Warning: I know that they, especially Sam, seem more immature than what people usually write. However, I wanted to start the story off here, as close to the characters in the series as I could make it, with a few quirks I wanted to add in. They're still fourteen right now. Also, you should know that after this chapter, the style is going to be dramatically different, and more - well - horror based. This will be a relatively short story, I think. Probably not more then ten chapters.
I hereby officially disclaim what must be disclaimed, namely Danny Phantom and Co.
That being said, I hope you enjoy my story.
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It was a lazy and cool Sunday afternoon in Amity Park. Those not at home doing homework for the next day, or preparing dinner, were beginning to file out of stores as open signs blinked out down the main road. With summer gone, it was too cool for ice cream treats and visits to the community pool, and no scantly clad girls were making their way home either, much to the disappointment of two teenage boys unenthusiastically trailing behind their goth friend after just leaving the town's only theater. With her gruesome retellings of the horror flick the boys had just endured, the goth had completely destroyed any sense of comfort they held earlier that day.
"Did you guys see that part where he just came swooping in with the ax and the girl fell and screamed, and-it was awesome-there was blood everywhere, and those girls at the front of the theater fainted!" Sam took a breath as her two best friends looked at each other wearily and vaguely nauseated. "Why were those norms so close to the screen anyway? Anddidyouguysseehowhergutsjus-"
"SO, DANNY!" Tucker interrupted, tired of Sam gushing, "Have I told you about this new upgrade I got for my PDA last week? It's pretty sweet!"
Danny nodded, willing to hear Tucker rave about his technology for the fourth time that day if it meant not having to listen about that one scene where the guy was trying to protect his girlfriend and then the bad guy came in with a chainsaw and-"I'm not thinking about this. I'm not thinking about this. I almost puked in the theater, I. Will. Not. Do. That. Here."
"Come on you guys, it was cool. And morbid. And dark. And really, really gory. What's not to like?"
Tucker rolled his eyes, "The 'morbid ,' 'dark,' and 'really, really gory,' obviously." He glanced over at Danny. "You okay, man? You look a little pale."
"Yeah… Um… Good. Fine, yeah…" Danny looked away, slouched over and dragging his feet. "IwillnotIwillnotIwillnot!"
Sam paused, and studied him briefly. Concerned, she asked, "Are you okay? You're not feeling sick from the movie, are you?"
"I'm, uh, fine," he picked at some loose threads on his shirt's hem.
"You fight ghosts all the time, and I've seen you really beaten up. That movie can't even compare," Tucker reasoned. "Besides we've snuck into some pretty brutal movies before."
"I mean, I guess. But, I don't know. It's not the same. We don't bleed, really. It's just ectoplasm," he tried to explain. "And there was that one scene that just didn't sit right with me."
"Tucker's got a point, Danny. A movie can't compare to the things you've dealt with. We've seen some pretty scary things." Sam looked away, her eyes lighting back up again in that unnatural fangirlish way that most people know isn't quite normal, or healthy for that matter.. "And wouldn't it be awesome to be in one anyway? We'd kick the bad guy's butt, because you're such a good fighter, Danny, and we'd be the heroes at the end!"
"No, not rea-"
"And it would be so dark and mysterious, and we'd have to do all of this detective stuff. It'd be so noir-"
Suddenly Danny, began to feel a shiver-
"-and I wish we could do something as cool as that. Show my parent's what I can handle."
-and he exhaled blue mist.
Sam gasped, eyes wide in shock. She had just made the worst word choice in history. Again.
Laughter impossibly echoed around them, as things became darker, colder.
And… The world… Just… Stopped.