Gravitational Phantoms: After the Storm

Chapter Two: Crystal Eyes

Mentions of suicidal tendencies/thoughts in this chapter. Just thought that I would give you guys a bit of a heads up.

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Danny tossed and turned in his bed, mind plagued with images of bubbling, blistering skin beneath his hands and burning burning burning. Something painful clenched in his stomach, and suddenly Danny shot upright and awake with his chest heaving as he fought for breath.

He scrambled down the hall and into the bathroom as fast as he could, before losing the contents of his stomach in the toliet. Danny hiccupped painfully as nausea rolled over him.

The ghost boy curled up in a tight ball on the dirty tile. It's all my fault, he thought miserably. I'm the one who let Bill into my body. I'm just a freak of nature that doesn't deserve to live.

As that thought occured to him, he got a new idea. Maybe... maybe he could just end it. That would put people out of danger from him. Danny shivered. I'm hazardous to be around. So it makes sense that I shouldn't be near people.

Danny sat up straight on his knees. He reached up into the cabinet above the sink, then into one of the drawers beneath it; there might be something in there that he could use. As he was rooting through one of them, something shiny and grey-handled fell out of it.

A pair of scissors, the probably the same ones that Mabel, Dipper, and Wendy had used to cut his bandages. Danny quickly picked them up and studied them. Would these work?

As he held them against his skin, Danny suddenly realized what he was doing. The Halfa dropped the blades with a clattering sound. I can't, he realized. If I die, I might become a full ghost. And then I might turn into Dan. I can't do that to the world. But... I want to. So badly. Does that make me a bad person?

Danny started to hyperventilate. I'm trapped. I can't die, or Dan might happen. I shouldn't live, because I'm a danger to everyone that meets me. I could hurt someone no matter what I do, so I'm stuck in limbo. Oh god, there's no way for me to get out.

Footsteps sounded up to the door of the bathroom. Danny flinched away from them, all of his thoughts going back to I'm trapped I'm trapped I can't escape please I don't want to hurt people I don't want anyone to hurt me please please no help me.

Then the person walking revealed themselves to the ghost boy.

"Danny? What's going on?" Ford stood in the doorway. He reached out and flicked on the light.

Danny screwed up his eyes and folded up into a ball. The ghost boy felt tears trickling down his face. He let out a small whimper. "Go away."

"Danny, look at me." Ford crouched down and set a hand on Danny's back. The other one reached down and lifted the teenager's chin.

Danny's lip trembled, his eyes filled with moisture. They were flickering from blue to green, the pupils swirling with energy.

Ford crouched down. "What are you doing in here?"

"Nightmare..." Danny murmured. He didn't mention the scissors.

"Then what are these doing out of their drawer?" The man picked up the scissors.

Danny avoided making eye contact as Ford set them back into their spot. His body was trembling.

Ford sat down across from him. "What was the nightmare about?"

Danny hesitated. Seeing the look on the Halfa's face, Ford nodded encouragingly. "It's okay."

"I-I saw S-Stan die again. But it wasn't B-Bill this time. It was me, I was the one who killed him. Because I'm a monster, a freak, a creature that doesn't feel pain or emotions. I don't even deserve to live with what I've done, what I could do." Danny's voice started to take on a monotone quality as he repeated what the agents and his parents had drilled into his head. "I should just do the world a favor and die, because-"

"Danny," Ford interrupted. "Do you really believe all of that?"

The teenager nodded, then shook his head, then nodded again before shrugging. "I-yes. No. I don't know."

"Well, I don't. It was all the fault of that vile creature, and the inhuman monsters that you called parents." He said it with such conviction that Danny almost believed him. But the doubts were still there.

"But it's all my fault that Bill possessed me. I made the deal! I was the one who let myself get manipulated like that!" Danny protested, eyes glowing a bright neon green in anguish. They glimmered with unshed salty tears.

"You're not the only one that Bill has ever tricked into being possessed," Ford said softly.

Catching the implication behind the words, Danny fell silent. They stayed quiet for a little while longer, before Danny did something that shocked both of them to different degrees.

The ghost boy moved away from the wall slightly and instead hesitantly curled up against Ford's side.

The man stiffened in surprise for a moment as his eyes widened, stunned that the ghost boy would do such a thing. Especially after had just had a nightmare. He felt the Halfa tense in fear and anxiety, and forced himself to relax. Danny was still skittish, particularly when he did something that he considered "risky" in terms of trusting or having physical contact with people.

Carefully he shifted his position. Danny tensed, all of the blows, brands, burns, beatings, dissection, and whips coming back into his mind. But Ford was just moving into a slightly more comfortable position. Slowly, Danny started to fall back to sleep.

And this time, it was blissfully free of nightmares.

He didn't remember it in the morning, but Ford put him back in the bed that Wendy had built (in the room that used to house the cursed wax figure exhibit) once the Halfa fell asleep.