.

Valerie stared at her phone and then at the building in front of her, then at her phone again, and wondered how the hell she could have forgotten the address of this place.

This had to be a joke. Who in their right mind would buy Fentonworks?

The realtor would have told them it was haunted. That, after the Fentons, years ago, no family had made it longer than a month in the house. But they still would have sold it, because, hey, the sellers didn't want to be stuck with the taxes on it forever.

She almost turned around and left. Nothing she did would fix that house.

Even so, maybe she could convince the family to leave, and keep anything from... clinging to them. Plus, she needed the money.

She climbed the steps, feeling her suit buzzing under her skin as if in warning. She shushed it irritably. These days, she tried not to use it so much. There were consequences, she'd learned, to accepting 'gifts' from ghosts. Or billionaires. Or billionaire ghosts.

Yeah.

The doorbell was one of those novelty ones, sold for tourists who came to see the most haunted city in the world, but it made her brain itch. It was too similar to the one the Fentons had originally had.

She pressed it anyway.

God, it even sounded like-

All thought stopped dead as Danny Fenton opened the door.

"Hi, Val!" he said, cheerfully. "You know, you're really difficult to get ahold of."

Valerie blinked. "Shouldn't you be older?"

"That's what you open with?" He rolled his eyes. "Some of us can age gracefully. Amikoj!" he called, over his shoulder. "Valerie estas ĉi tie!" He turned back to Valerie and stepped away from the door, grinning. "Come on in."

Valerie didn't move. "You're supposed to be dead," she said.

Danny scratched his ear. "See, that's what I thought you'd say first."

"You're a ghost," she said. "You're dead."

"Okay, one, you deal with ghosts literally all the time, this shouldn't be a shock, and two, for legal purposes, I am not dead. I pay taxes and everything. You going to stand out there all night, or are you going to have dinner with us?"

"Us?" repeated Valerie, high-pitched.

"The whole family's here," said Danny.

"You," said Valerie. "You hired me to exorcise you."

"Don't feel too bad if you can't," said Danny. "We'll still pay you. It'll be good exercise for all of us." Danny laughed at his own joke.

Valerie nodded stiffly. Yep. That was Danny alright.

She stepped into the house.