Phobia

8

dan sat on his bed with a frown, watching the spiders scuttle around with a heavy frown.

"why are you guys here?" he asked shakily, wringing his hands in his lap, "why wont you leave..?"

We cant leave! One of them called from on his shoulder, causing him to jump with fright.

"b-but why?!" he began to grow distressed, pale with wide eyes as the spiders crawled onto his lap and settled there, closing their beady eyes.

You need to make us leave! To work out how yourself! A large spider called out from across him, sat on one of the bed posts and spinning a web.

Dan was too scared to reply, watching the web with wide eyes as the back of his neck became damp with sweat.

They have to go they have to go they have to go. He chanted to himself, letting out a shaky sigh before looking to the window with a small c-cant you guys just go though? You're your own people—well, spiders...

All of the spiders began to laugh, their small voices creating a crescendo of sound, bouncing around the room.

"we cant!" they all said as a chorus, varying pitches of voices shaking the window, "we're trapped with you until you cure yourself!" they all began to laugh again, leaving dan to scramble and climb under his sheets, pulling them over his head and shaking as he squeezed his eyes shut.

This isn't real, he concluded in his head, mumbling soft nonsense to himself, none of this is real, it's all a bad dream. Just wake up and get it over with.

Dan pinched his arm hard, sniffling and shaking with a slight wince as it hurt, his eyes widened slightly as he squeaked out a fearful it's not a dream!

~

One week later dan walked into the office with a wide grin, his hands in his pockets as he relished in the silence, well, near silence.

He listened as james and aleks played video games, shouting at each other playfully until they stopped the recording; dan walked to jordan's office and knocked on the door with a grin, leaning against it.

"dan?" Jordan tilted his head gently, "where have you been?"

Dan grinned more, "it's gone."

"what's gone?" Jordan got up and sat on his desk, rubbing his hands together gently.

"the voices, everything." Dan walked in a few steps, "I know how to stop this."

~

Jordan ran down the corridors, calling out for everyone, "everyone! Get to the meeting room!"

Each person poked their heads out of their offices, apart from james and aleks who were in the same office.

"whats happening?" james asked Jordan, his hand on aleksandr's hip.

Jordan turned and faced them both, smiling wide, "dan worked it out." He grinned wider before rushing to the meeting room, his hat in his hand.

The men all shrugged before walking to the room after him and taking their seats: aleks in james' lap, kevin next to Jordan, dan on the other side, seamus across from him and eddie on his other side.

"how do we do it then!?" james asked quickly, getting straight to the point

Dan took a pen and began to write on the whiteboard, writing everyone's names.

"there's a connection between your powers and something else, we all know it but we're too scared to say." He started as he wrote each power next to the names before putting a cross through spiders next to his own.

"what do you mean?" seamus asked gently.

"think about it," dan continued, "these are our fears, we have to overcome them before they can leave."

Kevin looked down at his bandaged arm and frowned, looking at the neat fire next to his name before sighing softly, "so, im guessing you've gotten over your fear then?"

Dan nodded, "yeah, this morning."

"how can you know for sure, though?" james started with a slight frown, "it might have been a coincidence."

Dan chuckled and rubbed his head, "after spending nearly two weeks with a room filled with spiders you would think that I would notice when they weren't there, no?"

Aleks was staring at his name with manipulation and ??? next to it, his brows furrowed as he rubbed his temple, sighing softly.

Two dumb fears and people only really know one... he relaxed back into his seat and tapped his wooden fingers together, nodding gently as he listened into the conversation half heartedly.

"—aleks!" james' voice snapped him out of his daze.

"mhm, yeah?" aleks looked up and smiled slightly, "whats up?"

"we need to know your other fear that made you wooden, 'leks." James stroked the youngers arm gently as he spoke, his words in a kind and soothing tone, unlike him at all.

"i-I, uh... it's kinda dumb..." he rubbed his face and sighed softly, bringing his legs up under him and cuddling closer to James.

"hey," kevin started softly, "a fear's a fear, aleks. It's not dumb."

Aleks blushed and mumbled a small puppets...

"that's okay, sweetheart." James brought aleks closer, looking down at him with a loving smile, "that's perfectly fine."

Dan rubbed out the question marks and put puppets in it's place, humming softly.

"right," he started, "so how should we do this?"

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Word count: 882

I can't actually feel anything right now lol