Secrets to Keep (Phan)

Chapter 16

I wouldn't cry.

I wouldn't allow myself to cry.

As the train rocked steadily on the tracks, I couldn't help but think of the last time I was on a train. I was so excited then, I couldn't even sleep, eager and ready to start my new life with Dan.

Yet here I was nearly a month after that, feeling empty, and unable to sleep for completely different reasons. With anger bubbling in my stomach, I watched the passing scenery; fields, buildings, and the horizon all passing in a blur through the tears in my vision.

My mind kept wandering to the possibility that I wouldn't make it in time. I didn't want to think like that, but a lot could happen in four hours,  and while Paul had been assuring me through text that he was doing everything in his capability to keep Wesley away from Dan's holding room, I knew he couldn't hold him off forever.

My stomach twisted and churned at the thought of Wesley laying a finger on Dan, corrupting his innocence, beating him within inches of his life.

I wanted to kill him.

I wanted to put a bullet through his brain so badly that the need was eating me alive. It scared me, how badly I longed to see his blood spilt on the floor, and I had to try not to look so pissed off while a lady walked past my seat with her two kids.

My fist clenched in my lap, as my phone vibrated, alerting me of the text from Paul, telling me how he had just brought Dan food, and he seemed ok for the most part. I had fifteen minutes of train ride left to worry and fret, and by the time that I actually take the tube to the slums of Manchester, another ten minutes would be added on.

It couldn't go fast enough.

When the train finally pulled into the dark station, I didn't wait around. I struggled to be one of the first few off of the car, stumbling out onto the dark streets, and making my way towards where I needed to be. For the first time in a while, I had a destination in mind, a purpose, and I didn't plan on failing.

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The brick building cast shadows down the streets, and it loomed over me threateningly. Cracks of light shone through the boarded windows, and I stayed out of their line of sight, sending a text to Paul to tell him I was outside.

I didn't have any kind of plan as to how I would get inside, but as I looked around now, I had very limited options. Of course there was always just the front door, but somehow I didn't see how busting in there and getting myself shot would help anything. Then there were a few windows that hadn't been boarded off, most too high to reach, but one remained on the lowest floor, cloaked in a curtain of ivy.

My heart thudded in my chest like a drum, pounding along with my rushing pulse behind my ears. I climbed into the window, trying not to step on the shattered glass as I took my first step into the dark room. A tattered blanket covered the doorway, the holes in the fabric allowing faded light to seep into the empty room.

My phone vibrated quietly, and I glanced at the text from Paul, before shutting off the device completely.

wesleys on top floor. dans in the basement

When I reached the staircase, I immediately went down a flight, feeling the air turn from normal, to the musty scent of the underground. The basement consisted of piles upon piles of wooden crates, containing who knows what, along with a few different doors, leading to who knows where.

I looked behind each door, finding nothing until coming to the third one, and twisting the handle. The room was dark, and looked as if it used to be a boiler room that was no longer in service. Dan lay hunched on the floor, covered in spots of dried blood. I could feel my stomach drop like a weight, as I fell to the floor, and gathered the younger boy in my arms.