Chapter 8: Secrets and way more lies!
Danny became nervous. His sister sound really worried and now she told him to leave Vlad's house as soon as possible! Danny turned around again to keep sure that Vlad was not listening. He was still sitting in the dinning-room and talked with Sam. So he was distracted.
"Okay, Jazz... what's going on?"
"Danny... As I said, we made some research. He told you that he and our parents estranged. But I figured out that there was a reason for it. Looks like he tried to sue our father." Jazz told.
"WHAT?!" Danny jelled. He catched Vlad's and Sam's attention.
"Is everything allright, Danny?" Sam yelled.
"YEAH, YEAH...Fine!... Jazz, what happened between them?"
"Well I asked that myself, too. So I called our parents former college in Madison. And after some persuation, they told me about an terrible accident our father was involved in. In March 1960 our parents and Mister Masters worked together on a project. Something went wrong. The half lab blew up, some windows were shattered and guess who got hurt so badly that he was hospitalized for months...?"
"Vlad?" Danny whispered.
"Exactly... Vlad tried to take proceedings against our father. He filled applications. He tried to convince the college to expel him. But he was not sucessfull and instead he left. After that Vlad Master's story became really interesting... He became sucessful. Companies were transfered to him, he was so sucessful in the stock market... his fortune is estimated to be around 4 to 5 billion Dollar..."
"Maybe he was just lucky? Or he made the right decissions?" Danny said. But suddenly he remembered the car. The V-belt suddenly ripped just minutes after they left. And he was so friendly, to them. If he really has a grudge against his father, why he is so friendly to them... "Jazz, he told me something that... no... I can't tell you that over the phone."
"Why you left so suddenly to visit him?"
"Oh,... Our mother's ghost jumped threw a vortex into our living-room and demolished our living-room." Danny explained. Jazz was just silent. She was too confused and too shocked to respond to this. "Okay... right after breakfast we will depart. And as soon as we have mobile service again we will call you. How are the kids?"
"They are fine!"
"Good! Greet them from me! If something happens we will come to your place tonight! Would that be okay?"
"Sure! Of course!"
"Good! Good bye, Jazz!"
"Bye! And... be careful, Danny!"
Danny hang off and looked around again. Vlad just lift up from his chair to walk around the table. So he propably didn't listen to his conversation with Jazz. Vlad meanwhile talked with Sam the whole time. He told her a very sad story about his late wife and why he was able to figure out about Sam's pregnancy...
"My wife and I tried to have children for years. We wanted to have a family. Two years after we married she became pregnant. We were so happy... well... until that day she lost it..."
"Oh, I am so sorry!" Sam said. As a mother, it really touched her.
"She had three miscarriages. We never figured out why. I blamed myself. She blamed herself. When she died... my world broke apart. Honestly... I asked myself for the sense of life..." Vlad told before Danny carefully entered the dinning-room again.
"Hey, are you fine?" Danny asked.
"Oh, yeah... we were talking about your kids!" Vlad said with a bright smile. "Oh, you are so lucky Daniel!"
"Ehm... Thank you! Vlad... when do you think our car will be ready...?"
"I can ask Ivan!"
"Can I come with you? I would really like to thank Ivan personally!" Danny said.
"Well... he is pretty shy!" Vlad told.
Suddenly Danny thought that it was a curious circumstance that thier car broke down right when they arrived in Wisconsin to be 'trapped' here...
"Ehm... We are very grateful for your help and your hospitality... but we have to go now. Really... our house, we have to repair the damages in our living-room and... fix everything before our kids come home..."
"Aww... I admit that it is really sad that you already leave me..." Vlad said.
Just one hour later, both packed up everything and walked to thier car that was parked right in front of the main-entrace. So far they hadn't seen 'Ivan' or any other person. But this place was them not kosher anymore. They just had to get out. They would go home, get some clouthes and spend the next night in Jazz' house in Chicago. They wanted to talk with her about her 'research' and would hope that thier house isn't haunted anymore before they return with the kids...
Vlad accompained them to the car. Just to be careful, Danny opened the engine cowling to check the motor before they turn it one. For some reason he was afraid that the old junk blows up as soon as they turn it on. But everything looked normal. Vlad handed a basket with 'travel provisions' to Sam...
"Take this for your ride... A little present."
"A little?!" Sam asked. Actually that basket was full with various staff. Fruits, vegetables, sweets, dairy products. That was not just 'travel provisions' that was a 'supermarket-trip'.
"A present!" Vlad just repeated. "Something for your kids and for you. In your condition you need to eat."
Vlad whispered the last sentence to her. Sam could only shrug and nood, placing the basket on the rear seat...
"I'll tell him today!" she murmured looking on Danny, who still checked the car, the tires and the rest of the car. "Thank you... for everything."
"Okay... were ready to leave!" Danny said when he approached them. "Vlad, once again... thank you for everything."
"You're always welcome here..." Vlad said again. "And please promise to call."
"We will." Danny said when he and Sam entered the car and Danny carefully turned on the motor. It ran smooth and sound like new. "And tell Ivan, that we are grateful for the repair of our car. We will retaliate..."
"I'll tell him. Oh... before you leave... avoid using the Interstate 90. There are floodings around Janesville after the storm last night. You better use the Highway 51."
"Thank you, Vlad. See you next time." Danny said and drove away. Both could see Vlad standing there. Winking and smiling before he turned around and slowly entered his house again.
"Gosh... is this guy scary!" Sam finally busted out. "Danny, you are not following his advice to use the 51 instead of the Interstate, don't you?"
"Of course!" Danny said after they left the property and followed the road back to the Interstate. "I mean... yeah he is very helpful to us. He repaired our car for free, gave me the photo of my parents... but... I don't know how to explain it..."
"He is scary!" Sam finished his sentence. "Call me crazy but I can feel that something is wrong with this guy..."
"Now that you say it, Jazz mentioned something at the phone!" Danny said and told her what Jazz told her earlier. Sam became pensive and told him about her nightmare last night. About how she was attacked by 'Dash' and other dead A-listeners and about how she found Danny 'floating' in a green energy in a laboratory, observed by a 'vampire'...
Danny was surprised. Telling her about his dream where he could fly... what a coincidence! Just minutes later both realized that Vlad did not lie when he warned them about the Interstate... The road was flooded and the police diverted the traffic to the now overburden highway...
They did not know how long they needed to get out of Wisconsin. But it was way longer than the other day. When they passed the border to Illionis in Beloit, Sam remembered her cell phone again. She had service again... she wanted to call thier friends. Danny meanwhile thought about making a stop at a hardware store to get everything to repair the damages in the living-room before Sam suddenly start to scream...
"GOSH... WHAT...?" Sam yelled while she talked with thier friends over the phone. "Why did you did that?... NO!... Don't let them in... I don't want them to see the mess inside... we will be there in... gosh... we are still in Beloit... 23 miles... ehm... 30 minutes... lure them away... DANNY, FASTER..."
"What? What happened?" Danny asked. "I thought we..."
"Danny, my parents came to visit us!" Sam told.
Danny was so shocked that he almost lost control over the car. That was not good and Danny drove faster. Unfortunately they already waited for them when they arrived on thier driveway...
The thing with Jeremy and Pam Manson was, that they never approved to Sam's and Danny's friendship and later marriage, too. When the kids were born they tried at least to act like a 'loving-family'. It was obvious that they deeply love the kids but not the kid's father. When Danny's health-condition became worse, there were this signs... sings that let both look like that they were looking forward for Danny to just fall down dead and to pair Sam off with a snobish heir from thier golf-club...
And now they stood in Danny's and Sam's driveway. Thier hands on the hips, looking mad and reproachful. That was a very bad timing for one of thier surprise-visits. They could have at least called before taking a plane all the way from California...
"What are you two doing here?" Sam asked, trying to act surprised. But honestly she was not happy to have them here now. They shouldn't see the chaos in the living-room. "I mean... what a surprise!"
"Oh, Pam and Jeremy... nice to see you, again..." Danny said friendly. He always tried to have a better relationship to his parents in law. He gave up to 'befriend' them but at least he still tried to have a 'normal' relationship to them. He even converted to Judaism, but they were convinced that he only did that because he dislikes Christmas. "You came... surprisingly..."
"Yeah... we got a weird call..." Sam's father began. "...and we thought it would be a good idea to look for you... But when we arrived we found your house empty..."
Danny and Sam looked on each other. Both don't dare to tell them the truth, that they fled because the house was haunted. Instead they just told that they were visiting a 'friend in Wisconsin' overnight. It was the truth and would explain why they were not here.
"We did not expect you..." Sam said, trying to smile.
"It's a bit embarrassing, we did not tidy up before..." Danny smiled, too.
"Aww... let me guess... you want to hide that you are living in untidiness. Let us in there... now..." Jeremy Manson insisted, pointing on the locked door.
Danny and Sam realized that they were 'busted'. Sooner or later they would had seen the damages anyway. Mentally both prepared for thier reproaches and thier ranting for not beeing able to keep a house clean or to be haunted... With trembling hands Sam unlocked the door...
"Please, what ever you see... there is an explanation for it." Sam said. But when she opened the door she had no explanaition... "DANNY!"
When Sam screamed, Danny passed his in-laws to look after her. She just pointed into the living-room: The mess was gone...
Both stormed into the living-room to check everything. Just to check if this is true or just imagination. The mess was gone, everything was back on it's place (at least off the ground), everything was cleaned, the damaged furniture was repaired... And to conclude the confusion, the whole room was cleaned. The first thing Pam was doing was of course looking for dust. Checking with a white glove some surfaces but much to her surprise (or disappointment) she found nothing. Danny and Sam meanwhile continued checking everything. Thier missing pictures and the other stuff was back. But some stuff was not on it's right place. They saw it. Like the people who tidied up, did not know where to place it. Without talking to the elder Manson's, Danny and Sam checked the rest of the house...
The kitched was cleaned, too. The laundry was done. There was a little 'fixed' note on the washing-mashine and on the dishwasher. Someone really repaired them! The garden was watered. Both wanted to check upstair's, too but Pam and Jeremy stopped them...
"Why do you two act so weird?" Jeremy asked.
"And since when you are able to afford a maid... there is no way that your husband is such a good homemaker that he..." Pam said before Danny and Sam passed them again to go to the living-room again.
There they saw a bunch of flowers in a vase on the coffee-table. The vase was from thier living-room closet but the flowers were definetely from a foreigner. There was an envelope inbetween the flowers. Carefully Danny took the envelope to open it, while Sam confronted her parents...
"Are they from you?" Sam asked upset. Her parents denied. "Gosh... someone burglarized in here!"
"To clean the house?" Danny asked back when he finally took the letter out of the envelope. It was a letter...
'Dear Danny and Sam! We are very very sorry for scaring you! We had no clue that our experiment goes so terribly wrong. Please accept our appology and we hope you get well soon! For safety reasons, just replace your TV with a new one. Looks like it disturbed our signals. And don't worry we won't spy you out anymore. Best regards Jack and Maddie Fenton from a parallel dimension. PS: We saw the movie and are sorry for the fight. And you two make pretty nice children...'
"Is this a sick joke?" Danny asked shocked.
"Which experiment?" Sam asked. "They spied us out...?!"
"Ehm, hello?! What is going on here?" Sam's father asked, now a bit mad.
Danny and Sam suddenly rememembered them and took them to the kitchen. Danny prepared some coffee while Sam took her parents away from the living-room...
The timing of them was such horrible. If things hadn't been weird enough by now, they definetely became now. While Danny prepared coffee and figured out that the 'burglar' also cleaned inside the closets, Sam told her parents that they were in Wisconsin and therefore did not expect them here today. That the kids were with thier aunt in Chicago now and that they planned to join them today...
Danny came to the table with the coffee and with some of the cookies they got from Vlad. But his in-laws realized that something was wrong and that they were hiding something from them. After a few more attempts to deny everything, Sam finally confessed to them at least the belivable parts of the recent events. She tried to not sound crazy but she also told them about Vlad...
Hearing Vlad's name... her father spit out his coffee in shock... "VLADIMIR MASTERS!"
"You know him?" Danny asked.
"Your parents were befriended to Vladimir Masters?" Jeremy asked surprised and shocked. "How... Vladimir Masters is and was definetely not in your parent's league..."
Danny showed them the photo he recieved from Vlad and told them the story about them beeing in college together. He did not tell what Jazz told him later...
"What a surprise... Who ever expected that your parents have normal friends?" Pam said, kind of condescending.
"Well... normal sounds a bit... exaggarated!" Danny said, telling them about the castle, the spooky and mysterious atmosphere there, his wife...
"WHOA... Wait... He is married?!" Sam's father asked surprised. "Since when?"
"Ehm... We don't know... but she died a few years ago..." Sam continued.
"Accorcding to what we know about him, is that he was never married... because he is still grieving about his lost love from college..." Jeremy told... right in this moment the phone start to rang.
Danny, still surprised about his in-laws statement, stood up to pick up the phone. He saw the big painting... well not the face of the woman but this and Jazz' statement today in the morning made Vlad more suspicious. But why he should had lie to them? Danny picked up the phone.
"Hello?"
"Daniel, hello! This is Vlad speaking!" Danny avoid to moan. "I hope I don't disturb. But I just wanted to check that you two arrived well?"
"Oh Vlad..., yeah... we did!" Danny told and remembered that he promised Vlad to call when they arrive but he forgot due to the arrival of Sam's parents. "Oh... sorry... Sam's parents showed up for a surprise visit... and..."
Suddenly another cold shiver ran down his back... And Danny could see a cold blue breath of air leaving his mouth... His whole body was tickling. He felt something... something was in the air. It was like someone was trying to touch him but he couldn't see it. Worried, he looked on the wall again. He did not see anything but he could feel thier eyes watching him...
"Daniel...? Are you still there?" Vlad asked over the phone.
"Sorry, Vlad... may I call you back..." Danny said before he heared a voice screaming.
"NOOO!"
Danny was so scared that he almost dropped the horn. Sam and her parents in the kitchen heared it, too.
"Danny? Are you allright?" Sam asked. "Why you screamed?"
"Yes, Sam I am fine! And I did not scream!" Danny yelled back. When he wanted to talk to Vlad again he felt someone grabbing the phone in his hand and tried to rip it out of his hand. "AGHH..."
"Don't trust him..." Danny heared a young male voice saying right next to him and suddenly 'it' appeared again.
Hearing her husband's scream, Sam lift up to look after him. Only to see a floating something right next to her husband that tried to rip the phone out of his hand...
"Danny, what... AAAGGHHHH..." Sam screamed when she saw the white-haired boy, without legs floating right next to her husband.
"Oh, SSHHH... Don't scream... I can explain..." the 'ghost' said before turning invisible.
"Daniel? What's going on?" Vlad asked over the phone. But the ghost was finally able to switch of the phone by pushing the button on the reciever...
"AAGHHHH... WHAT IS THAT FOR A THING!" Pam screamed, seeing the floating ghost.
"A GHOST!" Jeremy screamed too and together with his wife, he ran out of the house.
"Please, stop screaming...!" the ghost screamed, too. "I'll explain everything... I am you!"
Danny was terrified. It was talking to him. Demanding to be him! Him? He was never ever this floating something! So why it claimed to be him...
"NO! HELP! HELP! POLICE!" Danny screamed so loud that even the neighbours could hear him...
The 'ghost' meanwhile used his hand to hold Danny's mouth while Sam tried to beat him with a book to safe her husband from the monster...
"OWCH... PLEASE... I... OWCH..." the 'ghost' wailed when Sam hit him with the book. "LET ME EXPLAIN..."
Danny tried to beat the thing, too. He felt his blood pressure dropping again. He felt dazed. Everything became blurred... he could feel his body becoming heavier again. In a few seconds he will fade away again. Sam meanwhile tried to scare away the floating something but it turned intaingible and so he hit her husband with the book instead of it's attacker...
"Get away from my husband!" Sam screamed.
The 'ghost' meanwhile realized that the adult Danny became unconscious again...
"OH NO! Not again... what is the problem with him?" the 'ghost' asked just a second before a loud roar let the house shake again...
Sam turned around just to see another big 'monster' to break threw the wall and grabbing her husband and the other ghost...
Please Review.
This is the last chapter of 2020. I wish all my readers very happy holidays. Merry Christmas, Happy Chanuka as well as a good and healthy start into 2021. The next chapter will be published around middle or end of January.