Not really all that new... editing and reworking this ...and continuing it?

Warning: rated 'T' for horror. Don't read late at night. ;)

Lopeholt
A Danny Phantom FanFic by Cordria

Chapter 3: The Imprint

True fact:

The girl who touched the outline on the floor really existed and she did (sadly) die, but from there the line blurs between what is reality and what is a ghost story. She was reportedly haunted by the ghost of the woman from the asylum. One night, her entire dorm room was kept awake by strange chanting and guttural sounds. The next morning, her Resident Assistant entered her room. The girl was dead, one wall smeared with evil-looking, bloody symbols.

No matter how many times it was cleaned or how many coats of paint were put on the walls, the blood supposedly kept coming back and students refused to live in it. The abandoned room was eventually turned into a boiler room, the blood-soaked wall physically torn out.

The boiler room is reportedly still haunted by a demonic force.

No, not again!

I felt my heart twist in my chest, my stomach jumping into my throat. The darkness pressed down on us, broken only by the dim moonlight filtering through the small window. "Ghost," I breathed, not liking how my voice creaked. Goosebumps ran up and down my arms and the temperature of the room started to plummet.

"D-danny?" came a soft call – it sounded like Tucker. "Can I panic now?"

There was the sound of a zipper running, then a click and the distinctive whine of an ectoweapon charging. An eerie green started to glow from the far side of the room, barely illuminating the form of Jazz, holding the small, glowing weapon pointed towards the ground. "Who's there?" Jazz called out.

The dark chanting filling the room grew louder, swirling into my head. I pressed my hands to my ears, closing my eyes, a sharp headache starting to form. Fear was almost literally jabbing itself through my skull and my body was nearly vibrating with the desire to panic and run. Why am I so afraid?

"The sound!" someone yelled. I pressed my hands closer to my head, feeling my hands shaking. "The sound is messing with your head! VALERIE!"

Two arms grabbed me and I screamed, flailing out. My hands pushed against something and my eyes opened, catching sight of Tucker picking himself off the ground trying to grab me again.

"Valerie," he said, his voice near my ear. "It's the sounds – it's making you panic."

"No…" I whispered, my whole body shaking. Over Tucker's shoulder I caught sight of two red eyes. They were shining in the darkness, focused on the form of Jazz, moving slowly towards her. "NO!" I called out, pushing Tucker out of the way. "JAZZ!"

The girl looked towards me, but I was already moving across the room. I barreled into her, knocking her into a wall, and grabbed for her primed ectogun. "What are you doing?" she yelped.

Sounds were still pressing into my head, making the room seem to tip crazily. "GET BACK!" I screamed, twirling around and focusing on the red eyes in the room. My shaking hands pointed the gun towards them, swallowing hard to try to keep my stomach out of my throat. "STOP IT!"

"Valerie," Jazz shouted, her longer arms allowing her to reach for the gun, "that's Danny!"

"He's not Danny," I whispered. "He's not. He's that monster. He's still possessed. Look at his eyes."

I felt Jazz hesitate, but she wrenched the ectogun from my hands and spun me around. "No, he's not. It's the sounds, Valerie. They're affecting your mind."

"No they're not," I snapped, taking a step backwards, feeling the ground lurch under my feet. Something brushed against my neck and I twisted around, trying to look everywhere at once.

The room still contained just the four of us – Tucker on the ground with his hands on the white imprint, Jazz behind me, and Danny by the window. The red eyes were nowhere to be seen and the ghostly footsteps were gone. The room was still twisting around, the walls seeming to recede and press in closer.

Confusion pressed in on me. Everyone was staring at me, looking so confused. Is it all in my head? The demonic sounds howled in my head, making me close my eyes and press my palms to my temples. I want to leave!

"I want out," I whispered. "I want out! Let me OUT!"

I raced to the door, grabbing the doorknob and twisting it harshly. It didn't budge. "It's locked, it's locked," I hissed, yanking on and again and again. On the fourth or fifth desperate yank, the doorknob came off, sending me tumbling to the ground.

"Calm down," Jazz said, holding out her hands and stepping closer. "Valerie!"

"LET ME OUT!" I screamed, rolling onto my back and kicking out with my feet, letting them connect solidly with the door.

The door flew open in a blast of cold air just as two freezing hands grabbed my shoulders and pulled me backwards away from the door. I stared into the dark hallway for a heartbeat – seeing nothing – before tipping my head back to see who'd grabbed me.

Bright green eyes gleamed at me under a messy head of white hair. The pale face was twisted in concentration, his forehead wrinkled in something that looked like pain. "Phantom," I breathed.

"Run, Valerie," he whispered, bloody red curling through his eyes for a moment before completely whipping out the green. The tense frown he'd sported evaporated into an insane grin, and one of his hands left my shoulder to trace my cheek. "Oh yes, run, huntress. You're no fun to save when you're standing still."

"What?" I whispered, wincing as a dark howl slashed into my head.

Phantom's finger trailed up to my temple and tapped a few times. "I'll drill right here, I will. I'll save you from the sounds, the dark, the fears, those ghosts that haunt your dreams…"

Someone moved in my peripheral vision, but I couldn't move. I couldn't tear my eyes off of the gleaming rubies of Phantom's eyes. Confusion was making the terror in my mind double its power, pinning me in place. How did Phantom get here? Where did he come from? Why is he talking like Danny? What's going on?

The figure I'd seen moving suddenly slammed into Phantom's side, knocking him off me. For a split-second, I saw Jazz's pale face, then she was gone, wrestling Phantom to the floor and screaming for Danny.

I pushed myself off the floor and spotted the gun that Jazz had dropped when she'd tackled Phantom. I scrambled for it, startled when a dark-skinned hand grabbed it before I had a chance. "Tucker," I hissed, "hand it over."

He grinned at me, his jade-colored eyes swirling with a sunset red. "Make me," he whispered.

"Tucker?" I pushed away from him, barely aware of the scuffle on the floor behind me.

The African-American boy stood up, brazenly standing on the white imprint staining the floor. "Run, hunter-girl," he said with a chuckle, his words appearing in puffs of mist, holding the gun in both hands and aiming it in my direction. The demonic sounds cutting into my brain seemed to echo his words and his laughter.

"Yes," came an echoing voice from behind me, "run, Huntress. I'll save you."

Glancing over my shoulder at Phantom, noticing Jazz scrambling for the door, I swallowed hard. My hands were shaking, my palms were sweating, and shivers were wracking my whole body. Phantom was on one side, Tucker on the other, and the only coherent thought still curling through my brain was get away.

I screamed and raced straight forwards – towards the window – and leapt into the air. An ectoblast sliced through the air inches from my head, shattering the window, and I activated my jetsled. It formed under my feet even as the glass from the window was falling through the air, and I brought my arms up to protect my face as I few out into the night sky.

The cold air above the asylum did a few good things. The first was that it cleared the fog of terror from my brain, washing the last of the dark sounds of the room into memory. I pulled my jetsled to a stop about a hundred feet above the roof of the building and dropped down to sit.

Deep breaths were coming in and out of my lungs, slowly working to calm my heart and stop the way my body was shaking. Finally I looked down at the building I'd just left, my eyes quickly finding the room with the broken window.

A dark shadow with red eyes was staring up at me, a white-haired woman in a white robe standing behind the shadow, her hands resting on the dark figure's shoulders. Her soulless eyes were gazing up at me, her hair billowing softly in a supernatural breeze.

"I should go back for Jazz," I whispered to myself. "And Tucker, and Danny, and…"

I didn't move.

I'd never felt as frightened as I had in that room. It had seemed to vibrate deep into my heart and ring something inside of me. I had every intention of saving my friends, of going back, but my body over-rode my decision.

"Damnit." My head dropped to my chest and I scowled, furious with myself. I was Valerie Grey. I was the Red Huntress. I shouldn't be afraid of a ghost. But I was.

"I've got to do something," I hissed, slowly getting to my feet. "Get the Fentons. Maybe they'll know what to do."

I was just about to step on the controls, head back towards the ground, when something strange caught my gaze. There was a haunting green fog in the air near the asylum. I traced it with my eyes, surprised to see it formed into a perfectly straight line that stretched into the distance. "What the-"

Two red eyes were suddenly right in front of me. "I'm going to save you," Phantom hissed. His hair was glowing in the moonlight, the soft light glinting off a piece of rusted metal he was holding in his hand. "Hold still."

A startled sound worked out of my lips, but I was already moving. Fighting Phantom was something I'd done regularly for over a year – reflexes took over. My foot edged slightly forwards, cutting power to the sled. The jets fell into silence and I dropped towards the dark Earth like a rock.

My stomach was clenching and trying to jump into my throat from the abrupt descent when I looked up, watching him watch me fall. He threw his head back and laughed, then dived after me, bloody-red power swirling around him. "Save you, I'll save you, you'll be safe, I'll save you," he chanted.

"Stay away from me!" I snapped, tearing my eyes off of him and activating the jets on my sled. It sent me into an almost-controlled spiral, swirling off into the night sky. I glanced over my shoulder to watch Phantom correct his dive to follow me. He raised a hand, power starting to gather around it.

I can't win like this. I cut hard to the right, watching an insanely-powerful ectoblast slice through the air inches from where my head had just been. Out here, in the sky, away from the noises that had trapped my mind, I was finally able to think and move like I needed to.

A grim smile appeared on my face. Huntress against Phantom, just like last time. I slammed on the breaks, cutting left, and used the moment I'd bought myself to activate the rest of my suit. It appeared around me with the cold sensation of a hundred spiders crawling over my skin.

The Ridges asylum flickered into view, the broken window appearing before my eyes as I twisted and twirled in the air, trying to get a bead on Phantom. The woman and the shadow were gone, but I got too close. Soft chanting started to curl up into my head and I had to swerve and race in the other direction. "I can't get near it," I breathed.

Phantom barrel-rolled, sliding in front of me, red energy dancing around his hands. I moved my heel, feeling it touch the right button. Twin cubes appeared in the air above my shoulders and a quick gesture with my hands had them blasting energy towards Phantom.

He smirked as he dodged, the energy blast he'd been building up dissipating with his sudden movement. "Hold still!" he called out, laughing, twirling oddly and rapidly closing the distance between us.

Cursing, I snapped my jetsled in a new direction and fired the jets on their maximum setting and tried to put as much distance between Phantom and myself that I could. I twirled the cubes around and sent them blasting blindly behind me, hoping desperately that that I'd hit him at least once.

I glanced over my shoulder; Phantom was gone. I pulled to a stop, my breathing harsh and loud in my ears as I looked around, trying to spot him. My watch beeped. Looking down in surprise – this was the first time it had gone off all night – I completely missed Phantom dissolving into existence only feet away.

His wiry form crashed into mine, his powerful, gloved fingers wrenching at my helmet. "I'm going to save you from the dark and the fear, girl," he whispered as his fingers found purchase under my helmet and yanked it off my head. "I'll drill a hole into your pretty temple and you'll be safe. Saved."

"Leave me alone!" I shrieked, sending my jetsled into a crazy spiral, not knowing or really caring where it was heading. "Get off of me!"

Suddenly the world came to a grinding halt as I slammed into something extremely hard. I had only a split second to comprehend that I'd hit the ground and that my leg hurt very much before my world went black.

My arms were being yanked out of their sockets when I blinked myself out of the darkness. I screamed in pain and pulled on my arms, struggling against whatever had me in its grasp. "LET GO!"

"Stop it," came a breathless voice, a body pressing mine into the ground and trying to hold me still. "Valerie, stop. It's me."

My eyes flickered open and I gasped, gazing up into Jazz's eyes. "Jazz."

She let out a breath and rolled off me. "Can you walk?" she hissed.

Nodding, I rolled to my hands and knees, but couldn't make it any further. I stared down at my left leg, noting how it was bent very oddly. "No," I corrected with a groan of pain. My arms hurt, my head hurt, and now the obvious-broken leg burned with pain.

"I figured," she hissed, pushing her shoulder under mine and wrenching me to my feet, taking the weight off my broken leg. "You hit the ground really hard."

"Where's Danny and Tucker?"

She shook her head, breathing hard as she started moving through the darkness, forcing me to hobble along. "Danny is… and Tucker…"

"We need to go back for Danny," I said, pain flaring up my spine and bursting in my head like fireworks with every step. The RV appeared through the shadows, large and safe-looking.

"Um…" she said, picking up the pace. "About that." She reached out and clicked open the side door, helping me inside before climbing in herself. I sank gratefully to the ground as she started flipping switches and a familiar hum began to vibrate through the RV. "Alright, that's every anti-ghost device I know how to activate.

I pressed my back against one of the walls of the RV and groaned. "What happened?"

"I think Tucker and Danny are possessed," she said softly. "Tucker when he got pushed onto that white imprint-"

"And Danny from the basement," I finished, closing my eyes. "What do we do?"

Jazz shook her head silently, still moving around the small RV. "For now, we're safe in here until we figure out what to do."

"Safe," I repeated softly, watching as Jazz grabbed a while box out from under a seat and rustled through it, pulling out medical supplies. "What about your parents?"

She froze just for a moment, but then kept moving. "I lost the walkie-talkie," she admitted after a moment, "but they're some of the best ghost hunters in the world – they'll be fine." When she turned to me and knelt down beside my broken leg, bandages in her hands, her eyes were wet with tears and her hands were shaking slightly. Then she repeated, almost to herself, "They'll be fine."