The Darkest Hour

"You saw what?" Alicia asked. She had Mike sitting up against the wall behind the bed as she sat against the head board. Her little shorts were suddenly itchy against her legs, but she ignored the feeling to wait for Mikey's response.

"My grandma. She....I swear I saw here before, when Doctor Pasley was here! There was this....amazing white light around her, and Gee said he saw her too! But as soon as she closed that door," he said, nodding his head at the wooden panel that separated them from the rest of the hotel, "Doc P. like, sprang up and rushed out. She told me to call her if I needed her, but that was it."

Alicia had her eyes wide open, but her bottom lip was being nearly chewed off by her top row of teeth. Mikey knew she was worried. "But it was really nice to see grandma. Even if she was some....creepy, otherworldly alien light. She's still my grandma," he said. He knew what this would do to Alicia. Telling her that he was happy about anything would make her mind at ease. She sighed, releasing her lip before crawling over to her fiance's lap.

She laid her head on his legs, and he started, almost instantly, running his finger through her long, dark, soft hair. "It's a shame she won't be able to be there when we get married. You know I loved her lots, right?" she asked Mikey. She felt him chuckle as his fingers comforted her head with their gentle pulling.

"Yeah, I do. Just about anyone that met her loved her. And who knows," he asked, leaning forward a bit so he could see Alicia's face. "Maybe, like today, she will be there. Or maybe she'll be there in our spirit, because you and I both know she left a part of herself with all of us."

Alicia was stunned at what she felt then. Somehow, she knew Mikey's words were truth, even with the fact that they sounded really crazy. A dead woman showing up at a wedding? Or maybe Mikey was right about the spirit part. Actually, she was nearly positive that Mikey and Gerard's grandma would show up in everyone's soul; she was one of the most special people any of them had ever met.

"What were you girls doing today?" Mikey asked. Alicia sighed, knowing she couldn't tell him just what they really had done. She had taken Lindsey downtown to pick out a wedding dress...or really, just to have one of her bride's maids opinions on the dress she had picked out herself. The instant Lindsey had seen the dress, she went ballistic.

"Alicia, that's the most amazing dress I've ever seen in my life!" Lindsey beamed. Alicia blushed, holding up the end of the dress in two large fistfuls of material. She turned around to look at the dress. It was white, obviously, with a huge skirt made of layer upon layer of see through material (enough so that all you could see was white, white and more white), and, as Al had requested, black electric tape had been wrapped and stitched into the top of the dress, which was just a simple mummy-like strapless feature.

"What do you think Mikey'll say?" Alicia asked. Lindsey put one hand on her hip and raised an eyebrow. This told Al that she meant total business, as Gerard had described very quickly after they had started dating.

"Al, if you put that fucking dress back, he's going to kill you with his bare hands. Wait, if you put that dress back, I'll kill you with my bare hands!" That was also an indication that Lindsey was being beyond serious. When Ms. Ballato issued death threats, muy improtante had to be put into action. "And I'll get Gee to help me," she finished.

Alicia smiled more, looking back at the dress. "It's the one, isn't it?" she asked. Lindsey smiled triumphantly, nodding all the while.

"Now go get out of it so we can pay and hide it!"

"Well, we went shopping for some.....necessities." Alicia could not let Mikey know she had found her dress, in oath to Lindsey. "It was fun," she said, exasperation high in her tone. Alicia was tired, and Mikey's soothing touch wasn't helping much. "Can we go to sleep now?"

Mikey chuckled again, nodding as he gently moved Alicia so she was laying with her head on her pillow. Mikey himself laid next to her, letting her arms wrap around his small frame. "I love you, Micheal James." Before he could even respond, she was out. Mikey smiled at the beautiful woman in his arms, and at the thought that, one day in the ear future, he was going to marry her.

He thought about how he was the luckiest guy in the world. He was so in love with his best friend, and he was going to be able to call her his own for the rest of their lives. Why does the darkness think it has a chance when I have Alicia? his mind asked. He wasn't able to answer, but he knew that, with Alicia's help along with the rest of the guys and Linds, he'd get through all of this.

He had to. He couldn't bring himself to marry someone-anyone, especially Alicia-when he was a nervous wreck. He couldn't stand before his friends and family and give her his oath if he felt like he would crash and burn at any moment. He was afraid his heightened anxiety would burst through his skin when he was supposed to be saying "I do."

Soon enough, Mikey had fallen asleep. Surprisingly, he dreamed of nothing but a dark blackness. It wasn't scary anymore, because that night it wasn't calling his name. It was just...dark. Was Mikey finally winning his battle against the darkness?