Detonators (Gerard Way/Party Poison)

Chapter 18

Screams echoed around us as we darted behind a burning building. This couldn't be real. The Helium Wars were supposed to have ended last month. We were supposed to be living a nice life now! With our parents gone, it was Lily and I against the world, and I was planning on giving her a nice, peaceful life. Looks like that plan failed.

We jumped over the train tracks surrounding the city and hopped the tall fence. We were finally free. For now at least. I knew it wouldn't be long before the pristine white men came after us. I looked back one last time at the city I had grown up in, now in ruins. People ran through the streets, begging the draculoids for mercy before they were shot.

Bodies littered the streets as every building burned to the ground. This was it. My normal life was over, and I could tell that once we escaped, there would be no turning back. It was time to say goodbye to my old life.

With one last glance at the burning city, I saw a single billboard left standing. On it was printed, "Better Living Industries. The Aftermath is Secondary, Just Keep Smiling!" It was disgusting. I turned back to my sister, and a hail of bullets rained down on us.

I woke up in a layer of sweat, and sat straight up.  A piercing scream echoed around the room, and it took me a moment to realize that I was the one making that horrendous noise.  I quickly shut my mouth, cutting off the echoing scream.

My heart raced, and I was breathing heavily. This was the first nightmare I had had since I came back to the diner. I dropped my head in my hands, trying to slow my breathing, but the dream wouldn't stop replaying in my head.

"Toxic! Are you okay?" A breathless Party stood at my doorway in nothing but his boxers.  I had obviously woken him up with my screaming. Great. 

"Uh, yeah.  I'm, uh, I'm fine," I stuttered out.

Not believing me, he came over and sat on the edge of my bed.  "Wanna talk about it?" I slowly nodded and looked up at him.  He seemed thoughtful as he stared back.  "It was a nightmare, wasn't it?  Jet-Star said you might have some of those."

I shakily began retelling him my dream, all the while feeling embarrassed.  I felt like a scared little kid.  But Party didn't seem judgmental.  If anything, he seemed understanding as he listened to me and comforted me.  "How did my mind even come up with that?" I asked.

"Um, Toxic," Party began.  "That wasn't a figment of your imagination.  That was a flashback. After the Helium Wars, BL/ind started the fires of 2012.  It was their way of starting new, and rebuilding the city. You escaped the city with your sister, and that was probably a memory."

I was horrified.  That was all real? It wasn't right.  The bodies, the screams...

"Do you want me to stay?" he asked, probably noticing my distressed state.  "I won't try anything, trust me.  But it used to always help you calm down before BL/ind took you."

Reluctantly, I nodded.  "Please."  I knew I could trust Party Poison, and was in desperate need of some reassurance of my nightmare.  I moved over on the mattress and he slid in next to me.  He scooted close to me, and I relaxed as I melted into his body so that we were facing each other.  I laid my head on his chest, and he wrapped his arms around me. 

"When I was younger I saw my daddy cry, and curse at the wind," he began to sing, his voice soft and soothing.  I felt the images from my nightmare slowly slip away as I closed my eyes.  "He broke his own heart and I watched as he tried to reassemble it. And my mother swore, that she would never let herself forget.  And that was the day that I promised I would never sing of love, if it does not exist."

He began singing the chorus, and I had the sense that I had heard this song before. "But darling, you are the only exception.  You are the only exception..."  Maybe it was a popular song from before the fires he was talking about?

He continued singing the song as I fell in and out of consciousness, slowly falling asleep.  "I've got a tight grip on reality, but I can't let go of what's it from of me here.  I know you're leaving in the morning when you wake up, leave me with some kind of proof it's not a dream..."

I was gripping on to a thread of consciousness as I tried to stay awake to hear the rest of the song.  I was half asleep when he finished out the last of the song, "Oh and I'm on my way to believing..."

I felt my eyes pop open as I gasped, one thousand thoughts and emotions flowing through me all at once. "Party Poison."

A/N: 2K reads?! You guys are insane!  Thanks so much, I really appreciate it! 

Anyway, I've had this scene planned out since I started the book, so it was really nice finally having it come to life, and I hope you liked it!  

Stay rad!

~S