As the credit started to roll Scratch found himself smiling. He couldn't lie it had been fun watching the movie.

The movie was bad, an out of date nineteen fifties film with terrible special effects and some pretty bad dialogue, however as the movie went on he started to offer his own little snide commentary.

His daughter looked at him terrified that the McGee's would be offended at that, however after the brief laugh, she seemed to calm down, he then continued to make fun of the movie, eventually the three McGees and even Molly joined in the jokes.

The best ones came from Sharon, that woman could be vicious.

"Welp that was terrible." said Scratch

"Yeah, Who would have thought a movie from the fifties would have terrible special effects."

"Those monsters were just dogs in costumes," said Darryl laughing.

"Pretty sure that someone would have drowned in that swamp monster costume," said Pete thoughtfully.

"Still Props to you Scratch it was a lot more tolerable with you here." said Sharon.

Scratch smiled slightly, "It wasn't the worst evening."

He took a look at Molly, she was smiling, he liked that, things had been rough between them recently, but this was good.

"Well," said Pete standing up yawning, "Welp time for bed, come on Darryl."

Darryl looked at his mother who only nodded at her husbands' instruction, the boy sighed he looked and Molly and Scratch,

"Night guys." he said to two specters.

Molly flew over to Darryl and hugged him, "Night, Darryl."

"Night kid." said Scratch somewhat annoyed.

The three McGee's went upstairs, Darryl trailing behind them.

Molly turned to her father, "Thanks for staying dad."

Scratch shrugged, "Eh, least I could do."

The older ghost had to admit that the McGees were starting to grow on him, they were at the level of kind of interesting pets.

"Yeah, So it's been three months now." said Molly like she was going to ask for something.

"Kid." said Scratch annoyed.

Molly held up her palms, "I know what you said but listen, I think they should stay, forever."

Groaning the Scratch started to float upstairs, Molly followed.

"I mean we have lots of fun, they've cleaned the house and…"

Scratch turned floating in the middle of the hallway, "Kid, those aren't exactly great things for us ghosts, name one good thing they've done for us?"

"They pay for five different streaming services."

"Okay that," said Scratch before he continued to float to the attic.

Molly rolled her eyes and followed her father, as they emerged in the attic she looked at him as he started to lie on his hammock.

"Come on dad, Think of it we both know you love them just as much as you love me."

The ghost turned away from her, "Can talk now sleeping."

Molly whined and flew to her pillows, she lay down on them, after a few seconds she turned to him, "So no hug?"

The ghost floated up, he flew to Molly his eyes still closed and hugged her.

"This is my sleep flying, and sleep hugging"

Molly laughed, "I love you dad."

"I love you kid, and I am so glad you're a-"

Before Scratch could finish the air above him ripped open, a green hole was floating in the air.

"Oh no," he whispered.

All of a sudden he and Molly were whisked up into the sky and the portal.

The next thing he knew he was floating in front of the ghost council, and the chairman.

On a good day, Scratch would be scared of the council.

Today However, absolutely terrified.

Molly was here.

This was possibly the worst thing that could ever happen to them.

He pushed Molly off him and smiled at the council, Molly opened her eyes and looked at her dad then took in the green void around her.

"Dad…Where are we?

Scratch didn't need to turn to feel the four sets of angry eyes and the one giant hood looking at him in anger, he did turn to double-check and was not surprised to see he was correct.

"Scratch, What is this?" said the green one,

"Oh um…this is Molly, She's my-"

"I'm his daughter," said Molly to Scratch's horror.

"DAUGHTER." said the four members of the ghost council all at once, the cloaked ghost just kept watching.

"Explain yourself!" said the pinkish purple ghost, with barely contained rage.

"Well," said Scratch, "Um… I've been looking after Molly for some time now and-"

"He found me thirteen years ago." said Molly plainly.

The ghost council looked at scratch even angrier.

"What?"

"Yeah I found her like this living outside and well she so confused, so I took her under my wing." said Scratch smiling, hoping he wasn't looking too terrified, he was failing.

"Yeah he found me when I was a ba-"

"NEW GHOST!" shouted Scratch "I found her when she was a new ghost, and she just stuck around."

The Council continued to glare at him.

"And why have you not told us about her?" replied the purplish pinkish one, (Pinkple?)

"Well the truth is… she's terrible."

"HEY!" said Molly offended.

"What, you're not good at scaring people kid, Try scaring me right now."

Molly rolled her imaginary sleeves and turned to her father, she just needed to think scary thoughts, she thought of spider, bullies, killer raccoons and roared.

The resulting sound was a small meow.

Scratch looked at her with a smile then the council.

"See?"

The four ghost looked at each out and huddled together, only the chairman continued to look at the two ghosts, Scratch looked at his daughter, she looked mostly confused, she was either brave or stupid.

Upsetting the council was always a terrifying prospect. Thirteen years ago it would have been because he would be sucked in the flow of failed phantoms. That was before Molly, now it would be that she would be left alone, and if she didn't get her hug...

He felt something hold his hand, he turned to see the yellow ghost with a smile on her face, he found himself smiling.

The council stopped talking and turned to Scratch.

"Well, I think we've come to a consensus, the girl cannot scare at all."

Scratch sighed in relief, "Great, so we can go now and…"

"Which is why she shall remain in the ghost world, forever."

The Father daughter duo's' eyes widened, "WHAT?" they shouted together.

"Well the girl cannot scare so why should she stay on earth?"

Molly hugged her father terrified, harder than anything, "Dad you can't-"

"Relax kid," said Scratch thinking fast, "The um council just fell for my little joke."

"Joke?" replied The blue council member.

"Yeah truth is that… Molly is great at scaring people, just not ghosts."

The council just glared at him with slightly more contempt than usual.

"Really, well then I guess we'll have to test her."

"Um yeah," said Scratch sweating ectoplasm "We just need some time to-"

"One day."

"What?"

The purple ghost smiled, one with hidden malice, "She has one day to scare one human, if not, well… say goodbye."

Scratch felt Molly grip grow tighter.

"Okay." said Scratch a portal opened, Scratch took Molly's hand started to float towards it.

"Oh, and Scratch."

The two ghosts turned back to the council,

"Joy levels are increasing in your town, can you explain that?"

Scratch started to sweat again, he turned to Molly who was about to say something, but he covered her mouth before she could ruin anything else.

"Nope, I mean I've been doing my job and-"

"Is there a joy agent in your town?"

Scratch shuddered, joy agents were mostly believed to be just the paranoid delusions of the council, but if they thought for a second that there was one in Brighton, they would be watching him like a hawk.

"Nope," said the ghost trying to mask himself in bravery.

The council glared at him, Scratch tried to appear brave, he turned to Molly who also looked terrified.

"Nevertheless," said the green member of the council, "we're sending a joy hunter to evaluate the girl and to find any potential joy agents."

Before Scratch or Molly could respond A portal opened, and the two ghosts fell through.

They arrived in their attic, Scratch sighed, "Kid do you know what this Means?"

"No!"

"Really I thought it was-"

"No I understood that they're your bosses, What I don't understand if why you lied to me."

"Well… I didn't want to worry you."

"Well I'm plenty worried now!"

Scratch sighed, "I get it I messed up, but don't worry, we can fix this, We just need to scare one person."

Molly just floated there and sighed, "Why bother, We both know I'm not good at this."

She floated to her pillows and looked at the floor, "Don't worry Dad, you can probably visit me there."

"Yeah, if you can stay there," he muttered under his voice.

"What?" said Molly looking up at him.

"Um, I said, We're not going to let that happen."

"Dad, Thanks but I can-"

"No," said Scratch determined, "Molly I promise you that I will make you a scaring machine, they'll probably make you top scareer,"

The young ghost looked at him doubtfully, "Dad I don't think-"

"Molly," said Scratch gently, he flew over to her and held her hand, "I promise you, tomorrow we're going to scare someone, you'll be able to stay, and the ghost council will never bother us again.

He knew he couldn't keep that promise, but he refused to give up, and it didn't hurt that this kept Molly calm.

In response the ghost girl smiled, "Okay dad, let's do this."

"Great job kiddo, I've got a few people we can try scaring tomorrow, I have a selection of scardy cats who would be perfect to go after."

"Oooohhh," said Molly impressed.

"Yeah, but you need a good night sleep, so let's go."

Scratch was hoping Molly would just lie down and go to sleep, but instead she didn't something worst.

She leapt up and hugged him, "Thanks dad, You're the best dad in human and ghost worlds."

The imaginary anvil of guilt dropped on his head destroying him, "You're welcome Honey,"

He hugged her again watching the glow, he hugged her for slightly longer today, terrified that tomorrow might be the last day he had with her

He lay on his hammock staring at the ceiling, unable to sleep.

Would he ever stop lying to her?

When Darryl opened the fridge that morning he did not expect to see a clown in the fridge, especially one that wasn't adorable.

The clown face was friendly but not in away that screamed, I'm putting on a mask to kill you like a normal friendly face, no this one was just a friendly clown face.

It was so unscary that professional evil clowns would take one good look at her, shake their head, take them aside and tell them that maybe they should choose a different career like dentist or DMV Employee.

"Hey Moll," said Darryl reaching for a carton of orange juice, before closing the door.

From inside the fridge came a moan, but not a ghostly moan more like a disappointed moan, a head stuck out with a frown on it, You weren't scared?"

"Nope," said Darryl taking a swing of O.J.

"DARRYL MCGEE!" said a voice from the door, The eleven-year-old boy spat out the O.J and turned to see his mother standing there furious, "What have I told you about drinking from the Carton?"

The young criminal gulped, "Never do it?"

"Exactly, Get a glass now."

The boy ran to the cupboard and grabbed a glass."

Scratch floated out from the dishwasher, he gestured to Sharon, "See kid that's how you do it!"

Sharon turned to Scratch, "What's going on here?"

"I'm teaching Molly to scare."

Darryl laughed, "Good luck with that."

Molly looked at him offended, "Well I have to learn otherwise-"

However before they could ask her Pete excitedly burst into the room, holding a pack of cards.

"Everyone good news I found my old cards."

The McGee's eyes widened, "What?" said Sharon.

"No." whispered Darryl in embarrassment.

"What?" said Molly in suppressed anger.

"My old cards, from my street magician days."

Scratch froze, he looked at Sharon and Darryl who were cringing in embarrassment, that was weird. He knew the real person to fear was standing behind him, he turned to see Molly floating there, her face darkened.

"Pete, please stop." said Scratch.

"What it's cool Scratch," said Pete walking to over to Molly, he held the cards like a fan "Moll pick a card."

One card levitated from the pack.

"Great now I…"

The card tore in half.

"Okay that was."

The rest of the cards levitated and toe themselves into many little pieces, Before Pete could react Molly dark sunken eyes were glaring at him full of hate.

"Don't," that one word chilled everyone in the room.

Pete swallowed terrified, "Don't do what?"

"Don't use that lie of magic in this house ever again." she said quietly hiding the menace in her voice.

"...okay." said Pete meekly.

"Molly," said Scratch "clam down it was just Pete trying to have fun, why don't you wait outside."

Molly mumbled threats then flew out the window.

"What was that?" asked Sharon.

"She despises Street magic, but that's not the biggest problem right now, "Scratch sighed, "Listen, We have a problem, Molly needs to scare at least one person today or… she's going to the ghost world…forever."

Pete was instantly knocked out of his fear by Scratch's revelation, "What?"

"No," said Darryl sounding worried.

"Is there anything we can do to help?" asked Sharon.

Scratch shook his head, "No, I've got this, I thought of a plan last night that'll knock them dead."

"Really," said Sharon looking at him suspiciously."

"Yeah, I just need to find someone easy to scare." there are tons of cowards in this town.

"Yeah but can Molly scare a coward, she can't even scare babies without wanting to play with them as an apology," said Darryl.

"Why don't help?" asked Darryl.

"No way, if they find out you that you guys know us in any way we're doomed, also Sharon you can't act her way out of a paper bag."

Sharon glared at him, "If Molly's in danger we'll help her."

Scratch looked at her for a second and sighed, "Sharon, Listen I hate to say this, but I don't want you guys to get hurt, please let me do this."

Pete was the first to react, "Okay then," he said nodding.

"Call us if you need us." said Darryl.

Sharon looked at the ghosts and sighed, "Okay just remember you're not alone in this."

Scratch just floated there, He knew that she was genuine in her desire to help, but she was just a human, what could they do to help?

"Thanks but don't worry, It'll be easy," with that he flew through the wall.

The McGees looked at the wall, "So We're going to do something to help right?" asked Pete.

"Yep" replied Sharon.

"Already on a plan." said Darryl, picking up his phone and calling one of his contracts.

Mayor Brunson sat at his desk working on a bonsai tree, it kept him calm while working this difficult job. He briefly glanced over at Goldie, they were swimming along quite happily in their bowl, a part of him wanted to buy her a bigger tank. The budget wouldn't allow it, and as much as he had grown to dislike his job he couldn't bring himself to betray the voters like that.

THUD

Brunson turned around to see that one of the four portraits had fallen to the ground, it lay face forwards.

Looking up he could see that his mother was missing from the wall.
His mother.

Sighing he walked over to the portrait and picked it up.

The portrait of the kind loving woman had been replaced with a picture of a woman with snake hair and green skin, the Mayor just stood there wondering if someone had just replaced the painting as a prank.

That's when the woman in the picture reached out and grabbed his hand.

Mayor Brunson scream and tried to pull his hand back, but he tripped dropping the painting on the floor, as he looked up at the painting he could just see a serpent peer out from the frame of the paining.

It was followed by a head attached to the serpent.

He screamed, in terror, and ran to the door, it wouldn't open, he slammed on the door again and again, trying to free himself.

Suddenly is opened and Mayor Stu Brunson was confronted with a sight that shocked him.

A giant pink bunny rabbit, with a friendly smile on his face.

There was a sigh from behind the mayor, "Seriously kid?" said a raspy voice from behind the mayor.

"What?" said the rabbit in a youthful voice, "You said to turn into something that could shock him."

"A bunny is not shocking." said the snake woman.

"Excuse me Mister Mayor?" said the Bunny looking at him slyly, "Do you find me shocking?"

Stu was now officially confused, He did not expect to get in the middle of a fight between a snake woman and a bunny.

"Um…Yes?"

He then felt something turned him around, He could see the snake woman standing there, the terrifying look was replaced with one of annoyance, even the snakes looked at annoyed at the bunny.

"Yeah but is that scared shock or just confused because of something stupid shock.

"The Latter," said the mayor surprised that he could react in such a clam fashion

The Snake woman sighed, "Okay, we need to think of something better," the snake woman snapped her fingers and The mayor fell to the floor unconscious.

"Come on dad," said the rabbit starting to transform into the ghostly yellow blob, "You didn't explain it properly."

"How could you think a bunny was scary?"

"I was working on the hope that he had leporiphobia."

"Don't try using Latin to get out of this," the snake woman as he transformed back into a blue blob, "Okay new plan we're going to Davenports I have the perfect place to scare."

"But that's Andrea store. If she spots me she'll be crushed."

Her father's look softened a little"Kid trust me, I have the perfect scare planned, even you can get it right."

Molly just looked at him for a second and sighed, "Okay dad."

Preston Davenport looked around the empty warehouse and smiled, While others would see a creepy abandoned warehouse in the middle of a forest, he saw possibility.

Heck the previous owns had left some shelves over, even it they were covered in moss,

Sure it needed some lights, a fresh coat of paint, gas masks for the asbestos, but it could the start of something new.

This enjoyment ended the moment he came to the center of the warehouse.

It was empty the only thing that that standing there were two mannequins.

Preston instantly thought that he had stumbled into a bad horror movie, one was standing straight, holding its hand out, the other was bowing gently holding the other's hand.

'Why were these here' thought Preston as walked around the two, his first guess was to blame some teenagers, some strange Goths or some so haunted house fans.

All of a sudden he heard his phone buzz. Pulling it out of his pocket he read the name on the screen, "Andrea,"

Whenever he saw her name on the phone he felt slightly guilty, he remembered how a few years ago he and his wife had left Andrea alone at home, as it turned out leaving a young girl at home was a terrible idea and one he would never have done if he knew it was a terrible idea. His own father had done the same to him when was younger, something about making him a man.

The only thing it made him was alone and scared.

It had taken the angry yelling of a small business owner to remind him that maybe she should start being a better father to his daughter. Now whenever he saw his phone had a message from Andrea it was his top priority to answer it.

"Hi Pumpkin, Are you okay?"

"Sure daddy just wondering what's taking you, you've been inside that gross warehouse for twenty minutes now."

Preston looked at his watch, he had left her into the car for that long? He still had a long way to go on the good father thing.

"Sorry, I'll be there in a second, I just-"

CREEEEKKKK

Preston froze at the noise, he stood there for a second before sighing, Old places like this were always making weird noises.

"Daddy? What's wrong?"

"Oh nothing," said Preston turning around, "It's just I-"

He froze the moment he saw the Maniquin standing there, they position were the same, but now their heads were staring at him.

He stood there for a second just looking at them, They couldn't have moved, they must have been like that from the start he just hadn't noticed, he took in a deep breath and inched slightly towards one.

"Dad?" said Andrea from his phone, "What's going on?

"Nothing Andrea, I just thought… Huh, I thought some mannequins just moved mysteriously."

The other side of the line was quiet for a second, before a nervous laugh broke out on the other side of the line, "Funny dad, you should probably come back."

"Oh don't worry, pumpkin" said Preston as he walked towards the standing mannequin, he'd just knock it over, just to be safe, it was a stupid thing made of cloth, wood and metal. "There's nothing-"

The Mannequin's free hand then grabbed his wrist, it turned his blank face and looked at him.

Preston screamed and struggled to get free, eventually his hand flew away from the Mannequin arm however he still felt its grip on his wrist, he briefly looked and saw the hand was still attached on to his wrist, he dropped his phone in fright.

He ran while trying to remove the hand however the more he tried, the tighter its grip grew.

"HELP," he shouted, "ANYONE!"

He turned to see the two mannequins running towards him, he entered the shelves and turn and turned.

He reached a dead end.

Turning he saw the two mannequins walking towards him, then one of them stood back and gestured the other forwards it stood there for a second, the first Mannequins gestured harder, Preston sat there trembling over what was happening.

Suddenly the second mannequin fell as something hit its legs. Before the second mannequin could react a tree branch smacked into its face.

"LEAVE MY DADDY ALONE YOU JERKY GHOSTS!" shouted Andrea

Preston sat there confused and terrified.

"Andrea what's going …"

Before he could finish his sentence he fainted.

"ANDREA WAIT!" Molly phased her head through the mannequins head. "IT'S US!"

The young teen influencer looked at her friend shocked which turned to anger, "Molly? What are you doing to my dad?"

"Well…" said Molly sheepishly

"She was trying to scare you dad but chickened out at the last moment." replied the other mannequin, a hideous face with a big nose appeared in its stomach.

Andrea looked at Molly, a look of betrayed hurt on her face, "Molly…how could you."

"I can explain, I need to scare someone and-"

"And you chose my dad?"

"Yes but- I can-"

"We need to scare someone, so Molly can stay here," explained Scratch, "if not she's going to the ghost realm, forever."

Andrea just stood there genuine fear entering her face, "Oh god, Molly, Is there anything I can do to help?"

Molly opened her mouth but Scratch interrupted her, "Nope not at all, We can do this alone."

The older ghost took Molly's hand and started to float away.

"Um excuse me?" said Andrea pointing at her father.

"He'll be up in a few minutes, he won't remember anything." said Scratch phasing himself and Molly through the wall.

Andrea just stood there for a second, then she grabbed her phone, dialing quickly she placed it to her ear.

"Darryl, It's Molly I suppose you know she's in danger

A voice on the other line started to talk.

"A plan, What is it?"

The voice said one word to her.

Andrea stood there for a second terrified, this plan was dangerous and insane.

"What? No, that's too dangerous, Darryl, think of the chaos."

The voice continued.

Andrea sighed, "Fine, with no other options we have to do it, I'll be there in a few minutes, just give me time to get Libby, she should be here for this."

Disconnecting she looked at her dad and sighed, she was going to have to carry him back, "Welp Andrea, looks like that heavy lifting training you did for that video isn't going to go to waste after all."

Sorry for being late.

HEROS Central: Oh what Scratch doing something wrong? how can you think about him? Easily I know but still, though who those people are is a good question, maybe they're still around.

Monkey lover 911: Thank you , Hope you enjoyed this belated 10th chapter.

JayJay: yes the feels is what I aim for, Thank you for commenting.