Chapter 44
Jazz moaned as she slouched into bed. Her parents had confiscated her phone for the time being. For the first time in her life, she was grounded.
Danny better figure this out…and fast! Jazz thought.
A light knock on her window made her eyes light up. When she didn't see anything outside, she figured Danny was playing a prank on her.
"Danny, so not funny!" She said after opening the window.
A breeze came in, but Danny wasn't out there. She shivered, turning around. In a sudden turn of events, Vlad appeared before her in ghost form. He grabbed her by the throat and held her up in the air.
"Where's Daniel? What's going on?"
"Please," she struggled to say. "You're hurting me."
He let her go, and she fell to the ground, gasping for air.
"I had to clean up his mess earlier today. He wasn't supposed to save those cops…" He said, crossing his arms as he walked away from her.
"He'll beat you," Jazz told him, holding her neck. "He's stronger than you."
Swiveling around, he narrowed his eyes. "Stronger than me? Impossible."
He must not be in range of the ghost detector system, she thought to herself. She began inching towards her bedroom door.
"It would be so easy to just kill you all, right here, right now," he pondered, taking the stone from his pocket.
Jazz gulped. "What about our mom?"
"Well, that's precisely why I can't do it. Rest assured, there will come a time when I will. But nothing can stop me from simply doing away with you right now," he sneered, menacingly. "It would the perfect set-up," he said, in a moment of realization. "Kill you now, and Daniel takes the fall. No one will ever trust him again after he does such a despicable act to an innocent girl."
"They – they won't believe you!" Jazz said, pulse rising as she inched closer to the door.
"They don't have to," he said, eyes suddenly glowing red as he flew to her. He grabbed her by the throat again, raising his other hand with pink ecto-fire.
"But you won't find out," she struggled, "where he is!"
"Jasmine, you're expendable to me. I don't need you in order to finish my plans."
"Step away, Vlad," Danny demanded, phasing through the window.
"Danny!" Jazz weakly exclaimed.
"Perfect! You'll be at the scene of the crime."
Just as he swung his arm to kill Jazz, Danny flew with stunning speed and pushing Vlad into the hallway. When the alarm began blaring, Danny was ready and quickly flew out the window before the house triggered lockdown.
"What?!" Vlad shouted. A cage fell over him, lined with a ghost shield. "Oh, fiddlesticks."
Jazz smirked. She ran to her window. "Thanks, Danny. If you hadn't gotten here in time—"
"Let's call it even. Remember when you saved my life not so long ago?"
"Get away from my daughter!" Jack yelled from below.
Danny frowned. "Gotta go. Talk later?"
"No phone."
"Agh!" He dodged a shot from his father. He floated back to her window. "Good to know. I guess I got you in a lot of trouble," he said, rubbing the back of his neck.
"Nothing compared to the trouble you're in."
Danny grimaced. "Whoa!" He shouted, as he dodged another blow. "See ya."
When Danny got back into town, he noticed something odd happening in the park. The sun was beginning to set, making it hard to make out what was happening, so he flew down to investigate.
Once his ghost sense was activated, he was on full alert. His eyes widened. The trees had come to life and were attacking people. Branches slammed down, and people were dodging them left and right.
"Who the heck wishes for killer trees?"
He saw Paulina about to get crushed under a branch and flew right to her, pushing her out of the way.
"That's the second time you saved me!" She shrieked gleefully, eyes glimmering.
He chuckled. "No problem!" She definitely had never looked at him that way – let alone even noticed his existence.
Hearing a scream, he swiveled around. Sam! He flew for her and made them both intangible as the tree beat down over them.
"Thanks," Sam said as he flew them to the sidewalk, by the fountain.
"Sure," he smiled.
"As an ultra-recyclo vegetarian –"
"You never eat anything with a face on it. I know," Danny chuckled.
She furrowed her brows, confused as to how he knew that about her, but continued her train of thought. "I'm just saying…these plants are actually really alive! It makes no sense!"
"I think I've got a pretty good idea of what's going on here," Danny said, searching the sky for Desiree.
"Phantom?"
He turned back to her. "Yeah?"
"Do you know where Danny is? He's been missing, and I'm really worried about him. I don't know if he ran from home or what…" She trailed off. "I haven't actually seen him since the festival. Right before –" Her eyebrows furrowed again.
"He's close," he assured her, putting a hand on her arm. "He'll come home soon."
Sam smiled slightly but then frowned again. "We haven't talked about what happened last night."
He gulped.
"I thought it was nice," Sam said, awkwardly. "I really like you, Phantom."
He smiled and blushed. "I like you too, Sam." He didn't want to say the next part. "But we can't be together. Not like this."
"I know you're a ghost, and – and I'm not. But it just feels so right."
He swallowed hard. "I know…" He then saw a flash of a ghost in the sky. Desiree.
"I wish you'd just tell me the truth."
His eyes filled with horror as he suddenly felt the urge overcome him to tell her everything. Desiree had granted her wish.
"I – I –" He stuttered, struggling to keep his mouth shut. "I'm actually D–"
Fight it, Fenton! He screamed internally. Before he could say the words, he bolted up into the sky to find Desiree.
"I'm Danny Fenton," he said, unable to contain it any longer. Luckily, he was too far from Sam for her to have heard him.
He spotted Desiree over an elderly couple. Suddenly, the two of them became young again. They looked excited at each other.
"Desiree!"
Upon granting the wish, she grew and flew up into the sky in ecstasy. "Haha!" She opened her eyes and looked at Danny angrily. "You?"
"Unfortunately, for you, you granted a wish for me to stay as my ghost half rather than my human half," he told her, blasting her with an ecto-ball.
"Gah! Oh, you pestilent boy!" She said, after recovering, summoning energy into her hand. It turned into a hammer.
When she used it to try to hit Danny, he quickly dodged it.
He blasted two ecto-rays at her, and she staggered backwards.
"Give it up, Desiree!" He said, lifting the thermos.
"Make me!" She yelled, pushing him.
He decked into a monster tree, dropping the thermos. The branches entangled him. He reached for the thermos, but it was no use. Despite his ghost strength, the branches were keeping him pinned down.
"Let…me…go!" Danny shouted.
Desiree grinned. "I'll never leave here! With each wish granted, I get more and more powerful! Hahaha!"
"Wishes…" Danny pondered. "Then I wish to be set free!" He yelled.
"So you have wished it, so shall it be!" She said, happily waving her hand. "Wait – no!" She shouted, unable to stop the branches from untangling around him.
He somersaulted onto the ground and got the thermos. "Time's up, Desiree!" He said, sucking her into the thermos.
Everything changed back to normal around him. He breathed a sigh of relief, then felt something pull in his gut. In a flash of light, he changed back to his human self.
His eyes darted around, making sure no one saw. Then he jumped up. "Yes! I'm me again!" Then he thought about all the chaos at home. "Oh no…I'm me again."
"Danny?" Sam said, eyebrows furrowing as she approached him. When she saw him, she came running. "Danny!" She embraced him.
He hugged her back.
She pulled away then punched his shoulder.
"Hey! Ow!" He said, rubbing it.
"Don't ever do that again! Where were you anyway?"
They started walking down the sidewalk to the park exit.
He swallowed hard. "Oh, you know, around."
Sam shook her head. "I don't get you sometimes." She then looked down at his hands. "Why do you have that?" She pointed to the thermos.
"I was just, um…helping Phantom."
"Oh really? Where'd he go?"
"Flew off somewhere. Probably miles away by now."
"Right."
I'm actually d-, he had said to her. What was the end of that phrase? She looked at Danny, wondering if he knew or was even involved. He seemed to know Phantom better than any of them. And yet, she had never even seen them talk before.