2017

Maddie can't sleep and goes down a figurative rabbit hole.

Enjoy.

———•••———

In a cold sweat, Maddie Fenton awoke after a terribly realistic night terror. She had the same nightmare almost every night for the last two weeks. In said dream, she was tied up with five others and she felt a hot painful feeling course through every inch of her body. The details were sparse, but as the pain erupted all over, Maddie heard her baby boy, Danny, yelling at the top of his lungs.

The vision felt too real to be a dream, but Maddie knew she was still here and still alive. "Must me the late nights down in the lab getting to me," she quietly mumbled to herself.

After sitting up and thinking for a few minutes, Maddie dared to glance at the clock; it read 3:47 in the early morning. She knew she wouldn't sleep after having such a night terror, and she didn't feel comfortable in bed after the recurrence of the dream.

A yawn, followed by a heavy sigh, escaped Maddie as she decided to get up and make a cup of coffee—or four. Lightly padding her way through the halls and down the stairs, Maddie made it to the kitchen and basked in the silence of night. She didn't turn on any lights because the brightness could have woken up her man and her kids.

Quietly rummaging through the cabinets, Maddie found a large mug along with everything needed to make a good cup of joe. She waited patiently as the beans brewed—the silent night now a little louder due to the coffeemaker.

After what felt like forever and an eternity, the steaming coffee was done and being poured into her giant mug. Resting herself against the counter, she held the cup in her hands tightly, embracing it's warmth. Trying to rid herself of the nightmarish feelings, Maddie took a long thoughtless sip of her brew and tried to keep her mind as silent and empty as the early morning.

The front door's lock began to click, however, making Maddie jump from the sudden sound slashing through the silence. She went from sleep deprived to defensive-mode. Who the hell is trying to get into my house at this hour? She thought to herself.

Placing her coffee on the counter, she swiftly moved to the opposite wall from where she could peek behind and not be seen by any intruder. Slowly, the front door opened and in limped her son who clutched his side as he passed through the entrance.

Slack-jawed, Maddie's eyes went wide and her eyebrows shot up in shock. She expected several different things: a robber, a mafia gang member, or even a ghost. But, she sure as hell wasn't expecting that. Her face contorted into confusion.

Maddie was about to come out of her hiding spot and confront her son but curiosity took ahold of her matronly nature. Danny, being Danny, mumbled to himself—a lot. "Stupid ghosts—wake me up early and not let me get sleep, even though I have school, stupid night for not being longer, and stupid house for being ghost proofed from the outside—ugh." The muffled rant continued as Danny slowly limped his way up the stairs to his room.

Maddie still bore the same expression as before: complete and utter disbelief. Ghosts? Why was Danny out with ghosts? Maddie questioned herself as she made her way back to her cup of coffee.

After feeding her curiosity, she couldn't help but worry about her son as her motherly instincts began to kick back in. After a few minutes, she placed her half-full mug on the counter and began to quietly make her way up the stairs and into Danny's room.

Putting her ear against the door, she checked for any signs of life. Finding none, Maddie slowly opened the door and peaked in. On the floor was a first aid kit with its contents messily put inside the container and in the bed beside lay her son who, if she hadn't had just witnessed walk through the door, looked as if he had been in bed all night.

Maddie wasn't sure what to expect upon opening the door, but she wasn't too surprised at her findings; maybe she was going crazy in her sleep-deprived state. Though, the medical kit was a little suspicious.

Quietly closing the door, Maddie went back down to her coffee to mull over all that had happened. She'd have plenty of time to think, for no one would be up for a long time.

At least, that's what Maddie thought.

As soon as Danny heard his mom heading back down the stairs, he turned off the Tucker Alibi-O-Matic, and went back to tending his injuries. Ember still had hard feelings since the first time Danny and his friends trashed her concert/take over the world biz. She hit him with an ectoblast at too close of range and it was hard; it would take a while before it healed.

Back down in the kitchen, Maddie slumped over the dining table with another freshly brewed cup of coffee in her hands. She thought over everything. And it all just made her more tired, granted, waking up at three in the morning didn't help her state of mind. She had heard Danny awake at these early hours before, but it never concerned her until now.

"I don't get it," she quietly mumbled to herself, "I don't get any of it." Maddie looked over to the digital clock on the stove reading five o'clock sharp.

Sighing she looked back down into the contents of her mug. The coffee and cream swirling together, lazily mixed. Maddie smiled slightly at the image, for it reminded her of the never-ending swirl of the Ghost Zone. Everything in this family seems to have to do with ghosts, she thought to herself; the smile faded. That's when it hit her: The Ghost Zone.

"The Ghost Zone," she then voiced her thoughts aloud. "That's it." Maddie glanced toward the direction of her son's room, hoping her mind wasn't slipping.

Maddie quietly bounded down the stairs to the lab, needing the science-filled environment. Once there, she marveled at the green glow at the far right wall. The portal sat open and almost inviting. She ran over to it, remembering the day she built it with Jack's help. Ever since college, he and she had been working on a ghost portal, and now here it stood in front of her.

Of course, the portal never worked until—Maddie gasped, her thoughts stopping.

"That is it!" She exclaimed quietly. "It didn't work until Danny and his friends were in here, meaning they did something to get it running, but what?" Maddie was on a roll, cruising until she hit a roadblock.

She began to rummage through the old blueprints for the portal. It took a while to find them, given that it had been two years since the portal was built. Maddie face-palmed as she looked back at the designs. "Jack," she mumbled as she saw that the power button was put inside the portal and not outside. As much as Maddie would've loved to put the blame all on her husband, it was her fault too for not catching his design flaws.

"So if the on button was inside the portal, and neither Jack nor I went inside, it could only mean one thing—technically it could mean multiple things," she said with realization. "However, the most plausible answer would be the portal getting turned on while Danny and his friends were down here, somehow."

Maddie put her head in her hands, exhausted. There were too many puzzle pieces but she didn't have half of the information she needed nor the brainpower to get the full picture. Maddie returned to the kitchen table and her coffee, giving up on her bizarre theories.

She checked the clock once again, reading ten to seven. Maddie didn't realize how long she was in the lab. Jazz would be getting up soon, followed by Jack, and then Danny—though, not on his own accord. Just as expected, Jazz practically skipped into the kitchen only ten minutes later. "Good morning, mom," she chirped as she grabbed some bread for toast. Maddie just smiled back, glad to see her daughter so lively.

Jack's footsteps loudly made their way down the stairs and into the kitchen only moments later. "Mornin' squeaky cheeks," Jack bellowed as he kissed his wife before making breakfast.

Jazz made her way over to the seat beside her mom, carrying a plate of toast and a chopped apple. She scooted the plate so it was under Maddie, and then went to go make another for herself. Maddie smiled. She was glad to get something other than coffee in her system, and was grateful that Jazz was so thoughtful.

"Ugh," Jazz groaned as she watched the clock on the stove, "if Danny doesn't get down here in five minutes I'm leaving without him."

"I'll go get him," Maddie breathed out. Why her sixteen-year-old son couldn't get up on his own amazed her. Then again, he was out of the house until four-thirty for reasons still unknown to her.

She opened the door to the teen's room forcefully. Having been reminded that her son was out at four in the morning and that it had to do with ghosts, she was annoyed. Had she not been awake, she would have never seen him come into the house at that hour, who was to say that this wasn't his normal. She was about to make her way to her sleeping son to wake him, but stopped in her tracks.

She was used to the dirty underwear on the floor, but the multiple wadded up paper towels and cotton gauze all covered in blood was not a usual sight. Maybe he had a nose bleed? She thought then looked closer at it. More like a face period than a nose bleed.

Then, she remembered watching him come in the house limping and holding his side. But, the sleeping boy in the bed looked unharmed aside from a black eye that was just starting to form—or go away?

Maddie willed herself to look past the bloodied contents on the floor and went to shake her son up. As she almost laid a hand on his shoulder, he jumped awake. He quickly sat up, but regretted moving so fast as he soon grabbed his side. Eyes wide and in shock he asked, "mom, what are you doing in here?!"

"Getting you up so you can get ready and go to school."

"I can get up by myself," Danny said and looked to the ground to see all the stuff he forgot to pick up, "now please, get out," he added quickly.

Maddie raised an eyebrow seeing the slight fret in her son's eyes. She put up her hands in surrender. "Alright, but you better be downstairs in ten minutes."

Maddie walked out of the room as her son huffed out an "okay fine." She was definitely going to question Danny about everything, just not right now.

Danny waited till his mom stood at the stairs before actually moving. He rushed around to throw away all the first aid contents but there was so much left and so little time it was likely he missed some. Rushing to put on some clothes—but not too fast because his body was still really messed up—he ran downstairs, grabbed a piece of toast and his school bag just as Jazz started walking out the door.

As soon as the kids were gone, Maddie knew what she had to do. It went against all of her moral codes, but she had to. As gross, disgusting, and intrusive as it seemed, she needed to get one of those dirtied towels from her son's room. Maddie had an idea, but it needed support.

Going back up the stairs for the third time already that day, she went back into Danny's room. To her dismay, everything was all picked up. Maddie half expected it to all be there, knowing her son. It just means he has something to hide, She thought. Scanning the room and looking for anything else that she could possibly examine, Slightly smiling to herself, Maddie spotted a stray piece of used gauze tucked partly under his bed.

After grabbing the bloodied bandage with a napkin, and internally grimacing at her actions, Maddie then made her way back down into the lab where she met back up with Jack. "Hey, baby! Come check out this new addition to the Fenton Grappler!"

"Not now, dear."

"But it has a cup holder, now!" Jack whined.

"Just give me a second honey, I'll see it as soon as I'm done with the Fenton Microscope."

"But Maddie, a cup holder," Jack replied with a pouty look on his face. Maddie just rolled her eyes and shook her head. He was such a child, but she loved him.

"Jack, how is that supposed to work? If you move the Fenton Grappler, the cup will fall out, hon," she commented. Not even going over to Jack, she instead chose to insult his ideas from afar.

Jack just looked down at his invention again, huffing loudly when he realized she was right. Now he'd have to go and find something else to install a cup holder on. Grumbling to himself, Jack went to the other side of the lab to figure out a solution to his dilemma.

Maddie watched her husband's retreating figure make its way to the opposite end of the lab. She didn't want to be bothered, not right now. Maddie prepped the Fenton Microscope and her to-be-examined slide.

But she hesitated.

This is wrong, so wrong, she thought to herself, I am completely invading my own son's privacy. But I am his mother and I have a right to know things, especially if my baby's coming home early in the morning hurt.

Maddie battled with her conflicting inner thoughts. Soon enough, though, scientific curiosity took ahold. Curiosity may have killed the cat, but I have a damn ghost portal: I can just find the cat in there, she thought, gritting her teeth with a newfound fire.

Maddie looked at her little tissue sample before putting it under the lens. Frowning slightly, she noticed how the color of the dried blood seemed to shimmer with a green hue as it caught the light. She simply shook her head, disregarding it, and replaced the slide onto the microscope. Toggling a few dials, Maddie tried to get the clearest picture she could. A gasp soon escaped her lips and she stood up from her seat, eyes wide.

This was impossible. Something had to be wrong. The microscope was in a laboratory filled with ectoplasm, which would make a perfectly reasonable explanation as to why there were ectoplasmic cells mixing with regular human blood cells. However, part of her knew that that was somehow more impossible. The microscope's slides came from inside a box that was inside of another box, and then for safety measures, she even cleaned the slide before putting anything on it. Not to mention she whipped down the microscope and it's lenses as well. But Maddie didn't want to believe what she was seeing.

She was torn into two: Maddie knew that the Fenton Microscope was the most accurate and advanced machine that she and Jack had created. She knew it wasn't wrong. The other half of her, however, didn't want it to be right because that would mean her only son was dead—or something of the sorts.

Maddie couldn't bear the thought of that.

She took another look through the lens just to make sure she wasn't going crazy. And sure enough, the slide was just as it was before. Red blood cells causally mixed with ectoplasmic cells, both mingling, neither trying to destroy the other. For good measure, she took a sample of her own blood and cross examined it to make sure she wasn't getting inaccurate pictures. But her blood showed up normal, while her son's sample did not.

It completely baffled Maddie. How on earth was it possible? She knew what she had to do, and that was to completely avoid the subject and just keep a close eye on her son. Maddie knew that if she were to bring up anything, Danny would only try to evade an answer. It perplexed her as to why Dannywas keeping such a big secret from her and his father.

That afternoon, Danny and his friends, Sam and Tucker, came over to the house. As she exited the lab to greet them, Maddie tried to push her pesky thoughts to the back of her mind. The teens made their way into the kitchen with Maddie in tow. She planned on asking about their day all while eyeing her son. Though, she was a scientist, she was a mother first and foremost and wanted to ensure her son was okay.

"So kids, how was your day at school?" Watching the teens raid the cupboards for food, Maddie asked.

All three shrugged their shoulders, which, in turn, caused Maddie to slump hers. "Well, I, uh, I'm planning on having your father make your favorite dinner tonight, Danny," she said, taking a new approach.

Danny visibly brightened. "Really? Thanks! You guys are the greatest," he said with a smile. It wasn't long, however, before the three teens ran out of the kitchen to occupy themselves elsewhere, leaving Maddie alone with her harrowing thoughts.

He acts normal, she thought, and seems very much alive. Maddie seated herself at the kitchen table once more, holding her head in her hands. She didn't know what to do. She was running off of only a few hours of sleep, and her two large cups of brew did not wake her up enough to deal with this for the day.

———•••———

The afternoon passed and Maddie had fetched the groceries Jack would need in order to cook dinner. He had almost finished preparing it. As she set the table, Maddie turned to her husband, who was sautéing brightly colored peppers in a skillet. "Hey honey, have you noticed anything off with Danny lately?"

Jack frowned slightly and turned the heat down on the stovetop. Facing his wife, he donned an uncharacteristically serious demeanor. "He seems more tired lately and I've noticed there's been more issues regarding school, but he's still the same loving, lively son."

Nodding her head, Maddie pondered on Jack's statement briefly before calling their kids down for dinner. As the two slowly trickled in, Maddie gently grabbed her son's shoulder as he walked by; looking him in the eyes, she asked, "after dinner, can we talk?" With blue eyes wide in fear, Danny nodded his head.

———•••———

Placing a wet towel onto the counter top, Maddie turned to her son who just placed the last dish into the cabinet. "Can you sit down at the table for me, dear?" She asked in a soft voice.

Wordlessly, Danny sat down on one of the chairs at the kitchen table. All through dinner, Maddie noticed his fretful composure and it became more anxious as time went on. She felt sympathy for her boy because she hated seeing him all tense and worked up, but she needed to have a conversation.

Grabbing a box of fudge brownies that Jack had grabbed from the local bakery, Maddie placed it in between herself and her son—food usually helped to ease tension. Awkwardly, she nudged the plastic container toward Danny, who reluctantly took one, but didn't eat it.

"Danny, I—" Maddie started.

"If this is about last night, I swear nothing happened," Danny rushed out, cutting her off.

His comment took her off guard and made her pause for a moment. "No, well sort of—I just want to ask you how you've been doing lately." Maddie reached for one of the fudge brownies, "I know school has been a little challenging."

"I'm fine, mom," he responded monotonously.

Maddie just shook her head and sighed inwardly; she knew he was lying, but it was her fault as a mother for not seeing the signs earlier. "Danny, I know." Maddie looked up to see all color drain from her boy's face.

"K-know what? That I'm-I'm, uh, fine?" He stuttered and struggled to come up with an answer.

"The late nights, your grades, the injuries, everything, honey. I know about the whole ghost thing."

"What—?" He asked, trying to clarify in a very quiet and meek voice.

"I've been awake and can hear you at three in the morning. Last night, though, was the indicator that something was up because you came in through the front door an—"

"Wait, why were you awake so early?"

"That's not the point, hon. You technically shouldn't be up that early either—especially not almost every night," She lightly chided her son before regaining a more serious tone, "something happened with the portal, didn't it?"

Danny nodded his head, choosing to remain silent on the matter, and Maddie could understand why. "H-how did you figure it all out?" He asked in a quiet voice after a moment of silence.

"A mother can always sense when something is off."

"That still doesn't—"

"It doesn't matter, Danny. What matters is that you're safe and happy." Maddie decided it was best to keep her methods of investigation under wraps for the time being. Right now, she needed her son to trust her.

Still seated, she opened her arms, silently asking for a hug, to which her son obliged. The two embraced and Maddie held her little boy in her arms, desperately wanting to stay there forever. "Thank you, mom," Danny whispered with a shaky voice.

———•E•N•D•———