Chapter 29
Vlad sneered at the festive cheer all around him as he walked the halls back to his office. He couldn't remember the last time he actually enjoyed the Christmas holiday, but the past twenty years gave him no reason to be happy like his employees. They had families to go home to and celebrate with, eating a big holiday meal, opening presents, and being merry in general. All good fun. For them.
All Vlad could look forward to after the work day ended was another lonely, miserable night. He had a grand castle. But what was the point when there was no one to share it with? Vlad sighed as he dropped into the chair at his desk. He felt exhausted, and his latest plans weren't progressing all that well. The ecto skeleton in Jack's battle suit was proving to be difficult to make use of. He still hadn't found the best way to eliminate that fatal flaw, and allowing anyone to test it could prove deadly for that person if too much energy was used.
He rubbed at his forehead. He was missing something obvious in the design. He was certain of it. But no matter how much he stared at the plans, he simply couldn't figure out a way to fix it. And his other project wasn't proving to be much better. Each failure increased his frustration. How difficult could it be? But every time he thought he was successful, it turned out to be another failure. He wasn't able to get anything right lately.
Perhaps it's the holidays, Vlad thought as he read over the reports laying on his desk. A pathetic excuse, he realized, but he couldn't think of another reason to explain this unusual drained feeling. Maybe he was getting sick. Vlad scowled at that notion. He was not getting sick. He refused to be sick!
When the day finally ended, he was relieved if only to escape from the merriment taking place around the office. Did any of his employees even get any work done that day? Vlad seriously doubted it. He offered only half smiles and bobs of his head as people wished him happy holidays. By the time he reached his car, he felt the serious desire to blast them all in the face, but he crushed that feeling along with many others.
Home at last, yet it offered him little comfort. The castle was dark and cold when he entered it. After lighting a fire in his study, Vlad collapsed into a chair beside it. He stared at the pile of mail in his lap, almost too tired to bother going through it. It was all bills to be paid, useless magazines trying to get him to buy things that he never signed up for, and a few random cards from old college friends.
Vlad lifted his head as a ghostly presence made itself known. "What do you want, Fright Knight?" He had little patience to deal with anything tonight.
"As I recall, there is a Christmas truce party that the ghosts hold," the Fright Knight answered. "Will my liege be attending it?"
Vlad frowned in thought at that reminder. The truce party slipped his mind with everything else that he was working on. He never actually bothered attending it in prior years, and with Daniel now half ghost, he felt even less like going to it. He wasn't in the mood to deal with Daniel, truce or not, though he doubted Daniel was aware that such a truce even existed among ghosts. He still didn't feel like taking the chance that he might run into Daniel there.
"I will not, but if you so desire, you are free to attend it," Vlad said with a dismissive wave.
The Fright Knight spent years, centuries even, imprisoned within that pumpkin. Vlad wouldn't be surprised if the ghost never got the chance to attend the truce party. He was surprised that he wasn't such a scrooge as to forbid the ghost from attending. The Fight Knight bowed before he disappeared from the study.
Vlad sighed as he returned to his mail. He sifted through the mound, tossing aside bills for later. The unwanted magazines went into the fire. He stared at the cards and one single package. Ben and Digory sent a card, of course. Vlad didn't think he wanted to read the message the pair wrote to him. Tiffany's card came in a pink envelop, and she merely wrote a short message wishing him a happy holidays and hoping he had someone to spend it with. Vlad frowned at that last line. Two or three other cards came from insignificant people from college. He couldn't recall any of them even with their names on the envelops. The last one came from Maddie and Jack.
Vlad stared at that card the longest, not sure if he should open it or toss it immediately in the fire. After the incident with Pariah Dark, Maddie seemed to warm up to him again, but there was something different about it. Vlad couldn't quite decide what it was or what caused the change. Releasing a sigh, he tore open the envelop. Maddie's delicate script wrote a message of holiday cheer and wishing Vlad would join them for Christmas, mentioning that there was plenty of space in Daniel's room for him.
Again with that comment? Vlad lifted his eyebrow in wonder. Then he shook his head and continued onto Jack's messy handwriting. Jack blathered on about various things relating to ghosts, like always. But something in the message made Vlad sit up and take notice. Jack was disappointed that Vlad wouldn't be visiting them because he had a new invention that he working on that he wanted to show him, though it was still only in the planning stages.
"A ecto converter?" A grin came over his face. "Why Jack, that's exactly what I need!" Already his mind was working out how to attach a ecto converter to the battle suit. It wasn't perfect. It was still missing something to make it all work, but he would think more on that after the holidays. He wouldn't be able to enlist Skulker's help until that silly truce was finished.
After relaxing back into his chair, his attention turned to the package. It was from Jack, and that earned it a curious lift of an eyebrow. What would Jack be sending him? Vlad would be delighted if it turned out to be plans for the ecto converter, but he doubted Jack would hand those over to him. After another long moment, Vlad decided to open the package. He tore off the brown paper covering then stared at the item sent to him. He gritted his teeth as his hands tightened around the plastic case. Of all the things the oaf could send! Vlad was half tempted to fling it into the fire and never think on it again. Instead he placed the game on the table beside his chair. Then he leaned back, rubbing his hands over his face as he tried to forget all those long hours they spent playing Pac Man. Why couldn't he forget that man?
When Jazz turned up on his doorstep, Vlad was surprised. What could have happened to make her run away from home? Well, as she said, her father was an idiot. The world suddenly seemed to working in his favor. He still needed one final piece before the battle suit was finally complete. Then, Vlad smirked, it would be ready for testing, and now he had someone to do the testing for him. It wouldn't be long before Daniel came running to save his sister from the "evil Vlad Plasmius." Daniel truly was such a simple minded boy.
He wasn't fool enough to believe that she simply came to him after fighting with her brother. He wasn't blind to the fact that Jazz helped distract their parents so that Daniel could sneak off when the ghost invasion happened. She clearly knew about his ghost powers. For how long, he couldn't say, but that hardly seemed to matter. She didn't instill much trust in him when he stepped out of his secret laboratory to find her sitting in his private study.
And with that wretched yearbook in her lap too! When she folded the page questioning why he and Maddie didn't end up together, he almost ripped the book right out of her hands. Too close! He could almost see the edge of the picture that he so desperately tried to avoid. If Jazz folded the page over just a little more, he would be able to see that man again. He did the only thing he could think of at that time: distracted Jazz with a hug.
She may be perceptive, but Jazz wasn't very good at the sneakiness. She was here for a reason, and Vlad had a fairly good idea what that reason was. He caught her in his secret laboratory. She figured out about his super weapon, but that was just as well, since she would be testing it shortly. His luck continued when Skulker showed up with the final piece and Daniel wrapped up in a nice package for him.
The suit worked beautifully now that the fatal flaw was fixed. The siblings put on quite the show with their fight. It seemed almost too easy, manipulating them like this, using their bitterness toward each other to spark such malice to pit them against one another.
"Where did I go wrong?" Vlad shouted at his empty castle hours after the "battle" was fought. Jazz and Daniel got away, and the battle suit was destroyed. How could they possibly have outsmarted him? He had the upper hand the whole time. He knew all their moves. They danced like pawns for him in a game of chess. Could Jazz have realized everything from the beginning? The note left on the battle suit before it self-destructed read: No. Not surprised. She knew he had ghost powers before he transformed into Plasmius? Did Daniel tell her that? No, the boy wouldn't have told her. He didn't seem to like that Jazz was butting into his ghost hunting.
"This game isn't over yet, Daniel," Vlad growled as he stalked through the halls of his castle. "I still have many more plans." He paused on his way to his secret laboratory and pressed a hand to his head. But maybe he would get a little rest before continuing to work on that secret project.
PrincessBetty01: Danny only told the name Paulina to Ben. When he told Vlad about his first time, Danny only referred to her as a "really hot girl." So even if Vlad bothered to look at all the names of Danny's classmates, Paulina wouldn't stick out to him.
To everyone: Don't worry! Danny's coming! =D
