The Cotard delusion, Cotard's syndrome, or Walking Corpse Syndrome is a rare mental disorder in which people hold a delusional belief that they are dead(either figuratively or literally), do not exist, are putrefying, or have lost their blood or internal organs.

"Mom… Dad… I have to tell you something," Danny whispered with downcast eyes.

"What is it Danny?" Maddie Fenton asked lovingly.

"Well, um, never mind," he stuttered as he started walking away.

"Come on, Danny-boy, you can tell us anything," the boy's father persuaded.

"Well, you see, I'm kind of a ghost," his voice faded out at the end.

"Danny, you're running your words together."

His normally slow heart quickened its beats as nervousness crept up. "It's not too late to backpedal," he thought. "Oh, I just wanted to say," he started to lie, "that I plan to study more. Yeah, well, I'll get started on that now, so… bye!"

"I thought I heard something about a ghost," inquired his dad.

"Drat! Talk about selective hearing," the teen cringed, "Ghost? No I said… toast. Yeah, I'm studying… toast."

"Well, you nailed that one," he thought bitterly.

"You're studying toast? What about toast?" asked the mother.

"Just… uh," he breathed deeply. "No, you're right. I did say 'ghost.' I said that I am a ghost."

Time seemed to freeze in the room. His parents gawked at him. Not hate, not joy, just surprise lit their faces. After an eternity his mom smiled. "Danny, that's ridiculous. You're obviously not dead."

"But I can prove it," he lifted his arms up to the sky, "I'm going-"

"To the lab," she interrupted.

"What?!" his heart pounded through his chest. He screamed internally, "No! They're going to do experiments and tests. How could they do this to their own son?"

Something cold pressed against his chest, and he screamed. "Calm down, Danny," his dad sighed, "It's just a stethoscope."

The confused boy opened his eyes, which he didn't even realize were closed, and saw that he was already in the lab. "Put these in your ears," his mom ordered.

He did as she said. "Hear that Danny? That's your heart beat. It means you're alive," she spoke to him as if he was five.

He ripped the device off of him. "That doesn't prove anything! I'm still not completely alive! How can I make this any clearer? I died!"

"Stop this nonsense right now! You're not dead!" Maddie was almost on the verge of tears.

"You never listen to me!" he screamed as he ran up to his room.

People with the Cotard Delusion often become withdrawn from others and they tend to neglect their own hygiene and well-being.

"It would explain so much," Danny overheard his mother saying to his dad the next morning, "He's gotten so distant from us and most of his peers lately."

"I know," his dad replied, "And I always see him skipping meals, running out the door without his backpack or without combing his hair."

"What would explain so much?" the raven-haired teen sneered.

The parents jumped. "Oh… I didn't know you were awake," his mom forced a smile, "We were just on the phone with… someone you're going to visit today. Get ready. We have to be there in half an hour."

"Anything you want to tell me?" he asked, trying to get his parents to explain what they thought was up with him.

"Yes, remember you have to eat breakfast," his dad added.

The teen grimaced, "Got it."

In the first stage – Germination – patients exhibit psychotic depression and hypochondriacal symptoms. The second stage – Blooming – is characterized by the full blown development of the syndrome and the delusions of negation. The third stage – Chronic – is characterized by severe delusions and chronic depression.

Danny glowered at the man sitting across from him. "Daniel, just talk to me," the balding psychiatrist begged.

They had been sitting in his office for forty-five minutes and all the doctor got were teen-death-glares. "Why," Danny finally said, "I told my parents, and now they want me sent to a nut-house."

"They don't want you sent to a 'nut house'" he added air-quotes, "they just want you to be helped."

"I don't need any help!"

"I won't know that until you tell me your side of the story,"

"My side of the story? Why don't you tell me what other side of the story there is?"

"Fine. Your parents called me this morning claiming that you thought you were dead. Despite them showing you your pulse, you still did not believe them. Is this right?"

Danny crossed his arms and looked away from the doctor. "Danny, we're suspecting you have Cotard Delusion."

The defiant teen threw his hands up, "Yes, because I know what that means!" he shouted sarcastically.

"It means you are under the belief that you are dead."

Danny scoffed. "This is serious!" the psychiatrist shouted.

"I don't think I'm dead, I know I'm dead," in his anger he wasn't even worried about keeping his secret. "I am a ghost, and I fight ghosts. I almost died, I can go intangible, fly, and turn invisible. All things that ghosts do! Hence," he gestured to himself, "I have to be a ghost."

"Danny, it's impossible."

The fuming teen got up and left the room, but just as the door was almost closed he could hear the doctor say to himself, "Definitely at stage three."

Cotard's syndrome is encountered primarily in psychoses such as schizophrenia. It can arise in the context of neurological or mental illness and is particularly associated with depression and derealization. It has even been described in migraines.

Danny's legs swung from the white-sheeted bed that squeaked whenever he moved. "The room is nothing like what they show in the movies," he thought, "no padded walls, no strait jacket, no screaming, wild-eyed serial killers. It's just a blank-walled building filled with people in faded blue clothes that just don't fit in with social norms… and I'm one of them."

He rubbed his eyes and looked down at his hands, "I could turn them invisible," his thoughts continued, "but even if they did change that could just be the schizophrenia they told me came with this disorder."

He laid back down on to his bed, the springs squeaking in protest the entire way. "It wouldn't even matter any way. If I'm completely alive, I'm stuck here. If I'm part dead, then I get sent off to some sort of test facility."

He closed his eyes and fell into a corpse-like sleep.

Yea! It's finally summer! I know it's been forever since I updated anything, but I hope to update some of my other stories soon.

I don't own Danny Phantom. The quotes are italicized and they come from the Wikipedia page Cotard delusion (and I don't own Wikipedia either) here's the link… en.wiki/ Cotard_delusion (just remove the spaces). By the way, this and all of the following stories are in no way trying to make fun of, or show these disorders in an offensive or disrespectful way. If anyone reading this has or knows anyone with these disorders, I am not writing this to offend anyone.