The Only Hope for Me Is You

The pain that sears through my back my body, and that's what wakes me wakes me up. I squint at the bright lights, lifting my head up slightly, my neck aching as I try and move my limbs, soon realizing they’re tied together.

“Uh…wha…” I try and speak but all that comes out is gibberish. All of a sudden my adjusting eyes and weak ears are drawn to the situation in front of me, I can just make out the figure of my brother and…Cyanide? Then all of a sudden, her figure falling to the floor, and muffled screams of pain as I see red engulf her chest.

“CY!” I scream weakly, my voice croaky and hoarse. I try as hard as possible to pull my hands free of the bondage, but nothing works.

I jolt completely awake as a huge crash occurs and the door to the room hurtles towards me, almost hitting me dead on, I look up to see a red and yellow blur in front of me, the blur runs round the back of me, untying my hands as I bring them to my front, rubbing at my wrists before trying to clamber to my feet to help Cy, but I fall back down again, my back preventing me.

“Ouch…fucking shit.” I moan as the blur takes my arms, helping me to sit up, turning me towards it and rubbing my arms.

“Shit Lauren…your back.” it says and I recognize the voice belongs to Mikey. He turns me away from him, glancing at the hole.

“Mikey?” I mumble and finally he comes completely into focus and I smile, throwing my arms around him, it hurts my back but I ignore it.

“Shit am I glad to see you.” I say, burying my head in his shoulder, his arms trying to hug me as tight as he can without hurting me. Then I remember Cy, and shoot my head towards where I saw her fall earlier, instead I see her thrown over the shoulder of Frank, motionless and pale, being taken elsewhere.

I pull away from Mikey, “She’s not dead is she? Oh please god no.” I say, trying to get up again but it’s no use.

“Hey...take it easy.” Mikey says, putting his hands on my shoulders and I look at him, staring into his eyes and before I know it our lips have collided into a passionate kiss, my arms thrown around his neck, bringing him closer as our lips move in sync and I pull away a little, our noses lightly brushing together.

“We’ll talk properly later, okay? But now, Cy needs us.” I say, putting my hands on his shoulders and forcefully hauling myself up. Mikey takes both my arms in his, keeping me balanced before putting an arm around my waist to support me as we walk out of the door and I spot a trail of blood leading all the way out of the building, which could only be Cy’s.

I look up at Mikey who is staring at the blood and he gulps deeply, extreme concern behind his glasses, as it was also on my face.

As we walk out of the building, we automatically hear shouts from the car, and without thinking I escape Mikey’s grasp and stumble towards the car as fast as I can, tears developing in my eyes, fear building up in me because of what I might encounter. I practically fall into the back of the car, landing next to a distraught Frank, tears flooding his face as he looks down at the lifeless body of Cy.

“No…what…no she can’t be…” I manage through muffled cries, I turn to Frank. “FRANK SHE CAN’T BE!” I cry, turning back to her body, and leaning my head against her chest, listening intently for any sign of life, but I get nothing.

I feel Mikey behind me, his hand on my shoulder but I can’t control my flow of tears and I hear shouts from behind us, shouts in the form of Gerard’s voice as he arrives behind us.

“CY! IS SHE OKAY?!” He shouts, but he stops, I assume Ray and Mikey must have approached him as I can no longer feel his hand on my shoulder. I back out of the car slowly, and back into Mikey’s arms. I can’t bare to look at her, she looks so lost…I just fucking can’t.

“No…” I hear Gerard mumble, “NO!” He runs over and leans over Cy's lifeless body, and I bury my head into Mikey’s chest, hearing Gerard’s muffled cries of sorrow. My tears still flowed uncontrollably; she was my best friend...she can’t be gone. No one could replace Cy…no one.

We sat waiting for a while, no one wanted to budge, Gerard and Frank were still sitting in the car, Gerard stroking Cy’s forehead lightly, and Frank holding her cold hand in his. All of us were waiting for her to wake up, although we knew it was too late. I couldn’t stop looking over there, just for any sign of hope that she would come back to life.

I sat on Mikey’s lap, Ray sitting next to us, his head down, tracing his fingers in the sand, and I took his hand from the ground and held it in mine. He looked up to me, managing a small smile and I did in return. Mikey bandaged me up before wrapping his arms around my waist and resting his head on my shoulder.

“What are we gonna do without her Mikey…” I mumbled, my head hanging, staring at my dusty jeans.

“Everything's going to be okay.” He said, “I promise.” He got up, taking me with him, and we walked over to the car, hand in hand, and Mikey put his hand on his brothers shoulder, making him jump slightly.

“Gerard…we better get back.” Spoke Mikey softly, and Gerard’s head turned slightly. I saw in his eyes that he was beyond sad; he had given up. His eyes were shining and red from crying, and he looked tired.

“Alright…but we’re not burying her. She’ll come back…she has to...” Gerard trailed off as Frank nodded in agreement, and moved Cy’s legs over slightly as he sat next to her, not taking his eyes off of her. Gerard slowly got up, kissing Cy's forehead and moving her hair behind her ears and stared at her for a minute before getting in the driver’s seat, and Ray got in the passengers. Mikey nodded to his brother before speaking again.

“Alright, I’m going to take Lauren back on the bike...see you guys in a bit.” He said, and the others drove off and disappeared over the hill. I look up at Mikey’s vacant face and squeeze his hand lightly before he leads me over to his bike, which is left against the bridge and we clamber on it, riding all the way back to the shack in complete silence.

Mikey jumped off the bike, taking my hands in his and helped me down before bringing me into a tight embrace. I just cry into his arms, and feel his hand stroking my hair gently. He pulls me away, wiping away at my cheeks before kissing my cheek lightly and taking my hand, leading me into the shack, and we both stop in our tracks as we hear shouts coming from within the shack.

“What…” I mumble before letting go of Mikey’s hand and sprinting into the shack almost tripping over as I enter and see Cyanide, alive, hugging Frank tightly in her arms. A huge smile develops on my face as I run up to the sofa, almost crashing into Ray’s back and I feel Mikey arrive at my side as we all watch Cy wake up from the dead.

OH MY GOD YOU’RE ALIVE!” Frank says, and his arms wrapped around Cy tight, followed by kisses to her forehead, nose, and finally onto her mouth. I turned to Mikey and hugged him with joy, jumping up and down as I did so.

“What even—Savior?” She managed to sputter out, and Gerard looked at her, confused, as did I.

“Who?” he asked, narrowing his eyes before wrapping his arms around her again, joining Frank in the group hug. She put a hand to her forehead, and squeezed her eyes.

“Oh—it’s nothing…I’ll tell you all about it later…” she said.

“I’m so fucking glad you’re still fucking alive, Cy,” Gerard said into her ear. “I thought I’d lost you, I—“

“Talk about the living dead,” Mikey interrupted, holding me close. “Cy, you were dead for hours…we thought you were gone for good…”

“You scared the shit out of us, Cy,” Ray added. “But thank God you’re all right!”

“We SHOULD thank whoever this Savior person was…” I said.

“Savior…he looked a lot like you, Gerard, not gonna lie…” she said, pulling away from Gerard and looked at his face intently.

“….me?” Gerard asked, raising his eyebrows, clearly surprised. “Why me…?”

“Who the hell cares? I have my Cy back, and that’s all that matters.” Frank said, smiling, and ended all conversations with a strong, passionate kiss on her lips.

I smiled at the two kissing and turned to Mikey, wrapping my arms around him and resting my head on his shoulder.

“You should get some rest Cy.” I heard Gerard say to her before turning to me, “the both of you should, you’ve both been shot for god sake.”

Frank nodded and lifted Cy up from the sofa carefully, and we all stood back to let him take her to his room, as he did, closing the door behind them both. Mikey pulled me away from the others, and took my hand.

“Come on you, bed.” He said, leading me to our room but I stopped him and turned to Gerard, who looked upset.

“Gerard…you alright?” I asked him, rubbing his arm lightly. He nodded, sniffing and wiping his nose.

“Yeah…yeah I’m good.” He said, managing a smile, “Go get some rest.” He finished before walking past me and out the door of the shack and I followed Mikey into our room, collapsing onto the bed.

“Holy crap what a day.” I sigh.