Congratulations! You have unlocked a bonus chapter, that's TWO chapters for the wait of ONE.
Haha, I just couldn't stop writing, I hope you enjoy it.
Chapter 7:
Danny POV-
I entered Wren's head.
At first it all seemed like a black mess, with really no organization, just random thoughts floating through the darkness, occasionally bumping into me. But, after only a few seconds, Wren must have drifted into a deeper sleep as a scene, what looked like a memory, unfolded.
It was Wren, but a much younger version of herself when she was probably no older than five, Jackson, at seven years old, and two adults who must have been her parents. The four of them were in a park, a park eerily similar to the Amity Park Park. The parents, her mom, a woman with long black hair pulled in a ponytail and violet eyes, and her dad, a man with blue eyes, a goatee, and long hair that was also pulled into a ponytail (funny, that doesn't look like a military regulation cut to me). Looking at them all together, it was easy to see where Jackson and Wren got their looks from. Jackson was a smaller version of his dad but with his mom's eyes, and Wren had features of both but had her dad's eyes. Interestingly enough, both of the parents looked really, really, really familiar, and every part of my brain was telling me that I should know who they were, but I couldn't place them.
In the dream, Wren giggled, blowing bubbles into the air. Her dad laughed, popping them. She pouted a little before blowing more bubbles. Her mom rolled her eyes, scolding the two, and wiping the sticky bubble soap off of Wren's hands with a moist wipe.
Then the scene changed, going from a pleasant family memory to, what looked like, a nightmare.
Wren looked to be about seven or eight in this scene. But she, her mother, a now nine or ten year old Jackson and Eli who was only a baby, were crowded together in what looked like a closet.
"Where's daddy?" Wren asked, looking absolutely terrified.
"Shh…" her mother said, wrapping one arm around her, and holding Eli with the other, "Daddy's fine."
"What's going on?" Jackson asked in a quiet voice.
"Shh…honey, I don't know yet. But everything is going to be alright," she told him.
The scene changed again, and now they stood on the steps and so did their neighbors around them, looking up as the sky turned from light blue to a dark purple that I knew all too well. I had seen the sky turn that color several times, every time a new ghost tried to take over Amity Park, but Wren could never have seen that…
Another scene, this time with rows of ghosts storming down the street like soldiers.
Another scene, her dad and some other familiar looking men centered around a map on a table. He looked up and spotted Wren.
"Honey, go upstairs," he said and she did as he continued to give the other men orders. So maybe her dad was a general or a colonel or whatever she told me, but I was pretty sure it wasn't for the U.S. air force.
The scene shifted again.
"Wren, come here," her dad ordered to his daughter who played absentmindedly on a swing. I could feel a cold chill as suddenly three of the ghost soldiers surrounded Wren, lifting her up about ten feet off of the ground by her arms as she kicked and screamed in protest.
"Let her go," her dad ordered, venom lacing his voice, "It's me you want, not her," her dad stood his ground, and…I could have sworn that I saw his eyes turn green like mine do sometimes but I blinked quickly and it was gone.
'Must have been a trick of the light,' I reasoned with myself focusing my attention back on Wren who was still being held hostage.
The ghosts laughed. "You're wrong. He wants all of you,—" the ghost sounded like he was about to give the father's name, but Wren's fall to the ground must have startled her awake because I was shot out of her head with such force that I also went through the wall, back into my room.
'Who is "he"? What does he want them for?' I wondered, lying back down.
At least I now knew one thing for sure; I have no idea who Wren and her family actually are.
Wren POV-
I shot up in bed, sweat pooling on my forehead as I struggled to regulate my breathing. The dream I had just awoken from repeated itself over and over again in my mind. It was a memory.
I had only been about six years old, and it was directly after the ghost reign had formed over Amity Park, slowly extending its rule over the world. I had been unable to understand why I couldn't play on the swing my dad had tied to the tree a year before, so, when he wasn't looking, I slipped out the backdoor to go play.
He was outside only about a minute later, looking pissed, but also concerned as he ordered me off of the swing. I was pouting as I slowly came off, but, before I could, I was grabbed from behind and hoisted into the air. I can't remember if I screamed, though I think I must have.
"Let her go. It's me you want, not her," my dad ordered from below, in the same tone he had use today when saving from Dash. His eyes changed to a dangerous color of green…wait…green, the same color I had thought I had seen in my dad's eyes today. The only reason it hadn't registered earlier was because…for some reason…I had forgotten this memory.
"You're wrong. He wants all of you—" was the last thing I heard before I was dropped. From there, the rest of the memory went dim, almost like it had been erased.
It wasn't until years later that I had actually found out who "he" was. He was the man who had caused all of our struggles in his insane rise to power. He was the person my dad hated with a greater passion than I had ever seen my dad hate anyone. He was the one who wanted us…why, I did not know. He is Vlad Masters.
I shuddered involuntarily and laid back against the pillow, clutching the blankets close to me.
I didn't know why I had seen this forgotten memory. But it did help to confirm one thing. My dad was hiding something, and maybe I could use the past to find out what it was and why he had hidden it from us.