Author stuff: In between posting this, work, tumblr, and writing, I've been watching Doctor Who. Well, I should say re-watching. But it's been a long time since I've seen the majority of the episodes that it really feel likes I'm seeing some of them for the first time. So far, I've lost a Rose, gained a Donna and a Martha, and cried. A lot. The Doctor makes me sad.

But! I've also been reading Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell. If you haven't heard of her or read anything by her, I suggest you pick up one of her books. She has a book about a girl who is in college and writes fanfiction. It's awesome. And it's good to know that fanfic writers are recognized as people beyond their anonymity. Anyway, she one of my recommended authors.

I'll get to responding to people in a few hours, like always. I appreciate and enjoy the love all y'all have been given me. Thank you for it.

Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom. All legal rights belong to Butch Hartman and Nickelodeon.


The Court of Stripes

by iOc

Chapter 9

Thursday, 24 October 2013

"So let me get this straight," Kwan said, "Vlad and Freakshow are in on the kidnapping and killing plot together? That sounds completely ridiculous."

"It does sound a little far-fetched," Tucker said. Danny had gathered the two of them and Sam in the animal tent. "I mean, they hate one another."

"Yeah, I know," Danny said, "but you've got to trust me on this. I know what I heard. Something's going on between them."

"You sure they aren't just trying to take over after Clockwork retires?" Kwan said. "Because that sounds perfectly reasonable to me."

"Send me in to talk to them," Sam said.

"Vlad would recognize you in an instant," Danny said, frowning. He crossed his arms. "And so would Freakshow. They've seen you and I together."

"Wait," Kwan said, looking back and forth between them. "What have I missed? Am I missing something? I feel like I'm missing something."

"If you're out of the loop," Tucker said, "then Danny's been keeping secrets from us. Daniel Eisenhower Fenton, are you keeping things from us?"

"Your middle name is Eisenhower?" Sam said, cocking a brow.

"You're missing the point here, guys," Danny said, sighing.

"Danny's been helping me with a school report." Tucker and Kwan both looked at her. "Press pass, remember? He was showing me around and I got this idea for an article… It's kind of stupid, but I wanted to hear how people from the circus were dealing with the accusations of one of their own possibly being a murderer. And getting some background information. You never know when something useful might come up. For example, Danny's middle name being Eisenhower."

"Yeah, dude, that is kind of a weird middle name," Kwan said.

"Thanks guys, you are so supportive," Danny said flatly. "Can we get back on task, please?"

"Yeah, we're freelancing this detective shit. Uh, speaking of which, what kind of cut do we get?"

"Cut?"

"Payment, you know?"

"There is no 'cut'," Sam said, "we're all doing this for free."

"I'm not," Kwan said, hopping off the gate to the horse's stall. "See you losers later."

"Kwan!" Danny said, a vain attempt at getting his friend back. "And he's gone. Great. We're down one person."

"Hey, Sam," Tucker said, "don't you have school today?"

"No, my teacher started her maternity leave today, so the class was canceled. Her replacement comes in on Monday."

"They couldn't find someone to substitute?"

"They could, but they wanted a specialist."

"College is so weird…"

"Tell me about it."

"Right, guys," Danny said. "Dead girls, remember?"

"Right, sorry," Tucker said. "Any new information?"

"Beyond what Danny gave me yesterday?" Sam said. "Nothing new on my end."

"I only had the Vlad and Freakshow conversation," Danny said. "Sid?"

"I heard Clockwork talking yesterday to someone," Tucker said. "I couldn't see who it was, but the voice was distinctly female. They were walking about dried blood being found somewhere. I didn't catch the whole thing but that's got to be something, right?"

"Dried blood?" Sam said, wrinkling her nose. "Gross."

"I thought Goths were all into the blood, darkness, and vampires thing."

"You're thinking of women who prefer to read love stories with glittering cold bloods over a story about a war between different vampire clans and shape-shifters."

"Ah, don't ruin Twilight for me! I only just started reading it!"

"You're not missing much, honestly. The last book was beyond predictable." Sam said, crossing her arms. "Although, there was this one really great plot twist I didn't see coming. It involves Jacob —"

"You aren't allowed to speak anymore! La la la la la, I'm not listening!"

"Guys!" Danny said, shutting them up. "This is serious. People have honestly died. I saw one of the bodies. This isn't some game. Innocent lives are in danger. The police can't do shit until the next body shows up."

"And by the time it does," Sam said, "it'll be too late. The circus will have up and left, the murderer knows by now that someone is on his tail and he'll flee into the sunset. Yeah, we know. Not every bad guy comes to justice, Danny. Not everything is all black and white. This isn't some little noir film that you can just press pause or stop when things get too scary. They're all very real — especially to you. You were the one who found Emma. It traumatized you, we get that. But you need a few moments to breathe and relax. Then we can look at the big picture."

"Wow," Tucker said, "if this was a movie or a book or something, that would have made a really inspirational speech. Such passion, eh, Danny Boy?"

"The bigger picture," Danny said to himself. He tapped his chin, deep in thought. What if the answer he was looking for was in a giant picture? "Sam, do you still have my notebook?"

"Yeah," she said, pulling it out. She handed it to him. "What's going on?"

"To my bedroom where we can have a little more privacy."


Danny pulled out the pictures of the girls he had printed out once the got to his room, locking the door. He shuffled through them, looking for the ones with full bodies. When Sam and Tucker realized what he was doing, the helped. In no time, they had plucked out the ones they wanted.

"Keep them separate by year," Danny said.

"And how will we know?" Sam said.

"I have them numbered on the back."

Sam flipped one over and hummed. Sure enough, on the back in Danny's scrawl, was the date the body was found and the year of the tour. She began flipping them all over and organized them that way.

"I didn't realize it until you said something earlier," Danny said. "'The bigger picture.'"

He began flipping over the pictures of one of the completed piles. He gestured for Sam to continue her work as she listened. He began organizing the images in what seemed like a random pattern.

"There's a bigger picture, one that no one thought of. Tucker, what does this look like to you?"

"A bunch of circles and squares and rec… Hang on a tic," he said, reexamining the image laid out for him. "It's a map of the circus."


"That's," Tucker said, looking down at the pictures spread out before him. A look of disgust twisted his features as he held back a shudder. Kwan had run off to retrieve him shortly after the discovery. "I don't know how describe how disgusting that is. It's like… gah!"

"Here are the ones from this season," Danny said, laying out the newer photos over the older ones.

"Some of them don't have matches yet," Sam said, pointing to the last few pictures, who did not have a pair. Danny plucked them from the group.

"Okay, this is what we have so far."

"Whoever did that is pretty messed up," Tucker said. "I mean, carving a map of the circus in the bodies of dead girls? That's nuts."

"No shit, Sherlock," Sam said. She looked at Danny. "Right, Mr. Holmes, what do you think?"

"Let's check the dates on the back," he said. "Maybe there's a pattern that we can go off."

There was no pattern, even after comparing the dates to similar photos. The group sighed. Sam organized a list of the locations, years, and girls. They could only go so far back before realizing that at a certain point the layout of the circus changed.

"Okay," Danny said, "that's… informative."

"Look at it this way," Kwan said, "we know more now than we did ten minutes ago. There are certain things that haven't changed over the years. The main tent, the ticket booths, the Shooting Range, the Hall of Mirrors… You know, just to name a few."

"He's right," Sam said. "That's at least something. The larger attractions haven't changed. They've remained stationary after all these years."

"And the murderer started with only the ones that haven't changed," Tucker said. "He never started with anything else. Why is that?"

"They're all at different ends of the circus," Danny said. "They're like cardinal points on a compass. See the ticket booth is South, the main tent is North, the Shooting Range is East, and the Hall of Mirrors is West. I think that it's done so that even after all of these years, people can still easily navigate the circus grounds without getting lost. See, the main events take place in the North, gifts and odds and ends in the South, games in the East, and a few rides in the West."

"I hadn't ever thought of it that way."

"Okay, so that all makes sense," Sam said. "So, the murderer knows this, obviously, and knows that even after twenty or so years, nothing big would change. But why?"

Danny bit his lip as he thought. Why would anyone do that? It made no sense. Unless…

"He's trying to show us where he killed those girls."


Author stuff: So things happened in this chapter. Things. Things are amazing, aren't they? They just wiggle their way in and stay there, eating away at your brain... Things.

And, yes, Danny's middle name is Eisenhower. Why? ...I honestly don't remember anymore. I had a note for it in my notebook, but I can't find my plotting notebook anywhere. It was with my binder, but that went missing as well. That's probably a sign that I should clean my room. Again. XD

Anyway, until tomorrow, my turtle doves!