Work Text:
The video shook, opening into a very boring view of a dark hardwood floor, the sounds of clicks and clacks all that was able to be heard as someone did something off screen.
“Are tripods supposed to be this difficult?” An echoing voice asked from somewhere beyond the camera's sight. More shuffles, more movements. “Got it!” The voice exclaimed, releasing a small ‘whew’ of victory.
Footsteps that grew close and then the sound of the camera being picked up, though it still offered no view of whoever was in the room. Instead, it was merely a nauseating sway and someone’s legs, clad in tight black material with white boots. Finally the camera was lifted up, small snapping sounds indicating it was being mounted on something. The scene was nothing incredibly interesting - a small bedroom, the walls a soft blue, though depictions of the aurora borealis were higher up, where they then darkened as the image continued up onto the ceiling, eventually settling into a dark black.
Simple furniture one would expect was visible - a bed, a dresser, a nightstand, a bookcase, though the bed was smaller than most adults would have in their room. Overall, it looked so normal. Unless you looked closely at the comforter strewn across the bed, saw how constellations danced on it, how the colors moved and changed of their own accord. Saw that something which was green and glowing with unnatural brightness sat in vials on the bookcase. Noticed the occasional bursts of light which lit up on the dark ceiling, a rocket lazily flying through the scene.
This was a room not of Earth, that was for sure. As someone finally came into view, he appeared to not be of Earth, either. His white hair, his eyes the color of the vials on the shelf, the white glow around his form. No, he certainly wasn’t human.
“Oh, shoot, when did I press record?” He asked, leaning forward, coming uncomfortably close to the camera. A shrug and he backed away, letting the back of his legs get caught on the bed behind him, bouncing slightly as he landed flat on his back from the force of the fall. He sighed and then sat up, eyeing the camera.
“Welcome to Danny’s diary.” Danny said, waving shyly at the camera. “Not sure why I feel the need to say that. This is so for my eyes only.” He fidgeted, suddenly seeming unsure. A derisive laugh came from him. “Seriously, am I even awkward with myself? Could I be any more lame?”
Each word he spoke seemed forced and awkward. He closed his eyes, taking several deep breaths.
He brushed his hand through the disheveled white mop of hair he had, sighing.
“Okay. Danny, for the love of the Ancients, can you not be weird for five fucking minutes?” He sat up straighter, seeming to gather his courage.
“Hi, me from the future! If I’m watching this and not just deleting it. If I’m actually gonna keep up with this. Things have been… well, they’ve been getting hard. Four months like this and nothing is getting easier.”
The teen relaxed, body visibly releasing tension the longer he spoke.
“I’ve got my powers mostly under control, so that’s… better than it was. I’m not phasing my hand and losing my fork anymore. I’m not losing hold of the transformation. The whole being a ghost part is actually the easy part, ironically enough. Flying is my favorite part. The whole ‘my hands are basically weapons of mass destruction’ is pretty cool, too. Even if a little terrifying. Like I have more power than is safe.”
His face visibly saddened as he continued. “It’s the human part that’s making my life hell, y’know? It’s my family trying to kill me, my sister trying not to give up on me, my friends trying to be understanding everytime I cancel with a bullshit excuse, but I can tell they’re getting sick of it. It’s the bullies at school - Dash, especially - using me for target practice and having to rein in my strength, having to not react and punch that asshole through a wall. It’s the classes I’m failing, it’s the disappointment from everyone around me.”
Danny shrugged and sighed. “I want to tell someone. Anyone. I want to stop going through this alone, but the risk is just too much. Like, can you imagine? Two ghosts hunters learning their son is one? I’d be strapped to a table in ten seconds. Jazz can’t keep a secret to save her life. Sam and Tucker… they’re the ones I wanna tell the most. They’re the ones most likely to understand and accept me, I think. I just can’t bring myself to do it. To make them live with the secret the way I am. But it does make for a very lonely life.
“That’s actually why I’m making this, y’know? I can’t talk to anyone. Jazz tried yet again to corner me at school, demanding to let her know what’s happened to me. She asked who I was going to talk to, then, if I wouldn’t talk to her. Was I just going to talk to myself? And the idea… it didn’t sound bad. I may not be able to talk to someone, but I can still talk about it. Let it out.”
He smiled slightly. The more he had spoke, the easier his words seemed to be. “Yeah, this definitely isn’t my worst idea. I feel… a little better. Good idea, Jazz.” He joked. He moved towards the camera and all that was left was blackness as it was turned off.
~~~~~~
The video started in the same room, Danny settling on his bed. Despite there being no obvious physical change - he was even in the same jumpsuit - there was something different in him. In the way he held his shoulders, in the bags under his eyes. Even the camera couldn’t hide the haunted look in his eyes. He looked like he had fought through Hell and barely escaped.
“So good news is I get portal opening powers sometime in the next decade, so that’s kinda cool. I also might be strong enough to cause the literal apocalypse, though. That’s… less fun.”
He stared at his hands as though they were snakes about to strike. “I don’t want to ever be that. I won’t become that.”
Blinking back tears, he clenched his hands into fists. “And I’ve taken steps to ensure that. What happened to drive me crazy can’t happen now.” Tears slid silently down his face. “I was going to lose Sam and Tucker anyway. They weren’t going to put up with my shit for much longer. It was inevitable.” A scowl formed on his face at the word, as though angry at himself for using it.
“At least Clockwork saved them. Of course, that accident is the kind of bad luck that fucking follows me, isn’t it? The only thing stronger than my bad luck is a goddamn Master of Time, I guess. Cuz, seriously? What fucking kind of accident is that? My parents meeting with Mr. Lancer at the Nasty Burger about my grades, my sister tagging along because of fucking course she did. Sam and Tucker just enjoying a meal - only there because it was my idea, yet I was running late fighting some damn ghost, I didn’t have the chance to save them.”
Danny began to cry in earnest. “And then boom - the Nasty Burger and everyone inside was blown sky high. Everyone I loved, dead because of me. Because of my grades, because of my inability to show up.”
Voice breaking, he continued. “It wasn’t hard to push them away. I’m not sure if that’s the good or bad option - good because I didn’t have to fight them for something I don’t even want, bad because of how much they’ve given up on me.”
“‘I can’t keep pretending like this, that I want to be your friend. I’m tired of coming up with excuses when I just don’t want to be around you.’” He said, over exaggeratedly moving his head around in a mocking manner.
Danny’s face fell and he began to cry. “They’re gone.” He clung to himself, loud, broken sobs coming from him, as his entire body shook with the force of his grief. “They’re gone.” He repeated.
All the camera caught after that was a heartbreakingly long shot of Danny laying on the bed, burying his face in a pillow as he cried before abruptly cutting to black when, presumably, the camera’s battery died.
~~~~~~
“Well, that fucking sucked.” Danny said, hand pressed to his side, his body occasionally shaking, anger visible on his face.
He looked older now. Baby fat had begun to melt from his cheeks. His shoulders were slightly broader, his jumpsuit a little tighter in the arms as it clung to lean muscle, even as he looked just a little too thin.
But his face was one of someone who knew tragedy, who knew it intimately and survived it, who had gazed into the abyss and seen the darkness. He looked old beyond his years. His eyes were tired, bags were even more prominent. He looked ready to crumble in on himself.
“By Clockwork, my parents really are going to be the ones to do me in. Again.” He said viciously. “Kill me with the portal then kill me with another invention. Seriously - they named it the Fenton Fryer? They already fried me once, goddammit!”
The anger slipped away, bone deep exhaustion replacing it.
“I think I need to film a goodbye video. It’s been so long and I’m so tired. I don’t know how much longer I can live like this. But even if they’re the ones to destroy me, destroy Phantom, I owe it to my family to give them an explanation if Danny Fenton never comes home. So just… film a tell all, a confession. And hope they forgive me at the end of it.”
He closed his eyes, wearily running a hand down his face. Despite the remnants of youth not yet faded from his face, he looked ancient in that moment.
“I don’t want them finding these, though. These are for my eyes only. But there’s so much other data on this drive that might be helpful, especially against some of the frequent flyers here. I don’t want to part with these videos, though. I… I can’t explain it. They’re a part of me now, even if I never rewatch them.” A deep sigh. “I’ll just move these to a different thumb drive and leave everything else on the original.”
Danny laughed bitterly. “Normally when a teenager thinks about leaving a goodbye video, it’s because they’re depressed and ready to go. Of course, no part of me can be a normal teenager. My goodbye video is ‘oops, sorry you killed me’ for my parents.”
His entire body seemed to shiver involuntarily, making him hiss in pain. “I’ve gotta avoid the Fryer next time. It’s been days and it still fucking hurts. I’m still getting an electric shock every time I touch metal. Eye opening though, huh? The proof of how dead everyone wants me, proof of how they’re getting closer everyday?”
Danny shook his head rapidly, suddenly lurching towards the camera and turning it off, the sound of a soft sob the last thing it caught before the recording ended.
~~~~~~
Danny was pacing this time, grumbling to himself as he pulled at his own hair.
“I hate that fucking fruit loop. ‘Oh, be my son!’” He said, openly mocking whoever he was imitating. “‘Oh, trust me! Oh, do this, do that! Just renounce your father and I’ll keep you safe!’”
He threw his hands into the chair, exasperation clear on his face. “Maybe if he would prove he actually gave a single shit about me as a person, that he wasn’t just a narcissistic asshole, maybe I’d consider him. But he doesn’t give a fuck about who I am, what makes me me. No, I’m just the only other halfa. It doesn’t take a genius to realize that!”
He sat down on the bed with a little too much force, huffing angrily. “Clearly Vlad has never heard the phrase ‘actions speak louder than words.’ If he would be a decent person for one fucking day, I probably would consider it. Er, without the whole offing my dad bit. Just in general. No murder. Those aren’t hard parameters! Act like a goddamn human and don’t murder people!”
Throwing his head back, he grunted in frustration, landing with his back on the bed. “There isn’t anything holding me to my family. Amity’s my responsibility and I can’t leave, but I don’t need to live with my family. But Vlad just wants another lackey to push around. Not me. Not Danny. Just the halfa.”
Danny laughed bitterly. “Seems everyone wants Phantom. Not Fenton. No one wants Danny Fenton.” He was silent for several moments.
Very softly, almost below the ability of the camera’s microphone to catch, he whispered. “I don’t think I want Fenton anymore, either.”
~~~~~~
Danny seemed barely able to walk as the next recording started. The distance from the camera to his bed was no more than a few paces, yet his breathing was labored and he was curled in on himself. Halfway through, he lost his balance, falling to all fours, a pained yelp pulled from him. He pulled one hand from the floor and wrapped it around his center. He tried to push himself back to his feet but the act seemed to be too much for him. Essentially crawling, he made his way to the bed, though he didn’t try to pull himself up, instead sitting up and leaning his back against the side of it.
Danny’s chest heaved as he desperately drew in air, though every rise of his chest seemed to bring him pain, making him grimace.
He leaned his head back, resting it as he closed his eyes. He nearly seemed asleep as he stayed like that several minutes, until his eyes eventually fluttered back open.
“Fuck the Guys in White. Seriously. Fuck them and fuck the US government and just fuck everyone else.” Despite the harshness of his words, there was none of the expected vitriol in his voice. His speech was broken, hitching up at odd spots, too low in others.
“Hell of a cold open, huh?” He said, laughing softly. “I don’t know what else to do. I can’t leave my lair for a while - I need the ectoplasm in the air to help heal me quicker than I can in Amity. I need to talk, but just talking to the air makes me feel insane. At least now I’m talking to a camera. Makes me feel less like an outright crazy person.”
Danny’s entire body convulsed violently and his jaw tightened as he clenched his teeth, pulling himself into a ball. It was over a minute later when the shakes finally subsided.
“I can’t believe the government’s number one idiot squad actually caught me. A lucky shot when I wasn’t looking. It’s such bullshit. And, Ancients, they’re just fucking sadistic. The scientist who… the one who did most of the work, especially. She was worse than most ghosts I’ve faced! At least none of them laugh at me while they’re beating the shit out of me! But she laughed. How could someone see someone else like that and fucking laugh?” He asked, a faraway, haunted look appearing in his eyes.
The silence stretched for several minutes.
“They said I deserved it. I didn’t. I didn’t deserve that.” He eventually said to the empty room. “I didn’t,” he repeated, as though he had to convince himself of it.
“I got so lucky, though. That’s awful to say, isn’t it? I got… yeah, I got yeah, and I’m still saying it was a lucky day. I don’t know what happened, to be honest. I felt my core get pierced. And then there was just… an explosion. Every single electronic in that facility failed, I think. Not sure how my ice core produced lightning but I’m not complaining. Maybe because of how I died? I don’t know. I don’t care. I got out but I don’t know if anyone got hurt, if anyone died. Is it bad I don’t care? Is it worse that I hope the lady who treated me like… like I was absolutely nothing died?
“I’ll never forget her face. I’ll never forget her laugh. Ancients, my life is absolutely fucked. I’d say she’d be in my nightmares, but I’d need to actually have time to sleep to dream.”
Danny eyed the camera before shrugging. “Not worth turning it off.” He muttered, reaching under the bed and blindly looking for something, eventually pulling out a large first aid kit. He peeled off the top half of his jumpsuit and grabbed at the gauze, pressing it against the already stitched wound on his chest, dabbing off spots where ectoplasm dribbled from the poorly done sutures.
The pain on his face as he spent the rest of the video tending to the large injury until the camera died didn’t seem to just be physical.
~~~~~~
Danny settled into his normal spot as the recording started.
“He talked to me.” He said, looking starstruck. “Dad talked to Phantom!”
A small smile appeared on his face - it was so rare he smiled in these videos. “He listened to me! I never thought I’d be saying this, but I owe Spectra a thanks. I can’t believe it!
“I just… I still can’t believe what happened. I’d been so sure when he showed up that I was about to get shot in the back. But he attacked a different ghost, he didn’t even seem to be aiming for me. I don’t think I’ve ever actually seen him not aim for me, no matter what ghost I’m trying to beat into the Thermos. And then he protected me from Spectra, I think? He got her away from me and I was able to pull myself together. I hate her whole shtick.”
He laughed softly. “We actually made a decent team for a moment there, surprisingly enough. Although I really need to keep a better eye out on enemies and not forget they haven’t been souped yet.”
Danny absentmindedly pressed a hand against his side, though the jumpsuit hid whatever it was he was holding. “I’m not sure why I listened to him when he told me to wait, before Spectra reappeared. Surprise, maybe? He’d never just asked me to wait, it was weird? And then he didn’t Fade Spectra, he caught her like I would.
“But then he put his weapons down,” he continued. “Jack Fenton, willingly disarming himself in front of the dangerous ghost Phantom. It was surreal. He talked to me, insisted he didn’t want to hurt me. He apologized! He finally believed I have emotions!”
The smile had continued to grow larger, it was nearly alien to see a large smile on the boy’s face. “He talked to me as Fenton about it, too! I’m actually inclined to believe him. He wouldn’t need to lie to his son if he was trying to trick a ghost. He wants to be an ally, my ally. I never thought… I expected to fight alone for the rest of my life, y’know? I can’t bring myself to fully trust him. Not yet. But maybe. Maybe. I can stop doing everything by myself.”
~~~~~~
A black object sat in his hand and he was entirely focused on it, staring at it like it held the answers to life.
“He got me a cell phone. Phantom me, I mean. Honestly, this entire night feels like a good dream. I almost suspected Nocturn to be behind it, for it all to be fake. But I learned how to tell his dreams from reality last time he came here. This is real. Everything my dad said to me today was real.”
The tears in Danny’s eyes were nothing new to these videos, yet these were different than before. These were tears of happiness.
“I don’t even know how to react to what happened tonight, to be honest. He had kinda scared me at first, literally falling into my stargazing clearing and saying he was looking for me. I mean, how else should I react to that? He was shooting me just last week! And then we just… we just talked, like this was a perfectly normal occurrence. And when he noticed the Lichtenbergs, he asked to hug me? He apologized again. It was really nice. I’ve never been hugged as Phantom, I thought I’d be too cold. Hell, when’s the last time I’ve been hugged at all? I missed it.”
Danny sniffled, rubbing his nose with his hand. “He believes in me. Human me. He hasn’t told me that in at least a year. Not gonna lie, while hearing him say that he thinks Amity’s citizens believe in me was nice… knowing he believes in Fenton is the best part. They haven’t given up on me. They haven’t stopped loving me.”
He ran his fingers along the smooth back of the cell phone, still looking at it like it was the most unbelievable thing he’d ever seen.
“I’m starting to wonder if he’d accept me if he knew the truth. I’ve never been sure. But I’m beginning to lean towards ‘yes.’”
~~~~~~
Danny was standing this time, doing some sort of work out with his shoulder, occasional flickers of pain crossing his face as he seemed to reach the limit of his range of motion in that arm.
“He came as soon as I messaged.” Danny began. “He must’ve left the house as soon as he got my text, as quickly as he got to me. He actually came for me, can you believe it? Honestly, I don’t remember much after sending the message and I kinda wish I did. But, blood loss is a bitch. I know he sewed me up and did a really good job. I think we talked, but I can’t think of any specific topic, it’s all so hazy. I do remember him hugging me again. I’ve never seen Dad cry like that. He genuinely seemed to feel so guilty for what he’s done. For all the pain he’s caused me.
“I used to be so upset at him, if I’m being honest. That he couldn’t tell Phantom was his son. That he would never listen, that he always shot first and asked never. I don’t know when I did, but… I think I forgive him. I’m not angry or hurt thinking about him anymore.”
He sat down, perching on the edge of the bed like he so often did. He continued to move his shoulder in circles, pulling on it with his opposite hand. A grin had settled on his face again. “And then we just talked. Not all of it was pleasant, sure. But most of it… was. The conversation with him was just so easy - which is a statement I didn’t think I’d ever be able to say about Jack Fenton again. Not with all the lies and the secrets I keep, not with the way I always had to make sure to not let him see how scared I was whenever he talked about ghosts. But this was easy and it was fun. It was fun to talk to him.
“My constant puns, the ecto-suit and what happened with Pariah Dark, my Obsessions, and just general ghost lore. The whole time, he was just literally so excited to talk to me. He acted like his normal scientist self, that I always wanted to bolt from before. But I didn’t want to this time. I think I was as excited to talk to him as he was.”
Danny looked away from the camera, running his hand along the comforter on the bed, watching the shapes and colors shift. “We talked once about testing my powers, like how fast I am. I’m still not 100% sure about going into FentonWorks as a ghost and doing the tests. But that distrust and fear is starting to feel more like habit. I want to trust my father. I think I eventually will.”
~~~~~~
A broad grin was immediately visible as the recording began, Danny messing with the camera.
“I did the testing!” He exclaimed, practically vibrating with excitement. It was a nice change from the sadness that almost always appeared in his videos, that had slowly been fading the past few entries.
“First of all, I’m fast as hell. I kinda wanna just go fly at top speed and see how long it takes me to cross the country and come back. Maybe later. But that’s not the point today.”
Danny began to pace, seemingly full of energy and anticipation.
“I’m telling him. I trust him. He passed every test I gave him, even if he didn’t know he was being tested. He turned off all the ghost shields I asked him to. He went a step further, even! He disabled the weapons systems - I didn’t even mention those! As far as he knows, Phantom didn’t even know those existed. He showed them to me! He didn’t have to do that! And then the actual testing was legit fun! I am so much more powerful than I thought I was, which is so goddamn cool.
“Even better, he seemed to be having fun, too! And there was not a single time where I felt trapped or overwhelmed, where I thought Dad was trying to push me beyond what I was okay with. I wasn’t on alert for needles or invasive testing at all. Like, do you know how insane that is? Until recently, I hadn’t felt comfortable around Mom or Dad since before the portal opened. And now I’m standing in their lab, a whole ass ghost, and I’m not scared.
“He even reacted the way I hoped he would when I asked him to shoot at me! He visibly didn’t want to. Jack Fenton didn’t want to shoot Phantom! When he did agree, he got the smallest weapon around. I think he even aimed away from me ‘cuz he hit the shield way to my side, but that could just be his aim.”
The teen barely seemed to breathe as he excitedly chattered. Even beyond the foreign excitement on his face, Danny just overall looked better. The bags under his eyes had begun to fade. His shoulders didn’t seem so tense. He no longer looked like he was staring down the barrels of a firing squad. He had visibly gained weight since the beginning of his father’s change. Danny, for the first time in any of these videos, looked healthy and happy.
“I’m gonna tell him,” he repeated. “I don’t think he’s going to reject me. He’s accepted Phantom. He’s been trying to bond with Fenton.” Danny chuckled slightly. “This is exactly what Vlad couldn’t do - actions over words. Jack has repeatedly proven he’s capable of change. I need a few days, I think. Figure out how to do it, how to explain it. I’ve never had to describe what I am - Vlad and the ghosts already knew. How the hell do I tell a ghost scientist he is wrong about even more ghost science than he realized?
“I’ve always wondered which of these diary entries would be my last, morbid as that may be. But it’s hard to be me and not contemplate death. When and how, who would land the final hit. Before, I’d have been convinced this would be my last entry. Convinced Dad would shoot on sight. I don’t know how I’ll tell him - as Fenton or Phantom? Just casually and randomly in the living room or planning to do it during dinner? I’ve never told anyone. I have no idea what the best procedure for explaining ‘hey Dad I’m half dead and you used to shoot me a lot but since you’ve stopped, I trust you to not dissect me’ is.”
Danny stopped pacing, grinning into the camera. “I’m not going to be alone in this anymore.”
~~~~~~
PLEASE CONFIRM - DELETE ALL FILES?
Danny hesitated, even as he hovered the cursor over the YES button. For so long, his video diaries had been such a large part of him. He’d never rewatched a single one, but their simple existence had become so important to him, maybe since it was the only times he’d ever been completely honest in so long, even if it was only to himself.
He eyed the most recent video - the one from a little over a week ago, where he’d decided to tell his father. He had gone to his lair to film another diary entry, but now… it didn’t seem important. He’d been his own and only confidante for years and now he had someone else in his ring.
He’d left without so much as turning the camera on. Whereas he used to immediately have the urge to film his entries whenever something notable happened, the only place he allowed himself to talk about all the awful things he had been through, the urge was simply gone.
Now, he simply sat at the computer in his parents’ lab, USB drive plugged in and every recording he’d ever made in front of him. There were over four hundred entries in this drive. If he hadn’t swiped this super capacity drive from his parents, he’d have gone through so many thumb drives by now, the sheer size of that many video files beyond the capabilities of a normal retail drive.
He still struggled to believe how well that night had gone.
He’d decided to do it in the stargazing clearing, just in case he ended up wrong and needed to bolt. He was going to tell him as Phantom. He had a whole speech he'd rehearsed in front of the mirror dozens of times.
The second Jack had arrived, though, he’d frozen, his carefully planned reveal immediately forgotten. It had been nice when his father had laid down next to him and watched the sky with him. Even then, with Jack so willingly laying so close to a ghost, Danny couldn’t force the words out of his mouth. Jack had ended up being the one to start the conversation, despite Danny being the one to call the meeting.
Danny had managed to steer the conversation to a close topic - his human life and his human aspirations. Jack had listened to his every word, confirmed his faith in both his son and the ghost beside him. But Danny had choked. He just… he couldn’t. It was too much change, it was too much risk.
It was just too much.
Danny would be eternally grateful his father hadn’t let the topic drop so easily. He hadn’t meant to admit how much he feared himself, the misery another version of him had wrecked. To be honest, he had never meant to talk about his dark self at all, but if he ever did, he would probably have decided to wait until after his Fenton/Phantom confession. Maybe deciding to do the confession on the anniversary of the now never happened Nasty Burger explosion hadn’t been a great idea, even if it had turned out okay.
He had wanted to cry with relief when his father had continued to support him, even holding Danny against his side. As simple a statement as it was, when Jack said ‘maybe you don’t know me as well as you think you do’ that had pushed Danny forward.
He had come to this clearing to confess. He had come here with full faith in his father. He did know his father and he was done being afraid.
Danny had forced the words out of his mouth, forced the transformation, trying to swallow the panic making him ill, constantly reminding himself this was his father, his father loved him, and he was absolutely safe.
Apparently, it would be Danny getting his entire world blown away by a confession in that clearing, not his dad. That Jack had known for weeks. That Jack wanted to earn back Danny’s trust and love, that he wanted Danny to feel safe knowing his parents knew his secret. The fact he had done that had made Danny feel more loved in that moment than he had in a long time, from even long before the portal opened.
He knew soon he’d have to reveal the truth to his mother, eventually she’d return from her conference. But Jack had reassured him and they had spent hours watching the sky.
For the first time since his death, Danny had felt entirely safe - loved, protected, respected, wanted. And all it had taken was his father dropping some duct tape.
PLEASE CONFIRM - DELETE ALL FILES?
Danny didn’t need the diary anymore. He no longer needed to hide away and conceal himself even in his home. He had someone to listen to him other than an empty room and a camera.
YES
He clicked the button and watched the deletion screen, the progress bar felt like an eraser as it slowly stretched across the screen. He watched as it erased years of pain and distrust.
“Danno!” Dad called from the top of the lab stairs. “Do you want Chinese again?”
A grin graced his face. “Yeah!” He shouted back. “Don’t forget the tuna rolls!”
The computer beeped as the progress bar reached 100% completion, confirming everything was gone.
He was erasing years of pain and distrust, yes. But he was preparing to march forward into years of love and acceptance.
And he didn’t need his past holding him back.