The Chess

The bright summer sun still hurt his eyes, but he couldn’t stay in the mansion until evening. Everything that Grimley had told Masters said only one thing ― things would not be delayed. That’s why he decided to intervene personally, despite his deteriorating health. Taking helpers with them, fortunately there were enough people with medical education among the clan members. Carefully rubbing his eyes in an attempt to get rid of the pain and blurred vision without damaging his contact lenses, Vlad returned to studying the short summary of materials provided by the Southerners. The head of the clans mentioned, not without pride, that local children had made a great contribution to the collection of information, clarifying that a one of them should still be scolded for taking unnecessary risks and for entering dangerous territory without telling the adults. “No one has begun to lecture your protégé, at least not yet. We don’t get in the habit of meddling in other people’s educational processes,” — Mrs. Weston told him, very clearly hinting that an overly proactive teenager should at least make a remark. Naturally, he intended to pay attention to Daniel’s actions, even if not in the way that was expected of him. ― Danny is making some progress. He doesn’t get into trouble without having minimal information. — Vlad reasoned, running his eyes over the news reports about the “Vampire Circus” in German. — But he is still a child. Who, moreover, recently got out of too serious a mess for his age. Let his consciousness be impossible to control and he may not be afraid to become a weak-willed doll…. if only that were the problem. Vlad sighed wearily, putting down his phone and closing his eyes. Under his eyelids, he saw a multitude of colored spots flashing before his inner eye in a mottled kaleidoscope. The sunburn on his hand was still burning, and even the accelerated regeneration processes did not help to calm the unpleasant feeling of itchy new skin. After being forced to come into contact with the anti-ghost deflector, which hit both him and Maddie, which still seemed strange, his condition began to deteriorate faster. Unfortunately for himself, after studying Jack’s next infernal machine, he found out that this development not only destabilizes ectoplasmic creatures, but also negates the effect of lichen, which slows down destructive processes in his own body. As it turned out, the elder Fenton had assembled an almost perfect weapon against someone like him and his ilk. — You’ve always had terrifyingly destructive potential, Jack, ― Vlad muttered, leaning back in his chair. ― It’s hard to say if this is an accident, or your special talent as a hunter. Remembering Danny’s despair, his apathy, isolation and depression while the boy was in mountain chalet, Vlad began to be tormented by a vague premonition of something bad. An unstable child with supernatural powers in the same house with a man who did not understand the essence of these phenomena so much that he saw only one way out ― to destroy everything that he did not understand. No matter how hard Vlad tries, in fact, no one can fully protect this boy from becoming an experimental rat for his own father one day. In the worst sense of the phrase. Yes, Danny is not a stupid guy, he perfectly understands all the details of his difficult situation. But, alas, children sometimes love even those who hurt them. Especially people like him, with a big soul and a pure heart that others haven’t fucked with yet. Thoughts of Danny and Jack involuntarily led to her. The only person with hunter status at the moment that he would like to trust at least a little. The only intelligent specialist who studies ectoplasmic manifestations, besides Jack, and has achieved at least some significant results in this matter. The only one who might, just maybe, not want to incinerate an otherworldly life form immediately after learning of its existence. This was indirectly evidenced by her research, the topic of the report at the last conference. ― Or maybe it’s your feelings for this woman that tell you, not logic and common sense, — Vlad looked at his own hand. The UV burn was almost gone, leaving behind only slightly reddened skin, through which a thin network of inflamed capillaries with black blood could be seen. The fact remained. Maddie was the only specialist he knew who could help him stabilize himself. No matter how good Brackley was, her knowledge was not enough to participate in the research fully, and he himself had long since reached a dead end, from which even Danny’s blood and ectoplasm samples, which possess rare resistance and the ability to adjust even the tenacious protogen of his disease. But if only it were that simple. Maddie said herself that she couldn’t work without Jack, and it would be crazy to let someone like the elder Fenton get so close to her. It’s scary to even imagine what kind of thoughts might be born in his stupid head if he realized how many evil spirits literally live next door to him. How many more crazy people like him will crawl out into the world trying to get rid of everything and everyone that causes fear and misunderstanding in ordinary ordinary people? Taking even Maddie into your business is too much of a risk. Not so much for Vlad himself, but for all those who stand behind him. The Southern and Northern clans, his inner circle, children, Danny. Masters had no room for error in choosing his trusted representatives. But if this thought continues, then they will all be in even greater danger if he falls apart one day, turning into a clot of ectoplasmic growths on an emaciated body. Vlad reached for a small refrigerator for water when the pilot announced that the plane had begun to descend and landing at the Mira Park Airport would take place in twenty minutes. Very soon, he will need to put aside difficult thoughts about risks for a while and focus on business. Based on the current danger, not just the probable one. But for now, he had a little more time. Below, behind light feathery clouds, a coastal town began to flash, separated from the rest of the country by a chain of low hills, forests and swampy lowlands. He knew that he would meet Her there, even if he did not intentionally wish for it. Just like the first time, when she was still an active student with a perm. In the past she was someone who was pleasant to spend time with, even though she was moving away every day, preferring the company of a noisy future hunter more and more. Energetic and able to infect others with his simple and unsophisticated ideas. Who knows how to capture everyone’s attention with colorful stories and how his ancestors hunted witches. She was and remained on Jack’s side even after the incident with the prototype of the ghost portal, they had a terrible argument accidentally bumping into each other a few years after graduating from college. She was already a wife and mother, pregnant with her second child… And yet he continued to love her despite all the arguments of common sense. — A Huntress and a Vampire… If you think about it that way, it was impossible from the beginning, — Vlad put aside the cold bottle of water, which was covered with perspiration, without taking a single sip. — Why should you be my last hope?

***

Catherine looked it the dark screen of her phone in sleep mode, nervously making circles around the room. She couldn’t really focus on any one thing, and the list of possible home entertainment turned out to be very limited over the past couple of hours. It was forbidden to turn on the TV, although it seemed like the most common thing in the morning. It’s just another way to brighten up your leisure time until the ban on leaving the house is lifted. It’s just like during the pandemic, nothing unusual, new, or something she hasn’t encountered before. At least that’s how it was until she, thoughtlessly switching channels, came across an advertisement for the circus “Gothic”. The scarlet ball―head of the master of ceremonies' cane appeared on the screen in close-up along with a soft voice from the speakers, which, as it seemed to Catherine, she still heard somewhere on the periphery of consciousness. “Visit the mysterious world of the Gothic Circus. Give in to the call of darkness.” Catherine woke up at the open front door in her father’s arms, from which she was listlessly trying to escape. She didn’t remember those few minutes from the first glance at the advertisement to the door at all. This entire time span had been swallowed up by the scarlet mist, along with her own thoughts and will. The father wanted to give up the idea of leaving his daughter alone even for a couple of hours, but she convinced him that everything would be fine. That he needed to be at a community meeting, that she was an adult and could handle being alone for so short a time. She unplugged the TV and promised not to even go near the windows, so as not to accidentally stumble upon some billboard with the image of that damn circus. However, after sitting alone and in almost complete silence for more than an hour, she already began to regret her own stubbornness and desire to seem like an adult. She did not touch her computer, did not log into social networks or anywhere other than a general chat, in which there would definitely be no sudden pop-up advertising of the circus. Catherine tried to do yoga, but she couldn’t focus on breathing and feeling her own body for more than a couple of minutes because of the constant background feeling of anxiety. A message appeared in the group chat confirming the fear of the Internet. He’s younger brother said he could barely bring him to his senses, barely keeping him from going outside through the window. A couple of friends from the Gothic book club sent him an advertisement for a circus with an offer to go to such an interesting themed event. And they were probably offended when they didn’t get an answer from the guy. After that, Catherine wondered if one of them, under the influence of this damned circus, would start sending these hypnotic messages to their friends en masse. “Visit the mysterious world of the Gothic Circus.” She shook her head, trying to get rid of the memory of the intrusive invitation. Perhaps what they heard last night, the desperate “Don’t come” was a manifestation of a single outburst of will from those who are being held there now. The girl felt how hard it was to breathe. She is alone in a concrete box on the eleventh floor, in a house with an incredibly terrible view of the old district and the dilapidated roof of an abandoned railway station, where the circus “Gothic” is located. Immured from all sides and agreed to it voluntarily. She threw the phone on the bed and flopped down on the yoga mat. Clutching her head in her hands and curling into a small ball, Catherine leaned back against the cold iron leg of the bed. Almost physically feeling the walls shrink around her, she clutched her fingers into her disheveled hair and clenched her fists until it hurt. Only the crunching of nails digging into her palms and a brief flash of pain from the torn skin brought her to her senses a little. Catherine slowly let go of the strands of hair and looked at her hands. Small dark curls she had pulled out and semicircular nail marks stuck to her wet fingers, on which a thin crust of black blood quickly caked. In one of these wounds, a fragment of a nail with a pretty crumbled varnish was stuck. — Look what you’ve done, ― she muttered absently. — Mom said you were crazy with reason. Only crazy people do that, and you wanted to prove it to her… Catherine did not even notice how a hot transparent droplet fell on her wrist. Sniffing, the girl desperately began to wipe the tears from her eyes and put herself in order. She got up from the floor and went to the bathroom on shaky legs to treat my palms. As she carefully pulled out a curved piece of nail from her own meat, which had sunk into her skin like a fishing hook, she thought only about how much she would like to be in the company of her close friends again. Sophie and Alice probably weren’t completely alone right now. One of them was definitely sitting with her mother on the farm, because her parent couldn’t go outside until sunset anyway because of her allergy to sunlight. And the second one was probably playing monopoly or UNO with her two younger brothers right now. She envied them to some extent now. After all, what could be worse than loneliness, especially at times like these? Catherine carefully secured bandages on her hands so that fine dirt would not get into the wounds and put on light and short thin jersey mittens on her hands, which she usually used in training if she injured her hands and did not want the bandages to slide off during vigorous movements. Nothing could be worse for wounds than grass accidentally falling into them and dirt from teammates' sneakers. The phone rang in the hall and she hurried to pick up the phone, not really thinking about what she might hear on the other end of an advertising call ordered by the ubiquitous circus. — Sweete, how are you? — her father’s voice was soothing. — It’s okay, — Catherine lied, — I’m trying to repeat yoga poses. ―My athlete, — the man laughed slightly into the receiver. ― Just don’t hurt yourself, okay? — I promise, ― she began to smile before she knew it. She took the phone tightly in both hands and leaned it against her ear as tightly as possible, as if she was afraid that she might not hear something important. — I’m calling to check on you and tell you that I’m going to be a little late. I was called to work to solve a small case with documents. It won’t take more than an hour, and as an apology for the fact that you had to sit alone for a long time over the weekend, I’ll stop by the store and get your favorite ribs. Can you cook something for them while I’m on my way? ― Of course! — Catherine responded enthusiastically. ― I’ll make rustic potatoes and garlic sauce. ― Then it’s settled, ― judging by the background noise, the man from the room with a strong echo went outside. The girl closed her eyes and saw her dad’s smile almost as if in reality, as he opened the car door and sat in the driver’s seat. — I’ll be home by five. Love you. — I love you too, Dad. She didn’t put down the phone right away, even after she heard the long rings. Her father was often late at work, and because of this, they didn’t spend much time together. But if he had worked less, then after moving to Amity Park, they would clearly not have had enough money, not only for leisure, but even for decent housing. Catherine pulled on gloves so as not to get her bandages wet, put on an apron and began busily managing the kitchen. It was easier to focus on something if it had a more specific and understandable goal. Especially if this goal was related to her dad or their joint gatherings. They moved to Amity Park when she was about seven years old, she had just started going to school. At first, Catherine thought that there would never be anyone else in her world except Dad, until she met Sophie and Alice. They began to always go out together, became almost a single entity, and even in the cheerleading squad they differed in that they were always together. They were real friends, not formal, as is usually the case with people who like to throw around big words to appear friendlier than they really are. And then they met Wes, who took on the role of the informal leader of their small group. A link that made their common bond even stronger. However, her father still remained something more special and closer. Isolated from everyone else. Even if he couldn’t feel her thoughts, as all her friends did, he still somehow always managed to let her know that she wasn’t alone. While Catherine carefully washed the potatoes and cut them into more or less identical slices, she thought only about dinner, trying to ignore the uncomfortable bandages on her hands, which were terribly hot in such weather. It was the very day when even the air conditioner did not save. Reaching for the seasoning, the girl gave a little gasp of surprise when the light herbs were blown off the potatoes by a sudden draft. ― Is there an open window? — She thought in disbelief, feeling a light draft creep under her tank top and shuddering at the sensation. When she was done with the spices, Catherine carefully dusted off the seasoning from her hands and turned around. It turned out that the window had opened in the kitchen. It was slightly swayed by the wind along with the curtain, part of which was jammed in the hinges of the sash. Clicking her tongue in displeasure, the girl began to release the unfortunate light fabric before it tore. And the window had to be closed so as not to look towards the old town, where the stupid circus was located. “I wish he’d leave already,” — thought Catherine, finally managing the curtain. In the reflection of the glass, she saw something that made her freeze in horror. On the eleventh floor, a girl was floating in the air. Her legs were invisible under the hem of her red dress, the folds of her voluptuous skirt with many gaudy ruffles did not sway the air, and her short hair was as black as her eyes. Catherine wanted to close the window, pull the curtains, and hide in some dark corner of the bathroom, but she couldn’t move a finger. In her hands, the ghostly girl held a cane with a crystal ball, inside of which a scarlet mist spiraled. It poured into her mind, making her body feel heavy and alien. “The master needs a new acrobat,” — the child’s voice sounded in his head, although his lips did not move. The scarlet ball grew brighter and brighter, until its light filled all the space visible to Catherine. He wasn’t the only part of her reality. “The owner told me to find an acrobat and tell her to go to the Gothic Circus.” ― The owner told us to go to the Gothic Circus, ― Catherine echoed. Her arms hung limply at her sides as she slowly began to hobble towards the front door. She could barely manage the front door lock, because her father had not left her the keys. The young vampire simply tore the handle and part of the lockout of the door and threw it on the floor in the hallway. The door slowly opened from her small push and the girl began to walk towards the stairs, accompanied by an invisible ghost. A shepherd with a small crystal, who led a little sheep into her new pen. Maddy copied everything she could from her old computer onto external hard drives. And to a couple of additional places on the cloud, the most important, as it seemed to her, just in case. Not that it was necessary, Jack probably wouldn’t have deleted anything since he hadn’t done it yet, but she didn’t want to take any chances. Mostly because of the fear of making mistakes on her own emotions, which she already felt in abundance in her heart. The little demon turned out to be right and did not deceive, promising to show what Jack could be hated for, but not to the extent that he would be torn to pieces by an embittered ghost, whose intentions clearly did not include lecturing him and guiding him on the right path until the conditional sinner begins what- that’s to understand. However, the vague ideas about “global goals” have become a little clearer, albeit not completely. During the Halloween incident, Charlotte only attacked Jack, trying to avoid direct confrontation with her personally. At the first appearance, she did everything to separate them from her husband, and after Danny appeared, she retreated completely, obviously not because the teenager with copies of documents about the Salem trials somehow scared her. Her target was originally the one whom she had many years ago, appearing in a mirror image in front of her and Alice, called the one who would “burn her at the stake.” It’s hard to say if Charlotte was referring to an ordinary bonfire at the time, or she interpreted the ghost deflector for her and her sister, who began to malfunction at such an inopportune time after the plane crash in the mountains of Colorado and almost burned her and Vlad’s skin. And it wasn’t particularly important at the moment. The demoness clearly loved a good drama, and given her goals, it was still not worth believing the dead girl to the end. However, even such a deceitful being still had quite serious facts in his hands, which it was simply impossible to argue with. His son’s whitish old scar, which he had managed to hide under his clothes for so long, without taking off his T-shirt even on the beach, still periodically appeared before her eyes while the latest files were downloaded to an external hard drive. She has a long, very difficult, but necessary conversation ahead of her with Danny. Notes and calculations that she had accidentally seen in his room, corrected diagrams and drawings, wounds that she did not know about. Her boy turned out to be even more secretive than Maddie had imagined, and just thinking about what else he might be hiding, sincerely considering his own silence to be a blessing, made her uneasy. — Honey, are you done? — Jack’s voice came from the lab upstairs. She teeth gritted with an inner sense of irritation. Maddy disconnected the hard drive cable from the system unit. She had already decided everything for herself, but it was necessary to give Jack a word, a chance to explain himself and apologize. To give the man she had lived with for eighteen long years, whom she loved so much, a chance. The last chance to hear her and understand her. Analyze everything they did together and their personal approaches to this common cause. — Honey? Do you hear me? ― the man repeated, looking into the old part of the laboratory. — Yes, — with a sigh, Maddie put the hard drive with the wire in her hip bag. It was necessary and desirable to start somewhere right now, before she allowed her own self-reflection to make her change her mind. — Come down, I need to talk to you. She didn’t want to start all this. She’d rather keep busy with her work. Boot up so that you don’t even have time for a good night’s sleep. But it was necessary not so much for herself as for the well-being of the children. As her husband descended the steep stairs, Maddy opened the folder with the name “Virgo” on an old macintosh and looked gloomily at the ancient instrument of torture. An iron mask with dark holes in the place of the eyes seemed to be looking at her with some sympathy. This conversation was going to be a hell of a torture, and Maddie knew it all too well.

***

— I have a bad feeling about this, — Wes said, placing a small tray of snacks and iced tea in front of his friends. Sam didn’t pay much attention to this, continuing to search for something very intently from Tucker’s tablet. The technician immediately took up the snacks, and Danny himself patted Weston on the shoulder with a soothing gesture, trying to cheer him up a little, perfectly understanding his sense of anxiety. Above them all, it hung like a guillotine blade over the neck of a condemned man. If Sam, for example, shut herself in, in an attempt to hide from him, then Tucker would lean on the food, drowning out the unpleasant feeling with gastronomic delights. — Catherine hasn’t answered for only half an hour, — Danny tried to smile, although it probably looked terribly fake from the outside. ― Her father recently called her in front of us. Surely everything is fine and she just got carried away with something, leaving the phone on silent in another room. You know how it is. ― Or maybe she just dozed off, — Tucker swallowed the snack, washing it down with a large sip of the cold drink. ― You’re all locked up at home right now, and this is really boring. It is almost impossible not to fall asleep. — Maybe you’re right, — Wes looked really lost, flopping down on his wide bed. ― I’m sorry for pushing it so hard. I haven’t been myself since this morning, and that’s all we’ve found… ― No wonder, anyone would be uncomfortable in your place, ― Sam looked away from the screen, adjusting the fabric flower that held the shawl thrown back from her face on her head. ― It’s not every day that it turns out that in a traveling circus they don’t keep animals in cages, but people. ― Vampires, ― Weston corrected, somehow too automatically, sitting on the edge of the bed next to Goth. — I don’t see much difference, — Sam reassuringly put her arm around Wes’s shoulders, eliciting a grateful smile from him with this simple gesture. ― It’s good that you listened to me in advance and installed a normal ad blocker. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have gotten very far in your part of the search, — Tucker thought for a minute, obviously trying to find the right words. ― These guys have obviously crossed a certain line, shouldn’t that be a reason for us to visit them? Or at least Danny. These tricks of ball don’t work on you, do they? — It’s a reason, of course, — Danny sighed, becoming more serious than usual. ― If I knew where to start. Just breaking in there means entering the territory of a psycho without a plan, who controls the minds of potentially innocent hostages, whom he can start using as a human shield. Besides, we still don’t fully know if this thing works for humans. Maybe you and Sam don’t feel any influence through the media right now, maybe she has a certain range of action for different creatures. We don’t know what will happen if we come into direct contact with this thing. ― And if this frek can control people with these jokes, then a whole crowd can get hit, — Tucker finished the thought for his friend, looking very gloomy, putting the glass of tea back on the tray. — I hadn’t thought of that. ― But we need to come up with something. Not just leave everything as it is, waiting for the problem to simply move to another city? — Sam tapped her fingers nervously on the tablet case. — It’s worse than slavery. And now I’m not just talking about vampires, but also that ghost in the red dress. — You mean you found something about her? — Weston moved closer, poking his nose into the tablet in the gotessa’s hands. — An obituary? — Worse. An article about a murder from Chinese source, — the girl’s words made everyone start up and start looking at the tablet screen over her shoulder. ― Some called it the case of the death of the “Boy in the Red Dress.” The photographs offered for the article showed a rather poor village house with an earthen floor. There were no special frills or interior items inside: an old and well-corroded kerosene stove for cooking, a table with several packages of instant noodles, a pair of stools on which lay a backpack and a bag with a change of clothes, most likely. However, the photos of a dead body in a red dress looked the worst. A body with weights on its feet, suspended by its arms from one of the ceiling beams. His limbs were blackened from prolonged compression and had been hanging for so long and had already begun to decompose, judging by the dark spots on his slightly swarthy skin. The red dress looked exactly like the one the ghost was wearing, and when they got to the photos of the boy’s face, there was no doubt about the identity of the deceased. It must have taken a lot of time to die like this. There is a lot of painfully dragging time. Danny bit his lip, involuntarily remembering not only Charlotte, but also the werewolf cat: one of the most cruel and embittered creatures he had personally encountered. ― Apparently, the case was closed, recognizing everything as an accident during the “game” of two teenagers, or even through the fault of the deceased himself. They say it’s his own fault that he decided to do something like this and didn’t calculate a little escape route, so to speak. But the public didn’t really believe in this version, — Sam handed the tablet back to Tucker. ― Some sources claim that there was a witness in the case who claimed that she saw an adult man leaving the deceased’s house in the middle of the night, but could not describe it in detail due to poor eyesight. Perhaps that’s why her testimony wasn’t heavily relied upon during the investigation. — I’m liking this freak show less and less, — Danny muttered, grimacing. ― Yeah, yeah… I wish I knew in advance what was going on behind the scene, — Sam nervously fingered the edge of her translucent shawl. ― Before that, they “bribed” me there that they don’t keep animals. I don’t believe I’m saying this, but it would be better if they boasted about trained poodles. — At least what you’ve just unearthed gives you a better idea of where to really start, — Danny sighed, crossing his arms over his chest. ― As far as I know, the worse and more painful death is, the angrier and more unpredictable the resulting ghost will be. If we start with the one who controls this whole circus and disable it, then the ghost under his control will become free and I personally cannot predict how he will behave. Maybe he’ll act like Charlotte and direct all his anger at the person responsible for his own death. Or maybe she’ll act like the evil spirits who knocked over an entire plane to hell, trying to kill as many as possible of those who just caught her eye. And in the case of the circus, on the first day of performances… ― …It’s going to be a whole crowd of people, — Weston finished the thought for his friend, clutching his head. — This thing can cause the biggest bloodbath in history! ― Which will only make it worse for all of us and give people like my father a reason to launch a full―fledged Hunt, — Danny summed up. ― They will not burden themselves with questions of motivation, especially if the situation gets out of control. — So the first thing we’re going to do is get rid of the Ghost? ― Tucker clarified with obvious reluctance to get into a confrontation with a potential something embittered against all of humanity. — Exactly. And preferably so that you don’t expose owerself. So it would be stupid to go in there right now. — Danny nodded. The teenager thought about it, going over the options in his head and looking for at least the least suicidal one among them. ― We already know that this spirit was sent to robberies approximately immediately after the shops closed, probably so that the loss of valuables could be blamed on occasion on the people who were responsible for closing and turning on the alarm. It shouldn’t be so difficult to trap this ghost in a thermos from an ambush. You might even be able to avoid a fight. — There are dozens of jewelry stores, pawnshops, museums, and banks in the city where valuables can be store, — Sam remarked, — You don’t know how to double up, your ghost detector is obviously limited in range, and Tucker and I alone won’t be enough to help you check EVERYTHING in such a short period of time. Danny rubbed the bridge of his nose irritably. Sam was right, and it was starting to annoying him. The only chance to intercept the greatest potential danger and neutralize it seems unattainable. — In the cases of robberies that Mom tried it in court, they first calculate the area where the gangs operate, — Weston opened the map of the city and began marking it, indicating the shops that had already been attacked. ― This is how she repeatedly managed to prove that her clients did not commit crimes of other people or gangs from other parts of the city that prosecutors tried to pin on them, ― Wes showed his friends the resulting place. ― Is everything in the area of Ritchie Street? — Sam asked, looking at the map. — We’re right next to it, — Tucker adjusted his glasses, which had slipped down on the tip of his nose. ― A neighborhood for the rich. ― It makes sense, ― Danny took out the program of performances of the circus “Gothic” from one of the pockets of his jeans and, having found the right page, put it in front of his friends. ― The circus will hold only three performances in the city, including today’s one. They obviously want to take more in a short period of time. The police won’t have time to get anything on them in three days, and when they have at least some evidence, they’ll be gone. — There’s not much time, and there’s only three attempts, and that’s at best, — Tucker concluded. ― Are you sure you can handle it? — It’s better than doing nothing. And it’s safer than involving my parents or any of the adult undead who can be controlled, — Danny nodded. The plan is optimal and not so suicidal if you act carefully. — But first, I’ll need to stop by the house to get some equipment and a couple extra thermos flasks for you guys. Well, I suggest we try to connect Wes to police communication channels, so that if anything happens, he warns us about an alarm going off somewhere or a patrol that might interfere with us. ― Wow, stop! Do you two know how to connect to police channels? — Sam asked incredulously. — Until you joined our company, we had a lot of fun, — Tucker shrugged carelessly. ― Do you have any other illegal hobbies that I should know about? — Sam asked seriously, frowning. — Who would talk about illegal hobbies, Miss Manson, — Tucker quipped, looking at the gotessa over the top of his thick glasses. When the girl turned her stern gaze on Danny. — I will only speak in the presence of a layer, — he replied with a chuckle. — Will you take on his role, Wes? — The guy looked at Weston, expecting him to pick up on the joke, as he usually did, but the answer was silence. The young vampire was sitting on the bed, looking somewhere over their heads, and his gaze was slightly tinged with a strange scarlet haze that colored his iris as if he were looking at a source of red light. — Wes? — Danny called out again. The red glow in the iris disappeared as soon as Wes blinked. The teenager silently got up from the bed and headed out of the room. — Stop! — Sam was the first to block his path, and Danny and Tucker caught him by the elbows on both sides. — Calm down, guys, — Wes waved his hands in embarrassment, — My parents just asked me to open the door. They’re waiting for someone. — Couldn’t they have asked you properly? Without these telepathic jokes? — Tucker exhaled, adjusting his red beret. ― We have a kind of emergency here. — I’m sorry, force of habit, — Wes awkwardly straightened his red hair, nevertheless leaving the room accompanied by his friends, who decided without a word that it was not worth letting Weston go alone. ― It’s difficult to control even for adults, and that’s the problem. We always reach out to our friends to make sure they’re still around, we do it automatically, without thinking. Especially in some stressful moments, when you don’t want to be alone at all. It’s almost the same as swallowing, you just do it and don’t really think about it until someone from the outside reminds you that you are doing this relatively difficult action. After such a reminder, you begin to pay attention to it and control the process. You start to think about how you did it before, because you never asked such questions before. Danny felt saliva pool in his mouth, but after Weston’s remark, it turned out to be extremely difficult to reproduce swallowing without hesitation. — You’re an asshole, ― Sam finally said, swallowing noisily and patting her chest a couple of times as if she had choked on something. ― But he explained the essence effectively, ― Wes spread his hands, jumping down from the last step of the wide staircase and heading for the massive wooden door through the hall, which in the Weston residence looked like a ballroom from some old movie. Having visited a clubmate’s house for the first time, Danny for some reason remembered the luxurious house of Masters. At one point, he thought that all fangs were more or less drawn to luxury, which in fact turned out to be completely wrong. Most of his acquaintances lived in more conventionally furnished places, and someone like Spike even lived in frankly murdered apartments on the border of the old town. For sure, it’s most difficult for them right now because of such a forced neighborhood and the inability to leave the house. Unsurprisingly, Wes was worried about them and constantly conducted a kind of roll call in the general chat. With their unity, it would obviously be very, very painful to lose someone. ― Welcome, Mr. Masters, ― Wes greeted the guest politely, letting a man who was slowly folding an umbrella enter the house. ― Is it too sunny for you today? — I could say that, ― Masters' tone was as even and calm as ever. — Uncle Vlad? — Danny looked at Masters in surprise as he came down the last step of the stairs. — What are you doing here? — Uncle? — Sam asked in a whisper, leaning close to her friend’s ear. Only after this question did the guy realize that he had blurted out something wrong and hurried to look away a little, feeling the heat on the tips of his ears and an almost unbearable desire to scratch his neck. However, Masters pretended that he had not heard anything super scary, and the answers to the guy’s appeals were the same as always with his usual restraint. ― I have a similar question for you, Daniel, — Masters handed the neatly folded umbrella to Weston and carefully pulled off his thin white gloves. — Weren’t you supposed to be at home? — We decided to visit a friend, — Danny felt his ears burn more and more with each new word after this stupid oversight. Yes, maybe his friends wouldn’t react to that right now, he was sure for sure that their jokes would overwhelm him if they were alone with each other. I should have fucked up like that, he thought, nervously picking at a burr on his thumbnail. — And for me, for example, the company of vampires is better than at home, — Sam casually put her hand on Danny’s shoulder, glancing at him sideways with a sly smile that did not bode well. ― Speaking of which, ― Vlad took off his gloves and put them in the inner pocket of his jacket. ― You young people should have been chastised for almost getting into the middle of trouble, — Masters said, looking at Sam without looking away, which caused her fuse to noticeably decrease, switching from Danny to the man. But Vlad continued before the gotessa could open her mouth. ― However, you can turn a blind eye to this, given the work you have done. You could make great detectives. ― Yes, we’re talented, — Tucker liked to show off, and the praise from one of the most influential people in the country clearly warmed his ego more than it needed to. ― And you have no other plans? ― when asking this question, Masters was already looking specifically at Danny, obviously knowing perfectly well who in their small company was the initiator of all the plans, despite his quiet image. Maybe he understood even more than Danny would have liked. Sam tightened her grip on her friend’s shoulder, trying to make it clear to him that he should keep his mouth shut if they didn’t want to be interrupted and locked up at home like useless babies. But on the other hand…

***

Maddy looked without much interest at the long-blunted pins inside the iron Maiden and listened to the assurances that she simply misunderstood what she saw. That the experiment couldn’t harm Danny in any way, that everything was safe, that everything was provided for, that everything was “ethical”, as they say nowadays. At some point, the woman began to think that she was either being taken for a fool who would swallow all this and not choke, or that Jack himself had forgotten what he was doing during this experiment they were discussing. The latter, of course, was more likely, but it didn’t make the overall picture any better. Especially in light of the fact that Jack’s words were at least at odds with what he had written in his own report, which she had copied and which had not been edited all this time. — Danny must have hurt himself somewhere else, — her husband assured her. ― He was always quite restless. Remember how he climbed trees at Alice’s even last year! —You yourself indicated in the report that Danny came out of this thing injured, — she tried to be calm. However, she tried to blame everything on Jack’s banal forgetfulness, because he had always been like that. He can won’t put his anti-ghost weapon on the safety. He can forget to make a handle on the inside of the door. But now, when the conversation personally seemed to her as important and serious as possible, it was difficult not to perceive this as childish and bullying. She opened the materials in front of Jack, all his photos, including the one with Danny’s damaged T-shirt with traces of blood. She unfolded the full screen so that the man could get a better look at the evidence of what had happened more than ten years ago. A lot could have been forgotten over such a long period of time. Memories tend to be distorted, especially those that you don’t want to remember. But by some internal criteria, Maddie felt that if she had allowed something like this to happen, she would never have been able to forget it. The man looked confusedly at the photo, then at the completely blunted iron stakes inside the Virgo, as if trying to compare everything he sees. There really wasn’t a single sharp object inside that could harm their boy, he noted this himself in the report and even made certain conclusions in his own style, which Maddy was even angrier. Especially the way he submitted them, reducing their child to a “subject” in the documents. If it had been about someone a little more outsider, she would probably have felt a certain interest, waiting for what kind of answer she would receive from her interlocutor. How he would get out, how he would justify himself, but at the moment, looking into her husband’s eyes, she felt nothing. It was as if this emotional vacuum had become a part of her during this dialogue. ― So it’s not for nothing that we became interested in this artifact at the time, Maddy! — Jack was… happy. She didn’t quite understand the reasons for such emotions, and for a moment it made her doubt her own adequacy and ability to analyze the situation. ― I can’t believe I just forgot about it! We’ve had an artifact with a trapped ghost in an inert stage under our noses for so many years, and we haven’t even continued to actively study it. — Jack, you’ve locked our son in this thing, — she didn’t share the joy of discovering something otherworldly. If it wasn’t about one of their children, but about someone more mature, who could at least consciously agree to such an experiment, clearly aware of the risks, she would also have thought about not making a fuss. But the child… ― You locked our son in a medieval torture device, deliberately expecting to bring a ghost out of suspended animation, and you don’t see a problem with that? — It was an important part of the experiment, — the man really looked uncomprehending. ― Dear, you yourself understand that science sometimes requires some sacrifices… ― This is our son! ― the vacuum in her soul finally collapsed, giving rise to a bright flash of anger, which Maddy did not expect from herself. ― You’ve put an experiment on our child! In the reports, he called him a “subject” as if he were some kind of consumable that could be easily replaced! It’s no coincidence that all the recordings date back to the time of my first serious business trip. You deliberately conducted this “experience” while I was away, knowing in advance how I would react to it. But that didn’t stop you! — Maddy, you know how important our research is. You said yourself that you expect a result from each of our experiences, but when you see it, you can’t even realize its importance! — Jack was serious. He wasn’t joking, he wasn’t dodging, he wasn’t trying to play with her, as Vlad sometimes liked to do back in college with his usual sarcastic jokes. No. Jack really meant what he said. He was as simple and guileless as ever. And that sent shivers down Maddie’s spine. Awkwardly stepping on her sore foot, she stumbled slightly, leaning on the dusty tabletop. This discovery was one of the most unpleasant in recent times. She always hated hints, simply because she didn’t read them well, didn’t know how to communicate ethically in principle, and as a student, she would never have thought that it was directness and honesty that would cause something on the verge of horror and rage in her. — Do you really think you haven’t done anything wrong? ― the body felt somehow alien, too light and fragile, and his own voice sounded as if from outside, echoing off the dusty walls of the basement with a slight echo. — I think you’re concentrating on the wrong things, — Jack’s voice sounded strange and hollow. ― You and I realized right now that we have a potential new object for research, which, with our current equipment, will be much easier to study. I don’t understand why you’re mad at me right now for the trauma our son got from the ghost. To some extent, Maddie understood that this conversation would become a kind of point of no return, but she was still hoping for some other outcome. To other explanations and conclusions from Jack. For understanding in the end. ― Tell me, according to your logic, if you locked Danny in a cage with a tiger and he got hurt by it, then I should be angry at the tiger, and not at you, as the person who basically allowed such a situation? — Maddie spoke evenly, looking Jack straight in the eye. Watching as his gaze changed. Her husband’s face always reflected what he was thinking and feeling. This time was no exception. Lively, mobile, and sometimes even overly vivid facial expressions have always been his hallmark. ― A tiger is an unreasonable animal, ― Jack seemed to not quite understand the meaning of Maddy’s words. — He can’t be compared to a ghost. ― Replace the animal in my example with a maniac, a mentally ill person, or any other unstable person whose actions can be unpredictable and dangerous to others, — Maddy’s heart was beating surprisingly calmly after the last outburst of anger. If earlier, hoping that she would be heard and understood, she was angry when she met a blank wall of someone else’s stubbornness, now… She just lost hope. — Nothing’s going to change, Jack. No matter how you look at it, you can’t blame a ghost in this situation, and I want you to understand that, because I won’t explain it anymore. The woman turned around and walked slowly up the stairs to the laboratory, feeling increasingly weak. This conversation had drained her of all her strength. He’d broken a lot more than she’d expected. — I can’t handel this anymore, — she muttered, feeling a growing headache. — What do you mean? — Jack rushed after her a little too late. — I want a divorce, — Maddie said, not knowing that an invisible witness had been watching her and Jack’s conversation for some time. Returning home in stealth mode, so as not to run into his parents once again and at the same time pick up everything he needed, Danny did not expect to witness their conversation, in which he was assigned a very significant role. He didn’t expect that his mother would ever find out about this, even when he was a child, realizing that nothing good would come of it. And this cold-spoken “I want a divorce” was confirmation that all his fears were justified. Ever since the woman had ride at Aunt Alice last year, Danny had suspected that everything would lead to this one day, although he had secretly hoped that it would happen at least not so soon. Or that at least he would not play a serious role in the collapse of his own family. Clutching extra thermoses and communicators for himself and his friends, the invisible teenager hovered near the ceiling, looking at his parents and realizing that he would surely have slid to the floor if he had been standing on the floor like normal people. — What are you saying? — Jack muttered in a hoarse voice, grabbing Maddie’s wrist with both hands. He looked really confused and even scared to some extent, but Mom remained steadfast. Danny didn’t listen to the rest. After flying through the ceiling of the laboratory, he immediately turned into his room, where, with the door already closed, he could almost afford to collapse to the floor, dropping all the things from his hands. It was not worth making noise, and the rational part of him, the Ghost, understood this perfectly well. However, the shock was too strong to continue to control himself. It was because of this that he did not immediately notice how the carpet was covered with frost under his palms. He touched his face with his fingers, expecting to feel wet trails of tears, but there were none, oddly enough. Sitting on the floor, he stared blankly at the scattered things and waited for his breathing to recover.

***

The sun had almost set when the Phantom rose invisibly into the air in the area of Richie Street. After what Danny saw at home, it became much more difficult to focus on the task at hand. As soon as he lost concentration for a second, his thoughts shifted from searching for potential danger, to the image of his mother saying she wanted to leave. The hot summer air blew over his face and disturbed his short white hair, which, after returning from Colorado, Danny tried not to grow too long. He stopped, froze in the air and sighed wearily, stretching his stiff neck for something, realizing again that he had lost concentration and was thinking about something unimportant and unrelated to the current task. — Danny, are you sure you’re okay? — Sam’s voice sounded a little worried in the earpiece. ― How else it can be? — He felt the cold building inside him and tried to control himself, not allowing frost to form on the fingertips of his white gloves. It was as if the ghost was trying to “cool down” not him, but his overly raging feelings after a visit home. — Well… It’s just like you haven’t been yourself since you came back. More distracted, — Goth girl began cautiously. ― I don’t know what happened while you were at home and I won’t ask, but are you sure you can handle your “sense” in this state? ― it’s a sensible question that Danny himself has been thinking about. ― Is there a any choice? — The Ghost knew the answer to his question better than anyone. No one else had such a sense of the paranormal. Vampires couldn’t smell ghosts, much less friends, and involving parents with equipment capable of doing the same thing as his abilities could be equated to a sophisticated suicide attempt. There is no choice and the task must be completed if he does not want the situation to become many times worse than it already is at the moment. Taking a deep breath and closing his eyes, Danny focused on the sensation he was looking for, listening to the deep growl of the beast from the darkness of his own consciousness. Based on the feeling he felt when he saw the ghostly “girl” for the first time at the opening ceremony of the circus. A feeling that for a while overshadowed the problems of the living part of his being. Not the aura of banal gloomy corruption that the main audience of the circus “Gothic” was trying to create around itself, but something deeper, more diverse. Something with a smell of decomposition and a feeling of pain in the bound limbs. Something with the smell of burning cheap candles, rotten wood and damp earth. The feeling of bitterness in his throat was drowned out by the flow of cold air from his lungs. The ghost is nearby. Abruptly opening his eyes, Danny looked around warily. Trying to identify the source of the ghostly activity. — He’s close, ― the Ghost warned his friends. ― I’m not far from house 41A. ― There’s a “24K” jewelry store on the next street, right behind this house, — Tucker reported. One of those shops that the ghostly thief failed to rob yesterday. And it was into him that the weak-willed spirit was forced to return today. Whether it was a coincidence or the stupidity of the puppeteer, Danny wasn’t particularly interested. He quickly found himself in place and was about to rush inside when the beast from the dark corner of his soul growled a warning. The teenager covered his mouth with his hand, realizing that the menacing low sound was coming from his own throat. He slowed down, carefully circling the store around. The shutters of the shop windows were closed, the lights inside were no longer on, there were clearly no people, but the annoying thought “don’t do anything stupid, don’t behave as impulsively as your father” ― it didn’t let go, forcing me to tense up and focus all his senses on the task at hand, lowering the sound in the earphone to a minimum. Peering cautiously inside, the invisible man saw something strange. The ghost in the red dress moved from window to window, trying to touch the glass behind which jewelry with many precious stones shone on dark velvet substrates, but his hands with blackened, inflamed nails seemed to stumble upon some invisible barrier every time. The ghost was infuriated by this, and once again he tried to break through this barrier by hitting it with his fists. But nothing happened. Only splashes of phosphorescent ectoplasm flew away from the damaged ghostly body. Looking closer, Danny found a thin chain of what looked like salt mixed with herbs on the display cases between the velvet backing and the glass. His ghostly form also couldn’t penetrate beyond this fence with the tip of a finger. It felt like something invisible, with a texture similar to that of highly heated iron. “Is it working?!”: He thought to himself in surprise, continuing to watch the confused spirit in red heading towards the back of the store this time. To the safe. Just as he was about to move after him to detain him, the “Boy in the red Dress” stopped abruptly, falling to his knees. A faint scarlet smoke rose from his dress, as if his body had suddenly warmed up. “What the hell!?”: Danny froze, pressing himself against the wall and looking with incomprehension at how Polina appeared out of the deep shadow, as if out of thin air. As soon as the girl took a couple of steps towards the ghost, an invisible teenager noticed a circle on the floor, in which the girl had obviously been all this time. He rubbed his eyes, with a faint hope that his otherworldly vision had just accidentally let him down. The idea that supernaturally heightened ghostly senses could actually be so easily deceived by old tricks from ancient legends seemed incredibly insulting. But Vlad himself had told him a year ago that sometimes it was just as difficult for ghosts to see the living as it was for living ghosts. — It must be very unpleasant, but otherwise you won’t be able to help, — Pauline took a pair of tailor’s scissors with long blades from her belt. Some vaguely familiar symbols flickered faintly on the iron, which Danny couldn’t read or perceive. They seemed to blur in the air, eluding the ghostly gaze. — You won’t be able to stand still. You’ll be forced to leave. She snapped the scissors in the air, circling the ghost sitting on the floor. Only now did the Phantom notice on the ceiling, directly above the ghost, a circle of blood-red flowers, somewhat resembling roses, but definitely not. The black stems, covered with thorns, intertwined together, forming a kind of giant wreath. “Did Pauline do it? Did she catch a ghost without the help of equipment? Is it really possible to catch a ghost with this?!” ― thoughts were confused in his head, while Danny watched as the girl snapped the scissors over and over again, as if cutting something, and continued to walk around the perimeter of the invisible cage in which she imprisoned the spirit. The boy in red twitched a couple of times, starting to look around in disbelief. The blackness of his eyes brightened, it became possible to distinguish dark pupils and irises in them. He sat on the floor, looking at his own hands with the remains of the rope, at the torn hem of his dress, slowly bending and unbending his blackened fingers from which reddish smoke evaporated. Danny allowed the ghostly eyes to take a closer look at what was happening. Pauline slowly moved in a circle, waving her scissors in the air and periodically clicking them, closing the blades. The teenager noticed how a barely noticeable thread got between the blades of the scissors, similar to the one that Charlotte used to entangle his father and deprive him of will. ― Stop! — he shouted, appearing, but too late. Pauline broke the last thread controlling the spirit. She severed his connection with the puppeteer, regained his will, and the consequences were not long in coming. Finally realizing his own situation, the boy began to shake as if in a fever. He clutched at his own dress and started tearing it with a scream. The otherworldly howl turned out to be so loud and desperate, full of energy, restrained until that moment by the “owner” of the ghost, that the lights flickered in the store. The alarm went on and off, and Pauline, stunned by the roar, dropped the scissors and fell to her knees. Danny tried to cover his ears and stay in place. The sound waves pushed him out of the room. Sinking to the floor, he crouched closer to the ground so as not to let himself get rid of so easily. The earphone seems to sparkle from excess energy and slightly electrocuting it a couple of times. The floor shook under his feet like during an earthquake. The malice of the spirit was making itself felt more and more by the second. A crack went through the ceiling, breaking the circle of flowers. Shards of plaster rained down on Pauline and Danny. The glass of the nearby storefronts burst with a wild bang. Danny barely managed to move to the girl and make them both intangible, avoiding injury from glass shrapnel. The ghost in the tattered dress finally fell silent, got to his feet and grabbed a large piece of glass from a nearby showcase. He had already swung at Polina, who had freed him from the shackles of the puppeteer, but Danny managed to knock the improvised weapon out of the dead man’s hands. Pointing the thermos at him, the Ghost quickly sealed the resisting spirit, driven by rage alone, into a trap. His ears were still plugged, and the sound waves reverberated painfully inside his skull. The phantom carefully rebooted the still malfunctioning earphone. The voices of his friends sounded muffled and indistinct, but most likely because the howl of the poltergeist affected his own hearing. — Everything is under control, — he said into the microphone, belatedly realizing that he was almost shouting in an attempt to hear himself again. — How are you? ― he asked Pauline, helping her up. — What? — Sanchez was clearly more stunned than he was. She stared intently at his face, trying to understand what was being said to her by the movement of his lips. Pauline yawned, most likely trying to get rid of the congestion in her ears. — Freeing a spirit from someone else’s control without knowing how it died was a bad idea, — the ghost spoke slowly and as clearly as possible so that he could be understood somehow. He was brushing white plaster crumbs from the girl’s hair. ― I’ll keep it in mind, ― Pauline smiled a little crookedly because of the obvious headache after such a sonic boom. It was only now, when their hearing had recovered a little, that they heard the alarm going off in the store due to the terrible mayhem and the burst of energy. — You need to leave, — Danny picked up a pair of tailor’s scissors from the floor and handed them to the girl, holding onto the blades. — Unless you want to explain yourself to the cops. — Don’t worry about me. I’ll concoct an alibi for myself, — she took hold of the scissors rings and looked straight into his eyes. ― But it will be difficult for you to come up with it, ― she straightened her hopelessly tangled hair, throwing a thick braid over her shoulder. — Thanks. ― Next time, leave the showdown with the dead to me, ― Danny rose into the air and, becoming invisible, left the shop, which was pretty battered by the ghost. It will probably take a lot of money for the owner to make him look presentable, but at least none of the expensive goods were stolen anymore, and no one was injured. It wasn’t as perfect as planned, but the strategy worked even with the complication of Polina and her “witchy” tricks. — The ghost has been dealt with, ― Tucker’s voice finally managed to make out in the earphone. — There’s still the circus. Danny smiled when he heard the voices of his friends. On one of the nearby roofs, he noticed a figure wrapped in a light white cloak. Masters was nearby. He insured but did not interfere, as promised. The teenager walked towards him, hanging the thermos on his belt. He managed to deal with the ghost. I managed to implement my own plan. ― Great job, ― Vlad praised him with a restrained smile, opening himself with an unusual gesture for the hugs that Danny still loved as much as in his childhood. Especially when no one is watching. Surprisingly, even in the heat of the late evening, it was pleasantly cool on the hot roof during the day under Masters' cape. — I’m proud of you. After all that Danny had heard at home, after he had to remember all that he had experienced in his childhood, sitting in the Iron Maiden. After realizing that his family was about to fall apart because of him, Vlad’s words felt especially vivid. A warm feeling of calmness, something permanent and reliable, something safe, warmed my soul. Even though Vlad was definitely not the friendliest creature by definition, even though he could obviously be dangerous, cold-blooded and, most likely, even cruel in some ways, judging by his character, but at that moment his hands with long and sharp claws seemed many times less dangerous than his own father’s hands. ― Guys, we have some bad news, — Wes' voice came over the earpiece, to which Plasmius listened, releasing Danny. ― They got to Catherine.

***

Maddy glanced at her watch. The circus performance that Danny was going to go to was about to come to an end. The boy will return home late, tired and excited by what he saw, with a lot of emotions and, most likely, will fall asleep almost immediately. And this is only on condition that he really returns on time, which is extremely unlikely, given how much he liked to stay somewhere with friends or spontaneously stay with one of them for the night. In any case, she wouldn’t be able to talk to him until tomorrow, and the prospect of spoiling his mood and attitude by bringing out the past that he’d been hiding in the darkest corner of his soul for so long made Maddie feel sick. She closed the folder that Vlad had given her when she was in the hospital with a concussion, and leaned back in her chair with a heavy sigh. It wasn’t the best time to study his offer in detail, but reading the business documents and terms brought her to her senses a little. They allowed her to calm down to some extent and focus on the details. At least that’s how it used to be, but today Maddie just felt tired. Running her fingers through her hair and removing her bangs from her face, the woman began to massage her temples, hearing the bang of the front door and her daughter’s voice through the incipient headache: ― I hope the insect issue has been resolved, ― Jess, judging by the sounds, threw her bag on the sofa in the living room and headed for the kitchen. However, when she looked into the room and met her mother’s gaze, she hurried to change her fighting mood to a more wary one. — Did something happen while I was gone? ― Yes, something happened, — Maddy carefully studied her daughter’s face, alarmed by her serious tone. In any case, the conversation with Danny would have to wait until tomorrow, but that didn’t mean that the boy had been hiding something from her all this time, in an attempt to shield one parent’s mistakes from the other. Unlike her brother, Jess never hid her own body as carefully as he did. At least Maddy hadn’t noticed any special suspicious markings on it, but that didn’t mean anything when you thought about it that way. Maybe she was just more lucky and didn’t get physically hurt. At least for now. ― You look good… upset, — Jess paused for a moment to find a suitable adjective that would sound more correct than what was actually on her mind. — Because of that? — She nodded toward the folder labeled Plasmius Geneticist as she walked into the kitchen. — No, dear. It’s not that at all, — She stared straight into her daughter’s blue eyes, trying to mentally think through the upcoming dialogue at least a little. ― Please sit down. I’d like to talk to you. About you and your brother. — You’re scaring me, ― Jess nervously began to pull at the tassel of her long braid. — I thought you were just going to talk to Danny and ask him to take out the spiders, but you’re acting like you’re going to kick him out of the house. — No, honey. The thing is… — Because your mom’s tired today, ― Jack interrupted her, coming up to the kitchen from the lab. He looked her straight in the eye, shaking his head slightly in the negative. Trying to make her understand with this gesture that she doesn’t need to talk to the children. At least that’s how she understood it, feeling only irritation and once again confirming her intention to have a conversation with both children. ― Jack, don’t bother me, please, — Maddie stood up, picking up a folder of documents from the table, and addressed her daughter, touching her shoulder. — Jess, let’s go upstairs to your room. The confused girl got up from her seat and went where she was told. Obviously, she was already afraid of what was happening, the meaning of which was still unclear to her, and Jack was not improving the situation. The man intercepted his wife’s hand, pulling her away from her daughter and practically standing between them. — Princess, go to your room alone for now, my mom and I need to talk, — he even tried to smile, and for some reason Maddie was infuriated by something much stronger than Masters' on―duty smile, behind which there was nothing but formal politeness. ― We’ve already talked, that’s enough for today, — she shook off her husband’s hand from her shoulder. ― You’ve already been given the floor, but now I want to hear from others. — You’re dragging the kids into our difference, — Jack had already completely pushed her away from her daughter, bringing her back to the kitchen. — It’s unwise, and it won’t do any better. Let’s figure out this misunderstanding ourselves first. — Misunderstanding? — She was getting angry. — You call that a misunderstanding? ― Please don’t make a scene in front of our daughter, — he spoke to her in a calm tone, occasionally glancing at Jess with a guilty smile. As if apologizing for her mother’s behavior. ― Who would have talked about making a scene, ― Maddie roughly pushed her husband aside, going out into the hall, where Jess was already standing. — What’s going on? — The girl was perplexed, looking from one parent to the other. Perhaps something was already beginning to sink in and she was waiting for at least some confirmation of her own guesses. Or maybe she was just an observer who didn’t understand what was going on at all. As soon as Maddy opened her mouth to begin explaining, a deafening siren wailed. The ghost alarm hadn’t been triggered since Charlotte’s first appearance at their house. Especially so clearly and simultaneously throughout the house. The sensors went berserk. Was it the reactivated Charlotte or the ghost from the Iron Maiden, awakened by the discovery of the iron sarcophagus after so many years? ― Damn it! Ecto-flash! — Jack rushed to the alarm control panel at the entrance to the laboratory. — There’s a powerful ghost somewhere in the city. — What? ― her husband’s sudden change of mood unsettled Maddie herself. It would seem that just a few moments ago he was trying so hard to influence their difficult family situation, and now, at the first alarm signal, he is ready to rush in pursuit of a ghost that can be studied properly. He was possessed by ghosts, and everything else was secondary. ― Honey, put off your conversations. We’re going to hunt an ectoplasmic creature, — Jack rushed into the basement, apparently for a weapon. ― Wait! — Jack couldn’t hear Maddie’s words anymore, completely immersed in preparing the equipment. Surely he will take this terribly unsafe crossbow with him and, Gods forbid, accidentally hit a person. Maddie didn’t even worry about the perfume, unlike her husband, who perceived any signal from a hand-designed sensor system as a real threat, rather than another malfunction, which they had more than enough of over the past year. He had modified the deflector belt that had nearly fried her and Danny. He hadn’t finalized the sensor system, and because of that, they reacted to the void and lost sight of Charlotte all the time. He shot Vlad in the face with an Ecto foam, being sure after capturing his own mind by Charlotte that he had already moved away and was able to distinguish the residual ghost from reality. And he probably did the same stupid thing with his hastily assembled weapon against the “vampires.” “We can’t let him go alone,” was the only thought buzzing in Maddy’s head in time with the alarm. — Mom? — Jess looked really scared. — It’s okay, honey, ― Maddie tried to keep her voice as calm as possible, turning off the alarm. — I won’t be gone long to look after your father. Stay at home for now and call Danny. Remind him to go home right after the show and not stay late.

***

She heard a voice. Different from the one who gave out orders for the first time in a long time. They called her carefully and quietly, but persistently, helping her through the veil of red fog. They led to the muffled noise of human voices, which exploded with applause every now and then. She thought that she would be taken to some kind of concert or sporting event, like the European Football Championship. She thought she would find herself somewhere under the stands in the company of the same lost and confused lunatics. Unfortunately, when she opened her eyes, she saw herself in the circus arena, bowing to the audience, holding the hand of someone in thick gloves. The spectators in the stands were strange: most of them were dressed all in black, with gloomy makeup, and looked informal enough to make the barely awake girl dumbfounded. She froze, staring in horror at the crowd, trying to understand at least one word of what they were shouting in a language she didn’t recognize. Just as she was about to cry, she felt herself being pulled by the hand somewhere. But she didn’t resist. She just couldn’t, she didn’t have any strength for it. The crowd behind her only cheered, as if rejoicing at being dragged somewhere like a doll. Already on her way backstage, she met the gaze of a bald man in white makeup, he smiled at her, patting her condescendingly on the head, like a dog. He was saying something to her, but she only understood the words “image,” “game,” and “angel.” Angel. Looking down at herself, she realized that it was about her. After all, she was dressed like an angel, with small white wings on her back. The most depraved angel on the planet, because the translucent white dress was not only indecently short, but also its fabric did not hide anything at all. Just a moment ago, she was standing in front of a crowd of people applauding her in her underwear. Her arm, untidily wrapped in bandages, hurt terribly, as if it had been doused with boiling water. “Be quiet. Don’t panic.” The call belonged to a man and was the only thing she understood. It was the only thing she could cling to. “Take a look around. Try to behave the same as everyone else. Don’t stand out so you don’t get dragged back into the fog.” Only now, in the semi-darkness, she decided to look up at the one who dragged her behind the stage and almost screamed. The tall man in the red devil’s suit was thin and haggard, his eyes shone with a red light, further emphasizing the gaping hole where his nose should be. His face resembled a skin-covered skull, and the gloomy makeup only reinforced this impression. She tried to pull herself together and touched the man’s arm, tugging lightly on his sleeve. There was no reaction, he continued to stand staring straight ahead, like a limp statue. The girl looked around. Other creatures also stood at attention in the semi-darkness. Actors in various costumes. Parts of their bodies, some of them, not hidden by makeup and clothes, sometimes glowed noticeably. It took her a while to realize that it wasn’t some clever special effects, but something under their skin. The painful growths on the bodies of the members of the monstrous troupe throbbed as if in time with the heartbeats of their hosts. They stood motionless and stared straight ahead, with scarlet light and thick fog reflected in their eyes. She took her place next to the man without a nose, looked down at the floor and closed her eyes, trying not to burst into tears from fear and misunderstanding. She was at home. She remembered how her mother, leaving for work, asked her not to go outside and put the younger ones to bed after lunch. How did she end up here?! “How long have you had these glowing growths? Can you tell me when you got them?” The voice asked difficult questions. Too complicated. “How long ago?” She looked out from under lowered eyelashes at her hands, one of which was covered with bandages and hurt terribly. Black bloodstains and a greenish something could be seen through the dirty cloth. What others had under her skin flowed from wounds that she didn’t even realize she had received. “Do you understand where you are?” She just shook her head. She vaguely remembered that the audience passed at night after sunset, but she did not understand what day it was. What a month… What a year. She is no longer in Romania ― the only obvious thing at the moment. The audience shouted in a different language. The scary man spoke in English. Is she in England? Or where else is English spoken? There were a lot of places to start thinking about, but it only made it worse. The first tear fell from her eyelashes onto the dusty, dry ground. She was lost in space and time. “Hush, hush. Be patient, it’s going to be over soon.” ― Meet our new star, Arachne! — The loud voice from the stage obviously belonged to the master of ceremonies, a bald man in gloomy makeup. She understood what he was saying with great difficulty. The eyes of the girl standing in front of her in a tight semi-transparent bodysuit lit up brighter. Her most intimate parts of her body were covered with spiders embroidered on mesh fabric and nothing else. The limp doll took the stage to a standing ovation and booing from the excited crowd. The entertainer entered the semi-darkness of the backstage. The head of his cane, with the scarlet mist trapped inside, glowed brighter and she heard an emotionless, almost mechanical voice demanding a huge strong man to “come and accompany”. And he came over, standing behind the man like a faithful dog. — You’re looking at me like you have a free will, Angel, — the pomaded lips stretched into a wide smile, baring disproportionately huge teeth. ― You know how much I don’t like it when a stupid animal wakes up the will. The scarlet crystal ball appeared right in front of her face. The fog inside him filled his head completely, forcing the Voice out of his thoughts.

***

― Mom told you to go home in time. Dad’s sensors detected a ghost or something in the city. Mom went with him, but you know she might not be able to snatch that stupid Ecto foam out of his hands. It’s no pleasure to wash it off, I’ll tell you, — Jess tried to joke, although her voice trembled slightly as she spoke. There was a slight scuffle and a loud father’s voice in the background. So the parents are just getting ready. — I get it, Jess. I’ll try, — he tried to remove the otherworldly echo from his voice in order to sound more human than he looked right now. — And one more thing. The parents are not in the mood. I don’t know what exactly happened to them again, but they’re both on edge. Really, try not to piss them off once again, — she added before hanging up the phone. The ghost silently turned off the phone completely, and handed it to Sam along with the thermos with the spirit trapped inside. He stretched his neck and coughed a little, until the otherworldly echo returned to his speech. Portraying a different voice was new, but it seemed to be relatively believable. ― We have another problem, — the teenager returned to the only round window in the attic of the abandoned train station, to Vlad standing there with his eyes closed, obviously trying to get at least one of his own outside. — One more, one less. I don’t think we’ll notice the difference, — he sounded annoyed. There are clearly problems with the task that will require adjustments to the original plan. ― What could be worse than a busted jewelry store and a crowd of cops that Sam and I had to run from? Or the fact that these freaks had somehow recruited Catherine? — Tucker sounded despondent and clearly wasn’t optimistic anymore. To some extent, Danny was even sorry to spoil the already shitty general mood even more. ― This ghostly roar attracted the attention of the parents. Now local hunters have gone to the city center in search of evil spirits, — the Ghost crossed his arms over his chest, looking at the black tent of the circus. ― Now, as I believe, they went to the area of Richie Street, guided by the readings of Dad’s devices. However, they’ll probably come here after that. My father has been fixated on “bloodsuckers” since yesterday. Even assembled something similar to a crossbow so that the upgraded aspen stakes would be more convenient to use. Vlad sighed wearily, closing his red eyes without a single hint of a pupil. In his otherworldly form, he sometimes seemed almost blind because of this feature of the eyes, although Danny still could not determine whether the ghostly form of the mentor sees as poorly as the human one. ― Murphy’s law is in effect, — the man muttered. The skirts of his white raincoat were slightly fluttering in the breeze, which had cooled down by the night. If something bad can happen, it will happen, and it’s bound to happen at the most inopportune moment. It was difficult to disagree with this, especially now that there wasn’t much time left for action. As soon as the puppeteer realizes that he has lost his beloved marionette, who commits theft, he will surely take off and drive off to an unknown destination with the circus tomorrow morning and it will be very difficult to catch him. Who knows how many vampires he will still have time to recruit on his way, and put on a leash, as he did with their friend. ― How much danger does your father and his “toys” pose to us? — Plasmius did not take his eyes off the tent, inside of which a general startled exclamation sounded. The performance was obviously spectacular, and the crowd was simply gigantic. — I haven’t seen it in action, but judging by the scheme, it’s something between a crossbow bolt, an aspen stake, and the deflector that tried to roast me in the mountains back then, — remembering his own charred skin was unpleasant, to say the least, which made Danny shiver slightly. ― Theoretically, it will put us out of action at best, and at worst it will begin to destabilize and meltdown. ― It sounds as bad as possible, ― Sam carefully held the thermos in her hands, placing it in the crook of her elbow. — I have an idea how they can be detained for a short time, when they deal with the source of the out break, ― Danny approached Tucker and took the tablet from his hands. ― I’ll give you access to the onboard computer of the parent vehicle. You can keep track of where they are and if anything happens… ― ….Give the instruments a command to identify a new source of ghostly activity on the other side of the city, — Tucker finished for his friend. — Get it. — If it doesn’t work, just shut it down. My father doesn’t like physical education, and it will take them longer to get to us on foot. This will buy at least some time for maneuvers, — Danny handed Tucker back the tablet connected to the rover’s computer. ― And we will act as agreed. While I distract the Freak with the hypnotic ball, Vlad brings the hostages out of their trance, and Sam brings them out of their cages. I hope you haven’t forgotten the skill, — he said to Sam. — You’re asking? — Goth girl carefully handed Tucker the thermos with the ghost and took out a small set of lock picks from her sleeve. ― I’m still locked in the house so often that I won’t forget the skill even if I want to.

***

The show is over. The last audience had long since dispersed. In his private carriage, Isaac nervously cut circles, tapping on the wooden floor with the iron toes of his shoes. It was already past midnight, and the most important member of the troupe still hadn’t returned with the loot, which infuriated the man. — Where is this kid? — he grumbled, slamming his fist on the lid of the locked and chained coffin that replaced the peculiar statue in his ornate mobile home. On the dressing table by the mirror, along with the makeup, there were jewelry, some of which had already been partially disassembled and stripped of stones, which would be sold separately from the melted gold elements. The personal servant chosen by the master for this evening stood at the door, acting as a living stand for a cane. — I brought a new artist without any problems, but as soon as I let him go back to work, he disappeared and did not respond to the call, — the man with a sharp gesture grabbed a cane with a crystal ball from the hands of the servant standing at the front door and tried again to summon the prodigal artist in red. But nothing happened. — You stupid little doll, what could possibly have happened to you again? Clack-clack-clack The sound of claws on glass caught Isaac’s attention. It is unlikely that this was the work of a lost doll. The man pulled back the black curtain, looking out into the street. The moonlight made the shadows of the carriages even blacker. The silhouette of a teenager in black disappeared into the depths of the labyrinths of abandoned trains, but it was not possible to examine the visitor in more detail. But paper-bleached hair and general appearance… ― Did a participant come to our circus “voluntarily”? — The painted smile widened. ― Come on, doggie. Let’s welcome the new member of the troupe,” he turned to the weak―willed servant, when both the crystal ball and the unfortunate man’s eyes lit up brighter, standing out from the deep shadows. The man got out of the private carriage, heading after the potential newcomer, and Sam, after waiting until he and his servant were out of sight, came out of hiding between the carriages and made her way inside, while a light shadow on the roof silently and quickly moved to the next carriage, full of weak-willed puppets trapped inside, scared and not even understanding where It is located now. Vlad has a lot of work to do to organize them quickly and without noise, so there probably won’t be time for locks. The girl carefully closed the heavy door behind her, trying to make sure that it did not slam, creating unnecessary noise. Approaching the coffin almost on tiptoe, she took out the lock picks and began to pick the first lock with concentration and dexterity. It looked like an ordinary. Heavy, durable, but relatively simple. In the silence that followed, the shutter clicked too loudly, forcing Goth girl to turn around fearfully. But the random noise went unnoticed. The most difficult part remained ― to remove the iron chains. The chains made too much noise, but the girl tried to work with them not only quickly but also carefully. The coffin lid opened with a slight creak as soon as the bindings were finished. Sam stumbled slightly to the side when she saw who had been inside what turned out to be just a visually different-looking iron maiden all this time. The sharp spikes on the lid were covered with black blood mixed with greenish ectoplasm, and the girl trapped inside could barely stand on her feet. Lean and thin, shaved like a typewriter with a short crew cut, covered with wounds and ulcers, and covered only with revealing underwear and a tightly tightened corset. She looked so bad that Sam had already rushed to support her so that she would not fall, but she was stopped. ―Stay back, — the woman asked in very broken English with a strange, unknowable accent. — You’re going to get sick, ― she pointed to one of her painful abscesses, which glowed with a greenish light under her skin, flickering as if in time with the beats of her heart. ― We want to help. Free you, — Sam tried to find simpler words to make herself understood. ― But you will need to trust us. The woman nodded silently and, holding on to the walls, followed the goth, leaving dark footprints on the floor and ground. Sam had to tinker with the lock of the next car a little longer, but it eventually gave in. The sliding door opened unnecessarily noisily, causing the inside slaves, who had already been freed from their bonds, to shudder in fright and cling closer to each other. The girl froze, staring at the prisoners. She had seen a lot of bad things as an animal rights activist, but looking at these people for the first time in her life, she thought that even the worst owner of an ordinary circus she had encountered in her short life treated animals better than the owner of the Gothic circus with their so many humanoid creature. The room stank of rotting straw, cheap perfume, and makeup. The nauseating ambergris barely managed to contain her gag reflex. And the sweet smell from the wounds on the slaves' bodies, their faces, sometimes devoid of noses or one eye, seemed to melt, as if they were waxy. The circus sold horrors, decay, and death. And the visitors who came for the gloomy show obviously took this nightmare for spectacular makeup and did not ask unnecessary questions. For the first time in a long time, Goth girl’s own fascination with darkness and death seemed as unattractive and inappropriate as possible.

***

Isaac spent a long time weaving between abandoned and crumbling carriages. This rusty maze began to thoroughly annoy him, as well as dumb animals, as if they could penetrate walls. Fortunately, they soon managed to came out to the wasteland where the main tent was pitched. The arena under the high dome was illuminated only by the pale light of the moon, highlighting at its very edge a thin figure in a voluminous black jumpsuit even more clearly. The guest’s white hair seemed to glow slightly, and his eyes burned with a bright, poisonous green flame, like red-hot coals. The guest was definitely unusual, but the power of the ancient scepter and the breadth of his own knowledge had never failed a man, allowing him to tame even the most rebellious evil spirits. Not every one of them was destined to survive outside their usual habitat, but these are just annoying little things. ― Have you joined our friendly troupe, dear? Do you want to perform with us and give the crowd pleasure? — Isaac entered the circle of the circus arena under the white light of the moon, not taking his eyes off the guest, whose gender it was difficult for him to determine. And why, it’s a shapeless something, like all the animals in his troupe. ― Do you want fame and thunderous applause? The swirl of scarlet mist in the crystal ball swirled more violently, amplifying the influence of his voice. Making every word an indisputable fact that the listener is simply obliged to accept on faith. The beast moved slowly along the ring of the arena in the semi-darkness. A real predator, wild, unbridled. The man saw his sharp fangs flashing in his bestial grin. How low, on the verge of audibility, this animal growls. In an iron cage decorated with bloody flowers, it will look so incredibly impressive, and the public will like it so much. And if he can be tamed, just like the missing boy… Isaac licked his dry lips. This animal will definitely become his new pet. ― Or do you want loved ones who love you? To be needed by someone. To be adored? ― these animals were mostly weak because of their own loneliness. Nobody needed them. Even their own parents often tried to get rid of these ugly mistakes of nature, not really realizing that they themselves were such. Freaks who hate freaks is the Master of ceremonies' favorite oxymoron. ― Come closer, I’ll show you everything that awaits you, — he beckoned the beast with a gesture inviting it to the center of the circle bathed in white light. ― Come on, I can give you anything you want. Any emotion in return for just obedience. — So you’re luring me in? — The beast spoken. None of these animals has yet voiced their voices in the presence of the relic, which has been passed down from generation to generation in his family. ― Are you promising such illusions while those whom you consider inferior to animals are slowly dying? — The voice is deep, but still teenage, boyish, sounding with a slight otherworldly echo. He was too old to become a truly beloved actor, but the pretty face definitely had a chance, despite the fact that the scar crossing one eyebrow aged him quite a lot. Blue steam poured out of the fanged mouth, beautifully streaming under the moon. How spectacular… However, what self-will. The ball flared up even more, but the green eyes of the beast did not change in any way. It was as if he didn’t care about the artifact aimed directly at him. His will seemed unshakeable at the moment. Well, never mind, the soldier locked in a coffin had it like that at first, too. It was fixable. — Arachne, cage him! — Isaac commanded, stepping out of the ring of the arena. A new girl appeared behind the beast, pushing him into the circle. Scarlet steam began to rise from his body, causing him to hiss in pain and fall onto the cooled dusty area, raking sand, small pebbles and particles of infected blood of already tamed animals mixed with this mud with his claws. ― Blood flowers around the speakers have always been a must-have element in the decor. After all, the public needs to be protected from animals that may suddenly show signs of willpower and start eating people, — Isaac looked at the green―eyed undead with a smile. Beautiful light burns bloomed on his face like strange greenish flowers. ― The will is an fairytail. An animal like you definitely doesn’t have it. And there won’t be any more.

***

Maddy looked around carefully. The instruments showed a new ecto-flare in this area of the city, but no damage was visible. There is a drowsy tranquility and rare burning windows of houses all around. Only their all-terrain vehicle broke this silence, obviously preventing decent citizens from sleeping. — We shouldn’t have come all this way, — Jack muttered, turning the car around a hundred and eighty degrees. ― I told you that you should immediately go to the circus of these bloodsuckers. ― Jack, we went to the coordinates that your equipment and your sensors determined for us, ― she began to get bored. ― Once again, you blame anyone for failure, but not yourself. That’s enough already. Let’s go home. This whole pursuit of illusions reminded her of what happened on Halloween. Yes, then Jack just turned out to be possessed, but he’s probably just the way he’s always been, and all Charlotte did to him was just reinforce all these negative traits. After all, as the masters of hypnosis used to say: “You cannot inspire a person with something that he would never have been able to do himself.” Maybe this assumption is not entirely true with regard to spirit possession, but as a theory it seemed quite applicable. — Don’t start that, Maddy. My hunter’s sense is much more accurate than any of the instruments. This is the most precious thing that has passed from one Fenton to another since the days of the witch hunt, — her husband’s bold statement would have been admired if she were still in her twenties. But now she just wanted to roll my eyes. Jack was proud of his hunting skills, although his only success at the moment was a temporary obsession and devices that decompose ectoplasm into the simplest harmless salts, oxygen and water. A local urban legend, a faceless, black-and-white creature that periodically appears in photographs in the city’s news portal, with a white oval and a pair of glowing eyes instead of a full-fledged face, even in the clearest photographs, and it seemed to cope more effectively with the role of a harbinger of trouble, minimizing the problems of emergencies, than Jack with the role of a hunter. The equipment let out a high-pitched beep again, warning of a tiny flash a couple of blocks behind them. — Turn around. We need to check Maple Street, — Maddy said indifferently. ― If you still trust your developments, of course. Jack silently turned off the engine and turned off the on-board computer system completely, forcibly tearing out the small screen built into it from the dashboard. Angry, annoyed because of their “domestic” scandal, driven mostly by emotions. How many good and useful things can be done in this state? However, Maddy remained silent. Hunting distracted Jack from problems that he had preferred to turn a blind eye to for many years and which he did not particularly strive to solve. Ironically, what had brought them closer in college was now the reason why they had begun to distance themselves from each other. The engine started up again. The car started moving again towards the old town, where the Gothic circus is located, but now without an on-board computer. And without the participation of a small “ghost”, who all this time was following their movements from another part of the city and actively leading them away from the old area with the help of false signals about ghostly activity.

***

Vlad had never personally met a vampire soldier. The latter, as far as he knew, had died during the First World War, so meeting this woman was something like meeting a unicorn. She turned out to be an excellent mediator between him and all those who needed to be quickly removed from the influence of a small man who fancied himself the master, and then taken to a safe distance from the circus. The vampires were in terrible shape. Until that moment, Masters had no idea that anyone could be in an even more deplorable state than himself. Most of the individuals literally began to fall apart, like patients with advanced syphilis. They slowly melted like wax, but they were still able to move on their own, which was amazing. A couple of hours ago, these doomed people were entertaining the audience with tricks, although their ability to stand on their own two feet already looked like something fantastic. Those who were younger physically couldn’t stand the sun. So their transportation had to be arranged before dawn so that they would not come into contact with the locals and spread the disease. Apparently their version of the protogen was much more resilient and contagious. If he doesn’t melt faster after such an interaction, it will be a real miracle. However, on the other hand, these unfortunate creatures were proof that his own ghostly illness could have a much more complex origin than the banal result of ectoplasmic radiation. The more Vlad thought about it, the more he came to the conclusion that if this assumption turns out to be true, if he was sick from the very beginning, and the incident with the prototype of the ghost portal in college only accelerated the processes already underway, then the chances of healing are much less than he initially thought. ― We are grateful to you, ― the woman, who introduced herself as Lydia, wearily sat down on the windowsill in one of the abandoned houses of the old town. The entire troupe stayed away from Vlad and Samantha the entire time they were getting out of the danger zone. Even if they didn’t fully understand what was happening to them and what would happen if they allowed themselves to get closer. ― But I don’t think we can stay. There will be an epidemic. She spoke very confusingly and sometimes distorted the sounds, but the main message was more or less clear. The words were bitter and sounded doomed. Especially considering that most of the individuals still had a very vague idea even of where they were geographically. Their whole picture of the world at the moment was that it wouldn’t get any better. Lydia’s wounds looked bad, but they were healing at least a little. None of those present had eaten properly for a very long time. Even a soldier can’t guarantee that they won’t go wild from hunger at some point and start attacking random passersby. Vlad thought that he had brought a couple of assistants with him for a reason, leaving them at the local Plasmius Geneticist office, with whom he could quickly contact and resolve the issue of preparing the quarantine zone so that this pitiful dozen of the doomed could at least die in relative comfort. Maybe for the last time to talk to the loved ones from whom they were stolen. This is the minimum that Vlad could offer them at this point in time, but it’s better than just letting them go. ― I own a private medical facility in this city. Maybe it won’t heal completely, but at least it will be possible to understand what is happening to you, — he perfectly understood how it sounded to some of them. An offer to move from a dirty cage to a clean one, but what other options did they have? ― No control, no coercion, only your voluntary consent in exchange for a promise to comply with quarantine, medical requirements and the opportunity and my possible help in finding loved ones, if you have any. The individuals exchanged glances. The man could hear the whisper of their thoughts, which they exchanged through Lydia, who was leaning back against the cool wall. They were doubtful. Not surprising. — It’s also an opportunity to avoid an epidemic, — Vlad added calmly, looking directly into Lydia’s eyes. She made decisions in this group, assuming the role of a very conditional, but still a leader, since it so happened that no one else was suitable for this. All the doomed people were ordinary worker bees who had fallen for the bait of a psycho. Weak, ordinary, timid. Without anyone’s guidance, they would have simply disappeared. They would not even try to get out of their captivity without a leader in the person of a soldier. The woman looked around at the survivors. Her breathing was heavy, and the whistling in her lungs could be heard even from such a decent social distance. She’s used to obeying herself. Over the years, under the influence of an artifact that dulls the will, all the doomed have clearly forgotten very thoroughly what free will means and what it means to make decisions on their own. They were on a short leash for so long that the cage became their home, and the constant pain became a cozy blanket. — We agree, — she answered for everyone. Vlad nodded and closed his eyes, trying to reach his people in the clinic. There will be a lot to organize and in the shortest possible time. But he believed in his clan members. They were loyal to him even in moments of his own weakness. — They will be here in an hour, — Vlad said, after receiving a reply from Gimli and the heads of the Southern clans. ― You will need to follow the instructions very clearly. — We know how to follow commands, — Lydia’s words, uttered with such a grin, made Vlad clench his jaw harder. Either the strongest in spirit or the one who has completely lost his mind can joke about his own slavery in this way. ― We have a problem! ― Out of breath, Tucker almost jumped the last flight of stairs, descending from his point on the roof, where he could get better communication. — The Fentons turned off all the electronics in their car, even the GPS. I can no longer influence the equipment or even track them. Danny hasn’t returned yet, but they’re probably heading towards the circus. ― They just can’t help but get in the way, ― Vlad barely restrained himself from grinning, and then turned to the teenagers. ― Stay here and wait for help. After that, just like everyone else, follow the instructions of the doctors. We don’t need a new epidemic on a local scale.

***

— What are you? ― Frick was furious, looking at Danny, who was obviously not going to be led by some old crystal ball. Well, unfortunately for him, Danny was also annoyed, at least because the skin was starting to peel off his face. The ghost was infuriated by this idiot, who couldn’t even figure out how his toy worked. He can’t handle his own dolls properly and doesn’t even realize that none of them are under his control anymore. The same Charlotte perfectly understood how to handle her puppet effectively. How to exhaust an opponent and at the same time not put the doll under attack, because she considered herself the only one who could, on “legitimate” grounds, forever mock the soul of a witch hunter. She drove victims into a maze, created illusions, and pitted loved ones against each other. What about this guy? He pushed it into the center of a giant flower wreath and thinks it will help him somehow. ― Let me out, — Danny stood straight up, looking at the man. He could feel the reddish steam evaporating from the surface of his body, but it didn’t bother him much. His face once met with an axe, he was chased by special services, he was thrown from a height of several hundred meters, locked in a flaming trap with a bunch of future corpses, he was burned in the furnaces of the other world, and his own father did not disdain to experiment on him from childhood. And the freak thinks that some stupid flowers will stop him?! — Obey, beast? ― the crystal ball got hotter. Danny could hear a soft female whisper from the depths of the scarlet mist, but he wasn’t really listening. It was like an annoyingly loud music playing in the house next door. Infuriating, but nothing more. Catherine, dressed in a revealing outfit, fell to her knees with a scream, clutching her head with her hands. Red tears flowed from her red eyes. The scepter had a devastating effect on her, risking frying her brain to a crisp, but do such small things as someone’s death or pain bother psychos? Danny focused on the space outside the arena. He won’t be able to get out, but he can feel the space with telekinesis. The head seemed to smoke harder. The flowers were a primitive deflector, but surprisingly functional. — Either you let me out yourself, or I’ll make you, — Danny groped for the first row of seats and a glass beer bottle that someone had forgotten. — Damn you! ― the scarlet ball in the hands of the freak has flared up so much that it has already started to smoke itself. A quiet female voice that had previously only whispered something began to scream. Not to say something, but to shout, hollowly and very far away. Was there someone inside that thing too? Danny didn’t repeat himself a third time. The wooden seat, although relatively thin, should have been enough for an ordinary person to “rest” for a long time, and the thick bottom of the bottle, which flew in after, knocked the man out. The ball in his hands began to slowly fade, and its bright light, which until that moment had illuminated almost the entire space under the dome, subsided so much that it suddenly became dark around. There was a second sound of a body falling. Along with the light of the ball, Catherine also passed out. It took Danny a while for his eyesight to adjust to the darkness a little bit, and after using a rose from a bottle and its fragments, he quickly broke the circle of bloody flowers, finally taking a deep breath and stumbling slightly out of the circle. My head felt terribly hot and heavy, and a slight chill began to go through my body. ― Hey, are you okay? — Danny got down on one knee next to Catherine just as Vlad pulled back the tent flap. — You’re on time, — Danny grinned, feeling that the skin on his face had almost completely recovered. ― Will you help with Catherine? Danny lifted the girl up, wiping the streaks of red tears from her cheeks and thinking to himself how strange it was that a creature with black blood was crying something red now. A deep, painful groan came from the stunned freak. It’s amazing that after what flew into his head, he started to come to his senses so quickly. “Apparently there’s nothing much to shake in his head,” Danny thought, gently hugging his friend with one hand and preparing to attack with the other. But he needn’t have worried. Purple ropes appeared around the Freak, binding him hand and foot. — What’s that? — The Ghost asked in surprise. The bright green light in his palm went out as he turned back to the Masters. ― Formation, — he explained briefly, but when he saw the bewilderment in the protege’s eyes, he added. ― an ectoplasmic replica of objects that can be created by willpower and just as easily dispelled. The range is limited, it takes a lot of effort, but it will buy you time while you are looking for real ropes. Vlad landed next to Catherine, carefully starting to pull her mind out of the veil of scarlet fog, and Danny, recognizing a very unambiguous hint, soared high under the dome of the circus, using his powers, cutting off the rope on which the acrobats performed today with a greenish ray. Of course, he wasn’t much of an expert at knitting knots, so he tried to limit the freak’s ability to move as much as possible by tying him to a bench in one of the stands so that the knots were as far away from his fingers as possible. Thick, fragrant blood flowed from the man’s broken head, which smelled of something incredibly edible and satisfying. But the Ghost didn’t have an appetite. Even if he was dying, he wouldn’t get his hands on someone so rotten, in every sense of the word. — How could you…? ― muttered Frick in a dazed state. —… Resist the queen. Danny looked back at Catherine, whom Vlad had somehow brought to her senses. He bit the tip of his tongue, trying to hold back the not-so-heroic urge to spit in the crazy goth’s face. Instead, he just turned around and picked up his cane from the ground. The ball was so hot that it was almost impossible to touch it without getting burned. The teenager did not dare to cool him with his icy powers. You don’t need to be a genius in physics to realize that the balloon will simply burst from such a sudden temperature drop. — We have to go, ― Plasmius called out to the teenager. — The hunters are on their way and will be here soon. The man handed Catherine, who had somehow come to her senses, into the teenager’s arms and went to the Frick himself. His eyes lit up red with every step towards the bound clown. The unfortunate master of ceremonies groaned with difficulty, tearing his eyes away, just like the victims of his staff, which burned scarlet. The voice inside the ball. The result of Vlad’s forces. Danny may have been a C-player, but he wasn’t dumb enough to be unable to put two and two together. — What are you doing? ― Danny laid Catherine on the nearest bench and, tugging Vlad by the sleeve, distracted him from the future victim. — We can’t leave him like this, — Vlad sounded harsh, ominous, and cold. — I’ll clean out everything related to the undead and vampires from this little head. Go ahead, it won’t take long. ― You will surely take away most of his conscious life! — Danny didn’t back down. His head hurt so much that he felt as if he had just climbed off some hellish merry-go-round. ― Fry it to a vegetable state. It’s like killing him. — Leaving everything as it is means putting us all in danger, — Vlad was confident in his decision. A quick and easy way to get rid of the annoying problem. A completely incapacitated being will definitely no longer be dangerous. ― And if the hunters find a vegetable instead of the master of ceremonies, then we’ll have as many problems as we would from him in his normal state, — the Ghost insisted, grabbing Vlad by the wrist. ― Don’t waste your energy on it now. Maybe his memories will be more useful than their complete absence. Masters looked at the teenager with slightly narrowed red eyes without pupils. He thought about it, which meant that Danny was thinking in the right direction, offering a humane and potentially beneficial option at the same time. Slavery, coercion, murder, theft, violence ― for what this man has done, he will deserve, if not the death penalty, then life imprisonment, but let it be decided in a fair trial, and not now, seeking revenge or getting rid of an unnecessary witness. ―An idealist, — Vlad sighed with a barely perceptible smile and headed for the exit, picking up the scepter and, together with Danny, helping Catherine to stay on her feet. The girl weakened, and against the background of what was happening to all the prisoners in this tent with vampires, it is likely that she contracted the same strange ghostly disease that all the members of the troupe had. The disease is so similar to what happened to Vlad in terms of external symptoms. ― Why am I in a stripper costume? — Catherine asked, barely moving her tongue, leaning more on Danny than on Vlad. After leaving the tent, she finally got a chance to examine herself. — And why does my head hurt so much? The girl threw up, right at the entrance to the tent. The poor guy still had to reschedule the flight, which in her current condition would obviously be a difficult task. She had to be taken to a regular city hospital and called her father, who was probably restless since he returned to an empty apartment. Danny gently patted his friend on the back, brushing the disheveled strands of hair away from his face. It had been a hell of a long day for him, and a dizzyingly fast one for Catherine. To his surprise, Danny caught his own mother’s eye. Being in his form of a ghost. In the company of an obvious vampire and a girl who looks too dependent and weak at the moment. The woman appeared as if out of nowhere, moving quietly even with her still sore leg. — Shit, — the Ghost whispered, turning everyone’s attention to Maddie. The woman was holding a gun, but she wasn’t aiming at them. She looked more confused than aggressive and ready to attack. Their interaction with Vlad with a “human” even from the outside certainly did not look like something that one would stereotypically expect from evil spirits, according to Jack’s descriptions. — We don’t want any trouble, — Vlad raised his hands in a conciliatory gesture and took a couple of steps forward, standing between the teenagers and the huntress. Covering them almost completely. — We just want to get out of here. It is impossible to make sudden movements, because they can be regarded as an attempt to attack. Using force is also highly undesirable for the same reason. After being trapped in a primitive trap that had fried his brain, after being attacked by a Ghost in a red dress at a jewelry store on Richie Street, and after more than twelve hours without sleep, Danny’s brain was terribly slow to think. He had never been in his ghost form for so long. Didn’t exploit hisself so actively. Focusing all his attention on his mother, the guy did not immediately understand the reason why Catherine was leaning on him with her whole body. And for what reason, such a painfully familiar electric current passed through his skin. The girl fell to the ground screaming. A high-tech crossbow bolt protruded from her shoulder, sending greenish sparks of ecto-energy through her body. She was shaking, and the wound site was rapidly becoming covered with greenish growths. The skin under the translucent suit seemed to bubble, and the tips of her fingers, with which she unconsciously tried to pull out the bolt, were covered with soot from the burning fabric. — No… — Danny fell to his knees in front of Catherine, holding onto the arrow. The thing instantly set fire to his glove. The father clearly did not intend to feel sorry for anyone or just stop developing this thing. — No! ― the bolt was stuck in the body, and it wouldn’t budge in any way, continuing to destroy its victim. The girl’s feet quickly lost their shape under the thin leggings. The bones seemed to dissolve under the meat, turning them into leather bags that tore with every movement of the girl. The ground was flooded with her dark, thick blood and what was left of her softened bones. — No! ― The ghost himself did not notice how he switched to howling. Desperate and bestial. Filled with so much energy that the cursed arrow finally succumbed and failed, stopping destroying the young vampire’s body. Jack Fenton. Hunter. The cause of other people’s suffering. The full force of the deafening howl was now directed at him, literally knocking them off their feet. This outburst of rage left Danny exhausted. He did not immediately notice that he was sitting on the ground, clutching a barely alive Painting in the form of a man. The girl’s black blood stained his jeans and white T-shirt, and the red-hot arrow stuck to boy’s palm. The teenager couldn’t unclench his fingers to throw this thing away. The stunned hunters were lying on the ground, and only Vlad was still holding on, carefully covering Maddy’s unconscious body with a cloak. — We need to hurry, ― Vlad said the only thing, tearing off a couple of strips of cloth from his outerwear and hastily applying tourniquets to Catherine’s injured limbs in an attempt to stop the blood. Danny managed to regain his ghostly appearance so that Vlad wouldn’t have to carry two bodies on his back. But even in its ghostly incarnation, the crossbow bolt stuck to the meat and completely out of order could not be torn from the palm of its hand.

***

― I can’t show up there, ― it was quiet in the car until the teenager gave out this strange thought in a trembling voice. A boy with a hastily chosen change of clothes and a bandaged arm from which the arrow could only be torn off along with part of the meat. He needed to recover under the supervision of someone more adequate than his parents. His father. Vlad stopped the rented car at the curb and turned off the engine. The guy didn’t even squeak when the cooled metal was stripped from his body along with the charred flesh. He hadn’t made a sound since they left the abandoned train station. It seemed that what was going on in his head was many times worse than after the plane crash, because this time the child did not even have the strength to cry. ― Danny, ― the man called carefully, touching the teenager’s shoulder. He looked up at his mentor, completely devastated. ― You did everything you could. — Catherine got hurt because of me, — the boy said, barely audible. — I couldn’t do it. — You did everything you could, — Vlad repeated, putting his arm around the shoulders of the child who was taking on too much right now. — You couldn’t have predicted what happened to us. No one could. It’s not your fault. The man felt the boy snuggle closer, nuzzling into the crook of his neck. His breath was terribly cold and it made man’s skin crawl. Masters tried not to accidentally touch Danny’s injured arm, although he obviously didn’t care much about his own condition right now. He couldn’t say exactly how long they sat like that, but at some point he felt moisture on his skin. The kid’s nerves finally gave out. — You saw Catherine’s father crying. — They won’t forgive me, — Danny whispered in his arms. — You can’t be alone right now, ― Mastrers said, mentally figuring out a plan of action. His friends were sent to the Westons after a sanitizing shower, who were supposed to provide them with an alibi for their worried parents. Taking Danny there and starting to deal with the doomed was the original plan, but considering how many things went wrong at the very last moment, abandoning him, even in the company of friends, would be unthinkable. — I’m with you, Danny. He was supposed to go to the quarantined troupe. To continue working, but if you think about it that way, at this point in time, the truly primary task that needs to be solved was boy crying quietly in his arms. Danny is strong, smart, collected and many times more competent than his father, who committed another stupid thing right in front of his eyes today. But he’s still a kid. A sixteen-year-old kid who needs to grow up faster, so that there is at least one adequate adult man in his environment on a regular basis. He’s on his own. ― I’ll always be with you, — Vlad touched the top of the boy’s head with his chin, stroking his back reassuringly. ― And I will help you to cope with everything. A soft sob and Masters himself is hugged in response by the wiry arms of a teenager, who clings to him as closely as possible.