Hallucinations

One Last Time

Dan clung to the lining of his thin jacket, wrapping it around his body tightly, trying to retain some sort of warmth on the cold London night.
The city seemed unusually dark as his eyes were locked on the concrete below his feet. He didn't dare look around, knowing what the outcome would be if he did.
Only three nights ago it was he and his best friend, Phil were walking down this very street at around the same time. They were laughing and talking and everything was great, until it wasn't.
Dan realized his wallet wasn't in his pocket like he thought. Phil offered to help him find it but Dan told him to go on and he'd meet him at the flat later.
Phil hesitated but continued on without Dan. Dan turned on his heal and begun to walk away, but the screeching of car tires made him spin back around.
A car had lost control and was going directly for Phil. Dan tried to run forward, to try and knock him out of the way, but he slipped on the ice and fell face forward, smashing his head on the ground.
Dan got to his feet once again and stumbled over to Phil, blinded by his own blood dripping from his head.
The car sped away, Dan cursing at it as it did so, and knelt beside his friend.
Dan froze, realizing what he didn't want to be reality. Phil was killed on impact.
The car had thrown Phil into a wall, smashing his head and breaking his neck.
Dan wasn't sure what blood was his anymore.
Dan couldn't shake the image of Phil's cold body from his mind. Maybe if he had let Phil help him, he would still be here today.
Dan would be lying if he said he didn't blame himself. He knew he couldn't have predicted what had happened, but that didn't stop the guilt.
He wished he could go back in time and just forget about his wallet. He didn't have anything important in it anyway.
Two hours prior to leaving the house, he ended up washing his wallet along with everything in it. He took everything out to dry and forgot to put it all back before leaving the house.
Dan pushed the door to the flat open, being met with a rush of cold air.
"Dan..." an airy voice called out. Dan looked around, searching for the voice that said his name, only being met with the obnoxiously bright apartment he is learning to despise.
Everywhere he seemed to go it mocked him. Pictures and memories haunted his being as he tried to process that he would live the rest of his life without Phil.
"Dan..." the voice said again.
Becoming angry, Dan clenched his fists and look around. "Who are you!?" He screamed. Suddenly, he was thrown backward into the wall, falling to the ground afterward.
Dan gets on his hands and knees, feeling his stitches ripped open. He touched his fingers to the wound, blood covering them.
"What the hell?" He asks himself, getting to his feet.
"Dan..." the voice says again.
"Show yourself!" Dan commands, wiping blood from his eyes and hair. He is pushed against the wall, arms pinned beside his head.
"What? You don't recall your best friend's voice?" Dan's eyes fly open and he stares into the paler than usual face of Phil Lester.
"You're not real. I saw you die!" Phil takes on a sly smirk.
"Of course I'm here, you see me, right? Or you know, it could be a guilt induced hallucination." Dan blinked a few times, trying to get rid of Phil.
"Don't mock me." Dan ordered harshly.
"Who said I'm mocking you?" Dan knew this wasn't the Phil he had come to love as his best friend. He was different and not in a good way.
"You-you poltergeist!"
"Name calling, really, Dan?" Phil leans back, letting go of Dan's wrists.
"H-how are you here? I watched you get hit!" Dan cried, not caring about the blood staining the carpet.
"How do you think I'm here?" Phil asks. Dan's eyes widen in realization.
"Ghost..." Dan whispers to himself, fear taking control of his body.
"No need to be afraid of me, Danny! I won't hurt you! After all, you're still my best friend."
"Unfriend me, Phil. You're a monster." Dan hisses, temporarily forgetting his fear.
"That hurts." Phil says sarcastically. "But not as much as it probably hurts you." Phil begins to walk toward him. "Because deep down, you want me to be okay. You want me to be alive, to be your best friend again." Eventually Phil was less than an inch away from Dan's face.
"You are not my best friend." Dan hisses. "You're a monster and need to leave!" Dan cringed at the word 'monster'. He didn't want to believe that Phil had changed, that Phil wasn't the same, but he couldn't deny it. It was obvious. Phil wasn't the same and Dan didn't like it.
"Dan..." Phil said softly, pulling away from his face. "We both know that's not true." He said in a harsher tone. Suddenly, Phil grabbed Dan and slammed him to the wall again, knocking him out.

When Dan woke up, he was alone. He looked around and laughed at himself.
It was just a hallucination. None of it was real.
Of course, Dan didn't believe this, but it was the only rational explanation for what had happened.
I must have tripped and knocked myself out. Dan thought. He stood up and dusted himself off. Dan looked at the pictures of himself and Phil, smiling a little bit before going to his room. But as he walked past Phil's room, he swore he heard the oh so familiar laugh of his deceased friend, Phil Lester.