Empyreal
empyreal (em-pir-ee-uhl) adj. - pertaining to the highest heaven in the cosmology of the ancients.

-Seven-

"Do you have a cold?"

I sniffed loudly and groaned, my head pounding. It was the next day, and I had spent half the night sneezing and coughing. I ended up going into school late because I didn't fall asleep until about two in the morning.

Tucker leaned against the locker next to mine, grinning.

"So, how does your first cold feel?" he asked. I frowned, irritated, and slammed my locker open.

"Horrible," I muttered, grabbing books. As soon as I placed my hand on my chemistry book, I felt a strange pressure welling inside my chest, and my nose started to tingle.

Oh, crap.

I leaned back, away from my locker—

"AaaCHOOO!" I cried, making a couple people jump that was around us. I frowned and grabbed a tissue from Tucker's open hand.

"Don't say a word," I muttered. Tucker just stood beside me, leaning against the locker.

"Y'know… Sam came up to me this morning," he said after a time. I closed my locker and turned to him.

"She did?"

"Yeah. She said something about wanting to be friends again, and that she was sorry she didn't keep up correspondence when she went to St. Mary's," Tucker explained, stretching his arms as the bell rang.

"Oh," I said, my face heating up at the thought of her.

"It was very un-Sam like, but I guess she's tired of being a loner," Tucker said as we ducked into a classroom. We immediately took our seats in English, me sitting in the back row, Tucker the row in front of me and three seats to the left. I watched as Sam sidled in at the last minute, sitting promptly in her allotted seat near the front. Since I was in the back, her placement in the class made it easy for me to watch her. She was always so active in this class.

As we sat through class, I thought of all that had happened since I first got here. I had never expected to reveal my secret to anyone, but I guess with Tucker it was involuntary. Jazz – will she find out? I kind of hope not, for her sake… I doubt the Fentons will, if they can't even figure out that a ghost is living in their household, they must not be very good ghost hunters.

And Sam… I barely know her already, so I can't go gallivanting around that I'm a ghost. If I want to get close to her… I guess I'll just have to find a different way.

As the class ended and everyone bolted out of the class, Sam strayed behind. Mr. Lancer, the teacher, was erasing the board and mumbling to himself, and as I nervously walked up to Sam, my heart pounding away, he glanced at us.

"You! Danny!" Mr. Lancer spat, pointing at me. "Do you ever actually listen in class?"

I frowned. I tended to daydream a lot in this class, simply because it was so friggen' dull. My anger began to boil, and I was having trouble controlling my powers. Lancer was able to make me so angry so easily—

"He listens," Sam said suddenly, slinging her bag over her shoulder. "Sometimes he may not look it, but he does listen. If you take a look around this classroom, Mister Lancer, you'd notice that he listens far more than anyone else does." With that she 'hmphed', grabbed my wrist, and promptly tugged me out of the class as she exited.

Mr. Lancer slammed the door behind us and she stuck out her tongue at the closed door. She immediately dropped my wrist, even though my face was already completely red.

"He drives me nuts," Sam muttered. She gave me a sheepish smile. We were barely an inch apart. This is the closest I've ever gotten to her… We began walking to lunch.

"Who – L-Lancer?" I stammered, mentally kicking myself for the stupid question and the nervous delivery. Sam grinned.

"Yeah. I mean, he's a good teacher, I guess, and I do enjoy English, it's just – he never actually realizes how many people don't listen. He also doesn't really like to take other's opinions into account," she added as an afterthought, frowning. I was just admiring her face. Her eyes were a lot brighter than I gave her original credit for, and her skin was nearly flawless. It was a creamy tone that had nearly zero blemishes, and I knew it was very smooth to the touch—

Wait, what?

I blinked and shook my head. I have never touched Sam in my life! Ugh. My head was starting to hurt with all these weird… memories.

She shrugged and stopped at her locker, the hallway emptying.

"Well – at least we're allowed to have opinions, right?" I said, giving her a half smile. Sam chuckled and opened her locker door.

"Yeah, I guess. Hey – Danny, right?" she said as the second lunch bell rang. "You're friends with Tucker, aren't you? Tucker Foley?"

"Me? Yeah," I said, wondering if I had my history notebook. "I am."

"Well, Tucker and I used to be friends – way back," Sam started explaining, "and I wanted to, you know, reconnect with him and – I was wondering if maybe you wanted to come to a theme park with me tomorrow." I was incredibly excited and completely confused by this request. What in the world is a theme park?

"Danny! Oh, there you are, I've been looking all over for you!" Tucker cried as he ran up behind me and clapped his hand onto my shoulder. He smiled at Sam. "Hey, Sam."

"Hi," she answered, closing her locker. She looked at both of us. "I just told Danny the plan."

"So, you wanna come?" Tucker asked, patting my shoulder. I shot him a glance that clearly said 'Help me!', but Tucker just continued to smile and raised his eyebrows.

"Well, uh, I'll think about it," I said finally, blushing despite myself. Sam nodded.

"It's a park that's been around for ages that Tucker and I used to go to all the time," she explained. "So, be warned, there will probably be lots of random reminiscing."

"I don't mind," I murmured. Tucker pulled on my shoulder and gave Sam a small wave.

"We're going to lunch; bye!" he said, and the two of us walked to the lunch room. "Do you have any idea how late we are for lunch? If we're lucky we'll get five minutes! God, I had no idea you were talking to her, or I would have gone looking in the locker hall ages ago…" I just sat down, my stomach doing flip-flops.

"Tucker – what's a theme park?" I asked. Tucker sniggered into his sandwich and had to swallow before he could laugh out loud.

"Yeah, sorry about that," he said. "It's a place where a whole bunch of machines designed to scare and exhilarate you are located at one very expensive price that you can enjoy for a day. They're actually very fun." I nodded slowly, wondering what the hell he meant. "And anyway, it'll give you a good chance to get to know Saaaam a little better," Tucker added in and sing-song voice. I just glared at him and started eating, breathing heavily and trying as hard as I could not to look at Sam across the room.

The next day, I found myself at the gates of what appeared to be a place dedicated to torture. Hundreds of people swarmed outside the gates, pushing strange little carts and carrying brightly colored bags. Behind the gates were tall metal buildings in shapes I didn't know existed outside the Zone, and the air was filled with talking, laughing and blood-curtling screams that were coming straight from the oddly-shaped buildings. Parts of the buildings were spinning rapidly, or moving at breakneck speeds on tracks, or flying straight through the air.

And this is what people do for fun?

"What the hell?" I whispered to Tucker as the three of us entered the park. I looked down at my right hand – a red X had been stamped onto it in red ink. Was this a mark of execution? What is all this?

Sam and Tucker, however, looked perfectly content, and Sam even looked excited, despite, her dark long-sleeved shirt, black cap and extreme grip she had on her bag. On our way here she seemed sour, tired and annoyed – but once we entered her disposition became uncharacteristically sunny.

"Oh, I love theme parks," she said as we began weaving through the crowds. I nudged Tucker in the ribs.

"What is all this?" I asked in a whisper. Tucker grinned.

"See those? Those are the rides. You go on them for thrill," he explained. "Hence the name thrill rides."

"They look like torture devices," I said, staring at him with an incredulous look. Tucker just laughed.

"They're fun."

"You torture for fun? Are you sure the Zone and earth aren't completely different? Because that's something I thought only existed in a place where you can't die!" I said in an angry whisper. Sam had already gone far ahead.

Finally noticing we weren't behind her, she turned around and rolled her eyes.

"C'mon! Tuck, do you remember how much we loved this place in elementary school? I still have that photo of us on the Thunderbolt rollercoaster." Tucker smiled, adjusting his glasses at the memory. I just shoved my hands in my pockets and surveyed the area. There were people everywhere, of all ages and sizes, either running or walking or laughing or crying—

"Let's gooooooooo," Sam begged, and we finally followed. I felt like I had to dodge hundreds of people as we walked, since there were so many people coming at us. As we started to get to the heart of the area, I noticed people selling what appeared to be food out of little carts under umbrellas. People were lined up in front of the large buildings, talking animatedly.

I couldn't even stop my mouth from hanging open. This place was like a Hunters Cove for humans.

Before I even knew what was happened, I found myself shoved into a pair of thick steel bars, Tucker right behind me. Sam was next to us, separated by more bars. A large, train-like machine roared past us, people strapped in by their shoulders. The train had white siding and a ragged, chipping thunderbolt painted onto the side. I watched it climb up, up, up a large steel track, and then roar down and out of sight, followed by screams.

I gripped the metal jail bars as hard as I could, sweat inching down my face. I looked over at Sam, who looked calm and excited, even. I glanced back at Tucker and saw hum rummaging around in his bag, not even noticing the death trap we were being sent to.

What the hell was this place?

"Tucker, what are we doing?" I hissed to him. He looked up and raised his eyebrows.

"Getting on the ride, of course," he said in an incredulous tone. "This is a rollercoaster. You sit in the little car and the connected cars follow a track that dips and turns and goes really fast. It's fun, I swear," Tucker added, seeing my shocked face. "If you wanna pull off being a human, you have to take human risks."

"Taking risks doesn't seem to make much sense when you're mortal," I murmured, my knuckles almost white. Sam didn't notice us talking, she was just looking around. I looked at her sideways, out of the corners of my eyes, so she wouldn't notice. She was playing around with her bag, humming to herself. Her dark hair flipped over her eyes a bit, and she pushed it out of her face absentmindedly, smiling a little. I immediately looked away, not wanting her to notice I was watching her.

Finally, the white death-train came back – with everyone it left with perfectly intact. I watched in shock as the shoulder bars that were holding them in place released them, and a large group of laughing, chattering people climbed awkwardly out of the train and walked down a large pathway and out of sight, perfectly fine.

Suddenly, the bars in front of us opened and I let go in surprise. Tucker pushed me forward, and I reluctantly climbed into the car, sitting in an uncomfortable little seat and being strapped in unwillingly by heavy shoulder pads. I could hear Sam breathing excitedly behind me.

"Ohhh, this brings me back," she said happily. I don't think I've ever heard her this happy outside of English class.

The shoulder pads had metal rods to hold onto, and I gripped them with all my might. Tucker nudged my knee with his own, and grinned at me through his should straps.

"Ready?"

"Hell no."

"Now, remember, keep your legs and arms inside the ride at all times, make sure all your loose belongings are in the pouch in front of you, and remember – have fun!" For the first time, I noticed a woman in some sort of glass box with a control panel on the other side of the track, smiling and waving as she pushed a button.

Suddenly, the train lurched forward, and I immediately grabbed onto the rods. It moved slowly down the track, stopped, then suddenly lurched again, and starting ascending up a rather large hill.

I think, for a moment, I forgot that I was part ghost, and that if anything happened I could phase out of the infernal machine and fly to safety. Because I certainly did not feel safe, at all, on that ride. At least, not at the beginning.

The train reached the top of the hill, and despite what I saw back at the beginning, all my fears came rushing back – we were going to go over the top, and fly out of sight, off the track, and—

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

The track dipped and looped and twirled. At first I had my eyes closed as we went down, but when Ididn't feel the feeling of uncontrolled movement, I opened my eyes and saw we were, indeed, on the track. It seemed to be built going up and down and through trees, buildings and bridges, showing you different parts of the park. I could hear Sam laughing behind me, and as I realized we weren't going to die, the familiar sense of euphoria that came from flying crept into me.

The next thing I knew, I was laughing, too, watching everything wiz by. My heart was practically leaping out of my chest, but it felt good, as if I had just accomplished something.

When the train came to a stop, we clambered out and ran down the ramp that led us back into the park, all three of us grinning like madmen.

We stood in a small circle, panting and smiling, looking around the park. Sam was adjusting her hair and putting her hat back on.

"Wow," Tucker breathed, standing up straight, "I forgot how incredible that ride is."

"I know," Sam agreed. "It's been so long since I've been here." Tucker looked at me, smiling.

"So? How was it?" he asked. I just smiled at the both of them, my chest filling up with warmth.

"That… was amazing," I said. And for the first time, ever, I could say that it was honest.

The rest of the day went the same. Tucker and Sam reminisced over rides they had loved as children, and introduced them to me. As the day bore on, the two of them found out that they hadn't drifted as far as they had originally thought, and discovered that many of their interests were still the same.

I never realized how much fun humans could have, even being mortal. I was always under the impression that they had to be very careful and almost never took risks, because, by living in the Zone, I often saw the result of taking risks. But humans are a lot more durable than they're given credit for, definitely.

And certainly a lot more… enticing. At one point, we entered an area that was part water park. It was the hottest part of the day, so we decided to don our swimsuits and enjoy the cool water until the park cooled down a bit.

Tucker and I were sitting on the edge of a pool that a slide led into, dipping our feet in the cool water and waiting for Sam.

"So, has your day been satisfactory?" Tucker asked. I leaned back and felt the warm sun on my chest. I came to absolutely love the sun during my time here.

"It's been more," I replied. "I never realized how great being human is."

"Or just alive," Tucker said. "I always thought you were human, you were just… never given a life." I shrugged.

"I look human enough, but creatures born in the Zone aren't human."

"If you say so," Tucker said, looking around. "Where the hell is—Oh, there she is!" I looked where he was looking, and for the second time that day, my mouth fell open.

Sam came running over to us, her bag slung over one shoulder, her hat still shading her face, but she suddenly had a lot more… curves. Her black swimsuit completely covered her up, and she had this weird fabricy thing that was made out of the same material as her swimsuit to wear over it, but before she put it on, I couldn't help but notice how long her legs were, or how thin her waist was, or how incredibly shapely she really was…

Ka-ploosh!

I resurfaced, frowning at Tucker. He noticed me gaping at Sam and had pushed me into the pool. Sam raised her eyebrows at Tucker, who was surprised by her shape but not as shocked as me.

"He was getting a bit hot," Tucker said, winking at me.

I had to dive back under to hide my red face.

After our time in the water park, which ended up being two hours more than we expected, we decided to leave. It was almost three o'clock in the afternoon, anyway, and I was suddenly incredibly tired.

"Why are we so tired?" I asked Tucker as we waited for the bus back into downtown. Tucker pointed up.

"The sun," he said simply. "And all that damned walking." The bus took us to the nearest stop in town, which was two doors down from the Fentons. Both Sam and Tucker looked completely bushed, so I offered them my host's house to rest in before they headed home.

As we approached the house, we noticed a large, black car parked outside.

"A limo?" Tucker said as we jogged up the front steps. "Why is there a limo outside your house?"

"I dunno," I said, unlocking the door and pushing it inside. "Hello?"

"Danny?" Jazz said, exiting the kitchen just as we were coming in. She was wearing a blue blouse and a black skirt, her hair pulled back and looking extremely annoyed.

"Er… what's going on?" I asked. She nodded to the living room, where her parents and a man were sitting and talking. Jazz went into the room first, clearing her throat.

"Er, Mom, Dad—Danny's back," she said, motioning to me. Mrs. Fenton beamed and stood up as I entered the room, Tucker and Sam staying behind me.

"Ahh, and here he is—This is Danny, a student from the east coast who is staying with us for the next couple of months," she explained to the man. The man, who appeared to be in his forties, smiled at me. He had light blue eyes and a weathered look about him, (even though he was wearing what appeared to be an expensive suit), and his face looked awfully familiar…

"Why, hello, Daniel," the man said, a strange look in his eyes that I couldn't place. For a moment he looked as if he recognized me, but it was gone as soon as it appeared. He extended his hand and shook mine, looking right into my eyes.

As he did, I saw it again. Recognition. It was almost like he was trying to penetrate my defenses, looking right into the spirit within me.

And his eyes widened. A small smirk appeared on his face, and his grip became tighter.

My arm stiffened. I knew that look. I knew that face. I knew those eyes. I had seen that look dozens of times before, seen those backwards glances as he was shown out by my Master—

"Danny, this is an old friend of ours – Vlad Masters," Mrs. Fenton said, smiling (although she looked pained.)

Vlad just smiled at me and leaned closer to me, his eyes never straying from mine.

"I've got my eye on you, Daniel," he whispered, just low enough so no one else would hear. And with that, he dropped my hand, gave me a small bow, and returned to his seat, facing away from me, but leaving me rooted to the spot, completely thrown off.

What?

Aww, crap. And so we begin the 'eh, so-so' chapters. Filler chapters so that those three can become friends. Because it's IMPORTANT to the plot. Eww. This chapter... it bugs me to no end. We have now started a shaky friendship between Danny, Tucker and Sam, and Vlad Masters has been officially introduced. Woop-dee-doo. This chapter was originally going to end with Danny making some realizations about Plasmius, but it was beginning to sound so stupid and I couldn't figure out how to end it, so I just deleted a bunch and ended it here. Oh yeah. Anyway, I'm leaving for NJ on Saturday, and I'll be gone for a week, so... happy reading! And don't worry, fairly soon the chapters will actually start to be interesting again. Oh, btw, that theme park they're at are a combination of Canobie Lake Park and Six Flags - the two theme parks that I grew up with.