Chapter four
New identity
I did have my curiosity about the portal and the world beyond, but I steered clear. I couldn't fly, what if the ghost zone required flight? If ghosts can fly, maybe the place did not have floors. Maybe it was suspended in mid air.
They began working on a different invention they called the Fenton Thermos. It was supposed to trap ghosts from what Mom told me. How that would work when ghosts were not common here in Amity Park? I could not say. Maybe we were moving to New York to catch ghosts.
The next day, Tucker, Sam and I went to the Nasty Burger for something to eat after school. I told them everything about the ghost portal and the Fenton Thermos that they were now building. Naturally Sam and Tucker wanted to show them the portal. So we went to my house and checked for Mom and Dad. They were not home, Jazz was. We left her in the living room to read as we went downstairs. I pointed to the portal.
"There it is." I said. "Wow!"
"They say it doesn't work. I suspect that its just turned off."
"Let's go check it out!" exclaimed Sam. I was reluctant. I had a funny feeling about the portal. Not the kind that something aweful would happen, more like something strange would happen.
"Go get a camera! I wanna take pictures!" Said Sam. I went to get Dads old camera and gave it to her to use.
She took a few photos of the equipment.
"Go get a hazmat suit and stand by the portal."
I went to the closet and searched. All the orange and black hazmat suits were too big. Moms, the teal and black ones were not my size either. I found a white one with black gloves, boots, collar and belt. It had Dads face on the chest. I walked to the portal and stood at the entrance holding the suit. She took a photo. The flash blinded me for a few seconds and I blinked.
"Ok, I showed you the portal, can we get out of here now? My parents could be here any minute, besides they say it doesn't work anyway."
Sam approached the portal and gazed inside.
"Cmon Danny, ghost zone? Arent you curious? You gotta check it out."
"You know what? Your right. Who knows what awesome super cool things exist on the other side of that portal."
I put on the hazmat suit. I was about to go in.
"Hang on!" I paused and Sam removed the Jack Fenton sticker from the suit.
"You cant go walking arouond with that on your chest."
I went into the portal. I approached the on and off buttons. Here goes! I thought and hit the on button. A few sparks flew from the inner wall. A second later the portal was lit up with a blinding white light. I felt high voltage electricity flow through me. It was intense pain, and I began to scream. I wanted to run out of the portal to safety, but I couldn't move. The painful electricity held me in place. It lasted only for a few seconds but it felt like much longer. When the flow of electricity stopped, my eyes closed and I felt how I fell backwards.
When I woke up, I noticed that the emergency back up lights were on. Tucker and Sam were kneeling next to me looking worried. The electricity tingled painfully in my muscles and I didn't move.
"Are you ok?" Asked Sam sounding desperate. I just looked at her, feeling as any movement would hurt. I didn't reply but shut my eyes tight. It took a few minutes before I remembered what had happened. The portal, there had been an explosion of electricity and ectoplasmic energy. I sat up.
"You had better go check yourself out in the mirror dude." Said Tucker.
"What?" I asked nervously. Did I lose my face in that accident? I thought nervously. Afraid to try to touch my face, I hurried to the mirror, dreading what I would see.
I peered into the mirror. My hair was snow white. My eyes were glowing green. My face didn't seem to have taken harm.
"Guys, why is my hair white? Why are my eye green? What happened to the hazmat suit?" The black and white had switched places. The previously white fields were black and the previously black fields were now white. Sam and Tucker approached. Sam studied me.
"And how do I go back to normal?"
Sam gave it some thought.
"I think you became a ghost." "WHAT!?" I stared at Sam, then at my reflection.
"I'm dead?!" Sam put a hand on my arm. She concentrated. "No. You survived. Youre warm."
"It takes a while for a dead body to lose body heat."
"Tucker, your'e not helping! Why don't you go get something… from the kitchen."
"Ok." Tucker hurried up the stairs.
"Besides, how would you still be in your body if your dead?"
"I-I-I don't know!" She looked at me and thought about the situation. She gasped and went back out to the portal.
"Danny! I know how you survived that!" I hurried to her side.
"120 volts is enough to fry human, but you survived!"
"Yeah?" I replied looking at the gloves that were supposed to be black.
"You survived because of the ectoplasmic energy! Instead of dying, you became a ghost! A living ghost!"
"What!" She took my wrist and felt for a pulse.
"You have a heart beat." She sand and smiled.
"However what if there was no ectoplasmic energy?"
"I'd be dead?"
"Probably." Tucker came back with drinks. Sam told him her theory.
"Yeah that is why Danny is ok. I know how accidents happen, so I made sure that any electricity that the ghost portal uses is combined with ectoplasm." She looked at Tucker her eyes wide as saucers.
A few seconds later we heard footsteps in the stairs.
"Go human!" Said Sam.
"How?! I'm a ghost!" She could not answer the question. I panicked as I wished I had never entered the portal. I wanted to be back to normal. Suddenly a ring the size of a hoola hoop formed at my waist. I gasped as it split into two and they began to travel in opposite directions. I sheilded my face with my arms as one of them traveled up. A few seconds later Mom and Dad came down into the basement.
I looked up at them hoping they would not notice the strange changes that had happened to me. I was unrealistic that they would not notice, but what else was there to do?
"What happened?"
"Uh, the portal works?" Said Sam. As the others gazed at the portal, I gazed down at my feet and was surprised at that my outfit was back to normal. I hoped that my eyes were blue and my hair was black again. But they probably were as my parents did not say anything about appearances. I glanced at the portal to see why Sam had said that it works. Instead of seeing an empty 12 foot long tunnel, I saw a swirling green vortex. It seemed it had its own light as it lit up part of the basement.
"I knew we had it working!" Exclaimed Jack.
My friends and I hurried back to my room. I went to my bathroom and checked my appearance. I looked like normal.
"I dunno about this, its so strange!"
"It makes you unique."
"I know." I sighed. I looked at my friends and suddenly I began to sink into the floor. I looked down. My legs had gone transparent! Intangible!
"WHOA!" Sam grabbed my arms and pulled me out of the floor.
Over the next few days, Sam seemed a little more interested in me than before and I did like the attention. I decided to keep my ghost powers a secret for now. Also I was unsure how to tell Mom and Dad who were ghost hunters to begin with.
