Is today the day I see EVERYONE I know?

I've been sitting at this table for less than an hour. Less than sixty minutes. And I've already seen six people I knew in high school. WHAT THE HELL. THIS IS COLLEGE. THAT'S NOT SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN.

Sorry. I'm really freaked out right now.

This chapter kept wanting to cut itself off. Originally it had...like...2100 words? And now it's at 3112...before commentary. I had to fight with this chapter. Hardcore.

Um, okay. No character deaths.

Thank you bunches and bunches for all the fantastic reviews. Ba da ba ba ba, I'm lovin' it.

I saw a hobo peeing on the side of McDonald's this morning on my way to school. Yeah, you think it's bad hearing about it, imagine SEEING IT.

I don't own Danny Phantom or that disgusting place I mentioned above.

H'enjoy.

They Had Lights Inside Their Eyes

Chapter Twenty-Five

September 4, 2012

It was something incredibly mundane that alerted Sam to the fact that she was dreaming.

Her dream, overall, was incredibly strange. She was at Casper High School, but it was not the same building she originally attended. It was an odd mix between a prison and a theme park. Her subconscious was convinced, however, that it was her high school, so she did not think much of it. A giant looping roller coaster carried Valerie, Tucker, Dash, Kwan, Star, Paulina, and Vlad. They were screaming and laughing and were not apparently aware of Sam. Sam felt her face twisting into a grin, a wave of thankfulness washing through her for the fact that Vlad was no longer attacking her friends.

She looked down at her wrists and realized they were bound together by a pair of silver handcuffs. Her feet were also bound, though the cuffs slung across her ankles had a far longer chain, which allowed her to trot forward. Dozens of children that Sam had never seen before were running and shrieking from ride to ride, laughing hysterically.

And they all wore handcuffs, like Sam.

As she looked at them, she realized they were all wearing the same thing: a bright yellow jumpsuit. She glanced back down at her body and realized she was wearing the same thing as well. She grimaced at the blindingly bright fabric, but rolled her eyes and continued walking without complaint.

"Hey," A warm voice washed over her ear. Sam turned and found Danny's face just inches from hers, an easy smile on his face as he reached around and took her hand. She smiled at the tingling sensations in the pit of her stomach as he touched her. He glanced down her body, that easy smile quickly morphing into a hungry grimace, until his eyes stopped on her feet. "Babe?" He asked, glancing back up at her.

"Hm?" She was lost in that hungry gaze, wondering through the flood of sudden warmth in her body what he was going to do next.

"Your shoe's untied." He chuckled, pointing down. She stared down at her right shoe, which was, in fact, untied. She smiled coyly before bending and tying the laces.

Wait, she thought. I was wearing boots.

And in an instant, her surroundings were gone. Danny's face was the last solid remnant of the dream, before he, too, faded away. Sam swam through the blackness, desperately trying to find which way was up, before a tiny pinprick of pain ignited in her right shoulder. She grimaced and tried to escape the sensation, but it was too late. She was shoved to the surface, where the pinprick grew to an almighty roaring flame that seemed to spread through her entire body. With a gasp and a heaving cough, Sam broke the surface and her eyes popped open.

Her surroundings bore no noticable details at first. Sam blinked rapidly, forcing her eyes open after each blink (as they attempted to stay screwed shut from the pain) and glancing around desperately. Fuzzy images on the wall slowly came into focus. Sam squinted.

The images were maps. Dozens and dozens of maps. She turned her head slowly, craning her neck up and wincing, as the movement worked the punctured muscles of her shoulder. She clenched her jaw and willed herself not to vomit as the feeling of warm blood gushing from the wound registered in the back of her mind.

The walls in this room were plastered with maps and schematics. Sam stared at them, willing herself to comprehend the meanings of them all, but failing miserably. So in an effort to alleviate some of the growing pressure on her shoulder, Sam attempted to sit up. She was stopped, however, by several leather straps that crossed her chest, abdomen, and legs. Her left arm was pinned to her side by the straps. Her right arm, it seemed, was twisted up across her chest, the palm of her hand flush against the very top of her breast, her shoulder heavily bandaged. A small whimper escaped her lips.

A door on the right side of the room swung open at the noise. Sam could not stop her head from snapping in that direction, though she wished she had not looked almost instantly. Four hulking aliens entered, low growls emitting from all of them. Sam was not sure if it was because she was injured and vulnerable, but these four seemed twice as large as the others. Each alien took a post in each corner of the room, their growls swelling slightly, as the door widened just a bit more, allowing Vlad to sweep in dramatically.

"Samantha, dear, so good to see you!" He cooed. Sam swallowed hard, forcing her eyes to stay open and her mouth clamped shut as a wave of pain made her thoughts hazy. "Oh, you poor thing," He frowned, smoothing her tangled hair away from her sweaty forehead. Sam grimaced and turned her head sharply away from him, suddenly aware of several different things: one, every time she moved her head, a sharp pang of pain fired off through her body from her injured shoulder. Two, the blood from the injury was still wet on the right side of her face and neck, as a breeze from the air conditioner sent shivers up her spine. Three, Vlad was probably about to kill her.

Or worse.

"Now, now, don't fight. I'd hate for you to get even more injured." If Sam was not strapped to a table and set out like the main course of a meal for Vlad, she would have sworn she saw legitimate concern flashing in his eyes as another whimper of pain escaped her lips. He continued smoothing her hair away, petting her almost absently, and Sam stopped fighting. She felt weak enough as it was; no need to add to it by fighting Vlad when he was not hurting her.

"You poor, poor thing," He said forlornly. "I did not mean for you to get so severely injured...I only wanted my army to scare you, never hurt you..." His hands reached for her shoulder, fingers fluttering lightly against the folds of the gauze protecting her injury from further harm, and Sam winced and cringed as the sensations sent shots of pain through her body. "Well, that is a lie. I do want to hurt you. I want you dead. But not yet. Not like this..." He went very still, his eyes glazed as his imagination took him to some far away place, and Sam wanted to scream. She wanted to rip the straps holding her down off and lunge forward and kill Vlad. It's all his fault, she thought furiously.

Vlad suddenly snapped back to reality, looking back down at Sam and smiling innocently. "Daniel must be a bundle of nerves, not knowing what is happening to his dearly beloved..." Vlad caressed Sam's cheekbone with the back of his fingers, and Sam was no longer able to resist the urge to twist away violently. Her whimper escalated into a groan of pain as the strap across her chest dug into her shoulder. "I wonder if he is even aware of where you are...well, I would hate to think of him as not knowing what has happened to you." Vlad's innocent grin twisted into an evil smirk. "Let's tell him, hm?"

"No!" Sam gasped, speaking for the first time since she woke in Vlad's care. "No, please!"

But Vlad was not listening. He smirked and walked around Sam's head, effectively leaving her line of vision. She twitched beneath the straps, unable to stay still despite the fact that each movement sent undiluted waves of pain through her body. Vlad spoke to one of the aliens, speaking in harsh gutteral tones. The alien grunted and Sam heard a shuffling movement. She bit back a scream of mingled terror and fury.

Vlad ambled back into her line of sight, looking down and fumbling with something in his hands. He was writing something, she realized, with a black Sharpie. She went very still as the smells of the permanent marker washed over her and ignited a pit of nausea in her stomach. Vlad capped the marker and tossed it over his shoulder, hardly breaking stride toward Sam as it clattered to the floor. "I always did enjoy receiving a hand-written letter in the mail. I'm sure Daniel will appreciate this for the effort it took to put it together."

Vlad shoved the paper in front of Sam's eyes. She blinked, trying to bring it into focus. She gasped when she recognized it.

It was the picture of her and Danny from Tucker's office. Though Vlad altered it. A giant black 'X' now covered her face, another one over her body. "N-no!" She gasped again. Vlad chuckled and turned the photo over, allowing Sam to read the message he scrawled across the back.

Isn't it a shame how only the good die young?

"P-please!" Sam screamed, not caring that her voice splintered and broke from the pressure. Vlad ignored her, turning on his heel toward a desk against the wall and rummaging around for an envelope. "You can't d-do this!"

"Watch me." He snarled. He turned back to her, envelope in hand, and stared at her. She was rigid, wishing as hard as she could that the straps would break and she could escape. Vlad seemed to come to a resolve about something, and before Sam could process what was happening, he was around on her left side. He tucked the picture down by her right cheek, smirking as she tried to twist away from it. "Be still."

Sam refused to obey, though her injury begged her to stop moving. It was not until Vlad planted a solid punch to the left side of her face, laughing as he revelled in her cry of pain, that Sam went limp. Sam felt her body convulsing in sobs, and she desperately tried to stop her right arm from trembling. The radiating pain tempted her to sink back into oblivion, but she resisted. She needed to know what would happen next.

Vlad's next assaults were very gentle. Sam barely felt them through the pain. Her eyelids fluttered open and she realized his hands were on her neck. She cringed, thinking he was moving in to strangle her, before she realized he was pulling on the chain of Danny's necklace.

Panic flared in her mind, sending her into a bout of hysteria. "No, please, PLEASE! Stop!"

Vlad hit her across the face again, his knuckles connecting with Sam's cheekbone in a terrifyingly dull pop. Over her own cries of pain, Sam registered that Vlad was howling in pain as well. He must have broken a finger, she thought with a small rush of pleasure.

He gave up on unclasping the necklace, settling for ripping it off of her neck instead. He dropped the jewelery into the envelope and plucked the photo, now splattered with Sam's blood, and tucked it into the envelope as well. He sealed it and crossed wordlessly to the other side of the room, stooping and snatching the Sharpie from the floor to scribble Danny's name on the outside of the envelope.

"Take this to the boy." He called in the aliens' language. Sam, who was only just coming down from the hazy rush of pain, blinked in her lack of understanding. Vlad resisted the urge to smirk, as his finger was throbbing painfully and he did not feel particularly victorious at the moment.

The alien from over Sam's right shoulder moved forward, pulled the envelope from Vlad's grasp, and left without a sound. Sam swallowed hard again, holding back piteous sobs. She hoped the message on the photograph would come true quickly, but knowing Vlad, it was probably going to be drawn out. A whimper escaped her again.

"Now...where to begin..." Vlad said ominously. He sauntered toward her slowly, taking his time, enjoying the small squeaks of terror he drew from Sam. Her body was betraying her, twisting and bucking away from Vlad despite her determination to remain stoic in his advances. She gnashed her teeth together and forced her body to go completely rigid. "So much to do..." His lips were mere centimeters from her ear now, his breath washing over her face and making her want to vomit. "So much time..."

He moved away from her side, choosing instead to tower over her feet. Sam kept her gaze firmly planted on the ceiling, using Danny's trick to keep himself calm to force herself to stay aware of reality. She recited the order of the planets repeatedly in her mind, ignoring Vlad circling her like a bird of prey.

Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto. Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto. Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto.

She was almost completely unaware of her surroundings as her memories flooded back to her. She closed her eyes and she was sprawled across Danny's bedroom floor, on her stomach, flipping lazily through her science book as she studied with Danny. She looked up and saw him hunched over his science book, brow furrowed in concentration. She smiled. He was cute when he studied.

It was not until she felt a pair of slender arms wrap around her middle and yank her down, through the table she was strapped to, that she crashed back to reality. She was surrounded by the ship, the metal pressing down on her, but not touching her. The only real thing she felt was the pair of arms tightening around her waist.

She gasped when sunlight hit her eyes. The familiar tingle of intangibility vanished and wind washed over her body. She craned her neck to the right, desperately trying to find her savior. She nearly choked when she found Ember's hardened gaze on her face.

"Ember?" She choked.

Ember smirked. "You miss me, baby-pop?"

The ghost looked exhilarated to be there. Sam grinned, before faltering. Ember rolled her eyes. "I'm on your side this time. Your little friend, the mayor, asked me to help him get you out of there."

"And you agreed?" Sam asked weakly. The weight of everything that happened to her was crashing into her now, making her incredibly aware of exactly how exhausted she really was. Ember felt it and sped up, her brow creasing in worry.

"Only 'cause everyone else agreed, too." She muttered. Sam wondered exactly who 'everyone else' was, but thought better than to ask. She merely turned her head forward again and watched the ground pass below her in a blur of green, brown, and grey. "Do those stupid bracelets actually work?" Ember demanded. Sam nodded.

They both cringed when the Fenton's shield washed over them, but it became quickly apparent that the bracelets worked on ghosts as well. Ember gave a delighted laugh and increased her speed toward Fenton Works. "They are gonna be so damn excited to see you alive."

"Yeah," Sam breathed. Ember craned around, catching sight of Sam's pale face, and grimaced.

"Well that would require you actually staying alive long enough for us to get there." Ember grumbled. Sam smiled weakly.

"I'm working on it," She mumbled.

Ember did not bother with the formalities of opening doors in her haste to get Sam back to Tucker and the others. Sam closed her eyes against the strange sensations of the ground sliding around her, opening them only when she felt air against her skin again. In the instant before everyone turned toward her and Ember, Sam saw several things.

Tucker and Valerie were huddled around the Fenton Audio Sonar. Tucker looked close to tears. Valerie actually succumbed to tears, crying in earnest as Tucker spoke with a defeated air into the microphone. Dash was pacing behind Tucker and Valerie, his face set in a hard glare. Jazz was standing, her face buried in the crook of Micah's neck, beside Tucker. Paulina and Star were busily working over injured members of the army. Star's eyes were red and puffy, her face pale beneath sparkling tear tracks. However, the instant Ember allowed herself and Sam to become visible, every single eye snapped toward the place where Ember hovered.

"Sam!" Tucker cried. He dropped the microphone and practically crawled across the cots between them as Ember gently set Sam on her feet. Sam leaned forward into Tucker's arms as he enveloped her in a gentle hug, careful to keep his arms away from her injury. For that, she was thankful.

"She's here, she's alive!" Valerie was talking into the microphone, her tear-glazed eyes never leaving Sam's face. Sam gazed at her, shuffling forward out of Tucker's embrace toward the Sonar. She pointed to it with her left hand, her eyebrows knit together in question. Wordlessly, Valerie handed the microphone to Sam, allowing several happy tears to escape as Sam fell into one of the chairs.

"Danny?" Sam breathed into the receiver.

A choked sob exploded from the speaker. "S-Sam? Is that you?"

"Yeah, it's me," She mumbled. She was exhausted.

Danny could hardly speak over his sobs. "Oh, God, baby, I thought you were dead. He sent your necklace and this picture..."

"I know," Sam said. "I was there."

His sob hitched and he choked. "Is this your blood?" His voice rose several octaves in his horror.

"Yeah," Sam's voice broke. So tired.

"You have to stop fighting," He croaked. "He's gonna kill you if you don't stop. Please, baby, please stop fighting."

Through the exhaustion and the pain, the little rebel in Sam's head stamped her foot. "No." Sam grunted before she could stop herself.

Danny did not speak for a moment. Sam swallowed and steeled herself. "Did...did you just say...no?"

"I said no." Sam confirmed. "I can't stop fighting. Not now. Not ever."

"Sam..."

"I'm capable. I can do this."

"You're injured! Badly! Baby, please. You don't have to prove yourself to anyone. Please, God, PLEASE, stop fighting."

Anger and humiliation at what she believed to be Danny's attempt to babysit her in front of her army - MY army! She thought furiously - collided with her physical and mental pain and her exhaustion. She choked out the word 'no' one last time before gravity yanked her backwards into Tucker's outstretched arms and unconsciousness dove over her.