Just Don't Burn Your Friends. xXx Prologue - Nine

[ricegrains&rosesxo.]

Prologue…//

I sat in the warmth, my Starbucks coffee clenched tightly in my fingers as the rain splattered the glass window beside me. My tattered leather jacket hung loose and dripping over the back of my chair, as my long black hair formed rats’ tails around my face.

A cold breeze strolled through the room as the door opened, the outside wind howling and the rain thumping the stone surfaces of the floor inside. I swivelled around in my chair, craning my neck to see some fluffy hair and rain-spotted spectacles hurry through the door. The new figure turned and sat down on the chair opposite me, wringing his brown hair out as he went.

‘Should of known where to find you!’ He exclaimed, pointing at the coffee still clasped in my hand. ‘What are you doing out alone? Mom’s been going up the wall, saying you could catch pneumonia or something’. His eyes swerved from my wet hair, down to my shaking limbs. ‘Looks like she was right…’ he added on, as a bit of an after thought.

‘Well, Mom’s normally right. Remember that time I told on you for putting a radio in the sink, and she said it could give you electric shock?’ I replied, starting to force a laugh under my breath.

‘Or that time I turned the microwave on with nothing in it and it exploded!’ my brother beamed, until he caught the serious ‘you-could-of-died’ expression spreading across my face. He dropped the subject of his near death experiences, and continued talking. ‘Please come home. Mom’s worried your not eating enough…’

‘Again?!?!’ I yelled. ‘She NEVER thinks I’m eating enough! Can’t she SEE the layers of fat over my stomach???’ I pointed to my chest, my finger slowly moving downwards. My brother looked disbelieving – was I the ONLY one who could see I was fat!?!?

‘And she wants to know what’s wrong with you… I want to know what’s wrong. You can tell me anything, y’know. What are you thinking about?’

‘Nothing really important’, I muttered, but he pressed the issue. ‘Okay, fine. I think we should do some talent hunting… let kids know it’s okay to be messed up, ‘cuz there’s five guys out there just as messed up as they are. ‘Cuz Mikey, I’m not okay.’

[decay;;]

Ooooooh.
SILLY GERARD!
Gifted teens are the messed up ones?
Haha.
I know plenty of messed up people that aren't gifted.
Just 'cos we are ^_^

Silly Gerard.
Go home and eat piiee.
Apple pie.
That wasn't cooked by Zoe in an attempt to please Ray, like in my old 'fic =]]
MORRRRRRRREEEEEE.
xox *SxPxF*

[ricegrains&rosesxo.]

Chapter 1…//
I hold the copyright to this name, kiddies =]

‘You all ready for this?’ I asked, my fingers pressing down a door handle. It would lead us into an old venue, where many young bands would be playing later on that evening. A banner with the name “A Bloodstained Betrayal” hung loosely off the top of the greying bricks swayed eerily over my head, as my fellow band mates nodded.

I pressed down, and entered. Waiting on the other side of the door was a man with greying, short hair, a think grey beard, and a crisp suit, with black and pointed shoes which looked like they should of belonged to an elf. He had brown and wrinkled skin, and golden-coated teeth which shone as the single beam of light burned his face through the crack in the door. I froze, transfixed. He looked… familiar… like I had seen him in a dream…

Frank pushed me aside, noticing that I had stopped. He led us all into the building, and up to, what appeared to be its owner. ‘Are you Mr Green?’ he asked, pointing casually at the figure in front of him.

The man replied in an icy voice like a slave drivers. ‘Yes. You here to see these kids perform tonight? ‘Cuz trust me, your wasting your time with the lot of them. They’re all rather… odd, to put it lightly.’ His words and tone of voice sent a shiver down my spine, causing me to seize up from head to toe.

‘Yeah, we’re sure’ Frank continued. His warm voice compared to the other mans frozen one caused me to relax again. ‘We think some of these kids might have, uh, just what we’re looking for.’

‘Fine. Then follow me, if you must’, came the mans steel cold answer, and he set off down the corridor, Frank following, Mikey grabbing my arm to get me moving.

[decay;;]

AHHHHHHHHH!
DEMONGREEN.
How come he gets to meet My Chem before us?
Nargghh.
We meet them in every fanfic =]]

BLINK 182 RIPPED OFF MIKEY.
As the song 'Sometimes' says...
"Sometimes I wanna take my toaster in the bath."
That's a Michael James Way thing to do!
Pfft.
Moving on...

Moress?
Or you get meeses on you.
Or moosi... mooses...
Apparently the plural is actually moose =]]
Hmmm.
Oh well.

MEEOOSSEESSII on Yazz (Foo Foo) if she doesn't write more soon =0
=]]
xox *SxPxF*

Ps. [Edit] Mr Green doesn't like us?
I CAN FEEL MY HEART BREAKING...!
*sighs 'cos she's going to use that old line again*
We're not odd,
We're just kids as messed up as My Chem =]]

[ricegrains&rosesxo.]

Chapter 2…//

We turned round a corner and entered a small, dark and cramped corridor. It smelt strongly of fish, an odour which always tried my stomach, but a stench my brother couldn’t live without. After all, he was a sushi addict.

A dim light emitted from the end of the corridor. I shivered, pulling my jacket closer around me face. We carried on walking and entered the room in front of us. It held a raised-up stage, a small dip in the centre of the room, and raised edges. I looked in every direction, amazed at the condition of the room – everything looked old and gothic, all the furnishings engraved with bats and thorns. There was a small noise issuing from one corner, sometimes suddenly stopping and then restarting again. I turned slowly around, rooted to the spot.

A pair of bright green eyes glowed from the darkest corner of the stage. They belonged to a small and mal-nourished girl, who, because of her extreme thinness and lack of height, looked no older than fourteen. Her pale face looked frozen and seemed to reflect the little light shining onto it, as her limp, black hair hung loosely around her face, orange streaks illuminating her face.. There seemed to be a variety of dark patches covering her arms and through her ripped black drainpipes. She sat, cross-legged, on the stage, clutching a guitar, with a pen and journal on one side, and a pencil case and sketchbook on the other. She was muttering under her breath, quickly and quietly, as if she was afraid of something. Sometimes she would put the guitar down and scrawl something in her journal, or make a few delicate shadings or lines in her sketchpad. Something about her made her seem almost unreal… as if she wasn’t even there at all. As if she was a ghost.

I stared, transfixed. I felt someone tugging my arm, and then a snarling voice drooled into my ear.

‘You looking at her?’
‘Yeah…’ I replied to our guide slowly, still gazing in her direction.
‘She’s a resident musician. Got a band headlining here tonight. She’s pretty good… considering the music she makes. And… she’s a bit… off, if you know what I mean.’

I didn’t answer him. She… she could be what we need. She could be the one.

‘I guess you could stick around for the show tonight, see her in action… for a small fee.’ He grinned broadly, selfishly, evilly, showing off many golden teeth. I threw a twenty dollar note at him, and he kissed it, and stalked away, leaving us to our own devices.

There was a clunk of the door as Mr Green left. Everything was silent… except the girl. She appeared to be tuning the guitar, and muttering the words ‘Allie, Loz, Zoe, Where are you’… repeatedly under her breath. She was shaking as the cold December air bit her skin, no whirring of radiators to be heard.

A creak. The door opened again. I whirled round, expecting to see that horrible Green man… but instead, two other girls entered, running onto the stage to the girl in the corner. Both had black hair, although one had long hair with green ends, and the other had shorter with red patches. The first had a backpack. They both were wrapped up in scarves and jackets, and held an assortment of instruments, ranging from microphones to drumsticks.

Two ear piercing shrieks filled the air. Crashes. I jumped, swerving around to the cause of the noise. The two knew girls had shrieked, and now continued a conversation with the former, not bothering to keep their voices down.

‘Yazz! You look frozen! Why did you come out without a jacket?!’ Exclaimed the long haired one.
’Loz, I…’ murmured Yazz, still sitting cross-legged on the floor, but another voice cut across her.
’Yazz, you shouldn’t be tuning Jimmy in this weather without gloves on! I mean, I know we’re pretty late, but still! Your hands, look!’ The second girl pointed at Yazz’s hands… and although I couldn’t see them, I knew they must be red raw.
‘Allie, I’m fine, it doesn’t hurt, I feel no pain or no cold…’ the first girl interjected, but the other two cut across her again.
‘You’re not going onstage tonight till you warm up. Zoe should be here in a minuet, we can ask her to bring another jacket…’

The two girls hoisted Yazz to her feet, where she nearly fell. The one named Loz shoved all her art equipment into her pack, as the one named Allie kicked all the instruments gently out of the way. They took an arm each, but Yazz screamed in pain. The two dropped her, and she collapsed to the floor… where she passed out.

I just couldn’t stand by and watch it any longer. I zipped open my jacket, ran over to the stage, and wrapped it carefully around the unconscious girl’s body. The other two just watched, as I picked the girl up and carried her over to Mikey, who was also looking anxious.

I could now tell what the marks on her arms were. Bruises, cuts and burns were spread unkindly across her skin.

The two girls followed me silently, and stood lurking in the shadows behind the rest of us. I sat down, on the floor, laying Yazz’s head in my lap. I looked down, and zipped up my jacket around her. I called out to her friends.

‘She’s gonna be fine’ I said, looking over at them. My hair flew from side to side. I felt something shudder… and looked down again immediately. Her eyelids were fluttering… and half-opened. She glanced up at me. The air seemed to catch in her throat, and tried to reach for the inhaler poking out from her top drainpipe pocket. I grabbed it, and pressed the can, releasing the oxygen. After a while, I took it away from her mouth.

‘Gerard Way…’ she whispered, too weak to move.
I nodded gently, and replied, just as quietly, ‘Yes’.
She passed out again in my arms.

[decay;;]

You stole Jimmy!
My Jimmy...
True though. Little red bastard needs tuning.
Aha, first there was Gerard the Bat King, then Demon Green...
And now there's Yazz the Psycotic Jelly Bear.
Don't know where that came from but alas!
Uh-huh.
MOOORREEEEE!
You're heads on Gerard's lap again.
Why is it always on Gerard's lap?!
Eeee.
Green is fucking creepy.
Yazz seems to be a druggie ^_^
EEEEEP.

Yes, more, now.
xoxox *SxPxF*

[ricegrains&rosesxo.]

Chapter 3…//

I felt a hand clasp over my shoulder. I could feel Mikey’s warm breath on the back of my neck, making the fine hairs stand on end. I could hear some encouraging words being whispered from Frank.

‘Go on, it’s okay, we aren’t going to hurt you…’ I could see Frankie holding out his hands from the corner of my eye.

There was a shuffle, and two girls sat beside me, one on either side, Frank next to what I remembered was Allie, and Mikey next to the one I remembered was Loz. I could see a nice auburn afro standing by the door with a small blonde head, awaiting the girl mentioned in the conversation.

I looked at the two girls beside me. They had gone as white as sheets, but nowhere near as white as the girl I was cradling in my arms. They looked worried and concerned, and an icy silence entered as they stared at their friend. I decided to try and make some conversation. But they beat me to it.

‘You… you’re Gerard Way’ Whispered Allie. ‘You’re in My Chemical Romance with Frank, Mikey, Ray and Bob. What’re you doing back here in NJ?’

‘Especially at this time of the year’, stuttered Loz.

I thought. There were so many reasons we were back in New Jersey. So I thought I’d list the one’s they’d believe most.

‘We had to go back and see Mom for a bit’ I said matter-of-factly. ‘And we gotta write some new stuff soon, and we’re going to tour for a bit. And we thought’ – The whole band glared at me – ‘well, I thought there would be something special going on here tonight… some people who might like to come with us’. I grinned, looked down at Yazz, then back at the two by my sides.

‘You mean… us?’ Asked Allie, surprised.

I nodded. ‘There seems to be something… something special about all of you guys. I thought maybe we could watch your show tonight and see how you do’.

‘We won’t let you down, Gerard’, came a small voice.

I looked down. Yazz was looking up at me, the corners of her mouth forming a slight smile, trying to move under the weight of my jacket. I brushed her hair away with my fingers and picked her up as I stood myself.

‘The show’s gonna start in about forty minuets’ I said, pointing at the watch on my brothers wrist. I unzipped Yazz from my jacket, and set her down gracefully on the floor. I turned, as if to go, and motioned for My Chem to follow. Then I hung back.

‘Good luck’, I whispered into Yazz’s ear, giving her an encouraging wink. She nodded face set, determined.

I walked away to the comforts of backstage, where we would wait before the show.
I was pretty certain I heard some wooping and joyful crying emerging from the room behind me, and Yazz’s mouth.

[decay;;]

Ooooooerrrr.
A wink for Gerard's dear Foo-Foo.
Awww.
Yazz is alliivvee.
Ooooh. I'm a 'what' not a 'who' now.
Lmeo.
M-O-R-E.

xoxox *SxPxF*

[ricegrains&rosesxo.]

Chapter 4…//

The time had come. The previous bands had been okay, but here was the main event. I waited, with breath baited, for them to arrive.

A red guitar flashed onstage to cheers. Holding it was it’s owner, Allie. She strummed and nodded. Another girl walked onstage and put a bass round her neck, twirling it steadily on the floor. Loz nodded to Allie. A new girl entered through a door in the back wall and took a seat at the drum kit, and threw some sticks up into the air. And then we waited.

She walked onstage, black and orange head bobbing above our own, drainpipes clinging to her legs as she stood behind her microphone. The crowd cheered, and I, standing at the front, watched Yazz’s every move with care.

The quartet broke into an explosive first song which had the crowd cheering for more. After an ending of “And you’ll never take me alive!”, Yazz punched the air with her fist, and screamed into her phone, ‘And a big fucking hello to you too, New Jersey! We’re A Bloodstained Betrayal, playing for our home city tonight. We’ve made a few changes to tonight’s set list, to honour our new guests here.’ She beamed at me. ‘We’ll be doing three cover songs, as well as a few of our own, and if you know the words I want you to sing along as loud as you possibly can!’

She turned around to face her band. She lifted her arms in the air – and Allie started strumming the first notes of a riff I knew so well. Skylines and Turnstiles. The crowd was whooping and yelling the lyrics right back into her face. Next came one of the bands original songs, which seemed to be a slower, melodic tune at the beginning, but exploded into a heavy and fast, sweet chorus. The crowd was going wild, and some serious moshing was taking place behind me, while a few of the audience tried to get up on stage. Then came another of our own songs – Our Lady of Sorrows. Yazz was screaming through the whole song – ‘I can’t hear you, New Jersey!’ she yelled, holding out her microphone to the audience around her. She was running from one end of the stage to the other, leading the crowd on. She had them in the palm of her hand… it was so amazing. She seemed to have transformed from the ghost she was earlier.

The last song of the show neared. I hadn’t forgotten that the small girl leading this huge event had said they’d be playing three of our songs tonight… they had only played two. I was prepared for their final song – our final song.

Yazz was panting. She nodded at Allie, who prepared Jimmy for one, final time. And she strummed. She chords trickled out, slow and solemn – the notes for Demolition Lovers. Then Yazz sang gently:

“Hand in mine,
Into your icy blues,
And then I take you,
We could take to the highway,
“With this trunk of ammunition, too,
I’d end my days with you,
In a hail of bullets…”

She was standing right in front of me, eyes wide and beaming. She was holding out her hand. I knew what she wanted.

I took it, trembling. I had never been a number one fan at a concert before, and I was glad that it was this one that changed things. She pulled me on stage, and I sang with her.

“I’m trying,
I’m trying to let you know just how much you mean to me,
And after,
All the things we put each other through

And I would drive on to the end with you
A liquor store or two
Keeps the gas tank full
And I feel like there's nothing left to do
But prove myself to you
And we'll keep it running…”

The crowd exploded with applause after the song. We all bowed, and ran off backstage, Allie and Loz carrying amps and instruments,, the girl I figured out to be Zoe some drumsticks, and Yazz her microphone.

The three taller girls formed a tight and screaming hug around the smallest. Yazz was squished in the middle uncomfortably, while they all screamed ‘We did it! I can’t believe we did it! They liked us!’ at the top of their voices. Eventually they all let go… and I edged towards Yazz. I was so excited about that nights performance, I threw my arms around her neck. I couldn’t help myself.

‘You guys were brilliant!’ I exclaimed, refusing to release her… but then I realised. She was hugging me back.

‘Gerard, we couldn’t of done it without you!’ She had tears in her eyes, and buried her face in my jacket. It felt… good. Strange, but very, very good… like someone actually cared about me, besides my family and the few friends I had known for years cared about me… like there was a special bond between us… ‘Thank you so much! Oh my God, thank you, all of you!’

I stroked her hair. ‘Shh, calm, you did great, Yazz, breath…’ Somehow, my voice seemed to have an effect on her. She stopped crying, and looked up at me. Her eyes were glistening, but now she looked upset. And I knew why.

‘Yazz, don’t worry…’ I started, but she cut across me, crying again.

‘We’ll never see you again!’ She wailed. ‘We had our one great show… and now we’ll all be hated by everyone again…’

‘No, you won’t’ I smiled. She and her friends still didn’t know what I and my band did.

‘How do you know?’ She sniffed.

‘Because you’re coming with us’. By this point, I was kneeling down, so my greenish, hazelish eyes drilled right into her own green ones. I was clutching her shoulders, making her look at me. ‘You’re all coming with us. We’re taking you on the road next week.’

She looked too shocked to be described. Her eyes widened, jaw dropped… and I could feel her band members eyes boring into the back of my neck, as they were just as shocked as she was.

‘You really mean this?’ She whispered, eyes glowing.

‘Of course…’ I replied, even quieter than her.

It was Yazz’s turn to throw her arms around someone’s neck. She latched onto me, and I stood up. She hung off of my neck. I whipped her legs round and stood, carrying her to all the others. The pale figures of Loz, Allie and Zoe squealed, and pulled each other into a tight hug around us. I could see Frank and Mikey walking over to us too and joining in the embrace, followed by Ray and Bob.

I thought that that was the best feeling in the world.
I didn’t want it to end.
I didn’t think it could.

But how wrong I was.

[decay;;]

OOOOOOHHH.
Yeah, Jimmy's moment of fame.
I tuned him a few minutes ago.
But now everything I play sounds ghey.
I really should find out how to tune properly =]]
Anywhore.
I thought Gerard was proposing
Though technically it's the same thing.
For us.
The fans that love My Chem so much,
That we're playing you a tribute concert for your birthday,
And dressing up as the band for halloween.
JOWKES. Lmeo.

The chicken heads!
Orange && Peroxide.
MOOORRREEEE.
xoxox *SxPxF*

[ricegrains&rosesxo.]

Chapter 5…//

The morning of the 3rd January dawned crisp and cold. I was still rather hung over from the New Years Eve party Frank had held a few days ago. My head was throbbing, and I was occasionally sick, but it was all worth it. I felt like I was on a high.

I tumbled out of bed, causing my bedroom floor to shake. Mikey and I were staying with our parents, and I was once again in my dark and dingy bedroom, one beam of light trickling onto my face, comics strewn across the floor, antidepressants littering my desk and bats watching my every move. I pulled on some clean clothes, a pair of drainpipes and a t-shirt, and attacked my hair with a brush. I was swaying from side to side, and poked myself in the eye – with brush and hair spray.

‘Ow!’ I yelled out, drunkenly kicking over a chair in my rage.

I could hear Mikey hurry across the landing, coming to see what I’d done.

‘Gerard… what’s happened?’ he asked cautiously, sitting me down on my bed. I felt dizzy and ill and forgetful.

‘I… I don’t know…’ I started, gazing around at my room. The brush and hair spray lay at my feet.

‘Well, we need to go now.’ He picked up the suitcase next to him, and then picked up my own. ‘Are you sober enough to walk or do I need to give you a piggy back?’

‘I think I can manage’, I replied, bringing myself to my feet. I swayed, and toppled over and fell to the floor, but stood up again immediately. I grabbed my pills off of my desk, stroked the nearest bat goodbye, and followed Mikey out of my bedroom.

He threw our cases into the back of a van. I climbed into the backseat, and fastened my seatbelt. Mikey sat in front of me, and started the engine. Mom was standing out the front door, crying, waving a hanky at us. God, it was embarrassing.

Mikey drove off to where we were meeting everybody else. I felt like being sick. I threw my head out of the window, bracing for the vomit to spill out my mouth.

We went over a speed bump. My head was knocked upwards, and I puked. I drew my head back inside the van before my own sick could land on my head.

The van was grinding to a halt. We were outside a car park, just on the edge of New Jersey. There, in the centre, was ten figures and a medium sized tour bus.

Mikey threw our cases out the back of the van, opened my door and pulled me out. I nearly fell over, but grabbed his shoulder to stop myself.

‘You aren’t still drunk, are you?’ I could hear Frank shouting at me from were he was standing. I nodded.

My brother dragged me towards them. My feet didn’t want to move. I saw Allie and Zoe chatting to a new figure I’d never seen before. Ray and Bob were loading our cases onto the bus, Frank trying to help, but his height was making it difficult. At one point, he was clinging onto the bonnet of the bus for dear life, and his jeans were slowly slipping. Ray noticed and shouted at him.

‘You showing your butt man!? No, get down from there!’ He picked Frank from round the waist and carried by a fireman’s lift into the bus.

Loz and Yazz were sitting on a bench in a cluster of trees. Yazz had her head in her hands, and Loz was patting her. Something was wrong. I could see more marks across her arms that hadn’t been there when she had performed. Loz was whispering in her ear, and Yazz sat up and shrugged.

I gasped. She had fresh cuts across her forehead, some of which were still bleeding. She had a new burn on her cheek and a bruise on the side of her neck. Her eyes were glistening and tears mingled with the blood that was falling from her face. Her black and orange hair was matted with blood.

‘Gerard! We have to go!’ Mikey was calling to me from the bus. I only just realised how long I’d been lingering, and hurried off towards him. Loz and Yazz were starting to walk, too. I couldn’t help but notice that both of them had a slight limp, although Yazz’s was more obvious.

I knew I had to find out what had happened. There was a roaring in my chest that I couldn’t explain… I just knew that I would take sweet revenge on those who wronged her… on those who wronged me.

[decay;;]

Oooo.
Some more batkingness.
Stroking the bats goodbye.
Gaawwdd.
Eheh heh.
Hmmm.
A few days after new year.
My birthday is drawing closer ^_^

Poor Yazzay! Poor Loz!
Foo Foo got beated up?
Poor Foo Foo.
That Frank bit seemed oddly familliar
Haha, one of my favourite parts of the whole LOTMS DVD.
Except for Our Lady Of Sorrows.
That's amazinngg.

But enough about that,
As there's not another Chapterr 6!
GET ON IT!
MOORREEE.
NOOOWW!
xoxox *SxPxF*

[ricegrains&rosesxo.]

Chapter 6…//

‘Gerard, this is Joe’. We were seated on the tour bus, and Allie was introducing me to her good friend and manager for the band. Yazz and Loz were still walking over.

We shook hands, and smiled. ‘You chose the right band to manage’ I said, grinning. Joe returned the grin and walked off the bus, to try and get Loz and Yazz in safely.

The three of them clambered up the steps, Yazz and Loz immediately collapsing onto the sofa in the medium-sized living room. They didn’t bother flicking on the tv, or taking out their Mp3s – Loz fell asleep almost as soon as she sat down, and Yazz was just staring at the blank space in front of her.

The sun was setting blood-red over the parking lot as the tour bus began to move. It had been a long day for us all, and everyone was sleeping in the bunk room. Everyone except Loz and Yazz, who were still alone on the couch. I saw this as my chance to get to know Yazz even more… and find out what happened to her.

I pretended I was getting a drink out of the fridge in the kitchen, right next to the living room. I walked past, trying to make as much noise as possible. Yazz was sitting, alone, knees bought up to her chin. She jumped when she heard me, and turned to look at the cause of the noise. She was shaking, eyes darting from side to side in there sockets.

I got two frozen bottles of WKD Blue out of the fridge, and slowly went to sit by Yazz, who had dark circles starting to form under her bright green eyes. Drawing closer, I could see tearstains over the suede seats. Her fingers were twiddling with thin air, and she didn’t seem to notice that I sat next to her.

I put the bottles down. I turned to face the girl beside me, and put my hand carefully on her shoulder. She jumped, and looked at me, gone whiter than usual. Her breathing slowed when she realised it was me. And she smiled.

‘Yazz… are you okay?’ I asked slowly and quietly, my eyes boring into hers. I wanted to know the truth. Something… something made me want to know everything I could possibly imagine about her.

‘I’m… I’m… bleh…’ she stuttered. ‘I think’.
‘Your “bleh”. Explain.’ I smiled, and I noticed the corners of her mouth twist into a smile as well.
“I… there’s… doesn’t matter’. She stood up. Pills, clear plastic bags full of a bizarre substance, a drawing and a photograph fell to the floor. I grabbed her hand, and she froze. Tears were streaming down her face.

‘Please stay’, I whispered, kindly dragging her back into a sitting position.

She sat again, and our eyes met. She read my thoughts, just as I had read hers at the gig.

‘Gerard… I’m going to tell you everything. Everything that I know.’

[decay;;]

Ooooh!
Cliffhanger!
Amazing. As always, famous Yasmin, writer of all good fanfiction.
Joe, a manager? That'll be the day
Oh, sneaky Gerard, my oh my. WKD Blue? Eeek.
You're like a little psyco in this one aren't you =]]
Moreee.
Wehn you come back from Tescoos.
xoxox *SxPxF*

[ricegrains&rosesxo.]

Chapter 7…//
Yazz’s POV

‘The people back in New Jersey… they make it a rough place to live for me’. I took a deep breath. Here I was, explaining to Gerard Way about my personal problems. I could here my breath quicken – I never thought I would tell anyone else except Loz, Allie and Zoe what I was about to tell him. And I was glad I was going to tell him.

‘What’s happened?’ He asked quietly, taking in everything I was doing, from twiddling with my hair to looking down at my feet.

I took a deep breath.

‘One day, me, Loz, Allie and Zoe, a guy named Carl and a girl called Tasha were walking through a park in NJ’ I started. ‘We were walking along, talking about Iron Maiden, art, us being stupid, stuff like that. We sat down by the pond. It was nearing sunset. We were about to leave – our part of New Jersey was too dangerous, it’s very poor, a very crime ridden area. We stood up, but I heard something. Something like a gang of drunken teens… and I froze. I stayed rooted to the spot. Of course, Loz asked me what was wrong and I told her all of it. She told all our other friends. I had the best hearing, and they trusted me… except Tasha.
She thought she knew what she was doing. She started shouting about, yelling at me. I was embarrassed and ashamed – but at that moment, a huge gang of men and women ran at us from all directions. All of them were smoking, and they all looked between sixteen and twenty. I screamed at my friends to run and hide, and we all tried. We ran to behind the nearest hedge, and the nearest wall – but they cornered us.
Carl tried to stop them getting to us, but they smacked him with bottles and baseball bats and knives and all sorts of things till he passed out, bleeding from everywhere imaginable. Then they came after us. They pinned us down and hit us, then dragged us back to the edge of the lake, next to Carl. They struck matches and burnt our skin and lit our hair. We all screamed, writhing in pain… it hurts even to think about it. Then…’ I choked up, tears concealing my airways.

Gerard placed a warm hand on my own cold one. I leapt out of my skin. It felt extremely good… like a warm fire spreading from him to me.

‘Yazz… it’s okay… you can stop there if you want to…’

I shook my head. I was now determined to make him understand.

‘They were standing around us, in front of us, behind us. They were growling, like rabid dogs. Then… one of them took out a long, curving knife. He was standing behind Tasha. And… and he bought it down, through the middle of her head. And he threw her body in the pond. Her screams of pain still ring through my ears at night sometimes. I could feel the air catching in my throat as tears fell from my eyes and I ached from the pain already inflicted to me. But I could hear them shuffling. They were going to do more. And then I realised they had stopped. I glanced around through the corners of my eyes, and noticed none of the other captors were holding a knife.
And I realised. I braced myself for my final breaths, and wrote the words “Goodbye, and enjoy life without me” in the soft ground around where I was kneeling. I felt a white hot pain across the back of my neck, and I toppled forward to the ground, writhing in my own blood and tears, drowning in darkness.
I woke up in hospital a month and a half later, and found out I had been in a coma since that night. I found out Tasha was dead. But that’s not all I found out.
A doctor came to see me in hospital. It was his duty to tell me I’d never be the same again – when my captor sliced the back of my neck, he cut through some important chords in my brain. They had taken me into surgery while I was out, but it did no good. For the rest of my life, I’d be jumpy, shaky and have schizophrenia. I’d have a split personality, acting happy and joyful one minuet upset for no reason the next. And I have these dreams – dreams that confuse me to which world is reality, the one I’m living in, or the one I’m dreaming. Also, they told me that the person who had saved my life had run off afterwards without a trace – I would never know who I owed my life to.
The night I came home from hospital, my family shouted. It was my fault one of my friends had died. It was my fault we’d been caught. It was my fault I would have mental problems for the rest of my life. And ever since then, they’ve picked on me. But not as bad as some people…’ I stopped for a minuet. Silence. I pointed to the burns on my arms. ‘Kids at school… they seem to have it in for girls like me. I seem to get it the worst though… the pills and the… other stuff is the only way to get through it all…’

I was crying fast and hard. I was unable to talk. I felt Gerard put a caring arm around my shoulder, whispering quietly into my ear.

‘Yazz… shh, it’s okay, nobody will hurt you now, you have me… I mean, you have me and Loz and Allie and Zoe and Frank and Mikey and everyone… but can I ask you just… one thing?’

I nodded, sipping my drink quickly and burying my face into his shoulder.

‘Could you tell me… the name of this park you were in?’ He asked it quietly, sensitively.

I shook my head, but picked up a pack of post-it notes and a pen off of the coffee table in front of me and wrote, my hands shaking tremendously. I passed it to him, still crying. Then I worked up some courage.

‘You know, Gerard…’ I sniffed, but that night he never found out what I was going to say, as I collapsed, exhausted and unconscious, head landing gently on his lap.

Back to Gerard’s POV, where it belongs =P

I looked down at her sleeping form. She had been through so much for her mere sixteen years of age. I couldn’t help but admire her even more. I argued with myself for a while. I won my battle after about five minuets. I looked around, and slowly went down. I brushed her hair away from her face… and kissed her smoothly on the lips. I smiled, brushed her hair behind her pale and bony ear and then looked at the note she gave me.

I gasped. In very shaky, unsteady handwriting, read the words “West Hudson Park”.

[decay;;]

TASHA!!
NOOO! NOT TASHA!
WHY TASHA! SHE'S TOO COOL TO BE DEAD

Ohmygawd. That's horrible. Bastards.
West Hudson Park? Oooh.
I can guess what happens next but I won't say it just so I can have bragging rights afterwards.
Poor Yazz =[[
Your heads on his lap again, I swear you're doing it on purpose now =]]
*cries*

Moreee =[[
xoxox *SxPxF*

[ricegrains&rosesxo.]

The first long awaited chapter…
Chapter 8…//
Part one of three

A bang. A swerve. A crash.

I flung my arms over Yazz’s unconscious body, trying to protect her. From what, I didn’t know.

I felt the bus shake. I tried to look up, but found it impossible, as G-forces were threatening to break my neck. We were going head over heals through the air, bouncing along the concrete road.

I felt the bus stop. Joe came running out from the front of the bus, screaming hysterically. I hitched Yazz over my shoulder, and went to wake the others.

I could feel the heat in the bus increasing as I approached the door to the bunk room. I opened it, nearly scolding my hand. The force of the crash seemed to have woken everybody… except Yazz.

A gasp was drawn painfully from behind me. I turned around, and motioned for everybody to follow me, as their faces looked blank and scared. I lay Yazz down on the couch. She grabbed my wrist, eyes wide.

‘Gerard, we have to get out of here, we have to, the bus… the bus…’ she was choking through long, rattling breaths.

‘The bus is what, Yazz… what’s going to happen…’

‘The bus is going to explode!’

[decay;;]

Oooooh shit.

[ricegrains&rosesxo.]

Chapter 8…//
Part two of three

‘SHIT! Everybody get the fuck out of here!’ I screamed. I glanced at a window – it was covered in fire. Yazz was whimpering quietly, and Allie, Loz and Zoe looked horror-struck.

‘You heard what Gerard said, move!’ yelled Frank and Mikey in unison. Everybody started to run off the bus at all available exits, and through the fire coating the outside. I turned to Yazz.

‘Yazz, everything’s going to be okay, everything’s going to be fine… we’re going to make it out of here…’ I was kneeling on the floor, looking her in the eye. She nodded, and breathed in her inhaler. Everybody else was off the bus.

‘You ready?’ I asked, helping her to her feet. She nodded.

The ground shook, hurtling us up into the air and down to the floor. Yazz lay clutching her ankle, staring at the fire progressing through the doors of the bus.

‘Shit…’ I whispered. Once the fire reached our fridge, and all my beautiful beers, this bus would explode. All exits were trapped by fire. The two of us would be blown to smithereens.

Yazz was now crying. I knew that something must be rising in her subconscious, something that she couldn’t fully remember, and it was bringing back the trauma of when she was thirteen… the trauma I only knew a bit of, and now knew so well…

I glanced at a window. It had not been totally engulfed by fire… yet. And it was right next to the highway. But I knew it was our only chance.

I ran up to it, smashing the melting glass with my elbow. I felt the shards scrape my face and fly all around me. I ran back to Yazz, and threw her over my shoulder.

And I ran. Oh, how I ran.

I launched myself at the window, twisting in midair to get the two of us out safely. We landed in a heap, with a thud on the hard concrete.

A pair of dazzling lights was speeding towards us. I thought we were doomed. Although, somehow I managed to muster the strength, and drag us both out of the road and harms way just in time to avoid the car which threatened our lives.

I sunk into the grass. Yazz lay unconscious next to me. Finally, it was over. I clasped my hand over hers, and looked up into the stars… it made me feel dizzy… I clutched Yazz’s hand for support… the sky went black…

[decay;;]

Awww
Poor Yazz.
Poor Gerard.
Poor beers ^_^
MOREEEEE.
RIGHT NOWWW.
xoxox *SxPxF*