"I wonder where Sam and Tucker are?" Danny asked himself as he walked out of the school towards Jazz's normal parking place. Neither of his friends had been in any of their classes that day, and it was starting to make him nervous. He had calmed down from that morning considerably, but was still feeling extremely irritable, and the familiar sick feeling his powers gave him when he hadn't used them in a while had grown considerably.

"Three days," he sighed. "I doubt I have a day left, the way I feel," he grumbled all the way towards Jazz's car, until he realized he couldn't see it. Scratching his head, he started walking around the parking lot, but to no avail. He saw a friend of Jazz's laughing with some other girls as they walked through the parking lot, and called out to her.

"Marta!" The tall, dark-haired girl turned at the sound of her name. "Have you seen my sister?" She shook her head.

"She wasn't in class, and didn't show up for decoration this morning." Danny got a new sick feeling in his stomach, as he watched them walk away.

"No," he whisperedbeginning to jog out of the parking-lot and towards his house.

8 8 8 8 8

He was breathing hard by the time he reached his front steps, and had to rest for a few seconds before entering. He really wished he could use the ghost energy to keep up the energy he needed to keep running. He'd felt like he had been crawling at a snails pace, and yet he had reached his destination all too soon. He glanced up at the silent house. If Vlad had done anything to them...he quickly banished the thought in his mind, feeling the ghost energy rising.

"There's a logical explanation for this," he told himself, stepping up the stairs and opening the door.

"Mom, Dad?" he called, but the house remained eerily silent. The sick feeling in his stomach increased to a throbbing pain that almost doubled him over, but he continued to search the house. His parents should be home at this time. Danny set hisbackpack down in the kitchen as he approached the basement door. If it was closed, and his parents were down there, it would explain why he hadn't heard them. He forced himself to step down the stairs slowly. If he rushed in and nothing was really wrong, his parents would get suspicious, and he was not in the mood to avoid questions.

He reached the door after what seemed like forever, and stood in front of it for a few seconds, just looking at the blurred reflection in the stainless steel slab blocking the entrance. He took a deep breath and opened the door, listening for someone moving...anyone...anything. No noises reached him, except the sound of his heart, which felt like it was about to break through his chest. He stepped slowly onto the stairs, not wanting to call out, just in case they didn't answer. He took another deep breath before he stepped into the lab, and looked around. The sickness he'd felt before suddenly seemed pleasant compared to the feeling that pounded into the stomach. Tucker, Jazz, Sam, and his parents had been tied to chairs placed in a half circle on the stainless tile floor,facing away from the ghost porthole, which stood wide open, casting an eerie glow over the entire basement. A glowing figure surrounded by three vultures floated forward when he stepped into the lab, all smiling cruelly.

"Ah, Daniel, welcome home, son."