Eleutheromania ; Dan and Phil

001

Eleutheromania - a frantic desire for freedom

--

The cover of Dan Howell's notebook was almost completely black now.  His chisel tip Expo marker was quickly running out of ink, but he was intent on making the whole thing as black as the darkest night.

The teacher was droning on about a political issue he couldn't care less about, but the boy next to him was nodding eagerly and smiling.

Dan turned to his classmate and frowned.  He couldn't wait to leave.

After what seemed like an endless lecture, the bell rang, and Dan gathered his things at the speed of light.

As he trudged down to his locker, the boy from class bustled up to him.

"Hey!  You looked kind of down so I figured I'd try and make conversation."

Dan rolled his eyes and scowled.  "I'm always down.  I don't need a conversation." 

"Are you sure?" he said and touched his shoulder, but he jerked away before the boy could do anything to him.

Dan knew what the boy could do.  The world was filled with people who could do things like moving water with their mind and changing the color of things by touching them.

His classmate, who he was pretty sure was named Phil, could change people's emotions by touching them, but could only change it to the emotion people most desired at that time.

Dan, on the other hand, could set himself on fire at will and not get hurt.  He couldn't really control the fire, but he could pass it from his body to flammable objects.  

People like him, with dangerous and destructive abilities, were sometimes given tattoos as soon as they turned eighteen to symbolize to authority figures that they are dangerous and should be contained, if needed, in a cell designed to repel their power.

In Dan's case, if he was ever taken to prison, he'd have to be held in a fireproof cell.  In seven months, he was going to receive his fire tattoo.

"I don't want you to mess with my head." Dan snapped as he elbowed Phil out of the way. 

"I know how to help you, Dan." he insisted, trying to put a hand on his shoulder again.  Dan grimaced and jumped back.

"Good, now go use your knowledge on someone else." and with that, he slammed his locker shut and left the building.

--

When he arrived home, he went straight up to his room.  Disregarding his homework, he fell onto his bed with a sigh.

He wanted to leave.

He felt so stuck in this tiny little town.  So trapped, with no way to find something new to entertain himself.  Nobody new to meet, no new voices to hear.

The same old men at the checkout at the grocery store.  The same five pretty girls that help out at the gym.  The same hot guys that that sit on benches and flirt with whoever goes by.

The same old drama, the same people, the same old everything.

He needed a change.  He was starting to feel claustrophobic in his own home, in his own town.  He was born and raised there, and he hated it.

He wanted to be in a big city like London where everything is always changing and you don't see the same people every day.  He wanted a place where he could walk into a building without hearing a chorus of 'Hey Dan!'s.  

Where people were different from one another and unique and accepting.

He wished he could have that free feeling.  He wanted it so badly.  He just couldn't bare to think of it as artificial, of merely a product of Phil's abilities.

He knew Phil meant well, but he couldn't handle feeling free but not being  free.  He wanted the lifestyle, the adventure.  He didn't want just the feeling.

He sighed in frustration, rubbing his eyes and getting off his bed and approaching his homework.  

He looked at it with an expression of utter disgust.  He hated school.

It was small and the teachers were either rude or simply didn't care.  The kids were all annoying and immature.  You couldn't walk through the hallways without somebody throwing a punch at somebody else.

It was utter chaos and Dan wanted nothing more than to graduate already.

But he was only a few months into senior year, and it was already dragging.