Each and every hair that Danny sheds, turns white.
Maddie pulled the lint trap out of the dryer to empty it but paused when she noticed bits and specks of it glowing.
She pinched at one of the glowing parts and rubbed it between her fingers.
A hair. A single white hair just a few inches long.
Maddie combed through the rest of the lint and picked out a couple more strands of glowing white hair. She sealed them in a zippered storage bag and brought it into the kitchen.
“Jack? Have you seen strands of white hair around the house?”
Jack held the fridge door open and stared intently at the options on the shelves. “White? You mean grey? I’ve been losing a little more hair than usual lately, I guess.”
“No, it’s not yours.”
“Oh, babe.” Jack turned back to her with a frown. “They’re not yours, are they? Hey, middle age, you know I’m there with you—”
Maddie scowled, her cheeks flushing. “No, Jack. They’re not mine either.”
“Oh.” Jack blinked. “Uh, sorry. What are we talking about?”
“This.” Maddie held up the bag of white hair. “I found them when I was doing laundry.”
Jack’s brow furrowed. “They’re glowing. White ghost fur?”
“No, it’s not fur. It’s definitely hair.”
“Really?” Jack took the bag from her and held it close to his face. He reached inside and pulled out a single strand, squinting in inspection. “You’re right. But I’m not seeing a follicle. Might’ve been destroyed in the wash if it was ever there at all.” He placed the hair back in the bag. “Might be tough to get a good DNA sample.”
“Maybe there’s more around the house.” Maddie held a fist to her chin and looked out at the living room. “On clothes or blankets or even just in the carpet.”
“Let’s be on the lookout for more. If there’s a ghost hanging out in our house, we’ll find it.” Jack bit the inside of his cheek. “I’m just surprised our ghost sensors haven’t detected anything.”
Maddie crossed her arms and tapped her boot against the floor. She raised her eyes as a thought struck her. “Phantom.”
“What about him?” asked Jack.
“Phantom never triggers our ghost sensors for some reason,” said Maddie, her tone rising, pace quickening. “And he knows where we live. And we’ve seen him holding one of our Thermoses or other inventions multiple times. Obviously he’s been sneaking into our house and stealing things.” She held up the bag. “And he has white hair about this length! It’s got to be his.”
Jack smirked. “You’ve got Phantom on the brain again, don’t you?”
“But doesn’t it make sense?” asked Maddie.
“We’ll need to find a strand of hair with a follicle on it to find out for sure.” Jack clenched a fist. “But if it is him, that punk ghost can’t outrun us forever.”
Later that evening, after a healthy meal Maddie made sure was not contaminated with any ectoplasm this time, the whole family watched a movie together in the living room.
“I knew that was going to happen,” said Jack. “I told you, remember?”
“But it doesn’t even make sense,” said Jazz. “That could never happen in real life.”
Jack and Jazz proceeded to debate and criticize the movie as they so often did. Maddie smiled at Danny, who was sitting next to her but had fallen asleep some time ago. His head lay back against the sofa, his mouth open slightly.
She brushed a few unruly bangs off his forehead, bangs that really needed a trim. He sucked in a breath and opened his eyes, groaning slightly when he caught her looking at him.
“You’re such a light sleeper,” teased Maddie. “Are you tired?”
Danny mumbled a reply and groggily blinked.
“If you did your homework earlier, you wouldn’t need to stay up so late finishing it,” said Maddie.
Danny leaned forward, resting his elbows on his thighs. “I did some of it during lunch today.”
“That’s good to hear,” said Maddie.
Jack and Jazz were still picking apart some trivial detail from the movie. Maddie started rubbing and scratching Danny’s back.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a tiny light.
Maddie turned to inspect. She plucked a strand of glowing white hair from off the couch behind Danny and held it close to her face.
How long had it been here?
Didn’t matter. The important thing was this one had a follicle.
Maddie closed her fingers over the hair and stood. All heads turned to her.
“I’ll be back.” Maddie walked to the door leading down to the lab. “You don’t need to pause it for me.”
At her work station, Maddie cleaned the hair, cut off the fragment she needed, and placed it in an extraction reagent to be digested. She had done this so many times before but this time seemed to be taking forever.
Heavy footsteps fell on the basement lab stairs. Maddie did not need to turn to know who it was.
“What’s going on, Mads?” asked Jack, coming up behind her.
“I found a white ghost hair with a root on the couch.” Maddie gestured to the equipment at her station. “It’s incubating right now.”
Jack grinned. “Really? Talk about luck!”
Maddie groaned and leaned over the counter. “I just wish the extraction process didn’t take so long.”
Jack tugged on her arm. “We’ll come back later when the kids are in bed. We’re gonna analyze that sucker tonight and figure out which ghost it belongs to!”
“It has to be Phantom,” said Maddie, allowing Jack to drag her out of the lab. “Who else could it be?”
Late that night, long after they made sure their kids were in bed, Maddie and Jack determined the final sequencing results from their DNA extraction and analysis.
Jack yawned and checked the clock in the lab. “I can’t believe it’s three already. I’m beat.”
Maddie bounced lightly on her toes. “Oh, I’m not. I am ready.”
They compared the DNA sequencing from the hair sample to a sequencing they had already obtained from Phantom several months prior.
“It’s a match,” said Jack. “You were right. It’s Phantom’s hair.”
Maddie clutched the printed results in her hands, crumpling the sheet slightly. “I knew it! He’s been coming into our house to steal our inventions!”
“And sit on our couch apparently,” said Jack. “Maybe he likes our Netflix subscription.”
“We’ll need to set up cameras.” Maddie began pacing the lab. “We’ll just tell the kids it’s only for a little while. Or we don’t have to tell them; they’d never know.”
“And maybe some laser sensors that only ghosts can trip,” suggested Jack. “Worth a try even if our other sensors never pick him up.”
Maddie grinned at him. “If Phantom wants to be in our house so bad, we might as well make our lab his permanent residence.”
Over the next couple weeks, Maddie studied footage from the interior cameras installed in the house and checked the logs for the laser sensors. But there were no hits, no glimpses, no Phantom.
Saturday afternoon, Maddie drove toward her favorite hair salon with Danny in the passenger seat. She had found several more strands of Phantom’s hair around the house just that morning, but still no sign of Phantom when she checked the camera recordings.
She stared out at the traffic, her head feeling heavy and dull.
“What’s wrong?” asked Danny.
Maddie pulled up to a red light and turned to look at him. The tips of his bangs collided with his eyelashes.
“Nothing,” she said. “I just waited way too long to schedule your haircut.”
She brushed his hair out of his eyes. Danny looked annoyed but smiled anyway.
Inside the salon, the stylist gushed over how thick Danny’s hair was before taking him to the shampoo bowls in the back. Maddie sat in the waiting area nearby and checked the camera feeds and sensor logs on her phone. Jazz was doing yoga stretches in the living room. Jack was rummaging through the pantry, probably looking for the last ounce of fudge he had forgotten he already ate.
The stylist returned with Danny and guided him into a chair, wrapping a cape around his shoulders. Maddie watched from a distance for a moment before returning to the camera feeds.
Phantom had to be somewhere in the house. He just had to be. Why else would his hair keep showing up?
“What is this?” asked the stylist, holding up a pair of scissors. “Is this glitter on your shoulders?”
Maddie looked over at Danny and the stylist. Something was indeed shimmering on his cape, small specks of light.
“It’s on the floor too.” The stylist picked up a shining piece. “No, wait, I just cut this off. This is your hair—”
Maddie marched over, her eyes darting from Danny’s shoulders to the floor. Small pieces of the same white hair she had been seeing for weeks were flecked all over his cape.
Danny caught her eye and grimaced. “Mom, it’s not what you—”
She tore the cape off him and dragged him out of the salon by the wrist. Danny pleaded and whined and begged her to listen but Maddie did not relent.
Out in the parking lot, she turned around to face him, still holding his wrist. The muscles in Danny’s jaw looked tight as his lips twitched.
“Mom.” He held up a palm. “Please listen to me.”
Maddie reached forward and plucked a hair from his head. Danny yelped and rubbed the area with his free hand.
Maddie watched as the dark strand turned white in her fingers, lighting up with a ghostly aura.
She stared at the hair for some time, then stared at Danny. His face was pale.
She held the spectral hair up between them. Her hand shook, her whole body shivered.
Maddie puts eye-drops in Danny’s eyes and they don’t react very normal...
Maddie is the worst parent ever in all of my fics.
-----
“Danny! How’d it go?” asked Maddie.
Danny approached her in the waiting room of the ophthalmologist’s office. “Good.”
Maddie held his chin and looked at his eyes. His brilliant blue irises were almost completely eclipsed by his pupils. “You don’t need glasses or anything?”
“No. He said my eyesight’s fine.” Danny squinted. “But everything’s kind of blurry now.”
Maddie handed him a pair of sunglasses from her purse. “Here. I brought these for you. Just wait here while I get you checked out.”
Danny put on the sunglasses and took a seat. Maddie headed to the front desk.
“The doctor wants to speak with you before you leave,” said the front desk person while processing the final details of Danny’s appointment. “Do you have time to talk to him now?”
“Is everything all right?”
“The note here says there was something odd about your son’s eyes.”
Maddie glanced back at Danny, who was now playing on his phone. “Yes, I can talk now.”
The front desk person directed Maddie to one of the back rooms where the doctor was waiting.
“What’s wrong with Danny’s eyes?” asked Maddie, her voice tense.
“All of the tests we completed went just fine,” said the doctor. “His vision’s great, fluid pressure is normal in both eyes, inside of his eyes look good.”
“Good, good.”
“But we were met with a little difficulty when checking the fluid pressure in his eyes. For that procedure, we must numb the eyes so that the tonometer can be placed right on the cornea. But your son’s eyes had a very...unusual reaction to the anesthetic.”
Maddie stuck out her bottom lip and crossed her arms.
“Your son’s eyes, they...glowed.”
Maddie stared at the doctor. “Glowed?”
“Yes. They glowed bright green. So bright that we had a hard time getting the tonometer placed on his cornea properly.”
“I don’t understand. Why would they glow?”
“I was hoping maybe you would have an answer for me about that,” said the doctor. “I know you and your husband are ghost researchers. You’re very well known in our town.”
“Yes, we are, but what does that have to do with anything?”
The doctor shrugged. “The glow just reminded me of a ghost’s glow. Mind you, I’ve only ever encountered one ghost, but I could never forget those glowing green eyes.”
Maddie looked up at one of the ceiling lines, trying to make sense of what she was hearing.
“Was this something you weren’t aware of?” asked the doctor.
Maddie shook her head. “No. I mean—no, I have no idea what you’re talking about. Are you sure? That’s just not even possible. I mean, unless—” She looked up again, raised her hands and let them fall with a slap against her thighs. “Unless he was being possessed by a ghost, but my ghost sensor would’ve detected that. I mean, this just doesn’t—”
“Could it be exposure to something in your home?” asked the doctor.
“No, no, I can’t even imagine.” Maddie sighed out a harsh grumble. “His eyes glowed, really? Green? But they seemed fine when I looked at them just now. They were blue.”
“The anesthetic only lasts about fifteen minutes,” said the doctor. “His eyes stopped glowing and returned to their normal color once it wore off.”
Maddie placed a finger between her lips and thought for a moment.
“Where can I get some?” she asked. “The anesthetic eye drops. Can I buy them somewhere?”
“No,” said the doctor. “You can’t buy them anywhere. And they’re not even something I could prescribe for you. They’re for use in ophthalmic practice only.”
The doctor picked up a small bottle from the counter and held it out to her.
“But I’m too curious to not give you some,” said the doctor.
Maddie took the bottle and read the label: fluorescein sodium and benoxinate hydrochloride ophthalmic solution.
“Do let me know if it happens again, won’t you?” requested the doctor.
Maddie turned the bottle over in her fingers and gave a tiny nod.
Back out in the waiting area, Danny was still playing on his phone. He stood when Maddie appeared.
“Everything good?” he asked.
Maddie cupped his face and moved the sunglasses up to his forehead. She pulled at the delicate skin around his eyes, studied the icy rings surrounding his dilated pupils, searched for any hint of a glow or ghostly presence.
“Mom?” Danny’s eyelids fluttered, begging to shut against her fingers.
Maddie lowered the sunglasses back into place and patted his back. “You have your father’s eyes.”
The next day, Maddie came home from the nearest floral shop with a bouquet of blue asters and peach dahlias. She separated the flowers and spread them out on the kitchen counter.
“What are those for?” asked Jack, peering over her shoulder.
“Just wanted to add some color to the house.” Maddie cut the stems of each flower. “I bought some fudge too. It’s on the table.”
Jack dashed to the table. Maddie left him to stuff his face while she went upstairs to Danny’s room and strategically placed the flowers in hidden areas, particularly around Danny’s desk. She added a couple blood blossoms for good measure, just in case he really was being possessed by a ghost.
She stood in the center of the room and took a final look around to make sure the flowers were unnoticeable.
She patted the numbing eye drops in her pocket.
Later that afternoon, Danny came home from school and retreated to his room to do his homework. Maddie waited an hour before knocking on his door. Danny looked up at her from his desk as she stepped into his room. His eyes were red, watery, tired.
“Danny, honey, you okay?” asked Maddie. “Are your allergies bothering you?”
Danny sniffled. “Maybe. I don’t know. I guess it is that time of year, but I felt fine at school.” He moaned and massaged the side of his head. “My head really hurts, too.”
Maddie sat on the edge of his desk and pushed his bangs off his forehead. Danny pressed a hand to his eye and rubbed it.
“Don’t do that, sweetie. You’ll just make it worse.” Maddie combed her fingers through his hair. “Let me get you something that should help.”
Maddie left the room and returned a few minutes later with a glass of water and an antihistamine. Danny downed the pill with a gulp of water and leaned back in his chair.
“And I brought some eye drops for your eyes.” Maddie pulled the bottle of numbing drops from her pocket and presented them.
Danny sniffled and shook his head. “No, thanks. Maybe I’ll just close my eyes in bed for like fifteen minutes.”
“Danny, it’ll just be two quick drops.”
“I really hate putting stuff in my eyes.”
“No one likes it. But come on, I’ll do it quick.”
Danny huffed. “Fine.”
Maddie pushed on the back of his chair. Danny grumbled but leaned his head back for her.
She held his eye open and squeezed a drop into it, then the other. Danny blinked several times and dabbed away the excess moisture with his shirt sleeve.
“Wait, why is it yellow?” Danny held out his sleeve, which was now stained with yellow patches. “What kind of eye drops are these?”
His eyes flickered, slivers of light snaking through the vessels in his eyes and spinning through his irises, breaking out in bright green.
The eye drops fell out of Maddie’s hand onto the floor.
Danny frowned at her, the light in his eyes narrowing as his brows drew together. “Mom? What is it?”
Maddie put a hand over her mouth.
“Mom?” Danny stood. “You’re starting to freak me out, Mom.”
She had seen these eyes before. That color, that shape. Where?
Phantom—
NO impossible—
She grabbed a blood blossom she had hidden around his desk. Danny cocked his head, the shine in his eyes following.
“What—is that—a blood blossom?”
Maddie held it out to him. Danny stepped back.
“Mom—”
She grabbed his arm and brushed the petals against it. Danny yelped and pulled his arm back, which was already breaking out in hives.
