What You Deserve

My legs felt a little shaky - figuring that someone would hear the creaking of the door as it slid open. It sounded old, as if nobody had opened the door in a long period of time. It made me curious on how old the house really was. Then my mind triggered back to when I had considered bodies being hidden behind the door, and panic filled my mind until I realized that there wasn't a smell of decay rising into the air - just a musty odor.

I strained to see in the dark, but couldn't see anything until I realized that the only thing that had a shine on it was a light bulb which was... floating in the air? No, no that wasn't possible. Straining more, I realized that the ceiling sloped downward, and I was eye level with part of the ceiling further on. As if that wasn't confusing.

Carefully, I slipped my foot into the door, only to feel my stomach drop as I stepped down, jerking my body forward slightly, however catching myself before I could fall, as I felt a temporary lack of ground beneath my foot - until it hit something wooden that let out a soft thud when my foot crashed down upon it. My fingers clumsily searched the wall alongside the door, and near where I was now half-standing, finding a cool object. A light switch. Flicking it, I found myself instantly blinded.

"Stupid," I hissed at myself, realizing the entire time I had been staring at the light fixture.

When my eyes finally adjusted to the light, I looked around - spots still scattering my vision from the bright light - and realized why I had almost fallen. I was partially on a staircase. If the lights worked properly in the kitchen, I wouldn't have had that problem. The door led to the basement that I didn't know existed, apparently. After a second, I found myself thinking about my stupidity, remembering what Gerard had told me when I first tried to go through the door that hadn't completely registered until now.

"It leads to the basement."

A basement has stairs. Stupid, stupid me.

Now I was more careful, creaking down the stairs until I reached the bottom, and looked around, turning into a large room. There was no bodies that I could see. Not even a freezer to hold bodies. Relief washed over me knowing that this was not a corpse storage room. There were many boxes down here. It looked like a house that someone had just moved into and hadn't gotten the chance to unpack their stuff.

Among the few things unpacked, I noticed an old radio, a small couch that had definitely seen better days, and a television and video player on an old wooden stand. A large box beside it caught my attention, as it was the only one of the boxes that was left wide open.

Curiosity bit at me until I walked over to the small living room-like setup to look at it. Examining the box, I noticed several papers scattering it. Shuffling through the papers, there was a small black box and numerous video tapes. I took a quick glance over my shoulder, before picking up one of the small black tapes, and shifting to sit in front of the television, poking at the buttons until a static filled the screen, finding it already on the channel that was set for watching videos, then messed with the video player. I didn't really know which button to press to turn it on because I didn't have a VHS thing at my house. They were too outdated to bother with getting. I sighed, pushing the black tape into the slot for it, and watched the screen as a little Play symbol appeared in the corner.

The screen flickered, turned black for a second, then the screen flickered to a newer looking version of the living room upstairs. The image shook a few times as footsteps of the person holding the camera was walking towards the kitchen. "Mikey?" a playful voice chimed from behind the camera, "where are you?"

Frank was the only person in the room, however, and he looked over at the camera and smiled, lighting a cigarette, and puffing the smoke out of his lips. "He'll be back in a few seconds," he made a quick gesture to the door that led to the backyard, "countdown! Five, four, three, two... one!"

Just as he said that, the door swung open and a brown haired man walked in. He looked somewhat like Mikey - I guessed. I hadn't really seen him without black dye in his hair. He looked better with just brown hair.

"Alicia? Why do you have that camera? Get it away!" Mikey laughed slightly, waving his hand in front of his face, only one being free I had just noticed. A small bag was in his other hand. "I come in peace! I bring a present!" he pulled out a small blue and white unicorn, and the girl - easily assumed to be named Alicia - laughed gently.

"Fine, fine. I'll put away the camera... as long as I can take out a digital camera and take a picture of you with that unicorn!" I could almost hear her smiling. Mikey pouted for a second, then nodded, and the screen went black.

After a second, just as I was about to press the button that read very fadedly, "ejec-," voices filled the screen once more, now a different person behind the camera.

Gerard now stood by the couch, where Mikey and a woman sat. She was smiling at him, and gave him a small kiss on the cheek. Out of the corner of the screen, I could see a small blue and white stuffed animal's back legs which led out to hooves.

"I want a kiss, Gerard," a girl's voice sounded like a mixture of playful and pouty. She was obviously the person holding the camera, as the image shifted a little when she spoke.

"Well, Sugar, you're going to have to get rid of the camera first," Gerard smirked. Did any of the guys like to be filmed?

The girl made an odd "hmph" sound, "I'm not going to! Nice try!" she turned to face the two on the couch more, "be more like Alicia and Mikey. They kiss all the time. They even have matching tattoos. You got fangs through your skin before, surely a needle won't kill you..."

"Nice try," Gerard shook his head, and walked away as the screen once again went black.

I waited a few seconds, shifting through the box again to pull out the small box. Opening it, I found a stack of pictures. The first one had Gerard holding a microphone, with Mikey playing a bass guitar, and the bottom of a drumset behind them both. They were in a band? Hard to believe.

The second one surprised me a little, causing me to ignore the voices as the screen lit up again. Gerard and Frank were... kissing! How weird! I never imagined them... together... or doing that at all! The strange thing about the picture was that they were both doused in sweat, and the neck of a white guitar was pushed against Gerard's arm as he seemed to be attempting to hold it away.

"Oh yeah, a little tongue!" the voice sliced through the air, and I felt my heart skip a beat. My eyes shot up to the TV, and I dropped the pictures back into the box, my fingers trembling as they slipped the lid onto it and shoved it back into the box.

"Why don't I get any kisses, Katie? I want one! Wait... no... I don't want your drooly germs on me!" Frank's voice continued, as the camera shook with his head.

I watched the video, eyes wide with shock, as it followed exactly as my dream had, up until Mikey left the room to check on the crash. Katie lifted her hand to examine her ring, then stared at the screen for several seconds, lipping something barely noticeable. "I love you Mikey," she muttered, finally becoming audible, "so next week, I'll make sure I'll be with you forever," she had a serious look on her face, as she made her way to the camera and turned it off.

With that, I didn't want to see any more, and quickly ejected the video, stuffing it into the box. "That wasn't normal," I muttered lowly, "not normal at all. No, that was..." I shook my head, confusion filling my thoughts, as I shuffled the papers back over everything, similar to how it had been before, though the title of one caught my eye. It was a cut out of a newspaper article.

"Band Dies in Car Accident While on Tour." titled it, however, it didn't state the date. I wondered why they kept it. Maybe a band they liked? The paper was crumpled up a little, but I still managed to read it through broken letters.
"Today's a tragic day for fans of the band My Chemical Romance. On the way to Chicago, Illinois, the tour bus carrying the band plummeted off of a bridge after it slipped off the road due to what was assumed to be black ice. The five members have yet to be found. Some think it could have been a suicide attempt after recent events in which two of the band member's significant others passed away, however, as the members seemed against suicide according to fans, it is assumed that with weather conditions, the bus lost control. All members are assumed dead."

I attempted to read more, however, it was illegible, and just as I was about to search through the other papers, I heard feet stomp on the bottom stair, my heart lurching again as the paper slipped out of my hands and back into the box.

I hurriedly rose to my feet, only to freeze as two dark eyes found themselves only inches from my face, "what are you doing down here?"

"I-I..." my voice choked on it's words, as the thoughts scrambled in my head. I never thought Franks eyes were so dark. I could have sworn they were a lighter color. "No- er..." I tried to think, "nobody told me --" I looked around, trying to avoid his stare, "I c-couldn't come down here..." I mumbled the last part, and felt a rush of warm air emit from his mouth.

"It's alright..." he took a step back, "sorry... I guess I'm just... irritable this week," he let out another sigh, "let's go back upstairs." It wasn't an offer, I could tell by his voice. It was a demand. "And if you want to explore ever again, ask to go someplace."