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five-rivers · 3 years

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Duty of Care

@cerucleandaimond Hello! I am your backup truce gifter. This should get you prompts 1, 3, and 4, de-aging, raised by ghosts, and sibling bonding. Enjoy!

“Well,” drawled the ghost in the white jacket, “he’s definitely traumatized.”

“I am not traumatized,” snapped Danny, straining against the bonds that held him to the table.

“Uh huh,” said the ghost, skeptically.

Danny abandoned that line of argument. “If I were traumatized,” he said, instead, “it would be by them.” He violently swung his head, the only part of his body he was able to move, to indicate his enemies who had brought him here against his will.

They had the temerity to look innocent.

“Right,” said the ghost masquerading as a doctor. “So, if you sign this and consent to guardianship of the minor, we can do the procedure today and release him into your custody.”

“What about me? I don’t consent to any procedures!” shouted Danny, ineffectually.

“We can discuss it outside, if you’d like,” said the supposed doctor. “But, in my professional opinion, he shouldn’t be left alone.”

“The whelp would find a way to wriggle out while we had our backs turned,” growled Skulker.

“I’ll also have to recommend that you don’t call your child ‘whelp.’ It’s potentially psychologically damaging.”

“I am not affiliated with these people!”

“You are, though,” said the ‘doctor.’ “They brought you here. They signed the paperwork. That’s affiliation.”

“We aren’t related, and they aren’t my guardians!”

“They sort of are, though.” The ghost turned away. “Are you all going to sign that or not?”

“We’re going to sign it!” whined Technus. “Just give me a minute to read the fine print.

“Weren’t you bragging about being able to go through a whole EULA in a minute?” asked Skulker, yanking the paper away from him.

“Why are you even doing this! You hate me! You want to skin me. And you want to take over the world!”

If Danny didn’t know better, he’d say Skulker and Technus looked guilty. But he did know better, and his parents’ theories on ghost emotions aside, he didn’t think the two of them were capable of feeling guilt. Or shame.

“Er,” said Skulker. “That was, er…”

“A read error!” exclaimed Technus. “A glitch!”

“That doesn’t make any sense!” screamed Danny, because shrieking was the only way he could cause damage at the moment.

“It does too!”

“It does not! How do you go from wanting to kill me to wanting to adopt me?”

Technus made a noise like an overworked modem. “We never wanted to kill you, ghost child!”

“You have both definitely tried to murder me! More than once!”

“Have not!”

“Have so!”

“Just sign the paperwork already!” demanded Skulker, shoving the clipboard into Technus’s face.

Technus grumbled, but accepted it. He pulled a pen with far too many blinking lights on it to be anything close to functional from his lab coat, attempted to sign the paperwork, failed, and then begged a ballpoint pen off of Skulker.

“Why are you looking at me like that, whelp?” demanded Skulker. He did a lot of demanding, which was really unfair of him in Danny’s opinion.

“I thought you were dating Ember,” said Danny. If he couldn’t get out, maybe he could annoy Skulker and Technus into abandoning… whatever this was.

“I am!”

“He is!”

“And this is, what, exactly?” drawled Danny, attempting to channel Vlad at his most infuriating.

“A strictly platonic partnership!”

“A polycule!”

Skulker and Technus stopped and stared at each other. Then shrugged. “It can be both!”

“Yes,” cackled Technus. “Both! Like a two-in-one tablet!”

It was Danny’s turn to stare. “Your analogies are bad enough to be outlawed by the Geneva Convention.”

“Oh ho? You think so, ghost child? Perhaps I will use them to conquer-!”

Skulker cut Technus off by shoving one of his metal hands into his face and stealing back the clipboard. He all but threw it at the doctor.

“Excellent!” said the doctor ghost. “This looks like it’s all in order. I’ll just get the procedure started, and then you can get out of here.” He approached Danny. “The sooner the better,” he whispered under his breath. “Don’t envy you parents like that, kid.”

“They are not my parents,” Danny hissed. “I have parents, okay, real parents who gave birth to me.”

“Parents who caused your death and tried to exorcize you,” said the doctor ghost, flatly. He put one gloved hand on Danny’s forehead. “Now, try to relax. It’ll go much more smoothly that way.”

Needless to say, Danny did not relax. He did, in fact, struggle harder.

Sadly, he did not struggle hard enough to keep the doctor ghost from sticking the nozzle of a spray bottle up his nose and squeezing.

It was, Skulker had to admit, somewhat… disturbing to watch the whelp - Phantom - fall unconscious and begin to shrink.

“Hm,” said the doctor. “That’s unusual.”

“I was under the impression that the subject was supposed to revert to an earlier version.”

“Yes,” said the doctor, “but usually they melt first. Ah. Looks like he’s done.”

The doctor deposited the much smaller Phantom into Skulker’s arms.

“Now,” said the doctor, “the purpose of this procedure is to give abused and neglected children a second chance. It’s important for parents like yourself to remember that it does not erase the trauma, it simply lets the child forget it, so that it can heal. With the love of new, attentive, caretakers.”

There was definitely a threat there.

“I was a parent before, you know,” said Technus, nasally, “and none of my children are traumatized. I think we’ll manage.”

The doctor looked skeptical. “You’re sure about that, huh.”

“Oh my god,” said Ember. “Babypop is literally a baby now. Why didn’t you tell me you were doing this?”

“Uh,” said Skulker, who didn’t really have a good reason for it. “Didn’t think you’d want to bother?”

Ember frowned at Skulker. Baby Phantom made grabby hands at her hair.

“This is the funniest thing that’s happened around here in ages. Why would you think- Ow! What the hell, he shouldn’t even be able to grab my hair.”

“I mean-”

“It’s made of fire. How are you doing that, pipsqueak?”

Phantom babbled at her.

“Okay, this might have been a little funnier if he was just a bit older.”

Phantom made some more babbling noises.

“Do you think you could-?”

“It doesn’t work that way,” said Skulker.

“You didn’t even-”

“I am not going to age him up just so you can taunt him.”

“It isn’t taunting. It’s teasing. And I was going to ask how he was grabbing fire firs- Ow! How are you doing that?”

“Now this,” said Technus, “is a transistor. Can you say transistor?”

“Awawaw.”

“Very good!”

Technus threw the switch and lightning sprang into being along the walls of the room. “MWAHAAHAHAHAHAHAH! I AM MASTER OF ALL THINGS ELECTRICAL!”

“AWAWAWAWA!”

“NOW YOU’RE GETTING IT, CHILD!”

“This,” said Technus, offering the object to Phantom, “is a punch card. It was used to program computers during the early days of the technology.” He turned away. “Of course, programming has progressed since then.”

When he turned back around, Phantom had the punch card in his mouth.

“EXCELLENT! YOU ARE NOW ABSORBING TECHNOLOGY! YOU ARE TAKING AFTER ME, NOT SKULKER! I AM VICTORIOUS! I AM THE PREFERRED PARENT!”

“Skulker is made of technology,” said Ember, walking by with a piece of toast in her mouth.

“I AM VICTORIOUS, WOMAN!”

“DON’T CALL MY WOMAN A WOMAN!” screamed Skulker from the other room.

Phantom continued to chew on the punch card.

“Why are you staring at the infant?” asked Skulker.

“Just, something struck me as weird today,” said Ember. She poked Phantom’s cheek, and he babbled cheerily at her. “Man, he’s a happy baby. I kind of thought he’d be a cranky crybaby.”

“That’s what you thought was weird?”

“No. Like. He’s half human, right? He’s got that whole light show thing going on. He’s sort of alive.”

“Yes, that is why I hunted him for so long.” Skulker puffed out his chest, remembering his ultimate victory over Phantom. “And also why we have acquired so much human baby food.”

“Uh huh,” said Ember. “So. Why’s he been a ghost the whole time?”

“Hm,” said Skulker who had… not noticed that, actually.

“Like, the doctor shrinking him didn’t accidentally kill him, right?”

“We would have noticed that!”

“Would you have?”

“I’m the Ghost Zone’s greatest hunter! I know when my prey is dead!”

“You hunt ghosts. All of your prey is dead, and usually has been for a while. Except Phantom, I guess.”

“He isn’t dead,” protested Skulker.

Phantom began to float.

“I mean,” said Skulker. “He isn’t any more dead than he was when I first started hunting him.”

“Are you sure about that?” asked Ember.

“What do you mean, you can’t tell if he’s still half alive or not?”

The doctor ghost shrugged. “I’m just a pediatrician, I don’t know what you want from me.”

“What kind of doctor are you, if you can’t tell whether or not a patient is alive?”

“One that’s been dead for a while,” said the doctor with an unconcerned shrug. “You should find a half ghost expert, if you’re so worried.”

“We aren’t going to tell Plasmius about this, are we?” asked Technus.

Skulker scoffed. “Of course not! Don’t be ridiculous. He’d try to kidnap our whelp.”

“For the record, this idea is worse,” hissed Technus.

“No, it isn’t,” said Skulker. “Now hurry up and finish hacking this infernal machine.”

“They designed it to be hard for me to hack,” complained Technus.

The whine of an ectoblast pointed at the back of his head prevented any response Skulker could give.

“Skulker,” said Jasmine Fenton, very sweetly. “Where is my little brother?”

“I can’t believe you did this,” said Jazz, bouncing her (very) little brother on her lap. “Why did you even do this?”

Sam shook the thermos, hard. “Answer her.”

“Ow!”

“Hey!”

“That’s another purpleback gorilla worm for you,” muttered Tucker as he fiddled with Skulker’s armor.

“We found out how he died!” shouted Technus.

“Shut up!” shouted Skulker.

“You decided to de-age Danny because you found out how he became half ghost?” That was… entirely illogical. Ghosts could be out there, but there didn’t seem to be any real connection between the cause and the action. “Why?”

There was no answer beyond cursing and a few hollow thumps.

“Are they fighting each other inside the thermos?” asked Tucker, uncertainly.

“I didn’t know they could do that,” said Sam.

Keeping a baby ghost in Fentonworks really wasn’t tenable, so camping in the Ghost Zone it was. Their parents thought she was at a friend’s. It could be worse. At least Danny seemed to remember her- or have positive feelings about her. It was hard to tell, because his vocabulary was… limited.

But he hung on to her, and smiled at her, and did a handful of other little things that Jazz vaguely remembered from when she was two and three. He sucked on his knuckles instead of his thumb, seemed fascinated with everything that glowed or flew - which included himself - and babbled almost constantly. It felt familiar, even though Jazz didn’t really remember it.

“What are we going to do, Danny?” she asked. She didn’t really direct the question at him, although he was tucked into the sleeping bag with her, but instead the roof of the Fenton Ghost Away Tent (patent pending). “What if we can’t get you back to normal? We can’t leave you with Skulker and Technus, they did this to you, but Mom and Dad…” She trailed off with a sigh. “Frostbite? Dora? Gosh… I thought you being half dead was the weirdest thing you’d ever done. Well, I guess you didn’t do it. All of this stuff just sort of… Happens to you.”

Not that Danny didn’t get himself into trouble often enough, but this was… This was a lot. And she couldn’t blame it on Danny.

She resolved to give the thermos another good shaking when she woke up in the morning.

“What were you looking at our files for, anyway?” asked Jazz, after the promised shaking. It was rather late to ask, but she had been much more concerned about the tiny, vulnerable version of her brother at the time.

There was grumbling from the thermos, but Technus, surprisingly, answered. “We were worried about Phantom,” he said.

“Worried about what?” They can’t have been too worried about his wellbeing if they’d turned him into a baby.

“He hasn’t turned human, while he’s been with us,” said Technus. “We were… worried.”

Jazz felt cold, and it had nothing to do with the natural chill of the Ghost Zone. “Did you kill my brother?” she hissed, feeling absolutely murderous.

Danny started to cry.

She turned her attention to comforting him.

“No,” said Skulker, sounding offended. “I don’t kill anything I don’t mean to kill!”

“You’ve threatened to skin him, so forgive me if I don’t believe you didn’t mean to kill him,” snapped Jazz, bouncing Danny, who slowly calmed.

“That was why we were looking at your files!” said Technus. “We were trying to find something that could, ahem, test that safely.”

“Did you find anything?”

“Aha, well…”

“As a teenager without superpowers, breaking into the evil lair of a supervillain without backup sounds like a bad idea.”

“Your favorite superhero is Batman.”

“Batman is fictional.”

“Yes, yes,” said Jazz, interrupting Sam and Tucker, “but do you think we can do it? For Danny.”

Sam and Tucker exchanged looks. “Yeah,” said Tucker. “We can do it.”

“I hate this place,” said Tucker.

“Shut up,” said Sam. They didn’t know if Vlad had left any clones here to watch his house.

They crept up the banister into Vlad’s study.

“Gosh, Danny wasn’t kidding about the stupid golden football. Why do people with money spend it on such stupid stuff?”

“You have money.”

“My parents have money,” corrected Sam. She sighed. “Let’s… just do this.”

Jazz held the Plasmius Maximus in one hand, and her tiny baby brother in the other. Nausea twisted her stomach.

“I can’t do it,” she said, finally.

“You know what we went through to get that,” said Sam, holding a bag of ice to her temple, “and now you say you can’t do it?”

“Look at his little face! Could you taze this cute little face? These chubby cheeks?”

“Have you no shame as an older sibling?” asked Tucker, gravely.

“You’re both only children! You don’t know how it is!”

“I could do it,” said Technus from inside the thermos.

“No you couldn’t,” said Skulker.

“Give it to me,” said Sam. “I’ll do it.”

Jazz handed over the Plasmius Maximus. Sam gripped it tightly, staring down at her shrunken friend. For one minute. Two. Three.

She slumped. “I can’t do it either,” she admitted.

Exasperated, Jazz reached for the Plasmius Maximus. Sam reflexively jerked back, falling into Tucker, who overcompensated and tipped them both into Jazz. The Plasmius Maximus came down and discharged into all four of them.

“Ow,” said Danny.

“You’re back!” shouted Jazz. Danny was promptly dogpiled.

“Ow,” he repeated. Then, more contemplatively, “That was really weird.”

#danny phantom #christmas truce #holiday truce 2021 #phandom holiday truce 2021 #phandom holiday truce #christmas truce 2021 #cerucleandaimond

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dp-marvel94 · 3 years

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Holiday Truce 2021

Summary: Written for Holiday Truce 2021, For @kinglazrus . A hiker finds the body of a teenager on the side of a lake. He clearly died from drowning. Except.... he wakes up.

Warnings and Tags: Original Female Character(s), POV Outsider, Spooky Danny, Badass Danny Fenton, Immortal Danny Fenton, Beheading, Blood and Gore, Drowning, Unsettling Danny Fenton, Hurt Danny Fenton, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending

Word Count: 12,808

Also on AO3 and FF.net

Note: This was written for KingLazrus, based on two prompts: Danny is unsettling as a human thanks to his ghost half and Danny finds out the hard way that he can't die.

I'm sorry this is so late. I'd been hoping to finish before Christmas but that didn't happen. The story just didn't seem to want to end. Then there was family Christmas stuff and I got sick. ;( But I'm feeling better now and this is finally done! *Cries tears of joy*

Enjoy!

It had started out as a sunny but chill day. Cassie had spent the morning and early afternoon tromping through the woods, leaves crunching under her boots. Now, the wind was starting to pick up. The young woman pulled her hood up and looked skyward. No clouds….she frowned. That was odd. She shook her head, dismissing the thought.

A few minutes later, Cassie stopped, arriving at the top of the steep hill. She let out a breath, awed. “This was worth it, just for the view.”

There, in front of her, stretched a picturesque mountain lake. Crystal clear water, pine trees reflected on its surface. Cassie pulled out her camera. Yes, the pictures definitely made the hike worth it. She snapped a few images.

Then there was another gust of wind. The photographer shivered. Out the corner of her eyes, there was a spark of green, then a flash of light. Cassie lowered her camera, brow wrinkling. What was…. The camera flashed, the shutter opening and closing for another picture. Oh. No. She frowned. Her camera was being weird again. With that, the young woman decided to put the device away.

Cassie continued towards the lake, keeping her eyes open for animals and interesting plants. The forest was peaceably calm, free of the noise of human voices and machines but alive with its own sounds. Chirping birds, chittering squirrels, wind-russelled leaves. It was beautiful, the sights and the sounds of nature. And for once, Cassie felt a part of it, her own careful footsteps adding to the symphony.

The trees were starting to thin and less than a hundred feet in front of her, the woman could see where they stopped. Right in front of her was the clearing and the lake she’d walked all this way for. Eager anticipation building, Cassie smiled. She would be able to get some breathtaking pictures. She’d sit quietly for a while and if she was lucky, she’d be able to get some pictures of rare birds and other wildlife that frequented the area. She stepped through the last row of tree and-

Everything stopped. The chittering of the animals, the gusts of wind. Dread balled in Cassie’s stomach, hard and cold. It was like suddenly…. The forest itself was holding its breath. Her muscles tensed, eyes searching. Something was wrong. Something-

Gasping, Cassie’s eyes fixed on something lying at the edge of the lake. A spot of jet black, denim blue, and…. Red. There was…. A person shaped lump on the beach. Muscles suddenly unlocking, the woman sprinted. Coming closer and closer…

“Hey! You!” The woman called, hoping to get the person’s attention. Maybe they were okay, just resting. Maybe-

The photographer stopped short. There, at her feet, laying face down in the sand and completely unmoving…. The body, the person was so small. “Oh god.” Cassie covered her mouth. “That’s a kid.”

Roughly throwing her bag to the side, the woman fell to her knees. Before she could think, she was pushing the body over, onto its back. She fought back nausea. This… this was… oh god. The swollen, blue-tinted skin, the open mouth, and… those eyes. Unseeing, unblinking, clouded and gray.

Cassie wanted to throw up, torn between a sickening feeling of wrongness and a blind panic. It was…a kid. A teenager. He was what, thirteen or fourteen? Soaking wet, in just jeans and a t-shirt, his unruly black hair plastered to his wet forehead. And he was de-.

The woman pushed the thought down. Hands shaking, she reached for the neck, for the pulse point. Please, a heartbeat…. His skin was so cold but…. Her eyes flickered between the unmoving chest and the still face. Chest compressions. You’re supposed to do chest compressions, CPR, right?

Cassie placed both hands over the heart and pressed. “One. Two. Three.” Water spilled out of the open mouth. “Four. Five.” And now she was supposed to do breaths.

The photographer bent over the blue lips. And… oh god, he was so cold. Okay. More compressions. “One. Two. Three.” And now she was crying. Because this wasn't supposed to happen! She was supposed to be taking a nice weekend trip. Taking pictures and enjoying the quiet. But now… “Four. Five.” But now, she was doing CPR on a drowned teenager she found on the side of the lake. “Another breath.” But he was dead. Obviously, he was dead. This was a dead kid and she’d have to call the police and tell them what happened and-

Suddenly, the chest under her pumping hands spasmed. A gasped and… the body jerked, head lulling to the side and coughing up water.

Cassie’s breath lodged in her throat, tears suddenly stopped. No words… there were no words. Because…. This… this was… what the….

The body coughed, more water spilling out. A shaky, blue hand moved up to wipe the wet mouth. And…. the woman’s mind finally restarted.

“What the f-ck!” Cassie threw herself back as the head turned, green eyes boring into her. “I thought you were dead!!”

Another watery cough, another wipe of wet lips. And… “That’s both of us, then.” A disbelieving laugh and…

The world turned on its head, her racing heart slamming to its normal pace. That normal, completely unassuming, normal voice….

“I really thought…” The boy said quietly. “I thought I was a goner.” He shook his head, pushing himself into a sitting position. The teen winced, looking down at himself. “Ow. My ribs. It feels like I got tackled.”

“You weren’t… you weren’t breathing.” Cassie managed to force out. “I gave you CPR.”

Blue eyes turned back to her. “Oh. That’s why.” He rubbed his chest, frowning.

Cassie said nothing, studying the boy. And she felt foolish. Intelligent blue eyes, pale-pinkish skin. He was sitting, breathing, talking in front of her. He’d almost… drown. But….he was definitely alive.

“I’m Cassie. What’s your name?” The woman finally asked.

“My name’s Danny.” He looked up from where he was wringing out his shirt.

“Okay, Danny.” She raised a brow. “What are you doing out here by yourself?”

“Umm….I was…uh…” His eyes flickered anywhere but her face, suddenly nervous. “Going for a swim?”

She opened and closed her mouth, shocked. “During the winter?! It’s barely 40 degrees!”

Danny blushed. “Umm… It wasn’t exactly planned.”

“Not planned…” Cassie took a breath. “Never mind. We need to get out of here. I’ll take you back to my car and we can call… actually…” The woman grabbed her bag, pulling out her satellite phone. “I can call 911 right now.”

“No! You can’t!” The boy exclaimed.

The woman paused, just blinking at him a moment. Then… “You almost drowned! We need to get you to the hospital.” She argued.

Green eyes glared at her. Wait, green. Weren't they blue? No, they were green. Definitely green. “I’m not going to the hospital.”

“Yes, you are.” The woman insisted. She started typing the numbers to call and- “Shit!” The phone sparked, a cacophony of static sounding as it shocked her. Cassie threw the phone in her surprise and it landed in the lake.

“Oops.” Danny shrugged, tone not at all sympathetic.

The photographer stared numbly at the dark shape of her phone under the water. After a few heartbeats, she tentatively reached. It appeared just an arm’s length away. But with the clear water, it was impossible to tell how far down it rested.

“I’ll get it.” The boy stood, shuffling back into the water.

Cassie opened her mouth to tell him to stop but the words stayed lodged in her throat. A cold fear was trickling into her heart as he disappeared under the blue water. He reemerged a few moments later waving the blocky phone at her.

Danny handed the phone back to her, the device waterlogged and the casing busted. “Well, you’re definitely not calling 911 now.” The boy said, nonchalantly.

Cassie took the phone, looking up at him and swallowing. “I guess not. But… I can still get us back to my car and call with my other-”

“You’re not calling for an ambulance or the police.” He narrowed his eyes. “And I’m not going to the hospital. I’ll go with you but I’m only calling my sister to pick me up.”

“Fine.” The woman conceded. It was the best she could do now. She could always try to convince him, or talk to this sister and insist they take her brother to the hospital. And… it might not matter anyway. The boy might not be well enough to walk the two and half hours it would take to get back to the parking lot, especially in that outfit.

“We need to get you out of those wet clothes.” Cassie said, hurriedly looking through her bag. “You’ll get hypothermia in thirty minutes if we don’t get you in something dry.” Thank goodness she’d thought to bring an extra outfit. The woman pulled out a sweater and a pair of pants.

There was a pained grunt. “Can’t do that again.” Danny muttered.

She looked up, to see a grimace on the boy’s face. Worry flickered across her expression. “What happened? Are you-” She cut herself off, taking him in. His clothes… his clothes were dry, completely dry. Her eyes trailed over him. The ground around him was wet. (Of course it was; they were right next to a lake.) But there wasn’t a drop of water on him. Even his hair was dry.

Cassie's mouth went dry. “How…how are you-”

“Please. Don’t.” The voice was low and quiet, the green eyes staring into her harsh, predatory, and searching.

The woman wanted to ask, wanted to push, wanted to demand. This was wrong. So much about this was wrong. Her heart beat frantically and she shivered at his gaze. This was… this was wrong. She’d found him dead on the side of the lake, except he wasn’t dead now. But…no, that wasn’t right. She’d just resuscitated him with CPR and he was okay now. But…that wasn’t-

“I…I’m sorry.” Danny suddenly stepped back. It was then, Cassie finally realized that she was shaking. She was afraid, terrified, out of her depth. “This is…this is weird. I know. Just…please don’t ask.” His voice trembled. The woman stared wide eyed at the ground. Weird… this was weird? That was the understate- “Cassie?” He asked gently.

The woman startled at her name, looking up into his blue eyes. She blinked and… the oppressive terror was gone. “Yeah, I’m fine. Sorry.” She stood, a little surprised to realize she was taller than him, five foot six inches to his maybe five foot even. “The trail back’s this way.”

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

The pair started tromping through the same woods Cassie had come through earlier. The same sounds of animals, the same wind but… it was different when not walking alone. Danny was doing surprisingly well, despite having almost drowned mere… minutes before? Cassie wasn’t sure exactly how long they’d been on that beach, nor how long he’d been… unconscious. But it couldn’t have been all that long, right? Well, no matter how long that had been, Danny wasn’t coughing or having any trouble breathing. He wasn’t even breathing hard. Nor was he shivering. She’d managed to force her sweater on him and they were walking relatively quickly. But he really should have been cold in just those jeans and tennis shoes. Maybe-

“So…” Danny asked, interrupting her thought. “Why are you out here anyway, hiking by yourself?”

“Oh, I’m looking for yetis.” Cassie offered a conspiratory half-smile.

“Bigfoot.” The boy corrected, completely serious. “Yetis are from the Himalayas. We’re in BigFoot country.”

“Oh, are we? You know you’re cryptozoology, huh?” She raised a brow.

“I’d hope so. My parents are ghost hunters.” He blushed as if embarrassed. Then his eyes widened, muttering something under his breath.

Cassie chuckled. “Seriously?”

The boy bit his lip. “Sooo…” He drew out the word, as if to avoid her question. “Seen any Bigfoots? Bigfeet? What’s the plural of that? You know, personally, I hope we don’t see any. Frostbite says they’re not very friendly… and they smell bad. Apparently, personal hygiene isn’t a high priority.”

“Who’s Frostbite?” The woman asked.

“Shit.” Danny cursed, blushing and looking away. “I keep saying stuff shit. Stupid fruitloop. Stupid tazer. Stupid lake.”

Okay?… there was a lot there. But-

Before Cassie could even think to ask, a caw sounded above them. Both people looked up and… A group of ravens… or were those crows?… were circling them. Beside her, Danny tensed, suddenly on high alert. There was a flash of neon green, of blood red in the distance.

“What was that?” The woman asked.

“Let’s hurry up.” Danny suddenly gripped her wrist.

Cassie’s heart pounded in her ears. His hand… it was much too cold. And…the wind blowing through the trees, the beat of wings. The crows were still following. The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end. There were eyes, so many eyes on her. Watching, searching, tracking their movements. They were being followed. And…. far too loud. She was far too loud. Every crunch of the leaves under her boots was like the crashing of a symbol. But….something was wrong. She glanced back at Danny who was still pulling her along. He was walking quickly but… there was no sound. She glanced down at his feet. They were almost… gliding, barely touching the ground.

Danny stopped at her attention, letting go of her wrist. Cassie felt her heart stop at the pleading look in his eyes.

Then he smiled. “What is it?” The voice was calm and even but the look there, behind his eyes….

Cassie shivered. “Oh, it’s… it’s nothing.” She glanced up at the beat of wings above them. The woman swallowed nervously. “Um…the ravens are kinda weird.”

Danny also looked up at the black birds. One landed on a low branch, tilting its head at them intelligently. He shrugged. “What can I say? They like me.” The bird made a high pitched clicking squeak. Danny suddenly relaxed, taking a relieved breath. “Oh, that’s really good.” He muttered. Then he smiled again, and this time it was authentic. “You know, ravens are really smart. They’re good birds. Isn’t that right?” At the last word, the boy turned towards the raven. He reached up to ruffle the creature’s neck feathers. “Isn’t that right? You’re a good bird, aren’t you?” The bird let out a contented rumble. “Thanks buddy.”

Cassie just stared. The fear and unease had drained out of her leaving just… confusion. What was even happening here? Her new hiking companion was apparently some kind of bird whisperer? A distant part of her mind wanted to wipe out her camera for a picture, just to check that what her eyes were seeing was true but…

Danny dropped his hand, turning away from the bird and towards her. “Come on. We still need to get back to your car before sunset.”

“Yeah… right.” Cassie nodded.

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

The two walked uninterrupted for the next hour. It was less tense than before, quiet except for the soft sound of their voices and their (or just her?) footsteps. Cassie almost got used to the group of ravens following them. She felt herself relaxing, muscle limbering up with the exercise and her racing thoughts calming with the distracting conversation.

“I bet the stars are really clear out here.” Danny was saying. “You can probably see the Milky Way.”

“You can.” Cassie nodded. “It’s really amazing.”

“Yeah… man. I wi-.... If only I had my telescope.” He sighed, wistful.

The woman barely noticed the strange phrasing. She was too busy thinking. Danny seemed pretty… normal, just a kid with a sister, parents, and friends. An excitable, passionate kid who apparently loved the stars. But… still a normal one, all things considered. She was starting to wonder… Why had she felt so uneasy, so upset earlier? Something was itching in the back of her mind, but she could seem to grasp it. At the edge of the lake…. He’d been cold and coughing up water but…. He was okay now. And he’d been tense but… that raven he’d… talked to? …. The thoughts dripped like water out of her hands.

“So you like astronomy, huh?” Cassie asked.

An enthusiastic nod. “Yeah. I’ve wanted to be an astronaut since I was a kid.”

“An astronaut?” She smiled, eyes widening. “That’s awesome! Gotta appreciate a fellow STEM lover.”

“Fellow… STEM?” He blinked, then… “Oh cool! What’s your area? What’re ya into?”

“Biology mostly.” The woman shrugged. “That’s what I majored in, anyway. But I’ve dabbled in a bunch of stuff. Always loved anything sciency, you know? Just… learning new things is so much fun.”

The boy smirked. “That sounds like something my sister would say.” He paused, his brow furrowing. “Wait… you’re a biologist. But…. you’re looking for Bigfoot. What’s with-” Danny suddenly stopped, cutting himself off.

“What-” Cassie started. But the words died in her thought as the teen held up a hand.

He tensed, body suddenly going rigid. Too rigid. He froze, unspeaking, unmoving, unblinking. Completely still. Was he…was he even breathing? The woman’s eyes widened, taking in his still form. Her own breath was too loud in her ears. But his breath… his chest wasn’t even moving. Frozen. Inhumanly-

Sudden movement. His ear… twitched. But not the way a human’s did. It flickered. But…a… a human ear couldn’t move like that. And… was it pointed? Had it always been pointed? Had his ears been pointed this whole time?!

Suddenly, Danny breathed. A cloud of blue… smoke…or was it mist?… exited his lips. And it was like the boy suddenly unpaused. His eyes darted from tree to tree, rock to rock, the path they’d just traveled to the steep decline of the ridge they were following. Cassie blinked and his stance changed, his feet spread and fists balled.

He turned, fixing icy blue eyes on her. “Run.” He ordered.

Cassie blinked, mind struggling to catch up to the word. “Run? What?”

His eyes flickered back down the path and his teeth gritted. “Get out of here.”

The demand pricked her skin. The woman can feel herself tensing, wanting to back away but… “What…what about you?” She asked anyway. Why…why was she asking? “I can’t just leave you.”

“I’ll be fine.” He said with total confidence. He narrowed his eyes, balling fists tighter. Something…flickered there. For just a second? Bright and… green? And…. the boy grimaced in pain. “But you need to run.”

“But… I can’t leave you.” Cassie argued. But…why was she arguing?! Why was she arguing with this boy? (No, not a boy. It wasn’t a boy at all. It couldn’t be. It was… wrong somehow...) She…she needed to leave. She needed to get out of here. So why was she fighting?! “I’m not just-”

“Go!” Danny shouted. His voice echoed, far too loud for his small frame, loud enough to shake the trees. And a flash of teeth…. Sharp, pointed, and… and too many for a human mouth. Those eyes… those eyes flashed unearthly, deathly green. And….

Cassie turned and ran. She sprinted down the trail. Heart too loud, blood rushing too fast. She was a deer, a deer running from a predator. Running away from that boy, that… creature. From… oh god, what was it?! What even was that? What was happening?

“Ah!” The woman screamed, roughly ducking as something green sailed over her head.

She ran faster. She had… she had to get away from…. From…. She…she didn’t know what but…. The sounds behind her. Yells and hisses and growls. Thuds and creaks and… BOOM…. The sound of a tree falling.

“Hey! That wasn’t cool!” A familiar, male voice.

Flashes of green and red, purple and blue. The smell of ozone and citrus. And…. a hiss, a pop like TV static, like the wind through dead trees, like the creaking of a rusty gate. An angry screech. Then…

“I’ve got ya!”

There was a flash of blue, a mechanical whirl, and… the tortuous cries of the damned. Then… silence. All consuming, oppressive silence. All Cassie could hear was her own heart, her breath, her roaring thoughts. But… she had to keep running. She couldn’t stop.

Cassie blinked and…. She bit back a scream, stumbling in her surprise. There was…there was Danny, suddenly running right beside her.

“Careful!” Cold arms wrapped around the woman, stopping her from face planting. She roughly pulled out of the hold. But the boy-looking creature didn’t notice. His head whipped back, eyes searching. “Keep running. There might be more.”

Cassie was shaking but…. All she heard was run. She sprinted, the… Danny right at her heels, easily keeping pace. The pair practically flew across the forest floor. The woman had never been so grateful for her sure-footedness as a rock wobbled under her shoe. Another step… and they should start going downhill soon, right? How long had they been running? Her…her lungs were burning. She gasped, a stitch in her side making her wince. But… no… she couldn’t… couldn’t stop. The trail curved. They came around the bend and… No. No! No! Log! Log! There was a log. Too high! Too high! Her mind raced and her muscles tensed as she tried to slow. But too close!

“Just jump! We’ll make it!” Danny yelled.

He gripped her hand. Cassie jumped and…. Time seemed to slow. Her body felt light as a feather like…she was floating. The jump went high, much higher than humanly possible. The pair soared over the log.

Then her companion let out a cry of pain. His face scrunched up, eyes closed and nose wrinkled. His arms and legs curled towards his torso. And they were falling.

The woman’s eyes widened, suddenly panicked. “Danny!”

The boy reacted, straightening himself out. He landed roughly on his feet, wobbling. “Shit!”

At the same time, Cassie landed. The impact jostled her knees and she started to fall. But again, cold arms stopped her. The two kept running.

Five minutes later, Cassie stumbled to a stop, unable to take another step. She leaned over, hands on her knees as her breath heaved. If she never had to run like that again, it would be too soon. For a long moment, she just stared at the ground as she tried to process. Running for her life, she’d been running for her life away from….. She blinked… away from…. What exactly? What had…what had she been running from? The crashes, the growls, the…flashes of… of light rang in her head. A… a fight? But… earlier, before… an echoing voice, too sharp teeth, and… glowing green eyes.

“Hey, it’s okay. We’re safe now.” Danny’s voice startled Cassie out of her thoughts.

The woman jerked up, into a standing position. “Safe?! What the f*ck, Danny!…what was…was even after… us?” She struggled to speak through her pants.

"Well, me not us." The boy answered with a shrug as he bit his lip. “Umm… It’s a long story?” He averted her gaze and Cassie stared with narrowed eyes. Then her stomach flopped as she noticed… he wasn’t even out of breath. She frowned, trying to slow her own breathing.

Danny seemed to notice her mouth turn down. “It’s… it’s complicated but… I promise you’re safe. They’re not following us anymore. It’s going to be okay.”

Part of her wanted to be reassured, she really did but…. He should have been out of breath. And… a dozen other things. The cold hands, the echo, pointed teeth, the unnatural quiet. The ravens were still following them. Above, one of them let out a distressed squawk.

Danny’s eyes widened. “Spoke too soon.”

Suddenly, there was a flash of neon green near the ground. Something wispy and black darted at the edge of her vision. A screech, the pop of static. Before Cassie could really register, Danny was pushing her. “What the hell!” She started angrily.

Then her heart skipped a beat. Some…thing slammed into the boy. She screamed but the teen just grunted as he fell and started rolling down the steep incline.

The woman scrambled to her feet but her legs wobbled, threatening to collapse under her. It was cold, suddenly much too cold. And… she flinched at a wet thud. Thwap. Thwap. Thwap. Thud! The sickening sound of a body hitting stone, the snap of branches breaking.

Heart in her throat, Cassie looked out over the decline. Oh god. He’d…he’d fallen. Or… he was pushed? But by- No. No! Stop! Focus. Where… where was he? Frantically, her eyes searched for a flash of his black hair, a hint of denim, a trace of his red-. Wait, not red. Purple. He was wearing her purple sweater. And… there!

The woman watched the figure, still rolling, for just a second. Then she started scrambling after him. Her boots slid on the damp leaves and she screamed, falling on her butt. Careful. Careful. She needed to be careful. She couldn’t help if she broke her ankle or busted her head or- Stop! Stop! Focus on getting down the hill safely. So Cassie half-slid, half-crawled down the sloop, following the train of disturbance her companion’s fall had left. There was a streak of mud and wet displaced leaves. Broken sticks littered the path. And… was that… was that blood?!

Her eyes widened and she scrambled down faster. The woman cursed as she scraped her hand on a rock. But still, her eyes darted around frantically. Where was he?! Where was he?! A flash of purple to the side… there!

The ground soon leveled out and Cassie was at the bottom of the hill. The boy stood, back to her and completely still.

The woman shakily reached forward. “Oh my god. Are you-”

In a blink, Danny whipped around, turning to face her. His knees wobbled slightly and he swayed. There was a cut on his head, above his eyebrow. And…. Cassie’s eyes just about popped out of her skull. Her stomach surged into her throat, queasiness over taking her. A stain… there was a stain on the sweater, a reddish-brown smear around… around a gaping hole. The woman gasped, stepping back. And blood… that was blood. There was blood on her sweater and on his hands. So much blood. Too much blood. The smell, the sickening smell of iron and… citrus… and rot… invaded her nostrils. It was… it was wrong. There was too much and…. It was too… too dark, too saturated. It was…. Almost a sickening, dirty brown.

Danny blinked, his pupils blown wide. “I think I hit my head.”

“That… blood…” Trembling, her eyes flickered from his shirt to behind him and… the sick feeling intensified, the taste of bile hot on her breath. There…there was a sharp branch, covered with blood as if something… or someone had been… had been impelled.

The boy looked back. “There… must have been a deer.” He chuckled nervously. “Fell right into it. So gross.” Danny wrinkled his nose and he waved his hand, his gaze still bleary and far away.

That was a lie. Cassie knew it without a doubt. There was no deer. There was just the stick and the blood and the stain and the HOLE in his shirt. The dread poured over her, the fear clawing up her throat. Above her head came the caw of a raven.

She pointed at the stick. “You… that… that stick… there’s….. My…sweater… there’s….”

In an instant, clarity entered the boy’s vision. He paled, his eyes widened. “Cassie… I… I swear…” His voice shook.

The terror hit Cassie like a train. She shook, her cheating heaving. She backed up until she hit a tree. Her eyes started misting with tears. What was… what was happening? What was… this… this boy? No… he… he wasn’t… this… this creature… the blood. That… the smell of death. And…. she… she was going to die. She’d been running for her life, with this… this thing. And… and she was going to die and…

“Cassie.” The woman tried to jerk away, whimpering as a hand appeared on her arm. She opened her eyes; when had she closed them? It was… it was…. The not-boy was right in front of her. Its hand flinched away, at her reaction. “Cassie.” It said softly. That voice… the voice was so calm, forcibly calm. “Please. It’s… it’s okay. It’s okay. I’m… I’m sorry.” The creature sucked a breath in and then out, slowly, deliberately. “I.. god…. This… this is….” It shook its head. “I’m… I’m not going to hurt you. You’re safe. I’ll protect… protect us. I won’t let anything happen to you. Please… please just breathe.” Breath?! Breathe?! She was breathing. No. She was hyperventilating. And she was going to die and… “I won’t let anything happen to you.” The statement was said so confidently, with such conviction. Uncertainly, a hand reached for her again. “I’m not going to hurt you. You’re safe. I promise.” The hand touched her arms and…

Cassie released a slow breath. Something like a new clarity entered her mind. She blinked and… Danny was standing in front of her, a worried look on his face. Slowly, it melted away into relief. “Better?” He asked softly.

Numbly, the woman nodded. “Yeah. I… I… Did I just have a panic attack?” She wasn’t sure but… maybe?

The boy averted his eyes, frowning. “Maybe?” There was a twinge to his voice, like guilt? “This… is a lot.” He motioned to his shirt. “But… I’m okay. We’ll be okay. We’ll get out of here and everything will be okay.”

Cassie bit her lips. She…. she wanted to deny. Nothing… nothing about this was okay. This was messed up. There was no way he wasn’t hurt. She wanted to ask but... But… this was too… too much. She… she couldn’t handle… this. She was just a lab tech. She didn’t… didn’t even believe in… in… whatever this was. “I…I was kidding earlier.” She said numbly. “I… wasn’t looking for Bigfoot. I just…. Just wanted some pictures of that lake. I don’t…. I don’t even believe in… in….”

The boy blinked, for just a moment confused. Then his face reddened with guilt. “I’m… I’m sorry. I’ll get you out of this, okay? I promise.”

The wind rushed past Cassie and she shivered, looking down. “Let’s… let’s hurry.”

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

Cassie wanted to cry. She wanted to cry for a dozen reasons. But…. no. Not here. Not now. She couldn’t. She wouldn’t. So she pushed it down. She pushed it down and focused on the quick movement of her legs, the pounding of her heart, the cold air entering her lungs. She and Danny kept walking.

After that fall, they’d lost the trail. Cassie had pulled out the trail map. “It looks like if we walk along the side of this hill, we should hit the trail here.” She’d checked the compass. “We need to make sure we’re walking west.”

Now, Cassie could see a large orange sign, marking the trail in front of them. The pair passed through the trees, setting feet on the beaten dirt path. The woman relaxed just the tiniest bit, now that they were on familiar ground.

More walking. It was getting colder, the shadows growing longer. Cassie looked up, judging the sun’s position in the sky. They had… maybe another hour of light? Beside her, Danny was silent; he’d said nothing since they’d left that hill, just checked their surroundings with alert, cautious eyes. His footsteps were silent, the leaves hardly rustling under his feet.

And Cassie was roughly oscillating between holding back overwhelmed tears and feeling uncomfortably numb. They’d get out of this. They would be okay. Danny had promised. He’d promised and he’d sounded so sincere. The boy had… fought something to give her time to run, if she had to guess. And he’d pushed her out of the way. She would have… she would have fallen down that hill instead of him if… if he hadn’t. But…

That hole in his sweater. The bloody stick. The muddy brown blood. And… and at the lake. The blue skin. The empty eyes. The deathly cold. He’d… he’d been dead, hadn’t he? And… he should be dead after falling down that hill. He…he wasn’t… he couldn’t be… This… this wasn’t normal. This was…this was supernatural. But… she didn’t…she didn’t believe in that stuff. It was impossible. But…what she’d seen and heard and felt…

Danny’s voice interrupted her thoughts. “Look. It says we’re half a mile from the parking lot.”

The woman looked up, eyes following where his finger was pointing. Sure enough, there was a mile marker sign. Cassie sighed in relief. “That’s good.”

That was great actually. It was wonderful. They were almost there. Almost out of the woods. Almost to her car. This would soon be over and she could go get some food and take a shower and forget about all this. Feeling reinvigorated by the prospect, the woman picked up the pace.

They’d just crossed a wooden bridge over a stream when Danny paused. Like before, blue vapor wafted out of his mouth. He narrowed his eyes. “Great.” He turned to face her. “We’ve got company. Get out of here.”

Heart already pounding, Cassie turned to run; after last time, she didn’t have to be told twice. But before she could take two steps, something huge and silver thudded down in front of her. The woman froze, bugged eyed. What…what was this thing!?

“Welp.” A deep, echoing voice resonated from the creature. Hellish green… eyes (Where those supposed to be eyes?) narrowed in an intimidating silver caricature of a skull.

“Skulker.” Danny’s eyes flashed, the same hellish green.

Cassie threw herself back, away from the towering figure. But she was too slow. Two massive arms grabbed her tightly, pressing her against a chest that was somehow both hard metal and glacial fog.

“Come quietly and the human won’t get hurt.” The creature rumbled, evenly.

“Let her go.” The boy offered, fists balled.

“Only if you come.” The grip tightened and Cassie whimpered. “My employer is very angry that you escaped.”

“Tell Vlad to f-ck off. I’m going home and you’re both going to leave me alone. Now.” Danny’s voice deepened into almost a growl, resonating with echoing static. “Get your hands off her.”

The woman shook, holding back the urge to cry. What was… what was this thing?! What was happening?! Why…why her? Why was this happening? The cold radiating off the metallic being intensified and she hissed in pain. She was…so… so cold.

“You are in no state to make demands.” The creature mocked darkly. “You are powerless.”

“That’s what you think.” The boy growled.

He flickered like static. Cassie blinked and… Danny’s hands were on her. She shivered as the feeling of pins and needles overwhelmed her body. She felt herself flicker, the world spin. And they were fifteen feet down the trail.

Danny was beside her, hands on his knees. “Run.” He choked out through a pained gasp. “I’ll hold him off.” He looked up, knees wobbling and face green with nausea.

Cassie’s knees wobbled too. Her mind screamed, pulled in two directions. He couldn’t… he couldn’t fight. Should she… try to help? Could… could she? But… but… his eyes glowed, voice desperate. “Cassie! Are you listening to me? Run!”

Run. She needed to run. She had to get out of her but…. His hands were shaking, face screwed up in pain.

The deafening crash of a tree falling and an angry yell made the decision for her. “Welp!”

Cassie turned and ran. There was a flash of green light, the heavy thud of a body impacting something. She couldn’t see what was happening. She didn’t want to see. She stepped, her foot wobbling on a loose stone. She tried to steady herself. No. No! But there was a root. The woman screamed, her ankle twisting the wrong way as she fell. Thoughtlessly, she tried to scramble up but only made it step before falling again. She cried out in pain. She started crawling away but… her damn scraped hand! Hide! Hide! If she could just hide…. She belly crawled to a large rock and peered over.

The sounds of fighting… her mind could hardly process. The flashes of light, the crashes and booms, the smell of ozone and pennies and lime. They were coming… coming closer. A metal, cylindrical thing in Danny’s hand. A wicked blade in the creature’s hand.

“Hey! Careful with that thing!” Danny shouted, the blade gracing his shoulder. Brown blood oozes from the cut. “Thought you wanted me in one piece.”

“You can be put back together.” The other figure almost… shrugged. Another swing and… the metal cylinder went flying.

“My thermos!” The boy cried, scrambling in the direction it went. His fists sparked green, light shooting from them and he grunted in pain. Another dodge. “I thought you wanted my pelt, Skulker.” He rolled away from the blade. “Why are you working for the fruitloop?”

“It’s just business.” Danny shot more green light, which the creature dodged. “I will still skin you and hang you over my mantle.”

“Still gross.” The boy stood, darting behind a tree. “Where is it? Where is it?” He muttered, far too close to Cassie now.

The woman held her breath, unable to move. That… that creature wouldn’t see her. It wouldn’t. She’d be fine. She’d be fine. This was fine. It was fine. She wasn’t going to-

“Come on. Thermos. Thermos. Where…” The boy muttered. “There!” He hissed, pointing.

Cassie looked and… it was beside her rock, just an arm’s length away. Danny darted for it but the other creature was there. It grabbed him by the back of his shirt with one hand.

The boy kicked and flailed in the air. “Let me go!” His eyes widened, falling on her.

And Cassie felt cold fear wash over her. The boy's body flickered, suddenly falling to the ground. He surged forward.

“Cassie! Thermos!” He yelled.

The woman’s mind spun. What… what was he…

The boy let out a pained yell as his arm was grabbed. “Cassie! The thermos!” He was panting, breathing too fast.

And so was Cassie. Her eyes watered. Her heart beat painfully in her chest.

“Grab it! Point it at Skulker.” Another yelp as the hand around his arm tightened.

The creature hissed. “The human can’t help you. It’s paralyzed with your fear.”

Paralyzed. She was paralyzed. She couldn’t move but she needed to. She had to. She trembled, screaming at her muscles to work. She shakily reached forward and grabbed the device.

“Why you little vermin.” The creature, Skulker, marched forward, dragging the boy.

Cassie pointed the thermos up, towards the attacker. How did this work?! What was she supposed to-

“The button! Press the button!” Danny yelled.

Which button?! Her brain screamed.

“No, you don’t.” Skulker let go of the boy, throwing him roughly to the ground. He hefted the sword over his head, just two feet away from her now. He swung and-

There was Danny, standing between the two. At the same time, Cassie pressed a button. The blade descended and sliced sideways. With a sickening, wet sound, the edge impacted flesh. It cut straight through Danny’s neck and…. Bile rose in Cassie's throat. The head went flying. At the same time, the thermos activated, a beam of blue light shooting out. It enveloped the scene, hiding either figure from the woman. An angry shout echoed off the trees.

Then Cassie blinked, her eyes adjusting after the blinding flash, and… it was silent. The metallic creature was gone. But… there was the headless body of a teenage boy.

The woman screamed.

The body bonelessly flopped to the ground. It impacted the dirt, just inches from her. And there was.. There was the bloody stump. Headless, caked with muddy-brown blood.

Cassie threw up. She cried. She screamed hysterically. The smell of vomit and old blood invaded her nose. Her mouth… her mouth tasted like acid. There was a dead body, not a foot from her. And… she threw up again.

“Oh god. Oh god. Oh god. Oh god. Oh god. Oh god.” Maybe she was cursing, maybe she was praying. A hopeless, ridiculous, hysterical prayer.

“Cassie?” Someone asked.

"F-ck!" Cassie startled at the familiar voice. "God, is that you?” The woman laughed, half way between hysterical disbelief and pure insanity.

“Cassie!” Another yell.

The woman pulled her knees to her chest, lowering her head. “God.” She groaned. She was going insane. She was crazy. This whole thing was a hallucination or a dream. No. A nightmare. She was going to wake up in her bed and-

“Cassie! Please!” A desperate scream.

A hysterical laugh. She was… she was hearing things. This wasn’t real. None of this was real.

“It’s me, Danny!” He yelled. “Oh f-ck. I just got beheaded. Skulker just cut my f-cking head off. What the f-ck… how am I awake?” He shouted just as hysterical as her. “I can’t… I can’t feel my legs. I can’t feel anything. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit.”

Cassie rocked herself back and forth. “This isn't real. It’s not real. It’s not real.”

“I…I.... shit. I’m hyperventilating.” He was panting now. “How the f-ck am I…am I hyper…hyperventilating?! My body isn’t…my f-cking body isn’t connected to my head!”

Hyperventilating. She was hyperventilating too. “Not…real… not real… It’s not real.”

“Cassie? Cassie, is that you?” He asked desperately.

“You’re not… you’re not real.” She yelled louder.

“Oh no. Hell no.” The boy started. More curses. More profanities. A string of colorful and creative expletives.

Cassie covered her ears. “This isn’t happening! You’re not real! That didn’t f-cking happen.” She rocked herself, back and forth. This wasn’t happening. It wasn’t.

But the other voice was still screaming, still cursing, still begging.

And the woman was crying and cursing and screaming herself. Her stupid f-cking ankle hurt and there was a dead body, inches from her. She could smell it. And… this was the third time today. The third time she’d seen him dead, or he should have been dead. But Danny’s f-cking voice was yelling at her. And this wasn’t real. And…

“Cassie! Please! Please help me!”

She was crying and screaming and she couldn't seem to stop. It was getting colder. It was almost dark. She needed to leave but she…she couldn’t. She was going to die out here, just like Danny. She needed… she needed help. But her phone was busted.

“Please help me! Please!” His voice was watery, like he was crying. “If you… if you find my body, I think…. Maybe I can reattach to it. Please!”

Her phone was dead because of him. Her ankle was probably broken because of him. And…and she was going to die. She would freeze to death or get mauled by a bear. Or-

“Please! Cassie! I need you! I can’t… I can’t do this! Please! Help me!” He begged, obviously crying now.

And a distant part of her wanted to move. Maybe… maybe this was real. She’d… she’d already seen him drown. He should have been impaled by that stick. But….

“Please!” He was weeping, hysterical and desperate, just like her.

And Cassie couldn't move. She couldn't move. Her body was frozen in…. Shock, terror? There was…something was wrong. She should…she should be able to…to stop. To move. To act. To….

“Ca…can’t.” She ground out.

“You…you can. You can do it. Please!”

He was begging but she couldn’t move. “Can’t…move…. Why…why…” She could barely force the words out through her hiccupping sobs.

There was a pause, dead silence. Then. “F-ck.” The curse was so loud and forceful, so full of realization that Cassie’s breath hitched. “You’re…you’re picking up on what I’m feeling.”

The woman blinked. What.

There was the sound of slow, deliberate breathing. “Have to calm down. I have to calm down. Stupid emphatic power. Of course it's the only f-cking power that’s actually working.” Another breath. “No. Stop. Calm down.”

Somehow…somehow, Cassie could feel her own heart rate slowing. She frowned, dragging her head up.

“Cassie?” Danny asked, voice forcefully calm.

“Ye…yes.” She stuttered.

“You need to… you need to focus on your breathing. You only… only have to feel what you’re feeling.”

Cassie’s brow wrinkled. “What…what are you… you saying?”

“I can… I’ll explain later. Just… breathe.” He instructed, voice gentle despite its trembling.

“But…” She started.

“I know this sucks. No. It’s horrible. I know. But…we’re safe. We’ll get out of this.” It was uncertain. Cassie could… she could feel his uncertainty but… it was a promise.

So the woman breathed. In and out. In and out. In and out. She breathed until her heart rate slowed and her muscles untensed.

“Cassie?” Danny asked, softly after a long pause.

“I’m better.” She said, through another breath. And it was… she was better. Still freaked out, still terrified but…. It weighed less. And…. she blinked, surprised by a sudden realization. It all felt like hers.

“Okay. So do you think you can find me? Or uh… my head.” He paused. “God, this is weird. Just… find my head and… uh… carry it to my body.”

Cassie shivered at the words. “Yeah. I’ll…I’ll… I’ll just do that.” She turned her head and the taste of bile rose on her tongue. She covered her mouth and let out a moan, fighting the urge to scream… or throw up again.

“What is it?” The boy asked.

“Your… your body. It��s right beside me.” She swallowed.

“Oh. Okay. That’s great.” He said with a forced, anxious laugh.

Cassie’s eyes widened, her stomach flopping as the fingers on the left hand, the one closest to her, started moving. “It’s… it’s doing something.”

“Oh?” A worried but curious note.

The hand reached towards her. “The hand… hand’s moving.”

“I think I can feel that?” He whined, voice cracking. Tentatively, Cassie reached forward and held the hand that had been reaching for her. “I can feel that!” Danny’s left hand squeezed hers. “This is freaky.”

Cassie shook her head. She let go and tried to stand only to let out a grunt of pain.

“Are you okay?” Danny yelped, suddenly concerned.

“I think my ankle is broken.” She frowned down at the swollen joint. Suddenly, renewed worry and fear were clawing up her throat.

“It’ll be okay. It’ll be okay.” Danny breathed again, slowly. “It’s going to be okay.” He repeated, as if trying to reassure himself. “Just crawl over to me. If we can get my head back on…” He panted at the words and she could almost picture his eyes pinched closed in disgust. “Then, hopefully I can get you back to your car. Or go for help. We can do this.”

“We can do this.” Cassie repeated, to reassure herself and him.

The woman crawled across the path, mindful of her injured leg and her scraped palm. She carefully stepped over the body, nose wrinkled. She groaned as her hurt foot impacted the ground.

“I’m so sorry. You can do this. Just follow my voice.” The boy pleaded.

Cassie followed, focused more on the words than what she was actually doing.

“You’re getting closer. I can hear you.” Danny encouraged.

The woman looked up and her nauseous stomach complained loudly. There, just off the trail, was a head of black hair. She quickened her pace. “Almost there.” A few more feet and she was staring down at him.

The head let out a sigh of relief. “You found me.”

Cassie just froze, mind spinning. So this was real. She was really looking at a talking, disembodied head. Those lips were moving and sound was coming out. How, just... how? And his eyes were tracking her movements, looking at her with clear awareness.

“-do this?”

The woman blinked, realizing he was asking her a question. “Sorry. I…I didn’t hear that.”

“Uh… how are you going to carry me?” Danny blushed.

The woman paled, looking down at her arms. She’d… had to crawl here; her hands weren’t exactly available. She could try to crawl with one but….that would risk dropping him. She wrinkled her nose. And the thought of having to carry his bloody, disembodied head…

The boy frowned, looking guilty. Then he blinked, eyes fixing on something behind her. “What about your backpack?”

“That… might work?” She took the bag off her back and opened it with some trouble. “There’s not enough room. And…. how are you going to breathe?”

Danny opened and closed his mouth. “I… I’m a disembodied head right now. I don't… think that’ll be a problem.”

Cassie pinched her eyes closed, taking a calming breath as another wave of nausea passed over her. “Don’t think about it. Don’t think about it.” She muttered. “Yeah. You.. you have a point.” She opened her eyes and started emptying the bag. Once it was empty, the woman met his eyes again. “Okay. Ready?”

Danny blinked several times. “Ready? Sure… sure yeah. I’m… I'm just gonna ride in your bag. That’s fine.” He closed his eyes. “Let’s get it over with.”

Gently, Cassie grabbed both sides of his head. She fought not to wince, looking away from the severed neck. She carefully slid him into the bag. The boy said nothing as she carefully put the bag back on. Then she carefully turned and crawled back. She shivered, trying to think about the chocolate bar and box of Cheezits she had in the car, instead of the weight of the head in her bag.

“It’s fine. It’s fine. This is fine.” The woman muttered, a mantra to herself.

Finally, finally, she was beside the body. She took off the bag and, careful to not poke him in the face, lifted the head out of the bag.

Once he was in the open air, the boy gasped. “That was awful! It’s so dark in there.”

“Sorry. So…” She glanced at the body, carefully avoiding the bloody stump. “How uh… does this work?”

“No clue. This has never happened to me before.” He frowned, biting his lip. “Uh… I feel like, if you line up my neck and my head, they’ll… uhh… just kinda reattach?”

Cassie’s stomach flopped, not at all comforted by that. She took another breath, pinching her eyes closed for a moment. “Okay. It’s… worth a try at least.” She opened her eyes, meeting his. “I’ll do that.”

Carefully, the woman maneuvered. She breathed through her mouth, keeping her breath steady. But the smell of vomit and his blood…. Don’t think about it. Don’t think about it. It was fine. Cassie carefully lined the head up with the neck, her hands shaking. This was so… so gross. It... it was ridiculous. She felt sick. This was wrong. This was… She breathed. No. It was like… Operation. Or…that cat they had to dissect for anatomy. Her stomach quivered. No. No. Not that. It was…. Just realistic makeup, like those horror films her sister made her watch.

With the head and neck lined up, she moved them closer, almost close enough to touch. Then she whipped her hands back, eyes wide. There was a spark of green under the skin, a flash of pure white light. And…. she watched, sickened but enthralled while the flesh… mended itself. It stretched, oozing out like an amoeba. The tissue meshed back together, spine, nerves, blood vessels, muscles, and skin reconnecting. There was a wet, sucking noise, the smell of iron with a hint of citrus and then there was only a pale scar circling the neck, where it had once been severed.

Cassie stared for a moment, watching as Danny’s Adam's apple bobbed when he swallowed. Then she vomited.

There was a long moment of silence, of the woman just staring at the ground. There was the sound of her heart pounding in her ears, the wind blowing through the trees, a raven cawing not that far away. Her eyes trailed to the spots of vomit and her nose wrinkled. She wiped her mouth with her hand, spitting to try and get rid of the taste. She was starving now and cold. Her ankle was killing her. And… she’d just watched a kid get beheaded, only to carry his head back to his body and see it reattach itself. Her face was stained with tears, her muscles tense but… she was still alive. This boy, who’d protected her, apparently was as well and…she had no idea what to make of all this.

In front of her, Danny let out an uncomfortable grunt and out of the corner of her eye, Cassie saw him pushing himself into a sitting position. Sighing, the woman shifted as well. She carefully rolled onto her side and then onto her back so she could sit down. She flopped onto her behind and peered at her hiking companion through the misty twilight for a long moment.

Finally, she spoke. “You’re not… you’re not human, are you?” The words were quiet with a trace of fear.

The boy didn’t reply for a long moment, staring at his lap. Then he looked up, several emotions flashing through his eyes in quick succession. Fear, wariness, hurt, caution. But then… “No.” He said quietly, sadly. “I guess I’m not.”

Cassie swallowed. She didn’t know what she had been expecting but… “What are you?”

“What do you think I am?” He wrung his hands.

“A vampire.” She said before fully realizing her answer. But that would make sense with the fangs, the cold skin, the…seeming immortality. Her heart pounded, the dangerous answer putting her on edge.

Then Danny laughed and the woman flinched. “No, I’m not a vampire.”

“Oh then…” That was kinda a relief. “A werewolf?” She guessed the next supernatural creature she could think of.

The boy shook his head.

Cassie bit her lip. Okay, what else? “Are you a…” She paused, unsure of the word she should use. “One of the… fair folk?”

Danny blinked. “What?”

“Fae?” She said, tentatively. “A fairy?”

That earned another laugh and a denial, leaving the woman to panickedly rack her brain. Some other kind of shapeshifter? A demon? A zombie? Some kind of… old pagan god? He had a very real, very physical, human-looking body. But…she didn’t know that many mythology creatures. She’d watched a few episodes of Supernatural with her roommate in college but none of that was real, except apparently something legendary was real because the boy in front of her was definitely not a human and-

“Cassie.” He interrupted her thoughts. “You don’t have to guess. I’ll…I’ll tell you.” He took a breath. “I’m a ghost. Uh…. Half ghost actually.”

The woman blinked. “A ghost but that’s… but….you don’t… you don’t look like a ghost.” She motioned to his body.

“I’m only half ghost.” He repeated, wrinkling his nose. “I’m a human too.”

“But… but…” Her brow furrowed. “Ghosts are supposed to be see-through and… they can’t touch things….” That’s what all those books and movies and ghost hunting shows said. Ghosts were barely physical and most importantly…. “Ghosts are… dead people.” Her mouth snapped closed, eyes widening at her own words.

The boy hitched up his shoulders, pulling his legs to his chest. “Thanks for rubbing it in.” He quipped dejectedly.

Cassie looked down guilty. So that wasn’t the most tactful thing to say. But… dead. He was dead or… he had died. She frowned. Well… of course he had. She had found him drowned. He should have been bruised and impaled after falling down the hill. And… the beheading…

“So…” The woman swallowed. “Half ghost… how did that… uh... happen?”

Danny turned, eyes flashing green and narrowing. “You know, it’s really rude to ask a ghost how they died.”

Cassie flinched, uneasy at the display. “I… I didn’t know.”

“Well now you do. And you should have. Really? ‘How did that happen?” He hissed, rolling his eyes.

The woman leaned away, shoulders hunching and trying to curl in on herself. “I… sorry.”

Danny finally seemed to notice her reaction. He sighed, expression softening. “No. I’m sorry. That’s… a touchy subject. Today’s already been… awful. But… I shouldn’t take this out on you. You didn’t… you didn’t do anything…” He trailed off, looking towards the edge of the path.

Cassie turned her head and shivered. That spot…. It was where his head had rolled to after…

“That… thing that attacked us, what was that?”

“Skulker?” He raised a brow. “He’s a ghost.”

“A ghost?” Again, that thing looked nothing like what she thought of when she thought of a ghost. But then again…. Danny didn’t look like a ghost. “Like you?”

“He’s a full ghost but… yeah, kinda.” Taking in her confused look, the boy rubbed his head. “I guess, I should explain. Ghosts… at least the ones I’ve dealt with, aren’t like the ones from the ghost stories you’ve probably heard. They’re solid, visible, and… well… powerful. They can do a lot of damage. People can get hurt.”

Cassie swallowed. She could guess that, based on what she’d seen today. “And this Skulker was… after you?”

Danny nodded. “There were other ghosts too. That’s what was chasing us.”

“Why?” The woman frowned.

“Uh… well….” The boy paled, looking worried. After a long moment, he turned to look at her earnestly. “Please don’t tell anyone this.”

Her mouth opened and closed. “I… I won’t.” She promised; it wasn’t like anyone would believe her anyway.

“There’s this… crazy guy. He’s… like me, a half ghost. Wants me to be his evil apprentice or something. I… “ He looked around cautiously. “He sent those ghosts after me.”

Cassie nodded. “Okay, that makes sense but… how did you end up out here anyway?”

“He… uh… kidnapped me. I escaped but the fruitloop was chasing me. I managed to lose him.” He frowned. “I think I froze him but… I can’t remember. He…. shoot me with something first. It made it really hurt to use my powers. They…uh… went out when I was flying.”

Her mouth formed an O. “You can fly?”

Danny nodded. “It’s one of my powers. I tried to earlier, when we jumped over that log.”

Cassie’s eyes widened. “That makes sense. I kinda remember… it’s like we were floating, for just a second, after we jumped.” Her brow then furrowed. “What happened next?”

The boy blinked, trying to process the question. “I was flying and suddenly I couldn’t keep myself in the air. I was falling and… I remember hitting the water. I swallowed a bunch and started sinking. It was really dark and… I passed out.”

Dread sank in her stomach, like a stone. That lake… The image of his dead eyes flashed in her mind. She shivered. “You… you drown. I found you on the side of the lake and you weren’t breathing. Your eyes were open. You were blue. You were… I was sure you were dead but….”

“I woke up.” Danny was looking down, staring at the trail. “I remember coughing up water. I thought I’d just passed out but….” A hand lifted to his face, covering his mouth. “And that stick… it went right through my stomach. I remember pulling myself off of it and… I fell over. I passed out again. That… I should have been done for. But…”

“There was a hole in my sweater when I found you. And blood but your stomach… it didn’t look like there was a wound.” Her own stomach churned at the thought.

Danny pulled up his shirt, examining it. Sure enough, there was only a faint pale scar, surrounded by a ring of dry blood. His face scrunched up, expression queasy. “And Skulker…. He cut… he cut my head off.” He covered his mouth with one hand, the other tracing the thin scar on his neck.

There was silence for a long moment, Danny just staring into the distance while rubbing the scar. Cassie watched him, her mind whirling. So many questions, so many implications. Then…

“This is so f-cked up.” The boy finally said. He looked up, face pale. "I died… or I should have died. Three…. Three times today. Three times! And my powers aren't working." His voice trembled, body shaking.

The woman's heart fluttered, uneasy. "You said… that hasn't happened before, being… beheaded."

Danny flinched. "No. I've… I've been hurt before but… not this badly." One hand nervously fingered the mark on his abdomen and the other that scar on his neck. "Well… there was the accident. I already half-died once. But… but this…" He drew his knees closer to his chest, hugging them. "What the hell even was that? What does… what does this mean? And…..god…" He gave a breathy sigh. "What am I gonna tell my friends and sister?"

The hair on the back of Cassie's neck rose. She shivered; it was growing colder. Her heartbeat pounded loud in her ears but at the same time, it ached. She didn’t like seeing this person, the one who’d protected and helped her, so upset. It made her heart throb in sympathy.

Still… the wind chilled her. The hair on the back of her neck rose, a foreign, unnatural fear passing over her. Anxiously, she shifted, letting out a whimper at a renewed stab of pain in her ankle.

Danny instantly noticed her reaction, head whipping up. His eyes widened, worried. “I… Sorry. I can’t worry about that right now.” He shook his head. “We need to get you out of here. You must be cold.”

“Yeah.” Cassie raised the hood of her coat up. “The wind’s picking up.”

With his own nod, the boy stood, at first caution. He turned his head side to side carefully as if… checking that it was in fact attached. He sighed. “Okay. I think I’m alright.”

The woman looked up at him. “If you help me, I think I can make it to the car on one foot.”

“Or I could just carry you.” He shrugged. “That way you don’t risk hurting your ankle more.”

“Are you sure about that?” Cassie raised a brow. “It’s half a mile and almost dark out. And no offense but you look like a twig and you’re shorter than me.”

Danny crossed his arms. “I’m stronger than I look.”

Well… maybe he had a point, Cassie considered. She wasn’t exactly talking to a normal teenager; she’d seen the supernatural powers herself. “Alright. First though… you should put my things back on my bag and put it on your back. And grab your… thermos.”

The boy did so, picking up her items and putting them in her bag, as well as clipping the metal device to his belt. Then he walked back to her and the woman braced herself to be lifted. Danny crouched down, placing one arm under her legs and the other under her back to carry her bridal style. He stood and she shifted to put an arm around his shoulders.

The boy started walking, footsteps just as silent as before. Cassie could barely feel the movement either; there were the cold fingers, which she could feel even through her thick clothes, but if she closed her eyes, there was no swaying, no sense of feet stepping up and down. Earlier, those observations would have frightened her. And maybe they still did, maybe she was still uneasy. But… she shivered, trying to put all these thoughts and feelings into order.

“I’m sorry for dragging you into all this.” Danny’s voice interrupted her musings. “Getting chased by ghosts isn’t something anyone would expect. You got hurt and…” He frowned, guiltily. “I’m really really sorry about… messing with your emotions. I didn’t mean to but I know it sucks. So… I’m really sorry again.”

The woman looked up, meeting his eyes. “What are you talking about?... Wait…” She frowned. “That… you mentioned a power when I was freaking out earlier. Empath or something?”

“Um yeah.” He bit his lip. “It’s like… reverse empathy. That’s what my friend Sam calls it anyway.” At Cassie’s confused look, Danny continued. “An empath is someone who can feel what other people are feeling, right? So the reverse of that is… making someone else feel what you’re feeling.”

“And… you do that?” Cassie asked, eyes wide.

The boy blushed in shame. “Yes, apparently. Other ghosts do too. I try to never do it on purpose but if what I’m feeling is intense, then… it leaks out.” He averted his eyes, more apologies pouring out. “I really thought I was getting better at that. I don’t… I don’t like making people afraid. And the other… ghostly stuff didn’t help. I… I know I scared you. And I’m so sorry. I’m really sorry but I swear-”

“Danny.” She interrupted with his name. “It’s okay.” His eyes met hers, his gaze fearful, anxious, guilty. And it sent a pang through her heart. He was… just a kid, wasn't he? Despite his spooky aspects, the supernatural nature, he really was just a kid, scared and out of his depth like her. “You didn’t mean to and… you were scared too, weren't you?” She looked up, expression soft.

The boy’s expression shifted, his lips drew together. He didn’t say anything for a long moment. But then he nodded, looking embarrassed. “Yeah… I was.”

Cassie just nodded, accepting the words. In another situation, she might have been surprised at sharing this vulnerability with a near stranger but… they’d been in vulnerable positions, forced to trust their lives… or existences to each other. And… they’d come through for each other, hadn’t they? It was a strange thought, muddled and complicated with so many other questions and wondering. But ultimately… it was comforting to know that she wasn’t the only one who had been afraid.

Soon, they passed the last line of trees and the parking lot spread out in front of them. Cassie let out a sigh of relief. At the same time, she felt the arms holding her relax slightly. “That one’s yours?” He motioned to the only car in the lot.

The woman nodded. Once the pair were to the car, the boy carefully lowered Cassie and helped her lean against the car. Quickly, he removed the bookbag and held it between them.

The woman stuck her hand in the bag and after some searching pulled out the keys. She turned to unlock the door, hobbing into the driver's seat with some help.

She waved to the backseat. “Can you get me a water bottle and the bag of snacks?” Danny did so, passing her the items. He lingered by the door, awkward, while the woman downed half the bottle and tore open a protein bar. “You can sit down.” He flopped into the passenger seat, heaving a sigh. Cassie raised a brow as he hungrily eyed the food. “So… do half ghosts eat?”

“Yeah.” He shrugged. “We… uhh.. drink water too.”

Without another word, the woman shoved the bag in his hands and motioned to another water bottle in the back. Danny accepted the food. Then he leaned in his seat. “Ugh. Can’t reach it.” He made another grumble before Cassie’s eyes widened as his upper body flickered intangible and he phased through his seat and the middle console. His fingers effortlessly wrapped around the bottle and he pulled it towards himself.

Returning to solidity, he frowned at the water bottle for a moment. “Of course the powers finally come back now.” He rolled his eyes, green light flickering from his fingertips on his free hand, as if to emphasize the statement.

The two ate and drank in silence for a long moment, Cassie trying to process everything that happened. She glanced at the boy; from the troubled look on his face, he was likely doing the same.

Danny spoke first. “I need to call my sister. Where’s your phone?” The woman reached for the glove box, unlocked the device, and handed it to him. After dialing the number, he raised the phone to his ear. “Hi, Jazz. It’s-” He was cut off by someone talking quickly and probably worried. “Jazz. Jazz! I’m fine. I-” Another pause. “I’m safe, okay?” He frowned. “The fruitloop kidnapped me but I got away. He shot me with some power neutralizing thing. But-” Cassie should almost hear the panicked questions. “I’ll tell you- Jazz, I can tell you later. I’m… Where am I?” He turned to ask Cassie.

“Two Peaks State Park. We’re at the parking lot for the Maple trail.”

The boy relayed the information. Then… “No. No. You don’t need to come- Listen. My powers are coming back. I should be able to portal home in like an hour and- Jazz, Jazz. I know but- Okay. I’ll call you in an hour if I can’t get it to work. But I need to do something first, okay? I ran into a hiker while I was on the trail. She hurt her ankle running from Skulker. I need to make sure she’s okay.- Huh- Yeah- Okay. I’ll see you soon.” He hung up.

Cassie leaned back in her chair, sighing. “I need to call my sister too and…” Cautiously, she tried to move her injured ankle. It merely trembled and yet she let out a cry of pain. “Definitely broken. I… I need to go to the Emergency Room.” She cringed, already thinking about the long wait and the probably high medical bills.

“I might be able to help with that.” Danny offered.

The woman looked over at him. “Want to drive me?” She bit her lip, debating the prospect. Luckily, her driving foot was uninjured so she could drive herself. But… did she really want to? At the same time… he barely looked older enough to have a permit.

The boy shook his head. “No. Even better. I think I can heal it.”

Cassie blinked. “Heal?” Her eyes widened. “You can… heal it?!”

Danny nodded, standing from his seat. “It’s one of my powers.” He came to the driver's side and knelt beside her. “I’ll have to touch it. And it’ll feel cold but I can do it.” He looked up. “Are you okay with this?”

The woman considered for a second, looking in his earnest green eyes. Then she nodded, eagerly. “Yes, go ahead.”

He touched her ankle and Cassie instantly gasped. Cold flowed into the joint, numbing the pain. It tingled. She looked down, eyes widening at the blue light coming from the boy’s hand. Her stomach flopped, feeling something shifting underneath her skin before sliding into place. She couldn’t see what was happening through Danny’s hands, just the look of concentration on his face. But whatever he was doing, it didn’t feel bad. For a long moment of silence, the cold tingling enveloped her ankle. But the boy’s breath was quickening, a trail of sweat beading on his forehead.

Cassie’s brow furrowed in worry. “Danny?”

Suddenly, he ripped his hands away. “Sorry. I… can’t do… anymore…” He huffed between breaths, blinking rapidly. “I’m tireder than I thought.”

The woman looked down. At the words, her eyes widening. While her ankle was still somewhat puffy and slightly bruised, it wasn’t as grossly discolored and horribly swollen as before. Experimentally, she flexed it; there was barely a pang of pain in response.

Cassie met her gaze. Her eyes shone with gratitude. “You healed it! You really healed it.”

The boy frowned. “I tried, I guess. It should be sprained now, not broken. Sorry I can’t do more.”

“Sorry?” She put a hand on his shoulder. “This should be fine by the end of the week. And I don’t have to go to the ER now.”

“That’s true.” He shrugged, frown dissipating. “Maybe still go to urgent care though. Just in case. They can get you a brace or something.” The boy stood, walking to the passenger side and sitting again.

Cassie looked at the time on her phone. “Well, that’ll have to wait ‘til the morning. I guess I’m cutting my trip short.” The boy looked somewhat guilty at the words but the woman pressed on. “ Seriously, thank you for healing this. And getting me back to the car in the first place.”

“I.. of course. I still feel bad you got hurt at all but…” His expression softened as he gave a grateful smile. “Thank you for helping me. If you hadn’t, I’d be… still laying on that trail, I guess. I couldn’t have gotten out of this without you.”

Cassie wasn’t so sure of that; he might have gotten that gravely injured if he hadn’t been worrying about her in the first place. But still… “I… I’m glad I helped then.”

She leaned back in the chair, blowing out a breath of relief as she finally set herself relax. She was back here, in her car. Her ankle still hurt but she was safe. She was alive. Danny was alive (or as alive as a half-ghost normally was?) This whole situation had been insane. She’d found a drowned teenager, been chased by ghosts, been attacked by a metal monster. She’d had to carry a severed head in her bag and watched it reattached. She’d seen and experienced the impossible. None of this should have happened, but still…. “You know, if I was gonna find out supernatural beings were real today, I’m glad I ran into you, not someone or something else.”

Danny, the half-ghost, gave her a strange look before letting out a chuckle. “Yeah… I guess I’m not the worst option.”

Yes, definitely not the worst option. Cassie even thought this thirty minutes later, when Danny stood, stretching, and… changed.

“I think I can make that portal now. Gotta be in ghost form though.” He muttered, before turning to her. “You might want to look away. It’ll be bright.”

The woman didn’t have a chance to ask before there was a flash of white light. She blinked away spots for a few seconds. Then her vision cleared and her heart skipped a beat. In Danny’s place was… something else. Black material stretched over a too long, too thin body. Bone white hair floated as if underwater. The deathly blue face… looked far too cold. And the eyes, there were… a familiar radioactive green?

Cassie blinked, her mind snapping into focus. No, this wasn’t something else. This was still Danny. Her heartbeat fast, for just a moment a sense of wrongness making her skin crawl. The too fluid, boneless movements. The claw-like fingers. The wrong proportions. This was… all of this was wrong. Her stomach flopped. It… he… the ghost was looking between a point in front of her car and its own too long fingers. The creature… no, Danny…this was still Danny even if he looked different… He wore a look of concentration before snapping.

“Yeah. That’ll work.” The voice echoed, like she’d heard before. And it sent shivers down her spine.

The ghost flexed his claws, long nails scratching at the air. A ripping sound, the smell of ozone. And there was a swirling green hole in the world.

“Yes!” Danny pumped his fist, words coming out with a pop of static. He floated forward, one hand reaching into the opening.

But then he turned to face her. His mouth stretched into a too wide smile, full of needle-like teeth. Cassie felt her breath catch in her throat. Then, the green eyes fixed on her, wrinkling with his grateful smile. “Thanks again, for everything. I hope your ankle heals faster. Oh, and please don’t tell anyone about me.”

The woman smiled, despite herself. “I won’t. Your secret’s safe. And… good luck.”

He gave a nod and a wave. “Bye Cassie.”

“Bye Danny.”

With that, he flew through the portal. Cassie just stared as the schism closed, and then long after. A lot had happened. There were still so many uncertainties, so many unknowns. What actually were ghosts? Where had Danny actually come from? Did other paranormal entities exist? But she knew one thing. The supernatural was real. It was spooky, ominous, inhuman, dangerous, powerful. But Danny, that boy, that impossible supernatural teenager… he’d helped her. He’d fought for her, protected her, carried her. He’d healed her. And Cassie knew… if she had to get stuck in the woods with a cryptid, if this was how she had to learn the supernatural was real… well, she was glad her introduction was Danny.

#Danny Phantom #dp holiday truce #holiday truce 2021 #Outsider pov #creepy Danny #my fic

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five-rivers · 3 years

Text

Data Backups

For @ectopal

This is for your third prompt: 'Point out a glaringly obvious, insanely scary implication about some in-world mechanic.'

Keep an eye out for another one. ;)

Tucker picked at a hangnail, frowning at the screen in front of him. The fan on his computer whirred, and the mouse wheel clicked softly as he turned it, but this late at night there were no other sounds coming from inside the house. Every so often, he’d hear a car or rustle from outside through his partially open window, but that was it. Otherwise it was silent and still. Like a scene from a horror movie, Tucker supposed.

It wouldn’t surprise him terribly if it was a scene from a horror movie. If his entire life was running on film in some alternate universe’s movie theater, clipped and cut, set to atmospheric music, touched up, airbrushed, filtered, tinted.

He raised his finger to his lips and absently bit down on his hangnail, knowing it wouldn’t help any but too absorbed by what he was reading to go dig the nail clippers out of their drawer in the bathroom.

In all honesty, though, Tucker was probably a side character in that hypothetical film, at best. The real horror here was, as always, what had happened to Danny and…

Tucker closed his eyes and rubbed them, not caring about knocking his glasses askew. He corrected them aggressively and went back to reading the screen.

It was full of data. So much data. Data about half ghosts, stolen from Vlad. Danny and Dani were the ones who had snagged it, grabbing one of Vlad’s backup harddrives, but they hadn’t been able to break his encryption. That was, as ever, Tucker’s role in the group.

Not that he minded. He wanted to help any way he could. He enjoyed things like this, for that matter. He enjoyed the hacking part, at least.

Finding out things like this in the middle of the night, not so much. He really wished he wasn’t so awesome sometimes.

This was messed up. Grade A crazy.

The harddrive was full of data. Data that, by all logic, by everything he knew, shouldn’t exist.

Up until a couple months ago, there had only been two half ghosts in the whole wide world. Now, there were three. According to Danny, Vlad, and Dani, there had never been any more than that.

The other clones - and that was something horrible in and of itself - hadn’t been half ghosts. Danny had, a few days after realizing they had truly been destroyed, not just banished, not just weakened to the point of being invisible, come to Tucker and Sam, distraught, and explained to the two of them how he knew they weren’t. Dani had only confirmed it.

But this, the data here, was more than that, more than what could be accounted for by three half ghosts, two of whom had been half ghosts for less than two years. So much more.

Maybe it shouldn’t have surprised Tucker so much. All those weapons and tools Vlad had, designed especially to work on half ghosts, or mimic their abilities, the Plasmius Maximus, the human-ghost shield, the nanites, the forced transformation booth… Vlad wouldn’t have been able to engineer those and be sure they’d work on Danny just from experimenting on himself.

But this… This data represented dozens of individuals, all with different backgrounds. At least, the categories of sex, height, weight, and age all had different values. Danny, Dani, and Vlad himself all had entries, but theirs were clearly labeled with their names, unlike the others.

What happened here? What had Vlad done to get this? Where had he gotten this?

And some of the data… It made him sick that it even existed. Tucker wasn’t the best at medical things, but some of these couldn’t have been acquired ethically. These were… these were stress tests, reaching for limitations, for pain, for injury, for susceptibility to disease, and Tucker had known Vlad was an evil mad scientist type from the beginning, and that had only been confirmed when he infected him and Sam with a potentially fatal disease - and he had to have done things to develop that as well - but this was surprising even in that context.

He pressed a hand to his mouth, feeling suddenly nauseous. The ecto-acne. A biological weapon. Vlad had to have tested it. How had they missed that?

Had Danny realized yet? Realized how far Vlad would go? Tucker knew that Danny thought Vlad was sort of ineffectual in terms of evil, that he thought, deep down, there was something in Vlad worth saving. Like some kind of messed up Darth Vader thing, but without the familial relationship.

And Tucker had thought that maybe Danny had a point. Vlad had plenty of opportunity to kill Mr. Fenton, after all, and yet Mr. Fenton was still alive. But with all this staring him in the face… Right on the heels of Vlad outright torturing Danny, of Vlad all but saying he planned to pull a kill and a replace on Danny, of making and throwing away all those clones…

No, Tucker couldn’t believe that anymore.

Where had Vlad gotten this data? Where had he found dozens of half ghosts, and where had they gone?

From some of this… Tucker ran a finger down the screen, tracing numbers. There were no deaths listed, but that didn’t necessarily mean anything, as much as he wanted it to.

Tucker was… Tucker was afraid. He fought ghosts on a weekly, if not daily, basis, and he was afraid.

His fingers hovered over the phone. It was the middle of the night. If Danny hadn’t been woken up by a ghost, he’d be asleep, and a school night. He needed to sleep.

But Tucker needed to not be alone with this… data. This information, this revelation.

He picked up the phone and called.

“Where did he even get this?” asked Danny, his hands shaking as he scrolled down the spreadsheet. Numbers flew past, numbers that either were a terrible lie, or revealed one. “He said it himself, we’re the only half ghosts around. That’s why he wants me to be his evil apprentice or whatever.”

“I don’t know,” said Tucker. “If it says on here, I haven’t found it yet.”

Danny nodded, distracted, and rubbed his finger across his lips, feeling the slight, tugging friction of not-exactly-rubber gloves against not-quite-human skin.

There were three options here, three possibilities that Danny could see.

One, Vlad had made this up. It was a taunt, a prank, a joke, a decoy, a distraction, a plant, a fiction. Something to get Danny all riled up.

Two, Vlad had lied to him from the beginning. Lied, and said that there weren’t any other half ghosts when there were. When they existed, and in such variety. Horrible and heartbreaking, a betrayal even from an enemy, and confusing besides.

Three, Vlad had done something even more unspeakable than usual and created these half ghosts. Created them not from scratch, as he had with Dani and the other clones, but from regular people, people with separate, ordinary lives that he used just for… For whatever this was. For some twisted, sickly shadow of science.

The thought made Danny almost dizzy. Was it really that easy to make a half ghost? Did other half ghosts exist, beyond Danny, Dani, and Vlad? And if either was so, why didn’t Vlad just get someone to agree to it? Agree to be his evil apprentice or something? He was sure there were plenty of people who’d do it, plenty of people who’d trade pain and obedience for power. Why was he so fixated on Danny?

He stopped scrolling, the titles of a few columns catching his eye. He knew those readings.

“What is it?” asked Tucker. “Did you find something?”

“Maybe,” said Danny, feeling hollow. “Do you remember what these mean? These abbreviations?”

“Um. No. Should I?”

“These’re the inputs of the portal. The settings you can change to make it… To make it work. Remember the thing with Desiree?”

“When Sam played protagonist in ‘It’s a Wonderful Life?’ Yeah. I remember that.”

“That’s what we changed on the portal, to make it so I’d definitely become a half ghost.”

“Oh,” said Tucker. “I hadn’t- But then he shouldn’t have readings for you.”

“He does, and they’re the right ones,” said Danny. Having gone through all that twice, he’d never be able to forget. “He…” He trailed off and swallowed. “He does,” he repeated, more quietly. “And look at this.” He pointed at a separate line, broken off from the others by a space. It’s boxes were highlighted with an indication the numbers in them were a result of some computation.

“Huh. That line is the same as yours. What’s this abbreviation mean?”

“I think,” said Danny, “it’s shorthand for optimal.”

Sam and Tucker hadn’t wanted them to confront Vlad, didn’t think it was safe, but Danny and Dani needed to know. Dani had always known she was a clone, a science experiment, but Danny hadn’t had even a hint of this. There had been no sign, no indication.

They needed to know how far back this went, and, more importantly, they needed to know if there were other half ghosts, other people who understood.

“Are you ready?” asked Danny. The gates of Vlad’s estate loomed over them, wrought iron casting odd, twisting shadows in the moonlight.

“Yeah,” said Dani, nervously pulling at the fabric of her top. “I’m ready.”

“You don’t have to come,” said Danny. “I’ll tell you everything I find out.”

“No, I want to do this,” said Dani.

Vlad’s mansion felt emptier than usual. Danny couldn’t put his finger on why at first, but then it struck him. “All his Packers stuff is gone.”

“Yeah,” said Dani. “You’re right. There’s something else…”

“What?”

Dani turned to him, her eyes flat green disks in the mostly dark. “I don’t know,” she said, “but can’t you feel it?”

Danny stilled, listening, feeling. There was an electric prickle along the surface of his skin, an unfamiliar sensation that he nonetheless felt like he knew, like he should recognize. He rubbed his left palm with his opposite thumb.

“Maybe,” he said. There was a memory there, an unconscious one. A memory of the body, not the mind. It prickled. Burned. Ran up in lightning lines to his heart. “Yeah, there’s something off, here.”

“It’s Vlad. There’s always something off,” said Dani, bitterly. “Do you think he’s not here? Maybe he went back to Wisconsin.”

“I hadn’t noticed him leaving.”

“It isn’t like you’re watching him all the time, is it?”

It wasn’t, but Danny usually had a… a feeling for who was in Amity Park and who wasn’t. He’d never examined it very closely, but it was there.

“No, he’s here.”

“I don’t know… doesn’t it feel… empty in here?”

It did but… Danny was realizing that it didn’t, not completely. It didn’t feel empty, as in uninhabited. It felt dead.

“Ah, Daniel, Danielle. To what do I owe the pleasure?”

Danny and Dani jerked up, spotting Vlad on the stairs above them, leaning over the banister. Rarely had Danny felt so threatened by Vlad, and Vlad wasn’t even doing anything.

Danny floated up to Vlad’s eye level. “We’re not the only half ghosts, are we?”

Vlad raised an eyebrow and straightened, pink-red light flickering behind his pupils. “Whyever would you think that?”

“We saw your data backups,” said Danny. He pressed his lips together, not sure if he should ask this, not sure if he wanted to know the answers. “How do you even know what the readings were on the portal when I… When it turned on?”

Vlad tilted his head to one side. “I see,” he said, crisply. “It’s very simple, really. I arranged for your accident.”

“Why?” demanded Danny.

“Many reasons,” said Vlad, unconcerned with the green fire billowing around Danny’s clenched fists. “Although I had thought to catch one of your parents, rather than you. Although I suppose Maddie would never have fallen for it. She was always much better about lab safety. Ah, well.”

“But why?” asked Dani. “Why do any of this, when there were other half ghosts? You had to get that data from somewhere.”

“Oh, I did,” said Vlad. “I wasn’t the first half ghost, you see. My origin shares many similarities to yours, Daniel. Much like vampires and werewolves, all half ghosts are made by another. My creator was rather smug about the whole thing.”

“Then why don’t you go after them, instead of my dad?”

“What do you think I spent twenty years doing, dear boy? I didn’t lie to you when we met. We were the only two half ghosts in existence. I was only working down the list.” Vlad gave them a razor smile, his teeth sharp white in the dark. “Of course, I needed to test out a few things before rigging the portal. But the lifespans of my test subjects were… seriously compromised. I am glad you seem to have avoided that particular side effect. Thus far.”

“You’re sick,” said Danny.

“Oh, come now, isn’t this a much better state of affairs? Would you prefer to be ordinary, or to not exist at all? Don’t you think it would be lonely, all by yourself, with no one who understood? With no… backups. Don’t you think it’s better with more of us, severed from that old history of abuse and exploitation? After all, you chose to walk into the portal. I only provided the proper circumstances for you to survive such a mistake.”

“No,” snapped Dani, sparks trailing from her fingers. “No. You don’t get to justify any of this. You need to be stopped.”

“Oh, dear Danielle, you are certainly welcome to try.”

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