Chapter 5: Two Weeks Later
Danny hovered high above Amity Park, watching the city below him buzz. Danny couldn't feel his body; he didn't have a body, actually. But that didn't worry him. He felt contented. Free. He let the breezes carry him, looking for a familiar face below.
Soon, he noticed his family out in the streets of Amity Park, crowded over something. Jazz was holding her mother's hand. Jack had his arm draped around both his wife and his daughter. Danny floated downward to see what they were all looking at. Only when he got close could he hear his family's sobs.
"What's wrong?" Danny tried to say, but he had no mouth, he had no voice. His words were inaudible, lost in the wind.
Danny pushed past his family, desperate to know why they were so sad. He wanted to make it better, to fix whatever was wrong.
But then, he saw what they were huddled over, and he knew it wasn't something he could fix.
His own body lay before him, bloody and lifeless. His raven black hair was stiff with dried blood, and his blue eyes were still wide open. Jazz ducked down to use two of her fingers to close them.
"I'm sorry, little brother," she said, her voice choked with tears. "I'm sorry we couldn't save you."
Dead? How could he be dead? He was right here! He was floating right next to them!
Danny turned away from his body, away from his family. He couldn't bear watching them cry over him anymore.
In the distance, he saw a figure. Sam.
"Sam!" Danny cried, but again his words were silent. He drifted over to Sam, and as he grew closer, he could see the blood on her. His blood, his ectoplasm. It covered her hands, her face. Red and green splotches all over her. Blood, ectoplasm. Like Christmas.
"I… killed him," she said, her voice quiet.
"You did well," Vlad Plasmius said, flying up behind her. Sam didn't turn.
"Kill me," Sam said, her voice barely a whisper. "I killed him for you. Now kill me."
"Very well," Vlad said, and then a dagger was through Sam's chest, and Sam's eyes were flickering shut as she collapsed to the ground. Blood leaked from her open chest onto the cold asphalt…
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Danny awoke, screaming at the top of his lungs. Lights flickered on around his household. His mother and father were the first to burst into his room, their ecto-weapons at the ready. Jazz followed shortly afterwards.
Danny was sweating, panting, and his heart was pounding in his chest like never before. Danny's eyes darted over to his clock. It was 4am. His family looked at him expectantly.
"Nightmare," he said between pants. Jack and Maddie nodded, leaving the room, a little disappointed that there wasn't a ghost. Jazz stayed behind, coming over to sit at the end of Danny's bed.
"Do you want to talk about it?" Jazz said.
Danny shook his head no, still gasping for breath as though he'd been running. Danny clutched his pounding heart as he sat up in bed.
"It's just Sam," Danny said. "She's been with Vlad for two weeks already. Who knows what he's done to her? What if she's… what if she's changed? What if she's like Vlad now?"
"Sam will be fine," Jazz said, putting her hand on Danny's shoulder. "And there's not much you can do about it right now. Sam will come around, and then you can explain to her that Vlad was overshadowing you. She's just not ready to hear it yet."
Danny nodded, pressing his hand to his forehead.
"That was horrible," Danny said softly, referring to his nightmare. It was like nothing he'd ever experienced… it was as vivid and clear as day. His family's sobs still echoed in his head.
"I'm sorry, little brother," Jazz said. It was the exact same thing she'd said in his nightmare when standing over his body. Danny trembled, swallowing down the misery and fear that was threatening to consume him.
"Jazz… can you stay in here with me until I fall asleep again?" Danny said, feeling like a child. "I mean, if you want to…"
"Of course," she said.
Danny lay back in his bed, trying to forget the horrible nightmare…
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Sam watched as Danny's family gathered over his dead body. She'd killed him. She'd killed Danny.
Danny was innocent. A part of Sam knew this. She knew he would never say those types of things to her, she knew that he loved her still. But she hadn't believed the part of her that still loved Danny. She'd listened to Vlad. Vlad had told her that Danny hated her. Vlad had told her that Danny had used her, that Danny was a terrible person.
So she'd killed Danny. His blood and ectoplasm dripped off of her, red and green, like Christmas.
"I… killed him," Sam said, shaking with fear and guilt.
She heard Vlad fly up behind her, his cold ghostly breath on her neck.
"You did well," Vlad said.
Danny hadn't been using her. Vlad had been using her. And she'd been too stupid to realize it.
This was all her fault.
"Kill me," Sam said. "I killed him for you. Now kill me."
"Very well," Vlad said. She didn't even have a chance to brace herself before cold metal was through her chest, pain consuming her. Sam gasped at the sudden pain before she collapsed, falling into darkness.
Darkness, beautiful darkness, emotionless darkness, unsympathetic darkness.
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Sam was jolted upright as she awoke from the nightmare, gasping for breath and clutching her pounding heart.
Just a dream, just a dream, just a dream… Sam chanted in her head, trying to calm her trembling body and her panicked thoughts.
Sam sat there for a few minutes like that. Very slowly, her terror ebbed, giving way to… hunger.
Sam glanced over at the clock. It was already 9:00am. No wonder she was hungry.
Might as well go down for breakfast, Sam thought. She knew Vlad would be up already; if there was one things she'd learned about him after two weeks of staying with him, it was that he woke up at 7:00am sharp every morning.
Sam got up and pulled on her clothes before heading downstairs to the kitchen. The route downstairs was easy for Sam now; she couldn't imagine getting lost in Vlad's mansion anymore. She knew the place by heart.
Two weeks, Sam thought. Two weeks I've been here. It's seemed like two years.
She arrived in the kitchen to find Vlad standing, reading the paper.
"Samantha," he greeted. Sam cringed. Why wouldn't he call her Sam?
"It's Sam," Sam said for the millionth time, wandering over to the toaster and popping two slices of bread into the toaster. Just like every morning.
"How did you sleep?" Vlad asked.
"Not well, actually," Sam said honestly. "I had this horrible nightmare."
"Oh?" Vlad said. "What about?"
Sam hesitated. On one hand, she really did want to talk to somebody about the nightmare, but on the other hand, she had a gut feeling she shouldn't tell Vlad.
"Um, I'll tell you later," Sam said, dodging the question. "What are we doing today?"
Sam knew the answer to this question. They were doing what they always did; tested and trained. Sam was sure of this, expecting this.
But Vlad surprised her.
"I was actually thinking we'd take a break from your training today," Vlad said. "After all, you've already beaten a level 20 Danny. I haven't programmed in any harder levels."
"But don't you use this same training software, too?" Sam asked, confused. "Why haven't you programmed in something harder than a level 20 Danny?"
"Yes, Samantha, I used this training software too," Vlad said. "But I didn't think it was necessary to program any more levels in after 20, since the real life Danny is only about level 16."
"Danny's only level 16?" Sam asked, surprised. "So… I could kill Danny?"
"Yes, Samantha, you could easily kill Daniel if you wanted to," Vlad said. "But surely you wouldn't want to. Would you?"
Sam shivered at the thought. This was so like the nightmare she just had…
Realization dawned on Sam.
That's why he's taken me in. That's why he's being so nice to me. I'm just a weapon to him.
"You want me to kill Danny for you, don't you?" Sam asked Vlad, her voice a monotone, her eyes drifting up to meet the elder halfa's.
"Well, that would certainly make life easier for me," Vlad said, laughing, but only half-joking.
Vlad. I've always hated Vlad. Why did I agree to this? Why am I here? I've got to get out.
"Sure, I'll kill him for you," Sam said, too casually. "What about we do it on Christmas Eve?"
Vlad seemed a bit taken aback by her willingness, but quickly recovered, grinning broadly.
"Christmas Eve sounds splendid," Vlad said, as though he were planning a dinner party and not somebody's murder.
Sam nodded, taking her toast out of the toaster as it popped up.
"I'm going to go eat this in my room," Sam said, holding up her toast. "But we can talk more about this later, okay?"
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Sam had finished her toast, and sitting on her bed, she tried to put the pieces to this puzzle together.
When did this all begin? Sam wondered. Was it when Danny broke up with me?
No, it was before that. At school that day, when Vlad started talking to her inside her head… he was asking her to join him…
How could I be so stupid? I've fallen right into his plot!
Cursing aloud, Sam thought harder about that day. She recalled Danny's words to her when he broke up with her.
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"I thought everything was great between us!" Sam said.
"You thought wrong, Samantha," Danny said. "This past month has been miserable for me. Dating you was the worst mistake I ever made in my life. I'm Danny Phantom, for heaven's sake. It's not like I can't do better than some narcissistic freak of a Goth girl.
"Now Vlad is after you yet again, and I just can't be bothered to protect you anymore," Danny said, his tone distracted. "I have a whole city to watch over; I don't need some idiotic damsel-in-distress clinging to my sleeve everywhere I go, too."
Sam opened her mouth to speak, and then closed it again. Slowly, she started backing away from Danny… she needed to get away from him…
"What… what are you saying, Danny?" She asked, her voice breaking. She could feel warm tears starting in her eyes, her throat burning with the effort it took to hold herself together.
"It's merely the truth, Samantha," Danny said.
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Wait. Had Danny called her Samantha? Danny never did that.
Either he was really just trying to piss her off, or…
Was that Vlad overshadowing him?
It made sense. Danny went out to fight a ghost, and then when he came back in, he was acting funny. And then he'd broken up with her, and Vlad had come and taken her.
Sam cursed under her breath. She knew it! She knew Danny wouldn't do that to her! God, she was such an idiot!
She needed to talk to Danny. The Ghost Shield blocked her psychic connection with him, she knew… she just needed to get outside of the shield.
She raced downstairs to where Vlad was sitting in the living room.
"Um, Vlad, can I get some fresh air?" Sam asked. "I haven't been outside since I got here, you know… can I just take a walk down the street? You can come with, if you'd like."