This fic is based on an au. if you want to know the basic rules of the world in the au, here's a link you can copy paste.
post/654318112761593856/i-have-a-few-additions-to-this-ghosts-can
Amity Park has ghosts.
It isn't the only place in the world with ghosts, isn't even the only place in the country with them. There are so many other places with ghosts. But even so, the fact remains that Amity Park has ghosts.
You see them everywhere, walking along the streets, sitting at tables in coffee shops, trying to borrow library books, occupying school desks that are meant to be empty, it's exhausting to try to avoid them. Makes you wonder why people even stay in Amity Park in the first place, or any other town with ghosts for that matter. But the housing is cheap, so are gas prices, and if the town was deserted, another ghost spewing town would pop up right afterwards. So people tend to overlook the town's little problem. After all, in Amity Park, attacks didn't really ever happen more than once a month, if that. And when they did happen, the Fentons would take care of it.
The Fentons are an odd bunch. The parents, Jack and Maddie, are Amity Park's only exorcists, but they prefer the term 'ghost hunters'. It makes them sound unprofessional, but they won't answer to any other title. The daughter is an aspiring psychologist with a bright future. The son, unfortunately, had joined the rest of the undead in the marvelous pastime of tormenting the living three weeks after that car accident in August. An accident that his two friends were unlucky enough to witness.
You may think that the trauma of losing a son would force the Fentons to distance themselves from ghosts as much as possible, but strangely enough, it was the opposite. They threw themselves into their work, discovering newer and quicker ways of destroying ghosts who had gone mad from refusing to move on, as well as trying to find new methods to ensure ghosts could move on as quickly and as easily as possible. In the end, they discovered that no new method of helping ghosts move on could beat the tried and true. Just ignore them. That's it. The less interaction, the better. They end up just fading from one world to the next.
Of course there are some skeptics. Mostly conspiracy theorists and the like. They believe that the afterlife is a lie and these ghosts should be interacted with, like any other person. But this is just a very small, very loud minority.
If people suddenly stopped ignoring the ghosts, they'd stay much longer and eventually end up snapping. It's what happens whenever a ghost stays for too long. And then there would be nothing but chaos. The world isn't ready to take that risk. Especially if it's just to prove the obvious to uneducated idiots. It would be like taking everyone to space to prove the earth is round just because a few people think it's flat. And even after all that, a few would never be convinced.
But at least flat earthers aren't a danger to society. Flat earthers don't go around interacting with ghosts, telling them they're dead, and making a mess of things when later on after said ghost refuses to move on and snaps instead.
And each ghost attack could lead to people dying, which means more ghosts, which means more attacks, and so on and so forth. At least the animal ghosts don't snap as often as the humans. If they did, the world would have a far bigger problem on its hands.
But luckily, the problem was under control. Or, as much as it could be.
Danny Fenton was a good kid. He was bright, had good grades, and a promising future. The unattainable goal of becoming an astronaut seemed to be growing closer and closer to a possibility, or even a probability with each passing day. This made it all the more devastating when his life was taken from him.
It happened on a Friday. He and his friends, Sam Manson, and Tucker Foley, had just finished their first week of school and were excited for some time off. Danny had finished most of his homework while at school, so he had plenty of time to just goof off with his friends.
They were walking to Tucker's house when Danny spotted a kitten sitting in the middle of a busy street. He rushed in to save the kitten, but was hit by a car. The impact killed him, and his friends had seen the whole thing.
Danny's parents had been devastated. Jack Fenton had nearly assaulted the unobservant driver who had hit Danny. And Maddie did everything in her power to lengthen his sentence. But it didn't really matter. Nothing they could do would bring Danny back to life.
When Danny woke up, he was lying in the middle of the street. He didn't know how he got there, the last thing he remembered was walking to Tucker's house, then blank. It looked pretty late, probably past his curfew, so Danny picked up his backpack, rushed home, and snuck into his room, thankfully not making enough sound to wake anyone up. He decided it would probably be a good idea to go back to sleep, so he did.
The next day everyone was acting strange. Danny woke up at around noon. It was later than he usually woke up, but it was a weekend so it didn't matter. He went downstairs to eat breakfast. He expected his parents and sister to be waiting for him at the bottom of the stairs so that they could lecture him about staying out late, but instead, they completely ignored him.
His parents just sat on the couch watching the television, eyes glued to the screen. And Jazz just sat across from him at the counter, eyes never leaving her book. It somehow felt worse than being lectured.
"I'm sorry for breaking curfew, I didn't mean to, I guess I just sort of lost track of time." There was no answer. Jazz's shoulders may have stiffened a bit, but other than that, no one acknowledged that they had heard him. He finished eating and walked over to the front door.
As he opened the door, he looked back into the house. "I'll be over at Sam's house if you need me." Still no response, though Jazz looked a little worse for wear, like she was close to crying. He wanted to comfort her, but if she was ignoring him, why bother.
Still, that didn't lessen the guilt he felt as he walked out the door without even trying to help.
As he walked towards Sam's house he noticed something strange. The leaves were starting to turn orange on a few trees when he could swear they were all green the day before. He supposed this wasn't that odd. After all, it was close to September. And maybe they were orange yesterday. He could have just not noticed it. He wasn't known for being observant.
He was so deep in thought about this that he hadn't even noticed that he had walked all the way to Sam's house. He quickly walked up the front steps and rang the doorbell. He waved pleasantly at Sam's mother when she answered the door.
"Hi, is Sam here? We were supposed to play video games today and-"
The door was slammed shut in his face. This wasn't the first time Mrs. Manson had slammed the door in his face, but recently she hadn't been doing it as often, so it was kind of a surprise when she did. Danny decided it wasn't worth it to sneak in to hang out with Sam, so he began his walk back home.
When he got home, the door was locked. This was really strange because usually, the door was only ever locked at night, or when they went on trips. He knocked on the door, no answer. He Rang the doorbell, no answer. He opened the mail slot and asked if someone could please unlock the door. No answer.
They probably left the house and decided to lock the door. This was fine, he just needed to get in through a window, but all of those were locked too. Now he was starting to freak out. Why were the windows locked? They were never locked.
Danny saw some movement out of the corner of his eye, he looked back to one of the windows and immediately stiffened. They were still inside. They knew he was outside and they weren't letting him in.
He took his phone out of his pocket (he didn't remember grabbing his phone) and tried to call them, but the phone wouldn't turn on. He could have sworn he charged it yesterday, it shouldn't be dead already. The Nasty Burger wasn't far though, and there was a payphone there.
He ran as fast as his scrawny little legs could carry him and found the payphone. He took a few coins from his backpack (he didn't remember putting on his backpack) and put them in the phone. It didn't do anything. Why wasn't it working? He saw a few coins on top of the payphone and quickly put some of them in. It worked this time. He dialed the home phone, then waited. Someone picked up.
"You've reached Fentonworks, this is Jasmine Fenton speaking, how can I help you?"
He was so grateful to hear his sister's voice, more so than should be possible. "Jazz, oh thank God. You guys locked me out of the house, my phone isn't working and I don't know what to-"
She hung up. Jazz hung up on him. Jasmine Fenton, miss 'you can talk to me any time, look at me, I'm a psychologist' just hung up on him. And now he was having a panic attack in the middle of a Nasty Burger parking lot.
We're they kicking him out? Was this their way of saying they no longer wanted him? By just locking him out and ignoring him? Did he do something to make them hate him? They seemed just fine with him yesterday, why were they doing this to him today? Was it because he broke curfew? He did that all the time, was this just the last straw? Was that why Jazz looked sad? Because she knew they were planning on getting rid of him? Was she-
Bark!
Danny uncovered his face (he didn't remember curling into a ball and covering his face in the first place) and looked at the ground in front of him.
There was a puppy. A little pit bull puppy trying to chew on his shoe. It was cute. He reached over to pet it, but then noticed its eyes. They were blank. No pupil, no iris, just blank. A ghost. He probably shouldn't touch it. He should just ignore it so that it didn't snap later on.
He stood up and walked away from the parking lot and the dog. He found a bench on the sidewalk, sat down, and started to think.
Okay, if I can't go back home, then how am I going to find food, shelter, clean water, I only have four dollars on me, that can't be nearly enough to survive off of for more than a day. How am I going to-
Bark!
The puppy was back. And this time it was just staring at him. It flopped on its side, seemingly asking for belly rubs. Danny stood up, and started to walk away from the dog.
How about school? I'm pretty sure I could get food there, but I need lunch money to do that. But aren't there some kids that get free lunches? And maybe my teachers would hel-
Bark!
He looked behind him. The ghost dog was still following him. He saw a stick right in front of him. One little interaction wouldn't hurt, right? It was to make the ghost go away, it was the best option.
He picked up the stick and threw it into someone's yard. While the ghost dog ran after it, Danny ran away from the dog, hoping it didn't follow. Lucky for him, it didn't.
He released a large breath he had been holding, then looked around. He was in Tucker's neighborhood. Probably walked here subconsciously. This was good, he could tell Tucker about the situation. Tucker was a good friend and Angela and Maurice liked him. If his parents really were trying to get rid of him, they'd probably help him.
With a sense of relief, he ran towards Tucker's house and knocked on the door. Tucker answered it after a few seconds. Overjoyed at seeing his friend after such a long and stressful day, Danny didn't see the uncomfortable look plastered across his face.
"Tucker, I am so glad to see you. I need your help. My parents locked me out of my house and aren't letting me in. I think something's wrong and I don't know what to do. I-I think they're kicking me out. I don't really know why, a-and I don't know how to fix this and- Tucker?"
Tucker looked like he was about to cry. He was avoiding eye contact and looked to be debating something. Finally he looked at Danny.
"I'm, I'm sorry dude. We can't be friends anymore. Please don't come over. Just, just leave."
Danny couldn't believe it. He tried to talk to Tucker, find out what was going on, why was this happening, but Tucker closed the door in his face. He was all alone.