Phantoms of Amity Park
Chapter 2
Danny was surprised by the lack of ghost activity that night. He lapped around town a couple times, stopping by each hot spot where the most likely culprits hung out, but there was nothing. It was an oddly quiet night and it made him uneasy. Not even that annoying box ghost was at the shipping company, his favorite haunt.
Danny looked up at the large clock tower in the center of town. It wasn't even ten yet. Bored and annoyed, Danny headed back towards home, only to stop when a chill ran up his spin and a breath of cold air exited his lungs.
It was about time!
He searched around him for an attacker, but found none.
"What the…" Danny started, but stopped when he noticed a ghost floating away from him instead of toward him. "Hey!"
The ghost heard him, turning its head toward him, but not stopping its flight. Danny gave chase, taking note of what the ghost looked like incase he lost it. It was a young woman in a strange brass colored Colonial style dress, her hair long and flowing in a stream of bluish green behind her, as she turned to look at him again he saw her eyes, glowing an eerie green. Her face was familiar, where had he seen her before?
He noticed that she was starting to speed up, "Wait! Aren't you going to fight me?"
Her speed continued to increase, faster and faster, until Danny couldn't keep up with her. He could only stop and float, watching as she became nothing more than a streak of brass colored energy across the night sky.
Holy cow! How can she be that fast?!
Danny waited there for a bit longer, watching the energy fade and the sky return to its blanket of black, dotted by small pinpricks of stars.
I wonder who that was.
ooooo
Danny had to turn into his ghost form and fly to school the next morning. Despite the lack of activity last night, he had stayed out late anyway trying to find that mysterious female ghost. As a result, he slept through his alarm clock and was almost late meeting up with Sam and Tucker.
He appeared out from behind the school dumpster as him normal self, looking disheveled, his backpack slung over one shoulder.
"Busy night?" Tucker held back a laugh.
"No actually," Danny answered, taking a comb that Sam handed him. After a while, Sam started keeping such things in her backpack for him, especially after long nights that caused him to accidently sleep in. "There weren't any of the usual ghosts out last night."
"Not even Box Ghost?" Sam raised an eyebrow.
Danny paused in brushing his hair to shake his head, "I check the shipping company, and he was gone too."
"Weird," Tucker said. "Even on the slowest nights there were at least one or two small ghosts out causing trouble."
"Well, there was one ghost out last night, one I didn't recognize." Danny said thoughtfully. "It was weird though, she didn't fight me. She just… ran away. Really fast too! I couldn't keep up with her."
"What'd she look like?" Sam asked, interested.
"Bluish-green hair, old dress, dark orange color," Danny described what he remembered. "Oh! And her eyes were green."
Tucker took out his palm-pale, tapping the screen a couple times with the stylus before turning the screen towards Danny. The ghost was there on the screen, in active flight, a trail of brass colored energy streaming behind her.
"That's her!" Danny exclaimed. "Where did you…?
"This picture was all over the news this morning," Tucker explained. "There have been sightings of her for the past couple weeks, but no pictures."
"First time I'm hearing of this," Danny said.
"Same here," Sam shrugged. "Apparently everyone who claimed to have spotted her just… forgot about it the very next day. Suspicious, huh? It's like this ghost is wiping itself from their memories, like it just wants to be left alone."
"That's what it seems like," Tucker agreed. "And the fact that it ran away from you instead of confronting you."
"Makes sense," Danny also agreed. "Maybe she isn't a mean spirit. I guess if she just wants to be left alone, I have no problem with her being here. I'll keep my guard up though, I'm not gonna be tricked."
"Good idea," Sam said, as she took the comb back from Danny and they made their way to the front of the school and inside.
"So how was the ribbon cutting yesterday?" Danny changed the subject, ghost talk being still an odd thing to talk about in packed school hallways.
"Just as you thought," Sam waved a dismissive hand. "About fifteen minutes of Vlad talking boring nonsense, you could see that he wanted to be elsewhere."
"Probably wanted to go back to his experiments," Danny said with distaste, coming to his locker and turning the nob.
"Then Mr. Lancer took over and started his usual school spirit speech," Sam continued. "Everybody clapped, ribbon was cut, and we all went home; was a very touching experience." The last part was dripping with Sam's usual sarcasm.
Danny chuckled, "wasn't as exciting as when I tried to leave."
"What do you mean?" Tucker asked.
Danny suddenly wished he hadn't said anything, "Well, I literally ran into Vlad's secretary as she was coming out of Mr. Lancer's office."
"Literally?" Sam's eyebrow was up again.
With that, Danny started explaining what had happened the day before, including his explosion at her. There really wasn't any point in not telling them about it, he would end up telling them at some point anyway. When he finished, they were making their way to their homeroom class, Sam was looking at Danny expectantly.
"I messed up, I know," Danny answered her look. "She was just trying to be nice to me and I yell at her."
"Maybe you should go see her and apologize," Tucker suggested and Sam nodded in agreement.
"I don't know where she lives!" Danny exclaimed.
"We know where she works," Sam said, we'll just go to the Mayor's office after school.
Danny sputtered in disbelief, "Go to the Mayor's office!? What if I run into Vlad?"
"I doubt he'd try to kill you in front of everyone," Tucker said bluntly.
Danny tried to think of a rebuttal to that, but Tucker was right. Vlad's reputation was just as important to him as his goals and he wouldn't risk losing either of them just because Danny showed up to his office.
Danny huffed, "Fine."
ooooo
The three headed to the mayor's city government building right after school. The large, three story, white ornate building was situated right in the center of town and housed all the important departments for maintaining Amity Park. The Mayor's office was on the top floor. They made their way up to see Anna sitting at a large desk to the left of a set of solid wooden doors; Vlad's office.
Anna looked up and, seeing Danny, stood up smiling, "Danny! This is a surprise."
"Sorry," Danny said, shifting awkwardly. "I just…"
"It's okay," Anna shifted papers around on her desk, the smile still on her face. "I've been due for a break anyway. You and your friends showing up gives me a good excuse to stop working for a bit. Hold on."
She went around to the doors and cracked one open, sticking her head inside. "Mr. Master's, I'm going for a coffee break. Do you want me to bring you some back?"
Danny, Sam, and Tucker didn't hear any voice from inside, but Anna said, "Alright, I'll bring you a cup anyway."
She shut the door again and turned back to Danny and his friends, "Sorry, he's in a bit of a sour mood. He tried to sneak out of here earlier but I dragged him back. You wouldn't believe the pile of paperwork that's on his desk!"
"We'd believe it," The three said in unison, making Anna laugh.
"Sorry, I haven't introduced myself to your friends." Anna apologized.
"It's okay, we already know who you are," Sam said. "The news thing, you know?"
"This is Sam and Tucker," Danny said and Anna shook both their hands.
"Nice to meet you," Anna smiled. "Let's go to the break room, all this noise is just going to make certain people even more annoyed."
Anna escorted them to a small room with a table and a countertop space containing a small fridge, microwave, and coffee machine. Danny and his friends sat themselves at the table as Anna poured herself a mug of coffee.
"Would you like any?" Anna offered the pot.
They shook their heads and Anna chuckled, "Sorry, I keep forgetting that your just kids still."
She replaced the pot and leaned against the countertop, hold the warm mug between her palms, "Don't be offended if I don't sit down, I've been sitting all day."
"It's fine," Danny said then caught the expectant looks from Sam and Tucker. "Um…"
Anna looked up from the sip she was about to take and Danny continued, "I wanted to apologize for yesterday. I got angry at you and you didn't do anything."
Anna lowered her mug and smiled again, "Apology accepted, Danny. I wasn't upset, you know. It's a touchy subject for you, I see that. I won't bring it up again."
"You're awfully understanding for an adult," Sam said.
Anna shrugged her shoulders, "I understand the concept of things that are painful to talk about. I've got a few things myself that I cause me to get emotional, so I avoid talking about them."
Danny saw her glance down at her ring. Tucker must have noticed too, because he quickly changed the subject.
"So, Anna, you must be from Georgia, right?"
Anna looked up at Tucker, shocked, "Pardon?"
"Well, there's not very much information on you. The news people could have easily done a search on you, but the only person with your name is from Georgia and Georgia's Census Bureau was hit by that big virus a few weeks ago, so all your records are corrupted."
Anna blinked a couple times in disbelief, "How do you…?"
"Tucker's a bit of a hacker," Sam said. "If there's a computer out there, he can get into it."
"I see," Anna was next to raise an eyebrow. "Looking to be another Jonathan James, huh?"
"No way!" Tucker raised his hands as if defending himself. "I don't want to go to prison!"
They all laughed, well everyone but Tucker, who eventually broke down and smiled a little. It was just a joke after all and Anna was one of the easiest going adults any of them had ever met.
"It must be difficult not having any records of yourself," Sam said.
"It is," Anna sighed. "I was quite surprised that Mr. Master's hired me, with how little information there is about me. I had lost my birth certificate and social security card in a fire a long time ago, so I didn't even have those."
"You never got them replaced?!" Danny asked, surprised.
"Didn't really have a reason to till I moved out here," Anna answered.
"Wouldn't your family back home have copies of your certificates?" Sam asked.
A sad look crossed over Anna's face again and she set her now empty mug on the counter, "I don't really have any family any more. I'm all that's left."
Fire!?Danny thought and looked at Sam and Tucker.
They were looking at him with the same looks of realization on their faces that he must have been wearing. Having lost her family and with no record of her because of that virus, Anna Marie VanRatten was like … a living Ghost.
ooooo
With Anna's coffee break over, Danny and his friends had to leave. Danny felt bad for Anna and offered to hang out with her this coming Saturday, realizing that she must not have any friends as of yet. Anna had refused at first, but Sam and Tucker pushed, saying that they'd have plenty of time to hang out with Danny in the evening. She eventually agreed with a happier smile then she had had a few minutes before.
Anna returned to her section of the office with a new mug filled with coffee. She opened the door to Vlad's office and stepped inside, closing the door behind her.
"Here you go, nice and hot," she said with a smile, setting the mug down next to the man.
The pile was large, but she had exaggerated it a little for Danny's benefit. In reality, it was important paperwork having to do with the old storage facilities on the west side of town. They had been destroyed by a ghost attack a few months back and the decision had yet to be made whether the facilities were worth rebuilding or not.
"Here," Vlad handed her the document. "Take this over to housing and development."
Anna nodded and took a quick glance at the paper, her smile grew bigger. "You're replacing the storage facility with citizen housing?"
Vlad took the next document off the pile, not even bothering to look up, "Those facilities were a liability even before they were torn down; ghosts were drawn to the place."
Anna giggled, "Sounds like a better plan. Build housing then make money back to the city in the maintenance, water, and electric bills."
"That would be the idea."
Anna started to make her way out of the office, but stopped at the door and turned around. "Sir, may I ask why you hired me? There's hardly any proof as to who I am, I could have just claimed to be Anna Marie VanRatten."
"You don't seem like the kind of person to do something like that," Vlad sounded annoyed by the question. "Besides, you're competent at the work. That's really all I need. Is there anything else?"
Anna shook her head, "No, I'll get this over there now. Thank you."
With that, she left. Vlad watched her leave, once the door had left he glanced over at the picture of Maddie he had sitting on his desk. It was a picture he had left over from their college days, when she would have been about Anna's age. There was a resemblance there, but it could just be that he was imagining it, and he couldn't deny that it was one reason why he hired the young lady.