"Where you headed kid?" The gruff question came from an equally gruff looking man. He said nothing as he handed over his last few dollars for food from the opening of the food truck.
Did he really look so bad that gruff men in food trucks worried about him? Apparently.
Did he have any way to change that. No.
He also didn't have much of an answer besides "Don't know yet."
Danny took his food and sat at a park bench just out of sight of the now concerned looking food truck owner.
He tried to eat his last easily obtained food without any pressing thoughts or worries, but that peace still eluded him. Had been for the past few months now. If he was really being honest with himself, that kind of peace had been lost to him ever since he had half died in his own basement. The past few months had been especially hard on him though, even he could admit that to himself.
He's been running. Running where? Honestly, that is such a good question that deserves a thought out answer but... he just.. can't. For the half-life of him, he has no idea where he's heading, but anywhere is better than staying in one place for too long.
What has he been running from? Ah. An excellent question. Jazz would be so proud of his sleep deprived mind for coming up with it as he thinks himself through his current predicament as a sort of coping mechanism or some such nonsense. He could use some of that sisterly nonsense right about no.. -No!
No. Don't fall into that trap Danny Fenton. Think about her, about them, too much, and you wont be able to stop yourself from falling apart.
He's been holding himself together by the barest thread since he had left Amity Park. He had seen news reports playing, and articles in papers about what had happened for the first few weeks after he left. He'd ignore it and walk away if he ever came across any sign of what was once his home. He would remind himself that running from the reminders wasn't a weakness, but a sense of self preservation. (That's what Jazz said, she knew what she was talking about most of the time.) He lived through it, he didn't need any more reminders of what had happened. Honestly, those first few weeks on the run, if he became any more stressed than he already had been, he would truly have started to break apart. Destabilize like Danielle had, before the Ecto-Dejecto.
Could he even destabilize like that? He didn't know. Didn't really want to find out either.
It's good that Danielle made it into the Ghost zone before his parents portal was destroyed. He hadn't heard even the smallest peep out of Vlad and his goons either, so he could only assume that he had made it in too, before...
No. Nope. Nopity nope. Not gonna go down that slippin' slide of tears and regret. He can't stop now to fall apart. Stop and they'll find him for sure, and then what his family and friends did for him... well it would have all been for nothing.
Having finally finished his food, and his (-totally-not-a-mental-breakdown-) internal pep talk, he gets up to throw away his trash.
Hitching his bag up higher on his back, and shoving his hands into his hoodie pocket, Danny makes his way towards the park exit.
.
Wandering the world, looking over his shoulder at every turn, being hunted down like an animal; it's been great and all, but he really did need to make a plan, especially now that he had run out of money. He refused to steal.
To cheat.
So, he needed to find a job of some kind.
Walking through the business district of the city he had been staying in, it was easy to see that city life sure was different from life back in Amity Park. The place was still bustling, even with the evening sun beginning to shift into sunset. No constant ghost attacks around here, that's for sure.
He could probably find a job in the next city he found. He hadn't seen any sign of being followed or tracked to this city, but he had been noticed by that food truck guy, Mr. Gruff man. It was better to be safer in a new city, than not.
Walking to the outskirts of the city took the rest of the daylight, and a lot of the energy he had gotten from the small taco he had gotten from the gruff food truck dude. God, he was spiraling. Why had Mr. Gruff man from the food stand (ha) made such an impression on him? Because he was the first person in this city to take more than a passing interest in him? That makes sense, even if it was also kind of sad.
Ah well. Better to not be noticed for now.
As he turned into a darkened alley, away from the non-light of the broken street lamp, he stopped for a moment to look skyward.
He had walked quite a ways from the park in the center of the city. He was right on the edge, where the light pollution was thinnest while still being within the city. Just thin enough though, to admire the stars.
He smiled slightly when he could just make out the Big Dipper, and the faint pinpricks of Ursa Minor, and then Polaris. The Northern star.
Heh. Take that Dash. Astronomy was totally a valid interest, and worth learning about. His knowledge of the stars is the only way he had of knowing ~vaguely~ where he was.
Taking a long breath and lowering his head, he transformed. Ragged and dirty clothes made way for black hazmat. Black hair shifts white, and previously icy blue eyes open to show glowing green.
Hovering above the alley floor, white boots barely brushing the ground, he took note of how his suit was even looser on his thin frame than the last time he had shifted a few days prior.
He had really been trying to budget out how he spent his money.
Ah well, can't be helped. (Or can it? Could he change his clothes in ghost form? He didn't know, but now wasn't the time to test any theories.)
Pulling on his core a bit to reach invisibility, he flew up past the walls of the alleyway. Putting Polaris behind him, he began his flight to the next city.
.
A few hours of flying later, out in the middle of nowhere, the stars almost mocking in their beauty, he fell.
Plummeted from the sky with all the grace and suddenness of an asteroid from deep space.
He hit the ground with enough force to generate small seismic waves, and a crater he now had to crawl out of. Not that he knew that at the moment. He was too busy screaming in agony.
It had come from nowhere, stabbing and biting in its intensity. Pain that was only getting worse as time went on. Curling into himself within the crater, he gasped and cried out at the new wave of pain radiating from his core.
What was going on? This was worse than blood blossoms! It was like he was being pulled apart from the inside! And suddenly... he was being pulled apart.
He could feel his core shudder, and then disintegrate. His body following not long after. He felt himself fall apart, and then... nothing.
He couldn't feel anything for a blissful moment, long enough to make him think he might have died all the way. But alas. He could never be so lucky.
If being torn apart had been painful, feeling himself reassemble from the core outwards was excruciatingly worse. He could feel his very atoms maneuvering and reattaching themselves to each other to form bones, tissue, skin...
There was lightning searing his mind, and ice shards pinning his body together.
This was almost as bad as being inside that portal when it opened on top of him. This reminded him of dying.
He almost didn't register that the pain had stopped until his body hit the ground again. He gasped and dragged in a ragged breath, filling his recently emptied lungs with much needed air.
He barely registered his transformation back to human form, before he recognized that his other senses were coming back to him, slowly but surely.
It wasn't nighttime anymore, or at least it wasn't dark where he was now. There were voices filtering into his desperately reeling brain, which meant there were people nearby.
People nearby. He just transformed back to his human form.
Crud.
Before panic could take over his rebooting senses, there was a flash of vivid red. He knew nothing more, as darkness swallowed his mind.
Hey peeps! Thank you so much for reading the first chapter of this fic!
I'm still relatively new to writing so please! If you have any notes on my writing then let me know! Constructive criticism is welcome as I learn and hopefully improve!
Next chapter is in another character's perspective, in which you will find out what happened to poor Danny. Thanks again!