The once busy, lively streets of Amity Park were now in disarray and vacant. There was no sign of any life left in the city. Houses were in flames and slowly burning to the ground while small patches of now dried brown grass had caught fire as well. Electrical cords had snapped, which most likely started the fires. The buildings downtown were either a pile of cement and metal on the ground or on the brink of collapsing. Pot holes littered the streets and scattered ashes rained down from the sky like a gentle black snow. In short, the town had become the very definition of disaster area.
Among the ruble and destruction sat a young girl, the only survivor of the event it seemed. She sat on her bloody knees, tears streaming down her scratched face, and hugged herself tightly around her chest. She let all this happen. She was to blame. If only she could've defeated the evil before it spread.
Her black hair wisped around in the wind, gently slapping her arms and face. She didn't have the desire to brush the dark locks away. She wasn't really thinking about it to begin with. There were more important things to think about, like when her time to die would come. It would be anytime now, she could already tell.
Along with her hair, a voice traveled with the wind. The heartbroken girl sat stiffly as the quiet, gentle voice reached her ear. It sounded so close. She looked around but she was the only soul left, as she had observed for quite some time. The voice whispered to her again.
"Diana…"
It was louder this time. The girl registered the name; her name. She became more aware of the voice as it got louder, still repeating her name. The voice sounded familiar. After hearing her name being called one more time she finally realized that it was the voice of her father. But that was impossible; he had died along with the others in this catastrophe, the catastrophe that was all her fault. In a sense it was her that had killed them all, not the monster that she let get away. Sure, he had been the one to shed the blood but it was her being too weak to stop him that was the real cause of this.
The thought sent more tears to her eyes. She heard the voice again. The voice sounded louder and persistent this time. She took the hint and slowly stood up. Her aching body yelled at her to sit back down but she ignored the pain in her sore legs and abdomen and rose to her feet. It took a moment to find her balance and recover from her spinning head, but once her dizzy spell had passed she stood tall and listened for the voice again.
Right on cue, the voice whispered in her ear again. Diana looked around the barren wasteland. Up ahead two buildings were still standing and in between them a dark alleyway. The voice was coming from there. Diana commanded her battered body to move and slowly approached the alleyway. She peered down into the darkness hoping to find the source of her caller. But there was no one there.
Finding this strange, she curiously made her way down the alleyway. She looked around but there was nowhere the voice could come from. There was nobody here, not even a rat scurrying along. Diana touched the scorched brick wall and leaned against it, loosing strength again. She closed her eyes and laid her head against the cold building.
Just then a cool wind picked up. Diana's hair blew back around her face and the cold wind sent shivers up her spine.
"Diana."
The voice had returned. Diana looked around but there was still no one in the alleyway except for her. The cold wind blew again and it sent her off balance. She fell to the ground and winced in pain. She glanced ahead of her at the opening to the alleyway she had entered though. The wind blew again and a shadowy figure appeared. In a few seconds it materialized enough to reveal a human silhouette though the figure was still a black shadow with no revealing detail. It blocked the end of the alleyway, trapping Diana in a dead end.
Diana stared at it in fear as the shadowy figure floated closer to her. Its red eyes flashed angrily. The air became ice cold with the shadow's presence.
"You live?" The shadow groaned coldly. "How dare you continue to live!"
Diana's eyes widened. She knew this voice as well, but it wasn't the pleasant, calming voice of her father. No, this was the voice she wanted to forget existed. She knew instantly that this was the monster that she unintentionally let get away. And this terrified her to no end.
The shadowy monster continued to glare at her and snarled. He charged at Diana, sending her straight into the brick wall at the end of the alley. Her head ached at the sudden impact with the brick. She moaned quietly in pain and opened her eyes. The monster had her in his grasp, laughing at her pain.
"The rest of them are dead, your father included," The monster growled. "I let you get away before but not this time." The shadow creature raised a claw to Diana's throat, ready to slice it in a matter of seconds. "This time I have you right where I want you. This time you will die like you were meant to all along."
Diana was unable to move or even scream. The shadow gripped her throat tightly. Diana coughed and choked as she tried to breathe. Screaming was even more out of the question now. She'd die silently, the last of her family. A tear slid silently down her cheek.
I'm sorry, Dad. She thought. I'm sorry.
The shadowy monster clutched her throat tighter and tighter, crushing her windpipe. Diana didn't fight it any longer, there wasn't a point. She'd lost. She felt the razor sharp claws sink into her neck. Bright red blood flowed from the wounds. Diana winced slightly at the pain but then embraced it. She prepared herself for what she knew was the ending of her life. The shadow squeezed Diana's throat until her head was finally cut from her neck. Then her world went black.
I'm sorry…so sorry…
The loud buzzing of Diana Fenton's alarm clock woke her from her sleep. She had the blankets pulled up over her head and her face buried in her pillow. She slowly opened her eyes and glared at her clock. 7:45 am, it blinked at her in bright red numbers. Diana moaned at the early hour it revealed. Ew, Diana thought. She slammed her fist on the alarm clock. When it didn't shut off the first time she pounded on it until it was silent. She whacked the clock off the nightstand and it crashed to her bedroom floor.
Diana slowly sat up in her bed and rubbed her eyes. She then remembered her dream. She shuttered at the images of the shadowy figure that ran through her head. She looked around her room. Multiple movie and rock band posters decorated her walls, covering a layer of faded light blue paint that was added many years ago in Diana's youth. Her desk sat in the corner. Meant for homework, was covered in tossed aside clothes and random things that Diana had long forgotten about, leaving no room for any work to be done at all.
Unwillingly, Diana pulled herself out of her bed and sleepily walked to her closet. A full length mirror was attached to the door and Diana placed a hand on it as she examined herself. Her long raven hair was a mess, as it usually was in the morning, and her half-awake violet eyes had bags under them. But there were no scratches on her face, proving that her nightmare was indeed a nightmare.
The teenage girl sighed as she opened her closet and picked out her clothes for the day. She stripped herself of her light blue crescent moon pajamas and changed into a pair of gray jeans and purple top with a small skull on it.
Now dressed, Diana slowly made her way to the bathroom. She stopped at the sink and splashed her face with cold water. It helped wake her up but didn't quite do the trick. After drying her face off she brushed through her tangled hair. She frowned and winced as she tugged out the tangles. She shook her hair once it was all brushed to get it lying how she liked it. Diana was about to apply her eyeliner when the screeches of her little brother were heard. Diana jumped at this and accidently poked her eye with the eyeliner pencil. "Ow!" Diana cried.
She grabbed a tissue to wipe the stray makeup marks away. She heard approaching footsteps and looked up to see her mother, Samantha. Sam was now holding Diana's now awake baby brother.
Why her parents would ever want another child when they had a teenage daughter that would be out of their hair in a matter of years made no sense to Diana. Though then again, she figured that was what you get for being careless in the bedroom. Then that thought made Diana cringe.
"Good morning." Sam greeted her daughter.
Diana stared, not very amused at her mother. "Uh huh, good…" She groaned as she finished wiping the stray eyeliner marks from her face.
Sam laughed a bit to herself. "Hurry up, you're running late."
"Aren't I always running late?"
"That's true." Sam said. She turned to leave but looked back at Diana. "Breakfast is on the table by the way."
"Uh huh." Diana answered, still a bit groggy. She applied the eyeliner the right way then left the bathroom and headed downstairs.
Indeed, breakfast was set on the table. Immediately Diana figured out that it was her mother that made breakfast this time due to the lack of eggs and sausage. In Diana's spot on the kitchen table sat a plate of toast, a bowl of cereal and an orange. Her father would occasionally make breakfast which would sometimes include eggs and the like. He tried to persuade Sam to at least try to switch over to a non vegetarian diet but to no prevail. After awhile he'd given up but would occasionally tease her about her lifestyle. That usually ended in a smack upside the head.
Whether mom or dad made breakfast, it didn't matter to Diana. Food was food and she ate what she was given.
Just as Diana was finishing her cereal, Sam walked in dressed for work and carrying Diana's brother.
"I'm taking Bill to the babysitter's," Sam told her. "Your father's taking you to school."
"Okay," Diana answered. "He's in the basement I take it?"
Sam nodded. "He's working on another gadget."
"Of course."
Diana had known all her life that her father was the superhero Danny Phantom. When she first started school Diana got some recognition because of who her parents were. But after the other children saw that she herself was nothing special, the praise and amazement stopped. Since Diana could remember, her father worked as a ghost hunter alongside his parents. Danny built a ghost lab of his own in their basement and was usually down there working on ghost hunting equipment either he designed himself or was created by Diana's Grampa Jack and was in need of some tuning.
With the ghost hunting of both her parents, Diana became interested immediately. She was usually not involved with the hunting what with the great concern of her parents. Her safety was what they feared most. They always gave excuses why she couldn't help them fight. When she was a child it was that she was too young. As she grew older it was that they had new equipment she didn't know how to use and never found the time to teach her. When Diana finally figured she was old enough to help them what happened to stop that idea dead in its tracks than the birth of her brother, Bill. Now it was that she had to watch her brother and make sure he wasn't hurt. Of course she knew that both of their safeties meant everything to them but still she felt hurt and left out when she had to stand by and watch.
If she had ghost powers like her father it would be different. They would see that she could fight on her own and take care of herself. They wouldn't worry about her because she could protect herself with her powers. She could help them fight off the ghosts and it would go faster if not smoother. But she didn't have ghost powers. She hated the hard truth. Diana would often wake up in the morning as a child and hope that she would have gained ghost powers that night, that they were just late in showing up. But it never happened and Diana had given up that dream.
Sam grabbed her bag and opened the front door. "Bye, Diana. Have a good day at school."
Diana raised an eyebrow. "Good day at SCHOOL?" She laughed.
Sam laughed with her. "Well, as good of a day as you can have there."
"All right, bye Mom. Bye Billy."
Bill looked over Sam's shoulder and smiled and cooed at Diana. Diana returned the blue eyed toddler's smile and waved to her brother as they walked out the door.
Diana finished up her breakfast then walked downstairs to find her dad. He was sitting at his desk tinkering with an ecto-foamer. She descended the stairs and walked over to him.
"Um, Dad, Mom left for work already and she said for you to take me to school."
Danny looked up from his work. "Oh. Okay. I'll be right up."
"By 'be right up' you mean I'll be up in another hour? I don't really have that much time today." Diana said.
Danny rolled his eyes and dropped the ecto-foamer, now annoyed. "Fine, I'll be up now."
Diana smiled a bit, hoping to get him in a better mood. After seeing her father's face lighten a bit, she climbed the stairs.
She entered the kitchen to gather her things for school. She grabbed her school bag off the floor and pulled on her blue sneakers. Just as she had gotten herself ready, Danny walked into the kitchen and grabbed the car keys from the counter.
Diana frowned at this. "Dad, you know you could always fly me to school."
Danny shook his head. "No, I'll drive you. We have enough time."
"So? You could still fly me."
"I said no, Diana," Danny told her, getting annoyed again. "It'd cause unwanted attention."
Diana groaned. "Fine, whatever."
Danny saw his daughter's pout then walked over to her and patted her on the head. He smiled. "I'll fly you another time." He promised. Danny opened the front door and stepped out.
"Yeah, that's what you said last time." Diana said sadly to herself. She followed him out to the car and got in.
After fifteen speechless minutes, Danny pulled up to the front of Casper High. Diana opened the car door and stepped out. Danny rolled down the car window and waved to her. "Have a good day." He smiled. Diana waved back to him as he drove away.
Diana walked around the school to the football field, her usual meeting spot for her friends. As she approached the bleachers she spotted her three cohorts. Kelly Baxter was the first to notice her arrival.
She smirked in Diana's direction. "Well, well, late as usual." Kelly flipped her blonde ponytail over her shoulder and put her hands on her hips.
"Yeah, yeah, I know. Sorry." Diana mumbled, a bit irritated with Kelly's tone.
"Sleep late again?" asked Michael, Kelly's younger brother.
"Yes, though I've slept in later than this before, remember?" Diana laughed.
The third student, Whittany Foley, adjusted her glasses and looked at Diana. "That's because of your nocturnal sleeping habits. You really should stop that. It's not good to deprive yourself of sleep like that." Whittany said in her usual quiet voice.
Diana rolled her eyes. "Whit, I don't judge you so you don't judge me, okay?"
Whittany stared at her friend a moment, unsure how to answer.
Diana laughed. "I'm just kidding, Whit."
Whittany laughed a bit herself. "Oh, right." She still sounded a bit unsure.
Kelly looked over her shoulder as someone called to her. She waved to one of the football jocks that passed by. She smiled her dreamy daydream smile she always wore when thinking about the guys at Casper.
Diana watched the jock and his group of self-absorbed friends walk away then looked at Kelly. "You've got another one?" She asked unimpressed. "What is that, like, the tenth one this week?"
Kelly grinned. "Close, try eighth."
"Oh gosh…" Diana groaned.
Kelly Baxter was cheerleading captain of the Casper High cheer team and hands down the most popular girl in school, no doubt taking her mother, Paulina's, place at Casper. She could get any guy she wanted all to herself and even the guys she didn't want she could get with a snap of her fingers. Diana extremely disliked Kelly's self obsessed personality sometimes and how they were even friends to begin with was hard to believe. If the Baxter family hadn't lived next door to the Fentons in Diana's youth they would've never known the other existed. The arranged play dates of the Baxter children and Diana were all to blame for their current friendship. How Diana and Kelly were still friends now was mostly because of Kelly's brother Michael. He was sort of like the glue between them. Whenever they'd fight he'd always know how to fix everything. Diana couldn't say that Kelly was her best friend and truth be told both girls grew less fond of each other as the days went by but they stuck together. Their small group of mishmash cliques wouldn't end quite yet, though it was only freshman year and too soon to tell.
Whittany smiled at Diana's reaction. "She's been filling me in all day."
"Me too, unfortunately." Michael groaned.
Diana giggled. "I'm sorry. Hey, are we all still hanging out after school?"
Michael frowned and winced. "Oh, sorry, I can't. I have soccer afterschool. Plus I have to get up for football practice tomorrow morning and I have to get homework done tonight.
Michael Baxter, like his father, Dash Baxter, was very much the athlete. He was in cross country, football and soccer. He was also planning to try out for basketball as well that year. He had always been swamped with sports games and practices since middle school so it was nothing new for any of them. Diana couldn't fathom how he could keep up with two sports at once and manage to get the good grades he somehow always got. Lucky for Michael it wasn't baseball season or he'd have that on his plate too.
The black haired teen pouted at this. "Aw. Well, I guess we could just have a girl's night." She suggested.
Whittany shook her head sadly. "I gotta go to the library after school. I'm working on my science fair project. I'm almost done and I'm on a roll."
Whittany Foley had inherited her smarts from her dad, Tucker. She always aced every class and test she'd ever taken and was constantly reading a book. She also inherited shy, awkward genes from her mother, Sonya's, side. Her mother and father had been high school sweethearts and had been together every since. But Whittany tried not to let her shyness stop her. Having the outgoing Kelly as a friend helped in that field. Kelly would push Whittany into conversations with her popular friends whether she wanted her to or not. Whitanny hated it when Kelly did that but she just couldn't win her battles and figured it best to let Kelly have her fun.
Diana frowned at this too then looked over at Kelly. She wasn't excited by the idea of just the two of them hanging out and apparently Kelly wasn't either.
"Yeah, I've got a thing I gotta get to after school." Kelly answered.
Diana sighed, though a bit relieved by Kelly's decline. "Great. Well, I'll find something to do I guess."
"You could always get started on your homework instead of doing it 5 minutes before it's due." Whittany joked.
Diana didn't see it as much of a joke. "Yeah, no." She plainly replied.
Kelly laughed, though not at what either of the girls had said. "Wow Diana, you really have no life, do you?"
Diana shrugged. "Guess I don't."
"Well you should get one before you disappear into the crowd of nobodies." Kelly warned, smirking.
"I don't think I'd care if that happened." Diana answered.
Kelly just shrugged as the bell rang.
"Well, better get inside." Michael said and made his way toward the school building. His sister followed behind him.
Diana sighed and slowly followed them. Whittany noticed Diana's slow pace and walked next to her.
"Are you alright, Diana?" Whittany asked. "You seem more out of it than usual today. Did you sleep well?"
Diana paused a moment, thinking about the nightmare. "No, I guess I didn't."
Whittany looked at her with concern. "Do you want to talk about it?"
Diana shook her head. "Nothing to say. It was just a dream."
The dark skinned bookworm nodded in understanding. "Well, maybe school will get your mind off of that." Whittany suggested.
Diana groaned. "Right, school's gonna fix everything. That'll be the day."