Day Three: Necromancy
Words: 7842
"Wait, so how did it happen?" the Ghost Writer asked, turning in midair. "I mean, I partially get the gist of it, but..."
"It's a long story," Phantom shrugged. "I'm not really the best to tell it though. She is." He descended next to Sam, who was impatiently waiting in the Library's lounge.
She scoffed, almost tempted to smack him with the book in her hands. "Well, duh. You weren't there for most of it."
"Luckily for you two, I like stories," Ghost Writer laughed, floating down to recline in his armchair. "And we have a lot of time."
Phantom crossed his legs in midair, comfortably hovering next to Sam. She rolled her eyes at his antics, too far exasperated to say anything about it. "Alright, alright. So it was at the beginning of Freshman year, like... maybe a year ago-"
Like most bad days, the worst day of Sam's life started normally. She got prodded by her parents at breakfast to act more outgoing and socially acceptable ("you have to stop wearing so much black, sweetie"); suffered through six excruciating classes of absolute hell; and hung out with her two best friends, Danny and Tucker, when school finally ended. However, their normal reserved 'hang out time' was cut short, since Danny had to be home early for some reason.
"My parents' big experiment, the one they've been working on for months, they just got done building it. They want me to be there when they test it, so I can't stay long. Sorry, guys," he shrugged.
"What, you mean that mysterious thing they've been doing in your basement? Didn't you say they were drilling into the wall or something?" Tucker asked casually.
Danny's parents were the only parents Sam knew that were more eccentric than her own. Though, they were a different kind of crazy; they were real life mad scientists. Most people usually backed away whenever they heard about Danny's parents' profession, but Sam was absolutely intrigued by their area of study. They called themselves 'ectologists', which meant that they studied ghosts. Because of that, Sam loved spending time with Jack and Maddie, since she herself was sort of a supernatural expert. She was captivated by anything related to the paranormal, and constantly studied it too. She wasn't exactly keen on science (English was her strong-suit), but if she was, she'd probably try to be exactly like them.
"Yep," Danny groaned. "A ten foot tall drill, made a hole twenty feet deep into the wall. I wish I could make this stuff up, honestly."
Danny said that they'd been working on this project for a few months, but this was the first Sam had heard about some drill.
"What is it?" she inquired. "Like why make a big-ass whole in the wall?"
He sighed, "It's supposed to be a portal to the 'Ghost Zone'. They're gonna try to tear the fabric of our reality so they can go to the ghost dimension to actually study ghosts."
"Uh," Tucker said. "That sounds... violent."
"It sounds awesome," Sam breathed. A portal to another dimension? It was something out of a sci-fi novel, and it instantly caught her interest.
"Not really," Danny said, dismissively. "They're kinda losing it. Jazz says we're lucky that the entire house didn't fall down when they used the drill. It's a structural nightmare, and it's not like it can actually tear a hole in reality. My parents have been chasing their delusions for years, and nothing good has ever come from them."
That's right... despite his upbringing, a year back or so, Danny had shunned all and any belief of the paranormal. And maybe he was right, a portal to another dimension in someone's basement? That did kind of sound far-fetched, but that didn't mean she believed in the supernatural any less.
"Well, can we be there when they turn it on?" she wondered.
He laughed, "Why? It's not like it's gonna work."
"So? I'm still dying to see it," she exaggerated. "It sounds cool, whether it's capable of tearing a hole in reality or not."
"I agree," Tucker added. "I want to see it too!"
"Alright, alright," Danny grinned. "I guess I'll text Mom and tell her that two extra people will be there. Just a warning though, they're gonna be ecstatic, so expect a little craziness."
With the Fentons, it was hard not to expect a little crazy.
So she and Tucker tagged along, letting their parents know that they were staying at Danny's for a few hours, and followed him into his mysterious basement. Maddie and Jack were there, wearing their usual HAZMAT suits, eagerly running around the lab, making last minute preparations for the portal's first official test.
"Sam! Tucker!" Maddie exclaimed, excitedly. "I'm so glad that you two decided to come!"
"Yeah," Tucker said awkwardly, "it sounded cool, so we just thought, 'hey, why not?'"
"This is the pride and joy of entire career," Jack said, matching his wife's enthusiasm. "Our biggest accomplishment! We'd love for you to see it!"
"Is Jazz gonna be here?" Sam asked. She already knew the answer, but she didn't really know what else to say.
The Fenton parents bristled for a moment before regaining their lively spirit. "Unfortunately not," Maddie said. "She doesn't really have the same appreciation for our career as you kids. But that's okay, because you all are here, so someone will witness the most amazing moment in the field of ectology, ever!"
"Sure is amazing, alright," Danny muttered.
"Jack, is everything ready to go?" Maddie asked, lowering her goggles back onto her face.
"Just about!" he replied, in his typical boisterous tone. "All we've gotta do now is plug her in, and we'll be looking at the Ghost Zone!"
Maddie cheered in excitement. "Do you want to do the honors, Jack?"
"Absolutely, Mads," he laughed. He grabbed the cord to the portal, and approached the gigantic electrical plug fixture in the wall.
"Now, stand back kids," Maddie warned. "This is gonna be a heck of a show."
Jack plugged the cord in, and for a moment, all three teens were on the edge of anticipation. There was a loud whirring sound as multiple motors and generators turned on, and the quiet crackle of electricity being threaded through wires as thick as vines. In the center of the portal, there was a discernible flash of green sparks, before suddenly, the generators snapped silent, the humming ceased, and the green sparks disappeared. The lab was so quiet, you could've heard a pin drop, as the occupants of the room realized what had happened; the portal had failed.
"Was... that it?" Tucker whispered.
The intrusion of his voice seemed to break Maddie and Jack from their shocked stupor. Maddie sighed, and dejectedly declared, "Test trial one was a failure. Jack, we'll have to make a note of everything that could have gone wrong and double-check every aspect until there's none left."
"I'm sorry that it didn't work, Mom," Danny said. His voice held little to no emotion, like it was a practiced line, a planned apology. "I'm sure you guys can make some progress before the next test trial."
"Well," Tucker shrugged, "patience is a virtue of science, after all. It would be a little unbelievable if you guys managed to get everything perfect on the first try."
Sam felt like she had to say something again, so she agreed, "Yeah."
"We'll... do that, kids," Jack said. It was clear that he was more disappointed than Maddie. "So, uh, it's a little late. Are you two gonna stay for dinner?"
They had both already told their parents they were staying, so they figured they might as well hang around for dinner. There wasn't much talking during the meal, but it was usually meaningless talk like what they were doing at school that day. Sam always liked eating at Danny's house, regardless, because she knew that unlike her parents, the Fentons never discussed local politics nor gossip. After the meal, the parents decided that they were going to head out to the hardware store to go get some extra parts to hopefully fix the portal.
"We'll be back in forty-five minutes," Maddie reassured. "Don't get into trouble."
She exited through the door to the garage and Danny turned to his friends. "So, what do you guys say, video games?"
"Actually," Sam started, "I was hoping that we could go back down to look at that portal, again."
"Uh, I'm not allowed down there unsupervised," Danny said. "Especially with other people."
Sam rolled her eyes, "Come on, Danny. I just want to check it out for a few minutes without your parents around. They'll never find out! Don't you agree, Tucker?" Tucker was never one to suggest getting in trouble, but if she was the one to propose the idea, he normally agreed.
"I was thinking the same thing," he said.
It was two against one; Danny never had a chance at telling them no. And maybe if Sam hadn't forced it on him, maybe things wouldn't have turned out so awful.
They found themselves back in the lab, and at the last minute, Sam had retrieved her camera from her backpack. She found herself taking pictures of the schematics of the portal that the Fentons had left lying around, while Tucker was ogling over the various computer consoles that were hooked up to the portal. Danny was standing in the space between them uncomfortably, too aware that their presence there was against the rules. He hadn't said much since they broke back into the lab, so Sam wandered around the back of the lab, trying to find something that could make him loosen up.
"Is this yours, Danny?" she asked incredulously. She had found a rack of various HAZMAT suits, and one of them, a white and black suit, appeared to be exactly Danny's size.
She watched as pink tinged his face, exhibiting his obvious embarrassment. "Uh... yeah. My parents made it for me. I don't think I've ever worn it."
"That's pretty cool, dude," Tucker looked over at it. "Makes you look like some kind of, you know, dangerous guy."
Danny scoffed, grabbing the jumpsuit from Sam, "How does this thing make me look like a 'dangerous guy'?"
Tucker crossed his arms defensively, "I don't know! It looks like something one of those really cool video game characters would wear before going on some kind of adventure to a radioactive wasteland. Since that's actually what those kinds of suits are made for."
"You know what I think?" Sam said smugly. "In about fifty years or so, it might look like something an astronaut would wear."
"Oh, shut up," Danny said.
Instead, Sam shoved her camera in his direction and pressed down on the shutter-release button. "Smile!" she said, blinding him with the light of the camera.
For a moment, the unexpected flash disorientated Danny, causing black spots to cloud his vision. Then, once he realized what Sam had done (she had taken a picture of him in the lab, when he was not supposed to be there), he grew visibly panicked. He couldn't blame her for taking the picture, but now there was a picture of him and he was getting a little nervous. Besides, they'd already been down here long enough.
"Okay, I showed you the lab. Can we get outta here now? My parents could be back here any minute. Besides, you saw, it doesn't work anyway."
Sam however, wasn't done with her little adventure yet. Yeah, she'd checked out the lab, and she had seen the portal, but she hadn't exactly been able to get close enough to examine it yet. So before Danny could usher her and Tucker back upstairs, she had to convince him to stay a little while longer. She walked a few steps closer towards the portal, ignoring Danny's discomfort, and looked inside of the eerie, metal hole.
"Come on Danny, a Ghost Zone? Aren't you curious?" She had to keep him interested in this and she had to make him as interested as she was. After all, there was no way she was going to lose this opportunity. "You gotta check it out."
For a moment, Danny seemed a little conflicted, but her persuasion was nonetheless effective. As his best friend, she supposed it was natural that she'd have an influence on him. He came to a definitive resolution, and shrugged, You know what? You're right. Who knows what kind of awesome super cool things that exist on the other side of that portal. I'm only going to have this opportunity once before Mom and Dad get back and lock everything down again."
He took the white jumpsuit in his hand and zipped it over his regular clothes. It really did fit him perfectly, accounting for every inch of his body. Sam decided that it must've been custom tailored for it to be such an accurate fit.
After he put the suit on, Tucker patted him on the back, encouragingly. "That's the spirit dude." He comically lowered his voice for effect, "Be a dangerous guy."
"Ha, ha," Danny retorted sarcastically. He started towards the portal, but Sam put out an arm to stop him.
"Hang on," she said. She hadn't seen it before, but there was a big, ugly sticker of Jack's face on the front of the jumpsuit. She tore it off mercilessly, "You can't be walking around with that on your chest."
He looked at her humorously, a hint of a smile distracting from his interest in the portal. And then, with some sort of subdued bravery, he took a harrowing breath, and walked towards the fixture in the wall. For the most part, Sam was in her own little world of ambition, focused more on the prospect of what the portal representative, rather than what Danny was doing; while she herself was far from reality, her mind indifferently recorded each of Danny's actions with some sort of detached observation. She saw, but didn't process when he crossed through the threshold of the portal. She saw, but didn't comprehend when he stumbled on a wire for a moment, supporting himself with the wall. She saw, but didn't realize that something had gone wrong until she saw the light engulf the entire tunnel.
She snapped from her daydream and reentered reality, breath hitching in her throat, and heart palpitating in her ears. Tucker flinched next to her, and she immediately fell into a confused panic. Something had happened. Something exciting, but also possibly scary. Which was it? Exciting or scary?
And then, he screamed. The hum of motors harmonized violently, but Danny's piercing scream practically rendered them to whispers. She didn't know that it was humanly possible for anyone to sound that tortured, she didn't know that vocal cords could emulate the feeling of pain so hauntingly.
This is scary, very scary, she decided.
She was paralyzed, and the sound of Danny's agony – he's being hurt, what if he dies! – never ceased. The green lights escalated into a hypnotic frenzy, as if to portray a violent force of nature, a killer in a horror movie. This was a horror. Who knew that these things could happen in real life?
"Danny!" Tucker screamed, experiencing the same blind panic as Sam. He looked at her accusingly, "What do we do?"
I don't know! She didn't know, she didn't know anything. Today she learned how to solve for X in a factored quadratic equation. But she didn't know what to do, how to help Danny, how to be useful and how to prevent this from happening. (Prevent? Solve? Same concept, but wrong tenses.) She was freaking out and now her chest was sharply heaving with the pressure of Danny's life. She was only a dumb fourteen year old girl, what could she do?
Similarly, Tucker also was held captive by the same fear, fear of the unknown. The shock and dissociation of the moment, the sound of Danny's screams. And suddenly, a shadow broke through the materializing green light (literally materializing, like... the light was turning into some kind of gaseous substance), and they could see a general outline of a humanoid figure, twitching, as thousands of visible volts of electricity relentlessly shot through it. At this point, her mind was functioning with the consistency of warm jello, and as a result, it took her about half a minute to actually recognize that the figure was Danny. His skin was visibly burnt, his charcoal colored hair was standing vertically, and his unwavering, agonized expression was almost uncanny.
He was... he was dying. And they weren't doing anything to stop it.
The green... substance that had formed inside of the portal was churning, swirling with a toxic poise, as the electricity seemed to fade, allowing the green gas to stabilize into some sort of semi-solid wall. Simultaneously, the fierce light in Danny's darkened, and a chill ran through her when his screams abruptly silenced. He was carelessly thrown from the doorway, almost like the portal itself had ejected him like some kind of parasite. The inactive spell over Sam broke, and she immediately rushed to catch his fall, causing her to plant her chest into the floor so she could support his weight.
When Danny fell into her arms, he was cold. Unnaturally so. And she knew, she knew as she held his body that it was far too late, because living human bodies couldn't feel this cold and stiff. It was like the electricity had drained all of the warmth out of him, leaving him like a slab of icy flesh. It was odd, because cold was contradictory to the nature of electrocution.
Tucker had fled to the other side of the lab, and he was mumbling about a phone, about 911. She ignored him and focused on the body in her arms. She knew it was a redundant hope, but she held Danny to her chest, and fumbled around with him until she grasped his arm. She slid her hand down to his wrist, pressing her fingers over where she thought the vein was supposed to be and... nothing. All she could feel was the gross sensation of cold skin, she couldn't feel the subtle throb of his absent heartbeat.
So it was true then.
No. No. No! It can't be!
And the evidence was in her hand, the evidence was in his corpse, which was still very much in her arms-
"No!" The well of disbelief cried out within her and she couldn't bear to face the truth. Tucker had frozen at the base of the stairs, distracted by her outburst. "Be there, be there!"
Tucker turned away from the upstairs, momentarily forgetting about the phone. He didn't attempt to conceal his terror, and asked with a trembling voice, "Is he...?"
Sam tore himself from staring at Danny's corpse, and met the frightened eyes of her other friend. "It's not there, Tucker," her voice sounded as wounded as Tucker's had. "He's actually dead. He's actually dead and – oh my God, it's my fault," she broke into incoherent whispers as the weight of what she had done crushed her. The pressure of guilt on her chest was heavier than Danny's corpse against her chest.
Danny's corpse against her chest.
She physically had to refrain herself from hyperventilating as the realization sunk in, and she slowly maneuvered Danny's body onto the floor, so that he wouldn't be pressed up against her anymore. When she set him down, she took in his appearance. His eyes were squinted shut in absolute pain, and his frayed clothes hung off of him like rags. So this is what death looked like. She'd been to funerals before, but the sudden transition from life to death was unnerving.
Tucker continued to watch. "Danny," he breathed. His eyes were broken behind his glasses. "I have to call 911," he determined.
Sam reacted instantly. She turned on him like a predator biting into it's prey, "And what fucking good will that do, Tucker! He's already gone! They can't save him! They can't... we – I couldn't... fault," she stumbled over herself, unable to keep her guilt from influencing her.
"But he can't be dead," he argued desperately. "It doesn't work that way."
"We just saw it happen, Tucker!" her voice was harsh and frustrated, and carried a tone of remorse. "Come over here, feel him. He's dead."
The more she insisted that Danny was dead, the less real it felt. Tucker on the other hand, kept his distance from Danny's body, opting to just ogle at the corpse from a distance. Everything was starting to get to him too, and he began to shake his head violently, "No. No no no."
Tucker fell to the floor in a mess of his own limbs, pressing himself against the lab's furthest wall, unwilling to move a muscle. Both he and Sam were still in severe shock, and both of them sat there, staring into space, not speaking a word. Their sobs were silent, hidden from each other, but easily wet and suffocating.
After minutes of this suffering, Sam hysterically clenched her fist, and with unprecedented
confidence she slammed it into the floor, thoroughly punching the sturdy linoleum. "I know what to do," she declared in a steely voice, breaking Tucker from his traumatic trance.
"What?" he slurred.
"We can fix this. But we have to-" she choked, "-have to hurry."
"Fix?" Tucker steadied himself against the wall. "But you said he's... dead."
"He is," she nodded. Her eyes were wild with something incomprehensible. "And we can't let anyone find out, okay?"
"Sam..." he pressed, "you're scaring me. I don't know what you're saying."
She took a sharp breath, "We can bring Danny back. We have to. He's too young to die like this, at my hands."
He looked at her blankly. "Sam you're-" he hiccuped, "-delusional. Danny is dead, there's no way we can bring him back. He's dead and-"
His only warning before Sam exploded was a quiet, rumbling growl. And then grabbed her hair, squeezing her eyes shut in frustration, letting a feral scream grow in her throat.
"I KNOW!" she shouted. "I KNOW, I KNOW, I KNOW." Tucker flinched against the wall, afraid that she would throw something at him from across the lab. She calmed herself, but her voice still carried it's fiery command, "You have to trust me, Tucker. We can't fail Danny."
He was baffled, and honestly didn't know how to respond to her apparent psychotic meltdown.
"I know some spells," she said quickly. At first he wasn't sure if he had heard her correctly, but then when the meaning sunk in, Tucker realized exactly what Sam had been rambling about. He was overwhelmed with sensible rage; he would not stand for her bullshit.
"Oh fuck no, Sam. You don't get to do this, you don't get to fucking do this."
She scoffed, "Excuse me?"
"You're going to do some of your goth roleplay on Danny's fucking corpse, that's what," he summed up. "That's where I draw the line. We need to tell an adult. Anybody."
"It will work," she hissed defensively.
"It's make believe, Sam!" he slammed his fist against the wall behind him. "It's your edgy fantasy, and you're just in denial about this. We're both in denial! But I'm not going to let you make this mistake!"
"How do you know it's not real?" she asked.
He gaped at her, "Because it's all witches and dark magic and demons and – and-"
"Ghosts?" she raised an eyebrow.
"Yeah!" he said, indignantly.
She gave him a disdainful look. "Well," she started, "I might want to remind you, that apparently, ghosts are fucking real. We just watched it happen. I mean, what is that thing!"
She stood up, gesturing to the portal, which was now a glowing green doorway of a foreign substance and eerie light. It gave off a twangy stench of burnt flesh and lemons, and if you stared at it long enough, you could see something surreal behind the green light, something full of unimaginable depth, something that might just be... a hole in the fabric of reality. The Fenton parents had been right, and they'd actually manage to do it; their invention had ripped open a fissure between dimensions, and now it was just there.
Sam strode over to where Tucker cowered against the wall. "It's clear to me," she said, "that some of this 'fantasy' stuff is real, and if some of it's real, then we have a chance. Because today, another dimension killed our best-friend. Now who's to say that we can't bring him back with dark magic?" She held her hand out to him, and with much reluctance, he accepted it. She pulled him up from the floor, and he faced her.
"I – I-" he stuttered hopelessly. "I don't like this."
"You don't have to." While her attitude sounded strong, there was still some degree of vulnerability, fear in her voice.
"Even if this is real, something could go wrong," he pointed out.
"Many things could," she agreed. "But anything is better than being responsible for Danny's death."
"Not anything, Sam. Not anything."
"Just about," she said. "Now are we gonna do this before Mr. and Mrs. Fenton get home and figure out Danny's dead, or not?"
It was the most sickening experience to carry Danny's body up to his bedroom, but it had to be done. Both of them felt guilty about it, but it wasn't like they could just leave his body in the lab. The worst part was the chill of his skin, which Tucker agreed was odd, since he had been electrocuted. Not to mention, even though corpses are supposed to be cold, it can take many hours for the body temperature to drop. They figured that it must've have been the stuff in the portal that had made Danny so cold, so quickly, and at that, they both dropped the subject. It was uncomfortable in the first place, anyway.
"Okay," Sam said, after they had tucked Danny into his bed. They figured that making him look asleep would be the best deterrent if any of his family members decided to check up on him. Sure, it was a little Weekend at Bernie's, and a lot morbid, but it worked. "I need to go get materials. If we're doing this, we have to do it properly."
"Wait," Tucker said, nervously. "So we're leaving Danny here?"
"I said I'm getting supplies," she corrected. "You're gonna make sure nobody gets close to him while I'm gone."
"The Fentons will be back any minute, though," Tucker was starting to panic again. "What if I'm not good enough? And what'll they do when they see their portal is on! How are we supposed to explain that!"
Sam sighed, "If they ask, tell them that there was some kind of power surge and that must've caused it. We were not, not anywhere near the lab when it turned on. Also, if they ask, we've been playing video games, and I 'left something at school'. Say that I have to go get it, then I'm coming back here, and then I'll go home later. Got it?"
It was evident that he was even more confused than before. "But – but I'm not a good liar, Sam!"
"You don't have a choice," she said, solemnly. "Just... try to do your best. Don't say more than you have to."
So she left Tucker alone, leaving him to guard Danny's body while she gathered the necessary spell ingredients and information. She'd read enough about necromancy spells to be confident enough to perform one, but she still had to be very meticulous. She found a lot of what she needed at home (not even Bubbe had seen her sneak in), but not everything, which lead her on a quest around town to get what she needed. It took her roughly over an hour total, and thankfully, it was just dark enough for her to roam the streets inconspicuously.
Meanwhile, not long after Sam had left, the Fentons had returned home, and found that their portal had started working. They were so elated from the sudden turn-around that they didn't even dare question Danny and his friends about it, much to Tucker's relief. Tucker paced around Danny's room for what felt like an eternity, slowly growing claustrophobic, as the sight of Danny's corpse gnawed on his conscious.
Finally, Sam returned with a duffle bag full of candles, a jar full of dirt, an old leathery book, a knife, a copper bowl, a lighter, various herbs, and special crystals. She locked the bedroom door behind her and poured the contents of the bag out onto the floor.
"What took you so long?" he asked, nervously. "That took forever."
"Sorry, I had to buy some extra stuff from the Skulk in Lurk," she explained. She did feel guilty that he'd been left alone with Danny's body for all that time, but it couldn't be helped. "We're really blessed that we have such a resourceful occult store."
Tucker frowned, "I don't think blessed is the word for any of this situation."
He didn't have any time to react before her hand made sharp contact with his arm. "Shut up and help me put him on the floor," she instructed.
Once again, they lifted Danny, and strategically placed him in the center of his bedroom floor. They had to move a lot of his dirty laundry out of the way to make sure that it was a clear area, and once they did, they put candles directly beside his hands, feet, and head. Next, was another awkward procedure; Sam had to take Danny's shirt off. She did it slowly, cringing whenever she touched his bare skin (it felt so cold and wrong) and discarded the piece of clothing with the rest of his laundry.
When she grabbed the knife for the next pre-ritual step, Tucker gawked at her.
"What – what're you-? Are you going to cut Danny open?" he gasped. Horrible ideas plagued his imagination, and honestly, he didn't sign up for some – some dissection-
She rolled her eyes, "Please, the spell isn't that gory. Danny get's to stay perfectly intact. Trust me, I have personal standards."
Saying no more, she pressed the blade against her own hand, creating a dark red gash across her palm. Blood pooled quickly out of her self-inflicted wound, and she held her injured hand over Danny's bare chest, letting the blood spill onto his skin.
"Uh... okay, so why'd you have to do that?" he asked, instead.
"As the spellcaster, my blood has to come in contact with the person I'm trying to resurrect. It also requires the blood of a virgin, so my blood is playing two roles here, actually. I double-checked to make sure it didn't need the blood of two separate people, but it said that blood is blood and it doesn't matter how many people bleed on him, as long as both requirements are met."
"This is still so messed up," he commented. He couldn't bring himself to really look at Danny's bloody chest.
Sam didn't respond, instead she took the crystals (which supposedly had been blessed by monks, according to the cashier at the Skulk and Lurk), and scattered them around the perimeter of his body. She poured the jar of fresh soil at Danny's feet, and finally set a copper bowl in the space between his head and the candle above it. She carefully grabbed a handful of different roots and herbs and put them in the bowl like some kind of dark magic salad, as Tucker later described it.
"Alright," Sam said, nervously rubbing her hands together. "Now all we have to do is light the candles, and I'll recite the spell. You're gonna be my lookout if anything goes wrong, so I'm trust you."
"What do you mean? Trust me with what?" he asked, just as anxious.
"If I look like I'm in pain or anything, or if anything tries to possess me, you can knock me out with the Fenton Creep Stick," she pointed to the weapon which was hidden behind Danny's door. "It's the same case if Danny comes back and gets violent or anything, alright?"
Tucker's nod was anything but brave. Taking that as a greenlight to start, Sam grabbed the lighter and lit each of the five candles one by one. She was sitting on Danny's left, while Tucker was sitting on the bed behind her. She took a deep breath, and began reciting from the spellbook.
"Iacebant inanem, animam suam reliquit mundum. Faciam eos vivere rursus, invocare spiritus ignis. Ut non exsisto muneris, et tamen eos ambulabo. Vivifica te velis super mortuo, ad coronam de Daniel Fenton. Reparare iniurias cognoscebam, organis cruore replebitur. Eos resurrecturos te petit, placere redire ad eos orbem. Eos resurrecturos te petit, placere redire ad eos orbem! EOS RESURRECTUROS TE PETIT, PLACERE REDIRE AD EOS ORBEM!"
Throughout her entire recitation, nothing happened. Even after she spoke the last word, there was an aura of stillness in the room, yet Sam kept her gaze steadily trained on Danny's body. It had to work, it had to. Otherwise, all of this would've been for nothing, and they would have to admit to Jack and Maddie what she had done, and then they would have to own up to trying to bring him back with... with magic.
Please, please work, she internally pleaded. She didn't know what paranormal force she was praying to, and she honestly didn't care as long as they were able to grant her what she wanted. What she needed.
It was about fifteen seconds after, when Tucker cleared his throat. "Sam, I don't-"
Tucker's words died in his throat as a wisp of smoke caught his eye. The candle above Danny's head had been the first to extinguish. And silently, all of the candles, in a counterclockwise sequence, were snuffed out one by one.
"Watch," Sam breathed, as the ingredients in the copper bowl started inexplicably fizzling. The chemical reaction quickly liquidized the contents of the bowl, giving off an aroma of something rotting. Both Sam and Tucker had to cover their mouths to avoid breathing in the foul fumes. Simultaneously, a sourceless wind eroded the dirt at Danny's feet into thin-air, completely breaking it into nothing.
A mystifying green light flashed from underneath Danny's closed eyelids, causing Tucker to jump back against the wall. Sam also distanced herself a few extra inches from Danny's body, which proved to be a beneficial decision; moments later, the green glow expanded to the encase Danny's entire body, levitating him into the air, at least two feet above the floor.
"N – no way," Tucker's jaw dropped. "What the actual fuck?"
"It's working," Sam observed, experiencing both awe and terror instantaneously.
Danny's body stopped rising, and balanced flat, hovering above the floor. Then, there were many unpleasant cracking sounds, and the scent of blood permeated the air, causing the Sam and Tucker to gag again. His muscles started to visibly twitch, and the cracking sounds echoed louder and louder as his arms and legs spasmed uncontrollably. This occurred for at least over a minute, and in this time, Sam slowly backed up until she was next to Tucker, sitting on Danny's bed, pressed up firmly against the wall.
When the awful cracking noises stopped, they made the mistake of assuming that the worst part of the ritual was behind them. Danny's chest started rapidly moving up and down as his lungs regained function, followed by an unconscious, chilling scream. Against what should be healthy, their heart-rates somehow escalated, rivaling the terror that they had felt when Danny had been killed inside of the portal.
Tucker turned to Sam, "What's wrong with him? Why is he screaming!"
She deadpanned (masking her own fear), "You think being resurrected isn't painful?"
"You mean that this is hurting him?" Tucker accused.
She scowled, "It's better than being dead!"
Tucker hated to admit it, but she did have a point there. To be honest, he couldn't believe what he was witnessing, or that any of this was actually happening. He was still trying to understand that Danny was dead, and now here Danny was, not dead, because they'd brought him back and – and, he was going to have a lot of existential crises later just to process all of this.
Danny's screaming, similarly to his screaming in the portal, abruptly cut off, and the green glow keeping him afloat vanished, sending his unconscious form crashing into the floor. Unconscious, not dead, but alive.
The three bodies in the room all exerted heavy breaths for the next few minutes.
"You actually did it..." Tucker marveled. His eyes resembled the size of saucers. "You... you brought Danny back from the dead."
Sam frowned. "Maybe. If that's Danny. We can only hope that it's him in his body, not anything... else. Spells like these usually come with a toll to those brought back."
Leaving Tucker agape, she pulled herself off of Danny's bed, unlocked his bedroom door, and tiptoed to the bathroom. It was an unnecessary precaution, since both parents were in the lab, which was fortunately soundproof, and Jazz was God knows where. She swiped a dark washcloth, and ran it under the sink, getting it wet enough for her to clean her blood off of Danny's chest. Tucker was still dissociating when she returned, and she kneeled over Danny's body to start scrubbing. However, when she touched the cloth to his chest, something weird happened. Instead of actually making contact with his skin, both the washcloth and her hand passed through his chest. Sam was so shocked she actually screamed for a moment and accidentally dropped the cloth through him, bringing her hand up empty.
"What the fuck!"
Tucker moved beside her, hesitantly putting his hand to Danny, and he was able to firmly touch the spot the washcloth had fallen through. "He's touchable... but why did?"
Sam's hand were shaking, but still managed to shoot him a critical glance. "Like I said... With these sorts of things, there's almost always some kind of toll."
Danny woke up in his bed with a killer headache. Actually, it wasn't just his head, everything had a faint kind of ache. He slowly maneuvered himself into a sitting position, and almost had a heartattack when he realized that he wasn't alone in his room. His two best-friends, Sam and Tucker were sitting at the foot of his bed, staring at him with some kind of abject terror. They didn't say anything immediately, so he shot them a questioning look.
"Um, good morning?" Was it morning, though? From what he could tell, it was still dark outside of his blinds, and he wasn't wearing his normal pajamas. He was wearing one of his normal white T-shirts and jeans (which felt really stiff for some reason). "Why are you guys in my room?" he asked.
They still didn't speak. Actually, Tucker might've squeaked nervously, but neither of them made any clear attempts to respond to him.
"Okay... uh, did I do something that now you don't want to talk to me?" he found himself anxiously rubbing the back of his neck, one of his usual nervous ticks. He was trying to stop that habit, but it was just so natural for him.
"Danny," Sam whispered. Her eyes were wide, and he swore they looked a little blotchy, like she'd been crying.
"Yeah...?" he said slowly. Neither of them reacted, and continued to look like somebody had been shot or something. "You guys are really weird right now. Seriously, what's up?"
Tucker fidgeted with his hands, refusing to make direct eye contact, "What do you remember, dude?"
"That's a vague question," Danny was really starting to get creeped out. Then something clicked, "Did I pass out or something?"
Tucker inhaled loudly and Sam gasped. She ran her hands through her hair, almost stressfully, "Oh God, you don't even..."
"Do you remember the three of us going down to look at the portal together? A few hours ago?" Tucker blurted.
"The portal? Uhh..." he tried to recall, but everything was kind of hazy. He knew that his parents had been working on the portal for a few months, and that they'd just finished most of it. He was supposed to watch them turn it on, wasn't he? But instead, Sam and Tucker had decided to come over, and then they watched the portal turn on, and nothing happened. Until, they went down to the lab again, and then everything sort of... stopped.
"I remember being down there, but like everything's really fuzzy." Again, both of his friends inhaled really deep breaths. What was with their uneasiness?
"There isn't an easy way to say this, Danny," Sam looked like she wanted to reach out and comfort him, but something held her back from touching him. "Something really, really bad happened down there. We haven't told anyone, yet. And we sort of did something bad, and now you're... different."
He looked between his two friends apprehensively, "Okay, you're kind of freaking me out here. Is this a prank?"
"Man, I wish," Tucker said, looking downwards.
"I suggested that you go into the portal Danny, remember that?" Sam recounted. "You went in and... the portal turned on-" he couldn't remember any of that, "-and you were electrocuted," she choked. "A – and, then the portal th – threw you out and you were... you... were dead."
"What?" They looked so serious, but this had to be a joke. "You're just paying me back for something, aren't you."
"What? No, Danny!" she cried. "You were... dead. And Tucker and I freaked out and we couldn't leave you dead, or tell your parents-"
"This is ridiculous," he declared. If he hadn't been aching so much, he might have just jumped out of his bed then.
"-I did a necromancy spell that brought you back from the dead and ever since you've come back, you've been showing ghost abilities," Sam finished, looking him directly in the eye.
He returned her stare. "You know, for a second there, you had me kinda freaked, but then the story just went downhill," he insisted. "You're in creative writing class, Sam, I would've at least expected you to come up with something more believable."
"Dude," Tucker objected, "we're not kidding. I – if you don't believe us, then just... come downstairs with us. The portal is working and turned on. You turned it on. Your parents are down there right now."
"Sure I did," Danny rolled his eyes. He reached to move his sheets off him, but his hand refused to grab it. Instead, the appendage went straight through the sheets. He reeled. Straight through them. "Wha-"
"That's one of the ghostly things that's been happening to you ever since we brought you back," Sam explained.
"Shut up." Danny tried to grab his sheets again, and this time instead of just going through the sheets, his hand completely vanished from the visible spectrum. Unnerved, Danny screamed, and accidentally hit his head against the back of his headboard.
"You've also... been turning invisible," Tucker unnecessarily added. "Starting to believe us?"
"I... I don't know," Danny muttered, gripping his head. He felt like he was going crazy, but Sam and Tucker were insisting that he... "Is this a dream?" he wondered.
It took Danny many days after that to begrudgingly come to terms with the fact that he really was awake, that he really was something not alive nor dead. He hadn't wanted to accept it, but after so long, when he hadn't woken up, he had to acknowledge that he was in reality. The uncontrollable powers were what ultimately convinced, along with Sam and Tucker's testimony of events, and then there was the functionality of the portal itself.
Unfortunately, he had unavoidable moments where he was physically forced to transform into... his other self, and he was barely managing to keep his new powers under control. He was gradually starting to recall his death, and everything still felt surreal. At least, he reasoned, that Sam and Tucker were there for him to bring him back, despite the fact that he still wasn't fully human anymore. And eventually, once he had accepted everything that had happened to him, he became Danny Phantom, Amity Park's dead, teenage superhero.
"And you know the rest of it," Danny concluded. "She's my Frankenstein, and I'm her monster," he joked.
She smacked him in the arm, "Oh, shut up. Though," Sam paused. "I do fancy myself some Mary Shelley."
"Hm," Ghost Writer muttered. "I've met her a few times. Nice woman. Iconic, even."
"She's here?" Danny raised a brow. She was one of the authors that Lancer was known to rant about. "Eh, I should've expected that."
"Yep," Ghost Writer confirmed. "I don't know where she's been for the past century or so. Anyway," he addressed Sam, "I'm kind of interested with what you said earlier, about how you actually brought him back."
"What do you mean?" Sam raised a brow. "We just told you."
"I know," Ghost Writer nodded. "But from what you're describing, you did a simple reanimation spell. Usually, those sorts of incantations go horribly wrong, and you're left pretty much with a zombie, because the spell itself reanimates the body and that's it. The soul and mind have already exited the body, so it just becomes a walking husk with nothing in it, and most of the time those poor things go on a killing spree. Nobody knows why they do that, they just do."
The duo looked at him, horrified.
"So you're saying that I almost did that to Danny!" Sam exclaimed.
"W – why didn't that happen to me?" Danny subconsciously held his arms to his chest, and his face was greener than usual.
Ghost Writer shrugged, "Ever since I met you, halfling, I've been thinking about it. I'm pretty sure it's because during your death, you were supercharged with ectoplasm, and it was glued to your body, soul, and mind. Your generation would describe it as kind of like 'backing up files on a hard-drive'. But you died, so all that ectoplasm in your body was just trapped there, dormant. And then when you cast the reanimation spell, the ectoplasm was reactivated and it was able to revive your soul and everything else. And because the ectoplasm had already bonded to your DNA at that point, that's what allowed you to become half-ghost."
"That's... terrifying," Danny breathed.
"I think it's intriguing," Ghost Writer's concern was almost nonexistent, bordering apathy.
Danny let himself physically drop to the floor next to Sam, too baffled to float anymore. "I'm not going to be able to sleep tonight."
"Me neither," Sam mumbled.