Desperate

Chapter 4

Fear.

Failure.

Hopeless.

That was all Vlad felt as he watched the tornado reach his front door. He fell on his knees and clutched onto his head as he closed his eyes, not wanting to watch as it destroyed his home and took his daughter from him. "No," he muttered. He knew he wouldn't make it in time so why bother trying?

His plan of using her as bait to lure Maddie to come to him failed. But he wasn't sure if that's what he truly cared about at the moment. He was losing his child to something he couldn't fight. She would die right as she was sucked into the tornado and thrown. Or she would be shown mercy and die from flying debris inside the tornado before she hit the ground. He hoped it was the latter; he hoped she wouldn't suffer.

How could this happen? Why didn't he check the weather report earlier to make sure none of this would happen? How could he be so careless? He lived in Wisconsin for goodness sake! Tornado's form there! How could he be so stupid?!

He growled, feeling a sense of rage so overwhelming that it forced him to glare at the spinning natural disaster in front of him. It was trying to take everything from him! Everything he worked hard to get would be seen as a waste of time now! He stood up, wishing with all intent he could unravel the beast and destroy it.

He sighed in despair and held his head as he closed his eyes, feeling his rage slowly dissipate; but he couldn't unravel it. If he tried, it would suck him in and either kill him right away or throw him then the impact of the ground would break his spine. He slumped his shoulders; why couldn't he be more powerful and stronger than a tornado?

He perked his ears up when the sound of loud swirling reached his ears and gasped as his eyes widened when he found himself on the second floor of his home! "What?" he asked aloud, confused and in shock that he was standing on his marble floors. How did he get there? He didn't fly over and couldn't teleport so what-? He smirked at the thought of the word 'teleport'; teleportation was the only logical answer to how he got there. It was another ghost power that that buffoon Jack Fenton unwittingly gave him.

His smirk then vanished, and he ducked when the tornado burst through the front of his home, tearing it apart. He covered his head, preparing himself for any falling debris but then gasped when he heard the cries of his one month old over the roaring winds. "Elizabeth!"

Unsure if he could teleport on command yet, he flew over to her room, using all of his strength to push himself away from the strong winds that were trying to pull him into the spinning natural disaster. "No!" He shut his eyes tightly and pushed, feeling his energy drain with the amount of strain he was putting on himself. His daughter's screams became much more frantic as the loud winds increased in volume. "I'm coming, Elizabeth!"

With one final push, he released himself from the tight grasp the winds had on him and flew rapidly over to his daughter's room, barely dodging the hurtling vase that came straight at him. He phased through her door, not wanting to waste another second, then flew over to the crib but gasped in alarm when he saw it empty. "Elizabeth?! Elizabeth!" he called, hoping she'd cry out for him.

"Mr. Masters?!"

He powered up his pink ghost ray and glared as he whirled around to be faced with Elizabeth's closet door opening, revealing a distressed Mrs. Jones holding his child. She screamed shortly in shock when she registered him as someone else and took a few steps back into the closet while clutching Elizabeth tighter.

He powered down and held out his hands as a calming gesture. "Mrs. Jones, it's me! Vlad Masters!"

"Stay away from us, demon!" she exclaimed as she glared at him.