Chapter 5
Danny and Tucker followed Alberta up the main stairs to the second floor, Danny trying to come up with a plan on how to escape the daughter of his boss so he could go ghost and find what had set off his ghost sense. But if she really did know the truth, then maybe she also knew where the ghost was. She was keeping her hands tight in fists beside herself, her long dress and its lobster-like backing trailing far enough behind her to keep the two house workers back. All Danny knew at this moment was that the ghost in question was upstairs.
"I've sent for your sister," Alberta informed, looking over her shoulder at the two as they peaked the stairs. "You three are ghost hunters, correct?"
Danny almost let out a sigh of relief, quickly catching the air in his mouth before nodding his head.
"I was just finishing getting my hair put up," Alberta informed, leading them to her bedroom. "I was sitting at my mirror when I saw her standing behind me."
"The lady in white?" Danny asked, the only 'she' he knew to haunt this house.
"Correct," Alberta nodded her head. "Living here, you can imagine we've gotten fairly used to our ghost guests, so just seeing her wasn't what startled me."
Movement by the doorway stopped her as Sam walked in, her chatelaine ringing out her every step. Sam quietly joined the three in the room, silently nodding towards the girl with her brown hair pulled up to the base of her neck.
"As I was saying," Alberta said, getting back to her story. "I continued putting my hair up as I tried to spark up a conversation with the ghost. I've never gotten a response as of yet, but I've never seen the fault with trying. That is, until today. I was telling her about my plans for today when she picked up my old doll and threw her against my bed."
Danny noticed the doll with a few knots in her hair face down in the center of the bed.
"I stood up and turned around," Alberta continued, "but by the time I was standing, she was gone."
"She's still here," Danny informed, feeling his cold core pulling him towards the ghost still in the room. He fought his want to activate his ghostly vision, looking at the space beside the bed by the window where he felt the ghost still staying to watch them.
"How can you tell?" Alberta asked, trying to follow his line of sight. "Oh, are you like a median? Do we need to set up a séance?"
"No," Danny quickly said, remembering his parents' bias against people who performed séances. He took a step towards where the ghost was, trying to tell if she was just frozen in fear or had bigger plans for them in the room. He wished Alberta wasn't still in the room, so he could do what he had expected to. Instead he was stuck as Fenton, just praying he could protect the other three in the room from this ghost. "Hey, I know you're there. Can you become visible to my friends?" Danny asked, feeling childish in his approach but it was the last thing he could think of that might work.
To his surprise, the ghost dropped her invisibility, showing them a ghost with pale skin dressed for her wedding. Her vail flowed behind her in a wind that didn't exist in the room, attached to her hair by the bun. Her wedding dress was long and torn, showing layers under the top fabric. In one hand was a flower bouquet, the flowers wilted and broken in a faded mass.
Danny opened his mouth, about to introduce himself and the three standing behind him, when she stopped him with a wave of her free hand. She turned around, as if to leave the room, when Danny reached out and grabbed the ghost by the wrist. "Wait, we just want to talk," Danny tried.
The lady in white froze before slowly turning her head to look at Danny before her green eyes dropped to where he held her. He quickly released her wrist, offering, "Sorry."
"What is the point of talking when no one hears me?" the woman asked, a ghostly warble to her voice.
"That's why we're here," Danny offered with a smile.
"I just want to go home!" the woman cried, her voice reaching volumes humans couldn't easily.
Danny winced against the volume, struggling to keep an eye open as the woman kicked up a ghostly wind in the room before disappearing in on herself. He fully opened his eyes as the wind disappeared, leaving the four humans in the room with only the displaced doll as proof.
Danny quickly turned around, registering the ghost to be gone, and checked, "You okay?"
"I'm well," Alberta informed as the same sentiment came from Sam and Tucker.
"What did she mean by wanting to go home?" Sam asked, shifting her weight.
"I don't know, but I'm gonna find out. Tucker, see what…" Danny let his voice trail off as he realized the best way his techno-geek friend could help wasn't with research. "Sam-mantha, see what you might be able to pull up on this place." Barely catching himself in time with her name, knowing they were supposed to use their full names here.
"Land records, time line, gotcha," Sam said, nodding her head.
"Tucker, let Victor know we're ghost hunting and then," Danny gave a side eyed glance at Alberta as he continued, "check on our friend."
"Sure, last thing we need is him adding to this house," Tucker said, letting out a laugh at the thought.
Danny turned back to Alberta and checked, "You gonna be alright if we leave you?"
"I've lived with these ghosts for long enough," Alberta chided. "You three use rather strange language."
"Comes with the job," Tucker threw off with a shrug as he led the three out of the room.
Danny checked to see if the girl was going to follow them out of the room before closing the door behind himself. Turning back to his friends he offered in a quiet voice, "Tuck, while you're at the Speeder, check on the map."
"Will do."
Danny watched the two turn and leave the second floor of the house before turning around and going ghost. He quickly turned invisible and dived upwards to the attic. He was going to find these ghosts, even if that meant going through the house room by room.
-.-.-.-
Danny walked out of the room he shared with Tucker, having spent the morning looking for the ghosts and it almost being lunch time. He ran a hand through his black hair, feeling disgruntled about how little progress he had been making. He froze at seeing Kale sitting at the long table while Sam was working on writing something down on a piece of paper. He dropped his hand and went over to Sam to see her running numbers for things labeled like butcher and grocer. "Where's Tuck?"
"Had to go upstairs to help set up the table for lunch," Sam said, not looking up from the math she was writing.
"And why are you here?" Danny asked, looking at Kale.
The older teen had his arms crossed over the table and had been resting his head against them. He raised his head and looked up at Danny, raising an eyebrow as he asked, "Where would you rather I be?"
"You know that's not what I mean," Danny offered, sorry he had worded it like he did.
"Tucker found him in the Speeder," Sam said, keeping her eyes to her addition.
"I came to check on the map," Kale informed, straightening his back so he could lean back in the chair. His face looked void of any emotion as he added, "Now I know why you called me Dakota."
"You know?" Danny echoed, surprised. Recalling that day, Danny rubbed the back of his neck and admitted, "Well, you needed a more normal name at the time."
"I'm not even dead yet," Kale said, a shiver going through-out his body. He looked back up at Danny and added, "I'd rather be back in 2006 then here."
Sam screwed the cap back on the fountain pen she had been using as she looked up and said, "It shouldn't be too much longer before the map's repaired. Tucker said it looked like it needed a day or two at most."
"Well, that's good news," Danny said, forcing a smile on his face as he took in the confusing emotions still playing across Kale's face. "Did you find anything?"
"Yeah, my best guess is that our ghosts are Ambrose Bigony and Daveigh Craven. Ambrose died of a heart attack and Daveigh burned to death," Sam informed.
"So the lady in white?" Danny asked, confused about the names.
"Would've been Daveigh," Kale informed, "a female version of David."
"I found them in some old newspapers, you'd be surprised at what got printed," Sam informed. "The two were going to get married in the back yard but both died a couple of days before the date."
"Murder?" Kale asked.
"No, she was trying on her wedding gown only for the fire place to shoot a spark out at her, a freak accident," Sam offered. "Ambrose was thought to be suicide until someone pushed for him to have an autopsy and they realized it was just a heart attack that did him in. Don't even know if the other knew what happened to their future partner."
"But then why does it sound like they're trapped here?" Danny asked, not expecting an answer as he put his hands in his trouser pockets.
"When did they die?" Kale asked, sitting up and away from the back of the chair.
"The newspaper was from June, so a few months ago."
"That'd line up with what they told us yesterday," Danny nodded his head.
Kale laced his fingers together on the table as he said, "They could have meant trapped here, on Earth."
"It's not like we can easily send them into the Ghost Zone," Danny pointed out.
Kale looked up at Danny and asked plainly, "Is that where they want to go?"
Danny opened his mouth, about to say something only to find himself stunned. He had never thought about there being an option. He'd always assumed ghosts were here because they didn't want to die, they were afraid of what might be after death. He always figured there was some sort of choice made subconsciously.
"I've heard of stories that the ghost is given a chance, but only for the first 40 days after death," Kale continued. He tilted his head and added, "Well, anywhere between 40 or 49, depending on who you talk to."
"They're past either of those numbers though," Sam pointed out. "If they wanted to leave, why didn't they do so then?"
Kale shrugged, releasing his hands in the process. "Don't ask me," he offered, turning his head away to look down the table. "But boy, do I wish I had taken the chance when I had it." He looked back at the two humans and continued, "I'm saying all of this for a point though. Clockwork will probably call me out on the carpet for this."
Danny gave a glance at Sam, confused what the teen meant only to see a similar look from her as she shrugged her shoulders.
"In my time, you can create portals," Kale explained.
"Oh, like Wulf?" Sam asked, surprised as she turned back to the ghost teen.
Kale nodded his head. "Kinda. One to the Ghost Zone, and another that changes depending on the ghost."
"What do you mean?" Danny asked.
Kale looked down at his own hands, opening them to look at the palms as he tried to remember. "One hand you can create a portal to the Ghost Zone just by thinking about it. The other hand…" His voice fell away as he rubbed the palm of his left hand. Looking up at Danny he said, "You offered it to me once, unlike your normal – grabbing me and tossing me straight back into the Ghost Zone. It felt inviting, and I almost took it. But I've seen where you've given someone the same option only for the second portal to be worst then anything you could imagine."
"Gan Eden and Gehinnom," Sam mumbled, surprise on her face. Danny opened his mouth, about to ask what she meant, only for her to look up at him and add, "Heaven and hell, basically. It sounds like you're able to give people their final destination."
Danny quickly recalled the words of the girl from a different dimension, wondering if he was good as she claimed him to be. Danny looked back at Kale and asked, "What does it look like?"
"You're not seriously thinking about trying to do that, are you?" Sam asked, pushing herself up to her feet. Her chatelaine clinking together as she moved loud in the common room.
Danny noticed the worry on her face but nodded his head nevertheless. "If we can help them, I wanna do that." He looked back at Kale and asked, "What do I do?"
Kale looked down at his two hands, studying the palms of his ghostly white skin, as he seemed to be thinking before he opened his mouth. "Right goes to the Ghost Zone. It opens in a green swirl, kinda like a natural portal does. Left is the other option. The Ghost Zone portal feels like the Ghost Zone does. It has that electric energy that you can feel when you're there," Kale stated. He once again rubbed his left hand with his right. He stopped and looked up at Danny, shaking his head. "I don't know how the left portal feels to you, but the one time you offered it to me it felt…" Kale's voice trailed off as he struggled to come up with the right words. He let go of his hand and rubbed the back of his neck, looking down at the table as he admitted, "The portal felt like vanilla twilight." He dropped his hand and looked back up at Danny as he tried, holding his hands up like he was trying to hold onto a thought at his chest but had nothing physical to touch, "It had that clean smell of after a rain storm with a hint of vanilla, I guess." Dropping his hands to his lap, his shoulders slumped as he ended, "I don't know how to explain it."
"I'll just start with the Ghost Zone one," Danny said, feeling bad about the teen having to think about something it sounded like he regretted not taking. He looked down at his right hand, trying to recall what the Ghost Zone felt like the last time he paid any attention to it. To him the zone felt comforting and not at the same time, like he sometimes wanted to be there but always wanted to be away from it. He had always guessed it was because he was only half ghost, and his human half felt wrong there. Giving a quick check down the hall to the kitchen, making sure he wouldn't be noticed by Phyllis or Jeanette preparing lunch, he took a couple of steps to his right and changed to Phantom. He held out his right hand and focused on remembering the feeling the Ghost Zone gave him. A tingling sparked from his palm, almost distracting him. He held onto the feeling, trying to make it larger as before his eyes grew a portal to the ghost zone.
"Whoa," Sam gasped out, taking a step to be behind Danny.
Danny slowly lowered his hand, surprised the portal stayed floating in the air without his assistance. He gave a look over his shoulder to see Kale had stood up and asked, "So how do I get rid of it?"
Kale shrugged his shoulders, regaining his composure, and said, "I don't know. You seem to control that too, though."
Danny looked back at the portal and, remembering something he had seen Vlad do once before with a clone of his, wiped his right hand over the portal with the thought to dismiss it. To his shock and amazement, it quickly evaporated, floating into green ectoplasmic wisps before disappearing from sight.
"Guess you don't need to keep a thermos with you anymore," Sam said.
"Samantha, can I ask for your help?" Mrs. Coleman's voice called out as the woman came down the hallway.
Danny quickly changed back as Kale disappeared from sight just as the large woman poked her head into the common room.
"Oh Daniel, you're back," Mrs. Coleman said, noticing the black haired teen. "Any luck?"
"I'm afraid not," Danny said, shaking his head.
"Well I'm sure your friend and Virgil could use your help upstairs. Let them know lunch is almost served."
Danny gave her a "yes ma'am," walking past her to get to the small round of stairs leading up to the ground floor. Shooting the spot where Kale had last been standing a glance, he wondered what the ghost might do.