Intriguing (phan)

10 - puzzle

(phil)

on phil's second day in hospital, dan only stayed for 20 minutes. on his third 15 minutes and on his fourth 10 minutes. however pj did show up on day four, which was a relief. he'd looked happy to see phil sitting up and talking and even happier when phil expressed his annoyance at dan.

to phil, it seemed like dan didn't really care anymore, considering how much the nurse said he'd cried when phil was out cold.

but phil tried to act nonchalant about whether dan showed up or not, which was so much harder than he'd expected because hospital life was so dreary and pj wasn't very entertaining, and whether phil liked it or not seeing dan was always the highlight of his day. phil couldn't talk himself out of his craving for dan's company.

and so phil was pleasantly surprised when dan showed up on the day of his release, claiming he'd called a cab so that they could go home together.

he signs the release papers and changes back into his normal clothes and finally, he was ready to go. after a couple words of warning from the nurse, phil finally steps out of the hospital. he hasn't breathed fresh air in a week, and so he takes a moment to revel in it. dan has to tap him on the shoulder to bring him back to reality.

"good afternoon," the driver greets opening the door for them. he quickly lets them both in.

when he's in the drivers seat, he immediately starts up the car and turns onto a main road. unfortunately, they are in london, and so the road is packed full of honking vehicles only moving a few inches at a time.

"how are you doing?" the driver asks and phil is glad he is breaking the silence.

"good, it's nice to finally be out of hospital."

the driver seems happy to have received a full answer and starts telling phil a story about his cousin. phil is glad to get his mind off things. there weren't a lot of people to talk to in the hospital. he missed the simplicity of holding a conversation with a complete stranger.

but before he knows it, they've come to a stop below their apartment building.

he sighs and starts climbing the stairs leaving dan to pay. he walks slowly, wanting dan to catch up to him.

when he reaches the second floor he stops and veers left instead of continuing up the stairs.

"phil, where are you going?" dan asks, before hurriedly following phil down the corridor.

phil stops in front of the smashed window. the whole window is gone, in the place of it, a large piece of wood.

he picks up the piece of wood and moves it out the way.

"phil, what are you doing? you're going to fall again," dan says clearly panicked and horrified.

he examines the window -which was now just a rectangular hole in the wall- for a bit, running his fingers along the sill, before turning to dan. he lowers his voice and his words come out in quick succession.

"judging by the fact that the window was double glazed with thick glass and that none of it remains, i must have hit the window with an exceeding amount of force. i had just tumbled down stairs, meaning my body was in a compact shape, meaning that the force of my fall would've been exerted over a small area making it even more deadly. not to mention the gravitational energy i had obtained from falling down the stairs at such a speed and the angle i hit the window at, making me fall to the ground even faster and most certainly die or at the very least, if i had managed to adjust my body before landing break a couple ribs and shatter some of the bones on my right side."