Chapter 9

The three friends crept silently into the mansion, being careful to stay intangible. Then, hovering silently a few feet above the floor, they looked at each other expectantly.

"Well?" Emily broke the silence. "Where do we go from here?" Her friends shrugged.

"I don't know. You're the one who orchestrated this whole plan." Sam pointed out. Emily was deep in thought.

"True..." she murmured. Just then they heard a murmur of voices coming from the direction of Vlad's bedroom.

"Now, Daniel, I want you to find the cripple, the geek, and the goth. You know who I'm talking about? Good. Now go. Destroy all three of them, and bring their bodies back to me."

"Yes, master." Danny's voice came through the door. Emily cringed. His voice sounded stiff and robotic, but it was the same voice. Then the door swung open and Danny walked out. Those piercing red eyes seemed to bore their way into Emily's brain, leaving a lasting imprint. She stifled the urge to cry out.

"How is Vlad controlling him?" Sam whispered.

"Looks like some sort of mind control. Vlad didn't have anything with him when he turned Danny evil, did he?" Sam and Tucker thought for a minute, and then shook their heads.

"No, no I don't think so." Sam said, more confidently then she felt.

Just then, for a second, the three friends became tangible again, then intangible. Sam looked worried.

"Uh, Emily? Why are we suddenly becoming tangible again?" she whispered very quietly, so that Danny wouldn't hear them. Emily didn't answer for awhile because she was concentrating so hard on staying intangible.

"I've never tried to be intangible for this long." she whispered back. "I thought we'd be able to do it. I guess I was wrong."

"Well, do something!" Sam's voice was louder than she meant it to be. Unfortunately, Danny heard her. He slowly pivoted around, and stared with those heartless red eyes right at the spot where the trio was floating. Even more unfortunately, this was the exact moment that Tucker, Sam and Emily flickered back to tangibility. And this time, they stayed that way. Fortunately, though, they stayed floating.

Vlad had come out to see what the commotion was about. When he saw the helpless friends floating in the air, he grinned wickedly.

"Well, well, well, that was easy! My prey should come to me more often!" Then he motioned to Danny with a jerk of his head. "Get them." Danny started firing photon and ectoplasmic blasts at his friends. They dodged them as quickly as they could.

"Emily, do something!" Sam's voice was now not only loud, but panicked. Emily dodged another photon blast and thought.

"I've got it!" she yelled. Emily gently set her friends on the floor, and then wormed her way through the web of blasts until she got to Danny-or whoever he was now, Emily thought.

While Danny was distracted by Tucker and Sam, Emily slid through him into his body. Vlad's done a pretty good job here, she thought as she began to scroll through Danny's thoughts and feelings. All Danny thought was I must destroy them. All Danny felt was nothingness, no anger, no sadness, no happiness. Nothing. There was blank space where his feelings should have been. But Emily could see, or rather, sense his old self. The one who was half ghost. The one who had the messy black hair and the bright blue eyes. The one who could look past her disability. The one who she loved.

"Come on, Danny." she muttered. "Come back to me. Come on, I know you're in there. Danny, I love you. If you love me, you'll come back. Come back...come back...come back..." She could feel Danny starting to break, starting to have other thoughts and feelings. But just then, she felt someone trying to push her out of Danny's body. She knew it was Vlad.

"Vlad, get out of here!" she said furiously, pushing him with all her might. But Vlad was a much more powerful ghost than Emily. With one strong push, she went flying out of Danny's body. She hit the wall and slid to the floor. Through a haze of pain Emily saw that Danny's eyes had flickered back to his ghostly green, just for a second. But a second look revealed only those cold red eyes. Just then, a puff of hot pink breath floated out of her mouth as she exhaled. Emily squinted; trying to focus above her on what she knew was a ghost.

Once her vision cleared, she could see the ghost clearly. Although she had never seen this ghost, she had been told about her by Danny.

"Need some help?" said the young girl ghost as she pulled Emily to her feet. It was Miranda.

A/N: I'm back with the cliffhangers! Who-hoo! Next chapter will probably be the last, maybe another chapter after that...keep reviewing!