Antichrist (Frerard)

19: Good News - Nobody Dies In This Chapter, In Fact, Kind Of The Opposite

The record store felt empty without Ray, and yet somehow, Mikey still couldn't help but gravitate to the place, and he often found himself wasting away many a night inside the now abandoned establishment.

Perhaps he should have continued on the business, and maybe that would have been what Ray would have wanted, but he couldn't be happy in this place - it just felt empty, it just brought despair and quite honestly, without Ray and that stupid fucking smile of his, Mikey felt lost, and really, the only thought he had to comfort himself in his lonely silence was that at the very least, Mikey had tried to save him.

Even if Mikey's attempts had been what had done the deed in the end, at least he'd tried to make things right, even if it wasn't exactly by the most lawful of means, Mikey had loved Ray, and Mikey had tried, and he reckoned that should have been enough, but nothing was ever quite that good, and the secret to self composure simply lay in the art of lying to yourself.

But perhaps it was only lying that had brought Ray to his grave: well, cheating, per say, but it was just as horrible, and Mikey could apologise for a thousand years but he'd still never be able to make it up to Ray, and now Ray was gone, he could never even try.

Trying was worth for something, and perhaps, some would even say that trying was everything - Mikey would disagree, of course, but perseverance was something he had to admire. The vampire was never at all good at holding on to things he should have: he let people go too easily and for all the wrong reasons, and now he was nothing but sentenced to a life of fucking people up.

It was just that unlike Gerard, he could never enjoy it.

This lifestyle, this fucking murder scene of a lifestyle was practically made for Gerard, and Mikey would perhaps even go as far as to say that it was all his older brother had ever wanted, but practically the opposite could be said for Mikey, and perhaps the younger should have prided himself on the morals and good heartedness that separated him from his cold and manipulative brother, but right now, he didn't fucking care about being special, he didn't even fucking care about being good, and he cared even less about being him.

Mikey Way just wanted to be okay.

But it rather seemed like God wasn't listening, not that God would even consider listening to the pleading cries of vampires and the general scum of the earth. Perhaps it was better if he was just left alone, and perhaps he would learn to cope some day, maybe even one day he could walk down this alleyway without stopping and bursting into tears as his feet took control and forced him into the record store that held far more meaning to him than anything ever should.

But he'd call that a long shot at the very least.

"Mikey?" And then within seconds, just as the silence was broken, everything that ever meant anything faded back away into the general state of nothing that hung over the room that the vampire found himself sat cross-legged in the middle of.

"Are you okay?" The voice tried again, footsteps creaking with the floorboards as the door slammed shut and they moved across the room, stopping within centimetres of Mikey, who still hadn't thought to open his eyes, and perhaps he was even scared, and it was likely, but unlikely for him to ever admit it.

He was a fucking vampire, and vampires never got scared.

"Mikey, come on? Listen to me! Just look at me. Acknowledge my presence in one way or another at the very least!" They exclaimed, their tone of voice raising and lowering like an untrustworthy rollercoaster as Mikey continued to be stubborn in his refusal of acknowledgement, and eventually, they just sat down with him.

And, almost in result, the whole room began to shake - almost a paranormal kind of shaking, and in a town like this, it really wasn't something to be overlooked, but thankfully, it was over within ten seconds, and nothing but a picture framed on the opposite wall fell and broke.