Chapter ten!

This went up much faster than I thought it would! It's very sad, I must say. Not so sad that you would cry, I think, buttttttt...you get the picture. (:

This should explain everything that went on in the last chapter (:

I don't own Danny Phantom as I'm sure you've noticed haha (:

Here we go!

Nightmares

Chapter Ten: Tears and Explinations

"Sam," Danny's voice caught in his throat. He could not move his limbs; he stood, frozen, staring at her. "What...what happened?"

"Uh," She glanced over Danny's shoulder.

"Get in here," Tucker said quickly, pushing past Danny and grabbing Sam. "Val, go to Sam's bathroom. There's a first aid kit in one of the cabinets,"

Valerie nodded and rushed into the bathroom. Tucker helped Sam onto her bed while Jazz went to the bathroom with Valerie. She reappeared with several towels, which she used to mop up the blood on Sam's body. Danny yanked one of the drawers on her dresser and pulled out baggy black sweat pants and a purple v-neck t-shirt.

He tossed the clothes onto the bed beside Sam and knelt down in front of her. She smiled at him, her eyes sparkling with exhaustion and thankfulness.

"Here," Valerie said, pushing the kit into Tucker's hands. He popped the cover off and began cleaning.

"Go ahead and start explaining," He muttered.

"I would really rather not talk about it..." She murmured, her eyes on the wound Tucker was cleaning.

"You promised us you would explain." He said, staring at her. "You owe us that. You wouldn't let us help you fight your nightmare, so you have to tell us about it."

"Actually, I don't," Sam said, yanking her hand out of Tucker's. "I didn't ask to see your nightmare. It was just forced on me. You could have told me to hide. You did tell me to hide." She glanced at Danny. "I don't have to tell you anything."

"But Sam, you promised," Jazz said quietly.

"Who cares?" Tucker said loudly.

"Tuck," Danny said.

"No, Danny! Seriously, Val, Jazz, and I have all been humiliated by showing our nightmares to everyone. You leave us up here for hours while we listen to you scream and run around like a maniac, come up here looking like this, and then refuse to tell us about what the hell happened to you?"

"Tucker!" Valerie said.

"You know what?" Sam whispered. "My nightmare is different than any of yours."

"How?" Tucker asked.

"Because all of yours were just that, nightmares!" She screamed, her voice breaking. "You can wake up from them, scared, and look in the mirror. You can say to your reflection, 'It's okay, it was just a dream. It's never happened to me before, and most likely, it never will.' I can't say that! I can't tell myself that my nightmare will never happen,"

"Why?" Danny asked breathlessly.

"Because it happened to me! My nightmare isn't just a nightmare," She whispered. "It's...it's a memory,"

The shock that radiated through the room could have been cut with a knife. Sam's head rolled forward, her shoulders slumping. Tears began sliding down her cheeks.

"It's a memory. A dark, sick, twisted, demonic memory." She raised a hand to wipe the tears away. "What you guys heard happening downstairs actually happened to me, eight years ago."

She took a deep breath, glancing at Danny. He slid his hand over hers and ran his thumb over her knuckles. She flipped her hand so that their palms were pressed together, intertwining her fingers with his as he slid onto the bed beside her.

"When I was eight years old, I had a cousin named Natasha," She started. "She was like a sister to me. We did everything together. She would always come over on the weekends while our parents went out together.

"One weekend, she was over. Our parents were supposed to be out all night at some fancy dinner party. Tasha and I...decided to play hide-and-seek. She hid. I sought. I stayed in the kitchen, counted to ten. I started looking for her.

"She wasn't anywhere upstairs. I searched everywhere downstairs. The only place I hadn't looked was...my parent's bedroom." She shuddered. "I snuck down the hallway, thinking I was going to sneak up on her. I crawled around the corner, and...and I saw her.

"She was facing the door. A man I'd never seen before was holding her, one hand over her mouth, the other holding a knife to her throat. He didn't see me, but Tasha did. She was staring at me, her eyes were pleading with me. But...I-I couldn't m-move," She gasped, trying to get control of her sobs. "I just sat there and w-watched...I s-saw...I saw her die!" She sobbed, burying her face in her hand. Danny wrapped his arm around her shoulder and squeezed gently. Valerie and Jazz's eyes were shining wth tears. Tucker looked deeply disturbed. "I watched him murder her!

"I screamed. He saw me. He started chasing me all over the house. I just ran and screamed. I didn't even try to fight back. He kept running after me, never said anything, just chased me. After a while, he tackled me down. I didn't even try to fight back. I just let him stab me."

"He stabbed you?" Danny shouted. He leapt off the bed and raced to the door, determined to murder the man who had hurt Sam.

"Wait, you didn't let me finish!" Sam screamed. Danny froze, his hand on the knob. "Yes, he stabbed me. Once. I froze, stopped moving, stopped breathing, and just sat there, sprawled out on the kitchen floor with a knife in my shoulder. The man ran away...I don't think he meant to murder anyone, just to rob the place,"

"So in your nightmare...the same thing happened?" Jazz squeaked as Danny slowly turned back toward her.

"Sort of," She said. "Only he really kills me. He stabs me, and then I wake up screaming," She said, nibbling on her lip.

"Why didn't you ever tell us about this, Sam?" Danny asked, dropping onto the bed beside her again.

"I've never been able to talk about it," She whispered.

"It's why you're a goth, isn't it?" Jazz asked quietly, leaning forward and touching Sam's knee.

Sam sighed. "I tell people I'm a goth so that they won't ask questions. I'm not a goth. I wear dark clothing because...because I'm still mourning. Eight years later, I'm still wearing black. Every day since the day of her funeral. I tell my parents that I'm a goth so that they won't put me in therapy. They would think something is seriously wrong with me if they found out.

"That's why I know so much about dreams and nightmares. I had to know how this thing works. Why I suffer from this nightmare every night. I had to figure out how to get rid of it." She whispered.

"Conquering your fear? How do you conquer...this? Do you have to shake hands with the guy?" Tucker asked, a note of protection in his voice.

"No way," Valerie said. "That can't happen, that's can't be it!"

"No, no," Sam said, waving her hand in front of her face. "That's not it. My fear...isn't what happened downstairs. I mean, don't get me wrong, that was scary as hell. But that's not my greatest fear,"

"What is?" Danny whispered.

"That I could have saved her. I could have made a difference. I could have done more."

There was a quiet knock on Sam's bedroom door.

Hehe. Cliffy.

Woop.

Chapter eleven should be up later tonight (:

Thank y'all so much for reviewing! I love you (: