The Only Hope for Me Is You

I was on such an adrenaline high from being shot in the heart, I hardly knew what was going on. I was blacking in and out of consciousness, seeing flashes of colors, a blue blob with a red head; a red streak with yellow and black…I hear snippits of people talking to each other, but was so out of it, I couldn’t make anything out. I stared straight ahead as a giant blob of forest green sat itself in front of me.

I felt myself being unbound and picked up, and I started moving. No…flying. I felt like I was fucking flying.

“Cy, hold on…” I heard a familiar voice say. I smiled.

“Graaavity….don’t mean too much to meeee….” I sang softly, smiling like an idiot; I was definitely feeling woozy. I shifted my head down to look at my wound, and saw nothing but blood-red stains on my shirt, and blood dripping off of Frank’s arms as he carried me away. I saw the white walls rush by as I was carried away from the cell.

“Cy, don’t loose me…I’m here…”

“I’m flying….ha….”

“God damn it…”

“Frank….?”

“I’m here!”

“I’m flying…like a bird…weeee…”

“Cy, you are talking nonsense…” I felt heat on my body suddenly, and it took me a while to realize we were back outside. I squinted in the sunlight, still grinning like an idiot, my vision blurry, holding a hand above my face, blocking out the sunlight, and saw my savior’s face. I reached my hand up and touched Frank’s face lightly, stroking his cheek.

“Frank…is that you…?” I said quietly, moving my hand across his face. I felt his hand on mine, and he squeezed. I felt the warmth rush through my hand, down my arm, and through my body, and somehow that cleared up my vision. I looked up, and saw Frank’s face, full of worry and concern, staring down at me.

“Frank…?”

“Damn it, Cy, I told you NOT to get hurt…” He said, and I felt myself being lied down on a leather seat, and realized he had placed me on my back across the backseat of the car.

“I’m not hurt though…you’re hurt, Frank…your foot—“ I lazily pointed at his foot he was standing on gingerly.

“Shut up, babe, my foot’s fine!” He took something from under the seat and started unwrapping it, and ripping it with his teeth. “YOU are hurt, and bad.” I moved my hand I was pointing with to my chest, and poked my finger into the hole in my chest from the laser, through the fabric of my shirt, and felt it slide through skin and wet, sticky blood and muscle, my pulse stronger the deeper my finger went. From the looks of it, it was a through-and-through shot, a clear hole through my body; but I had survived. Somehow. Frank quickly pulled my finger out of my chest, frowning at me.

“Cy, stop it!” He shoved my bloody hand down at my side, and leaned over me, grabbed a roll of something from under the seat, and put some of it inside of the wound to stop the bleeding, and literally ripped my vest and shirt off my body.

“Whoops…there goes my clothes…“ I said, woozy. “ha...”

“Cy, we’ll get you new ones, once you’re all healed up,” He threw my shirt on the floor of the backseat. I felt the heat on my skin, and knew I had started sweating by now. Whether it was from the heat, or the approaching death, I didn’t know.

“Frank…?” I turned my head to look right into his eyes, which were wide and shining with tears.

“Baby, what?” He looked right at me as he kept putting this mysterious substance in my wound, lathering it up as I lied there, half naked.

“I’m—I’m scared…” I reached out for his hand, and he immediately stopped what he was doing, and grabbed it in his, and kissed it, and squeezed it in his. “It’s dark…I see…a light…a figure’s at the end of the tunnel…Frank…help me…”

“Babe, no…” he said, leaning down closer to me, kissing my lips, tears forming. “No, baby, don’t leave me…don’t leave us…you’re so strong…don’t go into the light…” He vigorously began putting more and more mysterious medications on my body, shaking his head as he did so, tears streaming down his dirty, dusted face, leaving trails behind them. “No…No, no, no, no….”

“I—I see somebody, Frank…” I smile at nothing. “He’s…waving at me…” I furrowed my brow, seeing this. “he’s telling me to come over to him…I—I think I want to…Frank…”

“NO, Cy! Damn it, DO NOT FUCKING LEAVE ME! DON’T YOU FUCKING DARE!”

“I—I think I’m going to…”

“CY NO!”

What I saw after that was nothing but darkness; the last thing I remember before dying was Frank’s beautiful face, trying to keep me alive for just one more second.
_______________________________________________________________________

I followed this figure down the tunnel, towards the light, and reached my hand out to the figure, trying to grasp onto its hand, but it was a solid shadow; there was nothing to hold on to. Eventually, the figure vanished in a puff of black smoke, leaving me all alone. Confused, I still walked through this tunnel, towards the light, making absolutely no progress whatsoever. I began to get frustrated, and eventually gave up, sitting down, alone in the nothingness.

“What this fuck is this, oblivion?” I ask no one, throwing my arms up in the air, and am surprised to actually get an answer back.

“Close enough,” A familiar voice said from in front of me, and I looked up quickly, to see a figure in an old black parade jacket, with short, white hair, black eyebrows, and hazel eyes, looking down at me, smirking. His arms were crossed behind his back, and he was standing with his legs glued together, like a soldier.

“Who…who ARE you?” I asked, standing up, still staring at this figure. He chuckled, and shrugged.

“You could say I am a close friend,” He said.

“Do I…know you…?”

“In a way, yes,” he said, still smirking.

“But I haven’t ever seen you before…”

“That’s the question, isn’t it?” he said, winking, his mouth open playfully; he was fucking playing with me, messing with my head! “HAVE you seen me before?”

“I—I don’t exactly know…” I said, beyond confused. Who was this man, and why was he here with me? Where was I? What was happening right now? He just laughed at me as I tried to figure all of these out.

“Well, I’m make it easy for you,” He said, unwrapping his arms from behind his back and holding a finger up. “I have one question for you. And you have to be honest in answering it.”

“Okay,” I said, nodding. “I promise I will be one hundred percent honest.”

“Good,” He said, putting his arms back behind his back. “One question, and it’s quite simple.”

“Shoot, mystery man,” I said, eager.

“You ready?”

“Stop…please…”

“The question is...are you afraid to keep on living?” He asked, and arched an eyebrow after he said this, expecting an answer straight away.

“What…?”

“It’s a simple yes or no, Cy.”

“How do you know my name…” I said, narrowing my eyes. He just smirked again.

“Not important. This question is, however, very important…just answer it honestly.” He cocked his head up slightly and raised his eyebrows again, ready for an answer.

I thought about the question, long and hard. I tried to decipher its meaning…Was I afraid to keep on living…did I want to die? Is that what it meant? Perhaps…It can be interpreted in so many different ways…

“No, I’m not afraid to keep on living…” I answered finally, and the man nodded, taking his arms from behind his back and putting his fingers together in front of his chest.

“Good.” He said.

“I just answered a meaningful question and that’s all you have to say?” I replied, frowning. “For a Savior, you’re pretty bland…”

“Hey, missy, do you wanna go back to living you life or don’t you?” he retorted sassily; that caught me off guard, to be honest; I jumped back slightly from his reply. “Because I can just as well make you join the Parade too. It’s that easy.”

“Oh…no, life’s good,” I said quietly. “I want to live.”

“Good,” he said, and waved his hand to the side, revealing a pathway. “Follow this path right here, and you will be back to life in no time.” He smiled.

“Wait, so I just…go?” I asked, pointing at it. “It’s that easy?”

“Did I say it was going to be hard?”

“….touche, Mr. Savior…touché…” I said, nodding. “You know, I like you…” I added, pointing at him, and he laughed in response.

“Oh, I know you do,” he said simply. “Now GO, Cy. Everyone’s waiting for you.” I looked at the end of the pathway, and saw Gerard and Frank sitting next to my lifeless body, Gerard stroking my hair and Frank holding both of my hands, with Ray, along with Pony, Revenge under his arm. All of my friends…watching me in my death. The Savior just smiled, saluted, and smirked, and just like that, he was gone, in a puff of black smoke, the words 'carpe diem' echoing in his voice throughout the darkness. I shook my head, and walked down the path the Savior opened for me, towards all the ones I loved, and walked into a flash of white light, and was blinded.
_______________________________________________________________________
I woke up, coughing and gagging, my throat dry from death. I heard yells and screams from all around me, but couldn’t make out any words. I felt hands all over me, along with lips to my mouth and forehead and hands, but I was so out of it, I had NO idea what was going on. I looked around and saw everyone’s faces, all surprised and in awe of my waking.

“OH MY GOD YOU’RE ALIVE!” I heard Frank say, and felt arms wrap around me tight, followed by kisses to my forehead, nose, and mouth.

“What even—Savior?” I managed to sputter out, and Gerard looked at me, confused.

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

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

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

“Talk about the living dead,” Mikey interrupted, holding Lauren 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…” Lauren said.

“Savior…he looked a lot like you, Gerard, not gonna lie…” I said, pulling away from Gerard to look into his face; Savior had the exact same facial features, eye color, eyebrows, mouth, smile, smirk…everything. Just different hair. Even the amount of sass was the same.

“….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 my lips.

“You should get some rest Cy.” Gerard said, and turned to Lauren, “the both of you should, you’ve both been shot for god sake.”

Frank nodded and picked me up, gingerly, in his arms, careful to avoid grazing the hole in my chest, and carried me into his bedroom, closing the door behind him.

"There we go..." He said, lying me on hid bed, and put the sheets over my body, and sat down next to me, staring at me.

"Frank..." I said, gripping the blankets tight in my fists, remembering everything about what I had seen while I was dead.

"Shh...Cy, don't even say anything," He said. "You need to sleep."

"Frank, I'm not tired--"

"I don;t care, Cy." He said sternly. "I was fucking scared. You DIED, Cy, and I thought I lost you forever..." I saw tears swell up in his eyes, and he tried to play it off as yawning. "I don't know what I would have done--"

"Frank, don't even think about that, because I'm not dead," I said, smiling, squeezing his hand in mine. "I am not afraid to keep on living, Frank...you can't get rid of me that easily."

"Cy...I'm so glad you're still alive," he said, leaning down and kissing my forehead. "You mean everything to me. Now get to sleep."

"Okay."

"And promise you'll tell me all about it when you get better, yeah?" he added, smiling. I nodded, closing my eyes, and turned my body onto my side, wincing from the pain, and eventually fell asleep after a few minutes, feeling Frank watching over me as I slept.