Switching Places
Chapter Eleven
Aside from the emotional turbulence created by the whole showdown thing a few minutes earlier, dinner was rather uneventful. Jazz had come home just as Maddie had set dinner on the table. She sat at the head of the table and Johnny sat next to her. Next to him was Vlad, and of course Maddie and Jack sat together on the other side. Johnny constantly glanced over his shoulder at Vlad, giving him frightened looks, which did not go unnoticed by Jazz.
"Danny, can you pass the potatoes?" she asked. Vlad picked up the plate and passed it to Johnny who jumped at the touch of the plate in Vlad's hands and passed it to Jazz.
"-so then I said, hey, it's not like I want to kill, you right?" Vlad laughed as he finished his joke. Johnny's eyes widened at the word 'kill,' and Jazz sighed at Vlad's lame attempt at covering up his threat of killing Jack. Jack, on the other hand, was laughing hysterically, wiping tears from his eyes.
"Ah, it's true Mads," he told his wife in between laughs. "He did say that to me! But he would have to be some sort of villain to really do that!" There was a slight awkward silence, when they all paused to look at Vlad, who was sporting an innocent smile that barely covered his fear. But the silence soon turned into another bout of laughter from both Jack and Vlad. The moment even earned a giggle from Maddie. "AHAHAH, can you imagine? Vlad, an evil villain? HAHAHA…"
"Ah, Jack, you kill me," Vlad said, wiping away a fake tear of laughter.
Johnny, on the other hand, was not having such a hot time. Actually, he could probably truthfully say that he had never been so terrified in his life. Spending dinner with a family of ghost hunters and a very powerful and influential ghost human, who would have thought? He was trying to keep his cool in front of all of them for both his and Danny's sake (mostly his) but he was on the verge of a nervous breakdown.
Which was probably why he jumped when Vlad shoved a plate of vegetables in his face.
"Eat your greens, Daniel. They build up energy and you're going to need it," Vlad said, flashing him a knowing, evil smile. Johnny shivered and immediately did as the more powerful ghost asked. He poured half the serving plate onto his own plate and nervously poked the greens with his fork, sending a very obviously fake smile at Vlad. He didn't even bother to cover his own fear.
"What would he need to build up energy for, Vlad?" Jazz asked pointedly. "Are you planning on doing something after dinner?"
Vlad smile was still plastered on his face as he turned to face her, though it was more out of hiding his frustration with the girl than trying to scare poor Johnny.
"Well, I recently had a chat with your brother, Jasmine, and it seems the past few days have been hard for him. School-wise, of course," he added when he saw the look of curiosity on Danny's parents. "He's quite stressed. I thought we'd have a little uncle-nephew bonding to see what's wrong, hmm?" he said, turning back to Johnny and patting him on the back. Johnny looked like he was going to have a heart attack.
--
The time passed by fast for everyone but Johnny, and with both Danny's parent's permission, Vlad and Johnny were going out for some 'good natured bonding'.
"I'll bring him back by curfew, Maddie dear," Vlad called to the kitchen and slammed the front door behind him and Johnny. Once outside, his innocently nice smile changed into a snarl.
"Let's get to that bonding, shall we?" Vlad said, grabbing Johnny's wrist. Before Johnny could do anything more than squeak in fear, Vlad pulled him invisibly through the ground to the Fenton Lab.
okay now seriously someone needs to answer. it could go on for probably a good seven or more chapters. or i can stop now before i screw it up more than it already is and end it in a couple of chapters.
and what does cts mean, martiny? carpel tunnel syndrome?
