Chapter 4

"Get back here, young man. I am not done talking to you!"

Fourteen year-old Danny's jaw clenched and he stopped in his tracks. His skinny limbs locked in place, tensed. His nerve endings vibrated in anger. He didn't turn around.

"Daniel. What the hell is going on with you? Skipping school? Shoplifting? What's next, snorting coke?"

He needed to shut up. He needed to fucking shut his mouth up. Jack Fenton didn't have any clue what his son was going through right now so he should zip his mouth and go back to tinkering whatever piece of crap his clumsy hands could grab. Danny steeled his nerves and decided to take another step forward without any implication that he heard his father bellowing behind him and his mother weeping, trying to calm his stupid father down.

"Jack! He just needs some time. He didn't mean—Jack!"

Danny was about to take the third step toward the front door when his arm was wrenched from behind and he was spun. He lost his balance and landed flat on his butt. His arm felt disjointed from the shoulder. He glared at the oversized, black haired man in front of him.

"You do NOT disrespect your own parents!" Jack Fenton's deep blue eyes pierced through Danny's insides, his beefy finger pointing at the lanky boy who stared back at him.

Danny wanted to lash out, he wanted to break things and hurt someone but he didn't. He couldn't. Even if he was mad at his own father he didn't have the balls to engage on a battle with him. He was that much of a chicken. The guys at the school were right. He was nothing. He couldn't even stand up to his own parents, couldn't even tell them that he was hurting, that he needed time to lick his wounds.

He couldn't even visit his best friend in the hospital for fear that he would reject him.

"Jack, it's not his fault! Jack!"

"DAD!" That was Jazz, trying to sputter some sick sense to the commotion.

Danny ignored them and stood. He brushed off bits of dirt from his pants and attempted to be as unaffected as possible. His feelings were too intense to handle. If he tried to talk, he'd probably end up screaming or crying. He also had a dislocated shoulder to worry about.

"JACK!"

The blow to Danny's face jolted him out of his misery. His vision dimmed and when he reopened his eyes, he was back on the floor. He coughed and bits of blood sprayed on the yellow carpet. He pushed himself off the floor with unsteady hands, tears obscured his vision but he bit them back. He looked at his father's fury-filled face and instantly saw the regret in them.

"S-son… I-I.."

Danny didn't let him finish. He whirled around and bolted out the front door.

"Danny!"

"Yep, he's fine. Just a little exhausted, you know, college, work, girls. Yep. Yeah, yeah. What? Nah, he's just a little buzzed. Whoa! No, not that—Alright, I'll tell him to call you. Okay? Okay. Bye!"

Danny watched as Tucker hit the off button on his phone and promptly dropped it in his bag pack. Danny blinked and rubbed his eyes. He wanted to get up but the cushion beneath him was too warm and too comfortable to resist. He reached a hand to his head to scratch it but drew his fingers short when he touched clumps of dried blood.

Questioning azure eyes turned to Tucker. Tucker scanned Danny's face first before he spoke.

"Are you feeling alright? What do you need, painkillers? Water? Hospital? Food? Women? Love?" Tucker cocked his head and put on a very straight face. "Cause I can definitely give you looove."

Danny began to grin when he remembered what happened. He immediately cringed and sat up. "Shit."

"I would have said bathroom's over there but since we don't have time for jokes. Yeah, shit kind of sums it all up." Tucker grabbed a plastic chair and parked it across the couch where Danny was. He plopped down and let out a sigh as he curled his fist on his lap.

Danny's eyes widened. "How did you find me?"

"Well, not all of us have ghost sense but we do have this handy trick called GPS. Kind of cool, actually. You just follow the blinking thing on the map."

Danny was starting to narrow his eyes at Tucker so he politely shut up.

Silence hung in the air and nobody dared to speak the inevitable, both of their eyes downcast, forlorn and thoughtful. Then Danny let out a long sigh and ran a hand on his face. "I screwed up."

"We both did." Tucker inhaled. "I'm sorry. If I was only—"

Danny shot him a glare. "Good thing you weren't there. I don't want you anywhere near the inside of that place. Not you, or even Jazz. And do not ever do anything that will drag Jazz here."

"Puh-lease. I made sure of that back when you were still out."

"Tucker, I'm serious."

"So am I, man."

"Good."

"Good."

They both crossed their arms and huffed. A second later, they both dropped the act and let out a long breath.

Danny leaned back on the couch and pressed a finger on his temple, dread filled his stomach and he could feel that buzzing, crawling anxiety coming back. He swallowed. It was just a suppressed memory. It had nothing to do with the situation at hand. It was just a déjà vu.

Because she reacted that way.

Because she gave him a big slap in the face when she had stared at him that way. It wasn't offensive. It was just familiar. Similar to the one he received right after—

"Now what?" Tucker raised his brows at Danny and bit his lip.

Danny shook his thoughts away. He brought his hand down and looked at Tucker straight in the eye. "Now we assess the damage and bring out the police tape."

Tucker readjusted his glasses. His eyes sharpened. If there was one thing they learned about death, it was the fact that when it happened, they had to deal with what was left instead of coming up with fantasies of could have's, should have's and would have's.

"Who's the last person who has seen you with…" Tucker hesitated.

Danny planted both of his feet on the floor, grabbed the couch's edge and stood. "The other guy, Kwan something." He paused to grit his teeth. His ankle still needed some time to heal. "And Star. Probably a dozen more people since he decided to have a boxing match on a stupid party."

Tucker made a sound between a snort and a scoff. "What were you doing while I was out of the picture, running for student council? I thought we're supposed to stay low."

"Well, I wasn't—"

"Kudos also for revealing the big secret to the target. That was quite a performance."

Danny stomped his way to the fridge to get a cold glass of water. Pain shot through his ankle and up to his limbs but he ignored it. Tucker should stop bitching out, it was definitely not helping with his possible concussion. He yanked the pitcher out and drank from it. The cold rushed to his throat, down to his muscles with the intensity of a miniature tsunami.

Danny blinked and looked back at Tucker. His frown etched deep on his face. "How did you get me out?"

Tucker put a knuckle under his chin and sighed. "You were in her arms, all knocked out and still and wrapped in a white sheet, delivered right out the front door."

Danny stopped breathing for a moment. She touched him again? Sam enveloped him in her arms?

Tucker clucked his tongue. "In plain English, you got tossed out."

"What?"

Tucker shook his head at him. "You got the Queen of all Killer Ghosts and you expect to be handled with care? What are you, a freaking antique jar?" When Danny didn't say anything and continued to stare at Tucker with incomprehension, Tucker rolled his eyes. "I guess she didn't have any first aid training. She seemed a bit surprised seeing someone fainted. You got thrown to the wall at least twice before you were kicked out."

Danny opened and closed his mouth like a fish out of the water but no words came out. He was too baffled to form a coherent sentence. Tucker, the ever talkative best friend that he was, supplied all the information Danny's brain was struggling to get hold of.

"Kwan the sidekick disappeared right after he saw his friend got torn to shreds. Then Her Royal Slaughteress decided one kill for the night was enough, she was" Tucker shivered. "Terribly uncomfortable with the fact that you passed out."

Danny's lips were pressed into a grim line. Tucker was being his usual, awkward self, making everything sound light and skipping the sensitive parts. For example, the part where Danny got all asthmatic and paranoid that he curled up and basically had a breakdown right there, inside the goddamned house.

Tucker rose and fiddled with his PDA. "So what's the plan?"

"You do what you do best and I go—"

"You have to be fucking kidding me."

Danny shot dagger eyes at Tucker who looked at him like he was the biggest idiot in town.

"Really? You're going back there?" Tucker scratched his head impatiently. "People probably thought you're dead or stashed Dash's body somewhere and the first thing you're going to do is to go back to that goddamned house? Why don't you try to make amends with the living first?"

The line of Danny's body tightened. He was as immobile as a statue, staring Tucker down. "Then enlighten me, Einstein."

Showered, fed and feeling a wee better, Danny rounded the Psychology Building and leaned on a large tree, his eyes focused on the entrance. He crossed his feet and kept his fists on his hoodie's pocket. Ever since the encounter with Sam, his body went on a haywire. His ankle quickly and unbelievably healed. His temperature dipped. Even his human self was colder than usual. His senses were also annoyingly sharp. Too sharp that he found it hard to focus.

Then he spotted her. The familiar golden hair and pink stilettos. She was as cheerful as the day he met her but he caught her dropping the mask after the group of cheerleaders passed by. She clutched her purse tighter and chose the shaded path. She ducked into the trees.

Danny stepped out of the shadows. Star let out a frightened yelp but she calmed down as soon as she recognized his face, although she still looked a bit worried seeing him.

"Danny! A-are you okay? What happened? And God, I- I'm so, so sorry."

Star seemed as if she wanted to touch him to make sure he was real but she kept her hands to herself and let her eyes do the checking instead. The kind of checking that screamed, 'Please be real'.

Danny cleared his throat. If it wasn't for Tucker, he would have let her think something bad happened to him so he wouldn't need to worry about his façade and devote all his time and energy to Sam instead.

He ignored her question and cut right to the point. "Where's Kwan?"

Star appeared taken aback by Danny's rudeness. Her shoulders hitched like he was a predator about to pounce on her. Danny sighed and dropped his hands to his sides. "I'm sorry. I just really need to talk to him."

Star looked a bit relieved and she composed herself, the observant student mode was back on. "Honestly, I have no idea. I mean, it's not like we hang out every day but he and Dash have always been… active."

Meaning, Dash and Kwan were a constant presence. Danny didn't bother to correct Star, he just nodded. He had to think of something and he had to do it fast. They couldn't afford to have any more attention than what they were getting now. He had to shut up Kwan, since Star seemed clueless about what had gone down that Saturday night.

Speaking of Saturday night, he might as well check the house again just to make sure everything that happened was real and not some kind of twisted dream. He had made himself visible to the campus again and he already had a witness that Danny Fenton was okay, weird but alive. Well, sort of, but the message had been delivered, Danny Fenton went to school while Dash didn't and apparently so was Kwan. Danny felt strangely motivated but he was not about to question that feeling.

Monday classes be damned but he was not about to be bothered by something so mediocre when he just found that there was more to the infamous slaughteress. For example, the fact that she seemed to uphold herself as a higher ghost than Danny.

Danny blinked. Star was still adamant on apologizing to him but he didn't hear her. Everything had gone silent, like the TV was muted. The hairs at the back of his neck rose.

The temperature dropped. Danny's breath caught in his throat.

His heart froze.

No.

That long raven hair, that white, lacy dress. Fifty feet away, she had her back to him but he couldn't be mistaken. She was floating, no; she was walking toward the fountain. Black combat boots. But it was definitely her.

The wind blew and strands of that silky, black hair moved with the breeze. Not like the writhing tendrils back in the house. It was just normal, just alive. She looked so alive it had to be a dream.

"Daniel!"

The noises and sights of the world assaulted his senses full force. Danny leaned a hand on the tree and stepped back. He felt light-headed, like the earth just tipped. What the hell had just happened?

He swallowed and his shoulders tensed. Wide eyed and heart thumping, his gaze switched back to the blonde in front of him who was giving him a worried look. There was no breeze and when his eyes flicked back to the fountain, it was empty.

"Sorry."He mumbled and strained his neck to scout the place for any hint of her presence, a glimpse of black hair, the crunch of boots to the pavement, the smell of lavender, anything.

Star drew in a deep breath. "I said I'm really sorry. I didn't know Dash would do something like that. He's always been a possessive jerk but we were never together and I didn't know he would go punching someone when he's drunk. I thought he was already dating that biology major. He said they were just going to talk to you. Of course that was the stupidest excuse of the century." She ruffled her hair; Danny had to pause to think, the queen bee looked thoroughly distraught with what happened. "Talk to you! When you were clearly out! How could I believe that? I am so stupid!"

Star stomped her foot and huffed. "I tried calling someone for help but nobody wanted to mess with Dash and his friends." She finished with a sad, puppy dog pout on her thin, pink lips.

Danny grunted but he wasn't hearing any of it. He was a hundred percent sure he just saw Sam. Well, it might be the concussion talking or the blood loss. Either way, Danny knew what he needed to do.

He nodded a vague reply to Star and turned on his heel.

He was going back to Sam's house. Kwan would have to wait because believe it or not. Danny couldn't wait to be back at her house again.

"More than seventy people in the last seven years! Dude, are you seriously out of your frigging mind?" Tucker yelled from the phone, Danny had it on his hand, away from his ear as he was already running. Never mind that he could clearly hear him as if he was standing right next to him, or the fact that he just ditched classes and was jogging like a madman in the middle of the day.

One thing was clear. Sam died seven years ago. Nobody knew exactly how or why. They just found her broken and bloody body on the grassy patch of the road, wearing a flimsy white dress.

Nobody could trace the cause of death. The body was a horrendous sight, covered with dried, dark blood, the lips chapped and white, frozen on a scream, the pale arms and limbs twisted with the evident struggle. The girl was bathed in blood but upon the autopsy, no wounds were found.

How could someone be coated in blood without any wounds?

Sam. Samantha Manson. She was just fourteen years old back then.

Everybody thought she was raped due to the dress. They speculated a night out went wrong, a kidnapping. A jealous boyfriend, an ugly fight, a drug addict on a cutting trip.

Theories swirled and gossips whispered but one doctor said it was poison, oozed out of the mouth, nose, ears and seeped from the pores of the skin.

Danny shook his head and clutched the phone in his hand tighter. Seeped out of the pores, his ass. That was clearly some spewed out bullshit that was the effect of one's desperation for a scientific, logical cause.

How could someone explain the blood? The amount of blood on her dress?

Of course, the real question was, why was Danny inexplicably excited to see her again?

A/N: Hey guys, how are you? I hope you're all doing okay. I know some of you might have skewed me with pitch forks if you knew where to find me because I failed to update and give some semblance of hope that I'm still alive. So sorry about being MIA for the past month or so.

Okay, some news, I've got a job but these past few weeks, my family keeps ending up hospitalized so I was juggling between work and temporarily staying at the hospital to watch over them. The better news is that, everything's fine now and I'm able to write again. Cheers to that!

Of course, thank you very much for the reviews and positive responses from last chapter, I do appreciate all of them! My warmest and deepest thanks goes to these awesome people, Lightning Streak, elnine27, Cindy M 19, Expergiscimini, stormking92 and Favorite Daughter Of Hades.

Comments, suggestions, opinions, questions, violent reactions? Please review.