Breathe: A retelling of the Accident that gave Danny his powers.
Danny's point of view. The beginning focuses on him after the fact, thinking back on what had happened. Flashback is in present tense.
Nobody had noticed.
Nobody had noticed that I wasn't breathing anymore. That I have not been breathing actively for about a week now.
The steady rise and fall of one's chest, the rhythmic motion that comes so natural, the procure to life. Gone. Ripped away from me. Nothing left but the dull ache of what used to be.
Except, I'm not dead. Not dead in the entirety of the word, because perhaps a better half of me did die that day. My heart still beats, faint and slow-god, painfully slow-but it still carries on persistently. Sometimes, I fall into a lapse of forgetfulness and grasp for breath. This only greets me with a phantom echo of breath in my lungs, as a new substance takes its cold grip. Ectoplasm. Something that should not be there. Something that should not be emanating from the core that should not be in my body. But, it's fine. I'm fine.
It's been a week now since my breathing ceased- since the invading substance overtook me. They say that 'curiosity killed the cat', never knew the truth to that statement until it happened to me. My curiosity got me killed. A part of me, that is.
I slumped further on my bed. I relished in the soft warmth underneath my cold dry skin. Two people settled themselves to sit facing me, comfortingly close, yet cautiously distanced. They were fixated on the rise and fall of my chest. Or the lack thereof. They were there the day it happened, the only two people to witness my death, the only two I'm convinced would care.
Parents? Siblings? Jazz, my older self-proclaimed 'adult' sister, would combust or compulsively tweak if she found out. Or if she noticed my 'breath'...man I don't wanna see that. Parents are another story- I'd really rather not stumble down a road where they knew. Though a part of me longed for them to notice that I wasn't breathing. A sort of sense of not being invisible in the metaphorical sense of the word that is-. I knew that was dumb though, I've often been called an idiot. They'd kill me. Kill the rest of me. Oh this was getting confusing.
A voice lured me abruptly out of my thoughts. "Hey, dude, you okay?" That was Tucker. His gaze was suddenly adverted from my chest and was gazing at my blue eyes and fiddling with his precious red beret in his lap. "It's been a week now, have you thought about what you're gonna do yet?"
A feminine hand with strikingly black nail polish shoved Tucker's shoulder with a hint of lightheartedness. "You don't think that's what he's been doing?" She paused, "Well besides fighting the ghosts that just decided to show up, that is." I chuckled at that, my chest rocking with the empty motion.
The ghosts she was referring to was a spectral lunch lady- thought that was a little weird, then again my own existence is arguably weird too- and some small lowly spirits that put up little fight. "Yeah, that lunch lady sure had 'beef' with you, Sam." I prodded, laughing at my own joke. How I loved lame puns. I received two deadpanned expressions in return, but it was worth it. It's always worth it for witty banter and lame puns.
She then stood on my bed and lifted her fist into the air, her short black hair bobbing with the motion. "Rue the foul meat, bring on the rise of the ultra recylotarians!" She shouted with enthusiasm that fell on deaf ears, aside from a snort from Tucker. She calmed herself down and sat again. "Well, Danny, we're here for you whatever you do." She looked down at her lap when she said this, Tucker loudly added his agreement to the last statement.
I nodded in thanks, staring at my star covered ceiling, as I brought a hand through my messy black hair. I just sat there leaning against my bed frame with my friends next to me for what seemed like ages as I pondered what to say. My mind drifted off. I liked to imagine what might happen if certain people figured out how much of a freak I am now. Hopefully with a good turnout.
The boy sitting next to me quickly straightened up and gasped in shock, "Danny!" The goth girl as well stiffened, which brought my attention to them. Except that I was looking up to see their faces.
"What." Is all I said.
I looked down to see I had sunken into my bed, halfway through it- my upper chest up to my head was the only thing still on top of the bed. It took me a moment, but I realized what had happened. Without realizing it, I had halfway phased down into my bed. I grunted in annoyance, turned myself intangible, and lifted myself back up to rest on top of the surface once again back into the tangible plane. Apparently, if I wanted to not suddenly do something like that, I have to focus all the time on not doing it. Great.
"Yeah, that's going to take some getting used to, man." Tucker sighed and slumped back over into his usual bad posture.
Sam relaxed too, and I couldn't help myself from chuckling sarcastically, "Yeah, tell me about it." I glanced up and around my room for a moment, and idea forming in my head. If while I'm a human I have to think really hard to not accidentally tap into my new power, what about if I was a ghost. If I didn't have to think about suppressing it, might as well be something that can use the power better... "Hey, I was thinking of taking a round or two around Amity to clear my head...care to join me?" Tucker looked confused. "Fly, dude. I mean, I'm gonna go for a flight around town."
It had been a week, but I still wasn't exactly sure what I was doing, or what my body was going through, or decided to do by itself. Like falling through solid objects when I wasn't paying attention. A great thing indeed. I felt new sensations of cold gripping my insides constantly, but I still felt the warmth of my tainted blood flowing through my veins. It was weird, to say the least. I paused my thoughts after I got a reaction from my friends- one filled with excitement and nervousness. "Relax guys, I know what I'm doing." A lie. Partly a lie.
Taking on a sudden serious expression, I concentrated on the thrumming core near my heart. A ghost core. I mentally reached towards it, gently yet effectively drawing out its power and letting it take over my heart and body. It grew and consumed my heart, taking its place. This resulted in a cold sensation and a manifestation of a concentrated ring of pure white ecto-energy from my core encircling me. It shimmered intensely, and all at once split into two- one ring traveling up my body horizontally, and the other ring going downwards. As it engulfed me and dissipated, I was left standing there in a new light, and my cool aura spread across the room leaving it with a ghostly light. My friends stood still gawking at my new appearance, and the glow my body was emanating from within. I sent them a smirking gaze of piercing green, ran a hand through my now white hair, and began floating a foot off the floorboards.
"Show-off." Sam snickered.
"Show-off? Oh, you mean like this?" I made the slight effort to float a bit higher into the air, a few feet under the ceiling. Once situated, I held out one of my gloved hands and concentrated some power from my core into my hand. What resulted was a small mass of icy neon green flames that licked at my palm, I grinned at my accomplishment, and glanced at my only two friends. With the thought of trying to show off- oh how fun that was -I jokingly tossed the sphere at them, purposely missing Tucker by a foot. They shuddered, and I saw fear flash into their eyes quickly before being replaced with awe from my goth friend and joking anger from my darker skinned friend. I laughed, and my aura brightened a bit, which cast the unnatural shadows further across the room.
Tucker huffed and hugged his PDA to his chest in a protective manner. He had probably figured it safer in his arms than in his pockets where it rested before, so he must have pulled it out after the small ectoblast I tossed at them fizzled away with a faint burn mark where it had hit. Figures, I mentally grumbled. "Look, j-just because...you're a ghost, doesn't mean you get to pretend to hit me with weird green stuff!" He huffed, then gazed at his PDA affectionately and sighed. "The scary ghostie can't hurt you, my little Cheryl. Nuh-uh." Tuck rocked the piece of tech that he had named in a protective manner.
"Um, ew?" I gagged. Sam also gagged. "Listen, I'm not sure how long I'll be able to hold onto...um ghost form this time, so we should go." I paused, floating back towards the floorboards. "But it'll be fine. Probably."
Sam rolled her eyes but walked towards me anyways. "How very reassuring of you, Danny. My hero." Sarcasm, but hey, that's Sam Manson for you.
"Yeah well, haha, just grab on." I lent each one of them an arm to hold onto.
You know, as little as about 5 days ago, I would never have dreamed- or wanted to really- of being able to effortlessly hold a person the same size as me in both arms, intangibly pull them and myself through my bedroom wall, and rocket myself into flight. That's because that shouldn't happen, not unless you were dead that is. The only creatures notorious for doing such things, well, they were ghosts. Which, may be hard to believe exist, and it still is for my town. Regardless of the fact that ever since 5 days ago, ghosts have been sighted all around town. Thankfully lesser ghosts...aside from me, that is. Well, and the Lunch Lady that I kicked back into the realm that ghosts 'live' in- the Ghost Zone.
It was cool, I supposed. Being able to become a ghost- and the powers that came along with it. But the ordeal in which it happened, at the time I didn't think anything would be worth the amount of torture I was put up against that day.
A week earlier:
It was kinda hard to think back on, actually, it was a hard memory to even try to relive. I mean it had started as any normal day, my parents, Jack and Maddie, boasting about their huge breakthrough in ghost technology. They had been working on this project since their college years, or so they boasted about, but they hadn't made much improvement. I usually just ignored their boisterous flauntings of ghostly research- it was embarrassing enough to be picked on in school because of their field of study. And that's because, as Jazz likes to put it, 'ghosts cannot be real, and if they were, why would they be drawn to a couple who clearly intends on harshly containing it as soon as it shows its uncorporeal face?!'. Couldn't have summed it better. Except that, well ghosts are real, apparently.
Anyways, I had only just gotten home from school that day, Sam and Tucker at my heels for our usual hang out that took place in either Tucker's room or mine. Today was my house, how lucky. I groaned as I slumped into the kitchen and dropped myself and my school bag on the table, school was rough that day. How I loved being stuffed into lockers 4 times a day, thanks Dash, truly thank you. I rubbed at a crick in my neck that had formed from being crammed in my own locker earlier in the day. "You guys think I could get one day where one of the A-Listers leaves me alone?"
Tucker sighed as he patted my back. "Stop being their favorite, and maybe, just maybe, man." He paused, then flopped down next to me dramatically.
"Until I can turn invisible, I doubt that I'll suddenly not be 'hey, bully me!' material." I chuckled dryly, breathing shallowly.
Sam was still at the entrance of the kitchen. "We going upstairs, or what?"
I nodded and lifted my upper body off of the table, almost knocking some stray pieces of my parent's projects onto the floor in the process. Lifting my back haphazardly from my side, I turned with Tucker to head over to Sam so we could go play video games or something up in my room.
Very suddenly, the lights in the house flickered and surged, accompanied by high pitched whir. I flinched and whipped around, the door to the basement lab, my parents spent most of their time in, was flashing with electrical lights. As soon as it started, it had ceased, and I faintly heard muffled groans of defeat from that direction. I glanced at my friends after my breathing slowed down again. Tucker was shaking and his glasses were skewed on his face, meanwhile, Sam just looked interested. "Your parents working on that portal thing again?" She questioned, unable to hide excitement. Sam had seemed to be more interested than I had expected in the whole 'portal to another dimension' thing my parents were doing, she had claimed that she was drawn to creepy things like that.
I was about to respond to her when I heard heavy footsteps dragging up the basement staircase. My mother trudged into the room, much like I had when I got home, ironically, and was trailed by my father. They both looked defeated, and walked right by the three of us, looking at their feet. They were covered in what looked like soot. "Hey, how's the project going?" I called to them after they passed us.
My mother looked up to face me, only now seeming to notice us, "Oh, hi sweetie. Tucker, Sam, you two are welcome to stay for dinner tonight too..." she trailed off and looked back at the floor. My father had his hand on her back and looked up to us too. He smiled sadly, which was a bit uncharacteristic of the usually jovial man.
"It's a bust, Danno, it might be time to scrap the idea and take another approach. Maybe jump back to research..." He stopped for a moment, and smiled bigger, though I could tell it was just for show. "No worries though, this won't stop the Fentons forever! We'll take a break, but who knows, we might get it as soon as tomorrow!" I flashed him a supportive smile and peered toward the basement doorway again. My parents left the room and I heard them trek upstairs to where their bedroom was.
I started when I saw a streak of purple and black rush by me and in front of my vision, and felt a hand grab me on the arm. next thing I know, I'm being dragged towards the lab, Tucker on my side- also getting dragged.
My arm twinged at her forceful grip. "Wha, S-Sam!" I yelped, "What are you doing?!" Tuck was making unintelligible sounds of surprise.
She grunted as we sped down the stairs, my feet bumping against the steps. "Come on, Danny, you can't say you aren't at least a little curious! Right, Tuck?"
"Will my opinion change anything?" He snorted. I shot him a look of an agreement, and winced as we were dropped to the floor as Sam halted in the center of the lab.
I sighed and picked myself off of the cold tile floor, rubbing my elbow that had hit the floor when I fell. The lab was lit a bit dimly since my parents had closed it up for the day, the light flickering a bit from whatever my parents had done...I think they short-circuited the lights with the portal or something. I inched toward the portal, an empty hole in the wall, yellow and black painted edges. It looked just as it always did, just a wall, nothing special about it. It's not like they had gotten anywhere with it.
"I mean, yeah ever since they started working on it and it started looking promising, I've been curious about what could be on the other side. Exciting, yet I also don't wanna go near it." I explained, my hand lightly rubbing the back of my neck and ruffling my black hair a bit.
Tucker coughed from where he was still on the floor, "Hey, isn't there a rule of 'no friends in the lab'?" I laughed at nodded at him.
"Yeah, but they also don't really like me down here alone either, but that doesn't stop me. Plus they know I come down here sometimes to poke around, so I'm sure they know you guys come here too, occasionally." I paused, "I don't think it really matters though, it's not like anything'll happen...no offense but they haven't exactly got anything 'ghostly' in working condition."
Tucker adjusted his glasses and finally stood up. "Touché." he gulped and walked a few steps over to me. "You know, it is a bit creepy in here. Kind of like a...hospital."
I laughed, "Relax, dude, nothing's gonna happ-woah!" I was once again grabbed on the arm by Sam, who dragged me closer to the 'portal' hole. "Sam! What are you doing? And can you please stop dragging me around?" She had stopped me right in front of the empty portal opening and shoved something into my arms. I stared down at it and sighed. "What are you getting at? Why do I need some stupid jumpsuit? I already told you, I'm not gonna end up like my parents who only wear them. It's embarrassing." I picked off the sticker of my dads face off the chest of the jumpsuit with an unamused expression, crumpled it, and flicked it behind me onto the floor.
"Smile!" Sam suddenly called. Startled, I glanced up at her with an awkward expression, holding the jumpsuit a bit away from me. She snapped a photo of the 'occasion' with the camera she always seemed to keep with her and smiled. "Hey, you said you were curious too, and that well, this stuff doesn't really work...so what's the harm in investigating the portal a bit?"
I sighed. "So you want me to do it."
Tucker piped up from behind the goth. "Well, dude, there's only one jumpsuit." He contemplated a moment, "And there's no way I'm going in there."
I groaned in defeat, and slipped my legs into the white jumpsuit and zipped it up. I slipped on the black boots and gloves on too, might as well. Honestly, I was excited to see what was in it, even if it was nothing special. I mean, again it hadn't worked yet. I couldn't shake off the bad feeling I was getting, though. "Well, alright, here goes nothing I guess."
I stepped forward and sent one last glance at my friends who were sending supportive looked my way. I walked forward into the hole, making sure to keep to the side of the portal. I was surprised, the hole was pretty long, I couldn't see the end of it from my position near the opening, and there was a little bend to it so I couldn't see the lab anymore- unless I glanced around the edge. It wasn't much to look at, really. It was a bit unnaturally chilly, and I had to suppress some shivers the further I went, but I was walking slow. There were panels of bolted together metal, and tubes running across the floor and the walls to panels. I still hadn't gotten very far in it before I decided to call out to my friends. Honestly, there wasn't much in here. It was just creepy at most.
"Hey, there isn't much in here guys! I'll go a bit further, but then I'm turning around! My parents might have said they're done for now, but they might come back down any time...I don't wanna be caught snooping aro-ack!" I cut myself off as I tripped on one of the tubes lining the floor of the hole. I hadn't been watching my feet. Out of habit, I reached my arms out to catch myself to avoid hitting the floor. Thankfully, I snagged something on the wall that helped me keep my upright position, however, I heard a click, and then a loud whirring sound. I gulped in nervousness and glanced at what I had gripped my hand on. A switch. With the word 'ON' in big black letters underneath it. "Shit."
The tunnel went from chilly to frigid in an instant, I felt my hair stand up on end and felt the beginnings of electricity forming through the air. An unnatural light surrounded me, faint at first. I only had enough time to whip around before the tunnel exploded in a flash of neon green and I was thrown back by force. I flew backwards and was held suspended in the air. The atmosphere around me seemed to almost solidify.
"Danny!" I vaguely heard my two friends call out to me in fear before I was hit with a wall of agonizing pain.
Searing and intense pain rapidly flowed through the synapses in my body, affecting every nerve.
It honestly felt like every inch of my body was being burned, electrocuted, torn apart, and smashed by a frigid monstrosity. Time did not blur together, it had seemed to have stopped, so that I may relish in every ounce of pain my body received. I screamed; that's for sure. It was a shocked scream at first before it morphed into something I honestly couldn't recognize- blood curdling and inhuman. Distorted, yet my own voice screaming out bloody murder. I tried to clench my eyes tight, but they refused to do anything but writhe in the blinding light green light that flashed and consumed me. My entire body was unresponsive to my still too aware brain, leaving me unable to flee as it tore into me. I wasn't sure what was doing this to me, but I don't think this was going to be the end of me. A feeling washed over me quickly, I knew I was going to die. But this death isn't gonna be the end of me. I'd be alright. After I bode through the torture, that is.
I tried to focus my thoughts away from the pain that was rapidly ebbing away and being replaced by a relieving numbness. Sam. Tucker. I'm glad they didn't come in here with me. I don't know what I would have done if they were put through this agony too...even if I had to, at least they were safe. I suppose I myself saved them, by venturing into the portal instead of either of them. This thought gave me strength, and the numbness began to feel natural, like the chaos around me was becoming soothing, and a bit rejuvenating. My body still stung though.
Wait...the explosion didn't reach them out there, did it? I whipped my head around, surprised when it followed my will. My ears had stopped ringing, and I could hear the two of them yelling frantically and messing with something in the lab. I could only hope they weren't yelling in pain as I focused all I could into propelling my body out of this hell hole and over to them. My first thought not being for me to get myself to safety- which I did indeed want oh so very badly -it was instead to see if my only two friends were alright.
Surprisingly, I sprung quickly towards the entrance once again, not quite sure how I was moving that fast, or moving at all really. As I shot out of the portal entrance and into the lab once again, I heard the loud whirring of the portal start to die down, and the neon green light emanating from it start to fade. Without warning, yellow and black blast doors slammed itself across the portal entrance, effectively blocking anything from going in or out. A little too late if you ask me.
I slid across the unusually warm tile floor of the lab, the smell of burnt hair and chemicals hanging in the air. I laid there on my face for a moment, dazed, my body aching, yet still unnaturally cold...though it didn't seem to bother me much. I groaned, my voice sounding hoarse.
"D-Danny?" I didn't stir at Sam's concerned voice. She didn't sound like she was in pain... good. "Danny, is that you?!" At this, I lifted my head slightly off of the floor and grunted a gruff 'yea' in the direction I thought she was to answer her frantic question. I heard two pairs of footsteps loudly thunder over to me. "Are you okay, Danny?!" I felt arms grab around me to help move me to a sitting position, they flinched after touching me but continued anyway. I had my eyes clenched shut and head facing the ground.
I reached one of my gloved hands up to my forehead and held it. I was a bit lightheaded. "Ugh...Wh...what happened?" I questioned groggily. "Are you guys okay?"
I heard them take a step back from me, "Shut up, we're fine. How can you be worried about us right now?" Sam shouted as I heard her take another step back.
Tucker was right with her, "Danny...are you okay? You don't look okay." At this I opened my eyes, my head still hanging. I stared down at my legs, the jumpsuit was black and my boots were white...the opposite of what they were before. I didn't question it. What I did question was why my hair was white when I rolled my eyes up to look at my friends.
"Wh-what do you mean? I'm fine..." I grabbed at my hair and lifted my head to inspect it. I glanced at Sam and Tucker confused. They looked down but pointed at the wall behind me where there was a mirror. Startled, I scrambled to my feet, surprised at how fast I picked myself up and rushed over to the wall. I tripped a bit when I got to the mirror and brought my head up to face the reflective surface.
I was pleasantly surprised to find that I still looked like myself- which based on Tucker's reaction I thought I would look like a monster or something. However, I found myself, just with a head of pure snowy white hair, and my eyes were glowing a vivid and ominous green. My skin as well was abnormally pale and grey as if it lacked any warmth. The jumpsuit as well now was completely black, and the gloves and boots were the same white as my hair. I also noticed a bright aura surrounding my body, casting strange shadows around me, the light seemingly coming from within me.
I turned to my friends and tried to freak out, but my chest wasn't reacting, and that's when I realized I wasn't breathing. I took a large inhalation, my chest raggedly catching the forced motion. "Does...does this mean I...I'm not dead am I?!" I reached out my arm to lean supportively against the wall, but it didn't work as planned because my arm went through the wall. I quickly yanked it back with a small yelp, and the momentum caused me to jump back a bit. When I didn't land back down on the floor, I noticed that I was actually floating a bit above the floor. "oh shit...I'm...I,"
Tucker had grabbed his hat and was fiddling it- he did that when he wasn't sure what do do. "You're...a ghost. Well...I mean at least we know that ghosts are real." he chuckled without humor.
I tried to focus on getting my feet back onto the floor, but instead, my legs decided to form together to form a sort of spectral tail underneath me. "Oh, great there go my legs." I sighed and managed to get them back into legs, however, I stayed floating. "I mean...okay maybe it wasn't the best idea to go in there. But at least my parents will be happy it works..." I held my hand to my head again. "Dang, guys, what am I supposed to do?"
Sam walked over to approach me, "Danny...are you sure that-" She paused and jerked around to face the staircase to the kitchen upstairs. My parents. They were in there, calling concerned down to the basement. "Oh shoot, your parents! They must have heard the commotion! Danny, you gotta...you gotta do something!"
I whipped around to face Sam and Tucker and I let my expression take on a look of horror. If they saw their son...dead...that wouldn't be good. The thought made me fall out of the air, and I hit the ground with a thud, landing on my backside. I tried to focus on breathing, even though it had no effect on my lungs (If I even had them right now?) It worked to calm my racing mind, and my body relaxed. I suddenly felt my energy solidify itself and it began to push itself out of my body which created a ring of white around my chest. I glanced at it with a calm expression before it split in two and traveled down my whole body. The coldness, the lightness, and the nervousness went with it, and I found myself looking up to my gloveless, warm tan hand. I sat up and noticed I was wearing my regular clothes again. I felt...normal. I glanced up to notice my hair was black once again, and I could feel my eyes had lost their eerie glow. I was washed over with a sense of calm and understanding at this.
"Dude...does that mean that you're not really a ghost...?" I pulled myself off of the ground and glanced at Tucker, who had voiced his question. I patted my arms to test their tangibility and smiled at them. I was human. I was alive. But at the same time, I knew I was dead. I knew I was a ghost.
"Well...not currently." I chuckled and noticed my chest still needed to be forced to breathe. "I guess you can say I'm half-dead? I don't really know what happened in there," I stuck a thumb out at the offending portal, "but I suppose now I'm a half ghost, half regular old human me." I saw Sam point to the stairs and clear her throat. Right, my parents were still heading down here.
My parents came down the staircase at a regular pace and burst into the lab concerned. They gasped as the eyed the glowing portal, and then flashed their gazes to me, Sam, and Tucker. "How...What are you guys doing down here?!" My mother demanded.
I laughed and smiled at my parents a bit mischievously. "Guess what guys? The portal works! You guys actually did it!"