The Phantom Anomaly

Chapter Fourteen

"Soon, Phantom. I am coming for your world. Soon, I will kill you and everything you love, and take my rightful place as Ghost King."

Danny awakens with a gasp. Screams echo in his mind, even as the nightmare fades into reality.

His eyes dart around the room, not recognizing it for a moment. The bed is large, and the sheets are soft.

Oh.

He's in the Phantom Safehold.

Danny phases through the bed, slowly floating over to a mirror in the wall. As he fixes his dark hair, he struggles to let his mind wake up.

He has been sleeping less and less over the past two weeks. He hasn't told Sam and Tucker yet - he doesn't want to worry them. It's just another side effect of becoming less human and more...dead. Apparently, "going to your rest" actually means getting no rest at all.

Now, each time Danny wakes up, he finds it more and more difficult to remember the previous day, or to form a full thought. It may be easier to just not sleep....

"I spent the evening here in the GZ." Danny remembers. "I started organizing the new government, and assigned jobs to those who were willing to help."

He had also made an official decree to all of the residents of his realm: The Phantom Safehold is open, should anyone need a safe place to stay.

Now, he floats over to the door leading to the human realm. After checking that he is in his mostly-human form, he walks through into his other bedroom.

The house is quiet. Danny pauses, glancing at the digital clock on his nightstand. 7:06 AM. With a frown, Danny grabs a pair of worn jeans from his bed and phases into them. Chucking off his white t-shirt, he reaches for a black shirt lying on the ground. After a quick sniff test, he deems it good enough to wear. After throwing on his shoes, and running a hand through his hair, he glances at the clock again. 7:10 AM.

Danny's frown deepens.

When Maddie and Jack Fenton had returned the previous week, they arrived in a flurry of excitement. After hugging him and dropping off their bags, they disappeared down the stairs to the lab. Since then, he had only seen them come upstairs a few times for food and water.

They didn't even notice that he spent just as little time in the house. Most of his time outside of school was spent in the Ghost Zone.

They were in the lab nearly 24/7. The few times that Danny has been in the house past midnight, he could still hear the distant explosions, excited chatter, and power tools. His "parents" were always hard at work when he got up in the morning, and they were fully immersed by the time he left for school. No goodbyes needed.

So what was wrong?

Danny opens his door and peeked out. Still no noise. Over the railing, he can see that the door to the basement is open. Weird.

He creeps down the hallway and peeks his head into his parents' room. They aren't there. Turning around, he calls out, "Mom? Dad?" The words feel false in his mouth, and he hates to say them, but the growing dread in his stomach outweighs any parental discomfort.

There is no answer. Turning invisible, he phases through to the basement.

He finds them sprawled out on the ground. With a gasp, he drops his invisibility and races over to put a finger to Maddie's neck. After finding a pulse, he does the same to Jack. He sits back with a frown. They are alive, but unconscious. He glances around the room.

The portal is open, but a quick visual check tells him that it is operating normally. It looks like his parents had made some modifications to the Specter Speeder. He makes a mental note to check on that later. The tables are filled with various weapons, mechanical parts, and vials of colorful liquid. He makes another note to survey their new inventions later.