Take me to church (Book 1)

59- What now

It's said that magpies mate for life and when a magpie is found alone, it's a bad omen. Phil's never been a superstitious person, considering his religious upbringing, but he never thought that seeing a magpie alone the other day whilst looking out the window of the hospital, would cause this. He never thought that there was a chance it was a sign. A sign to save Charlie.

To put it simply, he hasn't eaten. He hasn't moved from his spot on the bed for three days and no matter how hard Dan tries, Phil just won't co-operate.

After the explosion, ironically enough they took a trip back up the hospital again. PJ had to stay due to his lungs nearly collapsing from the smoke and of course, Chris stayed with him. Emma and Chris suffered minor burns. Phil however, came out completely unharmed, maybe just a few scratches from being pushed outside, but he's not going to complain.

He and Dan are currently staying at Dan's grandma's house. Naturally, Phil would rather be with his own grandma, but she lives so far away and that means being away from Dan.

Right now, Dan is the only one keeping him sane so he'd rather not stray too far.

The police are getting forensics in to look at the house, or at least what's left of it. They're going to try and figure out what actually happened, considering no one else knows.

Purring sounds from the edge of the bed and the stray cat, who's now been named Keith, curtesy of Dan, slowly walks up to snuggle next to Phil.
Luckily it seems Keith managed to escape by himself from the fire, which Phil is thankful for.

But it still doesn't make the situation any better.

Dan's house is gone. All their stuff has been burnt to the ground. All their money, all their clothes and memories.

Phil also remembered Mary's notebook. He and Dan were trusted to look after it and now it's also gone. For obvious reasons, Dan's very upset about it.

The atmosphere across the whole street seems... Sad. Everything has just seemed to stop.

Phil's tried to sleep but every time he closes his eyes he see's Charlie's face in the flames of the fire.

Even Dan isn't this effected by his death, it's just completely destroyed Phil.

There was hope. Hope that maybe, somehow, Charlie survived. There was always that shimmer of hope for Phil a few hours after it happened. But now, he knows that Charlie is gone. His body was found under the rubble and he's dead.

Of course, Charlie wasn't the greatest person and of course, he won't be missed by a lot of people. But for the sake of the moment, he still saved lives. He saved Emma, Chris, PJ and Phil. He probably even saved Dan, as if he was to go into the house, he would've suffocated within a minute.
It's sad, because he was getting better. He was beginning to become a decent human being again and for the first time, he had real friends.

Dan's reaction to his death was basically shock. However, he then quickly shook it off as if it was nothing, as if it wasn't just a life that had been taken. He shook it away as if Charlie hadn't just died right in front of him.

It makes you think whether Charlie must've hurt him real bad, or whether he was just acting brave.

Louise, who was visiting her cousin at the time of the fire, quickly rushed back when she heard what happened. She first went to Phil and then to Emma. Granted, she didn't get much out of Phil at the time, but he was secretly grateful to have her there. She's been there for him through a lot and he's always been thankful for her, he's just not shown his appreciation for her enough.

Phil's had a lot of time to think about what could've happened to cause the explosion. It wasn't natural, because no one was cooking. Dan had asked PJ and Chris if they remembered anything, and they both said they saw bright colours a second after the explosion. It simmered it down.