Hate Me Closer (Phan)

Chapter Seven

Dan Howell was never quite sure how long he stayed hanging in his seat. He closed his eyes eventually, letting the air fall in and out of his nostrils as his limbs went dead around him. It took for his heart to begin racing and the pain in his back to soar beyond his limits before he decided he should try and move. But the clasp on his seatbelt wouldn't loosen, so instead, he stayed there, helplessly flailing his body as it remained tied up.

There was eventually the sound of a person shouting, the young teen unable to make the words out. He felt a hand on his arm from above as a voice mumbled, "Can you hear me?"

"Y-yeah." Dan squeezed out, his neck too painful to look upwards.

"My wife is calling an ambulance now, help is on its way." the man tried to open the car door to no avail, the system jammed shut.

"My parents..." Dan mumbled.

There was a long pause, "Focus on keeping yourself alive right now, yeah Mate?" Dan agreed, letting himself be strung from the vehicle as the friendly voice continued, "What's your name, hey, Chap?"

"Dan." he groaned.

"And how old are you?"

"Thirteen."

"Ah, that's cool, huh? What school do you go to?"

"Auburn." Dan replied, "Have you heard of it?"

"Of course I have! It's the boarding school fifteen minutes up the road. You going home, then?"

"Yeah!" Dan smiled.

"That's it, Mate. I'm a teacher at a primary school, not much use for a car crash, sorry."

Dan chuckled, "It's okay."

"The ambulance is coming." a woman's voice reassured her husband.

"Hear that?" he asked Dan.

"Can you get the door open?" she asked, but Dan couldn't hear a response.

There was the sound of a door slamming before he heard the bending of metal beside him, "My wife's just trying to get the door unwedged, Dan. Okay?"

"Thank you," he said as there was a click, the friendly couple coming to his aid.

"Be aware he might have broken something." the lady spoke.

"Is it safe to move him?"

"Please do." Dan begged, "My neck and back are beginning to hurt so much. My seatbelt is locked."

"Okay, Dan." the man agreed, "I'm Tom, by the way, and my wife is Alice. Can you move your arms?"

"Yeah!" Dan waved them.

"Hold them in front of your body, I'll grab them and my wife will cut your seatbelt. Prepare for a bit of a drop." Dan nodded, his heart racing again before he felt himself being pulled away from his car.

He was then being held against a chest, his face shielded and his body being placed on the gravel of the road. The pressure from his neck was instantly gone and his heartbeat left his ears. He covered his eyes, letting his breathing calm again.

"That's it, Dan." Alice was by his side with a water bottle and a bag of crisps, "I told you these tools would come in handy being in the car."

"I never disagreed."

"You bloody judged me." she chuckled, sitting by Dan's side. The sirens of an ambulance blared around them until they came to a stop, two more voices yelling towards them.

"Is the boy okay?" one voice shouted.

"Yeah, we cut him out. His parents are in the front seats."

"I'm Greg and this is Alex." the paramedic informed the three of them, "What's the boy's name?"

"Dan," Dan replied, but then he closed his eyes, taking himself away from the moment.

After a while, Alex knelt beside him, "We're going to get you into the ambulance, Dan, okay?"

He nodded, asking, "How's my parents?"

"We'll be taking them in as well. How old are you, Dan?"

"Thirteen." he groaned.

"Okay, Dan? Your parents aren't doing too well, do you have someone we can call?" the paramedic made it sound so simple and so unimportant, but the words swam in Dan's head and wouldn't leave him alone. He looked at the pony in the distance, beginning to believe he caused the car crash himself by asking his mum to look into the field. He took a breath in, looking at the paramedic, "My grandma." he responded, "Her number is on my mum's phone."

He took a sip from the water bottle Alice had given him, then stuffing his face with the crisps one at a time. She sat by him, running circles over his back with her palms to soothe him.

Dan looked at the road between his feet, quietly asking, "Are they dead?" he didn't look at them, but instead at Alice's paling face as she watched the paramedics pull his parents out of the car, their faces covered in blood and their limbs mangled from the collision. Dan did look at the man in the other car, whose head was smashed into the glass of the front windscreen and his body flown out of the driver's seat as he didn't wear a seatbelt. He was definitely dead, and Dan knew he was the last to see him alive.

"I think so," Alice admitted quietly, holding the stranger into her as she felt like taking him into her care until everything was alright. She was unable to fall pregnant herself and a part of her wanted this poor boy, but he had a grandmother and she knew he probably wouldn't want that, "I'm so sorry, Dan." she said instead.

He didn't speak again, letting the ambulance close him away and drag him to the hospital. He gave a small wave to Alice and Tom before the two saintly strangers left his life once again.

He wanted to know why he was alive and how he survived the crash when no one else did. In the hospital, his ankle was cast up with a break to the bone, and his shoulder had been sprained, and he had whiplash. But, he was the only one to still be breathing. He'd not had that confirmed, but as he stood pacing in the waiting room with a grief counsellor calming his anxieties, he didn't need the final words stated.

"Dan, please sit down." the counsellor asked, hating the way he hobbled on his crutches.

He did, slouching into the back of his chair with his eyes glued to the door. His grandma was led in shortly after, with her eyes reddened and arms widely extended to greet her grandson back into her body. She cried, feeling the weight the boy wore as his world fell apart around him, "I've got you now, Dan." she whispered, "Let's have a seat."

"What's going to happen?" he mumbled.

"I have a plan, Danny, okay?" he calmed at her soothing voice, "I'm going to drive you back to your home, if you're okay with that, and we'll stay a couple of nights there. It'll give you time to pack your things and feel calm again, yeah? And then, we'll drive to my home near Birmingham and you'll live with me, okay? I'll send the belongings in your house to a storage unit, and what's sold will be yours in money." she was always very matter-of-fact. There was time to mourn, but after she could keep her grandson safe. She knew he needed to know the plan because the young teenager could cope, as long as there was a plan. Dan's grandmother also knew that he wasn't a little child anymore; he needed the truth and it would be worst to cradle him from it.

"So they're definitely dead?" he whispered lifelessly.

"Oh, Honey," she whimpered, "I thought they'd told you. I'm sorry."

"You're the only one who's given me answers today," Dan admitted.

"That's why I gave them to you, Danny. No matter what happens, I'll make sure you know before it does, okay? This is all about you. The second we get to your home, I'll fix you up with a nice plate of cookies and we can watch TV together, how does that sound?"

Dan nodded, a smile on his lips as he stayed curled into his grandma's side. He wasn't sure if things were okay, or if they only temporarily felt like they were, but that's all he needed right now. He needed safety as his life broke in two.