I didn't really like the last chapter, and in my opinion this one is better, but who knows?

I kneeled down next to Maddie. She knew my secret. The right conclusion was made. Time was up. The lies were over. My eyes closed and I felt very dizzy, almost like I had been released. I didn't have to lie anymore. Not to Maddie at least. Now she would hate me no matter what I did.

My legs shook as I stood, and I wondered if my other half had planned this. It would make sense, ratted out by myself. I looked over at the ghost portal, and wondered how exactly I was going to save Daniel. Maybe one of the inventions had managed to escape destruction.

There was a lever on the wall, and as I looked closer at it, it looked like someone had tried to smash it. Somehow I managed to pull it. A loud crashing noise filled my ears and I turned to see the car thing Jazz had used to get to my castle coming up through a panel in the floor. Good old Jack always had a backup.

Wait, did I just think that? I was about to think over everything that was happening to me since I lost my ghost half when Daniel's writing came to mind. I couldn't just stay here thinking. That would give my evil half a greater chance of succeeding.

I climbed in and looked at the controls, having absolutely no idea of how to work it. "Specter Speeder 2.0 is online… now" said a voice that I assumed was coming from the vehicle. It had an odd similarity to Jack's voice. "Please state your destination."

"Um…" Where would my evil half go? I thought about it, and concluded that the only logical place was my mansion. That was the only place where there were devices to pull Daniel from his ghost form. "Madison Wisconsin, Masters Mansion… please."

"Via Ghost Zone or via human world?" The Ghost Zone was faster, so I chose that. The Specter Speeder entered the Ghost Zone and steered itself. I watched the doors float by when suddenly a pair of hands grabbed me by my shoulders and pulled me backwards over the seat.

I landed on my back on the floor and stared upside-down into Maddie's face. "You have five seconds to give me a reason to trust you."

"Maddie!" I said half from shock and half from terror.

"Time's up, ghost." She pulled out an ectogun and fired. I rolled out of the way and watched as the blast melted a hole in the floor. She threw the gun away in anger and tackled me. I was positive she was going to claw my eyes out.

"You've been lying to me for twenty years Vlad! All of this time you had been part ghost, and you never told me, or Jack, or anyone! You're sick!" She punched me in the face, and I heard my nose crunch. "Sick!"

"Maddie!" I yelled in despair.

"All of this time it was you. You were the one who caused Danny to come home with cuts and injuries every night, you were the ghost who had overshadowed Jack, you were the ghost who keeps causing me so much trouble! You hurt Danny!" She jammed her knee into my stomach, and I gasped weakly.

"How can you even show your face at my house after trying to kill my husband and steal my son? And I trusted you!" She screamed and punched me again. "I trusted you for twenty years!" She screamed these three words. "How could you!"

Maddie tried to punch me again, but twenty years of having ghostly reflexes kicked in, and I grabbed her fist. She froze and looked at me with tears in her eyes. "How could you?" she said softly.

"I don't know." I said calmly, resisting the urge to scream as the pain in my hand and nose combined. "I don't know Maddie." I released her fist.

"Yes you do. You are just too much of a coward to tell me." She sat backwards on the floor and sobbed. "And I was so stupid."

I closed my eyes and felt blood begin to flow out of my nose. "I was afraid. How could I tell you two? You were ghost hunters. Sure, you were my best friends in college, but after the incident you and Jack began dating. I hated Jack for that. In my mind, he had caused the accident that had given me ecto-acne… and he was able to date you when I was gone."

Maddie said nothing. "It was only a matter of time before you two got married and had children. You have no idea how many times I sat in my hospital room thinking that it should be me out there with you instead of Jack. You two would forget about me, but no matter how hard I tried I couldn't stop thinking about you and how Jack stole you.

"When I found out I had ghost powers I was even angrier with Jack. He had turned me into some sort of freak. Something you could never love. I used that hatred to fuel my ambition and I used my powers to get connections in the Ghost Zone. Everything just sort of… happened. I was in too deep. I had turned… evil."

I opened my eyes and looked at her. She was looking down at her hands and I saw tears falling from her face. "But now…" I sighed. "I'm completely human. Something happened, I fell through a device that split me from my ghost half, and now I'm… well… different." I felt like I was weightless. I hadn't felt this free ever, not even when I had found out I could fly.

Maddie sighed and looked up at me, her eyes rimmed with red because of the tears. "I'm sorry Vlad. You're right. After you left, Jack and I were feeling so guilty, and we just… well we fell in love. Jack's not exactly the brightest bulb in the box, but he was sweet, and he felt so bad for you after your accident that he wouldn't come out of the science lab for days. Do you want to know what he was working on? A cure for ecto-acne."

"I felt even worse. I should have stopped Jack from starting that thing up, but he went right ahead anyways, and made you hospital bound. You had to drop college, and I remember your parents coming to the college demanding to see 'The idiots who think ghosts exist and hurt our son.' They yelled at me more than Jack, because I guess his size intimidated them."

She had a sad little smile on her face. "So if it's true that you have ghost powers I guess it means Danny does too."

"Not for long if we don't hurry." I said.

The voice of the Specter Speeder spoke. "Destination reached." I looked out the window and felt my heart sink. The portal was closed.

Uh oh. How many of you know how Vlad's going to get out of this?