Chapter Five
"Guys?"
The voice had sounded like Danny's, if not a little scratchy, but how could it be Danny? Sure, the white hair was one thing, electricity could do that right; change a person's hair color? But how had his eyes gotten that brilliant, glowing shade of green?
Sam stood to her feet and backed away from the bed slowly, heart racing, breath shaky.
Tucker didn't seem to be breathing.
They both just stood silently and watched as Danny, or what they thought was Danny, groaned and brushed aside the many blankets Sam had piled on top of him.
"Hey guys? What's wrong?" He cringed as he moved, obviously in pain. "Why am I so sore?" He moved towards Sam and tucker slowly.
Sam looked at Tucker and took a step back.
"Guys? What is it?" Danny was starting to look a little scared. His green eyes, though bright, looking tired. "What happened?"
Danny reached out for Sam. Before she could gasp or step away again, he had touched her, but not really, because he no longer had a right hand!
Sam wanted to scream, but she couldn't find her voice, so she just breathed deeply, staring at Danny as he looked down, just noticing his missing hand.
Danny did enough screaming for all three of them. Weakly, he stumbled backwards, his cry echoing eerily throughout the house. He held up his missing appendage and looked to both Sam and Tucker, screaming as he did this.
"Where is my hand?!" he shouted, words almost unrecognizable. ' WHERE is MY HAND?!"
Sam and Tucker looked at each other as Danny tripped and fell back onto his own bed, panting raggedly. Slowly, his hand faded back in place, leaving him staring at it as if he'd just seen Bigfoot or located the boogeyman that was hiding under his bed.
With bright green questioning eyes, Danny looked at Sam and Tucker.
Deep within those brilliant emerald orbs was a pleading that neither friend could ignore.
Even if none of the three friends knew exactly what was going on, Sam and Tucker knew more, and despite their shock, they knew they owed it to Danny to help him. It was his body after all; he would have to deal with whatever this was. The only way that Sam and Tucker could think of to help Danny was to make sure he didn't have to go through it alone.
Slowly, reaching a hand out to him, Sam advanced on Danny, eyes pleading him to calm down. Gingerly, she placed a hand on his shoulder and sat on the bed next to him with a weak, somewhat reassuring smile.
Tucker followed, simply smiling sadly at Danny.
"Guys?" Danny whispered breathlessly, his entire body shaking with fear and cold. "What's going on? Why did my hand just disappear? And why am I so cold?" His teeth chattered and he wrapped both arms around his body tightly, looking at them as he did to make sure they hadn't vanished.
Danny lifted his eyes to Sam, then Tucker and furrowed his brows.
"What's happening to me?"
Sam looked down, searching for the right words. This was her fault- all her fault. Sure, Tucker had been there, but she'd told Danny to go inside that portal. It was because of her that he was going through this. She sighed.
"I'm sorry, Danny. This is my fault." Sam looked away, ashamed and unable to say anymore.
Tucker took his cue and cocked his head.
"Do you remember anything, man?"
Danny took a deep breath, reaching to wrap a blanket around his shoulders. He closed his eyes, trying to bring any memories to light.
"My name is Danny Fenton, I'm fourteen years old, and I live in Amity Park." Danny breathed out, keeping his eyes shut, searching for more information.
"Basics are good." Tucker encouraged with a slight smile. "What else?"
"I-I invited you guys over 'cause my parents are gone. We were gonna play games and eat pizza, but instead we went and looked at the lab."
At this, Sam looked even more guilty. Tucker, seeing this, put a hand on her shoulder and smiled warmly. He turned back as Danny continued.
"I went into the ghost portal to look around. Pushed a button on accident..." his closed eyelids tightened and he shivered.
Sam's hand shot out and rested on Danny's knee.
The boy looked up quickly, finding Sam's worried amethyst eyes.
"You scared us, Danny..."
"And if we're all being completely honest right now, you're still scaring us." Tucker folded his arms and looked seriously at the other boy, one eyebrow raised.
"Guys," Danny rubbed his eyes wearily, groaning. "I don't know what's going on..." Sam and Tucker looked at each other warily. "I go into my parent's portal just to try and help, get electrocuted for like thirty minutes-"
"It was like two minutes tops-" Tucker inserted quickly.
"Well, it felt like hours! And after that, pass out! Now I feel like I've fallen from the roof a few times and my arms are disappearing!"
Sam cringed, biting her nail.
"And... you may have completely disappeared, fallen through the floor, and landed in the living room..." She smiled at Danny sheepishly and Tucker frowned.
"I did what?!" Danny shouted again, backing up off the bed and rising to his feet weakly. He began pacing frantically. He looked at his hands and then turned to Sam and Tucker, frowning deeply, eyes wide. "What the heck am I wearing?!"
"It's the jumpsuit you put on when we first got in the lab." Sam explained, shrugging. "The colors just inverted."
"And uh..." Tucker winced. "Speaking of inverted colors... you may want to look in a mirror..."
For a moment, Danny just stared at Sam and Tucker. Gingerly, he began to touch his face and hair for any deformities. In doing this, a piece of soft white hair came into view and he backed away, gasping and staring at the foreign object now hanging in his face.
"No..." With a harsh whisper, Danny spun around looking frantically about his room. Then, without another word, but fear etched into his pale features, he leapt for his bedroom door, avoiding Tucker and Sam as they called after him.
Heart hammering, palms sweaty despite his being so cold, Danny skidded to a halt in front of the bathroom door and shoved the door open. Almost slipping on the cold linoleum, Danny braced himself against the counter and shoved his face towards the bathroom mirror.
Danny's heart stopped and his breathing hitched in his throat. Somehow, he couldn't move, couldn't speak, and most certainly couldn't breath.
In the mirror was a stranger. It was no one he had ever seen before and, honestly, that was fine with him because the strange boy was frightening.
For the umpteenth time that night, he back away from the mirror, hands wandering shakily up to his bright, white hair. He ran a hand through, watching as the hair rose and fell lightly with each movement.
Experimentally, he picked out a piece and, with a sharp yank, pulled it out, hoping that this was all a dream and that he would wake up.
"Yow!" he cried, staring at the boy in the mirror. For just a second, he looked down at the single white hair he had pulled out and then looked back up, watching as his glowing green eyes shifted back and forth. His breathing sped up as he stared at what appeared to be himself in the mirror.
"Danny?"
Startled, Danny turned, green eyes burning into Sam as she stood in the hallway just outside the bathroom. She took a slow step forward, reaching out for him.
Danny could see her mouth moving, and somewhere far away, he heard her voice. Very quickly though, Sam's soft calming voice was being drowned out by an overwhelming rushing in his ears. He didn't know what the sound was, and he really didn't care at this point. All he knew was that his heart was thundering in his chest and his mind was going faster than the speed of light.
Darkness began to creep into his peripheral vision and with one last look back at Sam and Tucker, he felt his knees give way and the world turned to blackness.
TBC~
