The Ghost Boy (A Danny Phantom Fanfiction)

Chapter Three

"Revenge." Clockwork said simply, this tone noticeably becoming more cautious and calm.

"Revenge?"

"How do you think you died?" He asked carefully.

"I-" I looked down. "I - I have no idea... I thought you would be the one to tell me that." he gave me a look, and an imaginary light bulb suddenly appeared above my head. "Wait... Are you telling me that I was... I was killed... By ghosts?!"

Clockwork didn't answer. All he did was smirk knowingly.

My eyes flashed in anger. "Ok, what? WHAT?! I'm being serious here! Did they - when I get my hands on..." I stopped, as Clockwork was now shaking his head. My eyes narrowed. "What? Are you telling me they didn't? Tell me something here!" I demanded.

Clockwork was still shaking his head. "Your family thought you had been killed by ghosts."

"Oh..." I felt rather stupid now. Then I thought of something else. "What happened to my family? You know, after I-" I couldn't say anymore. I just couldn't. I would have collapsed if I had said any more.

Clockwork lowered his head. All I could see of his head was the purple of his hooded cloak. "They were distraught, as any family would be. The funeral was short, but everyone cried. What was the strangest thing, though, was that nobody ever found your body. There was no burying ceremony or crimation for that reason."

I grimaced. Nice thought. "Why?"

"Your body went missing."

"Then how did they know I was dead?"

"They didn't. After a year, nobody had found you yet, so they conspired to give up." he suddenly changed his tone. "But that could work to our advantage..."

I had noticed the change in his tone, and my eyebrows furrowed suspiciously because of it. "What do you mean?"

He casually gave his staff to his opposite hand, but did not look up. "This could be a great cover story."

I raised one eyebrow. "You realise this would mean telling them I survived after ten years."

"Yes."

A light bulb suddenly clicked in my head. "Wait a minute. You said my... Parents... Wanted revenge... On ghosts, was it? Well, if that was because of my death... If nobody ever found me and nobody even knew for sure I was dead, they just assumed... How would they know it was ghosts that did it? I mean, both of us know it wasn't ghosts, but still..."

"They didn't, of course. With your parents' obsession with the supernatural, they could only assume. Because of the town's respect for your death and what impact it had had on your family, they just went along with the assumption to prevent the situation getting worse. Seems as though they had sense. For all your family knew, you could have been mauled by a bear... I don't know... But your parents didn't consider that. Neither did they consider the possibility that you might not be dead at all."

"But that would jave been fruitless, wouldn't it? If they assumed that? Because in actual fact, I did die. How did I die anyway?"

For some reason, he ignored my latest question. "Precisely. I expect they either genuinely didn't think of the fact that you might not be dead, or did not wish to take the chance of finding your body. You might as well have trapped them in a cave and forced them to result to cannibalism. Traumatising."

"Um, eew." I grimaced. "Are you seriously trying to implant that image into my head?"

Clockwork chuckled, but it was dark and rather forced. "I try."