Ethereal

13

"Psst. Hello."

Danny groaned, furrowing his eyebrows as a wave of nausea passed over him. He clutched at his aching chest and was surprised to feel more than one heartbeat. The teen sat up in a frenzy, only to discover that this action made his body shiver in pain.

"I ask that you calm down. It is not wise to sit up in your current state."

Danny's eyes flashed over to a boy, a merboy, with long chestnut hair and tan skin. His large eyes surveyed the merman in front of him with dismay.

"Great," Danny muttered, narrowing his eyes, "there's more of you."

Ignoring that comment, the boy announced with pride, "I am Mermando. What is your name?"

Danny held his side and clutched at the bed's sapphire-blue sheets. "Danny. Danny Fenton."

"That's hardly a merperson's name." Mermando shook his head, befuddled.

"Yeah, well, I'm technically a human."

Mermando laughed. "Impossible. How is it that you are sporting fangs and a tail?"

Danny scoffed. "How is it that you're in here when your father told you not to come near me?"

Mermando narrowed his eyes in suspicion. "How do you know about that?"

"I wasn't unconscious the entire time."

With an audible squeak, the metal doors were pushed open and slammed against the wall. In swam a tall, muscular merman, with dark skin and long brown hair. His eyes met Mermando's and flashed a terrifying golden color.

"Hey," Danny said, sensing the hostility, "he didn't do anything wrong. He was just curious."

"Curiosity killed the catfish, Mermando." The merman spoke directly to the swimming merboy, dismissing Danny with a wave of his large hand.

"Father, he's not violent. Sarcastic, yes, but it seems he's suffered some brain damage."

"I have not!" Danny shouted defiantly. "Look, there was this stream out in the woods, and my friends and I all swam in it and woke up like, like—" He gestured to his body.

"Like merpeople?" The father inquired.

"Not necessarily. Dipper was a deer, Wendy was a wolf, and Mabel was a—"

"Did you say Mabel?" Mermando's voice rose and he quivered in excitement. "Mabel Pines?"

"You know her?" Danny and the father said in unison, glancing at each other in confusion.

"Yes, well, she helped me escape from the town's pool!"

The father shook his head and continued. "How did you survive as a merman over water?"

"I was human when I first woke up, but—" Danny's head was suddenly filled with a sharp pain, as if thousands of small knives were pressed into his skull. He pushed his hands against his temples, muscles bulging from his neck as he strained to keep from screaming out.

Mermando and his father watched in horror as Danny's fangs elongated, his black scales climbing from his shoulders to his neck. Some tendrils even dared go over the teen's jawline and onto his cheeks. Danny's pupils shrunk into smaller slits, the iris becoming a bright greenish yellow. When the moment had finally stopped and the merteen dropped his hands from his head, he looked violent and hostile. However, Danny shook his head and continued on as if nothing had happened.

"Well, I guess there's no reason why I shouldn't tell you. You're merpeople, for crying out loud. Okay, so there was this lab accident, and I became half-ghost. When I tried to transform into my ghost half, I became this, but I couldn't change back. I've been getting worse ever since."