Back at Danny's house, he frantically riffled through his closet to find his yearbook. This was driving him insane. The only explanation is that they were all making a sick joke, part of the fun for Samir's Birthday and they had somehow doctored the photograph in Monique's album to put the icing on the cake. Tomorrow they would all own up and apologise while laughing loudly about it all and Danny would join in, with Olivia making a sudden reappearance as if resurrected from the dead. He found the album and quickly flicked through it to find the picture. Here it was he thought, there she is on the left. Except she wasn't there, where he clearly remembered her smiling face and her arm around David's shoulder, it was empty, nothing except for the grassy bank that was behind them. Danny dropped the yearbook in shock and slumped to the floor. He couldn't understand it, his memories of her and everything felt so real, but there appeared to be no sign she was ever real. But he knew her; he had spent time with her for years, hadn't he?
Chapter 2 – Forest of Splinters
FRIDAY
Danny awoke with a start as if a thousand nightmares had convalesced into one gigantic crash that made him leap from his bed. He looked across at the alarm clock and realised that he was ten minutes later than he expected to be. He seemed to be waking a little later each day and he couldn't understand why. He never needed to set his alarm as his body clock was always in perfect sync, but it looked like he couldn't trust his natural ability to stir from his slumber all of a sudden. He noticed he was sweating a little, and remembered having a series of graphic and frightening dreams. He was normally a sound sleeper and rarely had nightmares, so this was even stranger.
He got up and made his breakfast as usual, mindful to hurry a little bit with each task to try and make up the ten minutes he had lost. Something wasn't right, he didn't know if he was losing his mind or not, the events of the previous day were still weighing heavily on him. He had to try and understand what was happening, the memories were so clear that it made no sense. Was he having some kind of breakdown? He pondered over it as he munched his morning cereal and made the decision to phone in sick and get an appointment with a psychiatrist. He may not be able to get in at such short notice but he would try, and whether he could or couldn't, he really didn't think he could face work today. He wasn't sure of a decent one in the area so decided to phone Samir. As a doctor he would know a reputable one, and preferably one that didn't charge too much. He made his call to work, told them he was sick with a voice as gruff as he could manage, and then flicked through his contacts to find Samir, promptly dialling. After a few rings, Samir's familiar voice greeted him.
“Hey Sam” Danny said, “apologies for bailing out so early last night, my head was kind of all over the place, well it still is, I guess. Did you have a good birthday?”
“Yeah it was great” Samir replied, “I can't remember that much by the end of the night to be honest, ha-ha. I can't remember you leaving that early, but the details are sketchy when I think back”
Danny thought that it was an odd reply as he could have sworn he'd only been at Monique's for around five minutes, but put it down to all the alcohol Samir had indulged in. It was either that or Danny's own memory was getting even more seriously screwed up, which was something he really didn't want to contemplate at that moment.
“So, well, I was wondering if you knew of or had an acquaintance who's a psychiatrist. Someone you trust who's good?” asked Danny.
“A Psychiatrist? Is everything okay?”
“Well I don't know, I'm hoping so, it's all to do with last night” Danny replied.
“Last night? Umm...okay. Well let me look, I'm thinking Steven might be the best bet, give me one second” Samir said as he thumbed through his address book. He had so many contacts in his profession that it was much better to have them written down in a good old-fashioned way “Yeah, Steven is cool; I would recommend him, Dr. Monroe”.
He relayed the number to him and Danny jotted it down.
“Thanks Sam. I hope everyone didn't find me too strange last night, I really should apologise to them” Danny said.
“I really can't remember” Samir replied.
“Well I know David and James thought I was crazy as I'd already mentioned it when I popped into the bar to see them”
“David?” replied Samir.
“Yes, and James, they were both in the bar before they met you guys” Danny informed him.
“Yeah, I remember James saying he'd stopped off on his way to us, but David? Was he someone James was with, in the bar?” Samir asked.
“David, David, you know David”, Danny said frustrated. Was Samir playing jokes with him too now?
“Sorry Danny, I don't know a David, you must be getting mixed up”
Danny swallowed hard, trying to compute all this nonsense, this couldn't be happening again.
“I'm not playing any more games Sam, I know you know David, we
