Phanniemay15 Day #26 - Stories

Wanted to try something a little creepy~ Vlad was the perfect candidate. Besides, he's fun when he gets serious. This fic ignores Season 3. Those episodes sort of retconned "Games are over; I'm terrifying now" Vlad from "Kindred Spirits", and that just won't do for this. :D

Characters: Vlad Masters & Danny Fenton

Rating: PG for Violence; Suffocation.

Summary: Vlad has a story to tell, and it's a story he really thinks Daniel would appreciate.

Story Time

Danny woke up with a start; the quick intake of breath and the stop of the heart.

He sat up, his head pounding. Danny found blankets bunched at his waist, and pulled them up as he stuck his feet over the side of the mattress. Danny wiped the sweat off his brow, his face and limbs sticky with it. The room was muggy and hot, and his hair was as damp as his shirt. Danny's powers were still far beyond his reach, and he felt a new bruise on his side.

The impact site of his dose of Plasmius Maximus.

Vlad. It had been Vlad.

Danny's bare feet hit the floor.

Danny had been on patrol and then—something. The shock. Pain. Danny tugged on the edge of his hair trying to remember. There had been a blow, and electricity. Danny mostly remembered the pain and his scream as something hit him; striking him down. His powers had been locked from his body. When he knew it had to be Vlad that hit him.

Danny tugged at his shirt, and pulled out the unfamiliar fabric. He was wearing pajamas, long and flannel. They bunched slightly around his feet, and the arm sleeves were an inch too long. They were thick and heavy and far too hot for the temperature of the room. The colors were yellow and green. Packers' colors. Danny shivered and held his arms around himself, even under the heat of the clothes. Even if he hadn't guessed who his attacker was from the Plasmius Maximus, the pajamas would have given him away.

But where had Vlad taken him? Danny took a few steps, drowsy and swaying. He yawned into his hand before slapping both his cheeks. He needed to wake up. Figure out where he was and how he could get out before Vlad showed his face.

Danny took stock of his surroundings, shoving the sleeves of the pajamas up as he struggled to see in the dark room. A small red nightlight was in the outlet on the corner, his only real guide. The bedroom was plain and lacking the colors that decorated the rest of Vlad's castle, that much he could tell even in the dark. Cream sheets, a dark blue blanket, and all of the wood matched in the same dull brown.

Functional and simple.

It was a far cry from Danny's room at home, that was covered in his dirty laundry and space paraphernalia. The walls here were blank and foreign.

Boring.

And there were no doors or windows.

Danny felt his hand on the wall, searching for any bump or indication that a door had been there and plastered over. If all else failed, maybe he could smash in the drywall. There had to be something in this room he could use, or if it came down to it, Danny would risk the bloodied knuckles and elbows.

"Ah, now what are you doing up at this hour?" Vlad asked, phasing through the wall on the far side of the room. He was still dressed as Plasmius, and the glare of his red eyes zeroed in on Danny. He waved a finger in the air, and shook his head, "Tsk, tsk. Don't you know that all good boys should be in bed by ten? It's far past two in the morning!"

"Vlad," Danny hissed. He stomped across the room, but made sure to stay out of arm's reach. "Where am I? Let me out!"

"Maybe you were restless," Vlad said. He waved his finger in the air, and a soft pink light glowed from the tip.

"Hey!" Danny felt his feet leave the floor and his eyes widened as the rest of his body followed. Vlad learned telekinesis? Danny thought to himself as he turned upside down. His breath quickened as he was floated gently across the room and dropped back onto the bed with a hard thump against the mattress. Danny yelled, "What do you want, Vlad!?"

"Let me guess, son," Vlad said, continuing on as if Danny had said a word. He held a hand over his chest, clutching to his cape and wrapping it around himself. Vlad cooed, "Nightmares? You do have them so often."

"If your goal is to creep me out, you're winning," Danny said, kneeling on the comforter. He held his hands into fists and breathed heavily in the heat of the room. Vlad walked around the oven like he felt nothing. "What do you want?"

"You know what always helped me with nightmares, son?" Vlad continued. He clapped his hand together and grinned, showing off the tips of his canines. "A story! Always put me right to sleep."

"Are you listening to me?" Danny asked, growling. What was the game here? Danny's palms sweat, and he rubbed his fingers together as Vlad pulled over a chair to the side of the bed. "I'm talking to you!"

"A bedtime story is just what you need," Vlad said. A quick of the wrist threw the bedcovers back over Danny, slamming him into the mattress on his side. He squirmed, trapped between the two layers of the comforter, his head near the corner edge of the mattress and his feet kicking the blankets on the end near the pillows. Vlad took a seat in the chair, keeping his hand up and the telekinetic blanket trap active. "But which story should I tell you? You've got so many that you love, it's hard to decide."

"Vlad!" Danny shouted. The harder he pushed against the bed, the tighter the blankets compressed. He shoved his wet forehead against the blanket, and twisted to no avail. Without his powers, he had no chance. "Let me go!"

"Ah yes!" Vlad said, chuckling. His tone was almost joyful, and out of place as Danny struggled to breathe between the heat and the pressure. Vlad hummed in near delight. "I know just the one. You'll like this one, Daniel, I know you will."

Danny grit his teeth, forcing himself to clam down. He needed to use his head and think this through. Danny could still get out of this somehow!

"Once upon a time, there was a great big kingdom," Vlad said, holding his hands up. His eyes widened and his voice lifted as he told the story in a grand fashion. He reminded Danny of an over eager parent trying to entertain their toddler. It made his stomach sink and his eyes widen. Vlad continued, "And in that kingdom was a young man. Do you know what his name was?"

Danny grunted and shook his head. He wasn't playing this game. He absolutely was not playing this game.

"His name was Vladimir," Vlad continued, holding his finger up. His lip twitched in a smile, and Danny felt like throwing up. Vlad's voice changed, into something hardened. Something dangerous. And it was Plasmius that continued the story. "And he was very lonely, and very bitter. Do you know why?"

"He couldn't take 'no' for an answer and ruined his own life trying to make people do things against their will?" Danny growled, unable to stay silent even as his heart raced and new beads of sweat grew on his brow.

His mouth always did have a mind of his own.

"That's right! Vladimir had lost his wife and child," Plasmius said, lowering his shoulders and shaking his head. He spoke to the room more than he did to Danny. Plasmius's fangs flashed in the dark, lit by his ghostly glow. "So tragic. A great monster from the east, a giant, had taken them away. He devoured the wife, and raised the child as his own. He tried so very hard to take his revenge on the giant and bring his son home, but he was stopped at every turn. The giant was too big, stupid, and strong to defeat, and his son's mind too poisoned to bring home. All was lost and poor Vladimir was devastated, for all of his days."

"There are so many things wrong with you and this story I can't even begin to start," Danny said.

"But one day," Plasmius said, placing both of his feet on the ground. He stood up from his chair and began to pace around the room, never once letting go of his ectoplasmic hold on the blanket constraining Danny to the bed. "Young Vladimir found hope! He found a witch and begged her on his hands and knees for a way to have a family again. To replace what he had taken from him. She resisted, but after much badgering, told him of magic flowers that would let him grow a new son just like his old one! He could never see his wife again, but if he could have his son back—well, then he'd have a little piece of her, too, wouldn't he?

"Vladimir took the seeds home and grew them," Plasmius said, holding his arms out. Danny watched him pace around, and looked for another exit in the room. "Unable to risk it not working, he planted not one but five! And they grew and grew and before Vladimir knew it, he had five children! They weren't perfect, but they were his.

"However," Plasmius paused for dramatics. He pulled both ends of his cape to his chest, and he whispered, "They were all very sick."

"Like you?" Danny asked.

"Three of them died in their beds," Plasmius said, raising a hand to the ceiling. He dropped his cape and gripped his hand into a fist. "Too weak and frail to continue. But he still had two left, a young girl and a forever sleeping son, and he cherished them."

"Yeah, I know exactly how well you cherished Dani when you left her to melt!" Danny yelled. He clawed at the bed sheets and hissed. "And too weak and frail? Try pushed the limit until they died!"

"But those two would not last long," Plasmius said. He turned back toward the bed and strolled toward it, his cape flowing behind him. "For you see, one day while Vladimir was out tending to his work, his Lost Son came home on the Giant's orders to torment young Vladimir. Seeing the children who had replaced him, the Lost Son grew angry and jealous. In a fury, he used twisted words to turn the daughter against her father. She rebelled and ran away to never be heard from again. But the sleeping son, oh, this first child could not stand him. Too alike.

"Vladimir's eldest murdered the other in his bed," Plasmius said, sitting on the edge of the mattress. He placed his hand in Danny's damp hair, and squeezed his fingers together. Danny had enough time to suck in a breath before Plasmius shoved Danny's face into the mattress, cutting off his air. "Suffocated him."

Danny's eyes went wide, his mouth and nose shoved so hard into the fabric of the blanket that he could smell the dust on the sheets. He couldn't breathe. The telekinesis held his body still. Plasmius' fingers in his hair; Plasmius' ectoplasmic energy all around him. Danny couldn't breathe. Vlad Plasmius wouldn't let go. He wouldn't stop. Danny screamed in his head, begging and pleading that the man would let go. That he would stop.

But he didn't. Plasmius continued to hold Danny's face into the mattress; Suffocating him.

Danny whined in his throat, tears building in his eyes. Thinking hurt. Everything hurt. He twisted, writing on the mattress. His lungs on fire in the heated room.

"Poor thing," Plasmius said, sighing deeply and rubbing his thumb in a circle on the side of Danny's face. The man crossed his legs, and leaned his chin on the back of his other hand. "When Vladimir came home and found him that way, he sobbed for days. The agony was too great for his heart. The poor man had broken."

Tears rolled down Danny's cheeks. He was going to die. Plasmius was going to kill him. Danny was going to die. Vlad was going to kill him. He was going to die. Breathing. He wanted air. To live! Danny's throat bobbed, his shoulders heaved. This was it. Danny's heart thumped in his chest, erratic and desperate. His vision went in and out and all he could feel was the grip of Plasmius' fingers on his head and the crushing weight that surrounded him.

Danny was going to die.

"On the fifth day of tears, the witch came back to visit Vladimir," Plasmius said. He twisted his fingers in Danny's hair and pulled his face up from the mattress. Danny gulped down the air greedily, his neck bent at an odd angle. His heavy breathing filled the room, echoing everywhere as white spots danced in his vision. Plasmius continued, "Vlad asked her, 'Why? Why did you bring me those seeds if this was going to happen? Why give me a second chance?' And she looked at him and responded, 'To teach you a lesson.'

" 'Those children were not yours! They were fakes! Look how jealous your son got when he saw them! So hurt that you could replace him with those seeds!' She yelled. Vladimir cowered before her, his eyes opening as much as his mind with her words. 'They would never be good enough,' The witch said. 'And your son is still in the boy you Lost. Go get him back.' A new energy filled young Vladimir, and he left to get his son back."

Plasmius let go of Danny's head, dropping his entire body into the mattress. The telekinesis faded away, freeing Danny from Plasmius' hold. The world spun around him, and Danny struggled to sit up, shoving off the heavy blanket. He swayed, his mind still dizzy from the lack of air and his limbs shaking from the constriction. He knocked into Vlad as he stumbled, falling on his side, but the older man didn't seem to mind.

"Vladimir traveled to the Giant's home and found his boy, still hurt and aching from being replaced. It hurt his heart more than anything to see his boy suffering, but you see, it was also for the best. That ache was enough. It was the wedge Vladimir needed to break his son free from the Giant's poisonous words. Vladimir told the boy of how he was stolen. Of how his rightly place was with the father who truly loved him, and not the giant," Plasmius said, his voice hollow and open as he recited the end of the story. His earlier dramatics had drained away to a sobering, dulcet tone. "As he spoke, the boy's memories came flooding to the front of his mind and he knew what Vladimir said was true. He sobbed, hugging his father and begging for forgiveness."

Danny stared at the ceiling of the room, his lungs and heart both still pounding. He felt the heat of Plasmius sitting so close. The burning of the room and his chest.

"The father did," Plasmius said. He leaned back, placing his hand flush with Danny's side and humming at the ceiling. "The Lost Son came home with Vladimir, no longer lost. And they lived happily forever after for the rest of their days."

Danny sat up, his shoulder brushing Plasmius' back. He focused on breathing. Danny could breathe. He was okay.

"Now wasn't that a good story, Daniel?" Plasmius asked. He turned and grabbed the side of Danny's face, turning his head to the side to look into his own red burning ones. "And it should be a comfort to you. Perhaps it'll chase away all those nightmares that are keeping you awake, my boy."

"What part?" Danny hissed, rolling on his side and shoving Plasmius' hand off his face. He sat up and hissed. "Because I heard a lot of lies."

"There were no lies. Just as Vladimir in the story forgave his son for all his wrong doings to take him back, so do I," Plasmius said. He grabbed the side of Danny's head again, his fingers wrapping deep into the hair at the nape of his neck. He shoved their foreheads together and grinned nose to nose. The wicked smile split his face, and the madness in Plasmius' eyes kept Danny in place. Kept him listening as Plasmius rambled. "I understand now, I do. You were jealous. Oh, so jealous, weren't you? That I'd try and replace you with those clones. I should have known better, I should have.

"But I've thought about it, and I know now. It wasn't your fault. You're so young, and your mind so poisoned by Jack that you didn't know any better." Plasmius said, bringing his other hand up to cup the other side of Danny's face. His hold was iron hot, and licks of electricity danced at his finger tips. Danny winced as they nipped at the side of his cheeks, but dared not to move as the grip on his face pulsed, tightening and loosening in an erratic rhythm. Plasmius rubbed his thumbs on Danny's cheeks. His voice was a whisper, "I forgive you, Daniel."

Danny stilled, not even shivers escaping as he paled and his breath hitched.

"So have a good night, and get all the sleep you can," Vlad said, all hints of Plasmius' terror flickering away. It was Vlad that got up from the bed, and waved his hand to throw the blanket back over Danny's head. "Because tomorrow is going to be a brand new day, my son."

Danny clutched to the blankets, his breath still pounding in his chest as he was left alone in the room.