Hey hommies! Here's the next one! Please tell me what you think!

CHAPTER 5

Sam's eyes flew open and she sat up at once. She was on the floor of her apartment with a splitting headache and her back was killing her. Sam glanced up to what was immediately in front of her seeing two glasses of water. One was full the other half empty. Her book from yesterday was still sitting on the table and her leather jacket was thrown to the side of the room. She groaned and fell down onto the floor again, 'What happened last night?' She wondered before forcing herself to look at the clock. 11:00 AM. Sam sat back up at once. It was that late!? She jumped to her feet ready to race up the stairs and get ready for the day when she froze.

Everything that had happened last night came crashing back to her the moment she stepped into the kitchen and saw the dishwasher still partly open. The flood, forgetting her phone, racing to get it…

Phantom.

Sam felt herself start to panic and she pressed a hand to her chest trying to steady her breathing as she went to sit down on the tiled floor. 'Breathe.' She told herself, 'Breathe. You're okay. You're fine. Nothing happened.' Sam rested her head back on the wall and focused on calming down until another thought entered her head, 'Nothing happened, but something could have.' "I want answers." She said glaring at the wall and standing. "And I know just where to get them." She then walked out of the kitchen and grabbed her jacket running her fingers threw her wavy black hair and stormed out of her apartment not caring what she looked like. On the way there she did manage to call the plumber and they were coming the next day to fix the sink and dishwasher, but that was beside the point.

She pulled into the parking lot and marched into the mayor's office with a scowl, determination coming off her in droves. Pushing the door open she marched right up to a now slightly startled Starr. "Where's Foley?" She demanded. Starr didn't bat an eye as she promptly pointed to his office still staring at her. "Thanks." Sam offered before stomping over to his door.

She then marched right into his office pushing the door open without a thought. "Of course Mrs. Yamada I understand we will-" Tucker was cut off in his surprise seeing her standing in the doorway. "Sam?" He asked blinking in confusion, "How can I-"

"Save it." She snapped startling everyone, "I have tried." She began, "I have tried everything I can think of to ignore the strangeness of this town. To ignore the glaring obviousness that there is some huge secret that this entire town knows of trying to keep it from me or from each other or from something! I have tried to do my job, but enough is enough! What is going on?" She growled at him daring him to deny anything.

"Sam if you would please step out-"

"No Tucker." She snapped interrupting him, "I'm not leaving until you tell me what the hell is going on."

Tucker sighed then turned to look at the slightly scared woman in the chair across from him. "Thank you Mrs. Yamada I will contact you later with the information." He said with a smile clearly dismissing her. Mrs. Yamada didn't seem to mind at all as she nodded quickly before leaving the room in a rush giving Sam a terrified look once she was out the door.

Sam glared at Tucker, "Well?"

Tucker sighed as he stood up and placed his hands behind his back, "Perhaps you would like to sit down."

Sam shook her head, "No. I am not sitting down until you tell me what the hell is going on with this town." Once again Tucker sighed before going over to his file cabinet and rummaging through it. "And who the hell is Phantom?" She asked unable to deny her curiosity anymore.

Tucker froze before slamming the file cabinet shut then rushing over to the door and slamming it shut as well as locking it. Sam stared at him surprised by his actions as he turned to give her a terrified look. "How do you know Phantom?" He asked scared of something.

Sam rolled her eyes and crossed her arms, "I accidently hit him with my car last night and when I tried to help the jerk, he and his friends threatened to kill me!" She cried with renewed anger.

"You… you hit Phantom with your car and you're alive!?" He asked incredulously.

Again Sam rolled her eyes, "Of course I'm alive. Why wouldn't I be? I mean sure I'm probably going to be going to jail, but I tried to take him to a hospital, but everything was closed. Which brings me to my next point." She said plowing right through. "Why is the hospital, the police station, and the fire department closed? What is going on? And why did his friends suddenly go through my solid concrete wall and threaten my life with a rocket launcher?!"

Tucker then headed back over to the file cabinet and opened it once more sifting through it. Shortly after he then pulled out a file and handed it to her. "Look through that." He instructed and Sam took a seat opening the file. "It should help explain some things at least."

Sam looked through the file silently and she noticed it was profiles. She didn't recognize any of them, 'Box Ghost', 'Amorpho', 'Dorathea', 'Walker'? She then saw one she did recognize. "I saw this man last night." She said pointing to one that was labeled 'Technus'.

Tucker leaned over some from his seat across the desk and glanced at it before nodding, "Nicolai Technus. He's the technology ghost and can be seen anywhere there's something glitching. He can be pretty strong, but he mostly just messes around with people's tech to make them mad."

Sam listened as she continued to look through the files until she came upon another one, "I saw this one too." She answered showing him.

Again Tucker nodded, "Vortex. He's pretty powerful, but he mostly just sticks to the park and keeps everything there crazy. He's the weather ghost and you can count on him to make it miserable. We've figured out his job is to distract us and to keep us away from the park anyway he can. Extreme heat, flash floods, snow and ice. You name it, he's done it."

Now Sam was staring at him a little disbelievingly. This was the second time he had called them ghosts. Sure she had seen something very strange happen last night, but there were no such things as ghosts. "Okay, wait a minute. You're trying to tell me the weather problems here in this town have been caused by a ghost? And my equipment malfunctions are from another ghost called Technus?"

Tucker nodded somewhat grimly, "That's exactly what I'm telling you. I know it's incredibly hard to believe, but it's the truth. Amity Park is haunted. Ever since before I can remember it's always had strange stuff happening to it, but not until about a year ago did things really start to become a problem. The ghosts are trying something and we've been doing our best to try and contain it, but it's not working so well anymore. They have started attacking people which is why we started the curfew. It's just better for now if everyone stays away from them. They're dangerous and they don't care for humans. I've been slowly evacuating the town trying to get people out and away to safety, but I have to do it in secret. For whatever reason they don't want anyone to leave." He gestured to his hand which was still wrapped, but luckily no longer in a sling, "This happened to me a couple of nights before you came. They found out what I was doing and made sure to let me know they weren't too happy with me. That also brings me to another point. I would like to apologize for Valerie the other day. She just was worried. She didn't want to get you involved and she didn't want anyone to get hurt and our escape plans to go noticed. She really is a nice person once you get to know her."

Slowly throughout the explanation Sam got angrier and angrier. Here she was trying to do her job only to get attacked last night and the mayor wasn't doing anything! He was blaming it on things that didn't exist making up cockamamie stories to hide the fact that there was something illegal going on here! She narrowed her eyes at him, "You really expect me to believe that?" She growled, "There are no such things as ghosts!"

Tucker looked at her a little shocked, "After what you saw last night, you're telling me you don't believe it?"

"Of course I don't!" She snapped standing. "What I saw last night probably was just because I was tired. It was around one in the morning and some jerks were playing a trick on me!" She then started walking to the door, "I am going to get my job done and find out what's going on in this town and no… gimmick, is going to make me stop trying to find the truth! Thank you and goodbye!" She snapped before opening the door and storming out.

"Sam wait!" She heard Tucker call, but she didn't care. She had a job to do and she wasn't going to waste her time!

Sam walked straight down to the archives fuming the whole time. Why would he lie to her? Tucker had been very forthcoming about everything and she thought she could trust him. He seemed genuinely nice and like he wanted to help, but then he tries to tell her the whole town is haunted and ghosts are the reason for the craziness!? That was a load of crap and she wasn't going to have anything to do with it.

She marched into the archives slamming the door open and unintentionally startling Mikey. The man jumped a foot in the air. At once Sam felt bad and she forced herself to calm down. Just because she was mad at Tucker didn't mean she should take it out on Mikey and the door. "Sorry Mikey." She said walking up to him.

Mikey placed a hand on his, she was sure, racing heart and forced a kind smile, "That's alright, but might I ask why you're so… unhappy?" He said choosing his words wisely.

Sam sighed, "I was just… never mind." She ended up saying. What could she say? You're town mayor is a liar who said I was attacked by ghosts last night and the whole town knows that ghosts are real? Yeah, she was sure that would go over well. Instead she moved on, "I finished all the files and left them at home and I'll bring them back later, but I was wondering if you had any of the letters John Fenton Nightingale wrote to his sister? They might shed some light on why he left and came here. I know you said they were in Massachusetts, but you have any of the ones she might have sent?"

Mikey suddenly looked nervous as he glanced away from her avoiding her eyes, "I'm not sure about that Sam. I-"

"Please." Sam began knowing he was going to deny her. "I don't know what exactly is going on, but I'm not stupid. I'm just trying to do my job. Please?" She asked looking at him pleadingly.

The man looked back at her and sighed. "Honestly I don't think so, but let me go check just in case. I'll be right back."

Sam nodded and smiled at him. "Thank you." He nodded to her and she watched him disappear into the back.

As soon as he was gone she sighed. She really shouldn't have gotten that worked up about what Tucker had said. Sure she was still unhappy with him for lying and trying to cover up something she would eventually find out, but did she really need to storm out of there like a child? No.

Sam blew a wavy black strand out of her face then remembered how she looked. Yesterday's makeup and air dried-slept in, crumbled clothes with wavy black lazily brushed hair. She looked a sight she was sure. Sam shoved her hands into her pockets hoping to find-Yes! She pulled out a hair tie and pulled her hair into a high ponytail and out of her face.

As soon as she let her hair drop she felt something cold brush the back of her neck and felt the hair on her pony tail sway slightly like someone had just brushed their fingers through the ends of it. Sam's hair on the back of her neck rose at once and she spun around reflexively touching the base of her neck only to come face to face with nothing.

Her heart rate started to pick up and her breathing became quicker as the feeling of being watched increased. She didn't see anything, but she knew there was someone there. "Hello?" She called moving forward some, looking around the room. Still she found nothing, but again she felt something or someone brush her hair once more. She spun around, "Who's there?" She asked as she grabbed the end of her hair. Nothing was on it that she saw or felt so she let it go. Again someone brushed her hair with their fingers and this time it lasted a lot longer than the first two. Sam pulled away and turned around quickly glaring at whoever had been standing there, "Stop it!" She snapped demandingly.

Still nothing was there and Sam forced herself to calm down. Here she was standing in a room she had been in many times previously and she had never felt uncomfortable in it before. Why all of a sudden did she feel like she wasn't alone? 'Stupid Tucker!' She thought glaring at the wall. She was letting his words get to her and she needed to let it go and grow up!

"So I didn't find anything-" Sam jumped about a foot in the air let out a little shriek and whirled around to see a surprised Mikey coming back empty handed. "Oh! Oh golly." He said apologetically, "I didn't mean to startle you. Sorry about that Sam."

Sam placed a hand on her chest to calm her racing heart, "That's okay." She said offering him a small smile. She needed to get a hold of herself. She was letting Tucker's words get to her. Forcing down her panic she continued, "Did you happen to find something?"

Mikey shook his head, "No sorry. I looked in our deepest records and I couldn't find anything. Everything that we had burned in the fire." Sam's face fell before he continued, "However, I got a buddy of mine that works in the Massachusetts State Archives; Dave." Mikey went on making Sam look up again, "He and I worked together when we were getting together information about John Fenton Nightingale a few years back for our shared history. He has a lot of the letters in the archives. They're not for public use but I could give you his personal number and tell him I sent you. He'd be happy to let you see them."

Sam smiled widely, "Thank you Mikey!" She cried giving him a hug in her happiness. "You've been so helpful!"

Mikey chuckled and hugged her back, "Yeah sure anytime. You know me I'm always happy to help." They broke apart and he wrote down the number. "Oh and I'm not supposed to say anything, but you seem like you really want to help so before I forget my wife, Felicia, told me to tell you about another local legend about the park that I forgot to mention." Sam took the little paper and nodded at him to continue, "Well apparently in 1939 two people disappeared at the park and then reappeared at the park rambling on about a green and purple world with floating doors. They were admitted to a psych ward after that. They kept going on and on about ghosts."

Sam stared at him a little shocked. There was no possible way Mikey had known about her conversation with Tucker earlier and he had always helped her and seemed very down to earth. She decided to just let it go. Smiling she nodded, "Well tell her I said thank you."

Mikey nodded as well, "Will do and if you need anything else let me know."

"Alright and I'll come by later with the rest the archives." Sam turned to leave waving goodbye to him as she went, "Thanks again Mikey! I'll see you later!"

"Yeah no problem, see you Sam!"