Chapter 11 : Within the Shadows of the mind.
Danny managed to perk up enough to act normal at dinner, but later Jazz found Danny in his room on his bed staring up at the ceiling.
"I'm okay, Jazz" Danny said before she could even ask what was wrong. "Miss Daily gave me some kind of weird tea for a headache, and I think it's still working."
"How do you feel?" Jazz asked him.
"Weird," Danny admitted. "I mean I feel okay, but not like myself. Like something is missing."
Jazz had a pretty good idea why Danny felt so disconnected. That tea must have had some pretty powerful sedatives in it, she thought. "Danny," she said quietly. "Tell me what happened."
It must have been the tea, because Danny didn't argue, stammer, hesitate or anything. He just closed his eyes and started talking. What he told Jazz just puzzled her more. It didn't seem like this strange teacher considered them a threat at all. In fact she seemed to be encouraging them to spy on her. It was when Danny explained what happened in the secret room that Jazz began to worry.
"... I know I went in Jazz, but I can't remember anything that happened after that until Tucker came. He blew some kind of whistle, and it hurt me enough to break me out of whatever was holding me. He got me out of there, and we waited for Miss Daily to come home. I had a really bad headache, so Miss Daily gave me that tea to make me feel better." Suddenly Danny frowned unhappily.
"Jazz, something happened to me in that room. Something I think I have to remember, but I can't."
As far as she was concerned Danny had told her enough. He just needed to sleep off whatever herbs Miss Daily had given him. "It's okay Danny. You go to bed now, and we'll talk more in the morning."
"Hmm nmmm" Danny muttered then rolled over, and promptly fell fast asleep.
Jazz went back to her room and promptly opened the envelope that Miss Daily gave her before she went in to get Danny, Sam and Tucker. Carefully she read the contents.
Jazz:
Danny encountered something in my inner library that may cause him a few nightmares. I'm sorry I wasn't home to stop him, and I did leave him a note telling him to stay out of there. I guess I should have warded the room against him. Please keep an eye on him tonight. If he freaks out in the middle of the night remind him that he is stronger than his enemies. You can tell me what happened tomorrow.
Jazz read the note three more times. Then she resorted to one of their oldest tricks. She moved her Carl Jung poster, and revealed a small softball sized hole in the wall she shared with Danny. Jazz then slipped into Danny's room, and moved his Space Camp Certificate from the wall opening the other end of that hole. Danny had made those holes when he was eight. Notes, candy, and stories had been passed through those holes for over six years. Ever since Jazz revealed to Danny that she knew about his ghost powers the holes fell into obsolescence. Why bother passing notes when Danny could phase into her room and just talk. Now Jazz found a new use for their old friend the Fenton Holes. Jazz got ready for bed, and did the rest of her research with one ear listening for any noise from Danny's room. At eleven o'clock on schedule Jazz went to bed herself. Still she continued to listen just in case her brother should call her, before she went to sleep.
It was two am when it happened. Jazz woke to hear Danny mumbling in his sleep though the hole and what Jazz heard made her blood run cold.
A high pitched and confused Danny said, "No...Tucker...Sam... my friends." Then in a cold dark, and almost sinister tone Danny said. "I am a ghost I have no friends." Instantly his tone changed again. "No! I'm not a ghost! Get...get out of my head! NO!!"
Oh no, Jazz thought. What kind of dream is Danny having? Jazz raced out of her bedroom and into Danny's in seconds.
Jazz saw Danny tossing and turning in his bed. He appeared to be fighting some unseen enemy. "No! Quiet all of you! I need to think!"
Jazz got onto the bed and gently tried to restrain her brother. "Danny! Danny! Wake up your having a nightmare!"
Danny didn't appear to hear Jazz. He struggled in her embrace. "No...what am I...I can't let...Why can't I let go? No! I have to listen to...to Sam Sam? SAM?" Suddenly Danny's eyes shot open and he shot an ecto blast from one hand knocking one of his model rockets from it's place.
The release of energy seemed to weaken Danny. He slumped back against Jazz closing his eyes again. Jazz watched as the tears began to fall and Danny trembled his body shaking his he cried. "Sam."
The door to Danny's room opened and Maddie came in. "Danny I heard a crash and - Jazz?"
Jazz eager to get her mother out of the room said calmly. "It's okay mom. Danny just had a bad dream."
"Sam," Danny said as the tears continued to fall. "I...I let her fall. It was all my fault. I let her fall."
Maddie sat down on Danny's bed opposite Jazz. "Danny sweetie? You have to wake up now. It was just a bad dream."
Danny didn't quiet hear her, but when Maddie reached out to touch Danny's cheek he grabbed her hand and held it like it was a cherished stuffed toy, and cried in Jazz's lap as if his heart was broken. "I...I couldn't stop myself. I didn't even want to. It was all my fault. Sam."
Maddie reached out with her free hand and began rubbing Danny on his back. Jazz joined her, whispering to her brother. "Sam is fine Danny. Remember I drove her home."
"I...I couldn't keep him out of my head." Danny said growing quieter. Between Jazz and his mom rubbing on his back he was beginning to relax, and go into a deeper sleep. "Sam..."
"Sam is fine, Danny." Jazz repeated. "It was just a bad dream."
"No," Danny muttered drifting off to sleep. "No...was real...my fault." Danny heaved a great weary sigh, and finally stopped talking. Jazz felt as if she were about to cry for Danny. Whatever nightmare Danny had it must have been horrible.
"Jazz?" Maddie said softly. "What was all that about?"
"I don't know mom," Jazz answered. Like so many things in the house it was only a half lie. "She knew Danny was going to have a nightmare. She just didn't have any idea what Danny had dreamed about. "Not all nightmares make sense you know."
Jazz didn't think her mom looked very convinced. Still Maddie sighed, and brushed Danny's hair out of his eyes. "I guess," she said. "Maybe its because its so late. You know for a moment I could swear Danny's eyes looked green. "
Every so smoothly Jazz said, "It was probably some trick of the light, mom, a reflection or something. Why don't you go back to bed. I'll wait a bit longer so Danny doesn't wake up when I get him off my lap."
Reluctantly Maddie said, "All right Jazz, but don't forget to get some sleep yourself, dear."
"Night mom," Jazz said. Maddie walked back to her room. Jazz smiled down at her little brother. I'll just wait a few more minutes so he won't wake up when I move.
Coming Soon Chapter 12 A Secrete Formed.
"So Danny is repressing!" Jazz said excitedly. "What happen to my brother that made him repress his own memory?"
"Wait you know?" Danny asked frantically?
Miss Daily placed her elbows on the table and laced her fingers together resting her chin on them. With a sad expression on her face she said, "That is exactly my predicament Jazz. If we tell Danny what he's deliberately blocked out it could hamper his own recollection of the event. He might even go into denial, but given his sense of responsibility I doubt that. I'm more afraid he'll freeze up, or shut down on you all and become too afraid to do anything."
Danny hated the fact that they were all talking about him as if he wasn't even there. To be accused of chickening out because of something he couldn't even remember was too much to handle. He was about to tell all of them what he thought about their assessment of his courage when Jazz's hold on Danny's shoulder tightened to a hair of being painful. Something Miss Daily said was scoring on Jazz.
"Because to face the memory will force Danny face his worst fears." Jazz said. Danny could feel her trembling through her hands. Okay whatever Miss Daily knows has gotten Jazz scared? Maybe I don't want to know what's going on.