A/N: Hope you enjoy, a review would really make my day :)
Sometimes Dan wondered how he got in these situations.
As he looked over the audience from the stage, handcuffs secured around his wrists and ankles, he felt like he might throw up.
Until the magic assistant started to submerge him in the water tank.
At that point even if he wanted to throw up, he wouldn't have had much choice in the matter.
Dan POV
48 HOURS BEFORE THE INCIDENT
The day had begun fairly smoothly, he had started by playing some pokemon GO, scrolled tumblr for a few hours before meeting with the secret individual at the secret location Louise had specified. She had announced that she had hooked him up for a blind date last week, so if he turned up dead somewhere at least he could blame her.
After a lazy day of doing not much at all, evening rolled in. It was a pitch black night, the moon shining through dan's window as he struggled for an outfit that was both as black as the proverbial sky, and also not so black that his supposed 'date' would think he wanted to throw himself off of the nearest bridge.
After deciding on an almost completely black outfit, save for a slightly grey shirt, he decided to jump into a cab and leave for the date before he changed his mind- it would be rude for him to ignore Louise even though they were really good friends. In fact she was probably his best friend.
The secret location turned out to be Times Square, where some sort of magic show seemed to be taking place. Checking his watch, Dan decided that, as much as he would have liked to, he didn't have time, and instead stood to wait for his date.
The magic show soon ended, and minutes later a tall man with black hair approached, shuffling a pack of cards in his hands before preparing to set them back in the box and put them in his pocket.
"Hey you must be Dan, Louise said you'd be here. I'm Phil." The man said, a hand outstretched mid-wave.
"Yeah that's right, I mean I am Dan... Sorry I haven't been on a date in a while."
"Me neither, you wanna get something to eat? It's a bit late for coffee."
"Sure."
The set off at a walk under the instructions of Phil's phone's GPS, chatting aimlessly.
"So what do you do?" Phil asked. Dan stroked the back of his head nervously before replying.
"I make youtube videos... it's kinda stupid..."
"It's not stupid! I'd love to make videos for a job. Just between you and me I met Louise through her videos." He said, his eyes conveying a very important secret- like he'd just revealed he was from the planet Krypton.
"Oh then you must have seen me in some of her videos." Dan said.
"Yeah I have actually, that was how she convinced me that you were nice and I wasn't just going on a date with another jerk." He explained, opening the door of the restaurant and allowing Dan to step through the hallway first.
"I hope you like Japanese food..." Phil added nervously. "I didn't think to ask... I just assumed. Sorry."
"Are you kidding? Who doesn't love Japanese food?" Dan said, laughing as they were seated at their table.
"So what do you do?" Dan inquired.
"Well... believe it or not. I'm actually a magician. You can call me 'the amazing Phil'."
He added a sly wink just to punctuate his point, and the way Phil's eyes looked, Dan had a slight inkling he wasn't just talking about his magical career on stage.
Dan had a feeling he was talking about something much, much different at the same time.
"Fucking hell, really?"
Phil nodded.
"So it was your magic show that was in Times Square..?"
"Correct again." Phil said.
"Awesome. I'd love to see you at a show sometime!"
"Well then, why don't you? I'll text you the details." Phil said.
"You'll have to get my phone number first..." Dan said, smirking as he leaned closer to Phil from across the table.
"Game on." Was all Phil said.
36 HOURS BEFORE THE INCIDENT
The next morning Dan awoke to the noise of an insistent 'Ding' noise from his phone.
Followed by another.
And another.
Until finally his phone began serenading him with the sound of Muse at full pelt, the noise making him curse and jolt up out of bed to slam the 'answer' button and force the phone to his ear- both angry and sleep deprived.
"What?!" Dan muttered, his voice sounding thick with sleep even to his own ears.
"Oh... You were asleep." The sound of 'The Amazing Phil' run through his head, his own voice already sounding caffeinated and awake.
"You think?! What do you waaaannntt..." He groaned.
"I wanted to know if you would like to come to one of my shows."
Dan didn't even think- deciding that sleep was more important, he muttered a simple 'yes' and then forced Phil to text him the rest of the details so he could return to the wonderful land of sleep.
24 HOURS BEFORE THE INCIDENT
"So... how did it go?" Louise pressed, her coffee long since gone cold as she tried to probe Dan for answers like an Alien on a spaceship.
"It was great... So far I really like him! And he's a magician- that's cool." He said, taking another sip of his caramel macchiato.
Autumn had long since set in.
"It is isn't it?!" She said, "So have you kissed him yet?"
He just glared at her, a look that said what the hell do you take me for?
"So no." She sighed, staring at him with a sad expression, like he a kid missing out on the world's best ice cream.
"You should." Was all she said, and then rose as if to leave.
"Wait!" He shouted in a panic, forcing others in the cafe to look up at him with glares.
Lowering his register considerably, he then repeated, "Will you come to his show with me?"
"When is it?" Was all she said, a neutral expression on her face. It was almost as if she enjoyed messing with him.
"Tomorrow at 6 or something..."
She sighed.
"Fine. But only if your paying."
"That's fine."
"And we get front row seats."
"That's also fine."
"And you promise to kiss Phil."
"That's... less fine."
"Is that a no I hear?" She asked, once again heading towards the door.
The movement forced him to sigh.
"It's a maybe." Was all he said.
THE SHOW
They were considerably early, at least 15 minutes early before they had left the house. However traffic had caused them to show up just as the show was starting, with no idea where their seats were, and with no time at all to talk to Phil before hand.
Phil had sent him perhaps 10 messages asking Dan where he was before Dan had finally begun to realise that he and Louise would be late and would probably need Phil's help to navigate the theatre;
We're running late, where are we sitting so we can get in without causing a scene? Dan texted.
Ugh that might be kinda difficult as you're literally in the front row. Was all Phil said.
Fuck. Dan thought.
Luckily they weren't that late, maybe 5 minutes late, so when they worked their way towards the front, others were still filling their way into the concert hall, so they weren't the only ones.
They walked to the front as quickly as possible until reaching their seats- they were fairly difficult to miss as the hairs had their names on them in large black letters.
Dan was just about to sit down after putting his jacket on the back of the chair when he realised there was a small piece of paper on the seat of the chair.
It read;
Warning
Those sitting in front row seats may be asked to participate in the show, good luck!
The Amazing Phil
"Oh God no." Dan muttered.
"You alright?" Louise whispered, keeping her voice down as Phil introduced the show.
"It's fine I just hate audience participation that's all."
"I'm sure Phil will know that don't worry..." She tried to reassure him, but even she didn't look very convinced.
Dan had to admit the show was impressive, and Phil did have skill, but he couldn't really concentrate on the stage because every few minutes or so, Phil's assistants would pick someone from the audience to participate in the next trick, and Dan sat in constant dread that it would be him.
However, much to his relief the show went smoothly.
Until the closing act.
"Now ladies and gentlemen," Phil said with a flourish of his top hat, "This final act needs a very special volunteer, so for this I would like to call to the stage my friend Dan Howell."
At that exact moment two assistants grabbed him by the arms and herded him softly towards the stage. He couldn't get any words out, but once he was on stage he couldn't back out.
He couldn't back out now. Now that he was on stage. With all these people watching.
Phil walked up to him and lowered his mic volume, shaking his shoulder softly.
"Are you alright Dan?"
"Yeah I'm fine." Dan said, hoping if he said it aloud that would make it true.
Phil studied his face for a moment before looking at Louise for reassurance. Dan nodded to her to let her know he was alright, and then she nodded to Phil.
Seemingly that was all Phil needed as he turned his microphone volume back up and turned back to the audience.
"Alright. So Dan, for this trick I just want to make sure you're happy with my handcuffing you." He said with a sly wink to the audience.
"F-f-for what purpose...?" Dan stuttered.
"Well that's for me to decide." Phil said, as his assistants moved towards Dan to lead him above the stage away from the audience's view.
As Dan was lead up the stairs, all he could hear was Phil's voice below him and his own heart pounding in his ears.
"So, my assistants are currently leading dan up the stairs to the tank, "Phil said, "Now I can assure you that I have done this trick before, so hopefully nothing should go wrong. Now as I've said my assistants will lead dan to a tank filled with water, and handcuff him to the bottom of it, then a group of flesh eating piranhas will fall from above, and it will be up to me to save him." Phil explained as the assistants handcuffed me to the base of the tank. The water was only up to my ankles at that point, and so I hadn't begun to panic.
"Dan." Whispered Phil, turning to me and placing his hand on the glass.
He spoke just loud enough for the mic to pick up the sound, increasing the tension of the silent room.
"Don't be afraid. I will save you." He said.
"I trust you." I said.
"Ok." Phil said, and then the water rained down from above.
I sucked in a sharp breath as I watched Phil wave his wand.
I felt one of the handcuffs snag free and held my hand up to show it was free. Maybe I would be fine.
Then, I watched the audience's face turn from excitement to fear, and the water changed from blue to red.
The red of my blood.
"DAN!" Phil screamed and rushed up the stairs to throw himself into the tank, but the assistants held him back. Then, another minute passed before Phil smirked, and snapped his fingers.
The audience screamed and shouted in fear, as suddenly I disappeared from the tank, and stood next to Phil, dripping wet.
"Hello Dan." He said, passing me one towel before using the other he already had in his hand to dry of my soaking head. Wait.. had that towel been there before?
Then he grabbed my hand and shoved it into the air, bowing both of us before the crowd.
Another minute passed in cheering, and then..
And then Phil grabbed me by the waist and kissed me.
Hard.
And it was like magic. He really was amazing.
So amazing I barely realised we lost our balance and began to fall towards the now blue, water tank.
A/N: A review would be amazing :)