The Black Parade

“Did you have to go and do that?!” Nevaeh complained, struggling out of Gerard’s arms and turning to him with a vicious look.

“But you liked it,” Gerard answered, smirking, obviously congratulating himself on his wonderful display.

“That is beside the point!” Nevaeh snapped.

“So you’re admitting you enjoyed that then?”

“You are so annoying!”

“I try my best.” Gerard was again looking pretty pleased with himself and Nevaeh just narrowed her eyes at him viciously. “Shall we get going?” Gerard enquired, already clicking his fingers and calling the parade. You see it is all in the clicking of the fingers. Frank and Ray were so wrong!

“God, couldn’t think up anything interesting then, Gerard?” Nevaeh asked, looking at the Parade with a distinctly disappointed look.

“Are you going to comment on everything?” Gerard asked, looking and sounding as if he was about to get rather annoyed with Nevaeh.

Nevaeh looked as if she was pondering this question for a moment before smiling broadly. “Yeah, I do believe so.” Gerard looked like he was going to blow a fuse, I guess he didn’t take kindly to having his ‘art’ questioned. I’ll have to remember that one for future references. I think I like Nevaeh.

“I never thought it possible,” Gerard suddenly popped up beside me and I nearly screamed but I managed to control myself and not come off as a… scary, jumpy girl. God I needed to work on my description. “But I’ve finally found someone more annoying than you." I wasn’t sure how to take that, and for the record, I was not annoying. Gerard grinned at me, obviously believing he’d succeeded in riling me up. Well, I’d just have to show him.

“And I guess-” He didn’t even let me finish my amazingly clever sarcastic remark but chose instead to lace his fingers with mine and drag me towards the Black Parade. I looked back to notice Nevaeh was following us and looking far less confused than I probably did.

Nevaeh tapped me on the shoulder and I jumped, I guess I couldn’t look cool all the time, damn. “So… you and Gerard.” She winked at me to confuse me just that little bit more.

“Me and Gerard what?” I asked, trying to get a grasp of her thought process and coming to a blank. After what had just happened, the sexual dancing and the stalking of her all over the house, I think the idea that there was a ‘me and Gerard’ would be the last thing she would be thinking about.

Gerard, who was still holding my hand for some reason, decided that moment was as good a time as any to become a nosy bugger and look over to me, offering me a knowing smile. “Discussing anything interesting ladies?”

“Just how much of a nosy, egotistical jerk you are Gerard.” I replied in a sweet tone with a sweet smile to match.

Gerard just mirrored my smile and turned away again, though not letting go of my hand, why he felt the need to keep holding my hand I didn’t know. Perhaps some unconscious decision on his part to make up for all the sexual stuff he was doing with Nevaeh recently. Yeah, that sounded about right.

“So it’s a love/hate relationship,” Nevaeh said, nodding her head knowingly.

“Huh?” I think that was about as articulate as I was going to get then.

“Playing hard to get with him must be pretty difficult,” Nevaeh mused. Gerard again took that opportunity to look over at us and give me one of his sexual smirks. I wasn’t playing hard to get, I just… well, I wasn’t so keen on the idea of giving into him because I just know he’d be impossible if he thought he’d won this, whatever ‘this’ was. “Have you heard the news that you’re dead? No one ever had much nice to say I think they never liked you anyway.” Nevaeh sung along with the parade happily. Though it was obvious there was a quip in there somewhere aimed aptly at Gerard. This girl was beginning to get better and better by the minute. “It’s amazing I still remember these lyrics after so long,” Nevaeh commented.

“Indeed,” Gerard muttered, obviously much angrier that she was using his own lyrics against him.

“What the-” Nevaeh jumped in shock, looking a little wild around the eyes, as the parade suddenly jumped into some street in some town somewhere, I wasn’t very good at geography.

“Hey Gerard,” Bob nodded to Gerard as he escorted a man in a garbage man uniform into the parade.

“Wow, Bob,” Nevaeh gasped. “He looks so old.” Well she was blunt. “What just happened?” She asked me.

“The parade jumped, it’s weird to explain, we should reach the City of the Dead soon,” I explained.

“The City of the Dead?” Nevaeh repeated. I nodded. “We’re going to Egypt?”

“Huh?” Now I was beginning to sound really stupid. “Egypt?”

“I’m guessing you don’t know much about Egyptian history?” Nevaeh asked.

“I never really paid attention to high school history,” I answered, confused why this even related to what we had been talking about.

“Ah, that explains it,” Nevaeh said knowingly.

“Explains what?”

“You’re American.”

“I resent that,” I muttered.

“Dead!”

“Bloody Hell!” Nevaeh cursed as the parade jumped into the City of the Dead. Guess she wasn’t as smooth as she thought.

“Right, sugar, you’re a difficult one,” Gerard suddenly cut in, “there’s no one to meet you.”

“So sorry about that,” she replied sarcastically. “So what now, huh? Is there Heaven or Hell or what?”

“There’s a Hell and if you were destined for there you’d already be there, sugar,” Gerard answered.

“Could you stop saying sugar?” Nevaeh asked. Gerard frowned slightly at the odd request. “The blonde ruins the illusion for me.” She shook her head as if seriously disappointed. “Why did you have to kill yourself while blonde?”

“I don’t think the colour of my hair is relevant to that,” Gerard said shortly.

“How come we look exactly like we did when we died?” Nevaeh asked. “Why can’t we look our best when we die?”

“I don’t make the rules.”

“You see, you could have been much better if you still had your nice, long black hair,” Nevaeh mused.

“I’ll see what I can do to rush your moving on,” Gerard muttered through gritted teeth.

“I don’t particularly want to ‘move on’ or whatever, thank you very much, fuck Heaven or Hell, I… oooo Bob!” She got distracted and ran over to Bob, who was casually walking over to us after dropping the garbage man off with some woman. “Bob, you are pretty damn cool.” She flung her arms around Bob, who stiffened in shock for a moment before hugging her back. “You are probably the coolest member of MCR, yes indeed.”

“Hey Gerard,” Bob called over, “I like this one, can we keep her?”

“Just because she liked him,” Gerard mumbled. Aha, jealously, why Gerard, you simple being you. “I’m going… somewhere.” He finally let go of my hand and wandered off without even bothering to make a proper excuse, I was pretty disappointed with him for that.

“What’s up with him?” Bob asked as he walked back over to me, Nevaeh in tow. I just shrugged.

“So… you and Gerard?” Nevaeh started again.

“Why do you keep going on about this?”

“I’m not blind, anyway, I was talking to Bob and he filled me in on all of it.”

“All of what?” I asked, seriously bemused by this.

“How you’ve been chosen to take over as the leader of the Black Parade because Mikey’s going to die soon and Gerard wants to be with him and how Gerard and you have been flirting outrageously with each other but are both adamant you don’t like each other and-”

“I didn’t think there was anything more,” I interrupted.

“There isn’t, but I was on a roll and couldn’t stop.”

“So are you two planning on doing anything about that then?” Bob interrupted.

“About what? Gerard? No. Why? There’s nothing there to be done about it.” I think I was babbling, could you tell? Nevaeh and Bob shared a knowing look that made me want to bang their heads together. “Shall we change the subject?”

“How do we go about getting shoes?” Nevaeh asked. What an odd question but I realised she was bare foot like me.

“What the Hell happened to your shoes?” Bob asked me, looking a little confused.

“They’re not very accommodating in the shoe department here, are they?” Nevaeh noted. “What were you doing when you died?” She asked, looking me over and frowning.

“Huh? What?” I’m the epitome of intelligence aren’t I? “Oh no, Gerard but me in this stupid dress and I left the shoes at Ray’s old house.”

“Letting Gerard dress you now,” Nevaeh said knowingly.

“No,” I cut in. “He just sorta spun me around I was suddenly wearing a dress,” I explained.

“How in Hell did he do that?” Nevaeh asked.

“I don’t know, he does it a lot, has a bit of fun taking control of the minds of the living and making them do sexual dancing and sing, he does that too much.” I answered.

“It’s because he’s the leader of the Black Parade,” Bob explained. “He gets to show off a bit every now and then.”

“Wow,” Nevaeh exclaimed. “You’re going to get all those cool powers when you take over, Gwen.” I hadn’t thought of it like that, and to tell you the truth, I didn’t really want to think about it like that. I didn’t think I was really cut out for this whole leader of the Black Parade thing, perhaps Gerard had made a mistake choosing me.

“Ah, Bob, just the man I want to see.” We turned around to see Frank wandering over. “Dave wants to see us all,” he laughed at his stupid little joke for a little too long.

“Frankie!” Nevaeh yelled.

“Random girl!” Frank mimicked, running over, picking her up and spinning her around. Okay, not good in his defence for actually being buried with his brain. He finally put her down, dusted off his clothes and spoke, “do I know you?”

“No, not really,” Nevaeh answered.

“Cool,” Frank nodded.

“You said He wanted to see us?” Bob prompted, returning the conversation to something a little more important.

“Oh, yeah, Dave wants to see us, so I’ve been sent to round up the troops,” Frank answered.

“Who’s Dave?” Nevaeh asked.

“That’s not really His name.” Bob explained.

“Well that makes a load of sense,” Nevaeh rolled her eyes.

“Call Him Dave anyway,” Frank said, grinning mischievously.

“If you value your after life I’d advise you not to call Him Dave,” Bob cut in. “That’s where Frank went wrong.”

“It was funny!” Frank defended.

“Yeah,” Bob grinned, “for us anyway.”

Surprisingly Dave- I mean He -had gathered us all in his nice airy office for a nice little chat. ‘Us’ being Bob, Frank, Nevaeh, Gerard, Ray and me. He was very to the point.

“I think it’s time.”

Could you get any more dramatic? I suppose so, but I guess he was doing the best with what he was given, if he had explosions and dancing girls I think it could have been better, but then again, that’s just me.

I was willing to hang back, though Gerard took my hand without a word and I found myself giving it a reassuring squeeze like he had done for me when I had seen my mother, and I knew on some level it helped him right then. I guess Frank, Bob and Ray wanted to see their friend and greet him though I’m not sure why Nevaeh was there, and how she’d managed to slip in. But still, there we were, gathered around the bed of a man suffering from lung cancer and waiting for him to die, was it wrong that I felt uneasy in this situation? But the tension in that situation, it felt like you could cut the atmosphere with a knife, we were all on tenterhooks, waiting, and truthfully I hated it. I’d never get used to this waiting for people to die, or watching them die thing, I really wasn’t cut out for this job, I swear.

Mikey stirred and I think we all held our breath, but nothing happened. I was fast getting sick of this. Gerard let go of my hand and stepped towards his brother, I had half a mind to stop him, though he probably needed this. But this had to be a real mind fuck, wanting your brother to die so he could be with you again but in turn he’d be losing his life. Gerard stood by his brother’s bedside and just stared, the kind that was heartbreaking, I had a very strong urge to hug Gerard then and tell him everything was going to be okay.

Mikey opened his eyes slowly. “Ger-Gerard?” Mikey muttered in confusion. I think everyone but me gasped then, was I missing something? Gerard looked like a ghost, well he was a ghost, but I mean he looked very pale and rather scary in the sort of way that he looked like he had no idea what was going on. Which was bad, because if he didn’t know what was going on I sure as Hell had no clue.

“Mikey?” Gerard replied in the same very confused tone.

“Am I dead?” Mikey asked shakily.

“No,” Gerard answered in a bemused voice. Now this was getting very confusing, what the fuck was going on? “You should be, but… you’re not.”

“Not yet,” Mikey added, sounding almost saddened by that fact. What kind of person would be looking forward to death, especially if they didn’t know about the City of the Dead and the Black Parade? Though I suppose the big C has got to be pretty draining, I guess death start’s looking pretty pleasing after a certain point.

“Mikey,” Gerard said quietly, reaching out for his brother, though his hand just went right through him, unlike when he fucked with the minds of the living and he was very much real to them he was just a ghost to Mikey. “You can see me?”

Mikey shivered as his brother’s hand passed through his cheek, his eyes falling closed, tears seeping from the corners. God, this was depressing. “I can feel you.”

“This isn’t supposed to happen,” Gerard muttered, his voice sounding on breaking point. This I really did not want to see.

“What’s going on?” Mikey asked in a shaky voice.

“You’re supposed to die, this is supposed to be your time, but you can see me, you’re not dead but you can see me.”

“I want to die,” Mikey admitted.

“Soon,” Gerard reassured him. Was this not the most fucked up thing you’ve ever seen?

“Real soon.”

Oh, God, did he have to go and sing a song now? This was piano driven, and it sounded quite sad, I think I was going to cry.

“Turn away,” Gerard started in a heartbreaking tone, “if you could get me a drink,” he pulled his hand away and stared at it as if it was a foreign object, “of water coz my lips are chapped and faded. Call my Aunt Marie,” he turned to his brother, who’s eyes were shining with tears now, “help her gather all my things,” he actually sniffed back tears then, the poor fucker, “and bury me in all my favourite colours, my sisters and my brothers still.” Mikey actually mouthed the words to that bit and Gerard faltered in his singing. “I will not kiss you coz the hardest part of this is leaving you.” Drums suddenly kicked in from nowhere. “Now turn away, coz I’m awful just to see, coz all my hair’s abandoned all my body.” Okay, that was a really odd line. There was a muffled giggle and I turned around to see Nevaeh disguising her giggles with a hand over her lips and the other three boys were all looking on the verge of tears too. Was it like this when they welcomed all their other friends? “All my agony,” Gerard continued, his voice sounding stronger. “Know that I will never marry,” he shared a knowing look with his brother for a brief second before they both averted their eyes, “baby I’m just soggy from the chemo.”

There was another round of muffled laughter from behind and the deceleration, “Gerard Way’s a biscuit.” That confused me slightly, but whatever floats her boat.

“But counting down the days to go.” His voice was raising in a powerful crescendo. “It just ain’t living and I just hope you know that if you say…”

“If you say,” Ray and Frank added in muffled saddened voices, I guess this song had backing vocals, but it still terrified me.

“Goodbye today,” Gerard sung, his hand hovering over Mikey’s cheek once more, though Mikey was watching Gerard with an intense glare now.

“Goodbye today,” Ray and Frank continued.

“I’d ask you to be true,” Gerard turned away, almost looking ashamed.

“Coz I’d ask you to be true,” again Ray and Frank added their bit.

“Coz the hardest part of this is leaving you.” Gerard declared in a distressing tone. Then there were some scary ‘ooo’ing’s in the background. I was beginning to think all of this was getting very melodramatic, they all needed to lighten up a bit, I don’t think I could take this anymore. “Coz the hardest part of this is leaving you.” It faded out into tense silence once again.

“Gerard,” Mikey reached out shakily to cup his brother’s cheek, just hovering his hand above Gerard’s dead flesh, meeting his brother’s eyes with a sorrow filled look, he was obviously about to say something really important, you know, the whole famous last words thing. “You’re making a fool of yourself.” I think I like Mikey.