Dan wasn't keen on being some weird spectacle either - and who knows what he'd see when he pulled back the curtain of Richie's mind, when he dug a little deeper. Besides, to even allow him to do that required a significant amount of trust anyway. It would be better if they had some privacy.
"You'll be okay," he assured, hand patting Richie's - his wrist, actually, and Dan's thumb swiped over the pulse point. He didn't have to press there to know that Richie was anxious, and who could blame him? This was all entirely unknown. "I've - seen darkness too. Evil. I lived in it, and I was chased by ghosts - I couldn't outrun them so I tricked them and locked them up instead."
They resided there, in his head. Back in their dreary boxes, wrapped in chains. "Point is, I've seen a lot of bad things and come out on the other side so you can too."