Vlad paced in his room, the large space having once belonged to the small teen's parents, but with their death the male had taken it. He had gone thru every space in the house looking for this elusive will, but not finding it had just assumed it was just a lie. The girl believed there was one, but he doubted it very much, blowing it off as a hope she was holding onto. He would own her and once he had her then the fortune would be his. The Mansons were very thorough, keeping all their assets locked up away from his hands, but if he married the small girl then those same fortunes would be his and then he would kill her, though he might have a little fun before that. After all she was only 12. He would have to wait until she was old enough to take as a wife and while he hated the wait he knew that he would have a place to stay, and money to spend, though only for his own check and for the household. That meant that he was wrong about a will because he knew that they would have at least made one to protect those funds, but as for her guardianship, no, there was no way that they had done such a thing and with the Fentons, the people he wanted to destroy save for one, that was ridiculous.
"Just you wait," he muttered, a picture of the family resting on the bedside table. "I didn't do all this just for it to bear no fruit." The demented male had done this since the accident that had made him who he was, a half ghost. While he had an ultimate plan, he needed the funds to build his own home, to give him all that he needed to take down the male responsible for his misfortune and then he would have his real prize. Reaching into a pocket hidden in his coat he pulled out a picture of three people, one of the people in the picture missing his head. "Ah, Maddie, that terrible mistake has brought me nothing but a cursed life, though it did give me the means to get all the money one could ever need." He had killed his share of people for their money, but only every few years and they had nothing in comparison to the wealth that this family had. Hell, the Mansons were still accumulating wealth long after their passing, the invention of one of their ancestors raking in thousands of dollars a day even now. He just had to get that girl to agree to his guardianship and for that he would need to control her... With that task he would use some of his money to hire a few minions. Smirking he took off out of his the house, his form disappearing into the distance.
Danny was looking rather glumly at the screen, Sam's face looking back at him, though it was a picture that had been taken years before now, he still looked to it for answers. They still had yet to catch the people responsible for the attack on the Mansons or the person that had hired them. It was beyond frustrating and with him being just twelve there was little he could do. Sighing he wondered where she was and what more they could do to get her back into their home. While he missed her, his life had still gone on, though he found himself withdrawn most of the time. Paulina had gone back to her normal self, keeping him close before ignoring him or bullying him in the next moment. He still had a mild crush on her, but it wasn't as strong as it had been two years ago. No, he didn't think he liked her much anymore. His mind was filled with the Goth that he had rescued and how he could do what he promised her.
Suddenly his computer began to wail, his messenger appearing before him with Tucker's name on the screen along with the options to hang up or answer the call. He debated on this. While his friend had been helping in locating the small girl he didn't think he wanted to talk about more dead ends on that endeavor. He reached over to hit 'decline' but then his sister burst into the room. He looked over at her in surprise before glowering at her. She moves past him to hit the 'answer' button, Tucker's face coming on the screen as he eyed his friend.
"What are you doing?" Danny asked, his eyes still narrowed on his sister. "I don't want to talk about her anymore, not if all we end up with is dead ends." Jazz smiles, the look of joy on her face throwing him.
"We found out some rather interesting things, well, mom and dad did, but then so did Tucker," she explained. "Mom and dad found that there really might be a will, but until Sam turns thirteen... well, suffice to say that until then we have no way of knowing. There is a safe in the study of her father that no one has access to, save for Sam." Danny raised a brow at this.
"And we think that we might have an idea of who hired those people to kill her parents, though it seems that he doesn't plan to kill Sam, at least not yet," Tucker stated, pulling up a pic for Danny to see. Before him was a picture of a male with white hair, his suit rather nice, but it was the eyes that caught his attention. While the man looked rather normal, his attire of one of the more wealthy class, his eyes were cold. Something in those depths spoke of his cruelty, but still he was just a man.
"What does he have to do with this?" the raven haired teen inquired. "He just looks like a rich man. What would he gain from killing Sam's parents?"
"Here's where it all gets a bit... well, strange," Tucker stated. "This guy is the caretaker of the house, Sam's house." Danny said nothing, though he wondered why a man that looked this rich was only a caretaker and didn't own his own mansion. "He resides in the house and has for a few years. The servant your parents talked to said that he had only come aboard a year or so right before the Mansons were killed. He has no real background, not that they know of, but I did a bit of digging." The male before him smirked. Tucker had done some hacking. "He went to school with your parents."
"Okay, so he went to school wi-" Jazz touched his shoulder, looking rather worried.
"He was friends with mom and dad until something happened." He looked to Tucker now, a question in his blue eyes.
"He was hit by a portal that your parents were working on," the techno-geek stated. "He had what is called ecto-acne and he went underground, but in the last ten years he had been accumulating wealth." Still nothing to worry about, right? So the male was rich. "He never had a job, Danny. He has had about three different marriages, well, engagements where his wife-to-be would suddenly disappear just before the wedding." Now that was a little strange. "By that time they had already signed all of their fortune to him. During the short time they would be engaged no one would see these women. They would become literal hermits or reclusive." He held up his hand to stop the question on the other teen's lips. "These women were normally all about going out to be seen, after all the wealthy like to flaunt their wealth. These women would never come out and when they disappeared, he would claim that they had left him with a note. This note was in their own handwriting and usually said the same thing." He held up one note, then another, and finally the last one. Tucker was right. They were rather cold and short, but they all said the same thing. They were done with the life they led, feeling so overwhelmed by the wealth that they just wanted to be alone and that they didn't want anyone to look for them.
"The police would do just that since it was in their own handwriting, nothing to indicate that they were under duress or forced to write the note," Jazz clarified. "We don't know how he is doing it, but then again we don't know any more about him than the police. He keeps to himself, but Sam's parents didn't trust him around their daughter either."
"Why keep him in their home then?" the male inquired. Both teens shrugged their shoulders. They had no answer to that. "So, then he is still in that home, but Sam is not?"
"The same servant who talked to mom and dad said that it was part of the contract. He was never to be alone with her. He doesn't gain guardianship over her even with her parents dead, unless she wills it to be so, but I have a feeling that she doesn't really like him."
"But she lost her memories, so we don't know if she would recall ever meeting him," Tucker pointed out. Danny decided to pay this man a visit, and since his parents knew where Sam's house was he didn't have to search far. "I know what you are thinking Dann," his friend said before holding up his bag full of electronics. "Jazz and I are way ahead of you, but it will have to wait until the weekend since her family lived just outside of Amity, actually close to Wisconsin where it seems that Vlad, that is his name, resided in Wisconsin at one point with his parents, both deceased." It would mean they would have to wait, but now they had an actual clue that would help them liberate the small raven haired female.
Several days later found Vlad back at the Manson estate, his three newest minions at his side. A woman stood before him, her bright red hair fashioned like two horns while the rest of it fell to the back of her neck. She wore a modest two piece set, the red tame against her hair. She looked malicious, her green eyes piercing. Next to her stood a man with no true form, his look was more like that of a private eye in one of the old movies. His trench coat hung down, but as he had no legs it stopped where his knees may have been, his hat matching in color. In his hand was cane. His red eyes were hidden behind a pair of red tinted glasses. Finally there was a young teen, her teal hair pulled back into a flaming ponytail, her green eyes watching him as she held a guitar. She was dressed like a pop singer with her clothing skin tight and black, her stomach and arms exposed while her black pants were partly covered with her skull boots. "You said you had a task for me," the red head said with a frown. "Someone that was in misery or something..."
"Yeah, why did you need the three of us for one mere human?" the teal haired girl asked. He smirked.
"She is hard to break on my own, but with you three not only will she be easier to manipulate, but I will not have to wait so long to take what I want." This raised a few brows, though the formless male seemed unsure about what he could play in such a dark role or how it would benefit him and his needs. "Spectra," he said as he turned to her. "You will be able to use her youth to your advantage, but I need her to be so depressed that she's at that line that boarders on suicidal."
"Why not just kill her?" the red head asked, her curiosity peaked at the idea she would have more energy to keep herself young.
"I need her for a few more years and then you can have her if you wish," Vlad said with a wave of his hand. Smirking, she was in. The white haired male turned to the teal haired girl. "You will aid in keeping her under my control and I will pay you for your service with you being allowed to control the place of your choosing, but the means to do it rather easily." The teen seemed to think about that. She had wanted to rule the world, but it wasn't an easy task and he was offering her a more valid way to do it. She was in. Now he turned to the last person, Amorpho. "As for you. I know that you crave attention and you will get all that and more when you take on the form of the girl and agree to being my ward." Amorpho seemed unsure about this. He would have his attention, something that he loved to have, but this seemed rather sinister and not something he usually did. He liked to portray a human that got attention, but he did his with pranks. "She will be in the news for several years after this and if you do it then I will also enroll her in school. You can do what you want there since her family is loaded the teachers will give you little issue."
"What do you plan to do with this child?" the male asked, the two females shooting him curious looks. Why did it matter what he did to the human? Vlad didn't like this line of questioning, having been sure that like most ghosts this one wouldn't care about the life of the one he was to portray. "Besides allow her to have the child when you are done?"
"She will be kept in her room," Vlad said, being vague about his plans for the girl. "I don't plan on doing any violence toward her for several more years and by that time it will no longer matter as Spectra will have her." The male didn't like this, but before he could argue, Ember growing frustrated, flicked a knob on her guitar and released a note. His eyes grew wide, his stare blank. Vlad smirked as he thanked the rocker.
"Just because he cares doesn't mean I do. Let's get this show on the road!" Spectra nodded as she too had been getting rather irritated with the hold up.
