Danny sat by his window, the videotape he had discovered in the funeral home was still clutched in his hands. His window was open gazing out at the soft night sky; a cool breeze rustled his curtains and brushed against his cheek. He stood up slowly, his black hair messy from neglect. He had been sitting there far too long; his soft blue eyes were hazy from fatigue. He hadn't slept well since Lizzy's death, but at least now he was doing something that wasn't just sitting around waiting for the next death. He walked slowly across the floor opening his door, making sure his parents were asleep. They were. Carefully he shut the door behind him, slipping quietly down the stairs. He found himself in the kitchen, and so far no one was up. This was indeed a good sign. Without a word he slid downstairs into the basement. It was almost pitch black, the dim glow of the portal into the Ghost Zone did little to pierce the heavy shadow that had settled in the room. Danny shivered as he reached the bottom step his bare feet connecting with the cold metal floor. He walked toward the T.V sitting on a shelf almost hidden beneath papers his dad had tossed carelessly aside. Gently, he moved the papers placing them in a neat pile to the left of the television. He inserted the tape into the opening of the V.C.R but before he could push the tape in, he felt his blood run cold. He felt doubtful all of a sudden, almost frightened of this tape. His instincts told him to leave it and run, but common sense kept telling him it was only a tape and that nothing bad could come from it. Yet, no matter how many times he reassured himself, he could not get rid of the icy bumps that traveled up and down his arm, or the sudden feeling of nausea that had over come him. Quickly, before he had any second thoughts, he pushed the tape in and pressed play. There was a small moment when nothing but static showed on the tape, Danny felt a wave of relief wash over him. "It's blank." he said not even bothering to keep the relief out of his voice. He reached toward the eject button when suddenly the screen went black. Danny stepped backward sitting on a chair his father had used when waiting for ghosts to enter the Human World. Bright light in a perfect circle pierced the shadow of the screen, and a loud screeching like nothing Danny had ever heard before pounded around the room. As it echoed it worsened, Danny knew it had woken someone up. But the screeching stopped just as suddenly as it had come. He listened out for a bit but there was no pounding of footsteps, surprisingly, his family had slept through the unearthly racket. A wave of crimson blood splashed across the screen, quickly followed by a woman examining herself in the mirror, brushing her long silky black hair. A little girl appeared and vanished behind the woman. Danny winced overwhelmed with the sudden feeling of the blood in his veins turning to ice. A baby animal crawled across the screen into the shed. The images continued to change. Someone looking out of the window of a house, a chair spinning rapidly upside-down, a ladder falling to the ground without a sound. Someone throwing up his- Danny gagged unable to take much more of the video. A box of squirming maggots, twitching fingers, a nail driven right through someone's finger. There was a close up of an eyeball, a crawling centipede, and the woman from the mirror jumping off a cliff to her death. Danny knew he would be sick if he was forced to watch this much longer, carefully he watched as a stone well occupied the screen. Someone's hand was sticking out of the top and then- The movie cut off. Just like that it ended. Danny let out a long breath, which until this moment, he had been unaware he was holding. An icy sweat was dripping down his face and his entire body was shaking. This was extremely weird, that a single tape had scared him this badly when no ghost had ever managed to even make him shake.
Ring! Danny jumped his heart pounding in his chest with so much force it was painful. The phone? He checked his watch; it was eleven at night, who could possibly be calling. Ring! He stood up walking over to the phone, which rested near the television. He checked his caller ID, and just to add to the already overly terrifying events of the night, his caller ID was blank, as if no one was calling. Ring! He didn't reach to pick up the phone, and no one else did either. Danny decided to let the machine get it. Ring! After this one the machine should pick up. Ring! That was weird, the machine should have picked up. Danny checked the machine to see if it was on. It was, but just like his caller ID it seemed not to pick up the fact that someone was calling. Ring! This was just getting scary. His answering machine and caller ID refused to take any notice of this call yet the phone was defiantly ringing. But… why weren't his parents answering? Ring! Just one phone was ringing. None of the other phones were, and the lab wasn't on another line. Ring! This wasn't right; something weird was defiantly going on. This persistent caller was nonexistent to his Caller ID, his Answering Machine, and the other three phoned in his house. BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! That was his pager to Tucker. Ring! And that was his phone again. Slowly Danny picked up the phone. "H…Hullo?" he asked shakily. There was static at the other end. He felt relieved, maybe his phone was malfunctioning. Suddenly the other end fell silent.
"Seven….days…" a voice hissed from the other end. Danny stood there, eyes widened in a petrified stare. The static had returned on the other end of the line. And was slowly the static faded away. It took a bit for Danny to react.
"Who is this!" he demanded. "Is this some kind of joke?" No response. No sound. Only silence. Danny stood there looking at the receiver as if he expected it to attack. But he knew it was nothing, who ever or whatever was on the other end was long gone by now.
Next Chapter is finally up! does dance Please remember to review!
