Chapter Twenty-Nine
The next morning I woke up feeling really sick. Not like flu sick. I couldn't explain it, but my body felt really off somehow, and I felt starved like I hadn't eaten in days! I noticed that my skin was abnormally pale and placed a hand over my forehead. My skin was cool to the touch, so it wasn't a fever. I turned to wake Alyss and Catherine to see what they thought, but surprisingly found their bed empty. In fact, it looked as if no one slept in that bed for months. Strange. Shaking my head, I rolled out of bed, still wearing the clothes I had worn the previous day. I couldn't exactly change with the Specter Deflector still wrapped around my waist. Stupid belt. Stupid Tulio.
I stumbled over to the bathroom to wash my face, but when I looked into the mirror, I screamed. I was gazing upon a monster! Deathly pale skin that was on the verge of rotting, two large bite marks were on one arm, and the eyes were completely black. It took a second for me to realize that I was staring at my own reflection. What happened to me?!
I bent over, and vomitted black blood. That in turn made me even more sick, and I sobbed, hugging myself. One of my hands slid up and into a hole in my ribcage; the exact same spot where Hans had stabbed me. I screamed again. This couldn't be happening!
"Aralyne?!"
"Aralyne!"
I turned to see Alyss and Catherine barge into the room, both carrying a sword in hand and looking ready to fight.
"What's going on?" Alyss asked.
"What happened to me?!" I shrieked, now in hysterics.
"What do you mean?" Catherine asked in confusion.
How could they not see it?! "Why am I like this?!" I gestured down to myself.
"Aralyne did you really forget?" Alyss asked in slight surprise. I noticed neither one of them lowered their weapon. "You're turning into a zombie."
"And your time's nearly up," Catherine quietly added, "You have two weeks left."
TURNING INTO A ZOMBIE?! Something must have gone wrong somewhere. I couldn't be turning into a zombie! I was completely fine yesterday! And there weren't any zombie attacks recently, either!
"N-No!" I stammered out. "This isn't right! I have to see Grandpa!" I brushed past the sisters, and they came after me.
"Aralyne, wait! You're not allowed by yourself remember? You could attack someone!" Catherine shouted after me.
I raced down the stairs into the dining area, and everyone in there froze, staring at me in fright. When I went for the door, everyone quickly scrambled out of my way. I noticed I was a lot faster than usual, and honestly it would have been cool if it weren't for the fact it was a side effect of turning into a blood-thirsty monster! The sisters were still in hot pursuit behind me, but they weren't fast enough.
Right ast I turned a corner, I suddenly slammed into a warm body. We both stumbled backwards, stunned. For a second, I stared at one of the arms before me, and the hunger I felt intensified. I had a strong urge to bite the arm. In fact, I wanted to tear this person limb from limb and feast on their flesh. What?! No! I'm not a zombie!
"Sorry!" I said, finally looking up at the person I bumped into. My jaw dropped as I stared at Danny Fenton, looking very apprehensively at me. It was Danny Fenton! Alive! "D-Danny?" I gasped out. All thoughts of my current physical state were driven from my mind.
"Do I know you?" Danny Fenton asked, arching an eyebrow.
"Danny, it's me!" I said, fresh tears now falling from my eyes. I couldn't say it enough times: Danny Fenton was alive!
"No, seriously, do I know you?" he asked, still wary of me.
"Y-You died, remember?" I quietly said, reaching out to touch his face. "You're full ghost now... How are you alive?!"
He suddenly pushed me away. "Look, kid, I don't know who you are or what you're talking about. All I know is, you're on the verge of becoming a zombie and I am outta here!" He transformed into Danny Phantom and flew off. I stared after him.
"Why doesn't he remember me?" I muttered, hugging myself. My hand brushed against the bite marks on my arm and I suddenly remembered...
Louis swung his tail at me again, and this time, I was ready. I waited until the last possible moment before slashing my sword. The blade sliced right through his tail, and it landed beside me, turning to dust. With a roar, Louis turned towards me, his jaw snapping. I jumped backwards, but unfortunately, his teeth scraped against my forearm. Hissing in pain, I dropped Excalibur. Louis would have eaten me then and there if Catherine hadn't appeared, dragging me backwards out of harm's way. Tulio then jumped forward, picking up Excalibur and thrust it into the zombie's neck. The alligator exploded into dust.
My forearm began to burn as if it were on fire, and the feeling quickly spread throughout my entire body. I screamed at the pain, and collapsed onto the ground, writhing. This hurt a lot worse than when I had been crushed saving Hercules's life! I could hear voices, but couldn't tell who was speaking.
"She's been poisoned!"
"We have to do something!"
"Quick! Give her to me!"
"What?!"
"Just do it!"
I was vaguely aware of someone holding me, but I don't know who it was. My vision had faded to nothing, but I was still conscious.
"Hold on, Aralyne! Don't you dare die on me, do you understand?!"
I don't know how much time had passed. It could have been hours, or even days, but finally I heard someone say.
"Danny?!"
"Zombie poison! Do something! Help her!"
"Here! Belladonna and Hemlock! Get it into her mouth!"
"But, those are poisonous!"
"Do it, or she'll suffer a fate worse than death!"
I had been bitten by a zombie. I was turning into a zombie. Danny saved me by taking me to Sam.
"Right now, I wish more than anything that I had never met you."
"Oh no," I said aloud, my eyes widening. "Yesterday I wished Danny had never met me. And Desiree must've made it so we never met! Which means he never saved me from turning into a zombie!"
"Aralyne!" Alyss gasped out as she and Catherine finally caught up to me. "There you are!"
"We thought we lost you," Catherine added.
I ignored them and ran in the direction Danny had flown off. "Danny!"
The sisters swore and tried keeping up with me again.
I managed to find him landing in the park and return to his human form. I quickly raced up to him and he was surprised. "You've got to listen to me!" I pleaded. "The reason I'm turning into a zombie right now is because of you!"
"Excuse me?" he said, taking a step back.
"What I mean is, you weren't there to save me! And you would have, because you're my best friend! Why won't you believe to me?"
"Believe what?" he demanded, "That I had died like you claim? You and I are best friends even though I never met you? And you're the only one that knows it?"
"Yes!" I exclaimed, "Isn't that crystal clear?"
He continued to give me a highly skeptical look.
I cried out in frustration. "I've gotta do something to get you to listen to me." An idea came to mind. Taking hold of his hand I quietly begged, "Please, Danny, you have to trust me on this. Come with me to the Benbow Inn, and I'll prove it to you." I don't know what made him change his mind, but his expression softened a bit, and he nodded. "Thank you!" I exclaimed before leading him by the hand towards the Benbow Inn. When we got there, I took him upstairs to my room, and went to my dresser. Opening up the drawer, I pulled out a tin box and went to sit on my bed, dumping the contents before me.
Danny hesitantly came forward, and spread the contents out, realizing they were photographs. They were all from my time here in Nesidy. He picked up several with us in them: a picture of a wary Danny looking up at me giving him the bunny-ears; a picture of him giving me a piggy-back ride; a picture of me and Sam throwing water balloons into his face; a picture of us dancing with Jim and Melody; a picture of us making faces at the camera.
He looked up at me in confusion. "Who are you?"
"I'm Aralyne Chanson," I replied. "Two years ago, you and Dani saved me from Ratcliffe, Cortez, and the Sheriff of Nottingham. After that, you and I became friends. A few months ago, your human half died, but your ghost half saved me from zombies. You were later turned evil and tried to kill me. Yesterday I wished we'd never met and the ghost of a genie made it happen!" I lifted up the hem of my shirt some, to show him the Specter Deflector. "I was wearing this, which is why I think I can remember you…. But I don't know what else happened that caused you to be here alive!"
We then heard a voice screech out, "Siren," right before there was a crash that shook the entire building and a familiar scream came from the room next door.
For a moment I was confused. Why would Siren be here? But then I recalled that damn connection we have. If I'm turning into a zombie, then she must be, too! Which means the logical choice would be to keep the both of us close together just in case something went wrong.
"Siren!" I shouted, jumping off the bed and running out of the room. Danny followed me. With abnormal strength (probably due to the fact I was becoming one of the undead), I managed to bust down the door leading into the room beside mine. Danny and I were in time to see a chubby, female version of Freddy Krueger pick up Siren by the throat. Strangely enough, it didn't affect me, or Siren for that matter.
"Dammit! Why isn't Tulio around?!" I muttered. He wouldn't have abandoned Siren, would he?
I rushed forward and grabbed Siren around the waist. Unfortunately, this caused Female Krueger to lift me up into the air, too.
"Danny, a little help here?" I called out.
Danny Fenton transformed into Danny Phantom (how I missed seeing that!), and shot ghost rays at Female Krueger. The monster screamed, dropping us females to the ground.
"Who's the kid?" Siren inquired as we watched Danny fight Female Krueger.
I stared at my evil half in disbelief. "That's Danny Fenton/Phantom! You know, my best friend, the one you killed!" I snarled out at her. If it wasn't for the fact that I could potentially harm myself, I would have strangled her and done a lot more than that for what she had done to Danny.
"Sunshine, I think I would have remembered you being close to the runt. Besides, do you honestly think I would have let him live if he was your best friend?"
I slapped her across the face and instantly regretted it. My own cheek was stinging.
I finally looked up to see Danny suck up Female Krueger into his Fenton Thermos. She was a ghost?
Once Danny was through, he returned to our side, transforming back into Danny Fenton. I wanted to cry at the sight of it.
"Me saving you: does that happen a lot?" he inquired hauling me up to my feet.
"More than you remember," I replied with a grin.
"And your twin?" he asked, looking over at Siren.
She scowled up at him as she climbed to her feet.
"She's literally my evil twin," I said, "You normally save me from her, but right now we're both in danger, so she won't do anything to harm either of us." I shot her a warning look and her scowl deepened. Good. As long as she left Danny alone this time, we wouldn't have any problems.
"Okay, you got my attention," Danny said.
"Finally!" I exclaimed, still holding onto his hand. "Come on!" I dragged him out of the destroyed room, bypassing others that had heard the commotion, and quickly moved away from me. Whatever, I had more important things to think about now that the Danny I knew and loved was back!
