Behind Unknown Eyes

13

Danny's blue eyes stared at his bedroom door. 

The night had now been washed away with the bright rays of the sun that now projected from his window to the door. He had been lying awake in his bed for hours. The boy was exhausted, but he couldn't sleep. Danny's mind wouldn't stop thinking. One of his thoughts kept on nagging him though.

What is my life going to be like now?

It made his hands sweat and his fingers tingle just thinking about what everyone's thoughts were on him. He went back to about three days ago when the class was watching the news. They had talked about how great Danny Phantom was, but then they had no problem telling Danny Fenton about how much of an annoyance he was.

Danny sighed and got out of bed. The wooden floor creaked as he stood up. He grunted and made his way over to a mirror. 

His charcoal hair was a mess and his eyes looked sunken and tired. It looked like a hundred continuous hours of sleep couldn't fix him.

Everywhere on his body, he found some sort of scratch, some sort of sign that showed what he had just been through. No. Those marks couldn't even bear to show what kind of thing he just had to handle. 

He ran a hand over his bruised cheekbone. "The whole future of Amity Park was resting on my shoulders." He sighed. "It has been since day one, and still is."

The boy walked over to his dresser and got dressed. It was strange now. Everything was. No more secrets, no more sneaking out or making endless excuses. He should've felt relieved, but he wasn't. Everything was going to be way more complicated than it was before. He shut his dresser drawer and ran a hand through his messy hair.

Today was Sunday and everything was quiet. He hadn't even heard a peep come from downstairs. When he checked the time, he was even more confused. It was almost lunchtime. They should've been up by now.

The thought of facing them made his stomach queasy. They seemed so accepting last night, but he wasn't so sure now. They could've changed their minds overnight. 

After all, his dad was screaming "I will rip you apart molecule by molecule!", only a couple days ago.  Could they really have thrown everything they knew about ghosts out of the window?

Danny put his hand on the doorknob. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "Cmon, Danny. You've done things harder than this." He said to himself. 

As the door opened, he saw nobody out in the hallway. Danny walked through the hallway and peeked into Jazz's room. She wasn't there either. 

They must all be downstairs.

He put his hand on the railing and really thought about what he was going to say to them, or what they were going to say to him.

 After telling himself to just get it over with, he took his first step down the stairs. As he made his way down the staircase, all he could hear was the television. He couldn't make out what was playing, but it sounded like a man. 

Once he was at the bottom, he was met with his whole family, including Sam and Tucker, sitting in the living room. They were watching the television so intensely that they didn't even notice the halfa walking towards them.

When he was almost to the living room, that was when he heard it. 

"Danny Phantom, or should we say Danny Fenton-" but that was when Jack had seen him and immediately turned the TV off. All of their heads snapped toward his direction. 

"Danny! You're up?" Sam said. He could sense the discomfort in her voice. She was trying to be cheerful. 

"Yeah, I thought for sure you would sleep in," Tucker said to his friend. Focused on the TV, he loosely replied. "Couldn't sleep at all." He said as he walked past them all and reached for the power button on the television.

Maddie got up. "A-arent you hungry? I-" She was interrupted by the newsman telling the latest details from yesterday. "Danny Fenton had almost lost the battle to his future self who is supposedly named Dan." Danny's eyes went wide. 

"What the hell?" 

On the screen, they had all of the information on Dan and on Danny Phantom himself.

"And, his, Danny Fenton's, existence leads us asking more questions. How did he become half ghost? How long has he been this way? Why didn't he change back or why does he use his powers for good? Also, the most important question that everyone has: What lies ahead for the ghost boy? These are questions that we will hopefully get answers to today. I'm Seavers from News 9 and have a wonderful afternoon." With that, Danny turned off the TV. 

He turned around and faced them. He faced their burning eyes and probably aching hearts. He sighed. "I'm sorry." He said. "I'm sorry for not telling you sooner. I should've, but-"

Maddie interrupted. "Oh no sweetie, it's ok-" Danny shook his head. 

"No, I need to explain so there's no stone left unturned. " She nodded her head slowly and looked at Jack. Danny mustered up all of the courage he had.

"It was an accident, okay? I was curious, Sam and Tuck too. And after it happened we didn't know what to do. So we made an agreement to keep it a secret. Telling you guys wasn't an option. You both were anti-ghost from head to toe. All of the 'failed inventions'? They worked, but they just found a halfa instead. I just need you guys to know that whatever you thought of me when I was telling lies, getting bad grades and always seemed to not want to hang out with you wasn't because of you, it was because of what I have to do. And I have to protect Amity as best as I can."

It seemed that they both understood as his parents nodded their heads. Maddie took hold of Jack's hand and her eyes started to tear up. It felt like a piece of the world had been lifted off of Danny's shoulders. 

"We love you. Danny, I hope you know that." His mother said as she wiped her face. Danny was just about to reply when the blue mist came out of his mouth.

He looked at his friends then back at his parents. Who knew that things would start to happen so soon.