discontinued // my winged warrior // phan

☾Eleven☽

~Confusion~

Phil

Fear. It's a silly thing. I knew that, deep down. But it still didn't make the situation any less scary.

The fear didn't start until I answered my phone. It rang just after 3am. I was awake, of course. Having just completed the worst day of my entire life, I couldn't sleep.

When I answered my phone, I didn't get a chance to speak, I was interrupted.

"Phil, please," he whispered. His voice was ragged and weak. He seemed to be crying, too.

"D-Dan?"

"Phil, forest. In the field. Please," he begged desperately.

Then the line went dead.

And that was when the fear really first set in. I had to leave my house and go into a dark forest to find Dan. I wondered what had happened. My mind started flipping through dozens of terrible scenarios.

I had to find him.

I got out of bed as quietly as I could. I walked downstairs and grabbed a jacket and a flashlight.

I closed the door behind me and slipped out into the night.

☾❀☽

Sheer terror is a difficult emotion.

It blinds you. It makes breathing difficult. It stops you from moving. You become powerless. You become empty.

The woods, while it's pitch black with a terrible flashlight, is not a nice place to be when you're afraid of the dark. But knowing that what you're trying to find in the woods is probably scarier makes it a hundred times worse. A million times worse.

I walked slowly, following the weak beam of my light. I tried to keep breathing and I focused my attention towards remembering the route to the field.

When I felt the first few raindrops, my mind didn't even accept that they were there. It couldn't be real. It couldn't possibly happen.

And then my flashlight broke.

Everything around me was dark. So, so dark. The rain was beating down on me. Blackness filled my vision. I couldn't move my legs anymore. My breaths became ragged and harsh. I sank to the ground slowly, sobbing without control. I shut my eyes and held my head in my hands.

I was stuck there. Trapped literally inside of my worst nightmare.

I did the only rational thing I could do to calm down. I thought of Dan. I remembered how we walked together through the woods in the dark. When he held my hands, I was okay.

"Phil, do you know why we can walk outside while it's pitch-black and still see fine?"

"No."

"It's because of this thing called night vision. As humans, our eyes can adjust to the dark, if we're given time to make the change. Most people use flashlights and phones, so they never learn that if you can just wait a minute or two, the start and the moon are all you need to find your way home."