10.

DANNY POV

The little speck of light grew larger and brighter until it had taken over half of the darkness and stopped just before my feet. All this time I spend in the darkness I wished there was light but now it was here I was skeptic about it.

But it was so tempting, hypnotic in a way I can't describe. The voices which were my only companionship faded to a soft whisper, they no longer were my prior commitment. I raised my left foot slowly and carefully crossed the line between black and white. But as soon as my foot touched the white ground the voices gasped and started screaming of panic. They broke the hypnosis and I became aware of them once again.

I had an inner battle. These voices were here with me the whole way through but I don't know if I could trust them or if they just want to keep me in the dark. And all I wanted was to be in the light, the beautiful bright light that longed me.

I closed my eyes and just listened for a few seconds. Out of the three deformed voices, one was my favorite and that one just kept yelling my name over and over again. I heard hope in his voice, hope that I would stay. But it was fearful at the same time, fear that I would leave him and go to the light. And it was that fear and hope that changed my mind and I put my foot back to the other, in the dark.

But as I opened my eyes again I was blinded with light. I was disorientated, I thought I was back in the dark! I tried to move but there suddenly were hands holding me down. I panicked and tried to push them away.

'Danny! Danny it's okay' I heard a voice say. The fact that it wasn't deformed and that I could understand it made me freeze on the spot. My eyes slowly became used to the light and I noticed I was in a room, machines were attached to my body and a young woman and an elderly man dressed in white clothes were standing next to me.

'Where am I?' I asked frowning

'You're in hospital. Don't you remember your accident?' The man asked

I tried to recall the last memory I had before waking up in here. The only thing that flashed before my eyes were two headlights coming towards me. It was no accident. I had deliberately gone standing on that road when I saw the car appearing. I suddenly felt disappointed for waking up at all.

'Yeah, I remember' I said emotionless

'You've been in a coma for a while Danny, I have to test your memories. So I'm just going to ask a few questions if that's ok with you?'

'Fine' I said with the same blank face

'Can you tell me your full name?'

' Danny Alan David Jones'

'How old are you?'

'26'

'Where were you born?'

'Bolton'

'Great, seems like your memory is intact. You have your friends outside waiting for you, can I let them in?'

I looked at the doctor and turned my head slightly sideways. 'I don't have any friends'

DOUGIE POV

The waiting was unbearable. Harry and I were pacing down the hall while Tom sat down on the floor against the wall. No words were being said and no words were needed to understand each other's silence. We were all scared that we wouldn't have the chance to see him again, apologize or even talk.

When the door was suddenly opened we all raced to the doctor. 'Is he dead?' Tom asked. His face was preparing itself for an answer it didn't want to hear.

'He's alive' The doctor said and we all breathed out of relief and smiled.

'Can we see him?' I asked with the smile on my face. The serious look in the doctor's eyes however made it disappear again.

'We had to insist a little to get his approval but I have it, you can go in'

'W.. Wait, he didn't want to see us?' Harry asked with emphasis on didn't.

'No but the nurse persuade him'

I looked shocked at the nurse who was standing by a trolley and in my eye corners I saw that Harry and Tom had the same shocked faces. I couldn't believe that she was helping us while a few days ago she was against us, hated us for what we did and hoped that Danny hated us too. She saw us staring at her and she gave a warm smile and acted a little shy. She looked at the ground for a second and held her right arm with her left hand, pushing her shoulders together.

I smiled gratefully back and made my lips say thank you without voice. She responded with a small nod and then carried on with her work.

I brought my attention back to the closed door of Danny's room and sighed loudly.

'You ready?' Harry asked

'As I'll ever be' I said, waited another second or two and then opened the door.

Danny was lying in his bed as always but this time he was sitting up straight and looking outside the window. He didn't turn to us when we walked towards him. He didn't acknowledge our presence whatsoever and that made me swallow.

'Hey' I said trying to force a smile but my efforts were useless. I was too scared.

Danny didn't answer or made any signs that he heard us. I looked at Harry who's eyes were filling with tears and Tom was even worse. I saw that his eyes were already drowning. I was the only one who could control my tears and voice so it was my duty to carry on.

'We never meant for this to happen Danny. We never meant for it to go so far. We know we were in the wrong and all we want to do is make things right again.'

'No' Danny suddenly said with great force in his voice as his head turned to us. The hatred in his eyes made me stop breathing. 'You can't just waltz in here, tell me it was a mistake and expect me to forgive and forget!'

'No that's not..' I tried but Danny beat me to it.

'That's not even an apology for the past year almost of pain and misery, the confusion or the loneliness!'

'Danny..' It became harder to control my voice and I heard how it was starting to break.

'Just leave, please' He said while the anger on his face made room for sadness. He too was having a hard time to control his voice and his tears. He held his chest out of pain because he had abruptly sat even straighter.

'Go, now' He said when neither of us moved. The power in his voice made us unfreeze and we left the room, looking back to Danny a few times who couldn't hold in his tears any longer.