70. 67 Percent

"Mom, are you really sure this is a good idea?"

Maddie looked up from the screen she had been staring at intently and smiled absentmindedly at her son, not realizing he had actually asked her a question. She looked back at the graphs and charts on the monitor, the numbers quickly changing as the machine was sending its readings to the computer. A soft moan, however, made her look up again. The scan of his body was almost done, but it shouldn't cause any discomfort.

"Don't worry, sweetie, it may be a little uncomfortable, but we can eradicate that ecto contamination in your blood easily. We've done it before, remember, last year, when your father ate the ectoplasm samples instead of the ham by accident? It's an easy procedure, nothing to worry about."

She looked back at the monitor and frowned.

"It's really high in your case... How did that happen? Have you been sneaking around in the lab without us knowing?"

"I don't know, mom, can we do this some other time, I have to do my English assignment..."

Maddie shook her head and looked at the number now displayed in the bottom right corner of the monitor.

"Five minutes, dear. You can do your homework after."

"But..."

Tuning out her son's protesting, she grabbed the mouse and clicked on the red 'start' button. Beside her, the extraction machine whirred to life. The static electricity made it crackle a bit, and the extraction extensions started to glow. She watched as they were lowered and pressed against her son's body.

"Mom," he whined, jerking at the manacles around his wrists.

"Stop complaining, Danny," Maddie said irritably, "You brought this upon yourself. This is what you get from being in the lab too long. I looked at the computer log, you've been online the entire night. He didn't contradict her, couldn't, because the bags under his eyes were clear evidence of an all-nighter the night before.

She walked around the metal table, careful not to trip over any loose wiring on the floor. She had had to get out the machine in a hurry, when she had discovered why all their ghost equipment was always targeting Danny. It had been standing in the corner, partly disassembled and collecting dust. It had taken her all morning, when her son was in school, to get it working again. Danny looked at her with huge frightened blue eyes.

"You tricked me..." he said.

She felt guilty about that. She hadn't told him what she was going to do, but instead had asked him to join her in the lab to help her with something. That wasn't an uncommon request, he, his sister and his friends often helped out, holding things or pointing things in the right direction for her or her husband. So he hadn't found it strange at all when she had asked him to lay down on the table for a moment to check if it could hold his weight. He had raised his eyebrows when she had asked him to take of his shirt, but he had complied. Then, she had quickly snapped the manacles around his wrists and ankles.

"I'm sorry, Danny," she said, and she was, "But you're always running away from me when I want to test you for something. And having that high an amount of ectoplasm in your blood is really not healthy."

The machine started clicking and the humming increased. Danny started to breathe heavily. Maddie stepped back to the monitor and looked at his vital signs. His heart rate was up, but that was probably from stress. His temperature was low, but she knew that was because of the ectoplasm. It was already starting to rise. The progress indicator was moving slowly, and she looked at the numbers.

20, 24, 29...

Danny let out a moan. He was sweating now, she saw, and as she observed him while keeping an eye on the readings on the monitor, she wondered why on earth he was always failing gym. He looked athletic. She tried to remember when was the last time she had seen him without his shirt on. Over a year ago.

39, 41...

"Mom, please," he whispered.

He looked very pale now, his eyes watering... no, leaking ectoplasm. The glowing green liquid trailed down at the side of his head, forming a small puddle on the spotless metal table. A feeling of satisfaction rose up in her. It was working. The machine still did what it was supposed to do. A ghost in there would be torn to pieces by the immense magnetic field. Humans would be unaffected. It would clear Danny's system from any ectoplasm.

48...

"Mom, stop, stop! You're hurting me! Turn it off!"

The monitor started to beep. She looked at it in alarm, and saw that his heart rate was dropping and his temperature was still rising.

54...

Danny started screaming. Cracks suddenly appeared on his skin, green ectoplasm flowing out, dripping off the table. His eyes were glowing a bright green, his hair started to change color, flickering from black to white to black again.

61...

Maddie screamed too and rushed forward, slamming her fist on the red panic button. The noise of the machine increased, the clicks came even faster. Smoke came from the side.

"Mom!"

Jazz rushed in and pushed her out of the way. She dove down on the floor and reached for the plug. At that moment, a power surge went through the wire, sending sparks from the socket in the wall to the red head's hand. With a scream, she was blown backwards against the table that contained the writhing form of her brother.

65...

Maddie grabbed a crow bar from the corner and started hitting the machine with it, mindlessly destroying her work, destroying the thing that was torturing her son. She didn't understand what was happening, didn't understand why it was doing this to him, but it had to stop...

66...

The machine suddenly fell silent. Maddie just stood there for a moment, gasping, still holding the crow bar. There was ectoplasm everywhere, on the machine the table, the floor... It was sizzling, evaporating that familiar odor of ozone. She heard Jazz whimper from behind the machine, but she ignored her. Her eyes were on the pale, limp form on the table.

His eyes were closed now, his head rolled sideways, facing her. His face was ashen, his hair... It was no longer black. It had white strands in it, as if he had aged suddenly. She heard a strange, choking sound and it took her a moment to realize that she was the one making it. She closed her mouth.

She couldn't move. The lab was quiet. The only sound was the dripping of the ectoplasm from the table in the puddle on the floor.

Behind her, the progress bar on the monitor was blinking, no longer receiving input from the machine.

67

67

67...