incarceration //phan

three

Dan
A voice came out of the intercom speakers that were set around the academy. 'In light of recent events there will be a few changes to the academy's rules. One: no access to any outside areas of the school aside the main courtyard after classes end. Two: curfew is now at nine, everyone must be in their own rooms by then. Three: all pupils are now on lockdown, this means no leaving the academy walls at any time. These rules will in place until we say otherwise, failure to abide will equal punishment in some form.'

"Bullshit, everyone knows they only come around after months and months of keeping a low profile - as if this'll help anything." Dan heard someone mutter to their friend as he was walking down a corridor.

Reality was beginning to sink in: Phil was gone. He didn't want to believe that it was the end of them, but he couldn't see any way for him to get out of whatever strange alternate universe he was stuck in.

"Sir, please can we go out and look for them? You said we can't go outside the courtyard after classes, but we can go now, right? We're not breaking any rules." Tyler nagged Mr Barnes for umpteenth time.

"As I said a few hours ago - no search parties until staff have searched the area properly."

"What's the point in us checking if the staff are going to do it, why can't we just -"

Mr Barnes cut him off mid-sentence. "You raise a valid point - student search parties are prohibited." he told them sternly and then walked away leaving the two boys somewhat confused.

Dan found it a little odd that himself and Tyler weren't allowed to check around the school grounds, they'd usually begin searching as soon as the bell rang for lunch.

"You're going to suggest we ignore the rules and look for them ourselves, aren't you?" Tyler posed the question a few moments after the man had left.

"You already know me so well."

Dan knew what they would and wouldn't find by looking for Phil and Shane, but that wasn't where his focus was. He'd decided there must have been a reason that they weren't allowed to go out like had been on previous occasions - and with the help of Tyler he intended to find out what that was. The only person he'd be lying to would be himself if he said Phil's inquisitive side hadn't rubbed off on him.

"You know we're going to get caught, right?" Tyler questioned. "I've never had an isolation and I don't particularly want one now."

"I know a way we can do this without getting caught."

Dan looked back at a puzzled Tyler.

"Tyler, you're a time traveler." Dan prompted, emphasising the last two words of his sentence.

"Oh, I get you now."

"So we're doing it?" he asked a second time for clarification.

"I don't know, I've told you that I don't like going to the future."

"You went to the future because you know about what happened on June twenty-second." Dan sassed.
"Beside we'd need to go back in time, not forwards; if they're not letting us search it must be because they've already found something and the academy want it hidden from us."

"Do you think they've found Shane?"

"I'd like to think that Alfie and his gang had the decency to take care of him, but I don't know if I'm going to be honest."

"Dan Howell admitting that there's something he doesn't know the answer to - that's a first." Tyler teased.

"I could easily do a one-eighty right now and set fire to your hair."

"But I know you wouldn't."

What he'd said sounded a lot like what Phil might say it to him in this situation, it almost made Dan feel upset. Dan tried to think of something else to distract himself.

They'd waited until classes had finished for the day, went into Tyler's room and shut the door behind them. Dan had never time travelled before and he wasn't sure of what he'd expect.

"Grab my hand."

Dan placed his hand over one of Tyler's, disliking the lack of familiarity of the patterns up and down his palms and the way that they were more cold and less welcoming than Phil's.

"You reckon four hours back is enough? Just before they made that announcement?"

"Only one way to find out."

Tyler took that as a confirmation, stomped his right foot and the two off them left Tyler's room and found themselves a few metres behind a couple of teachers engaged in conversation.

"Can we get any closer to them?"

"They won't know we're here so we could jump and scream in their faces and they'd be none the wiser." Tyler said, picking up on the fact that Dan's voice was a little quieter than usual. "It's complicated."

Dan and Tyler walked a few paces to be near enough that they could hear what was being said.

'There's never been two missing before, should we start an investigation on some of the pupils?"

"It couldn't hurt to try I suppose."

Dan and Tyler followed the two teachers as they got closer and closer to the outskirts of the woods.

"Oh my goodness." they heard Mrs Evans say, she'd picked up her pace so she was a few yards in front of the other teacher.

"What have you seen? Felicity?" Mr Barnes asked her, changing his walk into a run to catch up then stopping in his tracks after looking at what was in front of them.

"I think I'm going to throw up." Tyler said, turning away once he too saw sight of it.

"Well we found one of the missing students."

Shane's skin was a ghostly shade of white, his head was tilted to one side. His eyes were still open and were staring straight forwards. Dan saw a black object near Shane's right hand. He couldn't help but wonder how Alfie, Marcus and Cat had managed to get their hands on a gun - a fake most likely.

"Suicide?" Mrs Evans asked.

"It looks that way, unfortunately."

"I knew that he wasn't particularly enjoying himself here but I didn't think it was this serious, if I'd have known -"

"It's not your fault, you can never blame yourself for these things; I just can't imagine how he'd gotten his hands on a weapon."

"We'll have to keep students away for the time being, just until we can figure out what's gone on. Students search parties are a definite no."

"Agreed."

"Tyler, you wanna go back to the present?" Dan asked after seeing the look on his face.

"If you wouldn't mind." he responded. "You better give me money for therapy to get over the image that's ingrained in my head, this'll star in all my nightmares for the next month or two. There are certain things I've seen that I really didn't need to see, and it's safe to say that that's now number one on my list."

***

I'm so crap at writing it's hilarious.
It's been a while, I'm sorry I've had loads of school stuff.
Thanks for reading y'all :)