Into the woods

Chapter 3 - To "The Ark"

Danny sat in his chair, still awake and sipping on his water. He looked between his two friends, noticing them both asleep, they must've been tired. Danny grabbed his phone and turned it on to check the time, the phone read 10:30 PM. He looked back at the screen just in time to see Jason behead someone, his lips quirked down into a light frown, he never had much interest in the Friday the 13th movies. He stood up, taking his water with him as he turned intangible and floated up from the basement, despite being in human form he was still able to use some of his powers, like the basic ones and his ice powers. He landed on the sidewalk near Sam's house with a soft thud, he started to walk through the town toward his destination, he took the necklace out of his pocket and looked at it as he drank what little water remained in his cup. He debated throwing it away, but doubted he would be gone long.

"Danny, it's good to see you." Danny jumped in surprise, stopping when he saw the tall, pale raven haired boy step from a near alleyway. He frowned, the black hair was more ashy than natural and the paleness wasn't a dull tan like he was, it was a pure white similar to his ghost half's hair. He didn't know why but he knew this boy, he knew his voice, his smell, he knew him, why?

"You don't remember who I am, do you Danny?" The boy asked, he sounded sad behind the gravely voice he let out, he twirled the large knife between his fingers by the hilt, his white hoodie was stained with blood, attracting Danny to him.

"No, should I?" The ghostly boy asked, looking into the older teen's brown eyes, having been staring at his blood covered hoodie.

The other teen laughed softly, shaking his head.

"I knew you wouldn't, come on kid. Slendy wants to talk to you." Danny followed the boy as he turned and walked, he cast a glance back at Sam's house and walked faster to walk beside the tall boy.

"Are you Jeffery?" Danny asked, he looked at the ground as the blood covered boy chuckled dryly.

"Only Slendy calls me that, he knows how much I hate it. Just like you don't like being called Daniel, you never liked being called Daniel." Jeff answered Danny, shaking his head.

"How do you know me?" Danny suddenly asked, both confused and curious. He felt Jeff set a hand on his shoulder, then pull him into a hug, the relaxing feeling of cold metal rubbed against Danny's cheek, though he didn't oppose to the hug or the knife. This felt so incredibly familiar to him, he tried to recall anything from before, memories from before the ghost portal were incredibly foggy and memories from before 14 were basically nonexistent, he couldn't remember anything from his childhood.

"Because I'm your brother..." Jeff finally answered, making Danny stop moving, his breathing paused and he stared blankly in front of him, confused.

"I can't remember anything, how do I know you're telling the truth? Why are you saying that? I don't even remember anything from before I got zapped in the ghost portal." Danny pulled away from Jeff, he stared at the taller boy, looking him up and down, he looked at the small movement of his large smiley scar, it looked like a frown but it was hard to tell with the unnatural smile on his face.

"Danny, Slendy can help you remember, if you'd like? You might be able to live too, just... spend some time at the mansion, you can come back to Amity Park in a few hours. Please." Jeff took Danny's hand, making him drop his cup as they walked to the forest, they hadn't been far anyways. Jeff moved away some of the brush of low hanging tree branches as the two walked deeper into the woods and toward the large mansion, Danny marvelled at the building, it was imposing and rather fancy, it reminded him of Clockwork's tower or the Ghost Zone's library. Jeff brought Danny inside and immediately afterwards Danny's ghost sense went off, he blinked and stared in surprise at a young ghost girl that floated in front of him.

"It's you! It's you! It's Phantom!" The young girl squealed, she was pale, radiating a ghostly glow, her head had been broken open, blood and brain matter fell to the floor with a splat, her brown hair bounced as she flew around in small circles of delight, she wore a pink dress and held a brown teddy bear, her green eyes pierced Danny's cold blue ones and the dying teen gave a smile, waving in greeting to her.

"Sally please calm, will you? Daniel is our guest for the next few hours. You can speak with him later, he and I must talk now." a voice spoke out, reverberating in Danny's head. He groaned, surprised when his ghost sense went off yet again.

"Here, take this, the Slender Sickness affects all new people." Jeff offered, he had long since put his blade away and now he was opening an orange pill bottle, he turned the open bottle and a pill fell into his open hand, he held it out to Danny, who grabbed it and swallowed it dry, rubbing his temples at the departing pain, a faint static continued in the back of his mind though. Jeff closed the bottle and put in back into his hoodie pocket, watching as the tall man Danny had seen in his mirror came down the staircase.

"I'm the Slenderman and you're Danny  Fenton, also known as Danny Phantom. I'm surprised you've never heard of me before, you are friends with Clockwork after all." Slenderman said, his face was still smooth, in all honesty he didn't even have a face, just smooth white skin with small grooves where eyes, a nose and a mouth should be. Danny looked at him stupidly, not sure what to say.

"Perhaps we should get you fed first though, you're a guest after all." Slendy suggested, his head moved as he had eyes, he watched Jeff leave to fetch his brother something to drink, they all knew what was going on with him, especially the Slenderman. They had been watching him since he started showing the signs of maturity, all of the mansion's residents were very happy to have him around after discovering Slender's plan to offer him residence at the mansion, especially Jeff.

Danny sniffed the air, looking away from Slender's smooth face when Jeff came back into the entry hallway, a red plastic cup in his hand. Danny grinned at the smelled ectoplasm and blood, he grabbed the cup with both of his hands and brought it to his mouth, drinking it hungrily. He paused to look at Sally when he heard her giggle, he only offered her a shy smile from behind his cup before he went back to drinking the contents. He finished the cup, holding it close to his chest as he looked at the Slenderman and then at Jeff.

"Thanks." he muttered, he wiped his face with his sleeve, the shy smile still on his face.

"It's fine young Phantom, but I believe you're curious about your new found tastes and to put it simply, since you are slowly dying your ghost half is maturing and in an attempt to balance both halves your diet has adapted to need human and ghost blood." The tall man explained, he took the cup from Danny and held it, Danny gasped in surprise when the cup vanished, he hadn't seen that before.

"Can we play now?" Sally asked, looking at Slenderman and then to Danny, the tall entity nodded and watched the little girl cheer, giggling happy.

"Come and catch me!" Sally called, flying off to the right of the hall into the living room, disappearing outside the wall of the mansion, going outside. Danny smirked and summoned the white rings over his body, his legs turned into a spectral tail and he flew through the wall of the mansion, flying after Sally with a laugh. He wouldn't admit it, but he was incredibly childish and loved to play with kids.