The Black Parade

ABBEY’S P.O.V.

“She’s a killer, queen, dynamite with a laser beam…” I hummed along to myself, barely standing, just realizing that I was, once again, a homeless killer, starving on the scraps of humanity, simply brilliant. It had only been a few weeks since I last saw… him, it’s not as if I couldn’t go on without him in my life, I was perfectly fine with replacing love, hate was far better to serve anyways. I left a trail of disaster in my wake that the police still couldn’t trace, the idiots that they were. That Lauren girl was probably onto me, but I didn’t care, it’s not as if I was truly living, so it didn’t really matter if she found out and took away my life, or my life’s endeavor.

I looked around, hoping to find another, a demon, in metaphor, to slay. I hear sirens; I am somehow drawn to them… I pass a burning building, I pass the firefighters, I glance at one attempting to revive her comrade, and watch as she is unable to and gives up. I saw the flames, every atom and every painful element that composed the song of death. I heard a scream and the painful crash of a collapsing wall… something sparked inside of me, some unknown sentiment, that inspired me to run at top speed into the burning apartment building. As soon as I entered the building my lungs burned, they felt as if they congealed with every inhalation of smoke. The yells of people from outside of the building met my ears, yet I paid no heed, they shouted that there was no hope for the one person left; the structure wasn’t even safe for the best firefighter. It was a good thing that I wasn’t the best firefighter, then.

“Hello,” I coughed, hoping against hope that I would receive an answer, “I’m” cough, “here.” The voice was weak, but I could hear it perfectly, it was far, but in my vicinity, thankfully. I run to the victim, a woman, she clutched to the still form of a child, she gasped as smoke threatened to take her life as well, I reached to grab the stick-thin woman and child, only to find that her leg was trapped underneath a steel beam, I attempted to move it, but it wouldn’t budge, not a bit. Something in me stirred when the woman told me to leave and save myself, something kept me from selfishness. I held the woman’s hand gingerly and told her to brace herself; she nodded wearily and coughed and sputtered. I took a knife from my back pocket and cut my hand so tat it bled profusely, I took the blood, which was beginning to mix with ash, and lathered it about the woman’s leg, where it was trapped and below it. I took a deep breath and lifted the weighty and white-hot steel I-beam about three inches with some hidden strength that seemed to blossom from within. She quickly extracted her leg from underneath, but it seemed to take the last of her strength, she collapsed.

I didn’t even try to revive her, as quickly as I could, I put her arms around my shoulders and held onto the child’scorpse unconscious body with all of my fading brawn. I dodged falling beams and collapsing architecture until I finally found my way out of the fiery apartment building. As we exited, the entire building fell to smithereens, unable to endure the extreme heat for any longer. Firefighters and medics took the woman and child, whom I prayed were alright, and one led me a little ways away from the flames, near to an ambulance, and gave me oxygen, I breathed it in until I felt as if my lungs were cleared of the venom and harmful gases, then I gestured to the medic to take the blessed air away from me, he left me and, without warning, I was surrounded by news cameras and well-dressed reporters, shit. And just as suddenly as they arrived I was stoned into submission with queries. My eyes widened with each and every one, my brain went into over-drive with panic.

“How did you do it?”

“Why did you risk your own life to save people you didn’t even know?”

“Why couldn’t the firefighters save the citizens themselves?”

“What’s your name?”

I was attacked with questions and all I could do was run, run, and run. I ran so fast that I didn’t notice the sirens, I ran so fast that I couldn’t feel the blisters that plagued the bottom of my feet, I sprinted like an animal, and I was hunted like one too. The police were after me. I don’t know why, I didn’t care; all I knew was that I had been compromised, this city wasn’t safe. But Gerard lives in the city, how couldn’t it be safe? Said the demon in my subconscious that I promptly ignored and beat into the corner of my mind with a mental whip so that I did not have to deal with yet another morality problem. I heard the sirens come closer, but what I didn’t realize was that the oxygen would go into my head, I fell on the ground. All that encompassed my field of vision was as black as the smoke that caused my descent into oblivion.

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“She has visitors, I think that my daughter has a poster of them on her wall, maybe they’re some sort of band or something, anyway, send them in when she wakes up, and fill her in on her condition. Get her name too, she doesn’t even have medical insurance, she should get some though, unless…” I slipped back into my unconscious state, wondering just what he meant by that…

“Oh good, you’re awake, now there’s something that I have to tell you, but the police have a few questions for you and you have some visitors. By the way, the woman and child you saved are perfectly fine, with the exception of some minor burns and a broken bone or two; you really are a remarkable person, for saving them.” Guilt gurgled in my stomach at the admiration, admiring a murderer isn’t what she was planning on, was it? “However, you, my friend, are-” I ripped the I.V. out of my arm, with much pain, and ran out of the room when I heard the police enter the hospital and inquire of my whereabouts from a few feet outside of that very room.

I ran out of the hospital while both the cops and that nurse were chasing me, the shout from the nurse was:

“You shouldn’t run, it’s not good for the-” she tripped and was out of the chase, but the police were still in the running and were, apparently, “not here to hurt me,” which I severely doubted.

I only realized that I had stopped running when I felt a heartbeat meet mine, it was too familiar for sane words. I looked up to see Gerard, along with the rest of the guys, and Brian. Oh, joy…

“Hey, Abbey… You do know that you are making a scene right?” He said, oh-so-coldly and collectively, but I could tell that there was some underlying emotion forming the silhouette behind the harsh frigid wording.

“I know, and you just made it worse. How’s life, having fun being famous again?”

“Yeah, do you like the fame too?” he retorted, I scowled, none of this was about me, and I was just being nice and all… stupid bum hole.

“Not particularly, no.” I turned to get away from him, only for my sight to be met with cops, shit, shit, shit, was the only thing that I could even bear to think, and worst-case-scenarios swarmed around my mind like hummingbirds on high. I tried to find a way to get out of the situation, but in my mind’s eye, I knew that it was utterly impossible.

“Miss, we’re not here to hurt you, just to thank you, you did a great deed.” I briefly heard Gee snicker, at which I elbowed him in the gut, he promptly discontinued his laughter.

“Actually, miss, I’m not here to thank you.” A bon chilling voice spoke up from behind the mass of police men. Lauren Lobotomy.

“Run.” I whispered to myself, but my body was too paralyzed for such an activity.

“So, this is the mysterious killer?” I grimaced, which she noticed, “Oh, I apologize, vigilante, what are you going to do, kill me, my family? Trust me, it won’t help, Mary.” Gerard grasped my hand in comradeship, though he knew I was a killer inside, and I let a tear slip down like the rain that had entranced me so. The words didn’t penetrate my defenses, just the venom and hopelessness behind them. And the surprising fact was; that I worried more about the woman’s lonely tone, than my own predicament.

Was being near Gerard the only thing that made morality cloud my senses?

Was it something else?