Hi everyone! Before anything else I would like to clear two things:

1. I don't own Danny Phantom, Butch Hartman does.

2. I don't own Anna Dressed in Blood, Kendare Blake does.

Okay, with that settled. This is a DP fan fic that is based on Kendare Blake's amazing book "Anna Dressed in Blood". If you've read the Anna Dressed in Blood series, then you'd find some similar things in this story. If you haven't, that's alright, it won't affect your understanding of this story.

Special thanks goes to my amazing friend,Lightning Streak for being patient with me, for giving me helpful suggestions and for making this idea possible.

Rating: High T. I'm not sure how far I could go with horror but it contains language and gory scenes that may not be suitable for the young.

The air whispered haunted.

Danny fought the shudder that was threatening to roll in him in waves. The breeze here was a woman's touch, if said woman was cold dead, clawed and biting. It raked Danny's scalp to foot, riffling through his thick, black hair, shuffling his clothes and brushing his skin the way a shark would caress its prey.

He let his gaze wander as he took in his surroundings. The bronze statue of a lion on its majestic roar was situated in the very center of the vast expanse of old brick buildings and foliage of trees. Lisle University boasted of education at its finest in the middle of Wisconsin-Nowhere, USA. No wonder it was infested with ghosts more serious than the ones back in Amity.

"Here's the handbook, inside includes a university map. The blue one is your Certificate of Registration which also has a list of your class schedule…" Danny ignored the rest of his guide's speech as he accepted the slim, dark blue and gold paperback that she handed him. The petite blond wearing a pink crop top and white pants was his pre-assigned Lisle University tour guide who told him earlier to refer to her as Star.

He thought she was just joking or maybe it was some sort of label from the kids in the school like, 'Poker Face, Pierced, Superman or Nerdy' but a glance from her university student assistant id claimed that 'Star' was in fact her real name. Star Sykes.

He tilted his head as he pondered about what could possibly make this semester different from others. He never intended for ghost hunting to be his full time career, in fact, he never envisioned it as his lifetime career either. He wanted to be an astronaut since he could remember but life or rather, half afterlife happened. Ghost activities in a small town called Amity Park, spectral-zealous parents and one gargantuan disasteroid on the verge of breaking the Earth into pieces could do that to dreams. Since then, he was known as the ghost expert kid.

Expert was a relative statement but—

"So…Saturday at 8?" Star was peering up at him under her long, thick lashes and biting her lower lip, waiting. Danny blinked as he tried to grasp what she was asking him about.

"Um," One hand flew to the back of his neck to scratch it. "I have classes on Saturday?"

"Silly Danny," Star giggled and playfully hit his shoulder. Danny immediately stiffened at the sudden physical contact but his guide was too amused at him to notice. Were people in Wisconsin this at ease with strangers?

She smiled and it lit up her face. Danny thought she was kind of pretty when she first boarded down the steps of the administration building, cascading golden hair, heart-shaped face, light blue doe eyes, slim and tall with paraphernalia on one hand and a fuchsia purse on her arm but when she smiled, God, Danny couldn't help but smile back. She was Barbie, college student limited edition.

Star slightly turned her head and her fairy-tale blond hair tumbled down and curtained the left side of her face. She carefully tucked a few strands behind her ear. "Nobody has classes on the first Saturday of the first school week. It's … a university holiday. So as per tradition, we have this massive party. And you're definitely invited." She winked at him and he almost forgot his purpose for transferring here.

"I'm new?" Danny shifted his weight and continued to rub the back of his neck. Although he was not a party animal, he was curious about this university holiday that he never heard of.

Star rolled her eyes. "So? Everyone's new every semester." She slanted him a look that he felt meant something that he was supposed to know. Star sighed softly. "Please tell me you're not staying at your dorm on a Saturday evening sorting through boxed stuff."

Danny frowned. "No." He had far better stuff to sort on his Saturday night off but he wasn't about to let Star in on that one.

Star pouted. She was becoming more annoying and less beautiful to him after every sentence out of her thin, rosy mouth. "You still don't look interested in the party." She tilted her head again and placed one hand on her waist, deep in thought. "There'd be lots of people, booze, fun…"

"Sounds cool but I kinda promised my mom I'd fix her car this weekend." He attempted to appear shy and embarrassed. Girls usually step down when he played the mom card.

"Can't you just do it on Sunday?" Okay, maybe not this girl. Danny would have loved to meet Star's parents on the day she was born so he could persuade them to name her Persistent instead.

He shook his head. "Sorry, no. Got therapy on Sundays." This got the reaction he was aiming for. Star looked shock for a second before she opened her mouth to undoubtedly pry on his life again but Danny decided to beat her to it. "Previous university and doctor recommendation. Either therapies on Sundays or 8-month lock down. I chose therapy."He shrugged and watched as Star took it in.

For a second, her confidence wavered and uncertainty crossed her face but she squared her shoulders and looked at him right in the eye. Danny had to give her some credit. She wasn't as easily scared as he thought. "Yeah, I saw the records. Hope you don't mind though. Part of the job as student assistant."

Danny shrugged again and Star changed the topic as they strolled around the campus. If she saw the records and still stuck to being his tour guide then she was tougher than he expected. Those records were evidence of his condition. Doctor and university administration notes, probably with pictures of some of the bruises, cuts and wounds that were labeled as results of self harm.

Danny kept his pace as he glanced at the peeling blue and gold paint of the buildings. Peaceful and common this place might seem, he knew better. He could feel the numerous spectral energies lurking deep behind the shadows. He could feel them. He could feel her.

"You found out anything interesting today?"

Danny tucked the phone between his ear and shoulder as he crouched down on the wooden floor of his dorm. He reached a hand and grabbed a cable, jammed it to the back of his printer and plugged it on a nearby extension cord. He let out a contented sigh as he climbed back to his bed and typed on his computer.

"Not really." He mumbled into the phone as he opened his email and downloaded the attachment. He hit the print button. The printer started grumbling to life. He heard a groan from the other line.

"That's your 300 B.C printer at work, isn't it? Dude, how many times do I have to tell you to buy something from this era? You could wake up the neighborhood with that thing."

Danny scowled. "Tucker. This printer's—"

"Yeah, yeah. Extraordinary and sentimental antique. So how's Lisle?" It was Danny's turn to groan. "I'll take that as a compliment." The guy from the other end of the line, Tucker, chuckled.

Danny stretched his legs and crossed it on the ankles as he set aside his laptop. "The student assistant program is just annoying. Everything she assisted me with is something I could've done myself. Then she invited me to this 'massive party' on Saturday and was looking at me weird the whole time. I never thought about it until today but girls are much like ghosts in a way. They are both so full of tricks. She was doing these lashes and eye thing like she was pawing through my mind and waiting for me to say some—"

"Whoa! Whoa! Hold on, you just got settled in Wisconsin for a week and you already have a girl flirting with you? That's awesome, man! Tell me, tell me everything! You don't just get worked up over a girl. What's her name? Stats? Man, I should've bailed on my dad and come with you that day."

Danny rubbed a hand on his temple and closed his eyes. "No, that's alright. Your dad needs you, although things would be better if you're here already. I can't get the hang of this research. And yeah, Star. Her name's Star. And I'm not worked up over her. I'm more bothered by the same fact that living people are sometimes worse than the dead."

"Ow, man! That hurt!" Danny's lips curved upward as he imagined Tucker putting a hand over his heart and sending him a look of betrayal. "You're one of the few exceptions, of course." He quickly amended and they both chuckled.

The phone call with his best friend lasted for about two hours as they both discussed classes and university rules and other important matters. Danny tried to scour the internet for supernatural information regarding Ashland, many of it turned out to be hoaxes after hours of painful reading so he decided that the best way to research was to gather it personally from the locals.

Danny checked the time, it was half past six in the evening. The perfect time to go out and do his job. But first, he had to do his other job.

"You're the new part-time keg delivery guy?" Mr. Lancer, a balding fifty-something bulky guy who turned out to be Danny's boss raised one bushy brow at him and lit up his cigarette. He puffed the smoke out and continued to intimidate him through his relentless glare.

"Yes, sir." Danny kept his posture straight and met Mr. Lancer's eyes unblinking. The man who introduced himself as a former army guy interrogated Danny even when Clark, the hiring officer and another beefy guy, declared him as already hired and was about to start tonight.

"Can you drive a pickup? Or even lift a keg?" Mr. Lancer eyed Danny's arms and torso which showed no rippling muscles whatsoever unlike the black sleeveless ones the employees wear.

"Yes, sir." Danny wanted to punch the man so hard and flip him twenty times to prove he could lift a damn keg but he refrained himself. They might declare him overqualified and refer him to UFC instead if he showed off.

He had strength and agility but he was not bumped in various places like these guys and he liked to keep his body that way. No ghost would have the element of surprise if he was a towering, green-skinned, muscled-freak.

"Step into my office, please." Mr. Lancer dropped the remains of his cigarette to the trash bin and opened a gray door at the back of the room. Danny wanted to roll his eyes but he followed him inside nonetheless. Mr. Lancer shut the door behind him. He then rounded his table and stood in front of a bookshelf. He didn't even offer a seat.

He turned to Danny. "If you are what they say you are, then your first job tonight is the shutters."

Danny cocked a brow at him. So the earlier interrogation wasn't really about the keg business. It didn't matter though, he was here for the big catch not for amateur practices.

"I don't accept no for an answer." Mr. Lancer pinned him with his sharp eyes even before he could utter a word. "Mr. Fenton, if you want to work here, you'll do the extra work I ask you to do. If you don't like my rules then you're free to find another job that lets you roam at night in search of ghost stories and ghost themselves."

Danny sighed. Great, first night at work he was set up on a deal with the bossiest of all bosses. It wasn't that bad considering someone local knew about the nature of his job, which meant Mr. Lancer was in the circle besides, what better way to start his night than to actually do what he came here for? Danny couldn't fight the grin stretching on his face. "Where's the shutters?"

Mr. Lancer reflected what Danny was feeling. "The farthest shed in the back. Your guy is the drunken one, don't put yourself anywhere near the shutters I don't want to see your bloody sandwiched body in the morning."

Danny's blue eyes glinted. "You won't."

"I've already sent the others on their way so you don't have to worry about witnesses. Anything useful you might need, get it from my shelf." Mr. Lancer threw something in the air and Danny's hand instinctively caught it. He opened his palm and it revealed two keys."The rusty one's for the shed, the other for my shed."

He nodded. "Thank you but I've got this." He grabbed open the door and turned to leave.

"Danny." He glanced back at Mr. Lancer. "You'll be paid for every ghost you take down, of course." This time, Danny did smile approvingly at him.

Danny's eyes scanned the area first. The temperature had dropped considerably when he reached the edge of the forest. Leave it to Mr. Lancer to build a shed this far from his store and have someone died here. According to the additional information Mr. Lancer shared, the shutters was originally a cabin built by a hunter back in the 60's. One stormy night, a man on his late 20's drunkenly mistaken it as a cabaret because he had seen the silhouette of a woman undressing.

Turned out it was the hunter's wife who the drunken man came after. He broke down the door when he found it was locked and rushed toward the room. The hunter who always slept with his weapons thought it was a bear when his wife screamed so he shot it in the knees and slashed its throat. The man bled to death in the cabin and to cover up the kill, the hunter escaped with his wife. He left the drunken guy inside, spilled kerosene around the cabin and burned it down.

Years later, when someone bought the land, they built a shed on the same spot for hunting equipment storage. The land owner went in alone one day to gather his equipment but he was shot and slashed to pieces by the dead drunken guy.

More years passed and mysterious, gory deaths later, the people decided to leave the shed alone. Nobody wanted to have to do something about a shed that killed people.

Danny snorted, why would the hunter shot a 'bear' on its knees and slit its throat? He could've just shot it in the head. Danny pinched his nose. He was doing it again, playing Sherlock on cases that required final action instead of investigation.

He sighed and let his curiosity go.

He needed to be focus. He inhaled and rolled his shoulders. He couldn't afford to be soft. He drummed his fingers against his leg and narrowed his eyes. This was a job, nothing personal. He was doing the living a favor and he was freeing the dead.

He really hoped he was.

Then he felt it. He didn't know how to refer to it, a faint sound in the dark, a subtle drop in temperature or a prickle of his skin.

Then Danny was excited. His gaze swept the area again and when he was satisfied that he was alone he took a deep breath. He warily approached the bottom of the shutters and inserted the rusty key to the equally rusty padlock. He twisted the key and nothing happened. He tugged on it and soon the lock fell to his hand.

"Tricky old man." He mumbled to himself. The padlock was an ancient thing it didn't even need the key! Danny pocketed the set of keys and dragged the shutters up.

He was instantly met by the stale, rancid air. His nose wrinkled in disgust but he braved it and casually stepped inside the dark shed. The shutters immediately crashed down but Danny was already inside. If he was stupid, the shutters would have finished him off. He was enveloped in utter darkness but he was not worried. Years of ghost hunting built him a backbone for instances like these.

Back in Amity, the ghosts were light. They disturbed the peace, caused panic and fear, always after their obsessions like the box Ghost who was obsessed with boxes, Technus with technology, Skulker with hunting. (Although if Skulker was here, he'd be proud of this shed. Or at least what it used to be.) But they never killed anyone.

Danny learned the hard truth seven years ago. There were others, too malevolent to handle and too psycho to catch and chuck back to the Zone. There were ghosts that actually killed people. Those were the ones that required full termination. The ones he couldn't talk to and convinced to move on, or as people say, 'go into the light'. They were the hopeless case. And the worst, too.

Danny ducked and rolled to the right just as he sensed an attack. Shots fired and Danny clashed to the wall, it rattled and metals started dropping onto him. He quickly crawled out of the way.

Two bullets whizzed past and he heard a groan. Danny got back on his feet, widening his stance and keeping his senses alert. He paused and maintained shallow breaths. It would had been better if they were somehow in an open space where he could breathe clean air but wishful thinking wouldn't get him anywhere so he sucked it up, rotten stench and all.

"Where is she?!" A voice demanded and another gunshot dinged. Pale green light pooled in the front and the ghost began to reveal itself. A man dressed in what looked to be a brown button down and pants swayed heavily, he had a bottle in his hand. His hair was long and matted, as if he was sweating on this cold evening. He turned to Danny and attempted to tidy up his appearance and that was when he saw it.

His shirt wasn't brown, it was splattered with dark blood and the knees of his ripped pants busted and oozing with the same dark matter. His skin was white and papery, the portion of his face where his eyes were supposed to be was nothing but empty black sockets. He tilted his head slowly at Danny. "You're no woman…" He trailed off and his mouth lazily stretched into a smile.

But Danny wasn't looking at his rotting mouth, his eyes were fixed on the drunken man's neck where the skin started to open a yawning line and black liquid bubbled up and poured down.

Holy shit, the guy had two fucking smiles!

Drunk man sized up Danny then he lunged at him. Danny let all his amazement go and his eyes glowed green.

He was fucking prepared.

A/N: I know this is kind of a filler chapter instead of a good introduction and I feel like I crammed it with extra back story factors. I've repeatedly debated whether to start in the middle of the action or go for the classic introduction. I think this chapter is neither of the two.

Comments, questions, opinions, suggestions or violent reactions? Please review.