Thank you all so much for reading and reviewing and everything and ugh, you're all amazing. Thank you, again to tumblr user scrollingdown, and I hope you all enjoy the second chapter to this lil au.
Chapter 2
I was white knuckling the blankets on my bed, trying desperately to ignore the smell. That beautiful, rich. delicious smell. It wafted up into my room from the lab, teasing me. I had half a mind to just run down there and rip whatever ghost Mom and Dad had dragged from the Ghost Zone apart and shove it down my throat.
My stomach gurgled at the idea.
I don't even like ghosts. They were a major part of my life because of my parents, but I'm not even interested in them. I'm more into astronomy. The study of stars and planets and galaxies and everything out there in space…
Either way, I have no interest in ghosts, but as soon as Mom and Dad caught their first one, all I can think about is going down there and devouring whatever poor ghost they captured.
It's been a week since Mom and Dad opened that ghost portal. They haven't taken us down there to see it yet, for 'safety reasons'. Apparently, the last time they tried this it blew up on a friend of theirs.
My fingers haven't gotten used to having claws shoved up inside them. They were actually pretty useful when I had to open up a new package of ear buds. Those containers are impossible to get open without a knife. But touching something is still pretty awful. Taking notes and doing homework, even playing video games, everything felt like something was stabbing the insides of my fingers. They can't stop growing either. They break really easily, I broke two when I opened that ear bud container, but they're getting really long. I may have to cut them soon.
The fangs are still gone, thankfully, but they feel like they're coming back, which is impossible, right? But I can feel it, right up in the little pocket right behind my top incisor teeth, something is coming down, something solid
Sighing, I buried my head under my pillows and tried to ignore the tantalizing smell coming from beneath the floorboards. I don't know how long I laid there, just trying to feel normal. Is this what they meant when they said I'd feel different with puberty? Because that was a bit of an understatement.
I heard footsteps tromping up the stairs, the floorboards creaking underneath the weight of whoever it was. The footfalls were too heavy to be Jazz or Mom, so it had to be Dad.
His steps slowed to a stop right outside my door. He knocked on my door lightly.
"Danny boy, come on down and see the portal. We've got it stabilized so it's safe to come down."
I sighed, burrowing my head into my pillows even further. If I didn't go down they'd wonder why, and when they wonder why, they investigate, and if they investigate, they worry. They don't need to know about this. Any of this.
"Sure, Dad. Be right down." I said. I sat up, groaning. I would have to keep a strong hold of myself. I didn't exactly want to actually go up there and rip some poor ghost apart and eat it, no matter how much I actually did kinda want to do that.
I rolled off of my bed and staggered out of my room. The smell got stronger with every step, along with the urge to go and commit an act of horrible violence.
I lumbered down the steps to the basement, I felt my heart pulse beneath my chest, my blood rushing through my veins. Shivers ran up my spine and a cold feeling settled in the pit of my stomach.
When I finally reached the lab, the feeling was overwhelming. I needed to find a ghost and eat it. My parents were at the other end of the lab, standing over a lab table, a gaping hole in the wall echoing with green energy. Jazz stood off to the side, an annoyed expression on her face.
Dad looked up at me and grinned. "Danny! Are you ready to see the ghost portal?"
"Yeah." I smiled meekly and approached the portal, feeling numb. Jazz threw up her arms and huffed.
"I need to go to the library. I'm out." She ran up the steps and out of the lab. Mom smirked a little and sighed.
"Well, Danny, it looks like it's just you. We caught a ghost earlier today. Can you believe it, an actual ghost?" That's right. My parents, the professional ghost hunters, had apparently never seen a ghost. Their entire career is just one big leap of faith.
She kept talking, but I couldn't hear her over the voice in my brain telling me to launch myself into the ghost portal and eat everything in sight.
I gazed into the pleasantly swirling rings of green energy, watching waves rise and fall, rivulets curling in and out of the grassy colored abyss of the Ghost Zone. It felt like it was calling me, and I honestly wanted to go. A voice pulled me out of my reverie.
Danny?
"Danny?" I broke my stare at the portal with difficulty and looked over at Mom. She was looking at me curiously and holding a slim, steel thermos in her hand. "Are you listening?"
"Yeah Mom." I lied. She smiled at me and continued talking.
"Anyway, we built this table here a few years ago, in preparation for this. The strap sizes are adjustable, so we can have almost any size ghost pinned down here. The whole thing is phase-proofed and strong enough that a ghost couldn't break it. We're gonna strap this little baby on there and…" I stopped listening again. The thermos she was twirling in her hand smelled amazing. Even better than the ghost portal. It smelled like fresh squeezed lemons in a newly cleaned kitchen, green beans sizzling in a saucepan and pop being poured out of a can. It wasn't so much a smell, as it was a sensation. It did smell wonderful, but it felt like more than that.
I felt something heavy hit my back and was pushed out of my thoughts again. Dad stood over me, one hand on my back and a huge, toothy grin on his face. He was looking over at Mom, who was aiming the thermos at the lab table she'd been talking about.
"Ready? Three, two, one, and-" A beam of shining, white light poured out of the thermos, illuminating the dimly lit lab. A scream echoed out of the thermos, and with it came a small, green rat-like creature.
My mind went blank. I couldn't think, couldn't move. The world was as blinding white as the bathroom, unsullied with blood.
Danny!
I felt the fangs that I'd spent so long ripping out, tear through the still sensitive roof of my mouth. The tips of my fingers erupted into pain as the claws were forced out of their retracted position and out into the open. I could feel hot, red blood ooze from my fingers and mouth, but I didn't care.
The only thing I could see clearly was the ghost, its eyes widened in fear.
I felt so hungry.
It didn't take any time for me to get to the rat. One second, I was standing halfway across the room, and the next I'm sinking my teeth into its flesh, injecting it with the toxin in my fangs, waiting patiently for it to stop struggling against the grip of my claws, waiting to eat it.
I'm so sorry, Danny!
The white world went black. The edges of my vision blurred, turning the gored rat into a big mess of , I felt the whole world slip away, my eyes sliding shut.