lethal //phan

s i x

The room was unfamiliar to Phil; black and white sheets lined the bed and the digital clock on the bedside table read '2:36AM'.

After a short period of confusion, he came to this conclusion that he was in Dan's room, not his own.

Mr Barnes' voice loomed in his head and Phil remembered what he was told on his first day here.

'One, nobody leaves their rooms after midnight.' It was way past midnight when he went out. Rule broken.

'Two, no one goes into anybody else's room after eleven without permission.' He was in Dan Howell's bedroom at two in the morning. Rule broken.

'Three, the woods to the left of the school are out of bounds at all times.' He and Dan had both been there. Rule broken.

He'd be in unimaginable trouble if anyone were to find out. That had to qualify him for isolation, if not expulsion.

At last movement came to his body and he was able to talk again. The peace didn't last long however.

"Phil, you idiot, you scared the living daylights out of me! What were you thinking going in there? It's dangerous. Why weren't you talking? Why weren't you moving?"

After the bombardment of questions off Dan, he began to speak.

"Glad to know you care. But it isn't like you're allowed to be out either, I doubt you have a valid reason. To answer all your questions I couldn't sleep so I decided to go on a walk, I lost my footing and I got freaked out because I was stuck, I saw fire, and to top it all off my powers wouldn't work."

"The reason I was out is none of your concern." he answered bluntly.

Phil hated the fact Dan was so vague about everything he did. He never understood why people were so fascinated with mysterious people, their ways just sort of annoyed Phil.

"Have you not been taught anything about the woods?" Dan continued. "I suppose no one expected you'd need to know in case you'd be experiencing it first hand. Basically for our powers to work we need a source, kind of like how the earth needs the sun to gain heat so things can survive. The woods don't have any nearby sources or they've been cut off so our powers don't work."

"But yours worked - the fire must've been you." he thought back to what had happened.

"I've been here since the age of ten - I think I'd know how to use my powers from a distance to incinerate traps on forest floors."

"Traps?" Phil questioned.

"Well, they're kinda like traps - they catch unsuspecting students who wander onto forbidden ground after dark. You'll get released come sunrise, but it's enough to scare some people not to go back in there."

"Not you, of course." Phil said, rolling his eyes and was surprised when Dan did nothing in retaliation.

"There are rumours that a small group of people lurk around the woods." Dan continued. "Apparently students have disappeared in there in the past, some are found but some of them seem to just vanish into thin air - and all because of them. That's the only reason Barnsey cares so much, if something bad happens he gets in bother and has to file a shit-ton of paperwork."

Phil noted the Winnie the Pooh reference and smiled to himself.

"Phil, you need to sleep." Dan said as he began to lie down on the floor.

"You can't sleep on the floor, it's your room." Phil replied. "I can go to my own room if you want me to."

"No, you need to stay in here so I know you're safe, now go to sleep, you're going to be exhausted in the morning."

Before Phil could say anything more, Dan was already lying down on his back with his eyes closed. He most likely wasn't asleep but there was no point arguing with him. After all Dan was being nice to him.

Dan was being nice to him. It seemed Dam was never nice to anyone. Everything about that night was weird. Dan acted differently, he ran over like he was worried about him, he called Phil by his first name, not his last like he usually did. He carried Phil because he didn't have the strength to walk and now he'd given up his bed so Phil could sleep and be safe.

Something had changed Dan that night, but he didn't know what. He pondered over those thoughts until he eventually fell asleep.

***

After a few hours of slumber, at seven he woke up, he was still in Dan's room, still wrapped in the unfamiliar bedsheets. Last night actually happened, it wasn't some crazy dream - or nightmare, that was the more appropriate word. He leaned over to the floor where Dan was sleeping, but nobody was there.

Dan had gone.

He presumed Dan had gone down to breakfast earlier than usual, so he went down to find him - he knew his way down there now. Phil found Dan sat at one of the corner tables, he sat down on the seat next to him.

"I know we don't really talk much but I just wanted to say thanks for taking care of me last night, I appreciate it."

"What are you on about, Lester?" he looked up from the small bowl of cereal he was eating.

A wave of confusion came over him, this had to be a joke.

"I didn't come near you last night, are you sure you didn't have a weird dream or something? Sleepwalking maybe?"

Phil was half-expecting Dan to yell something in his face, not make up a lie so clear Phil could see through it as if it were glass. Asking if he was dreaming had to be the most pathetic excuse he could've used.

"I can't have been, I woke up in your room - and I don't sleepwalk."

"Well I've heard that people are more prone to sleepwalking if they're in new environments so it could be a possibility."

"Can't say I've heard of that one." he responded, trying his hardest not to roll his eyes - that was chronically bad.

"I promise we were never together last night, okay?" he could tell Dan knew he was being far too nice to him.

"If you say you weren't in the woods, I believe you, I'll see you later, Dan."

"Bye, Lester." Dan replied.

He questioned whether or not Dan thought him to be stupid and went off to find PJ - he'd get his answers one way or another.