Work Text:
When Danny woke up he heard the insistent beeping of his alarm. But when he opened his eyes he didnt’ recognize the ceiling. It wasn't covered in glow in the dark stars like his room. And now that he thought about it, he had broken his alarm last week and hadn’t gotten a replacement.
“Danny? Oh, sweetie you’re awake!” His mother leaned over him.
“What?” Danny managed to say, his throat was parched.
“Oh, sweetie.” his mother was crying. Why was she crying? “I’m so happy you’re awake. I’ll call your father, he’s at home right now, but he’ll come right over when he hears you’re awake.” She started to turn away.
“Wait–” Danny needed to know what was happening. Everything was fuzzy. He couldn’t remember what had happened before he had gotten… wherever here was.
“I’ll explain later, sweetie, you need to rest right now.”
“Mom.” Danny’s voice wobbled and his mother’s face crumpled.
She cupped his face with her hand. “You’ve been in a coma. We didn’t know if… we didn’t know if you would wake up.”
Danny’s mind went blank for a moment. A coma? What had caused him to go into a coma. He couldn’t remember. The last thing he remembered was going to school and hoping Lacere would extend the due date for their paper. “How long?” he finally managed.
“It’s been two years.”
“Oh.”
She smiled at him, but her eyes were wet with tears. “I’ll go call your father. I’ll be right back.”
She left and Danny heard the door open and close.
What could have happened? Was it a ghost fight? Did his parents know?
Just then his mother walked in.
“Where are we?”
“You’re in the hospital in Elmerton. We had to transfer you here because Amity didn’t have the right facilities.”
“And what happened?”
She bit her lip. “There was an accident. You went into the portal and it shocked you.”
What? It had been nearly a year since the portal accident. Right?
“But that was almost a year ago. I was fine after that.”
Her eyes widened, “I don’t know what you’re talking about, sweetie. We came home and found you unconscious and the portal on. You’ve been unresponsive ever since.”
That couldn’t be right. He remembered waking up, finding out he was part ghost. That was all true. Right?
“But I remember–”
“They say sometimes coma patients have realistic dreams. That when they wake up, they don’t always realize they’ve been dreaming. But that’s okay. Once you’re better, we’ll take you home. And everything will be perfect again.”
Danny didn’t know what to think His memories, dreams?, seemed too real to be fake. But why would his mother lie? What other explanation could there be?
“Okay. Will we go home soon?”
She smiled. “We can probably go home in a week, once they finish checking you over.”
Once she went back out to talk to the doctors, Danny laid back. What was the truth? The thing was, he couldn’t feel his ghost half. But if he really concentrated there also felt like there was something missing.
He remembered coming home from school. Then… something. Things were fuzzy no matter how much he concentrated.
But how could he check? He looked around the room and saw that his mom had left her phone on the bedside table. He reached over and turned it on.
He stared at the date until the screen turned itself off.
He closed his eyes. It had been nearly two years since the last thing he remembered. But that was after the portal. He supposed, if you were counting from the portal it would be closer to two years. But that didn’t feel right.
He hesitated for a moment and glanced at the door. Then slowly he lifted his shirt.
There was a scar on his chest right over where his core used to be
What had they done?