Eyes of the Devil

“MCR! MCR! MCR!”

Gerard’s eyes opened abruptly as he felt a shock of cold air against his body. His breathing froze in his throat as he stared at his surroundings, realizing it was dark and he was outside. Countless camera flashes dotted the space before his eyes like stars in the sky just above him. Another frigid gust of wind brushed past him, gripping his shoulders and forcing him to shiver. His gaze traveled down his arm and stopped on the microphone clasped in his pale hand. He subconsciously straightened a wrinkle in the fabric of his jacket. For some reason, he was wearing a suit…

And then he remembered.

With the memory fresh in his mind, panic began to set in. He backed away from the mic stand in horror, almost recognizing it as the symbol of his undoing. He glanced off to his right and saw Frank studying him with a curious, worried expression. Twisting around to view the other side of the stage, he expected to see Ray giving a similar reaction. Instead, he saw a face he did not recognize. Finally turning his back on the crowd, he looked at the drummer. A gray wall decorated with a large, white triangle served as the backdrop for the concert, letting Bob’s golden hair and shocking eyes clearly set him apart from the background. Gerard’s eyebrows knitted together in a frown as he approached the drummer.

“This isn’t right… Where’s Matt?” he asked over the roar of the crowd.

“This is nothing but a memory, Gerard,” he answered. “I’m just filling in. I’ve always wondered if I can play your old songs…”

“But…this is when I…” Gerard couldn’t even finish the sentence, but Bob nodded in understanding.

“It’s your last show.” Suddenly, he smirked and twirled the drumsticks in both hands. “Give ’em hell, kid.”

Gerard traveled back to his place at the front of the stage, attempting to hide the smile trying to cross his face. He heard the beginning riffs of a familiar song start up around him, bringing the crowd to shout and scream for their favorite band. After the drums came in, he lifted the microphone to his lips and began to sing.

“The amount of pills I’m taking counteracts the booze I’m drinking, and this vanity I’m breaking lets me live my life like this…” He began dancing around the stage as the excitement filled him with electricity, screaming the words to song after song. His throat was raw and sore, but the ecstasy of being on the stage again outweighed the pain.

The time passed all too quickly, and before he knew it, the unknown guitarist was playing the first few notes of their final song. As Gerard ran over the words in his mind, he realized how closely they described the events that had befallen him ever since that first fateful day. A tear worked its way out of his eye; he quickly averted his gaze to the floor as it dropped, closely followed by two streams of water flowing freely down his face.

He didn’t want to die.

“Hand in mine into your icy blues, and then I’d say to you, ‘We could take to the highway with this trunk of ammunition, too. I’d end my days with you in a hail of bullets…’” He placed the mic back on its stand and clutched the object for support. His energy had diminished rapidly in the past few seconds, leaving him gasping for breath and hardly able to stand on his own. He noticed a slight rustling of unease throughout the crowd; once there was a break in the song where he could remain silent for a measure or two, he took a few steps forward, only holding on to the thin black pole with one hand as he squinted into the darkness to see what could be wrong.

A wall of pale gray light appeared above the crowd like a blanket, but no one seemed to notice the sudden change except Gerard. He glanced up at it for a mere second before returning his attention to finding the source of the discontent in the field of people before him.

He spotted Ray in the midst of the churning chaos and suddenly realized the man was holding a gun aimed directly at his heart. His eyes widened as the rest of his body went rigid from the shock, cementing him in place and not allowing him to escape from his fate.

He heard the explosion of gunpowder. Time seemed to slip away as the minuscule chunk of iron hurtled toward his heart. For a moment, he felt completely helpless, nothing more than a target in a shooting gallery that was worth the most points. He could dodge it, he surmised. Just step a little to the side and let it graze his arm or miss him altogether. He could keep living for just a moment longer…

The bullet hit home with a firm, sickening sound as if piercing through meat. Gerard stumbled backwards a few steps in shock, then frowned. He had expected more than that. But just as his mind conjured this idea, blood blossomed through the front of his sweat-soaked ebony shirt with startling haste. He thought it strange that he felt no pain, though he began choking and coughing up blood within seconds. The crowd responded with screams as he fell to his knees, spluttering red droplets all over the security guards and the closest row of fans. As his left lung began to fill with the precious liquid and made him feel dizzy, he collapsed completely onto the floor and let it flow out of him as that strange curtain of gray light pulled him into a blissful state of insentience.

Another moment passed and he was on his feet, staring into Bob’s sympathetic azure eyes. Placing a hand over his heart and clutching at the fabric, Gerard felt cold, wet cloth beneath his fingers and glanced down at his shirt, but the blood was gone. In its place was water- or, as he noticed when he looked around, snow. Glittering flakes fluttered around him and piled up along the sidewalks and atop houses as it drew sharp breaths from him and transformed them into white puffs of fog.

“Originally, I didn’t mean to take you back quite that far,” Bob admitted in a voice full of remorse. “But I know you wanted to remember what happened, and I felt I should at least give you that much.”

Gerard stepped toward the nearest building and cowered against the wall, feeling his face and hands go numb as the cold seeped into his body. He spotted a window at his eye level and glanced through the frosted glass, smearing lines into the slush with his fingers. A single car sat on the other side of the window, and from the gray interior of the building, Gerard had to assume it was a garage.

“Where are we?” he asked softly, never tearing his gaze away from the window.

“You should recognize the place.”

“…Frank’s house,” Gerard muttered under his breath. He could see Bob nod in the reflection of the shining glass, distorted slightly because of the ice.

“Mikey went to live with him after you died.”

“Why is he sleeping on top of the car?” Gerard said quizzically. Bob couldn’t help but sigh.

“Look closer.” Gerard obliged and studied his brother more carefully. The younger man’s breathing was shuddering and uneven, and tiny glints of light near his eyes revealed that he was crying. Gerard’s vision adjusted to the low lighting within seconds and allowed him to see more clearly. Mikey’s lips were moving and creating what Gerard assumed to be a flurry of inarticulate sounds. He subconsciously moved closer to the window as if it would help him hear better, but he didn’t realize he had passed through the wall entirely until he could understand every word Mikey was saying.

“Why did you have to leave me, Gee?” he whispered as he choked back a sob. “You’re my big brother. You’re always supposed to be here for me.”

Gerard’s face fell as guilt dragged his heart into the ground. He couldn’t take his eyes from his younger brother’s sniffling, sobbing form as if afraid the man would vanish if he looked away.

“Why couldn’t it be that other guy? Or even Frank? It’s not fair!” Mikey exclaimed.

‘Don’t say that, Mikey. Frank doesn’t deserve that.’ Gerard thought the words and was vaguely aware of speaking them, but a moment later all thoughts were swept from his mind. Mikey climbed off of the hood of the car with agonizing slowness and walked around to the driver’s side, reaching inside and turning the key so the vehicle rumbled to life.

“Damn car won’t keep running long enough,” he murmured under his breath as he returned to his place with a sigh. Gerard suddenly understood what his brother was trying to do, but he was powerless to stop it. Mikey massaged his forehead with one hand as a throbbing headache set in.

“I guess it’s not entirely your fault…and hey, I’m not any better.” He let out a short, stiff laugh as his words started to slur together. With a final sigh, he rolled over on one side as if he were going to sleep instead of purposely breathing in the toxins. “I’ll…I’ll see you soon, Gerard.”

One second ticked by. Then two. The silence became rigid in the room for a full heartbreaking minute before a shower of white sparks burst from Mikey’s heart, bubbling like a fountain for a moment and spreading out across the rest of his body and transforming him into the strange-looking angel Gerard had encountered once already. The being separated itself from the lifeless body and smirked at Gerard before stretching out his feathered white wings and rocketing into the air. Bob turned to face him with sympathetic eyes.

“I’m sorry… Do you want to be alone for a moment?” he asked quietly, placing a hand on Gerard’s shoulder. Gerard blankly stared at him for half a second, then suddenly grabbed Bob’s hand and violently wrenched it backwards, glaring at the blond man as he cried out in pain. He wished they weren’t merely in his memories so he could do more damage, but for the moment this would have to do.

“Why did you let him die?!” he shouted as he delivered a punch to the man’s face and sent him reeling backwards. “Why did you let me die?! If you’re so special, why do you just sit back and watch everything happen? Too much fun to interrupt? Maybe betting on who’s gonna die first?!”

“It’s nothing like that,” Bob said pleadingly. “I have to let things happen as normally as I can. If the balance is interrupted-”

“Fuck the balance,” Gerard answered coldly. “I’m done getting dragged around like some useless toy.” He approached Bob with a menacing look in his new eyes flecked with gold dust. “It’s time you show me what I want to know.” In a flash of terror, Bob attempted to escape by running away, but Gerard leapt forward and gripped his shoulders with both hands. A shockwave of strange red electricity stemming from Gerard’s hands coursed through the man’s body and brought him to his knees.

“You don’t know what you’re doing!” Bob screamed in desperation. Gerard remained silent as he shocked the man again, and a third time when nothing seemed to happen. After the waves of electricity had finished coursing through him, Bob fell forward from Gerard’s grasp and collapsed on the floor in exhaustion.

He stepped back and watched the gray, cement scenery around him dissipate into a world of white. Clouds rolled in around his feet as the sun began shining down above him. The new atmosphere brought a cool breeze along with it, helping to clear his mind of what he had just done.

He spotted a sparkling mass of light nearby and paced towards it with narrowed eyes to help lessen the glare. Hundreds of glittering towers rose into the air around him and created a vast city of pearl-white walls. Wisps of steam floated along above the clouds and, as he neared them, materialized into humanlike creatures with perfect glassy wings.

He suddenly found himself stepping through a tall set of doors and into the strange, ceiling-less hall he had been in only once before. He saw Lyn standing at one end of the corridor and started to approach her.

“Lyn!” Though the voice sounded strikingly like his own, he was certain he hadn’t spoken this time. A blur of black and white rushed past him and quickly caught Lyn in an embrace.

“Did you find anything out?” she asked in a worried tone. The man pulled away from her, running a hand through his black hair in a nervous motion.

“The rumors are true, I’m afraid,” he said in a hushed, shaky voice. He placed both hands on her shoulders. “You have to get out of here!”

“I can’t leave!” she exclaimed. “Don’t you underst-” He placed a finger against her lips to silence her.

“Lyn, listen to me,” he said slowly. “From what I could gather, the rebellion has already started. You have to go. Hide somewhere if you want, but you can’t stay here.”

Both were distracted by a sudden banging sound on the front doors. Gerard could sense something drawing near, an overwhelming evil force he could barely comprehend. Lyn and the man glanced toward it for a mere second before turning back to face each other.

“I’ll see you again, won’t I?” she pleaded. He said nothing in response. “Please, Gerard, I can’t survive without you…and… and the baby…”

Gerard watched as the other version of himself pulled Lyn close and kissed her, releasing her just seconds later. By now a few tears had escaped her eyes, and when she tried to hug him again, he roughly shoved her away.

“I’ll hold them off as long as I can. Now go!” he shouted with a voice full of regret. Terrified, Lyn vanished into the air. Gerard curiously approached his other self with a mind full of questions, but the door suddenly burst open and caught his full attention. A thick, oil-like sludge spread across the floor and walls while demons with bat wings flooded the hall and blasted everything in sight with clouds of darkness. The black-haired man held up his hands as if creating an invisible barrier against the creatures, and though they repeatedly ran into the wall and were shocked with white electricity as a result, soon enough they broke through it and surrounded him in a circle.

“We have her, you know,” one of the demons said with a sneer. Gerard watched as one of them stepped towards the man. He realized with a shock that it was Ray.

“That’s impossible,” the black-haired man responded. Ray let out a dark laugh that rippled through the crowd of demons.

“Nothing is impossible when you have power. Why don’t you join us and get a taste of your rightful place as a ruler?”

“If you don’t want me to destroy everything within the next few seconds, you’ll end this madness now.”

“In that case,” Ray stated, smirking once again, “your decision is made for you.” He stepped forward and placed a hand against the man’s heart, and the black sludge slowly began to overtake him. He screamed in agony as it spread across his skin, but Ray only laughed at his pain.

An ominous rumbling sound filled the room. The walls began to split and soon collapsed in a pile of rubble around them. Gerard felt himself being lifted into the air, and he took the chance to see what was going on. What had been a peaceful, sparkling paradise just moments earlier had now become a smoldering wreckage filled with fire and darkness. As his gaze wandered to the horizon, he saw massive chunks of the city itself falling away into oblivion. Lyn, standing atop a nearby tower, acted as the source of it all. Mikey flitted about in the space around her, dispelling any demons that got too close so she could concentrate.

The black-haired version of Gerard had since fallen to the ground out of weakness. Ray stood over him with an evil sneer on his face, but as the tiled floor beneath his feet began to crack and crumble as well, the smirk vanished. A huge vortex opened up beneath the crowd of demons and slowly began to churn like a whirlpool in the ocean, growing faster and faster with each revolution. Chunks of dulled white rock flew into the air and were sucked down by the sheer force of the funnel.

One by one, the demons fell into the pit churning with the forms of other evil creatures as well as more than a few rebellious angels. Gerard watched as his other self clung to a piece of the floor and scrambled atop it before it was caught by the vortex, casting an imploring look up at Lyn and silently asking her to stop. If anything, the thing seemed to grow in power, though Gerard could tell it was bringing her immense pain to do so.

“Take my hand!”

He blinked, and when he again looked upon the scene, he was amazed to see Bob floating above the broken floor on wings of perfect white. The black-haired man desperately reached up to grasp his hand, but the very second he did, Ray leapt up past him and landed behind the angel. He gripped Bob by the wings and, to Gerard’s horror, tore them off with the sickening crunch of bone and ripping flesh. The blond man screamed and stumbled away from Ray and the rotating funnel, but once he set foot on the stormy-looking clouds, he fell through them like a lead weight and disappeared.

“Not even one of your Messengers can save you now!” Ray howled at Gerard’s other incarnation as the vortex disconnected from the few remaining bits of the ground and fell away. Gerard saw that Lyn was crying freely now; next to her, Mikey was staring at the event in awe, unable to believe that his brother had been so quickly conquered by evil. Ray didn’t get a chance to add anything before the entire thing collapsed downward and brought him crashing into the very world of fire and death that he had worked so hard to create. Silence and the unmistakable scent of rain filled the air, appearing awkward compared to the deafening hurricane that had been there just seconds ago.

A mild breeze brushed a few strands of black hair out of Lyn’s face, taking several of her tears with it. She weakly lifted a hand to close the ground and trap the evil creatures beneath it, then sealed the gap in the clouds just in front of her, creating a permanent barrier against all of it.

“Lyn… What about G-” Mikey started. Lyn raised a hand for him to stop speaking.

“He’s evil now, Michael,” she murmured numbly as she stared down at the gray rain clouds she had just created. “You know evil doesn’t belong up here.”

With that, Gerard suddenly found himself falling towards the earth as well. He could not feel the sting of the cold, wet needles falling from the stars or the arctic winds that carried and scattered them. At last he felt true comfort, for nothing soothed him like the rain. He twisted as he fell and ended up landing on his feet with a delicate grace he had never experienced before, and the first sound he could comprehend was that of footsteps walking away from him. He turned just in time to see Bob’s black-suited figure slowly pacing in that direction, blood dripping from two slashes on his back and a fine gray mist echoing off his frame until he disappeared into the rain entirely.