Don't Threaten Me with a Good Time

Chapter 33 - Misplaced part 1

Since the mansion was empty Danny no longer had to worry about the noise he was creating at his many escape attempts. He had finally gotten the door to his bedroom open, he had tried using his ghost powers on it many times, but it had turned out Vlad had ghost proofed his whole room. It took nothing short of ramming into the door several times for it to open on busted hinges.

"Ok, door's open, I can get my stuff from Dash's later when I know what the heck is going on," Danny took a moment to breathe, pain flooded his shoulder, it was a heavy door after all, "I'm also talking to myself, isn't that the first step in insanity? Oh well." He rubbed his shoulder as he looked around the darkened hallway.

For some reason, he felt too anxious to even attempt to turn on the lights in the mansion, like the light would give him away to an invisible monster lurking in the darkness. To be honest, he wasn't too far off after all this could all be a ploy of Vlad's, just to see how far he could get and when new security he would need to place to keep Danny in. When he found the stairs he slowly crawled down them to avoid any squeaky steps. Danny was being paranoid, he knew he was, but it was better safe than sorry.

When he finally reached the front door, he hesitated. What if this was a test? What if Vlad was watching him from the shadows? What if he was letting Danny think he had a chance at freedom just to trap him again? Was he overthinking this? Probably. But he wouldn't put anything past the fruitloop. After all, Vlad did show him his lab in his basement, it was filled with those tubes out of horror movies, the ones that were filled with green liquid and could probably fit a whole human in it. He hates to think what Vlad would be using those for.

Swallowing his doubt and fear he put his hand on the doorknob and pulled it down. It was unlocked. It opened into the cold night air. Danny took a step outside a breathed in, he hadn't been outside in a few days, he had missed it. The air smelt crisp, the kind of crips you get right before the start of a snowfall, the bitterness tickled his nose and quickly reddened his nose and cheeks. He wrapped his arms around himself not dressed properly for the temperature drop. That was an easy fix though.

"I'm going ghost." He whispered into the night air. He felt the cold seep away as his body changed to his half-dead side. 

He flew upward, gazing at the stars, searching for the north star he had to go east to get back to Happy Harbor. The flight would take a few hours and who knows what would happen in that time. But from Wisconsin to Happy Harbor, he's be flying over a lot of water, if he needed a break Toronto was the perfect halfway point, the only problem was that he had no money, no phone, nothing. He might have to rely on the kindness of strangers or be forced to steal. Both options weren't favourable, the first wasn't since strangers weren't kind to scruffy looking teens, and Phantom will admit he does look scruffy, he hasn't had a proper haircut in seven months. And the second, well, he would be committing a crime, he was supposed to be a hero for goodness sake.

He had been flying for about five hours when he landed in Toronto, the sun had already risen and cast a gentle glow on the city. He had five more hours of flying to get to his destination. He knew he wasn't in Canada legally, but it's not like he would be around long enough for anyone to find out. Plus he was exhausted, five hours of plying can really take it out of you. He should know the first time he went from Amity Park to Happy Harbor it had taken seven hours, but in his mad frenzy, he didn't even notice the time as he flew. Now though, he was hyper-aware of it, every second in the air seemed longer than it should have been. Phantom didn't know if it was the fear and anxiety that made time seem longer or the feeling that knowing something was wrong.

As he walked around the city he couldn't help but notice the lack of busyness on the roads. In fact, he hadn't seen any adults, he knew it was early, but people should be around. He walked up to a convenience store, noticing that the lights were still on. 

The store still had to be open and running right. As he stepped inside he noticed a group of kids sat on the floor, candy wrappers all around them and plenty of empty bottles of soda. The kids look up at him then went back to whatever that was. He glanced around the shop noticing the lack of security cameras, the kids probably tore them down during the night. Phantom quickly walked over to the fridges, opening them and grabbing himself a bottle of water and any kind of energy drink he could get his hands on. Then heading to the snack aisle, he grabbed as many granola bars as possible, then left the way he came in.

After downing the energy drink and eating half of the granola bars he was back in the air. He still had five more hours of flight after all.

The first thing Phantom did as he got back to the mountain was sit down. The couch felt like absolute heaven under him, he could have easily melted into the cushions and fallen asleep there and then. Normally when he was in his ghost form he could a lot longer without food, drink or sleep, was this a side effect for the Plasmius Maximus and wearing it for three days straight? He sighed as he rested the back of his head against the couch.

"Where is everyone?" He had finally noticed the complete silence of the mountain. It was then that he noticed the giant holo globe in the middle of the foyer and a tiny red dot pulsing on it. Out of curiosity, he floated closer. He noticed that the little red dot was located down the coast, maybe a three-hour flight for him, at Roanoke Island. "Is that where they are?" He sighs again, realising he's got more flight time ahead of him. He grabs another energy drink from the fridge, the ones Wally is banned from since the incident that shall not be named, lets just say it ended with the speedster being able to taste colours. And downs it before taking off once again.