I decided not to change the rating on this chapter but I will supply a little warning. There is some creepiness and some nakedness. Nothing too explicit, however. Think of it as a T+ or something. If anyone feels the rating needs to be changed, please feel free to contact me.

-Daphne


Sam sat cross-legged on her queen-sized bed, a large decaying volume open on her lap, several more scattered on the purple bedspread. Tucker sat on the other side of her room typing tiredly on her computer.

"What about this?" Sam yawned. "'Phasmacillicis: An extremely rare red gem, found only in central Europe. Activation of the stone's properties can compel a ghost to obey the owner of the gem without question.' That sounds like what Freakshow had."

"That's a possibility. But we haven't seen anything that looks like that since Freakshow's scepter was broken." Tucker did some quick typing. He scowled as he stared at the screen. "And according to this, that scepter was the only known artifact set with Phasmacillicis."

Sam buried her head in her hands letting her hair fall over her face. "What about man made devices? Is there anything man made that can control a ghost?"

Tucker sighed. "Sam, what if he's not being controlled? What if something snapped? What if being half ghost finally got the better of him?"

Sam's head popped up. "That wouldn't happen, Tucker." The girl growled, menacing. "You didn't see him this morning."

"Okay, okay." The boy slid his glasses off and rubbed his eyes. "But it is two in the morning and we haven't figured anything out." He polished the lenses on his glasses, set them back on his nose, and took in the girl hunched over and glaring at him. "And you look like hell."

"You don't exactly look like sunshine and flowers yourself but you don't hear me complaining."

"That's not what I meant." Tucker sighed. "We're exhausted and freaked out. We're not any good to anyone like this. We need to get some sleep."

Instead of answering Sam simply stared at the book in her lap.

Tucker got up and sat down next to her on the edge of the bed, pushing two large tomes out of the way before he did so. "We'll figure it out." The girl sniffed, her downward turned face hidden by hair. Anyone else would have started crying by now, thought Tucker, but not Sam. "He'll be okay, he's pretty strong." Sam sniffed again and the thick black hair bobbed up and down. "But we can't do anything if we're a mess, you know."

"You're right." The girl's voice came, the fight drained out of it.

"A'ight. I'll call you first thing tomorrow." Tucker grabbed his back pack from where he'd thrown it when they'd come in immediately after school.

"Okay. Do you think maybe we should try talking to Clockwork?"

Tucker shrugged. "I dunno. I don't really like the idea of going into the ghost zone without Danny but if we don't figure anything out, that might not be a bad idea."

"Cool." The girl yawned in spite of herself. "Well, sleep on it, I guess."

"Will do. Goodnight, Sam."

"'Night Tucker."

Left alone, Sam fell backwards on to her bed, the heavy book still in her lap. She shut her eyes, the bizarre events of the morning flooding back to her. She saw the strange smile on Danny's face and the way he look at her. It had been frightening, malevolent and possessive. And those red eyes. The image those luminescent crimson eyes had come back to her again and again. Those were not her Danny's eyes.

But they were Danny's and that's what bothered her the most. Despite the change in color, he was still there, the same boy was somehow behind that gaze.

Sam, sighed and rubbed her eyes. Pushing the book off her lap she got up and proceeded to clear the rest off her bed. Tucker was right. She needed sleep. She tore off her clothes and pulled on a t-shirt, not bothering to look for a real pair of pajamas. She was too tired.

Sam wandered into her bathroom and peered at herself in the mirror. She did look like hell. Her lipstick was worn off and the eyeliner had smeared leaving large black circles under her eyes. She washed the make-up off her face and stumbled to her bed falling in face first. She'd barely pulled up the covers before she fell asleep.


Sam woke up suddenly, snapped awake by the eerie feeling that someone else was in the room. She glanced around in the darkness, half convinced the sensation had come from a dream. But it wasn't a dream. She wasn't alone.

Her eyes focused on the figure floating at the end of her bed. Without the white gloves, boots, and belt he blended in more easily in the dark. He still radiated a soft, otherworldly glow, however, which was only partially obscured by all the black. His white hair fell softly around his face, framing the incandescent ruby eyes and the still boyish features. A smile gently played on his lips.

"Danny?" Sam choked, her voice hoarse with sleep.

"Who else?" His smile broadened. He crawled on to the bed, straddling the girl on all fours.

"Danny, you're scaring me." Sam found herself staring up at his face, unable to move.

"Do you like it?" He asked, taking her wrists in his gloved hands and slowly raising them above her head.

"What?"

Danny leaned in so closely that his cheek almost touched her's and whispered lightly in her ear. "I said, do you like it?"

Sam shivered and closed her eyes. She didn't want to think about what was happening. She felt a pair of cool lips softly press into hers.

"Danny, what are you doing?" she said quietly.

"I'm kissing my girlfriend. Aren't I allowed to do that?" He whispered back.

"You're not acting like yourself." She opened her eyes and searched the face above hers for any reaction. He frowned and rolled off of her, releasing her wrists.

"Maybe that's exactly what I'm doing." He pulled off his left glove and then his right, dropping them on the floor beside the bed. The ghost sat up and slid off the black coat, likewise letting it fall to the floor. Sam watched this in silence, not even having moved her arms from where he had placed them. Maybe I should run, she thought, but her body did nothing to act on it. Despite the strangeness of the situation, despite feeling afraid, she couldn't believe she was in any actual danger.

He leaned over slowly pulled the covers down to her thighs, making her shiver again, this time from the cold. He smiled at the sight of her in her underwear. "No pants. Wonderful."

He ran his left hand up her opposite leg, over her hip and up to her stomach.

"Why are you acting so strangely?" Sam breathed. "What do you want?"

"I want," he pushed up her shirt slightly and leaned over and kissed her stomach, "what I have." He pushed her shirt further up and kissed higher and Sam heard herself breath sharply in spite of herself. "And what I have, is you."

He continued to kiss his way up her stomach, pushing her shirt up to her neck revealing her breasts. Sam wanted to push him away, she knew she should push him away but it didn't help that this was the boy she had kissed a thousand time. Some part of her mind was not only deeply attracted to him, but attracted to the strangeness of the encounter. Through the fear and confusion in her mind she felt a wave of arousal, warm and sweet, as he gently kissed her naked right breast.

"This is definitely, still my favorite." He chuckled lightly.

"Still your favorite, what?"

"My favorite breast, of course."

"Oh."

He rolled over again, this time laying fully on top of her. She felt her legs spread to accommodate his form. He leaned into kiss her and she shut her eyes.

He kissed her deeply, fiercely, his mouth open as if to consume her. She kissed him the same way, wrapping one arm around his back, the other hand grasping the hair on the back of his head. She held him to her, afraid to open her eyes and see the boy on top of her. If she just held on tight enough, she thought, she would pull away and her same Danny would be back and she would be staring into his sweet, shy eyes.

The couple pulled their lips away from one another and she met his strange eyes, full of possessiveness and dominance. She felt tears slip from both her eyes and leave small wet trails on the edge of her face.

"Why are you crying? Please don't cry." The boy wiped the lines of salt water off her face and lay down next to her.

"I'm scared. I don't know what's happening to you." Sam spoke as much to the air as anything.

To her surprise, the ghost next to her sighed. "I suppose I need to explain it, don't I. If I want you."

Sam nodded.

The boy rolled on to his side, his head propped up on one hand, looking at her. A huge smile broke out across his face. "Everything got better."

"What do you mean everything got better." Sam sat up and pulled her shirt down to cover herself.

"I mean," he paused and bit his lip. "I don't know how to explain this, since you're not a ghost."

"Try. I'm here all night." She pulled her legs towards her and placed her head on her knees, looking at him.

"Well, the thing is, when you're a ghost things are so much quieter, so much simpler. There are fewer things crowding your head. So many things you think about when you're alive, just disappear."

Sam nodded. She didn't really understand but she wanted him to keep talking.

"But there are still a lot of things in your head. Too many things going on at once to really think well about any one thing." The smile returned to his face and Sam pulled her legs in closer to her body instinctively. "My new master, he takes them all away. He takes away all the other things so we can think about our one thing. The one thing that matters most."

He pulled away one of the hands holding her legs and kissed the palm.

"Am I your one thing?" She asked weakly. It wasn't really something she would have normally imagined but considering the way he was acting, it was her best guess.

"Of course." He sat up and took her face between her hands. "Don't worry, everything's going to be fine. In fact, things are going to start getting much better."

Sam felt herself starting to drift off, amazed that she could be sleeping in a moment like this. She felt herself being laid out on the bed, no longer having the power to do so herself. She fought to stay awake, but every time the boy touched her, she felt like she took another step closer to darkness.

The last thing she saw, before the darkness closed in, was that alien smile on the face she knew so well.


Darn, I think I just creeped myself out.