Disclaimer: You know I don't own Danny Phantom, foo'.
AN: *sqqquuueaaakkkk!!* I am overwhelmed and overjoyed by the kindness and amazingness of those who reviewed! THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!! I can't tell you how much I appreciate it! I owe you my eternal soul for the happiness you have brought me! A million thousand thanks! But now, on to what you really came here for,
Chapter 2!
They had decided to meet at an old sports park near the city. The park had closed a few years earlier for renovations but had never been cleaned up. Now, the park was deserted, completely empty but for some trash and a few patches of very resilient grass. A cold wind swept over the place, causing a few crumpled papers to toss around widely. It was a picturesque place for some ghost hunting.
The three walked in silence to the park…well, almost in silence. Tucker had been ranting for hours about some new upgrade on his palm pilot but his voice had quickly turned into some continuous, droning, background noise for the other two teens.
Danny was far too tired and far too worried to listen to what his friend was going on and on about. He had been forced to stay up all night because the group had decided it would safest if he was the one to fall asleep.
Tucker had been eliminated as an option because he claimed to be nightmare free and they had all feared the kind of things that could come from Sam's head. Danny was a safe bet, he had no problems having nightmares and they were the everyday, giant spider kind, not the fierce flesh-eating demon kind that Sam had. Besides, they weren't sure if this 'Dream Catcher' responded to all nightmares or only to Danny's. He was there only choice.
Being this tired before a major fight made Danny even more uncertain. He wasn't sure if Sam and Tucker realized exactly what they were going up against. This thing…it was evil, and not in the meat-loving lunch lady from beyond the dead way.
It was evil in the real way, in the way that it could rip your beating heart from your body and not even flinch. It was heartless, soulless, emotionless. He had seen it for only a second and it seem to have sucked all happiness, all goodness, all certainty out of him. It was terrifying. He wasn't sure if he could take it on at all, much less in this condition.
"Danny," Sam said, clearly concerned. She had been watching him ever since they left the house early that morning and she knew something was wrong, "Are you sure you're okay? We don't have to go through with this if you don't want to."
He briefly considered telling her everything was fine, but he knew she'd see right though that. "I don't know Sam…I just have a really bad feeling about all of this…"
"Yeah," she agreed. "I know what you mean. Maybe we should put this off till we find some more information."
Danny wanted desperately to agree with her but instead he shook his head. "No," he said resolutely, "We should finish this now, before it gets any worse."
Sam nodded, frowning slightly. She could tell Danny was still unsure but she knew nothing she could say would change his mind. Instead, she did the only thing she could and remained walking very closely beside him, a silent promise that he wasn't alone.
When they finally reached the park, it was easy for Danny to fall asleep. The second he laid down on one of the cold metal bleachers, he was out. Tucker and Sam waited patiently for a nightmare to begin.
"No," Danny mumbled just as he had the night before. "Please no! You can't! Please! I should have…Stop! What are you?! You can't! I won't…I…Please!! I..I'll do anything!! just don't…don't…"
"Danny!" Tucker yelled, shaking him violently. "Up boy! Up!"
Danny shot up just in time for the blue gas to escape from his mouth.
"….my god," Sam whispered, staring at the black mass that had just appeared in front of them.
"It's…him," Danny confirmed breathlessly.
"What?!" Tucker yelled, "You were suppose to dream about that spider or about the box ghost and you went and dreamed about this guy?!"
"Sorry! I couldn't help it!" Danny panicked.
"Danny-" Sam started, not having taken her eyes off of the quickly approaching black fog.
"Yeah yeah, I know," he grimaced and then quickly flashed ghost.
"How am I suppose to fight this thing? It doesn't have limbs!" Danny shouted frantically from the air.
As if on queue, the black fog began to mold into a faintly human shape and there he was, a pitch black ghostly figure with two piercing red eyes and a gaping mouth. Before Danny could react, he had been smashed into the ground.
"Urgh," he groaned, rubbing his head as he fought to stand up.
"Danny!" Tucker and Sam yelled, alerting him to the giant spider rushing up behind him.
"Not you again," Danny grumbled, kicking the spider hard enough to send it flying.
"Is this another apparition thing?" Tucker asked fearfully, backing farther away.
Sam shook her head, eyes still glued to the fight. "I don't think so. This isn't like the apparitions…those were separate from the actual ghost. This is still the ghost, it's just changing forms…"
The spider hissed and slowly evaporated back into a ghost. He threw another blow at Danny, but this time Danny dodged.
The pace began to quicken as the 'Dream Catcher' morphed again. This time, his body was slowly decaying, that much was clear. Large chunks of it had gone missing, leaving room for the maggots that now crawled all over his face and arms. I
t looked as if his eyelids had been sown tightly shut years ago but the thread was now beginning to loosen, revealing two endless black holes where his eyes should have been. His mouth was gaping widely open, revealing a set of sharp, decaying teeth. He carried with him the putrid stench of rotting flesh.
Danny fell backward, coughing from the smell. "Guys," he gasped, "Thermos."
Tucker rushed forward with the thermos, pointing it directly at the decaying flesh mound. In a spilt second, he was back to his original form and swinging straight for Tucker. Tucker dropped quickly and rolled to avoid being hit and the thermos tumbled out of his reach.
The phantom turned back towards Danny, quickly growing into what appeared to be raging dinosaur. Danny eyed the monster and then the thermos, he would have to get through him to reach it. He shot straight up in the air and continued to fight.
A second later and he was down again with the phantom quickly approaching behind him. He moved his arm to get up but it faltered beneath him and he fell back into the dirt. He had hit the ground hard. He was too tired. He couldn't get up. He screamed at his body to move, to do anything to get out of the way, but it was no use. He closed his eyes tightly, waiting for the end.
"HEY YOU!" Sam yelled desperately. She chucked a rock at the demon's head, trying to get its attention away from Danny. "Yeah you! Come over here! Get away from him!"
He flung around quickly, phantom once again, and without any warning, grabbed Sam by the waist.
She let out a soft "Oh," as the air was pushed out of her.
"Sam!" Both Danny and Tucker yelled.
The phantom clutched her tightly but the more she struggled to get out, the tighter he squeezed. She was losing air quickly and fighting hard to breath. Danny stared in disbelieve, still unable to move.
She locked her determined eyes on Danny's. "Thermos," she mouthed breathlessly, her voice coming out as little more then a whisper.
She had used her last breath. Instantly, a black flame rushed up the hand and surged into her. The flame disappeared and her body suddenly went limp. The ghost tossed her into the side of a nearby building. Her body crumpled as it slid down the wall.
"SAM!" Danny screamed and he was suddenly up, zooming straight past the monster to Sam's side.
Danny grabbed her by both arms and shook her violently. "SAM!! SAM! You have to get up!" he yelled, his voice coming closer and closer to tears. "Sam, come on, get up! Don't do this to me Sam! Come on Sam, wake up!!"
The phantom rushed forward ready to take the oblivious Danny out in one swing.
"Not so fast!" Tucker shouted. He pointed the canister and let it rip, trapping the howling phantom inside. He quickly closed the thermos and let it drop to the ground, rushing to Danny's side.
"Oh God Sam, no…No…please…you can't…you can't be gone…Please wake up Sam. Please," Danny whimpered, tears following down his cheeks. He was hugging his dead friend as tightly as he could, slowly rocking them both back and forth.
Tucker shook his head, letting a few tears silently escape from his own eyes. He knelt down beside Danny and gently took one of Sam's hands in his own. The slightest movement in her wrist alerted him to something.
"Danny! She's alive! She's still got a pulse! She's still alive!" Tucker exclaimed.
Danny lifted his head, buried in Sam's shoulder, to gaze over her face. He watched closely as her neck slowly rose and fell. She was still breathing. She was still alive.
There were too many emotions for his face to express. "What do we do?" he asked Tucker blankly, still clutching his fallen friend.
"I..I don't know…" Tucker admitted shakily. His stomach lurched as he looked down at a large red stain on the sidewalk where Sam's head had rested. The back of her head must have been cut. He had seen enough episodes of ER to know how serious a deep cut to the head could be. "We get her to the hospital," he fumbled, not daring to alert Danny of the seriousness of the situation, "We get her to the hospital as fast as we can."
AN: Hehe! So anti-climatic! I know, I spent all of chapter 1 setting up a background for this new ghost character and then he gets caught in chapter 2? Suspicious, ain't it? ;) Well fear not, though the next few chapters go in a slightly different direction, you haven't seen the last of our friend the 'Dream Catcher' and it's incarnates. I've got the next two chapters finished, just have to edit and post so bear with me, they should be up soon! :D
I love you all!
Best wishes and warmest regards,
Soragirl
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