I recently got back in to Danny Phantom, thanks to one of my friends, which prompted an idea for a DP story…thus creating this! xD

I don't own Danny Phantom or any of its characters. I do own Analiese and some of the other characters that [will] appear in this fic, however.

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Breakeven
Prologue

She had known from the very start that it probably hadn't have been the brightest idea but she'd gone through with it anyway figuring that nothing would happen and she'd be safe. How wrong had she been! Analiese felt her heart hammering against her ribcage, pounding so hard that she was sure that it was going to erupt from her chest—leaving nothing but a bloody gaping hole where it had once been.

Her legs pumped purposefully, the sound of her feet slapping against the concrete echoed through the midnight silence of Amity Park. Just a little further and she'd be home—she could almost feel the warmth of her cozy house and could almost smell the cinnamon air freshener that her mother liked to spray.

Analiese was a block away from her house, thankfully, because her legs were starting to ache and it was becoming harder and harder to breathe with that painful stitch in her side. Her foot got caught in a crack in the sidewalk and she felt herself losing balance, falling forwards all she could do to protect herself from hitting the concrete was brace her hands in front of her.

Shit shit shitshitshit.

"What did I tell you before, my dear? You can run, but you can't hide? Yes, that sounds about right." A voice chuckled, "Looks like now you can't even run, this makes everything a whole lot easier on me."

The young blonde glanced around wildly to try and pinpoint where the voice was coming from, but it seemed to be coming from all around her—and nowhere at the same time. How was he doing that? Was he some sort of ventriloquist? Analiese pushed herself off of the sidewalk and attempted to stand once again to escape, stumbling over her own feet—a jolt of pain shot through her, her right leg felt as if it were on fire! She bit back a scream.

Wait. If I scream then maybe someone'll come to help me…

She opened her mouth to scream but couldn't find her voice to go through with the action. Panicked, she tried again, and again—but nothing, not even a squeak.

"Nifty trick, huh?" The voice spoke once again, triumphant amusement lacing his every word. Right as the last word was spoken a young man—in his late 20s?—materialized right in front of her, out of thin air! Her eyes widened considerably, how was it even possible for someone to do such a thing?

"I think you've fought against me long enough tonight, I don't know about you but I'm getting quite tired. What do you say to calling it quits and heading home, hm?" His eyes were sharp crimson, sending chills through her body with just one glance. A blood-stained lab-coat hung loosely from his thin body, ominously swaying in the night's breeze and billowing out behind him. His hair was dark brown and shaggy, making him appear to be a bit younger than what his true age was. His lips twitched into a casual, yet menacing, grin with his sharp canines bared in a threatening manner.

Analiese shook her head furiously, finding that not only could she not speak but she also couldn't move, as if some unseen force was keeping her tightly bound to the spot in which she was sitting. Her stormy-grey eyes were bright, wide with fright—she knew exactly what guys like him did to girls like her.

He's going to kill me…he's going to rape and kill me. I'm never going to see my friends or family ever again, oh God…I'm going to die! Her eyes filled with tears as he leaned forward, roughly pulled her to her feet and tossing her over his shoulder.

"Don't worry, kid. I'll do my best to keep you alive, but I can't make any guarantees that you'll survive." He laughed, "I suppose I should introduce myself seeing as we are going to be spending so much time together. Don't worry, there are others just like you back at my place—so don't feel like I singled you out, you just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time, hun. Lucky you."

Her mind was reeling with all the possible scenarios of what was going to become of her, never in her life had she ever been as scared—terrified!—as she was at this precise moment!

"My name is Colton Riley, but I go by Splicer." Splicer then did something that sent her mind exploding with questions—he turned them both invisible and flew down through the concrete sidewalk!

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Sam frowned, picking at the questionable substance on her lunch tray while shooting worried glances over to the table several yards away from her's, Danny's, and Tucker's. Two boys in the grade above them [making them juniors] along with a girl who was a grade below them weren't looking too good, their faces drawn and eyes swollen—no doubtedly from crying hours on end. The goth girl felt her heart pang in sympathy towards the small group, their friend had disappeared the week before—Analiese, if Sam remembered correctly.

"Wow, this girl's got the entire school crying over her disappearance." Tucker noted, staring out over the courtyard.

Danny quirked a brow at his technologically savvy friend, "Way to be insensitive, Tuck."

The boy shrugged, going back to play with his PDA, "Just an observation, man. I mean, did anyone even know her? Aside from her obvious group of friends over there. I certainly had never heard of her until they started making a huge deal over her disappearance—she's not the only one who's disappeared around the state recently."

Sam let out an irritated huff, "It's still a big deal Tucker! Sure we may have a ghost problem but stuff like this just doesn't happen in Amity Park! I wasn't friends with Analiese, but she wasn't like some of the other girls here—" she shot Paulina a withering look, "—she was actually really nice."

"Tuck's right—"

Sam and Tucker both shot him an incredulous look.

"He is?"

"I am?"

Danny rolled his eyes, "About her not being the only one to disappear recently. There've been a lot of disappearances around the state lately—it's like someone or something is picking off all these teenagers one by one…" He trailed off thoughtfully, coming up with his own ghost-related theories as to the whereabouts of the missing teenagers.

"Don't think too hard about it, the police are saying that all these kids are probably just angsty teenagers who got into it with their parents and just decided to run away." Tucker sighed, waving his hand around lazily to try and put emphasis on his point.

Sam rolled her eyes, "Don't you think it's a little too coincidental that all these kids just up and left at the same time? I highly doubt that they all knew each other—the disappearances have happened all in different places in the entire state—I'm not saying that these disappearances aren't related in some way but I highly doubt that they're all teenage runaways."

Danny's bright blue eyes raked over the table not too far from their own, taking in the sight of the devastated trio of friends; he felt sorry for them. He didn't know what he would do if anything ever happened to Sam or Tucker, he'd be absolutely destroyed.