Chapter Text
It happened again.
Carol glared at her bedroom ceiling, the leg of her chair still phasing through her kneecap. It might not have been the first time she fell through a chair, but that did not mean she was used to it. Thankfully, she was able to pass it off as clumsiness at school, since nobody looked at her until she was already on the floor. Unfortunately, she probably couldn't get away with that at home. In her room, nobody was there to ask questions, but elsewhere? Her little brother might have been one of the last people she'd want to tell, but she was glad that he knew. It gave her someone to talk to.
She wasn't completely certain what was going on, but she had her ideas. Intangibility? Invisibility? The only beings she knew of that could do that were ghosts. After bouncing this idea off of James, she was pretty sure about some things. If she has the abilities of a ghost, she must be a ghost, right? She wasn't sure she wanted to be right. Either way, she couldn't tell her parents. They fought ghosts all the time. Even if she wasn't a ghost, they would be sure she was one. She had never heard of a human with ghostly powers before.
Carol sighed and got off the floor, then sat down in the chair, careful not to fall through it. Thinking about her predicament wouldn't help anybody. She decided she would work on her history assignment first to get it out of the way. They were working on a modern history unit, which sounded like an oxymoron to Carol. Still, recent history was well documented, so it was easier than most of the homework she got out of this class. Part of this assignment was to find somebody who was old enough to remember the events of the time. Looking at the subject of the assignment, she decided Grandpa Jack and Grandma Maddie would be perfect. The assignment had to with ghosts, apparently, and she'd rather not talk to her parents about ghosts. Her grandparents though? Sure.
Carol needed to get some information on her own, since an eyewitness account of the event wasn't the only requirement. She opened her laptop and worked her way to Google. She double-checked the assignment one last time, and typed in the search bar.
“Disasteroid incident.”
Immediately the website returned millions of results. Carol didn't need to see most of them and just clicked the Wikipedia link.
As she read, she was beginning to rethink her decision of avoiding the subject with her parents. It turned out that her dad was part of a major plan to destroy the asteroid of apocalyptic proportions. Sadly, that plan failed, and the disasteroid continued on its collision course.
What she read after that chilled her to her very soul.
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James was sitting on his bed, reading some comics, when he heard rushed footsteps down the hall. He was a little bit surprised when they stopped in front of his door, quickly replaced with excited knocking.
“Come in!” he shouted. His sister rushed into the room, closing the door behind her. Her excitement was palpable. The gleam in her ice blue eyes and the laptop in her hand screamed that she found something cool.
“Take a look at this!” she said, barely containing her excitement. James took the laptop, and began to read the Wikipedia page that was open.
“‘When all the other plans failed, Vlad Masters, the mayor of Amity Park at the time, revealed to the crowd that he was in fact half ghost. While he was known as Vlad Masters to the public, he was also Vlad Plasmius, an exceptionally powerful ghost. He claimed he would save the world if all the nations of earth came together, gave him five billion dollars, and made him the ruler of the world.’ Well, he was all sorts of nice, wasn't he?”
“That's not my point! Right there, look,” Carol said, pointing at the screen. “‘Revealed to the crowd that he was in fact half ghost.’ Do you know what that means?”
“I understand it, but I get the feeling I’m missing something here.”
“If he was half ghost, that means it's possible for humans to be part ghost,” Carol said excitedly, as everything above her shoulders suddenly vanished, causing James to jump. “I think that's what's going on here,” she said, motioning to her invisible head. “I think I’M part ghost!”
James paled. “Do you realize the implications of that statement?”
“No, why?” Carol said as her head became visible once more. “Is there a problem with me being part ghost?”
“N-not directly. But to be part ghost, you would need to be related to a ghost. A-and I’m pretty sure mom and dad are both human.”
“So… You think we might have a long-lost ghostly relative?”
“Maybe. Or maybe we're only half siblings.”
Carol paled, her eyes showed how scared she was of that possibility, but she suddenly stopped, seemed to consider something, and shook her head. “I don't think so.” she said, color returning to her face. “From what people have told me, I’m the spitting image of auntie Jazz, except I've got dad's eyes. A lot of our family was there when I was born, so nobody has any doubt as to who my mother is. I don't think there was an affair involved anywhere.”
“And what about me? If I'm part ghost, why don't I have ghost powers?”
“Maybe it's an age thing. My ghost powers only showed up a few weeks ago. You're a few years younger than me, so maybe you just haven't gotten them yet. Also, I saw a picture of mom and dad's families when they were in high school. You've got dad's hair, grandpa Manson's build, grandma Maddie's nose, need I go on?”
“I guess not. Still, we should get to the bottom of this. Maybe the ghostly genes are recessive, or maybe the ghost we're related to is like a great great great grandfather or something.”
“Maybe, but where do we start? If we ask mom or dad, they'll know something's up, because of how out-of-the-blue this is.”
“I think our grandparents would also get suspicious. Hmm… Who else…” James thought aloud. “We could try aunt Jazz,” he said, matter-of-factly.
“No, she's a psychologist. She'd catch on pretty quick too. Hmm… Somebody who isn't super close, but is still a close enough relative to ask.” Carol said.
James opened his mouth to speak, but he was cut off by the doorbell ringing.
“Well who could that be?” Carol asked. The two of them left the bedroom and walked down the stairs to see who rang the bell. Their mother was already at the door, and was opening it when James and Carol rounded the corner. On the other side of the door stood a woman who looked to be in her mid thirties. She wore jeans, a blue hoodie, and a red beanie. Her hair was raven black, and her eyes were shockingly blue. If one didn't know any better, they'd say Danny's twin sister walked in the door.
“Danielle! It's been forever! How've you been?” Sam asked, giving Danielle a hug, which was unusual, as she didn't particularly like human contact.
“I've been great, Sam, how about you?” Danielle asked, returning the hug.
“Great! Hold on one sec,” Sam said, turning to yell into the house. “Hey Danny! Dani’s here!” Sam shouted as Danielle snickered.
Carol and James looked each other straight in the eye, both of them thinking what the other was thinking.
“Bingo.”