woke. | II

danny

Change was coming, I could feel it. It wasn't just about the way the darkness seemed more concrete or that the peripheral glow of dreams seemed to be diminishing. It was mainly something in my gut that poked and prodded that nothing would be the same; that everything would start to distort and at a rapid pace at that.

The sight of the two of them huddled together was both familiar and unsurprising. I often find them shrouded in their own world, impenetrable by others.

I stood near them without announcing my arrival, knowing that they would notice me when they did. There was no point in prompting them. Instead, I stand by the tree where I found Dana. Their logic being that it is safest to be where the enemy would least expect us. While I disagreed, there was nowhere else we knew well enough to confidently find.

My thoughts wandered to Dana as they always did, I looked back on everything she has shared with us the night everything fell to pieces.

"Danny, oh, Danny." I tilted my head to her and answered, "D?"

A note of silence pierced the air before she exclaimed with her hand over her heart, "Oh, how I've wished you could hear me! I have spoken to you for ages and yet-"

I reached for her then, forgetting that I have failed all the other times before. This time, I felt her chilled skin. Grabbing her by the forearm, I yanked her towards me and crushed her to me. I never wanted to let go. My heart felt as though it could burst with the overwhelming feelings of relief and love I felt at that moment.

The next second, she was grasping my collar and pushing me back, "Danny, you must listen to me." There was a frantic note in her voice, "At your first chance, take the cure and leave this place. It is not what it seems. Tell your friends, if they do not want to leave behind their families on earth, do it."

"No, D. I'm sorry," I said, pulling her back into my embrace, "I'm sorry I did not listen. I regret every single time I brushed you off." To her credit, she let me finish and hugged me back before replying.

"Hush, it is not your fault. Father shines through you, it has always been logic above anything else and none of this makes sense. I never blamed you, Danny, and I never will. I am trapped here in part, by my own choice."

"What do you mean?" I pulled back and searched her eyes, hoping to find the answers I wanted to hear. Something easy to accept. But the words that came after were the exact opposite of what I wanted to hear.

"I don't want to leave, Danny, I want to stay here and help."

It was too straightforward, it couldn't be real.

"No, Dana. Listen, maybe they have you under some mind control - who even knows what they have done to you. You can't just decide to walk out on your life, on father, on mother." I paused, struggling to find the words to convince her but the gaze in her eyes told me everything I needed to know. She placed her hand, so small and delicate against my collarbone and looked at me in the eyes. "On me."I let the words slip out and I knew that the battle was lost.