A/N: Cute, cute... if I hear that word one more time I think I'm gonna scream...:) No really, thank you my lovely reviewers, I'm so glad you liked my mushy little story, I know it was cute and I intended it to be cute so now I give you this one which is definitely NOT cute!
Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom.
15. Silence
He didn't speak, he didn't hear, in fact, he didn't really see. He was right there in his bubble, shutting out everybody and everything, going where he was supposed to be going, mechanically following instructions without question. He wasn't blind, or deaf, far from it. It was just that his mind had decided it didn't really need the input from the outside anymore, that things would be easier to cope with if he just shut it out.
His white hair was matted, his green eyes dull as he shuffled through the long, white hallway, passing doors and sometimes windows to the rooms. He looked at neither and even if he had looked, he wouldn't have seen it. His black hazemat suit hung loosely around him, his gloves and his boots were gone and his bare feet made no sound on the floor as he walked between the two tall, white suited men.
A loud clanking breached his bubble for a moment, reaching his mind through his ears and he looked up in fright. For a moment, he saw. The door to the room had opened and slammed against the wall, revealing two people, a man and a woman in white coats standing impatiently at a table. The table had strange, glowing green straps attached to it, hanging loosely, waiting for him. In the back of the room he could see cupboards with various equipment in it and pots with strange glowing liquids. In one of them a human head was floating and his eyes... they looked at him, penetrated his skull, shattering the remains of this comfortable bubble.
Desperately, he tried to pull back into himself as he stumbled forwards, pushed by the men who had escorted him here. There was no need to see this, he had seen it countless times before, but still he watched as they strapped him down on the table with those bands he knew he couldn't phase through. He looked up at the woman, trying to see her eyes through her glasses and she hesitated for a moment.
"He's looking at me," she hissed at her companion.
The tall, gray haired man came into view and studied him for a moment, placing a hand at the woman's shoulder. He tapped his chin with his finger and stepped back.
"It just looks that way. It's mind is long gone."
"No it's not," Danny thought and proceeded to try and shut everything out, so he wouldn't feel the needle in his arm or the effects of the tests they were going to perform. He wondered briefly why all tests should be painful, but he wasn't really interested in the answer. The woman said something, her mouth was moving and he saw she had crooked teeth. He studied her as she was holding a big syringe containing some blue liquid up to her face and pushing it slightly to get rid of possible bubbles. It wouldn't do to kill the test subject, he thought ironically as he watched her move in slow motion, bringing up the needle to his exposed left arm.
She smiled at her companion and he felt the small prick of the needle in his arm - nonono stop stop you don't know what you're doing please stop please stop pleeeeeease - and felt the pressure of the needle as the liquid was injected into his veins. He used to scream when they did that, long ago, but since he managed to retreat into himself he hadn't uttered a sound. He really needed to get out of there and he did it in the only way he could. He stared at the ceiling, at the bright lights there and started slamming the necessary doors in his mind.
Then he saw something else. A small room, white padded walls, white padded door. No window, but a bright light bulb on the ceiling, depriving him of his sleep, giving him no clue about the time of day. Still, he liked his room best. There were no distractions here, only silence and in his mind he was always here, even if his body sometimes went places. Places he didn't want to look at with sounds he refused to hear and feelings he pushed away until he could no longer feel.
It was better in here, inside his bubble. Nice. And. Quiet.
