Cemetery boy

Brendon pulled me through the cemetery, it was odd the fact that this cemetery had become such a big part of my life now...all because of him. He was walking in front of me, his hair changing colour underneath the light filtering through the trees. He looked almost angelic like this: pale skin and the sound of crushed autumn leaves underneath our feet...it was going to be winter soon.

The half-way house felt exactly the same way as before: sick, with a distant smell of something rotting. I turn to Brendon who was also looking at the house but with an expression of what looked like annoyance.

“You’re lipsticks smudged.” I say softly

Automatically I move close to him and with my sleeve wipe away the red that’s slightly uneven; Brendon’s eyes are on me the whole time, the smallest of smiles played upon his lips as I did this. It was only afterwards that I stopped to consider what I actually did. I don’t know how but this somehow felt a hundred times more intimate then anything that we’d done before. I pull away slowly with a clear blush on my cheeks.

The small smile turned into a grin as he put his top hat on and hooked his arm into mine, I grasped onto it a bit. This is the part where we walk in and I hear my mother’s voice again.
“Try not to faint this time” Brendon says in attempt to get that terrified expression on off my face

I turn to him and fake a gigantic smile “Mention that to anybody and you won’t have anything manly in your anatomy”

Brendon mirrored my fake smile “Darling. We all know that there’s nothing manly down there — so there is any need to be jealous”

I mocked a gasp of outrage “Art though false as thee has never visited thy manly hood!!”
We both laugh before looking at the house again, both our smiles fade.

“Unto the breech dear friend” Brendon muttered as he pulled me towards the building “It won’t show the exact same thing” he whispered “But it’ll still be...the impossible”

I gulp like a bad quality cartoon figure. “Okay” I muttered quietly, not quite sure why I needed to reassure myself out loud.

I stepped through the doorway first, it happened immediately: this time I saw her as though it were a summers day

She was playing the piano, like she did every other Sunday. And like every other Sunday I sat in front of her and smiled brightly when she sang. Her voice like an angel’s, like a fragile bell in the air. Nothing could hurt me here. Here I was safe from everyone and everything...
My dream broke when a hand came down on my shoulder and a voice at my ear

“Ryan. It’s not real; all is just a picaresque score of a passing fantasy”

I turn to the familiar voice. Brendon was kneeling behind me and clinging to me slightly, he was pale and looked slightly sick. I turn towards where my mother was...there was nothing there now. Brendon still had that slightly sick expression on his face as he helped me to my feet

“Bren are you...”

“Fine” he interpreted me “Everything’s fine...”

He refuse to look at me, it hurt somehow. The fact that he didn’t want me to know something that was going on

“Brenny look at me”

Finally he did as I asked. He looked so scared, as if his entire world had been torn apart

“Did you see something...What did you see?”

He shakes his head and instead of telling me asks

“Ry. Can you do me a favour?”

“Sure”

“Can you just kiss me; I know it sounds odd...just, please”

I did as he asked, my lips brushing against his slightly, it made my body shiver and I felt him relax slightly in my arms

Brendon let out a deep breath “Okay” he looked around the dark room and pulled me to a dark door

“Beyond this is the shadowlands” he explained “...others have taken to calling it the panic, it’s where the deaths live constantly and ghosts come and go”

He swung the door open; outside it was a pale grey, with grey sky and grey clouds and grey ground.

Brendon smiled slightly at my reaction “it’s a bit like Kansas... I’m afraid you’ll have to walk the yellow brick road with death for a while Dorothy”

“Dorothy doesn’t mind” I say softy