Disclaimer: I don't own Phineas and Ferb, or any of it characters. Credit to Dan Povenmire and Jeff "Swampy" Marsh. Rated T for mentioned violence etc.
This will be the only thing I submit until December, because I'm doing NANOWRIMO, and I need to focus on that, but I had inspiration for this one-shot, and just wanted to publish it. It's not like my usual, but I like it. Inspiration came from the song "Dance With the Devil" by Breaking Benjamin, but this isn't a songfic. Yeah... that's all I have to say. Enjoy!
She unlocked the safety on the gun and pointed it idly at nothing. She wasn't in the mood for shooting anything that night. Besides, she wasn't even supposed to have the gun, after she was just let out of the slammer three weeks before, but she didn't care. It felt right to have it, like she wasn't completely without it, even though she wasn't planning on using it.
Candace sighed and put the safety back on and slid the gun into its holder in her belt. She glanced around, seeing no one in the abandoned junk yard, and stood up from her spot on the ground, walking out through the entrance and down the streets of Danville.
Not even she expected to be where she now was at age nineteen. But she always felt so useless around her brothers, like whatever she did was never good enough. She always tried as hard as she could to be as good as them at something, but to no avail, and then one day she realized something. Why was she still trying? She knew perfectly well she would never be like them, and so she simply stopped caring, throwing her grades down the toilet and not bothering to hold her annoyance back. She argued a lot more with her parents, and it was a miracle that she graduated, but she did none the less, but with none of her previous friends. Stacy and Jeremy wanted nothing to do with her anymore, but she didn't care. They were only holding her back.
Kicking at a small rock on the pavement, Candace thought back to what had happened in the last year. After graduation, she had no plans for college or anything for a future, so she illegally bought herself a gun, although she never once fired it. She never had, as a matter o' fact. She often wanted to, but she just didn't. However, she came pretty close when she robbed that gas station. The gun was pointed at the cashiers head, safety off, as she shouted at him to put the money in her bag and he hurriedly did as he was told. The police caught her three blocks away and she spent the next six months in jail. She didn't even bother with her phone call- no one wanted to talk to her anyways.
When she was let out, she did call her mom. The only thing she said to her daughter was never to come home again, that she wasn't welcome there where she would be a danger to her brothers. Candace didn't even care. Now, she slept wherever she felt like, but she did stay in Danville. She just couldn't bring herself to leave the place she had lived her whole life in.
Candace stopped when she felt something in her pocket. She didn't remember having anything in there, but when she reached in, to her surprise, she found her cell phone. She put on a dry smile, remembering then that she had managed to get it back from the police after she was let out of jail. She pressed a button and watched as the screen came to life, expecting that to see her usual black rose background. What she wasn't expecting was the little white light to flash, saying "1 Unheard Message."
She hadn't checked her phone since getting it back, because no one talked to her anymore. Frowning curiously, she pressed OKAY and brought the phone to her ear. The last voice she was expecting to hear was Phineas'.
Hey Candace, it's me. I heard you got out of jail finally. I miss you, you know. I haven't talked to you in eight months. I wish you'd come home. Mom isn't mad at you anymore, and she says she's sorry for what she said when you called. She was just angry and scared, but everything's fine now. Everyone makes mistakes, and we don't want this mistake to get in the way of seeing you ever again.
Oh, Ferb says hi. Well, he waved. He misses you too, and so does Perry. He keeps trying to get into your room. It is still your room, if you want it again. I really want you to come home. It's too quiet here without you. You remember how you used to yell at us when Ferb and I were ten? I miss that summer. That was the last summer before you changed.
Shoot, the battery is dying on my cell- I have to go soon. Basically, we all want you to come back. It doesn't matter that you did something wrong, because we're a family, and families stick together no matter what one of them does. I even promise to stop inventing if you'll come home, if you want. Can you call me? I'd like to at least talk to you. Well, bye! I love you sis!
The message ended, and Candace could feel the tears in her eyes. She thought everyone hated her. She couldn't face going home only to be turned away. But Phineas would never lie to her. Putting her cell phone back in her pocket, the young woman began walking again.
She smiled. For the first time in a long time, she genuinely smiled. Everyone dances with the devil at some time in their life, but it doesn't mean the song will never end.
I like. Did you?