missing person
genre - i legit have no idea, maybe au?
word count - 1,845.
summary - phil’s gone missing and dan has called the police.
authors note - okay, i haven’t posted a fic in ages! hopefully this will be better worded, tried my hardest to make it make sense, but i really wanted the ending to be how it was, so it was hard to get exact things the same, (hence why Phil doesn’t make video’s)
STORY:
“And when was the last time you two spoke?” The policeman with the white beard questioned. Dan stares at him, a surge of anger growing.
“When he left the apartment and I told him I needed paper from the shop, if he was passing it.” Dan pauses and takes a breath. “I’ve said this about 8 times, why do you still ask?”
“We have to keep refreshing our information every time we get a new lead.” Another policeman tells Dan, fixing him self next to the other policeman with the white beard.
Dan looks between them both and smiles slightly, even though there is nothing to smile about. His best friend is missing, but it’s like he doesn’t even realise yet, like he still expects him to walk into the apartment with the paper, exclaiming ‘Sorry I’m late!’ It would be typical Phil behaviour, so he sticks to that story, even though its been 3 days since he’d been gone.
“You don’t know shit, you have no lead.” Dan tells the police men, then realises he just swore at a policeman and has a slight ounce of regret, but it passes quickly.
“You have to be patient with us Mr Howell, I appreciate its difficult and you’re concerned for your friend, but you must bear with us. It’s very difficult for us, because we have no photos of your friend.”
Dan lets out a slight laugh. The policemen flashes his coworker a worried look and coughs slightly. “I have told you multiple times, we never took photos. Phil didn’t like the camera.”
“I think that’ll be all anyway, we’ve had another look round the place for anything that might give us some clue as to where he is. And you’re sure you two never got into a fight before he went missing?”
“Why would we fight over him getting me paper?” Dan snaps. The policemen shrugs and walks towards the door, gathering the other 3 policemen that were also in the apartment. He tells Dan that if he needs anything or knows anything, he’s only a phone call away. He also promises he’s trying his best. Dan just nods and smiles. He slams the door shut as soon as they leave. He makes himself a cup of tea and sits himself down. He goes over the last time he saw Phil in his mind for the 10th time since he went missing.
It was a Friday morning. As usual, Dan had woken up and made himself cereal, Phil had gone out early. He still didn’t know why Phil was always out in the morning before Dan had woken up, he also never knew why he didn’t ask. He just assumed he went out for an early walk. Phil had crept up behind Dan and made him jump, as he didn’t hear him coming through the door. Dan spilt the milk and cursed loudly.
“For fucks sake Phil, that was perfectly good milk.”
Phil just laughed at his anger. He grabbed the cloth and mopped up what Phil had spilt, as Phil began to talk about what he wanted to do for the day. Dan let him make the plans, when Dan was available to do it. It was easier for him, something he didn’t have to stress over. If Phil made the plans he could go along with them without any stress.
“I thought maybe we could go to the park, we haven’t been out recently.” Phil said, sighing. He grabbed himself an apple and followed Dan into the living room.
“I’m sorry Phil, I really can’t do anything today.” Dan paused and sat down, trying to avoid the hurt on Phil’s face. “I really need to edit this video.”
“Sure I understand.” Phil said, but it was obvious by his expression how disappointed he was. He had every right to be disappointed to be fair, they never went out anywhere. Dan hated how people gave him weird looks or made him feel awkward by whispering to each other and pointing at him. He assumed it was because they recognised him. They never had people over either, so they very much only had each other. Phil didn’t like Dan’s friends, so Dan only had them round when Phil went out. As for Dan’s family, they didn’t see each other much, but when they did Dan would go to them, Phil would stay at home.
“Tomorrow maybe?” Dan said, smiling at him. Phil nodded and began talking about how Dan should edit his videos. He always helped Dan with his videos, he’s the reason Dan began making videos. It was something that Dan always had wanted to do, Phil just gave him the helpful push.
It was later that night when Dan was making dinner that Phil said he was going out. He wasn’t hungry, he had told Dan and didn’t want to watch him eat. Dan understood.
“I love you, Dan.” Phil had said.
“Don’t get too soppy Phil, I’ll see when you get back. Oh and can you get me some paper if you pass the shop?”
Phil had nodded and left. Dan continued cooking and ate his dinner watching game of thrones on TV, after a while he got in bed, sending Phil a text asking where he was, even though he knew the text would come back saying ‘sending failed.’ He had begged Phil to fix this and he still hadn’t.
Dan realised Phil wasn't coming back after 2 days. He called the police on the Sunday.
Sunday was a tough day for Dan. However, he didn’t cry, nor didn’t do anything different. He went on with his day as normal. Dan didn’t feel as though anything had changed. Dan wasn't going to admit to anyone, but he didn’t feel that anything was actually missing. He just felt empty.
He had to go to the station in the evening. He didn’t tell anyone, he went by himself. They questioned him on his friend, they asked him for photos, they asked if theres anyone else that knew about him that they could question. Dan’s answers were blunt there wasn't much to say. His friend was a nice boy, always smiling, always helping me, the only friend I’d ever had. He didn’t have any photos, they never took anyway. So far as Dan knew Phil didn’t have any other friends, he certainly never talked about any. He just had Dan. Dan’s description of him was pretty simple too.
“He had black, thick hair. He was tall, but not as tall as me. He was handsome, he covered his mouth when he laughed.” Dan had said, smiling slightly.
“Thank you for your information Dan. We’ll try our hardest to find your friend, but it’s going to take some time because we don’t have much to go on. If you have any more information please inform us, I’m sure he must have had some family who will be concerned?” The young policewoman asked.
“If he did, he never talked about them.” And then Dan was allowed to leave.
When he got in bed that night he cried, he had lost the only friend he had, the only person he was close to. The person he relied on the most. Phil was the guy who had helped him out of every dark spot.
———————————————————————————————————
Dan wakes to a loud knocking on his door. The night before the police were searching his apartment for clues of Phil, they left with a few things that Dan had brought for Phil. Dan streches and quickly pulls on a top, walking to the door. Without a word, the same policewomen who interviewed him on the Sunday, the policeman with the white beard and another women who doesn’t look of any importance walk into this apartment. Dan immediately senses the worst scenario in his head, they found Phil’s body. He’s dead.
“Mr Howell, we need to speak.” The policeman with the white beard says, Dan didn’t like him, he’d made him feel awkward.
“He’s dead isn’t he.” Dan blurts out and the man shots the casual women a weird look as she writes something down in her book.
“Not quite…please, come sit down.” The policewomen says, a friendly smile on her face. So I do, I let them sit on the sofa and I pull out a bean bag and settle myself on it. They’re all looking at me with such concern, I don’t know what to say or do, so I just stare back until one starts talking.
“Dan, we’ve been spending a lot of time on this case, as you know. It intrigued us so much. It always concerned us that you never had any photos with Phil after being with him for almost two years, didn’t you say?” Dan nods. “Yes, well, we decided to ask around your area if they knew your friend Phil Lester, we gave them the description and also described you. The people in your neighbourhoods answers unnerved us a fair bit, so we decided to look up the Phil Lester you described on our system.” There’s a pause as the policeman looks down to the ground. Dan knows he doesn’t want to hear what they’re about to say. So he stands up and he begins to walk towards the door. He’s forced to turn his body back towards the 3 people on his couch when he hears the policeman say: “Dan, Phil Lester doesn’t exist.”
It’s like everything inside Dan crushes, he falls to the ground, his head in his hands. He knows its true, but he still denies it. He tells them he was real, he tells them Phil was his best friend. He begins going over memories they had with each other. The 3 people on the sofa are uncomfortable, this is probably a rare situation for them, following a missing persons lead only to find the guy they’re trying to find isn’t real.
“Dan, this is Doctor Kale, she’s here to-“ But Dan’s already on his feet, shaking his head.
“I’m not crazy. Phil was as real as all you are. He was, he still is.” Dan lies, he knows he wasn’t real. It makes sense, nothing felt real when he was with Phil. He was never there when Dan woke up. His only communication with Dan was mainly helping him through his own life. Phil acted as Dan’s best friend, but it was all in his head, no one else could see him, no one else knew Phil Lester existed.
After a while, Dan lets Doctor Kale take him to the hospital, because he realised they can’t do anything. Even if Dan had spent 2 years believing Phil was real. He was gone now, a missing person to Dan. Dan knew that Phil chose that Friday to leave for a reason, maybe he realised that Dan didn’t need him anymore. Dan tried to explain this to the kind women with the brown hair, but she didn’t understand.
Phil Lester wasn’t real to her, but he was so real to Dan.
