It was a cold Christmas Eve in Amity Park, Illinois. Most families were inside, as a snow storm raged on outside. Nine-year-old Rylie Sara Fenton sat at the window, looking at the snow-covered front lawn of the manor. Specifically, she was looking at the driveway, waiting for her grandparents.

The girl had her black hair done up in pigtails, wearing a Christmas dress picked out by her mother. The dress was black at the top with a red and green plaid skirt, and she had white tights on under the dress. She had black Mary Jane's on and wore burgundy framed glasses that framed her amethyst eyes. In her arms was a well-cared-for Stitch plush.

"They'll be here, Ry, don't worry," her Aunt Jazz had said earlier. Jazz was wearing a black dress with candy canes on it, a red and white striped headband in her red hair.

"Mommy, I how can I give grandpa Jack his present if he's not here?" She had asked her mother. "He drives too fast to not be here already."

"Your grandpa Jack wouldn't miss this for the world," her mother replied. Sam was wearing a black sweater that said Have Yourself a Creepy Little Christmas and dark red pants. Her hair was down for once, which Rylie thought made her look beautiful. "Don't worry, Rylie."

Where could they be? She asked herself, looking back at the Christmas tree. Her Nana and Papa were there as well, using Christmas as an excuse to come over and connect with her. They didn't even celebrate, but it was kind of nice to see them trying to make an effort for her.

Her Nana had tried to get her into some girly dress, but Rylie made a face. Her Nana could never get the texture right for the dresses she bought.

Papa had tried to cheer her up, too. "Hey it's okay that Jack's not here, you can still have fun with Papa right?"

"No!" Rylie exclaimed. "Grandpa lets me play with the ectoguns!"

"He lets you what?" Sam asked, poking her head in the room.

"... For practice when I'm older?" She said sweetly.

"Your father and I will be talking to grandpa about that later," the gothic woman sighed and shook her head, going back into the kitchen to prepare dinner.

Danny went to the door, getting ready to leave. He was wearing a collared shirt with a festive grey sweater over it and jeans. He didn't look as festive, but Rylie thought it was nice he tried. He didn't really like the holidays, after all.

"Daddy, are you gonna go find them?" Rylie asked softly as she walked over to him, looking at her father with worry. It was still snowing pretty hard out.

"Don't worry, Ryles," he said with a small smile, ruffling her hair slightly. He seemed to know what she was thinking. "I'm just going out to find Phantom. He'll be able to find them."

"But it's… It's still snowing really hard," she said with a frown. "Are you sure he'll be able to find them?"

"Definitely," Danny said with a nod and a smile as he grabbed his coat. "How about you go get some hot cocoa from your mom, alright?"

"I… I guess…" Rylie mumbled, shuffling towards the kitchen before stopping. She heard the front door open and then shut. She paced around for a few moments before getting an idea.

"... I'll go look for them too," she mumbled to herself, running to grab her coat and boots from the closet near the front door. She could look from the ground while Phantom looked from the air! It was perfect!

Before she could get her coat on, she heard footsteps. It was either her aunt or her mother. "Rylie, what are you doing?" It was her mother. The girl turned around, facing the older woman, trying to give her the best puppy dog pout a nine-year-old could give.

"I wanna go play in the backyard," she lied sweetly. "Make snowmen and snowwomen and snow angels for when grandma and grandpa get here."

"In the middle of a snowstorm?" Sam asked, raising an eyebrow at her daughter.

"... Yes?"

"No, Rylie, we aren't doing that," Sam sighed, taking the girl's coat from her. "It's the middle of a snowstorm. You'll catch your death out there."

"But mom-" The girl started whining.

"No, Rylie."

The girl pouted. "Fine…" She mumbled, looking at the floor. "What can I do instead?" She asked.

"You could finish the gingerbread house?" Sam offered, remembering the girl hadn't finished it.

"No!" Rylie exclaimed rather suddenly, not noticing how everyone was looking at her now. "I can't finish it until grandma's here, she's the only one who can do the icing right!" With that, the girl plopped on the floor, sitting there and pouting.

"Rylie…" Sam sighed. "They'll be here, you know that."

"I want them here now!" She huffed, face turning red. She was getting so frustrated with everything!

"Rylie, why don't you go upstairs to your room and cool off for a bit?" Her mother said with a sigh. Rylie was about to argue when she added, "I'll call you when grandma gets here, alright?"

Without a word, Rylie got up and stormed off to her room on the second floor of the manor.

Once in her bedroom, the girl went to her closet and grabbed the thickest sweater she could find. Scribbling a quick note- something about going to go find grandma and grandpa- she put the paper on her bed. Giving her Stitch plush a kiss on the nose, she opened up the window, pulling the screen out.

"I'll find them, I promise," she whispered, putting the screen on the ground. With that, she stepped onto the roof of the sitting room, only to slip on the black ice that was building up on the shingles. With a loud scream that couldn't be heard over the howling of the wind, she fell face-first into the snow.

"Owowow…" She mumbled, pushing herself up. Her chest hurt so much, and her wrist ached. She must have landed wrong. The cold snow had gotten into her clothes, making her shiver as the cold air nipped at her exposed skin, but she shrugged it off, for now. She had a mission to do.

With that, she made her way towards the city, not even noticing the silver and green RV pull up in the driveway with a familiar ghost not far behind.

It had been a few hours since Rylie had gone to her room. Dinner had been going nicely, aside from the glares sent between the parents. No one had started arguing, which was definitely a plus. Rylie hadn't come down yet, either to finish the gingerbread house with her grandmother or to eat in general.

"Rylie, it's time for dinner!" Danny called from down the stairs. He wasn't extremely worried. But he was a bit. It wasn't uncommon for her to hole herself up in her room. But to be this quiet was unheard of for the autistic. She was usually making some kind of noise- talking to her Stitch plush was quite a common thing to hear throughout the house.

Sam walked over after a few second of not hearing anything. "Is she coming?" The woman asked with a frown.

"I don't know," Danny sighed, running a hand through his hair. He looked to his wife and frowned. "I'll go check on her," he said. "Maybe she just needs some dad jokes to cheer her up." He tried to smile slightly. Nothing was wrong. Even though his gut was telling him otherwise.

Sam hit him on the shoulder. "She doesn't need your puns," she joked back. "Your puns are horrible."

With a chuckle, he went up the stairs, going to her room. Nothing was wrong, he kept repeating to himself. He knocked on her door. "Ryles?" He asked.

No response.

He put his hand on the door knob. "I'm coming in, Rylie," he warned.

Still no response. Was she even in her room? No one had heard her leave, though...

With that, he opened the door. What was behind it wasn't something he was ready to see. He had faced countless ghosts wanting to kill him, a ghost king bent on enslaving humanity, and his own murderous future self. But seeing the snow starting to pile up under the open window, the note on her bed…

Rylie being missing was not something he was expecting.

Rylie had been wandering in the snow for hours. Her limbs, especially her legs, were getting cold and tired. She couldn't see in the snow, which had just gotten worse as she trudged on. Her chest was hurting even worse than before, and her wrist felt really numb.

Everything was cold.

She was tired.

Why had she come out again?

Where was she, even?

"I want daddy…" She whimpered, sitting down against a tree. "I want mommy… I wanna go home…" She curled up into herself. She couldn't go on for much longer. She knew that much. This had been a horrible idea!

With a grunt, she got up. She needed to keep moving. She needed to find someone to help her. She couldn't just stay out here, she needed to be strong, like Phantom.

She couldn't keep walking for long, though. Within a few minutes, she collapsed again, unable to get up. "I- I can't…" She mumbled. "'m s- sorry…" With that, her eyes slid shut, her body giving into the warm brace of unconsciousness while her brain screamed at her to stay awake.

The Fenton manor had exploded when Danny had announced that Rylie had gone missing. Jazz had gone to call the police. Pamela and Jeremy, on the other hand, had taken to yelling at Danny while trying to calm down their only daughter.

"It's your fault she's gone!" Pamela Manson cried out, pointing at Danny. "You're just like your parents!"

"If you had been watching her closer, she wouldn't have had the chance to leave!" Jeremy added, eyes narrowed.

How had she managed to slip out so easily? Why did she decide to go out in this storm? The worried and panicked father thought as he tried to console his wife and get her parents to stop yelling at him. "Listen, Jazz is calling the police right now, arguing won't help find her-" Danny tried.

"She wouldn't be lost if it wasn't for your lackluster parenting!"

"It's not our son's fault Rylie went off on her own," Maddie interjected. "She was worried for us and decided to go out on her own. If anything, that makes it our fault."

It looked like the Manson parents were about to actually agree to that when Jazz walked back in the room, still on her cellphone. She was probably pleading with whoever picked up her call to find her niece, the blizzard be damned.

"Mom…" Danny sighed. "We can play the blame game later," he said, trying to keep his cool, trying to keep his eyes from glowing. His little girl, his baby, was out there in that storm, freezing, and he couldn't do anything about it if they kept yelling at him. "Right now, finding Rylie is all that matters."

Suddenly, Sam spoke up, her voice wavering a bit. "Danny, can I talk with you for a second?" She asked.

Danny nodded, leading his wife to another room before closing the door. "What is it?" He asked, looking extremely worried.

"Phantom should go looking for her," she said suddenly. "You know he's the only one who could possibly find her."

Danny frowned and nodded. It would be hard with this storm, but he had to make it work. "You need to figure out an excuse as to why I'm gone, then," he said. "For your parents, I mean, because I'm not going to get yelled at later for ignoring the search when I'm actually the only one able to brave the weather to go and look for her."

Sam nodded, hugging her husband tightly. He felt his shirt get a little wet. She was… Crying? It just showed how worried she was. "Go find her…" She said softly.

With that, Danny transformed and took off into the storm, going towards the woods that lay behind the manor.