I'M ALIVE.
Sort of.
I kind of fell apart there for a few months.
BUT I'M BACK (:
I feel horribly evil with this chapter. :D I took a few elements from one of the best episodes of my favorite TV show, Criminal Minds, and added them to this chapter.
SO EVIL. NO JOKE.
Huh...I don't really have anything else to add to this, other than I'm SO HAPPY to be back (:
I don't own Danny Phantom or anything else you may recognize in this chapter.
Darkness
Chapter Four: Problems
December 19, 2011
"Sam! SAM!" Tucker screamed. There was no response. Desperate, manic tears were spilling from the corners of his eyes as he struggled fruitlessly against the bonds that held him to Sam's bed. Dan had already been gone for three minutes; it seemed like an eternity to Tucker.
"Tucker!" Danny's voice half-shouted from the window. Tucker craned his neck and caught sight of his best friend skidding to a halt beside him. "What's going on?" He asked breathlessly as he ripped the bonds away from Tucker's wrists.
"It's Dan! Dan took Sam!" Tucker shouted. He scrambled to his feet and seized Danny's shoulders the moment his hands were free and shook him desperately. "Dan took Sam and they're gone!"
"Tucker, calm down! What do you mean, Dan took Sam? What happened to your face?" Danny pointed to the bruise that was quickly darkening on his best friend's face.
"Nevermind that! Forget about me! AND DON'T TELL ME TO CALM DOWN! DAN HAS SAM, SHE'S HURT REALLY BADLY! DON'T TELL ME TO BE CALM!" Tucker felt the veins in his neck bulging as his voice strained and cracked.
Danny blinked, the reality of what Tucker was saying slamming against him like a ton of bricks. His eyes roved the room, quickly surveying the damage. There was no one, absolutely no one else in existance that could cause that kind of damage other than Dan himself.
"But...but how...how did he get...when did...I don't..." Danny felt his throat closing as he realized that Dan was, indeed, back. "Sam!" He gasped, clutching the front of Tucker's shirt as sheer panic set into his bones. "How hurt is she?"
"He beat her up really badly," Tucker said, his face contorted with worry. "She needs to go to the hospital, she's got several broken ribs at best," Tucker made a distressed noise in the back of his throat, shifting his weight anxiously from foot to foot. "We need to find her."
"I need to find her. You need to go to the hospital," Danny said firmly. "You do. You're of no use to her if you're hurt."
"But he just -"
"We don't have time to argue!" Danny shouted. "Which way did he go when he flew out of here?"
"My back was to the window, I didn't see!"
Danny shouted incoherently, his frustration, fear, and worry making it impossible to speak. Think, he told himself. Where would Dan take her?
He would want to make sure that I wouldn't be able to find them.
So where would the last place I would ever look for my mortal enemy be?
"I know where he went!" Danny shouted. "Go to the hospital, I'll meet you there!" He tore out the window without waiting for Tucker's response. Amity Park was a blur beneath him as he rocketed toward the last place he would ever look for his enemy: his own home.
"Sam...oh Sa-am..."
Sam groaned, squeezing her eyes shut. She was having the worst nightmare: Dan had returned, kidnapped and tortured her. It felt real; her whole body ached. Especially her side. Her right wrist twinged painfully as she curled her fingers into a fist.
"Sa-am..."
She nearly retched when rancid air washed over her face. Her eyes snapped open, just to find a pair of bright red eyes inches from her face. She cringed away, just to find that she was slumped against a cool, metal wall. Her hands instictively flew to either side of her body. The moment her right hand made contact with the ground, a sharp pain shot up her arm, causing her to scream in pain.
So it wasn't a dream.
"Well, good morning, love," Dan chuckled. Sam glared up at him fiercely through the tears that streamed down her face. "Oh, tut tut. No need to be so angry," He ran a thumb across her cheek, wiping a tear away. She hissed and cringed away from his touch. "Oh, come now. Don't you want to know what my plan is?"
Sam planted her gaze firmly on her knees, fighting the nausea in the pit of her stomach from the building pain in her body. She heard Dan make an impatiant growl. Suddenly, he seized her face and forced it upward, so that her eyes were forced to meet his. "I expect you to pay attention when I am speaking to you, girl." He slammed her head into the wall, feeling a rush of pleasure when she grunted in pain.
"Now," He said briskly when her eyes met his. "My plan is simple. My weak past self will be devestated to learn that I've kidnapped you. He will be so determined to save you from harm that he will walk directly into my trap, like the imbicile that he is.
"You see, I've done a lot of thinking, cooped up in that wretched thermos all those months. And when I was first formulating this plan, I thought to myself, 'Where would Danny think I've gone once I take his beloved?' And the answer was so clear: he would expect me to take you somewhere unexpected. He would assume that I am clever enough to go somewhere he would never look. So, naturally, he would start somewhere he considers safe, a haven of sorts. His home. So in preperation for this little event, I've set a marvelous trap at Fenton Works."
Sam felt the blood draining from her face. Dan was right; Danny would guess that Dan would take her somewhere he would never look. If the trap Dan set for Danny at Fenton Works didn't kill Danny, it would certainly delay him from finding her. She was trapped here. She clenched her jaw and swallowed hard.
"Meanwhile, I've got some fun planned for the two of us!" Dan said cheerfully, turning away from her and bounding across the room. She attempted to straighten up, clutching her bad hand to her chest and leaning heavily on her good hand. She scanned the room, searching for anything familiar that would tell her where she was, but she appeared to be in an average laboratory. Dan's back was to her; he appeared to be rummaging through a crate. She bit back the urge to scream in terror.
"Here we go," Dan said, straightening up and turning back toward Sam. Two very long wooden stakes were in his hands; Sam's eyes were glued to them, a spreading sense of extreme terror fogging her mind and blocking her throat. She felt her chest compressing; she gasped for air. Dan crouched in front of her, his eyes on her face. "We're going to have a lot of fun today, dear Sam," He whispered.
Alrighty. Well.
Next chapter will be up soon. Very soon. And I'm gonna go all kinds of Criminal Minds on that chapter.
In case any of y'all watch CM, the episode I got this from is Lauren. I cried at the end of that episode. Legit. 'Cause Prentiss is my FAVORITE. AND THEN THEY WENT AND DID THAT TO HER. LIKE WHAT THE HECK IS THAT, MAN. WHAT THE HECK.
I'm so happy to be back (:
If you're happy that I'm back, you should review (:
Reviews make me happy (:
- Tori
PS:
If any of y'all have Twitters, you should totes follow me! A_shadeof_Gray (: I never post about my writing, mostly because most of my friends don't know I do this, but I have some pretty funny tweets. For example, last night I tweeted:
"I'm at the mall seeing #SherlockHolmes on the last weekend before Christmas and I'm armed with a 6-foot-tall ginger. #stayawayfromme"
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