Slowly ramping up the angst. :looks around for cops: :sees none: :slams foot down on accelerator: Never mind the slow… FULL THROTTLE YE-HAH!
Family
A Danny Phantom FanFiction by Cordria
…this is the 100 drabble challenge of a connected variety that will go in an order that resembles chapters so this collection of singular one-shots will kind of look a lot like a full-fledged fiction…
Drabble 9: Drive
Squeezing her eyes shut, Danielle bit her lip and refused to scream in fear. She was being jostled around and bruised by the luggage in the limo's trunk. Curling up into a smaller ball and covering her head with her hands, she prayed for it all to stop. This was not at all what she thought her first ride in Dad's limousine would be like.
Of course, she conceded with a small sigh, she was pretty sure the trip would have been better if her father actually knew that she was tagging along. Maybe he would have let her ride up front and watch the road zip by.
Just as Danielle was deciding that the world was coming to an end, the limousine hummed to a halt, the motor finally turning off. Danielle uncurled herself a bit, blinking into the darkness of the trunk. She waited for a long few moments after the ka-chunk of the car doors closing rattled through the limo, then cautiously turned herself intangible.
Poking her head through the top of the car, she peered out at her newest surroundings. Her father was standing at the door to a strange house, taking to a large orange man. Danielle ducked back into the trunk before they spotted her: she was pretty sure her father would be mad if he found out she had snuck along on this trip.
Danielle waited as long as an almost four year old was able before looking around again. This time the yard was empty, the door of the weird house closed. With a grin, Danielle phased through the bottom of the limo and snuck quickly up to the side of the house. Crawling under a poorly-trimmed bush near the back corner of the house, Danielle felt a blaze of excitement. She was finally going to get to see where her father went when he vanished from their home.
It was only a few seconds before she heard voices through the window she was crouched under. One was a woman's voice that she, strangely, recognized. "Mommy?" Without further thought, she stood up on her tiptoes, reached up to grab the edge of the window, and then levitated slightly so that she could see into the weird house.
There she was. Danielle watched in amazement as her mother bustled around the strange house, grabbing cups and plates out of the cupboards and setting them at the table. Confused, Danielle pressed her nose against the window and continued to watch. How did her Mom get all the way over here? And how come she could pick things up? Her mother couldn't pick things up when she was at home – they went right through her.
Danielle was about to phase through the wall to go up and ask when someone new entered the room. Danielle's eyes widened when she saw the teenage boy, suddenly remembering a picture Vlad had shown her two weeks before. This was… her brother? But how? Her brother hadn't been created yet.
"Danny, honey, grab the sandwich meat out of the refrigerator," her mother said to the boy.
Danielle stared at the boy as he nodded and turned to do as their mother had requested. At one point, he hesitated and glanced towards the window, but Danielle merely turned herself invisible and continued to watch, amazed.
"Mom?" Danny asked - much to Danielle's astonishment since brothers didn't talk - "if I slice up the emergency ham, can we feed it to Vlad?"
"Don't be silly," their mother admonished softly, "that stuff is so old he'd get sick."
Danielle figured, based on her brother's expression, that he already knew that. Wrinkling her forehead, Danielle wondered why anyone would want to make her father sick. Didn't everyone love her father the way she did?
Suddenly the large orange man lumbered into the room and Danielle flinched, sinking a little in the air. He was huge and powerful and scary. "Is the food ready?" the man boomed.
"Not yet Jack," their mother answered. "You could help, you know."
"I'll get the ghost-enhanced butter knife," the huge man said excitedly, then vanished down the steps.
Danielle watched as her brother and their mother exchanged a glance. "I hid all the ghost-enhanced kitchen utensils after last time, dear," their mother said. "Don't worry."
The kitchen door swung open once again and Danielle grinned as her father walked into the room. "Good afternoon," he said happily. "Is there anything I can do to help, Maddie?" He smiled lovingly at the woman.
"Dad's downstairs getting a butter knife," Danny muttered, "you could go down and help."
"I'm not going down into Jack's death trap of a basement." Her father's grin faltered for a moment, then he glanced around the kitchen with a smile.
Danielle felt her stomach grumble and, since her father was right there and surely wouldn't let her go hungry if he knew she was there, she turned herself visible and waved. When his gaze settled on her, his entire body stiffened. Danielle flinched and found that she couldn't move. Swallowing heavily, her eyes widened when she saw the fury in his eyes. Slowly, she lowered her hand and licked her lips. Turning visible suddenly didn't seem like such a smart decision.
"I need to use the bathroom, I'll be right back," her father said through his clenched teeth.
Danielle softly lowered herself to the ground, trembling as she waited for her father to appear. He was mad, she knew that. When he did, his red eyes were blazing. One hand flashed out and grabbed her by the arm. "What are you doing here?" he snarled.
"Daddy," she gasped in pain when his claws dug into her arm, "Daddy, sorry!"
"You're going to ruin everything! Get back to the car," he growled, tossing her a few feet down the side of the house. "Do not come out – I will deal with you later."
Sobbing, Danielle held her bleeding arm close as she raced back to the limousine and crawled back into the trunk. Curling up into a ball in one of the corners, she let the tears flow freely from her eyes. She couldn't in her wildest imagination equate that man with her father.
And there she waited, bleeding, for hours. Every few minutes she would hold her breath, listening for sounds that her father was returning to rescue her. He couldn't possibly have meant to hurt her like that. Any minute now, he would realize what had happened, race out of the house, pick her up, and love her again.
He didn't mean it – he couldn't have meant it. He loved her.
What did she do that was so wrong?
Family is not who you have or what they can do...
it's the love that grows despite everything that can come between you.
