A Mid-Semester Night's Game
[The following phanfic was inspired by Markiplier's Let's Play of The Midnight Game. Check it out, as well as his YouTube Channel! You won't regret it! :D]
It was just a game.
That's what everyone had been saying. But now, as Danny stared down at the spot where he had placed the piece of bloodstained paper – a paper he had written his name onto – he was having second thoughts.
A couple of weeks ago the students at Casper High couldn't stop talking about a challenge that had appeared on the Internet: "The Midnight Game." According to the rules, the game was supposedly a ritual that invited a dark entity – the Midnight Man – into a player's home; in doing so, the player would give the Midnight Man permission to try and find them. Armed with only a candle, the player would then need to avoid the Midnight Man, at all costs, until 3:33 AM.
When Danny first heard the rumors, he thought it was just another silly sleepover game – the next 'Bloody Mary' or Ouija board.
Tucker didn't quite believe it was real, but was wary enough to avoid talking for too long about the subject.
Sam, on the other hand, had grown increasingly furious when she discovered the trend was spreading. According to her research in the occult, the Midnight Man was "a dark force that should never be summoned" – especially by high school students taking part in a fad.
Beep Beep Beep Beep!
Danny jolted at the sound of his watch alarm going off, alerting him that it was three minutes before midnight. Fumbling in the dark – after all, all the lights in the house had to be shut off – Danny managed to strike a match and light the candle he had placed on the floor. He then moved it so it was on top of the piece of paper.
Danny took in a deep breath as he stood up, exhaling slowly before looking at the door in front of him. It was almost time.
He cringed as one of Sam's infuriated glares flashed into his mind – it killed him to have lied to her about not doing this, but he had no choice.
Ever since this game surfaced, ghost attacks were happening less and less. At first, Danny had enjoyed the free time. Catching up on schoolwork, hanging out with Sam and Tuck, and getting eight hours of sleep each night had made life feel, well…normal. It was great!
…Until students had started going missing.
What began as a silly rumor, turned tragic fairly quickly. The police were saying that there was no correlation between "The Midnight Game" and the missing students, but something was definitely wrong – Danny could sense it. For the past week he had been experiencing chills that were typically accompanied by his ghost sense; only this time, an eerie awareness of the lack of ghosts took its place.
There was no doubt that both of his friends knew something was up, but each had their own way of ignoring the problem.
According to Tucker, who stayed up listening to the Amity Park police scanner, there was a possibility that the disappearances were merely teens playing a prank.
The first three missing students – Matt, Adam, and Wes – were friends on the basketball team; couldn't they have thought up a prank to scare a school that was typically used to the paranormal? It was possible, but unlikely.
Danny didn't know any of them personally, but he couldn't really picture basketball players as the type to jokingly go missing for a week. And honestly, who would? It sounded more like the cops were covering something up – something they didn't fully understand.
As for Sam, since the first mention of "The Midnight Game," she'd openly voiced her opinions that no one should mess with it.
Jocks had told her to lighten up – "Shouldn't a goth chick like her do this kind of thing every night?" – Sam didn't take that well, and ended up damning them all to being taken by the dark force they were all so interested in gossiping about.
The next morning neither Dash, Kwan, nor Paulina showed up to school.
Star was in hysterics; she knew that her three friends had planned to try the game the night before to see if it would work. Paulina had tried to get her to play too, but despite her friend's assurances that "the ghost boy would save them if anything did happen," she refused and went home.
That was the last Star had heard from her best friend.
Danny had felt a sharp stab of guilt when he learned that the jocks expected Phantom to be there for them if something went wrong. His ghost form had been practically non-existent lately – after all, there hadn't been any ghosts around to catch! Instead of looking into the disappearances, Danny had fallen into the belief that whatever was happening wasn't ghost related.
He had been enjoying his time off, while fellow students were nowhere to be found.
Breaking free from his thoughts, Danny glanced at his watch – one minute till midnight. Sam would absolutely kill him when she found out he was doing this; but considering what had happened, he had no other choice.
When word got around about the argument Sam had gotten into with the jocks the day before they went missing, things took another turn for the worse. The police quickly realized that Sam knew a little too much about "The Midnight Game;" and after hearing that she had practically cursed three students to face the Midnight Man's wrath, she was brought in for questioning.
With a history of hatred for the jocks, extensive background with the occult, and the police's need for some rational explanation, Sam's chances of getting past this interrogation were slim.
That was why Danny needed to get to the bottom of this.
Beep Beep Beep Beep!
12:00 AM. It was time.
Danny balled his hand into a fist and brought it up to the door. Swallowing, he proceeded to knock twenty-two times. After that, he picked up the candle and opened the front door. The street was slightly illuminated by a streetlight, but all was quiet. Checking to make sure that it was still 12:00 AM, Danny quickly blew out the candle and shut the door.
The fourteen year old immediately struck another match and re-lit the candle – according to the rules the Midnight Man would now be in his home.
Looking around the dimly lit entryway, his senses were alert for any change in atmosphere. Not feeling anything different, Danny wondered if this was really just a game. Maybe there was another reason people had started to go missing – but as Phantom, it was Danny's duty to keep the citizens of Amity Park safe.
He needed to make sure.
Remembering the rules, Danny knew that he had to keep moving. He decided to go through the kitchen first, while being wary of any shadows and hoping his eyes wouldn't start playing tricks on him.
As he walked around the table, he thought he heard an unintelligible whisper behind him; he quickly turned around.
Danny moved the candle slowly as he tried to see what was there…but only the shadows cast from the chairs and kitchen appliances met his gaze. Taking a deep breath, and now on higher alert, Danny decided to keep moving.
Whether or not that was real, I'm going to find out.
He left the kitchen and entered the living room, finding it harder to see in such an open space. As he moved toward the couch, he felt a cold breeze at the back of his neck – immediately getting goose bumps.
"Wha-!" he started to call out as he turned, before cutting off. He distinctly remembered something in the rules about not interacting with whatever the Midnight Man was. Biting his lip, and once more not seeing anything in the small area the candle lit, he moved forward.
Calm down, Fenton. This is what you were expecting, remember? You just have to avoid him for a few hours…
Glancing down at his watch, he saw that a half hour had already gone by. Time was moving pretty quickly; he should be able to do this. Danny was a ghost fighting superhero, after all. He'd faced far worse than a so-called "Midnight Man."
What kind of name is that anyway? Besides the alliteration, it's pretty unoriginal…
"SHUT UP!" A sharp whisper exclaimed beside Danny's ear, causing him to jump as his candle suddenly blew out.
"Oh, crud!" Danny exclaimed, fumbling for the matches and attempting to re-light the candle.
Ten seconds, ten seconds, ten seconds…! Danny thought, remembering that was the only time he had before the Midnight Man would "catch" him.
Light filled the space around him as he managed to strike the match and light the candle. Looking around, he didn't see anything. His heart was pounding in his chest – now, that was scary. It had felt like a presence was standing in the darkness right behind him, waiting for him to screw up.
Shaking it off, Danny decided to head upstairs. Maybe he would have a better chance avoiding the figure in an area of the house with more rooms to walk through.
As he got to the second floor, an eerie feeling of being watched came over him. Instead of acknowledging it, he decided to keep moving. Danny had to admit that the game did make him feel like he was in one of Sam's horror movie marathons; but other than the chills, strange noises, and mysterious figure waiting for you to mess up, it wasn't so bad…
Glancing at his watch, Danny noted that it was already 1 AM. Time seemed to be moving pretty quickly for someone creeping around a pitch-black house…not that Danny was complaining. The faster this thing was over with, the better.
But if I'm going to find out if this is related to the missing students, I'm going to have to confront Mr. "Midnight Man" at some point.
Going into the game, Danny had known that he needed to try and communicate with the Midnight Man if he was going to learn what had happened to the others. Since the rules had said not to interact, Danny was going to have to be careful about how he would go about doing so. After all, he wasn't completely aware of what the Midnight Man was capable of doing.
BAM!
Danny jumped and nearly dropped the candle, as the abrupt noise echoed down the hall.
What on earth was that?!
Even though Danny's instincts were telling him to get the heck out of there, he walked towards where the sound originated. With his heart pounding in his throat, the ghost boy realized the sound had come from the door to his own bedroom…it had been slammed shut.
Of course. Just my luck.
As wary as he was, Danny was secretly relieved that it wasn't either his parent's or Jazz's room. The last thing he would have wanted would be the Midnight Man messing with anything of his family's – which is exactly why he was happy he had lucked out at being home alone tonight.
Jazz was away attending a three day leadership conference at one of the colleges she was interested in; a place much safer than Amity Park currently was. Meanwhile, his parents had gone out for the night searching for whatever dangerous ghost might have been causing the disappearances. They figured Danny would be safe at home with the emergency security system on – the very one he had made sure was turned off, along with the rest of the home's power, when he had prepared for the game.
Reaching out to the door handle, and being sure he was ready to quickly re-light the candle if necessary, Danny turned the knob and pushed his door open.
The door creaked as it slowly opened, revealing the darkness that led into his room. His ears were perked to catch even the slightest sound of movement as he slowly stepped through the doorway.
As Danny walked into the dark room, he realized with a start that he could barely recognize the familiar space. The dim light emanating from the candle caused mundane objects, such as his hamper or lamp, to look like menacing shadow creatures.
Looking around, Danny thought he heard a shuffling noise come from his closet.
Dude, could you be ANY more cliché?
Despite his sarcastic thought, the last thing he wanted to do was check the noisy closet.
I gotta give this thing credit, it knows all of the obligatory horror scares. Definitely has suspense down pat.
Taking a deep breath, he approached the closet door. At least he had ghost powers for reassurance – he could only imagine how Matt, Adam, or Wes had felt.
For a moment, an image of Dash fearfully throwing open his closet door, only to be scared by the boatload of stuffed teddy bears he had crossed his mind, and Danny chuckled.
He then remembered that Dash and the others had gone missing, and the smirk on his face guiltily dropped. Bully or not, no one deserved what may have happened because of that game.
Reminded that he had a reason to be in this situation, Danny tapped into some of Phantom's confidence and opened the closet door before he let his fear take over.
Inside was… a bunch of clothes. As expected - in a normal situation.
Biting his lip, Danny pushed aside the various shirts, searching for anything that may have made the noise. However, all he saw were some shoes and the wall at the other side.
"…Well. That was anti-climactic," he said aloud, almost disappointed his act of bravery was met with a big scoop of nothing. Shaking his head, he turned back around to check near his bed – only to freeze in his tracks.
A dark, shadowy figure was looming near his bedside table. It was shaped like a person, but before Danny had the chance to discern anything else it jolted towards him – at the exact time the candle blew out.
"CRUD!" Danny jumped out of the way, fumbling for the matches to re-light the candle as he blindly bolted towards the door, fueled by an adrenaline rush of pure fear.
What're you running for?! All you have to do is re-light it!
Stopping short as he got into the dark hallway, Danny desperately tried to light a match. However, his nerves and the fear of not knowing how fast ten seconds was going by didn't make it any easier. In fact, it made things MUCH worse as he ended up somehow completely dropping the match box.
Crud crud crud crud!
Blindly searching for the box, he was able to grab it and finally get a match to light. Before he could calm down, he hastily ignited the candle and moved it around him, confirming that he was safe.
"Not this time, Doom and Gloom Dude!" Danny called out, the adrenaline pumping him up after surviving that ordeal.
He glared into the darkness, pulling a 360 to make sure he was safe, before giving himself a chance to calm down.
What the hell WAS that? Is that seriously what I'm supposed to be avoiding? It looked like a ghost, but… Danny thought before pausing.
That scare had really gotten him, and it wasn't because the Midnight Man was terrifying. If anything, he had looked like a humanoid version of Johnny 13's shadow – something annoying, but definitely not nightmare-inducing.
What got him, Danny realized, was the fact that he had been caught off-guard.
His ghost sense hadn't gone off.
Danny's stomach churned, If that thing wasn't a ghost…then what WAS it?
The boy's thoughts were a mix of confusion, fear, and a feeling that something wasn't quite right. However, he wasn't going to stick around to find out why.
"I just have to keep moving…" he muttered reassuringly to himself, before heading back to the stairs.
If this thing wasn't a ghost, things were going to get tricky - especially if Danny had no idea what it's weaknesses were. Would his ghost powers even help if it came down to using them?
Checking his watch, Danny noted that it was now 2 AM. Just an hour and a half to go…which also meant he only had that long to find out what happened to Dash and the others.
After that face-to-face encounter with Mr. Midnight, Danny really wasn't looking forward to it.
As he descended the steps back to the first floor, Danny wondered if it would be a better idea to head to his parent's lab. If there was anything in this house that had a chance of helping him against that thing, it was down there.
With all of the different inventions my parents have, one of them is BOUND to have some kind of effect on it…right? Danny wondered as he re-entered the kitchen, heading towards the doorway that lead into the basement.
That's what I'm hoping for. Otherwise, if I were to FULL die, I would NEVER hear the end of it. Sam would literally Ouija me into a circle of blood blossoms just to lecture me while I writhe in skin-searing pain…
Danny cringed, just imagining the scenario, "…And that would be if she went easy on me."
Thinking of Sam was definitely a bad idea; he was in far too deep to even hope for redemption. The only way he would maybe be able to get her to forgive him would be by getting to the bottom of this…and time was ticking.
Danny took in a deep breath as he stood at the top of the basement stairs. He could totally do this. He just had to waltz down, make sure he got near the ecto-breaker (in case of emergency), and then had to attempt to face the Midnight Man. If things turned bad, he could always go ghost…fight him…and if that failed…well…he'd find out what happened to the others no matter what.
"Here goes everything."
With that statement, Danny held out the candle as he went down into the lab – a place that looked extremely creepy in the dark.
Ignoring the eerie reflections and shadows the candle-light was causing on the metal desks and inventions, Danny walked over to the ecto-breaker – an electrical box that contained an emergency power switch, reading: "IN CASE OF GHOST ATTACK, PULL SWITCH (and save the ham)."
Situating himself so he would know where the box was at a moment's notice, Danny walked slowly around the lab as if he were still playing the game. Considering nothing had happened since the scare upstairs, Danny was certain the Midnight Man was going to make a move.
He caught me by surprise last time. I won't make that mistake again.
As Danny made his way around the lab, he focused his senses on hearing and seeing anything out of the ordinary. When he was passing a box of failed inventions, he could have sworn he heard a whisper come from the other side of the lab.
Looking over into the darkness, Danny strained his eyes for any movement.
…I'm going to have to go over, aren't I?
Uneasy, Danny walked silently toward where the sound had come from. He reached the wall, but – surprise, surprise! – found nothing.
Suddenly, a breeze brushed by his hand and he heard what sounded like a growl come from the spot where he just was. All of the hairs on Danny's arms stood up as he whipped around with the candle, being careful not to accidentally put it out.
He couldn't see anything, but he definitely knew it was there.
Shining the candle-light near his watch, he noticed it was just after 2:30 AM. He was losing time; he needed to try to communicate with it – now.
Carefully, Danny continued moving; this time, he made sure he was going closer to the ecto-breaker. When he was a couple feet away, Danny bit back his fear. He could do this.
I'm freaking Danny Phantom. I've faced far worse than this, and won. Don't let nerves hurt you now.
"Hey tall, dark, and gruesome, I know you're here! Show yourself!" Danny called out, positioning himself in a confident and battle-ready stance. He braced himself, only to see…
Nothing.
Danny's blue eyes darted around in the darkness, expecting the figure to pop out – the rules had said not to interact with it…
But nothing was happening.
"Uh…Midnight Man, right? That's your name? I, uh…know you've been following me around my house. I also know you've been following some of my friends…in fact, that's what I wanted to talk to you about…if you can actually talk – which, I'm pretty sure you can, considering I heard you whisper some things back there…" Danny rambled on, his confidence starting to wane. However, he stayed ready. Time was ticking; there was no way the game would end without the figure trying something again.
…I didn't want to, but it looks like I might have to actually provoke it. Great.
"…Dude, after all the trouble it took to summon you, I'd really appreciate it if you actually made an effort, here!" Danny called out. Not even feeling a breeze, he unwillingly went on, "Some cold spots here and there, a whisper or two, and only one jumpscare? Come on, I've seen trick or treaters scarier than you!"
The candle flame flickered slightly.
Danny glanced at it, before looking back into the darkness. "Out of juice already? It's what, quarter to 3? There's still a good forty or so minutes to go, bud! Don't tell me you're flaking out already!"
A cool breeze slid up his back before ruffling his hair – successfully creeping the hell out of the ghost boy. It was as if the Midnight Man was amused by his bravado.
That's it. I need to get him to show himself.
"They call you the Midnight Man? Sounds more like you mid-fright ran!" Danny emphasized, before faking a laugh.
"The only one running, will be you," a chilling voice whispered directly behind Danny, causing the boy's body to stiffen.
Don't turn around. Try to get it to keep talking, Danny told himself as he clenched the candle between his fingers.
"Is that what the others did when they played your game?" he asked carefully, eyes glancing around to make sure it wasn't moving.
"They didn't get very far."
Danny was enveloped in darkness as the candle went out – but this time he was ready for it, quickly striking and re-lighting the candle with a match.
"What happened to them?!" Danny called out, feeling unsettled by it's tone and insinuation. As he turned, holding out the candle, he realized nothing was behind him.
I don't know how this thing is able to do all this without being a ghost. It just doesn't add up.
Danny suddenly swayed as his vision doubled and a feeling of nausea came over him.
"Ugh…what the heck?" Danny muttered as he touched his forehead, closing his eyes as he tried to settle his spinning head.
"You'll find out their fate if you stay in one place," the whisper echoed near his ear as he managed to regain equilibrium.
That wasn't good. Danny didn't think this thing had the power to physically affect him – yet that had felt like a very bad case of vertigo.
Danny wanted to stay and try to reason with the Midnight Man, but another wave of lightheadedness started to hit him. Not wanting it to worsen, he decided to take the figure's advice and staggered forward.
I could go ghost. But would that even help? What if that egged him on even more?
Danny looked over in the direction of the ecto-breaker…should he trip the emergency switch?
Checking the time, Danny gaped as he noticed it was 3 AM – there was only a half hour to go! He needed to figure this out. In order to beat the game, Danny just had to keep the candle lit until 3:33. As far as he knew, the Midnight Man was unable to actually harm him unless he couldn't re-light the candle in ten seconds.
That's it. I'll try and make a deal with it. With thirty minutes left, I'm the one in favor of winning. It might like the idea of switching things up…
Danny continued moving slowly through the lab, waiting a minute before speaking up.
"At this rate, I'm the one who is going to beat you at your own game. Since there is still something that I want to know from you, I'm willing to change things up a bit. What do you say?" Danny wandered by the closed Ghost Portal, before turning back towards the ecto-breaker.
After a few moments of silence, the whisper responded: "Are you saying you would like to make a deal?"
"On my terms," Danny replied; he could already imagine Sam screaming at him to quit before doing something stupid.
The candle flame flickered slightly.
"Go on."
Danny wondered if he was making the right decision, but made sure to respond with a firm voice, "If I make it through the rest of the game – that is, until 3:33 – you're going to tell me what happened to the others and let them go. And if I lose…"
"You face a fate far worse than theirs," the disembodied voice loudly stated, seeming directly in front of Danny's face.
The ghost boy somehow managed to refrain from flinching. He needed to focus all of his energy on what he was about to do. Taking a breath, he stared into the dark space in front of him.
"I accept."
A rush of cold air hit Danny, extinguishing the flame and encompassing him in pure darkness.
"As do I."