Frank

My first impression of Gerard was that he was beautiful in the most heart breaking, forlorn, tortured way.

I was scared of the King and everything about him from the moment I’d seen him and I’d done as exactly as my Keeper had trained me to do as I sat in the back of the car. We’d driven through the wrought iron gates up the steep hill to the palace that lay on the edge of the cliff with the sea and beach beneath it. I’d been taken indoors and immediately put into Gerard’s room. I’d been instructed to wait there until Gerard came back.

I was confused. I’d thought the King had bought Ray for Gerard and yet here I was, sat in his bedroom waiting for him.

I passed my time by thinking about Ray, wondering if he was here.

Even if I wasn’t chained to one of the posts of Gerard’s bed, I wouldn’t have dared gotten up and looked around. I kept my eyes on the door, waiting and sat on the edge of the bed, the collar around my neck itching the skin raw.

The door finally cracked open. Gerard slowly stepped inside and my breath caught in my throat at
how beautiful he was.

He was much taller than me-but then again, so is everybody- and had a slim body swamped in a baggy black t-shirt that was splattered with paint and tight as hell skinny jeans. I noticed that his jeans were dripping with blood and his hands were dried with crimson.

His skin was completely white and his hair was raven black and stopped at his jawline in thick strands. His eyes were a smouldering hazel colour and his lips were dark and perfectly shaped.

His eyes held sorrow and angst and his face was devastated.

He stood there looking at me and then swallowed. I watched him as headed straight over to me and unchained me from the bed and unfastened the collar around my neck.

“You must be Frank,” he said in a hoarse, croaky voice. “I’m sorry I look like a mess at the minute. I…”

I felt my heart soften as he trailed off, clearly upset and hurt.

He cleared his throat and stepped back from me, taking a deep breath. “I don’t expect anything from you Frank. I’m not like the others. I wouldn’t dare hurt anyone like they do.”

I kept my mouth shut, afraid that if I spoke it would be total bullshit and make no sense.

Gerard scratched the back of his neck awkwardly, his eyes on the floor. “I uh, don’t have any rules or anything like that. I think it’s complete shit. I treat everyone as an equal but I only ask one thing from you. I don’t want you to go anywhere in the palace except my room or my office or my library.
If you go anywhere on your own you’d be in danger of running into my family.”

“Thank you,” I managed to whisper.

His lips pulled up into a half smile, his face still sad and upset. “It’s OK. Look, I’ll need to go get changed out of these clothes and then we can talk some more.”

He went over to a door pulled it open stepping inside and shutting it again. I stayed where I was and waited for him.

When he returned he was wearing another pair of black skinny jeans and another paint splattered t-shirt, this time a faded grey colour.

He gave me that same sad half smile before making his way over to me.

“I’ll show you my office and library if you want,” he offered.

I nodded my head and got up, following him out of the room.

When we reached his office the first thing I noticed about it was that every inch of wall was covered in paintings. Some of them didn’t make sense and were just random burst of creativity, but other were clearly pictures. There were random people, vampires and ghost and werewolves. I looked up to see gravestones and stormy skies and skulls painted in blacks, whites and greys. There were bats and dragons and other random creatures amongst the midst of the paintings. My eyes were drawn to a new spectacle everywhere I looked.

Gerard smiled when he noticed me looking at the bizarre and fascinating walls. “Do you like it?”

I nodded. “It’s amazing. Did you do all of it?”

He blushed a little, looking down and scratching the back of his neck again. “Yeah.”

He walked over to perch on the edge of his desk, drawing a cigarette from a carton on the desk and lighting it quickly. I stared in fascination at the smoke that swirled around his head.

“Do you want a seat?” he asked, gesturing to one of the overstuffed armchairs placed by his desk.

I lowered myself onto the seat.

“Shit, I feel like I’m being way to formal about all of this,” he mumbled. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine,” I told him and out of nowhere I got the courage to speak to him properly. “I thought I was going to get fucked up the minute I met my owner.”

He smiled sadly again, shaking his head. “Probably would’ve happened too if hadn’t of been me. And I’m not your owner Frank. You’re not a toy and you’re not below me. We’re the same.”

I shook my head in disbelief. “You must be the only vampire who thinks that.”

He laughed bitterly. “I am. Everyone else thinks I’m insane but I’m just the only one who actually sees what’s going on here. I’m the only one who sees how fucking corrupt everything is.”

Gerard sucked heavily on his cancer stick, exhaling the smoke lazily through the side of his mouth. He looked up at me and sighed.

“I want us to be friends Frank. I’ve treated all humans like my friend. I hate that you’re used like
this. I don’t want you to think that you ever have to act like you were trained to. But I’m just… I’m scared for you Frank.”

“What?”

He looked away, taking another drag. “You’re here to replace Lindsey. That’s why they bought you. But you’re also the last human they’ll ever buy for me if I treat you like I’ve treated everyone else. My mother said if I don’t treat you like I’m supposed to she’s not buying anymore humans. I got too close with Lindsey, the last human they bought me. She was my best friend Frank. I loved her like a sister. I loved her more than my own brother and they killed her. My mother had her murdered for the simple fact I treated her like an equal. That’s why I’m scared for you.”

I swallowed. “I’m sorry about Lindsey. I really am.”

His eyes filled with tears. “I found her in the dungeons. She bled to death a couple of hours ago and they’ve already gone and bought another person. It hurts that they think someone can just be replaced so easily. Lindsey meant so much to me. I think the worst part is that she never did anything to them. They had no reason and no right to kill her.”

I didn’t know what to say to him. I didn’t know how to comfort him but I desperately wanted to. It also hurt a little bit to be told I was here to replace someone.

“I’m sorry,” Gerard mumbled, dragging the back of his hand across his eyes.

“I… is there anything I can do?” I offered, not knowing what to say.

He shook his head quickly. “No. I’m just… sorry.”

“Don’t be.”

We sat in silence for a while until Gerard lit up another cancer stick and looked up at me.

“What was it like? At the Institution?” he asked quietly.

“Horrible,” I whispered, feeling sick at the thought of it. “My Keeper was disgusting. He hurt us. None one in my group hasn’t been raped and beaten by him.”

Gerard’s face fell. “Shit. I’m sorry Frank. I thought that only happened to lower standards.”

“It does. It’s not meant to happen to standard ones but he didn’t follow the rules. It was worse when he trained me.”

“He should be reported for that. It shouldn’t happen to anyone anyway, but Keepers aren’t allowed to do that to standard ones.”

I shrugged. “There’s nothing I can do. No one’s going to believe a toy over a vampire.”

He looked at me sadly. “No one’s going to believe the insane prince over any vampire either.”

I raised an eyebrow. “But you’re royalty. They have to listen to you.”

He puffed out another cloud of smoke. “No. Nobody listens to me Frank. They listen to my father but not me. Everyone knows not to believe a word I say. They all know how strongly I believe in equality between everyone and that means I’m classified as crazy.”

“But they’d have to do what you say when if you were King.”

“That’s not until next year. And I don’t want anything to do with being King. Nothing could be less appealing to me.”

“Why not? You could finally get people to listen to you.”

“I don’t want power Frank. I just want peace. Power’s corrupt and unfair and it goes to people’s heads. There’s so much responsibility and so many duties when you’re King and I don’t want. It doesn’t interest me.”

“But if you’re King you could have peace,” I pointed out.

“I know. But do you really think anyone would still listen to me?”

“They’d have to. They have to do what you say.”

“I suppose,” he sighed. “But people would hate me. They’d end up revolting against me. I don’t want that Frank. People are too stuck in their ways to change and not one vampire agrees with me.”

“Guess you’re kinda stuck then, huh?”

He laughed. “Guess so. Plus, I have to marry a girl my parents pick out for me. I have no choice in who I end up marrying and it’s all down to my parents. I get no say and I have to spend the rest of my life with her, whoever they end up choosing.”

I felt my heart break a little at this.

“Anyway,” Gerard mumbled, stubbing out his cigarette. “I’ll show you the rest of the palace."

Notes

Um... Hi!!

So, I haven't been on the mcr fanfic site in forever and I was like woaahhhhh, my notifications are blowing up. I didn't realise this story was so popular on this site! I have this story on mibba but it's on hiatus, but there's about 32 chapters I think so I'm just going to try and post them all today.