FicWad

Chapter 5 - Party Poison
The heavy steel door shut with a click, and the soft 'beep' notified Frank and Gerard that it was safely locked. Just before leaving the basement, Gerard and Frank picked up all the little pieces of the broken cuff, which previously lived around Gerard's wrist. This way nobody would know that they were there.

Gerard was now speed-walking down the empty hallway, shifting his eyes from side to side, looking out for angry doctors.

It was only then that Frank noticed the number on the back of Gerard's shirt. A large 13 was messily stitched onto the thin, grey fabric, with bright red thread, which seemed to match Gerard's cherry red hair perfectly.

Frank wondered if they chose the number 13 for Gerard because he seemed to be bad luck. But instead, a completely different question escaped his cracked lips, before he could run the words through his brain.

"You said you had a brother who was in here too. What's he here for?" Frank bit his lip immediately after asking the question, causing it to bleed a little bit.

Gerard stopped. He looked over his shoulder with a look in his eye that Frank had never seen before, then turned back around and continued walking.

Just when Frank thought he wasn't going to get an answer, Gerard spoke in a low, slightly hoarse voice, startling Frank.

“After all that shit happened with me... he got depression too...”

“Oh, did he take-” Frank began to speak but was cut off.

“He attempted suicide!” Gerard snapped, letting out a slight sob.

Frank wished he'd never asked. From behind, he just saw Gerard raising a hand to his face, and assimed that he was wiping away a tear. Frank's urge to ask how was unbearable, and the questions were building up inside of him like a wall, blocking out everything else. But he couldn't ask. He couldn't! He shut his eyes for a few seconds, and when he opened them again, he was back in the corridor. Everything was normal. Gerard was now walking in silence.

As Gerard lead him around the corner, Helena appeared. Her bright, warm smile seemed to fill the room, and everything disappeared. He felt a smile flood his own face.

“Hi, Frank! I see you two became friends.” Her friendly, soft voice filled Frank's head with sunshine and rainbows.

“Helena! I was wondering when I could see you again.” Frank ran up to her, smiling like a downright idiot.

“Frank?” Gerard spoke, turning to look at him.

“I'm glad I ran into you. People have been looking for you, where were you, Frank?”

“I was just with Gerard. He was... err... showing me around.” Frank lied.

“Frank, who the hell are you talking to!” Gerard whispered loudly. “You're gonne get us busted. We have to keep walking!”

Frank found Gerard's comments rude, so he ignored them, just like Gerard was ignoring Helena. Instead he spoke to her, “Helena, come with us. Please. Gerard won't mind!”

At that, Gerard put his arms out to the side and his jaw dropped. Clearly confused, he managet utter, “Wha... huh?”

“I'd love to, Frankie, but I have to go now. And... who's Gerard?”

Now Frank was confused. He looked over at Gerard, doing the same thing he'd done a few seconds ago. “Gerard's standing right-, Helena?” As Frank turned to face Helena once again, he noticed that she'd disappeared.

“I don't get any of this!!” Frank yelled.

“FRANK!” Gerard's sudden roar, an attempt to calm Frank down, failed, causing allt he security cameras to turn towards them. “Fuck.”

Out of nowhere, an alarm began to wail.

“Run!”

Frank's feet were fixed to the plastic floor, as if Helena had put cement on the soles of his shoes just before she disappeared.

Step, step, step, step, step!

“Not this again! What the fuck, Frank! I said run!” Gerard shrieked, grabbing hold of Frank's arm and dragging him down the hallway, as footsteps echoed from all directions.

“Run!” The distant sound of someone yelling. The voice was more than familiar. Footsteps. “...Frank, I said run!” The nine-year-old Frank ran. He ran, and ran, and ran, until his knees trembled and he fell. Around him, darkness. And as his eyes adjusted to it, he saw it. What seemed like hundreds and hundreds of gravestones. He rolled over and crawled backwards. THUD! He fell. The hole was a perfect size for a coffin. The wet mud was pouring in, and the icy rain was dissolving the mud walls around him. Frank remembered feeling sick. In the distance, a gunshot, and a female voice, so, so familiar, shrieking and crying. Another gunshot. He plopped down at the bottom of the hole, which was now turning into a pool of mud and rain, and he cried...he cried because it should have been him. He shouldn't have ran...

“...Frank, I said run!” Gerard shrieked, grabbing hold of Frank's arm and dragging him down the hallway, as footsteps echoed from all directions.

In a flash Frank was back at the mental institution, running. Gerard was dragging him forward faster than his legs could move, causing him to trip and skid every now and again.

They turned left, but as soon as they heard footsteps coming from around the corner, Gerard tugged on his arm again and they took a right.

Out of nowhere Gerard skidded to a halt, sending poor Frank almost flying around Gerard, whose hand was still gripping his arm tightly.

It was another silver door, just like the one leading to the basement. This one also had a keypad.

Gerard speedily typed a code. It made up the same symbol as before, but the numbers seemed to come in a completely different order.

Both of them ran into the room and Gerard quickly blocked the door. On the inside, the door had several bars and chains which could be used to block it incase patients found out what the code was and tried to break in.

Frank's heart was pounding almost as much as it seemed to pound in the flashback he just had. With every heartbeat, darkness flooded over his eyes, and he had to immediately blink it away. He swallowed whatever saliva he had left. The taste of it suggested that it must have a hint of blood in it.

When he was almost done hyperventilating, and his vision was completely normal again, he wiped the sweat away from his forehead and straightened up. He wasn't expecting to see what he saw.

The room wasn't big, but one whole wall was covered with a metal case. The case had hundreds of small slots in it, and in each little slot there was a small video tape. Each one was labelled.

Frank noticed Gerard's eyes searching through the tapes, until they stopped on one labelled 'Basement Entrance'.

“Go over to the filing cabinet, look in the section with tapes from last week, and fnd one with the same label as this one.” Gerard instructed.

Frank obeyed. He opened the bottom drawer of the filing cabinet and found the tape almost immediately. He watched Gerard remove the tape from its slot. There was a little green light next to each tape, except for the one which he'd just removed.

Frank handed him the old tape, and as soon as Gerard swapped them around, the green light flicked on again.

What Frank wasn't expecting is that Gerard would hide the tape in his baggy, grey trousers.

“There. Nobody should find it.” He grinned, satisfied.

“Why the hell did you do that?” Frank questioned.

“Because nobody can find it.”

“How come?”

“Are you actually serious? It's pretty obvious. If they find this, they will know we've been to the basement. But since the tapes don't have the date on them, they will just think that it's the tape from today.”

“But what about Dr. Martinez and he other person? They went down there as well, so they would be on the tape.” Frank pointed out.

“They go down there every day anyway. It's where they keep the spare sheets, and with all the meds they pack into us, at least one person wets their bed every day.” Gerard smiled.

“Oh. That's... ew.” Frank crinkled his nose at the thought.

Gerard began to giggle, when suddenly they heard footsteps and muffled voices on the other side of the door.

“He's gone!”

“We should keep looking for him!”

“Or maybe we should just check the cameras.” Three voices argued over the beeping sound of the keypad on the door. There was a louder beep, and the door swung open.

Dr. Martinez appeared in the doorway, along with two other people Frank didn' recognise. One was a man. Tall, slim and dark, his eyes almost black, his hair like coal. The other person was a woman. She must have been about five foot three or something like that. She had straight, brown, shoulder length hair and wore plain frameless glasses. Though the door was no longer locked from the inside. Gerard had gotten too good at locking and unlocking doors over time, as it seemed.

“W- wah- what do we do now?” Frank stammered quietly from behind a large book case which separated the room into two.

“First of all, try and be quiet, okay? When I say go, do what I do.” Gerard whispered, not taking his eyes off the three doctors who now seemed to be transfixed on the collection of small TV screens, displaying live footage from every security camera.

“And what exactly are you gonna do?” Demanded Frank.

“Shhh. Just wait.” Gerard waited until the doctors turned away from the collection of screens and towards the phone.

Frank insisted though. “I want to know before-”

“We're should make a few calls, see if people in the nearby neighbourhood have seen Way. He's dangerous, and we don't want a reapeat of New Year's Day...” Suggested Dr. Martinez.

“Aaand... go!” Gerard whispered and tiptoed out from behind the book case, and towards the door. Unaware of what the plan is, Frank followed, tiptoeing carefully.

Slowly, Gerard placed his hand on the handle and pushed it. The door opened with ease and they both disappeared into the hallway, closing the door behind them.

“Maybe while you're making the phone calls I should keep watching the cameras.” Decided the tall, coal-haired man.

“Good idea Stephen. You do that.” Mumbled Dr. Martinez, half aware of what the man said.

As the tall man, Stephen, took another look at one of the screens, his eyes widened and he exclaimed, “Dr. Martinez, I found him! He's with the new kid. Felix, or whatever his name was!”

“What?” Dr. Martinez dropped the phone and ran over to where Stephen was standing, leaving the short woman to deal with the now angry person at the other end of the line.

“Yes, yes! Look! They're right there, just around the corner!” Stephen exclaimed, overjoyed that he had finally done something useful.

Dr. Martinez took another look at the screen, then rushed out of the door. “Stay here!” He yelled over his shoulder as he left the small control room. He took a right down the empty hallway and ran up behind Frank and Gerard, who were now walking casually, chatting away as if nothing ever happened.

“You! Where the hell were you, Way?!”

Gerard spun around and stared, pouting like a little child. “I don't know. Where was I?”

“Answer me, Way, and stop making no sense!”

“How am I making no sense?” Gerard asked innocently. “You're the one with all the cameras, you can tell me where I've been.”

Dr. Martinez hated this. He hated Gerard. His face began to go red and he turned to Frank. “You're a good kid, like I said before. You can tell me, right?”

Frank stammered and stuttered but no real words left his mouth.

“Uhh, give him a break. Kid's just been in a coma for two weeks, I'm surprised he regained enough strength to get out of bed so quickly.” Gerard sighed.

“Then maybe you want to tell me where you've been and why you're not on any of the camera footage!”

Gerard let out a long, exaggerated sigh and began explaining slowly. “Well... I thought it would be a nice idea to show mah mate Frankie the back yard. Y'know, showin' the new kid 'round.”

Dr. Martinez sighed too. “You know that because of your behaviour, you can only be in the back yard once a week, and today isn't that day. And you must be supervised at all times. So who was with you and how did you get past security?”

“Mah mate Frankie was with me! 'n' I got past security 'cuz am just such a smartass!” Gerard leaned his head back, put his thumbs inside his baggy trousers as if he was putting then through belt loops, and smirked. He had a bit of a smug look on his face, and he was talking funny.

Frank just stared. He hated that Gerard too. But this was a different Gerard. Simply an act the real Gerard was putting on around the staff of the mental hospital. The was he was acting almost seemed to remind Frank of something. At least he thought so.

“Here comes the smartass! Wahey!” the laughs and shouts of the people around him hit Frank like the various items being thrown at him. He combed his lond fringe downwards over his eye with his fingers and ignored it.
“Whatcha gonna do, bad boy?Stick your gold star on my forehead?”
Frank was suddenly thirteen. He'd just aced a test that everybody else got C's and D's on. This didn't help the fact that he was already bullied for his alternative style, and the fact that he was an orphan...
All of a sudden he was no longer in the hallwaysof Belleville High, being spit on and shoved to agree with their abusive comments. He did agree. He knew he was a failure. But now he was just outside of his school, walking back to the orphanage. He walked and walked. He walked through the woods. He walked past the old factory. And he walked through the cemetery where everything that ever mattered to him was taken away in an instant, four years ago. It was then that it happened... and it happened so fast... Next thing he knew he was inside a hole. The perfect size for a coffin. He woke up there, with a thick crust of dried blood under his nose. The sky was just beginning to grow dark. The last words he'd heard before they kicked the consciousness out of him, were, “Die in a hole! Faggots get eaten by maggots!”

“Frank? Frank are you okay?” Gerard elbowed Frank, causing him to snap out of his trance, ghasping for air.

He nodded, trying to catch his breath.

“Hmm, anyway, where was I? Ah, yes! As I was saying, I'll let you off with it today, since it's Frank's first day, and you've taken such good care of him so far. But I've got my eye on you, and no outdoor time tomorrow, understood?” Dr. Martinez told Gerard, after which he turned around and walked away.

“Hey, what was all that about? You keep going into these trances. Are you alright?” Gerard questioned, but before Frank had time to respond, he added, “You know what, never mind. Tell me in my room, in semi-privacy. You have to meet the rest of my gang anyway!”

Frank simply nodded and followed. He was still thinking about his two visions. He had so many questions, and he wanted answers. He wanted to know what was causing them. He wanted to know if they were real. He wanted to know if he would eventually remember his whole life this way. He generally just wanted to know.

*

They shortly arrived at room number thirteen. The number was carved into the door, like all the other doors. But, it was just done so messily that I guess you could say it was more scratched into the door than carved.

They entered the room. It looked exactly like Frank's room. Everything from the grey, peeling, curling paint on the walls to the tiny barred window high up on the wall. Even the black book was in the exact same place. But there was something different about it. It had something scratched into the front.

“Party Poison...” Frank read out loud.

“All three of us have code names. Mine's Party Poison.” Gerard explained, taking a zip-up fleece jumper out of the dresser and putting it on.

“All three of you?” Frank asked casually.

“There's three of us. Me, my brother Mikey, and Ray Toro. Hopefully after our meeting in 10 minutes there will be four of us.” Gerard smiled at Frank.

“A- are you serious?” Frank stammered. “You want me to be part of your gang?”

“No. We want you to be our magical pet unicorn!” Gerard replied sarcastically, putting a smile on Frank's face.

“A unicorn?”

“Sorry. Mikey's obsessed with unicorns, and it's contagious. I've been contaged!”

Frank laughed, causing Gerard to laugh as well, and when they stopped there was this awkward silence which just consumed them, until Gerard couldn't take it anymore.

“Okay, I'm sorry in advance about what I'm about to ask, and I know that you probably don't want to talk about it, but I just have to know about these blackouts you had...” Gerard trailed off.

For a second Frank was looking at the floor, wondering what to say, but then he cleared his throat and began to explain.

“I'm remembering these things from my childhood... all involving this one place... I don' even know if they're real, these visions. But if they are, I know that I'm an orphan. I witnessed a tragedy when I was nine that...” he cleared his throat again. “And apparently my style is alternative and I got seriously bullied... I think...”

Gerard bit his lip. He had to think for a second, because he just had an awesome idea.

“Alternative, huh? So, you liked rock and all that?”

“I- I really don't know...” Frank sighed.

“Well, we'll see!” A wide grin appeared on Gerard's face. This was perfect.

“What do you mean?” Frank asked, looking up at Gerard.

Still grinning, Gerard replied, “The three of us have a band. We can only play three days a week, when they let us use the instruments. We play rock and stuff. You should think about joining us.”

“I seriously don't know if I have any musical ability.”

“Everybody has some kind of musical ability!”

There was a loud knock on the door, and Gerard told whoever knocked to come in.

“Guess who's here! Handsome, funny, talented, your brother-” Another boy around Frank's age burst into the room, spinning around, but paused when he saw Frank sitting awkwardly on the edge of the bed.

“Well now I'm embarrased!” The boy stated. “Who's this?”

“Mikey! Good to see you, bro.” Gerard chuckled.

“That's our Mikey! Always gotta make an entrance.” Yet another boy poked his head in through the gap in the door. For a second all Frank saw was a cloud of brown, puffy, curly hair.

“Ray! You're here!” Gerard exclaimed cheerfully.

“Hey! There's a new guy sitting on your bed. We have a new guy!” Ray pointe out, smiling.

Frank could feel his face going bright red, probably almost as read as Gerard's hair. Everybody was so cool and wild and happy and he was just... there. Perched so awkwardly on Gerard's bed, with all eyes on him.

“Okay, okay! Everybody, this is Frank. Frank, this is Mikey and that's Ray. I told you about them before.” Gerard introduced everyone after standing up and motioning for Frank to stand too.

“Good to meet you!” Mikey and Ray said in unison and smiled at him.

Frank just smiled and shook their hands.

“So, what are ya in here for, then?” Ray blurted out.

“Ray! Yoou can't just ask a person that right after you met them!” Mikey whispered and nudged Ray with his elbow.

“No, no. That's okay.” Frank replied. “I was in a car crash and I have schizophrenia and amnesia.” He explained.

“Ooh, that's rough. I have social anxiety disorder. It used to be really bad, but I'm actually much better now.”

Gerard noticed how uncomfortable Mikey was. He was sat there, all tense, staring at the bed. His face was blank and expressionless. He immediately decided it wasn't the best subject. “So...” he sighed. “Frank, we need to come up with a code name for you.”

“Erm, okay...” Frank mumbled. “Err, I guess I'm not too good at this. I don't know... Frankster? Frankenstein?”

At that point Gerard, Ray and Mikey burst out laughing, all at the same time. Frank looked down, blushing, trying not to laugh himself.

“Haha, okay, no.” Gerard giggled. “It has to have two words and describe you well. I'm thinking, since you keep going into a trance and going all pale, and talking to air, one of the words should be 'ghost'.”

“And add 'funny' as well! That made me laugh so hard.” Ray added, still laughing.

“Soo... Funny Ghost? Maybe Fun Ghost wold be better.” Mikey suggested.

“Okay, Fun Ghost, seems like we're getting somewhere. But it doesn't seem to sound quite right...” Gerard commented.

“I know!” frank suddenly jumped. “How about Fun Ghoul?”

“Hey, I love that!” Said Gerard.

Mikey and Ray nodded, still smiling.

“Okay, so Fun Ghoul it is! When you get back to your room, you should find a pen in one of the drawers. You can use the lid to scratch your code name into the front of your black book!”

“So, how did you all get your names?” Frank decided to ask.

“Well, I'm Jet Star because I'm really into airplanes and all that, and I love astronomy.” Explained Ray, leaning back against the wall.

Next, Mikey added, “I named myself KobraKid bcause when Gerard and I were kids, I had a pet cobra in the room we shared. He hated that thing! He was so terrified of it!”

Laughing, Gerard Denied Mikey's comment. “I was not! Okay, only a little bit. Anyway, I'm called Party Poison because I have these!”

Gerard walked over to the dresser and pulled a fountain pen out of one of his socks. As he unscrewed it, about fifteen little white pills fell out.

Frank stared in shock. “What are these?!”

“Antidepressants.” Gerard told him casually, swallowing one of the pills. “A guy on the outside called Bob Bryar gets them for me. He's a good friend of mine. Help yourselves.”

Everybody took one, and Frank didn't want to be different. And he did want to see how good he would feel after taking antidepressants.

“This is basically really similar to Ecstasy, which, around here, is commonly known as 'party poison'. It's a party drug.” Gerard described the pills.

Not much time passed before Frank began to feel at peace with the world. And then, even better. Soon enough, he was in the party mood, and everything was forever alright.