Midnight Eyes ✵ Phan

*23*

A/N Not 100% happy with this chapter but I'm putting it up anyway. I hope you all enjoy :) Something very special is coming your way.

He was being watched from all angles. The eyes pierced him like shards of glass, leaving his bloodied and vulnerable. He scratched at his arms, small claw marks raking across the frail skin. He hadn't eaten in far too long. The diet they gave him was steady but small. He felt as starving as he was on the streets.

The glass wall was impenetrable as he had already found. Scratching at it only creating a mind-wracking screech, almost as bad as nails on a blackboard, and didn't leave any trace of wear. There was no way out.

Dan could hardly breathe. The air was thick and dirty as it passed through the thin air vent at the top of the enclosure. Through the vent came the only artificial light, turned on at night to keep them from sleeping too heavily. They wanted them exhausted, left on the brink. They would have the ability to change but not to leave. That was all they needed.

They moulded Dan to what they needed of him. He wasn't himself anymore. He was them. He was theirs. No one needed Dan. They needed a thing. A Neko. A thing. Morning arose slowly, the sun barely seeping above the horizon as the first people flooded by. The hours, as Dan had found, were long. He had to be up early and asleep late. There was no allowance on sleeping in the day. They were an exhibit people paid for, they wouldn't be stuck with a bad reputation because the things people had come for were unconscious.

Phil had awoken surprisingly early that day, too. His routine almost on par with Dan's. It was an odd sensation, seeing the morning sun rise from its haven. The bed that had always comforted him seemed scratchy and unnatural and the night terrors had woken him up in a sweat. He hadn't had nightmares since he was a child, the whole sensation set a deep chill into his bones. Shivering slightly, he stumbled out of bed and into the kitchen where he had left last night's ready meal on the counter. He hadn't had the stomach to eat it.

Pushing the small, plastic tray back into the microwave and setting it to the right time, Phil waited, feeling numb. He looked back, the door was shut. The door that Dan had stayed behind, hid behind. The door that led to the room that had been left to Dan. The empty room.

Phil was still determined to find him but the first failure left a heavy mark. He felt tired, exhausted even. He had had less sleep than Dan, even if his walls were brick and not glass. They each had their torments, each had their nightmares, their torments.

Neither had the will to try harder. Their pace was sluggish, masking the undeterred determination. The adrenaline had pushed them forwards. Now, all they had were vague facts and unlikely hopes. They had almost nothing. The fight was almost won and they were on the losing side.

The microwave beeped and smoke seeped through the cracks in the glass. Phil really should have replaced the microwave months ago, it was no doubt dangerous but now, more than ever, he couldn't care less about the bloody microwave. He had bigger things on his mind.

He didn't notice that he was eating curry for breakfast nor did he care. It was food. Best of all, he didn't feel like throwing it all back up this time. His stomach still churned and his appetite was lost quickly but he had gotten through at least half of it and was feeling slightly better than before.

He still felt like slamming his head against the table.

Something still felt wrong, though. Not with him. Somewhere in the plethora of harsh nightmares had been dreams of Dan. Stuck in that glass cage. In the zoo. The one where he was not. Something was off. Very off. His instincts were impossible to decipher properly but he knew something, he would have to return.

Today was as good a day as any. He had nothing to do, nor did he have anything to do on any other day either. Repeating his routine from yesterday, he threw on an outfit, put the tray of food back on the counter, tugged on his shoes and was out the door with no time to spare.

His footsteps rang loudly in the almost empty streets. It was barely seven in the morning. The zoo, as per the sign on the front gates, opened at six. Each footstep came less than a second after the last.

He arrived at the zoo in unexpected time. He looked up at the large, run down clock above the tall, iron gates and saw that he the time was only ten past seven. The walk the day before had been about thirty minutes. He looked down to his legs and suddenly the ache settled in. Somewhere along the journey, he had begun to run. Phil found himself even more exhausted than before.

Since when had he zoned out?

Phil was losing himself.

Remember a time before Dan came, he tried to remind himself. Nothing came of it. The memories were dark, blank and empty. He saw flashes of his mother, a happy childhood and then, nothing. Then Dan. Dan was there. Something was there.

Phil didn't realise just what a miserable life he had lived.

Didn't he promise himself, when he was younger, that he would do all he could to be happy? Didn't he say that he would never let his demons drag him down? Phil was the one that smiled. Phil was the one that laughed. Phil was the one who saw things as he saw them and not how he comprehended them. He loved the simple things, the beauty of things.

When had that been stripped of him?

When had he fallen and not been able to grapple back up?

When had he become depressed?

The gates were open and a few parents with young children walked passed the frozen man as he stared at the clock. He had zoned out again. Bringing himself to reality again, he blinked, focusing on the concrete pathway before him. Taking a deep breath, he began to walk again, focusing on the slow steps. He wouldn't let himself be ripped from reality again, he had to concentrate.

He didn't want to be like this.

Why was he like this?

He had never been like this before.

The exhibit was closer than he remembered. The glass was familiar and the presences inside it were too. Except one. They were in cat form, it was hard to tell but the similarities between the two humans he had encountered yesterday and the cats before him now was uncanny.

Then there was another one. It could be any cat for all he knew. There was something plain about it as it shut its eyes and backed away from the glass. It looked like it had given up.

It was only seconds before its eyelids peeled open and revealed the confirmation Phil had been wanting all along. Its eyes were the galaxy. Its fur was familiar. And, most of all, it was staring back at him with as much shock as himself.

This was what he needed.

This was Dan. 

word count: 1222

published: 28.08.17