Cassiopeia: The Arrogant Queen

Chapter 4

Maddie licked her lips which had gone dry from the cool air. A hallway, bleak, run down, and dreary yawned in front of her. Twisted metal cages that had once held fluorescent light bulbs lined the ceiling like the teeth of a crocodile's mouth. Thick snow fall blanketed the flooring in about of foot of powder, and ice crept upwards along the wall. The building creaked and groaned at the abusive weathering, threatening to collapse.

The light orange glow of Maddie's suit reflected and played among the prisms in the ice. Even though her glow was naturally dim, just watching the light dance in the bright snow made her feel stronger. Like she was the warm winter sun rising over a deserted arctic hell.

Since watching Spectra make her leave, Maddie just felt inexplicably better. Her mind didn't feel so sluggish and trapped, and her body felt a little bit lighter. Confidence surged from somewhere misplaced as she sized up her next job.

Find Danny.

Motherly instincts raged inside her like a stoked tornado of fire. Thankfully, the destruction that allowed her to escape the cell didn't just stop at her. Nearly every other door had been either knocked over or severely weakened. Only the furthest doors from the cold snap remained untouched.

Unfortunately, among the doors that were still up were the two that Maddie assumed to be the exit.

Doesn't matter. Just gotta worry about finding Danny now. I'll figure out how to leave later.

She made it to the first door on her right. It took a couple of shoves, but it came loose rather easily. She peered inside only to find dilapidated lounge furniture and a row of beds.

Not here.

She crossed to the next door. This one was actually completely removed from its frame and pressed against the far wall of the room. The room itself was similarly furnished as the other one was, but had suffered a little more trauma from the ice.

Not here either.

Her hand hovered just outside another door, when Maddie suddenly paused. She looked herself up and down with a frustrated scowl. Orange gloves. Orange boots. Orange jumpsuit. Her eyes were still red, no doubt.

Even if I find him, he won't trust me enough to leave with me.

She cursed her rotten luck, and desperately tried to remember how to return to her normal self. She breathed in. Breathed out. Focused on… warmth? Humanity? Not being a ghost? But no dice. She didn't get so much as a flicker of anything.

Useless stupid ring.

She cursed out loud while continuing to open every door she came across. A sense of urgency was compelling her forward, despite her current appearance.

If Danny won't leave with me, then I'll just have to force him.

At the last door, Maddie had to come to a conclusion that she didn't want to make. Danny was not in any of the rooms. He was either locked up with whatever ghost destroyed the place, or he was in an entirely different wing.

A brief survey of the doors labeled 'exit' yielded padlocks. They didn't even have the decency to be on her side of the door. She tried to peer through the small, rectangular windows, but couldn't see far because her glow painted her reflection over the glass. All she could make out was some sort of semi-outdoor courtyard.

Quickly turning away, she spared herself the mercy of having to see her own face again. It was still too raw in her mind. Associating herself with this new appearance was not something she wanted to tackle today.

That left her with one last option. She had to investigate the last room in the wing. She stared at the snow and ice that had overflowed into the hallway from the room. The green lightening and strobing had long since stopped, and all signs of spectral activity had waned to near nonexistant.

Maddie swallowed hard. She was a Fenton! A world renowned ghost hunter. One measly, sedated, and restrained ghost did not scare her.

She forced her feet to stomp towards the doorway, but stopped just short of its threshold. With her thumbs, she wiped the frozen condensation from her goggles and fiddled with the mouth of one her gloves.

Now or never.

Without giving herself the chance for any second guesses, she poked her head around the corner. Large curtains of ice and spikes greeted her. Black ectoplasm was frozen into slick, alien structures, obscuring anything that may lurk within the dark recesses of the room.

She could make just barely make out the vague shape of Spectra's arm as it hung suspended in a pair of gigantic ice scissors whose blades sprouted from the floor like some kind of morbid modern art installation. Upon closer inspection, she could see an empty syringe bottle frozen to her fingertips.

In a last ditch effort to avoid going into what was obviously a death trap, Maddie whispered Danny's name into the room. Of course, there was no answer, so Maddie had to investigate it first hand anyway.

Maybe… maybe whoever is in there knows where he is.

She took a quick, bold step into the thick blanket of snow, and immediately regretted it. Her foot sank at least a foot and a half. The ice flows quivered as though they were aware of her presence, and the snow shifted uneasily beneath the rubber soles of her boots. Her heart slammed into her throat when something growled softly at her from out of sight.

Accepting the warning, she backed away slowly and did the only thing she could think of. "H-hello?" Her voice cracked from either exhaustion or fear, or maybe a combination of the two. If she could just make contact with whatever this was, maybe it would understand that she wasn't here to hurt it. "I'm not here to hurt you…"

Whatever it was didn't respond though, perhaps too laiden with whatever sedative Spectra had administered to properly react.

She waited with baited breath, but nothing happened so she decided to try again. This time, though, she very carefully stepped into the snow instead of just trying to walk through it normally. "I'm coming in," she warned in as gentle a voice as she could muster. The snow crunched and gave way, letting her foot sink into its cold embrace, but otherwise showed no sign of movement.

Maddie accepted this as an invitation, and took her second step into the room. Then her third, and her fourth. She rounded several walls of ice and the scissors until she was somewhere in the center of the room. Though it was dark, her glow helped her navigate the perilous blades of ice that seemed to randomly protrude from the floor and walls.

But the room was otherwise empty.

That can't be right.

She stepped a little bit further and her foot brushed against something that was hidden beneath the snow. She jumped back in surprise, somehow just narrowly avoiding getting impaled by a smattering of spikes that were resting behind her.

Carefully, she reached out with her foot again, letting it search through the blanket of white. The more snow she turned up, the more ectoplasm she found. Green and red mared the purity of the landscape with its taint. Eventually, her foot came in contact with something substantial, but unmoving.

Maddie groaned inwardly.

Of course the ghost would be buried. Why would my day go any different?

Slowly at first, Maddie began to shovel the snow away with her hands with increasing vigor. Her fingers and toes ached with cold, and her nose began to run. She was grateful that her goggles shielded her eyes from the harsh environment.

Whoever this is better appreciate what I'm doing.

Her hands brushed against something metal. She traced it with her fingers to find what she thought might be the ghost's hands. She pushed aside a mountain of snow, revealing black. At first, she thought it was another frozen pool of Spectra, but upon closer inspection, it was a rubbery material, same as her own suit.

Her heart skipped a beat.

Phantom?

She pulled on the black suit, and his arm came free from its cold tomb. His fist was closed, and the shackle bangled loose around his wrist.

White glove. Black sleeve. This is Phantom! Had he always been capable of this much destruction?

Maddie dropped the arm as though she had been burned. Phantom had hunted her not once, but twice now! And he threatened her family. Not only that, but he was also incredibly destructive if the current state of his cell was anything to go by. He was far too dangerous to set free...

But then again, she really had no choice. Not only did she not know where Danny was, she couldn't even open any doors. She sighed heavily.

You had better really appreciate this, Phantom.

After what felt like something close to half an hour, Maddie had managed to not only unearth Phantom, but also break the chains that were pinning him in place. She hoisted his frozen form over her shoulder and pulled him into the hallway where it was a little warmer and less booby trapped.

From one of the rooms she had managed to open, some sort of old office, Maddie tore apart an old, rotting wooden desk. This was, thankfully, the old office of someone who smoked, so matches were plentiful. Ignoring general safety rules like, 'don't start fires in old buildings,' Maddie struck up a warm and welcoming fire in the old building, hoping that the smoke wouldn't suffocate her before Phantom woke up.

She pulled Phantom by his armpits and dragged him into the office next to the fire. It was strange how corporeal he was. Most ghosts were more… gooey when they were unconscious. Phantom, however, felt as solid as flesh and bone.

The fire shed warm, mobile light over his features, and Maddie was nearly appalled at the sheer extent of damage that Phantom had taken. Only nearly though. He was, after all, just a ghost.

His face was bruised and swollen. Patches of 'skin' were missing, almost as though it had been been deliberately shaved away in places. Old scratch marks flayed the false flesh of his abdomen with green and red scabs. But the worst thing was the arm that she had shot the other night.

The skin around it was dark and, if she didn't know any better, she'd say it was necrotic. Green continuously oozed from not only the wound, but also the cracks that had formed in the brittle skin around it. The stench of rot hung heavily in the air.

Strange. The old claw marks should have at least healed already. Maybe something to do with whatever they doped him up with.

Then, another thought hit her.

If he did that to Spectra for locking him up, then what would he do to me for shooting him?

Her stomach squirmed uneasily as fantasies of Phantom going berserk the moment he woke up swarmed in her skull. This was a risk she'd have to take. She'd do anything to find her Danny.

She propped his head up on some old medical books she found, and straightened out his back and legs. Maybe, if she played her cards right, she could appease Phantom enough to have him help her.

It was a long shot, but it was a shot at least.

And then, the waiting game began.

It would have been easier if she weren't in what she now recognized as some creepy abandoned hospital, but that's where she was. The building groaned, and the fire cast eerie shadows that danced on the wall. The melting ice made strange and echoey cracking noises that she kept mistaking for footsteps.

I couldn't have been trapped in someplace nice, now could I? No, that would have been too easy.

She busied herself by removing the cold shackles that still rattled around her wrists and ankles. With a little bit of force, the metal begrudgingly gave beneath her insistent struggling. She relaxed and let the blissful silence envelope her. No chains, no creepy rattling noises.

Then, she nearly jumped out of her own skin when Phantom made his first stir. It wasn't much, but Phantom rolled to his side and curled into a ball. Shivers wracked his form, and small breaths, similar to snores, hissed between clattering teeth.

Maddie blinked incredulously.

Is Phantom seriously cold? Wasn't he the one who caused all of this ice in the first place?

Nevertheless, Maddie obliged Phantom by pulling him closer to the fire. He didn't really react to being touched, but once brought close to the warmth, he sighed and unfurled a little bit. Maddie rolled her eyes in irritation.

Of course the ghost that can freeze entire buildings is cold. What else would make sense?

Once he had warmed up (and the fire had become increasingly unsettling), Maddie set about trying to wake the volatile ghost. "Phantom," she whispered as she lightly shook his shoulder. He grumbled, waved his hand, but didn't wake. Maddie set her jaw stubbornly, and slapped him lightly on the cheek.

The reaction was instant. Phantom's aura nearly exploded with intensity as his eyes shot open. His glare was imbued with such incredible, perverse, and awe-inspiring rage that Maddie could hardly move. As quick as lightning, Phantom whipped around and aimed an ectoplasmically charged fist at her face. "You-" he roared, but suddenly froze when he got a face full of Maddie's orange outfit.

This is it. I'm gonna die.

His mouth closed, opened, then closed again. The impossibly bright aura around him crackled and faded until it had faded into nothing. His eyebrows looked like they were doing a rather impressive impression of her late grandmother's knitting needles. "You- you- you-," he stuttered as he tried to regain his bearings. "You're not Spectra!"

Maddie winced. After being submerged in near silence for as long as she had and flinching at every pin drop, Phantom's loud, slurred voice was grating and nerve wracking.

He looked around, appearing more and more docile by the second. His gaze took on the look of a thousand yard stare, and his body gradually grew more limp. He was still quite sedated, Maddie realized.

He hasn't killed me yet. I can work with this.

His stare finally fixated on the fire that crackled lightly in front of him. "It's cold in here," he observed. Maddie slumped, grateful that Phantom hadn't gone ballistic like he did earlier. "There's a ghost nearby." His breath misted in front of him as he warmed himself by the fire.

Now it was Maddie's turn to be confused. Apart from Phantom, there was no other ghost, unless you counted the ice cube that used to be Spectra's assistant that was still defrosting in the hallway. He must be really out of it.

He snuffled loudly, set something on the floor, and pulled his gloves off, letting the fire warm his fingers. "There's a ghost nearby. It's cold," he repeated to himself. His head began to sag, and his eyes fluttered shut. His hands fell to the floor softly. "Cold."

Maddie watched Phantom fall back asleep, before mentally slapping herself. She needed him awake enough to navigate, so she gently shook his shoulder again. Slapping him was apparently a no-no.

He stirred tiredly, then jumped when he breathed another burst of cold air. "Ghost!" he yelled, or what would count as yelling in his current inebriated state. He turned and met Maddie's red gaze with his own. Both of his eyes were so dilated, that only the smallest sliver of green could be seen bordering his pupils.

Then, as though some kind of support had been suddenly removed, he slumped against her drunkenly. Surprised and more than a little bit uncomfortable, Maddie immediately began to worm underneath his dead weight. "Phantom!" she protested, "Get off of me."

But he just looked up at her from her lap with a vacant stare. Then, he pointed a finger so close to her nose that Maddie went cock-eyed. "You're not Spectra," he grunted.

"No, I'm not," Maddie agreed as she tried to shove him off of her. He was so limp, though, that he just kept sagging right back and in increasingly awkward positions.

"Ghost," he whispered. "Cold." He shivered and his breath misted again.

What is he saying? Is he calling me a ghost? No. That couldn't be.

Maddie's lips pressed into a thin, hard line. "Phantom," she said, trying her best to sound patient when she really wasn't, "I need you to focus."

Phantom's eyes had already closed again, but by some miracle, he hadn't fallen back to sleep. "Focus?" he repeated.

"Yes! Focus!" Maddie exclaimed. "I need you to focus." She pushed him back into a sitting position, but had to keep an arm extended to support him.

His head lolled at the motion, and his eyes cracked open. "Focus… focus…" He repeated the word to himself like it was a holy mantra. He really was battling whatever drug it was as hard as he could.

Good. This is progress.

Then, he sat bolt upright. "Mom!" he yelped as he scooped whatever he was holding before back off the ground.

And now we're regressing. Great.

Maddie cautiously watched Phantom as he struggled with his legs. It took more than a few tries, but he managed to organize his limbs enough to stand. His gloves remained forgotten on the floor, and it was strange to see Phantom without them. "Gotta-" he started as he fell flat on his face. "Ow…" he groaned.

Maddie scowled and scooted over close to him so that she could roll him onto his back. He was breathing harshly, not that it mattered. Something was clutched tightly in his good hand. "My mom…" he whimpered between breaths. His eyes were screwed shut as he fought for control of his body.

Curiosity peaked, Maddie moved to grab whatever it was the Phantom was holding, but he grumbled at her moodily and pulled his hand closer to his chest."Mine!" he declared.

I don't have time for this. He's acting like a five year-old.

"Just let me see it!" Maddie demanded in a strict voice.

Phantom's eyes roamed her face, searching for something. Whatever it was, he must have found it, because he smiled the infamous crooked smile that made his fans melt. To Maddie, however, that smile was the bane of her existence. It made her want to puke.

"My mom…" he slurred, "Spectra has her." He shuddered and more cool mist flew from his mouth. "Ghost near." He looked quizzically at her. "Ghost?"

Maddie groaned in impatient frustration. "Do I look like a ghost to you?" she quipped. Phantom opened his mouth to reply, but Maddie beat him to it. "I am not a ghost."

Phantom seemed skeptical at first, but appeared to accept her explanation for the time being. "Okay." Another puff of breath. "Ghost is close, though. Dangerous. Cold." He took a moment, his eyes screwing shut as he slowed his rapid breathing. Slowly, his fist uncurled revealing a red lock of hair. "Mom's," he explained. "Spectra hurt her."

Maddie nearly collapsed at the sight of it.

That is my hair!

She snatched it from Phantom's open hand, ignoring his protests. Her eyes narrowed to slits as she studied the specimen.

She didn't give Danny my hair. Danny was never here. Spectra fed us both lies.

She held it inches from Phantom's face as she all but yelled, "Phantom, look! This is my hair! Your mom is not here!"

Phantom's features grew more and more confused. "Not here?" he asked.

"Yes!" With her son's safety confirmed, Maddie felt less urgent than she did before. She still wanted to escape of course, but she didn't feel like she needed to tear the building apart brick by brick anymore.

"But Spectra-" His face contorted with strenuous thought before his eyes snapped open in understanding. "Spectra lied!" he shouted. Then, he looked confused again. "Spectra never lies."

Maddie rolled her eyes. "All ghosts do is lie," she informed Phantom matter of factly. He appeared to just accept this detail without much thought, exhaustion and drugs obviously dulling his metal processes. In fact, Maddie was beginning to doubt that he even recognized her at all.

He laid on the floor for a moment longer, supposedly contemplating Spectra's lies. His chest rose with shaky breaths, and he was beginning to curl in to himself again. "My mom's not here?" he asked again.

"No," Maddie snapped. Her insides boiled with rage, but having no one to take it out on, she swallowed it to the best of her ability. Luckily, Phantom was already dozing off again so he didn't take offense to her tone.

Just gotta focus on getting out of here.

Ignoring the panicky feeling in her gut that told her to avoid Phantom like the nuclear bomb he was, she moved to shake his shoulder for the third time that day. This time, he roused rather easily, blinking the sleep from his eyes like he wasn't some sort of overpowered freak.

"Sleepy," he slurred, grumpily brushing her offending hand away. He pulled himself into a seated position and stared vacantly at nothing. His lack of aura was unnerving. So long as he was facing away from her, he looked almost human. It was nauseating.

Why does he, a ghost, get to look human when I don't!?

Her stomach churned, and she was beginning to feel the effects of dehydration and starvation. Her head ached something awful, and she absolutely did not have the patience to deal with a drunk, albeit not by choice, Phantom.

Not to mention that her fire, though probably necessary, was really beginning to fill the office with smoke and other fire related hazards. Even Phantom, with his current inebriation, was starting to notice and wave smoke from his face.

For reasons unknown, Phantom suddenly smirked lazily. He pointed a palm at the smoldering remains of a desk leg and blasted it with ice. Then, for the second time since he woke up, he made direct eye contact with Maddie, face taut and serious. "Only you can prevent wildfires," he said, before breaking into peels of laughter as though he just told the world's funniest joke.

He stood up, fell, and stood up again. His legs swayed beneath his weight, threatening to buckle from underneath him a third time. His green eyes, eerily vacant and dilated, watched her expectantly. He appeared far too at ease with his broken body than Maddie was strictly comfortable with.

I really really cannot believe I'm about to do this.

Phantom's lazy smile grew when she stood up as well and began to pick her way over. The old floor was wet and slippery thanks to the melting snow, so Maddie had to choose her footholds wisely. Without the fire, she had to rely solely on her faint glow to light the way, but even that wasn't really enough light.

She neared him cautiously, not willing to get herself blasted with ice as well. Just because Phantom wasn't acting hostile, it certainly didn't mean that he wouldn't turn on her the first chance he got. If anything, he had already proved that he was not adverse to attacking her, even when she thought she was safe in her own home.

She stopped at what she thought was a respectful distance, not quite ready to interact with a mobile Phantom, but he was having none of that. He quickly closed the distance between them and threw an arm around her shoulder. His good arm, she noted. The bad one appeared to have some limited movement. He didn't keep it completely limp, but he didn't wave it around as much as he did the other.

Maddie inadvertently shivered at the foreign contact. She never found ghosts to be particularly pleasant creatures to be around, but actual willing physical contact was horrid. His aura, though incredibly dim to the point of almost nothing, was crackling with just enough static electricity to put the hairs of her nape on edge. Not to mention that weird, unnerving feeling of terror that accompanied the undead in general.

Phantom had nearly the same reaction. He shivered and puffed out more of that curious mist. He gave her a suspicious side eye, but said nothing for which Maddie was thankful. She'd deal with whatever she was when she was damn ready. And quite frankly, she was not ready now.

"Are you ready to go?" she prompted Phantom. He gave her a hazy look as his legs finally gave way. Maddie scrambled to pull him back up, and he ended up resting his weight, which was rather impressive given that he was a ghost, over her shoulder.

"Yeah," he breathed. "I wanna go home."

A/N: And another chapter bites the dust. Happier with this one than I was the last one. I think it feels more... polished I guess. In hindsight, I probably should have cut the last chapter in half and added some more juice, but whats done is done. If I fall into the cycle of knit picking, then I'd never post anything, so I'm trying my best to avoid that.

Anyway, yay! Danny is free too and has reunited with his mom (kinda). These two are so dense and like-minded that I can't imagine either of them figuring out the other in any sort of timely manner, so expect frustrating dramatic irony as they chase each other in circles.

As always, feedback is always appreciated. I'm new to writing, so any pointers or critiques are very useful.

Thank you for reading :)