Work Text:
2003
To recap:
The night the youth of Amity Park held their bonfire for Nicole Crounse, Daniel was invited by his parents to a ghost hunt. They planned to set a trap over Crounse’s grave. Daniel, in response, had punched his father and went home with Valerie.
The Fenton Ghost Hunting Duo continued with their original plan at the local graveyard.
"Danny's always been a bit sensitive," Jack spoke slowly, like he was sounding the words out. "But we did wait to do this. The trap’s been ready for ages."
Maddie only had half her attention on her husband's musing. He'd been quiet in the car, thoughtful, and she'd allowed him that time to himself. She knew this was the time to talk, but surely it wasn't a big deal. Boys will be boys and the punch hadn't hurt Jack at all. "He's a teenager, dear. All those hormones."
"Right," Jack nodded and adjusted the spotlight so that it'd be pointed more firmly at the grave. The thing was still unplugged, though. They’d left the generator in the car.
“I’m sure he’ll be fine,” Maddie offered and did a quick look around the poorly lit graveyard. She could understand why the city didn’t want to dig into the ground to put in power lines and set up lights, at least not in a graveyard since so many people were touchy about it, but she did not understand the thick trees that were all over the place. It was a perfectly clear night with a nearly full moon out, but the trees made it so that she was regretting not having flashlights on hand.
Jack nervously started up again: "It's been two weeks since she died. And he was involved with the whole funeral thing, wasn't he?"
She narrowed her eyes at a cluster of pale mushrooms by the dirt path. The fact those things were so visible was telling. She muttered, "I believe so," as she moved over and kicked at the mushrooms, tearing them at their roots and then breaking them further under her boots. She'd pour some poison over it all before they left.
"Am I being insensitive? He's clearly not over the girl's death. Maybe he liked her?"
"Danny's gay, honey."
"Gay? Oh, right! Well, maybe the girl was really a boy?"
Maddie blinked and looked up from the mushrooms. "What?"
"You know," Jack lifted his hands and rolled his wrists a little. "Maybe she was a he, but not out? That's the right term, right? Vladdie explained it all to me once."
"Maybe," Maddie admitted. She didn't particularly care either way. Danny was a teenager—he'd get over this and bounce back. And as long as they were nice, he could like whoever he wanted to like. "I think maybe Danny's just emotional right now. He's not thinking about how this is a separate matter."
Her husband nodded and his shoulders untensed noticably. "He's a bright boy." He paused to pick up the net gun. "You know he tutors the other kids?"
"Does he?" Maddie smiled, proud. She hadn't realized that. She walked through the mushroom remains to lean into her husband‘s side affectionately. "He takes after us, doesn't he?"
Jack wrapped her up in a gentle one-armed hug and smiled into her hair. "He takes after you."
She leaned back to look up at him when his arms loosened. "Danny's just forgetting to separate people and ghosts. Once he calms down, he'll remember."
"It's probably a good thing he didn't join us,” Jack decided. “The ghost'll be mimicking his friend pretty well at this point."
"You think there won't be any degradation even after two weeks? The murder was pretty brutal."
Jack made a low hum, like he was thinking about it, but he was confident when he told her, "I think it'll look like the girl. She was born here."
Maddie nearly looked back to the ruined mushrooms. She let out a short, weary sigh. "I see." Between the time they'd visited Amity Park in college to when they'd properly moved here, something had changed. She hated it, but it did wonders for their research. It was the principle of it all—the horror of it. "I should take some more soil samples before we leave. And some of those foul mushrooms."
"You've got enough dirt, I think."
"They’re all old, though. Danny was just a toddler when I last took samples from the graveyard. It could be getting worse.”
Jack made a thoughtful, consenting noise. His expression also lifted back to it's usual smile. Maddie's own mood improved just from watching him, but he went a step further to assure her: "You're going to get to the bottom of it, Maddie."
"Thanks, honey." She pulled him back down with her gloved hands gripping at his neck, and then she kissed him firmly.
"Yuck," a rough voice interrupted them. "Don't kiss so close to my grave."
The couple broke apart and both of them dropped into well-practiced fighting stances.
"Mr. and Mrs. Fenton!" Glowing green hair, paper white skin—Jack had been right. The ghost didn't look degraded at all. The colors were changed, but it was mimicking a teenager girl impeccably.
"Ghost!" Jack shouted exuberantly. He fired the net gun they'd brought, but the net spiraled out too soon and the ghost was able to easily dodge it.
They'd been too distracted talking that they hadn't gotten around to using their ghost-luring chemical compound on the grave and their spring trap was still in it's box. Maddie decided to chalk it up to luck that the ghost was already there and figured they could test the trap at another time.
"I guess I'm supposed to say that it's nice to see you both again, but that was pretty rude."
Jack bared his teeth as he snarled, "Hold still, you foul beast!" Then he tossed the now empty net gun straight at the ghost.
It dodged the gun just as easily as it had the net. It landed loudly in the distance, but not before bouncing off another gravestone.
"We haven't chatted much," the monster grinned like it was telling a joke. "We could rectify that now."
"I'll rectify your existence," Maddie spat as she raised her pistol. More often than not, ghosts didn't take the threat of their weapons seriously, occasionally that was because their inventions didn't work, but this one immediately dropped down behind Crounse's grave marker. It made Maddie more than a little frustrated.
"Don't worry, sweetie," Jack dove into a roll to, presumably, cover more ground quickly as he was moving to face the back of the grave. "I got this!" His own weapon was one of their bazookas, but by the time he was hefting the thing back onto his shoudler, the ghost had dropped into the ground. "Fiddlesticks!"
“Well shit,” the ghost called out, tone thrilled. Maddie hated that she couldn’t tell where the voice was coming from. “You two really are useless!” Every word sounded like it was bouncing off from a different direction. “I thought you were just fuckups when it came to being parents.”
Maybe a little spitefully, Maddie shot at Crounse’s grave. The blast of charged ectoplasm marred the simple engraving. The ghost wasn’t really the girl, but it kept acting like it was. In fact, Maddie felt it was another point towards their findings that the ghost didn’t react to the desecration at all.
Jack pushed his chest out and shouted as loud as he could, “Your lies won’t stop us from catching you!”
“Jeez. You sound like a shitty cartoon, man.” The ghost’s voice was still being thrown about, but it became visible again. High in air, its hair flaring with what looked like bugs crawling out from the dirty strands. It didn’t pick up on its own hypocrisy about being like a cartoon at all.
Maddie fired her pistol again, covering Jack as he went running to the box of weapons.
The ghost kept dodging and a swarm of bugs—moths—broke off from her body and began spreading out. It was the bugs that unnerved her more than the ghost’s uninformed taunts.
She’d never properly talked with the girl. Maddie and Jack were always so busy. But that didn’t mean that Maddie hadn’t noticed Crounse around her own home over the years. The ghost was very good at mimicry. Maddie was more glad that Danny had refused to join them, now. An extra pair of hands would be good against that swarm, but the ghost’s face would have probably upset her sensitive little boy.
The ghost let out a rasping, echoing laugh. “Daniel would be so relieved if I just killed you both.”
Despite knowing that was nonsense, it still pissed Maddie off. “You’re a glorified sponge,” she shouted and it made the ghost pause, face scrunching up in confusion.
“A fucking—what?”
Jack had made it to their supplies. “Eat this!”
The ghost let out a miserable wail when the glass bottle that Jack had thrown shattered on Crounse’s rough-looking gravestone. The pink liquid turned to mist right on impact and even Maddie and Jack could smell the foul smell that was released into the air.
The ghost shivered and the moths scattered.
That wasn’t what the chemical was supposed to do. It was supposed to make the monsters gather into one, convenient spot.
Maddie quickly tried to shoot at the ghost again, but it dropped into the ground before any of the ectoplasm-blasts could hit, still shuddering. Their weaponry’s projectiles packed a punch, but they weren't as fast as bullets or even pellets. She’d have to fix that.
“Well!” Jack made a show of wiping nonexistent dust from his hands. “The Fenton Mist Bait is a bust—unless we rename it! The, uh… The Fenton Ghost-Spray! The Fenton Ghost-Be-Gone Spray! Yeah, that’s the kicker!”
Maddie sent Jack a sweet smile. Even in the face of such a setback, he was right back on top with optimism and a success story. She really loved him. Without him, she knew she’d have gotten mad. Mad and bitter. “Those are really great names, sweetie.”
“Thanks, honey-bunch!”
She re-holstered her pistol. “How about I collect my samples while you gather everything up?”
“Will do! And then… drive-thru tacos?”
“Tacos sound great!”