Danny Phantom Fan Fiction ❯ Save Me From The Darkness ❯ Chapter 3

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

When Danny awoke the next morning, the clock beside his bed announced in big red numbers that it was just past five in the morning, he found that he was alone in his bed. Looking around in worry he noted off the bat that Sam wasn't in his room, her side of the bed cool to the touch, and jumping out of his bed headed for his door only to hear the sounds of someone moving around in the bathroom down the hall. Glancing around to make sure that no one else was awake, he headed for the door. Knocking on the door he waited for a response. It came seconds later, but it wasn't the small girl, no, it was his mother that responded.

"Oh, sorry, mom," he said before turning around to head back to his room, worried about where the raven haired girl had gone. Passing by a closet he heard a sound from behind the door. Just as he was opening the closet door, the door to the bathroom opened, his mother looking rather groggy as she eyed her son. Slamming the door without having even gotten a look in the dark space he turned to his mother.

"Hmm," she murmured as she approached him. "I thought I saw you earlier." Danny gulped. When he didn't respond she just shrugged her shoulders, her mouth opening in a yawn, but before she could take another step a whimper from the other side of the door drew her attention. Maddie glanced at her son and then at the door. "Danny?" When she moved to open the closet, the halfa sighed. He knew he was caught.

"Before you open that, I um, I have to tell you something," he muttered before explaining to his mother what he had done the night before, her purple eyes growing wider with every word out of her son's mouth. "She's very skittish," he said before opening the door to reveal a teary eyed girl. She pushed back from them, moving as far back as she could in the small linen closet. "It's okay, Sam. This is my mother." She looked to him, her amethyst orbs wide with fear, but she still didn't move from her spot even as peeked over at the woman next to Danny. She seemed to be thinking about it, analyzing the woman that stood before her.

"Hello, Sam," Maddie said with a soft smile. "Danny was telling me about how he came across you, but he doesn't seem to know all that much about you so how about you come out so we can talk?" Maybe it was the way she spoke to the Goth or maybe she just felt like it was okay, but either way the small girl crawled out of the closet. She didn't move toward Maddie though, choosing to stand behind Danny. "Do you like pancakes?"

"I've never had that," she muttered to the shock of the other two in the hallway. "I'm not allowed to eat anything, but oatmeal or grits." Now Maddie looked mildly upset. Why would a parent only feed their child only those two items, not that either were bad, but nothing else?

"Well, we don't have those two items in the house, but we also have cereal or Pop Tarts, if you would rather have those," the red headed adult offered. Sam nodded, moving to follow as Maddie headed downstairs with Danny following behind the raven haired teen. She moved slowly, watching around her as if she were expecting someone to jump out and snatch her. While following his mother, Sam still stuck close to him, though not close enough to touch him. After getting her some of the cherry flavored pastries while Danny opted for the Fruity Pebbles, Maddie sat down, noting off the bat that the small teen hadn't touched her food.

"It's okay," Danny said while pushing her food closer. She looked over at Maddie, waiting for her to say it too and finally she began to munch on the breakfast treat as the older woman watched with undisguised anger at whoever had caused this child to act that way. "I told you," the halfa muttered, also noting that Sam kept watching them from the corner of her eyes, but never making direct eye contact. He had yet to tell his mother the darker part of the girl's past, one he had no proof of other than the way she acted, or the fact that the girl was rather small in size.

"So, you found her in a yard on the way home and witnessed the interaction with her mother?" He nodded. "You went into their home?" Again he nodded. "Danny, you know you should have called for us to come and do this the right way."

"They had her in a hole, locked up with barely anything on in the way of clothing," he grumbled, the small girl next to him tensing. "Hell, they were obviously abusing her." Maddie looked over at the girl and noted for the first time upon seeing the girl how small she was, her wrists slender, but too weak looking to be normal.

"We can't do much, save for calling the police and having them investigate what is going on in th-" Sam thrust her food away from her, the plate crashing off the table as she scrambled to get away from the pair of them. Cussing under his breath, Danny rushed to grab her and pull her to him. She fought for a moment, but shrinking she clung to him as her body shook. It was the first time that either had seen that reaction, but it was a sign that the girl had gone thru that already or had been warned about dealing with the authorities.

"No-o," she whispered. "They'll take me back and then-n my parents will hi-" A sob broke from her lips against her will and Maddie nearly saw red.

"What the fuck?" she hissed. This girl was broken, though she was able to hide it well enough. Moving slowly to stand before the girl and her son, she crouched down. "Sam, do your parents hurt you?" At first it didn't seem that she was going to get an answer, but at Danny's urging she responded with a nod. "What do they do?"

"They don't do anything to leave a mark," was the simple response. Danny looked at his mother in confusion. This meant that it had been going on for a while and while the parents had done it, they had known what they could get away with and what would cause suspicion. "No," she whispered. "Because product can't be damaged." Danny's eyes flashed green at those words, his mother letting out a gasp.

"Oh, honey, you are not a product," she murmured, tears gathering in her eyes at the thought that this girl had been thru so much to make her think that she wasn't anything more than an object. Sam looked up at her now, her body still tense as she continued to cling to Danny. "You are a breathing, living human and your parents are monsters for whatever they have done to make you think otherwise." Danny wanted to tell his mother his suspicions about the other things he had seen, but was afraid how Sam would react to his assumptions.

"Have your parents had to deal with the cops before?" The small raven haired girl nodded. "When you were younger or recently?"

"Younger," she muttered. "They paid them off."

"Okay, well, we won't go to the cops yet. We will have to at some point or it will be bad for all of us, do you understand?" Sam nodded. "Do you want to go back and get more sleep?" Sam looked at Danny, but he told her that he wouldn't be able to stay home since he had to go to school in a few hours. She looked back at Maddie, unsure. "Danny has to go to school, but I will be here and I won't let anything happen to you." Nodding, she moved to walk back to the stairs. "We can talk later, okay?" The small female nodded and walking back upstairs headed for Danny's room.

"There is more," the halfa stated.

"I had a feeling," his mother said with a sad sigh. As she cleaned up Danny filled her in on the state of the girl's room and his other suspicion. Maddie plopped down in a chair, her anger boiling at all that she was hearing. "You think that she's being sexually abused?" He nodded as he explained how she had reacted to his touch. "Hm, that could be the case or she's never been touched in a way that wasn't aggressive." She looked up as the door to her daughter's room opened. "What does Jazz think?"

"I don't know. Sam was pretty tired when I got her home, so Jazz hasn't had time to really talk to her," was his response just as the red head teen entered the kitchen. Maddie turned to her daughter, ready to ask the question that was still unanswered.

"It's not unheard of," the red head stated, knowing what her mother had been ready to ask. "Sam is obviously sheltered from the outside, not knowing what certain clothing was and the simple fact that she seems overwhelmed with all that she is seeing. As for the abuse, she seems to be groomed. She doesn't seem to show all the signs, but who is to say that they haven't made her feel as if it is normal behavior for a child to be treated this way." It made sense with how timid the girl seemed to be, awaiting approval for simple tasks.

"She didn't even wait for me to leave the room before she went to change," Danny pointed out.

"That could be a sign, though usually someone who is abused is less likely to undress with another person in the room, but again, she could be trained to believe that is something normal." Jazz looked thoughtful for a moment before listing all that she had noticed with the raven haired female. "She doesn't talk much and she seemed rather upset to be taken from her home, but not in a way that would be normal or abnormal if she was not allowed out of her parents' sight. She's overly compliant as well, another trait of abuse. She has no confidence, nor does she seem to be the right weight for a girl her age." Maddie raised a brow. "I noticed it last night." The older female nodded. "And the fear she shows upon meeting anyone."

"We'll have to get her to open up and soon," their mother said with a sigh. "I just think that she won't do that unless Danny is in the room when we do talk to her about it." Danny agreed, as the small girl seemed to open up more with him, while when she had met his sister and mother she had moved closer to him for safety. "When you get home, then we can talk to her."

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A few hours later found the halfa in school, his mind on the small girl that was in his home and what he could do to help her. "So, what's going on in that head of yours?" Tucker asked as they walked down the halls. Danny filled him in on what he had done, and while Tucker reacted like his mother, the other male had yet to meet the newest member in the house. "You kidnapped that girl from her home? Man! I would hate to be you when those parents got a hold of you!"

"You didn't see her!" the halfa spat. "Even my mother and sister are pissed off about what she has been living like!" Some of the students around them glanced at their raised voices. Lowering his voice as they drew closer to their second class of the day before lunch he continued, "She said her parents made sure to not leave marks on her when they hit her. They have been abusing her in other ways." Without even clarifying he could see that the techno-geek understood as his own eyes narrowed. "Hell, that girl is far too skinny, like a twig that could break with just the right gust of wind." With all that was going on in his head, the halfa found that he was growing more and more angry, the urge to find that house again and beat the shit out of her parents a growing urge.

"Okay, so you need her to tell her story, but if she reacted that way to the thought that the cops would be involved, then what makes any of you think that she will when the time comes?" The halfa already had an answer to that, but he would need the help of Tucker on that end.

"We get proof, video proof of her and of the house she was in."

"What about her parents paying off the cops?"

"We don't go to the cops first, we go to the health department," was his immediate response. "My mom has it all figured out on that end, we just need her to voice all that she has had to go thru up until this." Even saying the words, he wasn't sure that he could sit still and listen to those words... He hadn't known the girl but for a couple of days, but he felt like she was someone that would have been a close friend to him had they met under different circumstances, in another life.