Ephemeral

Before we begin! This is not the sequel I had promised you guys, but I feel guilty for not uploading anything in a long while and I've been working on this story on the side since I began ISTLGO

. There are a few trigger warnings that I will list, if you do not wish to see any spoilers then don't read them but they're there for any who may need them. Thanks for reading, love ya's :)

Triggers:

-Cancer

-Major character death

-Mentions suicidal thoughts/depression

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\//<3

And if you must die sweetheart, die knowing your life was my life's best part.

If you must die, remember your life.

- You // Keaton Henson

<=><=><=>

Dan had always felt kind of lucky in a way; for most people, death was sudden, death was this surreal thing that snuck up on you in the middle of the night and snatched you up. But for Dan, well, Dan felt like he'd been given a warning. Dan had a counter on the back of his head, ticking away his time. He wasn't snuck up on by death; he was stalked.

Wherever Dan went he could feel the eyes on the back of his head, could hear the whispers, and if he listened extra closely, he could even hear the crunching of the eggshells people were walking on around him. Or maybe he was being dramatic? He didn't really care, life was too short to worry about being dramatic.

Dan was nine years old when he was diagnosed with Grade 2 Atrocytoma. His mother had found the tumour while washing his hair in the bath, however, she simply passed it off as a lump Dan had somehow gotten while playing at school, after all, all nine year old boys bump their heads every once in a while. But after a while, when it didn't go away, she took Dan to the hospital and three X-Rays later Dan was officially diagnosed with cancer. They'd managed to remove most of the cancerous tumour, but because of where it was, it was a difficult procedure.

He was clean for all but two years when the cancer returned, and by then there was nothing they could do but try extend Dan's life with chemotherapy. They'd told him that he'd only live five years, seven years after his initial diagnosis, Dan had lived seven-hundred and forty-two days (and counting) more than they'd given him.

Everyone knew Dan as the resident cancer kid, crowds parted for him like the red sea, people jumping at the chance to help the "poor kid" or feel sorry for the "precious darling". Dan had gotten used to the constant attention over the years, he hardly noticed how lightly people tread around him anymore. That was, until Phil moved in three doors down.

Quite frankly, Phil came crashing into Dan's life like a herd of elephants. He appeared to be completely immune to Dan's "dying-kid-aura". Dan knew it was wrong to get himself involved with Phil, but he couldn't help it. Phil was like a live wire, he could never seem to switch off and Dan knew he shouldn't play with electricity - especially not with wet hands.

January

Dan sat in his extremely boring - why am I even here - maths class, wondering for probably the hundredth time this year why he was even bothering with school. It was 9:34 in the morning, the lesson had started exactly fourteen minutes ago and already he was bored out of his mind. Maths was not his favourite subject to say the least, he'd actually spent more time skipping this class in the last five years of high school than he had attending it. He didn't much like figuring out maths problems when he couldn't even figure out his own problems.