A/N: This is probably the part where I explain my (very) long absence from Gothica. Honestly, there's too much, and somewhere along the way, I lost the spark.

But guess what? It's back!

I've finished 8,000+ words in this arc and am ready to go! I'll be posting weekly again while rewriting the next arc so I can stay on top of things. I hope you can forgive my long absence and get back into Gothica with me.

I know I'm really happy to be back!

Thanks for all your support, reads, reviews, favorites, and a special shoutout to Hellborne95 for being my amazing beta reader and supporter (drill sergeant and accountability writing buddy).

Let's do this!

When Sam signed Danny and Tucker up to work the Casper High Haunted Hayride fundraiser for the local animal shelter, they had assumed they could weasel their way out of it. Sam was already so booked and frazzled with organizing the event she barely had time to check in with them. But she did not forget, and when the time came, Danny and Tucker were woefully unprepared.

They were walking in Amity Park's downtown district when they told her the truth.

"What do you mean you don't have costumes?" Sam asked, her eyes wide, arms full of flyers for the hayride. "It's tomorrow! Remember? Hayride, cleanup, then campout at Danny's to write in the Gothica?"

They were on foot, passing out last-minute advertisement flyers to businesses and houses to get people to attend the event.

"I've kind of been busy capturing Technus and tumbling headfirst into the Ghost Zone to remember things like the haunted hayride, Sam." Danny gestured to himself for emphasis as if that explained everything.

Sam bit back her scathing reply. At least Danny had an excuse. Instead, she rounded on Tucker.

"Well?"

Tucker at least had the decency to look ashamed. "I thought you'd forget that you signed us up."

Danny held back a smile, and Sam frowned.

"I get it, I do, but this is really important to the animals at Amity Humane Society. And to me!"

"Can't I just write a check?" Tucker asked. Danny shot him a warning look.

"No, Tucker, you can't just write a check. You two are the ones jumping out to scare people when the hayride reaches the cornfield!"

"Dontcha think the literal ghost of the group would make for a better jumpscare volunteer?"

Danny narrowed his eyes at Tucker. "Thanks."

Sam glanced between the two of them, her arms still straining under hundreds of flyers. Danny reached out for half of them, and Tucker did, too. She rolled her eyes and divided the pile.

"I can't believe you guys."

Danny fanned through the flyers, thinking. Tucker perked up.

"What if Danny shows up as his ghost-self? We could say he's cosplaying as Invis-O-Bill."

"That's just asking for disaster," Danny said. "What if someone bumps into me and like… phases through?"

"Don't you have a handle on that by now?"

"Well… not all the time," Danny admitted under his breath.

Sam trudged along in a quiet temper. Danny and Tucker exchanged glances.

They'd messed up.

"Look, Sam, there's still time for us to figure something out. It's tomorrow night, so we've got tonight and tomorrow to shop." Danny offered.

"Yeah!" Tucker agreed, looking unconcerned. "I'm sure I've got some stuff in my attic, too. Could throw something together easily."

"We'll be there, Sam," Danny finished, his tone sincere.

Sam chanced a glance at them.

"We'll see," she mumbled and kept walking.

…

"We're on the hook, man. We gotta figure something out." Tucker rifled through a storage tote in his parent's attic. Danny opened a box marked 'halloween crap' and dug through it as well.

"Maybe that whole 'cosplaying as Invis-O-Bill' thing wasn't a bad idea."

Danny couldn't imagine how he was supposed to connect a pair of black cat ears and a vampire cape. He could pretend he was a vampire bat, he supposed. Though he suspected that no one would be impressed.

"We're jumping out of a cornfield. Let's just both be scarecrows," Tucker grumbled, tossing the bag of costumes away in defeat. "I'm sure my dad has some painting overalls around here."

"We could cut them up and make our faces dirty?"

Tucker chewed on his lip in thought. "I dunno. I think people will just think we're coal miners or farmers or something."

"Not if we painted fake stitches on our mouths and stuff? A couple straw hats? Bandanas?"

"What, and stuff our pants full of straw?"

"I think she'd forgive us for sure if we did that."

Tucker sighed. "Is this really our best plan?"

Danny sat back on his haunches and surveyed the slim pickings for Halloween costumes. He hadn't planned to spend Halloween night pretending to be a scarecrow. Undoubtedly, he'd be shuffling between scaring kids and his classmates while he captured real ghosts inside his parents' thermos. After all, Halloween was supposed to be the most haunted night of the year, and if he were a betting man, he assumed that plenty of ghosts would be on the loose.

It would probably be exhausting, but if this would make Sam happy - after he and Tucker had already agreed and forgot - then he would do it.

She did a lot for them, after all.

"Tucker," Danny said finally, "this is our only plan."

"I was afraid you'd say that."

…

As far as DIY costumes went, Danny had to admit they didn't look half bad. The painting overalls were already pretty beaten up from years ago when Tucker's dad redid the house. Black overalls and brown paint mixed with a few splashes of color. Tucker and Danny took oranges and dirty yellows to it, adding to the scarecrow effect.

For makeup, he raided Jazz's stash of old high school makeup she kept in a junk drawer in the upstairs bathroom. Danny was sure she'd still kill them if she found out, so it was handy sometimes, being invisible in one's own house.

They did their faces up with dark shadows under their eyes and black and brown eyeliner to simulate stitches on their mouths; patches on their cheeks. Danny found an old gardening hat that his mom had in the hallway closet, and Tucker used one of his dad's old bandanas to cover his hair.

"Weird seeing you without the hat on," Danny said. Tucker rolled his eyes.

Short of stuffing straw into their pants, they actually looked like two haunting, undead scarecrows.

When they were fully dressed, they headed out around 4:00 pm to meet Sam at Breckerman's Farms - the location of the charity haunted hayride. When they arrived, they were wowed by the attention to detail. Pumpkins and hay bales were grouped in photo-perfect stacks, caramel apples were being sold from the back of a horse-drawn buggy, and a kindly-looking witch distributed tickets to the corn maze. It smelled of cider and sugar, dead leaves, and cold air. Parents milled about with pints of hard cider and beer. Children were getting their costumes dirty before the best-dressed contest. A makeshift kennel for dogs, cats, rabbits, and guinea pigs from the Amity Humane Society was fawn over by potential pet adopters.

Danny grinned. "Wow, this looks amazing. How much do you think was all Sam's doing?"

"I wouldn't put it past her to have done it all," Tucker said warmly.

Danny scanned the crowd for their friend. They didn't have to search hard to find her.

A young woman waving to the crowd stood in the center of the little event square. She was dressed in a single-breasted black coattail jacket over a scarlet red dress that ended just before her knees - which were covered in thigh-high stockings tucked into lace-up ankle boots. Her raven-black hair was done in a large, elegant bun with a small top hat nestled into it, slightly off-center. She looked like a Victorian woman who was about to either ride a horse or attend a gala.

"The Manson family is proud to match each donation to the Amity Humane Society!" she called, waving a clipboard in her right hand. "Don't forget to enter the raffle to win a take-home gift set for your furry friend!"

Whatever pride they felt about their costumes, Sam blew them completely out of the water. Unsurprising, given that her entire wardrobe bordered on the supernatural and that Halloween was her 'most wonderful time of the year.'

"Whoa," Tucker said before he could help himself.

"I'll buy a raffle ticket," Danny added.

Sam turned, startled by their approach. Then she grinned sheepishly. "Well, I'm fishing for people's money tonight, so I thought I'd dress up."

"No one is going to be dressed better than you," Danny said.

"You two actually come pretty close," she said, looking them up and down. Then she pulled them into a group hug. "You really came through. Thank you."

"You like it? It was all my idea," Tucker said with a grin. Danny rolled his eyes.

"It's perfect. You're jumping out of a cornfield after all."

"My thinking exactly," Tucker said.

"Oh come on," Danny groaned. "Tuck-"

Sam's watch beeped then.

"Oh! It's four-thirty. You have to go find your places. Sunset is at five and that's when we stop the kid's hayride and get spooky."

She beamed at them, the excitement and sense of accomplishment was flowing off of her in waves. Tucker felt his breath catch.

Then Danny frowned and shivered, and Sam's smile fell.

"What was that?"

Danny cleared his throat. "What do you mean?"

"You shivered. Please tell me that… that isn't happening tonight."

"It's cold, Sam. That's all."

Tucker frowned at Danny, too, but Danny kept his face impassive.

"What? Come on you guys, I'm allowed to be cold. I'd know if it was…" He glanced around them, then dropped his voice to a whisper. "You know, the other thing."

Sam narrowed her eyes, getting close and tilting her face up to his, examining him. Danny didn't let his eyes drop from hers.

Tucker looked away from the pair of them.

"Okay, Fenton," Sam said. "I believe you. For now."

"You should. I promise, it's nothing."

Sam sighed. "Okay, sorry. Go find Nathan. He's in charge of the 'actors' for tonight."

"Nathan Bradley? The theater kid?" Tucker asked.

"Obviously," Sam said.

A mother and her two children approached to ask Sam about the event, and Sam subtly shooed the boys away. The kids were eyeing their costumes, and one of them hid behind his mother's leg in slight fear. Danny elbowed Tucker and they scurried away toward the haunted hayride.

Nathan Bradley met them at the entrance.

"Are you two going to be my sector ten actors?"

Danny looked at Tucker and shrugged. "I dunno. We're jumping out of corn."

"That's sector ten. You're toward the end of the ride."

Nathan Bradley was a rotund Casper High junior with tall, curly red hair and large spectacles. He often wore knitted sweaters with aliens or superheroes on them, and his face was so pale that his freckles acted as a constellation of little cinnamon stars. Tonight, he was dressed as an old fashioned train conductor, complete with coal dust caked on his round cheeks.

That dusty face was now looking at Danny and Tucker with slight disapproval.

"Costumes are kinda on the nose, aren't they?"

"They were Danny's idea," Tucker said quickly.

Danny's nostrils flared. "I swear-"

"Well, there's no time to train you since you're late, but just jump out and snarl or whatever when the hayride gets close. Just don't be too scary. Some of the parents keep insisting their ten-year-olds are old enough for the adult ride."

"Uh, sure, we'll be… average scary," Danny offered.

"I mean, I was hoping for slightly above that, but okay."

Nathan handed them a couple of flashlights and gestured that they head through the hayride entrance. It was an archway of ribbons draped over two large trees. Beyond was a forest trail which, they hoped, eventually led to the cornfield they were supposed to jump out of.

As soon as they left the event behind, the sounds of children laughing, parents talking, and fellow Casper High volunteers calling out to guests faded away. Soon, only the sounds of their feet crunching on fallen leaves accompanied their shallow breathing as they navigated the forest path. They caught a glimpse of a few other volunteer 'actors.' They hid among draped black sheets and behind hay bales and makeshift pumpkin patches. Some were dressed as ghosts, zombies, or escaped asylum patients. Danny and Tucker were relieved to find that the costumes they wore were on-par with - or even better than - the ones their fellow volunteers wore. Adult volunteers gave a reassuring thumbs up, and a few students from Casper High waved.

"Was that Brittany James dressed as an undead slutty nurse?" Tucker asked as soon as they passed.

"Absolutely. Don't look back."

They held in their laughs until they rounded a corner, then dissolved into quiet giggling. Soon, the forest became too quiet. No one accompanied them this far into the farm property but the full moon itself, which watched patiently overhead for the fun to begin. As the 'sector ten' actors, Danny and Tucker were entirely alone on this part of the ride.

"Okay, tell me the truth," Tucker said under his breath, as though accommodating for the quiet.

Danny swallowed and pushed a corn stalk out of his way. "Yeah?"

"Was that shiver a normal one or not?"

Danny could lie again. He could say that Mr. Foley's overalls weren't good at keeping out the cold - that he wished he'd worn a sweater. That something hadn't been following them ever since they entered the Haunted Hayride. He could lie and say that there was nothing wrong.

He could've.

"Not," he admitted. "Something's here. I think it's following me."

Tucker looked freaked almost instantly. He swiveled around to get a look at their surroundings. As they were on the edge of a cornfield, there wasn't much to see.

"What do you mean by following you? Following us? This whole time?"

Danny stood silent. Maybe he should have said something sooner. What if they were both in danger now?

"I'm sorry," he finally said. "I didn't want to spoil Sam's night."

Tucker bit back a snarky remark. He remembered how Danny brushed that tear away from her cheek after the homecoming dance. He tried not to think about what it might mean - if it meant anything at all.

"What about being honest with the group?" he asked instead. "Sam especially made it clear how she felt about being left in the dark."

"What did you want me to do, start a panic? Have her suspiciously abandon her fundraiser while we three go off to find a ghost that I haven't even seen yet? It could be one of those harmless blob ones. Nothing to freak out over."

Danny almost winced at the lies in his words. Whatever it was following them was definitely not something to underestimate.

Tucker kept glancing over his shoulder. They were hidden just four feet into the cornfield. It was far enough to be concealed but not so deep that the hayride would be obscured.

It was a perfect hiding place, but Tucker felt like a sitting duck. A fish in a barrel.

A teenager in a cornfield.

"We gotta get out of here. This is ridiculous! We shouldn't be pretending to be scarecrows, dude, we should be defending ourselves. Defending Sam!"

"Tucker," Danny hissed under his breath. "I'll go looking for this thing but one of us has to stay here. We can't just bail on Sam's event."

Tucker ground his teeth in frustration. He more than anyone would never want to disappoint Sam, but this was now a serious - ghostly - situation!

"Let me get this straight. Your suggestion is that, not only do we split up, but you still want me to jump out and scare people as if nothing is wrong? Dude."

"Not totally split up! I won't even let you out of my sight."

"I don't even have my gear!"

Danny reached into his overalls and unclipped the Fenton thermos which had been nestled inside by his hip. He tossed it to Tucker with a grin.

Tucker narrowed his eyes. "You better not let me get whacked by a ghost on Halloween."

"I swear on my half-life that I won't let you get whacked by a ghost on Halloween."

Tucker almost laughed, but then Danny went invisible, and he hushed up for fear of disturbing the silence.