The Superstition Spectrum (Danny Phantom)

Chapter 17: Tricks of the Trade

Okay guys, if you can you HAVE to listen to this song while you read this chapter, okay? It's SO PERFECT and the way it builds up slowly really works for-- well, you'll see. It's called Silent Running by Hidden Citizens, if you're curious. Now, on to the chapter!

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Dude, predicting an uneventful evening of following Kordelle's instructions of staying indoors, had been watching a subtitled movie with Ariadna in their cramped living room when a distant jingle drifted down the hall and reached his ears. He rose to his feet and padded down to his and Ari's room, where his phone sang and vibrated insistently on his bedside table. Scooping it up, he glanced at the caller ID curiously before accepting it and putting it up to his ear.

"Dude!" Saoirse shouted through the mic. The fear, desperation, and panic in her tone was enough to make Dude's heartbeat pause in his chest. It was so much more characteristic to hear such emotions in Camry's voice, not Saoirse's; something was definitely wrong.

"S-Seersh, what's up? You sound really out of—" he started to stammer out, already feeling the blood in his veins pumping faster. Was it 'go' time? Did they need to get to a fight?

"Dude, listen to me," she said, definitely louder than necessary. "I need you. Right now. I-I don't know what happened, but she—and I—she was fighting, but it was weird and there was this dark figure who—where are you? Please, just tell me you can meet me somewhere!"

Was she... on the verge of tears? Oh, no. Suffice to say that he had never, not even once, heard Saoirse sound like this, save for when Camry had first gone missing and was presumed dead last July. "I—Okay, I'll meet you wherever. I'm at home; just hang on. Slow down and tell me what's going on, okay?" He punched the speaker option on his phone's screen and set it down next to him on the bed. It left his hands free to start pulling his shoes and socks on.

"Oh-- Okay, okay," Saoirse panted, and with how it sounded like her faint footsteps slowed down, she must have stopped running quite so fast in order to talk clearly. "I just-- I was filming from a distance, you know? We were at the cotillion-- I am in so much trouble, oh no-- and Shasta showed up. Something about it felt so off, though, like-- it wasn't a normal fight! It was too quiet, too-- too--! I don't know! But then someone really tall and wearing a black cloak appeared and I think they kidnapped Camry!"

The half-formed knot in between Dude's fingers fell apart as he started, then slammed a hand down on either side of the phone and leaned over it. "What do you mean, 'kidnapped?'"

"Exactly that: kidnapped!" Saoirse repeated. "They showed up, Shasta ganged up on Camry with whoever they were, and-- a-and I heard her scream so loud, Dude, it-- it was... horrible. Then they disappeared and I had to escape from the adults at the cotillion. I'm sure they're going to come after me-- are you on your way? Where should we meet?"

"Hang on, I'm heading out the door in just a sec. Let's meet at the L-Tram station near-- wait, where are you right now?" he asked, throwing on a blue and white jacket while talking at the phone on his bed.

"I-I dunno, hang on; Lavender Street is just up ahead, and I can see the stadium from here. Uhh-- oh, I think I know how to get to the Mediterranean place from here!"

"Okay, I'll meet you there," Dude promised. He scribbled a hasty note of explanation and left it next to Ari, then signed that he was going out and didn't know when he would be back. She quickly asked what was going on, but he told her there was no time and dashed down the hallway to the front door. Under his hand, he turned the knob to wrench it open and stumbled back when his hand slipped off the dull metal handle. "Huh?"