Author's Note: I own nothing. This shit's gonna get dark you've been warned.
25 Overturned Theory
November faded slowly into December and Jack Fenton was growing concerned. Spectral activity had nearly bottomed out since Halloween. The only exception seemed to be the ghost girl and Plasmius. The Wisconsin Ghost had a name. Did that mean the ghost girl did too? Plasmius had never used it if she did. They seemed to know each other and that fact alone threw several of his theories out the window.
"I get what you're saying Jack. This means ghosts can have personal relationships! Maddie gushed typing away at her computer. Jack nodded.
"Or can retain them into death." He suggested. Maddie nodded. He frowned. "It's odd though."
"What is?"
"She had a solid grasp on human behavior. All of our theories state that ghosts don't have enough left of who they once were to have real emotion. But she was genuinely upset when I wouldn't listen to her. She understood how teens think." Maddie turned her chair to Jack who was sitting in his own chair a few feet away in the sub basement. She frowned. Jack shook his head. "She can't have been much older than Dani when she died, if that." Maddie shook her head standing and stepping over to Jack.
"Sweetie, we don't know much about her. But most of the ghost we've seen don't have the same level of intelligence as humans. And she's already proved violent once." Maddie pointed out. Jack nodded slightly.
"True. But I don't know, there was just something different about her. She could have let me fall when she took the hit on the way here. But she didn't she went out of her way to help me. She could have just left me in that cage, let the portal blow, though Dani did change the filter before that would have happened." He shook his head. "I just don't know. What if we were wrong? What if ghosts retain more than we thought they could?" Maddie sighed.
"If you want to chase that line of reasoning I won't blame you. We're scientists we should look at things from different angles. But don't be disappointed if nothing comes of it." Maddie said patting him on the shoulder. He pulled her into a hug.
"I think, I'm gonna talk to that officer who came by a few days ago, see if he's got any new leads on who the ghost girl was." He said, not pulling away from her. Maddie nodded dropping a kiss to the top of his head, something she could only do when he was sitting down like this. She pulled back slightly.
"That sounds like a good plan sweetie. Why not call him up tomorrow. It's getting late." Jack nodded looking up at the clock on the wall.
"You're right, I'll get dinner started while you finish up down here." Jack said standing and pulling Maddie into a kiss. She grinned at him.
"I'll be up in a few, I just want to finish this update to the file." She pecked him on the cheek and he nodded heading up the stairs.
"Love you Mads." She smiled.
"Love you too Jack." He headed upstairs and was surprised to find Dani sitting at the table doing her homework, or more accurately drumming her pencil on the table, staring absently into space with her history book in front of her.
"Hey Dani Bear." She jumped slightly and shook her head.
"Hey dad."
"Need help?" He asked as he began to pull out the ingredients for dinner. She shook her head.
"Nah, I'm basically done with this." Jack nodded and began to cook as Dani zoned back out, resuming her pencil tapping. "What's on your mind?" He asked and she shook her head.
"Not much. Can't seem to focus today." She shook her head as she closed her history book.
"I've had days like that. Want to take a break from homework for a while, help me out with dinner instead?" Dani nodded smiling slightly.
"Yeah that sounds good, let me get this stuff put away." It only took her a few minutes to run her books upstairs. When she got back downstairs she began chopping carrots, thinking as she did. She wasn't lying, she had been out of it for most of the day. It was weird a few times today she'd zoned out and found herself somewhere not remembering how she'd gotten there. It was unnerving. If she didn't know for a fact that wasn't how possession worked on Halfas she'd probably have said that's what was happening. But she had no explanation for the odd occurrences. They didn't happen in the same places, or with the same people around. The first time it had happened at Sam's house when she went to drop off his CD with him before class. It happened again while she was chasing the bank robbing ghosts through a billboard, and in a crowd of goths outside the Circus Gothica train. She had detention for skipping out on class to go to the Circus Gothica opening ceremony even though that hadn't been her plan, nor did she remember any of it. She shook her head.
Just to make things worse Sam's parents were trying to get a restraining order against her. If they got their way she wouldn't be able to be within fifteen feet of her best friend because they thought she was a bad influence on Sam. Then there were the new ghosts in town. She had no clue where they'd come from or why they were robbing jewelry stores. It made no sense. Ghosts, or at least those she had met so far, didn't have a use for things like money. They were humanoid but didn't talk or exhibit emotion at all. It didn't fit with anything she'd learned, more along the lines of her parent's theories. She sighed dumping the chopped carrots into the pan with the rest of the vegetables. She just didn't see how this week could get any worse.
