Beautiful

Chapter 7

Phil's POV:

It had been 3 hours since I tried to wake up Dan and he still wasn't conscious to the world around him. I was starting to get extremely worried, so I called a hospital. A lady picked up rather fast.

"Hello, what is your emergency?"

"Hi madam. My name is Philip Lester. I'm calling on behalf of my friend, Daniel Howell. I've tried waking him this morning, but he's been unresponsive. I don't know what to do."

"Hold on, sir. I believe I can send a doctor over to your address. There we go, found it. Help is coming right away."

"Ari-I mean-thank you very much."

With that, I hung up. I have to be more careful about my Japanese phrasing. Only someone like Dan would understand "arigatou". Anyway, pretty soon, a doctor who appeared to be in his 40s stood at the front door.

"Phil Lester?" he asked.

"Yes. Please, come in. He's in that room down the hall."

The doctor asked me some questions.

"My name is Dr. Hershel. Has Dan had a history of this kind of behavior?"

"No, sir."

"Anything he took the day before he could've been allergic to?"

"No, not that I'm aware of. We were supposed to get dinner while we were out but...it didn't happen."

"Are you two close? Was there a quarrel last night that made him upset?"

I was deeply embarrassed and sad to reveal this kind of dilemma to a doctor. I wasn't sure why it mattered, but I answered truthfully. "Yes, Dr. Hershel. We..." I took a breath.

"No worries. You can keep the details to yourself if you'd like. I just needed to know for medical purposes," he said quietly. Seriously, how did this apply to a medical purpose?

He sat on Dan's bead and checked his heartbeat, felt Dan's forehead, et cetera. Finally, he came to a conclusion.

"The good news is that his body is absolutely fine. Nothing has poisoned his system or anything. The bad news is, well, I believe your friend here has a case called nightmareophobia. It's exactly how it sounds. When patients gets involved in a heated fight with a loved one, it causes their brains to form an image of that person inside of their mind, communicating to them the wrong messages about themselves and about the person represented."

"So you're telling me Dan is trapped in a nightmare where I am insulting him repeatedly? Will he wake up?"

"That's hard to determine. In 75% of cases, yes, but in the other 25%, some patients let the nightmare take over them and they have to be let go."

This was a lot to take in. Dan. Trapped. With me. A devil version of me. I wanted to enter his brain myself and tell him it was gonna be ok. I was here, but for now, there wasn't much I could do.

"I-I understand. Is it ok if I spend some alone time with him?"

"Of course. Try to reinforce any positive moments between you. His conscience can pick it up and persuade him to come to. However, be careful. The more kind things you say, the more the evil you inside him can degrade him."

"Thank you, doctor."

"Call me in a couple weeks if things haven't changed."

I looked at Dan's sleeping form again. Although his face was troubled, he looked beautiful. Wait what? Beautiful? Did I usually think about stuff like this? I didn't know. I decided to put it off for now.

"I'll check in on him every chance I get."

"Fantastic. Goodbye, Mr. Lester."

"Please, call me Phil."

This made the man smile. He nodded and shut the door, leaving me in solitude. I guess not in complete solitude but, with Dan like this, the apartment seemed very, very empty. I missed him, and I wanted to be reminded of him even more, so I opened his closet and wore one of his black shirts. I grinned as I took in his scent and snuggled in close to him again, reinforcing him like the doctor instructed.

"It's ok, Dan. I'm here. I'm not angry. I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry." It was then I decided to reveal something that would change my life. "I hope you can hear this next part. I love you, Dan. I love you more than the stars in the sky. In fact, I am in love with you. Please, please come back to me."