Alright, I'm back with the next part of the story. I'm sorry it took so long, but school just eats up so much of my time…and my cat chewed through my mouse wire! Grrr...I had to buy another one(wireless this time…).I tried to make this one a bit longer, but I hope to lengthen the chapters a lot more than this.

A big thank you to all of my wonderful reviewers! You people make my day!

Shameless Advertising: Check out my other stories! I'm still in the very beginning stages of all of them, but I hope to update all of them by the end of next week at the latest.

Disclaimer: There are only so many ways to say it: I do not own Danny Phantom, nor will I ever.

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Death's Castle

Ch.12

Danny, regaining some presence of mind, looked wildly between Paulina and Sam, dread written clearly across his face. There was a sense of impending doom as the girls faced off, glaring with hate shining very clearly in both of their eyes. Seconds stretched into minuets. The girls never broke eye contact. The dread grew, as well as the tension.

Without warning, Paulina flung herself at Sam, who narrowed her eyes further. She merely sidestepped and turned to watch the other girl fly past her. To Sam's immense disappointment, Paulina caught herself before she hit the stone wall.

"That was pathetic." Sam remarked.

Paulina snapped something back in Spanish before launching herself at Sam once more. This time, Sam turned to the side, grabbed the girl, and threw her heavily towards the wall. To her satisfaction, Paulina hit it with much force, making a sickening sound. Paulina shakily got up from the ground where she had slid. She was furious.

Danny looked like he was waging a war with himself. His eyes were unseeing and it looked as if he was trying to force out of his head what shouldn't be there. The moment passed and his eyes regained some clarity, but his face looked strained.

Paulina scrunched up her face in concentration and fired off a blast at Sam. It connected and launched Sam violently against the wall behind her. Unnoticed by everyone, who were too occupied by their own battles, a necklace fell off of the unbalanced shelf above her and landed perfectly around Sam's neck. It fell discreetly under her sweatshirt, hidden from sight. Sam recovered far more quickly than Paulina had and she regained her stance. Sam studied her opponent warily for signs of another blast; but it seemed Paulina had no energy to spare for another ray, so she retreated to a different tactic, verbal abuse.

"You're such a freak! You dress like some fashion deprived geek, and you're hanging around with that loser!" She pointed at Danny who didn't seem to register the insult, "He didn't even tell me where Danny went!" she wailed, trying to sound pitiful.

Sam blinked in confusion, sorting out this new piece of information.

"Who's Danny?" she asked before she could stop herself.

Paulina promptly forgot she was supposed to be fighting and started gushing about "her" Danny, taking a picture seemingly out of thin air. Sam couldn't shake off the feeling that the picture was familiar somehow. Sam looked from the picture to the Danny in the room, confirming her suspicion. The Danny in the picture looked exactly like the Danny here. Except in the picture, he had black hair and normal sky blue eyes. It only raised more questions in Sam's mind, whose curiosity had been piqued by this whole odd incident she had been thrown in. She finally tuned in Paulina's babbling in order to find out more about this Danny in the picture.

"…so cute, and hot, and wonderful!" Paulina sighed sadly, holding the picture to her chest, "But he's human."

Sam couldn't help but feel that she knew the Danny in the picture in some other way than his similarity to the Reaper. It was like she had seen him before…the eyes were so familiar…

"If only I could find him…" Paulina's face grew enraged once more. She pointed accusingly at Danny and said with venom in her voice, "That loser is friends with him! He told me he'd introduce us, but he lied! That loser, freak,…" She ranted on, the names turning into nastier insults, which eventually melted into Spanish.

With every word, Danny seemed to shrink in further on himself. His eyes became duller, and they held a defeated look. Sam's chest clenched, and almost seemed to burn. She let out a furious growl and hurdled into Paulina, smashing her up against the wall. Paulina's breath came out in terrorized spurts while looking into the blazing purple eyes of her captor.

"What the hell is wrong with you!" Sam screamed in her ear, "I am so sick and tired of you trying to insult people with every second of your existence! So shut the hell up and leave us alone!"

"I'm not going to shut up!" Paulina screeched back, clawing at Sam, "I am the most popular, beautiful ghost here! I will not be spoken down to and I should be able to crush peoples' hearts at my whim!" She dug her nails which had rapidly grown through Sam's sweatshirt and into he arms, "That freak was going to hook me up with that human!"

"You're such a shallow witch!"

"I'm not a witch!"

"But you're shallow?"

Paulina faltered. Sam's eyes blazed brighter in fury. She let out another growl, but this time, it sounded different, more feral. Her body started to morph, changing and rippling to a different shape. A dragon.

"SHALLOW GIRL!" Sam bellowed, breathing a blast of scorching green fire after her, who was now flying for her existence. The dragon quickly perused. After getting over his surprise, Danny followed. The dread kept on growing.

It was a short chase. Paulina was starting to tire, so she barreled through the first door she saw. Sam was barely able to squeeze through, and Danny had flown in after them just before the door slammed shut…and locked.

A jolt passed through them, and then they were through. All three of them erupted into a giant dining hall of some sort, made of gray stone, sparsely covered with tapestries. The door was large and oaken, although it seemed to have an odd tinge of purple.

Paulina flew wildly down to the end of the room. Her eyes widened drastically as she realized that the only other door was locked. She turned around and pressed her back against the door. The dragon landed gracefully on the floor, sensing that there would be no more need to chase down her prey. Sam lowered her serpentine head to stare at Paulina. Paulina's mind was frozen with terror once more.

Danny observed from his vantage point above in the air. He couldn't think of any explanation of how Sam turned into a dragon. She hadn't truly died yet, so she shouldn't have gotten her ability yet…and didn't someone else turn into a dragon when they were mad?

"SHALLOW GIRL!" the dragon burst, throwing her head up to the ceiling. A glint of light reflected from somewhere around Sam's neck and caught Danny's eye. It was from a necklace around her neck.

'That looks very familiar…' Comprehension dawned on Danny and hit him like a freight train, 'Doesn't that belong to that one ghost girl who wasn't ever able to go to the ball?...' He looked around, 'Who lives here…Oh, no…'

Sam lashed her head towards Paulina with her monstrous jaw wide open, showing gleaming teeth ready to tear her to shreds.

'I've got to get that necklace off of her!' A light haze swirled around in his thoughts, 'And save Paulina…'

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Hmmm…a new twist to the tale. There are a few more hints here if you can pick up on them. This isn't one of my favorite chapters though...it just feels so...meh...

Do you like? Do you not? Have any questions? Please review! Make my day happy!