Misfit (Phan AU)

Chapter Forty-Nine

A/n: Heya! Right quick before you dig into this juicy new chapter, couple of warnings about the content of it. This is the demon "showdown" chapter, so to speak. There are mentions of injuries, talk of death, it's generally pretty grim and angsty. Just please be careful about making sure you don't consume this content if you think it'll be detrimental to your health!!

*Dan's POV*

Driving home that night felt a little bit like an ending. It wasn't really, not in the sense that things had reached a conclusion, but there was a significant feeling of leaving something behind and moving on to something new. For better or for worse, we were ditching the days of living in fear. There was a chance this meant we'd soon be living fearless, but then there was also the nagging possibility that the fear would prevail over the living bit. There was no way to tell if we'd survive this next chapter.

Phil was quiet next to me, staring out of the window wordlessly. More than once I found myself squeezing his hand in my grasp, just to watch closely for a reaction. It was near impossible to tell that he was actually present in his own body when he was spaced out like that. Not that I could blame him, I felt a bit far away from myself as well in that moment.

There were four people in the car and yet the loneliness still crept back into me. It didn't feel like I was surrounded by people, not now that I knew what that actually felt like. It was more than a physical presence of a body next to yours, it was a shift in atmosphere from something cold to something much warmer. It was laughter, the feeling of being understood, it was happy. This was none of those things. This just felt cold. Freezing.

No one made eye contact. Not in the mirrors and certainly not directly.

The seriousness of the situation hung heavily over our heads, making it impossible to talk or think about anything else. It was so clear that all of our minds were in the same place, but no one made any move to try and discuss it aloud. It was just as well anyway, I wasn't sure if I could. It would have been hard enough to discuss with my own personal involvement, but with Phil next to me, hanging on to every word... the thought of expressing even the smallest shred of emotion aloud didn't feel fair.

I had to be strong for Phil right now, no matter how terribly the anxiety was gnawing away at my core.

Even our apartment building felt ominous as Pj pulled up in front of it. I stepped out of the car and immediately moved to meet Phil on the other side of the vehicle, wrapping an arm around his middle and biting my tongue to keep from saying anything. He sighed softly, turning to curl into my side.

Vaguely, I was aware of the chatter a few feet away from us, even heard something that could have been my name muttered once or twice. I ignored it all, counting on the others to handle whatever had to be handled on their own. I had a place to be right now, a role to play in this process, and it was making myself as available as possible to Phil.

Walking into the place I'd called home for well over a year now felt strange. It was the same as always at surface value, from the dumb minimalist furniture right down to Phil's added decorations in every corner of the apartment. It'd been my safespace for so many years, but now it felt more like a battlefield. None of us were going to be walking out of here the same.

Cat greeted us by the door, looking chipper and eager to see we had company again. She caught onto the atmosphere quickly enough though, our eyes locking for a brief second before she was fading quietly back into the shadows of the room to listen.

Pj was talking fast, running everyone through the motions of what was about to go down. Chris was plastered close to his side, face barren and emotionless compared to his usual self. Troye and Tyler looked about the same, though there was a spark of confidence there that just wasn't present in Chris. I supposed that maybe that came with experiencing this once before and seeing just how bad the bad ending could truly be.