All That I've Got

In the morning, everyone left. Frank had shooed them out, even Gerard, saying that he’d meet them at school later. He really just wanted to wait at home until his mom got back. She’d never returned last night, and the worry was eating a gaping hole in Frank’s chest.

She wasn’t home by the time school would’ve started, and Frank ignored the calls from his friends and continued to wait. He cleaned up the blankets and the basement, then busied himself with making breakfast and reading a book.

By noon, he had to admit he was getting a bit frantic. He tried calling the hospital where she worked, but couldn’t get anyone to reach her. He was seconds away from calling the police and reporting her missing when the front door opened.

Frank’s mom walked in, looking bruised and weary. Frank’s mind started jumping to conclusions immediately. He ran to her. “Mom, are you okay? Where have you been? Are you hurt? What’s going on?” his words tumbled from his mouth.

His mom’s eyes latched to his face, and she brought her purple-blotched arms up to hug him.

“Frankie, I’m so sorry. I tried my hardest to keep them away. I’m so sorry.” Her voice broke, and when she pulled away she had tears in her eyes.

“What the fuck’s going on?” Frank almost shouted. What had happened to her? Frank didn’t know what to do, and his heart and mind were short-wiring. “Please explain, mom,” Frank begged.

A tear slipped down his mom’s face. “Honey, I never worked for the hospital.”

What? Frank’s mouth opened but no words came out.

“I know about what your friend is,” she continued, sitting down in an armchair and wiping her face.
“Gerard. I saw his aura the moment I met him.”

“No. What-” Frank started.

“Frank, I’m a member of the Jury. I have been since I was a teen. I was raised to believe that there were mutations in the world. Ones that had to be eradicated. But- but, Frankie, I swear when I saw that Gerard made you happy, I went against my upbringing. I tried to cover his trail. I tried-”

Her voice broke even worse this time. And with it Frank’s heart. This couldn’t be happening. This couldn’t be real. . . but it explained a lot about his mother. And at the same time it explained nothing.

“What did you do?!” Frank shouted, and his mother cried harder.

“The Jury members found him, Frank. They dispachted a group to get him this morning. Soon they’re going to find out that I tried to hide him from them. I have to go, Frank, please understand,” she looked at him pleadingly.

But no. He would not understand. He wouldn’t. He needed to find Gerard, he needed to save him from whatever the Jury would do to him. Gerard was all that he had. Especially now.

Frank didn’t look back at his mom as he ran out of the house. She’d be gone when he got back, he knew. Frank didn’t slow down at all until he reached the school. He should’ve never have stayed home, he should’ve been with Gerard to make sure that he was safe. This was his fault.

Thankfully, when Frank got to Snyder Hill, it was junior lunch. That meant everyone would be in one place. Frank didn’t bother parking his car in a spot, he just pulled up in the fire lane, and hurtled out.

He went straight to the back of the cafeteria, practically shoving people to the ground to get there.

“Where’s Gerard?” Frank shouted when he got to his table. Everyone’s heads jerked up, and confusion spread across their faces.

“Frank, you’re okay?” Ray asked, voice squeaking at the end. Bob nudged the seat next to him, but Frank refused to sit down. Gerard wasn’t at lunch. This was bad.

“I’m fine, now where’s Gerard?” Frank couldn’t keep the hysteria from his voice.

“He got a frantic voicemail from you an hour ago,” Ray said. He stood and tried to stop Frank’s shaking. “He showed it to me, it sounded like you were hurt or something. He was going out of his mind, so he left to go to your house.”

Oh, fuck. They’d used Frank to catch Gerard. And- a horrible thought dawned on Frank- The Jury had probably already found Brian and the others too.

For a moment Frank thought he had died. That he’d blown an aneurysm and that’s why he couldn’t move. But when the shock and pain wore off a bit, Frank took off running again.

He didn’t know where he was going, only that he needed to do something. Frank ignored Ray’s yelps and was outside in seconds. He was on the road immediately, tires squealing.

Without any real thought, Frank ended up in the rich-district of Jersey, where the houses hulked and sneered in their garishness. Only one house didn’t, though.

Frank pulled up in front of Brian’s house and was out on the lawn, tripping over his own feet. The house looked the same, elaborate and warm-sand colored. The world was silent except for the sullen song of birds and cold wind causing unrest in the trees. Normal.

Everything went in slow-motion as Frank ran across the too-large lawn and to the front door. He knocked until his knuckles hurt, and then he knocked some more. He knocked his fist into Brian’s face
when the door swung open.

“Ouch!” Brian yelled. “Frank, what the hell, why aren’t you in school?”

“They’ve got Gerard,” he said bluntly.

Horror invaded Brian’s face. He looked like his worse fear had just happened. “Come in, now,” Brian ordered. He pulled Frank roughly into the house, and was off down the hallway without a another word.

Trailing behind Brian, Frank was a whirlwind of emotions.

He was so worried about Gerard that he felt like he shouldn’t be able to feel this much. His rainbow boy, his artist, and his escape, was gone. There might not be a way to find him, and that had Frank’s heart breaking into shards that pierced the rest of chest. How would Frank live without Gerard? How had he lived before Gerard had brought his weirdness into Frank’s life? Gerard was Frank’s fate, they were two halves of a puzzle, and without question they were meant to be together. Unless Destiny had a twisted sense of humor, and he got off by keeping fate’s pieces apart.

On top of that, Frank’s brain had the gull to feel guilty about basically punching Brian. And worse, he had the sickest feeling swimming in his stomach that was his mother’s lies and betrayal.

“Emerson, I need you to get Nate and Mark home, now,” Brian’s voice shook Frank from his pained feelings. The phone was steady in his hands, however.

“The Jury has Gerard,” at that Brian shot Frank a look. They were standing in the kitchen and the light was too cheerful for the disaster that was unfolding.

When Brian hung up, he turned fully to Frank. His hands were shaking but his voice was firm when he spoke. “Gerard told you everything.”

Frank couldn’t fit words past the knot in his throat, so he nodded.

“How do you know they have him?” Brian asked next.

“My-my mom,” Frank started. “She’s one of them.”

Something flashed across Brian’s face, but Frank didn’t have time to decode it before the other man had him flat against the fridge, hands around Frank’s throat.

“You knew?” Brian’s voice smoldered, and though Frank had never been afraid of him before, he was now.

“No, Brian,” Frank choked out. “She told me this morning. She said she tried to keep them off his trail. . . but they found out.”

The information did nothing to Brian for a tense moment. Then:

“Listen, kid, I’m only going to let you go because I need to protect my family. And Gerard is included in that family. I can’t deal with you right now, so I need you to leave,” Brian voice was fierce, but he stepped away from Frank.

Frank’s heart hammered, and his legs itched to get away, but he didn’t listen. “Brian, I- I love Gerard. And I promised him I’d help find Mikey,” Frank stepped closer to Brian, who’d frozen at the word ‘love’. “But now he’s gone, and I can’t live with that. My mom’s gone, too. I have nowhere else to go, and no leads to follow. Please, let me help find him, please.” Now Frank’s legs felt like they were going to give out from the truth of his words.

For a long moment, Brian looked like he was still going to kick Frank out, and Frank prepared himself for the wrath. Then, Brian’s face fell, defeated. He dragged a hand down his face, where a bruise was starting to form, and sighed so deeply Frank felt it in his bones.

“Okay, stay. I have no doubt your mom will have went into hiding, if she really did hide something from the Jury. They won’t like that. And I don’t know how much you can help with, but you can keep the boys out of my way. I’ll need to start contacting the other safe houses on the East Coast.” Brian gave Frank a cutting look, “Did your mom say anything about them knowing that we lived here?”

“I had thought about that,” Frank said, “but I would’ve assumed if the Jury knew, you wouldn’t have been here to answer the door.”

The other man nodded, then he went to usher in Emerson, Nate, and Mark- who’d just arrived. The three of them looked terrified.

“Nate. Mark. Please go with Frank, he’ll be staying here for awhile. Emerson, would you come help me make the calls,” Brian said, then disappeared with her into what must’ve been a richly decorated office.

That left Frank with two terrified, barely-teenaged boys. Which meant Frank had to smother his own fear and be strong for kids he’d never really gotten to know.

“C’mon, let’s go upstairs,” Frank said.

The boys followed without a word, they remained glued to each others’ sides though.

Frank led them to Gerard’s room, because it was the only place he knew like the back of his hand.

He’d spent many afternoons surrounded by the sketchbooks and drawings and the stories Gerard would spin for him.

He sat at the desk in the corner, and made a hand movement until the boys sat down on Gerard’s unmade bed, where Gerard had woken up (probably late) and things had been normal this morning. Ouch.

“I know you guys are scared, and I know you’ve probably seen this happen before,” Frank started, “you’re too young to see this happen to your- your kin- or however you see Gerard-”

“He’s our brother. He’s lived with us for months now,” Mark, the older one, replied matter-of-factly.

That made Frank’s heart twinge. “Your brother. He’s been my best friend for months now, too” (or close enough) “and I want to help find him. But until Brian tells me -and you guys too- what to do, we need to stay out of his way.”

“We understand,” Mark said. And though Frank wanted to do anything but, he set about entertaining the kids. He brought them down to the ‘movie room’, as they called it, which was a plush room with shelves of movies and a large projector screen. Frank spent a good ten minutes examining all the choices before pulling out Forrest Gump.

“You guys seen this one?” Frank asked.

The boys shook their head from where they were huddled together (again) on a soft-looking couch.

“No way? Really? This movie’s a classic!” Frank yelped a bit, before tripping over himself to get the DVD into the player.

Immediately, the movie had Nate and Mark watching slack-faced and Frank was satisfied.

Or he was, until his cellphone started ringing repeatedly. The screen flashed Ray, Bob, Patrick, Ryan and then Pete. They must be really frantic if they’d told Pete. But despite that, Frank refused to answer. He had no answers he could give them, and he wouldn’t for a while.

They movie ended and Frank’s phone was insensitive enough to show “43 missed calls” on his screen.

He had three texts reading “Where are you?” and one from Pete saying “Please come home, Frankie”

“Are your friends looking for you?” Frank looked up to see that Nate has moved to Frank’s side, and he was giving Frank an inquiring look. He couldn't be more than twelve, and he already seemed wiser than Frank himself.

“Yeah, I kinda freaked out on them earlier today. I was looking for Gerard,” Frank said with his eyes on the phone screen. Then he turned his body to Nate, and asked. “What about you, do your friends know what’s going on?”

Nate shook his head. “No, none of them know what I am, but they know Brian’s not my dad,” Nate thinks for a moment. “I think they were worried when I got pulled out of class, though. Kids only get pulled out of class when something bad has happened.”

Frank remembers that. One time a girl named Melanie had been called out of math in 5th grade. It turns out her dad had died. From that day on, Frank’s heart had stopped every time an administrator had poked their head into his class.

Frank told them that, and it seemed to break the ice. They weren’t all that different. It turned out Gerard had gotten Mark into comic books and scary movies, and Frank enthused with him about special effects for awhile.

After that, Nate turned on the television and they watched a documentary about fast food chains, and Frank tried to turn the boys on to being a vegetarian. (They looked ready to agree when the making
of chicken nuggets was shown).

When Frank hadn’t heard anything from Brian or Emerson by six o’clock, he let the boy lead him to the kitchen. Mark helped him make Kraft mac and cheese, and though Frank’s stomach was too tied up to want the artificial orange stuff, Nate coaxed it into him.

Night fell completely, and Frank got the text “Your house is empty so we’re staying overnight. Be here when we wake up, okay?” from Bob. He wouldn’t be there as they hoped. Frank knew no one would be.

They were sitting back in Gerard’s room, wasting time while their nerves worked them up. Finally, Nate spoke.

“Do you know what they do to people like us?” he mumbled.

Frank tensed. “Gerard never really specified. He said they experiment sometimes, but other times they just. . .”

“Killing isn’t the worse one out of those two,” that was Mark. He kept his eyes down on his hands as he spoke. “They try to find out what gives us our abilities, using surgeries and testings and chemicals. And if they’re bored with that, they attempt to use us to their advantage. They modify people’s bodies or they use one of our own against us.”

“Modify?” Frank asked.

“I’ve seen people with metal arms or porcelain eyes. My cousin was given something like insect-legs before he escaped,” Mark said with a wince. “They didn’t even knock him out before they attached them.”

Horrible circus images filled Frank’s mind. He was reminded of those 1900s traveling carnivals where the attractions were misshapen and abused humans.

“Do you- do you think they’ll do that to Gerard?” Frank’s whole body was sinking with dread.

“I don’t know. Usually they do it to people they’ve had for a while. If we can find the Jury’s headquarters here, then hopefully Gerard will be there unharmed.” Mark replied.

“Why do you think they singled out Gerard?” Nate asked, looking at Frank.

That’s a good question. “I haven’t really thought of that, but it seems like they did, doesn’t it.” What made Gerard special? Well, special-er than he already was?

No one could think of a solid answer for that. Nate suggested they might want him for his ability to influence emotions, and that seemed like the most likely option.

Brian finally came out of his office around midnight. The boys had gone to bed, but Frank had waited up, fighting sleep by chain smoking a pack, and blowing the gray smoke out the open kitchen window.

The first thing Brian said when he emerged was “Gerard used to do that.” Which was immediately followed by, “Need coffee.”

Frank set about fixing him a pot, and watched Brian sit at the breakfast table.

“Any news?” Frank asked.

“Everyone on this coast has been warned of his kidnapping. There were reports of suspicious Jury activity in New York City this morning, but other than that, the world has been quiet and Gerard is still unheard from.”

Frank brought over the coffee, and before he could set down the mug, Brian had it and was gulping down the scolding drink. Ouch.

“I don’t think they would’ve taken him far. We think the closest HQ is in New York. I’m recruiting a rescue mission for him, we’ll try to infiltrate the clan,” Brian said when he came back up for air.

“A rescue mission? Why is this the first time I’ve heard of this happening?” Frank asked, sitting down at the table, too.

“Because it doesn’t,” Brian was blunt. “It’s nearly impossible for these mission to succeeded. There hasn’t been one in years.” Brian read the look on Frank’s face. “Gerard’s so young, that’s why rescue is being put back on the table. A teenager hasn’t been kidnapped in over a decade. So it’s special, and extra-important that we get him back.”

Please get him back. “When will it be? I’ll come.”

“Not for a few days. Not enough people have agreed yet. And no, Frank, you will not come. I will not risk any more lives than I have too. Also, the Jury would like nothing more than to get their hands on you to get back at your mother.” Brian said, wearily. “Now go to bed. You can sleep in Gerard’s room, if you’re comfortable there.”

Though he wanted to argue, Frank chose to leave in peace, leaving Brian with his head in his hands and the weight of the world on his shoulders.

Frank did, in fact, feel most comfortable sleeping in Gerard’s room. It was as close as he could get to Gerard in the moment. If he closed his eyes and let his mind go blank, he could almost pretend Gerard had just gotten up to go to the bathroom, and was coming back to bed soon.

Frank pretended like that until he fell asleep.