Sometimes the dark will swallow up everything around it.
Darkness
A Danny Phantom FanFiction by Cordria
Chapter 8: Plans
At some point, Maddie fell asleep.
Hours later, her eyes flickered open. Not that she could tell. It was just as dark with her eyes open as it was with her eyes closed. Absently, she twisted her head to stare into the blackness that cloaked the ghost-boy. He was mere inches from her eyes, yet completely hidden.
She carefully reached up to brush at his hair. It was vivid in her mind; snow white, messy, and forever in need of a haircut. The feel of it was impossibly real – not the misty, insubstantial swirls that were ghost hair. Horribly irrefutable proof that the ghost beside her wasn't simply a normal ghost. Phantom moaned slightly and shifted, not waking up. Slowly, she moved the boy off her shoulder and laid him on the floor before pushing herself to her feet.
Having long since memorized the room, she could pace across the room without putting her hands out before her. Her fingers laced together and came up to tap her lips. Three steps, turn, three steps, turn, three steps, turn.
Danny… her mind whispered. I need to rescue…
The pacing paused for a moment, her eyes drifted through the darkness towards where Phantom was curled up on the floor. For just a second, she could picture the ghost – a blob of ectoplasmic goo that could be left behind. Then the image of the boy she'd gotten to know so well over the past few days slammed into its place. She scowled. I need to rescue them both. I can deal with the ghost - not ghost thing later. Then she was moving again. Three steps, turn, three steps.
How? She tapped her fingers against her lips, her mind racing. What do I know?
Next to nothing. Phantom doesn't really know what's going on. Or if he does he won't tell me. Turn, three steps. All I've gotten is that there is a lady involved. She's going to do some kind of sacrifice to help her take of the world. An unconscious grin twitched at her lips. Which is probably a bit of an exaggeration.
She sobered almost instantly. I need a plan.
Falling back on a life-long strategy for coming up with ideas, Maddie stopped her incessant pacing. Closing her eyes, she imagined a large whiteboard dangling in the air before her. She grabbed her mental marker and started to write. 'Good' went on one side of the board, 'bad' on the other.
Alright. What can I list – good or bad? She bit her lip as she thought.
I have no weapons of any kind, except my own body. Mentally, she wrote that on the 'bad' side of her board. Quickly she added: I'm tired and drained from lack of food and drinkable water. She sighed. Her own body wasn't going to be much of a weapon. She wouldn't be able to fight for more than a few minutes.
Eyes drifting around the room, she mentally tallied off other things on the board. Phantom and Danny aren't going to be any help. I have no idea where I am. Whatever is behind that door is a complete mystery. They – whoever 'they' are – could show up at any moment.
She perused her list, her fingers absently moving through the air. There was a nice column of things under the 'bad' label. Nothing under the 'good' one. Wonderful.
"Were you making a list?" Phantom's hoarse voice echoed through the room.
Maddie jumped a bit, twisting around to look into his dimly glowing eyes. "How did you know?"
Soft, broken laughter. "You were moving your lips and pointing like you were checking stuff off a chart. You always do that when you make lists."
Always? How do you know that? Suddenly, she narrowed her eyes. "You can see me? Even in this total darkness?"
"Yeah," he said, "I can see pretty well in the dark. One advantage to being a ghost." His luminous eyes were dancing. "I can see about as well as you could if we had a candle in here."
There was silence as she stared at him. Questions were piling up in her head. Before any of them could pull themselves into something she could voice, Phantom spoke again.
"What were you making a list of?" He yawned, neon eyes half-closing.
"I'm trying to figure out how to get out of here. I need to rescue my son."
"Mmm-hmm." The eyes seemed to lift off the ground. Phantom must have sat up. "You won't be able to get out of the room until somebody opens the door from the other side."
Maddie nodded, turning back to her mental whiteboard. "Which is when we'll have to make our move."
"Yeah," Phantom whispered. "We'll have to move."
Can he even move anymore? "We'll think of something," she said. "I'll get us out of here."
"No, you can't," he murmured. After a handful of painful-sounding coughs, Phantom continued. "There's no way you can fight them off. You haven't eaten in days, you haven't slept well either. You're weak and tired."
"I need to do something," she insisted. "You're in no shape to fight."
"I can fight." His voice was barely audible over the dripping water and the rasping of his breathing.
She raised an eyebrow. "Oh yeah? How?"
His dim eyes went even more dull than usual as they tracked down to the floor. "I can," he murmured. "And I will."
Walking back across the room, she knelt down and tapped his chin, getting him to look her in the eyes. "How?" she repeated softly.
"It's called stable ectoplasm," he sighed. "You've heard of it."
It wasn't really a question, but Maddie nodded. "Yes. That's what holds a ghost's form together. Active ectoplasm in the energy ghosts use in fights. How does that help?"
"A ghost can, if he really needed to, tap into that energy and use it." The sad, sickly eyes vanished from her sight. "I can hold them off long enough for you to get away."
"Then…" she thought about it, "what would hold you together?"
"You need to get away," the boy whispered without opening his eyes. "I couldn't live if you didn't get away."
"Answer the question," she said, her voice trembling slightly.
"Go home to Jack and Jazz. You won't die here; I won't let them hurt you."
"Phantom…" silence, "answer my question. What would hold you together?"
The eyes were back, glittering with tears. "What does it matter? I'm just a ghost."
Maddie shook her head. There was no way she was letting this thing die now – not before she'd decided if it was really a ghost or not. "No, you're not," she said, going for persuasive. "And you are not dying for me."
The ghost stared into her eyes. "Thank you," he rasped finally.
"For what?" she asked, blinking in surprise.
"For believing me. For trusting me."
Suddenly the door rattled sharply. Maddie twisted around, her eyes widening as she stared off into the darkness. A metallic creak split the air as a key turned slowly in the rusty lock. Her eyes were forced shut as a brilliant beam of light blasted through the crack formed by the opening door.
"Evening helpers!" a female's voice whipped through the room. "Guess what time it is!"
A cold hand found hers and squeezed tightly. "Everything will be alright," he rasped, "I promise."
Then his fingers were ripped from her hand as she was forced to her feet and blindly shoved out the door.
To be continued…
