[ON HOLD] One Last Chance - Phan

Chapter 7

Trigger warning: Reference to self harm

Phil's POV

We arrive at Dan's house after school, and I realized how similar it is to mine. I look around in awe as I notice all of the paintings and family pictures hung up on the walls. The dining table is sat in the middle of the room, pastel, flowery décor scattered everywhere. The kitchen, on the other side of the room, is a very bold black-and-white style. It looks well cleaned and tidy. Dan chuckles slightly as he sees me gaping at his house.

"T-Take it i-in while y-you c-can, my bedroom i-is literally t-the c-complete opposite." He tells me before wandering into the next room, so I do as I'm told until a boy, about 13, walks into the room, followed by Dan. "Phil, t-this is my b-brother, K-Kai."

"Hi Phil." Kai says, a bright smile on his face. The resemblance between the two was uncanny, Kai adopting Dan's hair colour and sparkling eyes. Kai's hair is a bit curlier than Dan's, but I have always assumed that Dan straightens his hair, just like I do, so Dan's hair could be just as curly.

"Hi." I chirp, returning a smile and waving.

Dan nods to the stairs slightly and makes his way up, so I follow him. We go to the end of the hallway and he opens a door and walks in. As I walk in, I notice a white piece of paper blue-tacked to the front of the door, 'Dan' scrawled on it in big, black letters. When I enter the room and shut the door behind me, I see what Dan meant by 'literally the complete opposite'. His walls are plain white but covered in band and video-game posters. He has a black bed in the corner with a black, white and grey bedsheet, similar to my green and blue one. He has a white dresser and a matching bedside table, all sorts of anime and video-game themed objects on top of both surfaces.

"Woah, your room is so cool!" I gape as Dan giggles quietly. Dan checks his phone quickly then looks back up at me as he sits on the end of his bed and I collapse on a beanbag by the door.

"I-It's Friday, s-so m-my mum sh-should be h-home a-at f-five. D-Do you w-wanna s-stay for d-dinner?" Dan asks me.

"Sure!" I chirp, getting up to examine all of the things on his dresser. After a few seconds, I gasp dramatically. "Omg, you have a Mikasa figure? I didn't know you were into anime!" Our conversations mainly consists of me asking about all of the objects in his room and being astonished that we have so much in common. We end up sitting at Dan's desk, getting his laptop out and playing FnaF, resulting in a lot of screaming and Dan falling off his chair dramatically as I laugh hysterically, just in time for Dan's mum to get home and think someone was brutally murdered.

After about 15 minutes, Dan's mum calls us down for dinner. I spend a lot of time answering questions that Dan's mum asks me, like what the school is like overall, how me and Dan became friends, which I drop a lot of details out of. Ok, I completely lied, saying Dan was lonely at lunch, so I invited him to hang out with me, Waverly, Emma, PJ and Tyler. Half way through dinner, Dan excuses himself from the table and disappears up the stairs, seeming panicked. I take this opportunity to ask some questions that I couldn't ask around Dan.

"Um, Mrs. Howell?" I ignore the anxiety building up inside me and focus on getting my words out. "Do you... Do you know anything about Dan's past lives? We were talking about our past lives at school last week, and I think I said something that triggered him and he got really upset, so I was just wandering because I didn't want to say anything else-" Dan's mum cuts off my rambling with a shake of her head.

"He's doesn't talk about that stuff, even with me. Only once when he talked about his little sister in his second life, but after he seemed to get quite upset, like you said, and regretted saying anything. After that, he locked himself in his room until he had to come out for school the next day."

"What do you know about his sister?" I persist, but keeping a calm, soft voice.

"Her name was Hannah, I think. From what little information he gave me, he was very close to her, but I think he lost her suddenly somehow." she sighs sadly, clearly wishing that she knew more. I nod slowly and we sit in silence for a few minutes until Dan comes back down, a black hoodie now pulled over his top. He keeps a tight hold on the cuffs, his hands in fists as the fabric stays clutched in the centre.

"Hey Dan, you ok?" I ask, giving my friend a concerned look. He nods slightly and sits down in silence, staring at his lap. Me and Dan's mum attempt to salvage the conversation and I try my best to include Dan, but he stays quiet the entire time.

Me and Dan go up to his room and, after scrolling through many disturbing tumblr tags and inwardly cringing together, I leave for a minute go to the bathroom. I'm about leave, when I notice something glinting in the corner of my eye. Curiosity takes over my body and I turn around to see what it is.

And boy, I wish I didn't.

In the bin in the corner of the room, buried under a small pile of tissue, a silver blade sits there, coated in blood.