Chapter Six
Jazz stood outside a house that she never set foot inside of before today, but she'd been here countless times whenever she or her parents dropped off Danny. She never expected to go in it, either, since Tucker was Danny's friend, not hers, but Tucker's texts were vague and filled with an intense sense of urgency and worry.
Something was wrong with Danny.
They needed her help, but she couldn't tell her parents.
Could she bring some of her parents' research, though? About overshadowing and possession, specifically, if they had anything?
Jazz believed she was smart, and the world had done nothing so far to disprove her of that notion. Even if she wasn't half as smart as she was, it still wouldn't be hard to figure out that Sam and Tucker thought Danny was possessed or overshadowed by a ghost. Why they believed that or when or how it happened, though . . . that part was harder. Jazz hadn't noticed any changes in behavior in Danny for a long time, not since the initial shift in the first few months after his accident, but while he might be depressed or suffering from some form of PTSD, nothing about what happened seemed out of the ordinary for a person that survived such a traumatic event.
At least not until she started skimming through her parents' research and noticed some uncomfortable patterns.
Clutching her notebook tightly to her chest, she shifted her book bag with her free hand before finally forcing herself to ring the bell. Mrs. Foley answered the door, looking a bit surprised to see that the Fenton teenager standing there was certainly not the one she was accustomed to having over, although Jazz couldn't remember the last time Danny went to Tucker's house. He certainly hadn't asked her for a ride in ages.
"Jazz? Everything okay with Danny?"
"Everything's fine!" she squeaked, and internally she winced. She had to keep it together for Danny's sake. Shifting her notebook, she put on her best, friendliest smile, the kind she specifically reserved for pleasing authority figures like teachers or her parents. "Is Tucker here? I offered to help review some of what I did that helped me ensure I had a strong application when I applied to Harvard and a few Ivy League schools last summer. He said that he and Sam were interested?"
That last part shouldn't have been a question, but Angela smiled at her, clearly attributing it to nerves about coming over for the first time rather than anything else. "He's upstairs in his room with Sam. You can go up and meet him, if you like. It's the door at the end of the hall."
"Thank you!" Stepping inside, she barely took note of her surroundings before hurrying up the staircase in front of her and rushing to Tucker's bedroom.
Tucker's room was surprisingly clean. She always assumed it would be a mess, much like her younger brother's, but instead he had things neatly organized and tucked away. A desk with a computer with three monitors sat in the corner, colorful fans spinning rapidly in his desktop tower as Tucker sat in the chair scrolling through some website on one screen while a game remained paused on one and his email was opened on the other. There were a few dozen of the plastic sliding drawers and cabinets with neat labels, each one filled to the brim with various computer parts. An old TV and gaming console - she thought it might be a DreamCast, of all things, but wasn't sure - sat it in the corner. His bed was neatly made, the bedspread just a plain solid green, and Sam was sitting on top of it, squirming uncomfortably. Her makeup was done, but it was a much lighter coat than she typically applied and her hair was pulled back into a simple ponytail.
"You can sit on the bed, if you want, or Sam can grab a chair from my mom's room," said Tucker as she walked in.
"The bed's fine," she replied as she took a seat next to Sam and smiled at the two of them. "So, uh, what's this–"
Tucker leaned back in his chair and slammed his door shut, and Jazz nearly jumped out of her skin. "Sorry. Don't want my Mom or Dad to listen in."
"They don't care if you have the door opened when you have, um, y'know? Girls over?"
"Nope," Tucker replied, "Which if you ask me is kind of insulting. I think they don't believe their son has any game."
"Or they think you're gay, or they realized it's kind of sexist rule that's borderline homophobic because it makes certain assumptions about your sexuality all together," said Sam, which Jazz felt was a not-so-slight insult aimed at her. Whatever. She and Sam didn't need to be best friends. That wasn't her role with the two of them, not when they were Danny's friends, and she didn't care enough to have an argument over dumb house rules she had no say in anyway. "Can we get on with this? We're not here to talk about your love life, Tuck."
"Right, so, um . . . about Danny . . . "
"You think he's possessed," said Jazz immediately, pulling open her book bag and handing out a couple of texts, and both Sam and Tucker began to flip through them as she spoke. "I've got a few of my parents papers on it, but it doesn't look like this was a significant research topic for them or any paranormal researchers since actual possessions are incredibly rare."
"So you think we're wrong?" Sam's arms were tucked into her sides, her fingers gripping the journal tightly as she shifted and crossed one of her legs. Pointing it at Jazz. Defensive position. Naturally. When wasn't Sam responding defensively to her?
Jazz bit her lip, considering her next words carefully. "I'm not sure. I want you to be wrong, because if you're right, then this is a lot worse than I think either of you might realize. But the more I read about it, the harder it was for me to deny your theory outright. So I guess first things first: why do the two of you think he's possessed?"
Sam and Tucker shared a look, and then Tucker turned back to his computer briefly to open up a new tab. Jazz frowned as it loaded. It was an article on a site that looked like it was made back in the late 90s or early 2000s, judging from the garish background and header, or maybe the person that posted the article didn't know anything about making websites. Glancing at the article, she saw a date stamped at the top from about a decade ago, along with a handful of names she vaguely recognized as some of her parents' colleagues.
"Death Echoes: Psychomagnotheric Ectoplasm Manipulation by Spectral Entities When Recounting their Moment of Formation," she read out loud and frowned. "Wait, I've heard of that before. Psychomagnotheric is an ectoplasm subtype, I think. It has to do with emotional resonance."
"Right. According to this article and the other stuff Sam and I looked at, it's basically why a room feels cold when you're in it with an angry ghost. It's the kind of ectoplasm that can cause things to be altered or changed in an environment around a ghost based on strong emotion. Researchers like your parents used that knowledge to trigger certain responses in ghosts back when most of the ones they encountered were just shades and often invisible. So they'd talk to them and would deliberately try to provoke them to create an emotional response, which would cause some kind of physical manifestation that they could study and record," said Tucker, his knuckles white on his mouse. "But that's not really the important part. See, uh, we kind of had firsthand experience with a death echo the other day, which is basically what happens when a ghost talks about its death. It often ends up recreating a kind of shadow or impression of whatever caused their death in the world around it."
Jazz made the connection instantly, despite Tucker dancing around it. "Wait, this happened with Danny?"
"Yeah. We were talking, and he seemed like he was opening up about some stuff, and then he started to talk about his portal accident and it was, uh . . . not pleasant," said Tucker with a shudder.
"Basically it felt like it was happening around us and to us, like we could literally feel the pain he felt that day and I swear I saw the portal for a minute. Danny looked freaked out, and he ran off before we could try to talk to him. He's been avoiding us since then," said Sam, frowning as she tugged at her skirt. "Well, I guess we've also been avoiding him. We're kind of worried that whatever ghost is possessing Danny won't be super kind if it gets us alone with him now that we know it's in there."
"But the portal accident didn't kill Danny or anyone else," said Jazz as she flipped her notebook open to a fresh page and started taking notes. She would have to be careful not to leave it lying around the house, though - maybe her car would be best? Danny rarely accepted her offer for a ride these days. "So why would it have triggered a death echo?" The words tasted unpleasant on her tongue, death being an association with her brother she definitely did not want.
"We're not entirely sure. I think if the ghost controlling him knew it would, it definitely wouldn't have talked about it, and I suspect it didn't even think there was a chance it might for exactly the reason you said. It's not as if that's what killed whatever ghost is possessing him," said Tucker. "But it must've felt like dying to Danny. Even though he survived it, I think it was close enough to a near-death experience that it still caused us to experience a, uh, near-death echo, I guess, since Danny is still in there somewhere. It's all just about emotional resonance with this stuff. The emotions have to be strong enough to cause the ectoplasm to physically manifest in some way. A ghost's death is just the most extreme way to get a reaction like that to happen, I guess."
It made a kind of sense, she supposed. Maybe Danny even did know it would cause the odd reaction. Maybe it was his way of trying to send a signal to them, a cry for help. Still, it didn't quite sit right with her. "Are we sure he's possessed, though? What if–what if he's not? What if he's–" The words wouldn't come. She couldn't bring herself to say it. To suggest that Danny might be a ghost.
"A ghost?" said Sam, and she gave a fraction of a nod. "We thought the same thing at first, but someone would have noticed if Danny died. He's been to like a billion doctors' appointments, right?"
"He has." She felt herself breathe, then, and she relaxed her fingers a bit. She didn't even realize how tightly she had gripped the pen and notebook beneath her fingers. They were right. Someone would have noticed it for sure if her brother died, and she knew he still breathed and that his heart still beat, even if both were a little slower than they should be. "But do you really think it's possession? Could it be anything else?"
"Well, that's part of the reason we wanted to talk to you. We tried to figure out if it could be something else, but based on what we've researched so far, we haven't found anything else that even kind of makes sense. Like, there are people who are supposedly psychic mediums who can have a few symptoms in common with Danny, but there's no reliable reports of them being able to manipulate ectoplasm the way Danny did or evidence that their powers even exist. That seems to be like a pure ghost thing," said Sam.
"Did your parents, um . . . do they ever check for possessions?" asked Tucker, and Jazz shook her head.
"No, not really. Overshadowing is easier to pick up on - from what I've read from those articles and books I gave you, it's like oil floating on top of the water. You might not notice it immediately, but all it takes is the light hitting it the right way to see it. Just like a ghost overshadowing a person usually causes some kind of light, physical changes like subtle shifts in eye color or erratic behavior," Jazz explained. "But possession is deeper. It's more like salt mixed in water, and it's almost impossible to tell just by looking at it unless you have the right equipment. The ghost would also have access to his memories, his feelings, everything that makes Danny, well, Danny. In the case of detecting a ghost's presence, you would need to either get it to exhibit some ghostly ability or trait in front of you, the way I guess this ghost inside Danny accidentally did, or you would need to do a much stronger, close up scan than the type my parents typically use to detect ghosts."
"But possession also takes a long time," continued Jazz. "Which is the other reason why it's so rare. While a person is in the process of being possessed, it's not unusual for them to be unconscious or to have a patchy memory or all kinds of other problems that are really obvious. If this . . . If you're right, then Danny's been under the control of this ghost for a long time. Likely since his accident, since I can't think of another time when he would have exhibited those initial symptoms."
"He did become all pro-ghost rights or whatever not long after that, didn't he?" asked Tucker, and Sam nodded. "Seemed kind of weird considering the years of your parents' research and all the damage from the ghost attacks."
"It goes beyond that, Tucker. I caught him the other day spending time with a ghost," said Jazz, drawing tiny spirals in the margins of her notebook as she fought to keep her emotions steady. "He made a convincing argument for why he was doing it, but knowing what I do now, I'm worried he might have been up to something worse before I found them. He–I'm pretty sure he noticed me, even though he didn't say anything until the ghost was gone."
"Danny was hanging out with a ghost?"
"Yeah, the lunch lady one. They were making cookies for Dad's birthday together," she replied, and Sam and Tucker exchanged a look of absolute horror that she understood immediately. She waved her hands and shook her head in protest. "There was nothing wrong with the cookies, though! I thought of that, too, once I realized what you were asking, but whatever ghost is hiding in him doesn't seem interested in hurting me or Mom or Dad at this point. But I know Mom and Dad have also talked about the ghosts escaping traps in the lab and stuff. Danny denies doing it and I've never seen him set foot down there since his accident, but if he's possessed, it might be possible for him to sneak down invisibly and sabotage their work."
"That's also a good motive for why a ghost would possess him for so long. Danny's in the perfect spot to make sure that your parents can't continue their research or develop more effective tech against them," said Sam.
"There's a lot of evidence that he's possessed, too, even beyond your experience the other day. The hypothermia, his slower breathing and slower heart beat are all classic signs of possession," said Jazz, flipping back to her notes on the previous pages. "Plus weird cold spots. I know it's been a while since you were both over, but his room feels like stepping inside a freezer, and the temperature always seems to fluctuate around him at home. My parents assume it's just the proximity to the portal, but given everything else we know, it seems pretty likely it's whatever ghost possessing Danny could be causing it, too."
"So how do we fix it?" asked Sam. "The thought of Danny having no control over himself for almost two years now is just . . . " She shuddered, fingers pinching the edge of her skirt. "I don't want this to continue. It's not right."
"Well, that's the bad part," said Jazz. "The safest way to do it is with the name of the ghost. It sounds a little silly to me, but the books all say that you can attempt a summoning or an exorcism. It works roughly the same way, but with the exorcism he'd be aware we were doing it right away and would need to be in the room. He could try to harm us or influence us, but it has a much higher chance of succeeding. With the summoning, he would have very little warning. The ghost would be pulled from him as long as the summoning was strong enough, since it shouldn't bring the physical body it's possessing with it, and the ghost should be trapped in the summoning circle, too. But the summonings don't always work. The ghosts can sometimes resist it, and all of them say something about having the ghosts' true name to make it work. One mentioned that a medium could help, but I asked Dad about it since it seemed kind of farfetched–I didn't mention a word about Danny being possessed–" she added quickly, seeing Sam's intense glare "-and he doesn't think they exist at all. I guess he and Mom worked with some researcher back in college who looked into mediums and found a lot of fakes just using it as a way to capitalize on people's grief."
"That sounds about right to me," said Sam. "I was really into the ghost stuff in middle school. I went to a few shows with mediums at it, but they were just doing lousy cold reads. If there's a real medium out there, I don't think we'll be able to find them. Can we do it without it? I used to try to summon ghosts, but I never got it to work."
"Maybe, but it'll be harder," said Jazz. "But that's part of the problem. A lot of this just seems pretty speculative, but I didn't find a lot of other suggestions for dealing with possession."
"Maybe we can at least get the true name, then," said Sam, and she saw Tucker staring at her. "What?"
"You seriously used to try and summon ghosts?" he said. "When?"
"At, like, sleepovers in middle school and stuff. I'd never do it now if I could help it, given everything," she said with a shrug. Jazz felt a twinge of jealousy - she never really went to more than a couple sleepovers as a kid, most people finding her an insufferable know-it-all and tattle-tale, and while there was a little bit of truth to both, it still stung. "So we need a name, then?"
"If we can."
"Do your parents have any tech that might help?" asked Tucker.
"For finding the name? Not really. I thought about this thing they have called the Fenton Ghost Catcher. It's supposed to be able to separate a ghost and human host, but it's meant for surface level stuff like overshadowing. I don't know if it'll work on a possession, and I think it would be hard to surprise Danny with it since it's as tall as I am and looks like a giant dream catcher. Plus he knows what it is already, too, which means so does whatever ghost is possessing him and it's probably not going to be eager to jump through it," said Jazz. "And if we screw this up, it can go badly really quickly."
"Meaning?"
"The ghost inside him is deeply embedded at this point," said Jazz, flipping to another page and checking over her notes quickly, but at this point she had nearly everything in her notebook memorized. "Especially after such a long possession. There's a small chance that it might threaten Danny's life, and with how much power it has over his body, it could make good on that threat. There's also a chance that part of what enabled the possession to happen in the first place was a result of Danny being . . . if Danny's accident was a lot worse and he's actually, functionally brain dead, we could succeed but it might not matter since Danny might already be gone."
"I don't think Danny would want to have his body used as a puppet by some stupid ghost for the rest of his life on that chance, Jazz," said Sam, and she was surprised when she felt Sam put a gentle hand on her back. "I wouldn't."
"I know, but–" She stopped, forcing herself to push away the tears. "Sorry, I'm just worried about my brother. I want to do what's best and save him, but I don't know how we can. This summoning thing already seems super risky, and I'm worried we'll try it and it won't work and then we'll have to do the exorcism or whatever which might be worse, and I have no idea how we can figure out the name of this ghost, not if it happened just after the portal opened. There are thousands, if not millions, of spectral entities in the ghost zone."
"Well, there might be one way," said Sam, smiling mischievously. "We could try to capture Desiree."
"Oh, no, the wishing ghost? You've gotta be kidding me," groaned Tucker as Jazz glanced between the two of them. "That's too dangerous."
"But she could tell us the name. All we'd have to do is wish to know it," said Sam. "And it's been weeks since she last showed up, you know she's gotta be long overdue for an attack. She might also be a good ghost to practice doing a summoning with, too, if we want to try and find her that way instead, but I'm not sure if Desiree is actually her true name or whatever."
"We could also just wish for the ghost to stop possessing Danny, right?" said Jazz. Why go through all these other hoops if there was a ghost that could easily make this stop being such a nightmare? "Can she refuse to grant a wish?"
"No, she's actively complained about being forced to grant every wish she hears - we heard her say it when Phantom wished her into a thermos once. I think the real problem is that she'll probably try and twist whatever wish we make into something awful. I wouldn't want to take the chance that she like, rips his soul out of him or something weird," said Sam. Jazz didn't believe in souls, per se, but she saw Sam's point. "The name feels way lower risk, even if it doesn't work out. She might figure out a way to twist that wish, but at least it might not be as bad."
"And if she doesn't show up or we can't summon her?" asked Jazz. "Then what?"
"Then we try the ghost catcher thing instead, or get your parents involved and see if they have any ideas," said Sam, looking sour at the idea of involving the Fentons. "We can keep looking, too, and see if there's some other solution we can find."
"We might not have long, though," said Tucker. "That thing inside Danny knows that we know. It's not going to leave us alone."
"I kind of thought of that," said Jazz as she reached into her bag and pulled out a couple of belts. "These are Specter Deflectors. My parents made them for Danny and I, and he refused to wear one and I never really did since . . . well, that's doesn't matter." She wasn't about to admit that she thought ghosts weren't real or that the belt just looked stupid or that it seemed useless most of the time in ghost attacks since the ghosts rarely tried to touch anyone directly, the dangers usually coming from flying bits of tech or meat or some other thing around them. "But supposedly ghosts can't touch you as long as you wear it. For now, it's probably your best bet to stay safe. I can also try to get you an ecto gun, but the school might confiscate it."
Sam and Tucker shared a look as they took the belts from her. "Thanks, but, uh, what about you?"
"Well, right now it doesn't know that I know anything, and we're going to keep it that way," said Jazz as she stood up and tucked her notebook back into her bag. "I won't tell my parents yet, either. I know they'd want to help, but I'm concerned they might be too worried about Danny to think logically about this."
"And you're not?"
Jazz smiled weakly with her hand on the door knob. "It's hard. When I first found the information about how to attempt the summoning and the stuff on exorcisms and I realized what you two must be thinking, I almost did it by myself. But for Danny's sake, we have to be smart about this and we can't just blindly rush in. Not if we want the best chance for him to survive it."
"Then let's try to capture Desiree."
A/N: Thanks for the continued support! This chapter is a bit early, but I'm hoping to get into a Friday/Saturday update schedule going forward and I'm a little ahead on editing.