One Little Secret CH2

One Little Secret CH2

"Valerie?" Star ran through the rubble of the store as well as she could in her flip-flops. There was definitely something wrong. Why in the world was her friend standing there in the middle of the floor, fully armored? Val usually tried to run away before the Fentons could get a hold of her for questioning.

"C'mon Val, we've got to go! In case you didn't notice, Maddie and Jack are here! Val!" Star came up behind Valerie and shook her shoulders. "Stop daydreaming, come on!"

Valerie turned around slowly to face Star, and Star's eyes widened. Valerie, the toughest girl she knew, even tougher than Sam Manson, was crying. It was hard to tell through her facemask, but there were definitely tears running down her face.

Star's eyebrows furrowed in worry. "Val, what happened?" she asked softly. "What did Phantom do to you?"

"Star..." Valerie whispered. "I'm a monster. He didn't do anything. I'm a monster." Her chest began to convulse, and she held her head before fainting right into Star's arms. Her red suit jumped back into... wherever it went when Val wasn't using it.

"Val?" Star gasped. "Valerie?" She stared in shock for a few seconds before shrieking, "Valerie! Wake up! Don't die on me!" Star sat down on the spot and pulled Valerie into her lap. "Val, you're the only real friend I've ever had. If I lose you, I don't know what I'll do. Please, don't leave me."

Star barely noticed Maddie Fenton run over to her. "Oh my! Is she hurt? What happened?" The blonde teen didn't answer, so Maddie knelt down to inspect Valerie herself. "Stop crying girl," she said after a few seconds. "She's not dead. She's only fainted. Probably from the fright of seeing the ghosts." Star smiled weakly at this. "Where are your parents? Do you have a ride home?"

Star nodded. "Yeah. I think they're in the kitchenware section. I can call them."

"Good." The woman nodded matter-of-factly and stood. She took a second look at Valerie and commented, "Isn't that one of Danny's friends? Yeah, the one he's had a crush on. What's her name, Valerie?" Star shook her head yes, and laughed a little at the notion of Fenton having a crush on Val. He just couldn't let her go, could he? "Well, wish her luck when she wakes up, and get her home safely. I have to go find Danny; Jazz and him were supposed to be here..."

Star rubbed the moisture from her face before reaching into her purse to fumble for her phone. She finally found her bright pink, flower-patterned cell and flipped it open to call her parents.

Her mom picked up immediately. "Star? Star, where in the world are you? There was an explosion somewhere in the store, and we heard screaming! Are you okay? Please, please don't tell me you were anywhere near that place."

Star sniffled. "We were, Mom. Valerie's hurt. Will you come get us? Hurry."

There was a loud gasp from the other line. "We'll be there as soon as we can."

Her father was suddenly speaking. He must have grabbed the phone from her mom. "Star, what part of the mall are you in?"

Star looked around, blinking tears out of her blurry eyes. "It's... it's near the entrance to the women's clothing department. Everything's in pieces. Hurry, Daddy."

"We'll be right there," he said, and hung up the phone.

Star looked back down at her friend and wondered what could have possibly happened to make her faint. That same thing had made her cry, and she never cried. What did those ghosts do?

---

Valerie woke up about an hour later on her living room sofa, and was immediately smothered with hugs and kisses from her dad.

"Valerie! You're okay! I was getting fixed to call the hospital if you didn't wake up soon. You really scared us, especially your friend Star. Don't tell me you were ghost hunting again."

Valerie, who had been in a state of disorientation, suddenly found the memories rushing back to the front of her mind. "Dad... yes, I was. But I never want to ghost hunt again. Ever. It was all a big mistake. You were right Daddy- I just ended up getting hurt!" She threw herself into his shoulder and began to sob.

Damon Grey slowly pushed his daughter away. "There, there, sweetheart," he said softly. "Do you want to tell me what happened?"

The tears came again, harder. "It's awful Daddy! I'm a horrible person!"

He slowly rubbed her back, trying to calm her breathing. He didn't want her to hyperventilate and risk passing out again. "You are not a horrible person Valerie. Whatever you've done cannot be as bad as you make it out to be."

"But it is! Daddy..." Val began to hiccup. "Daddy, I've been hunting a person!"

"What have you been doing?"

"Phantom, Daddy. He's not really a ghost. He's a human too! He's still alive! You should have seen him too; he was showing so many emotions ghosts don't have! I can't believe I didn't see it before! What if... I could've been hunting someone from my school, one of my friends. What if I had killed him? Oh, Daddy!" She buried her face again, and twisted his security uniform in her hands.

Damon's eyes widened. "Can you be sure of this?" Because, a person couldn't be both a ghost and human at once. It was against science. Of course, ghosts were too before the Fentons came to Amity Park.

"Yes," she sobbed. "Yes!"

He wrapped his arms around his daughter, ignoring the tears and saliva that was soaking through his shirt to his skin. Damon shared the same pain as she did. In a way, it was his fault this had happened as well. He didn't try hard enough to keep his girl away from the hunting. A secret part of him even liked what she was doing. She helped the town as much, or even more, than the Fentons, and it made Damon very proud. And as much as Valerie acted to hate the responsibility, she was always chipper on the days she came home from destroying a powerfully evil being.

After a few minutes, and after Valerie's cries turned to slow shudders, Damon said quietly, "Star left a few minutes before you woke up. Like I said, she was worried sick. Do you want me to call her parents and let them know you're okay?"

"I'm far from okay," she whispered.

"You know what I mean," he responded calmly. "She had the idea fixed in her head that you were dying. She really cares about you."

"... 'kay. Thanks..."

Damon carefully picked Valerie up and settled her on the couch, before going into the kitchen to call the Smithsons. When he came back, Valerie had gone from sorrow to what looked like anger.

"Valerie?"

"Why me? Why did he choose me?"

"Who? The ghost boy?" His daughter winced at the mention but shook her head.

".... I never told you where I got my ghost hunting equipment." Damon opened his mouth to say something, but changed his mind. That had been something he had wondered for months. He knew where her second suit came from, the incident with Technus, but who ever started her with her first weapons?

"Have you ever heard of Vlad Masters?"

"You know I have. He owns Axion Labs. A billionaire. You're not saying that he gave you the weapons?" It would make sense. Axion worked in defense and technology, and with Masters' endless supply of wealth, he had everything imaginable at his disposal.

"Yeah... It was after the ghost boy, I mean that ghost dog, ruined your job. I was mad, so when I found the suit, I took full advantage of it. I didn't know it was him, until that invasion we had a few months ago. He said I was so capable! Yeah, capable enough to not know the difference between dead and alive," she added bitterly. "But now this suit's stuck on me! I don't know how to get rid of it! It'll haunt me forever! I just want to give it up. Please Dad, let me give it up."

"No one is making you hunt them, sweetheart. You did it because you wanted to. Now you don't, so you have all rights to stop. Right now, though, you should get some rest. You've had a hard day. In the meantime, I'll see what I can do about getting rid of that suit."

Valerie half-heartedly smiled and pulled herself up to go to her room. Damon followed her there to tuck her in. He hadn't done that since she was twelve. It would have been a precious moment, if not for the circumstances.

She tried to ignore the photos of Phantom posted on her wall as she went straight to her bed. Her father turned out the lights so she wouldn't have to look. After she laid down, he pulled the covers up over her and tucked them tightly around her. He then kissed her lightly on the forehead.

"Please don't worry about this tonight, my sweet girl. You'll see, everything will be okay. I love you Valerie."

"Love you too Daddy."

As Damon closed the door, he heard Valerie say one last thing to him. "My day wasn't hard. Not as hard as it must have been for Phantom. His cousin's dead. It was awful. His face..." The man bit his lip, glanced to the ground, and closed the door.