we pull apart the dark

chapter five

First Gerard got sick, he "died" and then became a vampire. And now he was able to stick his hands through a person that might not even be a person. What was his life now?

"You can't.. You can't run off if I tell you, okay? Promise me that nothing will change once I explain." Frank finally responded, accepting defeat and completely ready to crawl into a hole below the Earth's surface for the rest of time if this went south. Just like his corpse.

"Kind of ominous, but I guess you have my word." Gerard answered, crossing over his heart with one hand while he held the other up, palm facing Frank with a dorky smile which only made him scoff and roll his eyes. Though it did help ease the tension a bit.

Frank moved his finger closer towards the toad that had yet to hop away, as if he could touch him, he wanted to be able to, and watched when Gerard's hand then came into view, picking the amphibian up gently and held him in front of Frank. "Stop stalling." Gerard coaxed with a slight smirk, noting his hesitance before he set the toad back in the grass away from Frank's eye.

A frustrated whine had escaped Frank's throat, this was weird. "Okay, fine. So. I might not exactly be...Alive?" It came out sounding more like a question, never having said any of this aloud. He never had to explain it, just accepted it himself. He kept his eyes cast downwards as he spoke. "No, I'm definitely not. And uh, ha yeah. I've never had to actually say this out loud. Or to someone. It sounds so ridiculous, oh my God. So, I'm sort of. Trapped here? In this cemetery... As a, um.. As a ghost."

"Wait so, you're dead?" Gerard asked, not sounding afraid but sounding rather excited. His curiosity had peaked with this new information, fingers crossing that it wasn't a lie because this was so... Cool to Gerard, he really wished Mikey had still been around to hear about this. He would've been blown away about the fact that his brother had somehow befriended an actual ghost. Disregarding the fact that he himself was a vampire. "Like, Casper?"

That comment earned a glare from the boy. Which made Gerard laugh, grinning smugly at him.

"Yes. I'm dead. No, I'm not like Casper."

Gerard was just staring now, eyes bugging out a bit. He was so fascinated and had hundreds of questions.

"Okay, so. Wait. Does that mean you're just.. Things can go-" He stopped talking and waved a hand through Frank's arm, a smile tugging at the corner of his lips now when his hand went through. A different experience this time. "..Through you, heh, yeah. Wow." He finished, earning another glare from the boy.

"You don't know how badly I wish I could slap you right now." Frank muttered through gritted teeth. "You already knew the answer to that because your hand went through my chest not even ten minutes ago!" He shouted with a huff, crossing his arms.

"But I was able to kick a tree a few days ago." He murmured a bit offhandedly, still puzzled on how that had happened.

That seemed to catch Gerard's attention, though. Eyes all wide and interested, mouth agape. "Whoa, really? That's so cool! When? Has that happened before?" He was asking way too many questions at once but he couldn't help it. Kind of glad now he never had the opportunity to ask Frank about coming to visit his place. Probably saved them an awkward encounter and possible fight with misunderstandings.

Frank rolled his eyes again, he couldn't say that Gerard's excitement was irritating, but he wasn't too fond of it. But, he was glad he wasn't afraid of him or treating him that much differently. At least, he wasn't yet. Sighing before he responded.

"Yes, really. No, it's never happened before. It happened while you were away. I was kind of upset. And it just happened. I'm still not sure how."