I stared at him slack jawed for a long moment, trying to process what he could possibly be talking about. The terrifying thought that Fenton knew about mine and Phantom's relationship drifted across my mind – something that seemed impossible. Phantom and I had never made a public outing together . . . except for Paullina's Halloween party. Yet, Phantom had left soon after arriving and by the time he had returned, I had been so upset that we had departed immediately. Besides, we were both so heavily disguised I doubted Fenton even knew I had been present at the party, let alone the town's ghostly hero.

On the other hand, if Fenton didn't know about my relationship with Phantom, why on earth would he want to discuss Phantom with me?

I realized I'd been staring at Fenton blank-eyed, so I cleared my throat and made my decision to attempt to play dumb, hoping that Fenton wasn't clever enough to catch onto my ruse. "Phantom? Isn't he one of the ghosts in Amity?"

"Don't play me for a fool," Fenton growled. "This is hard enough without you being difficult."

I snorted. "Right. Like you've never been difficult with me."

Fenton ran a hand through his already messy hair. "Sam, there's something that you need to know."

"I guarantee there's nothing I want to know from you."

Fenton's icy eyes seemed to chill even further. "Oh, I guarantee you don't want to know it either."

I shook my head at him. "Fenton, this conversation is getting weird, and frankly, I don't want to deal with it. So, if you have anything of importance to say, spit it out. If not, let's get back to tutoring. And if you can't do one or either of those things, I just want to leave."

Fenton sighed, knotting his fingers together. "May I ask you something?"

"You just did, but carry on."

"Why do you call me 'Fenton' and not by my first name?"

The question caught me off-guard. "Because it's easier for me. Also, I highly dislike you and I find first names are more intimate."

"Why do you dislike me?"

"Because you're an ass hat. You've been cruel to me ever since you first saw me, without any good reason whatsoever. You let your girlfriend abuse me –"

"Ex-girlfriend," Fenton quickly corrected.

I rolled my eyes. "Whatever. You let her bully me and others in front of you, which you had in your power to stop, but you never did. You just aren't a nice person and I don't feel like you deserve for me to like you."

Fenton bit his bottom lip. "I definitely don't deserve for you to like me – not in the least. And I will admit that I wronged you, and a lot of others. I should have stopped her because I know what Paullina's barbs feel like. Don't forget she used to bully me too. I got so caught up in the high life that I forgot to think about how I used to feel when I was there and how I should have done better by everyone that was my friend. And you're right, of course. I had no good reason to be mean to you. I had no reason to be snarky, or difficult, or to make your life hell whenever I had the opportunity.

"And I want to apologize to you for that. Recently, I've had my eyes opened to a lot of things. And at the top of the list is my own repulsive behavior. I know I can't take back anything I've said or done to you or how I made you feel but I am deeply sorry for it all. I can't apologize enough for it.

"I'm also not naïve enough to think that I can make everything better by apologizing. I also don't think you'll forgive me, and you shouldn't. Goddammit, Sam, you shouldn't. But I'm hoping that you do, especially after I tell you everything."

Fenton was studying his hands intently and I was glad he wasn't looking at me. I was rooted to the spot, muscles tense as I watched him. Something in my stomach was churning – I felt like I was going to vomit – and my heart felt like lead. I had no idea why I was feel so much apprehension, why Fenton's uncharacteristic and heartfelt apology was freaking me out so badly, but I couldn't walk away from his words. Subconsciously, I knew I needed to hear what he was saying though right now, the wanting sensation to run away from his odd mood was all I wanted to do.

When Fenton didn't seem inclined to go on, I knew he was waiting for me to acknowledge him in some way. So, I cleared my dry throat and whispered, "What do you mean by everything?"

"You're not going to believe me," Fenton said quietly, so quietly I knew he was talking to himself. "And you're going to hate me until I die, and probably after that."

I wanted to comment that nothing he had done could make me hate him for that long. Sure, I would probably never like the guy but eventually my feelings toward him would probably mellow out to indifference at the worst. Except, I couldn't say any of this because, suddenly, Fenton was looking at me – intensity bright in his piercing eyes; the high emotion obviously coursing through him took my breath away.

"Promise me something," he demanded, voice harsh.

"I don't owe you any promises," I managed to respond curtly.

"I know. I just thought I'd try. If you can't promise anything, at least let me ask you not to leave until I get my story over with."

"I can do that."

My words didn't seem to settle him at all. If anything Fenton's energy rose; I could almost see the adrenaline coursing through his pale body.

"When I was fourteen Tucker and I were playing down in my parents' lab. It was no big deal, we were always hanging around down there. Mom and Dad had even set up targets so we could shoot the ecto-guns. It was both fun for us and good for them – we could test their inventions while they watched. They weren't in the lab with us that day, but that was no big deal. They trusted us not to fuck up anything as we had been down there so much.

"We spent some time shooting at the targets but Mom and Dad had taken most of the cool weapons with them so we got bored pretty quick. They had just built a ghost portal; spent the better half of the year on it. It's this great big hulking thing and it's ugly as hell but it was their baby, their pride and joy. But when they went to test it out, it didn't turn on. Nothing – not even a tiny spark of electricity. So naturally, they were bummed.

"Tuck and I decided to be nice and fix up the portal for them. He's a massive tech geek and I'm really good with tinkering with shit and getting it to work. I mean, we didn't exactly know what we were doing but we figured we couldn't make it any worse. We were throwing on Hazmat suits – didn't want to get any ectoplasm on us, right? Safety first.

"Anyway, Tucker's looking around at the panel outside. I walk inside – it's like a tunnel, okay? – and I'm just poking around, seeing what they've got going on in there. While I'm inside I hear Tucker yell 'man, you're not gonna believe it; your parents forgot to plug the thing in!' so we were both laughing about it. I mean, how can you not laugh at that? C'mon guys, plug it in.

"Then I look around me and I realize 'hey, they forgot to hit the on button too' so I shout back to Tucker about it. Tucker sticks his head around the side of tunnel and we're both like 'can it really be that simple? There's nothing else wrong with it?' so Tucker goes 'let's test it out and see what happens'. Neither of us was thinking. We're not the brightest bulbs in the box, mind you, but we're not complete morons. One of us should have been like 'wait, Danny, probably shouldn't be standing in the middle of the effing ghost portal when it turns on!' But neither of us thought about it.

"Tuck plugged it in; told me to hit the on button. So I did. And then I felt it. God, I can't even explain that kind of pain to anyone. It was like my insides were now on my outside, like lightning was coursing through my veins. I was going to explode and throw up; I was crying as I felt my blood start to boil inside of my veins. I felt like I was dying. I honestly thought that I was going to die in the portal. But I didn't. Something did happen though; something totally inexplicable. I never told my parents about it – never told another human being. Tucker was there when it happened and Jazz, well, Tucker had to tell Jazz.

"I never thought that what happened would be a problem. It was scary as anything at first but I began to grow. I began to realize that it had led me to something beyond myself; to a destiny more fulfilling than anything I could have done in my regular state. I thought that, beyond my new being, I could continue to live life as I had before. It wouldn't interfere that badly. And it didn't. I mean, I had less of a personal life and next to no time for school, but I wasn't exactly a stellar student before. The point was I could keep the two things separate. It hadn't been hard.

"But then . . . then there was you. And for the first time this life couldn't collide with that life, rather than the other way around. And I look back now and think of how much easier it could have been, had I been honest with you from the very beginning. I could have avoided this, and what's sure to come. Why I didn't . . . It made sense at the time. At the time it made so much fucking sense, but looking back now, I can't understand myself. I was just being selfish. I was being a selfish, worthless, human being and I can't believe I was like that.

"I need you to forgive me, Sam. I need that like I need air to breathe; like I need the sun in the sky and the wind on my face. Please, whatever you do, don't shut me out completely. I would deserve it. I would deserve so much worse, but I don't know what would be worse than you walking out of my life for good. I'm begging you here, don't walk away. Not now, not after so much."

"Fenton, I don't understand. What happened to you in the portal? And why would you care so much about me? As far as I was concerned, we hated one another."

His story had captivated me and I felt an uneasy curiosity within me, burning for the ending. The last bit of his speech, however, had my mind reeling. I had no idea why he would be asking me to not walk away from him – out of his life – as we had never been close; we had always be enemies. I was at a loss. I watched his rigid posture, waiting for him to speak again, waiting for him to respond to my questions.

"Don't hate me," he begged, and I was shocked to see the beginnings of tears in his eyes as he lifted his head to look at me.

I couldn't bring myself to answer. I was too absorbed by the depth of pain reflected on his face.

Fenton stood up.

"Something unnatural happened in that portal. The ectoplasm mixed with my human DNA. It created me; what I am now. And what I am now is a halfa; half human, half ghost. I have two different appearances but one mind, one personality, one heart. And my ghost half became well-known in Amity, I became a hero."

As each word fell from his lips, I felt a blow to my heart. A dawn of understanding began to rise in the back of my mind. Panic began to well within me, battering against the revelation coming over my brain.

Two ethereal rings appeared around Fenton's waist. Slowly they made their way over the rest of his body. Gone was the white t-shirt and jeans replaced instead by a familiar black suit. I lifted my eyes to his face. Once there had been black hair and blue eyes. Now there was white hair and green eyes; a face more familiar to me than my own. The face I dreamed of at night; the face of the boy I loved.

I screamed.

I don't own anything recognizable. Thanks to my fantastic betas: foreversky. Don't forget to vote on the poll; Danny's companion is in the lead with a 52%

~TLL~