Sometimes, the darkness is real.

Darkness
A Danny Phantom FanFiction by Cordria

Chapter 1: Memories

She woke in complete darkness. Her head throbbed in time to a quickstep dance. Letting out a soft moan, she pushed herself into a seated position. Absently rubbing her hand through her hair, she flinched as she touched a sensitive spot near the back of her head.

Pain.

Her eyes flickered quickly over the blackness as she felt the lump on her head. Not a single fragment of light shone through the darkness. Where am I? She closed her eyes, the totality of the blackness making her dizzy. It was far better to pretend she could see, but merely had her eyes shut.

What happened to me? Why am I here?

Reaching out with her fingers, she traced the harsh stone tiles of the floor. The spaces between the bricks were deep and wide. Fingers slipped into chill puddles of water, danced over sharp cracks and crevices, and explored to the farthest reaches of her arms. Yet she felt nothing more than more stones. No walls. No furniture. Nothing but ground.

Even through her thick clothes, the cold trickled into her bones. Slowly, silently, she rose onto her heels and crouched for a moment as her stiff joints protested the movements. Her eyes unconsciously drifted open again, trying to help her keep her balance and search for dangers.

Darkness.

A slice of a story she had read years ago flitted into her memory. A tale of a dark room… of a slicing pendulum… of a deep, bottomless, pit. Images of falling to her death filled her mind, followed soon after by thoughts of what else could be out in the darkness. Moldy, dingy skeletons grinning into the black. Maggots and rats scurrying under her feet. Unseen monsters hiding, chained in a corner, waiting to pounce.

She shuddered and settled back onto the ground. She flinched at a crawling sensation on her arm, visions of spiders and centipedes and other dark-loving insects making her jumpy. No, stop. There's nothing there. She rubbed at her face. What is going on? Dropping her hands to her waist, she did a quick check of her utility belt. Everything was gone.

She groaned and buried her head into her hands, pressing her palms against her eyes. As sparks jumped into her vision, questions flitted through her brain like hummingbirds. What happened to me?

Slowly, ever so slowly, memories started to float back through her mind. No movie reels: only snapshots. Detailed pictures of moments that burst into bloom in her head like fireworks.

Her son: missing for nearly a week.

Jack: sitting in a dirty jumpsuit, staring at the wall of the kitchen, ignoring the fudge Jazz had placed in front of him.

A police officer: trying to explain that it looked like Danny hadn't run away. They had activated the Amber Alert… but there was no sign of him anywhere.

Her daughter: asleep in Danny's bed, tears still on her face.

The police: once again telling her that they had found no trace of Danny.

Sam: who by most accounts hadn't stopped crying in days.

Then she knew. She remembered. Danny…

Curling up into a ball – ignoring the chill of the floor – she cried over the loss of her son. Her little boy. Stomach twisting in knots, tears leaked from her eyes and traced cold paths down her cheeks. He'd only just started recovering from the accident a few months ago, and that fiasco with the school psychologist not two weeks ago. My Danny...

Pulling her legs tightly against her chest, the pain of her emotions flooded through her. Her son had been taken. To where, she didn't know. By whom, she didn't know. All she knew was that he was gone. And now, she was here. Wherever here was.

More firefly memories flittered through her mind as she swiped at the tears on her face.

A trip to the park at night, unable to sleep.

A shadow on the grass.

A sharp pain in her head.

Blackness.

Chains rattled. She flipped her head around, eyes widening. Even in the complete darkness, she gazed about, searching for the source of the noise. Then, on the far side of the room, she saw two glowing, green eyes staring right back at her.

To be continued…