#utsbte

[phanboyo]

Under the Skin, Behind the Eyes

*swoops in at the last minute with the first chapter of a new fic* Sorry it took so long, this month has been very hectic, but here's a fic based on @five-rivers 's prompt, "For centuries, the cult has anticipated the glorious rise of Lord Phantom. That time is at hand. All they need to bring him fully into the mortal world is the perfect sacrifice: Danny Fenton." featuring a bit of @idiot-cheesehead-archenemy 's prompt, "Jazz is beginning to think she might have psychic powers."

Content warning: contains kidnapping, violence, murder, thoughts of suicide and self harm, and disassociation

AO3

FFN

In the darkness of his room, Danny slowly opened his eyes. The amber glow of the streetlights outside seeped through the cracks in his curtains and made odd shadows out of the clothes and books and games littering his floor. Danny's room, no matter what state it was in, always served as a safe, comfortable space for him. It was a place he could escape from his nagging sister, or his crazy parents, a place away from the rest of the world, where he could just be alone, with his own thoughts, if he chose, or with friends if he preferred. He didn't realize how comfortable that privacy was until tonight.

As his eyes roamed the room, he saw nothing out of place, and he took a deep breath to try to calm himself. He couldn't remember the nightmare, but he felt the aftereffects, unsettled by something entirely unknown. He looked up at the glowing stars stuck to his ceiling to ground himself.

Danny jumped at a noise from the hall outside his door and immediately berated himself. He was fourteen, not a kid anymore. He could handle a nightmare. Deciding that it was obviously just Jazz or one of his parents getting a glass of water, Danny stubbornly laid his head back down and pulled up the covers, his back to the door. He clenched his eyes shut and tried to ignore the fact that his unsettled feeling hadn't gone away.

And so, Danny met his alarm clock's shrill greeting with annoyance and exhaustion. Whatever nightmare that had gripped him so tightly through the night as to bar him from true sleep was chased away by the light of the morning. With the light, there were no unfamiliar shadows or imagined unknown depths. His room was his again and he angrily got dressed for school.

The living room was filled with the scent of frankincense, which was never a good sign for his folks. Danny decided to skip breakfast and leave before they could catch him, in hopes that whatever had them worried might ease off by the time he got home. He yanked his backpack out from under a box of white sheets sitting on the couch and headed for the door.

"Oh, Danny!" called Jazz as she entered the room. "There you are!" she walked over to him and smiled, relief easing her shoulders as she met his eyes, which Danny promptly rolled.

"Do you need something?" he asked anyway.

She bit her lip and glanced to the box of linens on the couch. "Um, no, not..." She examined him again, looking somewhat distracted, but Danny wasn't really in the mood to ask. "No." she decided.

Danny nodded slowly, lamenting his family's weirdness. "Well," he said slowly, "I'm gonna go to school," he pointed to the door with his thumb.

"Oh, let me drive you!" She walked briskly to the bathroom to grab something from the counter, and with the door ajar Danny noticed that the mirror was covered by a white sheet.

Jazz plucked her keys from the hook on the wall, slung her bag over her shoulder and turned back to the door just in time to see it shut. "Danny!" she called after him.

_____

The school day progressed normally, with Danny mostly paying attention in class between doodles. Lunch was as unimpressive as ever, some sort of chunky brownish-gray sludge paired with dry baby carrots and a cream-colored cookie as hard as a hockey puck. Danny deemed the carrots safe enough.

"-even listening to me?" Danny looked up at Sam who was looking at him expectantly.

"Uh, yeah," Danny started, trying to play back in his mind the conversation he hadn't actually been listening to. "Occult holiday? Very cool."

Sam seemed to accept this answer well enough. "Yeah, well you only get an overlap of celestial phenomena like this once every few centuries."

Danny perked up at this "Oh are you talking about the Luceli comet tonight?" Danny had been in such a funk this morning he'd nearly forgotten.

Sam rolled her eyes. "Yes. I knew you weren't paying attention."

"Get the future astronaut and the astrology nut on the same page and I'm out," Tucker said.

"I'm not an astrology nut Tucker, that's way too mainstream for me," Sam insisted.

"Yeah okay, don't act like you don't have your rising and moon and everything all mapped out," he said. It was about then that Danny checked back out of the conversation, having no idea what they were talking about.

Danny walked home after school, his shoulders sore from his backpack straps digging in, and his head empty. He was so tired. He couldn't wait to go up to his room, shut the door and collapse into bed. He hoped the incense didn't pervade the house enough to reach his room.

Danny was suddenly seized by a large arm locking around his thin body, easily picking him up to leave his feet kicking in the air. A cold piece of cloth was pressed forcefully to his face and Danny yelled through it, panicking. His head was yanked back into the chest of his attacker and the pressure of the hand against his face made his nose hurt.

Whatever the cloth was soaked in smelled astringent and oddly sweet, and before Danny could think to hold his breath his vision began to blur and his exhaustion overcame him.

_____

"-small, are you sure he'll have enough blood in 'im?"

Danny's whole body felt sore and heavy. His neck hurt and he could barely register the hard floor under his shoulder.

"Dolohov you idiot, did you even read the ritual? The amount of blood doesn't matter, it's only purpose is as a conduit for the life force."

Danny's mind felt cloudy. Were these people talking to his parents about their weird ghost stuff? It didn't sound like his parents. It didn't smell like frankincense or sage or lavender. It smelled like paint and burning pine.

"Well so-rry Masters, we can't all be college dropouts." The voice came through more clearly now.

"That wasn't my fault and you know it! Besides, I'll have my revenge on that dolt soon enough."

Danny fought through the fog and blinked his eyes open to a dim light. He moved to rub his eyes but found something tugging on his wrists.

"Ah, I think the little lamb is waking now."

Danny drew in a sharp breath and nearly coughed. He was in a large room, lit by many candles. He laid on his side with his ankles and wrists tied with a rough chord that scratched at his skin. Underneath him were scribbled lines, too dark to make out in the dim lighting. He saw a few men dressed in dark flowing clothing and white masks.

"Good, we can start the preparation." He felt a cold hand yank him up by the arm, and it was only then that he realized that he had been stripped of all his clothes, covered only by a white linen tied around his waist.

He couldn't find the strength in his legs to stand, but the man gripping his arm seemed to have no trouble holding him up. He peered at Danny's face, and Danny could make out gleaming dark eyes through the eye holes in the mask. "We'll need you quite sober for this, little lamb. Don't worry though, we won't draw it out too long."

Danny's heart hammered in his chest. Was this some sort of weird prank? It was definitely up his parents' alley. But that feeling of dread from the night before had returned in full force, pooling in the pit of his stomach, and he knew that this time it was real. "Wha-what are you gonna do t'me?" Danny's voice sounded terribly weak and raspy to his ears.

The man hummed. "You have the honor of being the world-opening sacrifice to the Tromeros Phantaezo, the great and powerful Lord of Death."

Danny's blood ran cold and he realized as his cheeks begun to cool that at some point he had started to cry.

"Brethren let us begin," called a deep voice from behind him. "We must have him prepared before Venus reaches its zenith."

With that another masked man came, reverently carrying an ornate silver bowl, addorned with engravings that gleamed like stars in the flickering candlelight. "To purify the vessel."

A fistfull of Danny's hair yanked his head back as the bowl was brought to his firmly closed mouth. It was warm against his lips and the smell wafting from it was of honey and sweet spices. "Drink" he was commanded.

When he refused to obey, his jaw was yanked open quite painfully, and he let out a cry as the sweet liquid filled his mouth, which was then promptly held shut by a sweaty hand. He stared angrily at the men in front of him through tears, and in his defiance another pinched Danny's nose, forcing him to swallow so he could breathe.

"C'mon little lamb, that wasn't so bad now was it?"

He distantly registered chanting behind him in some foreign tongue, and Danny tried to yank out of the cultist's grasp to no avail. "Let me go, you freaks!" Danny's throat felt thick and his voice sounded abnormally high and muddied.

The cultist in front of him grabbed his chin and looked into his eyes. "You should be honored, little lamb. The pain will be over soon enough. Shame you won't get to see the Lord of Death in all his glory as he makes this world his."

A wooden stick with a blackened end was dragged across Danny's forehead, uncomfortably warm. "Yew ash," a voice said, barely audible above the now constant chanting.

Danny was brought to kneel in the painted symbols on the ground, a cultist at his back with a fistful of dark hair. Another approached, a knife in his hand gleaming in the firelight.

"A life touched by Sight," he said as the chanting reached a crescendo, "given to open the door!"

The knife was plunged into Danny's chest, cold and hot as he was gripped with shock. He dimly registered the hot blood leaking down his stomach, seeping into his loincloth and dripping onto the floor. His vision swam and his hearing dimmed. He no longer felt a tension at his scalp and he collapsed to the stone floor in a heap.

His eyes fluttered, desperately trying to stay open, but they felt so heavy. He could barely make out a bright light in the shape of a man, a cold, otherworldly green instead of the warm yellow of the candles. A piercing screech hit his ears and it all went dark.

_____

Danny hadn't been expecting to wake. He hadn't thought too deeply about the existence of an afterlife before, but he was quite shocked to find consciousness at all. He felt a dull ache in his chest. He reached up to touch it, surprised to find his hands unbound. He looked quickly around the dark room, the sight that greeted him making his heart drop into his stomach.

Despite the lack of an obvious light source, he could see quite clearly the remnants of the ritual, as well as the still forms of black-clad, mask-wearing cultists laid all throughout the room. Their masks were no longer white.

Danny felt his stomach roiling at the stench of blood. He tried to retch, but all he had eaten today was a couple of dry baby carrots and spiced honey water. He found himself on all fours, staring at the concrete and trying to breathe deeply enough to calm his nerves. The smell was making it worse.

His eyes wandered over to his hands, which were dark up to the elbows, covered in blood. What happened?! The question repeated over and over in his mind, panicked, confused, and overwhelming.

He stood on shaking legs and looked around the room, trying hard not to look at the corpses littering the floor, still warm. I have to get out of here.

Danny spotted the door, stained with a large smear of blood at eye level, smeared down to meet a cultist leaning up against it as if crushed against it while trying to escape. A sob choked its way out of Danny's mouth as he lurched towards the door on shaking legs like those of a newborn doe.

Danny fumbled for the knob and tried to yank it open, sobs growing louder as he failed to pull against the dead weight at the bottom or the lock holding it closed. He yanked and pushed the handle desperately in rapid succession, irrationality taking hold, and suddenly fell through the door.

He landed hard on the other side and gasped. He turned and stared up at the door. It was still closed.

"... what..?" his voice was whispered, but deafening in the silence around him. He took deep breaths of blood-free air, trying to clear the snot and tears from his throat.

'Get up.'

The thought was so loud that Danny looked around, thinking someone else had said it. Finding himself alone, he took another deep breath and got up. The concrete was cold against his feet, but not uncomfortable.

He padded up the stairs at the end of the hall and pushed open the door, leading into a long hallway, dim moonlight streaking in from large spaces out windows. Could he just leave? Should he try to find his stuff, or find a phone and call the police?

'How do you think the police will react to find you covered in the blood of a dozen dead men with not a scratch on you?'

Danny jumped at the voice. "W-who's there?" he looked up and down the hallway and saw no one. It was silent, save for the beating of his own heart, much slower than he would have expected.

Danny's hand came up to his chest where he had been stabbed. He felt smooth skin underneath dried blood. Startled, he looked down at his body. He was still mostly naked, and covered in blood, but the voice was right, there wasn't a scratch on him.

He was suddenly very aware of the drying blood crumbling and flaking on his skin as he moved and felt an overwhelming urge to scrub it off. He walked silently down the hall, opening doors until he found a bathroom. Before he could think about the sense of his actions the bloodstained linen was in the wastebasket and Danny was standing under a stream of hot water, watching it turn rust red as it snaked its way towards the drain. He scrubbed his skin until it stung.

Danny stood in the shower perhaps longer than he should. He had no idea where he was or what time it was. If it weren't for the unfamiliar shower he was standing in and the shampoo that wasn't his, he would be thinking it had been some sort of crazy dream. But he could still feel a phantom of rough hands on his jaw, still smell the ghost of the sweet odor of chloroform, still feel the cold metal of a silver dagger push through his skin.

Danny pressed a hand to his chest, just over his heart. A second passed. Two. Three. Just as Danny started to panic, he felt a beat under his fingers. It was slow, but steady. He must have imagined it, then. There was no way he could have survived that. Was he crazy? Sane people didn't hear voices.

He did his best to shove that thought out of his mind, shutting off the water and grabbing an emerald green towel off the rack. After drying off, he rubbed at the fog on the mirror, looking at his expression. He looked normal, despite how different he felt.

Images of the ritual room flashed through his mind again in painful detail. His breath hitched and he held the eyes of his reflection, trying to ground himself and not really succeeding. He could hear the dripping off the shower faucet, steadier than his own breath.

"Did I kill those people?" He asked himself.

His reflection's eyes flashed a cold, otherworldly green. "No, I did," the echoey voice left his mouth without his input and Danny jumped back from the mirror, falling against the tub with a startled cry.

"Wha- oh, oh man I really am crazy." Danny's hands climbed into his hair, fingers pulling at the wet strands.

'I am not a hallucination.'

"Very reassuring," Danny responded hysterically, only vaguely aware that he was now talking to himself. "Sounds exactly like something a hallucination would say."

'I am Phantaezō.'

Danny froze. "Lord of Death?" His voice was small. Were his parents right about spirits being real all along? Did something happen during the ritual? Maybe it wasn't all in his head, but could he afford to entertain that possibility? If he was wrong it would only drive him further into madness.

'I'll prove it.'

Danny felt a chill run up his spine and suddenly he felt lighter. When did he stand up? He looked down to find that he was in fact not standing, but floating. Danny yelled. His eyes were glowing green in the mirror again.

"Stop it! Stop!" Danny yelled, clutching at his head and clenching his eyes shut. He felt his butt hit the floor again, cushioned by the plush yellow bath mat, and felt slight relief at the familiar return of weight to his body.

He thought of how he fell through the door to the hallway. Surely he couldn't just have imagined that. He stared at his hands, thinking about passing through the door. He felt a chill and his hands became translucent. He gasped and they flickered back to normal. He turned them over, staring.

"...What did you do to me?" he whispered.

'I saved you.'

How, Danny was about to ask, before his parents' constant distrust of spirits kicked in. "Why?"

The spirit was quiet for a long time, but Danny could feel its presence in his mind, cold but intense, burning like frostbite. Finally it spoke.

'They wanted me for their bidding, those foolish mortals thought they could control me, me.' The spirit paused. 'In their effort to hold me, they made a mistake trying to close the Door. If I hadn't latched onto a stable form I would have been torn.'

Danny was silent, trying to digest this. A god of death saved his life and possessed him in order to avoid being destroyed by cultists, whom it then killed using Danny's body.

"Why me?"

'You have touched death.'

Danny's breath caught in his throat as the Phantom pain of a dagger struck his chest. "Am I dead?"

The spirit paused. 'Not… anymore.'

Danny took a deep breath and pressed his hand to his heart, feeling for the slow beats to reassure him that the spirit was speaking truth. He was alive. He was possessed. What should he do? "Exorcism?" He ventured.

The spirit scoffed. 'As if any priest could remove me.'

Danny clapped a hand over his mouth. He hadn't meant to say that aloud. He was posessed by some great god of death. Could a priest handle that? Twelve occultists who seemed to know what they were doing certainly couldn't. Maybe his parents could help, they knew about this kind of thing. His mind went back to the corpses lining the room. No. No, he wouldn't get them killed. He bit his lip. They were probably worried sick about him. He had no idea how long he'd been away. The change from day to night showed that it had been at least several hours since school ended, but for all he knew it could be days.

'Human?' the voice interrupted his thoughts.

"My name is Danny," he replied absently.

'Danny,' it said pointedly. 'If you build me a new Door I can leave.'

There was a way out? Danny stood. "Okay, how do I build this door then?" he asked eagerly. His thoughts then returned to the ritual, the cultist's voice echoing in his ears. "A life touched by sight given to open the door!" He slumped again, filling with an odd combination of rage and despair. "I won't kill anyone."

'I can take care of that,' it said.

Danny's eyes snapped up to the mirror. They were blue. He pointed at his reflection nevertheless. "No," he said forcefully, ignoring the shake in his muscles. "You are not killing anyone."

The spirit huffed a long sigh.

"Promise!" Danny demanded.

'You want me to promise?' it asked in amusement.

"Yes!" Danny exclaimed. "Swear!"

Danny resisted a flinch as his eyes swirled green. He watched his shoulders relax and a smile eased its way onto his face. A low, echoing chuckle oozed from his mouth. "How could you possibly stop me, little lamb?"

Danny was starting to really hate that nickname. His heart pounded in his chest and he felt a coolness wash over him that had nothing to do with the ghost inside of him.

"I'll kill myself."

His reflection tilted it's head, eyeing him curiously.

"I'll kill myself, and then you won't have a-a stable form to latch onto."

A hand came up to brush his lips as if in thought. The smile on his face became challenging. "What makes you think I couldn't just bring you back again?"

Danny's stomach dropped. Was he forced to be the puppet of some murderous evil spirit against his own will? Trapped with this demon in some sort of hell on earth? Surely there had to be some way out. Maybe he could destroy himself beyond repair. Surely even this thing had its limits.

"I-I'll throw myself in a wood chipper," Danny tried. "Jump into an inferno. Bury myself in concrete. Drag myself to the bottom of the ocean." Danny's breath hitched. "Launch my ashes into space."

His reflection examined him for a long moment. "You feel very strongly about this," it noted, amusement mixing with curiosity.

Danny nodded, his breath coming in and out more quickly than he'd realized. "Yes."

It stared at him for another long moment before seeming to make up its mind. "Alright," it said. "I won't kill anyone while I'm here."

Danny nodded. "Promise."

His reflection rolled its eyes. "I promise not to intentionally kill anyone while I'm here. Cross my heart and hope to, well," it smiled. "You know."

Danny took a shaky breath and turned away from the mirror, running a hand through his hair. "Okay, so how do I build this door?"

'Well, without some sacrifices to part the veil, it'll take a while. I suggest getting comfortable, we're in it for the long haul, kid.'

_____

It took Danny a while to find some clothes. The layout of the mansion (it could only be described as a mansion) was confusing, and the continuous green and gold color scheme that adorned the winding hallways didn't help. Phantom seemed to pick up on the layout much more quickly however, and let Danny know when he was backtracking or going in circles.

The fifth bedroom that Danny found was the largest so far, and the only one with clothes in the closet. Nearly all of them were suits, collared shirts, and slacks, and silken pajamas, but he found some sweatpants, which he cinched tightly at the waist, and a Green Bay Packers hoodie.

"That explains the decor," Danny muttered. "How crazy can you get?"

'Cultists, remember?' the spirit chimed.

"Your cult," Danny reminded him, pulling the hoodie on.

'I don't claim them,' he replied hotly. 'They tried to control me.'

Danny rolled his eyes. "Betrayal cuts deep, huh?"

The spirit made an offended noise. 'I was never affiliated with those misguided idiots!'

Danny rolled up the hems of the sweatpants to keep himself from tripping on them and felt tiny in the oversized clothes. "Yeah, okay ghost boy," he muttered as he began looking for shoes that could potentially fit him, but quickly gave up. If he couldn't find his stuff he might have to brave the world in sweatpants and socks.

'Ghost boy?' it asked incredulously. 'I am the Regnandi Sarruum Phantaezō, Lord of Death, defeater of Pariah Dark, conqueror of the Infinite Realms-'

"Okay, okay, touchy," Danny said. "Reggie, Sam, Phantom, whatever."

Phantom didn't grumble, per say, but Danny could feel his irritation, buzzing like static on a TV. 'You were not this impertinent before.'

Danny snorted. "Threatening to throw you in a wood grinder isn't impertinent?" His grin faded and he sighed, running a hand through his hair. "I don't think I have any more energy to deal with ridiculous things like threats of violence today."

'Sleep, then. There is much work to be done if I am to return to the Infinite Realms.'

Danny shook his head. “I wanna get this over with as soon as possible, I don’t want you here any longer than necessary. Danny shut the closet door. What do we need to get started?”

'Well, a lot of things. Raven feathers, silver, dead sea salt, highly conductive metals for energy relay, beta flos sanguinus-those will be vital if you're going to continue to be adamant about the whole "not killing anyone" thing-oh, and we'll need some explosives-'

"Explosives?!"

'We'll be punching a hole between dimensions, kid. Don't worry, explosives are easy to come by in this plane.'

"That's not what I was-" Danny huffed. "Okay, whatever. Explosives, sure. What's the, the beta floss?"

'Beta flos sanguine, a type of flower with special properties. Witch hunters tend to have them, do you know of any?'

"Do I know of any witch hunters?" Danny asked incredulously.

'Yes, they go from town to town with diverse weapons of torture, hunting-'

"I know what a witch hunter is!" Danny said, rolling his eyes. "It's not the 1600s anymore, witch hunters aren't a thing!"

Phantom seemed to consider this. 'I'll admit, it has been a while since I was last summoned, and news of your realm has been rather scant of late. Alright then, who fights against the creatures of darkness nowadays?'

"The creatures-" Danny shut his mouth before he could make another sarcastic remark and thought for a moment. Sam would probably call herself a creature of darkness, but that's probably not what Phantom was referring to. "Uh I dunno, priests?" Horror movies like The Exorcist and The Conjuring came to mind.

Phantom made a scornful noise. 'Doubtful they'd have such things. They don't know the first thing about the occult, or actual mechanisms of summoning and banishment. They merely rely on their paltry faith.'

Danny hummed as his mind went back to Sam. She definitely educated herself on the occult. It was one of the reasons she first became friends with him. Danny's mother made him wear a protective talisman to school after he came home with bruises courtesy of Dash. Sam saw it and immediately began to inundate him with talk of the occult and supernatural, which, much to her delight, he easily followed. She eventually realized that, despite the knowledge gained from his unusual upbringing, he had very little actual interest in the occult. By then, however, she had already deemed him a good friend and they had been ever since.

"I have a goth friend who's into gardening. She might know where to find rare occult flowers."

Phantom hummed. 'Yes, we'll have to give that a try. Best to do it quickly, the process to convert them for our purposes will take a couple months at the least.'

Danny's heart dropped as the reality of his situation began to sink in. He was stuck with a murderous spirit inside his head for months at the least. A spirit that had shown that it could take control of his body to some degree. What if it's intentions were more malicious than it was letting on? His parents always told him off the cunning and guile of evil spirits. He had stopped believing them in middle school, but now he had to wonder about the truth of it. Would this door they were preparing really rid him of Phantom? Or would it bring on the end of the world? Could Danny live with that? Would he live at all after this?

"How do I know I can trust you?" Danny asked, before amending his statement. "How do I know that this is actually going to send you back and not cause the apocalypse?"

Phantom tsked. 'You really don't know anything about the Infinite Realms, do you? Or multidimensional planar configuration?'

Danny paused. Multi what? "Uh, no. Can't say that I do," he said quietly.

'Well,' Phantom started, 'The Infinite Realms is unique in that it has all of the right physical properties and dimensional positioning to easily access a multitude of smaller planes, hence the name of "Infinite Realms."'

"Okay…?"

'It is much more vast than any other realm in existence. This is due in part because of the fluidity of what you call "ectoplasm," which makes up most of the dimension. It allows for great spatial manipulations and lends itself well to the creation or linking of pocket dimensions. Its size is also due its age, one of the two oldest realms known.'

"What's the other one?" Danny asked curiously.

'... Yours. ' Phantom said. 'They formed, near as we can tell, at the same time. More solid and stable elements of this dimension allowed for the elasticity of elements in ours, and vice versa. They are nearly opposite. Two sides of one coin. Impossibly different, but inherently linked.'

Danny listened now with rapt attention.

'It is for this reason that you can trust that I do not seek to destroy your realm. Only a fool would seek power at the cost of such imbalance. Chaos and destruction in your world would bring the same in mine.'

"... Oh," Danny said simply.

'Yes,' Phantom said, his voice taking on a softly melancholic tone, 'It's such a shame you will not have the honor of seeing its chaotic beauty.' His wistful tone became far away and nostalgic. 'The silvery green mists of the Far Fields that cling to you as you float through them, like a cold caress. The ringing sound of ectoplasmic winds through the barren zones, like the bow of a skillful player across enchanted strings, the soft glow of pertarials as you push energy through them, as if beaming in delight at your care…'

An odd feeling settled in Danny's chest as he spoke, a hiraeth that felt cool but comforting, aching but soft, certainly new, but distantly familiar in a way that was almost primordial.

"... It sounds lovely."

'It is.' Phantom said. 'And I would like to get back, so if you wouldn't mind getting a move on to wherever you're going to start this-'

"Oh, y-yes, right," Danny said, exiting the large room.

_____

Danny finally found the front door. He had searched every room he could find (which was rather a lot) but didn't find his backpack or clothes. They must have dumped them somewhere else. Danny opened the front door and was greeted by a cold wind, which would have normally chilled Danny to the bone. He didn't get so much as goosebumps. Normally this fact would have concerned him, but Danny was looking down at his feet, shod only in socks that were slightly too big for him. He looked out the door again at the woods in front of him. This small mansion appeared to be secluded. "Great," Danny muttered. "Nothing better than being lost in some creepy woods at night."

'Hey, you've got me,' Phantom said in a tone that was probably meant to be reassuring.

Danny rolled his eyes. "Ah yes, lucky me."

'Indeed!' Phantom exclaimed. 'Onward!'

Danny adjusted the leather bag on his shoulder, another thing he'd found in the house, to carry water, a flashlight, a little bit of food, and some cash he'd found, just in case. With a breath, Danny took a step outside. He could barely feel the stone walkway beneath his thick socks.

"Onward," Danny echoed.

____

After about twenty minutes of walking, Danny found a dirt road, which led, about forty minutes later, to a paved road. Danny found that the unfamiliar terrain was quite easy to see and navigate through, despite the night clouds dimming the already faint moonlight.

"Alright, now we're getting somewhere." Danny knew the positions of the stars pretty well, but not quite well enough to know exactly where he was. He started walking down the road in a northeast direction. "Hopefully someone will drive by and be willing to pick up a shady teenager on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere,"

'I wouldn't worry, you don't look like any shadowy wilderness spirit I've ever seen, ' Phantom reassured.

Danny rolled his eyes. "Thanks, but I was thinking more along the lines of 'mental asylum escapee,' or perhaps 'murderous delinquent.'"

Phantom gave a confused hum. 'But you've been very clear about your aversion to murder, you didn't change your mind did you?' he asked, a with a little too much excitement.

"No!" Danny said emphatically. "No murder." He put his face in his hands. "And here I am talking to a murderous voice in my head. Who wouldn't want to pick me up?"

'I'm sure someone will come along,' Phantom said.

About an hour later, Danny was considering taking a break, when a pair of distant headlights came into view. Eagerly, Danny stuck his thumb out into the road. "C'mon, c'mon."

The semi truck slowed to a stop next to him and Danny resisted the urge to cheer. The window rolled down and a man leaned over to get a look at him. He looked Danny up and down, lingering on his wet, dirty socks, before coming up to look Danny in the eyes again.

"Hey kid, you lost? It ain't safe out here this time 'a night."

Danny nodded. "Yeah, I don't know where I am, could you give me a ride?"

"Hop in," he said, pushing the door open and pulling back into the driver's side. Danny climbed up into the truck and sat in the large seat, smiling at the warm air blowing on his damp socks as the driver continued back down the road.

"How old are you, kid? You a runaway?" he asked, glancing at Danny out of the side of his eye.

Danny shook his head. "I'm fourteen."

"Fourteen," he repeated. "And what brought you to the middle 'a nowhere Wisconsin?"

So I'm in Wisconsin, Danny thought. That's only a few states over. Maybe his journey back home wouldn't be so long after all. "Cultists," Danny replied.

"Reaally?" the man responded dubiously.

"Yep."

"Cultists."

"Mhmm. Tied me up to sacrifice to a god of death." Danny said without a beat.

"Well you look pretty good for a sacrifice victim."

Danny shrugged. "What can I say, I'm a tough kid."

'Having a powerful otherworldly spirit with supernatural healing abilities on your side doesn't hurt,' Phantom said.

"Yeah, I'll bet you took them all out with your bare hands when you escaped," he said.

Danny's smile faltered as he remembered waking up in a dark room surrounded by corpses and covered in blood.

"... Yeah," he said quietly.

The driver glanced at him a little longer this time. "Alright, well, do you have a name?"

He nodded. "Danny."

The truck driver nodded too. "I'm Rick. Nice to meet'cha, Danny. You know, I've got a cousin named Danny, crazy fella, this one time we were rafting up in Quebec…"

Danny relaxed, watching the dark trees slide past the window and listening to Rick tell stories. He was a good storyteller, and he had a lot of them. Danny was exhausted, and with the smooth rumble of the truck and the warm air blowing through the vents, he easily fell asleep.

____

Danny was shook awake, and without a thought his hand shot up to grab the wrist of whomever had touched him.

"Whoa, easy tiger," said Rick, putting up his other hand placatingly. Danny let go of Rick's arm.

"S-sorry."

"'S okay," Rick said. "We're at a rest stop. Figured you might wanna take a bathroom break. Plus ya haven't actually told me where you're headed. You might need ta catch another ride."

Danny nodded and looked out the window. The sun was up, brightly lighting the rest stop, it looked about mid afternoon. He must've slept all through the morning. "Yeah," he nodded again. "Yeah, okay."

"Alright," Rick said, stepping out of the truck and stretching with a groan.

Danny hopped down and looked at the convenience store next to the stop. "Thanks for the ride, Rick."

"Sure thing kid, glad I found ya when I did." Rick crossed his arms. "Promise me you'll stay outta trouble, now."

Danny bit his lip. With Phantom in his head he was neck deep in trouble and he had a feeling this was only the beginning. "I'll try," he said.

Rick pursed his lips. "Alright alright, just, be safe, okay?"

Danny nodded.

"No, I mean it. You're in danger, you do whatever it takes to get yourself out okay?"

Danny hesitated.

"Listen," Rick said, "I know that sounds drastic, but I've been through some shit, and I've seen others go through worse. You don't deserve that, and letting yourself get hurt for someone else ain't right. It won't fix anything, okay?"

Danny stared at his sock-clad feet. Rick didn't get it. His situation was different. Rick didn't know what Danny was. Danny didn't even know what he was anymore. Just a ticking time bomb. A freak. A danger.

"Danny," Rick said gently and Danny looked up at him. Danny wouldn't ever see Rick again. He could just say yes and leave. Rick didn't know him. Rick was just some truck driver. He'd never know Danny was lying.

Danny took a breath and nodded. "I promise I'll be safe," he said.

Rick's shoulders fell slightly and the determined look in his eyes became sad.

He knew.

Danny looked away again and Rick let out a sigh. "I wish you luck on your travels, kid. Bright side of the tunnel is coming, I promise."

Danny nodded and with one last "Thanks," left Rick, walking toward the convenience store.

The convenience store was, in fact, very convenient. Not only did it have the usual snacks and drinks, but another section had car parts and accessories and a few pieces of clothing in sizes from medium to XXXL, a few t-shirts, sweaters, and safety vests. To Danny's delight, they even had boots.

The smallest they had was one size larger than Danny usually got, but he also grabbed a couple pairs of thick socks and hoped that would make up the difference. After purchasing them and throwing his dirty socks in the trash, Danny bought a small pepperoni pizza and found that he was ravenous.

'What is this food?' Phantom asked, 'It is quite delicious.'

"You can taste my food?!" Danny asked abruptly before slapping a hand over his mouth. He looked around the dining area, and saw that the few people there hadn't looked up from what they were doing.

'At the moment, we share a body. Most unfortunate. However, that means that, yes, I feel the same sensations you do.' Phantom supplied.

"Oh," Danny whispered. "This is called pizza and I'm gonna get another one."

'Excellent idea.'

After the second pizza Danny felt less like he was being eaten from the inside out, and found that he only had a couple dollars left. He decided to see if he could find anyone heading to Amity Park.

After asking three truckers, a pair of newlyweds, two skiers on their way to Quebec, and a mom juggling three restless children, he found a small group of musicians who were traveling to St. Louis and would be passing through.

"Sure kid, we can give you a ride. As long as you don't mind sitting next to the drums."

"I don't mind at all," Danny smiled, letting out a sigh of relief. Maybe he would be getting home today.

_____

The trip was bumpy without a seat belt, but the musicians were a great crowd. They were loud and friendly, and their frequent laughter lifted Danny's spirits and eased the ever-growing dread and anxiety that had been pooling in his chest since the previous morning. For a moment, Danny thought that maybe he could do this. Maybe his situation wasn't impossible.

"Amity Park, a nice place to live!" called Eric from the passengers seat. Danny perked up and stood on his knees to look over the other chairs and out the front window. The sky had darkened once again, but was lit brightly by the familiar city lights in the distance.

Mads slapped him hard on the back. "Here you are, Danny, home sweet home!"

"Check out those buildings!" Xan said, pointing at the network of Axion Labs facilities behind barbed wire, the letters glowing a cool blue in contrast to the warm yellow security light around the buildings. "Man, it must be cool to live here," they said.

"Yeah," Danny shrugged. He had never really thought about it before. It has always just been where he lived.

They pulled up to a gas station and everyone got out, stretching and sighing.

"You gonna be able to find your way from here?" Mads asked as Danny got out.

"Yeah, he smiled. Thanks for the ride. Good luck with your gig!"

"Thanks dude!" Eric said, waving as Danny began to walk away.

"Look us up when you get home!" Xan called.

Danny laughed. "I will!" He waved at them one more time and began to walk. He was only eight blocks away.

As he walked his hometown streets again an odd mixture of feelings churned within him. Despite the lateness of the hour and the potential dangers hidden by the nooks of shadow the streetlights couldn't reach, Danny felt comfortable and secure, finally being somewhere familiar. He felt excited with the anticipation of finally getting home, relieved that he'd finally made it after such an arduous journey, but he also felt… fear. His skin crawled, knowing that he was not just Danny anymore. He was bringing home something else. Something dangerous and unnatural, harboring a horrific creature, a wild animal that could strike at any moment, bringing unknown pains. Any harm brought by this demon would be on Danny's hands. Could he hide it? Could he truly pretend that he wasn't dangerous, that he wasn't tainted, taken, compromised? He felt like a liar and a traitor, because despite the fact that he hadn't even reached his front step, he knew that he would. He knew what he would say.

Nothing.

As Danny approached FentonWorks, he began to feel chill. Phantom buzzed at the back of his mind, a cold, anxious energy. He walked up the first step and was immediately bombarded by a yell so loud Danny could have sworn that the neighbors heard it.

'STOP!' Phantom yelled, and with a jerk Danny turned around, taking several steps away from the house without his input. It was so weird to feel your body move without telling it to.

"What?!" Danny yelled, before glancing around to ensure that no one had heard.

'What is this place?' Phantom asked.

Danny huffed, throwing his arms out in exasperation. "My house," he whispered harshly. "What's your problem?"

'Oh,' Phantom said, 'I thought you were- well, nevermind. It is warded. Please remove the sigils, they are very…' he paused. 'Uncomfortable.'

Danny rolled his eyes. "Oh, you're uncomfortable? Sure, sure, let me just take care of that for you."

Danny marched up the steps and ripped the protective talisman off the front door, tossing it in the bushes.

He tried the handle and it resisted. Locked. He didn't have his key. He juggled the handle again and again, frustration and exhaustion rising up within him.

'You can simply phase through the door,' Phantom said, amused.

"Shut up you-" Danny hissed, but then stopped as the lock clicked and the door swung open, a sliver of light casting Danny's shadow into the street.

"Danny?" Jack asked, a smile splitting his face. Danny's breath hitched at the watery look coming from his dad. "Danny!" Jack yelled, scooping Danny into a big hug. Danny felt the tension that had been building over the past two days melt in his dad's warm embrace.

After a few seconds Jack set Danny back on the ground, and he was pulled into another tight hug.

"Sweetie, we were so worried about you!" his mom said. She released him and began fussing over him, checking for injuries. "Where were you? Are you okay?" she asked.

He reached up to stop her frantic hands, her arms feeling so warm against his cold fingers. "Mom, I'm fine." He smiled weakly at her, trying to ease her worried expression. She hugged him again, only for a few seconds this time before letting go.

"Oh sweetie, I'm so sorry, whatever we did to upset you, we didn't- Danny we love you so much-"

Danny shook his head emphatically. "I know mom, it wasn't you or dad," he said, getting pulled into another hug.

"You know you can tell us anything, sweetie," Maddie whispered into his hair. Danny gripped her shirt tighter and he felt his throat become dry.

"Yeah, I know," he said.

After a few more seconds Maddie released him once again, and looked at him for a moment before rubbing at her eyes. "I'll go let the police know you came home," she said, walking into the kitchen.

Danny looked up at caught Jazz's gaze, staring at him from the stairs. Her eyes were wide and her fingers gripped the railing with white knuckles.

"So, Packers, eh Danny?" Jack asked. Danny didn't break eye contact with Jazz. "You know, an old friend of me and Maddie was a huge Packers fan in college. I wonder how he's doing."

She knows, Danny thought.

______

'There's no way she knows,' Phantom said as Danny pulled on his pajamas.

"I'm telling you, she knows," Danny said quietly. "Did you see the way she was looking at me?"

'You're being paranoid,' Phantom said. 'You look just as pathetically mortal as you did before, trust me.'

Danny shook his head and ran his hands through his hair. "No, she's always had some sort of sixth sense about this stuff. Weird stuff. Bad stuff."

'Met a lot of otherworldly spirits of death5 have you?' Phantom asked sarcastically.

"No," Danny huffed and sat on the bed. "It's just…" he bit his lip. "I think she knew I was gonna get kidnapped. She was acting weird that morning and-" he sighed. "Now that I think of it, it's not the first time she's been weirdly right about things."

Phantom didn't say anything for a long moment. "Phantom?" Danny asked.

'Get some sleep, kid.' Phantom sighed. 'We've got a lot of work to do.'

And so Danny laid in bed and stared at the familiar glowing star stickers on his ceiling. He was back in his old room, but it did not bring the same comforts as it once did. Here he could no longer hide from the chaotic things of the outside world. He could no longer sit in silence with his own thoughts. He could not relax with friends, knowing what danger he now posed to them. He could not be alone even in his own head. The darkness of his room reflected the newfound darkness in his mind, and in the darkness, Danny slept.