Hope you enjoy this EpikalStorms, it was written all for you

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Chapter 5:

A dark figure stood in an abandoned study room in a huge mansion in Wisconsin. An old man stood there. His eyes wide with disbelief as he clutched the phone to his ear.

"… He's alive?" He whispered quietly. The ghost on the other line grunted positive. Vlad dropped the phone to the ground staring at it wide eyed. His bearded face and long messy white hair contrasting with his ripped clothes.

He fell to his knees, tears of joy sliding down his cheeks as he laughed. Laughed for the first time in so long. He shakily reached up onto his table and grabbed a framed picture, that of a young boy and a red headed woman, smiling at the camera.

Vlad caressed the boy's face with his thumb for the first time believing that perhaps there really was a God somewhere in this accursed life. He hugged the frame to his chest and looked up to the ceiling tears still sliding from his joyful face.

"Thanks you" He whispered. Then with the air of a man with a mission, he straightened grabbing the phone.

"Skulker, are you still there?" Vlad asked his voice now full of confidence and the long lost business man in him coming back to life.

"Yes sir I am." Skulker's voice had a startled tone to it not expecting the radical change.

"Tell me about Daniel, how is he?" Vlad eagerly inquired expecting to hear about Daniel becoming an adult.

"He seemed fine to me, healthy at least." Skulker spoke hesitantly, knowing his boss would probably not like what he had to say.

"What is that supposed to mean Skulker?" Vlad snapped sharply.

"Vlad… Phantom is... he hasn't aged a day Vlad."

"What?" A pause.

"I saw him at a warehouse just a few hours ago…" then Skulker recounted his encounter with Phantom. The cloak, his characteristic cheerfulness that had seemed so out of place after so long, his casual approach to all he had missed, the fact the boy had not aged a day and didn't seem to mind it at all.

Vlad took a moment to take all of this in. The boy had been harmed. That much was clear to him; the GIW had broken his metabolism, the cheerfulness suggesting insanity. They had abused him to the point of insanity.

Vlad clutched the phone as his hand shook with rage when the call had ended. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. When he opened his eyes they showed determination. He was being given a second chance, a new opportunity to do things right.

He would do it right this time, for his own sake, for his little badger's sake.

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