Phantom Sight

Electric

The clacking of tools and occasional grunts were the only sounds in the lab. Scrunched faces in concentration as wired were hooked up and bolts tightened. The final checks on a years long project.

Danny laid the wrench down.

"What next, dad?"

Jack looked up dirt smudges on his face from wiping away sweat with greasy hands.

"We gotta turn it on."

Danny nodded. It was hard to see his dad in this state. It had been years since her passing, but he was obsessed with the notion that he could bring her back.

The portal wasn't something Danny really believed in. At fourteen, he was watching his father fall apart, and he had found a way to keep his fathers mind busy.

The portal stood as an empty shell. Danny felt nervous. He knew it would never work, and he was scared to know what his fathers reaction would be.

Jazz had already emancipated herself. She couldn't take it, watching her father be like this. She was studying to become a psychiatrist, and she said Danny was enabling Jack. It frustrated him.

Danny knew she hadn't meant it to sound like he wasn't doing this right, but dammit! He shouldn't have to!

"Turn it on now?" He asked.

Jack picked up the cords, "I'm getting her  back," he muttered.
Danny watched as he shoved the cords together and saw a flash of hope cross Jacks face.

1,2,3,4,5...10 seconds passed. Then, ten more in heavy silence.

"It didn't work," Jack said roughly, his voice grated and hoarse.

Danny reached a hand out to his dad, "dad, I'm...I'm sorry it didn't work."

Jack put his hands on his face, "I need to go -"

"Fudge."

Jack turned, "What?"

"I made you some fudge. It's in the fridge upstairs."

"Thank you."

Jack picked the wrench from off the floor and put it on one of the work-benches before turning to go up the stairs to the kitchen.

"You're welcome," Danny whispered.

He turned to look at the portal. Something caught his eye. A lit up button.

Danny grabbed a spare suit and climbed in to get a closer look. A panel that was bent up at the corner caught the soles of the suit.

Danny tripped, slamming against the side of the portal in his fall. A loud whirring sound followed, and the portal lit up in a flash of green. Danny couldn't see anything, and then there was a flashing white pain striking his nerves, awakening his cells.

It felt like he was made of dry ice. Danny screamed, his larynx sputtering out, muting his scream.

Then it stopped. Dannys body felt numb as he crawled out of the portal.

Thundering footsteps down the lab stairs and then a shout, "DANNY!!"

Jack cradled his son in his arms, "I'm so sorry, Danny. Thank you. I'm sorry. Sorry."

Jack carried his son outside right as the paramedics got there. They badgered him for moving Danny, but he just kept repeating sorry.

Danny looked at his arm braces that he used to help him walk.

It had been a wheelchair at first, then the braces. This was as far as his treatment could go. Like his body had hit a block.

He was stuck with those braces.

Then there were the other problems. It started the night after he was discharged  from the hospital.

There were flashes of green and white. Someone was screaming, but the scene was hazy. Then he saw his fathers face.

Dannys eyes snapped open. He was sweating and... cold? Dannys hands searched for his blanket to pull onto himself. No blanket, no pillow, no... mattress.

Danny bolted upright, looking around his dimly lit room widly. His head hit the ceiling with a thunk.

"Ow, what the fuck?" He shispered looking up to see what he hit. The realization hit in, and he looked down. His bed was more than a foot away from him.

Danny almost yelled out. The shock made him lose control, and he fell from his levitating state. His bed made a cracking sound and shifted, half of it falling to the floor.

"Great broke the bed, now what?" Danny muttered. He rubbed his head on the spot that was still sore from hitting the ceiling. A faint green glow caught his eye.

Twenty minutes later, Danny was still staring at his reflection. His hair was white, his eyes were glowing and green, and he was wearing that baggy suit from the lab, the one he had to keep in place with a belt and chunky black boots.

"Am I dead?"

Danny slapped himself, that was stupid. But still, he couldn't let his dad see him like this.

"Urgh... Danny?" Jack groaned from the hallway, "you in there?"

Dannys chest starting humming, "shit, shit, shit." Danny squeezed his eyes shut and breathed.

"Calm down," he told himself. Deep, weighted breaths. Danny opened his eyes, the glow was gone.

All the air came out to once as he said, "Oh thank all that is surgery cereal".

Danny opened the door, "all yours dad."

Jack shuffled into the bathroom without a word and Danny went back to his room.

He grabbed an unused notebook and starting jotting down what he knew.

"My "transformation" must've been set on from the accident with my dad's ghost portal - THE PORTAL!!"

He jumped up, falling immediately. How did he forget he needed braces? Tossing the notebook aside, he swung his braces and slid down the banaster on the stairs. He came to the basement lab door, and he stopped. His body was shaking. Was he scared?

Danny opened the door and walked down carefully. A familiar green glow omitted what he suspected. The portal worked. It stared at him like a green lake, giant and somehow more scary than it would've been as a failure.

Danny reached out and gently, with the tips of his fingers, he touched the portal. It didn't have a negative effect on him. He expected a burn or a tingly feeling, but it felt like thick air. A denser version of his normal atmosphere.

After that, Danny started experimenting with the portal, putting cameras in it, which always broke for some reason. His research came to a halt when creatures started showing up.

He fought these monsters, and after stealing some new inventions of his fathers, he advanced. He figured out how to switch between geek and freak when he needed to.

Danny waited for his father to be done with the lab for the day before beginning his own research. This was his day, everyday.