A/N: Remember: Critique is always welcome.

Chapter Fifteen

Was He Following them?

Soon enough, the time to leave came. Danny had finally gotten to eating his food and had finished. But the same could not be said for Sam. She had watched Danny. Wondering what he was hiding. She wondered if he was even conscious of them being there. It seemed his senses were alert to everything. Every time the door would open and someone would enter, he would stop. Look up. Examine the person coming in. Then resume eating. Was he looking for someone? Or was he expecting someone to come in and cause trouble?

When they'd finally decided to leave, Danny was still in a silent mood. He threw away his trash, as did the others, and they made their way out the restaurant. They stood outside for a second, wondering what to do now.

"What do you guys say we head to the park?" Danny's voice seemed to startle the other teens.

"What for?" Tucker asked.

Danny shrugged his shoulders. "Walk around or something," he said. "I don't want to go home yet."

"Sure, we could go there," Sam said.

"Cool, come on," Danny said. The truth behind him wanting to go to the park? It would be a little easier to catch sight of Vlad and face him while Sam and Tucker are kept busy with something else. Plus the woods were very secluded. It was easy to get lost in there. If the need to fight Vlad should present itself, then that would be the perfect place to get 'lost' in.

But to Danny's surprise, the park was empty. Definitely no distractions to keep Sam and Tucker busy now.

"Whoa, it's deserted," Tucker mumbled.

"Yeah, almost as if no one were allowed in," Sam added. Danny scanned every detail. Senses alert to anything and everything. Something was definitely wrong here.

"I don't like this, guys," he said softly.

"No kidding," Tucker said. "Let's go see what's up." Sam looked at him incredulously. "What?" Tucker asked.

"Do you like to look for trouble?" Sam asked. "It's obvious something's wrong here. Yet, you want to go check it out!"

"Well, we are supposed to be the good guys around here, what do you expect me to do?" Tucker asked. Sam opened her mouth to say something else, but was quieted down at Danny's hand. Danny had raised his hand slightly towards them. This meant he wanted silence.

Something was wrong. He could feel it. The reason for the park to be empty. The reason for it to be so quiet when he knew for sure that even when empty the park should be filled with rustling sounds like the wind through the trees and stuff. But it was dead silent. As if not even time touched this place.

"What's wrong?" Tucker asked.

"This may be a very played out line, but it's quiet, too quiet," Danny said. Tucker decided now was not the time to joke about that seriously played out line. He remained silent. Expecting Danny to propose a closer examination of the reason for this place to be dead still.

"What do you want to do?" Sam asked quietly.

"Look around, come on, let's go," Danny said, walking forward and entering the park. They'd been standing out in the entrance for a while. Staring into the park.

Now it was time to enter and check things out. See, now this was the weird part. Though they knew they were entering the park, it felt slightly different. As if they'd crossed over to totally different place. The wind finally started blowing, causing the rustling sounds they so fully knew. Also there was short, almost unnoticeable, moment in time in which the area looked distorted, blurry, unreal. It quickly went away though, not leaving a trace of it's blurriness. They kept walking, expecting to have an answer just come to them for the weird happening. This was totally not what they had expected. They expected things to stay quiet. Silent. Eerie. But it's not. Things feel normal now. As if nothing had ever been wrong with it.

Danny turned around and walked backwards a few steps. He could now see, out the entrance of the park, cars passing by. But he couldn't hear them. He turned forward again, still glancing all around. Nothing was wrong. His ghost sense hadn't gone off. He didn't have any bad feelings in the pit of his stomach. There were no shivers running up and down his spine. Nothing.

"Hey, look over there!" Sam said, tugging at Danny's arm. All of them looked up at where Sam was pointing. A figure stood there. Hidden in the shadows.

"Who do you think it is?" Tucker asked then, trying to see the figure more clearly. He was facing away from them. Looking at something in the distance perhaps. Something was in his hand. A type of, amazingly, PDA.

All three teens felt the wind pick up slightly and turned away from the sudden lift of dust into the air. Shielding their eyes. When they turned back to look at the figure, he was gone. Danny had seen that silhouette before. At the Nasty Burger. Was he following them?

"He's gone," he mumbled, pointing out the obvious.

"Really," Sam said sarcastically.

"But we all saw him, right? We know he was there?" Danny asked.

"Yes, Danny, we saw him," Sam said, nodding. "I know we did, right, Tuck?"

"I agree, but how he just disappeared is beyond me," Tucker said.

Danny frowned. How had he managed to just disappear? Unless he was a ghost it wasn't every possible. But he also couldn't be a ghost or else Danny's ghost sense would have gone off. This didn't make sense. There had to be something he was missing. Something important.

"We should probably head home," Sam pointed out then, breaking through Danny's train of thought. "The weather looks threatening."

"Sam's right," Tucker agreed.

"I'll fly us," Danny offered.

"I'm cool with walking, I'll see you guys later!" Tucker said and ran off.

"Bye, Tucker," Danny mumbled. Sam waved. "Well, I guess it's off to my house then." He simultaneously went ghost. The white rings formed around his waist and traveled up and down his body, transforming him into the one and only Danny Phantom.

He flew up a little bit and picked Sam up. "Wonder how much Jazz is going to tease me today," he mumbled as he did so.

"Can't be all bad," Sam laughed. Danny rolled his eyes, signifying it could be that bad. Sam laughed. "You're exaggerating, besides, she has nothing to tease you about."

"Sure," Danny said sarcastically. Sam was looking down at the road as they flew, her watching as it just went by beneath her.

----------------------

Danny reached FentonWorks easy. It wasn't too far from the park and it was easy to get there if you're flying. He dropped Sam off in the front of the building while he flew off into a nearby alleyway and resumed human form.

He walked out of the alley way and walked towards Sam. "Okay," he mumbled, going up the porch and opening the door. "Ladies first," he said, bowing slightly. He was so happy he could still joke around like that. Sam laughed.

"Why thank you," she said and walked in. "Since when did you develop manners?"

"Why, all gentleman must behave mild-mannerly among such lovely women," Danny said.

"Your vocabulary seems to have improved as well," Sam said, playing along with whatever Danny was trying to put lightly.

"Thank you," Danny said, a bright smile on his face as they walked up the stairs. They shared a good laugh as they reached the top step. Then Danny froze. His parents stood, suitcases in hand, walking out their rooms. Maddie had a checklist. Jack had the suitcases.

"Where are you guys going?" Danny asked, alarmed.

"An invitation to a ghost-hunter's convention!" Jack bellowed.

"We received it when we came home this afternoon," Maddie said.

"From who?" Danny asked.

"Anonymous," Maddie replied.

"Oh." The word escaped Danny's throat without much difficulty or even consciousness. It just escaped.

"Danny, take care of your sister and Sam, we'll be back by tomorrow morning," Maddie said, walking past the two teens and down the stairs. Jack followed.

"Hold down the fort, son!" Jack said.

"Will do," Danny said with mock-enthusiasm. This was so not what he'd planned this evening to go.

"Bye, Danny, see you tomorrow morning!" Maddie said. "And, Sam, make sure Danny stays out of trouble."

"I'll make sure of it, Mrs. Fenton," Sam said, saluting playfully and glancing at Danny. He was glaring at his mom a little.

"Good, bye now." The two parents disappeared out the door.

Danny sighed. "Okay, this is turning out to be rather strange," he said. Sam looked at him with a look of confusion. Danny continued. "I mean, first Vlad comes to visit. Then, there's that weird guy at the park. And next my parents get an invitation to ghost-hunter's convention from an anonymous person? How weird is that?"

"I guess it is a little strange, but anything's possible, Danny," Sam said. Danny didn't want to let his guard down, but Sam did have a point. Though he didn't know the chances. The last thing he needed was for Jazz to say she had to split and leave them alone too. Oh great. The other last thing Danny needed was to jinx himself. He shook his head, getting rid of his thoughts and walked over to jazz's bedroom door.

He knocked. "What is it?" Jazz called.

"You don't by nay chance have to go somewhere tonight, right?" Danny asked.

"No, why?"

"Just wondering." Danny backed off from the door and turned to Sam. She stood awkwardly at the top step of the stairs, expecting him to say something.

E/N: I was told the plot is progressing too fast. What do you guys think?

--Airamé Phantom