I am NOT OOC-ing Phantom. He's ill... if anyone says that I'm OOC-ing Phantom, I'm going to hunt them down and... SLAP them:-

Paranoia

The sudden knocking that rapped on Rolan's bedroom door late at night made Rolan jump and cover his face with the blankets. After a moments silence, however, Rolan peeked fearfully at the door. He calmed himself, thinking that what ever it was, it certainly has gone now. For all Rolan knew it could've just been someone dropping something upstairs.

He nearly fell off his bed when the knocks came again, this time louder and persistent than before. Rolan lay frozen to his bed. Who could that be at this time of the night? he thought apprehensively, trembling with fear.

"Rolan? Are you awake? Let me in!" Phantoms rushed whisper stabbed through the silent night.

"Phantom? What are you doing?" Rolan demanded as he opened the door a crack to find Phantom standing before him.

"The... They're after me! Please let me in!" he squeaked, sounding like a terrified child.

"Er... Okay..." Rolan said, standing to the side to let Phantom in. Phantom rushed to Rolan's bed at once and dived under the bed covers. Rolan raised an eyebrow in uncertainty.

"Er... Phantom? Are you... er... okay?" he asked as Phantom lay, tremulous and twitchy in Rolan's bed.

"Of co... course I am!" Phantom replied in a resentful tone of voice.

"Then... um... Why are you here... in my bed?" Rolan questioned, frowning with bewilderment.

"Because... Team MAR are in my room, poisoning my mind with horrifying images and crippling thoughts that make me feel anxious... Rolan, they're going to KILL me... for good this time... I can just feel it in my bones... I'm going to die... and never... NEVER come back..." Phantom mumbled. Rolan sighed. He walked over to Phantom and crawled into bed next to him. He reached out and patted Phantom's head.

"Don't worry... I'm here," Rolan soothed, stroking Phantom's soft silver hair. Phantom closed his eyes and, cuddling close to Rolan, smiling lopsidedly with obvious content. He placed an arm around Rolan's petite form. With his eyes closed all the time, he placed his smooth pink lips to Rolan's rosy cheeks and kissed him lightly. Rolan blushed.

The warmth that radiated from Rolan attracted the cold-blooded zombie. He snuggled closer as if he wanted to steal Rolan's warmth... to suck it all out of him - like soda through a straw - so he could finally feel warm and alive, not cold and dead.

Rolan shifted uncomfortably in Phantom's icy grip, becoming deluged in the man's aura of chilliness, death and decay. He wrinkled his nose in revolt as a wave of Phantom's stench washed over him, invading his nostrils and causing his eyes to water.

No matter how hard Phantom tried - by masking it with cheap men's cologne or by washing himself twice daily with soaps that reeked of many assorted berries - he could never quite get rid of the smell of his rotting flesh. Rolan chocked inwardly as Phantom's arm tightened briefly around his waist.

"Good... Goodnight, Rol... Rolan," Phantom said, shuddering as he yawned twice.

"Goodnight, Phantom..." came Rolan's sleepy reply. Phantom's arm loosened its grip as he slipped into a complacent sleep. Every time he exhaled deeply Rolan's hair blew back, then forwards as Phantom breathed in.

Rolan let the cold minty-smelling breath wash over him, finding it surprisingly refreshing. He closed his weary eyes and let sleep take him into its warm arms.


When Rolan awoke the next morning, he got an unpleasant shock. He had quite forgotten about Phantom sleeping in his bed as he dreamed last night and waking with Phantom's serene face right next to his caused his heart to race. It took Rolan several heart-wrenching minutes to recall the events of last night. When he did, however, he calmed himself down and laughed quietly, feeling slightly shamed. He rested his forehead on Phantom's chest.

Phantom stirred and Rolan glanced up. Phantom's hazy purple eyes were glazed over with confusion and fatigue as he stared down at Rolan. He sluggishly removed his arm from Rolan's body and moved further from Rolan's body and moved further from Rolan with a bemused smile playing across his pale face.

"Er... Rolan? What am I doing in your bed?" Phantom asked with a mingle of mirth and intrigue trying to vie with the pronounced timorousness that shook his words.

Rolan opened his mouth to reply, but closed it at once. He remembered Peta's warning earlier on and shrugged his shoulders thinking, If he's cured... I mustn't tell him... I promised Peta...

"I have no idea. Sorry, Phantom," he replied in a dubious tone of voice, keeping his facial expression to know he was obviously lying.

"Hm... I must've sleep walked... or something..." Phantom pondered. He sat up and faintly blushed. He was topless and only wearing boxers.

Rolan felt his face burn and his eyes blinked hard. What is he doing topless?! I can't remember him taking his clothes off...! his mind raced.

Phantom laughed to himself and got out of Rolan's bed.

"This is a joke, isn't it Rolan?" he asked, rapturously smiling, but his eyes remained cold and, Rolan noticed, filled with a suppressed rage that seemed to make Phantom's eyes boil.

"Er... no... I mean... I have no idea..." Rolan stammered.

By the contemptuous look that now blazed across Phantom's face, Rolan knew that what he had just said didn't go down well.

"Stop, Rolan. I know that this is a little practical joke of yours! Or is I something else? Is someone else doing this?" Phantom demanded. Rolan was cracking under the pressure.

"No! I mean... yes! No... I didn't mean... Maybe, I DON'T know!" he said, confounded. Phantom lashed out. Rolan had to duck as a streak of electrified light zoomed right past his head, colliding with the wall and blasting a hole in it.

Rolan rolled off the bed and coughed as a cloud of dust bellowed out from the newly-formed hole and swirled around the room, settling in piles on Rolan's shelves and bed.

"Rolan... Are you all right?" Phantom asked him, peering down at him. Rolan stared up at Phantom, shaking so badly that he had to steady himself.

"I...I...I guess... so..." Rolan replied, steadying himself.

"I'm so... I just don't know what to think..." Phantom said, sitting heavily on Rolan's messy bed and resting his head in his hands. "Just... go."

Rolan opened his mouth, about to point out that they were in fact in HIS room, but closed it quickly, deciding to retaliate was to provoke Phantom again, and frankly, Rolan didn't want more holes in his walls. So, instead, Rolan just turned around and hastily left the room.

He stood in the ice-cold stone hallway, shivering slightly, wondering what to do next. I guess I should go find Peta... he thought, prancing down the hallway, humming to himself.