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Danny suppressed a sigh as he stared out the window. As much as he really didn’t want to go to this “family reunion” thing, his dad had been so excited that Danny would feel bad if he did anything to put a damper on his mood. Still, that didn’t mean he was looking forward to spending his weekend making awkward smalltalk with relatives he’d never met. (At least they weren’t visiting Vlad. Ew.)
“Oh, I can’t wait for you kids to meet the rest of the Fenton clan!” Jack boomed enthusiastically. He smiled wistfully. “I haven’t seen them since Jazzypants was in diapers.”
“Why’s that, Dad?” Jazz asked.
“Oh, we just all got busy with our jobs,” Jack explained. “Well, that and the fact we all live so far away from each other.” Danny supposed that made sense. After all, they only got to see Aunt Alicia on rare occasions due to the distance (and the fact that she lived so far out in the sticks that they didn’t even have an airport, so the only way to get there was to skydive).
“Oh, I’m so excited to see them all again and compare notes!” Maddie beamed. “They’re all scientists, too, you know,” she explained to the kids.
“And I can’t wait for you kids to meet your cousins!” Jack added. “I haven’t met any of them myself, but from what my brother and sisters have written, they sound great!” Danny couldn’t quite share his parents’ enthusiasm, and he had a feeling that neither could Jazz. If their dad’s siblings were, in fact, scientists, they likely studied more practical sciences than ghost science. So, not only would it be awkward that he was meeting these aunts, uncles, and cousins of his for the first time, but also because they were likely to be the black sheep of the family.
Soon, they pulled up to the park, where Danny could already see who he assumed were his relatives already milling about and mingling with each other. It seemed like they were the last to arrive (which was ironic considering that they lived here). As soon as they stepped out of the GAV, a woman with long, black hair wearing what appeared to be a high-collared trenchcoat ran up to Jack and threw her arms around him.
“JACK!” she squealed happily. Jack grinned and hugged her back.
“Hey, Jen!” Jack greeted. He turned to his kids. “Jazz, Danny, this is your Aunt Jennifer. She and her husband Oliver study vampires in New Orleans.”
“Oh, is this little Jazzy?” Jennifer cooed, letting go of Jack to get in Jazz and Danny’s faces. “Oh, you’ve grown up so much! I hardly recognize you! And Jack said your name is Danny? Oh, aren’t you a cutie!”
“Uh, hi,” Danny greeted, feeling a bit put off by his aunt’s energy. She was definitely his dad’s sister, alright.
“Hello,” Jazz greeted politely. “Did Dad say you study…vampires?”
“Oh, yes!” Jennifer nodded enthusiastically. “Ollie and I are hoping to someday capture one of those bloodsucking corpses to study.” So his aunt and uncle were vampire hunters? Danny guessed his family weren’t the black sheep after all. “Oh, where are my manners?” Jennifer gasped suddenly. “You two have to meet my kids!” Jennifer turned around and called out, “Emily! Angel! Jacob! Come say hi!” A brown-haired boy wearing a blue t-shirt and blue jeans jogged up to his mother, with a blonde girl wearing a pink top, skirt and headband following at a more sedate pace. Jennifer blinked at the two kids. “Emily, Jacob, where’s your sister?” she asked.
“Over there,” Emily answered, pointing toward a black-haired girl in a black hoodie standing in the shade of a nearby tree, looking at them somewhat nervously.
“Oh, right,” Jennifer seemed to recall something. She turned to Jack and his family. “The poor girl sunburns so easily, so she’ll probably end up sticking to the shade the whole time.” Jennifer led them to the spot where her younger daughter was.
Up close, Danny could see that not only did his cousin have heterochromia (her right eye being blue and her left eye being green), but she seemed to really lean into it with her aesthetic. She wore blue eyeshadow over her blue eye and green eyeshadow over her green eye, and blue lipstick on her top lip and green lipstick on her bottom lip (Danny wasn’t quite sure how she made that work). She also wore a black-and-white striped shirt under her black hoodie, black stonewash jeans and black shoes with white soles (with blue laces on the right shoe and green laces on the left shoe, of course). Even her nails were painted alternating blue and green.
“Kids, this is your Uncle Jack, your Aunt Maddie, and your cousins, Jazz and Danny,” Jennifer introduced them. “Everyone, these are my daughters, Emily and Angel, and my son, Jacob.”
“Hey,” Emily greeted with a polite smile and wave.
“Hiya!” Jacob greeted more enthusiastically, waving his arm frantically back and forth.
“Hi,” Angel greeted quietly, looking away bashfully while nervously brushing her hair back, revealing her red stud earrings (apparently the only thing on her body that wasn’t black, white, blue, or green).
“Nice to meet you, kiddos!” Jack greeted loudly and enthusiastically, apparently having not picked up on his niece’s nervousness. Angel cringed slightly, pursing her lips into a thin line. He turned to Emily with a slight smile. “Pretty sure Emily here was just a bun in the oven last I saw your mom.”
“She was!” Jennifer confirmed cheerily. She gave her eldest daughter a hug. “The cutest little bun in the world!” she cooed.
“Mom!” Emily cried in embarrassment. Jennifer just chuckled.
“Anyway, kids, your Uncle Jack and Aunt Maddie study ghosts here in Amity Park,” she explained.
“Ghosts?” Angel repeated, looking back at them curiously. Emily raised an eyebrow, looking mildly unimpressed. Jacob just looked happy to be there.
“That’s right, dear,” Maddie beamed. “One day, we’ll catch one of those putrid piles of ectoplasm and post-human consciousness and–-”
“Tear it apart molecule by molecule!” Jack interrupted, causing Danny to wince like every time his father made that declaration.
“Well, I was going to say study it, but that, too,” Maddie shrugged. Angel’s gaze turned from Jack and Maddie to Danny, and Danny found that he didn’t like how she appeared to study him. Even though the logical part of Danny’s mind told him that there was no way anyone could guess he was half ghost just by looking at him, he couldn’t quite keep his heart from pounding in anxiety whenever he found himself under scrutiny. (Well, pounding for him, which, in a normal human, would still be considered too slow to be compatible with life.) The fact that Angel’s eyes flicked down to his chest for a second before looking back up at his face didn’t help.
“JACK! JEN!” a voice boomed, startling Danny and Angel out of their impromptu staring contest. Everyone turned to see a thin, bearded man walking up to them. He honestly looked like he could be one of Aunt Alicia’s neighbors, in Danny’s opinion, with his flannel shirt, jeans, trucker’s cap, and work boots.
“JOE!” Jack and Jennifer chorused. Jack turned to the kids as Jennifer wrapped the man in a tight hug.
“Kids, this is your Uncle Joe,” he told them. “He and his wife Christine study werewolves in Virginia.”
“Werebeasts, Jack,” Joe corrected, disengaging from his sister to greet his brother. “We study all kinds of werebeasts, not just wolves.”
“Right, sorry,” Jack apologized. “Anyway, Joe, these are my kids, Jazz and Danny,” he introduced, gesturing to each of them in turn.
“And these are my kids, Emily, Angel, and Jacob,” Jennifer added, indicating each child in turn.
“Pleased to meet you,” Joe said, tugging the brim of his cap politely. Then, he seemed to get an idea. “Oh, you should meet my boy, Cleetus. Cleetus! Come meet my folks!” A boy with shaggy black hair turned from where he was watching a blonde woman and a man with sandy brown hair converse and walked over to their group. “Cleetus, I’d like you to meet your Uncle Jack, his wife Maddie, your Aunt Jennifer, and their kids, Jazz, Danny, Emily, Angel and Jacob,” Joe introduced them. Cleetus’s brown eyes flicked over to them and he raised his hand, just barely coming out of the sleeve of his baggy gray sweatshirt, in greeting.
“Hey.”
“Hey there, kiddo!” Jack boomed enthusiastically.
“Hey, sugar!” Jennifer beamed.
“Jack and Maddie here study ghosts here in Amity Park,” Joe explained to his son. “And Jen studies vampires down in Louisiana.”
“Huh. Cool,” Cleetus said, not sounding particularly impressed, but not sounding totally dismissive either.
“I see he’s already taking after you in the facial hair department,” Jack commented somewhat teasingly to his brother. Cleetus ducked down, apparently trying to hide the facial hair Jack commented on in his sweater.
“Yep. Early bloomer, my boy is,” Joe laughed, clapping a hand on his son’s shoulder proudly. Danny resisted the urge to scowl at the fact that this kid who looked no older than twelve had facial hair while he still didn’t (not that he particularly wanted facial hair, but still!).
“Uh, so, Dad said that you guys are my cousins?” Cleetus said, clearly wanting to redirect the conversation.
“Uh, yeah,” Danny said. “I’m Danny.”
“My name is Jazz,” Jazz introduced herself.
“I’m Jacob!” Jacob greeted enthusiastically.
“I’m Emily,” Emily greeted politely.
“I’m Angel,” Angel murmured.
“Well, uh, hey, y’all,” Cleetus said. They all just kind of stood around awkwardly after that, gazes flicking between each other. Danny noticed that, once again, Angel’s–-and now Cleetus’s–-eyes seemed to linger on him, as well as each other. Was staring at people like they were a bug under a microscope some kind of family trait? He hoped not. It would be so embarrassing if he found out that he does that too without realizing it.
“So,” Jazz said, apparently wanting to break the tension, “do you guys have any interests? I like to study psychology, and Danny’s always loved space.”
“Um, we have a pond in our yard with frogs. Sometimes I like to watch them,” Cleetus said. “I also sometimes like to take walks in the woods. I don’t know, there’s not a lot to do where we’re from.”
“I like cars!” Jacob practically shouted. “I wanna be a racecar driver!”
“I like cartoons,” Angel said. “I might want to try my hand at animation at some point.”
“I’m pretty into fashion,” Emily said. She scanned her cousins with a critical eye. “I love your outfit,” she said to Jazz. “Very chic.”
“Oh, thank you!” Jazz said. Emily then turned to Danny.
“Your outfit is great, too,” she said. “Though you should consider wearing darker colors for better contrast.”
“Oh, um, thanks?” he said. Finally, Emily turned to Cleetus.
“You…could use some work,” she said. Cleetus scowled at her.
“Hey, is that Jan and her kids over there?” Jack asked, pointing in the direction of a black-haired woman with a bobcut and what appeared to be a colorful shawl and two teen girls. “We should go say hi!” The parents then led (more like dragged) their kids over (with Angel quickly putting up her hood and stuffing her hands into her pockets).
“JAN!” Jack, Jennifer, and Joe shouted as soon as they got close. (Danny kind of hoped that his dad didn’t have any more siblings. He was getting tired of all the shouting.) The woman turned to them and beamed.
“JEN! JACK! JOE!” she shouted, running up to embrace her siblings.
“Kids, this is your Aunt Janet,” Jack introduced. Danny wondered what kind of cryptid she studied. “She and her husband William study witches in Salem.” Ah, called it.
“Well, we used to study them in Salem,” Janet said. “We’ve since moved to Connecticut to study them there.” Then, she lit up. “Oh, where are my manners? I forgot to introduce you to my daughters! Everyone, this is Bindi and Michaela." The two girls looked up at the sound of their names.
“Hi, there!” Bindi greeted cheerfully. She had black hair in pigtails held in place by pale blue ribbons. Atop her head sat what appeared to be a tiny tophat with a poppy flower pinned to it. Like Angel, she had heterochromia, her right eye being green and her left eye being blue. (Danny wondered if heterochromia ran in his family, and if he could claim that the next time someone asked about the green rings around his pupils instead of trying to explain what ectocontamination is.) She wore dark purple eyeshadow and black lipstick, as well as a pair of brown teddy bear earrings, a pink, heart shaped nosering, and a necklace with purple bunny, yellow bird, and red fox charms. She also wore a black dress with a white ribbon on the bustline, white gloves, white knee-high socks with a black stripe, and black Mary Janes. Despite her gothic appearance, she seemed to be rather cheerful and energetic.
“Hi,” Michaela greeted with far less enthusiasm than her sister. Michaela seemed to be the opposite of Bindi in every way. She had platinum blonde hair topped with a pink, blue, and purple plastic flower crown, violet eyes accented with gold eyeshadow, and red lipstick. She wore a flowing white dress, gold gladiator sandals, golden flower earrings, a red heart pendant, and black gloves with a blue, green, and red clover design embroidered onto them. Also contrasting with Bindi, Michaela looked and sounded like she really didn’t want to be here (which Danny could sympathize with).
Huh. A cheery goth and a grumpy pastel. What a world.
“Nice to meet you girls,” Jack said. “These are my kids, Jazz and Danny.”
“These are my children, Emily, Angel, and Jacob” Jennifer introduced.
“And this is my boy, Cleetus,” Joe finished. The kids all greeted Bindi and Michaela.
“How about you kids all get to know each other while we all catch up?” Jack suggested, putting an arm around one sister each while also pulling his brother into the hug. Before any of the kids could say anything, the adults left, laughing at what Danny assumed was some sort of inside joke, leaving him and Jazz with their cousins that they’d only just met.
“So…Bindi, Michaela…do you two have any interests?” Jazz asked awkwardly.
“Music!” Bindi answered instantly, strumming a chord on her red guitar. “I’m going to be a rockstar someday! Oh, and I also like video games, especially survival horror!”
“Oh, me too,” Danny said, finally able to relax a bit. “Uh, the video games thing, that is.”
“I like art,” Michaela shrugged. “Drawing, painting, that kind of thing. I also play music, but I’m not nearly as passionate about it as Bindi.”
“You like art?” Angel asked. “What about animation?”
“A little,” Michaela answered. “This one’s always begging me to animate the music videos for her video game fan songs.” She jabbed her thumb in Bindi’s direction. Bindi smiled unapologetically before turning back to Danny.
“So, what kind of games do you like?” she asked him. And so, the group of cousins that have never met each other before eased into actual conversation, with Danny and Bindi discussing video games and Angel and Michaela presumably discussing art. Everyone’s conversations petered off, though, when they heard growling. They all turned to where the noise had originated from–-which turned out to be Cleetus, who was glaring intensely at a nearby squirrel.
“Uh, dude, did you just growl at a squirrel?” Danny asked. That seemed to snap Cleetus out of whatever it was he was doing, quickly turning back to the group with a mortified look.
“No!” he said, a bit too insistently. Everyone blinked at him.
“Right…” Michaela drawled. “Anyway…” They all went back to their conversations, though Danny could tell that Cleetus was still mortified by what had just occurred. So mortified, in fact, that he broke off from the group to hide behind a nearby play structure. Danny couldn’t help but feel a bit bad for him. It seemed he wasn’t the only one.
“I’ll go see if he’s okay,” Angel said, standing up from the bench and heading over to Cleetus’s hiding spot. After a long, awkward moment, Angel scurried back.
“Is he okay?” Jazz asked.
“He’s fine,” Angel answered a bit too quickly. They all blinked at her.
“Okay…?” Danny said. They once again returned to their conversations (except for Jacob, who had been conversing with Cleetus about something-–cars, from the bits of their conversation Danny could pick up here and there-–and had to be held back from going after him by Jazz, who told him to give him space).
“I don’t know, I just feel like the third game doesn’t hold up to the rest of the series,” Bindi was saying. “Like, I don’t want to sound like a purist and be like, ‘Oh, only the original creators can do it right,’ but…I don’t know, it just feels…underwhelming. Like, it just feels more like it’s emulating those games than being one of them, you know?” Danny was about to agree when his ghost sense went off.
Seriously? NOW? He mentally cursed.
“Hey, uh, I have to…go to the bathroom,” Danny hastily excused himself before rushing off. He rushed off toward the park bathrooms and hid behind them. After making sure he was alone, he transformed and discreetly started searching for the ghost. He heard barking coming from near the play structure and went to investigate. There he found Cujo, barking at something underneath the structure. A part of him felt relieved, since Cujo was generally not a hostile ghost, while another part was wary due to Cujo’s tendency to grow to enormous size and be difficult to control.
“Easy, boy,” Danny said soothingly as he gently grabbed the ghost dog. Cujo, apparently forgetting about whatever had caught his attention under the play structure, barked happily and turned to give Danny kisses. Curious, Danny glanced at the structure to see what had gotten Cujo’s attention. His eyes widened and he stilled.
It looked like Cleetus, but…not. He looked hairier, his ears more pointed, his jaws elongated and filled with sharp, canine-like teeth, his now-clawed hands looking half-transformed into paws. The two stared at each other in stunned silence, and Danny vaguely wondered if Cleetus recognized him, too.
Cujo growled in his arms, snapping Danny out of his trance. Without exchanging a single word with his apparently-werewolf cousin, Danny flew off to the GAV and grabbed a thermos, sucking Cujo into it. Danny felt a bit bad about it, but going back to the house to toss the ghostly dog into the Ghost Portal would take too long. That done, Danny flew back to the bathrooms and transformed, jogging back to where the rest of his cousins were gathered.
“Sorry about that,” he apologized.
“Oh, it’s okay,” Bindi waved him off. “Anyway, as I was saying, I think my biggest problem with the third game is that it’s very in-your-face with its lore. Or at least, the new developers’ interpretation of the lore. The original games never did that. They were a lot more subtle in their storytelling, and said storytelling was entirely environmental.” Danny nodded along as Bindi continued to rant, but he’d stopped paying attention as Cleetus rejoined the group. He seemed to be back to normal, though Danny noticed that he had his sweatshirt pulled over his face. He glanced over to Angel when he noticed that she was staring at Cleetus, too, but was startled when he looked back at Cleetus to see him staring back at him. Danny awkwardly looked away, trying to pay attention to what Bindi was saying.
Eventually, Danny felt someone tugging on his shirt. He looked down to see it was Cleetus. The other boy subtly requested that he follow him, and Danny obliged. After they had gotten a good distance away from the rest of their family, Cleetus turned to Danny.
“I know that was you,” he said bluntly.
“W-What?” Danny said, his heart in his throat. “What was me?”
“The ghost boy,” Cleetus stated. “I know it was you. You have the exact same scent.” Danny stammered, completely taken aback at being confronted so bluntly. Cleetus, apparently taking pity on his older cousin, sighed. “I know you recognized me, too. I could see it in your eyes.” Danny relaxed ever so slightly. Right, his cousin had a secret, too. He was…a werewolf, apparently?
“So, uh…” Danny said, “how did…that happen?”
“I was bitten during a hunt,” Cleetus shrugged, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world (which Danny supposed it was). “I hid it from my parents. If it really ended up turning me, I didn’t want to risk them finding out and…” Cleetus trailed off, looking uncomfortable. Right, Cleetus’s parents were werewolf hunters. Just like Danny’s own parents were ghost hunters.
“Your secret’s safe with me,” Danny promised.
“Thanks. Yours, too,” Cleetus said, smiling appreciatively up at his cousin. “By the way, what happened to you? How can you be a ghost and still be alive? Er, you are alive, right?”
“Yes, I’m alive,” Danny said. He was pretty sure, anyway. He didn’t like to think about it too deeply. “As for what happened to me, lab accident.”
“Lab accident?” Cleetus repeated, raising an eyebrow. Apparently, he wasn’t content to leave it at that. Danny sighed.
“My parents built a ghost portal in our basement, and I got curious and went inside. Apparently, they installed the on button inside the portal for whatever reason and I accidentally pressed it. Got blasted with an entire dimension’s worth of ectoplasm while simultaneously being shocked with enough electricity to power a city block.”
“Oh,” Cleetus said. “I’m sorry I brought it up.” It was only then that Danny noticed that he was shaking slightly.
“Don’t worry about it,” Danny waved him off. “So, do you like, fight other werewolves?”
“Sometimes,” Cleetus shrugged. “When they present a danger to my town. Not just wolves, but other kinds of werebeasts, too. What about you? Do you fight other ghosts?”
“Yeah, I do,” Danny said. “I’m…kind of known for it around here.”
“Yeah, I noticed the billboard,” Cleetus chuckled. Danny chuckled sheepishly.
“We should probably get back to the others,” Danny said. Cleetus agreed and they went back to their cousins.
“Everything okay?” Jazz asked, looking a bit concerned.
“Yep,” Danny and Cleetus answered. They went back to conversing with their cousins, pretending that nothing was wrong. However, Danny couldn’t help but notice the way Angel kept glancing at Cleetus. He remembered she’d gone to check on him before and was acting a bit strange when she came back. Had she seen Cleetus’s transformation, too? Should they confront her about it? Danny dismissed the idea immediately. Blind confrontation rarely ended well, and he didn’t want to risk exposing Cleetus’s secret in case Angel hadn’t actually seen anything.
“I guess what I’m trying to say is, while the third game isn’t necessarily a bad game overall, it just doesn’t work with the rest of the series,” Bindi was starting to wrap up. “I guess it’s like…like coming home and all your furniture has been moved two inches to the left. It’s not quite different enough to be jarring, but it does exude the feeling of ‘this isn’t right, but I can’t exactly pinpoint why’, you know?” Danny nodded, because he did know that feeling (more due to the fact that his furniture had been moved a couple inches to the left by a ghost that apparently fancied themselves a prankster. Danny had made sure to make his lack of amusement known). “Anyway, what do you think?” Bindi asked.
“Hm?” Danny voiced.
“Well, you know about my opinion, so I hope it’s okay to ask about yours,” Bindi said. “I am a believer in allowing other people to form their own opinions, after all.” Danny huffed in amusement. He wished Sam and Tucker were like that. Danny loved his best friends, of course, but they could be so opinionated, which got exhausting sometimes.
“Kind of the same, honestly,” he said. “Like, I like the game, but it just doesn’t hit quite the same, you know?” Bindi nodded in understanding. She opened her mouth to say something else before being cut off by the loud roar of a motorcycle engine. At the same time, Danny’s ghost sense went off again. Danny bit back a groan. Couldn’t these ghosts leave him alone for one day?
“Hey, I have to, um…” Danny wracked his brain for an excuse, since Bindi would likely find it suspicious if he said he was going to the bathroom again. He was ultimately unable to come up with anything, so he just finished lamely with, “...go…” before dashing off. He hid behind the bathrooms again before transforming and flying off in search of Johnny 13.
He found him and Kitty tearing down the streets on Johnny’s motorcycle. So far, they didn’t seem to be causing trouble. Danny continued keeping an eye on them to ensure that it stayed that way. Johnny and Kitty, however, didn’t seem to appreciate Danny spying on their date, and the former sent Shadow to attack him. Danny blasted Shadow with his ectoblasts, dodging the sentient mass of darkness whenever it moved into grappling distance so as not to deal with the bad luck curse it inflicted on those it touched.
Danny was able to hold his own for a while, but Shadow got in a lucky shot that sent him careening into the pavement, leaving a small crater. Shadow loomed over the boy as he tried to recover, preparing to strike the finishing blow, when they were both blinded by a bright light. Shadow screamed as it was dissipated by the light. Danny looked over toward the source of the light and saw what appeared to be a gigantic, angelic being, which disappeared before Danny could make out any more features.
Danny blinked. What the heck had that been? Whatever, he didn’t have time to try to figure it out. He had to get after Johnny and Kitty! Surely what was left of Shadow had to have returned to them by now! Danny flew off in the direction he’d seen them heading, only to find them being menaced by a different shadowy figure (one that looked weirdly familiar to Danny for reasons he couldn’t quite place).
“Johnny, get away from it!” Kitty shouted.
“I’m trying, babe!” Johnny shouted back as he tried turning his bike in the opposite direction, only for the figure to corner them again. Danny took his chance to suck Johnny and Kitty into the Fenton thermos. He then turned to the shadowy, white-faced figure, ready to try to take it down, too, only for it to disappear like the being of light from earlier. Danny blinked in confusion before he heard running footsteps. He turned to see Michaela running up the sidewalk, panting slightly as she stopped in front of a nearby alleyway that Bindi emerged from. The pigtailed girl smirked and raised her hand for a high five, which her sister reluctantly reciprocated. Danny startled slightly when they both turned toward him.
“Uh…” he fumbled. “Not to worry…citizens! You are safe now! The ghostly menace has been vanquished!”
“Chill, Danny, we know it’s you,” Bindi stated bluntly. Danny startled again, his dead heart fluttering.
“Geez, Bindi, there’s a little something called ‘tact’, have you heard of it?” Michaela snarked. Bindi seemed unbothered.
“How…?” Danny choked out.
“Well, when you ducked out of our conversation-–for the third time, might I add-–I got curious and followed you,” Bindi explained (with Danny wincing at the slight reprimand). “I was going to leave you alone when I saw you heading towards the bathrooms again, but when I saw you going around behind them instead of going in, I decided to follow you. I saw a flash of light and came around just as you were transforming. I saw you fly off after that couple on the motorcycle and I saw them sic that shadow thing at you, so I went to get Michaela so we could help you.”
“Help me?” Danny repeated. “What do you mean?”
“We’re witches, Danny,” Michaela sighed in annoyance. “We’re the ones who made those constructs.”
“That was you?” Danny asked.
“Yep,” Bindi answered. “Mom and Dad have all those occult books lying around and we got curious. Turns out we have the gift.”
“Huh,” Danny said. First a werewolf cousin, and now two witch cousins. Come to think of it, weren’t Bindi and Michaela’s parents witch hunters? “Well, your secret’s safe with me.”
“Oh, yours, too, totally,” Bindi quickly assured. “So, anyway, what’s your story? How did you become…you know?”
“A ghost?” Danny asked. Bindi nodded. Michaela gave Bindi a reproachful look, but Danny could tell that she was curious, too. “Well, my parents built a ghost portal in their lab, I went inside of it, it activated while I was in there, and, uh…yeah, now I’m a ghost. Or, well, half-ghost.”
“Ghost portal?” Michaela repeated, one eyebrow raised questioningly.
“Half-ghost?” Bindi repeated, her brows furrowed in confusion.
“Yeah, a ghost portal. You know, a portal to the Ghost Zone,” Danny explained. “And it only turned me into a ghost halfway. I’m still half human.”
“Weird,” Bindi said. “Also, Ghost Zone?”
“It’s an ectoplasmic dimension where ghosts live,” Danny explained. “Er, if ‘live’ is the right word.”
“So, it’s like Purgatory?” Michaela asked. Danny blinked.
“I, uh… I guess so,” he said uncertainly. Unlike Sam and Tucker, Danny had a fairly non-religious upbringing, so the most he knew of the concept of an afterlife was ghosts. He was aware of the ideas of Heaven and Hell, but he’d never given them much thought (though now he was wondering if maybe he should).
“Anyway, we’d better get back before anyone comes looking for us,” Bindi pointed out.
“Yeah, you’re right,” Danny agreed. “You girls want me to fly you back?”
“Oh, that’s really not-–” Michaela started, before Bindi butted in with a, “Heck yeah!” Michaela glared at her sister in annoyance while Danny huffed in amusement, wrapping his arms around his cousins’ waists and lifting them up into the air with him, flying back toward the direction of the park. They made it there in no time and Danny once again landed behind the bathrooms and transformed back into his human form. The three of them came around the small building and headed toward the rest of their cousins, where they noticed Angel and Cleetus talking in low tones away from the group. Jazz gave Danny another concerned look, to which he responded with a reassuring thumbs-up.
After Angel and Cleetus rejoined the group, Danny found himself talking to the former about their favorite TV shows. Angel was telling him about a show about a friendly alien who traveled the galaxy spreading kindness and positivity, while Danny was telling her about a show about a trio of ‘half-mermaids’ who have to deal with the day-to-day struggles of adolescence while also protecting their secret (he found it relatable, sue him!).
“It just really sucks that the series was cancelled after two seasons when the crew had plans for a third,” Angel said. “I mean, sure, the season two finale works well as a series finale, it just really stinks because, from what I’ve read, the third season they had planned sounded like it was going to have a lot of really interesting concepts. And the network cancelled it because, what, they thought that two seasons was ‘enough’? It’s almost like they hate their content creators. Or their viewers. Or both.”
“Yeah, that sucks,” Danny sympathized. “As for my show, I like the third season, but it feels kind of divorced from the rest of the show. Especially since one of the leading actresses decided not to come back, so they replaced her with a new character. Which is fine! I like the new character, even if I miss the old one. And the ending! The girls have to use their powers to stop a comet from destroying the Earth? Random!” Angel giggled.
“I guess third seasons aren’t always what they’re cracked up to be, huh?” she said. Then, she sighed wistfully. “Still…”
“Yeah…” The two of them fell silent. Before long, the silence started to feel awkward, causing Danny to feel the need to break it. “So…” he started, “you said the third season of your show was going to have interesting concepts?” Angel nodded. “Like what?”
“Well…” Angel started, only to be interrupted when Jacob came running past them at full speed, knocking Danny over as he went. Danny winced as his knee hit the ground, feeling the familiar, warm feeling of blood oozing from a cut. Cleetus, who had apparently been chasing after Jacob, stopped when he saw Danny on the ground.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“Yeah, I’m okay,” Danny told him as he shifted into a sitting position. There was a small spot of blood on his jeans, and Danny rolled up the leg to inspect the damage. Fortunately, it seemed like just a small cut that his advanced healing would take care of in no time. He looked up to see that Angel seemed fixated on his cut, eyes wide and lips slightly parted. “Uh, Angel?” he asked. “Earth to Angel?” Angel startled and looked up at his face. “You good?” he asked.
“Yeah… Yeah, I’m…” Angel trailed off. “I-I have to go.” She dashed off, leaving Danny staring after her in confusion.
“Okay…?” Danny drawled as he rolled his pants leg back down and stood up. What had that been about? Was Angel afraid of blood or something? He looked down at Cleetus, who was staring after Angel as well. He looked up at Danny, then back at Angel, then back at Danny again. Danny was about to ask what he was thinking when Cleetus spoke.
“You should go talk to her,” he said. Danny blinked and looked at where Angel had disappeared to before looking back at Cleetus.
“You think so?” he asked. Cleetus nodded. Danny decided to take his cousin’s advice and followed after Angel. He saw her in the shade of another tree, hugging herself and seemingly trying to control her breathing. “Angel?” he called. Angel stiffened and whiled around to face him, her hand over her mouth. Oh boy, this must be worse than he thought. “Hey, it’s okay. It’s just a little blood. I’m fine,” he assured. Angel’s eyes flicked down to his knee, seemingly fixated on the small blood stain over it.
“Control yourself, Angel,” Angel murmured to herself so quietly that Danny was sure he wouldn’t have heard her were it not for his heightened senses. Danny was confused. What did Angel mean by ‘control herself’? Was she trying not to vomit? Was her fear of blood that strong? Danny was about to comfort her when Angel continued. “You can’t expose yourself. Not here. Not in front of your family. Besides, you smelled the anemia on him. He can’t afford to lose much more blood.” Anemia? Smelled it on him? What was she talking about?
“Angel?” he tried again. Angel startled and looked back up at him, still keeping her hand over her mouth. “You, ah… You good?” he asked.
“Fine!” she answered a bit too quickly. “I’m fine!” Danny blinked at her.
“Okay…?” he said again. “Well, my knee’s fine, so you don’t need to worry.”
“Oh, good,” Angel said. “That’s good.” Danny noticed that she still didn’t remove her hand from her mouth.
“Hey, no need to get sick on me,” he joked, trying to lighten the mood.
“Huh?” Angel asked, looking puzzled.
“You’re covering your mouth like you’re trying not to get sick,” Danny pointed out.
“Oh…” she said, turning away self-consciously. She took another deep breath, once again muttering to herself to, “Get it under control.”
“Yeesh, you must really hate blood,” Danny winced.
“Oh, uh, yep! Just can’t stand it!” Angel giggled nervously. Danny should probably leave her be, but his ‘inner Jazz’ (as he’s taken to calling it), nagged at him to help her.
“Hey, it’s okay,” he said gently, stepping closer to put a comforting hand on Angel’s shoulder. Angel leaned away from him, pressing her hand tighter over her mouth. She glanced at Danny’s knee again, looking slightly puzzled. “Just take a deep breath.” Danny took a deep breath through his nose to demonstrate. Angel whimpered. Danny frowned. Maybe this was the wrong approach? “Angel?” he tried, reaching out to her again. To Danny’s shock, Angel hissed at him, dropping the hand over her mouth to reveal long, sharpened canines. Fangs, Danny realized. His cousin had fangs. Angel seemed to realize what she’d just done and covered her mouth again in horror, but it was too late.
Danny blinked at his cousin. He recalled her reluctance to leave the shade, her glancing at his chest when his heart rate increased, her weird reaction to him cutting his knee, her comments about not exposing herself and ‘smelling the anemia’ on him. And now that he’d seen her fangs, everything clicked into place.
“Angel?” he asked tentatively. “Are you a vampire?” Angel squeaked fearfully, looking ready to bolt. “Hey, hey, it’s okay!” Danny quickly reassured her. “I won’t tell anyone.” Angel looked at him skeptically.
“You won’t?” she asked, sounding unsure.
“I promise,” Danny assured. “In fact, I’ll even let you in on a secret of mine.” He looked around furtively and, satisfied that no one was watching, changed into his ghost form. Angel blinked at him in surprise.
“You’re a ghost?” she gasped.
"Yep,” Danny confirmed.
“So…you’re dead?” Angel asked tentatively.
“Not exactly,” Danny said. “I’m kind of a half-ghost. Meaning that, while I am a ghost, I’m also still a human.” Angel looked slightly confused, but nodded anyway.
“I suppose that explains the slow heartbeat. And the anemia,” she said slowly.
“Yeah, a good amount of my blood volume is ectoplasm,” Danny explained. “So, do you, like, fight other vampires?”
“No,” Angel told him. “Vampires–-or at least the ones I’ve met-–tend to mostly keep to themselves and are generally friendly to me. Even the one who turned me did it as thanks for saving him from my parents, and I really do think he believed he was doing me a genuine favor. Why, do you fight other ghosts?”
“Er, yeah, I do,” Danny admitted. Feeling the need to defend his actions, he quickly added, “If they’re posing an active threat to the town. Also, did you say you saved a vampire?”
“Yeah,” Angel nodded. “I assumed he was just a regular bat that my parents had captured. I didn’t really believe in vampires until he transformed in front of me after I let him out of the cage my parents had him trapped in.”
“Yeah, I get that,” Danny said. “I wasn’t sure whether I believed in ghosts until this happened.” He gestured to himself.
“I see,” Angel said. Danny could tell from the way she was looking at him that she was curious as to how he became a half-ghost but didn’t want to ask.
“Then I stepped into my parents’ Ghost Portal thinking it didn’t work and accidentally turned it on while I was inside and got blasted by an entire dimension’s worth of ectoplasm that binded itself to my DNA,” Danny said to satisfy his cousin’s curiosity without her having to voice it.
“Oh,” Angel said, blinking in shock.
“Yeah…” Danny said. Feeling the need to change the subject, he asked, “So, does anyone know, besides the vampires? Like your brother and sister?”
“No, they don’t know. And I’d like to keep it that way,” Angel said. “Why, does your sister know?”
“Yeah, she does,” Danny said. “Her and my two best friends. I kept it a secret from her at first, but then she found out and has been really supportive. She helps out when she can, usually by running interference with our parents. Who knows, maybe your brother and sister could help you out, too.”
“Maybe,” Angel sighed. “I’d still rather not take that risk, though.”
“I understand,” Danny said. He transformed back. “Shall we head back?”
“Sure, I guess,” Angel said. They headed back to the rest of their cousins, passing Cleetus on the way.
“You knew, didn’t you?” Danny whispered to him.
“Yeah,” Cleetus whispered back. “She told me after she saw me transform.” Danny looked thoughtful as he, Angel, and Cleetus headed back to where the rest of their family was gathered.
“Hey, Jazz,” he whispered in his sister’s ear. “Can you keep Emily and Jacob distracted for a little while?”
“Sure, but why?” Jazz whispered back, looking concerned.
“Don’t worry about it. I just need to talk to the rest of our cousins,” Danny answered. Jazz still looked concerned, but nodded anyway.
“Hey, Emily, we better go catch your brother,” Jazz said, practically dragging a confused and protesting Emily away. Angel stared after them in confusion.
“Uh, should I…?”
“No, no,” Danny said, sitting down beside Bindi and Michaela. “I asked Jazz to keep your brother and sister distracted so we all can talk.”
“Talk about what?” Bindi asked. Danny looked at his cousins in turn, then made sure Jazz, Emily, and Jacob as well as the adults were well out of earshot before taking a deep breath.
“I’m a ghost,” he announced. His cousins looked at each other in confusion.
“Uh, okay?” Michaela said uncertainly. Danny said nothing and only looked around at his cousins expectantly. Cleetus met Danny’s eyes, then glanced over at Angel, and, seeming to get what Danny was going for, sighed.
“I’m a werewolf,” he said. Angel, Bindi, and Michaela blinked at him. Danny smiled approvingly. Angel, seeming to pick up on what they were doing, went next.
“I’m a vampire,” she said. Danny, Cleetus, and Angel looked at Bindi and Michaela expectantly. The twins glanced at each other, seeming to have a silent conversation. Finally, Michaela sighed and nodded and Bindi turned back to the rest of their cousins.
“We’re witches,” she stated. There, it was all out in the open now.
“So, we’re all the things our parents are hunting,” Angel summarized.
“It would seem that way,” Danny said.
“So…now what?” Cleetus asked. Before long, the group was sharing stories about their experiences as supernatural entities, from Bindi wanting to use her constructs to spice up her performances, insisting that everyone would assume they were just special effects, to Danny fighting the Ghost King. Eventually, the topic of discussion turned to the difficulties of living with parents that hunted the very things they were.
“Your mom wants to dissect a ghost?” Angel asked in shock and disbelief. “How do you even dissect something that’s incorporeal?”
“I don’t know, and I really hope I never have to find out,” Danny said, shuddering a bit.
“We feel your pain,” Michaela sympathized. “Our parents somehow got the idea that magic coming from the heart might be literal, so they want to cut open a witch once they catch one to see if there’s any differences between a witch heart and a normal human heart.”
“Yikes,” Danny winced. “Hopefully they’d at least use sedatives. My parents don’t think ghosts can feel pain.”
“My parents think the same thing about vampires,” Angel sighed. “They still believe that being a vampire means being dead, and dead things can’t feel pain.”
“My parents have hit on the idea of cutting a werebeast open and then forcing it to transform,” Cleetus said. “They want to know how the transformation happens internally.” The group fell into a heavy silence at the grim topic of conversation.
“You know, it’s kind of nice to be able to talk about this kind of stuff with other people,” Bindi said, apparently wanting to lighten the mood a bit. “What do you all say we stay in touch after this?”
“What, like a group chat?” Danny asked.
“Yeah!” Bindi said. Danny considered it. He already had Tucker, Sam, and Jazz to confide in, but, while they ultimately did mean well, they couldn’t truly understand his predicament a lot of the time. Besides, it wasn’t like his cousins really had anyone to confide in, as far as he was aware. (He guessed Bindi and Michaela had each other, but even that probably only did them so much good.)
“Sure,” Danny agreed, shrugging.
“I wouldn’t mind,” Angel mumbled, though her slight smile betrayed her excitement at the idea.
“Eh, why not?” Michaela shrugged.
“We don’t really get internet out where I live. And cell service is spotty,” Cleetus said. Then, he smiled. “But I’d like to give it a try.”
“Great! It’s settled, then!” Bindi stated cheerfully, clapping her hands together with an air of finality. The group exchanged contact information, promising to stay in touch (or, in Cleetus’s case, promising to do his best to stay in touch. He joked about Bindi and Michaela enchanting his phone so he could always have reception, though given how Bindi’s eyes lit up in intrigue, Danny wondered if they actually could).
After they had exchanged contact information, they went back to conversing about their experiences (more lighthearted ones this time), until their parents called them over for a family photo. That apparently gave Angel the idea for them to take a bunch of pictures themselves (she’d already explained to them that vampires not showing up in photos was a myth from back when photographs were backed with silver). So, after the obligatory family picture, Danny and his supernatural cousins went off to a secluded area to take various pictures. One of Danny, Angel, and Cleetus showing off their fangs. Another of Angel, Danny, and Bindi that prominently featured their uniquely-colored eyes. There were pictures of Danny in ghost form and Cleetus in wolf form, and ones of Bindi and Michaela conjuring up various (small) constructs. Danny looked over these photos with a fond smile as he and his family drove home in the GAV.
“So, did you kids have fun with your cousins?” Jack asked.
“Yeah, I actually did,” Danny said. “I can’t wait to talk to them again.” And he really meant it.