PREVIOUSLY on Haunted Legacies
Sam, unsure about how much she can love Danielle Fenton the girl, leaves Dani's life to do some serious personal reflection and soul-searching. Dani, meanwhile, runs once again into the mysterious woman from the cemetery who turns out to be Athena, the head of a cult-like group who seems to able to tap into real magical powers, which allow Dani to learn the locations of the four lost Reality Gems and flee the crazed group. Jazz and Star share a quiet night alone with a baby, a movie, and a box of pizza, while the hunt for the life-saving cure to Dani's molecular degeneration continues down in the Fenton Works basement.
Haunted Legacies Episode 07: Growing Shadows
It was bitterly cold outside as the snow continued to sprinkle down onto the streets and rooftops. But down in the FentonWorks laboratory, one would never know how cold it was becoming outside. Maddie Fenton was sweating heavily as she stared into a specialized microscope through the lens of her specially crafted goggles. Beneath the powerful microscope she could see the DNA strands that made up everything Dani was. They were weak and brittle, rather like a leaf on a branch that had been nearly gnawed through by insects.
"Amplify the signal through the frequency modifications we made." Maddie said firmly.
"Right." Jack's voice came back from behind her. As she watched the DNA strange began to shiver underneath the microscope.
"We have a confirmed reaction. Increase signal strength by six Megahertz and alter the frequency like we discussed." Maddie said. Her husband confirmed the order and did as he was told. The DNA strands shuddered slightly harder as the frequency shifted. Suddenly, the shuddering eased and the strand lay dormant in the small blood sample, no longer being eaten away before her eyes. "Okay, we've reached the plateau stage. Activate secondary signal."
"Activating secondary signal. Output, 16 Megahertz." Jack replied confidently. This was the strength they'd agreed upon, but there were no reactions from the DNA sample.
"Increase signal strength to 19 Megahertz." Maddie said. She waited while her husband followed her command, watching the DNA float serenely in its sample. "22 Megahertz." Still no reaction. "35 Megahertz." While her husband did as directly, she saw the DNA beginning to shudder. It was coming to life somehow, but it didn't seem to be doing anything. "We have a confirmed, but unstable reaction. Increase signal strength to 40 Megahertz."
"Increasing signal strength." Jack replied as he worked the console. Maddie bit her lip and crossed her fingers, watching the DNA strand under the microscope. It shuddered violently in place, but she could see the rough, worn, and brittle edges slowly beginning to smooth out, becoming fuller and stronger.
"We have a positive reaction. DNA restoration is beginning as we-" She stopped when suddenly the brittle tendrils of the DNA strand snapped like twigs, the molecules floating away from each other through the blood sample. Maddie sighed and hung her head in front of the microscope for a moment, then looked up at her husband behind the console and shook her head.
Jack frowned and reached down to turn off the device while Maddie stood up straight and pulled her mask off of her face, revealing her head of tangled red hair, her sweat-beaded forehead, and her dark, tired eyes.
She raised a small tape recorder up to her lips as she spoke. "Experiment 23, though showing promising results, was nonetheless a failure. The molecular structure is simply too brittle to withstand even the small amount of energy output required to affect the necessary influence on the DNA. If we could only keep it stable long enough for the main portion of the healing to finish." She sighed deeply and closed her eyes. "Will continue on with further research samples." She turned off the recorder and placed it on the table in front of her, lowering her head.
She felt a pair of large, powerful hands grip her shoulders from behind. "Come on now sweetie, we'll find a way around this. Or my name isn't Jack Fenton. Which my underwear says it is." Jack told her proudly.
"I'm not sure what else there is to try. We've tried medicines, sound waves, and electrical pulses, and all of it resulted in the same thing. The destruction of the DNA sample." Maddie shook her head hopelessly. "I'm beginning to think the deterioration is just too far along to be reversible."
"We'll find a way to fix this, Maddie. We can do anything, you and I" Jack told her with a comforting smile.
"I hope so... but whatever we do, we'd better do it fast." Maddie looked beside them toward the wall, where they'd put a clock that was counting backwards. Seven days, six hours, and nine minutes remaining until the DNA became so brittle that it would collapse in on itself...
"M... mom?" Maddie whirled around when she heard her name spoken from near the entrance. She saw her son-turned-daughter Dani watching them from near the entrance, with one of her hands resting on the wall and her face red and worried. Oh dear, she hadn't heard Maddie talking, had she? "Mom, can I talk to you for a moment? Please?" She asked worriedly.
"Of course, sweetie. What's the matter?" Maddie approached her with a smile on her face. Dani hadn't worn any dresses after the first day, but nor was she wearing what she did before the transformation. She wasn't comfortable in anything too overly 'girly' or different quite yet, so she'd taken to wearing a white tank top that looked remarkably like her old tee shirts with the red dot in the dead center, and her loose blue jeans that cascaded down her thin legs, barely touching them before touching down on top of her white tennis shoes.
Dani gestured for her to come even close, so she bent over slightly to put her ear closer to her lips. "I'm... I'm bleeding." Dani whispered softly.
"You cut yourself?" Maddie asked. Dani shook her head, her face bright red. It took Maddie a few moments to catch on to what she was saying. "Oh... oohhhhh!" She stood up straight. "It's okay, that's a perfectly normal thing. Uh... Jack, me and Dani need to go out and get a few things."
"No problem, I'll come with you." Jack moved to join them.
"NO!" Maddie and Dani both shrieked in unison, halting the big man in his tracks.
Maddie chuckled and spoke more calmly. "No, Jack. Maybe you could fix us something to eat for when we get back? I'm sure we could all use a nice, quiet meal tonight. It has been such a long time since we've all had dinner as a family."
"Sure! I'll get right on that!" Jack grinned enthusiastically. "Maybe I'll make my famous Ecto-Surprise!" He turned to head upstairs toward the kitchen without another word, looking like a child released into a candy store.
"He used to love cooking so much." Maddie smiled wistfully. "Well, come on Dani. We need to get you some things at the store." Dani nodded and followed her mother upstairs, where she grabbed her purse off of a nearby end table. "Make sure you grab your jacket. It's getting cold out there." She told Dani as she pulled on her own thick winter coat. They climbed into the Fenton Family Ghost Assault Vehicle, which was the only car Jack and Maddie ever drove despite the fact that there were no more ghosts to assault.
"This has been a great month." Dani grumped. "First I get turned into a girl, AND made two years younger so I have two more years of puberty. Then Sam stops talking to me for some reason, and now I just start bleeding for no reason. I think someone up there hates me pretty bad."
"Now Dani, this is perfectly natural. It's something all women have to learn to deal with." Maddie said.
"All women." Dani said acidly. Then she sighed and raised one hand to her head. "I know, I know. Denial about this isn't good. I am a girl, there's nothing to be done about it, and there's wrong with being a girl."
"This has been a rougher transition than you've let on, hasn't it?" Maddie asked sadly. Dani nodded without looking at her. "Well, if you can cope with being half-ghost and go through all that you did, I know you have the strength to cope with this too. I don't think there's anything you can't handle." Maddie looked over at her with a smile. "I'm very proud of everything you've done Dani. I know sometimes I can forget to say it, but I am."
"Wow..." Dani looked over at her and blushed. "Thanks, mom. You have no idea how much that means to me." Maddie smiled over at her, but her smile faded when Dani suddenly gasped in pain and clutched at her chest with one hand, leaning back in the chair with her eyes squeezed shut.
"Dani!? Are you okay!?" Maddie exclaimed.
"I'll be... fine." Dani panted through gritted teeth, her fingers gripping her shirt tightly until she began to relax at last. "It's been... happening more often... last couple of days." She panted, suddenly looking weak and frail in the passenger's side seat. "It passes." She gulped and closed her eyes, forcing her breathing pattern to slowly return to normal. "It just hurts."
Maddie turned back to the road silently.
Sam lay on her back on her massive queen size bed, staring at the ceiling like a corpse waiting to be buried. After a little while, she rolled onto her side and pulled her body into a fetal position, staring now at the clock that stood on the nightstand beside her bed. The lights were off, coating the room in an oppressive darkness that seemed somehow comforting at the moment.
She didn't react when she heard the door creak open behind her as a beam of light cut through her dark room, shining on the wall in front of her with the silhouette of a woman in a dress standing in the doorway. "Sam? Are you okay?" Her mother asked in a soft, concerned tone of voice. "You've been spending a lot of time in here lately. Well, more than usual."
"I've been soul-searching. It's harder than it looks in movies." Sam replied in an uncharacteristically mellow tone of voice.
"Soul-searching?" She heard her mother's high-heels click across the floor as she approached the bed to sit behind Sam. "Why would you need to do that?"
"It's complicated." Sam looked down, then sat up and turned to look into her mother's concerned face. "Do you think that love is really blind? Or can it be brought to a screeching halt by a change in someone's physical appearance? And... and hormonal balance."
"Sam, what on Earth are you talking about?"
Sam sighed. "I don't know if..." she trailed off. The fact that Danielle Fenton was really Daniel Fenton was a carefully guarded secret known only by the Fentons and herself. She couldn't betray that trust by telling her mother all about it. "Let's just say, hypothetically, you loved someone very much. You think that it's true love, that it could last the rest of your life. But something happened to change the other person."
"Theoretically, what sort of change are we talking about?" Her mother asked.
"Like, say, a sex change." Sam said carefully. Her mother's face contorted in surprise and disgust. "Not the surgical kind. But like... a freak accident or something."
"That makes no sense. People can't just spontaneously change sex."
"Well, some frogs can..." Sam cleared her throat. "But really, it's for... it's for a story I'm writing for English class. I really want it to feel organic. How would you feel if it happened to you?"
"Well, I really can't say for sure. I just can't imagine what it would feel like. Are they even the same person anymore?"
"I don't know. I guess he ACTS the same. Has the same opinions, the same thoughts, the same dreams and feelings. It's just something subtly different. He's the same but... being with him doesn't give you the same feeling you had before. What would you do? Would you love him? Or would you let him go?"
"Wow. That's a pretty tough question." Her mother put one hand to her chin, looking lost deep in thought. "I suppose it depends on how much he meant to me. I couldn't imagine life without your father; I would be devastated to lose him. If it happened to him... I probably wouldn't be able to leave him. If you really love someone, to the point where your life feels awkward and incomplete without them, then you can overcome anything."
"I see." Sam looked down at the bed, folding her hands in her lap.
"This sounds like a really interesting story. I'd love to read it when it's finished." Her mother said.
"Yeah, I'll show it to you." Sam looked over at her with a slight smile. Her mother smiled back and stood up from the bed.
"Dinner will be ready in ten minutes, if you want to wash up and come down." Her mother said. Sam nodded, and the older woman turned to leave. She stopped suddenly and reached over to flick on the overhead light. Sam winced and closed her eyes against the sudden glare. "And try not to stay in the dark too much. It's not good for you."
Sam just glared, so her mother waved and left the room, closing the door behind her. With a sigh Sam sat up and pulled herself closer to the wall so she could lean against it, looking around at her darkly painted but luxuriously decorated room. All of her ugly electronic equipment was hidden in the walls of her room except for the black laptop that sat almost invisibly atop the ornate black nightstand beside her bed. On top of the laptop sat the Necronomicon, its bindings almost seeming to come alive in the dim lights she allowed her parents to put in her room.
Sam reached out and gripped the thick tome in both of her hands, pulling it off of the nightstand and onto her lap. She hadn't really touched it since bringing it home, but now she desperately wanted something to take her mind off of her troubles. So with a steady hand, she grabbed the cover of the book and pulled it open across her lap.
Wal-Mart was sparsely populated this late in the evening when Maddie and Dani walked in through the automatic front doors. The door greeter had fallen asleep near the exit and lay propped up against a plastic chair set against the wall. Inside the store only a few lanes were open to take care of those few people who bothered to come to a place like this so late at night.
Maddie and Dani wiped the snow off of their shoulders and walked into the main part of the store, making their way quickly toward the feminine hygiene section of the store. Dani stopped right outside the isle, her face bright red, but Maddie just placed a hand on her shoulder and dragged her into it.
"I think these would work just fine." Maddie put a hand on her shoulder and turned to guide her toward the women's bathrooms. Once again, Dani stopped right outside them. Maddie knew Dani had avoided going out much despite that they'd made up a story about Danny being sent to his Aunt's while Dani stayed with them. Even at school, Jazz said Dani avoided places like bathrooms and locker rooms like the plague, instead changing clothes in the janitor's closet. "Dani, come on now. It's nothing to be worried or embarrassed about."
"I just don't know if I'm ready." Dani said.
"It's just a bathroom. It'll be fine." Maddie took her hand and led her into the vacant bathroom. "See? It's even empty for you. Now go on into a stall and put one of these on." Maddie opened the box of pads and handed one to Dani. "I'll go pay for them and come back to make sure you're okay. I'll be right back, I promise." Dani, still looking nervous, nodded and turned to head into one of the stalls.
Maddie closed up the box and walked out of the bathroom, heading toward the check lanes where she approached the clerk immediately, since there was no line.
As the clerk behind the register took the box his face stayed on hers for a moment before his eyes lit up in recognition. "Hey, you're that Fenton chick, right? Madeline?"
"Maddie." Maddie corrected him. "I haven't gone by Madeline in years."
"Yeah, yeah, that." The clerk nodded as a broad grin lit up his face. "Saw some of those reports about you and your husband in the newspaper." He cackled and shook his head. "How is the spook hunt going? Hear the field's dried up."
"We've been keeping busy." Maddie replied, just waiting for him to finish running the box through and telling her how much is cost.
"About as busy as ever, I guess." The clerk cackled again. "Hey, did you guys ever catch that half-spook you were hunting for over a year? Or did it just get bored and go away on its own?"
"We caught it alright." Maddie said under her breath.
"Well, I'm sure YOU caught it. Whatever it really was. Probably some psycho, you can't be like that without going a little crazy if you ask me." The clerk said.
"Well I didn't ask you." Maddie snatched the box from his hands, rang it up herself and placed a ten-dollar bill on the counter between them. "Just keep the change." She waved him off haughtily and turned to head back to the bathroom. She really didn't want to hear any more gossip about the ghost-boy or her husband. Why people always felt the need to badmouth Jack in front of her she never understood. And as far as she was concerned, there was no more ghost-boy. There was only her son. Or... daughter.
She walked into the bathroom, seeing one of the stalls still locked. She approached it and knocked lightly. "Dani? Are you finished?" She asked. When she didn't get an answer she smiled slightly. "Would you like some help?"
"Uh-huh." Dani squeaked embarrassedly.
After they were finished they emerged from Wal-Mart into the parking lot. The snow was falling all around them, blanketing the parking lot in a soft white glow from the moon that shone through the cracks in the clouds overhead. Dani's face was bright red, but Maddie just held her hand in a comforting grip and guided her across the parking lot toward the RV.
Maddie's head jerked back when she heard Dani gasp and fall to the ground, where her knees crunched into the thick coat of snow underfoot. "Dani!?" Maddie knelt down beside her instantly, putting her arms around her shoulders. "Dani, hold on. You'll be okay."
Dani grunted in pain, wrapping her arms around her chest as if trying to keep something from bursting out of her. Maddie pulled her close, pulling her head up against her chest while she panted in pain. It seemed like forever had passed before at last she felt Dani's body loosen and her breath began to return to normal. She was surprised when she felt Dani's arms wrap around her waist.
"You'll fix this... right?" Dani's voice shook as she spoke. Maddie realized that her entire body was trembling. "You won't let me fall apart..." Her voice faded into a broken sob, and her next sentence was barely audible, muffled as it was by her mother's chest. "I'm scared..."
"I won't let you die, Dani. I won't." Maddie squeezed her daughter tighter in her arms. "I'll find a cure. I'll help you get better, and you will live a long and healthy life. I promise." She held her daughter in her arms, feeling her tremble against her and unable to do anything about it. She closed her eyes, trying not to let her own tears emerge. It wasn't over yet. It wasn't over until a cure was found.
The silence of the night around them was broken only by the gentle wind that cast the pure snow across the ground.
Sam read through several chapters of the Necronomicon, entranced by some of the passages. Some were stories of blood and betrayal that stirred something deep in her soul. Others looked like spells and enchantments of various kinds. Curses mostly, that could do anything from give a person bad luck to simply make their heart stop beating. It was somewhat spooky how detailed it became, but she reminded herself it couldn't be real. It was written in plain English, after all.
She flipped the page to the next one, titled 'The Shadow With No Master'. The story it told was that of a shadow who had come to life at the bidding of its master, only to one day be ripped away from her into the world outside where its young life turned to nothing but a desire for vengeance and blood. It reminded Sam vaguely of Johnny 13's Shadow, though she doubted they were really related. Oddly enough, the pages containing these passages didn't have the same texture as the rest. As if it was added recently.
"Weird." Sam said softly to herself. After the story ended there was a passage that seemed to be some kind of chant along with a list of instructions. Above it was simply written 'Release the Shadow'. She placed her fingers on the text lightly, feeling a strange tingle running up her hand, though it wasn't altogether unpleasant.
A shadow seemed to leap from the blood red text onto her finger, but she jerked her hand back and gasped in surprise. She grabbed the book and tossed it toward the foot of the bed, where it landed with those same pages still facing upward. She rubbed her hand for several minutes, staring at the pages of the book without blinking, but she didn't see the shadow again. Her heartbeat slowed and her breath calmed down when she closed her eyes. She really must have been spending too much time in the dark.
Taking deep breaths to calm herself down, Sam closed the book and slipped it back inside the nightstand beside her bed. When her heart stopped racing she decided she didn't want to be alone anymore, so she slipped off of her bed and turned to head out of the room, walking down the lushly carpeted hallways through the miniature castle she was forced to live in.
On the bottom floor she entered the long dining room, where her parents were already seated at each end with Sam's grandmother in her wheelchair on the opposite side from the door.
Her mother looked at her with a surprised expression, then smiled broadly. "Please, join us, Sam." She gestured to the plate set at the near side of the table in front of a chair that remained empty far too often. Sam nodded and smiled as she sat down in the chair and grabbed her silverware.
The Fenton Family Ghost Assault Vehicle pulled up in front of the Fenton's home and ground to a stop in the driveway, where Dani and Maddie both climbed out and fell into the thickly piled snow with audible crunches. Maddie walked around the RV to her daughter, who was still holding her chest. Normally the pain passed in a matter of minutes, but this one had been lingering for the last thirty minutes.
"Are you sure you're okay, Dani?" Maddie asked.
"Is there anything we can do if I'm not?" Dani replied with uncharacteristic bitterness. Maddie said nothing, but just reached out and took her hand to squeeze it tightly. Dani closed her eyes and squeezed her hand back, muttering a word under her breath. "Sorry."
"It's okay. Come on, your father should have dinner ready by now." Maddie smiled and turned to lead Dani inside the house. They walked inside to find Jazz sitting on the couch with a baby carrier lying on the couch beside her, inside of which Hope was sleeping soundly with her arms folded across her tiny stomach. She looked up from her book when they entered.
"Dad said dinner should be ready in five minutes." Jazz told them. "What happened? You left in kind of a hurry."
"Just a bit more adjusting to do." Dani flushed bright red. Jazz blinked in confusion, but Maddie stepped forward.
"It's no big deal, now I say we all go help set the table for dinner and have a nice night for the family." She smiled. Jazz looked at her strangely, but didn't argue as Maddie walked past her two children into the kitchen, where Jack was just finishing up their meal.
The family sat down together for dinner, for perhaps the first time since Maddie could remember. It seemed like everyone was so busy with their own lives these days, they never stopped to spend time together. She wasn't sure when it started. Sure, these last few weeks her and Jack had been busy down in the laboratory, but why didn't they spend time together before that?
Time passed, and though she didn't say anything, Maddie and Jazz could both tell that Dani was wound up like a spring ready to snap. The tension in the air seemed thick enough to touch, and every now and again Maddie could see a sharp stab of pain erupt in Dani's eyes. She refused to say anything else about it, but by the time she pushed her plate back into the middle of the table, her entire body had begun to shudder.
"I think I'm getting tired, I'm going to go up to bed." Dani's teeth were clenched in pain as she spoke, and she quickly pushed herself up from the table. She turned to leave the room without a word, while the other three remained dead silent. Maddie and Jazz exchanged a solemn glance, before Maddie pushed herself up from the table, wiping her lips with a napkin by her plate.
She turned silently to head down to the laboratory once again.
Sam walked back into her room, closing the door behind her and leaning back against it as she stared across her dimly lit room at the window, outside which the serene white blanket of snow continued to blanket Amity Park. A nice, quiet dinner did much to calm nerves frayed by worrying a lot over the last week. But now the silence of her room once again forced her mind to focus on the issue at hand. Dani.
She moved across the room to the window, leaning her elbows against the windowsill to watch the snow float gently to the ground. It had been way too long to go without any insight as to what she should do or how she should feel. It was like she kept thinking the same thoughts with no end in sight. 'Round and 'round they went, chasing after one another in a vicious bid for supremacy.
A knock on her door drew her attention toward it. "The door's open." Sam stood up from the window. She smiled when the door swung open and her grandmother's motorized wheelchair swept into the room, where the aging woman sat with her usual, energetic smile. "Grandmom."
"Hello sweetie." Her grandmother cackled and rolled over to the window with her. "You looked like you could use some company during dinner."
"Thanks grandmom. I've just been really confused." Sam leaned back against the window. "See, there's this... this boy. And-"
"Oh oh, stop right there." Her grandmother chuckled. "Young love is such a precious thing. Say nothing to destroy it."
Sam chuckled nervously. "Yeah, well, it's not really that simple. It's kind of complicated."
"Complicated, nothing." Her grandmother turned toward her. "I'll tell you about complicated. I dated myself a nice black guy back in high school."
"Um... yeah? So?" Sam asked.
"It may not seem like such a big deal now, but in the fifties, hoo boy, they made a fuuussssss."
"Oh yeah." Sam raised one eyebrow. "I remember hearing about that kind of thing in History class."
"Everyone always made a fuss about how gals like me and guys like him just don't belong together. Just wasn't done back in those days. Oh my things have sure changed." Sam's grandmother turned her chair toward the window, looking out at the falling snow. "Never was sure why I chose him of all guys." She cackled. "My mom always said it was just to be a rebel, but I never bought that hooey."
"So, why did you do it?" Sam asked curiously.
"Well, let me ask you something, dear. Are black guys different from white guys?"
"No way!" Sam shook her head instantly. "People are just people, no matter what color their skin is."
"Exactly!" Grandma smiled. "So when I realized I was falling in love with him, I just realized that, black or white, he was the kind of person I would love to spend the rest of my life with. I'd feel the same if he was white, black, or anything in between."
"That's really something." Sam smiled slightly. "So what happened? Did you get married?"
"We broke up two weeks after we got together." Grandma shrugged. "Oh well, nothing lasts forever. Except me. Bwahahahahaha!"
Sam chuckled and shook her head. "You really are something grandma." She leaned down to give her grandmother a soft kiss on the forehead. "Thanks. I think you've really cleared a few things up for me."
"Any time, sweetie." Grandma smiled and turned her chair back toward Sam's door. "If you need anything else, you know where to find me."
"Baseball pitch on the roof." Sam nodded.
"That's right. I haven't hit a homer in a while now. Got the itch again." Grandma's chair slipped out through the door and into the elevator on the other side of the hallway. Sam closed her door behind her and leaned against it, taking a deep breath.
"Black or white huh...?" Sam looked at the picture that sat on her nightstand of her sitting on a photo booth with Danny draped over her shoulders, giving the camera a wink and a grin. "All the same on the inside..."
NEXT TIME on Haunted Legacies
Hours remain before Dani's molecular structure is due to break down completely. Jack and Maddie continue their research through the night while Dani, Jazz, and Sam try to prepare themselves for the end that seems inevitable.
Episode 08: When the Future Becomes the Past
