Danny had had enough. It was almost Halloween, and everyone was planning on going to a haunted house. Dash talked about it while he shoved Danny in his locker, Valerie mentioned it while she shot at him when he was in ghost form, and he was sick of it. He always had to hold his tongue, and it got the most annoying in October. Everyone was talking about ghosts, about their plans. He always felt like he'd been through worse, been more terrified, seen more ghosts, in his daily life. But he couldn't tell anyone he was the Ghost Boy, even when everyone kept shoving him around. All that power and he had to keep it under wraps.

He wanted to go to a haunted house himself. But which one? What would that change? It never did anything for him usually, anyway. The house he lived in was already haunted.

Suddenly, he had an idea. His own house was already haunted! Why not make his own haunted house? The scariest haunted house ever, the talk of the town. A haunted house with real ghosts!

The truth is, he longed so much for some kind of recognition from his peers. He had his two best friends, sure, but when the entire rest of the school has personal vendettas against at least one version of you, it can get demoralizing. Everyone at school would look at him weird, or would say or do something to demonize the Ghost Boy. But there were two people who were the biggest thorns in his side: Valerie Grey and Dash Baxter.

The way Valerie would look at him in the hall was so different than how she looked at him when they were fighting. She hunted him as a ghost, but didn't know he was also her classmate. At school, she almost looked ashamed, like she was sorry they drifted apart, bashful at the few short weeks they had together a long time ago. But in battle, her eyes filled with rage, her voice only telling him she hated him, and he felt that so much stronger. The missed connection pulled at him, but he couldn't bring himself to even be friends with someone who wanted to kill him. He wondered how she would feel if she found out he was the Ghost Boy… he couldn't even guess how she'd react.

And Dash was just a terror. He'd found so many unspeakable ways to humiliate Danny over the years - even before high school. What he found so repulsive about Danny, he couldn't figure out - but there was something that Dash hated, or maybe envied? He could never figure it out. The rivalry was strong, and constant, and it would be so easy to use his ghost powers against Dash. He could win. It would be so easy. But he knew he shouldn't.

Still, maybe he could stick it to them and everyone else by throwing the best haunted house in Amity Park. Dash was known for doing pretty average hauntings, and one time Valerie hosted one that was killer, but her dad got so mad at her she wasn't allowed to do it again.

He cracked his knuckles and began brainstorming.

After school on Halloween night, the line to get into Danny's house was longer than expected. Everyone wanted to be scared, terrified, or to prove it wasn't scary at all.

Dash was first in line, of course. He was first in everything (as long as it wasn't academic). The line was long behind him, chatter filling the air as everyone started getting impatient. Would it just start already?

As he peered in the windows, he realized the lights were off. The sun was down, and it was peak haunting time. "Is this place even open?" he wondered aloud, trying the doorknob. It was unlocked. Dash turned the knob and pushed open the door, peering into an eerie darkness.

"Creepy," said Kwan, who was behind Dash in line. "I didn't sign up for this! I'm going to the house on First Street." Most of the other people in line followed him. What was the point of waiting for a haunted house that could be closed all night?

Dash stayed. He was going to prove Fenton sucked as bad as he said he did. If he was wrong about something like that, his social standing at school could take a hit. And he didn't have anything else. He turned back to the open door. Lights from the street shined in the doorway, highlighting floating dust bits, but there wasn't much else to see from outside.

"Well?" said a voice behind him. He turned around and it was Valerie, a girl who'd been part of the popular clique. She'd been booted when she couldn't afford as many expensive things after her dad lost his job. "Are you going in there or are you just going to stand there looking stupid?"

Dash tensed, trying to scoff. "Stupid, shmoopid." He took a step forward, and hesitated again.

Valerie drew in air through her clenched jaw. "I forgot you don't just look it. Look, I'll go first, if you're such a wimp about it, alright?" She pushed her way ahead of Dash before he could react. It was so dark, her eyes couldn't adjust. She took out her phone and turned on the flashlight.

The door opened right into the main living room. It was kind of one of those lounge spaces that had a step down for some reason, and it made the carpet a foot lower than the rest of the ground floor. There was trendy furniture filling the space, the kind that's round and blobby, and it didn't look comfortable. "Eugh," said Valerie. "I can't imagine having a living room like this."

Dash crept up behind her. "Uh, yeah," he said, trying not to let his voice crack. "Are you sure-" he stopped, and whipped his head around, frozen in his tracks. Dash started shaking. "Did - did you hear that?"

"Hear what? There's nothing there."

"I thought I heard someone say my name…" Dash felt sheepish after saying that out loud. Who knew the stuff this house was filled with? Anything could make a creaking sound - and the thing is, "Dash" is one syllable, and easy to mishear. He'd thought he'd heard his name called in crowds dozens of times. But did that make this time any less credible?

Suddenly something dropped from the ceiling with a loud thump, causing them both to jump. Valerie shone her light on whatever it was. "What is it?" asked Dash, voice a higher pitch than normal and standing six feet back from his original position.

"It's a fake spider." She picked it up and threw it at him, and he flinched. "Made of rubber. Ooh, scary." She rolled her shoulders, relaxing the muscles. "I've dealt with scarier things than a piece of rubber. Fenton must really be lame if this is all he's got. But, let's humor him for a bit longer… I'll give it 20 more minutes, then I'm outta here." She picked a direction and walked.

Dash followed nervously, wondering if his imagination was getting the better of him. Every shadow seemed like a threat.

They walked into a new room. After shining the light around, Valerie determined, "It's the kitchen." The walls were a pale yellow, and there was counter space along both walls. The table in the middle of the room had something spilled on it, but they didn't check to see what it was. The fridge was slightly ajar, pouring out a sliver of light.

"B-big kitchen," noticed Dash.

"Yeah, yeah. Maybe there's some snacks in the fridge that we can ste-" she stopped. Dash clenched his fists so hard his fingernails started digging into his palms. If she was getting nervous about anything, that was all the more reason for him to run.

"VaaAaaAllllErieeeee…" croaked a voice. "VaaaAAaAAalerIEEee…" Where it was coming from, they couldn't tell.

"Okay," admitted Valerie, looking around. "That's creepy. How did he get custom names? That's kinda tight." Usually people just buy the default creepy sound effect maker at the Halloween store and call it a day. She felt sweat build on her brow and upper lip, but tried to brush it off. Only a hidden speaker, right?

A noise echoed from the back wall of the kitchen. Something was rustling around, and there was another noise. Something flat slapped on the linoleum. It almost sounded like it could be... a person crawling on the ground?

"Danny," said Valerie. "If you're listening, which you probably are… this is NOT how haunted houses work, dude."

"Guys…" said a voice, coming from the same direction the crawling noises were coming from. "I was wondering… when someone would show up…"

"Danny?" Both Valerie and Dash yelled at the same time. Valerie ran forward, with Dash carefully following.

And there he was: Danny Fenton, white shirt stained with something dark and red. Valerie tried not to think about how much of it there was. She knelt down to talk to Danny. "Are you okay? What happened? Why isn't there a haunted house?"

Danny coughed. He was splayed out on the floor, like he had been pulling himself forward on his stomach with just his hands. "It's haunted, alright… He was in the basement. It's dangerous-"

"Who? That Ghost Boy?" demanded Valerie. She stood up, fists clenched. "If he hurt you, I'll-"

"UH," interrupted Dash, "Maybe I should carry Danny here to safety, away from here! If you wanna be crazy and keep going, I won't stop ya!"

"There's no time!" shouted Danny, still lying with his stomach on the ground. "You have to-" He interrupted himself with a yelp, and then he was gone; pulled backwards, somehow passing through the closed door on the far wall. He left a shiny dark skidmark on the cold floor.

"A ghost must have him!" said Valerie. "How else would Danny have just gone through the door?" She looked around the kitchen, pulling open drawers.

"What are you doing?" Dash paced nervously in the same four foot square. He'd never faced a powerful ghost on his own before. Well, Valerie was there, but… if it could hurt Danny, the ghost nerd from a family of ghost nerds, how could the two of them handle it? "We should go get help!"

"I am help," said Valerie, determination setting in. She'd settled on a rolling pin. "Here," she said, holding it out to Dash.

"Wait, you want me to take that? What about you?"

Valerie bent down to her shoe, like she was going to tie the laces, but instead she pulled out a very small… gun-looking thing from one of her socks. "I've got anti-ghost blasters. Don't tell my dad."

"...Okay, I guess." Dash was still scared, but somehow knowing they were armed eased that fear a bit. If he got too scared he could just hit something. Hitting stuff was one of his specialties! He was really good at it!

...He hoped ghosts weren't immune to rolling pins! "Are you sure this will hurt it?" he asked.

"It's in the Fenton's house, Dash," said Valerie. "Everything in here is anti-ghost or a hidden ecto-blaster or ghost proof in some way. Chill out, we can handle it, okay?" She didn't actually know if they could handle it. But in tough situations, your chances of making it out always increase when you believe you can do it. She'd spent enough time in sticky situations with ghosts. The only truly frightening factor is that Danny was involved - she cared a lot about him.

"Listen," she said, "I'm gonna open the door really quick and get my weapon trained on him if I can get him in my sights. You got my back?" She looked him dead in the eyes.

Dash thought about the time those pirate ghosts stole everyone's parents. Bashing the ghosts' faces in was pretty fun. He picked up the rolling pin and rested it on his right shoulder. "Yeah," he decided. "I got your back."

Valerie nodded, and carefully rested her hand on the doorknob of the door Danny disappeared through. She'd never really spent much time in this house before, and never in the kitchen, but she guessed it led to the basement. In as quick of a movement she could make, she pushed the door open, slamming it on its hinges, stepped through, and pulled her mini blaster out, training it at the bottom of the stairs.

There wasn't anyone that she could see, so she looked back at Dash. "It looks like it might be clear to go down there," she said. "Though I still have no idea who might actually be down there." How confidence-building, thought Dash.

Dash followed her down the stairs. The basement had a lot of metal plating everywhere. It was like a science lab out of a comic book. Chrome countertops were scattered with schematics, vials and beakers filled with unknown liquids were haphazardly organized, and there was a lot of green residue randomly strewn about the whole place. The green residue glowed, just a tiny bit.

But the center of the basement wasn't focused on any of that. It was focused on a large, round… something installed in the middle of the far wall. At first Dash thought it must be some kind of weird computer screen, but he realized … it was a round opening, and the green light that shone through wasn't really solid. It was like he could walk through the hole in the wall and end up in a world of green, if he wanted.

"What is that?"

Valerie sighed. "It's the Fentons' Ghost Portal. It opens up to the Ghost Zone, which is where all ghosts come from, and it's where they belong. If only they'd just stay there." She thought for a minute. "I don't remember if I actually saw this portal before. I assumed they had one, but I've never really been down here… Anyway, we're here for Danny, not the Ghost Portal. Let's look around, behind things, wherever. Let me know if you find something." She headed in the direction of the back wall, near the portal.

Dash nodded, and started wandering around in the middle section of the basement. He glanced around the tabletops. The Fentons really kind of… knew a lot about this science stuff. It was actually a little cool, not that he'd ever admit it. But even if Fenton's parents were lame and awkward, judging by the work they put into it, they probably actually cared about keeping the town safe from ghosts.

Dash crouched low, peering around the corner of an island counter, hoping to sneak below eye level in case the ghost was around. Instead, he came almost face to face with Danny sitting on the floor, leaning up against the cupboards under the table. "OH! Uh, hi, Dash!" said Danny, with a forced upbeat tone. He half-grinned and put up an open hand that was stained red.

"Yo, Valerie!" called Dash. "I found him!" He turned back to Danny. "Are you hurt bad? What happened?"

"Uh-" Danny seemed to be searching for words to say. Valerie hurried over and crouched next to him, too. "I don't really know. This, uh, ghost-"

"Wait," Valerie interrupted. Danny cringed at the interruption, like he was expecting something bad. "Do you smell that?"

"Yeah," said Dash. "Smells like the cafeteria on chicken nugget day." He shrugged. "I… don't know what that means."

"Ketchup, you dork!" shouted Valerie. "Are you even hurt, Danny, or did you just dress yourself up like a hot dog to scare us?" She stood back up, sympathy beginning to melt away.

"Uh," said Danny. "It's - wait, look, there he is!" Dash and Valerie turned to look where Danny was pointing, in the direction of the ghost portal. Valerie wasn't expecting to see anything, but Dash gripped his rolling pin.

There was the dark silhouette of something against the open Ghost Portal, maybe a person? It looked like it was floating. Dash couldn't tell for sure, because the light from the portal blurred the outline a little too much. But Valerie didn't want to take any chances. "Stay back!" she shouted, glancing over her shoulder to gesture towards Danny on the floor. She wasn't sure if he was hurt for real or not, but that didn't matter now. She had to protect him.

Except he wasn't there. Danny had vanished again, leaving red handprints all over the floor and table. "Damn! Where did he go?" Oh, she was mad now. She turned back to the silhouette, pointing her blaster at whatever it was. "Who are you? Did you make Danny disappear again?"

"Ohhhhh," said the silhouette, in a voice that sounded artificially lowered. "You mean, that dumb human boy?" It hovered in front of the portal, bobbing almost comically with every syllable.

"Who are you calling stupid?" said Dash. He was mad, but he wasn't sure why. He didn't care about Fenton. Maybe he was just mad that ghosts were around. They were pretty frustrating.

"The kid who lives here!" shouted the silhouette ghost. There was a beat of silence. "Anyway, if you ever want to see him again, I have a set of trials for you to complete… if you DARE!"

"Try this, ecto-brain!" shouted Valerie, and she fired her weapon with a flash of green light. It was small, but it packed a punch. It landed right on the silhouette's head, and they heard a "YIPE!" With that, the silhouette floated to the ground like a piece of paper.

"Uhhh, pretty anticlimactic if you ask me," commented Dash. Ghost deaths sure were weird. He gripped his rolling pin and cautiously moved forward to help assess the damage. Valerie moved in, too. Dash bent down, looking close. "Hey, wait a minute." He reached out a hand, hooked his fingers under the remains, and picked it up. "It's just a piece of cardboard!" He waved it around. "Wow, I can't believe I was scared of this thing!"

"It's… It's really fake," said Valerie. The cardboard was just a crappy tracing painted black. It wasn't even filled in all the way. There was a dark burn mark where she'd hit it. "I'm glad I didn't hurt anyone." Suddenly, she remembered Danny, all covered in ketchup, and looked around. Dash looked up, too, and they both saw movement in the far corner of the basement, over by the stairs back up the upper floors.

"There he is!" shouted Dash. He started barging forward.

"When I get my hands on you!" called Valerie. She didn't know what she would actually do when she got her hands on him, but she'd do something. She felt so tricked.

Danny yelped again, and started running up the stairs, still covered in ketchup. "Wait, wait wait!" he yelled as he climbed incredibly fast for someone covered in condiments. "Hang on!"

Valerie and Dash made it to the top of the stairs, and they could see Danny on the other side of the kitchen. "You wanted a scary haunted house!" he called as he ran through the open doorway. "Wasn't that scary?"

"It was STUPID!" yelled Dash and Valerie at the same time. They made it into the living room, and Dash was expecting him to have kept going out the front door, but Danny was just standing in the middle of the floor.

"Look, sorry if I freaked you guys out too much," said Danny. "I was expecting things to go down differently. I thought -"

"You thought you'd take advantage of the fact that a situation like that could really happen? We were worried about you, Danny!" shouted Valerie. He was her friend, and it felt manipulative for him to take advantage of how much she cared about him. He knew. And she thought he cared about her, too.

Her words made Danny flinch. "Yeah. Sorry." He sat down on the weird blobby couch. "You guys can go, if you want."

Valerie and Dash looked at each other. "See you at school, FenTURD," said Dash, and he walked to the door. Valerie followed without saying anything. Dash pulled the door open, but before he walked through it, it slammed shut again with a bang, flying out of his hands.

"Danny," started Valerie, turning back around.

"That's not me!" said Danny. Dash pulled on the door, over and over, but it wouldn't budge. Danny got up from the couch and huffed a breath out of reluctance. Suddenly he froze, looking terrified. "Dang it."

Valerie noticed she could see his breath. It was an odd detail, because it was a pretty warm October night. Plus, the heater was still on in the house. "Danny, what's going on? Really?"

He started to panic a little. "I forgot- the Ghost Portal is still-" He took a step towards the kitchen, but stopped. The middle of the floor erupted in a glowing light, and a human-shaped form shot through. It was a ghost, a real ghost.

"Ahhh Oh my god!" yelled Dash, frozen in place, still over by the door. Usually ghosts start trying to eat people or whatever, and he did NOT want to be eaten. Danny turned and stuck his hand in the cushions of the couch, looking for something.

"Oh, man," said Danny, pulling his hand out of the couch. "Bad news: I think my parents took all the living room's backup equipment for their Halloween Hunt…"

Valerie pointed her blaster at the ghost. It was the ghost of a man, who had weird vampire-like hair that went up way too high. He had a cape, and when he smiled, his pointy teeth showed. "Aww," he said. His voice was deep, and it wasn't fake. It also sounded a little familiar to Valerie. "What's wrong, Daniel? Can't protect your little friends and your secret?"

Danny's grimace deepened. "Listen, Vlad, could we do this later?" He was looking the ghost right in the eye, calling it by name. Valerie stared, wondering how he even knew the name of this ghost, how he could dare to have the courage to talk like a ghost like that.

But she was prepared. "We can do this now," she said. She already had her blaster out, so she took aim and shot right at the ghost. He just conjured up a pink wall of ghost energy, and deflected the blast. Taken aback, Valerie tried to turn up the settings on the weapon, but suddenly something hot, cold, and electric all at once hit her in the shoulder. She felt its energy follow her nerves all in an instant, causing every muscle to tense involuntarily, and she collapsed, unable to move.

"VALERIE!" shouted Danny, reaching out like he could catch her, but they were across the room from each other. The ghost was between them.

"Don't worry, Daniel," said Vlad, in an amused voice. "It's just a paralyzing blast. It'll wear off." There was a thud coming from near the door, and Vlad and Danny looked over. "Oh," said the ghost. "The big one's fainted. I was going to use your friends against you… but it's much less fun now that they're both incapacitated." He shrugged. "Guess we'll have to do it the old-fashioned way, then." With that, he got into a battle stance.

Valerie was still awake, but she could tell she wouldn't be for much longer. "Thought you said…" she trailed off. Danny and Vlad both turned to look at her on the floor. "I thought… that your house wasn't haunted, Fenton…"

"Oh, it's haunted," said Danny. "I'm going ghost. For you guys." Suddenly there was a flash of light that seemed to come from Danny. Valerie had to close her eyes, which was hard to do, but she managed it. When it went away, standing in his place was the Ghost Boy. The same Ghost Boy she'd been hunting in secret for months now. The same Ghost Boy she told to die every day.

"My house is haunted… by me," said the Ghost Boy. "Sorry for scaring you so much tonight."

"Oh, I don't have time for sappy sentimentals!" shouted Vlad. "I don't have all night, you know! I'll get you to join me if it's the last thing I do!" Vlad's hands began glowing pink, and the Ghost Boy's glowed bright green. Vlad lunged forward but missed. The Ghost Boy used that to his advantage, and punched him in the face, knocking him to the ground.

"Aw, gross!" shouted the Ghost Boy. "I still smell like ketchup in my ghost form!"

Valerie chuckled, closing her eyes, and fell asleep.