Kindred

Consequence

Danny was floating, lost in the sea of abyss. It was a familiar feeling. He felt as if his bone was exposed to the mercy of nature. It hurt. There was nothing to cover his cold body. Nothing to shelter him. It hurt whenever he was hit and his body took damage. This was the fate of those without graves, without a tomb to rest properly in.

He once asked Vlad if he felt like his bones were exposed during a slow night.

The man was confused by the question before shooting him in the face.

That was the first clue he discovered on how different he was compared to Vlad. Then he met other ghosts that understood and learned what it meant to have no grave to rest his dead body in. On some nights, when he was patrolling, he will find these ghosts wandering about restlessly. One thing that caused the police of Amity Park to side with him against the GIW was the two times he brought their attention to the corpses of missing people. Then there was the case of someone who had drowned but no one could find them in Lake Eerie.

That was why they listened to him when he addressed them. The saddest part of being a ghost like him was the senses he developed when he sensed a corpse in a shallow grave. He felt such them empathy with them that he would cry over their weathered bones. Feeling as if it was him, exposed and forgotten.

But suddenly, that feeling changed.

He felt as though his fragile bones had been found, gently carried and arranged to resemble a person on something soft and cool. Like freshly fallen snow. Then, he felt as if finally, finally he was buried with all the dignity that a corpse deserved. The howling abyss was quietened. His painfully exposed bones were covered by snow. And finally, blissfully he was entombed. Cradled in precious ice.

Peace...at last...

Danny opened his eyes, feeling more refreshed than he had ever felt since the day he halfway died and halfway returned. He looked to see Elsa looking at him, crystalline tears falling like diamonds from her ocean eyes. He could not help but smile at the sight of her.

A home. She gave him a home, a grave to return to.

Quiet and safe.

She will not be like the prison that Amity Park would have become had he taken it as his lair. She will not be lost to him even after a thousand years had passed. As eternal as the frozen north, she was the perfect home for him to haunt. He will not be grounded to a place as he will be free to roam. But he will not be allowed to forget his root. He will not lose himself like He did. It was because of Him that Danny feared anchoring himself to his family. They were so easily lost to him. Whether by tragedy or by time, he will lose them.

He will not lose Elsa, though.

She will be like him.

Eternal.

He closed his eyes, "I'm...home..."

~

Jazz looked at Frostbite, "You need to explain things to me. What just happened? Why did...why did Elsa say all that? Why did Danny chose to...make her his home?"

Frostbite looked at her, "Did you know that your brother did not have a grave to rest in?"

Jazz paled, "Of course I know that. But...there's no body to bury! He's practically using it!"

Frostbite shook his head, "There is nothing more painful and sadder than a dead without funeral," He hummed, "From the few that we managed to interview, they will often mentioned the pain of having their bones exposed to the weather. Even worse when it breaks due to having no proper protection from the world around them," He sighed, "I can only imagine the constant pain the Great One must have been enduring. Of course, he have no body to bury as he is using it. Not to mention, the matter of the funeral,"