Hello, Danny Fenton/Phantom here, with your next chapter!
I have to warn you, this one is a little sad. It involves character death (I believe that's the right term) and is pretty much what my second-worst fear was back when I was fourteen, and what it's result would've probably been if it had come true. It's also rated K+, for the above-mentioned character death. So, the chapter begins...
She's gone.
All gone.
I let her slip away.
Slip right through my fingers...
Samantha Manson, the girl I loved, is dead.
I looked for her everywhere in the Ghost Zone.
She wasn't there.
I even asked Clockwork.
He told me that, as only a few do, she never became a ghost.
"Her fate lies elsewhere," was all the Master of Time said about her whereabouts.
"I don't understand!" I said.
"I never said you were supposed to," he said in reply.
I had long since learned to listen to Clockwork's words.
That is why I've accepted what has happened to her.
I will eventually be able to move on.
But that doesn't mean I'm not sad.
And it does not mean I am going to forget her.
I will never forget her.
I couldn't have protected her.
There was no way.
I was across town, fighting a ghost.
She had to go to school.
There was no way on earth or in the Ghost Zone that I could have helped her.
No way I could have prevented her from being at the wrong place at the wrong time.
No way I could have stopped that truck...
But I still feel guilty.
Not because I couldn't protect her.
I got over that guilt a long time ago.
At least, it feels like a long time ago.
Days feel like months, recently.
I feel guilty because of the last conversation before she disappeared forever...
We were walking home from school, a rare occurrence since I earned my ghostly powers. We were talking about something simple, like any teenagers would: the weekend.
"So, you're stuck with your parents this weekend, too, huh?" Sam asked.
"Yeah. Some kind of 'ghost hunting training'" I responded. "As if I needed it..."
"Heh, not even close as bad as what my weekend's gonna be like," said Sam. "I wish my parents wouldn't be making me do this..."
"Sam," I said, "There are worse things in the world than having to try on lacy pink dresses all day. Trust me, I've fought personifications of them. The worse things, not the dresses."
"I know," chuckled Sam, "But I still can't help but stress out over this..."
"I understand," I said, as Sam's eyes glazed over as she stared into the distance. I took the opportunity to stare at, well, her. She was very pretty, after all. Nice face...shiny black hair...purple lipstick and eyes made her stand out, not to mention the intelligence and, despite her outer gothness, hope in her eyes, which few could truly see...and that was just her head! Sam was definitely the most beautiful girl in the world, inside and out.
Sam's eyes stopped glazing, and she turned to me. "Danny, what is it?" she asked.
"N-nothing..." I said.
"C'mon," she said, picking up on at least part of my feelings. "You can tell me..."
I knew she probably liked me the same way I liked her...I knew everyone on Earth was hinting for us to get together...but I wasn't brave enough to take the risk...no matter how small it was.
"No...I can't," I said.
There was a short, awkward silence, broken by Sam's mom. "Oh, Sammykins!" she shotued from the front porch of her house.
"Oh, great..." said Sam, "I gotta go...bye, Danny!'
"See ya, Sam..." I said as she ran off.
It was the last time I ever saw her.
The opportunity was there. It was right in front of me. I could have told her how I feel. I didn't.
Clockwork's words echo in my ears again..."All things happen for a reason."
I don't know what the reason for Sam's having to die is...
But I trust that there is one.
Some good things have come out of this...
The "popular crowd" now finally see Sam as the individual she is...was.
Her parents finally understand her, and why she did the things she did.
Her parents and my parents are finally getting along.
I've finally worked up the courage to tell her how I feel.
Too little, too late.
None of us who have changed because of her passing will ever be able to see her again and will never be able to tell how much she really meant to the world, until we have passed on as well...
...probably even longer.
I refused to tell her when I could.
And now I can't.
...and the chapter ends. And I'm all sad...review, please. (sniffle...)