Important notes:
This was inspired by Lazy Masquerade's family curses video
The Groovy Gang and Scaredy cat as well as Extreme Ghostbreakers are now Fentons; Andy is Jack's little brother and married to Fran (Groovy Gang, the tiger has passed away since MDG), Brenner is the lateish in life baby of the family and married to Sullivan
Groovy Gang acts as independent paranormal investigators, and Ghostbreakers now currently run a paranormal museum and live show in Salem, Mass
Danny and Brenner are both trans
Bryan and Shawn are meant to be an buzzfeed unsolved parody, with Bryan is Danny and Jazz's older cousin, Shawn is unrelated and just is tagging along
"Oh look!" Elliot made everybody stop. He pointed out a giant poster in the mall, stepping forward to pick up a flyer. Sam curiously did the same. "Dumpty Humpty's having auditions!"
"Are you serious!?" Tucker snatched a flyer up too. Paulina grabbed one for her and Valerie to read.
"This weekend!" Elliot read the date. "This is awesome! We should all totally go!" Danny sighed.
"No, I got family stuff this weekend," he replied. "Big Fenton family reunion."
His friend group all seemed annoyed at his statement.
"Come on, Danny!" Elliot scowled. "This is not just the Amity Park Carnival, but where all our dreams come true when Dumpty Humpty will be auditioning fans for a chance to join the band! This could be our chance to be famous!" Danny wanted to roll his eyes. Phantom fame was more than enough for him. "Can't you blow it off? It's just a family reunion. I mean you guys already got the days off work!" Sam snorted in amusement.
"Because we both work for his grandparents," she pointed out. Elliot shrugged.
"I'm sorry, I can't," Danny shrugged. "It's unskippable, cause of the family curse. My dad would never let me blow it off."
Tucker sighed, but gave an understanding nod. Elliot blinked in confusion, Paulina mirroring him, and Valerie looked up from the flyer, squinting her eyes at him.
"The family what?"
Danny raised an eyebrow at them. Tucker and Sam also looked surprised.
"You didn't know?" Danny wondered.
"What on earth are you talking about?" Paulina blurted out. Danny shrugged again.
"Um. Well," he hesitated. "Uh, you know the family reunion I go to yearly?"
"Yeah, it's every June, right?" she replied. Danny nodded. "What about it?"
"So, ever since my dad's side of the family came to America in the 1600s, every June 13th, somebody goes missing," Danny explained. Valerie blinked in surprise.
"Missing?" she echoed. Danny nodded.
"Yeah. No matter what, people go missing. Regardless of most efforts to prevent it," he continued. "Blood blossoms, salt, protection circles and charms, saging the home. Nothing. Every June 13th without fail. Either gone forever or found dead with the last known sighting being June 13th."
"So wait, every year somebody in your family just goes missing?" Elliot sounded horrified, and Paulina was going pale.
"Or dies!?" she cried out. Danny quickly shook his head no.
"No no!" he quickly assured them both. "We found a workaround. Basically, if we're with somebody, nobody goes missing. So we all get together."
"Can't go missing if you're never alone," Sam added. "Every year that they all get together, nobody goes missing. And they just decide to make a family reunion out of it."
"This is too creepy for me," Paulina complained. She was getting paler and paler, almost as white as Elliot's hair. "I always knew your family was kinda freaky but cursed!?"
"I'm not cursed! It's just like, more of a family tradition these days!" Danny argued.
"Uh, if you say so." Elliot didn't sound convinced. He finally wrapped a comforting arm around Paulina. "Come on, Polly, I'll buy you a coffee," he offered. She perked up some.
"An iced one?" she asked hopefully. Elliot nodded. She exhaled deeply before walking off with him.
"Your family just gets weirder and weirder," Valerie spoke up. Danny made a face.
"Only two people within my lifetime have gone missing because they refused to come to the reunion," he replied.
"So wait, is Sam in danger then?" Valerie asked, glancing at her. "Or Danielle?"
"If you're a Fenton by blood, you're at risk if you're alone at any time for any length of time on June 13th," Danny clarified. "So Sam's fine, cause she's a Fenton by marriage. But that's why we host reunions. Sometimes we split up a bit cause of the amount of people. Our reunion is normally just my grandparents and their kids. So Dad's parents and his siblings. Ellie is technically a blood Fenton, so she's at risk but goes to a different reunion with my great uncles, she should be safe."
"I'm kinda surprised but this actually makes a lot of sense," Valerie mused, thoughtfully rubbing her chin. "The fact that your dad's a ghost hunter I mean. I'd become kinda superstitious too."
Sam wheezed, and Danny had a pained smile. Tucker snorted in amusement.
"The joy of the reunions," Dannt said slowly. "Is that Dad is far, far from being any kind of outlier." Valerie's eyes widened.
"Oh god," she whispered. "You mean-"
"The Fentons have been ghost hunters, paranormal investigators, psychics, fortune tellers, morticians or funeral directors since we came to America," Danny confirmed dryly. "If it's gotta do with the dead or supernatural, my family's somehow made a career out of it. A secondary family curse is that we somehow default back to being ghost hunters for a living. Do not say a fucking word."
Sam couldn't hold back. She was choking on her own laughs, half hiding behind her flyer in a bad attempt to conceal her amusement.
"You were just dying to get into the family business, weren't you?" Sam teased. Danny snatched her flyer out of her hand to crumble into a ball.
"That's it! You're not coming to the reunion this year!" he scowled. Sam rolled her eyes.
"Danny at this point, I'm your grandma's favorite grandkid," she replied. "I'm coming whether you like it or not."
"Wait so your whole family is ghost hunters, and you still show up?" Valerie interrupted. "Will you be okay?" Danny scoffed off the notion with a confident grin.
"Yeah, easy smeasy. Kinda nerve wracking the first year, but never had a problem. Plus this year, everybody's gonna be obsessed over the new baby, they'll hardly notice me," Danny explained. "Besides, none of them are particularly. Ya know. Good."
"Still," Valerie said slowly. "You sure you'll be okay? I mean the curse is just being alone at all that day, right? We could always just do a weekend hangout at one of our places."
"Yeah!" Tucker agreed. "I mean, Valerie and I have to repaint the apartment back to landlord white before we move. Would be super cool if a ghost could float and paint the ceilings so that we don't have to fuck around with a ladder." Danny chuckled.
"When we come back from the reunion, we'll help you paint," he promised.
"Nice, you're the best. Pizza and beer will be on us!"
"Oh Danny, this house is just perfect!" Sam chirped. Danny glanced at her from the corner of his eye briefly before returning to the road. "It's close to the funeral home for work, close to FentonWorks for the portal-"
"How close to your parents' for avoiding?" Danny interrupted. He just knew Sam was rolling her eyes.
"Not too far, not too close," Sam replied
"Not far enough," he only half joked. He felt her flick his ear.
"Anyway. Three bedroom, two bath, we can both have our own offices, and it already has a fenced in yard too for a dog, and lots of windows for a cat," she listed off the details.
"Send it to me, I'll look at it over dinner. Ah, here we are!" Danny sighed, and he pulled into the small parking lot that separated the funeral home from his grandparents' house. He could see Jazz's car already in the lot, as well as Uncle Andy and Aunt Fran's distinctive camper van and his cousin Bryan's car. However, Bryan was still getting bags from his car, and Danny saw that he had once again brought his best friend and Youtube channel co-host with him.
He quickly put the car in park and turned it off, excitedly hopping out, Sam following suit.
"Hey!" Danny called out. Bryan shot him a smile. "How was the trip? We haven't seen you since the wedding!"
"Ah, nothing crazy happened, even though we stopped at a ghost town on the way," Bryan replied, and he sounded a little disappointed but opened his arms to accept the hug Danny was offering. Sam snorted in amusement.
"Dude, Amity Park is the ghost town," she teased him. Shawn rolled his eyes as he shut the trunk of Bryan's car.
"Only allegedly," he spoke up, shifting his bag onto his shoulder.
"Man, around here ghosts are as common as pigeons," Danny told him, and he moved to pop the trunk of his own car, and he grabbed his and Sam's shared large suitcase. "You need to just live here a few months, and not only pop in for a day or two cause of the curse."
"I keep trying to tell him that!" Bryan chuckled. Sam grabbed her backpack, and Danny slipped his over his shoulder. Sam shut the trunk for him. "Have you smelled that yet? I can already smell Grammy cooking a ham for us." Danny sniffed the air, and he could definitely smell the late dinner being cooked. Sam made a face, but didn't comment on it.
"Well, let's not keep her waiting too long," Danny said. He glanced at the sky. The sun was beginning to set, bathing the graveyard in a hauntingly lovely view. His free hand slipped into Sam's.
They both locked their cars and idly chatted as they walked across the parking lot and to the home. As they got closer, the front door opened, and Grandma Fenton appeared. She was a slightly overweight elderly woman with long silver hair in a low bun and bright blue eyes, wearing her usual long black dress that reached her ankles and had sleeves to the elbows, black lacing on the top that made Danny think of an old Victorian dress. She beamed as she saw her grandchildren.
"Oh I thought I saw your cars!" she gushed happily, receiving a chorus of happy greetings in return. As each of them came up the steps, they got a warm hug and forehead kiss from her. "Come on in, I have a ham in the oven that'll be done in about an hour, and Sammy, honey, I have a vegan sweet potato casserole cooking for you." The goth brightened.
"Thank you, Grammy," she told her. Grandma Fenton patted her cheek affectionately.
"Of course, you're my favorite grandchild," she replied. Sam shot Danny a brief, smug look. He rolled his eyes.
"Do we have sleeping arrangements figured out yet?" Bryan questioned as they all huddled into the front room of the home.
"A rough idea, yes," Grandma replied. "So far, we have Jazzy and Spike taking Amy's room alone since they have the baby. Jacky, Maddie, Andy and Frannie are all gonna be in Jacky, Andy and Brenner's room. Brenner and Sully are going to sleep in our room with us. I had Grandpa clean out some of the attic, so if you four wanna take air mattresses up there or use the pull out in the living room, or split with one pair of you going up there and the other being downstairs, either is fine with me. Long as a Fenton is with somebody else the whole time."
"I have no doubts the newlyweds won't be apart for a second," Bryan teased. Danny and Sam both flushed. "You guys can take the attic, Shawn and I can crash in the living room, or worst case join Jazz and Spike."
"Yeah, I'm guessing Ben still isn't sleeping through the night yet," Shawn spoke up. "I'd be fine helping them get some much needed sleep."
"Speaking of Ben," Danny mused slowly. "I'm gonna go say hi!"
"Go on, I'll help Grammy finish dinner," Sam told him.
"Oh that's so sweet of you honey," Grandma beamed. "I'm mostly done, but we can set the table and get everything ready on the table. Jacky and Maddie will be here soon, and Grandpa too."
"Is he out on a call?" Bryan questioned. "And lemme put my bag down, and I can come help too."
"Oh yes, I nearly forgot that we'll need to put the leaf in the table! But yes, Grandpa went out a while ago. Do you remember Mrs. Silver? She lost her battle to cancer."
"He's out on a call?" Danny paused. "Why didn't he wait for us? I could have helped."
"It's okay dear, we knew you'd be busy packing for the reunion," his grandma assured him. "Don't fret too much. Tomorrow you and Sammy can help him prepare the body."
"Well, if he needs help when he gets home unloading, call for me," Danny called out, walking up the first few steps. "Or just tell me when he gets here, he shouldn't be doing it by himself anymore anyway."
"Oh we may be old, but we're not weak," she lightly scoffed.
Danny was already up the stairs, the suitcase in hand. However he dropped it and his bag by the staircase that led up to the attic, opting to instead go to where Jazz was staying.
He gave a brief knock before opening the door. Jazz had looked up curiously. She was sitting in one of the old desk chairs with his nephew in her arms. Already the baby reminded him a lot of their dad, with a ton of black fuzz for hair and the same eyes, complete with being a big baby for his age, almost comically big in Jazz's arms. He also looked a bit red, as if he had just calmed down from a crying fit.
"Ah look at you, squirt," Danny lightly teased, closing the door behind him. Ben burst into a grin upon seeing him, and he began to coo happily. Danny stepped forward and phased him out of Jazz's arms. "Thank you!"
"Danny!" Jazz scowled, immediately getting up. Danny used a hand to motion her to sit, shifting Ben in his arm.
"Don't worry about him, you should chill!" he told her. "You're probably running yourself ragged between him and your thesis." Jazz's expression softened some.
"Well, I did bring my laptop so I could work on it while he slept," she said slowly. Danny grinned.
"Exactly! You should think of this reunion as a day of being able to relax and not worry about him," he said. Ben gave a loud, excited squeal and kicked his legs. "See? Kids need their uncle time. Especially when their uncle can do this!"
Danny held Ben up high as he took a few steps away, bouncing him a tad while making ghost noises that rewarded him with cheerful baby noises. After a moment, he let go, and Ben stayed floating in the air.
"DANNY!" Jazz shrieked, barreling towards him. A duplicate Phantom became visible, holding him.
"Jazz, I've got this!" Danny assured her with a grin. Jazz was not having any of it. She grabbed Ben just in time for the door to open, which prompted the duplicate to disappear.
"You kids okay?" Jack questioned, and Danny could see that Spike was right behind him. He smiled when he saw Ben. "Ahh there's my favorite little guy!" Ben squealed and kicked his legs hard in Jazz's arms upon realizing his favorite person was in the room.
Jack came forward, hands out, and Jazz smiled as she let him take his first grandkid. Spike also came forward, and Danny realized that he had two cups of the coffee that his grandma had made. He handed a cup to Jazz, and she took it and immediately gulped some.
"Oh you're in your little ghostkateer outfit!" Jack squealed excitedly. Indeed, Danny finally noticed that Jazz had put Ben in the little jumpsuit Jack had made for him a while back, complete with a little FentonWorks logo that Jack lovingly embroidered himself.
"He loves it," Spike grinned. Jazz nodded in agreement. She ran a hand through her hair with a deep exhale. "He normally wants to sleep in it every night."
"Of course he does! Just like Grandpa! Nothing's quite like a good ol' jumpsuit!" Jack grinned. The more Jack spoke, the more Ben kicked in excitement. "Come on, little ghostkateer! Let's go show Grandma, and your graunties and grunkles!"
He held Ben close to him, blathering a mile a minute about ghosts (already) as Ben baby babbled back, and he took him out of the room. The second he left, Jazz punched Danny in the shoulder. He flinched hard, rubbing the spot.
"If you ever do that again, I'm shaving your head in your sleep!" Jazz scowled.
"I had it covered!" he argued. Jazz huffed.
"Come on, let's go and meet with the circus."
The three came downstairs to a flurry of activity. He could hear his grandma and wife in the kitchen chatting happily, and the sounds of the table being set by he assumed Bryan and Shawn.
Danny turned into the living room, greeted by his Uncle Andy and Aunt Fran gushing over Ben, who was cooing loudly and happily. However, soon as the baby saw his mom, his mood instantly shifted until Jazz scooped him back up, cradling him and using her mom voice to soothe him, Spike right there with her doing the same. Danny locked eyes with his own mom.
"Hey Mom!" Danny greeted. Maddie smiled warmly. "How was the drive?"
"Hi sweetheart!" Maddie replied. He accepted her hug and kiss on the cheek. "It was good, not much traffic."
"Where's Aunt Brenner?" Danny wondered. "And Uncle Sully? I thought you were picking them up from the airport?"
"Oh Dad was coming back right as we pulled in," Jack explained. "They're outside talking to him."
"Grandpa's back?" Danny echoed. "I'm gonna go help him with the body!"
He was already out the door, hopping down the front porch steps and walking across the parking lot. He saw his parents' RV, as well as the funeral home's first call vehicle, the back doors open. Danny jogged up to his grandpa and his aunt and her husband as they all chatted casually.
"Hey Grandpa!" Danny called out, getting their attention.
Grandpa Fenton matched his wife in many ways. Danny's memories of him always placed him in his black pants with green suspenders and white short sleeved button down collared shirts, thick glasses over blue eyes. At the funeral home with guests, he had shiny black dress shoes and a formal jacket suit. However at home and currently, he wore his comfortable black cardigan and black slippers instead. The hair left on the top of his balding head was silver, but the sides were purely white, an almost distinctive pattern for the Fenton men by now that Danny saw reflected in his own father and began seeing in his own hair.
"Hey, Danny-boy!" he replied. "Can you give me a hand?"
"Of course!" Danny agreed. "Dinner should be ready in an hour."
"Perfect, we can get everything prepped and done for today in an hour," Grandpa replied. "We can do the rest after we meet with the family tomorrow and go over what they want."
Danny nodded, shifting to pull the wheeled stretcher from the vehicle, the wheels popping out as he pulled it out, his grandfather pushing it. The body bag was already strapped to the stretcher, but Danny still gave a quick pull on the strap to double check. His aunt looked a bit pale.
"I don't know how you can handle eating after this," she spoke, shaking her head. Grandpa chuckled.
"Just takes a strong stomach and years of experience, baby girl," he replied cheerfully. He gave Danny a small wink. "Best to leave it to the men."
Danny felt a warm pride feel his chest, and a glance at his aunt told him that she had the same. She was smiling some, giving a half shrug as they wheeled it into the funeral home.
After dinner, Danny had helped with putting away the leftovers and cleanup as his grandparents got dessert ready. Two homemade pies his grandpa had prepared earlier that day and ice cream, with a vegan brand of ice cream included for Sam. Once everybody got what they wanted, they all settled into the living room.
Grandma and Grandpa sat in their matching armchairs. Jazz had claimed a rocking chair that had been moved from the porch to the living room corner, gently rocking Ben as he had his late night breastfeeding. Spike sat on a footrest next to her with her bottle of water and their pie slices, occasionally feeding her a bite or giving her her water when requested. Jack, Maddie, Uncle Andy, Aunt Fran, Aunt Brenner and Uncle Sully all had managed to be comfortable on the oversized L shaped couch across from the chairs. Shawn and Bryan sat on the floor, leaning against the couch with extra pillows for comfort. Sam and Danny shared the loveseat tucked awkwardly near, almost behind, the armchairs.
"And I keep telling our guests to not touch the doll for this specific reason," Aunt Brenner was continuing her story of her haunted museum exhibits.
"I can't tell you how many fingerprints I wipe off the glass cases every day," her husband sighed, shaking his head.
"This family doesn't need more curses," Uncle Andy joked. Her jerked his thumb to Jack. "Jackaboy's still dealing with the curse of never hitting a target." Jack reached over to lightly smack his little brother. Uncle Andy mirrored him.
"Oh you two knock it off," their mother scolded. "Don't joke about curses like that. There's still hope that we can break the curse one day."
"Wait, what? Break the curse?" Bryan spoke up. He looked confused. "Can it be broken? Why haven't we broken it yet then?"
"We think we may be able to," Aunt Brenner said. "It depends. We need more information. I've been researching it lately."
"What are you talking about?" Danny pressed. His grandpa motioned to the bookshelf.
"Get me the book," he requested.
Danny didn't need a further explanation. He knew exactly what book he was referencing. He stood up, grabbing the side of the bookshelf for support as he reached up for the prized book that stayed on the top shelf, plain cover exposed and on display on a stand. He immediately passed it on to his grandfather, who opened it. Danny returned to his seat.
"This curse hasn't been here since the year we came to America," he explained.
"It didn't come with us on the ship?" Jazz questioned, sounding surprised but flinching as Ben pulled on her hair. That's what Danny had always been told too.
"No, no," Grandpa replied, shaking his head. "We lived here for a good thirteen years before the curse struck us."
"It did arrive on the ship with us but didn't begin right away," Uncle Andy clarified upon seeing the confusion. "The witch who placed the curse upon us came on the ship, but we didn't see her spirit companion until we had been there thirteen years. The witch was just a girl when she came, fifteen when she placed the curse."
"Yes, yes," Grandma confirmed. "Our ancestors tried to burn her, but she was saved by her evil spirit protector. And later that day, the village found her at home. It came to light that she had used her magic to be in two places at once. John Fenton-Nightingale led the charge and trial and proved that she was a witch. And on June 13th, she was sentenced to death by burning."
The name immediately made Danny go numb. He glanced at his wife, and Sam locked gazes with him. Her eyes were wide with horror as it both hit them.
"And as she burned, she placed a curse on John Fenton-Nightingale and his family," Jack continued. "And the next year on June 13th, the first relative went missing."
"It took another forty years for him to make the connection, but he had begun our first curse book. Over the years, we've remade and rebound and copied over the contents, but we somehow lost more information about the witch and her protective spirit. The memory faded. We focused more on who we lost," Grandpa continued. He had stopped on a page with a thumb gently brushing over the contents. "And over time, as the cases piled up, we would record them. So that they could never be forgotten."
Danny finally noticed that the page his grandpa was fixated on was of Aunt Amy. A familiar colored photo had been glued to the page of her smiling brightly, and the handwritten account of her vanishing somewhat blurred with tears from the author, newspaper articles that had been carefully folded bookmarking her page. For years, his dad had said that while Grandpa Fenton missed his brother and grandmother a lot, that it was Amy's vanishing that hit him the hardest. Losing their eldest daughter.
Danny remembered the year she went missing. She had to miss the reunion because of work, a well respected psychic who had been urgently requested by a desperate family. While she had promised them all that she wouldn't be alone that June 13th, something had happened. They still didn't know how or why, except that in the ten minute window of her being alone, she had gone missing. And nobody knew where she was over ten years later.
He glanced at Bryan, whose lower lip was quivering hard. Danny was only thirteen when she went missing, but Bryan was almost eighteen. Danny could never forget his cousin's emotional wreck when he was told that nobody had seen his mom since two pm on June 13th, and the pain only visibly deepened every year when he saw Bryan for the annual reunion. The only one who could possibly be more distraught was their grandparents.
Shawn seemed to notice, as he leaned into his friend. Maddie noticed too, leaning forward to peck the top of his head. Bryan lived with them briefly after his mom disappeared before he went to, and eventually dropped out of, college.
The clock chimed, and the Fentons all looked up at the grandfather clock as it struck midnight. Grandpa closed the book with a soft sigh.
June 13th had begun.