Danny's POV-
Cold.
That's all I had known since the day I'd arrived in this strange world.
Cold.
It consumed me, all day every day. Cold radiated throughout my body every second. But it never really bothered me. While I missed the heat, cold was all I could feel. And I liked feeling.
I spent every day of the past two months wondering this haunting mess of a world, if I could even call it a world. It was like some fucked up spiritual plane or whatever.
The sky was always green and black. Strange rocks floated in the air, along with a mixture of doors. The doors, I had come to discover, were gateways to other dimensions. And I had spent almost every day of my past three months here trying to find one of these doors to lead me to a home.
I know things about myself.
One, my name is Danny Fenton. I have a mother, Maddie, a father, Jack, and a sister, Jazz. My parents, obsessed with ghosts and ghost hunting. Two, I wasn't a very popular kid growing up; I got bullied a lot. Three, I had best friends, but I don't remember them very much. Four, I was in love with a girl, but I don't know who she is. And five, I'm no longer alive.
How could I be? This strange world I had been trapped in for months, it was full of ghosts. And I had become one of them.
I don't remember how I died. I don't remember much of anything. Sometimes I feel like it's going to come to me, and then it just goes away. I only have shards of memories pertaining to my human life. It's incredibly fucking frustrating.
My days were spent floating through this void, opening doors and trying to find some sense of a place to belong. I avoided all the other ghosts I saw, mainly out of fear. True, I was dead, so there was nothing they could do to me. But I had come to realize that I could feel pain. And there was so much I still had to learn about this world. It was just better to stay unnoticed.
In my months here, I had grown to understand things about myself as a ghost.
I could fly. This was how I had done all of my traveling. It also made door exploration a possibility. I liked being able to fly. I didn't like the price I had to pay for it.
I could sense when other ghosts were near. This ability had saved my ass more times than I could count. This strange blue fog stuff would escape from my mouth informing me of another ghost's presence. I took that as my notification to hide. Though I'm sure they could sense me as well, none of them ever really bothered to look for me.
Most of the hiding I did as made possible by my abilities to turn intangible and invisible. Passing through stuff was pretty damn sweet, but it also felt insanely weird. I much preferred invisibility. The power to be unseen…it was almost like my entire high school career up until my death.
Of course, if I needed to defend myself, I could have used this ghost ray I had. It was like a laser I could shoot right out of my hand. But I didn't know how far that could get me, so I didn't dare to try it.
All of these things made me who I was, or who I had become.
Danny Fenton was gone. Now I was Danny Phantom.
***
I woke up from a somewhat deep sleep. It was still dark out. Well, it's always dark here. There wasn't a way for me to tell time.
Stretching my arms and legs out before me, I groggily sat up and examined the air around me. No ghosts were around, that I could see anyway.
I casually hovered away from my rock, lazily looking at all of the doors before me. Who knew where I was going to end up today?
The first door I found was made of steel. It had large bolts on it, and it looked like it was sealed off. I grabbed the handle and opened the door gently, peaking in through the portal. It revealed nothing but darkness. I decided against investigating any further.
What felt like hours passed. I opened door after door, looking into the worlds they connected to. None of them seemed like they fit me.
Two weeks before, there was one I liked in particular. I had stumbled upon a quiet little cozy cabin, somewhere in a mountainous terrain. I curiously stuck my head inside and looked around. The room seemed quiet enough, so I stepped through, leaving the door open behind me. I saw a small Christmas tree and dozens of presents under it. Christmas lights twinkled all around the room, and soft Christmas music played in the background. I guessed it was Christmas time. And I could see family pictures decorating the mantle over the fireplace. It was so strange to me. It didn't feel like a home, but it was a home. It was warm there, and I could tell there was happiness to be found in this simplistic life. I didn't want to leave it, but I could hear the sounds of the family stirring in the other parts of the cabin. So I jumped back through my portal door and closed it tightly. I hadn't gone back through since, but I kept a mental note of that door's location.
I thought about that place a lot. I knew that if I could never find what I was truly looking for, perhaps I would return there. Perhaps I could live there. It seemed inviting enough. And I didn't suspect the family would mind if they didn't even know I was there.
I was so distracted by these thoughts that I hadn't even paid attention to where I had been flying.
I barely missed being hit by some form of energy beam that was obviously meant to hit me.
"YOU THERE!" a voice boomed from behind me.
Shit. My first ghost encounter, and whoever it was sounded pretty pissed. What had I done wrong?
I turned to face a large ghost. He was probably the most terrifying one I had ever seen in my months of living here. He wore a large mechanical suit of armor, equipped with guns and missiles. His face was shaped like a skull, and his hair was made of green flames, to match his huge green eyes.
"Do you realize where you are?" he questioned, harsh.
I backed away from him slowly.
"No," I answered honestly. "I'm just lost…"
"Look below you, welt," he instructed.
My eyes fell upon a large jungle island. The jungle was topped off by a large mountain in the shape of a skull. I had never seen this place before, nor did I know where it was.
"This is Skulker's territory," he continued when my eyes met his again. "You are trespassing on my territory."
"I'm sorry," I apologized sincerely. "Like I said, I'm lost and I don't know the-"
He ignored me and raised one of his canons to me.
"I don't accept apologies," he said taking his aim on me. "I'll take you mounted on above my fireplace as a trophy!"
He shot a missile straight at my chest. I don't know how, reflex maybe, but I managed to turn intangible and let the missile pass right through my body.
Without another word, I took off, flying away from Skulker as fast as I could. My ghost sense went off, informing me he was following me. This fact was confirmed when another missile shot right passed me.
"RUN WHILE YOU CAN, WELT!" he shouted from behind me. "I LIKE THE HUNT."
I didn't know where to go. I passed countless doors, thinking about hoping through any of them. But what good could that do? He could just follow me through any of them.
Basically, I was fucked.
Shot after shot, somehow, I was lucky enough to dodge them all. And he was ruthlessly firing away from behind me.
Was this how all the ghosts here were? Beyond reason? This guy was insane! He was literally trying to kill me because I floated over his damn island. Not exactly a just cause for murder, if murdering a ghost was even possible. But with the way I was being hunted, it sure seemed like it was.
I could feel him gaining on me, and I knew if he caught me, I was done for. My only option was to fight back.
I turned, stunned by how close he was to me, and summoned all my energy to my hands. I shot the biggest ecto blast I could manage, and it hit him with some force. He was thrown backwards, and I continued my mad escape forwards, as fast as I could manage.
That was when I saw it. A new door, one that I knew I had never seen before, and yet…there was something about it that I knew. Something about it that seemed familiar. Its giant octagon steel frame, its black and yellow steel doors, something. Something about this door was calling to me.
I knew that no matter what it took, I had to find a way to get into that door. But it was sealed shut.
Suddenly, there was pain in my chest. I had forgotten about Skulker following me, until he had successfully hit me with one of his lasers.
My hands flew to my chest, which was now sore and burning.
It didn't take the hunter long to take advantage of my pause. He flew up to me in blinding speed and raised his gun to me, ready to finish me off.
I looked up at him, pleading. It was a mistake, that's all it was.
"Any last words, ghost child?" he asked, charging his weapon.
There was nothing but stillness as I looked at the barrel of the gun pointed directly at me. This was it. I had died once, and now I was going to die again.
Without any warning, the sealed doors beside me opened. I starred in shock, and Skulker did too. The door revealed nothing but light.
Ever so slowly, a small hand, as if it was meant to save me, reached out through the light. Before I could react, it retraced and was gone.
The portal stayed open, though.
I contemplated several actions. One, I could stay there until Skulker killed me. Two, I could jump through the portal, and Skulker could kill me there. Three, I could try to fly away as quickly as possible and hope I could somehow get luck enough to lose him. Four, I could do nothing and hope he would just go away.
Option number three sounded the best to me.
As I braced myself to speed off, Skulker refocused his attention on me, aiming again.
"Don't even try to run, welt," Skulker commanded.
I knew this was it. Only a miracle was going to save my life. Or afterlife? Well, I guess it wasn't the best time for jokes.
Then, a miracle happened.
That tiny little hand forced its way through the light again, palm open. It was like I was meant to grab it.
And I did.
I snatched that small hand without thinking and prepared to jump through to meet whoever owned it.
Skulker had other plans.
He grabbed my arm, tugging me back, and I could feel the hand pulling back as well. It was tug-o-war, and I was the prize. Each opposing side used excessive force. I only prayed that before I was torn in half, the small hand could somehow out tug this massive ghost.
I held on to that hand as tight as I could.
But then I remembered, I could shoot energy from my hands. I had done it before, and now seemed like the perfect time to do it again.
I looked back at Skulker, and smiled darkly. He wasn't going to fucking win.
I extended my palm facing him, and fired with as much strength as I could. His hand instantly released mine, and for a split second, everything was still. But before I could breathe, the other hand pulled me back with so much force, I was sent flying into a strange dark room.
I crashed into a wall, seeing the portal I had just passed through closing. Wherever I was, I was stuck here.
And there was nothing but darkness, but my eyes could see through the dark better than other people.
I could make out a figure in this room with me. Who it was, I couldn't tell. But I watched as this person slowly moved across the wall through the darkness, searching for something.
I tried not to move. I tried to do everything I could to keep my presence hidden. Maybe then this person would go away and I could search for some answers.
There was a clicking sound.
There was light in the room.
There was a girl looking at me.
Before I could react in any way, this girl fell forward. I jumped forward and caught her before she could hit the ground and placed her down gently.
I had to leave. I had to get out of there. I wasn't even there for two minutes, and I had already caused a girl to faint.
I fully intended to leave. To make a desperate escape before I could cause any more problems. But before I moved, my eyes found themselves looking at her face.
I looked back at her, I knew this girl. I knew this face. Her name evaded me, though.
I couldn't leave her here to wake up alone. What kind of person would that make me?
So I would wait for her to wake up, try to answer any questions she had, and see if she would answer any of mine.
How long would it take for her to wake up, any way?