The Darkest Of Days

Chapter 9 - Dan

Dan woke up the next day with a terrible hangover and no memory of what had happened the day before. What he did know was he must have been crying in his sleep as his pillow seemed drenched.

He rolled over and checked his phone. Flinching sharply from the light as pain shot through his head. Scrolling through, he noticed Phil uploaded a video. Terrified of what the video could be about, he put the phone down, rolled out of bed and walked to the bathroom with his head in his hands.

He popped a couple of Advil in his mouth and swallowed them dry as he walked back to the kitchen, poured some cereal and milk, and sat on the couch to watch Phil's video.

Seeing it was titled "Things I Thought Were True That Are Not True." Made him feel a little better. It wasn't about him. Breathing a sigh of relief, he settled in to watch.

He watched happily, gently laughing along as he heard stories he'd heard a thousand times when suddenly there was the sound of a ringing phone. He watched as Phil jumped up and answered it. Phil shouted "hello." Followed by "Dan, are you there?"

Suddenly memories of what happened last night came flooding back and Dan just screamed "NO" at the computer screen. Phil must have forgotten to edit the phone call out. Suddenly Dan's obviously hammered voice came through, answering Phil, saying he accidentally called.

Dan sat there in utter shock as the video continued to play in the background. Now everyone knew.

Horrified, he started scrolling through Twitter. Everything he saw seemed to be about the phone call.

And then something new happened. All of a sudden, Dan's breath caught in his throat. He realised he couldn't breathe. Almost instantly he started hyperventilating and tears streamed down his face. He felt terrified and trapped and he started seeing spots in his vision.

Dan curled up, leaning against the arm of the couch, gripped his hair so tightly he was almost tearing it out and screamed.