Oh snap, we have a blooming romance! This chapter is one I've been desperately looking forward to writing. A good friend of mine is even going to illustrate a scene from it! -bubbles over with excitement- In fact, I prolonged starting it, just because I didn't want to mess up all these important things I wanted to say, but I realized that if I didn't just take a breath and move forward, it was going to lose some of its magic. So...here it is. Enjoy!
This time, I'm responding directly to the reviews that I thought needed an answer, and just giving a general shout-out to the rest, so that I don't have to get redundant/take up a ton of space up here! I can assure you that I'm still thrilled to read every comment you guys make, and I appreciate knowing what you think!
Epyon Zero - Oh, well, I guess the first ten seconds of this chapter will be enough to cement that particular impression! I take it you haven't seen either of the episodes Penelope appears in the series? XD
Crossover Fiend - Well said. :) I guess we'll just have to hold on and see where this link takes us!
mrit - I believe know the exact reference you mean, and I feel I still referenced it simply by so obviously leaving it out. XD Provided you are referring to "Casper, close the window, it's cold." and/or the scene directly around it. Well, he really wanted to touch her, but he knew she'd react that way, and it stung him. Poor Danny!
L'ange-Sans-Ailes - Sorry, can't say!
chocolatemercury - I'm all for that fantasy, too. I'm such a D x S shipper now, it's not even funny. u.u;
dArkliTe-sPirit - All will be revealed! ...in some other chapter! XP
not important - I guess this constitutes as an "evil cliffie," and I'm sorry, because I got your review just before I put it up! I hope you like it anyway! n.n;
Many thanks also to Galateagirl, katiesparks, Soni, Anomaly25, conan98002, Kagome M.K, and Fanficaholic for their kind reviews! Every one of you guys is a part of keeping this story going!
Estrelas
Chapter 6
by Shimegami-chan
"I'm telling you, that Manson girl is all the energy I'll need for the whole damn summer." Penelope inspected her face in the hand mirror, admiring her cheekbones. "She's absolutely full of negativity!"
"Have you managed to gain any power over the girl, or are you just sucking her dry?" Bertrand wondered out loud. The squat little man was the therapist's assistant, though lately there had been very little to assist her with. The season had been difficult for them each and every year since they had started working at Amity Park High.
"Just taking what I can before she throws me out," Penelope remarked with a frown. "But after a few more meetings with her, I'm sure I'll have a bit more control."
"You think she'll allow it?"
"She'll have to," Penelope said airily. "As long as I keep calling her mother and telling Liza what a terrible state the poor girl is in, her parents will be begging me to come back. It's pure luck that her grandmother caught her talking to her imaginary friends - I'm sure everyone in her family thinks she's a nutcase."
"Is she?"
"Who knows? She insisted that she was some kind of creepy Goth poet, 'expressing her sorrow aloud'. Don't know if I believe it, but who cares?"
"She could have been talking to a ghost."
Penelope waved away the idea. "And saying what to it? You know their kind don't get along with ours. Besides, if there was anything haunting the place, I'm sure we'd all know about it."
"But you know how spirits just vanish sometimes. Are you sure you don't want me to come with you, next time? I do have a ghost sense, and you don't."
Penelope closed her compact. "I don't need to have a sense to identify a ghost, Bertrand. I think you're just bored and looking for something to keep you occupied. Go terrorize some children, if you don't know what to do with yourself."
"It was just an offer," Bertrand said sourly.
"You never miss a chance to remind me of your talents," the therapist replied. "Well, let me remind you that I have plenty of my own, and I'm still developing my powers. Ah! Who knows what limitless potential I might have? Already I'm stronger than most other ghosts my age; have you ever seen anyone else pass for a human so well?"
"Other than myself, no."
"You're a shape shifter, idiot, that doesn't count." Penelope smoothed back a stray lock of her red hair and drifted up to lounge about a metre above the floor, turning over onto her back and shifting into her ghost form, which was completely black, except for the features of her face. "Oh, I do hope Liza will call tomorrow. Wouldn't it be wonderful to have two doses of Samantha's energy in two days? She's like a drug."
Her assistant smiled mischievously. "As long as you share some."
"Well, of course, my dear Bertrand." The spectral psychiatrist closed her eyes and stretched. "You certainly could use a facelift."
Sam drifted into consciousness as she heard the old grandfather clock chime five times, quite audible from the hallway even behind her closed door. It alerted them on the hour, but it had been years since the sound had intruded upon her sleep, becoming just a part of the night activity that wasn't worth waking up for. Even before opening her eyes, though, Sam found herself very alert, moreso when she began to get the feeling that there was someone in her room. And that someone was making the air temperature hang far below normal.
Her vision swam into focus, directed at the wall with the window, where the moon was no longer visible from this side of the house, and yet there was a faint glow casting light onto the carpet beneath the window. Sam raised herself up on her elbow and peered down over the side of the bed, immediately discovering the source of the light - there was Danny, half-tangible, asleep against the wall. His features were relaxed and serene, and she noticed with some bemusement that she could see the green glow of his eyes right through his eyelids.
I must have fallen asleep, Sam realized, and Danny came looking for me. She guessed that he hadn't wanted to wake her, but it wasn't exactly sensible for him to stay downstairs where he could have been discovered easily. She thought, perhaps, that he had sat down for whatever reason, and accidentally spaced out.
She watched him for a few moments, still a bit stunned at his ghostly appearance. He seemed to be in kind of an in-transit form, quite visible to her and seemingly solid (he had not yet fallen through the wall or floor), but also a little translucent; she could see the pattern of the wallpaper right through his jumpsuit, and his skin was so pale. The glow that had surrounded him in his completely solid form was slightly more intense as well. Could this be his "ghostly" appearance? He never looked like this before. But then, he said that he was uncomfortable staying in his human-looking form for so long at a time these days, so maybe this is what's more natural for him.
He looked like a child caught in a game of hide-and-seek, knees drawn up close to his body and hunched forward, with arms draped over his legs. His head nodded a bit to one side, pitched forward only slightly. Sam wondered how gravity affected ghosts; how it must feel to be so out-of-touch with the earth, and what it was like to fly. She hoped she would still have the chance to become weightless herself, not just for the experience, but because she wanted to feel as he felt as he hovered above the ground. It must be so strange. I can't imagine living like he does...not only physically, but emotionally. To have everyone hate me simply for existing, to have to hide to stay 'alive', faced with fear and dread whenever I intervene, even trying to help...
Even I treated Danny like that, at first. Like he was some kind of monster.
Sam's stomach churned. How could she have thought like that? Looking at him, sitting so peacefully, she couldn't bring herself to believe that he could ever harm anyone. That's why it's important that I help, she told herself. I can help prevent anything like that from happening. Crossing over is what's best for him; if he's not stranded on the human plane anymore, he doesn't need to worry about being hunted or ridiculed...even if there's no life beyond this one, he'll be at peace. And yet it frightened Sam that she could lose her only friend at any time; any moment when they discovered his secrets could be the last she would ever spend with him. She didn't know if she was ready to give him up just yet - there was so much she wanted to talk about with him.
But I have to let him go, for his own good and everyone else's, Sam's conscience protested. I couldn't wish a life like his on my worst enemy, so I certainly don't want it for a...friend.
Inspired by the moment, she reached out her left hand and caught his, this time prepared for the slight jolt of cold that shocked her fingers and shot up her arm. This is fine, she told herself, I'm not exactly a 'summer heat' kind of girl. This isn't so bad.
She was also prepared for a reaction from Danny like the last time she had suddenly awoken him (if 'sleeping' was what you could call this action), but to her surprise he did not jump or even immediately stir, instead keeping quite still, until finally he slowly opened his eyes and looked at her curiously. "Sam."
"Hi there," she said hesitantly. "Sorry I overslept."
"Oh...no problem. I was just thinking, I guess I got caught up in it again."
"No worries." Sam sensed the tension in the air, as though Danny was not sure what to do or say about her hand, which hadn't moved from his yet. To be honest, she wasn't even sure what to say. It was like...an unspoken agreement. I accept you.
What she didn't know was that Danny had felt guilty and insecure about her reactions to his ghostly touch, and to him, it made this message even more sincere. She's holding my hand. What does that mean? I wish I knew what she was thinking. I wish I knew what to do. I was human for seventeen years, I must have had some experience with females in all that time!
But nothing he could recall. He supposed he knew how to act when trying not to make a girl hate his guts, but he didn't have any memory of past experience to fall back on. What should I do?
He was rising to his feet - no, above them, as his legs faded out and were replaced with his wispy tail - suddenly, and Sam withdrew her hand, giving him a quizzical look. "Danny?"
"Listen, I - I'm sorry for what I am. I wish it didn't have to be this way."
She sat up straight, her arm half-extended towards him, palm out but fingers relaxed. "I wasn't criticizing you for it."
"No," he whispered, "you weren't. But I was."
And he drifted forward and kissed her, chaste, on the lips. Sam's eyes widened and a chill shot through her from the contact of his ethereal form against her skin; his hand reached up to brush against her cheek, but she did not flinch, could not even dream of pulling away. She closed her eyes and tilted her chin up just slightly as though to acknowledge she contact, and then -
And then, she felt him pull back, and when she opened her eyes he was gone.
-to be continued
A/N: Cliffhanger-tastic! Thanks to my friend Neko-chan (Neko-Salosa) for helping me decide whether or not I should just leave you guys hanging there. XP
Check my profile for the illustration mentioned in the earlier Author's Note!