The Fright Before Christmas

Episode #30

Transcripted by Dennis Dunjinman

--

 

Prologue

 

Fade into a scene of a winter wonderland. Snowflakes fall. There is a happy snowman with a top hat on, a broom is behind it. A small white bear is seen standing, waving and wearing a Santa suit. A small cottage is seen in the background with smoke coming from the chimney.

 

Scene pans left continuously to reveal more holiday spirit. A lamppost with a green bow tied around it has two carolers in front of it, one a woman with a large pink dress and bonnet and the other a man with a blue suit, both holding books. A white needled conifer with green ornaments is seen. A wooden fence is in the back. A smiling pink bunny is seen with a Santa hat and a red and green scarf. Oh, the ultra-jolly humanity.

 

Zoom out super-fast to reveal that all that tooth-rotting goodness was a billboard next to a parking lot. A large building reads “Amity Park Mall” on the sign; it’s decorated with a reef and many conifers. There are no open parking spaces in the lot.

 

Cut to a closer look of the Amity Park Mall entrance, decked in Christmas decoration. A man in a Santa suit is ringing a bell. A fat red-haired girl in lavender snow-clothes approaches the mall. Star in her red outfit comes behind her. A mother is bringing her boy with her. Three more girls that are Casper High students come toward the entrance as well.

 

Fade to inside the mall. There is a huge crowd of last-minute shoppers, many going about their business. Pan up to reveal a larger, farther crowd of purple, and an entire second story flooded with consumers. The store is decked with decorations, and one store on the left reads “sale”.

 

Zoom in. Fade to Danny, Sam and Tucker walking past a store named, rather conjecturally/self-referentially “The Sports Store”. Tucker, in the back, is looking with disbelief at Sam, who is cheery and is waving. Danny is looking rather cross with his hands in his pockets and his back hunched, looking at the floor.

 

SAM: Merry Christmas!

 

As she says this, and angry mother with red hair and a yellow jacket is holding a small blue box in one hand and has her son in the other, a boy in red and green with a dopey white hat who is throwing a tantrum. A miserable man with a bald scalp walks behind them, carrying a red shopping bag.

 

SAM: Happy Holidays!

 

She opens her eyes when she says this. The trio is now in front of a store named “House of Shoes.” A fairly apathetic man with a square, black goatee and a green hat wearing a brown coat and cameos with his hands in his pockets walks past.

 

Soon, a rabbi-looking man walks past quickly. Sam turns her head to spread more cheer.

 

SAM: Happy Hanukah!

 

Cut to outside a store called “Candy Cane Kingdom”, completely decked with candy canes and ribbons. Mikey is standing outside the store with his blue sweater, red and green scarf, and red hat. Sam walks up to him, smiling and arms akimbo.

 

SAM: Merry Christmas, Mikey.

 

MIKEY: *You*?!

 

Close up on Mikey in a light blue action background.

 

MIKEY: Are being cheery?!

 

Cut to outside Candy Cane Kingdom, Sam seen from behind as Mikey hunches over.

 

MIKEY: IT’S A TRAP!

 

Mikey throws his arms up and turns around to run for it. Pan left to show the mall exit, Mikey runs toward it.

 

MIKEY: *IT’S A TRA-A-A-AP*!

 

Cut to Sam, her hands in her pockets. Danny and Tucker walk up to her, Danny looking cross and Tucker in disbelief.

 

SAM: What’s with him?

 

Sam’s eyes turn to Danny.

 

DANNY: What’s with *you*?

 

Danny’s eyes turn to Tucker, behind him.

 

TUCKER: (chin up and eyes closed) Aw, perk up, Danny.

 

Close up on Tucker.

 

TUCKER: I know you’re in your annual holiday funk, but this is the one time of year Sam *isn’t* instantly dour.

 

Cut to outside “House of Shoes” and “Jewelry”. A typical African-American man walks past in a blue coat. Sam slides in with both her hands down and pointing forward.

 

SAM: Have a kickin’ Kwanzaa!

 

The man stops and looks behind him. Sam smiles nervously with her eyes wide.

 

Cut to Danny. Tucker leans in from the right.

 

TUCKER: And the one time of the year--

 

Tucker takes his red beret off and replaces it with an identical one with a mistletoe hanging from the top of it, Danny looks up at it.

 

TUCKER: --I can bust out the Foley mistletoe beret!

 

Zoom out. An attractive woman in a red sweater, red boots and a white skirt is walking past holding a dog kennel. She stops as Tucker talks.

 

TUCKER: Hey there, Miss.

 

Zoom in on the woman, looking with annoyance. Tucker pops in from the right with the mistletoe on his beret bouncing.

 

TUCKER: How about spreading a little Christmas cheer?

 

Zoom in on Tucker, who closes his eyes and puckers up. The red-haired dog in the kennel comes in from the left and licks Tucker’s lips, suddenly closing an eye and raising his ears, opening his mouth with a sound of disgust. Pan right to Tucker.

 

TUCKER: (no longer puckering) Mmm. (opens his eyes and puts a finger to his chin) You had liver for lunch.

 

Apart from the fact that was relatively disgusting, dog food contains meat by-products such as liver. By the way, dogs’ mouths are cleaner than humans due to chemicals in their saliva. Who knew? So it’s not that icky to be kissed by a dog.

 

Cut to Danny, standing unattended in the middle of the mall with a tree on the side and shoppers everywhere. A blond woman with light-blue clothes and a pink hat runs past with a stack of two presents, Danny narrowly ducking aside with a grunt showing he is creeped out. As that happens, a fat, black man with yellow earmuffs and an orange shirt walks just behind him, Danny moving again to avoid him, uttering another moan.

 

Zoom in on Danny, looking behind himself and his arm forward. He steps back suddenly as a woman in light purple carrying two shopping bags walks past him without even caring what’s in front of her, Danny moaning again with fright. But just as Danny is able to rest from this encounter, an older black man with his own stack of presents walks past behind him, grazing Danny and forcing him forward. He turns toward the inattentive man with anger, growling. He growls again to turn back facing front. Suddenly, he clenches his fists, closes his eyes, and crouches over.

 

Close up on Danny. His upper lip is vibrating as he growls in irritation. He throws himself back on a light purple action background, shouting with his arms in the air.

 

DANNY: *I HATE THE HOLIDAYS*!

 

Shouting angrily to the sky, huh? Very euro-goth.

 

Cut to Tucker and Sam outside the Candy Cane Kingdom.

 

SAM: I don’t get it! (lifts arms in questioning) How can anybody hate this time of year?

 

Close up on Sam, she smiles.

 

SAM: I don’t even celebrate it and I love it!

 

Zoom out. Tucker approaches Sam from the right. He puts his hand around her neck, Sam’s head hunches over.

 

TUCKER: That’s right! You don’t know about (close up) “The Fight”.

 

Cut to Sam.

 

SAM: “The Fight”?

 

Zoom out to show Sam from far away and a close up of Tucker from behind. Tucker turns around looking sadly, Sam turns slightly to observe what’s going on.

 

Cut to a pen of two reindeer with a line of people nearby. A sign on the pen reads “Live Reindeer” and another sign hanging in front of two crossed candy canes reads “Meet Santa!”, an arrow pointing to the left.

 

MADDIE: (offscreen) Santa Claus is a--

 

Pan left to show a few children on the steps of a large red stage where Santa sits on his throne. Two elves are near watching the feud. Maddie is seen on the left, Jack on the right with a Santa hat on.

 

MADDIE: (lifting her arm) --ho-ho-hoax!

 

Cut to a light blue action background. Jack pops up.

 

JACK: *Heretic*!

 

Cut to Santa looking rather helpless and confused on the wooden, green throne with a banner behind him that has a big “S” on it. Jack and Maddie both lean in, Maddie looking mad with her arms akimbo, Jack looking down on her.

 

JACK: Santa’s real as real can be! (turns his head around) Don’t listen to her, kids.

 

Cut to four children looking upon the red stage, Jack walks up with his megaphone, his other arm on his hip in a fist. A sign reads “Santa’s Workshop”.

 

JACK: Santa’s coming tonight in his sleigh full of goodies!

 

Cut to five generic children on the floor. They all exchange looks.

 

Cut to another light blue action background. Jack pops up diagonally from the left, his arm raised and with his megaphone.

 

JACK: Keep the ho-ho-hope alive!

 

Cut to Santa again. Maddie leans in to stare at him evilly, Santa looks at her, dazed and confused.

 

MADDIE: Flying at *that* altitude? In the open? At *that* speed?

 

Maddie gets out a megaphone and yells into it, causing Santa’s beard to fly from wind and shut his eyes.

 

MADDIE: He’d pass out!

 

Cut to Maddie with the megaphone.

 

MADDIE: Or burn to a crisp from friction!

 

Cut to some children looking upon this in confusion. Pan right as Maddie speaks past a tree to Danny, Tucker and Sam, Danny with a huge red bag and his arms akimbo, looking more cross.

 

MADDIE: It’s scientifically impossible!

 

Cut to Tucker and Sam, looking blankly and blinking twice in unison.

 

DANNY: (offscreen) If you need me,--

 

Pan out to reveal Danny, holding a bag.

 

DANNY: --I’ll be in the Ghost Zone--

 

Pan down to the bag, it’s a red bag overflowing from Christmas-themed goodies from the generically named “The Christmas Store”, including a Santa doll, a reef, and a string of multicolored lights.

 

DANNY: --getting rid of some frustration.

 

The scene zooms into the bag slowly as it fades to the Ghost Zone, three purple doors floating up and down. Pan right to show a white building on a rock island that resembles a city hall, two stone lions on either side of the staircase. The top of the roof reads “GW”. Three other purple doors are nearby. Zoom in.

 

Fade to a large, cylindrical library. As a man speaks, two books float past in different directions, the first a blue one with a ghost on the cover, the second a dark purple with a skull on the spine.

 

MAN: (offscreen) “Merry Christmas to all,--

 

Pan down to reveal the floor. A man with a long, purple coat and black hair is typing on a half-circle with four keyboards, facing the library door. As the paper in front of him sprouts out, two more books fly past in unison, a magenta one and a blue one.

 

MAN: --and to all a good--

 

Cut to a close up of the paper. On it reads “mas” “all” and the paper sprouts to reveal the word “fright”. The typewriter dings.

 

MAN: --fright.”

 

Cut to the man’s green eyes looking over the paper, hidden behind his glasses and in between his two pale, pointed ears.

 

MAN: Ooh, (lowers eyebrows) oh that’s good.

 

Cut to the man, ripping the page off the keyboard and turning around in joy, holding the page proudly in the air.

 

MAN: And it’s *done*!

 

He holds the page in both his hands and skims over it.

 

MAN: My first Christmas poem (lowers eyebrows) ever. (hugs the page to his chest) *Complete*!

 

Cut to a red and purple book on the table. There is a stack of pages on one side, and the other side is lying disconnected next to it. The man’s arms carefully place the page on the second book cover.

 

By the way, while the text on said page is legible, the low-definition TurboNick disallows Dennis to read it. If you wish to read the text for her, please add here what it says. Thanks.

 

Skyechan the editor here. The aforementioned text reads…as complete nonsense:

 

“Anm and kaj sddak korz ldsjk mdhgis orcmok

osakaids lads, for jddok sd mo klilsdj sdp

mias kids...mas nodle oftam nacleicmcat. Is this

the isdij sd hardokesapd. Gake iefnmike lisdj

jibslenu kdhjit haloe an iskibsd websedsj sakif

kadkd jidjdop sdihatnep didedu  Dap dedf

kjdidid dadekladd diff felks kase fookas madd

ladk lo pelf as kidsflisdel.

 

Kisdu dis klip phi milk ark maf hjsmarl poiks

onon sta jadslg ad slika jake kalm.

 

THE END”

 

…Or something to the extent of that nonsense. I’ve most likely gotten several of the letters wrong since even in my version it’s also hard to read, but you get the picture. It’s just gibberish, nothing more.

 

The book with all the pages magically floats to close on the last page, reading The Fright Before Christmas on the cover in purple letters, with some green decoration below it. Three ghostly pink bands of energy bind the book.

 

Cut to the man, lifting the book with the cover out and hugging it, with joy and accomplishment.

 

Cut to the realms of the Ghost Zone. Four purple doors are on screen. A small Santa doll floats into the scene.

 

DANNY: (offscreen) You better watch out!

 

An ecto-blast suddenly fries the doll and blasts it to tiny clouds of green dust.

 

Cut to Danny Phantom with his big red shopping bag of Christmas goodies, looking angry at it.

 

DANNY: You better not cry!

 

He takes another toy out of the bag, tossing it offscreen.

 

Cut to the purple glass ornament, floating up among the four doors. Another ecto-blast shatters it to small, purple shards.

 

Cut to Danny. He lets go of his bag letting it float next to him.

 

DANNY: (leaning to the right with his hands flat and down) Santa! (turns in the same pose to the left) No Santa!

 

Danny turns to the right once more, this time his hands are still flat and vertical but higher and one of his eyes is half-closed.

 

DANNY: Santa! (turns to the left once more and stares off, looking confused) No Santa!

 

Cut to a farther shot of Danny. He lunges to grab the bag of goodies with both hands.

 

DANNY: *Every year*!

 

He tosses the bag up, panning right as a stream of Christmas-themed goodies fly out, including stockings, ornaments, wires of lights, gingerbread, the works.

 

Cut to Danny, his eyes closed, his arms raised behind him blazing with ectoplasmic energy.

 

DANNY: *And I’ve had it*!

 

He spins around and shoots several shots of ecto-blasts, panning right and blazing offscreen.

 

Cut to a reef, a gingerbread cookie, and a tin soldier floating into place. They all get blasted to bits in succession by three blasts. Pan right. A toy reindeer, a candy cane and a large fruit cake that says “Fruit Cake” on the label float in place. They also get blasted to bits with three more green plasma rays.

 

Aw, Danny, you could’ve eaten that candy! The sugar would help. Plus, there’s a fruit cake we’re sure a certain Fruit Loop would enjoy. Why blast it to bits? It’s a waste of toys.

 

Cut to outside the white building, a stone lion staring intently with red eyes as a tiny elf doll floating toward it. Pan right to the entrance.

 

The man comes out of the door with his eyes closed and smiling, his book being held high in triumph. Pan left as he walks forward and toward the camera. Suddenly, the elf doll floats and lands on it. A stray ecto-blast blows the doll to bits and tears the book to tiny paper shreds. The man looks in shock at his empty hands as paper rains down on him.

 

Cut to an aerial shot of the man. Paper rains down on him, he looks down, stunned.

 

DANNY: (offscreen) *Oops*!

 

He floats up and is seen from behind. The man looks up at him angrily.

 

DANNY: Sorry, man!

 

Cut to Danny, floating, looking down.

 

DANNY: It was a (lifts his hands with regret) total accident!

 

Watch where you’re aiming those things, Danny! You could hurt somebody. Not that you care, really. At least the Ghostwriter wasn’t injured.

 

Cut to a small pile of paper shreds, a ghostly blue steam smoking from it. The man’s hand thrusts into the pile and holds a handful of the shreds

 

MAN: “Oops”?

 

Cut to the man. He lifts his fist of shreds as paper rains down; he looks at the fist with fury.

 

MAN:  “*Oops*”?!

 

Cut to a close up. The man looks up.

 

MAN: Do you know have any idea what you’ve done?!

 

Cut to Danny, leaning straight with his hands at his sides. He is floating among the purple doors.

 

DANNY: Well, not really, uh, (lifts his left arm and points to the right, then the left) hence the “accident” part.

 

Cut to the man, his hands up and shaking with rage, paper raining down.

 

MAN: You destroyed my greatest work!

 

Close up on the man.

 

MAN: And that was my only copy!

 

Most DPOF writers would feel the same way, only with them it’s the Ghosts of Bad Computer Functioning causing their hard drive/storage space to crash and lose their files. Danny now is in the role of “Ghost of Bad Bookkeeping”, because he burned it.

 

Zoom out. The man blinks as a non-blasted page falls in front of him, he looks at it until Danny’s white-gloved hand grabs it from offscreen.

 

Cut to Danny, the page in his hand. He reads it.

 

DANNY: “The Fright Before Christmas”? (looks up) I destroyed a Christmas poem? (his head pops up with delight) *AWESOME*!

 

Cut to a purple action background. A close up of the man’s face is seen.

 

MAN: *WHAT*?!

 

Cut to a side view of the man just next to the steps. A lion statue is in the background, the whole building has a purple aura. Danny floats up to the man, pointing a finger and holding the page in a bundle in the other.

 

DANNY: Dude, I am *sick* of Christmas!

 

Danny’s pointed finger turns into a fist with his thumb pointing at himself.

 

DANNY: I came to the Ghost Zone to get away from it!

 

Cut to Danny among the Ghost Zone doors, pointing at himself with his thumb, bent over.

 

DANNY: I might not have meant to destroy (straightens up a bit and holds up the page bundle) your stupid book,--

 

He points with his free hand, then straightens up and smiles while his hand glows green with energy, crumbling the last page to shreds.

 

DANNY: --but that doesn’t mean I’m not okay with it.

 

The paper shreds fall out as Danny opens his hand.

 

Close up on the man.

 

MAN: Scornful child!

 

Zoom out, the man raises his hand erect and points a finger.

 

MAN: Scrooge-like urchin!

 

Cut to an aerial shot of the building. Danny is floating, seen from behind and looking down upon the man. The man himself crouches down and jumps up, the scene panning to the roof of the building as the man stands with a thicker, white aura, his hands out, his chin up, eyes closed, scarf blowing.

 

Cut to the face of the man. He opens his closed eyes, they blaze a solid red.

 

Cut to a full shot of the man near the orange rotunda part of the roof. His white aura vanishes as he spins around in a purple whirlwind, many beams of white light emanate from it.

 

Cut to a close aerial shot Danny’s face, he is looking up, his hair being blown back.

 

DANNY: Aaaand, (zoom out to reveal all of Danny) you are…?

 

Cut back to the purple whirlwind with the beams of light. It begins to explode with stray bits of purple energy. The storm clears to reveal a donut-shaped cloud of pink-purple smoke around the man, who is spinning with his hands outstretched. As he spins, the donut of smoke turns into a circular keyboard with eight sections of keys and eight separate screens. When the formation of the keyboard is complete, he stops spinning but his scarf still blows.

 

Cut to the face of the man.

 

GHOSTWRITER: (zooming out and rotating the shot) The Ghostwriter!

 

Cut to the Ghostwriter’s keyboard. It is see-through, but all the keys are purple and marked with white letters. His flat palm hovers across the keyboard.

 

GHOSTWRITER: Every word I type on this keyboard (scene pans right as he motions it, off of the letters and onto the number pad) becomes real!

 

Cut to the Ghostwriter, his face seen from behind in the foreground, Danny floating from a distance, looking on with sudden worry.

 

GHOSTWRITER: And since you destroyed my Christmas poem…

 

Cut to the Ghostwriter in a light-blue action background, smiling with revenge and his scarf blowing.

 

GHOSTWRITER: You shall become (zoom in on his face) my *new* Christmas poem!

 

Cut to the Ghostwriter in the center of his keyboard. His arms lean forward on the board with no screen in front. The keyboard glows with energy. Pan down-left where a beam of surging pink ecto-energy reaches Danny. He cries out in pain as his body turns purple with the thick aura of ghostly energy, his hair frazzled. Suddenly, his body has pink energy flowing down it in small ripples, the aura of excess energy becoming transparent; his pink silhouette fades away and disappears.

 

Cut to the Ghostwriter, he beings to type swiftly on one keyboard, then turns to face back typing on a couple more, then moves back to a keyboard in the front, facing the right, laughing manically the whole time but his mouth doesn’t move.

 

Cut to the Ghost Zone. A ring of pink ghostly energy expands out of nowhere, and with a flash of light a new red-and-green book with a pink aura emerges, The Fright Before Christmas 2.

 

GHOSTWRITER: (offscreen) On the day before Christmas (zoom in on the book) in Amity Park,

 

Fade in to the mall again. Danny Fenton, Tucker and Sam are present. Sam is smiling with her eyes closed, Tucker is also smiling as well, and Danny has his hands in his coat pockets looking rather miserable.

 

GHOSTWRITER: Almost all there were cheery,--

 

Danny looks up, his eyes looking above and behind him.

 

GHOSTWRITER: --yet one soul--

 

Danny’s eyes roll the other way, facing above and to the front.

 

GHOSTWRITER: --was dark.

 

Danny’s eyes go back in the center. Tucker and Sam walk off.

 

DANNY: Hey, that voice! (looks up) It’s that ghost! (puts his head back down) Whose book I destroyed!

 

Cut to Danny.

 

DANNY: Wait,--

 

Zoom out, Danny looks down, his hands are out at his sides, he is within a red frame decorated by green leaves and purple skulls. The text below reads “On the day before Christmas in Amity Park”, the O within a red box.

 

DANNY: --I’m trapped in his poem?

 

Close up on Danny, he looks straight and annoyed.

 

DANNY: Now I’m really annoyed!

The screen fades to black.

OPENING THEME HERE

(Possible cut to commercial)

--

PART ONE

Title Screen is shown. Depicted is the Ghostwriter, eyes red and with an evil grin on his face, dressed in a Santa outfit carrying a sack of evil toys such as dolls and nutcrackers. Buried within the menacing toys is a distressed Danny Phantom attempting to escape from their clutches. The caption in the bottom left reads, "HO-HO-HORROR!"

Fade in. We see the Ghostwriter’s building, and the Ghostwriter himself is seen near it typing on his circular keyboard, one screen is missing to show that he is present. Zoom in.

 

Fade to the Ghostwriter. He is looking down at his hands as they type back and forth on the keyboard, the screen in the foreground. His scarf is blowing.

 

GHOSTWRITER: Danny Fenton hates Christmas.

 

Cut to a drawing of Danny within a book, depicting a rosy-cheeked interpretation of an irate Danny, with a cheerful Tucker on the right and a cheerful Sam on the left. The scene is rimmed with red-and-white, with purple skulls and green mistletoe leaves on the corners. Text appears as the Ghostwriter speaks, the capital “H” within a red square.

 

GHOSTWRITER: He hates it a lot.

 

Zoom in on the image; it morphs into live-action. Danny, Tucker and Sam are walking past unmarked stores.

 

GHOSTWRITER: Which is why I I’ve inserted the boy in this plot. He’ll go--

 

Danny stops and looks up in surprise, his arms out of his pockets now.

 

GHOSTWRITER: --through this tale--

 

Pan up to show the windowed ceiling of the mall, a form of the Ghostwriter’s face and flattened palms are looking down upon it.

 

GHOSTWRITER: --till the story is ended.

 

Ghostwriter dissipates into a plume of purple smoke. Cut to the floor of the mall, Tucker and Sam are walking without a care, Danny walks onscreen pointing a finger at the ceiling.

 

DANNY: But you can’t *make* me rhyme!

 

A man in a green coat walks to Sam’s left, Sam turns and waves to him. Danny looks to Sam with his index finger out.

 

SAM: Hope your New Year is (turns to the right waving as the man walks offscreen) splendid!

 

Dennis Dunjinman’s good at transcripts,

She types a whole lot,

Which is why she’s volunteered

To jot down this plot.

She’ll go through this transcript

Till the story is finished,

But she cannot tarry,

Her time is diminished!

 

Note to reader: Don’t expect too many rhymes;

Dennis has an inability to write in poetry.

But there might still be a few in the comments,

If she finds inspiration, you’ll get lucky.

 

(Hey, that rhymes! It’s not great, but it works).

 

Cut to an angry-looking Danny. He slaps himself in the face with all five of his fingers open, and peels it off, stretching his eyes and cheeks. He looks up as Ghostwriter starts talking.

 

GHOSTWRITER: (voiceover) You will be quite surprised--

 

Cut to an aerial shot of the mall, Danny is far behind Tucker and Sam on the first floor. Many other shoppers crowd around, a store is visible labeled “Pottery Shed”, and a tree is also visible. Two women are on the second floor, the plump woman in purple looking down upon the mall and the one in bright turquoise walking off. The shoppers go about their business.

 

GHOSTWRITER: --what I can and can’t do.

 

Cut to Danny, walking while his head looks up and in the opposite direction, irked at Ghostwriter. In the store window is a mirror and a model with a necklace on it.

 

GHOSTWRITER: But I’ll leave you--

 

Ghostwriter’s face appears in the mirror in a purple haze with a thick aura, Danny turns to look in it.

 

GHOSTWRITER: --your freedom,--

 

Danny turns to face the mirror directly, staring into it.

 

GHOSTWRITER: --so I can teach you:

 

Cut to a closer shot of Ghostwriter in the mirror.

 

GHOSTWRITER: When you lash out at others, (face leans forward in the mirror) there’s enmity earned.

 

Cut to Danny. Background shoppers are going about their business.

 

GHOSTWRITER: You’re *stuck* in this poem--

 

Danny raises his eyebrow. Cut to Danny looking at the mirror, Ghostwriter’s face is still in it.

 

GHOSTWRITER: --till your lesson is learned.

 

Danny starts to look with regret as the mirror gets clouded with purple and swirls. Soon, it resumes to be a normal mirror, reflecting Danny’s face.

 

Cut to the mirror. Danny’s reflection sighs. The reflections’ eyes turn left when he hears someone.

 

TUCKER: (offscreen) Who’re you talking to, Danny?

 

Cut to the mall, Sam and Tucker walk up.

 

GHOSTWRITER: (voiceover) Said Tucker, confused.

 

Cut to Danny, with Sam and Tucker in the foreground.

 

DANNY: Some annoying Ghostwriter.

 

Danny points his thumb behind his shoulder.

 

Zoom out to show the whole hallway of shoppers Danny is standing in front of Jewelry, next to Pottery Shed. He opens his arms to show scope.

 

DANNY: We’re all being used!

 

Cut to Danny, his arms still out.

 

DANNY: I blew up his story--

 

Danny puts down his arms and looks up angrily.

 

GHOSTWRITER: No hint of remorse.

 

Cut to the trio. Sam and Tucker are off on the left looking at Danny in disbelief with their hands in their coat pockets, Danny is hunched over with his arms at his sides, hands out.

 

DANNY: --now he’s writing a new one,--

 

Danny leans forward and raises his arms out, Tucker and Sam lean backwards away from Danny.

 

DANNY: --we’re trapped in (lowers his arms, they are still out) by force!

 

Is this a fourth-wall breakage? ‘Cause usually characters in stories are not conscious of being in the story. What if you fan authors out there wrote a story where you conversed with Danny regularly, and I don’t mean in OC form.

 

Ah, no real breakage here actually. Ghostwriter let Danny keep his freedom, remember? So Ghostwriter wants Danny to be aware of it.

 

Cut to Tucker and Sam, blinking their eyes in doubt.

 

GHOSTWRITER: (voiceover) But Tucker and Sam merely shrugged in confusion,--

 

Tucker and Sam exchange looks.

 

GHOSTWRITER: --completely convinced of my--

 

Sam takes her left arm out of her pocket and points it to her head, twirling it in a gesture of Danny being crazy.

 

GHOSTWRITER: --ghostly illusion.

 

Cut to Danny. He lowers his eyebrows in frustration. Then he turns around and walks off.

 

Cut to Danny walking to the right and toward the camera, Tucker and Sam closely follow behind.

 

SAM: Has he always been moody--

 

The scene starts panning right as Danny, Tucker and Sam get closer.

 

SAM: --and glum in December?

 

Cut to Tucker and Sam.

 

TUCKER: A big, *whiny* Scrooge,--

 

Zoom in on Tucker.

 

TUCKER: --long as I can remember.

 

Tucker, Sam, that’s the Ember rhyme. I guess it was appropriate because the holidays are in December, but still, it’s Ember.

 

Fade into a flashback. It’s a lot of Christmas trees, with a large white banner that reads “Christmas Trees” in red letters, Christmas in underlined and there’s a tree shape in between. The banner is held up but red and white striped poles. A fat man in red and his son in dark green are standing on the lot. Pan right to show two other families, one a mother with two children, all in red, and the Fentons, Jack in a Santa hat, Maddie with a ponytail, Jazz as a child in a red coat and Danny a baby in a child seat.

 

TUCKER: (voiceover) His very first Christmas,--

 

Zoom in on the Fentons, close up on Danny, a bright, blue-eyed baby with a tuft of black hair in green, sucking on a yellow pacifier.

 

TUCKER: --when he was a baby, a bad first impression.

 

Zoom out to reveal a serious Jack Fenton, with long black hair oh noes, a mullet, and a Santa hat, holding up a green poster with the face of Santa on it. A two-year-old Jasmine in a red jacket is off at his side, staring at her father blankly, she might as well hide.

 

Hmm… does that last paragraph rhyme?

The TFBC curse might be upon me.

But how could that happen,

How could that be?

 

A girl with little to no

Poetry in her heart,

Whose all brains and sci-fi,

Got a rhyming kick-start.

 

Cut to Maddie in her blue jumpsuit, with long hair tied back fine, her face obscured by an identical poster, this one with the red “Not” sign.

 

That rhymed as well,

Though it was rather strained,<