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“You know what? No, mom, I don’t have time for this,” Danny says, and his eyes are ice cold. “If I don’t figure something out in the next week, I have to marry a girl who I see as a sister, and another girl who basically is my sister has to marry the second-worst guy under the sun.”
“Danny, what are you talking about?” Maddie stares at her son, taken aback, but he’s already turned away.
“Sorry, just- that was a joke, I’m just stressed, don’t worry about it.” He disappears up the stairs to his room before Maddie can sort out a response.
~~~
“Figured out the Dora situation yet?” the ghost girl asks, so similar in appearance to Phantom. Phantom itself flips upside down where they’re hovering twenty feet above the park, and rubs its face in a mockery of exasperation.
“God, no. Diplomacy is so not one of my skills.”
Maddie’s hidden in the bushes below them, her stakeout of the park’s will-o-the-wisps interrupted by the sudden appearance of the two ghost children. She’s sure they don’t know she’s here - they’re too calm, too unaggressive to have any idea there’s a human nearby to attack. So she’s hoping they’ll speak the truth and reveal whatever evil plan they’re working on together.
“Oh, wait!” Phantom flips back over, perking up. Maddie isn’t sure why it’s putting on a show of emotion without a human crowd to play to, but it’s unsettlingly life-like. “We found a solution for Aragon, at least. There’s these bandits out in the wastes beyond Walker’s prison - they don’t have ties to either the Dragon Kingdom or the Ghost Throne, so if you got ‘kidnapped’ by them Aragon couldn’t blame any of us for you not showing up to the wedding. Then you can always come back after I’ve thrown Aragon and the Observants into the terror vortex.”
The girl ghost laughs. “Is that a thing?”
“No, but a guy can dream,” Phantom groans, and then hides a soft, fond smile as the other ghost falls over midair from the force of its laughter. “How’re things going with Pandora, by the way?”
“Oh, amazing, she’s teaching me all sorts of fun ways to fight - want me to show you?” The girl ghost holds out a hand to Phantom and they both zip off to the middle of the park. Maddie absently notes new strategies revealed in their little sparring match, for use in future fights, but she finds herself distracted. The things they talked about - diplomacy? weddings? - didn’t fit anywhere in the scientific understanding of ghosts. And, she thinks, looking up at two ghost children laughing as they toss each other across the sky without an audience in sight, that’s not the only thing.
~~~
“Yeah, I read the books, Sam,” Danny sounds exasperated as he kicks the front door closed. Maddie glances up from her latest invention to find her son storming into the kitchen, phone pressed to his ear. He doesn’t notice her in the living room, making a beeline for the fridge as he continues growling into his phone.
“I know!” his voice rises sharply in pitch, “But Pandora says I have to consolidate my power before I can do anything about them, and if they can stop Clockwork in his tracks I don’t think we can face them with anything less than the power of the throne.”
He stops, listening, wrist-deep in the cheese drawer. “Yeah, I told Dani. She’s pretty relieved, I think she’s going to make her move soon. Do you think-“
He pauses again, and removes himself from the fridge, cheese forgotten, in favor of heading upstairs. The last thing Maddie hears before his door shuts is “Yeah, I’ll ask Pandora about-“
Pandora. That must be a character from one of his games, right? Something all his friends play too?
The fact that Phantom mentioned a Pandora last night is just a coincidence.
~~~
Maddie hasn’t seen her son in a day and a half when she finally catches his best friend outside their school.
“Tucker!” she calls, jumping down from the RV; the poor boy freezes like a deer in the headlights before pasting a shaky grin on his face.
“Hey, Mrs. F, what’s up?”
“Tucker, I need you to be honest with me. Do you know where Danny is?” She refrains from grabbing him by the shoulders, but it’s a struggle. She hasn’t gone to the police yet only because Danny’s disappeared before and he always comes back.
“Um,” says Tucker, with that wide-eyed look that could either be attempted subterfuge or pure shock, “I think he might be at Sam’s? I’m pretty sure they have a group project? Yeah.”
Before Maddie can demand to know just how many group projects their school could possibly assign each month (because it’s always a group project, always ‘oh, Danny’s not here, he must be at the other friend’s house’, and Danny might have been gone for longer than a day and a half and maybe she just didn’t notice), Tucker’s phone rings.
He steps away, relief obvious on his face as he greets whoever’s called him. Then he goes stock-still, and Maddie hears, tinny through the speakers, something that sounds like trumpets? And… roaring?
And then Tucker’s slipping his phone back into his pocket and turning a nearly-perfect expression of unconcern in her direction. When did her son’s best friend become such a good liar? Only the unnatural wideness of his eyes gives his nerves away.
“Anyway, it was nice talking to you, Mrs. F, but I gotta go!” He ducks around her and speedwalks away, and for the second time in a week a boy disappears from sight before she’s gathered a response.
~~~
When she swings by Sam Manson’s house, Danny isn’t there, of course. Neither is Sam. They’re both supposedly at Tucker’s, but she doesn’t bother checking his house. She doubts any of them are there.
~~~
Phantom is out the next night, this time at the highschool. It wanders the halls alongside a small sepia-toned ghost. Maddie can’t get close enough to hear their conversation, but luckily the newest update to the school’s security included audio for the cameras.
“How’re you holding up, man?” the small ghost tentatively asks after several minutes of silence. Phantom rubs its face in an odd mirror of its conversation with the ghost girl.
“Not as bad as I could be?”
The small ghost grimaces. “There’s a whole lot of room between rock bottom and alright.”
Phantom shrugs, gravity seeming to weigh heavy on its shoulders despite the continued floating. “At least Aragon’s out of the way. Not even the Observants could stop Dora tossing him in the dungeon after that wedding day tantrum. He destroyed the entire main hall, so everything’s postponed until it’s fixed.”
“But you and Dora…?”
Phantom droops even lower. “The Observants are pushing even harder for an alliance with the Dragon Kingdom. They’ve been ‘notoriously independent’,” Phantom makes finger quotes, radiating sarcasm, “So we need to build stronger ties than we do with, like, the Far Frozen. They’d demand the same of Athens, I think, but I’m pretty sure Pandora scares them.” It sighs, haggard. “For the low, low price of punching Pariah Dark in the face, you too can experience the fun of consolidating a fractured realm.”
A short bark of laughter and the small ghost pats Phantom on the shoulder. Then it wiggles, apparently excited; once again with an emotional display and no human to see it - Maddie’s starting to wonder if this is somehow Phantom’s fault. “Speaking of: can I see it?”
Phantom blinks, squinting at the other ghost. “What?”
The small ghost makes a gesture towards its head that doesn’t make much sense to Maddie, but Phantom’s eyes widen in understanding. It closes its eyes, brow furrowing in concentration, and… a crown of green flame pops into existence over Phantom’s head.
The small ghost gasps, leaning in to take a closer look, murmuring about how cool it looks. Maddie personally thinks it’s a bit tacky, much more ‘I’m a ghost, fear me’ than a match for Phantom’s style. Still, with a ghost’s aggression-fueled worldview, she supposes intimidation factor is the greatest accessory of them all.
Phantom and the small ghost part ways soon after, the small one disappearing into a locker while Phantom takes off for parts unknown. Maddie notes down the locker number for later investigation, but her heart isn’t in it.
That’s two times now that Maddie’s seen Phantom interact peacefully with another ghost, seen every ghost involved put on such a complex act of emotion and opinion without any human around to see it. And the events they alluded to… alliances? Political dissent? Politics resolved not through battle but through relationships? Perhaps, if the crown was any indication, even a rudimentary form of government?
All so much more complex than they’d ever theorized ghosts were capable of. What does that mean for their theories?
~~~
Danny turns up the next day, wilting flowers in his hair and deep bags under his eyes. He brushes off all questions about his whereabouts with practiced ease, and life moves on.
Maddie notices a new ring on his finger, some weeks later, made of copper so tarnished it shines green. A tiny emblem of a dragon is carved into the band, its eyes red with precious rubies.
She makes a mental note to offer to help him polish it, later. It’s a shame to have such a beautiful ring tainted with the same awful color as ectoplasm. And then she gets distracted with another invention, and forgets.