we pull apart the dark

chapter six

That was a pretty simple question, wasn't anything Frank couldn't handle. He already knew he'd be letting Gerard down with most of his answers, if all the questions were like this.

"Not really. I mean, I can eavesdrop like a pro now but that's because I'm basically invisible to everyone, except you for some reason. And I'm still not sure why." He trailed off then, looking the other direction. How could Gerard see him? What made him so special?

"Oh, well I read that people who are more open and accepting of unnatural things are usually able to interact with entities that others can't." Which was true, Gerard did read that. But felt deep down that him being a vampire somehow played a part in being able to see his ghost friend.

"So I'm an entity to you, now?"

The boy sneered with a smirk. It seemed believable enough for Frank though, shrugging it off as nothing for now. The guy was weird, anyways. He was excited that his friend was a ghost and spent his time in graveyards with his brother for fun. What normal kid does that?

"Yeah, okay moving on. Um, so I don't really know how to put this delicately and you had to know I was gonna ask." He began, showing his teeth in an attempt of a fairly weak smile before he continued. "How exactly, did you uh, how did you die, Frank?"

There it was, the question he'd been dreading. No beating around the bush with Gerard, apparently. He always seemed to be pretty up front about everything. Frank sighed, playing with his hands in his lap before he spoke up.

"Let's get this straight, this isn't some boo-hoo, feel bad for me sob story. Okay? No feeling bad for me just because I'm dead or because of how I died."

Gerard agreed, nodding his head and putting the notebook aside despite how badly he wanted to take notes on this. Frank wasn't a science experiment, he couldn't treat him like one. Frank was his friend, sharing something personal with him now.

"Okay, so.. This is kind of a long story. I could make it short but because you're such a pain in the ass, I know you're gonna want every detail." Scowling at his friend when he nodded with a shy grin before he continued.

"I wasn't exactly a model citizen when I was growing up. I acted out a lot and made a lot of bad decisions, solely to be liked by others. Typical, huh? Anyways, I got into drinking and smoking really young.. Along with stealing and the occasional vandalism. Thinking nothing of it, because a lot of people do those things are fine. I think my smoking was the worst of it because I got addicted real fast and couldn't go very long without a cigarette. I should've realized when I developed bronchitis that something wasn't right. How it never fully went away, was always lingering. I still smoked, didn't drink as much anymore but I wouldn't turn anything down at a party, either."

Gerard was listening intently and it was nice. He didn't look like he was going to interrupt, he didn't look like he was going to start writing this information down, either. He was just listening to Frank, all of his attention on him entirely.

"Um, so at some point I caught pneumonia. I didn't have the strongest immune system to begin with, so that wasn't much of a shock. I got sick a lot, but never anything this severe. But it was really bad, I had issues breathing a lot and because of the pneumonia, doctors didn't seem too worried. I kept hacking up all this disgusting crap and had a constant fever, but they just told us that was normal with pneumonia. I started taking care of myself a bit better, or my mother started taking better care of myself for me. But I still didn't cut out smoking." A slight laugh passing his lips then, shrugging like "What can ya do?"

"It lasted for awhile. I don't think it ever went away, actually. Things just progressively got worse, my mom was extremely worried. We went to a bunch of different doctors just to get other opinions. She practically babied me from the moment I got sick, but she did as it is. I was her world." A sad smile on the boy's face now, making Gerard frown and his stomach twist.