I'll Leave You With The Outtakes // Phan

Part 3

The boring ass flight back across the pond gives Dan a chance to think. Phil has his ear buds in, looking zombie-ish on the verge of sleep in the seat beside him, and the middle age business man on the other side of Phil is so engrossed in his Sky Mall magazine that Dan's vaguely concerned. He's always considered who would actually order something as absurd as a vacuum that looks like R2-D2, much less why anyone would purchase something like that when they were on a plane.

All the cramped space of the economy cabin is comforted by the fact that at least Dan has the window seat. The sky is dark outside the window, the light on the plane's wings barely illuminating a sea of clouds that the aircraft is skimming right on top of.

Dan hopes it clears off by the time they reach London, because he's always liked the view of the lights of the city from above. Right now, the clouds are fine. There's nothing below them to see but black ocean anyway.

He finds himself looking at his hand, examining his fingers as he bends and contorts them. It looks perfectly normal. There's nothing wrong with his hand. But—it just seems to be weakening. Maybe he injured it without realizing and will have to actually do something to fix the issue. Or maybe this all really is just part of Dan's overactive imagination and growing anxiety levels. He's developing a nervous tick.

Shaky hands. Clumsiness.

Dan can live with that.

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What he can't live with, however, is the tripping. It's the next phase of Dan's new set of clumsy accidents and it's like his feet and legs just decide to turn to useless noodles at random points in time. Emphasis on useless. The first time it happens he's walking in an aisle at Tesco's and he just trips.

Dan nearly falls onto his face, as a result of stumbling over his own feet, and that is only the beginning. It's been just over a week since he first started falling, but it's getting more and more prevalent.

Dan trips walking dishes to the sink.

He stumbles when filming a video with Phil. Phil cracks a joke about it on camera.

Silly Dan, the entire world seems to be saying, so silly and jittery and awkward.

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Awkward turns to plain out stupid when, getting into the shower one morning, Dan missteps. His legs seem to twist and crumble beneath him and Dan is hurtling forwards. There's a loud crack echoing in his ears and a flash of pain before Dan's mind crumples into darkness.

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