A/N: Well, I think we've waited long enough. Let's get started with the ghost kids' first vacation to a city that isn't Las Vegas!
FerMrack: Unfortunately, I can't read Spanish to the degree that you've written, but I'm honored that you took the time to write such an in-depth review nevertheless!
FriedSnow: I generally try to write chapters once every 2 week, but this is by no means a guarantee.
TobiasRieper: The thing about forgiveness (including Christianity-based forgiveness) is that there's a side to it that many people overlook: repentance and remorse. In order to earn forgiveness, you have to show genuine remorse for your sins and a willingness to repent and better yourself, no matter how limited that repentance may be.
Let's say that William Afton was genuinely remorseful for the many murders and sins he committed (a good example of a "sympathetic" William Afton I've seen would be one akin to Tenebrae Vesper's). If he'd somehow escaped Hell and approached the ghost kids to express his regrets and apologize for his actions, you can bet that Mike and his victims would thoroughly condemn him and interrogate him to make damn sure that he wasn't trying to bullshit them. But once they found out that his remorse was genuine, Mike and maybe even Charlie would eventually convince the other ghost kids to forgive him, since just as you say, they aren't innocents either and they too have blood on their hands.
But that doesn't even remotely apply to William Afton here. Not only does he fail to demonstrate any sort of remorse whatsoever, even in the depths of Hell itself and at the hands of a demon lord who genuinely despises him for the way he abused his children, but he tries multiple times to tear apart the ghost kids' new family and destroy their happiness and peace first through Nightmare and then directly as Nightmare Springtrap. He is a vicious, irredeemable monster who understands nothing of virtue, and the only thing he will understand is death and torment of the vilest kind, whether it be at Nightmare's hand or Mike's. So no, I don't view the children as hypocrites for refusing to forgive him. They're remorseful of their misdeeds and want to better themselves, while William remains a monster in life and in death.
However, there is a difference between the ghost kids refusing to forgive William, and them refusing to let go of their hate and actively enjoying watching him and even causing him to suffer through the Ultimate Custom Night scenes. Because if you want to argue that the children shouldn't be arranging special nights at Freddy's to torture William over and over again because that would be hypocritical, that is a much stronger argument and I would actually AGREE with you. For now, this is mainly how I am incorporating Ultimate Custom Night into the fic. But I assure you, this issue is something that WILL be addressed, and the ghost kids WILL be forced to confront the fact that participating as the torturers of UCN is sinful and wrong (a truth that Charlie is already starting to realize).
As for the victims of the murdered children's rampage, I can't say whether there will or won't be a future confrontation. There's a reason why Mike and the ghost kids are taking a lot of security precautions to make damn sure that they aren't seen by anyone they don't want to be seen by, cause things could easily go horribly wrong if they are, taking their connections with the Fazbear tragedy into account or not.
Health Inspector: They could absolutely mess up, though it doesn't necessarily have to be at an airport. Honestly, I'm more inclined to skip or gloss over airport scenes they don't really contribute much to the plot.
Chapter 108 – Vacation to Chicago Part 1
The next few months seemed to pass by in a blur, as the ghost kids only got more and more excited for their upcoming vacation to their first American city outside of Las Vegas. The family seemed to barely register the rest of the events leading up to that momentous occasion as minor occurrences, with even the ghost kids' collective birthday/family day celebrations being relatively subdued and low-key since Mike didn't have any major surprises on hand like the Rockstars. The ghost kids couldn't wait for summer to arrive, and it was a happy day in the household indeed when Mike finally announced that the day of their vacation had arrived at long last.
"So it's just gonna be us, right?" Susie asked as Mike loaded his luggage into Ryan's car. The Marshall father had graciously offered to drive Mike over to the airport, an offer that Mike was happy to accept. It certainly helped that even though there were eight people going off on this vacation, only one of them needed to carry things around with him.
"Yeah," Mike confirmed as they got into the car. "Ryan and his family are doing their own thing this summer, so they won't be coming with us." He looked over to his old friend. "Thanks for driving us over to the airport, though."
Ryan gave him a thumbs-up. "No problem!" he replied. "You're lucky that we're starting our own vacation later on, so I had the time to drive you over."
"Where are you going?" Cassidy wondered.
"We're heading to Europe," Ryan explained as he started driving away from Mike's house. "Still haven't gotten all of the specifics down yet, but we have most of the details and plans prepped."
"Ooh, can we go with you?" Fritz asked eagerly.
"Fritz!" Charlie immediately scolded him. "The Marshalls deserve some time to themselves too. Stop being rude!"
Fritz cringed. "Sorry…" he mumbled.
Ryan waved the apology off. "It's fine, but we're not planning on bringing anybody other than ourselves. Sorry, Mike."
Mike shrugged. "Eh, this'll be plenty for now. It's not like we can't plan something later if we really find ourselves bored out of our fucking minds in the later half of the summer. Now then," he looked around at his kids, who were all floating around in the backseat area, "do we remember the rules?"
"Yep," they all chorused. "Stay invisible, only talk with telepathy, and don't fool around or do things that might expose us or make people think that normal places are haunted."
Mike grinned. "Good!" he declared as they drove on. The Schmidts and Ryan spent the rest of the drive to the airport making small talk, mostly revolving around how their respective families were doing. Once they arrived at the airport, Mike wasted no time in getting past the airport security and making his way over to the gate where his airplane would be arriving.
"All right," Mike sent a telepathic message over to the ghost kids, who surrounded him as he sat down at one of the chairs. "So…there's a couple of things we can do and some places that we should definitely try and visit. Millennium Park, Willis Tower, Navy Pier, and a couple of museums and zoos and things like that."
"Museums?" Jeremy raised an eyebrow. "What kind of museums? Aren't they kind of boring?"
Mike had to try his hardest not to shrug to what others would see as empty air. "Some of them can be," he admitted, "but the museums I'm thinking of are really famous in this city. Besides, for you all know, you might be really interested in the things they show there. Don't knock it til you try it, is what I'm trying to safe."
"Fair enough," the former Bonnie inhabitant acknowledged.
"What's your plan for when we get there?" Liz wondered.
Mike frowned and looked at his pass. "It really depends on when we get there," he replied after a few seconds of thought. "The ticket says we're gonna get there by around 7:30 PM, and it'll take another 30 minutes to arrive at the city and probably just as long to check into the hotel and drop my stuff off. If we finish up everything too late, I think we'll do something that we can do a little more freely and doesn't take up a lot of time, like visiting Millennium Park or something. I'll figure it out later."
"Whatever works," Gabe replied with a shrug as the announcer called for the passengers to board the airport. With his abundance of wealth, Mike had easily secured a First Class spot for himself on the airplane, which was a relief for him since the regular Economy seats did not look at all comfortable.
"Okay," he said with a contented smile. "Time to kick back and relax for a bit. Any particular movies you guys want to watch?"
"How about Megamind?" Cassidy suggested. "Meghan mentioned it before, she said she really liked it!"
Mike grinned. "Good choice," he replied, and for the next hour or so the kids enjoyed a unique animated movie in which an alien supervillain unexpectedly triumphed over his longtime nemesis superhero and conquered his city…only to get bored and lose his sense of purpose in his victory. After seeing so many superhero movies that followed the "traditional" mold, Megamind offered a very refreshing twist in the genre, in no small part thanks to the hammy, comedic, and unforgettable personality of Megamind himself. Once the movie was finished, Mike decided to take a nap so that he would be refreshed and ready to take on Chicago, while the kids tried to keep themselves busy by talking telepathically about what surprises and marvels the city would hold. Despite their attempts at conversation, however, all of them were thoroughly bored with the plane flight by the time it arrived, although thankfully the trip hadn't been nearly as agonizing as the 14 hour snorefest that had been the flights between America and Korea.
"Wake up, dad!" Charlie called in Mike's ear, causing the man to jolt awake.
"Huh? What? Oh…" Mike mumbled. "We're here." He got up from his seat and picked up his backpack, before walking out of the airplane and over to the Chicago O'Hare airport's baggage claim.
"Wow," Fritz whistled as he looked around. "This is a pretty cool airport!"
"Yeah, but unfortunately we can't stay around for too long to admire it," Mike replied as he hurried over to the baggage claim. "If we arrive at Chicago too late then we won't have time to do anything cool tonight."
"Yeah, let's hurry," Gabe agreed. The ghost kids followed Mike as he picked up his luggage and called for a Lyft outside of the airport. Once their ride arrived, Mike wasted no time in putting his baggage in the car and slipping into the backseat.
"Staying at the Intercontinental?" the driver asked as they drove away from the terminal.
"Yep," Mike confirmed. "For a couple of days while we explore Chicago. It's my first time here."
The driver grinned. "Well, you're in for a treat," she replied. "Need any help with any places to visit?"
Mike shook his head. "Nah, I've already got a plan sorted out," he replied, "but thanks for the offer. How long until we get to the city?"
"About thirty minutes or so."
Mike checked his watch. "Okay, then we've…err, I've got time for maybe one thing tonight then, cool." He gave the driver a nervous aside glance, hoping that she hadn't picked up on his mistake. Fortunately, the driver had either not noticed or cared, and Mike was content to pass the drive on the highway in silence.
And several minutes later, the ghost kids could finally see the edge of the city that they would be spending the next few days in.
"Oh my God…" Gabe breathed, his jaw dropping. "THAT'S Chicago?"
"It's huge!" Jeremy exclaimed. "It has to be just as big as Seoul!"
"Ooh…" Susie gushed. "I bet there's so much we could do there!"
They were still a fair distance away from the city, so they couldn't make out any details. But even from this distance, the ghost kids could tell that the city was much, much larger than Las Vegas. And even though they may not spend time in any casinos, the children already knew that there was going to be plenty to explore and so much to do.
"The fuck?" the driver mumbled.
"Hmm?" Mike raised an eyebrow. "What's wrong?"
"I thought I just heard a bunch of kids talk in the back," the driver explained. Everyone's eyes widened in panic as they realized that the ghosts had accidentally spoken out loud instead of through telepathy like they were supposed to.
Mike fought hard to hold down his nervousness as he spoke his next few words. "You're probably just hearing things," he replied, keeping his voice carefully nonchalant. "I'm the only one here."
"Yeah," the woman shook her head. "Probably just my imagination. That and the fact that I had to babysit my niece and nephew for a few days and that got to my head."
"I know that feel," Mike agreed. "You guys really need to pay more attention," he scolded the kids telepathically. "That could have gone to shit real fast."
"Sorry…" they mumbled. The incident was more or less put aside by the time the car arrived in the city itself, and the kids spent the drive marveling (much more quietly) at the many different buildings that composed the city. After a few minutes, the kids saw another sight that nearly caused them to gasp out loud in amazement, only barely tempered by the memory of the mistake that they had just made.
"Oh my God…" Liz exclaimed, this time making sure that she was conveying her words through their mental link only. "Look at that river!"
"It has to be running right through the city!" Cassidy gasped. "I've never seen anything like it!"
"Is that the Chicago River?" Mike questioned for the kids' benefit.
The driver grinned. "Yep!" she confirmed. "It's the great river that runs through the city. Since this is your first time here, you should definitely go on one of the boat tours. You can't really say you've experienced Chicago without it!"
"It's definitely on my mind," Mike responded, smiling at the curious looks on the ghost kids' faces. As it so happened, however, there wouldn't be much time left for conversation, as the car stopped in front of the Intercontinental Hotel less than a minute later.
"Here you are, sir!" the driver said cheerfully. "Welcome to Chicago!"
"Thanks a lot!" the man replied, mentally reminding himself to give her a healthy tip on the app as he got out of the car and picked up his belongings, the ghosts following closely behind. "Have a good evening!" he waved as the car drove off and vanished into the sea of other cars making their way through the streets of Chicago.
The family turned to look at the hotel that they had arrived in, and the sight didn't disappoint. The outside of the Intercontinental Hotel displayed a sense of majesty and grandeur just like the Shilla Hotel at Jeju had, but for different reasons. Whereas the Shilla had been a wide structure with its outdoor portions neatly integrated with the natural environment of Jeju, the Intercontinental Hotel contributed not one, but two towers that reached high into the sky, with a much smaller but more exotic centerpiece in between them with doors surrounded by a golden frame, many windows that gave only a glimpse into the decorative interior, and five flags that waved freely from the top of the structure.
"Holy crap!" Fritz exclaimed. "It might not look like a Las Vegas casino, but damn this hotel looks awesome!"
"Well, keep in mind that the whole point of Las Vegas is its hotels and the casinos within them," Mike commented as he and the ghosts entered the building. The lobby of the hotel was equally as impressive, a round chamber fashioned in an elegant architectural style with a beautiful mix of white and red colors.
"Damn, this looks so cool!" Jeremy whistled appreciatively.
"Did you get a big suite with two floors like last time, dad?" Susie wondered.
"Of course I did," Mike replied, earning several delighted grins from his kids as he approached the front desk and picked up his card keys. "But from what I've seen in the hotel, the best thing about it is the swimming pool. Like, no joke, it might actually be one of the best hotel swimming hotels in the entire world."
"Wow, we've got to see that!" Liz declared.
"Eh, we're no in hurry," Mike countered as they got into the elevator. "We can visit the pool whenever we want to for the next few days, and seeing what's in Chicago takes a higher priority. And that includes tonight, cause I think we've got time for one thing."
"Ooh, really?" Cassidy asked excitedly. "Where are we going?"
"You'll see," Mike answered enigmatically as the elevators opened and Mike stepped into the hallway. He walked for a few seconds until he reached his room, and the moment he opened the door the kids immediately had flashbacks to the hotel room that Mike had rented back in Vegas. The first thing they saw in the Royal Suite was a spacious bedroom with a large King-sized bed with a sofa to the side, but what really caught the attention of the kids was what was waiting for them beyond. The main room of the suite might have been simpler than the Aria's Sky Villa, but it was still elegant in its own way. Inside the room was a large brown sofa and two gray couches on the left and a dining table to the right that reflected the light shining from the wall lamps and was surrounded by six smaller red couches. And up a small staircase was a second bedroom that the children had little doubt was very similar to the first. Even though it might not have been quite as decorative as the first fancy hotel they had been in, the kids could still tell that the furniture and decorations were very high quality indeed, and that Mike had easily secured one of the best hotel rooms in the entire city.
"Man," Fritz declared with a grin. "I can't wait to show this to Alex and Meghan! Definitely looking forward to spending a couple of nights here!"
"Aww, now I kinda wish they were here," Susie admitted. "This suite could've probably fit them! I mean, it definitely could've fit Melody if we brought her along." Her eyes widened as she realized something. "Oh crap, we completely forgot to invite her!"
Mike shook his head. "I did think about it, but in the end I opted not to ask her. From what she told me last time, her workload's been piling up lately and I know not to bother her with things like this if she's got more important things to worry about."
"That sucks," Gabe muttered, "but I guess we can't do much about that." He quickly brightened. "Why don't we check out the view? I bet the city's going to look amazing!"
"Yeah, like we did in Vegas!" Liz rapidly agreed. "Let's go!"
"Hold your horses," Mike interrupted them, making the time-out gesture with his hands. "In fact, don't get too comfortable, cause we're gonna be leaving soon."
"Wait, what?" Jeremy asked incredulously. "But we just got here!"
"True," Mike acknowledged, "but as luck would have it, we have just enough time to visit one attraction today." He looked at his cell phone and screened. "And actually, we have less than an hour to get there, so we should probably get moving. Like, now."
The man dropped his suitcase on the bed closest to the suite entrance, not giving the ghosts the chance to ask any more questions. Not wanting to fall behind, the ghosts quickly followed their father back down to the hotel lobby. Mike had been arranging another Lyft ride while he had been in the elevator, and the family only had to wait a few minutes before their appointed ride arrived at the door.
"Wait, dad, where are we going?" Cassidy questioned frantically. "You just up and left our hotel room and I have no idea what's going on!"
"An explanation would be nice," Charlie agreed.
"Well, since it's nighttime and we don't have time to do anything too long, I figured that the best thing we could do tonight was take a visit to Willis Tower," Mike answered. At the baffled looks from the ghost kids, he explained, "Willis Tower is the tallest tower in Chicago, and one of the tallest towers in the world. And since cities look a lot cooler at nighttime than they do during the day, I figured we could start the vacation off by going up to the top and enjoying the view!"
"Ooh, that sounds really cool!" Gabe exclaimed. "I really want to see what Chicago looks like from up top!"
"Man, if only we could bring our cell phones with us," Jeremy muttered. "But we can't cause otherwise we'd end up starting ghost stories about how Willis Tower is haunted and stuff like that."
"Is that the reason why you stopped us from taking a peek out of the windows at the hotel?" Susie asked, to which Mike nodded in confirmation.
"I wanted us to wait until we got the best view possible first," Mike answered as the car drove him to the base of the Willis Tower. In the last few moments of the ride, Charlie began applying silencing and invisibility spells to them directly, not wanting to chance another accident like the one that had happened on the first Lyft ride only on a much larger scale. She managed to finish casting it just as the car slowed to a stop. Mike quickly thanked the Lyft driver and walked into the lobby, sighing with relief as he checked his phone and realized that he still had time.
"Oh wow," Jeremy whistled, "this is a really neat looking lobby!"
"So where do we need to go?" Charlie wondered.
"Right over there," Mike gestured with his eyes over to a set of elevators in a subtle gesture that were labelled with the words "SKYDECK" next to them in blue letters.
"Wait a minute, time out," Liz interrupted. "We're going to the top of the tower, right? So why are we going DOWN?"
"The real answer is because you can only get to the top with a specific set of elevators that aren't around here or else everyone would be trying to dogpile into them and there'd be chaos," Mike explained as he waited in line to get past the security checkpoint. "The meme answer is because fuck logic."
The kids rolled their eyes as Mike made it through and took the elevator down into the basement of the tower. Down in the basement, the family was treated to a beautiful wall picture that depicted Chicago with the Willis Tower as the most prominent building. They were also greeted with the much less pleasant sight of a very long line of people towards what they could only assume was the admissions booths, a line that they couldn't even see the end of.
Mike smirked. "Man," he commented with a snicker, "I try not to show off my wealth around, and I try to keep things more down-to-earth than most people with my income so that I don't get an inflated ego or get greedy. But damn, times like these I'm so glad I'm rich as fuck." He walked over to the Fast Pass Lane, the ghost kids giggling as they followed him.
"Man, part of me is so tempted to float over there and go Ha Ha in their faces where they can't see me," Fritz admitted.
Charlie sighed. "Don't be a dick, Fritz."
"Yeah, yeah, I know," he mumbled. Still, it was with no small amount of satisfaction that the family walked or floated through the Fast Pass Lane, completely bypassing the agonizingly long line as they entered a darkened corridor with another wall decorated with the Chicago skyline, this one meant to represent the city at night with lights representing windows scattered throughout the buildings.
"Oh wow, look at this!" Gabe pointed at the floor, where there was a panel that showed a few pictures and offered a fun fact about Chicago's Magnificent Mile. As they got a closer look around them, they realized that the entire room was filled with similar panels on the floor and even more information on the walls, all of which described various facts about Chicago and Willis Tower.
"Is this what museums are like?" Cassidy questioned as she floated up to read one of the walls.
"On a fundamental level, kinda," Mike answered after a few seconds of thought. "All museums are different, and some of them have a lot more effort and resources put into them, and have a lot more cool shit to show off as a result. What we're in now is decent, but overall pretty small. After all, the point of the Willis Tower Skyline isn't to read a bunch of random shit."
"I hope so," Fritz grumbled. "I feel like just reading stuff like this over and over would get real boring real fast."
"Speak for yourself," Charlie retorted. "I think this is fascinating!"
"I'm not surprised that the oldest one here is the nerd," Mike commented dryly, earning some snickers from the ghosts as Charlie gave him a scolding look even as her lips twitched.
"Do we have time to read everything here?" Susie asked.
"Probably not," Mike admitted. "Actually, we should probably get going soon. Finish up what you're reading and let's move on."
The ghosts did as they were instructed, and once they were done they followed the rest of the tourists to the next room. This one was much brighter and much simpler than the first, with its primary feature being 5 electronic panels on the wall that displayed a blend of pictures and more written descriptions.
"Imagine having to wait in the full line," Jeremy joked, "and having to go to the bathroom."
The ghosts immediately cracked up even as they cringed at the thought. "Oh God," Gabe muttered, "that actually sounds terrible. Thank God we don't have to deal with that as ghosts."
"I mean, there is a bathroom right there," Liz pointed it out, "but wouldn't you probably lose your spot?"
"Probably," Mike agreed. "Either way, you're fucked."
The family took the time to admire the pictures, which included a train line surrounded by more tall buildings and a fountain of some kind. Before they could move further, an attendant of the tower suddenly grabbed their attention with a megaphone.
"Attention all guests," the attendant announced. "Due to technical difficulties, the theater is closed for today. Please proceed through the line to the elevators to enjoy the Skydeck!"
A loud chorus of groans echoed from the entire crowd. "Aww come on!" Cassidy sulked. "The one time we're here and something breaks. Dammit!"
Mike shrugged. "Not much we can do, I guess," he muttered. "Let's just do what the attendant said and move on. Hopefully there's some other cool things we can see before we go up."
The ghosts reluctantly did so, and to their relief their father's words proved to be true. The room that was meant to follow the movie in the theater was easily one of the largest, its walls glowing with a bright blue light. On one, the kids could see yet another image of the Chicago skyline, while another offered many different inspirational quotes. The room presented fun facts and trivia of a different sort than the exhibit, highlighting famous individuals who had their history tied to Chicago in some way.
"It says here that this tower is 262 Michael Jordan's high," Susie read one of the posters, which depicted the famous basketball player standing proudly.
"That's nothing," Gabe retorted. "Apparently this tower is 313 Oprah Winfrey's high! How do they even come up with stuff like this?"
"It's not as hard as you think," Charlie pointed out. "Just find the height of the tower, the height of the person, and do some division."
"Aww come on, Charlie," Liz groaned, "don't ruin the cool trivia with maths!"
"Can you imagine 313 people standing on top of each other to try and reach the top of the tower," Fritz asked with a smirk. "That would be hilarious to watch."
"You'd run into a bunch of problems real fast," Mike commented dryly, causing everyone to snicker as they advanced through the line. After a few minutes of enjoying the decorations and taking in all the facts, they finally arrived at the elevators that would bring them up to the Skydeck of Willis Tower. "And you also now see why they don't just have the elevators to the Skydeck out in the lobby. Cause you'd have a massive clusterfuck piling out into the streets."
"No kidding, with this many people here," Jeremy muttered as they waited for the elevator to arrive.
"Man, I really hope we get to see what Chicago is like from the top of the tower soon!" Cassidy mumbled. "We didn't even get the chance to see it from our hotel room!"
"From what I've heard," Mike reassured her as the elevator doors swung open, "it'll be worth the wait. The family looked into the elevator, and the ghosts were instantly thankful that they didn't have solid bodies. The elevator might have been larger than any they had been in before, but it was still being crowded to fit in as many people as possible, and they had little doubt that they would've been smushed if they still had flesh and blood. The elevator doors closed, and as it started to rise a TV in the elevator suddenly flashed on. Everyone watched as the screen depicted not just the floor that the elevator was currently passing through, but also its corresponding height in feet and meters. The screen even presented different famous buildings, such as the Taj Mahal, the Eiffel Tower, and the Great Pyramid, showing how their size roughly corresponded to the particular floor they were passing at a given point in time.
"Wow," Gabe whistled, "this tower really is insanely tall, isn't it?"
"Believe it or not, there are some towers that are even taller," Mike commented.
"What floor are we going to stop at?" Liz wondered. "We're easily gonna hit over a 100 at this rate!" Her guess was proven correct as the elevator finally stopped at Floor 103, the orange number proudly displayed on the entire TV screen.
"All right, we've waited long enough!" Fritz fidgeted as the elevator doors opened. "Let's go see what Chicago really looks like!" Unfortunately, the Skydeck was still positively crowded, and because they didn't want to leave their father behind, it took more than a minute for them to maneuver through the throng of tourists. But once they had made it through, the family approached the first of many large windows that made up the outer walls of Willis Tower's 103rd floor…
…and what they saw did not disappoint in the slightest.
Before them lay the vast, sprawling city of Chicago, as far as the eye could see. All the land was covered with countless buildings that highlighted just how far humans had advanced civilization, buildings that seemed so very tiny compared to the vast tower that they themselves were in. What really completed the scene was the countless lights that shone from the windows of the buildings and from vehicles moving far below them, a light show that brought the entire city to life and demonstrated how artificial wonders could be just as beautiful as their natural counterparts.
"It's so pretty…" Susie gushed. "What a beautiful scene!"
"What's that spot to the left though?" Jeremy pointed to the left, where the city's borders seemed to abruptly stop, leaving only a black expanse that stretched into and disappeared into the horizon.
"That's Lake Michigan," Mike answered. "One of the biggest lakes in all of the United States."
The ghosts stared at him. "That whole thing is a LAKE?" Fritz gaped. "It looks as large as the ocean!"
"Geographically that's impossible," Charlie remarked. "But make no mistake, that's a lake."
"Wow…" Cassidy breathed. "Maybe we should visit the beach if there is one!"
"As long as the sand doesn't burn my feet like last time,"Mike muttered, earning a few giggles from the kids.
"What's that down in the middle?" Liz asked, gesturing towards a dark area in the middle of the city where there were no lights, roads, or anything of the sort.
"I think that's the Chicago River," Gabe suggested. "That big River through the middle of the city that the first driver mentioned.
"It all looks so small from up here," Jeremy stared, utterly fixated by the vibrant city and the many lights that brought it to life at night.
"This really is a beautiful scene," Susie murmured. "I'm so happy we came up here."
"You were right, dad," Liz admitted, briefly turning her head away from the view to look up at her father and smile. "The view from the hotel would've been nothing compared to this."
"This isn't even the best part," Mike replied with a smirk. At the disbelieving looks from the kids, he gestured for them to follow with a subtle movement of his eyes. The ghosts did as he silently requested, following their father through more crowds of people and past a gift shop that had many special souvenirs, including several wooden and metal replicas of the tower itself.
"Can we buy some of these?" Fritz asked eagerly.
"A little later," Mike replied as he walked past the gift store and to another part of the Skydeck. This one was very similar to the part of the observation deck that they had just been in…except for the fact that this part of the Skydeck had a glass box-like balcony that extended past the wall of the building.
"Oh my God…" Gabe's mouth dropped open. "Is that what I think it is?"
"Yep," Mike answered with a grin. "They added a glass box that goes past the wall of the building, so that you can look directly down…all the way down to the street, 103 floors down."
"That's crazy," Cassidy gaped.
"This must be the worst nightmare for anybody who has a fear of heights," Charlie mumbled.
"I wanna go see!" Fritz exclaimed, hopping up and down in the air excitedly.
The last group of tourists left the balcony, allowing Mike and the ghosts to move onto the Ledge. The ghosts and their father turned their heads downward, and they were greeted with a new perspective of the buildings and streets that they had seen earlier. There was something about seeing the rest of Chicago right below them that really struck them and blew their minds, something novel and indescribable about this perspective that merely seeing the panorama of Chicago from the window lacked.
"So I guess this what Chicago would look like if we fell to our deaths," Jeremy muttered.
"Thanks for the morbid image," Liz muttered, rolling her eyes.
Fritz's eyes suddenly widened, and a grin spread across his face. "Oh, I just got an amazing idea," he declared.
"I'm now very worried," Susie commented dryly, earning an irritated look from the former Foxy inhabitant.
"No, seriously, it's actually a great idea," he countered. "Why don't we have a race? Fly all the way down to the street below, and then fly back up here! I bet it would be loads of fun!"
"That's…" Cassidy opened her mouth and closed it again. "…actually not a bad idea," she finished, looking a little surprised.
"I'm down!" Gabe agreed. "It's not like we can get hurt or hurt anyone. We DO have time for this, right?" he asked, turning to Mike.
Mike checked his cell phone. "We've got a little less than 30 minutes, so yeah, plenty of time. I wouldn't suggest you fly out and explore Chicago, though. It's a hell of lot bigger than Vegas and I'm not sure you'll have the time for that right now. But for a simple race to the bottom of Willis Tower and back?" He smiled encouragingly. "Go for it!"
The ghosts grinned back at him. "Thanks, dad!" they answered back, then eyed each other competitively.
"Time to go skydiving!" Jeremy declared. "I'm gonna beat all of you!"
"As slow as you are?" Susie retorted. "Yeah right!"
"Are you forgetting about me?" Fritz challenged. "I'm faster than all of you!"
"Jokes on you," Cassidy smirked. "I can teleport!"
"That's cheating!" Liz complained. "The rest of us can't do that!"
"Ugh, can we just get this race started?" Gabe groaned. "Otherwise we'll be here all night!"
"I'm so glad I put those spells on them before we came up here," Charlie thought, barely suppressing a groan. "Otherwise we'd be causing ghost stories about Willis Tower for years. Hey!" she called out to them. "Let's get this started already. All of us start at the edge of the Ledge, and we fly down when I say go."
The ghosts, including Charlie, took their positions in the glass box, making sure that they were at the same height so nobody had an unfair advantage or disadvantage. "Three…two…one…GO!"
The children raced down, phasing straight through the floor of the glass box and flying straight down the side of Chicago's tallest tower. As Mike watched them disappear, he couldn't help but chuckle at the sight.
"Man, these kids…after the shitshow of my childhood and teenage years, I honestly thought I had it good with my life," he thought with a combination of fondness and exasperation. "But how did I ever get through it without them?"
/
A/N: The ghost kids explored Las Vegas and a volcanic crater mountain in Korea, of course they're going to have a race on who can fly down and back up Willis Tower the fastest XD.
At long last, the kids are finally going to visit their first American city that isn't Las Vegas! As you may have noticed, I've skipped a couple of months, largely because nothing significant has happened in that time. And yes, this vacation is gonna be with just the family, no Melody or Marshalls coming along this time.
Sorry if the chapter is a little slower-paced than usual, I did try to add some humor here and there to keep things interesting. I'm not sure how many chapters I'll write for the Chicago vacation arc, but I think it'll land somewhere between four and six. Let me know if there's anything you want me to talk about next, though I will say that I'm saving Navy Pier for last.
Hope you guys enjoyed!
