My flash drive is still M.I.A. NOOOOO! D:

Chapter 25: Trapped

My mind would not stop racing as I was finally given a chance to rest that night. All I could do was replay the earlier scene with Danny over and over, watching each little detail as it played out in my head committing it so far into memory that I would never forget it. When he had finally said the words I'd been waiting years for, I didn't know how to react. In the end, sarcasm won out as the last defense it always was.

"You really are clueless if I have to tell you how I feel. You know I love you, too, Danny."

Yeah, probably not the most romantic thing I could possibly say, but it got the point across and earned a genuine smile and laugh from Danny. That moment in time was perfect, it was the stuff dreams are made of. The only thing there was not to like about it was his ghost sense cutting things short on me. The sudden interruption kept us from making anything official. Sure, we'd have to both be clueless idiots to possibly thing we weren't going to change the course of our friendship after that, but it would still be nice to make our pending relationship official.

3 A.M. Damn, time moves fast when you're happily revisiting the best moment of your life over and over. Danny should have been back by now, but I wasn't going to bother him right now even if he was. The ghosts had really been taking a toll on him lately and I know he was about to crash right before I broke down. If he was finally managing to get some much needed sleep, I wasn't going to take it from him for such a selfish reason. I could always bug him about that in the morning.

I fell asleep shortly thereafter and upon reawakening, regretting falling asleep in the first place.

My mind was working before I was fully conscious, past experience told me that every second was crucial. The first thing I noticed was that I sure as hell wasn't in my room anymore, the second being that my hands were chained above my head and I couldn't phase out of it. Sure, I could turn my hands intangible, but the intangibility act wasn't getting me through these cuffs. My eyes quickly adjusted to the lack of light and I let my ghostly energy boost my sight to get a better look around at the dark room. I wasn't alone in here, but I couldn't quite make out the face of the other prisoner. Basic common sense was able to inform me that it was most likely Danny considering whoever had taken us obviously knew about my ghost half and more than like knew about his too.

New train of thought, who the hell could have possibly taken us? There weren't many people in the world that knew about my secret, and even fewer that knew Danny's. When you overlap the two lists of people (at least those that I knew about) you didn't get a very long list. Most of mine consisted of the GIW, but none of them knew about Danny, so they were all out. The only people I could think of were Tucker, my grandmother, and Mrs. Stuth. None of those people would betray us though. Tucker was our best friend and Grandma was family. Hell, even Mrs. Stuth had gotten completely cut off from the GIW just to keep Danny's secret safe.

Back to square one. Perhaps someone was only targeting one of us, but they took the other as a backup plan? That led me straight to the answer. Sure, we both had several slightly crazy enemies that were bright enough to take us as humans and lock us in ghost proofed restraints, but only one was crazy enough to take us both at the same time. I didn't have a clue as to how he knew about my ghost half, but it had been clear from the moment I'd met the damned frootloop that he knew about Danny.

Across the room, I hear Danny wake up and struggle against the restraints for a few minutes before he sighed and muttered something about a seriously crazed up frootloop. He had come to the same conclusion I had, the only question now was what the hell we were going to do with that tidbit of information. Really, all I knew about Vlad was how to piss him off, there wasn't a single real weakness about him locked away in my head. Unless Danny had something up his sleeve, we were screwed.

I opened my mouth to speak, but words would not come out. I could breathe normally and even make my mouth move, but I couldn't make sound come out. What the hell had the cheesehead hit us with? I decided that I had more pressing matters to worry about than my sudden inability to actually speak. I had to find a way to communicate to Danny, there was no way in hell we were going to make it out of here if I didn't. I desperately searched back through the early childhood memories that had been returned to me just hours before in search of something that would help me. If there was a power that would let me speak without my voice, there was no doubt in my mind that my five-year-old self had found it, I just needed to remember it.

"Mommy! Look what I can do!" The voice of my younger self rang out in the empty hall. Within seconds I was flying through to air and landing with perfect balance on the stair railing.

Not what I was looking for, but at least I knew I could finally get back to those long lost memories.

It was pitch black, I couldn't stand it. My lone candle of a nightlight had gone out minutes ago, though it seemed like hours to my three year old self. I wanted light, that way I could see and the monsters in the dark wouldn't be able to sneak up on me. My hand starts to glow, lighting the room up with a green light much to my surprise. I'm scared for a few seconds before I look down and see that I have created the light myself.

Again, good to know, but not what I needed. I knew there had to be something hiding in the depths of my mind, but what was it?

I was grounded and it wasn't fair! I hadn't meant to take over Mommy's body, it just happened when I tried to walk through her. I was confined to my room, and worst of all, there was a belt on me that kept me from spending my time floating around the room. This wasn't fair!

That's a little closer to what I needed, but I knew it wasn't the best I had to offer. At least I was getting closer to something useful.

"Leave me alone!" The squeaky voice of my fifth year of life screamed out as I was roughly grabbed. Several bad guys were running through the house. My parents had soundproofed their walls long ago for unknown reasons, I knew they wouldn't be able to hear my shrieks and Grandma was out for the night. I was alone to deal with this. I knew how to use my powers, but I had been told not to use them unless it became a life or death situation. There was no gun yet, so I didn't have a reason to use them quite yet. I did need help though, I didn't know what these people were going to do to me. I felt something tug at my mind, almost like a doorway was trying to open up. I let it open and screamed out for help in my head. My father's worried voice replied and both parents were downstairs before I had fully figured out what I had done.

See, now that's the memory I was looking for. Now I just had to figure out how to get it to happen again, this time directed at Danny. I had reached for it on instinct the first time, but now I had to do it on command. I searched for the door that had been closed for so many years and left untouched and tugged it open when I found it.

My mind was instantly overwhelmed with Danny's frustrated thoughts before I managed to get a handle on it. I wanted to talk to Danny, no invade the person space of his mind.

Danny? Can you hear me? I saw his head jerk up in surprise, yup he heard me alright. Perhaps I could get us out of here after all.

I figure most (if not all) of you can figure this out for yourself, but I figure I might as well be formal about adding it in. Things in bold face will generally be a thought going from Sam to Danny or from Danny to Sam as they figure out how to work the new connection. :)

Now...back to hunting down that blasted flash drive...

You see that little box at the bottom of the page? Yes, that. Now click it and type something for me. :P :D

Invisible One