I was in a calm place. A park? Yes, a park. It was winter, there was snow everywhere. I didn't feel cold, I didn't feel anything.

I looked around. Nobody I could see. I looked back and saw no footprints on the snow. Didn't know how I ended up there.

I started walking. A face was coming to my mind... it was pretty. The hair was unkempt and the skin, a bit too pale. The eyes stared at me without blinking.

— Don't you breath for me – I said, even not knowing why.

The face occupying my mind remained impassive. I shook my head, trying to expel it, but I couldn't. I felt something strange when I thought about it, something bad, like guilt. The eyes still seemed to pierce me.

— I'm undeserving of your sympathy — I said, a little louder, hearing my voice echo in the desert park. — 'Cause there ain't no way that I'm sorry for what I did!

I breathed with difficulty. A pain was clutching my chest, and I didn't know where it was coming from. All I knew is that I had to stop thinking about that face, those eyes!

I walked faster, and gradually people began to show up. I sighed, relieved to see myself in the company of someone, but the relief didn't last long. Everyone was looking at me, some accusative, others angry. Suddenly, I realized that I was shorter than all of them. I looked on a puddle on the sidewalk where the snow had melted, and I saw myself as a child.

Startled, I kept walking among them, hearing them coming together and trying to talk to me.

— Sleep – they said. — Just sleep, Frank. Sleep.

I started to get more scared. They were chasing me.

— SLEEP!

No, I didn't want to sleep. I ran, almost panicking, and then that face came to my mind again, bringing me a strange sensation of peace along with the same guilt and pain. I stopped and realized that I was alone again, this time in the center of a street. There was no more snow. The sun was setting and the buildings around me were throwing a row of shadows everywhere.

I knew I was no longer a child. I looked at the window of one of the buildings and saw myself as a teenager, lonely and awkward. I approached the glass and put a hand on it, looking at my reflection.

Suddenly, I saw someone staring at me from the other side, an older man, with wrinkled skin and a scary expression.

— Sleep — he said, and somehow I could hear him.

I walked away quickly. Once I reached the center of the street, I realized I was surrounded by people again, all threatening, closing a circle around me and repeating endlessly:

— Sleep, sleep, sleep...

— No! — I screamed, and ran, pushing away everyone in my sight.

I ran for a long time, and only stopped when that face took me for the third time. I got lost in those eyes for a moment, then noticed that I was in a enclosed space. A flat? I knew that place, it was... my apartment!

I looked in the mirror I left in the hallway near the door. There I was at the age that I knew to be the current one, an adult.

I sat on my couch. They couldn't catch me here, could they?

I turned on the television, which I shouldn't have. A crowd appeared on the screen, forming a choir to me:

— Sleep!

I screamed in frustration and threw the remote, breaking it along with the TV. I got up and went to the window, resting my hands on the sill.

Suddenly, I felt a hand on my shoulder, and I was ready to hear the same word again. But when I turned, I saw the owner of that beautiful face looking at me.

— Wake up — he said.

— Gerard? — I asked, and I saw a tear roll down his face. — Through it all, how could you cry for me? 'Cause I don't feel bad about it.

— Don't say that... — he whispered, lowering his gaze.

— But it's the true. Sorry, Gee.

I approached him and held him, soon pushing him softly away from me to then kiss him gently.

— So shut your eyes — I muttered, and he obeyed. I kissed his eyelids before continuing. — Kiss me goodbye.

— No, Frank...

I didn't let him finish. I took his lips without warning, enjoying the contact in its smallest details.

— No — he said when we stopped. — No, no... wake up, Frank. Wake up.

— They want me to sleep.

— Don't listen to them!

— What if they're right?

— No! There is nothing wrong with you, they are wrong. You can't give up, don't give up...

I felt dizzy for a moment. What was happening?

None of this made sense... none of it was real, was it?

I was dreaming.

— Gerard... — I said cautiously. — What happened? Talk to me.

He was quiet, just watching me, his eyes full of tears. Slowly, very slowly, I started listening to his voice... but it didn't come from the Gerard in front of me. It came from somewhere far away.

— ... I don't know if you can hear me, Frank, but I'm here. I haven't left you. I'll help you get through this if you wake up. You just need to wake up.

Everything around me lost focus. I closed my eyes, and when I opened them, I was again in the park, lying on the snow, and Gerard was standing in front of me.

— What did I do? — I asked breathlessly.

— You tried to kill yourself, Frank — he answered, and that was him, not the "far" Gerard.

— And... where am I?

— You're in your own mind. In your own dreams and nightmares.

— I'm in a coma?

He nodded positively. I got up and hugged him, suddenly realizing what had happened. Pills, so many pills, a desperate attempt to escape the pain.

— Sorry, Gee... but... I couldn't take it anymore...

— I know, love. I know.

— Everyone said that I should go away... That I should sleep... It's what I tried to do.

— But I was there with you.

— I know, I wasn't strong enough... sorry, Gee, sorry...

— Wake up — he muttered. — Wake up.

— I don't know how.

— Wake up — his voice was getting louder, but at the same time, further. — Wake up, Frank.

Gerard began to fade, but his voice grew louder. It seemed to come from everywhere, from the sky, the ground. The world was trembleling at the sound of his screams.

— WAKE UP!

I looked up, trying to see where he was, but there was only the white sky above my head.

— I can't... — I mumbled.

— Wake up, please...

The voice was moving away. I fell to the floor and cried like I don't remember crying before.

The Gerard from my mind showed up by my side again.

— They told you too many times that you should sleep, didn't they? — he asked, and I nodded. — And now...

— Now — I completed, staring at the snow beneath my feet. — Now I can't wake up.

Notes

Hope you enjoyed it! It's my first time here. I may submit something else. :)