Movie Night

It was the perfect night for flying. The air was clear as it could be and a three-quarters moon hung just over the horizon. The first snow had been heavy this year. Drifts as high as five feet lined the roads and sides of buildings.

I soared above town. It really was a beautiful night for November but it was cold. The temperature had been hanging in the thirties during the day. As soon as the sun plopped behind the cityscape the cold rushed in and the temperature plummeted to the teens. I cold feel the cold but not like I used to. Up in the air it had to be single digits.

I tucked my arms tighter pulling the movie closer to my chest. It wasn't late, only seven something. With any luck, I could make it to Sam's without interruption and we could watch our movie in peace.

Don't think like that, Danny. You'll jinx yourself, I thought. Tonight was going to be relaxing if I had to beat up a hundred ghosts to make it so.

The larger houses of uptown appeared under me and I dove for the sidewalk. Landing lightly I changed as my feet hit the ground in front of Manson Manor. The sudden cold took my breath away and I pulled my sweatshirt closer, shoving the DVD into my sweatshirt pocket. Clockwork's butt, it was freezing! And I only felt part of it!

I ran up the front steps of the mansion and rang the doorbell. The musical chime was audible through the solid oak doors. I dug my phone out of my pocket and glanced at the front screen. Seven-thirty, I'd made it right on time. How's that for the always-late ghost boy? I squinted suspiciously at the sky. It was almost too good to be true, like the ghosts knew I had a date to make.

The door opened and I was met with a surprised Mr. Manson. He was dressed in a tuxedo. Behind him Mrs. Manson wore a stunning blue evening gown. She had a fur coat wrapped around her shoulders. Sam had mentioned something about her parents going out at school that day. I hadn't realized she meant out out.

"Uh, hi Mr. Manson. Is Sam home?" I asked nervously. I was never sure how Sam's parents felt about me after we told them who I was. My parents figured if Sam and Tucker were going to be chasing after ghosts with me their parents had a right to know.

"Danny?" Sam's voice came from behind her parents. I glanced around Jeremy to see Sam standing at the top of the stairs. An involuntary smile broke out across my face but before I could even register what she was wearing Pamela spoke.

"Sammy-kins, You didn't tell us that he was coming over tonight." I was always he with Pamela. She even had a special tone of voice for me. It always made my hair stand on edge. Like she was aiming to fight with her daughter or me or both.

Jeremy surprised me by intervening. "Pamela, sweetheart, if we don't leave now we'll miss our reservation."

Pamela rounded on her husband. "Jeremy, you can not, honestly, be alright with him being in our house while we're not here," she said. I waved slightly when she mentioned me.

Jeremy looked me over. I did a mental scan with him. Messy hair? Check. Jeans, ripped from running after Cujo in the park a few weeks ago? Check. An old All-American Rejects sweatshirt I'd found on the floor of my closet? Check. Ratty red converse? Check. A DVD poking out from my sweatshirt pocket? Check.

Jeremy shrugged. "My mother's home, Pam. I doubt that she'd let them do anything too outrageous to the house. Or each other." My cheeks flamed at that last comment.

"But, -" Pamela opened her mouth to argue and her husband cut her off.

"Pam, we have been planning this dinner for weeks. Can we, please, leave now to make it on time? Sam's a good child. She won't do anything bad," Jeremy said. I noticed the lack of my name in his sentence but decided not to say anything.

Pamela looked at Sam, who had moved to the bottom of the stairs, then glanced back at me. She didn't like the idea, that much was clear. Maybe I should have driven here or ridden my moped. There's no reason to remind her of my oddities more often than I had to.

Finally, she submitted. "Fine, but," she turned to Sam. "He has to be out of the house by eleven o'clock. Got it?"

Sam nodded. "Not a minute later," she said but her eyes suggested otherwise. Who knew how long her parents would be gone?

I stood to the side while the regal couple walked out of their house. Jeremy glanced at me. Wait, was that a wink?

I walked into the house after them, shutting the door behind me. I turned around and Sam had her arms around my torso.

"I can't believe they let you stay," she said breathing out a sigh of relief.

"Me too," I said. I wrapped my arms around her and said, "You didn't tell them I was coming?"

She shook her head. "They wouldn't have left if they had known." I thought about the wink that Mr. Manson had given me as he had walked away.

"I think your dad's starting to get used to me," I said. Sam pulled away from my chest and nodded.

"He didn't look totally appalled at your appearance. The Rejects shirt might have done him in though," Sam teased. She noticed the awkward shape in my pocket and dug the case out of it asking, "What movie did you choose?" She turned the DVD over in her hand and gasped. "The original Scream?" She said. I smiled at the excitement in her voice.

"Yep," I said. "I figured we could take a trip back to good old nineteen ninety six. You haven't seen it have you?" Sam shook her head.

"Amazingly enough, no." She smiled up at me. "Are you ready to scream?" she asked doing her best impression of the classic horror movie narrator. I laughed.

"You bet and this time I'm not going to fall asleep."

Sam gasped playfully. "You, fall asleep during a horror movie? Never!"

Danny passed out twenty minutes in.

He had spread across the couch, his long legs taking up most of the room. His head lay in my lap with his mouth partially open. One of his hands grasped mine. My other was playing with his hair. I guess when half of your life is spent fighting ghosts and getting beat up Hollywood's 'best' nineties gore fails to satisfy.

Danny had, however, managed to eat most of the bowl of popcorn before he passed out. I paused the movie and scooped the last handful of popcorn into my mouth. The screen froze on Sidney leaning out of her bedroom window, watching her creepy boyfriend climb out it. I gently detached myself from Danny and grabbed the bowl. If I was going to watch a movie on my own I was going to do it right and to do that I'd need a big bag of popcorn.

I walked up the stairs from the theater taking two at a time. The tiles of the foyer were cold against my bare feet. Was the air conditioner on? The floor wasn't usually this cold. I glanced around and found that the front door was open. That was strange. I marched across the hall and gently closed it. Hadn't Danny shut it when he came in?

I shrugged it off. I was just on edge from the movie. I continued my trek toward the kitchen. A shadow moved across the hall and I jumped. Popcorn kernels spilled all over the carpet. I stared out the window and laughed. It was just a bird. Nothing to be afraid of Sam, pull yourself together.

I elected to start popping the new bag before I vacuumed. I walked to the kitchen to find the light on. That was strange. Percy, our chef, had left hours ago. Why was the light already on? I shook it off. It's the movie Sam. There's no one here with you but Grandma Agnes, who's probably asleep upstairs and Danny. My feeble reassurance wasn't very adequate.

I dropped the bowl on the counter, grabbed a bag of microwavable popcorn kernels from the pantry, and dropped it in the microwave. I punched in the time for one minute then walked off to find the vacuum. The hall was dark; I had forgotten the light switch.

I shook my head. "Don't be such a wimp, Sam," I told myself but I couldn't shake the feeling that something was off. Just in case I ran back to the kitchen and pulled a knife out of one of the million drawers. It wasn't anything fancy, just a dinner knife, but it made me feel a bit better to have a weapon.

Now armed I continued down the hall. I reached the closet and pulled the door open. The purple Shark machine glared back at me. I leaned over to hoist the vacuum out when a noise on the other side of the closet door made me freeze. It sounded like footsteps.

I tucked my elbows in and slowly turned around. I had no idea who would be on the other side but I was not going to take any chances. I shoved the door with my shoulder, throwing all my weight into the push. A guttural cry came from the other side. I stepped around the door to find a very dazed man wearing all dark clothing. He had a ski mask obscuring his face. In one hand he had a large sack, in the other he held a knife, one much bigger than mine. There was no way I was going to be able to take him. My best bet was to run.

I turned tail and bolted down the hallway as fast as I possibly could. Heavy foot falls behind me kept my feet moving. If I could make it back to the theater room, or even the foyer, I could call for Danny and we could take this jerk together. I wish I made it that far.

Not paying attention to where I was placing my feet, I slipped on the old popcorn kernels that were still scattered across the hall. The knife I was holding slipped from my hand and I hit the ground harder than I had thought possible. A sharp pain erupted in my right knee and I hit my head on the tile floor. I turned over to find the burglar standing over me. My vision blurred, my head throbbed. Somewhere far off I heard a girl scream. My vision failed and the darkness closed in.

My feet were cold. That was the first thing I realized was wrong. The second was that my head was lying on the couch and not on Sam's lap.

My eyes snapped open to an empty theater room. The movie was paused on some chick in her PJ's leaning out of a window. The popcorn bowl was gone and so was Sam.

I muttered a curse word. I'd fallen asleep just like I'd promised I wouldn't. I needed some caffeine. I wonder if the Mansons kept soda in their fridge.
I swung my legs off the couch and stretched as I stood. Shaking off vertigo I walked to the stairs. I'd go find Sam in the kitchen and sneak up on her. It was a priceless chance to scare her.

A scream stopped me in my tracks. It wasn't a scream of good humor or even laughter. That was a scream of pure, unbridled fear.
It was Sam's scream. A scream I hadn't heard in years and promised myself I would never hear again.

The slap of feet on the tile floor a few stairs above me knocked me into action. My ghost sense hadn't gone off but I didn't know if that was a good or bad thing. I bolted up the stairs three at a time. I reached the tile of the foyer in time to see a man dressed in all black running across the room. He had a sack swung over his shoulder. Some how I doubted that it was full of toys for good little boys and girls.

I yelled the first thing that came to mind, "Stop!" The ball of nerves and anger in my stomach encouraged my stupidity. Fortunately the man did. He halted and the Santa bag fell to the floor.

"Who are you?" He asked. I noticed a hand drop behind his thigh, just out of sight.

My mind was torn in two. One half longed for me to find Sam and see if she was okay. The other was dying to know who this was. I aimed for the middle road.

"I could ask you the same question," I observed. "But, I also know that it's a little too early to be jumping from chimney to chimney. Where's the girl?" I asked.

The man shifted smugly. "Looking for your girlfriend?" He teased. "She fell on her own knife, the idiot."

Noise buzzed in my ears. "Her own knife? What are you talking about?" I asked. The ball of nerves turned to spikes. It stabbed my core making my breaths short and painful. "Where is she? What have you done to her?" The world tinted green and I called ectoplasm to my palms.

Fear flashed across the man's face as he said, "Hey, man, I didn't do nothing."

I was across the foyer in a flash. I grabbed the man by the front of his shirt. His knife fell to the ground.

I leaned in and whispered, "Lies." to his face. If it were possible his eyes widened even more and something in my chest growled with pleasure. I threw the man away from me. He flew across the room to smash into a priceless jade vase on a table by the door. His body crumpled to the ground and didn't move. I made to follow him when-

"Daniel. Stop."

The frail voice was full of command. It stopped me in my tracks. I shook my head and the green tint faded.

"Oh, piss," I muttered. I'd wanted to kill him. I would have done it too and I didn't even know where Sam was or what he'd done to her. I knelt down and pressed two fingers to his throat. After a moment of searching I found a heartbeat. I sighed with relief before standing and turning around to see who had spoken.

Grandma Agnes was at the top of the stairs in her wheelchair. She had a cell phone pressed to her ear.
"Are you back, Danny?" She asked. I nodded.

"It's me," I said across the room. "Who are you talking to?"

"911. They're on their way. Where's my granddaughter?"

I swore. I'd almost forgotten about Sam. I turned and bolted down the hall that led to the kitchen. Hopefully it wasn't too late.

Please, be alright, Sam. I'm begging you.

"Sam? Wake up, please!"

"Samantha, can you hear me?"

Someone was using my full name. They would pay for that.

I pried my eyes open to find a unfamiliar woman's face leaning over me. "My name's Sam. Get it right," I growled through clenched teeth. Danny's laugh sounded to my right.

"Yep, she's awake," he said. I groaned and tried to sit up.

"Whoa, whoa, slow down, Miss, we're getting you a gurney," The woman put her hands on my shoulders and gently forced me back to the floor. I could see now that she had on a paramedic uniform.

"What happened?" I asked. The woman ignored my question. "How do you feel? What hurts?" she asked, grabbing my wrist and taking my pulse.

I considered the question. My head and my right knee throbbed. My back and butt felt oddly bruised.

"Like I've been thrown into a battering ram," I muttered. I threw my arm the woman wasn't grasping over my eyes. The light hurt. "What happened?" I asked more forcefully, hoping someone would get the hint.

"You should tell us," Danny said. I'd forgotten he was there. "I woke up and found you were gone. Then I heard you scream and I ran upstairs. The guy was running out the door. I hit him over the head with a vase in the foyer and knocked him out."

The tone of Danny's voice made me wonder what really happened. "Like my parents needed another reason to hate you. They'll kill you for ruining the vase, never mind the robber," I muttered and Danny laughed.

"Grandma Agnes called the cops when she heard you scream," Danny continued. His voice was suddenly louder and right in my ear, like he was leaning over me. "You gave us quite a scare," he confessed.

"You gave that robber a bigger one, I'm sure," I muttered back and Danny laughed.

More paramedics suddenly arrived with the gurney and Danny stood. They lifted me on to the makeshift bed. "Agnes called your parents. We'll meet you at the hospital with them," Danny called over a shoulder and I lied my head back on the gurney.

That was one hell of a date.

A/N: Meh, that happened. Keep an eye out for a Halloween based shot over the next week!

Until next time, GeekyZelda!