Chapter 4

shock (n): a sensation of pleasure or pain caused by something unexpected or overpowering.

...

"Danny, calm down!" Sam hissed at him as he paced his room. They, along with Tucker, had retreated to his house after the three recovered from what happened at school.

He glared at her. "I just fell through a locker. How can I be calm?"

"Because you don't want your parents to hear you." Her voice was harsh, but it got through to him. With all the excitement, he had forgotten about that. He gave her an apologetic look as she finally got him to sit down on his bed.

He put his head in his hands and sighed. This wasn't something that he could just explain away with a normal explanation. Did that meant that all of the weird things and his worse-than-usual klutziness that he had just shrugged off earlier were related? It was definitely a scary possibility. What was happening to him?

"Hey, what else happened?" Tucker's voice brought him out of his thoughts. "I mean, it was clear that something was up in science. It's related, right?"

He frowned as he looked at his best friend. Should he tell them? He really didn't want to. It was his problem after all, and if he was afraid, they would probably be too. But, they hadn't run away in terror yet… or in fear of their mental health.

No one said anything for a moment; it was clear that they were waiting for his answer. He sighed and was trying to find words, any words, when a strange feeling over came him. It was almost like part of his body went numb on him, and it was combined with the sensation of sinking. Looking down, he realized that he was beginning to slowly sink into his bed. "H-HELP!" It came out as an urgent stammer.

Just as he began to panic and flail, his friends grabbed him, and pulled in out of the bed. "Thanks…" he said as he glanced back at the bed; it was solid.

"This is getting freaky… How'd you do that?" Tucker asked him. There was a slight hint of fear in his voice.

He shook his head as he uselessly moved his hands. "I… I don't know! The only thing I do know is that it feels really strange!" A sigh escaped his lips. "…At least I didn't fall through the floor again." He winced as he spoke since it didn't sound any better when he said it out loud.

"You 'fell through the floor'!" his friends demanded as they got into his face. He hadn't expected that reaction, so he actually stumbled away from them.

"Look!" he said angrily as he caught himself. "This is probably just some strange illness or something! I'm sure it'll pass in a few days."

Sam raised an eyebrow. "An illness that makes you fall through things? Sorry, if I don't quite believe you." Her tone clearly stated that she was starting to get mad.

"Well, what else could it be?"

"I don't think you're sick either," Tucker said as he looked up from his PDA and held it out in front of him. That caused him and Sam to take a break from their stare down. "I just did a quick search to see if it was possible that a disease could make someone phase through stuff, and all it came back with was ghost stories!"

An eerie silence fell over them for a moment before Sam and Tucker looked at him. Their expressions told him exactly what was on their mind. "You don't really think… I mean, that's impossible!" he told them, not liking the way they were looking at him.

"How else can you explain this?" Sam demanded.

"But ghosts don't exist!"

"Dude, your parents are professional ghost hunters," Tucker pointed out.

He glared at him. "So? They've never actually seen one!"

"That doesn't mean they don't exist!"

"But ghost are dead!" he snapped. "Do I look like I'm dead?"

An awkward pause answered the question. "Of course not!" Sam told him quickly after a moment, hoping to calm him down. "It was just an idea, but you got to admit, this is definitely something that's bordering on 'paranormal'."

"I agree, especially considering how you looked coming out of that portal," Tucker added, which caused him to glare at him. "What? You were pretty ghostly looking!"

"I don't look like that now, do I?" he demanded. That had been the one thing he had almost forgotten, and he wasn't too happy that it was brought back up. Although that was the one thing about this whole mess that he didn't quite believe, just thinking about it sent a chill through his body.

He took a deep breath to relax before he spoke again. "Look, I'll admit that something's wrong, but I don't buy this 'ghost' thing for a moment. This is probably just some illness, or maybe even a side effect from the portal or a substance from another crazy invention."

Sam gave a thoughtful look. "Well, that is a possibility… but do you really think that could happen?"

"When it comes to the things my parents come up with, who knows," he answered with a shrug.

"If that's the case, would your parents know how to help?" Tucker asked.

He shook his head violently. "NO!" It came out louder than he had wanted, which made his friends stare at him. He caught himself. "What am I going to say to them? 'Hey, I accidently turned the portal you told me not to touch it, and now I'm starting to fall through things'. That's just going to get me in trouble, and they're not going to believe me anyways."

Sam scoffed at him. "They'd believe you if you showed them!"

That set him off. "Show them?" he repeated angrily. "And how am I supposed to do that? I can't control this! It's not like I can look at my arm, concentrate, and put it through the wall!" He glared at his friends, half daring them to respond.

It was only when he noticed that they had made no attempt to speak when he realized that something was wrong. He glanced nervously at both of them, who were definitely looking spooked. What happened this time? "Wh-what's wrong…?"

Tucker pointed at him. "Your… your eyes!"

Hesitantly, he turned around and looked at himself in the mirror on his dresser, not knowing what to expect. In the mirror he saw his reflection, only instead of having eyes of baby blue, they were a shocking green color. No! That can't be right! Those were the same eyes from the accident! They weren't his!

He stumbled backwards and held his head. Although falling through things was definitely not normal, he could handle it. Now his appearance was starting to change, and this was just too much. Everything was starting to spin out of control.

He glanced again at the mirror, expecting to see the stranger with the white hair, but instead he just saw himself, the way that he always looked. This was just too much.

"Danny… you have got to calm down!" Sam told him, slowly approaching him and indicating for him to sit on the bed. "Getting so worked up isn't going to fix anything! It might even make all of this worse."

"Uh, Sam, if you haven't noticed, I'm a teenager. There's no switch I can press to magically turn my emotions off," he told her dryly. "And now, to make it worse, I have some strange disease that I don't understand."

"Ugh! The only thing wrong with you is that attitude!" she snapped. "We're trying to help you, and this is the thanks we get? If you haven't noticed yet, you're making this worse!"

"…!" He was going to argue, but the words just got stuck. She was right, at least about the helping part. She and Tucker were his best friends, and they were concerned about him. It wasn't right for him to make this harder on them. "I'm sorry…" he finally admitted in a defeated voice. "It's just…"

It's just… was he really sick? Something was telling him that this wasn't that simple, and he didn't actually feel sick, other than that chill. Even though he didn't want to admit that, he was definitely beginning to wonder what was really wrong. The word 'ghost' kept coming into his mind. There was no way that could be the answer. They didn't exist, and even if they did, he certainly wasn't dead. But did he die…?

That was the real question. Tucker had told him that he hadn't been breathing, and he wasn't when he first woke up. But, he was breathing now. Then there was his heartbeat; that was something he couldn't forget. What did it mean? He was so confused.

"Well… since you aren't going to tell your parents, I guess the only thing we can do is see what happens," Sam told him. She was still mad, but there wasn't as much of an edge to her voice. "Maybe something else will happen that will give us a better clue."

"Something else…!" His voice was definitely alarmed. That was a possibility that he didn't want to think about.

"Do you have a better idea?"

"No…"

"And I'll try to do some more research for you," Tucker added. "Maybe there's something I missed."

"Thanks…" He looked around at his best friends. They were trying to help and comfort him, and although he appreciated it, it wasn't making him feel any better. He wanted to know what was wrong, not wait and see what other unpleasant surprises were in store for him. But, in truth, that's all he could do.

Two quick reminders. My classes have started again, so updates are going to be sporadic. And again, I'm trying to make this a more gradual realization, so it's not progressing as quickly as it could. I don't like rushing things; they don't flow as nicely.