Castle High's After School Horror

Mikey raises his foot with a strong force, hitting Gerard right under the chin. Gerard grunts as the kick forces his teeth into his tongue. He falls backward and turns his head away, spitting out blood. The metallic taste stays in his mouth. He quickly props himself up on his elbows, not planning on taking a hit from Mikey that easily. They'd fought before - a few times growing up. Gerard, older and better built, always won.

But he isn't the one holding a gun and a knife.

Without warning, Gerard hears the loud echoing sound of a gunshot. He falls back again, screaming. The pain is sharp in his left shoulder. He looks at Mikey with wide eyes. Mikey is smiling maniacally, gun aimed at Gerard. Gerard groans and tries to ignore the pain. He reaches over with his right arm, grabbing onto Mikey's ankle. Mikey frowns, standing his ground. He place the gun inside his belt and takes the knife in his right hand. Gerard withdraws his hand from its vice grip on Mikey's ankle as the knife comes down. Mikey crouches next to Gerard and points the knife at him.

"Don't mention Frank again," Mikey warns.

"You mean...the dead guy that...loved you...but you didn't love back?" Gerard asks, breathing. He knows it'll get a rise out of Mikey and that he's not in the best position to anger him more. But the hurt look on Mikey's face is priceless.

"I loved him!" Mikey hisses. "I still do!"

Gerard takes this chance to lift his knee and force it into Mikey's side. Mikey grunts as he falls over.

"You obviously didn't love him enough," says Gerard. He reaches for the gun with his good hand, ready to fight even if it meant enduring the pain in his shoulder.

But Mikey is quick. He grabs Gerard's wrist, twists his arm uncomfortably. Gerard groans, hitting Mikey with his knee again. Mikey, furious, brings the knife down hard into the bare flesh of Gerard's arm. Gerard screams as the pain he's in multiplies. He sees the blood slide through the slash in his arm. But he still has the force to fight. He knees Mikey quite a few times in the same place, forcing Mikey to fall over again. He moans, in pain. Gerard tries to reach for the gun but the pain from the cut in his arm is too unbearable. He reaches instead for the knife Mikey had dropped. Mikey is quick to swipe it away.

"You don't know anything about love," Mikey spits, his face read with anger. He is holding onto his side. "You dated a girl, claimed to love her, and fucked her sister!" Mikey chuckles then hisses at the pain. "Her twin sister! Just because they look alike, doesn't mean they are the same person." Mikey's face and voice turn somber again. "And now, they're both dead. Because you're a slut."

Gerard's eyes narrow. It pains him that Mikey's words are true but he's ready to kick again. Mikey anticipates this and, keeping his eye contact with Gerard locked, he brings the knife down into Gerard's thigh. Gerard gasps, not expecting it at all. He bites back a scream, as to not give Mikey the pleasure of hearing him in pain. Mikey frowns. Without warning, he lifts a leg over Gerard's nervously shaking body and is straddling him. Gerard's left leg twitches, a reflex from the need to fight back, and Mikey responds by scraping a small cut on Gerard's already wounded right arm. Gerard moans as he tries to free himself from his uncomfortable and vulnerable position but Mikey's legs are tight. Mikey has his head tilted, smiling in such a way that he actual looks like an innocent boy.

That's when Gerard is sure that he's screwed.

The fear sends his heart beating a million times faster. Mikey brings the tip of his knife to the top of Gerard's head. He lays his fist on the deep cut in Gerard's right arm for support. Gerard holds back another scream.

"What you don't get is," says Mikey menacingly, "that I want you to be in so much pain...that you can't scream. I don't want you to cry for help. I want you to feel powerless, helpless. Like no one will come to your rescue. I want you to be locked inside the confines of your mind, where only I can find you. And I won't help you. So that you'll finally understand."

The knife easily cuts Gerard's skin. Gerard closes his eyes, shaking. The pain is too much. He can't imagine it getting any worse. Mikey brings the knife down Gerard's forehead, slowly and teasingly. Gerard hisses as his whole body tenses up. There's no fighting now.

The pain does get worse. Mikey brings the knife across Gerard's eyebrow and Gerard gasps as the knife is drawn into his eyeball. It slices through his eyelid and Mikey puts more pressure, cutting through Gerard's eyeball slowly. Gerard immediately screams, which makes the slit on his face widen. He screams louder, the pain becoming more than unbearable. Mikey chuckles and pushes his fist harder into Gerard's wound, pressing the knife deeper into Gerard's skin as it cut through his cheek. Gerard holds back his screams, knowing that it will only make it worse. But in his head, he’s yelling for some sort of miracle to end his torment.

Mikey cuts through Gerard's nostril, making breathing hurt. Gerard breathes with his mouth, slow and steady, sadly accepting that he is going to die. The knife suddenly comes down hard across his lips, slicing his gums in the process. Gerard screams from the spontaneity of it and screams even louder as the slit across his face opens itself further. He starts to cry, which hurts. His shaking makes it all that much worse. He can't take it.

"I don't want you to accept it!" Mikey screams.

Gerard is whimpering and crying, which hurts in so many ways that he would have killed himself given the opportunity just to make it stop. The cut in his leg hurts sharply. The cuts on his arm burn as if he'd lit the inside of his arm on fire. The wound in his shoulder feels as if someone is drilling a hole into his bone. The cut on his face makes it infinitely painful to breathe or cry but he still manages to do both and it feels as if Beth had poured some of that acid onto Gerard's own face. And to top it all off, Mikey grabs Gerard's shot arm and twists it in such a way that Gerard can swear he hears a crack.

Gerard cries in agony. He convulses impossibly. Every move makes his entire body hurt more and more until he thinks he'll pass out from the pain.

"Don't," says Mikey softly. "I want to see you suffer."

Gerard endures the horrific pain with each painfully fast-paced, pulsating beat of his heart. Screaming at the top of his lungs in such a way that his throat hurts as much as the rest of him. He can only hear himself screaming, for just a few seconds. Mikey covers his mouth, suppressing the sound. Gerard continues to scream until he can't. He's choking and can't even bear to move anymore. His body falls, useless and worn by the torture. He's strangely serene in that moment, despite his still-increasing heart rate and the traumatizing gravity of the peak of his pain. He knows that his time is up. Be it because of the pain or the blood loss, he isn't sure. But he finds himself drifting away, the pain fading.

For whatever reason, he doesn't want to die without first apologizing for what he'd done to his brother. Gerard had never known that Mikey's torture was great enough to turn him into a murderer and he is sure that he'd added to Mikey's burden. Pushing him around, ignoring his cries for help. Despite the fact that Mikey is probably insane and Gerard should hate him, he knows that he can't leave without at least telling his brother what he wants to hear.

Gerard opens his good eye slowly, trying to focus on Mikey. Mikey's hands are at the sides of Gerard's head and he is still straddling him. Gerard can't make out his features.

Gerard can't even speak.

"As long as I know that you get it now..." says Mikey gently, the craze in his voice gone, "I forgive you. And...I'm sorry, too."

Gerard lets his body rest. He knows he was way too late and the mental apology wasn't much. But he feels a peace of mind nonetheless as he takes his final, painful breath. At least he'll be with Macey now.