Daniel POV

"Get on your knees..." I shook my head. He pulled out a knife, and started walking towards me. I quickly kneeled and held my hands out in front of me, defensively, trying to crawl away backwards but being stopped by a hard wall. He gave me an evil grin. "Good, Danny..." he said in an oddly familiar voice. There were two other men there, all masked.

"What do you want from me?" I asked, my voice shaking and tears threatening to pour down my face. The one with the knife laughed. "We need you to shut up and die like a man, instead of like the faggot you are." I frantically looked around for a way out. There were nothing but alleyways, surrounding me, looking like a maze. I heard Ethan's voice calling my name and it echoing through the alleyways, but I couldn't tell from which direction.

"HELP!" I yelled back, hearing my own voice echoing in different directions. There was a pause, then more echoes from Ethan. The man with the knife laughed at my attempts, then spoke again.

"I'll give you one chance to run, before we kill you. It's more fun that way... Five seconds." I fearfully looked at the three of them, real tears pouring down my face now, as the other two pulled out identical knives.

"Please, I'll do anything-"

"Five..." The three parted to let me run through the alleyway directly in front of me.
"Four...."I could hear Fox's echoes joining Ethan's, looking frantically around me. "Three..." I started running, hearing Ethan's voice closer to me. "Two," I sped up, and saw a glimpse of Ethan on the other side of the alleyway I'd turned into. "One..." I yelled his name and he saw me, beginning to run towards me. "Zero." I heard footsteps running after me, evil laughter following. I ran as fast as I could to Ethan, but I could hear heavy breathing right behind me, and someone grabbed and tugged a fistful of my hair painfully, causing me to tumble to the ground.

He quickly forced me on my knees facing Ethan, and I grabbed the hand painfully holding onto my hair, looking at him. It was one of the three who hadn't said anything.

"Stop-" I sobbed,

"This isn't my choice, Daniel." Mason's voice spat in my ear, before drawing a long silver knife across my throat. I felt a sharp, burning hot pain at my throat, and I clawed at it after he let go of me. I fell to the ground, trying to breath, but blood was pouring inwards blocking my lungs. I was slowly choking to death on my own blood. Turning my head, I saw the three hooded men had run away, and Ethan replaced my line of vision.

His face was full of disbelief and desperation, as he hopelessly tried covering one of his hands over my sliced throat, while I clawed at it, trying to relieve myself of the pain.

"Daniel.... Daniel!"

"Daniel!" Ethan's voice woke me up with a gasp, my eyes snapping open. I was holding onto my throbbing throat and Ethans concerned face was looking down at me. I saw Fox and Hank's faces behind him, looking worried. I sat up and took a few breaths of fresh air, rubbing my throat, before instantly feeling nauseous. I put a hand over my mouth and Ethan yelled at someone to grab me a bag. Fox quickly produced an old Burger King paper bag and Ethan gave it to me just in time, as I threw up everything I'd drunk last night.

Ethan rubbed my back and I finished, still breathing heavily and wiping my mouth on my sleeve. I looked at my shirt a little too late, then gave Ethan an apologetic look.

"Sorry, I forgot this was yours..." He laughed, nervously.

"I don't care..." He took a breath and sent a quick look back at Fox and Hank, who immediately pretended that they weren't paying attention and went to the kitchen to busy themselves. "Daniel, are you okay? Were you having a nightmare? It sounded..." He trailed off. My face reddened in embarrassment as I realized they'd probably heard the majority of my very bad dream. I took another breath and heard the conversation die down in the kitchen.

"It was... nothing... nothing, I'm fine." Ethan didn't look convinced and got me a water bottle, which I eagerly took, needing the bad taste out of my mouth. It was silent in the apartment, so I tried weakly changing the subject.

"Uh, what time is it?" Ethan gave me a faint grin,

"It's three in the afternoon..." I stared at him.

"No..." He nodded.

"I only woke up two hours ago, we got home really late last night." I gaped at him.

"I've never slept in this late." I said, blankly, my alarm from the nightmare still hadn't left me completely. He laughed at me.

The front door burst open and I jumped, spilling some water on my shirt and holding my blanket a bit higher as Chase walked into the apartment, holding a gallon of milk and a case of beer. I looked away from the beer, feeling my nausea creep back.

"We can have cereal again guys!" He said, proudly holding the milk above his head. Him, Fox and Hank quickly fought over the milk before choosing their cereal from the large collection in their cabinets. I had no appetite at all, and Ethan sat next to me. Is cereal all they eat? Ethan gently touched my shoulder,

"Want some Advil? You still look sick..." I smiled at him stiffly,

"Sure that'd be great, thanks." He got up, got me two small Advil pills and I washed them down with some water. I threw the blanket off of me and sat up. Ethan clapped his hands.

"I think I need a day off from this city, so we're going to Lake Tenkiller." I blinked at him. He waited for my response.

"Ethan that's like two hours away." He nodded, he'd probably anticipated my answer.

"Okay, but it's the closest thing we can get to a peaceful place around here, and I think that a day out in nature would be fun today." I heard Hank sniggering at him from behind the couch in the kitchen, and Ethan sent an angry glare at him, shutting him up. I slowly nodded. I mean, getting to spend a day alone with Ethan isn't such a bad thing... Even if it's two hours away...

"And besides," he added, "with my driving, I'll get us there in an hour, hour and a half tops." I smiled at his confidence.

"Hey- I wanna come-" Chase started, jealously-

"No," Fox interrupted him, sending him a sharp glance at us with a pointed look, "we have to stay here and cover for Ethan, in case Ace suspects anything." I looked between them, and understanding dawned in Chase's eyes.

"Oh... Oh, okay..." Ethan sent them both a hateful glare and I suppressed a laugh.

"Sure, let's do it." I said, while my body protested- all it wanted to do was sleep with a nice cool ice pack for company, but if it meant I could spend more time with Ethan, I'd ignore my discomfort.

Ethan brought me some dark blue swim shorts (which I'd protested because I said I wouldn't swim- but he said it was all he had my size) and a new t-shirt, the most casual clothes he could find. I thanked him, and changed in his room. It was three o'clock by the time we left, and I stayed silent for most of the car ride, thinking about my haunted dreams.

It's probably normal to have crazy dreams after taking acid... But I'd had dreams similar to that one before. Why were they coming back? You're getting too comfortable, letting your guard down. Maybe Mason actually had something important to tell me at school and I wasn't giving that enough thought? He wouldn't kill you just because you're gay. He wouldn't risk something like that out of hate. But who was the first man in the dream that had threatened me in the first place? His voice had sounded so familiar. I quickly shoved my thoughts to the back of my head as Ethan spoke to me.

"Are you feeling better?" He asked, in his concerned tone that was starting to make my heart skip a beat. I smiled back.

"Oh, yeah. I think the Advil helped a lot." It'd certainly helped my headache but I was still feeling really sleepy. He smiled at that.

"Have you ever been to Lake Tenkiller before?" I nodded, remembering the memory sadly.

"Yeah... I went camping with my parents there, a few years before my dad died..." Ethan looked surprised.

"Oh... I didn't know..." I quickly waved my hand away at his stuttering, how have I never mentioned this-

"It's fine,"

"...I'm sorry..."

"It was fun though. That was before my mom turned into a crazy bitch..." I faded off at the thought, and started wondering if she had any love for me left. Had it all been an act before? Did she put up with me because she didn't want to lose my dad?

"What happened?" Ethan asked, curiously.

"When she found out I was gay, he stood up for me and..." I faltered and stopped talking. Dread filled me as I realized what I'd just confessed.

Oh, fuck.

I sent a worried glance at Ethan quickly, he was looking at me and I saw surprise in his eyes, along with something else... I looked away, embarrassed, determined not to speak for the rest of my life.

"Uh...." Ethan started, I felt the blood rush to my face faster, and pretended to shield my face away from the sun in an attempt to hide my face from him. Why do I let myself speak?  "...That must suck, now that he's gone... He sounded like a good guy..." He seemed to be trying to continue the conversation as though nothing mortifying had been said. I didn't respond, still hiding my face, a thousand things going on in my head at once. Jump out of the car. I risked a glance at the speedometer, fuck, 85 is too fast to jump out, you'll be flattened. I shook my head to myself. That'd be better than staying in this car after what I just said.

"So... Did you guys have any other cool family trips-?"

"-Ethan please, I'm trying to save myself from saying yet another stupid thing in front of you so..." I said to him, talking in my hands that were now both covering my face.

He probably already guessed, I mean it fucking says fag on your back- I buried my face farther into my hands at the memory, thinking I'd explode of embarrassment.

"What?" He sounded more surprised than he looked when I slipped up. "Daniel, don't be embarrassed-" I groaned something incoherent into my hands and I heard a short suppressed laugh from him and turned my face away from him so I was glaring at my window.

"Daniel, look at me, I'm... I don't care." I said nothing. Why can my face not control the amount of blood that rushes up? Isn't there a limit? I didn't move my head.

"I can tell you about my parents." This sparked my interest- I'd never heard anything about Ethan's past- never mind his parents.

"Okay..." I said quietly, waiting for him to go on.

"When I was six, my mom and dad said they were taking me to Frontier City- the amusement park. I was surprised- we never did anything fun- we just didn't have money. We lived in New Mexico, so we took a flight to Oklahoma, then rented a car once we landed in... Tulsa- I think, so we could drive the rest of the way. It was an expensive trip. It was around an hour drive, but I remember passing the amusement park... My mom said it was so we could check into our hotel first, and we could leave our stuff there before going." He paused for a while before continuing, I saw his hands tighten on the steering wheel.

" A while later, we stopped at a gas station so that I could use the restroom. I remember it was the first time my dad let me go alone in public. I felt so grown up so I didn't even ask him to come with me, but after I was finished and I left the bathroom, he wasn't waiting for me on the other side and I saw the car gone. I was so scared I went inside and looked for them, but couldn't find anyone but the cashier. I thought they'd just made a mistake, but a few days later, I'd been taken to a children's home, and they told me nobody had reached out looking for a missing child." I was speechless, so I said nothing, sensing he wasn't done talking. He gave me a quick glance and I stopped staring, looking back at the road ahead. He continued.

"That day is all I can clearly remember about my real parents. Everything else is blurry, it'll come back to me at random times, like a certain smell will remind me of a dish my mother once cooked for me, you know." I nodded, trying to think of something to say as Ethan turned to exit the highway.

"Is that why you guys only eat cereal?" You dumbass Daniel, wrong time.

I silently cursed myself, heat coming back to my face, but Ethan seemed amused and gave a genuine laugh, I saw his hands relax a bit on the steering wheel.

"No, that's just cause we're all lazy fucks who don't wanna learn how to cook," he responded, still chuckling.

I smiled, relieved. Just keep your mouth shut from now on.

"After around six months, I got an interested couple who heard my story and felt bad, they agreed to foster me, signed a ton of papers, blah blah blah, suddenly I'm living in a new house with new parents and a foster brother- they'd gotten him at the same time as me." He gave a bitter laugh.

"We didn't get along. He was two years older and tried to steal my shit, and when I caught him at it, I got into fights with him. Once I'd accidentally broken his microscope that he'd use to kill bugs with by shining sunlight on them, and he got so angry he tore everything in my room apart- which to be fair, wasn't that much. But we had a huge fist fight, and when our foster parents broke us up and locked us in our rooms, I heard them talking quietly from a few doors down, that they needed to send one of us back to the children's home. I ran away the next morning from school. I stupidly thought that if I went back to the gas station my parents had abandoned me at, they'd be there waiting and my problems would be solved." He shook his head and made a left turn, headed towards a green, woodsy road.

"I had just gotten there when I met Ace. He promised me a lot of things- how to win any fight I'd want, get anything for 'free', and fight bad guys. To me it sounded like a fucking superhero camp, so I willingly, and only half-knowingly followed him to join the gang." He finished. I found myself staring at him again, and quickly looked back to the thin, dirt road we were driving on before he caught me.

"I had no idea... I'm so sorry that's horrible how they just left..." Damn, can you form one supportive sentence? He gave me a smile and shook his head.

"It's whatever. I don't think about them anymore, they're not worth my time." He paused a while before saying,

"I've got other people to think about," and looked at me with a small smirk accompanied with a devious look in his eyes. I felt my stomach squirm and a smile form on my face while quickly looking away.

"We're here."

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Q: whats the strangest dream you've ever had?