A sigh resounded through the small room, along with the soft thump of a hand slumping against a forehead. "I don't know what to do...he's all alone out there."
Another sigh from the other occupant of the room. "I know Tuck." She banged her head against the desk in frustration. "But it's not exactly like we can just go in there after him! I think we'd just die too or something..."
"Die...?" The boy, Tucker contemplated for a moment, "Well if that...ghost told us any correct information other than that he has no interest in helping us get Danny back- then yeah maybe we shouldn't just barge into you know, an unknown world for freaking dead people!" He lifted his head to look at hers- which was still shoved into the desk. "Look, Sam- maybe we should talk to Danny's parents about this after all. They might know where to start."
Sam lifted her head to send him one of her signature glares, which in turn caused him to flinch. "I thought we both agreed that it would be a bad idea to tell them- and you know Danny would be mad at us, yeah?" Her glare hardened into an eye roll and slammed her face back into the desk dejectively. "Besides, Tuck, how the hell are we supposed to tell someone that their son isn't their son- especially when said 'son' is in the hospital! They're freaking out enough as it is."
"And not to mention...you know how much they hate ghosts- what do you think they'd even do to him? Let alone what they'd do to Danny when or if we even find him too?" This time it was Tucker's turn to slam his head into his knees, as he was sitting on the desk and leaning against the wall. "I wish my PDA could help here,"
Silence reigned for what felt like several minutes. The two friends were currently situated in Tucker's bedroom to discuss. It was the weekend so it wasn't hard to feign that they were just hanging out. Instead of well, having a heavy conversation of a lost friend.
Two nights prior the two of them were mindlessly messing around hanging out at their other close friend's house- Danny. Now the three of them had had a tight-knit friendship for years, meeting in elementary school, and had been inseparable ever since.
Two nights ago...a normal average Friday night...something happened. you got your normal scenario of peer pressure that followed bouts of video games and lazily snooping on the Internet. Average times. The peer pressure started out with an innocent curiosity, and an opportunity to explore it. Danny's parents are...well they're scientists that deal with the unknown prospect of what happens when and after a powerful death occurs. As such, they have a lab- right below their own home. Ectology was frowned upon- no one really knew anything about it...that's why they're trying to prove the existence of ghosts. Yeah, ghosts...apparently they are real. According to the Fentons- Danny's parents, ghosts are formed when something dies with a great bout of emotion towards one thing or another. It really was fascinating- yet unbelievable.
Having left the three children alone in their home, to have a meeting to discuss their scientific work, the three took an opportunity. Their lab was open, free to enter, and free to explore the contents and creations that resided there. The main attraction, of course, was the supposed entrance to the world that ghosts and all things Ectoplasm reside. In fact, the portal itself was the Fenton's plan to show the world that their study was very real- and to have access to more study of course.
Suddenly Sam's muffled voice intruded the silent mulling. "Why?" She raised her head from the desk and leaned back fully in the computer chair she was in. "Why did we make him show us that damn thing?"
There was a dry bark of laughter in response as the boy lifted his own head just enough to eye her.
Sam groaned in annoyance, "okay maybe I pushed a bit too much to have him show us the portal..."
"Yeah, Sam, you know he'd do anything for you even if he didn't want to." Tucker laughed more sincerely and was silenced by a smack on the arm and a defiant 'shut up'. "Well, actually that brings me to what I was thinking..."
Her violet eyes snapped to his attention with a wary expression. "What?"
Tucker looked thoughtful a moment and slowly opened his mouth. "Suppose you or I, especially you really, were in the same situation as him...you know as well as I do that he'd do whatever he could to at least try to help us. Damn him and his determination- we need to do something, Sam."
Their headstrong friend was currently lost in the world of the ghosts- and had been since their exploration into the lab in his basement two nights before. The portal...Sam and Tucker (specifically Sam really) had insisted he venture inside the machine that had yet to ever be powered up or ever work properly. With all honesty, Danny was the only one that had any belief in the prospect of ghosts and other Ectoplasmic beings- neither of the other two thinking anything of it. Of course the portal was safe- it wouldn't nor would ever work! Sam had just wanted to take a picture of him in there, and then follow him in. Snoop. Then leave. Simple.
He had refused at first...Tucker is the one who surprisingly gave him second guesses and ultimately Sam who pressured him into actually going through with it. With so much cockiness even that he didn't grab any protective gear first like the hazmat in his size that was hanging on a nearby rack. He just walked in, faced Sam, and gave one of his goofy smiles. Almost like he didn't have a care in the world. He probably wasn't even thinking about the worries of before, taking what the two said to heart. If they didn't believe anything would happen, maybe he shouldn't. Ghosts couldn't really be real, right?
It wasn't until he moved to call the two of them in with him that he flipped around like he heard something. Danny leaned forward and jumped in fright- catching himself on the wall. As if he had spontaneously turned the machine on himself, it sparked to life and enveloped her friend and the room in a bright green light. He looked mesmerized, not even afraid. That was until it started spewing sparks and the light got deathly cold and turned a couple shades brighter. She and Tucker had backed away yelling for him as she watched the last of his terrified and surprised features get swallowed by the cold spectral energy.
What came next was the scream...it had to be the hardest thing for her to hear in her life. It rocked her whole body...the sound of her best friend screaming at the top of his lungs like everything was being ripped away from him- literally. At the height of it, it morphed into something recognizably inhuman, before trailing off into the rest of the drowning noise of the power still being produced by the portal's first burst of life.
Sam shuddered as the thought brought her back to the accident. Shaking her head to clear it, she finally grasped what her friend had said. "You're right Tucker, we need to do something...but what though? Even if we do go in the portal looking for him, that saying we don't die in the process, how would we even know where to look for him?" She paused and looked at her feet, "-and we don't even know what he looks like. As weird as it is for me to say that."
Tucker put a hand on her shoulder, "It is, but only if what that ghost said is true of what happened." He clicked his tongue on the roof of his mouth, "You think we could try and ask him again? When he gets out of the hospital that is..." He didn't look as hopeful as he sounded. As far as they could tell, the ghost that had stumbled out of the portal wanted nothing to do with the two of them- or helping their lost best friend. He did seem a bit concerned about Danny, but if he was gonna do anything about it, he wasn't gonna go about it with the two of them.
Sam snorted, "Doubtful. He didn't really sound like the nicest ghost...though he might even be, I don't know." That was the first ghost she had ever met, to be honest.
A few minutes passed, the only noise filling the room was their breathing and sam's fingernails tapping absently on the wooden desk while lost in thought. Glancing at the clock, Tucker rubbed his growling stomach...they had been in his room thinking for longer than he thought, but it didn't seem like it would end soon. They needed to come to some agreement, they had been mostly avoiding it since they had visited the ghost in the hospital several hours after the accident.
That ghost was sure to be released from the hospital fairly soon, they needed to figure out what their plan was beforehand. Usually striking nothing but dead ends that wound up with going into the ghost's realm themselves. However, that was a horrible idea...Tucker shuddered as he imagined what Danny had been through and what would happen if he and Sam tried to go through.
Deciding to steer his brain away from that thought, he hummed a moment and looked up. "Think he's got a name? The ghost I mean- I hate to keep referring to him as 'that ghost'...that's probably degrading." He winked at her. She hated anything being wrongfully degraded, surely this would interest her.
He received a blank deadpanned stare in return, "...Really?" she frowned but reluctantly nodded, "I mean I'm sure he does but what do you wanna call him on Danny's phone and ask? He's still in the hospital, and if you're not gonna call, you're sure as Hell not gonna try and visit again." She scoffed.
Tucker, on the defensive, lifted both of his hands up. "Hey, man, hospitals are freaky, okay?" He then shrugged and glanced at the clock again. "Anyways, how do you think Danny's doing with the whole- um ghost thing being alone in there and all?"
Sam was quiet a while as she tried to form previously haphazard thoughts together on the wellbeing of her friend. She couldn't even imagine his situation in his shoes. Being in a strange land (where everyone is dead for that matter) and being exposed to all that ghost shit constantly with no escape. Especially after what he went through with the accident itself...and it probably wasn't much safer in the ghost world either.
Everything he was experiencing, everything he was dealing with, he was doing it all on is own. With no explanation. She and Tucker probably knew more about what happened than he did himself. After all the ghost had explained annoyingly little about what he thought happened, but he had still explained more than they knew before. More than Danny knew most likely. Unless he found it out himself- if he was still alright that was. She didn't want to think about that.
The goth, even after all the flowing turbulent thoughts, had surprisingly little to display. "Well...for one thing, probably not well." Tucker agreed with a sound that heeded more explanation on her point. She sighed, "Look I don't even know how I'd feel, I can't imagine how he's taking it. You know how he is, he gets freaked out easily. Even so though, if he thinks there's a way out, he won't stop until he finds it. Even if it kills him."
"Bad choice of words there," They both cringed at this and sighed. "But...we can't just rely on him to get himself out of it." He paused, "If he even-" He nearly fell off of the desk sideways from fright. Sam herself jumped backward nearly knocking the chair she was sitting in over.
Tucker's cell phone had suddenly burst to life, its full volumed trill tore through the room, startling the two hushed teens. They both took a few deep breaths to settle themselves and locked eye contact. The phone continued to sing loudly, Tucker tore his eyes away and onto the phone that he jumped to reach.
Glancing at the name there was suddenly a different mood bathing the room- Jazz.
He gulped and pushed his finger onto the call button and set it to speakerphone so that they could both hear what they knew was coming.
"Tucker? Is Sam with you?" The usually sing-songy voice of Danny's sister, Jazz, called through the device.
Sam finished calming herself down and rolled her eyes. "Yeah, Jazz, I'm here too." There was a sigh of relief from the other end. "I'm assuming this to tell us Danny's being released?"
Another sigh, "Yes...but, look I think you two should come over, we need to talk."