More Than Just Curious

Gerard’s P.O.V

It was a long and silent drive back to my house. Frank hadn’t spoken up once about his therapist or how he thought the meeting had went. I honestly don’t think that he had liked it very much due to the fact that he had hardly even spoken the whole time. I tried to let it slide, thinking that it was only his first time meeting her and that he would have some type of restraints.

His therapist, Taylor, had told me that I had to try and talk Frank into opening up to her so she could try and help him. She said that he had obvious trust issues and a major problem with his father that she just didn’t know what it was. I knew exactly what it was, but I wasn’t going to say a word. Frankie needed to tell her.

I looked over to Frankie as he fidgeted in his seat, looking out the window. It was going to be one long drive home and it wouldn’t be any better in silence. I griped the steering wheel tighter and tried to focus more on the road and not on Frankie.

“It was almost a year ago.” Frank told me, making me look in his direction. I had no idea what he was talking about and he still wasn’t looking at me.

“What was almost a year ago?” I asked him, confused. He drew his attention away from the window and looked at me, his eyes searching over mine.

He looked pained and you could tell that something was obviously bothering him. I didn’t want to pester him on the subject. There were now worry lines present on his face. They looked normal there, like he always has them. I couldn’t help but feel just a pang of sympathy flow through me. He sighed and opened his mouth as he began talking.

“The day that I killed Bella.” He told me regretfully, his eyes never leaving mine. He had told me this before, but hearing it again was just as much of a shock. He didn’t give me any time to respond before he started talking again.

“We were at a party,” he began. “She was drinking heavily, which I was used to seeing. Bella was an alcoholic and it was very rare to see her without a glass in her hand. It was getting late, around three in the morning when I finally told her to put the drink down and that we should be on our way. Like always, she refused and continued on with her drinking.” Frank told me as he withdrew a sharp breath and smiled halfheartedly. A genuine smile, one that showed his teeth and reached from ear to ear.

“I let her continue for only about ten minutes longer until she agreed to go back home. She kissed me once on the lips. It was brief, but sweet and I didn’t know that it was going to be the last time that I would ever kiss her again. We got outside the party, that’s when I realized that I had left my car keys in the party. I told Bella that I would be right back so that she wouldn’t want to follow me in there and start drinking again.” He told me, his voice getting quieter and quieter as he went on with his story.

“Once I got into the party, found my keys and got back out there Bella was gone. She was nowhere to be seen. I was terrified. I couldn’t find her. I looked all around the parking lot for her. I looked in my car; I even went back into the party to look for her. She wasn’t there either. I walked back outside and sat on the sidewalk, putting my head in my hands and just thinking if I were her where she would go.” He took his eyes away from mine and looked back at his lap, tracing those shapes again. He looked miserable, he looked dead. It made my heart hurt.

“That’s when I looked up. I saw this long, black van. It was my father’s van. I got up to it and made my way over to it. I remember what I thought at that moment. My dad was away on business, or he was supposed to be. Why would he be here at this time at night? I cautiously made my way over to the van. It was defiantly on because I saw the exhaust coming out from the back. The windows were tinted, so it was hard to see anything inside of it. I came up to the side door, and put my hands up on the glass and tried to look into it. That’s when the van door opened and I was yanked inside. I heard the faint noise of screaming before I was hit over the head with a metal crowbar.” Frank told me, closing his eyes, struggling to hold back his tears.

I stayed silent, watching him out of the corner of my eye as I drove along. I have never heard so much of this story before, and it saddened me. I could not believe everything that he told me was going on, and I knew that he wasn’t even close to being finished with it. It was like I was there, witnessing this first hand. I felt his pain.

“I woke up, a few hours later to be tied up; my feet closed together, my hands bound to a gun and my mouth covered with layers and layers of duct tape. I could barely move, let alone try and scream for help in the restraints. I remember feeling the van moving, signaling that we were on the road, going to who knows where. That’s when I saw her. There she was, sitting opposite of me, blindfolded and tied up as well. But strangely, there was no duct tape over her mouth. My eyes darted across the van to where the driver was. It was my dad. He and his friend Alex were sitting up there, driving and laughing away as if all of this was funny.” Frank paused as he let out a low whimper.

“They turned around and noticed that I was awake. Alex nodded to my dad and he pulled over to the side of the road. I looked out the window in horror as I saw all of the lights of the passing cars flashing before me. If only they would look. My dad unbuckled himself and made his way into the back of the car to where I was sitting. A devious smirk played on his lips as he knelt down in front of me.” Frank stopped and looked over to me, his eyes locking with my own.

“‘Pull the trigger,’ my own father said to me, tapping the gun. I shook my head no, but he kept on pestering me and yelling telling me to pull the trigger. All the while, the love of my life was sitting across from me, yelling to me over and over again. ‘Don’t do it, don’t kill me please Franklin, I love you. Don’t shoot. Don’t shoot.’ I had made up my mind right then and there. I wasn’t going to shoot her. I loved her, and I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t. I would take a bullet for her. I was crying so much, and with blurry eyes I made up the decision. I would take my own life to save hers.” Frank cried to me, the tears falling down his face as he cried out to me in agony.

“I was sitting there, listening to the screaming from both my love and my father, yelling at me to do different things. I could hear the blood pounding in my ears, along with the squealing of tires. And before I knew it we were hit, the gun firing off and hitting Bella dead center, right where her heart was. It was the most sickening bang I had ever heard, followed by the most painful scream I had ever witnessed.” Frank said, crying harder and harder with every sentence.

“The duct tape was ripped off my mouth followed by the bindings on my hands and feet. I screamed out no as I fell to the floor, blood making its way down the van and running though my body. Her blood. I crawled over to Bella sobbing, saying sorry and sorry over and over again. My heart ached as she choked out her next words. ‘It was alright, everything is going to be fine. I love you, Franklin. You are my one and only.’ I answer her, saying I loved her too, my one and only. I watched as the life left her eyes, as my soul left my body. I was broken. I wanted to die.” Frank screamed, banging his hand on my dash board.

“It should have been me to die, not her! I killed my love, I killed her. I don’t deserve life. I deserve to die. After that everything was silent except for my crying. Then my father broke the silence as I held my love in my arms. ‘You’re next Frank. Be ready because I am coming after you next, I swear on it.’ Was the last thing my father said to me before he heard the sirens and tried to run from them. But he and Alex both were arrested that night. I haven’t seen my father since and everyday my burning passion of hatred grows more and more for him each day.” Frank told me, hands gripping his thighs, the tears flowing down his cheeks.

I cried silently as I drove, looking at Frankie from the corner of my eye. What some sick bastards. I will kill them myself if they ever try to touch Frankie. I despised them. They didn’t deserve to live. I hope they rot away in hell.

I wanted to hug Frankie, tell him that everything was going to be okay, that I would never let them touch him. But, I couldn’t, I knew that it wasn’t going to be okay and I didn’t want him to have false hope. The rest of the way home was silent, the tears falling freely from our eyes as we made our way home.