What's a city without graffiti? Canada. - Free Dan Phantom on the way to School
DPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDP
Tuesday
DPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDP
"So, did Dash sleep in his room last night?" Sam asked at breakfast the next morning.
"Mm murph mmut hm." Tuck replied, his mouth full of pancakes. Sam looked at the gooey lake of syrup surrounding Tucker's stack of pancakes and shuddered. Her own pancakes were covered with only the barest slaver of butter and a drizzle of syrup. Danny was looking at the empty syrup container, sighed, then put it down.
"I was sure he would sleep out in the main cabin with the rest of us..."
"So we pushed his cot back into the counselor's room," Tucker interrupted. "After that he was too afraid of losing face to move it back out."
"In any case, nothing happened."
"No point in pranking him two nights in a row, eh?" Tucker snickered.
"I did not prank Dash Sunday night, I was asleep when all that happened."
"Sure, Danny," Tucker jeered.
"Come on, would I lie about a thing like that?" Danny plead. "I want to get back at Dash I want to hit him with a prank he won't forget. But that wasn't me.."
"He has a point," Sam said. "Danny has never kept anything from us. But, if it wasn't you, who was it?"
"The Camp Ghost." Danny paused with a fork full of pancakes halfway to his mouth, "I think I ran into it yesterday."
"What was he like?"
"I don't know," Danny hesitated. "I never really saw it, but it sure scared the heck out of me," Swiftly he recounted what had happened
"Did your girlfriend see you in your ghost form?" Sam asked.
"She's not my girlfriend."
"Sounds awfully defensive, doesn't he, Sam" teased Tucker who had miraculously make the entire stack of pancakes on his plate disappear.
"Guys, this is serious," Danny said. "Whatever that thing was I faced yesterday, it was powerful and scary. I've got to stop it and to do that I've got to know more about it. Tucker, I need you to make an Internet search for anything you can find about this Camp Suicide."
"Ah man, I was supposed to meet T'Keisha during free time."
"Tucker, this is important. It shouldn't take you that long. You're always saying what a wiz you are doing on-line searches."
"What's Sam going to be doing while I'm missing valuable face time with T'Keisha, getting her nosed pierced?"
"Ewww?" Sam and Danny said in unison. Then looked at each other in surprise. "Why would you think I'd get my nose pierced?" Sam wondered.
"Because your new friend has her nose pierced. I thought maybe that was part of the new Goth look," Tucker said.
"She's punk, not Goth, thought we do like things that are black,"
"And the nose-ring?"
"I don't need to punch holes in my nose to prove anything," Sam snapped.
"Guys, Guys," Danny interrupted, "We have a ghost problem here! We've got to find somebody here who might know anything about this suicide story. It may be that not all the story was ever posted to the Internet." Danny said.
"Ask the Head Ranger. If anyone would know she would. And she looks old enough to have been here when it happened," Tucker suggested.
"She'd be the last person on the camp to tell us anything like that," Sam objected,
"Maybe she would if she thought it would stop the spreading of any further rumors." Danny said.
"We're scheduled for riding today," Sam said. "I bet the people working at the stable knows all about this suicide story and would be willing to talk to us."
"Good idea. Tuck, you get that Internet search going. I'll get changed and out to the stable and Sam you can...What were you going to do?"
"Enjoy summer camp," She teased. "I'll talk to the Cook. Besides I've got morning KP."
Back at the cabin Danny quickly changed his tennis shoes for a pair of work boots. The riding class required everyone to wear boots or heeled shoes. He left Tucker programming a searchbot for any records of the camp suicide. He passed kids in bathing suits heading towards their day of canoeing. Someone had given all of them red headbands so Danny guessed they belonged to the Team Red cabins. The stables were to the north of the lake, on a bit of a rise that kept the barn and corral well drained compared to the marshier land nearer the lake.
Horses were already being taken from the corral and saddled. A half dozen stable hands were helping the head horse wrangler. He was a short, stocky, elder Japanese man named Mr. Doi. Though the horses towered over him he had a surprising command over them. Danny had met Mr. Doi the previous year when he had come to the camp and found him somewhat reticent and polite but easily approachable.
As he neared the corral he noticed the horses start to stomp about nervously. They pricked up their ears and looked about. They seemed to be get more nervous the closer he got. Mr Doi, he saw, had his hands full trying to quiet the horses. Danny waited, hoping the horses would calm down so he could ask Mr. Doi about the alleged Camp Suicide. But just as the horse seemed to calm down the rest of the campers started showing up. Now Mr. Doi was busy matching up horses to riders and getting them mounted.
"So what did you find out from Mr. Doi," Sam suddenly asked from behind his back. Danny nearly fell over in surprise. "Sam, don't do that," he started to say but couldn't continue when he saw how Sam was dressed.
She was in knee-high boots, whipcord jodhpur pants, a man's buttoned shirt, and short formal coat, and all crowned with a hard hat. Everything had been dyed black, but Sam looked like she was setting out for an English fox hunt.
"Ah, Sam...?"
"Too much?"
"A little."
"I should have listened to Nanna. She said to wear jeans, but I've always dressed like this for horse riding."
"When do you go horse riding?"
"All the time...oh ... uh, it's something I don't generally mention."
"Because you don't want people to know you're stinking rich?"
"Would you?"
"I'm going to have a hard time not laughing every time I look at you today."
"So, lose the coat?"
"I'd say lose everything."
"Danny! I'm not going nude horseback riding. I'll leave the Lady Godiva bit to someone more politically motivated."
"I didn't mean that!" Danny blushed.
"Good!" Sam huffed. "Did you find out anything from Mr. Doi?"
"Never got a chance to ask him. The horses started acting up when I got there. What about you?"
"Cook does not like kids. I don't think I've heard so much profanity come out of one person before. And that was just for stepping out on the back porch where she was smoking."
"Rats. Maybe Tucker will have better luck with the on-line search."
On the west the camp rose rather swiftly for a couple hundred feet. As they rose along the trail leading to the to top the riders could see the entire camp spread out below. Off to the east was the lake and the forested area beyond it where they had picnicked the day before (and Danny had encountered that malevolent ghost). Closer in were the various clusters of cabins for the four "teams" They could see the playing field as well as the large firepit and amphitheater where they would be holding closing ceremonies on Friday. Mountains rose in the distance, each seemingly higher than the next. Of cities, towns or roads, there was none to be seen.
They were riding on a gravel trail wide enough so the riders grouped themselves in twos and threes as they rode, chattering away. Sam and Danny were riding together while Tucker was farther back with T'Keisha.
"It's going to break his heart to learn she's really a jock and hates geeks" Sam teased.
"Is she?"
"With Tucker's luck with girls, I'd bet on it."
"That is so going to kill him, We should do something."
"Never, Danny, I repeat, never get between a boy and the woman he thinks loves him. You'll lose an arm every time."
"But Tuck..."
"He'll live, and maybe I'll be wrong. One of these times he has to get lucky. Sort of like with you and that Girl in White."
"She's not my ...why do you go on about her like that. It's just like when Val and I were friends. You were all bent out of shape about that. It's like you were jealous or something."
"Me, jealous of Valerie. Danny, she's psychotic. She wants to nail your hide to her wall, your ghost hide, if ghosts have hides and you could nail them to anything."
"You're jealous." Danny retorted. Sam made a dismissive sound.
They road on in silence for a while.
"Look over there," Danny suddenly pointed. To the north of the lake and well away from all the other cabins was a small clearing in the woods with a an abandoned cabin in the middle. "What could that be?"
"I don't remember seeing it when we were here last year?" Sam said.
Danny looked again and just as suddenly the clearing had disappeared. If he looked carefully he could see the notch in the canopy of trees where the clearing existed. But only for that one brief moment had the clearing been visible as a clearing.
"If I hadn't just happen to look up when I did I don't think I would have seen it at all."
"Maybe it is an old Ranger cabin that they used before the administration center was built?" Sam suggested.
"Maybe. Or maybe it is part of a cabin cluster that was abandoned when someone got killed?"
"Don't go all melodrama on me, Danny. I'm sure there's a sensible reason for a cabin out there."
"Maybe I should fly out there tonight and check it out?" Danny suggested.
"I got a better idea, Danny. Tomorrow we're hiking in that part of the grounds. What say the three of us break away from the group and explore it together."
"Do you think we can get Romeo there away from his girlfriend?"
"What, and miss out on breaking rules and exploring a haunted house? He'll come."
They rode on for a few more minutes in silence. Danny stole glances at Sam once in a while. He was amazed how happy she seemed as she bounced in the saddle in rhythm to the horses gait. She held the reins loosely in one hand, the other resting easily on her thigh. Danny had known Sam Manson since they had met in kindergarten and in all that time he really couldn't remember a time when she looked nearly so easily and thoroughly happy as now. And he had never known that she rode before this. It made him wonder how much else about his best friend he didn't know. And whether any of it mattered.
"I've noticed that Cupcake here doesn't like to walk next to you," Sam said, breaking the silence. "She's always trying to edge away. You don't think the horses can sense that you're a ghost, do you?"
"Why?"
"Some animals are said to be sensitive about ghosts. In town we're not exactly swarming with animals so maybe we just hadn't noticed before.
"Great, another part of my life messed up with my ghost powers. Sometimes I wish..."
"Danny stop. You never know when Desiree might be lurking about. Don't wish for anything you'll regret!" Sam spoke urgently, remembering when she had made a rash wish that the malevolent ghost genie had granted.
The trail here entered a small wooded area. The cool from the shade of the nearby trees was a pleasant respite from the bright overhead sun. Suddenly there was a loud snap as one of the horses stepped on a branch. It started bucking. The girl on the horse screamed, panicking the horse even more. It tore off into the woods.
The counselors at the front and back of the line of horses stared at each other, unsure of what to do.
"Sam, cover me!" Danny called. Sam crowded her horse in next to Danny's as he threw himself from the horse. He turned ghost before hitting the ground and sped after the run-away horse.
The horse had taken off up the road they were on so Danny stayed invisible as he overtook the horse. But even though the horse couldn't see him it still sensed him and shied away as he tried reaching for the reins.
It veered off into the woods between the trail and cliff beyond. Branches slapped at the girl clinging to the saddle. Danny lost ground for a moment as he dodged around trees and branches, then remembering that he was a ghost, he straightened his course and flew through trees instead.
He tried overtaking the horse again, hoping to grab its reins and pulling it to a halt. But again, as he neared the horse, it veered away from him.
Danny angled away from the runaway horse. He tried to speed up, hoping to get ahead of the horse, then come in at it from front and grab the reins before it had a chance to sense him.
Suddenly the trees stopped. Horse, rider and ghost boy broke out into a small clearing. And just as abruptly the horse jamming its forelegs out stiff as it skidded on the loose gravel in the clearing, skidded into a stop, nearly falling to its knees. The girl, flailing wildly on the saddle pitched forward, over the horses head, sailing out into space. They had come to the cliff and the land fell away a hundred feet below in a sheer drop. The rider, largely silent except for grunts as she was thrown about the saddle, screamed as the ground rushed up to her.
Danny sped forward, diving down the side of the cliff at a speed that made the brush clinging to its side a blur as he passed. He swung under the girl, pulled up and grabbed her with solidified hands. And nearly dropped her again as weight of her fall pulled them both down. The treetops in the valley below brushed his boots by the time Danny finally stopped their fall.
Danny turned back towards the cliff. He looked down to see who he had caught. He had been so wrapped in the moment that he had not actually looked at the girl before this. It was Abigail Farley-Smythe-Hyde! He hadn't expected to rescue anyone he knew. And he hadn't expected to get so close to someone in his ghost form who knew him in his human form. Despite assurances from Sam and Tucker that he didn't look anything like himself as a ghost, Danny didn't want anyone guessing that Danny Fenton was Danny Phantom, least of someone obsessed with hunting ghosts like Abigail!
When he had caught her, Abigail had clung to him instinctively. Now that her fall had been stopped she was beginning to stir. She opened her eyes, saw who was holding her and screamed. She wrestled an arm free and began beating at Danny with it. "Let me go!" she was screaming. "Let me go, you darn dirty ghost!"
"I'm trying to rescue you," Danny replied but she wasn't listening. She was trying to squirm out of Danny's hold even though they hadn't reached the cliff top and hundreds of feet of air lay below her.
"Hold still," Danny tried to tell her while her free hand continued to hammer and claw at his face. "You don't want me to drop you."
Suddenly her flailing hand grabbed Danny's ear. She twisted it viciously. Danny screamed in pain. "Let go!"
Instead she twisted harder.
Danny tried to free one hand to grab at the hand on his ear and she nearly slide out of his grasp. He grabbed wildly, catching her around her head. This lead to still more screaming and now she was trying to kick him as well.
"I am thud trying ah to help ouch you!" Danny kept trying to tell her.
Suddenly a tree got in his way.
Danny hit with a crashing thud and dropped to the ground unconscious. Fortunately by then they were back on top of the cliff. Abigail rolled to the ground a few feet away. While not knocked unconscious, she was so exhausted from fighting and screaming that she lay panting for a moment.
Danny's ghost half had remarkable recuperative powers so it was only a moment later that he stirred to his feet. He saw Abigail safe on the ground, but also beginning to stir. And in the distance were the sounds of crashing hooves as a pair of counselors can galloping into the clearing. Danny faded to invisibility and flew back to Sam and Tucker. Now that Abigail was out of trouble it was time for Danny Phantom to disappear.
Danny found the other campers had been ordered to dismount and stand by their horses. Dash was on his counselor's cellphone talking to someone. Perhaps Mr. Doi or the Head Ranger. Though the camp was very strict about campers not bringing cellphones, pdas or game consoles to the camp, it was clearly wired so that no counselor was ever out of range of the Ranger Station by cellphone.
Danny grabbed the reins of his mount from Sam and tried to stand like he wasn't aching all over.
"How's your girlfriend," Sam teased.
"She's not my - - she's OK. Fell off the cliff but I caught her."
"Looks like she put up a fight."
"I ran into a tree...And she put up a fight."
Moments later one of the counselors, Porcupine, was leading Abigail out of the woods. Booger followed a few minutes later leading the three horses.
The kids crowded in around her to listen to her story.
"It was horrible," she said. "I was attacked by a ghost. It was hideous. It had snow-white hair and glowing green eyes. It was dressed all in black except for some stupid design on its chest..."
"It's not stupid!" Sam muttered. She had designed the ensign for Danny's costume and had been quite pleased with herself for incorporating D and P and wavy lines for a ghost into one emblem.
"..."I think it was an Satanic iconograph. Or possibly Cthulhuian, but I didn't get a clear view of it." Abigail continued. "It was carrying me off to its necrophilic lair but I was able to beat it off, then you came and rescued me. It must have been weak by being out in the sun. Ghosts of that sort are more powerful at night."
"I think she's enjoying this," Sam muttered.
"Nothing like being the center of attention," Tucker agreed. He had seen Danny disappear and quietly left T'Keisha's side to wait with Sam for Danny's return.
"But there was no ghost." Danny complained, keeping his voice down. "I rescued her,"
"But you are a ghost, so technically, she right," Tucker observed.
"She's blaming me for saving her life. I'm tired of trying to do good only to be blamed for whatever it was I was trying to stop.
" 'With Great Power comes Great Responsibility.' " Tucker quipped.
"Don't go quoting movies at me!"
"I think he's just upset that he didn't get a big, wet, rain-soaked kiss." Tucker told Sam.
"Wet, rain-soaked Up-side-down kiss," Sam corrected.
"Lay off me, will ya? I don't know why I bother when people are always blaming me. I'm not the villain, I'm the good guy."
"We know that."
"I know you two do, but it would be nice if other people once and a while admitted that."
"Life is monstrously unfair. That's the Goth credo. That's why I'm a Goth," Sam explained.
"Besides," Tucker cut in, "would you really feel any better if Abigail had fallen to her death?"
"That's why we love you," Sam added. "You do the right thing every time, no matter the consequences."
"That's what makes someone a hero," Tucker said.
"It still stinks."
Mr. Doi was down in a camp truck in a few minutes. He had driven around on state roads to the polo field where they were heading and had been waiting for their arrival. After a lot of arguing from Abigail, who insisted she was alright, he drove her down to the Camp Nurse's cabin for an examination. One of the farm hands stayed behind to bring up Abigail's horse.
After the truck disappeared back up the trail, the campers mounted and finished their ride.
The Polo Grounds was a flat field somewhat larger than a football field. A board fence surrounded most of it, with a pole barn off to the side where the horses could be sheltered from storms or bright sunlight. Picnic tables clustered at the other end of the field along with several porta-potties. Four antique looking covered wagons were parked near the picnic tables.
The stable hands instructed the campers in how to unsaddle their horses, wipe down the sweat and feed and water them. The horses were left grazing in the shelter of the pole barn while the campers gathered round the chuck wagons for a lesson in cowboy cooking.
The man at the wagon Danny's cabin was assigned to introduced himself as Steve and explained that he belonged to a society of historical re-enactors. He had immersed himself in western and Civil War minutia for the thrill of knowing about that era.
He went on to talk about the importance of cattle drives and of the chuck wagons that feed the cowboys as their herded their cattle to market. He followed up with some basic campfire safety and showed them how to lay a fire and get it started.
Then he passed out tubs of vegetables and set the boys to peeling and quartering them. Others were set to cubing and browning some meat. This was all thrown into a pot Steve had already set up over a fire and had been boiling quietly during his lecture.
Next came apples to be peeled and sliced and a bowl of flour which he showed how to turn into a dough. Some of the boys were growling about how cooking was a girl's task, which started Steve off on a long story about the many times where men were without women - war, exploring the frontier and so on, and had to cook for themselves or starve. Danny remembered the times he had baked cookies with his mother and how delicious they tasted coming straight out of the oven, hot, soft with gooey melted chocolate bits. He wondered how Sam was doing in her group. As he recalled, Sam hated cooking or anything traditionally domestic.
The pies were placed in an ingenious cast iron box with a tight-fitting rimmed lid. Steve got out a shovel and piled embers on top the lid as well as setting the rest of the box at the edge of the embers.
After that everyone was released for a hours play. Half-way through, the camp truck returned with Mr. Doi. He explained that the nurse wanted to hold the girl a couple hours for observation just in case there was an internal injury.
The clang of a large iron triangle brought the kids back to the chuck wagons where the re-enactors served them stew, beans and pie. Coffee, the other stable of western cuisine, however, was replaced with cans of pop.
Afterwards Mr Doi lead the kids in classes on horse etiquette, saddling, mounting, the different gaits and so on. Though it was called the Polo Grounds no one actually played polo there since the liability issue was too great for the camp. However a couple of the more experienced stable hands did put on a brief show of speed and agility for the campers. By mid-afternoon the campers were saddling up again, to began their descent back to the stables.
All of a sudden the counselors were coming down the line of waiting rider asking if they had seen Tracy, one of the girls from the Sumac cabin. Danny looked at the corral and noticed that one horse was still there. As the counselors rode back to Mr. Doi, Danny heard Dash mutter "Can anything worse go wrong day?" For once Danny found himself in agreement with the bully.
Mr Doi ordered all the campers to dismount and tie up their horses. Them each of the counselors took their group to one of the edges of the Polo Field and formed them into a line, each an arms-length apart from the next and extending into the forest. Danny arranged to be on the end next to Tucker. The counselors lead them in a search of the grounds around the clearing.
"Cover for me," Danny whispered, then turned ghost and sped off to look for the missing girl at ghost-speed.
Since his ghost sense hadn't gone off Danny assumed Tracy had just wandered away and maybe had become lost. He soared high, thinking he could see more territory that way but found that trees grow together too thickly. Danny dropped to ground level and sped through the trees looking for some clue of Tracy's passage. In the distance he could hear the different search teams calling out to each other.
Danny had circled the Polo field five or six times at every wider distances when he noticed something wrong about a thicket as he passed over it. He looped back and looked at it more closely. At first he couldn't tell what had caught his attention, then noticed that some of the branches looked broken, disturbed. He landed, solidified and began to slowly walk around it. The first thing he noticed was that the thicket covered a steep ravine. He couldn't actually walk around it, only along one side. But a careful look at the ground didn't show any footprints, any sign that someone has been there. After a time he flew over to the other side of the ravine. It was the side facing away from the Polo Field. He had assumed if Tracy was here she would have fallen in from the side facing the Polo Field. As soon as he got to the other side he could see scuff marks in the leaf litter, clearly broken branches and the glint of something white at the edge of the thicket.
Danny bent over and picked it up. It was a girl's tennis shoe, clean and dry so it hadn't been here long. Danny went ghost and turned intangible. He floated over the thicket and slowly descended, passing through interlocking branches with ease. In the gloom at the bottom of the thicket, a good ten feet below the surface above, Danny spotted a small form lying still on the ground.
It was a girl with short frizzy hair, a little plump and missing one shoe. Danny floated around to where he could get ahold of her, then extended his intangibility to include her. Slowly he floated back up to the surface.
Danny laid the girl on the ground while he went to fetch her other shoe. He set the shoe on her stomach then picked her up in his arms. He started to fly back to the Polo Field.
The fresh air blowing over her face must have revived her some because she started to stir.
"It's OK," Danny said, "I'm here to rescue you."
The girl looked up and screamed.
"Not again!"
"Put me down. Put me down!"
"Ok. Sure, Danny said.
The girl was clawing at his face.
"Hey, leave the ear along!" Danny screamed. "I'm landing. I'm landing. Give me a minute!"
The landing was more of a crash. Tracy tore out of his arms and ran away, screaming.
"Wrong way. The field is over that way!" he called when he realized Tracy was running back into the forest.
She didn't stop running.
Danny sighed and took off after her. He circled around and stopped in front of her. With a scream Tracy changed course. Danny flew ahead again and waited for her to see him. That way he slowly herded back towards the Polo Field and the search parties. Finally the panicking girl heard the searchers and started running directly towards them. Grateful that he had gotten her back with the group, Danny flew off to rejoin Tucker.
It was another half-hour before the campers were finally ready to return to the stable. Tracy was too distraught to ride so she rode back in the truck with Mr. Doi. One of the hands rode the horse back. With the excitement over the kids had nothing left to do but complain. More than a few were suddenly aware of how sore their behinds were. Horse-riding was harder activity than most people realized. Sam, Danny noticed, seemed as fresh as she had in the morning and rode with the strange bouncing motion she called "posting."
Mr Doi, having driven around the campgrounds in the truck, met them at the stables and took charge of the horses. Danny waited until all the horses had been put away, then sought out Mr Doi. He was piling a bale of hay on a wheelbarrow and cutting the strings.
"If you want to know how your friend is doing you should ask the Nurse," Mr Doi said, looking up. "I really don't know anything more about the matter." The older man pushed the wheelbarrow along the stalls, pulling off flakes and throwing it into the horses' mangers.
"Actually, Mr. Doi, I wanted to ask you about something else." Danny explained. He followed Mr Doi back to the feed room when the stable manager started scooping a mixture of oats and molasses into small buckets he then piled into the wheelbarrow. "It's about-- kids are talking-- um--"
Mr Doi stopped and looked at Danny patiently.
"It's about the Camp Ghost--"
"Oh, that. It seems like the kids always bring that up every year. There is no camp ghost." Mr. Doi turned back to filling the feed buckets.
"But wasn't there a camper killed here once?" Danny blurted out.
Very sadly Mr. Doi answered, "yes, but that was a long time ago. It's not something to concern yourself about. The matter was dealt with at the time. And there is no ghost."
"But--"
"This should be a time in your life for happiness and fun, son, you should not be weighing yourself down worrying about things that do not matter."
"But--"
Mr Doi smiled at Danny and picked up the handles of the wheelbarrow, "I can't help you."
By the time Danny got back to the cabin the day's mail has been distributed and he had to knock on the counselor's door to pick up his. Dash glared at him from the door and assigned him KP for being late.
Danny spent a dismal hour scrubbing pots. Sweaty and smelling of old grease, he went outside for some fresh air. He found the cook there, sitting to one side of the loading dock, surrounded with smelly garbage cans waiting to be hauled away. She was sitting on an old straight back chair chain-smoking.
"Hey, kid, Danny isn't it? What are you doing here? I've got Staff who don't work as much as you have."
"I got assigned KP. I think my camp counselor doesn't like me. Every day he finds something different I've done wrong and here I am again."
"Big tall, blond guy, thinks he's God's gift to football?"
"Yeah, that's him. Dash Baxter."
"Jerk." She took a long drag on her cigarette and looked at the butt end as smoke trickled out her nose. She fished down the front of her dress and pulled a pack of cigarettes from her enormous bosom, shook out a fresh cigarette and stuff the rest back where they came from. Using the ember from the butt of her old cigarette she lit the new one and flicked the other butt into pit of the truck ramp.
"They hate me smoking around you kids but not enough to fire me. So as long as I sneak off back here -- where's you're not supposed to be -- they pretend not to see. You don't smoke, do you?"
"I'm only fourteen," Danny protested.
"Well, don't start. It's a filthy habit." She took a long drag on her cigarette. "I started smoking when I was thirteen. Thought it was cool. Knew it would piss-off my mother." She paused to inhale again, then had a fit of coughing. "Now I can't quit if I wanted to--and believe me I would love to." Her cigarette was already gone, so she fished in her cleavage for another, lighting it off the butt of the other. "Something I can do for you, kid--Danny, isn't it?"
"No. I just came out for some air -- wait, maybe you could tell me something."
"Shoot, kid."
"It's about the Camp Ghost."
"Oh, that."
"Is there any truth to it?"
"Oh, sure. Most of the time the ghost doesn't do anything."
"Other times...?"
"They keep it hushed up."
"How did it happen?"
The cook took a long drag on her cigarette and thought.
"Look, if you don't want to tell me, that's OK, I understand. I'm just a kid," Danny said.
"Nah, it's not that. I always figure when someone asks me something I ought to tell them as best I can. No point in trying to hide stuff from kids, they'll just find anyway. I was just trying to remember what I do know about it.
"It was pretty awful . Everybody was walking around talking in hushed tone, shutting up entirely when kids were around. I was just a kid back then, maybe half your age, so I never hear nothing except from around doors and such. Later on everyone assumes you know as much as they do so they never explain what had happened.
"What I recall was that someone went crazy and killed a camper. Who was the victim and who was the killer I don't know. There was some talk about calling it a suicide but then I heard that they never found the head. That pretty much rules suicide doesn't it. It's hard to cut your head off when you're already dead."
She delved into her dress again. After fumbling a moment she pulled out the pack and poked around in it. Disgusted, she waded it up and threw it away. She felt around in her dress again. After a moment Danny had to look away, it was just too gross. With an "Aha," the cook pulled one lone cigarette out of her dress, all bent and crumbled. She straightened it out as best she could, stuck it between her lips and lit with the fag-end of her last cigarette. "I knew I had one left around somewhere. So, where was I?"
"You said the victims head had been cut off."
"Oh, yeah. I've seen enough of dead people when I was working as an aide in a nursing home -- that's why I became a cook, to get out of that -- but I don't never want to run across something like that."
"When did it happen?"
I can't recall what year, but it was summer; Friday the 13th."
"Like this year."
"Why, what do you know, so it is. Must have been 50 years back or so but like I said I can't recall what year."
"And you don't know who was killed, or who did it or why or how. What about where?"
"Sorry, kid. Like I said, I was just a kid at the time. I suppose it's all in the newspaper somewhere if you really want find out." She took a final drag on her cigarette and flung the last little bit into the truck pit. "Well, kid, that's the end of my cigarette break. I've got to get back to work. Is there anything else you want to ask?"
"No. Thanks for your help. You're the first adult who actually bothered to answer my questions."
"No problem. Just don't tell anybody. I'm no fount of wisdom and I don't want my break-time taken up answering people's questions."
When Danny got back to the cabin the others were anxiously chatting about something. They instantly hushed when he stepped inside.
"What's going on?" he asked but nobody answered.
He went over to his cot and dropped down on it. Tucker was rooting around in his locker, "Hey Tucker," Danny called quietly, "What's going on?"
"We're going to spy on the girls' shower," Tucker replied. "Someone found a hole in one of the walls of Hemlock cabin. If you look carefully you can see into the showers."
"Are you nuts!" Danny exclaimed in a quiet whisper. "You can't do a thing like that. It's--it's immoral."
"We're just looking, Danny, nobody's going to get hurt."
"But it's wrong, just wrong."
"Come on, Danny, lighten up. Don't you even want to see a naked woman?"
"Yes, but not that way! Tucker, Sam's in that cabin. What if she's in the shower?"
"That won't happen." Tucker replied.
Danny rolled over on his cot and looked Tucker in the eye. "But what of she is?"
"I sure as heck won't tell, that's for sure."
"She's our friend, Tuck. We don't spy on our friends."
"Right, like you didn't spy on her when she was going out with the Gregor guy!" Tucker angrily whispered, "If you feel that strongly about this, go and warn Sam to stay out of the shower. Just don't tell her why."
"I thought Gregor was a ghost, and don't think I didn't get from Sam when she found out. That's one reason this is such a bad idea." Danny argued. "And how am I going to warn her? Neither one of us has a cell phone."
"Talk to her through the floorboards."
"Tucker, that's just plain crazy."
"I'm going on this thing, Danny, and I don't want you doing anything to stop it."
"Tucker..."
"Danny, if you're not in with us, then butt out." Tucker got up, slammed the lid of the trunk closed and stormed out of the cabin.
Daniel Fenton watched his friend leave, followed a few moments later by the others in the cabin, He was all alone in the cabin. He couldn't help feeling more alone than at any other time in his life. Shaking his head he muttered a disheartened "I'm going ghost," changed to his ghostly form and floated through the cabin wall looking for Sam.
Floating above the cabins Danny could see the cluster of boys grouped around the corner of the girls' cabin where the showers were. The door to the cabin was in direct view so he couldn't just knock on the door and ask to see Sam. And he couldn't just float into the cabin and look for Sam, that was just as bad as looking through some knothole in the wall. The cabins had wood floors built on a foundation a few inches above the ground. Danny flew into the ground and came up under the floor. He could hear a number of girls talking, some loudly, some more softly. He tried to listen for the sound of Sam's voice. Occasionally he'd move to a different part of the floor. He was about to give up in frustration when he heard Sam laugh. He flowed over near where the laugh came from and listened again. Finally he heard Sam speaking, talking to someone, but her voice was too muffled to understand.
"Sam!" Danny called. And when nothing happened tried calling a little louder. He called to her a third time without attracting her attention. Solidifying his hand, Danny rapped on the floor. Sam suddenly stopped talking so he had caught her attention. He tapped a couple more times and waited. After a moment there was a loud plop as a book fell on the floor. He could hear Sam said "Oops," and there was the squeak of springs as someone rolled out of a cot. Almost too soft to hear Sam called out, "Danny?"
"Sam, I've got to talk to you."
"What are you doing under the girls' cabin?"
"Sam, this is important."
"Couldn't you just come to the door like a normal person?"
"No, Sam, I can't explain just -- don't take a shower. Got that?"
"Don't take a shower? What are you talking about?"
"I can't explain. Just--Just don't go into the showers tonight. Please."
"You OK, Sam?" another girl's was asking.
"Oh, yeah, my pen rolling under the bed and I'm having trouble finding it."
"Want my flashlight?" the other girl offered.
"No, it's alright." Suddenly whispering next to the floor, Sam said, "Danny, get out from under the girls' cabin right now. You can tell me what this is all about tomorrow but I'm not going to spend the rest of the night talking to the floor."
"Sam..."
"Not listening!" There was a squeak of spring, "Got it," he heard her said from far away.
Danny drifted out from under the cabin, flew over to the picnic tables in the center between the four cabins. He sat down and wondered what more could he do. He didn't have long to wonder.
Suddenly there was a scream from the girls' cabin, doors slammed, the outdoor lights flashed on catching the handful of boys still clustered around the wall of the girls' shower. Butterfly came charging out of the cabin, dressed in a long gown, waving a flashlight and screaming at the boys.
"Perverts! Bastards! Filthy dirty weasels! How dare you! You'll hear from the Head Ranger about this!" As she charged after them she passed the woodpile used for the central firepit. She grabbed up a stick and heaved at the scattering boys. She was still screaming at the boys when the pile started rising of its own accord. Danny felt a chill run down his spine and felt more than saw the blue fog coming out of his mouth. A ghost was near. As the firework rained itself on the boys Danny Fenton changed back to Danny Phantom and charged ahead to find the source of the evil.
Winds were whipping up around Butterfly, blowing up her hair into the air, tear at the grass on the ground around her. She seemed froze in position, in the act of throwing a log at the boys. The wind was catching up more logs from the pile and throwing them all around, hitting boys, the cabins, the trees around the camp. Danny blasted the logs whenever they came near someone but there were more of them in the air than he could easily keep track of. He looked around for the manifestation of the ghost, something that he could attack directly but the ghost seemed all around without being anywhere.
Since Butterfly was at the center of the manifestation he tried to grab her and pull her away to safety but the winds whipped up harder and harder, building a wall that he could not break through. Danny looped back away from her then charged at full speed. He knew he could reach speeds of over a hundred miles and hour. At that speed he ought to have been able to plow right through the wall of wind and dash away whatever ghost was possessing Butterfly. But the winds rose up and drove he away.
Cries of pain caught Danny's attention and he saw a couple of boys cowering just out of the range of the yard lights, kindling raining down on then like water. Danny dived over and grabbed them up with solidified hands and pulled them near their cabin before dropping them to the ground. He turned and nearly got clobbered by a flying log. He dove again at Butterfly, trying to grapple with the ghost inside her. He was afraid to use his ecto-blasts for fear of hurting Butterfly, but the ghost had grabbed such a hold on her that he didn't know what else he could do.
A flash of movement, the thud of Doc Martens on the ground. Danny turned to see Sam sprinting from the cabin. She dodged the flying firewood and leaped into a flying tackle, pulling the possessed counselor to the ground. "Snap out of it," Danny could hear her scream. Sam shook the counselor where they lay on the ground. There was a subtle change in the electric atmosphere around the cabins. The winds died down, what was left of the firewood fell to the ground. Butterfly slowly stirred. She looked at the stick of wood still clenched in her hand, then dropped it.
"Did I trip?" she asked. "Where did all those little perverts get to. I can't believe they drilled a hole in the wall. Sam, what are you doing here?"
Danny sailed around the perimeter of the camp but could no longer detect any spectral presence. He changed back to normal and went over to see how Butterfly was. Booger and Porcupine are already running over. The other campers slowly filed out and congregated near-by. Danny idly noted that Dash Baxter was conspicuously absent as were any of the other boys from his cabin.
Butterfly has suddenly started crying, while Sam awkwardly tried to conform her. Moments later a jeep tore into the lane and skidded to a stop. The Head Ranger jumped out and ran over to where Butterfly still sat on the ground.
"What's going on here?" she demanded.