Hello
Summary:
Walking home from Danny's one night, something horrific happens to Sam. Now Danny's left to try to put the pieces of his best friend back together.Rating:
PG-13 for mature themes and language.Disclaimer:
I do not own Danny Phantom. Butch Hartman does. And I don't own Hello, Evanescence does.Prologue
Playground school bell rings, again.
The sound echoed loudly through the high school hallway. The bell signaling the beginning of sixth period class sounded its normal ringing tone sounding slightly off pitch. Everyone began moving. Conversations stopped but the noise level remained about the same as lockers were slammed, good-byes were shouted, and footsteps thudded towards their destinations. It was all lost on the dark haired freshman fighting his way towards the front door a note clutched in his hand.
Danny Fenton clawed his way through the sea of upperclassman that blocked the hallway. All his thoughts dwelt on the same thing, an elementary school playground across town. That was Samantha Manson's favorite spot in the world. The town was small and all through the period when Sam's parents and talked of divorce that had become her haven. Sam had always smiled and said everyone needed a place to escape. And according to the note his right hand was clutching that was exactly what the fourteen-year-old goth was looking for.
Danny ran around the corner and pulled himself behind the side of the dumpster outside the cafeteria. He closed his eyes and breathed deeply. He felt the change instantaneously as his heart and lungs stopped. He lunged off the ground and into the air. Green eyes shone with fear at the thought that he was already to late. Going invisible, Danny put all his energy into flying as fast as he could to Usher Elementary School.
He changed back when he was still about a foot in the air and hit the ground running. Ice blue eyes scanned for the one thing that could make all of this make sense. The freshman spotted his best friends bent form sitting on top of the jungle gym, her back to him. Danny ran over, screaming her name as he ran.
"Sam!" Hunched shoulders tensed but other than that Sam didn't move. "Sam!" She still remained unresponsive. Danny skidded to a halt. He grabbed a bar at about eye level and hoisted himself up towards the top of the dome where Sam was perched. He stopped when he was at eye level with her.
In that moment their eyes finally met. The emptiness in her eyes hit Danny like a wall of ice water. He was prepared for anger, fear, resentment, or pain. Yet the absence of any emotion affected him like nothing he could think of. Swallowing hard, Danny just plunged into the conversation that he had no idea how to have.
"What is this?" He asked shoving the crinkled piece of paper at her pale, alarming blank face.
A smile that didn't reach her eyes curved her lip. "What? You've never seen a suicide note before?" A dark humor tainted her words but still there was no deep emotion behind them.
Blue eyes darkened in fear at how casually she responded. "You…can't be serious…I mean, this is all a joke." Sam broke eye contact, bangs falling into her face making her expression unreadable. "You and Tucker thought up and any moment now he's gonna pop out with his digital camera and—"
"Danny!" The soft, broken voice cut through him as sharp as a knife and with that she looked up. Light lavender eyes that had darkened to amethyst with pain and fear met frightened ice blue ones. Danny felt himself frozen in place by the pain permeating that stare. And with that Sam lifted her forearm so Danny could see.
And nothing at that moment seemed to matter other than the sticky red blood slowly flowing from her wrist, covering her palm and forearm.