Today's chapter is a little shorter than usual. I hope you don't mind.
Thanks for sticking with me!
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Chapter 20: Snow
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There was an argument going on. Well, arguments, really. Two different languages. Danny was the only one who could understand both. (Understand being a relative term). It was kind of funny, really. One of the arguments was whether or not one set of arguers should flee the other.
Danny wasn't paying attention, though. He was looking up, thinking. In a few minutes, the swirling clouds would start to block out the moonlight. He wondered if it would start snowing. He blinked, looking down again.
Mr Lancer looked like he was ready to physically fight Maddie, which was really funny. Paulina was screaming something about 'her ghost-boy.' Valerie looked as if she was about to throw up. Most of the class had actually started to agree with Tucker, which was nice.
But then Maddie just had to ruin things.
"If you're going to believe that thing about all the rest, you have to believe it about not being Phantom! That means that Danny is still possessed!"
"I am not!" said Danny. A thought, a plan, bloomed, unbidden. It would be cruel, but- He was nearly beyond caring, right now. There were more important things than feelings. This would get dangerous to the humans, when it did start snowing, if they kept arguing like this. It could get dangerous for the wisps if it resolved in some decision against them on the part of the humans. It would be dangerous to Danny regardless, as much as he loved the cold. He hesitated a moment. This would hurt his parents. This was one of the reasons he had kept his secrets for so long. He didn't want to hurt them.
But they were the enemy, now. They had made themselves a danger to Danny, which he could deal with, and to others, which he couldn't. So.
He seized the hem of his shirt, and pulled it up, over his head. His t-shirt and undershirt came off with his hoodie, exposing his bare skin and a veritable constellation of scars. He threw his shirts on the ground. Everyone was staring at him now.
"Are you going to blame all of these on Phantom, too? It doesn't matter though, does it?" Danny laughed, hysteria creeping into his tone. The sound had more in common with breaking ice than he liked. "Because none of you ever noticed! Jazz was the only one who noticed."
Everyone, wisps included, stared at Danny in mute horror. Danny stared back. Heck, he didn't have, like, a gaping wound that he wasn't feeling, did he? He looked down.
It was like time stopped.
He had forgotten about the scar. The scar. The one he never, ever, showed everyone. The one that branched like lightning over his whole body.
Somehow, between now and when he had first woken up here, he had forgotten that the scar was visible even though he was human. Just... It had slipped his mind, somewhere in between temporary insanity and getting his mind picked apart by whatever he'd just-
And they had all seen it, now.
He lunged for the wad of cloth that was his shirts and forced it haphazardly over his head.
"Daniel," said Mr Lancer, sounding as shocked as Danny felt, "what was that scar from?"
Drat. Come up with a lie. Hurry, hurry, hurry. "The portal accident," answered Danny. "Before freshman year." A lie! That was not a lie!
"But you went to the doctor for that!" protested Maddie. "You- It faded, it- how..."
"I don't know, maybe it's sensitive to ectoplasm concentration or something," said Danny. Oh. That was actually a good one.
"What about the other ones?" asked Mr Lancer.
"You said that the ghosts would come after you," said Valerie, breathlessly, before Danny could come up with anything. "Oh my god, Danny."
"Did Phantom-" started Ricky, hesitantly.
"He's one of the only ones who didn't contribute to this mess," said Danny. (He did not count the hand-shaped burns left on his arms in that aborted future.) "Heck, even Tucker's hit me with a blaster before."
"One time, man!"
Danny's laugh was a little more genuine this time.
Where had he been going with this?
"The point is," Sam stepped up, wrapping her one arm possessively around Danny, "that you didn't notice. That you never notice. That you're pointing fingers at ghosts, saying they're thoughtless and destructive, when you should be looking at yourselves. Did you even think about what that thing would do to Danny if Phantom was in him?"
Another beat of silence, and then the clouds did what they had been threatening to do all along, and converged on the not-moon, blocking out all it's light. Now the only illumination was the still smoldering device, and the wisps.
"We have to find shelter," said Danny. "It's going to start snowing soon."
There was a murmur of 'How could you possibly know that?' but that was drowned out by a louder voice shouting "Who died and made you king, Fentonia?"
Ah, yes. The ever relevant Dash Baxter, asking the important questions.
Danny was seriously tempted to say 'I did!' or perhaps, 'The jury's still out on that one,' but he wasn't sure it was worth it. On the other hand, he didn't think that he was going to get out of this with his secrets intact. He wasn't sure that he wanted to, anymore.
Then again, the idea of what the Guys in White might do if word of what he was got out... He hadn't forgotten how GIW agents had attacked Sam and Tucker during the Reality Gauntlet incident. Yeah. No. He was going to keep as many of his secrets as he could.
So, instead, he sighed and said, "No one did, Dash, but you have to notice the clouds? And how much the temperature has dropped? I mean, I can see your breath. If we don't find shelter we'll freeze to death out here arguing."
"Not to mention, nothing you're arguing about is going to solve any of our more pressing problems," added Sam. "Like, you know, food, water, getting home."
"You're saying that it doesn't matter whether or not Fenton's possessed? He could be lying about, like, everything?"
"What, like you, Elliot?" said Sam. A bit of a sneer crept into her voice. She had never forgiven him for tricking her into thinking that he was from a vegan goth from Hungary so that he could date her. "But seriously? All that he's done is point out the obvious."
"But there isn't anywhere to go," protested Tiffanie.
"There's the woods," began Sam.
"The woods that attack people and are full of ghosts?" asked Dash.
"It isn't like there aren't ghosts here," said Tucker, indicating the wisps. Danny could feel the tension rise among the students. The only reason that they hadn't run was that the wisps had stayed close to Danny, and away from them, thus far. Well, that and the speed at which everything happened. And possibly the fact that there really weren't that many options when it came to running. Okay, maybe there were a bunch of reasons.
"Why aren't you doing anything about them?" whined Paulina.
"Yeah, you're ghost hunters, right?" Tiffanie picked up the complaint. "You should be able to chase them off, right?"
"Pauli, Tiffanie," said Star, worried, "I don't think that it's a good idea to insult the ghosts right now... This is their home, and there's a lot of them..."
Really, Star was the only one in that group with a brain. Paulina and Tiffanie had redeeming characteristics, but sometimes they were hard to find.
"Actually," said Danny, a light bulb turning on in his head, "I think that they might be able to help us with one of our problems. But first, I think that Ricky and Mikey could be able to help us with shelter."
"What? How?" asked Mikey, surprised.
"You aren't talking about the holes, are you? Because I don't think that's a good idea."
"What? No. Earlier, when we were looking for supplies that came through with us, you guys said that you found a building, right?"
"Oh! Yeah, but it was kind of small. It'll be a squeeze/"
"That should still be fine." A tiny, perfect, snowflake drifted down in front of Danny's eye.
(Would it be such a bad thing if they stayed outside? How could a little snow hurt anyone? It was so soft, so beautiful, so delicate. A blizzard was just a storm of icy kisses.)
Danny reached out to touch it. His fingertip tingled as it slowly melted, and sunk into his skin.
(An image flickered behind his eyes. Himself and his friends, his family, his classmates, his teacher sleeping peacefully in a snowbank. Safe.)
"We really need to go now," said Danny.
