Welcome back to my story. If you have just gotten here, here's a little recap for you: The Fenton Children, Danny, Sam, and Tucker, have recently become orphans after their house burned to the ground, and if you know ASOUE as well as I do, then I don't need to explain any further. Here, just enjoy chapter two. Sorry it took so long.
Before the children were to go live with Count Vlad, Mr. Poe stopped at their house – or what was left of their house, anyway – to see if anything had not been ruined, and it was quite possibly the worst day in the siblings' lives. The only thing left standing in their parents' lab was the charred frame of the Fenton Portal that had given Danny his powers. All of Sam's poetry had been burned to a crisp, and several of her favorite pens had been melted. She picked up one, a marbleized black one with silver bands and a little crystal-eyed spider at the top. It was hot, and the spider was ruined, but it was not burned. Sam pocketed it, tears rolling down her cheeks.
Tucker had found where his studio was, and found that most of his tools had survived. His screwdriver's handle was charred, but not melted, and his hammer had been singed slightly, but not burnt. For his projects however, it was a different story. The project he had been currently working on, an automatic door opener, was destroyed. The computer chip had been melted and the circuits were fried completely.
Danny hovered over the ruins silently, surveying the scene from above. Finding where his room once stood, he landed. He noticed something glinting in the ashes and picked it up. It was a small, metal pin, with a strange-looking eye on it. Danny had never seen it before in his life, so he knew it was not his. He found his father's desk a few feet away and opened the blackened lid. To his surprise, he found a badge with the same eye and his father's name: JACK FENTON. Danny was confused. Why had his father hidden this from him? Why didn't he tell Danny or his siblings about this eye? And what significance could the eye possibly have? Danny pocketed both, deciding to figure it all out later.
Mr. Poe honked his car horn, having found some suitcases among the rubble and placed them in the car's trunk. The children reformed their group, and, looking back at their home one last time, got into the car and watched their neighborhood become unfamiliar territory. The buildings became nicer. The road rattled as they drove over cobblestones. And the sky became overcast, showing that a storm was on its way. Finally, around noon, Mr. Poe dropped the children off in their new neighborhood.
The children looked at the home they were in front of. It was the cleanest house on the entire street, with a very beautiful garden full of exotic-looking flowers in it. A woman was amid them, but the vines were so tall that she could hardly be seen over them. She noticed the children and smiled, walking out of the plants, and the children could see that she was wearing a purple sundress. "Hello," she said, smiling. "You must be the Fentons. I'm Justice Manson, the high court judge around this neighborhood."
"Hi," Danny said. "I'm Danny Fenton, and this is my sister, Sam, and my brother, Tucker. It's nice to meet you."
"It's nice to meet you too," Justice Manson said.
"You seem to like flowers a lot," Tucker signed.
Justice Manson looked confused for a second, then asked "Does your brother speak sign language?"
"Yes," Sam said. "He's not able to talk. He can hear just fine, though."
"I know a little bit about sign language; I think I might have some books about it in my library."
"You have a private library?" Danny asked.
"Yes. If you like, you may come over some time and pick out a book to read, as long as you keep them all in good condition."
"That would be nice," Sam said. "So, where is your husband?"
Justice Manson looked confused again, then said, "I'm not married."
"But I though you were married to Count Vlad," Danny said.
"No, I'm not," Justice Manson said as if she feared even saying his name. "He's my neighbor." With that, she pointed across the street to a dilapidated – the word 'dilapidated' here means "gloomy, depressing, and frightening" – house.
"Let's sleep outside," Tucker signed to his siblings, who nodded in agreement. Of course, they could not sleep outside, and so bravely walked up to the front door of the house. Sam knocked on the door firmly and then stepped back, noticing something carved into the peeling door.
"Why," Sam asked, "Would anyone carve an eye into their front door?"
"To scare people, maybe," Danny said, looking at the warped posts holding up the front porch. The posts looked as if they would give way any second and the roof would fall, crushing the children flat. The orphans shivered in fright as the front door opened with a long, terrifying creak, and giving the children their first glimpse of Count Vlad.
He was tall, and dressed in a messy black tuxedo. His silvery-grey hair had been pulled back into a ponytail, in a failed attempt to hide its greasy appearance. But it was his eyes that gave the Fentons the creeps. He gazed down at each child in a sinister way, as if they were a part of an all-you-can-eat buffet, and he was choosing which side dish to eat first. He watched the children look at him in fear and smiled an unconvincing smile.
"Welcome, children," he said in a rough voice that was obviously meant to sound kind. "Please do come in, and try not to track any mud indoors. I just finished mopping." The children looked at one another in a frightened way and entered the house, realizing what a pointless thing Vlad had just said. The front room itself was as gloomy, depressing, and frightening as the outside of the house, and the sight of it was enough to make the children wish they could run all the way to their house and jump into their beds, but of course they could not, and so rather than stare at the room, they stared down at the floor and at Vlad's shoes, and noticed two things that were very disturbing. First of all, Vlad was not wearing socks, which is never a good way to make a first impression, and it is very easy to see why this would be disturbing. But it wasn't this that made the children's eyes widen in fear. It was the fact that, on Vlad's left ankle, was a tattoo of an eye, staring back at the children in a frightening manner. The children wondered if there were other eyes hidden around the house, and if it would always seem like Count Vlad was watching them, even when he wasn't nearby.
Fun fact: When I was writing this chapter, I made Count Vlad so frightening that even I was scared.Now that Ihave an interesting storyline, PLEEEEEEEEASE REVIEW!