The Amity Park Haunting

Raising Your Spirits Part 1: What a Day

The breakfast table is surprisingly empty as I sit and eat my breakfast, likely because Mom and Dash went to report their progress to the mayor this morning at 7 am, meaning that he'll likely get to skip out on his morning classes. "The perks of being the town hero I guess..." I stir my cereal around in the bowl, watching it get soggy as my thoughts wander to yesterday's events. I found out after I woke up that my dad suffered a concussion from the blow and my mother sprained her wrist, and though both of them were lucky to have gotten out with such mild injuries, they've still been put out of commission by the mayor for two weeks. Mom is at city hall now to contest that order, but I doubt it'll be overturned. In any case, it gives the two of them a lot more time to train Dash, especially if they want him to be a ruthless ghost hunter like Jason. But, for some reason, my interaction with Dash yesterday is bugging me.

Why didn't he shoot me?

I finally snap out of my thoughts, looking down at the mostly disintegrated cereal in my bowl, and toss it in the sink before heading to get ready, when I run into Jazz as she races down the stairs with a binder full of loose papers. "Watch out, Danny! I have to get to school."

"What for?" I ask.

"My science club had to change rooms because the attack yesterday damaged property and now our meeting time moved from morning to afternoon!" She explains while racing around the room and collecting her things, before booking it out the door without so much as a goodbye.

"See you later?" I roll my eyes, turning and heading up the stairs to get ready for school. I leave the house about thirty minutes later and when I walk out the door, I see Sam and Tucker waiting for me at the bottom of the stairs. "H-Hey."

"Hey," Tucker replies, but Sam remains turned away with her arms crossed, not wanting to make eye contact with me. I don't say another word as I walk down the stairs to meet them. Keeping pace with their walking speed, we head towards the school, me not daring to say a word with out prompting.

"We heard that you got sick yesterday," Tucker leads into a long string of questioning, like he always does. "Is it from the day before? You know, when..." he pauses, trying to think of how to put his words.

"It..." I don't want to lie, so I don't say anything more, just keeping my eyes glued to the sidewalk beneath me as I continue walking. On the opposite side of Tucker, who acts as a buffer between us, Sam scoffs, not hiding her annoyance.

"Of course he has nothing to say."

"Sam..." Tucker scolds, though I doubt it'll do anything. "He said he would tell us when he's ready."

"And when is that gonna be?" Sam stops in her tracks and we all follow her lead. "Danny, w-we saw... heard your screams. You were..." she can't finish, which genuinely surprises me. Even more surprising are the tears that streak down her face as she cups her mouth, horrified and traumatized by what she saw. Tucker grabs Sam by the arm and pulls her into a hug, trying to comfort her in all of the ways that I'd failed.

"I'm sorry," I can't say anything to relieve their stress, all because of my fear. I'm a fucking coward. I clench my fists in frustration, secretly wanting them to ream me out.

"Danny, we just want to know what's going on," Tucker concludes. "We thought that you died in there and... we blamed ourselves."

Hit that nail right on the head.

"I am just..." I try to tell them, force the words from my mouth, but all I can do is speak in sentence fragments. "I'm so damn confused right now. And I know that you guys wouldn't understand cause I don't even fucking understand. But..."

"What the hell could possibly be so bad that you can't tell us?" Tucker shouts, still clutching Sam as she rests on his chest like lump of clay.

"If you'd just let me figure that out for myself then I would tell you!" I yell back, releasing my pent up anger from everything that has been happening onto them. "I need you guys to trust and support me right now! I need you guys to be my friends!"