It's Gonna Rain
Chapter one
No One Mourns the Wicked
Leanne Gover
A Danny Phantom Fanfic
Disclaimer: I do not own any of Danny Phantom, the world or the characters. The only thing I own in this whole thing is the fan characters (which is really more than half the cast but that's besides the point). They all belong to Nickelodeon and Butch Hartman.
Warnings: Blood, violence and slight language.
Author's notes: I apologize in advance to any misuse of Irish slang.
McMillan was a fairly normal child in the eyes of society. He would smile and say hello to everybody. He acted friendly and energetic towards his fellow students. He was very interested in literature, even if math and science didn't catch his attention at all. Many people would comment on how well behaved he was but in general he didn't stand out. So nobody paid any real attention to him. Liam actually rather liked that.
One thing people did notice was that Liam never cried, not once in his life, even when he was a baby. That often worried his mother but his father had no issue with it however. He figured it was just as good - less headaches for him when he had a hangover. "Never show your true emotions. That's a weakness that people will use against ye," Liam remembered his father telling him before sending him off to his first day of school. It was the one thing Liam actually got out of his father that ever was of any use to him, after all you can't get much out of a drunken lump now, can you?
Yes, things seemed fairly normal in the lives of these Irish dwelling citizens…until one fateful day that is.
An earth-shattering scream ran throughout the house. Anna McMillan had fallen backwards on to the ground with a horrified look plastered on her face. In front of her was the source of her horror: the bloody remains of what used to be family dog. It was anything but a clean kill. Somebody had fun ripping the poor animal limb from limb.
"Uuu…What the bloody 'ell is goin' on here?" mumbled a rather irritated Doran McMillan. He had dark bags under his eyes and smelled strongly of beer and cigarettes. He stopped dead in his tracks as he saw what his wife had seen. "Bloody….I'm in me wick!" He groaned and continued with a rather long run of strong swear words.
At that point young Liam poked his head into the room. He was thirteen at the time and was staring intently at the mess in front of him. He slapped on a look of fear and said, "Who would do such a terrible thing!" Even he found it hard to hide the smile he had deep inside his heart at this sight. His father and mother had no idea that he hated that dog. When he was small, the dog was a great companion…until it decided that Liam was better use as a chew toy than a friend.
"That's bloody it. Too many warped things 'ave been 'appenig around 'ere." His father grunted, helping his wife to her feet. "We're leaving. Moving far away." Anna nodded and buried her face in her husband's chest. He began to stroke her red hair in an attempt to calm her down.
Something in Liam snapped at that point. "Wha…What! Da! Away with ye! Ye can't be serious! One bad thin' 'appens and ye want to move away? Da I like it 'ere!" Inside Liam began to panic. He was doing so well here. People left him alone here. If he went somewhere else they might notice…'it'.
"Some bloke stormed our house and slaughtered me dog! Dogs have been goin' missing for the past year. People 'ave been leaving 'ere for a while! Saying somtin' scared their kids bad. What if this somthin' catches up to ye?! There'll be wigs on the green before I let that 'appen!" Liam's father gave him a stern look that caused the room to go dead silent.
Liam couldn't respond to that, not if he wanted 'it' to stay silent. So the family moved, without so much as a hitch, away from their Irish home to Scotland.
Ireland seemed too far away. Especially now that Liam not only had to move away from his beloved home but was now sent to a boarding school on the north end of Scotland. Liam hated how cold it always was. Here he had no real place to hide and think. There were people everywhere, and it made him rather on edge. He had already been shoved into a dorm with three other boys: a blond bimbo named Eamon who was more concerned with getting the girls attention than anything else, a mousy boy by the name of Arthur and an overconfident brunette boy by the name of Jackson. They all ticked him off, but he quickly pretended to like them so as to not stand out.
He yet again seemed to be the nice normal child he appeared to be. People liked him; anybody who didn't was quickly transferred away and was never heard from again. Not a lot of people thought about it until later. Looking back, they thought he was such a nice person.
"'Here, stand behind this bulk; straight will he come. Wear thy good rapier bare, and put it home. Quick, quick; fear nothing; I'll be at thy elbow. It makes us, or it mars us; think on that, And fix most firm thy resolution,'" Liam recited energetically as he stood upon the stage. The spotlight shone upon him as he recited the lines from the play "Othello". He looked a little funny in his costume but nobody seemed to care. Even if they didn't understand the Shakespearean mess coming out of his mouth, Liam's performance was quite entertaining.
He was an actor, in more ways than most people thought. In his last year and a bit of being a part of this school he had participated in four drama productions. It was the one place he could show off his acting talents with people actually realizing he was acting. The play ended with death and dismemberment as all good plays should. The applause was thunderous and grand. He enjoyed every minute of it.
Afterwards Liam began to walk towards his dorm. Now changed into his school uniform, he adjusted his favorite red tie slightly and listened to the gossip as he walked by.
"Did you hear? The floor of the gym fell in the other day!" one girl exclaimed with panic in her voice.
"Really?! Was anybody hurt?" another cried.
"Somebody has a broken leg, but other than that I don't think so. They were lucky nobody was killed!" said the first.
"I hear this school is haunted! Just the other day some girls and I were walking by the third floor dorms and a lamp fell in front of us! If we were any closer it would have hit us!"
Liam's outward expression stayed neutral but the whole thing had him giggling inwards. At first he was afraid that 'it' would be caught before too long, but so far he'd been flawless. Nobody had noticed a thing about dear, sweet Liam McMillan.
"Hey Liam!" a voice called out behind him. The teen turned to see Eamon running towards him. The blond looked rather flustered and distraught. By the time he caught up with Liam, he was out of breath. He huffed and puffed for a second before trying to fix his hair. "Hey! Remember when I said a group of the twelfth graders went missing?"
A look of concern melted onto Liam's features. "Aye, they went missing a week ago right?"
"Well they found them! They were in the basement of the school!" Eamon cried, looking completely freaked out by this situation. "If the janitor hadn't have gone to check out that room they might have never gotten out!" the boy said, fiddling with his hair.
"Who would do such a thing?!" Liam managed to spit out. Not that he really needed an answer. He already knew who the culprit was.
"I don't know! The group only managed to say they heard a voice calling for help. They went to investigate and the door closed on them!"
Liam looked dead serious for a moment and said "Maybe it was a ghost."
A look of annoyance slipped on to the other boy's face. "Oh, not you, too! The whole school is up in arms about some spook haunting this place. Ghosts aren't real!"
Liam smiled a goofy grin and moaned out, "Ooooooof coooouurrse there isss!" He raised his arms and wiggled them about.
Eamon stuck his tongue out and said, "Haha, very funny, McMillan."
He shrugged and said, "Ye know I'm kidding. As much as I like Shakespeare, life isn't like his plays."
"Oh really? Is that so?" asked a soft voice behind the two boys. They both turned to see a rather handsome man with black hair that hung slightly around his face. The man looked rather normal, save for a long scar across one of his eyes. It had Liam wondering how such a thing got on the man's face. His eye looked fine, so it must not have been a very deep cut.
"Mr. Wicket!" Eamon replied back up at the sight of the guidance counselor behind them.
Liam put on an unimpressed face before looking at the older man. "'Ello," he mumbled. He never really got a good look at this man before, this mysterious teacher who joined the school about a month ago. He made Liam feel uncomfortable, even fearful. Maybe it was because Mr. Wicket was keeping a particularly close watch on Liam since he had arrived. Liam tried his best to ignore him, but it was getting increasingly annoying.
"Mr. McMillan, may I see you in my office?" Those words sent a cold spike through Liam's heart. Could Mr. Wicket possibly have discovered 'it'? This was not good. Panic welled up inside Liam's mind. However he kept a calm face.
He smiled sweetly and said, "Of course. Whatever ye want sir." 'Never show your true feelings,' he repeated over and over in his head as he followed the teacher to the small office. He sat down on a chair across from where the pale man sat. Liam childishly looked around the room. He spotted a rather nice-looking clock on the wall and a diploma with "Mr. Charles Wicket" handwritten on it neatly. The room was simply full of little knickknacks that Liam would do anything to play with.
"Liam…are you aware of what's going on at this school recently?" the man asked, brushing his bangs out of his face.
At this point, Liam had started to play with an hourglass that was on the counselor's desk. "Oh, this and that," he answered, seeming only to be half paying attention. In reality he was hanging on every word.
The man brushed his black bangs aside again and brought out a piece of paper. He began to read off the items listed on the page one by one. "Forty-two incidents of school equipment malfunctioning. Thirty-four incidents of vandalism. Twenty-seven incidents of students transferring. Nineteen incidents of missing persons; luckily they were all found…eventually. Lastly: four incidents of 'ghost sightings'." Mr. Wicket put down his paper and looked Liam dead in the eye. "All of this since you started school here."
Liam put on a smile on his face. "Really? What a coincidence. This ghost everybody keeps talking about must be pretty cranky."
Charles gave out a long sigh and continued his questioning. "Liam…do you know anything about any of this?" The smile on Liam's face was starting to tick him off.
"Ara be whist !" Liam said angrily at this point. He jumped to his feet and glared at Mr. Wicket. "Yer going around accusing ME of this aren't you? I 'ad nothing to do with this mess!" He stopped himself and calmed down slightly and just crossed his arms in a huff.
"Liam, I'm not accusing you of anything. I'm just saying that it may be someone in your grade. If you have any idea, please tell me. This person needs help. They need to get professional help," Mr. Wicket said, trying to motion Liam back into his seat.
This only irritated Liam more. Help? What made this man think that he could HELP? "Ye mean sendin' them off to the nutter farm," he said bitterly before turning his back to the counselor. "I don't know anything … I'm leaving," he said walking out of the room in an angry huff. Charles sighed and stared at the open door, watching Liam storm down the hall. 'That could have gone better,' he thought.
"The nerve of 'im," Liam muttered to no one as he wandered down the hallway. The whole incident with that man had made him rather irritated. He didn't even realize he was mumbling to himself as he walked.
"Doll! Wait up!" called Jackson called as a brunette girl came storming out of the room right before Liam. Liam recognized the girl as Lisa, Jackson's girlfriend. A very pretty girl, almost every boy was lined up to see her, although up until now, they couldn't get past Jackson to see her.
"Don't you 'doll' me! Roslyn said you've been out with some tramp!" Lisa yelled at him, storming further down the hall.
"I…I never!" started Jackson, trying to get his scraggly brown hair out of his face.
"LIAR!" she screamed and broke into a run down the hall, running into an empty classroom, slamming the door behind her.
"Bollocks…" Jackson grumbled and rubbed his head slightly. "How on earth did this happen, Liam?" He said, noticing his dorm mate standing next to him now. "I've never been with anybody else! You believe me, right?"
Liam patted Jackson's arm in a concerned fashion. "Of course I do," he said reassuringly. That wasn't a lie. Liam did believe Jackson. "I don't know where she got the idea in her head about this at all." Though, that was a lie. He knew perfectly well how she got the idea. Such nasty things rumors are.
Click! The door closed behind Liam as he walked into the all but empty classroom. "JACKSON! I said..!" The green eyed girl abruptly stopped as she looked up to see Liam instead of the boy she had first assumed it to be. "Oh…I'm sorry, Liam. I didn't see you there."
A small smile crossed his face. "It's no worry, Lisa." He walked up next to her and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Ye alright?'
"No. My heart's been shattered. I just want to be alone, Liam," she said pushing Liam away. She didn't get very far before Liam grabbed her arm and pulled her close to him. "Liam…what are you…?"she started, slightly frightened by Liam's sudden forcefulness. Suddenly and without warning, Liam slammed his lips into hers. It didn't last long though - a sharp slap to cheek caused him to back off and let go of the girl. He glared back at Lisa. She wasn't supposed to do this. She was supposed to do what HE wanted. He had had the whole scene transcribed in his head. Why was it not going according to his plan?
Lisa backed up at the now hungry look in Liam's eyes. "Ye little..!!" He straightened himself out and had a look of cold death on his face. "Ye were supposed to become mine. I went though a lot of trouble trying to get you here."
Lisa fearfully stared and the now cold and cruel creature that stood before her. "Love…love doesn't work that way!" She staggered out.
"Who said anything about that damned emotion?! I was just trying to make myself look normal! Normal people 'ave girlfriends right?" Liam nearly hissed at her. He yanked out a knife he had hidden on his person and looked at her with an evil smile on his face.
"Li…Liam…What are you…?" she asked with a voice so shaky it sounded like a phone breaking up.
"Ye've seen 'it'. I can't afford you telling anybody," he said dryly. "Goodbye Lisa."
"Jackson," the soft voice of Mr. Wicket said behind Liam's three dorm mates. They seemed to be comforting Jackson on his recent break-up. "Something is very wrong with Liam. Maybe you guys could talk to him? You're his friends. Maybe he'll listen to you."
"Sure, but I don't see what the problem is. Liam is the most stable out of the four of us. Why do you think something wrong?" Arthur said fiddling with his glasses.
"Just a feeling I had." Suddenly Mr. Wicket had a horrid look on his face and he looked at the clock that hung from the wall. He quickly let out a noise that was mostly unrecognizable to the teenagers in front of him. They could catch a few swears mixed in with whatever else he was saying.
"Mr. Wicket! What's wrong?!" Eamon asked nervously. He didn't get an answer as the counselor ran off down the hall.
The group of boys chased after him until they spotted the man in front of a classroom door. He looked defeated and sad just looking at the door.
"Mr. Wicker?" The blond said, almost scared to know the answer.
"I'm too late," he muttered quietly. "All this power and I…can't even be on time." The world seemed to stand still and he slowly pushed the door open.
Dead silence crossed the group as the saw the room. Blood was everywhere - on the desks, on the walls and most importantly, all over Liam McMillan.
"LIAM!" Jackson screamed. He quickly scanned the room to see where the blood had come from. When he saw the limp body of Lisa on the floor, he let out a half sob, half scream.
Liam began to panic as he saw the group stumble upon his lovely mess. His eyes narrowed as he saw it was Mr. Wicket that led them to him. That man…why was he such a thorn in his side? More people now had seen 'it'. He couldn't kill them all. So he ran, straight through the window. He didn't care how much it hurt. He only cared about getting away. Shards of glass flew everywhere as he ran out as fast as he could.
The others followed. They had to stop him. Jackson needed answers. This was just…unbelievable.
Mr. Wicket fell to his knees. He glanced at the amulet he had wrapped around his wrist. Nobody really noticed he carried it, but if you looked closely he was never without it. "I thought…just maybe I could change it. " He murmured to himself. He took one long look at his amulet…his cog-shaped amulet.
Liam was cornered. The rocky cliffs that lead to the ocean laid in front of him while an angry mob of betrayed friends were closing in behind him. What was a young psychopath to do?
"Why'd you do it?" Eamon said, looking more distraught than normal. "Why, Liam?! You lied to us!" Liam had been the one all along. Everything started to click in their heads as they thought it through. Now it made sense…all the times Liam had disappeared without warning.
Arthur began to cry slightly. It was just too much for him. The person he considered his friend stood before him, covered in blood and running away from the scene of the crime. Why wasn't he saying anything? "You've been the one … all along, haven't you?"
Jackson clenched his fists and bowed his head. Trying to stop himself from strangling the boy in front of him now was proving to be a harder task to do with each passing second. "You spread those rumors. You're the one that played all those pranks and now…now she's DEAD! Why Liam?! WHY!?" he yelled, feeling his face turn red with hatred.
"Because I was bored." Liam turned his head towards them, a sweet smile on his face. "Normal life is so boring. I just wanted to have a little fun."
At this point Jackson couldn't contain his temper any longer. He leaped forward and grabbed Liam by the front of his sweater vest. "YOU! How can you say things like that?! YOU SODDING BASTARD!"
Liam let his mask slip for a second, revealing his true feelings of utter fear at Jackson. "Let go!" he yelled as he pushed the boy away. He had been too close to the cliff, and he lost his balance. He fell. He didn't scream as he did, but everybody heard the bone-chilling splash as his body hit the water. They never saw him resurface.
Mr. Wicket looked down the rocky mass of land, slowly scanning for signs of life. He had missed Liam falling down, but he knew it had happened. "I could have saved them. Now….two more people have died violent deaths. Two more ghosts in the world."
"This is why we told you to ignore this incident. You were a fool to think you could alter this boy's fate. It was set in stone by forces not even you could understand," said a voice behind the counselor. "We gave you that medallion and granted you the power to take on that human form to show you this. It's foolish to try and change it…Clockwork."
The ghost of time sighed, and untangled the amulet from his wrist. His ghostlike appearance returned to him at that moment: his purple cape, blue skin and everything else. "Come now Clockwork, you've done enough damage. We have to keep an eye on this…world war the humans are about to start," said an Observant, a giant eyeball with a cape.
"Leave that boy be, nobody will mourn his death. And I believe this is the second World War that is coming into play," said a second Observant to the first.
Clockwork took one final look back and sighed. "Nobody mourns the wicked, do they?"
End Chapter One