The Black parade

I started to walk towards the wispy white figure, their form becoming clearer as I approached. As I got closer, my already stopped heart beated twice, then went dead and mute again.
The figure stopped only a couple yards from me. I blinked a number of times, unable to believe what I was seeing...myself. Only I was healthier, with hair, glowing skin, all my teeth. I looked like I had before I got cancer!

I looked back over my shoulder, Virgil and the band were waiting patiently.
I turned back to face myself, not sure of what to say.

"It's about damn time!" my double slurred.

I covered my nose with my hand, I could smell the alcohol emitting from his foul mouth.

"Are you...are you drunk?!" I stammered accusingly.

The double shrugged, "I suppose."

I took a few steps closer, not once taking my eyes off of him. He did the same, staring hard at me.
Then, out of nowhere, he started to laugh hysterically. I chalked it up to the booze.

"What's so funny?" I asked him.

He shook his head and smiled, "If it looks like I'm laughin, I'm really just asking to leave."

"Leave? What do you mean? You sound like-"

"You?!" my double interrupted, pointing an accusing finger at me.

He continued, "You're just in time for the show!"

"What show?!"

"Why, you're the one that I need, and I'm..well, I'm the one that you loathe! I'm the part of you that is the worst of you!" he said, smiling that dumb smile as he took a few wobbly steps towards me.

"Stay away from me! Or I'll.." I started to shout at him.

"Or you'll what?! Kill me?! Excuse me asshole, but I'm not the one dead here! I had to sit and watch you corrode!" he shot back at me.

I shutted up, speechless from his stabbing words.

"Grace...and Grace! You really are on a bender and it shows! You really fucked that one up didn't you?! Like you always do! Like how you let our father down! Why, you couldn't even blow her a kiss before she left! Some lover you are! I should just shoot you, so you'll fuckin remember! Maybe then, you can take all the pain away from me! Do me a favor for a change you asshole!"

He took a few more staggering steps towards me, I instinctively moved away.

"Why, so you can leave like the sane abandoned me?! You're a useless lush who should have died a long time ago!" I shouted at him.

He smiled sheepishly and threw his arms up in a carefree manner, "So what are you gonna do? Kill me for all this shit?!"

Suddenly, that idea seemed palatable for some reason. To kill this aspect of myself, to be rid and done with that dark chapter of my life.

"I don't need you! I killed you a long time ago, I can do it again!" I screamed at him, leaping at him with blind fury.

We collided heavily, tumbling around in the dust. But he had the advantage over me, his strength and weight quickly overpowered me, and he was straddling me. He started to strangle me with his vise like grip.

"I love all the poison! I love all the alcohol, something you couldn't handle! You..kill me? Ha! You couldn't kill anyone! Not even yourself those couple times you fuckin pussy! Look at you, under my boot again! Tell you what though, give us a kiss, and I'll surrender!" he mocked, squeezing my neck tighter.

I looked around for something, anything to use as a weapon. I caught a glimpse of Virgil and the parade, looking on without any concern for my safety. Virgil then gave me a broad smile, and a "Thumbs up" gesture, followed by running his long pointing finger over his throat.

Even though I was dead, this all still hurt! I didn't want to die again! But then I realized, I'm dead! I'm fucking dead! What more could he do to me?! I'm already in hell right?! This realization somehow gave me the strength to push my double off of me, tossing him a couple feet away. He struck his head on a sharp rock that I hadn't seen earlier in the scuffle, it was almost as if it had randomly sprouted out of the ground.

"I will kill you, out of the two of us, I have the sharpest life! And that is the deadliest to lead!" I shouted at him, and leapt on top of him again, pummeling him with my balled up fists.

I kept striking again and again, feeling him writhe under my blows. But the blows starting to become stabs, and the stabs into twisting of an invisible blade. It wasn't until his body went limp, did I stop the assault. I got to my feet and looked at the damage I had wrought upon myself. My double was a bloody mess, multiple stab wounds all over his body. I looked at my blood stained hands, and found a dagger in them that hadn't been there before, just like that rock.

Virgil appeared beside me, his hand on my shoulder, "Drop the dagger and lather the blood on your hands..." he said with a smirk.

I did as I was told, dropping the blade and rubbing my hands together, the sticky blood caking my flesh. I kept rubbing vigorously, until the blood was soaked into my skin. Suddenly the blood dried and flaked off, turning into rust colored dust that drifted away in a sudden gust of hellish wind.

"Splendid my boy! Well done! You've just conquered one of your many demons! I take it that was your demon from days past?" said Virgil, giving me a wink.

"Yeah..something like that. So what does that mean?" I asked, still stupefied from the entire incident.

"What does it mean?! Don't ask me sonny! Ask yourself that question! Do you feel any different?"

I wasn't sure, but I was certain that there was something different about me.

"I don't know, I guess. I mean, I feel better...I suppose."

Virgil spun on his heel, heading back to the parade, "Good to hear! Come when you're ready! We'll move onto bigger and better things!"

I took a few moments to collect myself, and headed back to the front of the mob.
I took my place next to Virgil, who smiled at me and gave me another wink.

I couldn't help but return his smile for some reason.

"Next trial will not be an easy one my boy! But if you pass it, you'll be a full fledged member of the black parade!" Virgil said, beaming with pride.

"How so?" I asked, looking up at him.

"You must confront a demon of yours whom you have tried to forget throughout your life, but just couldn't! He had such high hopes for you, and you ended up letting him down! Now is the time to see him one last time, to try to understand what you could not. To decipher the message and legacy he left for you, here in the black parade!" Virgil exclaimed, moving me along with his hand.

"I still don't understand."

Virgil didn't miss a beat, "Simple kid! Your father wanted you to defeat your demons and all the non-believers and the plans that they had made."

Somewhere in the band, a solitary piano tune was being played, but soon some snare drums joined in with a marching beat, the bass drums following en suit.

"SON WHEN, YOU GROW UP, WILL YOU BE, THE SAVIOR OF THE BROKEN, THE BEATEN AND THE DAMNED?!" Virgil started to scream, the parade cheering and singing along.

"My father told me that!" I shouted, yanking hard on Virgil's sleeve.

Virgil smiled at me, "Do you want to know what he meant by all of that? What he had planned in store for you?"

I nodded, "Yes! Yes I do!"

"Then follow me son! Follow me and the black parade into the great city to meet your father!"