A/N: So I lied, I wanted to get a few more things in before a certain chapter that was supposed to be this one! But this chapter is majorly important! P.S just noticed I got over 100 reviews, THANK YOU :D
Chapter Thirty-Eight
She Will Be Loved
Chapter Song: This Is How A Heart Breaks by Rob Thomas / She Will Be Loved by Maroon 5
"Of course she's going to lie, Danny. She doesn't know me. It was our first legitimate sit down talk, she wasn't going to open up and say 'oh yeah, I had another kid but I gave him up for adoption'. She's not gonna open up that quickly." I told him truthfully. I knew we'd get nothing out of that talk. But we technically did get something since the pictures were resting in Danny's hands right now.
"Whatever. I don't know. I can't focus on that right now, there's so much more things going on." Danny sighed.
"Like what?"
"There have been really weird things going on."
"And again I ask, like what?"
"Store alarms going off and the windows breaking but security tapes show nothing, really weird ghost attacks and stuff like that."
"Why haven't I heard about this?" I wondered.
"Because you've been a little busy with…"
"Alek?"
"Thank you."
"That was a question not an answer." I rolled my eyes.
"Well now you know. It's not that—" Danny felt the telltale tingle of his ghost breath and tensed immediately.
"Here we go again." He mumbled.
"Alright, two in one day! Let's see how many more will pop up, maybe we'll hit a record." I said optimistically, pulling my car over to the side of the road. Danny put the pictures down on the dashboard as the car shifted into park beside a rusty broken parking meter. This had to be a more secluded part of town, of course there were ghosts lurking around here. The streets were eerily empty, which made this even creepier that it was. I came around the car, to Danny's head craned up, staring at the tops of the apartment buildings.
"Go home." He simply said. I looked at him like he was crazy.
"No." I spat back, my nose wrinkling up. Danny walked to the right and soon stopped in his place. His ghost sense went off again.
"An apartment building?" He asked.
"A really rundown apartment building." I corrected. The red brick building looked worn out. The windows were dirty and dusty. Some were broken. The entrance to the building was on the side in some alley, how creepy could this get? We walked to the alleyway, passing under a gate arch that happened to be missing the gate doors. A lantern hung from the middle of the steel arch. Danny's ghost sense went off again, but we kept walking. Maybe this was just some trick by Vlad or Maddie, getting us together to see if it was Danny who was the ghost boy. Behind us, the lantern creaked and echoed off the alley walls. Both of us turned around, Danny closer to the lamp than I was. It was swinging as if the wind was blowing, but at the moment, there wasn't any breeze. Then all of the sudden, it dropped. Leaning forward, I grabbed Danny by the back of his shirt and pulled him backwards. The lamp hit the ground and shattered, glass sprinkling the ground where Danny had been standing. We looked at each other, fashioning wide eyes and he pulled me towards the entrance of the hotel. We barged in the front doors and we were greeted to a dirty, basically empty lobby. The air smelled musty with the slight left over smell of cigarettes. The overhead lights were dim and the floors were meant to look like tile, but they were really linoleum. The lobby wasn't so much a lobby, it was the center of an intersection for three hallways. There was one to both my left and right and there was one directly in front of us. Against the wall between the hallway on the left and the one in front of us was an old wooden table with a cheap ceramic vase filled with dying flowers. A pack of Marlboro's sat open at the end of the table. Someone must have forgotten them.
"Going g—" Danny began.
"No," I stopped him with my hand, "what if this is some plan from—"
"Shh" Danny whispered suddenly, pressing his finger to his lips and pointing towards the hallway to the right of him. I was expecting to have a ghost pop out, but nothing happened except a locking noise from behind us. We swung around to notice the locking noise coming from the door. I took a step forward and pressed down on the push bars of the doors. The doors didn't budge.
"What?" I pushed the doors with all my might just for the result of nothing. Even Danny tried shoving the door open. He was stronger than me and he couldn't get it.
"Do you think there's more than one?" I asked.
"I'm not sure, but we're gonna find out." He assured, we both turned around ready to find another exit.
"You've got to be kidding me." The words came out in a shocking breath.
"Oh crap…" said Danny blankly, staring at the hallway in front of us. Five people around Danny's height were standing with their hands in their pockets. They wore all black, and their faces were veiled by black hoodies. We turned around to try to get out the doors again but two more black hooded figures were standing out there. We turned back around, holding our breath fearing the inevitable.
"Good luck." I sarcastically hoped for him.
"Yeah, no…" he began, "there's way to many."
"We're so dead." I gulped as the hooded figures took a step forward.
"I go right, you go left?" He suggested. After dealing with these ghost attacks for so many months now, we learned to split up during a ghost attack.
"I'll find you eventually." I agreed and we split up. Danny ran into the right hallway and I ran into the left. As we took off, I could hear the front doors swing open. Quickly, as I ran down the hallway, I turned my head around to see how many were following me. There were three, and that had to mean four were following Danny. I didn't do anything, why were they following me? And who were these ghost-people who were following us? If I could see their faces it'd help a lot, but of course I couldn't. I turned right as the hallway came to a stop. My locket slapped against my skin as I ran. My legs pushed faster, trying to lose the three ghosts. Another hallway connected to the one I was running down now, I looked behind me to not see the ghosts. Perfect, I turned down the hallway, and kept running. Sure running wasn't my best ability, but I had gotten better at it since I met Danny. Way better at it. At the end of the hallway there were rusty gold-painted mailboxes built into the wall. Above them was the word 'Directory' but it was missing the e and the o. I slipped to the left and began running down that hallway, which lead to another and another. But somehow, I eventually ran into Danny. There weren't any ghosts behind him. We stopped in our tracks.
"Lose them?"
"Not even close, where are they?" I wondered, turning over my shoulder to see the coast was clear.
"There." His eyes widened, staring at the hallway ahead of us. They found us, again. It was bound to happen. They were standing there, still as a statue, until they began running towards us at full speed.
"Go, go, go!" I demanded, pushing him forward. Our feet slid on the floor as we started running, almost tripping ourselves.
"You know, now would be a great time to go ghost!"
"You think I haven't thought of that? There's such thing as security camera's around here." He informed.
"Well they sure aren't worried about camera's!"
"Because no one can see their faces." Danny spat, "find a way out of here." He demanded.
"If we live through this, remind me to thank you." I smirked before pushing open the door that said 'stairs' and disappeared behind the door, leaving Danny to himself in the hallway. I wanted to stop for a second to catch my breath, but I didn't. The stairwell smelled even worse then the apartment lobby. The stench of mildew and cigarettes was overcoming, and the dampness of the air sent a chill down my spine. The poorly lit lights gave off a yellow glow. God, I'd do anything to stop running and get out of here. I had to pretend that I wasn't running away from a ghost, I was running on my normal morning runs. That was what I was pretending to do—I was on my morning runs. Not being chased by ghosts.
Yeah, there was no way to convince myself.
Running up the five flights of stairs was killer on my legs. My lungs burned and I could barely breathe. But, it was still better than being caught. Ever so often I'd look over the rusty banister and still see myself no being chased, but then again the ghosts could be invisible. That's what they did best. Finally I reached the top and the first thing I saw was the bright red exit sign hanging above the door that read 'roof-top, officials only' on it. I burst through the door and slowed down, catching my breath. The cold air hit me and I took it in warmly. The fresh air felt so good coming into my lungs. The rooftop was different than I imagined. There was a fabulous view of a thirty-mile radius of the city. But, that was the only good thing about the place. There were mini sheds covered with rotten wood and large triangular glass objects covered with mildew and dirt. My head craned around to look at everything; this place was a dump. It was the perfect place for some creepy guy to jump out and get out. Then, I heard footsteps pattering on the ground behind me. My head twisted around to see one hooded ghost looking around for me. Then his head turned to the left and he spotted me. His pace quickened, and so did mine. And when I thought the only exit was the way I came in, I found the fire escape. The metal stairs looked like they could collapse at any second, but I dealt with the risk. The stairs were steady, but I could hear the metal shaking beneath my feet. And the stairs shook even more when the ghost took his first steps onto it. I darted my way down the stairs and climbed onto a ladder. Looking down, my hands began shaking. Being high above the ground terrified me. I wasn't even that far off the ground, but it scared me. The ladder screeched and creaked with each step down I took.
Please don't break, please don't break!
I slowly climbed down the ladder until it ended. What was I going to do now? My eyes stared at the ground like it was a death trap, though I was only ten or twelve feet above. Half my mind screamed to jump, but the other half was desperately yelling for me to climb back up. But instead, I jumped. It was like an adrenaline rush hit me. I landed in a crouched position and then I tumbled over onto the cement. Scurrying up from the ground, I was prepared to run into the street where it was probably more populated than an alley. But, once I stood up and my head lifted, I observed the ghost appear out of thin air.
"Of course," I mumbled, "come on, go after Danny, I didn't do anything." I yelled to the ghost. Through the darkness of the hoodie that blinded the ghosts face, I could see a smirk lift its lips. But that was it. Then the ghost began running after me. I turned around to see that the alley kept going and eventually turned left. From there I could only hope that there was an exit, so I went with it. The alley wrapped around the back of the apartment building and then through the other side. I could hear the footsteps of the ghost behind me, the soles of it's shoes beating against the pavement rung in my ears. As I turned around the corner to the other side of the building, an intangible Danny Phantom flew through the walls and tumbled to the floor, hitting a bunch of metal garbage cans and a wire fence. I stopped in my place, my boots scuffed on the ground, emitting a screeching noise. Rushing over to Danny, I reached my hand down to help him up. His white gloves covered hand grabbed onto mine, and he stood up. Then he turned back into his human self.
"What are you doing?" He asked.
"It was—" I turned around, throwing a thumb over my back to point to the ghost following me, but the problem was, I was pointing to an empty alley. I looked back to Danny, both of us fashioning furrowed brows. Danny opened his mouth to speak, but instead, we heard the racket of a car alarm blaring. But the sound was too familiar—it was my car alarm. We began racing towards the sound, it got louder and louder as we grew closer. Then we reached the car, and our jaws dropped. I pulled my keys out of my pocket and pressed my thumb down on the button to cancel the alarm. Only the trunk was open, but that's what didn't scare us. Spread across the trunk floor were the pictures of Danny and I, but they were cut in half—Danny on one part of the picture and me on the other. Danny's half of the picture was ripped up into several different pieces, so the half that had a picture of me was still intact.
"Someone really doesn't like you." I broke the silence, picking up multiple pieces of Danny's picture.
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Danny insisted on coming home with me, and apparently walking me to my door.
"See you tomorrow. Say bye to your parents from me." He stuffed his hands into his pockets.
"Throw out the pictures." I urged, handing him the scraps of paper from my bag. He nodded, taking them into his hand. He threw them off the porch and they all landed on the grass. Then, he changed himself into his ghost form.
"What are you doing, people are gonna see you." I hissed. A glowing green ball of energy emitted from his palm and blasted to the ground, burning the remains of the pictures. The fire went out and there was a black residue on the lawn.
"You scorched the grass." I said in amazement.
"Sorry." I laughed in amazement and shook my head.
"I'll see you tomorrow." I unlocked the door and walked inside. The savory sent of steak and roasted garlic entered my nose.
"You're late." Jeremy smirked, standing in the kitchen tapping away on his phone.
"Sorry, we ran into a little problem." Jeremy got what I was saying. My parents? Not so much.
"Problem? Like what?" Shylee asked, piling steaks onto a large ceramic plate.
"The car wouldn't start." I lied, eyeing Jeremy.
"Well it is due for a check up. We'll call the dealership so you can drop it off tomorrow." My dad sat down at the table with a plate filled with food.
"If you're taking the car to the airport, how do you suppose I get back home?"
"Have one of your friends drop you off, I'm sure someone will be willing to do it."
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The final school bell rang and I walked out of Chemistry with Danny. Alek skipped school again, and he wouldn't answer his phone when I called him at lunch. It was angering me how missing in action he's been the past few days, but maybe he had a lot going on. But I still wanted to know what was going on. He was my boyfriend; I deserved to be in on something.
"One week from exactly right now, we'll be on winter break." Danny said, but I barely heard him. I slid my phone out of my cardigan pocket and checked its blank screen. Still nothing from Alek.
"Alexa?" He tried getting my attention.
"Huh? Oh, right, yeah, can't wait." Disappointed, I slid my phone into my jean pocket.
"You've seemed kind of distant today."
"I'm fine." I'm concerned.
"Is this—"
"Successfully passed my math test!" Elliot jumped in with us, waving a paper with an 'A-' written on the top in blue ink in our faces.
"I thought you said you thought you failed?" Danny grabbed the paper from him.
"Failing to Elliot means getting a B." My eyes rolled.
"True." Danny agreed, his head bobbing up and down in a nod.
"Hey, you're making me sound like some grade obsessed nerd!" An offended Elliot cried. Danny and I both looked at him with raised brows.
"Whatever." He mumbled.
"Hey, Alexa," Jenna came up to us, causing us all to stop walking, "you ready?" She asked.
"Yeah."
"I just have to go get stuff from my locker." She informed, tucking a piece of her dark strawberry blonde hair, which looked more ginger today, behind her ear.
"Fine, I'll meet you at your car." I pursed my lips. Jenna faired a temporary farewell and quickly walked off.
"What was that about?" Danny wondered.
"Jenna's supposed to take me home."
"Uh, no. Not from what happened last time." He disagreed.
"She's fine now."
"Yeah she was fine before too but then you almost ended up being driven over a bridge." Danny needed to stop being so over protective, but I wasn't in a mood to tell him that.
"Jeremy's taking my car to the dealership so I have no way of getting home then."
"Well, isn't it a good thing I have a car then." He smirked.
"You can drive me everywhere, I have to have a life eventually. Someone's after you, not me."
"And thankfully not me," Elliot giggled, "hey, did you ever get ahold of Alek?" he asked.
"No," I let out a big sigh, "nothing."
"You sound frustrated." Elliot observed as we pushed open the doors to the schools front door. I shivered as the cold windy air hit us.
"Why would I be? I can't get a hold of my boyfriend and his presence has been lacking majorly, not to mention him being out of the loop the past few days." I sarcastically said. Then I admitted, "I just want to know what's going on." My eyes fell upon a figure, dressed in a short-sleeved black V-neck, black jacket, and jeans. His hands were stuffed into his jean pockets, and his face was hard until we locked eyes. He smirked. He had been waiting for me. Danny, Elliot, and I stopped dead facing Alek halfway across the parking lot.
"Hold this." I mindlessly said to Elliot, sliding my backpack off my shoulder and carelessly handing it to him. He struggled to catch it since he wasn't expecting to hold the bag. I rushed down the stairs and walked over to him, hiding away my frustration.
"You're a little late." I sarcastically greeted. He silently laughed, looking down to the ground, "where were you? I called you about a million times." I could see Danny and Elliot from where I was standing; both had fatherly expressions plastered to their faces. They were confused as why he was here. At least they were out of hearing range.
"I'm sorry." He simply apologized.
"If there's something going on, you can tell me."
"I know. I'm sorry." He said again. Again. I didn't want any apologizes, I wanted to know what was going on.
"Alek, what's going on? We were supposed to meet up yesterday morning, you never showed, then you don't come to school, and today you were gone too. Why are you disappearing?" I played off my anger with a quiet laugh and slight smile.
"I'm so sorry, I'll be able to make it up to you because I love you," he paused, "and I don't want us to fight with each other or me to be acting so secretive or out of it. I'm sorry." His freezing hand grabbed mine. It took about ten seconds for Alek's words to sink in. Then, all of the sudden, I felt like couldn't breathe. I felt nervous; my brain wasn't able to process my thoughts. My jeans felt too tight and my boots felt like they were constricting my feet. My body temperature must have risen five degrees, the blood flooding to my cheeks. The eggplant colored long sleeved shirt and leather jacket I had on made me feel like I was being suffocated with heat—though it was in the high forties outside.
"I'm sorry." How many times did he say that today? "Say something, before I throw up." He laughed. I opened my mouth to speak, but instead Alek spoke for me.
"I wasn't gonna tell you like that, and now—ugh!" He groaned, "I'm s—"
"Sorry, I know. Stop apologizing." I gave him a soft grin. He looked down to the ground and smiled shyly.
"Thank you."
"Come over later? My parents are out of town so it's just Jer and me and he's ordering take out since we're both insufficient of cooking skills."
"Hey Alek!" Jenna popped up out of nowhere, making my heart jump even more than it was from what Alek told me.
"Jenna." He smiled warmly.
"Alexa, ready to go?" She turned to me.
"Danny's actually taking me home since he needs to pick up some stuff," I lied, "sorry."
"It's fine. See you Monday?" She asked.
"If you're done early tomorrow call me and we'll meet up." I told her. She nodded her head in agreement and turned to Alek. Her eyes locked on him and she oddly looked intently at him. Alek's brows pushed together, watching her gaze. Her pouty lips parted, as if she wanted to say something, but she didn't. Jenna was studying him as if she was in a trance, but then she shook it off.
"I'll see you guys later!" She smiled, waggling her fingers as she walked off. Our eyes followed her as she walked to her car, disappearing behind a line of cars.
"Do you…" Alek point back to her. I raised my hand to stop him from talking, shaking my head in the process.
"I don't even know anymore." I sighed.
"Listen, I've got to go see Mr. Heneley about some papers. I'll see you tonight" He leaned in and our lips pressed together, then after to soon, they split.
"Love you." He said softly and he walked away, breaking the connection between our hands. He walked away and I was left with a smile lifting up my lips. I turned around to see Alek passing Danny and Elliot, who were now standing at the base of the stairs.
"What's going on guys?" he greeted.
"Dude, where were you today?" Elliot wondered.
"Out." Alek simply answered.
"Really." Danny mumbled blankly.
"I've got to go see Heneley on some missing papers, see you later."
"Take it easy man, we'll see you later." Elliot waved to his friend as he vanished into the school building. After I stood in my place, completely still from shock, I shook myself out of it and walked over to Danny and Elliot like nothing was wrong. No, why would something be wrong? My boyfriend just admitted he was in love with me, that wasn't anything to freak over. Now, why couldn't I figure out if I felt the same way?
"What was that about?" Danny asked.
"Uh, nothing." I pursed my lips, trying to get rid of this terrible conflict in my head.
"Liar." glared, Elliot. I looked at him with daggers in my eyes.
"Okay so clearly since we know you're lying, you either broke up or he just said something to upset you." They knew me to easily, they understood my happy face from my troubled look.
"Well wouldn't you just love to know? He's my boyfriend, not yours." I smirked. Wow, where'd that come from?
"Oh, she's good." Elliot commented, laughing. I quietly snickered, but Danny didn't think it was so funny.
"Seriously, what happened? We're you're best friends, you can tell us."
"Hey, Elliot, I forgot my History book in your locker. Can you some with me to get it?" I lied, trying to get myself and him separated from Danny.
"History book? You didn't—"
"Let's go." I hissed, grabbing his wrist. He stumbled as I pulled him into the school.
"It's fine, I'll wait here!" Danny helplessly called, the door shut behind us. At least the hallways were empty, school usually cleared out this fast.
"What are you doing, there's no history book in my locker!" Elliot and I stopped walking.
"I know." I answered.
"Then what's going on?" He looked at his watch. I looked behind me to make sure no one was there.
"Alek just told me he loved me." I blurted out. Elliot's eyes widened. He opened his mouth, but what came out wasn't what I expected him to say.
"Danny!" He yelled, beginning to run to the front doors.
"No!" I scrambled and grabbed him by his shirt, covering his mouth with my hand.
"Elliot, no," I uncovered my hand and let it fall to my side, "you can't tell Danny." I decided.
"Why?"
"Because…" there was paused, "because I said so!" I barked.
"You sound like my mom, that's not an excuse." Elliot rolled his eyes.
"Fine. He hates Alek, I know that, you know that. Even Alek knows that! Promise me you won't tell him." Elliot was quiet for a minute after he reluctantly nodded.
"What do you think about this?"
"What do you mean?"
"How do you feel about him saying that he loved you?"
"I don't know…" I shrugged, running a hand through my hair.
"Do you feel the same way?" Elliot finally had to ask. My gaze on him dropped and fell to the floor until I felt confident enough to answer.
"Maybe." I shook my head, I really didn't know at this point. My mind was still freaking out over that the words 'I love you' came out of his mouth.
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DANNY'S POV:
"Well, Officer Protective, here we are." Alexa stated, fiddling with the keys to open the front door. I insisted on driving her home and again, walking her to the front door since there was something out there that attacked both of us yesterday.
"See you Sunday." I waved, then remembered something.
"Shoot." I mumbled. She looked up after the door was unlocked and open.
"What?"
"There's this family business lunch with my dad at eleven or something. I should be done by two or three, we'll hang out then, okay?" Some family lunch this was, my parents weren't actually my parents.
"That's fine. See you Sunday." Something was going on with her, I could tell. Most of the car ride I was talking and she wouldn't answer, she'd continue on staring out the window. Clearly it was something Alek did, but then again all day she was acting all weird. Probably because of Alek not being there, I wasn't dumb I could notice these things. Alexa went into her house and shut the door behind her. Jeremy wasn't home and neither were her parents, so why wouldn't she invite me to stay? Something was definitely going on. It wasn't my business, but then again when was it ever my business? Prying was my thing. But for now, I had to get my car home and then I could do what I did best—spying. So I drove home, my mind wondering what was going on and thinking about those ghosts yesterday. We were never able to see their faces; those stupid hoodies covered every facial feature. Pulling into my driveway, I turned off the engine and slammed my door shut behind me. My backpack slung over my bag.
"Danny!" Elliot? What was he doing here?
"Danny, wait!" Elliot came running up the sidewalk; sweat dripping down his forehead. He stopped when he came up to me, bending down and putting his hands on his knees so he could catch his breath.
"What are you doing here?"
"Alek," he breathed, "told, Alexa," He stood up, wiping his forehead with his jacket sleeve, "he loves her." He finally caught his breath.
"She asked me not to tell you, so you know nothing!" So that's what they were talking about after all. And that's what had Alexa acting so strange.