Thanks for being patient! I hope that you weren't waiting too long! I've had a couple of rough weeks but I'm back in top form again, writing my little heart out and prepping content for you lovely readers!
Here's PART 5 of the "Shifting Tides" arc! Only one more part to go!
Danny and Tucker met at the entrance of Floody Waters so fast, you'd think that they both had the ability to fly. News trucks, cameramen, and police cars swarmed the entrance like a cloud of bees before their hive. Tucker couldn't hack his way through this kind of security, and he knew it.
"How do we get in?"
"I guess we don't."
"What do you-? Oh, no, dude, you're not going in without me!"
"What choice do we have? I'm the only one that can turn invisible."
Danny started to walk off to a few empty parked cars to change into his ghost form, but Tucker followed close behind.
"If this really was the work of the shadow demon and Sam really is in there, then you're gonna need all the help that you can get!"
"Then what else do we do?" Danny stopped behind a massive black SUV that looked like it was owned by a family of seven. It was so shiny and expensive that they could see their reflections on the doors. "We'll get snagged by the cops and they'll call our families. You really want that?"
"We can sneak in another way, just let me think."
"Sam might be in danger right now," Danny said. "We don't have time! I'm going."
Tucker scrunched his eyes against the bright flash that was Danny's transformation into his ghost form. He was getting used to the green eyes and white hair.
"Just stay here."
"Danny, come on man you're not leaving me to sit on my ass and do nothing."
"I'll go get Sam and get out right away. Then we'll regroup. I promise!"
"No!" Tucker cried out as soon as Danny turned invisible. Now Tucker was the only one reflected in the SUV's shiny paint. Without thinking, he reached out and gripped Danny's arm tight with his right hand to stop him. Then, a cold creeping shiver ran up Tucker's arm, and with it, his arm disappeared too.
"W-whoa!"
Tucker dropped Danny like a hot potato and jumped back. Danny came back into sharp focus, eyes wide.
"What happened?"
"Why are you asking me!? I'm not the one with the ghost powers!"
"B-but, how did I do that?"
Tucker gaped at his friend. "You could turn me invisible the whole time?"
Danny shrugged. He looked both terrified and elated. "Yeah! I guess so."
"Dude, that is sick! We can both sneak in like this! We can both sneak out of class. Oh my God, we can both do whatever we want at all times-!"
"Okay, wait, wait," Danny said, trying to calm Tucker down. "I don't even know if I can do it again."
"Well, try!"
Tucker reached out and grabbed Danny's wrist. He looked up at Danny expectantly, and Danny turned himself invisible.
It was always weird watching your friend go totally invisible but was even weirder was holding onto him when you couldn't see him. It was so disorienting, like being blind with your eyes wide open.
"I don't think it's working," came Danny's disembodied voice.
"Well, you better hurry up and try to get it working soon or Sam's going to be dead meat without us."
"Tucker," Danny hissed, "I'll go alone without you right now-"
"Okay, I'm sorry! Please keep trying?"
Danny concentrated and tried. He really did. He remembered that when Tucker had grabbed him in desperation the first time, that he was just trying to remain extra invisible – like he'd been afraid that the act of Tucker grabbing him would have broken his concentration. By overcompensating, he'd somehow turned Tucker's arm invisible, too.
"Okay, here we go," Danny said.
Once again, he imagined being extra invisible. He put more energy and force into the idea than normal, and just like before, Tucker's hand, then forearm, then half his torso was now invisible, too.
"Whoa…" Tucker said again. This time his voice was less filled with terrified surprise and more with awe. "This is so fucking cool."
"Shh," Danny hissed again. "I'm concentrating. Keep a lookout for anyone coming."
Tucker's neck, then his face, then his whole head and upper body were fading away into thin air. It was slow, like watching a character in a fantasy movie turn to dust and float away on the wind. Finally, Tucker's shoes disappeared, and they both turned to look at the SUV. Neither of their reflections showed in the black paint.
"This," Tucker said with a grin he couldn't see, "is the best day of my life."
"Sam and seven other people might die today," Danny reminded him.
"Shit. You're right. Well, then, hold my hand because we're going in."
Danny considered the logistics of trying to fight the shadow demon with Tucker's hand in his, but he ignored that, and instead the two of them ran through the parking lot completely undetected. They passed by the police officers and the cameramen with ease. When they finally made it into the park, they knew their problems had only just begun.
Before at the park entrance, there had been cameramen and police cars, but inside the park were terrified families, news anchors, firefighters, and employees all trying to make sense of the hectic scene that was the collapse of Terror Mountain. Danny and Tucker passed spectators and evacuating families, all talking about what had happened. The paper mache and polymer-coated wooden pylons crumpled beneath the weight of the ride. It was strange, people were saying because the beams had always been deemed structurally sound within the last ten inspections.
Danny and Tucker made their way through the crowd without bumping into anyone – no small feat. When they reached the foot of the destruction, both boys craned their necks upwards in awe. It really was a disaster, and there were seven people inside.
Maybe even Sam.
"Tucker," Danny said, his voice low, "I need to start looking for survivors. We can't go together the whole time."
Tucker recognized the weight of Danny's hand in his and knew that he was right.
"Drop me off somewhere where no one will notice and go. I'll look for Sam."
"What if she's inside?"
"Then get her out safe."
Danny nodded, though Tucker couldn't see that, and he dropped him off behind an employee's only fence. Tucker came back into stark focus as soon as he released Danny's hand. Danny, still invisible, flew off toward Terror Mountain and phased through it.
Tucker took a deep breath, dialed Sam's number again, and ran.
.
.
.
Hearing about the accident on the news had spurred Sam into immediate action, that was just who she was, but not calling the boys may have been a bit of a petty mistake. Enough minor ghost hunting in the past month had convinced her that she could take on the monster that was endangering the lives of innocent people. She had her Fenton Thermos, her wits, and the knowledge that no one else would be looking for a ghost as the culprit.
Sneaking into the park through a back door held open for her with a quick bribe was easy. Finding the demon was not. When she did catch a glimpse of a dark shadow near the employees-only section of the park, she accidentally ran head-first into that hipster waterslide attendant from their school trip. He yelped in surprise and fell back a few steps, his dog tags clincking against his whistle for good measure.
"What the-?"
"Sorry!" Sam didn't even try to explain before she was running in the opposite direction. He called after her, but she didn't catch what it was that he said.
Sam rounded a corner toward the women's bathrooms, and like magic, the shadow found her.
Hovering just before her, blocking her entrance, was the tall, terrifying shape that she had only caught a glimpse of by the innertubes the day before. Sam's hands shook as she reached for the thermos in her pack, but before she could get it unzipped, the shadow flew at her and collided. It was like being hit with a giant, freezing-cold bookshelf. It knocked her down and she fell against the thermos in her pack which jabbed into her shoulder. Crying out, Sam looked back the way she came for the park employee she'd seen before. He was nowhere to be found.
No one was coming to help her.
The shadow hissed above her, its face contorting into a fanged grin. Sam jumped to her feet and ran. As she did, she felt it claw her clothes. A burning sensation swept over her back, but she kept running.
It chased her, played with her, herding her like a sheepdog as she blindly wound her way to the back of the concession stands. Dumpsters smelling like day-old Nasty Burgers and iced café lattes cornered her in. She was a trapped mouse.
The demon was a cat, finally ready to go in for the kill. Sam reached for her pack and it dove for her again. This time she dodged properly, and it missed, disappearing into one of the dumpsters. The dumpster shook violently as soon as the ghost made contact, and all the contents inside burst forth as the wheels collapsed and the doors flew off their hinges. It was no secret now that the ghost really was what caused Terror Mountain's collapse. Not that she'd had any doubts about that.
Sam was covered in old French fries and ketchup, but the thermos was in her hands.
She popped the cap, pointed, and waited. The ghost emerged from the dumpster as the debris settled and lunged for her again, but Sam was ready. The light of the thermos' beam pierced through the shadow's chest and created a hole so large she could see through it. It screamed and she resisted the urge to drop the thermos and cover her ears. The fact that the thermos hadn't completely sucked the ghost up was shocking.
She tried again, and this time the shadow tried to fly away. Finally, she had some kind of upper hand. The thermos pierced its back, slowing it down and pulling another scream from it. It twisted and writhed in presumable pain before it turned to hiss at her. As it did, she tried a third time, and as the beam hit the shadow's face, she could now tell the thermos was working. It sucked the ghost toward her; it tried to fight but Sam held on. Her pained shoulder from her fall tried to give out on her but she gripped tight and didn't let go as the ghost screamed all the way down into the thermos.
Then it was gone and there was silence. Sam quickly capped the thermos and sighed. Her arms were shaking as if she had just done a long workout, and she collapsed to the cement ground in a heaving heap. Her back was bleeding, she realized. Her shoulder felt weak, like an unoiled hinge.
But she'd done it.
"There," she panted, "all done."
Her phone buzzed. She answered.
"Sam! Where the hell are you right now? If you're off fighting a ghost alone, I'll kill you!"
Sam smiled weakly. "I'm fine, Tucker. It's in the thermos."
"It's what!?"
"I'm behind the concession stands. Can you come get me?"
He already sounded like he was running. "Stay there I'm coming. I can't believe you – I was so… Why did you-?!"
"None of those sentences are complete, Tucker."
There was a pause. His voice came back on the line, but it sounded thick with worry.
"I hate you, Sam Manson."
Then he hung up.
Sam waited for his arrival on the ground. The concrete was cool to touch and her back burned with the claw mark from the ghost. As she sat there, waiting for help, someone watched.
Someone angry.
Hey guys! The next chapter is going to be the final installment in the "Shifting Tides" arc, but don't worry, it isn't over yet. I'll be foreshadowing future arcs as I go along, so even if it feels like things are left unresolved, plots will pick back up later as the cast of characters grow!
Thanks again for reading and I hope you like it!