The Only Hope for Me Is You

My mind was racing even though it hurt so much, I was thinking about Lauren and my brother. The images of her being given shock treatment…I couldn’t shake them at all. Her face filled with so much pain, her screams, although I couldn’t hear them, they still echoed through my ears. And my brother…now he was being put in danger all because I was too weak.

“Mikey?” my thoughts were luckily interrupted by Frank, making me jolt slightly as I turned my aching head towards him. “How you feeling?” he asked, occasionally glancing at me from the road, his face thick with worry.

“Like fucking shit…” I managed, my head lolling slowly back to stare at the road ahead vacantly.

“They’ll rescue her Mikey,” Frank began, my vision fell to the dashboard in front of me and I thumbed it mindlessly, tracing along the edges lazily. “Trust me, okay? They’ll rescue her and you can kiss her and marry her and everything will be okay again.” I stopped tracing and turned my head to look at him again.

“Nothing’s ever going to be okay, Frank.”

“Well…no, but you’ll have Lauren, right? That’ll make everything seem okay at least.” Spoke Frank reassuringly as he lit a cigarette, shoving the lighter in his vest pocket before hanging the cigarette loosely from his lips.

“Yeah…if she’s still fucking alive that is…” I mumbled under my breath, turning my attention back to the dashboard as I tapped on it quietly; I stopped as I felt a thud on my left arm, and shot my head back to Frank.

“She’s alive, buddy.” He said, smiling through his now half smoked cigarette.

“Well how do you—“

“Hey!” Frank cut me off, “She’s alive.” He nodded at me once before turning back to the road. I tried so hard to keep that in mind as soon arrived back at the shack, but I just couldn’t shake all the possible things that Exploder could have done to her, and then I think of what my brother will do to Exploder, and that puts a smile on my face.

Ray runs to my aid as I try and climb out of the car by myself, putting both my hands on the side of the car to haul myself out but Ray pulls me out either way, both him and Frank helping me across to the shack.

“Guys seriously, I don’t need this…” I sighed, trying to walk on my own only to be grabbed again by the two.

“Gerard said to look after you, so that’s what we’re doing.” Frank replied, smirking at me, “We’d do it anyway, dude, so deal with it.” He finished as we entered the shack, Frank almost tripping and making us all stumble as we entered the door; we all almost plunged to the floor, luckily regaining the balance as I got dropped onto the sofa.

“Alright uh, we need to get you cleaned up,” began Ray, pointing at me before turning to Frank, “Frank, could you get some towels and I’ll get the first aid kit,” Frank nodded before turning and walking to the kitchen. “We’ll be right back, buddy." Ray said, smiling as he walked through the door and down the corridor in search of the first aid kit. I sniffed, wiping my nose with my sleeve; blood covered it I saw as I lowered my arm slowly. I tried to relax, leaning back on the sofa even though it hurt to, scanning the shack as my eyes lay on something by the door we just came through. A small, flat, book shaped black box lay on the floor in front of the door, I suppose that’s what Frank almost killed us all by tripping over.

I peered into the kitchen but Frank was still looking through cupboards in the search for towels and Ray hadn’t yet returned, so I went ahead, painfully pushing myself off of the sofa, trying not to whimper too loudly as I limped to the door, going on my knees in front of the box, soon realising what it was as I fumbled with it, eventually prying it open and the object within slid onto my palm.

“A…disc?” I mumbled, eyeing the small disc and turning it a couple of times and my eyes fell on a white label, with ‘MIKEY’ and a kiss underneath it, handwritten across it in black ink, my brow lowered in confusion. It was a DVD.

Suddenly, I heard shuffling nearing me from behind and turned my head quickly to see Ray returning from the hallway, a bright green box in his hands. I quickly turned back to the box, shoving the disc back in and opening up my jacket before shoving it inside and doing it straight back up again.

“What are you doing?” asked Ray, putting a hand on his hip I saw as I scrambled to my feet, shoving my hands into my pockets.

“Uh…I thought I saw a…a trap.” I mumbled out, looking at my feet, I hated lying; I didn’t even see why I was hiding this from the group.

“Oh,” Ray replied, standing up straight again, “well, is there one?” he questioned as I began limping towards the sofa.

“N-no…false alarm.” I muttered as I fell back onto it, wincing slightly as Ray tugged off my jacket, kneeling down next to me.

“Jeez…” he sighed, looking at my battered and bruised arms as Frank arrived by his side with the damp clothes and began dabbing at the dried blood streaked across and down my face.

“Exploder got you good.” Chuckled Frank, wincing as I winced, “Sorry, dude.” He added, and I nodded in reply for him to go on; he did, patting my wounds gingerly with antiseptic. It was over pretty quickly and the guys were soon engrossed in yet another card game, my mind still racing and stuck on one thing in particular as well as the others safety. The fucking DVD stashed away in my jacket, what the fuck was it? I just couldn’t wait any longer to find out.

I saw the guys were pretty fucking focused on the game, Frank’s tongue poking out of his mouth as tried to peer at Ray’s card and Ray’s brow lowered in concentration as he picked at the cards carefully. I nodded and grabbed for the portable television, which had a built in DVD player...pretty fucking handy.

As soon as I had grabbed it, I half ran, half walked to the door, still questioning to myself why exactly I was hiding this from my fellow Killjoys, but…it did have my name on it for some reason.

I slammed the door shut as I reached my room, momentarily resting my back against it as I listened for any signs of disturbance outside the room; all I heard was “Fuck off Iero! Look at your own cards!” and the loud giggles of Frank. I let out a sigh of relief before jumping onto the bed and quickly retrieving the disc from the box before turning the television on and shoving the disc into its side.

I waited slightly impatiently as it loaded, biting my lip in anticipation and then it flashed into action, and there she was, Lauren. Sitting upright in a chair, arms and legs bound painfully tightly to it. Exploder was circling her, a needle perched in his fingers filled with blood red liquid; I winced at the sight of it. I saw their mouths moving but no sound. I fumbled around the small television until I found the sound, turning it up to its maximum and then watched on.

“You know what happens to little fucking rats who mess with me?” Growled Exploder as he stopped behind her, crouching down so his mouth was near her ear. I could see how terrified she was, her lips trembling as Exploder spoke bitterly into her ear. “They get poisoned.”

Lauren whimpered, pulling her wrists about but it made no difference, just sent blood streaming across her wrists, dripping to the white floor. Exploder stood, walking to the side of Lauren as he turned her arms forcefully so her forearm was facing upwards before jabbing the needle into her arm, she shrieked, the noise so fucking full of pain and I felt the sting of tear after tear roll down my cheek.

“FUCK!” I shouted, throwing the television against the wall in anger and it smashed into pieces, Lauren’s screams muffling and eventually fading into nothing. I grabbed my knees, bringing them to my chest as I cried, rocking back and forth, shaking my head in disbelief and protest.

“No, no, no!” I cried, not moving or even jolting as I hear the door open and Frank run over to me, taking me by the shoulders.

“Mikey buddy, what is it? What happened?” he pleaded for me to tell him and I managed to nod weakly toward the broken up television. Ray saw me nod and turned to it, picking it up. The screen was still working, the DVD was still playing but the sound was gone, thank god. Ray watched the DVD, saw Lauren writhing around the chair in pain and his face fell.

“Jesus fuck…Frank look at this.” He said, taking the player away from his face as he pressed his eyes closed, turning away from it, urging it towards Frank.

Frank took it from him, looking down at it as Ray kicked the wall in frustration, leaning his head against it.

“GODDAMNIT!” Frank shouted, throwing the screen to the floor before hauling his gun from his holster and shooting the screen until it died.

“Do you think it killed her?” I mumbled into my knees, the tears still falling. The two looked at me, “The poison I mean…”

“Did you see what colour it was?” asked Ray, stepping forward as he placed himself on the end of my bed. I nodded, sniffing as I told him, “Sort of uh, a blood red type colour…almost a crimson.”

Ray sighed in what sounded like relief, “No Mikes it won’t kill her…it’s a sort of acid, makes your blood boil, all the pain of poison but…it won’t kill you.”

I felt a little better but knowing that she was still in pain, I fucking saw her in pain, made me feel sick to the core. I prayed to god Poison and Cyanide will save her.