Danny knew things that he shouldn't. It was always a quirk of his.

Danny shouldn't know that the ghost with the mask was a mother, Danny shouldn't know that she was coming very, very soon, or even that those soft hisses were a sad, sad song. But he did know. He shouldn't of, he couldn't of.  But he did.

Danny forced his voice to quite to a whisper and pushed all questions at the back of his mind "We need to get out of here- "

That's when the masked ghost busted open the door.

Danny grabbed Phantoms shoulders and pulled him closer as the door detonated. Now out of is daze and shock, Phantom covered Danny's body with his own while turning the both of them intangible when the splinters of wood shot out like quills as sharp as daggers. As they held each other, Danny could hear Phantoms heartbeat rage against his own. It was like an ocean to his ears.

(Phantom?)

(Pulse?)

(... Heart?)

The masked ghost stared at them unblinkingly, long red worm-like strings suddenly unfurled from her eyes and mouth then rapped around Phantom. The movements so swift that Danny just saw fragments of a blur. Like a video on fast-forward.

As Phantom was thrust forward he yelped, now eye-to-eye with the masked lady. Her head lithe to the right, like Phantom and Danny were the true oddities in the room. She pulled Phantom closer to examine him, spare red strings (tentacles?) stroked his face and gaged him, Phantom looked like he was about to puke "... strange, you're warm," she looked back at Danny "and you..." She leaned towards him "you're so full of life, yet you feel so cold." she straitened up "cold like the dead." By the tone of her voice, Danny could swear that she was grinning "A being more human than ghost, and a human more ghost than mortal. How... intriguing.  How very, very strange indeed."

Danny nervously glanced at the masked woman then back at Phantom, who's muscles were tensing and contracting as he tried to break free, his form flickered as he tried to turn intangible, or invisible, or both trying break free to no avail. A single possessive thought consumed Danny, he needed to get Phantom out of there, now.

(why should he care so much?)

(He wouldn't want this on anyone, but why put so much risk?)

(Why did this- this obsession?)

Danny thoughts raced by the nanosecond, for all of his good grades, his mind went blank. Only one solution came up,

a distraction.

To buy time until he actually came up with a way to free Phantom. Danny moistened his lips and swallowed as he looked up to the masked lady, squared his shoulders and pushed up his glasses. "Who are you?"

Phantoms struggling creased a bit as he gave Danny a look that said 'are you out of your mind?! RUN you idiot!'

Danny resisted the urge to tell him that it was very clear to Danny that he might as well be wearing a red dress to a bull fight. 

The masked lady paused "my name has been long forgotten. All that I remember was that I was a lady whom gave my love everything, my mansion. My lands... and he cut off my hands." Her eyes stared holes into him "the young living skins are so elastic... so strong, maybe I could steal your skins..." her eyes seem to glistened "and finally be whole again."

Danny analyzed he with horror as he realized that yes, her hands where once cut off. That they were pieced together with stitches as well. He tried to even his breathing "you seem to be taking your time."

"I didn't think I would meet a mortal that was a Nameholder. Or could understand the tongue of the dead and decayed"

Danny head cocked to the left, he didn't even bother trying to hid his confusion "Wait, Nameholder?"

As soon as Danny said those words Phantom froze and stopped all struggling. It was enough proof to Danny that something important was going on that was beyond his grasp and control.

She hummed, Danny wasn't sure how he could tell when it came out more like a hiss. As she came closer to him, Danny resisted the urge to run. Not that Danny thought he could at this state, with knees locked in his place and his glasses shaking from Danny's shivering, not only out of fear. But also because of the cold.

Every inhale for air cut into his lungs like silvers of glass when his breath turned a icy blue as the masked lady leaned forward. The red worms that still had a tight hold of Phantom as she dissecting and analyzing Danny's every move. She raised a blackened hand and gently stroked Danny's face with her knuckles "Oh, how you're cold. So very, cold."

Danny ignored her as he took a step back, away from her black, corrupted hand. "So, you now know that there's a mortal Nameholder. Whoopee- do. What are you going to do now?"

She hesitated, and didn't answer.

Danny blinked in surprise as she dropped Phantom "Um, okkkaayy? Not that I'm complaining, but what made you change your mind?"

However, the masked Lady didn't seem to be listening as her words repeated like a broken recorder "Nameholder, Nameholder, Nameholder.  Where is my Nameholder?" She clung to her scalp "Souls are names, names are souls. Where is my soul? Where is my mind? Where is my name? Where, oh where, is my Nameholder?" She gasped as if trying to hold of tears "Nameholder, Nameholder, Nameholder. Where is my Nameholder?"

Phantom got up and held Danny protectively as he stared at the masked lady like he was trying to unravel a cypher.

Danny could only gawk in a catatonic paralysis. Like Phantom, he was at lost for words. Before Danny could think of something to say or do, she vanished.

"Lets... lets get out of here."

Danny could only stare at the ground where the masked lady vanished. As Phantom lifted him of the ground, Danny's cotton stuffed brain numbly realized that yes,

Phantom was warm.