Chapter Text
The bathroom was extravagant, with a gold-laid vanity cabinet and marble walls. Not that they could see these details right now; with the lights switched off, the room could be a janitor’s closet for all they knew.
“Sam.” Danny swallowed. “Are you sure this is a good idea?”
Sam shrugged. “YOLO.” She said, lighting the lavender candles they had smuggled in. She didn’t want the candles to be scented—it ruined the mood a bit too much—but these were the only candles she could find in the storage room.
“That isn’t reassuring at all.” Tucker said. He closed his eyes. “I hope this doesn’t give me nightmares.”
Tucker did, in fact, get nightmares.
It had been a bad idea from the start.
Danny knew that; he had all but begged Sam to reconsider her idea. Unfortunately for him, Sam was stubborn to a fault, and once she got this idea into her head, she wasn’t backing down until she went through with it.
‘This idea’ being a game of Bloody Mary.
Hence, they were at Sam’s house for a sleepover, wide awake despite the 3AM displayed in red on the bathroom’s clock.
Sam grinned as she set down the lighter. There was a bottle of vinegar next to her; they were supposed to spill it onto the mirror to dispel Blood Mary.
“So,” Danny said, “how are we doing this? Individually or…?”
“Might as well do it together.” Sam shrugged, “I know you two will just fake it if we do this individually.”
“Ah, okay.” Inwardly, Danny breathed a sigh of relief. He hadn’t thought of faking the summoning.
“You’re doing the summoning, right?” Tucker squeaked.
“Of course I am!” Sam sniffed. “You’ll just mess it up if you do it.”
“I should be insulted, but…fair.”
Sam took a deep breath. The grin on her face betrayed her excitement. “Okay…here I go. Bloody Mary.”
Silence echoed in the bathroom. Danny should be relieved at the lack of chilling sounds, but this was somehow even more eerie.
“Bloody Mary.”
Danny swallowed. Was it his imagination, or did a gust of cold air just blow through the bathroom? He could feel the hairs on the back of his neck stand up.
Sam drummed her fingers on her leg excitedly. “Bloody Mary.”
…nothing.
Tucker breathed out in relief. Sam frowned, “Blood—”
The candlelight flickered—turning from yellow to green and then back to yellow, before extinguishing under the force of an imaginary gust of wind.
Danny’s breath hitched.
A foggy green glow appeared on the mirror’s glass. It was so mild that they normally would never have seen it; but then, they wouldn’t normally be standing in a pitch-dark bathroom.
A hand reached out to grab Danny in a vice-like grip. Danny jumped; who—oh, it was only Tucker.
And then, the figure appeared in the mirror. Bone-white hair, acid-green eyes, death-pale skin. A…a thing that was almost a boy but not quite. Poisonous green dripped out of its orifices, a waterfall spilling from its mouth and ears, twin streams of neon green slipping down its cheeks. It dripped dripped dripped as the being’s face twisted into a scream, an inhuman thing that cried help help help me please—
Danny could almost feel his brain melting, turning into a green sludge that poured out of his mouth and flooded his lungs. He couldn’t breathe he needed to leave they had to banish the spirit—
Light flooded his eyes.
Danny blinked. It was so bright. Impossibly bright. Like the fluorescent light had pierced through his skull and was purifying something from his mind.
What had happened?
He squinted through the bright light, only to see Sam standing next to the mirror, the opened bottle of vinegar in her hand. Clear liquid dripped down the face of the mirror.
The thing was nowhere in sight.
The spell had been broken.
“I.” Tucker said, his voice high-pitched and slightly hysterical. He was still gripping Danny so hard his arm was going numb. Not that Danny noticed. “I am never doing something like that again.”
Sam grinned, “Don’t be like that, Tuck. That was terrifying. And so awesome!”
Danny frowned. He didn’t say anything.
That thing…its almost-human-but-not face…
Danny swallowed. An icy cold pit made itself home in his gut.
Was it just him, or did the spirit in the mirror look terrifyingly like Danny?
Months later, the ‘Bloody Mary Incident’ began to fade from Danny’s mind. He still remembered, of course—an experience like that could not be erased so easily—but he no longer jumped at shadows, nor was he too afraid to look at mirrors. He didn’t worry about leaving his bed after the lights were out anymore, or slept with his back pressed to the wall so that nothing could sneak up behind him.
Just about time. Jazz was literal seconds away from sitting him down for a therapy session.
That would’ve been embarrassing.
Of course, that was when Sam tried to persuade Danny and Tucker into trying one of her ‘wicked ideas’ again.
This time, it was for Danny to go into his parents’ unfunctional portal.
Danny stumbled out of the portal, his nerves screaming.
One second, they were having a good time. He was tentatively exploring the portal, Sam was excitedly taking photos of him, and Tucker was poking at the tech Dad had left lying around on the lab’s table.
The next second…
He wasn’t sure what had happened. He had stumbled, but caught himself, and then—
Pain pain electricity searing through his veins a dimension’s worth of energy tearing his body apart help help he had to get out Sam and Tucker were right next to the portal were they okay he had to get out get help help—
He gasped as his feet hit the flat ground of the lab and gave out beneath him. The steel floor was cool and solid beneath his touch. Danny sighed as he almost sank into the floor; the cold seeping into his skin and calming his burning nerves. It was a soothing sensation.
He was…he wasn’t dead. He was okay. Sam and Tuck—
Sam and Tucker.
Frantically, Danny glanced up.
Tucker was gripping the lab table, his knuckles white. Sam had fallen onto her knees, her camera discarded on the floor.
Twin expressions of horror coloured their faces.
“…guys?” Danny frowned; this was uncharacteristic of them, especially Sam. Had whatever happened really scared them this badly…?
“Danny,” Sam swallowed. Her face was even paler than usual. “your face…”
His…? Danny’s forehead wrinkled. He looked down, his eyes catching on the slightly distorted reflection the metal floor offered.
Oh, he thought, a hysterical laugh beginning to bubble out of his mouth.
Through the reflection, a thing a spirit Danny’s face stared back, with bone-white hair, acid-green eyes, and green sludge dripping from his eyes.