Welcome to the Black Parade

The next morning came with the mighty roar of thunder and the thudding of raindrops on the glass windows. Gray clouds created a vastly bland, dark, monotonous sky. Lightning fortressed the hotel as it bolted toward the ground.

At just 9:30 AM, Cheyenne was woken up by someone shoving her out of bed violently. “GET UP, CHEYENNE!” Gerard shouted at the dazed girl, “Get up, get up, get up!” Cheyenne peaked out of the covers, and the lights glared in her eyes like high-beam headlights at three in the morning. She blinked her eye a bit and then glanced around the room. “Cheyenne, we’re going to be late!”

“Okay, okay!” she replied back at him, still a bit dazed about what exactly was going on. She then climbed sluggishly out of bed and trudged into the bathroom to brush her teeth.

“There’s no time for that! Get your clothes on NOW! You can brush your hair in the car!”

She then realized how desperate he was to get to that hospital to see if there was anything wrong with the baby. She knew he didn’t want her to have the baby, but would he actually wish it harm? The thought pondered her head as she slothly dressed her body. “Faster, faster!” Gerard shouted at her as she began to pull up her pants, which were becoming a tad too small for her. She’d been gaining a bit of weight ever since she began to live with him. Before that, she was a mere eighty pounds. She had to be at least a hundred and five by now!

“Wait, we have a car?” bewildered Cheyenne asked Gerard, who was now opening the door to the hall.

“Well, a van actually,” he answered, “I bought it this morning for a cheap price. It’ll have to do for now until I have time to buy a brand-new one. It’s way cleaner than that wreck Frank had, and I’m in charge of it!”

“Wow! Awesome!”

Frank and Mikey were inside of the van with the heat blasting in their freezing faces. It was quite cold that morning, but of course they were in a much chillier place than they had been used to back home. It was supposed to snow the next day, according to the weatherman, and it was only the middle of June! Leaves flurried through the streets and made a crunching sound like potato chips as you crushed them with your feet.

Finally, in the room, Cheyenne was slipping her coat on and sneaking her toes in some sort of shoes. They weren’t her shoes, but she had no time to find her own. It was already 9:45,and the ultrasound appointment was scheduled for 10:00! They only had 15 minutes to get there, and the road usually took travelers 30 minutes to travel! Luckily, the roads were quite calm, so they had a chance of only being a few minutes late.

Gerard didn’t even wait for everyone to click their seat-belts in until they were off on the road. This new van sure had a surplus of seats! Just in the back seat could six people fit comfortably! It was perfect and actually smelled like a normal car rather than some rotten food! Cheyenne dozed off as they took their trek to the hospital where the appointment would be held. She had a horrific nightmare that haunted her vision as she was awake.

In the dream, Cheyenne was in a coffee-hot bath relaxing as she listened to the TV in the other room. The tranquility made her feel like she was in Heaven. Suddenly, she heard the shriek of gunshots and the wail of Mikey. She dashed out of the tub without even dressing herself and discovered a dead body with lengthy black hair lying on the floor with a gunshot through its head. Then, the gunman who shot the person the body had belonged to yanked Cheyenne by the wrist and began raping her. That’s when she woke up and began panting on Frank’s shoulder.

“What’s wrong?” he asked her.

“Oh, just a bad dream,” she said, brushing off the true nature of such a nightmare. She’d been having nightmares for an immense length of time and had become adapted to them even more each nightmare. The rape ones were the most upsetting for her, however, and they caused great anxiety to her everyday life.

At about 10:15, they were finally in the parking lot. “Come on!” Gerard shouted at them, and they were all to the door of the hospital within seconds. Cheyenne was sent to the ultrasound room as the rest of them sat in the waiting room. Gerard started his lip-biting as he watched CNN, and the other two read some magazines huddled in the right corner. He then walked over to the water dispenser and came back with an enormous cup of ice-cold water to calm his nerves down a bit. As the clock ticked, however, he became tenser and tenser. He then grabbed another cup of water and chugged it straight down. He went for another cup once again after that.

“Maybe you should calm down with that water a bit,” suggested his brother.

“Can’t,” he said as he lifted his toe to grab yet another cup. As he gulped the his last drop of his eighth cup, he felt the need to seriously use the bathroom. “Err, I have to, err, go. To the bathroom,” he whispered to the other two.

“Uh, sure,” said Frank while looking up and marking his spot with his index finger in the magazine he was reading. Gerard then excused himself.

When he got back, Cheyenne was already waiting for him. “So, he said to her, “How did it go?”

“I need an abortion,” she announced to him.

“Well at least you don’t have to give birth to that creep’s baby.”

“I know. I sort of wanted this to happen, although maybe wishing something bad on a baby who wasn’t even born, yet, might not be the nicest thing ever.”

“It’s ok. It’s not like it was able to think yet, anyway. When can you get an abortion?”

“As soon as possible is what the nurse advised. I could even get it right now if that’s okay with you.”

“Sure,” he said.

For the next two hours, they were all stuck in the hospital. Then finally, Cheyenne was able to go to the hotel and get some rest. She was recommended to get rest for a few days, but she’d be able to do the concert. At 11 P.M., they heard an unexpected knock at the door.