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phantom’s eyes always looked human, compared to the other ghosts. maddie remembers the first time she came face to face with the ghost, how his eyes gleamed with light, playful emotion as he vanished right before her eyes.
all she could feel in that moment was horror. phantom was a ghost, after all; his job was always to scare, to frighten, to cause chaos wherever he went. he must be out to get her, or he must be playing some ghostly trick, somehow. he looks too much like danny. he looks too human.
jack goes along with her. he’s always been more into the inventing side of the business, anyway, and would much rather not be in the field standing behind an ecto-gun. and maddie doesn’t shoot at phantom, anyway, not really. oh, the ghost thinks he’s dodging. really, she’s missing on purpose. all she wants is to see how he behaves. see how long before something snaps, before phantom breaks and his facade comes crumbling down.
that never happens. but slowly, slowly, maddie starts to see.
his eyes are still ghost eyes, green on green and glowing, but if it weren’t for the glow, maddie could almost mistake them for human. she's said as much, many times. now those words circle through her head, haunting her. the radio announcer continues speaking, heedless of her inner turmoil.
“ many are saying that phantom, widely known as the ‘protector of amity park’, is masquerading as human during his downtime. others say that he, himself, is half-human, despite evidence that suggests otherwise. when polled, a whopping ninety-five point six percent believe that former is indeed true. another three percent believe that phantom is half-human in some form or another, while the remaining one point four percent remain undecided. ”
maddie knows, instantly, that what the reporter is saying is truth. she doesn’t want to believe any of the words pouring from the reporter’s mouth; wants to discredit them, denounce them, but the reports that the announcer is listing are well-researched, backed by science from people maddie knows are trustworthy. all the evidence is lining up, like books settled neatly on the shelf.
why it took so long for the facts to piece themselves together, maddie doesn’t know. she sees them in her head, all those times where something should have clicked, but just didn’t .
" we are now taking opinions from our listeners, " continues the announcer in the distance, rattling off what seems like an endless stream of numbers. someone calls in almost instantly, but maddie can’t even process their words over the white noise in her head.
if phantom himself were to appear in front of her, she could do nothing. she should have wondered more why the ghosts called phantom ‘halfa’ with such open disdain. she should have wondered why phantom’s eyes gleamed so bright and open, should have seen why they weren’t flat like all the other ghosts they’ve fought. she should have wondered. she should have wondered. she should have wondered.
what has she done? if phantom is more human than ghost, does that make her the monster? if she caught phantom, could she have taken him from his family, his friends? destroyed his cover and revealed his secrets, putting amity park in danger? it's almost common knowledge at this point: amity park is phantom’s lair, though no one talks about that.
phantom is human, and his eyes told maddie the truth from the very beginning; she was the one who chose not to listen. she has to make this right, and she knows how to start.
" this is doctor maddie fenton speaking and i have a message for phantom. phantom, if you're out there right now, if you’re listening, i'm sorry. "