Violet Eyes

32: Rainy Day

//TW//: PANIC ATTACK, THEMES OF SUICIDE

It had been three days since Danny was rescued from the Erebus Estate. He had barely spoken a word since then, and everyone noticed. Everyone could tell that he was often in another world from his icy, thousand mile stare. Everyone knew why he was acting like this of course, Danny had been shattered. This change was affecting Rhys and Nate the most. When Nate first met Danny, he was a quiet boy who would sometimes get over excited and blurt out words of excitement. Now, he was a broken shell of a man who barely spoke a word, let alone show excitement.

"Someone should try to talk to him." Nate said quietly as he and Rhys looked out the window. Danny was sitting on the edge of the dock, smoking a cigarette by himself.

"You mean you want me to do it?" Rhys asked passively.

"Please? I'm not the right person for him right now, and you've known him the longest out of all of us." Nate responded as he looked at Rhys with a serious gaze. Rhys nodded before he turned and went outside.

As Danny sat on the edge of the dock, he gazed at the water with a blank and empty stare. His cigarette had idly burned to almost half gone as he was stuck in his own mind. He wanted to forget that night, he wanted nothing more than to expel it from his memory. His mind flashed back to that day, Damien's crazed grin as he inflicted agonizing pain on Danny over and over again. The scent of blood permeated his senses, soaking into him, it was a scent he would never forget. A small shred of hope and overwhelming joy when he finally saw Nerissa in front of him, giving him a small shred of relief before it was literally ripped away from him. Danny's mind tormented him in slow motion, it forced him to watch Damien's shadow spike stabbing through her and yanking her away from him. He would never forget Nerissa's blood splattering on his face and hearing her scream in violent pain. His mind flashed more images behind his eyes, after he had broken out of the chair, wiping the wet blood from his face. He remembered hearing the sound of Nerissa choking and he just saw red. When he finally came back to reality, his hand was coiled around Damien's dagger as it was stuck through his throat. The look of shock on Soul's face when she entered the room before she hugged him, and the blood soaked dagger slipped from his grip. The foggy memory of the frighteningly powerful suited man killing Jack with one well placed strike...

"Danny?" Rhys' voice pulled Danny out of his mind, jolting him back to reality, the long ash on his cigarette breaking off and falling into the water. Rhys sat down next to him on the dock and stayed in silence for a moment. "How ya doin, buddy?" The words sounded patronizing, but his tone was greatly sincere.

"I can't stop seeing that night." Danny spoke quietly. He brought his almost completely wasted cigarette to his lips and took a long drag before flicking the butt into the water. "He tortured me, Rhys. He inflicted constant pain on me for hours on end." Danny spoke in monotone without even looking at his friend. Rhys took a deep breath and interlocked his fingers in front of him. He hated seeing Danny like this, and yet he had no idea what to say.

"Danny, I can't even begin to imagine what you went through down there, and I know that it will probably be a while before you recover from this...but you do know that all of us are still here, and we still love you, right?" Rhys spoke genuinely, he was trying so hard to convince Danny that he wasn't alone.

"Rhys...I need to confess something to you." Danny spoke quietly as he continued to look into the water. Rhys looked over at his broken friend and waited for him to continue. "When I was down there...there was a short time that I..." Danny's voice broke a little bit, almost like he was ashamed to say what he was about to say. "There was a short time that I just wanted to die..."

"What?" Rhys whispered in shock as he turned his body towards him.

"Can you really blame me, Rhys?" Danny finally looked at Rhys, his face softened when he saw Danny's empty eyes. "I wasn't even down there for a full day and it felt like a lifetime. After a while, I thought you guys weren't coming. So yes, I craved death...just so it would finally be over." Danny turned his head and continued staring into the water. "I gotta say...I am happy to be alive, and here...with you all but...Jack is dead, Rhys...I'm sick of people giving their lives for me." Rhys watched as Danny's eyes hardened. "I'm so sick of people around me dying because I can't do anything. I'm gunna fix that."