A/N - i do not own Danny Phantom or any related characters, nor do i own Beauty and the Beast.
Four
Her slender fingers curled around the doorframe. They were followed by the ones on her other hand. The door slipped open slightly, and a small nose poked around it. The rest of her face followed, and her purple eyes scanned the corridor surreptitiously.
Seeing no-one, she stepped out of the room and shut the door quietly behind her. She walked quickly down the corridor, seeing the spiraling staircase before her. She opted not to take that one in case she was to be spotted. She noticed a door in the wall to her left and opened it cautiously. She realized it was a servant's passage, and sighed happily at her good fortune. She descended the stairs and popped out, with overwhelming relief, in what was most definitely the kitchen. Just the thought of the word made her hollow stomach growl in annoyance.
"Alright, alright," she muttered. "I'm working on it."
She opened a cupboard, but found only cups. The next few yielded plates, bowls, platters, glasses and mugs, but no food. She grabbed a cup, intending to go get some water, but fumed out loud.
"What, do these people not eat?" She froze and pursed her lips. "Wait a minute."
The cup slipped from her grasp and clattered to the floor. By some miracle it did not shatter, but the smacking noise it made was loud enough to make Samantha cringe.
"Hello?"
"Dammit." She breathed quietly, looking around her desperately for somewhere to hide.
"Is someone there?"
She dove under the table in a burst of hopefulness. She saw the door open, and some booted feet walk into the room. To her relief, they were not black, but brown. The person stalked right into the middle of the room, then stopped in front of the cup. Then he bent down.
Sam stifled a gasp as the dark-skinned young man came down to her level and picked up the cup. Suddenly he turned and looked her in the eyes.
"Ah!" He yelped, skidding back against the cupboards.
Her eyebrows lifted. Although he had the same glowing, translucent look Danny, Jazz and that other girl had had, he was much less cool. They at least acted like ghosts – for that was what she was pretty sure they were. But this one acted like he was afraid of her.
She crawled out from under the table, deciding that since she was busted, she might as well. She stood over him, her hands on her hips.
"Hi."
He swallowed and scrambled up onto his feet. He was only a little taller than her, though considerably more ungainly, and he was standing on the ground instead of hovering – something she was relieved to see.
"I'm Tucker. Nice to meet you, Sam."
She gritted her teeth. Had that pest told the whole castle she was called Sam?
"It's Samantha."
"Oh, but, D-uh, Phantom, said…"
"Well Duh Phantom is an idiot. And you can tell him I said so."
He swallowed and fiddled with his fingers. "Um, why are you here?"
"I'm hungry. Where's your food? Or do ghosts not need to eat?"
"No, we don't really, but…hang on. No! I mean, we aren't ghosts!"
She rolled her eyes at him. "Please. So – food?"
He gulped. "Um, Phantom told us you weren't supposed to–"
"Oh, please, Tucker."
The two people in the room snapped their heads to the new entry. Samantha recognized her as the girl who had commanded her to come down to dinner last night. That had been almost a whole day ago, her stomach reminded her, growling once more at her.
"She can't not eat the whole time she's here. Don't be so foolish." She turned to Samantha. "Come on, your dinner is on the table. It's cold, really cold, but it's better than nothing."
Samantha followed the girl through some double doors and into an enormous dining room. The table, she guessed, must have seated over one hundred people. It was the biggest piece of furniture she had ever seen. At one end were two place settings, one with food on it, and one without.
She slid into the seat with food before it and ate heartily. It was some sort of meat, which she ignored, and a plentiful supply of vegetables that were almost icy cold from the frigid temperature of the castle, but to her famished body they were wonderful.
She finished and sat back happily in her chair. She looked at Tucker and the girl, who had been standing opposite her, watching her eat.
"So, what's there to do around here?"
The two ghosts looked at each other, then turned back to her. "Not much."
She frowned at them. "So, what do you do all day?"
They suddenly both blushed furiously. Samantha's eyebrow lifted a few seconds later as she understood exactly what the pair did with their time.
"So, there's nothing to do here but to make out?"
The girl snapped angrily at her. "I don't think you're in any position to be rude, Sam."
"Samantha." She spat through gritted teeth. This was really starting to annoy her. "What's your name again?"
"Valerie."
Samantha willed herself to calm down. She was going to be here a long time, and some allies would be a good idea. She nodded. "That's nice."
The two girls stared at each other, silently reaching some sort of feminine truce Tucker didn't understand. He cleared his throat awkwardly and held up a hand.
"We could, give you a tour. You know, cause you're gonna be here a while and you might wanna know how to get around, in case, uh, I don't know. Yeah."
Samantha nodded after considering the idea. "Alright. I don't think I can take much more of being in that bedroom all by myself. Give me the grand tour."
The castle certainly was grand. Samantha guessed that at one time it would have been magnificent. Tapestries hung on most walls, expensive candelabras and chandeliers that she was certain were solid gold were everywhere, and most floors were even carpeted, much to her surprise.
Tucker and Valerie showed her everything. They showed her bedrooms, lounges, drawing rooms. They told her all about the grand dining room, a humungous library, the priceless artwork, the ancient tapestries, and the glorious ballroom. Tucker took her all over the castle in servant's passages that could cut distances around the castle in half.
Valerie described the gilding and gold leaf on the main staircase to her. She evidently knew a lot about it. Samantha could not help but to trace her fingers along the silky smooth mahogany rail, imagining what it would have been like to live in this castle in its glory days, and to descend this staircase in expensive clothes, be grand and rich.
Wealth was never something she craved, but always something she regarded with some reverence. All her problems in life could be traced back to money – or the lack thereof. Richness must be a blessing.
She fingered her cheap, homespun grey dress dejectedly, feeling out of place amidst all the grandeur. Even Tucker and Valerie's ghostly servant's clothes were of finer quality than hers. How depressing.
The trio were walking down what Tucker informed her to be the west hallway. A tattered red carpet ran down the center of it, providing padding for her feet, and sometimes Tucker and Valerie's. She soon voiced a question that had been nagging at her for a while.
"Why do you guys sometimes walk, and sometimes float?"
"It takes more concentration to float – you know, to lift off the ground. It's easier to walk, though it's less tiring to fly. We can do either, I guess – depends on how we feel."
Samantha nodded in understanding at Valerie's explanation.
"Does Phantom ever float?"
"Sometimes."
"Why is he always so grumpy?"
Valerie didn't answer right away, looking uncomfortable. Tucker jumped in, pointing out a vase sitting on a carved wood table.
"That vase dates to the early fourteenth century – one of a kind. You see that purple color? The pigment needed for that color is only found in one place in the whole world."
"Pretty." She acknowledged half-heartedly. "So? Valerie?"
But once more Tucker butted in. "And that tapestry over there? It was woven by thirty-four blind women. Isn't it beautiful?"
"Why are you avoiding my–"
"And that door leads to the Coral Room, and that one to the Emerald drawing room, and that staircase leads to the West Wing, and if you turn right here you reach the–"
Samantha's eyes widened and she stopped to look at the sharply winding staircase Tucker had pointed out. "So that's the West Wing."
Tucker, if it was possible, turned even paler than he usually was. His eyes were wide and he started panting, as Valerie fixed the most venomous glare ever given by anyone other than Samantha on him.
"Nice going," she hissed.
The pair suddenly became aware of their guest walking away from them towards the forbidden stairs. They both flew forwards and landed in front of her on the steps.
"It isn't very interesting up there," Tucker told her, sounding incredibly flustered.
"Yeah, the gallery is much more interesting," Valerie added.
"I want to know why he didn't want me to go up there." Samantha said bluntly, and walked past them. But Valerie grabbed her arm.
"Seriously, Sam, don't go there."
Samantha forgot to correct her, and swiped at her arm instead. But, like that time she had tried to slap Phantom, her hand just passed right through the girl. Yet Valerie still had a hold on her arm.
Samantha's mind was churning. If she couldn't touch them but they could touch her, she had to find some other way to get them to let her go.
"Wouldn't you rather go see…go see, um, the gardens?" Tucker asked desperately.
Samantha froze, without having to pretend. "You have gardens?"
Tucker sighed in immense relief. "Yes! Huge gardens! Flowers of every kind you can imagine! And trees, and lawns, and borders and rockeries, and benches and fountains!"
Samantha gave him her most pleased and excited smile. "Show me!"
Valerie let her go, and the three of them walked back down the staircase. Tucker still blabbered excitedly, and Valerie had given him a congratulatory squeeze on the arm when she thought Samantha wasn't looking, and not let go.
"Willows, and birches, and blossoms, and a lake, and a maze! A huge maze! You could be lost in that maze for…."
The pair walked off arm in arm down the corridor, and neither of them noticed Samantha turning and slipping surreptitiously back down the hallway to the stairs. She ran up them nimbly, flying upwards as fast as she could, her unshod feet silent on the carpeted steps. As she climbed, she passed several doors, knowing innately that they were not what she was looking for. The stairway became narrower and narrower, and she soon realized that she was climbing up one of the taller turrets of the ancient castle.
She finally reached a tall ironwood door with a rustic iron handle. The handle was dusty, as if it hadn't been touched in years. She realized that Phantom probably just phased through the door, instead of opening it like a normal person. She wrapped her pale hand around the large handle and pulled. The door protested vehemently, but she managed to pry it open enough to slip sideways into the room.
The heavy curtains, in tatters, were hanging as best they could across the large window opposite her, blanketing the room in darkness. Overturned furniture was everywhere. Burn and scorch marks decorated the walls somberly, and the carpet was incinerated in the center of the chamber, growing a little fuller towards the walls. Wallpaper hung in strips everywhere, and she could just make out darkened patches where paintings might have once hung. She wondered briefly why these paintings would have been taken down when most of the others in the castle were still there.
But as she walked forwards into the enormous room, something in the center of it became more and more evident in the darkness. As she neared it, her eyes widened.
It was a rose. A black rose, white staining the tips of the petals. It was turning by itself in midair, a faint white glow emanating from it. It looked very sorry for itself, wilted and drooping. Quite a few of its petals were gone, sitting on the floor below. It looked a step away from death.
She pulled her necklace from its place under her dress, and was surprised to see it glowing faintly. It looked just like the black rose would have when it was not withering. She looked back up at the gothic rose hovering before her, and was inexplicably drawn to it. She took another step forward, her right hand outstretched, her left clutched tightly around her locket.
Suddenly two acidic green eyes formed in the darkness behind the rose. They glittered murderously and Samantha froze. She was suddenly thrown backwards from the flower by a green blast hitting her chest. She smacked into the wall and fell to the ground.
She moaned in agony and stood up. Phantom was standing right in front of her. He stepped forwards so his chest was touching hers, pushing her back into the wall, his hands braced on either side of her head.
All his fury and hate was slicing into her body from the touch, crippling her, weakening her. Her head began to spin.
"I told you not to come here," he snarled venomously.
Her head was lolling, his violent emotions coursing through her limbs and chest, starting to make her convulse in pain.
"I ordered you not to come here!" His voice rose dangerously loud. He pulled back one arm, his palm glowing with that strange green energy she had glimpsed in the dungeon.
His hand suddenly fastened around her neck and he lifted her off the ground. The feelings the connection sent searing into her body burned her from the inside, and she could do nothing. She just let herself be strangled.
He finally dropped her, and when she dared a glimpse at his face, he had the strangest expression. It seemed a mixture of shock, horror, confusion, but most of all, anger. His eyes narrowed at her, and he pulled back from her shaking body.
The inflow of his violent emotions stopped, leaving a searing residual pain slicing through her torso. She collapsed to the ground, coughing fiercely and clutching her abused throat. His hand came to her neck once more, but this time it curled around her collar and pulled her onto her feet. His face came close to hers, and she tried to pull back so his skin didn't touch hers again, but he didn't let her.
"Get." His voice was dangerously, murderously low. "Out."
He released her, and she crumpled to the floor once more.
"Get out!"
She pulled herself to her feet, ignoring the screaming protests from her aching body.
"Get out!"
His hands suddenly flashed green again. Samantha knew that she had to leave – right now. She forced her broken body towards the door.
"Get out!"
A green blast connected with the door just to her right as she struggled to pull it open. Her heart was pounding, and the strong adrenaline rush was beginning to block out her pain.
"Get OUT!"
She slipped around the door frame and ran back down the stairs. Her momentum increased her speed until her feet were only hitting every tenth step or so. As the staircase widened, she veered to the left, hardly noticing Tucker and Valerie standing there, calling to her.
"Sam!"
Valerie's voice was a distant echo in her mind. She had to get out. She couldn't stay here anymore, promise or no promise. She ran through the castle, passing servants she had been introduced to on the tour, but ignoring them.
She threw open the side kitchen door and ran to the stables. She grabbed a horse, any horse, flung her body onto it, and pushed it towards the wrought-iron gate in the castle wall. She unlatched the gate and let the horse fly through, not bothering to close the portal behind her.
The pair galloped down the mountainside. The adrenaline coursing through Samantha's veins began to wane, and the agony inside her returned. She delved her fingers into the horse's black mane, struggling to control the burning pain in her body.
Suddenly the horse stopped with a terrified whinny, its huge hooves throwing up snow as it skidded to a halt. Samantha had not expected it, and she was thrown violently forwards over the horse's neck. She landed in a deep snowdrift. The snow was still falling, through much slower than the blizzard of the day before. She moaned and picked her head up.
Looming over her was the black shadow wolf that had chased her before up the mountain. Its red eyes glittered terribly.
Terror began to set into her head, but she willed it away. She would be fine. All she had to do was get back on the horse.
She turned around. The black stallion was galloping in the opposite direction back up to the castle. Her heart dropped watching it, as the creature behind her tossed back its head and let out an otherworldly howl. Shivers shot down her spine.
It began to advance on her. She didn't know what to do. It was blocking her way to Amity Park, and she could not go back to the castle. Her head was throbbing. The icy snow was beginning to numb her fingers and exposed toes, her limbs aching. She tried to force herself to her feet, but collapsed back into the snowdrift, too tired, and in too much pain to fight.
The creature's face was right next to hers, its glinting red eyes mocking her. She shut her eyes in expectation of her end.
But suddenly the creature howled in pain. Samantha's eyes flashed open and she saw the creature several feet away, just rising from its back. Confusion set into her mind. The creature howled again, furiously, and charged straight for her once more. She was too weak to do much more than just scramble backwards across the dirt and snow.
Just then, a large black figure dropped to the ground right in front of her, blocking off the creature's route. Samantha was not sure whether she was relieved or terrified to see him again.
Phantom lifted both hands and shot another green blast at the advancing wolf. He hit with deadly accuracy and sent the creature reeling backwards far down the path.
Samantha's breaths were coming deep and fast. The pain coursing through her seemed to be waning, though her legs and arms were rapidly growing numb from cold. She jerked herself to her feet, not able to take her eyes off the ghost in front of her.
His back was still turned, and she wondered why he had not acknowledged her. Her stomach wrenched. Did she have to thank him now? She dreaded to think.
Suddenly she sensed something moving behind her. She whipped around just in time to see the shadow wolf swipe one enormous, sharply clawed paw at her face. She shut her eyes once more, not wanting to look.
But the pain she had been anticipating didn't come. She cracked open an eye and saw Phantom standing before her again, protecting her.
Wait. Protecting her? That monster? Was she dreaming? Was she already dead? Had that thing killed her without her realizing it? She was so cold, she didn't know if she would have been able to notice the transition.
Phantom's hands glowed green and he fired a volley of blasts on the creature, driving it back, back towards the trees away from her. He gave out a bright, forceful blast which caused it to scream in pain.
It snapped at him with its huge teeth, though Samantha could not tell from that distance whether or not it got him. But she did see one final parting explosion of green light and the huge creature lifting up into the sky and flying – yes, flying – away into the night sky.
She was frozen in place for an eternity. Neither she nor Phantom moved. Her breaths were too loud. The woods were completely silent. Phantom was not breathing, but she didn't think he ever did. The snow dropped mournfully between them. The wind seemed to be blowing it in his direction, like an invitation for her to follow.
She picked her foot up to take a step towards him, but set it back down again in indecision. She should just go back to Amity Park. She was free. She had escaped. She should just go. She should just leave him.
Suddenly Phantom's legs crumpled beneath him. His tall frame collapsed soundlessly to the snow, and he laid there, an unmoving black mar in the fresh white drifts.
Samantha watched him fall, her heart wrenching her two different ways. Her feet suddenly decided for her. They picked her up and moved her quickly…
Towards Phantom.
She knelt beside him and rolled him onto his back. His clothing was torn, and the pale skin showing below was covered in some strange sort of thick green liquid. It only took her a few minutes to realize that it was his kind of blood. And he was losing more and more by the second.
Could ghosts die? As she sat there next to him in minor shock, staring at the wounds, she wondered exactly what would happen to him if he lost much more of his green blood. She decided that it could not be good.
She slipped her arms underneath his unconscious body, one under his back and the other under his knees, clasping her hands together in front of her. She picked him up, struggling greatly under his weight. She staggered forwards a few steps and almost collapsed. For a dead person, he certainly was heavy.
If he was a ghost, shouldn't he weigh nothing at all? She looked at his slightly transparent body cradled awkwardly in her arms in confusion.
"Why do you have to be so weird?" She asked crossly.
She stared down at his face as she moved painfully back up the path. He looked so different in repose. All the harsh lines disappeared from his face, all the hurt, anger, distrust. Although the dark circles were still there under his eyes, they didn't seem so pronounced. His cheeks were still gaunt, but without his habitual scowl they didn't make him look so creepy.
His white hair had slipped away from his features, exposing them further to her view. She could now see both eyes properly. They were thickly fringed with black eyelashes that were hard to see when his eyes were open because they, well, glowed.
And he looked so…young. She guessed that when he died he could not have been much more that seventeen. She wondered how it had happened. And why he was still in the castle. And why all the servants, and his sister, were ghosts too.
Alone with her musings, Samantha continued on, the dark form of the girl and the ghost moving slowly up the mountain amidst the intensifying snowfall.
Samantha staggered, exhausted, back into the castle and dropped to her knees right there in the hallway. Her breathing was ragged, and she let herself cough a few times, her throat rasping painfully.
Tucker, Valerie, Jazz, and several other servants awaited them there. The moment she stumbled in they slammed the door and crowded around their master and his prisoner in shock.
Samantha looked up at a very worried-looking Jazz.
"Jazz, go get some bandages. You have to have something like that in this place. I also need a bowl of hot water and a cloth, Valerie, and, Tucker, some dry clothes for Mr. Hero here."
The three scuttled off, and, with the help of one of the servants she recalled to be called Kwan, Phantom was relocated to the floor of the Emerald drawing room, which was thickly carpeted, and where a hot fire was lit.
Kwan stepped backwards towards the door after the bossy girl had waved him away. Jazz accidentally bumped into him on her hurried way in.
"Sorry, Kwan."
"That's alright, milady. Can I help?"
Jazz looked to where Phantom lay on the ground, Samantha crouched protectively over him, and smiled wisely.
"No, maybe we should just leave them alone."
Jazz, Tucker and Valerie deposited their loads on the floor by the shivering pair, then backed subtly out of the room, closing the door behind them.
Samantha put a red-cold hand on Phantom's sodden cape and sighed crossly. She unfastened it at his throat and pulled it away from his body. Next went the soaking and green-blood stained shirt. She used the cloth and water to gently wash away as much blood from his chest as she could. His skin was cold and uncomfortable to her touch, but at least it did not hurt her to touch him.
Wait. To touch him?
She shook her head in confusion and pulled him up against her body, wrapping the bandages tightly around his deep injuries. A few minutes later she tied off the knot at the end, satisfied with her handiwork.
Suddenly a hand gripped the top of her arm painfully. His torso phased through her grip and he crashed to the floor with a groan. She yelped and slapped at the hand hurting her arm, sending his emotions into her. This time they were shock, panic, and, almost overwhelmingly – pain. But her hand, of course, merely passed right through his. Phantom's eyes were open and glowing angrily.
"What are you doing?" he snarled.
"Making sure you don't bleed to death! You ungrateful little ass!" she hissed back, gritting her teeth against the coursing agony he was giving her. "Will you please let go of my arm?"
He looked at his hand digging into the skin of her upper arm and released her. She held back a sigh of relief when the numbing inflow of emotions halted. She sat up on her heels and looked down at him. He was inspecting his bandages.
His viridian eyes turned up to her. "Are they tight enough?"
She was just too cold and too exhausted to bother being annoying. Even her head was beginning to throb. She sighed. "I think so." She reached out a hand to pull gently on the knot she had tied at his side, but her fingers passed through him again.
But it was different this time from before. Until now, when she had tried to touch him and had not been able to, her hand had gone through him without there being any indication of him existing at all. It was like touching light, or air.
But now when her fingers touched him they tingled faintly, like when it was raining gently and you just felt it as tiny tickles on your skin. She withdrew her fingers quickly, slightly embarrassed.
She looked at him, and his eyes were boring right into her. Like he was trying to read her thoughts. She fixed a stare of her own on him and they just looked at each other until the door suddenly burst open.
"Oh, um, sorry, I didn't, uh, I wanted to see if, uh, you were okay, D-uh, Phantom."
The pair looked at Tucker in surprise. Then they moved, Samantha springing to her feet and leaping away from Phantom, and Phantom himself struggling up onto weak legs. Samantha handed him the spare shirt Tucker had brought, and he slipped it on, not bothering to button it up.
Samantha looked out the window. Judging by the blackness of the sky, she decided it was almost midnight. She should go to bed. Besides, her head was aching, and her throat hurt too. She sniffed and took a step towards Tucker.
Suddenly her vision became distorted. It swirled in front of her and she closed her eyes in surprise. Her legs gave beneath her and she collapsed backwards awkwardly, just barely aware of being caught in strong, cold arms before the pain in her broken body swallowed her completely.
wow. who would have thought we'd ever see the day when Sam would be cross with people for not calling her Samantha? lol.
eep! some fluff!!! not much, but some!!!
sorry for the cliffie. i'm feeling a little evil at the moment :)
okay, if you think i've done anything wrong with any of the characters (cough Tucker cough) please let me know so i can fix it!
review review review s'il vous plait!!!! until next time...
FunkyFish1991 xXx