.
Danny pulled himself out of an uneasy but necessary nap as the GAV came to a stop. Last night's encounter with Superbia had left him drained, and, unlike his battle with Gula, he didn't have the advantage of being at home, in his haunt, near his portal, the other expression of himself.
"Time to wake up, everyone!" said Dad. "We're here."
Danny wanted to just go back to sleep, but Dad opened the door, so he peeled himself off the car seat and stumbled out. He smacked his lips loudly, yawned, and looked up at the building they had parked in front of. It was a pretty house. Three stories, painted blue. White trim. A wraparound porch with a swing bench.
"Where're we?" he asked, rubbing one eye. Fighting Superbia had taken a lot out of him, and he'd only been able to doze on the subsequent drive to… wherever this was.
"Borden Bed and Breakfast," said Dad, with only a shadow of his usual enthusiasm. "You don't, er, sense anything, do you, Danno?"
Danny blinked sleepily at the building. "No," he said, finally. "Need to look around t'make sure, though." He yawned again. "Sleepy."
"Wait, wait," said Jazz, "this's another one of your friends? Already?"
"Well… Yes? Eliza and Bethany own the place."
"They're twins. They were interested in telepathy and other psychic abilities," said Mom, pulling luggage out from the back of the GAV. "At least at first. Later, we were able to turn them on to ghosts, a little but they were… How would you describe it, Jack?"
"Wishy-washy," said Dad. "Always had an excuse not to do work. Fun to be around, though."
Mom leaned in conspiratorially. "They were the two laziest people I've ever met," she said. "Wanted to use ghosts to, I don't know, make bargains with to do chores. Like they were some kind of, I don't know, demons that could be summoned to do things." Mom snorted. "Completely wrong-headed. Even if they got their hands on something real, they wouldn't put the effort in to use it."
"Mhm," said Danny, dubious, but too tired to argue. He really didn't sense ghosts, or anything else for that matter, so it was probably fine.
"Come on, we'll introduce you while we check in. Don't be surprised if things are a little… dusty."
Jazz muttered something about cleanliness and beds. Danny had stopped listening and was now just following along behind his parents, almost blindly. Everything just sort of buzzed in the background.
They went up the stairs on the porch and Mom rang the doorbell. Was it normal to ring a doorbell to get into a bed and breakfast? It wasn't normal for hotels. Danny rubbed his eyes and endeavored to be a little more self-aware and less zombie-like. Even if he was a member of the living dead.
A rotund woman opened the door and greeted Mom with surprise and joy.
"Maddie!" she said. "We weren't expecting you for another two days."
"Sorry, Eliza. Our plans changed," said Mom. "I hope it isn't a problem…"
"Not at all! We're having a bit of a slow stretch. You're our only guests right now. We're wide open." A smile stretched across her face. "Come on in." She stood to the side.
"These must be your children," she continued, as Danny and Jazz passed her. The entryway had a set of stairs and a little balcony on the second floor. Danny watched idly as one of the doors clicked closed. Eliza's sister, maybe?
But, then, another woman, identical to Eliza in all particulars walked in from what looked like a formal dining room. He frowned. The wind, maybe? A draft?
He still hadn't felt anything from his ghost sense.
His parents and the Bordens negotiated something about dinner and eating together as Danny had a staring contest with the doors on the second floor. Dad had to prompt him to follow the rest of the family upstairs.
"We all have our own rooms," said Mom. "Isn't that nice?"
"Not really," said Jazz, in a low tone.
"But you always want your own rooms," said Dad.
"Yeah, and then I get attacked," said Danny. "Jazz, can I share with you?"
"Okay," said Jazz, who was also listing to the side. "Whatever."
The room was clean, as far as Danny could tell. Not a spec of dust anywhere.
He dropped face-first on the bed, Jazz hitting it soon after. He didn't stay awake long after that.
.
Jazz woke up groggy and disoriented, the dregs of her dream still lingering in the back of her brain.
Get out.
She sat up, blinking. That hadn't been Danny's voice. He was still out cold. She looked around the room, edging towards their bags. They had ectoguns, which weren't effective on everything, but still packed a good knockback, if nothing else.
But nothing else jumped out at her, and she tentatively concluded that she must have still been dreaming. Anything dangerous would have woken Danny up.
She sighed. She wanted to go back to sleep, but… She was awful and grimy, and this was a prime opportunity to avoid getting edged out by one of Danny's marathon showers later. Regretfully, she levered herself off the bed and dragged her feet as she walked into the bathroom.
Still feeling bleary, she groped for the light switch.
The words get out were drawn on the mirror in soap. Something moved. Jazz brought the ectogun she was still carrying up and fired. The blast bounced off the mirror (for reasons never clearly explained to Jazz, ectoplasm behaved strangely with regards to reflective surfaces and especially silver) and hit the lintel of the doorway.
There was a silent, tense moment where Jazz realized she had shot at her own reflection.
She was becoming her parents.
Danny groaned from the bed, breaking the silence. There were some thumps from the other side of the wall as Jack and Maddie burst through the door.
"Okay, spook!" shouted Jack, "you have five seconds to… There's no ghost here."
"Um," said Jazz, weakly.
"What happened, sweetie?" asked Maddie, swiping hair out of her eyes.
"I just… Was a little tense, I guess, and—" She turned back to the mirror, expecting to see the writing.
There was nothing there.
"Huh," she said. "I was going to take a shower and I… Thought I saw something," she finished, lamely. She must have been more tired than she thought.
Danny made another muffled sound and rolled over, taking the blankets with him and turning himself into a human burrito.
"Okay," said Jazz. "That's… Usually he'd wake up."
"He's used to ectoblast sounds," said Maddie. "I know I don't wake up for every one. We're always testing new weapons after all."
"Yeah, exactly," said Jazz. "Normally, he wakes up. It's kind of a self-preservation thing." She walked over to the bed and poked him. "Danny?"
He let out a small grunt but otherwise didn't respond.
"This is weird," said Jazz. "This is weird, right?"
"Do you think he's being effected by something?" asked Maddie.
"Definitely," said Jazz. "Is it something here? I don't know. I mean, that was only the second time he's fought one of those… things."
"You think he's just recovering from that?" asked Maddie.
"Maybe," said Jazz.
"I don't like this," said Maddie. She stepped closer to the bed and shook Danny's shoulder, obviously hoping to wake him. After a few seconds, Danny turned intangible, forcing Maddie to let go.
He did not show any signs of wakefulness.
"That really isn't normal," said Maddie, biting her lower lip. She looked to the door. "I don't like that Eliza and Bethany haven't said anything, either…"
Jazz winced. They had made a lot of noise.
"You don't think something got them, do you?" asked Jack.
"I don't know," said Maddie. "But we should probably check."
"We won't be able to move Danny if he's phasing through us," said Jazz.
"Right," said Maddie. "You and Jack stay here, and I'll go downstairs."
"No, you girls should stay here, and I'll go downstairs," said Jack.
"Really, Jack, that's…"
Jazz tuned out her parents' argument. As much as she hated to say it – because it wasn't fair to put so much pressure on Danny – the real problem was that the only person who could reliably deal with… things was out of commission, and for who knew how long.
The three humans would have to solve this by themselves.