Bastille Imagines

Hello

Dan's been acting strange lately...

You maybe only noticed the atypical symptoms of a typical Dan last week when he refused to join you on a Twin Peaks marathon, which was a rare occurrence in itself. Instead, he shuffled his way to the bedroom and locked the door, creating nothing but confusion to spark in your mind. You've always wondered whether to shrug it off and blame it on a bad week at work, or to address it as a concern. It's as though the relationship between you two as morphed into a game of cops and robbers: you're the detective sniffing out the culprits and he's the criminal or some sort of evil genius sneaking off to do god-knows-what. It's all leaving you feeling slightly connive.

On the seventh day of Dan's suspicious behaviour you decide to investigate. As usual, you arrive home first switching on the TV as you wait for Dan to come home. The news anchor announces the dreaded words of another suicide committed by a 27 year old. This is the 3rd one this week. Despite the police and detectives of all sort considering it as suicide for reasons of closure, you suspect that there's something else lurking behind the meaning of these deaths. It's too coincidental.

Eventually, Dan fumbles around with door handle and it swings open. You both greet each other with your eyes, but nothing is said. And as expected he rushes straight to the bedroom and the callous slam of the door echoes throughout the house. You can't even find a place to start thinking about the things he's doing in there, the reason behind his secluded attitude towards everything and everyone. You just have no idea.

Reluctantly you knock on the wooden door separating both you and Dan. You stifle the smile stretching your lips as a muffled "ow" followed by a cacophony of chaos. The door opens but only enough to see a slither of his face illuminated by the hall light. What exactly is he doing in there?

"I just came to see if you were alright. You've been sulking off to your bedroom every night for the past week...is everything okay?" You hesitantly ask, pushing forward hoping that he'd let you in instead of shutting you out.

"Yeah...everything's fine. I just want to be alone right now." He coldly replies.

"Dan you know you can talk to me about anything that's bothering you..right?"

"Yeah. I know. Nothing's bothering me." He backfires, once again throwing the blank face of the door in yours shortly after. The monotone in his voice is like a slap to the face and you have to take a minute to process what just happened. Dan's never acted so withdrawn from you before and you can't help but feel somewhat insulted. In your head there's an ongoing debate whether you should storm in and contemptuously scold him, but after minutes of thinking you decide to go against it seeing that he clearly doesn't want to be disturbed. Is it you? Have you done something wrong?

Defeated, you head back to the couch and lie down with troubles following behind you. With the end of a busy day approaching, you submit yourself to a light snooze, escaping the concerns of Dan's divergent behaviour.

~~~

With a spark of consciousness you wake, falling back into the world where everything is ten times darker. You must've slept longer than you intended, it's maybe been four or five hours since you fell asleep. The first thing you notice is the unnerving eeriness of silence. No rustling. No white noise. Nothing. The first thought that comes to your head is Dan, maybe you should go and check up on him. God knows what he's been doing.

However, the door opens to reveal an empty room. With the open window blowing drafts of fresh, cool air into the room with the light curtains floating in the wind, you can only assume the unknown. You hear the rustle of paper and you immediately spot a note flapping away under the cellotape it's attached to on the headboard of the bed. Tearing it off, you recognise Dan's scrawny handwriting write down an address.