Impavid
fearless; undaunted
This is a one-shot based on a prompt from sapphireswimming's Apricity. Look up that story for more information. Enjoy.
Echo
"How cruelly sweet are the echoes that start, When memory plays an old tune on the heart."
-Eliza Cook
Sam and Dean had been meaning to get around to investigating what was going on in Amity Park for a while now, but when they got there they didn't expect what they saw. The whole town was demolished; buildings were torn to pieces, halves of them lying on the paved roads as if they had been there for ages. Businesses and houses lay in ashes and in rubble. When they stepped anywhere, the movement sent up dust around their feet.
They had brought weapons just in case, ready as they always were, but they lowered their pistols and their rock-salt shotguns dismally. There was not a trace of life in Amity Park. Whatever had ravaged the place had done its job.
When they had scoured what seemed like the fifth building and Dean had had multiple violent coughing fits, Dean spoke up.
"I don't think there's anything here, Sammy. The place is wasted," he kicked a piece of wood at his feet for effect and it crumbled to pieces when he came in contact with it. Sam didn't look convinced. He glanced to the welkin, which they could see because the roof and what looked like the second floor were destroyed. The sky was gray and cheerless, the sun no longer adorning it and lighting up this part of the world. The whole town showed signs of being hopelessly abandoned. After whatever had happened here, no one had bothered to build it back up or even try to bring the town back to life. It would be a futile effort anyway. Ectoplasmic remains were everywhere, and no human would ever live here again.
"I don't know Dean...I feel like there's something here. I can feel it," he whispered the last part, taking a huge breath of air, but quickly letting it out because his lungs were tickled and he almost began to cough.
"Don't tell me this is another one those 'psychic mojo' things, Sammy. You know that stuff cree-"
"Hey, what's that near your foot?" Sam interrupted Dean, who, in the middle of his sentence, still had his mouth open. He moved to the side so that Sam could pick up whatever the object he had seen was. Sam gazed at it intently, brushing dust off of it. It was a picture, the glass cracked in the corner and the frame was broken in half, but the picture itself had survived.
"What is it?" Dean asked, standing behind his younger brother.
"A picture."
"Of?"
"I don't know," Sam admitted. "A family?"
That it was. The man in the picture was large and fat, but he smiled dumbly and had his arm around his wife, who was smaller and skinnier. They both wore jumpsuits, the man's orange and the woman's teal. Their daughter and son sat in chairs below them. The daughter, who was the elder of the two sat up straight in her chair, smiling professionally. She had long red hair that was held back by a headband of the same color as her mother's jumpsuit. The boy to her left was more comfortable looking, but still smiling. He looked mischievous. He had that glint in his bright blue eyes. They looked happy to be together, and Sam's heart longed for the feeling. He was yanked out his aching stupor by his brother, who pulled him down to the ground.
"What?" Sam laid the picture aside, but set it down gently as to not break the glass any further. Or the small feeling of family he got from it.
"A door. Looks like this place isn't all dust and death, Sammy," Dean was elated that they had actually found something interesting. He didn't feel the same way about the picture as Sam did, and he found it quite boring that they had discovered a simple picture. Dean craved something riveting. Something that would make his pulse bounce.
After moving some debris, the brothers had in fact discovered a door. A large metal one at that. It was concealed under the floorboards of the old building that had been here before, but whatever had destroyed this place hadn't spared the floor, so that left the door exposed under some pieces of furniture and other unidentifiable items.
Dean read the name. "'FentonWorks'. Wonder what that means."
Sam pulled out a small notebook from his jacket pocket. "Actually...FentonWorks is the name of a couple of scientists' house. Jack and Maddie Fenton. They had been pretty prominent in the community as, get this, ghost hunters."
"Were they hunter hunters?" Dean emphasized the first hunter as to convey that he meant hunters such as themselves.
"Doubt it. They specialized in ectoplasmic weaponry, and that stuff has little to no effect on ghosts. Jack and Maddie Fenton were their names. They had two kids: Jazz and Danny."
"The ones in the picture?"
"Probably," Sam said, putting his notebook back in his pocket, he helped Dean turn the large wheel that was on it. They grunted against the pressure of the long since opened door, but after a few minutes of straining and pulling open the heavy door, they were staring down into a square shaped hole of darkness. Dean pulled out his flashlight and shined it down into the hole, showing dust caked everything down there too. However, there was a floor that looked sturdy enough about seven feet below.
"What I would do for a surgical mask right now," Dean muttered as he dropped into the hole first. Sam followed soon after and the both of them started coughing at the sudden storm of dust that encompassed them.
"Where are we?" Sam asked incredulously, shining his own flashlight at his surroundings.
"Looks like a lab. The Fentons' I'd guess," Dean was standing at the mouth of a large portal, which took up the majority of the far wall. The doors on it were obliterated, and hung away from it in dangerously splintered pieces. But you could clearly see the inside, and it looked about as good as the town itself. It was pitch black in there, but when a flashlight's revealing beam was thrown upon it, the innards were uncovered. It was technologically advanced, but the beauty of it was long gone, wires hanging from the top and holes all throughout the circuitry. Dean made to step inside, but Sam grabbed his arm.
"I wouldn't do that Dean. Looks bad. Like something terrible happened in there," Sam warned his brother, and at Sam's horrified look, he took heed.
"What do you think happened to this place, Sammy?" Dean asked, returning his attention to the lab behind them.
"Down here? I don't think anything happened. I mean, look. It's not devastated at all, except for the hole in the wall over there. It almost looks calm."
"Well, I think it's creepy as hell- Did you see that?" Dean had his pistol up in an instant. He had shined his flashlight on the wall to his right and had seen something move in the darkness.
"What?" Sam joined him in his stance, holding his flashlight as steady as his aim at the spot that Dean was facing.
"Something shimmered over there."
Sam looked. When he held his flashlight over a certain spot, he could see something. It flickered, but it was clearly a human shaped thing. It came toward them, and Dean steadied his aim even more and yelled, "Stop right there!" but the thing did nothing, it just walked right through them. Sam and Dean both whirled around, and stared at the being, if you could call it that. It seemed to be walking toward the portal, and as it got closer, it began to become more visible.
"I think it's a boy, Dean," Sam lowered his gun.
"Yeah, a ghost boy. Watch it turn around and try to bite our faces off," Dean hissed, keeping his gun trained on the back of the boy's head.
"No, Dean. I don't think it's a ghost. Watch," and Dean did watch, but he didn't lower his gun.
The boy solidified even more, and ebony hair became visible. As did a slender body. He turned to look at the wall beside the portal, and the brothers could see his face. He had bright blue eyes, high cheekbones, and a huge smile. He was wearing a white and black jumpsuit.
"I think that's Danny Fenton," said Sam, placing a hand of Dean's shoulder.
"But Danny Fenton is supposed to be dead Sammy. Let's just gank this sucker and get outta here." Dean shivered and held his gaze.
"I don't think we can kill it any more than it already is. Let's watch it."
The boy spoke, but it was echoes, and the brothers could barely understand it. "You know what? You're right, Sam. Who knows what kind of awesome, super cool things exist on the other side of that portal?"
"Did that thing just say your name?" Dean asked Sam.
"He's not talking about me."
The boy zipped up his jumpsuit and stepped into the portal, which did nothing as he pressed something on the inside. He began to scream moments later, a wretched, bone-chilling scream that sent chills down both of the brothers' spines. Danny arched on the floor of the portal, his body shriveling in the intense electricity. Sam and Dean flinched, but stayed true to their objective.
When Danny finally stopped screeching, the brother's breathed heavily. The lab returned to it's normal state, as if it had never changed.
"What just happened?" Dean asked his brother. Dean's eyes were wide in fear. He had never seen or experienced anything of that magnitude.
"We just witnessed the death of Danny Fenton."