Chapter Text
Candace's day started off pretty good. Her nagging thirst was quenched, the bags under her eyes were gone (confirming her suspicion that they intensified in tandem with her bloodlust), she wasn't inconvenienced by any side effects from the melatonin, and there was no sign of any bodies being reported on the morning news. She doesn't know if her second victim had miraculously not been discovered yet or if the police were keeping quiet about him for whatever reason, but she makes a mental note to monitor the news over the next few days.
When the morning transitioned into afternoon, Candace's day took a sudden nosedive when she accidentally flung the present Jeremy had made for her down a sewer drain.
Truthfully, Candace felt a little stupid. It was the first time she's seen Jeremy in person since he returned her Mp3 player to her the day she was turned, and she chose to watch him walk down the street from the front window of her house like a creep rather than have a conversation with him. But that wasn't the main reason she felt like an idiot. In fact, she barely registered the act of borderline stalking her boyfriend as odd in the first place. She felt dumb because not only did she lose his present, but she didn't even know what it was! She thinks it's supposed to be a bracelet, but she couldn't tell for sure.
Regardless of what it was, it's now floating down in the sewer, just waiting to become food for Crikey.
"Ugh, you've got to be kidding me!" she shouts out loud. "Jeremy will be heartbroken when he finds out I lost my gift!"
Fortunately, the solution to her problem came with a gasp and the name of two certain people:
"Phineas and Ferb!"
Candace booked it to the backyard, hoping to get the boys to help, and came across a peculiar sight. Lying down on yellow lounge chairs were Baljeet and her brothers. The three of them had wires stuck to their heads that lead to a contraption on the ground in the shape of a red ball on top of a small stand. Sitting upright in his own chair next to this device was Irving, holding a clipboard and wearing a headset microphone.
"Hey, what are you guys doing?" she asked, a little afraid of what the answer will be.
"We built a mind machine to enter Baljeet's subconscious in order to cure his fear of contractions," Phineas told her.
"You are amputating two perfectly good words and stitching them together," Baljeet piped up. "They are the Frankenstein monsters of grammar."
"We've already cured Irving's fear of the color lavender."
"It can't hurt me anymore," the boy in question said, his voice holding a bit of a tremble.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't care about any of that!" Candace said, uninterested in the fears of two mega nerds. "I lost the gift Jeremy made for me, and you guys have to make an exact duplicate before he comes over!"
"We'd love to," Phineas said. "What'd it look like?"
"Well, it kind of had this bolty screw thing going on, and this wrapped wire like...." Candace tried to outline the missing gift with her hands, but it didn't help. "Oh, I know what it looks like, but I don't know how to describe it!"
"No problem. We can use the mind machine to enter your subconscious and retrieve your memory of what the gift looked like." Phineas looked over at his contraction-fearing friend and asked, "You don't mind if we fix Candace's problem first, do you, Baljeet?"
"No, I don't," he replied before breaking out into a fit of shivers.
While Baljeet was shaking like a leaf, Phineas brought out another yellow lounge chair and had Candace lay down on it while he applied some wires to her face. The suction cups her brother used to stick them on were tight and uncomfortable, like there were leeches attaching themselves to her face.
After a few minutes, Candace was fully hooked up to the mind machine and ready to enter her subconscious. She wasn't happy that Baljeet would be accompanying her and her brothers, but he insisted that his experience at psychology camp was an advantage, so she didn't protest. She just hopes that he doesn't find anything hidden in her mind that gives away her big secret.
This better be quick. She thought as the machine roared to life. These stupid wires are already starting to hurt.
One small countdown from four later, Candace closed her eyes and was hit with a feeling of lightheadedness, as if she was floating in the air. Within seconds, that sensation vanished, and she found herself standing in an unfamiliar landscape.
"Where are we?" she asked. It was a dumb question. She already knew where she was, but then again, stupidity seemed to be her theme for the day.
"We're inside your subconscious," Phineas told her.
Candace doesn't think she likes being here. Not only does she not fully understand how she managed to dip inside her own mind like this (let alone with three other people), but she's scared of what she'll find wandering around.
At least this part of her mind was nice. How could it not be? It was a mountain range all about Jeremy, after all complete with giant cliff faces in the shape of his head and the sound of his melodious, disembodied voice easing her worries for a moment. Unfortunately, the comfort her boyfriend's visage and voice gave her fizzled out when she felt the ground rumble beneath her feet and a monstrous roar reached her ears.
"Shh!" Baljeet hissed. "Do not move a muscle."
"What is it?" Candace demanded, growing more disturbed with each second.
"It is your id."
"My what?"
"Your id. The embodiment of your deepest, most primal urges."
"So, fun, right?" Another stupid question from the teen.
"Wrong. It is very primitive and aggressive," Baljeet informed her. "We do not want to meet it in here."
Another loud roar pierced the air, causing the thin hairs on Candace's arms to stand up. She may not know what the id looks like, but she can tell based on how badly its bellowing shook the ground that it was both enormous and incredibly irate. She was beginning to think this whole diving into her mind thing was a mistake.
While she was contemplating her poor choices, a herd of gazelle dashed past the quartet, spooked by the id's screaming. These animals didn't look like typical gazelle's though; some of them were brown, some were purple, but all of them bore the face of one of her brothers and were clothed in wrinkled and bloodied lab coats layered over squirrel costumes.
"Obviously, you see Phineas and Ferb as some sort of prey," Baljeet said, observing the strange animals run past them. "But I don't know why they are dressed like that."
Ferb reached for the silver charm that has now become a daily addition to his attire. When he clutched it in his hand, Candace swears she could feel her own heart tighten with sadness and guilt.
The id roared for the third time, spurring on the gazelle to flee faster. Candace's gloomy feelings were replaced in an instant by one of fear, and she decided to take a cue from the frightened animals.
"Run!" she shouted to the boys as she took off, taking a cursory look behind her to make sure they complied. Thankfully, they did, following right on her heels as she made a break for the edge of the hill. She just hopes they get lucky and find what they're looking for before the beast finds them.
The next big landmark the group came across was a fairly large cluster of hills. Colored in either pink, red, or orange, these rounded peaks varied in size and each one bore a simple face that a stick figure would have: two dots for eyes and a curved line for a mouth. Some of the faces were turned up into a smile, while others were twisted downwards into a frown, and every few seconds or so, they would switch between the two expressions. Splitting down the hills in the middle was a long, white trail, and in front of the entrance, right off the path, was a wooden sign stuck into the ground.
"Where are we now?" Candace asked as the four of them came to a stop, certain they had outrun the id.
"According to this sign, it appears that we're at the Peaks and Valleys of Fickleness," Phineas said as his eyes skimmed over the sign.
Candace rolled her eyes at herself. At this point, she should keep a tally of all the stupid things she's done today.
The trek through the hills wasn't too long, and as they walked, the redhead found herself thinking about what a strange place her mind was. A whole section dedicated to Jeremy was expected, but one revolving around her wishy-washy attitude towards ambivalence was interesting. She's never been one to minimize (or even control) her emotions, and it's known to everyone in her social circle that when she wants something, she goes for it. The thought of just not caring was both attractive and baffling to her; she can't understand how people could bring themselves to not give a damn, but at the same time, she sometimes wished she could care less about things and not be so temperamental. She has mixed feelings about it.
At the end of the trail, the group found themselves at yet another landmark, one much worse than the last.
Three identical waterfalls stood in front of them. The water rushing down was crimson in color, and like some of the hills, had a frowning face etched across each one, although these were less simple and more agonized. The red water cascaded down into a stream where it darkened in color, making it appear less like a liquid and more like coagulated blood.
"Wow, the Falls of Anxiety," Phineas said, as if he was looking at a museum exhibit.
Candace's own disembodied voice echoed out of the waterfall, rattling off her biggest insecurities.
Is my neck too long?
Is it okay that I wear the same dress every day?
Why does the mysterious force running the universe hate me?
Am I too tall?
What if I never find out who bit me?
Okay, that's enough. She needs to get out of here. She's just lucky the boys are too busy discussing how weird they find this place rather than actually listening closely to each individual insecurity.
"It is all of Candace's anxieties." Baljeet.
"There are so.... Many of them." Phineas.
"She has a rich internal life." Ferb.
"Yeah, she's really messed up." Buford.
Wait, Buford? When the fuck did he get here?
"You can't come in here!" Candace shouted at the bully, who was munching on a sandwich.
"It's a free country," he told her.
"No it's not! It's my head! And you're getting crumbs all over...." A sudden chill overtook her body, and she found it hard to speak coherently. "All over.... cru-crumbs...."
"What's wrong with her?" Buford asked.
"The anxieties are getting to her!" Baljeet yelled.
The nerd was right on the money. Standing by the crimson waters proved to be a bad idea, as her anxieties had slowly crept in and now had her in an iron grip, squeezing at her brain and reminding her of all her worst fears.
"Hurry, everyone! Through the falls!" Phineas commanded, taking his sister's wrist and yanking her into the river. Ferb and Baljeet followed suit, hurrying after them. In their rush to reach the waterfall, they're assaulted from the air by sweaty hands, hyperventilating lungs with chicken-like heads and popping veins, bats with sharp teeth and glowing red eyes, and for some reason, rubber ducks. Candace doesn't understand why that last one is here, and Baljeet's remark of "It's your subconscious" doesn't really help.
After swatting away the last of the ducks, they break through the falls. The water is warm on Candace's skin and smells rusty, but her and the boys are still dry when they make it to the other side. That was a surprise, but a welcome one—she didn't want to continue their search soaking wet.
The other side of the falls held a small, dark cave that eventually gave way to an almost desolate landscape covered in thin, purple grass that reeked of wild parsnips. Candace instinctively covered her nose, but removed her hand a second later. If the water wouldn't leave her wet, she doubts the parsnip smell would affect her either. She's probably not allergic to them anymore, anyway.
Candace's eyes found another wooden sign stuck into the ground a few steps away. Written across the front in scrawled, messy penmanship were the words The Mirror of Dread. Standing just behind this sign was the cursed mirror in question. She doesn't like the sound of this.
Candace stands in front of the mirror, and immediately her reflection changes. Its eyes flash red and its mouth twists upwards in a smug, sadistic smirk as several bodies materialize on the ground at their feet, their faces frozen in mortal terror.
The teen goes to take a step back, but before she can, her malevolent doppelgänger's arm shoots out of the glass, latches onto Candace's wrist with freezing cold fingers and pulls her into the mirror.
As Candace tumbles through the looking glass and lands on the other side, she knows she's in for a wild, unpleasant ride.
As she's thrust into a bizarre, fast-paced montage of all her fears, Candace thinks about the time she hallucinated during that camping trip with her maternal grandparents. Tripping out not once, but twice over the course of her time there wasn't fun in the slightest. She found herself wondering after the fact just how it can be possible that the mere power of suggestion caused her to fall into a delusion state the first time, but after getting a taste of all the mind-melting things her own subconscious had to offer, she no longer has to speculate. Her brain really is just that weird.
Her trip through the Mirror of Dread most likely only took a few minutes, but it honestly felt like hours. Just like at the Falls of Anxiety, her own phobias coiled around her like an eternally tightening vice, chilling her to the bone with fear. Visions of horrible things like Suzy Johnson's golden blonde curls, squirrels in her pants, and rotting cadavers tormented her, reminding her of every traumatic incident she's experienced over the summer. It wasn't until she was swallowed by a giant fish and deposited in yet another unfamiliar landscape where the boys happened to be that she started to calm down.
Apparently, the place she had just been delivered to is a woodland appropriately called the "Forest of Memory" and she should be able to properly pinpoint what Jeremy's gift looks like here. If only she knew how to jog her memory. Luckily, Phineas came through with an idea: scratch the trees until she remembers.
"That makes my head all buzzy," she said, not liking how she could hear the sound of their scratching both in person and in her head.
As uncomfortable as the sensation was, it actually worked. The fuzzy memory of what Jeremy's present looked like soon became clearer and clearer until she could see it appear with a bright flash.
"I see it!" she cried out, pointing to the apparition. "Over there, through the trees! That's it!"
"That's what?" inquired a familiar voice.
Candace whirled around and came face to face with the gift giver in question.
"Jeremy?!" she squealed. "Wait, are you real?"
"Yeah. I stopped by your house to give you your present and Irving just told me to jack right in."
Candace furrowed her brows. "My present? How could you? I lost it. But I found the memory. It's right over there." She pointed again.
"That? That's not your present. That's my drain unclogger," Jeremy told her. "I don't know why I carry that around with me."
Wow. All this trouble for nothing. If Candace wasn't so excited by the prospect of Jeremy's actual gift, she'd be admonishing herself for being stupid for the umpteenth time today.
Suddenly, the pink, fluffy tops of the trees were violently ripped apart, finally giving Candace a glimpse at her id for the first time—and it was horrific.
Just like she predicted, the id was huge, towering above the trees. Its red eyes bulged out of the sockets, the sclera yellow and sickly-looking. Its mouth was open, revealing bloodstained, jagged teeth. Long, sharp claws tipped its fingernails, and it wore an exact replica of Candace's favorite red and white ensemble over stone gray skin.
The beast let out another primal roar, this one louder than the last, shaking the ground like a level nine earthquake as it did.
Baljeet screamed for them to run, and no one was dumb enough to disregard his advice (not even Candace). They sprinted back to the entrance as quick as they could, trying to outrun the id, blowing past Buford and the Fireside Girls (great, more uninvited guests in her head) as they did. Candace thought about warning them, but the sound of Buford's shrieking meant that he'd already seen the id in all its terrifying glory.
The id continued its pursuit, this time with a weapon. It struck the ground with a club, attempting to clobber anyone it could, growing in size with each swing. It wasn't that adept with the weapon though, and missed every time. Its angry growling steadily got more and more frustrated, and eventually, it tossed the club aside and bit right into the ground, tearing it like paper before beginning to devour it. This time, there was no running as the ground funneled them towards the id's mouth like they were on a giant conveyor belt.
Desperate and out of options, Candace attempted to turn on her vampire speed to get herself out of there, but it didn't work. The thing that clicked in her brain whenever she activated one of her powers wasn't responding, leaving her no way to escape. She was sucked into the id's mouth with everyone else and left in a dark void when the id shut its gaping maw.
Candace floated in this blackness for a couple of minutes before a feeling of intense warmth overtook her body. Almost directly after that, a bright light pierced through the dark, banishing the shadows and replacing them with a beautiful, blue sky.
The sky.... Does that mean Candace is awake and alright?
Shielding her eyes from the harsh sunlight, she sat up, finding herself in the same lounge chair as before. Everyone else who'd taken a dip into her mind had also woken up, removing the wires from their heads and departing from the backyard.
Candace pries off her own face wires and lets out a big sigh of relief. She's had enough excitement for the day.
"Hey, Buford never woke up!" Phineas said, rushing over to stand next to his still unconscious friend.
"What? How?" Candace asked, going over to stand by him. "He was with us when the id showed up!"
"I don't know, but we need to go get him."
"No, I'm going to get him," Candace told him firmly. "I don't need another parade running around inside my head."
"Okay, but be careful and take this." The youngest Flynn took off the watch he was wearing and secured it to his sister's wrist. "You can use it to communicate with me like I did with Irving earlier."
Candace went back to her own lounge chair and flopped down, reapplying the wires herself this time. Another four second countdown later, and Candace was back in her mind, starting once again at the Jeremy Mountains.
She takes a second to listen to her boyfriend's singing before starting her search for Buford. For his sake, she hopes she finds him quick.
For the second time that day, Candace makes her way across her own subconscious, passing several landmarks on her way. Some were familiar, some weren't, but one in particular caught her eye. Encased in a small meadow, just outside the Forest of Memory, was a tall bronze statue—a statue of her.
Sitting cross-legged on top of a pedestal, the Candace statue had its eyes closed and palms facing upwards like it was meditating. In the middle of its forehead was a noticeable crease, something the real Candace didn't possess.
Cautiously, the teen approached the statue. As she got closer, the energy in the air changed, causing her to feel calmer, as if this unusual bronze figure was trustworthy. When she got within a foot of it, she stuck out a hand and touched the statue's smooth face.
Almost immediately, Candace's vision was overtaken by a bright light, temporarily blinding her. The cool bronze heated up against her hand, and the energy in the air shifted again, this time with more intensity, filling her with a feeling of invigoration, like she had been supercharged.
The light and lively energy then faded as quickly as they came, leaving Candace seeing black dots in her vision for a few seconds. Staggering backwards, she removed her hand from the statue (which was still warm) and attempted to stop her head from spinning. When the dizziness and spots completely disappeared, she glanced back at the statue and froze in place.
The statue had completely changed. Instead of bronze, it was now stark white and the forehead crease was open, revealing a large, bright purple eye.
Gazing into this new third eye, Candace could sense something click in her brain. Now that's she discovered this place, she's unlocked something she shouldn't have been able to touch for a long time.
As a vampire, she has the potential to use abilities beyond the few she's already aware of that lay dormant in her mind, and if she tends to it, connects with it, nurtures it, she can call on the power within her and perform amazing feats. She has no clue how she knows all this, but she does. Like she had been blessed with some kind of divine revelation.
"How are you doing in there, Candace?"
Finally broken out of her transfixed state by her brother's voice, Candace blinks a few times and sounds off a reply into the wristwatch.
"I'm fine."
"Have you found Buford yet?"
Oh right. She was there for Buford. She'd forgotten about him for a minute.
"Not yet."
"Okay. Just let me know when you do."
Candace continued on her journey then, reluctantly leaving the clearing behind her. Once she wakes up back in the real world, she really needs to think about what she just experienced.
Candace finds Buford sitting by a beach with her id, talking to it like he was looking to score himself a date. She practically had to drag him away, paying no attention to his protests or the presence of the id itself, which was considerably smaller now. What was it gonna do, eat her again? Been there, done that.
By the time the two awakened, it was getting fairly late in the day, so Candace decided to just retire to her room, still thinking about what had transpired in her head. She has power in her she can use.... But how? Maybe she can try meditating?
She sits down on her bedroom floor, mimicking the statue's pose, and closes her eyes. She doesn't know meditation is really supposed to work aside from the whole "clear your mind" thing, but it's worth a shot.
Clearing her mind proves to be more difficult than she expected. There's just too many questions bouncing around in her head, and she gives up trying after a couple of minutes. Instead, she focuses her mind's eye on her memory of the statue post transformation. It gave her the information she needed before, maybe it will again.
For a while, she concentrates on what the statue had taught her. She had power. She can harness it. Care for it. Control it. Whatever it was.
What was this power, anyway? The question lingers, and she tries to push it away, but something tells her not to. Are these powers physical like her enhanced speed and strength? Or are they more mind based? She's inclined to believe it's the latter, but she could be wrong.
She remembers when her brothers tested out her abilities back when she first became a vampire. She couldn't demonstrate a lot of the psychic powers that vampires in media usually had, but perhaps she can now.
Going down a mental checklist, Candace mulls over each ability, hoping something will click in her mind again.
Telekinesis.... Mind reading.... Creating illusions.... Hypnosis..... Shapeshifting....
Wait, right there. A small tingle stirred up when Candace thought of shapeshifting. Can she turn into something besides a bat now? How about a wolf?
Nothing. No tingles. Maybe a wolf is too big?
She thinks of a rat next. Still nothing. She goes smaller and conjures up the image of a fly.
There! Tingles!
Candace reaches for the power within and instantly, she feels her body change. She opens her eyes and looks down at herself, now in the form of a common housefly.
Candace shifts back to her normal form and lets out an elated squeal. It worked! She changed into something new! Yeah, it may have been a nasty fly, but it's better than nothing.
Linda's voice floats upstairs then, calling for her daughter to come down for dinner. Candace smiles to herself and gets up from the floor, smoothing down her skirt as she does. It seems like the day wasn't a total loss after all.
The next day, Jeremy swings by the house before his shift to drop off Candace's present. He'd meant to give it to her yesterday, but had forgotten after all the "excitement". It was a pretty purple bracelet that was too wide for her thin wrist, but she didn't really care. She was just happy to have gotten it in the first place.
She spent the rest of the morning meditating on her bedroom floor, trying to level up her shapeshifting. That didn't work, so she instead just practiced shifting into various small insects. From a bee to a butterfly to even a tiny aphid, Candace successfully attempted them all.
Except spiders. She can't stand those things. No way was she turning into one willingly.
After a while, Candace decided she'd had enough for the time being and stood up. She didn't really have any other plans for the day, but that problem got solved when her eyes spotted something large outside.
God damn it, she should have known Phineas and Ferb would be up to no good again. Now they've gone and made what looks to be a giant ant farm in the backyard. What would they even need that for? Are they breeding human-sized ants? Didn't they get their fill of oversized creatures yesterday?
Regardless of the reason, Candace isn't going to let this shit slide. She takes out her phone and dials her mom's number, but it met with Linda's voicemail. She tries again, then a third time, then a fourth, but her mom never answers.
Growling in frustration, Candace snaps the phone shut, slathers on some sunscreen, and stomps downstairs. She briefly considers going over to the Garcia-Shapiro household to tell Linda what's going on person, but decides otherwise. There's no way her mom is going to ditch her Wednesday drawing class for this.
"Phineas and Ferb, let me in!" the redhead demands once she reaches the base of the ant farm, pressing down hard on the yellow button next to the circular entrance. She expected this noticeable button to be some kind of doorbell, but instead of hearing a familiar chime come from inside the ant farm, she finds herself being doused in some kind of rancid-smelling spray.
"Ew! What the heck is wrong with this doorbell?!" She whines, slamming her hand on it repeatedly, only to be met with more of the gross, pink spray, some of it getting in her eyes.
She gives up on the button then, figuring out much too late that it was not a doorbell. She tries the door then and finds it to be unlocked, meaning she completely wasted her time with that button. God, when she finds Phineas and Ferb, they're so busted.
Sometimes Candace wonders if she was royalty in a past life. If she wasn't, then it's really strange that she keeps stumbling into situations revolving around her being or impersonating a royal. Playing the Princess Monster, swapping places with the princess of Drusselstein, being crowned queen of Mars, and the predicament she's in now. Just like those little green men did when she visited their planet, the oversized ants occupying the farm had taken her in and put her on their throne.
Of course, since they're bugs, their "riches" consisted of a cheaply made crown and a bowl of mixed bread crumbs and grasshopper legs, but she'll take what she can get. Hell, the legs weren't even that bad; they were nice and crunchy, like pretzel sticks.
Despite not being able to speak, the ants seem to understand English pretty well since they managed to do any task their queen requested of them without fail. Candace had learned about queen ants and queen bees and the like in school, but her teachers really downplayed how loyal these bugs are to their leader. They'd probably offer themselves up as sacrifices if she asked for blood.
Now that she thinks about it, can ant blood fully satisfy her hunger? Human blood obviously does the trick, and she wouldn't be shocked if animal blood was an acceptable meal, but what about giant bugs? There's only one way to really find out.
She commands the nearest ant to come over to her throne, which it does immediately. Unleashing her fangs, she leans in and bites into its skinny neck. She starts sucking out its blood and recoils very quickly when her mouth is filled with what just might be the most rancid thing she's ever tasted. The smell is no better, and after spitting out the ant's foul, yellowish blood, she coughs and gags, covering her mouth and shooing the still bleeding ant away. The wound continues leaking as the insect leaves, the pus like fluid dripping to the ground as it walks. Right away, it is surrounded by a bunch of its brethren, doing what Candace believes to be patching up the bite she'd given it, and slumps back into her throne.
Candace shoves some more of the bread crumbs and grasshopper legs into her mouth in an attempt to cancel out the horrid taste of the ant's blood. She could really go for a salad right about now. Or some strong mouthwash.
Like on Mars, Candace's reign as queen of the ants was very short. The big, brown bugs developed their civilization so rapidly that they decided they no longer wanted a monarch controlling them. That was okay with her though. Now she can bust her brothers without any distractions.
But of course, that didn't work out. By the time she managed to drag her mom to the backyard, the ant farm had vanished. Predictable.
She sulked back to her room after that and called Jeremy, hoping that hearing his voice would make her feel better. Luckily, he was just finishing his shift for the day, and the two of them ended up talking for a while, which did bring up Candace's spirits.
After chatting with her boyfriend, the redhead got another call an hour later. That resulted up in another long, pleasant conversation, this time with Stacy.
Night had fallen sometime during the girls' gossiping session, and they didn't show any signs of stopping until Candace saw the familiar sight of a green beam zapping through the air just outside her window.
Jesus Christ, is one invention for the day not enough for Phineas and Ferb anymore? Have they resorted to building overnight projects as well? They are so busted!
"I think the boys are shooting green lasers in the backyard," Candace tells Linda, dragging her into the room towards the window. "Look!"
Outside, the boys and their friends are setting up a telescope, presumably to look at the stars, no lasers to be seen.
"Hey kids, how's the over-nighter going?" Linda asked them, poking her head out the window.
"Great, Mom!" Phineas replied. "Everyone's helping, even Perry." He gestured to the platypus, who was lying dormant on a lawn chair, a flashlight resting next to his paws.
Linda moved away from the window and turned to face her daughter, crossing her arms as she did.
"Candace, do you remember two weeks ago, when we wrote up this contract?" she inquired, pulling a sheet of paper out of the pocket of her light green robe.
"The Bust Accord?" Candace asks, looking it over. Of course she remembers it. It's got more articles than the US Constitution.
"And do you recall article twelve?"
"Yes. 'I will not attempt to bust my brothers more than once a day'," the teen rattles off. "I remember. But—"
"And what happened earlier today?"
"I tried to show you a giant ant farm."
"Excellent, we have an understanding. Now go to bed. You can try again tomorrow," Linda tells her daughter before leaving the room.
Frustrated, Candace stomps over to her bed and sits down, glancing at her alarm clock. It was a little after ten, meaning in about two hours it would be midnight, and therefore, tomorrow. She just had to wait until then.
Unfortunately, that was easier said than done.
Sitting around and twiddling her thumbs proved to be an ineffective way of passing time, and wishing for the clock to suddenly strike twelve didn't work either. It was almost like she was Cinderella, but in reverse.
Staring out the window at the glass slipper that was her brothers' would-be invention also didn't do much with her. She heard them say some stuff about fiber optics and space probes, but they hadn't actually made anything huge or dangerous or bizarre yet, so she had to keep waiting.
She tried meditating for a while, but was too amped up to really relax, so she ditched that idea very quickly. Pacing around her room, she wracked her brain for a way to spend time. Jeremy was probably already asleep now, so she couldn't call him, and Stacy sounded like she was on the verge of dozing off when Candace got off the phone with her before, so she doubts the dark-haired girl is still awake. Maybe she can do some research?
That idea appealed to her, so Candace sits down at her computer and boots it up. She came up with a few things she could look up, mostly relating to potential vampire cures, but then she remembered the article Stacy had read to her the other day about Sienna Herrera and how she's the seventh person to go missing or die this summer across the Tri-State Area. Candace had made a mental note to check out the rest of that list and now seemed like a good time.
When the computer turned on, Candace went right to the search engine and looked for the article in question. It didn't take long to find, and a quick perusal of the author's writings showed that this journalist, Daniel Slater, had also published a timeline of all seven people, and that it had been updated to add Sienna not too long after he posted the article focused on her.
Candace clicked on the list, taking note of the fact that these seven people had all died or gone missing in Danville alone, not the greater Tri-State Area, like she'd assumed. That was a bit alarming, as Danville rarely experiences any violent crime or disappearances, let alone seven across less than three months. No wonder Mr. Slater was so interested in keeping a catalogue of these cases.
The first person on the list is Riley Samuels, a nineteen-year-old engineering student that lived in the eye of the city in an apartment with one other female roommate, Jodie Tanner. She was last seen on the night of June 10th by Jodie leaving their apartment at eight PM, intending to go hang out with some friends. Jodie went to bed a few hours later, and when she woke up for work the next morning at nine, Riley hadn't arrived home. Upon contacting a few of the friends she intended to hang out with that night, Jodie discovered that Riley had never showed up at the club she was supposed to meet them at, and they'd assumed she'd just forgotten. Jodie reported her roommate missing that evening after failing to reach her via telephone. Riley has not been seen since.
The next person on the list is thirty-five-year-old Roy Houston, a single, childless man working as an English teacher at Jefferson County Middle School. He lived a few blocks away from the school, close by his elderly mother, Irene Houston, who visited him twice a week. On the morning of June 25th, he was found dead by Irene in his front yard, exsanguinated. It was later determined that he'd been dead for almost twelve hours at that point. His death was ruled a homicide.
Number three is Ned Forge, a seventy-year-old widowed retiree that lived on his own. Two of his four children also live in Danville, and noted that their father was known to go on long fishing trips with friends for days on end in places that don't typically have cell service. When his oldest child, Sasha, tried to call him on July 4th and didn't get a response, she just assumed he was on one of his famous fishing trips. She attempted to reach him again three days later and once again received no response. She claims she had a "bad feeling" and dropped by his house to check on him. She found Ned deceased in his bathroom. Like Roy, Ned had been exsanguinated and his death was ruled a homicide. Based on the body decomposition, he had most likely perished on the second or third day of July.
The fourth person is Rachelle Howard-Faulk, a fifty-four-year-old woman living with her wife, Bianca Howard-Faulk, and Rachelle's niece, Gianna Howard, whom the couple gained custody of four years prior. She was also the last person to see Rachelle alive on the evening of July 10th; the two women were out grocery shopping together, and had made a pit stop at an ice cream parlor on the way home at about seven-thirty. According to Gianna, Rachelle realized she'd forgotten her wallet in the car and went back outside to grab it while Gianna browsed the parlor's selections. After waiting for a few minutes, Gianna wandered outside to see if her aunt needed help, only to find that Rachelle had disappeared. The driver's side door of her car was wide open and her wallet and keys were laying on the ground next to it. Gianna tried calling both her aunts and got no response from either of them. She then called the police, who came out and searched the general area, only to find no sign of Rachelle. They then escorted Gianna home where Bianca was, having just gotten off work, clueless as to the whole ordeal. Rachelle has not been seen since.
The fifth person on the list is Cameron Jameson, a forty-eight-year-old divorced father of two that worked as a clerk in a hotel he also lived in. On the morning of July 13th, he was found dead in the alley next to the hotel by his manager. His death was ruled a suicide.
The sixth person is Allen Ingram, Candace's first victim. The information listed for him was all things she'd already heard about on the news already.
The seventh was also predictably Sienna Herrera, the dental hygienist found floating in the town's moat. She was last seen by her husband, Barrett Herrera, the night before her body was discovered. They liked to take nightly walks together, but Sienna had gone alone that night because Barrett was feeling under the weather. He fell asleep while she was out and called the police when he woke up at six the next morning and found no sign of her. Like Stacy said, Sienna's death is currently being treated as an accident.
Now, at the end of the list, Candace took a few minutes to think over everything she just read. Roy and Ned are obvious vampire victims based on the fact that they were found exsanguinated, but she isn't sure about Riley or Rachelle; they could also have fallen victim to a hungry vampire, but right now, there's no way to confirm it. Sienna's death was most likely not vampire related, and she doubts Cameron's is either if his demise was deemed a suicide and not elaborated on further. She does wonder what drove him to do it, though. She can't imagine what it's like to feel so hopeless and alone that she would take her own life instead of confide in someone she trusts.
Pushing away those dark thoughts, Candace realizes that the Hispanic man she killed is no where on this list, not in the descriptions nor amongst the pictures included. Cameron was Black, Riley was Asian, and the rest were Caucasian. There's no way his body still hasn't been discovered. Could her hunch about the cops keeping his murder under wraps be true? It's completely crazy and she can't muster up a reasonable explanation as to why they would keep his murder out of the news, so why hasn't his death been reported on yet?
He'd told her that he needed to get out of town.... Was he running from someone powerful and/or dangerous? Did he have a stalker or a crazy ex? Did he get caught up with gangs?
Well, maybe not gangs, that's kind of a stretch. She's heard about other parts of the Tri-State Area having problems with supervillains, but gang activity is rarer than rare.
The sound of creaking metal outside her window distracted Candace, drawing her attention away from her research. The noise didn't last long, and almost directly after it faded out, she saw a glowing green light coming down from the sky.
Damn it, Candace knew her brothers would do something bustable sooner or later. She looks at the clock and grins when she sees that it is now midnight, AKA busting time!
Springing up from her seat, Candace sprints her to parents' room and bursts through the door.
"Mom! Mom!" she shouts, realizing after a second that her parents weren't in bed, but on the floor, listening to a record player.
"What are you guys doing?" she asks after a few seconds.
"Oh, hi honey, we were just listening to some records," her father says, pleasant as ever. "It's what we used to use for music when we were kids."
"Candace, I thought we had an understanding," Linda said, sounding decidedly less amused than her husband.
"Yeah, it's midnight," Candace tells her. "That means you have to come see what Phineas and Ferb made in the backyard."
Despite the clear exasperation sullying her face, Linda stood up and complied with her daughter's request.
"Hurry, let's go!" Candace yells, bounding down the stairs. She heard her mom say something in response, but she tunes in out, making a beeline for the back door. She throws it open and steps outside, taking in the sight of a giant spring. It's not the most flashy invention in the world, but it's certainly bustable.
That is, if it had stayed long enough for Linda to see it.
Right before she came outside, the spring lifted up into the air, taking Candace's chance to bust her brothers with it. The only thing she can do now is join the kids inside for a midnight snack. At least she can bury her disappointment in food.
At about half-past twelve, the kids went to bed, curling up in sleeping bags under a makeshift fort made of sheets in the living room. Linda and Candace retired back to their respective rooms not long after that, with the latter unable to force herself to sleep again. She was going to just down some more melatonin gummies, but found the bottle was now nearly empty, meaning someone else (most likely her mother) had taken a couple before bed.
With no fruit-flavored sleep aides around, Candace couldn't find it in her to sleep. She eventually sits back down at her computer to do more research, but hits a mental block very quickly, unable to concentrate on the screen in front of her.
Annoyed, Candace abandons those plans and attempts to meditate, hoping it would either strengthen her powers or make her sleepy. An hour later, she finds it did neither.
Candace gets up from the floor, her frustration growing with every movement. She needs to do something, but can't manage to make progress with any of her nighttime activities. She needs something that will either make her tired or give her inspiration, but what? The library is definitely not open now, so she can't look for more vampire books there now. Maybe the pharmacy is still open? She can probably walk there and see if they have more gummies.
Wait, that's it! A walk! The streets will be dark, quiet, and vacant outside, so she won't have to deal with anyone else and can clear her head in peace. It's perfect!
Candace hastily gets dressed, opens her window, and turns into a bat, flying off towards the heart of Danville. She shifts back in an alley (making sure there weren't any muggers this time) and begins walking. She doesn't have a destination in mind, so she just goes where her legs take her.
For a while, she strolls through the city, breathing in the warm, summer air, delighting in the fact that she could see perfectly well in the dark with her vampire night vision, and listening to the sound of the occasional car driving down the street. She sees a few animals as she walks, but she doesn't come across a human soul until she reaches the old drawbridge.
Leaning against the bridge's railing is a man smoking a cigarette. His face is slightly wrinkled and marred by age, his eyes are the color of a freshly brewed coffee, and his messy hair is a mix of medium brown and gray. He wore a brown trench coat, a matching fedora, and shiny black shoes, giving him the style of a hardened, vintage detective.
The man raised an eyebrow at Candace as she walked across the bridge, clearly surprised to see her there.
"Awfully late for a girl as young as you to be out," he said once she made eye contact.
"I'm just taking a walk," she told him, wrinkling her nose as the tobacco smell hit her nostrils. "What are you doing out here?"
"Smoking. And thinking about some things."
"Like what?"
He paused before continuing, "You know, a young woman fell to her death here not too long ago."
Candace nodded. "Yeah, I know. She was on the news."
He took another long drag of his cigarette before flicking it over the bridge and into the moat.
"Be careful, miss. There's something dark lurking in this town. I'd hate to see you fall victim to it." He punctuated his warning with a tip of his hat and a smile that didn't reach his eyes before walking away.
Candace watched the man leave, both curious and disturbed by what he said. If she was bold, she might have remarked that the only "dark" presence in Danville was her, but the feeling in her gut that there was something terribly off about this guy kept her from speaking another word.
As soon as he was out of sight, Candace turned into a bat and flew home as fast as she could. Even though she knew nothing about that man, not even his name, she can't help but think that she'll be seeing him again soon.