Danny looked up in horror as the Nasty Burger's explosion reached towards the sky in a dazzling array of colors. That's it. He had been too late, no second chances. He had been the hero, defeated the bad guy (even though the bad guy was far stronger) but had failed to get to his friends and family in time. As the smoke that was as black as his oncoming grief rose and started to part, he continued to sit from the spot where he had been hurled and stared at where all the people he loved most in life had been just a few minutes ago. How could this have happened? Didn't he prove that he wasn't bad? Shouldn't someone help? A hero? No, he was the hero and he wasn't even strong enough to save himself.

As all these thoughts passed through his mind, his vision had begun to blur. Danny touched his head and found that he was bleeding heavily. He quickly struggled to his feet, but stumbled a bit, his vision starting to get worse. "Mo-" he stopped and cleared his throat for it had suddenly become very dry. "Mom… Dad, Jazz, Sam and Tucker… you're," Danny mumbled, starting to make his way for the wreckage, "you're alright, please come out… I saved you, you can... yo-." Daniel fell to the ground and clutched a patch of dirt beside him, his eyes watering slightly. "You cant be…" he whispered as he finally lost consciousness, feet away from where his friends and family lay, Dead.

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It had been three years to this day that young Daniel's life had been turned upside down (as if gaining ghost powers hadn't already done so). And it had been two years and ten months to this day as well that Vlad Masters had taken Danny into his home to watch over. On this very day, Danny was found where he was always found, in his room. Even though the tragic accident had been years ago, he still found it hard to do anything but reflect on what had happened that day and what he should have done to stop those events. Although this day was a little special, being the fact that it was the anniversary of his friends and family's death.

"Three years, though it still feels like yesterday," Danny started to write in his journal (he had been keeping since the accident) when a soft rap came from the door. He quickly closed the journal, turned it intangible and stuck it in the wall behind him before he turned away from the door and mumbled, "You can walk through the door, why do you even bother on knocking…"

"You know that would be rude Daniel," a familiar, but weather worn voice came from behind the door as it started to open. Danny sighed, "It's your house, you can do whatever you please…"

"Well yes, but it would still be rude in my book," Vlad Masters said as he stood in the bedroom's doorway. "I just stopped by to see how you were doing…"

"Peachy…….."

"… You didn't come down to dinner… would you like me to bring the leftovers u-" Vlad started but was interrupted, "No, I just didn't feel like eating… I think I'm sick, that's all." Vlad paused before he walked over to the end of Danny's bed and sat down. "You know… if ever you need to talk… I have two ears that would gladly listen… …" Vlad paused, deciding it wise to change the subject. "Your 18th birthday is coming up soon… I'm sure you're excited." No answer. Vlad paused again, unsure if it would be a good idea to try and continue. After a moment or so, he decided just to give Danny his space and stood to leave. "Well I should let you rest if you're sick… just make sure to get something to eat once you feel better… you know where my bedroom is if there are any complications… Good Night Daniel," Vlad's closing statements to a loosing jury were as he slipped back out the doorway and closed the door silently behind himself.

Danny turned back around after a few minutes to check that Vlad was gone before reaching a hand through the wall behind him to take the journal out once more to continue writing down his entry.

To be honest, Danny had been offered many places to live after the accident. Tucker's parents, Lanzer's mother (who her son had been living with at the time), some distant relatives, and even Sam's parents, but he had turned them all down, not wanting to bother them in their grief or to be bothered with his.

After a month, he had started to wonder where he was going to live, if he even deserved to live at all, when Vlad Masters made his way into town. Word had finally spread up to Wisconsin about the large and mysterious explosion in Amity Park, and Vlad was of course smart enough to know who this event would be tied to. Before then, Danny had been living in the park, as far away as possible from his house. It was still cold, though spring was starting to show signs of being near, and temperatures easily reached to the low teens at night. It was on this night, just 2 years and ten months ago that Vlad found Danny, shivering, on a park bench that was still halfway covered in snow.

"Why did I have a feeling I'd find you here my boy…," Vlad said softly as he walked up beside Danny. He could see that young Daniel had made the decision to go without a coat this evening and that he was shivering from what looked to be something more than the bitter temperatures outside. The middle-aged man unrolled a blanket he had put under his arm for safe keeping and draped it over Danny. "I'm getting too old for this," Vlad sighed as he put his hands under Danny's shoulders and knees. The young boy's shivers started to grow less as he opened an eye and looked up at Vlad. "You- no…," Danny mumbled before falling back asleep. Vlad sighed as he picked Danny up and walked him back to his car where a driver sat, waiting patiently with the heat blasting.

Danny turned his head away from his journal and sighed. Why this memory suddenly appeared in his head, he had no idea. Shaking off the recollection, he set his attention back to his journal. Flipping through the many pages that had been his life for the past three years, it could be seen where his mood swings were. Some pages were very neat and tidy, whereas others seemed to not follow the printed lines and were almost illegible. It was on one of these pages he stopped to read, just to get back in the mood of writing in the journal.

Jul 14

It's gotten worse… I black out for days on end now… I don't know where I've been or what I've been doing. I'd like to be naïve and say that I have just been sleeping for awhile, but I know better. I've seen him. It just….. I remember what Clockwork told me…what he showed me, and what future Vlad had told me as well… I wasn't supposed to be evil until I was separated into my human and ghost selves…. But that event was supposed to take place soon after I came to live with Vlad. Well it didn't happen, I made sure of that… but if I'm still here, in this reality, then I do go Evil somehow… and I'm starting to think… no I know…… that I don't need Vlad's ghost side to help me this time…

Danny blinked and squinted for from there on, all that was in the entry was small illegible scribbles and blots from the pen he was writing with. He sighed and flipped all the way to his new entry, but could not bring himself to finish even the sentence he had started. Wondering if he actually had come down with a cold, Danny put the journal back inside the wall and slipped down on his bed. Though it had gotten to the point where young Daniel was too scared each night to sleep, he decided to try anyway in the hopes that he would in fact wake up the next day in full control.