GUESS WHO'S BACK FROM THE GRAVE

bet yall thought i abandoned this fic

nope

heres this

Chapter 11

Later that night, Bill had discretely followed Danny back to the motel. He'd been waiting for the opportunity to get the tourist teen alone, and away from Dipper. If Bill couldn't find out where that fleeting energy was coming from, he would place his bets on Dipper being on the verge of discovering its origins. According to the kid, this teenager was "just some tourist", he couldn't possibly know enough to tell the difference in personality if he possessed his body. A friendly tourist was a perfect disguise to keep tabs on the nosey kid.

At least the human's good for something, Bill thought, before discretely entering the premises of the motel to spy on his newest target. Maybe he'll be even more fun to annoy than Dipper.

He'll be the perfect meat suit.

Danny collapsed into bed face first, exhausted. This was only the second night here, and he had already felt like he'd been here a week without sleep. He was confused, tired, and mentally drained— and it wasn't even past 10 o'clock yet. Jazz was probably on her way back from the library now, judging by how long she usually spent there. Hours, reading up on any book that had anything to do with psychology.

No doubt, he knew he'd be asleep by the time she returned. And although Danny had a history of random spouts of insomnia and nightmares, he wasn't even going to try pulling an all-nighter this time. This was supposed to be a vacation after all; the least he could do was try to get some rest.

The only thing keeping him relaxed was the fact that he knew Sam and Tucker had it covered back home if any ghostly trouble occurred, and that they were well equipped with Fenton gear. That alone made it slightly easier for Danny to rest easy tonight, plus the fact that he was already tired as a whole from the day's events.

If he could just rest for at least six hours tonight, at least, that was all he needed. This was a vacation, after all. He needed to get away from the stress. And for once, at least, there were no other ghosts around. He didn't need to spend these nights fighting ghosts until dawn. He could just sleep now…

Danny shut his eyes tightly in hopes that it would somehow make him fall asleep faster. Backfire. He tossed and turned. Too uncomfortable. His pulled up the covers. Too hot. He yelled into his pillow.

This went on for another ten minutes, before he was about ready to give up on his precious sleep. It was almost like his body refused to let him sleep. He just wanted rest. Was that too much to ask for?

He closed his eyes, deciding to try to sleep again one last time.

He was nearly half asleep before his phone pinged with a message notification, lighting up the corner of the room. Danny muffled his face with his pillow and groaned in annoyance, silently cursing whatever notification on his phone that decided to disturb his sleeping efforts.

He lazily reached an arm out for his phone on the night stand next to his bed, feeling around a lamp and notepad on the table before grabbing his phone.

"Gah, my eyes. It burns," he whined, flipping open his phone as the blinding light of the screen light up amongst the darkness. He instantly regretted having put his phone brightness on the highest setting earlier that day, and hastily turned it down to the lowest setting. He squinted at the screen, making out the words 'New message from Tucker'.

Danny smiled, his annoyance dissipating. Even though it was way past midnight by now in Amity Park, Tucker was still awake, as usual. He knew his best friend well enough to know that he most likely was up all night playing the newest edition of Doomed again, and when Tucker marathoned video games, he played until dawn hit.

Opening the text, Danny skimmed through its contents, reading through what Tucker had sent him. 'Hey man. Just thought I'd let u know that Sam and I caught the box ghost while u were gone. 2x. Ur welcome. How's California?'

Danny chuckled, before responding back with a message of his own. 'Thanks Tuck. And about that… my dad made a wrong turn. We ended up in some town in Oregon called Gravity Falls instead. It's on another level of weird', he texted back.

The good thing about talking to Tucker over text was that he always responded back almost immediately, at any hour in the day. He was the quickest texter he's ever seen, in fact. The bad thing, well, was that Danny could be sleeping. But instead he was awake. Texting.

He almost felt like he was being watched, too, strangely enough. On the contrary, at least while staying awake, he could somehow keep his guard up.

His phone flashed again with a new message. 'Gravity Falls?' Tucker had written, and then in another text below, said: 'Never heard of it. U mean like… Amity Park weird?'

Danny paused for a moment, thinking of how to respond. The town that he had ended up in was weird for sure, and he's seen things with his own eyes to prove it. So far, it didn't seem exactly as dangerous as Amity Park, to the extent that it was plagued with malicious ghosts bent on world destruction, but hey. This was his second night here. Who knows, maybe they have demons too, he thought with a laugh, before beginning to type a response.

'Yeah...something like that. I've met a few people here and they're nice, but the town, man, it just seems off somehow idk', he wrote, and pressed send.

Tucker wrote back. 'what do u mean?'

Danny made a face. 'Just a feeling', he typed slowly, once again beginning to feel like he was being watched. He wasn't picking up any ghost sense either, so he knew that it wasn't just some ghost that had followed him out of Amity. And with the new knowledge that there existed other things in this town that weren't ghosts, didn't help ease his worry.

For all he knew, there could be some kind of faceless bogeyman trying to watch him sleep from the closed window and he'd have no idea. Talk about uncomfortable.

His phone pinged again with a new message. 'w/e u say dude', Tucker had written.

Danny cringed at his best friend's usage of text talk. He knew it was the fastest way to talk when messaging back and forth, but it still hurt to read. His phone suddenly pinged again without warning. 'Still, let me know what else happens. me & sam miss u already, buddy'.

His cringe began to form into a small smile. He missed them too. He knew Sam wasn't too big on cellphones, especially being on them at this hour at night, otherwise he would have sent her a text by now. But he was sure glad Tucker could carry on a message.

Squinting against his phone screen, he began to type his reply. 'Will do. I miss you guys too', he had sent, before he found himself drifting off to sleep for real this time, phone lazily resting in the palm of his hand.

For what felt like only minutes, but in actuality was hours into Danny's dream, he slowly gained consciousness in his sleep. He briefly began to wonder if he was lucid dreaming, but then remembered that he rarely ever does lucid dream. Why would now be any different?

And why was he suddenly so conscious all the sudden?

This didn't even feel like a dream anymore. And Danny was well aware that he had just been dream-fighting ghosts not too long ago. Something noticeably felt different. Off.

But… he was dreaming. He knew that this wasn't real. The state of his surroundings were now warped, and frankly, confusing.

Blinking several times, he realized that he was now floating in pitch black nothingness, until he saw a single source of light appearing far off into the distance. It blinked once… twice. As the light became solid and brighter, it paused and suddenly dimmed. Danny furrowed his brows in confusion, and leaned forward, floating on his stomach, facing towards the dimly glowing light.

"What the…" he muttered to himself, inching towards the strange light. "Where… am I?"

In a quasar-like burst, the light forced itself into all directions, illuminating the nothingness in a wave of blues and greens. The force of the burst pushed Danny back a bit, but when he opened his eyes once more he found that the vast nothingness had been filled with brilliant stars and colourful distant galaxies.

Space, Danny thought slowly. Wait, I'm in space!? No… aren't I dreaming? he questioned, his mind racing rapidly. Now that he could see clearer, he was in his normal day clothes, for some reason, cancelling the fact that he had put on pajamas prior.

"Heya kid!" A loud, shrill voice cut through the air, leaving a lasting echo as it spoke. "Welcome to the mindscape! What's with the face?"

Danny recoiled in surprise, doing a double take, looking for the source of the voice. "Who…" he began, with a frown, "Wait, wh-what's wrong with my face?!" he asked in alarm.

The voice let out a monosyllabic chuckle in response. "Nothing!" it laughed, before deadpanning: "Unless you want it removed."

Danny blinked, struggling to find a proper response to the casual threat. And he thought he was bad at first impressions. He was no stranger to unnatural occurrences, and with this voice claiming their whereabouts to be in some "mindscape", he at least knew he wasn't dreaming. He probably wasn't actually sleeping either, he thought with narrowed eyes.

"Sheesh, tough crowd!" The voice asked, upon noticing Danny's unimpressed face. "Where's your sense of humour?"

"Hey, I have plenty sense of humour!" Danny defended, crossing his arms.

"I think I have doubts about that, kid! Here, maybe this will brighten your mood— have a flashlight eyeball!" the voice offered, bringing into existence a larger than normal, bloodshot eyeball in front of Danny. The pupil then suddenly expanded, overtaking the red iris and began to glow a ghastly yellow.

"Wait, what?" Danny asked, baffled.

He didn't have enough time to react before the eyeball looked straight in his direction and sent a beam of bright light at his face, making him feel a sudden dizziness. He went to cover his eyes with his hands, then settled on shooing away the eyeball.

"Why would a light flashing in my eyes brighten my mood?" Danny challenged, with one arm covering his eyes.

"Not a fan?" The voice asked, poofing away the existence of the eyeball. "To each their own! Say, if you could have anything in the world, what would you want?" it asked mischievously.

"Uh, I don't know. A good night's sleep?" Danny shrugged jokingly with a small laugh. He couldn't decide whether to give this mystery voice the benefit of the doubt on not being some sort of evil dream ghost or not, because all he had to go on was that this whole scenario was just… weird.

The voice let out a short laugh. "Well," it began, "What if I told you there was a way that I could make that happen?"

"Okay… but why?"

"Oh, trust me kid, it's the least I can do! I can tell that you don't really sleep at night too— just look at those eyebags of yours!" The voice laughed maniacally.

Danny frowned, touching the spaces under his eyes defensively. "And how exactly is making fun of my eyebags helping, in any way?" he asked, through narrowed eyes.

The voice laughed again. It had a strange, echoing laugh that made Danny feel uneasy. "Oh relax, I'm just joking," it began to backtrack. "Now. About that deal. What do ya say?"

Without warning, the previously lit scenery filled with galaxies and stars vanished before him, leaving him surrounded by black nothingness once again. The atmosphere felt different, blank. It made Danny feel like he was getting himself into something that he shouldn't be doing. But he was also so tired, that he couldn't think straight. The insomnia was catching up to him again. Wasn't this a dream anyway?

Danny shook his head, trying to grasp reality. "Wait, what? ...Deal...?" he trailed off confusedly. "What do you—"

"It's a deal, then!" The voice interrupted, then suddenly a single arm materialized into thin air, reaching out towards the teen. Before Danny could even think to utter a response, the hand then lit up in blue fire and grabbed his own, shaking it once.

"What?! No, I didn't mean to…" Danny began, "Who—what are you?!" he yelled rampantly, as he gaped openly at his own hand interlocked with the severed demonic limb.

Time seemed to slow as a body began to slowly form attaching itself to the lone arm. Yellow coloured bricks then formed one by one, sculpting the shape of a triangle in seconds. Black, thin, limbs grew from the base of the pyramid, and with its free hand, snapped its fingers and a bowtie and top hat materialized onto the figure. One single eye opened slowly, and leered down at the teen before letting out a menacing, echoing laugh.

Danny could only stare in horror at the triangle shaped creature that held an iron grip on his hand. He tried to pull away, but the more he struggled, the tighter the creature's grip became. He couldn't escape its grasp, even with using his super strength. Not even summoning an ecto blast from his hand worked. It was almost like this… place… was blocking his powers. He couldn't go ghost. He was powerless against this—

He swallowed, realizing something. This wasn't a ghost. Just what exactly is this thing? Danny thought, looking up to meet the eye of the triangle shaped monster. "You— you tricked me!" he spluttered.

A blue-lit fire sparked between their hands, and Danny felt a pull. Before he could even register what was happening, he was being ejected from his own body. Pulled, violently, all at once, and he suddenly felt no weight at all. It felt a little like going through his parents' Fenton Ghost Catcher. But worse.

Danny looked down at his hands with a panic. Human, but translucent. In fact, his whole body was translucent, and entirely intangible. Looking down, he found that the lower half of his body faded into nothingness. It wasn't anything new, but this wasn't his doing. He couldn't switch back to tangible. Taking a shaky breath, Danny clenched his fists together. "What did you do to me?" he demanded, but stopped short when he looked at the sight in front of him.

It was... him. It had his body, his face, his— everything. And it was smiling at him. With freakish, yellow slits in his pupils.

Danny grit his teeth in anger. "You took my body?!"

The creature now possessing his body smiled an unnatural, unnerving grin too large for comfort. "Sure I did, but that's your problem now! Boy, this body sure is great! Much stronger than the last fleshbag I used! Do you work out?" it teased.

"I didn't ask for this!" Danny yelled, ignoring the weird comments. "I want my body back!"

"Oh, don't worry, you'll be a great meat suit! This way, I can finally get some answers out of Pine Tree— he doesn't like me very much, but seeing as he's warming up to you, this'll be a piece of cake! That kid knows more than you think, you know!" it admitted, waving a finger around in the air.

Pine tree…? Danny wondered. Dipper!

He glared at his double with anger. "Listen, freak. I don't know what kind of wacked up things you're planning to do with my body, or what you're trying to get out of Dipper, but it's not going to work. And I'm going to find a way out of this, and when I do, I'm coming for you."

The doppelgänger let out a loud, annoying laugh, as if Danny had just told the most hilarious joke ever. The fact that it hasn't stopped smiling either was beginning to make him feel uncomfortable. Well, more uncomfortable than he already was.

"Oh, you keep believing that!" It said happily, flashing another sinister grin, before changing its tone. "Kid, you don't know who you're messing with here. I'm much more dangerous than you think," it warned, deepening its voice as its eyes flashed red.

Danny huffed with anger. If I had my body, I would be too.

"By the way, the name's Bill! Bill Cipher!" it called, and then snapped its fingers.

That was the last thing Danny heard before a black hole swirled open in front of him and swallowed him whole, sending him into another world of darkness. His vision faded to black.

Danny felt a sudden jerked movement, as though he was being pushed forward, but only after a moment of complete sensory deprivation his sight began to slowly return, and he recognised that he was awake. Looking at his hands, he noticed they were translucent. As he focused his attention through them, he saw his still body lying under the thin covers of the motel bed.

What? Is this a dream? Or maybe some kind of reaaaally late side effect of dying?

He looked down at his non-corporeal self, confusedly, and then pulled down his bangs in front of his face. Black. I'm… me.

His eyes widened in fear as he tried to piece together his current situation. After a brief moment of feeling like a deer in headlights, he looked to his sister, who appeared as a large lump under the covers of her bed.

"Jazz? Are you up?" He whispered at Jazz's bedside. As he reached to nudge her awake, his hand slid right through the covers and through her shoulder. He retracted his hand in shock.

Normally, Danny made a full effort to keep his feet on the ground when he didn't need to fly, even when he was Phantom— but standing here, looking like himself, and not being able to touch the floor was unnerving. He stared at his translucent hands and as his dreams came flooding back into his memory, his jaw slacked in realization.

That… really happened?

"I'm a full on ghost… am I dead, for real?" Danny floated wide eyed. He knew that full ghosts didn't have any abilities in this plane of existence unless they were truly powerful or had some kind of connection to ground them to the real world. His body was his one connection to both planes of their universe— and now there was someone—no, something else living inside it.

Bill Cipher.

Danny looked out the window towards the almost full moon, its light more luminous than his seemingly permanent ghostly aura. "Am I stuck like this?" he wondered in horror.

Behind his back, the corners of his body's mouth upturned ever slightly.

so

I believe I owe you guys the biggest apology for the BIGGEST hiatus ever

I could give yall a billion excuses but its not gonna cut it, I know. (but to be fair, I moved countries and had no wifi for a LONG time and my laptop was dead for over a month because I didn't own a north american charger and only had the europe plug and yeahh, excuses amiright) I also know the pain of waiting years for a fic to be uploaded, and its painful. and I'm sorry.

But in all seriousness thank you guys for sticking with me through this long as heck hiatus, and I love and appreciate all your reviews and comments. I read every single of them, and seriously they really do motivate me. you guys are the best.

also did you guys notice that my author's notes literally turned to shitposts? i did lmao

ALSO (part2) there are accompanying doodles for this chapter drawn by my lovely sister, check them out on my tumblr! it's ghostfall

and THATS ALL

until next time, dannyghost :)