A DANNY PHANTOM BIG BANG

Jack sighed as slick green ectoplasm coated his hands.

“Again, Danny?” He grumbled, deftly running the needle and thread through the injury on his son’s upper right bicep.

“Blame Skulker!” Danny whined, an ice pack of his own creation in his other hand, pressed to the bruise growing on his face.

Jack wanted to scream internally, to beg his son to stop doing all of these stupid fights, to let Jack handle it, Jack was the professional ghost hunter here. But he knew it wouldn’t do anything except encourage Danny to start hiding injuries again and stop coming to his father for help. As noble as it was that one of Danny’s Obsessions was protection, Jack often wished it wasn’t, especially in the past two weeks since the night in the clearing.

Danny had stopped hiding his injuries, hiding how often he left the house in the middle of the night and Jack had been relieved at first. Now, however, stitching up a wound on his son for the tenth time in fourteen days, Jack wanted nothing more than for his son to live a normal life.

But Danny never would lead a normal life. Jack’s own invention had stolen away that ability, embedded the need to protect into Danny’s very DNA as it took his life and gave it back. The only thing that could stop the drive to save people was if Danny got sufficiently distracted by the stars or astronomy, Jack had realized. But that was easier said than done.

So all Jack could do was try to help his son however he could, give him the medical attention he couldn’t get anywhere else.

It had been a month since Jack had watched Danny’s goodbye video and learned his secret, and his whole world had been turned entirely upside down since then. He wouldn’t trade it for anything, though. Danny was talking to him, enjoying spending time with him. And while he still left a lot at night, he woke Jack up before he left. Someone in this world knew what he was doing and where he was.

He decided to change topics. “So are you going to tell them this weekend?” Jack asked.

“Daaad… you know why I haven’t told them.”

“You need to, son. I still don’t understand why you don’t want to.”

“Because! This secret is hard to keep. It’s a burden. I don’t want to bother them.”

“It isn’t a burden for the people who love you to help you, Danny.” Jack said, snipping off the thread after the final stitch.

“It’s different. You’re my dad. You’re like, contractually obligated to love me. Sam and Tuck… we’re just friends.” Danny said, shifting back to human now that the wound was tended to, forming a mirror of ice to check his face, the bruise already rapidly disappearing.

Sometimes Jack wondered if it made him a bad father that he didn’t stop Danny from doing these things, that he was personally tending major injuries at home. Then Jack remembered that denial of an Obsession could shatter Danny’s core and kill him, remembered that the Guys in White would be called if the hospital so much as looked at Danny’s blood samples. He felt a little better as a father then. So long as he didn’t think about why his son was like this.

That portal was a source of a lot of self-doubt, now that he knew.

“You say that, yet you didn’t tell me until much later.” Jack pointed out, pulling the stained gloves off and flexing his bare hands.

“You were shooting me, in my defense.” Danny replied, though his tone was playful. Jack’s stomach twisted. He didn’t say it with anger or blame but Jack didn’t think he’d ever stop feeling bad for shooting Danny so often, even if Danny didn’t seem to hold it against his father.

“And how have Sam and Tucker reacted to Phantom?”

Danny fidgeted, refusing to look Jack in the eye. “They were some of the first in the school to support Inviso-bill.” He admitted.

“Danny… you three have been friends practically since diapers. You thought the worst of me with valid reason. You’re thinking the worst of them despite not having one. What could they do to earn your trust, like I did, if they’re already supportive?”

“It’s just… I’m scared, okay? I’m worried about burdening them or them finding out and being fine and then getting upset and outing me or them thinking I’m a freak or -“

“Stop.” Jack said, grabbing at Danny’s shoulders, careful to avoid jostling the wound on his right arm.

Danny just looked down at the floor, fidgeting with his hands, the bruise almost entirely faded from his face.

“Please, son. What do you do for fun?”

“I play video games!” He protested.

“When was the last time you played one?”

He remained silent.

“When was the last time you didn’t patrol?”

Silence.

“You need to have fun, Danny. I know it’s scary to tell them such a big secret, I know. But please, will you try to talk to them? For me?”

Danny just continued messing with his hands, twisting and pulling anxiously. “How do I even start that conversation? ‘Hey guys sorry I lied but I’m a dead superhero and didn’t trust you enough to tell you’? If I get this wrong…”

Jack tactfully elected to ignore the ‘I’m dead’ part of that comment. “Danny, I can promise you without a doubt, even if you get this wrong, they won’t shout your secret identity from the rooftops, okay? But you can’t just live life doing nothing but homework and saving people.”

“I…I’ll consider it, okay?” Danny finally yielded, still looking at the ground, worry in his tone.

“That’s all I ask, Danno. You deserve to not be alone.”

“Thanks, Dad.”

“I love you, son.” Jack said, ruffling Danny’s black hair with a grin. The action finally pulled a partial smile to Danny’s face as he whacked at Jack’s hands.

Danny’s hair felt so different as Fenton than as Phantom, much more like human hair but still just a little… off. Most of his son felt a little off, now. Jack wondered if Vlad was just as off as Danny was. Jack still hadn’t mentioned to Danny that he’d accidentally outed Vlad as well, still hadn’t confronted his long time friend. Jack would be lying if he said Vlad wasn’t a major reason he was trying to encourage Danny back to his friends. Vlad had suffered for two decades by himself and Jack would not let Danny be lonely like that.

As they separated and Danny headed back to bed - it was one in the morning after all - Jack sighed again as he went upstairs. He hoped Danny would talk to his friends. As much as he was thrilled he could help Danny now, there were things he couldn’t do, and providing an adequate social life was among those things. He needed friends his age, he needed to spend time doing fun things. Things other than patrolling for ghosts and getting stabbed and blown up and…

Jack collapsed to the bed, holding his head in his hands. They had just over two weeks until Maddie returned from the conference and Jack was ashamed to admit he was worried. He loved his wife and had the utmost faith in her… but he also knew how adamantly she pursued ghosts. How she pursued Phantom specifically.

Would she accept Danny? Would she only pretend to? Would Danny end up back on a steel table, under his mother’s scalpel this time? Would she even pretend, if she didn’t accept him, or would she go straight to shooting?

As much as he loved Maddie, he loved his children more. What would they do if she didn’t accept him, didn’t accept that ghosts were so much more than they thought?

Sleep fought him and when he did finally find rest, his wife was the center of his nightmares.

~~~~~~

Tucker quietly picked up his backpack, giving Sam a friendly wave and smile as they split off, headed towards their first classes of the day. He slid into his seat, pulling out a notebook and pen from his backpack as the bell rang.

It was several minutes later when the door opened again and Danny slipped into the room.

“Again, Mr. Fenton?” Mr. Falluca said.

“I have a note from my dad.” Danny said, holding up the crumpled paper.

“Bring it to me.” The teacher said, sighing in irritation. Danny had been running late all year - a trend he’d started at the beginning of the previous school year. Tucker didn’t know why, Danny had never told him or Sam what his deal was, why he disappeared and blew them off constantly. The notes were new, though.

“How often does your family have car troubles?” Mr. Falluca asked, handing the note back to Danny. “This is the third time this week.”

Danny shrugged. “Have you seen the modified RV my family drives?”

Tucker had to bury a snicker, because, yes, he was fully acquainted with the Fenton Family Ghost Assault Vehicle, even before the ghosts had come. As wild as the thing was, he did still have fond memories of going camping in it with Danny and his family, back when life was normal and ghosts were something his best friend’s crazy parents looked for.

Tucker watched as Danny settled into his seat, near the door.

But those memories were from before his best friend had lied to him and cut him off.

Tucker knew Danny had lied last year when he pushed Tucker and Sam away, after months of being inconsistent and lying. Tucker wasn’t oblivious, he saw the longing way Danny looked at the two of them when he thought they couldn’t see him. And, honestly, Tucker missed him too. He knew Sam did as well. The three of them… well, it needed to be the three of them. Danny was a glue that held his and Sam’s opposite personalities together and smoothed their rough edges. It was still just him and Sam, but they didn’t hang out like the three of them used to.

There was a hollow ache in his chest when he thought about Danny, sometimes. It felt like grief, but that couldn’t be right. Danny was still alive, even if he wasn’t as close to Tucker anymore and it wasn’t like he was in love with Danny. So why did his heart hurt if he thought of Danny for too long?

Tucker made himself focus on class, even as he felt Danny’s eyes boring into his back. It had been over a year now, and Danny’s presence still hurt.

He was thoroughly surprised, then, when Danny stopped him as soon as Tucker left the room at the end of class.

“Uh, hey, Tuck.” Danny said, rubbing at the back of his neck awkwardly.

“Hey, Danny. What’s up?” Tucker said, though it did hurt a little bit that Danny felt awkward around him, awkward enough for his nervous habits to kick in.

“Uh. Um. I… can we meet up after school? The three of us?”

“You wanting to talk to us again?” Tucker asked, more anger in his voice than he meant.

Danny flinched and looked down, shuffling his shoes. “I owe you guys an explanation.”

“Yeah. You do.” Sam said, joining the conversation, probably having come for him when he wasn’t at his locker.

Danny took a step back away from them, still not looking at them. “After school, the park down the street? I… I can explain.” The next bit was spoken so softly Tucker barely heard it. “And hope you don’t hate me at the end of it.”

“Fine. Maybe you’ll actually show up.” Sam said, grabbing Tucker and pulling him away, leaving Danny alone in the hallway.

“Do you think he’ll actually be there?” Tucker asked, letting Sam drag him.

“I’d have more faith that the next time the Box Ghost shows up, he has suddenly stopped shouting ‘beware,’” Sam answered, though she released her grip on his arm as they turned the corner and Danny fell out of sight.

“I hope he shows up.” Tucker said, sighing. He missed Danny so much.

“So do I.” Sam whispered, a meaningful glance passing between the two of them. She missed him, too. She missed what their lives used to be. They were outcasts, yes, but they’d had each other, at least. The three of them against the world.

The day passed far too slowly for Tucker’s liking. He couldn’t help but think about the last thing Danny had said. What could he possibly have to tell them that he would worry they’d hate him for it? Had he done something bad? Was that what had happened, Danny had done something, like, illegal or whatever, and that was why he’d pulled away?

Possibilities and theories swirled in Tucker’s head all day, even as he slid next to Sam at lunch. He wasn’t entirely sure where Danny went during lunch, but Tucker almost never saw him in the cafeteria anymore. Then again, even Tucker had noticed how afraid Danny was of ghosts, and they seemed to attack pretty often during lunch, for some inexplicable reason. Danny had probably just started preemptively hiding during lunch.

“You been having trouble paying attention in class today?” Sam asked as he settled beside her.

“You too, huh?” Tucker asked jokingly as he shoveled food into his mouth. He had no idea what, exactly, was in the Lunch Special Surprise, even with his super scent ability when it came to meat. There definitely was meat in the dish, Tucker just didn’t know what animal it was.

Sam poked forlornly at her food. “I want to believe him. I want him to show up.”

Tucker sobered slightly at the wistful desperation in her voice. “I do too. Did you hear what he said, at the end?”

“What do you mean? About meeting us at the park?”

“He kinda muttered it as we were leaving. Something about hoping we wouldn’t hate him once we knew?”

Sam frowned, stabbing far too violently at the leaves(?) on her plate. “Hate him?”

“Yeah. It hasn’t exactly helped the whole ‘paying attention in class’ thing, to be sure.” Tucker said, trying to inflect humor into his voice to lighten the mood. He knew he failed. The conversation hurt him too much to not show, after all.

“We’d never hate him. Surely he knows that. We’ve been friends forever!” Sam said, throwing her hands up in agitation, the singular leaf stuck on her fork sent flying as she did so.

“We did let him end the friendship pretty easily.” Tucker admitted, frowning at the memory from a few weeks after Christmas break their freshman year, over a year ago.

“Look, guys, can we talk?” Danny asked, refusing to look either of them in the eyes as he stood beside them at lunch, not taking a seat at their normal table.

“If it’s another excuse, I don’t want to hear it!” Sam snapped. “You blew us off. Again!”

“No, no more excuses.” Danny said, scowling. “Just the truth.”

Tucker’s heart skipped a beat, hope a growing warmth in his veins. Could he finally get his best friend back?

“Then hurry up and talk.” Sam said.

Danny continued to stare at a random spot on the table, not looking directly at either of them. There was steeliness, regret, sadness, pain all swirling in his eyes, and Tucker suddenly felt like he was about to fall from a cliff’s edge. This couldn’t be good.

“The truth is I just can’t keep pretending like this, that I want to be your friend,” Danny began and each word was a piercing wound to Tucker’s chest. “I’m tired of coming up with excuses when I just don’t want to be around you.” He shrugged.

“What?” Sam asked, all the anger gone from her voice and thinly veiled pain all that was left.

“Come on, it’s not that surprising, is it? If I wanted to hang out with you, I would.” Danny continued, rolling his eyes, though he held his shoulders taut.

Tucker and Sam shared a look, tears beginning to form in her purple eyes before hard determination filled them instead.

“Fine.” Sam said. “Leave.”

Danny finally looked at both of them, hurt and sadness etched into every line of his face, though he quickly schooled it away. “Good. Glad you didn’t make this harder than it needed to be.” He said, turning and walking away as soon as he was done speaking.

Sam’s face crumpled in pain.

“Did… did that really just happen?” Tucker croaked out, his throat suddenly feeling like sandpaper.

“I think… I think it did…” Sam answered, hiccuping slightly as she tried to hide a sob.

Tucker hadn’t even bothered to hide the tears slipping down his face from behind his glasses.

The memory brought a familiar surge of pain to Tucker’s chest.

“He wanted to end it! Did he expect us to fight for it?” Sam asked, though the anger in her voice was laughably fake.

“Maybe we should have.” Tucker said with a sigh.

Sam didn’t say anything, instead just pushing around the green stuff (which Tucker refused to acknowledge as food) on her tray.

Silence floated between the two for several minutes. Not uncomfortable, but still a deep silence as each mulled their own thoughts.

“I’m not letting him go that easily this time.” Tucker decided, hands clenching into fists. “I’m not losing him again.”

“Agreed.” Sam said, looking up at Tucker with a small, determined smile. “He’s our friend, and we will drag him kicking and screaming back into our lives if we have to.”

Summary:

The woods are just trees, the trees are just wood While on a family hiking trip, Danny gets lost in the woods, but luckily he's found by a kind stranger who offers him refuge. Into the woods without delay, but careful not to lose the way Something seems off, however, but between being lost in the woods, or taking the risk to go into a house with food, Danny doesn't have much of a choice. Into the woods, who knows what may be lurking on the journey? Unaware of his new destiny, Danny has to survive the trials ahead, as he's unwittingly crowned the next heir of the Infinite Realms. Into the woods to see the King, earn a crown, and wear a ring. Into the woods, without delay, to face our ghost we know the way

Danny grumbles, kicking the stupid sticks, and leaves out of his way. One moment, he had been following his family on a hike in the woods, to build “stronger family bonds” and “build character” and whatever that third thing his dad had gone on about. 

And then the next thing he knew, he had spotted something weird on a tree. It looked like some weird glowing green goo oozing out of it. Best to just ignore that, only to notice his family was already gone and out of sight. This was not how he had wanted his day to go. Bad enough he had to be out in the woods when he could’ve just stayed home or with Tucker until his family came back from their camping trip.

Danny had hoped to spend his first week of summer vacation lazing around and hanging out with his friends, but when had he ever just gotten to do what he wanted to do?

“Never,” Danny mutters as he continues along what he thinks is the path, but he hesitates. He remembered his mom mentioning what to do if he was lost in the woods: to sit down and wait for help, but there was only one problem with that.

Danny did not like to sit still . He couldn’t sit down and wait, so Danny set out in the direction he thought his family had been heading in, but as the minutes turned to hours in his now solo hike. The shadows stretched and cast long shades around him as he walked. Danny began to feel uneasy. He still hadn’t heard his parents calling for him, he couldn’t recognize anything around him, and he was starting to get hungry.

“I could’ve been home. I could’ve just been at home playing video games. Not lost in the woods,” Danny mutters, finding comfort in his voiced thoughts, even if they were just to relieve some of his panic. The panic that he feels rises as he slowly comes to the understanding that he isn’t just looking for his family.

Danny Fenton, age 14, is lost.

The sun sinks lower and lower, and soon, Danny has to pull out his hand-cranked flashlight to light up the now-dark path, his senses on high alert. Every shadow was a monster, and every snapping stick was a creature waiting to drag him away from his little path. 

But Danny is unique in handling stressful situations; he’s a 14-year-old boy with parents who believe in the supernatural and a super-smart older sister who does more lecturing and parenting than his own parents.

So, he complains.

“Woods are dumb, they’re just filled with stupid leaves and stupid squirrels and not a single useful thing in the world. It’s all stupid!”

He kicks the ground in frustration, and he finally takes note of how tired he is. His legs ached, his hands were shaking, and the hunger is here.

He rubs at his eyes, ignoring how they burned before stubbornly continuing to walk, not caring if he knows where he’s going now. Sticking to a path will lead some somewhere. He just needs to find his family and find them fast.

But the sun is setting; the little flashlight wouldn’t be enough soon, and if he sits down now, he’ll be a sitting duck. So, he walks to keep his mind off his nerves. He walks even as it gets too dark to see, and the air grows cold and crisp.

Before the fear can set in – before he starts to scream in hopes someone will find him– a twig snaps behind him.

He whirls around with a yelp, only to come face to face with a man with pale gray hair. For a second, Danny thinks he sees his eyes glow before the man raises his hand up, and blinks revealing a deep blue.

“Bit late for you to be walking around in the woods, don’t you think?”

His voice is deep, yet his tone is light.

Danny’s still catching his breath, his hand gripping his flashlight, and he’s blinking away the burning in his eyes again as he slowly lowers his flashlight and takes a step back.

“Hey, are you alright?” the man asks, his voice warm, he’s wearing a sweater and light pink striped pajama pants. He’s holding his own flashlight downwards so as not to blind Danny with it.

“I-I’m… I can’t find my family,” Danny manages, still shaken. The man nods, looking around in the darkness before looking back down at Danny. Danny also makes note of how tall this guy is. Not the giant his dad is, but definitely past the 6-foot height.

“I figured, you're a long way from the hiking trail, and in the direction you were headed you’d hit the river, but by then you’d be a three-day hike from the trail.” The man steps forward and brings himself down to Danny’s level. Once again Danny can’t help but take a step back but the man offers him a smile. The man then holds something out for him, and Danny can smell it before he sees it.

It’s beef jerky, and he hates jerky. He snatches it anyway. With the first bite, he fully registers how starved he was.

“You’re alright now. I know you’re probably wary of strangers in the woods, but right now, you’ve two choices. Stay here and wait for a search party to find you, or come with me. There’s not much service out here, but once we reach my cabinet, I’ve got a landline we can call your parents with.”

“How do you know I have parents?”

“I assume most children do. Would you prefer the term guardians?” the man says with a slight smile, and somehow that does make him feel better, and even if this was a bit freaky, what choice did he have?

Danny nods, and the man slowly turns and begins leading the way, with Danny a few just a few paces behind.

“What’s your name? What’re you even doing out here?” Danny asks, after a few moments of silence. The guy wasn’t much of a chatterbox, but Danny’s never met a silence he couldn’t fill; not even detention stood a chance.

The man lets out a small chuckle but answers easily enough; he seems to fall into an easy pace, making stepping over roots and random dirt pits look easy, almost like he’s floating while Danny stumbles here and there.

“My name is Vladimir Masters, and a late-night stroll on my own property tends to be a nice way to pass the time out here.”

“Your property? We’re in the middle of the woods last I checked,” Danny says with a confused frown. While Vlad probably couldn’t see it, he most definitely could hear it.

The man stops and turns a bit back toward the boy, letting Danny finally catch up to him.

“I own about 30 acres around here to get away from the public; notwithstanding the occasional hiker that gets lost now and then, it does well to let me get some privacy.”

“Away from the public?” Danny asks as Vlad seems to turn in a random direction, only for Danny to notice the small trail Vlad is leading them along.

“Are you famous or something…?” Danny trails off as his eyes finally catch the first signs of civilization. The house came up, a beacon of light in the dark forest, and it was huge . Cabinet his ass.

“Or something, yes; I own a couple of companies, a few patents here and there.” Vlad shrugs as he climbs up on the dazzling patio, a string of lights glowing just a bit brighter as he approaches.

Danny, a little less fearful and a little more hopeful climbs, the steps and walks in without hesitation. He’s in awe at the high ceilings and the strange antler chandelier and doesn’t notice Vlad still at the door.

He doesn’t see the man's shifting eyes or hear the small murmur of words he says under his breath. Danny only catches the shadows out of the corner of his eye and turns to see Vlad close the door behind him with only a slight click. Vlad smiles before he motions for Danny to follow him.

“I’m sure you're famished. Jerky can only do so much. Let’s get you something more filling to eat. Afterward, we can see about getting you in touch with your parents. Unfortunately, I don’t have my cell phone on me since I tend to not have my technology on me when I’m out in the woods; it tends to distract me from my relaxation time. Luckily I did think ahead and installed a landline.”

Danny feels the cool touch of air on his arm as Vlad opens the fridge. He expects to see mountains of food, not to be greeted by anything less than stuffed full. Staring in confusion, Vlad reaches past Danny and pulls out a black container which he places in the microwave without any fanfare.

“The staff stocks the fridge up when I alert them of my visits,” Vlad says offhandedly, and Danny remembers that okay, rich people things.

“Let this warm up and you can eat up, my boy. Then we can alert the authorities as to your whereabouts, and let your parents know you're alright.” Vlad gives him a small reassuring smile, and while Danny just wants to relax, to finally let the fear of getting lost in the woods fall behind him, he can’t shake the lingering chill.

Danny instead nods, and lets his eyes wander, taking in the black marble, the sleek black stools, and another chandelier.

The microwave beeps and all the worry and tension melt away at the smell of rich, fresh food. Vlad slides his portion over with a black steel fork already in his hand. Danny hesitates on the first bite but then scarfs the rest down, not looking up as he devours the contents, barely caring what to is.

He doesn’t even look at Vlad, as the man’s calm composure cracks, revealing a smile full of teeth, with a blood-red mist seeping through his lips, and flashing red eyes as he watches Daniel eat the meal without a second thought.

Vlad runs a hand through his hair, taking a breath as he turns to leave the room, back to normal as though nothing ever shifted.

“Eat up, young Daniel! You’re welcome to have as much as you’d like, I’ll be back in just a moment, young lad, those authorities won't call themselves,” he calls out, and Danny grunts in acknowledgment as he finishes the last spoonful.

Turning to the fridge without any shame, he grabs another black container, tearing off the lid. Not even bothering to warm up the meal, he forgoes his fork, using his hands, barely chewing through one meal until he was on to the next, and the next. The scraping of his nails on the container was the only sound in the kitchen.

He’s so focused on shoveling whatever he was eating into his stomach, he doesn’t question the absolute silence of the cabin home, how there isn’t even a single flicker of light or soft wind from the outside.

Finally, finally, he slows down, patting at his stomach, and lets out a large burp like any proud 14-year-old would. He feels full and now he’s his with such a wave of drowsiness he debates just laying his head down on the counter and falling asleep. 

He debates it for a moment, only to remember that Vlad was supposed to make a call, but he hadn’t come back.

Minutes feel like hours, and maybe an hour has passed, and when Vlad still isn’t back, Danny shoves himself off the kitchen counter he’d been leaning on – and remembering his manners, dumps all the empty containers into the sink– before making his way towards the doorway.

“Um, Mister Vlad?” Danny calls out, peeking around the doorway of the kitchen and up the stairs. The lights upstairs seemed to die out the higher up his eyes traveled, but there was still a soft light he could just make out the corner before it seemed to flicker and vanish.

He feels uneasy, and he feels that same goosebumpy feeling he’d felt when Vlad first found him in the woods.

However, with the promise of a phone at the top of the stairs Danny slowly climbs, pushing away the strange feeling.  His feet drag up the stairs, unaware of the growing shadows crawling off the walls of the kitchen, consuming it in darkness, the light traveling with him as he made it up and studied the strange paintings he found there.

He feels a sudden chill as he makes it to the top of the stairs, the sudden cool air chasing away some of the drowsiness as he looks around the hall, trying to remember which way Vlad had gone.

Ultimately Danny chooses to take the right, turning the corner into the hallway.

He admires the soft plush red carpet, and for a moment wonders if he should have taken off his dirty shoes.

He starts to make note of his surroundings. The walls are beige in color and he can’t tell if it’s wallpaper or paint, but can’t help but run his hand between where the colored sections meet the dark wood. It’s warm to the touch.

“Mister Vlad?” Danny calls out again, waiting to hear some kind of reply, as he turns another corner, still taking in the small antler chandeliers that add that lumberjack vibe to the cabin and even takes a moment to look at the picture frames on the wall.

Where he expects creepy portraits of people to stare back at him like any classic haunted house, the frames are just full of paintings of scenery. Pictures of the forest, from different angles and seasons, as if they weren’t already surrounded by miles of it.

He continues down the hall, the fluffy carpet, and the warmth of the cabin almost too comforting. As the chill leaves Danny, he feels his eyes growing heavy, his limbs dropping at his side.

He finally realizes how tired he is.

“Mister Vlad!” Danny calls, fighting back a yawn even as one of his hands comes to rub at his eyes. “Where’d you go?”

He feels his eyes fall closed for just a second, sleep calling him before he jumps awake only to find himself standing in front of an open door. The wood is the same brown tone as the wall and as it creaks open Danny sees into the room.

There is a large king-size bed with an unnecessary number of pillows and a pale-yellow comforter. The warm yellow lights fill up the room, and Danny feels himself almost tugged inside.

He notes the decor, the yellows, navy blues, and even touches of gray in the room. His feet go from plush carpet to hardwood floors, and he stops at the edge of the gray carpet just one step away from the bed.

Danny glances at an actual fireplace to his right, chasing away the cold, and the slight scent of pumpkin somehow fills the room.

Danny hears the door shut behind him; the click is light, and he’s too transfixed by how comfortable the bed looks to register that the door has closed by itself.

A canopy keeps out just the right amount of light and he’s already kicking off his shoes.

“Mister Vlad! ‘M going to bed!” He doesn’t care if he can find him anymore, or if Vlad even hears him.

That should freak him out, but any urgency of reaching his parents slowly dies down as Danny feels almost numb from his exhaustion.

He just wants to sleep, and as soon as his body hits the mattress, the soft touch of the comforter and the warmth of the bed are almost heavenly .

As soon as he barries his face into the cool silk pills Danny slips into a deep, deep sleep.

The soft comfort is the last sensation he feels until all he can do is dream. 

-

A/N:

I like "Into the Woods", It's a good musical, so yeah couldn't help putting up some parody lyrics.

And hi! Welcome to my new story, and my submission for Invisobang 2023! This was my first time participating in anything like this, and I entered as an author and got straight to work.

I had a lot of fun working on this submission, and the fact that it's my first completed work on AO3 is something I am proud of. It's also been an interesting story since it's my first time dipping my brain into the horror genre, and probably the last (at least for now).

And to add a few more words for Kay! I had the amazing privilege of working and being paired with KayleNosferatu who is SUCH AN AMAZING ARTIST. Half the fun little plot in this story would not exist without her input, and any time I felt I was losing motivation for this story, her art kept me going! I cannot sing enough praises for how amazing she is, not only as a person but as an artist. Her style fit so perfectly with my story, I couldn't ask for a better partner in crime!

So enjoy the story! And do mind the tags! There are some triggers in here, and I'm not quite sure I got all the tags, but there is a brief description of a corpse, maggots, overeating, known as ghost hunger, and the abuse of a minor.

Vlad is an asshole in this so beware!

Also a quick shout out to me Beta Readers! Z and VentisetteStars! These two helped me so much!