The next morning, Dani laid on the couch with her brother, who was snuggled up on her side as they watched Clifford on the TV. It had officially been a full day since Mikey had left, and the initial sadness she had felt from it had slowly increased its presence in her system. In an attempt to help get her mind off of it, Frankie had suggested they both watch cartoons together, while Pinocchio had decided to distract her by texting her stories of all the places he had been to.
Though she had found both gestures to be sweet, Dani knew the only way she would feel better was by talking to the person she had missed the most.
And she knew it wouldn't come anytime soon.
"Ellie," Frankie mumbled with a pout. "You're not paying attention again."
"What?" Dani asked and shook her head. "Oh...sorry, bud. I was just thinking about things."
"Yeah," Frankie said with narrowed eyes. "Thinking about that poopy-faced Mikey!!"
Dani raised her brows as Michelle called out, "Franklin James! Mind your words!" from the kitchen, which then caused her to snort.
"Since when is he a poopy face again, bud? I thought you two were friends now?" she asked.
Frankie folded his arms and said, "He can't be my friend if he keeps making you sad! He promised not to make you cry anymore and he broke it! So now he's a poopyface until I say so!"
"Franklin James!!"
Dani snorted again as Frankie huffed and rolled his eyes.
"Frankie," Michelle warned while walking into the room. "I know you're upset, but those words are not nice to say. Whatever it is that's happening between your sister and Mikey is just between them right now. Everything will be fine again soon and they'll be happier than ever. Just you wait."
Dani sighed as she knew her mother had directed the last words towards her and she looked away.
"But Ellie's sad, Momma. It's not fair. Why does he always make her sad? Why can't he always make her happy?" Frankie asked with a pout.
"Because he's a manchild who can't control his emotions-"
"Daniella Janine."
Dani sighed again as her mother gave her a stern look.
"His feelings are valid just like yours are right now. Don't do that," the woman told her. "How would you feel if the roles were switched and he told you that he did what you had done with another girl?"
Dani narrowed her eyes. "I'd chop his-"
"Daniella!!"
The girl huffed and turned away from her mother while mumbling, "I'd feel the same way."
"Exactly," Michelle said with a nod. "Just give him time, sweetheart. He'll come back around soon. I'm sure of it."
Dani frowned as she played with her blanket and asked, "And how do you know that? I've probably lost him forever now."
Michelle rolled her eyes with a snort as she began to walk back into the kitchen. "You're such a little drama queen. That boy wouldn't leave you for anything in the world, you know that," she said. "And the fact that he didn't immediately cut things off with you should tell you everything you need to know."
Knowing the woman was right, Dani sighed and laid her head on the couch as she looked at her brother. "Hey, bud?"
Frankie gave her a curious look in response.
"You'll never leave me, right?" she asked. "We'll always be best friends?"
"Right!" Frankie said with a grin. "Don't worry, Ellie! We're gonna be best friends forever!!"
Dani laughed softly and kissed the boy's head as he sat up to hug her. "Best friends forever," she said. "You're the best little brother in the world, you know that?"
Frankie nodded. "I know!" he said, which caused Dani to snort.
The sound of the doorbell ringing caused them both to look up towards the entrance before a small smile spread across Dani's features as she realized who was at the door.
"Do you know who that is, bud?" she asked. "It's Chio!"
A wide grin spread across Frankie's features as he said, "It is?! Can I get the door, Ellie?! I want to meet Pinonoko!!"
Dani laughed at the mispronunciation of Pinocchio's name as she carefully got up from the couch and grabbed Frankie's hand to walk to the door. Though they had been given some kind of explanation as to what was happening to her, her health was still fastly deteriorating...to the point where she couldn't even hold her brother anymore and had taken to holding his hand instead.
"Woah! Hold on there, bud!!" Dani exclaimed as Frankie tried to pull her towards the door. "He's not going anywhere! You're going to break my arm!!"
"Oops! Sorry, sissy!!" Frankie said with a smile while slowing down his steps. "Do you think Pinonoko will like me?"
"Pft, like you? He's going to love you!" Dani said. "You're the best little boy in the world! Who wouldn't?"
Frankie's smile widened as Dani opened the door for them to see a grinning Pinocchio on the other side.
"Chio!!" she greeted and threw her arms around him. "Hey!"
Pinocchio laughed and said, "Hey, El!" as he hugged her back.
Though they had found out just the day before, the duo's knowledge of being siblings in a past life had quickly caused their relationship to grow stronger overnight, and the excitement Dani had felt from finally having the older sibling she had always wanted was indescribable.
He had truly been a blessing in disguise for her.
"Pinonoko!! Hi, Pinonoko!!"
Dani snorted as Pinocchio raised his brows in amusement and looked at his sister before kneeling to the boy's level as he said, "Well, hi there! I'm going to take a wild guess here and say that you must be Frankie!"
Frankie grinned and nodded as he said, "Uh-huh!! Ellie says that you know how to help us! Are you gonna help us, Pinonoko?"
Dani's hand shot up to her mouth to hold back a laugh as Pinocchio gave her another amused look before turning back to Frankie.
"Why yes, I am!...and that's a very interesting pronunciation of my name," he said with pursed lips, which caused Dani to burst into laughter.
Pinocchio smiled and stood back up as Frankie ran off into the kitchen. "Momma, Momma, Momma!! Pinonoko's here and he says he's gonna help Ellie!!"
Dani burst into laughter again as Pinocchio joined in before it quickly died down as he turned his head to examine her features. "You're getting worse," he mumbled sadly.
"Yeah...Dad's making me wear his clothes now on top of Mikey's, but I still feel like I'm freezing from the inside out," she told him in the same tone.
Pinocchio nodded before furrowing his brows. "Mikey?" he asked. "As in Mikey Darling? The nephew of Mayor Darling?"
Dani nodded with a sad smile. "The one and only," she said and tilted her head. "Though our relationship steers in a direction different from the ones I have with Greta and Hans."
"Ahh," Pinocchio said with a nod. "Gotcha...Is he good to you?"
The saddened smile remained on Dani's face as she nodded and said, "Always," before tilting her head again, "Playing the protective big brother role already?"
"Please," Pinocchio said with a playful scoff. "That role's been mine since you walked through my front door."
Dani's lips spread into a wide grin as she said, "Remind me to thank Goldi a million times for helping me find you."
He winked at her in response. "Ditto."
"Well. You're certainly a face I haven't seen in a while."
They turned their heads at the sound of Michelle's voice to see her walk into the foyer with Frankie on her hip, and the sight of Pinocchio's eyes lighting up with recognition caused Dani to frown in confusion.
Had they already met before?
"And you are certainly a face I've missed!" Pinocchio said with a smile as he walked over to Michelle, who laughed as they hugged each other.
"Wait, wait, wait," Dani said while walking over to them. "You two know each other?!"
Pinocchio nodded as he turned his head to Dani and said, "Yeah! Miss Shellie used to work for my dad at his toy store when I was like seven."
"Don't make me sound so old," Michelle said with a laugh. "I'm only fifteen years older than you are!"
"Best employer my dad ever had," Pinocchio said with a grin.
Michelle gave him a bashful smile. "Oh, stop it you!"
"Wait," Dani dragged out with a frown. "If you two already know each other, why haven't either of you spoken about it before now?... And why are we only just now meeting each other?!"
Pinocchio shrugged. "Honestly? I thought I had noticed a little resemblance between you two, but never thought to put two and two together. And after my dad passed, I decided to leave town and travel the world for a bit. I only just got back a few years ago and have pretty much kept to myself since."
"You poor thing," Dani mumbled, which caused Pinocchio to raise an eyebrow at her with a smirk.
Realizing what she had said, Dani's eyes widened before she smiled softly at her brother.
"Bless your heart," Michelle murmured while rubbing Pinocchio's arm with her free one. "Well, now you know you have a second home here that you can visit anytime you want."
"I-... You'd really do that?" Pinocchio asked with furrowed brows. "We haven't talked in ages...You'd really open up your home to me just like that?"
Michelle shrugged. "Why not?" she asked with a small smile. "You're willing to help my baby with no questions asked, and right now, her health is what matters most. I wouldn't dare think to not stay in contact with the one who helped save her."
"Wow," Pinocchio said. "Thank you...I promise you I'll do everything I can to help...El's all I have now."
Confusion swept across Michelle's features as she furrowed her brows at the sight of Pinocchio sending her daughter a small smile, before she raised one as the girl sent him a smile back. Worry then crossed everyone's features as Dani suddenly groaned and placed a hand up to her head.
"Ugh," she mumbled before stumbling back. "Woah."
"Oh! Oh, El, be careful," Pinocchio said as he quickly walked over to keep her steady. "Are you okay? What's wrong?!"
Michelle raised another eyebrow at the nickname that was used again before she frowned as she walked over to place a hand on Dani's forehead. "Oh, baby, you're burning up!" she exclaimed. "Which should probably be a relief, but now I'm not too sure about that."
"I'm fine, Momma...really I just...I just need to sit down or something," Dani told them while pushing her mother's hand away. "I've just been standing up too long, that's all."
Immediately, Pinocchio wrapped his arms around Dani's waist as the girl stumbled on her feet after trying to walk on her own. "Woah there, cupcake! Okay, here we go," he said and picked her up in his arms.
"Are you okay, Ellie?!" Frankie asked as Michelle guided Pinocchio into the living room, though his voice had sounded slightly distorted in the girl's ears.
"Yeah...yeah, I'm fine," she mumbled while trying to keep her vision steady.
"If you puke on me, I'm disowning you," Pinocchio said in a playful tone.
Dani smiled lazily and rested her head on his shoulder as she said, "Well, I guess I better hold it in then."
After thirty minutes of embarrassing herself by dry heaving into a bucket, Dani was finally stable enough to sit up on her own again. However, she had also found herself squished between her brothers, though the extra body heat was extremely needed, so it hadn't been that much of a bother.
"Okay," Pinocchio said while opening up his book. "If he has you getting sick this badly, that means he's well on his way to fully opening the portal."
"What?!" Michelle exclaimed with widened eyes.
Her eyes then averted to Frankie, who stared at her curiously, which made her sigh. "Frankie sweetie, why don't you go to your playroom, okay?"
"But Momma," he immediately pouted. "I don't wanna go...I wanna stay with Ellie and Pinonoko!!"
Surprise spread across Pinocchio's features at Frankie's mention of him.
"Hey, bud," Dani said, making the boy turn his head towards her. "Why don't you go draw us something instead? And you can watch Curious George on the IPad as you do it."
Frankie's features immediately lit up with a smile as he said, "Yeah!! Yeah, okay, sissy!! I'll go color for you!! And I'll color for Pinonoko too!!"
Pinocchio smiled fondly as he watched the boy hop down from the couch and run over to his art table. "He's honestly the most adorable thing I've ever seen," he told them while turning back around.
"He gets it from me," Michelle and Dani said at the same time with a shrug before looking at each other in amusement.
Pinocchio laughed at them while David rolled his eyes and said, "Pretty sure we were talking about something else here."
"You're always so serious," Dani said with a pout.
David narrowed his eyes. "There is a time and place for everything, sweetheart, and now is not the time."
Understanding why he had sounded so tense, Dani nodded silently and sank into her brother's side, who raised an eyebrow as he moved his arm around her back.
Having both seen the action, Michelle and David shared a silent look before turning their attention back to the topic at hand.
"Let's start with where we left off yesterday, shall we?" Pinocchio said as he brought out a notepad from his bag. "Now, I wrote down a few notes last night after you two left, and from what I've concluded...Henry's plotting to break you emotionally to fully take over your body."
"Can he do that?!" Michelle asked in concern. "Can he actually cause something like that to happen?"
"Not directly, no, but since he's already partially inhabited El's body, my guess is that he's already had access to her emotions and knows what's enough to trigger emotional trauma," Pinocchio explained.
"Oh my God," Dani mumbled with widened eyes. "The last time I dreamed about him...He made it seem like he killed Mikey and Frankie...and when I was crying over Frankie's body he said finally...Is that what he meant by that?"
Pinocchio nodded. "It would make sense...he planted thoughts in your head of the deaths of those you love close. Your already weakened mental health would have given him the advantage of them working even stronger on you than they would with David."
"So he's basically just waiting for the moment something wrecks me emotionally enough for him to pull through, correct?" Dani asked, and Pinocchio nodded.
"So, when combining that with our theory of Alice," she then said as she looked between her parents. "That means she's been his little helper this entire time...but how?"
Dani's eyebrows furrowed with a frown as she then turned to Pinocchio and said, "That doesn't make sense. I'm pretty sure she's alive and not a spirit hacking my mind, so how would she be able to help him?"
He pursed his lips and tilted his head. "This Alice you're talking about...she was in a relationship with Henry while he was alive?"
"Yeah...She was Henry's parole officer when he got out of Prison. He even had her attack me for him," David informed him with a roll of his eyes.
Pinocchio narrowed his eyes and nodded. "Hm, that just made things very interesting."
Michelle and David shared a look of confusion with their daughter before Michelle asked, "How so?"
"From the sounds of it, Alice was head over heels for Henry if she was willing to do some of his dirty work for him," Pinocchio began with a frown. "And I'm willing to bet that she's devastated by Henry's death..-"
"Which means she'd be willing to do anything to bring him back," Dani finished for him as the realization hit her.
"Exactly," he agreed with a nod. "So now we need to figure out just exactly how Alice plans to help Henry in hurting you so emotionally that it'll weaken your mind enough for his spirit to pull through."
Dani sat back on the couch with a huff.
Things just kept getting better and better.
✧
A sigh left Dani's mouth as she paced around the room while her mind thought of any and all ways Alice could try to hurt her emotionally. Her parents watched her every move with worried looks on their faces as Frankie showed Pinocchio the drawing he'd created.
"Wow!... I mean...Wow! You drew this?! Like actually drew this, this is amazing!!" Pinocchio said as he looked at Frankie's drawing in awe.
Frankie grinned widely as he stood beside Pinocchio's knees, who then asked, "And this is supposed to be me?"
"Uh-huh!!" Frankie said with a nod. "That's you as a toy, and that's you now as a grown-up!!"
Pinocchio grinned widely at the information.
"Dani baby, maybe you should sit down for a little bit," Michelle said as she continued to watch her daughter.
"I'm fine, Mom. Really. I don't even feel dizzy anymore," Dani reassured her as she stopped pacing.
"Well yeah, maybe not now," David said, making her look at him. "But those dizzy spells, as you call them, come very randomly...maybe you should just listen to your mother and take it easy-"
"I said I'm fine, okay?!" Dani suddenly snapped.
Her features then fell with regret as she said, "Dad, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to-"
"It's okay, Dani," he softly cut her off. "It's okay. I understand, sweetheart."
With a sigh, Dani finally walked back over to sit back down beside Pinocchio.
"It's just...When I first woke up in the hospital...I thought I'd be able to get a new chance at life, you know," she told them while looking down at her hands. "For the past ten years, I had been drowning myself in my own self-guilt and hatred...and all of that went away when Henry was gone, so I just...thought I could start over...I was ready to start over."
She then shook her head and said, "But now here I am with the ghost of the wolf I met a decade ago trying to take over my body, and I can't even be with the person I want to be with most because..."
Her words trailed off with a frown as a sudden thought occurred to her.
"Dani baby, are you alright?" Michelle asked in concern.
Frankie immediately ran over to his sister and asked, "Ellie?", but the girl's mind had already gone off as she began to think it over.
He was the first person to get hurt in her nightmares...
He was the first person Alice went after when she came back to town...
And he was the only person Dani had currently had problems with...
"Oh my God," the girl mumbled before her eyes widened. "Oh my God!!"
"Dani?!" David and Pinocchio questioned at the same time.
"It's Mikey!!" Dani exclaimed as she looked up at them in horror. "Alice was planning to do something to him this whole time...and...and the other day he...he found out about Dylan and me-"
"And stormed off before you could actually explain anything to him," David cut her off as the realization hit him. "You said it yourself that you thought Alice was going to go after him in the first place."
"Wait, Mikey the boyfriend?" Pinocchio asked, which caused Dani to nod. "That's why you looked so upset when talking about him...Something happened between you two, didn't it?"
Dani nodded again as she slowly felt her panic increase before her eyes widened as something else had hit her.
"Oh my God...Dylan! Dylan pulled me off to the side at the restaurant the other day," she told them.
"Wait, what?" Pinocchio asked as David leaned forward with narrowed eyes.
"What he'd say?! What did that little bastard say to you?!" the man asked, which caused his wife to place a hand over his to calm him down.
"He...He called me...by a nickname," Dani said, and Pinocchio immediately grabbed her hand in comfort. "And Mikey pointed out how he had always been hinting at what happened...It was like he wanted Mikey to be suspicious of us..."
"So, what are you saying, honey?" Michelle asked. "You think Dylan is in on it too?"
"Well, when you think about it, it does make sense," David said. "Dylan and Mikey have hated each other since they were kids, right? And knowing what we do now, the runt would clearly do anything he can to get under Mikey's skin...and probably to get him out of the way."
Shaking her head, Dani stood up from the couch while saying, "Well, we can't just sit here!! We have to go get him!! I...I have to make things better with him. I-"
"Hey, hey, hey," Pinocchio said as he quickly stood up to hold the girl in place."Breathe, El. You can't overwork yourself like this. This is exactly what Henry wants. I know you're worried about Mikey, but you can't allow yourself to panic."
Dani slowed down her breathing as she looked into his eyes.
"That's it...There you go," he then said. "You're doing good, that's it."
"I can't let him get hurt," Dani told him tearfully. "I can't, Chi, he means so much to me."
"I know you can't and you won't," Pinocchio reassured her while rubbing her arms. "So you and your dad will go find him and bring him back here. I'll stay here with your mom and Frankie, okay?"
Taking a deep breath, Dani nodded and said, "Okay," before turning her head to her father with a look of determination.
"Let's go."