Harbinger

Chapter 1: Because I Would Not Stop For Death

A grey sky promising rain darkened the sky as it often seemed to in the coastal town of Blithe Hollow. Fall had come and, slowly but surely, the trees were changing to their bright, autumnal colors, standing in sharp contrast to the overcast sky above. The sight was a familiar one to the townsfolk and they went obliviously about their daily business as they always did. But one boy, watching through his bedroom window, did not.

Young man would be a closer approximation to the truth, as at his sixteen years, he stood as tall as he ever would but his body had not yet filled out to match. He ran a hand through his messy black hair as he looked out the window, his blue eyes briefly locking with those of his reflection's, the mirror image sitting on its bed just like he was.

A knock on his open snapped the young man out of his thoughts.

"Danny?" the young woman standing in his doorway said, her voice holding a slight tone of concern, "You okay?"

Turning his attention towards the doorway, the young man, Danny, took in the girl before him. She was only slightly older than him and stood only a few inches shorter, her straight, red hair hanging to the middle of her back and held out of her face by a blue hair band.

"Yeah, I'm fine, Jazz," Danny replied, quirking an eyebrow at her as he spoke, "Why?"

"You just looked a little….I don't know…." the young woman, Jazz, paused and waved her hand around her face in a vague gesture, "Out of it. I just wanted to make sure you're okay."

"I'm fine," Danny said with a sigh, shaking his head and turning his attention back towards the window, "I was just, admiring the view, I guess."

"It is a very pretty town," Jazz agreed as she followed his gaze, "Better than some of the other places we've been."

"Yeah," Danny agreed before turning his attention back to Jazz, "Look, I know being all caring and matronly is kind of your thing, but you don't need to worry about me."

"I do, I'm your big sister, it's in the job description," Jazz joked, earning a snort of laughter from Danny, "It's tough moving as much as we do. I know it's been a month but I still wanted make sure you're okay."

"Like I said, I'm fine," Danny stated with a small smile, "Besides you're the one that has it bad. You have to do your senior year in a completely new town."

"I'll manage," Jazz replied with a shrug, "Anyway, I came up here to tell you that your new friend is downstairs waiting for you."

"Tucker?" Danny asked, his eyes widening in surprise.

"Yeah, that's the one," Jazz answered with a smile.

"And you left him alone with Mom and Dad?" Danny pressed as he hopped to his feet.

"Yeah, what-" Jazz began to ask before letting out a gasp as she covered her mouth in shock, "He doesn't know."

"Well, he does now," Danny stated with an annoyed sigh as he stuffed his wallet into his pocket before throwing a grey, zip-up hoodie over his red and white t-shirt.

"I'm so sorry, Danny, I didn't know," Jazz apologiesed.

"It's done," Danny replied as he scoop his backpack off of the floor and stepped out of his room, "Let's just get down there, okay?"

Jazz nodded in reply and the two made their way over to the stairs before descending to the first floor. There, they were greeted by a room that likely had been intended to be a parlor of some sort, but instead of cozy furniture centered around a television, the room was occupied by at least a dozen computers hooked together and linked to a variety of other machines scattered across the room.

Three people stood in the room. Two of them, a man and a woman, appeared to be in their forties, with the man's short, black hair going grey at the temples. The man stood head and shoulders above everyone else in the room, with a barrel chest and thick arms. The woman next to him was short and petite by comparison, her red hair cut so it hung just past her chin. Both of them wore blue jeans and flannel shirts over black t-shirts that read "Fenton Phantom Finders."

The two adults were talking excitedly with the third person in the room, a young man roughly Danny's age. He was dark-skinned, with short, brown hair mostly hidden under a red beret and a thin, gangly frame that his long-sleeved, yellow t-shirt and green cargo pants hung loosely off of. As Danny and Jazz entered the room, he was examining a handheld electronic device.

"So, this thing detects electromagnetic fields?" the young man questioned, adjusting the glasses over his blue eyes.

"Yes," the woman confirmed with a smile, "And, as you know, ghosts give off unique EMFs, so this device is very useful for tracking them down."

"Right, of course," the young man agreed with a good natured chuckle before looking over at Danny and Jazz, "Hey, Danny, what up, man?"

"Hey Tucker," Danny replied with a shrug as he glanced nervously between the two adults and the young man, "Not much."

"Danny boy!" the man bellowed in greeting, "Why didn't you tell us you made a new friend?"

"He's a very intelligent young man," the woman added with a smile, "You should bring him over to dinner some time."

"That sounds great, Mom, but right now, Tucker and I have to get to school," Danny said quickly, clearly agitated.

"We do?" Tucker questioned in confusion.

"We do," Danny confirmed, giving his friend a pleading look. Nodding in understanding, Tucker made his way over to Danny and the two of them headed for the front door.

"Don't you want some breakfast?" Danny's mother called after him, concern in her voice.

"No, it's okay," Danny called back, "Not hungry. I'll see you later!"

"Bye, love you!" his mother called before sharing her worried look with the man.

Danny and Tucker walked down the sidewalk in silence for a minute, with Danny more interested in the pavement he was walking on than anything else.

"So…." Tucker began to say, trying to break the awkward silence.

"So, yeah," Danny echoed with a sigh, lifting his head up and looking at Tucker as they walked, "My parents are ghost hunters."

"Yeah, I picked up on that, what with all the ghost hunting equipment," Tucker replied with a snort, "Why were you trying to keep it a secret?"

"Because my parents are literally paranormal investigators," Danny answered with a deadpan expression, "It's one of those professions that shouldn't exist, like fortune teller or used car salesman. People usually think I'm weird when they find out."

"Yeah, but those people probably weren't from Blithe Hollow, 'The Most Haunted Town in America,'" Tucker said with a snort of amusement, "I've lived here my whole life. The second most popular religion is Wicca and the lady next door holds seances every Friday night. It takes a lot more than ghost hunters to weird me out."

"Thanks man," Danny said with a small smile, "You don't….it's pretty refreshing to hear that."

"Don't mention it," Tucker replied with a dismissive wave, "So, is that why you moved here? Your parents are trying to track down some ghosts?"

"Pretty much," Danny confirmed with a sigh and a shrug as they turned a corner onto one of the town's main roads, with a variety of shops lining the street and parking meters set up along the curb.

"Well, good luck to them," Tucker stated with an amused chuckle while the two of them walked by a liquor store, "They wouldn't be the first to come sniffing around for spooks. I remember when-"

Tucker was interrupted as the door to the liquor store suddenly swung open and a man stumbled out, bumping into Danny and knocking him to the ground.

"And stay out!" a voice shouted from inside the store before the door swung shut.

"Hey, man, watch it!" Tucker snapped as Danny pushed himself into a seated position and took a look at the man standing over him.

The man was a large one, easily as tall and wide as Danny's own father. Most of his face was covered by a bushy brown beard that was starting to go grey and his blue eyes were wide and bloodshot. He wore dirty green vest over an equally dirty brown coat that covered most of his bulk while a blue trucker hat was perched on his head.

"O-Oh, oh, I'm so sorry," the man mumbled with a deep voice as he looked down at Danny, "Here, let me help you."

"I'm fine," Danny said, holding up a hand to stop the man from stooping down to help him.

"Really, let me help you," the man insisted, holding out his hand for Danny to take.

"Really, I'm-" Danny began to argue, his tone annoyed.

"'Cuse me, cap," a new, heavily accented voice said, "Everydin' okay here?"

Looking up, Danny found a tall, lanky man standing a few feet away. He was dark skinned, with his eyes concealed behind a pair of sunglasses despite the dim lighting of overcast day. He was dressed in a black leisure suit with his the top few buttons of his white shirt undone, and carried himself in a relaxed, easy going way.

"Um, yeah," Tucker spoke up, put off slightly by the man's sudden appearance, "Just had a bit of an accident."

"I see," the man replied, flashing a bright grin as he turned towards Danny and offered him his hand, "Let me help ya up, ponda."

Danny initially felt like objecting, but when he saw the man's friendly smile, he sighed and decided to just take the man's offered hand.

"Dere we are, up ya go," the man said as he helped Danny to his feet, placing his other hand on the young man's shoulder to help steady him, leaning closer to Danny as he did.

"Since den, 'tis centuries, and yet feels shortuh dan a day," the man whispered into Danny's ear, "I first surmised da horses' heads were toward eternity."

"What?" Danny asked, quickly backing away from the man, pulling his hand back as he did, "What did you just say?"

"I asked if ya were okay," the man said, giving Danny a confused smile, "Ya sure ya okay, ponda? Didn't hit yer head on the way down or nothin', did ya?"

"I-I'm fine," Danny replied, confused and on edge.

"Ya friend here looka like he had one too many," the man continued, pointing towards the large man who had knocked Danny over, "Ain't dat right, cap?"

Danny followed the man's gaze towards the second man and found to his surprise that the large man was openly staring at the thin man, his face pale and his eyes wide and dilated. Danny could see the man's chest rising and falling quickly while the rest of his body was stock still, almost as if he was afraid any movement would give him away. To Danny, it seemed like the man was staring death in the face.

"I think it's time for ya to head on home, cap," the tall man said as he walked up to the large man and pat him on the chest, right above his heart, which caused the large man to flinch away violently, "Don't ya think?"

"Y-Yeah," the man mumbled as he started backing away, "Yeah, I think I'll head home."

With that, the large man turned away from them and began lightly jogging away, glancing back over his shoulder a couple of time as if he was afraid they would follow him before disappearing around a corner.

After the large man left, the tall man let out a chuckle and shook his head.

"Some people, am I right?" the tall man said before he began walking in the opposite direction the large man had gone in, giving Danny and Tucker a small wave as he went, "Have a nice day!"

"Well, that was weird," Danny commented as he watch the tall man disappear around the corner that he and Tucker had come from.

"Welcome to Blithe Hollow," Tucker replied with a snort before signalling for Danny to follow him as he began walking the way they had been going before.

"Who were those guys?" Danny questioned as he fell into step next to Tucker.

"The big guy?" Tucker asked for clarification, earning a nod from Danny, "That's Mr. Penderghast. In a town as crazy as this one, he has the distinction of being the local crank."

"And the other guy?" Danny inquired, glancing over his shoulder, even though the tall man was long gone.

"Never seen him before in my life," Tucker answered with a shrug, "It's getting to be tourist season, so you'll be seeing a lot of odd people from out of town. You'll get used to it."

"Right," Danny replied, turning back around just in time to stop himself from walking to someone.

"Hey," the man said, his voice light with what sounded to Danny like an accent from somewhere in the Middle East, as he placed a hand on the young man's shoulder to stop him, "Watch where you are going!"

"Sorry!" Danny quickly apologized as he looked up at the man.

The man was tall, though not as tall as the other man or Penderghast had been. He was solidly built and skin was so dark that it was practically black, causing the whites of his narrowed, brown eyes to stand out sharply. His head was shaved bald and he was dressed in an expensive looking black suit, a suitcase clutched in his hand.

Danny moved to go around the man to let him pass, but the man clutched his shoulder tightly, holding the young man in place and prompting him to look at the man in confusion.

"We passed before the house that seemed a swelling of the ground," the man said solemnly, looking Danny directly in the eye as he spoke, "The roof was scarcely visible, the cornice in the ground."

"What?" Danny questioned, looking at the man in surprise and confusion.

"I said you need to pay better attention," the man stated before taking his hand off of Danny's shoulder and briskly walking away.

"Today is not your day, huh, man?" Tucker questioned as Danny turned around to watch the man walk away.

"Did you hear that guy say something weird to me just now?" Danny questioned, turning to look at Tucker in confusion.

"What?" Tucker asked, looking perplexed, "No, he just told you to pay attention. You okay, man?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, I…." Danny trailed off as he shook his head and began walking down the street again, "Come on, we don't want to be late."

As they walked, Danny could hear someone shouting loudly from up ahead. Looking Danny saw a bedraggled looking man standing on a box at the entrance of an alleyway. He was dressed in a dirty green jacket over an equally dirty grey sweatshirt, the hood pulled up, covering his brown hair and obscuring his unshaven face.

"Repent, sinners!" the man screamed at those walking by, who were all doing their best to ignore him, "Repent, for the end is nigh! Our Lord on high shall soon come down from heaven and cast those with darkness in their hearts into the fiery pits of Hell!"

"I thought you said Penderghast was the town crank?" Danny questioned as they walked by the street preacher.

"There is fierce competition over that title, trust me," Tucker replied with a chuckle.

Danny laughed as well, glancing over his shoulder at the street preacher again. As he did, the preacher turned towards him and locked eyes with Danny.

"Or rather, he passed us," the street preacher called, "The dews drew quivering and chill. For only gossamer, my gown, my tippet, only tulle."

Danny started back at the words and quickly turned to face forward again.

"Seriously, dude," Tucker spoke up with concern as he saw the spooked look on Danny's face, "Are you okay? You seem really jumpy."

"I don't know, man," Danny replied, shaking his head in an attempt to clear it, "I feel like…."

Danny trailed off as his eyes drifted over to a woman they were approaching. She was tall and broad of shoulder, her blonde hair tied back in a bun. She wore a police officer's uniform, over which she had on a bright orange safety vest, with a round black hat on her head. She glanced away from the pad of paper she had been writing on and met Danny's gaze with her icy blue eyes.

"We passed the school, where children strove at recess in the ring," the woman whispered, her words chilling Danny to the bone, "We passed the fields of gazing grain. We passed the setting sun."

Danny stumbled as the woman passed him, managing to catch himself on the sign for a bus stop before he could fall over. Danny looked back at the woman as the people waiting at the bus stop looked at him in alarm, but the woman merely turned away from him and continued down the sidewalk.

Danny was still watching her when Tucker ran up next to him and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Alright, man, that's it," Tucker said, placing one of his arms under Danny's to help straighten him, "You're clearly not feeling well today. I'll walk you back home and you can get some rest.
"I….Yeah, sure….that's-" Danny began to reply, blinking his eyes as the woman disappeared from view, glancing around at the crowd as he did. While most of the small group of people who had been waiting for the bus were gathering around Danny with looks of concern, one was openly staring at him, catching the young man's attention.

The person was a boy, no older than twelve, with brown hair that seemed to stick straight into the air. He was dressed in a red jacket that seemed to hang off his skinny frame along with a pair of blue jeans and red sneakers. What caught Danny's attention though were his eyes, wide, blue eyes beneath thick eyebrows that seemed to stare through Danny.

"We slowly drove, he knew no haste," the boy said as he stepped off the curb and began slowly backing into the street, "And I put away my labor and my leisure too, for his civility."

As the boy's words faded, a new series of sounds caught Danny's attention. The rumble of an engine, the grinding of wheels against pavement and the blaring of a horn. Glancing to the side, Danny's eyes widened in horror as he saw a bus rapidly approaching the bus stop, barreling straight towards the boy as he stepped further into the street.

Acting on instinct, Danny pushed himself to his feet and lunged forward, shoving people out of the way as the bus blared its horn and slammed on its brakes while onlookers let out cries of shock and horror. Reaching the curb, Danny pushed off of it in a flying leap, stretching out his arms and shoving the boy in the chest. The boy was knocked clear of the bus by the push and Danny had enough time to turn to look at the bus.

Through the window of the bus, Danny could see the driver, an elderly, bone-thin man with long, stringy, white hair dressed in a light blue uniform with matching baseball cap. As time seemed to slow down, two things occurred to Danny. One was that the bus driver had yellow eyes.

The other was that he was smiling at Danny.

A sickening crunch followed with blinding pain and the world spun around Danny. A second later, Danny found himself laying on his back in the street, looking up at the grey, overcast sky. His body screamed with so much pain that his mind could not process it all and he lay on the black pavement twitching and gasping for a breath that would never come. Somewhere in the distance, people were calling for an ambulance and Danny could have sworn he heard Tucker screaming his name.

But all that fell away, all the pain and noise left Danny as five people stepped into view. Five people who formed a circle around Danny. Five people he recognized instantly.

The tall stranger, the street preacher, the businessman, the meter maid, and the bus driver.

"Because I could not stop for Death," the bus driver wheezed, his voice sounding like trapped air escaping a corpse, "So, he kindly stopped for me."

As the bus driver spoke, the five people changed. There was no intermediary period where there forms shifted. They were simply as they had appeared one moment, and different the next.

The street preacher was now dressed in a pristine white robe over which he wore gleaming silver armor. The hood of his robe was pulled up, casting his entire head in shadow, obscuring all his features save his eyes that now glowed with an eerie blue flame. Black, feathered wings sprouted from his back and a flaming sword hung from the belt around his waist.

The tall stranger still wore a black leisure suit, but it was rough and moldy now, the white, button-up shirt he wore under it now stained with dirt. A tall top hat now adorned his head and he rested his weight on a walking cane made of polished ebony. What caught Danny's attention though was the man's face, which was now painted white like a skull.

The businessman had changed the most. He was now dressed in nothing more that a gold kilt that hung down to his knees, showing off his muscled skin that was as black as onyx. A ceremonial headdress adorned his head, which Danny realized was now that of a jackal's, it's eyes glowing red.

The meter maid was now dressed for battle, wearing iron scale mail and a matching horned helmet. Her blonde hair ran down to her shoulders, woven into elaborate braids, and a fur cloak hung from her shoulder. Danny could see that her arms were covered by dozens of scars and a long spear was held in one of her hands.

Finally, the bus driver was now dressed in a long, brown robes that hung in tatters, a long, wooden pole held in his gnarled, bony hand. A wide brimmed hat sat upon his head, casting his face in shadows save for his now glowing yellow eyes.

"The carriage held but ourselves," the bus driver continued as the five of them began reaching down towards Danny, their forms blocking out the light of the sun, "And immortality."

A/N: So, this has been a story that's been germinating in my mind for a couple of years and I finally decided to start jotting it down. Thought it might be interesting to take a darker look at a cartoon from my youth and throw some extra crossovers in to boot. Tell me what you guys think! Also, bonus points for those who can identify who the five figures are before I reveal it in the next chapter! As always, feedback and critiques are always welcome, so please review! Later!