Dan followed Phil down the corridor to yet another room. This one had cream-coloured walls, the same as the rest of the house, and a large comfy-looking brown sofa. Phil dropped down onto it and gestured for Dan to sit beside him. He opened his laptop on his knee and then turned to face Dan.

'I'm not sure where to start.' He admitted after a few moments of opening and closing his mouth like a fish.

'How about at the beginning?' Dan laughed. Phil smiled back at him and nodded.

'Alright then. So, we didn't meet at school. I'm five years older than you, and I come from Manchester. We were worlds apart. But we had one thing in common. YouTube.' He paused and studied Dan's face for any sign of recognition, but Dan just looked confused. 'I started making YouTube videos six years ago. They were pretty rubbish at first, but as they improved, I got a bigger audience.'

'What kind of videos? I don't understand.' Dan shook his head. YouTube was for funny cat videos and epic fails; how could somebody build up an audience for that?

'Well, like vlogs and little sketches. Just talking about my life and my opinions.' Phil rolled his eyes and sighed. 'I'm sorry, I'm not explaining this very well.'

'It's fine, keep going.' Dan encouraged him, curious as to what this had to do with him.

'At that time, you spent a lot of time watching videos on YouTube, and you came across mine. You really enjoyed them, and started talking to me on twitter and other sites. We got to know each other really well. And I encouraged you to start making videos of your own.'

'So… I make videos for YouTube?' Dan confirmed, still trying to get his head around it.

'Very good videos. And very popular videos.' Phil took a deep breath. 'Dan, you're not just a youtuber. You're a popular youtuber with over a million subscribers. You're famous on the internet.'

Dan blinked stupidly. Over a million subscribers? He wasn't sure if that was a big deal on the internet, but it was certainly a huge number of people to him. That meant that over a million people watched his videos, watched him to find out about his life. Over a million people actually cared about what he had to say.

'Are you serious? You're not messing me around?' Dan narrowed his eyes. It would be only too easy to lie to him about his missing memories.

'Dan, I'm telling the truth.' Phil went onto Dan's YouTube channel, and clicked on the first video he saw. 'This was your last video. It's from a week before the accident.'

The night air was colder than he expected, and Dan cursed under his breath as a shiver ripped through his body. He hadn't even thought about picking up his jacket when he'd sneaked out of the house. Phil wouldn't know he was gone yet, he'd pretended he was going to bed.

The memory of all the twitter followers came back to him, and Dan quickened his pace. He had no idea where he was going; all he knew was that he had to keep walking. He couldn't do this. He couldn't be what they all wanted him to be. He wasn't that person. As he turned onto a busy street, he slipped into the crowd, unseen. That was all he'd ever wanted in life: to fade into the background, to be invisible. Yet now all these people were watching his every move, seeing all of his flaws and he was terrified. How would they ever understand that he wasn't the same person anymore? The Dan he'd seen in the videos was so confident, and he had private jokes with his audience. The videos Phil had shown him were supposed to make him feel better about it, but he just felt left out of his old life. Before the accident, everything had been perfect and now his idyllic life with Phil lay shattered in pieces.

All around him, people were going about their daily lives, walking purposefully to meet friends, go out on a date, or maybe get home after work. Dan felt completely alone in this city of dreams, lost and unsure of where to go and what to do. Suddenly, there was a shrill scream and the sound of running footsteps. Dan whipped around to see what was going on, and found himself face to face with a group of excited teenage girls.

'Oh my god, oh my god, it's Dan!' One of them screeched, practically jumping up and down on the spot.

'Lizzy, get the camera, quick!' Another urged a girl with a backpack, and she rifled through the bag frantically before pulling out a small pink camera.

Before Dan could say anything, a girl with bright red hair had wrapped her arms around his waist, and was sobbing into his chest. He tried to carefully extract himself from the unwanted embrace, and cleared his throat.

'Um, hi there.' He said awkwardly, putting his hands in his pockets to stop them shaking. 'Sorry, do you I know you guys?'

They all giggled and shook their heads. The one with the red hair looked up at him with a confused expression.

'No, but we're your biggest fans. Like seriously, I love you so much! So, can we have a picture with you?' She asked, tossing her hair to the side and blinking up at him.

'I…um… ok then.' They all crowded around him and Dan found himself staring into a camera. He knew that pre-accident Dan would have greeted them with a smile, pulled a funny face for the camera and made jokes. But this Dan couldn't do it, and once again he was reminded of how he would never be able to fit into this new life. After what seemed like hours, they were finally happy with the pictures and Dan was able to escape. He marched down the road and kept his head down this time, afraid of going through that all over again. His legs felt weak and he was blinking back tears. That was his first taste of pre-accident Dan's life, and it was one of the scariest moments he had ever been through.

The crowds were thinning as Dan walked further away from the city centre and down smaller streets. When his phone began to buzz in his pocket, he answered it almost immediately.

'Dan? Where are you?' Phil sounded panicked, and Dan immediately felt bad.

'I'm sorry Phil. I just had to get out of there. I needed some air.'

'Couldn't you have warned me? I almost had a heart attack!' Phil was trying to be angry but his voice was still full of worry.

'I'm sorry.' Dan's voice broke, and the tears he'd been fighting began to roll down his cheeks. 'I don't know where I am, Phil. I'm lost and… and I'm scared. I met some girls and they wanted pictures and I didn't know what to do…'

'Oh Dan.' Phil sighed. 'I'm sorry you had to go through that. I thought I'd be with you the first time you got recognised. I would have helped you. Don't worry, I'll come find you. Can you see any street signs?'

Dan looked around and repeated the name of the sign on the opposite side of the road. Phil promised that he'd be there as soon as he could and then hung up. Dan brushed away his tears with the back of his hand and sat on the nearest bench. Now he had nothing to do but wait. He pulled his phone out his pocket and began to play with it, trying to find the games. After a few moments of pressing random buttons, he was nowhere nearer finding. Just as he was about to put it back in his pocket, the phone buzzed again. He turned it over and found a new message, but this time it wasn't Phil. The screen was displaying a new text message from someone named 'Luke'.