Chapter Text
Shawn couldn’t imagine a day without his friend Johnny. As much as people joked that the skinny teen had the worst luck, he considered himself lucky to know him.
Countless times in and out of school, Johnny would pull Shawn out of trouble, and Shawn would do the same in return. It was like a silent agreement. Neither would ever dream of leaving the other behind. Shawn might as well consider himself Johnny’s brother for how often they hung around each other.
And then junior year of high school started.
Shawn caught Johnny staring toward one girl. From rumors, he heard her name was Katheryn, but she just called herself Kitty. She looked about as pretty as any other girl his age, but Shawn knew that this one was the one Johnny wanted.
Today they were sitting on some benches, and right across the quad Shawn already spotted Kitty among her friend group, but so did Johnny.
“Earth to John,” He spoke, waving his hand in front of his friend’s face, which wasn’t easy when Shawn was around 5’2” compared to his buddy who was 6’1”.
The teen gave a yelp. “Shawn, what was that for?”
“I saw you lookin’ at her,” Shawn replied.
“What? Johnny spoke, already rubbing his hair nervously. “Looking at who? I’m not looking at anyone.”
Shawn gave him a knowing look.
Johnny groaned. “Okay, so maybe I was. What’s it to you?”
“You should ask her out,” Shawn spoke, giving a smile.
“Wait what, are you crazy?” Johnny said. “I bet she already has a line for whoever wants to take her on a date.”
“Well then if you won’t, I’ll do it for you,” Shawn spoke, already getting off the bench.
That made Johnny frantic. “You’re not into her, are you?”
“Nah relax, haven’t found anyone yet, not that I’m interested. Let’s just see how it goes.”
Shawn took his time to walk over. One of Kitty’s friends nudged her shoulder, and the girls stopped talking right after.
“You’re Kitty right?” He asked, completely chill.
“Yeah, why are you askin’?” Kitty spoke.
“My pal Johnny’s wonderin’ if you’d want to go out with him.”
Kitty looked behind him trying to spot Shawn’s friend. “You mean the guy in the coat comin’ right behind you?”
Shawn chuckled as he heard some shoes streaking to a stop. “That’s him.”
After a moment, Johnny came up from behind.
“H-He didn’t say anything rude to you, right?” Johnny asked,
“Nah, he seems like an honest guy,” Kitty spoke. She looked him in the eyes. “Hmm, you look pretty cute.”
“You’re practically a gem,” Johnny blurted out, his blush very visible.
Kitty paused before giving a laugh, blushing lightly.
“Now I’ve seen everything,” She spoke, putting a curl of hair behind her ear. “You’re lucky today, Johnny 13. I don’t think I’ve seen anything like you. You’ve got yourself a date.”
Johnny’s mouth dropped open before Shawn gently nudged him to close it. “Really?!”
“Yeah, we can talk where, if your friend doesn't mind,” Kitty gave a nod to Shawn.
“Nah, Johnny’s my best friend,” Shawn scoffed, waving away the compliment. “You two talk things out right now, I’ll be waitin’.”
And from there, they became three. Kitty was fine with letting Shawn tag along on some dates since he was respectable when she and Johnny wanted some alone time. Other times he even helped them dodge or deal with any trouble.
Yet Johnny was still his friend true and through, risking his skin for Shawn whenever things got heated. The trio thought it wouldn’t end.
Until the cops called and told him Johnny was gone.
Dead gone.
Shawn’s throat was dry during the funeral. It was the worst thing that could’ve happened. Johnny and Kitty were out on a joy ride on a motorcycle, but some bozo cut their lives short.
Now he was alone.
A shadow without someone to follow, to laugh along, to lean on their shoulder as they knew he would’ve done the same.
He didn’t remember much of the graduation except the two empty chairs at the front of the students, where two lovers should’ve been locking arms, resting on each other’s shoulders, smiling, kissing.
Shawn thought about them every day. Some days were easy to smile out, but other days the shadows of the city were darker than usual.
He was so deep in his thoughts that he didn’t realize he was by a construction site, or that one of the workers was yelling at him to move out of the way.
He didn’t get the chance to look up either.
He was in a lot of pain.
He couldn’t remember how he got to the hospital. Or who the doctors were telling him were his family members.
Was that a bad thing? He didn’t know if it was.
He didn’t remember the names of anyone they found on his wallet. He didn’t recognize Shawn, or whoever they were showing a picture of.
The pain in his head hurt so much.
He felt everything going dark.
Johnny, Kitty. As soon as those names were brought, he felt happy. He managed to remember them in his mind. Johnny’s stutters, Kitty’s voice.
A person tried calling for his attention. He felt everything getting muted from the roar of blood in his ears. It was getting so hard to focus on anything except those two names.
He thought of a picture of three people. Two were undoubtedly Johnny and Kitty. But who was the one in the middle?
He heard something beep from some sort of machine. Even the sound of an ambulance grew dim, as well as the room…
Johnny didn’t know what to make of the ghost he found in his garage. Sure there were certainly a lot of strange ghosts, but this one took the cake.
It looked like sheet cloth but black, staring at him with bright neon green eyes. Yet unlike the regular blob ghosts that Johnny easily scared away, this ghost was larger and didn’t want to leave nor attack him.
“Do you mind if you get a bit further a-away from my cycle?” Johnny asked the ghost.
The cloth blinked before crawling away from the seat of the motorcycle and onto the floor. It paused before going further away near a few paint buckets.
Satisfied, Johnny put down the broom and began getting down some cleaning equipment.
“Sooooorry,” He heard.
Johnny whipped around. He didn’t think the ghost could talk. It.. no, he was gazing at him with saddened eyes.
“You from a-around here?” Johnny asked. The ghost paused, his brows lowered in thought before shaking his head.
“A new ghost then,” Johnny muttered, rubbing his chin. “Do you got a name?”
The ghost was quiet, before attempting to speak.
“Sha… Shaaaa…” He seemed to be struggling to piece together his name. The ghost’s voice wavered as he attempted again with no luck.
Johnny wasn’t one to give many ghosts pity. After all, it took a lot of what he would call luck for him and Kitty to claim this house as their ghost lair in the Zone.
But he remembered someone else who seemed a bit like the ghost in front of him.
Johnny remembered spotting the kid under the lunch benches when they were little, clearly wanting to make friends, but had some trouble speaking.
“You got a name?” He asked the kid.
The kid looked at him with big eyes that looked like he had been crying for some time.
“Sha… Shaa… Shaaaa...” He stuttered.
“You don’t know how to say it?” Johnny asked, ducking under the bench. It was hot anyways, and he didn’t mind the dirt at the bottom.
The kid shook his head.
“Do you know how to spell it?”
The kid paused before he began to poke the dirt with his index finger. The letters were shaky, but Johnny made out the word: Shawn.
“Maybe I could h-help you learn them,” Johnny figured, leaning towards the ground to write something out. “Try saying my name.”
Shawn looked at the name on the ground before scrunching his face.
“J… Jo…”
“Say it with me,” Johnny encouraged the kid. “John.”
“John?”
“Now say ‘ny’.”
“Ny.”
“Now say it together.”
“Joooohny?” Shawn guessed.
“Y-Yeah, you did it!” Johnny cheered, giving a smile, one of his front teeth missing.
Shawn’s eyes opened wide in surprise before giving a huge smile in return.
Johnny hadn’t seen Shawn in the Ghost Zone, and hoped he wouldn’t come here until it was his time. He figured he was far from Amity Park, and felt guilty for not being able to find his friend.
But this ghost reminded him of his buddy.
“Do you… know how to spell your name?” Johnny gently asked.
The ghost shook his head, tears starting to fill his eyes.
“Hey, hey, don’t cry,” Johnny comforted the ghost, trying to hush him. “Why don’t I give you a name?”
The ghost looked up and gave a nod.
“Let’s see… you’ve said Sha… how about Shadow?”
The ghost’s eyes seemed to shine as he heard the name.