Quiet. Everything was quiet. For perhaps the first time since the town was founded it was completely and totally quiet. Calm.

And then it happened.

Ghost and Toast we're asleep on their desks. Ghost snored a little as he drooled on his desk. Toast didn't drool or snore. He didn't make a peep. They were both so sound asleep that neither of them stirred when Mark and Jack entered the room. Cardboard Friend was watching from the a distance, unable to get past the ghost shield. Mark put his hand over Toast's mouth, causing the Brit to wake up. He tried to scream. "You're bad. You made Cardboard Fwiend sad," Mark said softly. Toast struggled but Mark pinned his hands behind his back. Jack walked over to Ghost and took out a syringe. He paused for a moment, then stuck it into Ghost's neck.

"He needs to sleep so he doesn't see the surprise!" Jack said. Toast guessed it was a knock-out serum. Jack pulled out another syringe and turned to Toast. "You get to come too!" he exclaimed. He stuck the needle into Toast's neck. Toast's felt his eyelids droop immediately. Then it was nothing but darkness. 

~~~~~ 

"Help! Please!"

Gertrude rushed to the door. She threw it open and found a little boy standing there, crying. "What's wrong sweetie?" she said, her motherly instincts kicking in. The child sniffled. 

"I'm lost. I haven't seen mommy and daddy in so long and I'm cold. Please let me in," he said. Gertrude practically pulled the boy in.

"I'm going to go set up a place for you to sleep for tonight. Stay here for a moment."

"Okay. Thank you miss," the child said. As soon as Gertrude left the room the illusion melted away. Cardboard Friend floated down the basement. It floated right past a sleeping Spencer and a shadow creature that hissed at it as it passed. It floated right into Dan and Phil's room. The two were sleeping peacefully. Cardboard Friend grinned. "Oh Mikey. Jamie."

Their eyes shot open and they sat straight up. "No, no no no!" Dan muttered. Phil squeaked. Cardboard Friend laughed.

"What are you doing here? We miss you."

"G-go away," Phil said. He tried to sound brave but it came out as more of a beg. Cardboard Friend laughed again. 

"Come on Mikey! We're fwiends!"

"Hey!" Cardboard Friend turned around to find Papa Acachalla holding up a mirror. The ghost screamed and vanished. "Huh, Ghost was right," he mumbled. Gertrude rushed in. She took one look at the boys and rushed back out. She returned moments later with cookies and tall glasses of milk.

"I am so sorry! I didn't mean to let that, that demon in!" she said. She split the cookies between the two boys and gave them both a glass of milk. "I can't believe I let that happen." She gave them both hugs. Then her sense of guilt turned to protectiveness. "Acachalla, wake up Spencer. Tell him to make sure that box fiend doesn't try anything again or else he's losing all electronics. And his comic books," she commanded. Acachalla left the room. A moment later he and Spencer could be heard yelling at each other. After a couple minutes of a very loud and heated exchange between the two Papa walked back in. 

"Done."

"Great. If that ghost shows up again I'll whack it with my crowbar until it looks like that weird paper used to make paper bags!" she growled. She turned to Dan and Phil and said in the tone one might use with a sick child, "You two try to get some more rest. We'll protect you, we promise." 

Dan and Phil nodded. Gertrude and Papa left the room and Dan and Phil finished off the cookies and milk. But no matter how hard they tried they couldn't get back to sleep. Cardboard Friend's voice rang in their ears. It made their already funny feeling heads hurt. They tossed and turned, trying to block it out. But they couldn't.

~~~~~

Toast slowly opened his eyes. He blinked away the blurriness of sleep and groaned. "Ugh, my head," he grumbled. Then it all came back to him. Now fully alert, he took in his surroundings. He was in an old house, perhaps the living room. Ghost was just waking up next to him. While Toast had his hands and legs bound in rope Ghost was completely free. They were sat on a sofa that Toast thought looked older than his grandmother. He tried to wiggle out of the ropes but all his efforts got him was rope burn. 

Then Mark and jack walked in with Cardboard Friend. They all looked extremely excited. "Are we going to meet Gwegowy now?" Mark asked. Cardboard Friend nodded. Ghost lifted his head and Jack ran right up to him.

"Hi Gwegowy!" he said. Ghost, now fully awake, jumped up. 

"Wait, what happened? Where am I?"

"You're home Gwegowy!"

Ghost winced. "My name is not Gregory!' he said forcefully. 

"Yes it is. Cardboard Fwiend said so," Jack stated. Ghost pushed him away.

"No, it's not. And keep your distance, you-" he began. He cut himself off when he noticed Toast. "Johnny!" he shouted. He ran over to his friend. "Johnny, are you alright?"

"Well, I'm tied up and have been kidnapped by a ghost and two people it's brainwashed, so not my best day ever."

"Don't sass me Johnny. Let me untie you, then we're leaving," Ghost said. He began to untie Toast but was stopped when he was lifted up in the air. Cardboard Friend glared at him, a sinister red dot in the middle of the lifeless black circles it had for eyes. 

"You can't do that Gwegowy."

Ghost was yanked an inch away from Cardboard Friend's face. Mark and Jack stood nearby, looking worried. They had never seen Cardboard Friend so angry. It scared them. The box creature smiled again and the red dots went away. "He's a bad man, Gwegowy. He kept you away from me."

"My name is not G-gregory. Not Gregory, no," Ghost stuttered. His eyes flashed red. 

"Yes it is. You are Gwegowy. You're my bwother. We're a family."

"No. Nonononono. Let me, let me go. Let me go!"

"Gwegowy..."

"I'm not Greg-gregory. Stop it. Stop it now!

"We have new fwiends Gwegowy. Our family is getting bigger."

"N-no."

"We're a family."

Ghost opened his mouth to protest again. But the protest never came. Instead he smiled. 

"We're bwothers, right Gwegowy?"

"Of course, Cardboard Fwiend. Best friends forever."

Ghost is doing the Gregory voice. It's just kind of hard and annoying to write in that voice so I wrote it normally. That is all.