"dan, dan!" phil shouted in a semi-hushed voice, his fingernails digging into dan's skin as he was violently shook awake. "get up, we have to go!" phil added as the brunette dizzily shot up to his feet, trying to determine their situation through the 2am lack of light. the sounds of phil cursing under his breath and hurried footsteps ensued around him as he blinked furiously in an attempt to make out the area surrounding him.
it took a few mere seconds for his vision to adjust, and for him to recognize a gun held tightly between phil's hands as he signaled his head to the side. "this way," he muttered, starting to skulk forward as dan confusedly following behind him, paranoia and anxiety tracing his vision as he looked frantically around him. "where's chris?" he panicked, phil's fingers latching around his arm and dragging him out the door in a swift flash of darkness and abrupt motion.
"what's going on?" dan asked through pants of shock and confusion, his breath hitching sharply in his throat upon meeting phil's cold gaze. "just get your ass in the car and stay low," he growled before his head shot up at the slightest traces of a footstep, though the line dividing paranoid hallucinations and reality was rapidly thinning to nothing.
the reeking, metallic smell of blood and iron caked over dan's senses as he was shoved in the passenger seat, and upon sharply glancing behind him, he saw why. the bloodied body of chris laid sprawled over the backseats of what dan recognized to be on of his father's many cars, a bullet wound puncturing the brunette's blood-soaked chest.
"what the fuck!" he shrieked, phil crawling into the driver's seat and instantaneously shooting out of the driveway. "call pj right now," he ordered, dan's shock-overtaken eyes locked on the faint rises and falls that strained chris's chest. "dan!" the raven-haired man exclaimed, snapping the brunette out of his paranoia-infused trance. "call pj, right now," he repeated, dan's shaking fingers retrieving his phone and tremulously dialing the all-too-familiar number.
the seemingly-endless dialing of the phone pushed his nerves farther on edge until pj's groggy morning voice sounded from the speaker, calming him ever so slightly. "dan?" the brunette muttered tiredly, before repeating his name worriedly as he heard the strained pants coming from dan's side of the phone.
"pj," dan choked out, "w-we need your help- i don't, i'm not- y-yeah, thank you so fucking much," he stammered, hanging up on the fairly-confused brunette. phil chewed on his bottom lip anxiously as he pressed farther down on the pedal, dan spluttering in sentence fragments to give him instructions. "that one!" dan exclaimed abruptly, causing the jet black-haired boy to slam down his brakes. pj was stood apprehensively outside his house, his hands shaking with anxiety and his eyes wide with anticipation.
"how do you always manage to get yourself in life-threatening situations?!" the curly-haired brunette shouted in an anger-traced voice as he helped phil carry the unconscious chris inside his barely-lit house. "there," he added, slightly less angrily, gesturing to a couch where they proceeded to lie him down. "we'll talk later," he hurried past the deathly-still dan and up his staircase, not taking a full three minutes to drag his medical kit downstairs.
"phil," dan muttered in a near whisper, not catching the attention of his heavily-distracted boyfriend. "phil!" he repeated loudly, tears brimming his eyes as the older shot around. his blue eyes darted between pj and dan, before pointing to the kitchen and dragging the brunette in behind him. "what the fuck!" he cried, collapsing against phil's heaving chest. "what the hell happened?"
"chris said he was going out for a smoke," he mumbled absentmindedly, before seeming to snap back to their twisted reality. "which he does a lot, so, so i didn't think anything of it. but then he came in covered in blood with a bullet in his chest and i," he paused, gulping the lump of anxiety and shock down his strained throat. "h-he didn't say anything."
"get in here!" pj yelled suddenly, dragging both their hazy perceptions of reality to the living room.
"you're gonna have to hold him down, this is gonna hurt like all hell."
* * *
phil sat anxiously on the end of pj's counter; dan leaning against him as the only sound in the room were the mental echoes of chris's screams and the torrential downpour from the raging storm outside them. pj slowly entered the room, both their gazes meeting his revenge-fueled eyes. he hesitated to move, standing deathly still as he stared at phil with nothing but rage fueling his bloodshot vision.
he let out a scream, grabbing the ebony-haired boy by his clothed shoulders and dragging him off the counter abruptly. his back was slammed up against the wall as pj hissed through his tightly clenched teeth, misery and distrust caking his heated breath. "who the hell are you?!" he growled, releasing one of his hands to pound a blow into the pinned boy's jaw.
dan shrieked behind them, latching onto pj's shoulder and pulling him back just as quickly as pj quickly shook him off. "i asked," he ceased his voice to throw another angled punch. "who are you!" he shouted, sharply pulling him forward, before slamming him against the wall again, making sure it was harder than the first time. "answer me!"
phil coughed, blood trickling from his bruising nose as he was released to slid down the wall. "you're," he started to chuckle before rasping out another coughing fit, his icy smirk not leaving his split lips. "you're a lot stronger than you look."
"aagh!" the brunette growled, his fingernails digging into phil's shirt and dragging him back onto his feet. "you sick son of a bitch," he hissed, before throwing a single punch more and letting go, the bruised boy sliding down the wall lazily. "living room," the curly-headed brunette ordered as he pulled dan into the larger room. "peej-"
"what the hell have you gotten yourself into?" he panted faintly, his uneven breathing coated with rage and flickering resentment. dan exhaled, running his fingers through his hair stressfully. "it's complicated," phil muttered from behind them, eyeing dan meticulously before slumping towards the unconscious chris. "get in the kitchen," pj hissed, striding onto the tiled flooring with expectancy tracing over his steps with dan following silently behind him. "it's complicated," dan exhaled, biting on his bottom lip.
"i'm sorry," he added hazily as he slumped against the wall. "it's.. it's complicated." pj's eyes softened in disappointment and regret as he reluctantly pulled an iced tea out of his fridge. "i don't want to have to attend your funeral," he added with a sigh, rubbing the back of his neck frustratedly. dan inhaled, "you won't have to-"
bang !!
the ringing sound of a gunshot and glass shattering against tile buzzed in dan's temporarily deafened hearing. his fingers drew away dripping crimson as he touched his wet-feeling face, his vision unevenly focusing and fuzzing. the overpowering stench of metallic iron burned his throat as his eyes hazily sharpened on the bloodied corpse sprawled across the tiles in front of him.
blood pooled from the entering bullet wound in the center of pj's forehead, his blood and misery splattered against dan's body. a voice faintly screaming his name echoed in his ringing ears, but no matter how much he tried to focus on getting up, he couldn't seem to move a single muscle as the voice got louder and louder. "dan!" phil screamed, locking eyes with his boyfriend for a knowing second before he enveloped the brunette's body in his arms.
dan felt numb in his arms as he was carried through the lashing thunder and loathing rain, cracks of lighting breaking trough the dimmed clouds above them. his body was shoved into their car as the dark-haired boy him ordered to stay down, though he felt too out of it to register anything phil might've told him. he watched the ebony-haired boy escape from his sight as he scurried back into the horrid house; choked out sobs releasing from the brunette's captive throat as, for the first time, he finally realized the reality of their situation.
the haunting audio of the murderous gunshot rang repetitively in his ears, his head instinctively shooting down whenever he heard the vitriolic resonance. at the sudden sound of hurried, hunched footsteps flickering rapidly closer to him, he hesitantly looked out his window; seeing nothing but the ghostly storm with anxiety and drying liquid death tracing his fearful vision.
he impulsively shrieked phil's name as he suddenly made out a nearing silhouette, before burning out a stinging, blood-curdling scream when pj's slaughtered body was slammed up against the side of the car. but his racing heart didn't meet its full capacity of terror until pj's face started to morph into damien's, causing another spine-chilling scream to hoarsely voice from his sore throat.
damien's sharp, emerald eyes began to fade blue through the blurry vision of the black-inked atmosphere and beating rain, until the jet black-haired man's complexion resembled the brunette's blood-splattered boyfriend. "it's me, dan, i-it's me," phil stammered, skimming his fingers over the chocolate-haired boy's cheek after he had apprehensively cracked open the door.
"he's breathing," phil panted as he shoved a bloodied chris into the back seats beside dan, who's impulsive tears and angst blurred over his vision. a wave of sudden nausea plummeted against his dizzy body as he stumbled to swing the door open, reaching out the side of the car uncontrollably as phil gasped a fear-laced groan.
"dan, get in the damn car! we can't- we don't have time!" he spluttered, tremulously turning the key in the ignition as dan anxiously pulled his knees up to his chest. the brunette couldn't tell how long it had been, but suddenly the brakes were slammed down as the drivers seat was swung open; phil cocking the gun in his hand as he jumped into the dimly-lit mixture of torrential downpour and revenge.
dan rasped out his boyfriend's name, but the rolling thunder pounced upon any sound falling short of deafening as it skimmed throughout the darkening clouds. he slipped out of the facade of warmth and comfort inside the car as he made his way around, where he was met with the gun held desperately in phil's clenched fist less than a meter away from logan's sweat-coated forehead; his glossy, emerald eyes glinting against the dim light of the moon and his long, chocolate hair tangling around his shoulders.
a smirk painting a vitriolic vendetta across his his split, bleeding lips; his palms held open at his sides. "dan," phil growled darkly as his free hand pushed his soaked fringe out of his eyes. "dan, get back in the car."
"kendall is at least dead, right?" he smirked murderously, causing phil to clench his jaw, his killer eyes dimming farther than dan had ever seen them. "you sick-" phil shouted in rage, swinging his leg back to kick the brunette in his toxic ribs, sending him slammed down into the muddy rain-aftermath. "bastard!" the raven-haired boy breathed heavily in raspy, uneven pants, tossing his gun behind him and dragging out a knife from the depths of his pocket.
"ah, so he is," logan nodded in twisted satisfaction, before pausing abruptly to cough up a mixture of blood, mud, and an intoxication of cocky superiority. "then it's all worth it."
phil hissed through his grinding teeth, before turning back to his boyfriend, whose sanity and consciousness threatened to spill from his deathly-still, clenched fists. "turn around, dan. i don't want you to see this," he grumbled deeply through the rain lashing against their soaked skin. he twirled his knife blade between his fingers as he crawled onto logan's wheezing body, tracing the metal along the contours of the long-haired brunette's neck.
"pity-" he began, before a metallic, iron-infused coughing fit fought its way from his crimson throat, his trademark smirk not leaving his toxic lips. "pity i'm dying tonight. after all, this is the highest-paying job of my career," he shrugged weakly, before his glossed-over eyes darted between phil and the blade. he gave a glinting grin, liquid death coating his teeth as he pressed himself forward into the blade; his breath hitching at the sudden puncture of his skin. a red trail of lethal revenge bled out from the piercing in his neck, compiling with the beating rainwater that flooded over his heaving chest.
"you're not getting away that easily," phil hissed as he threw the knife over his shoulder, before suddenly freezing in his tracks. "dan," he said in a hushed voice, turning around slowly to meet the revenge-tainted gaze of his boyfriend, whose hands held desperately onto the gun. "put the gun down, you don't want to do this, please," the dark-haired boy attempted to assure him as the gun shook between the brunette's hands; drops of red bleeding from the puncture of dan's teeth digging into his bottom lip.
the gun cocked, causing phil's eyes widen in desperation and a vendetta. "no, no, dan!" he spluttered as his hesitant boyfriend gulped, lowering the aim of the gun to the flooded streets. phil gave a reluctant nod, before pulling out his second gun from his back pocket.
he dragged the icy metal across the wheezing brunette's chest, trailing its way up to his center forehead. "son of a bitch," he muttered in a pant, before-
bang !!
phil exhaled in shock as he chucked his rifle far to the side, though as he turned in revenge-tainted misery, he made out a trail of smoke leaking from the gun remaining in dan's deathly-still hand, confirming his toxic thoughts.
"dan," he breathed, desperately clutching onto logan's lifeless body. dan exhaled deeply, "get in the damn car."
"w-what?" the dark-haired questioned absentmindedly, reluctantly rising to his feet. "we need to leave," the brunette spoke grimly as a crack of heated lighting whipped across the sky, shoving the fired gun in his pocket as he apathetically slumped into the passenger's seat. "we need to leave," dan repeated as phil crawled apprehensively into the seat beside him, giving a glance to the oblivious, unconscious brunette laying behind them.
"london," he gulped, earning a eyebrow quirk from his boyfriend. "leave london? w-what? where would we even go?" phil stammered in fatigued defeat, rubbing his fingers through his sopping fringe. the brunette exhaled in apathetic panic, retrieving a cigarette and lighter out of the glovebox. the fiery flame danced around the nicotine before it was placed grimly between dan's teeth, a grey haze bleeding out from between his cracked lips.
"i can't believe you shot him," phil grumbled after a silent fifteen minutes or so, earning a cold glare from the blood-splattered brunette beside him. "you should've just let me handle it," he added dimly, grinding his teeth as dan remained resentfully silent. "i wanted to kill him myself."
dan scoffed as a cloud of nicotine was blown out from his lips, "oh, oh right! because you were so fucking bloodthirsty about your precious chris, who's still fucking alive! pj's dead!"
phil scoffed breathily as he glanced towards dan with a glinting smirk across his sinister lips. "this is a murderous industry, of course people are going to die. we can't afford to cry about it."
dan paused, before letting out a dark chuckle. "that's.. that's what chris told me," he rolled his eyes, running his fingers stressfully through his hair in sleep deprivation and adrenaline intoxication. phil exhaled resentfully, before turning grimly back to the wheel.
"because as you know all too well, my dear phil, i sometimes want you to just drop dead," dan smirked after a moment of silence, the toxic taint of murder tracing over his words like vitriolic lead.
"ah, but you see, the feeling is mutual, howell."