The Discovery
CH. 1
My life wasn't what you'd call a normal life. One half was, yes, for sure. I was Danny Fenton, I had a wonderful family consisting of a mother, a father, and the best (yet most annoying) sister you could imagine. I had a best friend, Tucker, that I spent my days with, playing games and doing the inevitable chores. But the other half, was... alone. I had no one. And not only was I alone, but I was the enemy of every one I knew. But, my life changed one day. That day... was a Saturday. I was in the woods with Tucker, we were mock battling with some weapons he had built.
"I will get you, foul beast!" I heard Tucker joke from behind me.
"You will never catch me, lowly peasant!" I joked back. Just as I said that, I felt something shoot through the air right to the left of my ear. I started to run faster and all of the sudden I tripped on something.
"Oof" I landed. "What on Earth?" I mumbled as I turned to look back at whatever I tripped on.
My eyes went wide. I let out a short scream and quickly turned my head. I had tripped on a girl. A naked girl. I turned back around.
A look of pain was frozen on her face, her body was twisted in such a way that it screamed "broken bones." Ugly bruises and oozing cuts covered her fair, beautiful skin. Her ebony hair was in a horrid mess. Bugs were flying and crawling about her. And the only thing even close to a body covering was a blindfold tied over her eyes.
The appearance of the poor girl was so horrible, I could help but sob. I moved closer to her, I couldn't leave her there.
"I will take her back to the village for proper burial." I said, there was no way she was still alive. I removed what bugs I could, and took off my shirt to place it over her body, but as I leaned over her, I could have swore I saw her ribs move. "Is she alive?" I wondered, I felt her neck for a pulse, and sure enough it was there, very faint, but there.
"Danny? Where did you go?" I heard Tucker call.
"I am over here, Tucker." I said, as I carefully wrapped the girl in my shirt. Thankfully, the girl was small enough that my shirt covered her from just below her shoulders to right above her knees. I picked her up bridal style and walked towards Tucker.
"What on Earth?" Tucker said when he saw that I was carrying something. His eyes widened when he realized just what it was. "Who would do such a thing?" He whispered as he softly touched her hair. "Should we remove the blindfold?" He asked me.
"I do not know." I said.
He untied the knot at the back of her head and slowly removed it. As he pulled it off, he froze. Both of our eyes went wide as we shuddered. Tucker turned away and retched, my knees went weak, and I almost dropped her. Her right eye was in a horrible state. Her eye appeared to had been ripped out of it's socket. The socket was tore and was oozing with infection. The blindfold hadn't been able to keep the flies from getting into it.
My stomach turned as I balanced the girl with one arm, and covered her eyes with the blindfold with my free hand.
"Let us make haste, Tucker, before this girl dies in my arms." I told him, still retching, before quickening my pace and heading towards the town.
Instead of handing the girl over to the town healer, I headed home towards the healer's apprentice, my sister, Jasmine. I knew that my sister would give the girl one on one treatment, instead of having to care for everyone and her as well.
"Jazz!" I yelled as Tucker opened the door for me.
"What is it, Danny, I am bus-" Jazz sighed. She snapped her mouth shut when she looked towards me and saw what I was holding. "Oh my God." She said. "Come. Bring her down into the basement," She said turning and walking quickly towards the stairs. "Make haste, brother." She added. I quickly followed her.
"Place her on the table." She said gesturing towards the table in the middle of the room. I laid the girl down as softly as I could.
"Leave, Brother." Jazz said, stepping in front of me and taking my shirt and the blindfold off of the girl. Even from behind, I could tell the kind of reaction my sister had from the appearance of the girl. She quickly jumped back and shuddered.
"I want to stay, Jazz." I said. I felt as if I had some connection to the girl, like I had met her in a previous life or something.
"Fine." She said. She stood looking at the girl lying on the table. "I don't even know where to start, there's so much to do." She sighed.
She turned to her work table, and came back with a vial of medicine and a needle.
"What is that going to do?" I asked her, and she injected it into the girls hip.
"It is a mixture of painkillers and a medicine to help her battle infection." Jazz answered, looking around. "Danny please leave." She said. "You really will not want to see this."
"I am staying." I answered harshly.
"Alright then." She answered walking over to a large basin. She picked up one of the many buckets next to it, and took off it's lid, and poured the contents into the basin.
"Are those-" I started to ask.
"Yes." She answered, pouring another bucket into the basin. She was filling the basin with maggots.
"You are not going to put her in that are you?" I exclaimed, my eyes wide.
"Yes, I am." She answered calmly as she walked over to the girl.
"Maggots eat dead things." I shuddered as she picked the girl up.
"Maggots eat dead flesh, and only dead flesh." Jazz said. "They are perfect for getting rid of all this... infected gore." She said lying the girl down in the basin.
"A maggot bath... disgusting." I said as Jazz started pouring more maggots over her. She covered the girl's whole body, excluding her face, but she put some more on her ruined right eye.
Then my sister and I waited for the bugs to do their job. After what seemed hours of watching the horrendous worms crawl over the girl's beautiful body, my sister finally pulled her out.
"Get that heated water off of the stove and bring me a towel." Jazz said as she walked over to the table.
I brought them to her, and she carefully wiped the remaining maggots off of the girl's skin, and washed her skin carefully. The girls skin was raw with injuries, but my sister had been right, they were clean, and I could tell they wouldn't get worse and they'd heal a lot faster.
"You should not be watching, you know. It is not a very gentlemanly thing to do." Jazz said, as she stood and pondered on what to do next.
I blushed and rubbed the back of my neck, she was right, it wasn't. Regardless, I continued watching as Jazz started putting some sort of medical lotion on her injuries. Then she checked for broken bones. She lightly wrapped the girl's left leg, her right arm, and her left wrist before she splinted them and wrapped them more firmly.
"Some of her ribs are broken, but still in place for the most part, they will heal on their own." she said as she wrapped bandages around the injuries on her torso and the parts of her limbs that weren't already covered. The last thing she did was put a bandage over her right eye.
"Will you please place her over there, Brother." Jazz said gesturing to a small cot close to the right wall of the room. I softly laid her down, and Jazz covered her up to her neck with a sheet.
The girl hadn't made any sign of life the entire time we'd been working on her injuries, and she lay perfectly still, barely breathing. I sat next to her, watching over her, tears rolling down my face.
The girl's hair was still a mess. I grabbed a brush I found lying on Jazz's desk, and started gently combing through it, though it was horribly knotted, it was relatively clean. Half an hour later, I was finished, and her beautiful hair was strewn about her head on the pillow I had placed underneath it.
I sat and watched the girl, not moving, not doing anything for hours.
"Danny, we are going after the beast. Do you wish to come along?" I heard my friend Tucker say just as I was about to nod off.
"No thanks, Tucker." I sighed.
"Danny." Tucker sighed. "Your entire family consists of demon hunters. Why do you not help them? The phantom is a menace, we need your help to capture it." He said.
"I just do not see what the phantom is doing that is so horrible," I said. Tucker sighed once again and left.
Just after Tucker left, I felt pain course across my body. I closed my eyes and curled up, holding my stomach.
Two rings of glowing light formed around my middle and traveled across my body one going to my head, the other to my feet, changing me as they went.
When the pain subsided, I stood. I was in the cursed body of The Phantom, alleged enemy to all. That night, I'd be hunted until the sun came up the next morning, just like every other night since I had been cursed with my phantom state two years before, during the summer of my fourteenth year.
I groaned and brushed my now white hair out of my now glowing green eyes.
I looked down at the girl, still sleeping on the cot. I brushed some hair out of her face, and felt her shudder underneath my hand. Her skin, which was actually very cold, felt warm against my now dead skin.
"Goodbye until tomorrow, lovely." I said to the girl before turning intangible and flying up towards the roof and into the woods behind the Fenton's house.
Just as soon as I had flew into the trees, I heard my father crashing through the brush on the forest's floor.
"Where are you, Phantom?" He bellowed. He looked down at the locator he had in his hand. I bit my lip. Though I was used to it, I still hated the way everyone hated me without reason.
He looked straight up at me, catching my eyes. His eyes went wide, as did mine.
"There you are!" He yelled, pulling out a gun and shooting it towards me. Not getting the chance to dodge it, I blocked it with an energy shield. "I will get you, you piece of trash!" He yelled as I flew higher up.
I turned back and glared down at him. My fists started glowing with green energy.
"You will never catch me, you pathetic moron." I yelled back down at him. He was still my father, and I knew he didn't know any better, but calling me trash was not something I was going to stand for.
I flew down to the ground in front of him, and got ready for battle. He pulled out his gun again and shot, I didn't even have to dodge, the energy from the gun went right over my head into the tree behind me.
"Where is your family, oaf? Your wife must surely have a better aim than that." I said to him, as I shot an energy blast towards him, purposely aiming a little to far to the left, just grazing his hair.
He yelled and shot again. I was able to dodge it by ducking down. Then we both heard the sound of his gun powering down. He glared at me, his face turning red.
"Is there something the matter with your weapon, old man?" I laughed.
"It is no matter, I have another!" He yelled, digging through his pockets.
I stood there, slightly amused, as he continued looking for another weapon, obviously starting to worry, digging faster as he went along.
"Is there a problem?" I asked when he looked at me, weaponless.
"I will be back, beast." He grumbled.
"Bring someone more competent along with you next time, ignorant fool!" I laughed as he jogged back towards the house.
"One down, three to go." I said to myself as I flew up into the trees once again.
A few hours later, it was pitch black, and the battle was over. My family and friends had given up from exhaustion, and I was free to rest. I flew to a cave deep in the woods not far from where I'd picked the girl up that morning. I sat down on the pallet that I kept in the cave and rubbed my leg where my mom had hit me. I sighed. The look of hatred that I'd seen on her face so many times tore me apart. Finally, I lay down, and soon I was asleep.
Hours later I was woke up by a warm feeling flowing over my body. The refreshing feeling flowed over me, making me inhale deeply. After it ended, I exhaled and opened my eyes. It was finally morning, I was back in my human body, and I had twelve hours before I had to go through my nightly routine once again.
I crawled out of the cave and ran home, making sure that my family was still asleep. I went down into the basement, and went back to my seat next to the girl.
She still hadn't awaken, she looked exactly like she did when I left her.
I sighed and sat down. Then, I made a surprising discovery. The look of pain on the girl's face was gone, and the color in her skin was beginning to come back.
"Maybe you will wake up soon..." I said, touching her cheek.
"Do you never sleep?" I heard Jazz say from behind me.
"I sleep." I answered her.
"Barely, you are the last to go to sleep and the first one up in the morning." She said, "You used to sleep all the time." She added.
"Those were the good days," I sighed. Jazz looked at me weirdly for a few moments, but shook it off.
"So how is she doing?" She asked.
"Better, I think." I said looking at her.
"Well come up to breakfast then, Danny." Jazz said.
"Alright." I looked at the girl one more time, and then followed Jazz up the stairs.
"So, how was the hunting last night?" I asked no one in particular as I got some scrambled eggs.
While I was at the stove, I saw a ghost sitting in the cabinet. It was the Crate Ghost, he wasn't much of a threat, but he definatly didn't belong in the kitchen. I powered up my finger with ghost energy and blasted him.
"Ow!" He yelled. "You will not get me next time! I am the CRATE GHOST!" He bellowed as he flew off.
"That phantom." My dad spat. "I almost got him!" He sighed, completly oblivious to what had just happened.
"You will get him next time." I smiled, just like I did every other time my dad suffered a major defeat.
I sat down and looked around, just like every other time I'd fought a ghost using my power, no one had noticed.
"Mother shot his leg." Jazz said, basically summing up the whole evening. My leg stung as the memory came back to me, and I involuntarily rubbed it.
"He seems to be getting even stronger, we are going to have to start working harder." My mom said.
"You can help us, Son!" My dad said. "You are one of the village's best fighters." He added.
"No thanks, Dad. I do not really like staying up late." I said.
"What do you mean? You are always gone off somewhere when we go bed," He pointed out. I just shrugged.
"I am going back downstairs." I said standing up.
Five days later, the girl stirred for the first time.
I was sitting by her side, it was around noon. I heard her sigh, and I looked towards her with wide eyes.
I watched as she turned to her side. Then she whimpered and reached out for something.
Her hand touched my cheek, and she opened her eyes.
End: Chapter One
Cha! There it be. Whether it was good or not, you tell me! Please leave me a review telling me what you think. I'll probably submit the second chapter, even if I don't get that many reviews, but I'm not sure where the story's going, so I might need ideas to push me along eventually, you see?
Thanks for reading!