A Thousand Words

A Thousand Words A Thousand Words -
Chapter 7

NOTICE: This chapter may distress some readers, as various parts of this chapter deals with suicide. Reader discretion is advised. And also, don't become distressed - as far as I know (and that's a long way, considering!), Daniel hasn't even thought about killing himself. You have nothing to worry about. So go on and enjoy the chapter. If you are offended by the use of this very serious issue in the chapter, then I'm sorry.

Darren stared at Daniel with a shocked look on his face.
“What do you mean, stranded?” he asked, looking out through the windscreen.
“The car’s out of petrol,” Daniel replied. “I knew I forgot to do something...”
Darren’s chin tensed up, which it only did if he was trying to control his temper. “Do you realise that when we get out of this mess, i’m going to kill you?”
Daniel sighed. “Darren, calm down.”
“I will NOT calm down!” Darren raised his voice.
“You don’t have to scream - i’m right next to you.”
Darren opened his car door and ran in the direction of the road. A pain shot through his body, reminding him that he’d just recently been thrown down the stairs. Daniel followed behind him. When they reached the road, they saw nothing but darkness, except for the light from the moon shining down. A car drove by and didn’t stop to help them. There were no houses or buildings nearby.
“Is your mobile phone working?” Darren asked, turning to Daniel. Daniel took out his phone from his pocket, looked at it for a few seconds, then shook his head.
“I haven’t recharged the battery,” he replied.
“And I left mine in the hotel room! This is just great!” Darren shouted, walking to the car hurriedly. Daniel followed him back, then crawled into the drive’s seat and turned on the radio, putting the mouthpiece to his face.
“Hello? Is anyone out there?” he said into the mouthpiece. He waited for a few moments, then repeated himself. No response could be heard.
“Nobody’s responding?” Darren asked. Daniel shook his head and banged it repeatedly on the steering wheel.
“Stop it, Daniel! Calm down!” Darren pulled Daniel away from the wheel. “This isn’t helping our situation!”
Daniel leaned back against his seat and squeezed his eyes shut.
“What do we do now?” he asked, turning hid head to face Darren, who shrugged.
“Just wait until morning, I guess. We can’t really do much.”
Daniel was silent for a few seconds. “Well?”
“Well what?”
“Where’s your huge lecture? I expected you to be bellowing in my face by now.”
“I’m too tired to do any bellowing right now, Daniel.”
“Then hop in the back seat and go to sleep?”
“Aren’t you going to sleep too?”
“Not with you, i’m not!”
“I don’t mean with me!”
“Good, because I thought you were going to get cheeky on me or something!”
“Grow up, Daniel”. Darren smiled at Daniel, who returned the smile.
“I’ll sleep in the front seat, if you don’t mind.”
“Hey, no complaints out of me!”
Daniel leaned back in his seat again and closed his eyes, trying to relax.
“Thanks for putting up with me for the past few days. I know i’ve been a mongrel.”
“It wasn’t easy putting up with you.”
“It never is. Goodnight, Daniel.”
“Goodnight, Darren.” He paused. “If you fart ONCE in this car, you’re sleeping out on the grass, you got that?”
Darren laughed. “Back to you, Bugle Bowels!” It was Daniel’s turn to laugh. They both settled down even further in their seats and drifted off to sleep.

Darren’s dream was quite a disturbing one. He saw himself 10 years from now, working yet again in a pre-school class. A group of children were seated around him as he read them a story.
“And the prince and the princess lived happily ever after,” he finished, and closed the book.
“Tell us another one!” a young girl called out in a typical cute 5-year-old voice. “Please?”
“Well...” He looked at the clock on the wall. “...Alright. Which story would you like to hear?”
“I want to hear the one about Savage Garden!” a boy replied. Darren’s heart began pounding. Why did the children want to hear the story? Had the story of Savage Garden become a fairy tale?
He sighed and began telling the story.
“Savage Garden was one of the most successful bands in the world . They had everything they could possibly want. There were two young kings in the band - one man sang their songs, and the other man made the music. They were the best of friends. Together, they were inseperable - or so they thought. The music-maker became very jealous of the attention that the singer was getting. He wanted to be just as famous. He wanted everything that the singer had. So he decided to leave the band-but the singer didn’t like this. He and the music-maker would fight and fight and fight - they wouldn’t stop.”
“Fighting is bad!” the little girl interrupted.
“Yes, Chloe, it’s very bad. And it made the two men very sad. Eventually, the men’s queens left their castles and went off to marry other kings. Savage Garden broke up. The two men started havint to give away their possessions just to pay for their castles. The music-maker became addicted to a very bad thing called heroin.”
“My older brother has heroin in his bedroom!” another young boy called out.
“Well, that’s very sad. Anyway, one day the music-maker thought he could make himself fly. He jumped from a 25-storey building and tried to grow his wings. But they wouldn’t grow. He reached the bottom of the building and-Kersplat!-he became roadkill.” The kids giggled. “This left the singer very lonely. His queen was gone, so was his best friend, he had to move out of his castle and he is now living in his mother and father’s house. He works in a pre-school now, just like this one.”
“Is the singer still sad?” another boy shouted. Darren looked out the window, and a tear rolled down his cheek as Daniel’s face appeared from the clouds, looking down at him.
“Yes,” he replied softly. “He’s still sad...he’s very sad...”

Darren woke up with his heart pounding, and beads of sweat dripped down his forehead. Daniel was looking down at him, looking concerned.
“Are you okay?” he asked. Darren nodded and took a deep breath to calm himself down.
“Just a bad dream,” he replied.
“A very bad dream, by the looks of things. What happened?”
Darren sat up and told Daniel about the dream. Daniel raised his eyebrows higher and higher as Darren explained what had happened.
“Wow,” he said when Darren was finished. “Talk about strange.”
“The thing that scares me most is, that’s what could happen to us. If things turn out as awful as what the dream is telling me...” Darren trailed off, letting a silence linger.
“We’d better do something about it, then,” Daniel said, breaking the silence.
“Like what?”
“Like...forgive and forget.”
Darren remained silent for a few seconds, not knowing whether or not to say anything. Finally, he opened his car door and stepped out, walking towards the road. When he got there, he stared at it with his arms folded. Daniel walked up behind him and tapped him on the shoulder, giving him a fright.
“You know I hate it when you sneak up on me, Daniel!!” he said.
Daniel sighed. Darren’s anger still hadn’t faded. If that nightmare hadn’t made him open his eyes, then what possibly would? Daniel threw his arms out in frustration and started walking back to the car.
“I give up,” he said loudly. Darren heard this and ran after him, standing in front of him and pushing him back.
“What do you mean, you give up?” he asked.
“I give up,” Daniel simply replied. “I give up on you. I give up on trying to get us back together. It’s just too hard to make you understand.”
“Understand what? Daniel, talk to me!”
“I AM talking to you! Christ!”
“Yeah, a bit too rudely for your own good!” Darren snapped. Daniel heaved a huge sigh.
“See?”
“See what? I don’t see anything except you acting like a little idiot!”
“I’ll tell you what I see...I see a perfect friendship gone terribly wrong. Darren, I’ve done everything I could to get us to be friends again, but it’s just too hard. You’ve put this wall around yourself that forbids you to do ANY reconciling with me.”
“The wall protects me from getting hurt again...”
“If anyone should be hurt, it’s me. I’m the one who nobody wants to have anything to do with. And you wonder why I try and kill myself...!”
“Daniel, you’ve been trying for five years now. You have to get on with your life. There’s no point. Look where you are now - you’re a worldwide success!”
“No. I’M not. YOU are. YOU’RE the worldwide success. I’m just someone who watches from the sidelines as you have all your dreams come true.”
Darren stared at Daniel, trying to read his thoughts through looking in his eyes. But he couldn’t read anything. Daniel was obviously very hurt...but DARREN was hurt, too. When Daniel said that he wanted to leave the band, he immediately put the blame on himself. He thought he wasn’t being a good friend. Now look at him-he wasn’t being a good friend at all. But something was holding him back, not letting him forgive and forget.
“Daniel, if you left, do you realise how much I would miss you?”
Daniel shook his head. He couldn’t say anything. Just then, a song came on the radio loudly. Darren had turned the radio on as he’d been telling Daniel about the nightmare. Just as “Jealousy Is A Curse” had captivated their attention, this song made them run to the car (well, Daniel ran, but Darren limped), sit in the front seats and listen closely. They had heard this song many times before, but it didn’t have as much meaning as it did now.

“How do I get through a life without you?
If I had to live without you, what kind of life would that be?
Oh and I, I need you in my arms need you to hold
You're my world, my heart, my soul
If you ever leave
Baby, you would take away everything good in my life

Without you, there'd be no sun in my sky
There would be no love in my life
There'd be no world left for me
And I, baby I don't know what I would do
I'd be lost if I lost you
If you ever leave
Baby, you would take away everything real in my life

And tell me now...
How do I live without you?
I want to know
How do I breathe without you?
If you ever go How do i ever, ever survive?
How do I, How do I, Oh, How do I live?”

As the song went on, Darren looked over at Daniel sadly. It was like the radio was listening to their argument-and it knew just what song to play. Why was it that every time they had a situation, a particular song would come on that would make them understand?
Without knowing it, he began singing the song softly to himself. Midway through the first verse, he looked over at Daniel again to see him singing along, too. It was a shame that Daniel never wanted to sing on any of their songs - he had a great voice. Daniel looked at him, too, and immediately looked away again. At the end of the song, Darren leaned over and turned off the radio. He looked over at Daniel again, who was staring out the window, and gently squeezed his shoulder.
“What’s the matter?” he asked softly. Daniel looked at him, then unexpectantly rested his head on Darren’s shoulder. He’d always done that whenever he felt bad, and this was one of those times.
“Why does life have to be so hard, Darren?” he asked. “Why doesn’t everything go how you want them to go?”
“...I don’t know,” Darren replied. “God must have some reason. But let me tell you now, Daniel, and you’d better listen to me. Self-inflicted harm will NOT solve any problems. It will only cause more.”
“I remember the first time that I attempted it," Daniel said sadly. "I was about 17. I was sitting in my room, staring at me cigarette lighter as I kept on flicking it on and off. I'd had a pretty bad day at school, and I was really depresed. I accidentally burnt myself with the lighter...I remember thinking, 'Alright, that's the way to go. This is how it's done.' I put the lighter to my wrist and flicked it on. I didn't feel any pain for some reason. I was, like, numb. I've been doing that ever since, but i've tried other methods, too. Check this out."
Daniel rolled up his sleeve to show Darren the dark, long scar on his wrist. Darren winced at the sight of it. He looked up at his ex-best friend.
"But you're out of school now. So why did you continue to do this to yourself?"
Daniel shrugged. "Unhappiness, I guess. I was a generally depressed guy. I just wasn't happy."
"Are you happy now?"
Daniel looked down at his hands. "How can I possibly be happy? I'm losing my best friend in the world..."
Darren wrapped his arms around Daniel and held him gently. If only he'd known about this sooner...then he wouldn't have been so nasty to him. He'd always seen Daniel as a strong man...now he saw Daniel in a new light. He was a tortured soul who was in desperate need of somebody to care for him. And despite the fact that he was still angry with him, Darren couldn't stop caring about him. Through these years that they had known each-other, they had become like brothers. And it was just as if they were real brothers...even if they were angry, there was nothing that could take them apart, because they would be brothers for the rest of their lives. Yawning loudly, Darren closed his eyes again.

Darren awoke with his stomach growling, reminding him that he hadn't eaten in a whole day. He looked down to see Daniel asleep, using Darren's lap as a pillow, and Darren smiled. But when he looked out the windscreen, his cheerfulness turned to horror. Flames surrounded them, only about one metre away from the vehicle.
"Ohmigod...Daniel!" Darren shook the sleeping man gently, then harder when he didn't get a response. "Daniel, get up, damnit!" he shouted. Daniel opened his eyes and looked up at Darren.
"Is it just me, or is it hot in here?" he asked drowsily. Darren lifted him off his lap and tried to open his car door, without any success.
"Holy shit!!" Daniel exclaimed when he saw the flames outside. He noticed Darren struggling with the door, and he, too, tried to open it.
"Get in the backseat and lay low," he said. "Now!"
Darren obeyed. Daniel leant against his car door and forcefully kicked the window of the other door with his rock-hard boots. Glass smashed everywhere, and Darren ducked even lower as glass showered over him. Daniel lifted him up and started gently pushing him out the window.
"What the heck--? I'm gonna get cut!!"
"Would you rather burn to death? Now crawl out!"
Feeling rather brave, Darren crawled out of the window, being careful not to cut himself on the sharp glass. When he was free, he leant back into the car and outstretched his hand to Daniel.
"Come on!" he shouted over the roar of the flames, grabbing Daniel's hand and holding it tightly. "I've got you. I won't let go, okay?"
Daniel let Darren carefully pull him out the window. Finally, they were both free, but were beginning to inhale too much smoke. They coughed loudly.
"C'mon, let's get out of here before this car explodes," Daniel said breathlessly. They turned to run when they saw the flames closing in around them.
"How are we going to get out of here?" Darren asked. Daniel stared into the flames for a few seconds. Finally, he grabbed Darren's hand, and they both ran blindly into the flames. For a moment they were fine, but Darren's hand suddenly slipped out of Daniel's grasp, and he fell to the hot ground.
"DARREN!!" Daniel shouted, running back to find him. He heard Darren scream, and he followed the sound. When he saw Darren's body sprawled on the ground, he picked Darren up and carried him away from danger, trying not to panic. When they were a fair distance away from the fire, they found themselves at a lake. Daniel dumped Darren down on the soft grass, then quickly dove down and joined him when the car exploded with a loud kaboom. Burning car parts fell around them, one of them just barely missing the two trembling bodies sprawled on the grass, holding on for dear life. When things had begun to settle down, Daniel turned over onto his back and let out a coughed loudly.
"Are we dead yet?" Darren asked weakly, also turning over. Daniel groaned in reply, then looked over at Darren to see blood pouring from the top of his head.
"Are you okay?" he asked. Darren nodded, gingerly patting the top of his scalp.
"A stupid car part scraped me on the head. It's probably in the river now or something. It's just a bit of blood-don't worry about it."
Daniel ignored him, took a hankercheif out of his pocket, dipped it into the lake water and held it to Darren's head.
"Thanks," Darren said. They lied in silence for a few seconds, staring up into the stars that were mildly clouded by smoke.
"You know what?" Daniel asked, breaking the silence. "We're in really deep shit now."
"Nice one, Sherlock!" Darren whinged. "Now how are we going to get home? I should never have let you drive me from the hospital-it's just gotten us into one big mess."
Despite his angry face, Darren was scared. So was Daniel. The harsh reality sunk in. They realised they were now more stranded than ever. When would they escape?

Home