Yes, this is what I was working on earlier on and finished ages ago. I am just now releasing it because it is the beginning of October and hence the "scary month". It's classified as "horror" but I'm not too good at that. In any case, I first started thinking of this after reading Nylah's The House, which is REALLY scary, by the way. You should read it if you have the stomach for it. Enjoy this first chapter.

Read and review kindly please. This story is rated "T" for a reason.

DISCLAIMER: I don't Danny Phantom but a few of the characters in this story are my own.

Chapter 1: The Demon

Danny Fenton was running. Running from what? He didn't know. All he knew was that he was running from something. Again.

It was one of those times that made a part of him wish that he could hide behind his parents. But another part of him, the more resilient and stubborn part, was like, "No. You can't. It's too dangerous. Even they can't handle this."

What was "this"?

Danny didn't know. All he knew was that it was dangerous. And hungry.

He pounded through another alley, not wanting to go ghost as that…thing could sense his ghost half.

He flashed back to when it had all started by some innocent nightmares. At first, it had been minor with just some bad dreams about minor ghosts attacking. He always woke up just when the ghosts in question were about to attack. The only weird thing about the experience was that he woke up feeling like he had actually fought the battle instead of lying in bed asleep. It got worse after that. Soon the ghosts he was fighting in his dreams ended up killing innocent people and he could do nothing to help. Then the worst nightmares arrived. His older and evil future self appeared and killed off everyone dear to him once again.

But that was he thought. It turned out that those nightmares hadn't even been the cherry. What really took everything into a new perspective was the fact that his sleep was then being haunted by a sinister shadow that killed everyone around in the bloodiest ways possible. Even bloodier than what his older self had done.

He shook his head, trying to clear it from the mental images.

The silence around him pressed down heavily, making him feel like he was being boxed in. But his own breathing sounded terribly loud to him. He was sure that even if his ghost half didn't give him away, his erratic breathing would.

Danny barely spared a glance to inspect his new surroundings. He was now in an old, abandoned factory. The teen pelted up a flight of stairs before turning into a room filled with various machines.

He breathed heavily, trying to find a way out of the predicament he had found himself in. Finding nothing else, he squeezed into a small niche between a machine and the wall. Danny figured he could always turn intangible if things got ugly.

His breathing quieted down as he listened for the monster that was chasing him. Maybe it hadn't noticed where he'd gone.

Danny breathed a mental sigh of relief as that possibility occurred to him. But barely a few seconds passed before he felt something.

An oppressive feeling of darkness was closing in around him. Danny's breathing picked up once again as he realized that it was here.

He heard it next. Alarmed, he pressed himself deeper into the niche as its eerie voice sent chills down his spine.

"Ghost boooyyy," it moaned in a breathy and growly voice. "Come out come out wherever you aarre."

Danny could almost imagine it inspecting room, sending its tendrils of darkness into corners otherwise unreachable before retreating. He hoped fervently it wouldn't discover him.

However, he soon felt something dark and sneaky creep up on him before he could do anything. He felt it squeeze him once before leaving and he knew he'd been found.

"Found yooouuu," the monster hissed. "Why don't you just come out, ghost boy?"

'Just my luck that I had to be out patrolling,' Danny thought, keeping his lips pressed shut. 'No one knows I'm here.' His breath caught in his throat as he registered what had just crossed his mind. 'No one knows I'm here.'

"If you won't come out, I'll make you," the shadow growled.

Unwanted images flashed across Danny's mind.

Sam, lying on the ground with her face as pale as death. A knife was in her chest and blood lay splattered on the ground around her body.

Tucker, hanging from the ceiling. His face was twisted into a grimace as the rope that had taken away his life continued to dig into his dark skin.

Jazz, lying some distance away from Sam with half her head blown out. A gun rested in her hand.

Jack's and Maddie's charred remains leaned against a wall. The only way to tell it actually had been them was because of the remnants of their brightly colored jumpsuits. Some blown up ecto-guns were scattered amongst them.

Danny's head began to spin as a result of the gruesome images flashing through his mind. Tears formed and threatened to spill as he saw another image of a mutilated Sam. His breathing became faster and faster as he began to panic.

Danny gritted his teeth and cried out, "Get. Out. Of. My. HEAD!!" His whole body pulsed green as he threw off the tendrils belonging to the shadow that had wrapped around him. A bluish-white ring formed around his waist and split, revealing a black jumpsuit with white gloves, boots, belt, and collar. A DP symbol was displayed on the chest.

Danny panted heavily as he floated upwards from his hiding space. He had not meant to transform but his adrenaline surge from casting off the shadow's influence had wrought it.

"You show yourself finally, ghost boooyyy," the shadow hissed.

"What do you want?" Danny assumed a flee-or-fight pose.

"Yooouuu," the shadow answered.

"What are you?" Danny tried to swallow his nerves but failed miserably. He whispered the next bit. "What do you want with me?"

"Foood," the shadow whispered in a long drawn-out hiss. "What do you think I am, ghost boy?"

Danny's eyes widened and he tried to quiet the tremble in his voice. "A monster."

"Close guesss," the monster—demon—growled. It crept forwards and began to surround the visibly scared half-ghost.

'It's a demon straight out from hell.' Danny's breathing quickened once more as he saw its tendrils approach him. 'I can't let it catch me.'

His body turned into a bluish see-through form and he melted through the ceiling, leaving a maddened demon in his wake.

'Run, run, run.'

Danny transformed back so the shadow wouldn't sense his ghostly energies.

'Run, run, run.'

His heart was threatening to burst out of his chest as he pelted down a staircase.

'Why did I go out on patrol?' Danny chanced a glance behind him and sped up when he saw some familiar tendrils sneaking up on him. 'I've never been so scared before in my life.'

"Always runniiiing."

Danny screeched to a halt. His eyes widened as the monster that had been chasing him materialized before him, taking on some semblance of a corporeal form.

The young half-ghost took a step back in horror as the dark figure before him took a step closer to him and grinned. Every one of its teeth was filed to a point and where its eyes should've been were only hollows.

"Why don't you fight?"

"What are you?" Danny asked again in a hoarse voice. He was unable to get his throat to cooperate.

"Deeemon," the thing hissed, confirming Danny's suspicions. It crouched down and held out a clawed hand to the petrified teen.

"Wh-what do y-you want?" Danny stammered.

"Yoouuu." The answer didn't exactly make Danny feel better.

"Wh-why?" He felt stupid. Here he was, staring down a bloodthirsty monster and all he could do was ask questions.

"Your blooood," the demon whispered.

"Well, sorry!" Danny said with a defiance he didn't feel. "That's not gonna happen anytime soon!"

Despite what his instincts were screaming at him not to do, Danny transformed into Danny Phantom. He immediately got a bad feeling as the demon grinned at him.

He didn't know why until he felt a piercing pain in his side. He looked down to see a shadow tendril piercing his jumpsuit, a pool of ectoplasmic blood spilling down from the wound.

Danny gritted his teeth and pulled out it out, hissing in pain as he did so. More ecto-blood hit the floor.

"This…didn't hurt me when I was human," Danny said, placing a hand over the wound.

"Of cooouuurssse," the demon said. "My beauties only hurt ghosts and spiiiritsss. Now I can destroy yooouuuu."

"Great going, Fenton," Danny muttered as more tendrils snuck towards him. "It wanted you to transform so it could drink your blood."

"Drink your blood?" The thing sounded amused. "Noooo. What I have in mind for you is much more…intricaaate."

"That does not make me feel better." Danny bent his knees. "I should listen to my instincts more often."

The halfa took a wary step backwards but instantly regretted it as he felt more tendrils sneak around his ankles. Reflexively, he started floating.

"Are you going to fight nooow?" The thing grinned.

Danny took a breath to steady himself. "Ever heard of how bad fighting is?" His friend Sam crossed his mind. "In fact, running away is almost better!" With that said, the ghost boy turned tail and fled.

"YOU CAN'T ESCAPE ME, GHOST BOY!!" The monster's harsh cry resounded through the building.

"I am so dead." Danny gulped and poured on the speed, phasing through floor after floor in a mad attempt to get away.

"You can't escape meee." Danny skidded through the air as the shadows before and around him collected and spiraled upwards to form a cloaked figure, its red eyes glinting. Shapes still crawled over the cloak and the edges of it went into the ground and fanned out, tendril waving creepily.

Danny's voice sounded hollow to his ears. "You a shape shifter or something?" His mouth was dry and his breathing ragged. This new shape scared him more than the last.

It chuckled. It was a deep, throaty sound that sent shivers down Danny's spine. "The great Danny Phaaantooom." Its red eyes narrowed. "You're nothing but a pathetic chiiild."

"So?" It was all Danny could get out. Fear continued to constrict his lungs and made it hard to breathe.

"But a child with energyyy." Danny heard something that sounded like cracking. "Lovelyyy."

"Wh-what does m-my energy have t-to do with y-you?" Danny hoped he hadn't sounded stupid. That cracking sound was disturbing him.

"Use your braaiiin." Danny thought he saw teeth. "Deelicioussss energyyy."

"You want to eat me?" Danny said, horrified.

This time Danny really did see teeth. All of them were filed to a point. "You to find out; me to know," it replied silkily.

"I'm not going to let you," Danny said with as much bravado as he could muster.

"You don't have a choooicccce," it hissed.

"You always do," Danny retorted. He realized he had heard/read that phrase before. But where? He pushed that matter out of his head. It wasn't important.

"Not this tiiiime." The tendrils of its cloak started coming out of the ground. Danny couldn't repress a gasp as the concrete was literally ripped apart.

'That explains the cracking,' he thought.

"Any last wooordssss?" the demon whispered, the shadowy cloak spreading out like two demonic hands.

Danny's hands flared green, lighting up his surroundings and casting an eerie shadow of himself. "Yeah," he answered. "I'm not going down without a fight."

Immediately, the cloak attacked. The swampy darkness rushed towards the ghost boy, threatening to drown him. Just in time, Danny threw up a brilliant green dome around him and shielded himself from the dark.

The light swallowed the dark up, leaving smoke in its wake. The distraction allowed Danny to retaliate by firing his own rays of ectoplasmic energy. The two beams hit his foe spot on much to Danny's satisfaction. His eyes then widened as a hole formed and his dual attack passed harmlessly through.

"Crud," he muttered, taking to the air. His white gloves still glowed green. "Time to kick it up a notch," he declared, his electric green eyes flaring.

Despite his tough appearance, Danny was terrified. He knew that what he was facing wasn't a normal ghost and the ruthlessness with which it threw its attacks scared him, too. Only two ghosts he had faced had fought like this and luckily, they were both out of commission.

"Feissstyyy," the demon said softly. "You will do veeeryyy weeeell."

Danny blanched and ducked a tendril. "Gross. You're talking about me like I'm an appetizer."

Danny could see teeth again. "No appetiiizeeer. You are the maaaiiin cooourssse."

"And for dessert?" the halfa quipped, his heart thundering in his ears. 'I'm so going to get busted for that. Why don't I just shut up now?'

The red eyes glinted. "Think you're cleveeeer?"

Before Danny could stop himself, he had retorted out of habit. "Why no but if you say so I'll take it!" Danny winced. 'Me and my stupid mouth!'

Without a word, the cloaked shadow attacked. Its darkness slammed into Danny head on and he barely had time to turn intangible before he slipped through the wall. He flew through several walls and floors before managing to push the approaching darkness away. Danny flipped over backwards and landed, sliding to a halt. His breathing was erratic and he had cuts all over, courtesy of his intangibility not working properly on the demon.

He waited anxiously for several minutes but didn't hear or see anything beyond the ordinary. Just when he thought the thing wasn't coming after him anymore, the whole wall literally exploded. Danny covered his face instinctively while switching to intangibility. The dark cloak of the demon spread outwards, swallowing everything around Danny in darkness. When the ghost boy uncovered his face, he found that he was completely surrounded by the monster. Its hooded form stood before him, red eyes glinting evilly. The ends of its cloak were around both of them, leaving them in a sea of writhing darkness.

"Nowhere to ruuun," it whispered; "nowhere to hiiiide. What are you going to doooo?"

Danny gulped. "Not…run." His voice sounded hoarse as he said it.

"Wiiiise mooove." It didn't move. The only things that were moving were the tendrils of its cloak.

'It's my only option.' Danny's breath was shallow as he tried to prepare himself for an ugly battle. The only problem was he wasn't sure if he was up to it.

"Read to diiie?" The cloak was moving more erratically.

Danny tried to sound brave. "Not quite. Let's do this, creepy." His hands started flaring green.

"Glaaadly." Now the cloaked form of the demon opened, sending a torrent of darkness towards Danny.

In turn, Danny put his hands together and started forming an attack of his own. The two were just about to collide when something happened.

"AAAARGH!"

Danny watched in amazement as the demon started writhing in obvious pain, stopping just before attacking. Letting his own attack die, he watched as the darkness around him dissipated slowly, withdrawing to the demon.

'What's going on?' His question was answered when he saw the sun shining over the buildings of Amity Park and into the ravaged room they were in. The light was eating away at the darkness until there was nothing left.

Danny was left alone in the building, the empty and destroyed windows letting the gorgeous sun in. It was over. But what about the next night? He didn't know if he could last another night with that thing.

What was he going to do?

I could've first finished the story at this cliffhanger. But I thought better of it and developed three more chapters. If I remember, I'll post each on a Wednesday. REVIEW please!