seen from Romania
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Here's this year's Invisobang piece for Afterlife Lessons by @fangirlwriting-stories! The fic is a fantastic read, and all chapters are up to read right now! Go check it out here and my partner artist's beautiful pieces on their blog @torchturtle (pieces:1 2 3)!
Afterlife Lessons
Summary: Sam’s awareness of ghosts extended to exactly two pieces of knowledge: Danny’s parents are ghost hunters, and ghosts are dangerous and she should stay away from them.
Unfortunately, neither of these things becomes something in her favor when she and Tucker are kidnapped by a ghost and turned into ghosts themselves— or half ghosts, apparently, something clarified to them by Amity Park’s resident hero Phantom, who also promises to stick around and help them figure out their new forms and powers.
But while Sam is certainly grateful for the help, now that she’s regularly spending time with their local ghost protector, she’s noticing things about him that seem a little more familiar than they should. And also that Phantom’s strong confident hero persona might be a bit more of a facade than anyone‘s realized.
Author's Note: I did an invisobang this year! It was a ton of fun to write, and (once the art is posted), I'll post the art in each chapter it matches with! I'm gonna be posting all fifteen chapters in rapid succession, so get ready for a lot of posts from this blog! I'm going to make a masterlist in just a minute, and I'll also tag every post with the title.
Art For This Chapter: @torchturtle link
...
Sam’s awareness of ghosts extended to exactly two pieces of knowledge, and both of those things came from Danny. The first, that Danny’s parents hunted them, which he’d told them in embarrassment shortly after they met. The second she’d learned shortly before it had been revealed to everyone that ghosts did, in fact, exist— when Danny had told her ghosts are dangerous, stay away from them.
Sam had admittedly been more than a little surprised when Danny told her this. Like she’d said, he tended to be more embarrassed by his parents’ work than anything else. Granted, he’d never said outright that he didn’t believe in them, and there were a couple of times Sam had seen him taking precautions that she knew his parents had recommended. But she knew he’d just be uncomfortable if she brought it up, so she didn’t.
And then, suddenly, he was very serious in his telling of her that ghosts were dangerous, and she should avoid them at all costs. Sam hadn’t had the first clue where the shift had come from, but he’d timed it pretty well, because it was around that time that Amity Park started getting regular visits from ghosts. Luckily for them, one of those ghosts included Phantom. And while the town in general was split on him and Danny was still just as insistent in telling her and Tucker to stay away from him, Sam saw the things he did. The ghosts he fought. The people he saved. There had never been a doubt in her mind that Phantom was an ally.
She hadn’t ever really expected to count on that fact directly.
But then, she’d also never been directly targeted by a ghost before. She couldn’t think of much else this one in particular could be doing, though. The vampire-looking ghost knew her and Tucker’s names, it singled them out specifically on the way to school, and it had grabbed them and tied them up on seats in the back of a plane, of all things. That was a little difficult to misinterpret.
Tucker was still breathing very quickly across from her in his window seat, and Sam was trying to make sure that he didn’t have a panic attack, while also looking around the plane for anything they could possibly use to help themselves. She didn’t even know ghosts had planes, much less ones this… fancy. This thing looked fancier than her parents’ private jet, which made her hate it for two reasons.
“Tucker,” Sam said quietly, drawing his gaze. “You see that compartment up there labeled with a parachute?”
“No,” Tucker said immediately, looking very intently down at the floor. “No, I absolutely do not see it.”
“Tucker.”
“Sam, you are insane if you think I’m risking jumping out of a plane!”
“You’d rather get to whatever secondary location this guy is dragging us to?” Sam snapped, still keeping her voice down.
“Right, because obviously the guy who kidnapped us and is dragging us somewhere is going to leave us with perfectly made parachutes that won’t break halfway down to the ground,” Tucker snapped back, which… was actually a decent point, though Sam loathed to admit it.
“Look, do you have a better idea?” she asked instead.
“Try to escape while we’re not several miles in the air?”
“When we’ve made it wherever we’re going so this guy has a home field advantage?”
“I don’t know Sam! We don’t have a ton of options!” Tucker snapped. “I still think I’d rather be kidnapped than dead!”
“Are you sure?” Sam asked seriously, giving Tucker a look, and then jerking her head backwards toward the cockpit. “We don’t know what he wants.”
“I don’t want to die, Sam,” Tucker said desperately. “I think we have a better chance of not dying if we stay on the plane until we get wherever we’re going. Plus, you can’t even stand up to reach that compartment anyway. Let’s just… stay put.”
Sam gave a huff of irritation and a little bit of fear, but gave in to Tucker’s fairly decent points and leaned back in the plush chair.
“Okay,” she said. “Let’s try and work this out, then. We’ve been flying for what, an hour now? Where do you think we’re going?”
“We’re heading north,” Tucker said, with a nod towards the window. “Based on the way the sun was rising earlier.”
“Great, so that narrows it down to a little less than half the continent,” Sam groaned. “Do you think he’s staying in the U.S.?”
“Do I think a ghost cares about a country’s borders? I have no clue if we’re going to Canada. Maybe he’ll just keep flying north and drop us in the middle of the ocean.” The second after Tucker said it, he seemed to realize what he’d said, and his face turned a little queasy. “I hope not.”
“Me too,” Sam muttered, looking out what little of the window she could see from her position, given that she couldn’t shift in the chair at all. She couldn’t see the sun anymore. She was glad Tucker had spotted it earlier, even if it didn’t give them a ton of clues as to where they were going.
They didn’t have to wonder for that much longer, however, because it wasn’t more than five minutes later before a disgustingly pleasant voice announced that they’d be beginning their descent, and that they hoped the landing was just as horrible as the takeoff had been.
Sam glared up at the ceiling as if that was where the voice was and tried to come up with a map in her head. They really hadn’t been flying for more than an hour. That wasn’t enough time to get them to Canada, was it? They couldn’t be much further than Wisconsin.
Once they got off the plane itself, they were taken towards some sort of castle that looked like something her parents could afford to build. Which might not be that far off in terms of expenses, given there was an actual runway in the back. Maybe this ghost happened to be a friend of theirs, and this was Sam’s parents’ newest way of threatening her into wearing floral print.
The ghost that had kidnapped and brought them here, however, didn’t seem super keen on answering any questions. Its only comment before it grabbed them both by the arms and dragged them towards a back door was “I hope you two had a terrible experience,” paired with a supervillain smirk so dramatic it was almost ridiculous.
He clearly was not super worried about being gentle about dragging them, if the ache forming in Sam’s wrist was any indication. But she didn’t have much time to focus on that. Instead, as soon as her feet were on the ground, she started looking around for escape strategies, but the ghost was holding their arms way too tightly for running to be an option, and she didn’t feel confident in her ability to get both her and Tucker into the forest surrounding the castle. Especially considering how far away it was. The grounds for this place weren’t small.
The castle itself was white brick, with gold roofs and absolutely covered in green flags. The door they were being dragged to looked like an entrance to a basement of some kind. Sam glanced over at Tucker to find him looking around too, but after a second he glanced at her with a helpless look on his face, meaning he hadn’t noticed anything she hadn’t.
Sam took a deep breath, and mouthed to Tucker, “On three.”
Tucker bit his lip, clearly scared, but nodded.
Sam brushed past her own fear and looked back on the door. Their smartest option would probably be to try and break for it when he had to shift his grip in order to hold on to them and go for the handle at the same time. He’d be doing that any second now, she just had to wait for—
A cold feeling swept over Sam just before she reached the door, and before she could question what that meant the ghost dragged her and Tucker right through the solid door and into the castle.
Sam blinked. Well. So much for the shifting his grip plan.
“Uh,” Sam said, looking at Tucker. “Three!”
Tucker started pulling backwards on the ghost’s arm as Sam did the same, but it didn’t even seem to phase the ghost. In fact, he looked down at them and laughed in obvious amusement.
“Oh yes, that’s sure to work. He really hasn’t ever let you near ghosts before, has he?”
Before Sam could figure out what the hell that meant, the ghost floated upwards just far enough to lift Sam and Tucker off the ground, robbing them of any force they could have attempted to use to get away.
Sam, in a last desperate attempt, leaned up to try and bite the ghost’s hand, but the ghost did the same thing to just their hands that he’d done to get them all through the door, and Sam’s teeth went right through it.
She turned to Tucker. “Okay, you have any other ideas?”
Tucker’s only response was a scared look.
They went through a couple more doors the same way as before, and then the ghost pulled them down through the floor, into some kind of lab. It looked eerily similar to the one in Danny’s basement, right down to the portal over on the wall.
“Well, I think we’ve made excellent time,” the ghost said, flying them straight over to that very portal. “Let’s set you both up.”
“Or, we could not do that?” Tucker said nervously.
“Who are you?” Sam snapped, glaring at the weird vampire ghost. If they weren’t going to escape, she might as well get as much information as possible from him.
“Oh, don’t worry about it child, I’m sure you’ll get a much better explanation from Daniel.”
Sam blinked. “Danny knows you?”
The vampire ghost didn’t reply, and instead flew over closer to the portal. Sam leaned back away from the swirling green she had no desire to go through, but before he could toss them inside, she heard a whirring sound, and the portal powered down to leave an empty mechanical tunnel. Sam glanced over to see… the same vampire ghost? There were two of them? The second one, however he was there, was pressing buttons on a box next to the portal.
A box that probably wasn’t supposed to be blinking like that.
“Uh,” Sam said, as the vampire ghost holding on to them carried them into the tunnel. “You wanna fix your box thingy?”
“No thank you, it’ll be more useful like this for now,” the second vampire ghost said, though Sam couldn’t see him anymore. “Though it’ll be quite a bit of work to fix the portal after using it for something like this.” He sighed, like their kidnapping was an inconvenience for him. “Oh well, can’t be helped.”
The second vampire ghost flew in and took Sam from the first, then carried her over to the side of the tunnel, seeming barely even to notice Sam’s struggles.
He and the other one then strapped her and Tucker to the sides of the portal, and flew off unconcerned. Sam saw the reason why a moment later, the restraints didn’t budge no matter how much she tugged on them, and she could see Tucker doing the same thing across from her.
“Regret not trying for the parachutes yet?” Sam snapped.
Tucker opened his mouth to say something, but before he could, there was a yell of “VLAD!” and a loud crash from the room outside of the portal.
Both of them turned, and in the part of the room that the portal wasn’t blocking, Sam saw Phantom shooting blasts across the room, presumably towards one of the vampire ghosts.
Tucker let out a relieved sigh. “Nope, I think we have a better shot now,” he said.
Sam couldn’t blame him. They may not have ever interacted with Phantom personally, but that didn’t mean they didn’t know what he was capable of. If Phantom was here to rescue them, they were safe.
Phantom, however, didn’t seem to realize that, because the second he turned and spotted them inside the portal, his eyes widened in surprise and what looked like fear.
…Okay, maybe they should be a little nervous?
Tucker seemed to realize the same thing, as a second later they both went back to struggling.
Phantom started right for them, but one of the vampire ghosts— Vlad, he’d said?— instead slammed into him from the side and out of their view.
Sam couldn’t see what was happening anymore, but she could easily hear them.
“Let them go, Plasmius,” Phantom snapped.
“Or you’ll what? I’m looking for specifics here, my boy.”
“Specifics? I’ll smash your teeth in, now let them go!”
There’s a loud sigh. “No, you see, that’s the kind of thing that makes me think this is necessary in the first place.”
Sam glanced across the portal at Tucker, who shrugged, looking just as lost as her.
There was the sound of an ecto blast, and then Plasmius flew across the room. Phantom started immediately for the portal again, but before he could reach it, the other vampire ghost shot a blast at him that sent him back out of view again. The second one then flew after him and reappeared a second later, holding Phantom in a tight restraint that seemed much more difficult to hold than Sam and Tucker’s had been.
Sam tugged hard on the restraints, then stopped when she felt her wrist start to strain in a way that couldn’t be good.
“For the record,” she said to Tucker. “We totally should have tried for the parachutes.”
Tucker gave her a desperate look.
“Sorry it had to be this way, child,” came Vlad’s voice from out of view, “but you really should get better at solving your problems yourself.”
Phantom looked towards Vlad, apparently long enough to not like what he saw, because then he looked wide-eyed back towards Sam and Tucker— and that was the moment Sam knew they were fucked.
Something behind them in the portal lit up, and Sam turned her head towards it in time to see a bright green light.
Phantom screamed “NO!” loud and desperate, and then Sam’s world erupted.
Afterlife Lessons Masterlist
For your convenience, all of the chapters linked below!
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Epilogue
Afterlife Lessons
Masterlist
Chapter Fifteen/Epilogue:
“Hey, Tuck,” Sam said. “Hand me that butter knife, would you?”
In response, Tucker dropped the knife from where he was lounging on the ceiling, and Sam just managed to go intangible before it stabbed her in the head.
“Uh, fuck you?” she said, raising her hands up at Tucker.
“You’re already dead, stop being such a baby,” Tucker said, flopping back against the ceiling he was laying against and taking another bite of his chicken sandwich. “Plus, it’s a butter knife.”
Sam picked the knife up and tossed it right back at Tucker, who yelped and turned intangible to let it get stuck in the ceiling.
“Yeah, that’s what I thought,” Sam said, reaching through him to grab it. She turned back to the jelly and started spreading it on her sandwich bread, after wiping the ceiling off the knife.
“Uh, guys, if we could not leave holes in the ceiling that’d be great?” Danny said, from his own spot making a grilled ham and cheese on the stove.
“Oh please, you know you could just pass it off as a stray shot from your parents’ latest invention,” Sam said.
“That excuse only works so many times!” Danny exclaimed.
“Yeah, yeah, whatever,” Tucker said. “Hey Sam, could you put the mayo away?”
He drops it, only for Sam to shoot it right back up at him with an ectoblast, just one not strong enough to actually damage it. “Fly over and do it yourself, lazy butt,” Sam said.
“Ughhh,” Tucker groans, but hovers back over to the fridge and drops the mayo inside.
“Alright,” Danny says, flipping his grilled ham and cheese onto a plate before turning to face both of them. “My parents aren’t gonna be gone all night, so if we’re doing this we need to eat and go.”
“Of course we’re doing this,” Sam said. “We did your observatory thing, now it’s my turn to sneak into something fun.”
“Hey, I thought I won with the tech lab,” Tucker said. “I want to make ‘em all act up so they lower the price.”
“Nah, Danny vetoed that because he’s boring.”
“You guys can’t just mess with products that people pay for!” Danny said, throwing his hands up.
“Booo,” Tucker called.
“No one’s gonna be scared by that, Tucker,” Danny said, carrying his sandwich over to the table as he sat down. “You can do better.”
“That wasn’t a haunting, I’m booing you! And why do you always get to decide the morals anyway?”
“Because I’m the leader,” Danny said, taking a bite of his sandwich.
“Oh please!”
“Are not!”
“Am too!” Danny said. “I got here first, that makes me the leader.”
“Oh, that is so not how that works,” Sam said, carrying her own sandwich over to the table as she finished making it.
“Why are you complaining, you get to pick the activity.”
Sam considered this, then nodded. “Okay, you can be the leader for tonight.”
“What? Sam, you traitor!”
“We’re going to a goth bookstore after dark!” Sam called, ignoring Tucker’s protests.
“We’re still not stealing anything,” Danny said.
“We’ll see,” Sam said, taking a bite of her sandwich.
Danny rolled his eyes, but let it slide. Probably because he thought she was kidding.
It didn’t take long for the three of them to finish eating and head out, with Danny giving a quick call to Jazz that they’d be back late. And not long after that, they were all flying through the air, half racing and half just joking around.
And sure, maybe Danny was still being really boring with his insistence on sticking to hero morals, but Sam could live with that for one night. Besides, stealing things they wanted couldn’t hold a candle to seeing Danny actually laughing and having fun as Phantom.
Things weren’t perfect yet by a long shot, but they’d gotten a lot better. Danny had followed through on “no more secrets,” and reluctantly started teaching them both a little about fighting ghosts. It was difficult, like he’d said, but it could be fun sometimes too, and Danny seemed like he agreed with that a little more lately. She’d started to see him bantering back and forth with the ghosts they fought and making puns during fights again, which, while annoying, was a good sign. And while he was still harder on himself than Sam would like, she could tell he was doing better than before. They could work on the whole “keeps a mental list of everyone who’s ever gotten hurt during a ghost fight” thing.
And in the meantime, they could all do intentionally stupid teenage things, dead or otherwise. Though in Sam’s opinion, the dead ones were more fun. And having two dead best friends to do them with didn’t hurt, either.
Afterlife Lessons
Masterlist
Chapter Fourteen:
“He’s not here,” Sam called to Tucker, poking her head out of Danny’s closet. “He must have left right after we did.”
“Then he could be anywhere,” Tucker said, looking around in concern. “Where would Danny hang out as a ghost?”
“I don’t think he does,” Sam said. “He told us he never got to goof off as a ghost— or, he told us as Phantom, anyway. I think he really does just use his ghost half for fighting.”
“Okay,” Tucker muttered, tapping anxiously on his arm with his opposite hand. “I don’t want to ask his parents. If they start looking for him—”
“Yeah, let’s not do that,” Sam agreed. “Fuck, okay, um. He can’t break into the observatory in the middle of the day. He didn’t look like he’d be in the mood to go pull pranks. And obviously he just stays here, so that hangout place was a lie.”
“We kinda made it not a lie, though?” Tucker pointed out. “I mean, with all those decorations and what not. Do you think he actually appreciated them, or was he just putting on a face?”
“We got them because we knew Danny would like them,” Sam said. “And we didn’t think we knew what Phantom would like yet. He has to like them. Maybe that’s a good place to start. I honestly don’t know where else to check.”
“He’d have to show up eventually, right?” Tucker said. “I mean, he has a life to live too.”
“Unless he just completely tries to avoid us now as a cover,” Sam said. “Because he’s an idiot.”
“Okay, we’ll worry about that later,” Tucker said. “We’ll start with the hangout place we set up.”
So they both flew out through the walls of Danny’s room, and off towards the clubhouse place they’d made with Phantom— with Danny.
Which, Sam still had so many questions. Why on earth had he tried to do all of this alone? She had first hand experience with how hard it was to learn to be a half ghost, she couldn’t imagine Danny trying to figure it all out without any help. All of those stories he’d told them about his half ghost friend were obviously just about him, which made her even more concerned, because those stories hadn’t exactly sounded like someone who was handling the transition well.
Not to mention all of the ways she now knew Phantom got hurt on a daily basis. Ways she couldn’t brush off anymore, because Phantom wasn’t a professional superhero who had tons of experience and knew exactly what he was doing, he was Danny, and he was clearly not doing so hot. She’d started to realize Phantom wasn’t doing well before she realized he was Danny, and that obviously just made it worse. God, she really hoped everything he’d said over the past day about Phantom wasn’t something he actually felt, she hoped it was just something he said to keep up the ruse. But she had a feeling it wasn’t.
All of the thoughts rushing through her head on the way to the clubhouse meant she didn’t exactly say much, but Tucker was clearly in the same boat, so the two of them just held tightly to each other’s hands so they could see each other while flying intangibly and made their way there as fast as they could.
Thankfully, their gut instincts actually paid off for once, because when they got there, Danny was sitting on the ground as Phantom, curled up around the plushie Tucker got him.
Sam exchanged a worried look with Tucker, and then they both flew down to meet him.
“Danny?” Sam said, because why put that part off. Danny jerked upright, clearly not having heard them coming, and his eyes widened in panic as soon as he saw them.
“Who— who’s Danny?” he said weakly, sliding back while keeping a tight grip on the plushie. He had tears running down his face that Sam politely ignored.
Instead, she gave him a deadpan look. “Who’s Danny” wouldn’t have even worked if they hadn’t put the pieces together, they’d talked about Danny before.
Danny seemed to realize this, and pulled the plushie closer to him and buried his face in it.
“Dude,” Tucker said, floating closer and putting a hand on Danny’s shoulder. “It’s okay.”
“It’s not okay,” Danny said weakly, muffled by the fabric in his face. “It’s not okay, it’s— I couldn’t save you.”
“You helped us,” Sam said, wrapping her arms around Danny before he could protest. “You moron, we couldn’t have made it through this without you.”
“You could have,” Danny said, shaking his head, even though he didn’t pull away from Sam, and he let go of the plushie and buried his head in her chest. “You— it was just easy for you.”
“Yeah, because we weren’t trying to handle everything ourselves, dumbass,” Sam said. “And because we had you to help us.”
“Dude,” Tucker said, joining the hug from Danny’s other side. “You can’t protect the entire town all by yourself. That’s too much for one person.”
“I can’t even do it right,” Danny muttered, seeming to completely ignore the last part of what Tucker said. “It’s not— I suck at it.”
“Hey,” Sam said, pulling back just enough to whack him on the head. “Stop that.”
Danny wiped at his eyes and didn’t say anything.
“Hey, seriously,” Tucker said. “Why didn’t you say anything?”
“Would you have believed me?” Danny muttered.
“I mean, maybe after we literally turned into half ghosts too, Danny.”
Danny sniffed and wiped his eyes again. “But then you were dead,” he whispered. “You were dead and it was all my fault—”
“Oh, my god, I was serious, stop it with that,” Sam said, giving Danny a lighthearted shove. “How about instead we blame the guy who actually decided to kidnap and kill us, considering he’s the one who actually did it.”
Danny shook his head. “But he wouldn’t have if I hadn’t—” he started, and then stopped.
“If you hadn’t what?” Sam asked. “Can we be done with secrets, please?”
Danny looked down at the ground. “He was trying to make me talk to someone,” he muttered. “Because every ghost and their dead mother could tell that I needed to.”
“Wait,” Tucker said, sounding baffled. “Like, he was trying to be nice?”
Danny snorted. “Yeah. That’s Vlad for you.”
“Okay but he’s the one who decided the best way to get you to do that would be to actually kill us,” Sam pointed out. “Which—” she wrinkled her nose. “That’s dumb. He’s fucking dumb. And I’m gonna kick his butt later.”
Danny laughed, and though it didn’t sound like his best, Sam was glad to hear it.
“Point is, of course it’s not your fault,” Sam said, pulling back so she could look Danny in the face. He didn’t look up from the floor, however, so Sam reached out and tapped his chin until he did.
“I mean it,” she said.
Danny nodded. “Okay,” he said weakly.
“Good,” Sam said, and she reached out and pulled him into a hug again. This time, Danny hugged her back, and Tucker joined again a second later.
They all sat there for a bit, though they eventually sat back.
“But hey,” Sam said, drawing Danny’s gaze again. “For future reference, maybe don’t try and get us off your scent by saying that the beings we just turned into are terrible and dangerous? Because uh, that sucked.”
Danny looked away again. “Yeah, I’m sorry,” he said. “I didn’t think that one through very well.”
Sam snorted. “No kidding,” she said, playfully shoving Danny’s shoulder. She added just enough lightness to her tone that Danny started to smile again.
His smile only lasted a second, though, before he was looking down and starting to fidget with his fingers. “I’m really sorry Vlad dragged you into my mess,” he said.
“Oh, don’t be stupid,” Sam said. “We’re helping you now.”
Danny’s gaze snapped upward. “What? No, I already said—”
“Yeah, you’re teaching us how to fight, and then we can kick some ghost butt with you,” Tucker said. “I mean, we did alright last time.”
“You really didn’t,” Danny said.
“Oh, and how exactly did your first ghost fight go?” Sam asked, raising an eyebrow.
“I don’t see why that’s relevant.”
“Danny, come on,” Sam said. “Look at me and honestly tell me a half ghost fighting superhero doesn’t sound like something I’d absolutely love to be.”
Danny looked at her. “A half ghost fighting superhero is not something you’d love to be, Sam,” he said. “It’s not glamorous. It’s hard and it’s painful and it sucks. You have to hide injuries and exhaustion and your life starts falling apart.”
“Well, all of that sounds like something that would be a lot easier with three ghosts doing the fighting instead of one,” Sam said firmly.
“And if you think we’re letting you do all of this by yourself, you’re nuts,” Tucker said. “We already weren’t going to let you do that. We’re especially not now.”
“Besides, I think part of the reason you think it sucks is because you don’t ever do literally anything else as a ghost other than fight ghosts,” Sam said. “Are you trying to tell us you didn’t enjoy pulling ghost pranks with us?”
Danny snorted. “That was so stupid,” he said, with his ‘god I love you two idiots so much’ smile growing on his face.
“But it was also fun,” Tucker said, grinning right back at him.
Danny shook his head, and wiped at his eyes one last time, but his expression was lighter, and he didn’t look quite so miserable anymore.
“Hey,” Sam said, catching his gaze. “I love you, dumbass.”
Danny smiled, and this time it stayed there. “I love you guys too,” he said quietly.
“Good,” Sam said. “Glad we got that settled. Next time you half die, just tell us, okay?”
Danny gave a short laugh. “Yeah, you got it.”
“Good. Now who wants to go steal some ice cream?” Sam asked.
“Oh, I do!” Tucker said brightly, hopping to his feet.
“Sweet, let’s go.”
“You guys,” Danny said, flying after them both as they took off. “I’m supposed to be the good guy—”
Afterlife Lessons
Masterlist
Chapter Three:
Flying, Sam had officially decided, fucking ruled.
The wind in her face, the birds flying next to her, and Tucker next to her looking terrified of the height were all excellent positives in regards to the experience. It was a little difficult to figure out how to hold herself at first, but she figured it out pretty quickly.
…At least, that’s what she thought, before she heard the muffled laughter coming from behind her and turned to see Phantom holding his hand in front of his mouth.
“What?” she asked.
“No, no, you’re fine,” Phantom said, waving his arms and doing a very bad job at hiding an amused smile. “Keep going, don’t let me stop you.”
Sam turned and put her hands on her hips. “What?”
“No, no, nothing,” Phantom said, looking away and putting his hand over his mouth. “You’re totally supposed to flap your arms that much.”
“Oh and I suppose you knew how to fly perfectly from day one?” Sam asked.
“What, I said you’re doing it right! Keep flapping your arms like a child’s attempt at showing a bird in charades, you’re doing great.”
“Phantom!”
“Okay, okay,” Phantom said, laughing as he waved his hands in front of his face. “Look, just, put your arms at your side.”
Sam did that, and Tucker followed suit next to her.
Phantom flew effortlessly around in front of them. “You really don’t need to think about it much,” he said. “Flying is almost easier than walking. Think of it kind of like controlling a joystick in a racing game. Just lean to the right, and you fly that way. You don’t need to move any of your arms or legs to stay up, just think about it.”
Sam tried leaning to the right slightly, and found he was right, and it happened easily.
“There you go,” Phantom said with a nod and smile. Sam glanced over at Tucker and found him looking much sturdier too.
“I still don’t like being up this high,” Tucker muttered, looking down at the ground below them.
“Yeah, well, you’ll get used to that,” Phantom said with a shrug. “You’re not gonna fall. And if you do, I’ll catch you. But really, you’re not gonna fall.”
Sam was pretty sure he was right about that. She didn’t feel at all in danger of falling towards the ground, and she hadn’t even when she was flying in a way Phantom apparently found hilarious. He was right, flying was pretty effortless.
So the three of them kept flying back towards Amity Park, Sam and Tucker following Phantom, who seemed to know the way. Sam felt more and more confident as she flew, until she was barely even thinking about it anymore.
Then, the next second, the cold feeling swept over her again, and she pulled her hands out in front of her to find them see-through.
“That’s okay,” Phantom said immediately, turning around without slowing down before Sam could even start to panic. “That’s intangibility. It’s normal.”
Sam nodded. She’d seen that more than once today, and now that she was thinking back on the little she’d seen of Phantom, she remembered him using it fairly often in ghost fights.
A second later, the cold feeling wore off and Sam looked down at her hands again to see she’d returned to normal. Or well, normal as a ghost.
Phantom was still looking at her thoughtfully though, and after a second he sighed. “You know, it might be a better idea for you guys to call in sick for a couple days. Just until you can have at least a little bit of control. I can stop by and see how you’re doing, too.”
“Oh no, but then I’d miss my math test I’m super not prepared for,” Sam deadpanned. She shrugged and glanced over at Phantom. “I was… sort of planning on skipping school anyway once this happened.”
Phantom quirked a smile. “Good call.”
“I mean, to be fair, it’s only sort of a lie,” Tucker said. “We do have a new medical condition. You know, of sorts.”
Sam snorted, and Tucker grinned at her.
“Nice to see you’re already joking about it,” Phantom said. “You’re gonna need that.”
Sam nodded. “Yeah, I’ll imagine the ghost fights aren’t going to be all fun and games, huh.”
Phantom turned to her in surprise and clear distaste. “What? Why would you be ghost fighting?”
“Oh, I just kind of figured that was part of the package,” Sam said. “You know, since you fight them all the time?”
“Absolutely not,” Phantom said firmly, crossing his arms. “That’s not your job.”
“But they’re not going to stop showing up,” Sam pointed out. “Once we learn how to control our powers, we can probably—”
“No,” Phantom said. “You don’t need to worry about that. That’s my job, I can handle it. You just focus on getting a hold of your ghost halves.”
“Yeah honestly Sam, I’m okay with that plan,” Tucker said. “I don’t know if I want to be a teenage superhero.”
Sam sighed. “Yeah, alright,” she grumbled. Tucker had a point, at least for now. They’d probably have enough going on soon without having to worry about ghost attacks too. Phantom knew what he was doing, and if he said he could handle it, he could handle it.
But still… fighting ghosts… Sam could only imagine how cool that was.
“Good,” Phantom said, turning around. “Glad that’s settled.” He was quiet for a couple moments, then continued, “We’re almost home. I’m probably going to need to check in on you two a couple times in the next few days, but if you don’t feel comfortable with me coming to your houses, we can set up another place to meet.”
“You saved our lives today, dude,” Tucker said. “If we’re going to be talking more anyway, I don’t have a problem with you knowing where I live.”
Sam nodded. “As long as you’re not going to do anything creepy.”
Phantom blinked. “I’m a ghost,” he said. “It comes with the territory.”
“You know what I meant,” Sam said, rolling her eyes.
Phantom smiled a little. “I know what you meant,” he confirmed. “I’ll knock on your window before I come in. I’ll come by each morning for as long as you stay home and leave around lunchtime. Deal?”
Sam nodded again. “Deal.”
They headed first towards Tucker’s house to drop him off, since it was closer. Phantom said that for today, he’d phase them into their rooms, and that they should sneak down later to make it look like they came home at the normal time.
“Eh, I’ll be fine,” Sam said, waving the idea off. “I’ll just tell Mom and Dad I climbed up the side of the house again because I didn’t want to deal with them.”
Phantom snorted. “Fair enough,” he said.
He phased them both into Tucker’s room, and then Tucker turned back human and walked over to sit on the bed.
Before immediately disappearing and falling straight through the floor.
Phantom did the same thing and darted down after him. A second later he reappeared in the room, mostly visible, but with his hand gone. Then a second later Tucker reappeared, and then Phantom’s hand did.
“So that’s what you meant by falling through the floor,” Tucker said weakly.
“Yep,” Phantom said, setting him down on the ground. “You okay?”
“I’m alright,” Tucker said.
“I didn’t realize you’d just disappear like that,” Sam said. “When I turned intangible I could still see myself, I just looked weird and see through.”
Phantom nodded. “Yeah, it’s a little different when it’s you versus someone else,” he said. He glanced back at Tucker. “Are you gonna be okay if I take Sam home?”
“Actually,” Sam said, turning back to Tucker. “What if I just stay here? We can say we got sick together or something, and then we can be here to help each other out when you can’t.” She directed the last part at Phantom, who blinked in surprise.
“Uh, yeah,” he said. “That’s not a bad idea. Is that good with you?” he asked Tucker.
“Honestly, please,” Tucker said. “I would much rather not do this alone.”
“Cool,” Sam said with a grin, changing back into a human and flopping back on Tucker’s bed. “Oh, wait!” She sat up again and turned to Tucker. “We have to tell Danny!”
“Oh shoot yeah!” Tucker said. “Maybe we should just call his house and ask him to come over.”
“Uh,” Phantom said, “what?”
“Oh, our best friend, Danny Fenton,” Sam said, turning to him to explain. “We tell each other everything, I don’t think we could keep this from him. Especially considering everything that you said is about to start happening while we get our powers under control.”
Phantom looked at her for a minute, and for the first time, Sam couldn’t read his face.
“Danny Fenton,” he said slowly. “Like, the Fenton’s son? The ghost hunters?”
“Oh no, it’s not like that,” Sam said, waving her hands. “Danny’s not a ghost hunter like his parents.”
“Yeah, and it’s not like we can just hide this from him,” Tucker said. “He’s our best friend. I trust him.”
Sam nodded in agreement.
“And… he’s totally on board with ghosts?” Phantom said carefully. “He doesn’t think they’re dangerous?”
Sam opened her mouth, and hesitated. Actually, that was about the only thing Danny ever said about ghosts. Still, she shook her head.
“If we explain to him, he’d listen,” she insisted.
“Are you sure?” Phantom said, crossing his arms.
Sam exchanged an uneasy glance with Tucker.
“Look,” Phantom said. “I… I’m not saying you can’t ever tell him. Just… I’d make sure you were a little more sure about what he’d say first.” He bit his lip and looked away. “It’s not an easy thing to come to terms with, for anyone. My friend would have lost everyone he knew if he told anyone. He still would.”
Sam shook her head, but it was more hesitant. “But how does he know if he’s never tried to tell anyone?”
Phantom looked at her solemnly. “He knows.”
Sam swallowed and didn’t say anything else.
“Just… give it a little time first,” Phantom said. “It’s a good idea.”
“Okay,” Tucker said, rubbing the back of his neck. “Maybe you have a point.”
Phantom gave a short relieved sigh. “Good,” he said, which is when Sam realized he had said that because he was worried for their safety. From Danny. Which didn’t feel right.
But then again, Phantom probably didn’t know any better, especially if his only interactions with the Fenton family had been with Danny’s parents, who admittedly were not great with ghosts. Sam still wanted to tell Danny, but maybe it could wait until she could convince Phantom it was safe. Then Danny could be friends with him too.
…Not that they were friends or anything. Phantom was just helping them out while they got used to things, that was all. Why had she jumped straight to them being friends?
“Right now I need to head out to take care of some things,” Phantom said, backing up towards the window without turning around. “I’ll be back in a couple hours to help you lie to your parents.”
“Looking forward to it,” Sam said with a grin. Tucker looked more unsure, but still nodded.
Phantom nodded, then walked slowly backwards towards the window, not taking his gaze off of Sam and Tucker.
“Uh, you good?” Sam asked.
Phantom seemed to shake himself, then nodded. “See you in a bit,” he said. Then he turned intangible and flew through the wall and away.
Sam turned to face Tucker, who turned to look back at her. He was shaking a little bit, and Sam couldn’t blame him.
“Sam,” Tucker said weakly. “Did that all just happen?”
Sam nodded weakly back. “I think it did,” she whispered.
Tucker took a shaky breath. Sam stood up, walked across the room, and pulled him into a hug.
“It’s gonna be okay,” she said, squeezing him tight. “We’re gonna be okay.”
Tucker raised his arms and hugged her back. “Yeah,” he agreed. “Yeah we are. Especially with Phantom helping us.”
Sam nodded, pulling back with a smile. “Exactly,” she said. “He knows what he’s doing.”
Tucker nodded back, seeming to feel at least a little better. Then, a second later, his expression turned puzzled.
“Sam,” he said. “Why did that ghost come after us?”
Sam opened her mouth, then paused in thought.
“It was clearly specific and targeted,” Tucker said. “And it seemed to have something to do with Phantom. But we’ve never met that vampire ghost before. Or Phantom, for that matter.”
Sam shook her head. “I don’t know,” she said. “That doesn’t seem to make any sense.”
Tucker was quiet for a moment, then nodded, more to himself. “We’re gonna have to figure that out.”
“I thought Phantom said we’re not supposed to worry about ghost fighting.”
Tucker snorted. “Were you even considering listening to him?”
Sam grinned. “Why Tucker! Are you accusing me of liking the idea of kicking a bunch of supernatural ass with my cool new superpowers?”
“You? Never,” Tucker said, rolling his eyes.
“You sure you want to help?” Sam asked. “You were the one who said you didn’t like the idea of being a teenage superhero.”
“I’ll do recon,” Tucker said with a shrug. “A lot of figuring out what that vampire ghost wanted is probably going to be detective work anyway.”
“Aww, you’re gonna be my man in the chair,” Sam said, reaching over and giving a noogie to Tucker’s beanie.
Tucker leaned back with a noise of protest, but before Sam could tease him the cold feeling washed over her, and suddenly she was falling through the bed.
Sam yelped in surprise, then flew up towards the air. She wasn’t sure if she was expecting to be able to do it as a human, but it was surprisingly simple. Phantom wasn’t kidding about flight being an easy thing to master.
“Sam?” Tucker called, looking around for her. “You okay?”
A second later the cold feeling wore off, and Sam dropped back down onto the bed, visible again. “All good,” she said. “Phantom was right, flying until it wears off is a good idea.”
“I figured,” Tucker said. “I have a feeling he knows what he’s talking about.”
“What, just because he’s been doing this way longer?” Sam asked with a smile.
Tucker opened his mouth to reply, and then his stomach growled. He laughed a little. “Yeah, it’s probably about lunch time,” he said, scratching the back of his neck. “My parents are still at work, you want some lunch?”
“That sounds good,” Sam agreed. Then she smiled. “I’ve got an idea.” She thought about the now-familiar cold feeling, and then the next second, she was falling through the bed on purpose. As soon as she saw the lower floor, she started floating, and then tried to make it wear off.
Which didn’t work. Darn.
Tucker appeared at the top of the steps a second later. “Sam? You here?”
The intangibility wore off, and Sam lowered herself to the floor. “Okay, so I can’t make it go away as easily, but I can cause it. Good to know!” She turned back to Tucker. “You know Tuck, I think this just might be a little fun. Now what vegetables can I dig out of the back of your pantry?”
Afterlife Lessons
Masterlist
Chapter Two:
Hurt. Everything hurt. Sam was pretty sure things weren’t supposed to hurt this much.
There were voices talking— or screaming?— but she couldn’t make them out. A second later, there was the sound of something metal releasing, and then Sam hit the ground. She groaned, and tried to push herself up, but before she could manage she felt someone gently grasp her by the shoulders. She pried open her eyes and found Phantom, looking desperately into her face. He said something, but Sam couldn’t hear him.
Then, a second later, he turned around and looked at Tucker. Sam followed his gaze. Was that Tucker? He didn’t quite look right.
Phantom turned back to her a second later and held out his hand. And though Sam still didn’t really know what was going on, she took it. Then Phantom turned and grabbed Tucker’s hand too, and before Sam could ask what was happening, Phantom pulled them both up and into the air.
That same cold feeling came over Sam as when she was pulled through the door, but also less intense somehow. And then Phantom pulled the three of them up and through the air.
Sam didn’t have enough time to ask him what was going on before he flew them all up and away from the castle, then lowered them down in the middle of the nearby woods. He let them go, but didn’t stop looking back and forth between them, and finally he just turned around and settled on the ground across from them, desperation still clear on his face. If Sam didn’t know better, she’d say those were tears in his eyes.
He said something, but Sam still couldn’t hear it. She shook her head harshly a couple times, trying to get her ears to start working again.
That was apparently a very bad idea, however, because a sharp spike of pain went through her head.
It did, however, allow her to start hearing Phantom.
“Are you okay?” he was asking, and she felt him gently holding her arms again.
Sam looked up at him, and something shifted in his face.
“I’m so sorry,” he whispered. “I’m so sorry, I— are you okay?”
“My head hurts,” Sam said, reaching up with a wince.
“Yeah,” Phantom said. “That’s gonna happen. I— I’m sorry.”
“It’s not your fault,” Sam said in confusion.
Phantom shook his head, and looked about to say something, but didn’t. A second later, he turned to look at Tucker, and Sam did the same— then drew up short.
“Tucker?” Sam asked, staring at him. Tucker was staring right back at her, but Sam was more focused on him.
That had to be Tucker. Phantom had picked him up along with her, from right where Tucker had been inside the portal. But rather than the Tucker she’d seen just a couple minutes ago, there was instead someone with shock white hair, dark purple pants and a lighter purple shirt, and… a tail.
“Tucker what,” Sam said weakly, “what happened to you?”
“Uh, I could ask you the same question,” Tucker said, with what was definitely his voice. He gestured at her, and Sam looked down to see bright white clothes and green tights. She pulled a bit of her hair forward and found it a similar color to Tucker’s.
“Okay,” Phantom said, and both of them turned to look at him. “This… I know this is probably confusing. And… upsetting, and surprising. But it’s going to be okay.”
“Wait, does that mean you know what just happened to us?” Tucker asked.
Phantom hesitated, then nodded. “If I had to guess,” he said quietly. “You’re half ghosts.”
Sam stared at him. She felt faint. “H-half—” she said weakly.
“It’s okay!” Phantom said immediately, almost desperately. “It’s going to be okay, I promise! It—” he took a deep breath, and then leaned back and ran his hands through his hair.
“You don’t seem super confident in that yourself,” Tucker said nervously.
Phantom let go of his hair and shook his head. “It’s going to be fine,” he said firmly. “Because you’re not going to be doing this alone. I’ll be right there, okay? There’s gonna be a lot of weird stuff that’s about to hit you, but I’ll be right there to help.”
“You— huh?” Sam asked, trying to pick something to focus on so she wouldn’t start freaking out. “Why would you do that? We’ve never even met you before.”
“You need help,” Phantom said, like that was enough of an answer.
“You don’t help ghosts,” Tucker said. “You fight ghosts. Don’t you?”
“You’re half ghosts,” Phantom said. “I think. But either way, this is different.”
“Why?”
“It just is,” Phantom said. “Look, I think we can figure this out right now. Just, focus on your chest. Is there a warm feeling there?”
Sam looked down at her chest and tried to focus on what she felt there, and found that Phantom was right. She nodded, as Tucker did the same across from her.
“Focus on that,” Phantom said. “And think about being human.”
“Think about being human?” Tucker asked in bafflement.
“Trust me.”
Sam closed her eyes and did that, and a second later she felt the warm feeling in her chest expand, and then it flipped around, and—
“Woah,” Tucker said, echoing Sam’s feelings as she opened her eyes.
And there was Tucker, back to looking normal.
“Tucker!” she called happily, and Tucker’s gaze brightened too when he glanced over at her. Before Sam could think much about it, she rushed across the space between them and wrapped her arms around him. Tucker hugged her back immediately, and Sam breathed out a relieved sigh.
“I’m glad you’re okay,” Tucker said quietly, and Sam pulled back and gave him a smile.
She glanced over at Phantom a second later. From what Sam could tell, he looked tense, but in a strange way, that almost seemed fragile too.
A second later Sam wondered why in the world she could read all of that so easily. People didn’t tend to mention Phantom as being bad at hiding his emotions.
“Okay,” Phantom said stiffly, and Sam brushed the thought off. “So that solves that mystery. Half ghosts.”
Sam looked down at herself, and felt her chest loosen further in relief when she saw her normal clothes, albeit a bit roughed up due to being dragged across a state and a half before lunch.
“You’ll learn to control the ghost aspects eventually,” Phantom said with a nod in their direction. “But there might also be a little bit of… falling through floors, and chairs, and stuff, first.”
“And stuff?” Sam asked.
“How… how do you know that?” Tucker asked. “Wait, how did you know we were more likely half ghosts than just de—” he stopped.
Phantom seemed shaken by the word he’d almost said too, but then he clenched his fists and took a breath. He looked away, clearly thinking about something.
“Phantom?” Sam asked hesitantly.
“I know one,” Phantom said, looking back over at them. “A half ghost. I met him when his ghost half first formed. He’s explained a lot to me.” He paused a second, and then his nose wrinkled. “And I don’t mean Vlad,” he clarified, with a glare back towards the direction of the castle. “He’s a terrible excuse for a half ghost.”
“This isn’t the first time something like this has happened?” Tucker asked, eyes widening.
Phantom gave a short laugh, looked down for a second, then raised his head again. “It’s the third,” he said.
None of them said anything for a moment, and Phantom seemed very willing to let Sam and Tucker take a moment to absorb that.
Finally, Tucker said quietly, “Are we dead?”
Phantom flinched, and Sam was surprised with how much it caught her off guard.
“A… little bit?” Phantom said hesitantly. He looked down and clenched his hands into fists, clenched a little too tightly around the grass. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s… okay,” Sam said slowly. She wasn’t totally sure why.
Phantom shook his head. “I’m supposed to protect you.” He seemed to freeze a second later and quickly added, “I’m supposed to protect everyone in Amity Park. I failed.”
“You’re one guy,” Tucker said. “Or— ghost. Don’t be so hard on yourself.”
Phantom took another deep breath and sat up. “Don’t worry about me,” he said firmly. “I’ll be fine. I’m more worried about you two. The first couple weeks of being a half ghost are the hardest. It’s not easy to hide.”
Sam exchanged a nervous glance with Tucker, and then she turned back to Phantom. “What do we do?” she asked.
Phantom sighed. “Well, there’s gonna be a lot of times you’re gonna feel yourself start to transform unwillingly. Don’t try to fight it off completely, just get to somewhere you can be alone and let it happen. Trust me, it’ll be better in the long run. You’re gonna go intangible with no warning. A lot. If you fall through the floor, just fly upwards and wait until it wears off. Otherwise you’ll get stuck inside the ground and that’s… not fun. Flying is actually the easiest thing to get a hang of, which is lucky for that reason. I’m gonna have you fly on the way back to Amity Park to help with that. Invisibility and intangibility tend to go hand in hand, especially in the beginning, so don’t worry about differentiating them yet. Uh… what else was happening in the beginning…” he looked down in thought, and then glanced back at them. “Sorry, it’s been a while since I, uh, talked to my friend.”
Sam blinked a couple of times.
“Not gonna lie, I was mostly just trying to process what the heck any of that means,” Tucker said.
“Yeah,” Sam agreed.
Phantom laughed a little, and Sam saw an actual spark of amusement in his eyes. “That’s fair,” he said. “Don’t worry too much about it yet. I’ll be there to help too. And with any luck, we’ll get through this with no one seeing any of it.”
“Uh,” Tucker said. “With any luck?”
Phantom looked him dead in the eyes. “It is entirely a matter of luck.”
Tucker laughed weakly. “Great.”
“It’s going to be okay,” Phantom said firmly. He stood up and held out a hand to them both. Sam reached out and took it, and Tucker did the same a second later. Phantom looked them both in the eyes as he helped them stand.
“I am not going to let anything happen to you,” he said. “And if anyone does find out, I won’t let them hurt you.” He winced. “Again.”
Sam let out a shaky breath and nodded. For as crazy as today had been, she trusted him. Phantom was still the town hero for a reason, he knew what he was doing. If he said he had them, Sam believed him.
“Okay,” Phantom said, giving a sympathetic smile. “You ready to try and transform back so we can all fly home?”
Afterlife Lessons
Masterlist
Art For This Chapter: @junicane-dp link
Chapter Thirteen:
It took a little bit for Sam to decide how she felt about the fight with Phantom. They didn’t see him again that day, and neither of them felt particularly inclined to go looking. Some time to cool off sounded like the best idea. It gave Sam some time to think, and by the end of the day, she’d realized a couple things.
For one, Phantom was clearly not doing so hot. People don’t insist they’re fine and can handle everything themself while bleeding out of a wound in their side unless they’ve got some stuff going on.
But his motives still aligned pretty neatly with what Sam understood about him. He wanted to protect her and Tucker. The intensity was a little confusing, but mostly because Sam wasn’t really confused by it. The three of them had only technically met a little over a week ago, but she didn’t question Phantom’s very firm insistence that he needed to protect them, she just knew it made him an idiot.
Idiot or no however, it did make him a great example to give to Danny in regards to a ghost that clearly wasn’t malicious. So the next morning found her in front of Danny’s locker, waiting for him to show up. Before he did, however, Tucker got there first and headed over to her.
“Hey,” he said. “So I figured something out.”
Sam turned to face him. “Yeah?”
Tucker nodded. “We shouldn’t talk about it here. After school?”
Sam nodded back. “Okay. You sure?”
“Yeah. Before we meet up with Phantom.”
Sam gave him a curious look but didn’t argue.
“Uh, hey, are we all having hangouts by my locker now?”
Sam turned to see Danny approaching and started grinning. She stepped aside and let Danny open his locker, and then started taking.
“Hey Danny,” she said, trying to keep her voice more casual than mischievous or smug. “I have an argument for you.”
Danny sighed, long and exhausted. “First thing in the morning?”
“Phantom saved our lives yesterday.”
Danny set his bag in his locker and slammed it shut. “No he didn’t.”
“Hey, how would you know?” Sam asked, crossing her arms. “You weren’t there.”
She saw Danny clench his jaw, and she knew she was getting to him in at least some way.
But then Danny said, “I know because there’s no way that menace actually did something helpful,” and Sam felt her own jaw clench.
“Don’t talk about him that way.”
“Why not?” Danny said, starting down the hallway. “He’s the worst ghost out there, isn’t he? That’s what everyone says.”
“No, that’s what your parents say,” Sam said. “And if you got your information from literally anyone else in addition to them, you’d know better!”
“I know enough,” Danny snapped. “He’s a worthless excuse for a hero who can’t even save people right, and he’s gonna get someone killed one day.”
“Hey,” Tucker said, sounding just as angry as Sam did. “You really don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Yeah, and honestly Danny, I think we might know Phantom a little better than you do,” Sam said.
Danny snorted. “Oh, do you,” he said, and then he turned and walked into homeroom before either of them could respond.
Sam huffed and crossed her arms. She was a little surprised by how angry that conversation had made her, but only a little. It wasn’t a conversation about all ghosts in general, it was about Phantom, and he was her friend, and she cared about him. Maybe this “using him as a good example” idea was a double edged sword. And she’d let it go, except now Danny had directly insulted her friend, and she couldn’t just let that slide.
So, she walked into homeroom, slid into the seat across from Danny, and said, “What exactly does he do that makes him not a hero? You think—”
“Well, just for starters, he’s fought my parents before,” Danny said without looking up.
“No, your parents fought him. There’s a difference. They initiated things.”
“He’s a ghost,” Danny said, glaring up at Sam. “If they hadn’t, he would have.”
“You understand how biased that is, right?” Sam snapped.
“Doesn’t change the fact that he fought them while they were trying to protect everyone,” Danny said. “He made it harder for them to do their jobs.”
“Your parents couldn’t hit a ghost if one hovered in front of them and asked them to,” Sam said.
Danny blinked in surprise, then narrowed his eyes. “Hey.”
Okay, maybe that was a bit too far.
“Hey, let’s all calm down,” Tucker said, drawing both of their attention. “People are starting to stare at us.”
Sam glanced around and saw that it was true. And yeah, having a knock-down drag out in homeroom maybe wasn’t the best idea.
“Fine,” she said. She turned a glare back on Danny. “But don’t think this conversation is over.”
Danny rolled his eyes and turned his own glare back to the table. Neither of them spoke again for the rest of homeroom.
…
“So your only problem with Phantom is that he fights your parents sometimes?” Sam asked as soon as Danny walked up to the lunch table. She’d use the loud noise as an excuse when Tucker got there.
Danny groaned as he sat down. “Honestly Sam, just drop it,” he said. “Why do you care so much, anyway?”
“Because you’re being really unfair and insulting to someone I really admire,” Sam said, crossing her arms.
“Why do you admire him?” Danny asked, looking up at the ceiling. “Pick a better option.”
“Well the only reason you’ve given me not to so far is that he’s mean to your parents sometimes,” Sam said, narrowing her eyes.
“That is not the only reason,” Danny snapped. “That’s not even the reason I gave you, but that’s hardly the point. You want reasons? How about the destruction of property following him everywhere he goes, ruining homes and livelihoods?”
“That’s not his fault! It’s not like he goes around destroying buildings! They get smashed up when he’s fighting ghosts!”
“And? He should be better at this by now,” Danny said, and he shoved a chicken nugget in his mouth.
“Oh sure, and of course you’d be much better at protecting property during fast paced dangerous ghost fights,” Sam said.
In response, Danny shoved another chicken nugget in his mouth.
“Yeah, that’s what I thought.”
“You know what, I really don’t have to sit here and take this,” Danny said. And before Sam could ask what that meant, he picked up his lunch and walked off.
“What— Danny! Get back here, you prick!”
Danny didn’t give her any kind of response, and Sam glowered after him. Whatever, she had food to eat, and he wasn’t worth chasing after over that. She’d catch up to him later and keep giving him a piece of her mind. For now, Tucker was walking over to her, looking at Danny leaving the lunchroom as he did, which meant she’d have to explain.
“What’s up with him?” Tucker asked as he sat down.
“He can’t stand the fact that someone’s trying to defend Phantom right to his face,” Sam snapped. “As if it’s impossible for a ghost to be a benefit to society.”
Tucker sighed and sat down. “Do you want to give it a rest? We knew he’s like this.”
“Yeah, but that was with ghosts we didn’t know,” Sam said, stabbing her fork into her salad.
Tucker sighed. “Yeah, I know,” he said. “I’m annoyed too. Just, you’re not gonna change Danny’s mind in one day.”
“No, but I can sure try.”
“Sam.”
“I just want him to admit he’s not the worst ghost out there,” Sam said. “Seriously. I need to hear him say that.”
Because she did. Both because Phantom was her friend, and she didn’t like hearing him talked about that way, and because… she wasn’t sure. But there was something else bugging her.
Tucker seemed to read at least some of that in her face, because he nodded. “Okay,” he said. “Just, make sure you don’t push too hard, okay?”
“Yeah, yeah,” Sam sighed. “Okay.” She thought for a minute. “Maybe we talk about it more casually in a hangout. Like we offer going over to one of our houses to play Doomed or something. So we’re not just arguing back and forth.”
Tucker nodded. “Okay,” he said. “Let’s do that.”
So next time Sam saw Danny in class she asked if he was up for Doomed after school. Danny gave her a suspicious look, but ultimately agreed, and offered his own house as the place to go, since he had the console they were most familiar with all playing together. Sam agreed, and Tucker was down with it too, meaning after school found them all there on bean bags in front of Danny’s console. The feeling was casual and lighthearted enough that Sam almost didn’t want to ruin it.
But the something else that was bugging her wouldn’t leave her alone, so eventually, in a pause after she beat a level, she turned to face Danny.
“Okay, genuine question,” she said, hoping to at least try to keep the lighthearted tone. “You really don’t think Phantom is a hero?”
Danny groaned, and put his hands over his face. “God, again, really?” he asked.
“I’m asking! It’s not a stance most people have,” Sam said, crossing her arms. “You know, with all the ways he fights ghosts and protects everyone in Amity Park?”
“Stephanie Bacon,” Danny said, counting off on a finger. “A five year old who got caught in the crossfire of a ghost fight with Technus. Donna Smith, a middle aged woman who got crushed against a building and broke her leg during a battle with Ember. Anthony Walker, an old man Phantom grabbed too roughly to pull to safety, breaking his wrist. Riley Adams, a teenager who got a bad concussion after Phantom failed to catch them in time and they hit the ground—”
“Uh, hold up. What is that?” Sam asked.
“Everyone who’s ever gotten hurt during one of Phantom’s ghost fights,” Danny said, looking down at his controller and fiddling with the buttons instead of meeting her eye.
“Dude,” Tucker said. “Do you have that memorized?”
Danny nodded.
“You—” Sam took a very unsuccessful calming breath and ran her hands through her hair. “Danny, do you understand how completely unfair to him that is?”
“Oh, yeah?” Danny said, glaring up at her with so much fury that it actually caught her off guard for a minute. “If he’s going to claim to be this big hero, he needs to be held accountable for his fuckups.”
Sam shook herself, and went back to glaring at him. “That’s not how you hold someone accountable,” Sam snapped. “That’s how you hold onto an unfair grudge. Ghost fights are fast and dangerous. You can’t expect him to make perfect decisions all the time.”
“If he wants to say he’s actually helping people, he needs to learn how to do better than that,” Danny said. “People could get hurt in ways that don’t heal.”
“That wouldn’t be his fault either,” Sam snapped.
“You’re going way too far to defend him, Sam,” Danny said, glaring back down at his controller, which he was squeezing so tight Sam was a little concerned it might break. “When would you stop? What if someone gets killed on his watch? Is that something that you should just let go?”
I already did, Sam didn’t say.
Instead she said, “Do you honestly think Phantom wouldn’t try absolutely everything to stop that from happening?”
“Maybe he would, maybe he wouldn’t,” Danny said. “That’s not the point. If it’s not enough, that makes him just as much of a monster as every other ghost.”
And honestly, Sam had about had enough of this. Maybe Danny had gotten most of his knowledge from his parents, and Sam had tried to give him a little grace with that. But she’d been consistently pointing out flaws in that kind of thinking, examples of ghosts being different than his parents thought, and he hadn’t changed his mind at all. And if he was going to be this prejudiced towards one of her actual friends, Sam was done putting up with it.
So, she walked over to Danny’s bedroom door, locked it for safekeeping, turned and met Danny’s confused face now gazing back at her, and transformed.
Danny’s mouth fell open.
“I’m a ghost, Danny,” Sam snapped. “Am I a monster?”
Danny looked faint, even as he stood up from his bean bag. “Y-you— you just—”
“Sam!” Tucker called, running over in front of Danny and sticking his arms out as a barrier between him and Sam. “What are you doing, you idiot?”
Sam saw Danny look at Tucker, probably processing that Tucker “knew” or something.
“Wh- I don’t understand,” Danny said, taking a couple of steps back. “Why would you show me that?”
Sam noted with slight confusion that Danny wasn’t asking any questions about “what” or “how” and had instead jumped straight to “why.” But she could wonder about that later.
“Because you’re being a total prick and I’m tired of dealing with it,” Sam snapped. “And because, somehow, I trust that you’ll keep it a secret.”
She felt a little crazy even saying it, but she did. There wasn’t a doubt in her mind that Danny wouldn’t tell anyone. Even now.
Apparently there were a couple of doubts in Danny’s mind, though, because he shook his head and took another step back. “How— how do you know?” he asked weakly. “What if I just go and turn you right over to my parents so they can rip you apart molecule by molecule?”
Sam snorted. She turned intangible, flew right through Tucker, dropped the intangibility and leaned right into Danny’s face. “Go on then,” she said. She pointed behind her towards Danny’s bedroom door. “Do it.”
Danny stared back at her with wide eyes, and Sam met his gaze with a firm determined one.
Finally, Danny pulled his gaze down, away from hers just slightly.
Sam leaned back, satisfied. “That’s what I thought.” She turned to Tucker. “Come on, Tuck,” she said. “You want to fly home?”
Tucker looked hesitantly at her for a second, then back at Danny, and then nodded, and transformed just like her. He looked at Danny for a moment, and Sam looked back over to see something strange and broken on Danny’s face.
But she was done cutting him slack.
“Come find us when you stop being a dick,” she said. Then she flew through Danny’s wall and started home, Tucker right behind her.
Sam took off as fast as she could as soon as she was outside Danny’s window, letting the anger and adrenaline fuel her into getting as far away from Danny, as fast as she could.
“Sam!” Tucker called, flying faster to try and catch up with her. “Sam, wait!”
Sam stopped with a huff and turned around, only for Tucker to soar right past her.
“Woah!” he said, spinning around and doubling back. “I uh, thought I’d have to chase you a bit longer.”
“Can you believe him?” Sam snapped, gesturing angrily back towards Danny.
“Uh, yeah,” Tucker said, looking… not angry? Why wasn’t he angry? “Sam, I… I don’t know if he was being a hundred percent honest there.”
Sam blinked. “Honest?” she asked. She’d attributed a lot of things to Danny’s behavior. Prejudice, ignorance, stubbornness. She hadn’t really put ‘dishonesty’ on the list. “What do you mean?”
Tucker looked back over his shoulder, seeming hesitant. “Sam, that thing I was going to tell you? It’s about Vlad Plasmius.”
Sam blinked. “What? What are you talking about?”
“That thing I discovered is about Vlad Plasmius. Phantom said he was a half ghost too, right? Well, I think I figured it out. His human half is Vlad Masters.”
Sam blinked again. “Vlad Masters like Danny’s piece of shit godfather who won’t stop hitting on his mom?”
Tucker nodded. “Yeah.”
“Okay? So?”
“So, don’t you remember what he said? When we were asking panicked questions about what he wanted and who he was? He said we’d get a much better explanation from Danny.”
Sam nodded, vaguely recalling something like that. “Yeah, okay.”
Tucker looked at her like that meant something. “Sam, why would Danny know anything about that?”
“He knows about ghosts?” Sam said. “Or, he thinks he does.”
“Okay, sure, but knowing about ghosts is one thing. Knowing about half ghosts seems to be another thing entirely.”
“What’s your point?” Sam asked.
“And you know,” Tucker said, ignoring her question. “Didn’t Phantom seem awfully sure what Danny’s reaction to us telling him anything about ghosts was going to be? And then Danny reacted exactly like Phantom thought he would?”
“Maybe Phantom was just a good guesser,” Sam said, though she didn’t really believe it.
Tucker shook his head. “Sam, Vlad seemed so sure Danny knew things about half ghosts. And that he’d be talking to us about them. But Danny hasn’t said anything to us about them, ever.”
“Okay,” Sam said, trying to ignore the queasy feeling in her stomach. “So that’s… what does that mean?”
Tucker gave her a look, like he didn’t want to believe it either. “Sam, come on,” he said. “We know what it means. I know I’m not the only one who’s noticed everything.”
Sam opened her mouth, but nothing came out, because Tucker was right. Everything familiar about Phantom, and Danny’s sudden hatred of ghosts that seemed to come out of nowhere. The weird something else that had been bugging her the whole time Danny had been shitting on Phantom. The way he’d asked “why” instead of having any questions about “what the fuck are you.”
Sam squeezed her eyes shut. “Oh, goddammit.”
