Misfit (Phan AU)

Chapter Thirty

This is a recap chapter from Dan's POV covering where he was during the day that made him so late for the dinner in the first place. 

Warnings: Mentions of minor character death in the past, a very brief non-graphic mention of blood just after they get out of the basement. 

if you could please read the author's note at the end of this chapter it's kinda important! 

*Dan's POV*

I shifted, furrowing my eyebrows together as a cool shiver wracked my frame.

I'd just barely stumbled free of sleep's clutches and already I knew something was off. This wasn't how I usually felt after waking up from a peaceful slumber, there wasn't any warm drowsiness making my movements groggy as I slowly converted back into the mindset of the conscious. It was instant and precise, a jarring shift from one plane to the other.

No, it was more akin to the feeling of being shaken awake in the midst of a nightmare, the lingering sense of terror taking a few seconds to resolve and putting all of your senses on high until it finally subsided. Except for the fact that this time it didn't fade, meaning my surroundings were no more familiar and welcoming to me than they had felt before my eyes had fluttered open.

Where was the comfort that usually followed seeing the sunshine filtering through open curtains? The sense of relief that engulfed you upon realizing reality wasn't near as bad as whatever had just been haunting your subconscious?

I shuffled further up the bed, propping myself up to look around the room and scrutinize its contents closer. Nothing had really changed, it was in the exact same messy state I'd left it in the night before, it just felt darker than usual. The air felt almost heavy, uneasy, difficult to breathe in.

I pulled the covers up further, making sure they encased the bare plane of my chest that had previously been left exposed.

"Cat?" I called softly, my heart beginning to race as my eyes darted around the room, desperate to spot her amongst the mess of monochrome colors. It was an age-old practice at this point, considering how long I'd known her, for better or for worse she was always around. To say that it was slightly easier to tolerate the way she lingered when I'd just been shaken from a nightmare, well, that would be quite the understatement. Not that I'd ever tell her that, the last thing she needed was another excuse to invade my personal space, especially whilst I was unconscious and unable to object.

But, you know, if she happened to be there when I woke up already unsettled, then you likely wouldn't catch me complaining.

As it was I found myself starting to panic about the lack of response my call had received, considering I'd hardly ever known her to stray from my side. I bit my lip, debating trying to repeat myself with a louder tone in hopes of garnering her attention if she happened to be somewhere else in the apartment. It was childish really, the desire to have her near the second things felt uneasy, but you grow to depend on the things that consistently prove true. Having her around was one of those things.

However, those plans of establishing myself were thrown for a loop when I noticed a dark figure looming in the one corner of my room I hadn't given much attention to whilst still struggling to wake fully.

I gulped, clutching the sheets around me with tight fists as I tried to get a better look at the form. It was tall, sporting long lanky limbs as well, almost looked to be about the same shape as Phil had I not known better than to expect to find him looming in dark corners of my room.

That left Cat really, or a monstrous murderer that had somehow made their way into our apartment in the dead of the night, which I doubted was actually possible. So that left Cat, except this didn't look like Cat did in the slightest, not to mention surely she would have heard me speaking if she was only a few paces away.