#sdtscribbles

“Thanks dude that’s really what I needed right now.”

“I’m just sayin, I’ve seen you less shaken after getting sideswiped by a dragon, you sure this is a good idea?”

“No,” Danny began, his mind racing with possibilities, “but she figured it out, Tuck. I mean, yeah she was cool about it in the moment but now she wants to talk and I just… I don’t know what to say to her.”

“Just do what you did with Jazz-”

Beaming, Danny slapped his knee like an old cartoon prospector. “Have clockwork send me back in time to fix my mistakes and catch her off guard with the fact that I know that she knows, it could work, man, I could do it!”

“Wow ok no, I meant just talk to her, you weirdo,” Tucker said, hooking a left that sent Danny flying against the window, “you guys dated just pretend like she never broke up with you and now you’re at least somewhat normal.”

“And if that doesn’t work?”

“… I’ll put some nice flowers on your grave.”

Throwing his face into his hands, Danny screamed. “Why don’t we just keep driving? I’ve got gas money, we could do it, Tuck, just you, me and the open road, a good ol’ fashioned road trip! Leave our worries behind us, live off the land, yeah?”

“You had me up until ‘live off the land,’ TF don’t do foraging, Mr. Fenton.”

Smiling at the normalcy of a hypothetical road trip, Danny watched as they passed over the bridge that lead  into Elmerton, drawing him closer to his meeting with Valerie. In an effort to give the town some sort of levity in spite of its…questionable reputation, the city council had a habit of changing the welcome sign from week to week, this week it read; Elmerton! We Don’t Know How To Quit!

While he assumed it was probably meant to be inspiring, he couldn’t help but see it as vaguely threatening to outsiders.

“So, really,” Tucker said, eyes glued to the road “on a scale of one to ten how badly do you think this could possibly go?”

“Which is the one where she kicks me in the head and possibly breaks my arm?”

“Hmm, an eight huh?”

“THAT’S ONLY AN EIGHT?!”

Stopping the car in front of Valerie’s building, Tucker smiled as he unlocked the door and saw Danny off. “You kids have fun! See you in a few hours.”

“You’re the actual devil, Tucker,” he yelled back, shoving his hands into his pockets before turning to press the buzzer, “you’re the devil and I am-

---------------

That was Danny’s only thought as he stepped into the sweltering heat of Valerie’s apartment. He’d been expecting a slight temperature jump from the outside, but the difference between the chill of winter and the indoor sauna he had unknowingly entered was almost more than he could handle.

...In hell

“Uh, hi” he said, offering her an awkward wave as she ushered him in.

“Hey… so you expecting a firing squad or something?”

“No, no it’s just I’ve never done… this… before, I’m not really sure what to do.”

“You could start by unclenching your fists,” Valerie said, “you look like there’s a sniper targeting you.”

“Well not yet, but it’s still early give it time”

Visibly relaxing as Valerie gave him a half smile,  Danny awkwardly followed her into her room where she flopped comfortably onto the bed, leaving him standing in the door. Looking around like a deer lost in the woods, he found himself taking stock of the assorted ghost information decorating her walls and waiting for her to begin the conversation for him, the blasting heat of the apartment compounding on his already tense psyche.

“So…”

“So…”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

And there it was, Danny thought, the beginning of the end. No turning back now.

“I mean in my defense, we had evidence that you were pretty anti-ghost… it just… it never felt like the right time.”

Shrugging, Valerie picked up a half assembled ectogun and began playing with the innards, her face a neutral mask.

“We were friends, Danny,” she said, not looking up at him from her work, “after the ghost king after Skulker, after Technus…why didn’t you just talk to me? I mean yeah I wasn’t Danny Phantom’s biggest fan but I really liked Danny Fenton, more than enough to hear him out at least.”

Danny’s paranoia made sure to take stock of the way she used like in the past tense.

Racking his brain for the correct response, his mouth and his brain experienced a severe disconnect which resulted in him going, “Aren’t you hot? It’s like ninety in here?”

Staring at him incredulously, Valerie rolled her eyes and gave a small laugh. “After November my dad always turns up the heat like crazy, he can’t stand being cold for more than a few minutes, but like I was saying-”

“Right, I’m sorry but…jeez it’s like an oven in here, I’m not trying to change the subject though I promise.”

“I’d probably help if you took off your jacket then.”

Quickly following her suggestion, Danny stripped his jacket off and folded it over the back of her desk chair before feeling immediately exposed having removed a layer.

“Better?”

“Totally,” he lied, now more sure than ever that the heat was more in his head than in the room, “and… I’m sorry, again. I know I’ve said that a lot in the last few days but I mean it, I really do. I was going to tell you, I swear I was but then with the breakup and all the stuff with Vlad and school I just… I pushed you out.”

Arching her eyebrow at him, Valerie waited for him to continue.

“It’s like… in my head I knew, ‘hey, maybe talk to Val, see how she’s handling all this too’ but then some new stupid thing would happen and I’d get wrapped up stopping it.” Danny paused to swing his legs around the chair holding his jacket before continuing. “Tucker tells me I gotta give myself time to breathe but I just… it’s like… y’know?!”

Saying nothing, Valerie put the gun aside and met his eyes across the room, urging him to continue, because while she did in fact “know” the feeling he was describing, she felt like it was important for him to finish.

“I think I didn’t tell you because I was being selfish. Sure, I wanted to tell you, I heard you say you would give up ghost hunting for me and I was sure I could tell you then; like 'hey Val, before you do all that, I’m a ghost, not just a ghost but the ghost you hate the most, hope we can still be cool.’ But I didn’t, did I? Because we were normal, and that’s what I wanted. You didn’t see me as Fenton the freak or Danny Phantom the menace when we were together… I was just Danny and you were just Valerie, that’s how you thought it was right?”

“Sometimes,” she said, shoving her work into a box and pushing it under the bed, “it was fun though, even if your friends did hate me.”

“They didn’t hate you,” Danny said, giving a lazy smile and mussing his hair, “Sam’s naturally distrustful and Tucker’s just a really good friend so he’s protective of me.”

“Oh I know,” Valerie said, giving him a smile that was mostly sad, “he told me that when he cancelled on me the first time, said he was doing you a favor and that you’d owe him until you both died… then he laughed.”

In a burst of clarity, Danny remembered the incident in question, cringing as he thought back to possessing Tucker and forcing him to bring Sam to the dance freshman year while he dealt with Paulina.

Watching him carefully, Valerie broke the silence. “I’m guessing there’s more to that story too?”

Groaning, he planted his head in his hands and nodded.

“Okay, and the ghost dog? Any more about that I should know?”

Suddenly getting very serious, Danny lifted his head just enough to meet her eyes. “Good news there at least, Cujo’s gone, maybe for good, we haven’t seen him since that night at Axion Labs. He just kinda…faded away after he got his ball.”

There was a bittersweet tone to his words. “You miss em?”

“He was a good dog, just put a in a bad place, still, sorry he kinda…”

“Ruined my life?”

Nodding, Danny let the silence wash over them again as they both thought of what to say next.

“It’s- I’m not gonna lie and say it’s fine, but I’m dealing with it, besides you still haven’t told me what happened to YOU. Were you born like this or did someone…do this to you? Was it Vlad? People don’t just wake up half ghost as far as I know, but then again there’s apparently a lot I’m out of the loop on.”

Taking a deep breath, Danny transformed, exhaling just as the last bits of color drained from his hair and his eyes shifted from blue to green.

“Believe it or not Vlad had nothing to do with this,” he said, gesturing to his deathly white face, “my parents, when they first finished our ghost portal, the blueprints got mixed up and they put the ‘on’ switch inside the thing, and so they gave up on getting it working for a while. Well, cut to a few weeks later, Tucker, Sam and I were fooling around in the basement and she goes, 'hey, why don’t you go inside the portal, you know, look around.’”

“Look around the experimental project designed to punch a hole in reality,” Valerie cut in, “that was your bright idea?”

“Anyway, I slapped on this jumpsuit and stepped inside… next thing I knew there was a great big flash and it felt like someone had strapped me to a lightning rod, when I woke up I looked like this and I could do… a lot more than Danny Fenton ever did.”

“So… you died then?”

“Sort of,” he responded, tapping his foot in anticipation, “I got better.”

“And your parents?”

“They… I’m working my way up to that. My folks love me and I know they’d accept me no matter what, but this is a lot to take in. Jazz says it’d be easier to just be honest with them 'in a controlled setting’ but if I had any sense of control over my life I wouldn’t be getting two hours of sleep a day… you’re taking all of this way better than I expected by the way.”

“I’m still too sore from the other day to use any energy on you, I got a job to keep remember?”

Looking her over, Danny noticed the faint brown lines decorating her arms and legs, thin dips in her skin that were telltale marks of a hardfought few months.

“Hey, eyes up here, dude.”

Suddenly aware that he’d been staring at her without saying anything, he felt his face warm up with embarrassment and quickly averted his eyes to look at almost anything else in the room. “Sorry, sorry, I wasn’t being creepy I promise,” he began, his cheeks still light green with blush, “I was just looking at your scars! Not your… your uh… anyway yeah that’s about everything! I got powers from the ghost portal and I’ve been like this ever since. Dani’s my clone-sister-cousin-ish and she can do almost anything I can do and Vlad’s like me except carrying twenty years of crazy and a Lugosi fashion sense, he also wants my to bang my mom so there’s that.”

“It’s…weird that you know about that last part,” she said, offering him a small, genuinely warm smile once he finally brought his eyes back to her direction, “but I guess if you’re gonna have bad blood with a guy might as well go all out.”

“The guy wasn’t exactly subtle about it, Valerie.”

Shrugging, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath, going silent for so long that for a minute Danny thought she had fallen asleep and was filled with dread about what to do next if she had.

“Uh, Val?”

“Shhh…”

Okay she wasn’t sleeping, but that just made her silence even more nerve wracking for him. After awhile, he realized that he was inadvertently dropping the temperature of her room in his anticipation, so he reverted back to human while the heat crept back in the room to fill the space where words had gone unused. This is torture, Danny thought, trapped by the confines of his own guilt and politeness to wait for her to say anything to move this session along.

“Okay.”

Hearing that word was like being electrocuted all over again for him. “Okay?”

“Okay, I can see why you wouldn’t exactly tell me everything on a first date, and I’m not going to throw you out the window so you can relax.”

“How did you-”

“It was Tucker’s one request, he’s really into keeping things non violent and chucking you out a seventh story window would cause a scene. And I’m not as mad as I thought I would be, you thought you were doing the right thing by keeping me in the dark and again, this is… a lot, thinking back to everything that’s happened around town in the last two years.”

Before Danny could open his mouth, Valerie held up a solitary finger, cutting him off.

“ But-”

Oh no…

“I don’t like being lied to, Danny. And like you said, you were being selfish by keeping things to yourself.  I cared about you, I was going to give up ghost hunting and try to be normal with you, stop being angry and just let something good play out after a shitty year took everything from me, but instead of sitting me down and talking to me you let me go… you let me keep on exhausting myself, thinking I was alone, when you knew; you knew how much I hated doing this, you knew how much my dad was scared for me after you outed me during that invasion. Yes, I ended things and no, I’m not blaming you for me being angry, that’s on me, I told you my dad says I got it from my mom when we were hanging out but… but you knew how much I was struggling to just hold on to something.”

The room was suffocating now, with the heat seeming to increase exponentially as they sat staring at each other. In a moment of clarity, Danny realized that Valerie was the one causing the heat, and as he focused he could see red lines forming a circuit pattern crossing her forearms. The suit, he thought, remembering the whirring heat of his laptop after running too many programs at once, she’s been trying to stay calm for me but the suit is overcompensating for her anger and turning it into actual heat.

“You stopped talking to me at school, you almost never noticed that I was gone, it’s like you shut me out and that hurt danny. Then I find out about Danielle and the mayor and everything I thought I had was gone, I couldn’t get my dad involved, he doesn’t deserve that knife at his throat with all the pressure he’s already under trying to keep us above water, but I guess you knew that too. So it was just me. Again. With a bunch of pieces to sort out for a puzzle I didn’t know I was supposed to be putting together. You said it yourself, you have Tucker, you have Sam, you have your sisters, you even said yourself that you know if it really came down to it you’d have your parents too. Me? My ‘friends’ mostly ditched me after we lost everything and Star has her own issues to deal with, my ‘boss’ turned out to be a manipulative creep using me to settle a grudge, and my dad is so close to getting his life back to something resembling normal that, to be honest, I’d have to be a real bitch to drop all this on him now, especially after how I treated him before…”

She stopped just long enough for Danny to see that she was almost crying, her stubborn determination the only thing seeming to hold back the tears, but her next sentence was such a damnation that he wished she’d have just shot him.

“You didn’t even try.” She said in a soft voice, seemingly defeated. “I meant it when I said we should stay friends but… friends talk to each other, friends do more that stand in the background keeping secrets  from each other. Friends try, Danny, but what did you do? You just-”

A sad smile appeared on her face, one matched only by Danny’s as he knew they’d reached the same word for their mutual disappearance from each other’s lives.

“You ghosted me, and I let it happen.”

Before his brain could stop the words his mouth was forming, Danny spoke. “I hear three dates is usually when that happens.”

Much to his surprise, she laughed at that. A genuine warm laughter that weakened her enough to let a few tears slip out and made him simultaneously feel better and worse about how they had left things.

“Seriously though, you’re right… and I am sorry this is the way you had to hear things but if it makes you feel better, it wasn’t you, it was me. And no I’m not being cliche, I’m serious. After everything with Technus and Vlad and just, everything, the only take away was that it was too easy to hurt you. Don’t get me wrong I have no doubt that you could- and would- kick my ass six ways to Sunday in a fair fight but…”

Standing for the first time, Danny crossed the room and joined Valerie on the edge of the bed. “Wrecking your suit, being hunted like rabbits through the ghost zone, accidentally shooting you when we were in space, that look on your face when Dani was destabilizing and you thought you’d turned into a killer, every time I thought about getting close to you there was another reminder thrown in my face that at the end of the day, it seemed like I was made to haunt you, you know? And if I could just push you far enough out of my circle of weirdness after we split, maybe things could go back to normal for you.”

“You tried that with Tucker and Sam? Or Jazz”

“I’m pretty sure those two will be stuck with me until the day they die, I accepted this years ago. And Jazz is just…Jazz. To her I’m the same annoying little brother I’ve always been, only now I can walk through walls and don’t scream when I see the teletubbies.”

Accepting his company as the temperature started dropping again, she smiled. “So don’t try to force your normal on me then. We’re both going through a lot, and I don’t think anyone else can understand how uniquely terrible things are for us. You don’t have to be my best friend and start telling me your deepest darkest fears all of a sudden, just… don’t shut me out again alright? Otherwise I’ll hire a Dipsy impersonator to stand outside your window until you stop being dumb.”

“…I hate that yellow bastard.”

“That’s Lala, Dipsy’s the green one.”

“Bastards a bastard, Val.”

Sitting together, Danny found himself grateful they had entered a comfortable silence for the first time since he had arrived. Of course he knew she still had some issues she would want to discuss later, but for now it was good that they’d gotten as far as they had today, even if if was mostly just clearing up old air. Adjusting himself as Valerie leaned her head on his shoulder, he tried to regulate the heat she was still putting off by subtly dropping his own body temperature to slightly above what he considered a death chill.

“Danny,” Valerie began, her anger and fatigue finally polymerizing into full fledged exhaustion as the previous day caught up with her.

“Yeah Val?”

“I liked Dipsy as a kid.”

Pulling out her phone to break the news to her… well she wasn’t exactly sure what they were to each other at this point so she decided to just go with friend, she paused as an idea took root in her mind. Dialing the personal number she’d gotten after a turbulent first meeting, Harriet anxiously waited as the phone began to ring.

“…Hello?”

“Mayor Masters,” she said, the excitement in her voice betraying more emotion than was professionally necessary, “do you know how rude it is to leave a girl waiting to hear back from you?”

“Ah, miss Chin,” he began, loudly clearing his throat, “how lovely to hear from you again. Calling with another enticing proposition no doubt?”

Turning scarlet in the back of her taxi, Harriet was glad Vlad couldn’t see her face at the mention of their last encounter but kept her composure nonetheless. “Now, now Mayor Masters,” she said, “ I wouldn’t want to spoil you just yet. Besides, what you call a proposition, I call another opportunity for some old friends to reconnect, this weekend, maybe?”

There was a bit of hesitation on Vlad’s end as Harriet heard the muffled sounds of arguing but she simply waited for him to give a response.“Oh, well I definitely have some things to move around,” he began, the outcome of his quarrel unsure, “but this has been a… stressful week for me, so… yes, I’d love to get together. Do you have a venue planned or should I make a reservation somewhere so we can further, ah, discuss future arrangements?”

Mentally celebrating her victory, Harriet quietly composed herself for the negotiation’s killing blow.  “No,no, I’ve got it all planned out,” she said, a devilish grin spreading across her face, “you just be ready.”

“Excellent, just send me the details when you get a chance then, but right now I’m afraid I have an… annoyance…  to deal with. Ta-ta.”

“Vladimir Sebastian Masters,” she teased, “are you embarrassed by a little exposed skin?”

Still smiling to herself as they drove over the Elmerton bridge, Harriet began composing the details. “I hope you enjoy latex and sweat, mister mayor,” she said to herself before hitting send, “because we have a busy weekend ahead of us.”

----------

As Vlad attempted to cover his chest for the sixth time since they’d arrived, Harriet couldn’t help but laugh.

Burying his face in his hands and shaking his head as she adjusted the straps of her boots, his cheeks flushed a deep crimson as they made their way into the crowded convention center. He knew he should have been more insistent on the details before he agreed to anything but his overconfidence in his ability to manipulate a situation had once again left him caught off guard.

“Harriet,” he began, keeping his eyes level under the brim of his hat, partially to avoid tripping and partially to avoid making eye contact with the various women they were passing, “when you told me to wear something appropriate, I thought we’d be going somewhere more… distinguished.”

“C’mon Vladdy,” Harriet said, an evil smile dancing on her face, “what’s more distinguished than that.”

As if on queue, a large man whose outfit consisted mostly of leather straps and knife sheaths walked past the pair of them, taking extra time to compliment Vlad on his costume and causing Harriet to finally lose her grip on her laughter as she led them away. All things considered, it would have been easy for her for just to reschedule her plans around the convention she’d been assigned to for the weekend, but that would have been letting that prick Lance Thunder get the best of her, and she’d sooner have died. So, here they were, standing in the midst of the state’s second largest Comic Convention dressed like-

“A joke,” Vlad said, still hiding his face from the masses, “I feel like a walking joke.”

After receiving Harriet’s text a few days ago, he had taken extreme caution in choosing an appropriate costume for the occasion. Now though, walking past booths and crowds in such a stark contrast to his companion - who wore a simple outfit of black jeans and a red shirt with a faded wonder woman symbol on it- he found himself embarrassed.

“Oh lighten up, mister mayor,” she said, hooking her arm around his in a show of solidarity, “I think it’s cute you went through all this trouble just for lil ol’ me.”

Giving her a half smile for a half truth, Vlad began to relax. Being honest with himself, he knew that his reasons for going over the top with his thunder god costume were only partially about fulfilling Harriet’s desires. No, more than that he was making up for lost time. During the years of his ecto acne affliction, Vlad had missed dozens of conventions out of fear of attention being called to his disproportionately marred face. But now, being here with Harriet reminded him of the better times from college; the late nights laughing with Jack as they attempted to beat their Pac-Man and Burger Time high scores, the three of them cheering Harriet on during her track races, the time Jack threw Elmer Heart into the fountain for calling the girls “Ching Chong Chin and Mildew Maddie” after they’d waved him off during one of his drunk episodes …all good memories he’d shoved into a dark recess in his mind for some reason.

Temporarily lost in actual enjoyable memories for once, Vlad allowed himself to fully smile and tilt his head up. As his unrestricted gray hair draped his shoulders and his confidence returned, he proudly fell into step beside Harriet. However, all it took was momentary eye contact with another chainmail bikini warrior to cause him to cast his glances downward again.

“Okay,” Harriet announced, looking mildly annoyed at her watch, “I’m supposed to be interviewing this guy in like twenty minutes for an online article, after that, we grab a bite, then we get you out of those clothes and go salvage what light we can out of this day. You're gonna be okay while I run this guy down.”

Sweet sugar on cinnamon rolls, he thought, blushing furiously at the sight of so much free skin around him, baby steps.

Vlad noticed that the last sentence wasn’t a question so much as it was a command, but he nodded agreement nonetheless.

“Great,” she said, pulling out a tape recorder and whipping around, “never thought I’d say these words again but: meet me in the food court in forty-five, I’ll even let you decide what poison we put in our body from this death trap. Aaaaaaaaand break.”

To her credit, it was exactly forty five minutes until she reappeared, striding through the crowd and only looking moderately annoyed as she pulled up the chair across from Vlad.

“I trust the interview went well?”

Glaring as she snatched the cup from in front  of him and took and long drink, Harriet sighed. “I swear, what do men have against using deodorant or showering? If you’re meeting with someone to talk about your ‘revolutionary’ new project, it’s not too much to ask that you at least have the decency to introduce yourself to soap and water beforehand, right? Ughhh.”

“Ah, well at least you got your story, right?”

“Oh yeah, ‘nerds excited for new nerd shit,’ more groundbreaking news at five.”

Feeling slight pity for her, Vlad offered her the pretzel he’d been nursing since they diverged.

“My hero,” she said, a slight smile pulling at her lips, “ I also appreciate you keeping the costume on while you waited.”

The costume…oh god the costume. Vlad suddenly became very aware that he was still dressed as Raiden, god of thunder in a massively crowded room with countless witnesses. Attempting some form of suave recovery for this revelation, he removed his hat to meet her eyes over their comically small table.

“I figured after our… disastrous last meeting,  I owed you some form of levity, besides, no one will ever believe you.”

“You’re underestimating me if you think you’re off record right now, mister mayor. But if I were off record... I’d like to personally apologize for getting shafted by that blonde idiot into writing a puff piece for NerdCon when we should be doing almost anything else right now.”

“No apologies necessary,” he said, “this is far from the biggest indignity I’ve suffered since being elected into office… off record of course.”

Feeling the twinges of pulitzer-prize winning hunger coming on, Harriet began setting up the killing blow. “So, on the record now, how about an exclusive for me: why the pajamas? What does Raiden mean to you?”

Narrowing his eyes as the game began, Vlad pulled his cup back and smiled. “Ah, after another mayoral exclusive, I see?”

“Maybe, maybe not, but if this nerd shit doesn’t pull readers I’d like to have a fall back to shove into Lance’s punk ass face if he tries me again.”

He could respect that line of logic. “Tsk tsk tsk, such language. But I suppose I could throw you a bone.”

God I wish, Harriet thought, her face a mask of calculation. Shutting that thought down before it could marinate longer, she refocused on the absurdity of interviewing her former college friend -who was now the mayor- while he was dressed like a video game deity.

“Simply put, it’s about power. The people love him, and in turn he’s able to protect them without the interference of their own ignorance.”

Seeing the hunger in her eyes intensify as he spoke, Vlad began to elaborate. “When I ran for mayor, I had one goal in mind-”

Vengeance

“-taking the problems out of the people’s hands and bearing the responsibility for them. And like I said, they love him for it. There’s no fear, there’s no resentment, there’s the simple understanding that a god has spoken and he knows what’s best. He’s also not too bad in a fight if it comes down to it, but most people know better than to test him. Suffice it to say he’s an insurmountable power in the guise of a man. ”

“And is that what you want from this position, Mayor Masters? Power to shape to the world? Presidential ambitions maybe?”

“No, Ms. Chin,” he said, his eyes taking on an almost dreamlike quality, making his smile sadder than it previously was but also more sinister, “I’m afraid you’ve misunderstood me. I’m rich, dear, by that logic alone I already have the power to change this world anyway I see fit, but before that, I have to show the people that I know the way.”

“Hmm,” she said, momentarily stunned by the intensity in his voice, “spoken like a true politician.”

“I am what I am, Harriet,” he responded, “it’s like I told Daniel months ago… it’s chess really, you have to stay moves ahead.”

“Mhmm, so is that why you’re dressed like Gandalf’s electrician brother while drinking an overpriced mall smoothie? Some really advanced tactics at play?”

It’s amazing how much truth can come out when you’ve made the decision to underestimate your opponent in a game you weren’t aware had started. “Obviously I’m only gaining your favor to use you later once the citizens turn on me after discovering the skeletons in my closet.”

“My mother was right then, you do only want me for my body, ugh, men… you’re all the same.”

“Darling trust me, I’m an entirely different breed.”

“Oh yeah,” she asked, narrowing her eyes, “is that why ghosts keep blowing up your house?”

Simply. Amazing.

“I believe that’s a conversation for another day,” he responded, watching the cosplayers pass by then, “preferably one where we aren’t surrounded by half naked strangers draped in latex.”

“Well you’re no fun.”

“Again, I’m rich dear, I don’t have to be fun.”

“Alright, moneybags,” she teased, taking his hat and adjusting it onto her own head, “I believe you were in charge of lunch plans, and I know ol’ ‘Vlad the Inhaler’ isn’t gonna be full off some kiosk smoothie full of berries the seller can’t even pronounce and a pretzel, so what’ll it be?”

“Well seeing as I doubt you’re putting yourself on the menu-”

The voice in Harriet’s head had a field day with that scenario but her face held only a minute amount of interest.

“-I’ve decided that we’re going to leave, there’s a steakhouse near here that has a porterhouse simply beyond words, and I think we’ve both suffered enough indignation that we deserve it.”

“And should the silverware start floating again?”

“Well…  I’ve always wanted to own a restaurant.”

“You do know how to show a girl a good time,” she said, hooking her arms through his despite the embarrassed look he was trying to hide, “still, I’m sorry to have dragged you here and put you on the back burner.”

“Please,” he said, holding up a previously unseen bag from under the table, “it isn’t as though I’m walking away entirely empty handed.”

Watching as she inquisitively raised her eyebrow and the corner of her mouth peaked into a smile, Vlad found himself unable to meet her eyes. “I’m allowed to enjoy myself Harriet, there are worse things in the world than a self made man broadening his horizons.”

“Are these horizons broad enough for you to keep your snazzy costume on through dinner?”

Laughing, Vlad began using his free hand to pull his curtain of hair back into its usual ponytail, already craving the feeling of being in formal wear again. “Sweet caramel corn no, as soon as we exit this building I’m finding a tailor, a furnace to dispose of the evidence and swearing you to silence.”

While deep in concentration, a loud crash pulled him out of his scheming daze. Looking over, he saw that a panicked waiter had dropped a bottle of wine, sending ice and glass flying across the floor. Catching the young man’s eyes, Vlad motioned for him to come closer, watching as he held the now empty platter  against his chest like a shield.

“I am so, so sorry Mayster Mayors we’ll have that cleaned up in a jiffy… I-I-I mean Masters Mayor… I mean…”

The boy looked so close to tears that Vlad had to hold up a hand signaling him to stop talking. “You look a little young to be working here, son, what’s your name?”

“I-I’m Michael Cyran, sir, but, uh, most people call me Mikey.”

Mikey, Vlad recalled, was one of Daniel’s classmates, a nervous boy prone to screaming and fleeing easier than most, which made his accident even more obvious in hindsight.

“Well Michael,” he said, calmly treading his fingers together over the emptying bread basket, “I’m here for a very important meeting tonight, so i need everything to be perfect, do you understand?”

“Yes sir.”

“Excellent,” he continued, grabbing a roll and slowly ripping it open, “because I’d absolutely hate for there to be an issue like this further into evening, right?”

Mikey wasn’t sure how the mayor had made eating bread sinister but he decided right then and there to channel every ounce of coordination he had into the next four hours of service. “I… I won’t let you down, sir”

“Good man,” Vlad said with a smile, “and you have my word that if all goes well you’ll get a tip so great you’ll never have to take the bus again.”

With the two great uniters of men -money and fear- both offered to him the span of minutes, Mikey vigourously nodded and ran back to the kitchen to get a broom. Listening to the clatter in the other room as he buttered his roll, Vlad chuckled to himself about the fact that he still had the capacity to scare regular teenagers despite that fact that they seemed to be his worst enemies elsewhere.

——–

He was on to his fifth roll by the time his guest arrived. Harriet Chin. She had a professional aire about her; a silver power suit with a skirt and expensive looking black heels -though he suspected she was wearing them because she was still sensitive about her height- that complemented her features well. Time had been kind to her, as her face hadn’t shown much wear since their college years and was still a professional mask of beauty punctuated with calculating turqouise eyes. Vlad recognized her composure immediately, she was here to work but also to make an impression; you cannot hope to beat me. He wasn’t even sure what she thought the challenge was going to be but she was prepared to fight and to win… he could respect that.

“Vladdie,” she called, waving him down as if he weren’t the only one there, “I’m so glad you agreed to come.”

As she threw her arms around him, Vlad couldn’t help but notice she smelled like cinnamon, a smell that fit her personality perfectly; pleasant but dangerous if you’re careless. “Why Ms. Chin,” he said, standing to hug her back and get her seat, “that’s not the behavior i’d expect from a professional like you.”

“Well, Mayor Masters,” she began, taking a roll from the basket and rolling it in her hands, “I thought we should go ahead and get the pleasantries out the way now. That way, in a few minutes if you want to run away, you’ll remember that I’m not just another reporter trying to steamroll you, I’m your friend…. and a reporter trying to steamroll you.”

The sincerity and confidence with which she spoke left Vlad so stunned he didn’t even notice Mikey come back to the table and ask if they were ready to order.

“I think I’ll have the steak and potatoes,” Harriet said, resting her head on her fingers with a half smile, “and you, mister mayor?”

Snapping back to the moment, Vlad offered his own tight smile as he closed the menu he ’d been neglecting. “Just the roast chicken for me,” he said, passing it off to Mikey but never taking his eyes of Harriet, “and a glass of your best red, wouldn’t want this evening to get dry.”

“Oh,” she said, sensing his challenge, “better make it two, kid.”

——

After several minutes of conversation, Vald found himself  becoming comfortable around Harriet, even though he had yet to find his opening for manipulation amidst her control of the situation. They’d already gone over his plans for the city budget and his ideas about what to do about the increasing amount of vacancies around town recently -both of which could be summed up as “I have it under control you should trust me I am a competent mayor”- and every other topic except for the elephant in the room; ghosts. This was deliberate on his part of course, as any time they came close to the subject he announced some new community project for her to report on or tried to make a joke, some of which even managed to get a laugh from her.

“Alright, alright, fine,” Harriet said, her laughter dying down, “enough politics for tonight, okay? Besides, the amount of alcohol I’d need to keep pretending to care about your budget plans for another minute is, quite rankly, staggering.”

“Fair enough,” he conceded, tracing his finger around the rim of his glass, “though you’ll excuse me if my conversation skills are a bit rusty.”

“Nonsense, all that fascinating talk of local budgets and condemned buildings was so smooth i really had to contain myself.”

“Well my dear, I hope that’s off record for your sake.”

“Speaking of ‘off the record,’” she said, putting her phone away after saving their conversation and visibly relaxing, “how about we stop acting like strangers and start talking like people who actually know each other. I’ve been in town for almost a year and it’s like you’d forgotten I’d existed until tonight.”

It was true of course, over the last year Vlad had been so caught up with his own… pursuits, that he had barely acknowledged Harriet’s move to Amity Park after their disastrous college reunion. In fact, if he hadn’t seen her reporting from here after he put a bounty on Danny Phantom, he probably wouldn’t have thought about her much. “Sorry, dear,” he said, cycling back to the conversation at hand, “but in fairness you didn’t exactly move mountains to contact me, either.”

He was caught of guard by the burst of bitter laughter that statement solicited from her. “Oh yeah, cause that would’ve gone well. ‘Hi, Vlad, it’s Harriet from college, remember me? I flirted with you for maybe half a second before you vanished from the reunion and Jack Fenton had his little 'episode’ while everything went to hell, I see you also moved to Amity Park, were you chasing the same ghost stories that got you fired too?’”

Vlad went silent and began to unpack her response. The first thing he noted was that she had come to town looking for ghosts after all - a common trait for their little circle it would appear- and, much like him, it seemed that she blamed Jack Fenton’s buffoonery for her misfortune. The second was far more incredulous.

“What was that first bit again?”

“Remember me?”

“No, after that,”

“Were you chasing ghosts?”

“No, well yes we’ll get back to that soon, but i’m more curious about what you said before that, about the college reunion?”

Watching as Harriet’s face began to redden in the dim bistro lighting, Vlad found himself fidgeting with his tie, nervously anticipating her response. “Okay, look, I know you guys are still best friends and all but I swear, Jack Fenton has a superpower for ruining other people’s moments while making himself the center of attention. Like.. okay, remember that practice race we had for spirit week in 82’? I had just finished running and was coming to talk to you when all of a sudden, bam! Jack’s there with an arm full of water balloons, pelting us and most of the varsity team from the high seats. No 'good job Harriet’ or 'way to go,’ nope, he just went straight to being back in the spotlight cause once again class was done and big J was there to have fun.”

Gradually recalling the day in question, Vlad found himself staring down at a memory of Harriet waving to him and Maddie in the bleachers as she pulled ahead of everyone. She’d always said that he was her lucky charm so he had made sure to drag Maddie and Jack to every practice and every race he could, and when they couldn’t make it he was there cheering by himself, Those were some of his most pleasant memories of college, of course, the smiles and the cheering had all come before….

“-and don’t get me started on that nasty accident sophomore year.”

There it was. Just like that, Vlad was flying from the track field to the science lab, mentally reliving the proto-portal accident that had fast-tracked his downward spiral. The bright green flash that briefly dissolved into a terrifying swirling maelstrom of red and black before the muted browns and greys of the lab came rushing back into his vision as he pulled his head from the machine, clutching his face and screaming as his skin flared with ecto-acne and he lost his chances at the person he knew was the love of his life to a man he’d once called his best friend.

As she watched him cycle through emotions, Harriet gradually tried to move away from the subject. “Anyway after that we all just drifted apart, I lost contact with Jack and Maddie after I got my internship and by that point you had cut us all off, so imagine my surprise when you show up here with Jack Fenton as you biggest supporter like no time had passed. I mean, considering Jack’s size I can only imagine how hard it was for you to be the bigger person, but-”

“Excuse you,” he said, holding up his hand and cutting her off for the first time, his hands trembling with barely restrained fury, “what do you mean I cut you all off? After the accident I was a social outcast! I couldn’t even show my face on campus half the time without people pointing and whispering, you included if i recall correctly.”

Now it was her turn to get indignant. “I don’t know what you think you remember, mister Masters, but as soon as you were out of the hospital we all tried to come see you, to call you, to get you to talk to us anyway we could, but you kept brushing us off. The only time we ever saw you was when you came out of that creepy therapist’s office, and every time you did it was like you were pushing further and further away. And you know what, i understood, Jack had almost killed you for all we knew and Maddie was too busy reassuring him to even check on you by herself, but me? I spent weeks just trying to get you to talk to me before I…” she deflated slightly, a twinge of guilt crossing her face as she played with her drink, “I just moved on, Vlad.”

Looking her over, Vlad also felt his anger leave him, not completely disappearing but instead transforming into confusion. Harriet had given up on him? That means he was a lot worse off than he remembered, if memory served him correctly that woman rarely gave up on anything, regardless of the risks it posed to her own safety. In fact, he vaguely remembered an occasion when she had chased after a bus for two blocks with a sprained ankle just to retrieve Maddie’s notebook, and she didn’t even have class that day. What’s more… Therapist? At the mere mention of the word black spots began to swim in his vision as if he were about to lose consciousness.

  “Ms. Chin,” he began, drumming his finger on his cheek, “I’m not sure what you think you remember but I can promise you I don’t remember anything about a therapist after my little 'accident.’”

“Well your brain had just been fried, so I can believe there’s a lot missing upstairs,” she began, careful to insult him in a neutral tone, “but trust me, as much time as you spent in that weird woman’s office you definitely should have a few memories rolling around up there.”

Weird woman? The more Harriet spoke the more Vlad knew she was telling the truth. She’d showed up right after the accident and spent twice a week with him for almost a month. Slowly but surely he began to recall their conversations; how they’d talked about Maddie and Jack and how Vlad had fallen behind in the race for her affections, how she encouraged him to devote more time to himself and how if his friends really cared they’d make more of an effort regardless of what his face looked like. The more he forced himself to remember the more his vision began to swim.  He’d been miserable in those sessions, and yet he kept coming back to her, spilling his guts every chance he got to a face that never seemed to stop smiling regardless of how close he’d gotten to tears and how after a certain point Vlad had just wanted to throw her out a window just to get her away from him. That was when he knew he’d never let himself feel weak again, when he decided he needed control. He hated her. He hated Jack for putting him on a collision course with her, for abandoning him after years of friendship and for stealing Maddie from him - who he wished could love him back now more than ever just so that he could get the mysterious demoness’ condescending smile out of his head.

… But what. was. her. name?

The fact that he couldn’t remember her name was the most infuriating part of the new memory. Sure, her face seemed to always be obscured by shadows despite the clarity of conversation, but that was nothing compared to the fury of not knowing her name. As an added insult, Vlad could now hear her laughter penetrating all his thoughts, drowning out reality completely and providing a shrill soundtrack to the onslaught of repressed negative memories.

“Jesus Christ!”

Vlad was brought back to reality by the sound of Mikey screaming and the sensation of Harriet shaking him. “Vlad,” she screamed, mistaking his retrospective for astonishment, “move!”

Cutting through the fog of memory and looking around the restaurant for the first time, he bit back a confectionary curse as Harriet pushed him out of the way and a steak knife embedded itself in the wall where he had been. All around them silverware and furniture had begun to levitate and spin across the room,  abandoning the food and candles which had begun haphazardly hurling themselves into the walls and ceiling. Calming himself down, Vlad realized that this had apparently been going on long enough for Harriet to take out her phone and start recording, her focus so intense that she was completely ignoring the wine currently staining her suit from as it tumbled to the floor and joined what was left of their meal once he’d regained control.

“Well then,” he said, surveying the damage and the frightened looks on the wait-staff’s face while trying to sound casual, “I suppose you found tomorrow’s headline.”

“Yes!” she cheered, much to his surprise,“I knew it! I knew it was you!”

“Beg pardon?” All the moisture had gone from his mouth…he’d been exposed.

“The reunion, the explosion, that time the town got sucked into that weird ghost dimension, t-the the fact that after you showed up in town the Wisconsin ghost started showing up more and more…”

“Harriet, wait, I can explain,” he began, still attempting to regain composure from him slip of concentration earlier.

“You’re haunted, Vlad, genuinely stalked-by-spirits haunted! You’re my ticket back to the top!”

Watching as the door closed behind her, Vlad found himself sitting alone in the dim lighting with nothing but the note and the whispers of the staff -who had retreated into the kitchen for cover during his power surge- for company. Turning the small slip of paper over, Vlad read it no less than five times only to suddenly find himself in need of a glass of water… possibly a large pitcher if one were available. “Oh Michael,” he called, summoning the cowardly waiter from the kitchen, “ I think that’s enough excitement for the night, I’ll take the check now.”

Stunned, Vlad started the mental gymnastics necessary to catch up with Harriet’s train of thought. She didn’t suspect him as the cause, she believed that he was simply the subject, and she was going to use that to whatever advantage she could professionally, he could respect that… of course he could also use that to his advantage.

“So you were using me… as bait?” he said, putting on his best sad/offended voice while suppressing his own building admiration.

Not missing a beat, she walked over to where the knife had plunged into the drywall and removed it. “Don’t look at it like that,” she said, peering into the indent as if were hiding information from her, “look at it like this; now you’ve got a Pulitzer nominated reporter -who is now certain she isn’t going insane- on your side to make you look good for the press, and all you have to do it sit still, look pretty, and answer my questions occasionally whenever things like this happen. I mean, ghosts and goblins and all that were always more you guys’ area of expertise, so I have a bit of catching up to do before I go public with anything, but this time I’ll be prepared.”

For the upteenth time that evening, Vlad found himself stunned. Entrapment and blackmail? He wasn’t sure whether to be indignant or enamormed with her. “I see,” he said, stroking his chin like a stereotypical villain from a cartoon, “so tell me, miss Chin, what’s stopping me from ignoring your deal altogether and simply finding my good press somewhere else, perhaps your associate Lance Thunder would be open for an interview.”

“Lance Thunder is a fucking joke and you and I both know it, Vladdie,” she said, carelessly tossing an errant strand of hair from her face as if stating that water is wet, an objective fact, “besides, I have something Lance could never offer.”

“Which is?”