The Darkest Of Days

Chapter 8 - Phil

Phil was lying in his bed. Doing nothing. Again. It'd been 3 weeks since Dan left, and over a month since he had even bothered with a video. He's also realized that it's been 3 weeks since Dan's last video. Phil remembered that night with perfect clarity. He shuddered thinking about it.

~~~

He stayed in Dan's room for hours after he watched the video, crying, curled up wrapped in Dan's comforter until he couldn't cry any more. Then he just stayed there, eyes burning, just staring at the wall. Eventually he summoned a little energy to check his phone. Notification after notification was members of the Phandom asking what happened, but none had the decency to apologize. It was their fault after all.

He tried not to hate them, but it was their fault. They took Dan away from him. They did that months ago.

Suddenly his phone had started ringing. He quickly answered it without checking who it was, hoping it was Dan

"Hello?! Dan, is that you??" Phil practically shouted into the phone

"Oh, Phil honey I'm so sorry." A very feminine voice replied. It was Louise. "I guess you haven't heard from him recently then. I tried calling him, but he wouldn't answer. Are you ok?" She asked, concern heavy in her voice.

"Yeah, I'll be ok. Like Dan said, it was a mutual decision." He responded

"I know you both better than this. I've been worried about you two for a while. You're fans are really aggressive and I knew it would have repercussions.

Just remember that I'm always here for both of you. I love you, Phil. Keep your head up." And with that, she hung up.    

~~~

Phil remembered how that phone call helped a bit knowing that people cared enough to check in. Still. It's been 3 weeks. He's gotten a few more calls since then, but he never picked up.

He never really left his bed. He had switched Dan's duvet with his, but Dan's has lost its 'Dan' smell, so now it's just a dark reminder of how their lives are falling apart.    

At around 3, Phil finally pulled himself out of bed and decided to try to script and film a video.

He sat down on the couch in the living room with his notebook and racked his Brain for any story he could tell that he hasn't already. He could think if nothing. Every story he could think of, only reminded him more of Dan, which would result in even more tears. Eventually, he settled on a new "Things I Thought Were True That Are Not True." He knew that he had stopped the series, but he could not think of anything else.

He set the camera up in the living room and sat on the couch and put on a show. He looked as happy as he could and tried to keep his voice upbeat and level.

He got about 2 minutes into his story when his phone rang. Leaving the camera running, he jumped to his phone without even checking the caller ID.   
                                                   
"Hello?" Phil almost screamed into the phone.

All he heard on the other end was silence, but in his heart he knew it was Dan. He put it on speaker and put the phone on the table so Dan wouldn’t notice his laboured breathing. Tears started to fill his eyes with relief. He thought back to the time when 10 hours was too long for them to be apart. These 3 weeks had been torture.

After what felt like an eternity, Phil realized Dan still hadn't spoken.

"Dan? Are you there?" Phil asked, starting to get worried.

"Sorry, I called you by missstake." Dan’s heavily slurred speech echoed around the silent apartment and hung up.

Phil wanted to cry. Dan sounded so drunk and so broken and there was nothing he could do about it. It killed him.

Phil took 2 minutes to calm down and continued filming. When he finished, he edited it without focusing much on what he was doing, and went to bed and cried.