Halloween is a fun time for all - unless you're the average citizen of Amity Park.
Chapter Thirty Six - Halloween
::
"Any more problems with Paulina?" Danny sighed as he and his friends walked to school, feeling more exhausted than usual. It was an effort just to focus on walking. "You know, besides the fact Miss Priss knows your secret."
"I...I was trying not to think about that, but, thanks, Val. That really helped." Feeling the pat to his back, Danny sighed again. "I mean, I knew I couldn't keep my secret forever, but for Paulina to figure it out? That...that's just vaguely insulting."
"Never underestimate the obsessive need and power of a fangirl," Tucker nodded wisely, Sam and Valerie both giving him raised eyebrows. "Hey, I speak the truth! She hasn't told anyone, I don't think, at least- Except Wes, who's been trying to prove you're Phantom since the beginning."
"What?! And you never thought to tell me this?!" Danny panicked, clutching his chest in terror, heart pounding. "How many people know?! Oh my god, I'll have to go into hiding, I'm doomed. I thought it was just you guys- But no, I've been an idiot. Of course others would figure it out. And if they can, what's to stop my parents from figuring it out?!"
"Whoa, Danny, calm down," Sam soothed, putting her hands on Danny's shoulders and attempting to calm him down. "We do interference all the time, I mean, they only have suspicions. We never told you because we knew you'd worry. It's fine-"
"It's not fine! If they can figure it out, what's to stop my mom from figuring it out?! She's been studying ghosts half her life, you think she won't piece this together if others are starting to?! What's to stop me from ending up strapped down to that lab table and being cut open?! What's to stop them from enacting out every single nightmare I've had about them since I was ten?!" Cutting himself off, his eyes widened as he realized what he had said, hands covering his mouth.
"Danny-" The teen vanished, changing into Phantom as soon as he was clear, and heading for anywhere but school. He was halfway to...somewhere, when he felt someone collide with him in midair. Groaning, he looked up, smiling widely as he saw someone rubbing their own head.
"Oow, why do you keep running into me?!" Elle asked in a huff, laughing as she was tackled into a hug. "Seriously, you need to look at where you're going!"
"Hey, you're the one who's always crashing," Danny complained, poking the girl's side and smiling at the startled laughter. "Has the mighty Princess of Roaming finally decided to grace Amity Park with her presence?"
"I find that rude," Elle whined, smile on her face anyways. "And yes, I have! Although Daddy's been keeping me up to date." She must mean Clockwork, then. Which, really, he should have expected that. The ghost was the doting type. "I hear someone got himself a boyfriend~"
"Oh, hush, you," Danny muttered, poking her sides again. He was elbowed in his stomach for his trouble, which led to an hour long chase through Amity Park, the two finally collapsing in the park, both exhausted. "So, what trouble have you been getting into?"
"Every kind of it, of course," Elle laughed, sitting up and soaking in the weak rays of the sun, autumn leaves falling down from the trees around them. "I spent summer in Japan, so that was cool. I decided to come back and visit Amity for Halloween, though."
"As you should! What better place than the town crawling with ghosts?" Danny half asked, sitting up himself. "So, how long are you staying this time?"
"November 1st and I'm on a path straight to New York." At the raised eyebrow, she gave a shrug. "I want to see if it's as great as everyone says."
"Fair enough, make sure to be careful though- Yeah, yeah, I know, you can take care of yourself. As official older brother, though, I have the right to worry!"
"You're as protective as Jazzy." Elle squealed as she was suddenly drawn into another tickle attack, the chase back on through the skies of Amity Park. It was around noon when Danny finally told her about half the school thinking he was Phantom. "Well, they're not wrong."
"That's the problem. How am I supposed to convince them I'm not?! I mean, duplication is obviously out, there has to be something." Elle shrugged, thinking it over.
"Maybe you could make a show of catching 'Phantom' in the thermos?" Danny only groaned, flopping onto the ground in defeat. "You're doomed, aren't you?"
"Yeah...I think I'm doomed. If I'm lucky, though, they just won't say anything." At Elle's look, he gave a sigh. "I know...I'm really doomed."
::
After bidding farewell to Elle, who had gone off to find Jazz and Clockwork, Danny managed to make it back to his room before he collapsed, ghost form fading into his human one. Panting heavily, he slumped to the floor, too weak to even scream at the pain in his back. He was used to it hurting, but this felt so much worse. Like he was being torn apart at the seams, picked apart one thread at a time.
"He's too young! Why would you agree to let him have the position?!" Danny groaned at the distant words that echoed in his ears, trying to swat them away, only to let out a whimper at the stab of pain to his back. "He's nothing but a child! Young, untrained, volatile- Do you know how much could go wrong?!"
"You worry far too much. You know we are hardly in control of these matters. He was picked because he was meant for it. It's as simple as that." Flashes of red and gold and black. Flashes that had him gritting his teeth and clutching his head, shivers running through him. "I have a good feeling about him. He may not have been born for the task...but I have no doubt he'll accomplish it with grace."
"Shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up." They had been wrong. They had been so, so, so wrong, and they had paid for it, were paying for it, and they would always pay for it. There was no escaping the fate they had been given.
"You trust too easily...that might just be your downfall one day…"
"Seeing the good in others, and trusting, are two entirely different matters, my dear."
It was night when the snatches of conversations he had heard faded away to nothing, Danny tiredly uncurling himself and crawling for the bed, pulling himself up and collapsing into a heap. He knew he wasn't exactly healthy, but it had never been this bad… Voices in his head? Pain that kept getting worse? Things he shouldn't be seeing?
It was ridiculous, and pointless. His body already tortured him enough, his mind didn't need to help. If only he could actually get some rest without being woken up by pain or nightmares. That would be a blessing. Just silent, still rest. A rest where it was just...peaceful. Like fading, he supposed. That might be nice… Fading away…
Jerking up with a startled gasp at realizing just what he had been thinking, Danny looked down to his hands in terror. No, just his imagination… It had to be. It had to be. Tucking his arms closer to him, and pulling his knees up, the teen shuddered, burying his head in his knees.
"Just my imagination. Just my imagination. Please just be my imagination…" He was only sixteen. He still had so much to do! He knew- But sixteen. Shaking his head again, Danny let out a shaky sigh, voice weak. "Please be my imagination...please don't let me be fading…"
He didn't want to die...not again.
::
"Just for the record, I think this is a terrible idea," Tucker stated, looking at the ghosts and human assembled around him, pharaoh outfit on him instead of his usual clothes. "A massive Amity Park Haunt Fest? I just...this won't end well. It can't."
"You can take the candy that the terrified kids drop," Elle suggested sweetly, Tucker giving her a flat look before slowly grinning.
"This is going to be the best day." Jazz sighed as she massaged her temples, wondering if it was too late to escape this crazy mess before it got worse. At the light tap to her shoulder, she glanced back to see a human Clockwork, still dressed in his timekeeper clothing.
"They dragged you into this too?" At the weary sigh, she gently patted him on the shoulder. "Couldn't say no?"
"I am remarkably weak when they team up," he muttered, sighing again as Danny and Elle both flew over to hug him, grinning widely. "I regret telling you about ghosts who haunt humans for fun."
"As you should!" Danny grinned widely, bouncing up and down in his rather cliche hero costume. He was in his ghost form, still, but with the added addition of a rather well made Hawkeye costume, fake arrows and bow on his back, well, they all assumed it was fake. "Come on, have a little fun! This will be great!"
"I'm in agreement with petit mec!" Randy grinned, twirling his guns and putting them back in his holsters, every inch of the cliche wild west star. "This is going to be great! Plus, half the ghosts are in on it too- Wait...where's Andy?" At Danny's evil cackle, the others all slowly looked at him in worry, remembering that Hawkeye, while a hero, had also at one point been a villain.
"He, ah, he lost a bet," Danny grinned wickedly, disappearing upstairs and returning moments later with a blushing Andrew, who was wearing a rather well fitted Black Widow costume. "He learned not to make bets with me."
"Petit mec...I love you," Randy quietly said, reaching for his own phone to take a picture, whining as it was snapped in half by a knife. "Where are you even keeping those?!"
"I will kill you as you sleep, brother," Andrew hissed, looking ready to throw a knife at anyone else who commented. "Death upon your head." Danny only smiled, kissing the writer's cheek.
"Now, let's go!" Bouncing for the door again, he laughed as Elle was already there, masked thief costume swirling around her. Sam was taking pictures of all the costumes, amused that Danny had found a way to have him and Andrew wear couple costumes. "Oh, yeah, I also enlisted some help."
"Define...help," Valerie finished her sentence with a sigh, at seeing just who was outside Fenton Works. Two stone lions, as well as a monster formed Cujo, all wagging their tails. Danny was the first to fly over and scratch behind Cujo's ear, Elle eagerly flying over to pet one of the lions. "Isn't that the dog who tried to destroy my life?"
"Aw, he's such a sweetie though!" Danny cooed, laughing as Cujo tried to hug him back as best he could. "Plus, the lions really like him. I think he's Alpha of their little pack." As the others talked and argued, Jazz looked to Andrew, raising an eyebrow at the look she was being given.
"Alice? Really?"
"Why not, everyday feels like I've fallen down a rabbit hole," Jazz snorted, watching with slight worry as the Phantoms discussed something quietly and then tackled Clockwork back inside, much to his displeasure. "What do you bet they're changing his costume?"
"Most likely," Andrew nodded, wondering if he could survive Danny's sadness if he destroyed his costume. He probably couldn't, but he might be willing to try. "Probably to match yours." At the look, Andrew grinned. "Half of tonight's candy haul."
"Deal," Jazz grinned, shaking hands and then watching as Danny and Elle came back out, dragging a reluctant Clockwork with them, who looked ready to trap them in the Fenton Thermos himself. The Mad Hatter costume on him was obvious. "Son of a bitch."
"I shall enjoy eating your candy tonight, Jasmine," Andrew grinned, sighing as one of the stone lions came over to nudge him back to the others. "Blasted things."
"Now! Onwards into the night!" Danny dramatically declared, Valerie throwing her shield at his head, smiling at the glare she was given as he dodged it, shield coming back to her with a handy piece of ghost tech.
"Someone had to do it," she shrugged, leaping on top of one of the lions and standing astride, arms crossed in her Lady Sif costume. "Tonight is about terrifying Amity, not looking cute."
"I am in agreement for once," Sam nodded, pulling herself up on her own lion, sitting daintily in her gothic queen dress on the lion's head, smile fair but wicked. "Let's show Amity just who they should be fearing."
"ONWARDS!" Elle cackled, on Cujo's back, as they all rushed forward, Danny humming as he floated next to Andrew and Randy's sides.
"This may have been a terrible plan…"
Six hours, one terrorized town, five traumatized ghost hunters, three crying little kids, forty screaming teenagers, and candy to last until Easter.
It had been a great plan.
You have all the pieces, but I wonder...can you put the puzzle together before the last page?