A Chance

-7-

He cried himself to sleep, waking up stiff and sore in the odd position. He stood on unsteady legs, his hand pressed against something inside the hole.

Danny saw a flash of white.

Then pain.

His body erupted with unfathomable searing heat, like lighting stuck his bones. The pain was so intense it felt like a thousand suns were heating up his body all at once and somehow he wasn't burned to ashes, even if for a moment he wished he was. Sparks were everywhere, his screams hurt his throat, but it only happened in an instant.

Danny stumbled out of the hole. When the pain subsided he looked down at his body.

He didn't look much different, his clothes changed color, and his skin did too, it was a lot darker, but he was supposed to have light skin. Fear gripped him like a leech. What would his new parents think? He ran out of the lab, stumbling over the stairs until he wasn't even touching the ground anymore! He screamed in fright, flying higher and higher until he hit the ceiling, but then the ceiling wasn't there and he was upstairs. Through his blubbering and panicked state he somehow got to his room and hid himself from the world, not daring to come out. Afraid of the judgment that came with it. What was wrong with him?! What was happening!?

When Jazzy came in and saw his odd clothes and different hair and eyes she screamed and ran to her parents. Danny hid under his bed, he didn't want to scare anybody, he just wanted his family back.

Jazzy's parents came in, they looked through the room and tried to find Danny, when the woman looked under the bed. Danny scrambled away, trying to hide himself but the woman pulled him out by his leg.

She had a kind smile, he stopped crying, now only sniffing. She cradled him and told him everything would be alright. That she didn't care that he was half ghost, that she adopted him for him. Danny smiled, happy now his new family accepted him for was he now was.

But the happiness only lasted so long.

......

Fast forward a year and a half later, Danny was five.

He was messing around with Jazzy, he held a stuffed bear and was floating just out of reach of Jazzy who jumped up to reclaim her toy. They were both giggling, enjoying the game, when they heard the doorbell ring. Danny floated down, the familiar white ring changing his colors and Jazzy ran to get her parents.

Jazzy's mother opened the door and a bald man with a white suit was in the doorway. They exchanged hello's and he stepped in. He was tall and his face was sour, but once he saw Danny a snake-like smile split his face. Danny shrank back, he didn't like this man one bit.

Jazzy's dad came in too, talking loudly like always, no one noticed the man in white grab a gun behind his back. Danny did though, he tried to shout a warning but the man whipped out his gun and three bullets embedded themselves into Danny's new family.

Three bodies hit the floor, Maddie and Jack looking at each other with shock etched into their frozen faces. Jazzy was looking at Danny, her bear still in her now lifeless hands.

Danny stood frozen to the spot, not fully registering what just happened. The man in white grabbed his arm and shoved him in a small confined space.

In a mad rush of events he had the collar, the muzzle, then he saw red. Next came the cores, all the floating yellow and red cores, trapped in the cycle he learned quickly.

His life was on a fast track, all the experiments and beating were done in quick succession. A scalpel impaled him here, a fist connected with his face there. A robot smashed his head against the floor, a gloved fist buried itself in his gut. Whip marks fresh and bleeding rubbed with salt, agonizing pain as they dissected him alive.