It had been a couple days after Vlad left when Anastasia finally noticed it.

Whenever a ghost was around, she would get this prickling sensation all over her skin. It made her shiver and her hair stand on end. Goosebumps would erupt on her arms.

But ever since Vlad left.

They were gone.

She knew they wouldn't be gone forever. They lived in a haunted town, there was no getting around that. But their house hadn't ever been inhabited by ghosts. Not until Vlad came home after the accident. The sensations Anastasia felt were daily then.

What she didn't understand was why. Was it just a ghost passing by? One from out of town? Did ghosts even travel like that?

Or was it Vlad himself?

Anastasia knew that Vlad and his friends were into some kind of ghost science. That's what they had been working on when Vlad was hospitalized. But how did that affect Vlad?

Did he just absorb a lot of toxins when it happened? Was it because of the ectoacne? Was it from being around so much ghost stuff for so long?

Anastasia didn't know. All she knew was that she was sad Vlad was gone but she felt so much more comfortable. The house was warmer and there was no longer any manic laughing late at night.

She knew that she didn't want to think of the alternative.

The alternative meant that somehow Vlad was dead. Even though they checked him out of the hospital and drove him home. Even though he still ate and breathed and peed and did very normal human things.

That meant Vlad couldn't be dead right? A ghost wouldn't be able to trick someone to that degree.

Right?

But he did know a lot about ghosts. He studied them. He grew up in a town full of them. If anyone's ghost could pull that off it would make sense it'd be Vlad's.

Anastasia wasn't sure what happened. But she knew where she could start.

Jack Fenton.