Ghostly World

Disclaimer: Nope, don't own Victorious now and never will

A/N:


Chapter 9 (Picked Off)

The members of the infamous iCarly webshow laughed in Carly Shay's apartment, there were several kids there who were celebrating the party. Currently Carly and Spencer were in the kitchen, they were mixing a bowl of punch. Spencer had suggested to spice it up with something sour, but Carly put a halt on that. They'd just been joking about how Spencer thought it would make everyone at the party become hyper. Once the laughter died down, the conversation became serious.

"Spencer, did you hear that he Princesses of the light dominion are in a coma?" Spencer lifted his eyebrows and slowly nodded. When they caught wind of the news, it was a bitter thought. Sam and Carly had traveled to the Light Dominion and made their way to the castle to find the truth, and they discovered that the nightmare had become reality. They were also informed that the Angel of Death had struck. Sam was an angel of the realm while Carly was simply a slayer with great strength. "Sam says we need to be careful, that the Angel of Death might come after our powers…"

"Why does she think that?" Spencer glanced up from the counter and to their couch where Sam was chatting with her sister, Melanie. Those two always seemed to bicker, but when it all came down to it, it was obvious they loved each other. Carly took a plastic cup and poured some of the punch in, lifting her eyes up to Sam.

"She spoke with the Head Angel. He said he thought Sinjin was trying to collect powers from the different worlds in order to overtake the Light Dominion." They had their experience with the Shadow Realm before. Their mother perished in the great war against the shadows many years ago, it was a great battle, but just as the their father took them away from that world, they witnessed their mother's blood spilt upon the soil. The last survivor of the Slayer's Realm, she aided in the escape of her own kind by distracting the shadows, and in the end, it had cost her, her life. Then, with a great blast, the world was shaken. Carly witnessed with her own eyes, a terrible explosion of her home. "My life…filled with horror…"

"I know…" Spencer's eyes softened as he took his little sister in a hug. Carly's life had been filled with pain and suffering. As a child, she needed to learn to contain her strength, she was constantly berated by it. She witnessed her mother's death and the destruction of her world at only the age of eight, then in the nine months, there was the sheer agony of their father going away to war and then losing his life. She often wished she could just forget it all and start over again, sometimes she would even state that death could not come soon enough for her. Nobody would know this about her though, she hid it and avoided her troubles like the plague, but it still didn't keep her from crying to sleep every night and having Spencer look after her. She pressed her lips together, grunted, then slowly sipped her punch.

In the back of the room, near the steps, Freddie was watching his best friend Jonah, making out with his girlfriend. "You and Valerie can stop anytime you like, you know." Jonah tore his lips away and looked over to Freddie with a look of annoyance.

"Why? What's the problem man?" Freddie and Jonah were connected through the law of the worlds, that was how everyone understood their friendship. Jonah was of the elemental realm, his tribe was the Light tribe. There were several tribes: Light, Dark, Fire, Water, Earth, and Air. Only the members of the royal family could access all six elements. Each element was bound, as an infant, to someone in another realm, such as the Flame Dominion. That made them destined to meet the person and to become close friends. Usually the water tribe went to the Flame Dominion, due to what happened when someone from the Flame Dominion became upset and angered, they would have to cool them down with water. Jonah was bound to Freddie because it was thought that Jonah would be the next royal heir, but his family had been abdicated from the throne and another person took over. "Are you still pissed that your girlfriend couldn't be here?"

"One, Ashley is not my girlfriend-"

"You could have surprised me." He smirked and turned around, crossing his arms. His lips curled into a sly grin as he tilted his head. "Come on man, she acted like an idiot for you…"

"It was for college credit…" Ashley was a high school student taking high school classes, Freddie had found her when he wanted someone to trick the girls into realizing how stupid the intern they hired was. She was attractive and Freddie had begun to hang around with her quite often. "Plus, she's another person from the Flame Dominion! Can you believe that?"

"So is Shane, but you're not that close to him." Freddie rolled his eyes and leaned back against the hard woodened steps, ignoring the pain of the steps jarring into his back. Shane Johnson was his half-brother from another relationship that ended prior to forming a relationship with Marissa. When Marissa heard of Shane's birth, she was okay with her husband having a child from another relationship. She always pressed for the two boys to have a relationship together, and they almost did until Shane's mom moved away. "You know, when Shane came back to Seattle, things were great."

"Until the girls saw him, right? I've heard all this before man…" Jonah folded his arms over and Freddie's eyes moved downward. He wanted to have a relationship, a brotherhood, with Shane, but that never would happen after the girls nearly killed him. Freddie still talked to him, but Shane didn't talk much to him. "You know, it's surprising…his mother's a psychic, so he's a psychic too right? He should be able to read your mind and know you want to be his brother."

"He told me he'd never read my mind unless it was dire…" Valerie frowned and cleared her throat, catching their attention. She hated for them to feel bad and always tried to calm them. Sometimes, when someone felt bad, she'd make a light show with her storm capabilities. It was also said that when she herself felt bad, she would make it rain and listen to the rain. It soothed her.

"Freddie, I know you feel embarrassed about what happened with your brother, but that was a long time ago…" She knelt beside him as he moved his sullen eyes to her and perched himself up by pressing his elbows into the step. She rested her hand to his shoulder and smiled calmly. "You shouldn't be afraid to talk to him. As for Ashley, you should make your move. She likes you too, we all know that."

"Yeah but I'm confused about all that, guys…" Freddie gently pushed Valerie's hand from her shoulder and moved up to his feet, dusting off his pants. "You know what happened a week ago, right? Sam kissed me." Jonah pressed his lips together and Valerie turned her head to Sam. They knew of that, they also knew Melanie wasn't happy with Sam about that either. "I really like Ashley. I don't know how I feel about Sam…I mean, I like her too, she's a great girl and a great friend, but that's just it. We're friends. I have more feelings for Ashley, but still, I don't know…"

"Are you worried about how Sam would react? I'm sure she'd not react that badly."

"Hah." He chuckled and shook his head with firm disbelief. It was the understatement of century. "She may be an angel, but she's unpredictable." It was true, Freddie wasn't too thrilled about that fact either. He wanted someone more stable, someone who didn't appear that she might go crazy if not careful. "I would rather Ashley. Her dad was part of the Flame dominion, but her mom was an Angel, so her older brother's the angel in the family…she's got angel blood in her, and that makes her awesome as it is."

As they were talking, they didn't notice Jeremy and Nevel walking up to them. Valerie turned away for a minute to see what they wanted. Evidently, they needed her help with something. The two boys watched as she gave them an accepting nod and followed them out the door. Jonah was a bit suspicious of them, but they never seemed to do anything too bad. "Well that was odd."

"Yeah…" Freddie placed his hand on his back and leaned back with a grunt. He needed to think before he actually laid down on the stairs. His teeth clenched tightly together and Jonah laughed teasingly. "Yeah, yeah, laugh it up Brown." He sighed deeply and glanced towards the kitchen. "You want to grab some punch? Looks like Carly and Spencer are done with it"

Jonah looked to Carly and shook his head. He and Carly never really got along all that well because of the screw up he made several years ago. Everybody else was over it, but Carly still held it against him. For some reason, she always held grudges and took things way too personally. He wasn't sure she'd ever forget what happened. "No thanks man, I'm just going to go back to the apartment. I'm getting tired of the party. When Valerie gets back, let her know I've gone to the apartment." Freddie turned to his friend and nodded with a smile. Jonah had moved to Bushwell when he turned eighteen, it was close to the community college and Valerie lived a couple floors below.

"All right man, it was good hanging out." The music and the chattering of the many guests hid the sound of thunder and lightning from outside the apartment. Jonah and Freddie commenced a Bro Hug and parted ways. Freddie moved past the couch, not seeing Sam looking up with despair on her face. She was sensing trouble somewhere, but she didn't know what was going on. Even Melanie looked upset about something. He continued his walk to the kitchen and looked back to see Jonah standing at the door, Nevel was in front of him and appeared in distress. Freddie lifted his eyebrows up and eyed Jonah's face, it was painted pale and sweat was starting to drip down the back of his neck. "What the hell…"

"Hey Freddie, you want some punch?" Freddie felt a sharp nudge in his side and quickly looked over to see Spencer handing him a glass of punch. Freddie smiled slightly and took the drink.

"Thanks Spence." He brought the cool, red liquid to his lips and turned his eyes to the door. His heart clenched, he sensed something wrong as well. It wasn't like Sam, but it was instinct. Jonah broke in a run, following Nevel, and Freddie felt that he should go with him, but Jonah could handle himself. Just then the building shook with the deafening roar of thunder. Freddie looked up to the ceiling, then to the large window, along with the rest of the guests. It was clear and blue outside, no sign of a storm was present. "What the hell was that? It couldn't have been Valerie…" Freddie's heart pulsed as he took another sip of the punch. If it was Valerie, that could explain why Jonah went bolting out of the door. He knew Jonah could take care of her, he'd have to let Jonah handle it for now. Surely there was nothing bad that could possibly happen.

Several minutes later, he didn't see Valerie back yet, so he clicked his cell phone and tried calling her. After several seconds, there was no answer. He moved his phone back and gazed with unease at the clear plastic screen. Could there really be something going on? Sam cringed with pain and Freddie looked at her with concern, she didn't usually look that bad unless there really was something up. Carly was watching closely as well, she had a sinking feeling in her gut, but she was always expecting something bad to happen.

Sam rose to her feet and gave Melanie a stern look, telling her to stay where she was. She was going to find out where Valerie and Jonah went and was going to see if they were okay. Freddie and Carly watched her leave the room, then went on with the party. They weren't sure if there was anything to get involved in. Not only did Carly not want to get involved in anything, Freddie thought he saw Ashley at the party. His heart lifted up, she must have finished work and came to celebrate. "Hey, Ashley!"

Ashley was looking at Spencer's old bottle robot sculpture when she heard Freddie's pleasant voice clear her ears. She closed her eyes and smiled to herself, she could feel him coming to her. His warmth, his passionate fire, how she loved being in his presence. She turned to him and opened her eyes, meeting his strong brown orbs. "Hey Freddie, I'm glad to see I wasn't late or anything."

"Yeah, I'm glad you came." He felt Carly's suspecting eyes upon him, she knew he'd been hanging around Ashley lately and was wondering if he felt anything for her at all. If he did, then how come he never made a move? He sank into her eyes, feeling her overwhelming power hitting him. As he thought about it, he knew she didn't have a car. "How'd you get here? I thought you said you might not make it because of your lack of a car?"

"Well your brother came by the store just as I was closing up, he was looking for a camera." Freddie's eyelids shut a couple times and he chuckled nervously.

"Wait. Shane brought you?"

"Yeah, he knew I was thinking about you…" Freddie's lifted his eyes to the ceiling and took a deep breath. His brother read Ashley's mind, that was the only explanation. If anything, Shane probably knew he liked her. Then it hit him like a ton of bricks and a dumbfounded expression grew on his face.

"Is he here?"

"I don't know, he said he was going to wait around the lobby for a while, then probably head home." Freddie moved his eyes to the side and let out a deep sigh. "You know he did want to come up, but he wasn't sure if you wanted him hanging around the party."

"Oh, that's it?" He had thought Shane didn't want to see him, but what did it matter? Shane didn't want to come up. His stomach tightened and he looked up at the stairs. He didn't want to talk about Shane, he wanted to tell Ashley how he felt for her, but he wanted it to be in private. "Hey, would you come to the studio with me?"

"Huh? Okay, I guess…" He smiled at her and quickly led her to the stairs. Carly watched the two leave and glanced over at her brother with a bored expression.

"What is it about that girl that he sees in her?" She was still reeling over the frustration of the trickery Freddie pulled on them. Sure he'd been in the right, but why couldn't he just tell them? Her face tightened as Spencer shrugged his shoulders with uncertainty. "Sure she's smart, yeah she's attractive, but what about Sam? She likes him too."

"It's probably hard on Freddie too." Carly sniffed and felt her lower body clench. She groaned and closed her eyes, she had been drinking way too much punch.

"Whatever, I'm going to the restroom." Spencer smiled at her and watched her move upstairs towards the restroom in her bedroom. He looked to a half-finished sculpture on the left side of the room and rubbed his chin, he was wondering if he should finish it now. If he looked through his room, he could surely find some material. Fast on his feet, he bolted light lightning into his room. Unfortunately his slayer power wasn't the ability to create. It was simply knowledge. Sometimes he envied Carly, she had something useful while he had knowledge. Some humans on Earth were geniuses with his mind and weren't slayers, so how was that fair? He never grew too jealous of her, though, because he loved her. She was the greatest sister in the world, but she had so much pain that it tore his heart apart. He'd give anything to see her happy again, maybe even a new life would help her.

After a few minutes, Carly exited the restroom. She wiped her wet hands on her jeans and walked into the living room. "Okay everybody, I think-" Silence. Nothing in the air but a sorrowful song playing. She raised her eyes, perplexed at the empty room. Cups had been knocked over, the carpet was soiled with a mixture of spilled drinks, and their big glass window was broken. "What the hell happened here?"

Her signals were flaring off inside and her body was tensing up, preparing for danger, as she slowly backed up the stairs. The hallway was filled with an ominous aura, one that Carly wished would go away. Fear made her peer into the door of the studio, where she saw Freddie, Valerie, Sam, and Jonah lying on the ground. Her eyes grew wide and her heart stopped in her chest. Ashley was kneeling next to Freddie, shaking him. She didn't seem to have any injuries on her, Freddie had protected her by hiding her away. "Shit! Guys!"

She ran into the room and Ashley looked up at her, her face laden with panic. "Carly! Someone came in earlier with Valerie, Sam, and Jonah's bodies."

"What do you mean? What happened?" Carly quickly knelt beside Freddie and looked at him with rising panic. His body had a dark glow to it, as well as the others. She recognized the glow as corruption of the shadows. She narrowed her eyes and growled. It meant only one thing, the Angel of Death was really after them. Jonah and Valerie had a greyish glow to them, most likely due to the fact that the shadows could not completely erase the light within them and it would remain strong in them because they were both of the Light Tribe on the Elemental Realm. Sam's was almost completely black with white specks. "Sam's been fully corrupted, she's a fallen now…" Her lips fell into a frown and her heart pulsated as she was near tears. "How did you survive?"

"Freddie and I came to the studio to find the guy placing their bodies down. He told me to wait outside and ran in to fight the guy…he didn't last, then the guy vanished."

"Okay, you're okay…" Carly breathed in and gazed at the door. Whatever hurt her friends was still here, clearly, and she needed to stop him. She had to save them. "Their parents most likely can get rid of the corruption. Come with me!"

Carly grabbed Ashley's wrist and ran her downstairs, she needed to get Ashley to safety and fast. While she understood the girl's confusion and fear, she needed to assess her own emotions. Her stomach was churning and bile was beginning to rise in her throat as her body emitted angry pheromones. She wanted to find whoever did this and she wanted to bury them six feet under. She opened her front door and pushed Ashley outside it, much to the girl's displeasure. "Stay out here, got that? Whatever, whoever is in here is not someone to be trampled with. You don't need to be hurt."

"Carly?"

"Just listen to me." She slammed the door shut and quickly locked it. As she locked the final name, she heard Spencer shout out her name, his voice laced with terror. What happened next seemed almost in slow motion. As she turned around, Spencer's red shirt was the first thing to fly into view. Her eyes widened as she felt his body jerk and saw a flash of black strike through the door above her. Gazing up with wide eyes she felt his blood trickle down onto the bridge of her nose and her cheek. "S-Spencer?"

"C-Carly…" His body shuddered as his breaths grew more shallow and labored. He turned his head to her and she let out a faint gasp, he had a small hole exiting the middle of his forehead. She could see air behind his head. He was dying quickly. Her mouth fell open and her throat clenched up, forbidding the scream running up her throat. "I love you, Sis…" His eyes rolled to the back of his head as blood continued to stream from his wound into various streams across his face. It happened so suddenly, she didn't even know what just took place. The door behind her was cracked and there was a golf ball sized hole in the door where the peephole once as. His body slumped over and his head fell onto her shoulder. Carly froze up as his blood began to soak through her shirt. In front, she could see him, the dark angel that struck her brother with an attack meant to scare her.

He had a dangerous smirk on his face, menacing smoke hovered from the tips of his fingers into the air. Carly attempted to speak, but the only sound that came from her lips was that of shuddered gasps. Her body began to shake, tiny bumps rose in the skin of her arms as she held her brother's lifeless body in her arms. "Warrior of Strength." The dark angel rolled his head to the side and lifted his arms out in nearly across form. "I have need of your power. I am giving you no option to choose here."

Bright tears stung her eyelids as she felt her brother's body slide down, it was only now she noticed how heavy he was. She shouldn't have felt it, but it was as though all the strength in her had drained. It was there, she knew it was, but she just had to overcome this and tap into that strength of hers. Why did this have to happen to her? She clenched her teeth together and tightened her grip on her brother's body. Why did she have to have the shitty life?

Was Ashley still at the door? Carly shook her head slowly in response to her thought. She was certain Ashley had gone to retrieve Shane, to try and figure out what happened to Freddie and the others.

Carly's pain stricken body kept her from moving, kept her from stepping forward and fighting this devil. She wanted to massacre him, but her heart had just been torn apart. The angel of death laughed maliciously and crossed his arms over his chest. "I see your brother gave his life to save you, but it doesn't matter. It was unnecessary, I was not intending to kill you with that laser beam. I just wanted to injure you so you wouldn't fight me as much. However, I'd say with your mental capacity right now, you won't be able to fight." Her eyes widened as the demon lifted his hand. A shadow appeared behind Spencer and tore him from her, throwing his body against another wall. Carly let out a gasp and pressed her back dangerously against the door. What could she do? He was right, she could never fight him with these emotions.

A deafening scream filled the air as Shane and Ashley ran down the hallway towards iCarly's apartment. Ashley wanted to fight whatever threat had been there and was actually pissed when Carly shoved her out the door. Maybe Carly was trying to protect her, but she didn't need protection. "Are you sure what you're saying, Ashley?"

"You know I am." Shane slowly nodded his head as they stepped in front of the door. His eyes immediately flew to the hole. Ashley had been walking away when she heard the roar of wood shattering and flying against a wall. She looked back in time to see a black laser beam vanish in the air. "Can you find anything there?"

"Yeah…" He closed his eyes and gently placed his hand above the hole. His eyelids clenched as a vivid memory appeared in his head. Ashley watched him with a frown as a single tear fell from his eye. He slowly opened his eyelids and his heart sank. "The Angel of Death…he killed Spencer."

"No…" The entire fight between Carly and Sinjin had flashed through his head. It did not last very long, Carly was too emotionally distraught to fight with a focused mind. In the end, Sinjin had placed his hand above hear heart and let a dark ball enter into her chest, corrupting her. "Let's get in there, we need to try and wake Freddie."

"Freddie…" Shane's face hardened and he turned his attention fully to Ashley. He was well aware that it was too late now. They could probably save him somehow, but if they were to go into that room right now, they would likely die. "It's safe to say that Angel of Death is in there right now…"

"So what? Freddie's in there!"

"Freddie's been corrupted, Ashley. He's probably surrounded by shadow demons as we speak, we can do nothing." She clenched her fists tightly as he stared mournfully into her eyes. "I want to save him. I do. But if we go in there right now, there's a chance of death…We will get Freddie back somehow. Okay? I'm not letting anything happen to my brother…right now, I just have to think. Come one…let's get you home…"

"Fine." Ashley looked at the door with one final helpless glance, then walked away with Shane. Her heart sank with each step and her mind was spinning. She hadn't told Freddie her feelings for him and neither had he spoken them to her. Now, she wondered if she'd ever have that chance. She knew better than to make anything of it, because Shane took it harder considering his brother was in there. His face twisted in anger as they moved into the elevator. He would get his brother back, and nothing was going to stand in his way. "Shane, did you ever see Melanie?"

"What?" He rose his eyebrow as Ashley leaned against the elevator. She hadn't thought about it until recently, but Melanie had been missing with the party guests. She hoped that Melanie had just run out with the guests and not been killed or taken.

"Melanie Puckett, she was in there too and went missing."

"Yeah, let me think…" He closed his eyes and attempted to search for the mind of Melanie Puckett. His telepathy was almost as good as his telekinesis, but not quite so much. Instead, he tapped into a memory of a different guest entirely. This guest ran with Melanie when Sinjin appeared and shot a blast at the guests, killing one of them. The guest grabbed Melanie's wrist as a close friend would, and ran with her out the door. They were one of the first guests to flee to safety. They reached the lobby, passed Lewbert, and headed outside, passing Shane's car. He opened his eyes and smiled calmly. Good news, for once in this day. "Yes, she got out. She got out with another guest. The memory cuts off as they leave the vicinity of my car, they ran in the direction of her home."

Ashley's heart lifted up and she took a deep breath, smiling slightly. "Okay, good." As the doors opened, they left the lobby and headed to Shane's car, unsure of what their next move would be.


Well, there's the iCarly gang. All taken by darkness. Damn