Ectoplasmic Secrets

The Cost

Summary: It had been an average fight until one of its claws cut a little deeper than usual.

An odd mixture of blood and ectoplasm dripped sluggishly down his forearm. The sliced flesh stung as oxygen graced the wound. He'd thought he'd had an extra few inches leeway when he dodged the wolf's attack. Turned out those few inches had made all the difference and the beast's claws sank into his right arm.

He took a few breaths, looking over the massive ghost wolf. After its claws had torn through him he'd gotten a quick adrenaline rush and kicked the creature back several feet.

It's jaws were dripping with saliva as it snarled menacingly. Heaps of matted fur covered its back except for in spots that were missing and instead displayed chunks of rotted flesh.

Most of the people in the park had fled the scene about ten minutes earlier, although some of the more daring souls stood their ground and watched the fight from a distance. Unfortunately the ghost was just a bit too strong to capture in the thermos, so the whole thing was turning into a bigger ordeal than Danny had been hoping for.

The wolf ran at him again, more aggressively than before. He knew he had to finish the fight and quick, before it could get any worse. As it got closer he decided to go for the same trick of using its mass against it.

The wolf's claws dug into the grass and dirt and sent chunks of it flying behind it as it ran at him. It's jaws opened up, displaying rows of sharp and decaying teeth. At the last moment Danny flew to the side, more confident that this time he was out of reach of the ghost.

He was successful.

The wolf tumbled through the air for a moment, just long enough for him to get in a shot with the ectogun he still had.

There was a flash as the energy beam made contact with the ghost, and suddenly there wasn't just one big wolf, but a pack of six normal sized ones. They seemed to realize that they were losing now and chose to flee.

Danny pulled out the thermos, wincing as he used his right arm to pull the cap off. Due to the ghosts now being weakened considerably, it was easy for him to capture each of them in the thermos's beam.

It was over.

He didn't stick around a moment longer. It was a miracle that no hunters or GIW had shown up yet, but he wasn't going to take any more chances. He flew invisibly back to the school, and to the bathroom where he'd left his backpack. The whole way there he held his injured arm tightly against his chest.

After landing back inside, checking that there was no one else around, and transforming back, he hastily pulled out whatever first aid supplies he had in his backpack. It was October now. For the past month and a half Danny had been getting into more fights, trying to stop the troublesome ghosts that often made their way into town, from hurting any innocent bystanders. Of course, said fights didn't usually get resolved so quickly and smoothly as he'd like, which is why he'd learned to always keep some sort of first aid supplies in his backpack or in his room. Ghost hunting, after all, was one of those things where one either got good at it fast or dead faster.

The cut on his arm stung, sending pains up through the rest of his arm while he washed the blood off. The blood was more red than green now, but if one looked close enough, the traces of ectoplasm could still be seen residing there, dormant.

During the month and a half he had also taken the name Phantom for his ghost half. Ever since the lunch lady had called him that it had kind of stuck. Plus it was a bit of a play off his real last name, so that made it made it better yet. Like an inside joke, that only one person knew about.

At any rate, the name was better than the horrid one the media had concocted and dubbed him with until just recently. Someone at channel 8 had apparently thought the name "Inviso-Bill" would be funny, and if it were about anyone else, Danny probably would have laughed at it. Fortunately just earlier that week the media had started to catch on and ditch that name.

Amity Park was still mystified by him. The polls claimed about 90 percent of Amity citizens thought he was either the same as every other ghost they saw, or was worse. About 5 percent still didn't even believe he existed at all, kind of understandable as the closest thing there was to a clear picture of him in his ghost form was a black and white blur. The remaining 5 percent actually believed he was different from other ghosts. Perhaps some of them were too naive, after all, the facts that were available, didn't exactly point in his favor.

Danny finished wrapping the bandage securely around his forearm. He paused and pinched an unmarred spot on his arm tightly, hoping it would distract from the sting of the cut. Technically, the cut probably should've gotten stitches, but he had neither the supplies or knowledge on how to do so, and it wasn't like he could go to a doctor or anyone else for that matter. They would ask too many questions. Besides, it would probably heal up within a few days, he thought, so long as he didn't hurt it again and reopen the wound.

When he thought about it, he knew this was the worst he's gotten. Somewhere in the back of his mind he added yet to the end of that statement. But it was worth it. That wolf had been ready to attack a kid in the park earlier, just like the lunch lady could have easily hurt Sam if he hadn't shown up at the right moment.

Maybe he could very well just live life like normal, with these freaky powers bottled up and locked inside him. A secret no one else dead or alive would have ever known about. But the guilt would be crushing, disabling even, if he'd of just watched all these things happen, the only one to know that they could have been prevented.

So maybe he, Sam, and Tucker weren't so close of friends anymore, so what? At least they were alive and safe, or relatively safe, as one is never completely safe in Amity. And so what if Jazz was constantly giving him psychoanalyzing stares, and questioning him, trying to get him to talk to her.

It was all just part of the cost.

A/N: Hello again! I did practically guarantee this chapter would be up by the end of today, so I had to stick to it lol. I'm not quite sure how I feel about this chapter. I think I could have done better with it, but at the same time I think it came out better than the last chapter because that one was...yeesh. Anyways, I hope you guys can enjoy this one.

If any of you have tips/suggestions/comments, feel free to leave them in the reviews. I love to hear from you guys, and I'd also love to make this story the best I can for you.

Next chapter I will try to get up on Thursday, April 18th! Again, if it isn't up by then, you can simply check back here and I should have an updated posting date.

UPDATE! Sorry for both late update and late chapter :( the week has flown by and I have a lot of deadlines coming up. New posting date is Thursday, May 9th

Thanks for reading/favoriting/following/reviewing! "See" ya next time! :)