Ectoplasm. It made the city of Amity Park, but now it seems to be breaking it.  There will never be enough. A growing city with a a growing population, the wealthy can only survive. Unluckily for Daniel 'Danny' Fenton, he was not one of wealthy.

         That day was like any other day. Danny woke up at six o'clock in the morning. A little earlier than usual, but hopefully early enough to avoid the beatings from Master Dashwood. Master Dashwood is the factory owner's son and heir. Danny dropped out of school about three years ago to help pay for his family by working at the factory.

       His sister Jasmine, on the other hand continued school. She was stubborn enough to convince their parents to let her continue school. She would argue  everyday with their parents to let him continue school, but to no avail. Danny understood why he needed to work, but not how Jasmine got out of it. 

        He went to the kitchen hoping to find something to make breakfast with. He was lucky to find eggs, but that would take too long to cook.

         "Danny?" His sister called out to him, standing in the doorway of the kitchen. "I have already made you lunch. Go get dressed, I'll make breakfast."

         Danny wanted to argue, but knew that he would not win the argument. Instead, he nodded sluggishly and  went to his room.

Their house was a reasonable size. Everyone got their own room and there was even two bathrooms. The most interesting part of the house was the basement where their parents did their work.

Their parents, Madeline and John 'Jack' Fenton, were Ectolarks. Ectolarks 'muck' around in rivers for residual ectoplasm. Then once they got enough, they would purify the ectoplasm in the basement (the basement is known as their 'lab').

Danny got dressed in plain trousers with suspension cords and a button up shirt. He only had three work trousers (with a shirt for each) and one church trouser (with a shirt).

Once he got dressed, he found a plate of scrambled eggs in the kitchen. Danny looked over at his sister. She was wearing a blue Lorena skirt with a white blouse. Danny frowned at his sister's skirt. The skirt was long in the back and came up just to the knees.

Jasmine must of saw the judgmental look on Danny's face. "What? I can't change up my look?" She asked, clearly offended.

Danny blushed. "No, it's just that I think our parents will have something to say about your outfit." He responded with a little sarcasm.

"You know they'll be out late again. They will not see the outfit. Plus, it's also a perfectly fine thing to wear in public. " Jasmine pointed out.

Danny shrugged at it being fine to wear in public. He just thought the skirt showed a little too much skin for 'just school'.

        Danny sat down at the kitchen table and hastily began to eat his eggs. After finishing his eggs, he realized that Jasmine was staring at him. "What? Do I have something on my face?" He asked.

         "No, it's just...I-I've never realized how skinny you are. " Jasmine replied sadly.

         Danny didn't know what to do. He wanted to tell his sister that it was okay, but that would just make her feel guilty.

        "Danny? Do you think I should start working at the factory?" Jasmine asked quietly.

         "No. You have a chance to do something great with your life, I don't want you to give that up." Danny said firmly.

          "Do you think I don't see the bruises? Is there something you are not telling me? I could help you know." Jasmine continued.

          "Jazz." Danny responded, using her childhood nickname. "It's okay, just some accidents at the factory. You know how clumsy I am."

          Jasmine nodded, unsure what to say next. She knew that it wasn't just 'accidents', but what else could it be?

"I have to get going. I can't be late. " Danny told Jasmine.

Jasmine nodded, but then said, "If you leave now then you will be early."

Danny didn't respond. Instead, he just walked out of room with a muffled goodbye. Not really gentleman like, but Jasmine knows that sometimes he gets in his 'moods'.

         It would take him around ten minutes to get to the factory. He was half way there when he heard a voice way too familiar called out, "Hey, Mr. Fent-tord!"

         Master Dashwood was big and probably could not get through a big crowd like this fast. While Danny on the other hand, was skinny and could probably get through the crowd without a beating. Plus, he was not in the factory, so he didn't have to listen Master Dashwood. 

          Luckily, Danny's plan worked. He even got to the factory in half the time. Unluckily, he couldn't avoid Master Dashwood at the factory.

Even though Danny was early, there was still a good amount of people there already. Danny got in his usual place in the factory. It was a simple job. He just had to pull a lever when someone yelled "Now!" Danny knew the voice of person who yelled now, so he wouldn't be confused if someone else yelled it.

           Danny just stood by his post until work day started. Many people were rushing around, but no one was paying attention to him.

          He overheard a conversation between a girl around his age and the owner of the factory.

          "But electricity would be more safe!" She argued.

           "It would be too much money to switch." The owner of the factory told her.

             "At lest look at my plan." She said, probably trying to be menacing.

              They stopped in front of Danny. The girl had black hair and was wearing a skirt like Jasmine's. Instead of being blue, it was a dark purple. She wore a black blouse. She was facing away from him, so he couldn't see  her face.

The owner sighed, clearly wanting to be rid of this girl. "Fine."

"Will you contact me about your comments about my ideas?" She questioned.

"Sure." The owner growled. "What's your name again?"

"Um...." Rrrrring! The bell rang, being the work day. The girl never got to answer the owner.

              A crowd filed in, everyone knew where to go. Danny had an easy job compared to others. Many had to get in uncomfortable position or had to risk getting body parts cut off.

            Nothing was out of the usual. Danny remember when he little and the lever was too high and he had to jump to reach it. Now  it was easy to reach. 

          "Hey! Fent-tord! You avoided me today!" Master Dashwood, stumped over to Danny.

           "I didn't avoid you, I just didn't see you." Danny responded quickly.  

            Master Dashwood doubted Mr. Fenton's response, but either way he was going to pummel him anyway. 

             Danny was expected to get beat up, but nothing this hard. It was usually a punch or two, but now it was like Master Dashwood  didn't stop throwing punches.  Once Danny fell down (after four or five punches), Master Dashwood continues to kick Danny.

No one went to help Danny. Maybe they just didn't want to or they scared of Master Dashwood's wrath would be turned on them. The most obvious answer was that alarm was telling people to exit the building.

           Master Dashwood eventually heard the siren and left Danny in pain. Danny couldn't walk, much less move. He heard the alarm going off, but the pain was too much.

           Danny heard the alarms stop, but a big crash replaced the alarms. Danny felt like he was being an electrocuted,  like a thousand little pins went  into his skin. If you asked him, he would say that he couldn't find the words to describe how much pain he was in. Green lights danced in his eyes.

             He let out an ear piercing scream.  The scream was filled of pain and no hope.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  Thank you so much for reading my book. Hopefully there will be one or two more updates for this month.

    If you haven't already, please check out my other book, My babysitter is a ghost.
  
    Please comment any ideas or anything else you need to say!