The frantic beeping of an alarm clock was the first thing Phil heard when he woke up. At first, he was too tired to open his eyes, but then he heard a quiet 'Phiiillllll…' from beside him and he flickered one eyelid open to see the face of Dan Howell in front of him, sitting cross-legged on the floor and wearing a smile of anticipation.
"Hi, Dan…" Phil mumbled, tiredly.
"How did you sleep?" Dan asked, eagerly, "Any disturbing nightmares?"
"Not today," Phil replied, smiling a bit, though his eyes had gone back to being closed.
"I thought we could go to Starbucks," Dan said, his voice cheery, "What do you think?"
A grin spread across his friend's face,
"Sounds good to me!" Phil chirped, "I'll be awake and ready in 15 minutes," and he heard Dan stand up and wander out of the room.
Phil was partly happy that he had had no dreams at all that morning (not that he could remember, anyway) and partly also because Starbucks had just brought out a new Fudge Hot Chocolate (Creamy milk hot chocolate with fudge flavour topped with a fudge whipped cream and a gold chocolate curl topping) and he was dying to try one.
Today would be a good day, he decided, and it would be the end of all his weird dreams.
London was cold that afternoon and even though they were wearing thick winter coats, Dan and Phil were still shivering as they wandered down the road, heading to their safe coffee haven of peace, huddled up next to each other to conserve as much heat as possible.
It was also strangely quiet on the roads and the traffic seemed to almost all be gone, cars just flowed smoothly down the street without hindrance.
Spying the door to the warm coffee house that is Starbucks, the duo sped up their pace and hurried along the path to the door, which they pushed open and entered through before picking their favourite seat by the window, which was currently sporting some pretty nasty condensation.
Collapsing into his seat, Dan gazed about the shop and saw that it was completely barren save from one lonely-looking old gentleman sat in the far corner. It was strange for the café to be this empty, especially on a cold day, but Dan wasn't complaining,
"Guessing you want one of the Fudge Hot Chocolates, Phil?" He asked.
Phil nodded, eagerly, and made himself comfortable. He expected that they would be staying here for a while. Strangely enough, he didn't feel that cold, even though it looked as if it was about to snow outside. He dug his phone out of his coat pocket and unlocked it without even looking at the screen, instead he decided to draw faces on the steamed-up glass beside him.
Dan appeared beside him only a few moments later, two cups of coffee in hand.
"That was quick," Phil observed.
"No queue," Dan replied.
"Oh. Yeah. Should've guessed," Phil coughed as is friend sat down and slid his cup across the table towards him. He took off the lid and breathed in the warm, rich aroma that it was emitting. It smelled of warm evenings by firelight and cosy nights with friends: a rather heart-warming smell to cheer you up on a bitter afternoon like this one.
"How is it?" Dan asked.
"Beautiful," Phil replied, smiling, the cream from the top of the chocolate leaving a fudge-y smear over his top lip.
Dan laughed at him,
"That's probably the best mustache you'll ever have," he said, "Anyway, I'm glad you're enjoying yourself. What do you want to do after this?"
"I don't know… thought maybe we could just stay here in the warmth and chat until it stops being so chilly outside."
"Sure-"
Dan was about to say something more, but a ringing from his pocket cut him off: his phone.
"Guess I'll have to go and answer that," he sighed, taking it in his hand, "I'll be right back," and he slipped out of the door.
Phil watched him leave and swirled his hot chocolate around in his cup. He was glad that he had a friend like Dan: always happy to do anything to make his friends feel better after a long day. After all, Dan's friends meant more to him than he himself did. Phil made it his resolution to do something nice for Dan to say thank you for walking him down the street, for sticking close enough to share his warmth and, on top of all that, for buying his drink. That was a good friend - the best friend Phil would ever have - and he knew that he could never lose that kind of a friend; not to any gunmen, rabid dogs or whatever else threatened to hurt him. Dan would be staying by his side for the rest of time, and this Phil was sure of.
It was only after five minutes that Phil realised that Dan's phone call was going on for quite a long time. It had also gone suspiciously quiet outside: no people walking by and no traffic. This was certainly abnormal for London…
Phil decided to investigate what was going on outside, as he couldn't see anything out of the steamed-up window. But before he could get up to walk to the door, there came an excruciatingly loud horn blare from outside, completely out of the blue, followed by a loud thump, a smash and a series of smaller thumps like the sound of a phone being dropped.
This was when Phil knew for certain that something was terribly, terribly wrong.
