Ectober19 Fangs
A Little Off Point
Genre: Humor/Family
Word Count: 2705
Maddie had noticed that there was something off about her son for a while but fangs were really pushing it. She saw the way that they poked out when he smiled… how they pierced into his food, leaving holes in his unfinished meals. But when she looked, they were never there. His teeth were smooth, not pointy at all! She wasn't stupid; she knew that he must be hiding them somehow. That was the only explanation.
Danny had fangs. That wasn't the only thing that was wrong about him, but it was definitely the most frustrating.
Nowadays, he was cold to the touch, cold enough that she'd mistaken his flesh for porcelain more than once. Additionally, he always wore darker, longer clothing—even in the midst of summer. She tried asking him why and he always claimed that it was just a fashion choice. His friend Sam backed him up, defending Danny's emo aesthetic. She knew she shouldn't criticize Danny's clothes but she couldn't just let it go.
His grades were dropping too. Sure, high school was difficult and Danny never made stellar grades in middle school but Maddie knew that this was deeper. She'd spoken with several of his teachers and learned that he often slept in class or failed to show up at all.
That drew Maddie's attention to Danny's sleeping habits, which lead to another can of worms. He was sneaking out at night! She still couldn't figure how he left his room, but he refused to tell her how or where he'd been.
Despite all this, the fangs were what got her. All the other oddities could be brushed off as normal teenage problems. But not the fangs. This was something supernaturally wrong.
"You've noticed it, haven't you Mads?" Jack broached the topic one morning after Danny left for school. "That he's..."
"Not human anymore," she whispered. "He's something else."
"Our son… is he still Danny? He—he acts like Danny."
"I want to believe it's still him, but he's so different now. You know he sneaks out, right?" Her eyes welled with tears. "My baby… I don't know who he is anymore, Jack!"
He shook his head. "Neither do I. I think he's trying to act like nothing's changed, but it's clear that something has. I just… we need to talk to him about this. About what he is now."
"Are you thinking the same thing I'm thinking? That he's a—a—"
"Vampire. He has to be. I've never seen anything else like it."
She nodded. "It would explain the coldness, the dark clothes, and the late-night outings. And his fangs, those damn fangs. I can't really see what else it would be!"
"Exactly. Today, after he comes home from school we'll confront him about it. I can't keep pretending anymore."
"Neither can I, Jack. Neither can I."
Typically, when he returned home from school, his parents were in the lab or out ghost hunting. So, Danny usually flew straight right up to his bedroom. By the time his parents finished their afternoon activities, they assumed he was already in his room, so there wasn't any reason to pretend to use the door. He figured that today was the same as any other day, so he phased right into his room and started on his homework.
As luck had it, today was not like every other day.
He pulled his desk chair across the floor and dropped his backpack onto the carpet. He was about to sit down when Mom's voice carried upstairs.
"Danny! Is that you?"
Shit.
She wasn't supposed to be out of the lab yet. He'd messed up; he shouldn't have started taking things for granted.
Hopefully, she hadn't realized that he hadn't come in through the front door. Otherwise, he'd have to pretend he scaled his window and that wouldn't be easy to explain. Oh yeah Mom, just figured I'd climb two stories in broad daylight because it seemed fun! Like that'll go over well.
"Uh, yeah! Just doing my homework!"
His heart pounded in his chest. Please… leave it at that.
Unfortunately, Mom had other plans.
"Could you come down here? Your Dad and I want to talk with you."
The hairs on his neck stood on end. A talk was never good. It was probably about his grades again. He'd failed two tests in the past week and completely bombed an essay worth twenty percent of his grade.
"Alright!" he called. "Just a minute!"
He pushed his chair back in and hesitantly descended the stairs. Both of his parents were waiting for him on the couch, glancing between him and the floor. Okay… that was weird. If his parents were nervous too this may not be the sort of conversation he'd anticipated. Maybe they had realized he hadn't used the front door.
"Take a seat, Danno."
He sat in the loveseat across from the couch.
"We need to talk about something and I don't really know how to say it. Mads?"
Danny gulped. That really didn't sound good.
"We need to talk about how you've changed. We know Danny, and it's okay. We just… need to talk about it. No holding back, no secrets."
It took a good ten seconds before her words made sense.
They… knew?
This couldn't be happening. They couldn't know! They'd—they'd reject him for sure! But somehow they did know and Mom had said it was 'okay'. Alright, so that meant they didn't want to experiment on him or kick him out (unless it was a trick!), so… they were open-minded. But why? He was a ghost! The thing they hated most in the world!
Maybe they didn't know all of it. Maybe they only knew part of it… could that be it? Maybe they knew that he had powers or that he was half-ghost. Or… maybe he'd slipped up completely; maybe they knew he was Phantom.
All that mattered is that he messed up somewhere. He just didn't know where or when. And now he was facing the consequences. Now his parents knew and everything was going to change. He wasn't ready for this. (But would he ever be?)
"What do you mean?" he tried playing dumb. It was a futile attempt—the look on his face had already given him away.
"You're… not human anymore. We don't know how, but we get it. You're still trying to be yourself despite your nature," Dad said.
Mom nodded. "We just want to understand this and how we can help you. We want to embrace this as a family and move on."
Danny's eyes widened. "You're okay with this? With… how I am?"
This was all too… perfect. He figured that he would have to plead for acceptance, that they'd shoot first and ask questions later. But they were content with their son's inhumanity and maybe that didn't mean they knew everything, but Danny was far too relieved to jeopardize their acceptance to qualify exactly what they knew.
"It doesn't hurt me that you've changed, it hurts me that you've hidden this whole other side from us," Mom explained. "I'm mad, but I can move on."
"We'd never hate you over something you can't control."
"Wow… you guys—" he choked. "You guys actually get it."
"Well, we don't get everything," Dad admitted. "We've figured out that you're… y'know… but we don't understand anything other than that."
"Yeah, I guess it is pretty complicated," he laughed. "It's not every day you find out your son's half-dead."
His parents' expressions fell. Suddenly, he was paranoid about what he'd said wrong.
Mom wrapped her hand around her wrist and squeezed.
"So… so you've died?" she whispered. "Oh, Danny…"
"Uh, yeah." He brushed the back of his neck. "Only half, though. My heart still beats, I need air, and I still need to eat human food."
"But that's not all you need?" Dad caught on.
"Well, yeah… I need to feed my other half. Which is gross and it sucks."
His parents shared a significant glance.
"Danny," Dad said carefully, "we get that it's a personal topic, but we need to know. Have you… ever killed anyone?"
Where the fuck did that come from? Murder? He knew his parents thought Phantom was a criminal, but surely they thought he was better than that!
"Wh—no! Why?"
"It's just—how-do-you-eat?" Mom blurted. "You mentioned feeding your 'other half'."
Did they think feeding his ghost half meant killing people? Huh? Well, in a way… okay, he did have to kill some ghosts from time to time. But never people!
Ancients.
"I uh. I have to drink ectoplasm." His face suddenly felt hot. "I guess sometimes I do hurt ghosts, even though I really hate doing it. Usually nothing sentient, just blob ghosts."
Dad's jaw dropped. "Vampires can drink ectoplasm? Wow! Who woulda thought?"
"Whew! That changes everything. Thank God."
"Hold up," Danny cut in. "Vampires? Vampires aren't real." (At least he thought they weren't…?)
Mom frowned. "But you're a vampire?"
Danny did a double-take.
His parents—ghost hunting parents—believed that he, a ghost, was a vampire. No way. No fucking way. It was so ridiculous that he couldn't decide if he wanted to laugh or cry.
Somehow they'd misinterpreted ghostliness for vampirism and were actually ready to accept him even if he drank people's blood! Holy shit. It all made sense now.
He wondered how they managed it. What did they supposedly see that made them jump to the 'Danny's a vampire, not a ghost' conclusion? It was probably the fangs. He retracted them at school, but they got sore being crammed up in his gums all the time, so he let them out at home sometimes. He must've gotten caught with them at some point.
Maybe it wasn't so ridiculous, but it was still hilarious. If everything went over well, he wouldn't let them live it down.
"Mom, Dad," he laughed. "I'm a ghost. Not a vampire."
They both looked like they'd been slapped.
"Oh," Dad whispered.
"I mean, I'm only half-ghost. I guess?"
"How?" Mom asked. "We were so sure that you were—and you can't be—but how?"
"Two years ago, I turned the ghost portal on from the inside and almost died. It fused just enough ectoplasm with my DNA to change me, to save me from fully dying. Ever since I've been half-ghost."
"But what exactly does that mean? How can you be half alive and dead?"
He shrugged. "It's beyond me. I need ectoplasm and food to live, my temperature's really low and my heart beats a bit slow. I have ghost powers and can transform into a ghostly form. Which I guess we need to talk about that too."
His parents were probably going to be upset about Phantom, but if they could accept him when they thought he was a bloodsucking monster they could likely accept anything.
"You're losing us, kid," Dad said.
"And somehow vampires made more sense?" he raised a brow.
"Well, you got me there."
"What do you mean 'ghost form'?" Mom drew out. "Does that mean you can change your appearance?"
"Yeah, pretty much. But it's probably better if you see it," Danny decided. "You're not gonna like it though. My ghost form looks like any regular ghost. Which is why this is so complicated; you guys have seen my ghost form before."
"We have?"
"You don't mean… you change into a ghost and haunt the town! That's where you go at night?"
He laughed nervously. "Guilty. It's not what you think, though. Even when I change… please keep an open mind."
His words did little to console them. If it were possible, they looked even more startled than before.
"Danny—"
Before they could protest, he drew his core out to the surface and let the transformation rings wrap around his waist. He kept his eyes down, looking anywhere but at his parents. To his dismay, he heard their sharp gasps as the rings panned out to reveal Phantom—glossy black spandex, billowing white hair, toxic green eyes, and piercing white fangs. After several seconds, Danny bit back his fear and met his parents' gazes.
Mom had her hands clamped over her face and Dad's mouth was ajar. Sure, their reactions weren'tgood but they weren't bad either. Honestly, Mom and Dad were right where Danny expected them to be. He could work with this; he only had to persuade them that he was still their son.
"I know this isn't what you expected and you're probably pissed because I know you hate me, but before you finish judging me can I explain?"
"Ph—Phantom?" Dad stammered. "But Danny… and what?"
"Dad, I'm still Danny. This is just my ghost form. There is no 'Phantom', it's just a dumb name I made up for myself whenever I transform."
"No, no… you can't be Danny," Mom denied. "You're different. I've seen the two of you together! And—and Danny wouldn't do the things you've done!"
"To protect my identity, I've pulled a few tricks to make myself look like different people. And… I know that some of the things I've done look bad, but most of those were mistakes. I… mess up a lot. I'll explain them if you just listen to me."
"And how do we know this isn't a trick?" Jack accused.
"You're the ones that called me down to have a conversation about what's wrong with me. Do you really think I could've planned this?" he deadpanned.
"Fair."
"So you get it? That I'm still the same person even though I look like a ghost? That Phantom isn't some parasite possessing me? That being a half-ghost means I'm still half-alive and that all that really changes is my appearance?"
"I guess it does make some sense," Mom conceded. "Being half-ghost would explain the cold skin and the sneaking out... oh, and the fangs!"
Danny ran his tongue over his teeth. "I can't believe these made you think I was a vampire."
"Thinking about it now is kind of stupid," Dad chortled. "I can't believe I thought my son was a bloodsucker but he was actually just a spook!"
"I can't believe you guys were okay with me killing people. That's literally the opposite of my job."
"Your job?"
"Uh, yeah," Danny put a hand on his hip. "I'm a ghost hunter? That's what I've been doing and telling you guys for the past two years?"
Dad's eyes lit up. "You have?"
"Yeah, but all you see is the bad stuff! Like, I don't try to cause property damage, it just happens when I'm fighting ghosts! And I don't fight them for attention, I actually want less of it! As Phantom, I try to keep the town safe just like you guys."
"Oh, wow. I'm sorry we doubted you, Danno. We just thought you were like every other ghost… I never thought—"
"I know. You had no reason to believe that I was different."
"But we should have." Maddie declared. "You're our son! Why didn't we see that it was you?"
"Because I didn't want you to see. I was… afraid of you guys knowing because I thought if you knew, you'd hate me anyway. That you wouldn't care that I'm your son and that you'd…" he shook his head, "nevermind."
His parents' expressions softened.
"Oh, Danny…" Mom moved forward and brushed a strand of his white hair. "I'm so sorry I made you feel this way."
"It's fine," he dismissed. "I'm just being stupid."
"No, you're not," Jack cut in. "We said awful things about you. We said it to your face, we said it to the town, hell—we even put anti-Phantom warnings in pamphlets! Even though we didn't know, that doesn't excuse all the horrible things you must've felt. We gave you no reason to trust us and that's not stupid, that's being smart."
"But you're my parents… I should've had more faith. I should've… I—"
"This isn't on you, kiddo. It's on us. You don't deserve to carry this guilt, we do. I'm sorry that it's taken this long."
"We love you, Danny," Mom assured. "You're our son no matter what. Ghost, human, or vampire."
He tilted his head back and laughed. "Okay yeah, I'm never letting you guys live that one down."
