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Valerie never really questioned her new suit. She had been so livid after watching Phantom destroy her Red Huntress suit, and honestly a bit terrified. That power…it would have easily killed her if the suit hadn’t been empty. So, yeah. She wasn’t exactly in the best frame of mind at the time. That was why, instead of wondering why a new suit appeared out of nowhere, she attacked.
After that, the black and red suit became Valerie’s new norm. Mr Masters barely acknowledged the change at all, so it probably couldn’t have been that important. Perhaps he commissioned a new, more powerful suit to help her defeat Phantom. He always did seem to have her best interest in mind. In retrospect, that was utter bullshit. All Masters did for her was rile her up with his threats of Phantom’s malevolence, and make it much harder for any logic to shine through. When Valerie was the Red Huntress, she ran purely off adrenaline. She ignored everything right in front of her in order to pursue her revenge. Valerie wasn’t able to see how good Phantom and his cousin really were. She wasn’t able to see Master’s true nature. And she wasn’t able to see what was actually happening to her.
Valerie never really questioned her new suit. But, looking back, she should have. She absolutely should have.
The first sign something was wrong came in the school nurse’s office, of all places. Ever since the ghost attacks had started, the office was frequented by basically every student of Casper High. There were never any serious injuries, thankfully. But small scrapes and cuts were common. Unfortunately, Mr Lancer had noticed the bruise on her throat from a fight with the Lunch Lady earlier. And now she had been stuck here for the entirety of third period.
“Before you go, I just have to get your vitals real quick.” The school’s nurse, Ms Page, said while holding a stethoscope.
“Alright.” Valerie replied, glad to finally be able to go back to English. And wasn’t that strange. She actually wanted to go back to class. But at this point, Valerie was really tired of the questioning and condolences regarding her injuries.
“Hm, that’s strange.” The nurse frowned. “Your heart rate is a bit low for your age. You might want to see your primary care doctor.”
“Wait, how low?” That definitely was weird. Valerie had always had a high heart rate, with her resting BPM being around 90.
“It’s about 55 beats per minute.” At that, Valerie’s eyes widened. Why was it so low?
“Okay, thanks. I will see my doctor soon.” She rushed out of the nurse’s office, thoughts racing. Throughout the day, Valerie found herself worrying about what was wrong. Hopefully, it wasn’t a serious medical issue.
Seeing the doctor a few days later confirmed that it wasn’t. She was completely fine. The only thing wrong was a low heart rate, but even then, it was close enough to the normal range to be okay. That just left Valerie more confused.
After that appointment, Valerie started paying closer attention to her health. And what she noticed was extremely concerning. It wasn’t just her heart rate, she was breathing a lot less too. While before she could only hold her breath for about a minute, Valerie could now hold it for five minutes without even feeling uncomfortable. She sometimes even found herself forgetting to breathe. In one particularly disturbing incident, she had held her breath for half of a biology period before remembering that humans were supposed to breathe.
As much as Valerie wanted to ignore this, she couldn’t. Because there were a bunch of other little warning signs. It wasn’t just her heart and lungs. It was her hair, which sometimes acted like the rules of gravity didn’t apply to it. It was her voice, which liked to slip into a language that was distinctly not human. It was her step, which felt too light, almost like she was floating. It was her everything, really. All of it was pointing towards a conclusion that Valerie really, really didn’t like. So, she pushed it away and pretended that everything was okay. Until she couldn’t anymore.
It was a nice, normal day. Well, at least for Amity Park it was. In any other city, seeing a fight between two ghosts floating above the school probably would have been extremely concerning. Here, that was just a Tuesday. And for Valerie, it was the perfect excuse to practice her favorite frustration outlet: ghost hunting. There was something so cathartic about pummeling ghosts back into the Ghost Zone, even if it was hard work. Fighting Skulker would spare her from the horrors of algebra class, at least.
Ever since Valerie had found out that Vlad was really a ghost, she and Phantom had formed a tentative truce. She still didn’t fully trust him, but Valerie certainly felt better after hearing the ghost’s explanation for what really happened with his ghost dog. Which apparently wasn’t even his. Valerie hated admitting she was wrong, but in this case, she did have to concede. Anyways, Phantom and the Red Huntress often fought side by side now instead of against each other. At the very least, it made fighting ghosts easier.
What definitely didn’t make it easier was the Fentons. When Valerie first started her ghost hunting career, she had looked up to Maddie Fenton. Needless to say, she grew out of it quickly. Although Maddie was much more competent than her husband Jack, she still ended up being much more harm than help in ghost fights. The Fentons may have been the leading researchers in ecto science, but they were not very good ghost hunters. And unfortunately, they had decided to make their presence known today.
“Stop right there, spook!” Jack Fenton yelled, brandishing the ridiculously named Jack o’ Nine Tails.
“Ugh, do we really have to do this today?” Phantom muttered. “I was just about to get Skulker in the thermos…” Valerie couldn’t help but agree.
“Don’t worry, we’ve got it handled! You can go.” Valerie knew that the Fentons wouldn’t leave, they were too passionate. But she could at least try.
“Get out of the way, Huntress! I have a perfect shot.” Maddie said, aiming her Fenton Bazooka at Phantom. Valerie sighed in annoyance, and refused to budge. Why did they always target Phantom, and not the ghost he was fighting?
Valerie turned to the ghost boy. “I’ll distract them while you finish off Skulker.” He nodded in response, blasting an ecto ray at the other ghost. Valerie diverting the Fenton’s attention while Phantom fought was practically routine at this point. After all, their weapons could only hurt ghosts. And she was human. That doubt tried to creep up in the back of her mind, but Valerie quickly shot it down. She was completely human. End of story.
“Look out!” The Huntress was broken out of her musings by Phantom’s shout of alarm. By the time Valerie even understood what was happening, she was screaming. She didn’t know why she was screaming at first, until the overwhelming pain hit. It felt like her body was simultaneously being dunked in freezing cold ice water and stabbed with an endless amount of needles. She vaguely recognized that she was falling to the ground, but everything felt fuzzy. Everything other than the pain. Then Valerie’s head cracked against the ground, and she knew nothing.
“Ah, fuck…” Valerie woke up with the worst headache of her life. Her head was fuzzy, and it felt like she was wading through sludge whenever she tried to think.
“Oh, you’re up!” She would recognize that unnatural echo anywhere. It was Phantom. But what had happened? Everything after she got hit by…something was all black. Wait, yeah! Valerie had been caught in the crossfire of the battle. Perhaps a new weapon of Skulker’s? Whatever it was, it really packed a punch. Yikes.
“Where am I, Phantom? What happened?” Valerie sat up, not recognizing the room she was in. It definitely seemed like she was in some kind of house, based off the furniture and general vibe. But she didn’t know whose house she was in. And…wait. How long had it been? The sunny sky from earlier was gone, now replaced with a blanket of stars. She must have been out for hours.
“This is Sam’s house. I needed her first aid kit. You had a pretty nasty burn, courtesy of the Fenton Bazooka.” The ghost sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck.
“How do you know Sam?” Valerie raised an eyebrow, before realizing what else Phantom said. “Wait, hold on. The Fenton Bazooka? Those weapons are only supposed to hurt ghosts. Are you sure I didn’t get hit by something from Skulker?” Just then, Valerie noticed that her midriff was completely bandaged. She pulled up her shirt, and could already see a bit of red poking through the gauze. And hold on…was that green? She felt like she could throw up. But, no. That must have been from Phantom’s hands…right?
“I’m sure. I didn’t expect you to get hurt either. But…you’re really ecto contaminated. Like, dangerously so.” Phantom looked genuinely worried. “I think it’s because of your suit.”
“What do you mean? I’m fine, and I haven’t noticed anything wrong.” That was a lie, but Valerie didn’t want to appear vulnerable in front of the ghost boy. Finding out that he knew her identity was already bad enough.
“Red…you’re not fine. This level of ecto radiation can literally kill you. You need to stop wearing that suit, and maybe even ghost fighting altogether-“
“No!” Valerie suddenly cut him off. “I will never stop hunting ghosts. And if you try to make me, you can kiss our truce goodbye.” Before Phantom could even get a word in, she activated her suit and flew off.
“Shit…” Valerie muttered to herself, soaring above the city. She hadn’t meant to be so harsh to Phantom. He was just trying to help. He was just completely wrong about the ecto contamination. But…was he? Phantom’s words rang throughout her mind. That level of ecto radiation could kill her. Valerie didn’t want to die. If not for her, but her friends and family. And above all else, her dad. Daddy would be absolutely devastated, especially if she came back as a ghost. And wasn’t that a horrible thought. There were good ghosts, like Phantom. But they seemed to be the exception. The majority of ghosts were still evil monsters driven by their obsession. And Valerie didn’t want an existence like that.
Sighing, she landed in the park, and sat down on a bench next to the lake. She needed to think. The water was quite beautiful tonight, she thought. The light from the full moon reflected both the stars and her masked face back up at her. Valerie jerked back when she noticed that her reflection was glowing! She looked down at her arms, and sure enough, there was a small white glow around the edges of her suit. It was faint, but still noticeable. How long had that been there? How long had it taken for Valerie to even notice? Her panic lessened a bit when she retracted her suit and the unearthly glow disappeared. It was still contained to her suit. At least, it was for now. How long would it take until she was permanently coated in an eerie white light?
Maybe Phantom was right. As much as she tried to deny it, she had noticed many irregular occurrences around her. Of course, there was her low heart rate and the lack of breathing. But there were other things, too. Things that she had tried to deny. Her hair wasn’t just fluttering in the wind. It was floating. Her voice wasn’t just cracking, it was slipping into ghost speak. And her steps weren’t just light, she must really have been hovering a bit. All of these little incidents and others painted a truly disturbing picture.
Somehow, Valerie was turning into a ghost.
It only got worse from there. Valerie knew that she needed to stop hunting, to quit while she was ahead. If she stopped, there was a chance she would be okay. But if Valerie didn’t, she would die. The thing was, it felt like she physically couldn’t stop. She just had to fight ghosts. Every time the ghost alarm blared at school, Valerie activated her suit and went off to fight the threat. Phantom was always there too. He begged Valerie to stop, said her life was in danger. She knew. But she just couldn’t. Ghost hunting was a need. Almost an…obsession. And wasn’t that disturbing?
Every time Valerie’s Red Huntress suit covered her, it felt like a death sentence. Probably because it literally was. Valerie noticed her heart rate getting even lower, dropping into dangerous territory. She could now stop breathing for over an hour without even noticing any strain on her lungs. And she even noticed herself gaining some other ghost powers, like intangibility and invisibility. But in return, her body was slowly shutting down. The ecto radiation was contaminating every organ, and one day she wouldn’t be able to take it anymore. Valerie was sick and dying. She had never felt worse in her entire life. But she still couldn’t stop ghost hunting, no matter how hard she wanted to. What was once a fun, if somewhat dangerous, hobby had become an absolute nightmare she was forced to keep reliving over and over.
Soon, the ghosts started ignoring her during battles. Before, they always seemed eager to challenge here. But now, they all just looked at her with something akin to pity. They must have known what was happening to her, having sensed it somehow. Valerie thought maybe she would stop having the urge to join in on the fights, but of course she wasn’t that lucky. If anything, it made her need for ghost hunting even worse.
It was also becoming increasingly harder to hide everything from her dad. At least with her (very few) friends, she could just push them away. But Valerie saw her Daddy every day. He was already upset that she was the Red Huntress. She knew his reaction to this would be even worse. How could she bear to tell him that his daughter was dying?
Valerie should have never became the Red Huntress. When she saw that box sent by Vlad Masters, she should have thrown it away without a second thought. The excitement that ghost hunting brought to her life absolutely wasn’t worth it. It was fun at first, almost like a game. She had learned, too late, that it was anything but. And now she was going to pay the price.
She should have given Phantom a chance, let him explain about Cujo. Maybe then, her ghost hunting career would have been over before it even began. Instead, Valerie was blinded by a need for revenge. And look where that got her. She shouldn’t have trusted Master’s lies about Phantom, either. Knowing what she did now, it was so clear that he had just been manipulating her. And Valerie fell for his every word hook, line, and sinker.
Perhaps most of all, Valerie should have questioned where her new suit had come from. The switch from black to black and red felt so inconsequential, or even an upgrade. Not only did it have a greater arsenal, but her new Red Huntress suit made Valerie stronger and faster. Now she knew why. The suit was like a parasite, burrowing everywhere into her body and siphoning her life force. She hadn’t even wondered why she could call this suit at will. But she should have questioned that. She should have questioned everything. Masters, Phantom’s true intentions, and her suit. If only she had, maybe things would have been different.
If only.