"Come on, we don't wanna be late!" Dani shouted, but her voice was washed away from the intense vibrations of the ectoplasmic hurricane. It was a green sandstorm, tinted blue from a flickering cascade of blinding electricity. The sand was wet, the grains resembling snot-globules as they pelted against Dani's skin.
It was a dangerous, and slightly disgusting time, to be strolling through the Ghost Zone.
'Why did I have to kowtow to Desiree's wish-scheme on a bad ghost-day of all days?' Dani would've felt embarrassed, knowing Desiree was watching her struggle against the current, if Desiree herself hadn't also been struggling against the surge of the storm.
Dani felt as if every particle in her ghost body was just barely hanging on, as if she could be swept into a goo-pile that would join the storm, with Desiree soon following behind.
Desiree had covered both their bodies in a massive blue shawl, which they squinted through, to spare their eyes from the slime. The genie pushed ahead, her powerful eel-like tail lashing a path for Dani to follow behind her; Dani's own tail being a more reluctant, squirming quicksilver.
Time had little recognition or influence in an ageless space such as the Ghost Zone, so Dani had no way to know how long or far they had traveled before she saw a comforting destination beyond Desiree's blue shawl. With an excited squeal, she threw herself out of her covers, bounding ahead to knock on the door of a familiar blue-green log cottage. The door abruptly flung open, revealing a startled Lunch Lady, her signature apron covered in stains and a wooden spoon was viciously clenched between her teeth.
Dani barely had time to register what happened, as Lunch Lady pulled her inside with her gigantic, green arms. She was pulled in tight for a bear hug, which was enough to crush lungs she fortunately did not currently have. Dani smiled, big and wide, overjoyed to see her "Auntie Lunchie," after so long. It'd been a month at least since she'd last been invited to the cottage. She heard the door close behind her as Desiree slipped inside, and she watched in amusement as Desiree scratched as her scalp in dismay when she put away her shawl – her once pristinely groomed hair had been reduced to a wig of slime, and she vanished from view, to mend the disaster in private.
Dani had no time to say a word as she felt someone lift her up from Lady's arms, and she settled atop a comfortable pair of blue shoulders. The Box Ghost looked up at her, patting her slime-ridden head.
"Uncle Boxy, Auntie Lunchie! It's so good to see you guys!"
Suddenly Auntie Lunchie pressed a hand to Dani's mouth, and the spoon caught between Lady's teeth tumbled to the floor with an ominous clatter.
"Oh, it's lovely to see you too, dearie." But her eyes were stern-red, her smoke-white hair bristled into a threatening fog.
Box Ghost laughed, but it was quiet, a tired whisper. "Careful Dani, we just got the baby to bed."
Lady nodded, and Dani noticed her distressed, baggy eyes. "Yes, it was just about impossible to do in this storm. The little doll almost didn't want to take her goo-goo bottle with this storm being so loud."
A noise hissed from the kitchen, which could only have been an overflowing, boiling pot; or an unfortunate creature Lady had yet to slaughter.
"Now dearie, I'm so glad you made it through the storm, but I need to finishing making lunch." Lady gathered her spoon, floating it up into her hand. "So Boxy, entertain our guests will you, but remember to keep it down."
"Yes dear, of course." Lady disappeared around a corner, just a Desiree reappeared into view.
"Did I hear talk of a ghost baby?" She raised a brow in amazement, looking down at the box ghost. "Those are extremely rare, you know." And she gestured to Dani.
"Yeah!" Both the Box Ghost and Desiree cringed at the volume. "Oh oops, I forgot," Dani whispered. Box Ghost seemed to be overcome with panic and authority. He herded the two into a side room, which opened up into a spacious living room. Living in the Ghost Zone made buildings inside limitlessly larger than as they appeared on the outside. It made storing Box Ghost's numerous boxes all the easier.
"Now hush you guys, or Lady will have you for lunch, and not in the good way."
Dani hung her head, suddenly embarrassed she almost dragged Desiree into becoming a goose-pate or a blueberry pie. Lady's fury was infamous throughout the Ghost Zone, and from the look of the adults in the room, they knew how bad Lady could get better than she did.
Dani didn't feel like talking.
And the trio sat in uncomfortable silence, seated on a square-couch, surrounded by countless boxes.
Eventually a bell rang, and Box Ghost herded them back into the living room and a massive dining area had been laid out, covered in every shape of food imaginable.
"Now I recommend the cheese cubes." He pulled up a plate, quickly devouring a cube, along with the affixed toothpick. "I found this sharp cheddar, probably aged like two decades in an old cellar that I recently rescued boxes from." Desiree appeared disgusted, but Dani could only smile as she took a cube of suspiciously fuzzy, green cheese, more than happy to spend time with her Uncle Boxy that wasn't in awkward silence.
Box Ghost picked up another cube only to be interrupted by a wooden spoon slapping his wrist. Dani cringed away, reminded of some unpleasant memories.
Lady half-sighed, as if swallowing down a shout, "Boxy dear, mind your manners. We eat sitting down at the table like civilized people."
"Sorry Lady," Boxy mumbled, as he chewed.
Slowly but surely, everyone settled down at the table. Dani was determined to sample every dish, as about a quarter she had never seen before. An endless amount of plates and wrapped silverware hovered just above the table and Dani only needed to clap to have her used plate floated out of her sight, replaced with a fresh one to use for the next dish on her list.
Like the rest of the Zone, time was impossible to measure in the household as the ghosts dined, but the expansive time spent didn't even cross Dani's mind. She was working a spoon though something called a thick figgy pudding, when a baby's cry cut the party short. Lady stepped away from the table, and Boxy followed suit. In a squirming purple blanket, Lady returned with a bright baby-blue, with eyes intense like rubies. Dani held back a squeal and clenched her raised arms in excitement.
She had waited so long to meet the baby and she was cuter than she'd imagined. The baby had been the reason she wasn't allowed to visit for awhile, as Boxy had told her Lady had wanted some space and privacy while the baby was newborn.
Dani could understand that, though it still hurt she hadn't gotten to see the baby as soon as possible...it made her feel...as if she wasn't really family, just a guest, just a visitor...just a child Lady fed to feed her ghostly obsession...
Desiree gasped, clasping a hand up to her lips. "It's been ages since I've seen a little one." And then to everyone's surprise, Desiree asked, "Do you think– could I perhaps– hold her?" Boxy and Lady looked at each other, while Dani's eyes grew as wide as dinner plates; she hadn't even thought such a prospect was possible.
"Of course, the little boxling welcomes all our guests!" Said Box Ghost.
But Lady didn't seem so sure of that prospect, and she clenched the bundle closer.
The "little boxling," had other ideas, however. She floated up from her blanket and her mother's arms, twirling her tail around the room at a halfhearted rudder.
"Hi, little one!" Dani smiled, frozen in excitement. The baby floated up to peer into her face; her expression oddly stern, as if the baby knew the situation she had been born into, and was bitter about the future.
"What's her name?"
"We call her Boxed Lunch for now," said Boxy.
Boxed. Lunch. Did they mean "Lunch Box?" It was a very weird name…
"Oh, um, that's nice…I guess."
Boxy laughed, ''Yeah, both our names put together is pretty lame, but it's all we could think of at the time."
"You may not know this Dani dear, but ghost-children name themselves once they grow old enough. The name we provide is only temporary," added Lady.
'Oh that's a relief,' thought Dani. 'Does that mean I can have a new name?' The thought shook her like a bucket of cold water. When she finally got her parents, would they give her her own ghost-name? Dani wasn't sure if she wanted one, but if it was a requirement to get her ghost-parents, she would accept it. She just hoped her ghost-name wasn't as lame as "Lunch Box."
Then the baby's attention drifted to the genie, and her glittering jewelry.
Desiree was uncharacteristically stiff as the baby eyed her up and down, circling around her as if the little one was a shark on the hunt, and Desiree a blue fish.
Then the baby silently drifted back to her blanket and to her mother's arms, apparently having grown bored and tired.
Box Ghost laughed and slapped a knee at Desiree's uncomfortable expression, while Lady sighed in relief. Dani didn't remember much after that, her eyes fixed onto the baby – the wish she asked Desiree for was uncomfortably hot in her mind.
Parents, a family, Desiree had said was her deepest desire, and Dani didn't know how to feel about that.
Eventually Desiree clasped her hands in hers and led her towards the door.
It was time to go.
Clockwork's Tower was a place Dani would've never ever gone to on her own.
Something was wrong with it – it was like a villain's lair out of a cartoon.
They couldn't fly as ghosts around it – their tail-wisps unable to form.
Instead they were forced to walk like living people – in the Ghost Zone.
Dani and Desiree had been trapped on a horrid winding staircase they couldn't escape.
Perhaps it'd been a few hours since the first step.
Maybe just a handful of minutes.
But time was impossible to measure in a distance that seemed limitless, endless – the winding of the stairs, shielded by brick wall, made it impossible to see a destination in the distance.
Every step increased the gravity on her person, like she was stepping deeper into a lake with no bottom.
Every step made Dani's knees wobble like jelly, a horrible existential feeling she hadn't felt since her run in with ectoplasmic instability; but Desiree assured her they would make it and Dani felt a supportive hand on her shoulder.
And while she knew Desiree was just trying to comfort her, Dani was second guessing her wish and the hand on her shoulder felt malicious, as if Desiree was urging her towards her doom.
She felt like a prisoner.
Perhaps she was.
Desiree could probably sense her desire to turn back, to take back her wish.
But they didn't stop.
No doubt Desiree would be offended, likely furious.
Dani didn't dare to look up, for fear of losing her friendship, and she resigned herself as the steps crawled ever onward.
Was it messed up, to wish for family she never had?
She'd seen and done worse things.
But she'd asked that question before, and concluded it was a destiny tailored to her.
She'd never been born after all, by a mother like a person or animal.
She'd been born to a creepy scientist in a lab.
Making her always less than human.
And Dani figured that gave her some leeway in committing some messed up, questionable sins.
That's what she told herself.
Eventually, Dani salvaged the courage to look up at Desiree, finding a firm but gentle smile.
Dani's chest swelled with relief.
At least she had Desiree on her side, for the moment.
Looking at the green-purple-blue bricks making up the walls gave her a splitting headache – as if something from the stone was trying to crawl inside her skull.
It was impossible to not let fear curdle and fester within her guts, like a bad soup she ate once.
She didn't want to think about her wish, but the bricks and lack of scenery made the task impossible, disorienting even, to focus her thoughts onto happier things.
Where in the Ghost Zone were they? What terrible place was this?
Desiree was right behind her, holding her up after a particularly taxing step.
She wanted to ask "Where are we, really?" But even her voice had been stolen from her.
A gigantic brass bell rang above her, and she fell forward clutching her head – her teeth almost clinking against hard, bitter stone, before Desiree pulled her back by the scruff of her hoodie.
"It's a shame we can't fly, clumsy Dani."
Desiree looked weird with legs – it didn't suit her. Humorously, Desiree wobbled on precarious high heels and it was obvious she was out of practice. No wonder she was behind her and not the front – she could hardly move.
Not a lot of ghosts walked around the ground with feet and legs – it was unheard off, almost uncouth, as it reminded ghosts above how living was a thing,
Dani grew frustrated. She stretched forward a leg to take a giant step, in an attempt to make things go faster, only to feel the gravity strengthen, slamming her towards the stone.
But Desiree held her upright and she was spared her face getting knocked bloody against the stone.
"T-thanks, just wanted to see how many I could skip." She stammered, and Dani mentally cursed how weak and on edge she sounded.
"Keep moving child, there are countless more steps to pass, and our host considers skipping a step inappropriate."
With each step taken, the sense that she was doing something wrong, regretful, rang in her mind.
'But I want parents.'
And then she thought of "Lunch Box," held in her mother's arms, with Boxy looking down at her with a mischievous smile.
She wanted that. Some sort of family just her own.
"But I need parents," she affirmed. The feelings of Desiree's nails pinching into her backside told her it was what she had wanted to hear.
And it was impossible to take a wish back.
Stepping into Clockwork's chamber revealed the ghost himself, if Desiree's gasp besides her was any indication. To Dani's fascination, and slight horror, Desiree bowed low and long to the ground, her forehead almost touched stone and suddenly gravity's pressure released them, allowing them the pleasure of floating.
Dani would never take flying for granted again.
Desiree's ghost tail dropped to the ground, becoming tense like a coiled snake's. Quickly, Dani followed suit, and only when the ghost outside of the corners of her vision came closer into view did she breath, as fruitless as it was.
Dani looked and stood up fast, almost falling onto her butt in surprise – from the change in gravity, to the sight.
A little kid in a purple shroud with beady red eyes looked down at her, holding an intimidating metal staff three times his size. She was pretty sure he could crack her skull open with that, if she made him mad.
"Um excuse me, where is Clockwork?"
The kid laughed and the tone was too polite to sound genuine; to Dani, it was as if the ghost had placed a technological manipulation over his voice from an audio software, to make his words sound farther away than they actually were.
"I am Clockwork."
Dani was too dumbfounded to say a word. A floating baby was going to be the one to help with her wish?
Absurd.
"Desiree, what a surprise it was to be, had I not foreseen you both coming."
Dani could tell a rehearsed dialogue when she heard it.
And such words always chilled her bones, whether the words applied to her or not.
Words like that always followed something bad.
Desiree had left Dani to wait in Clockwork's lobby, confident the girl could handle her own devices for the minute or so it would take.
Though, the girl had been left rather upset. Desiree hoped granting the girl's wish would make her forget about all of it.
An ecto-bloodied dagger was held in Desiree's hand – Dani's blood, taken from the girl's bleeding palms - without permission.
The scowl of betrayal from the girl had been intense, unlike any glare a ghost had ever given her. Desiree shivered, as it reminded her of her once living life.
Betrayal had been an ingredient for such a powerful wish. As much as Desiree sought to give wishes for free, there was always a price.
While Desiree loathed to have hurt Dani in anyway, accomplishing wishes always took precedence over personal feelings – the blood would tell Dani's location to her soon-to-be parents – and like hunting-hounds they would memorize the scent on the dagger, so they would never lose her on a planet so big.
Clockwork approached her, brandishing his staff as a wizened old man. Desiree preferred his older forms more – seeing him crawl upon the stone as a newborn baby, whispering commands in a tiny voice – always freaked her out.
The type of wish Dani had requested required Clockwork's cooperation – only he was able to make the manipulations necessary to welcome eldritch-beings to the planet peacefully.
But fortunately, Clockwork was always more than happy to provide the workshop she sought.
It was rare for ghosts of such power to work with one another, and Clockwork was kinder than most.
"Here you are Desiree," said Clockwork, gesturing with his ominous staff to a metal bench and table, and there Desiree was given a map that would guide her to Danielle's wish. The parchment was dark, and littered with stars within stars, orbs within orbs, and globes within globes.
It appeared simple but only on the surface.
A ring on Desiree's hand flashed, manifesting the collected wish.
"I wish for real parents: a mom and dad, ghosts like me."
Neither Clockwork nor Desiree spoke a word, but it was Dani's voice which rang out into the tower-ceiling above.
Desiree's fingertips rippled with Dani's wish, captured and recorded, unleashed in front of Clockwork's Tower for it to bear witness to the new reality to be woven.
"Dani is currently residing in a village-town named Amity Park, so we shall take Dani's parents to the same location, correct?" Asked Desiree, not daring to take her eyes off the map, least she make a mistake.
Clockwork smiled, hiding needle-fangs behind thin, blue skin.
"I have found them already, long ago, the perfect ones suited for the role. They live right besides the dimension we reside, doing little else but hibernating in the space between, waiting for the last stars to burn out. It would be good to wake them for a change, as they have grown fat, lazy, and unpracticed from their past conquests."
Desiree was quiet, hanging on Clockwork's every word, as she knew little of the creatures beyond Earth.
Clockwork seemed confident he had selected the correct parents for Dani, and Desiree could only trust in his judgement, as she still had much to learn before she made judgements against him.
"You're only strong enough to spirit away one of them from its shelter." A bony finger tapped a spot on the map. "This one here is your target, and I shall grab the other one, using conditions I see fit." Desiree didn't blink, throwing herself into a spell of concentration; she would need every drop of power in which to awaken her target from its eldritch-cocoon –- conveniently placed, right next door.
"They have fallen asleep so close for this exact purpose," Clockwork assured. "The deal was set up well in advance."
The one Desiree would awaken was slumbering in the Earth's sun, coiled up as if within an unhatched egg.
'How pleasant, and cozy such a bed it must be,' Desiree sarcastically thought.
While Desiree enjoyed granting wishes, this one was particularly bittersweet, and would not be forgotten anytime soon.
She stabbed the dagger coated with Dani's blood into the spot on the map – piercing a veil into a dimension she could not yet properly perceive, but one which Clockwork assured her existed and bleed.
Desiree's wishes always came with backlash, a caveat, a price for generosity, and though Desiree had grown to adore Dani in their short time together, she could not unshackle the chains of her condition.
A wish was to be granted, no matter the cost.
Then the dagger disintegrated into the cut it had ripped against the map's surface, like quicksand, bubbling raw like an infected wound.
Granting this wish hurt.
So bitter and sour was the power.
Desiree trembled as she walked away from Clockwork and the dangerous chamber, which was soon to house Danielle's father, whom would be sent down to Amity Park once he'd awoken – and as for fetching the mother, that act had been left up to Clockwork.
It was rare, borderline impossible for Desiree to feel the sting of her own wishes, but for Dani's wish she did – she caught glimpses of what was to happen, and she realized she could no longer be around the sweet little girl Dani, as the guilt when she looked at her would be too much – dagger-stabbing excluded.
Because of the wish she granted, the future was in question.
Amity Park was to burn in fire and ice.