Chapter 4
Danny didn't want to be inside all day. He grabbed his bag and told Wendy he was gonna explore the woods for a while.
She nodded and went back to watching a guy in shorts and cowboy boots pick between a snow globe or a bobble head.
Danny went outside and made a bee line for the woods. When he was out of sight he changed into the Ghost Boy. He turned invisible and flew through the trees.
He was tempted to just leave. He was really going to do it. He flew up above the trees and looked around. He could see the town to his left. He flew over to it and turned back to a human. He walked into town and started walking to the sign Stan broke.
Danny was walking through the street when Dipper noticed him.
The twins pulled the cart over and hid.
"What now?" Mabel asked.
"He's here, in town. Where's he going?" Dipper crept to hide farther down the street so he could keep Danny in his sight.
Mabel followed but it was mostly because being a spy sounded like fun. She pulled out her grappling hook and played spy.
Dipper followed Danny to the corner pub. Danny stopped when Old Man McGucket came out and stopped him.
"What are you?" The coot yelled at Danny.
"What?"
McGucket screeched "Don't speak to me evil spirit!" He ran down an alley and scrambled over a fence.
Dipper wrote down what the crazy old man had said. Mabel sat down hard beside him. "What was that about?" She laughed.
Dipper looked back at Danny. He had looked at the people around him to get some kind of explanation. No one looked at him. They were used to McGucket's random outbursts. Danny looked confused but he kept walking.
The twins followed him to the sign Stan likes to drive through. When he got to this Danny turned and walked straight into the woods.
Dipper ran after with Mabel on his heels.
"What's he doing?"
"If I knew we wouldn't be following him." Dipper rolled his eyes.
Danny stopped suddenly and looked around.
There was a large rumbling sound an something that sounded like barking. A swirling green circle appeared in the air.
Danny pulled the thermos out of his backpack. He put a hand on the cover but he didn't seem to be scared at all, or even worried.
The twins watched as a giant green paw came out of the portal. It was followed by another one and then a huge dog's head appeared. It was green and glowey and was snarling and frothing at the mouth. When the dog was all the way through, the portal vanished.
Danny smiled, put the thermos back in the bag, and walked up to the beast.
"Hey there Cujo, why did you follow me?" He asked to the creature while scratching behind its ears.
The dog was a good foot taller than Danny. It looked around nervously and growled at nothing.
"What's wrong? You're still massive, are there others here? My ghost sense didn't go off." Danny looked confused as he tried to calm down the dog.
Dipper and Mabel were silently watching in fear as the dog's head turned and looked in their direction. It growled.
"Is someone there?" Danny called into the trees.
The twins looked at each other and decided to show themselves. They didn't want him to send the dog after them, the safest thing to do was to do what they were asked.
The dog barked and snarled when the kids came out from behind their hiding place. It started to lunge. The twins screamed.
"Whoa! Calm down, Cujo! They are friends! Friends! It's ok!" Danny jumped between the dog and the kids. It looked from him to them and whimpered.
"Why don't you stand guard, ok Cujo?" The dog perked up at that and started to walk around their clearing.
Dipper spoke up first. "What the hell was that?" He pointed where the portal had been.
Danny started to answer but Dipper cut him off.
"Wait, better question, are you possessed or something? And what did you mean when you said 'ghost sense'?"
"First of all, I am not possessed. And second, I can tell when ghosts are around." Danny said, trying to say as little as possible.
"I told you he wasn't possessed!" Mabel poked Dipper in the back.
Dipper pointed to the dog. "What's that?"
"My dog."
"That's a dog?" Mabel looked at it curiously.
"Yeah, you wanna pet him?" Danny whistled and Cujo sat next to him with his toung out.
Mabel squeed and ran to the dog. She started scratching its upper leg and it rolled so she could rub its tummy.
"Mabel, don't touch it!" Dipper said but didn't move any closer to her or the dog.
"Ok, you said you can tell when ghosts are around, how?"
"My parents study them, I guess I just picked up a feiw tricks." Danny shrugged.
"Do you help them hunt ghosts?"
"Kinda, I don't really-" Danny blinked and glared at Dipper. "How do you know my parents hunt ghosts? All I said was they studied them."
Dipper rubbed the back of his neck and coughed.
"He looked in your bag. Then researched you." Mabel said while rubbing Cujo's tummy.
Dipper glared at her but she didn't care. Danny did a quick check through his bag and noticed the pictures in his wallet were poking out.
"You looked in my wallet? When?"
"While you were in the bathroom. It was right there and wide open, my curiosity got the best of me, sorry." Dipper answered sheepishly.
Danny looked back to where the portal was. It worried him that Cujo had followed him there. It was even worse that the big green dog was still in guard and defend mode. Someone was scratching his tummy and he was still ready to attack.
Dipper looked at Danny and felt that something was off.
"You're hiding something. I don't know what but there's something you didn't tell us. What is it?"
Danny looked between the twins and sighed. "Are you two good at keeping secrets?"
They nodded.
Danny sighed. He didn't know if he could believe them or not. Cujo seemed to like them, but that just means they aren't dangerous.
"First I need one major secret from each of you."
Mabel tilted her head. "I don't think I have any secrets. Just ones about Dipper but I can't tell you those, they're not mine to tell." She sat with her back against Cujo's belly while she tried to think.
Dipper sighed and pulled the book out of his inside vest pocket.
"My secret is this book. It has facts about this town that no one else knows. I found it my second day here. We've seen and done so many things I wouldn't have believed before coming here." He handed the book to Danny. "Everything in it is true."
Danny flipped through some of the pages, most had been scribbled on and rewritten. Every page had spots of code. The things in the book were things you would only see in movies.
Dipper sighed. "You don't believe me, do you?"
"I've seen some weird stuff, most of it I was able to get past, but this stuff is too weird to believe without proof."
"I'll show you proof later, now tell me what you were trying to hide." Dipper glared at Danny and refused to look away.
"Ok, you might want to squint, this is gonna be bright." Danny took a step back and took a deep breath.
The twins shared a confused look but it didn't last long. Danny flew into the air so he was about six feet off the ground then he started the transformation into Danny Phantom.
