Ember was floating behind me, pushing me into the café. "Why are we here?" I asked as she pushed me through the door and once inside I see a horde of ghost boys.
"There's a well…" she thought for a minute to phrase her sentence, "'ghost ball' and to be allowed inside you need a date. Skulker and me were gonna go and so were Kitty and Johnny." I stared at her in disbelief, "and what does this have to do with me?"
Em looked at me like I grew two heads, "I'm not gonna let you miss out on the fun baby pop!" I groaned I didn't want to be set up with some random guy just to get into some ball which I don't even want to go to. "I'm not going Em!" she gave me stern look and said, "just go through with the guys, you know how hard it was to get guys to come here?"
I groaned and said fine while she cheered and dragged me to meet some boys. "Beware for I am the box ghost and I will succeed in this competition of eating dates!" I face palmed, "Box ghost it's not a contest to see how many dates you can eat. It's for me to get a date." He stared at me dumbfounded before shouting beware and flying out. Ember made no comment and talked to one of the guys before introducing him to me. I was only half paying attention to the conversation for Ember's sake but let's be honest, I'm just not interested in getting a boyfriend nor do I think I'm ready.
Even worse was that all the guys here weren't even my type, they all either just talked about themselves or asked me to just kiss them. The guy I was talking to now was the worst. All he did was talk about how 'awesome' he was and how 'lucky' I was to even be in his presence. "So you don't even need to consider anything babe, cause you know you want this… Whoa calm down of course I'll date ya" I stared at him uninterested, I hadn't even said anything and he thought he was all that.
"Jerk" I slapped him hard across his cheek and walked away from him and to Ember. "That's the last guy I'm talking to Ember, I'm going home" I pulled up my cloak hood and it swept across the air as I turned around to go out the door. However before I could exit some guy bumped straight into me and we both fell down. My hood fell off my head and I brushed away my hair so I could look at the guy.
He had green hair that flamed at the end, pale skin but could pass of as a human and he wore punk rocker outfits that looked a little more 'royal'. Plus he looked around the same age as me and had red eyes. "Hey are you ok?" his voice was kind and gentle and I muttered a quick yes. He offered me a hand but I didn't take it and got up myself. "Sorry for bumping into you" we say in unison and we stare at each other for a moment.
"Umm…" we once again say in unison before he asks what my name was. "Spirit, you?" he smiled and held out his hand for me to shake, "Phoenix." I smiled back at him and reached to shake his hand, "nice to meet you. Never really see you around here, you new to the zone?" he shook his head and laughed a little.
"Nah, I just never really go around that much, this is the first time I'm in this café though" he trailed off a little as he looked around and got a better look at the place. I smiled, he was actually cute in my opinion but I never ever just go by a person's looks, I go by how they act. Whether their kind, gentle, how they react when they see someone in pain.
"Well I love the ecto hot chocolate. I never really tried the coffees though; I don't really like coffee itself, but my friend Ember loves the ecto latte" we both laugh and he starts dragging me to a table. "Then why don't we sit together and you tell me the foods that you recommend" I laughed as I nodded and sat with him.
I pointed out all the different foods and how they were like and he asked about the different desserts mostly because he had a mega sweet tooth. In the end, the both of us just got the ecto chocoholic cake special. The special was a slice of some really chocolaty cake with hot chocolate with it. Once we ordered he started talking about the zone, he told me about the different things he's seen while I told him the things I've seen.
"Have you ever been to the human realm before Phoenix?" he sipped his ecto hot chocolate and sighed in pleasure. "No, but from what you said I find the human realm to sound very interesting," I smiled that he had actually been listening. Usually whenever I talk people would just zone out and not care what I say, they don't even bother listening to me. Well… when I was alive that is… Phoenix must have noticed my change in mood as he had a hand on my shoulder and a look of concern.
"What's wrong?" I shrugged a little and swooshed the hot chocolate around in its cup, "nothing really… just thinking about my human life. Compared to all of this-" I gestured everywhere, "-my human life was terrible." He patted my back and then surprisingly pulled me into a hug. I almost pulled away, since I just met the guy and here we were hugging, but it was comforting so I didn't and hugged him back.
"I'm not interrupting anything am I?" Phoenix and I got shocked and we pulled apart from each other. In front of us was Ember, with her arms crossed and an amused smirk on her face. We blushed and Ember just laughed a little, "you gonna introduce me or what?" "O-oh yeah, umm Phoenix this is Ember, my best friend, Ember this is Phoenix, we sorta bumped into each other and fell and well…" I gestured to the empty plates and the table awkwardly.
Ember's face suddenly brightened, "hey Phoenix, you should totally ask Spirit out to the ghost ball." Before either one of us could reply the last guy I talked to came up and said, "Whoa, whoa, whoa she's already going with me. I could barely keep her hands of me! She's totally attracted to me." I once again stared at him uninterested until he tried kissing me. Then I flipped him over me, onto the table and turned my weapon into scythe mode, pointing the blade at his neck.
"Unless you want to die again, I suggest you learn how to respect girls and not to be such an arrogant, self-centered jerk. If I ever see you do this to me or anyone I will not hesitate to do this again. And just so you know, this is me holding back" I shoved him off the table and he huffed and went out the door. Putting my weapon away, I got up and just left the table. I was very sure that after what I did Phoenix wouldn't want to be near me. Wow… did that sound cliché… Now I know what every character whoever did this feels like.
Mentally shrugging to myself, I take off and return home. I took a longer way home since I wanted to make a short visit to Dani. I saw her adventuring around the zone and said hi to her. We had a small conversation before I offered her a home at the Far Frozen, temporarily of course since she still wanted to see the world. I dropped by her room (at Icicle's house) and knocked twice before going in.
"Hey Dani, how are you?" she was, well plainly put, splat on her floor. Well, splat on the floor was the easiest way to say it, she looked exhausted and I only found her yesterday!
"Tired, traveling took more out of me then I thought" I laughed a little and lay down on the floor next to her. We lay on the floor in silence for about a minute before we randomly just started laughing. It was just one of those moments where you just laugh for no reason but it was totally cool.
"So how long until you plan on seeing your cuz?" I asked after we both stopped laughing for a while. She looked torn when I asked the question and I felt bad now.
"I'm not sure. A week maybe but I love it here so far" yeah so far, she didn't even know Vlad was here yet. I made sure that no one was to ever tell her and to make sure he stayed out of sight. I didn't want risking her freaking out or worse, telling her cousin. Until then, Vlad's stay remains a secret.
"I dunno, you might see him if you go to the ghost ball tonight. Ember tried to hook me up with a bunch of guys earlier, didn't work out" Dani winced a little at the thought and resumed to staring at the ceiling.
"Yeah, I might. Youngblood asked me this morning, he seemed nice enough so I said yes, even though he almost totally killed Danny" we laughed a little before settling into silence again. Deciding that I should get back home, I got up and told Dani 'goodbye' before leaving her room to go to my house.
"Dad I'm back!" I yelled into the house. I was met with silence instead of the usual 'welcome back how did (whatever I did) go?' line. No answer, that's weird. Shrugging I just floated into my room and found a note.
"Gone out to the science labs, I'll be home soon. Icicle will come in to make a dress for you for the ball" I read out loud. Seriously, I didn't even have a date! There was no way I was going to get into the ball. And I refuse to wear a dress!
…
"I can't believe your making me wear a dress!" I shouted to no one in particular while Icicle adjusted a few things to the dress I was currently in. I hated dresses, they weren't that practical and I did not enjoy the feeling of wearing one. Although, I had to admit, the dress she made me wear was not bad. It was black, no sleeves, and reached until just below my knees. There was a small purple ruffle at the bottom and dark purple ribbon around my waist and unlike most dresses I had to wear, this was actually comfortable.
"I'm not even going to the ball, why make me wear this?" all I got for an answer was a silence and I sighed in exasperation. Icicle turned to the side and holds out a pair of dark purple heels for me to wear. I stick me hand out and push the heels away from me.
"Oh no, the dress is as far as I'm going" I grabbed my boots and stuck my weapon in them. Icicle was about to protest when there was a knock on the door and Frostbite came in.
"Ah, Spirit, you look beautiful! Are you ready to go to the ball?" I once again protest that I didn't even have a date but my god-father just waved it off and said 'of course I did'. I sighed and followed him out of the hut to see Phoenix standing in front of me in a black and green tux.
"I asked Frostbite to get you ready for the ball and yes I'm going to take you there" I stood there with my mouth slightly gaping but I shook it off and went towards him. He offered his arm and I hesitantly held it. I waved goodbye to my dad before flying off with Phoenix to the ball.
The ball wasn't that bad, it seemed more like a party actually. Ghosts everywhere were dancing or talking and there were spotlights shining everywhere. Phoenix pulled me over to dance but I pulled back.
"I can't dance Phoenix!" I laughed slightly at the end of my sentence and Phoenix only said 'nonsense' before dancing in front of me. I stood awkwardly in front of him because I really didn't know how to dance. Luckily my afterlife was saved by Dani when she came over with Youngblood. Then somehow coincidentally, Danny and Sam walked over to us. How that happened, I have no idea.
"Danielle? What are you doing here? And with Youngblood?" was the first thing Danny said/asked and Phoenix draped an arm over my shoulder which I shrugged off but he just smirked in response. I zoned out on the conversation between the two halfas and observed our surroundings. I keep getting a weird vibe from somewhere, there was something shouting at me, warning me about some unknown danger.
I couldn't find anything out of place though, everything seemed perfectly normal… now that I think of it, it seemed too normal. This was unnatural; when it comes to ghosts nothing can be normal. There would be some weird thing happening, like the punch coming alive or the disco ball just randomly falling but no one ever paid attention to weird occurrences because, it was just normal with ghosts. But nothing going out of control or something coming alive, (or unalive depending how you look at it) something was wrong here…
Danger
Trap
Get out now!
I shivered slightly as the weird vibe got stronger. Phoenix noticed my shiver and was about to ask when a loud screech echoed around the room. Apparently the screech came from a microphone and the holder of said microphone was a blue skinned ghost wearing a simple sleeved red dress with red hair tied into a bun.
"Could all the ladies in the room please move to one side while the men stay on the other?" there was confused murmurs from the crowd before the lady on the stage just screeched a loud 'NOW' and ghost girls started slowly and unsurely leaving their dates and moving to the other side. Phoenix gave me a slight nudge and nodded towards the other girls, silently telling me to go with them.
Don't it's a trap!
Not good, you'll regret it!
Danger! Danger!
Ignoring the warning sense I was getting, I walked with Dani and Sam over to the other side of the place. The woman on the stage, who seemed satisfied with this new arrangement, let out a laugh as a force field suddenly came up and separated the two genders.
"What is this?"
"What's going on?"
"What's happening?"
Panicked shouting bounced off the walls as the guys banged on their side of the wall while the girls just cried silently and a few others also banged on the field. The woman sent a pink smoke cloud around the boys and the girls were unaffected since the wall blocked us completely from them. Once the smoke disappeared, all the males' eyes were glowing dark pink and they all had the same love struck look towards… that red dress woman.
"Who are you?! And what are you doing?!" my voice managed to grab the attention of the woman as she smiled evilly and floated on her back above the guys.
"You want to know who I am."
"Uh yeah" honestly, could this woman have a bigger ego? And I only just heard one sentence from her.
"I am Aphrodite! The most beautiful and admired ghost in the entire zone!" mentally gagging at the last sentence, the other girls were murmuring to each other and the guys were worshipping Aphrodite. I looked over to Sam to see her clearly full of fury towards Aphrodite for stealing her boyfriend.
"Don't worry Sam we'll get them back" I put a hand on her shoulder only for her to glare at me and pull away. Not thinking much of it I turned to the field, ignoring what the guys were doing and examined it. Punching and kicking it wouldn't work since everyone else already tried.
"I know that look Spirit, what are you thinking?" Ember asked. I glared at the field as if it would make it disappear and turned to my friend.
"Maybe if we used a weapon the force field could get destroyed" scanning the crowd to see if anyone had weapons I saw no one had brought anything.
"Maybe but no one has any weapons, who even brings a weapon to a ball?!" I smirked and reached into my boot.
"Frostbite, rule no. 1: never go anywhere without your weapon" I turned it into scythe mode and started slashing at the force field. Unfortunately it didn't work, so I turned the scythe back to normal and shoved it back into my boot. Thinking, I surveyed our surroundings to look for any possible way out. I walked past everyone towards the wall near the stage. There was a backstage door there and I glanced over to the guys' side. There was a trapdoor on the stage and I stared at the force field, glanced over at Aphrodite and came up with a plan. I signaled for Ember, Sam and Danielle to come over and showed them the door and the trapdoor.
"Ember this door should lead to that trapdoor right?" receiving a nod I confirmed my plan and tried the doorknob, locked.
"Okay, I got a plan. The force field was obviously made by Aphrodite so if she's distracted it may allow the field to disappear or at least weaken. We can't all go over to the guys' side because she would notice something and try to get out. Sam, Ember, the three of us will go over to the other side and try to take down or distract Aphrodite. Danielle you got the more important part. Once the three of us go, you need to spread the message to the other girls, tell them to get ready to attack in any possible way. Then you'll need to help us keep an eye on Aphrodite, once we're on the other side you need to help us look out for her because you got the best angle to watch her. Once we attack Aphrodite get everyone here to attack the force field so you guys can come over. If that fails, then get everyone to this door and bring them over, we'll distract Aphrodite until you arrive" everyone nodded and agreed to the plan except for one person.
"Why should I listen to you? Why are you suddenly in charge?" Sam crossed her arms and glared at me. I didn't do anything and just got Danielle to get ready for her part of the plan.
"Trust me Sam, it's the only way to get the guys back" her glare didn't soften but I think I got her to agree, at least I hope so.
"First we need to unlock this door. Sam since humans is the ghosts here, phase through the door and unlock it from the other side. And before you ask, you can't go through the force field; Danielle already tried in human form" she nodded grimly and jumped through the door. Hearing the click of the lock, Sam opened it from the other side and Ember and I went through. I closed the door behind us and we began walking.
"So Ember, what's up with Aphrodite anyway? Why's she doing this?" I created a ball of light to float ahead to light the way while asking Ember.
"Aphrodite's one of the ancients, feeds off of the jealousy from women and the love from men" momentarily forgetting her unknown hate towards me, she asked the same question I was thinking.
"Then, why attack ghosts? I thought evil ghosts usually try to take over the human world, no offense"
"None taken and because, ghost love is stronger than human love" I motioned for her to carry on because I was clearly confused.
"Ghosts as you know are dead, which means we can't be killed again unless we fade from existence, which by the way is nearly impossible. Since we can't fade easily that makes us in a way immortal and once you're immortal so is marriage or love or whatever. When ghosts are born or created there is that one other ghost or person that they will fall in love with, a very literal soul mate. Ghosts can date but finding your soul mate is really hard since there are lots of ghosts here."
"Anyway, a ghost will have their soul mate and once they find the one they can either get married and get kids or just be together for eternity. It's riskier to get married though because once you get married here you can't get divorced, if you're married and you're found cheating on your husband or wife, you will have the whole ghost zone after you or cease to exist courtesy of Clockwork. But the good thing about this whole soul mate thing is that whether or not you find the one, if he or she fades you'll have another soul mate. If you already found him or her, you get the choice to move on and find another soul mate or to not to move on and never get another soul mate again." wow… that was seriously deep. After the whole ghost love speech we walked in comfortable silence. Comfortable silence for me and Ember at least, I could feel Sam still glaring at me.
"Ember, I need a moment with Sam" I stopped Sam at where we were and brought the ball off light over to us. Ember nodded in acknowledgement and walked on using her flaming hair and a light source. Confirming the Ember was out of hearing range I turned back to Sam and crossed my arms.
"So what's your problem with me?" I asked bluntly which just made her glare at me more and cross her arms. My arms dropped to my sides and I held her shoulder, my expression softening.
"Sam, I'm not trying anything, if you have a problem with me just tell me. No problem can be solved if you just glare at it constantly" Sam continued to glare at me. Finally just deciding to walk on, I walked ahead of her for about five steps before she yanked my shoulder back and turned me around. She sighed and opened her mouth before closing it again like she couldn't decide on what she wanted to say.
"I don't trust you," I gave her a look and she went on, "when we first met you, you seemed okay enough I guess but then you started hanging around us more then I saw how Danny and Tucker are so comfortable with you I got a little suspicious. Then there was when you were under Freakshow's control and, I don't know. I knew you didn't know what you were doing but after that I just couldn't trust you." The Freakshow incident, until now the events that happened that day was still a blur to me. But what she said got me interested.
"Sam are you telling me that you're jealous of me?" it was better that I didn't know what had happened that day. Although the whole jealous thing would make sense, Sam got jealous very easily like Danny does. Sam looked everywhere except at me before nodding. I stared at her blankly before bursting out in laughter.
"Where would you get that idea from? I mean, yeah, Danny's attractive and I had a crush on him once. Had, I got over it after seeing how awesome you guys are together. If you were suspicious of me because I was secretive that would make way more sense than being suspicious out of jealousy" I continued walking, "besides, it's not like I trust you guys totally either."
Eventually we managed to catch up with Ember, who was staring upwards at something and I knew that it was the trapdoor.
"You guys ready for this?" everyone nodded simultaneously and we quietly opened the trapdoor. We snuck into the boys' side and stayed in the shadows. I managed to spot Danielle and gave her thumbs up; she nodded and signaled for everyone to get ready.
"Are you any good with a staff?" I asked Sam since she would be going in weaponless. Receiving a nod I loaned her my weapon, turning it into staff mode. I held up three fingers and counted down from three to one. Once I reached one we charged from our hiding spot and aimed for Aphrodite. I shot a shadow beam but missed and got tackled by Phoenix, the same happened to Ember but she got tackled by Skulker. Sam was the only one who managed to get a good hit with my staff but got tackled by Danny and my staff was tossed carelessly away.
Phoenix held my hands behind my back and Skulker and Danny did the same with Ember and Sam. We were struggling to get out from their release but 'seemingly' failed. I managed a glance over to Dani and saw her carrying out plan B. I mouthed 'plan B' over to Ember and Sam and they slightly nodded before we had to temporarily turn our attention to Aphrodite who was being carried by many several ghost men.
"Did you honestly think it was this easy to stop me?" we glanced over at each other before smirking.
"Yup" the three of us slammed our feet onto the guys' causing them to release us. I immediately flew over to my staff and tossed it to Sam who begun to swing it around to deflect the guys around us. I worked my way through everyone, blasting them with a small shadow beam, small enough not to cause a lot of damage. I backed up slowly and was near the trapdoor again with Sam and Ember. The three of us were side by side and prepared for anything.
We were totally surrounded and had men attacking every minute. I managed to hear footsteps near bellow us and a glance over to Ember showed me she heard it too. The trapdoor burst open as the females started attacking the males.
"This doesn't change anything! I'm still all powerful; your jealousy is giving me as much power as their love!" Aphrodite exclaimed, probably drunk with power. I looked around and saw everyone's expression was not one of jealousy but of hate, towards Aphrodite.
"Let's have some fun shall we? Charge!" everyone shouted a battle cry before charging towards their respective dates. I got locked into battle with Phoenix and we mostly exchanged punches and kicks. I tried shooting a small light beam at him only for him to catch it, enhance its power and throw it back to me. I managed to dodge it and barely dodged a swift kick to my side. I continuously dodged the attacks as I tried to find Aphrodite in the crowd. I managed to spot her flying towards the exit to escape, this caused me to get distracted and Phoenix grabbed my arm. He had a tight grip on my arm and I winced, feeling a bruise probably forming.
I stared into his pink eyes as he was about to punch me when all of a sudden he stopped and let go of my arm. I watched as his eyes became his usual red and sighed in relief. All the other males had stopped as well and their eyes returned to their respective colors and they hugged or kissed their dates.
"Phoenix, you okay?" I received a nod and I smiled. I punched Phoenix in the arm and he winced.
"What was that for?" he rubbed his arm although I doubt I hit it very hard.
"That was for almost killing me," I gave him a hug and let go after a minute, "I'm glad you're okay." I was blushing and so was he when I remembered something.
"What happened to Aphrodite" I asked myself and got a shock when Vlad answered me.
"We happened, princess" the crowd parted to show Frostbite and Vlad standing side by side with Aphrodite in a containment bubble behind them. She was pounding on the bubble and shouting muffled threats. I ran over to Frostbite and hugged him in relief. I let go and gave Vlad a quick hug as well.
"Don't think I forgot you!" he ruffled my hair once I let go and Phoenix walked over to us and held my hand and smiled.
"Vlad?!" I turned around to see both Danny and Dani glare at Vlad. My gaze shifted from them to Vlad himself and I mouthed to him to get out of here. He did nothing and stood tall and proud, like he was accepting the hate from the two halfas. I didn't want him to get subjected to that, he was different now, and he wasn't evil anymore. The two halfas aimed and shot an ectoblast at him and out of reflex, my hand shot out creating a wall using the shadows. I stared at my hand in shock, not because I protected Vlad since I wanted to protect him but because the wall manifested from the shadows itself.
I've never been able to do that until now. Yes, I am capable of shadow manipulation but I had only done so from my shadow beams or from shadows I had created myself, not from the actual shadows around me.
Okay, prioritize Spirit, Vlad first developing powers later.
"Don't hurt him!" I stood in front of Vlad protectively blocking him from any possible attack from the halfas.
"He's tried to conquer the world!"
"And got banned from returning back home by you!"
"He tried to kill us!"
"He's never killed anyone yet!"
"He's evil!"
"He's changed!" at my last sentence the whole room was silenced.
"I have seen his aura and he has changed. Just because he's made some mistakes in the past doesn't mean he's always the same. People change Danny; you have to accept that, you have to give him a second chance" Danny walked slowly towards us and I stood my ground in front of Vlad. I glared at him when he was in front of me and showed him that I was not going to back down from protecting Vlad. He looked up at Vlad and back at me then back at Vlad.
"One more chance, that's it" I smiled and cheered. I moved slightly to the side and Vlad offered Danny his hand. Danny stared at it for a second before firmly gripping it and shaking it.