Hey, I'm back once again ;)

I have an excuse. I been having a rough week. I been feeling… lonely. That's because no one sat with me at lunch for the past four days. My such called "two best friends" had been sick all week. But when one of them came back on Thursday, he sat somewhere else, away from me.

And he did it again yesterday!

I am so going to tell him off Monday.

Well, if I ever talk to him again, that is…

But this one dude who's one of my friend's friend sat with me. But we barely talked. All he ever said was, "Do we have gym today?" or "Can I have a fry?"

I still regret giving him that fry… -_-

My mom says that I need more friends, but I'm perfectly fine on my own! I mean, if I'm alone, I can think of new chapters of this story, I get to think stuff without worrying about my friends reading my mind somehow, and I get peace and quiet.

Anyway, enough chit-chat. Now, let's get to the thing that you're really here for xD

I do not own Danny Phantom.

A Phantom Story

Chapter 8

"Danny?" I called. His eyes were shut closed, and his face was poorly pale. Drips of blood were spreading across his arms and exposed knees from the holes in his pants. Cuts and bruises were surrounding around his innocent face, and his hair was all messed up. I began to ease myself towards the young boy, and grabbed his arm. I shook it repeatedly, hoping he was soon to wake up.

And surprisingly, he did.

He opened his baby blue eyes half way, searching them everywhere to register where he might be. It was then that his blue met my amethyst ones. It was then that his eyes began to widen, and his face was formed into a shocked reaction like one of his darkest secrets had been revealed.

He began to move away from me. My head tilted a little to the left, with my one eyebrow raised. I wondered why he was trying to stay away from me. Has he lost his mind? Did he forget who I was? Was I a stranger to him, now? Was I nothing to him?

His face began to soften as he identified what my reaction was. Now I was totally confused. Was he hiding something that I wasn't suppose to know? Is that why he was frightened beforehand? What was he so afraid about? What was his little secret?

I began to push those thoughts away. I could see his tired expression fade away as he looked at me with concern. I began to stiffen. He reminded me of Phantom when he looked at me like that. And that led to my father. Oh, how my father was so protective over me. He told me that I was the best daughter he could ever have; that I was his angel. He would be always there for me. Anytime, anywhere.

But he's not. He's not here. I don't see him anywhere I go. I don't see him anytime I need him. All I see is no one. All I see is an empty space that haunts me with it's silence. It makes me feel broken; it makes me feel guilty. Because I'm the reason why he had disappeared.

I shuddered and shook my head. I looked at Danny and gave him a small smile, assuring him that everything was alright. His concerned stare broke, and he just nodded.

"You okay?" I asked.

"I think so," he replied. He slowly got up, using the building for support. I put a supporting hand on his shoulder, and he smiled as if saying "Thanks." I smiled back like it was no problem, which it wasn't.

"Did the ghost get defeated?" he asked. I nodded.

"I used your parents equipment to capture it in this… thermos." I explained to him, holding up the soup-thingy. His eyes narrowed and he swatted the thermos away from my hand, and put it in his. I could feel that my shocked face was priceless. "What was that for?"

"Don't do that ever again," he warned. "Its too dangerous out there. You can get hurt."

"Since when do you care?" I asked him while crossing my arms. He paused. He took a deep sigh and spat out the words.

"Because I care about the town." Danny replied, softly. He then turned around, and walked away.

"Where are you going?" I questioned while shouting at him.

"Home!" he shouted back. And with that, he disappeared into the mist, leaving me alone with only early crickets comforting the silence around me.

When I was walking home, it was almost dark. The sky was dark blue, and the street lights were flickering on. Crickets started to creek, and my shadow was my only company at the moment. It was a very lonely walk, yet a relaxing one. I felt like I had all time in the world to walk on the sidewalk, and never look back.

But sadly, the road finally came to a dead end as I reached my Aunt and Uncle's house.

Yep, still can't say that it's my house… because it's technically isn't.

I step inside, and close the door behind me. The house is pitch black, so I thought they were sleeping. So I tiptoed to the stairs, but I flinched when the lights flickered on. I turned around slightly to see Aunt Susan and Uncle Fred, standing behind me with their arms crossed. I gulped.

"Where have you been, young lady?" my Uncle asked.

"You should've been here almost three hours ago!" my Aunt added.

"I know, I know, and I'm sorry," I apologized.

"Well sorry isn't enough," my Aunt huffed. "You made us worried sick! And there was a ghost attack! Do you know how hurt you could've been?"

"Yes, I know, but I'm fine," I confirmed. "Now, can I please go upstairs now?"

"Not until you tell us where you been," Uncle Fred ordered.

"Fenton Works…" I mumbled.

"I'm sorry, what dear?" Aunt Susan questioned.

"Fenton Works!" I raised my voice higher. It was then that Aunt Susan slapped me across the face. I was paralyzed at what just happened. I brought my left hand to my cheek and felt where she had slapped me. It stung really badly that I whipped my hand away like my cheek was on fire.

"W-Why did you slap me?" I asked in a low, timid voice.

"Don't ever go near that place again," Aunt Susan threatened. "YOU HEAR ME!?" I nodded as fast I could. "Now, GO UPSTAIRS!"

I was gone in a flash.

I slammed the door behind me, only to find Phantom sitting on my bed, with scars and cuts all over his face. I gasped. I ran over to him and sat next to him. I put a friendly hand on his shoulder.

"What happened to you?" I asked. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. I just got in another serious ghost battle," he replied. He then noticed the bruise on my left cheek that Aunt Susan had left. "What. Is. That?" He pointed to my bruise.

"Oh, that?" I gave a nervous chuckle. "Its nothing… I didn't see where I was going and accidentally hit my cheek on a door that was wide open…"

"Then why does it look like a hand slapped it?" he questioned. I shrugged. He narrowed his eyes at me. "You're lying."

"Well, you got more injuries than I do so give me a second and I'll get the first aid kit to patch you up, okay? And I promise I'll tell you what happened," I explained. He let out a defeated sigh.

'Fine," he breathed. I went into my bathroom, which was connected to my room, and got out the first aid kit that was kept beneath the sink. I then walked towards Phantom, and started bandaging his face.

He winced and he groaned from the acute pain. His face was filled with many cuts that I could barely count them all. They bled and they stained around his pale cheeks, but I quickly wiped it off with a soft, paper towel. But when I finally done and he sighed in relief, I had said I wasn't finished yet, and this confused him. Like, what does she mean by that? Didn't she get all my wounds on my face?

Yes, yes I did, but there's two more places I need to patch. The legs and the body.

"Phantom," I called him. He looked at me straight in the eye. "I know this will sound awkward, but can you… uh… take off your pants…?" He tilted his head slightly to the right.

"Why?" he asked me.

"To patch your wounds on your legs cause if there were several cuts on your face, there has to be lots more under there." I answered. His cheeks were an almost invisible pink from blushing.

"Okay," he gave in. He slowly took off his black pants and I found several bleeding cuts and bruises everywhere. Especially on the knees.

I sighed and started to patch them all up. The green ectoplasm blood tickled the tip of my fingers, but I quickly wiped it off before it could go beneath my skin and give me ghost powers or something like that. I sighed as I finished the last cut, and wiped my hands with the "Wipies". I sighed once again as I looked at Phantom's jumpsuit top. I bit my lip.

"Phantom," I whispered, but he heard.

"Yeah?"

"Can you… take off… your… thingy… you know…" I stammered as Ipointed at the jumpsuit top. He got the messaged and nodded. He took off the jumpsuit, and my eyes widen in amazement.

He was very muscular, and was very skinny. But what totally ripped off the beauty was the blood that covered the cuts and bruises. I sighed once again and started to patch them all up, just like I was doing for the face and legs. Surprisingly, the body didn't have much cuts like the legs or face had. But there were many bruises and countless of scars. I felt bad for Phantom. He didn't deserve this; no, not at all.

When I finally patched all of his cuts, he let out a sigh of relief and put his clothes back on. I packed up the first aid kit and went to the bathroom. I put it under the sink, and washed my dirty hands with soap that smelled very sweet. When I was done, I exited the bathroom to find Phantom sitting there on my bed, waiting patiently for me to explain the bruise.

"Sit," he demanded as he pointed to the spot next to him on his right. I rolled my eyes and sat down bluntly next to him. "Now, explain the bruise." He pointed to the bruise on my cheek. I covered it with my left hand. I sighed.

"My Aunt did this," I admitted. His eyes widened. "No! She doesn't abuse me, I promise! It's just that, I wasn't listening very well, and refused to tell her the answer…" Well, it wasn't completely true, but it was true.

"Why-why would she do that? To an innocent human being?" he questioned. I shrugged.

"Maybe she was drunk and just had a cigarette," I guessed.

"She smokes and drinks?" Phantom asked.

I nodded. "Yeah, she does. Along with my Uncle."

"You shouldn't be living with them. They can be dangerous,"

"They're by Aunt and Uncle, Phantom. Not strangers. I knew them since I was born," I reasoned. "They wouldn't hurt me."

"People change, Sam… They might turn out to the people you never expected them to be. And let me tell you, I had to learn out the hard way," Phantom confirmed as he put a hand on my shoulder.

"But they're family, Phantom," I reminded him. "You need to trust your family." Phantom froze, but shook his head. He just nodded and let go of my shoulder.

"You're right," he agreed. "You need to stick to your family." He looked out the window and realized it was almost midnight. He looked at me with sad eyes. "I need to go. Thanks for patching me up. I really needed the help." I smiled at him.

"Anytime Phantom. I'll always be there for you," I admitted. He smiled back at me and disappeared into the night sky.

I sighed happily as I dug under the covers, closing my eyes and drifted off to a place called, "Dreamland".

"Hey Danny," I greeted.

Danny and I were at our lockers that were next to each other when I greeted him, but he didn't say a word. He wore his black sweatshirt as usual with the hood over his head, and stared blankly at his locker. I gave him a confused stare, but didn't say anything. I just opened my locker, got my stuff, and headed towards class.

While I was doing so, I accidentally bumped into Tucker. Our books scattered on the ground, along with notebook paper as we did so. His eyes narrowed down at me, and I gulped. I then put my hands up innocently.

"I'm sorry," I apologized. He didn't reply, but instead he kneeled down on his knees and began picking up his books. I followed his actions as I picked up mine, but also tried to help him pick his up. He refused to let me touch them, and I rapidly moved my hand away from the book before he could do anything to abuse it.

And when he was finished, he disappeared into the dark and dusty hallway, not even turning back. I could feel he was guilty about something. That something was killing inside him, eager to get out of his chest. His face looked like it was going to burst into tears, and it also looked like he was broken. Was the fight between him and Danny really that bad? Or was it something else that was killing him so badly?

I shook my head. It was none of my business. I shouldn't be picking my nose in other people's faces. If he wanted to keep his mouth shut about himself, and Valerie didn't want to talk about him either, then it was my job to keep my mouth closed and locked. Tucker was probably depressed about something. Maybe it was about one of his family members dying.

Or they have vanished.

Yeah, maybe it was something around those lines…

I sighed as I picked up the last book that was left on the floor and headed to class in the empty hallway. Unknown about someone stalking me with pure red eyes behind my back.

It was finally lunch, and Valerie and I were sitting at our normal table inside the cafeteria. I ate my lunch and she ate hers as we talked on and on about our life. Pretty much like Phantom and I do every evening.

"So, what happened to you after the ghost attacked?" Valerie asked. I wide eyed and hesitated on the answer.

"I went to Fenton Works, like you told me the other day…" I replied with a low, timid voice.

"Really? Cause I didn't see you there," she pointed out. "I actually saw you on the TV, fighting that ghost with that horrible ghost boy," I started to get offended by her words about Phantom.

"He's not that bad, you know," I informed. "He's actually a good ghost, trying to protect us from evil."

"Well, he may try to get us to think that he's a good guy, but then he'll turn his back on us and try to kill us all," Valerie reasoned. I sighed in annoyance.

"There is no way that Phantom would do that," I denied. "What has he done that was so evil?"

Valerie hesitated, but shook her head. She then began to answer. "Once, he attacked the town's mayor, then he once turned bad and stole a lot of stuff from stores and banks, then he stole all of our Christmas presents, and worst of all, he ruined my life." I gasped. I couldn't imagine Phantom doing those stuff. But why would he?

"How did he ruin your life?" I asked. Valerie sighed.

"I had it all. The money, the popularity, clothes, food, and the best life any teenage girl could have. I was in the A-List, until Phantom and his dog had to come along and ruin my beautiful life for me. And that's when I became friends with Danny and Tucker. Because I was too poor to be friends with them anymore," she replied.

"Valerie, I think what Phantom did was an accident and happened for a good reason," I admitted. She gave me a blank stare.

"What? Why?" she questioned.

"Because if it didn't happen, then you would've never realized what a shallow witch Paulina and the rest of the A-List are, you wouldn't have learned the true meaning of friendship with Danny and Tucker, and you wouldn't have met me." I explained. She smiled, but it fainted as she thought of something else.

"But that doesn't explain why you think Phantom is a good ghost," Valerie defended. I sighed in irritation.

"Because I talked to Phantom before!" I blurted out. The lunchroom was filled with silence. I gulped. Maybe I should've shouted that even louder so everyone in China could hear.

Valerie eyes widened, and when I found where Paulina was sitting, she did too. Tucker, who was about to walk out of the lunchroom, stopped in his tracks and looked at me, shocked.

When I found Danny, he was midway from putting his sandwich in his mouth when he heard this. He paused and put it down. He got up from his seat, and dashed out of the cafeteria. Surprisingly, Tucker went after him.

Everything seemed like in slow motion as I saw an angered Paulina running toward me, steam running through her ears. Her hand was made into a fist as she got even closer to me.

It was then that her fist made contact to the opposite cheek that my Aunt had hit. She hit it so hard that it was enough for me to fall to the ground and be knocked out.

The last thing I heard before I slipped to unconscious, was Paulina whispering to my ear, "Stay away from my ghost boy, freak." And evil laughter echoing inside my head.

And with that, everything went dark. The voices of the people in the cafeteria faded away, but the laughter still hung in there. It was like it would never stop. It felt like I was in great danger… that someone was after me.

HA, cliffhanger :3

Long chapter, yay! :D

Wondering why Valerie hates Phantom when she's friends with Danny? You'll find out soon ;)

Hehe, all the confusion of the prologue is starting to make sense a little to you, right? No? Because its starting to make sense to me xD

Well, that's because I'm the writer…

*Facepalm*

Anyway, what will happen? Who is stalking Sam? What was that evil laughter in her head? Why did Danny run out and Tucker chased after him when Sam blurted out that she had talked to Phantom? Why did her Aunt threaten Sam to not go near Fenton Works again? Find out in Chapter 9! :D