CHAPTER ONE
I remember it well. My death. It was vivid, plaguing. But it happened. And the memory would never leave me.
Those interested in the field of ghosts all say that ghosts are... Well... Ghosts because of "unfinished business" or whatever. They say say each ghost has a purpose, a scheme, of sorts. An unhealthy obsession with something that happened, or perhaps something that didn't happen, before their death. Apparently, their memories of that moment, that labour they had to carry on their backs, never left them in death, and therefore they came back as ghosts, to finish what they started.
I've met many ghosts like that... Most of them are like that, actually. They're all obsessed. Especially the Box Ghost. I've encountered him many times, and when I do, he blabbers on about packaging, non-stop... It's almost never ending.
Some ghosts, like the Box Ghost, are most likely the reason why I would rather prefer to kill myself a second time, just to put myself out of my misery.
What? Oh. I guess I never told you, huh? Yeah... I'm a ghost. If that wasn't already obvious.
As far as I know, I've been a ghost for about... Ten years. Ever since my death, of course. And yet... I still have, as of yet, to figure out why I'm a ghost. I don't know my "purpose", I never have. I've pondered it way too much, to be honest, but I felt like I had to know.
I suppose it wouldn't make sense if I said that my obsession was trying to suss out why I was a ghost. Why I've been floating about in the Ghost Zone for ten years and have never found a clue.
And another important factor is: why have I aged?
Well, not techni... Uh... It's confusing. All I know is that since my death, I have been growing, as if I'm still human. And now, I would technically be fourteen years old in human years.
Wow... I've always wondered what life would be like if I never died. It would be good to know.
But then again, a lot of things would be good to know these days.
Oh, yeah! I almost forgot... I never told you my name.
Well... I technically don't have a name. Not that I'm sure of, anyway. I can't remember, for the life of me, what my name used to be... You know, before my death. I've asked a lot of ghosts around the Zone, and none of them have a clue either. They just came up with random names once they concluded that they were indeed ghosts.
However, I have pondered on... Phantom. Something like that, anyway. I know it's the most cliché thing you might have ever heard, but somehow, I had a weird feeling that it would fit. Well, if I wasn't full ghost, that is.
Oh... That would be amazing... If I was half-human... Or human at all. I might just be able to live a relatively normal life on Earth.
Earth...
I've always wanted to go back to Earth, but no matter how long or how hard I've searched, I've never found any way directly out of the Ghost Zone.
I'm beginning to think there isn't one. I've never found any ghost I was looking for at the time absent from their lair, or from the Zone. And perhaps there never will be a way out... I don't know.
And, to be perfectly honest, I'm not entirely sure anybody will.
Though, I have to admit, it is a bit pointless if you're a ghost with "unfinished business" on Earth, yet you're stuck in the Ghost Zone forever.
It's kind of dumb, really.
But hey, what am I? The Ghost God or whatever? Who am I to say anything about it? I'm not remotely special. I'm just part of the crowd, like every ghost here is.
There are some who think they are of higher rank: like Walker, for example... He's the warden of the Ghost Jail. I tend to stay damn well away from him at all costs, and the prison, because who says he can't imprison a ghost teenager just as well as he can imprison any other ghost?
Still, if I had to be perpetually honest, him and every single other ghost in the place were in the exact same placement as I was. One of the crowd.
And I was pretty sure that would never change as long as I li- Well... You know what I mean.
So no, I don't know who I was before my death. I don't even know what my name was back then. If I did know, I probably wouldn't be where I am now, sitting here in my lair. Thinking... Pondering every single aspect of my old life... What it might have been like... And no, I have not just been sitting here for ten years doing nothing. I have been out and about, meeting the other ghosts.
Some of them still, to this day, rank me as the newbie, even though I've been here for so long, and tend to either bully me or ignore me.
I'm kind of used to it by now, though.
Nonetheless, I have met other kinds of ghosts. I don't wanna go too cliché here (wait, too late), but I have met some "friendly" ghosts. Some who wished to befriend me, and some who like to treat me like a child, but look after me. Ghosts like Frostbite, for example.
Frostbite was great... He was the leader of the Far Frozen, a realm of the Ghost Zone that was - well, Frozen, really. All incased in snowy mountain ranges and thick forests of stalagmites and stalactites (I will admit that I have crashed into a few... Oh, alright, a lot of those...) They had a whole array of power tools, for some reason, and they never seemed to run out of food. The inhabitants of the Far Frozen were gifted with various cryokinetic abilities that always astounded me.
There was also Johnny 13 and his girlfriend, Kitty. Johnny wasn't an enemy, and neither was he really a perfect friend. He calls me "kid" and "little man" all the time, and his stupid bad luck shadow is the most annoying and troublesome dork of darkness I have ever had the displeasure of meeting. He owns a motorbike, and it never leaves his side, therefore you can always hear him before you see him. Kitty, though, agrees with me on something; she disapproves with Johnny's shadow almost as much as I do, and they both often exchange rows about how his bike is more important than her.
I tend to stay well away from those arguments. Kitty can be pretty scary.
She doesn't hate me, though. I think she sort of thinks of me as the babysitting job she never got paid for. She does look after me on occasion, and her and Johnny overall aren't and probably will never be a threat to me.
And then there's characters like Klemper.
Klemper has the tendency to throw ice at you if you refuse to be his friend, and I swear, that's all he ever says: "Will you be my friend?"
Though nobody ever says yes, and I kind of understand their reasoning.
When it comes to Klemper, God, is he annoying?!
Wait - in terms of the level of annoyance, I'd say... Klemper equals twelve out of ten, and Johnny's shadow just might be eleven.
I dunno. I'm still kind of working the bugs out of that list...
Hey, with ten years and nothing to do, you tend to try to find ways to occupy your time.
OK, yeah, granted... How do I know it's been ten years if I haven't been to Earth at all?
Well... That brings me to Clockwork.
Before I tell you anything else, let me just clarify that Clockwork is the Ghost of Time (as his name clearly implies). Clockwork was one of the first ghosts I met after I died. He was the one to show me how I died, and he was the one to help me find my lair, for if it weren't for him, I would probably still be homeless in the Ghost Zone.
Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you. Each ghost in the Ghost Zone has their allocated realm, or lair. When Clockwork helped me to find mine, I was... Well, amazed just wasn't the word for it. It was perfect for me. Not a flaw in the place. It even came with a walk in closet in my room, which was always stocked with the coolest outfits. At first, I didn't like them much, but I warmed up to them.
My realm was quite near Clockwork's tower, as well, which was a great convenience for me. I don't go to Clockwork's as often as I used to. I understood and respected his privacy. Being employed by the Observants and being the Master of Time, he had a pretty big job to do, and I decided, with my signature modesty, that I wouldn't be the one to pester him all the time.
It was a bit different when he came to visit me, though.
He didn't come to me often, but when he did, I always knew it was important. He would never even leave his tower unless it was something important. He could go to anybody else in the Ghost Zone, any ghost more experienced than I was. He could go to Frostbite, but I knew Frostbite well enough to know that if I had pestered him as much as I would have pestered Clockwork had I decided not to respect his workload, he would not have been happy about it either.
No though, Clockwork always came to me. Never to anyone else. I was always honoured by that, and I was pretty sure Clockwork knew that. He always seemed to have a smile tugging at his lips whenever he saw me. I expect he saw me as a sort of apprentice in the making or something.
Sure, I was grateful and honoured, but I never understood why he always came to me, of all people. I mean, I was just a teenager. A Ghost teenager, yes, but nonetheless... He never told me why. All he ever said when I asked him was "You are more unique than any ghost I've met". I had no idea what he meant, and to this day I still occasionally ponder what he meant. As I've said, I'm one of the crowd. I've never considered myself unique or special.
And Clockwork knew that. Maybe that was why he always smirked at the baffled look on my face whenever he said those words.
Clockwork always knew more than I gave him credit for. I had learnt that over the years. And that fact became even more prominent one day.
It was nearing my tenth deathday. (I know... Stupid, but that's what they prefer to call it in the Ghost Zone. It astounded me how the ghosts could keep track of how old they were.) Sitting in my lair and watching TV just didn't appeal to me at the time. Yes. I had a TV. I also had video games. I mean, seriously, what kind of teenager would I be if I didn't have all that? I knew I was a teenager because Clockwork had told me that I died when I was four years old. Sad... But he wouldn't tell me how I did. I remember the cheapest aspects of my death... The screaming and the pain... But I never could remember who or what killed me, no matter how hard I tried. And now, ten years later, that made me fourteen... Or at least it would if I was still human.
Sometimes, I liked to act as if I was still human... As if I was just a normal teenager. I was known around the Ghost Zone as the "Ghost Boy" and not much else. Some called me things like "Ghost Punk" or "Whelp", but I ignored them. Skulker would have to do a whole lot better than that.
I knew something was up when my doorbell rang. Nobody ever came to visit me. Nobody really cared. It was either Walker; probably to randomly arrest me for... I dunno... Floating too slowly... Slowing up Ghost traffic... Breathing when I didn't have to. (I used to have a habit of doing that...) Or it was Clockwork. Frostbite never visited me, he had his own things to do... He always appreciated a visit from me, though.
If it was Clockwork, ringing the doorbell, patiently waiting on my doorstep, of all strange things for him to do, then I knew it was really important.
My doorbell had a rather strange tune, but I loved it. For some reason, it described me far more than the appearance of the video games and the flat screen television in my living room ever would. It kind of went like: 'Du-du-du-du-du-du-du, du-du-du-du, du-du-du-du-du-du-du'... Or something like that. Oh well, I know what I mean. It's difficult to describe.
I floated over to my front door. I was used to floating everywhere now. I hardly ever walked anywhere anymore. In the small window of my door, my reflection gazed back at me; my luminous snow white hair and glowing toxic green eyes against all odds. My opaline ghostly aura encircled my body like a beacon. My feet hit solid ground and the door swung open to allow visual access to Clockwork's purple cloak, but the first thing that made me realise it was him was the staff. He never went anywhere without his staff, and if I could spot that, I could spot him.
I raised an eyebrow. "Clockwork. Great to see you!" I opened the door wider and let him in.
"Hello." Clockwork greeted, hanging his hooded head in a respectful nod. "Thank you."
I knew why he didn't greet me by my name - that was because I didn't really have one. For some reason, I believed that "Ghost Boy" was the best I was gonna get, but Clockwork had never and would never call me that, for reasons I had yet to understand.
There were a lot of things about my old life that I knew Clockwork knew the answers to and he never told me. I always wondered why he didn't tell me anything. The only conclusion I ever came to was that he must have had good reason not to tell me. I just went with it. Forgave him. Assumed he would tell me in due time.
I shut the door behind him and turned to him. "You're welcome." I implied with a smile. "What brings you to these parts?"
Once he was done admiring my lair he turned to me. His blood red eyes were slightly duller than I remembered and the bags underneath them indicated that he must have been pretty tired, yet he was still smiling.
My smile depleted a bit when I got a good look at his face.
"We need to talk." he inquired.
My face fell completely. This couldn't be good.
(A/N: Say HAYLOOOOO to the new Fanfic! I really hope you like it! If it's good enough, consider Chapter Two published! XD Pretty please give me your feedback! I'd love to hear from you! This Fanfic idea just kind of came to me one day and I thought: "Why not? Let's try it out!" MY FIRST OFFICIAL DANNY PHANTOM FANFIC! WOO! I can't wait to carry on with this story! ;D
Remember: FEAR ME! XD
~ Marli x)