THERE

He struggled for a moment, but the arms around him were not flinching. They held him with unseen strength, and the boy could barely feel the wind whipping around his body, sending tendrils of white hair around his face. It was then that he noticed his hair was white, not the normal black. Great. Another variable. Another thing he could not control.

Instead, he went limp in the odd man's arms, and thought of the voices. He thought of the fleeting images, and of the small dose of unknown happiness he got from these things. He tried to hold onto the warm, buttery feeling, but it was quickly replaced with a deep bone-chilling cold that he just couldn't break away from.

Finally, the boy could see again. He turned his neck as much as he could and looked around at his surroundings. It was what he saw a few moments ago, before the blue man came and took him out of that godforsaken place. The boy opened his mouth to speak, but the only thing that came out was a high-pitched crack. The blue ghost gave him a quick glance down, before looking forward again. The boy furrowed his brow and tried to move around again. Finding that he still could not move at all, the boy let out a puff of air he was holding. He wiggled some more, then gave up again. This went on for at least another ten minutes until the boy decided to try this 'talking' thing again. He cleared his throat for a good thirty seconds, took a deep breath, and...

"Why are you blue?"

The boy's voice cracked about four times in his first attempted sentence, but the message still got across. Looking back, it wasn't the smartest thing to say. The boy was still a little foggy with the events that just happened to him. The blue person looked down, surprised, with a grimace on his face. "What? Do you think I ask-" After breaking off in mid-sentence, the man's face quickly went through some changes. First, he looked quizzical, then a look of astonishment crossed through it. A look of awe was quickly followed; a wide smile broke out next. What happened next made the boy yelp very, very loud. The man had turned into a child in less than a second. The next second the boy was dropped into the great swirly beyond.

"Eep!" A cracked yell broke through the boy's vocal cords. "What did you do that for!" He was slowly regaining his voice. The boy blindly grasped the air, trying to stop himself from falling. In his cluttered, panicked mind, he didn't even realized that he was probably already dead, and you can't really die again. The boy looked up at the child, but saw an old man. "Help?! Please?" The old man just smiled a waved. Since that didn't work, the boy started flapping his wings like the giant green vultures he had seen around this place. Seeing this to be futile, too, the boy stopped, wrapped his arms around his body and clenched his eyes shut, waiting for the impact. The boy thought happy thoughts, or not as sad thoughts, for lack of a better terms. He thought of the one girl's voice, dainty and intelligent, with love and comfort mixed through.

Little brother...Danny..little brother...keep safe, will ya?

The boy, no Danny, his name was Danny, opened his wide eyes. He couldn't stop now! He couldn't die yet! He had a life, and he needed to remember! "No, no no! Stop! No! Fly! Fly fly please! Fly! I know now, my name is Danny! I'm sure of it! I can't die now!" Danny closed his eyes and prayed to whatever god was out there. He prayed for life, he prayed to be saved, and he prayed for the girl, his sister. He prayed she was safe, he prayed she was OK. Danny prayed that she was happy, wherever she is. Danny did not even realize when he stopped in mid-air.

"Silly Daniel. You're already dead. You can't die again."

When Danny awoke again, he was lying in a cool, damp bed; currently surrounded by a puddle of his own salty sweat. He jerked up and yanked the wet blankets off of his body. He then noticed his feet were tied in thick cord. A piece of paper laid on the nearby end table. In small, neat handing writing, a short message was listed. Figure it out yourself -Clockwork

Danny crossed his arms. "Seriously? You're worst then the Box Ghost! Why do you find pleasure in my pain and misery?" It was then that he realized what he had said. Box Ghost? Who the heck was that? He crossed his arms and looked around the room. It was an inky blue, with golden splashes of colors lining the walls. Overall, it gave a royal appearance to the room. Danny nodded in acknowledgement; it was a nice arrangement. He then realized he was acting stupid. He was tied to a bed for pete's sake!(1) Danny pressed against the ropes until it gave him rope burn. He then tried using ghost powers like he had seen the man do. Nothing worked.

Danny wasn't giving up anytime soon. He pulled and pushed, tried gnawing the ropes off, even going as far as wondering if he should attempt clawing up his feet. 'After all,' he thought sourly, 'I am dead..' So instead Danny sulked on the bed and waited for the blue man to come back. After a few hours of waiting, his wish came true.

"Still stuck on the bed I see?"

Danny just barely bit off a rhetoric remark and answered with a curt nod. The man moved over and sat down into the chair near the bed. He crossed his wrinkled hands, one on top of the other, and laid them on his lap. "My name, as you might have imagined, is Clockwork." He said obviously. Again, a sarcastic remark was bitten off by Danny. "Do...you remember anything?" This was followed by the man turning into a small child, still cloaked in purple garb. A puppy-dog face magically appeared in the man-boy's face, and Danny could not help but wince at the sudden change. "Does my face remind you of anything? Anything at all?" Clockwork already knew the answer, but the least he could do was try.

Danny blew the hair out of his face, crossed his arms, and breathed in a deep breath. Clockwork was on the edge of his seat, waiting for the answer. Hoping that for once it wasn't what he knew as the truth. Hoping that he would say that one word-

"...No."

Wondering if I used semi-colons right...

Wondering if I'm writing in character...

Wondering if I'm using pete's sake(1) right...

Wondering if I will ever write a chapter at 2,000 words...