The Stadium. It had been mostly abandoned for a while now, as Amity Park built a brand new one not too long ago.
Sam wondered why Annie would walk here as the girl slipped past the fence, ducking under the DANGER ZONE sign.
"Are you coming?" Annie asked Sam, "Or are you chicken?"
"No," Sam retorted defensively, slipping past the fence, "I just don't like to put myself in danger needlessly."
"Says the girl who fights with the world's most famous half-ghost."
"Touché."
Dust and cobwebs clung everywhere like a kid to his candy. Sam found herself coughing as they made their way past of concession stands and trash cans no one dared take out.
But… it looked like someone else had been here recently. There were footprints and leading out to the main stadium.
"Annie, you come here often?" Sam wanted to know if these footprints were hers.
"No," Annie replied, "Not in years. Look, notice how there's no footprints leading out?" She turned to Sam, the faint light giving her a skeleton-like appearance, "Let's see who's been here!"
Before Sam could say that was the worst idea ever, Annie took off, following the footsteps.
"Wait!" Sam called out. She had to do her best to not run into anything and to keep up. Annie was amazingly fast, even for Sam, the fastest girl in their grade.
"Shush," Annie halted and Sam ran into her, "Look, there's someone here. It looks like a show's about to begin."
Sam squinted over Annie's shoulders. She could see an old, withered man sitting all by himself, waiting patiently for… something.
Annie motioned for Sam to follow, and together they took the very back seats.
.
"What you saw earlier is what Ember saw," Anonymous explained as they walked back to the stage, "I stopped her from reliving her death, and now she's reliving what would have happened if she didn't die."
Danny could see several footprints, recent footprints. The man who was John was now a man in his 70s, looking out to the curtain,
"Curtain call!" his old voice sang, "We start now!"
Anonymous flew up and pulled the rope. The curtains parted.
Danny looked out onto the stage. Ember, her ghost, was there, grinning happily at the rest of her band. Yes, they were there. Scarlet was an old woman in her late 50s, probably. Blaze was in a wheelchair behind the drums, his hands shaking with arthritis. Inferno seemed to be the youngest of them, with the least wrinkles and the tallest stance, his blue eyes shining with anticipation. They had their instruments prepared, and they smiled at their dead friend, who had never aged.
"Welcome ladies and gentlemen!" Ember called into the broken microphone, "Welcome to the first concert of The Dying Ember!"
Danny saw only one man in the audience. He was old and withered, but he clapped as loudly as he could, faintly cheering, "That's my girl!"
As if no time had passed, Blaze tapped together his drum sticks, and the intro began.
.
The curtains were up, and the old man clapped. Sam was stunned to see Ember and a bunch of old people gathered, and even more so when they began to play:
Oh, welcome to the show!
We are the dying embers
Don't judge us for our names
Though we may be the dying
We burn as bright as any flame
Our hearts will always shine
Singing to the stars
With a lullaby sound
And oh,
Can't you see us glow?
We blaze and shine, a scarlet inferno!
And it's not just for the show
We're here to testify
That no matter what you say
Or even why you cry
Our kindness will shine in bright in you hearts!
We may be the embers
Of a dying fire
But still
We'll never let that put us out
Because we know
That if you stroke us just right
We shall burn brighter than ever before!
And oh,
Please feel free to do so
For our hearts shall gleam
With an ultraviolet beam!
Embers are what we are
And we'll never let that
Put us out!
We're better than those who've ever put us
Down, shooting to the ground
That's how the stars fall
But we'll play to them
With that lovely lullaby sound
Picking them up
Rekindling the Infernos of kindness
Helping them rest,
Helping them go into an everlasting sleep
Oh, can't you hear us?
Our songs echo in the dreams
Of the stars,
Stopping their weeping and
Putting them to eternal sleep
with our everlasting lullaby sounds
Oh, Can't you see us?
Embers we may be,
But a scarlet blaze is the color of our glow,
It's just how we go
We are embers!
And we're here
To sing for you
With our lullaby sounds!
Sam found herself wiping a tear from her eye. She looked over to Annie, who stood up and cheered. The old man turned to them and grinned, giving them a thumbs-up sign. Ember bowed and said, "That was A Lullaby Sound, written by our beautiful guitarist, Scarlet!"
They all clapped as the old woman blushed.
.
The crowd was wild. It cheered and roared, and Ember felt escalated.
"Amber," Scarlet said, "You ready for more?"
"Yeah," she breathed, and began looking through the crowd. Did her father come? He was her biggest fan, and she wanted him to see her in her very first major concert.
She looked sideways, where John, Anon and the queer Mr. F stood. For some reason she recognized the European. But from where?
Ember brushed it off. Mr. F himself was rather famous, so of course he would look familiar.
Anon whispered to him and he nodded.
"Ember! Ember! Ember!" the crowd screeched.
"Let's do this!" Blaze tapped his drumsticks three times, and Ember began the next song, But My Heart Shines Brighter.
.
10 whole songs. Ember's throat began to feel dry towards the end, but John came and handed her a water. She gulped it down and stepped aside so he could speak into the microphone.
"Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome our two biggest sponsors, Anon of Music Superstars, and Daniel Forester, queer European radio show host!"
They stepped out. Mr. F looked kind of nervous, maybe shy. He was kind of cute, Ember had to admit it. Mr. F looked out into the cheering crowd, and his face contorted in surprise.
Anon waved her arms and gave him a look. He said something, but the crowd drowned him out. Anon motioned for him to take the microphone.
"Hello," he sounded young, but then, he was European- and a famous one at that. Europeans have a very different way of doing things you know, "Thank you one and all for coming!" He wrapped an arm around Ember and said, "Let me be the first to say what an amazing concert that was! We'll begin making a contract with this very talented band very shortly!"
Ember gasped. That was the biggest deal ever. Forester was very, very influential in the music industry, so for him to say that...
"I'm honored," Ember told him, tears in her eyes, "Thank you, thank you!" Ember turned to her band and screamed, "WE'RE GOING TO EUROPE!"
They all shouted back at her, grins spitting each members' face.
Ember noticed Anon helping someone on the stage. Ember turned to see, and-could it be?! Her father actually made it!
"Daddy!" Ember ran to him and gave him a bear hug.
He squeezed back and said, "Amber, I'm so proud of you."
"Oh, you're going to make me cry," Ember said, her vision becoming blurry.
"But it's true! You would make your mother proud!" Her father gushed.
She wrapped her arms tighter around him, "Thanks Daddy," she broke the hug and looked at him, grinning, "We did it! We're actually going to become famous, just like Mom!"
He smiled at her.
Suddenly, there was a light. It was nearly blinding, and it took Ember's eyes a minute to adjust. There was singing in this light, and a rock star with black hair and a purple stripe in the middle appeared.
"Mom?" Ember cried.
Her mother smiled and began to sing the lullaby that she used to when Amber was a little kid,
Hush, my lovely child
Can you hear the wind, the wild?
It's calling you, their songs,
Sing, Amber my love
Sing as loud as you can
The stars will hear you
And they will join you,
singing along our lullaby
She motioned for Amber, holding out her hand. Amber reached out to grab it.
"Mom?" She repeated, her voice cracking.
"Shhh," her mom said, "The stars await us."
Amber looked back. The stage was dusty and rusted now, and all her friends were old and withered. Her dad was crying. What happened to Mr. Forester and Anon though?
Her friends smiled up at her. Her dad gave her a thumbs-up, tears still flowing freely.
"You can do it my girl!" Her dad's voice was worn, "Sing me a song for our stars!"
"I will!" Amber barely choked back, "I love you!"
"I love you too," her father said, giving them both an air kiss.
Amber grabbed it out of the air and held it to her chest. Her fellow band members cheered words of encouragement.
"Be the star you were meant to be!" Scarlet said.
"Sing so loud that you make even the angels weep!" Blaze cheered.
"Yeah!" Inferno and John cried.
Amber was crying now. She wiped the tears from her eyes, then turned back to her mom.
"Are you ready now, my love?" her mother asked.
"Yeah," Amber looked back, then smiled before turning back to her mom, "I'm ready now," she whispered.
Her mom smiled, and handed her a microphone. And together they disappeared, singing a song that rang with a lullaby sound.
.
Oh, I nearly cried writing this last part! So yeah, Ember's moved on now.
But what of Danny? What will Sam do to him? Will Annie side with him, or Sam?
So I cut out many parts of that song. I've decided to make a whole 'album' of Ember Mclain songs for use of Danny Phantom fanfics only! (AND THEY MUST FEATURE EMBER!) Sadly, I can't link it to you yet, because of the whole 4 to 8 hour wait time.
Oh my, so much trouble and conflict and what for this next chapter! I'll see you all when I see you!
(Psst to avoid confusion for that last part, Danny IS Mr. F, and Anon is Anonymous. But that was how Ember saw them in her last death vision thing. All good? Okay...)
BYE!