BAM. Check me out. A day later, and I've got the next chapter up. I THINK THAT MAKES UP FOR MY LONG ABSENCE.

Oooo no death threats in those reviews please...I still love you, but those are a little scary! It's just a story. I promise. No one really gets hurt.

I'm sorry ):

ON A LIGHTER NOTE I discovered my love for the CAPS LOCK BUTTON.

SO MUCH FUN.

ARE YOU READING THIS LIKE I'M SCREAMING IT AT YOU?

BECAUSE I'M TYPING IT LIKE I AM.

(:

I have a funny story about my history professor for the end of this chapter. Remind me. K?

K.

~~***Killer cliffy at the end. You've been warned.***~~

I forgot to mention in the last chapter that I don't own Danny Phantom. Sad day. I'll double mention it in this chapter to make up for it. I don't own Danny Phantom. I don't own Danny Phantom.

PWND.

Hm...I think that's all.

Relatives

Chapter Eight: The Transformation

September 2, 2011

"SAM!" Tucker and Danny shouted at the same time. They were out of their beds and sprinting up the hallway in an instant, banging on Sam's closed bedroom door.

"It's locked!" Tucker shouted, yanking fruitlessly on the handle. They could hear Sam struggling within the room. She was still screaming.

"We have to get in there!" Danny screamed. He flashed into Phantom and attempted to phaze through the door, but with no luck. He gave a strangled shout of frustration, swinging his fists at the door. The wood creaked and groaned in protest, but would not give way.

"Listen to her thoughts!" Tucker said, seizing Danny by the shoulders and shaking him slightly. "Listen to what she's thinking, see if we can help!"

Danny closed his eyes and concentrated. It was difficult at first, trying to break though the sounds of her screaming to her thoughts, but eventually, he began to hear her frantic thoughts:

Shit shit shit what is this thing holy shit mother freakin monster in my room I'm about to die oh my god Danny where are you!

SAM. Listen to me. Try to stay calm. Tuck and I will get in there and help you, just stay away from that thing, okay? Danny had a hard time controlling his thoughts enough to sound calm for her. Her response was nothing more than a mental echo of her squeals of terror.

"It's not working, I can't understand what's going on!" Danny shouted, his eyes opening. "Go get Zane, I'm gonna keep trying to break the door down!"

Tucker immediately took off running toward the staircase. Danny watched him go for a split-second, before returning to throwing his entire body-weight against the door. As long as she keeps screaming, I know she's alive, he thought to himself. The thought wasn't exactly comforting, but it kept him going. He gave every ounce of strength to attempting to break that door down, but somehow, when her screams transformed to sobbing, he pushed even harder. He could feel the desperation in her jumbled thoughts; it nearly drove him to tears.

Suddenly, a pair of hands seized his shoulders and dragged him away from Sam's door. He struggled against the force momentarily, before he realized that it was Tucker.

"Zane won't come!" Tucker gasped. "He says we're probably only imagining it! He said to leave her room alone!"

"Are you kidding me?" Danny shouted. He was torn; half of him wanted desperately to get to Sam and protect her, while half of him wanted to go downstairs and rip Zane's throat out for not believing the boys about Sam. Sam needing him took priority over all else. "We need to get in there. She needs me!" Danny shouted, kicking the door desperately. The wood splintered where his foot made contanct.

The boys stared at the spot for a moment in shock, before they both began swinging wildly at it. Soon enough, there was a gaping hole in the door, just wide enough for them to wriggle through. Sam's sobs had tapered into whimpers, which were closer and much more painful with the hole in the door.

Danny scrambled through. Complete darkness assaulted his eyes for a brief moment; he blinked rapidly as Tucker crawled in behind him. When his eyes adjusted, he screamed in mixed terror and fury.

Sam was pinned to the bed by the girl he'd seen in the photo. Sam's light pink nightgown was torn and her skin was stained with blood, which he assumed happened because of the half-destroyed furniture in the room. In fact, as his eyes quickly scanned the room, he spotted several shards of glass splattered with blood.

"Get away from her!" Danny screamed. He launched himself at Sam's bed, catching the blonde girl around the waist and tackling her to the ground. He heard Tucker behind him trying to get Sam to respond. The blonde beneath him snarled and bared her fangs at him, attempting with all her might to escape his grasp. "No you don't!" Danny growled, slamming her into the ground roughly. "Tucker, get Sam out of here, down the hall. Get her away from this thing!"

"I don't think so." A quiet voice came from the doorway. Danny whirled around in shock, momentarily loosening his grasp on the blonde. She swung her hand across his face, leaving four thin cuts across his cheek where her nails dragged across his skin, before streaking out of his grasp. She threw Tucker across the room and crouched over Sam, who was not moving. The blonde snarled at the two boys, who were both glaring at the man in the doorway. "You see, I need Sam to stay here." Zane said, stepping into the room. The battered door stood ajar; he had locked and sealed it. "She must stay here, or else the transformation will not be able to work."

"What transformation?" Danny spat. "What do you want with Sam?"

"Nine years ago, my daughter died." Zane's voice was quiet, shaking with emotion. "My only daughter. My princess, Lucine. My wife and my son did not understand why Lucine's death was so devestating to me. I had to get Lucine back. It was vital to get her back. She was seventeen when she died." Zane began to walk toward the bed, slowly raising his hand to touch the blonde's face. She purred when he touched her. "I did not bury her. I kept her here. I did everything I could to bring her back. I went to every psychic I could find. And, finally, one of them gave me answers."

Danny kept his eyes on Sam while Zane spoke. If he could time it right, he could get Sam out from beneath the blonde, he could get her to safety...but it would need to be timed perfectly...

"That psychic recalled Lucine's spirit from beyond the grave. But there was a problem." Zane's face twisted into a mask of pain, his eyes on the face of the blonde. "Her body was too decomposed. Her spirit would not completely take back over her old body. So the solution was simple: find a new body for my Lucine to inhabit."

"So you just decided to steal Sam's body," Tucker said. "That's sick. You do realize she's still using it, right?"

"Not for much longer." Zane said. He slipped his hand into his pocket and pulled a knife out. He held the blade to Sam's throat. "You two make a move, and she dies."

"You've been slipping Sam poison in her food at every meal." Tucker asked angrily. "You've been trying to kill her this entire time."

"It wasn't poison. It was a special chemical the psychic gave me that would allow a spirit to take control of a host body. I didn't want to kill her. It wouldn't have worked if she was dead. I just wanted to weaken her enough for Lucine to take control." Zane muttered.

"You knew Danny's a half ghost. That's why he wasn't able to phaze through the walls of Sam's room. You knew the limo would break down on the way here. You planned this, down to the very last second."

"I will admit, I never planned on you two getting into this room," Zane shrugged. "No matter, the transformation is nearly complete."

Sam's body was beginning to jerk and spasm. The boys could see her eyes rolling back in her head as she gasped for air. Lucine collapsed off the edge of the bed, hitting the ground with a thud as her body began to spasm as well.

"Tuck, what happens to Sam if Lucine takes over her body?" Danny whispered.

"I don't know, but I definitely don't want to find out." Tucker muttered back.

DANNY! YOU HAVE TO STAB ME!

"What?" Danny gasped, startled at Sam's sudden thought. "No, I can't!"

"You can't what?" Tucker asked.

PLEASE DANNY, IT'S THE ONLY WAY TO STOP THIS!

"But you'll be killed!"

If that's what it takes...please...please Danny, I can't fight her much longer...

There was a moment's hesitation before Danny lunged forward. He ripped the blade out of Zane's hand and sank it into Sam's chest. Her eyelids flew open, revealing startlingly green eyes. Her mouth opened in a horrible leer, emitting a terrifying scream that mixed with Zane's cry of fury. Danny felt a pair of hands close around his throat momentarily, before the sound of fist hitting flesh. There was a grunt as the fingers loosened, followed by a muffled thud on the floor. Sam's body writhed beneath him, the handle of the knife protruding from her chest, before those green eyes fluttered close. She was still.

The boys were silent. They were panting, staring at Sam, praying that against all odds, she would be alive.

Please, please, please...

CLIFFY!

WOO!

Okay, my funny history professor story. Thanks for reminding me!

Today we were taking notes over the original beginning of the surge of exploration in like 14th century Europe, and my proffy was talking about Prince Henry of Portugal. These were his exact words:

"Prince Henry had it good. He was the youngest son of the king of Portugal. Which meant that he got to enjoy all of the luxuries of being royalty, without having to worry about becoming king. I bet there were a lot of women out there who wanted their daughters to marry royalty. So basically, he got all the girls. Kinda sounds like a 14th century Playboy. But Prince Henry was a bit weird. He liked seamen. ...oh my God, NOT LIKE THAT. I meant he liked the navy, people on boats...OH GOD."

My class has about 100 people in it. This was our response:

"AHAHA. YOU SAID SEAMEN AND IT SOUNDED WRONG."

...yay college.

H'anyways, I hope you enjoyed this little chappie. More to come. Keep your eyes peeled.

...you know, I never understood that saying. What, do they want me to peel my eyes? WHAT THE HECK DOES THAT EVEN MEAN?

Hm. I'm gonna go write my paper for English now.

I love you.

Don't forget to review.

Give me something to look forward to later on.

Drop me another dot.

Or smiley face.

(:

- Tori