One foot in the Grave

Rating: T [slightly disturbing nightmare imagery]

Pairing: Hints of DannyxSam

Ages: Danny, Sam, Tucker are 14

Summary: Sometimes it can feel as though the weight of the earth is upon your shoulders…


Danny struggled and writhed, trying to escape the grasp of the faceless people who held him. He didn't know how this had happened, but he was terrified. His wrists were bound behind his back, his feet were barely able to scuffle about and his mouth was gagged by cloth. He'd tried many times to phase out of the binds and fly away, but found he couldn't, which didn't make sense. The rope wasn't glowing green; for whatever reason, he couldn't use his powers.

The black human-shaped people, that Danny had a suspicion he knew but couldn't place, gathered in a circle. Two of them, that had been forcing him to walk through the forest finally stopped.

No.

Danny looked down in horror before trying to look his captors in the eyes, finding no eyes to look at.

Please DON'T!

He felt a hand on his back and tried to scrabble backwards, only for the ropes around his ankles to suddenly synch tighter. The hand on his back pushed him forwards and he simply couldn't keep his balance… and fell.

He landed at the bottom of the rectangular pit harshly, the air leaving his lungs. Instinctually he drew his body inwards before trying to get to his knees.

Something struck his back. He heard dirt patter against his clothes and the ground. he whipped his head around and looked up. Another shovel dug into the earth. More dirt. Shovel. Dirt.

No no. No no no no. STOP PLEASE!

Danny tried to cry out, to scream at them, these people he recognized. Surely within that massive group of people, numbering enough to fill a city, one person had a kind enough heart to stop this madness.

They simply watched as the hole filled with more dirt and the frantic boy slowly disappeared from sight.

Not a human being

Walking corpse

Should've been killed in there

Not natural

Not 'really' alive

It can't feel pain

zz

It was dark and, for a moment, Danny thought he was dead… well completely dead anyways.

He was afraid to move, though he could feel his muscles were flexed. There was a hand massaging his shoulder; it felt nice, but he could only think about the cold hands that had held him before.

"Danny. It's okay. You're safe. It was just a dream."

Just a dream?

"Perhaps your psyche is trying to tell you something."

Jazz? Danny slowly cracked open his eyes and took in the sights that made up the right side of his room. He could feel the blankets twisted in-between his fingers and the small breeze from the air duct, keeping his room a little colder than the rest of the house.

"Jazz?"

"I'm right here."

His eyes flicked over to the side and saw Jazz sitting on the edge of the bed.

"What-"

"I heard you making noise from down the hall-"

Danny's eyes widened a bit.

"Mom and Dad were out and I remembered you were wanting to go out with Sam and Tucker today."

"What about school-"

"Danny, it's summer. Wow that nightmare must've been vivid." A concerned look adorned her face. "You wanna talk about it?"

Danny finally sat up and sighed as his pulled a hand through his tangled bed-hair. "Not really…" He mumbled.

Jazz waited for a moment before sighing herself when she realized he wasn't going to talk for now. "Alright. I'll let you get ready for your day, but you know I'm here if you need to talk about it, right?"

Danny smiled and nodded. "Yeah I know. Thanks Jazz."

The red head then slipped out of his room quietly.

zz

He'd practically forgotten about his nightmare until that afternoon…

"But it's a marshmallow, Sam!"

"It still has animal by-products in it."

"What."

"The gelatin… didn't you know? See? You don't even know what you're eating!"

"Whatever, it's fluffy and delicious and tastes like sugar."

Sam merely rolled her eyes, not having the patience to continue arguing. Danny chuckled a bit, watching Tucker eat out of a bag of trail mix. It was the techno-geek's own mix and Danny wasn't sure if he wanted to try it or should fear what was in it.

They happened to pass by the Amity Park cemetery, which ironically was one of the least creepy looking cemeteries you could come across if you compared a dozen different ones. It was well maintained, the stones and plaques undamaged, the grass fresh, but regardless, Danny froze.

Sam and Tucker walked only a couple paces before they noticed they were missing a member. They turned around to look for him and found Danny staring at the tombstones, his face loosing color by the minute.

"Danny?"

"Dude?"

When he'd woken up, he'd only remembered being afraid, cold hands touching him, and that he had had a terrible nightmare that didn't end well. Only now did he remember all the specific details. Only now did he remember being buried alive.

"DANNY!" He flinched hard and looked wide-eyed over at Sam, who'd gripped his shoulder to yell in his ear. She then looked him over. "Danny, are you okay?"

Danny took a deep breath and tried to smile, pushing away the nightmare from his thoughts the best he could. "Yeah."

Sam frowned. "Why are you lying to us?"

"I'm not-"

"Dude, that's utter BS and you know it." Tucker folded his arms, his bag of mix hanging off a few fingers and over an elbow.

Danny swallowed and looked down so that his bangs would cover his eyes. "I just remembered a nightmare I had. That's all."

Sam and Tucker exchanged a quick glance before Tucker spoke again, "Dark Phantom?"

"No-"

"Guys in White experiments?"

"No."

"Freakshow?"

Danny swallowed harder. "No…" He glanced back at the gravestones.

Sam frowned again. "Did you die?"

Danny flinched. "Sort-of."

The goth grabbed his wrist gently and lead him away. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but let's go somewhere a bit happier, okay?"

Tucker smirked and Sam gave him a death glare. "Happier? Man, could you imagine your mother catching you saying that?"

Sam's face paled. "We never speak of this."

Danny smirked at them both, before blushing when he realized Sam was still leading him along. He stayed quiet though.

Finally they reached the park and found a place to sit under a tree. Once they were settled, Sam and Tucker looked at him expectantly.

Danny sighed. "I dreamed… I dreamed that I was buried alive."

Tucker swallowed nervously at the thought while Sam looked a bit more thoughtful.

"I couldn't speak, but I kept looking at some of the people, trying to get them to help me and they… they just watched."

Sam nodded slowly and Tucker seemed a bit more focused, now with the shock of the reveal over with. "We weren't there to try and help you?" Sam asked.

"I couldn't even see who the people burying me looked like… but I felt I knew them."

"That's like some double-agent inception shit right there-OW!" Tucker yelped, rubbing his now sore side.

Sam retracted her elbow after abusing Tucker and looked at Danny. "Well that's certainly a sucky dream, but you know that we'd go through hell and back to help you, right?"

Tucker nodded quickly. "Yeah dude."

Danny smiled at them. "Yeah. I know sometimes I can be a jerk-"

He heard a couple of snorts from the goth and geek and gave them a displeased grunt of impatience in return.

"But you guys are the best friends anyone could ever have… you're practically family-"

Tucker batted his eye-lashes. "Aw, are you adopting us, Danny-boy?"

Danny flushed in embarrassment before Tucker was struck again by Sam. A smile came to his face.

"Okay so now that we've shared our feelings and all that, you guys up for a video-game marathon?" Sam asked with a glint in her eye.

"Only if me and Danny can actually pick some of the games!"

"Sure, I'll beat you anyways, so it doesn't matter-"

"No way!"

zz

Later that night, after much merry-making, video-games, food-fights, ghost-patrolling, nursing of wounds, and ending with a movie, the three friends fell asleep in a tangle of limbs on Sam's massive couch in the theater. Thankfully her parents were away so they wouldn't walk in to find them, only Ida could, who would understand what close friends they were.

Danny dreamed again…

zz

This time, when the ropes synched around his ankles and the hand pushed him forward, someone wrapped an arm around his waist to keep him from falling.

Suddenly he was unbound and Sam, Tucker, Jazz, and his parents were beating back the shadowed people. He felt the cold in his chest and embraced it quickly so that he could help them. The shadows fled from the group of people as Danny's aura grew, being near his loved ones.

He wasn't alone. Not at all.

zz

Even with Tucker's snoring, and the weight of Sam's back crushing his ribs, Danny Fenton slept soundly that night.


…but you are never alone.


I always felt like most ghosts in DP probably aren't ones to think too often about the fact they're dead in a mournful way or anything. There are probably some, but not many. Their obsessions are keeping them busy and the power rush is keeping them somewhat satisfied. Then there's Danny. He still is half human, so he probably still has the same if not very similar human fears and concepts about death. I can imagine him getting solemn near graveyards and perhaps reflecting a bit too much on his 'deadness'. Jazz probably helps him with that some. I've seen some people mention this part of Danny's half-ghost nature in some stories, but not many.