A/N: Yay for posting relatively on time this week and not skipping a week! I'm quite proud of myself. Ha ha! Seriously, though, it feels good to be establishing a good schedule. Well, not much else to say but please enjoy the chapter!
Disclaimer: ML and I don't own any Danny Phantom characters. All other characters and ideas are ours, though, and so please don't touch 'em without permission.
Last Time in The Collector: Danny and Vlad got into another rather ugly word fight, but they somehow got out of it a truce for both of them to tolerate each other until they escaped. Innocently wanting some fun, Danny suggested playing a prank on Ryder to see if the man was acting weird on purpose or not by stealing his necklace. Curious as to how far Danny would go with his "science" experiment, Vlad is set on pushing the teen along with it until the very end.
Chapter 11 Dangerous Ideas
From the instant Ryder's eyes opened in the morning, he knew something was wrong. His eyes widened as he yanked his head out from beneath the pillow it had been buried under all night, his hand shooting up to feel at his throat. There was nothing there. That wasn't right. There should've been stuff there, but there wasn't.
The man made a move to leap out of the bed, but he only ended up smacking his skull into the bottom of the bunk above him. "Davy Jones' locker!" he cried out, falling to the side out of his bed in the most dramatic way imaginable.
Cringing from the pain in his head, Ryder pushed himself onto his butt. He stared straight ahead, his hands searching his clothes for his necklace. It should've been there, but it wasn't. He'd never lost his necklace before. Not once. Ryder spun around and started shoving his blankets aside to thoroughly search his bed. His search came up empty. Trying to stay calm, the thief scooted around the floor on his knees, trying to see if he'd somehow dropped it during the night.
As Ryder continued to hunt, Danny propped himself up on the top bunk and peered over to watch. So it begins, he thought to himself with an inner laugh. "Hey, what're you doing, Ryder?" the teen called down to the man.
Ryder didn't even raise his head or get up from his hands and knees as he replied in a mumble, "Mmnhhmm." Without saying anymore, he squeezed himself under his bed on his stomach and looked around.
Raising an eyebrow, Danny leaned over the side of his bed and winked down at Vlad who had also been pretending to sleep as they waited for Ryder to finally get up.
Smiling wryly back up at Danny, Vlad carefully sat up and listlessly watched Ryder dismantle his side of the room. The man reminded Vlad of a hyperactive squirrel searching for its nuts. Too bad there was none to be found.
Standing and stretching after another night of very little and fitful sleep, Vlad studied the frantic Ryder. So far he seemed more upset about losing the necklace than anything else. The blame game wouldn't be started till later, Vlad predicted.
"Do I even want to ask what you are looking for?" Vlad finally asked Ryder, hands on hips. "Your sanity, perhaps?"
Ryder pulled himself out from under his bed and rapidly looked around, his face pulled into a tight, frantic frown. He tried his best not to hyperventilate like he had the other day for fear of breaking down all over again. He didn't wanna do that again. It sucked. Sucked a lot, actually!
"My...my...no-no!" Ryder jumped to his feet, both hands placed atop his head as he began to pace erratically around the cabin. His eyes didn't stay still for a moment as he looked around, muttering incoherently under his breath. "No, no, don't lose things. Never lose things. That's not right. I just had it. Can't have lost it. Don't do that."
Slowly sliding out of his bed and dropping to the floor beside Vlad, Danny silently watched Ryder going insane. He glanced up at Vlad and shrugged. "Guess that's your answer," he said with a grin.
"You can't lose something you never had," Vlad told the man, letting a small, evil smile slip onto his face. Sometimes the man just couldn't help himself.
That insult said, Vlad decided to take his leave. Shaking his head, he left the cabin. It would take some time for Ryder to discover his necklace wasn't anywhere in the building. Till then, Vlad was going to have some breakfast.
"Vlad! Vlad, wait!" Ryder suddenly yelped as he snapped himself out of whatever trance he'd been in. He spun on his heel, almost fell over his feet in his haste to catch up with the half-ghost, and gripped the man's arm desperately. He looked up at Vlad with pleading eyes as he rapidly babbled, "Have you seen my necklace? Really important! I didn't lose it, I promise! I don't lose things, but I can't find it, and I know I had it, but I don't have it now!"
Danny sensed the impending doom that was going to happen, and he quickly approached the two men, his steps wary. Ryder was touching Vlad. That was never a good thing. "Ryder...? Maybe you should let go now?" the teen suggested, holding his hands up to try and calm the spastic thief down.
It was like Ryder hadn't even heard him; he was too focused on Vlad. "Please, please, tell me you saw it," he begged the man, clinging to him as if he was a life preserver keeping him afloat in a stormy sea.
Making a face, Vlad wordlessly tried to shake Ryder off him but to no avail. The man was hardly paying attention to what Ryder was saying as he switched tactics and tried to pull his arm out of Ryder's grip. This proved to be profitless too.
Quickly becoming frustrated, Vlad growled down into Ryder's face, "No. I haven't seen it. Now kindly remove yourself from my arm before I break yours."
Ryder slowly closed his mouth, silently deciding to not question Vlad any further. The half-ghost was still mad about the closet thing the other day. Maybe it'd be best not to make him madder. Eyes sliding to the side, Ryder released Vlad and grabbed Danny instead.
"Danny! Necklace! Seen it?" he demanded in a breathless rush. Cringing slightly from the man's death grip on both his upper arms, Danny could only shake his head. Ryder ripped his hands away from the teen and threw them in the air as he yelled, "Guh! Useless!"
That sound effect properly exclaimed, Ryder spun back around and stormed into the cabin. There was a single moment of silence before chaos could clearly be heard coming from inside. Slowly, Danny turned his head and stared at Vlad. "I don't think...maybe we should just give it back to him," he said, grimacing at a particularly loud, unpleasant sound.
Yesterday Danny had been excited to play this little harmless prank on Ryder, but now he wasn't feeling so sure about it. He guessed it was more fun when he hid things from Sam and Tuck because he knew how they were going to react. This was different. Way different.
Staying as nonchalant as ever while he busied himself by rolling up his sleeves, Vlad asked Danny as they walked away from the cabin, "Why? Because he seems a little frantic? Ryder by nature is frenetic; therefore, this reaction of his right now is natural. If you want to see results, you'll have to wait a few hours."
Danny chewed on the inside of his cheek and glanced back at the cabin. "Yeah...I guess you're right," he admitted before forcing himself to follow after Vlad. The guy did have a point. Ryder was kind of a spazz most of the time. He guessed that was natural.
The two half-ghosts hadn't taken two steps away before their cabin door was flung open again. Ryder stumbled out, panting hard, clothes ruffled, eyes more wild than usual. He glared off in the direction of the basketball courts and began to stomp in that direction.
"Oh...that's not good," Danny mumbled to himself. He turned and grabbed Vlad's sleeve to stop him from walking away. "Vlad, I don't think this is a good thing. He's walking towards the ghosts. We should stop him, shouldn't we?"
Sliding his hands into his pockets and looking over his shoulder to see what Ryder was doing, Vlad said, "He's fine. He'll find out soon enough that none of the ghosts took his necklace. By then he might be angry enough for us to call the experiment completed and done with."
While Danny was looking back toward Ryder, Vlad lowered his gaze to the teen. He assumed it was only in the last few minutes that Danny had thought about the repercussions to his actions. There was going to be a point where Danny wouldn't be able to go on anymore with their experiment despite all Vlad's pushing and prodding. The man was simply interested to see how far Danny could go.
Smiling to himself, Vlad thought dryly, An idea is a dangerous thing.
Danny watched Ryder until he disappeared off behind Melody's cabin. He understood what Vlad meant, but this just didn't feel right. This stupid experiment had stopped being fun since it started. He wasn't sure if he even wanted to do it anymore. He glanced back up at Vlad, eyebrows furrowed uncertainly.
"...Alright," he unwillingly agreed, grimacing the entire time he said the word. Maybe if he just distracted himself with disgusting food he wouldn't feel so bad.
Shaking his head, Danny walked past Vlad, grabbed his tray, and got his food. He sat down at a table by himself and stared pensively down at the gunk, doing his best to focus on the food and not the sudden silence that had descended over the room.
Likewise, Vlad got his food and sat down to calmly wait for the real chaos to begin. A few times he would glance over to Danny to see how he was reacting. For the most part, the boy looked uneasy. This game wasn't fun anymore for Danny, but for some reason he was still going along with it.
Soon enough, Melody showed up with her tray. She plopped her food down on the table while asking curiously, "What's the matter with Ryder? It's too early for him to be trying to beat up Chauser." She sighed before shaking her head and saying, "I swear, the crazy never sleep."
Danny nearly dropped his spoon as he looked up at Melody. "What?" he blurted out before he could stop himself. He didn't want Ryder to hurt himself! That wasn't cool at all! Just before he could jump out of his seat and go rescue the wacky man, he was brought to a halt by the sounds of fighting. A moment later, Ryder stumbled into the sight of the three seated at the table.
He was growling as he tried to yank away the tiny ghost that was clinging to his head and shoulders like a very upset spider. Chauser let out a hissing sound as he whacked Ryder in the side of the head with a small, blue fist. "Ow!" Another hit, another stumble. "Ow! Cut it out!" Two more hits, two more yelps of pain. "I'm gonna sit on you until you're nothing but a stupid ghost pancake, you little twerp!"
Unable to get the ghost off him, Ryder did the only thing he could do. He threw himself to the ground on his back and let his momentum carry him in a roll that brought him smoothly back to his feet, minus one annoying and angered ghost. Ryder took a fighting stance, eyes locked on Chauser as the ghost floated back upright.
"For the last time, I didn't take anything of yours," Chauser snarled, angrily shaking his head.
"I don't believe you!" Ryder yelled back, shoving a dramatic pointed finger at the ghost. "Give it back! Give it back now!" Before Chauser could reply, he rushed forward and tried to grab the ghost in a headlock. Anticipating the move, Chauser simply teleported himself away from Ryder, looking highly frustrated.
"Stop-!" Ryder lunged forward again and missed as Chauser teleported himself backwards. "Doing-!" He leapt forward again, forcing Chauser to move further away. He was only feet away from running into Melody's cabin. "That! You freakin' jerk!" Ryder finished, throwing himself out in a last ditch attempt to grab Chauser.
The ghost really had no other option but to teleport into Melody's cabin, and he did without hesitation; leaving Ryder to slam headfirst into the still closed door. He slumped down to his knees, whining pitifully at the horrible pain in his forehead. He just knew that was going to bruise. No way that wasn't going to bruise.
Ignoring his pain to focus on retrieving his necklace, Ryder shoved himself back to his feet and flung Melody's door open. He prepared to go in after Chauser, but his feet seemed glued to the floor just before he could enter the cabin. Ryder leaned forward, glaring down at his boots as if willing them to just cooperate with him. He knew he wasn't supposed to go in there, but he had to! There was no other choice!
Ryder squeezed his eyes shut, apologized in his head to Melody for breaking her rules, and charged into the cabin with a loud battle cry.
Everyone at the table was too stunned at first to react. Melody's rules had been clear since the beginning: nobody was allowed inside her cabin, not even Ryder. To keep the peace, everyone had agreed. So to see that rule so blatantly disobeyed came as a surprise to everyone to the point that silence reined for about half a minute before the mess began.
And now it starts, Vlad thought with inner amusement.
Melody blinked once, twice, and then suddenly threw herself out of her seat with a yelp of indignation. "Ryder!" she screamed as she stumbled to her feet and ran for her private quarters. "Ryder! Get your ass out of my room!"
"Job well done, Daniel," Vlad said without taking his eyes off the cabin where both Melody and Ryder had disappeared into. "Instead of making one person angry, we managed to make two. You should feel proud." Only then did Vlad glance at the teen.
Danny looked sick to his stomach, and it wasn't from the food this time. He'd never wanted this to happen, but things had spiraled out of his control the moment he decided to do this stupid experiment. That was such a mistake, such a big mistake. What was I thinking? he silently asked himself, but he had no answer.
Hastily standing up, Danny did his best to ignore Vlad's eyes. The guilt he was feeling was already bad enough without Vlad having to make him feel worse. "This was so stupid," he mumbled to the man as he took off after Melody. He arrived at the cabin in moments and didn't hesitate to step inside when he realized nobody was shouting.
The first thing he heard was Ryder muttering, "Melody? W-why did you take my necklace?" However, the first thing he saw was the inside of Melody's cabin. Needless to say, it was nothing like theirs. Not even close.
First off, it didn't smell like sweat, mold, and men. The scent was clean yet stuffy; but the small room's fragrance wasn't the thing that stood out the most. Every wall was covered with collected technological materials Melody must have found around the museum. Dozens of gutted circuit boards of ranging sizes were intricacy hung from the walls in elaborate, orderly patterns. Stripped copper wires splayed like pretty, little fans on the wall or were used to keep the diagrams on the walls connected. From the ceiling dangled the same kind of odd, complex compositions of technological masterpiece. If an expert squinted hard enough at the mess, they could see the mathematical theme of the beautiful designs. Each diagram was some complicated math formula or equation. Compiled together the pieces just looked like a pretty heap of computer junk, but underneath there was a method to the madness.
Vlad was only a few steps behind the teen. His reaction to the room was the same as Danny's. From the door where they both stood, the man looked around the room in utter wonder before shaking his head and focusing on what was happening between Melody and Ryder. Unlike the rest of the room, it was not a pretty sight.
"I...I didn't...how could you accuse me?" Melody was saying to Ryder, her voice strained with emotion. She was trying very hard to keep herself together, but Vlad could see the small cracks in her facade. She was either on the brink of exploding with anger or tears. "You know I would never do that to you! Not ever!"
Ryder was staring back down at Melody as he clutched his necklace to his chest. The look on his face reminded Danny of a puppy that had just been kicked by its beloved master. He wasn't mad. No, he was just hurt and confused as to why his best friend in this place had stolen something from him.
"Then-then-then why is this here?" he demanded, his voice shaking with inner turmoil. Though he was shouting, Ryder still didn't sound angry. He just sounded like he was going to cry. "And-and what is all this stuff? Why didn't you tell me you-you had all this stuff? A-and Mel, y-you're my friend! I would never-never ever steal from you! You pr-promised you'd never steal from me. You promised!"
Hands clutched into tight fists at her sides, Melody was too beside herself to answer at first. The girl shook her head furiously, as if trying to throw off the cumbersome emotions clogging her logic.
"I did promise!" she finally screamed back up at Ryder. "And I never broke that promise! I didn't steal your necklace! Why-why would I steal it? It doesn't make any sense!"
Standing silently in the doorway, Vlad waited for the girl to get it. He knew she'd make the connection soon. It was the calamity of the situation that was slowing her reasoning down. But as if on cue, Vlad saw the spark of realization hit Melody's face before she turned her head to glare scathingly at the half ghosts standing dumbly in her doorway.
"You two," Melody growled, pointing an accusingly finger at Danny and Vlad. "What the hell is this? One of you must have stolen the necklace. Or was it both of you? Tell us!"
Danny could only stare stupidly back at Melody, horror plastered all over his expression. He couldn't believe this was all happening. Ryder wasn't supposed to find the necklace, he wasn't supposed to blame Melody, and Melody wasn't supposed to figure it out and blame them.
"We-we...no," Danny stuttered out, shaking his head numbly. He didn't know what to say to make this situation better. Melody and Ryder would be so mad at him when they found out this was all his stupid idea. Sure, he deserved their blame, but he didn't want either of them angry with him. How could he keep everyone calm in the future if they knew what he'd done today?
The teen swallowed hard when Ryder's eyes moved away from Melody and landed on him and Vlad. The look on his face was downright pathetic. "Danny wouldn't- he wouldn't do that," he murmured, his voice sounding choked with emotion. His gaze moved up to Vlad, and he frowned sadly as if silently recognizing the fact that Vlad would and probably had.
Vlad saw that everyone's attention now rested solely on him. Melody looked almost sick with anger, as if she was seconds away from biting his head off. Danny seemed too horrified to speak. He had definitely never predicted or wanted the results to his experiment coming out like they were now. Ryder's expression was what took the cake. The wound that inflicted him had cut very deep, and the man didn't seem to know exactly what he was doing to do with such an injury.
All in all, the mood of the room wasn't a pleasant one. It was the mood Vlad had predicted yet hadn't bothered to stop. And for one of the first times in his life, Vlad didn't know why he'd let things come to this. He didn't see why he had allowed this kind of disaster to happen.
But he knew how to fix it.
Sighing in preparation, Vlad looked Ryder straight in the eye and half lied, "I was the one who stole the necklace and hid it here. You steal something of mine, and I'll steal something of yours, Mr. Walker. Now we're even."
For several moments, the room went deathly quiet as if no one knew exactly what to say. Danny could only stare up at Vlad, completely dumbstruck by what the man had done. He'd just taken responsibility for this whole fiasco when he really hadn't done anything wrong in the first place. That didn't make sense, and Danny had no clue what to say or do. He was too shocked to do anything but look across the room and wince at the expressions on the thieves' faces.
It only took one look into Ryder's upset face for Danny to realize how wrong he'd been in thinking that the man was faking who he was. There was no doubt in the teen's mind now that Ryder wasn't acting and never had been. He realized at that moment that this experiment had done nothing but hurt, and there was nothing he could do to take that hurt back.
"I said I was sorry..." Ryder whispered, dropping his eyes to stare down at the floor. His shoulders were slumped, his entire demeanor appearing completely defeated. Danny had never seen the man look like that, not even when they'd gotten stuck in the closet. It was something completely different and almost painful to see coming from someone who was always so upbeat and ready to smile.
Vlad said and did nothing but observe the scene before him. The feeling of satisfaction he thought he'd experience didn't arrive like the man wanted. He'd successfully made Ryder pay for his former actions of thievery, and yet Vlad didn't feel very happy about it or pleased with himself. Instead, he felt nothing. Simply nothing. He didn't understand or like it.
"What the hell is wrong with you?" Melody suddenly shouted, taking a bold step toward Vlad. She was too short to get into his face, but she most surely tried as she snarled up at him like an exploding volcano, "We're supposed to be getting along, and you're screwing it up on purpose! Why? Are you really that hellbent on destroying everything? How can you be so...so heartless?"
Ding!
The room seemed to freeze at the sudden, cheerful sound that was entirely too perversely jolly for their current predicament.
Having time to haphazardly gather his emotions and thoughts, Vlad managed to say evenly, "Think of it as a settlement of accounts between Mr. Walker and I and leave it at that. We're done here."
That said and done, Vlad grabbed Danny's arm, turned around, and began to march toward their display case without a word. His eyes were narrowed and staring straight ahead. A frown had developed on his lips, but the expression was only there to hide his true emotion of confusion. He realized he didn't understand anything, and he was trying not to let that fact distress him.
Danny had to struggle to keep up with Vlad's quick strides, but he said nothing about it. He had no idea what he could say, and it didn't exactly help that the man's grip was totally crushing his arm. To avoid having to actually speak, Danny clamped his mouth shut and let himself be dragged into their display case without a word exchanged between them.
As the sliding doors locked behind them, Danny unwillingly raised his gaze to meet Vlad's. He couldn't decipher the look on the man's face, but he seemed really upset, and he had every right to be. Forcing himself not to pull out of Vlad's painful grasp, Danny quietly murmured, "I'm sorry. I...I didn't want that to happen. If I'd known..."
The boy trailed off and looked away. There was nothing more he could say.
"Exactly!" Vlad exploded while he let Danny go and spun around to face him. "You never seem to fully understand any of the consequences to your actions, Daniel! You never look ahead! You always blindly leap forward, having faith that luck will catch your every, single fall. You understand now? You understand how incredibly stupid and wasteful you can be with your silly powers? Power alone won't get you anywhere. You have to know what you're doing. You have to know what you want and how to get, or you end up with what happened out there! Next time I won't be there to save your reputation. You understand?"
Danny had taken a quick step back when Vlad started yelling at him, frightened that he'd get a punch to the face along with the lecture. Somehow, though, that didn't happen, but the anxiety still remained. The boy kept his mouth shut as he looked right up at Vlad and nodded quickly, his inner fear written plainly on his face.
"Y-yeah, yeah," Danny whispered. "I understand."
With his point made and all the yelling out of his system, Vlad finally noticed how scared Danny looked. It was a rare sight to see the teen so frightened. It almost alarmed Vlad. He hadn't meant to frighten him...well, maybe a little, but not as much as what was clearly being displayed. For a second time that day, Vlad regretted a bit of his actions. Though he hated to admit it, Vlad knew his order of conduct lately was shoddy at best. He didn't know what was wrong with himself.
Taking a step back, Vlad closed his eyes and massaged the bridge of his nose to calm his boil of emotions of turmoil. At last, he stated in a flat tone, "I didn't mean to yell."
Sighing heavily as if trying to shrug off his many problems, Vlad put his hands on his hips and stared out of the glass wall at the crowd. Quietly, and more to himself, he muttered, "Shouldn't have let it get that far."
Danny rubbed his right arm quickly to try and calm himself down as he warily watched Vlad. It wasn't just the man's shouting that had scared him, it was what had just happened with Melody and Ryder. The whole situation was just horrifying. He'd almost broken up their entire group with one, big stupid mistake. It was scary how quickly things almost blew up in their faces.
The teen calmed his breathing and focused back on Vlad, doing his best to put his thoughts in order. "It was my fault," he mumbled, lowering his head to stare at his feet. "I shouldn't have even...I'm sorry. You're-you're right, Vlad. I don't think things through like I should..."
Danny glanced up at Vlad and shook his head as he asked, "Why did you take the blame for it? It's my fault..." He sighed and looked away again. "I'm so stupid."
"Stop apologizing. It's useless. This fiasco is both our faults," Vlad grumbled back as he glanced over to Danny again. "I saw that reaction coming and never thought to stop it. I should have, though. It's going to be hard to regain their trust and even harder to get everyone to cooperate in order to escape."
Pausing, Vlad studied Danny for a moment before explaining in a weary voice, "I took the blame because the results would have been worse if they thought it was you. Your role so far has been someone who keeps the peace. You're a constant in their lives. You're predictable. You're someone they can easily trust whether they want to or not. To lose a connection like that in that way would be disastrous.
"Furthermore, it couldn't be blamed on both of us or it would have turned into a power struggle between them and us. We can't afford that. Therefore, the best solution was for me to take the entire blame. They didn't have much trust in me to begin with, so there isn't as much damage done."
"You...thought that was going to happen?" Danny questioned slowly, his eyebrows furrowing as he looked up at the man. He frowned, closing his mouth before he could say anymore. He wanted to think this one through.
Vlad actually sounded kind of guilty about what had happened. He even said that he saw it as being both of their faults. Danny didn't see how Vlad could be in the wrong on this one. The man hadn't done anything, had he? He'd just sort of encouraged him to keep going with the scheme. That didn't merit guilty feelings, did it?
Danny's frown deepened, and he stepped back from the man. Vlad had known all along that this wouldn't end well, yet he hadn't bothered to stop him. Why? He obviously knew what would happen with Ryder and Melody, so why hadn't Vlad stopped him? He knew that they all needed each other. Why would he try to ruin their possible escape?
It all came together at once, forcing Danny to move yet another step away from Vlad. "Maybe you are trying to ruin it," the boy murmured before he could stop himself. "Because...because you like all of us. We're all dysfunctional, but you like that. It makes you feel less weird." Danny shook his head, thinking back to the compromise Vlad had offered him the day before. "And you don't like that you like us. It screws up your image, doesn't it?"
Beyond dumbfounded by the boy's altercation, Vlad stared at Danny as if the boy had just sprouted wings from his head. "Why would you-?" Vlad started, stopped, and quickly rephrased his question as her rubbed his chin in distress. How did things get this messy?
"Why would I want to ruin what shred of a relationship I had going with everyone here?" he demanded, trying to sound more in control than he felt. "What you're saying makes no sense, boy. People don't destroy relationships they like because they enjoy those people. They destroy them because they dislike them. And I didn't mean to wreck this one! I mean, I don't particularly enjoy any of you. The relationship was simply a means to escape. So why would I want to destroy that relationship when my main goal from the beginning and which still remains is escape?"
Danny resolutely crossed his arms over his chest and matched Vlad's stare. "Because it freaks you out," he stated, stubbornly raising his chin. "You don't know what it's like to actually relate to people, and that freaks you out. We're all stuck in the same situation, and you don't know what to do so you try to make us not like you. You want Melody and Ryder to think you're the bad guy. You're right that people don't try to ruin relationships they enjoy, but you do. You're not a normal person, Vlad."
"Of course I'm not normal!" Vlad snapped back instinctively. "What was your first clue, Daniel? Was it the fact that I'm half ghost? Surely that must have given it away."
But even as he retorted all this in his defense, Vlad knew Danny meant much more than the simple addition of ghost powers when he told Vlad he wasn't normal. Although Vlad hadn't necessarily wanted Ryder and Melody to hate him and deem him evil, he had wanted to get his revenge on Ryder and teach Danny a lesson using a very destructive method. It was a method that wasn't normal, as Danny would call it. And usually Vlad would have gotten some kind of pleasure out of that, but today he found none of that. Instead, he felt frustrated and terribly isolated.
He's right, Vlad found himself thinking, gut wrenching at such an offensive notion. He's right. I'm not normal.
Danny looked right back at Vlad, his expression firm and serious. He knew that he was right. He just knew it in his gut. Instead of getting angry at the man, Danny simply shrugged and flashed a short grin. "Sarcasm," he said with a playful roll of his eyes. "Why am I not surprised?"
-Melody and Ryder-
A group of ghost guards roughly shoved Ryder into his display case just as the doors slid shut and locked behind him. Ryder stumbled from the force of the guards' push and fell heavily to his hands and knees. Ordinarily, he would've jumped right back up as if nothing was wrong, but not today. Instead, he just sat there, his head lowered, shoulders shaking slightly.
His head was hurting way more than it should've been, he could feel a huge bump across his forehead, and his right eye felt all swollen up. It was terrible. And now he was stuck in his display case with those freaky ghosts watching his every move. And the room was so, so small. It was so hard to breathe in small places.
Ryder didn't say anything to Melody. He could feel her eyes on him, but he couldn't say anything. For once, no point of conversation was coming to mind.
"Oh, I'm so pissed!" Melody seethed as she began to pace the display case. Hands and arms flinging every which way as she walked and talked, Melody shouted angrily, "Why would Vlad do that? Ahrg! I don't care at this point! All I care about is beating the evil man to a pulp! He deserves a good slap in the face for what he did to you, Ryder! Sure, you stole from him, but what did he care? Ug! I thought he wanted to escape more than get his revenge on you. And he did it in such a petty fashion too! Gah! Freaking! I'm so angry right now!"
Still pacing, Melody fell silent for a minute or two as if getting ready for another boiling over of emotions before exploding again. "Aren't you angry?" she asked Ryder furiously. "Come on! What he did was way beyond low! You should be indignant, Ryder! Ryder...oh, what's the matter? You haven't said a word this whole time. Are you hurt?"
Melody had slowed her pacing to a sudden stop when she realized Ryder wasn't saying or doing anything. She suddenly felt awkward and out of place. She'd never seen her friend so down trodden.
"No..." Ryder mumbled, his voice barely audible. He pushed himself onto his butt and scooted back until he was able to lean against the far wall of the cell. He liked to be as far away from the ghosts as he could. He stared straight ahead, sitting unnaturally still. It was like all the Ryder-ness had been sucked out of him. The man kept his head turned away from Melody so she couldn't see all the bruising thanks to Chauser.
Ryder grimaced as he stretched his long legs out in front of him, continuing to avoid Melody's eyes. "I'm...I'm sorry I didn't believe you, Mel," he whispered, voice rasping as he spoke. He closed his eyes and placed his hand over his chest, resting it above his necklace. He wasn't going to lose it again, never again. It was too important.
Melody's shoulders slumped as Ryder's words forced her to remember his accusations toward her earlier. Chewing on her lower lip, Melody naturally played with her hair. Her hands never really knew what to do when she was nervous or stressed. They tended to just do what they wanted.
"Well, you had your reasons to suspect me," Melody said quietly, looking around the room dismissively. "I am a thief, and the necklace was in my cabin. And I know how much you treasure that thing. If I had something to remind me of the real world like that, I might have reacted the same way."
"Yeah," Ryder mumbled after a short pause. He lowered his head and sniffled quietly. He went silent for a moment before dragging an arm across his face. He wasn't trembling as badly as he usually would and that was nice, but the only reason he wasn't was because of how terrible he felt.
He almost wished that he was angry. Ryder wouldn't have minded getting angry at Vlad for what he'd done, but that just wasn't something he could force. Not a lot of people knew how to infuriate him, and he liked things that way. Getting angry wasn't fun. Not fun at all.
Ryder finally let himself look up at Melody, allowing her to see the distraught expression on his face and the apparent bruising. "I thought...I thought Vlad liked me," he murmured sadly. "I didn't think he'd do something so-so mean."
Melody was about to snap back that Ryder was ridiculous to ever think Vlad liked anyone besides himself, but she caught herself only because she saw the look of pure anguish on Ryder's face. Collecting her long locks of hair into a ponytail then letting it fall back to her neck and shoulders, Melody thought about what Ryder had said and what she could say to make her friend feel better.
She discovered on her second thought how disappointed she too had felt toward Vlad betraying all of them like he did. Sure, the man was one of the most infuriating people she had known, but he had shown a lot of respect toward Melody. He didn't treat her like some stupid blonde bimbo like most men his age did. No, Vlad understood how smart she was, and he never let her got away with saying things that were idiotic. He never let her get away with anything, actually. And for some reason Melody thought those kinds of actions had been a sign that Vlad liked her to a certain extent.
Clutching a thick lock of her hair as if it was her last life line, Melody said quietly, "Yeah. I thought he liked me too."
A/N: Kind of a depressing ending, but that's how it goes. Vlad's a jerk. What more can people expect from him? And poor Ryder! Having to cause Ryder so much sadness this chapter was painful. Ha ha! Anyways, I'll try to answer reviews when I can this week, and I'll see you readers next weekend!
