Okay, so the prologue was kind of lame. It's only the prologue. Can you blame me? This next chapter will be way, way, way, way, way, way better, I promise. So, here ya go, A Series of Paranormal Events, Chapter one! YAAAAAAAAAAY!
Our story begins on Briny Beach one cloudy afternoon, which the Fenton children preferred, because scarcely anyone was there except for them. Although all three children were the same age, they had been born at different times. Daniel Fenton, the eldest by five seconds, was glancing out at sea and watching the waves bob up and down, occasionally carrying a piece of driftwood with it. Daniel, or Danny, as he preferred to be called, had a very remarkable trait that most people do not have: superpowers that were the result of an accident in his parents' lab. The Fenton parents were ghost hunters, meaning that they took no greater pleasure in trying to find and capture ghosts, and they had recently created a device known as the Fenton Portal. Egged on by his siblings to explore it, Danny entered the portal, accidentally turning it on in the process. From then on, Danny had pursued rouge spirits, trying to capture them and release them into their world, known simply as "The Ghost Zone". On this particular afternoon, however, Danny was hovering over the water in full-ghost mode, practicing his skills on bits of flotsam and jetsam floating in the stone-grey murk by sending blasts of energy at them, effectively vaporizing them.
Samantha Fenton, or Sam, as she preferred to be called, was Goth, a word which here means "Often dressed in black and had a gloomy outlook on life." The middle child of the family, she was a writer, and occasionally wrote poetry, with a large vocabulary and love for the English language. Today, for instance, she was just finishing up the last bits of a poem on the constellations. Oftentimes, she could be found in bed with a flashlight in one hand and a pad of paper and a pen in the other, having fallen asleep from staying up so late to finish her latest piece of work.
Tucker Fenton, the youngest member of the siblings, was an inventor, and he enjoyed fiddling with computers and robots to see how they worked, revamping them so that they could perform new tasks, such as clean his bedroom. The only thing preventing him from speaking about them was the fact that he was mute and could only speak in sign language, meaning that usually only his family could understand what he was saying. This never stopped Tucker from doing what he enjoyed doing, however, and today he had brought his tools and several computer chips down to the beach, so he could work on creating a computerized rock polisher, to polish the different rocks he found in the sand.
All in all, the children were not paying one bit of attention to the banker strolling towards them.
Tucker was the first to notice. He nudged Sam and pointed to the person. Sam looked up from her poem, watched the person for a few moments, and then turned back to Tucker and saying, "It's Mr. Poe."
"Mr. Poe? But he's a banker; what's he doing looking for us on Briny Beach?" Tucker singed.
"I'm not sure," Sam replied grimly, "But I'm sure it's not to say hello." She watched Danny alight on the sandy beach and switch into his human form, immediately in front of Mr. Poe in an attempt to give him a good scare. Sure enough, Mr. Poe jumped in surprise as soon as Danny landed, laughing.
"Oh, man, that never fails!" Danny said, tears in his eyes from laughing so hard. "I can't believe he still falls for that!" Danny suddenly stopped laughing as Sam shot a sharp glance in his direction.
"Hello, children," Mr. Poe said, and the children noted that he did not sound particularly cheerful, as he usually did. "I've been sent to tell you something….. important."
"What is that?" Tucker signed.
"It's about….. your parents."
"What about our parents?" Sam asked, a vague feeling of disaster in the back of her mind. Mr. Poe sighed before continuing.
"I'm not exactly sure how to word this….."
"Why don't you just tell us the straight truth?" Danny asked.
"I'm terribly sorry to tell you this," Mr. Poe said, in a tone reflecting absolutely no regret whatsoever, "But there was a fire at your house."
The Fenton siblings gasped in shock.
"And our parents?" Danny asked, nearly choking on his words. "What about our parents?"
Mr. Poe looked at the ground, reached into his pocket, and drew out a small, charred piece of their mother's jumpsuit.
"This was all that they could find. Evidence reports that there were no survivors."
The siblings stared at the banker, unable to speak at all, as if they had been frozen in time. If what Mr. Poe had just said was true – which, I'm sorry to report, was - then he had just permanently altered their lives forever.
"But what about us?" Sam asked. "Where will we live?"
"Fortunately," Mr. Poe announced grandly, "I have found a home for you with your dear Uncle Vladimir, but he asks that you call him either Count Vlad or father."
"But we don't know any Count named Vlad," Danny said.
"Of course you do. He is your mother's brother's aunt's uncle's cousin, and he's very nearby. He lives about thirty-seven blocks from here."
"I don't think that 'very nearby' means thirty-seven blocks from here," Tucker signed, but nobody had time to translate as Mr. Poe ushered, a word that when used in this context means "pushed", the children into his small car and drove them off to their new home. Just like that, the Fenton children became the Fenton orphans.
WEEEEEEEEEEEELLLLLLLL didja like it? I hope so! Reviews are much appreciated. Stay tuned for Chapter two!