The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.
-Unknown
It felt like it took hours to scrub his face clean of blood and possible infection. His lip was busted pretty badly, as was his tounge, but his eye was by far the worst. The black and purple ugly mark stood out like a light in the dark, his pale skin blending only at the edges that had turned a sickly yellow. Danny had no idea if he should put a eyepatch or run water over it, but he decided to leave his natural healing to take over.
Getting a book thrown at you 5 minutes into school didn't really make a day any better than it could have been. He bitterly kicked off his shoes and exited the bathroom, his feet slipping slightly on the tile.
On the first step up the stairs he heard it. It sounded like pounding feet, like someone had run from one place to another upstairs. The sound promptly stopped as along with his silence. Both stood perfectly still, or what he presumed was someone else.
It took a while, but eventually he had himself convinced that it was just his imagination. Danny continued up the stairs, his hands still damp, creating a strange lack of friction along the rail. He paused at the top step, wondering what the sound was.
Danny started down the hall, a sense of forbidding filling him. His socks squeaked gently against the floor and he heard a muffled "Shit." from behind his door.
He slowed instantly, reaching to the side and grabbing a vase from a pedestal like indent in the wall. As tasteless as his house seemed every now and then they had managed to convince their parents to add a decoration. It seemed it also was sturdy enough to hold a job of a single use bat, something Danny was really okay with using at the moment.
Panic held his chest, his breath quickening into shallow puffs of air. What if the intruder had a gun? Would he die? Should he just run back down the stairs and call the police? The person already knew he was here with how creaky the stairs were, so he doubted he would have the time to call the police.
Danny stared at his door, silent as he could be, watching some shadow pass under the door. He held his breath for what seemed like hours. Time stood still.
Yelling at the top of his lungs, Danny burst threw the door and threw the vase at the nearest moving thing, which happened to be a dumb video playing on his computer. He watched in shock as the vase smashed directly into his monitor, the picture of a cat fizzing out one last time. The monitor sparked before dieing out.
"I was watching that, bro." Came a disgruntled voice. Danny turned and threw both his fists up as if he was about to fight whoever this was, but his jaw and fists dropped the moment he recognized the person. Said person sat on his bed, hands up in a universal "chill" sign.
"I don't remember hating cat videos that much..." Dann- the other Danny pondered out loud. Original Danny stared in disbelief, moving his hands wildly to see if the almost reflection of him would copy. Said reflection just snorted.
"Wh- what the hell?" Danny shrieked, rushing backwards only to bump into a closed door. "Who the hell are you?"
"Well, genius, if you must know, my names Daniel Fenton, though I prefer to go by Danny, but seeing as we both share that I guess one of us is going to have to go home and change." The slightly taller version of himself snarked back, eyeing his face suspiciously.
"Didn't Dash do that? With, uh, a laptop or something?"
"His history book." Danny replied spacely. He couldnt believe what was happening. What sort of trick was this? Even worse, what if this wasn't a trick? How could this even happen? Was he the first time traveler? Why would he have to time travel in the first place? Wh-
"Yeah, I get your probably confused as heckery, but-" Daniel started off, only to be cut off by his 14 year old self.
"Heckery?" He asked, his voice gaining a little spark again.
"Listen- now isn't the time for you to be judging my cursing, but-" Future Danny froze, his eyes widening with sudden realization.
"Woah woah woah waaait." His hands slid up into his hair and his eyes made intimidatingly good contact with Present Danny's. Former boy shifted backwards, even more uncomfortable, breaking the eye contact abruptly.
"W-what?"
"What's the date again?"
Danny's legs shook with sudden adrenaline. This was such a surreal moment in his life and he was certain he was going to wake up any moment now. "April 12th?"
"No, dimwit, what's the year?" Future asked, stepping forward and dropping both hands. His face was contorted in annoyance and anger, giving the slightly unshaven boy a scary look. Danny realised how strong the older boy looked and how easily this future self could kill him. If needed. His legs quaked harder.
"2014?"
Future Danny stared at him for a moment, his face clouded. Original inched his hand to the doorknob, his eyes unfocusing in the adrenaline rush.
"Why now? Your no use to me! You couldn't help! What the hell, Clockwork?" Future's voice rose in anger and volume to the point that his last word was spat so venomously his past self flung the door open and darted out. Future stood stock still for a moment before cursing under his breath and following the original at a slower pace.
Present Danny skidded down the hallway, his hands grabbing another hard vase and holding on for dear life. He flew down the stairs, taking it three at a time and almost losing his footing several times. His lungs cried for air and he heard footsteps following him.
He was finally downstairs, his feet carrying him to the kitchen where he grabbed the home phone off its receiver and burst threw the back door. He continued to run and ducked behind a large bush, uncomfortably close to the window.
"Jazz? Yes? Hello, hi, I need you here like, now, because either I've lost a lotta blood and I'm hallucinating pretty bad or like, there's a angry buff future version of myself and said future me said I was no longer any use to him and is probably after my blood." Danny rambled quickly, his mind suddenly catching up with his body a few moments later. He noted silently that his foot had a bunch of cuts in it and he was still holding the vase.
The back door creaked open and he watched in mute horror as a less angry Danny walked out. Present Danny clicked the end button on the phone, not listening to Jazz as she yelled threw the receiver and shielded himself from his other self's view.
"Dude, I'm sorry I spooked you but, look-" His future self sighed, throwing his hands up. "You've had to have lost a lotta blood to run that quickly, you need medical help, so come out here?" He tried again.
"I'm sorry I yelled- please don't call the police or something dumb, and just come out here and listen to me for one fucking moment because-"
The vase finally hit its target, shattering into a million tiny shards and knocking the future version out cold. Danny panted raggedly before touching his own face and tasting his own blood.
"Wait.." he slurred, his eyes trailing down to the bloody feet. "Am I overreacting from blood loss?"
The roar of a mini-van suddenly overtook his senses. He glanced up and waved weakly for his sister, his hands gorey on their own. He blinked up at the sun before following suit of his future self and dropping like a fly.
/Rubs hands evily
Okay this was hard to publish because tbh it felt so rushed? But I swear I will make up for it in the next chapter which will be hella lit
Preview?
Chapter 3:
"Yes, I am your kid, and no, I am not a evil demonic entity, I just got a lil mad and bloody boy over there decided to go on a screaming rampage outside, and did I mention he threw a vase at me? I do not remember being that weird I mean honestly."