I knock on the cold door; the metal of the handle cools my sweating palms as I turn it. I don't know what I was expecting, walking into a stranger's hospital room but it certainly wasn't what I found. Four different varieties of apparatus all lined up beside a dull blue hospital bed, various cylindrical pipelines connected the beeping monsters to a young boy. If I hadn't known any better, I would've mistaken the boy for an apparition. Nurses dissipate out of the room and suddenly it is only me alone with the frail figure.
"Dan?" I breathe out, my words barely audible over the soft hum of the machines. For a moment everything is silent, except for the mellow beeps coming from the boy's life support machines. I let my mind wander for a moment, over the shallow waters of my thoughts, over Dan...
"W-who- Phil?!" a mix of shock and embarrassment wash over me as the brown-haired boy pulls me out of my thoughts. I take a moment to look around the room, grey curtains hung over a tiny window on the far side of the room, dying flowers were set in a vase on a tiny table next to Dan's bed, thin white sheets were stacked in a pile against a wall, the room was dull, gloomy, I suppose they make it like that on purpose, so no one stays here a moment longer than they have too, I suppose it works. My eyes return back to the hospital bed and the brown-haired boy.
"What are you doing here?" he sits up in his bed and directs all of his attention to me. I don't move from the doorway but instead shuffle my feet, I rack my brain and go over the plan. Step 1, get Dan on board.
"How are you feeling?" Good, make small talk, get him comfortable. People are often more likely to follow you into the mouth of the shark if they know you.
"Horrible" he admits; I watch his mouth twist as he looks around the plain room.
"I'm gonna get you out of here," I say abruptly; a look of bewilderment passes over his face.
"w-why, we've never even talked before a-and-" I cut him off
"aren't these flowers lovely?" my gaze rests on the dwindling flowers beside his bed. He looks at the flowers then back to me, I meet his gaze. I see the cogs turning in his brain and his face almost goes as white as the walls.
"Y-you know? H-how?!" I smile.
"People talk, Dan. Did you really think you could hide your identity forever?" he begins to say something then thinks better of it and shuts his mouth.
"Now, back to the plan"
