Hi peoples!
I'm back after a three-year hiatus and not dead (yet).
"When your time comes to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with fear of death, so that when their time comes they weep and pray for a little more time to live their lives over again in a different way. Sing your death song, and die like a hero going home." Tecumseh
Now…
I own nothing you may recognize and things you won't.
The Dark Phantom::Book One: Growing Pains::Chapter 1
31st July
A young child, with black hair and blue eyes, is sitting on the back step of a red brick house in the shade of a UFO-like object on top. A woman's voice carries through an open window.
"Danny, come on inside. It's time for dinner."
The boy pushes himself up, then after turning reaches up and pushes the door in—the dim interior is giving a slight reprieve to the blistering heat outside. A red-haired, purple-eyed, woman in a teal jumpsuit turns to the child and says.
"Go get your sister while I get your father. She is up in her room."
Danny watches as she heads through the door in the kitchen, then turns and heads through the living room and up the stairs. Once he gets to a door, he stops and knocks.
"Go away!" Calls a young female voice from within.
"Mom sayz dinny." With that, he wanders back down to the kitchen.
Sitting at the table next to the woman is a large man, with black and white hair and blue eyes, in a day-glow orange jumpsuit that upon seeing the child rambles:
"Danny-boy, We've… blah blah."
There are footsteps on the stairs when the oven door blasts open; a glowing green chicken carcass swoops out and through the ceiling. The woman blinks and states:
"I guess I'll just order pizza."
While grabbing a green bazooka from out of nowhere, the man shouts: "GHOST!"
The man runs out of the room as a young red-haired blue-eyed girl comes in:
"I'm guessing that was dad running after dinner?"
"Sorry, sweetheart. Cheese pizza?"
"Ugg. Fine." She huffs.
By the time that the man gets back, the pizza placed on paper plates on the table. The man flops onto the large chair he vacated.
"It got away!" He pouts.
"Now, now, Jack, you'll get it next time." The woman comforts.
Instantly he cheers up: "Jazzy-pants, Danny-boy! Today we got another grant for our research on GHOSTS! So next time, it can't get away!"
"Jack, honey Danny isn't old enough to understand what a grant is."
The girl huffs and states: "And ghosts aren't even real."
Jack pouts at the woman. "But baby… I want them to know what we got today."
Danny quietly gets up and goes to his room.
Knock, knock
"Danny, I'll be at the library tomorrow. So, stay home, OK?"
"K, Spazzy."
A huff then a quiet: "It's Jazz." She comes through the door and finally her footsteps as she walks away.
Danny is lying in bed wide awake despite knowing it is late, listening to the adults moving around the house. Jazz already in bed. First, he hears soft, light footsteps soon followed by heavy thudding. Sometime later, he can hear loud snoring, which seems to rattle the whole house, shaking him.
He swings his legs over the side of the bed and slips off, making a small thump. He glances around, seeing his blue shirt from earlier peeking out from under the bed and exchanges it for the pink nightshirt he is wearing. He kicks it under the bed so that it lies next to matching pants. He then slips out his door and down the dark hallway.
He pads down the steps and into the living room. From the living room, he heads into the kitchen, climbing up onto a chair to reach into the bowl next to the refrigerator and fishes out a key. The clock's brilliant green numbers read 11:30. He slides off the chair and pads out to the front room. The front door opens and closes with nothing more than a soft squee and slightly louder thunk.
He turns and glances around. Seeing no one, he hops off the step and breaks into a run down the street and towards the looming forest. As he nears the edge, his pounding feet start to slow, and as he stops to catch his rapid breath and slow his small pounding heart, he glances up. A bright round moon hangs in the void casting silvery light down into the dark woods, whispering: come to me.
He once again starts running his small tennis shoes, thumping against the dirt. He slips. His shoes losing traction against the dirt floor and feet come out from under him. As he flails, his head thrown back just as a dark cloud covers the moon.
SPLASH
He is thrown deep and sinks as the water fills his eyes, mouth, and nose. He tries to breathe, the water flooding his lungs. His eyes start to close a flash tearing across the sky, and a rumble seems to rattle him. Sleep little one.He hears as his eyes finally close.
A bright light surrounds him with a rumble of thunder. His eyes snap open as he tries to scream. As every piece of him gets ripped apart, his body screaming in pain.
It feels like hours, days, years, no lifetimes before it finally stops, and his eyes slip closed once again.
When his eyes open, he first notices the tingling, a sad mimicry of the tearing pain from before. Next, a purple/green void high above the ancient trees. It is brighter, almost as though the light is coming from everywhere and nowhere at once.
'Where I?'
A place between worlds, neither dead nor alive. The Between.
He opens his eyes, looking blankly at the moon. He props himself onto his hands, his legs not responding. A scaled white tail with green fins at the end flicks like an angry cat's tail. Eyes are going wide. His raspy breathing picks up—a sob.
His head bows as he tries to curl into a ball. White hair drops into his face. His hand reaches to lift the strands. Another sob, as hot liquid starts to drip down his face.
The tail starts to tingle, then progressively starts to feel as though it is trying to split apart as all nerve endings scream in pain. The fin is shrinking and scales sinking into his skin as the tail thrashes against the ground. He tries to curl into himself and closes his eyes tightly.
'STOP!'
There is a rock digging into his side. A rock? He stirs and blinks open his eyes and sees his blue shirt? He uncurls, his body stiff. Once he sits up, he can see the moonlit clearing and the moon itself reflecting off the pool. The reflection only disturbed by the waves from the trickling waterfall.
He pulls himself up onto his shaky legs, only for them to collapse under him. It takes him a few tries to get his legs to hold him. Then with his first wobbly step, he starts towards home. Each one becomes steadier and steadier as each foot goes in front of the other.
The door looms in front of him as the Fenton Works sign floods the street with neon green and orange light. Only the moon lays witness to the small child entering the house. Thunk as the door gets locked. Clink as the key falls into the bowl. Thump as Danny passes out on his bed. The clock reads 1:00 AM.
The clanking of spoons against bowls is heard in the kitchen when Jazz holds out a small wrapped present.
"Happy third b-day, Danny."
Chapter Stats: three and a half pages and 1223 words.
Right… so I'm back and if you can't tell the style has changed (again). Shortly after this story went on hiatus, I started doing some show-not-tell exercises and had way too much fun doing them, so I am quite sure that it can show with how this chapter has turned out.
There is also a mass editing processes that happens after each part of a chapter gets completed, so yeah. This rewrite happened over the course of like twelve hours.
I will keep the reviews and answers in the chapter they were originally found in and all new reviews will be found in chapter 15 which will be the first non-rewritten chapter. If I feel the need to update my answer to a review, I will leave the original answer and add *Update* with the new answer.
Yes, I took out the 95-word prolog and hopped right into rewriting chapter two, So the reviews will be off.
I am going to try to get something up at least every two weeks, but school comes first so there's that.
I also know that there will be some polls going up that will show up far later in the story, I will not tell you the results of these polls until you come across them in the story.
Other information:
Each year (besides this one) leading up to High School will be about seven sections (this one 14). This should allow for time to move much quicker.
Whose Part of the Series::Section of their story: Section Title::Chapter Number
There are three planned (with a fourth possible) sections for Danny's story (The Dark Phantom). There is one other person's part planned from someone else's POV. There is a possibility of being five. Danny's part will be the longest.
I think that is everything, so…
Peace and Pieces,
Sugar