After a long and arduous drive during which nothing of note happened, to Danny's disgust, the Fenton family caught their first sight of Puget Sound. The foothills from the Olympic Mountains extended to into Federal Way, making the drive slow to a near crawl on the steep inclines. The peak of each hill was abrupt so that one was unable to catch even a glimpse of what lay on the other side until they had topped the rise. It was at the top of one such rise that the glistening bay appeared as if by magic. The sunset that rendered the sky purple, orange, and red was reflected in the water, making it look like the rendering of some great artist. Maddie called her two children to see the view, but they were already there.
"There's where we're going," she pointed out a large house that sat by itself just off the second "tier" of homes. "You kids can practically walk to the beach from here." She turned then to fix Danny with a stern expression. "But don't think that means you can put off your homework until the last minute."
"Sure, Mom," he answered distractedly. He and Jazz remained plastered to the windows as Jack wound his way around the hairpins turns that made the climb up the cliff side possible. It wasn't until the RV was parked and Danny experienced a sudden chill that turned his breath into a visible fog that he was able to tear himself away. "Vlad," he muttered angrily and let his narrowed eyes momentarily glow green.
Jazz put a hand on his shoulder, though whether it was a gesture of calming or restraint remained to be seen. "Come on, Danny. Let's just unload the bags while they talk. He won't try anything yet." She started to turn, then as an afterthought asked, "Will he?"
Danny shook his head. "Probably not. He doesn't want them find out any more than I do." He sighed out of general angst and collected his bags to follow Jazz.
"Daniel!" Vlad announced happily. Danny cringed; he had been hoping he wouldn't have to pretend to be nice to his arch enemy. "So good to see you again, my boy!" Vlad was apparently trying to win an Oscar.
"Yeah," the boy replied tersely, resisting the impulse to let his eyes turn green in anger. "Great." He ducked through the door of the house, pretending to not hear his parents as they tried to call him over. He looked around reflexively for any visible signs of a trap and was awed in spite of himself.
The floor was a black and white checkered marble that reflected the light from a crystalline hanging chandelier. The far wall opened onto a hallway; he could see a staircase at the end of it. To his left, a pair of French doors stood open to reveal a parlor of sorts, as well as Jazz who was standing before the fireplace, gazing at the portrait of a stern looking man next to an empty chair. To his right was a wall mural featuring the Sound as it must have looked a hundred years ago. He could see two figures standing on the beach, gazing out at the sunset.
"Oh, Vlad," Maddie breathed as the three of them entered. "It's beautiful."
"Yes," he agreed. "I had it restored to its original state; it was quite run down."
"And you're sure you can't stay to catch up on old times, V-Man?" Jack asked, almost plaintively.
Danny turned just in time to see Vlad cover a flinch at the thought. "No, no, my fat, old friend," he replied, perhaps a little too quickly. "Though it pains me to leave you here alone with the ghosts, I fear I must be in Japan as soon as possible." He gallantly kissed Maddie's hand, pretended to not notice Jack try to shake hands in farewell, and swept out. The boy thought that went a little too easily.
Still too keyed up from the drive to sleep, Danny looked out the window of his temporary room at the light that spilled out across the bay. The sun had set several hours earlier, but the sunset apparently had not been informed of this yet. At midnight, it was still twilight. It felt strange somehow, to look out at the sea through a curtain of rain. Almost as though there was not a thing wrong in the world. It was peaceful.
The house, it turned out, was three stories with no basement. As he found out, few homes had basements, especially around the water. It had once belonged to the owner of a now defunct and forgotten fishing company, a prestigious status to have a hundred and fifty years ago. Danny's room was on the second floor, while Jazz and his parent's rooms were on the third. Somehow, his sister had unfairly scored the only balcony in the house, directly above Danny's window. It was really very impractical, but very cool, too. Apparently, it was a sign of the original owner's wealth.
It was also the very balcony Julia Coppler had thrown herself from all those decades ago. Jack and Maddie had been talking about it over dinner at the restaurant at the base of the cliff, earning no few curious stares from their fellow patrons. The cliff had been less of a residential area back then. In fact, the Coppler mansion had been the only house there for a long time.
According to the legend, she had fallen to her death to be with her murdered beloved. However, due to the violent natures of their deaths, they were unable to rest in peace until they had gotten their revenge. Never mind that the one responsible had been dead for over a century, they were still here.
Actually, Danny had trouble believing that. His parents had gotten their entire supply of ghost detecting equipment set up in record time. It only showed one ghost in the entire house; a ghost that inexplicably happened to appear in whatever room their son was occupying. After the first nine "false alarms", they had given it up as bad job and gone to bed.
More reliable than ghost alarms, however, was Danny's ghost sense. It hadn't gone off at all, meaning there were no ghosts around. Although, it never picked up Kat, either…
His thoughts were brought to a halt by the sound of a woman crying. It was coming from above, but it didn't sound like Jazz. He jumped into the air and converted to ghost mode simultaneously in order to fly up through the ceiling. Jazz's room was as dark as his, but he could easily see that his sister was still in bed. The crying was coming from the balcony. As soon as Danny floated through the door, it was gone.
"Okay…" he muttered. Had he been hearing things? The noise had been loud, but it didn't seem to have disturbed Jazz in the slightest. Suddenly, the door slammed open and Danny went invisible just in time to avoid being seen by his parents.
"Huh?" Jazz asked sleepily, sitting bolt upright. "Mom? Dad? What are you doing in my room?"
"Sweetie, are you okay?" Maddie asked, dodging the question.
"Is there a ghost?" Jack demanded.
"What are you talking about?" Jazz also demanded, sleep giving way to anger.
"We heard crying," Maddie explained. "It wasn't you?"
"Uh…no. I was asleep."
"So it was a ghost!" Jack announced before anyone could get a word in edgewise.
Danny flew off the balcony in a circular route that took him behind his parents where he changed back into a human. "What's going on?" he asked sleepily and rubbing his eyes for effect.
"There's a ghost in you sister's room!" Jack answered to Maddie's exasperated huff. "Probably the same one chasing you around earlier."
"Jack," Maddie sighed. "It was just the equipment malfunctioning from the drive. Now, come on. That noise must have been coming from outside." She turned her protesting husband around and pushed him back toward their room.
"Was there a ghost?" Jazz asked quietly from her door.
Danny shook his head. "I don't think so. It sounded like a woman out on the balcony crying, but it stopped when I got out there, and my ghost sense wasn't going off."
"Maybe a bird or something, then. 'Night, Danny." She retreated back behind the closed door, leaving her younger brother alone in the hall to become intangible and drop through the floor.
Who needs stairs?
The next morning found Danny falling asleep over a phone book. There were no fewer than twenty Cadwells in the white pages, none of them named Elizabeth. He was not looking forward to calling them all.
"Ghost!" Jack yelled, charging into the room with the Fenton Ghost Weasel.
Danny had tried to beg off coming for this very reason, but his parents were unwilling to let him stay home alone, or even with Jazz. Not while they were out of state. If this kept up, they would start to get suspicious. At the moment, all the ghost boy could muster in the way of panic was a tired yawn.
Maddie slid to a wary stop beside her husband and looked around. She sighed and relaxed. "False alarm."
Jack pouted. "Maybe not," he whined. "There could be a ghost following Danny around. Maybe it's the ghost of Julia Coppler."
Danny and Maddie rolled their eyes almost in unison. "Dad, I don't think a hundred and fifty year old ghost is going to be interested in me."
"Come on, dear," Maddie said, dragging her husband from the room.
Danny shook his head and went back to playing "Eenie, Meanie, Miny, Moe" with the phone numbers. He was beginning to wonder if it was worth finding out about Kat's past. Maybe he should just wait until she was ready to tell him, like Jazz had tried to do about his secret.
Yeah, that sounded like a good plan. A good, easier-than-calling-twenty-people plan. Rather than wait for his parents to find the amazing disappearing ghost again, he left the house.
It was raining again, unless it was raining still. The air was chill, enough so that he could see his breath. He thought, at first, that it was his ghost sense going off, but quickly discarded that notion as the few other pedestrians out and about seemed to be experiencing the same phenomenon. He pulled his jacket tighter around himself and started the long walk down to the mostly deserted beach. By the time he got there, he had resolved to fly back up; it was a very tiring walk.
He stopped short and looked around as the voice of his sister called, "Hey, Danny!" She was strolling towards him with an unfamiliar gentleman in tow. "Danny, this is Roy. Roy, my little brother Danny."
"Um…hi," Danny replied uncertainly as he tentatively shook the proffered hand.
Roy grinned in a most friendly manner, revealing teeth that had to have been bleached. He sported a tan that looked like it came from a salon, blonde hair, and a shade of blue eyes that had to have been artificial. He looked like a stereotypical surfer from California, and it was a shock when he spoke that he actually sounded intelligent. "Welcome to Poverty Beach," he said affably.
Danny decided not to hate him on sight and asked, "Why's it called Poverty Beach?"
Jazz giggled slightly, but it was Roy who answered. "Because if you live here, you can't afford much else."
The boy raised an eyebrow as his sister giggled again and blushed. She was love-struck. Great.
"Hey," Roy said as though he had just had an epiphany. "Would you like to join us, Danny? We're just taking a walk."
"Uh…no thanks. Wouldn't want to intrude." He stepped back slightly, Jazz shot him a look of gratitude. She really shouldn't have; the second their backs were turned, Danny went invisible and followed them on their date. He had to look out for his sister, after all.
A/N: Thanks, all. I would like to point out that, while the house does not actually exist, the cliff does. In fact, it is the neighborhood where I used to live. The cliff isn't actually a sheer rock face, but it almost is. The hairpin turns are the only reason its drivable; without them, you'd be trying to drive almost straight up, a nigh impossible feat.