Total Chaos (A.T.O.C. Part Two)

Pile on the Stress

Chapter 10:

I must've fallen asleep in my bunk because the next thing I knew, Mikey was gently shaking me awake.

I groggily opened my eyes to see a sweaty Mikey who was still in his Black Parade uniform.

"Hey Anna. Sorry to wake you," he quietly apologized, "but we just wanted you to know that the show's over and we'll be heading on the road again."

I nodded and re-closed my eyes, sensing Mikey hesitate before slowly drawing the curtain and walking away from my bunk.

Early the next morning, I woke up by the feeling of someone gently stroking my hair in a rather nurturing way. I cracked open my eyes to see the faint outline of Gerard standing beside my bunk, resting his head tiredly against the wooden frame as he stroked my hair.

"Wha-"

"You were having a nightmare." he whispered. "I could hear you cry out in your sleep."

I sighed. "I'm sorry, I didn't realize it."

He lifted his head from the frame and moved his hand away from my head. "It's fine, Anna. Really. I used to have to comfort Mikey when he had nightmares."

"Really?"

He nodded. "Yeah. Especially when we were recording our second album. We stayed in this creepy house and Mikey would end up sleeping on the floor in my room because it wigged him out so much." he explained quietly, a small smile in his voice.

I breathed a laugh. "I can imagine. I hate that kind of stuff."

Gerard didn't reply to that, but instead changed the topic. "Anna, you were saying something in your dream about Gena." he whispered. "Is something wrong?"

I paused, feeling sickened at the thought of her. Now Gerard knew that something was going on, but I didn't really want him to be worried about it.

I didn't know if he should know that Gena vowed to me that she would get Zacky back. If I told him about her secret nasty side, he wouldn't hesitate to have her fired, which would only put stress on Zacky and the management as they searched for a last minute replacement. I didn't want to be the cause of all of that.

So, I chose to stay silent about it. "No, everything's fine." I partially lied.

I could tell that he didn't completely believe me, but since it was extremely early in the morning, he slowly nodded his head.

"Alright." he sighed. "Try to get some more sleep, okay?"

I gave him a small smile and nodded, resting my head back onto my pillow. "Of course."

He paused and studied my face, looking for any trace of evidence that I was lying, but he sent me a small smile and slid the curtain shut.

Letting a shaky breath escape from my lungs, I closed my eyes and tried to let the bumps from the traveling bus rock me back to sleep.

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I must've fallen back asleep for quite some time, since I could see bits of sunlight streaming in through the thin gap between my curtain and the frame of the bunk when I opened my eyes.

I could hear Gerard and Frank's laughter emanating from the front part of the bus, while Mikey tried to quiet them down. I smiled to myself, letting the sound comfort me as the realization of me leaving tomorrow entered my head.

I suddenly felt a vibration under my right leg, making me jump. Feeling under my leg with my hand, I grasped my phone as a new voicemail from Matt was saved in my mailbox. Besides his voicemail, I had four other missed calls and one other voicemail from Brian.