A/N: This is my first story in any category that isn't anime, so any and all feedback will have a shrine built for it and be worshipped regularly. I didn't really plan on writing this... I was just staring at my screen and the next thing I know, it's almost done, which is rather creepy. A sequel is not impossible, but for now it will remain a oneshot unless I get several requests to expand. Maybe something on how it affected Tucker? P.S.- If you don't get this by the end, you are an idiot. Seriously.
The Ghostly Wail
Samantha Mason doesn't have a Ghostly Wail.
Nor does she have Ectoblasts, or Ghosts Shields, invisibility or intangibility.
Those have always been reserved for him.
So perhaps it's understandable that she makes no sound when he is hit by a particularly powerful blast from Skulker's new, upgraded Ectoskeleton. And perhaps it's understandable that she makes no sound as he falls from the sky, collapsing onto the pavement below.
Perhaps it's understandable that she doesn't believe what she's seeing- he can't possibly have failed. He always wins, because that's just how it works. Good always triumphs over evil, white always overpowers black, and light always banishes darkness to the realm of shadows, because that is how it works.
All she knows is that when he hits the ground, a million scenarios start flying through her mind- He'll get up and use Ghostly Wail. He'll get up and use an Ectoblast. He'll get up- He'll get up! He has to!
When two white rings flicker into existence and reveal his normal, human self- the boy she had fallen in love with?- she knows that there is one problem with every future she can imagine.
They all involve her secret love getting back up. Beating the bad guy. Coming back to her, safe and sound. But deep inside, she knows that he's not going to get up, he's not going to beat the bad guy this time, and he is never, ever going to come back safe and sound from this fight.
She laughs bitterly as his voice floats through her mind- 'It's not always going to be as easy as shoving the Box Ghost back into the Thermos, Sam.'- If only they had known how portentous that comment would become, perhaps it wouldn't have come to this.
So even though Samantha Mason has no Ghostly Wail, no Ectoblasts or invisibility or intangibility or special Ghost Shield, somewhere deep inside herself she has all these things and more, and she decides to use them.
Frozen to the spot, she opens her mouth to cry out to him, to beg him to tell her it isn't true, to get back up and show the world that good does always triumph over evil, and to please, please come back safe and sound and joke about the Box Ghost just like before, to tell her that this is all just a bad dream and to hold her in his arms as she sobs and sobs and sobs.
Suddenly, she realizes that she is sobbing, gasping for breath and swallowing chokes and curses as tears flood down her cheeks. Idly, she muses that they must be messing up her makeup, before realizing that it doesn't matter because he isn't there to see it, to tell her how nice she looks, and he never ever will be, ever again. And she notices how odd it is, because she must have been standing here awhile, but no one has come to see, has heard her crying, her screaming.
Perhaps, she muses, Perhaps, I've gone deaf, or into shock, which is why all I can see is him, is his body just lying there like a broken doll, and I can't hear them telling me it will be okay, even though we all know it won't be, and I can't hear myself screaming.
The truth is that no one can hear her screaming, because although she has no powers, and above all, no Ghostly Wail to carry far enough to bring someone, anyone to see what she sees, Samantha Manson will never stop screaming, her face stretched horribly, grotesque in her grief, forever and ever, just like the image of him falling and falling and falling, forever and ever.
Because the truth is, that Samantha Mason can scream all she likes, because no matter how much she screams, no one can hear her in this little room, with its white walls and its plain bed with white linen sheets, and the little camera mounted in the corner to make sure that she doesn't try to hurt herself again, which is the reason for the special medicine she is now given three times a day by the nice nurse with the needle, and the reason for the white jacket with the super-long sleeves that she now wears, not that she is aware of it, of course.
Because no matter how long or hard or loudly Samantha Mason screams, the only sound she makes is in her own mind, where no one but herself can hear.