"Danny, guys, wake up breakfast is ready." Jazz peaked her head through the door. She barely entered the room trying to be courteous of their privacy.

An almost unanimous groan came from the teens. "Yes, yes, you want your sleep. Maybe you should have thought about that before staying up all night." She started to walk down the hallway as she continued, "and don't make me come back up there."

Danny sat up in bed and looked at the time. 8:30, Ugh why did she have to wake us up this early. Usually, they didn't stay up past 4 am, but because of what happened the previous night they didn't go to bed until it was past 5. Even then it was hard for Danny to fall asleep, constantly feeling anxious about what he couldn't see in the darkness. When the sun started to rise was when he truly could calm down and get to sleep.

Danny rubbed his eyes, removing the crusted discharge from them. He looked over to see his friends on the floor. Sam was sitting up looking as tired as he felt, and Tucker fell back asleep. Danny took the pillow he was just sleeping on and chucked it at his friends sleeping face.

Tucker jerked his head up in surprise, "The hell man?!" he gave Danny a look of anger.

"Trust me, you'll want to get up. Jazz wasn't kidding about making her come back here." He grimaced as if reliving a distant memory. "It was NOT fun last time. I'll just say she's stronger than she looks."

After a few seconds of trying to figure out what the sweet and affection older sister could have done to her brother. They were interrupted by Danny walking to the door "Come on let's go eat." He said with a yawn.

Their stomach growled in agreement before they could protest for more sleep.

~•~•~

Floating in the endless abyss was a white-haired teen. He stared at nothing with pure boredom pasted onto his face. He waited for anything to happen because absolutely anything could be better than nothing.

Then out of nowhere sounds of distant chatter entered into the nothingness. Getting stronger and louder with time. I mischievous smirk contorted onto his mouth. He floated around listening to where the sound was coming from. The louder it got, the closer he was. Eventually, he found it, he could hear the conversation fluently. His hands danced around in the air looking for a pocket of some sort. Once he hit it his smile grew larger and more devilish. "Gotcha"

~•~•~

A plate full of pancakes were put in front of the teens. They all scarfed down the food quickly hoping they could go right back to bed afterward. The much-enjoyed silence was broken when Maddie sat down to join her family. "Just how late did you guys stay up last night?"

The three of them switched glances between each other before Danny finally answered, "Not too late I'm sure, didn't really check the time when we fell asleep." Keeping the answer vague was a way to avoid feeling guilty or look like they were lying. Maddie gave "hm" that made a point she knew he wasn't telling the truth but didn't question any further.

"Kids, we have good news," Jack bellowed after swallowing a mouth full of pancake. Danny and Jazz looked up to their father in curiosity waiting for him to go on. "You know about that ghost portal we've been working on, we finally figured out the problem and fixed it." Jazz rolled her eyes and continued reading her book when she realized the conversation would be unimportant.

"Yea who would have guessed the 'on' switch would be on the inside?" Maddie chimed in.

"Which means you two can help us out in the lab more."

"Oh great." Danny went back to tuning them out and eating his breakfast.

"Oh, and of course Sam and Tucker can join as well." Maddie smiled brightly at the two.

"Thanks for the offer Mrs. Fenton but… um.. were usually very busy."

"Yes, so so busy." Tucker tagged along.

"Well, that's too bad."

After eating the three of them were cleaning the dishes. "Well, you heard that, looks like I'm gonna be stuck in the lab for a few weeks helping mom and dad till they realize that portal doesn't go anywhere."

Tucker put his hand on Danny's shoulder, "Good luck my friend, you will need it."

Danny groaned, "Thanks." he sat down one of the plates he dried off and went to grab another one when the plate he just finished fell to the floor and shattered. The surprise made him jump back onto the glass shards. "Ah fuck"

"Holy shit are you ok dude?" Tucker helped Danny hop onto the couch while Sam swept up the remaining shards before coming over.

"Yea, yea I'm fine. It was just so weird, it's like the plate fell on its own."

~•~•~

The strange events didn't end with the broken plate. Throughout the week more unexplainable occurrences happened. From strange wind coming out of nowhere to the feeling of someone pushing him while he was on the stairs. The nights weren't good either. If it was possible for him to at least get a couple hours of sleep at night that would be a positive. Whenever he did try to sleep, he was bombarded by vivid nightmares of his family being murdered or those terrifying eyes staring at him from everywhere. Of course, the added paranoia didn't help the situation.

Maddie and Jack the past week were making Danny and Jazz work down in the lab after they came home from school every day. The extra workload wasn't helping Danny with his classes. His lack of sleep made him constantly fall asleep in class, and the lab work made it barely possible for him to do his homework before passing out on it. Sam and Tucker noticed Danny's constant exhaustion, but after getting snapped at by him when they wouldn't drop it, they decided to let him be.

When he came home from school one day Jack and Maddie were in the living room waiting for their children to return. "Ah kids, we just wanted to let you know that our project is basically complete, and we won't be needing your help anymore," Jack said directing his attention to the both of them. "We also have a surprise to show you guys later, but first we will need to run more tests." He ended vaguely.

Jazz and Danny gave each other a concerned glance before averting their gaze back to their parents. "That was all, now go ahead and work on your homework till dinner is ready." Maddie dismissed them. A sense of relief flooded into Danny, Thank god, now maybe I can catch up on my work before I fail, He changed the direction where he was looking to the stairwell down to the lab. but what are they hiding down there? He quickly dismissed his thoughts to head upstairs and get started on his work.

~•~•~

Later that night Danny randomly woke up. He sat up in bed and looked over to read his digital clock on his nightstand. 4:50. His throat was overcome with an extremely uncomfortable feeling of dryness. He stood up, annoyed he would have to get out from the safety of his bed sheets, and started heading towards the kitchen. He grabbed a cup and started to fill it with water then continued to chug the glass down satisfying his throat. He warmed up at the thought of returning to his bed and started for the stairs.

"Daniel"

Danny froze at the sound of his name being called. It sounded distorted like what was said wasn't English but somehow understandable. He stood there thinking about his options; go back upstairs and forget everything that just happened, or turn around and face what could be possibly waiting for him. He opted for the first choice, seeing as it was the safer option. After a few more steps he heard his name being called again, this time louder and more demanding. He grumbled to himself, "This is probably just another dream." He turned around to see if some monster would attack him but nothing.

"Come Daniel"

He followed the voice to the entryway to the lab. A soft glow was coming from inside beckoning him to come. Maybe I should just go back to bed. Before he could reconsider the voice saying his name rang through his ears enticing him to go down. "Well… satisfaction brought it back." Danny mumbled to himself taking his steps down.

AN:

I'm working on making chapter longer. I have a problem with trying to figure out whether it would be better to end the chapter at a good place or to have longer chapters. If you guys have a preference between longer chapter with slower updates or shorter chapter with more frequent updates, lemme know. For now thanks everyone for taking your time to read this and see you next time!