Authors note below.
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Chapter four
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Finally a very disheveled voice answered the phone. "Maddie Fenton speaking."
Danny's eyes widened and he started to shake his head 'no'. Star felt a pang of sympathy for the ghost boy.
"We told you to keep it quite." Wes said, trying to disguise his voice deeper and more gravely.
There was a hesitation over the phone. Then Maddie said in a much harsher tone, "Who is this? What have you done with Danny?"
Wes chuckled darkly. "Oh the ghost is here. He's fine… for now." He replied. Danny glared daggers at Wes.
There was another pause. Then her words gushed out, and she sounded like she was on the verge of tears. "Where are you? Can I talk to him?"
He ignored her, and repeated, "We told you to keep it quite, and now you'll have to pay the consequence."
She ignored him as well. "Please!" She paused, recovering from her short outburst. "Let me speak to him."
Wes paused thinking, looking up at Danny. Danny glared back at him equally. Suddenly Wes smiled, a glint in his eye. "Fine." The other three men jumped, but they didn't stop him when he cut Danny's gag off. Danny coughed while Wes quickly rummaged through his bag for something.
Finally he tossed the phone to Danny who caught in and put into his ear.
"Mom?" He asked slowly.
"DANNY!" He nearly dropped the phone, forgetting it was on speaker. "We've been so worried! Are you okay?! They haven't hurt you-"
Finally Wes whipped around with a small hand held device clutched in his fist and threw it towards Danny. Not having enough time to react, the small device hit him in the chest. Suddenly powerful shockwaves ripped through Danny's body, and he screamed. He fell to the floor as Bill grabbed the dropped phone and snapped it shut.
After a moment of letting him suffer, Wes calmly reached towards his pain-racked figure and pealed the device off him. As soon as the pain was gone, Danny tried a weak attempt to lung at Wes, but Bill held him back.
Danny struggled in his grip. "WHY DID YOU CALL THEM?!" Danny yelled, infuriated.
"Because you're parents needed to pay the consequence. We specifically said to keep it quite. I figured them listening to your tortured screams would be enough to shake them up for a few days."
Danny growled and tried to break free of Bill's grasp one last time before he finally fell to the floor, gasping for air.
Star was surprised to find herself glaring at the men and struggling with her bonds for the first time since she was thrown into the car. Why wasn't she trying to blend in with the wall in her corner? She quickly answered her own question: because that was low, even for them.
She had hoped that the call would last longer than forty-five seconds, but the entire thing lasted only forty… five seconds short of being able to be traced. She had counted, making sure to say her Mississippi's in between. She wasn't sure how she knew that… probably off of some movie.
She watched as Wes slowly picked up the phone again, trying to taunt an unseeing Danny. He decided to get his attention. "But we're not done yet." It did the trick. Danny's head snapped up.
"What do you mean?" He growled over Wes's dialing. The phone rang once again. Once. Twice. Three times. It was finally picked up halfway though the fourth by Danny's dad.
"Hello?"
"We still have something to discus." Wes replied in his disguised voice. Jack guessed who it was.
"IF YOU TOUCH A SINGLE HAIR ON HIS HEAD I SWEAR I'LL--" Suddenly he was cut off, as if the phone was being pulled away from him.
Then Jazz's voice replaced his dad's. "What do you want?" Jazz asked harshly, her voice making her sound cool and collected.
Wes answered in an equally cool voice. "Twenty grand in cash. Drop it off in a blue bag between seventh and Parkway next to the mailbox at two am two days from now. If we see anyone, consider them shot. That's the only way we'll give the ghost another week to live. Got it?"
Without hesitation Jazz answered, "Got it."
Danny took advantage of not being gagged. "Jazz! Don't do it! They're planning on killing me any-" He knew it was coming. With a battle cry, Bill tackled him to the ground, but Danny was ready, and quickly kicked him off.
"And Star's here too! They're canceling out my powers! I can't do this on my own! We need to get her--" But then he saw the phone was already slammed shut. He wasn't sure how much she had heard, but hopefully he got his point across. If they can't find him and help him out, then forget about it.
Wes, in blind rage, swung out and hit Danny in the face as hard as he could muster. Danny yelped and went crashing to the other side of the car, falling on top of a surprised Star. "WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?!"
Danny seemed dazed by the hit, and didn't move for a second. Wes lifted him up by the collar of his shirt and hit him again, with a crack, Danny's head met with the side of the car, and his form went slack.
Wes growled, and threw his limp form back down on Star roughly. She winced.
Then he threw his phone across the car, where it slid under the drivers seat. Not caring, he sat back down in a huff, and said, "I can't wait to see that ghost go." The thought seemed to cheer him up and he smirked darkly.
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Jack was rubbing Maddie's back comfortingly as she cried silently into his shoulder. Police buzzed around the room, checking their equipment to see if the short calls could be traced. Sam was sitting across from them, her face completely white. She seemed to be swaying slightly. Tucker was sitting next to her, a similar look on his face.
Jazz looked at the pair and noticed how even though they didn't talk or even touch each other, they were probably drawing the most support from each other than even her mom and dad. There seemed to be a visible line of understanding between them, and they didn't even have to ask how the other felt.
Jazz, as if in a daze, went and sat down as well. Then an officer walked up to her. "Who is this 'Star'?"
Surprisingly it was Sam who answered. "Star Connelly. She goes to school with us."
The policeman turned to her. "Why would they kidnap her too? Does she have any connections to Danny?"
Tucker answered for Sam. "Not really… she, Dash, Paulina, Kwan, and some other football players and cheerleaders are on the A list at school. You know… the popular group, and we defiantly aren't. They didn't even take notice of us until recently with the whole… you know… Disasteriod thing."
The officer nodded and said, "We'll call up her parents and talk to this Dash and Paulina. They might know something." Then he walked away to call headquarters.
Jazz took a deep breath and closed her eyes. She was so scared. She didn't think anything like this could happen.
'Jazz! Don't do it! They're planning on killing me anyways! … They're canceling out my powers!'
Without warning, she felt tears starting to prickle behind her lids. What were they doing to him? The phone call was on speaker, and she still couldn't block out everyone's faces when her brother started screaming.
Her mom actually collapsed backwards, Jack jumped up, his face an expression she had never seen on his face before, and all of the blood seemed to drain out of Tuckers face, Sam looked like she was about to faint. She shivered slightly.
Suddenly Jazz felt someone sit down next to her. She looked up to see Sam with a sympathetic face. Sam wrapped her arms around her and held her as tear's trickled down Jazz's face.
"And you better take lots of comfort in this. I'm going against all Goth values and traditions here by hugging you."
"Thanks Sam." Jazz replied softly, smiling through her tears.
There was a pause, Sam pulled away from her. "I know Danny. He's been in worse situations. He'll find his way home."
Jazz shook her head slowly and bit her lip. "What are they doing to him, Sam? Where are they keeping him? In a dark basement somewhere?" The emotion in her voice made Sam turn to her. She was staring blankly at the wall, her mind obviously miles away.
Sam sighed. "I know where you're coming from. I mean- who would do this? What has he done to deserve it? He's the kindest most selfless person I know… I can see ghost's kidnapping him- but humans?"
Jazz looked up and paused. "Are they really going to kill him?" She whispered.
Sam replied without hesitation. "No. No way." She shook her head violently, dispelling the idea. "He'll pull through. I know he will."
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Okay, so that's the length for this week. Sorry if it seemed a bit quick… but I have a lot of homework and fanfiction is (sadly) on the bottom of my priority list.
And the thing they shocked Danny with is a stunner from the Guys in white. I didn't really feel like writing that in there… it would ruin the mood. "Oh! Interesting! What is that?"
So anyways, keep reviews coming, and I'll (try to) keep the chapters coming! Just because I updated last week and this week on time doesn't mean it'll be the same for next week, because that's just how life is unfortunately.
Thanks to Strgrl4eva, hawkflyer667, xheartkreuzx, and Souxie 2.0 for the motivation!
Please review!