Phan - Mental Case [The End]

Author's Note - This is Phil's POV the entire way through.

    I had to wait another 2 days until I saw Dan again. The day he was coming out of solitary, but someone had to tell him that he might be moved to the place. Before myself and Alice left to go get him he was sitting in the corner with his head hidden behind his knees and his arms wrapped around himself. Something told me he knew he might be going there already, but surely he couldn't? I mean, he's been in there by himself for a month with the exception of that time we had to put him to sleep for self harming. Alice was worried we might have to do it again since when we saw him on the camera when we left he was shaking and crying. I was scared. There was obviously something wrong.
    Before I knew it I was once again standing outside the door to solitary hearing Dan's sobs coming from inside.
"Before we go in, do you know what's wrong with him?" Alice whispered, I shook my head slowly and she nodded her head. Then she turned the key in the lock and pushed open the door. Dan's sobs got louder as I walked in. He didn't look up so I knelt down beside him with Alice.
"Dan what's wrong?" she asked softly but he didn't say anything. I reached out and touched his hand, but he immediately got up and ran to the other side of the room with wide frightened eyes making Alice and I jump.
"Dan?" I asked getting up and walking over to him
"Stay away from me." He warned so I started walking slowly instead.
"It's ok Dan. It's Phil, the man you lived with for 4 years, I'm not going to hurt you."
"Stay Away!" he screamed cowering in the corner, shaking like a leaf. I noticed Alice walking just as slowly next to me.
"Dan listen to me, we're going to take you back to the dorms, you don't need to be scared, we're not going to hurt you." she said soothingly. That was when Dan fell to the floor and started shaking violently. We rushed over to him.
"Dan!? Dan can you hear me?" Alice exclaimed as she looked into his eyes. I didn't know what to do. Dan didn't reply to her.
"What's happening to him?" I cried taking his hand in my own and clinging to it for dear life although it was shaking like mad.
"Phil, go get Kat. Tell her to bring some anesthetic." she said seriously and carried on trying to help Dan. I let go of his hand and ran out. She would be in the canteen, it was dinner time.
    I ran as fast as my legs would carry me to the canteen and only just managed not to run into Kat when I saw her.
"Phil? Phil what's wrong?" she asked taking me by the shoulders.
"Something's happening to Dan, Alice says you need to get to solitary now with anesthetic." I panted and she immediately ran out. I ran back to Dan and saw he had gotten worse. He was shaking more violently.
"Stay with me Dan, you'll be okay just stay with me." Alice said trying to get him to still, but it was obvious he couldn't control it. Seconds later Kat came back in with a needle.
"Hold him still Phil." Alice ordered and I pulled his shaking form onto my lap and just about managed to still his head and neck. She put the needle in and pushed the anesthetic into his blood stream. I looked at his eyes. They were wide and frightened. I put my arm around his waist and held him tight as he slowly stopped shaking.
"It'll be okay, I'm here. Go to sleep I won't leave." I continued whispering these things into his ear until his entire body stilled, his eyes cloudy, dull and open lazily. I noticed Alice and Kat had gone, but I didn't know where. Dan gave the odd twitch every now and then.
"Close your eyes." I said looking down at him. It was weird how even in moments like these he refused to sleep.
"N...N...No." he muttered and looked up at me. His eyes were not the eyes I knew. The eyes I knew showed happiness and laughter. These eyes showed me pain and tiredness. Alice and Kat came back in a few moments later.
"You still won't sleep?" Alice asked smiling slightly. Dan shook his head ever so slightly on my chest. "Phil, close his eyes." He looked up at me again as my finger tips found his eyelids and closed them. I didn't realize he was tense until he went limp in my arms.
"Will you be okay to carry him?" Kat asked me.
"Where are we taking him?" I replied looking at her.
"The Infirmary, we went to get the doctors there immediately, they told us to bring him there as soon as possible." she said. Carefully, I put one arm around his back, the other under his legs and stood up. Both Alice and Kat smiled slightly as we left locking the door behind us. I looked at him the entire way there, I watched as he uncontrollably twitched, as he frowned slightly and pressed his head harder into my chest. As soon as we got there he was taken from my arms and led away. I didn't know where to but they took him up a corridor and behind a door. Whatever had happened must have been serious as they had to get doctors and nurses from the city's hospital in.
"He'll be okay won't he?" I asked Alice as I wiped away the small tears that fell from my eyes.
"I don't know Phil, I'm sorry." she said as she put her arm through mine and put her head on my shoulder in the waiting rooms.
    When I finally got to see Dan, I didn't expect to see what I saw. I thought what had happened in solitary was just a seizure, but apparently it wasn't. He was lying on the bed unconscious, tubes ran from his arms into different machines and he had breathing equipment that amplified the sound of him breathing. There were so many wires and tubes, and Dan had his own room. I sat down in the chair next to his bed and properly looked at him. He was ghostly pale and had bags under his eyes. He was almost unrecognizable under the equipment that swamped his face and I noticed he still twitched. There were so many tubes running from different parts of his body up to different machines and if it weren't for the sound of Dan's breathing and the heart monitor I could have mistaken him for being dead. As suspected, he had scars running up his arms from what he had done. Then I noticed that he was waking up and I didn't know if he was supposed to be. His eyes were already open by the time I had decided to go and get someone.
"Dan?" I said lightly and took his hand which shook slightly. He looked at me from the corner of his eyes and started crying.
"P...P...Pai...Pa...Pain." I managed to hear him stutter as the tears escaped his eyes. He was still shaking slightly and I felt helpless as I realized he was in a lot of pain.
"Do you want me to go and get someone?" I asked softly and he nodded, then grimaced at the pain it brought him. I let go of his hand and walked outside to find Alice sitting there. She stood up when she saw me.
"He's awake." I whispered and she shook her head
"He can't be awake yet, he'll be in immense pain, we need to sedate him again." she said and walked in. Dan saw her and watched her walk over to the side of the bed, he carried on crying.
"Dan we need to put you back to sleep okay?" she said softly and squeezed his hand.
"It...It...Hu...Hur...Hu...Hurts" he stuttered quietly as he looked at her with pleading eyes. She shushed him.
"Don't speak Dan, if you go back to sleep the pain will go away okay?" she said and he nodded. She walked over to the drawers and loaded a needle with the anesthetic. I sat down and grabbed his hand again.
"I love you." I said as Alice walked to the other side of the bed and pressed the needle in to Dan's skin. Surprisingly he moaned in pleasure. I looked at Alice. She mouthed 'It gets rid of the pain' at me. I squeezed Dan's hand as his eyes fluttered closed again.
"Tell me if he wakes up again." she smiled at me as she walked out. I watched him sleep for hours. I watched as his chest rose and fell and he still twitched. I still had no idea what happened but I don't think I want to know either. I listened to his breathing that the equipment was still making louder and the constant beep of the heart monitor. Then it happened.
    I was just dozing off in the chair next to Dan's bed when his fingers dug into my hand. I cried out in pain and looked at Dan. He was asleep but something wasn't right. He didn't look right. Then he started screaming. He screamed so loud and scrunched his eyes up. Then he started shaking again. Doctor's burst in as they heard his screams and I was pulled away from him and outside by Alice who clung onto my arm when we were in the waiting room again. We could hear him screaming from here.
"What's happened?" I asked her as Dan's screams got louder.
"No idea, what did he do while you were in there?"
"He dug his nails into my hand, then he started screaming." I replied looking at her. She looked as clueless as I did.
"His screams remind me of the hostile." she shuddered.
"The Hostile?"
"Oh, you probably know it as the place"
"Oh, right." I replied. The rest of the night was spent in silence as Alice still clung onto me and we both eventually fell asleep.
    I was woken up the next day by Alice, she shook me awake and I saw she was still sitting next to me.
"They said you can go see him now if you want." she smiled at me. I returned the smile, got up and walked down the corridor to Dan's room. Taking in a breath I pushed open the door. There were more machines this time and he was still unconscious. I sat down next to him like I had the previous day and took his hand. The only scenario I could come up with for why he screamed like that was Edward had made an appearance. Sometimes I forget Dan has schizophrenia because he seemed like a normal guy if you didn't know he had it. I heard a groan that pulled me out of my thoughts and turned to see that Dan was looking at me through half open eyes.
“Alice!” I called and she walked in a few seconds later and rushed over to him.
“Hello Dan.” she smiled at him, I noticed a tear escaping through the corner of his eye that she quickly wiped away. “Don’t cry, you’ll be okay I promise.” Carefully she turned his head so he was looking at me and sedated him. He squeezed my hand ever so slightly as I waited for him to fall back asleep and Alice left. It seemed like forever until he did. He looked at me with pain in his eyes but he didn’t complain. He just looked. Eventually his eyes slowly closed and I turned his head so it was facing the ceiling again. Then I noticed a note on the bedside table with my name on it.

phil,
i don’t even know why i’m writing this, i’m in solitary and you’re not, but edward keeps coming. he’s taunting me. he won’t let me sleep. he’s scaring me phil. please come take me out of here he won’t go away. he says he’s going to kill me and i’m terrified. i know he will do it. he’ll happily take me away from you. when i first came here i started to believe he was just a hallucination, but he gets more real every day. i can’t do it anymore phil. please just help me.
dan

And then, in that moment, I realized why Dan had been screaming. Edward had turned up and said he was going to kill him and Dan had nobody to help him. I still didn’t know why he had started shaking violently in solitary but I now knew one more piece of the puzzle.
So, I guess this is where the story ends.
In this moment, here, right now, with Dan lying in a hospital bed unconscious and me holding his hand. The point is, I can’t let this go on any longer. I can’t let Dan live in fear of Edward. One day, I hope we can look back on it as old men, and remember it all. But we’re here, right now in this moment. We are not old men. We cannot look back on it just yet.  Dan is broken. That’s the only way to describe it. He is beyond broken. But he’s not un-repairable.
I will fix him if it’s the last thing I do.