The sky plummeted before my eyes, turning into utter darkness. Cold...
I looked towards my trembling fingers on the rusty soil, they were bleeding...
Widening my eyes I stumbled to stand looking down at myself, more blood stained scratches appeared; each one darker than the other before it. "No...NO!"
Normally a raspy breathing would follow my desperate beating heart; but I had none of those now. "Alright...open your mouth...and suck the air in...Suck it all in...what..? Nothing." It was a moment before I took in my surroundings, or what it should have been. It was a wasteland, the sand red with a deathly odor, and the trees seemed to be covered in shadow and stabbed at some points.
"This isn't heaven...this isn't heaven at all..." A scream erupted as my legs gave out underneath me. Falling onto my side I turned to see a wolverine staring at me through little slits radiating a light. It snarled. My hands reached for a weapon...anything would have been a use; but there was nothing. It got up in a pounce and I noticed its sharp claw like paws...it was an inhuman sight all on its own. A wind trickled by my ear, and a slash was melted down my side. The ground split underneath me letting me fall once more into abyss; becoming numb.
The space of infinity was what it was always pictured as; pure darkness. An object cuts through it like a knife through butter; as it was deemed in my case. The blood had long since been emptied into the darkness...painting it a shade crimson. The air whipped about me sticking my clothes to a skin tight position on my body, my hair that was matted with sweat was slowly drying itself out. The routine of falling was beginning to take its toll; my eyes felt heavier...what kept me from closing them? "Danny..."
Crash; just like the last that was all it was. The bones through out my body made a sickening roll within their flesh cocoon. The scratches couldn't be felt anymore than the blood that previously ran steady through my veins could be. Weakly pushing my head up I was only met with a straight forward fall back onto the pitiless earth; what was waiting me here? The ground sank down beneath me; I could hear sniffles and gasps. An ache in the back of my mind reappeared as an image. A group of people huddled together supporting each other shoulder to shoulder. The gasps and sniffles from the group were identified in a single word in my mind "tears..." My eyes stilled on a girl with dark hair and greenish blue eyes, a "Latina."A burning in between my ribs was placed, and heaviness settled there. A broken feeling took over; though I didn't know why as the sand seeped slowly over me. An empty voice chiseled its way carefully through the cracks the sand has not yet reached, it seemed as an innocent goodbye "...I love you too, Sam." A sob shook throughout my body as the darkness reaped through like a scythe.
Heat...intense heat burned through my toes all the way up to the tips of my ears. My futile position loosened its seriousness and I let my hair comb itself back into place while I brought my chin to slowly rest on my arms. Bells...a cheery yet ominously hopeful sound to the ear; I rose. Barefooted my feet spanked the tile floor sending echoes through out the Cathedral structure. Stopping to look at the glass, I realized; unlike the mosaics at the churches back home they were mirrors. Back home? Back where? It seemed like a dream by now, a dream best left forgotten. Shaking my head in a childish request to clear my already still mind I took a gander at the matters at hand. As it was shown, nudity was the sole owner of my appearance. The scratches were still there; carving small patterns into my skin like a hot iron. My hair was soaked through with sweat and tears I had shed unknowingly. An unearthly paleness tinted the skin pattern more than it ever did before during life.
Placing my arms around myself in a tight hug I felt a need to cover myself; an embarrassed chill took root. "There is no need for shyness Samantha, you are my own child...you need none to hide from me" the cathedral spoke out in a fatherly tone.
"Where are you?" numb lips forced out.
"I have no form; therefore I am nothing and all at once. I show myself to you in the ways you know me best...a Cathedral; the earthly home of my presence."
"Samantha...you shiver," It was true, she did not know why she was...what was there to fear of something that was nothing? "There is a dress provided for you on the alter, take it. It's a gift." The voice laughed heartily and died away again.
Walking slowly up the marble steps to the alter; indeed there was a dress. Putting it over her head she brought it down onto herself, it hugged her form as if it was tailored just for her.
"Where am I?"
"You are between worlds dear; heaven, hell, and earth."
"What am I doing here?"
"Sam...Your judgment day has come"
A theatre spot light shown down on her as dimness set in with the background.
"You've committed a felon; by taking your own life you have taken another's."
"I'm not a murderer!"
"However, by taking your own life you have made room for another."
A little girl stepped into the room in a white gown; golden curls framed her face as she looked up at Sam through silver stained eyes.
"She will now have the life you have given away, and so...she has inherited a portion of your soul."
The little girl smiles waving back at Sam as she entered one of the Cathedral's many doors.
"What part has she taken?"
"Your heart; when you were birthed from myself I gave you the gift of true love. It is a pity you have never used it; I'm sure she will cherish it in her life due time."
"You mentioned a death...besides my own that is-"
"Daniel."
"..."
"With the loss of his best friend, he has become cold. A hollow would be a better term, once a soul empties to such a point, it can not be filled once more. That...is a death worse off than what you have experienced in your journey to this realm."
"Can I see him?"
"I'm afraid that is not possible Samantha...once a replacement soul has entered it is not returned. And you...can never be reborn."
"I'll become a ghost..."
"Before you make such decisions...we must look upon your punishment for this crime."
"Samantha, by taking another's soul; you are forever condemned to that souls fate. Whatever happens to it is your responsibility from now on; however, being it the case of distance... I allow you to return to the realm of the living."
"There are rules to follow, Samantha..."
The hopefulness seeps slightly from the youth, but comes back in a roar of determination.
A document wrote itself cleanly on the church alter with the ink quill in list format.
You may not converse with the soul in any form
You must make decisions with a clear mind; no resource other than what you see is permitted
You may send signs of your presence at certain "responsible" occasions; but you may not be seen at your true form.
You Can Not Kill
Once you should kill; or commit the felony you were sentenced by...you will be given direct passage into the Underworld.
You may grant only one miracle to your "protected"
You are only seen by your "protected" so no need to worry for having been caught
"How can you contact the soul if you can not converse or even be seen?"
"That is your own decision."
"...father...will I be alive once more?"
"No...You are merely an invisible angel to everyone other than your responsibility. As it lists in the restrictions, you may not have a heart. It deems...work as a guardian less painful in ways..."
"Ways? What do you mean?"
The spot light dimmed and the door the little girl walked through previously opened, a heavenly light radiated off it.
"You will not return unless you are summoned... Good luck."
By then I was falling once more.
Walk past my grave
in the dark tonight,
Saw the stone and the note you left for
me,
to answer your question I just had to leave,
I just had to
leave,
While I was falling flashbacks of my past memories slowly erased...each one going through my mind like a strip of film and being cut off one after the other. It got through half my memories of the 5th grade when the entrance to the earth could be seen at the end of the tunnel. The hum of the memories whizzing by dulled down allowing me to have part of my cleared mind back to my own worries. "Another way I'm stuck between a rock and a hard spot...why had I created my own demise?"
A small voice answered back to me as if it was a natural daily occurrence, "The pain had been too great to live with, ironic how you are returning only to protect that which had caused it."
I had to agree with the voice, it has definitely been a fate of cruelty to have to suffer seeing everything he did to me while I was still alive. The note I left for him explained it all, the pain and how he should not blame himself for it...though with a turn of my stomach I knew that I wished he did.
He will remember me...
The light grew in a bright flash, blinding me as I stood on the soft soiled ground. Stumbling in my blindness I fell once more; seems that death is just a continuing turmoil of it. Vision finally cleared I took in a breath of air, still nothing. God wasn't kidding when he said I was still a soul...seeing and not living can drive a person mad. I wonder how Danny could have retained his sanity in his ghost form; moving to stand, something pricked my fingers on the ground. Turning slightly to look at the offender I was met with the most delicate rose I've ever gazed upon. Expanding my vision I gasped; the gravestone in front of me had been etched with my name.
"Samantha Elizabeth Manson"
"1990-2004"
"A loving daughter and caring friend"
Picking up the rose I
placed it to my cheek trying to feel anything but the cold reality
dawning on myself that very second. "I'm dead." Picking
up the end pieces of my gown I stepped as gracefully as I could
around the clumps of grave yard dirt. Taking the chains on the gate
doors I stepped out and closed them lightly; from what I
witnessed...the dead receive no visitors. But that's not
why I'm here,
I came down here to tell you it rains in heaven all
day long,
I wanna find you so bad and let you know I'm miserable
up here without you,
At moments like these I would have treasured life to the fullest; both the joys and the sorrows. The weight of reality shifted into another view; those who we've been hurting in our battles. Those who we have seen in the ghost jail beyond the barriers; those were people just like me. They've committed a crime so immoral to the heavens neither world would take them. Why would they not rebirth themselves from their sins?
Rounding the corner up to a grey tinted home I clutched the rose still in my hand phasing through the doors in an almost "familiar" way. The second I entered a suitcase was shoved in my face by a hurried butler ushered by shouts made in angry haste.
"Pack it up Ralph, we wont be returning."
A curt wave followed as both husband and wife proceeded into the dining area.
"Tom, this just doesn't feel right...we've been in this house for 15 years."
"Linda..."
"This house is haunting you as much as it does me...we're not even here half the time. A hotel apartment would be best. We must just...let it go."
A sense of hurt and guilt passed through me as I watched the couple pack away their family photo albums and drive away. The red lettered "for sale" sign hung on a wooden pole creaking slightly at each strong breath the wind took. How I envied it with hate...
Found my way
back in the dark tonight,
Couldn't wake up not right next to
you,
I'd trade forever to just hear you say the sound of my name,
Casting a long glance at the burned tire marks the car left on the pavement I turned on my bare heels and continued down the block; every intention on visiting that which I was now burdened into caring for. The "Fenton Works" sign was as bright as ever, though the daily shouting of "ghosts!" was not. The home was vacant and had an almost "haunting" air about it; a sign that irony triumphed once again.
Phasing through the steel doors I noted the absence of the ghost shield, convenient in my intentions yes; but not in the paranoia based ghost hunters shrieking of the very thought of being defenseless. An empty sigh passed through me as I heard movement in the kitchen. Pinching my skirts lightly I took steady steps through the door preparing for the sight that awaited me.
"I'm half ghost."
"What..? Danny, don't be silly; a human cant be a ghost! The thought..." Maddie laughed half heartedly trying to brighten up the gloom.
"Mom, if you cant believe what I'm telling you..." a wave of ghost energy came down in a flash of light over his body leaving him in a black jumpsuit and snow white hair, "I'll just have to show you..." a sad smile graced his emotionless stature.
"Oh heavens..." his mother's body went limp in his father's arms, Jack just stared dumbly not full comprehending the situation.
"I wanted to tell you dad, but I thought you'd hate me for what I became." Phasing through the ceiling of the kitchen Danny Phantom was no more.
Leaning her cheek against the door frame Sam looked at the two shocked ghost hunters; it was quite a scene really. Maddie was just coming back from her faint on the kitchen chair while jack was standing leaning his hand on the kitchen counter staring down at it. Both were distraught, not knowing whether to be guilty or angry at their only son.
Brushing the tips of my fingers down the door frame once more I left my place only to float through the ceiling's titanium floor. The Fenton Observatory was at the top, a dome perhaps welded together of a strong metal. It was made to house the family at the most disastrous situations; a ghost attack if you base it off Danny's family suspicions.
At the farthest corner Danny was sitting leaned up with his back against the wall, his bangs covering his ectoplasm green eyes. He was breathing out a frosty blue breath, that which he would normally not ignore as he did now. It seemed as if the very light that kept him fighting has faded into absolute darkness with no hope of parole.
"I know you're there..." He laughed bitterly still not looking up, "might as well finish me off while you're here...you'd do both of us a favor."
A sharp stab through the heart with a spear would have felt more welcome than what I experienced in my rib cage that moment. As if I ran through hell and back just to go through the pains of death again. A violet flame lit up in my hands and I left not a ponder as I threw it at the teen full force. Among the smoke, he still lay there on the metallic floor unmoving.
"Ghosts can't die...can they?" he looked up expecting an answer; I hid behind a desk.
"What are they then? What is their purpose? If you can't die or live then why do you even exist! What's the point... of seeing and not being able to feel?"
Biting my tongue I choked back an answer; the rules forbid me to say a word to him. "Why are you hiding?" I heard a shifting in the corner and boots lick the floor as he walked closer to my hiding place. "Are you disgusted by what I am as well? I wouldn't blame you, I'm just a halfa..." The foot steps stopped just a few feet beside me.
"No one would want me...if there was one person who would on this planet...they're gone now anyway..." An eraser threw itself against the wall, leaving the boy startled. I made myself intangible and stood up to look at his reaction...the rules had no power over this.
"You disagree?" he smiled and stared at the wall a few moments, "Who are you?"
Silence greeted his question in return. "I'll wait...as long as I have to, you can tell me your name when you're ready."
Our friendship restarted from there.
But that's not
why I'm here,
I came down here to tell you it rains in heaven all
day long,
I wanna find you so bad and let you know I'm miserable
up here without you,
Days met themselves without end, the rest of the Fentons avoided the observatory as best they could hoping to leave as much space between themselves and the ghost in habiting their home. The most of their encounters rest at meal times when the food consisted of freshly picked vegetables and cooked meat was put down on the top step of the stair case.
The "conversations" continued on as they always have; Danny was spoke of his ghost hunting adventures and things that were on his mind those very moments, and I listened. Even at rare times expressing my own thoughts with pushes of stacks of papers or objects floating in mid air.
"Ghost...why are you here?" it wasn't a first time Danny asked this question, and every time he did he would be greeted with silence. He didn't take it as offensive, but took more care in asking with every next time he did.
The rose I've been clutching has yet to dry; I've been wondering of it's immortality for awhile now. Who had given it to me at the funeral? "Aaah.." my legs gave out from under me the 2nd time in the past 5 months. Struggling to keep control of my intangibility I gasped for air I knew would give me no balance. The cry woke up Danny in his corner; his human half still needed rest.
"Ghost, what's going on? I thought I heard you scream."
Agonizing cries followed and tears fell down to the floor wetting it in small drops in front of him; in reality I was curled up in a ball holding onto the sides of my head as images of my death and memories of the hell I went through in my afterlife stormed through it. I saw him kneel down beside me trying to support me in his arms, but I could not feel it even if I wanted to. Unlike him...I was a pure soul; with no human half to support me on earth, my soul body had no blood or feeling in it. So even the slightest caress; would go unnoticed. It was then that the moments of the funeral stopped in my mind, stillness settled and everything in the real world went blank.
Don't believe
that it's better when you leave everything behind,
Don't believe
that the weather is perfect the day that you die,
Don't believe
that the weather is perfect the day that you die,
I was there again...
It was as if I had been there all along, watching...
I see Jazz now; she looks so sad...
(Sharp intake of breath) I felt that! Wait...she's talking of my death...
Danny... he's leaving? No! Stay...I need you... clang
I ran after him Danny...
He's reading the note... is he crying?
That's not what I wanted to happen! I sit beside him on the bench I'm here...you don't have to cry anymore... I try to wrap my arms around him but I pass through him like vapor
Danny...
I wish the night hadn't happened... I wish I never even felt jealous of her...
Please...
Turn back time...
The funeral... this isn't happening
DON'T NAIL THE COFFIN SHUT
No...
No...
Is that Danny? The rose... He gave it to me that day...
"I love you too, Sam"
It's the voice I heard in my dream...
Danny...
What are you doing to yourself?
Put the knife down...please put it down...
This is the year I've missed...
Tucker...can you hear me Tucker? TUCKER!
My death not only ruined my life...but my best friend's as well...
God...how can I be that much of an idiot?
"Sam..."
Danny?
"Sam...it's me...Phantom"
"Phantom?"
"Listen Sam...I don't have much time to explain, but we're in another world right now"
"What? Another world? But it shows the memories...My memories!"
"It's only a temporary world, it's designed to let me talk to you clearly."
"...oh no..."
"What is it?"
"I made a felony...I'm not allowed to talk to you!"
"You aren't allowed to talk to Fenton...but Phantom is a different person entirely in this realm"
"...how can that be?" I shake my head in disbelief
"Besides the point Sam...I need to tell you something."
"What is it?"
"You can escape this..."
"..."
"Speak to clockwork, he can help. He helped me when I lost you before...he can help again"
"Danny..."
"Sam...just do this...he WILL help; I know it!"
"Danny... I'm already dead...and nothing can change this...God sentenced me to this; not even clockwork has the power to bring me back..."
"I'm sorry..."
"For what?"
"For never telling you just how much I love you..."
"Danny?"
I came down here
to tell you it rains in heaven (all day long,)
I wanna find you so
bad and let you know I'm (miserable up here without you,)
x2
The world spiraled in font of my eyes; darkness was slowly replaced by the blurry setting of the Fenton Observatory. Weakly standing up I surveyed the area around me, Danny was no where in sight. Remembering my oath of silence I sat down on the desk still intangible, where did he go?
A vase caught my eye next to me; the rose I was clutching was in it with its petals and all.
It must have become tangible while I was knocked out...that means Danny knows.
(Click) he's coming!
A boy with messy black hair in a red T-shirt and jeans walked in through the door carrying a tray of food. Setting it down on a stool it turned to look in my direction, sensing my presence. "...I know who you are now" he became as cold as he was when I first saw him, "why did you hide it for so long Sam? I thought I could trust you to not keep things like this from me."
He sat down on the desk next to me and offered a slice of toast, I refused. "Sam...you have no idea what it was like for me when you were...gone."
"I couldn't eat, I couldn't sleep, I couldn't do anything but think of how I should have been when you were alive...I damned myself for how I acted towards you." He stared at the floor silently for a few moments.
"Why?"
I couldn't answer...if I did I would risk losing him forever. "Sam, show yourself to me."
Silence greeted him in return; he sighed and put his head in his hands casting his gaze at the floor. "Fine..." he stood to leave; I don't know what it was at that moment... But it didn't matter to me anymore. We stood there, my hand on his wrist...him keeping his eyes to the ground. Time stopped for us, but I sensed it wouldn't last for long.
"Danny?" the uncertainty of it all broke him; he turned and looked Sam in the face staring at her unbelievingly.
"Sam, it's really you..."
Don't believe
that the weather is perfect the day that you die
