The Soul Sepulchre Chapter 4: It Comes, a danny phantom fanfic

Hiya!

Disclaimer: Butch Hartman owns Danny and all related characters. I own everything you don't recognize here.

Reviewer notes are at the end.

Enjoy.

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The Soul Sepulcher

-By Sholay

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Chapter 4—It Comes

Cleanup after the incident at the museum had been a nightmare. The police had swarmed the area, inspecting everyone and everything before officially declared the area and all surrounding perimeter a HECK—Hostile Ectoplasmic Criminal Key-point.

Danny had heaved a mental groan when he'd heard this.

'Honestly, you'd think they'd hit rock bottom when they came up with the 'Guys in White'. But no, they got out a shovel and kept digging…'

At any rate, HECK was a new code the department had engineered on the fly for just this specific occasion. Nonetheless, while the code might have been lacking, the police procedures certainly weren't: following the declaration, the entire museum had been subsequently disemboweled of all tourists, staff and wayward children. Some people were still looking around in bewilderment, wondering what had interrupted their quiet Wednesday morning; Danny had noticed one small boy complaining to his mother that he had not been able to finish in the bathroom… He'd stopped looking around after that.

Everyone had gathered on the grassy lawn in front of the museum, waiting patiently while the police inspected the area and called in the professionals—AKA Danny's parents.

Danny rubbed a hand over his face, remembering with lingering mortification how his parents had toppled out of the Fenton Assault Vehicle and bounded across the grass—right over the 'Keep off the Grass' sign, much to the museum staff's chagrin—before proceeding to nearly smother him in questions, concerns and kisses. They had paid absolutely no heed to the harsh laughter of his classmates nor the amused looks from the police, naturally.

Danny could practically see his social status being trampled, much like the once pristine grass under his father's heavy feet.

Then again, it wasn't like he'd had much of a social status to begin with; so Danny supposed the point was pretty moot anyway.

He supposed that at the very least he should be grateful he wasn't a suspect. The police had taken one look at the destroyed granite statues, deep, claw-like, gouges torn into the marble floor, the tattered tapestry and had completely written him off as an innocent victim. His parents, of course, only needed to hear the word 'Ghost' and they were off scouring every inch of the room for ectoplasmic residue.

Danny was suddenly very glad that he hadn't bled anywhere across the room.

The police had questioned him—briefly, since Danny had basically said it had been so dark he didn't see much of anything. "I saw a pair of scary yellow eyes." Danny remembered saying, playing on the 'poor, innocent, little kid' act that his small stature easily allowed him. "And then I covered my head and hid in a corner… The ghost kinda threw stuff around the room, until the alarm went off, and then it ran—ah, flew—away." It was a shaky story, but acceptable, and the police had dismissed him. Danny had immediately gone to find Sam and Tucker and they'd boarded the bus to return to school.

Danny looked over at his two best friends sitting on his left: Tucker had his nose in the PDA as usual, while Sam, squished between both boys, had her legs crossed and a large, black book balanced carefully in one hand.

As though sensing Danny's gaze, Sam looked up. She raised an amused eyebrow at him and Danny gave a small, crooked grin in return.

"Are you sure you don't want to talk about what happened in there?" She asked.

Danny opened his mouth, hesitated. "Yeah," he smiled, "It wasn't a bit deal, just another ghost. There've been a lot of them recently." He shrugged, but froze as a sharp pain lanced through his right shoulder and down his arm. Danny tried to hide his grimace, but Sam didn't buy it for a second.

"You're hurt." She stated, frowning, shutting the book with a muffled thump.

'That wasn't even a question.' Danny thought wryly. Outwardly he gave a short laugh. "Yeah, happens when you get thrown into a wall."

"Dude, what is that? The fourth time this week?" Tucker broke in and Danny shared a quick grin with him.

"Tuck-er," Sam glared at the boy in exasperation. "It's not funny! Danny could have gotten seriously hurt!"

"Shh! Not so loud!" Danny hissed. Gesturing with one hand for them to keep it down, Danny looked around to see if any of their classmates had heard. But being the 'socially invisible' outcasts of their school had its benefits: no one was even paying the slightest attention to their conversation. "It's really not that important Sam," Danny added. "Look, it doesn't hurt that much. I'll be fine by tomorrow." As though to prove it, Danny rolled his shoulder forward, but this backfired as he had to bite back a gasp and squeeze his eyes shut as the pain tripled in intensity.

"See!" Now Sam was hissing back at him, obviously annoyed at his lack of self-regard, but also alarmed at how much pain he was showing. It took a lot to even make him flinch. "You are hurt! And it isn't just 'nothing'."

"Well, what do you want me to do about it?" Danny snapped back, feeling unusually short-tempered. "You want me to just stand up to Skulker… or whatever ghost shows up to try and take over Amity next, and say 'Oh, can you just try and aim somewhere over my shoulder today? My friend doesn't like it when I get hurt.' Yeah, Sam, real smart, I'm sure that Vlad will be only too happy to sit down over tea and crumpets and discuss civilly how he wants to kill Dad, marry my Mom and enslave me."

Sam drew back, and for just a second she looked hurt. Danny immediately felt a rush of guilt wash over him; he hadn't meant to say that. But then Sam's expression turned stony. "Look, Danny…"

"No, Sam, wait," Danny sighed, he let his head hang, bangs flopping forward over his eyes and rubbed at the bridge of his nose. Suddenly he had a headache forming there. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to say that. I just… I'm just…"

"I know Danny," Sam's expression softened then as she regarded him. "You're just tired, with all those tests we've been having and the ghost attacks, you've barely had enough time to sleep all week… But Danny, I'm just worried." She raised her hand, paused, then let it fall on Danny's unhurt shoulder. He looked up. "And being tired doesn't give you the right to snap at me like that."

"I know, I know." Danny looked down then up; he gave her an apologetic smile. "Sorry?"

Sam slowly smiled in return and Danny watched her. A few seconds passed and then—

"Aww, get a room you two lovebirds!"

"WE ARE NOT LOVEBIRDS!"

And everything was back to normal between them.

Half an hour passed. Mr. Lancer had boarded the bus and declared the class fit to leave the museum. Sam and Tucker continued talking, but Danny found himself gradually easing himself out of the conversation. His friends were arguing about something, as usual (From what Danny could tell it had something to do with the humanity of the annual seal hunt in… where was it again? Newfoundland? Where on Earth was that anyway?). And Danny found he just didn't have the stamina to act as mediator between them, again.

Usually it didn't bother him too much. Honestly, it happened so often he should be used to it. But not today, not right now. Danny blamed it on his tiredness, but as he let his gaze drift out the window, idly watching the scenery pass by, he knew it was something else.

'Why didn't I tell them about the Hound?' Danny didn't know. Why hadn't he said anything? He always told them everything… It just seemed like, as he was about to tell them, something had send off warning bells throughout him. Why? He had no idea. But Danny always trusted his gut instinct, so he had passed off the entire thing as some random ghost attack. Not a lie… not a complete lie…

But then there was something else.

After security had broken the door down, Sam and Tucker had come racing through first. Completely ignoring the warning calls from the police they had each grabbed one of his arms and ushered him out of the room, quietly asking why he hadn't just phased through the walls. Still feeling dazed by what had just happened, Danny had stayed silent, only moving once to remove his hurt arm from Sam's painful grip.

But then, just as they were leaving the museum, Danny had remembered his promise. Spinning around and breaking Tucker's hold on him, Danny had tried to go back—fighting against them with surprising vigor to reach the doors of the museum.

When they had asked him what he was doing, he'd answered truthfully: he'd promised the couple in the room with him that he'd go back. They had stared at Danny, who, disquieted, had turned to look at them. "What?" He'd asked. And Sam's answer had stilled him.

"There was no one else in that room besides you, Danny."

'No one.' Danny brought himself back to the present and watched his reflection in the window. 'But I didn't sense a ghost… So what were they? Something else?'

The day's events had bothered him more than he would have liked to say: The mysterious couple, the Hound, the voice in the wind and that white light… Danny had been so sure that the Hound was about to devour him whole. But then that light had come, encompassing him and maybe even driving the Hound away…

'Saving my life?' Was Danny's inevitable, troubled line of thought.

So preoccupied was he in his thoughts, that Danny barely even registered it when his eyes slide shut of their own accord, his stiff frame slowly relaxing as he sunk against the window.

Il Il Il Il Il Il Il Il Il Il Il Il Il Il Il Il Il Il Il Il Il Il Il Il Il Il Il Il Il Il Il Il Il Il Il Il Il Il Il Il Il Il Il Il Il Il Il Il Il Il Il Il Il Il Il Il Il Il Il Il Il Il Il Il Il Il Il Il Il Il Il Il Il Il Il

Danny's eyes slowly opened. He blinked sluggishly, once, twice, thrice, trying to clear the fog in his head. His eyelids felt like lead; couldn't he just have a few more minutes of sleep?

Just then, Danny caught sight of something moving next to his head and he started backwards.

The road… it was just the road through the window… Danny sighed with relief, trying to ease his rapid heartbeat. Then he froze.

The road?

Fully awake now, he gazed around, wide-eyed, at his surroundings. It was dark outside; nighttime, but he recognized his surroundings: he was still on the bus. But wait… How could he still be on the bus at night? And where were Sam and Tucker?

Danny looked back and forward, scanning empty seat after empty seat for any sign of somebody, anybody. A sudden tingling in his spine made Danny shiver as his eyes fell on the darker corners of the bus. The shadows seemed to move, stretching languidly before receding, then moving forward again, just a little further…

Something flashed in Danny's peripheral vision and he jumped; swinging around, he swept his hand through thin air. For a moment, he stood there, trembling, on edge. Just a hint of movement, just a hint, and he would turn ghost…

But nothing moved.

Unwinding himself from the tense knot he'd drawn himself into, Danny forced himself to laugh. He was being ridiculous: jumping at shadows!

The bus jolted and Danny steadied himself, clutching at the back of a seat. Looking outside the window, he noticed the scenery outside the window was suddenly much less welcoming. The ground, once covered in grass, was barren and cracked. Trees, black and knotted, wormed their way into the air: bare, anemic branches clawing the dark, stormy sky.

Swallowing, Danny slowly walked toward the window. Standing right before it, he gazed at his own, pale, transparent reflection. There was nothing specifically odd about it.

The bus jolted again, roughly, and Danny was nearly thrown into the seat. Catching himself, he looked up, once again catching sight of his reflection in the window.

But something was wrong.

His reflection was still gazing downward.

Danny swallowed again, feeling a lump of unease settle above his heart. Raising an unsteady hand, he reached toward the window.

And then the figure's head moved.

Danny froze, watching in helpless fascination as the head rose, long black hair parted and fell in that familiar hairstyle, and pale skin was revealed.

But as Danny watched, black eyes opened and fixed on him with unadulterated hunger. A twisted sneer parted a cracked, lipless mouth, baring small, sharp, rotted teeth.

A gasp of fear escaped Danny and he recoiled. But that was all he did, it was like his feet were stuck to the ground. He couldn't move…and his ghost form seemed out of his reach…

'Daniel.'

The thing crooned his name, curling its black tongue over sharp teeth, drawing the word out.

'Dan-iel.'

This time it cocked his head, its tone a mocking sing-song.

'What are you?' Danny felt his mouth form the words, but no sound came out. Yet the figure bent its head the other way and the sneer widened into a crazed grin. For a second they remained immobile, staring at each other.

'DANIEL!'

Danny leapt back with a yelp as the figure suddenly threw itself at the glass. Hands scraping at the widow, it clawed at the window in a frenzy of inaudible sounds and cries, causing Danny's hair to stand on end.

Danny realized all at once that he could move and he took a few shaky steps back, then raised an arm. Fully intending to blast the window into nonexistence, he called upon the supernatural fire of his ghostly half.

But nothing happened.

Almost as though sensing his dilemma, the creature stopped moving and regarded Danny for a moment. Then it grinned, and from deep within, it emitted a low chilling laugh that nearly made Danny physically sick.

'Daniel.'

With mounting horror, Danny watched as the thing reached forward through the glass. Glass rippled like water around the hand; short, fat fingers with long, ragged claws reached toward him.

Danny stumbled backwards, raising an arm to protect himself.

But suddenly it surged forward; Danny couldn't move fast enough to avoid its hand. It latched onto his wrist and pulled.

Danny gasped as he was yanked unwillingly forward toward the thing. He twisted his wrist but its grip was like a vise. Thick and strong, the cold, fleshy hand wound around his wrist like a leech, its nails digging painfully into his skin.

Then the shoulders and head emerged.

Danny looked up, wide-eyed, into the thing's empty gaze. Its grin widened and Danny felt himself being drawn closer.

Nearly nose to nose, Danny could feel himself getting lost in that coal-black abyss of nothing— its eyes slowly devouring him.

'Come, come little Casper.' It purred near his ear and Danny felt a rush of putrid air pass his nose and cheek. Dead fish and rotten eggs, Danny tried to pull away. It tugged him back. 'Don't you want to play a little game with me?'

Suddenly Danny felt a stinging pain in his wrist, like a shock. He looked over and his eyes widened when he saw the creature's hand—encased in sparking electricity—tightening slowly around his wrist. The pain sparked again, stronger, and this time there was an answering throb from his shoulder. Danny clenched his teeth and squinted his eyes, his arm jerked spasmodically with the force of the shocks. But then, with sudden realization, Danny's eyes shot up the stare at the creature.

'You, you come from Legion.' He accused. Once again, his own voice was silent to his ears, but the creature effused its chilling laugh.

'Play with me.' Was all it said and it pulled Danny ever closer, then rested its forehead on his.

'No… get away!' Danny threw his head back, screwing his eyes shut, struggling wildly.

A heavy, throbbing pressure was building in Danny's head. The creature laughed and swung him around like a rag doll, slamming him roughly into the window. Danny cried out as he felt his back hit the glass hard then start to sink through. The thing was trying to trap him! He twisted and resisted, the pressure all the while rising steadily between his eyes and this time he thought he heard a voice.

'Stop!' The thing smiled a crooked grin, showing off cancerous gums in a mockery of Danny's own smile.

"Danny!"

'Get away!' Its hold tightened.

"Danny!"

'Let go of me!'

"DANNY!"

Someone was shaking him.

Danny whimpered, and shrank away from the hand on his shoulder. It withdrew almost immediately and, confused, Danny stopped moving and tried to open his eyes.

The first thing that he saw was bright light and he squeezed his eyes shut briefly as they protested against the sudden onslaught.

Then Danny realized what the light meant and his eyelids flew open immediately. He sat up straight and looked around, disoriented and panicky.

"Danny, Danny! It's fine, relax, you were having a bad dream! Are you ok?"

"Hunh?" Danny rolled his head to the side, confused, not understanding at first. Then it hit him. "A dream? It was just a dream?" Words could not describe the relief that flowed through Danny at this realization.

"Yeah, you looked pretty out of it man, so we decided to wake you up." Tucker said, his tone was offhand, but Danny saw some deeper concern in the way his friend glanced sideways at him.

"You were saying things…" His eyes shifted to Sam, who was also regarding him keenly.

"What things?" He asked hesitantly.

"I don't know, at first you were just mumbling, we thought you were just dreaming…" Sam looked away, then at Tucker.

"Then you got louder, you were saying 'Get away' and 'Stop'."

There was a pause here and Danny held his breath. 'Don't ask why, don't ask why' He mentally begged, he really didn't want to explain that right now.

"And then your hand started to glow." Here Sam sent a pointed look at Danny's right hand which was folded in his lap underneath his left.

"My hand?" Surprised, Danny leveled his hand to his eyes. 'It worked? Then why didn't anything happen in my dream?'

"Danny! Your wrist!"

Sam's sudden exclamation caught Danny off-guard. "Huh?" He asked, flipping his hand over to look at his wrist.

His eyes widened.

A bruise in the form of a thick, blue-black ring encircled his wrist, surrounded by irritated red skin that was already beginning to blister as though heavily burned. Slowly, suddenly breathless, Danny turned his hand over. There, on the inside of his wrist, he could clearly make out the five half circles that the creature had gouged into his skin with its nails. The world blurred for a moment as Danny stared, transfixed.

"What happened?" Tucker leaned over Sam, trying to get a better look, while Sam reached out to touch the dark bruises. Danny immediately withdrew his hand, hiding it between himself and the window.

"It's nothing." He said hurriedly. Then, realizing how unbelievable that sounded, he took a breath and tried to force some confidence into his voice. "It must have happened during the fight in the museum."

"Danny," Sam sounded unconvinced. She shot him a look. "I didn't see anything like that before—"

"Yeah, well, it might've just shown up now." Danny looked away as he said this, signifying the end of that topic.

Again, Sam looked less than pleased with him; and again, Tucker came to the rescue. "Well, while you were asleep Lancer told us that we're gonna basically go back to school and present what we learned at the museum. It's to combine all our findings or something… since none of use actually got to finish the tour. Also there's gonna be a test on it later."

Danny groaned at this. "Oh, you've gotta be kidding me!"

"Nope." Tucker shook his head, then shot his friend a sympathetic smile. "And guess who everyone blames for the extra work?"

Danny gave another, quieter, groan. "Can't I ever get a break?" He asked, mostly to himself.

"Ha ha, Danny, you're the hero! Heroes don't need breaks!" Tucker laughed, and Sam shot the dark skinned boy an exasperated smile.

But Danny didn't smile. His mind went back to the incident at the museum, and then to the dream he'd just had. Just by remembering it, his entire right arm gave a tiny spasm of phantom pain. If this was what heroes had to deal with…

"Maybe I don't want to be… anymore…" He whispered, so quietly he barely even heard it, though Sam sent him an odd look.

For the rest of the bus ride, Danny was more or less silent as he gazed out the window. As they finally pulled into the school though, the bus gave a jarring jolt as it went over a large bump. Danny was thrown out of his idle daydreams and he looked up into the window.

Cold fear washed over him and he froze, staring.

"Hey, Danny! You coming or what?"

Danny shook his head, holding his left palm tightly against his temple as though to dispel the image he'd just seen.

"I'm coming, Tuck!" He called and stood to join his friends as they moved out of the now stationary school bus. But just before he had moved away completely, he paused, and, almost against his better judgment, forced himself to look back at the window.

The clear pane showed only the school grounds and cloudless, blue sky.

Danny sighed in barely suppressed relief. "You've been watching too many scary movies, Fenton." He told himself, and with a small shake of his head, he turned to walk away.

But he couldn't quite kill that nagging feeling in the back of his mind that something was terribly wrong.

Because in that moment, when his eyes had snapped up to look out the window he hadn't seen his own reflection.

Instead, coal-black eyes over a grinning mouth with cracked lips and rotted teeth had stared back at him.

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To Be Continued…

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My longest chapter yet for this story! Woot! Tell me what you think!

Now, to my wonderful reviewers:

mutantlover09: Hehe, yup Danny lives… only to be tortured further XD (yes, I enjoy torturing him just a LITTLE too much). Anyway… that Asian couple IS strange… Hmmm… what do they want? Do they understand English? Are they going to tell anyone Danny's secret? Are they ever going to show up again (along with that Hound)? Am I ever going to answer any of these questions? XP, You'll just have to wait and see!... Oh and did you like the creature in the window?

Thunderstorm101: Truth be told I'm a bit of a wimp too (though I have a strange penchant for getting involved in full contact sports… (rolls eyes) tell me how THAT oxymoron works out). But anyway, the point is, I imagine Danny to be the kind of heroic guy who would rather BE in pain and have that knowledge than be left in a void of nothing… I guess I figure he would rather have something tangible, and straight forward, to fight, rather than not knowing what he's up against… Does that make any sense? Anyway, hope you enjoyed the chapter!

Anonymous Shadow: Hiya! Thanks for reviewing! Yeah… 'yucky saliva' just about sums it up XP. And there are a lot of weird things going on, aren't there? The Beast, the couple, and now the creepy thing in the window…. What could it all mean?... Hmmmm… (Evil grin).

ArmoredSoul: Heh heh, Glad you think it's scary, what about this chapter? Was it ok:D Hellhounds are evil but THIS guy is the one with the bad breath XD! Thanks for the review!

Adio!