-Previously-

"Danny Phantom wouldn't let his number one fan die… he would surely hear about the fire… see the smoke. Her dream would come true. And I actually believed that, and I waited for you to come. Even after the screams stopped, and the firemen rescued my dad, I believed that my sister was just unconscious, and that you would come flying in to save the day.

"But you never did."

Max came back into view with the shot. Danny didn't even look up, didn't even try to apologize, and for the first time took the shot without struggling. As the liquid fire spread throughout his system, he thought maybe he deserved all of this. With a small moan he finally gave into the welcoming darkness.

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Chapter 8

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Star closed the door to the bathroom quietly. She looked over at Nate who was just putting the phone back into its cradle. "They're on their way. I told them what the car looked like, just in case. They'll be here soon."

Star nodded numbly to him, but panic kept rising up like bile. She checked out the window for the millionth time, trying to see if she could see anything, but as usual, it was just out of sight. She was too scared to go stick her head out of the door.

They may not want to kill Danny, but they could definitely kill her.

That's when she heard it. The crunching of gravel under tires right outside the door. Then everything went quite. Nate had heard it too, and they both froze. Nate seemed like he wanted to run, but the only way out was through the front door.

Instead he looked sadly over at Star. "Hide," he whispered urgently, and then he left the room. Star dove behind the couch. Nate came back with knife from the kitchen in his hand.

There was a moment of silence, and Star felt goose bumps break out over her body. If they were here, what had they done to Danny? Nate shifted uneasily from foot to foot, not knowing the best way to hold the weapon, facing up, or pointing down.

Before he could decide, the door burst off of its hinges with such force that Nate was blown backwards. Star screamed, but quickly clamped her mouth shut. She couldn't stop shaking.

There stood Max, the sunlight casting his silhouette into the small house. Star blinked, and Max was calmly standing over Nate, who yelped in surprise. She squeaked. What was going on? Star, watching, tried to back further into the shadows.

Then she saw the familiar crowbar gleam in the dull lighting, and with a quick, but powerful motion of his arm, Max struck down on Nate's head. She didn't have time to advert her eyes as her saviors head snapped back to the ground. Star felt like she was going to cry or puke as she saw blood starting to pool on the floor.

Then, with inhuman speed, Max was standing in front of her. She whimpered as he roughly grabbed her arm and slammed her back into the wall. His hand was clutching her arm so tightly she thought it was going to snap. Tears suddenly blurred her vision, and panic made her see stars.

Instead of fainting, she went into fight or flight mode. She stomped on his foot as hard as she could manage, and then tried to pull the traditional poke the eyes out move, however he just grabbed her wrist. She grunted in frustration, but then in pain as he started to bend her wrist back.

She tried to writhe away from him, but his grip was too strong. "No! Stop!" She pleaded in anguish, tears pouring down her face. He was going to break her wrist. Yelling, she lashed out, and hit him in the groin.

Not expecting that, his grip loosened slightly as he grunted, and Star was able to twist out of his grasp. Then, while he was handicapped, she ran for it. She made it to the front door before he grabbed her hair and yanked.

She screamed as she lost her footing and fell to the ground. Then all she saw was the familiar glint of silver, and she was gone.

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When Danny opened his eyes, he was surrounded by flames. It took him a second to process the information, before he jumped up. He didn't know where he was. Danny quickly took off into the air, trying to find a way out… but before he could even get three feet off the ground, he fell back to the earth.

Then he heard screaming.

He whirled around and saw his family and friends, all tied to the boiler. But he knew it was too late for them… there was no way he could get there on time to save them. Danny started running anyways, but then he heard another scream.

He hesitated, looking back. He saw a house on fire, and a small girl, on the second floor, screaming for help. She tried to pry the window open, but it was stuck. She screamed for his help, but he turned his back on her to save his family… he would go back as soon as they were freed.

Then he realized he had hesitated a second too long, for now he was stuck, somehow glued to the pavement. The fire was getting closer and closer- then there was a flash of light… he knew he was too late. He knew he had failed to save them. He looked back up at the house, which was not engulfed in flames. The only thing he could see in the window was fire.

He fell to his knees. Through his anguish, he barely noticed Star standing next to him. She bent down to comfort him when Earth itself seemed to tear open beneath them, and suck them in.

…

Danny's eyes fluttered open slowly, and it took several blinks to figure out where he was. It was not a happy sight. He was back in the van, the engine humming smoothly beneath him. It was dark. Rubbing his eyes, he slowly sat up.

He looked around. Max, who was the only one capable of driving, was in the front with Greg, who was looking worse for wear, in the passengers. He was holding an ice pack to his head, and sleeping. Danny was grimly satisfied with the damage he done. He guessed he probably gave Greg a concussion.

Wes was sitting opposite of him, his head lolling on his shoulders as he slept, and Bill, who was trying to scrape blood off of his shirt, was sitting across from a sleeping Star.

Looking at his classmate, Danny felt his heart sink down to his feet. Their escape attempt was useless… but then Danny looked closer at her, and felt something hot creep up his back. Her wrist was swollen, and her arms were bruised, and she had dried blood on the back of her shirt. Danny growled.

Bill jumped, and looked up at him. Bill shot him a death glare and scrambled over to Wes. Pulling on his sleeve to wake him up he hissed, "He's awake!"

Wes jumped and looked wildly around. Then, remembering where he was he looked down at Danny, and also sent him a nasty look.

"So glad you decided to join us ghost," Wes snarled.

Danny ignored him, and looked straight up at Max, "Why did you do to her?" Danny snarled with such venom that the car went silent. Nobody said anything.

"What did you do to her?!" Danny asked again his voice rising. "Why did you have to grab her again?! What has she ever done to you!?"

It was Wes who finally answered. "She tried to escape, she paid the consequences."

Danny only gave a fleeing glance to Wes, and turned back to Max. "She has nothing to do with this. You want me—not her. She's not in anyway a part of your master plan! If anything she should remind you of--" then his throat seemed to close. He blinked, and realized he couldn't breathe. He shot Max a panicked look to see him concentrating.

Max was telepathically suffocating him.

Danny struggled to take a breath in, and fell back to the side of the car. His neck strained to throw off the invisible obstruction. Wes and Bill looked at him warily. Danny started seeing flashes of lights behind his eyelids. He sank down, muscles tensed, but unable to do anything.

Then the spell was lifted. Danny took in great gasps of air, drinking it in like water. He stayed on the floor of the van, panting. Then he glared daggers at Max, who just gave him his cool, calculating look back. It made Danny shiver.

Suddenly the car hit the rigging on the side of the road that made a loud rumbling sound, singling they were veering off the highway. Max quickly looked back to the road and corrected the van.

Yet the noise was loud enough to wake Greg, and even Star stretched and turned over. Danny looked up at the wrong moment and saw Greg look down at him for the first time. They made eye contact.

Then Greg seemed to burst from his seat, struggling with his seatbelt for a second. Danny involuntarily flinched back. Wes tried to step between them, but Greg just pushed him out of his way.

Surprisingly there was no glint of metal, no gunshot, no swinging fists… at least at first. Greg held Danny up to the side of the car by his dirty tee shirt, and whispered furiously, "I bet you feel so cool, picking us off like that don't cha?"

Danny didn't say anything, knowing better by this point. Wes grabbed on to Greg's shoulders and yanked him off of him. Danny fell back to the floor, and returned Greg's look.

"What were you thinking?" Greg hissed.

"Something along the lines of 'I want to go home'." Danny stated bluntly.

"Well after that incident punk, I'm personally making sure you'll never see any of them again!" Greg spat.

Danny looked up at Greg as Wes shoved him back into his seat. Then he looked back over at Star. Danny knew they weren't going to allow them another easy chance at escape… and sadly, he started to see Greg's threat as a possibility.

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TBC…

Yikes… this chapter is a bit explicit… sorry guys. I just felt the need to show how scary the situation is from Star's POV. I think I've done that nicely, so I can move on a little bit… even though this story going to continue to get darker as we near the climax.

Now on to review replies!

Word Life 316- Thanks for the review! And yes... from here on out it is going to all be butterflies and rainbows. Don't worry. XD I'm so evil.

Pixie dust of doom- Your bad feeling was right. Good spot. And I think his history with Danny is just what was in the previous chapter… unless I decide to add something in.

Xheartkreuzx- Thanks for that. It made me feel a bit better about it. It's just I know I can write better than that… meh. Whatever. I'll rewrite it someday and I show you what that chapter could have been.

Hawkflyer667- Yeah, Heather's pretty much one of the sob stories… and you never know… this story might turn into a sob story as well…

Paegoghost- Max is a stupid idiot… but he's actually a lot of fun to write. But Max is blaming Danny for claiming to be a hero and then the one time he actually needs one, not being there. But yes… he is an idiot, and not thinking straight at all. And for your second review, yes. I tried to make it sad… but like I said, that chapter was not one of my strongest. I'll fix it one of these days, and then I'll show y'all just what I have up my sleeve.

Sevenfold- me too. Well… it says I'm doing something right if you guys hate him too.

Strgrl4eva- College. –shiver- that's all there is to say on that subject. And yes, that's exactly what Max has done. It's just that in Max's eyes, Danny has promised to make sure everyone gets an A on the test, and Max is one of the only people that didn't… but Danny can't help if Max is just a hopeless case.

That's all for this week. I almost didn't update. I probably shouldn't have updated because of the workload I have tonight… but I did, so be happy.

Please press the fancy little new review button for me!