Danny Fenton had always dreamed about what his sixteenth birthday would be like: driving in his very own sports car, kissing the girl of his dreams, staying out all night with his two best friends.

Nobody ever expected him to disappear.

The surprise party preparation went off without a hitch. In fact, it couldn't have gone smoother. Jack and Maddie were responsible for getting the house decorated and gathering the food. Sam and Tucker were in charge of the gifts. And Jazz had the most important job of all: getting Danny home when the setup was complete.

She'd dragged him all across the mall to all of her favorite book and clothing stores. He was forced to sit and wait patiently (save for the occasional ghost attack) as she feinted fawning over every other thing she saw.

As the day passed on, she felt guiltier and guiltier for every store he accompanied her to. He never complained once and even offered his sincere opinion when she asked him if she thought the book sounded interesting or if the skirt was too short in length. But he seemed lost in thought, somber and pensive all day long.

It got to the point where she simply handed him two twenties and told him to go and buy something for himself. At that point, he'd done something that had completely thrown her off guard. He threw his arms around her neck and held onto her tight, whispering in her ear, "Thank you, Jazz." He walked away with a sad smile on his face, looking at her with his gorgeous, big blue eyes.

Little did she know that she would be the last one to see him alive.

No less than six minutes later, she received the call from Tucker, announcing that all was set and that Danny could be brought home. She told him flippantly that he'd taken off for awhile and that she would simply text him that she'd gone ahead and left. After all, a boy with the ability to fly didn't need a ride home.

And so it was that she arrived home, and his five loved ones gathered in a dark corner of the living room. They waited.

And waited.

And waited.

And waited even longer.

By ten o'clock at night, Maddie had grown especially worried. She dialed his cell phone number, knowing it by heart, but it rang once, twice, three times and was never picked up.

Four days later, the police would find it sitting on the top shelf of Valerie Gray's locker. But that's another detail for another time.

Eventually, at one in the morning (which was past Amity Park's set curfew, might I add), Maddie did call the police and reported her son missing. They gave her the standard, frank response that he had to be missing for more than twenty-four hours before they would file a missing child report.

By two days after Danny's disappearance, the entire city was on a full lookout for the Fenton boy.

By three days, the police had invaded the Fenton Works and scoured Danny's room for any clues.

By six days, they'd questioned almost everyone that had ever come in major contact with the teenager. Some of those people provided very condemning information, but the authoress is sorry to say that, much like with his phone, is another detail for another time.

By seven days, people had begun to notice the distinct lack of ghost attacks. They also seemed to be catching onto the fact that Danny Phantom had also mysteriously disappeared.

By two weeks, Jazz, Sam, and Tucker resigned to last resorts: searching the Ghost Zone for their beloved. They prepared for a long, tedious expedition only to open the portal doors and find that the entire entrance was blocked by a dark void.

By three and a half weeks, the police thought they'd found a kidnapper, a colleague of Vlad Masters by the name of S. Lurckor. The name, however, was phony, and the cops brought Mayor Masters in for questioning again. He was released one day later for the lack of hard evidence.

Two days after the scandal, Danny's closest friends found themselves on the mayor's doorstep with an interrogation of their own. After a very stressful five hours of questions, threats, and much of the like, the three left with no more than what they'd started with, other than the knowledge that Vlad swore he had no idea what happened to the boy and that he had not been allowed into the Ghost Zone ever since the day Danny disappeared.

By one month after Jazz's last sighting of him, most of the city had given up in the search. Five people, plus a few other people somewhat close to the missing, continued their search without lenience.

By two months, magazines and newspapers had noticed the drastic drop in ghost attacks and sent representatives to investigate. Jack and Maddie Fenton were asked to speak about their thoughts about the ghost boy's disappearance and the subsequent shortage of hauntings, of course, them being the leading paranormal experts in the country.

They denied the request.

By three months, Amity Park had officially dropped off of the map once more, no longer being a tourist attraction. At that same time, the kids of Casper High held a candlelight vigil for Daniel Fenton. A handful of kids did not attend, but releasing their names at this time would detract from this tale. Therefore, I must withhold the information until a later time.

Exactly four months after Danny's sixteenth birthday, the police relented in their search for him and marked down his status as "presumed dead." Though some were adamant to believe it at first, the reality of the situation wore into them eventually.

Jasmine Fenton, Samantha Manson, and Tucker Foley were absent from school for a week after the announcement.

Somewhere in that time period (alas, even I, the authoress cannot confirm the exact date), the Fenton parents learned of their supposedly dead son's dark secret. They took the news surprisingly well, or, at least, as well as one can while under a state of duress.

Nothing much of note happened in the succeeding weeks. Christmas and New Year's came and passed without much celebration from the Fentons, the Foleys, and even the Mansons. Ten years after the fact, Jazz would remember huddling in front of the darkened tree in her mother's arms as Sam's Grandma Ida recited an old Jewish prayer.

It was seven months after the initial disappearance that the next monumental moment occurred: the ghosts returned to Amity Park.

But that may be a bit of an overstatement. Not all of them came; in fact, it was only a messenger of Princess Dorathaea's, coming to present Jazz, Sam, and Tucker with awards of bravery in a time of peril. Although this should now go without saying, the three fired off questions about their long lost beloved in rapid succession. However, when interrogated, the messenger became very flustered and red in the face, insisting that he had to return promptly before he was admonished for his dilly-dallying.

The three took this as a sign of hope.

But one year to the day after Danny disappeared, the real adventure began, one that would change Amity Park, the Ghost Zone, and the entire world forever.

And that, my dear readers, is where I begin this story.

-CatchingWind

I do not own Danny Phantom.