A/N: Up-date, yeah!
The Art of Deception
Chapter Eight
"Does it run in your blood to betray the ones you love?
Does it run in your blood to betray the ones you love?
The ones you love, the ones you love, the ones you love..."
Danny leaned against the wall of his cell, looking off into the vast green nothingness of the Ghost Zone through the small, barred window. His arms were crossed over his chest, one foot pressed against the wall to keep him up. In his mind he still couldn't believe Sam had done this. In his mind he still did not understand. He didn't want to believe it anyway. It would take him a long time if he ever wanted to come into the realization of her betrayal. And yet, he also realized that he would rather believe this than to believe that she was being possessed or forced against her own free will. Either way he loses though. He sighed.
"Danny?" came a soft, gentle voice. He would have described it as so if he didn't recognize it. He made no movement, only kept his eyes on the outside. To think that out of this horrid dimension lay his parents, friends, and teacher. To think that they didn't remember him at all. And it was all because of this one girl. Because she used him and led him into a trap.
The boy's train of angry thoughts was broken by a small sigh and the sound of something being put down on the floor - the sound of metal on concrete. Then the sound of the object being slid across to his side of the barred cell door. "You should eat something," the voice said again.
Danny hadn't said a single word since they'd brought him here. Walker had tried to persuade him to admit defeat, but of course Danny kept his mouth shut. Skulker rubbed in his face that his best friend had betrayed him. He had yet to hear from Vlad. But he already knew what the old man would say. Danny uncrossed his arms and leaned up off the wall, turning, at last, to the girl before him. She was crouched down, looking up at him. On the floor, having been slid through a narrow and four-inch tall slit in the door was a metal tray. The kind of food they give at Casper High and a carton of what looked like ordinary milk placed next to it.
"I was able to get into the kitchen at school and get some food from there," Sam explained. "No one noticed and I'm pretty sure you wouldn't want to eat the food here. If the ghosts don't like it, you'll like it even less."
Danny looked at her suspiciously with questioning eyes. Why had she done that? He thought she didn't care. Was it another trick? Everything looked like a trick now. He walked over and sat down on the floor crossed-legged. Though he would much rather not eat at all, he couldn't ignore the hunger that had been bothering him since they captured him. He had, after all, not eaten since morning. It was at least and at the latest about two or so in the afternoon.
Sam watched him with sharp eyes. He was in human form still, probably hating to be human in ghost prison. He hadn't been able to go ghost for hours after being apprehended. She wondered if he had tried again yet. He still wasn't talking, she noticed. Why would he talk to her anyway? There wasn't any reason for him to talk to her at all, not after what she did. "Danny," she tried again as he had begun to eat. He ate slowly, silently, but she knew he was hungry. He stopped and looked at her. "I'm sorry."
"For what?" he asked. His voice was harsh, cold and unmoved. Though his features didn't show it, the boy was as angry as can be. "For betraying me? For leading me into a trap? For pretending to be my friend? For using my trust for you against me? Make your pick."
Sam said no more. She noticed now that even if it looked as if he was looking her in the eye, he wasn't. The reason he didn't look up was because he couldn't look her in the eye. "I think I just lost my appetite," he murmured and pushed the tray back to her side. Before he could, however, he found himself looking into the vivid amethyst eyes of the person he'd grown to know as Samantha Manson.
Sam had cupped his chin between his thumb, index, and middle fingers, forcing him to look at her directly. His eyes got caught straight away, she knew, because she could see the intense feeling in those blue eyes that used to be so warm. Now they looked confused, alone, empty. A void that would forever be empty. He looked away quickly, trying, most likely, to not fall beneath any spell her eyes could cast upon him.
Danny didn't want to become vulnerable. It was if her eyes were entrancing enough to make him go limp right then and there. He was not about to show this vulnerability. Not now, not ever, not to her. "Why?" he asked quietly. She looked at him. He turned back to her with angry blue eyes now. "Why did you do it, Sam?"
At least he's talking now, Sam thought sullenly. "I said I'm sorry," she insisted.
"But why'd you do it?" Danny repeated. "I try to understand and I just don't. I thought I knew you, thought I knew you perfectly, and now it turns out I don't know you at all."
Sam withdrew slightly, shifting to be on her knees and sitting back on her legs, clasping and unclasping her hands. "Like I said before," she started. "When I was very little, my mom died. I don't know what happened to my dad, I don't remember him, but after my mom died, I was alone. Vlad came up to me on the day of her funeral, saying she used to be a friend of his. I'd been sitting on top of one of the many large statues. I can remember it so clearly..."
FLASHBACK:
A young little girl with short black hair and amethyst colored eyes sat crying on the edge of a large, marble statue of an angel. A shadow was cast over her and she turned quickly, wiping her tears away. A man stood there, looking at her with the most sincerely sympathy-filled look ever. "You're name is Sagira, right?" he said in a calm, gentle voice. The girl nodded.
"Who are you?" she asked him. Her voice trembled, uneven.
"I am Vlad Masters," he replied. "Your mother was a good friend of mine a long time ago. She and I used to know each other very well."
Sagira sniffled. "Really?" she asked. Vlad nodded. Sagira looked deep into the man's eyes and saw something there. "You know," she said, smiling thinly. "Your eyes remind me a lot of mine."
Vlad looked at her. He looked into her eyes. A longing, he saw, to be loved. Her eyes looked wounded at a level one could not even imagine. They held deep loss and grief. And yet the girl smiled at him as though he were long-lost best friend.
"She's gone, isn't she?" the girl asked then. Such refinement was held in her voice, he could hardly believe the girl was only five. Vlad nodded solemnly. The girl nodded slightly and looked down. "I never knew my dad," she whispered.
"What are you going to do now?" Vlad asked. "Stay with someone else?"
"I think," the girl said.
"I'll tell you what," Vlad promised. "I know two very nice people who would love to take care of you, what do you say?"
"Really?" the girl's face brightened.
"But only if you promise me something," Vlad said.
"What?"
"They live in a place called Amity Park not to far from here. There lives a man there named Jack Fenton. We were once friends. I want you to befriend his son, Danny. He is about your age. Agreed?"
"Okay," she said.
"Your name, by the way, is now no longer Sagira."
"What is it now?"
"Samantha Elizabeth Manson."
"Wow it's long..."
:END FLASHBACK
"Amazing," Sam whispered now. She'd gotten to the fine-points of the memory as she told Danny. "I remember that day so clearly and yet I don't even remember my mother's face."
"That's how you became a Manson then," Danny whispered. Sam nodded. "But why someone like Vlad? Why him? Why did you agree?"
"Because," Sam said. "Without anyone there, my mother or father, I had lost my purpose and reason for living and to live. Anyone would pass me by and consider me unimportant. A mere child. I felt unnecessary. I sought, in my mind, a reason to keep living. A purpose to live for. Vlad came and gave me both. I hold him dear for that."
It made sense in a sick, warped kind of way, Danny knew. She would have given up living if not for Vlad. To live without even a reason, a daily struggle and fight day by day without any purpose. It made sense. But it still made him sick to his stomach. He couldn't find a way to say he forgave her, so her merely stood and walked away. Sam watched him as he resumed his past position against the wall.
He says nothing, she thought. She stood as well.
"I will forgive," Danny said. She gawked at him inwardly. He didn't look at her. There was no way to tell whether or not he really meant it. His voice held no emotion nor sign of his sincerity. "But I won't forget what you did, Sam. I never will."
"Thank you," Sam whispered.
"But," Danny said. "Just letting you know, you've lost my respect as both an enemy and past friend."
Sam froze, but quickly thawed and nodded, her expression hardening. "A fair price," she said, smiling wickedly. She would not show him the hurt his words caused her. "Good-bye, Daniel."
Danny didn't stir, only listened as Sam's steps echoed through the hall, growing more and more faint. He sighed, but did not lose his composture. It is always easier to walk away, isn't it?
Meanwhile...
Jasmin Fenton sat on a window seat in her room, staring out. She'd had the strange feeling something was wrong but she couldn't place it. She heard the door open and knew automatically it was her mother, Maddie Fenton. "Mom," she said quietly.
"Yes, dear?" her mother replied. She was collecting laundry to wash the next day.
"Have you ever felt as if you lost something?" Jasmin asked.
"What do you mean, Jasmin?" Maddie asked.
"Like, something very important. You forgot something you weren't supposed to forget. Lost something you knew you couldn't and weren't supposed to lose. Something...precious?"
Maddie smiled fondly at her daughter. "I'm afraid not, dear," she said. "What do you think you lost?"
"I don't know," Jasmin said truthfully. "It's someone important, I know it. Someone I wasn't supposed to forget. Ever."
"Someone?" Maddie asked. Jasmin looked at her.
"Huh?"
"You said someone, Jasmin," Maddie said. Jasmin looked at her, blinked a couple of times.
"I did?" she asked. Maddie nodded. "I...didn't notice."
Maddie put a hand on her daughter's shoulder and patted it fondly. "I hope you find whatever it is you lost, sweetie," she said.
"Yeah," Jasmin whispered as her mother left the room. She looked back at the darkening sky outside. "I hope so too."
"I will forgive but I won't forget
And I hope you know you've lost my respect..."
E/N: Ah! Oh my gosh! Wow! Well, okay, everyone, especially Axel, knows I love to make speeches. Sam's speech though I kinda based on this speech that a character named Haku said in an episode of Naruto. It's similar, but not exact okay. I can't remember exactly what Haku said anyway. Hope you liked the chapter!
--Airamé Phantom
