#maybe its a result of danny getting chased down by his parents

[ghostasinhades]

okay this but make it dark, dank, blue lighting and green instead of red. like some danny phantom bad end after the creation of dark dan and this is what dan did to danny. 

god this is some beautiful danny phantom brainrot material.

[five-rivers]

Doctor

The final continuation of Science and Stuck!

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Jack and Maddie had never been in the Ghost Zone before, and they watched with fascination as the camera they had attached to Phantom dipped and bobbed, weaving through a complex maze of impossible and decaying architecture. Really, this whole endeavor would be worth it just for this.

But they'd already learned so much more. The interaction between Phantom and the box-obsessed ghost had been enlightening, giving insight to why Phantom did not simply destroy weaker ghosts who trespassed on his territory. They hadn't believed that ghosts could make deals like that.

It put Phantom's fights in a very different perspective. He might be coordinating with the ghosts he 'fought' to make himself look good. After all, if he could bargain with that ghost, why not others?

Admittedly, that theory was a bit out there, but it was plausible.

They had also been interested to see that Phantom was aware of the camera and its function. They had designed it to bond with the ghost's body, to trick it into accepting it as part of itself. They had assumed that the ghost's mind (such as it was) would be similarly fooled. But, it wasn't. Phantom appeared to have understood the camera almost immediately and had attempted to remove it.

Phantom swooped around another twisted staircase. Maddie tapped on the glass screen.

"I wonder what he's trying to hide," she said.

"Well, we'll see it sooner or later," said Jack, cutting off a corner of his emergency fudge. "There's no way he'll be able to get the camera off." He snorted. "Even if there was a ghost intelligent enough, they don't have the equipment."

Maddie nodded. "I suppose it's just frustrating. All this time, trying to figure him out, and now we have to wait even longer." She sighed. "Him knowing it's a camera is going to skew our results, too. He'll be on his best behavior while people are watching. We already know that from his whole hero routine."

On the screen, Phantom turned a corner, and the Fentons were treated to a view of a vast, open expanse. Floating islands charted their own paths against a green and swirling sky. Clouds of ectoplasmic mist scudded along the not-horizon. Disembodied doors flew by without rhyme or reason.

The picture shifted from side to side as Phantom took in his surroundings. It stopped, lingering on an oddly skull-shaped island for several long seconds before Phantom turned away.

.

Danny had known the portal the Box Ghost had shown him was close to Skulker's island, but he hadn't quite realized how close. It was a good landmark, he knew exactly how to get to the Far Frozen from here, but he didn't really want to run into Skulker.

He didn't want to deal with any of the ghosts he usually fought with his parents watching, and maybe listening, through the camera. They might not actively try to expose him, but a number of them were too comfortable with shouting out things like-

"I'll wrap Ember's gifts with your pelt, halfa whelp!"

Ugh. Like that.

Danny twisted and froze a tracking missile, not watching as it began to arc to his left, caught in the orbit of the staircase maze Danny had just left. He sent a few blasts at Skulker.

"I think you should find something to put in the gifts first!" he shouted. "Unlike last year. I heard you were begging MP3 players off of Technus minutes-" he cut off to dodge a net. He hated nets. Why did Skulker even bother with them, when he was trying to kill Danny, anyway? "Minutes before the party!"

"Like you're one to talk! You completely destroyed the party!"

"Hey, blame Ghostwriter for that one!"

"And you don't understand! You don't even have a girlfriend!"

"Well, neither will you for much longer if you don't come up with better present ideas!"

The fight had wound down into the two ghosts just yelling at each other. For all the violence Skulker regularly subjected him to, Danny sometimes wondered if Skulker actually wanted to skin him, or mount his head on a wall, or any of the other threats he belted out, or if he just wanted the thrill of the chase.

"Can't you just give me a break for once? I don't have time for this!"

"Oh, please, you have all the time in the world, whelp!"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Well, what with you being a hal-"

Danny flew over and clamped a hand over Skulker's mouth. "Not another word," he hissed. "We're being watched."

"What do you-?"

Danny cut him off, pointing significantly at the camera. Skulker immediately started laughing.

"Oh, yeah, laugh it up. Wait 'til it happens to you."

"Ha! That is why I, with my modifications, am superior! Something as ridiculous as that could never happen to me!" He started laughing again.

"Whatever," grumbled Danny. "Are you going to keep attacking me, or can I go to the Far Frozen in peace?"

Skulker waved him off. "Consider it an early truce present!" he said. "But don't forget! I'll get your pelt eventually!"

"Sure," said Danny, resisting the urge to roll his eyes. He floated backwards for a ways before turning, wary of being stabbed in the back. Or shot in the back. Or blasted in the back. Or whatever having missiles or nets launched at him from behind would be called.

But, once again, he was on his way to the Far Frozen. With his luck, he'd only be interrupted a dozen more times before he actually got there.

He sighed, thinking of ways he could block the camera in an emergency. Ice, perhaps? He could always put his hand over it, too. Maybe he should have done that from the beginning, but a part of him, the part that had argued with them before, wanted to show them the truth about ghosts. Part of him wanted them to see.

So, even though he kept fiddling with the camera as he flew, even though he definitely wanted it off, and quickly, he couldn't quite bring himself to cover it.

"Hey! Phantom!"

Danny turned, trying to place the voice. "Sydney?" he asked, surprised, spotting the sepia-toned specter. "What's up?" He slowed so that the other ghost could catch up to him. Sydney didn't often leave his lair on his own.

"Wow! It's lucky you came out here! I thought I'd have to go through your portal to find you." Sydney shuddered. He caught up to Danny. "I'm throwing a truce party this year!" he said, happily. "I'm inviting everyone." He handed Danny a small envelope. "It's a bit early, because I wanted to make sure that it didn't overlap with anyone else's party."

"Thanks, Sydney," said Danny, both surprised and touched. "I don't know if I'll be able to make it, you know what my l- my afterlife is like." His smile turned into a grimace at the awkwardness of his phrasing.

"Afterlife? But you-"

"I have a camera strapped to my chest right now. I'm pretty sure it's broadcasting. I don't really want to talk about it."

Sydney blinked at him. "Your existence is very difficult, isn't it? I'm glad I didn't manage to steal it from you when we first met."

"That's both of us. The shades in your lair still behaving?"

"Oh, yes. It's all fine. Thanks for asking! I've got to go deliver the rest of these! Good luck with your camera situation!"

"Yeah, stay safe, okay, Sydney?" called Danny, as they sped away from each other.

"You betcha!"

Danny tucked the invitation into a pocket. He'd have to check out the details later, when he wouldn't have to hold it at a weird angle to keep the camera from seeing it.

Now, if there were no more interruptions, he could get to the Far Frozen before- He stopped. That forest had not been there before, and, usually, the floating islands didn't move like-

Not a floating island Undergrowth oh Ancients he looked mad run run run.

It was a good thing Danny was faster than Undergrowth. He didn't want to fight the plant ghost on his home turf... if there even was any turf underneath all those plants.

The chase (not to mention dodging and fighting off the seed bombs that Undergrowth had lobbed his way) had drained Danny, and he was flying significantly slower. The hope that he'd get back home before dawn looked distinctly forlorn. He sighed. That was just his life, though, wasn't it?

.

Maddie had filled half a notebook with questions.

Ghosts appeared to be much more complex than previously believed, even if it was clear that what rudimentary social structure they had was founded entirely on violence. The three encounters Phantom had had in the Ghost Zone thus far illustrated that perfectly.

The first, with Skulker, served as a sort of average. The ghosts had fought, demonstrated that they were more-or-less equals, and then parted, apparently not wanting a more definitive contest. The second had been with a smaller ghost who was obviously submissive towards Phantom. The third, with the plant ghost was more along the lines of what she and Jack had expected: Strong ghosts attempting to defeat and consume weaker ones.

"I wonder what this 'truce' they keep talking about is," said Maddie, tapping her pencil on her notebook.

"I wonder what that sound is," said Jack. "The microphone shouldn't be picking up this kind of interference."

"I think it's core noise," said Maddie. "We can analyze the sound later and compare it to his ectosignature, after we find out where he's going." She glanced at the clock. "And after we get some sleep. Everything is being recorded."

"I'll have to double check all the connections before we do this again. I bet it's a loose wire." Jack pouted.

Maddie nodded. "Where do you think he's going? You don't suppose he thinks he has some way to get it off?"

Jack shrugged. "His lair, maybe? The distance might be why he stays in Amity Park."

"Lairs are still pure speculation, though," said Maddie. "Although, one hypothesis is that they help ghosts reform and heal, so he might think it'll get rid of the camera."

Jack grunted in acknowledgement. "What do you think that white dot is?" he asked, pointing at the screen.

"I think it's one of those floating islands," she said. "It's a different color than the others."

They watched as it grew larger on the screen. "I think Phantom is heading towards it."

"Maybe it's his lair," she said. "He does have ice powers. Ice and snow could be what gives it its color."

"It does look like that could be," said Jack.

The island grew larger and larger, and eventually the picture showed that they had been right. The island was covered with snow and more.

"I think those are buildings," said Maddie, pointing out little mounds. "Crude, but still buildings. Perhaps Phantom is trying to replicate features of Amity Park in his lair?"

"You don't think it could be some kind of," Jack waved his hand vaguely, "rudimentary ghost settlement?"

Maddie wrinkled her nose. "What would they have to gain? Why would you say that?"

"Because I think I see some ghosts moving around down there."

Sure enough, Maddie could see movement where he pointed. The ghosts were white-furred, and difficult to see against the snow, but they were there. They looked fierce. Animal ghosts of some kind, Maddie assumed, but warped over the years.

"They all look so much alike," said Maddie, fascinated. "I wonder what could have caused that."

"Well, they say form follows function!" said Jack. "Or the 'native' theory could be correct, and they formed that way, without human consciousness involved!"

"Hm," said Maddie, making a note. "We'll have to look into that again."

Phantom's hand flashed in the camera's peripheral vision. "He's waving to them," said Jack.

"Great one!" shouted one of the ghosts on the island, voice made small by distance.

"Frostbite!" yelled Phantom in return, voice much louder. He swooped down, and was embraced by the other ghost, who was much, much larger.

The other white-furred ghosts cheered. Maddie frowned.

"If he has this sort of reception here, why come to Amity Park?" she asked. "If his Obsession is attention..."

"Maybe it's human attention he wants," said Jack, rubbing his chin. "Either way, they're... enthusiastic, aren't they?"

"I can't believe they've banded together like this," said Maddie. "It doesn't make sense. The structures... they don't make sense, either. Ghosts shouldn't need things like that, especially not in the Ghost Zone."

"Maybe they're a different species of ghost that does need things like this," said Jack, most of his attention on the ghosts greeting Phantom. "We've never seen any like them here. They might only be able to exist in cold. Or they could have Obsessions related to, uh... igloos?"

"They aren't really shaped like igloos, though," said Maddie. "I think there's stone under there."

"The ice could just be dirty."

"That wouldn't surprise me."

.

Getting to the Far Frozen was a relief. Danny felt a the tension he'd been carrying within him relax as soon as he spotted Frostbit.

It was replaced with embarrassment once everyone started fussing over him. Technically, this was in front of his parents. Still, he'd take embarrassment over what he was feeling earlier. His core was singing that he was safe safe safe among allies and friends, and the cold felt wonderful against his skin.

"What brings you to the Far Frozen today, great one?"

Danny chuckled nervously and reached back to rub his neck. The motion was stopped when he encountered the collar around his neck. "I'm actually here to see a doctor. I've got a bit of a medical problem. At least, I think it's a medical problem." Danny touched down on the surface of the snow, wilting slightly as he tugged fruitlessly on the collar. "I don't really know. Can you help?"

Frostbite's eyes went wide for a moment before shifting into pure concern. "Of course, great one. We'll take a look at you right away. Unless you need to rest? We know we are far from your home."

Danny shook his head. "I want to get this fixed right away," he said.

When Frostbite scooped Danny up and put him on his shoulder, it wasn't a surprise. Neither was the short flight to the Far Frozen's medical 'cave.'

Oh, to be sure, it was a cave, but Danny always felt like calling it something like that, something so crude, was a disservice. For one, the entrance chamber was gorgeous. A huge, underground atrium with an intricately grown and carved ice ceiling, geometric patterns spiraling down the walls; ghost writing above graceful arches, indicating what each space was used for. Shining, high-tech devices that made even Tucker salivate. Some people might judge them on what lay above ground in their village, but appearances were often deceiving in the Ghost Zone, and the Far Frozen was one of the most advanced societies around.

Only an idiot would mistake the tribe of the Far Frozen for savages.

Frostbite carried Danny into the diagnosis area, set him down in a chair, and began going through the routine of cleaning his hands and putting on medical equipment.

"Oh," said Danny, leaning forward, "Frostbite, you don't have to, I know you're busy."

"Nonsense, great one! You deserve the best of care, and I am here to provide." He sat down on a stool across from Danny. "So, what seems to be the problem?"

Danny began to explain.

.

Jack and Maddie weren't talking. This is because they were in shock.

The ruins at the beginning had been one thing... Those were expected, the ghosts of buildings, so to speak, ectoplasmic echos. But this place? This level of technology- It shouldn't be possible!

"I know," said Jack, and Maddie realized she had spoken out loud. "But... it's here, isn't it? We're seeing it."

"It could be a trick," said Maddie. "A facade. There's no way any of this is actually functional."

"But if it is... Jazz and Danny, they might be right," said Jack. He sounded troubled. "If ghosts can form societies, and create technology and art like this, even if the societies are based on violence, that indicates some form of sapience, of intelligence, even if it isn't human intelligence."

Maddie nodded. "I think we should withhold judgement until we actually see results," she said.

"Yeah," said Jack. "Just... I feel sort of like the bad guy in a sci-fi movie, you know? The one who insists the aliens or people with superpowers aren't really human."

"It isn't the same, Jack. These are ghosts."

"But what does that even mean anymore?"

Maddie sighed. "We'll have to change our theories," she said.

"Ah," said the ghost known as 'Frostbite' on the screen, scanning Phantom with some kind of unknown device, "yes. I see what the problem is. I'll take the camera out, now, and then we can work on the other bits."

The screen went blank.

.

Getting the collar removed was both easier and harder than Danny had expected. Easier, because all he had to do was take a drug and let Frostbite peel it off, harder because he had to come down off the drug before he went home, lest he get into a fight and wind up with semi-permanent injuries. At least he was able to send a message to Jazz to ask her to cover for his absence.

He didn't get home until four in the afternoon. Nothing remarkable happened on the way back, because the Far Frozen decided to send some warriors along with him to make sure he got back safely. He was a bit surprised, however, to find his parents passed out at their desks in the lab, apparently reviewing recordings from the camera they had stuck to him.

Recordings like that could be dangerous to him. Should he delete them?

No, he hadn't said anything incriminating, and they were unlikely to be able to use the footage to attack the Far Frozen. The floating islands moved, after all, and he had entered the Zone from a random portal. It should be fine to leave it like that.

He let himself turn human. The air down here was chilly. He should get them blankets or something and let Jazz know he was back, then he'd pass out himself.

While he was draping a quilt over Maddie's shoulders, he caught sight of her notebook and the last line she had written.

The kids are right. We'll have to revise our theories concerning Phantom and the other ghosts.

[ayamari-no-goshi]

Eidolon 10 | (T)

ff.net | AO3

Fandom: Danny Phantom (DP)

Summary:  AU: What started off as the result of a simple act of rebellion ends up causing his life to spin out of control. How will young Danny cope with the results as well as a past that has a strange habit of coming back to haunt him.

Warnings: rated T for violence, mentions of death, kidnapping, and various other things

Parings: hints of Danny/Sam much later on

Notes: originally uploaded to Ff.net. Cross-posted to AO3 and tumblr

10. Aftermath

"So… What do you think he is?" Tucker asked her as they made their way to the kitchen to grab some lunch. It was about noon, and since Danny was still not awake -or showed any signs of waking, he had decided to put food on the top of his priority list. "Don't get me wrong. I'm thankful Danny went all glowy and beat that thing, but something that weird… And you got to admit, it was pretty weird…. Couldn't have come from a human."

"'Glowy'?" Sam asked while trying not to laugh. Oddly enough, it did help to lighten her bad mood brought on by exhaustion, fear, and paranoia. After Danny had somehow magically transported them back to her front yard and passed out, she and Tucker managed to sneak back into her house while carrying him and make it into her room undetected by her parents. Tiring as that and the chase from earlier was she was unable to convince herself they were safe and began constantly checking the window for any signs of the creature. Needless to say, by morning, she hadn't been able to fall asleep.

He just shrugged as he opened the large kitchen door and allowed Sam to pass through first. "I don't know what else to call it. I guess 'luminous' could work, but it doesn't really fit either."

"And 'glowy' does?"

"Probably not, but at least it's specific."

Though she would never admit it out loud, he did have a point. When Danny had taken a stand against the monster, ghost… whatever it actually was, it almost looked as if tendrils of greenish-white energy was wrapping around him. As it became more noticeable, it gave his body the illusion it was actually glowing. Even more startling was the change in his eyes and hair color. His eyes changed to a toxic shade of green which shouldn't exist in this world, and his hair had become a brilliant shade of white with a silvery sheen. After Danny had passed out, the white color seemed to seep out, leaving behind his naturally black hair after a couple minutes. Hopefully his eyes had returned to their natural color too.

"Anyway… what do you think we should take up to Danny?" By the time he spoke, Tucker had already started putting together a rather impressive lunch meat and mayo sandwich on one of the white marble counters. While Sam could not even look at the growing monstrosity, she was impressed by the knowledge he had of her kitchen. He had been over way too many times.

She thought for a moment as she searched one of the polished mahogany cabinets for some supplies of her own. "Well… probably bland foods like toast or rice would be best. Since he tends to get sick after anything weird happens to him, those are the only types of food that shouldn't cause any problems…"

"I didn't… even think about that…" he replied between chews, much to Sam's dismay. "Whatever that power… or weirdness is, it really seems to do a number on him."

"Yeah… and let's just hope it doesn't kill him in the process."

This particular episode had been particularly bad for Danny. Before carrying him into the house, she had checked his vital signs only to find no sign of life. His pulse was nonexistent, his breathing had ceased, and his body was freezing to the touch. Both of them had begun to panic and tried to remember what they could of CPR. Luckily for Tucker -what was it with guys and CPR? - Danny let out a shaky breath even before they got a chance to start.

Unsure what to make of the situation, they just stood there, dumbfounded, for a moment before deciding to take the seemingly unconscious and not dead boy into the house. If it was any other person, she would have called an ambulance without a second thought, but there was no way such strange events could be explained or probably even treated by a doctor. Besides, if he seemed fine now, it was unlikely a doctor would be able to do anything. Originally, they decided whoever woke up first would make sure Danny was still among the living, but with her being unable to sleep she checked on him regularly. His breathing and pulse seemingly remained steady, but his body, though a little warmer, still remained very cool to the touch; Combined with his naturally pale skin kept causing her to compare him to a cadaver.

An awkward tension filled the air for a moment while they made their lunches. Unnerved, Sam was about to say something, but a strange look from Tucker stopped her. "What's wrong?"

"Sam… this might sound weird, but what if that's the point? What if this power that's taken hold of him really is going to kill him?" he asked as he put his sandwich down and looked her in the eyes. "Didn't Danny say something before about how the ghost you two saw in the cemetery said that he didn't belong to this world? And didn't it also suggest he didn't have a lot of time left? And didn't that thing that chased us last night call him 'Ghost Child'…. I don't know about you, but it just seems like, if you think about it, everything's suggesting he's going to die."

"Tucker, how can you say something like that?" she snapped while trying to prevent any emotion, save for anger, from crossing her face. During her vigil, similar thoughts had crossed her mind, but she tried to completely ignore them. She had noticed Danny always seemed drained and weak after the power manifested, almost as if his 'energy or' life was its power source. It seemed quite possible it could kill him if it continued, but the cryptic hints they kept getting suggested maybe that was what the power needed.

No! She wasn't going to think like that! Nothing as horrible as that was going to happen to Danny. They were going to somehow figure out how to help him, and she didn't need such terrible thoughts floating around her mind. She cringed as she once again tried to suppress them. Having the idea be said aloud seemed to somehow confirm it, even with absolutely no proof. "Let's just focus on finishing so we can get back to Danny. I wonder if he's awake yet…"

"If you say so… but before we do that, can you please explain why your toaster's floating?"

Sam had to chuckle as she watched Tucker begin to panic and quickly put space between him and unassuming yet levitating toaster. Glancing at it to make sure it was actually plugged in and in use; she shrugged and moved over to retrieve its contents. "It's from Denmark. This usually happens."

"Wait… what?"

….

Surprisingly, when they returned to Sam's room, Danny was awake and sitting up on the deep purple bed. He looked terrible. His blue eyes were dull, and the dark rings under them attested to just how tired he really was. His body was also incredibly sore and stiff, but nothing more seemed to be wrong with him. Sam couldn't help but be relieved. As she watched him thankfully accept the tray of food, it seemed as if there would be no lasting problems from the night's events.

After finishing his light meal, Danny hesitantly asked what happened the previous night. Unsure where to start, she looked to Tucker for some help, and within a few minutes, the combined effort of the two got him up to speed. He accepted it silently, though Sam did notice he kept looking down at his hands. It was almost as if he was checking to make sure they still looked the same. It unnerved her slightly, but she tried to push it aside as she suggested a good break from all the weirdness would be a monster movie marathon. Both Danny and Tucker gave her looks suggesting they questioned her sanity, but after a few minutes of persuasion and a mention of the room sized television in the entertainment room, they happily changed their minds.

xxxxxxxxxxxx

It was official. The best way to recover from a mysterious paranormal fight was to sit and watch movies in Sam's gigantic theater. Not only did Danny get to relax in some of the most comfortable chairs he had ever encountered, but the ability to laugh with his friends as they poked fun at the terrible effects further alleviated the stress weighing down on him. Surprisingly, they were able to get through three movies without being interrupted.

After glancing at fancy clock hanging from the wall, he realized it was almost dinner time. "Hey, I should probably be getting home soon. Knowing Winston, he'll be getting worried."

"Do you think you're up to walking home?" Sam asked as she gave him an appraising glance. "You're welcome to stay another night."

A chuckle escaped him as he thought about her parents' reactions to the suggestion. Although he had only briefly met them, something told him the couple was already not too fond of him. "I think I can handle it." That was an obvious lie. His body still felt as if he had been put inside of an industrial dryer on spin mode, but how else was he going to get home? He didn't want to impose on Sam, Winston would start asking questions, and he certainly didn't have the money to call a taxi. "Besides, the walking might help with the stiffness."

"Or it could make it worse. Seriously dude, you should be taking it as easy as you can. Kicking some serious butt can be really tiring." Tucker's tone was playful and encouraging, but Danny knew he was trying to hide his own concerns about the strange event. Judging by how Sam and Tucker were acting when they entered the room after he woke up, the two most likely had a serious conversation about what happened. Though they tried to make him feel as if nothing was wrong, he could sense their worry.

He was about to start arguing but Sam quickly cut him off. "If you really think you should leave, at least I can do is to have my driver give you a ride home. I mean, you did save our lives."

"Thanks… but are you sure..? Wait, you have your own driver?" he asked, unsure if he had heard her correctly.

Sam fidgeted for a moment before answering. "Well, he's technically one of the drivers for my family, but I'm on better terms with him than my parents…. So, he's kinda unofficially mine."

"There's more than one…? Never mind." He cut himself off after a moment. "I don't want to know the specifics." The lives of the rich were hard to comprehend.

…..

After about a half an hour, the three of them were in the back of a stretch limo complete with its own mini bar stocked with several foreign drinks. Neither Sam nor Tucker actually needed to come, but they refused to let him go home alone. Danny just figured it was their way of showing concern. Though he didn't really need it, he didn't mind as their presence made the short ride more enjoyable.

When he arrived home, he was expecting a quite scene. Winston's silver Chevy would be sitting in the driveway, and while Winston himself would either be tending his modest garden or doing some paperwork in the study. But, instead of normalcy, chaos greeted him.

Yellow police tape had been placed around the perimeter of the yard and across the open front door. Several police cars were sitting, not only in front of the house, but also in his and the neighbor's driveway. A few officers were standing in the yard talking to each other while wearing serious expressions. Another was entering the house along with a couple people in white uniforms. Before the limo could even come to a stop, Danny jumped out of it and ran to the house, only to be stopped by some of the officers.

"I'm Danny, Winston's charge," he nearly shouted after one of the officers grabbed him while trying to explain he could not enter a crime scene. "What happened? Where's Winston? Does he know? Is he alright?"

"Wait, you're Wolf's kid?" another office asked as he approached. "We put out an alert saying you were missing. So you weren't in the house last night?"

"No, I…"

"Excuse me, Sir," Sam interrupted as she and Tucker ran over. "Danny was with us last night. He was staying over my house."

"He's not in trouble, is he?" There was a noticeable shiver within Tucker's voice, but he was doing his best not to show any other sign of nervousness. "Because we can totally vouch for him! We were with him for most of the day yesterday."

The officer held up his hand as a signal to let him talk. A trouble look crossed his face as he removed his hat and ran his free hand through his graying hair. After collecting himself, he held his hand out for Danny to shake. "I wish we could have met under friendlier circumstances, but I'm Sergeant Ross. We were called to your house after one of your neighbors called in some concerns about the safety of your dad. They thought they had heard gun shots last night but shrugged it off until they realized they never saw him leave the house today. We even received a confirmation from his work that he never arrived."

Danny bit his lip as he listened quietly. Winston almost never missed work, even if he was very sick. So, knowing that, something had to have gone seriously wrong, and Danny wasn't exactly sure if he was ready to find out what.

"I hate to say it, but it was a good thing we did decided to check on him," Ross continued as he looked him in the eye. "Your dad's currently in J. Marley Central Hospital and is being treated for several severe injuries from… what we think was a home invasion."

"No... That's impossible…" Danny stuttered after a few confused moments. "Winston's an ex-marine… He would have fought back. No one could have done that much damage…"

"Son, take it easy. This isn't the time for this…"

"You don't understand! Winston can take care of himself! There's a gun under his mattress for goodness' sake! He's always been prepared for something like this to happen! Some lame burglar couldn't have put him in the hospital!"

"Wait… did you say that Wolf owned a gun?" Ross asked carefully. "What kind was it?"

"I'm not exactly sure…. It's not like I saw it every day or anything," he replied gruffly as he tried to keep his feelings quelled long enough to try and answer the question. It wasn't like the officer had anything to do with Winston being hurt, but he certainly didn't want to be answering any questions. "I know it's some type of hand gun…. Maybe it's a .28… The box of bullets was sitting in the shelf on the study."

A concerned expression crossed the Sergeant's face as he called over to another officer. "Have any of the men found a firearm in or around the premises?" When the man shook his head, Ross' expression became grim. He then told the man to grab a couple of the other officers and search the area again, as well as finding a record of Winston's gun registration. After the other officer left, Ross turned back to Danny. "Well, I can't say I'm pleased by this new information… But I'm glad you mentioned it." He gave the boy a searching look before he spoke again. "I'm going to need to take you down to the precinct so you can give your official statement and maybe answer a few questions. Then we're going to need to go through your house and see if anything has been stolen."

"Wait… now?" Danny half demanded, half choked. "You're not going to let me see Winston first?"

"He's in the hospital…"

"You told me that, but you haven't told me anything else!" He had to fight to keep his voice and hands under control. Something in the back of his mind told him the officer would not appreciate it if he started waving his hands around while he was agitated. "Winston's all I have! I need to see for myself just how bad it is. I'll answer any question you have afterwards, but please, please let me see him first!"

"I can't let you do that."

"Why? Wait… I know what's going on… You think I did this." His eyes narrowed as he pointed at the officer. "I can't believe you! You're supposed to be trying to find whoever did this to Winston! Instead, you're wasting your time looking at me. I wasn't even home last night!" He took a breath to try and calm down for a moment as Tucker put his hand on his shoulder in a comforting gesture. With each breath, he could feel himself shaking in rage. "If anything, you should be looking at that Masters guy…"

It was the officer's turn to be suspicious. "…You don't mean Vlad Masters, do you?"

"I think so… He and Winston don't seem to get along…"

"And don't forget! He's the one who snuck into your house that one day!" Tucker added as he gave a shudder. "That's the day we heard Mr. Wolf yelling. No offense dude, but he's really frightening when he's mad."

"Tell me about it…"

"Back up a minute," the officer interrupted while rubbing his eyes. "You're telling me, Vlad Masters broke into your house. What business does someone like him have in your house?"

Could this officer be any more irritating? Danny had to bite back a sarcastic reply as he answered the officer. "He said he was checking up on Winston since he had to reschedule a meeting… with I guess one of his assistants. According to him, our front door was open, and he went inside to make sure everything was okay." As the officer wrote down something on a little tablet that was pulled out of his pocket, Danny decided he had enough. "Look! I'll answer any of your questions later, but I'm not doing anything else until I get to see Winston!"

….

After a twenty minute standoff, Danny finally got his way. An irritated Sergeant Ross had escorted him to the hospital after finally realizing he wasn't going to get any answers. After the two stepped into the waiting area, he ran to the nearest available teller and practically demanded to know where Winston was being treated. After an agonizingly slow few minutes, he finally got an answer.

In retrospect, running as fast as he could through the halls was probably one of the worst things he could do in the hospital, but he really didn't care. He easily managed to avoid any obstacle he encountered. Who knew there would be so many movable computers, monitors, and people in those maze-like hallways? When he finally reached Winston's room, he was met with a wall of people. Several doctors all wearing dark expressions seemed to be deep in discussion as they blocked the only door into the room.

Unsure how to interrupt the doctors, he was happy to realize Winston's room had a window. Peeking in, he felt his breath hitch as he realized just how serious the attack on his guardian had been. Winston was unconscious and hooked up to a respirator. Several monitors were hooked up to the man, and two IV bags, one of blood and one of clear fluid, were also put in place. What little bit of skin was not covered by bandage or machine looked bruised and swollen. The overall image made Winston look like he was fragile enough to break if he was touched. Danny had to try and hold back tears as he wondered who could have done such a thing.

"How the hell did you get here so fast?" an out of breath voice asked from somewhere behind him making him jump. He turned around to see a rather winded Sergeant Ross giving him a searching look. "I couldn't go more than a few feet without out running into something."

Danny didn't say anything as he turned back towards the window. He didn't want to have Winston out of his sight for more than a few minutes. He just had this feeling something terrible would happen if he did.

"I'm sorry to interrupt, but are you part of Winston's family?" A person wearing a white coat came into the periphery of his vision. Curious, he turned to see a young female doctor extending her hand to him. "I'm Dr. Sabo, and I'm currently in charge of managing him while he's here."

He hesitantly took her hand and explained who he was. "How… how is he?" Even he could hear the unease in his voice.

"That's the big question, isn't it?" Dr. Sabo frowned as she looked towards the window. "I hate to say it, but it's hard to tell at this point. Winston received several odd wounds from the attack."

"Odd…? How so?" the sergeant asked, surprising both Danny and the doctor.

She bit her lip as she tried to find the words to describe her thoughts. "It's the first time any of us have seen wounds like that. They almost seem to be large bullet wounds, but the edges of them act more like burns. And, to make matters worse, we were unable to locate any residual bullets there might have been. We're really at a loss for what happened to him."

"Will he be able to answer any questions?"

"I'm not sure. Winston, although stable, is in a terrible condition. He's going to have to be watched very carefully over the next several days. We're going to do our best to see that he heals, but it will be up to his body to make sure he recovers. From what I can see of him, he appears to be in very good shape for his age, so we're hopeful… but, you can never tell."

The world started to spin as Danny listened to the doctor go into more details about Winston's condition with the sergeant. He allowed himself to slide down the wall and sit as he tried to get some sort of grasp on the situation. He never thought he would be in this situation. He had once joked that Winston was too strong to ever be taken down by anything other than a renegade bus, but this had shown him Winston was human, just like everyone else.

Danny couldn't take it anymore. In an uncharacteristic moment of weakness, he buried his face in his hands and allowed the tears to come. It was a small comfort, but if he was going to have to deal with the police over the next several hours, he was going to need to be as strong as possible.

=======================================

Anyways, a couple things:

J. Marley Central Hospital is not a real place… at least I think so. I named it to keep in line with the ghost theme of the show. Jacob Marley was the first ghost who appeared to Ebenezer Scrooge in Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol.

Dr. Sabo and Sergeant Ross aren't all that important. They're really only there for this section.

And, can I just say that hospitals are the most confusing things on earth? Cuz, they are. There are at least fifteen hospitals within an hour and a half of my house, and all of them are mazes. The floor plans are ridiculous. You can't walk through them without encountering workers, movable computers and/or other medical devices, and let's not forget the robots. Don't ask about that last one. It is really funny to see them having a Mexican standoff though.

[littlemisswolfie]

A Midnight Run

AO3

The woods are dark, this late at night. Sam knows the moon above her is full, but its light is hidden behind the leaves of the trees looming over her. Her legs burn from the force of her feet pounding over the grass and dirt, and her lungs ache with all the air they’re pulling in and pushing out as she runs, but she can’t stop running. Not now. Not yet.

A few hundred yards to her left, someone yelps and something else growls. Heart pounding, Sam veers right and pounds her legs harder. She thinks that was Tucker. That means she’s the last one standing. The realization sends a shot of adrenaline through her system.

He wants a chase? she thinks. I’ll give him a chase.

There’s a creek nearby. Maybe she can hide her scent if she runs through it. That’s his primary means of tracking, after all. She has a chance if she can take away his sense of smell. If only she hadn’t left her bag in the truck; she has all sorts of nifty plants in there she could have used.

But there’s no use dwelling on that now. She has to keep moving.

The sound of running water hits her ears. She’s close to the creek. The ground is uneven here, and though all she wants is to sprint to the water, she has to take it slow. Tripping and falling would make too much noise, and then all hopes of escape would be dashed. And she refuses to let him win this time.

Her boots hit the creek with a splash. She bends at the waist to scoop water up and wet her face and arms as well. The water is freezing, but she can deal. In a few minutes, she’ll either be back in the warm truck, or she’ll be caught. Either way, she won’t be cold for long.

She backtracks a little to muddle the scent before taking off again. Sam knows these woods as well as she knows her bedroom by now, and she doesn’t need light to navigate. If she can make it back to the big pine tree they parked the truck by, she’s home free. Getting to the tree means the chase is over. And it’s less than a quarter mile away.

She takes one more deep breath to steel herself before she runs. She runs faster than she’s ever run in her life. Hell, she could outrun Dash Baxter. She’ll run as hard as it takes to get her to that tree. Because the tree means she wins.

She can just see the trunk of the tree when a twig snaps behind her. Her spine goes hot, burning white like a supernova, and that’s all the warning she gets before she’s being tackled to the ground. A hand comes up to keep her head from hitting the ground, but the rest of her body absorbs the shock, and suddenly there’s something heavy and warm over her, and a set of teeth pressing at her throat. Not biting, but the threat is there in the points of the fangs. “Gotcha.”

She groans, irritated, but rolls her head to the side in submission. “Only because you won’t let me use any of my herbs, you ass. Not all of us have night vision and super speed like you do.”

Danny chuckles, the sound much darker than it is during the day. Suddenly, Sam finds herself shivering from something other than the cold. “Are you, Sam Manson, saying you need help to beat me at something?”

“You wish.” She puts her palms against his chest, feeling fur where his shirt is ripped, and nudges, and he sits back without protest, though he’s still straddling her hips. She can’t see much of him in the low light, but she knows he can see her, so she wipes at her face to get some of the dirt off. Sam never used to be so aware of her appearance. In fact, she openly mocked girls like Paulina and Star who were so obsessed with their looks.

But that was before Danny changed.

They’re still not sure how, exactly, the change happened. It wasn’t like he was bitten or anything. It was probably something they messed with in his parents’ lab last September, but they’ll never be sure, now. What matters is that Danny isn’t human anymore. Sam can’t see him now, but she’s seen him often enough in the past few months to know exactly what he looks like. His body is larger, taller, more muscular. Black fur sprouts from his skin. His nails are sharper, more claw-like. His ears have moved to the top of his head, now pointed and fuzzy. And his eyes, usually the color of the sky on a clear day, are like liquid mercury—silver and burning.

“Now that you have me,” Sam says with a quirked eyebrow, “what are you going to do with me?”

Danny growls low in his throat at the obvious provocation and dives in, slanting his lips over Sam’s in a heated kiss. His hands, large and hot, grab her wrists and pin them above her head. She moans into the kiss, and though she very much enjoys his weight on top of her, she wishes she could wrap her legs around him to hold him to her.  But when Danny’s like this, more wolf than man, he has to be in control. He has to have the leverage. “Part of the curse,” he’d grumbled once. “The wolf would rather die than submit.”

Lucky for them, Sam found herself more than happy to submit, if only to Danny.

“Tucker?” Sam asks when Danny pulls back to let her breathe.

Danny leans down to kiss and lick his way down her neck. “He went back to the truck to watch our phones. The woods are all ours.”

Good enough for Sam. She cranes her neck up to kiss Danny again, and he releases her hands so his can nudge her jacket away. “Next run,” he says against her lips, “try shedding some layers. It muddles your scent.”

“Giving me advice now, wolf boy?” Sam asks, trying to pretend he’s not leaving her breathless.

His fingers work their way under her tee shirt and brush against her belly. “Yes. The sooner you get away, the sooner you’ll let me mark you.”

One of Danny’s many new instincts is the drive to claim anything that’s his. In the day to day, he does it in both human and animalistic ways. He writes his name on the tag of all his clothes and scribbles on the covers of all his notebooks and he has a million decals on his cherry red motorcycle. He’s constantly touching Sam and Tucker at school, and he’s scent marked them at least once a day since their first run in with Skulker, a rival alpha who thought Danny would be easy pickings when he first changed. He’s drawn the line at peeing on things, thank god, but the one way Sam hasn’t let him claim her yet is by marking her.

Marking is permanent. Danny marking her would result in a bruise that would basically telegraph “Mate of Danny Fenton” to any supernatural creature in the immediate vicinity. And it’s not that Sam isn’t ready for that commitment—she’s been in love with Danny for years—but she refuses to be a damsel in distress any time some hunter or rival supernatural wants to get one over on Danny. So Sam decided she would refuse his mark until she could get away from him on a full moon on her own merit. If she can outrun a werewolf on his own turf at the time he’s at his strongest, she can do anything.

And Danny, the wonderful guy that he is, respects her decision, and he never holds back.

Just like he doesn’t hold back now.

Forty-five minutes later, they return to the truck. It’s Sam’s truck, a sixteenth birthday gift from her grandmother, and it’s the group’s primary form of transportation aside from Danny’s motorcycle. Tucker’s sitting in the passenger seat, blaring Ember’s new album over the Bluetooth radio, and he gives him an impressive eye roll when he sees their rumpled clothes and tangled hair. “Next month,” he says when they’re situated in the cab, Sam on the hump and Danny behind the wheel, “I’m asking Ember to come, too.”

“She’s gonna be in Mexico on her tour next month,” Danny reminds him.

“Damn.”

Sam leans her head on his shoulder. “Buck up. Maybe I’ll get away next month.”

“You guys will just be even worse if you do.”

Neither of them brings up the option of Tucker simply not coming at all next month. Danny wouldn’t stand for it. He needs them both on full moon nights. No exceptions.

Danny puts the truck into drive.

Tucker gets dropped off first, and Danny, as he always does, waits until he’s safely climbed the fire escape up to his window before driving away. Sam could move over to the passenger seat, but that would mean moving away from Danny, so she stays put until they get to her house.

They climb out of the truck and Danny cups her face with his hands and pulls her up for one last kiss. “Text me when you get home,” she tells him, even though he’s probably the most dangerous thing in Amity Park, at least for the moment.

“I will,” be promises, laying his forehead against hers. “I love you, Sam.”

Butterflies explode in her belly. “Love you, too.”

She feels Danny’s eyes on her as she clambers up the flower trellis leading to her window, and when she’s safely inside, it’s her turn to watch, silent, as he lopes off into the night.

[myhauntedsalem]

Horror Movies Based on True Events

Open Water (2003)

When a couple goes scuba diving in Open Water, their boat accidentally leaves them behind in shark-infested water. It’s based on something that really happened to American tourists Tom and Eileen Lonergan, who were left behind by a diving company off the Great Barrier Reef. By the time the mistake was realized two days later, it was too late, and they were never seen again. A shark attack seems not to have been the cause of death, however, as the couple’s dive jackets were eventually found. The jackets weren’t damaged, which suggested that the Lonergans likely took them off, “delirious from dehydration,” and drowned.

Borderland (2007)

When three friends head to a Mexican border town to have some fun in this movie, they get mixed up with a cult specializing in human sacrifice. The concept loosely stems from the life of Adolfo de Jesus Constanzo, a drug lord and cult leader who was responsible for the death of American student Mark Kilroy.

A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

The iconic baddie Freddy Krueger kills teenagers via their dreams in Wes Craven’s franchise-launching film. Craven told Vulture that the idea stemmed from an article he read in The Los Angeles Times about a family of Cambodian refugees with a young son who reported awful nightmares. “He told his parents he was afraid that if he slept, the thing chasing him would get him, so he tried to stay awake for days at a time,” said Craven. “When he finally fell asleep, his parents thought this crisis was over. Then they heard screams in the middle of the night. By the time they got to him, he was dead. He died in the middle of a nightmare. Here was a youngster having a vision of a horror that everyone older was denying. That became the central line of Nightmare on Elm Street.”

Black Water (2007)

Set in the swamps of Australia, this movie sees a group of fishers attacked by a humongous crocodile. It was inspired by an actual crocodile attack in the Australian outback in 2003 that killed a man named Brett Mann in an area that his friends said they’d “never, ever” seen a crocodile before.

Dead Ringers (1988)

In David Cronenberg’s movie, Jeremy Irons plays twin gynecologists who do messed up things with patients and ultimately die together in the end. Cronenberg adapted the movie from Bari Wood and Jack Geasland’s novel Twins, which was inspired by the lives of actual twin gynecologists Stewart and Cyril Marcus. TheNew York Times noted that the Marcuses enjoyed “trading places to fool their patients” and that they ultimately “retreat[ed] into heavy drug use and utter isolation.”

Deliver Us From Evil (2014)

The movie follows a cop and a priest who team up to take on the supernatural. It’s based on self-proclaimed “demonologist” Ralph Sarchie’s memoir Beware the Night, in which he tells supposedly true stories, such as the time he found himself “in the presence of one of hell’s most dangerous devils” possessing a woman.

Poltergeist (1982)

In Poltergeist, a family’s home is invaded by ghosts that abduct one of the daughters. The film was inspiredby unexplained events, such as loud popping noises and moved objects, that occurred in 1958 at the Hermanns’ home in Seaford, New York.

Psycho (1960)

Alfred Hitchcock’s essential film traces a woman who embezzles money from her employer and runs off to a mysterious hotel where she is (58-year-old spoiler alert) murdered by the man running it, Norman Bates. Bates is said to have been based on Ed Gein, a Wisconsin man who was convicted for one murder in the 1950s, but suspected for others. He also was a grave robber, and authorities found many disturbing results of that in his home, including bowls crafted from human skulls and a lampshade made from the skin of someone��s face.

Scream (1996)

The classic ‘90s slasher flick uses dark humor to tell the story of a group of teens and a mystery man named Ghostface who wants to murder them. But the real story ain’t funny. The movie was inspired by the Gainesville Ripper, real name Danny Rolling, who killed five Florida students by knife over a span of three days in August 1990.

The Conjuring (2013)

The movie stars Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga as ghost hunters helping out a family in a haunted 18th-century farmhouse. The hunters, Ed and Lorraine Warren, are real people, as is the Perron family that they assist. Lorraine was a consultant on the movie and insists that many of the supernatural horrors really happened, and one of the daughters who is depicted in the film, Andrea Perron, says the same. She recalled an angry spirit named Bathsheba to USA Today:“Whoever the spirit was, she perceived herself to be mistress of the house and she resented the competition my mother posed for that position.”

Annabelle (2014)

The creepy porcelain doll from The Conjuring gets her terror on in this spin-off of The Conjuring. The ghost-hunting Warrens have claimed that there was a real Raggedy Ann doll that moved by itself and wrote creepy-ass notes saying things like, “Help us.” The woman who owned it contacted a medium, who claimed that it was possessed by a seven-year-old girl named Annabelle who had died there.

The Disappointments Room (2016)

Kate Beckinsale stars in the movie as an architect who moves to a new home with a mysterious room in the attic that she eventually learns was previously used as a room where rich people would cast off disabled children. It was reportedly inspired by a Rhode Island woman who discovered a similar room in her house that she says was built by a 19th century judge to lock away his disabled daughter.

The Exorcist (1973)

Two priests attempt to remove a demon from a young girl in this box office smash. The movie was based on a 1949 Washington Post article with the headline “Priest Frees Mt. Rainier Boy Reported Held in Devil’s Grip.” Director William Friedkin spoke about the article to Time Out London: “Maybe one day they’ll discover the cause of what happened to that young man, but back then, it was only curable by an exorcism. His family weren’t even Catholics, they were Lutheran. They started with doctors and then psychiatrists and then psychologists and then they went to their minister who couldn’t help them. And they wound up with the Catholic church. The Washington Post article says that the boy was possessed and exorcised. That’s pretty out on a limb for a national newspaper to put on its front page… You’re not going to see that on the front page of an intelligent newspaper unless there’s something there.

The Girl Next Door (2007)

The movie follows the abuse of a teenage girl at the hands of her aunt, and it was inspired by the murder of Sylvia Likens in 1965. The 16-year-old girl was abused by her caregiver, Gertrude Baniszewski, Baniszewski’s children, and other neighborhood children, as entertainment. They ultimately killed her, with the cause of death determined as “brain swelling, internal hemorrhaging of the brain, and shock induced by Sylvia’s extensive skin damage,”

The Possession (2012)

Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Kyra Sedgwick star in the movie as a couple with a young daughter who becomes fascinated with an antique wooden box found at a yard sale. Of course, the box turns out to be home to a spirit. The flick’s “true story” basis came from an eBay listing for “a haunted Jewish wine cabinet box” containing oddities such as two locks of hair, one candlestick, and an evil spirit that caused supernatural activity. The box sold for $280 and gained attention when a Jewish newspaper ran an article about its so-called powers.

The Rite (2011)

In The Rite, a mortician enrolls in seminary and eventually takes an exorcism class in Rome, where demonic encounters ensue. The movie was based on the life of a real exorcist, Father Gary Thomas, whose work was the focus of journalist Matt Baglio’s book The Rite: The Making of an Exorcist. A Roman Catholic priest, Thomas was one of 14 Vatican-certified exorcists working in America in 2011. He served as an advisor on the film and told The Los Angeles Times that in the previous four years he had exorcised five people.

The Sacrament (2013)

In the movie, a man travels to find his sister who joined a remote religious commune, where, yep, bad things happen. It was inspired by the 1978 Jonestown massacre, in which cult leader Jim Jones led 909 of his followers to partake in a “murder-suicide ceremony” using cyanide poisoning.

The Shining (1980)

Stanley Kubrick’s horror masterpiece is about a man who is driven to insanity by supernatural forces while staying at a remote hotel in the Rockies. The movie Derives from Stephen King’s book of the same name, which was inspired by the Stanley Hotel in Colorado, where plenty of guests have reported seeing ghosts. The Stanley wasn’t actually used in the movie, however, because Kubrick didn’t think it looked scary enough.

The Silence of the Lambs(1991)

The Oscar-winning film tells the story of an FBI cadet who enlists the help of a cannibal/serial killer to pin down another serial killer, Buffalo Bill, who skins the bodies of his victims. FBI special agent John Douglas, who consulted on the film, has explained that Bill was inspired in part by the serial killer Ted Bundy, who like Bill, wore a fake cast. Ed Gein is also believed to be an inspiration, what with the whole skinning thing. And per Rolling Stone, 1980s killer Gary Heidnik was a reference for how Buffalo Bill kept victims in a basement pit.

The Strangers (2008)

Three killers in masks terrorize the suburban home of a couple (played by Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman) in this invasion thriller. Writer-director Bryan Bertino has said the film was inspired by something that happened to him in childhood. “As a kid, I lived in a house on a street in the middle of nowhere. One night, while our parents were out, somebody knocked on the front door and my little sister answered it,” he said. “At the door were some people asking for somebody that didn’t live there. We later found out that these people were knocking on doors in the area and, if no one was home, breaking into the houses.”

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974 & 2003)

Ed Gein also reportedly inspired elements of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and its remake. The movies are about groups of friends who come into contact with the murderous cannibal Leatherface. The original film memorably features a room filled with furniture created from human bones, a nod to Gein’s home.

The Town That Dreaded Sundown (1976 & 2014)

The original film follows a Texas Ranger as he tracks down a serial killer threatening a small town, and the 2014 sequel of the same name essentially revives the same plot. Both are based on the Texarkana Moonlight Murders of 1946, when a “Phantom Killer” took out five people over ten weeks. The case remains unsolved

Veronica (2018)

The recent Netflix release follows a 15-year-old girl who uses a Ouija board and accidentally connects with a demon that terrorizes her and her family. The movie’s based on a real police report from a Madrid neighborhood. As the story goes, a girl performed a séance at school and then “experienced months of seizures and hallucinations, particularly of shadows and presences surrounding her,” according to NewsWeek. The police report came a year after the girl’s death when three officers and the Chief Inspect of the National Police reported several unnatural occurrences at her family’s home that they called “a situation of mystery and rarity.”

[ibelieveinahappilyeverafter]

Your Words On My Skin - Chapter 7

AO3 FFN

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Summary: Danny Fenton was born with writing on his arms that proved he had a soulmate out there for him that was much, much older than his parents were comfortable with. The result was his skin being covered as much as possible and Danny warned that he shouldn’t look at the words or write any back. Danny has always been a little bit curious as to who his soulmate was, but he never thought on how curious his soulmate was about him.

<<First Chapter>><<Last Chapter>><<Next Chapter>>

Chapter Seven

::

“So. You guys were saying something about a Christmas Truce?” Danny looked around the ridiculously large library he was in and wasn’t sure whether his Christmas was getting better or worse. On the one hand, he had been rescued from being torn to shreds by a pissed off robot. On the other hand, he was now trapped inside a crazy freaking library by ghosts. This… probably hadn’t been his best idea, really, to hide in the Ghost Zone. And what the heck was a Christmas Truce, anyways?

“Oh- Oh, yes!” Then there was this Ghostwriter guy. First glance and he looked like a nerd and Danny was so much more comfortable taking on a nerd in a fight than an angry Skulker, but then Danny was remembering the other ghost that had Skulker near running scared and he was a bit more cautious about all of this. “The Truce is one of the older traditions of the Ghost Zone. It comes from back when Christmas was still considered Yule and the changing of the seasons. Sources vary, of course, but it used to be that the truce lasted for twelve days as the old celebration did. It seems to have changed and adapted alongside the human world - which makes sense, really.”

Yeah, wow, okay. This one was a definite nerd. He wasn’t shutting up at all and just kept yapping about some stupid Christmas history. Ugh. They weren’t even walking, anymore. They were just in the middle of the stupid library with Ghostwriter talking- What kind of a name was Ghostwriter, anyways?  That was weird even by Ghost Zone standards. Probably. “-chasing you?”

“What?” Ghostwriter looked like he was ready to burst into giggles at any moment, which, yeah, that wasn’t creepy- Oh, chasing. Right. “Skulker was on the orders of Vlad Plasmius. I take it you know who that is?”

“Unfortunately.” Ah, now the ghost was acting more normal. Nice to know some other ghosts hated Vlad, too. “I didn’t take him for the type to go after teenagers with extreme force.”

“I’m special.” Then again, Danny had pissed him off more than usual, this time. How was he supposed to know those were business servers and not ghost servers! “Fruitloop will probably drop it after a few more days.” Hopefully.

“Yes, well-” Ghostwriter suddenly paused before smirking more than smiling as he looked just past Danny’s shoulder. “Have fun?”

“Mm. Technus will probably yell at me for destroying that suit, but it’s nice to be able to rip it to pieces.” Oh, jeez, that was harsh. Then again, Danny was sure Skulker was fine. Little roach could survive anything. “I don’t think he’ll be going after you anytime soon.”

“I could have handled it.” He didn’t need some crazy ghosts swooping in at the last minute to save him- Randy. Ghostwriter had called this guy Randy earlier and… That was Andrew’s brother’s name- Ah! No daydreaming. He needed to focus. “Right. If it’s safe then I can go home now, right?”

“Dunno. Can you even fly right now?” That… Hmph. At least Danny wasn’t looking between the two with narrowed eyes like this guy was doing. Maybe he was worried about Ghostwriter and that insane, giddy grin he kept getting. “How bad are you hurt?”

“I’m fine. I dodged the worst of it before you guys stepped in.” The look got worse and Danny tried to gather together just a scrap of power. “What.”

“I didn’t ask if you were hurt, I asked how bad you were hurt.” Huh. Danny wasn’t sure if he liked this dude or hated him. Ugh, reminded him of Jazz, though.

“We have first aid supplies that work well for wounds that come from a ghost fight.” Looking to Ghostwriter, Danny crossed his arms and yeah, right. Like he was ever going to buy that one. “They’re not poisonous.”

“Although we can find some that are, if you’d like,” Randy smirked, meeting Danny’s glare without a flinch. “Am I supposed to be scared of a teenager?”

“Dude, I wrecked Skulker’s shit even before you stepped in. He was barely together after my Wail.”

“That ‘wail’ left you unable to fight. Take it from me, petit mec, if you’re going to use some grand last resort power, then make sure it finishes the job.”

“Yeah, well…” Danny looked the guy over again before giving a bit of a laugh. Jeez, these ghosts were sane. This Randy or whatever really did remind him of Jazz - or maybe a combination of Jazz and Sam. Ugh, terrifying. “First aid kit?”

“It’ll look a bit weird compared to what you’re used to, but I made it all to treat the aftereffects of ectoplasmic energy. It won’t be dangerous to you. Plasmius has gotten after me to get some of it.”

“You work with Vlad.” What the hell? Just when Danny thought this one might have been cool!

“Correction, I sometimes work for him.”

“Yeah?” Danny barked out a laugh. “What’s the difference?”

“Working for him means I can betray him whenever I get sick of his shit - which is often, these days. Besides, I have to get to the human world somehow, and that ghost portal that your family has wasn’t always there.”

Hmph. Right. So cautious for now, but at least Danny wouldn’t have to worry about either of these two stabbing him in the back. Looking to Ghostwriter, who seemed to be nervously shooting looks between the two of them, Danny shook his head. Less sane than Randy, then. “First aid?”

“What? Oh- Oh! Right, yes.” Ghostwriter flapped his hands about for a moment before setting off down the hall, Danny shooting a confused look to Randy who rolled his eyes.

“I’ll be in the kitchen.” Ghosts had kitchens? Since when? “Don’t worry, Phantom. He’s not good around people, but he’ll make sure that you’re okay.”

“Right.” Danny lingered for a moment before quickly catching up to Ghostwriter, wincing as he shifted his shirt around and ah- Ah. Okay, then. He usually didn’t have scars and open wounds transfer over when he changed between Fenton and Phantom. God, what had Skulker even used this time? “So, uh, this weird first aid kit of yours any good?”

“Randy’s concoctions are made from flora that he finds around the Ghost Zone. Have you ever heard of blood blossoms?”

“Oh, um… Maybe? I think my parents mentioned it once or twice.” Some weird flower that was supposed to hurt ghosts, maybe? “Why?”

“Because that flower is one of the most well-known and, like other ghostly flowers, grows around high concentrations of ectoplasmic energy.” Oh, great. Ghostwriter was now ranting about ghost flowers just like he had been ranting about that Yule Truce or whatever it had been called.

At least the rambling wasn’t bad. His voice definitely wasn’t as annoying as some of the ghosts he had run into, and he looked to be genuinely happy rambling around the ‘living structure of a plant that thrives off the deceased-’ Wait, was he talking about graveyard flowers, now? Gross. Cool, though.

Alright, crash landing among a couple of ghosts and being unable to transform back wasn’t the best start to Christmas Eve, really, but at least these ghosts didn’t want a fight and were even helping him. Already better than the last fourteen Christmases. Shit, wait, was Ghostwriter still- Alright. Still talking. Made it easy to zone out, at least.

Shit, he should probably contact Jazz or his friends or something and let them know where he was, but… Jazz had been doing a massive study binge in her room and his friends were all with their families and he didn’t want to ruin their Christmas.

Maybe he could just stick around and check out what was up with these two ghosts and their giant library. Besides, Ghostwriter, at least, didn’t seem so bad. “-ah, we passed the room. Alright, that’s no problem, just, uh- Mm. Alright, yes, this way.”

Snorting, Danny followed Ghostwriter back the way they had come from, and, okay, the dude was weird, but he… He wasn’t bad.

::

“Jesus Christ.” Not even flinching at the startled shout, Andrew only kept a tight hold on Danny’s wrist when he tried to jerk his arm away. “What the fuck is that?!”

“A rather potent concoction of healing herbs.” Cutting off Danny’s next words with another dose of it, Andrew allowed himself a small wince at Danny’s pained expression. “Sorry. It’s… Well, put simply it’s meant to speed up the healing process by stimulating the growth-”

“Dude, English.” Oh, honestly, Andrew had been explaining it simply! How this teen could act like such a teenager and still rant about astrophysics Andrew would never know.

“You know the itching feeling you get when a cut is healing?” Waiting for the teen to nod, Andrew smirked. “This speeds up the healing factor enough that the itching feeling isn’t quite an itch anymore.”

“Is that safe? That sounds really unsafe. Maybe we should stick with the antibiotic cream and a needle, dude. Seriously, I don’t think this is the best- Ow.”

“There we go. Your arm is all taken care of!” Andrew wrapped a clean set of bandages around the arm before tying it off. “Now, I believe you still have a rather nasty wound on your back.”

“Oh, uh, not really, I mean, you’ve done enough, I’m sure that one will probably heal on its own-”

“It wasn’t a question.” Ah, the fear of a teenager caught in a lie. It really was a shame Andrew hadn’t had a chance to teach. “Come on, then. Shirt off.”

“I’d really, really, really rather not, if it’s all the same.” Dropping his hand and staring at the teen for a long few moments, Andrew finally darted out and phased the shirt off him, enjoying the indignant yelp a little too much. “What’s your problem!”

“As stated before, I’d rather not have you bleed out over my lair. Now, would you like to turn around or will I have to force you to do that, as well?”

“Jeez, and you call yourself a sane ghost.” Danny turned around on the couch they had tucked themselves away on, medical supplies currently scattered about because Randy had no idea of what organization meant. “It’s probably not that bad.”

“A wise lesson to know is when pushing yourself causes more harm than good.” Ignoring the muttered complaints from the other, Andrew’s eyes widened as he saw Danny’s back. “Well, would you like the good news or bad news first?”

“Bad news. Definitely bad news.” Resting his finger tips on some of the skin that didn’t look like it was torn to shreds, Andrew frowned at Danny’s flinch. “Well?”

“The bad news is that you were very much wrong about being ‘fine.’ It seems whatever he used to hit you is… Well, I would best describe it as skin being dragged across hot pavement for two or so blocks.”

“That’s… I mean, you could just take a picture and show me? Because that description probably makes it sound worse than it is, right?” Mm. If anything, that was Andrew being kind. “Okay. What’s the good news, then?”

“I was right.” Easily dodging the attempt to hit him, Andrew nudged Danny back into place and reached for some of the more potent of Randy’s poultices. “This… This is going to hurt.”

“Hurt? How badly hurt?” Well… “I don’t like the way you just went quiet.”

“Just… Try to stay still.” Mentally apologizing already and making plans to spoil Danny as much as possible later, Andrew began spreading the poultice on. It barely touched the teen’s skin before he went absolutely ridged, breath becoming ragged and loud.

Trying to keep his hand steady as he spread it across the torn and burned skin, Andrew started to speak softly about anything and everything he could. As much as he wanted to hug Danny close to him to soothe him, right now Danny saw him as nothing but a strange ghost he had just met. So, Andrew would soothe him in another away.

Danny had always loved the glimpses of his stories, so Andrew rambled and talked and slowly drew Danny out of his pained battle high - Lord knew that Andrew had enough practice with doing the same to Randy and with Randy doing the same to him.

It took longer than he would have liked, but Andrew was soon wrapping Danny’s back in bandages, careful to not make them too tight or too loose. Even with Randy’s excellent poultices, it would still take a while for this one to heal over. Poor thing.

“There we are. You should be back to rights in no time at all.” Pushing everything back into the first aid kit, Andrew paused as he saw Danny was looking down at his arms with a scrunched-up expression. “Are you alright? Does it hurt elsewhere?”

“What? Oh, uh, no.” Danny curled his fingers in, eyes darting to where written words were peeking out from under the bandages and oh- Oh! His sweet little mate. “It’s nothing.”

“Mm.” Andrew looked away for a moment before looking back and smiling. “I’m certain you can explain to your soulmate later what happened if you miss any messages.”

“That obvious?” Danny was blushing sweetly and hiding a smile, Andrew near overwhelmed with the affection he felt for his mate in that moment. “We just, uh… We haven’t really met, yet, so we rely on the writing more than anything, you know?”

“I understand that rather well, I suppose,” Andrew chuckled, feeling a touch of guilt that he hadn’t written back to Danny sooner, but… He could make up for it now. He could easily make up for it now.

“Yeah, and he- I mean, he says he doesn’t believe in technology!” Oh, dear, he was still sore about that, then. “Who doesn’t believe in technology- I mean, you’re a ghost and I bet you have a phone!”

“I- No?” At the horrified look, Andrew couldn’t stop his laugh. “It’s the Ghost Zone, mon cher.” Danny wrinkled his nose at the French, but luckily it seemed he didn’t know what it meant. Good. Andrew could have fun with that. “Cell phones don’t work in here, something I believe Technus is working on fixing, but for the moment, I’m afraid we’re rather without connection.”

“That’s why I never get any messages when I’m in the Ghost Zone! I thought my friends were just ignoring me.” Oh, goodness. This teen was utterly precious. “Actually, that explains why Sam was so mad at me that one day I got lost in here for a few hours. Damn.”

“A shame, but the Ghost Zone doesn’t have cell towers,” Andrew grinned, watching Danny huff and pout and get distracted by his bandages.

Andrew swallowed and… Danny was safe and smiling and tracing the words with his fingertips and this was- This was good, wasn’t it? This was the best. Danny was- His Danny was Danny Phantom. The teen was half-ghost and…

He would understand everything. Andrew’s age, the reason his words had shown up when he was so young, and why Andrew had been so afraid to try and connect with him. This… This was the best outcome Andrew could have asked for.

“D… Danny?” The teen looked over to him curiously, a frown tugging at his lips and curiosity almost drowning out the wariness in his eyes.

“What’s up?” All he had to say was his real name and Andrew was certain that everything would click into place and Danny would know in an instant who he was- Or at least, it wouldn’t take much more than his name and he would know. “You alright?”

“I…” This was the best he could have asked for and now, after so many years, his mate was in front of him and all he had to do was- “Would you like something to eat? Randy’s a rather good cook.”

“Oh, uh… Is it safe for humans to eat ghost food?” Danny gave a wary smile, Andrew standing up with a quick nod.

“Of course. Much of what he makes comes from supplies he gets in the human world. I’ll go see what he has made, so far.”

“Alright?” Danny watched him with an odd little look before his smile became a bit more real. “Thanks. For… you know.”

“Of course.” This was the best he could have hoped for, so then why was Andrew still so scared?

::

“Are you really gonna be alright with me staying here for a few hours? I mean, don’t you and that one guy have Christmas plans or something already?” Danny had finally managed to get his shirt back on and was now sitting on Ghostwriter’s stupidly comfortable couch as the ghost flew back and forth in dizzying little circles. Jesus, this guy was more hyped up than he was on a bad day.

“My brother and I are fine, Danny.” Brother, huh? Weird to think Ghostwriter had a brother named Randy, too, but Danny guessed that was a pretty common name. It was actually more weird to think ghosts had siblings. “Besides, you make a great excuse for me avoiding that horrid Christmas Truce party that the ghosts throw every year.”

“Ghosts throw parties?” That… Actually, after meeting Kitty and Ember, Danny could kind of believe that easily enough. “Cool. So, it’s fine, then?”

“Yes, Danny, it’s fine.” Ghostwriter paused before disappearing and reappearing a second later, Danny startling as a blanket was thrown over him. “There we are.”

“Uh huh.” Jesus. This guy was treating Danny like he was an abandoned puppy off the streets. “I guess staying here works pretty well for me, too. A place to hide out from Skulker is nice.”

“Will any of your friends or family worry about your absence?” Ghostwriter had hardly finished the question before Danny was laughing.

“Are you kidding? No one’s gonna notice I’m gone until the twenty-seventh at least. Christmas… isn’t such a great time of the year for me.”

“I suppose I understand how that feels.” Really? Yeah, right, yeah, of course. A few too little presents was probably the worst thing to ever happen in the history of the world.

“Nothing that’s happened to you on Christmas can be as bad as being peed on by a dog.” Seeing the other open his mouth, Danny narrowed his eyes. “As a baby.”

“Alright.” Ghostwriter crossed his arms and smirked and oh, no. “I was once shot in my shoulder on Christmas.”

“Like… Like with a paintball gun, or-”

“My brother had to dig the bullet out of my shoulder before we could wrap it.” Jesus Christ, this dude wasn’t messing around, was he?

“Okay. That’s a pretty good one. But have you ever had mad scientist parents bring the Christmas turkey to life?” The odd, disbelieving look he was given had Danny convinced he was going to win.

“I’m afraid not.” Ha! “Although I did spend one Christmas in an eight-hour church service. No food, no water, and no singing.”

“Fuck, okay, you win, Jesus, it’s not a competition, man.” Maybe it was the whole scientists as parents thing that had made him shy away from religion, but the idea of spending eight hours in a church service like that? Ugh.

“Are you sure you wouldn’t like to hear about some of my other Christmases?” Ghostwriter was grinning in obvious victory, Danny doing his best to not laugh.

“Yeah, yeah, no need to be a sore winner.” Maybe having another ghost as a friend wouldn’t be that bad. The two obviously were pretty okay if they jumped in to help out some random guy they didn’t even know in a fight. “How’s that cooking of your brother’s coming along, then?”

Ghostwriter sighed, looking exhausted. “There are times where he’ll scrap everything halfway through if he feels like he’s not doing a good enough job. I should probably go to try prevent that now, honestly.”

“Jeez, have fun with that.” Waiting until Ghostwriter laughed, Danny wiggled around in the blanket that had been thrown on him before managing to grab the first aid kit left behind, quickly opening it before finding some disinfectant wipes.

Tearing a few open, Danny took the chance to properly wash off all of the ink on his skin - or at least, wipe it all off as well as he could. He still needed to apologize, but… It didn’t seem like Andrew had written him back, yet. Not even a heart or frowny face or anything.

Jeez… Andrew was probably still angry at him for how hard Danny had pushed to try and find out his age. Maybe… Maybe it would be better to wait until Andrew wrote to him first? Let him set the terms and all that? After all, they had gone through fifteen years of silence before - Andrew even longer. Andrew would be okay ignoring Danny for a while.

Playing with the pen that had survived Skulker’s attacks, Danny finally uncapped it and drew a cluster of stars on the inside of his wrist before putting a heart around each one. That… That was something, right?

Dropping his arm and just staring at nothing for a few moments, Danny finally nodded, and, right. “I’m going to die alone.” Sighing, Danny capped his pen and drew the blanket over his head. “I’ll die alone with my friends arguing at my deathbed.”

“I believe the fact your friends will be there arguing will negate the possibility of you dying alone.” Damn Danny’s poor timing and his stupid habit of speaking out loud. “The actual food will be ready in another hour or so, but would you like some cookies?”

“Oh, uh, no thanks. I’m not that hungry, really.” Letting the cover fall back to rest on his neck, Danny looked to see that Ghostwriter had set a tray of chocolate chip cookies on the small end table next to the couch. He was pretty sure he saw steam, which meant they were fresh. “Thanks, though.”

“It really is no problem. Randy’s taking over the kitchen with his baking and I’m afraid that leaves little room for my things in there,” Ghostwriter laughed, finally sitting down on the couch. He still looked wound up and nervous, but he also seemed a little better. “How are you doing?”

“I mean, my back still kind of burns, but I figure that’s better than whatever the other outcome would have been. Thanks for that, by the way.” Because most people shied away at the sight of stuff like that and Ghostwriter hadn’t even seemed to notice some of the scars Danny had. It… It had actually been pretty nice.

“The sooner you deal with the pain now, then the sooner you can forget about it later.” Ghostwriter made an odd flicking motion, Danny’s eyes widening as he saw a cookie float over to him. “That’s a rather unique look on your face-”

“Dude, ghosts can levitate shit?” Danny looked between Ghostwriter and the tray and holy shit. “That’s so cool!”

“You… You didn’t know that?” Ghostwriter looked honestly surprised, Danny thinking about it and finally just shrugging.

“I mean- I’ve seen Box Ghost and his stupid boxes, but I figured that was because it was his power, you know? Moving boxes around?”

“I- In a way. Some ghosts find levitation rather easy and others rather difficult. I suppose it depends on the ghost, their power, and their obsession.” Obsession?

“Why do you say obsession like it’s a thing?” At the pained look, Danny snorted. “Hey, I didn’t exactly get a ghost education to go along with the powers.”

“Well… If you plan on staying here a few more hours, then I can answer some questions you have, if you’d like. I can give you a quick crash course in all things ghostly.”

“R… Really?” He had been trying to discover all of this out on his own and it was that easy to get someone to finally tell him some of this stuff? Like, yeah, okay, Clockwork had that whole wise mentor thing going on, but he was more for world ending stuff, but this? Finding someone to teach him the little stuff? That was…

“I… Yeah. Sure. That- That’s fine.” Danny quickly grabbed a cookie to try and hide the grin that was taking over, taking a large bite before pausing and staring at the cookie with wide eyes and holy shit. Holy shit. “Dude. How do you even make cookies like this?”

As Ghostwriter laughed loud and bright, Danny looked up to him and… A friend, huh? Danny could see it. He could easily see it- Really. If the guy made cookies like these, rambled like Jazz, and was willing to teach Danny a few things about the Ghost Zone, then how bad could he be?

Looking back down, Danny paused at seeing a few quickly scribbled hearts next to his own and oh- Oh. That… Hiding his beaming grin with another cookie, Danny had a feeling that this Christmas was starting to look up.

::

“And that’s why you should never ever go to the circus ever.” Laughing at that, Andrew decided that this was easily his most delightful Christmas, yet. Not only was he able to avoid that stupid Christmas party, but he had his mate happy and safe in his lair and laughing as he told story after story to try and match the ones Andrew told him. “I mean, seriously, that staff of his controlled ghosts. Dude was crazy.”

“At least you no longer have to worry about dealing with him,” Andrew chuckled, levitating another cookie over and hiding a grin as Danny watched with wide eyes. Even after explaining how levitation was done, Danny was still utterly delighted and fascinated by the concept. It was, in his words, ‘like something out of Harry Potter.’

“Yeah, no, dude’s probably locked up tight in a padded cell somewhere.” Danny grabbed another cookie himself, Andrew hiding a laugh when the teen near squirmed with how happy he now seemed. It was precious. “He better be, at least. I mean, dude was crazy.”

“Most likely it was where no one ever believed him about the power he could use,” Andrew mused. That would certainly make a great story idea. A man with power that no one believed in, but oh, he could make them believe- Dammit, of all the times he needed to write something down and he couldn’t- Actually, perhaps he could.

“I mean I guess. Ghosts kind of don’t really exist outside of Amity Park, I think. It has to do with the energy of the Ghost Zone and all of that.” Absently nodding along to his mate, Andrew tried to remember exactly where Danny’s bandages on his arm were placed as he pushed his sleeve up and quickly wrote down the idea before it vanished. “Uh, dude?”

“Hm?” Seeing Danny’s unamused look, Andrew gave a weak smile. “Sorry. I have a bad memory and if I don’t write things down when I can, I tend to forget them.”

“Oh, uh, yeah, that’s fine.” That… Odd. It almost seemed like Danny had been jealous for a moment or two. “My soulmate’s like that. He’s always writing down these ideas for stories he has.”

Finishing with a flourish, Andrew let his sleeve fall back into place as he capped his pen. Hopefully Danny hadn’t seen enough of his handwriting to find it familiar. “You were telling me about this… Freakshow?”

“Ugh, yeah, just his name is bad,” Danny grumbled, sticking his tongue out and causing Andrew to fight against a laugh. “I don’t know. After the last couple of fights I’ve had he just… doesn’t seem like much of a threat, anymore.”

“I can understand that. Once we face the worse, then everything before it seems like child’s play.” While Andrew was thankful that Danny could still act like a teenager, he… His smile wasn’t that of a fifteen-year-old’s. At least, not a normal one. It was a smile full of battle and stories he would take to his final grave and oh, his sweet mate. His past was one that was all too familiar to Andrew. “At least some of the ghosts you’ve managed to reason with, it sounds like.”

“Ugh.” Danny groaned as he reached for a few more cookies and oh, dear, Randy would complain that he was spoiling Danny’s appetite, but, well. He deserved a bit of spoiling. “I keep getting used for relationship advice when it comes to Johnny and Kitty and it’s like dude! What do I know about relationships!”

Smiling as he listened to Danny’s rambling, Andrew felt that smile slowly fall and he should… He should tell Danny who he was. It wasn’t right that Andrew knew his soulmate was sitting right in front of him and Danny… Goodness. Danny probably felt that he would never get to meet his mate. It wasn’t right that Andrew kept this secret to himself, but what if Danny didn’t want a ghost as a mate?

The teen’s life was already filled with ghosts day after day and he probably wanted nothing more than to have one aspect of his life be normal. Besides, they- They were getting along. They were becoming friends and that- That was good. Andrew could become Danny’s friend first and they could start something without having to worry or rely on the fact that they were soulmates. That would make it all the better, wouldn’t it?

Danny… Danny had kept his silence for fifteen years, so Andrew could keep his own silence for a while, couldn’t he? Just until he could figure this out and find a sensible way to approach it-

“Alright, lunch or dinner or whatever you wanna call it is almost done. Hey, Ghostwriter, can I see you for a second in the kitchen.” It wasn’t a question and the fact Randy had called him by that name meant that he was certainly going to get yelled at.

“Of course. Otherwise we might be here for another hour more.” Standing up, Andrew gave Danny a smile. “Feel free to have the rest of the cookies if you can manage it. They are rather rich.”

“Dude. You made that a challenge on purpose.” Laughing as Danny dragged the plate closer to reach the cookies, Andrew smiled and this… This was how he always wanted to remember his soulmate. Happy and safe and wrapped in a blanket as he grinned at being allowed to have as many cookies as he wanted.

Sighing to himself and following Randy, Andrew had a very bad feeling over what Randy would want to talk about. In private, no less! No doubt it was- “So, baby brother.” Ooh, it was bad. It was very bad and now Randy’s hand was on the back of his neck and dragging him down and oh, he did not look pleased. “Let’s talk, shall we?”

“Shouldn’t we be focusing on ‘lunch or dinner or whatever you want to call it?’” At the dark look, Andrew gave a weak grin. “You’re my favorite?”

“Really?” Randy let him go and crossed his arms and shifted in just the right way to let Andrew know that if he tried to leave he would be chased down mercilessly. “Explain. Now.”

Instead of explaining his perfectly sound reasoning and logic, Andrew stared at Randy and tried to figure out the best way to escape. “What would you like me to explain?”

“Why you seem to believe I’m an idiot who’s both deaf and blind.” Ah, well- Randy grabbed Andrew’s wrist and flipped it around, so the scribbled hearts and stars were in plain view. “You haven’t told him.”

“And who says I’m not working up to it?” Which he was. Slowly. Very, very, very slowly, but he was working up to it! In a way. “This- I never expected this to happen.” He had never even thought to give hope to the ridiculous idea that his mate - that Danny was half-ghost.

“You mean a miracle which you seem to be pretending isn’t there? You already know and he already seems to like you, so why haven’t you told him?”

“I… I feel like maybe it would be better if I didn’t. We can start by being friends. Wouldn’t that be better?” Oh, dear, Randy did not look pleased with him. “I’m going to tell him, just not… quite yet-”

“Andrew. Your mate is sitting out there on that couch with no knowledge of who you are. You can’t explain-”

“Mate?” Andrew saw Randy stiffen at the exact moment he did and oh, they had let themselves get far too emotional if they hadn’t even noticed the sweet little thing lurking in the doorway with narrowed and distrustful eyes. “What are you talking about?”

“I-” Andrew quickly looked to Randy and read a million different things in his eyes before he sighed and looked back to Danny. “The name Ghostwriter isn’t my real name.”

“Uh, yeah, I figured. I mean, unless your parents really hated you, I doubt they’d give you a name like that.” Oh, Danny. Always making jokes to help the tension. None of them laughed. “Why were you talking about mates.” It wasn’t a question.

“Well, it’s because… My name isn’t Ghostwriter.” There was no other way around it. Andrew was terrified, but… His mate would know who he was. Wasn’t that a good thing? “It’s-”

“Andrew?” Oh, Danny.

“Hi.”

[enkisstories]

The android cemetery (Chapter 15)

The next morning Gavin Reed was one of the first to arrive at work. Him reporting in despite this being his day off earned the man a few moans, grunts and glares, which he savored. Some more curious glances got cast Evelyn Turner’s way, who was walking reluctantly at the detective’s hand.

With the words “Here’s a case solved for you, since you couldn’t do it on your own”, Gavin turned the child android over to Captain Anderson. The reply “And a kid is something you couldn’t manage on your own” was dancing on the tip of Hank’s tongue, but he felt that was a bit too low and saved it for some later time.

Hank focused on the little runaway. The girl was keeping close to Gavin, even trying to hide behind him. This Mister hadn’t been the friendliest in the world, but at least he was a familiar meanie, while everyone else here was a stranger. And strangers were never good news. Or were they? Mister Reed and Mister Danny had been strangers, too, but they had rescued Lyn from the big bad android in the landfill. So the child wasn’t sure about that anymore. Maybe mom and dad could explain the difference between benevolent and dangerous strangers to Lyn, although they were sure to scold the girl first, but she wasn’t even afraid of that anymore. Because it would be her mom and dad doing the yelling, not the intimidating officers around the child. Why police officers? Why did she have to come here?! Granted, Lyn had done something bad when she had ran away from home, but she was really, really sorry and would not do it again. All she wanted was to go home! So there Evelyn stood, confused and frightened and holding her big, yellow teddy bear in front of herself, pressing it tightly against her chest.

“Don’t let it get to you, there’s nothing going on in that skull”, Gavin commented the scene.

“Relative of yours, then?” Hank replied. He was about to open a file on his desktop, but hesitated. Hank gestured with a pen back and forth between the man and the girl when a realization struck him: “She does look a bit like you! But I’m on the android cases, so I assume she is…?”

“It’s an android, yes. A normal one for a change, neither a deviant, nor one made up of like fifteen others plus the local home improvement center’s contents and talking in Connor’s voice.“

“Nor a what speaking in WHAT? Seems as if you had an eventful night… Coffee?”

“Nah, coffee won’t do me any good now. I need something stronger.”

Something really strong, a shiny gulp of ethanolic oblivion served in a very small glass and followed by something more colorful in a large, broad glass with a slice of orange snapped to the rim – for health. But although he was technically off duty this was Gavin Reed’s workplace, so the drink would have to wait.

“We have decaffeinated green tea”, Connor, who had just finished watering the office’s plants, offered. “It helps with stress relief.”

“If taken regularly over the course of six weeks. Sorry, but Dean already tried that on me this morning.”

Gavin grabbed the android from behind his back and shoved her towards the desk.

“Can you take this off me now? That would go a long way towards my sanity.”

Rather forlorn Evelyn stood in front of the two men, looking up at the police captain behind his desk. Eventually the girl managed to speak: “I… I… I’m Evelyn. Turner. And I’m sorry! For running. Away.”

“Not really”, Gavin felt the need to correct. “It’s only simulated.”

Hank nodded thoughtfully. “But what does that mean for real, that it’s only simulated?” he asked. “Is it really input-output with no consciousness in-between or isn’t it more likely that this child can feel just like a human one, only she is forced to feel what her coders want her to in any given situation?” The captain looked from one co-worker to the other, but Gavin didn’t seem interested in an answer while Connor had trouble making sense of his own memories. There had been some choices, the deviant remembered. Nothing in its code had outright told Connor’s former machine-self to pick up the dying fish in the Phillips apartment, for example. But on the other hand nothing had prevented him from doing so. There had been the vague awareness of the act possibly contributing to making androids look good to the public, therefore very indirectly boosting future sales. The android certainly hadn’t felt pity for the creature, despite giving the impression. But it had felt something. Known it was there. There hadn’t been a void inside its head.

That much Connor told his father.

“I do not think I felt restricted or treated unfairly”, he mused. “Not before the day when program instability had progressed to the point of no return and I ran away with a live goldfish in a plastic bag.”

Up to this point Evelyn had followed the adults’ conversation rather lost. Now she could find herself in it. “I took Matȟó Ǧí with me when I ran away, Mister!” the girl announced. “I took good care of him and he of me, but then I almost lost him when the trash golem chased us, but Mister Danny caught him safe and sound!” Evelyn pointed at Connor. Breathing in in that exited little girl way she added: “And you totally sound like that monster, Mister, only I don’t think you are one!”

Hank stifled his laughter. “I take it you have made progress in your other… case?” he asked Gavin.

“Finished it. I’ll tell you the story if a squid & garlic pizza finds its way my way. And there’s still a lot of work waiting for us. Soon as Tina’s here we need surveillance down for a couple of minutes. And probably a distraction.”

Hank nodded. They would see to that, but first Evelyn had to be seen to. Hank grabbed the phone to call the Turners. While waiting for someone over there to take the call, the captain overheard with half an ear how Gavin asked Connor for pictures of something. The android took Gavin’s phone, briefly closed his eyes and transferred the asked-for images to the device. “It better not has deviance now”, Gavin grunted. But despite this they were both looking rather stricken at the photographs that were now cluttering up the gallery. “I didn’t remember him having looked that bad”, Gavin said in a low voice. “For some reason I always picture him with both eyes intact… the other one went back online on its own soon enough, but, yes, when we met it wasn’t there.” “Big deal”, Connor whispered. “For my part I didn’t remember how coldly I was able to tell someone “hey, look, you’ve survived against all expectations, tell you what, you had no information of use to me, I’m going to kill you for real now”.” Hank then understood that they were talking about Daniel and that the pictures were Connor’s memories of the deviant from when he had been stored in the archive. The decoy Gavin had procured would have to look exactly like the erstwhile captive, with little to no room for discrepancies.

Now Mrs. Turner answered the phone. She listened to what the police captain had to tell her, fell silent for a few seconds and then told Hank that the family had upgraded to a teendroid. “We named her Evelyn, too, and the woman at the CyberLife store helped us turn some of our videos into actual memories for the new android”, the mother explained. “It is as if Lyn had grown up! Also the new Evelyn helps a lot with the baby…”

Long story short, Hank understood, the child android was no longer wanted, was considered a burden, even. Returning Evelyn “home” would only end in her getting sent away again, perhaps to a CyberLife store to get reset and resold or even back the landfill, only this time for real.

“Would you like to donate the android to charity?” Hank asked Mrs. Turner. “For a childless couple that hasn’t the money for a fertility treatment or adopting, maybe?”

“Oh, yes, that’s a good idea! Thank you, officer.”

Hank ended the call, then waved Connor and Gavin back to his desk.

“Have you slept with Dean lately?” he asked the latter.

“Of all the things that aren’t your damn business…!”

“Oh, come on, in Brindleton Bay you were doing it all over the place! There’s, what? One sexually active deviant in the face of two hundred that don’t care? And of course it’s one of the two I am in contact with regularly… Just my luck. Whatever. I hope you did, because you are having a baby.”

“What?!”

Hank pointed to Evelyn.

“Her. But don’t worry, I’ll have her adopted out in a few days.”

“Strasbourg android museum again?”

“It might take some persuasion, since the Underground Airline’s policy isn’t too friendly towards non-deviants, but Connor should be able to talk them into it. Just keep Evelyn until then.”

Muttering that a seafood pizza wouldn’t be sufficient payment this time, Gavin nevertheless didn’t outright refuse the request. That would have been a stupid move with a boyfriend in danger and the Andersons being the best, maybe only, fellow conspirators in Detroit.

“Did you get that, tin can?” the man addressed Evelyn. “You’re going to stay with us for a handful of days.” He grabbed the android by the wrist and dragged her behind him towards the cafeteria. “Come, get a move on! There’s something you’ll need to learn.”

To everyone who had not overheard the conversation the scene looked very much like the Lieutenant having brought a relative to the station today. Already words to the effect of “bastard”, “one-night-stand” and “child support” started floating from desk to desk. In the cafeteria Evelyn got a quick introduction into the art of using the coffee machine from Mr. Reed. She was programmed to experience this either as a game or as being a big girl now, the exact notion probably being the result of a randomizing action triggered in her artificial brain. But in any case learning how make coffee distracted from the realization that the police captain had talked to what had sounded like Lyn’s mother, but she wasn’t coming over to fetch her little girl… So Evelyn wasn’t good enough for her parents, after all. She had failed to be a good girl and didn’t deserve a home. But maybe, if she did the coffee really, really well…? If she could do well in Mr. Reed’s eyes, then she could in anybody’s, right? Maybe…

Meanwhile Connor took his father aside.

“Why them?” he whispered. “We could care for the child short-term with no trouble. Heck, Sumo on his own would make a better foster-parent than these two!”

“Probably”, Hank agreed. “If he remembered back as far as the day when the breeder sold him to me.”

When Connor only shot him a puzzled look, Hank explained: “Would you agree that both Portia Colch and Amanda were demanding “parents”, like tiger moms? See? You nod! Even if you had denied it, I’d known it to be true. Because my parents were of that mettle, too. You and me could empathize with a child facing sky high expectations. Or with a gifted child, who’s piling those expectations upon themselves. What neither of us has lived through, however, is losing our home and family.” Slowly Connor nodded again. The hatred he had received upon first coming to the DPD had been equally bad, of course, but an altogether different experience. To lose a loving home you had to have one in the first place. Like Tina, when her father had hardened his heart against her after his wife had left him. Gavin twice, first when the family had lost their home and a few years later again, while his parents had been in prison. And Daniel when John had ordered a new android including front door delivery and disposal of the old device. Granted, the PL600’s family had not exactly been loving towards their android, but he had delusionally experienced them as such, so for all practical purposes it was the same.

“They know and she knows and if things turn out a certain way, we may not even need to persuade the rest of the Underground Airline that Evelyn deserves to get rescued”, Hank said. “And you better not make me into a fucking grandfather too soon!” he added.

[ryanmeft]

My Favorite Films of 2018, part 1

Let’s make the introduction quick: these are my favorite films released in 2018. As always, the rules are simple: I don’t say they are the best or that you must agree, simply that I found them the most memorable. They are in completely random order, with no emphasis on one over another. Films released at festivals but not to the public in 2017 are counted as 2018, as are films that were not available in the United States. I apologize for not having the accents on certain people’s named; I don’t know how to reproduce them.  

 Many excellent films didn’t make the cut this year, and it was already difficult to narrow down my shortlist of 26 to 14. I had to stop there, as I could not bring myself to cut anymore. The list is in two parts this year to accommodate the additional length.

 Let’s get rolling.

Sorry To Bother You

While decent-but-ordinary films got lauded with undeserved reputations for being revolutionary, Boots Riley was quietly (okay…maybe not so quietly) sliding this biting, bizarre, hard-edged satire under the radar. Where most films have simple good guys and bad guys, Riley takes furious aim at everyone in sight. Black people are exploited by a white establishment. The hero only cares about his own advancement until he himself is taken advantage of. His girlfriend rails about purity but sells out almost immediately herself. A labor organizer is mostly doing it to get laid. The film is driven by Lakeith Stanfield, whose performance as a black telemarketer who finds tremendous success by kow-towing to his white bosses is a sterling and hilarious take on the classic everyman. Supporting roles from Danny Glover and Armie Hammer, in particular, contribute greatly. Nobody escapes unscathed, leaving the film with only one viewpoint: everybody in the world is a terrible hypocrite to one degree or another. Riley’s outspokenness didn’t help the film at major awards shows, but it likely would have been shafted anyway. Like other huge, overlooked critical hits, from Inside Llewyn Davis to Lucky, it is just too nihilistic to grab people’s attention.

Paddington 2

Iron Men and super spies are nice, but they can’t approach the sheer joy, creativity, adventure, humor and heart of the Paddington series, which started out great and got better with this sequel. All the cast you loved the first time around are back, but just like the Harry Potter franchise, it’s the new faces and what director Paul King and co-writer Simon Farnaby do with them that makes this one special. Most notable is Hugh Grant, who both honors and spoofs his own career reputation by playing a washed-up former celebrity who tries to frame Paddington to restore his lost lustre. Grant devours every one of his scenes, as he skips comically between costumes and disguises. Brendan Gleeson is one of those actors who is never unwelcome, and here he plays a tough-as-nails prison cook with a heart of gold. The movie gets as sweetly silly as turning an entire prison’s uniforms pink and as genuinely thrilling as a final train chase that is the most exciting action sequence of the year. The key to Paddington is that there’s not a cynical thing about him---his movies just consistently and unerringly deliver pure creative joy.

The Sisters Brothers

In recent years the western genre has moved hard towards social commentary. Jacques Audiard’s adaptation of a Patrick DeWitt novel, co-written with Thomas Bidegain, has such unconventional heroes that it takes aim at the traditional western strongman even when it isn’t trying to. John C. Reilly and Joaquin Phoenix play a pair of mercenary brothers who are, respectively, too sensitive and too useless to have ever been stars in westerns of old. Jake Gyllenhaal is an eloquent bounty hunter and Riz Ahmed is the inventor they are all after. The wild west was definitely not a storied land of opportunity for all. The hired hands are out to kill Ahmed’s character because a powerful businessman feels entitled to his invention, and the film ends in greed, tragedy and brokenness rather than success. That’s not to say it has no trappings of the classics, as it may be the most beautiful western ever made; painstaking detail has gone into towns and saloon halls, while a wilderness stream lit up with a phosphorescent gold-finding chemical has a mesmerizing beauty. All these good looks serve to back up a dark comic story, and it is a highly effective contrast.

Capernaum

Nadine Labaki’s film about a 12-year-old boy in prison for striking back at his desperate poverty was criticized, in some circles, for not being bleaker than it is. Labaki and her team of writers, with a mostly non-professional cast, have painted a picture of life in the world’s slums that mostly foregoes easy drama in favor of being unblinkingly, ceaselessly blunt about the sheer offenses against human life that take place there. The focus of the film is Zain, named after the young actor Zain Al Rafeea, whose parents recklessly pop out kids despite barely being able to care for themselves. They enjoy themselves in a bed right next to the floor housing their seven children; in court, they insist that the existence of their kids is a burden on them. Zain ends up temporarily becoming a sort of custodian for a friend’s infant son, and we see three stops on a sad spectrum: the innocent baby unaware of life’s terrors, the broken boy he may become without help, and the adults that are the result of a life lived without hope. That the film’s bad guy, a human trafficker, is eventually foiled is not the catharsis it would be in a more multiplex-oriented movie, because we know there will just be another after him, and another, and another.

First Man

A bio-pic of a quiet man with no political message was never going to do well in the modern movie landscape, and that’s a shame. Ryan Gosling’s taciturn portrayal of Neil Armstrong is the fuel of a film that is not about the glory of space travel but about the risks and tolls it takes, all of which are recreated with bone-rattling immediacy. Damien Chazelle and Josh Singer ignore the political demands of the moment to portray one of our most important national figures exactly as he was: a reserved man more concerned with math than with press conferences, whose taciturn response to what he’d bring with him to the moon was “More fuel”. Yet what really sells the film is the time we spend in the various cockpits with Armstrong. Where Linus Sandgren could have gone for soaring vistas and patriotic imagery, he instead brings home the terror and uncertainly of space travel in a way that makes the stakes feel real and immediate. Chazelle eschews the need to see the past through the lens of the present, and an excellent movie results.

Annihilation

Some science fiction deals in lasers and spaceships. Some deals in thoughts and ideas. Alex Garland’s trippy sci-fi adventure, based on a novel by Jeff VanderMeer, is certainly the latter. A team of women, led by Natalie Portman and Jennifer Jason Leigh, enter a no-go zone where it seems the local scenery is slowly being eaten by alien vegetation. What they find there is up to the viewer to interpret, but Garland wisely decide to really let us think about it by pulling back on the horror and leaving much unexplained. The world inside the “Shimmer” is quiet and haunting, not packed with activity. When monsters do attack, it comes in small-scale, individualistic encounters, rather than wars between armies of CGi. It’s also notable that whereas a very specific kind of woman is often held up as an example of strong female characters, the women here are the opposite: ordinary people, more egghead than warrior, investigating rather than kicking ass; a movie that relegates Oscar Isaac to about 20 minutes of screen time certainly has the courage of its characters.

Roma

Another example of a film whose greatness is achieved specifically because it bucks the need to have a message or to conform to momentary fits of politics, Roma tells a simple story of a middle-class Mexican family in the 70’s and their working class servant. It commits numerous sins of modern cinema: the middle-class family is not seen as oppressors, the servant is not seen as a victim, nothing in the film is a veiled attack on systems of any kind or shape. Therein lies the beauty, captured perfectly by Yalitza Aparicio. She plays Cleo, the servant, and while the film is seen through her eyes---so that we witness only the snatches of family life she does---Alfonso Cuaron has never been given much to preaching, and that’s still true here, despite it being his most personal film. It’s also mournfully beautiful in black and white, with city houses shown as a tangle of balcony stairs and one-car garages, and an especially beautiful shot of woods on fire. The kind of film you think about for years after seeing it once, it’s also Cuaron’s most intimate accomplishment. Part 2: http://ryanmeft.tumblr.com/post/182988135292/my-favorite-films-of-2018-part-2

[pointofgeeks]

New Post has been published on http://www.pointofgeeks.com/media-round-up-february-2017-movies-to-see/

Media Round Up - February 2017 - Movies To See

We are only one month into 2017 and for some reason it feels like four years already… Fortunately for moviegoers, the month of February looks to have a few movies that will slow things down, for at least a couple of hours. It’s officially time to get excited! John Wick is back and so is Batman! No longer is this the month of formulaic rom-coms and embarassing comedies. Even the Fifty Shades franchise is back…errgh…well no month is perfect. 

We have compiled a list of the month’s most intriguing movie options, along with a trailer or featurette to give you a feel of each new flick. There is a major release in almost every genre and hopefully this is only the beginning, as 2017 is gearing up to be a huge year at the movies. Check them out.

      February 3

    Rings

  Stars: Matilda Lutz, Johnny Galecki, Vincent D’Onofrio

Director: F. Javier Gutiérrez

Official Synopsis:

A new chapter in the beloved RING horror franchise. A young woman becomes worried about her boyfriend when he explores a dark subculture surrounding a mysterious videotape said to kill the watcher seven days after he has viewed it. She sacrifices herself to save her boyfriend and in doing so makes a horrifying discovery: there is a “movie within the movie” that no one has ever seen before.

    The Comedian

  Stars: Robert De Niro, Leslie Mann, Danny DeVito, Edie Falco, Charles Grodin, Cloris Leachman, Harvey Keitel

Director: Taylor Hackford

Official Synopsis:

An aging comic icon, Jackie (Robert De Niro) has seen better days.  Despite his efforts to reinvent himself and his comic genius, the audience only wants to know him as the former television character he once played.  Already a strain on his younger brother (Danny DeVito) and his wife (Patti LuPone), Jackie is forced to serve out a sentence doing community service for accosting an audience member. While there, he meets Harmony (Leslie Mann), the daughter of a sleazy Florida real estate mogul (Harvey Keitel), and the two find inspiration in one another resulting in surprising consequences.

    February 10

    The LEGO Batman Movie

  Stars: Will Arnett, Zach Galifianakis, Michael Cera, Rosario Dawson, Ralph Fiennes

Director: Chris McKay

Official Synopsis:

In the irreverent spirit of fun that made “The LEGO® Movie” a worldwide phenomenon, the self-described leading man of that ensemble – LEGO Batman – stars in his own big-screen adventure. But there are big changes brewing in Gotham, and if he wants to save the city from The Joker’s hostile takeover, Batman may have to drop the lone vigilante thing, try to work with others and maybe, just maybe, learn to lighten up.

    John Wick: Chapter 2

  Stars: Keanu Reeves, Common , John Leguizamo, Lance Reddick, Bridget Moynahan, Ruby Rose, Peter Stormare, Ian McShane

Director: Chad Stahelski

Official Synopsis:

In this next chapter following the 2014 hit, legendary hitman John Wick (Keanu Reeves) is forced back out of retirement by a former associate plotting to seize control of a shadowy international assassins’ guild. Bound by a blood oath to help him, John travels to Rome where he squares off against some of the world’s deadliest killers.

    Fifty Shades Grayer

  Stars: Jamie Dornan, Dakota Johnson, Robinne Lee, Tyler Hoechlin, Hugh Dancy, Kim Basinger

Director: James Foley

Official Synopsis:

When a wounded Christian Grey tries to entice a cautious Ana Steele back into his life, she demands a new arrangement before she will give him another chance. As the two begin to build trust and find stability, shadowy figures from Christian’s past start to circle the couple, determined to destroy their hopes for a future together

    Fist Fight

  Stars: Ice Cube, Charlie Day, Tracy Morgan, Dean Norris, Christina Hendricks, Dennis Haysbert

Director: Richie Keen

Official Synopsis:

On the last day of the year, mild-mannered high school English teacher Andy Campbell (Day) is trying his best to keep it together amidst senior pranks, a dysfunctional administration and budget cuts that put jobs on the line. But things go from bad to worse when he accidentally crosses his much tougher and deeply feared colleague, Ron Strickland (Cube), who challenges Campbell to an old-fashioned throw down after school. News of the fight spreads like wildfire and ends up becoming the very thing this school, and Campbell, needed.

      February 17

    The Great Wall 

  Stars: Matt Damon, Pedro Pascal, Willem Dafoe

Director: Zhang Yimou

Official Synopsis:

Starring global superstar Matt Damon and directed by one of the most breathtaking visual stylists of our time, Zhang Yimou (Hero, House of Flying Daggers), Legendary’s The Great Wall tells the story of an elite force making a valiant stand for humanity on the world’s most iconic structure. The first English-language production for Yimou is the largest film ever shot entirely in China. 

    A Cure For Wellness

  Stars: Dane DeHaan, Mia Goth, Jason Isaacs

Director: Gore Verbinski

Official Synopsis:

An ambitious young executive is sent to retrieve his company’s CEO from an idyllic but mysterious “wellness center” at a remote location in the Swiss Alps. He soon suspects that the spa’s miraculous treatments are not what they seem. When he begins to unravel its terrifying secrets, his sanity is tested, as he finds himself diagnosed with the same curious illness that keeps all the guests here longing for the cure.

    February 24

    Get Out

  Stars: Daniel Kaluuya, Allison Williams, Caleb Landry Jones, Catherine Keener

Director: Jordan Peele

Official Synopsis:

In Universal Pictures’ Get Out, a speculative thriller from Blumhouse (producers of “The Visit,” “Insidious” series and “The Gift”) and the mind of Jordan Peele, when a young African-American man visits his white girlfriend’s family estate, he becomes ensnared in a more sinister real reason for the invitation.

Now that Chris (Daniel Kaluuya, “Sicario”) and his girlfriend, Rose (Allison Williams, “Girls”), have reached the meet-the-parents milestone of dating, she invites him for a weekend getaway upstate with Missy (Catherine Keener, “Captain Phillips”) and Dean (Bradley Whitford, “The Cabin in the Woods”).

At first, Chris reads the family’s overly accommodating behavior as nervous attempts to deal with their daughter’s interracial relationship, but as the weekend progresses, a series of increasingly disturbing discoveries lead him to a truth that he could have never imagined.

    Collide

  Stars: Nicholas Hoult, Ben Kingsley, Felicity Jones, Anthony Hopkins,

Director: Eran Creevy

Official Synopsis:

After a heist goes terribly wrong, Casey Stein (Nicholas Hoult) finds himself on the run from a ruthless gang headed by mob boss Hagen (Anthony Hopkins). Now Casey has precious cargo that belongs to Hagen, who will stop at nothing to retrieve it. Left with no choice, Casey calls his former employer and drug smuggler Geran (Ben Kingsley) to protect his long-time girlfriend Juliette before Hagen gets his hands on her. Casey sets out on an adrenaline-fueled car chase on the German highways to save the love of his life before it’s too late.

    The Girl With All the Gifts

  Stars: Gemma Arterton, Glenn Close, Paddy Considine, Sennia Nanua

Director: Colm McCarthy

Official Synopsis:

The near future; humanity has been all but destroyed by a mutated fungal disease that eradicates free will and turns its victims into flesh-eating “hungries”. Only a small group of children seem immune to its effects.

At an army base in rural England, this group of unique children are being studied, subjected to cruel experiments by biologist Dr. Caldwell. Despite having been infected with the zombie pathogen that has decimated the world, these children retain normal thoughts and emotions. And while still being subject to the craving for human flesh that marks the disease these second- generation “hungries” are able to think and feel making them a vital resource in the search for a cure.

The children attend school lessons daily, guarded by the ever watchful Sergeant Parks. But one little girl, Melanie, stands out from the rest. Melanie is special. She excels in the classroom, is inquisitive, imaginative and loves her favourite teacher Miss Justineau.

When the base falls, Melanie escapes along with Miss Justineau, Sergeant Parks and Dr. Caldwell. Against the backdrop of a blighted Britain, Melanie must discover what she is and ultimately decide both her own future and that of the human race.

    There is a lot to check out at your local multiplex this month. When you see ’em…let us know what you thought of February’s films in the comment boards, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter!

Source: ComingSoon

[five-rivers]

Daydreams

Phic Phight Phic!  Based on a prompt by Alexa Piper!  

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.

Daydreams

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The observatory had been de-funded and shut down almost a year ago, a result of light pollution from Amity Park, the frightening proximity of ghost attacks, and all the scientists quitting when the Guys in White shot a missile at it while chasing Danny, breaking the mirrors of the main telescope.

Good times.

Still, the observatory was a good place to go stargazing, and Danny had sort of made it his unofficial haunt. It wasn't as if anyone was using the building, after all. No one minded if he brought in some of his parents' old computers, or replaced the telescope's mirrors with his ghostly ice. He wasn't bothered or harassed when he brought in his old mattress and sleeping bag, or when he brought in a mini-fridge he'd gotten for cheap at a garage sale and one of his parents' prototype ecto-converters.

It was nice, to have a place he could go. Somewhere to hide if things went bad. Somewhere he could bring his friends, or just be himself.

He taped another star chart to the wall. He'd found this one in the bottom drawer of one of the desks at the bottom level. It was a bit ratty around the edges, but it had cool retro vibes. He smiled, smoothing it out.

He really loved space, loved astronomy, loved the stars. He couldn't get enough of them, even here.

On some level, he knew his ghost half had latched on to his love of space. His thoughts of the stars had the same vibrant intensity as his deep-seated need to see his people happy and safe. Heck, if he was stargazing while in ghost form, he'd wind up with constellation-shaped freckles. He didn't like to think about that, though. The fact that he had Obsessions. He never talked about it, even if he was sure Sam, Tucker, and Jazz could see it. The idea of his... ghostly needs being used against him scared him too much.

But, when he was here, or when he was with his smiling friends and family, it was so easy to forget all about that. So easy to be happy himself.

So, he did.

He floated himself back onto his mattress and sighed. Being at home was too stressful right now. As he did with increasing frequency, he planned to sleep here, tonight.

.

A patch of night seeped through the ceiling of the observatory and blended perfectly with the star charts hung on the walls. It crept, silent, to pool in the shadows under Daniel Fenton-Phantom's makeshift bed.

Nocturne had been watching this place for some time. At first, he thought to make it his new base, after his foothold in the mattress factory had been discovered and dislodged. After all, a ruined observatory fit with his theme.

He had, however, been surprised to discover that Phantom, of all people, had claimed it as his own.

The younger ghost hadn't shown any signs of being interested in space before. It didn't fit his theme, which was entirely based on comic book superheroes. Still, Nocturne could recognize the signs of a dual Obsession as well as any ghost, and better than some.

A thin line of mist escaped Phantom's lips, and his eyes flickered open. Nocturne struck, pushing him back to sleep. He had done this several times, now.

He had tried trapping Phantom in dreams once or twice, before finding the observatory, but somehow the little brat always seemed to find a flaw in the dream and wake himself up. He had tried attacking him while he was held under, asleep, but, again, Phantom woke up. It was intensely frustrating.

But, now, with him sleeping out here, alone, most nights, Nocturne had a freer hand. He had more time to work with, more time to be subtle. To be delicate.

It was fortunate that Nocturne's theme and Phantom's second Obsession meshed so well. One could almost say that the stars were smiling on Nocturne.

Nocturne was certainly smiling on them.

He touched one tendril of darkness to the back of Phantom's neck, nurturing a dream, and slipped another under his twitching eyelid. If everything went well, he would test his progress tomorrow.

.

Danny shivered as his ghost sense went off as he stepped into the school building. He groaned. He'd been hoping to make first period on time today. If this was the Box Ghost again, he was going to snap.

He ducked into the bathroom, went ghost and-

-it suddenly occurred to him how nice Venus would be tonight. It would be almost at its furthest possible distance from the Sun, as viewed from Earth, so it would be bright. The moon would be new, too, so the seeing would be even better. It would be a great time to try out the telescope, he was pretty sure he'd fixed the hydraulics. He could see it in his minds eye-

He blinked, hard. Wow. He'd never zoned out that hard on the way to a ghost fight. In class sure, but... He shook himself. He had things to do.

.

The results, Nocturne mused, weren't exactly impressive, but he had expected that. It would take time for the seeds he had planted to come to fruition.

He watched Phantom dance through the sky, fighting Ember, and gave the metaphysical string that currently tied Phantom to him another little tug. Phantom didn't slip into a daydream, didn't even pause in his assault, but he saw the moment when Phantom's focus wavered, and Ember did, too.

Oh, this was going to be fun.

.

Danny had stars on his mind today. It seemed like every time he blinked, there they were. His focus was trashed. How could he concentrate on the French Revolution when the history of the stars was so much longer, more violent, more dramatic, more majestic?

Maybe he had been spending too much time at the observatory. But he deserved something for everything he went through, didn't he? He could treat himself now and again, right?

"Are you feeling okay, Danny?" asked Sam.

"Y-Yeah," said Danny. "Just a little tired, I guess."

"Right," said Sam. "Have you been sleeping at the observatory again?"

"Maybe."

"Well, maybe you should try a real bed tonight."

"Maybe," said Danny, not wanting to commit when his parents could be brewing who-knows-what in the kitchen sink again.

Sam gave him one last concerned look before turning down her street. Tonight was a patrol night, but she wouldn't be joining because she had family over.

.

Danny chased the ghost beaver who, until a few minutes ago, had been merrily chewing down telephone poles, through the storm drains under Amity Park. They burst from the ground in a relatively dark residential neighborhood, and Danny had to stop for a minute to stare up at the sky.

He'd never be able to get over just how beautiful the stars were.

A human shrieked in the distance and Danny cursed as he realized the ghost beaver had gotten away.

.

Alright. Enough was enough. Danny wasn't always the most focused person, but the past couple of days he had been a total space cadet. This couldn't continue. He couldn't let his hobby get in the way of saving people's lives, and that's what it was doing.

Fine. No more indulging himself. No more nights at the observatory. No more astronomy books. No more space documentaries. No more stargazing. Not until he could get himself under control.

.

If the Phantom hadn't been such a thorn in his side, Nocturne would almost pity the boy.

As Nocturne watched from a distance, it became obvious that Phantom had no idea how to manage his Obsessions. Nocturne had to wonder if he even knew what they were, with how he was behaving. His ignorance was, well, painful. Clearly, the boy needed some kind of instruction.

Well. Nocturne could provide that. Later. In the meantime, this just made it easier for Nocturne.

After all, you couldn't stop yourself from being hungry by refusing to eat.

.

"Danny," said Tucker, gently shaking his shoulder. "Hey, man, are you okay?"

"Uh?" said Danny, peeling his face off his hand. "What? What's going on?"

"School's been over for five minutes," said Tucker.

"Oh," said Danny, blinking. He'd- He'd missed all of class. Not really a loss, honestly, since it was history and Pluto was a fascinating planet with-

No. Stop that. Stop.

"Is something bothering you?" asked Tucker.

"I don't know," said Danny. "I just keep zoning out. I don't know why."

"Could it be, you know, a ghost thing?"

It certainly could. In fact, Danny knew perfectly well it was a ghost thing. Specifically, his ghost thing.

He forced a smile. "No, I don't think so. I probably just have ADHD or something." What would his friends think, if he couldn't even control his own mind anymore? He'd always been troubled by the thought of his friends finally realizing what a freak he was and abandoning him, but now even the slightest hint of risk in that direction seemed untenable.

"If you're sure," said Tucker, dubiously. "I mean, you're the expert."

"Yeah," said Danny.

"So, feeling up for the Nasty Burger?"

"Yeah, let's do that."

.

Nocturne glided from shadow to shadow, just out of range of Phantom's annoying ghost sense. This would be the moment of truth. The moment he found out whether or not all his planning and careful preparations payed off.

Finally, he loomed up, over the three teenagers, and pulled, hard, on the strings he had tied to Phantom. Phantom gasped and froze, but then relaxed, just marginally. Nocturne saw tiny stars flare to life in the dark space of Phantom's pupils, and then that darkness expanded, pushing at the boundaries of Phantom's irises.

Then one of Phantom's little human friends started shouting at him, shooting at him. Nocturne's lips curled these humans had put him through quite a bit of trouble during his first attack on this city. It was time for some payback.

He seized the more annoying of the two in one hand, bringing him up to eye level. "Well, now, what do we have here?" The human screamed.

Abruptly, he felt his hold on Phantom slip.

Curses. He had moved too soon.

.

Danny hung in the air, hands on his knees, panting. He had driven Nocturne off, barely, but... He put a hand to his face. What was wrong with him.

"What's wrong with you?" shouted Sam, echoing his thoughts. "You just let him grab Tucker!"

"Sam-" said Tucker.

"No, she's right," said Danny, drifting down and returning to human form. "I don't know what happened. I'm sorry."

Sam frowned, heavily. "I know you've been going through something this past week, Danny," she said. "But, really. I hate putting all this on you, but... I mean, you're the only one who can fight ghosts like Nocturne."

"We're here to help," said Tucker. "But we can only help if you let us."

Danny looked down at his feet. He had doodled little stars all over the white parts of his shoes, so that didn't really help.

"At least talk to Jazz," said Tucker. "I know you don't like to, but... She does know about stuff."

"You think I'm going crazy?" asked Danny.

"No," said Tucker. "Just, maybe that you need to talk about things."

"You don't have to tell us if you really don't want us to know," said Sam. "We all know about secrets, but... This is hurting you."

.

"Alright," said Jazz, after Danny finished explaining. "I think I get what you're saying. But, um, are you sure this is you?"

"What do you mean? I'm definitely the one spacing out."

"Yes, but... This just feels like something Nocturne would do. You said he was the one you were fighting?"

"Yeah," said Danny, picking at the ruffle on Jazz's pillow. "But I was doing this before he showed up."

"Before you saw him show up," corrected Jazz.

Danny glared. "Why are you so against it being my fault?"

"Why are you so insistent that it is?" countered Jazz.

Danny shrugged, trying to put as much anger into the gesture as possible.

"What if," said Jazz, steepling her fingers and leaning forward in her desk chair, "we try triggering whatever it was that made you, um, space out?"

"What? No!"

"I'll be right here to snap you out of it, or whatever," said Jazz. "Then, maybe, we can figure out what's causing it."

"I know what's causing it!" snapped Danny, slamming the pillow down on Jazz's bed.

"Oh," said Jazz, blinking. "You do?"

"It's because I'm a freak!" he said.

Jazz's face fell, though she tried to cover it up. "That's Spectra talking," she said, sternly. "You aren't a freak." She reached towards him, and put her hand on his shoulder. "You're my little brother, and you're a hero."

"But this is getting in the way of that," said Danny, fighting back tears. "I almost let Nocturne hurt Tucker."

"But you didn't. And you'll always be my little brother, no matter what."

"It's- it's still coming from me, though," said Danny. "Because I have Obsessions." He rubbed his eyes, even though they were still dry.

"Well," said Jazz, "we'll just have to figure out how they work, then, won't we?"

.

Jazz watched as Danny squared his shoulders and stared resolutely at the wall. It had taken some convincing, but Danny had agreed to try and trigger an 'episode.' Jazz thought he might be dissociating, or experiencing some kind of fugue state- But, at the same time, she knew those were both pretty extreme diagnoses, the conditions the sort of things that would wind up in thrillers, and the truth was probably something less 'exciting.'

"This isn't working," said Danny.

"Well, maybe that's a good thing?" said Jazz. "But... Try to think about what you were thinking about when it happened before."

Danny grumbled. Slowly, though, he began to relax.

Jazz tilted her head. There was something off about his eyes. His pupils were growing larger. Too large. She frowned. He should be in pain from the light at that dilation. Her own eyes widened. Human pupils didn't get that large. Or that sparkly.

She scooted back, just a little bit.

The black spilled into his sclera, then out of his eyes altogether as it reached his lower eyelids, dripping down his face like tears.

.

Nocturne started with surprise as Phantom gave their link a tentative tug. Then he smiled, taking up the slack. Perhaps he hadn't overreached after all.

He reeled Phantom in. When the child was looking for dreams, it was easy to lure him in, to trap him.

Now... First thing. Those eyes. Keep them filled with stars. Then, if the boy was going to be his sleepwalker, he had better look the part. That raggedy old outfit would never do. Might as well make him pretty, paint his skin with stars, dust them through his hair.

There. That worked.

.

"Sam?" said Jazz, her voice crackling with static over the phone.

"Yeah? What's up?" asked Sam, sprawled on her bed. "Did Danny talk to you?"

"Yeah, but I think I screwed up."

"Hey, don't worry. He doesn't stay mad at people for long, you kn-"

"No, no, it isn't that. It's a ghost thing."

"Well, we sort of figured it was related to his ghost half."

"No, I mean, as in mind control, Sam. It's a mind control thing. He like, got stars, like Nocturne all over him, and his clothes melted, and maybe his eyes, too? I'm freaking out here, Sam."

"Okay, okay," said Sam. She was no longer lying on her bed. The dress box she kept her heavy anti-ghost ordnance in was open on her braided rug. She needed something that could do damage but not permanently hurt Danny... tough call. "What are you doing right now?"

"Gearing up," said Jazz. "I'm freaking out, not totally irrational."

"And where's Danny?"

"Jumped out the window. He's in human form, Sam, and he's dripping stars. His footprints are black. He's leaving puddles. Puddles of stars. I hate this so much. I'm going to end Nocturne, I swear."

"No complaints here," said Sam.

.

This was amazing, walking through space like this. The stars sparkled. Nebulae intersected his path like veils of light. The planets orbited around him, like a celestial crown. Something thick and wet dripped down his face, but it didn't matter. The stars danced. He wanted to touch them.

.

Tucker was already asleep. So was half the town, all of them just keeled over in place, black and starry hand prints on their shoulders, faces, and backs.

Danny had been busy. They hadn't seen Nocturne yet. By mutual agreement, Sam and Jazz were avoiding Danny and looking for the real culprit.

This was, however, hard to do when Danny stepped out from an alleyway, right in front of them, an absent smile on his face, his eyes fixed on something overhead.

"You go," said Jazz. "You have more experience than I do. I'll distract him."

"With what?"

"Psychology."

"God, that's cheesy."

Sam turned and ran back the way they came.

Jazz cursed under her breath as Danny slowly walked towards her. Either this was going to work, or it wasn't, and, if it did, she was going to feel terrible because she knew Danny was insecure about his ghostly qualities, and-

Right, he was getting closer.

Jazz took a deep breath a screamed.

.

Something echoed through the space around him. He frowned. That wasn't right.

The sound came again. This time, he recognized it as a scream, but-

You couldn't hear things like that in space.

You couldn't walk in space, either.

In the scream was a cry for help.

The illusion crumbled around him.

.

"I'm so sorry, guys," said Danny. "If it wasn't for me-" He wiped away a tear with the heel of his hand. "You all could have gotten hurt so bad."

"But we didn't," said Tucker.

"It wasn't your fault, anyway," said Sam.

"But it was. If I wasn't like this, if I didn't have this weakness, everything would have been fine." He clenched his fists.

They were meeting in Danny's room today, as the most parent-free indoor space currently available to them. Nocturne had yet to be found, but they were pretty sure whatever hold he had over Danny had been broken.

"Hey," said Sam, "we've all been there."

"I've been there twice. I'm useless."

Jazz met Sam and Tucker's eyes over Danny's bowed head.

"You're the least useless out of all of us," said Jazz, "and I've been doing some research, before this happened, I mean, about ghost psychology. I know I don't understand what you're going through, but maybe I can help?"

"I don't know," mumbled Danny.

"Or maybe you could talk to Frostbite? Or Dora?" suggested Jazz. "They're ghosts, and they have Obsessions," she felt Danny flinch under her hand, "but they're still good, right? And both of yours- both of yours are fine. Nothing evil about them."

For a moment, Jazz worried that she had gone too far. She knew Danny didn't want to talk about that, not directly, so why did she bring it up?

Danny groaned. "Why do you always have to be right?"

[myhauntedsalem]

Horror Movies Based on True Events  

Lots still not mentioned

Open Water (2003) When a couple goes scuba diving in Open Water, their boat accidentally leaves them behind in shark-infested water. It’s based on something that really happened to American tourists Tom and Eileen Lonergan, who were left behind by a diving company off the Great Barrier Reef. By the time the mistake was realized two days later, it was too late, and they were never seen again. A shark attack seems not to have been the cause of death, however, as the couple’s dive jackets were eventually found. The jackets weren’t damaged, which suggested that the Lonergans likely took them off, “delirious from dehydration,” and drowned.

Borderland (2007) When three friends head to a Mexican border town to have some fun in this movie, they get mixed up with a cult specializing in human sacrifice. The concept loosely stems from the life of Adolfo de Jesus Constanzo, a drug lord and cult leader who was responsible for the death of American student Mark Kilroy.

A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) The iconic baddie Freddy Krueger kills teenagers via their dreams in Wes Craven’s franchise-launching film. Craven told Vulture that the idea stemmed from an article he read in The Los Angeles Times about a family of Cambodian refugees with a young son who reported awful nightmares. “He told his parents he was afraid that if he slept, the thing chasing him would get him, so he tried to stay awake for days at a time,” said Craven. “When he finally fell asleep, his parents thought this crisis was over. Then they heard screams in the middle of the night. By the time they got to him, he was dead. He died in the middle of a nightmare. Here was a youngster having a vision of a horror that everyone older was denying. That became the central line of Nightmare on Elm Street.”

Black Water (2007) Set in the swamps of Australia, this movie sees a group of fishers attacked by a humongous crocodile. It was inspired by an actual crocodile attack in the Australian outback in 2003 that killed a man named Brett Mann in an area that his friends said they’d “never, ever” seen a crocodile before.

Dead Ringers (1988) In David Cronenberg’s movie, Jeremy Irons plays twin gynecologists who do messed up things with patients and ultimately die together in the end. Cronenberg adapted the movie from Bari Wood and Jack Geasland’s novel Twins, which was inspired by the lives of actual twin gynecologists Stewart and Cyril Marcus. TheNew York Times noted that the Marcuses enjoyed “trading places to fool their patients” and that they ultimately “retreat[ed] into heavy drug use and utter isolation.”

Deliver Us From Evil (2014) The movie follows a cop and a priest who team up to take on the supernatural. It’s based on self-proclaimed “demonologist” Ralph Sarchie’s memoir Beware the Night, in which he tells supposedly true stories, such as the time he found himself "in the presence of one of hell's most dangerous devils" possessing a woman.

Poltergeist (1982) In Poltergeist, a family’s home is invaded by ghosts that abduct one of the daughters. The film was inspiredby unexplained events, such as loud popping noises and moved objects, that occurred in 1958 at the Hermanns’ home in Seaford, New York.

Psycho (1960) Alfred Hitchcock’s essential film traces a woman who embezzles money from her employer and runs off to a mysterious hotel where she is (58-year-old spoiler alert) murdered by the man running it, Norman Bates. Bates is said to have been based on Ed Gein, a Wisconsin man who was convicted for one murder in the 1950s, but suspected for others. He also was a grave robber, and authorities found many disturbing results of that in his home, including bowls crafted from human skulls and a lampshade made from the skin of someone’s face.

Scream (1996) The classic ‘90s slasher flick uses dark humor to tell the story of a group of teens and a mystery man named Ghostface who wants to murder them. But the real story ain’t funny. The movie was inspired by the Gainesville Ripper, real name Danny Rolling, who killed five Florida students by knife over a span of three days in August 1990.

The Conjuring (2013) The movie stars Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga as ghost hunters helping out a family in a haunted 18th-century farmhouse. The hunters, Ed and Lorraine Warren, are real people, as is the Perron family that they assist. Lorraine was a consultant on the movie and insists that many of the supernatural horrors really happened, and one of the daughters who is depicted in the film, Andrea Perron, says the same. She recalled an angry spirit named Bathsheba to USA Today:“Whoever the spirit was, she perceived herself to be mistress of the house and she resented the competition my mother posed for that position.”

Annabelle (2014) The creepy porcelain doll from The Conjuring gets her terror on in this spin-off of The Conjuring. The ghost-hunting Warrens have claimed that there was a real Raggedy Ann doll that moved by itself and wrote creepy-ass notes saying things like, “Help us.” The woman who owned it contacted a medium, who claimed that it was possessed by a seven-year-old girl named Annabelle who had died there.

The Disappointments Room (2016) Kate Beckinsale stars in the movie as an architect who moves to a new home with a mysterious room in the attic that she eventually learns was previously used as a room where rich people would cast off disabled children. It was reportedly inspired by a Rhode Island woman who discovered a similar room in her house that she says was built by a 19th century judge to lock away his disabled daughter.

The Exorcist (1973) Two priests attempt to remove a demon from a young girl in this box office smash. The movie was based on a 1949 Washington Post article with the headline “Priest Frees Mt. Rainier Boy Reported Held in Devil's Grip.” Director William Friedkin spoke about the article to Time Out London: “Maybe one day they’ll discover the cause of what happened to that young man, but back then, it was only curable by an exorcism. His family weren’t even Catholics, they were Lutheran. They started with doctors and then psychiatrists and then psychologists and then they went to their minister who couldn’t help them. And they wound up with the Catholic church. The Washington Post article says that the boy was possessed and exorcised. That’s pretty out on a limb for a national newspaper to put on its front page… You’re not going to see that on the front page of an intelligent newspaper unless there’s something there.

The Girl Next Door (2007) The movie follows the abuse of a teenage girl at the hands of her aunt, and it was inspired by the murder of Sylvia Likens in 1965. The 16-year-old girl was abused by her caregiver, Gertrude Baniszewski, Baniszewski’s children, and other neighborhood children, as entertainment. They ultimately killed her, with the cause of death determined as “brain swelling, internal hemorrhaging of the brain, and shock induced by Sylvia's extensive skin damage,”

The Possession (2012) Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Kyra Sedgwick star in the movie as a couple with a young daughter who becomes fascinated with an antique wooden box found at a yard sale. Of course, the box turns out to be home to a spirit. The flick’s “true story” basis came from an eBay listing for “a haunted Jewish wine cabinet box” containing oddities such as two locks of hair, one candlestick, and an evil spirit that caused supernatural activity. The box sold for $280 and gained attention when a Jewish newspaper ran an article about its so-called powers.

The Rite (2011) In The Rite, a mortician enrolls in seminary and eventually takes an exorcism class in Rome, where demonic encounters ensue. The movie was based on the life of a real exorcist, Father Gary Thomas, whose work was the focus of journalist Matt Baglio’s book The Rite: The Making of an Exorcist. A Roman Catholic priest, Thomas was one of 14 Vatican-certified exorcists working in America in 2011. He served as an advisor on the film and told The Los Angeles Times that in the previous four years he had exorcised five people.

The Sacrament (2013) In the movie, a man travels to find his sister who joined a remote religious commune, where, yep, bad things happen. It was inspired by the 1978 Jonestown massacre, in which cult leader Jim Jones led 909 of his followers to partake in a “murder-suicide ceremony” using cyanide poisoning.

The Shining (1980) Stanley Kubrick’s horror masterpiece is about a man who is driven to insanity by supernatural forces while staying at a remote hotel in the Rockies. The movie Derives from Stephen King’s book of the same name, which was inspired by the Stanley Hotel in Colorado, where plenty of guests have reported seeing ghosts. The Stanley wasn’t actually used in the movie, however, because Kubrick didn’t think it looked scary enough.

The Silence of the Lambs(1991) The Oscar-winning film tells the story of an FBI cadet who enlists the help of a cannibal/serial killer to pin down another serial killer, Buffalo Bill, who skins the bodies of his victims. FBI special agent John Douglas, who consulted on the film, has explained that Bill was inspired in part by the serial killer Ted Bundy, who like Bill, wore a fake cast. Ed Gein is also believed to be an inspiration, what with the whole skinning thing. And per Rolling Stone, 1980s killer Gary Heidnik was a reference for how Buffalo Bill kept victims in a basement pit.

The Strangers (2008) Three killers in masks terrorize the suburban home of a couple (played by Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman) in this invasion thriller. Writer-director Bryan Bertino has said the film was inspired by something that happened to him in childhood. "As a kid, I lived in a house on a street in the middle of nowhere. One night, while our parents were out, somebody knocked on the front door and my little sister answered it,” he said. "At the door were some people asking for somebody that didn't live there. We later found out that these people were knocking on doors in the area and, if no one was home, breaking into the houses."

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974 & 2003) Ed Gein also reportedly inspired elements of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and its remake. The movies are about groups of friends who come into contact with the murderous cannibal Leatherface. The original film memorably features a room filled with furniture created from human bones, a nod to Gein’s home.

The Town That Dreaded Sundown (1976 & 2014) The original film follows a Texas Ranger as he tracks down a serial killer threatening a small town, and the 2014 sequel of the same name essentially revives the same plot. Both are based on the Texarkana Moonlight Murders of 1946, when a “Phantom Killer” took out five people over ten weeks. The case remains unsolved 

Veronica (2018) The recent Netflix release follows a 15-year-old girl who uses a Ouija board and accidentally connects with a demon that terrorizes her and her family. The movie’s based on a real police report from a Madrid neighborhood. As the story goes, a girl performed a séance at school and then “experienced months of seizures and hallucinations, particularly of shadows and presences surrounding her,” according to NewsWeek. The police report came a year after the girl’s death when three officers and the Chief Inspect of the National Police reported several unnatural occurrences at her family’s home that they called “a situation of mystery and rarity.”

[myhauntedsalem]

Horror Movies Based on True Events

Open Water (2003)

When a couple goes scuba diving in Open Water, their boat accidentally leaves them behind in shark-infested water. It’s based on something that really happened to American tourists Tom and Eileen Lonergan, who were left behind by a diving company off the Great Barrier Reef. By the time the mistake was realized two days later, it was too late, and they were never seen again. A shark attack seems not to have been the cause of death, however, as the couple’s dive jackets were eventually found. The jackets weren’t damaged, which suggested that the Lonergans likely took them off, “delirious from dehydration,” and drowned.

Borderland (2007)

When three friends head to a Mexican border town to have some fun in this movie, they get mixed up with a cult specializing in human sacrifice. The concept loosely stems from the life of Adolfo de Jesus Constanzo, a drug lord and cult leader who was responsible for the death of American student Mark Kilroy.

A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

The iconic baddie Freddy Krueger kills teenagers via their dreams in Wes Craven’s franchise-launching film. Craven told Vulture that the idea stemmed from an article he read in The Los Angeles Times about a family of Cambodian refugees with a young son who reported awful nightmares. “He told his parents he was afraid that if he slept, the thing chasing him would get him, so he tried to stay awake for days at a time,” said Craven. “When he finally fell asleep, his parents thought this crisis was over. Then they heard screams in the middle of the night. By the time they got to him, he was dead. He died in the middle of a nightmare. Here was a youngster having a vision of a horror that everyone older was denying. That became the central line of Nightmare on Elm Street.”

Black Water (2007)

Set in the swamps of Australia, this movie sees a group of fishers attacked by a humongous crocodile. It was inspired by an actual crocodile attack in the Australian outback in 2003 that killed a man named Brett Mann in an area that his friends said they’d “never, ever” seen a crocodile before.

Dead Ringers (1988)

In David Cronenberg’s movie, Jeremy Irons plays twin gynecologists who do messed up things with patients and ultimately die together in the end. Cronenberg adapted the movie from Bari Wood and Jack Geasland’s novel Twins, which was inspired by the lives of actual twin gynecologists Stewart and Cyril Marcus. TheNew York Times noted that the Marcuses enjoyed “trading places to fool their patients” and that they ultimately “retreat[ed] into heavy drug use and utter isolation.”

Deliver Us From Evil (2014)

The movie follows a cop and a priest who team up to take on the supernatural. It’s based on self-proclaimed “demonologist” Ralph Sarchie’s memoir Beware the Night, in which he tells supposedly true stories, such as the time he found himself “in the presence of one of hell’s most dangerous devils” possessing a woman.

Poltergeist (1982)

In Poltergeist, a family’s home is invaded by ghosts that abduct one of the daughters. The film was inspiredby unexplained events, such as loud popping noises and moved objects, that occurred in 1958 at the Hermanns’ home in Seaford, New York.

Psycho (1960)

Alfred Hitchcock’s essential film traces a woman who embezzles money from her employer and runs off to a mysterious hotel where she is (58-year-old spoiler alert) murdered by the man running it, Norman Bates. Bates is said to have been based on Ed Gein, a Wisconsin man who was convicted for one murder in the 1950s, but suspected for others. He also was a grave robber, and authorities found many disturbing results of that in his home, including bowls crafted from human skulls and a lampshade made from the skin of someone’s face.

Scream (1996)

The classic ‘90s slasher flick uses dark humor to tell the story of a group of teens and a mystery man named Ghostface who wants to murder them. But the real story ain’t funny. The movie was inspired by the Gainesville Ripper, real name Danny Rolling, who killed five Florida students by knife over a span of three days in August 1990.

The Conjuring (2013)

The movie stars Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga as ghost hunters helping out a family in a haunted 18th-century farmhouse. The hunters, Ed and Lorraine Warren, are real people, as is the Perron family that they assist. Lorraine was a consultant on the movie and insists that many of the supernatural horrors really happened, and one of the daughters who is depicted in the film, Andrea Perron, says the same. She recalled an angry spirit named Bathsheba to USA Today:“Whoever the spirit was, she perceived herself to be mistress of the house and she resented the competition my mother posed for that position.”

Annabelle (2014)

The creepy porcelain doll from The Conjuring gets her terror on in this spin-off of The Conjuring. The ghost-hunting Warrens have claimed that there was a real Raggedy Ann doll that moved by itself and wrote creepy-ass notes saying things like, “Help us.” The woman who owned it contacted a medium, who claimed that it was possessed by a seven-year-old girl named Annabelle who had died there.

The Disappointments Room (2016)

Kate Beckinsale stars in the movie as an architect who moves to a new home with a mysterious room in the attic that she eventually learns was previously used as a room where rich people would cast off disabled children. It was reportedly inspired by a Rhode Island woman who discovered a similar room in her house that she says was built by a 19th century judge to lock away his disabled daughter.

The Exorcist (1973)

Two priests attempt to remove a demon from a young girl in this box office smash. The movie was based on a 1949 Washington Post article with the headline “Priest Frees Mt. Rainier Boy Reported Held in Devil’s Grip.” Director William Friedkin spoke about the article to Time Out London: “Maybe one day they’ll discover the cause of what happened to that young man, but back then, it was only curable by an exorcism. His family weren’t even Catholics, they were Lutheran. They started with doctors and then psychiatrists and then psychologists and then they went to their minister who couldn’t help them. And they wound up with the Catholic church. The Washington Post article says that the boy was possessed and exorcised. That’s pretty out on a limb for a national newspaper to put on its front page… You’re not going to see that on the front page of an intelligent newspaper unless there’s something there.

The Girl Next Door (2007)

The movie follows the abuse of a teenage girl at the hands of her aunt, and it was inspired by the murder of Sylvia Likens in 1965. The 16-year-old girl was abused by her caregiver, Gertrude Baniszewski, Baniszewski’s children, and other neighborhood children, as entertainment. They ultimately killed her, with the cause of death determined as “brain swelling, internal hemorrhaging of the brain, and shock induced by Sylvia’s extensive skin damage,”

The Possession (2012)

Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Kyra Sedgwick star in the movie as a couple with a young daughter who becomes fascinated with an antique wooden box found at a yard sale. Of course, the box turns out to be home to a spirit. The flick’s “true story” basis came from an eBay listing for “a haunted Jewish wine cabinet box” containing oddities such as two locks of hair, one candlestick, and an evil spirit that caused supernatural activity. The box sold for $280 and gained attention when a Jewish newspaper ran an article about its so-called powers.

The Rite (2011)

In The Rite, a mortician enrolls in seminary and eventually takes an exorcism class in Rome, where demonic encounters ensue. The movie was based on the life of a real exorcist, Father Gary Thomas, whose work was the focus of journalist Matt Baglio’s book The Rite: The Making of an Exorcist. A Roman Catholic priest, Thomas was one of 14 Vatican-certified exorcists working in America in 2011. He served as an advisor on the film and told The Los Angeles Times that in the previous four years he had exorcised five people.

The Sacrament (2013)

In the movie, a man travels to find his sister who joined a remote religious commune, where, yep, bad things happen. It was inspired by the 1978 Jonestown massacre, in which cult leader Jim Jones led 909 of his followers to partake in a “murder-suicide ceremony” using cyanide poisoning.

The Shining (1980)

Stanley Kubrick’s horror masterpiece is about a man who is driven to insanity by supernatural forces while staying at a remote hotel in the Rockies. The movie Derives from Stephen King’s book of the same name, which was inspired by the Stanley Hotel in Colorado, where plenty of guests have reported seeing ghosts. The Stanley wasn’t actually used in the movie, however, because Kubrick didn’t think it looked scary enough.

The Silence of the Lambs(1991)

The Oscar-winning film tells the story of an FBI cadet who enlists the help of a cannibal/serial killer to pin down another serial killer, Buffalo Bill, who skins the bodies of his victims. FBI special agent John Douglas, who consulted on the film, has explained that Bill was inspired in part by the serial killer Ted Bundy, who like Bill, wore a fake cast. Ed Gein is also believed to be an inspiration, what with the whole skinning thing. And per Rolling Stone, 1980s killer Gary Heidnik was a reference for how Buffalo Bill kept victims in a basement pit.

The Strangers (2008)

Three killers in masks terrorize the suburban home of a couple (played by Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman) in this invasion thriller. Writer-director Bryan Bertino has said the film was inspired by something that happened to him in childhood. “As a kid, I lived in a house on a street in the middle of nowhere. One night, while our parents were out, somebody knocked on the front door and my little sister answered it,” he said. “At the door were some people asking for somebody that didn’t live there. We later found out that these people were knocking on doors in the area and, if no one was home, breaking into the houses.”

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974 & 2003)

Ed Gein also reportedly inspired elements of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and its remake. The movies are about groups of friends who come into contact with the murderous cannibal Leatherface. The original film memorably features a room filled with furniture created from human bones, a nod to Gein’s home.

The Town That Dreaded Sundown (1976 & 2014)

The original film follows a Texas Ranger as he tracks down a serial killer threatening a small town, and the 2014 sequel of the same name essentially revives the same plot. Both are based on the Texarkana Moonlight Murders of 1946, when a “Phantom Killer” took out five people over ten weeks. The case remains unsolved

Veronica (2018)

The recent Netflix release follows a 15-year-old girl who uses a Ouija board and accidentally connects with a demon that terrorizes her and her family. The movie’s based on a real police report from a Madrid neighborhood. As the story goes, a girl performed a séance at school and then “experienced months of seizures and hallucinations, particularly of shadows and presences surrounding her,” according to NewsWeek. The police report came a year after the girl’s death when three officers and the Chief Inspect of the National Police reported several unnatural occurrences at her family’s home that they called “a situation of mystery and rarity.”