Danny and Jazz just settled down in the room they hired. They desperately needed some sleep. They were quite lucky to get it. The owner of the pension said that the room's original inhabitants just left yesterday in a hurry. Of course, they could afford a much better hotel, but this place was the closest they could get without crashing the car. It's one thing to drive on the highway in the middle of the night, and another in a city during the rush-hour. To their relief the ambulance arrived in time and it seems that the girl is going to make it. Their work however is long not over. "We should contact superiors and ask them for a list of the victims and their backgrounds" Jazz said worrying. "Well, we might not have to" said Danny "the doctors said that the girl will most likely make it, one living witness is always more than the testimonies of a hundred ghosts."
"That's only if she remembers the accident, and even if she does she'll just know as much as our departed friend. From the official info we have, the fight raged-on even after the mini-mall collapsed."
"And what makes you think the other dead will know any more? Most of them probably died around the same time."
"It's still worth a try, and it's always better to get a second opinion. "
"Do you really think we can hunt them all down?"
"They aren't going anywhere, it's not too often a ghost achieves it's salvation so soon as our informant did."
"I guess you are right. Which side of the bed do you want?"
"I'm sleeping near the window."
While someone's day was ending, for other people it just begun. "Tough luck, Crocker is back" said Veronica Star to her friend while walking to school. It was a pleasant warm morning in Dimmsdale, very unlike the cold weather in Hillwood. "Really?" Trixie replied with a bit of curiosity in her voice "and I thought he was gone for good."
"Us getting rid of Francis AND Crocker in the same month? Not even that Buxaplenty kid is that lucky!"
"I guess you're right" said Trixie "but I still wonder what happened to Francis. No one heard of him for four days by now."
Veronica shrugged "who knows, that guy had a penchant for getting into trouble, was just a question of time"
"True, there was no chance for happy ending there. Any idea what Crocker may have been up to?"
"No idea, but I heard people are saying that they like saw him with some woman."
"What? You mean like..."
"He's been seeing her for some time now and if only that, she's supposed to be like half his age!"
"Ooh! Never thought old Crocker had it in him!"
"Yeah, I know... STOP IT!" she suddenly turned around and shout.
"Yelling at the bushes again?" Trixie raised an eyebrow. "I swear it was there again!"
"Our little stalker?"
"Yes! I'm sure that's it! It's following us every day! I even threw a freaking brick at it once but it won't stop!"
"Do you think it's our dear lost Francis" asked Trixie with a voice full of schadenfreude while poking Veronica.
"Can't be him" replied Veronica with a voice that would put Batman to shame "It's been following us for months! Plus if it was him I would smell it!"
"Well, I can understand him a bit" Trixie replied while giggling to herself. "Let me guess" said veronica with a more playful tone "because you are so damn pretty?"
"Bingo! You won the washing machine!"
Veronica laughed while suppressing the urge to bitch-slap her. They arrived to school in time, with Veronica still looking over her shoulders. "Hello Trixie!" a familiar voice called from behind their backs while they were entering the classroom. "Get the hell off of my back!" yelled Veronica.
"Who the hell was talking to you?" the person replied.
"And why the hell should Trixie waste her time talking to you?"
"Don't worry, I'll take it. What's the problem Turner?"
"Well... eh..."
"Hurry up! The class is about to start! Don't worry, I won't bite your head-off" Trixie hurried him with a slight bit of annoyance in her voice.
"Well, I've got tickets to the game tomorrow, would you like to go?"
"Ah, sorry, but I'm already going there with Veronica, but thanks for the thought" she said with a fake tone of regret in her voice and patted him on the head as one would a puppy. With a look of disappointment he walked to his desk. "You are going to take me to the game tomorrow?" Veronica asked with a voice full of expectations.
"Well, now I'll have to, at least I didn't have any other plans for tomorrow."
"Bitch"
"What?"
"Nothing"
"What's up with you and Turner anyway?"
"What do you mean?"
"Come on, every time he shows-up you either freak-out or are all tense. Not to mention that you treat him like trash!"
"You're not too sweet to him either."
"That's something else! I do what I must, but you are being malicious."
"He... He's... He's a damn freak!" hissed Veronica while clenching her fists.
"I don't think he's that bad, for a commoner I mean."
"Oh, if you only knew..."
"What?"
"Nothing"
"Bimbo"
"I heard that!"
"Whatever"
All the pupils took their place as the lesson was about to start. The bell rang. Mr. Crocker the home-room teacher entered the classroom. He looked exhausted and his face was covered with bruises. His eye occasionally twitched. "Good morning students" he started "after two days of my absence for reasons that are of absolutely no concern to you, I'm back. Who ever asks any dumb questions shall look forward to a lengthy detention! So let us begin!"
Veronica chose her place carefully and made sure she would always be able to sit like this. She would sit right behind Trixie, so that she'd be able to reach-out to her and pick-up the loose hair on her back without her realising it, but also in the right angle to see Timmy Turner. Or at least what everyone thought was Timmy Turner. Oh if they only knew. Timmy Turner always head her... ehm, attention, and so she knew that this person was definitely not Timmy Turner. They seem to have switched places around four years ago. One day this person simply came and apparently convinced everyone to be the same person as the lost boy. Not that anyone missed him in the first place. He indeed looked and sounded like him in every way, but she just knew it wasn't him. It's hard to explain why. It's like when your parents run over your dog, then panic and buy another dog that looks exactly like the one they killed so you won't notice, but you just know it's not your dog despite your parents trying everything to convince you of the opposite including punishing you for not believing your own parents. Yes, she never forgave them that one, even after she grew to like that dog. It drove her nuts. For all these years she didn't know what happened to him. Whenever she tried to get something out of that fake, he just acted as if he didn't understand her and continued playing the part. She wanted to beat-it-out of him, but then she realised that he may as well deny it all and that it would make her look like a nut-job. And our high-and-mighty Trixie can't hang-around with some nut-job after all. With all due honesty, Veronica did doubt her sanity for some time. But that was only until she noticed that the four-eyed girl was acting strangely. Unlike Timmy who actually had friends and people who would listen to him, this girl was an easy target. She took her time and all of her creativity to pull all she needed to know out of her. After an hour or so she broke down in tears and told her everything. Turns out she noticed the change as well, and was pretty much going trough the same shit as her. This was enough to assure Veronica of her sanity, but is also added to her frustration of not being able to do anything about it. A few days ago, Francis disappeared. Not that she would miss him. Not that anyone would miss him. That guy was a piece of shit with no redeeming values, good riddance. But despite his worthlessness he still counts. That fake has definitely something to do with it!
Oh yes, it definitely has something to do with that strange stalker. That bastard has set his sights on Trixie or even herself, but she won't let him! Oh no! They won't get this one as long as she's alive!
Trixie shuddered a bit.
The rest of the school day went on more or less peacefully. No one got decapitated or disembowelled, at least for now, which is a good thing. People didn't screw around too much. The only noteworthy thing could be considered that during the gym class whenever Timmy, or at least the person everyone believed to be him, got bottles thrown at him repeatedly whenever he tried to talk to Chester and AJ. The assailant wasn't found, but everything suggested that the projectiles were thrown from the bushes and the tree tops. Similar accidents happened often past the last few months.
Just as Veronica's feeling of constantly being watched, and Trixie's apparent obliviousness to it. The worst part was that she was mostly right.
"Come-on Trixie" yelled Veronica "school's over for today, don't want to stay here any second longer!"
Trixie just silently giggled at something she found in her locker, and then went with Veronica. As they exited the school, a pair of eyes watched them from the bushes. A pair of wild, beast-like eyes. Eyes fixed on their target. The stalker moved with incredible stealth, sneaking trough the bushes and hiding in the shadows without being noticed by any mortal. His movements were fast, his breath was heavy. He watched their every step, their every movement along their path. He carefully listened to every bit of their conversation and delightfully inhaled their smell. He followed their steps until Trixie's house.
He watched her enter. And then he ran.
He ran to the woods. He moved between the trees with incredible speed, agility and stealth. The green forest was flicking by in front of his yes. He heard the wind in the trees and felt it in his hair and on his skin. He felt the beautiful smell of the trees, the soil and the moss. He felt the moist ground on his bare feet. His feet quickly jumped over rocks and branches without a sound. He finally found the hut. He slowed down. He slowly crept towards it. He sneaked under the windows. He went to the back door and slowly opened it so he wouldn't make any noise. He sneaked into the house. He was careful not to make any noise. "Hello Timmy!" a male voice shouted. The 'intruder' sighed "hello Cosmo!" he replied.
"Welcome back" said a female voice.
"Hi Wanda! How the hell do you always know it when I'm in the house?"
"It's our house" Cosmo replied "we ought to know these things! How was your stalking?"
"Why do you always assume I'm stalking people when I'm out?" Timmy asked while entering the living room.
There were the owners of the house. Wanda, a middle-aged but still good looking redhead, was sitting behind an improvised working table and frantically sketching something. On the floor lay her equally charming husband Cosmo as he played some video game. On the floor around him lay various shoes and cobbler instruments, the stuff he was supposed to do but didn't feel like. At least that was their mortal seeming, Timmy was one of the few people who knew their true faces. Timmy himself wasn't what he used to be. Compared to what most people believed to be him, he was allot lankier to the point of being almost gaunt. The fingers on his hands were long and thin, resembling a spider. His face had a wild streak to it, almost savage. But the most prominent feature were his eyes, the eyes of a beast. "Because that's the only thing you were doing since you returned!" "I can do allot of things to amuse my self!" Timmy protested.
"Let's see" Wanda joined in the discussion without stopping her sketch-work "you don't go to school since your real you doesn't legally exist and people would freak out if they saw you, you can't go to the cinema, arcade or skating park without people being suspicious about you not being in school. You obviously weren't fishing or hunting because you have no prey nor do you seem messy enough for that being the case, and I seriously doubt you were just hanging out in the forest. So stalking is the only option left. Who was it today? Your old friends? Your parents? Your old crush?"
"Bingo!" yelled Cosmo, extremely pleased with the development in his game. "There is a monster with my face on the loose and everyone believes it to be me! I can't leave them unprotected!"
"The said monster was here during the whole three and a half years you were away from this world and nothing bad happened! After four years it's quite obvious that he has no intent of causing trouble."
"That doesn't change the fact that he took my life!"
"Well, technically the fetch is just as innocent as you" Cosmo commented while still playing. "True" added Wanda, now paying more attention to Timmy "his only fault is being created to replace you after the Gentry dragged you away."
"That does not explain why I'm the one who has to hide."
"But Timmy" said Cosmo with a cheerful voice while still having his eyes glued to the TV "you don't have to hide! In fact, you could go to your parents house right now and tell them what happened. Oh wait, they probably wouldn't take too kindly to some weird rat-kid that looks like it slept out-doors for the past two weeks claiming to be their lost son who obviously never went missing in the first place. But hey, they'd surely recognise you, every parent recognises their own child! Except that they didn't, they never noticed a thing. But that's no problem, maybe if you ask your replacement kindly enough, he'll let you have your life back! The only problem is that you two don't look too alike and so people would notice the change unlike last time, not to mention that you missed four years of school that you don't have a way to catch-up to in normal means without explaining your situation, after which they'd probably send you to a bedlam and ask us uncomfortable questions. But don't worry, we can get some fake documents and a new identity crafted for you, so we can be your legal parents and you'd get a new start with your friends. Only that people would get suspicious to our connections and why you look so much like Timmy Turner, not to mention you'd still have to catch-up on your education which would be extremely humiliating and no-one would want to talk to you ever again. When I think about it, the best solution for you would be just to leave town, and start a new life elsewhere claiming to be a homeless kid with amnesia. Hey, Wanda! I think that was your idea, right?"
"It was just a suggestion" replied Wanda "the decision is all up to Timmy, we shall just provide the necessary support to our kindred spirit."
"Yes, and hope that when they come back for him, we can follow them back home!"
"Hey, we would never do that!" Wanda protested. "No, sure not" said Cosmo with a guilty voice. Timmy sighed, he was fully aware of his situation and he felt quite guilty for exploiting their hospitality, but he really didn't like the idea of leaving it all behind especially after how much he yearned for it during the time he was held captive in the other world.
Arcadia, for the two it was a lost paradise, a home they'd like to return to. For him it was hell, the place of slavery, the place that warped his very being, he was just too eager to flee. Cosmo and Wanda weren't like those on the other side of the hedge, the years they spent amongst humanity changed them. Entire centuries if what they say is true. The human world did to them what the fairy world did to him. Sometimes he wondered, if they ever managed to return, wouldn't they be just as lost as he is now?
"What are you playing anyway?" asked Timmy in an attempt to shrug-off the depressive implications.
"Well, it's..."
"Nothing that would interest you" Wanda interrupted him.
Timmy looked at the package lying on the floor "Ah, I think I know what you mean. I'm not into dating-sims that much."
"Yeah right..." said Cosmo blushing and suppressing a giggle, he saved his game and took out the CD. "Anyway, now that you're here" Cosmo continued "we can play a round or two of Tekken." "Hell yeah!"
Around the same time, a bus was heading to Dimmsdale.
Amongst it's passengers was a odd-couple. A woman in punk-attire and a guy in a suit with a bowler hat and a monocle. "But I dun' wanna go there!" complained the woman.
"It's the best alternative" replied the man.
"But don we hate'm?"
"That's just how our situation is. Look, it's not a permanent solution, just until things calm down a bit."
Yet in another location a pale-skinned teen was running trough a field of crops. He was exhausted, hunger and thirst tortured him and he was barely breathing. Yet he continued running with all his strength. They wouldn't believe him. The police tried to take him away, but he caught-up. He killed a cow and blocked the road with it. When the deputes came to check it he knocked them out. He hijacked the car and fled, but due to his poor driving skills he didn't get too far. And he was still chasing him. Now it's day, he can't hunt during the day but he wouldn't allow him to rest. He sent crows and rats after him. His body was still covered with wounds. And he seems to have called upon something bigger, something relentless. He needs to run.