A/N: Sorry about this, I meant to put up the first chapter together with the prologue, but I did something stupid and ended up saving an old version of the file over the new one...

Edit 4/5/2007 I knew I shouldn't have rushed things... Flashbacks in italics!

Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom

Five months

Sam hid under the table in cafeteria as the Lunch Lady wrecked havoc to the kitchen. In her opinion it was really a disgusting ghost, attracting all the meat to her 'body'. But there wasn't much she could do about it except hide. She prayed one of the ghost hunters would get there soon, either the red huntress or the Fentons, although Jack Fenton might cause more damage than actually help.

A few months earlier Danny Phantom would have come to the rescue but he had mysteriously disappeared. Sam wondered if the GIW had captured him, but they seemed as baffled as the rest of the town of Amity Park. Of course, after he disappeared, people had realized just how many ghosts this 'Public Enemy' really captured. They were swarming the town now, causing the red huntress and the Fentons to have to hunt them almost non stop.

Then the doors of the cafeteria burst open and a loud voice bellowed, "Where's the ghost!"

Sam moaned. She signaled to Tucker who was sitting under the table next to hers and started to move towards the door. If anything, Jack Fenton would keep the ghost busy for a few minutes so they could get out of there. Then she heard the familiar humming of a hover board.

As the students poured out of the cafeteria, running in every direction, Sam and Tucker walked to the nearest bench and sat down on it. There was no reason to move further away than that, the red huntress was very capable of capturing a weak ghost like the lunch lady. Once she blasted all the meat away that was.

Sam knew who the red huntress was. She didn't know how she knew, and she seemed to be the only one, apart from Tucker, who knew it was Valerie Grey. So they kept quiet about it. Valerie obviously didn't want anybody to know. Sam wrapped her arms around her. It was cold out and her coat was still in the building. February had started in rain and cold.

"Let's go around to the other side and get in again," Tucker suggested, "They are almost done in there anyway."

Sam nodded, got up and looked at Tucker. "I see you saved your baby", she said sarcastically, pointing at his PDA.

"Yep. I see you're still dreaming of Phantom," he answered and quickly jumped out of the way before she could kick him.

She glared at him instead. She would never admit it but there was some truth in Tucker's remark. When Danny Phantom hadn't shown up the first time she had felt disappointed, hollow. She had known immediately something was very wrong. But maybe he had just gotten tired of fighting ghosts and had returned to the ghost zone. Where he belonged anyway. Still, she would like just to see him again, look into those glowing green eyes, flying... well, that was just a dream.

Still, she wasn't Paulina, crying at the shrine that was her locker every day. Sam would die before she admitted that, like Paulina, she had a crush on the ghost boy. And he had been missing for five months now.

They entered the school again at the front entrance and walked down the hallway to their lockers. From the sound of it, the lunch lady had been captured and they were now cleaning the cafeteria. It had almost become routine. They passed Mr Fenton and his daughter who were quietly speaking together, no mean feat for Jack Fenton. They looked sad. Sam remembered there was something wrong with Mrs Fenton. She felt a bit sad too, she was such a nice lady and she baked great cookies.

The feeling that something was wrong remained with her the whole day. She couldn´t shake the feeling she was missing something, a feeling that had popped up occasionally during the last months, but was stronger now. It had something to do with the disappearance of Danny Phantom, she was sure of it. But she wasn´t going to tell Tucker. He was teasing her enough with her crush on the ghost boy already.

After the last period she stepped outside with Tucker, ready to walk home. She wasn´t paying attention to the other students much until she saw a group of jocks gathering around a boy. They were pushing him around, calling him names.

Anger flared in her and she moved closer, calling out to them. "Hey, leave him alone".

Dash turned to see who was interfering and smirked when he saw who it was.

"We don´t want no drug dealers near the school," he said, punching the smaller boy who winced, "If you need stuff from him go somewhere else you goth geek!"

An angry snarl appeared on the boy´s face at that. He balled his fist and hit Dash in his stomach. Dash cried out and doubled over. The boy clasped his hands together expertly and hit him again on the back of his neck and Dash fell to the ground, groaning. The boy glared at the other jocks who backed away somewhat. Sam stepped back too when she saw the vicious look in his blue eyes. Then he looked at her fearful face and his look changed into... disappointment. He turned and ran.

"Hey," Tucker said, approaching Sam, "What was that all about?"

Sam was staring after the boy. She shrugged. "Nothing. Let´s go home."

He ran as fast as he could, away from the hostile jocks, away from those purple eyes that had looked at him. She was afraid of him... He hadn´t meant to scare her, he only wanted to look. But the blond jock had interfered while he was hanging outside the school, doing nothing but watching the kids leave the building.

He stopped next to a tree and leaned against it, out of breath. He hadn´t meant to hit the jock either, but he had been enraged when he had heard him insult her. He looked back. Nobody was coming after him. He grinned. They would have to keep up with him first.

He started walking at a normal pace, silently counting his steps. Why was she afraid of him? Could she see he was...evil? He had been working so hard the past month to push it out, had that been for nothing? He frowned worriedly.

He was walking in the middle of the empty road, blue eyes glazed, staring straight ahead. He was miles away from the destroyed castle now, he didn't have to worry about being caught anymore. So he had stepped out of the forest, onto the road and had randomly chosen a direction. The darkness in his mind receded somewhat now that the crisis was over.

He didn´t know how long he had been walking but his feet hurt so it must have been a while. Random thoughts kept shooting through his mind, most of which disturbed him. Thoughts of death and destruction, of torture and pain. He wanted to hurt somebody, to lash out, tear them apart, to... Fortunately there was nobody around. Just the road, the trees, some small animal.

He concentrated on his walking. He placed his feet carefully, painfully, counting the steps. When he reached one thousand he started again. The counting cleared his head, pushed away the darkness to the back of his mind. He couldn´t push it out completely though.

He reached a crossing and stopped. Where to now? Should he try to find other people? Would it be safe for him to be around others? He stood there a while, lost in thought. Then it hit him. It didn´t matter where he was going, just as long as he kept going. He took a step forward. He never heard the car.