Chapter Text
i can’t
remember
i can’t
…
i used to be someone
i just don’t know
who that is anymore
but
maybe
i’ve been given a second chance
there’s light again
i can see
and i know that he
danny
can see me too
i just don’t think he wants to
---
After that first time, Danny had tried to pretend like nothing had happened. He hadn’t seen anything, he’d insisted to himself over and over in the bathroom mirror. Maybe he’d fallen asleep without realizing it. Maybe the creature he’d seen had been nothing but some horrible night terror. Didn’t lots of people have night terrors like that? It would’ve made sense.
Would’ve.
If that had been the only time it happened.
In the two weeks since the Phantom, (as he had nicknamed it,) had first appeared in his room, it had made itself very clear that it wasn’t going away. He’d see it out of the corner of his eye as he made attempts to study for the classes he no longer cared about. He’d close his eyes when brushing his teeth, because he knew that otherwise he’d catch a glimpse of it in the mirror, right behind him. Every night, he’d wait until the last possible moment to turn off the light before retreating to the safety of underneath his bedsheets, because he didn’t want to wait and see what would be waiting there in the dark.
It had taken him two weeks to tell anyone about all this, but he’d finally done it. He couldn’t handle going through this all alone.
“I’m going insane.”
He sat on his bed with his head in his hands. Tucker sat on a nearby chair, looking around to see if he could spot the elusive spirit Danny had spent the last twenty minutes venting about. Sam was standing near the window, trying to summon to mind whatever ghost hunting knowledge she’d absorbed from Wikipedia and Danny’s parents over the years.
“Why don’t you try talking to it?” Sam eventually suggested, as she lit a candle and started waving it around the room. The packaging said that it “soothed the spirit,” and although she doubted that meant soothing spirits as in calming ghosts, she figured it couldn’t hurt.
“I’m not talking to it, because it isn’t real,” Danny snapped. “I refuse to believe my parents were right this whole time. Besides, no one else can see it! Not even my parents! I’m sure I’m just losing it.”
“I dunno, man,” Tucker said, his voice hesitant. “Like, usually I’d agree with you on this, but don’t you think it’s weird all this started happening right after you did a ghost summoning ritual? You should’ve seen yourself right before you passed out. It was like no one was home.” He shivered a little. “I’m serious, this is just like the start of any horror movie, and right now you’re acting like that one guy who’s in denial about the whole thing until he dies first. No offense, though.”
Danny lowered his hands to glare at him.
“Hey, I said no offense.”
“Listen,” Sam cut in, setting the candle down on Danny’s desk, “Tucker’s right that you’re in denial, but you’re not gonna die. I just think you should try to see if it’s friendly. If not, well, it could be a chance to see if your parents’ exorcisms are actually real.”
The lights flickered. Danny let out a frustrated groan.
“I am not bringing them into this. No way in hell. I’m dealing with whatever this is myself, and honestly, that probably just means getting more sleep. Because this isn’t real. It’s not. ”
Sam and Tucker gave each other concerned looks, but decided not to push it more. Not today, at least.
“...If you say so.”
Later that night after his friends had left, Danny had a shower. After leaving to put on some clean pajamas, he returned to brush his teeth, and raised a hand to wipe away the fog from the mirror. He froze, however, upon realizing that someone else had already done so. Not just randomly, but in a very specific pattern- No, not a pattern, letters -
D A N N Y
The toothbrush clattered to the floor.
“Oh, fuck no.” Danny’s first move was to run, but the door was jammed shut. He shook the handle so hard it nearly broke, then pounded on the door, but quickly remembered that he was home alone. “Shit. Shit.”
Someone was tapping on his shoulder.
With all the bravery he could muster up, Danny called out,
“Whoever, whatever you are, what the hell do you want with me? ”
He didn’t expect a reply.
He got one.
The voice was chilly, hollow, like it wasn’t entirely there but he could hear it anyway. It was the same one he’d heard calling his name once before.
i just want
someone to hear me
“...What?”
The lights flickered a few times, and the door opened. Shocked, Danny stood there for a few more moments, waiting to see if the voice would say anything else, but it didn’t.
It stayed quiet for the rest of that night.