Keep Running (Killjoy)

26

Felicity's POV:
My wide eyes were met by the newcomer's, who smiled upon seeing me. The crowd was pushed aside as their steps neared where the Patient and I stood together. But I countered the skeletal grin with a frown, realizing what this appearance meant.

"Hey there, stranger." He joked.

"Gerard, how did you get here?" I asked sternly.

The smile vanished, "I'm sorry, darling. But, as you can see, I couldn't live without you and this is where I've happened to come to."

"You promised you'd try to be happy for me and move on..."

"I couldn't, and I owe you so much for breaking that vow."

"Nevermind it now, we can't change anything anymore. What role were you given?" I questioned, examining his simple marching band outfit.

"I'm Devotion, the lead singer of a group called the Black Parade which will appear later as the rest of my old group join us. I show the story of how loving something can result in the absence of rational thinking, the way that I died after you did. And since many people seem devoted in a non-romantic way to musical artists, my character was to be shown as a singer of a band. Cool, huh?"

"Yeah. I just can't believe that you fell apart so soon; it's a shame that the killjoys had to lose you."

"At least I'm here with you now." He said in rebuttal, a sliver of sass creeping into his tone.

I sighed in response while the Patient introduced himself to Gerard and they began a conversation. In the meantime, my eyes gazed around at the lavish and grand ballroom we stood in that had so many little details on every piece of decoration. The precision continued to wow me as my eyes wandered around from place to place. A tap on my shoulders brought me back to the crowds of people packed into the room. I turned to see Gerard offering his hand to me as a sort-of proposal. Judging from the music starting to sound, he was suggesting a dance, as most other souls were taking part in. Through slight reluctance, I placed my hand into his as a reply.

Simple, elegant, and smooth ballet steps flowed through my body. My partner complemented me perfectly with his own carefully rhythmic steps and soon I felt more comfortable in the activity, letting myself release any leftover tension in my muscles. A space was cleared around us by the crowd that watched us dance until the end of the classic song, adding a hum of applause once we finished. Although Gerard didn't remove his arm from its position on my waistline, keeping me as close to his body as possible with the stiff skirt.

"You are absolutely stunning, you know that?" He whispered into my ear.

I blushed impossibly and joked: "You're just as bad here as you were before."

"In what sense? That I pay you compliments that are nothing but honest?"

"You're being too nice about it and I feel odd for not being able to give you a good reply."

"Don't worry about it, darling...would you like to see my room?"

"Sure, I guess. There isn't anything much better to do, is there?"

"Nope. Up we go!" He cheered, gently pushing me forwards towards the stairs in the large hall.

Along the trip to where he was residing, I couldn't help but admire the smoothly applied skeletal makeup that complimented his face so well. The coal circles around his now-gray eyes, dark jawline shading, and thin slits over his mouth gave him the exact appearance of an intriguing, living-dead character.  My staring was detected by him and he smirked once we stood outside of his doorway after noticing.

"What? Do you have a thing for death-related stuff or...?" He teased.

"No! It's just that the makeup on your face looks really cool!" I clarified in a series of protests.

"Yeah, it doesn't wipe off." He pointed out, dragging his hands over his face as proof.

"That's awesome."

"What about your mask? Can you take it off?"

"Yeah, I'm just getting used to it but-" I paused, gripping the bottom of the heavy piece of headgear to remove it. "I can get it off."

Gerard's eyes trailed over my face, melding into a more loving expression briefly before he remembered to open his door. The room was practically identical to mine: balcony, fancy bed, steampunk-influenced designs, etc. He led me behind him by the hand and we sat right beside each other on top of the bed covers.

"This is quite an interesting place, huh?" I brought up to break the silence.

"Yeah...I'm curious about some things being different here than they were when we were living. I'd like to test them out..." He commented with a sly edge to his voice.

"What do you mean?"

"Oh, not much. Just little things that would be interesting to find out about if they were any different."

"Well, thanks, that cleared it up." I shot back sarcastically.

"May I test a few of my thoughts on you?"

"Uh, sure...?" I replied, unknowing to what I had gotten myself into with the mischievous character beside me.

"Number 1: Can dead people bruise?" Gerard stated, causing me to furrow my brows in confusion.

But my confused state was short-lived as he brought himself close enough to start connecting his lips to my jawline, working his way down to my collarbone. The situation would've made my heart pound out of my chest if I had been alive, but all I could feel was pleasure in having him back like this along with how desperately frantic his movements were (in a positive aspect). This gave me the mental ability to think through his previous statement and understand that he was trying to see if a hickey would show up on me, as I was dead. He was quite the cleverly charming demon when it came down to these situations.

"Let's see if there are any marks now," he pulled away to investigate. "None at all; there's question one's answer. Now we can move on through my list..." He trailed off with a wink.