I told you I would update soon. Infact, a couple minutes after CH 7. Now, last time I did mention a surprise but you'll just have to wait for it. That means reading all of the chapter. Not that you guys just skim through it and if you do, then all the power to you! GO SKIMMING! Now...I'll let you get on with the story.

Chapter 8 - Wandering

"Do you always talk to yourself?" Danny turned around and sighed. There was a woman, who looked to be twenty years of age, standing against the wall. The white of her dress was dotted red at the heart and her hands were stained red as well. "If you do then I might as well leave."

"Who are you?"

"My name is Serena." Danny raise an ebrow, questioning why she was named Serena when she didn't seem all that serene.

"You don't look like type to get the meaning of my name. Most of those who come here, well...lets just say they don't get the prize at the end of the game." She walked up to him, "What's your name kid? You don't like you should be in a place like this."

"Why should I tell you?"

"Well, if you don't want to know where your family is..." Serena pulled back her long brown hair that was dotted with blood and started to walk away.

"Wait!" Serena stoped and turned around, her deadly gaze made Danny cringe and fall down to the ground. He felt as if the air was being chocked out of him. She stopped looking at him and he felt the air return to his body. "What did you do? Were you trying to kill me?"

"Believe me, if I was trying to kill you it would have been over by now. When I do try you better be prepared." Serena closed her eyes and turned away from Danny, who kneeling on the ground holding his side trying to gain back a steady breathing patten. "Listen kid, if you like this now you're not going to survive past this point. I only caught you at a side glance."

"You caught me at a side glance?"

"You gotta fess up to your mistakes kid. Trust me, mistakes are all you'll be making around here. You'll have your victories of course," she turned to look at Danny again and again he felt his breath leave him but this time he fought to keep the air in his lungs. "Now, you might wanna follow me for a bit. Relax, I won't try to hurt you." She turned away and took a weezing breath. Danny felt as if the hold on his throat had disappeared and he followed the woman, not sure if he could trust her or not. The way things looked, he really didn't have a choice.

"So...how did you die?"

"Me? If I wanted to tell you I would have by now." She looked at Danny but he closed his eyes. "You're learning," she turned back around.

"Doens't it make you feel bad that you when you look at people you choke them?"

"Listen kid, that may be one of the things I can do but it's not some of my most powerful stuff. Also, if you think I'm revealing myself to you then you can take a second guess. Most people guess that about me." Danny sighed and shrugged his shoulders. "What's with you? You're...different."

"How?" Danny asked, "I'm a ghost...just like you."

"Don't play stupid kid. The spirits here may be trapped in this place but we do hear things. We hear more things then some of those other ghosts don't think we do. They think they're so much better because they can get around from haunting ground to haunting ground but they feel to realize that if they were here, they wouldn't stand a chance." Danny dared to looked Serena. Even if he felt her choking hold on him he kept up his gaze. "I give you credit halfa, you have guts but you'll need more then that in this place." She walked ahead of him but Danny followed.

"So, what makes a spirit like you stay in a place like this."

"If I knew I would tell you. Many of the spirits in this place are stuck here and there is no way we will be free. Maybe, one day we will assend but I don't think there is much of a chance for me or for Morace or Captain Albert. None of us have much of a chance and some of the monsters here, they don't count for much and if they're going anywhere, it's down below." She looked Danny over for a moment, "And something tells me you're gonna find something to keep you here to."

"I'm going to get out of here. I'm going to win this sick game that you've got going."

"Morace, Albert and I...we're not the ones who control this game, we are just the players put into the game to give you some purpose and challenge." Danny frowned and looked around the room they had just entered. It looked like the library and it had tons of boxes in it.

"I'm half expecting the box ghost to appear..."

"The who?"

"Box ghost." Danny replied, "He's a ghost who claims to haunt all the boxes in the world, but he probably has more sense then I do. He wouldn't be here."

"Proabably," Serena replied, "But anyone coming here when she wants to play is insane in my book. You're just one of the lucky few. This is where I stop though, have fun." Danny didn't bother to look at Serena has he walked into the library. He saw a door just at the very bottom of the stairs and looked wairily around, his ghost sense having gone off at least five times.

He had just reached the middle step when he was sent plumating to the ground. He looked down and created a blast to stop his fall from going so fast. He landed on the floor, face first and spit out the blood that he had caused by bitting his cheek. Five creatures surrounded him. Their legs were straight but their arms were missing and were replaced with sharp but flat looking blades. Danny dodged them all as he jumped over them and landed on one of the empty tables. He finally got a good look at their eyes, they were blood red and hollow. Their hair was made of what looked like well oiled paper. One screeched and it's head set on fire.

"Fire heads." Danny had no idea why he had said that and with the confussion he barely had enough time to dodge getting sliced in half. Danny didn't have time to dodge the next one as it's sharp blade just scratched his arm the blade lighting ablaze just as it hit him leaving a scortched mark on his arm. "Damn. Well, now I know better when fighting these things." Danny managed to jump fairly high and hung onto the banaster and shot at them. He hit every part of their body but he still couldn't manage to get them to disappear. Finally he hit them in the middle of the chest. The creatures fell to the floor with an ear piercing shriek that caused Danny to fall. Luckily for him, he landed on a table. Not a soft landing but it would do.

He sat up and looked around now that the room was creature free. He still kept his guard up as he walked through the library. It had a lot of books, more then his school library did and most of them were about law. He couldn't understand how someone could go to school to study this stuff. There was a fair amount of phycology books in the library and he knew, if it wasn't for the ghosts that inabited the place, it would have been a good school. His head started to buzz slightly as he poked through the books. He finally dropped the book and left the room to go into the next hall.

From what he could see, there was at least four doors in this one. He didn't know where each one of them led and if he made the wrong choice he could end up back at the begining. "Damn!" Danny walked up to the doors, "Which one?" Danny walked toward each one of them and glared at each one, unsure of what to pick. He knew, from such a short amount of time spent in the school, that this was a place that messed with your head and held some pretty malicious spirits. Danny sat down for a moment, watching the door ahead of him, his gut telling him that the place inside this door would be relativly safe.

Standing, Danny made his way to the door and touched the knob lightly, nervously twisting it around. It made a metalic scratch that made him jump slightly. He opened it and watched as light flooded the room. The room was a medium size, nice enough for someone to live in for a year or two in comfort but the feeling Danny got from this room bothered him. He felt as if he was being watched and scanned the room, seeing nothing. His ghost sense went off but he didn't know what to look for. Danny, as hard as he tried couldn't find the ghost and with some of his powers cut short didn't give him the upper hand.

He really didn't want to be in this room for some reason. It scared him and he backed slowly out of the room but tripped. He heard the soft clang of a metal frame on a wood floor and the soft sound of breaking glass filling the deadly silence of the room. Danny twisted his body slightly and picked up the small but intricate frame, the small metal leaves connecting with a set of vines on the left and right side. Inside was a picture of an older woman, around her fourties, a male in his fifties and a sixteen year old with black hair that hung to about mid back wearing a long red and white dress. It was obvious the photo was taken some where in the 1800's but really, it looked more like a painting. Danny touched the picture lightly and felt the rough texture. It was a small painting, very well done and it was obviously filled with love. Danny put the picture neatly back on the dresser and stood, about to leave the room when something forced him down to the ground, little pieces of glass cutting into the palm of his hand.

Danny tried to push up but felt something wet against his cheek, like a tongue. He looked to the cheek that was being licked and jumped, though not to far because he was being pinned down to the ground. He felt the weight of a body baring down on him, making it hard for him to do anything at all. With some amount of difficulty he twisted his arm and fired, knocking whatever was on him into the air. Danny rolled away quickly and stood, rubbing his arm. Much to Danny's horror, the thing that attacked him had disappeared. Danny looked around again, keeping his ghost shield up for a fair amount of time. His bait proved useful as he watched whatever it was drop from the ceiling and crash to the floor after it ricochied off. He dropped the shield and fired, slamming it into the wall.

The creature got back up, it's arms and legs bent in such a way that it's body was bent low to the ground while it's head looked straight ahead. The eyes were crimson red with on black pupil in each and it's face was melted away almost, the left half of it's lip gone leaving a void to show the loose muscle and bone that shook as it moved ever so slightly when it made a sudden jump or twinge. The other side of the face, where the melted skin was, lay dry blood that slowly flaked off to be replaced with more of the sickening green ecotoplasam, dotted with red.Danny realized that it wasn't the creatures blood at all but the blood of some of the people who had died earlier. The creature twinged again, glaring at the halfa, lowering it's body as if it was getting ready to run in a marathon.

Danny put up his ghost shield but not in time, as the creature collided with him, sending him slamming into the wall, giving him a headache as his head slammed into the wall. "Ow..." Danny managed to knock the creature away before it manged to tear away his shoulder with one bite of the now massive and sharp blood coated teeth. Danny jumped out of the way and shot at the creature several times. It landed on it's back but, with a sickening sound, twisted it's legs and head around and looked at him, a malicious and hungry look in it's eye. Danny fired several more rounds but missed each time. The creature was quick, like a spider and moved rapidly toward him. He dodged again but fell as he did so.

He had no time to get up as the creature was on top of him again. It's face so close to Danny's that the blood in it's teeth dripped in tiny droplets, falling onto his face. Danny felt the inside of his stomache churn with disgust as the blood of inocent people landed against his pale skin. Danny fired at at the spider again, hitting it directly in the face. It flopped over again but Danny fired serveral rounds at it, completely disfiguring the creature on the ground.

'Ah...you've faced my spiders. Funny how they died really, humans who had their legs and arms bent in such a way that their minds and souls were just too tramatized to move on.'

"What do you want?" Danny asked, annoyed. He really didn't want to talk to his tormenter but she was all the company he had.

Well, you're fun to talk to. Always so moody and brooding. It's nice to see someone who's an actual freak.

"I'm not a freak!" Danny growled but she had already gone, leaving him alone with whatever might decide to pop out next. His energy was wearing thin and he felt the rings that could over take his body start to fade. His vision started to dance. He jumped slightly when he felt someone touch his shoulder. He turned around and was surprised to see someone he didn't expect. His mom! He couldn't be sure if it was her on an allusion. He walked toward unsteadily and watched as she prepared for an attack.

"M-Maddie?" he was fading and fast. He had used too many reserves already. The woman looked at him and aimed her gun at him. "P-please don't. I couldn't...fight you if I wanted t-to."

"What are you doing here you malicious spirit!" Danny, too tired to think straight collasped into the woman, trying to force himself to stay in ghost mode. It was harder said then done and if it so happened that he turned into Danny Fenton, his secret would be out and his mom would probably hunt him. He tried to keep his eyes open but it just wasn't working. "I asked you a question!"

"I know..." he looked at her, "I'm sorry. Please don't hurt me." His vision fadded and those familure rings of white circled him, allowing his mother to see his transformation from Danny Phantom to Danny Fenton.

Okay... a little bit of a twist. Who would have guessed that Maddie would find out so soon! I am going to take some time writting chapter nine, not that I didn't take time on this chapter. BUT ANYWAY...I hope you enjoyed this one as well.