ADOPTED BY PHAN

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

Oh my god the whole time I wrote this my pet bird wouldn't stfu ;-; I love him and all but jesus christ my head is going to implode. Anyway, enjoy!

Tuesday morning went by quite smoothly. Phil visited Dan whilst Iris was in school, and all three had been avoiding the harassment received on social media.

Phil is just about to leave the hospital room when Dan speaks up, "Wait!"

"Yeah?" Phil replies, turning his head.

"Can you fill in for my live show tonight?" Dan asks guiltily.

Phil looks confused, "You can't just cancel it?"

"I've cancelled so many times," Dan explains, "I don't want to let the fans down again."

"I don't know, Dan-"

"Please?" He interrupts, giving Phil his best puppy-dog-eyes.

"Fine." Phil breathes out. "But what if they don't like me?"

Dan beckons Phil to come closer, giving the older man a sweet little kiss on his cheek. "They'll love you, just like I do." He whispers. "Now get out of my room and get home, Iris is probably waiting for you."

"I still can't believe we have a daughter," Phil whispers, mostly to himself.

"I still can't believe we let her stay home alone." Dan says, hinting to Phil that he needs to join her in the lonely flat.

"Right, I'd better get going then." He snaps his finger and points at Dan.

"Wow Phil, you're such a cool guy. That finger snapping thing-"

"I'm leaving!" Phil interrupts, heading out the door.

"Wait! Get back here and kiss me!"

* * *

You're going to hate me for this hahaha haha ha *cries*

Iris interrogates Phil as soon as he comes through the door. "Daddy! Where were you? How's dad? Were you visiting him? Why didn't you take me with you? Is-"

"Everything's fine, Iris." Phil reassures her, though his face drops when she still appears to be in a panic. He asks her, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," She replies immediately.

"Seriously, Iris." Phil crosses his arms, "What's wrong?"

Iris bites her lip, walking over to the coffee table and picking up her open laptop. She brings it over to Phil, showing him her Twitter Mentions.

After reading through the majority, Phil has no idea what to do. Everything these people have said sound so negative and threatening, what can he say to make things better?

He looks at the time at the bottom of her laptop, gasping when he realizes he's late for Dan's live show.

"What is it?" Iris asks him innocently.

"I promised Dan that I'd fill in for his live show, and I'm already late-"

"Go do it then!" Iris encourages him, "I'll be fine, trust me." She then makes her way to her room, shouting something along the lines of 'come and get me when you're done'.

Phil quickly logs into his Twitter on Iris' laptop, then onto YouNow. He quickly Tweets the link just before beginning the stream.

"Hello!" He greets his viewers once he's online. The comments immediately start piling up with questions and what-not. Everyone's topic is Dan.

As Phil tells the story of Dan's stroke, Iris sits alone in her room. Drowning in her thoughts, she can't think of anything else to do. She picks up a metal clip and takes out her lighter, wiping away a few stray tears before lifting her sleeve and burning the already damaged skin.

She tries a few more times, but the words just won't go away. She needs something more.

She needs sleep.

Sneaking into the washroom is no problem as Phil is still on YouNow. He doesn't even react when the door closes a little louder than Iris had planned.

She locks the door behind her, allowing the tears that had been threatening to fall all day finally spill from her green eyes. She immediately turns into a mess; her eyes are red and her nose is stuffy. And all she can think is, I want this pain to go away.

But the only way to make the pain go away is to kill it off. And you can't do that without killing yourself.

Reality fades out as she goes searching through the medicine cabinet. She grabs any bottle she can find; sleeping pills, Dan's anti-depressants, even a few pain-killers.

As she pours the pills into her palm, she is no longer herself, but the demon in her brain. There must be at least fifty pills in her hand. But Iris doesn't stop to comprehend that - she doesn't think anything over. Not once does she think of her parents, or her friends, or Skye. Nothing else matters but these pills, and the voice in her head encouraging her to take them all at once.

And she does. Iris shoves every pill into her mouth, washing it down with water. She continues until she begins to feel fatigued, with the bottles empty. And the last thing she does is Tweet a goodbye, before letting the darkness submerge her.

'@Surpriris:

If I mean anything to you I'm sorry but I've made up my mind.'

Only one person comes to the conclusion that those lyrics hold a serious message. But they may just be a minute too late.