Work Text:
Candlelight
Danny was having a great summer despite it only being the morning after school got out. The day before, Danny, Sam, and Tucker visited an amusement park nearby after school. It was a perfect ending to the school year and the beginning of the summer. That morning, Danny slept in late and then made himself the perfect bowl of Cocoa Pebbles, one of his most coveted cereals that he rarely was able to have. As Danny ate his cereal, he mentally began to plan out the summer: as little ghosts as possible, a camping trip with his family, a trip to the water park with Sam and Tucker, a movie marathon with Tucker, going up to the observatory. There was so much Danny could do, and he was persistent to make it the best summer ever.
Danny took another delicious spoonful of the chocolatey cereal when all of a sudden, his vision momentarily went black. The next thing he knew, he was falling backward along with his cereal because of the unanticipated lack of the table and chair. Danny fell onto the unrecognizable carpeted floor and mournfully watched as his cereal rolled across the floor. “My Cocoa Pebbles,” he faintly cried out in emotional agony.
“It worked!” A young voice suddenly shouted out, jarring Danny from his mental funeral for his cereal. Danny looked up and realized a few things. One was that he was now some other place than his kitchen, even though that was a bit obvious before. It looked like a typical young boy’s bedroom except for the odd array of candles and shut curtains even though it was late morning. Two is that he wasn’t alone in the room. Who Danny assumed was the owner, a boy about ten years old with cinnamon hair, was near the door and clearly the one who had shouted. There was also a darker-haired girl who appeared to be about a year or so younger and is clearly the boy’s sister. Third, Danny realized that, despite not transforming, he was in ghost form. Which was odd because he hadn’t had incidents like that for a long while. He was grateful for it though, it seemed that his presence here was planned, and if he didn’t transform, his secret identity would go down the drain (which could mean a colossal amount of suffering for Danny).
Uncertain about what was going on, Danny let out a puzzled, “Hello?”
Eagerly, the little boy exclaimed, “Hi! Wow! I can’t believe that this worked and that you are here! How about that, Sarah?”
The younger sister, who similarly seemed thrilled said, “This is so cool! Phantom is in my house!”
“Um, question please?” Danny asked the young kids while putting a finger up, “Why am I here and, um, how? Also, why are there so many candles? They are a fire hazard and not that safe. What if my cereal (poor cereal) fell into a candle and started a fire?”
“Simple!” the boy exclaimed with a candlelight glow on his face, “We just wanted to meet the town hero in person —”
“And ask a few questions.” The girl interjected.
“Yeah, and the candles are one-hundred-percent necessary; it says so in this book.” The boy held up a book that reminded Danny of the “for Dummies” books; “Summoning for Dummies” he thought. The fact that Danny was there at that moment and not eating his precious cereal made Danny think that the candles were actually necessary, but probably not anymore.
“Okay, but we probably don’t need the candles anymore, right? So, just to be safe, let's put them out and open up these curtains.” Danny, for one, didn’t think that he would be lecturing children on safety that day or ever, especially considering his own anti-safety track record, but there he was. Danny blew out a candle and the two siblings followed. He smiled. Good, he thought as he saw them helping out. Soon enough, all the candles were out, the candlelight gone and replaced with sunlight pouring through the window. Danny floated over to a chair against the wall. “So,” Danny said, addressing the kids with a warm smile, “How can I help you? It’s the first day of summer — you should be out and about.”
The girl piped up, “Why were you eating Cocoa Pebbles?”
“Well, they are way better than Fruity Pebbles, and they are a top-notch cereal. And, you can’t beat chocolate for breakfast.” Danny responded, trying to be a bit humorous.
“But, I didn’t know ghosts could eat.” The girl said.
“Well, I can, at least. What other questions do you have?”
“Why do you help everyone out?” The boy asked.
“It’s the right thing to do. Not everyone can stop a power-hungry ghost from destroying the town, but I can. I am just putting my hand in where it is needed. I have to keep Amity Park as safe as possible.”
“So you do it because it’s the right thing to do?” The boy asked rhetorically, “That’s nice.”
Danny nodded and then responded, “You two should always try to do the right thing: helping out around the house, being nice to others, thinking about the consequences of your actions before you do them. It is very important and will help you be the best person you can be.”
“One last thing,” the girl said with importance, “Our doggy, Max, had to go away. Could you keep an eye out for him?” Danny realized what she was going at, and a sweep of compassion filled him.
“Of course, I’ll do my best to see if he is okay.” Danny didn’t know if the dog would be a ghost dog — like Cujo — or not, so he tried to equivocate his affirmation. “Well, I think you two should better head out now, summer only lasts so long.”
“Okay,” the little girl said and went over to Danny and hugged him. Danny was surprised and blushed green, but hugged her back. Helping the kids out felt so satisfying, even if it meant losing his Cocoa Pebbles.
“Oh, and before I go,” Danny said, as he walked over to the book that the siblings had, “This has to go. Sorry, but what if it didn’t work and something else showed up — it’s not the safest thing. I’ll pay you back, I swear.” Danny then lit the book with an ectoblast, and it burnt out of existence. “Have a fun summer!” Danny flew out of the house.