.

.

Sam doesn't believe in violence. Not directed towards animals or other people.

(Mostly animals.)

But she's out of options.

Sam pants, clutching Danny's own baseball bat and trembling with fear. Adrenaline hollers inside Sam. Danny has been knocked out unconscious on the bedroom carpet after trying to kiss Sam. Not a nice kiss. It was angry. Violent. Entitled.

It's not him. It's not him because it's Ember who did this to him.

Despite knowing this, a low whimpering noise escapes Sam's lips. Her violet-matte lipstick smeared.

"How are you enjoying my little love song?" Ember drawls, floating into view from Danny's window. She swings her guitar aside. Ember still has on the dark, artistic eye-makeup and wears only one silk glove on her upper arm. All of her clothes as dark as night. "Aww… trouble in paradise, I see." Ember fakes a pout. "World domination has its ugly sides. You understand, don't you?

Sam drops the baseball bat, glaring. "Take it off him."

"Not a chance, sweetheart." Ember rolls her spectral-green eyes as if annoyed, not threatened or intimidated by Sam. "I've got plans to carry out and this dipstick is the only thing standing in my way, as it turns out. All sixty pathetic pounds of him."

"You forgot me," Sam retorts, her teeth exposed. "You're not gonna get away with any of this."

Ember gazes down on her, slowly smirking.

"Did he try to hurt you?" she asks so quietly that Sam nearly misses it. Ember clucks her tongue in disapproval, hovering inside the bedroom, but maintaining distance from Sam. "Men, right?… Men love you, and then, men think they can hurt you without consequences." Sam's throat clenches. That's not Danny. That's YOU. "But love should be about your freedom."

"You're not giving anybody freedom, Ember. You're hypnotizing them."

"They're free from worry," Ember insists. "Love should make you trust effortlessly and love shouldn't make you chose. You just need to give in to it." Sam doesn't know when Ember got close like this, touching the point of Sam's chin. There's no heat drifting from Ember's flame-like ponytail. "I'll lift the song from your friend. Love me and you'll see everything makes sense."

Sam jerks away, panting harder.

"Over my dead body," she grumbles. Her heart pounds frantically as Ember's smirk lengthens.

(Truly like the crazy villainess in the heroine's story.)

Ember trails a silk-dark gloved hand into Sam's cropped hair, tucking it behind her ear. Sam shivers at the feeling of ice-cold skin, but keeps it from her expression. One of Ember's fingers and her thumb pinch gently on the end of Sam's Fenton Phones.

"You'll be mine soon enough, sweetheart. It's just a matter of time."

Instead of ripping the Fenton Phones out, Ember taps on Sam's cheek as if considering something. She leans in. Her icy, dead mouth puckers towards Sam's violet-lipstick lips, making an exaggerated kissing noise. Sam reddens, wincing her eyes shut.

"Until then…"

A deeply satisfied Ember cackles again in Sam's face, phasing into invisibility mode as Danny stirs.

"Enjoy…"

.

.