Self Aware

The Phantom

Danny woke up in a cold sweat, gasping for breath and clutching at his un-beating heart.

When he caught his breath, he heaved a sigh, and buried his face in his hands. His snow white hair hung low, and his glowing green eyes struggled to dialate back to their normal size.

The nightmares had been increasing. Each night it was worse, and each night he awoke with the feeling of being dragged into the unknown.

Danny looked up to stare at his reflexion in the mirror hanging across from him. It was rare when he got the chance to truly feel comfortable in his body. In order to stay with his friends and family, he put up a front of normalcy all day, everyday. Except, of course, when he 'went ghost.' That, and night time were his opportunities to be himself. His real, true, ghost self.

His reflexion blinked back at him, and Danny groaned at the dark bags hanging from his eyes. His friends already suspected something was off, and if he continued to lose sleep like this, he would start slipping up - or worse, falling asleep in his classes. And that's something he couldn't afford. When he slept, he lost all control. If he wasn't at least 70% focused, he transformed. Which, ironically, was his GPA.

The ghost child glanced to his left, squinting his eyes to see the digital numbers that glared back at him. His alarm clock wasn't set to go off for another half hour, and going back to sleep was hopeless.

This was the worst part of his day. These were the moments when he had to really think, about everything. This was the time when he questioned his actions and decisions he had made in the last year.

The last year.

Quickly, Danny scrambled to check the date. He ran his finger along the calendar finding the date. He stifled another groan when he found his suspicions to be correct - today was the one year anniversary of his death.

Sometimes he wished the accident hadn't given him the ability to stay on the Earth plane. Wouldn't it be easier to just die? To disappear and spend the rest of eternity in the Ghost Zone? His parents screw up enough he would more than likely be given the chance to sneak back once in a while.

Immediately, Danny felt guilty. He couldn't leave his friends and family behind. They're the whole reason he sticks around. If he wanted, he coul stage his death easily. His heart had already stopped a year ago, and really, breathing wasn't a necessity. He just couldn't bring himself to say goodbye. It was too hard.

His parents would be depressed. And with their obsession with ghosts, there's no telling what lengths they would go to to see him or bring him back.

Jazz was his only sibling and vice verse. If she were to die, he'd lose it and go himself into the Ghost Zone to bring her spirit back. She was a teenage girl. He couldn't imagine what she would do.

Tucker was his best friend. With his knowledge of the Ghost Zone and ability to hack into Trackers armor, the nerdy kid was pretty much invincible.

And Sam... Danny didn't know how the gothic girl felt about him, but he sure felt quite a bit for her.

Truthfully, Danny didn't have a clue how his folks would react to his death, but he liked to think they would take drastic measures. Maybe he was only fooling himself, but it did it's job of keeping him in Amity Park.

Beside him, his alarm clock began to blare, signaling the beginning of a new day.

Danny easily reached over to turn it off, an looked out his window. The sun was rising, and he could faintly hear a bird begin it's song. The promise of a beautiful day.

"Going human," he whispered.