Caffeine was a heaven sent. There was no two ways about it, particularly with mocks right around the corner. They didn't have mock finals in Amity Park like they did here in Arcadia Oaks, but that might've have something to do with the fact that the founder of this high school had been British, or European at the very least. He'd heard that they were pretty typical amongst the Common Wealth, or so said the ghosts. Whilst a little more lax than the actual finals themselves, the mocks were basically just a back-up in case something happened and they couldn't sit their finals. Which in this town was highly likely, but that was besides the point.
Caffeine, or more specifically coffee, came in short supply around this time as most students spent the days and hours before their tests just cramming in as must information as they possibly could. Dan would bet if you gave any one of the seniors a blood test, then it would come back with coffee in it. He'd heard—and seen—some of the oddest ways in which his peers would attain the sweet, sweet substance. From straight-up drinking from teachers' mugs to stealing it from the staff room and concocting their own 'special' brews that bordered more or less on fantastic feats of alchemy. How caffeine wasn't a listed drug already, he would never know because that shit was addicting.
Which is how, a week after the school had been debugged, fumigated and basically reset to normal, the albino found himself meandering down the hallway to class with a large chipped mug of steaming coffee that he'd pilfered from the staff room. Today's brew tasted odd—it was weak and bitter, as it usually was; but that was pretty typical for plunger coffee— and it would've given him pause if not for the fact that he was half-dead (pun unintended) from cramming his head with so many useless facts the night before, that they kinda all just blurred together into a helpless mush. Dan just prayed that enough coffee would revitalise him enough to at least remember enough to pass.
"Hey, man!" George greeted with a wave as he slid into the classroom and tucked his phone into one of the many translucent pockets of the wall hanging by the door where the others lay, before he made his way over to his labelled seat. "You ready for this thing?"
"Nope" Dan replied irritably as he unceremoniously dumped his bag to the floor and flopped into his seat and turned to the bespectacled brunette beside him. Whilst George wasn't exactly a friend per se, he was just one of those people that got along with everyone. He had this kind of magnetism that drew you to him, but you didn't really know why. He was a good laugh, if nothing else.
"Yeah, me neither" The brunette carelessly ran a hand through his bangs with a sigh. Like most of his peers (and himself) George was your typical teenager that sported dark violet bags beneath his eyes and acne dotted around his rose-tinted glasses. "At least you got your coffee fix, though"
"Nicked it from the staff room" Dan was practically hunched over his mug by this point; crouched like a gargoyle as he inhaled both fumes and liquid.
"Well, you're a lucky duck, then"
"Hm?"
"I heard a couple of juniors got roped into getting the pot but it didn't work out"
"Bummer"
"Tell me about it! I'd rather run laps with Coach breathing down my neck than this! Who cares about the themes in To Kill a Mockingbird anyway? I mean it's not like I'll need that when I get pulled over by the cops!"
"When?"
"Shuddup! Y'know what I mean" George replied playfully as he fiddled with the pencil lain out on his desk next to the sealed test booklets that matched every other desk in the room.
"Nngh" Dan grunted in reply. He could feel a headache forming, but was unsure as to the cause. Too much caffeine, not enough sleep, stress…it could be a multitude of options, but all he knew was that the bubbly boy next to was starting to grate on his nerves.
"Hey man, y'all alright?"
"Hm?"
"Your eyes are lookin' a lil' red, there"
" 'm fine" Dan mumbled as his fingers clenched around the mug in his hands and he peered down into the molten liquid to see what his reflection would show. It was hard to distinguish other colours besides the dark brown of the coffee, so Dan just brushed it off with a shrug."Just tired"
"I hear ya, man" George easily accepted, leaning his chair back on its hind legs. "All I wanna do is sleep for a week! If only!"
"Alright! Alright! Settle down! Settle down!" Mrs Weatherby shuffled into the room, her wrinkled facade doing nothing to hide the beady eyes or sharp-toothed grin. The old woman always took pleasure in their sufferings. It took a moment or two for the class to settle as they waited for the little minute hand to click around to the hour, with bated breaths and ants in their pants. "You may now open your booklets and begin!"
His rage bubbled like water in a pot, coming ever closer to the surface as if one more irritation would send him over the edge. His movements too, were jerky, as if not quite his own. And there was this voice, so sweet and alluring, just beckoning him to follow along, to listen to the unintelligible words in his head. It was probably the closest he'd ever come to an out-of-body experience in a long time. In fact, the last time he'd felt like this was when he had fallen beneath Freakshow's control.
The bathroom pass sat innocently on the sink as porcelain groaned beneath Dan's clenched hands and glowing blood red eyes stared at him from the mirror. The visage of Dark Danny wearing his clothes and his body usually would be enough to send him bolting from the room with sweat pouring from him in buckets. Dark Danny was not a person he ever aspired to be, nor did he ever want to see again. The fact that the new moniker he'd chosen was practically word-for-word his counterpart's identity did not escape him—it never had—and he hated himself for it. Hated Dark Danny with a cold rage that bubbled like molten lava beneath the surface.
"RAAGH!" Dan bellowed as he punched his own reflection and sent shards of the mirror flying, unable to look at him any longer. It made him feel a little better seeing the destruction he had wrought, however small and a hint a satisfaction curled happily in his gut when he noted the fist-shaped indent in the brick where the mirror had once been. A familiar bloodcurdling smirk pulled at his lips & stared back at him from the broken shards at his feet. He remained uncaring even as ectoplasm dripped from the slowly healing cuts on his knuckles and he walked from the bathroom into the dimly-lit and barren hallway intent on finding the others, whomever they might be. All he knew was that he had to listen to the voices, they knew what was right.
Floating down the hallway, Dan passed a few of his classmates with each of them baring the same glowing eyes in various colours. None of them seemed to pay attention to each other, far more occupied with groaning lowly and moving about with jerky movements like puppets on a string; for those who were conscious at least. A few of his peers just lay sprawled about the school like forgotten play things, but he could still see glowing eyes moving rapidly beneath lowered eyelids as he passed. He paid them no mind and instead moved with purpose towards the commotion in the main hallway where he found Ms Janeth burrowing through an upturned rubbish bin at one end and Señor Uhl waiting in the wings at the other with Mr Strickler blinking dumbly in the flickering lights.
"Ms Janeth?" Mr Strickler inquired, pulling Ms Janeth from the bin with a dirty sock in her mouth.
"Hmm…Strickler!" Ms Janeth hummed, slurping up the sock like it was a noodle.
"Stricklander" Dan rumbled in kind as he floated into view before the history teacher could get a word in edgewise. The new name felt odd on his tongue, and yet the halfa knew it to be true the same way he knew the sky was up and the ground was down. "You're back!"
"Mr Masters?" Mr Strickler puzzled, brows furrowing and eyes narrowing at the usage of his Trollish name. Viridian eyes roved over the ghostly feet hovering above the floor as well as the hunched form of his colleague who crawled forward with her head cocking this way and that in snake-like movements, causing Strickler to shuffle backwards. "I have a feeling Mr Lake wasn't entirely honest with me—"
"—Adiós!" Señor Uhl broke from the shadows just as Strickler turned, knocking him out with an encyclopaedia to the head. "One of us!"
"One of us!" Dan nodded as he floated closer to the unconscious man,
"Yes!" Ms Janeth grinned as she hefted the staff room's coffee pot and shuffled towards him. "One of us!"
What followed next was a series of uncoordinated and jerky movements as the possessed trio tried their best to force open Mr Strickler's jaw and make him swallow the coffee and whatever lay within it. All Dan knew was that Mr Strickler had to consume the liquid, no matter the cost. Which soon became apparent when he jolted awake to find the halfa slamming his mouth shut with a click of his teeth and holding it there in an effort to make him swallow. It wasn't until Señor Uhl leant over and ran gentle fingers down Mr Strickler's throat and across his sternum that the man reflexively gulped, swallowing it down. It didn't take long after that for his eyes to bleed gold and a familiar rage to appear in his features.
Dan wasn't quite sure when he broke from the pack, only that he soon found himself in the cafeteria with the tannoy system blaring one of Ember's songs on repeat like some kind of ghostly mantra. Backwards and forwards the song ran around and around until it was nothing more than just white noise in his ears, comparable only to the voices in his head.
Don't ever laugh as a hearse goes by
For you may be the next to die
They wrap you up in bloody sheets
To drop you six feet underneath
They put you in a pinewood box
And cover you up with dirt and rocks
It all goes well for about a week
And then your coffin begins to leak
"That's—that's a p-pretty song" A shaken voice came from the doorway, causing Dan to spin sharply on his heel. Blood red eyes locked onto the silhouetted figures of Toby, Steve and Eli gathered around the doorway with wide eyes and shivering limbs. Which was understandable, considering the temperature in the room had dropped considerably by then, to the point where little crystals of ice could be seen forming on the chairs and condensation fogged the windows. "What—what's it about?"
"Wh-what're you doing, Domzalski?!" Steve turned on the pudgy boy who had asked the stammered question.
"Trying to wake him up, obviously!" Toby retorted. "Unless you can think of a better way?"
"G-guys! Please don't fight!" Eli shivered as he stood sandwiched between the two.
And the worms crawl in, the worms crawl out
The worms play pinochle on your snout
They eat your eyes, they eat your nose
As you begin to decompose
A slimy beetle with demon's eyes
Chews through your stomach and out your sides
Your stomach turns to rancid grease
And puss pours out like melted cheese
You spread it on a slice of bread
And that's what you'll eat when you're dead!
Not that it mattered as Mr Strickler soon appeared (looking a little worse for wear) with Jim on his arm and garbed in that glowing blue armour. The voices in his head rejoiced at the sight of it. THE AMULET! THE AMULET! GET THE AMULET! WE MUST HAVE IT! TAKE IT! TAKE IT! TAKE IT!
"Stricklander" Dan purred, wincing only slightly at the uproar within his head as he sauntered forward with snakelike movements and feet never once touching the floor. "You have returned, and with the Trollhunter. He will be most pleased"
"Wh-whose 'He'?" Eli asked of Toby, his voice carrying over from the doorway as the sounds of Steve retching into a nearby rubbish bin were heard. Apparently the mental image of eating your own innards was too much.
"H-how am I s'posed to know?!" Toby replied, nose turning up at the stench that was floating his way. Ick.
And the worms crawl out, the worms crawl in
The ones that crawl in are lean and thin
The ones that crawl out are fat and stout
Your eyes fall in and your hair falls out
Your brain turns into maggot pie
Your liver starts to liquify
A sadistic sort of glee filled Dan as he approached the teacher and student, a kind of glee brought on by the voices in his head that bellowed their approval. Especially when he backhanded their history teacher across the room, sending him sailing like he was nothing more than a rag doll, and crashed into a pile of dusty chairs at the other end of the room. Several gasps of surprise were heard from the boys alongside the groans of pain from Mr Strickler, and in turn, Jim readied his broadsword with wary eyes. Dan smirked at the thought that the toothpick of a weapon would be of any harm to him. Not now, not when he was like this. "Masters—Dan, what're you doing?!" Jim tried, warily eyeing the senior before him. "Who do you think you are?! You could've killed him!"
"So?" Dan cackled, head tilted in question and smirk painted on his lips.
And for the living, all is well
As you sink further into hell
And the flames rise up to drag you down
Into the fire where you will drown
Your skin melts off as you descend
And ghouls tear you limb from limb
Your suffering will never end
In the same breath that Jim launched forward with a battlecry, Dan surged forward uncaring of the weapon straight for his undead heart. That's what ghost cores and intangibility was for. His hand shot forth like a snake, easily latching onto the boy's throat as he lifted him clean off of his feet and into the air. "So you wanna know who I am, do you?" Dan purred, bringing the boy in far too close to see his eyes swimming with mirth. "Daniel Fenton—"
"—I knew it—!" Toby swore excitedly from the sidelines.
"—I died twice before my fifteenth birthday—"
"—I did not know that—"
"—I've fought for my life on countless occasions, I've been a pariah and a martyr on numerous more. I've saved this Mortal Zone and the Ghost Zone from power-seeking ghouls, humans & asteroids! I've seen the past and future! I've walked through nightmares that no man should ever see! I was a saviour! A KING! A GOD! I WAS EVERYTHING AND NOTHING! SO YOU WANNA KNOW WHO I AM? I AM DANNY FUCKING PHANTOM!" Dan was breathing heavily by the time he had finished his tirade, chest heaving up and down as the red in his vision became cloudy and blurred. The voices were back.
And the worms crawl in, the worms crawl out
They'll eat your guts and then shit them out
And when your bones begin to rot
The worms remain, but you do not
So don't ever laugh as a hearse goes by
For someday, you'll be the one to die
And when Death brings his cold despair
Ask yourself, "Will anyone care?"
TAKE IT! TAKE IT! TAKE IT! WE MUST HAVE IT! GIVE IT TO US! GIVE US THE AMULET! On and on the voices rambled as Dan tried (unsuccessfully) to pull the glowing blue amulet from the armour. It seemed that even ectoplasm had no effect on it, no matter how much he tried. "C'me on! C'me on!" Dan grumbled under his breath as Jim struggled in his grip, doing his best to wriggle free from the tight grip, if only so he could breathe. But Dan wasn't having any of that. With an irritated growl, he slammed Jim to the floor, effectively knocking what little breath out of him as he climbed atop the fallen boy and tried his best to further pry the object of desire from his person.
"That was quite the speech, lil' rocker!" Ms Janeth chirped, suddenly appearing as if from thin air as Mr Strickler pulled himself from the chairs with a groan. Dan whipped around and narrowed his eyes at the woman, because although the outward appearance was that of their drama teacher, the body language and actions were that of the ghostly rocker, Ember.
"Ms Janeth?" Eli puzzled as the woman hefted a large flaming guitar over her shoulder. A very familiar guitar.
"Lights out~!" Ms Janeth sang as she took aim, hefting the guitar higher in the air. Dan was barely able to widen his eyes in alarm before the guitar swung forward and connected with the side of his head. Hard. Like a puppet whose strings had been cut, Dan collapsed into Jim's lap with a pained groan. The last thing he heard was the confused murmurs of those around him and promises from Mr Strickler to smooth things over as Jim commented on Claire's luck for being absent that day.