Chapter Text
Bellhaste was never a normal town by any means.
It had its fair share of spooky stories and folklore.
But it never was confirmed that it was a cursed town.
Not till July tenth if early 2001.
The night when three people from entirely different circumstances in entirely different places
vanished without a trace.
Or so people thought.
Vance had woken up from his fare share of nightmares.
Most of them were along the same line of a monster either coming after him and eating him alive, or in some cases he was the monster, hunting down some innocent soul.
Last night was a particularly bad one.
Mostly because he'd seen the face of the person he'd killed, and he knew that girl.
He still had the taste of blood in his mouth when he opened his eyes.
He grunted, sitting up and sliding out of bed, his feet hitting the wooden floor lightly
He combed his hair out of his eyes with his fingers and went to the bathroom, washing his face and trying to avoid looking at his reflection.
He knew it probably looked fine, but he was always terrified that one day he'd wake up and look exactly like one of the creatures that haunted his nightmares.
He had a weird creeping chill down his spine, like something was wrong but he just couldnt figure out what.
He sighed, wiping the excess water off his face and hoping what he was feeling was just unease from his newest nightly hell.
The girls name was , belle? Becky? Something like that, she was Ashley's best friend, and shed been at his house the night before.
With Ashley, and the other people who were probably scattered around his house.
He stepped out onto the trail behind his house.
Setting out at a brisk jogg, hoping most of the people would be out of his house by the time he got back.
Sure, he'd volunteered his house for the party.
But that didn't mean he liked it.
He only did that sort of thing because he was popular and people expected the dumb boy with a rich mommy and daddy to host their obnoxious get togethers.
It was stupid.
He stopped at the edge of the crick, looking around, he'd lost hope a long time ago that he'd actually see the person he was waiting for out here.
But it was habit.
He pulled the small toad shaped rock out of his pocket.
Holding it in his hand for a moment, sitting down, cold mud sticking to his legs.
That would need a shower, bit he didn't really care.
It was his daily thing,
Get up, shake off his newest nightmare, and come out to this spot and wait.
It had been that way since he was six years old, and he didn't anticipate stopping anytime soon.
He still couldn't get rid of the creeping feeling that something was really wrong though.
Something was definitely off
He just couldn't pinpoint what.
*oh fuck,*
Daniel Edmond Sallow hurled himself through the English classes door, right as the bell rang.
Right
On
Time
Very much almost late, but he wasn't, tnd that's what mattered.
He plopped down into the uncomfortable desk chair, his long gangly legs sticking out to the sides to keep them from getting stuck under the desk.
It was something that had happened in the past, and due to the chairs attachedness to the desk, he really didn't want to repeat that incident.
He heard a snicker of laughter off to his left, and glanced over, not moving his head much, just enough to see Henry Gall laughing and saying something snide to the boy next to him, waving a hand at Danny.
*What an asshole*
The boy sitting next to Henry.
Vance Smith, certified pretty boy and douchebag, didn't seem too interested.
Henry was talking quietly, obviously not wanting to get caught and loosing more grade in a class he was already failing in due to missing it for being sent to the office, when Vance let out an Audible snort.
"Shut the fuck up Henry." The boy hissed, loud enough for Danny and most likely everyone else in the class to hear.
Henry looked stunned, then muttered something under his breath that Danny couldn't hear.
The rest of second period was blessedly only the occasional question from a student, or Miss harvingtons animated lectures about litature.
This class and art class were the only ones he had an A in.
The rest of them he was either failing, or close to failing
Wasn't his fault that Miss harvington and miss Lesley were the only teachers who didn't hate everyone and actually made an effort to keep everyone involved and entertained enough to pay attention.
As the bell rang, he gathered his stuff and got up, glancing at Vance.
He'd distanced himself from Henry, his typically perfect hair was a disaster, it looked more like a completely Burnet colored porcupine than actual hair.
Danny would have found it absolutely hilarious if not for the stressed, irritated and blank look across Vances face.
He looked like he was in a whole other world and that world just showed him some insurmountable horror that he was struggling to process.
Or that his brain got hyjacked by a bees nest and he was trying to find a tree to climb into and die in to become the new hive.
Danny winced.
That had turned somewhat morbid pretty fast.
But Vances facial expressions were weird and it was kinda freaking him out.
He slipped out of the class room, breaking into a sprint down the hall to his locker.
He planned on being early to third period, and he also really wanted to get away from the popular boy currently freaking him out.
Even if it was just for a couple minutes because of their stupid shared classes.
Saying Danny and Vance hated each other was an overstatement.
Saying that Vance legitimately probably didn't even know Danny's name, and was just the asshole who stood around and laughed at his friends being dicks to everyone else?
Now that was completely true.
Vance had never paid Danny any attention, good or bad outside of cutting in when his friends started to go too far, and Danny intended for it to stay that way.
As grateful as he was for Vance preventing him what probably could have ended as a thousand dollar hospital trip, ue wasn't to keen on sticking around the guy, and he's noticed that Vance did that for pretty much everybody.
Danny was just another nameless nobody that Vance felt obligated to keep out of the hospital because of his friends antics
But Danny also noticed things.
A lot of things
Vance had showed up to school three weeks ago with his face beat to hell, a limp, bandages wrapped around both arms and a way of walking like he was trying to curl in on himself.
He'd shyed away from his friends jokes, and flinched whenever any one of them tried to sling an arm around his shoulder, or a playful punch aimed at him.
He stayed hunched over what looked like a sketchpad, only looking up every once in a while to find where his eraser went so he could fix a mistake.
It was actually somewhat entertaining to watch when Danny wasn't busy with his speeches, or hyping up his party members for his latest session of shenanigans and character deaths.
Henry said that James Miller, the quiet boy who carried around a camera like a second limb, had snapped and beat the everloving daylight out of Vance.
He'd seen broken ribs, hell he'd lived through broken ribs, and the way Vance was walking, his arms nearly constantly around his chest, those were more the signs of somebody who's been mauled.
He'd walked into the bathroom once, only to listen to Vance coughing up what he thought was probably a lung in one of the stalls.
He sounded terrible.
Even now, three weeks later, when the bruises were nearly healed, Vance still acted small.
He curled in on himself at lunch, typically keeping a hand clasped around his ribs.
So
If he was being honest
He didn't believe the rumors about James taking a crowbar to him.
Sure, he could believe the kid got fed up with Vances bullshit and beat his face in.
But not a crowbar.
Or anything else
Not unless the guy was a fucking werewolf because whatever did a number on Vance's ribcage and arms was not human.
Plus, he had a feeling Vance would have said something.
Told somebody and got the kid arrested.
But he hadn't.
He'd been more quiet than ever the past few weeks.
Sneaking looks at Ashley Rothschild and the boy boy himself who apparently kicked the shit out of him.
Letting Henry and his bitchy girlfriend Carly run his shit show kingdom.
All while Danny watched the monarchy collapse on itself.
He'd been expecting something like this for a while.
But Vances snap at Henry only confirmed his suspicions.
Vance was taking a hammer too his own damn palace and he wanted to watch it fall.
Suicidal bastard.
Well
Probably not suicidal.
But what he was doing was going to murder his reputation and popularity and most likely land him right at the bottom of the food chain with Danny and the rest of the freaks, geeks and other unsavory types that the people up top preyed upon.
The only reason Danny and his group were considered untouchable was because Danny took the brunt of all their groups bullying.
He was an instigator.
He loved pissing people off, and that just so happened to be the exact thing that moved the targets on his friends backs, to his
He wouldn't change a thing though
He was a coward at his core, but this at least let him do something brave.
Somebody bumped into him, snapping him out of his thoughts.
He really hated thinking about that asshole so much.
It was annoying.
But frankly, he did enjoy watching the political hierarchy of this school implode so he wasn't too bothered this time.
He grabbed his stuff, and headed to third period, dreading the hell that would be history class.
He actually made it to third period before Vance.
Sure, he'd gotten there at the time everyone else was, which got him stuck in an available seat in the back, but he didn't mind too much.
It was weird though because Vance was almost always early too this class.
But as seats filled up, and the desk too his right stayed empty due to his status as freak and nobody wanting to be near him, he got worried.
When the bell rang there were two seats empty.
One of Danny's right side, and one next to Carly.
The poor chump too his left was only there because the fear of Danny's freakness being contagious was undervalued when it came to the basic survival instincts of not fucking with Carly Brooklyn.
She was a bitch, bit she did it with an authority and style that made Danny respect her.
And she put up with Henrys bullfuckery which Danny didn't understand.
They were about ten minutes into class when a very roughed up Vance.stumbled into the classroom, glanced around at the very much lack of space and padded over the the seat next to Danny, sitting down heavily and wincing.
He looked even worse up close.
Not that Danny was intentionally looking, but when the Lord of bellhaste highschool sits down next to you, your bound to stare.
Especially when he wasn't being a dick.
His porcupine like hair looked even more spiky now, his face pale, the yellowed remainder of bruises showing faintly across his cheek and jaw.
His collar was fucked up, his lip looked like it had been resplit, a faint smear of blood trailing from his nose.
He was hunching over, his hands placed on the desk, shoulders hunched up to his ears, wincing with every breath.
Danny didn't know how to react.
Vance smith, Lord of bellhaste, was sitting next to him, obviously fucked up, and looking like he probably just got done with another fight.
The fuck was he supposed to do?
He never answered his question because Henry stormed in, a twisted angry look on his face, noticable blood on his knuckles.
Which only confirmed Danny's suspicions about the quickly crumbling hierarchy, and that Vance had gotten into another fight.
*Jeeze, this guy seems to just be asking for it at this point*
The smoldering glare Henry gave Vance and Danny was not unnoticed when he stomped to the front of the class, ignoring the teachers irritated remark about him being late, and throwing himself into the seat next to his girlfriend.
Vance let out a huffy breath, glaring daggers across the classroom at his friend.
Danny raised an eyebrow at it.
He'd never seen Vance look so pissed off at Henry before.
It looked like a damn highschool breakup was happening and he got to watch first hand.
Then again
He'd never seen or heard about Vance personally when it came to those matters, but the guy had to be at least a little gay.
Most jocks are repressed in Danny's experience, and Vance was as stereotypical of a jock you could get.
Plus he acted really friendly with Henry and the other dudes in the football team.
Danny wasn't really qualified to be speculating his classmates sexuality and wether he liked dudes, but a guy can speculate, doesn't make it accurate.
Henry on the other hand.
He was
Danny couldn't describe him as gay as much as he could describe him as a man who prayed on weakness.
Danny had seen the way that guy's eyes went when he had someone pinned and it was not something he particularly cared to be up close to again
He didn't want to know what could have happened if Vance or other people hadn't been around to keep Henry in check.
Danny didn't particularly give a shit what Henry's sexuality was, he just knew the guy did not seem afraid to take out his anger, or whatever other shit he had penned up in the chicken coop of a brain, on the nearest unsuspecting victim.
And Danny had worked hard as fuck to make sure that person wasn't him.
You could call it cowardise.
Danny would call it caring for his own hide to stay connected to his body and his dignity as intact as it could be when your the town freak.
Vance shifted in his seat, a noticable wince warping his features and drawing Danny's attention back to him.
He was picking at his left hand, using his nails to tear into the cuticle and ripping at some small hangnails, blood was starting to well up from where he'd broken skin.
Danny watched in blank facination for a moment, before blinking and reaching out a hand, gently pinning Vance's hand too the table and preventing him from making it worse.
Vance let a surprised noise, and Danny froze somewhat, glancing from Vance's hands too his face, feeling pinned by sky blue eyes.
Doe brown locked with deep blue.
He was fucked
Vance may have been irritated with his typical comrady, but Danny was on the bottom of the food chain, and as much as Vance was more bark than bite, Danny had no doubt in his mind he was in for an ass kicking the moment this class got out.
He'd just placed a big red fucking target on his back, all because he hadn't fucking thought about how some situations it was better to just leave alone.
Vance blinked, breaking eye contact and shrugging his hand out from Danny's, twitching his fingers, seemingly only just now noticing the blood.
He glanced sheepishly at Danny, whoed withdrawn his hand, probably looking fucking terrified.
The Burnet muttered a quiet "thanks" before digging around in his bag for a piece of paper and a pen.
Danny looked back at the blackboard, feeling like he was high? hallucinating? Fucking delusional.
There was no way, no fucking way in hell that Vance fucking Smith, had thanked him, Him, Daniel Sallow, for putting a fucking hand on his.
He refused to believe it.
He couldn't
It was too fucking surreal
He had to be dreaming.
Thankfully he was interrupted from his small mental screaming session by Mister Laurence asking the teacher if he could be excused before Laurence led him out of the classroom and towards the principal.
The fuck.
The fuck?
He didn't deal anymore.
He hadn't done anything illegal in the past year
He'd showed up on time today
He hadn't been late to any of his classes yet
What the fuck was going on?