Like Ghosts In The Snow

When I awoke, I was no longer in the comfort of my home. I felt completely different than I had before. I felt strangely empty, and somewhat out of place. I did not have any idea what was going on, and my surroundings had not helped me one bit with the feelings.

I was at my house. But, it was not my house entirely. It looked completely different. The once eerie, creepy and dark look was no longer there, but in its place was the most beautiful thing that I had seen. The walls weren’t chipped or faded, the floorboards weren’t old or crooked, and it did not creak when you walked. The furniture was what looked brand new, and never sat on once before.

The weirdest thing that went on in the moment was that no one was here. Mikey was not walking around, or sitting at the dining room table stuffing his face like he usually would have been. My mother was also nowhere to be seen, as she was not knitting around somewhere like she used to do. And the thing that made me happiest was that I no longer heard my father screaming at me to do something, or calling me a fag. But even though that made me happiest, it was also the weirdest.
I was also, completely and utterly frightened. I felt as if I could not control myself, that I was not in control of my body anymore. All I could hear at this point was this loud, screeching noise in my ears. I knew it was all in my head, for it was dead silence all around me.

I cautionly took a step forward, going to look around the house. I was cautious of my surroundings for a minute or two, not really sure what was going to happen if I walked around. After about a minute, I began to roam the rest of my home freely.

The whole place was completely different. There wasn’t that threatening feeling anymore, but a sort of peaceful, loving feeling. One not filled with anguish or despair, but love. I couldn’t help but think that I liked the place that I was now, other than the place that I had lived at before.

I was walking my way across the house, heading over to the library, just to check and see if it was as peaceful as it was out here, as in there. As I walked my way up the stairs and down the hall, I felt no difference in mood. Everything was nonviolent.

I walked my way through the familiar, but completely different halls and to the library. The floorboards did not groan in protest as I walked, and I had no longer felt those unnerving eyes watching me. And the strangest of all, I had no longer felt Frank’s presence.

I stopped as I stepped in front of the library, the large doors loomed over me, taunting and pressuring me to go and have a look inside. And as I straitened down my band tee, and grabbed the doorknob, I walked inside.

As I took the first step inside, everything was different from the last time that I was in here. That one menacing feeling of death was no longer there, but in its place was contentment. Everything was normal. The books were neatly placed along the large, looming shelves, the room had not had a murderous feel anymore. All of that was true, until across the room came a shuffling of pages from a book.

I immediately snapped my head up to the direction that the noise was coming from. And there, sitting at the table in the far corner of the room, was a boy.

He had long dark brown hair that swept along the beginnings of his shoulders. He was somewhat thin, kind of small and fragile looking. His eyes, hazel in color, gleamed as he flipped through the pages of the unknown book. The smallest of grins was plastered on his olive toned face.

That right then was when I had realized something. This boy, this happy, gentle and cute looking boy was the ghost. This was sixteen-year-old Frank Iero. But Frank Iero was dead. And this boy was obviously alive, and filled with so much life.

I was confused. Simply, and utterly confused. I wracked my brain, trying to remember what in the flying fuck had happened before I ended up here. And after minutes of just standing there, starring at Frank, I came up with nothing.

All I knew was that I was here. And it obviously was not my actual house. I was freaked out considerably, and I had absolutely no idea how to get back to the time I was in before.

I was interrupted from my thoughts as Frank slammed his book shut and stood up, pushing in his chair and walking forward to one of the bookcases. He placed the book in its appropriate place and turned back around to where he had once come.

Frightened that I would be noticed, I jumped behind the nearest bookshelf that I could see. I did not know if Frank could see me or not, and I would rather that I did not find out.

Frank then began to shuffle weightlessly around the library, fingering all of the different books and shelves as he walked passed them. He walked over to the small couch that sat by the large glass window and sat down. He began to just stare out at the window, as the trees swayed back and forth as the wind blew them around. He watched with the most peaceful, admiring look on his face. And as I just stood there, in hiding as I watched him, I had not longer felt scared.

Just looking at him as he starred out at that window as he sat down on the couch, not having a single care in the world. He had calmed me down considerably. I felt at peace in my completely, but not totally new environment. And, for just a single second, I was glad that I was here and in this time. And I did not want to leave.

Everything stayed the way it was for a minute, peaceful. But that was all interrupted when this loud; ear-piercing crash was heard from the back of the library. I looked around, shocked and confused as Frank did the same thing. As he looked I ducked back behind the bookshelf that I was once again hiding behind.

I stayed hidden behind the bookshelf, while Frank got up from his once serene resting place to go find out where the loud crash had come from. I think that I was just as confused as he was of where that crash could have come from. I waited momentarily for Frank to come back, and when he didn’t, I went to go look for him out of curiosity.

I walked over into the general direction in which he had went and it did not take me long to find him. There he was, sitting in the middle of a pool of glass as a brick had lain in his lap. I cocked my eyebrows in confusion as I quietly stepped closer to him, hoping and praying that he could not see me.

I looked down at him as he now sat down right in front of me, his spider-like hands clutched onto the brick that he had picked up off of the ground. I looked up at the window in front of us, or the window that was once there. It was now shattered around on the ground. And to what I expected, someone had to have thrown the big brown brick through it, the one that Frank had cradled in his hands. And in this horribly written handwriting, it insulted, ‘Go burn in Hell, You Faggot’. Once I read those horrible words, a powerful feeling of remorse had washed over me.

I stood there for a minute as Frank just sat there in front of me, completely shocked at what had just flew through our window. He was completely oblivious to the fact that I was just standing right behind him, looking at the same horrid scene that he was looking at.

I listened as little sniffles left his body. It sounded as if he were about to cry, if he was not already. At that moment all I wanted to do was pick him up in my arms and hold him there, tell him that it was going to all be okay, even though I knew it wasn’t.

Frank just sat there for a minute, really just soaking up what had just happened to him. I could not help but wonder if this had happened before, or if people would always torture him about this. Immediately, I had felt extremely bad. I knew what it was like for me as I go through this, and I could not help but wonder how much worse it was for him.

All of a sudden, Frank stood up, not even caring that his feet were digging into the broken glass that was sprawled across the floor. I jumped back quickly as Frank turned around. I tried my best to get away, but I was not even remotely fast enough. And Frank went and walked straight through me. He did not even notice that he went through a person, as he just kept walking; tear streaked face and all as he ran his way out of the library.

I stood there, jaw completely slacked open to the point I could have sworn that it would fall to the floor if I were not careful. As soon as I recovered from the ordeal that had just happened, it came to mind that I should try and find Frank, wherever he had run off to.

As I began to run over to the library door, I felt this completely strange, tingly sensation all over my body. I stopped completely as I looked over myself, checking out what was really going on. The feeling only grew as the seconds dragged on, the feeling so powerful that I could not stand any longer. My head started to ache horribly, and before I even hit the ground, I was out.
…

When I awoke the next time, I was afraid to open my eyes. I did not know if when I opened them I would be back to my house, in my attic bedroom like all that I had just experienced was a nightmare. Or maybe I would be somewhere completely different and not know where I was.

I only sat there for a few moments, until I sucked it up and actually opened my eyes. As soon as they opened, I was greeted face to face with Frank. His ghostly body lay above me, his face just an inch away from mine. His eyes were wide and childish looking. He didn’t look like he had meant any harm, but at the time the only thought that had went through my head was to scream. And that was exactly what I did.

It was a high pitched, and blood curdling scream that sent Frank flying back to the end of my mattress. He starred at me wide eyed as he placed his hand on his deadened heart. Like I was the one that had freaked him out.

“Dude! What the fuck is wrong with you screaming like that! Trying to give me a fucking heart attack?” Frank hollered over to me from across the bed, sounding extremely dramatic. And I could not help but kind of be freaked out. This is the longest I have actually seen Frank, and this is the most I had ever heard him talk.

I said nothing, completely shocked out of my words as Frank stood up and began to walk over to me. I stayed still, my eyes just following him around the room, afraid to even move a muscle, for Frank could disappear at any minute.

“Oh and dude do you mind if I stay here for a while? I tried to go on the down low for quite some time so I wouldn’t freak you out but I am getting tired of being invisible all the time. Is it good with you if I stay in the open?” he had asked me as he walked over to my small desk that was placed in the corner of the room. He picked up one of the drawings that I was working on at the moment and smiled at it, before placing it back down.

He looked back over to me for an answer, his eyebrows knitted together in confusion, as I stayed silent sitting on my mattress. Not really sure on what to say to that. He cocked his head to the side and walked over to me, raising a frail looking hand to wave in front of my face.

“You in there man?” he questioned as he whistled and snapped his ghostly like fingers in front of my face. I blinked and tried to focus back on what he was saying. Frank was actually talking to me, and here I was not saying anything and probably looking completely stupid.

“Uh… you lived here first… make yourself at home.” I told him, looking at him strangely. As soon as the words came out of my mouth, Frank beamed and jumped up on my mattress, laying down on it as he began to get comfortable.

“Awesome.” Was all he said as he closed his eyes, placed his arms behind his head and hummed a little tune. I just starred at him momentarily, watching as he laid there, not breathing, and heart not beating. And in my bed, just like it was his own.

And I did not say a word to him, just stood up and walked over to the attic stairs. I began my walk down, to begin to cook some dinner for when my father came home. As I walked I thought about the thing that I had went through. It had to have been real; it was too real to be a dream. And now after all of that, Frank Iero was now laying in my bed. It would be a lie if I said I was not completely puzzled. And it would also be a lie if I said I was not strangely pleased with all of this.