FicWad

‘’Hey, Lauren, table 5 needs more water! Get to it!’’ Henry Johnson yelled, his eyebrows jumping like angry caterpillars, the burst blood vessels in his cheeks shining under the kitchen lights. Lauren, a woman of 5’’6 and eighteen years of age, dropped off a stack of dirty plates in the back room, and then lifted up a pitcher of ice-cold water. Henry gave her an approving nod, and she ignored his acknowledgement. She wished that she could just quit and skip town, but she’d already paid in advance for her apartment. Six months.
‘’Your water, sir,’’ She spoke with her fake American accent, stifling the English accent in her voice.
‘’Thanks.’’ A grossly overweight man with tangle side-burns that joined under his second chin spoke, his voice sounded clotted, like he had a cold. ‘’You’re mighty pretty for a waitress.’’ He smiled, and Lauren frowned.
‘’I doubt that, sir.’’ She quickly walked away, back to the back room. She got up on the sink, checking her face in the mirror, and seeing the same dyed black hair, and unsure brown-green-blue eyes. She dug into the front pocket of her apron, getting her scarlet lipstick and applying it to her lips, then popping her lips together, pressing them on a napkin and hopping down from the sink.
Henry could not be heard yelling orders in the kitchen, this caused Lauren to become suspicious, but she shrugged it off, taking a cigarette from a box on the counter. Henry’s supply, probably – but he was already on one lung, so he could deal, as far as Lauren was concerned. She smoked the cancer stick quickly, and then rushed herself back into the diner – but the sight of Gerard holding a gun to Henry’s head stopped her dead in her tracks. She herself had no idea who Gerard was, and held up her hands, he glanced her way, still holding the gun up to Henry.
‘’What’s going on?’’ her English accent came right out, but she didn’t care.
‘’Shut the fuck up, Lauren! Get down on the floor!’’ Henry yelled, his voice going an octave higher than usual. Lauren bit her lip, her heart racing as she dropped to her knees, placing her hands on the cold black-and-white tiled floor.
‘’That’s no way to talk to a lady.’’ Gerard narrowed his dark eyes at Henry, his voice filled with disgust.
‘’I’m sorry…Please! I’m sorry!’’ Henry began spluttering into a fit of tears, his cobalt blue eyes welling and wrinkling. Lauren peered up at him from her place on the floor – thinking of how she had never seen him cry before.
‘’You remind me of someone that I killed earlier tonight, you know that? And I figure that I’m a decent enough guy – decent guys are meant to treat people fairly. So, I’ll be fair.’’ Gerard reasoned, pumping a bullet through Henry’s chest, but not through his heart. Henry just sprawled to the floor, groaning and knocking the pans from the shelves behind the counter.
A man and woman screamed somewhere from under the red tables, in the booths.
‘’Shut up!’’ Gerard snarled, ‘’and let me think.’’ He said, suddenly calm. ‘’Well, I can’t just leave you all alive, can I?’’ he thought out loud, shooting one of the chefs as they tried to run out of the back door. His groans mingled with those of Henry, like some terrible choir.
Gerard, was too busy executing the couple who had screamed when he’d shot Henry to notice anything else at that point. He chuckled to himself, surveying the other customers, each of them crouching, trying to hide beneath the booths of red.
All of a sudden, he heard something. A faint buzz and whispered words. Gerard turned to the kitchen, spotting the last chef left alive, speaking into his cell phone – but stopping when he saw Gerard. ‘’No…..n-‘’ he tried to shield himself, covering his face with his crossed arms – but Gerard shot him like the others, this time aiming for the head.
Lauren’s knees were beginning to ache against the cold tiles, so she pulled herself into a sitting position, slowly as to not attract attention. ‘’Now who has a car here?’’ Gerard questioned. No one answered; they all seemed to be oblivious to his question. ‘’Who – has – a – fuck-ing – CAR?!’’ he roared.
‘’I do.’’ Lauren spoke up, taking her keys out of her white apron.
‘’Sure ya do, Princess. Any of you fuckers here tell the cops who did this, and I’ll make sure I either hire someone to execute every last one of you – or I’ll do it myself. C’mon, Sugar.’’ He grabbed Lauren’s arm, helping her up and dragging her through the back corridor, out of the diner and into the staff parking lot. ‘’Which one is yours?’’ he asked,
‘’Red Honda.’’ Lauren pointed to the small, beaten-up Honda in the back of the lot. A grin spread across Gerard’s mouth – his eyes glinting with insanity.
‘’Perfect. You’re driving.’’,
‘’What?’’ Lauren frowned, ‘’I thought you’d just take the car and leave.’’ She explained,
‘’Na, I need a driver.’’ Gerard waited until Lauren unlocked the car, and got into the back, lying across the seats. Lauren started the car, turning to glance at Gerard;
‘’Where are we going?’’ she questioned, noticing that he had his gun pointed towards her ribs.
‘’Maryland. C’mon, get this thing on the road before the cops show up.’’ Gerard narrowed his eyes, and Lauren nodded to herself, shaking as she back the car out of the space, and sped out of the lot. She tried to forget the insane man, laid across the back of her Honda, but it felt as though his gun was carving a small laser-pointed hole in her ribs.
She turned on the radio, tuning it to a local station, listening in for any information about a killer. There was, in fact, several different reports, all directed towards a man named Gerard Way, who had killed three women, all after kidnapping them. He had also killed two civilians that night – they hadn’t reported the scene at the diner, yet.
‘’Are ya scared?’’ Gerard was sitting up in the middle seat, now, still with his gun trained on her side, but he seemed relaxed.
‘’Yes,’’ Lauren bit, trying not to ram the red Honda into the fence running along the side of the highway, all in a vain attempt to get Gerard to go away. But she didn’t, she didn’t try anything stupid. Things were going well so far – she thought of what he had done to Henry and shuddered a little.
‘’So you’re a waitress – how’s that goin’ for ya?’’ Gerard smirked. Lauren could see his lips curling in the rear view mirror.
‘’I wanted to quit. Being a waitress is boring.’’ Lauren admitted, frowning a little as she saw a police cruiser beam past, lights flashing and siren blaring into the night sky.
‘’Do ya think that life is boring, Sugar?’’ Gerard asked with a laugh.
‘’Not so much now, I guess.’’ She sighed.
‘’You know where I was earlier tonight?’’ he furthered,
‘’Where were you earlier tonight?’’,
‘’I was in P-R-I-S-O-N. Do ya know how long I was in there, Princess?’’ he kept on adding the pet names, making Lauren frown each time. It was like he was trying to make what he had done seem normal, everyday, with his madness hiding beneath the surface. Ready to bubble up and consume all of his thoughts and actions.
‘’I don’t know.’’,
‘’Five years. Five years of bein’ raped, beaten, and starved. And now I’m out. Y’know in prison, they break the law from right under the warden’s noses – hell, a warden helped me escape. He was a sick fucker. I wish that I had killed him, now, but oh well. Now I’m free to have a life, and I’m never goin’ back.’’ His voice held conviction – his words were an obvious attempt to make Lauren take his side, and she had to admit that what had happened to him was wrong – but wasn’t he in there for killing someone in the first place?
‘’That’s horrible…’’ she said sincerely.
‘’Hey – where’d you get the accent from?’’ Gerard curiously asked.
‘’England. I lived there until two years ago.’’,
‘’Why did you leave?’’,
‘’Because.’’ Lauren didn’t care if he had a gun, when it came to her past she remained tight-lipped.
‘’Okay, you’re allowed secrets. But friends don’t keep secrets, so sooner or later you’ll have to tell me.’’ Gerard pressed, ‘’if you aren’t gonna be my friend, I’ll have to kill you like the others.’’ He smiled happily, ‘’and to tell you the truth, I kinda like ya, girrrrl.’’ He drew the ‘r’s’ out with his drawling voice. His long fingers reached forward, curling into Lauren’s dark hair. She tried not to flinch, concentrating on the road, tightening her fingers on the steering wheel.
The radio dissolved into static, and Lauren leaned forwards, turning the CD player on. She didn’t remember what CD she had put in, until it was coming out from the car speakers. Death Cab For Cutie, she liked the band. The music was soothing, helping her to relax a little, to sink further into her seat.
‘’Why do you kill people?’’ she asked suddenly.
‘’That’s like asking why some people sleep with a window open. It’s a compulsion, apparently. I never liked doctors, anyway.’’ Gerard distastefully spoke, dismissing the thought with a sweep of his hand.
‘’I don’t like going in there, either.’’,
‘’Honey, do you think that I’m gonna kill you?’’ Gerard asked, his tone low, venomous.
‘’Yes.’’ Lauren answered; her own tone was flat, deflated.
‘’I appreciate your ability to say that, Princess. Truth is, I might be keepin’ you around for a lil’ longer. Don’t worry; I usually kill my girls within two days. You’ve got time to give me a reason not to follow that pattern in order to stop me from deciding to follow it.’’ His spidery white fingers caressed her cheek, ‘’soft…in prison the skin tends to get cold, hardened. Bloody…’’ he whispered against her ear.
‘’Stop it!’’ she screamed suddenly. Gerard recoiled, his fingers tightening around the metal bulk of his gun.
‘’I don’t appreciate being yelled at.’’ Gerard growled through gritted teeth.
‘’Just...Don’t touch me…please…’’ Lauren pleaded, pressing her lips together into a tight line.
‘’Fine.’’ Gerard huffed like a small child, ‘’we have to stop soon. We’ll park the car where no one will see, and you can sleep.’’ He announced.
‘’So you can shoot me?’’ Lauren spat,
‘’No. So you can sleep. I don’t need you crashing the car. I can’t drive a car, and anyone else would be…inadequate. Keeping you is logical for now, or at least until I decide.’’ He finished, and they both sank into a mutual silence, apart from the soft music.
They were both silent for about an hour, until Gerard pointed towards a deserted industrial site.
‘’There.’’ He pressed, and Lauren nodded, turning off into the concrete land, through past a few half-built matching concrete structures, then down underneath a four storey parking lot. Lauren turned off the engine, sitting back into the seat.
‘’Get in the back, I’ll take the front seat.’’ Gerard offered, and Lauren nodded in agreement. She got out, switching with Gerard so that she could sit where he had, and he was where she had just been. ‘’Lay down.’’ Gerard turned, his eyes as dark as the surroundings of the car. He still had the gun, clutched in his hand – so she did as she was told.
She closed her eyes, wondering whether she would be alive to wake up once she had fallen asleep.