FicWad

I rolled onto my back, enjoying the comfort of the firm mattress and the warm sheets. I stretched out, yawning and sighing as I woke slowly at first then, as the memories flooded back into my mind, sitting bolt upright in a mild panic. It was a hotel bedroom. I pushed away the sheets and swung my legs out of bed. Looking around, I saw that all my belongings had been unpacked and neatly arranged exactly as I would normally do it. Except, of course, I hadn’t done it. It was really quite creepy and unnerving. I glanced at the clock on the bedside cabinet to discover that the time was approaching nine thirty. Considering the time we left Chicago, it didn’t take a mathematician to work out that, even allowing for bad traffic, I had lost a minimum of four hours. Four totally unaccountable hours; that on top of the fact that I barely remembered the journey. Of course, they weren’t entirely unaccountable; I knew exactly what had happened during some of that lost time. A girl had been enticed into the car, excited by the idea of spending a few precious hours with Gerard and Frank only to find they were her last. It made me feel sick. My brother, my own brother. As much as it pained me to do it, I had to keep a record of what had happened; when I finally had some proof, I could use it. I headed for the desk and found a sheet of notepaper and began to write out as much as I could remember, at the same time finding a news channel and listening as I wrote. It wasn’t long before the news report told of a missing teenager. Jackie Masters had, it seemed, been walking to a friend’s house and simply never arrived. A search of the local area had begun. I looked up from my writing, saddened and horrified by the news. How could he? How?
I looked up with some alarm as I heard the knock at the door. After only a brief pause another came.

“Open the door, Mikey!” Gerard called. “I know you’re awake, I can hear the TV.”
I was reluctant to see or speak to him. I just couldn’t face him after what had happened. Hearing their cruel taunts and laughter while I lay there helpless had just about killed me. I had a horrible feeling that sooner or later, they’d kill me for real.
“You might as well open up, Mikey, I have a spare key!”

On hearing Gerard’s quiet threat, I raced to the door, pushing the internal latch across. Even if he had a key, now he could only open the door an inch or two, I felt quite safe; he wouldn’t cause a fuss in so public a place.
I heard a key turning in the lock and I braced myself, even though I knew he couldn’t enter. The door was pushed open, the latch engaged and the door jarred to a halt after opening only two inches. Through the crack I could see Gerard and Frank standing outside impatiently.

“Come on, Mikey,” Gerard insisted, “we have to talk.”
“No we don’t!” I shouted back. “I’ve got nothing to say to you.”

And this is the point where you’ll think I’m really stupid; I’d forgotten just how sneaky they could be. With my attention fully on Gerard and Frank at the door, Ray and Bob had unlocked and silently let themselves in through the door adjoining the next room. The next thing I knew they had grabbed my arms and Ray releasing the door latch while I struggled, without successs, to free myself from their grip. They dragged me back into the room as Gerard and Frank, with nothing to stop them, walked in, closing the door behind them. Bob handed Frank his key, and the adjoining door was locked, leaving only one possible escape route. Not that I thought there was really much of a chance of that. It was four against one; I was severely outnumbered.

“Don’t worry,” I snapped in a tone that sounded braver than I felt. “You made yourself quite clear to me. You can do whatever you want and if I try to stop you, you’ll frame me for it.”
Gerard frowned and stared at me in what I knew was mock confusion.
“What are you talking about?”
“Don’t play innocent with me, Gerard! I know what you’ve been doing and it sickens me but I can’t prove anything yet and you know it!”
“Umm, again, what are you talking about?”
“No! You can’t do this! You can’t make me feel like I’m the crazy one, I heard Frank say that you like to mess with my head and…”
“What the fuck, Frank?” Gerard’s head spun to face the guitarist.
Frank’s face was a picture of fake innocence; they didn’t have me fooled for a moment.
“I never said that, Gee! I don’t know what he’s talking about either.”
“The girl in the warehouse! Jackie? Do you not think I remember?”
Gerard looked at me, shocked. Did he really think I wouldn’t remember?
“Mikey,” he began surprisingly gently, “this is the second time you’ve mentioned a girl, and both have been mentioned on the news. What is it that you remember?”
I resigned myself to it. They knew I knew and what was the point in hiding anything?
“You and Frank, hurting and killing her, what else do you expect me to remember? You had me tied up in the next room. You injected me with something to knock me out.”
“Me?” Gerard pointed to himself. “I injected you?”
“You first, then Frank after I woke up, I remember it all, Gerard.”
“I injected you? Me? With my total phobia of all things needle related, I injected you?”
I took a deep breath. “Maybe you’re faking that like you’re faking sanity!”
“Mikey, you’re the one that’s been acting strangely. You’ve been disappearing for hours, turning up blind drunk, or high. We’ve barely got any sense out of you; you come out with these… these wild stories. I’m worried, Mikey. I’m really worried.”
“You can’t do this to me!” I yelled. “I know what I saw and you will not pin this on me!”
“Gee,” I heard Ray’s voice faintly behind me. Turning I saw him at the desk where the notes I was making earlier still lay. He was reading them.
“No!”
I tried to run to him, to snatch them off him, it was the only evidence I had, but Bob caught me and held me firmly.
“Let go of me!” I yelled as I fought against him.
“What is it?” Gerard asked, ignoring my pleas.
Ray’s eyes showed an inexplicable sadness. How could he care when he was involved too?
“It’s a detailed account of the attack on Jackie Masters, everything,” he shook his head. “Mikey did it.”
“No!” I yelled now thrashing so hard that Frank was forced to help Bob hold me. “It was Gerard and Frank! It says so! In black and white.”
Ray shook his head as he stared at me in disbelief. “It just says ‘I’ all the way through.”
“No, no, that’s not possible! How did you do that?”
“It was lying here, I didn’t do anything.”
I stopped struggling; it was too much to take in. How could he have done that? It just wasn’t possible.
“Get the other one, I must have been tired when I wrote it.”
“The other one?”
“In the pocket in my case. It’s in there,” I replied pointing to the corner where my case lay.
Ray gingerly checked the pocket and pulled out a crumpled piece of paper. As he read it he screwed his eyes up.
“See!” I urged. “Gerard killed her.”
“No,” Ray shook his head as he spoke quietly. “No, you did, that’s what you’ve written.”
I turned to Gerard angrily.
“I don’t know how you’ve done this, but…”
“Don’t say another word, Mikey,” he interrupted with tears falling down his cheeks. “Please, just don’t say another word!”

*

And that was it; he had me brought here, committed to this institution. They framed me for the murders; for all I know, they’re still doing it. Every day, he sits there begging me to talk to him, to even acknowledge his presence, but I know I can’t. He told me not to say another word. If I do, I know he’ll kill me.


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A/N - If you liked this, check out the sequel Back To The Old Ways - http://www.ficwad.com/story/101782