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rosaliamorais · 5 years

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a guide to eventually getting framed for murder by the police, probably, as told by rosa.

mentioned: @ivyleagves, @holdenwoodz, @figurchead

Part One ( You. )

Do you have any criminal history? Anything big or small that you want to make us aware of?

“No.” The answer is a little too quick, a little too panicked to seem entirely true. Her nerves are shot, her blood is laced with caffeine. She can’t stop shaking; hopefully they chalk it up to her anxiety. That is, after all, a major part of why she can’t seem to sit still, her usual decorum is lost-- forgotten and left to rot on the forest floor, just as she had been. Just as she’d learned Nathaniel had been. That thought churns her stomach, brings a welling of tears to her eyes. She squeezes them shut for just long enough to clear her vision and not a second more. Closing them for too long is a mistake. Trying to force herself into falling asleep for the past two nights was enough proof of that. Even still, her quick answer boiled down to mostly being about the fact that the other twenty-nine students involved in this case now knew her deepest, darkest secret. Unfortunately for some of the police officers in this very precinct, they knew it too. They just hadn’t needed the blog to tell them. “I have no criminal record. I’d be pretty stupid to pursue law, if that were the case.”

How have you spent the few weeks back at college? What have they been like?

An incredulous gaze lifts from the place her hands are fidgeting on the table, brows furrowing as she tilts her head. “Are you kidding me?” A breathy laugh, cold and unamused. “I’ve spent them in total fear, Elaine.” She says the name with the venomous taste of condescension on her tongue, only to turn to the younger officer immediately after, her expression puzzled. “You’re sure you want to work here, Mikey? I’m pretty sure you’d be better off training under Starsky and Hutch.” The girl who would’ve come into this interview all of a week ago was nowhere to be found amidst her foul temperament and biting remarks today. In spite of the current state of affairs surrounding her reputation, Rosa had always been respectful to the right authorities, even if she felt they were undeserving.

The person answering these questions retained nothing of that polite, well-mannered mask. “They’ve been horrifying. One day I’m celebrating making it to my senior year, the next I’m worrying about whether or not any of the people who knew Daisey were going to see graduation.” A faux-thoughtful expression crosses her face before she speaks again. “Oh, and then the local police force decided to keep us all on lock-down, like we’re kindergartners on a field trip. And would you believe that it didn’t help anything at all, because four of us went missing under their oh-so watchful eyes? One of us were even murdered? The second one in a month? I don’t know. Maybe, if you ignore all of that crap, it’s been a great last year before for law school.”

Part Two ( Daisey. )

How did you know Miss. Rutherford? What was the nature of your relationship?

“We barely associated. We had a few petty arguments now and then; academic rivals, I suppose.” You guys aren’t asking the right questions. This won’t help anything. The thoughts nearly tumble from her careless lips, only kept back by Rosa’s tightly clenched jaw. “She was a cruel and vindictive sociopath, but I’m sure you’ve gathered that much. Even with your way of investigating. Point is, I didn’t care about her until she went missing. I was just focused on getting into Harvard. I don’t have the time to spare on actively hating someone. Other than being a snarky annoyance, Daisey wasn’t on my radar. Everyone was on hers, though. Girl had no life aside from getting off to the sound of people crying.”

Do you remember where you were the night Daisey went missing? If so, where were you? What were you doing? Who were you with?

“I was at Oz Lamar’s party, same as basically everyone else at St. E’s. I spent part of the night with my gi-- my friend, Ivy Westbrook. We did shots together, I got super drunk, and then I met Holden Woods and we became besties in the bathroom.” She produced her phone in order to scroll through several of their blurry, intoxicated pictures together. “These span over an hour. So, clearly I was having the time of my life, I guess.” At least the change of subject subdued her sudden temper, her demeanor visibly simmering down.

Did you notice anything strange about Daisey’s behavior the night she went missing? Did you notice anything suspicious about anyone else you ran into that night?

“All I remember of Daisey that night is seeing her dry humping someone who was definitely not her fiance.” That’s all she plans to say, before she decides to tell them more before they can demand it. “I saw her making out with someone else. I don’t know who it was, because I’d assumed it was the guy-- is his name Octopus? No, that’s stupid. I don’t know.” She takes a second to collect her thoughts, lips pursed in her concentration. “Anyway, I thought it was him. Clearly, I didn’t want to be privy to a peep show, so I ran through the hall. That’s when I ran into the poor guy. Completely unaware Daisey was hooking up with someone else.”

Where were you the night Daisey’s body was recovered?

“I heard while I was in the grocery store. Everyone around me started talking about it, and someone turned on the TV. Everyone in the store just stopped and stared, horrified. No one wanted to believe it. Regardless of what kind of person she was, she didn’t deserve to die.” Rosa can still recall the look on every single stranger’s face that day. “It was so... quiet in there after the broadcast went off. Not another word was spoken, like an infinite moment of silence.”

How familiar are you with the Ashmont woods? Have you been there often? Have you recently ventured out here? If so, why?

“Fuck you.” She pushes her chair back with a deafening screech of the legs against the floor, poised to get up and leave. An empty gesture, apparently, since she stays in her seat. The room is blending together now, her eyes trying to find something to anchor her to the room, to remind her of where she is. Each of her hands find the lining of her seat, her white-knuckled grip doing nothing to help. She finds herself breathing in uneven patterns, heart palpitating as she tries to distract herself. This is pathetic: one mention of the woods and she’s unraveling, spiraling into a panic attack faster than she’s ever done so before. She’s avoiding either officer’s gaze out of humiliation, unwilling to ask for help. The sound of her own voice calling out that night, begging for a savoir, is an echo in her mind. The concrete floor of the police station suddenly looks a lot like the blood-riddled leaves coating the ground in the Ashmont woods.

You’re okay, you’re safe, you’re here. The voice reminding her of her safety isn’t her own. It’s Ivy’s, gentle and careful and warm, the same words she’d woken up to, after being pulled from a nightmare on the night they spent together. The memory slowly overtakes the one Rosa’s trapped in, the rough edges of the treeline enveloping her smoothing out, fading back into the recesses of her mind as she concentrates on breathing. Her relief is palpable as the comfort of home brings her back to her senses slowly, allowing her to melt into the chair once again. A hand covers her eyes as Rosa motions for the questions to continue and clears her throat. “I’m intimately familiar with the depths of that forest, considering how you and your incompetent officers nearly let me die there, thanks for reminding me.” She broke her words in order to pull in a deep sigh, the only thing keeping her from crying being her adamant desire not to deal with these people for a second time. “I don’t want a break, I’m fine. Keep asking your stupid fucking questions, because I’m not coming back for another one of these.”

Part Three ( the Investigation. )

Do you have feelings towards the investigation? Any comments?

“Just one,” Rosa takes a moment to steady herself before she looks the lead detective in the eye once again, defiance scribbled across her features, jaw set. “Do better before someone finds dead student number three in some storage building.”

Do you have any people you feel the police should look into? Please, let us know who and why.

It’s getting increasingly difficult to answer these inane inquiries, and her expression shows it. “I guess the fiance. I wouldn’t be happy if I found out the girl I was engaged to was sleeping with other people. I don’t know if he knew, so I’d break that to him gently. Daisey was a good liar.”

Part Four ( Weekly Events. )

Where were you kidnapped from? What do you remember of your abduction?

She’s moving uneasily in her chair once again, the only thing holding her facade together the mantra she’s still repeating in her head. Nerves make it hard for her to be angry, the rage from a few moments ago swapped out with unease, her hands back to wringing together, her foot beginning to tap against the floor. “I don’t remember any of that. Doctors said I could’ve blocked it out, or something, but I can’t even remember waking up that morning. As far as I’m concerned, that entire day is gone.”

What details do you recall from the time you were captured to the time you were released?

“Details?” Rosa’s disapproving scoff is half-hearted now, as she fights to recall the fuzzy memories in as calculating a way as possible. She couldn’t-- wouldn’t-- freak out again. “There aren’t details. At least, not for me. I couldn’t see, couldn’t hear, couldn’t speak. I was awake for all of it, and I couldn’t even get the blindfold off.” The tears that’d made such a fuss trying to escape her eyes are finally streaming freely down her face, but she’s too preoccupied to notice. “My arms were tied down to a chair,” her hands instinctively gravitated to the burns on her wrists, “and my legs were tied together. My mouth, um, was duct taped… and… there were these headphones on me. Noise cancelling, I guess, unless whoever took me was a monk.” She swallowed past the growing lump in her throat, eyes searching the table in front of her as she went on. “They fed me this disgusting-- I guess soup? And gave me water twice a day. They were always wearing gloves, so I don’t even know if they had long fingernails.”

Did you learn anything about your kidnapper? Any facial details, an accent, any knowledge that you can share to help police in their investigation?

Her irritability resurfaces at lightning speed as she realizes how little she’s being listened to. A spark of recognition lights her face up, jaw dropping as she wiped her cheeks in a fervor. “Wait, no, I remember it. I remember everything.” Shaking hands ushered for the detective to grab her pen and paper. “Write this down, hurry-- before I forget again.” Rosa nods to herself as she begins to recount everything she knows. “It was a man, stocky build. He had white hair, and… it was spiky. A dark goatee, with a little light patch right in the middle. I couldn’t see his eyes, because he was wearing these thin, plastic, black sunglasses.” She clapped once, as if in celebration. “And every time he came to give me food, he pulled my headphones off just enough for me to hear him scream FLAVORTOWN! as he poured it down my throat.”

“Oh, wait, that’s Guy Fieri. I guess I didn’t miraculously remember anything since the last time I answered that, two minutes ago.”

Were you aware of any of the other kidnap victims when you were taken? Do you have any information or insight into the death of Nathaniel Ballantyne?

“I thought I was the only one until I heard people talking about the others. I had no idea there were more of us. I don’t even know if we were in the same place.” She stands up with her shoulders straight, the clothes she’d tried to sleep in still hanging freely off her figure. “As fun as this was, I’m going to go back to bed and do my very best to remember every detail of my excruciating days in hell so you can ultimately waste it on your corkboard and red string investigative approach. See you when the next round of people die, yeah?” With that, she takes her graceful leave.

#tw: anxiety #tw: death mention #tw: panic attack #veritasinterrogation #LET'S GO BAYBE WOO WOO WOO WOO--

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ectowaves · 5 years

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My Best friend’s Secret

Prompter: @ladylynse

Prompt: Jack was just trying to plan a surprise for his good ol’ friend Vladdy. He… did not expect to discover a secret lab in Vlad’s mansion-or a second portal or weaponry to rival theirs or-was that a hologram of his wife?

Words: 3734

Warnings: Mentions of Torture, Implications of Torture, Smoking

“Come on, we need to hurry up!” Jack Fenton told his family, “Vladdy will be home any minute and we need to make this party perfect!”

The family had been setting up for Vlad’s surprise birthday party since six-thirty in the morning. The party had to be the best, because Vlad deserved the best. He was the closest friend that Jack had ever had, besides Maddie. He felt guilty for missing so many of his best friend’s birthdays. Today would hopefully make it up to him.

Several friends of Vlad and Jack had come to help set up the mansion’s ballroom. Jack didn’t need to convince them to come- everyone loved Vladdy! They seemed like they were having fun, but Jack’s family seemed like they would rather be anywhere else.

Jack couldn’t understand why. Last time everyone was excited to visit Vlad, so why made this time different? Maybe they didn’t appreciate waking up early and were mad at him? Jack hoped that wasn’t the case. Maddie and Jazz were half heartedly putting up streamers. Danny looked like he thought the whole party was a joke and was busy fiddling around with his phone.

Jack frowned. His son had gotten moodier lately and Jack couldn’t understand why. The boy seemed to not want to be anywhere around his family. He was always angry or mopey. Fudge couldn’t even bring the boy out of his funk. What was even worse in Jack’s opinion was when he asked if Danny wanted to go stargazing. Danny, who used to want to take any chance to watch the stars, rejected his offer.

“Danny, those balloons aren’t going to blow themselves up!” Jack called, startling his son. The boy dropped his phone.

“We’ve run out,” Danny grimaced at the damage is phone had taken.

“I’ll go see if I can find anymore,” Jack said, loud enough for everyone else in the room to hear, “I think I left a pack in Vlad’s study.

The unasked question hung in the air. Maddie rolled her eyes and was about to offer to go with him when their mutual friend Harriet Chin interrupted.

“I’ll go with you.” Harriet Chin said putting the last chair in place around one of the food tables, “We don’t want you to get distracted and I think I am in need of a break.”

Maddie frowned but returned to putting up streamers with Jazz. Danny continued texting, much to Jack’s chagrin. Everyone else returned to the tasks that they were doing. Jack smiled at his old friend. The two walked out into the hallway in companionable hallway.

Vlad’s mansion was one of the biggest places that Jack Fenton had ever seen. By the look on Harriet’s face, the same was true to her. The royal blue carpet was almost way too expensive for either of the two to be walking on. Jack frowned at the multiple paintings in the hallway. They all looked so sad, what had happened to all of them?

One painting disturbed Jack the most. The picture was the only one of someone smiling. The boy looked to be at peace, but in a way that showed he was in despair. The most disturbing part of the painting? The boy looked creepily like his own son Danny. Jack shook away the goose bumps crawling up his skin.

The ballroom wasn’t too far away from Vlad’s study. Jack wondered what Vlad would do if a party was going on while he was in the study. But, if a party was happening at Vlad’s house, Vlad would probably be there and not in his study.

The two stopped in front of a large door. The door was engraved with strange letters. Jack made a mental note to ask Vlad about it’s meaning later. He pushed open the door.

“Nice study,” Harriet grinned and pulled out a note book, “I wonder what secrets are hidden in here.”

“Probably secrets of the Packers!” Jack laughed while noting the dozens of bookshelves in the room. He felt himself wandering over to a shelf and picking up a book. Flipping through, he found an article about some sort of ghost… Clockwork? Jack read the book’s spine Ghost Zone Myths. Where did Vlad find a book like that? Jack shoved the book into one of his deep pockets. Vlad wouldn’t miss one book.

“NICE.” Harriet sarcastically said. Jack turned to see what the reporter was looking at. Once he saw, the big man blushed.

The reporter was looking at a painting that Jack had commissioned for his best friend’s birthday. It was a picture of Jack Maddie and Vlad from their college days. Jack chose for the artist to paint a picture of the day they went out for a random picnic. The portrait was huge, nearly the size of the desk it was leaning against. He couldn’t wait for Vlad to see it. He knew Vlad would love it. The expensive painting would lighten up Vlad’s hallway.

Jack and Harriet continued looking through the study, all thoughts of balloons long gone. Jack glossed over the spines of books. It was strange how many books he had written in many different languages. Maybe it was a requirement for rich people to have exotic books. What was stranger still as all the books on astronomy Jack found. As far as he knew, his bestie wasn’t interested in outer space.

Out of the corner of his eye, jack saw a glimmer of gold. On a shelf against the wall, there was a golden trophy. Jack walked over to admire it. The trophy had nothing inscribed on it, which was weird in Jack’s opinion. He tried to pick it up for a closer look but found that it was stuck to the shelf. Unfortunately, Jack was as clumsy as his son, and managed to knock the trophy forward. Still, it didn’t fall off the off.

“What did you do?” cried Harriet, as the room began to shake.

Beside the bookshelf, part of the wall started rise. The two watched in awe as a dark corridor was revealed. Only the light from the room provided any visibility of the path.

“Jack look at this! We could be onto one of the biggest stories ever! Anyone would want to know what Vlad Masters secret lair.” Harriet exclaimed pulling a flashlight from somewhere. She started walking through the doorway.

“Wait for me,” Jack called, curiosity overcoming fear, “I can’t wait to see what kind of cool stuff Vladdy has down there! Maybe… He has a surprise of his own!”

The two college friends walked down the corridor and nearly tripped down the winding staircase. Both of them were surprised to see a laboratory at the end of the stairs.

“Whoa.” Harriet whispered as her eyes caught on a table covered with a red substance mixed with a green substance, “He’s secretly a mad scientist like you Fentons!”

“Hey!” Jack frowned. Harriet ignored him and went further into the room.

The laboratory was standard for a ghost hunter. A working host portal was up against the wall across from the stairs with an ecto-filtrator keeping it stable. On the right wall was a bunch of computers and monitors. Against the left wall was a shelf full of weapons that looked strangely like his own. In the middle of the lab was the substance covered table. Jack noticed that shackles were attached to the tables. On the table was a remote that Jack was surprised that Harriet missed. Jack picked up the remote and pressed the blue triangle button.

“Are you here dearest?” a voice sounding suspiciously like his wife asked. Jack glanced around the room searching for his wife, but he couldn’t see her.

“Look at all of these weapons! Is he preparing for World War III? Just imagine ‘Masters Secretly The Leader Of Weaponry’! If only I had a camera…” Harriet was talking so quickly, Jack could barely understand her anymore. He watched her pick up a gun that looked too close to one of his own guns, the Fenton Bazooka. Was Vlad stealing his designs? They said the greatest form of flattery was imitation. Jack didn’t know what to think.

Jack walked over to the portal. He noticed that the portal’s filtrator looked a little too close to his wife’s design. How did Vlad get those blue prints? Neither he nor Maddie had even shown Vlad those designs.

“How did he get the portal to work? It was nearly impossible for us to get ours to work.” Jack murmured, brushing the edge of the portal.

“Darling experiment 1A6 is awaking up. Shall I take you to him?” Jack swirled around see his wife smiling pleasantly at him. Her jumpsuit was immaculate, unlike the one his wife usually wore. Her hair was longer and curled like it was in their college days.

“Maddie?” Jack whispered, horrified. He reached out to touch her, but his hand passed right through. Maddie didn’t seem to notice the action and continued smiling blankly. She was a hologram, and that made Jack feel worse.

Swallowing all of his questions, Jack told her, “Take me to him.”

The impersonation of Maddie beamed and began to skip to the other side of the huge lab. Jack followed, an uneasy pit forming in his gut. He was afraid to see something worse than the Maddie hologram. Harriet noticed the fake Maddie and looked at Jack confused. He beckoned her to follow with him.

“Something tells me, this is going to be life changing.” Harriet told her friend.

They weren’t disappointed.

The fake Maddie stopped in front of an empty spot beside the monitor. She put her hand against it. Where her hand was, a key board popped up.

“Enter the code Darling!” Maddie encouraged. Harriet motioned for Jack to try and enter the password.

Nervously Jack typed his best friend’s password ‘3478’. To Harriet’s shock the password worked. The key pad glowed green and the wall started to raise. Jack wanted to laugh, despite the situation. Vlad hadn’t changed his password in twenty years.

The wall moved to reveal a containment chamber. The small screen was tinted so that they couldn’t see whatever was inside. Jack noticed a release button on the side of the tank. He debated within himself to whether or not to open it. The decision was made for him when Harriet pressed the red button. Surprisingly, neither he nor ‘Maddie’ protested her action.

A green substance came out first. Jack noted that it looked very similar to ectoplasm. Shackles clattered to the ground. Then a boy fell onto the ground. Jack’s eyes widened; the boy looked like his son.

“Danny?” Jack whispered to the boy.

The boy was covered in slime. His dark hair looked like it hadn’t been brushed in days. He wasn’t wearing a shirt, but he was wearing pants. Jack could see cuts and bruises covering the teenager’s body. The boy was lying face to the ground. Jack picked him up and put him on the nearest table he could find. Unfortunately, that table happened to be covered in the strange substances.

“Dad?” The boy whispered as Jack gently placed him down. The boy even sounded like Danny! Who was he and why did Vlad have him? The boy sat up and started to cough. Harriet moved from her frozen state and rubbed the boy’s back.

“Who are you? Why are you here?” Jack asked. The boy met his eyes and pointed at the remote Jack dropped on the ground. Funny, he didn’t realize he dropped the thing. Jack picked it up and gave it to the boy. The boy pointed the remote towards the monitor and pressed the purple circle. The monitors came to life.

On one monitor was a video of Danny chatting with his friends and laughing about something. Another monitor showed Danny sleeping in his bedroom. Jack shivered at the implications. The monitor that really caught his attention was the one in the center. The monitor showed Danny posing heroically as a bright ring surrounded his waist. The ring separated into two, then one went up and the other down. Danny’s jeans and T-shirt became a black hazmat suit with a logo Jack knew all too well. Danny’s eyes turned from blue to green. His dark hair became s white as snow.

“No way.” Jack almost got whiplash from looking back and forth from the monitors to the boy.

He heard Harriet gasp in shock. “Play that tape!”

Jack looked to where she was pointing. The beginning showed his son cuffed to the table with Vlad smiling evilly at him. The boy shook his head, refusing to play it. Jack swiped the remote from the weak boy’s hands. He felt guilty, but they had to know. Jack pressed the purple button again and the video started to play.

“Daniel, why do you have to be so difficult?” Vlad asked while playing with the boy’s hair. Danny glared at the billionaire, obviously very uncomfortable.

“Why do you have to be so creepy? Why can’t you just leave me and my family alone?” Danny interrogated. He tried to move away from Vlad’s touch, but found he could not. He was completely at the mad man’s mercy, and Vlad knew it.

Vlad touched Danny’s cheek. Danny squirmed in panic. The man laughed and went to grab something off screen. Danny’s eyes widened in horror as Vlad cackled. The villain had brought with him a hammer.

“Now son, as your father I hate to punish you. Answer this question properly and I won’t have to do this. Who is Jack Fenton?” Vlad asked, fiddling with the hammer.

“My dad.” Danny told him bravely.

“Wrong answer.” Vlad rose the hammer into the air and brought it down on Danny’s arm. The boy screamed in pain.

“I’ll ask you again, who is your father?”

Danny met the billionaire’s eyes. “Jack Fenton.”

Vlad rose the hammer again, aiming for Danny’s stomach.

Jack shook with fury as the video ended. If that had occurred… then Vlad was a terrible person. The video looked too real for it to be anything but real. Behind him, he heard his friend vomiting on the ground. He turned to the boy he now knew as his son.

If there was any doubt in Jack’s mind it was squashed when he looked at the boy again. He saw his son’s Florida birthmark on the boy’s right shoulder. He also saw a very big bruise on Danny’s stomach. It looked fresh, and Jack didn’t like what that meant. The question that bothered Jack the most was how long had Danny been captured for? He doubted that Danny knew.

Jack had so many questions running through his brain. He wondered how Danny could be Phantom. He thought about why Vlad wanted Danny. One glance at his son’s eyes and all those questions were forgotten. His son needed comfort, not questions.

Jack hugged his son, and Danny hugged him back. The fake Danny had tried to get out of hugging his father. It was another nail in the coffin.

“What are we going to do?” asked the now subdued Harriet. She looked so pale; Jack felt bad that she was the one to accompany him.

“I’m too weak to fight.” Danny whispered, “We don’t stand a chance in a battle.”

Jack thought for a moment. They didn’t have much time. Vlad could be home any minute. They needed to get Danny to safety and keep themselves as safe as possible. Ghosts had been strangely absent from Amity park, so Danny wasn’t need there. Then Jack knew what need to be done. He gave a pleading look to Harriet. She smiled sadly and nodded. She would keep Danny safe.

“Son, can you make us invisible?” Jack asked. He didn’t want the fake to catch them. He would likely report back to Vlad. Invisibility would be a huge asset.

“I think so.” Danny nodded, “Before we go, we need to shut down the lab. Give me the remote and tell the hologram to forget all recent data. It will make it look like I escaped on my own. Then tell her to go to sleep.”

Jack gave back the remote to his son. The boy pressed a few buttons and each monitor turned off. Harriet ran to the weapon shelf and picked up one of Vlad’s pistols. Jack frowned at the image of his wife.

“Maddie, forget about today’s data and go to sleep.” Jack ordered. He sincerely hoped Danny was right, or they would be in a lot of trouble.

“Alright Darling! Data deleted. See you in the morning!” Maddie grinned, acting like she was lovestruck.

“I hate that thing!” Danny growled, “Why can’t he just get a cat?”

Jack raised an eyebrow at his son. Wasn’t he traumatized? Then again, if the boy was Phantom, he would be used to pain. Jack didn’t like that thought. Instead he focused on picking Danny back up, putting the boy over his shoulder and grabbing Harriet’s hand. The remote he left pack on the table.

The three companions walked up the stairs in silence. The weight of who Vlad really was hung heavy on the adult’s shoulders. Jack couldn’t see his son, but he knew that Danny was probably thinking about what had happened as well. When they reached the top, Danny turned the group invisible. Together they walked into Vlad’s study.

The room felt colder now, and less interesting to Jack. He looked at the painting he was gift his best friend. It now seemed so stupid to be give Vlad something like that. His ‘best friend’ didn’t deserve it, but he couldn’t take it back. Let it be a reminder to Vlad about what he would lose.

“Don’t forget about the trophy.” Danny informed him, “Stand it up again.”

Jack moved it back into place. As soon as he did so, the room shuddered once again. The wall that revealed the corridor went back into place. Then Danny pointed to Vlad’s desk.

“What’s with the balloons and picture?” He asked.

“Today is Vlad’s birthday. I wanted to surprise him, but got a surprise instead,” Jack’s voice wavered, “I’m sorry Danny.”

Danny patted Jack on the back, “You didn’t know.”

Jack didn’t try to refute Danny, though he really wanted to. Instead he grabbed the balloons then left the room. Harriet raced to try and keep up with the surprisingly fast man. They walked in silence once more. They held their breath as a green vulture in a fez floated by. Jack wanted to ask Danny about it, but that could wait for another time.

They continued to quickly walk down the hallway. They didn’t see any more ghosts on their way. Once they reached the front door, Jack pushed the door opened.

“Where are we going?” Danny asked quietly, breaking the silence.

“You and Harriet are leaving; I’m going back inside.” Jack replied as they reached Harriet’s blue car. This was going to be hard for Jack, but his son’s safety mattered first and foremost. Still, he was going to miss his son.

Danny didn’t protest. Perhaps he saw the futility of speaking against the idea. Maybe he was just too weak to argue. Harriet unlocked her car and opened the back-passenger door. Jack placed his son inside, and buckled Danny’s seat belt in. He was about to shut the car door when Danny grabbed his arm.

“How long?” Danny whispered. Jack’s heart almost broke at the question.

“I don’t know,” Jack sighed, “Until I can fix this without causing too much damage.”

“I love you Dad.” Danny sadly smiled.

“I love you too Danny” Jack frowned as he shut the car door. Harriet patted him on the shoulder. Then hopped into the front seat. She handed Jack a cigarette.

“I’ll take good care of him.” Harriet tried to reassure Jack, “I live in New York, It’ll be hard for Vlad to find him. We will be safe.”

Jack took the cigarette, “I don’t smoke anymore.”

Harriet nodded her head in understanding. Then she started up her car. Jack watched as she drove away, taking his only son with her. He prayed that they would be safe. Somehow, he knew that they would be.

Jack walked back to the front porch of the mansion. Pulling out a lighter he always carried with him, Jack lit up the cigarette. It was a bad habit he had started ever since he accidentally put Vlad into hospital. He knew that the habit wasn’t going away anytime soon.

He smoked as he watched the sun go down. Maddie was going to kill him because he had been gone so long. Jack couldn’t face the fake right now, not after everything he had seen. After the fourth cigarette, he watched a black limo drive up. He nearly glared when he saw Vlad step out. His ‘friend’ saw Jack and instantly tensed up. How did Jack never notice that before? Vlad walked up the steps.

“I didn’t know you smoked.” Vlad plastered on a fake smile, “Does Maddie know?”

Jack laughed awkwardly while putting out the tobacco, “Just a bad habit. Let me get the door for you.”

Jack held the door open for Vlad, then followed the villain inside. Jack lured him to the ballroom where he was surprised by a birthday party. Vlad feigned enjoyment, but Jack could see through it. It was funny how a search for balloons could unravel everything Jack knew about Vlad, his son and himself.

Jacked walked over to the punch table. He felt a tap on his shoulder, He turned to see his wife glaring at him.

“Where were you?” She hissed, her foot tapping angrily.

If only he could tell. He had to play his cards correctly or Vlad would find Danny. He couldn’t allow that to happen ever again.

“Harriet got sick; I was helping her out.” Jack hated lying to his wife.

“Hope she gets better.” Maddie looked a lot more relaxed. She smiled, “Look Danny and Vlad are getting along.”

Jack watched as the clone interacted with Vlad. The two did seem to be acting like close friends. If Jack had seen this yesterday, he would have smiled. Instead he hid his displeasure.

“I guess life is full of surprises.” Maddie grinned at her husband.

#phic phight #phic phight 19 #Danny Phantom #Vlad Masters #jack fenton #Harriet Chin #danny fenton #team human

44 notes · View notes