Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom, he belongs to Butch Hartman. This is my first Danny Phantom fic… yes, I like my angst. Send the Men in White after me if you want.

Alone

Ghost Powers. You'd think they'd be a great thing to have. I mean I can fly, phase and shoot plasma balls. I also go invisible and have a cool ghostly wail. Pretty neat huh? Not when you have to think about the drawbacks of being a halfa-a human/ghost hybrid-. I mean I got all the ghosts that hunt me, like Technus, Skulker, Walker, and the rest of the ones I pissed off in the Ghost Zone. I also have all the human Ghost Hunters coming after me, the Men in White, Valerie, and of course, my parents. Big drawbacks, but drawbacks that are easy for me to handle. That's not what bugs me, what bugs me is the fact that I am not normal… and that I'll never be normal.

Let me put it this way… I got my Ghost Powers when I was fourteen years old, that was over a hundred years ago. The day I got them was really the day I died. Maybe it was because I was inside the Ghost Portal while Vlad was only caught in a blast. Whatever the reason, Vlad still aged while I was frozen at fourteen. I stayed the same while my friends, Tucker and Sam, grew older, moved on with their lives, had families and eventually died.

After a year or two my parents started to wonder why I never seemed to change, I had to tell them. I mean, I was the shortest kid in my class, at seventeen I should have been closer to Dash's size, but Sam was taller than me. So I told them, they took it rather well, considering that they did some tests on me as punishment for not telling them.

They never did find a way to make me age, but they were happy that I had chosen to give up my dream of flying among the stars to join the family business of Ghost Catching. That was the best and worst day of my youth. My parents outted me as a ghost, but they also cleared the air with the town about what happened, and even got the Men in White off my back. It was great that Danny Phantom was publicly known as a hero, but it killed me inside to put away the stars… I really wanted to be up there… so many bright souls shining… so many possibilities.

Life was good for a while, the Fenton family was a force to be reckoned with, with Danny Phantom on their side. My dad was no longer seen as a complete fool and working with my parents eased their obsession with ghosts. Well, I actually gave them the Box Ghost as a present for them to study, after I made them promise not to dissect him molecule by molecule.

I still had my friends, even Valerie stopped hunting me, but we still clashed when I was in Ghost Mode and she was hunting, but after a while, things changed. Tucker and Sam got accepted into college, and I couldn't go with them. My duties in Amity Park kept me there, and no college in its right mind would accept an eternally young student, especially if he was a trouble magnet like I was. Sam stayed in contact with me more than Tucker did, except for playing Doomed, we still partied together in the game. That ended when Sam met her boyfriend, they got married and well, it was hard for her to explain me so I couldn't call her anymore and the letters became fewer and fewer. Tucker stopped playing Doomed and I lost track of him, all I had was my family, and I was losing them also.

Jazz kept me with her as long as she could, she never married, never wanted to, and when my parents died of old age, there wasn't anywhere I could really go but with her. Vlad had died before my parents did, he pissed off Walker and that was the end of him, I hear that his ghost is in Walker's prison, but I have no reason or want to go there so I'll never know.

The worst night of my life happened forty years after the accident. Jazz and I were heading home from a movie, at least in Amity I was so well known that no one asked why a fifty year old spinster was walking around with a fourteen year old kid. We were in the car just enjoying each other's company, I was starting to nod off when we were hit by a drunk driver. When I regained consciousness I was in Ghost Mode and it was too late for Jazz. The driver, Dash, was fine his truck was made of sturdier stuff than Jazz's car, I almost killed him that night. I didn't… but I wanted to.

For the first time, I was alone, no family, no friends, just myself and the city of Amity Park, there were offers to house me, but I just found my way back home to Fenton Works, what better place to haunt than my own home. Alone with the memories… it was a shock that I didn't go crazy. Hell… maybe I did, maybe I am crazy. I mean… I found Cujo again… and I took him in, just so I wasn't completely alone… that has to be crazy.

So, I haunted my own home, and I soon stopped going out of Ghost Mode hoping that it would make everything hurt less… it never did, never does. I even only came out of the house to stop the less than frequent ghost attacks, but it was never the same, to the people of Amity Park. It was as if I was some kind of god to be worshipped, they had forgotten that I was just a man…

I don't know anyone anymore, sometimes I can see flashes of familiarity in people, a glint of Dash and Paulina in some of the kids going to the school, Valerie's family is still around, Ghost Hunters, like their descendant, but no Mansons, Foleys, or Fentons… Amity Park seems less friendly without those families in the gene pool.

I guess that's why I'm writing this, I just can't take it anymore, I can't stay here and just be Danny Phantom, I need… I need people, friends, I need something to prove to me that there is more to life than pain. Whoever is reading this… I'm sorry, but Amity has enough people protecting it from Ghosts. Hell even my father's portal is powerless, there is nothing here for me. I need to find my own way, I need to find those that are like me.

Yes, I know you depend on me, but that's the problem, you depend on me too much, I'm not a God, I'm not an Angel, nor am I a full Ghost. I'm Danny Fenton, I'm just a man stuck in a boy's body. I'm taking Cujo… and I'm leaving… Maybe I'll be back… maybe I won't…

Maybe I'll finally find a way to die and go back to my family…

Maybe…