Imperfect Imortality

The moment I drifted to sleep I knew it was a bad sign. I’d not been sleeping right for two weeks and I didn’t feel tired, and yet sleep pulled me under; I already knew it was him.

I gained consciousness in my room, staring up at that awfully familiar ceiling. I grinned no bad dreams after all; it felt good to get a nice long night sleep as well and my body felt so much better for it. I stretched slowly and clambered out of bed, then began grabbing clothes and lightly throwing them on. I turned to the mirror checking myself once over and ruffling my hair slightly, perfect. I snapped from my “concentration” as my phone began to vibrate somewhere on my desk under a great stack of paper; I flopped over toward my desk and began to rummage quickly before it rang off. I caught hold of it and flipped it open, pushing it to my ear.
“Heya Frank!” Mikey’s voice rung happily and I swear to god I almost jumped 5 feet in the air. I ground my teeth together; I wasn’t in the mood for his bullshit today.
“Yea what the hell do you want Gerard?” there was a slight pause down the other end followed by a slight laugh,
“Hey Frank? I know it’s early in the morning and all but this is Mikey. You know the younger brother with the glasses? And why’d you sound so grumpy anyway?-“ I held the phone away from my ear and stared at it in horror, it couldn’t be… his voice continued “-well anyway, mum says if you wanna come over later you can and maybe me you and Gee can do shit, yea?” I held my stance; I couldn’t believe what I was hearing and then a sudden thought struck me. I whirled round and locked onto the calendar hanging on the wall, as I got closer pieces began to slot together; and as I saw that the calendar was blank I turned to the clock, blank. It hit me like a gush of fresh air. I laughed; oh aren’t dreams just wonderful? I placed the phone to my ear yet again.
“Yea sure, you know what Mikes? I’ll be over right now.” And with that I hung up.

I held my chin high as I trotted down the stairs, ignoring my “mum” beckoning me from the kitchen. Why should I let her slow me down? It wasn’t really her after all. I walked out into the bright sunlight, squinting slightly and it was then really that I noticed I couldn’t feel the sunlight on my skin. It was all so obvious now. I quickly trotted to the Way’s house – truth being I wanted to get it all over and done with-, I knocked once and Donna answered the door,
“You always seem to know I’m coming don’t you?” I grinned. As I looked up at her I could see a change in her features, she was no way near as worn, and looked so much happier in herself; it almost hurt me inside to know that this was a mere dream. She laughed Softly, and let me in
“Mikey’s just upstairs getting changed, you know how slow he is. Why don’t you sit on the sofa and wait for him?” I nodded and took a short sweeping glance of the room, nothing had changed much. As Donna left the room I walked over to the family photos placed high on the mantle. I looked at pictures of Donna and Donald’s wedding day, and other pictures of close family; but as I came to the pictures of Gerard I froze. I picked up a picture of Mikey and Gerard from when they were kids and I squinted at it. It seemed in perfect condition yet Gerard seemed to be blurred out, his features barely visible, almost like he has been immersed in a thin black fog. I picked up other pictures of Mikey and Gerard and frowning with each passing one, as the pictures began to get more recent, the thicker the fog got. And as I picked up one of the last photos I froze, it was a picture that Donna had taken of me Mikey Bob and Ray at the lake-district during the summer, I had a copy of the photo in one of my albums back at home; I looked at the date in the corner of the frame…24th September 2013, almost exactly a year after Gerard’s death…and with a sudden sense of horror I spotted the thick black fog looming cautiously behind us…

I grabbed photo after photo after photo, making sure they were all ones dated from after the 1st August 2012. The black fog was always there hanging dead in the air. But what scared me most was the fact that whenever I was in the picture, the black fog was always curled around me blocking everyone else out of the picture and leaving me alone…

I jumped as someone coughed beside me; I twirled quickly, throwing the picture frame from my hands as if I were discarding condemning evidence at a crime scene. The picture smashed hard on the floor, and I grimaced,
“Oh well done butterfingers.” My head shot up to face the boy before me. Gerard. He grinned happily at me,
“Mum won’t be too pleased with that ya know?-“ I stayed frozen, not daring to breathe “-God when Mikey told me you were on edge this morning I didn’t think it’d be this bad.” He placed both hands on my shoulders and shook me. I launched myself backward,
“Don’t touch me!” I glared at him, how DARE he play me for a fool? I knew his games, and I wasn’t going to fall in this easily. But something was wrong. He looked confused…Upset even…
“Have I done something wrong?” he looked genuinely upset, and it un-nerved me. I heard Mikey jump down the stairs 3 steps at a time, whistling as he did so. He beamed as he turned to face us,
“Right then what shall we-“ his face dropped, looking between us.
“Hey guys what’s wrong?” Walking over to us he placed his hand on his brothers back. “You okay Gee?” Gerard lifted his head slowly, and I was taken back, a solitary tear rolled down his face; he turned and ran up the stairs. Mikey looked to me, “What the hell did you do?” I shook my head, my mouth opening and closing with no words to follow, I was held speechless. Mikey glared at me and turned to the stairs. I stepped forward and stood on the shattered frame, I bent down and pulled out the photo blowing off the shattered glass. It was a picture of me and Mikey stood outside Starbucks, grinning wildly, accompanied by the infamous black fog. I folded the picture up and stuffed it into my pocket then ran up the stairs to join Mikey.

He stood against Gerard’s door, knocking it slightly.
“C’mon Gee, open up. I’m sure Frank didn’t mean it.-“ he shot a glace at me, “- you wanna talk to him?” he mumbled to the door. The handle turned slightly and the door opened. Mikey ushered me in and whispered in my ear before shutting the door, “Be nice to him, he is your boyfriend after all…” – my WHAT?!- And with that he closed the door.

Gerard looked up at me, thin tear tracks staining his gentle face, he looked so peaceful for once, and I feared it greatly. I walked toward him slowly and sat on the bed next to him – I might as well play along – I bit my lip, what to say? But to my surprise he spoke first,
“Do you hate me Frankie?” I looked at him sideways and saw him looking back at me, sadness glistening in his hazel eyes; I sighed, this was unbearable,
“No Gerard I don’t…” I looked away, finding an interesting spot on the far wall.
“Really?” he whimpered,
“Really…” and with that he threw his arms round my neck, pinning me to the bed. I gasped for air and turned looking up at his smiling face,
“God I’m so gunna get you for making me worry!” he laughed his usual girly laugh – lord how I’d missed it- he came down suddenly and blew a raspberry on my neck and I smiled slightly. He blew harder and I laughed; only when he began to push my shirt up did I begin to panic; no way was I doing anything like that, I froze and he brought his mouth to my ear,
“Something wrong Frankie?…” I shook my head and stared at the wall, I was so not ready for this. “No?” Grey mist began to fog around me, and as a pang of realisation hit I looked up, he was grinning wildly at me, his pale complexion adding to the horror, “-Good!” and with that he punched me hard in the stomach, winding me. As I sat up he caught we with a harsh gash across the face, and it seeped heavily with blood. He laughed emptily as I began to drift away…I was waking up. I thrashed out, he wasn’t winning so easily. I clawed my fist and aimed straight for his fading face and caught him. He howled as blood shot from his right cheek, snarling a long line of profanities. And with that he faded out and all was black.

I awoke in bed, staring at the ceiling once more. I had no need to check the clock this time as I could already feel the cool blood trickling down my face. I grinned, to see him in pain was the greatest pleasure of all. I laughed aloud as a thought chimed into my head. I shook my head and tutted,
“Gerard, Gerard, Gerard…” I mumbled aloud enjoying the sound of my own voice. I closed my eyes, picturing him in my minds eye, almost as if I were trying to force the though upon him, and continued.
“All this time you’ve been playing you’re little game and cheating…yes my dear friend cheating…after all you’ve been playing without a proper opponent…So from now on I’m not going to sit back and watch you spin your web…Because Player 2 has officially entered the game…”