Here's to the Heartache (Frerard) *Discontinued*

21: Friendly Fire

"Gerard!" Frank cried hoarsely, his voice ringing out unnaturally loud in the otherwise silent air, no other sounds broke the eerie stillness, not even a shuffle from whoever was condemning Frank to an agonizing death by suffocation. "Please help me..." Frank tried again, his broken sentence projecting in a much weaker manner, because if Gerard was a part of this dream, he would surely have rushed to Frank's aid by now, no matter how furious he was with him, but the dark haired man was nowhere to be seen.

And just when Frank was doing his best to resign himself to his fate, a soft sob reached his soil filled ears, the sound tearing his heart in two, because he knew that cry, he would recognize it anywhere - it was Gerard, but the proximity of the exclamation could only mean one thing, and even in a dream, Frank didn't want to believe the verdict that his mind had reached.

"I'm so sorry Frank," Gerard spoke up just then, ruining Frank's attempt at pretending that Gerard wasn't the one filling in his makeshift grave, but he was, of course he was, this only completed the metaphor that Frank had caught on to originally, but this wasn't the way it was supposed to be, Gerard was supposed to save Frank, not murder him, but even though Frank's body protested painfully when the next round of silt rained down around him, he couldn't find it in himself to be angry with Gerard.

"Why?" Frank croaked out, his lips stained with grit and mud, the taste barely registering next to the bile that was flooding his mouth.

"I don't want to do this, but I have to...please Frank, please forgive me," Gerard begged, his tone conveying a sense of despair that matched the sensations Frank was currently feeling, but despite their situations, Frank found himself wanting to comfort Gerard, even if he used his last breath in doing so.

"It's okay...just keep talking to me," Frank pressed gently, doing his best to ignore the fact that he was mostly covered in grave dirt, pretending that he was by Gerard's side instead, with his arms wrapped around the older man like he ached for them to be.

"I'm saving you Frank - I know it doesn't seem like it, but you have to trust me," Gerard pleaded, a scraping sound following his sentence which Frank could only assume was caused by a shovel, even though his prying eyes spied nothing besides for the greying sky, no matter how forcefully he craned his neck in an pathetic attempt to bring Gerard into his line of vision.

"Okay," Frank found himself saying, even though he hadn't meant to let the word slip past his lips, because although he did trust Gerard more than anyone else in the world, he also knew that Gerard had given up, his burial of Frank was symbolic of that, this entire sequence was a warped version of their tattered relationship, and that left Frank to fight for them alone, but apparently the dream version of him had withdrawn from the battle as well.

And although Frank wanted to scream, to break out of his prison formed of soil, to grab onto Gerard and never let him go until he changed his mind, it was too late, Gerard was dumping the last traces of dirt over Frank's head, and even though Frank couldn't see Gerard through the grit obscuring his view, he somehow knew that he was weeping, his tears mixing in with the earth as Frank surrendered to the death Gerard had forced him to accept.

~~~

Frank awoke suddenly, an unfamiliar touch on his arm jolting him away from the fading images left behind by his nightmare, but the meaning of the dream stayed with him, even though Frank didn't possess the energy to decipher if there was any truth behind what his brain had produced, and honestly, Frank didn't want to ponder the parallels between the mental concoction and his current predicament, he already had more than enough to worry about at the moment.

"You awake Frank?" Mikey's questioning tone inspired Frank to nod his head wearily, his eyes refusing to open just yet. "Well...Gee is on his way home, are you sure you are up for talking to him right now?"