Well, my week has been hectic. On top of getting caught up with my math homework, I have to start Henry IV, Part I, work on a presentation for Shakespeare, write an article for my school paper, be in a skit for my cousin's class (more on that later), and do some editing work in a book for my last class. Sounds like fun, no?
So, the skit thing. My cousin asked me about it last week. She needed two actors (myself and one of her friends from work) to perform this 3 minute skit in front of her and twelve other people. Her friend has known about it for about a month and he's had plenty of time to memorize the lines. Me? Just got the script Tuesday. And I already have all of my lines and cues down. We've only had two – two; this past Tuesday and Saturday – rehearsals and we're already better than the other groups. It should be noted that all of the people casted in the other groups are theater majors, and all of them are super anal about their performance and they're still having issues. And that's after a month-long practice. Yeah. So, who's freaking awesome? This girl right here. Well, my first performance after a four year hiatus of no acting is this Thursday. I'm pumped and ready to go!
Anyway, this is a short chapter this week. My brain's completely fried at the moment, especially after my dentist appointment this morning. Hopefully I can make up for it next time. I have to work on the next chapter for FH in a few moments. (yawn) Or take a nap. It's better to revitalize after such an exhausting week.
Summary: Samantha Manson, or Sam, has many things to deal with; her parent's disappointment, she knows all of the police force by name and face (and not because she wants to), moving to a new city, her grandmother's slowly dying, her Necromancy is getting stronger, she has no instructor to teach her, and she's not exactly the most popular girl in school. As she learns about this new city, she learns of its mysterious secrets and as to why so many haunts happen there. While trying to find out how to help this city, she finding that she slowly crushing on a kind of cute geeky boy whose parents hunt supernatural things. AU. She eyed the yellow tape, daring it to keep her from the school grounds. After a moment, she decided to ignore the forbidding warning of the black DO NOT CROSS letters.
Disclaimer: I do not hold any legal rights to Danny Phantom or to any of the characters you are going to read about. This story, however, is my own original idea, with a nod to Meg Cabbot's Mediator series and Kelly Armstrong's Darkest Powers trilogy for inspiring me somewhat.
Do Not Cross
Chapter 6
Concerns
"When you have lost hope, you have lost everything. And when you think all is lost, when all is dire and bleak, there is always hope." Pittacus Lore, I Am Number Four
Tucker refused to enter the hospital grounds. He stood firmly against the gates, watching traffic and checking his phone for every updates every thirty seconds or so. He hadn't heard anything for three hours now. What could be taking so long?
Three knocks, the ringtone he chose for text messages, sounded from his phone. It was from Danny.
"She's okay." it read. "She's just ove- exhausted."
Well that was a relief.
Tucker texted Jazz to let her know that he and Danny might be coming over for dinner – maybe the Manson's, too, if they would get off their high horse and see how amazing the Fenton's are. He doubted they would and he had no doubt that Sam wouldn't want to leave her grandmother's side, she loved the woman. No one else in her family could have taught her everything she knew thus far about being a Necromancer – although, Sam seemed very sheltered from her own Necromancy. Was the old woman hiding something?
His phone went off again. It was from Jazz this time.
"How about I pick up some Chinese and bring it to the hospital for everyone?" Jazz texted. "Sam's vegetarian, right?"
As she said she would, Jazz brought a delicious smelling bag of treats for everyone. Tucker, who was normally quite afraid of hospitals, followed her simply only to eat. The want for food was greater than his desire to run, screaming, away from the building. In fact, he hadn't realized he was in, until they met up with Danny in the hall – who didn't want to crowd the room.
"How's Sam?" Jazz asked, sitting down next to him.
"She's a wreck." Danny answered truthfully. "I thought she was having a panic attack earlier. She's much calmer now, but she worried herself sick. She actually threw up and hour or so ago."
"The thought of losing a loved one, especially if they're close, is very difficult for many people to handle. She probably just needs some food and some sleep."
She held up the bag of food for Danny to see, and he smiled. Jazz gestured for him to take, which he did nervously before heading down to the room Sam's grandmother had been assigned to.
Jazz and Tucker followed behind, allowing him to lead. They waited for him to knock before sidling up next to him.
Pamela Manson opened the door. Her lips tightened when she saw who it was but she didn't object to them being there.
"We, uh, brought some food." Danny said. "We figured you might be hungry. It's Chinese."
Sam appeared by her mother and smiled. She looked worn out.
"Hey, guys." she said. Sam gestured for them to come in. "You brought food? Anything meatless?"
"Bok Choy and Tofu Lo Mein." Jazz said. "I had to ask to make sure. I wasn't sure what you liked. I hope that's okay?"
"I haven't tried Tofu Lo Mein yet. But I like Bok Choy."
"Sam, why don't you and your friends go down to the café to eat." Pamela said, looking at her mother. "Jazz, do you think you could take Sam home? She needs her sleep."
"Of course, Mrs. Manson." Jazz said.
Sam looked dejected, but she followed the boys and Jazz out of the room. The door closed quietly behind her. She allowed Danny to lead her down to the cafeteria on the first floor. None of them talked, but all of them could tell that the Goth girl was plotting something.
Tucker chose a more secluded table away from the service counter. He planned to question Sam on her thoughts. He could see quite clearly that she wanted to talk to them about something. But with Jazz being there…
"Hey, Jazz, can you go get some napkins?" Sam asked, as if reading his mind. "They're up by the cash register."
"Sure." the redhead said with a shrug.
As soon as she was out of hearing range, Sam started talking.
"We need to continue the research." she said. "Bubeleh left some of her notes in her library. Tucker, we'll need your expertise to get into the room."
They all quickly peeked at Jazz; she was talking to the cashier, who seemed rather tired of listening to the teen, even after the short while. Danny and Tucker had no doubt in their minds that the Fenton girl was trying to help the poor woman have a mental breakthrough on why she was wasting her life working at the hospital when she could be out doing her dream job.
"What can I do?" Danny asked.
"You can help me look. Are you really good at finding things? Please say yes." Sam pleaded.
"Um… yes?"
"Good. Now, let's start getting out the food so Jazz doesn't think there's anything wrong with us. Three teenagers sitting down with food in front of them, and none of them – especially Tucker – are eating? Not normal."
"How do you do it?" Danny asked, helping her empty the plastic bag before rolling it and tucking it into a neat little ball.
"Do what?"
"Be so… normal?" When she gave him a confused look, he continued. "Like just now, you made us do something that most people would do on basic instinct. But us? We're not normal. I mean, you can talk to the dead and Tucker can do things with metal –"
"And you have freaky powers." Tucker said.
"– but you make it all seem like it's just a walk in the park. How do you do it?"
"I've had lots of practice." Sam said, shrugging. "My parents couldn't ever know what I was up to or they'd send me to a mental hospital. I've lied and cheated and stole and done other things that aren't exactly legal, but I've had to do them because they needed to. And when I showed up to school, tired and a bit sore from exorcising another ghost? I pretended that I spent most of the night studying and boxing."
"So, you wear a mask of sorts around normal people." Tucker said.
"You should know."
"Ah, but my Necro died before we ever really could do any of the ghost ass-kicking. I basically lived a normal life, just with some training in Alchemy."
Before Sam or Tucker could say anything more, Jazz returned to their table.
"It's so sad," she said, "that poor woman wants to be a burlesque dancer. Is that all she thinks that she could ever amount to be…? Now, let's eat. I'm starved."
Jazz willingly dropped the three off at the Manson Mansion, waving goodbye to them as she drove away. They waited until she was gone before entering the house.
A maid, who had been dusting a table, jumped when they walked in.
"Do you know if my bubeleh left her library unlocked, Kate?" Sam asked.
"No, she didn't, Miss." the maid said. "I could check with someone else to see if they have the key."
"It's alright."
"Will you and your friends be in your room, Miss?"
"Yes."
"If you need anything, just ring."
Kate the maid curtsied and left them standing in the foyer. Sam nodded before heading upstairs. She led them back to the library and checked the door. It was most definitely locked. If Kate wasn't working tonight, she would have kicked down the door – or at least attempted to. Her grandmother tended to put up some sort of charm or spell that warded off other Necromancers and kept them from entering her private places.
"Okay, Tuck, do your magic." Sam gestured towards the door knob.
Tucker cracked his fingers and held his hand above the crystal knob. It wiggled but it did not unlock. He tried again. A jolt of electricity shot up from the door and knocked the young African American flat on his back with a yelp of pain.
Apparently her grandmother knew how to ward off Alchemists, too.
"Now how do we get in?" Danny asked, helping his friend up.
"I don't know, maybe you could turn intangible or something and walk right through?" Sam suggested.
"Yeah, my powers don't exactly agree with me yet. What happens if I leave my kidney or something out here and I die in there?"
Sam rolled her eyes.
"You're not going to die. But if you don't at least try, I'll make sure you never reach six foot something."
"And that threat is coming from the shortest of our trio." Tucker said.
"And she is also the strongest." Sam reminded him, cracking her knuckles and her wrists. He gulped.
"Just try it, Danny. What could it hurt?"
The two watched silently as their friend focused on becoming intangible. He walked to the door and – thump – walked right into it.
"Ow." Danny said, rubbing his nose.
"Try to get the white hair." Tucker said.
"And run into the door again? No thank you."
"Please, Danny." Sam pleaded.
"Nope. Nuh-uh. No way, no how."
"Dude, stop wimping out." Tucker scoffed.
"I'm not a wimp!" Danny said.
"Then just try one more time, please?" Sam asked again.
"Fine."
Danny focused and felt the surge. He looked down and he was indeed wearing the jumpsuit. Smiling, he looked at his friends who were beaming. He focused again, this time on becoming intangible. It worked like a charm. He slid through the door, quite literally, and he opened the door for them.
"Dude," Tucker said, flicking on the lights, "this place is a mess."
"Well, she hasn't really had time to unpack properly." Sam said. "She's been busy researching."
She walked over to one of the tables littered with books. Most of them had nothing to do with the paranormal, so she moved to the next table which procured the same results.
"Third times a charm." she muttered, heading to another table.
The third table provided more positive results but none of the books were of the same subject. She tried a fourth and a fifth and a sixth, all with no luck. While never really believing that seven was a lucky number, she peeked at the next table. The results were the same.
Just as she was turning away, a book title caught her eye. Soothsayers over the Centuries. She picked it up and flipped through the pages. All along the pages was her grandmother's familiar scrawl and it was all done in haste. As if she knew something was going to happen to her…
"Guys," she said, "I found something."
As I said, short chapter. I did try to drag out the text as much as I could, even with my editing. And I did try to not end it so cliffhanger-y, but in some ways this chapter is and in other ways it isn't. And no matter what, I hope it sated your desire for now.
I want to remind fans of this story that this is a poll on my profile that deals with this story. I'm thinking about doing a collection of one-shots that explains a few scenes that aren't fully explored withing this story. I might do it, depending on the response that I get. If you haven't voted already, please do so. It would make me very happy.
Well, I need to go do some serious work for a while and sleep. Sleep sounds good. iOc, signing off!
(Also, much love to my readers out there who have faved and followed and reviewed so far. You're all fabulous.)