"Want to go for a walk?"
Phil lifted his eyes from his phone screen and looked up to his friend, before looking to the window, back to Dan and then raising an eyebrow.
"A… walk?" He repeated, sceptically, "Since when do you suggest walks?"
"It's dark; I thought it might be nice," Dan replied, sounding a bit sad that his friend hadn't immediately agreed to his suggestion.
"It's cold," Phil scoffed, letting his gaze fall back down to the tumblr tab open.
"Look, what else is there to do?" Dan whined. He was wide awake after his little nap earlier and had as much energy as a kid who had just drank about 5 caffeinated energy drinks. Maybe that was a little bit of an exaggeration but there was no better way to put it, really.
Phil slowly lifted his phone and turned it around to show the screen,
"Look at this cat," he said, very flatly, and watched Dan observe the cat gif loop a few times, transfixed, before eventually stopping.
"Please?" Dan begged, dying to get some fresh air and to look up at the stars without any street lights cluttering the sky, "Don't you want to see the stars?" It wouldn't be the same if he was on his own
Phil sighed but smirked.
"Fine…" he finally agreed, rolling his eyes, "Let me get my coat and we'll go."
Dan did a discreet celebratory fist pump but tried not to let his friend see. It was getting late, about 11pm, Dab and Evan were asleep – or at least whispering to each other and telling stories when they should have been asleep – and Dil and Tabitha were probably reading or watching something before they went to sleep. The Howlters always gave Phil and Dan a bit of space when it got late, so that they could relax and talk for a bit. These were usually the times for complaining at each other about anything and everything, and making increasingly more self-deprecating jokes as the night went on. Tonight, though, it was the time for one forcing the other to go outside and look at big burning globes of gas in the sky.
"You better tell Dil and Tabitha where we're going," Phil pointed out, picking his coat up from the back of his favourite chair at the table and slipping his arms through the sleeves.
"Ah, it'll be fine," Dan insisted, even though he saw the concerned expression on his friend's face.
"What if something happens?"
"What would possibly happen where they would have to send out a search party?"
"You know, that's the sort of thing they say in horror movies," Phil hissed, but he didn't seem too concerned, so Dan sniggered and put his coat on, too, followed by shoes because nobody likes muddy socks.
"So where are we going?" Phil asked, quite loudly, hoping that the Howlter parents might hear, tying his red shoelaces as quickly as he could.
"I thought we should go down to the forest. Y'know; where the barrier thing is?" Dan replied, and Phil nodded, thoughtfully.
Going outside wasn't bad in itself, and it would be nice to gaze up at the stars, but it was very cold and a bit breezy. No matter, though. If the rest of the trip was going to be relaxing, a walk would only help.
They both left the house swiftly, hoping that at least one person had heard, and started their way to the forest. It was a relatively long-ish walk there, but that was alright. Nothing really seemed bad today, or at least not after Phil had actually fixed something: he was very proud of himself for that.
"Are you feeling alright?" Dan asked, nicely, looping his arm around Phil's shoulders.
"Absolutely," Phil assured him, as confidently as he could. He didn't appreciate it when their walks turned into Dan constantly enquiring about whether he was alright or not – all Phil wanted was to have a nice unceremonious conversation. But Dan left it here this time.
Pendula View was where the spa was located, and Dan harkened back to their trip there last Monday where they'd had a bit of a battle involving a lot of mud from the baths that both of them were too tall to fit in. Beyond the spa was the forest, and Dan could see it now as they approached.
The forest always looked very pretty – especially in the dark when the moonlight shone through the gaps in the leaves of the trees – and both Phil and Dan were quite curious to see what the barrier looked like after they'd shattered it back in February, and to lay in the grass like complete weirdo's. Hopefully nobody would be around to look and judge them.
Huddled together to keep warm in the chill, they stepped into the thick of the woods, into the jumble of trees, and breathed two heavy sighs in perfect unison. They'd do that a lot: do and say things at exactly the same time like some strange, telepathically connected twins… or something of that ilk.
The forest was as mesmerising as they remembered, and wandering through it gave a sense of nostalgia and fascination that they got quite a lot in this universe, but most of all in the woods. There was something about the lighting and the atmosphere… it was quite unnerving, actually, but undeniably very dreamlike. Sometimes it gave Phil a feeling like a chill running down his spine and a stabbing pain in his chest. Last time, he'd felt that it was his instinct telling him that something about the trees was 'wrong' – which could be traced to the barrier – but this time he just felt like it was a little shiver from the pure charm of it all. But everything seemed nicer this time than in February. Maybe not having a constant, bleeding reminder of the Thing pressed against his left cheekbone was helping make June better.
The trees towering overhead and the moonlight spattering across the leaves and broken sticks on the ground under him, Phil swallowed and tiredly followed his friend further into the woods. His legs were starting to ache and he couldn't wait to lie down.
That was when he saw the circle of light further on. Oh, what memories that sent hurtling back to him. Bidding goodbye to his Sims and hoping that going through this odd glassy window of a blockade wouldn't tear him into a million pieces and stop his heart… outlandish times; Outré, some may say.
He stopped as Dan did and turned to make eye contact.
"Should get a nice view here. No leaves," Dan said, smiling, "Coming?" And he got down to the dewy grass.
Phil nodded, returning the smile, and lolled out beside him, not caring about his coat getting damp or his hair getting messy, making himself comfortable for a bit before he lifted his gaze to the skies and found himself quite knocked for six.
"…Well I'll go to the bottom of our stairs…" he gawped, his Lancastrian custom overpowering him for a second. It was an expression of surprise, but 'wow' would have worked just as well.
"Amazing, isn't it?" Dan breathed, not tearing his stare from the parting in the leaves where the night sky was perfectly visible and the stars shone like tiny gemstones on a black blanket of silk.
It was… picture perfect, seamless, textbook… like everything else in this idealistic world. Sometimes, Phil thought as he laid there, it's not good for things to have no fault. It's unnerving; sickening, almost. You need that one aspect that's just a little bit not there, something to bring you back to reality, something like a dead tree or a crushed-up can under a bush. Having nothing wrong at all gave way for over-contemplating things. It might seem strange, but having perfection was tense. It wasn't normal. It wasn't true.
And suddenly Phil really wished he was back in London.
"Why did you bring me out here?" He asked, quietly, after a while, turning his head so he could look to Dan.
"I told you. To see the perfect stars."
"Do you find it as strange as I do?"
Dan gave a wan smile.
"I suppose I do, yes," he answered. He drew a long breath in, closed his eyes, and was about to say something, but stopped himself.
Suddenly everything had gone very quiet.
The familiar and comforting rustle of the breeze drifting through the trees had dissipated and the air seemed to stop flowing, now standing still and thick like syrup.
It seemed that Phil had noticed, too, because when Dan opened his eyes again, he saw his friend with that one expression that spoke everything, with his irises almost vibrating and his pupils contracted.
"The air…" he whispered, "It's like… treacle."
Dan swallowed and sat up, abruptly, Phil shakily propping himself up next to him. The leaves had stopped waving, the crickets had stopped chirping… everything was silent and as immovable as a rock.
That was the moment when a loud sound came crashing out of the blue.
It was a strange sound. Almost like a tune. Something very familiar but slowed down and as loud as 5 fighter jets… three beeps in succession getting deeper with each ring.
It took Dan a second, but he realised what it was and exactly where he'd heard it before.
He bit his lip and his eyes darted to meet his friend's.
"The game crashed…"