*Beep Beep Beep*

The sound found it's way into the youngest Fenton's dreams, and soon dragged him out with them. Danny groaned with exhaustion as he was forced awake. He sat up and glared at the criminal. It was his alarm, and it said 6:30 AM. He smashed his fist down upon the offender before rolling over, trying to get a bit more rest. It went off five minutes later. Without a thought, Danny shot a small ectoblast at the clock, smashing it to pieces, causing it to be snoozed forever. And that was just how long Danny wanted to sleep. Dodging missiles at three A.M. could do that to a person. Alas, Danny found that trying to get any more sleep would be a waste. After a year of being awoken in the middle of the night then having to be awake enough to not fly like a drunk had made the boy a light sleeper.

And so he grabbed a towel, a shirt, and a pair of jeans, meanwhile scolding himself on not turning his alarm off the previous night. Surprisingly it was the first time he'd forgotten to shut it off, sleeping in on the weekends was usually the most important thing to him on Friday evenings. Although just managing to make it to his bed before passing out had been his top priority the night before. Danny drifted between his thoughts and reality as he closed the bathroom door with a sigh of relief. He was in the one place he had privacy. Especially from the common intruder that was Jazz. His thoughts took over again as Danny turned the knob over the bathtub all the way to the left and pulled the small silver valve up from it. Danny shed his PJs with a small burst of intangibility, not enough to register on the house's security system, of course. He stepped into the scolding hot water that rained from the shower head and uttered another sigh of relief as the droplets seemingly washed away all of his worries.

Danny only got out of the shower when the water turned to ice and he was left shivering from the cold drops that had pelted him. Though, luckily, the water did not actually turn to ice. Danny could have made it do so in an instant, though, if he really wanted to. Despite his cold core, Danny still shivered. When his feet found the bath rug he looked around for a moment. The mirror was foggy, and the air was heavy with humidity. The navy blue and white shower curtain was dripping onto the floor a bit, despite the plastic on the inside that was supposed to protect the delicate embroidery. Danny had picked the curtain, obviously. The white stars and the blue background mimicked the sky in a cartoonish kinda way. Stars were many colors, not just white, after all.

Danny got dressed and tiptoed down the stairs, making sure to avoid the second one from the bottom. It only ever creaked when he stepped on it, as though it knew his secrets. Danny made it to the living room quiet as a dormouse until he heard faint humming coming from the kitchen. He cautiously made his way to the threshold, wary of whoever was in the kitchen. It was very unlikely that any of the other Fentons were up at this time. All of them, even Jazz, liked to sleep in on the weekend. And yet Danny was proved wrong when he saw his mom, Maddie, standing at the kitchen counter, fiddling with something he couldn't see. Then she heard his steps and turned to look at him. Danny almost had a heart attack.

"Danny! Why are you up so early?" Maddie asked without moving from in front of the counter. Danny could already feel pain ebbing in his chest, wanting to spread.

"I, uh, couldn't sleep. What is that you've got there?" Danny rubbed his chest, right over his ever-present heart and the small stone that was currently his core, and where the pain was coming from.

"Oh, these?" She gestured to the counter. "A nice old mail-man delivered these a few minutes ago. I asked why he was here so early, and he just said that they were high priority delivery." She shrugged turned back to the blasted, Danny wished, flowers. "They are quite beautiful. But the purple stems are a bit odd. ANd with their red color, I'm curious if they're a kind of rose." She picked up one of the blossoms. How could he get them from her without touching them? "Although it doesn't look like there were any thorns. What do you think?" Maybe he could grab a pair of oven mitts? "Danny?" She was looking at him again.

"Uh, yeah?" He straightened his back to seem like he had been paying attention and rubbed at his chest harder.

"What do you think?" In three large steps, she had crossed the kitchen and held a blossom about a foot in front of him. It was all Danny could do to not run over to the trash bin and puke.

"Uh, well, I think they're blood blossoms." The words were out of Danny's mouth before he realized Fenton wouldn't know that. In his mom's eyes, at least.

"Huh. Curious." Maddie took the flower back and pulled the bunch lying on the counter into a bouquet.

"Mom?" Danny's voice faltered as he forced himself to take a step closer, to make it seem like his core wasn't wanting to burst into flame.

"Hmm?" Maddie was preoccupied, grabbing a pair of scissors to cut a bit of the flowers' stems before they were placed in a vase. Danny had to think for a moment at what he should say.
"Danny, think you could hold these for me so I can cut them all together so they aren't all crazy different lengths?" Despite her demeanor, Danny felt a strike of fear infect his chest.

"Mom, you have to get rid of those. I'm, uh. Allergic. Yeah." He weakly faked a cough. He knew it wasn't believable, but he couldn't stand to be anywhere near the flowers anymore. The pain was spreading from the small stone next to his heart. His lungs throbbed and his stomach was a blazing inferno of aches and pains. It felt like his insides were trying to tear each other apart. Danny was rubbing his chest raw and it was all he could do to keep his composure. Almost glowing blue tears clouded the edges of his vision.

"Are you sure?"

"YES! GET RID OF THEM!" Danny's legs gave out and he fell to his knees. His arm moved from his chest and gripped his stomach. He felt the fury of ghost sense roll over his spine. The blazing firenado ravaging him increased tenfold as the usually innocent chill occurred.

"Danny! Hey, are you ok?" Maddie's hand was on his shoulder. It burned.

"DON'T TOUCH ME! GET RID OF THE FLOWERS!" A ghostly echo found it's way into Danny's voice. Then his core acted out. The cold, blinding rings were a shock to Danny's system. He felt relief for a single moment and knew he couldn't stand it anymore when it ended. The pressure instantly lifted from his shoulder. He screwed his eyes shut in a feeble attempt to shut out some of the pain. Then all of his muscles, ghostly or not, gave out. He fell to his side and a loud thud burst into his ears as his head hit the tile. He barely managed to open his eyes and his vision was a swirl of red and now-green tears that picked at the edges of what he could see. Everything was distorted.
"Please, j-just get rid of th-them, Mom," He managed to get out. But his voice was warbling so much he would bet that not a word of what he said was understandable. Then Danny couldn't think straight. His head was clouded. Mercifully, he felt himself fade to something like sleep and blackness won out over the red and black.