Lightning strobed across the room.
Crash! Boom!
Huey shut his eyes tightly until the sound died away.
"Ten seconds!" Webby said, marking the data down on her notepad. "That means the lightning is about two miles away."
Huey felt a reassuring hand on his shoulder. He looked up at Uncle Donald from where he was sitting at his uncle's feet.
It wasn't that Huey was afraid of thunder and lightning. He was afraid of what it could do. It could start fires, fell trees, capsize the houseboat, blow the houseboat out to sea...
Life was generally better when there wasn't any thunder and lightning.
Huey gasped as another bolt of lightning lit up the room.
Crash! Boom!
"Five seconds!" Webby said. "I don't think we've ever had a storm this close!"
That was because thunder and lightning were not supposed to be this near people.
"Ooooooh, we should tell scary stories!" Dewey said.
Uncle Donald shot him a Look. "No scary stories," he said.
"Awww…"
Crash! Boom!
And the lights went out.
Huey heard a few screams, and he wasn't sure if any of them were him. Judging by the way Uncle Donald squeezed his shoulder, though, there was a pretty good chance one of them was.
"Oh, for cryin' out loud, calm down," Scrooge said. "You'd think you'd never seen the dark before."
"We should get flashlights and candles," Uncle Donald said.
"I'll get some candles and matches from the kitchen," Mrs. Beakley said. "There are flashlights in the hall closets both upstairs and down."
"We can get those!" Dewey volunteered.
"Very well," Scrooge said. "And hurry it up. I don't need to hear any more of your screaming."
"We should split up," Louie said.
"I'll go with Webby," Huey said. She should know where the flashlights were, which meant a minimal amount of time spent roaming around McDuck Manor in the dark.
"Aw, man, we're gonna get lost," Dewey complained.
"That was one time!" Louie said.
"Two," Huey said.
"Captain Lost! Captain Lost! Captain Lost!" Dewey chanted.
"Huey and I will get the flashlights from upstairs. That way you won't get too lost," Webby said. "Hopefully."
"Sounds good to me," Louie said as Dewey began his chant again. "Let's go, First Mate Doofus."
"Hey!"
As his brothers walked away, Huey formulated a plan. "We just have to go upstairs, turn left, go down the second hallway to the right, and...it's not going to be that easy, is it?"
Webby pulling spy gear out of her bag. "Hey, is that a map of the Manor?" she asked.
"Yeah," Huey said.
"Did you make it yourself?"
"Yeah."
"Cool!" Webby said. "I have one too!" She showed him hers as another flash of lightning and crack of thunder vibrated through the house, allowing him to see how much more detailed it was than his. "Anyway, it'll be much faster if we go through the vents."
"How about we just take the direct route?" Huey said.
"Oh, come on. It isn't that bad."
"It is when the power is out!" Huey said. "What if we get stuck or lost up there? No one will ever find us!"
"You won't get lost as long as you stick with me," Webby said.
"Well, I also won't get lost in the vents if I don't go into the vents to begin with," Huey said. "So I'm going to take the stairs."
"Fine," Webby said, putting some of her gear back into her bag. She grabbed him by the wrist and led him over to the stairs, which they were able to climb without incident (save another crash of thunder, which caused Huey to freeze for a moment until it died away).
"All righty. The flashlights should be in this closet...uh…" Webby stopped.
"What-oh," Huey said.
The door next to the closet was glowing.
"That...usually doesn't do that," Webby said.
"That's...disconcerting," Huey said.
"Want to check it out?" Webby said eagerly.
"We should probably leave it alone and tell Uncle Scrooge," Huey said. "Or at least get the guys."
"Nah, that'll take too long," Webby said, pushing open the door. Huey had no choice but to follow.
Inside, the room looked like every other unused bedroom in the Manor (Huey would never understand why his great-uncle had so many bedrooms; it wasn't like he ever had anyone over). There was a big bed made up in fancy but outdated bedding, a wooden wardrobe, a night table, and a generic picture hanging up on the wall.
Except this room had the addition of a glowing globe in the corner.
Webby had already gone over to investigate, so Huey joined her.
"What do you know about glowing globes?" he asked.
Webby shrugged. "Not much," she said. She looked at the globe more closely. "It looks like it's these islands that are glowing."
"And more over here," Huey said, pointing. "But what does that mean?"
"I don't know," Webby said, pulling her notepad out of her bag and shoving it at Huey. "Here, write them down."
Huey did. "Ok, but what are you-"
Webby carefully placed her fingers on the glowing islands.
"Maybe that's not such a good idea-"
With a click, the globe opened at the equator, revealing a blue, glowing ghost.
Huey and Webby both screamed and ran towards the door, which slammed shut in their faces. Huey tried the handle, which was locked tight, while Webby turned to face the specter.
"What do you want?" she asked, her voice surprisingly confident.
The ghost wailed in response. Huey started kicking at the door.
"I need a distraction!" Webby said, digging through her bag.
"A distraction?" Huey asked. "What we need is to get out of here!"
"Just distract the ghost!" Webby said, shoving him into the middle of the room.
"Um...here, Mr. Ghost!" Huey said, waving his arms. "I have some, um, ghost cakes for you!"
The ghost gave another wail and swooped towards him. Huey screamed.
"Eat dust, globe ghost!" Webby said from the other side of the room. She pointed a small, cylindrical device at the ghost and switched it on. The device began sucking up the ghost like a vacuum cleaner.
"Get ready to close the globe!" Webby said, and Huey rushed over to take his position.
Once the ghost's tail was stuck firmly in the cylinder, Webby dragged it over to the open globe. She pushed the ghost inside and flipped the switch on the device, spitting the ghost's bottom half out.
"Now!" she yelled, and Huey slammed the globe shut.
The two kids leaned against the globe as the glow dimmed, catching their breath.
"Does that kind of thing happen often?" Huey asked between breaths.
"Eh, once in a blue moon," Webby said. She put her ghost-sucking-cylinder back in her bag. "Now to get those flashlights!"
The two kids made their way out of the room, making sure to shut the door tightly behind them, and quickly found the flashlights in the hall closet before returning downstairs. Uncle Donald and Uncle Scrooge were arguing quietly, a sight familiar enough that Huey didn't even bother to listen in to figure out what they were fighting about this time, and Dewey and Louie were shining their flashlights on their faces to create spooky shadows.
"Do you think we should tell them?" Webby asked.
Huey thought for a moment. "How about we wait until tomorrow?" he said.
A flash of lightning lit up the room, and, after a pause, thunder gently rumbled through the room.
"Thirty seconds," Webby said, disappointed. "The storm is moving away."
Huey breathed a sigh of relief. He'd had enough bright lights and loud sounds for one day.