I Believe We're The Enemy

Ginny’s P.O.V. (still)

When I wake up I’m back inside the hotel, laying on one of the sofas, and nobody else is in sight. I try to sit up, but a stabbing pain in my chest stops me, and I relax again. Looking down, I find that I’m shirtless, with only a bra and a number of makeshift bandages covering my torso. I let out a quiet moan as a fresh bolt of pain radiates outward from just below my left breast. Where is everyone?

Then, all of a sudden, Gerard is there, his brilliant hair falling haphazardly from behind his ears as he races across the room to kneel in front of me. “Ginny! You’re alive! And conscious! How are you feeling?” he blurts desperately, his fingers tracing soothing patterns down the side of my face and neck.

“I think I’m okay... My chest hurts... What happened, Gee?” I ask, looking him right in the eyes. Nervousness pricks my throat as I see a flash of guilt behind his warm gaze.

“You... You were shot. We thought you weren’t gonna make it at first, and hell, there were a lot of dracs, and Ray... Ray just kinda went crazy. He was so mad, Ginny, I’d never seen him that angry...” He trails off and I gaze at him uncertainly, knowing that there’s more to this story.

“What happened to him? What’s wrong, Gerard?” I ask, propping myself up on my elbows so that I can extract the truth from him with my glares.

“They took him,” he says, as quietly as humanly possible (at least, for Gerard). My throat dries up and my head starts to reel. They took my Ray, my boyfriend, my love, and for all we know, they’re torturing him to death in some stark-white room in the heart of Battery City right this moment. Not that Battery City has a heart.

I remember feeling Ray’s lips against mine, his arms around my waist, his brown eyes gazing into mine with overwhelming passion as he told me that everything was going to be okay, late at night when it was just him and I. My heart thuds against the walls of my throat, and I try to say something, but all that comes out is a shaky “Wh-What?”

“Ginny, honey, I’m sorry, we tried to save him...” Gerard’s voice is cut off abruptly as my fist soars into his jawbone. Fury takes over my entire being and I lash out at everything within reach, my chest aching as it shudders with silent sobs. A miserable wail escapes my lips as I finally go limp, letting Gerard push me back into the sofa and plant a surprisingly reassuring kiss on my forehead. He’s gone, just for trying to avenge me, and all I’ve got to show for it is a little sore spot on my chest.

Suddenly I hear my name, and when I look up I see Frank peeking around the doorway that leads out into the hallway. His eyes are bloodshot and puffy, and his face shines with a mixture of tears and red liquid from his lips, which he’s bitten until they bled. For a moment he only stares at me, seeming to have trouble believing that I’m looking back at him, and then he’s racing toward me, not even bothering to run around the sofa, just diving over it and landing on top of me with a muffled thump.

“Frankie, stop, that hurts,” I mumble, but he ignores me. His arms wrap around my waist like pythons as he peppers my face with kisses, his lips finally landing on the edge of mine as his legs entangle themselves with my own.

“I love you,” he breathes into my ear, his fingertips tracing passionate patterns across the small of my back. “Fuck, I thought you were dead.” I hug him back as carefully as I can, stroking his filthy hair to comfort him as he buries his face in my collarbone.

“It’s okay, Frankie. I’m sorry,” I murmur, silently begging Gerard to free me of Frank.

“Don’t apologize. It’s not your fault. Oh, Ginny, everything is so damn fucked up now-” He’s cut off abruptly as Gerard drags him off of me, dropping him unceremoniously onto the floor.

“Frank, you’re hurting her! Do you have any idea what Ray would do to you if he saw you doing that?” Frank blushes and bites his lip, which only sends a new trickle of blood down his pale chin. Gerard hugs him gently, wiping his face dry, and then turns back to me. “Do you think you can walk?” he asks softly, taking one of my hands. I nod and he helps me to my feet, leaving one arm draped comfortably across my back to support me.

Gerard leads me into the bedroom I used to share with Ray and lifts me onto the bad, pushing me back into the pillows until I’m laying down. “Sleep now,” he murmurs. I nod gently as he presses his lips to my forehead before gliding gracefully out of the room. He starts to close the door, but Frank slips under his arm, whispering something in Gerard’s ear. Though he gives Frank a long, scrutinizing glare, Gerard nods, shutting the door behind him as he leaves. All of a sudden, I’m alone with Frank.

“What’s up, Frankie?” I ask sadly, studying the rough skin on my slender fingertips. For a moment I let myself think about Ray’s hands, broad and callused but still soft, and I feel a bitter lump rising in my throat.

“Ginny... I’m sorry,” Frank replies quietly. I look up into his pea-green gaze for a moment and notice that a new wave of tears has started to rush down his face. “I know that you and Ray are... in love with each other, and I always knew that, but I like you a lot. It-it tends to get the best of me sometimes. I-”

“Come here,” I interject, waving him over with one hand. He looks at me nervously but obliges, sitting down on the bed next to me with a guilty gleam in his eyes. I put an arm around his solid shoulders and pull him toward me, letting him curl up next to my body and cry. “I like you too, Frankie, even though I shouldn’t. Obviously, I don’t have much control over that.”

He sniffles in a melancholy way. “I know I shouldn’t say this, but... I feel like I’m not good enough for you. I’m not Ray, and I’m never going to be Ray, and that never used to be a problem, it’s just... Sometimes I can’t forget that fire in your eyes when you look at him, and it gets to me.” I suddenly achieve a much deeper understanding of the emotion streaming from him when he had practically attacked me on the couch. “I’ve never found love before, Ginny. I mean, I love Gerard, I love him so much, but that’s never going to be anything more than a friendship. Right now, I just... I want to apologize, because I don’t want to rip you and ray apart. I’m sorry.”

I lose control of my fingers and they run down the side of his face, coming to rest in the hollow of his throat. He gazes down at my hand and then back at my face uncertainly, and his eyes are so full of pain and loneliness that I don’t object when he pushes my hand away.

For a moment I push all thoughts of Ray away and snuggle closer to Frank, relaxing as his arms automatically wrap around me. “I’m sorry, Frankie,” I whisper. “I don’t want to hurt you ever again. I never meant to, and I-I don’t want that on my conscience.”

He pulls his arms away from me for a moment and leans over my limp body to kiss me gently, right on the edge of my lips. As he pulls away and slides off the bed, I realize that the wonderful tingle that Ray brings to my skin has been omitted from all contact with Frank.

“Ginny, I love you, and I understand that you want to be with Ray. I want you to be happy, so I’ll leave you alone.” Our eyes meet for a long moment and I know that he will try to uphold this promise, but it won’t last forever. I nod gently and he leaves the room, his head lowered. For several long minutes I sit in dissatisfaction, somehow distressed by Frank’s resignation, but my exhaustion finally gets the best of me and I fall into a deep sleep.

The room is pitch black by the time I wake up again. I’m shaking and drenched in cold sweat, but I don’t remember dreaming. Then I roll over onto my side, expecting Ray to be sleeping next to me, but I’m alone. “Ray?” I mutter, sitting up and looking around. All of a sudden I remember the events of my long, fateful afternoon, and my heart gives a painful thud of sadness as I realize that he’s not about to trot into the room and lay down next to me, safe and sound. I wish that I could trade places with him, just to know that he’s not in danger. Or, at least, more danger than normal.

Darkness closes over me completely and I fight back my tears of loneliness in an attempt to sleep, but nothing works. Without Ray the world seems so much more dangerous and melancholy. Outside the window I see a flash of light and rain starts to pour from the sky, pounding loudly against the roof of the hotel. A childish sort of fear takes over me. Out of the corners of my eyes, images of dracs, monsters, and even Korse flash before me, and when I finally can’t stand the terror any more, I climb out of bed, wincing at the pain in my chest, and stumble into the boys’ room.

Frank’s eyelids flutter open as I burrow under the covers between him and Gerard. He looks at me questioningly and I pull my body toward his, my lip quivering threateningly. “Frankie?” I whisper, trying to hold back the tears welling up in my eyes. “I couldn’t sleep... alone. It-it’s scary in there.”

His eyes melt like chocolate chips. “Come here, baby,” he mutters, opening his arms for me welcomingly. “It’s alright. Everything is going to be okay.” I clutch his shirt with my fists and bury my face in his chest, trying desperately to believe his words as he wraps his arms around me and pulls me even closer. My animal need for affection drives me to push my body into his chest, thriving off of his closeness, and he wraps one leg around me, not in a sexual way, but rather to tell me that he’s not going to let me go. “Just sleep, Ginny. I won’t let anything happen to you,” he whispers, and surprisingly soon I find myself falling under his spell. Sleep rushes over me like a wave, and even though I know it’ll be plagued by nightmares I don’t resist.

Gerard’s P.O.V.

I wake up in the middle of the night to find Ginny firmly planted between Frank and myself, her chest rising and falling tranquilly as she sleeps. As my eyes adjust to the darkness I see that Frank has enveloped her in a loving embrace, and under the covers their legs are completely entangled. It occurs to me that without Ray, this must be the only way for her to feel safe enough to sleep. I slide across the bed toward her and press my chest against her back, resting one forearm on her side. She sighs gently in her sleep and turns toward me just a little bit, her eyelids flickering with dreams.

Just as I start to drift back to sleep a blood-curdling scream pierces the air, wrenching me out of my dreamlike stupor. A set of razor-sharp fingernails rakes across my face as Ginny lashes out in her sleep, and I grab her shoulders, pulling her toward me and shoving her face into my shoulder. Whenever Frank has nightmares, he can smell me in his sleep, and it either wakes him up or keeps him from screaming. However, this doesn’t work on Ginny; it only makes her call out in her sleep.

“No... No, not Gee... Not Gee too... Please, take me, let them go,” she mumbles, thrashing violently at my chest. I grab her by the shoulders and shake her as hard as I can, first hissing her name and then screaming it as she stays asleep. After another minute Frank wakes with a start, nearly falling off the bed, and carefully pulls his body away from Ginny’s to avoid getting thrashed by her unconscious limbs.

“Ginny, wake up!” I roar, slapping her face lightly. SHe finally gives a spastic jolt and awakens, her terrified green eyes flicking around the room as her chest heaves with desperately gasping breaths. Her eyes finally come to rest on me and she relaxes, her gaze softening.

“Gee, you’re okay,” she whispers. Puzzled, I nod.

“What did you dream about?” I ask quietly. “You kept screaming and saying ‘not Gee too, take me, let them go...’”

She shudders. “Ray. They’re hurting him, a lot, and I can’t stop it. I could just hear him screaming, and then I thought you were there too...” My gaze softens and I pull her toward my body, letting my warmth seep into her bones.

“I’m here, Ginny. I don’t doubt that the rest of your dream was real, especially after you shared nightmares with Frank, but I’m here and you’re here and we’re going to be okay.” She nods as if it’ll help her believe me.

“Where are Mikey and Frank?” she asks, rolling out of my arms and onto her back. Frank finds her hand under the covers and squeezes it gently, and I watch as she smiles, her eyes closed firmly. Even though I’m exhausted and all I want is to go back to sleep, I sit cross-legged on the bed and pull GInny onto my lap as Mikey gets up, crosses the room, and kneels on the bed in front of me. GInny crawls onto Mikey’s lap and hugs him tightly, and even though he’s obviously not expecting it he hugs her back.

After several minutes we all crash on Frank and I’s bed, and within moments we’re asleep. However, after Ginny wakes us up two more times with her screaming, Mikey moves back to his sofa. By the time the sun rises the next morning, we all feel as if we haven’t slept at all. Ginny refuses to go back to sleep, claiming that if she hears Ray’s screaming one more time she’ll go insane, and I stay up and eat breakfast with her. She’s much more composed without Ray than I expected, but something seems to have broken inside her. Her face has taken on a vengeful tone that seeps into the air around her and makes everyone else just as angry and miserable as she is.

That night, we know that Ginny will keep us awake again, so I volunteer to sleep in her old bedroom with her, allowing Frank and Mikey to get some sleep. Frank panics.

“Gerard, I haven’t slept without you for seven years,” he yells. “I’m gonna have nightmares, and and you’re not going to be there, and I’m going to go fucking insane and it’s all going to be your fault! Please, Gee, don’t leave me!”

“Frank, relax,” I sigh, hugging him. “You’ll have Mikey. He can sleep with you. If you start screaming Ginny and I will come wake you up. You really need to sleep.”

Frank looks near tears with anxiety, but he agrees hesitantly. For a moment I worry about myself. I have nightmares almost as much as Frank does, and as he said, I haven’t slept without him for seven years. But as Ginny lays down next to me and starts to fall asleep in my arms, I relax. She would take care of me if I needed it.

Ray’s P.O.V.

There is blood everywhere. I don’t even remember where half of it came from, but I know it’s mine, because they still haven’t stopped. Even though I can barely even speak they keep gouging my arms and face with their expansive collection of razors and knives. Not to mention that this damn chair I’m trapped in keeps shocking me.

All I want is to know that Ginny’s okay. I don’t remember what happened to her; the only thing I can remember at all right now is being dragged past a cell with a big white label reading GLORY GIRL/JET-STAR.