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Danny is fourteen. Just your average student with below average grades, a close group of friends, and a wild family. He is someone you would see passing in the halls or streets and not think twice about. He is always just... there. In the background of life. Just another side character doomed to be barely remembered in the future at any high school reunions there may be.
Even the faculty seem to brush past his existence in class. It’s like he’s a ghost, just floating through life. But some people are just like that. There’s nothing really concerning about it or anything. And with such eccentric parents and a head-strong sister, it’s all the more easier to just… fade.
Danny is fourteen. But no one even noticed when he went missing. His close friends and sister chalked it up to him skipping class for “ghost things”, as they would later tell the police. His parents just assumed he was either in his room or with Tucker and Sam, it wasn’t odd to not see him around the house for a few days at a time. And the school's faculty had such little care about him being gone on the norm, they stopped bothering to call his parents months ago about the boys absence. One day he was there, and the next, gone.
It took an embarrassing two weeks before anyone really realized anything was seriously wrong. And maybe the most surprising thing of the situation was that it was Dash Baxter of all people to report it.
There was a big game that coming Friday, and realizing he hadn’t been able to beat all of his pent up energy out on someone in a while, Dash went to look for Danny around school. (Although he told the cops that Danny helped him calm down by talking, not by Dash beating him up. No one else disagreed with this statement) So Dash went to Mr. Lancer, asking where the twerp was and saying that he was essential for Friday's game enthusiasm. When the teacher not only noticed that the boy was absent that day, but that he had been for weeks, he called the Fenton’s. When they reported not having seen him either, the police were brought in to investigate.
After interviews with townspeople and camera footage, it became clear no one was sure of even the exact day he was gone. It took an additional week of sifting through the town's camera footage of places the boy frequented. The Nasty Burger, his route to the school, Casper High, and the near-by park. They never realized how poor their cameras were until they were searching for the boy. How could there be so many blind spots all over town? How had no one seen this issue before?
Danny is still fourteen when they find him on tape at long last. He is leaving school, going down to the sidewalk when he stops. He looks around, almost confused at his surroundings. But then he walks to the end of the walkway, turns a corner, and is gone.
There’s just nothing after that. No other camera shows the boy, there's no sign of a mystery figure or a looming car. He’s just there, and then he isn’t. A fourteen year old teen gone, like he was lost to the wind. Like the air itself chose to swallow him up and take him from Amity.
It was two years before the investigation was officially called off. Just a cold case left to the dust of the archives. What more could they do? No evidence, no sign of a struggle, no notice of the now sixteen year old boy. They were stumped, they had to quit or it would drive them insane. It was a miracle they had lasted two years at all.
But his parents, his friends, they never gave up. The Fenton’s worked themselves into the ground to find their son. All their time spent on searching, scanning the city. Since the ghosts stopped attacking Amity (when did that happen?) and Phantom stopped making an appearance (did he have something to do with this?) they had all the time and money in the world to spend on him. Jazz tried to help too, making sure she was there every weekend, even when she moved to college a few states away.
His friends combed the Ghost Zone. Even getting the aid of a few other ghosts for a more thorough and wide search, but that was just a rumor. They would leave for days at a time, just to come back more tired and disheveled than when they left.
They never found him.
Danny is one hundred and seventy two when he returns. Right in the exact spot in which he vanished. He looked fine, for the most part. Alive . His clothes were in taters, cuts and bruises lining his body next to scars that looked old. But it was all superficial, nothing too much out of place.
The second he was taken to the hospital, everyone knew who he was.
An infamous cold case of the boy who vanished. A story that brought in true crime and paranormal tourists in like cats to fish. The Fenton Works building became a “haunted” location for tours and overnight stays. His face all over the news and online forums. A tragedy turned into profit .
Danny is one hundred and seventy two, still looking fourteen when he is told what year it is. When he is told his family and friends are gone. When he is told his house has been taken in by the town. When it becomes clear there is nowhere else for him to go. He is back, but he looks more lost than ever. His eyes are heavy and while his form looks strong, it seems that the weight of everything is enough to turn him to dust with one wrong move.
When he gets up and leaves, they know they won’t see him again. But no one tries to stop the fragile teen. A minor shouldn’t be able to go alone, be without protection. But he is older than anyone else in town. A complicated case, but it becomes clear that having him be anywhere he doesn't want to be isn't going to happen.
No one asks Danny where he went or what happened for all those years. They don’t even think to. Just one look from his cold eyes, and all questions get stuck in their throats.
And yet, through it all, the police station can’t help but to give out a collective sigh of relief as they move a single file from their Cold Cases, to Solved.