longer than it should be, especially since the more they crept forward, the darker the passageway became.
Paulina, however, was still determined to carry out her plan. She patted the wall to the hall on her right, blindly feeling her way forward.
Meanwhile, her entourage continued to move as one unit and was never very far behind the Hispanic girl. They wouldn't dare.
But then…
Paulina unexpectedly smacked her face into another wall. It was now all too painfully clear to her—when it hadn't at all been that clear to her moments before—that she hadn't realized that the hallway had taken a ninety degree turn to the left in time to prevent her mishap. But then, her companions emphasized that very point immediately after and plowed right into her, sandwiching her between the wall and them.
Before any of the teens knew it, they were groaning in a pile on the floor. And as soon as they untangled themselves from each other and stood up, they turned in the correct direction and gasped. More green light!
"Don't tell me that the moonlight got way down this spooky hallway?" Qwan anxiously whispered to his companions.
"Yeah. I don't think so!" Starr agreed, reflexively tightening her grip on Qwan's arm.
Suddenly, Dash quietly hissed, "Do you hear voices?"
The foursome just as sudden felt the hairs on the back of their heads stand up. There were voices!
Paulina frowned and then said with irritation, "That must be those four losers! Now's our chance to sneak up and scare them!"
Before the others could object, the popular cheerleader was headed toward the back of the house. And so, the other teens hurried after her.
But just as Paulina and her human shadows neared the doorway, the Hispanic girl slowed; but did not fully stop. She wedged her body into the small corner abutting the door jamb, curling her fingers in both excitement and apprehension at the same time. And just as her body slowed to a stop, her head and upper torso continued to inch closer to the open doorway. She had every intention of peeking through the doorway and yelling out to whom she was sure were those infernal unpopular kids.
She was almost there, and then there was a sudden drop in temperature as she steered her made-up haunting eyes forward through the doorway only to…..
….Lock gaze on a blue-skinned girl ghost with flaming blue hair.
In that instant, both human and ghost girl screamed in surprise, which, in turn, jolted all the other humans and ghosts that were there. And in the next heartbeat—or constriction of central core—all the concerned parties were making beelines to the nearest exit away from the others. Not one living—or non-living—being looked back as they all fled the scene.
And while all of the ghosts headed to the only place they knew was near enough for them to go—the old train station—the humans headed to the woods beyond the spooky house.
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Paulina and her crew found themselves tangled in underbush and overhanging vines, which really was a good thing, too, because all those obstacles finally slowed them down and prevented them from venturing too far into the woods. They all growled in anger and frustration after finally calming down over what had happened. And after arguing for several minutes whether to call the whole thing off or carry on with Paulina's plan, Paulina finally won out. She had convinced the other teens that the four losers upon whom they were seeking vengeance had probably been scared out the house by those same ghosts; and, therefore, should be heading to the next point in their itinerary, which would be the old train station.
At first, her cronies reluctantly agreed, until they realized that they were lost. That is, until, fortunately, Dash had finally calmed down enough to realize that he knew this area. He had explored it many times with his cousin and knew a back way to the dilapidated train station.
And just as the group of four costumed teens was taking the back way toward the old railroad station, the group of four adventurers was using the more conventional—and paved—way toward the old Warner house. So, none of the respective cluster of teens saw the other on the way.
But then, what had happened earlier to each of the foursome happened again at their end of their particular visits to the scary old places...
Danny and his friends had left the Warner house disappointed. The only thing they had found was that they still got the willies from reacting to their surroundings—but met no ghosts. And so, getting a bit discouraged, but still determined to avoid a bust in their adventure, they made their way to the old North Mercy Hospital….
Paulina and her minions, on the other hand, left the old train station as they had the spooky old Warner house—screaming and running in fear. And, this time, there was no need for them to have seen the ghosts. Instead, it had been enough for the terrified teens to just hear what they knew were those very same ghosts from whom they had just fled while at the Warner house. And they just knew they had been right, especially when they did meet another equally spooky and weird ghost who had insisted that they wait for the next train! The humans had run so hard and in such helter-skelter, that before they knew it, they were in front of the old North Mercy Hospital….
And all the ghosts, except the old conductor ghost, anxiously flew as fast as they could to their last resort before it would be too late: the old North Mercy Hospital.
And so…..
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"Now what are we going to do?" Starr whined between her pants, stopping at the front of the hospital before whipping her mask off. She then said, "I want to go home!"
"Me, too!" Qwan quickly echoed, slowing his breathing down. He could swear his fur was still running. "Getting revenge is no fun!"
Paulina was half-convinced to call it quits. But if she did, then her popularity meter would probably ooze down quite a bit. And she wasn't about to let that happen. With puppy-dog zombie eyes, she turned to Dash and said, "But, Dash, how will you face those losers on Monday if you back out now?"
"What?" Dash asked, perplexed. "We never saw them, so how will they know we've been such jerks tonight?"
"Oh, but how can you be sure that they didn't see us? You know how creepy Foley can be with that PDA of his!" Paulina countered.
"But we had costumes on and I don't even recognize me!" Qwan insisted with a frown, now convinced that his costume's fur was still running though he had long stopped.
"Don't confuse me with the facts, you jerk!" Paulina hissed before adding, "This is our last chance. Those losers have to be in here! And I know we'll get them!"
Her companions' faces immediately dropped; but then Paulina smiled evilly and purred, "Because if we don't, then who knows if an ugly rumor might start about any of you?"
This time, the trio to whom she was speaking gulped. They knew by that look—even with the large black zombie circles around her eyes—that the girl was shallow enough not to bluff about that. With a sigh, they all then nodded in agreement. And right after that, just as another lightening bolt shot overhead, they entered the creepy abandoned hospital on the edge of town….
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Meanwhile, the group of renegade ghosts had made it to the old North Mercy Hospital way before the group of creepy-looking, no, real creepy teens finally had a chance to invade it. They had quickly scouted the area and seeing that the place was empty—well, except for all those mysterious and icky hospital thingies—they made a truce. They had plenty of space for every one of them. And so, they spread out, trying to settle in for the duration.
Most of the ghosts decided to stay on the topmost floor. However, two of the ghosts wanted to get even further away from the crowd, and headed to the bottom floor. But as they floated along the first floor hallway, each of them searching for some place to get comfortable in, it was obvious that they had yet to come to a truce with each other.
"Come on, Ember! It is just for one night and then we both can go home! I am not any happier than you that we have to be here!" Skulker pleaded, though underneath, his ghostly stomach was souring. How did he ever get mixed up with a banshee of a ghost?
Still irritated, Ember narrowed her eyes and replied, "Ya know, for a supposingly great hunter, you still have a lot of things to brush up on."
Skulker's eyes widened. That was it! They had been arguing ever since it got dark and even though he tried to apologize right-and-left to her for making them late, she was being so histrionic! And now, this. This was the last straw!
"Well, then, look who is telling whom what to brush up on! Your singing is about as tangled as your own hair!" he growled back.
The rocker ghost's eyes and hair flamed at his remark.
But he would not be daunted. He answered her not only with his own set of flaming green eyes and hair, but also had unconsciously activated one of his weapons. It popped right up out of his armored arm and flared with its own challenge.
Ember, in turn, quickly twirled her guitar from behind her and readied herself.
But then,...
"Did you hear that?" Skulker asked in a quickened hush, withdrawing his weapon.
Ember cocked her ear and gasped.
Footsteps!
What the two spatting ghosts didn't know at the moment was that Paulina and her spooky entourage had also just entered the first floor of the four-story hospital…
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And just as the conspiring teens were finally entering the hospital, Danny and his friends were still making their way to that very same place and were only about half-way there.
"Gee, I didn't realize just how far that old hospital was!" Tucker inadvertently whined as he plodded along.
"Oh, come on, Mr. Couch Potato," Sam smirked, "Exerting some of those muscles might mash out some of your lumpiness!"
"Hey! There's nothing wrong with my lumpiness!" Tucker objected.
Valerie smiled but didn't say anything.
Danny chuckled, "C'mon, Tuck. You know she's kidding. Besides, it's kinda nice out here. And at least it's not raining…"
But just as he said that, a clap of thunder sounded and it began to rain—hard.
"You were saying, dude?" Tucker dryly said.
"Hey, don't worry!" his blue-eyed-and-now-wet-friend casually said before quickly scoping out their surroundings. Smiling at seeing no one around, he added with a slight hush, "How about we just get there a little faster and drier?"
"About time!" Tucker triumphantly exclaimed, pulling off his wet glasses. "That's what I wanted you to do before we got into that whole 'mashed potatoes' thing! Now, I'm glad it's raining!"
This time, everyone chuckled just before Danny morphed into his alter ego, Danny Phantom. A moment later, they all clasped hands and became intangible.
"Oooh, that feels weird!" Valerie blurted out after feeling another of Danny's powers for the first time.
"Yeah.. and the only way to fly, be dry, and keep all my lumpiness!" Tucker beamed to his girl just before Danny scooped the other teens up and flew toward the hospital.
Along the way, Danny suggested that they be as quiet as possible once they were in the hospital. After all, they were still hunting for ghosts. They all agreed and Danny flew even faster to their designation. Once there, the young hybrid didn't stop to put his friends down until they were inside the dry building.
But when they rematerialized, Tucker's face reflexively dropped in anxiety.
"Are you all right, Tucker?" Valerie whispered to her boyfriend after seeing the drastic change on his face.
"Yeah. Sure, Valerie," he tried to assure her—and himself. He thought he had finally gotten over this whole 'hospital angst' stuff after the 'Spectre' affair. And he had—for the most part. But being in a hospital or anywhere else with sharp, pointy things and the haunting smell of sick people was still not his idea of fun. He would rather work on his "Mr. Couch Potato" reputation. Still, he wasn't about to let it get to him or let it spoil their mission.
"Okay, guys," Danny quietly said, handing them each a set of Fenton phones. "Let's spread out. How about Tucker and Valerie checking this floor, and Sam and I check out the second floor? If we find anything, we can always call each other. And if we don't find anything, I'll come and get you and we can do the same with the third and fourth floors, okay?"
His three companions nodded.
And then Tucker whispered, "Okay, buddy. And don't worry. If I find anything more wrong than what I see right now, I won't hesitate to contact you!"
Danny chuckled a little just before he wrapped his arm around Sam's waist, turned them both intangible and soared upward to the second floor….
Tucker swallowed the lump that was suddenly crowding his throat. He turned on his PDA and then grabbed Valerie's hand. They slowly made their way along the dimly lit corridor. They stopped at the first door that presented itself to them. Tucker grabbed the knob and then checking to see that Valerie was ready, slowly turned the knob….
It was locked!
"Now what?" Valerie whispered.
"Not a problem. I'll just scan the…." Tucker smugly began before he stopped himself. He then he realized that in his nervousness he hadn't activated his scanning program! But just as he was about to push the last key to activate it, they heard a noise!
And it was coming from further down the hallway!
"C'mon!" Tucker quietly commanded, now more focused since that noise could mean a ghost was haunting this place after all. But he wanted to be sure before he would call Danny and Sam.
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Danny and Sam rematerialized on the exact spot they had left Tucker and Valerie—only that they were one floor higher. They walked further down the second floor hallway, checking all the rooms as they came upon them.
"Major déjà vu!" Sam's quiet voice dryly said just as they checked another patient room that contained lots of dust—but no ghosts.
"Yeah. And I bet it sure looks different from the ground for you, huh?" Danny whispered with a mischievous smile.
"Better watch it. My boot is more lethal when it is thrown than dropped from the ceiling," Sam quietly countered with a just as mischievous smile.
They both then softly chuckled and continued onward.
But, they could find no ghosts.
Disappointed, but still hopeful that they would find something to declare this hospital 'officially haunted', they began to head back the way they came. But just when they were about to return to go find their friends, they heard static coming from their Fenton phones and then a loud crash!
But the crash was in the direction that they had already come—only much, much further down the hallway!
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And, of course, all before Danny and his friends had even arrived at the old North Mercy Hospital, Paulina, Dash, Qwan and Starr had started out on their own mission once they had entered the abandoned hospital.
They had walked quietly but more quickly through the first floor corridor of the hospital because, for some reason, this place wasn't as dark as the old Warner house or the railroad station. But they really didn't think about that. They were just glad that they could see, well, at least see better.
The irksome foursome had gone over three quarters of the way down the hallway when, unbeknownst to them, Skulker and Ember, who had been searching for their temporary rooms, were coming up from the far opposite end of the hallway.
And the ghosts were headed right toward them! Even worse, the ghosts had heard the teens' quick footsteps!
"That can't be other ghosts, right? Even though I kinda hope they are!" Ember quietly asked Skulker as she slowed her flight.
"Of course those are not coming from ghosts! We are in the Real World, remember?" he mumbled back. "So, assuming that those are no ghosts, we need to head back, and…"
"Too late!" Ember yelled just before she pulled the cyborg ghost with her into another room. She quickly slammed the door.
Paulina and her companions jumped at the loud sound, but since its eerie echo was quite loud, they weren't sure from whence it came.
"That was a door slamming!" Starr whined before suddenly feeling ill with fear.
"That must have been the wind!" Paulina insisted, though she really didn't think it had been the wind that had slammed that door, either.
"Don't tell me you're going to use that same lame explanation again?" Dash asked with irritation clearly written all over his face. He had about had it with this whole thing.
Paulina scowled back but then replied, "Okay. We can just hide in the room just ahead. It would be real lame if we hid on the top floor only to find that those losers just stayed down here! And they have to go past that room in order to get to the second floor. Let's go!"
Before anyone could object, they found themselves following Paulina so closely as she led the way to that room that an outside observer would have thought they had been glued together.
But what they didn't know, of course, was that that was the very same room into which Skulker and Ember had escaped!
And just when the four costumed teens entered the room as if they were one unit, they were met by a solid wall of white. But then, faster than they could react, this very same wall of white engulfed them and scooped them up so quickly it was as if it had a mind of its own!
They screamed in terror, but the wall of white, which they now could tell was made of real cloth, muffled their screams. But before they could do anything more about it, they and their white 'net' were being roughly dropped into some kind of square container, which rolled a little under their weight. And that square container was just large enough for all of them to be firmly pinned against the others once they were in it.
Since the large white cloth covered their sight, they couldn't possibly have known that it was Ember and Skulker who had thrown the large white cloth over them and deposited them into that soft-walled container on wheels. And they would never know it, either, since at that instant, both ghosts fled the scene…
And it was Paulina and her flunkies' screams that Tucker had heard when he and Valerie had been making their way down the first floor hallway.
The bespectacled boy and his girl ran as silently and as quickly down the hallway. The noise was still there! And it seemed to be getting louder! They were all ears as they anxiously tried to pinpoint the din's location.
Suddenly, Valerie grabbed onto her boyfriend's arm and pulled him slightly back. She quickly whispered into his ear, "I think it's coming from the room just ahead!"
He nodded and they moved as carefully as they could toward the door.
But then, the boy frowned when he saw the sign on the door. Still, there was no doubt that Valerie was right! There was definitely some kind of noise in there. And it sounded like moaning—spooky moaning!
This time, Tucker remembered his PDA and turned on the scanner. There were no ghosts! But then, why all the ruckus? Frowning with both curiosity and fear, he motioned for Valerie to step back a moment. Then, he opened the door, peeked in….
And saw a white, moaning monster thrashing about from out of that laundry basket not too far in front of him!
"Yikes! That's worst than a ghost! It's some kind of monster!" Tucker yelled as he slammed the door hard.
He gulped when he heard the monster's threatening scream when he did that. He didn't know, however, that the vibrations that shook the door jamb had rocked another, but overly full, laundry basket, which was just within the room and beside the door. And, ironically, this same basket had also been jolted earlier by Ember when she had slammed the door. And because of both of its jolts, a large white sheet had slid part way down from the top of the pile, precariously hanging as if in suspended animation.
Tucker's skittishness about hospitals now got the better of him, and he suddenly couldn't think straight. He didn't wait any longer; and grabbing his girl by the hand, darted back away from that room and further into the hospital.
As he ran hand-in-hand with Valerie, he yelled, "We got to get out of here and call Danny! We can't handle this!"
"But we're headed in the wrong way, Tucker! The entrance to the hospital is in the opposite direction!" Valerie protested as she kept up with him.
Her boyfriend suddenly halted. Just as he pointed in the opposite direction from which they had been running, he sheepishly said, "Uh. Right. Let's go, uhm, that way!"
He immediately turned on his heels and still firmly holding his girl's hand, nearly pulled Valerie off balance when he returned to a run—toward the front of the hospital this time!
In the meantime, as the terrified teens still in the laundry basket were trying desperately to escape their netting—which turned out to be a large white hospital sheet—Ember and Skulker opened the door to the adjacent room. They had hid in there when they had heard more footsteps running from outside of the room. And because that had once been an 'x-ray' room, the walls were lined in lead; and therefore, Tucker's PDA scanner had not been able to penetrate much into that room. Hence, Tucker had not detected the ghosts.
"Let's get out of here!" Ember hurriedly said to Skulker.
But when she had said that, the teens, still engulfed in the sheets, screamed even louder in terror.
Ember turned at that sound, frowning even more. She didn't hesitate any longer. It was time to retreat, even if it meant going back to the fourth floor and the other ghosts. She firmly grabbed Skulker's hand before yanking him toward the way out of this musty old laundry room.
And just as they got into the hallway, they heard the sound of running feet headed right toward them!
This time, Skulker reacted first, and decisively pulled Ember to their right, and away from what they didn't know were Tucker and Valerie back stepping—in a run, that is!
The two ghosts ran as fast as they could away from the accidentally pursuing footsteps. But before they knew it, the ghost pair was at another closed door—and a dead end. Either they had to go through this door or they would have to escape through the front of the hospital. And they didn't want to do that.
They took the door. And when they opened it, they saw a stairway. They instantly charged upward; but then gasped when they saw that these stairs only led up to the second floor!
"What kind of moron makes stairs to only one floor?" Skulker grumbled loudly.
"Let's just go! We can take the stairs to the upper floors on the other side!" Ember growled back.
But when they tried to open the door, it would not budge!
Now panicking, Skulker pushed against it with all his might. It finally gave, only for the debris piled up on the other side to come crashing very loudly down!
And this was the loud noise that Danny and Sam had heard when they were about to go back to find Tucker and Valerie.
"What was that?" Sam accidentally yelped.
But before Danny could answer, both of the teens heard a frenzied cry coming from their Fenton phones. Tucker had finally had the gumption to call his friends.
"Danny! Sam! Come quick! There's a monster down here!" Tucker frantically yelled. "We're near the entrance of the hospital!"
"Down there? But what about up here?" Danny instinctively thought.
But, he didn't think any more about that right now. Both he and his girl felt their heart rates increase in worry at their friend's words. They both instinctively knew that Tucker and Valerie must be in trouble. Without a moment to lose, Danny turned both of them intangible and they phased right down and made sure to angle his rapid flight right toward where he knew where his friends should be.
Danny and Sam rematerialized as soon as they spied Tucker and Valerie. They went right up to them.
"It's over there, down that hallway, almost to the end. In the laundry room!" Tucker hurriedly told them as he pointed out the way.
"Laundry room?" Danny suddenly chuckled. "What is that? The monster-that-ate-the-bed-sheets?"
Tucker frowned at him in anger this time and Danny cringed.
"Okay, Tuck, let's check it out!" Danny said more seriously this time.
He quickly turned around and headed toward the corridor with his friends closely in tow.
They crept forward and as they neared, Danny charged up his energy rays. Sam was also ready in case her boyfriend needed it. And even Tucker was now ready since Danny had momentarily angered him enough to clear the bespectacled boy's head. Valerie, however, could only hope that was enough, since she hardly took her Red Huntress outfit with her anymore. But she wished now she had brought it.
But just as they neared the laundry room, they heard more muffled screams.
"Stand back!" Danny commanded, not waiting for his friends' replies as he turned intangible and phased right through the door. He instantly rematerialized as soon as he had cleared the door, only to have that renegade white sheet finally loose its fight with gravity. It fell on top of him before totally covering him up.
Instead of going intangible once more, the young hybrid was so surprised that he just wrestled to remove the sheet. But when he unconsciously stepped forward with his one-man tussle, the sheet countered his movement which tangled him so much within it that the boy tripped. Now irritated with himself, he struggled to pull himself up.
Meanwhile, just as Danny found himself covered with the sheet, a very disheveled and distraught Paulina, Dash, Qwan and Starr finally found themselves out of their sheet captor. They tumbled out of the laundry basket and pulled themselves up. They didn't care that their costumes were torn from head to toe. All they cared was to get out of here—fast!
But as they turned to go, they gasped at the sight in front of them!
"ARGHH!" the white, glowing faceless ghost yelled in anger as it thrashed about, threatening them with who-knows-what!
The four teens then totally lost it! Screaming at the top of their lungs, they charged out of the laundry room before turning right away toward their escape route—toward the front entrance to the hospital.
But just as they turned toward their exit, they saw….
Sam, Tucker and Valerie, who startled a little when they saw how hideous—and comical—the other teens had looked.
The group of terrorized teens didn't care that the others had recognized them. They pushed their way past the surprised teens and didn't stop screaming until they were almost home!
By the time Paulina and her crew had left, Danny finally returned to the hallway after hurriedly tracking where all the screaming had gone.
But he frowned in confusion when he saw his friends laughing.
"Good one, Danny!" Sam chuckled through her laughs.
"Yeah, dude, whatever you did, you outdid yourself! I've never seen such delicious terror on those losers' faces before!" Tucker chimed in.
Valerie added with a snicker, "And that was worth every bit of time we didn't find any ghosts!"
"Well, I really didn't do anything but fight a sheet!" the ghost boy sheepishly said. And he then told them what had happened.
"Aw, who cares how they got scared anyways?" Sam said after her boyfriend was through. "All I care is that it did happen!"
After a thought hit him, Tucker then said, "Gee, just why were they here in the first place? They couldn't have been here to ghost hunt, especially since everything is a bust for that anyways."
"Hmm, don't know why those creeps were here, Tuck," Danny began, musing about what had happened on the second floor just before he and Sam had rushed down here. "But I'm not sure that this mission is a total bust. Remember all that crashing we heard just before we came here, Sam?"
"Yeah! But maybe that was just a strange coincidence. Like the bed sheet," she replied, ending with a wry smile.
Danny smirked at her tease and wryly said, "Ha-ha. Maybe. But it could be something else. But since it's getting late, how about if I just do a quick search of the rest of the hospital? If I find something, I'll come and get you guys, okay?"
"Okay, buddy, but don't take too long. You know how we hate it when you keep us in too much suspense!" Tucker replied, tapping his PDA for emphasis.
Danny smiled and nodded just before he turned intangible and invisible, and soared upward.
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In all that while when Danny was 'rescuing' his friends and scaring the wits out of his adversaries, Ember and Skulker had made their way back up to the fourth floor.
Though irritated by what had happened below, the ghost couple knew it was best for them to take the 'stiff upper lip' approach to this whole thing and just hunker here for the rest of the duration—even when that infuriating little dweeb of a bow-tie-clad ghost kid wouldn't shut up!
But just when Ember thought she couldn't take Sydney Poindexter's blathering anymore, she gasped when that other aggravating ghost boy, Danny Phantom, suddenly rematerialized in front of her.
And just as Danny appeared, he glanced at the other ghosts, folded his arms over his chest and smugly asked, "Mind telling me why all of you are here?"
Ember growled before reflexively grabbing her guitar. But when she saw Danny immediately charge up his ghost energy and a ghost shield at the same time, she sighed and put it down.
That, of course, surprised Danny. He blinked in disbelief when he now saw that all the other ghosts—even Skulker—hadn't even taken an aggressive stance yet.
"Sooo," the Ghost Boy slowly began, trying to figure this out, "What gives?"
At first, none of the ghosts volunteered to speak. Instead, they were skittishly throwing nervous glances at each other.
Frowning this time with slight irritation when he noticed that, Danny then said, "Okay. I never liked charades! So, why don't you save yourselves the literal pain of being thrown back into the Ghost Zone and just spill it?"
"Uh, we can't go back to the Ghost Zone!" Sydney Poindexter blurted out before grasping his mouth with his hand when he realized his gaffe.
"Huh?" Danny asked in bewilderment.
But once again, the ghosts clammed up.
Danny frowned in more irritation.
"Okay, it's like this, dipstick…" Ember finally said when she saw his reaction, only to close one of her eyes in a wince when she saw Danny frown in even more irritation. She gulped a little and then continued. "What I mean, babypop, is that we had no choice in what happened. You see—and I hate to admit this—but even we ghosts do have some rules we have to follow."
"Yes, Ghost Child, believe it or not, there is some order in the Ghost Zone, even when it seems very chaotic," Skulker piped in.
"Yeah, I know that," Danny said, suddenly thinking about the annual Christmas truce. And then, another light bulb turned on in his head. "Tonight! Tonight is Halloween! And so, do you have some kind of truce for tonight like you do Christmas?"
But he only frowned in confusion when all the ghosts had shuddered when he had said 'Halloween'.
"Well, do you?" he continued to prod, narrowing his eyes with his query. "And what's wrong with Halloween?"
Once again, the ghosts jumped with their obvious jitteriness when he said the word again.
This time, Danny gave them an 'I-know-that-you-know' kind of glare, with an added flaring of his eyes to reflect his mounting annoyance.
"Okay. You don't have to bully us, Danny Phantom," Sydney Poindexter said. But when Danny's eyes flared a bit more with that insult, the fifties' ghost then gulped, "Uh, that's right! You're not a bully, and…"
"Oh, just get off it, will you?" Ember growled to the buck-toothed ghost.
"That is enough!" Skulker roared, and all the other ghosts—including Danny this time—jumped with his outburst. "We will not be able to bluff the Ghost Child anymore. It is way too late. So, I am just going to tell him everything!"
The other ghosts gulped but dared not disagree with the Ghost Hunter. After all, they all knew he could very easily track them all down later…
Everyone paused a moment before Skulker began…
"As you have noticed, we are in…fear…of this holiday you call…'Halloween'." The cyborg ghost resisted the urge to shiver again, but the other ghosts didn't and gasped as well.
Danny looked at them all in disbelief again, but still said, "Go on."
Skulker steeled himself and continued, "We hate this holiday and dread it more than any other time of the year."
"Why?" Danny couldn't help but blurt out.
"Because of what it means," Skulker answered. "It is the eve of the day that all the holies are honored. And so, on this night of all nights, all the natural—and man-made—portals between our worlds close at dusk. If a ghost is caught in the Real World at dusk, they cannot return to the Ghost Zone until the day after tomorrow when that day of celebrating all that is good has ended."
"So, what's wrong with that? All you have to do is…" Danny began.
"But that is not the whole story, Ghost Child!" Skulker interrupted him with a bit of irritation in his voice since the boy kept interrupting him!
Danny frowned but quieted.
Satisfied that the boy wouldn't interrupt him again, Skulker cleared his voice and continued, "But those ghosts who are unluckily caught in the Real World at dusk on Halloween have other problems with which to deal. They begin to lose more and more of their powers as midnight draws nigh. That is why we could not fight you when you appeared, since that it is nearly that time. We would not have stood a chance against you. And once midnight does strike, we lose all of our powers until that same time as the portals open again."
"But then, why do I have my,…" Danny began, only to be cut short by Skulker again. But this time, the cyborg ghost wasn't upset with the boy's interruption.
"I was getting to that, Ghost Child. Even though it is true you still have all of your powers now, you are also part human, which keeps you immune to these affects."
"Uh, I knew that!" Danny replied, blushing that he should have guessed that.
Skulker smirked, but then replied, "In any case, there is still more. We also must make every effort not to be seen by any human being at least for the duration of this night. Though we lose our powers nevertheless until the portals open, if a human being does see us before midnight, then we will lose all of our powers for an entire Real World year."
"And that is why we hide out in abandoned or old places like these scattered throughout any city or town," Sydney Poindexter finally braved to add.
"Yeah, and since most people imagine that these places are haunted for some reason, especially at Hallow—uh, tonight, most people leave us alone," Ember added with a smirk.
"So, you see, Ghost Child," Skulker continued, "These 'haunted houses' are like a 'safe house', a kind of haven, in which for us to hide until the portals open."
Ember then scowled and chimed in, "It's a good thing for us, too! I mean, do you have any idea how creepy all those kids are to us when they're in those icky costumes? We've never seen anything that scary in the Ghost Zone before! It scares the wits out of us!"
Danny chuckled a little before falling into his next thoughts. But then he asked, "Uh, I still have some more questions." He paused a bit. What he wanted to ask might anger the ghosts….But then again, they said he had the advantage right now. He finally added, "If all the ghosts hate this holiday so much, why do they even go near the Real World at this time? Why not just play it safe and stay in the Ghost Zone?"
Danny was right! Two of the ghosts suddenly looked angry. But, to the young hybrid's surprise, they turned to each other instead of him. And he—and the other ghosts—really weren't quite ready for their barrage.
"That is exactly what you said! You said it would be safe. And that it would not take long!" Skulker suddenly growled to Ember.
"But it was your fault that your stupid watch stopped!" she angrily countered back.
"And it was your fault that you insisted in going to all those places to find a few insipid things!" he yelled back. "Why could you not have gone to just one place and be through with it?"
Getting into his face, the rocker ghost's hair flared only a tiny bit as she seethed, "And for all that lame gear you have all over you, why didn't you make sure that your lame watch's battery didn't die?"
"I already apologized for that…and…and that is not the point!" the cyborg ghost shouted back. "And…."
Suddenly, an ectoplasmic blast shook the wall right next to the bickering ghosts. They turned to see wisps of ghostly green smoke still eking out of one of Danny's hands. He frowned a bit and then dryly remarked, "Do you get my point, now? What's this all about?"
Ember and Skulker shot angry glares back at each other before they turned and jolted a little when the young hybrid's eyes flared in annoyance. They then sighed at finally having the fury knocked out of them—even if that could have been literal had they continued!
Now a bit irritated that he would have to admit his stupidity in the matter, Skulker still managed to reply, "Usually, I do not accompany Ember on such matters. And she has done this for several years before I, uh, met her. I told her of my reservations when she asked me to go, but she assured me that it would not take that long. And as you can see, it certainly did take way too long because my watch stopped and we lost track of time. And we were, of course, trapped. By accident."
Danny opened his mouth to ask the obvious question.
But before he could, Ember suddenly added, "Yeah. But, darn it if I couldn't help myself! Why is it that the best sales of my favorite type of music videos and CDs only come out on this blasted holiday?"
"Females!" Skulker commented with a roll of his eyes.
But then, Danny chuckled, "Okay, I see how that could have happened. But that is about as crazy as those humans who go surfing to catch a big wave right before a powerful hurricane."
"Yeah, some of my best friends were once surfers," Ember admitted, before biting her lip on what that now meant.
Danny chuckled again, but then seeing that Ember and Skulker now had their fuses out, he turned to Sydney Poindexter and the dragon. He then quipped, "And what's your story?"
"Not as stupid as that one," the fifty's teen ghost dryly said. He jolted a bit when Ember and Skulker glared at him. "Uh, okay, I'm sorry! But, me and my friend's story is quite simple. We thought we were going to be late to her class reunion, which is nearly on the other side of the Ghost Zone. But, we both knew we could cut that distance by over half if we took a shortcut through the Real World. We didn't worry at all about being here too late because we were just going to go in and out—real quick like."
He paused a bit before frowning in apology at the dragon and continuing, "But, I, uh, kinda got started talking and we got a little distracted, and we didn't know that we must have slowed our flight much more than we had thought. And before we knew it, we found out that it wasn't going to be a real quick trip after all."
"Sounds like a pretty lame and dumb story to me!" Ember grumbled.
Danny sighed and said, "Come on, guys. It's very obvious that you all might have had some issues with judgment. So, let's just chill and let it go."
The ghosts nodded meekly before the other ghosts told all their stories on how they accidentally got stuck here.
After they were through, one of Danny's other questions pressed upon him, "So, finally, did you have anything to do with scaring those humans that came here before me and my friends arrived?"
"Yes…and no!" Ember admitted. "But they didn't see us."
"Uh, you did see that zombie girl!" Sydney Poindexter pointed out.
Ember gasped at the memory, the one when she and Paulina accidentally met eyes at the entrance to the kitchen in the old Warner house. That human did see her!
The rocker ghost finally whined, "But that didn't count, did it? I mean, they weren't trying to be human tonight. They were monsters!" She ended that with a very fretful face.
"Well, I wouldn't know about that," Danny said with a grin. "But at least I know for sure that you'll all behave while you're here. At least, for a little more than a day!"
He paused a moment before adding with a slightly threatening tone in his voice, "Right?"
Making sure that they would mollified the Ghost Boy, all the ghosts there threw up their hands in surrender and nodded nervously.
Danny smirked and then said, "Good. So, have a good night! And hopefully, we won't be seeing each other for quite a while!"
With that, the young hybrid promptly turned intangible and headed back to the first floor…and his friends.
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Danny was back with his friends in no time. And it was a good thing he had come when he did. He had stayed away for that 'far too long' thing about which Tucker had spoken. And even though Sam and Tucker had a feeling that Danny was okay; they were, nevertheless, about to go after him and call him on the Fenton phones—in that order.
Danny was quick to explain what happened, and his friends were both amazed and amused by his story. They all agreed that the ghosts should have known better and just stayed put in the Ghost Zone. And they all also hoped that they had learned their lessons—at least for now!
"Kinda disappointing and a relief at the same time, isn't it?" Danny finally remarked when they had quieted again.
"What do you mean, Danny?" Sam asked in bewilderment as Tucker and Valerie looked on.
"Well," he began, trying to squelch his smile. "It's a relief to know that all that scary stuff at the train station and Warner house was really caused by the ghosts trying to avoid us."
"No, it couldn't have been the ghosts," Sam insisted. "Your ghost sense wasn't activated."
"Oh, yeah, that's true," Danny added with a frown.
"Then what caused all of that?" Valerie asked.
The foursome fell silent for a moment.
But then, Sam asked, "And you said something about all of this being disappointing too, Danny. What is that supposed to mean?"
Danny answered her with a grin, "Here we were, hunting for what turned out to be non-existent haunted houses! It's kinda disappointing to find out that all that stuff I told you about explains the real reason why haunted house are, well, haunted!"
His friends groaned a little.
But then, Valerie said, "Maybe. But since we were positive that there were no ghosts when we were at those other places except here, maybe we just imagined all that scary stuff all along? Then, that would explain why haunted houses are, well, haunted!"
"No, I think Danny's right," Tucker piped in, not willing to admit that he let his imagination get the better of him during this whole thing. "It was the ghosts!"
"Okay, then," Sam added wryly, "Maybe a little of both, then, right?"
They all shrugged and then turning toward the entrance of the old, creepy abandoned hospital, they all headed for home.
The End
Thanks for reading! And, now, here's your chance, all you nameless readers. I'm sure you want to give me your e-thoughts, and be sure to know that I want to e-hear them!
So, put your thoughts down there! It's not that scary to do, you know!
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