Halfway through first period, Danny excuses himself from Lancer's class, saying he wasn't feeling well and needed to use the bathroom. He'd been acutely aware of everyone's eyes locking onto him, but none more menacing than Dash. Thankfully, Lancer had been merciful and let him leave with a sympathetic look on his face; he'd probably assumed it had something to do with the accident and some lingering effects from the injury that had sent him to the hospital. Danny almost feels guilty for his teacher's sympathy, but pushes it out of his head and focuses on what he's really doing in the bathroom.
Which is, meeting with Sidney.
The ghost sits on the counter in the boys' room, watching Danny as he paces anxiously back and forth in front of him. He's chewing his nails, trying to figure out his words, but he really, really doesn't know how to put the whole situation into words.
Finally, Sidney adjusts his glasses and says, You said you wanted to meet me here. Are you just gonna… make me stare at you having a meltdown? Or…
With a groan of exasperation, Danny drags his clammy hands through his hair and replies, "I don't know what to do."
About what?
"About the old white guy with the whole 'I eat babies and laugh about it' energy he's giving off!" he hisses, barely managing to keep his voice low. "I can't focus in class when I can literally feel where he's at every second of the day!"
It's true, and a really, really unwelcome surprise. He's not sure if it's just a Walker-exclusive feature, or if Walker is the source, but since that close encounter at the front doors, he's been able to 'feel' things. Like a chill in Sidney's direction and a clear image in his head of where the friendly ghost is. Walker, though… well, he's been giving off a feeling like crackling energy, burning at Danny's skin and fingertips like static shock; and of course, he can see in his mind exactly where the man is. Which is exactly the reason he can't focus in class.
Sidney holds up his hands in mock surrender. Hey, you don't hafta get upset at me. I'm just tryin' to help.
"Yeah. You're right. I'm sorry," Danny admits with a sigh. "I'm just freaked out."
Yeah.
For a few moments, a silence hangs heavy between them. After a time, Sidney opens his mouth to say something, but the boys' bathroom door bangs open and makes both boy and ghost flinch and whirl around to look.
Once again, the gods seem to be dead-set on throwing Danny to the wolves, because Dash Baxter stands imposingly in the doorway.
The quarterback stalks into the room, letting the bathroom door swing shut behind him before drawing nearer like a starving predator. "Hey Fenturd."
As his most relentless bully approaches him, however, Danny comes to realize something peculiar.
Before the accident, Danny knows he'd be staggering back, gasping for air, eyes darting around in a desperate search for an escape route. Now, while he's still anxious about being very clearly targeted by Dash, he doesn't feel the same primal fear he used to when faced by the much more imposing student. And Dash notices this.
His eyes burn with disdain and he stomps closer, grabbing Danny by the collar of his favorite t-shirt and lifting him from the floor to slam his back against the grimy tile wall. Even now, he doesn't struggle against the bully's grasp aside from wrapping his hands around his arm to make sure he can breathe. Shoving his face right in Danny's, close enough that Danny can smell protein powder on his breath, Dash hisses, "You've got a lotta nerve, coming back here like nothing happened after you supposedly ended up in the hospital. What really happened, huh? You chicken out because I said I'd beat the shit out of you on Monday?"
"I…" Danny begins, floundering for something to say, "...wait, you really think I'd make up a lie like ending up in the hospital just to get away from you?" In spite of himself, Danny feels a huff of laughter leave him. "Jeez, you're giving yourself a lot of credit."
"What did you just say?!" Dash growls, slamming him roughly against the wall again.
With a vaguely-quavering voice, Danny flatly says, "I really was in the hospital. You can ask Lancer for proof if you really need-"
"Lancer believes your little lie, he had me promise to leave you alone since you 'almost died'. But I know the truth."
"Damn, you know the truth?" Danny says in an exaggerated tone before he can stop it, "So you know about the dead people and multi-dimensional eldritch horrors?"
Sidney wheeze-laughs. Dash does not.
Face growing redder and redder with rage, Dash grinds his teeth. Danny knows now that he's most certainly stepped over the line and unless something absolutely miraculous happens in the next 20 seconds, Danny's probably gonna lose some teeth. Of course, with his new regenerative abilities, they'd probably grow back… but he'd rather not lose teeth in the first place.
As he's contemplating what to do, Sidney suddenly grabs the nearest bathroom stall door and slams it shut as hard as he can. The bang echoes around the room loud enough to make Danny's ears ring and Dash's head snaps around to stare at the offending door. When he sees nobody there, he lets out an angry huff.
"I dunno what you're playing at, Fenton, but you're really asking for it."
Before he can turn back around to look at Danny though, Sidney stretches his arms out, grabs two doors, and bangs them rapidly open and closed for a few seconds. The red in Dash's face completely washes out.
"What the-?" Dash splutters before dropping Danny and staring at him. "What was that?"
"What was what?"
"The stall doors, Fenton!"
Danny blinks in mock confusion, eyes flickering to the bathroom stalls. "What about the stall doors?"
"Cut the shit! Something moved them!"
Sidney's hysterical laughter rings in Danny's head like a bell, and he has to fight to keep a grin off his own face. "I didn't see anything…?"
More colour drains from Dash's face, and Danny can see that playing dumb is starting to crack Dash's resolve. Excellent.
The jock in question stares between the stall doors and Danny with round, horrified eyes and a slack jaw, not making a single sound. After about a solid minute, he turns on his heel and quickly makes his way out the door with a hand pressed to the side of his head. Danny hears him mumble something about needing to lie down just before the bathroom door swings shut once more, leaving Danny and Sidney alone.
Silence lasts for all of five seconds before Danny collapses back against the wall, laughing so hard his sides hurt. "Oh my God, that was awesome!"
Did you see his face?! That was priceless!
"I am so gonna do that to everyone from now on." Danny laughs, wiping at his eyes with the sleeve of his unzipped grey hoodie.
It takes awhile for their laughter to subside, leaving them giddy and breathless- despite Sidney being a ghost- but when it does, Danny runs his fingers through his hair and smiles at Sidney. "Guess I should be going back to class now, huh?"
That might be a good idea, Sidney replies, returning the smile.
Danny takes a quick look at his reflection in the mirror just to make sure he looks unruffled and at least remotely human, then heads for the bathroom door. Yet as he pushes it open, he nearly runs into none other than Walker, who once again fixates Danny with those soul-sucking green eyes. Sidney's aura flares with alarm and darts a few feet away, but he doesn't straight-up leave like Danny had been anticipating.
After a few terrifying moments of silence, a thin-lipped smile spreads across Walker's face, which Danny now notices is littered with numerous pale scars. "Hello again, son."
"H-hi…" Danny tentatively replies, more out of social obligation than anything else.
"Shouldn't you be in class? Seems like you're tryin' to bend the rules, kid."
"Me? No, no, no, I just needed to use the… use the bathroom. Yeah," he stammers in reply as something at Walker's left hip glints in the school's fluorescent light.
Danny's eyes drift down and he feels his blood run cold when he sees the unmistakable shape of a holstered pistol.
Maybe Danny has a death wish, or maybe his brain isn't functioning properly, but before he can catch himself, he asks, "What's that for?"
Walker blinks, then glances down at the gun. With a hum of amusement, he unclips the gun from its holster and holds it out in front of him for Danny to look at.
At second glance, Danny can come to the conclusion that this isn't just a normal old gun; this one is made of the same material as the Spirit Staff in the lab, and neon green symbols and trim glow with a slowly pulsating light. The symbols resemble the Wards that Danny's become quite familiar with. A chill runs down his spine.
"I imagine it ain't a surprise that I'm here to investigate the paranormal activity that occurred here this weekend. This here is a specially-manufactured gun that can tear into a creature's very Essence, the non-human version of a soul," Walker explains in a low, conspiratorial tone. "Though I doubt things like them have any proper souls or emotions."
Beside him, Danny feels Sidney's aura pulse with something between anger and disdain, and Danny's inclined to feel the same way. He keeps the distaste off his face, though, as he'd rather not risk making Walker suspicious. Instead, he looks back up at Walker and asks, "You don't think that, ah, if the paranormal is a real thing… that maybe they'd have the same emotions we do?"
Walker barks out a harsh laugh, grinning with all his teeth bared like a snarling animal. His voice comes out in a sinister rumble, which once again causes that weird sensation to stir in Danny's chest. "As someone who has personally worked with these sorts of creatures, I can assure you, they have no semblance of human emotion. They only exist to cause death, destruction, and suffering. They're abominations. Freaks."
That final word strikes Danny like a knife to the chest, making his stomach churn with anxiety, his palms leak with sweat, and his knees weaken. Even so, he doesn't let any of that show on his face, instead blinking owlishly and humming before lowering his gaze with mock introspection. "Oh. Okay. I'll keep that in mind, sir."
"I should hope so," he says as he reaches up to adjust his hat. "Now if you'll excuse me, I must be on my way to the office. I have matters to discuss with the faculty."
"Yeah. And, uh, I guess I'll be… heading back to class now. Yeah."
The two of them turn to leave at the same time, Walker thankfully heading in the opposite direction as Danny power-walks as fast as he can back to class. As he turns a corner and slips out of Walker's line of sight, Sidney darts through the nearest wall and hovers at Danny's side with a worried look on his face. That was scary.
"Tell me about it," Danny groans, dragging a hand down his face. "I think my soul left my body."
I thought my Essence went 'poof' and disappeared! I know how you feel!
Despite the fact that Danny can very clearly sense Walker a safe distance away, he casts a nervous glance back over his shoulder. Of course, he doesn't see anything. With a heavy sigh, he looks ahead once more and murmurs, "Well, I guess he doesn't really suspect me. I hope."
If you want, I can snoop around and see what bogus stuff he's up to!
"No, no, you shouldn't do that. I don't want 'Mister Tall, Pale, and Creepy' to catch on that there's paranormal stuff going on here. That guy is really bad news," Danny protests, but once again to no avail.
Sidney's already gone, his Essence growing further and further away, yet closer and closer to Walker. Danny groans in exasperation. "Not even dead people listen to me."
Since meeting Danny, Sidney's felt more real. Less like the lingering shadow of a long-dead loser, but like an actual living, feeling boy again! Albeit, he can do things a normal living boy can't. Even so, he feels like he has a purpose again. He's not helplessly watching dozens of kids being bullied to dangerous lengths anymore; now, he can actually do something about it!
Which is why he was so ready to go spy on Walker and the faculty as soon as the idea popped into his head.
The past Sidney wouldn't have even considered getting close to someone as feared as Walker. Heck, he'd probably have hightailed it to the next city over! Now, though? He considers the school his home, his lair, part of his Essence itself… and he'd be a damn fool to not confront the thing threatening the students he's sworn to protect. Even if that student is just one person.
No, Sidney won't back down here.
He effortlessly phases through the walls until he finds himself hovering in the office, surrounded by administrative staff going about their daily business. Sidney takes a few moments to make sure all's well with the staff, then follows the feeling of Walker's aura.
It's an odd one, alright. It's certainly a human's aura, there's no doubt about it… but it's just hovering on the line between the first and second planes. Which means he's much more perceptive to the paranormal than a regular human. Sidney's incredibly curious about that whole business, but he ignores it and flits through another wall into the principal's office.
Principal Ishiyama sits at her desk with Walker hovering over her shoulder like Death paying her a visit. It almost makes Sidney feel like he should do something to get him away from the principal, but he doesn't act on it. That would be an outrageously stupid idea.
At the principal's other side are Jack and Maddie Fenton, sporting their brilliantly bright jumpsuits and staring intently at the screen of Principal Ishiyama's computer.
"As I mentioned beforehand, much of the security footage was corrupted. But this is the small clip we did manage to recover from the system." she explains in a low voice, and Sidney can't help but feel a thrill of fear at the thought that they have damning evidence of the culprit.
He floats past the group of adults, giving them a wide berth before settling himself comfortably behind Principal Ishiyama, and watches the screen.
When the video begins playing, static hisses across the screen and it lags a bit, catching on random frames of an empty hallway. The audio is distorted, making a crackling, whistling noise that grates on Sidney's ears, but it quickly lowers into something bearable. Heartbeats later, a figure walks into view, but his form- Danny's form- is distorted by multicoloured pixels, black spots, and skipping frames. He vanishes out of sight at the end of the hallway, but no more than ten seconds later, he comes tearing back down the hall at a dead sprint.
Again, the video is clipping, distorted beyond recognition only where Danny appears on the screen. Behind him, papers and corkboards fly off the walls- courtesy of Sidney himself- and then, the shadowy afterimage of the Flesh Eater passes the camera in hot pursuit.
Like a demon of the Underworld, her presence seems to distort the entire hallway in a manner akin to a Salvador Dali painting. Deep clawmarks gouge the tile floors, and a bellow like the wails of a dozen tormented souls rend through the laptop's speakers. Before she exits the field of view, the audio devolves into a high-pitched whine and the entire image is choked with static. The video ends.
For a time, nobody says anything.
It's quite impressive footage, especially for a normal old human camera. Most CCTV and security cameras manufactured by humans are unable to record the supernatural at all without the data being corrupted beyond repair. It's both astonishing and a bit worrying; if human tech evolves enough for everyday cameras to be unaffected by paranormal energy, then the existence of such creatures will be widely-known. Which will likely lead to a rise in ghost hunters and exorcists. Sidney shakes himself.
Stop getting so worried over stuff that won't happen for a long time, if it does happen at all! He chastises himself mentally at the same moment that Maddie Fenton begins speaking.
"It appears that two paranormal entities broke into the school on Saturday. Perhaps they were squabbling over territory or resources…" she murmurs, a hand pressed to her chin and brow furrowed. "...The humanoid one is odd, though. Shouldn't he have been nearly invisible to the human eye?"
Walker grunts in response. "Could be a human possessed by a spirit, or something similar."
"Like what? A demon?" Jack quips, leaning in over the principal's shoulder to review the footage again.
"No. Demons and other dark entities tend to possess a human host in an erratic way that affects behavior, motor skills, and appearance. This could be an unusually powerful spirit," Walker explains in a blunt, cold tone as he narrows his eyes at the screen again.
Maddie snaps her fingers with a sharp exclamation, catching the attention of the other three adults in the room. "Do you think it's a more well-known entity? An urban legend of sorts?"
With a thoughtful look at Maddie, Walker slowly responds, "That could be a possibility-"
"It could be a Fae creature of some sort!" Jack blurts out excitedly. "Ohh, I can't wait until we get to the bottom of this! Think of all the tests we can run!"
His excitement seems to infect Maddie, whose fingers twitch as though she's already imagining a scalpel in her hands, cutting open some unlucky supernatural creature. "We could advance human technology by leaps and bounds if we harnessed the power of the paranormal. Goodness, I can hardly wait!"
"I look forward to working with you," Walker hums, a snakelike sneer spreading across his face as his inhumanly green eyes glint with bloodthirsty anticipation. "I hope our continued teamwork will lead to the fulfillment of your wishes."
"No problem, my man!" Jack says in his booming voice, slapping Walker heartily on the back. "While you do some more fancy investigation stuff around the ol' shed, Maddie and me can get the Wards put in place!"
Wards…? Sidney thinks to himself with a spark of worry. Are they setting up Wards around the school?
"Excellent," Walker says with a curt nod before stalking out of the office in silence.
Sidney glances anxiously from Jack and Maddie, to the door Walker had left through, and back again, wondering who on earth he should go after. Yet after a few moments of panic, he swallows hard and follows the ominous buzz of Walker's aura. When he finds the man in the empty hallway, he's almost at ease around the so-called 'grim reaper'.
That is, until he stops and says in a hiss not unlike that of a snake, "You're lingering in the human world. That's against the rules."
Sidney feels his Essence turn to ice, stopping dead where he floats in the middle of the hallway, and Walker glances over his shoulder with eerily-glowing eyes. That throws Sidney for a loop, because no human has ever had glowing eyes; not even Danny's eyes glow with that intensity.
It hits him then.
Steeling himself, Sidney clenches his fists until his nails bite into his palms and glares at Walker above the frame of his glasses. You're not a full human, are you?
As Walker turns slowly around, his form flickers like a reflection on the surface of a lake, and his eyes glow solid green. "I ain't met a ghost yet that figured it out . Doesn't change the fact that you don't belong here."
What are you?! Sidney demands, that protective feeling filling him with liquid lightning and rattling the nearby display cases full of sports team trophies.
Walker's glance flicks to the side at the vibrating cases with vague curiosity. "You got no right to know, son. You ain't even got the right to exist in this here human realm. So in order to abide by the GiW rules, I'm gonna have to dispose of you."
Only now does Sidney feel the creeping threat of doubt begin to taint his Essence- he doesn't even know what Walker is, so how can he possibly fight him? Heck, Sidney isn't a fighter, he'll never be one! It's ridiculous to even consider fighting the mortal enemy of ghosts!
But he has to try, right? This is his home. His lair. His friends. If he can't do so much as chase some dumb G-Man out, how can he call himself the protector of Casper High's students?
He braces himself, eyes narrowing and form distorting as he prepares to clash with Walker. The man seems to be doing the same, when-
-the bell rings, signalling the end of first period.
Sidney reins in his hostility until his Essence no longer affects the area around him, and Walker immediately assumes his human facade once more, straightening up and flashing Sidney a menacing stare before turning to head down the hall. As he leaves, his voice rumbles in Sidney's head.
We'll continue this another time.
With a flash of anger, Sidney shoots back, Get out of my school!
The enigmatic man doesn't respond to that, but the telltale angry crackle of his aura is answer enough. Sidney almost wants to go after him and attack him in plain sight, but that would likely cause more problems than it'd solve, so he decides against it. Gritting his teeth, he seeks out Danny's Essence and heads towards it.
Better tell Danny about it. He'll know what to do… I hope.
Danny does not know what to do.
He's been freaking out about the stuff Sidney told him for literally the entire school day, and even now, as he stiffly pulls his backpack and homework out of his locker, he's still shaken up. To his left, Sam and Tucker watch him with worry written on their faces. He doesn't say anything, but he's pretty sure he knows exactly what they want to ask.
So he answers them before they can even do so.
"I know what you guys wanna say, and no, I'm not okay." He sighs, shutting his locker and slinging his backpack over his shoulders.
Sam and Tucker exchange a glance, before Sam lowers her voice and murmurs, "We're here for you, Danny. If you need anything, we'll come running, okay? Just tell us what's bothering you. Is it another spirit or something?"
Danny chews his lip for a moment. He weighs the pros and cons of telling them what Sidney had told him, then takes Sam's words to heart and glances down at his sneakers. "Kind of."
"Whatcha mean, 'kind of'?" Tucker prods with a raised eyebrow.
"I mean…" Danny casts a wary look around, but the halls are nearly empty by now, so he's not too worried about being overheard, "...Walker's not entirely human, apparently. Sidney has no idea what he is, but whatever he is, it's not good."
"Yikes," Sam and Tucker remark in unison.
"Yeah. That's what I said, too. I'm kinda freaking out a little bit, because I'd rather not be brutally murdered by Texas McGee over there," he grumbles as they start for the school doors.
Tucker reaches up to adjust his hat with an exasperated groan. "Jesus, why can't people just leave us alone? Haven't they got stupid adult stuff to deal with already? Like… taxes, and voting for cruddy presidents and stuff?"
Danny shrugs. "I don't know, Tuck. I really don't."
The school is completely empty by now, but that doesn't necessarily strike Danny as odd. After all, they're usually the last people to leave anyways and have made their late departure a habit. Partly because they like to take their time, and partly because if they're late enough, the football guys will be on the field and not have time to harass them.
So none of them have any suspicions about foul play until they reach the back doors of the school. At which time, it becomes painfully obvious that something's wrong.
Sam and Tucker are a little bit ahead of Danny like usual- Danny's got the shortest legs of the group- and Sidney hovers at his side like a shadow, so the two human members of the group pass through the doors with no issue. However, when Danny steps through the doorway, his body explodes with a pain he's never felt before in his life.
Beside him, he can hear Sidney shriek in a distorted voice, but he has no time to think about that because his own body is twitching and moving against his will. His muscles spasm erratically, his brain races to find a way to make it stop, and he's shoved back into the school by some invisible force. The weird force makes his legs give out, so he only manages to stay upright for a split second before he collapses to the floor, seizing up and unable to breathe.
He vaguely registers Sam and Tucker shouting his name, and feels them pulling his backpack off to prevent him from hurting himself, but he still can't breathe, it hurts, stop, stop, STOP-
-and after what feels like an eternity of white-hot agony, it subsides and he once again gains control of his body. Danny's vision clears enough that he can now see where he is and what's going on, so after catching his breath and slumping flat against the floor in exhaustion, he takes stock of his situation.
Sam and Tucker are kneeling on either side of him, eyes blown wide with terror. Danny can taste blood and his tongue throbs, so he's pretty sure he bit his tongue, and the back of his head aches where he must've hit it on the floor. Other than that, he's not sure what that was.
"What happened…?" he asks as he shakily pushes himself into a seated position.
The relief on Sam and Tucker's faces is palpable. They seem to have calmed down quite a bit, but Tucker still throws himself forward and crushes Danny in a hug as Sam leans in and checks Danny over. As she checks his face, she says, "It looks kind of like you had a seizure, honestly. You ever had a seizure before? Or is this some more stupid paranormal stuff?"
Danny shakes his head as Sam finishes checking him over. "N-no, no, I don't… I don't have seizures. I'm guessing it was something paranormal."
Ugh… y'know what that was? A powerful Ward, that's what, Sidney hisses in a tight voice from where he flickers in and out of sight to Danny's left.
"Sidney says it's from a powerful Ward," Danny explains to his friends, "so I guess it's probably from my parents or Walker."
Wrinkling his nose, Tucker mutters, "This guy just landed himself the number two spot on my 'Top Ten Evil Bastards' list."
Unable to stop his curiosity, Danny asks, "Who's number one?"
"Todd Howard."
Sam cocks an eyebrow. "Who's Todd-"
"Don't ask for answers you're not prepared for," Tucker says gravely, and the absurdity of it manages to drag Danny back to the problem at hand.
He waves a hand to stop any further off-topic conversation. "Anyways, how the hell are we gonna deal with the Ward? I can't just go looking for it myself, I'll get fried again."
"Leave it to us." Sam promises with a cocky grin, seemingly forgetting Tucker's weird Todd Howard nonsense.
The two of them shoot Danny one last sympathetic look, then rise to their feet and exit the school, ready to destroy whatever Wards they can find.
God, he's so tired of this crap.
He's had to deal with this whole crummy paranormal stuff for as long as he can remember, and he's sick of it. Especially now that some dumbass paranormal creature drew attention to itself and brought some government quack running. The boy's almost tempted to look for the idiot who kicked the hornets' nest and turn them in himself.
He's waiting for his bus when the telltale drop in air pressure lets him know that a Ward has been tripped somewhere.
You know, he kinda wants to ignore it. After all, chatting with the paranormal has only ever brought him crappy luck no matter what nice thing he does for them. But as always, his sympathy wins out over his cynicism and the boy slips away from the school bus crowd and heads back towards the main building.
What he finds from his hiding place behind an old, gnarled tree is not at all what he expected.
Sam Manson and Tucker Foley, two misfit kids from a handful of his classes, are hunting around the school as though they're looking for something. An animal, perhaps? No, the boy can sense a ghost and another spirit just inside the school.
Oh.
Ohhhh.
There's another weird kid with I-See-Dead-People-Powers at Casper High. Well, then. At least the boy isn't alone anymore.
The odd thing is, though… the spirit-kid-whatever inside the school can't get out because of the Wards that the Fentons had dumped around the place like delinquents and graffiti. At least the boy doesn't have that problem. He's not an actual spirit, just some poor sap who's shit outta luck.
He'd rather not interact with these guys though, because it's probably their fault that the GiW loser came here in the first place, and if he starts talking to these people, he'll be dragged into some horrible shenanigans. The boy does want to help in some way, though…
...ah, that'll work.
He drops his backpack on the grass and rummages around inside it until he finds a blank piece of paper and a sharpie. He scribbles out a hasty message on the paper and shoves his stuff back in his bag before waiting until Sam and Tucker look the opposite direction. Taking a deep breath, the boy darts out, tosses the note on the grass, and makes a break for the bus stop.
This is the most involved he's willing to get.
Sam's not sure how she's ever gonna get used to all this. She might be the goth one, the one in the group who dabbles in Wiccan beliefs and rituals, but the solid evidence that the paranormal really does exist is both exciting and a bit scary. Though, she can definitely get used to seeing ghosts and monsters, because that's something she can deal with. Hell, she can even look forward to encountering them!
The thing she's not sure about is the burden Danny now has to bear.
She's pretty sure she'll never be able to forget the image of Danny from a few minutes earlier- the cut-off cry of pain, the sound of him gasping desperately for air and choking on nothing, his body convulsing in unnatural ways as his eyes rolled back as the floor and walls around the three of them began to twist and distort like melting cheese- or the haunted look that plagues him nearly all the time now. Heaving a sigh, Sam kneels down and checks the red brick walls of the school where they're hidden by decorative shrubbery.
Still nothing. She curses under her breath and stands up again.
Where the hell are these stupid Wards?!
As though by magic, her thoughts are answered by the sound of paper rustling in the chilly breeze and she glances back over his shoulder in the direction of the noise. Sure enough, a folded sheet of lined paper is tumbling across the grass.
Normally, she'd just grab it and toss it out while contemplating the imminent human-induced death of the earth, but this one has 'Sam and/or Tucker' written on the outside of it in sharpie. So, with nothing else to do, she jogs across the grass to catch it.
Sam's pretty good at telling people's writing apart- she takes pride in her ability to recognize who wrote a passed-along note in class at a quick glance- but this person's writing is one she's not sure she's seen before. Granted, she feels like she knows who it is, but their handwriting is so messy, it might as well have been written by a drunken raccoon who is also blind.
Even so, she manages to make out what it says.
Hey.
Leave me out of your shit but if ur looking for the Wards those Fenton folks hid, one's a tiny pentacle drawn in chalk on a crumbling brick about six feet up the wall to the right of the doors. The other is about ten paces to the left of the doors. It's a pentacle on a piece of paper buried in the dirt at the base of the wall. You can disable the field by erasing part of the chalk Ward with ur finger and by tearing up the paper Ward. Hope ur ghost/spirit friend is ok.
Also can yall fucking chill with your high-profile paranormal stuff? It's giving me hella anxiety and I already have plenty of that shit at school as well as with the whole 'I see dead people' thing I'm cursed with. Thanks fam.
-Townes
Sam reads the note over a few times, making sure she's interpreted the messy writing properly. When she's certain of it, she makes her way back towards the school where the strange note indicated the chalk Ward would be.
The indicated spot is above her eye level, even with her combat boots and on her tiptoes, so with an exasperated groan, she glances in Tucker's direction and shouts, "Hey, Tuck!"
"Yeah?!"
"C'mere a sec!"
Tucker pokes his head around the edge of the school, eyes wide with curiosity before he adjusts his glasses and draws nearer. When he's close enough for Sam to talk in a low voice without any risk of strangers overhearing them, she murmurs, "Someone left a note saying one of the Wards is up there. Gimme a boost."
He shoots her a skeptical look, but ultimately complies. Lacing his fingers together and bracing himself, he lets Sam step on his hands and boosts her up. It takes some time for her to find the right spot, but after a minute or two of ignoring spiders and scuffing her fingers on rough brick, she finds the absolutely tiny Ward exactly where the letter had said. With a triumphant grin, she licks her thumb and uses it to wipe away the pentacle. When it's done, she looks down at Tucker and says, "Got it! Let's go find the other one!"
This time, Tucker doesn't show any trace of doubt and follows her over to the other Ward with the same level of enthusiasm.
"Well, it seems the spirit managed to escape. Darn it." Maddie sighs, picking up the shredded scraps of her intricately-drawn ward from where they lay strewn across the grass.
Behind her, Jack huffs in irritation. "When I catch that thing, I'll-!"
"I understand how upset you are, Jack," Maddie says with a reassuring smile at her husband, "but we anticipated this would happen. After all, this spirit has been around for heaven-knows-how-long, it'll have had to be crafty about things like Wards. We'll get it contained eventually, I know we will."
Jack scratches at the back of his head with an expression that's equal parts confused and unsure. "I know we will, Maddie, I just… we were so close."
"And we'll just get even closer. Especially when we try Plan B."
"Plan B?" Jack inquires with a cocked eyebrow.
Maddie can't help the excited grin that spreads across her face. "This plan will include the Fenton Portal."