Categories > Celebrities > My Chemical Romance > Famous Last Words
I wasn’t sure what time it was when I finally woke but I could see it was dark and despite the rest – the first decent sleep I’d had in days – I felt restless and unhappy. Of course, I knew what the problem was. How could I rest? How could I relax knowing that my brother and friends were in that house. I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that that house was just pure evil. Or, at the very least, pure evil permeated every inch of the place. I could have been wrong, and maybe it was just the fact that I was removed from it that allowed me some perspective, but I began to feel that the house wasn’t the problem, just Frederick, the pockmarked man. If he could be removed from the house somehow, then everything would be all right. I started thinking about it and even without realising it, I was up and getting dressed. My clothes were hanging in the wardrobe and all I’d had to do was remove the drip from the cannula in my hand. In fact, I removed the cannula too – nasty little thing kept catching on my sleeve as I pulled my shirt on.
What was holding Frederick to the house? He worked there, but was that really enough? No. The answer was suddenly obvious to me. He had committed murder there, possibly twice. First Daisy Canfield’s car crash and then Lucy Morgan, her best friend, almost certainly drowned in the bath tub in the blue room – my room. That was it, I was absolutely so sure I couldn’t figure out why it hadn’t occurred to me before. He was there still only to prevent anyone from discovering his crimes. The body had probably never been found and when we found Lucy’s diary in the library – when we first realised that she had never made it to the police, that’s when the attacks began to get so much worse.
“Okay.” I took a deep breath, suddenly feeling brave in my certainty. “All we need to do is find the body.”
Then in a rush I was nervous again. Partly at the idea of returning to the mansion, partly thinking about the guys still there alone but my overwhelming feeling was one of hopelessness at the enormity of the task. The Paramour Mansion itself had more than twenty rooms and the grounds were extensive. Where could we even begin to look for a body? But my mind was made up. I was going back. I was going to tell the guys what I’d realised. We were going to resolve this. Don’t ask me where my determination had suddenly come from, or even if it was going to last long enough to get me through the gates of the grounds, but right then, right there I knew what I had to do. Slipping out of the hospital room, I headed outside to look for a cab.
*
As the cab drew up to the gates of the property, I looked in and a shudder ran through me. I was terrified. Part of me wanted to stay in the cab and go straight back to the hospital, but I knew I couldn’t. Not just for the safety of the guys, but for my own sanity. I had the terrible feeling that if I didn’t face this, it would haunt me forever. But as I stepped from the car and it drove away into the dark, cloudy night, a light rain spattered down on my shoulders and I had never felt quite so alone. Walking slowly towards the mansion, I took a deep breath. It was dark but still quite early and as I looked toward the looming imposing main building, I couldn’t help but notice that none of the lights were on. My breathing hitched as I tried to suppress the potential meaning of that one simple fact. Was I too late? I started to pick up speed; my concern for Gerard and the guys outweighing my deeply held fears. I was within twenty feet of the main door when I was stopped dead in my tracks as every light in the entire building came on. I simply juddered to a halt with shock as in four of the windows I saw the silhouettes of bodies hanging from the ceiling by their necks – four of them.
“No!” I screamed, running forward.
Only then did I realise that I had no keys with me and I found myself hammering on the door. Who I thought would answer, I wasn’t sure. What I could do if I got inside, I didn’t know. Could I avoid the same fate? The door opened sharply and suddenly and I almost fell inside with it. Gasping for breath, I started to hyperventilate and found myself dropping to my knees. I needed my inhaler – what perfect timing! As I fell, I was vaguely aware that it seemed that the curtain of light that had covered me dimmed and I saw feet by my hands.
“Mikey?”
Bob was gripping my arms now, helping me to stand. I was staring at him, out of breath and wide-eyed in my confusion.
“What are you doing here? Why aren’t you in the hospital?” he continued, but all I could do was wheeze a muffled response.
“Mikes!”
Gerard was coming toward me and I was crying profusely. Whatever I had seen, or thought I had, it had not been my brother and friends dead or dying with a rope around their necks. They were safe and slowly, very slowly, I began to calm my breathing. Reaching into my pocket, Gerard found my inhaler and pressed it into my hand. Taking a moment to take a couple of puffs from the blue reliever pump, I nodded, my tears finally drying. Pushing my hands across my cheeks to wipe away the rapidly cooling salt water trails, I reached out to grab Gerard and pull him close, my fingers clawing at his shirt. Close like I never had. Like it was the end of the world. As I finally released him and stood back, I could see the confusion and concern in his eyes.
“Mikey,” he began, obviously worried. “What are you doing here?”
“The lights!” I cried, finally finding my voice. “The silhouettes… Are you all okay?”
Gerard stared at me with a pained expression. I wasn’t making sense and he was deeply concerned. Clearly it had been some sort of illusion to scare me and it had worked. But safe in the knowledge that the guys and Gerard in particular were well, I somehow managed to pull myself together. There was only one thing left to say.
“I know what to do,” I nodded; I was absolutely convinced. “I know what to do, but I need your help.”
*
Ray and Frank joined us on hearing the commotion and even though I had accepted that the image I had seen was merely an illusion, I was relieved to see them. As they arrived, Gerard’s cell phone rang. Plucking it from his pocket, he sighed, knowing instantly who it must be.
“I know,” he said after a short pause. “He’s here. He’s just arrived.” Another pause. “Yes, I know… I will. Thank you.”
Shutting off the phone, Gerard cocked his head and stared expectantly at me.
“I had to, Gee,” I shrugged. “He’s coming after you now. I couldn’t leave you here.”
“And what would you have done if we’d decided to stay somewhere else tonight? You’d have been here alone.”
“I didn’t think about that,” I admitted. “But you didn’t, did you?”
“Well…” Ray heaved a sigh.
“We were thinking about it,” Frank added. “Taking you to the hospital… Getting out of this place, it really brought it home how oppressive the place is.”
“I don’t think any of us wanted to admit it, but it’s really getting to all of us,” Gerard added.
“I think I know how to stop it,” I answered, finding strength in my conviction.
I stepped through the door and took a deep breath as instantly that same feeling, that terrible feeling of close, suffocating hatred and despair settled on my shoulders. I don’t know what came over me. I was on edge certainly but perhaps I was defiant, but more likely I was just exhausted, frustrated and I had again tasted what it felt like to be free of those feelings.
What did I do? I snapped.
“I’m not frightened of you any more!” I yelled to the ceiling.
Of course I was and I grew rapidly terrified as all the lights in the mansion flickered on and off rapidly. At the same time – and don’t ask me how this was even possible – every take of every track we had recorded so far, blared out of the P.A. Several paintings on the walls began to rattle against the wall before swinging side to side so violently that two fell from their hooks, one breaking the frame as it hit the floor with a terrible crash. A loud, howling wind swirled through the lobby and ahead of me on the staircase a black shape was forming.
As I stared I felt as though I had conjured up this thing, whatever it was. I didn’t need to guess, I knew deep down it would be Frederick. He was getting desperate, I realised that now. He had tried to scare us – it hadn’t worked. Now he was trying to kill us and it was only then I realised the danger we were all in. What would he do? He had already tried to drown me and strangle Gerard, but was there more in store?
He was fully formed, almost solid, with only the slightest hint of the stairs visible behind him. He was grinning at me, sometimes through me. It was unnerving and I was having the worst time not giving in to my fear. I was still the weakest link in the chain; he knew it and he was playing on it. Only when Gerard drew alongside me did I feel the slightest comfort. Ray, Bob and Frank joined us and he started laughing as he slowly descended the stairs. At first I was frozen to the spot. We were there, but what could we do? I believed I knew what, but how? Taking a tentative step forward, I felt Gee’s hand on my arm, but I pulled free as I took another step. Taking a deep breath, I gathered my strength.
“We know it was you!” I shouted. “You killed Daisy because she didn’t love you and you killed Lucy because she found out! You’re a murderer and you haunt this place to hide your crimes, but we know!” I was screaming now. “We know and we’re going to make sure everybody knows!”
“You think so?” he cackled. “The last time someone threatened me… Well, I think you know,” he laughed again, confirming our thoughts.
“You won’t stop us,” I continued. “You’ll…”
“Aren’t you forgetting something?” he asked, drawing a ghostly blade from a sheath at his hip. “You have no proof.”
“We… We have the diary,” I stammered, hardly expecting a coherent argument from him.
“But you have no body and you’re never going to find it. Not in grounds this extensive,” he laughed again. “What are you going to do? Dig up every inch? Tear up every floorboard?”
And that was when it hit me. I knew exactly where she was, or at least the area where she lay. It should have been obvious. She had been protecting me and I had felt that protection. And right up until he had violated that protection, I had felt safe. Besides, it made perfect sense – he had found her diary in the library. The night of the funeral he had killed her, hidden the body and then the diary. Both had to be in the same place, the place where I had felt all her protection.
“She’s in the library. You drowned her, dragged her there and hid the body. She’s still there, isn’t she?”
He had no response. He just stared. He looked angry, ready to kill again.
“You will never tell a soul!”
Launching himself from half way down the staircase, he seemed to grow in size as he flew towards us. Faltering backwards a few steps, I was too terrified to run. I felt Gerard’s hands on my arms as he tried to drag me away, but I was frozen, gaping up as he flew in circles around us. It was too late to run. He became just a blur of black as he circled us ever faster with a wind howling all around. Paintings fell and rattled, the rugs whipped up, tables and chairs skidded across the lobby, crashing into us sending us careering across the floor.
“Mikey!”
It was Gerard who shouted, but as I looked up all I could see was Frederick standing over me, still brandishing his knife.
What was holding Frederick to the house? He worked there, but was that really enough? No. The answer was suddenly obvious to me. He had committed murder there, possibly twice. First Daisy Canfield’s car crash and then Lucy Morgan, her best friend, almost certainly drowned in the bath tub in the blue room – my room. That was it, I was absolutely so sure I couldn’t figure out why it hadn’t occurred to me before. He was there still only to prevent anyone from discovering his crimes. The body had probably never been found and when we found Lucy’s diary in the library – when we first realised that she had never made it to the police, that’s when the attacks began to get so much worse.
“Okay.” I took a deep breath, suddenly feeling brave in my certainty. “All we need to do is find the body.”
Then in a rush I was nervous again. Partly at the idea of returning to the mansion, partly thinking about the guys still there alone but my overwhelming feeling was one of hopelessness at the enormity of the task. The Paramour Mansion itself had more than twenty rooms and the grounds were extensive. Where could we even begin to look for a body? But my mind was made up. I was going back. I was going to tell the guys what I’d realised. We were going to resolve this. Don’t ask me where my determination had suddenly come from, or even if it was going to last long enough to get me through the gates of the grounds, but right then, right there I knew what I had to do. Slipping out of the hospital room, I headed outside to look for a cab.
*
As the cab drew up to the gates of the property, I looked in and a shudder ran through me. I was terrified. Part of me wanted to stay in the cab and go straight back to the hospital, but I knew I couldn’t. Not just for the safety of the guys, but for my own sanity. I had the terrible feeling that if I didn’t face this, it would haunt me forever. But as I stepped from the car and it drove away into the dark, cloudy night, a light rain spattered down on my shoulders and I had never felt quite so alone. Walking slowly towards the mansion, I took a deep breath. It was dark but still quite early and as I looked toward the looming imposing main building, I couldn’t help but notice that none of the lights were on. My breathing hitched as I tried to suppress the potential meaning of that one simple fact. Was I too late? I started to pick up speed; my concern for Gerard and the guys outweighing my deeply held fears. I was within twenty feet of the main door when I was stopped dead in my tracks as every light in the entire building came on. I simply juddered to a halt with shock as in four of the windows I saw the silhouettes of bodies hanging from the ceiling by their necks – four of them.
“No!” I screamed, running forward.
Only then did I realise that I had no keys with me and I found myself hammering on the door. Who I thought would answer, I wasn’t sure. What I could do if I got inside, I didn’t know. Could I avoid the same fate? The door opened sharply and suddenly and I almost fell inside with it. Gasping for breath, I started to hyperventilate and found myself dropping to my knees. I needed my inhaler – what perfect timing! As I fell, I was vaguely aware that it seemed that the curtain of light that had covered me dimmed and I saw feet by my hands.
“Mikey?”
Bob was gripping my arms now, helping me to stand. I was staring at him, out of breath and wide-eyed in my confusion.
“What are you doing here? Why aren’t you in the hospital?” he continued, but all I could do was wheeze a muffled response.
“Mikes!”
Gerard was coming toward me and I was crying profusely. Whatever I had seen, or thought I had, it had not been my brother and friends dead or dying with a rope around their necks. They were safe and slowly, very slowly, I began to calm my breathing. Reaching into my pocket, Gerard found my inhaler and pressed it into my hand. Taking a moment to take a couple of puffs from the blue reliever pump, I nodded, my tears finally drying. Pushing my hands across my cheeks to wipe away the rapidly cooling salt water trails, I reached out to grab Gerard and pull him close, my fingers clawing at his shirt. Close like I never had. Like it was the end of the world. As I finally released him and stood back, I could see the confusion and concern in his eyes.
“Mikey,” he began, obviously worried. “What are you doing here?”
“The lights!” I cried, finally finding my voice. “The silhouettes… Are you all okay?”
Gerard stared at me with a pained expression. I wasn’t making sense and he was deeply concerned. Clearly it had been some sort of illusion to scare me and it had worked. But safe in the knowledge that the guys and Gerard in particular were well, I somehow managed to pull myself together. There was only one thing left to say.
“I know what to do,” I nodded; I was absolutely convinced. “I know what to do, but I need your help.”
*
Ray and Frank joined us on hearing the commotion and even though I had accepted that the image I had seen was merely an illusion, I was relieved to see them. As they arrived, Gerard’s cell phone rang. Plucking it from his pocket, he sighed, knowing instantly who it must be.
“I know,” he said after a short pause. “He’s here. He’s just arrived.” Another pause. “Yes, I know… I will. Thank you.”
Shutting off the phone, Gerard cocked his head and stared expectantly at me.
“I had to, Gee,” I shrugged. “He’s coming after you now. I couldn’t leave you here.”
“And what would you have done if we’d decided to stay somewhere else tonight? You’d have been here alone.”
“I didn’t think about that,” I admitted. “But you didn’t, did you?”
“Well…” Ray heaved a sigh.
“We were thinking about it,” Frank added. “Taking you to the hospital… Getting out of this place, it really brought it home how oppressive the place is.”
“I don’t think any of us wanted to admit it, but it’s really getting to all of us,” Gerard added.
“I think I know how to stop it,” I answered, finding strength in my conviction.
I stepped through the door and took a deep breath as instantly that same feeling, that terrible feeling of close, suffocating hatred and despair settled on my shoulders. I don’t know what came over me. I was on edge certainly but perhaps I was defiant, but more likely I was just exhausted, frustrated and I had again tasted what it felt like to be free of those feelings.
What did I do? I snapped.
“I’m not frightened of you any more!” I yelled to the ceiling.
Of course I was and I grew rapidly terrified as all the lights in the mansion flickered on and off rapidly. At the same time – and don’t ask me how this was even possible – every take of every track we had recorded so far, blared out of the P.A. Several paintings on the walls began to rattle against the wall before swinging side to side so violently that two fell from their hooks, one breaking the frame as it hit the floor with a terrible crash. A loud, howling wind swirled through the lobby and ahead of me on the staircase a black shape was forming.
As I stared I felt as though I had conjured up this thing, whatever it was. I didn’t need to guess, I knew deep down it would be Frederick. He was getting desperate, I realised that now. He had tried to scare us – it hadn’t worked. Now he was trying to kill us and it was only then I realised the danger we were all in. What would he do? He had already tried to drown me and strangle Gerard, but was there more in store?
He was fully formed, almost solid, with only the slightest hint of the stairs visible behind him. He was grinning at me, sometimes through me. It was unnerving and I was having the worst time not giving in to my fear. I was still the weakest link in the chain; he knew it and he was playing on it. Only when Gerard drew alongside me did I feel the slightest comfort. Ray, Bob and Frank joined us and he started laughing as he slowly descended the stairs. At first I was frozen to the spot. We were there, but what could we do? I believed I knew what, but how? Taking a tentative step forward, I felt Gee’s hand on my arm, but I pulled free as I took another step. Taking a deep breath, I gathered my strength.
“We know it was you!” I shouted. “You killed Daisy because she didn’t love you and you killed Lucy because she found out! You’re a murderer and you haunt this place to hide your crimes, but we know!” I was screaming now. “We know and we’re going to make sure everybody knows!”
“You think so?” he cackled. “The last time someone threatened me… Well, I think you know,” he laughed again, confirming our thoughts.
“You won’t stop us,” I continued. “You’ll…”
“Aren’t you forgetting something?” he asked, drawing a ghostly blade from a sheath at his hip. “You have no proof.”
“We… We have the diary,” I stammered, hardly expecting a coherent argument from him.
“But you have no body and you’re never going to find it. Not in grounds this extensive,” he laughed again. “What are you going to do? Dig up every inch? Tear up every floorboard?”
And that was when it hit me. I knew exactly where she was, or at least the area where she lay. It should have been obvious. She had been protecting me and I had felt that protection. And right up until he had violated that protection, I had felt safe. Besides, it made perfect sense – he had found her diary in the library. The night of the funeral he had killed her, hidden the body and then the diary. Both had to be in the same place, the place where I had felt all her protection.
“She’s in the library. You drowned her, dragged her there and hid the body. She’s still there, isn’t she?”
He had no response. He just stared. He looked angry, ready to kill again.
“You will never tell a soul!”
Launching himself from half way down the staircase, he seemed to grow in size as he flew towards us. Faltering backwards a few steps, I was too terrified to run. I felt Gerard’s hands on my arms as he tried to drag me away, but I was frozen, gaping up as he flew in circles around us. It was too late to run. He became just a blur of black as he circled us ever faster with a wind howling all around. Paintings fell and rattled, the rugs whipped up, tables and chairs skidded across the lobby, crashing into us sending us careering across the floor.
“Mikey!”
It was Gerard who shouted, but as I looked up all I could see was Frederick standing over me, still brandishing his knife.
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