If you were wondering where I've been, it's a long story.

I was in a bad car accident. I've been in the hospital for a while now. I got out about a week ago, and I've been struggling to catch back up with my classes. Most of this chapter was already written, I just needed to add an ending and edit. I apologize for my long absence, and I will do everything I can to ensure that this story and my other story are finished. Thank you for your patience. I hope this satisfies any frustration you may have experienced with the lack of updates on my end.

I don't own Danny Phantom.

Darkness

Chapter Three: Tests

November 2, 2011

"Danny...you can't be serious," Sam breathed. "Please, tell me you're joking."

"I'm not." He said firmly. He crossed the room in a few quick strides and sat on the edge of her bed, hiking his knee up so that he was facing her. "If it was anyone else, I would lower the bridge. It would absolutely kill me inside, but I would lower the bridge. But not for you. I can't lose you." His voice broke as he looked down at his lap.

"You...I...but..." Sam spluttered as he glanced up at her. "You're supposed to be a hero, Danny. You're supposed to sacrifice to save others. It's your job."

"Yeah, I'm supposed to sacrifice, but you're not, Sam! You're not the one with the powers, you're the one I'm supposed to be protecting. You're the one I'm supposed to be sacrificing for. You're not the one I'm supposed to be sacrificing. I can't do that." He edged closer to her and took her hands in his. "You're my best friend. In the entire world. You're the only thing keeping me from becoming Dan. I refuse to lose you."

Sam felt her heart accelerating in her chest. He was gazing at her intently, gauging her reactions to his words. She closed her eyes and attempted to sort out her suddenly chaotic thoughts. He's just saying this because of the excitment from earlier. He's not thinking straight, he's still upset about me hitting my head. Let him sleep on it, and he'll come back in the morning and say he would lower the bridge...he would kill me if it meant saving other people...other innocent people...

"I'm not going to say it." He muttered, dropping her hands. He stood from her bed and turned away from her, toward her open window. He glanced back at her. "I'll be back first thing in the morning to check on you. But I'm not going to say it."

"Say what?" Sam asked, though she already knew the answer.

"That thing you're expecting me to say. I wouldn't let you die, Sam." And with that, he was gone, flitting out the window and vanishing into the night.

Sam had a considerable amount of difficulty falling asleep that night. She rolled to her side and stared at the wall, hearing Danny's baritone voice echoing in her mind. She closed her eyes, and saw nothing but his electric green irises boring into her own violet eyes. Finally, at about 7:45, she was able to sink into a fitful sleep, just to be woken at 8 by the sounds of Tucker parking her scooter and climbing up the gutter outside her window.

"Morning," He mumbled when he had climbed through. Sam sat up, blinking groggily and rubbing the cut side of her head with her hand through the gauze. "Woah, you look like hell. Did you sleep at all last night?"

"I just fell asleep...about fifteen minutes ago," She croaked, glancing at the digital clock on her bedside table.

"Why the heck didn't you fall asleep til just now?" Tucker asked loudly, settling into an armchair shoved into the corner of her room.

"Danny stayed for a while last night. He was freaking out about how freaked out he got over me getting hurt, he started saying stuff like 'I can't take care of you,' 'I'm a failure,' blah, blah, blah. I told him that was absolute bull."

"He's got the world's worst hero complex," Tucker sighed, rolling his eyes. "Sometimes I wish he would realize that not everything is his fault, y'know?"

"I've been wishing that all night," Sam muttered, sinking back into her pillows and allowing her eyes to flutter closed. "Have you heard from him at all today? He said he was going to come over this morning, I just don't know what time."

"I haven't heard a word from him at all today." Tucker said absently. Sam laid still for a moment, concentrating on making her breaths slow and even. She felt exhaustion creeping in on her, almost making her miss Tucker's quiet exclimation.

"What the hell?" He breathed. Sam heard him stand from the armchair and cross to her window. In an instant, her eyes were wide open and she was sitting bolt-upright, her eyes darting past Tucker to whatever it was that had attracted his attention.

"What?" She asked sharply, all evidence of sleep gone from her voice as she scrambled out of her bed and stumbled to stand beside him.

"I thought I saw Dan for a minute," Tucker muttered quietly, his eyes still scanning the horizon. Sam gasped in spite of herself; the name sent shivers down her spine. "I'm sure I was just -"

The window exploded, sending them both flying backwards and crashing into Sam's bookshelf, which promptly toppled over on top of them. Sam groaned, reaching out instinctively for Tucker, who was doing the same. Their hands met amid the dissaray of the half-destroyed bookshelves and books littering the floor.

"So sorry," An alarmingly familiar, lazy drawl rang from the window. "I didn't mean to make such a mess. I merely wanted to make an entrance, you know. But then, I've never been the best at handling...ah what's the word? Subtlty, I suppose."

Sam squeezed her eyes closed, clutching tightly to Tucker's fingers. This can't be happening, she thought desperately. She kept her face turned down toward the carpted floor when the weight of the bookshelf was lifted from her body, and her eyes closed when a rough hand seized the scruff of her shirt and forced her into a standing position. It was not until she was shaken roughly that her eyes opened, to find the sneering face of Dan just inches from her own.

"Well good morning, Sam," He hissed. He shook her again, causing her to squeak involuntarily. Over the blood racing in her ears, Sam heard Tucker struggling to get out from beneath the bookshelves, which Dan was standing on. "I hope you're ready to play, my dear, because I have a plan. It involves both of you." He glanced down at Tucker, as if just remembering that the boy was trapped beneath him.

He threw Sam effortlessly to the other side of the room, smirking evilly when her body slammed against the far wall and dropped limply onto her bed. Tucker screamed her name loudly, just to be cut off by Dan's hands seizing him by the collar of his shirt and yanking him out from beneath the bookshelf. Dan dragged Tucker to the foot of Sam's bed, binding his wrists around the leg of the bed with a substantial amount of ectoplasm. He swung an open hand down across Tucker's face, hard enough to leave a mark, but not so hard as to knock the boy out. "Shut up." Dang growled. "You stay quiet, and I might not kill you. Or her. Might."

Tucker clamped his mouth shut, his eyes wide with fear. A dark bruise was already blossoming on the left side of his face, stretching from his cheekbone down to the edge of his jaw. He watching in silence as Dan prowled to the huddled mass that was Sam. He shifted nervously when Dan slid out of his vision. He had to remind himself how to breathe when he heard the sound of a fist making contact with flesh, followed by a low, pained groan from Sam. He nearly jumped out of his own skin when Sam suddenly slammed into the ground before him, her arms curled beneath her in an effort to absorb some of the shock from slamming into the ground. She groaned and gasped for air, her eyes squeezed shut in pain.

"What, that's all I get? Just a little groan? Go on, Sam, scream." Dan knelt beside her, taking her face roughly in his hand and forcing her to look at him. She narrowed her eyes to slits and glowered at him, but kept her mouth firmly closed. "Oh, so it's the silent treatment, then. I see how it is. I'm not worried. I have every intention of making you scream."

Dan planted a punch square to her stomach, knocking the air out of her lungs. She groaned again, doubling over in pain. Before she had a chance to draw a breath, Dan was swinging his fist across her face, drawing a small "Oh!" of surprise from her lips.

"We'll have to settle with that...for now," He smirked, stepping over Sam and rifling through her belongings on her bedside table.

"Are you okay?" Tucker whispered.

"Not particularly," She groaned, wincing when her body protested her movements.

"Here we go," Dan murmured. Sam's cell phone was in his hand, flipped open. He began pressing buttons, his deadened eyes on the screen. "I think it's time my past self join this little party, don't you?" He sneered down at them, before swinging his foot out and kicking Sam in the side. Tucker closed his eyes when he heard a sickening crunch, shortly followed by Sam's scream of pain. "I told you I would make you scream. This is only the beginning." He spat. He seized her by the neck and forced her into a sitting position. He shoved her backwards until she was leaning against Tucker, and shoved the phone in her face. "Call him." He instructed.

Sam raised a shaking hand and took her phone. She pressed the send button, which immediately called Danny's number. She placed the phone on speaker as the other line began to ring. She refused to look up at the piercing red eyes she knew were boring holes into her face; instead, she kept her eyes trained at the small picture of Danny that had popped up on her screen. She drew comfort from the bright blue eyes on the screen that smiled up at her.

"Hey, I was just about to come over. Everything alright?" Danny's voice came through the reciever. Sam's breath hitched in her throat; for a moment, she could not speak.

"D-Danny?" She breathed.

"Sam? What's wrong? You sound hurt..."

"I...um...Danny, listen to me...that thing we talked about...last night...I need you to hold on to that, okay? Remember what I've asked you to do...I need you to do that for me. Do you understand?"

There was a long stretch of silence on the other line. Sam drew a shaky breath, wincing at the stabbing pain in her side that came with her expanding lungs. Broken ribs, she thought.

"I'm coming over. Right now. Is Tucker there?"

Suddenly, Dan snatched the phone out of her hand. He tossed it to the bed just above Sam and Tucker's heads, and seized Sam by the throat. Lifting her up so that her feet were dangling above the floor, he squeezed, feeling her windpipe closing beneath his hands. "No! Stop it, let her go!" Tucker shouted.

"Tucker? What's going on? Who's there?"

Sam's legs kicked out wildly while her fingers scrabbled on the back of Dan's hand. She could not draw a breath. The pain of where he had abused her before was now to the point that she could barely get her eyes open. Dan slammed her into the ground by Tucker's feet. "Sam!" Tucker screamed desperately.

Dan stomped the heel of his boot into Sam's wrist. She screamed, long and painful, tears streaming down her face and into her hair.

"Leave her alone, leave her alone!" Tucker screamed, struggling desperately against the bonds that held him to the bed.

"Time for you and I to disappear," Dan hissed quietly as he seized Sam by her upper arm. He tore through the hole where her window used to be and rocketed away from Sam's house, laughing maniacally at Tucker's pitiful screams that were quickly fading away.

I'll warn you now, it will probably be a while before this can be updated again. I won't leave you all hanging for as long though; I have two papers due by next week that I need to get started on, not to mention several small projects and tests to make up. I will return to this as soon as I can.

Again, I apologize for my long absence.

I didn't sustain any brain damage, I'm still my old self. I'll be back to joking around by the next chapter, I promise. I just felt the need to retain my seriousness when I explained what happened to me to you all. I genuinely appreciate your loyalty, you guys are fantastic. Not a day went by that I didn't think about you all.

- Tori