I'm freezing. The room seems to get colder. Shivering, my knees buckle and I sit on the bed next to Danny. He doesn't seem to mind the cold. Silently, I watch as Vlad continues to rummage through the cupboards.

"Sam," Danny says. "You alright?"

"I will be," I say, wrapping my arms around my frame. How long will it take for me to be alright?

Vlad rummages though the cupboards. He turns around with a needle in one hand, and two jars in the other. One contains a glowing green liquid that's too dull to be ectoplasm. The other is filled with a clear liquid. He places the green jar on a counter before opening the clear jar. He sticks the needle into the open jar and begins to fill it up. "Might as well get this over with," he says.

"What are you planning on doing to me, Vlad?" Danny demands.

"He has the right to know," I add in.

Vlad continues his task of filling the needle.

My eyes are locked on Vlad as he pulls the needles now full of the clear liquid out of the jar. What is that stuff? What will it do? My fingers tap against my arm. "I'm waiting."

Vlad sighs. "What exactly do you wish to know?"

"What's in the needle? What are you planning?" Danny asks.

"What makes you qualified to-?" I start off, but stop. To be what exactly? Be Danny's doctor? Inject a needle full of who knows what into Danny's arm? Force Danny to turn back into a ghost?

Vlad laughs. It's forced. "I own Axion Labs: the world's largest and leading company dealing with ghosts, their technology, and biology. Without me, there would very little information on ghosts. I am also half ghost. Wounds afflicted to my ghost half don't transfer over to my human half. These injuries don't heal unless I'm Plasmius."

Danny snorts. "How do you know-"

"You're not the only one who's been in a serious ghost fight," Vlad sneers. "You're also not the only half ghost who's had to deal with the Fenton's and their idiotism."

"Right, I believe that you've been hurt that badly," Danny says, rolling his eyes.

"Believe what you will," Vlad continues, as he shakes the needle in his hand, "However, this is the only known sedative, or anesthetic that works on ghosts. And in the green stuff, will turn you back into a ghost once you're unconscious."

"And you've discovered this stuff how? It's not like there are tons of half ghosts for you to experiment on," I say, feeling nauseous. And even if there were a ton of halfas around, it wouldn't be right to experiment on them.

Vlad starts walking towards the bed. "My lab was once full of failed clones."

I jump to my feet. Clones; Danni has once told me that Vlad was not a good father, nor was he even a good man; but using them like lab rats? "What did you do?" I demand. "If you hurt Danni, with an 'i'!" I suddenly hate the man standing in front of me. I wish I had a ghost weapon.

"Oh, her. She was the only one that didn't melt straight away. If it makes you feel any better, I only experimented on the clones that were doomed from the start." Vlad shrugs. "I wonder what she's up to now."

Danny jumps to his feet beside me and his hand begins to glow green. A small orb of ectoplasm forms in his hand before it flies towards Vlad.

However, Vlad simply takes a step to the side and the orb hits the green wall with a quiet wak, leaving behind burn.

He actually managed a ghost attack without pain.

Danny falls back first back into the bed and scrunches his eyes closed. He moans. "Should not have done that," he says opening his blue eyes again.

Guess I was wrong.

"You really should try to learn from your mistakes, Daniel," Vlad says.

I take a step forward, blocking Vlad from Danny. Danny was right: the man is insane, and I was a fool not to see that.

Danny grabs my hand. His warm fingers tangle around mine.

Warm blood rushes to my face. I turn to look at Danny. My face is certainly red. I really care about the boy, my best friend, my hero lying on the white sheets next to me. "I'm sorry, Danny," I say, blinking back tears that are starting to swell in my eyes. "I wish there was something I could do."

Danny looks away and mutters, "Maybe you should have gone into the ghost portal yourself. If you had, I wouldn't be here. Then someone would be protecting my sister and Amity Park."

His words hit me in the gut and his warm hand feels like it weight a ton. What? Danny still blames me for the portal accident? How long had Danny thought that-

Vlad jumps forward and stick the clear needle into Danny's arm.

"Ow!" Danny shouts.

Vlad pulls the needle out. "And now we wait."

"You didn't have to do that!" I shout at Vlad.

"Actually, I did," Vlad says, walking back over the counter. He drops the first needle on the counter then grabs a second. He fills it with the green goo that supposedly will turn Danny back into Phantom. "We'll wait until he's out for the second one though."

I don't even - Oh goodness! This is really happening. I don't want to see Phantom.

"Sorry," Danny mutters, his eyelids drooping. "I didn't mean what I said. This isn't your fault. And Clockwork won't let me change the past again."

"It's fine," I say. Guilt is still tugging at me though.

"It's not," Danny says, his words beginning to slur. "I just wish that I wasn't so alone all the time. And, wow, you're pretty. " He pauses. "Listen to me; I think the drug is getting to my head." His eyes fall closed.

"Danny?"

He doesn't respond. He's out. The drug has done its job of pulling him into unconsciousness.

And did he just call me pretty?

"Miss Manson," Vlad says, "You said your phone was out of power. Do you need a charger?"

I look back up at Vlad, who is currently injecting a needle of the green stuff into Danny's arm.

Darn. I should have done something (what exactly). There's nothing I can do now. Shit. I can only trust a mad man. "What? You're trying to be nice to me now?" I ask.

"Not for your sake. I don't want the boy to freak on me again," Vlad says walking back towards the cupboard. "You seem to be good at keeping him," he pauses, "calmer than usual."

"Like I'd leave Danny alone with you."

"Trust me; until his parents pay for this, the badger is fine."

I shake my head. I don't know how I feel about that. Yes I now hate the Fenton parents: they're ignorant scientists who tore open their own son's chest. They don't even believe that ghosts are sentient. But what exactly do they deserve? Is Vlad the right person to punish them? Still, I can't pick a fight with the man until Danny is better.

"A charger would be nice," I say.

"I'll be back in a minute," Vlad says. He leaves the room.

Wait! Shouldn't he stay? He knows what's going to happen to Danny. Regardless, again, I'm alone again with Danny: my best friend who just called me pretty. I take his hand. Isn't he supposed to turn into Phantom now?

Suddenly blue rings flicker into existence around Danny's chest. I don't let go of his hand. They sweep over him, turning Danny back into Phantom. When they pass over my hand they feel cold, but Phantom's hand is still warm.

He smells of burnt ectoplasm.

My eyes sweep over Phantom, and I feel sick. I don't know what state I was expecting Phantom to be in – but he hasn't changed at all since the last time I saw him. The black cloth is still tied around his mouth, the iv catheter is still stuck in his arm, and Jazz's cut up sweater is still tied around his chest. The cloth is soaked with ectoplasm.

Why did Vlad leave? Was he too scared to see the state of Phantom. I really hate him at the moment.

Still, the stuff should be removed. It's only right. Trembling again, I let go of Danny's hand and begin to untie the black cloth from Danny's mouth. It takes a minute as it's tied tightly. With every second that passes, my hatred for Danny's parents grows.

Then I carefully pickup Danny's arm and remove the iv catheter. Even with my hands trembling I do a decent job. It's not the first time I've removed something from an arm: when I was younger my parents let me nurse a young mutt puppy back to health: I'd had to give it injections daily and I'd learnt how to do a decent job quite quickly. Unfortunately, the young thing was too sick, and didn't make it. I'd cried for days. But Danny isn't a puppy. And he's already half dead.

Finally, I look at ectoplasm soaked sweater. Through it I can see the hole in his chest. I stare at it. I can't remove the cloth. Vlad can. I really can't. Because I'm a coward.

I throw all the stuff into a bin sitting in the corner. Then I kneel on the floor next to Phantom. I retake his hand. Even as Phantom, Danny's hand is still warm. That's very wrong – ghosts are cold. I don't know what to do. The only thing I can do is wait for Vlad to come back with a phone charger.

I remember watching Danny's back as he entered the ghost portal. He was wearing one of his parent's black spandex jumpsuits. The fabric clung to his skinny figure – he's gained so much muscle since that day. The badge of Jack's face was coarse between my thumb and index finger. I tore it off because it didn't seem right for Danny to have the face of his less than smart father on his chest while he was bravely attempting to turn on a portal to the world of the dead. Jack had even been dumb enough to put the switch on the inside – I've often wondered how Maddie overlooked such an obvious design flaw.

Still, I was curious to see if there was any truth behind the Fenton parent's crazy research. Ghosts were some main stream joke. I'd been certain the portal wasn't going to turn on. Convincing Danny to go into the portal had been to satisfy my own personal curiosity.

How cool would it be to find a portal to the Zone of the Dead?

Tucker, who stood next to me, was creeped out by the portal.

Danny knew more about his parents' ecto-research than I did. Thus, it was only right that he turned it.

Right?

Suddenly a flash of green filled my visions. There was no scream, only a higher than humanly possible screech. The next thing I knew the space that used to be empty portal was filled with a glowing green spiral. I was staring into the afterlife. But I didn't care. Danny, his hair bleach white, was lying face down on the floor in front of it.

The air smelled of rotten eggs and something sour. It was the first time I'd smelled burnt ectoplasm.

Tucker and I ran over to Danny. I don't remember who checked for a pulse. I do remember that he didn't have one. His body was freezing and stiff. I'd learnt just how quickly rigamortis, the stiffening of mussels post death, sets in. Time stopped. I'd convinced Danny to do something that had led to his death.

I was a murderer.

I was just like the stupid teens you hear about on the news because they told their naïve younger sibling to stick a fork into an electrical socket, or to hide in the washing machine before they die a horrible death of electric shock or suffocation.

Then the rest was a blur. Danny woke up at some point. I was too relieved, and happy, and shocked to question anything. Then my mother called, telling me that I to get home for some fancy dinner. I went to the dinner without a single complaint. My mother pulled out a pink frilly dress; I didn't complain. I didn't say a single snarky comment to dad's work partners during the dinner.

The next day when Danny didn't show up for school I felt sick. I failed my first test ever that day – I've failed many more since.

The following week Danny didn't show up for school. I didn't visit him once. I tried convincing myself that Danny didn't want me to visit him – he needed his rest. However, that was the first of many lies. The truth was that I was too terrified of what Danny was going to say to me. Would he blame me for almost dying? He was the one who was dumb enough to enter the portal. He knew what his parents were capable of. I didn't.

When Danny finally showed up at school, he acted like nothing had happened for about a day before Tucker and I saw a fork fall though his hand at lunch. Danny had confessed his ghost powers that exact moment. He hadn't even tried to hide his new ghost powers. Instead he complained about them – they were a pain, and made every moment he spent with his parents a nightmare.

Then all my worried had been replaced with fascination. Danny had become something beyond human. He was a creature from the Gothic tales I love so much. He was a half ghost. He was a halfa. And I was so lucky to have him as a best friend. When the ghosts first showed up I was at his side. I've stayed at his side ever since. We we're a great team: Danny, Tucker and I. We made a great team. Apparently I wasn't enough.

I was lucky.

Danny was luckier; he got to fly and be a hero. He got to be idolized by the people of Amity. People's lives were saved because of Danny.

Right now, I'm holding onto a hero's warm hand.

I, Sam Manson, knew Danny's parents were freaks who hated ghosts. However, here and now, sitting in this green and gold colored hospital room, clutching Phantom's warm hand and wondering if it's supposed to be cold, I finally understand the extent of their hatred towards ghosts.

CRACK! I flinch before looking for the source. There's a large crack in the floor, leading from underneath the bed, past my left, and up the wall.

CRACK.

A second similar crack has appeared to the right of me. I drop Phantom's hands and jump back.

What is happening?

Here's a Happy New Year's dance:

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