Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge

After the death of the Moyers, we did the only logical thing left to do... We headed to the liquor store in Helena's mini cooper which was parked at the pet rescue place. Don't laugh at the car, it was good and it was capable of holding what few possessions we had. Plus, it wasn't exactly the kind of car you would expect wanted mass murderers to be driving around. Helena and I liked our booze. On the day we decided to come down to Louisiana, we grabbed our guns and some booze and took to the highway in the mini.

As much as I loved my booze, I have to admit that it was the thing that got us caught. We were out of our own stock after our kill and I was itchin' for a fix. It was weird how everyone in the store watched us from their peripheral. The guy behind the cash register looked scared as fuck when I set down the bottle of vodka on the counter. He didn't even ask to see my ID.

When we left, something compelled me to look back and when I did, it was just to see the worried looking man at the register talking on the phone. Later, I would find out exactly who he was talking about, although at the time I think a part of me knew.

We went to some restaurant down the road to eat. No one there would look us in the eye. It was pretty fucking weird. Maybe our coats were intimidating them. Just to make people look more comfortable, I took mine off and Helena followed suit. This, for some reason, did seem to make people seem slightly less antsy, but not by much.

Then I heard the TV behind me...

"Remember, if you have seen these two people: twenty-four-year-old Gerard Way and twenty-two-year-old Helena Simmons," the reporter on TV was saying. I watched as Helena's head snapped up as I slowly turned around just in time to catch a glimpse of our faces plastered on the TV screen. "Call your local authorities immediately."

That's when I fully realized who the guy at the liquor store was talking to on the phone. I vaguely recalled seeing America's Most Wanted playing in the store and I, no doubt, had been one of the stars. Seconds later, my suspicions were confirmed as I heard sirens and saw the flashing lights.

"Come out with your hands up!" a megaphone blared.

"Well fuck," Helena said so nonchalantly that I had to laugh.

"Come out with your arms raised high!" the police guy's voice said again.

I looked at my angel and she looked back at me, smiling grimly. Slowly, we reached for our jackets and in a blink of an eye, we had whipped out our .45s. Sure, it would have been nice to have an M-16 or an uzi or something, but what we had was better than nothing.

"This is a stick up!" Helena yelled, jumping to her feet. It hadn't meant to be a stick up. We had just wanted a nice meal, but noooo. Things couldn't be that easy.

"Everyone over here!" I yelled, calling over the twenty or so customers and about ten workers. We had to do it. We had to stall. We wouldn't go down.

The police kept talking to us, but we paid no heed. "I'll never let them hurt you, I promise," I muttered to Helena.

"I know, Gerard. They'll never get us alive," Helena replied.

I nodded. I really wanted to tell her how much she meant to me, but I was so bad with words. I loved her more than anything, but I didn't know how to tell her, not now.

"We're gonna show them how much we mean," Helena said confidently.

"We're like scare crows," I added.

Helena gave a tinkling giggle. "What?"

"We'll fuel the flame. We're burning forever and ever..."

Helena understood somehow. I Loved that she could understand all the crazy shit that flowed from my mouth.

*****

We were in that restaurant for THREE hours. The police pretty much gave up on talking to us since we weren't hurting anyone, but they were still out there, waiting. After a three hour wait, the fuzz started to get antsy and those fuckers barged into the place right in the middle of our cigarette break. As soon as we heard that glass shatter, we were out the back door. Those bastards didn't see it coming.

Behind the place there was about a fifty foot stretch of land that was now covered in the snow that had started falling two hours before. This treeless land was pretty much a faux desert until it reached the highway.

Helena and I were a little more than ten feet from the highway when the cops figured us out. "Stop!" one of them yelled. "Stop or we'll shoot!" Immediately we froze. There's just something about being out in an open space with someone threatening to shoot you that makes you listen. "Put your hands up and turn around slowly!" the cop screamed.

Okay, fine. Helena and I did as we were told and turned to face the blinding light that they had shining at us. We stood there as the police cautiously began walking towards us, taking their sweet time. Slowly, i put my left arm down and stretched it toward Helena, keeping my right arm in the air. She did the same with her right and took my hand.

"Just stand up tall," I muttered, squeezing her hand.

"KEEP YOUR HANDS UP!" the cop who kept screaming at us screamed.

We ignored him.

"Don't be afraid," I whispered.

Tears were flowing down Helena's cheeks. I hated to see her upset. She muttered something along the lines of, "like a bed or roses, there's a dozen reasons in this gun."

God, how I wished we had better weapons than what we were packing. I mean, we could have Chewbacca style belts around us right now, but nooo. Next to me, Helena shivered so violently I'm surprised the cops didn't shoot. It was freezing.

"So much for being immortal," She muttered through chattering teeth.

The cops who were inching towards us still were halfway there. "IT's not that we're not immortal, Helena," I replied. "It's just that we were wrong to think that immortality meant never dying. We're gonna be perfect one last night." I looked down at her as she continued to watch the officers draw nearer. "We'll die like star crossed lovers when we fight. Let's settle this affair. We're going down in history."

"We're not celebrities, Gerard!" Helena groaned, finally looking at me. Her crystal eyes were rimmed with red. For the first time in a long time she was scared.

"We are now. You saw the TV." I smiled wryly at her, staring her right in the eyes so she knew how serious I was. "You know what we gotta do."

She nodded. "I love you, Gee."

I grinned. "I love you too, Helena. And I'm about to show you just how much. Listen to me." I squeezed her hand again. "Listen hard. Don't stop if I fall. Don't look back, okay? Just keep going. Bury me in your heart and fade into black. Just disappear, alright?" The cops were really close now. "Promise me, Helena. I'll do the same for you." They were maybe ten feet away. With a quick movement, they'd be able to run at us and cuff us before we could do anything. "Promise me!"

Helena's eyes welled up, but she nodded. Her voice shaking, her lips quivering, she said, "I promise."

And with that, I drank in her icy blues one last time and, hand-in-hand, Helena drew her gun from her belt and I drew mine from the back of my pants.

We dropped three of them, including the guy who kept yelling at us, but they outnumbered us and we went down in a hail of bullets.

The only thing I regretted was letting them get to my Helena.