My Guardian Vampire

I woke up staring into the eyes of Gerard.

“Ali? You awake?”

Déjà vu, man.

I turned my head, seeing only darkness around us.

“No, I just sleep with my eyes open. We’ve been over this. Where am I?”

“New York,” Gerard said. “More specifically, Mike and Tré’s place.”

“Couch room?” I asked. Gerard looked at me weirdly. “Yeah, I guess you could call it that. There’s a couch and not much else.”

“And a rat called Barney?”

“Barney? No-” A little squeak interrupted Gerard.

“I’m guessing this is Barney,” Gerard said, putting his hand out into the darkness.

“No!” I said, but too late. Gerard withdrew his hand with a sharp gasp, and began to suck on a Barney-stamped finger.

Barney 3, Ali + Gerard 0.

I laughed.

“Good ol’ couch room. My square one.”

Gerard looked at me weirdly, but helped me into sitting position. I felt my head, feeling a dull thumping.

“What happened?” I asked.

“We can talk about it later,” Gerard said quickly. I touched his shoulder.

“Gerard, you can tell me. I remember…punching Bert, then you grabbing him, then…” I squinted my eyes in concentration, looking down at the light on Gerard’s lap from the doorway. “All I remember after that is black. I looked up at Gerard, a thought hitting me.

“You didn’t…Kill Bert did you?” Gerard shook his head, and sighed, running a hand through his hair.

“Ali, I want you to know that I love you no matter what, and what happened doesn’t change anything.”

I looked at Gerard with a weird look on my face, my stomach turning with the feeling that something very, very bad happened.

“What?” I asked, swallowing a lump down, my mouth suddenly dry. A memory hit me, Bert going to hit me in the stomach-

“The baby! Oh god, no…” I said, starting to cry immediately. Gerard rubbed my back, shushing me quickly.

“No no no, Bert didn’t hit your stomach.” I looked at Gerard with a confused face, tears already falling down my eyes.

“What…What happened then?” I sniffed, wiping my eyes. I had been so scared, so deadly afraid-

“Ali, you killed Bert.”