One Way || Phan

Part 8.

*Dan's POV*

I hadn't seen Phil for a week, let alone spoken to him. It almost seemed like he had strangely disappeared, nobody knew where he could be and I started to worry a little bit after all. Not that I wanted to see him that badly, quite the opposite actually,  but it really looked like he just vanished into thin air. And besides, I still had to do that art project thing, and nobody was there to help me, so all I had done was procrastinating it. I spent all my art lessons doodling random things in the corners of my paper, hoping I would get enlightened and find inspiration I could use for the project to finally make a start, but nothing came to my mind.  

Phil hadn't uploaded a video to his Youtube channel either. I checked every day for an update like the damn stalker I was, but nothing. I wasn't the only one worrying about him, the comment sections under his most recent videos were full of people asking why he stopped uploading and if he was still alive. Normally he would upload twice, sometimes three times a week and his last video was uploaded two weeks ago.

After another boring day at school, I sat down on my bed, but instead of starting scrolling through Tumblr again, I decided to grab my phone and dial PJ's number. I had to know where Phil was and when he would come back. I had to talk to him, this insecurity was driving me insane. Maybe PJ could give me some information since he was with Chris all the time and Chris was Phil's best friend, so Chris had to know where Phil could be, right? It was worth a shot.

It took a while before PJ finally answered his phone.

"Dan, what's up? Why are you calling?" You could hear he was trying to hide the fact that he was surprised by me calling him, normally I didn't contact him at all. It was always him calling me.

"Look, PJ, I know it sounds weird..." I paused a moment, thinking about what I was going to say. "Okay. I basically need you to find out where Phil is."

Silence.

"Seriously?" He asked, chuckling.

"Yes," I said in a serious tone, annoyed by PJ's non serious tone. "I have to do that project with him, remember? I want to get started, so I thought... You're with Chris now and Chris must know where Phil is..." 

PJ realized I wasn't taking the joke and stopped laughing.

"Uhm, okay... I'll ask him right now, wait a sec."

PJ disappeared for a while and I just sat there, biting my lip, waiting for him to come back with an answer. Why did I think this was a good idea?

PJ's voice was back so sudden it had me startled.

"Chris doesn't know, man. He says he hasn't spoken to Phil in a few weeks."

So Chris didn't know either. Now was a good time to actually start worrying. Where the hell could Phil be?

I sighed. "Oh. Well, thanks anyway, Peej."

PJ hang up after we said our goodbye's and I lay down on my bed, throwing my phone to the other side of the room, angrily because I felt so damn powerless. It smashed into the wall, the screen breaking into several pieces. Great, now I broke my phone. Well done, Dan, I thought to myself.

I was really angry by now. Okay, I understood that I had made a mistake, but Phil was taking this way too far and really exaggerating this whole thing. He could have just said he didn't like me the way I liked him, but instead, he ignored me and never wanted to speak to me ever again. Bit weird, huh?

Then I got this stupid idea. It was probably going to fail, Phil was probably going to hate me even more, but I had to know where the hell he was so I stood up, picked up my phone – at least what was left of it – and left the house, not telling my parents where I was going.

Strange, I had only been there once but I perfectly remembered how to get there. I remembered all the streets I had to cross, all the houses I walked past and didn't even turn the wrong way once.

Suddenly I was standing there, facing his house. Phil's house. Why wasn't I even slightly nervous? Oh god, I shouldn't do this. This is wrong.

But I did it. I walked to the front door, hesitated for a brief moment, and then rang the bell. A sharp, loud sound filling the air.

The silence afterwards was terrible, filled with tension. 

Nobody answered the door. I waited a minute, two minutes, five minutes, rang the bell again, waited longer and longer, but still got no response. No sounds coming from the house, nothing.

Another crazy idea crossed my mind. I knew I could reach Phil's window if I walked to the other side of the house and used the big oak tree to climb onto the roof. 

So that's what I did. I cursed multiple times, softly, so nobody would hear when I almost slipped away whilst climbing the damn tree. I wasn't fit at all so when I finally reached the roof I sat down for a moment, making sure to hold on tight so I wouldn't fall off, and panted heavily, taking a moment to catch my breath.

When I was sure my breathing was steady again, I slowly shuffled to the window of Phil's room, making sure I didn't make too much noise so he wouldn't notice I was there. If he was even in there, for fuck's sake.

I grinned at the thought of Phil not even being in his room. Then I would have made such an effort for nothing. What if I'd fall off the roof and break my leg? Then I would have a lot of explaining to do. 

Phil's curtains were mostly closed. There was only a small gap left to look through. I carefully leaned forward and looked through the window, making sure to take it really slow.

My jaw dropped as I saw what happened inside.

Phil had sat down on the edge of the bed, wearing nothing but his boxers. His hair was slightly wet and he was using a purple towel to gently dab himself dry. His face scrunched up in pain every time the towel hit his body with only the slightest force. And I could see why. His entire body was covered with purple, swollen bruises and cuts.

*Phil's POV*

Pain.

He had done it again. Over and over again, every day was the same.

I couldn't go to school anymore. So I just sat there, crying softly, looking at my fresh bruises. I felt so small, so useless.

This needed to stop. This had to end. I needed help, but I had no idea where to go to ask for help. But this way wasn't the way I wanted to carry on with my life. I wanted to be free of everything hurting me, recover from the pain from my past and just start over. I had to get out of here, and soon. Otherwise, I didn't know what might happen to me. If I would survive.

Suddenly I heard a loud noise coming from my window. I quickly spun around, but everything looked completely normal, no sign of anything that might have caused the sound.

I still wasn't reassured though, so I stood up, cursing silently due to the pain the simple movement made. I limped to the window, carefully, and opened it. 

But still, everything looked normal. I couldn't see anything that could have caused that sound. Nothing in the garden, nothing on the roof, nothing on the streets. Everything was fine.

I sighed relieved, shut the window again and closed the curtains completely.

[A/N: Wow! What's this? Another update? It must be Christmas! ;3

Thanks for reading! ^.^ I'm finally starting to be happy with this story and I'm really enjoying writing it so far!]

Edicted: 19/2/2018