Danny Phantom soared quickly above the bright town of Amity Park, the wind passing through his white, ghostly hair. It was pitch black, minus the miniscule glow of streetlights dozens of miles below him. The moon was full, and the only light guiding him was natures'. All was quiet, all was peaceful, and all was perfect.
The only reason Danny was up this late, a half hour before midnight, was to greet Sam with a surprise visit. He knew his best friend usually laid awake hours after he would have gone to bed, and that was saying something.
Minutes passed, and Danny was getting closer to his destination. The familiar weeping willow warned Danny that Sam's house was less than a mile away, along with two left turns. Gracefully, Danny glided downward, almost resembling a human airplane.
Finally, he reached the black curtain clad window that obviously screamed Sam. Quietly Danny drifted by Sam's window, while using his ghost powers to turn himself intangible. The whole point of his expedition was to surprise Sam, and that he would do. Little did he know that today would be the night Sam would be the one surprising him.
Still, Danny remained below her window, imagining the way his visit would happen. He knew he would startle her. He settled his strategy, and immediately he was halfway between the dark outside, and the inside of Sam's familiar room. At first he didn't bother to look around for Sam; he just had a strange premonition that something was different. He couldn't put his finger on it. Then he realized that the welcoming hum of the television was replaced by the strumming of a guitar. A guitar? He had to be mishearing things.
Then he had the common sense to look upwards. Although he could see Sam in her black skull pajamas, matched with a tank top of a strange band he had never heard of, she couldn't see him. What startled him was that the strumming wasn't a hallucination; it was coming from Sam, who was sitting on her enormous bed, holding a brown acoustic guitar across her lap.
Danny watched her in awe, completely convinced his had to be some sort of dream. He could never imagine Sam holding a guitar, and if she did, it would be a hard rock electric one. Danny knew though that this was really Sam, holding a real instrument.
Very confidently, her black polished fingers glided across the guitars metal strings, creating harmonious notes. In the back of Danny's conscience he knew he shouldn't be here, but selfishly he ignored it, and continued to float there, invisible to everyone except himself.
The notes Sam began playing soon collided together, now resembling a rhythm. A song. Sam played a soft intro, which obviously sounded very complicated, while Danny observed how Sam's glossy hair shined beautifully in the moonlight shining through her window. A sigh slipped out of Danny's round lips.
Sam's lavender eyes darted throughout the room, making sure she hadn't heard anything. After a thorough visual check, Sam assumed the coast was clear, and that it only had to be the trees outside. Danny's racing heart slowed down to a soft, gentle beating.
Then she began to play, practicing the familiar beginning of the song Danny had just heard moments ago. A glorious noise vibrated off the walls, reaching Danny's guilty ears. At first Danny was sure it was a recording off the radio, but there was no radio in sight. Only two people could be singing: Danny or Sam.
"It's been a long time
Our hearts are split in two.
Today will pass slowly
But tomorrow will never happen."
Danny wasn't the one to ever understand words of a song; he usually was oblivious to the meaning of any lyric. Poetry just wasn't his thing. All that he comprehended were the unbelievable noises coming out of Sam's lips. She sounded different than any other singer he had ever heard before. Very eccentric, but mesmerizing nonetheless. It was almost like the sweetest candy for Danny's ears.
"Tears quietly consume our faces
Down our cheeks, a salty sweet on my lips.
I can't imagine,
The hardships you're going through."
Unexpectedly, Sam's strumming grew louder and quicker, the chords becoming different every strum, the tips of her fingers magically making its way along the guitars' neck. The hair on the back of Danny's nape stood up, and heartfelt chills raced violently down Danny's spine.
"Don't you see, is it meant to be?
Our forever in an empty abyss.
I shouldn't fret, I'm lucky enough,
But this is an imperfect melody."
Absorbed now completely in Sam's secret performance, Danny never noticed the large tear struggle its way down Sam's left cheek. Still, her voice very strong, she continued. A strong tug within Sam's heart urged her to continue.
"Never can be eternity.
Our three worlds can collide.
If only, if only, if only…
If only tomorrow would ever happen."
Three worlds can collide? Danny thought wordlessly to himself, wondering what that could mean, while Sam began to softly play her guitar again, back to her original volume she started with at the beginning, accompanied by slower notes. Danny didn't have any time left to think about this anymore, since Sam once again continued to sing her second verse, and every thought that Danny had emptied his mind.
"I see, I speak, I taste, I feel,
But my heart seems the strongest of them all.
Just three words can change the future,
And I hope, I pray, for that day."
Danny had never seen this side of Sam before; never would he have expected her singing such a heartfelt song. But then, he realized, he never gave her a chance, expecting only her tough, stand-up attitude. Even louder than before, Sam's guitar sped up to the chorus, her voice effortlessly in sync with such a wonderful instrument.
"Don't you see, is it meant to be?
Our forever in an empty abyss.
I shouldn't fret, I'm lucky enough
But this is an imperfect melody."
For the first time in Danny's robotic state, he wondered who, or what this song could be about. Obviously this couldn't be about nothing; only a fool could believe that. Something strived Sam to grab that guitar that this moment, and sing these words with such grace.
"Never can be forever.
Our three worlds can collide.
If only, if only, if only…
If only tomorrow would ever happen."
Suddenly, just as unexpected as it was to Sam as to Danny, her voice choked up. She couldn't get control of herself now; the sobs that had been hustling their way out since the first note she sang finally released from Sam's mental grasp. Danny's body lurched forward instinctively. He very dearly wanted to hold her in his arms; but he knew it was impossible. Sam didn't know he was here, and he showed himself, they wouldn't be on speaking terms for a long time. The clock ticked, and Sam's mascara free face now cooled down, and there were hardly any traces of tears on Sam's face. Only a slight puffiness beneath her eyes remained to tease her. One hand that had been rubbing her eyes for awhile now released itself, and returned back to its second home: the guitar. Sorrowfully, Sam sang the finale of her song.
"People shouldn't deny,
And most do lie,
You aren't like that,
It's only a barrier holding you back.
Break it, break it…"
A ghostly shadow of a tear traced across Danny's eye, and burned him to the core. At first Danny didn't know what it was; he had barely ever cried as his ghostly half. The feeling consumed him for a second, and he had the sensation of selflessness, almost like his body was whole. His body fell into submission, and Danny had no clue what part of him was what; everything was mushed together. Little did Danny know this was his heart signaling to him the true feeling of love. He passed this feeling as just being plain tired. He bursted out of this deep water once more, as Sam continued to let her voice tangle Danny's heart.
"Never can be forever,
Our three worlds can collide,
If only, if only, if only,
If only tomorrow would even happen.
It's an imperfect melody."
The last velvet sound escaped from her tongue, followed by a perfect chord. Danny hungered for Sam to sing even more, and for a second it seemed like an obsession. The open modesty bubbling around her was addicting. Danny knew though, this would probably be the first and last time he would even hear Sam sing again.
Sam sat still for a second, almost like a stiff statue, staring blankly at her guitar. Danny prayed she'd sing another song, but unfortunately she abruptly sat up, retrieving a leather guitar case from behind her bed. Sniffing quietly, she packed her guitar, and settled herself in bed. Her peaceful breathing seemed to almost like the music Sam sang, to Danny.
Danny suddenly lurched back to reality; he had to get home before his parents found out he wasn't in bed. Glumly, he intangibly flew out of Sam's house, but not without first very discreetly fixing the covers to perfectly cover her body.
At least one thing could be perfect in Sam's life, if it only could be as unnoticeable as covers. The only person that would make Sam's life perfect, oddly enough, was the one doing the deed to cover Sam's sleeping body.
Danny flew himself home, seeming to notice how the star and moonlight seemed to have grown sharper and brighter, almost like they had also heard what had happened in Sam's room.
On the outside, it appeared to be a quiet night to everybody else but Danny, whose head was ringing loudly, but his heart discreetly louder. Nobody but him was aware of the loud voice consuming within Danny, which he swore would make him deaf. And deaf he would be willing to become if that was the last thing he heard.
"If only tomorrow would even happen.
It's an imperfect melody."
Although acousic guitar singing sounds immensely very unlike Sam, couldn't she have a soft side to her? Everybody has a talent that can be almost surprising. Also, the I'm not a really big fan of Sam song-fic's, but I hope I did this differently. I had the idea of writing this when I learned the voice of Sam (Grey Delisle), was also a very talented singer.