Chapter Text
Mr. Reader prided himself on his decision-making skills. His family trusted him. He was the father, the head of the household, the one who left the best for his family. And yet—this was the only decision in his life he was beginning to regret.
The signs had been there. Warnings. DANGER. DANGER. Fear.
But he had ignored them.
As they approached the city limits, a sign loomed into view, greeting them like any other town entrance. Blue, official, normal.
Except… it wasn’t normal.
It read:
WELCOME TO AMITY PARK
"A safe place to live"
But the words weren’t untouched. Thick, jagged lines of gray spray paint slashed through the original slogan, its replacement scrawled in crooked, drippy handwriting—the kind you’d expect from a vandal rushing through the act, looking over their shoulder.
"The most haunted town in America."
Vandalism was normal. People tagged signs all the time. Teens rebelling. Locals playing pranks. But this? This was different.
The paint was old—too old. Sun-bleached in some places, yet fresh enough in others, as though someone had repeatedly tried to erase it, only for the words to return, again and again. It lingered.
And then there was the feeling.
It wasn’t the eerie glow of flickering green streetlights. Or the unnatural green splatters dotting the pavement, staining the roads like something bled through the cracks of reality.
No, it was something more primal. More instinctive.
The moment their car passed the sign, something shifted. A pressure in the air. A whisper at the back of their skulls.
Fear.
Not just discomfort or unease, but a fear that twisted deep inside, coiling around the base of the spine like cold fingers. A fear that made you want to run. To scream. To hide. And worst of all—
To disappear.
A shadow moved.
Too fast. Too close.
Something rose from the pavement, sudden and wrong, right in the path of their car.
"LOOK OUT!"
SPLAT.
A wet, sickening impact.
The car lurched to a halt, the family's breath stolen in collective horror. Mr. Reculer’s hands clenched the wheel, knuckles white. His wife gasped, one hand over her mouth.
But then…
Nothing.
No sound. No movement.
No body.
The realization hit like a speeding bullet.
WHAT DID THEY JUST HIT?
---
Samson Reader was nervous.
“Why?” you ask.
Well... his father just RAN over someone, for Pete’s sake! Doesn’t that deserve jail time? And you know what else is making him nervous? There’s not one, but two weapon-wielding, goggled, hazmat-wearing mad scientists!
“Heyya, kiddo,” the man in the orange hazmat (or can you call it a jumpsuit?) greeted, “Ready to hunt some ghosts?”
Oh, and apparently the whole town is cuckoo.
“Ghosts don’t exist, Mister,” Samson replied.
“Sure they do! Don’t they?” The man rubbed his chin as he thought. Then his face suddenly lit up. “Well, boyo. If ghosts don’t exist then what do you call those?”
The Reader family looked in the direction he pointed. It was empty.
“Haha, we appreciate your enthusiasm, uh...” Mrs. Reader started.
“Fenton,” the woman in the teal hazmat suit supplied.
“Ah, yes, Doctors... Fenton. But I do believe my boy is right.” She cracked a smile.
Liar, Sam thought bitterly. You believe them, Mom. Your hands have been shaking since we passed that sign.
“Well, let’s get this tour started!” Dr. Fenton in orange exclaimed.
“Would you like to walk, or maybe prefer to take the trip in the GAV?” Dr. Fenton in teal pointed to a steel gray tank resembling an RV that definitely shouldn’t be street legal.
Mr. Reader laughed nervously. “Might I suggest walking? I think we’d see more sights that way?”
“What a great idea!” Dr. Fenton in teal smiled. “Come along now, Jack.”
“Bonzai!” Dr. Fenton in orange shouted while running ahead.
“Oh dear, sorry about Jack,” Dr. Fenton in teal forced a smile. “Let’s start the tour, shall we?”
---
Samson was speechless.
The people here tried really hard to stick to their ‘haunted’ theme. Property damage was everywhere, green slime littered the walls, streets — practically everything — and buildings. The Fentons were explaining some things, but Samson was too busy staring.
But he should definitely start listening, which he will do right now.
“And this is where we’ll end the tour,” Dr. Fenton in teal — Maddie, as the other doctor called her (the word "doctor" was making Sam’s head spin now) — announced.
Samson craned his neck to see a quaint little apartment building.
“This is your new home,” she said in a cheery tone. “We’re neighbors, so we’ll just be right across the street.”
As much as Samson was still horrified about this whole place, he can’t deny he was also still curious...
Nope! Self-preservation comes first!
When Samson tuned back in, the Fentons were already gone, and his family was just standing there in silence. It stopped when his dad stood up straight and called their attention.
“Why don’t we all head inside? It’s been a long day,” Mr. Reader suggested, jamming the keys into the lock.
The whole family nodded dumbly and shuffled inside once the door was opened. Once everyone was inside, they realized the lights were off. They were about to turn them on when the door slammed shut.
“Welcome to your new home...” someone said. Their voice was layered and sounded like an echo.
Mr. Reader can now say he truly regrets his decision.
---
Averone Reader was preparing for his first day of school in this town called Amity Park. He was hoping to make a good impression on his new (for him) classmates!
His only worry was his parents. They’ve been acting weird lately. Samson, his little brother, thinks they believe what the town cuckoos say. But Averone doesn’t believe that, because ghosts DON’T exist. They’ve been told that since they were kids — why should he believe in them now?
He realized his mistake after he got inside the school.
The whole place was weird. Like... in a weird good way.
His day started out normal until he started noticing things. Casper High’s halls were clean (which shouldn’t be possible for any high school out there). The lockers weren’t rusted or filled with trash (they had green slime instead). Lastly, there wasn’t gum anywhere.
Those signs should’ve been the first red flags, but no ~ his one-track mind couldn’t imagine there might be a possibility ghosts could exist.
What his brain did consider a red flag was the hallways.
In this school there were dead hallways — ones with no people in them. It was rare in his old school, but apparently it was common here.
Every time he walked those halls, he would feel a chill race down his spine. But he didn’t mind. Just like he didn’t mind being alone while passing those halls.
Or was he? his subconscious nagged at him.
As he was passing, the lights started to flicker. Averone froze.
Mist started flowing out from under the closed doors in the halls.
The hall started to lengthen—to spread. It seemed unending, and it kept getting bigger and bigger as he shrunk smaller and smaller.
Eyes started sprouting everywhere—on the ceiling, on the floor—big, small, medium.
Averone felt like he was choking.
The air was oppressive.
Green was everywhere.
RIIIIIIIING
The hallways turned back to normal.
He could breathe again. Now, he should get back to class.
---
“Good morning, everyone,” a bald man in his mid-30s greeted. The bored class acknowledged his greeting. Averone just lingered by the door.
“As everyone knows, we have a new classmate—”
Everyone started to murmur.
“I thought they only had an elementary kid,” someone muttered.
“Well obviously not—”
“Maybe it’s one of those child prodigies?” another offered.
Averone scoffed. You wish I was one of those child prodigies.
“Ehem?” The bald man raised his eyebrows. The class settled down. “As I was saying — everyone, this is Averone Reader, the eldest child of the Reader family. Averone, please take your seat.”
Averone started walking toward the desks. Every seat near the walls and windows was taken up, same with the front row. The only empty seat left was next to a black-haired kid snoring softly at his desk. With no choices left, Averone sat next to him. Classes began.
These people are weird. This school is weird. This whole town is weird, Averone thought bitterly, recounting his experiences over the past two days.
Every dead hall he passed, he kept seeing things. Every kid’s locker was full of things that shouldn’t be there in the first place. Like—did you know the locker next to him was full of live and dead rats? He didn’t either. And he would have happily continued in his ignorance if the kid wasn’t so blatant about it.
In Math, the teacher, Mr. Falluca, taught algebra. That was normal.
What wasn’t normal was the fact that apparently these green blobs were following him. The whole class didn’t seem to care, or maybe they couldn’t see it. (Was he slowly going insane?)
Also, he got lost in the halls that one time and found a kid drinking from a water fountain. Again, normal. BUT! The water was GLOWING! GREEN and GLOWING! The kid had a bored expression on his face and didn’t even seem to notice, and just commented that it was spicy???
He thought everything would settle down by lunchtime. But boy was he wrong.
A lunch lady (why do they call her that? And act like that’s her name, too?) started throwing meat around and screaming, “YOU CHANGED MY MENU?!”
The weird thing? His whole homeroom class was just ignoring it. Then a meatball flew to their table, and a lanky redhead just flipped his tray and shielded himself from it.
HOW?!
Everyone then calmly took their food and started catching incoming meat like it was a regular Tuesday. Then this white-haired, green-eyed, floating (?!), flying (???) kid showed up and fought the lunch lady, yelling something about how he’d "soup" her (what the HECK does that mean?). Then he uncapped a thermos (again, what??) and the lady got sucked in.
Everyone was still in their seats. Eating. Like. Normal.
The weirdest part was after lunch period — when he had a class named Ectology 101. (What the hell is Ectology?!) And their teacher?
His deskmate.
The boy stood at the front and began casually explaining.
“For those who don’t know, Ectology is the study of all things related to ectoplasm. But as everyone knows, this class will mostly tackle topics about ghosts. Now, just like last year, we’ll have a poll on ‘Who’s your favorite ghost?’ and...”
Averone slammed his head on the desk.
He couldn’t take this anymore.
---
Then there was P.E., run by Ms. Tetslaff.
In the boys’ locker room, Averone was surprised to find everyone had scars.
“Hey, where’d you get that one?” a punk kid pointed somewhere on the blonde jock.
“Oh, I got that over the weekend,” the jock replied, as if that explained everything.
“Rad,” the punk replied with a nod.
An Asian boy — Kwan, maybe? — walked up to Averone.
“Dude, no scars?”
Averone raised an eyebrow. “Um, yeah?”
“Damn, you’re so unlucky, dude. But you’ll be fine. You’ll be sporting one of those in no time!”
Kwan (?) smiled and left to put on his uniform.
He’s concerned. What does the dude mean? Why do they treat scars like badges of honor?
Then, as they were warming up, some floating dude with a mohawk appeared — WHO’S SKULKER?! — and everyone cheered.
What is wrong with these people??
And what’s with the property damage?!
---
“How’s school?” Mrs. Reader asked.
Averone just blanked.
“I’m... going to my room.” He went upstairs.
Silence followed — until the front door opened.
“Samson, sonny, how was school?” Mr. Reader asked.
Samson started bawling out of nowhere.
---
It had been a week since the Readers came to town.
The town held a potluck to celebrate their new neighbors. Some ghosts were even allowed to attend. Everyone was having fun...
Until someone asked,
“Where’s the Readers?”
---
Dash, Star, Kwan, and Paulina — the A-listers — were visiting the Reader home.
“I hope the Reader kid isn’t sick. He seemed cool,” Kwan said.
Paulina just raised her eyebrows. “Since when were outsiders cool?” she asked.
Dash knocked on the door.
“Mr. and Mrs. Reader, we’ve got Averone’s homework!”
The A-listers stood in silence.
“Do you think they went sightseeing?” Kwan asked.
“What is there to sightsee?” Star rebutted.
“Ugh, guys, this is taking up too much time. We still gotta hang out. Why don’t we just—”
Paulina walked up the steps and opened the door.
Dash peeked in. “Huh, they left.”
“Wes was right. We aren’t gonna get new neighbors anymore,” Kwan deflated.
“NOOOOO!” Dash pulled his hair.
“Dash, what’s wrong?” Star asked, rubbing his back.
“I owe Wes $20!”
“Haha, serves you right,” Paulina laughed.
“Yeah, that’s why you shouldn’t bet against Wes,” Star nodded, still rubbing Dash’s back.
“Didn’t we all bet against Wes though?” Kwan scratched his head.
Everyone stared at Kwan.
“NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!”