Chapter 2
Sam awoke in her bed.
Was it all a dream? Please, let it all have been a dream.
But Sam didn't remembering going to sleep, and her bedroom lights were on. Sam shook her head.
This is too weird…
"Sam?" A quiet, familiar voice said.
Sam sat up quickly in shock, crying out. Danny Fenton was sitting on the edge of her bed, his blue eyes brimming with concern.
"Oh. Hi, Danny," she said, scratching her head. "What time is it?"
"About seven in the morning," Danny said. "Your parents don't know I'm here."
"Oh," Sam said. "Where's Tucker?"
"He's fine," Danny said. "I flew him home after the fight. And I flew you home too."
"And that evil ghost, Cyrus?"
"I tracked him down after I got you two home," Danny said. "He's back in the ghost zone now."
"Good," Sam said. She looked up at Danny, waiting for him to say something about what she'd done last night…
"You… you have some explaining to do," Danny finally said.
Sam nodded. Her stomach grumbled.
"How about we talk over breakfast?" Danny suggested. "I hear a new pancake place just opened near the Nasty Burger."
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"…and I'll have the same," Danny said, handing the waitress his menu.
"All right, I'll have that out for you in a second," the waitress said before leaving Sam and Danny to themselves.
Danny swirled his chocolate milkshake around with his straw, watching Sam. Finally, he opened his mouth to break the silence.
"What's going on, Sam? How did you do that last night? What aren't you telling me?" He said. His tone wasn't accusatory, really, but Sam felt guilty all the same.
I should have told him this earlier.
"Okay, Danny. I don't know how I did that last night. I was as shocked as you were. It was the first time I've done anything like that," Sam said. She paused briefly. "But… I think I know why it might have happened."
Danny nodded, as if to tell her to continue.
"All right," Sam said. "There's something you don't know about the night when you became half-ghost."
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"Okay, I showed you the portal. Can we get out of here now? My parents could be back here any minute," Danny said. "Besides, they say it doesn't work anyway."
Sam walked up to the portal, smiling.
"Come on, Danny, a ghost zone? Aren't you curious? You gotta check it out!" she said.
"You know what? You're right," Danny said. "Who knows what kind of awesome super-cool things exist on the other side of that portal?"
Danny zipped up his black-and-white jumpsuit, grinning.
"Hang on," Sam said, ripping off the picture of Jack Fenton on the front of his jumpsuit. "You can't go walking around with that on your chest."
Danny threw one last look at his friends before approaching the portal. He stepped inside, running his hand along the side of the portal, until…
"Aaaughhhhh!"
A flash of green light shone from inside the portal. Sam and Tucker could see Danny's silhouette from the outside of the portal, and his scream echoed throughout the basement.
"He's being electrocuted!" Tucker cried.
"Tucker, go get help! Quickly!" Sam instructed. Tucker hurried up the stairs. Sam ran to the portal, trying to see inside. Danny wasn't screaming anymore…
Suddenly, everything went dark. The power was out— probably for the whole neighborhood.
"Man, that thing takes up a ton of energy," Sam said. Her whole body was shaking in fear as she ran inside, falling to her knees beside…
"Danny?" She turned over the boy that lay here in the portal… who didn't appear to be Danny. His hair was white, and he was wearing a primarily black jumpsuit with white details instead of vice-versa. He also seemed to be glowing.
But no, this was Danny. She could tell. His face was the same, and after all, who else could this be? She didn't know what had happened to him, but right now that wasn't important. She just needed to know he was okay.
Suddenly, the power came on again, the portal buzzed to life, and Sam was being electrocuted.
Sam screamed as her whole body shook with electric currents. Why hadn't she unplugged the portal before she came in? Why?
Sam began to crawl toward the portal entrance, dragging Danny along with her. Her whole world was shaking. And there was so much pain, so much pain! It felt like she was being stabbed by a million pins and needles. Like when your foot falls asleep, only a million times worse.
But she needed to get out of there. She needed to get Danny out of there.
Finally, Sam escaped from the portal, dragging Danny out behind her. She was still on her hands and knees, and she hung her head, gasping for breath as lights flashed behind her eyes.
After ten or so minutes, Sam felt well enough to stand. She slowly got up, almost collapsing as she did. She rushed into the basement bathroom and puked in the toilet. She stood up and stumbled over to the sink. She splashed some water on her face and examined herself in the mirror.
Thank goodness- she looked exactly the same. What had happened to Danny then? Why did he look so… different? She wandered back to where Danny lay.
It was then that Tucker ran back downstairs, unsuccessful in getting any help. He'd tried calling 911, but the power was out.
"Sam! Danny! Wait… Danny?"
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"You woke up a few minutes later, so the rest you know," Sam finished.
"So… you're…?" Danny was staring at her, wide-eyed. He'd listened to her whole story without interruption, but now his head was spinning.
"No, I'm not half-ghost. I felt a little funny for the week after that, but then I started feeling normal again, so I figured nothing had happened... obviously, I was mistaking," Sam explained.
"Why didn't you tell me this?" Danny asked.
"You remember how much you were freaking out those first few weeks after it happened. I didn't want to stress you out anymore than you already were. I mean, I tried to tell you a few times, but… you know. It just didn't seem so important, compared to what had happened to you," Sam shrugged. "After a while, I kind of just forgot about it."
Danny stared at her, blinking. He'd always known Sam was powerful, but apparently, he didn't know that half of it.
The waitress came up then, giving them their food, so the conversation went on hold for a while. While Danny was processing what she said, Sam was wondering what Danny was thinking. Would he be mad at her for not telling him? Would he think she was a freak?
Once the waitress had left them alone, Sam looked up at Danny. He was staring at his pancakes, his eyes glazed over.
"Danny?" Sam said, reaching across the table to take his hand. "Are you all right?"
"Yeah, I'm fine," Danny said, smiling weakly at her as he met her gaze. "It's just… a lot to take in."
"Look, Danny, you really don't have to worry about me," Sam said. "I'll be fine. I'm sure that was just some… freak occurrence. I've gone this long without it affecting my life, so I can go a little longer."
"No, Sam, this is serious. Don't you remember how unstable my power was the first month I had it? And you're so powerful… you could really hurt somebody," Danny said. "And… also… that ghost last night… Cyrus… well, he wasn't too happy about what you did to him."
"He wasn't? What happened?"
"I dropped you and Tucker off at your houses, and then I went out and found him. He was really weakened from your attack— he'd hit the ground hard. It was easy to suck him into the Fenton Thermos. But before I got him in, he said something."
"Which was…?" Sam queried after a pause.
"He said he'd kill you," Danny said. "He said that he wouldn't rest until the both of us were dead."
"Jeesh. That ghost sure has a temper on him," said Sam lightly. She wasn't sure that she liked the look on Danny's face.
"Sam…"
"Danny, I can take care of myself," Sam assured him. "Besides, even if I couldn't, I'll always have you, right?"
Danny nodded.
"Okay. But no more secrets, all right?" Danny said. "If you feel funny, or you do anything else…"
"You'll be the first to know," Sam assured him.
