The Magic of Hearts [ONGOING]

Two Kinds of Safe

Spoiler Alert(s): Minor spoilers of NYSM 2
Content Warning(s): Non-descriptive nightmare; panic attack; non-descriptive drowning
Story Length: 2017 words

Danny lay in bed, still and silent to the world. He twitched a few times, but that was it. Everything was okay in the Horsemen's Eye-provided apartment. Everybody was asleep, all was quiet...

Until Danny shot up in bed, silent tears streaming down his face and one man's name sitting on his lips. That could have been the end of it; Danny could try to go back to sleep, fight off the nightmares, and spend the next day being extra snippy. But it wasn't the end of it, because it wasn't the end of Danny's nightmare. His body was awake, but his mind was trapped in the dream world — the dream world where Dylan Shrike had not made it out of that safe.

Safe, scrambled Danny's thoughts. Safe, safe, safe... Dylan was in a safe. He was beaten up and thrown in a safe and tossed into the river and— And— He's drowning. He's stuck in the safe. He's stuck—drowning—safe, safe! SAFE!

Danny was outside of his room now. He didn't know how he got there, all he knows is that his knees and elbows hurt and he feels some sort of scrape on his forearm. But that wasn't what he wanted to know. He wanted to—needed to know Dylan was okay. Was he out of that damn safe?

"Dylan?" croaked Danny. Why was his voice so scratchy? "Dylan? DYLAN."

Large hands gripped his shoulders. Danny's confused eyes studied them only briefly before growing frenzied. Those aren't Dylan's, those aren't, those aren't, those aren't. Where is he? Is he still in the safe? Where? Where? Danny wrenched his way out of the stranger's hold. "Dylan," he whispered. "Where is Dylan?" He looked up and saw a face that he recognized — Merritt — but an expression on it that he did not, not on that face — concern? He didn't care right now though. "Is Dylan— If he's not here— Is he still in the safe? Is he? Is he?"

"No, Danny," said Merritt hurriedly, "he's here. Lula just went to get him — "

Danny crumpled to the floor, clamped his ears down with his hands, and pulled his knees up to his chest. The tears were starting to pour again as images from his vivid nightmare flashed before his eyes. Unknowingly, Danny began to mumble his thoughts: "Dylan's in the safe. He's in the safe because of me. Stupid, stupid, stupid... Egotistic, self-centred bastard. Useless, useless, useless!"

Danny began to hyperventilate, but he couldn't stop. He squeezed his eyes shut and watched helplessly as the safe sank in the river's waters, suddenly crystal clear, allowing the magician to watch the consequences of his idiocy unfold. The other Horsemen didn't take a second to grieve; they began to shove him around and snarl awful, true things. He had no right to be a Horseman, much less their leader. He had killed Dylan. He had messed up so badly, no one would ever forgive him. Especially not —

"Dylan!" shouted a new voice, a younger but still masculine one. "Get over here, quick." This voice was closer than Merritt's, and Danny deduced its owner was crouching before him. The owner of the new voice turned their attention to the man sitting before him, who was now gasping for breath. "Danny, you need to take a deep breath. C'mon, panic attacks are horrible, but you can avoid it. You're not quite at one yet, you're just well on your way to one. I'm gonna count, okay? All you have to do is listen to my heartbeat and try to match it. Okay?"

Danny didn't nod or shake his head. He just lifted a trembling arm and placed it on the chest of the other person — Jack, supplied the only functioning part of his mind right now. Danny hadn't had a panic attack in years, but it wasn't so long ago that he had forgotten the drill.