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Chapter seven: Demonology

Sam Manson:

Amity Park, Illinois (Timeline 3), 8:01am Friday, 18th of September, 2011

“Well, look who decided to slum it with the troubled teens.”

“I’m not in trouble!” Danny’s echoing voice responded as he landed. The sirens in the background disproved his statement.

“Oh yeah. You’re a real upstanding citizen. Need some help hiding from the law?” I threw him the disguise kit Blake had made up and he phased into one of the abandoned train cars as several officers ran pass, weapons at the ready.

Danny emerged with black hair, blue eyes and his inverted clothes. Almost identical to who he was before... before I killed him.

“Sam?” I heard Danny’s voice. “You okay?”

“Yeah.” I snapped back to reality, in time to see the Circus Gothica train to open it’s doors. A black clothed, bold man with a beaky nose stepped out of the shadows, with his trade mark staff and glowing red crystal ball on top.

“Greatings fellow outcasts. I am Freakshow. Master of Ceremonies” Greeted the man with a smile. “Are you ready to smile, relax and forget your troubles amongst the pleasant diversions circus?”

There was a shout of no from the crowd, almost angered.

“Then you’ve come to the right place.” Freakshow stepped aside and ushered out the first of his company. “Prepare to be disturbed and appalled by a small sample of the bazaar and abnormal world of Circus Gothica.” A rope and harpoon fired out of the carriage and hit a sturdy wooden support. The rope tightened and a woman climbed out, joints impossibly twisted as she almost crawled across it. Next came a large man, dressed from head to toe in black, juggling skulls while on a large ball.. He was followed by a woman with a large wheel, then came a tall black lizard man with wings, a woman dressed in a black hooded robe adorned with white runes, and a tiny man on very tall stilts dressed as a skeleton. Freakshow was joined by a werewolf wearing green sweats. Whispering something in the ringmaster’s ear, the lycan left as quickly as he appeared.

This is the greatest day of my life. Nothing could ruin this for me.

“Parents of Amity Park!” I heard my mother yell. “We urge you to boycott this morbid assault on the decency of our children!”

There they were with an army of parents and placard signs. The crowd tuanted and booed back. What are they doing here? Why can’t they have day jobs like regular parents.

“Not let the single mindedness of the norms get you down.” Freakshow called out, brandishing his staff. “Show them your true colors. And by colors, I mean all black. Make they see you for who you are.”

“Hey everyone!” Danny called out, throwing off his wig and rubbing off his make up. “We’re Danny Phantom and Sam Manson. We cut school and we’re proud of it!” The crowd cheered and Danny flew off before anyone of law enforcement could show up.

“Sam?” Great. I don’t know what’s worse. The lecture on why I shouldn’t cut school, or explaining how I know the infamous ghost boy.

Blake Indigo:

“Half Demons show more rebellion and a darker scene of the world then most teenagers of their species. Their mana manifests much like the fae, sometimes spells are cast with only emotional triggers. Depending on the clan the father originated from, their first spell may be of any elemental school, including light...” I muttered in a daze, writing random chinese gibberish across my notebook.

“Mr. Fenton!”

“His work is separated from most classical literature by braking of the fourth wall and the protagonist talks to the reader!” I answered without thinking, and without taking my eyes of the page then I began to mutter “Buffering agents can cancel out an enchantment of an object. Most are made with equal parts manarainum and ectoplasum and kept at room temperature...”

Lancer just looked at me before continuing with his lecture, and I went back to my formula.

My pencil snapped. I was pulled out of trance. Where was this information coming from. It felt like Deja vu. When I read a book, sometimes, it feels like I knew it word for word. Other times, it feels like I’m looking at something I’ve seen before... This was new. Just information opening up in my mind. Last full moon, I navigated the woods relaying only on my sense of smell. I was surprised that I wasn’t on all fours while doing it. Last week while throwing the thermos to Danny, a ghost fired an ectoblast at me and out of instinct, I sort of absorbed the shot with a wave of my hand and fired a bolt of lightning from my fingertips.

“Sam.” I hissed to the black haired girl sitting in front of me. “Sam.” I asked again, but to no avail, tugging her... WIG! What?! “Tucker! What the hell?!”

“Study in Scarlet!” Lancer yelled now that his attention was squarely on Tucker. “Mr. Foley?!”

“This is so wrong.” Val said face palming.

“Is the technogeek is that desperate to get a date?” Dash teased.

“Hey. I can totally get a...”

“That’s enough. Everyone, start work on their essays. Mr Foley...”

“That’s Mis Foley.” Kwan interrupted causing a snicker from the jocks.

“Mr Foley will accompany me to Principle Ishyama.” Lancer said in a ‘serious as hell’ tone. Meanwhile, something decided that was that for my ramblings and I switched to the Media Studies notebook.

“This is going to be a long day.” And with Vicki in hospital undergoing a bone marrow harvest, Tucker wearing drag and Sam skipping class, I had good reason to think so.

Amity Park, Illinois (Timeline 3), 3:18pm Friday, 18th of September, 2011

Danny was just rolling around in the air, laughing after a quick recap of the morning. Ok. I was right. This is going to be a very long day. It’s been a daily thing to meet him on the roof with Sam and Tucker, and Vicki on occasion. We catch up, share stories, concerns, plan patrols and basically hang out. Or yell at each other over minor concerns. As it turns out, both Sam and Tuck picked up detention today. Vicki should be coming out of anaesthesia soon.

I looked up from the laptop screen grimacing. “I didn’t need to tell you that.”

“Nope.” Danny said though the tears as he finally stopped laughing.

“Sam also wanted me to pass along a message. Circus Gothica will have to wait.”

“With these jewel thieves on the loose, it’s going to.”

“Jewel thieves?” I questioned as I opened Bing and searched.

“Ghost Jewel thieves if you can believe it.” He clarified. “A large brute of a ghost, a tiny midget, a clocked tattoo girl and a woman with patch over her eye, who was very... flexible.”

I looked up from the screen again. “Well this is Amity Park.” I turned to the screen again. “But it looks like the Mid West has had a rash of ghostly burglaries, from jewels to banks. St. Lewis a week ago, Springfield a few days ago. And Amity Park now.” I looked up from the screen in thought. “St. Lewis, Springfield, Amity Park... where have I heard that combination before?”

“Unleash your darkside at Circus Gothica!” I turned off the volume at the moment I saw the red fill my vision.

“Damn advertising.” I cursed, banishing the pop up from my sight then returning to the problem at hand. “I wonder if they sell Lingzhi mushrooms in town?”

“Unleash your dark side.” Danny said in a trance. I wasn’t paying attention as I was researching various chinese herbs. Admittedly, Amity Park does have a good herbalist.

“Danny. Not now. I need to make a mana restore potion. I don’t have time for your morbid humour.”

“Unleash your dark side at Circus Gothica.”

Ok. That got my attention. I turned just in time for him to fly towards the train yard...

“SAMANTHA!” If this isn’t an excuse for her to disobey her parents, I don’t know what is.

Jazz Fenton:

New York: Attempted rape stopped by wolf man. Boston: Missing Teenager comes home as a dragon. Miami: Occult group raises dead for Nightclubing. Seattle: Mysterious deaths in jail proven to be Vampire. Las Vegas: Casinos ban lucky charms after pixies win big. Los Angeles: Message from murder victim solves case. Arizona: Flying School for Dragons open. Dallas: Six year old saves school with pyrokinesis.

“Ok. So my parents may not be so crazy after all.” I muttered to myself closing the web browser. The library was quite, as it always was on fridays. It gave me some room to think. How did I miss this? In the past three months, more paranormal activity has occurred then when it started twenty years ago. First ghosts started appearing, then these cults, dragons, werewolves, vampires, pixies? I’m not the only one who missed it. The world just kept turning.

I found a number of news articles. I went over to the printer to collect the and... how on...

The article on top had a photo of a dragon with two adults, several teenagers... and one of them I recognise. It was Blake. I looked at the one from the Miami Tribune. Sure enough, he was in it with the caption reading ‘Australian Federal Police Investigator, Lt. Blake Indigo processing crime scene.’

New York Times article on the wolf man. ‘Photograph provided by Tourist Blake Indigo.’ Seattle Herald article, I managed to pick Blake out of the crowd of inmate gathered by the fence.

“Blake... Indigo?”

Sam Manson:

I wanted to see something horrific and unimaginable. My english teacher cutting his toe nails was not what I had in mind. At least it’s not his back hair. That would be more then enough to give me nightmares. But Lancer could at least turn away so the clipping wouldn’t hit my desk, that and he wouldn’t notice Tuck and I watching the live webcast of opening night on his PDA.

Knock, knock, knock. “Mr. Lancer! Open up! MR. LANCER!!!” I heard Blake yell.

Lancer opened the door. “Mr. Fenton. Desperate to get into...”

“Sorry. No time. Sam and Tucker will have to serve their detention later. I’m granting them an indefinite furlough.” Blake said hurriedly. “Trouble. Circus. Ghost.”

“Mr. Fen... Ahhh...”

Blake’s Alexandra appeared quickly, and was fired off just as rapidly, rendering the overweight teacher unconscious.

“Help me get him into the closet.” He asked us as he took the teacher by the legs.

“Blake. What are you doing? We’re in too much trouble as it is.” I pointed out as I took one shoulder of the teacher. Tucker took the other.

“I know.” Blake grunted. “But we’ve got a serious problem revolving around the phase...” We managed to shove Lancer into the closet, step out and lock the door. “Unleash your dark side at Circus Gothica.” He finished. “Then he flew off towards the train yard.”

“Who?”

“Danny. Starlight preserve us. Keep up woman.” Blake answered as he locked the door. “Or did I forget to mention him.”

“You forgot man.” Tucker pointed out. “We better follow him.”

“Oh no.” I said in sarcasm. “That means skipping detention and going to the circus.”

“Ironic,” Blake said simply before grabbing our wrists. “Come on!” He dragged us out of the room and out of the school and to the parking lot.

“The train yard is that way.” I pointed out.

Blake just pulled a set of keys out of his pocket. “We need wheels.”

“Where did you get those?” Tucker asked.

“Mr. Lancer.” Blake answered as he unlocked an old toyota. “He’s not going to miss it. Trust me.”

“Cask of Amontillado! Let me out!” I heard Lancer call out.

“See. He loves it in there. We’ll be back before he resorts to eating his shoes. Now get in.”
I have a bad feeling about this.