*Gore Warning*

Blood.

When Dan came to this realization he felt like fainting. Or wait, worse, he felt like puking then fainting.

Dan has had a zero-tolerance policy on multiple things for a long time. He remembered enacting this ever since he was young. As an impressionable child, he suffered from multiple fears and phobias.

At first, it began with his stage fright, but soon it worsened into separate individual fears as he grew up. The more he was exposed to the world, the more he wanted to hide away and live in a bubble.

It wasn’t too hard for others to pick up on his strange behavior, so his sister had noticed this from early on.

Dan assumed that this could be the reason Miko was a little overprotective of him, as well as a little harsh. She probably thinks that he could get a thicker skin if she threw and spat her “tough love” onto him. However, this actually had the opposite effect on her brother.

This morning was a nice example. It wasn’t the first time she had woken him up roughly, and Dan doubted it would be the last. In Miko’s mind, a little jostle and tostle every now and then would make her brother bounce back stronger. Yet, little did she know, it made Dan want to retreat further and further into his shell.

In truth, she may have made things worse, but he would never tell her that. He still loved her dearly and wouldn’t want to hurt her feelings. Plus she’s not a parent, so Dan never blamed her, because technically this was her first time. And to be fair, he thought he probably gave her a harder time than she gave him.

Yet, the fear of blood hadn’t come from her. It came from somewhere else.

Against his wishes, a memory from long ago tried to resurface in his mind, and it took Dan all of his mental strength to push it back down and ignore it.

He shouldn’t think of the past anymore, he chided himself, he needed to concentrate on the present and his current situation.

Dan wanted to plug his nose and evade the suffocating smell of blood that permeated the room, but laughably, the putrid stuff had gotten on his hands and feet when he had accidentally crawled all over it. So, if he were to attempt to plug his nose, not only will he get blood on his face, but the smell would become stronger.

Since it has become like that, he had no choice but to suck it up. What other choice did he have?

Silently in his heart, Dan cried a little before he prepared himself to crawl around the puddle of blood. He took a few deep breaths, in and out, to steal himself. He managed to do this a couple of times before he gagged again from the thickness of the stench.

A little shaky, but still more mentally prepared than before, Dan decided it was now or never.

He took one measly step to his right and became closer to the wall. Hugging it, he tried to right his legs, and continue forward. However, the blood was still in a semi-liquid state, not yet completely dried out, and leaked over to the direction he was trying to go.

This made it more difficult because the blood had started to cover up the rest of the entire floor. This meant Dan could not easily get past it to look for his phone. He had to step over it, and seeing that Dan was still incapable of putting any weight on his injury, this was not doable.

He didn’t want to coat himself further, but again, he had no choice. He could only slosh right through it to be able to reach under the desk.

This is much worse than I thought.

He’d be lucky if he didn’t pass out right then. The lightheadedness had already touched the corners of his brain, but he was determined not to pass out. 

So he gathered a bit of courage and tried not to think twice as his left hand made contact in the puddle.

A shiver ran up his arm, and a cold feeling collected at the base of his spine giving him goosebumps. He looked at his right hand on an immaculate floor tile on the ground, it had already felt like an unmovable boulder.

He squeezed his fist, giving that arm some more feeling, and again without thinking, he gently lifted his right hand and put it down parallel to his left.

He tried so hard to ignore the second shot of tingling that rippled through his other arm. He wanted to focus his gaze somewhere else, but he couldn’t stop staring at his hands in that crimson pool.

He made an involuntary groan. It was just a very soft whimper, but it was rather loud in his own mind. It seemed amplified in a way, and Dan couldn’t help but lose a bit of his composure.

C’mon Dan, you got this, right?

As he tried to distract himself by saying some encouragement in his mind, he repeated his motions: deep breath, lift, down, deep breath, lift, and down. His motions took a long while to click, but he ended up getting a steady rhythm down.

Before he knew it, the desk towered over his head. Dan couldn’t help but feel rather proud. He finally managed to get through what he thought was the worst.

He shoved away the chair that was in its little crook, and dived under. His hands were starting to dry and become crusty, and he couldn’t help but rub them a little. Lowering himself further, he carefully glanced at the small space between the floor and the bottom of the desk.

At first, he didn’t see anything, and thought he went through hell for nothing. However, he finally spotted a rectangular shape and his heart sang with joy. He reached and was able to grab it easily. 

Dan then cradled the phone to his chest, as if it was a fragile flower, before he came to and checked it.

The screen flashed, and he scrolled through his contacts for his sister’s number. He finally found what he was looking for and hurriedly pressed the call button.

The phone emitted a soft dial tone, which sounded like music to Dan’s ears. On the fifth ring, his sister’s voice mail picked up instead.

“Hello, you’ve reached the number XXX-XXX-XXXX. It is currently not available right now or is out of the service area. Please leave a―”

“No! No no no no no no~”

Dan hung his head low. His small amount of hope had dissipated and he felt as chill run through his entire body, leaving his limbs heavy. He sagged further into the ground and into his thoughts.

Not in a million years did he think she wouldn’t answer. Dan mentally feel a stab in his heart, and insulted himself for not thinking of this outcome. He was already at the end of his line, what else could he do but feel a little sullen?

Before, he had certainly thought that she would pick up. No, he thought it was impossible for her not to. Miko had always had her phone on her, whether it was for his sake or hers. Meaning she never left without it.

Dan occupied his mind some more, trying to find a logical answer.

Maybe it had died? No, she had always taken care of it and carried a spare charger.

Then maybe it broke? Possible, but then again, she bought a sturdy case for it.

So then perhaps it’s not the phone but her? Maybe she had taken a shower, or left the radio on full blast as usual.

Dan’s head spun. He continued to make excuses for his sister, and plotted some plausible reasons for why she didn’t pick up. In fact, he was so immersed in his head that he didn’t realize the faint sound of the door unlocking behind him.