Okay! A chapter! I may have another over the weekend, but you guys know how it is. Thank you all for sticking with me.
Krozz: I may steal your idea, if you don't mind. I'm kind of kicking myself for not thinking of that.
MsFrizzle: I think I have found the source of confusion! You're reading, 'you have three bodies,' but what is written is 'you three have bodies.' 'You three' is Jack, Maddie, and Danny. It's just the shadows reiterating that Danny is still human, and highlighting similarities between Danny, Jack, and Maddie, while being all like 'ha ha, we don't need to sleep.' And, you know, telling them to go to bed. Danny's not supporting Jack and Maddie, unless you count giving them food. For your other questions, yes, this is the first time Danny has been to his lair. Before this, he didn't even know it existed. Not all ghosts have lairs, and even those who do don't always find them. Danny's lair is weirdly huge, though. Lastly, that wasn't really my intention with the shadows. Echo is a violent, knee-jerk reaction to a serious physical and emotional violation, Fractal's there to guide the class and put them at ease, Shade and the unnamed shadow are there to get the lair on a 'war footing,' so to speak, Mirror and Mirage are decoys, but they have the secondary purposes of showing Jack and Maddie other perspectives, and mischief, respectively. Does that make sense?
Angel Frog: I wasn't doing that on purpose, I don't actually have any experience in that area, and I try not to turn things into transparent analogies because I feel like doing that tends to make the story fall flat. I was just trying to put myself in the character's positions. I am glad that this resonated for you, though. I was actually taking some inspiration from Haven (TV show that was on SyFy and is available on Netflix) while trying to write Maddie and Jack's arguments.
Minty: Thank you for your feedback on that. I've read a lot of great takes on the accident during my time lurking here, and that really is a compliment.
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Chapter 53: Playing Games
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Sam made to follow the shadow as he turned away, but she spotted two other, closer, figures moving towards him. Was that Valerie? And Paulina?
Her eyes narrowed. She didn't really like either of them. Valerie was, personality-wise, slightly more bearable than Paulina, who, Sam was convinced, was entirely fake, but the way Valerie harassed Danny for something he had repeatedly apologized for, for something that he had been trying to stop, wasn't something that could be tolerated.
True, Sam was far from perfect herself, and she wasn't always entirely honest, but then, who was? Sam, at least, recognized her flaws. She wasn't sure that Valerie did, and she had heard Paulina describe herself as 'flawless' on more than one occasion.
(Sam knew she was a hypocrite.)
(Sam knew she had caused Danny's death.)
What was Mirage doing with the two of them? Or was their involvement accidental? Somehow, Sam doubted it.
She followed, careful to be quiet. Unlike Valerie and Paulina, Sam had practice being stealthy, and, neglecting her current lack of shoes, the clothes for it.
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Valerie wasn't sure what she wanted to do more, demand to know Phantom's connection with Danny, or punch in that smug face. She was furious. Who did he think he was, shadow or not, mocking her like that?
A more rational part of Valerie knew that following after Phantom, or one of his shadows, like this was just asking for trouble. This wasn't Amity Park. She didn't know the terrain, she didn't know what could be lurking under every bush, behind every corner. She was already in the proverbial lion's den, but following the lion deeper in was not a good idea.
(Even if the lion had been weirdly kitten-like.)
As it was, she wasn't rational.
(It was a flaw of hers, to let anger cloud her judgment.)
She was, however, snapped out of her red mood by catching something distinctly pink moving through the foliage a few strides ahead of her.
Paulina.
Of course the airhead was chasing after the ghost. Paulina was as insane as she was mean. Paulina somehow thought that she could romance Phantom despite Phantom being literally dead. She was in denial beyond denial, living in a fantasy world where she could do no wrong.
Valerie hated Paulina almost as much as she hated Phantom, but Paulina was human. Barely. Whatever it was that Phantom was doing, Valerie couldn't let Paulina get caught up in it.
"Paulina," she called out, more than a little breathlessly. The plant life here was thick, verdant, luxurious, hard to run through.
Paulina didn't pause. Valerie groaned and pressed on.
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Paulina heard someone calling her, but she ignored it. It wasn't Phantom, so she didn't care. Phantom, her ghost boy, her ghostly prince, was the only one she had eyes for. He stayed a few paces ahead of her, turning to smile coyly back every few seconds.
This was fun, but she wanted nothing so much as to collapse into his arms.
Paulina pushed aside a brace of ferns, and stepped into a strange, sepulchral space beneath tall, leafy, mushroom-shaped trees. Thick, flowering vines hung from the distant canopy, and hugged the oddly-shaped trunks of the deceptively slender trees.
Phantom was clearly visible now, his aura the only reliable light, moving slowly, as if underwater, cloak and hair rippling in a phantom wind. He smiled over his shoulder, the barest, brilliant, white sliver of teeth visible between his lips.
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Sam paused when she reached the larger trees. There was something distinctly off about the trunks, and not just the way they were half-strangled by lianas. She squinted at the trunk, momentarily distracted from the chase. There were shelves carved in the trunks, with books on them. She pulled one off and flipped it open.
A single curious wisp floated helpfully over her shoulder, giving her enough light to see that it was poetry. Dark poetry. Dark, dark poetry.
Sam approved.
Except...
Taking this from a more ghostly perspective, it was actually... Well, not totally cheerful, but less depressive. Maybe a little cheerful. In spots.
Sam approved even more.
She hastily put the book back on the shelf. She was going to loose the trail if she tarried any longer. She strode forward, using the balls of her feet to silently bounce from patch of moss to patch of moss.
(Deep down, in the dark depths of her deep, dark mind, Sam imagined being a little woodland fairy, flitting from flower to flower. A dark, bloodthirsty woodland fairy. Yeah. Oh, forget it, who did she think she was kidding? She liked darkness, but she liked nature just as much. She adored the big pastel purple flowers that hung from the vines.)
Up ahead, she saw Mirage come to a halt and turn to face the three girls facing him. He tilted his head, eyes half lidded, and smiled gently (just like Danny).
"Hello," he said, his voice identical to Danny's voice as Phantom.
"Phantom," gushed Paulina, half-lunging towards the boy. Mirage however, drifted back.
"Ah, no," he said. "I'm sorry. That's one mark against you."
"What?" asked Paulina.
"You aren't Phantom," said Valerie. "You're one of those shadows."
Mirage bowed elegantly at the waist, feet hovering half a centimeter above the forest floor. "If it pleases you, you may call me Mirage," he said straightening. His eyes flicked between the three girls. "I thought that you three might enjoy a game?"
"Three?" said Valerie, glancing around.
Paulina gasped. "What are you doing here?" she demanded, glaring at the other two girls. "This is our moment. This is when we profess our undying love to one another!"
"Do you listen to anyone but yourself?" asked Sam, disgusted. "Ever?" She stepped forward, towards Mirage. "What kind of game?"
"Questions and answers," said Mirage, lightly. "Or, more accurately, statements and truths. We all get to say something, and if the thing we say is wrong, then that's a mark against you. Three, and you have to leave."
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Paulina smiled her most charming smile. Clearly, this was just a way to get rid of the other two without hurting their feelings. "You don't have to be nice to these people, my love," she said, fluttering her long, curling eyelashes.
"There are few things that I have to do," said the shadow, "but this is something that I want to do. And I try to be nice to everyone."
Valerie scoffed. Paulina glared at her, thoughts like how dare she chasing themselves around in her head.
"You don't think so?"
"No, I don't."
"But I do," said the shadow, gently, sincerely.
"Of course you do," said Paulina, cooing.
"But you have thoughts that have been keeping you up, and I will tell you whether or not they are true. All I ask in exchange, is that you tell me whether or not my own thoughts are wrong."
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Valerie bit her lip. She needed answers. But she didn't trust Phantom, any part of him.
Then again, Phantom had never, to the best of her knowledge, ever broken a promise. And she didn't need to tell him the truth.
"I can make it a little more interesting, if you'd like," said Mirage.
"What do you mean?"
"Well, clearly, I'm not the one you want to play with." He vanished.
"But maybe I am?"
Valerie jerked upwards. There, sitting on one of the lower branches, was a black haired, blue-eyed boy with a cheeky smile.
"Danny?" gasped Valerie.
"Fenton?" sneered Paulina.
"And that's a mark against both of you," said the boy. He pushed himself off the branch, and Valerie cried out in alarm. The branch was easily thirty feet in the air. But before Valerie could even think of donning her suit, the boy dissolved from view.
"And that's why I call myself Mirage," said the shadow, now standing a few feet behind Sam, and back in his guise as Phantom.
"So you are connected to Danny," said Valerie.
"Indeed I am."
Valerie frowned. "How?"
"You'll have to guess," said Mirage. "That's the game."
"Okay, fine," said Valerie. "So I get why you brought me and Miss Perfect here," Paulina, unbelievably, preened at the comment, "but why Sam? I thought you didn't have any secrets from her, Danny, and Foley."
"Phantom doesn't," clarified Mirage brightly. "But that's close enough that I won't put a mark against you. I thought that she would like to watch. Actually, I was hoping to catch Tucker, too, but he needs his sleep. But, Valerie, you heard that conversation between Jazz and the Doctors Fenton." He paused. "This is the part where you say 'yes' or 'no,' or 'right' or 'wrong.'"
"Yes," said Valerie mulishly.
Mirage clapped his hands together. "I knew it!" He bounced up and down like a small child.
(Like Danny sometimes did.)
"My turn!" exclaimed Paulina before Valerie could formulate her next question. "Phantom loves me," she said making an attempt to circumvent Sam and fall into Mirage. Sam, however, was having none of it. Their dance, and the way that Mirage was practically hiding behind Sam, was mildly amusing.
"He might have, once," said Mirage, looking almost sheepish. "But no longer."
"What? No, no, no... That's a lie! He loves me. You love me."
"Not in the way you're looking for, Paulina. That's three strikes, you're out."
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"That's not fair," wailed Paulina.
Sam rolled her eyes, and Paulina locked into the movement.
"You! You little witch! This is your fault!" she lunged, nails like talons.
Sam, who had martial arts training, easily avoided Paulina's wild lunge. Before she could retaliate against the living puddle, however, Mirage put his hands on her shoulders, and turned her intangible.
"I'm going to have to ask you to leave, Paulina," said Mirage as Paulina's hand waved disconcertingly through Sam's face. "Paulina. Paulina, really. I know you can be more gracious than this. Don't be a sore looser. Paulina." He sighed. "Alright, I didn't want to do this, but... Sam, Valerie, up for a bonus round?"
"What did you have in mind?" asked Sam, leaning back to avoid one of Paulina's more wild swings.
"Well, I've always liked tag. Maybe with a touch of hide-and-seek?"
"Sure," said Sam.
"Are you ready, Valerie?"
"I don't know what you're trying to pull here, ghost, but-"
"Great," said Mirage. He drifted backwards with Sam, set her down, and vanished.
