**Chapter 2 – The Ghoul**
Toby jumped awake at the sounds of a faint scream, bolting out of bed he pulled open the curtains and looked out into the night, but frowned when he perceived no obvious signs of …anything really, which was odd.
'Probably just another ghost' he sighed and turned back to his now messy bed.
When he'd become an Exorcist he'd assumed he'd see more action than this –not that he was eager too- he just thought that considering there supposedly millions of Akuma and comparably few Exorcists that his job would be a lot more life threatening then it was, after all the other Exorcists went on and on about how it wasn't uncommon to but sent on a mission at least once a week, but Toby had found his reality was much quieter.
'Especially after getting stationed into this weird town' he thought, he'd been sent here to monitor (because the American Branch never had enough finders at its disposal), the strange creatures that the town called 'ghosts' since it was obvious that they weren't Akuma his superiors had told him to stay and try to learn more just in case, although he hadn't been able to discover much about them other than the knowledge that these 'ghosts' -though dangerous and mischievous- clearly lacked much of the evil that the Akuma embodied, although the local ghost hunters that insisted that the 'ghosts' were bad enough in their willful fighting and the regular destruction they caused around the town.
Still… Toby had trouble finding fear in such obviously sentient beings, although that probably had a lot to do with the fact that, although people here were sometimes injured by the 'ghosts' no one had ever been killed by one, that and the 'ghost boy' that regularly saved others from his follow 'ghosts' and fought said 'ghosts' in a way that showed that he was obviously different and or alienated by them, though the ghost hunters just seemed to hate him all the more.
He was just about to climb back into bed when another scream rang out this one infinitely louder in a soul deep way and he turned back to the window in time to see a great beam of green light shine out from the forest behind the cemetery.
'That can't be the 'ghosts' they avoid the cemetery of all places' he thought to himself before pulling on his Exorcist's uniform and grabbing the flexible longbow that his innocence took the form of, before dashing from the room, down the stairs and out of the house.
As Toby ran across the empty street and through the cemetery towards the most recent grave, that of one Madeline Fenton the wife of a well known local ghost hunter, but Toby was quick to run on towards the forest in the calm birdsong of the winter morning, his only thought was 'shit, shit, shit! If this is an Akuma I'm so not prepared for this!' he jumped the fence at the back of the cemetery and ran full pelt into the darkness of the woods.
The scene that presented Toby when he reached the clearing in the center of the woods was one that would join the small horrific set of memories and mental images that would haunt the backs of his eyelids 'til the end of his days.
Directly in front of him floated the ghost boy in all his black-clothed white-haired glowing glory, but Phantom hadn't noticed him yet as he was obviously too busy fighting to protect a young woman that Toby recognized as the daughter of the Fenton's and then noticed Mr. Fenton himself lying on the ground behind a boulder on the other side of the clearing starring at both the ghost boy and the Akuma with confusion, horror and morbid curiosity echoed into his usually jolly features.
Toby took all this in, within an instant before turning his attention on the Akuma, and a strange one it was too; Toby himself hadn't seen a great many Akuma in his 23 years of life (4 of those years as a trained Exorcist) but he knew instinctively this wasn't like anything that had been run across by any of the other Exorcists' that he knew, no… this mutated thing looked like what would happen if you took an Akuma and squashed it into a blender (or meat-grinder) with a ghost and watched what came out.
No… this if possible was worse than anything he'd heard of, because at least the normal Akuma had the decency to look sort of demonic and other, this horrible double height humanoid form, with its two horns of black hair and long cape-like white and red dragonfly wings, blue and magenta marbled skin, glowing red lid-to-lid eyes, and the pearly iridescence that Toby had come to associate with the more powerful ghosts.
"Magnificent isn't he? " a voice exclaimed from a nearby stump and Toby and ghost boy's eyes darted to the form of Millennium Earl, sitting merrily on the stump waving his umbrella around much to the pumpkin on its tips' nausea,
"Who are you? You're not a ghost?" the ghost boy shouted, obviously feeling very much out of his depth,
"Ah who I am is of no consequence to you little spirit, you are beyond my reach, -for now- but the Exorcist hiding in the bushes knows me as the Earl of Millennium " the Earl exclaimed, the ghost boy and the young woman jumped, than tried unsuccessfully to look around into the bushes and keep their eyes on the Akuma/ghost thing and the Earl, Mr. Fenton lying behind his boulder (obviously forgotten) just looked on in rage.
Seeing his cover blown anyway, Toby stepped out of the shadowy forest and into the moon and ghost-glow lit clearing.
"What do you want Earl?" Toby yelled in what he hoped was his most confident voice, striding forward to stand next to the the girl and the ghost boy.
"Why would I want anything now? I've got more than what I came for, I came for a simple Akuma and well can't you see? I've got some far more interesting, an Akuma/ghost hybrid, in fact I think I'll call him a ghoul it has a nice ring to it does it not? " the Earl prattled on, hopping down from his stump and trotting over to the newly named 'ghoul' and patting it on the wing.
"Well I'll be seeing you, goodbye! " the Earl called as he and the 'ghoul' disappeared.
"Thank god they're gone" Toby sighed, as three deflated, the immediate threats gone, Mr. Fenton scrambled up from his prone position and dashed forward to them scooping Jazz up into a hug, he then look slightly sheepish when he let go and starred at the ghost boy.
"Danny? Is it really you?" he near whispered, the ghost boy looked terrified, before rushing to hug the aging ghost hunter.
"Oh dad, I was afraid to tell you! I was afraid that…" The ghost boy sobbed,
"Afraid of your mother and I and our profession, huh? Oh Danny we'd never have hurt you, son no matter what you've become, though how… you hid something as big as… death! From us is… Anyway I'm sure you had your reasons…" Mr. Fenton said as what was obviously both his children hugged him, confusing Toby massively, but he shook himself of it 'not my problem!' he thought and turned his mind to the strange 'ghoul' creature and the Akuma.
"And you are, sir?" he blinked realising that the three Fenton's were looking inquiringly at him,
"Oh! Hello I'm Toby, Mr. Fenton!" he said holding out his hand,
"Call my Jack, Toby" Jack said with shades of his usual jovial self returning with the familiar social formality.
"And we're Danny and Jazz" the Fenton kids added, the four than left the area and headed by agreement to Toby's small apartment due to its' nearness, the ghost boy's (Danny's Toby told himself) ghostly glow lighting their way back through the now brighter but still dark early morning forest.
**End**