All That I've Got

Back onto the dance floor, Frank kept his hand on Mark’s arm, and shook off the floaty-feeling the music tried to swing him into.

It took them a good ten minutes just to get to the bathrooms, and Frank could already tell Natalie was in the girls’ room. The door was closed, and two women, obviously wasted, were attempting to muscle it open.

Frank moved them aside, and they slurred complaints. He blocked them out, and pounded on the door.

“Natalie, open up!”

A second later, the deadbolt slid out and the door cracked open enough for Frank to haul his body inside, dragging Mark in behind him.

The light inside the bathroom was blinding compared to the club’s main body. There was a row of stalls down one wall, and sinks down the other. Natalie stood in between them in her slinky and slightly rumbled dress, and with her hair askew.

Other than that, she was unharmed and Frank thanked the gods that she had super-strength, or this whole plan would’ve failed the second the man had started fighting back.

Frank locked the door again, and turned back to Natalie. “Where is he?”

“In that stall,” she pointed, “I’ve got him handcuffed to the toilet like they do in movies.”

Frank grinned at that, and finally let go of his death-grip on Mark (who looked beyond confused).

Frank approached the stall Natalie had indicated, and he could hear something struggling behind the dingy door.

“I’m coming in,” Frank announced, then he swiftly brought the door swinging inward, not paying mind when it pushed against the man’s limbs.

When Frank finally stood in the doorway, he could see the guy. He was bald with beady eyes, and hate exuded from his skin. Frank had no idea how he’d even managed to fit into the club’s crowd, he was so uncanny.

Frank had no doubt that this was the man. The leader of the Illinois Jury, Alton Kerry. Frank had seen this man’s face plastered across the alerts Natalie had found. It’d taken her hours to find any trace of the man before them, but now they had the devil at their feet. At their will.

“Let me go, you fuckers. Or I swear I will kill you, I will exterminate all of your sick race,” the man spit, face twisting with the poison of his words.

“Not my race,” Frank answered cooly, “but my family. You’re the sick one, you know that?”

Frank thought the man was going to spit in his face, but he only jerked his cuffed hands angrily.

The part Frank was unsure of was approaching, and wanted to get it over as quickly as possible. He had a reason for this. He needed to protect the people he loved, and this was the first way he knew how.

And he had to admit, this had to do with him too. The only way he could be with Gerard was to do this.

“Okay, Nat. We should do it now,” Frank said, already feeling queazy.

This wasn’t him. He couldn’t bear the thought of an animal getting hurt, and now it was human (a sadistic killer) but it still wasn’t right.

Natalie noticed Frank’s facial expression, and immediately her face softened.

“You don’t have to be here. You can wait outside,” she said, stepping up to Frank and cupping his face.

Frank shook his head. “I’ll stay here. But I can’t watch.”

Natalie understood. She let go of Frank, and disappeared into the stall. Frank turned to Mark and together they made pained faces as yells of pain and Natalie's hissed threats filled the bathroom.

Frank was close to rushing out of the bathroom so he could vomit in peace when finally Natalie emerged, looking upset. But in her hand she held what they wanted- a sleek black phone.

She brought it over to Frank, unlocked it and put it into his palm.

“Is he dead?” Frank whimpered.

“No,” Natalie responded, but before relief could recolor Frank’s face, she continued. “But he managed to call backup, Frank. You don’t have that much time.”

Frank’s heart jumped to knot in his throat, and he looked at the screen for a long minute.

Finally, Natalie finally opened an unmarked program for him. Frank would’ve been shocked that both waring sides of this heaven and hell had the same technology, but he was distracted.

He went to the search bar of the program, and typed in “Iero”. And from there, he proceeded to delete all files that were tagged with his name, both about him and his mother.

This was all for her. He would make it safe for her to come back to him. It’d taken awhile, but Frank knew he was ready to forgive her.

That’s the thing about love. It bigger than everything. Even Fate.

The files disappeared one by one, and Frank knew they’d be gone for good. This was an executive phone, so in his palm, Frank held the key to erasing the past more effectively than even Mikey could.

When he hit ‘delete’ on the last file, which had taken awhile, Frank dropped the phone to the ground and crushed it using all his weight.

He looked up to find two sets of eyes on him, and it was like looking down two roads and not being able to choose. . .