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Dash slammed the door behind him and started down the hall. He should've been on his way home, but he had forgotten most of his schoolwork in his locker.
This wouldn't usually be a problem, but his grades had been pretty low recently and he couldn't afford to turn any assignments in late.
He'd never hear the end of it if he got grounded.
Dash would never admit it out loud, but a big part of why he hated going back for his stuff was because the empty school gave him the creeps.
All the lights were off, and everything was far too quiet, especially for a school. It was like there was some sort of drill going on and every nerve in his body knew this was not somewhere he should be.
Dash finally made it to the hall where his locker was, just past the big double doors that lead to the auditorium. As he rifled through his stuff, he thought about how we was going to let off this steam.
Fenturd hadn't been around much up until recently, missed a lot of days and looked kinda sick. As he got better he got all jumpy, Dash didn't even need to do much to get a good rise out of him.
Maybe all Danny needed was a warm welcome back, a good trip by the pants up the flagpole so he could look down on the school and see how much they'd missed him!
Too bad he was still missing all these days of school, there was no telling if he'd be there tomorrow, which sucked cause he was Dash's go-to punching bag and he didn't really feel like putting in the effort to track down some other poor sucker.
Even more pissed by the time he'd gotten all his crap, Dash slammed his locker shut and started back down the way he came, he was a step away from passing the auditorium when he heard...
singing?
Which was... really weird. Despite it coming from the auditorium. The drama club had gotten a lot of budget cuts so they were focusing on fundraisers until after Christmas break (don't ask how he knew), and it was still August so there was absolutely no way anyone had a script to practice.
And even then, they were notoriously un-talented. None of them could sing, and they got all their plays off some cheap website for scripts written for school kids, so there wouldn't be any songs anyways.
So, basically, some weird kid who liked to sing hanging out in the auditorium after school where nobody knew where they were and they couldn't tell anyone anyways or they'd get in trouble for staying after school so late...
Good enough for him!
Dash had his hands on the doors and was almost shocked by how cold the metal was. It wasn't that warm in the building, but the handles could have come out of a freezer.
He finally got the door cracked and had to force himself to open it the rest of the way through the shivering of his spine. The cold in the auditorium was seeping through his letterman... and that voice...
It was a tone he didn't think someone at the age of voice cracks could reach, ringing in his ears and building up a pressure in his skull. Stepping into the auditorium was like stepping out into the snow in December wearing nothing but pj's.
There was... some kind of presence everywhere. The auditorium was impossibly dark considering there were at least four windows scattered about, and the sun hadn't set when he'd entered the building. There was some kind of draft that blew more cold air into his face. Another impossibility.
Dash felt like he was underwater.
He felt the doors shut behind him more then he heard them, which is to say, he couldn't hear it at all. Not over the voice.
Everything smelt like petrichor...
The thought of the voice drew his eyes to the stage, which housed the only source of light in the room. Right on the edge of the stage was...
Considering the school's streak, he should have guessed that whoever was here would be a little more than human.
It was floating.
But that didn't do much to deter him...
he couldn't quite say why.
Dash was calmer than he'd been in a while... maybe ever. He supposed this was what it was like to be under a trance, but couldn't muster any panic when he realized that must have been exactly what was going on.
His feet were light, the whole room had an aura of stillness, bathed in a soft green glow that grew as his eyes adjusted from the darkness, radiating from the ghost, the siren, facing away from him and the rest of the room.
"He's there... the Phantom of the Opera..."
He ignored the fact that the ghost apparently was a theatre nerd (and a smartass) in favor of a wave of... emotion, not quite his own, washing over him. Along with another layer of stillness, but the trance he had been forced into wasn't quite his concern anymore. Not compared to the sight he was witnessing.
The figure would drift higher and lower with the notes of the song, the pressure from before continued to worsen and build as it jumped from octave to octave and began to tilt back, straining with the effort of sending it's voice so high.
It hit him like a sucker punch to the gut. His mind released in time with the final note of the song, the highest he's ever heard a boy -apparently- sing.
He was aware of the windows rattling in their frames, what was once a slight breeze was now strong enough to move the heavy curtains that framed the teenage specter. And possibly most surprising, ice spread out from it's feet as he touched down on the ground.
Dash finally had the awareness to take a good look at the siren and,
"....Ah.... I didn't think anyone would be here this late."
he was obviously still under some kind of trance because the realization that 'oh, hey, that's Phantom' should've hit way harder than it did.
Phantom winced, probably coming to the same conclusion, and looked around the auditorium, probably for anyone else who might have been there to witness this... display. He shoved a phone into the pocket of his jumpsuit -another thing Dash was just now noticing, but the music had to come from somewhere- before floating back up into the air, his legs already halfway into a tail.
"Oof, uh... sorry about the... aura, in here, I guess. And the ice. And maybe splitting your eardrums."
His tail finished forming and Phantom retreated towards the back of the stage, "Don't worry about the daze, it's happened before. It'll pass off quicker once I leave the area-"
He looked like he was just about to phase through the back of the stage when
"Wait!"
Phantom seemed reluctant but eventually tuned back around. His head tilted like some sort of cat, an eyebrow raised.
Okay, deep breathes. His towns very own, very cute superhero was right there in front of him. There were no enemies for Phantom to fight, no classes for Dash to get back to, and he had just made the most beautiful noise Dash had heard... maybe ever. This was his chance to finally get a conversation in. (and maybe even flirt!)
Can't mess this up.
"...You have a very nice voice."
Welp, there it goes, at least he got in a compliment.
Phantom looked a little confused for a second, but the pause was enough for Dash to notice... a blush? It was green, but ghosts have green blood so that maybe made sense.
"...Thanks..."
The awkwardness must have got to him, cause Phantom finally phased through the wall.
It wasn't as cold anymore, the curtains were settling down, and light was finally starting to seep back through the windows.
As the smell of petrichor faded, Dash realized that he didn't feel so angry anymore.
Maybe he'd leave Danny alone tomorrow.