Shadowman
Rating: T (probably actually more like K+ but meh)
Pairings: None
Ages: Danny is 14
Summary: As far as Danny knew, ghosts always shined with bright colors and gloated in full view of anyone. Even Johnny's shadow seemed to like theatrics. This? This was something very different and very evil.
Extra Notes: Takes place sometime before Jazz learns Danny's secret or at least before Jazz tells Danny she's knows his secret.
October 29th.
Danny floated quietly and tiredly through the empty streets of Amity Park at nearly three in the morning. He was utterly exhausted after fighting Skulker and dealing with the Box Ghost at the same time. Skulker was physically taxing with his newest upgrade and the Box Ghost was just plain exhausting in his typical annoying way. Together, the time of night and lack of sleep had worn the ghost boy out.
"So what if they're bad guys? They could at least have the decency to let me sleep," Danny grumbled sleepily and rubbed one of his eyes. He paused mid-flight when he thought he saw someone on the street as he passed Amity Park's cemetery. He blinked, trying to get the mucus out of his eyes and when things were clear, he saw nothing. "Huh, could've sworn…"
Danny sighed and flew home as fast as he could, hoping for a blessed few hours of sleep. As soon as he'd transformed and laid his head on his pillow, he was out like a light.
zz
His body quaked in his bed and then a puff of icy breath flew across his face, being as effective as a splash of cold water. Danny's eyes tiredly blinked open and he looked at his clock.
The big red numbers read that it was fifteen minutes until five. "Seriously?" Danny moaned in annoyance and considered not getting up. After all, it was unlikely it was anyone important he needed to deal with. Eventually though, he relented to the little voice in his head that warned him someone could get hurt and he'd forever blame himself. He transformed and flew out of the house.
After roughly fifteen minutes of flying around both the city and the house, he couldn't pin-point where the ghost was. There was no evil cackling, no trouble-making, no obnoxious threats. Danny was puzzled, but figured it was as he had thought, a weak ghost that didn't really pose a threat to anyone. He laid down once again to try to sleep.
His ghost sense never stopped all night. At first it was annoying, but then it became unnerving. The range of his sense wasn't too big as far as he knew. Most of the time a ghost had to pass by his house or he had to be on patrol to find most of the ghosts before bed. For some reason the ghost was nearby, but silent.
It could be Vlad. A shiver when through the boy's body at the thought of Vlad being in his house without permission. However, Vlad tended to at least appear to Danny before he went about doing anything nefarious. He just liked messing with Danny's head too much to go full incognito now. It had to be something else. Perhaps something was overshadowing one or both of his parents or maybe even Jazz. He decided that he would check them in the morning without them knowing.
This plan was enough to help him fall asleep, but he couldn't help but feel uncomfortable. Something could be in the same room with him, watching him sleep.
zz
By the time Danny got to school, he was starting to feel suspicious that something strange was going on. Both his parents and even Jazz had been cleared as not being overshadowed. The ghost hadn't seemed to be there this morning, but as soon as he'd started walking to school, his sense had activated five different individual times.
He'd looked around but had seen nothing really strange, except on the last time he'd turned. He thought he'd seen a shadow out of the corner of his eye, slip behind a street corner. He'd dashed to the spot, probably making a few people stare at him, only to see nothing there.
Maybe he was just being paranoid. Sam, Tucker, and he had been watching a bunch of scary movies in preparation to watch the dvd release of a movie they'd been waiting for for Halloween. They would've gone to the theater and tried to sneak into Bloodbath Thirteen, but last time they'd been caught and warned they'd be banned from the theater if they tried to do that again.
Danny shook his head as Tucker came down the steps of his house and joined Danny on the sidewalk.
"You look like death, dude."
Danny glared at his friend as Tucker only grinned coyly. "Funny."
"What!? It's the truth. Do I dare ask what happened?"
Danny thought about it, opening his mouth before closing it. Finally he said, "Let's wait until we get Sam then I'll tell you."
Before long Sam had joined them and Danny explained what had happened. "And then on the way to Tucker's I swear something was following me."
"Dude, I think you probably just need some sleep."
Danny frowned. "Maybe, but what about my sense? Why would my sense go off?"
"Well we don't really know everything about your powers… but-" Sam started, partially agreeing with Tucker when suddenly Danny's sense went off.
Danny whipped his head around wildly, determined to find the thing plaguing him. His eyes locked on a shadow behind them that seemed to move with his eyes, barely staying out of his central vision and within his peripheral vision. Then it was gone. Danny growled in frustration and ran to the spot he'd last seen the apparition. "Did you see it?"
"See what, dude?" Tucker asked, looking around and seeing nothing.
Sam hummed noncommittally. She glanced at Danny in a calculating way, seemingly not convinced one way or the other. "Maybe you really do just need more sleep Danny. It's not that we don't believe you, honest. Let's just see if sleep helps. Maybe you can catch some sleep during lunch."
"And I think Mrs. Felicia is having a study hall because there's going to be a sub in today, remember?" Tucker offered.
Danny looked at his friends with a troubled expression, but sighed. "Yeah. I guess you're right."
"People will scream if it was a ghost."
And with those semi-words of assurance, the trio made their way to school.
zz
October 30th.
It was around eleven at night when Danny found Johnny riding around the city on his motorcycle. After yesterday's events and getting some sleep, Danny and his friends had come to the conclusion that maybe Johnny was playing some kind of joke on Danny with his shadow.
Lucky for him, Johnny had decided to hit that town that night, looking for some girls to woo no doubt. Danny touched down in the road in front of Johnny's bike, causing him to instinctually hit his breaks. His shadow curled up out of the ground and hissed over Johnny 13's shoulder.
"Looking for a fight, kid?"
Danny huffed in aggravation. "Are you?"
Johnny eyed Danny slowly. "Nah, just looking to talk to a pretty girl or two. Unless of course it would annoy you if I vandalized something."
"Okay, cut the crap, Johnny. Prank's over. Why have you been sending Shadow to stalk me?"
Danny was surprised by the actual look of confusion that came across Johnny's face. "What?"
"You heard me," Danny replied, but internally he was already doubting their hypothesis.
Johnny's face turned dark from his joking smirk he'd worn moments before. "Shadow's done nothing of what you're suggesting, punk!" Shadow shook his head and disappeared under Johnny as the ghost reeved his bike and snarled a bit. "Move it or loose it!"
Danny jumped out of the way of Johnny's bike before it could run him over. He floated in the middle of the street, thinking about how Johnny had behaved. He was almost certain that Johnny and Shadow hadn't done anything wrong. They weren't his suspects.
Danny sighed and started towards home. He was drifting up to his bedroom window when he saw something once again out of the corner of his eyes. This time when he looked towards the thing, he saw it. It was standing on the street in plain view. It was standing in an alleyway, staring at him or at least he thought it was. It was a shadow in the shape of a man and had no distinguishing features or any features at all.
Suddenly, feeling as if he'd reverted to being five years old, Danny sped through the wall and into his room. He transformed, dove under the covers, and hid his head in his blankets.
Something about the thing made his internal warning signals light up. He clutched his sheets until his knuckles were white and prayed for the thing to just disappear. He nearly let out a sob when he coughed out an icy breath.
It was in his room, watching him sleep. He shivered there all night and never slept, and never built up the courage to try and fight back.
zz
October 31st.
Even though it was Halloween, Danny, Sam, and Tucker were sober as they sat in Sam's room. Danny had told them of his experience and how he'd not slept at all the night before. The shadow man had followed him to Sam's too, though it hadn't come in the house yet. Danny was nearly nodding off, but too afraid to sleep. Tucker was busy researching the internet for anything on this shadow figure while Sam was looking through her library of books on myths and paranormal legends.
After about thirty minutes, Sam managed to find something. Danny and Tucker were unnerved to see the blood drain from her face as she read.
"What? Sam! What is it?" Danny asked.
Sam looked up at them and then down. Finally she read.
"The shadow man creeps and the shadow man stalks. The shadow man follows you wherever you walk.
The shadow man watches and the shadow man waits. The shadow man knows you'll accept your fate.
The shadow man stuns and the shadow man chills. The shadow man laughs whenever he kills."
"Holy-" Tucker started and then stopped, unable to find words to continue.
Danny was silent.
"This is one of my oldest books. I found it at a flea market a long time ago. A good deal of the pages are ripped out. That's all it says about the shadow man." Sam slowly closed the worn and battered book.
"What do we do?" Tucker asked and then gulped.
"It's going to kill me?" Danny muttered quietly.
Sam's face immediately became fierce. "No. it's not going to kill you. Skulker hasn't, Vlad hasn't, no other ghost has, neither will this one."
Danny wanted to say that something about this one feeling different very different, but he remained silent and nodded. "We need a plan."
"We're going to hunt it down and suck it into a thermos like we always do. Tucker and I will be with you to help."
The three became silent after that statement.
zz
"Is it just me or is it really frickin' quiet?" Tucker said shakily.
Sam hummed. "I guess."
Danny floated near them as they walked down the dark streets.
"But usually there are cars out and other sounds! Not to mention it's Halloween!" Tucker whisper-yelled.
"Hush, Tucker. The kids have gone home and the adults are partying or somewhere else," Sam explained.
"But-"
At that moment, Danny shivered and blue mist poured from his mouth and spiraled into the air. At the same time, a gust of cold air blew down the road and ruffled everyone's clothes.
Tucker moaned lowly out of fear as Danny and Sam looked around. The two both spotted him in an alleyway. Instinctually Danny shot forward, knowing Sam and Tucker would be right behind him.
The shadow turned and walked around a corner. When Danny went around it, he saw the shadow once again already at another corner. It turned and Danny flew after it. Before long, they'd done this several times. Then Danny was alone and the shadow man was gone.
He whipped his head around so many times, trying to find the shadow, that he was certain he'd get whiplash. Then he noticed that he couldn't hear Sam or Tucker. "Sam!? Tuc-" He never got to finish the rest of his cry as dark cold fingers closed around his throat.
Danny found himself thrust against a brick wall with two shadow hands wrapped around his throat, squeezing the life out of him. The shadow man was watching, staring without eyes.
Danny tried to speak but nothing but garbled choked sounds came out. He couldn't even gasp. Panic seized his heart when he found he couldn't phase out of the being's grip either.
Don't worry. No more worry. I will do better.
Danny could feel the voice echoing in his head and then the laughs that followed, drowning all sounds out. He lashed out with a kick, which seemed to just slide right through the black mist that was its body. The finger's tightened and black started to creep into the corner's of Danny's eyes. He was going to go unconscious soon.
He felt himself be pulled away from the wall and he watched lightheadedly as the shadow man started to fade into that same wall, dragging Danny with him. He heard a shout, a flash of green followed, and then nothing.
zz
November 1st.
Sam smiled as she welcomed Danny into her room. Tucker was busy with his family today so it was just Danny and her. After what had happened the night before, she and Danny had wanted to finish looking at things about the shadow man.
Sam had seen the creepy man fade away when the ectoblast from her pistol had struck him. By the time they'd gotten to Danny, she had thought he was already dead. She'd been horrified until he'd taken in a great breath.
She paused when she noticed Danny just standing in the middle of her room, staring at her books. No, he was staring at the book that had the shadow man's poem inside.
"You still have that thing? We saw the shadow man get destroyed Sam." He gave her a happy smile that she hadn't seen on his face in months.
Sam blinked in confusion. "Well yeah. We're not positive he's gone. Besides, it has a lot of great information in it about other things too."
"Oh."
The afternoon went a bit differently than Sam had imagined. Instead of Danny and she working together to find out more about the shadow man, Danny sat in a nearby chair and stared out of her great bay windows while she searched on her computer.
Eventually, Danny indicated that he had to leave. Sam said goodbye and watched as he exited her room. She felt a frown come to her face but she focused back on her computer.
Her finger paused in motion on her mouse as she found the rest of the page that was missing from her book. An online version of the book had been written.
"The shadow man lives and the shadow man slinks. The shadow man is always closer than you think," Sam murmured quietly.
She felt something stir inside of her. Unnerved, she stood and walked towards her windows. She froze when she saw Danny standing on the other side of the street, staring at her windows with a blank look.
So writing horror/suspense is harder than I predicted. I mean I knew it was a difficult genre to do right, but boy it was harder than I thought. Tell me what you think. I want to know if anyone felt it was suspenseful and even remotely unsettling.
a semi-late Happy Halloween to everyone!
Oh and if you wanna know how I'm doing with updates on my stories, check out my profile. I give update status and list which story's chapter I'm working on as well as how many words of that chapter I've written so far.
I was wanting to try a crank this out and get my creative juice flowing some.
