The next day was one of the good days, when he'd smile and laugh with me. But that day I wasn't even going to attempt to smile for Danny. My heart still hurt, still ached at the thought that he would ever hurt me intentionally. I knew yesterday wasn't really him, but it was still his face appearing before my eyes, it was still his hands wrapped around my throat, it was still Danny trying to strangle me. Even if it wasn't really him, it still was. And I couldn't get that out of my mind as he talked, still feeling his hands around my throat, in place of where the purple, blue, and green bruises were where his fingers would fit perfectly.

So I listened as he talked to me, hiding the difficulty I was having with breathing from him. He didn't seem to notice my lack of response until about an hour after he had been talking about what we were going to do when he got out of the camps infirmary. He looked at me with concern in his deep blue eyes, the same deep blue eyes that just yesterday had held a level of anger so high nothing could ever compare to it.

"Ty?" Danny asked as I silently twisted the promise ring he had given me on my finger. I didn't respond to him. "Love, what's wrong? Did I say something wrong? Is everything okay?"

"I'm fine." I managed to squeeze out of my throat. A wheeze accompanied my words, and Danny's concern only grew.

"Ty, you aren't fine. Tell me what's wrong. Please."

I turned my head away from him, remaining silent, letting him see the bruises on my neck. Danny went silent as he looked at them, his mind evaluating what he was seeing in front of him. He was silent for several long minutes before he spoke again, voice no more than a whisper.

"That wasn't Cyril, was it?" He asked. "He would have killed you if he had gotten his hands around you. That was me, wasn't it?" He didn't seem to need an answer from me to know the answer to his question. He began to silently cry where he was sitting propped up on his bed. "Ty, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to. I didn't mean to hurt you."

Once Danny started to cry, I couldn't help but to join him as my own tears slid down my face. We cried separately for a few minutes until Danny finally spoke again. "Ty... love, can yo-you come here, pl-please?" I nodded and stood up, holding my side where he had hit me yesterday as I did. I made my way over to his bed, and he grabbed my hand gently, tugging it a little, telling me to climb in with him. I did, still crying as I curled up into his side. Danny wrapped both of his arms around me, pulling me close to him as I cried, him still crying as well.

"I'm so sorry, Ty. I don't even remember doing that... I'm so sorry..." He ran a hand through my tight curls, pulling them away from his face as he pressed his lips to my forehead. "You know I didn't mean to, right? That if I had known what I was doing, I wouldn't have hurt you? You know that, right, love?"

His voice sounded pleading, as if he was asking for me to forgive him for trying to kill me. And in part, I had. I had forgiven him, because I knew that the Danny trying to kill me wasn't really Danny, that it was some dark, twisted version of him as he had tried to make sense of the world around. I had forgiven him for that. But in another part, I hadn't. I hadn't forgiven him. Somewhere in my mind, I kept thinking... what if he really did want to kill me? What if his love is fake, and this is just Danny's way to lure in prey to kill them? What if I was really his target, and this whole thing with Cyril was just an act? What if Danny was Cyril, if Danny was the leader of the half-monsters, and had told Cyril to beat him up to make me believe that he was attacked, and to lead me to hate the wrong person, and really, Cyril was the victim in all of this? I couldn't help but to think... What if that was the reality I was living in?

"Ty?" Danny croaked out when I didn't respond. He sounded desperate, pleading. "You know that, right? You know I'd never dream of hurting you, right? I'd never even think of hurting you. You know that, right? Come on, love. You have to know this. Please. Answer me, Ty."

I couldn't help as the doubt of his love grew in my mind at his desperate pleading, and I shook my head. Danny's breath hitched in his throat. "Love... Ty... Please..." He tried to hold me closer to him as he began to cry more, but I didn't let him. I pushed myself out of his arms as I struggled to breath through my constricted throat, trying to breath like I had been the day before. I felt his fingers around my throat once more, constricting my airway again. I reached my hands up, trying to pry his fingers away again, but they weren't there. But it felt like they were, and I kept trying to get them away, still struggling to breath. I was able to get more air into my lungs than I had been yesterday, but I was still struggling.

Danny seemed to begin to panic as I began to cough and wheeze, kneeling on the ground as I continued to struggle. "Ty, love. What's wrong. Please, answer me. Please!"

I tried to, but I couldn't. I couldn't get anything out of my lungs, or into them, for that matter. Danny's panic seemed to rise, and he pulled his tubes out again, dropping from the bed to scoop me into his arms, gasping as he did. He carried me in his arms, rushing out of the room and in tears, calling for help. Spirits met him in the hallway, grabbing me from him and holding him back as they carried me to another room and he tried to follow. He struggled against the spirits before collapsing onto the ground, sobbing, and that was the last I had seen of Danny that day as he vanished around the frame of a door as I was carried into a new room.