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He’s drowning. He can’t breathe. He tries to scream for help and inhales the water surrounding him.
He wants this to be over, he wants the darkness to come and take him away from this horror. It never comes.
He’s suspended in nothingness. He’s not sure which way is up and which way is down. All he knows is he’s in water and it’s dark. He tries to swim but he doesn’t seem to move from his position. He’s trapped.
He closes his eyes, he’s running out of air.
He’s going to die.
He’s going to die all alone.
Then there’s a voice “Open your eyes”
He knows that voice. Even though the muffled sound of it, he knows that voice. It echoes through the water.
“Dan.” It’s Phil “Dan, open your eyes”
And so he does.
He’s no longer in water, he’s not even wet.
He looks around the room, it’s his apartment.
No… it’s his old apartment, the first one he and Phil moved into, when they moved to London.
He’s stood in the centre of the old living room but something isn’t right. It’s dim, there’s a soft light coming in through the windows, like dawn is breaking.
He doesn’t see Phil. He tries to call out but he can’t open his mouth. All he feels is pain. He wants to scream but he can’t.
He touches his hand gently to his mouth. Delicately his fingers trace over his own lips. He stops abruptly as he ghosts over what feels like string. He’s suddenly hyper aware that his mouth is sewn shut.
He turns towards the fireplace and stares at himself in the mirror above it. His suspicions are confirmed. His mouth is sewn closed with black string. His mouth is covered in blood.
His breathing becomes heavy as the panic sets in. He tries to force his mouth open, but is only met with more pain. Hot tears roll down his cheeks.
He doesn’t know what is happening to him, he doesn’t know why he’s here.
He continues to try to pull his mouth apart, hooking his fingers under the thread. He groans in pain, it’s searing and sharp right through his nerves.
“Dan wake up” Phil’s voice says again.
Dan closes his eyes. The pain is too much. All he wants to do is scream but he can’t.
“Open your eyes”
Once again he listens to the voice.
He sits up in his bed. He exhales deeply and inhales equally as deep, then he’s sobbing. The sound erupts from his chest as he cries loudly, tears splash against his cheeks and then on to his hands.
“Dan? Are you okay?” A sleepy Phil asks, sitting up next to Dan.
Phil puts his arm round Dan’s shoulder and pulls him close, letting him cry into his shoulder.
“You just had a nightmare” Phil soothes “Whatever happened wasn’t real”
Dan nods.
They lay back down and Dan buries his head in Phil’s shoulder. Phil falls asleep quickly but Dan doesn’t think he can get back to sleep, his mind is racing with thoughts.
He slowly and carefully gets up from the bed and heads to the bathroom, he splashes water over his face and stares at himself in the mirror.
His eyes are puffy and red from him crying, he scans his face. Memories of the nightmare flood back. But his face looks normal, it was just a bad dream.
He splashes water against his face again and dries it with a towel, He pulls the towel gently over his face… He stops.
His breathing picks up again when he sees his face.
His mouth is sewn shut, it looks fresh. The blood is still running from the wounds.
“Dan, I told you to wake up”