Happy 4th, y'all! Don't forget to leave milk and cookies out for Captain America tonight!
Chapter 22: Danny
I turned around and found Walker floating behind me. Why didn't I sense his approach? He's a ghost. My ghost sense should have gone off. "Walker," I growled. "What're you doing here?"
He chuckled darkly. "That staff really must work like a dream. We've had this conversation more times than I've bothered to keep track of."
My eyebrows drew together in confusion. "Freakshow?" I wondered. "Did you bust him out of prison?"
"Actually," Walker pointed behind me, "she did."
I rushed to turn around only to be hit in the stomach by a green ectoblast. I cried out in pain as the fiery green ball threw me into the side of a building, leaving me stuck inside the wall. A green-skinned ghost in a cloak with spikes on her head and millions of tattoos floated before me. I instantly recognized her. I couldn't remember her name, but she was from Freakshow's circus, and she was very powerful.
I fisted my hand to ready an ectoblast, but the ghost's tattoos lifted off of her skin and flew towards me, wrapping around my torso and binding my hands to my sides. She used her ghostly tattoos to drag me out of the wall and force me down to the ground, the air instantly leaving my lungs at the impact. I struggled against the binds, but they were as impenetrable as my dad's ghost shield.
"There's no use in struggling, little Ghost Boy," another voice taunted, a voice that froze me in place the instant I heard it.
"Freakshow," I muttered.
The second I said his name, the few remaining tattoos on the female ghost's body lifted off of her skin and wrapped themselves around my mouth, choking me.
"Thank you, Lydia," Freakshow said, walking into my field of view. His red staff was in his hand, and the instant I saw it, I closed my eyes. I was not going through that again.
A chuckle reached my ears. I wasn't sure who it belonged to, but Freakshow was the one who spoke next. "Every time."
There was a moment of silence, but there was a strange feeling inside of me. The same sleepiness from earlier was growing stronger, but this was not a time to fall asleep.
I sensed Freakshow's presence come a little closer and get down on my level. "Open your eyes," he ordered.
Everything in me refused to, but that didn't seem to matter. I opened my eyes. I looked straight towards the sky, straining to look anywhere but the red staff. Walker glided behind me, grabbing the sides of my head. I shook my head from side to side, fighting him. But the binds around me began to squeeze me tighter and tighter. Spots in my vision formed, and I quickly grew too weak to fight Walker. He forced me to look straight into the red crystal that adorned the top of the staff.
The red in my vision must not have been from the sunset. The familiar red mist started to fill my eyesight, and Freakshow stood again. "Sleep."