Say You Won't Let Go ~ Phan Songfic

I met you in the dark

I met you in the dark
You lit me up
You made me feel as though
I was enough

~

"I don't even know why I agreed to come to this," I grumbled under my breath, and watched as Louise did another shot, followed by the sounds of her friends screaming and shouting for more. They seemed to regard me as apart of their group but I don't know if I'd consider them my friends. I saw them at all of these parties I go to, but I can't for the life of me say anything about them. It's not like I hadn't talked to them; they did make an effort the first few times I came, but I guess I was so scared to muck up my words or make a fool of myself that they stopped trying and I ended up as the quiet one in the corner. Plus, by the time I worked up the courage to go and join them, they are beyond drunk and it's impossible to make any sort of conversation. It was better this way anyway, I'm happy with my one friend, no one can hurt me. To be honest, I just want to make Louise happy. She is my only friend after all, and at the end of the night when I drag her back home it's slightly worth it to hear her drunkenly gush to me about how happy she is that I came. Besides, someone has to pay the babysitter, make sure Darcy is safe and tucked in and leave some water and painkillers next to Louise's bed so she can be a mum in the morning.

Tonight I'd been feeling pretty low, even though I had been really excited about this party. I don't know what it was about Halloween but I love it so much. The costumes, candy, theming, spookiness, I love every part of it. Though I wouldn't admit that to Louise; she thinks I didn't even try. My 'costume' was an orange jumper with a spiderweb on it. For my standards, I'd actually put in a great amount of effort. But even with the Halloween vibes, I couldn't seem to drag my mind out of the self-loathing gutter it had fallen into. I'm not good enough, my whole life is a failure, no one cares about me. Before I could continue down the dark maze in my mind, I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned around see a familiar face, a 'friend' from my old job, Cat.

"Hi Dan," I saw her smile and I put on my best to match her happy mood, even though I wasn't at all feeling the same.

"Have you been in the maze yet?" Another reason that I had agreed to tonight is that this party was, in fact, a haunted house that they'd built a maze through. Someone's grandparent's place full of spooky dolls and old furniture. I had to admit I was actually intrigued by this idea but I had yet to go through the maze, as I didn't want to go by myself. I was just waiting for Louise who told me twenty minutes ago that she was getting just one more drink.

"Nah, I'm just finishing off my drink first," I said, and gave my "bloody" cocktail a shake. It was actually just a fruit punch with red food dye mixed in, but I appreciated the effort. She shook her own cocktail in return. I did wonder why my friendship with Cat never picked up, maybe it had something to do with how the only thing we had in common was the place we used to work. She was a nice person but we never seemed to connect at all, and all of our conversations were just about what we did on the weekend. I turned back to the party and looked just in time to see Louise stumble into me. I lifted my drink up high, not wanting it to spill as she clung onto me.

"Dan! Let's go in the maze," I placed the drink down on the table quickly before I waved to a giggling Cat as I got dragged away. Seconds later, I was met with the entrance to the maze; creepy archway drenched in cobwebs. Beyond that was just darkness, fog, and spooky music. To Louise, I rolled my eyes but internally I knew I was excited. The feel of the cotton cobwebs on my arm dampened my excitement when I realised it was going to be a whole lot more cringeworthy than I'd thought. I felt Louise grip onto my arm a little tighter before she dragged me forward, ready to face what's on the other side. I pushed the cobwebs out of the way and the noise of the party grew faint as we walked down the hallway, the sound of the music out of a little speaker wasn't really adding to the atmosphere but I still appreciated the effort. After a few more steps it suddenly cut out. My head whipped around to where I thought it had played from. But it had become dead silent, excluding the voices from the party now sounded like whispers drifting around us, and the sound of the creaky floorboards as we continued. Louise gripped my arm tighter, if possible and I wasn't cringing anymore, the spooks settled in. I took one more shaky step before out of nowhere, a door to our left opened on its own. Louise let out a little excited squeak and we creeped closer to the door to inspect it. Right when she got her face in view of what was inside the door, a loud bang erupted from the other side, followed by a skeleton that appeared out of nowhere. A high pitched scream burst out of my mouth; Louise left my arm as she bolted forward into the pitch black of the next room. I stood frozen, having taken a few steps back, glancing towards the skeleton which looked surprisingly real in the low light.

"Louise!" I called out, hoping that she'd come back. A chill crept up my spine when I realised I was all alone. I took a deep breath and headed forward into the next room. My mind kept telling me to turn around, but I had to finish this, it was just some amateur haunted house, not that scary at all. Whatever was beyond the doorway in front of me was pitch black. Even with the small amount of light currently in this hallway, I could not see a thing. I took a single step inside, one foot still out ready to run at the first sign of danger.

"Louise?" I asked, my voice much smaller than before. It wasn't like this was one of my biggest fears or anything: being alone in the dark waiting for the girl from the ring to grab me. I took a deep breath and stepped fully into the room. As soon as I was fully inside the door, it slammed shut behind me. My vocal cords reached a new high, screaming so loud I was sure I had just laid an egg. I ran forward away from the door, only to be met with a wall that my head collided with. I hissed in pain and put my hands out in front of me, feeling the wall. I trailed my fingers around the room, eager to reach the door and get out. Eventually, they grasped a door frame and I reached for the handle. Of course it was locked. Do I need to find a key, is it the door I just came through? I kept going around the room, until I realised there was only one door in this room. How am I meant to get out?! Where did Louise end up? Can I even get out of here? What if I'm trapped in here all night? I lowered myself to the ground, eager to find a key or some other way to escape. When my hands touched the floor I realised just how panicked I actually was, when I felt my arms shake against the floor. I patted around the edges of the room to look for a key. I got to one corner and felt a real cobweb trail up my arm.

"Nope nope nope," I backed away and went to balance my arm against the wall, only I fell backwards as what I thought was the wall was only a piece of black fabric. My head made it through the gap, hit the floor and I was momentarily confused until I realised I must have found the exit. After I recovered from my little fall I carefully flipped over and crawled the rest of the way through. The room in front of me was once again pitch black, which didn't help my fast heartbeat or quick breath. Remind me again why I was excited to do this? I stayed low to the ground hoping not to bump into any more of the cobwebs; my plan failed when I felt something touch my arm. I froze when I felt someone's fingers wrap themselves around my arm. As if my last scream wasn't loud enough, that one reached a new high. I frantically moved away from whatever had grabbed me, my mind imagined everything from the ring girl to the devil, the movement backfired when our heads collided against each other. I whimpered and my heartbeat went impossibly faster with the jolt of pain to my head.

"Didn't know I scared you that much," they said, laughing slightly before they let go of my arm. Immediately, I scooted away from them until I collided with the wall. My hands felt shaky and I tried to calm myself down after I had heard the voice of the stranger who didn't sound anything like the creepy child or devil or demon that I imagined. Suddenly, a blinding light filled the room, and lit me up. I flinched and covered my eyes with my arms.

"Hey, you don't need to be scared now," the stranger whispered, I took my arms away from my eyes, which I noticed were shaking quite badly. I crossed them over my chest, hoping that if I held them tight enough they would stop. My eyes followed the streak of light, and saw it came out the stranger's phone. I couldn't see anything behind the light, so I took the opportunity to look around the room, which was now less scary without all the darkness. I saw the gap I had just crawled through behind me and an empty room, minus something that looked to be a bench or a stool in the corner. Everything was draped in black fabric and the only exit seemed to be a door at the back of the room. How the hell did Louise get through this? My eyes then traveled to the figure in front of me.

"I'm Phil, by the way," they said and shone the light more towards himself so I could see. The first thing I noticed was his welcoming smile. It drew me in and made me feel at ease. Then I noticed that his eyes were a pretty shade of blue, only I could get lost in a stranger's eyes in a weird situation like this. I took his outstretched hand, expecting a shake only for him to pull me up off the ground. He pulled me up a little too fast and I stumbled forward into his chest. He chuckled at my clumsiness, wrapped an arm around my shoulder, steered me over to the nearby bench, and passed me a bottle of water. I nodded in thanks and shakily took off the lid. It seemed my body couldn't tell there wasn't a risk anymore.

"I know you have a voice, considering how loud you screamed, but do you have a name?" Phil asked.

"Dan," my voice came out in a whisper. As soon as I told him I heard the noise of a door slamming shut and a person shrieked. I jumped, confused before remembering we were in a haunted house.

"Quick," he shut off the torch and we were plunged back into darkness. He put his hand on my shoulder, came close to me whispered, and sent a shiver down my spine, "we have to scare them."

"Your eyes will adjust to the dark, then you just grab them on the leg or something," I resisted the urge to whisper back something about consent when his warm grip left my shoulder and I was left sat in the corner. He was right though, after a moment of focusing, my eyes started to adjust and I could see his shadow crouched next to the little gap I'd come through not that long ago. After a moment I heard the person giggle and their hand popped through the gap. At least my entrance would have been a whole lot more entertaining for Phil, could you imagine watching someone fall through backwards? Another hand, followed by a head that darted around the room trying to see in the dark, came through. They didn't look very far before Phil grabbed their arm and they let out a little scream again. Only a second later they laughed and Phil was laughing too. A pang of jealousy shot through me when I realised that that probably should have been my reaction instead of falling into a mini panic attack, even now after I'd had all of that time to calm down, my hands were still shaking. I looked back to the pair when Phil spoke, his voice much lower, trying to create a sense of spookiness.