I am so terribly sorry for the long wait and I feel terrible for it. I was originally going to wait for summer to start but it is already one and two days into summer, but I think it only started two days ago because I still had spring sports to attend to (WE WON STATES-again) Anyways I will really try to post more. Again I am sorry O.O

I don't own anything but the plot

Danny spent his walk home thinking about the man who ran into him, literally. He had a certain charm about him that intrigued Danny. He had been completely mesmerized when he talked. And that deep voice that sent chills up his spine without his consent.

Only one word could describe what Danny was feeling: fear. Utter fear from talking to someone, a man of similar size and build. It just wasn't that Vlad was a man but it was the fact that he had towered over Danny in not just height. He placed a mask on when he was talking to a stranger hoping the taller man could not see through him and realize how afraid Danny was in their brief encounter. Danny felt inadequate to the stranger. Vlad was just more. There was no better way to describe how Danny felt. He was less and the suited man was more. And more scared Danny.

As Danny reached his building he climbed up the stairs to his small apartment, getting slightly out of breath from climbing four flights of the shabby yellow stained stairs. He made quick work of digging his keys out of his pocket and inserted the key into the doors lock. When he entered he put his stuff down by the door and proceeded to enter his room so he could have some form of relaxation from his day at work.

Danny loved his customers and talking with them was a way for him to actually talk with people on a small scale, but the fear of what every person could do puts him on edge and makes him forget how to relax. He does this to himself every day and it builds up over time adding to his ever increasing exhaustion. When it builds up too much, Danny's body just can't take it and will force him to surrender to his own needs without a say-so from Danny. This has never happened before the... no, he can't think of it. Like it happened yesterday and not six years ago. He just needs to get over it, but honestly, if you are not over it by now, will you ever?

Danny collapses on top of his bed, face first into his plush pillows. Danny's room is not as good as professing Danny's love of space as his bakery, but it does the job for the young man. The bedding is a galaxy format where the pillows have a moon on one side and sun on the other, and both rock and star are surrounded by the constellations. While the Pillowcases are realistic and based on the actual sky, the puffy bed comforter is the usual galaxy design where the center is a scare of white color with pinks, yellows, blues, and greens leak from it in lightning bolt shapes. And of course, there is a splatter of different shape white dots surrounding the lightened hole in the blanket's sky to give the visual effect of a night sky.

Even though the bed set was unrealistic, it still meant the world to Danny to have his forgotten dream still live on in his life. When Danny was young and adults asked them what they wanted to be when they grew up, Danny always said "an astronaut" at age three, ten, and even in the beginning of high school, before he realized that his dream wasn't going to be a reality.

The rest of Danny's room is dark with black dressers and a bedside table to match. The walls are painted a dark navy blue. Danny had to ask his landlord if he could actually paint the once yellow crusted walls in a bold blue and ended up baking the man cinnamon rolls as well as oatmeal raisin cookies to coax the man into allowing him to paint the walls a different color. After the color ordeal, Danny's landlord actually started to go to his bakery and buy the heavenly cinnamon rolls and the otherworldly oatmeal cookies. Of course Danny only heard the man mutter these things about his cooking when he was either muttering it under his breath or it was painfully obvious that even Danny, the clueless wonder, couldn't miss the way the man's eyes rolled to the back of his head when he took a bite of his baked goods.

Despite having the colorful bedspread, the rest of his room and house are void personalization. Sure there is one of two pictures in the living room and one could find a few more in the back of Danny's closet, but there was no specific thing on top of the dresser that screamed, "THIS IS DANNY'S STYLE AND THEREFORE DANNY LIVES HERE: NONE SHALL PASS!" The young bakery owner had the minimum; he owned the essentials and little more for some comfort. There is another odd and yet important aspect about Danny's apartment: he has no mirrors. Danny does not have any mirrors in his small piece of property and he doesn't intend to anytime soon. It's just easier for him if he doesn't know what he looks like; he doesn't want to look at himself because he's afraid of what he'll see. Besides, he knows enough about his features to satisfy himself long enough to last his small fear of mirrors.

Danny then lets out a deep breath into his galaxy patterned pillows wondering if he should even waste energy on making himself dinner. He wasn't even sure if he could build up an appetite to eat all of it. Thinking hard on the matter, of how long it will take to get up, prepare the food, work up some form of motivation to eat it, and then sit down at his table to eat his dinner. Deciding that he has had a long day, the twenty-four-year-old gets up to take off his flour stained shirt and pants and change into a baggy t-shirt two sizes too big and keeping his boxer shorts on for comfort.

As the youthful man settles into his bed for the night, he has a thought of his promise to Mrs. Sprites to try to build up a relationship of some kind, and like the person he is, Danny never breaks a promise. As soon as he thinks of his promise to the old woman, his train of thought then runs into the tall man he talked earlier and thought that he could be a possible person to start with. However, it stopped there when his mind told him nobody would want to actually speak with him more that a casual conversation with a customer and an employee. Now that would be a waste of his time. As the minutes ticked by, Danny fell asleep with those depressing thoughts running through his head.

Bang!

Danny's head made a loud sound when he was knocked into the metal dumpster in the alley. His vision shifted as he stared at the ground, one hand on his head and the other on the ground trying to keep himself steady while leaning over his knees. He was trying to clear his vision and hoping the pain in his head would subside before there was another oncoming assault. The clothes of the hurt man were slightly ripped and the hems of his pants were caked in mud from running through the park as an attempt to escape the beating he knew was coming.

When his head was clear enough to look up and see the lurking shadow of a large man made him shake from the fear of what always came from seeing him. He was dazed as he tried to stand up, leaning heavily on the filthy dumpster edge, as he made the decision that it was better to be standing than on the ground when facing the man.

The shadowed man towered over Danny as most men do, but this man dwarfed him significantly. He stalked towards the struggling man, and the man barely was on his feet for five seconds before he was thrown against the dumpster yet again.

Danny saw stars, "God I wish he would just leave me alone," was the only thought in his head as pain erupted from the right side of his face and shoulder. He only had a moment of leaning on the dumpster, attempting to get up again before more pain came from his ribs; the shadowed man kicked Danny while he was down. Danny collapses onto the ground from the impact.

Then there is another kick and a grunt from Danny. Then another and another, and then he hears a cracking sound right before he lets out a scream from the breaking in his ribs. The shadowed man doesn't hear the cracking sound and continued to kick the beaten man as he continues to kick him three more times, causing two more cracking sounds.

When Danny thought he was finally able to curl up to wallow in the pain without worrying about further abuse from his assaulter when he feels a weight on top of him. Danny's eyes going wide thinking that it wasn't over and not sure if he could handle any more. Whether it was courage or a buildup of sheer panic and despite the pain from his abdomen, he started to struggle for all his life was worth. He kicked his legs up against the weight and flailed his arms to avoid being caught with the weight's hands, using all his strength to get awa...

Thud!

Danny woke with a start and a frenzy look in his eyes from his dream. He looked around trying to take in his surroundings, realizing that he was not there, not trapped in his dream. As his eyes adjusted, he saw he was no longer on his bed but on the ground, feet tangled with his galaxy comforter that was still draped over the bottom corner of his bed.

He let out a sigh knowing that he would hate the nightmares enough he doesn't want to sleep anymore. Removing his hand from his face, he turns it over looking at his watch and hitting the button on the top right corner of it to light up the time. 4:27 was the time shown in neon green, creating a small green glow on Danny's face.

Danny groaned knowing he wasn't going to be getting any more sleep before he has to get ready for the day, but it still left time for him to think back on his dream despite not wanting to.

Okay what do you think? We got a little bit of info on what may or maynot have happened. Remember it was a dream and not a memory, therefore it could be warped from an actual memory. Leave a comment and Vote please and I hope you have a wonderful day :D