Fake It Out Alive

Chapter 1: The Beginning

     I slumped into the couch, my bones absolutely aching. Summer in the City was definitely more exhausting than it looked. But despite my sore body, I smiled to myself. I never thought I would get here. Two years ago, I was just a YouTube fan with a dream and a dark sarcastic sense of humor. Until one day, I decided I had enough of dreaming. I picked up my camera and uploaded a video. Suddenly, my world took off in a whirlwind as my channel gained in popularity. Before long, I had a little over two million subscribers and was gaining hundreds more by the day. A year into it was when I ran into my idols, Dan and Phil. Honestly, when I first met them I did not have high hopes for being friends. Part of it was because I was a major phangirl, but mainly it was because when I first met them I spilled Dan's Ribena all over Phil's white shirt. Yet, despite that flop, and a few others along the way, Dan and Phil actually became quite close friends of mine. They'd already visited me a few times and now here I was sat in their living room or lounge as they would call it. It honestly all felt like a crazy dream sometimes. Like how is this actual reality? I let a dopey smile cover my face. Sighing contently, I slumped into the sofa crease closing my eyes. Yep, this really was the dream, and I couldn't imagine being anywhere else.

     "Y/N, are you fangirling on us right now?" I heard Dan's voice lightly accuse as he walked into the room.

     My eye peaked open to stare him down, a contrast to my bright red face. "No, I have no idea what you mean."

     "Oh, shush. The look on your face says it all," he laughed.

     "Come off it, Dan," Phil smiled as he came into the room carrying a box of pizza, "I'm pretty sure I remember that smile from when you first came to my place in 2009." He wiggled his eye brows suggestively making Dan sputter and go bright red, as well.

     "Phil! Just because those phangirls write smutty stories about us in 2009, does not mean that I wanted to do the do with you back then."

     I couldn't help myself. I snorted, "Do the do, Daniel? Really? What are you eight?"

     "Hey, I'm preserving innocence here!" he sputtered back.

     "Whose? Because it definitely isn't mine if you know what I mean," I winked suggestively licking my lip then biting it. Dan's face was absolutely scarlet at my uncharacteristic forwardness. He was so easy to work up sometimes.

     "Sit down, Danny-boy," Phil said as he himself sat down on the opposite end of the couch, "before you have a problem you can't fix here."

     Phil said it so seriously that I couldn't control myself. I burst out laughing in such hysterics that Phil also lost his composure and doubled over laughing. Dan grumbled to himself about how he shouldn't have to put up with this shit, and shuffled over to us. He threw the blanket he carried in over my head and playfully shoved me out of his sofa crease. I mockingly groaned and scooted so I was between both of them. I rearranged the blanket so it covered all of us and sighed as reality set in.

     "Something wrong, Y/N?" Dan turned to me.

     "No, I just leave tomorrow, and I don't want to go. I always have such fun with you guys. You two have become my closest friends, and I hate living an ocean away," And I really like you. I have for a long time. I don't want this to be the time I leave and you find someone else, is what I wanted to say but I kept that last part to myself and played with the edge of the blanket instead. Suddenly, I was a part of a phan sandwich, a phandwich if you will, as both boys hugged me from each side.

     "Aw, Y/N we'll see you again soon! And you know you're always allowed to take spontaneous trips here to see us!" Phil said.

     "And you've always talked about moving to London for a few years, so maybe soon it will only be a few blocks between us instead of an ocean," Dan practically whispered in my ear causing a shiver to run down my spine.

     "Okay, okay! Boys!" I laughed trying to play off that little moment casually even though my heart was suddenly beating a lot faster. I managed to push them off of me, "Let's get started on that movie."

     They reluctantly pulled off of me, but I did notice that Dan's arm stayed draped on the back of the couch. It was right behind my head where it definitely wasn't before. I ignored it the best that I could and tried to pretend there wasn't a little flutter in my heart. It was about halfway through the movie and close to midnight when the exhaustion from the day really started to hit me. The dark room, warm, fuzzy blanket, and soothing music from the movie soothed me into a sleepy state. I tried to fight it, but sleep had already dug its claws into me. As I fought for my eyes to stay open, I felt a hand lightly push my head sideways until I was curled into Dan's chest. I unintentionally let out a small satisfied sigh and felt a chuckle reverberate throughout his chest. If I was more awake I would have been embarrassed, but instead I let his body heat and beating of his heart lull me to sleep as he brushed his hand through my hair. For the first time while being there, I felt completely at peace as sleep dragged me under.

     A concussion of flashing sounds and lights awoke me. What's happening? Blurry lights and colors swarmed my vision as suddenly I was flung into the air. In those few seconds, I heard shouting, screaming, and an ear piercing noise that made me want to curl up into a ball, but then it suddenly all went away. All I could sense now was pain. It started right above my right eyebrow and exploded like lightning throughout my body. It seared through my head and down my spine, lighting my nerves on fire. But even though my nerves were hot with pain, my body felt cold and almost floating, though I could feel the floor on my back. I regained my vision for a mere moment to see Dan above me, terror within his eyes, mouthing my name. My brain couldn't piece together what was so terrifying. Dan kept getting blurrier, and each time he did he seemed to become more panicked and I felt more like liquid melting. The sounds became so overwhelming; they became white noise. My senses shut off in rapid fire, and suddenly I could no longer see. My body didn't even feel like it was in existence. It was as if a dark liquid had clouded everything and was swallowing me whole. Then, as if a switch had been hit, I was completely gone.

     The first thing that came back to me was my consciousness. It was barely there, and slowly pulling itself out of the hole. Next, my nerves sparked back to life. The weightlessness sensation faded away until I could feel a soft surface beneath me. My hearing was next to come back. Muddled voices filled my head. I knew they were Dan and Phil's, but what they were saying was lost to me. I heard a little pain filled whimper and realized it had come from me, even though my first thought was that a wounded animal was in the room. I suddenly felt a presence and a hand brushing my cheek. Finally, my sight came back and I opened my eyes only to shut them just as quickly. The light burned and the pain in my forehead that came with it didn't help.

     "Y/N? Y/N can you hear me?" I heard Dan desperately whisper.

     I whimpered again and slowly opened my eyes, this time my eyes welcoming the light. Dan became focused. He was leaning above me looking absolutely distressed. His cheeks were tearstained, his eyes bloodshot, and he looked horridly paler than normal, as if he was going to be sick at any moment. Something was really wrong here. A sudden flashback of loud sounds, screaming, and flashing lights flooded my system. I grabbed at my head in surprise and yelped in pain as my hand collided with a painful wet cloth on my head.

     "Careful! You're hurt!" Dan exclaimed yanking my hand away in a flash. I looked in surprise to see a faint smear of blood not only my hand but his, and there was quite a lot on his. What the hell had happened?

     A sudden strike of fear and uneasiness hit me. "Dan?" I looked into his eyes, "what's going on?"

     Dan had a look that stuck that fear to my core. The closest I had ever seen to someone looking like that was when 9/11 happened when I was little. That was not a look I ever wanted to see again, but as he stared into my eyes, my gut feeling only got worse.

     Dan heaved a shaky breath, "Y/N, I don't know how to say this, but I-I think World War III has started."