Did You Get What You Deserve?

On Katie’s birthday we had a party. The whole gang was grouped in the lounge celebrating, and I was in the kitchen getting a drink. I heard a hesitant knock on the door. Putting my glass down on the bench, I went to open it. In front of me stood a young man with light brown hair and piercing blue eyes. He shifted from one foot to the other, blinking at me in the afternoon sunlight.

“Is th-this where F-Frank Iero l-lives?”

I nodded, then turned and yelled to the other room.

“Hey, Dad!”

He poked his head around the door.

“Yeah?”

He noticed the man standing in the doorway and shaded his eyes to see him better. After staring for a moment, he rubbed his eyes and looked again. Then one hand went to the nearest chair and the other went to his heart.

“Fuck...”

The man smiled uncertainly. Dad gaped for a moment, then whispered,

“But you’re dead...”

The man’s eyes flicked from Dad to me and back to Dad, then to the photo on the kitchen mantelpiece. And that’s when I understood.

“You’re-”

He looked at me. I stared back at him, still not quite believing. After all, as Dad said, he was dead. Then Dad stepped forward and laid his hand on the man’s arm. They stood there like that for a moment, then Dad took a deep breath and hugged him.

“It is you!”

The man grinned.

“Of course it’s me.”

“But you’ve been dead for thirteen years!”

The man gently detached himself from Dad’s arms.

“Is Katie here?”

Dad nodded.

“She’s through there, in the lounge.”

“Let’s go surprise her.”

We followed him through the door into the lounge, where Katie was seated on the couch with her back to the door. The man walked up behind her and placed his hands over her eyes.

“Guess who?”

She gasped and put her hands up to feel the fingers obstructing her vision.

“I have no idea.”

She pulled the hands off her eyes and turned around in her seat. She froze, staring open-mouthed at the grinning man behind her. Then she screamed.

“Alec!”

He grinned widely, throwing his arms around her. Mikey leapt up from his seat, his hands over his mouth.

“No!”

Gerard laughed at Mikey’s reaction while staring at Alec with wide eyes.

“Shit, dude...”

Alec laughed.

“Happy Birthday, Katie.”

She sniffed, crying into his shoulder.

“You’re not dead...”

Alec shook his head.

“Some extraordinary stuff-up at the hospital.”

He sat down beside Katie and put his arms around her.

“On the day I had my accident, some other Jersey kid was also hit by a car. His name was Alex Morris. The hospital sure screwed something up, because I was labelled as him and he as me. The kid that died was Alex Morris. I was in a coma for three months, and when I woke up I couldn’t remember anything. I didn’t know my own name. Alex’s parents took home, and not long after that we moved to Michigan. I learned to love the people I called Mom and Dad, but I had this constant feeling that something wasn’t right. I think Alex’s Mom knew I wasn’t her son, but she pretended to keep on believing. Anyway, one day earlier this year, I was one the train and my friend was sitting next to me with his music playing. And he offered me an earphone, saying it was a good song, if a bit of an oldie. Guess what song it was?”

Katie shrugged. Alec grinned.

“Welcome to the Black Parade.”

Dad laughed.

“Seriously?”

“All honesty, yeah. And I don’t know why, but I suddenly started crying, right there on the train. And he was looking at me all weird, asking if I was alright. And I still couldn’t remember anything, but something in that song just twigged. And then a few days later, I could have sworn my mate called me Alec. And suddenly, one day, I knew exactly who I was. I knew my name. That was all, but it was enough. I went and researched the cases of both Alex Morris and Alec Marshall, and found these similarities. I mean, there were even photos. I’m serious, this guy looked so much like me he could have been my identical twin. He was a few months older than me though. So anyway, I was reading the newspaper article, and as I did that, I started remembering that day. As I researched more and more, I remembered more and more, until finally I woke up one morning remembering everything. Then I tried to find you. It took a while, but eventually I remembered your address. I was praying you still lived here, I don’t know what I would have done if you’d moved.”

He grinned, looking around him.

“And the lounge is still pink.”

**Author's Note: YAY! The return of Alec! I was thinking the other day, and I was seriously regretting killing him. So I thought hard, and came up with a way to have him written back in. Yes, amnesia is the cure to everything!

Due to complaints by Critical_Lemon, I have decided to retract my earlier statement. He is not my stalker, he's just a... friend... yes, a friend... yeees... XD

Thanks to Critical_Lemon for commenting.**