Eyes of the Devil

Silence closed in around him. It crawled over him with agonizing indolence, but he knew it would imminently drown him in darkness forever. It fastened his eyes shut and stopped his lungs from taking in precious oxygen. The pressure began building against his weakened body from all sides and gradually suffocated the life from his body, from his very soul-

“Gerard!”

His name shattered the silence with a single shot. The air rushed back into his chest as his eyes snapped open and were met with a wall of sweeping, brushed gray. Only the faintest traces of silvery light worked their way into his field of vision.

“Guys, I found him!” the voice called again. A shadow fell across him and blocked all signs of light from his terrified eyes. He shut them tightly and curled up into a ball, mind wracked with fear. Incoherent mutterings and light sobs escaped him. He only wanted the darkness, the shadows and evil, to vanish forever and leave his soul untainted and safe.

“Are you alright? We’ve been looking everywhere for y-” The words paused suddenly. “Gerard… You’re soaking wet. Did you go outside or something?” Finally the voice connected with a face in his mind. It recurred throughout his memories with such frequency that he could hardly believe he hadn’t recognized it sooner.

“Mikey?”

“Yeah, it’s me. What happened to you?”

Gerard slowly sat up and looked his brother in the face. “Mikey… Your wings are gone,” he muttered as his eyes traveled to the empty space behind Mikey.

“You must’ve been asleep or something,” said the younger man. He lunged forward and wrapped his arms around Gerard. “I’m so glad you’re okay… I thought you’d left us…”

“Us?” Gerard asked. “Who’s ‘us’?”

Mikey pulled away from the hug. “You, me, and the guys. What’s going on? It’s almost four A.M. You shouldn’t be up this late…or…early…let alone go outside in the rain.”

Gerard climbed to his feet and simply stared at his brother. “Don’t pretend you were worried about me,” he said in a low, sharp tone. “I know how you really feel.”

His younger brother looked hurt. “What are you-”

“Don’t act like nothing happened!” Gerard shouted suddenly. “You can’t tell me you don’t know!”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Mikey said quietly. “And I really wish you would clue me in.”

The older man’s demeanor changed. No longer did he appear to be the angry, malicious Gerard that had stood before his younger brother moments earlier; instead he seemed to be more reserved, almost apologetic for what he had said. In all the years they had known each other, Mikey had never seen his older brother look so vulnerable.

“I don’t know what’s going on, Mike,” Gerard nearly whispered. “I only wish I understood it enough to tell you.”

“Gerard?” Ray called from halfway up a set of stairs nearby. Gerard glanced in his direction without really focusing on him.

“Hey, Ray,” he said flatly. He blinked once and realized what was going on. “Ray! It’s you! And you’re not that weird bird-thing anymore!”

Ray joined Mikey in wondering about their singer’s sanity as he continued walking down the stairs. “Where were you and what have you been smoking?”

“What- no, I’m fine,” he answered in confusion. “I haven’t gone anywhere… I think… This is Frank’s house, isn’t it?”

“I think he only wishes that,” Ray answered with a slight laugh, suddenly realizing the severity of the situation. “Wait… You don’t remember where we are?”

Gerard shook his head. “The last thing I remember is being at Frank’s house. Frank was there…and Ande…”

“Who?” Mikey asked, shaking his head. “I think you had a dream or something… Maybe you just need to go back to sleep. You’ll feel better in the morning.”

The older Way brother sighed. “Yeah, I guess so. …Where are we, though?”

Mikey exchanged a nervous glance with Ray before answering. “We’re at the Paramour.”
-
Gerard could feel the exhaustion overtaking him with the comforting fog of sleep as he lay on the bed and stared up at the ceiling. But every time he closed his eyes, horrific images filled his mind and forced him to stay awake. People screaming in agony as their flesh melted away from their bones, endless fields of ebony flames surrounding him, the faces of everyone he cared for, all in pain, all wishing for death to take them…

Eventually he sighed and stood, walking over to a mirror on the wall. The window in his room allowed a thin blade of light to enter and fall across his face, halfway highlighting his features in the darkness.

He gasped sharply as he realized that his reflection had the same short, white hair as that terrifying other version of himself. His jaw fell open a few inches in shock as he ran a hand through the strange style.

“I don’t…understand…” he whispered to himself as he continued to stare at the wall of silver and glass. He could have sworn the man staring back at him arched one dark eyebrow and twisted his mouth into an evil smile. He jumped back a few feet and averted his gaze to the ground.

“Oh, don’t look away from me, Gerard,” a voice nearby said to him. He glanced up to see his reflection still smirking at him. “I need to speak with you.”

“What do you want?” he asked, shaking with fear.

“I’m going to help make your decision a little less…complicated.”

“I don’t want any help from you. Leave me alone!” he shouted. The man let out a dark laugh.

“I’m afraid the time when you had a choice in that matter is long past.” Gerard watched in horror as the man raised a hand to eye level and a bright red light emanated from his fingertips. Immediately, Gerard’s vision began to swirl with formless lines of red and black. He tried to blink to clear the haze, but it didn’t help.

“What did you do to me?!” he asked accusingly, shoving one hand against his closed eyelids as a burning sensation took place beneath them.

“Now you’ll be able to see with my eyes, Gerard,” the man said in a voice laced with darkness. “The eyes of the Devil.”

“No! Don’t do this to me!” Gerard cried out as tears began flowing out of his stinging eyes. He opened them and was met with the shocking realization that his tears were a deep, liquid black, dripping off of his cheeks and splashing onto his hands like ink.

“I’ve done nothing to you,” his other self answered. “I’m only bringing out qualities you already possess.”

Gerard screamed out in pain as the burning in his eyes intensified, but it suddenly receded and allowed his vision to return to normal. He blinked several times and wiped away the excess liquid from his tears. Breathing heavily, he looked back to the mirror, prepared to shout any number of obscenities at his reflection, but the slate of glass was empty.

A quiet knock at the door startled him out of his state of shock. He glanced toward the opening, still taking deep gasps of air, and was a little surprised to see Bob walk in.

“Gerard? Are you okay? I heard you screaming…” He closed the door and sat on the bed, while Gerard remained standing. “More nightmares?”

“I don’t know, Bob. I don’t know what’s been happening to me. And I really wish I knew.”

Bob let out a small laugh. “Most people would call them parallel universes…but they would have to be parallel for that, wouldn’t they?”

“What are you rambling about now?” Gerard asked, trying not to sound too accusing.

“If two lines are parallel, they continue on forever without meeting or touching in any way, correct?” he asked. Gerard slowly nodded. “But these worlds… They could never survive like that. They rely on each other.”

“But…two… What?”

“In the world you come from – the other one – you are dead. It is the world of harsh reality, of the cruel truth of life. This world shows you what could have been. How your life would be if you had survived.”

Gerard took a deep breath and sat next to Bob. “How do you know all this?”

“I can travel between the Two, as I said,” Bob said with a sly grin. “My story is an odd one. But I’ll save that for another day. Listen to me carefully.” He glanced at the mirror for a moment, then looked back at Gerard, meeting his friend’s eyes with orbs of shocking blue that gleamed even in the darkness. “You need to be cautious around him, and especially now that he’s given you this new power.”

“What power?” Gerard questioned quietly.

“You can see everything the way he does,” Bob replied with a sigh. “You have the eyes of the Devil. And if you continue down that path he seems to have chosen for you, eventually you can become him.”

“But I’m nothing like him!” Gerard exclaimed. “I’m not evil. I don’t even know how I ended up looking like this!” He pointed one finger at the top of his head to prove his point.

“That would be your other self trying to ‘get into character,’ so to speak. It’s difficult to explain how his mind works.”

Gerard redirected his gaze to the floor. “I never wanted any of this,” he said slowly. “I don’t want to be more like him…”

“You don’t have to be like him,” Bob answered, placing a hand on his shoulder. “Don’t think you’re going to end up in Hell just because he’s there.”

Gerard shuddered at the thought of returning to Hell, but suddenly smiled. “Since you know so much, any chance you can tell me what happened to my brother and Frank?”

Bob shook his head. “All in time, Gerard. I’d never want to spoil the surprise.” With that, he stood and left the room. Just as he returned to the darkness of the hallway, Gerard could have sworn he saw a thin outline of ethereal gray around the blue-eyed man’s body.