Ghosts Around the Campfire
Chapter 1
((Butch Hartman owns DP, not me.))

"Hey, can you hand me that... that suitcase over there?" Danny pointed with his one free hand as he swung a carry-on bag over his shoulder. In response, he was pelted with a twenty pound suitcase full of clothes and ghost weapons that he sneaked onto the RV. He dragged along with him his two bags and stumbled over to the campsite. The family trip to the Shawnee National Forest wasn't very long, but was quite uninteresting. I mean, yeah, it was nice to get out of the house and just be surrounded by trees and the annoying bird outside your window that you want to shoot, but seriously. There's no internet, cable, or phone reception. You do the math.

Completely cut off from the rest of humanity -unless you want to risk getting lost in the forest- wasn't exactly a good thing unless you were just a normal human being with normal parents who don't hunt down their only son and try to completely rip him apart molecule by molecule. But in Danny's life, that wasn't the case.

No, Danny Fenton was actually Amity Park's ghost hero, Danny Phantom. You can tell, because 1.) there's a similarity in the names, 2.) Danny Fenton was always missing when Danny Phantom was around, and 3.) Danny's two best friends Sam Manson and Tucker Foley were apples usually not too far from the tree (and in this case, Danny is the tree). Of course, Danny's parents could not know that their only son was the very thing they hated so much, so he tried to lay low.

"Ah, the fresh mountain air feels wonderful after being in the lab for so long, eh, Maddie?" a large man dressed in an orange flannel shirt and overalls asked. He looked over at a woman who was much smaller than he and she nodded.

"It is quite refreshing," she replied. She turned her attention to Danny. "Danny, can you and Jazz set up the tents?"

Danny nodded absent-mindedly as he thought about the coming three days. No Sam, no ghosts, no Tucker, and most important, no Sam. He didn't know what it was, but lately he'd been feeling slightly awkward when he was around Sam. He'd also caught himself staring at her and even at times, daydreaming about her. Could it be..?

Nah, they were best friends, and everyone knows that once you were in the friend zone, you were doomed to stay there for all eternity. It's physics so simple that even Dash Baxter, the local bully at Casper High, would understand it.

As the ghost boy was thinking about Sam's short raven black hair and soft purple eyes, he realized that he had jobs to do. Danny shook thoughts about his goth friend out of his head and went to work pitching the tents. About ten feet away from him was his older sister, Jazz Fenton. She had long reddish-orange hair and teal eyes. She was also very much into phsychology.

"Hey, Jazz? What do you do when you get catch yourself staring at one of your friends?"

"Why, getting an eye for Sam, are we?" Jazz smirked as she reached down to grab a pole.

"No! I don't know... maybe," he replied quietly.

"I may be smart, but I can't answer every question, sorry."

Danny shrugged and went back to work. He finished in about ten minutes and threw his luggage inside. He proceeded to pull out his iPod and ghost thermos-he suggested that everyone bring one just in case a ghost did find them- and rolled out his sleeping bag. After adding his pillow to the mix, Danny rejoined his parents outside to help with the fire. Jazz was giving out orders and stuck Danny with the job of finding kindling. After she had dismissed everyone to do their jobs, Danny stopped by his tent to get his iPod.

While he was searching for dry grass and branches, he had switched over to his LMFAO playlist. He was halfay through the Party Rock Anthem when he noticed a strange-looking flower on a bush. Thinking nothing of it, he continued on his path and yanked off a few dry leaves along the way. The next time he looked up, he was surrounded by the sickly flowers. The smell was unbearable, like something had died while defecating and the body had not yet finished decaying. The raven-haired boy had to set his findings down and sit for a while, the smell was so overwhelming.

During a break in a couple of songs, Danny glanced up to see a massive creature standing over him. It looked like a half-ghost, half-sasquatch being, and let me tell you, it was NOT happy. Danny pretty much all but froze. Now in panic mode, he took off back to the campsite. He looked back once or twice to see if it was following, and when it was, he perfectly aimed a ghost-ray at it. The creature let out a sickeningly demonic screech that made Danny run even faster.

He burst through the bushes that led into the clearing where his family had set up camp. Everyone stared after him as he skid to a stop.

"What happened? Where's the kindling?" Maddie asked with a hint of concern in her voice.

"I...don't know, I don't... care! I just saw... a Bigfoot... ghost thing!" Danny replied, out of breath from his nice little run. "I-i-it was big and... hairy and... and butt ugly!"

"Where was this again?"

"A clearing. There were a lot of flower bushes but the flowers were dead, and the smell was awful! It was like something died while pooping! I had to sit down and I looked up and there it was!" Danny sat down again and couldn't stop shaking.

"That sounds pretty serious. Are you sure you just didn't imagine it?" Maddie sank down to his eye level.

"Mom, it chased me back." Danny locked eyes with her and glared.

"It did?"

"Yeah, it did."

"That does sound serious. You did say it was a ghost, didn't you?" Jack asked.

"Yes, Dad, I did."

"Too many did's." Jazz bent into her tent and pulled a book out from her suitcase. "If I were you, I'd go out and catch it."

Jack didn't need any more convincing. He was already pulling out a wrist ray and strapping it on. "I agree with Jazz!"

"Now, Jack, why don't we take this slowly? We don't even know if it's real or not. I'll tell you what; if we keep seeing it, then we'll go after it. If not, then we'll leave it be." Maddie smiled up at her husband, knowing that wherever the family went, some sort of ghost was sure to follow. And wherever there was a ghost, the Fentons were there. "But, if what Danny just described is true, then we should see it again tonight. Sasquatches are nocturnal. Good thing we packed thermoses."

"Yeah, good thing," Danny scoffed.

(linebreak)

Everyone sat by the fire that evening. Jazz was reading, Jack was blathering on about ghosts, Maddie was looking at the stars. Danny had pulled his knees to his chest and was now staring at the fire, paying close attention to every color change in the flames and how high each ember went. He could not get that thing out of his head. Especially the smell. No, he would remember the smell for the rest of his life. Danny already knew that. He could already smell it again.

The fourteen-year-old had also started to emmit a soft, ghostly glow. Knowing his parents might ask questions, he dove headfirst into his tent and tried to get to sleep, but it was no use.

Danny rolled over onto his side as he dreamed first about Sam, then about the creature he saw earleir that day. He could not get to sleep, and his dreams flashed from good to bad in a snap. It was almost as bad as the time when he found out about Robert the Doll... almost. One minute he and Sam were in the park, and the next Sam was getting eaten by Bigfoot...What the heck?

Wow. This just... wow. I believe this is my first-ish attempt at a decent horror story, and as far as I know, there is only one other DP horror fanfic that does not include zombies or is not a one-shot (Soul Searching. Reed eet.). I know I kinda rushed into things here, but if I wait for something to happen in the next chapter, I'll have absolutely nothing for this chapter.

I'm really impressed at how well written this was. I just... wow.

BYEZ GUYZ!