The True Horror Began On Friday 13th

“Gerard!” I called, hearing the front door slam loudly, “Gerard are you back?” I asked, yawning and sitting up on the couch. I crawled up, chucking the numerous pillows away that were on my lap. The floorboards creaked as I stumbled across the room, opening the lounge door before peering into the corridor.

I had my second ultra sound in fifteen minutes and Gerard was supposed to be taking me.

“Yeah, I’m back! Just taking a shower!” he yelled.

“Gee we don’t have time! Mikey’ll be here soon!” I yelled back, turning off the television I had been watching. A car horn beeped from outside and I opened the front door, spotting a silver car outside the house.

“Go on without me, I’ll meet you there!” he shouted from the shower. Grumbling, I pulled on my coat and made my way out to the car, how could Gerard meet me there? He hadn’t MOT’d his car so he wouldn’t be allowed to drive it.

“Where’s Gee?” Mikey asked, chucking random books and C.D’s out of his front seat.

“He’ll ‘meet us there’,” I told him, using air quotes, “He’s showering for some reason, he always does,” I sighed, picking at my nails. Mikey nodded and started the car, driving quickly to the hospital seeing as we were probably going to be late anyway, “This is my last till six months, unless anything goes wrong,” I said, rubbing my hands together.

“Nothing will go wrong so you don’t have to worry about seeing this place for another two months,” Mikey nodded, un-buckling his seatbelt. I followed him in, certainly not bothered by half the stuff that was around. Mikey sloped in, looking totally unsure of the whole place. I managed to sign myself in, of course getting a mini lecture about being five minutes late.

We both had to practically run towards the small sectioned off area, Mikey ran anyway, I jogged slowly, quickly running out of breath.

“You're late,” Hailey chuckled, “Get up on here then,” she smiled, nodding towards the bed, seemingly not phased by our lateness, “There’s nothing to worry about with this check up. If there were any signs of something wrong we would have spotted it last time. But this is just to make sure. Also we can get you some more photos and scans,” she smiled as I hitched my shirt up and lay back. Mikey plonked himself down beside me, resting both his elbows on the side of the bed.

“Now two seconds,” she said, allowing the machine to bleep as she squirted that gunk on my stomach again, “Before hand you should have had a letter from the hospital saying your baby was at a funny angle-“

“Really?” I intervened, “I didn’t get a letter?” I murmured.

“We definitely sent you a letter, I signed it myself, your husband sent back a letter as well, saying he confirms everything and that’s why your having this second scan? Never the less your baby’s turned it’s self to a less awkward position.”

“Oh… okay that’s good I guess,” I said, my eyes quickly advancing to Mikey who was staring intently at the screen, his eyes watering a little, “Don’t you go out of here bawling,” I joked , nudging his elbow. He chuckled and scratched his head.

“Nah… it’s just weird y’know?” he swallowed, resting his head back down on his arms, “It’s cool.”

Suddenly there was a small knock at the door and Gerard poked his head round.

A black eye firmly in place.

I swallowed, my gut instinct wondering how the hell he’d gotten it. Mikey spun round, his own eyes widening for a second.

“Hey Doll,” Gerard said, slipping in and closing the door, Hailey looked up and smiled, moving the controller round a little and pressing a green button on the screen to capture the image.

“Been in the walls?” Hailey chuckled. Gerard grinned weakly and made up some story about falling down the stairs and hitting the bridge of his nose on side table. I felt Mikey’s hand wrap round mine and squeeze, I held it back, watching as Gerard winced when he sat down.

“Oh, would you look at that? He’s changed a lot,” Gerard chuckled shiftily, trying to ignore my probing eyes.

“How do you know it’s a he?” Hailey chuckled.

“I just know,” Gerard shrugged, tucking his hair behind his ears. His bad eye watered a little, sending a trickle of water to fall onto my hand, he wiped it away, squinting as if to try and get the pain away.

All of us were pretty silent as we walked soundlessly out of the hospital, only until we got to the car I couldn’t help but ask. I asked once and he ignored me, I asked a second time and he turned on Mikey’s music player, I asked a third time he turned it up, I asked a fourth time he pushed his head out of the window. I stopped asking after that, he obviously wasn’t going to answer me.

I sighed and let my head loll on my own window, watching Gerard in the rear view mirror. Mikey stopped the car and everything stopped abruptly.

“Gerard, how did you get that black eye?” he asked.

Gerard opened the car door and stepped out, slamming the door so hard the car rattled. Mikey sighed and turned around in his seat as I followed Gerard up the drive with my eyes. He’s stepped into the house and left the door open, signally he wasn’t as mad to shut me out.

“You gonna go in there with him?” Mikey asked.

“Yeah, I’ll stay down stairs for a while, let him cool down a bit,” I sighed. Mikey nodded and waved me off quickly, staying until I had gotten inside the house. I waved to him again, rolling my eye at how loud Gerard was being. I could hear him trying to get undressed but he was thudding all over the place, swearing and cursing loudly before he put Edith Piaf on full blast.

I kicked off my own shoes and made my way up stairs, planning to go and sit in the baby room for a while.

Gerard had done a good job decorating it. It was dark blue, with silver stars on the ceiling. He had bought a Ziggy Stardust poster and pinned that up and he had wound fairy lights around the crib. It was very Gerard-y, complete with scratches on the wall from when he had assembled the crib in the hallway and then shoved it through the door. He had also bought a dark rug to cover the floor boards, with a matching bean bag in the corner.

I sighed and plonked myself down, walking my finger up and down my stomach for something to do. I rubbed my eyes, Gerard was such hard work. His music suddenly stopped and the bedroom door opened. I scowled, I thought he had gotten undressed?

“I’m going to work,” he said through the door, his footsteps sounding down the hall.