AUTHORS NOTE: ok so this is a sequel to Incommunicado written by Pixiegirl13, I love her stories and I hope that mine can come close to being as great a story as hers are, ok so something's you need to know before reading this are that it is Christmas vacation for Danny, he gets 2 weeks off, so he is only about 16 ½ right now. Tell me what you think, depending on how many reviews I get I will add more chapters, but I don't want to right a long story for like only 5 people, so if you want more chapters pleases review, I would thoroughly enjoy any and all criticism, good, bad, and in between. I'm going to try and make decent sized chapters, about like 8 pages or so, but I'm not that experienced of a writer so bear with me if some are a little short and so far I don't have an updating schedule. Ok sorry for the humongous A.N. enjoy!
Disclaimer: I own nothing. Not Danny phantom or any of Pixiegirl13's characters. Sorry about using them but you just right such good people, I couldn't help but add them in.
"Bye Danny, have a good Christmas" Sam called out as we walked separate ways.
"Bye Sam, I'll try, you have a nice Christmas too" I called back. God, I hate Christmas. I laughed at the thought of me actually enjoying my two week vacation. Well on the upside at least I would be guaranteed a ghost free holiday. That was always a perk to the otherwise horrible time of year.
Walking through the accumulating snow, I let my shoulders slump and a scowl to appear on my face. I let out a depressed sigh. Soon the old argument would start up again, my mom trying to prove that Santa didn't exist and my dad trying to prove that he does. It was annoying and embarrassing all in one.
I mentally shook myself, no this vacation was going to be good. I was going to make it that way. Today was only the 20th of December, which meant that I just had to survive the next five days and then I could escape my house, and go over to Tucker's or even better Sam's. A small smile crept its way onto my face with the thought of spending time with Sam. Maybe this vacation wouldn't be so bad after all.
I jumped up the stairs and stopped at the door to my house, mentally bracing myself for what I was about to walk into.
"Jack, it just not possible, a fat man can't do it. He wouldn't fit and even if he did the fall alone would leave him handicapped." My mother voice sounded like that of a teacher scolding a little kid.
"But Maddie, Santa is magic, that's why it works." His voice held all the certainty in the world in it. God, it was times like this I agreed with Vlad's statement "Idiot Father".
Hmm. Vlad, he hadn't bothered me since last summer. That was a relief, and other then the normal family visits between us he had kept his promise, and I had basically kept mine. But that was unimportant; I had made sure that no one, especially Vlad, knew anything about that. I was safe.
Walking past my arguing parents I went upstairs to my room, ready to turn on my I-pod and block out the rest of the world. I had made it half way up the stairs when the doorbell rang. An Unreasonable sense of foreboding went threw me with the sound of the doorbell echoing in our house.
My parent's voices abruptly stopped and I heard my Dad's heavy footsteps make their way over to the front door.
"Oh, Hey thanks pal, and hey, try to get some sun, I mean I know its winter buddy, but you look as pale as a ghost." I heard the door shut, and his footsteps went back into the living room.
"Hey Danny come on down here. Look what we just got in the mail" His voice rang threw the house, holding surprise, joy and excitement in it. I knew that tone of voice. It was the tone he used when he told us we were going to go see Vlad. Immediately I felt my stomach hit the floor.
Regrettably I dragged my feet down the stairs, already knowing where this was going. Reaching the living room I looked at my Dad he had a card in his hands.
"Look, here Danny." He handed me the card while he was talking "Vladdy invited us to his place for Christmas, looks like he's having a Party or something and he wants us to come over."
My mind wasn't on his voice it was in the card in my hand. It was a plain white card made out of that fancy paper that is sturdy and soft. The borders of the card had holly all, and in the middle in fancy scripted hand writing read:
Dear Fentons,
I would like to cordially invite you all to my annual Christmas Ball. The location for my Ball will be held at my estate in Wisconsin. Please be here by the 23rd of December. I'm looking forward to seeing you all soon.
With Love,
Vlad Masters
I had to stop myself from ripping the paper in my hands to shreds. I should have expected this. Obviously the fruit loop couldn't leave my family alone for Christmas. A small feeling of doubt flooded up to my brain. Did he know? No, no he didn't. How could he? I had made sure to get rid of all of the evidence once I realized what I did, and what I couldn't get rid of, I covered. No. He didn't know, this was just a friendly visit, just an excuse to flirt with my mom, and make snide remarks to me about my father. That's all.
The seat belt was the only thing that saved me from going straight through the windshield. We were currently on our way to Mr. Masters Wisconsin castle. Oh joy.
After we had gotten the letter Jazz and I had fought, valiantly, to stay home and have a "family" Christmas. Dad had countered by saying that Vlad was like family. Mom had stay quiet the whole time. I knew she didn't want to go, but she didn't want to tell Dad that. In the end though she had to agree with Dad and say that we couldn't just not go, it would be rude. So we had grudgingly gone up stairs to pack. I had taken only enough for clothes for five days
While looking for my other shoe I had come across my passport. Looking at it, I remembered all the trouble it had caused me and without a second thought I ignited the thing with my ecto energy. I watched it burn with a cruel smile on my face. Well at least I was sure I couldn't be dragged out of the state. But that wasn't going to happen. I was fine.
I finally found my other shoe and after packing a few other things like a Jack-o-nine tails and a few other ghost weapons, just in case. I wasn't going to take any chanced this time. My brain told me I had nothing to worry about, but my gut kept sending me waves of doubt and fear. If he had found out what I did, I don't know if I would be able to handle it. I hadn't done it on purpose, but…..
Three days later we had loaded up in the Fenton RV, and had been driving for approximately 6 hours ago, so we should be there any time now. I looked out the window and let my thoughts wander around. I figured we would be staying at the man's castle for a while, since it was only the 23nd, and the party wasn't until Christmas Eve. I already had the food situation sorted out kind of; I had packed a box of cereal and a gallon of milk, box of granola bars bowl, and spoon, and had hid them in the Fenton RV fridge. As long as I had the RV locked and the ghost shield on, he wouldn't be able to get at my food. I know I was being paranoid; he couldn't possible drug me while my entire family was there, but after having spent two horrible summers with the man, I had learned that a little paranoia wasn't all that bad. As for my sleeping conditions I was still a little iffy, I mean I could sleep in the castle but I didn't like the idea of sleeping so close to the man. My only other option was sleeping in the RV, but that would bring up unnecessary questions from my parents. Oh well I would have to sneak out at night and then back in before morning.
"Hey everybody look there's Vladdy's castle, were here" My Dad's voice snapped me out of my pondering. Looking through the windshield I could see the enormous building looming in front of us. Fun.
We parked the RV in the front and started to unload our things. We hadn't brought much, only a weeks' worth of clothes. My mom had insisted that we bring our best clothing to, so nothing I had was very comfortable.
I waited until everyone else got out of the RV before I made my way up to the front and pressed the ghost shield button. Slinging my bag over my shoulder and grabbing a few granola bars out of the fridge I hopped out of the RV and locked all the doors behind me. Going up to the front of the vehicle I put my hand on the hood where I knew the Ecto Converter was, I let some ecto energy slip out of my hand and fuel the car. That would keep the ghost shield going for a few days.
My family and I made our way up the marble steps to the front door. I glared at the ground as my Dad rung the doorbell, pissed I had to be here. I hated Vlad. I hated his house. But most of all I hated Christmas. I think that the Universe hated me because now, all of those things were put together into one. Man I hate Christmas.
The Door swung open to reveal Vlad in his usually pristine looking suit. He looked at us and a completely genuine looking smile showed on his face. I knew it wasn't.
"Ahh the Fentons, how nice to see you all again, tell me how have you been? Staying out of trouble I hope." When he said the last part he looked straight at me, icy spiders slid down my back, but my face gave nothing away, I was getting really good at this game between us. I gave him my most genuine smile and looked straight back into his eyes.
"Yup, I've been doing fine, Uncle Vlad," how it burned to say those words " We even brought you a Christmas present" I was hoping he would take the bait, and I wasn't disappointed.
"Oh really, why thank you Daniel, may I ask what it is?" there was honest curiosity in his voice, with a little bit of hesitance. This was going to be fun.
"A fruit cake, since I know how you like your things a little fruity" I said while handing him the cake we had picked up at the bakery, my face portraying a completely honest and innocent reply. It wasn't though. I watched as what I said hit him, a quick flare of anger shot up through him, but it was replaced quickly with the all, knowing smirk I hated so much. With that he turned from me and began to talk to my mom and Dad. I listened as they talked about things from politics to sports. While they were talking he led us around to the rooms we would be staying at for the time.
We went up the staircase and were on the second floor of the house, I quickly realized we were going in the same direction of the room were I had stayed at last summer.
"Well here is Jasmine's room, Maddie's room, Jack's room and Daniel's room." Vlad announced while gesturing to each door. Looking quickly at my door I found that it was in fact the same room I had stayed at last time. "well I'll let you freshen up, after all a six hour trip is never fun, dinner is at six, I'm sure you remember where the dining hall is, if not just ask any servant you see and they will be more than happy to point you in the correct direction." And with that he walked away without another word.
I looked at Jazz who looked a little bit uneasy; I knew how she was feeling. She didn't like being here anymore than I did. Walking over I put my arm on her shoulder and said "Wait till you see the rooms, they have their own Jacuzzi tubs" I smiled and walked into her room. The room was huge, bigger than any of the rooms in my house, but I expected this. Instead of the blue that I expected it was a light pink bedspread and matching curtains. The bed and dresser both were made of the deep rich colored wood, which countered the pink perfectly. All in all it was very nice. I watched as Jazz looked around.
"Well I'm going to go into my room now." I said but stopped when I felt her hand on my shoulder. Turning around I saw that her face was full of worry and a slight hint of fear.
"Be careful Danny, I don't trust him. Don't let your guard down" I wanted to laugh at her. Me? Let my guard down around Vlad? Never. If anything I was the only one who truly knew what the man was capable of.
Instead I looked at her straight in the eye and said "Don't worry Jazz; the fruit loop isn't going to get anything past me this time. Trust me."
My room had the same layout as my last "visit". The only difference was that I didn't have feathered down pillows anymore instead I had regular cloth ones. This made me laugh. I had to make sure I wasn't stuck here so I went to the window and opened it. I could feel the breeze and when I stuck my hand out it actually went out. Well, at least he's not keeping me a prisoner. This fact made me feel a lot more confident it the thought that he still had no clue about me breaking my promise. Good.
I took out a granola bar and began to munch silently while staring around my room. We were only going to be here for like three or four days, and then I could go over Sam's house if her parents would even let me in. This was actually a good thing. Mom and Dad had to behave here which meant no more stupid fights over a non-existent fat man. Vlad may have just saved my Christmas vacation. I laughed out loud, Just the ironic thought that for the past two years he has been the one ruining them and now he had just made this one better.
I looked down at my suitcase and thought about unpacking but quickly remembered what happened to my last set of ghost hunting gear I had brought here, and changed my mind. Going ghost I grabbed my suitcase and flew out of the room, surprised not to have slammed into a ghost shield, shrugging I went invisible and flew down to where my dad had "parked" the RV. I turned human again while behind the RV, but staying invisible I unlocked the RV with a thumbprint scan, and jumped inside, closing and locking the door behind me .keeping the ghost shield on though.
I threw my suitcase down on the fold out couch/bed and went over to the fridge to grab some food. I had already decided that anything Vlad gave me was not good, and my parents understood that I didn't eat anything here, they thought I was just being picky but I knew better than to eat anything Vlad gave me.
After my second bowl of cereal was done I washed out my dishes and put them back in the RV cupboard. The dashboard read that it was 5:55, which meant that dinner was in 5 minutes. Knowing my parents would be mad if I was late to dinner, I ran out of the RV, remembering to lock it back up.
I went ghost and stayed invisible while I flew into my room. I just got done turning back into a human, when my mom opened my door.
"Sweetie, come on its time for dinner" she smiled at me while turning back out of the door. I followed her and the rest of my family down into the dining room. The table was set for six. This confused me because there were only five of us here. Shrugging my shoulders I walked with my family to go find my seat. I frowned when I saw that I was supposed to sit in between Vlad and the mystery person. Funny, his place didn't have a name tag. I was sitting across from Jazz, who was in-between mom and Dad. Obviously Vlad was across my mom and my dad across from the other person.
I sat down ready to see what he would bring out. Vlad knew I never ate anything here, and he seemed to take great pride in having his chefs cook the most appetizing food, just to tease me. Have I mentioned I hated this man? And speak of the devil…
Vlad walked in, with his usual air of confidence, but he wasn't alone. Walking on his right was a person I hoped to never see again. Aleksey. Great not only was I stuck in Vlad's house, with Vlad, on Christmas, but his insane uncle was here too. Oh joy. I hate my life.
Vlad gave me smile when he saw the frown on my face. I glared at him. I hoped he knew how much I truly hated his guts. Aleksey looked over to me and we both gave each other a hateful glance.
"Uncle Aleksey, I would like to introduce the rest of the Fenton family to you." He gestured to my family with a gran sweep of his arm. "Maddie, Jack, Jasmine, Daniel, I would like to introduce you to my uncle, Aleksey Masters.
"It's a pleasure to meet all of you, my nephew tells me a lot about you, I hear you are old college friends with him, yes?" his voice was perfectly casual, with no hint of anything suspicious or threatening.
I glanced at Jasmine who was looking at me with wide eyes. She knew exactly who this guy was. I had told her all about my trip to Ecuador with Vlad. I had told her how this man had tried to suffocate me to death under his fat rear. Looking at him again, I could see that nothing had changed about him, well except for his small limp. I smiled as I remembered that Tourshiro had cut his Achilles tenant.
He went around and shook hands with everyone, first my father, then my mother, Jazz and finally me. I took his hand shook it with force keeping a tight grip on it. He gripped my hand and squeezed a little tighter than comfortable before letting it go and taking his seat next to me. Well I guess someone was a little touchy still.
"Yea, I and Vladdy go way back. He's my Best friend." My dad's voice was full of pride and compassion. I don't know how he couldn't see the signs that Vlad was definitely not his friend. He was so gullible.
"Ahh I see, so what do you two lovely people do for work?" Aleksey asked looking over to my parents.
"We're home employed, we work with inventions and things, It's a very fulfilling career, what about you?" I loved my Mom, unlike my Dad she wasn't as blunt about their ghost hunting career, people often tended to give them weird looks when told them that they were ghost hunters.
"Oh I run a ranch down in Ecuador; it's a very nice place. I rent it out to tourists who wish to see the sights." Or kidnappers, I thought.
My dad was about to respond back when the waiters came in the food. As I expected it was something extremely expensive and delicious smelling. From the looks of it the main course was some type of steak, it looked really good though, was a salad with weird looking vegetables along with lettuce I a different kind of salad dressing, and the other side was noodle things in like garlic/butter sauce. My mouth watered just looking at it.
"This is great, Vladdy what is it?" he asked around a mouth full of food.
"It's veal, with garlic noodles, and an Ecuadorian salad." Ha. Veal, of course Vlad would like tortured baby cow. Actually knowing what it was made my mouth water a little less. I let out a small sigh and looked around the room. Now they were going to talk about sports and such until desert came and then I could leave, but until then I had a good hour left of this. Luckily the two bowls of cereal made resisting the food in front of me a lot easier.
"Danny, boy, why you haven't touched a thing on your plate" Aleksey's voice pulled me from my musings. I looked at him, and he had an irritatingly similar know it all smirk like Vlad's, on.
"I'm watching my figure, you know; don't want to get to fat." I looked suggestively at his stomach when I told him the last part. My mom had been talking to Vlad, and Dad was too far into his food to have heard me the only one who did hear me was Jazz, and she let out a small chuckle.
Aleksey glared at me and kicked my leg under the table. I didn't care though; it was too good an opportunity to pass up. He went back to eating, but with a little gusto than before.
"The Ball will begin tomorrow around five thirty, and go until midnight." His voice made me grind my teeth in frustration. "Please wear your nicest clothes, and have fun" He smiled at my mother with a look of desire in his eyes. It was beyond creepy. My mother smiled sheepishly; at him before excusing herself quickly form the table. I followed her lead and was just about to get up when Vlad's hand went onto my shoulder keeping me in my seat. I squirmed a little uncomfortable with him touching me; it never meant good news for me. Jazz had already gotten up and thinking that I was following behind her hadn't stopped to check. My dad was already in his room which left me, Vlad and Aleksey. Things were going to get interesting.
"Daniel, listen to me now and listen well, I'm not going to repeat myself" he was bent over me his head near my ear.
"Ya, rather not fruit loop." and with that I turned intangible and got out of his grasp. I walked through the table before going tangible again and turning around to smirk at him. He was frowning at me.
"Really now, all I was going to say is that you best behave during the party, because I'm going to be having some very important people there, and I don't need you or your idiot father embarrassing me." His voice was smooth as silk and with a small amount of steel in it. I immediately didn't believe that was all he wanted to say. "So help me, if you something to ruin my party you will regret it, my boy."
"Hey I don't want to be here in the first place, you're the idiot who invited us. I'm not going to do anything to your party, if you don't do anything to my family. We still have a deal, Plasmuis, I've kept my end, and you better keep yours." I made sure my voice didn't waver or stall. I needed to be as convincing, as possible. The chuckle he let out chilled me to the bone, I didn't like it.
Phasing through the table as I had he walked up to me, ruffling my hair he said "of course, little Badger." He walked around me and out of the dining room.
"Hahahaha, my boy, you're in way over your head." His voice came from the other end of the table.
I glared at him before smiling sweetly and answering "be careful Aleksey, you eat any more of that and you might get fat, oops too late." I laughed as I walked away from the fat man. Inside though, I was a ball of nerves. Did he know? He couldn't, but then why would he say that? Is he just trying to toy with me? My head swam with these thoughts as I made my way back to my room.
Looking at the clock I saw that it was eight o clock. And I was tired. I had stayed up half the night ghost hunting and the whole night the night before that. I was exhausted. So going ghost I phased out of my room and went over to the RV, unlocking it and going in. I turned around locking it again before checking the power on the RV. It was ¾ of the way full which would keep the ghost shield strong for the rest of the night while I slept. With contempt smile I changed into my pj's and went to bed.
My suit was itchy and scratchy. It was too tight and uncomfortable. This stupid party was taking forever, and not to mention I was getting kind of hungry was all just a bunch of old people talking about businesses. At least my folks weren't fighting, and they were actually in normal clothing for once. Jazz was standing beside me just as bored. I sighed again.
"Danny, I'm going to the screening room, this is boring" Jazz turned and left, I watched her leave, and was about to follow her when Vlad came up to me.
"Daniel, how are you? Are you enjoying yourself?" he walked over to me. I stood my ground and ignored the feeling of spiders crawling up my back and answered.
"No. It's just a bunch of old people talking." I said honestly. I was trying not to say something sarcastic and annoying. I just wanted to get away from this man.
"Oh I'm sorry to hear that, my boy. But I do guess that this probably wasn't the best way to spend the first half of your vacation" the way he said implied that he knew what the rest of my vacation was going to be. That little voice in my head started screaming then. He knows. He knows. He knows. You're dead. Dead. Dead. He knows.
Fighting off the panic that had begun to explode in my head and keeping a calm face, I turned to him and said "Ya but, its fine. I mean it's only a few days of my vacation, I still have like two weeks left to do whatever I want." There it was again, that all knowing smirk was on his face.
"Sure you do, Little Badger. A lot can happen in two weeks, you know." Again there was an undertone to his voice. But before I could focus too much on it, he changed the subject "Not getting into trouble lately, are you?" I had to fight the urge to gulp, keeping my face expressionless.
"No I've been doing fine, thank you for your concern" I started to walk away and had gotten a few feet when he started to laugh.
My temper got the best of me, I turned to face him "What so funny, Plasmuis?"
"You are. It doesn't do you good to lie to yourself, boy." I just stared at him. He knew. I couldn't deny it any longer. He knew and I was so dead. I didn't run but I did get away.
Once I was out of the ball room, I went down the nearest hallway and sunk down against the wall. I was shaking. How did he find out? What was I going to do? Get out of course. Leave. Going Ghost I stayed invisible and went to find Jazz. Jazz. She didn't know, didn't know what I have done. I can't just tell her I'm leaving without giving her a reason why. Then there was Mom and Dad. What would they think? I couldn't leave. And he knew it. Still he couldn't do anything with my family around me.
I turned back into a human determine to find Jazz and stay with her at all costs.
That night had gone by rather quickly. Vlad hadn't showed up at all, and I had spent the rest of the time in the screening room with Jazz. We were walking back to our rooms, and I was about to turn into mine when she called out to me.
"Danny, what's wrong? You've barely said a word to me all night, i know something's wrong." I just looked at her and using all my experience with Vlad made my face deadpan.
"uuhh lets see I'm in my arch-enemy's house, during the worst time of the year, and all I have eaten in the last two days is cereal, what do you think is wrong Jazz?" I could see the hurt that my words had caused her, but I couldn't tell her the truth. I wouldn't be able to bear it. Jazz turned around and walked back into her room. I went into the RV again and after giving it another boost of energy, I went to sleep.
My alarm went off; I rolled over to turn it off, but forgetting that this wasn't my bed I crashed onto the floor. I turned off the built in alarm. It had become a habit to look at my wrist every morning, just to make sure it wasn't there. A faint scar was all that remained of my watch. I rubbed it absent mindedly while I got out my breakfast. After eating I changed out of my pajamas and into regular clothes. I went out locked up the RV and flew back into my room.
Jazz came into my room. "Merry Christmas, little brother" her voice was happy and carefree, I tried to match the tone with my reply.
"Merry Christmas to you too, Jazz" we were walking down into the living room, where the Christmas tree was. Vlad had convinced my mom and dad to bring over our gifts to his house, so we could open them there. The tree was enormous which I wasn't surprised by. But the amounts of gifts under the tree shocked me. There was no way that Mom and Dad could have gotten us all of those.
"Jasmine, Daniel I'm glad you're up, are you ready to open your presents?" I looked at Vlad and saw a sincere smile. He was in a genuine good mood. I couldn't believe. So I didn't. My Mom and Dad where sitting on the opposite couch of Vlad's. I was happy to see that Aleksey wasn't there. My eyes moved back over to the pile of presents under the tree. I know I was screwed. But I wasn't as panicked as yesterday. Besides it was Christmas I know Vlad couldn't try anything with Christmas truce in place.
With that in mind I got to work opening my gifts. I opened all the ones from "Santa" first. I got a bunch of new games and some controllers and stuff. It was pretty cool. Next were the presents from my parents which were all clothes, I even got a new pair of converse. Even Vlad got me a present. It was a suit. I grimaced when I opened that one, but still smiled and said thank you. Jazz was done opening her gifts and we were about to go leave with our stuff when Vlad spoke up.
"Merry Christmas everyone. I just want to give you all one more gift before you go on your way." He turned to my mother and snapped his fingers. Instantly a maid came in with a box. She went over to my mother and gave it to her. Mom took it in her hands and opened it, only to scream in delight.
"Oh Vlad, you shouldn't have, I mean it's far too expensive, we didn't even get you a present. Oh I'm so sorry, but thank you" out of the box she held up a brand new laptop. It was as big as a book but it looked super high tech.
"Think nothing of it, Maddie dear, just a token of my love for you, and your family. Now Jasmine dear I thought that since you are now going to college you might need to have ride there, hmm?" he turned to look at Jasmine. She turned back to him and was about to say that she already had a car when the maid came back up to her, and handed her a pair of car keys with a big bow on it. Jasmines jaw dropped along with the rest of my family as we looked at the keys. "Go look out the window, dear, it is right there."
We all turned to the window and saw a yellow buggie sitting in the drive way.
"Thank you, Vlad, but really I couldn't except, I mean I do have a car." She looked like it really hurt to try and say that. I could tell she really wanted that car, apparently so could Vlad.
"Please my dear I know what you call a "car" and I insist you take this rather than that metal death trap. I will not take no for answer" He smiled down at her.
"Well, when you put it that way, thank you again" her eyes were shining with joy.
"Now Jack," a butler came up and handed him a small card. My Dad's eyes lit up while he read it. To be honest I didn't think he would even get my dad a gift.
"Shucks Vladdy, a season pass to Hershey Park, why thanks V-man, this means a lot to me." Hahaha what else could he have bought that would make my Dad so happy, a season pass to a chocolate factory. Hahaha.
"Don't mention it Jack. Please." He scowled. It was my turn now, and after seeing everything else everyone got I was kind of excited.
"Now Daniel, I have a very special gift for you." He reached into his inside coat pocket and took out a small velvet box. He handed it to me with a small smile. I reached out and took it. Opening it slowly I looked inside. My heart literally stopped, and then it jumped in to my throat.
He knew. He knew. He knew. How could I have thought I could get away without him knowing? Inside the velvet box was a watch, or more accurately the watch. The watch that for the past two years has been the pain of my existence.
I just stared at him, not even trying to hide the fear and panic in my face.
He smirked.
