Ghosts Don't Exist

Chapter 16: Space In The Mind

Danny slept for hours. He liked sleeping, he had never slept this long before. It felt nice. Danny was going to relish in this feeling while he still had it. He let his dreams consume him in impossible scenarios and exciting conversations.

And memories.

Nightmares.

Danny had grown a complicated relationship with his nightmares. He had this curious thought to stay asleep and see how it progressed, no matter how it ended.

He didn't like nightmares, but he didn't hate them either.

On the other hand, his memories were something he'd grown scared of. It didn't have to be sad to scare him. Suspenseful, heart-wrenching, or even happy. Memories of his past were scary in the general sense.

So, he forced himself awake.

Jasmine's dull eyes flashed across his brain, her limp body covered in blood, her left arm missing. Her neck broken, her jaw broken from her skull after the impact on the pavement.

He wiped his eyes and used his free hand to clutch his shirt where his heart was. He took in gulps of air, trying to calm himself. He was sweaty but cold.

Sleeping didn't feel like a smart thing to do after that. Maybe a shower. A shower sounded nice.

He got out of bed and waited until he had composed himself. He went over to his closet and pulled out a deep ocean purple dress. It was to his knees and it had a little bow on the side. It wasn't poofy, but that was fine, he didn't feel like dragging around the weight today.

He took a short shower, feeling refreshed afterwards. He smiled to himself in the mirror before he started making faces to himself. He dried himself off and put his dress on. Danny always looked good in purple. He fluffed the bow and his hair before sliding some nice grey dress shoes on.

Danny didn't normally wake up so early, was it still morning?

He didn't look at the alarm clock. He stuffed his hands in the pockets of the dress and looked for someone, mainly Bruce, to accompany today. Or a few short hours. Being lonesome didn't sound like a good idea.

He yawned and went into the kitchen. This may be a mansion, but Danny knew of one kitchen, one living room, a sun room (Alfreds favorite place to read his parenting books), and a lobby where very few people entered.

He noticed a plate of triangular ham sandwiches and grabbed one. The crusts had been cut off. He ate it and then went downstairs to the lobby. He couldn't find anyone so his next best option was a book. This place had to have a library. Had to. This place was huge, didn't Tim mention one? Danny couldn't remember where Tim said the library was.

Danny sighed loudly and ran his fingers through his hair. Got to find the library.

_______

Damien sat at school not paying any attention to the teacher. Not that he did normally.

His mind was elsewhere. His mind was on Danny. He had a ghost brother, he was coming to terms with that, sounded pretty damn cool.

Imagine, he could faze through the freezer and grab ice cream without a single noise. Or maybe he could pull pranks on people with Danny's ghost buddies. Maybe he could steal Tim's little diary without leaving any evidence that he was there because he fazed through the wall. The possibilities were endless. In payment, he'd show Danny where all of Bruce's hidden sweets were, and the secret passageways when he got tired of using his ghost powers.