Green. That was all he saw as he fell, body charged and scorched with electricity, feeling as though it were on fire. A feeling like going through an ice cold waterfall came over him, and the green flashed out of his eyes, revealing a dimly lit room with metal surfaces and beakers lining the walls in clusters.
His brain was a haze, thoughts swirling around it like a tornado, and only one thought, no, memory, seemed to stay still long enough for him to process it - his name. His name was Danny.
He felt like curling up into a ball, the pain from earlier still sparking across his skin and into his chest, but the sight of two figure standing on either side of him made him start. Who were they? Would they hurt him? Everything hurt, and putting two and two together he concluded that these unknown people must not be friendly.
His eyes like green beacons scanned the room for an exit, and in a moment of panic he sprinted up the stairs, or rather, he flew. His feet just glided right through the stone as though it wasn't there, and he angled himself upward to avoid flying into the ground.
The twilight sun greeted him outside, but he kept flying. Buildings, cars, trees sped past him, and eventually he stopped, landing on wobbly legs in the middle of an evergreen forest, the forest floor overgrown with bushes and bristles that pricked at his tender ankles. By now the sun was but a slight glimmer on the horizon, casting long shadows with its soft orange light.
Danny looked down at his white gloved hands, and couldn't help but notice that he seemed to glow slightly in the twilight, a white aura extending from his being. Just who or what was he? No earthly being could glow, and if he wasn't an earthly being, what did that make him?
The forest around him provided no answers, the uncanny silence pressing against his eardrums. It was too quiet, even for night. Where were the chirping birds and crickets that provided the usual evening soundtrack. It felt, it was, dead. No, that didn't seem right - Danny could see a squirrel scampering away from him in his peripheral vision. It was scared of him, not unusual behaviour for a squirrel, but it moved just too quickly, it was too terrified of him. Danny's breath hitched, and it then occurred to him that he hadn't heard his heartbeat at all since he left what he somehow knew to be a portal.
He was dead, wasn't he.
"No, no, no," Danny muttered under his breath, gripping his hair between his fingers with such force that he could feel the roots being tugged from his scalp. "I can't be a ghost. I-"
No sooner had he spoken those words, a halo of light burst out from around his waist and travelled up and down his body, changing his black and white jumpsuit to the casual wear of a teenager. The rings ended their journey, leaving his snow white hair now a coal black.
Danny's entire body ached, and his trembling legs buckled under him, sending him sprawling onto the leaves and branches beneath him. Black faded into his vision as he fell, his body feeling like a dead weight.
• • •
The sound of chirping birds awoke the battered and scratched boy from his nap on the forest floor, and he squinted his eyes at the glaring sunlight streaming through the branches above. The events of the past day played over in Danny's mind as he stayed still on his bed of pointed branches and leaves. He'd died, in that portal, or at least he thought he had until he felt the heartbeat now pounding in his chest. It felt warm, yet at the same time there was a cold feeling in his chest, like someone had implanted an ice cube next to his alive heart.
Was he both dead and alive at the same time? Schrodinger's boy, or something of the sort?
As distressing as this thought was, it comforted him that he was still alive, even if only partially, and he tried to recall what life he had before he woke up in the green. But only brief flashes of memories came to him, blurry images like old photos that he couldn't quite decipher.
Maybe if he worked back from the portal incident? Maybe he'd be able to remember who he was, his family, anything.
Why had he been in there in the first place? It hardly seemed like a logical or safe thing to walk into an active portal.
Unless it hadn't been on. Yeah, that felt right.
Danny rolled over slightly and jabbed his neck on a bristle, forcing him upwards like a Jack-in-the-Box. He rubbed the offending spot on the side of his neck, and really took in his surroundings.
The forest was a lot less quiet than it had been during the night, and Danny could see the silhouettes of small birds in the branches covering the sky above, which shone down a warm, yellow-tinted light on the green surroundings.
Unfortunately, the sound of him sitting up must have drawn the attention of a passing dog. The large poodle bounded towards him, and Danny tensed, not knowing how to respond to someone else finding him. Maybe he should go invisible. That was something ghosts could do, right? Alas, he didn't seem to be able to do it on command, and by the time he re-acquainted himself with the outside world the dog had its nose mere inches from his face.
Danny jolted back, and much to his surprise someone started laughing and ran to yank the dog back by its collar.
"It's alright kiddo, she doesn't bite," a middle aged woman in a pair of worn dungarees said, holding the clearly excited dog back to avoid startling the boy any more.
"Thanks, sorry, I just got a little surprised, that's all." Danny did his best to act calm despite his thundering heart, reaching out to let the dog sniff his hand.
The dog spent a good few seconds sniffing his hand with its wet, black nose, before recoiling with a slight whimper.
Danny felt a heavy drop in his throat at the dog's reaction. He honestly liked dogs, that he could remember if he didn't know how or why, and it pained him to see a friendly creature show such fear of him.
"Are you okay?" The lady squatted slightly to be able to better talk with Danny, who was still sat on the ground. "You look like you were dragged through a bush."
Danny nodded, then shook his head, then said, "I don't know."
"You don't know?"
"I don't know." Danny brushed the dirt and leaves off his jeans and stood. The lady barely had to stand up at all to be taller than him, and he had to wonder how old he was.
She cocked a bemused eyebrow at the teen. "You sure don't look okay. What's your name?"
Pausing for a moment to consider whether this was the right thing to do, he answered, "Danny."
"Okay Danny, what were you doing lying in the middle of the forest early in the morning?"
"I don't know." Danny scowled at his scuffed up shoes as he said it, and the woman snorted, then gained a concerned expression.
"You really don't know why you're here?" she asked.
"I just ran, but I don't know where from." Danny bit his tongue - he'd said too much.
The lady's face softened to one of pity, and Danny felt irrationally angry at himself for making her feel like that. "A runaway? Do you know why you ran away from where you came from?" Her voice was calm and comforting, like she was trying to help a small child.
Danny shook his head. "I was scared, that's all I remember."
"What were you scared of, Danny?"
"I," Danny's voice cracked, "I don't know."
"Shhhh, it's alright." The lady rubbed circles on Danny's back, after wiping off the barbs and dirt from his t-shirt as much as she could. "Do you want to go to the police?"
Danny shook his head. He couldn't gauge just how the police might react if they realised he was a ghost, and besides, he had nothing to go off but his first name and some vague memories.
"Okay then, we won't go to the police for now. Would you feel comfortable staying at my house instead of the woods while you collect your thoughts?"
Danny nodded wordlessly again, then said, "thank you."
"It's no problem." The lady guided him slowly through the woods, brushing the leaves out of his hair as they trudged along the rough paths, her dog trailing a metre or so behind them.
"My name's Julia. I'm forty-one. How old are you, Danny?" The newly-dubbed Julia probed, trying to get any information out of the mysterious boy in her company.
Danny muttered something under his breath.
"Pardon? What was that?" Julia asked, bending down a bit to be closer to Danny.
"Fourteen, I think," Danny said feebly, barely above a whisper.
"You think?"
Danny nodded.
"Tell me Danny, did you have any head injuries recently?" Julia enquired.
Danny's eyes became unfocused in thought for a moment before he spoke. "I don't think so."
They were now leaving the trees in favour of a small parking lot, with empty cars of various shapes and sizes dotted around it. Julia stopped in front of a modest old car, and twisted her keys in the lock on the door. "Pick a seat," she said to Danny as she went around to open the trunk to let her dog in.
Danny sat in the front seat, and was dragging the seat belt down across him when Julia entered on the driver's side.
She noticed that he was struggling with fitting the seat belt into its clasp with his frozen hands, but didn't say anything as she put on her own seat belt. By the time she switched on the rumbling engine Danny had managed to properly put his seat belt across, and she pulled out of the rural little lot with logs marking the edges.
The drive passed in a considerate silence, and Danny found himself retreating into his thoughts as he watched yet another tree pass by. It all felt so familiar, the entire place, like a lost memory - which it may well have been. Danny wondered if he'd maybe been there before with family, but he couldn't recall anything useful besides vague shapes among trees. He felt low, emotionally drained, but each possible memory brought back a spark of hope. The visions and videos in his mind were becoming slightly less hazy, and with each one Danny felt a little less lost in himself.
The car gently made a bumping motion as it stopped, still retaining some of the forward momentum it had had while in motion, and Danny's face went into the window he was leaned up against rather unflatteringly.
"Sorry about that," Julia said, pulling the handbrake.
"It's fine," Danny replied, rubbing his cheek. He pushed the door open and clambered out, and only realised a second too late that he'd never undone the seat belt. He stole a glance a Julia, who was gawking at him.
"What the-?" Her mouth opened and closed in shock, and she rubbed her eyes before looking again between Danny and the seat he'd just vacated.
Danny froze like a deer in the headlights, and Julia got out of the car herself, undoing her seatbelt. "How?" she finally managed to ask.
"I don't know." Danny stared at the gravel ground with his shoulders squared. "I don't know." Tears began to spill from his eyes.
Julia closed the door for him and guided him to her front door, which she unlocked and allowed him to enter, turning around to collect her dog. This kid might possibly be a ghost or spirit, something that folklore says you should never invite into your house, but something about him seemed so human, so real that Julia was willing to overlook that to help him out.
She ruffled her poodle's curly, black fur and brought her around to the house, a firm grip on her collar in case she decided that she really did not want to be around the spirit that had entered her home.
The dog was surprisingly complacent, and went along with Julia into the house. Danny was not in the hall, but his trainers were, so that was a good sign. He emerged from the bathroom off the hallway, and pointed backwards to the toilet in way of explanation.
A snarl emerged from the dog in Julia's grasp, followed by a yelp-like bark. Danny flinched back, and looked just about ready to bolt.
Julia tugged at her dog's collar to silence her and made to approach Danny slowly. "It's okay, she's just a bit jumpy is all. Has to live up to her name after all."
Danny looked blankly at her, surprised by how normally she was treating him after his earlier display with the seatbelt. "What's her name?"
Julia let a small smile creep across her face. "Spooky."
Danny snorted with laughter, and met Julia's warm brown eyes with his ice blue ones. He bent down to make himself look as small as physically possible, or in his case, rather impossibly small - humans shouldn't be that skinny or bendy, like a willow stick. His limbs folded in on each other, with the exception of his arm, which he outstretched to Spooky, who sniffed him again, and seemed a little less repelled by him than before.
She permitted him to scratch her gently behind the ear, and she melted into his touch, tail wagging at the attention. Concluding that the ghostly teen was nice enough, Spooky trotted over to him so he could stroke her properly.
Julia's smile grew at the exchange. Spooky was a good judge of character - scarily so, hence the name, so this cemented in Julia's mind that she could trust Danny, as odd as he may be.
Danny stopped petting Spooky as his brain connected missing pieces. He'd always wanted a dog, but his parents wouldn't let him - why wouldn't they let him get a dog?
They were scientists. It was too dangerous to have a dog around the house when they were building ghost weapons. That was it, that's why he even had a portal to go into - a portal to the Ghost Zone, his parents were paranormal scientists.
He was drawn out of his thoughts by the feeling of blunt claws against his arm, and he focused his eyes to see Spooky patting his arm in a plea for him to keep petting her.
"Danny?" Julia asked with a hint of concern woven into her voice, crouching down to better talk to him.
Danny shook himself out of his internal monologue, and looked at her with tears brimming in his eyes. "I, I can't go home."
"Why not?" Julia prodded, doing her best to keep her tone calm and even.
"I, they'll hate me." Danny now had tears streaming down his cheeks in rivlets.
Julia produced a tissue from her pocket and handed it to Danny. "Why?"
Danny choked up. "Because…" He couldn't continue without outing himself even further to this woman as a freak of nature.
Julia looked almost as uncomfortable as him, and reading the unspoken message that had been staring her in the face this whole time she asked, "Danny, I want you to be honest with me - are you a spirit?"
Danny disappeared. There was still an imprint on the carpet where he was sat, but he simply vanished from view. "I don't know," squeaked a voice from the place where Julia assumed he still was.
She reached out blindly and placed a hand where she correctly assumed his boney shoulder was. "It's okay, it's okay. Look at me Danny, you're fine."
Danny faded back into view with a gradient, and wiped his eyes with his arm. "Thanks. It's just, my parents are ghost hunters. I'm scared."
Wow, this is an odd situation, thought Julia, but refused to outwardly show just how out of her depth she felt right now.
"And have your parents ever hurt you before?" Julia enquired.
Danny shook his head. "No."
"Do you think your parents would hurt you if you went home?"
He paused before hesitantly shaking his head.
"And do you think they'd accept you?"
Danny nodded, a slight smile gracing his features.
"Do you want to go home soon?" Julia gestured slightly in the direction of the door and by extension, her car.
Danny sank back into his previous state of sadness. "I don't know."
Julia sighed. "Okay, well, you can stay here until you feel comfortable going home, and if you want to go home, I can drive you."
"But what if they don't accept me," Danny scratched Spooky behind the ear as he blinked repeatedly in an attempt to stop the tears that were coming back. "I don't even know what I am. How do I know they'll accept me?"
Julia looked him dead in the eye. "I'll go with you to make sure you're alright, and if things don't work out, you can always stay in my guest bedroom while you and them work stuff out, okay?"
Danny nodded solemnly, causing a couple of tears to drop onto the carpet.
"Thank you," he breathed.
Julia patted him on the back. "It's no problem hun. Do you want to visit some dogs before you go home?" She made an attempt to lighten his mood, catching onto his blatantly obvious love of Spooky.
"Yes please. Are you sure?" Danny's face lit up like a small child who'd just been promised a trip to Disneyland.
"Yep." Julia stood up, remembering that she hadn't taken her shoes off before walking on the rug when she saw the mud collecting on the carpet. Well, that was life with a dog anyway, mud wasn't an issue.
"We can visit the shelter I got Spooky here from. They have a lot of really sweet dogs."
"But won't they be scared of me like Spooky was?" Danny voiced, sadness creeping back into his tone.
"We'll have to see won't we." Julia outstretched a hand to Danny, which he took, and she noted just how cold his skin was.
During the drive to the shelter, Danny explained his dilemma of being Schrodinger's boy, and Julia couldn't help but chuckle at the way he described it, as morbid as the subject matter was.
When they pulled up in the parking lot Danny looked just about ready to sprint for the entrance, but waited for Julia to put a leash on Spooky and lead the two of them towards the entrance - a pair of automatic sliding doors that led into a reception area.
"Hey Julie," greeted the young woman behind the counter, flicking vibrantly dyed hair out of her face. "Who's that you've got with you?"
"This is Danny, I met him in the woods and we're going to see the dogs before I drive him to his home." Julia gestured to Danny.
"Nice to meet you Danny." The receptionist shook Danny's hand with a strong grip, and directed them in the direction of a lot of yapping and scrabbling noises.
Large cages housed dogs of all breeds and sizes on both sides of the wide corridor, and Danny was pleasantly surprised to find that the dogs responded positively to his presence.
"Dogs can sense emotions, y'know," said Julia, while Danny scratched a drooling, old doberman's chin through the wire separating them.
Danny nodded. "I want to get a dog when I'm older. They're awesome! I think I might adopt one from here."
Julia smiled. It was always nice when someone wanted to adopt a dog. In her years working at the shelter, she'd seen a lot of dogs come and go, but nothing would ever compare with the sheer joy of a dog who was leaving to live a new life with a friend.
By the time they were done at the shelter, aka when Julia managed to get Danny to leave after an hour of petting dogs, his mood was much improved, and he sat on the back seat with Spooky next to him for the journey to his house.
Danny gave directions once they got into Amity Park, and as it turned out Danny had only actually flown a couple of towns over from his home the other day. Julia gawked when she saw the Fenton Works sign on the side of a garish suburban house with far too many gadgets sticking off it, and for a brief moment she thought she understood Danny's reluctance to go home.
She placed her hand on his back as he rang the doorbell to his own home. But a few seconds had passed when a large man, built like a foam brick, opened the door and swooped Danny into a bone-crushing hug.
If Julia had to guess, this would all go fine.
• • •
Sure enough, Julia met Danny, and his family, in those same woods again a few months later, but this time he had a dog. A glowing green dog, but still a dog.
A dog that swiftly began playing with Spooky, bounding around the underbrush, the green puppy, which Danny informed her with a blinding smile was called Cujo, trying its best to catch up with Spooky in a race around the trees.