Scenic Route

Danny was sure his hands were trying to kill him—they were so sore!

...Ok, so it was his own fault, but how could he have known staying up playing Rival Ninja Smash V all day until waaay past bedtime would have hurt his hands?

...Ok, so it was common sense not to have thought of that before mindlessly button-mashing for hours on end, but come on... he wasn't even ten yet!

Danny buried his head into the table, as if doing so would make him disappear into the cold metal surface. Tucker seemed to have no problems with his hands being absolutely toasted, or even mildly sore after their game last night, and Danny was more than a little envious.

That, and Sam hadn't shown up for school today. Her parents had dragged her off to Paris, a family "vacation" and they'd been gone for over a week. They still had four days, eight hours and thirty minutes until they'd be back—No, he was not counting, you liar!

Suddenly he spotted her, swift-walking—not running, no, she still had some pride left—towards the table. Danny grinned up at her and Tucker's eyes un-glued themselves from his well-loved Game Boy.

"You came home early?" Tucker asked, sparing a mere moment before his eyes returned to his videogame.

Sam practically melted into the chair, her fluffy purple spider backpack's 'legs' moving as she slumped. "I barely made it out alive!" she yowled in dismay. Pausing, she then sniffed her arm dubiously. "Ugh," she exclaimed, pulling it away from her nose. Jolting upright in her chair, eyes flaring with anger, "Why does my dad have to wear the world's most horrible perfume? Gah!"

Tucker's eyes widened in horror, "That's your dad's!?"

Danny was trying to hide the fact his eyes were watering, blinking a few times to try and stop the stinging. It was certainly... potent. "So... it was—"

"Torture," Sam finished for him, pulling her lunch box out and quickly waging war on the celery. "So... Whad'd I miss?"

Tucker filled her in on the school side of things, and then it was Danny's turn. He wished he could tell them about magic, he was sure they'd find it as cool as he did. But he'd always been told muggles couldn't know. He'd never understood why, but adults just shook their heads and gave weak excuses.

But as much as he loved his friends as if they were family, they weren't family, and he couldn't tell them. So he told them the "official" story.

Sam nodded her head, she wasn't surprised that Jazz would be going to some fancy school for smart kids. The Fentons were never left wanting for money, either. Danny, Sam and Tucker didn't understand where Danny's parents got the money from, as neither of them had jobs and the government and other scientists thought they were batty.

Soon there was nothing left to tell, and they talked about trivial things like the next Terminatra or Manbat's Revenge movie, videogames and even playground hearsay until the bell signalled the end of recess.

Tucker's mom is really big on walking—especially when she had a kid like tucker who would happily plug himself into a computer or videogame until he was starving.

She needed to get a package from the post office—which was all the way at the other side of town in Danny and Tucker's opinions—and so they were taking the "scenic route"... also known as the "long way home"...

Danny was concentrating on making sure Tucker—who had his nose three centimetres from his Game Boy screen—didn't walk into poles, dogs, people... or into traffic. Really, It was amazing how oblivious Tucker could be when there was a screen in front of him.

Finally they reach the post office, and Tucker's mom leaves them outside to wait for her, as she'll only be a moment. Tucker sits on the window ledge—but something stops Danny from doing the same.

All the hairs on the back of Danny's neck prickle, and he feels like something is watching him. He whips his head around, but sees nothing more than the old ruin of the medieval church that once would have stood tall and majestic, it's forlorn graveyard stretching beside it.

The old post office wasn't the one Danny would usually have gone to with his mom or dad... the one in the town center. This one was in the old part of Amity, where the buildings were made of stone or old, painted wood and painted, restored glass windows.

Nature had claimed this part of Amity for its own, for the most part. Weedy, wild grass grew as tall as Danny's chest. There were creeper plants, stretching up along buildings and walls, and wild flowers hid in all sorts of strange, random places. He decided that he liked it. But occasionally there were broken brown glass bottles, and plastic wrappers and all sorts of trash and it made him sad.

And there was something moving in that graveyard.

There was no way he just imagined that. He squinted, trying to get a better look at what he'd thought he'd seen.

A flicker of movement soon turned into a wispy shadow.

The wispy shadow flickered, and soon he saw the rest of it.

It stared at him with the strangest green eyes he had ever seen—entire swirling galaxies seemed to be forever in motion, submerged in the toxic green liquid of the canine's eyes. It stared at him lazily, mildly interested that he seemed to be able to see it.

The wind toyed with the leaves curiously, as if testing the water with a toe before diving in. The blackest, most opaque smoke he had ever seen billowed from the canine's fur, dissolving into the air in mere moments.

He didn't know what he was seeing. He didn't understand what it meant.

Step.

Wolf-like, he thought briefly. It's kind of like a bear-sized wolf... It had sharp grey teeth, dripping with the same black flame-like smoke as the rest of it.

He caught a glimpse of a glowing green tongue as it yawned lazily, panting slightly from the sun's heat. What was it? He didn't know.

And yet he wasn't afraid.

Step.

Just a little closer... He needed to get a better look. To reach out, see if it was real, if he could touch it.

Step.

Swifter than he could have ever followed with his eyes, the creature's head was raised, it's teeth bared in warning. "Whooof!"

Danny stumbled backwards in surprise, yelping when his tailbone painfully struck the gutter.

A car, horns blaring, skidded past, right over the space he'd been just moments before.

He stared at the spot where the strange wolf had been.

But there was nothing there.

Scriptor Nota:

And that's why you don't cross the road in a hypnotic daze, without looking both ways!

I dare you to guess what the wolf is.

*Ehem.* Let me try that again.

Hey guys, sorry I haven't updated in forebah! D: I got caught up with my in-the-works Jak and Daxter story, Unnamed Soldier... and stuff.!

I really want to go back and redo the first chapters, maybe clean them up a bit and add in some more awesome? But I dunno... I want to, but I don't really know if I should? If someone can give me some input, it'd be really awesome... *

Was trying to get the chapters longer, too... I don't like how short they are turning out.

I'm also going back to high school again this year... (been homeschooled for a long time) which is a little bit (really very lots) daunting. Ah well. Let's hope I have all my human behavioural analysers up to date... this is a social experiment, right? And what do you mean I'm not allowed to put them in my Matter Destruction unit?

...Not even for science?

...Da'aw...

((Did I mention I've only been to high school for less than two days before?))

On another note... 100 follows. OSHIZ, uguys... 'w' Thank you for all the follows, faves and reviews. It means a lot to me. I know how I want this story to end, but I don't know much about what to do in the middle. So any ideas or questions, please post a review—I can't guarantee I'll put them in, but they may just help the next chapter come along sooner...