we pull apart the dark

chapter two

As the years went by, he no longer felt guilt for who he was and what he had to do to survive. He no longer hid, instead owning up to his new title. Alone, but he preferred it that way, even as a human. He liked to travel, but he kept to himself and was very isolated. His brother used to tease him about it for years, saying he'd never have a life if he remained being a hermit for all of his life. Gerard started to travel after his brother moved away for school, losing the person he was closest to and hung out with on a regular basis. But in doing so, it costed him his life.

Years and years of solitude, watching the world around you evolve and change. New discoveries being made, the way people dressed and acted, technology. It was all so much and he struggled a bit to keep up with the current day to day agenda of the world. Seeming as though his presence was only ever made in the late evening when the sun had gone down. When the crowds weren't so chaotic, he could hunt in peace without any worried glances or the possibility of someone noticing and coming after him. It took him quite some time to perfect his technique with hunting, sometimes he'd start off real friendly. Invite the victim out for a drink after they chatted for some time and then get them alone.

They fell for it every time. Something about his transformation had made him a lot more desirable. He had an affect on people he never did as a human, could easily draw them in and manipulate them, which definitely worked to the older man's advantage. Not much had changed with his new lifestyle, actually. But Gerard was a lot more confident. He was more graceful, less awkward and clumsy. Less embarrassing. He felt like he looked nicer, more attractive. Maybe that's where the confidence stemmed from, as well.

He began to find comfort in the cemetery downtown. Him and his brother, Mikey, had always found them interesting growing up. A couple times, they'd make a day out of it back home and sit under a tree and read or have lunch. Make up stories about the people that were buried there, what their lives were like and what they were doing in the afterlife. They never knew for sure, and didn't do anything to offend or insult the dead, it was just a way the boy's bonded. It wasn't until Gerard got sick and had... Changed, that he began to feel differently towards gravesites. Unable to be with his family since he had died, technically, but still kept tabs on them the best he could. His entire world crumbled to pieces when he learned that his little brother had died in his absence. Now his family had to deal with not one, but two losses.

Gerard was unable to attend the funeral, he wasn't buried. His mother had him cremated so he didn't even have a resting place for the older brother to visit. Sighing sadly, he spent time in the old cemetery the two used to hang out together at and just sat for a few moments in silence. What the hell had he been thinking? He had such a full life ahead of him, he had so many opportunities and things he had yet to experience. Gerard told him when he was ill that his sickness, his death couldn't stop him from living his life. That he had to keep going and remain strong, for the both of them. He promised. His death was so much worse than when Gerard discovered he wasn't completely dead, unable to interact with old friends and family now, but still walking on this Earth. Never once did he consider the possibility of how all this could affect him.

Mikey, his baby brother, had committed suicide not too long after Gerard had passed. His father had found him. Little Mikey Way, hanging from the closet in his older brother's bedroom. No one had known how long he was left there, they'd been out that day and when they returned home it wasn't what they expected to walk in on. He didn't scream upon finding his youngest son, it was so much of a shock that he was eerily silent until their mother came into the room cautiously because of whose room it was, before letting out the most blood curdling shriek their father had ever heard. Immediately rushing to her boy and trying to get him down, begging their father to help untie and free him but he remained still in the center of the bedroom.