Karen Manson is a normal girl; that is, up until her fourteenth birthday. Contains OC's. Rated for cursing and some violence later on. R&R no flames please! (Constructive criticism is OK.)

Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom. I never have, I never will. Get over it.

Chapter Five: Daughter of a Ghost

"What are you doing in here?" Mom said in a harsh, clipped voice. She stood over me like she was a prison warden and I was a convict she had just caught trying to escape. I sat frozen on the floor, the photographs of Danny and the "Ghost Boy" still in my hands. I hadn't even heard her come in. "Why are you in here?" she asked again.

I stood up, holding the pictures. I tried to speak. "I...uh...the air conditioning blew out downstairs and..."

"You could have gone in your room," Mom said. Her expression didn't change.

"My room's too crowded," I replied.

"The AC went out downstairs and you had a fan in the living room," Mom replied.

"Why do you think I was in the living room in the first place?" I snapped suddenly. "The AC blew out in the house, then the fan went off in the living room, and you know I have absolutely no tolerance for heat. I know for a fact that your room has a ceiling fan, so I came in here to cool myself off before I died from heat stroke. Happy?" I sat down on her bed, having just exhausted myself from talking.

Mom stood silent. After a long pause she said, "OK, now the question becomes: how did you get in here? The door is locked. I have the only key."

Shit. This was the defining moment. I could leave now and let her kill me later...or I could fess up and tell her the truth.

I stood up, looked her square in the eye and said, "I went through it. I walked through your door. I was hot, and you have a ceiling fan, so I walked through the door into your bedroom. Then I saw the cabinet, and I made my arm go through that, and I took out your photo album." I felt courageous now. I continued to speak. "Now I have a question for you: why? Why can I do this? Do you know? I don't know why I can do this; do you?"

Mom didn't look me in the eye. Instead, she uncrossed her arms and sat down on the bed. Her expression softened. Without looking at me, she nodded and said, "Yes."

I sat down next to her. She looked very small, like a shriveled old lady. "Does it have to do with Danny and the Ghost Boy?" I showed her the pictures I had taken out. She looked at them for a long time. She turned her head towards me and sighed.

"Danny's parents were...professional ghost hunters," Mom said shakily. "They built all sort of gadgets and weapons to fight ghosts. Ectoplasmic guns, tracking devices, you name it, they had it. One day, when we were fourteen..." She paused, and then regained her composure. "When we were fourteen, they decided to build a portal."

I furrowed my eyebrows. "A what-now?"

"A portal," Mom said. "Most ghosts live in an alternate dimension called the Ghost Zone. It's basically a place where everything's green and goopy and there are an infinite number of doors that lead to a different ghost's lair. Danny's parents wanted to see the Ghost Zone, so they decided to make a portal so they could see it. They built it, but it didn't work."

"So...if the portal didn't work...how do you know what the 'Ghost Zone' looks like?" I asked. This was getting crazier by the minute.

"I was getting there," Mom said, annoyed. "When Danny told Tucker and me about the portal, we came over to his house to check it out." Her face lit up. "I found a jumpsuit in the corner that I knew would fit Danny. After some persuasion, I convinced him to..." She looked away.

"What?" I said. "What did you convince him to do?"

"I convinced him to go inside it."

I failed to see her point. "So?"

Mom looked back at me. "When he went inside, there was some kind of accident. He got the portal working—with him inside of it."

I felt my jaw drop. "Did he...die?"

"No," Mom said. "He became...well...part ghost."

"'Part ghost'? What does that even mean?"

"It means that at will, he could change form and go through walls, fly, turn invisible...whatever a standard ghost could do, he could do. He gained other powers as time went on: he could shoot ghost rays out of his hands, make a ghost shield...he could do a lot of stuff."

I stared at Mom. "So...you're saying I'm part ghost too?"

Mom looked at me sadly. "Yeah."

"And that's why I was able to walk through your door?"

"That's what I'm saying."

I shook my head in disbelief. "But...ghosts aren't real. They're just made-up creatures in horror stories."

Mom sighed. "Until Danny got ghost powers, that's what I thought too."

I sat in shock. This was too unreal. Part ghost? That's ridiculous! Ghosts aren't real! Mom's just messing with you!

But she was right. Deep down inside, I knew she was right.

I looked at the picture of Mom, Danny and Tucker, and then at the picture of the white-haired boy. "So...this was Danny?" I asked Mom. "Danny was the Ghost Boy?"

Mom said what I already knew. "Yes. Your dad was a ghost."

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Whew! I finally got it written! I'm sorry it's been so long, I know I haven't updated in, like, three weeks, but I've got school and my sister went to college and...yeah, it's been complicated. But yay, Karen's finally learned about Danny! I know this is rushed, but I tried. Review, but please no flames! (If you want to criticize, please make it constructive.)