A/N: Okay, sorry took me so long to up-date this chapter. Uh...yeah, problems with my friends. One friend hates the other and I'm their...communication line. Yeah, on with the chapter!


The Art of Deception

Chapter Six


"You better watch out
If you don't know what's going on around you
You better think twice
Before you fly off the handle and lose it
You better join us
Before you get lost in the shuffle
You better rise against
The demons that are gonna try and hold you down..."


"Sam, I don't know, my parents can be back any minute," Danny said. They were in the lab now, Danny had phased them through, having to set off the ghost alert system so his parents would leave the lab.

"If we move fast enough they won't," Sam assured him. She quickly walked over to where the Speeder was kept and climbed into the vehicle. Driving it out towards the portal, she said, "You want to ride in here or not?"

"No," Danny said. "If I get caught by Walker or someone then you can escape."

"If you say so," Sam said reluctantly. "Open the portal then."

Danny took off the white glove off his right hand and pressed his thumb to the Genetic Scanner. The button turned green and the portal door's open. There were a few shuffles upstairs and the door leading to the lab coming open.

"Go, Sam!" Danny instructed. Sam sped the Specter Speeder into the portal and Danny followed shortly after in a flash. The portal doors closed behind them. At that very moment his parents came down, eyes scanning around sharply. "We missed them!" Jack whined.

"It's okay, Jack," Maddie said. "We'll get him on their return trip should they come back." Immediately Jack's face lit up.


Meanwhile, Danny flew next to the Speeder. "Wow, it's quiet," Sam noted. "And not just the eerie kind of quiet that's usually here, a more tense kind of quiet."

"I think you're right about something going on," Danny murmured, putting his glove back on. They flew on in silence, but Danny could swear Sam was talking to somebody. Danny looked at her. She glanced back at him and smiled. He had just began to smile back when a shout caught his ear and stole his focus. He stopped next to the now stopped Speeder. "Danny!" Sam shouted, pointing forward. Danny looked forward at what she was pointing at. A whole army of ghosts floated there before them. They were Walker's goons no doubt.

"How'd they know," he mumbled to himself.

"We're surrounded!" Sam noticed. "There's no way out!"

Danny looked around. It was true. Some of the goons had already blocked the portal. They were enclosed in a circle of soldiers. "Choose a door, any door Sam!" he said. Sam looked around franticly. Where was it? She spotted a free door that was not being guarded. Good thing too since the guards were moving in!

"Danny, this way!" Sam exclaimed and quickly moved the Speeder in the direction of the door. Danny followed her closely behind. This door, Danny noticed, was a silver color. It looked almost metal. He, however, could care less as long as they got away from those goons! Danny opened the door and fled inside after Sam. Then he bolted the door and smoldered the knob with a ghost-ray so no one could get in easily.

Only now did he take in his surroundings. Inside the room it was dark with very dim lighting. From what he could see, this place was empty. There was no furniture in sight. Only another door jigsawed off of this place. The door was also a silver-metal color. "What is this place?" he muttered aloud.

"I don't know," Sam said truthfully, coming up next to him.

"Sam, get back in the speeder!" Danny instructed. Sam grinned.

"We left the ghosts behind," she said. A loud, thunderous knocking on the door behind them caught their attention.

"Would you like to withdraw that statement?" Danny asked. "Quick, to the other door! They won't get in that easily, but we'd better get out of here if they do!" Both teens rushed into the next room, bolted the door, and found themselves at a fork. Two halls adjoined this room. From outside they could hear that the soldiers had already busted through the door.

"This way," Sam said and ran into the hall to their left. The echo of another door getting knocked down echoed as well. Soon enough grunts, laughs, and chuckles began to echo as the goons piled into the halls to search for them. "We need to lose them," Sam said, gulping.

"How?" Danny asked.

"Split up," Sam said.

"What?" They rounded a corner, out of sight of the guards. Two doors came up and another corner at the end of the hall.

"You go through that door and I'll go through this one," Sam explained. She opened a door to their right; Danny to their left. Closing the door behind them just in time, the goons passed right by their current locations.


Danny panted and tried to catch his breath on the other side. He could feel his heart thumping loudly in hic chest and hear the thudding in his ears. Taking a deep breath, he looked around his present containment. It was another hall, he noticed. Well, it was almost like a hall. It was a long pathway, a corridor. The walls were empty of adornment, but you could tell this place had more to it than met the eye.

"Hope Sam's doing okay," he murmured as he went down the corridor. On the other side there were three doors, each far from the other. There was one in front, one to the left, and one to the right. Danny froze dead on his tracks. The knob to the door on the right began to open. It turned right, then left and revealed no light but more darkness. Not to mention the person opening the door. Danny's breath caught in his throat. His eyes widened. Then the person came into view.


E/N: Couldn't get this chapter up 'til today so yeah. Hope you enjoyed it! I don't own the song 'Blood(Empty Promises' by Papa Roach. This is yet another song that inspired this story, which, by the way, is almost at it's end!

--Airamé Phantom