Beautiful Hunger

Rayven's POV

"Why did you really bring me here?" I asked, my back against the door and my hand firmly on the handle. He smiled, stepping away from me to make me feel more comfortable.

"To do exactly what I told your mother, show you some art." He said as if he were almost telling the truth. He turned and walked down the hallway. I assumed that I was to follow, so I did.

His house was beautiful, nothing like mine at all. It was bigger, the kitchen was a bit smaller than ours but everything else was much larger. He didn't have many decorations, just a few family portraits hanging on the hallway walls.

"Come on, Rayven." He chanted down the hallway. I found myself obeying and walking into the dining room. There was no table, just a desk and a few canvas stands. I stood next to him as he rummaged through a large cardboard box shoved off into the corner. The box was filled with all kinds of art, paintings, drawings, even some more advanced scribble drawings.

"Ah." He said happily once he had found what he was searching for. It was a drawing of a woman in what looked like charcoal. She had long blond hair and a slim face. Her eyes displayed a hint of sadness and grief. It was beautiful.

"Wow, who is it, Mr.Way?" I asked, taking in the full details. I could see each individual strand of hair, falling down her shoulders. Each crease of the shirt had it's own shadow, it's own detail. Even the material of the shirt was visible.

"My name is Gerard out of school." He smiled before setting the drawing down on the large desk on the other side of the room. "And this is my mother. Donna was her name." He said, tracing his fingers over the picture delicately.

"Was?" I asked, catching the past tense in his sentence.

"She's dead." He stated. The smile disappearing from his face. I stood next to him, not afraid of him for the moment. I felt sorry for him, he didn't have anyone. I at least had my mother, but he didn't even have that. "Casey killed her when I was seventeen." He said with a sigh. There was a silence between us as we both looked down at the picture of Donna Way.

"She's beautiful." I said, breaking the silence. He nodded and smiled a little.

"Yeah, she is. Some of Casey's crooks broke into our house in the middle of the night. My mother was the first one to hear them. The sound of something hitting the floor woke me up, my bedroom was in the basement after all. I ran upstairs to see one of the men on the floor with a knife in their neck and another standing across the room. I didn't know my mother was even up yet." He started, taking the picture into the living room causing me to follow, curious about the rest of his story.

"You don't have to share this with me, Mr.Wa-...Gerard." I said, growing curious as to why he was telling me all of this, he didn't even know me that well.

"Yes I do. Before this goes any further, you need to know what you are pulling yourself into." He said in a warning tone.

"Pulling myself into?!" I scoffed, growing a bit pissed off. "You are the one who started all this!"

"You didn't deny me... Did you?" He asked, his hazel eyes meeting mine, causing me to shut my mouth and shake my head. He was right...once again. "Exactly. We both know this is going to go further than it should. I think you should know what you are getting into, that's all." He stated before setting the picture down on his coffee table and sitting down on the large couch. I sat a few cushions away from him, my eyes glued to his face.

"Should I continue?" He asked, his gaze returning to me for a second. I nodded, dying to hear the rest. A smile flashed across his face for a second. I knew what I was getting myself into, but I couldn't resist. I was digging myself deeper and deeper, but I loved it.

"Well..." He began, clearing his throat and looking at the picture of Donna. "I took the knife as quietly as possible from the neck of the dead stranger on the floor. A quiet gushing noise came from his neck as the knife came from the wound, sickening me a little bit. But I had to ignore the feeling if I wanted to protect my family. I snuck up behind him, knife at the ready. But he knew that I was there and before I could even take one slice at him his foot collided with my stomach, causing my hand to fly back against my chest and the knife to leave a large gash on my chest. He pinned me down, punching my stomach over and over until I had blood coming out of my mouth." He explained, his face remaining hard as stone, no emotion breaking to the surface.

"He then explained to me that his name was Casey Callihan and that I and whoever else in the house was going to die unless I did what I was told." Gerard explained further, his eyes lingering to my clothed legs. He paused for a moment.

"Questions?" He asked, looking up at me, catching me off guard with the desperate look in his eyes. I felt so bad for him, he didn't have to finish the story for me to know that the ending wasn't a good one.

"Who else was in the house?" I asked after a few moments.

"Just me, my mother and my little brother Mikey." He replied.

"No dad?" I asked, regretting it once the question had fully passed through my lips. He hung his head a little, making guilt hit me like a ton of bricks.

"He died when me and Mikey were young. Car crash." He informed me.

"I'm sorry..."

"It's okay, I've come to terms with it. It caused me to mature a lot. I became the man of the house at age thirteen. I had like one pube then..." He said causing us to both laugh a little. We looked into each others eyes for a moment before he looked back down at the drawing of Donna. I was still a little confused as to what this had to do with me, but I was almost certain it would be explained by the end of his story. When his smile faded he returned to his emotionless state.

"He told me that my mother was dead, causing me to begin crying, he pointed to the body behind him, lying lifeless in the kitchen. She had stabbed the dead man on the floor to try to protect me and Mikey. But Casey was too much for her and he strangled her. Casey sat on the counter, leaving me on the floor bleeding from the knife wound that I had accidentally given myself. Casey heard Mikey's footsteps coming down the hallway and hopped off the counter, snatching the knife off of the floor and hiding behind the kitchen door. I tried to scream to tell Mikey to run but I was too weak from the blows to the stomach and the amount of blood I had lost." He explained further.

I scooted closer to him, wrapping my arms around him in a comforting gesture, he grinned down at me weakly.

"Well, Mikey came into the kitchen and Casey ambushed him, placing the knife to his neck and giving me a choice. My life or his. Mikey began crying, making me automatically say mine. Casey nodded and tossed Mikey away, saying that he had three minutes to gather what he needed and get out. Casey also said that if Mikey looked at his face that his neck would be split in two. Mikey got out in time and I haven't seen him since. I miss him." Gerard admitted, opening his arms and letting me lean against his chest. I sighed against his shirt, taking in his scent for a moment before he continued to tell me the rest.

"As soon as Mikey was out Casey admitted that he wasn't going to kill me. He informed me that I was to take the place of the man that my mother killed, a position that they called 'The Middle Man'. He said that if I told anyone who he was that he would kill me and find my brother and kill him as well. He was all I had left and I didn't want to lose him. Casey gave me instructions to go to the hospital saying that an unknown man broke into my house, strangled my mother and kidnapped my brother and beat me unconscious in the process." He said, clenching his fists a little as his breathing became more ragged and his heart began to pound loud enough for me to hear it in his chest.

"I had no choice if I wanted my brother to stay alive. I knew Mikey wouldn't say anything in fear of me getting hurt. But he probably thinks I'm dead. I did what Casey told me and I'm still working for him today, the teaching job is a cover-up." He admitted, sighing and sitting up, causing me to unwrap my arms from around him.

"I'm so sorry, Gerard. I thought you were just some pedophile psycho teacher." I said truthfully, he grinned at me, sitting on the coffee table in front of me.

"Not a pedophile. Maybe psycho." He admitted. "I'm...sorta sorry if I ever scared you."

"Sorta sorry?" I asked, causing him to nod.

"Rayven..." He began, the humorous side of him disappearing. "If you don't want to be apart of this I suggest you stay away from me. I need to know right now if you are willing to help me. I have a plan to maybe stop what he is doing...but I'm gonna need your help..." Gerard said, looking up at me with a serious look in his eyes. I nodded, feeling the extreme need to be there for him, to help him through this. He wasn't a killer, he was just stuck in a very nasty position.

"I'll help you." I said, knowing that I had probably just buried myself alive. But I knew that this was the right thing to do. If we caught Casey Callihan many families could sleep safe at night and we would probably save many many lives in the process.

He nodded and smiled. He stood up and held his hand out to help me up, I grasped his hand and he yanked me up and held me against his chest with his strong arms.

"We better get you home..." He whispered, making me frown a little. I felt connected to him now, I wasn't afraid of him anymore. I nodded and he smiled at me.

We both left the house, a comfortable silence taking over us as we walked across the culdesac towards my light-less house. We stopped on the doorstep, looking at each other for a moment before he opened his arms to me. I fell against his chest.

"You are a lot sexier now that I know you aren't trying to kill me." I admitted, causing him to laugh a little as he held me tight.

"I'll see you tomorrow." He said as he turned away and began walking towards his house again. I frowned a little, I almost expected something to happen there. I sighed and turned towards my door, taking my key out of my pocket and unlocking the rusted door.

"Rayven?" Gerard's voice called from behind me, causing me to jump a little. I turned around quickly to see Gerard on the step below mine, standing awkwardly as he looked at me with a nervous smile.

"Yeah?" I asked. He stepped up the step and leaned over, pecking me gently on the lips for a split second before smiling widely and turning around, walking away from me. I stood there, a blush spreading like a wildfire over my cheeks as a smile broke out on my face as well. He was so fucking adorable. Brittanie was going to murder me if she ever found out.