The Tuning Fork
Flying Paper Cranes
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Hey, everyone. Really glad to work again on this story; I've missed it. Been busy with another sucky week. Blecch. :-p Anyhoodle, I just wanted to get some things straight before you get started. (I realize more likely than not most of you will skip this boring aspect of the story, but please bear with me.)
Number One: Yes, you people have convinced me to expand this story. Only because you're cute, mind you. There probably won't be more than another chapter or two after this segment, but that's only because I want this story to have fairly long chapters.
Number Two: No, I do not plan to have a continuation of The Tuning Fork after this story. However, there will be a companion piece for My Fair Lady, for those of you who are interested. It might be fairly short, mind you, but still…anyone who knows me well knows that I have an irrational and overzealous hatred for sequels of any kind. (Disney sequels in particular make me feel homicidal 99% of the time.) But after much thought (And some grudging, I admit it) I realize that there is nothing very wrong with a companion piece, like the two Pooh books. Let it be known: I love you guys. ^_^
Numbers Three and Four: No, Danny is not a psychotic little nutcase filled with hate. He is only very scared, very emotionally damaged, and very human. I hope that this is accurately reflected in the rest of the story. Give him a break-he's only a kid. And for those of you who may have felt I had Danny react like an emotional teenager in light of his suicide attempt, it's a tragic thing, but yes, children do sometimes want to commit suicide. That particular episode was based on a personal experience in my own youth, one which very thankfully failed.
I'd explain the poem to you, but figure you already get what happens. If you have any questions, feel free to ask.
Now that I am (hopefully) done boring you, please enjoy and review!
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Next day, her joyful family found,
Her father, in the bathtub, drowned.
The same fate came to all the rest. One by one.
...how was it done?
Theoda, who had wanted curls, now draped her head with strings of pearls.
And island natives soon took fright
When she was seen offshore, at night.
-The Tuning Fork, Conclusion.
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Strangely enough, breakfast was a relatively quiet affair for the Fentons the following morning. True, Mrs. Fenton kept drumming her gloved fingertips at the table and purposely sending angry, hurt glances at her husband while he kept his red eyes on his plate and pretended not to notice, but there were no angry accusations, snide remarks, or tearful explosions. Jazz was too preoccupied with her cereal (And silently gloating over the fact that she'd sneaked her arm in the box and stole the prize first) to say very much. As usual, Danny was silent at his seat, though his eyes were glowing, and he was anything but still in his thoughts. He absentminded played with his soggy cereal, feeling a wild fluttering in his stomach, as though a torrent of butterflies had been released inside of him.
Maddie took one glance at him, and wearily rolled her violet eyes.
"For goodness sake, Danny, eat your breakfast already. I don't need Ms. Star calling me again about you getting lightheaded at school."
"He's probably still half asleep," offered Jazz, neatly dabbing at her mouth with a napkin once she finished swallowing. "That, or his brain is broken."
"Jazz," interrupted Jack, trying to look stern, though the corners of his mouth were twitching. "That isn't very nice."
The little girl smiled sweetly and said something else, but Danny wasn't listening. He automatically lifted a spoonful of cereal to his mouth, but was so lost in thought that he forgot to open. Milk dribbled down his front as he blankly stared out at the nearby window, at the glittering snow mounds in the backyard. With a voice that was dripping sugar and honey, Jazz said something again, and this time Jack laughed and ribbed at Danny playfully, teasingly asking him some sort of a question. But Danny was still in the clutches of awe, marveling at the unlikely miracle that simply could not be so.
And yet it was, unless the events of last night had been a dream, and he simply hadn't woken up yet. He shivered slightly at the thought. If that were the case, he could only pray that he never, ever woke up again. Maybe he HAD died last night and this was his heaven. Only so far, it didn't seem much different than the life he normally led. Go figure.
There was, however, one significant change that had Danny doubting his very existence and the world he lived in. That distortion had been the arrival of a wonderful and dark angel, who had come to visit him in the night. Only perhaps it hadn't been an angel at all; perhaps a fairy. Maybe a superhero of some kind, though he had to admit that his new friend looked more like the super villains inside of his comics.
Danny felt a pleasant flush in his face bloom as he repeated the saccharine word in his mind again: Friend. Not a traitor or a liar like Tucker; a friend that was friendly and amazing and nice all at once. A friend with a good voice for reading stories and the incredible ability to fly. He'd just been ranting that point at the stars, but they'd really sent him what he wanted; his own wonderful, guardian angel.
Jazz glanced over at Danny at one point, and wondered if her stupid brother had finally gone completely loopy. His blue eyes were lit up like small stars.
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Needless to say, he'd been terrified at first. So much so, his knees had very nearly buckled underneath him, and the world had started chaotically whirling about him again. Always in his blurry vision reappeared the red eyes, however, which kept boring down at him.
It was only his natural fight-or-flight response that prompted him to run instead of faint. He'd tried to scream for help, but had been unable to make a sound; his voice had completely failed on him. In a panic and not thinking, he rushed past Fenton Works as fast as he could wade through the snow, gasping wildly. His throat and his lungs had been on fire as he threw a wild glance behind him, and shrieked.
The Bad Thing was calmly matching the child's frantic sprint with his own long strides through the snow. The creature's arms had been reaching for him, and the ghost had been gently murmuring his actual name: Daniel.
Oh, God. It knew his name. He was going to die, albeit a much more painful and frightening end then if he'd simply stayed in the bathroom and finished himself off! The monster was coming directly for him, had lured him outside with his kind and lovely voice, and was now going to devour him alive! That, or seize him, fly him high, high off into the air, and drop him from a million miles up...
He stumbled a half-dozen times, effectively soaking himself in icy slush, but he kept running, wondering what sort of hell he'd stumbled into.
Unless...
Unless this was all simply a terrible nightmare. Danny silently implored himself to wake over and over again as he finally reached the plowed sidewalks, and started to sprint. He slipped on a patch of ice once, stumbled, and started again, ignoring the sharp sting in both his little kneecaps. The ghost was still pursuing him, voice still enticing, still pleading, still gentle. The boy kept the memory of those red eyes bleeding into his mind as he ran, knowing that he'd give in and stop if he did not. The blue-skinned wraith called out:
"Daniel! Daniel! I don't come to frighten you; please, stop! I'm your friend! You called for me!"
Danny's mind whirled as the little boy's pace began to slow, and then picked up speed once again. Certainly the stars would not send a monster for a friend!
But was he a monster? An alien, maybe? This could very well be another trick or trap, and Danny wasn't going to fall for it!
"DANIEL!"
The child sprinted into the street, only to promptly freeze as a pair of glaring lights raced at him in the bitter cold. He stopped dead in the middle of the road, eyes the size of dinner plates. His gasping mouth had dropped, and all the remaining feeling had dropped out of his legs. He heard the roar of an engine hurtling towards him, and the shrill sounding of a horn. All the remaining color had poured out of his face.
And then, the world had disappeared from him; he'd been seized out of the street into a pair of strong arms. The royal blue night sky became a velvety scarlet cloth. Wind whistled in his ears and he squeezed his eyes shut as they stung, cold air blustering around him. He instinctively buried his face against a warm surface. The ground had hurtled out from underneath his feet, which now dangled in the air.
After a moment or so of gasping, Danny kept his face buried in what he now perceived to be white cloth. He didn't know what it was, and didn't care. His lungs still burned inside of him, and his heart was pounding painfully inside. It took him a moment or two of stillness to grasp that the fluttering heart confirmed that he still breathed; he was alive.
Fearfully, Danny drew out of his place of safety, staring back into those red eyes that had instilled in him such a fright. They surveyed him dryly, only now Danny could see in them an emotion he'd only ever seen in the eyes of other children's parents:
Worry. Shaking like mad, Danny lay in the creature's arms, not registering where he was, of what had just occurred. He was mesmerized.
After a few tense seconds, his rescuer spoke again. Its voice was now irritable, and highly sarcastic. Those were things Danny knew all too well from his own parents.
"Well? Are you going to keep up this ridiculous game of cat and mouse, or are you going to give me another heart attack, you little fool?"
It was growling, and not sounding nearly quite as friendly as it had before. The child wriggled unhappily, not knowing what to say or do. He heard a strange, faint sound coming from nearby, and for whatever reason, the monster was now looking at him with pained, anxious eyes. Although Danny now craved for his rescuer to not look so melancholy, he couldn't help but to drink in the sight, his own heart now feeling like it was on the brink of breaking.
He dazedly raised a small hand, and awkwardly cupped the startled creature's cheek, patting it affectionately. Looking unnerved for a moment, the creature nonetheless granted him a small smile that had ivory fangs glinting in the light of a nearby streetlamp. A gloved hand started wiping at the boy's eyes.
"Don't cry, Daniel."
Oh. The weird sounds were coming from him. Hot tears had been streaming down his face for some time, now. It was numb with cold.
Danny glanced curiously about the two, eyes widening when he realized the two were high up in a tree. Gulping slightly, he immediately wrapped his arms around the creature's neck, feeling his chest rumble as the monster chuckled, though not in a mean-spirited way.
"Don't worry; I won't let you drop. But you'll catch your death out here, little badger. Let's return to the house where we can talk in relative comfort."
So saying, Vlad lightly floated away from the tree, and soared into the air, smiling slightly as the stunned child in his arms took in the shrinking world below him with wide eyes.
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He heard a dog barking far beneath them, and watched the lampposts below turn into tiny lit matches. He savored the sight, marveling at how pretty his little town looked from so far up. This was magical. He wondered briefly if he had died from inhaling the bleach or had been hit by that car, and Vlad was an angel sent to take him...wherever people like him went where they died.
But as strange and surreal as everything was, he could no longer deny that it felt all too real. If the cold air whipping around his icy skin did not do the job, the creature's arms wrapped securely around him were far too solid and substantial to be dreamlike.
The six year old cast the figure holding him an awed glance. While he still found him slightly scary, he was kind; an angel who had saved him not once, but twice. Maybe he had been sent by the stars. He'd never actually specified what he wanted his new friend to look like, and he did not at all want it to matter. Still freezing, the boy instinctively curled closer to the creature's warm body, shivering slightly. The creature had a sharp, debonair scent that made his nose tingle a little. He sneezed.
"Excuse me?" asked Danny timidly, as the two began to soar towards the ground of Danny's backyard. "Mister, what's your name?"
"Vladimir, Daniel."
"Your name is Vladimir Daniel?"
The creature snorted as he lightly landed, setting the boy down and affectionately ruffling Danny's wet hair.
"Just 'Vlad,' little badger. Now, are you al..."
Vlad trailed off into silence, and quickly knelt, brow furrowed. Curious, Danny followed his gaze and immediately looked away, feeling slightly sick. He'd torn holes through the knees of his pants, and he could see red dully shining in the dim light from the window. He swallowed heavily, and bit his lip to keep himself from crying again. Vlad sighed.
"Dear, dear...we will have to clean this up, won't we? Don't worry, son. I'll bandage it up momentarily after your bath."
"Bath?" Danny asked, bemused as Vlad again picked him up. "Why..."
"You'll need a hot one, before you catch your death," said the man simply, still not looking very happy. "Which, it seems, you already attempted to catch twice this evening. You and I have some discussing to do before this night is over."
'Discuss' was a word he'd heard his parents use often, and it was never a good thing. Halfheartedly, he tried wriggling free from the man's grasp, but it was futile endeavor. But his dread was eclipsed by shock when his new friend promptly passed them through solid wall.
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He worried that Mommy or Jazzy might have heard his screams from outside, but there not a sound came from Jazz's room, and the TV was now blasting again in Mommy's room. Must be a late-night move marathon. To his surprise, he saw Vlad give Mommy's door a contemptible and disgusted look as they zoomed up the stairs.
~(*0*)~
It had been quite some time since someone had drawn a hot bath for him. Jazzy normally took all the hot water she wanted when she took her evening bubble baths, but thankfully, it appeared she'd spent the evening watching Randy confess to Michelle about confessing about Donna who'd confessed to Michelle, or something like that. He'd been shaking like a leaf with cold after stripping down and changing into his bathing suit, and having warm, bubbly jets of water massage his chapped skin felt like paradise. It had even felt good on his poor, bloody knees, which Vlad had coated in some sort of weird, glowing green paste that had made his injuries sting quite a bit at first. But soon enough, the pain of his scratches washed away to a cool, numb relief that had him wriggling with joy.
At least until Vlad had insisted that he start scrubbing behind the ears. Oh, well. After falling in several grimy, slushy puddles, it felt good to be clean.
But to his confusion, he noticed after awhile that Vlad was not smiling nearly as much as he was. Red eyes were fixed on the ugly bruises, scabs, and scratches that littered his pale torso and shoulders. Just as Danny was about to ask what was wrong, Vlad softly asked:
"Daniel. Did someone hurt you?"
Danny kicked his feet in the warm soapy water, not looking at the man.
"Uh, well, yeah. Don't worry, though. They do it all the time."
"Who's 'they?'" the ghost demanded, his rich voice not sounding nearly so nice anymore. It sounded threatening. It sounded frightening. It sounded like every other grownup's voice in Danny's life, besides the fact that it was actually asking him about Dash.
Why did Vlad have to talk about this and spoil a perfectly lovely evening? Danny looked at his feet underwater and stubbornly decided not to answer. But then a single fingertip gently drew Danny's face up, and the child found himself looking into the specter's gentle red eyes again. He wavered. Vlad gently asked:
"You mentioned in your wish...a 'mean, dumbhead Dash and his friends.' Daniel, is this boy Dash in your class?"
Danny tried to speak, failed, and simply nodded, suddenly very interested in his reflection on a bubble's surface. But the man would not let it drop:
"His friends...are they you classmates as well? Do they pick on you, also?"
Danny nodded.
"Why? You are a perfectly kind young boy. Why have you not gone to your teacher, to your principal, to your par..." Vlad's voice died away on the last word, and he cast a sympathetic glance at the child who was red as a poppy from Vlad's compliment. Much to his embarrassment, he felt like crying again, and sinking below the warm water where Vlad couldn't question him, anymore. At last, to break the silence, somehow knowing that Vlad was not going to let this drop, Danny reluctantly answered:
"My teacher doesn't believe me, and the fact that her Daddy works for Dash's Daddy doesn't help. Dash just gets more people to hurt me before and after school, and during recess if I tell anyone. I don't know why he hates me, but he takes my lunch money every day and calls me things that I hear grownups calling each other on TV when they're very mad sometimes. Dash puts gum in my hair and his friend Kwan says that I'm dumb and he jumps up and down on my back, which hurts a lot. Tuck..."
His voice cracked, and raised an octave higher.
"Tucker used to be my friend, but know he pays Dash and Kwan every day so that he can hang out with them and look cool. He does whatever Kwan and Dash tell him to do. He bites me and says that I won't ever have any friends, because I'm not smart like him and I'm ugly and I'm bad and Mommy and Daddy won't do anything about the bullying because they say it's my fault for not being a nicer playmate. Jazz tells them things so that they don't do anything, and they don't do anything anyway, except yell at each other. Mommy throws things and lies on the floor watching bad TV all night, and Daddy goes out to someplace in town that makes his eyes red and makes him weird when he comes back. He sometimes falls asleep on the ground outside our door, and I have to help him in or throw a blanket over him so he won't get cold. Dash says the reason why I can't bring clean clothes to school is because I'm bad, and my parents are gonna sell me to a circus first chance they get, because..."
Now Danny's vision was blurry with tears, and his voice failed on him. He hugged his knees and buried his face against them. Immediately, a pair of warm arms fell around his wet shoulders again.
"Daniel...Daniel, love..."
Now Vlad's voice sounded tender and sweet instead of rough and dangerous. Danny reluctantly peered out between his hands, and was surprised when Vlad pulled him into a tight hug. Didn't he care that he was getting all wet?
"Daniel, I'm so sorry. I'm sorry I didn't come sooner. I swear I didn't know. If I had ANY idea, I'd...come now, little badger, please don't cry. If you do, I might as well, and then we'd be in a real pickle, hmm?"
Danny managed a shaky smile, but still didn't look up. Vlad continued:
"If you like, I can grant a part of your wish as soon as tomorrow. If you will simply give me a description of the boys, I will gladly kill them all."
The room got very still. Danny's mouth dropped with alarm, and he looked up, goggling at the ghost who again looked like a butcher set for massive carnage. He managed a high-pitched laugh.
"I...you...wha?" he asked weakly, wondering if this were some kind of joke. "I...I..."
"You did make a wish, did you not?" asked Vlad seriously, gently cupping Danny's wet little face with his gloved hands. "I heard you. I want to help you. Tell me who they are, Daniel, and I will annihilate them for you. If you like, your sister can go into the bargain to, and I'll snap her little neck-"
"No!" Danny cried out, and Vlad immediately threw an anxious look at the door. Dismayed, he immediately scrabbled back to the other side of the tub, wondering if now was a good time to scream again. Vlad's hand flew over his mouth before he could however, and Danny was left staring up at the creature, petrified. Immediately, Vlad's eyes became sad again.
"Oh, Daniel," he moaned. "The last thing I want is for you to fear me. That was only the wish I heard; I will not hurt anyone if such is your wish. I promise. I promise. I won't ever hurt you, or harm anyone around you with just cause. That's a promise. "
Vlad was looking awfully sincere, and Danny admittedly felt a little better. He'd only made the wish out of sheer anger, and while the idea of Dash, Kwan, and Tucker never hurting him again was an awfully appealing one, he knew he could never live with himself if he set Vlad on anyone.
The idea of setting Vlad on anyone like a doggy made Danny smile from under Vlad's hand, and the man gave him a gentle one in turn, though he still looked a bit worried.
"I'm going to remove my hand, now. If your mother or sister comes in, I will have to disappear immediately. Do you understand, Daniel?"
He nodded. Vlad carefully withdrew his hand, and Danny resumed playing with the bubbles. They enjoyed a few long moments of stillness together, broken only by the occasional sound of Danny splashing. After a moment, he piped up:
"Vlad?"
"Mmmm?"
"Are you a fairy of some kind?" Danny squeaked, scrunching up his face as his rescuer drew a warm, wet washcloth around his eyes. He'd always pictured fairies to be petite and more sinister-looking, like Tinker Bell.
The red-eyed man gave him an amused glance, but said nothing for a moment as he leaned back, and watched Danny absentmindedly play with a small toy boat the child certainly didn't remember having.
"...if you wish me to be your fairy, I suppose I may not mind," he said simply, smiling down at Danny's curious glance. "I think, however, I might prefer another title...perhaps you should try again."
Danny thought for a moment as Vlad busied himself with washing Danny's spiky midnight hair, placing a wet hand over his eyes so that he wouldn't get soap in them.
"An angel?"
Now Vlad laughed; a warm, delightful sound that Danny loved immediately. After a few bouts of hearty laughter, he gently moved Danny's head back, and began to wash the suds away.
"Well...I think that would vary on what sort of angel you meant," he commented, now rubbing sweet-smelling, violet-covered goo on the crown of Danny's head. "I would not be a very good angel, at least, in the traditional use of the word."
Danny leaned into the gentle touch, frowning slightly.
"What do you mean?"
"Perhaps you might want to try something else," Vlad offered again.
The small boy thought as he stirred the bubbly water around, considering possible ventures. A guardian angel? A vampire? God, he hoped not. A monster? He supposed he could live with that. But why throw out random questions when he could simply ask him?
"...Vlad, what would YOU call yourself?" he asked curiously, as Vlad lay him back in the tub, and started to rinse his hair again. He thought for a long time before he answered, expression becoming grave.
"Your parents would either call me a despicable ghost or a dear old friend. It would depend on...ah, the light they saw me in."
Danny looked at him, now more confused than ever. Vlad continued:
"Your sister would almost definitely call me a dreadful terror; a bugaboo."
"What's that?" asked Danny, marveling over the funny word.
"A monster," replied Vlad, not so cheerfully. "And Dash and his friends would think much the same. Were it not for your mercy, they could also call me their executioner."
A chill went down Danny's spine, though he was soaking in hot water. Vlad went on:
"As for what I would call myself," he said mildly. "I would very much like to call myself your friend."
"W-what would you like me to call you?" Danny asked, after a moment's hesitation.
Vlad tenderly drew a hand through Danny's gleaming wet hair, and replied:
"Your father."