Chapter Text
No. This wasn't happening. This couldn't happen. This was a cruel joke, a Halloween prank. Sure, their town was no stranger to break-ins, robberies, shit like that.
A robbery, that's what this was, right? Something in his gut told him otherwise. Something in the familiarity of the shadows and the way they shifted as they stared into Gerard's very soul.
He slowly came to. His knees were gnawed at by the cement flood, an acrid odor seizing his lungs.
A box, only without a roof. No bird and no gauze over his eyes. But Frank was there.
Living nightmare. Living hell.
No one would find them, not here.
Fate settled in the air like a heavy glue. Threatening to set, trapping them for all eternity.
No.
They would survive this.
They had lives to live. Answers to find. People to become. They were Gerard and Frank. They were invincible. They were immortal.
As long as they were together, nothing could bring them down. Not now, not ever.
Some bitter stone shone through the honey coating. Some god-awful realization settled across the silence. Connecting them in a notwork of sheer terror. Maybe this was immortality.
Truth was, Gerard was okay with dying. Of not making it to twenty-seven as he'd promised.
But not like this. And not Frank.
No. He'd finally found some goddamn reason to live. He'd found the light at the end of the tunnel. And now this person, their kidnapper, this awful fucking person wanted to douse the lights.
He hugged Frank close. He was crying too.
Probably over the same thing. The same god-awful thing that they didn't dare speak of. Because if they said it, it became real. Far more real than they wanted it to be. He wanted to be back. Back in their fairytale. Back int their daydream where everything was alright again.
Maybe is he held tight enough, they could go back. In their minds at least. Think happy little lies.
He wished, more than anything to think nothing but happy little lies.
But they couldn't.
A tall person nestled the muzzle of a gun between the cherry locks of Gerard's hair.
The sky threw down all its water. Thrashing at their skin in sheets. Drowning them before they got the chance to die.
Gerard willed the storm to set him ablaze. Strike him down before this monster could.
But it never happened. Instead, the monster handed him the gun.
Telling Gerard, "shoot him." Nodding toward Frank.
Telling him, "send him down to hell, where he belongs.", promising "Shoot him and you can fix your life. Shoot him and you'll be spared."
Gerard cried. He cried more than he thought a person could. He cried so much he felt he could've drowned in his tears. It would've been more merciful than this hell. But his weeping couldn't save him.
Frank cried too. But he was smiling. Some sick, hopeless smile. Like hope, only cancerous.
"Shoot me." he said. "Do it, Gerard."
"I can't." Gerard sobbed. "I won't"
"Please," he begged, "I can't have you die. I need you to live."
"If you die I die too, you know that." Gerard said. He didn't know if it was true. He wasn't sure, but it felt set in stone. Frank was the one thing keeping his life together. Threading all the mangled pieces together in some horrific yet beautiful life. If he was gone, it all fell apart.
He would die to.
Either at his own hand or someone else's.
Frank wouldn't listen though.
"There's a lot of things about me you don't know." Frank said, his words both still and trembling at once. "Things you should never know and that's why you have be the one to keep living. Just know that, no matter what, I'll always love you. Even as a ghost or as I'm burning in hell or wandering forever in purgatory, I'll always love you. But you and I know there's only one way out of this. And you're getting out alive. Now pull the goddamn trigger."
Gerard trembled so violently, it felt more like convulsions. Frank pulled Gerard in for one last perfect kiss before placing his hands over Gerard's. Putting the gun straight to his forehead.
"Pull damn it. Pull or I'll make you. You're not dying on my watch. Just promise you'll never forget me. Promise you'll be everything and everyone you want to be. Twenty-seven. Fuck, make it past twenty-seven. Grow old and wrinkly as hell."
"I love you." Gerard whispered. He'd never admitted it to anyone before, never said it and truly meant it.
"I love you too." He tried to imagine the oceanside where he and Frank had spent their first real time together. Running away from class and home and just about everywhere to be with each other.
But the waves were violent and drowned the rocks in dead fish and birds and jellyfish. The sun wasn't streaming through the clouds, replaced by a blood-red sky covered in black smokey clouds.
Fading into the sound of their quiet sniffles and labored breath. Trying to catch once last glimpse of happiness before it fell apart.
For the first time in years, he knew that he really mattered to someone. And for the first time he had seen some horizon of life beyond hell, but it was all coming to a horrible end.
The thought gripped his intestines and twisted his insides, spasming his back, but it barely went noticed. Not even now could he let himself react in full.
With one last tear escaping Frank's left eye, he pressed.
Two gunshots rang across the New Jersey sky, as the church clock struck Midnight.