You're Never Alone

Chapter 4

^^ The dining room of the palace. It's almost what I imagined but whatever ^^

Word Count: 812

As Dan walks into the dining room for dinner, he sees his father give him a very disapproving look. They both sit and eat in silence but when Dan finishes and tries to leave, his father stops him.

    "Daniel." Dan freezes at the doors and turns around, leaning back.

    "Yes, father?" he mutters and the King looks at him.

    "I'm sorry about what happened to Chris. I wish his death could've been avoided." At the mention of his friend, Dan looks away.

    "Thanks, I guess," he says and then comes the conversation Dan had been trying to avoid.

    "How come you didn't you catch one today?" Dan closes his eyes as the day replays in his head and with a sigh, he quietly explains. "So, you almost got some but they got away?"

    "Yeah. I tried father, I really did but we keep losing because of your tactics," Dan argues, looking up at his father's face. The King takes a sip of wine before looking at his son again.

    "I'm the experienced one so that means that we use my ideas only," he states firmly but Dan isn't ready to give up.

    "That's not true! I'm the one who goes out there and fights them while you sit here and make plans that won't work!" he yells before quickly walking out of the room and out the front doors after changing into more casual clothes.

    Dan sprints down the streets and starts walking when he concludes that he's a decent distance from the palace. He walks on and on until he accidentally bumps into someone from not paying attention to where he's going. When he looks up, he's met with bright blue eyes and dark ebony hair on a boy his age with the same fringe as him.

    "Sorry," the boy mutters and Dan gives a small laugh.

    "No that was my fault. I wasn't paying attention to where I was going," Dan says and the boy gives a small smile before walking away, the opposite direction of Dan.

    He makes his way down the road to a small library. Inside, he's met with the smell of paper and dust, the smell of comfort. Venturing towards the back of the building, he finds a couple books that interest him and he occupies himself for a couple hours.

****

    The next morning, Phil is up before anyone else despite the fact that he was also up later than everyone else too. As he gets up from his cot, a small groan escapes from his lips as his back aches in protest against his movements. He gets up anyways and makes his way to the bathroom, looking in the mirror after closing the door softly behind him.

    He has dark bags beneath his eyes that are very prominent against his fair skin and his hair is disheveled and a mess all over his head, only  looking decent with some water and his fingers combing through it. Phil takes off his shirt and takes the bandages off from his wrist and torso, seeing that both spots were a bright red with patches of dark red all over. As he gets more bandages from the wood cabinet next to the mirror, he also notices bruises on his shoulders, forearms, the bottom of his back, all over his legs under his jeans, and a huge one on his right hip from when he fell off the building.

    Phil wraps his burned skin back up after putting some cream on to help them to heal faster and walks out of the bathroom to get a new shirt only to see PJ sitting on his cot and looking right at him. Putting on a navy blue shirt with much struggle, Phil looks over at PJ who's cot is right next to his.

    "Good morning," PJ says to Phil and Phil offers a small smile before sitting down on his own cot. "You got the worst of injuries out of all of us."

    "You couldn't be more right," Phil replys as he leans his head back on the concrete wall behind him, sighing. "Why do we have to kidnap a soldier to get what we want?"

    "You don't like the plan?" PJ asks and Phil shakes his head at his friend, looking at him from the corner of his eye. "Well kidnapping isn't the best idea we've ever come up with but we've tried almost everything else. It's not like we can kill the King, he has too many soldiers but it's also not like we can't kidnap his son. Kidnapping is wrong but it's the only choice we have."

    "I know but I just wish there was another way. What did Daniel Howell ever do to us?" Phil questions aloud and PJ thinks for a moment.

    "Nothing." And with that, the conversation ends as everyone else in the room stirs.