Danny kept perfectly still. He was laying on something hard and cold, maybe a table. Words filtered in from another room, too soft for human ears to distinguish. But Danny wasn't entirely human.
One of the voices was obviously female, and the other male. The woman must have been the person who shot him. Danny felt his breathing increase with this realisation, getting louder and faster along with his heartbeat. Blood and ectoplasm rushed through his ears, drowning out the noises from the other room.
Focus, Danny reprimanded himself. You need to calm down.
He concentrated on his breathing. In... out. Slowly, it went back to normal. His heart also stopped its pounding. The voices became clearer.
'I can't believe you shot him,' A man said incredulously.
A woman answered him wearily. 'I told you, Scott, I didn't mean to. It was just luck.'
Danny frowned, but otherwise didn't move. Luck?
Scott chuckled. 'Then I wish I was as lucky as you- you caught the ghost boy! Can you tell me how you did it, again?'
Danny heard the woman sigh. 'No, Scott.' There was quite a long pause after this. 'What's going to happen to him?' She asked quietly.
'Well, we've been told to bring him back to Amity Park. Maddie Fenton wants to speak to him.'
'What about?'
'Her son, I guess.'
There, the conversation faltered for a few moments.
The woman broke the silence. 'I don't watch the news too often- how long has her son been missing?'
Scott whistled under his breath. 'Ooh, I don't know, Dawn... Ten- maybe fourteen days? Too long, anyway.'
Danny was amazed. He had been flying around for about two weeks. He knew that time had passed, but he had thought it to be only a few days. What did his friends and family think of his disappearance? He had to get back to Amity Park.
Danny began to sit up from the table that he had been lying on, but stopped and fell back quietly when he heard mention of Jack.
'The whole town's hoping to find him soon- his father's in a coma.' Scott said.
Dawn made a noise of agreement. 'Yeah, I heard of that. Wait- didn't Danny Phantom cause it?'
'Yep,' he said bitterly. 'And they think that he might know where the Fenton boy is. They both disappeared at the same time.'
Danny heard a chair scrape across the floor. 'Why don't we go ask him?' Dawn exclaimed. 'He must be awake by now.'
The ghost boy panicked. He couldn't talk to them- he wasn't a very good liar. Sitting up so quickly that his head spun, Danny heard Dawn's footsteps approach the door. He looked around the room for something to hide behind. There was the table he was currently sitting on, with no tablecloth. It was pushed up against the far wall. On the opposite side of the room, next to the door, was a large antique cabinet with a spotted mirror above it. The cabinet looked big enough for him, but the footsteps were already at the door.
Oh, thought Danny's tired mind. Invisibility. Why didn't I think of that first?
The familiar tingling that accompanied this particular power came, but there was something wrong. The tingle built to an itch, which instantly turned into an excruciating burn. Danny started to scream at the same time as the door opened.
DPDPDPDP
Dawn was unable to produce any sort of sound. She had opened the door to a very unexpected sight. Phantom writhed on the polished wooden floor, a complicated device on his chest sparking with green lightning bolts. His wails sounded strange- a peculiar mix between ghost and human, as if there were two beings trapped inside him.
Dawn turned to the police officer beside her. 'Scott!' She yelled. 'What's happening? Is there something wrong? We have to help him!'
Scott looked at her placidly. 'There's nothing wrong,' he assured her in a calm manner. 'This is what happens if he tries to use his ghost powers. Maddie Fenton gave them to us. She knew that if we found Phantom, he'd been near impossible to contain.'
Danny's screams were dying, losing their energy. Danny also looked as if he were dying. His ghostly glow was fading.
But... That's impossible! Dawn thought. He's a ghost- ghosts can't die!
Weakly, she asked Scott a question. 'What's it doing to him?'
He was trying to maintain a professional air, but Dawn could see her friend's composure beginning to break. 'I-I don't know, exactly. She said it wouldn't hurt him.'
Danny stopped screaming and began to whimper, instead. The sound made Dawn want to rip the torture device from him, but she restrained herself. If this ghost was able to put a ghost hunter in hospital, she could only imagine what he could do to her.
He looks so young, though, Dawn thought guiltily. How could anyone do something like this?
A small voice spoke up in the back of her head. It was her fault that he was here right now- she was the one who shot him. Dawn quickly ignored the voice.
A police van pulled up outside, visible through the window. It was obviously from Amity Park- Dawn doubted that any other town would have as much ghost equipment as this police vehicle displayed.
They didn't even need any of the equipment, Dawn knew. The device on Phantom's chest would keep him immobilized for as long as it was there.
Two people got out of the van, both women. The passenger stepped out first and boldly rang the doorbell. She was tall, about the same build as Dawn, and had short brown hair. She wore a police uniform, unlike the other woman. Average height, rusty brown hair, and dressed in a blue jumpsuit- Dawn guessed her to be Maddie Fenton. She certainly looked like someone who could provide that level of pain to another being. It was just the message in her eye, like a silent warning.
The doorbell rang a second time. Scott and Dawn looked at each other nervously, though neither knew what they were worried about. Scott went to answer the door.
Maddie barged through as soon as it opened. 'Where is he?' She demanded impatiently. Dawn silently gestured to the room, a bit lost for words.
The ghost hunter stalked towards the ghost and looked at Phantom as if he were a piece of gum that had stuck itself to the bottom of her favourite shoes. He whimpered quietly, curled up in a tight ball. The device sparked weakly.
'You,' Maddie said, her tone as hard and sharp as glass. She pointed at Scott. 'Help me get him to the van.'
No niceties were exchanged during the whole visit. Phantom was thrown roughly into the back of the van, and then the visitors were gone, leaving Dawn and Scott feeling flustered and confused. That was terrifyingly efficient. And Maddie Fenton was just terrifying.
Dawn wondered if the ghost hunter had always been like that. If so, she didn't blame the Fenton boy for trying to escape.
AN:
Hey! pale-blue11 here!
Our school had the Athletics carnival today. It was fun, but my knee hurts :( I had hurdles first event and I started to cough just before the first jump -_- From there I managed to trip over every hurdle there -_- It was funny, though!
Ummm… Oh, wow. I've done more chapters than I thought :/ I was going to say that my favourite chapter of this story (so far) was next week, but it's still a few weeks away. Next week is my eleventh week on FanFiction and 11 is my lucky number, so I'll do something to acknowledge that. Not sure what, at the moment.
Thanks for all the reviews, favourites and follows, guys! They mean a lot :)
So… please review, favourite and/or follow! I don't know what else to say…
Oh! Don't worry- this won't be an OC fanfic! Dawn and Scott are just there because I couldn't think of what else to do! They might be coming back, but that's a very big might. Like, majorly big…
I really can't see them in the story again, honestly.
Anyway, yeah.
Have a nice week!
pale-blue11
