Will shifted uneasily as the silence stretched onward, and shot a furtive look toward the large window giving the room the most light. A thought occurred to him, and he turned to block the flame's light with his body.

"Should… we cover the window, or something? So it doesn't see in?"

Danny shook his head, holding his clean hand over the soup to test the temperature. He hummed, picking up a bent spoon and stirring it a little.

"They don't have eyes, so it wouldn't matter."

Will looked out at the forest again, watching the curls of fog seep around barren branches. He had so many questions about this place, and the whiplash away from being constantly terrified was making his stomach queasy.

A tickle in the back of his throat had him coughing roughly into the crook of his arm, holding his candle to the side. When he opened his eyes again, he startled back into the couch, hot wax slopping down the back of his hand and smothering the tiny flame.

Just as the pain startled a hiss out of him, Danny was kneeling in front of him, gently pulling the candle out of his hand and pulling the quickly-cooling wax up off his skin. How had he moved across the room that fast?

"How long did it have you before you escaped?" the teen asked, voice strangely flat.

Will felt a prickle of unease up the back of his neck, and pulled his hand away from cold fingers.

"It didn't." He mumbled, "It dragged me here and I shot it and I've been hiding ever since."

And running away, but that was probably a given.

Danny looked up at him, brows furrowed slightly. It was more obvious than ever, the strange luminescence lighting up his cheeks a pale blue. Like the eerie cyan of a deep sea glow fish he once saw on the TV.

"You shot at it? With a gun?"

Will swallowed dryly, nodding.

"I, uh… dropped it and ran when it ran out of ammo."

He felt foolish now, thinking back on it. He should have kept it and looked for more ammo to protect himself with, but the extra weight and bulky shape meant it would have slowed him down when running. But Danny was grinning, practically bouncing back to the skillet to give it another stir.

"Do you remember where you dropped it?" he asked. Will picked another bit off wax off his knuckle, relieved that it was just turning red, and not blistering or anything. Then again, it was hard to tell in the dim light. He already missed the candle.

"By the front porch of my house. I was trying to talk to my mom when it attacked me."

The rhythmic scrape of the spoon on cast-iron stopped, and Will was acutely aware of how humans shouldn't be able to be that still.

"Your mom's here?"

Will shook his head slightly, pulling his legs up onto the couch and tentatively pulling one of the blankets off the backrest to pull over himself.

"She's still.. uh, not here. In the real world? But… she's really smart, and she figured out that I can make her lamps glow." He licked his lips, wondering if he should be telling him this – if he would use it against him.

What if Danny tried to trick his mom? What if… what if he killed Will and pretended to be him in order to kill her too?! He clammed up, burrowing a bit more into the cushions.

The teen started moving again, tapping the spoon against the skillet and raising it to his mouth to taste. He nodded slightly, and grabbed a chipped mug before tilting the skillet and pouring some of the soup inside. Danny crouched down after dropping the spoon into the mug and setting a lid over the skillet, blowing out the candles.

Left in the darkness, it was like two dim lamps were bobbing toward him as Danny approached the couch, offering the mug. Will took it gingerly, holding it close to his chest.

"Aren't you hungry…?" Danny had laid down, sprawling out over the cluttered floor and pushing aside some sort of motor with his foot. He waved his hand dismissively and yawned, flopping his arm back on the floor.

"I made that all for you, don't worry. Help yourself."

The blue light blinked away as Danny closed his eyes, and Will realized how dark it had really gotten, with the sun setting on this already-dim world. He forewent the spoon and just sipped at the warm soup, sighing as the bright flavor burst over his tongue. All he needed was some grilled cheese and it'd be easy to pretend that this whole ordeal never happened.

Will practically gulped it down, the near-scalding liquid reminding him how hungry he had been. How long had he been in this world, anyway? Days? Weeks? He couldn't remember eating anything until now, so why hadn't he felt hungry?

He slid off the couch, dragging a blanket cape behind him as he carefully spooned more soup into his mug, breathing in the tomato smell with relish. A few mugs later, and Will was heading back to the couch, wedging himself into the cushions and piling another blanket on top of himself.

Danny was still sprawled out on the ground, and Will resisted the urge to check his breathing. The teen's chest wasn't moving, but that wasn't much more worrying than all the other weird hints the guy had been throwing off.

Black ooze that had been clinging to Danny's hand after the…confrontation… with the monster had been drying and chipping off all night, but Will could see some of it still crusted on the back of his wrist.

How…. How had he fought it off?

But between the warm blankets and the taste of tomato soup lingering on his tongue, sleep was doing a spectacular job of drawing him in. With the faint thought of 'no other choice but to trust him', and more questions than he had before he met the other boy, Will fell asleep.