Prologue

You probably think that this story will be nice and happy. You probably think this will have a happy ending. Heck, you probably think that I'll find the perfect girl and ride off into the sunset.

I'll tell you one thing… if you think all of that, then you're wrong. WAY wrong. I won't tell you the story right just yet. I will tell you that this story is full of pain, anguish, and betrayal. It's not all bad though; it has romance and justice as well

If you don't like those kind of stories, then, you should stop reading right now. But…I'll let you be the judge of that.

My name is Danny. I once led a perfectly normal life. My family was okay; my friends were kind of weird but cool. I worried about homework and zits and whether or not Sam will go out with me. All of that is okay except for one thing, I'm half-ghost

Lets move on to my friends shall we? My friends' names are Joey, Brent, Brendon, Sam (yes, the love of my life is one of my best friends),Tucker and Brian. I've known my friends since about, I don't know, I think 1st grade? Yeah, 1st grade. Anyway, like me, all my friends were outcasts on the social scale. Well, Tiffany had every guy drooling over her.

Joey was a nerd, Brent was a person that has no real contact with the real world except for me (he said he worked for the CIA), and Tucker was a person who looks like you would hire him to fix your computer. Brendon was pretty much a person that kept to himself all the time, Brian was paranoid, and I'm a freak.

I don't really have enough time to describe all but one of my friends. I think I'll describe Tiffany since she had a major role in this story.

I'm about 6'2", bright blue eyes jet-black hair (always in an unruly spiky mess) nicely muscled, and everybody says I'm an all around nice guy.

Sam was not hot, she was beautiful. She was about 5'10", black hair, nice smile bright purple eyes that look like she's thinking about too many things at once.

I had another nightmare. The basic layout of the dream is I'm fighting this person but I can't see his face. Then all of a sudden, he pulls out a gun and fires, but not at me. The person he fires at I also can't see. Right before I am able to see his face, my screech owl of a mother wakes me up. Today was no different.

"Danny! Wake up! I'm not going to ask you again!" she screeched.

"You call that asking?" I mumbled, as always.

"Just get up!"

I got up and slouched over to my closet and looked at my choice of clothes. Nothing for today. I thought 'eh, what looks mildly clean on the floor.'

I wound up picking a dark maroon over shirt, light gray undershirt, black cargo pants, and a pair of reflective sunglasses. To top that off, I put on a dark, dark maroon hat.

To me, it seems that my parents take turns talking to me in the morning. Today, it was mom's turn.

"Today after school, I want you to pick up some milk and bread. We're out."

At that last part I mumbled, "Oh, so that's why you're making me get those items. I thought that a hurricane was coming and you wanted to stock up,"

"Don't smart-mouth me," She said in her high-frequency cackle.

"Danny, listen to your mother," My dad said in his gruff voice as he walked in the room.

"Wow, you two are talking to me in the same morning," I said in mock shock.

"Don't patronize us Danny. Today is a very important day for your father," Mom said.

"So what's the occasion?" I asked.

"Your father is going to get a promotion today" Mom said.

I decided not to tell. Instead I said "Good luck dad."

"Thank-you," was his reply.

"Hey, I gotta go before I miss the bus," I said.

"Don't forget those things after school!" She called as I walked out the door.

"I won't!" I called back

At school I met my buddies at the front of the school. Brent was doing his daily mumbling about the CIA. Brendon was trying to snap him out of it. You WOULD NOT want to see Brendon annoyed. Don't ask.

"Dude, I'm telling you that I work for the CIA!"

"And I'm telling you that you don't work for them. Stop it! You've been like this since the end of summer!"

I walked over to Sam.

"Any progress?" I asked.

"Nope." She replied.

"Eh, it'll pass. Eventually. I hope."

"Maybe, maybe not," She said.

"Hey guys!" I called out, "We're gonna be late if you don't get your butts over here!" And together we walked inside.

Casper High School, a small, squat, red-brick building. Everybody thinks it's the most boring place in the world. The reason why is sort of self-explanatory.

School is a little exciting these days because winter break is coming up. Nothing was unusual today in Neurology class today (my school is an advanced school for the gifted.) Professor Doctrin (everybody calls him Doc) was droning on as usual until…

"Daniel Fenton to the office please," the speaker crackled.

When I got to the office, I knew immediately that something was horribly wrong. I opened the door and noticed several bundles that looked like humans wrapped in cloudy cellophane. I looked up and saw about three guys all dressed in black. I mean black tuxedos with black leather drench coats and black sunglasses that looked like if they were charged with an electric current, they would suck up a black hole. They had a definite Matrix vibe going on.

"Daniel Fenton?" one of them asked.

"Yes," I replied cautiously.

"Our resources have informed the CIA that you are Half-ghost. Is that true?" he asked.

"Who told you?" I asked. I tried reading his mind to try and figure out what the heck was going on. Didn't happen. I think it was his glasses.

Then the interrogator pulled out what looked like a compact lighting rod and pointed it at one of the bundles on the floor.

"You're going to have to come with us, unless you want your friend, Samantha I believe, to become roasted turkey," he said. I looked at the bundle he was pointing at. It wasSam.

"Sam!" I cried. I tried to run to her. I was stopped by two big brutes that looked like they didn't pass 1st grade.

"Like I said, come with us or she fries," he said.

I looked down at Sam and saw her trying to mouth "Don't do it!" I continued to try to get to her. Wasn't happening.

"Not gonna go quietly? Oh well," he shrugged, pointed the lightning rod at me and fired. Something hit me in the chest. Hard. I looked down and saw what looked like cellophane spreading across my chest like fire on gasoline. When the cellophane reached my face, I felt really sleepy. That taught me to not dismiss my visions so easily. The last thing I heard was Brent saying, "I'm sorry Danny." Then I passed out.

Over the course of the trip, I faded in and out of consciousness. It appeared to be a large tricked out van, fitted with bunks to hold the dead weights of my friends' bodies and me. I heard fragments of our captors' conversations. "The subjects seem to be normal but still drive carefully. The boss will have our heads if they so much as a bruise." Most of the time my head was racing with random thoughts.

Kidnapped, secret out, friends captured, Sam threatened, betrayed, Sam, kidnapped Sam, Sam, SAM!

I woke up screaming her name.

"Danny, shh, I'm here, I'm OK, calm down," she said,

"You've been out for three days."

Things were rapidly going from bad to worse. Unconscious for three days? And I was wondering where the heck we were.

"We're in like, some sort of dungeon. The thugs threw us in here after we arrived. Except for you. They kept you with them and took you to one of their labs," she started, "Then they threw you in here and took me to their labs. They injected my head with a semi-clear liquid. After that, I've been having these weird thoughts and visions. That's why I was at your side before you woke up. Danny, I think I'm telepathic," she concluded.

This was all too much to take in. Sam telepathic? Not possible.

"You don't believe me don't you?" She inquired.

"How will I prove it? Lets see, you lit your parent's bed on fire when you were 5, your first kiss was when you were four with a girl named Jennifer, and I know that you have been in love with me since the first grade. That should be enough information for you."

Now I was a believer. All of that information I hadn't told anyone.

"OK, now I'm a believer. But did they hurt you in any way, shape or form did they? Because if they did, I'm going to kill them." I said.

"Danny, calm down, they did not hurt me," she said.

"But it's nice to know that you care and are willing to risk your life for me. They have weapons so advanced that if you tried to attack the man who kidnapped us, well, lets just say that you would be envious of the consistency of badly burnt toast," she informed me.

"Sam, I don't care about my own safety just so long as you are OK," I said stubbornly.

I continued, "I know the meaning of love. I want to spend the rest of my life with you. And I will protect you with my life even if you don't share the same feelings I have." I stated. She seemed stunned at what I said.

"You really feel the same way about me? Even my powers didn't reveal that to me," she explained.

"It doesn't matter," I said.

"I know that you don't feel the same way about me. But that won't stop me from loving you." I declared.

"Danny, let me finish," she asked.

"Haven't you noticed all the times that I suggested that I had feelings for you?" she asked. I stared at her blankly.

She chuckled softly. "Of course, the same old, dense Danny. What I'm trying to say is that I love you too and I'd give my life for you also." As she finished, I reached my hand up to her face and pulled it closer. Just as our lips were about to touch, the cell door slammed open and the same brutes who held me back at school pried us apart and started dragging me towards the door. I tried to fight back but that proved to be futile. Tiffany tried to get to me but I said, "No, don't fight them. I will break out and I will find you and the others." And as I finished, the door slammed shut. My fate was in the hands of the brutes and whatever lie ahead.

The brutes dragged me down a long corridor filled with what looked like failed experiments. I caught glimpses of things so grotesque I cannot bear to write them.

Then after a while one of the brutes said, "Don't get any wise ideas about using your, uh, mental mumbo jumbo on our boss. Boss found a way to, uh, work around that."

I decided to toy with them, "OK, I wont. So, answer this, how low can you count?" This was going to be fun.

"Hey idiot, everybody knows that you can't count below zero." Then he looked at his partner, "What an idiot," he chuckled.

"He thinks you can count lower than zero."

As it turns out, his friend might have passed 5th grade. "Uh, actually, you can. They're called integers. Integers are…" Then he got into a whole math lesson with his accomplice.

In the middle of their conversation, I got impatient. "Uh, dudes, pardon the interruption, but, where on God's green earth are we gong?"

The smart one answered, "We're going to the Lab. Boss has some more experiments he wants to conduct. He conducted experiments on your friends and only your girlfriend survived."

This news devastated me. "You mean that Joey, Jim, Brendan, and Brian are all dead?" I said.

"Yup," Dimwit said without the slightest hint of remorse.

I stared at him in disbelief. "How can you confirm that without a hint of guilt!" I exclaimed.

Dimwit then turned around and hit me in the face. "You, uh, should learn some respect for yer elders Kid. Most adults aren't as nice as we are. If I wer yer parents, I would have dumped you in an orphanage. Yer parents must be pretty stupid to have kept you."

When he said that, I attacked him. I almost got to him before Einstein caught me and held me back.

"Listen," he said, "My partner here was a professional wrestler of Latvia and 2nd degree black belt in five martial arts before he came to the CIA. If you tried to attack him, he would break you in half in no time flat." Then in a low voice he said, "Save your anger for when you break out of this hole."

I looked at him incredulously. "How did you know that I was gonna break out of here?" I asked. But he didn't answer. He just smiled at me mysteriously and continued to take me to the great enigma that was the Lab

Ah, the Lab. In my opinion, it was a torture chamber with a nice name. Aren't they all? Now… let's not be ridiculous. I'm not talking barbarian axes with bloodstains on them, or that machine thing that makes you stretch out to beyond your limit. Nasty things those ones.

Back to my story. This room was Stargate Atlantis meet The Matrix. Creepy no? This room had jars of things in light purplish liquid.

"Nice," I said when I gazed upon the jars.

I asked the thugs, "So, who did the interior décor? Jack the Ripper? Please tell me so I can have him do my room."

Then out of no where, a voice said, "Actually…I did it my self." There was something familiar about his voice.

"I'm so glad that you were able to join us Daniel Fenton," the voice said. Then it hit me. The mysterious voice was…

"Yes, it is me, your professor Doctrin. But to my colleagues I am known as simply Doc."

I stared. That statement could not have gotten any more ironic. "I'm the one who taught most of the neuroscientists in this lab what they know." I was wrong. It just did.

"My resources told me that you had certain "abilities" with your mind. I just need you to confirm, is this true?" Doc asked. My initial reaction was to not tell him but something in the back of my mind told me he already knows... just tell him the truth. That thought somehow put all thoughts into submission and I told him, though not without thinking that something was up. Maybe it was the way he was looking at me.

"It is true," I said.

"Thank you for telling meDaniel," Doc said. "Now, you are probably wondering what these curious things are that are in these jars. Let's just say that they are failed experiments of mine. See, I like to keep my failed experiments to study what went wrong. Learning the mistake in the past in hope of not repeating the same mistake again." He explained.

Wow…this guy liked to talk more than he did while teaching. I just figured that he was just beating around the bush. It wasn't like him to do that.

"Get to your point Doc." I said. "What do you want with me?" I asked.

"Wow Daniel, you didn't show this kind of interest I my classes. Why is that?" He rambled. Wow he was getting annoying.

I decided to answer, "It might be the fact that you are holding two of your students hostage in a secret lab that is probably in the middle of a desert in Africa. I really wonder." That answer earned a glare from the stupid guard.

Doc Looked at me and I awaited his answer.

To be continued…