"Let go of me!"
Steel-toed combat boots didn't seem to be having their usual effect. Not-Danny just smiled that creepy, mild, pod-person smile and gripped her arm a little tighter. "C'mon, Sam, I thought we were friends." His button eyes flashed dangerously as he turned that smile on her, and Sam flailed a little more.
"Danny's my friend, not – whatever you are!"
Sam noticed that his teeth looked a little too sharp when he smiled down at her – and since when had Danny been taller than she was? "I told you already, I'm the other Danny. The better Danny."
Sam managed a laugh, spiteful and humourless. "Please. How are you better?"
"Well, for one thing, I know how you really feel. Unlike Captain Oblivious." Sam pulled back, disgusted and a little frightened, when the not-Danny leaned down until his face was only a few inches from hers.
"I – have no idea what you're -"
"Come on, he's got to be the biggest idiot in the world not to see how you look at him."
Heat rushed up Sam's neck to her face. "I do not -"
"You do." The not-Danny smiled, big and unpleasant. "You want him to be more than just your friend, don't you? But he doesn't get it, and I do. Come on, stop being stubborn and just admit it. You like him. You want him. You want me."
Anything that might have flickered deep down in the pit of Sam's heart was almost instantly overwhelmed by rage.
"Are you actually trying to tell me how I feel?" Jabbing a finger into his chest, she fixed her best glare on the not-Danny. For just a second, his button eyes seemed to betray confusion, rather than smarmy self-confidence, and she pressed on. "Danny's my friend. Which means he actually cares enough about me to respect that. He would never throw himself at me if I wasn't okay with it, he would never try to tell me what I think or how I feel, and he would never – ever – treat me like this." The not-Danny tried to pull her forward, and Sam shoved him, hard. "You say you're the 'better' Danny, but this is the best you can do?"
The not-Danny's face twisted, his lips parting in a snarl that didn't look quite natural. And for a second, Sam could swear a sickly greenish glow backlit his button eyes. The moment passed so quickly she couldn't be sure that she hadn't imagined it, but a chill still ran down her spine at the sight of the not-Danny's smarmy grin.
"Then I guess I'll just have to step it up for you," the not-Danny said, in a voice that was probably supposed to be flirtatious, but was undercut with anger. He yanked at Sam's wrists, pulling her in close to his chest, and smiled wider.
Sam stared blankly at that awful smile for all of two seconds before kicking him in the shin as hard as she possibly could. She was far stronger than most people usually assumed, and her combat boots were steel-toed. The not-Danny's leg gave under the impact, more like kicking a mattress than the breaking of a bone, and he let out an unearthly howl.
Sam didn't wait to see what happened next. She pulled her arms free and ran.
…
"The lid is off?"
"Yeah, just a little bit. Like somebody put it back wrong." Wybie's voice had lost some of its natural, irrepressible casual air. "That's…not a good thing."
"No, it's not," Coraline agreed, worrying at her lower lip. "Thanks for looking for me. Uh."
"Do you need supernatural backup? Because I can totally get Lydia or somebody to give me a ride out. I'll be there in -"
"Five hours. Or more." Coraline sighed. "It'd be awesome to have you here, but I think we need you more back at the Pink Palace. And it's not like I'm in this alone."
"Oh yeah, you've got Spengler and Venkman with you." There was a shuffling noise from the other end of the line, a few muffled thumps and a curse, and then Wybie said, breathlessly, "I've got this end covered. Nothing's getting in or out of that well. Go kick some supernatural butt, Jonesy."
"Will do," Coraline answered, grinning, and hung up the phone.
"So?" Danny asked, the instant Coraline put the phone down.
"Yeah, is the cavalry coming?"
"Nope." Coraline breathed a long sigh, looking down at her phone wistfully. For a moment, a homesickness she hadn't realised she'd been feeling swelled up inside her chest, making it almost painful to breathe. She wanted nothing more than to see Wybie again, to be able to crack jokes about the danger they were in face-to-face, knowing that the other had their back if anything went wrong. "He has no idea where the cat's gone. It looks like we're on our own."
She didn't miss the worried look that passed between Danny and Tucker, but pretended not to notice.
The basement was quiet and empty when they pulled through the portal, the Spectre Speeder making noises that Coraline was sue no vehicle was supposed to make as its engine cooled. Apparently, no one had noticed that they were missing. It should have been a relief, but instead, Coraline found herself looking around warily. Something wasn't quite right, and the hush in the cabin of the Speeder told her that whatever she was feeling, she wasn't the only one.
"Dude." Tucker was the first to break the silence, elbowing Danny in the side and pointing at something on the far wall. "Has there always been a door there?"
Danny's eyes narrowed, and a shiver ran down Coraline's spine at the flicker of green light in their depths. Yeah, there was no way she was ever going to get used to that. "No. There hasn't."
They all climbed out of the Speeder more cautiously than before, and Coraline noticed that Tucker, too, was looking all around him, carefully scanning the room. Danny, on the other hand, was staring so intently at the door as he advanced on it, that it seemed like there was nothing else in the world to him.
"How do you open it?" he asked, and the sound of his voice in the tense silence made Coraline jump. She took a few deep breaths, trying to calm her pounding heart. Instead of an answer, she fished in her pocket for a moment, and at last, held up the little black key. It was still cold, she noticed, even after sitting in her pocket for the whole trip back through the Ghost Zone, and the thought made a shiver run through her.
Danny took the key from her without a word, looking over the rusted, water-stained steel door that had appeared on his basement wall with a frown of intense concentration. At last, he reached down and, with a whine of protesting metal, swivelled a riveted panel aside, revealing a tiny, old-fashioned keyhole. The key turned with some difficulty, and Danny, grinning in a way that made Coraline wonder for a second about his sanity, gave the door a push.
For a long moment, nothing happened. Then, with a shriek of rust and the grinding rumble of unoiled hinges, the door swung slowly, ponderously open. The breath of air that blew out of the cobwebbed tunnel it revealed smelled of dust and attics, stale, entombed air with a faint, unpleasant hint of rot.
"You know, I think walking into one obvious trap was enough for one day," Tucker commented, peering around Danny's shoulder to take in the fusty darkness awaiting them.
"We're not going in there," Danny said, decisively, and Tucker breathed a sigh of relief. Coraline was about to argue, but before she could open her mouth, Danny added, "At least, not without a plan."
"What? Oh, no way, dude, you are not getting me down that -"
"Tucker." Danny's voice was soft, sympathetic, but hadn't lost any of its intensity. "Sam's in trouble."
Tucker's sigh was one of long-suffering patience. "All right, fine, you win. What's the plan?"
In answer, Danny only turned to Coraline, Tucker quickly following his lead.
Coraline ran a hand through her hair, tugging a little too hard in her frustration. "Don't look at me! I don't know what he wants, I don't know what we're gonna find over there... I don't have any more of a clue than you do."
"Hey, that's not true," Tucker objected, and Coraline groaned, slapping her own forehead.
"Okay, fine, I've actually met this cat, but that's the only advantage I have here. He wasn't trying to kill me, so excuuuuuse me for focusing a little more on the monster that was!"
"See, that's suspicious right there," Tucker argued. "If this cat wasn't trying to kill you in a world entirely made of things that were trying to kill you -"
"I thought he was helping me, okay?" Coraline's hand went to her throat, looking for the stone with a hole in it, before she remembered that she'd left it on a table before they'd gone into the Ghost Zone, unsure of how it would react after what it had done when Danny had just touched her. "He said something about 'playing games' with the Beldam, but that's all I know." She glanced around, finding the table but not the stone. "Hey, where's my necklace?"
"Guys?"
Both Tucker and Coraline turned, to see Danny staring down the tunnel behind the door. It took Coraline a moment to figure out what had caught his attention, but when she did, a chill ran through her.
The door on the other end of the tunnel hung open, a sliver of greenish light pouring through it and painting the tunnel in a sickly underwater glow.
"Whoever's in there," Danny said, as white light flashed and he transformed before their eyes, "they're expecting us."