Five Nights At Howell's

Dreams

Phil saved the day. He did what neither of them expected him to do. Phil told himself that he would start making things right, and here he was, saving the day; saving Dan. The one thing he couldn't save, is his mind. Dan was breaking, just ever-so-slightly each day. The nightmares have come back, thanks to Jason.

Speaking of Jason, where is he? They both noticed his disappearance, they were both simply confused of why he wasn't gloating over Dan's appearance and near death experience. Why would he go through so much trouble to leave without notice?

"By God, Phil, you're not worried about him are you? No! You're not. The only person you're worried about is lying in front of you."

And that person is asleep once again. He needs some sleep, Phil knows Dan isn't really sleeping. He's stuck in an endless loop of that night...

The air became crisper, full of stale air. That's what Dan gets for never opening his window and keeping his door shut all day. It felt like any normal night. Dan was sitting on his bed, listening to the soft tune coming from his brothers room. Adriens voice was keeping Dan semi-sane. It kept him from jumping out that window, and if he didn't break a foot, running away. To anywhere, really, run far away from his home.

He didn't know what was going on, it was late at night so he figured they were relaxing, if not sleeping. It felt weird to Dan, not being in Adriens room, he was prepared to go into his room and tell him he will be ok. What he was not prepared for was the temperature change. It got a bit warmer in his room but Dan paid no mind to it. He simply took off the covers and continued to swell in his anger and self pity.

"I come to you in the very clothes that I killed you in... Can you wash me, can you Drown me...?"

Adrien was still singing as the night grew shorter. His song got sadder and a bit quieter until it was no longer recognisable to his elder brother. Then just as Dan started to drift off to sleep, his Adrien screamed. He was used to the screams, they came right when sleep made itself known and Dan was at his most vulnerable.
"He'll be fine," Dan thought. "He does this every night." The screaming continued for a few more moments and then it abruptly stopped. That shook Dan up a bit. All of a sudden the room was sweltering and the air was consumed with smoke, making it impossible to breathe and leaving Dan immoblized and wheezing on the floor. His room was starting to look deformed; posters were shriveling, the windows were cracking and the wooden dressers were burning, the clothes in them along with it.

Dan knew what to do in case of a fire, block all entries for air to come through and get below the smoke. That was hard to do with the door burning to ashes and the new broken window allowing air inside. The fire would only spread now, and with him in the room, he braced for the dancing flames. Dan's entire room was glowing red and yellow, even blue in the hottest spots. A faint siren was coming from outside and the last thing Dan saw before he closed his eyes was a ladder being placed against his broken window.

***

Dan's eyes fluttered slowly as he was being put on up into the ambulance. With each blink he saw glimpse of his surroundings. A white and red fire truck with men running around holding a hose and a small woman controlling the water pressure. Blink; he saw the people carting him into the ambulance, they were rushing for some reason unknown to Dan. It hadn't clicked in him about what was happening. Last blink; he saw a burnt, limp child being carried over a man's shoulder. The body wasn't moving, which Dan would later find the most disturbing part of everything. Seeing his brothers dead corpse scortched. The sight of Adrien triggered something inside of him, causing him to shake violently.

"He's going into cardiac arrest!"
"Hurry, put him under!"

A quick jab in his arm allowed him to calm down enough to stop shaking and be forced into sleep. The deep darkness gave his body the time it needed to heal but the entire time he was under, he was replaying Adriens body being drug out of the house. That image would stick in his head for years to come.

***

"Dan! Dan! Wake up!" Phil was yelling at the younger boy. Dan started to toss and turn a while ago, but now he was full on shaking again.

Phil sat there staring at his flat mates shivering and rolling body, trying to hold back tears for the second night in a row.

***

"Hello, Daniel. I'm Doctor Mullbury, I'm here to check on how you're feeling."

"Call me Dan, and I'm feeling horrible. Absolutely horrible."

"You seem to have been very lucky, managing to come out of the... Accident with only minor Burns and slight asthma. You might feel sick for a while but-"

"No. I feel fine physically. You don't understand. I watched them pull my brother out of the house dead. I heard him screaming! I didn't do anything! It's my fault, it's all my fault. If I hadn't been so cought up in hating myself I could have saved my brother!"

The doctor had pushed a button and a nurse came in to fix the IV thing and check his heart rate, after that, she put him back to sleep.

***

"Hi, Dan. We're here to talk to you. We want to adopt you..."

"No! I told them, I'm 16 now. I am getting emancipation papers and then I'm leaving this place!"

Couple after couple came in trying to adopt the broken down child but each one was turned down. After a year in the foster system, Dan got his emancipation papers and went to live in the UK. After that day, the day of the fire, Dan swore to himself that he would never let his feelings get the worst out of him. He needed to be alert and appear sane to keep his job and house.

And a few years after... He met Phillip Lester.

***

"DAN!" Phil shook his shoulders until Dan started to wake up. When Dan was fully awake, he told Phil everything, from his dream to the man who "was friends with Jason" to what happened before he knocked himself out. After he got all of that out of his head, they both layed down next to each other, not sleeping.