You know what's interesting? This story has 44 people waiting for new chapters, but the last chapter only got 9 reviews. Hmmm. Something just doesn't quite add up. -crosses arms and glares a bit-
Ah, but still I love you lot. I just wish you would all return the love for me, okay?
PS: VERY soon, we will be seeing Danny again. Either next chapter or the one after it. Haven't decided yet.
OH. I have a new editor. So now I have a Beta-Reader in my sweetheart Nestea, and now my editor I call Niki, she's mah waifu. SAY HI TO NIKI EVERYONE~
Oh, and to one particular reviewer concerning where Danny is? Spoilers~
Dear God, I was terribly lost, Oh telescope, keep an eye on my only hope,
When the galaxies crossed,
And the Sun went dark.
Dear God, You're the only North Star,
I would follow this far.
Lest I blink and be swept off the narrow road.
Hercules, you've got nothing to say to me,
'Cause you're not the blinding light that I need.
~Galaxies; Owl City
It was a hard thing, raising a baby. Sam often wondered if she was even qualified most nights when her baby was up late crying and coughing, sicker than she remembered any of her cousins ever being. And, if coughing was not enough, her baby had a whole mess of problems no normal baby had. She coughed up ectoplasm, her teeth were much sharper than a normal person's, she got fevers and chills far too easily and sometimes she fell through the floor like Danny did when he first got his powers. Vlad had to remodel the floors and walls to make them phase-proof, something he was not used too when he tried to take short cuts to his office or lab and ended up running into the wall.
A good three years had passed by in a blur as Sam's attention was diverted by raising her special child. Three years full of crawling, walking, maternity lessons, late nights, rapid changes in diet and many, many arguments with Vlad over Anna's meat intake. Another part of her daughter's unique abilities had also begun to surface, she now had times when she resembled a werewolf toddler rather than a human. Sam figured it was because the ghost who had raped her had been able to shift into wolf form, but it was still odd to fall asleep with her perfectly human-looking baby girl and wake up with a white-furred little imp. It did not change that Anna seemed to capture the hearts of everyone she met. Her large bright green eyes, direct from her patron, shone with curiosity and a rather high level of mischief (she was known for sending those very same eyes towards 'Unca Vad' when she was caught in the cookie cabinet). She had pure black hair highlighted with silver and an odd tuff of hair to the back of her neck that was purely white, though the black covered it. She was a small child, both due to being premature and being partly dead from conception, and she had a problem with fevers. Sam had become very protective and hardly let her outside, making her almost as pale as her consistently gothic mother.
But she was not without her charms and friends. She had met with and had the entire ghostly entourage of occupants in the old house completely as smitten with her as Uncle Vlad. She was a little imp, of that there was no doubt, but she seemed to be able to weasel her way out of a tight spot or a punishment with everyone; everyone except her mother. Sam was a tight-fisted mother, if not understanding, and kept to her moral code of when her daughter should and should not be getting sweets and toys (and midnight or after being punished was most definitely NOT the time for sweets and toys). She did not allow Vlad to give Anna a new toy every time Anna asked as was determined to raise a child that could be as independent from her family's money as Sam herself was. But the three year old was as relentless as her mother and sometimes it led to the little one having all her toys removed from the house.
But in those three years, Anastasia had learned to say quite a few words, though some letter sounds still escaped her. She had also learned how to shift between her human form and a fully wolf form, though this was mostly without realizing it (forcing Vlad and Sam to pull her out of preschool again and hire private tutors). She had also become good at levitating (to get away from mommy), and phasing through small solid objects (to get snacks). Overall her progress was good, if not a little selfish in nature.
Perhaps that's when Sam and Vlad should have started keeping a closer eye on her.
Wednesday, October 16th
"VLAD!" The screaming voice of Sam's angry voice echoed across the hallways and all the ghostly residents within hearing distance quickly made themselves scarce. The halfa in question rubbed his temples as he strode down the hallway and down the stairs (padded of course) to where Sam had been bellowing. He entered the kitchen and found the gothic woman tearing the room apart rather thoroughly.
"Samantha, if this is about the turkey sandwiches I fed to Anna this afternoon..."
"It's not."
"Oh. Then why are you ripping the kitchen to shreds?"
"I can't find Anna anywhere."
"She's probably hiding, my dear."
"I am aware of that, but I've checked all her usual spots and your ghost-tracking system can't find her either." Sam snapped, crossing her arms.
Vlad stopped for a moment. "Are you certain?"
Sam rolled her eyes. "Of course I'm sure, Vlad. I checked it three times." She growled, glaring daggers at the older man.
Vlad was startled a moment. His ghost tracking system had tabs on every ghost and ghost-like entity within three miles of the house. He and Sam had used it many times to track Anna in the house when she had been doing her phasing to get away from them and her nightly fate of bedtime. It had never malfunctioned before, but then again he had not had it cleaned in a good few years either. He sighed and went down to the lab, Sam following behind him.
Once there he inspected the machine's outside and ran diagnostics to see if anything was wrong with the software. Nothing. Everything was functioning perfectly. He sighed and rubbed his temples again, silver hair waving back and forth and he moved his head in thought. His tracking system was more advanced than anything on the market, private or public. He would know, he sold the most advanced ones to private owners (they were all last year's models though, he always kept the best for himself). It had every ghost in the house pinpointed within only a few inches of error in location; the same with the ghosts that roamed the area around his home.
"Hey. That one just vanished suddenly." Sam commented, pointing to where a blue dot was now blinking, getting less and less visible with each blink. "Is it invisible?"
"No, dear girl, my system can track even invisible ghosts. Besides, being invisible is too advanced for Anna. She'd had to have the psychological advancement of self-preservation. She still relies on you and me to protect her, so she's incapable of turning invisible. No, that ghost there returned to the ghost zone. I can't track ghosts in that enter the ghost zone." He said absentmindedly before he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his shoulder.
"Ow!" He shouted as he rubbed the area where Sam had punched him. She merely glared in return.
"You idiot! How many times have I told you to make the door to that stupid machine phase-proof?!" She yelled and Vlad looked at her oddly.
"What are you talking about?"
"Anna isn't on the radar because she phased through the portal door!" Sam said and Vlad sighed.
"Ghosts can't phase through the door."
"Why not? It's just metal, right?"
"...none of them have ever tried."
"So every ghost that comes to Earth is a very polite ghost. Won't stop an impish toddler!"
Vlad sighed again. "Even if she did make it to the ghost zone, how in the world would we find her?" He asked and Sam sighed back, crossing her arms.
"I don't know." She said, tone slightly defeated. "I haven't been there in so long, I doubt I'd recognize any of it."
Vlad placed a hand on the girl's shoulder and smiled reassuringly at her, well as best as he could. "How about this, I install the ghost tracking system on one of the explorer submarines and we go take a trip into the ghost zone?" He said and Sam nodded.
"Sounds like an agreeable plan to me." She said before she turned to go up the stairs and pack for the trip.
How in the world was she going to find her baby in the massive place known as the ghost zone? A good 85% of the ghosts were less than friendly to people and even less to a halfa, if how they treated Danny was any implication. She tightened her grip on her arms to keep herself from tearing up. She needed a miracle to be able to find her child in such a large area. But she was not about to give up, she would tear the entire ghost zone apart to find her baby.
And maybe while she was there she'd look for evidence of where Danny and the others vanished too.
Next chapter Danny appears, promise.
I wants your loves. Feed me them. Don't let this poor authoress with a part time job and three sisters starve. Find your humanity!
Love,
Petra Jade