The Song That Never Ends.
Chapter 1: Mclain
All through the Ghost Zone prisoners of death drifted, some unconscious from an eternity spent caged, others wailing and screaming for release.
In one corner of the Zone, though, only one sound could be heard. A song, the fluttering of guitar chords and a voice forlorn.
"You will remember my name…"
She drifted through the nothingness some self righteous fool had banished her to and sharpened her voice, honed her song into a more dangerous weapon than ever. Her skin was pale with death-though truthfully she had been nearly as colorless in life- tinted with a whisper of the green that colored her eyes. Her hair was an ever-shifting length of blue, the same color as the flames that had claimed her life.
That thought seemed to wrap around her at her mind. Being a ghost was strange; your thoughts controlled your body and your mind. A nightmare could tear you pieces; a memory could drag you into a coma as you relived it.
Between one blink of the eyes and the next, she was back at Casper High, that same eager little band freak. She was tall and gawky Students pushed past her to the left and right and she felt almost drowned in humanity. Lacy, the school's head bitch, shouldered past her with a couple friends and knocked her to the floor, sending her text books sliding across the floor. "Watch where you're going rock freak!" Lacey said, sending a ripple of laughter through the crowd.
The late bell rang out, and the students all began to file into their rooms. Eyes stinging, she started to pick up her text books. "Airheads."
"Need some help?" A voice called, and she looked over shoulder to see a tall, blue eyed boy walking up. He crouched down and started collecting books as she stared. Everyone else at the school treated her like a freak for dressing in leather, for wearing spikes like her favorite guitarists. Her own mother looked at her like an alien every morning before she left for school.
But he was talking to her, helping her, as if he couldn't see the black makeup ringing her eyes. He grabbed the last book and a magazine slipped out from it. It was a 'Rock Scene' magazine, with Funkadelic on the cover.
Jake paused then looked at her with a smirk. "You like Funkadelic?" He asked, offering her a hand up.
She blinked and stood, not taking his hand. It had to be a trick…had to be. "Yea…I do." She said, lifting her chin. "What's your favorite song?" She asked, eyes narrowed.
"Maggot Brain, always makes me think.." Jake said, smiling and offering his hand. "I'm Jake…and you are?" He asked. She'd seen him around and knew his name, but she was a nobody at the school.
"Emma…Emma Mclain."She shook his hand with a hopeful smirk.
And Ember had to watch. It was burning into her, having to watch this all over again. Noticing all the little things she missed like the way the boy had stared at her ass while she grabbed the text books before offering to help. The way his eyes had lowered to the magazine caption and noticed their new hit "Maggot Brain" before answering her question. The way Lacy had nodded to signal him as she walked past.
It was like watching a repeat of an episode, unable to fast forward to the only good part-The End.
"No one cares…no one really cares about anyone. They all just want control." Ember whispered to her old self, knowing the memory couldn't change. "If they can use you they'll like you…it's how all men are-" A shape moved to her left, startling her. A boy, not from the memory…and familiar. Average height and skinny, with black hair and blue eyes….too familiar but the colors were all wrong.
He noticed her and blinked in surprise. "Ember?"
The voice was the final piece of the puzzle, clinking into place. Ember blinked in disbelief. "Danny Phantom?!" She screamed, a bellow of anguish and hate and embarrassment that someone had seen such an intimate part of her mind. The sound rocked through the Ghost Zone, tearing lesser ghosts to shreds and agitating stronger ones. It echoed in the real world, giving mortals nightmares about a song of pain that seemed to never end.
The memory itself rippled and fell away until Ember was drifting through the nothing of the Ghost Zone once more, alone and thinking of the look in Danny's eyes.
Sadness….maybe even empathy? She snorted and picked her guitar up.
"I need no one's love,"
"I'll keep my own pain,"
"All that I require."
"Is that you all remember my name…"
Ember was eager, now more than ever to destroy Danny Phantom. He had seen something no one else alive knew of.
A single tear fell from her dead eyes, and fell to her flaming hair with a sizzle.
He had seen who she had been, and had to die.