Imaginary

Summary: Everything has a consequence now Sam has to learn to live with hers. All Danny can do is hope it doesn't kill her.

Rating: PG-13 for mature themes and language.

Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom. Butch Hartman does. And I don't own Imaginary, Evanescence does.

Prologue

Swallowed up in the sound of my screaming.

Sam lay there, trying to ignore how the sheets clung to her sweaty back as she lay staring at the ceiling. It was the middle of the hottest evening of the year and it happened to be the one the air-conditioning had chosen to go out during. Her dad had been on the main phone for the past three hours trying to find someone who would work on a Sunday at seven in the evening.

Sam almost jumped when her phone rang. She had a separate phone line for her room but Tucker was on vacation and Danny was still grounded for his suspension. She grabbed the phone and hit the talk button. "Hello?"

"I'm free, Sam! I'm free!" The caller screamed into her ear.

She cringed at the volume of his voice. "God, Danny. Could you be a little quieter?"

"But, I'm free. You have no idea how great this feels." Sam grinned at how excited he was.

She glanced at the calendar. "I thought you still had another week to go."

He laughed sounding slightly flat coming through the phone line. "I got time off for good behavior."

"Ah," Sam said as she fell back onto her bed. The sheets stuck to her once again. She glanced back at the calendar as Danny started to tell her about his punishment. Something hit her for the first time. Her period should have been last week.

Sam felt like she'd been doused with ice water. Everything inside her froze. She stared at the calendar in shock. She counted back days, did the math over and over again. This couldn't be happening. She had finally decided that she could move on with her life.

"Sam!" It jarred her out of her near trance and she dropped the phone to the bed where it bounced to the floor. She scrambled to grab it and pressed it tightly against her ear.

"Sorry, Danny. Kind of spaced out. What were you saying?"

There was no response for a moment. "Never mind about me. What's wrong?"

Sam tried to laugh it off. It sounded fake, though. She was certain he caught it. "I'm fine."

"Sam, you gasped and then went silent. I spent like thirty seconds asking what was wrong before you noticed. That doesn't seem fine to me."

She tried to make her voice sound totally normal. "I'm fine, alright. Look, I got to go. Maybe we can do something tomorrow."

"Alright," he somehow seemed reluctant to let her go, drawing the word out into more syllables. "Talk to you later."

"Uh, yeah, sure," Sam muttered distractedly. She held the receiver away from her ear forgetting to hit the off button. Danny's voice grew small and distant. She sat there for a while staring at the calendar the whole horrid act replaying in her mind.

She didn't know how long she sat there but at some point she heard the loud buzzing of her phone being of the hook. Sam threw it back onto the cradle and grabbed her pillow and screamed into it until she couldn't make anymore noise.

I know this looks like that totally overused plot we've all read, but trust me it's not. I want to thank everyone who reviewed the Epilogue for Hello. I know there maybe people who review later on but so far these are the reviewers. Huge thanks to: RavenForever, style, Weeble Wobble Chic, dannyphantomsgf, Spice of Life, LadyEsca, q.t a.k.a spice, RainbowSerenity, and Coldplayer813. You guys are great.