Chapter 1
"I am the Box Ghost! BEWARE!" My best friend Danny rolled his eyes. "Sheesh. I'm going ghost!" Tucker and I watched as Danny kicked the Box Ghost's butt for about the thousandth time. I took in a deep breath of the night air. Then I suddenly started coughing hard.
Tucker took his eyes off Danny and turned to me, his brown eyes large with concern. "You okay?" I nodded briefly. "cough yeah cough. " Tucker didn't look convinced. Just then Danny sucked the Box Ghost into the Fenton Thermos and came flying down to meet us.
I was still coughing like an idiot. Danny raised an eyebrow as he turned back into his normal self. "Are you okay?"
"I'm FINE!" I shouted, but it came out more like a croak. Danny and Tucker exchanged looks. They shrugged and we kept on walking. We were all going to hang out at Danny's house for the night.
Halfway to Danny's house, I doubled over in another coughing fit. Danny and Tucker exchanged looks again, but this time they were worried looks. Danny reached over and put the back of his hand to my forehead.
"You're not okay, Sam, you have a fever. Maybe you should go home and get some rest." I nodded wordlessly. Now that he mentioned it, I really didn't feel that good.
We were about two blocks from my place when I started coughing a third time. This time it was worse then ever before. I sank to my knees. Suddenly the world swirled around me and then it was all black.
The first thing I felt was pain in my chest. Horrible pain, like someone was tying a string and pulling it tighter and tighter across my lungs. I slowly forced my eyes open. I was lying in a hospital bed. Danny was sitting beside one side of my bed, while Tucker was sitting on the other, wearing that look he always got when he was in a hospital. Tucker hates hospitals. My parents were sitting in plastic chairs at the other end of the room.
"What……happened?" I managed to gasp. It was hard to breathe, let alone talk. Danny looked at me with worried eyes. "You passed out on the way home, Sam. You were coughing. We knew something was wrong, so we brought you here."
"What's……..wrong……with…..me?" Tucker now turned to me. "The doctors say you have pneumonia, Sam. You're going to have to stay in the hospital for awhile."
As I was digesting this news, a nurse came in, pushing a wheelchair. "Miss Manson, meet your new roommate, Emily Link." In the wheelchair was a small girl who looked to maybe be ten or eleven. She had short brownish-blond hair, and hazel eyes.
But something seemed different about her. I couldn't put my finger on it, but she seemed….unusual. If only I had known just how unusual she was.