Two Half Ghosts and a Funeral
The first thing Danny could comprehend as he woke up from the tranquilizer was the smell of ammonia wafted under his nose. It made his face crinkle up. Sounds started coming after that but they were slow and muffled at first. The same with his sight. When he opened his eyes, the world came to him in blobs of color. Next was the feel of someone holding up his head by his jaw and patting his cheek annoyingly.
“Up and atem, m’boy. I don’t want you groggy when you meet everyone for the first time.”
It was the first sentence he could make out. Then everything came together in a rush.
He was staring into the face of his worst enemy, Vlad Plasmius. His eyes darted around the unfamiliar setting in a panic. He was in the front seat of a car. His hands were bound by some Electrical looking, green handcuffs. He tried to phase out of them, only for the cuffs to glow and feel his power completely unavailable. Under the surface but locked away.
When Vlad saw that the boy was now completely coherent, he began his pitch.
“Now hear me out-” SMACK!!
Danny cut him off with a sudden surprise head butt.
When Danny noticed they were at a rest stop parking lot, he began screaming.
Vlad quickly covered the boy’s mouth with his hand
“Knock it off! What’s that going to do?! You WANT strangers wrapped up in this?! Now you listen to me! I have your phone. I texted your friends that you’ll be spending the weekend with your family, and I texted your family that you’ll be spending the weekend with your friends! No one is coming for you. You do exactly what I say, and you’ll be back home this Sunday night in one piece! If not, I promise you I will reign Hell on you and your loved ones like you can never imagine! Do I make myself clear?!”
Vlad removed his hand and Danny glared daggers at him. “And what DO you want, Plasmius? My DNA to clone me? A date with my mom?”
Vlad leaned back in his seat and pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration. He muttered to himself, “If only I had gotten those things sooner. I wouldn’t BE in this mess.
First things first! You see that public rest room over there? I want you to go in and change into this suit.”
He pointed to a dry cleaning bag in the backseat “And clean yourself up. You’re going to look presentable for when we arrive. We’re twenty minutes away. Be quick about it. I don’t want us to be late!”
“For what?!” Danny spat out.
Vlad inhaled sharply through his nose and closed his eyes for a moment before he provided an answer that Danny was not expecting.
All the malice was just sucked out of the boy, leaving only confusion. Of course he didn’t trust Vlad. He wouldn’t put it past the creep to make up a story like that just to make Danny let his guard down, but something about the way Vlad appeared told him, he wasn’t lying. Vlad always looked gleeful when he was lying. Even when he was making up a sob story to manipulate others. It was like he couldn’t hide how proud he was of himself to be pulling one over on someone else. He’d always slip into a smile, even if it was just for a moment. There was no smile to be found here. Danny didn’t know what to make of his enemy’s expression. Vlad looked sober and tired. It looked as though he truly didn’t want to be here doing this.
When Danny fell silent, Vlad took this as an opportunity to explain.
“I am not very close with my family. We don’t visit each other often, although we do exchange emails from time to time. I have told them that I am married to your mother. That she works as a busy surgeon. That our children are away at boarding school, and that we’re always sorry we can’t come out to see them, but we send our love. I always make an excuse for why they can’t meet my wife and children.”
“Because you don’t want them to know you’re a creepy fruitloop who lies and kidnaps kids?” Danny interjected dryly.
“I don’t want to hear YOU of all people lecture me about being honest with my family, Daniel!”
“They are in deep mourning.” Vlad continued.
“I can’t show up with another excuse as to why the wife and kids are not with me! It’ll be a drop in the bucket compared to the grief my mother is experiencing right now, but it’ll make her at least a little bit happier to meet her grandson for the first time.”
“EXCUSE ME?!” Was Danny’s incredulous reply.
“Here’s the story we’re going to go with! Your mother can’t be here because she has to take care of her own parent’s failing health! Your sister is away studying abroad in Switzerland. All the flights are grounded due to a snow storm. They can’t make it, but they’re sending flowers. I’ve already had some sent to my mother’s house with their forged signatures. YOU were able to come home from boarding school for this!”
Vlad gave Danny a threatening glare as he made his demands.
“You will eat my mother’s cooking! Give everyone hugs! Be the most polite and charming boy a grandmother can ask for! Then we lay my father to rest, and you get to go home, no worse for ware!”
“What if I refuse and run away the moment you take these cuffs off me?”
“Than I know the next funeral I’ll be invited to.” Vlad threatened darkly.
“What if I tell your family the truth when we get there?”
Vlad looked ready to either pull his own hair out or Danny’s. He slammed his hands on the car steering wheel a few times in his anger before finally taking a moment to compose himself.
“Daniel, I know you’d sooner laugh at any of my struggles, than help me, but I also know you have this thing about not wanting the innocent to get hurt. Regardless of what you may think of me, my family has done nothing to you. They are innocent people in mourning. If you expose me this weekend, it will hurt me, yes, but the person harmed most by your actions will be a recently widowed, grieving old woman.”
Danny REALLY didn’t want to do this. He couldn’t think of a worse weekend than to lie to a bunch of strangers, pretend to be Vlad’s son, and make awkward small talk about a dead man he knew nothing about, but Vlad wasn’t wrong. He couldn’t stand that innocent people would get hurt because of his actions. Although he hated Vlad for putting him in this situation in the first place.
“Why me? You’re rich. You can hire actors to be your family.” Danny countered.
“It has to be you.” Vlad averted his gaze, feeling embarrassed. “I photoshopped family Christmas cards with you, your mother, and Jasmine in them. They’re expecting someone who looks like you!”
Danny stared at his enemy, mouth ajar, surprised that even HE would sink to a level so pathetic and creepy.
“…..Dude….”, Danny’s only response.
“I thought that I would have a perfect clone and your mother in love with me by now! Life throws curve balls! Trust me Daniel! The last thing I want out of this weekend is to be anywhere near your unending teenage sass, but it looks like we’re both in for a rough time! Now here! Take this and get changed!”
He reached back and grabbed the dry cleaning bag from the back seat, harshly throwing it at Danny.
“I’m going to unlock your anti-ecto-cuffs now. I swear to you, if you flee, I will make you regret it!”
Danny only glared as he allowed the cuffs to be undone. For once he was in agreement with Vlad. This was going to be a rough weekend.
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