A/N Hey people. Thanks for all the reviews I got for the last chapter! I appreciate all of them. For those geniuses out there who guessed correctly, yes, that was french in the last chapter. i decided to write in a different language for a little bit each chapter, to see who can guess the most languages. please at least try to guess them, I work hard at this! until at least two people guess, whether correctly or incorrectly doesn't matter, I will not post the next chapter! and if more than five people guess, i will work extra hard on posting it early. Here we go, chapter two!
Chapter 2
Flames, Nightmares, and Irony
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A bright beam of sunshine was glaring down at the raven-haired boy that was lying peacefully on his back, limbs spread out so that his tiny frame managed to cover the entire queen-sized bed. A small smile flickered across his lips as pleasant memories played across his mind.
"So, how long have you known?" He had asked Jazz as she sat down beside him on the cement steps in front of the school. Jazz looked up at him and smiled warmly as she replied,
"About the test? For days. But I'm really proud of you for not cheating." Danny sighed.
"Not that. Your headband, your note with your handwriting..." Jazz feigned surprise.
"What? That? I, uh,..." She paused and blushed. "I didn't write that. And there must be dozens of headbands-"
"Jazz." Danny cut her off, raising an eyebrow. She sighed, defeated.
"Since the Spectra thing. I didn't want to tell you until you were ready to tell me. It's your secret." Danny smiled.
"Well, it's our secret now." They lay their hands together on the step in between them, and all was well.
That was when everything started going wrong.
All of a sudden, Jazz's hand started feeling uncomfortably warm. Eyebrows furrowed in confusion, Danny looked up at his sister, who appeared to be fine. Before he could ask her what was wrong, and if she was feeling alright, Jazz looked over at him and said, in a familiar yet terrifying baritone voice,
"This is all your fault." Her eyes flashed red for a few horrifying moments, before erupting into flames. Danny longed to reach forward and help her, but he was frozen in place, forced to watch the happiest moment in his life literally burst into flames. He saw as her flesh blackened and shriveled up, revealing the white bone underneath, which was quickly burnt a coalish color. Her clothes and hairband were destroyed slowly, along with Danny's life. The flames shone in his face and silently mocked him, daring him to try and interfere. He tried, yet was unable to move, both out of plain inability and his shock. His sister's skull glared at him disappointingly from the flickering flames, making the guilt flow fiercely throughout his body.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean for this to happen. I'm so sorry, Jazz!" The air near him cooled considerably as a deep, serious tone whispered in his ear,
"Being sorry won't bring her back, it won't bring anyone back. You killed them all, Danny boy. You're as bad as I am. In fact, you're worse. When I killed them, it was an accident." With those words still echoing through his head, he awoke, finding himself in a large, sweat-soaked bed with a square of sunlight shining directly in his eyes.
He sat up groggily and groaned at the effort. It felt like his limbs had been filled with sacks of sand during the night, that or he had been hit with a steamroller. He sighed, pushed back the silky sheets and-
Wait. Silky? The only thing in his entire house that was even remotely silky were the many hazmat suits that littered the house... So where the heck had these sheets come from? He also noticed that there was an awful lot of sunlight for seven in the morning. Had Jazz let him sleep in? Danny thought that that wasn't very likely, Jazz would always wake him up extra early so that he would have time to bandage any wounds he had from ghost hunting before their parents woke. He opened his eyes, squinting at the bright sunlight that was blazing down at his face. He stared up at the skylight, glancing around occasionally at the dark walls. Where am I? The last thing I remember is- Then reality caught up with him. He remembered what had happened in the past twenty-four hours. No. NO. NO! NO! No, no, no, no...
"No." He whispered to himself weakly. This could not be happening. What had he ever done to deserve this? Well, besides the time I took revenge on Dash... And the time I had almost killed Sam... The time I considered cheating on the CAT's... Clockworks voice echoed coolly through his head. Two? How about two thousand? Danny shuddered as an icy tear ran down his cheek. It hadn't mattered that he had stopped Dan from destroying the Nasty Burger, he had done this to himself. Again. Sighing painfully, he pulled himself up off of the comfortable bed, knowing that he would have to get up eventually. He stood up from the bed, wincing as his back popped. He walked over to the glass sliding door of the closet, unsure of what he would find.
Well... This was unexpected. But compared to some of the stuff that had been happening recently, completely normal. The first few meters into the closet, was full of business clothes. Clean, unwrinkled suit jackets of all imaginable shades of blue, gray, black, and brown were dangling from silver hooks on the wall, directly above a long row of dress pants which were either a creamy white, navy blue, midnight black, or khaki. He noticed grimly that none of the pants had pockets.
On the other wall was a clear glass case full of pressed ties. Of course, there were normal colors such as black, brown, red, or a dark blue, but most of them were things that Vlad would never have bought for himself. There were neon oranges, pinks, blues, greens, and yellows, striped ones, ones that played music when you pushed the end, ones that were autographed by famous musicians and football players, and a couple glow-in-the-dark ones. The ones that really caught Danny's attention, though, were literally one-of-a-kind. One had neon letters (seriously; the letters glowed and flickered occasionally) that read;
Μερικοί άνθρωποι λένε ότι έχω πολλαπλή διαταραχή προσωπικότητας. Διαφωνούμε με αυτό.
Danny laughed at the irony. Well fruitloop, you do have a sense of humor. At a second glance at the tie, he paused. Wait... what language was that, and how on earth was he able to understand it? He just sighed and passed it off as another inexplicable occurrence in the mystery that was his life. Looking at the next tie, he rolled his eyes. Geez Vlad, can you push it any further? This tie was pitch black and adorned with white DP symbols. He brought a hand up to his temples in annoyance. Reminding himself once again of just how much of a cheese head Vlad was, he continued looking at the strange ties. One was covered in emoticons, one appeared to change colors with whatever his mood was, and one glowed with a weird ghostly green light. There was one that said do not feed the sharks, and had a large bite mark cut out of it. Another one appeared green while sitting still, but when it moved, you could see all the shades of the rainbow glimmer on it. Another one had a fake blood stain, with a 'bullet hole' in the center. There were so many others, but those were the ones that stood out the most.
Up above the glass case, there was a small shelf that was covered in about fifty different expensive gold watches. There were many varieties, but a majority were diamond encrusted with roman numerals. Deciding that he wouldn't be using one today, he turned towards the back of the closet. Stepping forwards, he had a major surprise. Not only were the clothes back here not suits, but it was amazing. There weren't any of his usual red and white tee's, but he couldn't have cared less. The first one that he saw almost had him dying... well, half dying, of laughter. It was black, with a glow-in-the-dark Ghostbusters symbol on the front. Oh, the irony... The next one wasn't much better. It was a custom-made tee that on the front said: Want to see Danny Phantom? See back of shirt. On the back, it read; Want to see Danny Phantom? See front of shirt. He closed his eyes and imagined his dad trying to figure it out. Letting out a snort of laughter at the mental image, he turned to the next shirt. It showed a glowing green fist. Got ectoplasm? He fell back, laughing his head off. The one after that represented Vlad and Danny's private joke. It had a bowl of Fruit Loops surrounded by a red circle, crossed out. Danny had to hold his side in pain. as he switched to the next shirt, his demeanor immediately switched from hysterical to furious.
Come to the Circus Gothica,it read on the front. It had an image of Freakshow's terrifying grin, red eyes glinting cruelly. On the back, it had a picture of the despicable staff that he had used to hypnotize Danny before. Danny felt his mind go blank as he stared at the orb. He didn't notice as his eyes began glowing a deep red. No! Snap out of it, Fenton! A small part of his mind shouted at him, but that was all the encouragement he needed to incinerate the shirt. The next shirt helped uplift his mood. It was black, with a red vampire emoticon on the front. Vampires Suck, he read, amused. Checking out the rest of the shirts, he found a few more interesting ones. One that made his eye twitch had a giant nutcracker with glowing red eyes and fangs. Oh, ha ha ha. Not cool, Vlad. Not cool.
As he turned to the other side of the closet, he saw a rack of dark jeans, beneath which was a row of shoes. A lot of shoes. Half of them were formal, shiny black shoes, but the other half was sneakers. So many sneakers. There were about thirty different pairs. Apparently Vlad knew his style, probably from all the stalking, but he wasn't complaining, the reason being that all the shoes were new Converse. Most of them were black or red, but there was bright green, turquoise, navy blue, and other colors as well. Grinning, he reached for the Ghostbusters tee, a pair of jeans, and red converse, but he hesitated. he withdrew his hand slightly before grabbing a pair of shiny black shoes and walking into the other half of the closet. There he found a black suit jacket and tie, with a maroon oxford shirt and black trousers. If I'm going to live with Vlad, I might as well dress like him. Grabbing a pair of white socks and boxers from the corner of the closet, he turned invisible and carried the clothing to the bathroom where he had gone the night before to clean up. Setting the clothes carefully down on the sink, making sure to keep it a safe distance from the tub, he began to get ready. He let the water in the tub fill up before grabbing everything he would need. He put the shampoo and conditioner down as he fought with the lid of the cologne. Finally managing to open it, he sat it down next to the other two bottles as he soaked his raven hair and gently lathered the shampoo in. As he rinsed that, he thought about his dream that night. He had used the ties and tees to keep his mind occupied, but he knew that he would have to face it eventually. He wondered if that had been what Jazz had really looked like as she was... He froze, inhaling water in shock. What am I thinking? Was that excitement in his mind? How messed up was he? He hurriedly smeared the conditioner and cologne into his hair, rinsing it out after only two minutes. He pulled himself up out of the tub, and strode over to the cabinet to grab the anti-frizz serum that he rubbed into his still damp hair. After he had phased off the water and dressed, he stared at his refection in the mirror. Seeing the mess that was his hair, he grabbed a comb and ran it through his hair, surprising himself with how different he looked while dressed up. Smirking happily, he pulled open the door and walked down to where Vlad was sitting at he kitchen table, eating his tuna sandwich thoughtfully.
"Good morning- er, afternoon, Vlad." I greeted warmly. Vlad jumped in surprise before turning to me and replying,
"Well, it's about time you woke up. I was beginning to think-" He paused and stared at my choice of clothes open-mouthed. I was about to make a witty remark when I noticed something. Vlad was wearing the exact same thing. Perfect. "Well... I'm impressed by your choice of clothes. I was expecting you to come down in a Ghostbusters shirt and a pair of jeans." I blushed at how close he was to the truth. I rubbed the back of my neck nervously before replying honestly.
"Actually, that's exactly what I was going to wear. I changed my mind at the last minute because I decided to wear clothes similar to what you would wear... I just didn't realize how similar." Vlad smirked at my obvious discomfort. As he prepared to reply, I winced, expecting him to rub salt in the wound.
"If you want to go change, feel free. You don't have to wear something you feel awkward in." I glanced up at his face, surprised. What was he... Then it hit me. He was misinterpreting the base of my discomfort. It wasn't that our outfits matched that was embarrassing me, it was the fact that I had the same taste in clothes that he had. But I wasn't about to try and explain that to him. I decided to take a subtler approach to tell him that I had no problem with this. I glanced up at him, smirking as I looked at his outfit. The clothes were mostly the same, except that his hair was pulled back, and he was wearing a gold Rolex. As I looked back at his questioning face, I grinned and said evenly,
"Yeah, I think I will. Just give me a minute." He spun on his heel and walked back up to his room, thinking about what he was about to do.
Vlad turned back to his plate, surprised at the turn of events. Daniel had chosen to wear a suit. Not only that, but he hadn't seemed that disturbed when he saw that Vlad was wearing the same thing. What on earth could be going on in his mind? He thought up a number of possibilities. One, Daniel could have had a complete change of heart and now wanted to be his mirror image. Two, the boy was too depressed to care what he did anymore. Three, this was not Daniel, but a clone of some sort. Four, Daniel had a secret plot of some sort, and was trying to get on Vlad's good side so that he could pull it off. Or five, he was placing the blame of his family's demise on himself, and was taking his mind off of it by trying to become a new person. Vlad knew that the first option was ridiculous, and that that would never happen. Three and four were just his paranoia, as they were extremely unlikely. So that left two and five. He thought about last night. Daniel had been in a relatively good mood, and he knew that depressed people did not act like that.
His thoughts were cut off as he heard someone clear their throat quietly behind him he turned, and felt his jaw drop. If Daniel had been dressed like him before... Aside from the hair color and height differences, Daniel could have been his reflection. His long black hair was pulled neatly back into a ponytail, and a gold wristwatch lay loosely on his wrist. A smirk was etched on the boy's features as he stepped forward. The boy even smells like me! He thought, shocked.
"What? You said to change if I wanted to... I never said that I had anything against this outfit. Is there something wrong? You seem at a loss for words." The boy raised an inquisitive eyebrow at him. At this Vlad snapped his jaw closed before replying smoothly,
"No, not at all. What would you like for lunch?" Daniel bit his lip a bit before asking him,
"It depends. What are you having?" Vlad was taken aback. He decided not to count option three out so quickly.
A/N I may take awhile to update the next chapter, sorry. I bruised a few ribs during volleyball today, and can barely sit down without feeling like I'm being torn in half. Oh, yeah, and on the tie, it said, "Some people say that I have multiple personality disorder. We disagree with that." haha, i thought that that was hilarious.