Danny's POV

It hurt so much.

My lungs burned more than I thought possible, my chest was being held together with bandages and my legs felt like they were at the breaking point….. My entire body shivered with the cold and the pain of it all, of the wrongness of it.

I can't say that I hadn't expected something like this to happen, that's why I hadn't told them, why I made everyone who knew PROMISE not to tell.

Why I was planning to move into the Old City Sanctuary, or the one near Baltimore. At least until I was done with school, until I had a little more control. I was putting it off until I was sixteen; I had been faking some symptoms so that they think that it was because of my "disease" rather than anything that was actually their fault. (Just because I didn't trust them, it doesn't mean that I wanted to hurt them)

I guess I had been so focused on keeping my secret identity secret, and protecting Amity (all while collecting data for Magnus) that I had not pieced together what their latest gadgets meant.

The dart gun, coated with a sedative tailored specially for ghosts,

The soundproof ghost-holding cell,

Finally the new surveillance equipment.

Maybe if I had been paying more attention to what they were doing than keeping my secret safe I wouldn't have gotten into this mess.

Heck, if I'd been paying more attention to my surroundings I might have noticed the signs.

Another bolt of agony raged in my chest, interrupting my train of thought and I almost fell; but I held it in because I knew if I stumbled now I wouldn't be able to get back up. I'm amazed that I've even gotten this far, but I suppose that I have that machine they used on me before starting to thank for that. Even though I probably could have gotten help at a hospital if they hadn't I don't think that my human body would have been able to survive the trip there.

I managed to get to the gate before things started to blur again. I shook my head to try to clear my vision, to limited success. I managed to punch in the security code and get through before my head started spinning and my heart started to repeat itself again.

I thought I was at the front door but I couldn't be sure, my hands were slick with rain and blood as I pounded on it, and hoped I was right.

I couldn't knock anymore, or stay upright. I tried to stay upright, but the best I could do was supporting myself against the arch. I thought I saw someone in the doorway, but I couldn't be sure.

Then my heart skipped again and my eyelids fluttered closed.

Magnus's POV

Even though I've known Danny for the better half of two years, he (as well as his species in general) remain somewhat of a mystery to me. There have been times when I almost begin to understand, he manages to do something that leaves me right where I started. For instance, barely a year after we first met, he comes to me with a giant glowing dog monster and asks me to see what's wrong with it. You see up until this point I'd thought that all of the species of ghosts were humanoid, so the sudden appearance of a ghostly hound completely unhinged every theory I had come up with (we eventually found the problem, but that's a story for another time) Danny's mere existence is an enigma, because although I personally know that radiation as well as blood can unlock hidden genes Danny doesn't seem to have any natural ghost genes anywhere in his ancestry. I've become so befuddled on the matter that I've allowed Tesla to have a look at his blood to see what he makes of it and he seems to be stumped as well (he even admitted it).

Although Danny's terrified of the idea of his parents accidentally killing him he's loathe to tell them about his true nature because he's too worried about how they might react, and yet he refuses to move to one of the sanctuaries nearby for fear that his parents might think that they've done something wrong. Not that his case isn't as extraordinary in this aspect, it's common for first generation abnormals to feel this way, but it's frustrating nonetheless.

Other than the fact that his mere existence causes so many questions without answers he seems to be a good lad, and there isn't a doubt in my mind that even with his limited control on his abilities that he isn't a threat to "normal" people.

So the fact that someone would do something so heinous to him is even more shocking.

I should explain a little further than this.

It started when Danny hadn't shown up for his scheduled appointment.

Usually he's very careful about alerting one of our sanctuaries if location or time is a problem, and even then he seems to find a way to get to one, but this seemed to be an exception. I felt that something was wrong when the head of the Baltimore sanctuary informed me of this so I tried to contact his parents to make sure that Danny was alright, but to no avail. After several more failed attempts and no word from Danny, his Family, or anyone close to them I sent Will to check in person.

He came back and told me that Danny's parents had filled a missing person's report about a week ago, and that the parents were staying with a close friend for support.

I thought, at least at first, that something had finally pushed Danny into fleeing his parents and told the Baltimore sanctuary to keep a lookout in case he turned up, and I called some of my contacts in the police department to put out an APB for him.

Will decided to stay in Amity a little longer to interview Danny's friends , teachers, and neighbors in case they might know something. I probably would have helped if I didn't have my hands full at the moment.

Not only did I have a pregnant lotus elk that could go into labor at any moment, I needed to keep an eye on Tesla.

Although Tesla could be an irritatingly insufferable know it all at times the fact remained that he was one of the last of the five, and one of my oldest (and I say this with the loosest meaning of the word) friends. His vampiric nature had not only been a major driving force for a huge portion of his life, but it had been a major source of pride to know that there had been a race that may have been just as errr eccentric as he was, I was worried about what he might do now that he was "normal" once again (albeit with more perks). Soon after he'd become human he began to regain some of his phobias and OCD habits that had literally taken decades to break, he'd also rediscovered the fact that as a human he could get drunk, and I'd had to put a lock on the wine cellar and hide all of the liquor in the kitchen or face one of his fits. It was more or less like having a self-destructive toddler running around in the sanctuary, and I was beginning to seriously consider signing him up for some sort of rehab, although the irony caused me to hold off on it.

I was walking to check on the elk (with tesla following closely behind) when we heard it.

The rapping sound was faint at first, but slowly began to increase in speed and volume. I paused for a moment before remembering that we were close to the front door, I assumed that either Kate had forgotten the code to the garage again, or the supplies I had ordered had been delivered, the rapping got louder, and I got irritated. "I'M COMING CALM DOWN" I yelled, the knocking slowed, then stopped.

I heard Tesla chuckle and I glared at him through the corner of my eye, he pretended to be serious, and I pretended not to be pleased that he'd laughed for the first time in weeks. I opened the door, expecting an impatient deliveryman, or a soaked Kate. Instead I saw someone I didn't except and almost didn't recognize.

He was much thinner than the last time I'd seen him, and the hoodie he was wearing cast a shadow over most of his face. If it hadn't been for his weakly glowing green eyes, I would have thought that he was a vagrant teen who had mistaken the sanctuary for a church.

The boy would cracked his head on the entry way if Tesla hadn't been there, I wasn't quite fast enough to grab him before he went down, but Tesla seemed to be able to tell what was going to happen before it did. I pulled the hood back and got a good look at his face. It was Danny, although it was his ghostly form, I checked his pupils and his breathing, and heartbeat. All were far from normal, even for him.

I unzipped his jacket which revealed a mass of blood bandages and ectoplasm. The injuries he had when we first met were a papercut in comparison to this.

"Nikola help me get him into the infirmary" Tesla looked shocked "Shouldn't we put him on gurney or something?" "No time, we'll just have to be careful" even so he managed to grab a sheet from one of the guest rooms and improvise. We barely stepped foot inside when Danny started to go into cardiac arrest, it took several minutes of cpr for him to start breathing on his own. He had lost enough fluids that I had to use a scalpel to cut open a vein so I could administer a saline solution, Tesla had to hold him down at this point because he began to struggle and shout as soon as he felt the first cut.

I unwrapped the bandages to find that his chest had been cut in a y shaped pattern, his organs where coated in a thin layer of ectoplasm that seemed to protect them from being damaged by the bandages or flaps of skin, but it was obvious that someone had been playing with his organs like he was a biology class assignment. I disinfected the wound and tried to put everything in the right places. When I was done I stitched the wound.

Danny had passed out soon after I got the IV in, but I decided to wait to give him a sedative until he was more stable. I had to put restraints on him to prevent him from hurting himself if he woke up before then. After I cleaned off my hands I sat on one of the beds opposite the ghost boy and just stared.

"Is this him?" Tesla asked, eyeing the boy with curiosity. I could see a spark of the old mad scientist Tesla in his eyes as he said that, and although I saw that as an improvement I was more focused on keeping Danny alive "Yes, this is Danny. However, you're not to touch him unless I tell you otherwise. In fact, don't even say anything to him for a few days. Poor lad has enough on his mind without you're scheming" Tesla raised his hands, palms open in a mock "don't hit me" gesture "Calm down, I was just wondering. I think I have a right to know." There was an awkward silence for a moment as we both listened to Danny breathe. " Helen, do you have any idea who did this?" I pretended to ignore him for a minute and he got irritated "Helen we both know that an animal can't make those cuts, and only someone with training could-" "I KNOW NIKOLA" He stopped mid-sentence then took a deep breath "all I'm saying is that we need to find out if this is a person acting on their own or an organized effort, and more importantly…why?"

The boy's snow-white usually unruly hair stuck limply to his forehead with sweat, he had been improving, this much was true, but that wasn't saying much. He'd been unconscious for several days, and while his blood count was back to its normal level, his ectoplasm count was taking longer to replenish itself, and was still dangerously low. He continued to twitch and spasm occasionally in his sleep like a dog but he never cried out. The man sitting by his bedside continued to watch the boy dream, and occasionally put a hand in his when he needed one. No one actually saw this man (though Tesla and Henry seemed to sense him), nor did he want to be seen. Unlike the previous ghosts that had been here, he was here by choice and could leave at any time he pleased, but chose to stay with his charge until he was out of the woods.