9. Forge a Guide to Summoning Spirits
Disclaimer: I sadly am not the owner of Danny Phantom.
"I don't think we should be doing this," Holley nervously points out as they walk along the dark, empty hallway.
"Now is not the time to wuss out, Holls!" Lexi argues, grabbing her by the bicep and tugging her along.
Nodding, James points out, "We've come too far to quit now. We might as well try it out."
"But what if we get caught?" Kinkade asks, anxiously looking at a security camera in the corner of the wall.
Throwing his arm around his friend, James chides, "Relax, wouldja? We're not going to get caught. Besides, if everything goes according to plan, the cops will be the last thing you'll have to worry about."
Clapping her hands sarcastically, Lexi inquires, "Was that supposed to make them feel better? Are you trying to scare them further."
Shrugging innocently, James informs her, "Hey, we didn't force either of them to come. They're here now to see the same thing we are. Now I've personally come too far to chicken out. I plan on seeing this thing through. You guys can either come with me or leave, but either way, I'm staying until it's finished."
Crossing her arms indignantly, Holley reminds them, "How do we even know if this will work? We actually believe the Fenton kid? He's probably just messing with us since we're freshmen."
"That may be true," Lexi muses thoughtfully. "But you never know. He is pretty weird. No normal person would make this kinda thing up. I say we still try it. If nothing happens, big deal. But if he's right we could be making history."
"Very inspirational," Kinkade remarks dryly. "If you put that much enthusiasm into your last oral report, you might have done better."
Her face blank, Lexi tells him, "I hope a demon possesses you."
As Kinkade whimpered, Holley places a comforting hand on his shoulder before promising, "That's not going to happen because this whole thing is a sham. Danny and his friends are probably hiding in the library waiting to scare us right now."
"Then go home," James tells her, knowing she wouldn't. He smiled as his thoughts were reaffirmed by Holley standing her ground in the hallway.
After a moment of tense silence, Lexi asks, "Are we going to go to the library or are we going to stand here and argue until Lancer shows up and catches us?"
That stiffened the groups resolve and together they finally entered the library. The Casper High library was beautifully stocked, despite the fact that most of the students never even bothered looking inside it. Shelves traveled the length from the floor to the ceiling and were stuffed with books upon books.
Observing the vast array of books with a frown, James frustratedly asks, "How are we supposed to find the book out of all of these? We don't have all night!"
Pushing past him, Lexi sighs. "Sam said that it was somewhere in the history section."
"That would narrow it down to those three sections there," Holley says, taking over. What she lacked in belief in the supernatural, she made up for in her love of the library. She leads the way over to a shelf in the back corner and started rifling through the books. Lexi, James, and Kinkade joined her.
After a few minutes of searching around, Holley found a promising looking book in the corner. Picking it up, she dusts off the front before reading the title,
101 Ways to Summon Spirits; Your Guide to the Supernatural
"This is it!" Holley exclaims, turning the book around for the others to be able to read it.
"Well don't just stand there! Open it up!" Lexi encourages, rushing over to her side.
The three of them peered over Holley's shoulder as she flicked through the pages of the book.
"Which one do you guys want to try out first?" James asks eagerly, pointing out one particularly promising looking one.
Knocking his hand aside, Kinkade tells him with an eye roll, "No, no, you don't get to decide. You'll get us all abducted or eaten or something else that's terrible. We should try that one." He points to a different summoning spell to try.
"You're both idiots," Lexi interjects before pointing at another summoning device. "We should try this one."
Her three friends gazed curiously at the spell, deciding whether or not to agree with her.
After a while, the four were in agreement.
"Why not? We might as well start somewhere," Holley points out. "Besides we don't have all night. For this to work, we need to start somewhere and do it fast."
"Okay, okay," Lexi begins, her eyes skimming the book. Placing the book on the floor, she instructs them, "It says we need to clasp hands."
The four friends interlocked their hands before looking at what the book said next.
"In unison, we need to chant those lines," Lexi explains, angling the book so that they could all look at the charm.
"Ready?" James asks them, giving Holley and Kinkade pointed looks.
"Just start chanting," Kinkade grumbles as he turns his gaze back to the book.
"Let's get this over with," Holley adds, returning her gaze to the book as well.
Taking a deep breath, they began speaking simultaneously.
Mysteries of the night will be unlocked
Join us as midnight chimes on every clock
We won't hesitate, shrink away, or balk
Arise, oh ghost of the box
As they finished the chant, the four looked around, unsure of whether or not to let go of each other's hands.
"Do you think it worked?" Holley anxiously asks as she looks around.
Lexi opened her mouth to reply when a bright flash of blue light shot out of the book. The four released their hands to shield their eyes. When the light died down, there before them hovered a squat, pale blue ghost. The spell, while funnily worded, had actually worked.
"I am the Box Ghost!" he shouts suddenly, raising his arms to incite terror. "Tremble before me and beware!"
The four raised their eyebrows at one another. This was the terrifying ghost Danny and his friends had told them about? They couldn't have been serious.
"You're a ghost?" James blurts, unable to conceal his surprise.
"I am the Box Ghost!" the Box Ghost repeats.
"Yes, we heard that the first time," Lexi points out. "But we were expecting something more. . ." she trails off, unable to decide on that right word.
"Terrifying?" Holley finishes helpfully.
The Box Ghost blinked at them in confusion. Clearing his throat with a soft cough he demands, "Am I not terrifying enough for you?"
The four teens shook their heads in an affirmation that he indeed sucked.
Frowning, the ghost raises his arms again. Waving them around, he shouts at them, "That will soon change! Behold the power of the Box Ghost!"
"Uh, dude, we're in a library," James informs him. "There are no boxes in here. Just books."
At that, the Box Ghost lowers his arms. "Good point," he allows before snarling, "but I will still be feared."
"Trust me! You are!" Kinkade promises, lowering himself to hide from the ghost's line of sight.
That seemed to make the Box Ghost smile. "Well at least one of you has common sense," he grumbles before crossing his arms. "As for you three, you obviously have no idea who you're dealing with."
"I think you mean 'whom you're dealing with'," Holley corrects him with a sheepish grin. If ghosts weren't terrifying, poor grammar certainly was.
Waving her off, he snaps, "I'm going back to the Ghost Zone. You guys suck." With that, he disappears in a puff of blue smoke.
As he officially disappears, Lexi slams the book shut in disgust. "This was a complete waste of time. That ghost was totally lame!"
"I agree! We should leave," James adds with a nod.
"Are you sure it's not because you're scared?" Kinkade taunts with a smirk.
"Says the guy who feared a ghost who haunts boxes," James snaps back.
With an eye roll, Holley interjects, "Can we all agree that this was a dumb idea and we should just go home?"
At that, the two boys ceased their arguing.
"That's what I thought," she mumbles with an annoyed huff. Her night had truly been wasted. From idiotic teenage boys to an annoying ghost, her ideal night had been rendered into a nonsensical travesty.
Standing up, Lexi snatches the book off the ground before throwing it in the garbage.
"You can't throw away library books!" Kinkade shouts in horror, diving in after it.
Casting his eyes to the ceiling, James replies, "You can when they suck."
"That book's obviously not a library book anyway," Holley informs them. "There's no bar-code, no annoying plastic wrap, no sticker with our school's name on it. Fenton and his friends must have put it here, knowing what would happen."
"I bet every single spell in that garbage pile summons a ghost just as lame as the Box Ghost," Lexi bets with a grin. While she hadn't seen a scary ghost, at least a real one had shown up.
Laughing, James suggests, "Yeah, we could have summoned the Toaster Ghost!"
"Or the Candle Ghost!" Kinkade adds with a snort.
Holley giggles. "Oh, or the Notebook Ghost!"
"The Notebook Ghost? Really? That's the best you can come up with? Freshmen, I tell you," a voice from behind them sarcastically quips.
The four Freshmen nervously turn around to see Danny Phantom hovering behind them. They immediately scream and run out of the library and down the hall before fleeing the school in a panic.
Laughing, he turns back into his human form before picking up the book they had left in the garbage bin. Dusting off the front cover he grinned slightly to himself. This really had been one of his best pranks yet. Not only had he scared the crap out of four teens, but he had also inflicted the annoyance of the Box Ghost upon them. It could almost be argued that he went too far with that one, but decided it was worth it.
Turning back into a ghost, he made his way out of the library. School started in a few short hours and he couldn't wait to see the Freshmen in the morning.