FicWad

Gerard’s POV

The wind blew across the highway, its long cold fingers reaching out to caress my face. Icy and sharp, it was etching its message into me, a reminder that I would never truly be free. Jersey was supposed to be a new beginning for me but no matter where I was, I would never forget. It had been barely a week since the last episode but there was enough time for my parents to send me here. I was told this is what I needed, a new beginning, a fresh start. I could try, I knew that much, but nothing would ever be the same.

Ray drove the car, we trusted him the most, both with the map and the unruly traffic that surrounded the city. We would all be “Newark-ed,” as Frank so aptly put it, if any of us tried to drive through that. I sighed to myself, most people only saw the guy who never grew up. But we knew Frank grew up too fast too early, we were with him. We remembered. He was my brother in many ways; no secrets were barriers between us. All of us were brothers really, even though the only blood relatives of us were Mikey and I. We all had troubled pasts but that only served to bring us closer together.

As we neared our destination I rolled up the windows and looked back at my sleeping brother and Frank. Mikey looked so peaceful in his sleep, as if the past had never existed. His glasses were slightly askew but still perched on the end of his nose, just the way he liked to wear them. Soft, brown hair flopped over his eyes and I itched to brush it away. He twitched slightly as if he could hear my thoughts, smiling and further scrunching up his eyes. He was awake.

“How much longer?” he murmured, brushing away the sleep from his eyes.

“We’re here Mikes,” Ray called, never once taking his eyes of the road. I rolled my eyes but I was fairly sure the action was lost on him.

“HELL YEAH!” he screamed, all traces of sleep lost.

I groaned, would it be too much to ask for silence? I knew it was wrong of me to be so selfish, but I couldn’t take it anymore. It was melodramatic of me, twisted and sick that a simple cheer from my own brother could do this to me. But his shout only reminded me of his screams of pain, not too long ago.

The car pulled up between the shade of two large trees, only the beginning of a vine covered house. I could see our parents had tried hard to erase all traces of our old life but I was still unsure that this would work. We would have freedom, but I needed the boundaries to keep myself from falling apart. I shook my head as if this could dispel the negative thoughts. The conversation around me was a distant blur as we walked up to the front door. After some fumbling with the keys and a push the door swung open, revealing the house to us.
The house had four bedrooms, as I discovered, one for each of us. There was a kitchen, which I certainly wouldn’t allow Frank or Mikey into, and a wide, spacious living room complete with a home movie system. I knew what we were doing tonight. Out back we had our own pool and miniature garden, my hand was already bristling for my sketch book. Maybe this could work out. Maybe this could be a new start after all.


Two hours later I was sprawled across the living room floor, staring mindlessly at the tv screen as yet another explosion took place. Empty pizza boxes littered the room but no one would move to clean the mess. Resigning myself to the heinous task I began picking up the cardboard shells. Much to my amazement Frank decided to get up and help me. In a matter of a few minutes and several complaints later the room was clean and the trash taken out back.
The moon hung a silver curtain in the sky, adorned with sparkling beads of light. A black backdrop of Jersey scenery hung ominously, illuminated in places by the glow radiating from the jewels in the sky. The dark was my time, it’s obscurity a perfect cloak to conceal me from the horrors that were my life. Vampire, was the only word that could linger in my mind. They were a perfect metaphor, blood sucking creatures of the night or the rules that set down our lives, draining away all imagination and life. In my dangerous life art was the only weapon I had.
“There’s something I need to tell you,” Frank said stumbling over his words, quite unusual for his articulate self. All the same, his words brought me out of my little reverie.

“Well?” was my own brilliant response.

“I don’t know if this will work.”

It took a few seconds for the message to sink in. Frank had his doubts too; the old dark feeling began creeping up into me. Was I really so far beyond help that one of my best friends doubted I could recover? Was my past ever going to let go? As if reading my mind Frank spoke up:

“It’s not that I don’t believe in you Gee. I do, I honestly do. I’m just worried, we all care about you and don’t want anything to happen. You do know that?”
I nodded my head to acknowledge his words.

“It’s just after...the incident, I’m not sure you should be left alone like this. I’d just like to tell you we’re here and we have your back.”

“I know... I’ll always be there for you.”

The words rang true. I’d be prepared to do anything for my family.


A/N First chapter! Feel free to tell me what you think!