Phanniemay Day 6 - Anniversary

Twenty-Two Years

x - x - x

The flight home was short, as always. The trivial daily duties hadn't been enough of a distraction from the uncomfortable weight on his heart. Getting through the day without killing any of the mindless idiots surrounding him at the office had been a trying test. The paperwork crossing his desk had seemed especially dull, his responsibilities especially trite. Why did he even want this stupid city anyway?

He knew today he should feel a sense of accomplishment and success for how far he had come these past twenty-two years. But instead he felt strange. Hollow. The success he had built up around himself tasted like ash.

And now he was home. The windows were dark, as always, and all was quiet. Maddie would be stalking flies somewhere on the second floor, and she would likely ignore him when he found her or flit away when he tried to pet her. She was more interested with specks of dust and scratching at his expensive furniture than she was with Vlad.

The irony was not lost on him.

He landed on the step, inspecting the small yellow flowers growing up around the front path, barely visible in the dying light. Weeds. Filthy things, marring his landscape. He was just thinking about calling his gardener to scream at him, maybe unleashing some of the day's frustrations through a nice and healthy string of colorful language at the incompetent Neanderthal, when his ghost sense went off.

He grinned manically, presented with a more violent and satisfying method of venting his anger.

When he phased through the front door his ghost sense went crazy. There had to be, what, twenty ghosts around? What in the… He quickly summoned two ectoblasts, ready to attack at the slightest provocation.

"SURPRISE!"

The chandeliers all lit up at once, and surprised as he was Vlad didn't jump. All he could do was gape.

"Hey boss, you never said anything about the special occasion."

Vlad's left eyelid twitched as Skulker slapped him hard on the back. Special? Occasion? Somebody had strung colored streamers everywhere, neon orange and dark blue. There were balloons, there were ghosts, EVERYWHERE, these people had invaded his private abode and why? Why were they drinking punch as if he wasn't about to send them all back to their graves? What kind of sick twisted…

"Nice place," someone said behind him. Vlad turned, barely more confused than he was angry. It was that obnoxious girl who never put down the electric guitar. "You got surround sound in here or what, old man?" She held up a fistful of cords impatiently, which led back to a plethora of amps and other musical equipment.

Vlad's hands clenched into fists, but he couldn't even respond before someone was dropping a string of flowers around his neck. He ripped the lei off and threw it at the stupid green vulture that had leied him.

"What are you people doing in my house?!" Vlad screeched, his eyes flaring brightly.

Nobody so much as glanced his way, except for a solitary robed ghost who floated over and handed him a small ornate box, wrapped with a yellow ribbon. "Why, it's your party, don'tcha know!" The Dairy King waved amiably and drifted back toward the snack table. Vlad was squeezing the box so hard the cardboard crinkled and tore under the giftwrap. Another plastic lei fell onto his shoulders and he ground his teeth, ripping the box in half. A small cut of fresh white cheese fell to the floor with a thud.

Vlad closed his eyes, composing himself as he rested his forehead on his hand, deciding which of these intruders to slaughter first. All he'd wanted was a nice hot bath and perhaps an early retreat to bed.

"Vlad, you finally made it!"

Vlad's hand fell away from his face. His lips pressed into a thin line as yet another hand clapped his shoulder.

"The man of the hour! The guy we've all been waiting for!"

"Just what do you think you are doing, Daniel?"

"Don't know what you mean, Uncle Vlad!" Young Daniel floated around to face Vlad at eye level, grinning from ear to ear. "I'm just here for your party, like everyone else."

"Listen here you little teenage nightmare," Vlad seethed, grabbing a handful of his jumpsuit and holding a poised ectoblast right to the kid's irritatingly smug face. "Tell me what's going on right this instant or everyone in this room is going to be a pile of ectoplasmic dust, you hear me?"

"Oh Vlad, you always know how to put the life in the party," Daniel laughed, patting Vlad right on the face. "Such a kidder."

"You think I'm – "

Just then an explosion of ear-splitting music rent through the entire downstairs, and Vlad released Daniel to shield his ears from the awful noise. That wretched ghost must have figured out his sound system.

In that split second, Daniel was already gone, and Vlad spotted him up near the ceiling, throwing more streamers around the chandelier. There were so many that every time it moved, hundreds of streamers fluttered and some fell. They were already all over the floor and stuck with static to the free floating balloons. And why orange and blue, of all the colors?

"EVERYBODY STOP," Vlad yelled, sending a flare of energy at his speakers, destroying them with a loud explosive crash.

Everyone did stop, and stared at Vlad excitedly. "Speech!" someone yelled.

"Yeah, do a speech!"

Vlad felt like pulling his hair out. "I will not be doing a speech!" What he was about to do was going to be a lot more vicious.

Then suddenly Daniel was beside him, thrusting a glass into his hand. "That's alright, Vlad!" he sang cheerily. "I've already prepared one."

Before he could protest, Daniel had raised his own glass to the attentive crowd. "I think we all know why we're here today!" he said. Some of the liquid sloshed out of his cup onto Vlad's expensive wooden flooring, and he almost spat venom at the idiot child. "To celebrate an important date!"

"Daniel, where are you going with this?" Vlad hissed quietly. But Daniel ignored him, instead addressing the rest of the room.

"We've all known Vlad here for a very long time. Ah, Vlad. What a bastard," he said sweetly, his tone dripping with sarcasm. He gestured at Vlad's face with his drink-hand, sloshing a bit onto Vlad's nicest suit. "What a right perfect bitter old son of a bitch," he continued in a saccharine voice, as if he were doting on Vlad with the nicest of compliments. "What a piece of work."

Vlad's glass shattered under his iron grip. Little shards cut deep into his palm as the red punch dripped down his sleeve and onto the floor. Nobody took notice.

"Such a piece of work, and nobody even remembered your special day, except for me!"

Vlad's special day. So that's what this was about? But that didn't make any sense. "Why do you care about the day that I – "

"So I took it upon myself to throw Vlad a party!"

Daniel did this? All of this?

"See Vlad?" he said, nudging Vlad in the ribs. "I even got streamers! It's your favorite team's colors!"

Vlad's nostrils flared. "Orange and blue are the Bears' colors, you moron."

"Oh," Daniel said, his expression falling. "Are the Bears not your favorite team?"

Vlad shook, wondering whether it was worth it to point out the shelves and shelves of Packers paraphenelia around the room, the wall-sized tapestry that said PACKERS quite clearly, well within Daniel's eyesight. It was not worth it at all, he decided.

"No."

A look of comprehension came across the boy and he slapped his palm to his forehead. "That's right," he chuckled. "The Bears are my dad's favorite team, silly me. And you're not my dad. What a funny mistake."

Vlad phased the glass from his palm, ready to punch the little squirt right in the face – although maybe it would hurt more if he left the glass in….

"But, I suppose it does fit the occasion," Danny went on, with a manic little gleam in his eye. "Considering what today is!"

"And just what exactly is today?" Ember asked from the corner, leaning lazily on her upright guitar. "You weren't very specific."

"I'm glad you asked," he replied cheerily. "Today marks a very important anniversary."

"Yes, but why do you care about the day I got my powers?" Vlad spat.

Daniel only laughed. "That's not the anniversary I meant." He pointed his thumb at Vlad, again addressing the room full of unwelcome guests. "This asshole," he laughed, like he was giving some drunken Best Man's speech. "Oh man, I need a second." Danny paused, glancing over at Vlad so smugly that Vlad was almost nervous for a moment. "Twenty-two years ago my dad ruined Vlad's life forever and ever. He got the girl of Vlad's dreams, the family he could never have dreamt of, and the happily ever after which he never deserved."

Daniel raised his glass again, which was almost empty now, and beamed at the crowd of ghosts which he usually spent his time battling with. "So here's to Vlad Masters, and another twenty-two years of aching loneliness. Another twenty-two years of pining over someone who will never love you and spilling your unrequited love onto a cat who doesn't love you either." Here he turned finally back to Vlad, who felt so enraged he was about to physically implode, and Daniel was almost glowing as he basked in his victory. "Another twenty-two years of having no son and no one to love you. What a wonderful life." He drained his drink and shattered the empty glass on the floor.

"Enjoy your party, asshole!" he sang, flying away to the snack table.

Before Vlad could explode, the wail of Ember's guitar split through the air, meaning anything he might have said in response would have gone utterly unheard. But a dragon of fury had awoken inside Vlad, and he was ready for murder. The only question was how to turn these intrusive ghosts into ecto-pancakes without destroying his lovely home.

No one was even looking at Vlad anymore. Most were dancing. Someone was swinging from his chandelier. Orange and blue streamers fell like rain on the crowd. Jack's favorite team. Maddie's favorite team. He wanted to incinerate every godforsaken decoration in this room – and he would start with the snack table, where the snarky little Jack Jr. had taken up residence. Daniel would payfor this.

But when he flew over, ready to turn Daniel into a little smear of ghost on his hardwood floor, his anger went out, like the balloons over in the corner where the Box Ghost was systematically popping them and startling himself. His own cat, his precious little girl, had emerged from beneath the table and was rubbing up against Daniel's legs.

The cat meowed up at him, and Daniel meowed back, setting aside his new drink to pet her on the head. Even over the music Vlad could hear her start to purr.

Daniel spotted Vlad's feet, and quickly stood up, which made Maddie start meowing again. Danny laughed at her, the way she was pawing at his shins. "Man Vlad, even your cat likes me better."

"Your sense of humor needs some work," Vlad seethed.

"No way. I'm hilarious," Danny insisted. "See, I even got you a cake. Come and see."

Against his better judgment, Vlad drifted over to the table, where a two-layered cake sat next to the rows and rows of his own finest glassware, which Daniel must have raided from his kitchen. Vlad glared down at it blankly, beyond anger at this point.

"This one is actually Sam's gift to you, since she paid for it," Daniel went on, chattering over Vlad's shoulder. "Isn't it great?"

A second Daniel stared up at him from the cake, perfectly rendered in frosting, grinning like an idiot and sticking up both middle fingers.

"The cake decorator was confused and it took some persuasion, but they got it just right! I mean, try to tell me it doesn't look just like me." Vlad furiously swiped the cake away, sending it flying off the table and taking about thirty delicate glasses with it to shatter against the wall. He turned to Daniel, ready to retort, and saw him mimicking the cake exactly, flipping him off with the merriest of smiles. "Flawless copy, am I right? Oh, hi kitty."

Daniel abandoned the pose to pick up Maddie, who had gone back to pawing at his shins, and rubbing her face on his shoes. He ignored Vlad once more as he rubbed her belly, something which Vlad had once tried to do and ended up with a scratch all the way across his face.

That was the final straw.

"I'm going to bed," Vlad said to nobody, and left Daniel to bond with his cat. Nobody noticed him leaving.

And when flew went downstairs in the morning, still groggy with sleep and half-dreaming, he had almost forgotten about the whole thing. Until he saw the disaster that had become of his house. He duly decided to call someone to have it cleaned by the time he came home from work, and decided he would not think about it again.

At least, until he went outside, ready to depart for the office, and saw Daniel had left him one last message, in scraps of orange and blue streamers strewn all across his lawn.

Happy anniversary dickweed!

He was going to need something really painful to get Daniel back for this.

**as an afterthought: i felt i should remind everyone all the very shitty things vlad did to danny… like kidnap him, repeated attempts to murder his dad, lusting after his mom, cloning him w/out permission.. you name it. and danny's freakin 14 yrs old. hes not cruel, but he wouldnt pass up an opportunity to rub in the ONE thing he has to hold over vlad's head