Ectoplasmic Angel
Chapter 6
o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o
They had been so careful, but after a month and a half of hiding Danny from the Manson parents, they were finally caught. The worst part was Sam and Tucker didn't even know what had happened until they came home from school.
"Jeremy, I am telling you, there isn't anything I can do to seal this deal!" Mrs. Manson complained, putting away her house keys as she opened the door. "Yes, I have been negotiating prices for a week, but nothing has come up."
On the other end of the phone, her husband attempted to encourage her from giving up. The woman frowned, annoyed at his misplaced enthusiasm. Her company had been trying to close a deal with a competitor for months and just recently the two had finally reconciled an agreement, but it seemed there was the issue of price.
Mrs. Manson sighed. Dropping her keys at the door she said goodbye to her husband and made her way to the kitchen for some well deserved coffee. Her life was already hectic enough, she just needed a break.
The sight of a teenager sitting at her kitchen table had her freezing.
Mrs. Pamela Manson was not well known for an impeccable control over her temper, but despite the hinder of her personality she managed to notice that the teen before her was wearing what appeared to be a mix of both her daughter's and friend's clothing. Swallowing the scream of outrage at the thought of an intruder upon her home, Mrs. Manson reasoned that the only way this teenager could have gotten past their security was if Sam had let him in.
"Excuse me, but who are you? What are you doing in my house?" she asked.
The teen looked up and dropped the spoon he was holding. The woman observed the guilty expression on his face and absently noticed he was eating a jar of honey.
"No tell Am," he said, English sounding odd coming from his lips. Pamela frowned. Great, a foreigner.
"Are you a friend of Sams? Why has she allowed you here? Shouldn't you be at school?" the woman snapped.
The beautiful boy tilted his head to the side. "Fwiend Am, no sh-chool, hung-y," he answered slowly, smiling happily at her. Mrs. Manson was not amused.
"You should not be here, leave at once!" she finally demanded. The boy giggled at her and pulled out a piece of paper from his skirt pocket.
"Am ssssay give," he said, shoving the paper in her hands and going back to spooning scoopfuls of the sweet into his mouth. Pamela gave him a disgusted look, but nonetheless read the note her daughter left.
His name is Danny, he's a project for school, I'll explain later.
He doesn't understand English well.
Be nice.
How lovely of her daughter to inform her of this school project, she thought angrily, looking at the grinning boy and wondering how long Sam had been keeping him here without their knowledge. Her child was in for a good talking to when she got back from school.
o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o
"'Mythological Creatures?'" Tucker questioned, grabbing the book from Sam's hands on their walk home. "You really think this is going to help?"
Sam shrugged. "Well it's obvious that Danny isn't human," she explained, pointing to a couple marked pages, "so I've been looking at other possibilities."
She handed him a piece of paper with her odd gothic handwriting on it. "I made a list of Danny's character traits and quirks to help." Tucker took the list and read through it quickly.
Unnaturally beautiful
Doesn't speak English
First language involves tones the human vocal chords cannot create
Odd clothing (similar to Greek toga)
Does not perceive gender role distinction
Has no idea what typical Earth objects are
Tried to eat a leaf
Loves honey and other sweet foods
Only sleeps three times in seven days
Has trouble pronouncing S and R
Imprints easily
Likes smelling things
Obsessed with our clothing
Overly affectionate
Likes blood (but inside our body only)
Doesn't understand morality
Tucker blinked at his friend, surprised. "Wow, you've put a lot of thought into this. But why do some of these have marks beside them?"
"Well Sirens typically make sounds humans can't, but these books say they can pronounce S and R pretty well so that's out," she explained, grabbing the paper back. "He doesn't like to drink blood, only feel it inside of us so he's not a vampire. He can't be a werewolf because the full moon has already passed. Ghosts typically understand the idea of their own death so that's out too."
The female groaned, frustrated at her lack of knowledge. "I'm leaning towards Fairy mostly, but Danny hasn't shown us any sign of having wings."
"Ah!" Tucker gasped. "Yes he has! Remember when we tried to get him to bathe and he wouldn't take off his clothes until we left the room?"
Sam raised an eyebrow. "And that's weird how?"
"Well if someone has no preconceived perception of gender roles, do you really think they're going to feel the same way about nudity as humans do?"
"That's... actually not a bad idea," she admitted, eyes going wide at the possibilities. "And even when he was trying on our clothes last week he never turned his back to us- Tucker this is perfect!"
The teenage boy grinned, rubbing imaginary dust off his shoulders. "I know, I'm pretty awesome, aren't I?" he smiled. Taking a look at the cover of the book Sam held, he asked, "Who wrote a book like this anyways? Not many people believe in this stuff, you know."
"If it wasn't for Danny, I wouldn't either," Sam muttered, closing the cover. "It says it was a collaboration between groups who study the supernatural and paranormal. Huh, no names are listed. Maybe we can look it up when we get back."
As they approached the Manson Mansion, Tucker snorted suddenly. "I bet Danny got into the honey again."
Sam gasped angrily. "He knows damn well what will happen if he does. I put it on the goddamn top shelf!"
"If he really does have wings then it's not like it's a problem for him," Tucker snickered. Knowing she would have to find a better hiding place, Sam groaned.
The two teenagers greeted the Manson butler at the door with a smile. The man warmly greeted them in return, thrilled that they seemed happier lately. After taking off their shoes, Tucker called out "Danny!"
"Teckerr!" came a happy shriek from the kitchen. Tucker laughed and Sam growled.
"Dammit, Danny! You better not be in the honey again!" she warned, storming towards the door to the kitchen.
"I believe your 'school project' has eaten it all, actually," came the less than thrilled voice of her mother. Pamela Manson was sitting at one end of the table while Danny licked an empty jar down at the other.
Their friend waved happily to them and pointed at the woman. "Wessst!" Danny chirped.
Tucker choked down a fit of laughter. They were extremely lucky that they were the only ones who could understand what Danny meant. He didn't think Mrs. Manson would appreciate being called "The Wicked Witch of the West."
Sam attempted to remain calm, but Tucker could see how angry and worried she was. "Why are you home early?" she asked, keeping her tone even.
"Samantha, this is my house. I am allowed to be here whenever I want," the woman replied, sticking her nose into the air. "And I would like an explanation as to why a teenager is in my home."
"His name is Danny, and he's part of a foreign exchange program at Casper High to make our town be more diverse, and accepting, and, you know, not xenophobic," Sam explained, sarcasm and disdain dripping from her every word. "He's supposed to stay at a guest's house for a while before going to school to become more well adjusted."
Mrs. Manson stood up. "And why exactly did you not inform me that you volunteered my house for this ridiculous program?"
Sam straightened up to match her mother's height. "Since when have you ever cared about my life?"
"I am your mother-"
"-hardly-"
"-and you will respect me!"
Tucker, though previously deciding it was better to pretend to be invisible, spoke up suddenly. "Um, well if it's too much trouble, Mrs. Manson, my family and I can take him," he bluffed. "We just figured it might be easier if a more prestigious family took in a foreigner considering all the events you host and attend."
Mrs. Manson paused and the teenagers could see the gears working in her mind. The Manson family was associated with intolerance due to some quite ignorant comments from the current heads of the family, but if they were to bring someone to major events who is obviously foreign to America, then they could no longer be considered xenophobic. "Very well, we will continue to house him," she finally decided. "But he is your complete responsibility."
Though Tucker treated Danny like an adorable dog when they met for innocent reasons, the way Mrs. Manson implied his being was along the lines of an untrained animal. Tucker had to dig his fingers into Sam's side to prevent her from snapping back something rude. "Oh sure! Thanks, and don't worry, we'll take care of everything."
Mrs. Manson nodded stiffly. As she turned to leave the room, Danny chirped at her in a tone that Tucker and Sam knew was "goodbye," but she only held her hands over her face in response.
Once the sound of her heels disappeared down one of the many corridors, Sam screamed with her lips shut. "The nerve of that woman- UGH!"
"I know," Tucker sighed, relaxing now that the threat had passed.
Danny could apparently tell that something was upsetting them because he suddenly moved to rub his head against their chests, a habit he always did when trying to soothe them. It was probably because he liked to feel how warm they were compared to him.
Sam was having none of that. "Oh no you don't, mister," she scolded. "Don't think we didn't notice the empty jar on the counter over there."
Danny froze in the process of snuggling up to Tucker. A low whine came from his throat as he turned big blue eyes to Sam who refused to budge. Seeing that his plan wasn't working, Danny stepped back a little to look up at Tucker.
The male laughed, brushing a hand through the shorter teen's hair. "Sorry, buddy, she did warn you not to eat it." Danny's nose scrunched up in distaste.
"Good, luve hon-y," he explained seriously, as if the fact he loved the sweet was a good enough reason to not listen to Sam.
"I know, Danny, but you love Sam too right?" Tucker asked, pointing at the girl who was attempting to clean up the mess Danny left. The beautiful male frowned, eyebrows running together.
"No eat Am," he said.
Tucker poked him on the nose. The teen squawked in response, but he continued on, "Don't play dumb with me, Danny. I know you understand what I mean." The teen huffed, but nodded his head. "You love both of us, right? And you trust us?"
Danny tilted his head and looked to the sky. After a moment of silence, he responded with a soft, "Trrrust Am and Teckerr. Luve Am and Teckerr."
Tucker smiled despite himself. "That's good because you're in a really confusing place you've probably never seen before so you have to listen to us when we tell you not to do something or else you'll get hurt."
"Hurrtt?"
"Yeah, remember? When the liquid stuff comes out or stops moving."
Danny's eyes widened at that. "Oh. Eeda."
Tucker nodded, sitting down at the kitchen table and dragging Danny down into a hug. "Exactly. We want to help you, but you really don't like listening to us."
The teenager in his lap squirmed until he found a comfortable position and attempted to hide his face in Tucker's sweater. Sam, finished with cleaning up the sticky mess of sugar, joined them by resting her hand against Danny's back. "I know you just want to have fun, but we don't want you to die, Danny. We could tell you to look before you cross the street and the next thing we know you're getting hit by a car because you ran out in front of it!"
Danny shifted and gave her a weird look. "No die."
"If you listen to us you won't, but seriously-"
"-no! No die," Danny said more forcefully.
Tucker and Sam exchanged exasperated looks. This was an issue they needed to handle now before it got them in trouble later. "I know you think you can't be hurt, but humans are a bit different than whatever you're used to-"
Once again she was cut off, but this time because Danny had growled and launched himself off of them. The two teenagers were still recovering from the sudden movement when he grabbed something from the counter.
Tucker made a startled gasp as Danny turned to face them. Sam just froze.
"No hurt! Ssssee!" Danny said as he shoved a knife through his upper arm.
There was absolute silence in the kitchen as Sam and Tucker watched Danny's face suddenly shift. Red blood was dripping out of the wound, but the most concerning thing was the boy's look of absolute shock. His eyes watched the trickle of blood fall down his arm as if he had never seen the color before. Suddenly, his arm shook and when Danny looked back up at them his lower lip was trembling.
"Hurrt," he whimpered brokenly. This snapped the two humans out of their frozen state.
"Danny!" they cried, Sam racing to cover the wound with a clean rag while Tucker held the shaking teen as he began to cry.
"Noooo!" Danny sobbed, twisting away from them. "NOOOO!"
Sam gripped his arm. "Please, you have to hold still or I can't stop the bleeding!" She was panicked and worried so Tucker decided to be the emotional appealing one.
"Danny, please, you have to calm down. You want it to stop hurting, right?" he whispered, moving one arm around the teen's back and using the other to cup his head gently.
The normally beautiful face was splotchy and red, tears running down his cheeks as his expression reflected several different emotions. Danny choked out, "N-no hurrrt! No die-e! No no no!"
Tucker brought Danny's face closer to his own and tried to understand. "You've never been hurt before? This has never happened? Blood?"
Danny shook. "N-no blood. No hurrt." His expression twisted again as his eyes sought the sky. "Why? WHy WHI whi wHI whi why WHY?" he screamed, jerking in their hold.
"Shhh shhh shhh," Tucker soothed. Sam had wrapped the arm in layers of fabric, but she knew they had to get the knife out. Silently Sam mouthed a countdown to Tucker and pulled the knife free from the flesh of Danny's arm.
He screamed.
Normally this wouldn't be much of an issue other than the fact Mrs. Manson might hear him (although that's highly unlikely due to the sound proof walls of the mansion), but it seemed that when Danny screamed everything moved.
It was like experiencing an earthquake. The cabinets shook, the table, the doors, the chairs. Small objects fell off counters and out of previously shut doors only to shatter once they hit the ground. The television turned on and went static, the radio fritzed back and fourth between channels in the background. The floor felt unstable and Sam and Tucker slammed against it, trying to regain their balance.
"Danny!" Sam shrieked over the noise of everything falling apart around them. Tucker echoed her cry.
Finally the wail seemed to slow and turn into pitiful sobbing once again. Danny was still curled in their arms, but his eyes were unfocused as he looked to the ceiling. "Why hurrt?" he whimpered, sniffling. "Not bad. No, no bad. Good. Danny good."
The two humans' hearts melted. "Oh, sweetie," Sam whispered, wrapping his arm up again. "You're good, Danny, I promise."
Danny shook his head, still looking up at something they couldn't see. "No. Gone," he said, brokenly. "Alone, no want."
"You're not alone," Tucker urged, "we're here Danny!"
Nothing seemed to sooth the teenager who kept shaking his head in denial. Not even they could understand what he wanted in this moment, but both had a feeling it had something to do with his home.
Sam leaned over Danny's chest and rested her head on his heart. "Whatever happens, we're always here, Danny. We love you."
Tucker pressed his forehead to Danny's and whispered words the teen wasn't listening to. "You're good, I promise. Everything's going to be okay."
The boy in their lap continued to shake.
o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o
It burned.
Danny had never felt like this before. His throat hurt, his arm hurt, his body hurt- Angels don't hurt, yet Danny was and that was terrifying.
He wanted to prove to the humans that he would be fine, that they didn't need to tell him to be careful all the time. Danny would have been offended if he didn't know how worried they were, so he tried to show them that he wasn't like them.
But he bled.
And he didn't understand.
He sobbed- something Angels also typically didn't do- as the liquid inside him fell out and pooled underneath him and his humans. He hadn't had the liquid when he first got here, Danny knew he definitely hadn't had that weird thumping thing inside his chest either! Why was this happening to him? Why were they doing this to him? Was this punishment?
A scary thought entered Danny's mind. In the background he heard his humans whispering, but the thought was too distracting to ignore. What if he could never go back? Surely they missed him.
His heart clenched in pain at the thought that he had done something so unforgivable that they never wanted to see him again. Oh how he wished he knew what he had done.
He tried to express this to them, tried to make his words reach heaven, but it seemed they remained in the human tongue. "Not bad. No, no bad. Good. Danny good."
His mortals were distressed. Danny didn't care.
He wanted to go home.
But his home didn't want him.
A/N: One of the guest reviewers for the last chapter commented that their father just died and explained that the way I wrote the explanation of Ida's passing helped them; I am so sorry for your loss, but I am thankful that I could be of service in some way. I pray for you and your family.
So Danny has gotten used to some of the more commonly used English words because Sam and Tucker have been working with him for months. Three plot starters were mentioned in this chapter (did anyone catch all of them?), and more characters will be introduced next time! Sorry this one is like half a chapter.