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Danny stared unblinking at his hands. His fingers weren’t trembling, though they probably should have been. He couldn’t breathe, he couldn’t make a sound. All he could do was stare down at the skin before him
“Your hand’s glowing,” Dash whispered from behind him. “What is that? Is there a ghost nearby? Are you sick or something?”
There wasn’t a ghost nearby, and Danny knew this with absolute certainty. Because this wasn’t the work of some ghost, he hadn’t come down with some ghost virus, and his powers weren’t acting up either.
There was only one explanation for this. One that Danny had blocked out, he’d forgotten about. Maybe intentionally, if he were being honest.
But of course there was no escaping it. No avoiding it. It was going to happen whether or not he was paying attention.
And now he was paying the price for his negligence.
Dash poked his shoulder. “Do we need to evacuate?”
He was in school. This was really happening while he was in school.
There was no escaping it.
He should have looked at the calendar.
“Fenton, stop ignoring me! Do you need to go power up and fight someone or what?”
The figures on his skin glowed neon green, twisting and spindling across his skin like spiderwebs dancing in the wind. They twisted up his arm, disappearing into his sleeve where they traveled up his shoulder, through his chest, and down his leg. Danny could picture every single branch, every tiny jolt of the beams as they spread their claws up his throat, around his midriff, down his calf. He’d inspected them enough in the mirror to know what he probably looked like right now.
And judging by the glances other students were beginning to throw at him, his guess was correct.
He never wanted anyone to know. Phantom never wanted anyone to know. People had asked of course—everyone wanted that viral Tiktok—but Danny always was quick to avoid the question. A snappy, sarcastic response, a response so outlandish that no one could possibly believe him.
The mystery of how Phantom died was part of Amity’s lore at this point. There were reddit posts theorizing, video essays and fan theories with hypotheses posted everywhere, but no one knew for certain.
And Danny never gave a clue.
“Fenton!”
He really should have looked at the calendar.
The marks were always visible in ghost form, but his suit covered them. And whenever his suit tore in fights, Danny simply willed the repairs right on the spot. After all, his suit was comprised of ectoplasm, and Danny’s core supplied plenty of it.
Sure, there were occasional photos out there of the glowing skin under his suit, but the pictures were usually blurry, or the tears were too small to see anything substantial. It didn’t stop the speculation, but it certainly helped.
And now that day had finally come. The day when everyone would see who Phantom really was.
“Fine,” Dash’s harsh whisper sounded. “I’m telling Lancer.”
“Wait.” Danny’s voice was strained. He swallowed, but that did nothing to ease the mounting tension in his body. “I need to get out of here.”
“Fucking fine then, leave.”
“I—I can’t...” The glow brightened.
Any moment now it would start.
He couldn’t move. The edges of his brain were beginning to get fuzzy, and for a moment he wondered why he was here in the classroom, why wasn’t he in the lab with the portal.
The portal.
Oh.
“Dash, please.”
Dash scoffed. “You have two legs, don’t you? Just leave.”
The black fuzz was enveloping the rest of his brain, and confusion overtook him. The portal, he remembered. He needed to go there for some reason, but he couldn’t quite...
“But I—”
“Boys!” Lancer’s voice cut through the noise.
Danny’s eyes snapped up to see everyone looking at him. His glowing Lichtenberg figures had never felt so uncomfortable until now.
Lancer’s stern expression fizzled out at once. “Mr. Fenton, are you alright?”
The fuzz started to return, and Danny glanced between his hand and his teacher, his brows knotting in confusion. It didn’t seem right that his skin had these figures painted so clearly in front of his classmates. Even if they did already know that he was Phantom, something about this was not right.
No, why did he feel wrong?
“He’s sick or something,” Dash said.
“No, I’m...” Danny pushed himself out of his chair. He stumbled and gripped his desk for support.
The black fuzz was growing stronger.
He was out of time.
“Dash, get him to the nurse’s office, please.”
“You got it.”
Danny felt a strong grip around his torso, and he was guided out of the room. The door shut behind them, and with it, the waves of curiosity and concern from his classmates dissipated into the air.
Just in time.
“I can’t make it to the nurse,” Danny said, squeezing his eyes shut.
“What’s happening? Are you gonna puke or something?”
“I don’t—I don’t know.”
Dash swore under his breath and dragged him across the hall, pushing open a door and shoving Danny onto a cold, tiled floor.
“If you’re gonna puke, do it in the toilet, Fenton.”
“I’m not.”
His hands had finally begun to shake. The world around him spun, and the only thing he could feel was the slowly rising burn of the patterns on his arm, chest, neck, stomach, sides, leg, foot.
“Then what’s wrong?”
Danny opened his eyes, but he couldn’t see. The fuzz had taken over the last of his mind, and everything was dark.
I’m dying.
Danny could hear it. The sounds of his shoes on the metal floor, the murmurs from Sam and Tucker behind him, the wires under his feet.
He tripped, reaching out blindly. His hand hit the wall, and his palm pressed down on something.
Beep.
He whirled around.
Sam and Tucker stared at him, faces wide with horror.
“Danny!”
His world was white and green, acid burning and fire licking his limbs, his blood. Every cell in his body tore open, spilling out, disfiguring and reconfiguring itself over again. Green acid and lime spilled into his body, eating away at his humanity like a parasite that couldn’t get enough.
Screaming, too high pitched to be his. And the panic of his friends being caught in this hell overtook him and he needed to protect them, save them. He needed to get out.
And then it stopped.
He woke up, but instead of a metal floor, it was tile. Cold tile. And instead of Sam and Tucker’s faces hovering above him, it was Dash.
Dash, who looked as if he wasn’t sure whether to run or bend down and help him. Dash, who helped him out of the classroom, out of the hallway, out of the prying eyes of the public who would have eaten this story for all its worth. Dash, who for the first time ever, seemed concerned about him.
He brought a hand up to his face, but instead of seeing skin, all he saw was a white glove.
Phantom’s glove.
Danny groaned and closed his eyes.
“No, stay awake.” Dash jabbed his stomach. “Come on, Fenton, stay with me. I’m not a fucking EMT, I can’t do this. Stay awake.”
“I’m not dying, Dash,” Danny mumbled.
Dash was silent, and Danny could feel the uncertainty wafting down from him.
“Just...just give me a sec. I just need to...” Danny hissed, his muscles contracting. “Fuck, that hurts.”
Dash didn’t move.
“Sorry. I wasn’t...I forgot to look at the date.”
“The date?” Dash’s voice was uncharacteristically quiet. “What the fuck does the date have to do with you just...what the hell was that?”
“Nothing. Just a ghost thing.”
“No shit.”
Danny heard Dash move, and he cracked his eyes open to see Dash leaning back against the locker, his head tilted back and eyes staring up into nothing.
“A ghost thing, huh? Do I need to call Manson or something?”
“No. I’m fine.”
“Yeah, sure. Really convincing, you getting fucking electrocuted in the middle of the bathroom by nothing. But you’re fine, it’s just a ghost thing, right?” Dash’s eyes narrowed. “Do you think I’m a fucking idiot, Fenton?”
“I don’t know.” Danny struggled upright into a sitting position. He paused, panting as his muscles burned.
“I know I didn’t figure out that you were Phantom till the rest of this stupid town did, but I’m not a moron. I always knew you were up to something. Just didn’t care what. And then it turns out that you’re Phantom, and I thought it was some dumb prank at first, but it wasn’t. Which, fine, I guess that’s just karma for me. And you know, it figures that the freaking nerd would have the superpowers. Not just any nerd either, the one I hated the most.”
Danny didn’t interrupt him. Maybe he should have, but for some reason, he couldn’t.
Things with Dash hadn’t been good since his reveal, but they hadn’t been bad either. The bullying had stopped of course—not just from Dash, but from the entire football team. And that was a desperate relief, one that Danny hadn’t even realized that he needed until it was handed to him on a silver platter.
But they weren’t friends. They would probably never be friends. Danny would never forgive Dash, and the jock knew this. As bullheaded as Dash was, even Danny knew that the unsaid feelings were mutual.
Even if Kwan tried to befriend him after the reveal, Dash had always stayed away.
“You know I wondered for the longest time if it was me. If something I did sent you over the edge. If I killed you, either by my hands or yours. I figured…that was the only explanation for why you died so young. It had to be me.”
Danny froze.
“But it wasn’t me, was it?”
Dash finally looked at him, and Danny’s breath caught in his throat.
Was that what Dash thought? This entire time?
“No.” Danny’s voice was dry. “It wasn’t.”
“It had to do with whatever that light show was.”
His lips hardly moved. “Yes.”
The effect was immediate. Dash breathed out, his shoulders sinking, his forehead falling into his hands. “Fuck,” he said, his words gasping for air. “ Fuck.”
And just like that, the spell that had taken over Danny vanished too, and a flash of anger overtook him. Because did Dash think the entire world revolved around him? Was he so narcissistic that he seriously thought Danny didn’t have a life outside of his torment at school? Outside of Dash’s relentless asshole actions?
He should have stayed quiet. He should have let Dash suffer a little longer, wondering if he was the reason for Danny’s demise.
But he was Phantom, and Phantom didn’t let people stew in their own misery. Phantom saved people, he protected them.
Sometimes, Danny really hated this part about himself.
He stood, transformed back, and made for the exit, not waiting for Dash to follow. Gripping the door handle, he paused, and without so much as glancing back, he said, “I would never end myself over you. Don’t ever think you’re special enough for that.”
Yanking on the door, Danny left Dash on the floor alone.
[amazing art by @hauntedbygh0stfish on Tumblr]