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In all their years of experiments and inventing, the Fentons always thought they'd die from something more bizarre. So when the house fire broke out from the oven of all things, they didn't quite know what to do.
"Jazz! Bearbert isn't a necessity! Leave him!" Maddie shouted to her daughter as she frantically rushed around the lab. She was trying to salvage as much of her research as she could before fleeing. Her husband Jack was able to grab more things with his big arms, but their efforts were futile.
"Honey, we have to go now!" Jack shouted to his wife from the top of the stairs. Maddie took one last look around the lab, and quickly wished it farewell as flames consumed her life's work. She stole one last glance at the portal, the thing that had killed her son. That was the one thing she would gladly see burn. She rushed up the stairs just in time, and ran out of the house as fast as she could. When the family regrouped, they watched their home slowly fall to the flames. Maddie suddenly gasped.
"Danny's model rocket! I have to get that!" She said, taking off and running back in to the building. She ignored the shouts of protest from her family as she rushed upstairs and into her deceased son's room. There! She grabbed the rocket, wincing a little bit at how hot it was to touch. She quickly ran out of the room, and paused as she watched the stairs weaken from the flames. 'Well,' she thought, 'it's either that or certain death.' As she quickly descended the stairs, she held her breath.
She only released it to scream when the stairs broke, leaving her to fall down to the flame filled lab below.
***
When Maddie woke up, she noticed the green. It was everywhere. It was the sky, the ground, and everything but the weird floating doors. Those were purple. She knew where she was. She was in the ghost zone.
'Well shit," she thought, standing up. Err, floating up? She didn’t know what terminology to use. All she knew was that she had to find someone to figure out what was going on any why she was here. She knew she was dead, but why did she stay behind? What was keeping her spirit tied to the world? Every ghost had an obsession, and frankly, Maddie wasn’t sure yet what hers was.
“Okay, I just have to find another ghost, hope they don’t kill me again, and get some information from them,” she mused as she started flying in a direction, “easy.”
It was probably a few miles before she saw another ghost.
“Uh, hi! I have a few questions, if you don’t mind,” Maddie shouted out to the ghost in front of her. He was short and blue, with overalls as his main clothing choice. She found him odd, but he was her only hope right now.
“Who dares ask the Box Ghost a question!” The blue man shouted back, turning around to face Maddie. When he saw her, he gasped.
“What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be with the king?” He asked, still speaking weirdly.
“Who?”
“The King! Phantom!” The Box Ghost answered. “Do you really not know?”
Maddie was very confused. Phantom? Who was that? Why was she meant to be with him?
“Could you take me to him?” Maddie wondered. The Box Ghost seemed to have a debate with himself, before nodding and taking off. Maddie quickly followed.
***
Maddie first noticed the guards. There were way too many of them for this Phantom to not be important. ‘Didn’t the Box Ghost say he was a king?’ Maddie wondered, while the Box Ghost flew down and started talking with a guard.
“I think he’ll want to see her,” Maddie heard the Box Ghost say before the guard let them in. They thanked the guard, and quickly went inside. The Palace was spectacular. It was nothing but fit for a very powerful king. Maddie didn’t realize she had paused until she felt the Box Ghost tug on her jumpsuit a little bit, pulling her back into reality. They got to the entrance of the throne room, and stopped.
“The Box Ghost shall be leaving you now,” the Box Ghost said, flying back from where they came from. Maddie opened her mouth to protest, when she heard the doors open and a guard tell her to go in. She timidly floated into the giant room, and paused when she saw the small figure on top of the throne. She’d recognized that boy anywhere!
“Danny?! What are you doing here?”
“Mom? Oh my gosh it really is you!” Danny said, rushing from the throne and into his mother’s arms. His crown was lopsided in his messy black and white hair, and his cape was dramatically draped around the floor.
“What happened?” Maddie asked her son, looking him over. His eyes were green now, and his hair was different, but he was still her baby boy.
“The portal turned me into a ghost, and somehow I became the king. Long story, but we have all the time in the world.”
As Maddie hugged her son again, whispering about her sweet baby boy, she felt a content hum in her chest, and she finally knew what her obsession was. It was family.
After all, she died trying to rescue a piece of her son, but instead got the whole thing.