Oh my gosh, I am so tired.

I was at an all-nighter last night with my youth group.

Let me tell you, bowling at 4:45 AM is actually WAY more fun than it sounds.

Anyways.

I just woke up an hour ago, and I've been dilligently working on this ever since. I'm still a little fried, so if you see any mistakes let me know.

Actually I'm completely fried. I've never felt so muddled before in my life.

HAHA.

THANKS for all the reviews! They're awesome (: You're awesome (:

I don't own Danny Phantom. :P

Missing

Chapter Three: The Scene

August 6, 2011

"Mom! Dad! Mr. and Mrs. Foley, Mrs. Manson, get down here!" Jazz shouted up the staircase. Mr. Manson was on his feet, inches from the officer's face, demanding answers. Danny was still clutching Sam's diary, hoping and praying to God that they were alright, that they had been in the car, perfectly fine, and were sitting out in the squad car as they spoke...

The Foley's and the Manson's had taken residence in their cramped home. They were just lucky that the Fenton's had extra cots and spare room in the lab, or else, they would have been sprawled out on the floor in the living room. As it was, though, they all came crashing up the staircase from the basement, just as Mr. and Mrs. Fenton came tumbling down the staircase from the second floor.

"Did they find them?" Mrs. Manson asked, her voice breaking in hysteria.

"I'm afraid we have not located your children, no." The officer said slowly, cautiously stepping backwards away from the mobbing parents. Disappointment clashed with relief; disappointment that they had not been found alive, but relief that they had not been found dead. "We found Sam's car, though."

"And?" Mr. Foley said pointedly.

"You all need to come with me."

They filed wordlessly out of the Fenton's home, wondering what they were about to discover. The officer had driven a rather large SUV, big enough for all eight of them to cram in. The officer drove them in silence out of Amity Park, down a lonely, winding road. Danny felt a sense of dread as they travelled further and further out; he was gripping Sam's diary so tightly his knuckles were white.

Off in the distance, they could see quite a commmotion. At least a dozen police cars were blocking the road, along with two firetrucks and an ambulance. Several town cars also littered the street, which Danny assumed belonged to the private investigators (who really hadn't been much help).

When the officer who was driving them stopped the SUV, it was a matter of seconds before everyone was out. Their eyes raked through the trees on either side of the road, desperately hoping to see an African-American boy in a red beret or a darkly-dressed girl with a missing boot. But, of course, they did not.

"If you'll come with me..." The officer said, gesturing for them to follow him. He led them under a strip of caution tape and into the scene. Danny hardly dared to look around; he was terrified of what he was about to see, knowing that it would give him nightmares for the rest of his life if this did not work out positively. Heck, it was probably going to give him nightmares either way. "We found the car earlier in the morning. It's about half a mile away from where Sam's boot was found."

Sam's Jeep was barely recognizable. It appeared to have been smashed directly into a tree, backed up, and thrown against another tree. The windshield had a huge, gaping hole in front of the driver's seat, and all the other windows were utterly smashed. Huge dents had taken residence all over the body of the car, and the engine was still smoking under the lopsided hood. It looked as if it had flipped several times.

"So, as you can see, they were in an accident that night," the officer said lamely, gesturing to the car. "We believe that after the car came to a standstill, they decided to exit the vehicle and tend to their own wounds, or else they tried to walk back to Amity. Either way, based off of where we found Sam's boot, they were headed in the wrong direction."

While the adults began talking to the police about the possibilities of the two catching a ride off a stranger back to Amity, Danny and Jazz slowly approached the car. Danny's eyes were welling with tears as he got closer; how many times had he ridden in that car? To think, it would be the very thing that leads to his best friend's possible demise...

"Danny, something's not right here." Jazz said suddenly. She was examining the car closely, her eyes squinted. "I don't think this was an accident."

"What are you talking about? Can you not see the shape this thing is in?" Danny asked, smacking his hand against the twisted metal. "What else could it be?"

"But look! Do you see any glass on the ground?" Danny glanced at the leafy ground beneath his feet and found that there was no glass there. "Exactly! All the windows are busted, and the glass is inside the car!"

"What does that mean?" Danny asked impatiently.

"It means that someone or something was outside the car, and knocked the windows in. And, did you notice the hole in the windshield?"

Danny had noticed it. He had chosen to not acknowledge it, since he could only assume the shape the driver had been in after the hole was made.

"The driver's door is standing open. But there's a hole in the windshield. Danny, Sam got out of the car to try and defend herself and Tucker against something, and was thrown into the car through the windshield. It makes sense!"

"I've just remembered!" Mrs. Manson shouted suddenly. She raced to the passanger's side and threw the door open. "I installed security cameras in Sammy's car, you know, to make sure she wasn't doing anything...illegal." Mrs. Manson glanced at Danny before continuing. "It can show us what happened that night!"

Danny stood on the opposite side of the car, his hand on the driver's seat. The was touching the place Sam had sat; the cloth beneath his fingers could still hold just a trace of her warmth. He groaned inwardly as he noticed a smattering of blood staining the seat. As he watched the officers struggle to remove the small camera he had never noticed, his eyes found something else on the floor of the car.

A red beret.

His heart lurched into his throat. Somehow, he had convinced himself that it could possibly be someone else's car, that just happened to look like Sam's. But Tucker's beret only confirmed it. Danny slowly reached toward the center console, lifting up the small flap.

Sam and Tucker's cell phones were sitting inside.

Danny gritted his teeth. He snatched the phones and the beret out of the car just as the police managed to get the camera out.

"We'll go back to headquarters to watch this." One of the officers said. "You all should probably join us."

They nodded as Danny shoved the phones in his pocket. He felt Sam's diary rubbing against his thigh from his other pocket; he tucked Tucker's beret in with it.

They were sitting in a small room at the police headquarters about twenty minutes later. The police had set up tables and folding chairs for them all to sit in. Currently, two officers were struggling with getting the television they had rolled in on a cart to turn onto the right channel, while the Foleys, Mansons, and Fentons merely watched.

"There!" One of them shouted, jumping back from the screen. The black-and-white static that had been on the screen suddenly disappeared, replaced by nothing but blackness. That was quickly replaced by an image of Tucker and Sam sitting in Sam's car. They appeared to have just gotten in; Tucker was still putting his seatbelt on. Danny fought back a sudden, strong urge to cry. "Press play..." the officer did as he was commanded.

"...so bad?" Sam's voice rang out from the speakers.

"Are you kidding me? It was awful! I swear, I've never seen so many goths gathered together in one place."

"Circus Gothica."

"You just always have to be right, don't you, Manson?"

Sam laughed. Her eyes were on the road, but she stole glances at Tucker every once in a while. They road in comfortable silence for a few minutes.

"What do you think Danny's doing right now?" Tucker asked suddenly, turning his gaze from out the window to Sam. Danny noticed that she stiffened for a moment before smiling.

"Probably sleeping. It is ten o'clock, after all." Her voice was heavy with sarcasm.

"Yeah. He was such a baby on the phone, he kept complaining about how tired he was. I was like, 'seriously? You sleep in, like, all your classes, how is it that you're still tired?'"

They both started laughing, and Danny grinned in spite of himself. It was true; he did sleep in pretty much all of his classes.

"Tuck, you never told me you were a comedian!" Sam said, wiping a tear dramatically out of her eye.

"It wasn't that funny..." Tucker said, furrowing his brow in confusion.

"Exactly." Sam said, shooting him a glare before smiling smugly at the road before her.

"Well that's just mean." Tucker huffed, crossing his arms.

"You would think after knowing me for...how many years? You'd think you would have figured that - ...what is that?" Sam said suddenly, leaning forward and squinting at the road.

"What is...oh!" Tucker said, apparently finding whatever Sam saw. "Oh my God, that looks like a..."

They were silent, both of them staring at whatever was out in the road. Sam had stopped the car in order to really stare at it.

"What is that thing?" Sam asked, her voice hushed.

"I don't know, but it...is it coming closer? What is it doing...oh my God did you see its' teeth? Oh my God!"

A loud banging noise reached their ears. Sam and Tucker screamed, their eyes on whatever was attacking. "Drive, Sam, drive!" Tucker shouted.

Sam floored it, screaming as she went. Danny heard glass shattering just as Tucker whipped his head around to the back seat. "IT'S IN THE CAR!" He screamed.

A rather large ball of fur was shifting in the back seat. Danny distinctly saw a glint of red in its' eyes and a glint of white in its' fangs as it readjusted itself. It was growling at Tucker, who was attempting to beat it away with Sam's boot. How Tucker had gotten Sam's boot off of her foot while she drove will forever be a mystery. So don't ask.

"Tucker, there are more!" Sam screamed, her voice cracking. The momentary distraction was all the creature needed from Tucker; it sank its' fangs into the boot and flung it out the window it had smashed through. Tucker whimpered, clutching to Sam's arm. "We have to fight!" Sam said, slamming on the brakes. The creature in the backseat lunged forward at the sudden momentum, slamming it's head against the center console and sinking to the floor of the car, apparently unconscious. "Well that was effective," Sam said as she and Tucker glanced down at the thing.

"Looks like a wolf crossed with a bear," Tucker said slowly.

"There are more!" Sam reminded him. She tore her seatbelt off and threw the door open, vanishing from the view of the camera. Danny watched Tucker's face as Tucker watched Sam fight; each reaction told Danny exactly how well Sam was coping. And based off of the anxious look on his face, Danny assumed that Sam was winning. Barely.

"Holy crap...oh my God...oh my! ...oh man...behind you, behind you! Okay...wow...just one m- SAM!" Tucker shouted suddenly. There was a split second in which Tucker threw his arms up in front of his face before something when smashing through the windshield. Said something feebly stirred in the driver's seat, raising a tiny, bloody hand to clutch her head.

"Ow..." Sam's voice was small and shaking. Tucker, whose face bore small scratches from the flying glass, tore his seatbelt off and crawled over to Sam, his beret falling off his head as he went.

"We're gonna die...we're gonna die...we're gonna die..." Tucker moaned as he helped Sam sit up.

"Not if you do exactly as I say." A masculine voice came from outside the car. Tucker's head snapped up as his grip around Sam tightened. Danny's heart swelled momentarily at the sight of his best friend being so protective over Sam; Tucker had promised Danny that if anything ever happened where Danny couldn't be there to protect them, Tucker would do everything he could to protect Sam for Danny.

"I will call them off if you come with me." The voice said. Tucker glanced at Sam, who was only half-conscious. She shrugged and pointed to the direction of the voice. Tucker nodded and swung the door open, scooping Sam up as he climbed out. He carried her bridal style out of the car.

The rest of the video was mostly the creatures attacking Sam's car, as if bent on destroying the evidence. Then the video cut short.

The silence that filled the room after the video ended was tense. No one dared to speak. The sounds of the two teens' screams were still fresh on their ears. Danny thrust his hand in his pocket and gripped the beret and diary tightly, willing that the owners of each object would still be themselves enough to claim them.

"They...were...kidnapped,"

Teh End.

Now that this story is finished, I'm going to start on something else.

JUST KIDDINGG (:

Haha, okay. Chapter four will be up soon (:

After I get at least two reviews on this chapter.

Please and thank you. (:

I'M SO TIRED.

Thanks for reading!

- Tori