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“Danny, aren’t you the literal Ghost King slash Prince slash whatever? Can’t you just make her go away?”
“If I could, I already would’ve,” Danny hissed back. “This isn’t fun for me to see either.”
Sam growled, as the Banshee’s weeping continued in the back of the classroom. Dash and Kwan in the back looked like they were about to pass out or deck her in the face. No one really blames them.
The Banshee coming to Amity Park was a new development for everyone. At first, she appeared as any other regular oddity that occurs in the ghostly town. A woman singing down the streets with her long dark hair covering her face in an old green dress wouldn’t arouse much suspicion in the town. That is, until she made it to the elderly care home.
Once there, the details get scrambled for everyone who heard of the incident later. Some recollect her approaching an old woman in a corner of the recreational area, another claims that they saw her approaching one of the young receptionists. Truthfully, no one knows who she was here for. And it really didn’t matter once she started screaming.
It was a terrifying yell that resulted in all nearby windows shattering, and several people fainted from the shock and pain to their ears.
In the end, two people died, both elderly. Whether it was through the shock of the woman’s scream or through natural causes, it’s hard to say.
Since then, she’s been seen around. Not often, and not for every death. Oddly enough, when investigations on the death were concluded, it resulted that she doesn’t seem to be the cause of the deaths. It’s akin to an eerie canary in mines; a warning rather than a cause. The police are in the process of figuring out her pattern and tracking her behaviors, but it’s still quite perplexing.
Phantom once tried to talk to her, but she completely ignored him, which is an odd approach for a spirit. Danny knows his role as future king in the Ghost Zone makes his presence noticeable to say the least and impossible to ignore to most ghosts. She never even glanced in his direction. He became concerned with it a week after her arrival and decided to do his own investigation on her.
He found his answer with the Ghost Writer.
“Ahh, yes The Banshee,” Ghost Writer says to himself while moving some of his manuscripts into some infinite filing cabinet that Danny avoids looking at to prevent a headache. Too many dimensions in a tiny space is not something his human brain is capable of processing well.
Ghost Writer continues, “She’s untamable. Think of her as a grim reaper of sorts. No one’s really been able to track down what her logic is to be quite honest. No one wants to be exposed to her wailing long enough to figure out,” he shrugged.
“So… I shouldn’t worry about her being in my town?”
“Wait, what?” Ghost Writer fumbles with his manuscripts and turns his entire focus onto Danny. “He’s in your haunt?”
Hesitantly, the boy nods.
“Well, I’ll be damned…I thought you just wanted to talk on an educational level, kid. This is more serious and bigger than I expected it to be.”
Danny scoffs a little at that, “Bigger than fighting Pariah Dark? I’m not sure I can go bigger than that. I mean, the town’s been sent to the Ghost Zone, how much worse than that could it be?”
“I’m just saying, if she’s in some place, that usually means a big death is bound to come. You might want to brace yourself.”
After that discussion, Danny stayed a bit to help with Ghost Writer’s endless organizing before heading home to think.
Unfortunately, he wasn’t given much time to think because the following day, Danny arrived at school to see the Banshee crying in his homeroom.
At this point, all Danny knows is that this Banshee has been weeping in his classroom this morning, and he’s been a nervous wreck all day. If Ghost Writer says that it’s going to be a big death, then it has to be his class that’s in danger. Danny’s not the only one struggling. The entire class has been silent, trying desperately to ignore her crying in the corner and focusing on their work. It hasn’t been very effective.
Suddenly, there’s a knock at the door. Their teacher ignores it, when suddenly the door blasts open and in enters two men in white uniforms and government issued ectoweapons.
Danny’s heart freezes. The Banshee’s weeping is becoming louder.
“Daniel James Fenton, you are to come with us immediately to be decontaminated. We have collected months’ worth of evidence, indicating that you are in danger of ectocontamination, and will be taken into custody by order of the United States Government.”
“What?! No!”
“Son, this is not a request. Our scanners are going off the charts at the amount of ectoplasm in your body. You are a danger not only to yourself but your peers.”
There’s more jargon being said but Danny can’t hear anything. Blood is thundering in his ears. His breathing is shaky, his hands have clenched, ready to fight something.
Danny can’t go, they’ll find out everything about him, they’ll try to cut him open, they’ll kill him.
“I said…no.” Danny’s eyes begin to glow green and the temperature in the room suddenly drops.
The Banshee’s crying becomes more hysterical.
“This isn’t ectocontamination, this is body possession! Set your blaster to stun!” yells one of the agents.
A noise goes off and Danny’s body lurches back, and his vision blacks out for a moment. However once it comes back, he turns towards the agents. They’re pale, and their weapons have fallen on the ground. He then looks towards his classmates who look at him in horror.
Danny looks down where their eyes are pointing, and he sees a massive hole where his core used to be.
Oh.
Danny feels his vision dim, and his body collapses, unable to move.
The last thing he senses as he falls into oblivion are the Banshee’s screams.