Nightmare - ch 03

NM 03

"Hello...? Oh, hi, Tuck... Um... could... could you hang on for a minute?"

FWAM!!!

"...Here, lemme call you back, okay? I'm kinda busy."

Danny barely got the phone back in his pocket before he was slammed against a brick wall. Shaking his head to clear his vision, he looked up to see the ghost's massive left paw coming down on him. Forcing his body intangible, he threw himself backwards through the wall, narrowly missing the long, razor-sharp claws.

The giant ghost armadillo backed up, looking around the alley for its target. The nostrils on the end of its long probing snout flared as it tried to detect Danny's ghost energy signature. It wasn't fast enough to follow him coming back up out of the asphalt; Danny body-slammed it from underneath, knocking it back, causing it to fall over on its back with a loud CRASH.

Danny darted away and landed further down the alley, watching the ghost armadillo struggle to right itself, its large shell preventing it from rolling back over onto its feet. He turned his attention away from the ghost, looking for the Fentonthermos he had dropped earlier when the ghost had swatted it out of his grasp. He finally spotted it laying close to an adjoining street, on the other side of the ghost.

Danny took off flying over the ghost, missing the claws as they came up at him, then swooped down the other side and snatched up the Thermos, slowing down and landing in the street. He was thankful that this ghost had chose one of the few deserted back-streets of the city to surface from the Ghost Zone; it was a lot less work for him to capture it without having to defend local residents from its attacks. He popped off the white plastic lid of the Thermos, turning around to face the ghost.

Instinctively he dashed backwards, evading the armadillo ghost's curled-up body as it came thundering toward him in an all-out rolling attack. He had to leap to the side to escape its path, looking back to see it slam into the side of a building. It quickly rebounded, detecting his presence; it rolled sideways toward him, scraping the side of another building and tearing apart an awning that was in its way.

Danny soon realized that brick was no longer going to stop it, and just evading its attacks only led to property damage. He had to stop running; he had to do something now.

He knelt down in the street, throwing up his ecto-shield as close in radius and as thick as he could make it. He felt a jarring shock as the ghost collided with him, attempting to roll over and crush him. He bore down against the ground, trying to resist the ghost's immense weight as he prepared the Thermos for capture.

The ghost soon realized that just pressing against Danny's shield wasn't doing much; it had to get up enough momentum to get enough force in order to run him over. Danny felt the pressure lift as the ghost rolled back, getting ready to come at him at a higher speed. Watching the ghost roll away, he let the shield's energy dissipate, standing up. He pressed his thumb down on the button to charge the Thermos, hearing the inner mechanism whine.

The ground began to shake beneath him; he looked up to see the armadillo ghost coming toward him at top speed, still curled up in an enormous ball. He leapt into the air and swung the open Thermos in the direction of the ghost, letting go of the charge button.

The resulting blast of ecto-containment energy knocked him back hard. Slamming into the side of a parked car, he struggled to keep the Thermos aimed away from him as it continued to process the ghost armadillo's energy. Broken glass from the car window rained down on him, some of it ending up getting trapped between him and the side of the car, cutting into his uniform. He tried not to cry out as he felt it press against his flesh.

After what seemed like an eternity the Thermos finally whined down, having successfully captured and contained the giant ghost. Danny fell down against the pavement, falling away from the car, landing on his side. He lay there for a while, catching his breath. After a moment he began to feel his body aching from all the exertion.

He sincerely hoped that was all the ghost hunting he was going to have to do for the night...

Sitting back up, he looked around, noting all the damage the ghost had caused. A while later, he was able to get back up onto his feet. Rubbing the back of his head with one hand, he thought about heading back home, crawling back into his nice warm bed...

As his other hand slid down his side, he felt the phone in his pocket.

"Aw, jeez."

Remembering that he did promise Tuck that he would call him back, he chose to follow up on his word.

"Yeah, Tuck?"

"Oh, hi... Yeah, um... I'm kinda worried. Sam told me that she'd call me as soon as she got out of her study group, and... It's past midnight, and she hasn't called yet. She isn't answering my calls, either. I don't mean to trouble you or anything, but... Do you think you could check up on her? That is, if you're not too busy, you know..."

"Yeah, yeah. I'm... kinda through for the night. I'll go see how she's doing before I turn in."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sparsely-lit streets and dark windows soon gave way to the brighter,
more plentiful lights of the commercial district as Danny Phantom soared
silently over Amity Park. Flying out over the more densely-populated
area of the city, he went invisible so as not to attract attention to
himself. He stayed below the cloud cover, keeping an eye out for his
destination, his nighttime vision being much sharper in ghost mode.
Down near the old museums and art galleries was the Amity Park City
Library. Danny turned in the air and made a downward plunge toward the
ancient building, arcing his spine backwards slightly to level out his
descent, slowing down, swinging his feet out in front of him and coming
to a gentle landing on the roof. Except for his soft breathing, he made
no sound.

He walked to the edge of the roof, looking down at the main entrance.
Most of the building's lights had been turned off, denoting that the
library was shutting down and closing for the night. Sam should have
left by now. Perhaps her cell phone battery had only gone dead, and she
just couldn't call Tuck, nor receive his calls... But then it wouldn't
have rung on Tuck's end when he went to call her, either. She could
have also just lost her phone, but then she would have used a pay phone
to call him. For the moment, he had to assume that Sam was in some kind
of trouble.

He took off from the roof, hovering over the building. Allowing his
molecular structure to spread apart slightly, he dove down into the
roof, phasing through it and ending up inside the library's storage
attic, which was completely dark and full of dust-covered objects. The
building had at least three floors that had public access. He continued
down through the attic floor, descending into the third floor, which
consisted of only a few bookshelves lined up in rows, the majority of
the room taken up by tables and chairs. Large windows looked down upon
the busy street.

Danny began to wish that he had asked Sam which part of the library she
was going to be meeting her study group in. The second floor of the
library was dark and uninhabited, just like the third floor, although
it was much more crowded with bookcases. He kept going straight down,
checking to see if the library had a basement. Finding nothing but the
building's steel and concrete foundation, he flew back up into the
first floor, regaining tangibility and landing on his feet.
The main floor of the library was, like the others, very quiet and
still, seemingly deserted. He looked around in the darkness, perking
his ears for any sound. Somewhere near the old periodicals section, a
tiny, nondescript spider was working diligently on her web. Danny tried
to tune her out, instead listening for the sound of breathing, a human
heartbeat.

There... A dull, slow, soft pulsing. He could feel it through his
boots. Whoever that was still in here after closing hours must be
laying on the floor. He could not hear breathing; the person must be in
a separate room, behind a wall. He walked toward the wall near the
front desk, following it around, listening for the heartbeat. He stayed
close to the wall as he walked on, heading back toward what looked to
be an old reference section. The residue left behind by human energy
was very scarce here; apparently this section of the library was seldom
used. He looked up at the titles that lined the shelves. Most of the
books had been re-bound along their spines, with labels attached that
put their publishing dates back before the 19th century. Certainly not
anything he would be able to use for reference for any of his school
research projects, which would have called for much more recent
information.

He was caught off guard when his path crossed over a wide trail of
living energy; he looked down, almost able to see the footprints
standing out against the old, untrampled carpet. A number of human
individuals had passed through here not too long ago, both coming and
going. The prints that led in one direction were closer together,
however, the prints leading in the opposite direction were spaced
further apart--as though whoever came through here had been running. He
knelt down, checking the energy signatures further. In the trail of
walking steps, there were five different signatures; in the running
trail, there were only four. Danny looked up, following the walking
trail with his eyes. It led toward the far wall, in which was set a
door. The door was designed so that when closed, it lay flush with the
wall. Apparently it led into a storage room that wasn't meant to be
used by the public.

He took off, flying silently toward the door in the far wall. Halfway
there, he suddenly felt a sharp drop in his body temperature; he fell
to his knees, his breath nearly catching in his throat. When he finally
exhaled, his breath was a bright glowing blue. The lucid vapor traveled
on as though by its own accord, leading straight to the door,
disappearing into it.

Fear flashing through his green eyes, Danny lifted off and tore through
the air like a missle, phasing through the door and finding himself
inside a small, dark room, in the middle of which stood a table and
chairs, although a couple of the chairs had been turned on their sides.
The air in the room was extremely frigid, as though the air conditioner
had been left on by accident. The light of his aura was the only
illumination in the room. He felt a strong presence of ghost energy
below him; landing on the table, he looked down at the floor.

There, laying sprawled on her back with her eyes closed and mouth open,
clutching her cell phone in one hand, was Sam.

Danny was at her side in an instant. He knelt down beside her, picking
up her empty hand and pressing his thumb against her wrist. Her pulse
was slow, although evenly spaced. He got down on his hands and knees,
putting an ear to her chest; her breathing was very slow and quiet. It
was like she had fallen into a deep sleep.

He got back up on his knees, reaching over with one hand to feel her
eyelids, checking to see if she had gone into REM stage yet. As his
hand touched her head, he felt a second claw of ice grab at his chest;
another stream of glowing smoke left his mouth, this time descending
upon Sam's face, circling her head like a phosphorescent blue cloud.

"Sam..."

Whatever ghost that had entered her body wouldn't have allowed her to
fall asleep; ghosts never slept. This ghost had not possessed her to
control her body. Exactly why it had possessed her, though, Danny had
absolutely no idea.

There was only one way for him to find out.

He leaned back on his knees, standing up. He allowed his spectral
energy to settle into a more calmed state before he spread his
molecules again, going intangible. Lifting off the ground, letting his
lower body dissipate into a trail of freely-flowing spectral matter, he
performed an arc in the air, sliding down through Sam's fleshy outer
layer, peacefully blanketing her inner spirit in shadow. He extended
his arms and legs, allowing his energy to reconfigure itself to align
with that of Sam's.

Once he felt he had properly overshadowed her, he tried opening his
eyes. He saw nothing but pitch blackness.

Suddenly, he felt something grasp him around the middle, like a string
of rope winding itself around him, tugging downward. He could not move
his arms to try and pull it away; soon afterwards he felt other ropes,
tying themselves around his wrists and ankles. They started to pull
down on him as well. He tried curling into a ball, pulling his limbs
together, but the force of the tugging was too strong. Finally, he felt
a sixth rope pulling on his neck, threatening to strangle him. He let
up resisting it for a moment in order to breathe. As though sensing his
weakness, the rope around his middle gave a sudden hard jerk, yanking
his entire body downwards, dragging him down into some kind of
netherworldly abyss in which no light reached him.

It didn't feel like he was being removed from Sam; instead, it was like
his control of her was simply ripped away...

Danny felt like he was falling, the cold air rushing past him at increasing speeds. He shut his eyes tightly, partly because there was nothing to see in the blackness, partly to brace for some kind of eventual impact. He could only tell by the direction in which the wind was blasting him that he was heading downward. He no longer felt the ropes around him; it was like they had melted away. Aside from the chilling sensation of the air brushing sharply against his body, he felt nothing else...

SPLAKK!!!

He didn't feel the freezing liquid entering his lungs until it was almost too late. He jerked back his head, feeling an intense stinging pain all along the front part of his body, from his face down to his thighs, all over his chest and stomach; righting himself, he realized that he had just performed one of the most spectacular belly-flops ever into what appeared to be an ocean of black water. Coughing up whatever liquid he had almost inhaled, he was able to catch his breath, which had been knocked out of him all at once when he made contact with the water's surface.

Once he got his breath back, for the most part, he brushed his wet hair from his face, looking around. Blinking to try and clear the glaring spots from his vision, he thought he saw a line of dim light off in the distance. He shut his eyes and shook his head, feeling a headache coming on. Opening his eyes again he was pretty sure that he was looking at a distant horizon. Above him and all around, the sky was completely overcast. As his vision cleared, he was able to distinguish more light; off in the distance, he saw a raise in the water's surface, with brighter lights shining from it. Whether it was something on the shoreline, an island, or a boat, he couldn't tell.

Danny put a hand to his temple, trying to fight off the dull migraine which was progressively growing stronger. Opening his eyes a third time, he noticed another raise in the water, this one much larger than the one before, but with no light coming off it. He blinked, trying to focus on it. As he stared at it, however, it seemed to disappear into the water. Feeling tired, he looked away, trying to find the lights he had spotted before, far off into the distance.

Suddenly he felt something moving beneath him, shifting the water aside, pushing him along with it. It felt something like a wave passing under him, and he recalled the sensations he experienced in the town water park's wave machine back when he was a kid, the rolling, ebbing, and flowing of the water around him as it was forced into forming large waves. Although he saw no wave form in the distance, nor did he feel the water move under him the same way again, heralding a second wave. He looked all around him, wondering how close he was to the shoreline.

He was nearly knocked upside-down in the water by a second tidal roll, this one at least a thousand times stronger than the one before, threatening to pull him under on the backflow. Getting his head back up above water, he immediately saw what it was that had caused it.

Towering above him in the water was a gargantuan creature, something akin to an alien anglerfish with a thick neck and a massive body. Its entire body, except for its eyes, was as dark as the water surrounding it; the dim light from above reflected off its slippery black skin. It blinked as it looked down on him, dirty gray film sliding over its milky white eyes. Having identified him, it spread open its huge jaws, revealing two sets of long, thin, pointed white teeth.

Seeing the dark cavern that was the interior of the monster's mouth, Danny finally found his voice, and let out a high-pitched scream as he turned and paddled as fast as he could in the opposite direction. His attempt at escape, however, was in vain; submerging its lower jaw in the water, the monster created a depression in the surface that ended up pulling Danny back toward it, the water rushing into its mouth.

Danny found himself getting dragged down, the tide carrying him straight toward the long teeth that resembled giant needles. He shot out his hands, grabbing hold of one of the teeth as the rest of his body was dragged on by the current toward the back of the mouth. He tried to hold on, but the tooth enamel was too smooth, and his fingers couldn't maintain a grip. The monster lifted his jaw all of a sudden, raising its head, then slammed it down against the water. The resulting shock tore Danny's fingers from their hold on the tooth, and he landed on the monster's tongue, up to his neck in the black water.

He looked up, seeing the jaws spreading again, and saw yet another wave coming toward him. However, he was too slow to react. The gushing fluid struck him full-on and carried him to the back of the mouth. His body completely submerged, he turned around to see something else coming at him, some kind of fleshy extension at the roof of the creature's throat. He recognized it, but couldn't remember what it was called; nevertheless, he kicked out with his legs, attempting to change direction and bring himself on a straight course toward the protrusion, reaching out and then wrapping his arms around it upon contact. Feeling numerous pores in the flesh, he dug his fingers into them, holding on.

After a short while he felt the waters start to subside, draining back out through the teeth. He ended up dangling from the creature's uvula, no water around to support him. He swung his legs up, wrapping them around it the best he could, fearing what may happen if he let go.

It was then that the monster decided to dive underwater. Closing its mouth, shutting out all light, it turned its head downwards and submerged itself, diving down toward the lightless depths of the ocean, multitudes of bubbles escaping from the edges of its jaws as the water flowed back in through its teeth to replace the air in its mouth.

Just as soon as Danny felt his uniform starting to dry, he saw his surroundings thrown into darkness, then heard the liquid splashing and gurgling beneath him. Soon he felt it lapping against his back, sending a shiver up his spine. Pulling himself tighter around the fleshy stalactite, he noticed how fast the water was rising around him, creeping up to his neck and shoulders within a matter of seconds. He leaned back slightly, trying to keep his head above the water, but it was rapidly coming up to cover his face; he was able to suck in one last breath before it finally did. Shutting his eyes tight, he clamped himself back against the surface to which he clung.

He felt the cold all around him, starting to slowly seep into his skin. There was no other sound except for the bubbles leaving the creature's mouth; soon, even that had ceased, and everything fell silent. After a short while, Danny began to feel his heartbeat throbbing in his chest. The building pressure of the water around him made his ears start to ache. Gritting his teeth against the pain, he parted his lips for a moment, allowing air to escape from his mouth. Letting go with one hand he clapped it over his mouth, contracting his body tighter in his hold on the creature's throat, hearing the bubbles as they floated away, the sound getting fainter, then fading out completely.

It wasn't long until his lungs began to feel like they would burst. He held on for as long as he could, hoping that the creature would turn and swim upwards, that something would happen to make it want to return to the surface... But his strength was starting to fade, and with it, so was his resolve.

His fingers began to lose their hold. He could no longer keep his feet locked together. As his last shreds of stamina slipped away, he began to lose feeling all over his body... He could barely feel his jaws parting, the pressure in his lungs gently alleviated... His eyelids slid apart... The dull gray-green eyes saw nothing.

He thought he felt a slight tug drawing him backwards, but that could have just been his imagination...

A bright light suddenly exploded somewhere in the back of his head. Feeling rapidly returned to his limbs, which then responded with a blaring pain, although not as obvious as the stabbing sensation in his chest, which signaled the presence of water in his lungs. He quickly threw himself to the side, finding himself laying on a mostly dry surface, which was covered with particles that clung to his wet uniform, skin, and hair. Finding his center of gravity, he got up on his hands and knees, forcing out the liquid that obstructed his breathing, drawing in air to replace it in loud gasps. The temporary impulse of strength suddenly left his arms, and he was down on his elbows in an instant, coughing hard, still wheezing for breath. He could feel his heart pounding in his ears.

After what seemed like an eternity, he finally fell back over on one side, completely exhausted. His entire body ached like mad. Gradually he became aware that the sun was shining down on him, warming his skin. The gritty surface upon which he lay, he realized, was sand; he was laying on some kind of beach. He opened his eyes a bit, nearly blinded by the bright sunlight. He was able to tell, at the very least, that it was midday; the sky above was a clear crystal blue, with the sunlight streaming down from directly overhead.

He felt his weight shifting to the side; he allowed himself to fall over onto his back, his arm crossing his chest. He shut his eyes as the light hit them straight-on. He tried to move his arm to cover his face with his hand, or at least turn his head away, but he was tired, oh so tired...

He suddenly noticed a shadow fall over his upper body, blocking the light from assaulting his eyes. Waiting for the spots to clear, he opened his eyes, seeing a dark shape hanging over him. He couldn't make out what it was.

"...Danny?"

The voice sounded familiar...

"...Are you okay?"

He kept staring at the dark figure, trying to make out what it was, but the headache was preventing him from thinking clearly... Before he could bring it into focus, his eyes slid closed, and he slipped almost obligingly into unconsciousness.