Chapter Thirty-Three

Sam was sleeping soundly in her dark bedroom until a shaft of sunlight suddenly hit her face.

"Good morning, sunshine! And how do we great the brand new day?" chirped her mother.

"With a smile on your face and an attitude of gratitude!" added Mr. Manson happily.

Sam groaned and wrapped her pillow around head. "I'm a creature of the night doomed to a family of morning people."

"Uh, Sam, sweetie, I thought maybe we'd try to mix it up a little with the wardrobe today," said Mrs. Manson sitting on her daughter's bed and producing a pink sun dress with yellow floral print. Sam peeked out form under her pillow and grimaced at the hideous thing.

"Nothing says Hey world, look at me! like floral prints," said Mr. Manson.

With a smirk, the teenager sat up and said, "Okay, but I need to add just one little personal touch." She pulled out a can of spray paint and scissors from underneath her bed. Sam sprayed the dress black, and cut the skirt so that it was much shorter. Of course, her parents didn't fall for this and frowned at her. They left her room, tossing what was left of the dress into the trash can.

After changing into her usual Gothic clothes, she joined her parents and grandmother downstairs for breakfast. While they ate, her family watched the news.

A woman on the television said, "Up next, is your teenage daughter moody, surly? Is her outlook on life blacker than her eyeliner?" Sam blinked and glanced at her parents, who glared suspiciously at her. "Take an active interest in your child. Know who her friends are. Learn to recognize a bad influence when it walks in your door."

Alyss, Catherine, and I met up with Danny outside the Manson mansion, me wearing a brand new Gothic dress that was entirely black and purple. I almost felt like being in high school again when I went through my Goth phase.

At the moment, I wasn't exactly in the best of moods. While the sisters and I were walking, I had overheard many of the Nesidy citizens whispering about me. They were saying it was my fault Siren had arrived and was killing everyone off. Some of them had even suggested that I either be banished from Incantationen completely or be killed. At first Catherine and Alyss wanted to go beat up these gossipers, but I held them back and shook my head. I wasn't going to let their comments get to me.

Without knocking, Danny, the sisters and I burst into the home, entering the kitchen.

"Hey Sam, I got that Morbid Anti-social Youth CD you wanted," said Danny holding up the disc in his hand. Sam's parents glared at us, which I found a bit surprising and ignored it. "What? Have you heard My Parents Reek? That cut rocks!" Their glare deepened.

"Sam, thanks for letting me borrow the dress," I said spinning around to show it off to her, "It looks fantastic!"

I looked up at the tv in the kitchen to see a scarlet spiral and a man with his face caked in white powder showed up on screen.

"I... am Freakshow, ringmaster of the Circus Gothica," said the man on tv. It showed a skeleton juggling skulls. "Where your nightmares come alive. Circus Gothica..." A scary looking clown with sharp teeth took the juggler's place, howling with demented laughter and I shuddered. I hated clowns! "Where the clowns never smile. Circus Gothica. Come and get your freak on... with real freaks. Circus Gothica! Coming to Nesidy. Cross over... to the dark side." Freakshow reappeared wielding a staff with a glowing red orb.

"Cross over to the dark side," I heard Danny repeat in a trance-like state. Startled, I turned to see his eyes glowing red. Danny?

Mrs. Manson turned off the tv. "Now there's some evil mind pollution we won't be seeing any time soon, sweetie."

"But I already bought our tickets," Sam protested.

"We're going to Circus Gothica?" Alyss asked in excitement.

"You rock, Sam!" Catherine crowed shooting her fist up into the air.

Oh, great! Clowns! I shuddered again.

Sam's parents raised their eyebrows.

With an exasperated sigh, Sam said, "We'll be fine, it's just harmless entertainment, right Danny?"

"Cross over to the dark side," Danny muttered again.

What was wrong with him?!

"Hilarious. Can we leave now, or do you want to stay and corrupt my grandma?" Sam said sarcastically. She grabbed his arm and pulled him outside. Catherine, Alyss, and I followed them.

Once we were out, Sam said to her boyfriend, "Will you quit messing with my parents? That's my job!"

Danny blinked and his eyes returned to their green colour. "What? Um, sorry, Sam, musta got a little spacey. I was up pretty late last night."

I shook my head. Maybe there was nothing wrong with Danny and I was just worrying myself out. As far as I know, Siren hadn't gotten to him since yesterday.

"Just watch what you saw around them, they already think I'm on the road to troubled teenhood," said Sam walking down the street and we all followed her.

"You? Troubled?" said Catherine throwing an arm around Sam's shoulders, "Never!"

"Well, my parents don't like who my friends are," Sam said rolling her eyes.

"Hey! We're not that weird!" Alyss protested. I raised an eyebrow at her and she said, "Okay, fine, so we are, but so what?!"

"It's not you," Sam said, "They don't like Danny and Aralyne. My parents think they're a bad influence."

"What?!" Danny and I said simultaneously.

"Well, Danny's always fighting off villains, not to mention he's a full-fledged ghost now. And trouble always seems to follow Aralyne around, plus there's the whole Siren thing."

"Oh," I said coming to a halt. More people blaming me for this mess.

They realized I was no longer walking with them and stopped, turning to me.

Sam came up to me and took my hand. "Aralyne, I don't listen to my parents. You're one of my friends, and I'll stick with you no matter what! I also know that you're not Siren and would never do anything to hurt me."

I grinned and followed my friends down the street.

"So where are we headed?" Danny inquired, changing the subject.

"The circus Gothica Train pulled into town last night," Sam said excitedly, "I wanted to check out the opening ceremony at the train station."

Danny's ghost sense suddenly went off, and he became tense. We all noticed and stopped, looking about for the threat.

"There?" said Catherine pointing across the street. We followed her finger to see a dwarf ghost running with a heavy bag. Right behind him were other ghosts carrying bags.

"I'll be back," Danny said with a sigh. He flew off after the ghosts, and we ran after them to make sure Danny would be okay.

"Opening a new bank account? Don't forget your free toaster!" Danny shouted firing ecto blasts at them. The sack the dwarf held was knocked out of his hands and landed on the sidewalk.

"Curse you, ghost kid!" the dwarf snarled.

"Oh great, more fans," said Danny sarcastically. He chased the ghosts across town and we kept following from the ground. The ghosts suddenly phased through a Circus Gothica billboard and Danny froze, staring at Freakshow's orb. Something wasn't right.

"Danny!" I shouted. He shook his head and phased through the billboard. We ran around it and surprisingly found ourselves at the Circus Gothica opening ceremony. Equipment and tents had just finished being set up. Many goths were swarming the place. I didn't even know there were so many Goths in Nesidy.

"Terrific," Danny said landing beside us, "The crooks got away and I've never seen so many Goths out in broad daylight." A great deal of them opened up black umbrellas.

"Strange," said Alyss placing hands on hips, "They led us straight where we wanted to go before vanishing."

"Coincidence?" asked Catherine.

"Maybe," Alyss said thoughtfully.

A train car opened with a drop-down ramp and Freakshow stepped out of the shadows.

"Greetings, fellow outcasts. I am Freakshow, your master of ceremonies," said the creepy ringmaster, "Are you ready to smile, relax, and forget all your troubles amid the pleasant diversions of the circus?"

"NO!" the Goths shouted.

Freakshow grinned creepily and replied, "Then you've come to the right place! Prepare to be disturbed and appalled by a small sample of the bizarre and abnormal world of Circus Gothica." He gestured to the train car. An arrow tied to a rope launched across the area from the car and became embedded in a pole. A woman emerged, crawling on the rope much like an insect, and everyone gasped. A man balancing on a ball and juggling skulls rolled out followed by a heavily-pierced woman within an iron, spiked wheel, and finally an incredibly tall man in a skeleton suit emerged. The Goths cheered.

I turned to Danny to see what he thought of the whole show and found his gaze had landed on Freakshow's staff. His eyes began to glow scarlet again.

What?!

"This is the greatest moment ever. Nothing could ruin this for me!" Sam said in excitement. Apparently she and the sisters didn't notice how Danny was acting and I was going to tell them when I suddenly heard Mrs. Manson's voice.

"Parents of Nesidy!" We all turned to see her talking into a megaphone. Behind her stood her husband and a large crowd of protesters. "We urge you to boycott this morbid assault on the morals of our children!"

The Goths booed at the protesters.

"What are they doing here?! Why can't they have day-jobs like regular parents?!" Sam moaned ducking behind Alyss and Catherine.

Freakshow leaped upon a crate above the crowd and said, "Don't let the rantings of the closed-minded norms beat you down. Show them your true colors! And when I say colors, I mean all black. Make them see you for who you are."

"Make them see us for who we are," Danny muttered in a monotone. My head snapped in his direction in time to see him smile evilly. "Hey everyone! Over here! We're Danny Phantom and Aralyne Chanson! She's the cause of these recent zombie attacks and the reason why I'm full ghost!"

I gaped at him in disbelief. Why would Danny say something like that?! The guilt I had been feeling for so long came crashing down on me. All the misery, all the hate! I hunched over holding myself as I began to hyperventilate. My eyes filled with tears that quickly ran down my face.

"Danny!"

"How could you say such a thing?!"

I pushed past my friends, sobbing. All my fault! Entirely my fault!

The Goth teens cheered as Danny posed proudly, ignoring Arlayne who ran off crying. Alyss and Catherine raced after her.

"Aralyne!"

"Aralyne, wait!"

A Goth boy said to Danny, "You're one of us, now."

With the sisters gone, Sam was now exposed to her parents. They stared at her in surprise. "Sam?"

Sam smacked her boyfriend upside the head and growled out, "Nice job, Danny. You just made Aralyne cry!"

Danny blinked, his eyes returning back to green. "I did what?" he said looking at Sam in confusion.

"You made Aralyne cry!" she hissed, "You said because of her you're full ghost and that zombies have been attacking everyone!"

"I said what?!" he exclaimed in horror, "I'm sorry, Sam, I have to find Aralyne!"

He took off flying, leaving Sam with her parents.

"Samantha, I forbid you from seeing that boy or any of your other troubled friends," Mrs. Manson scolded.

"My friends are perfectly normal!" she retaliated.

My tears had blurred my vision, so I couldn't see where I was headed. Eventually, I slammed into something and felt hands grab my arms to keep me from running any further.

"Aralyne? Aralyne, what's wrong?"

I looked up to see it was Tulio.

Shaking my head, I choked out, "He blames me! They all blame me!"

"What?"

"Aralyne!" Alyss and Catherine caught up to me.

"What's she talking about?" Tulio asked.

"Danny... said some things about her," Catherine said nervously. She took me from Tulio's arms and gave me a hug.

"What did he say to her?!" he growled out.

"He may or may not have mentioned she is connected to the zombie attacks," Alyss replied.

"He what?!" Tulio yelled, "If I get my hands on that kid..."

"Hey, if you want, we can all kick Danny's ass," Catherine said to me.

I shook my head. Deep down, I knew he wasn't to blame for what he said. "It's not his fault," I sniffed trying to wipe my tears away.

"Don't try to defend him," Tulio snarled.

And that's when the topic of conversation arrived, landing before me. "Aralyne, I'm so sorry! I don't know what came over me back there," Danny said looking desperate.

"Bad judgment, that's what! Next time, think before you speak!" Tulio yelled at the ghost boy.

"It's okay, Danny," I said leaving Catherine and giving him a hug.

"I just keep messing things up, don't I?" he said.

"Danny, there's something not right going on with you, and I won't rest until I find out what it is," I said resting my head against his chest.