Bloom (PHAN)

I

Dan didn't think it would ever happen to him.

He'd googled it once, not expecting much. To him, it seemed like plain old internet scaremongering, nothing more. Even just the name of it screamed "hoax" to him. The Hanahaki disease. He recognised the word 'hana'. It was Japanese for 'flower'. How mysterious.

The page loaded, and he skimmed the definition.

"Hanahaki disease. Born from one sided love, a flower blooms in the chest of the victim, causing them to cough up flower petals."

Dan felt himself go hot. The way it was written, so matter-of-factly, as if it was a legitimate disease, admittedly freaked him out. A flower? Just growing inside someone's chest? Was that even possible?

Something tugged at him. A feeling of.. intuition. It was strange. He stared at the screen until his eyes stung, his fingers somewhat nervously tapping the sides of the laptop. What if- He hastily shook his head, realising he was getting far too invested in this strange phenomenon. The man shut down his laptop, telling himself that there was nothing to be worried about.

And he was right.

At least, for a while.

Then the flowers came.

It all happened so fast, the first time. Dan couldn't remember any specifics. All he could remember was the feeling of something rising up his throat, something indescribable. It sent him into a violent coughing fit that echoed through the room. Phil turned to him, his eyes concerned, which almost seemed to make it worse. Before he could speak, Dan got up off his chair and made his way to the empty kitchen, trying his best to act nonchalant.

When he got there, though, oh God. He smacked a hand down on the counter, his coughs forcing him to hunch forward. His mouth flooded with a strong metallic taste. The coughing eventually subsided, leaving his throat throbbing with pain. He slowly moved his hand away from his mouth. And that's when he saw them.

Five little bloodstained flowerpetals.

He couldn't take it. He couldn't take it. The room began to spin, his vision began to blur. He knew exactly what this meant. He knew, he knew, he wished he didn't, but he knew. His knees gave in with terror and he dropped onto the hard marble floor, between two fuzzy white objects. Probably cupboards. Dan's hands flopped to his sides, the petals falling and the small pool of blood dripping onto the floor. Dan couldn't cry, couldn't speak, couldn't yell. His throat was struck with such pain he could barely even swallow.

Fuck.

*AUTHOR'S NOTE*
sorry this is a little shoddy, i literally woke up at, like, 3am to write this. i may or may not write another chapter, i'm not sure yet.  hope you liked it!