Frank's POV

~~~

Fallyn was sound asleep in my arms as Greg tried to start the regularly stalling bus up, it was shaking reluctantly under the attack of the storm but they built things steady these days and I knew it would hold up through the storm. They wouldn't put a rock band on a tour bus that fel apart easily, we're supposed to be known for trashing things, more specifically me than anyone else in the band who were much more chilled out.

Making themselves comfortable for the rest of the trip Gerard and Mikey came into the room, sitting together on the couch across from me, still wearing the same bloodied clothes and looking like hell, then again that was a look Gerard specifically went for. Mikey on the other hand, no amount of hair gel or hairspray in the world was going to help him sort out that crazy mess, shit I don't think he's gonna even be able to brush that out. It might be interesting to watch him complain later on as he tried though...
Who am I kidding, it always funny to watch Mikey complain about one thing or another because he talks as though he should apologize to everyone for speaking his mind.

"What did you guys do while I was gone?" I asked. "You look like you've been to hell and back." I had to clear my throat to get the last few words out, I was still a bit hoarse from crying earlier. The sudden noise in the space causing Fallyn to shift slightly and mumble in her sleep before going quiet again, the only sign she was actually alive being the rise and fall of her chest.

"Uh, it's a bit complicated," Mikey said, taking his glasses off and polishing them on the towel around his neck. His glasses were already spotless, they usually were no matter what he did and I frowned, feeling a little bit suspicious. I've known the kid for a long time, and if I asked him something and started cleaning his lenses after...then he was probably about to start lying to me.

"Everything always complicated with you Way's. Now what the fuck happened, why are you covered in a shitload of blood?" I hadn't been able to smell it over the top of all the rain and the scent of Fallyn's blood but she had showered and their clothes were drying out, what they had on them was people blood, not theirs, not Ray's or Bob's and since it was congealing where the rain hadn't touched it I knew it was fucking fresh.

"I'm gonna call Mom and Dad to let them know she's alright," Gerard muttered, standing up and walking out of the room, clearly avoiding the situation so I couldn't turn on him next. He was going to leave Mikey to take the brunt of whatever, what a fucking sissy; if he took part in it then he should have to admit as well.

Mikey sat there nervously fiddling with his glasses for a couple of seconds, not looking up at me. "Fallyn's, other mom, the woman who took her. She showed up at the hospital while you were upstairs."

"So you what, killed her?" I'd only meant it as a joke but Mikey's alarmed expression let me know that he thought I'd just busted him. "You killed someone?! You don't kill people Mikey! If they do something wrong you're supposed to put them in jail, not murder them!" Fallyn moved again when I began to yell and I had to force myself to lower my voice.

"I-I didn't murder her, Gerard did. After he found out Fallyn was dead he was really angry and she walked in, he just...fuck I haven't even got words for it." He was quiet, relaying the situation with a somber expression, he'd clearly hadn't expected Gerard to suddenly snap and go postal on a human, I hadn't either. I thought if he was going to randomly murder someone it would more likely be me, logic implies that he shouldn't be able to but he'd probably figure out a way around it.

To be honest I didn't know how Fallyn was going to react to this, I didn't know if she'd be happy or sad or maybe nothing. She always managed to say or do something out of the blue but it'd actually make sense to me in the long run. No matter how hard I tried to guess what she might do and say when she woke up I had absolutely idea whatsoever, I hope she'd take it well because last time I checked you couldn't undo aggressive vampire murder. With all the blood Gerard undoubtedly did a little more than the simple drain-dry technique that nearly ever other vampire I met stuck to.

"Then if it was him who did it why are you covered in blood?" I was trying to remain calm, to pretend that we didn't have what could be two over fed vampires on the bus. If that was the case they'd be power tripping from the suddenly stuffing themselves until the next month which was not good at all.

"I followed him outside, I thought there was a chance I might have been able to stop him. As it turns out I couldn't." Well fuck, that was something I'd sure never expected, the mild mannered Mikey not being able to stop murder-mode Gerard from killing a chick in the least grownup vampire hissy-fit ever. Then again if I were downstairs thinking that Fallyn was permanently dead then I would have likely murdered the bitch too so I guess you've got a straight up example of the pot calling the kettle black.

"Well at least you tried, Mikes," I told him, Mikey felt the most easily guilty out of everyone else, especially considering he hadn't been able to stop Bob when he accidentally killed someone.

"I didn't."

"What?"

"I wanted to stop Gerard, I though Fallyn would have wanted to see her in jail, I mean, Mom and Dad would so I thought she'd feel the same. When I got out there and found him, there was blood everywhere and...Gerard literally ripped her head off. I didn't think it was gonna work wanted to tell him to try and heal her or turn her, so we could have forced her to spend eternity locked up but I was really hungry and angry and stressed. I got this, this rush. I remember that there were limbs but then blackness then next thing I knew Fallyn was waking Gee and I up and there was blood all over me." Oh great, Mikey's murdered the woman as well and no it wasn't regular murder, it was actually dismemberment, they fucking dismembered someone.

If Fallyn wasn't asleep on me I'd probably slap Gerard right now because I knew if I went in for a punch it would start a huge fight and this was neither the time nor place.

I knew I'd be able to beat Gerard up, there was no doubt in my mind about it, he might be taller than me but I was stronger both as a human and vampire. He was the artsy sort, he wanted to sit down, draw, brood, complain, sing and do all those kind of things, I'd rather find someone interested in playing a game of paintball not to mention I'd never seen him fight once in life or death. I on the other hand had needed to kick some asses a couple of times so it was no big deal, I was just rarely in the mood and far too happy with Fallyn to waste my time on that bullshit.

Anyway, my point was that it was one thing to kill someone, to drain them to death but it was something else to rip off their motherfucking head! I knew we were vampires but geez, we were supposed to be the good guy version, we made music that saved kids lives, we all took part in nursing a baby fucking fox back to health.
How does someone do that then decapitate a woman with their bare hands?!

I know I wanted to kill the bitch but this was fucking bullshit.

"She was probably sick in the head, thinking she could kidnap a kid and raise it as her own, she should have gone to prison or an asylum." If Fallyn's brothers had done this, if they were still covered in blood and other kinds of body juices then I didn't want them around her and that wasn't being domineering, that was being sensible. "Mikey, get out," I said, trying to remain calm and not shout.

"Why?" He actually sounded like he didn't know why I was telling him to leave, the evidence on his shirt should have been enough what he just fucking said alone should have been enough.

"Because you brutally murdered a woman, you dismembered her. I know she did wrong but you don't kill someone like that, not to mention the fact Gerard started it. Please, just get out and stay out until you have a shower and clean yourself up. At the very least change your clothes." Mikey realized exactly what was wrong with this situation and as soon as I finished speaking he was gone from the room, having immediately disappeared from the couch.

I still can't believe it, that Mikey, Mikey of all people would take part in something so primitive horrible. I'd met some pretty horrible vampire but I hadn't heard of any of them doing anything like this, there's murderers on the news that have been kinder than Gerard and Mikey. Psychos that have strangled people to death then skinned them, at least they were dead first and didn't have to suffer, my guess was that Gerard really ripped into her long before she was dead.
My entire existence as a vampire is one great, big horror show.

"How could Gerard do it?" I was surprised when I heard Fallyn's voice, quiet and muffled against my chest. Her eyes were closed as if she were sleeping and her breathing had hardly changed but I knew she was awake, she must have listened to the entire conversation between Mikey and I.

Shit.

"I don't know Fal's, he's had a screw loose ever since he became a vamp. My best guess is that some people handle immortality better than others and he was damn wrecked when he heard you were dead." I was trying to make it not seem so bad what he'd done but it freaked me out and I'd seen a lot of screwed up shit so yeah, it fucking bad.

"She was a fucking horrible mother and I can't believe what she did but I didn't want her to be killed. Some medium level maiming would have been nice but not decapitation, she should have rotted in jail." Fallyn's sat up, leaned back on the couch and rubbed her eyes before sitting back and staring at the ceiling of the bus. I couldn't have faulted her as wrong there, spending the rest of her life in jail or some equivalent would have been what she deserved.

"How long have you been awake?" I asked Fallyn, the dark circles under her eyes acting as a reminder that she needed to get off the road and stay rooted in one place for a little while. Some home cooked meals instead of the fast food and Starbucks we survived on, a large and comfortable bed instead of the tour bus bunks she had already fallen out of once, in other words she didn't look like she was feeling her best. None of us were, except Mikey and Gerard after gorging on that poor child-abducting bitch.

"When you started yelling," she said, closing her eyes again and pinching the bridge of her nose tiredly, she'd had such a long day and I'd probably made it worse.

"I'm sorry Fal's, it's just, what Gerard and Mikey did really took me by surprise. Maybe you'd be better off sleeping in one of the bunks, get away from all the conversation. Everyone's in the kitchen talking, the far end of the bus is the best place to be at the moment." There was no doubt that Fallyn needed a break away from the drama of being around a vampire band, her dead friend, murderous ghosts, a kidnapping loony and the certifiably nuts Gerard, Mikey could easily be squeezed in on that list too.

"Frankie, it's not your fault, you actually did me a favor. Whenever I close my eyes, I see Katelyn dead in her room, I see Jules cutting her with that letter opener. It's just this nightmare that repeats over and over, I'm not sure if I'm ready to go back to sleep yet." Fallyn moved closer to me until she was flush against my side, bright eyes open and looking rather mischievously at me. "Since everyone else is distracted, do you uh, wanna go hang out in your bunk?" She stood up and smoothed down her shirt, raising her eyebrows at her suggestion.

"You've said you love me, you know? If you want to make out feel free to say so." As I talked I took her hand, she grinned and began pulling me towards the bunks and I gladly let her, for me there was nothing better than being on a tour bus with the girl I loved, heading somewhere private to make out. Put the bus in Jersey and wedding rings on our fingers and I'll be in my own personal version of heaven.

"I know, I just didn't want to tip Gerard off." I could nearly hear the smile in her voice as I pulled the curtain shut behind us and she turned around to face me, putting her arms around my neck with a grin. "But if it makes you any happier, I love you and I wanna make out? Sounds good, yeah?" No matter how hard I could have tried I knew there was no way the grin on my face could have been suppressed, not with her smiling at me the way she does.

"Sounds great." I'd automatically put my hands around her waist and the only thing left to do was lean in and press my lips against hers.

There was something that felt so natural about being with her, kissing her, like we had done this a million times over but it didn't mean there wasn't a thrill in my stomach and a near beating in my chest. I knew she felt the same, there was no doubt in my mind about it, she kissed me as easily as I kissed her and there was an electricity in the air that made the hairs on the back of my neck rise when I felt her tongue against mine.
So this is what it's like to kiss the person you love who loves you back.

With her usual grace Fallyn landed on my bunk bed, pulling me with her and giggling when her duffle-bag fell of the bed and landed on the floor.

It was raining cats and dogs (and probably every other member of the animal kingdom) outside, the bus was moving from the sheer force of the wind, the guys were arguing over something or other in the kitchen, Fallyn had just come back from limbo, her brothers had brutally murdered a kidnapper and I could hear the engine of the bus straining to keep the damn thing moving.
We couldn't have picked a worse time to fool around like a pair of idiots but I was caught up in the moment and couldn't have cared less if the world ended.

"If I was staying with you we could do this whenever we wanted," she said, tempting me even further into the living arrangement. If Fallyn wanted we could get married tomorrow, buy a house the same day then settle down and start a family, the only reason I wasn't pulling her back to my condo with bells on was the small worry that her entire family might somehow figure out a way to murder me...and I was a single guy whose place looked like the weather outside despite my best efforts.

"What's wrong with some good old fashioned sneaking through a window?" I joked, leaning forward to kiss her only to have her pull me in first.

"Don't have to worry about parents or big brothers walking in from too much sound?" She offered between breaths and I couldn't fault her there, we could do whatever we wanted, whenever we wanted. Cigarettes, top volume music, kissing, laughing and other good times didn't sound too bad especially since it came with the promise of Gerard not constantly hanging around, whining like the emo all the magazines thought he was.

"Mmm, I think I might have to inform my landlord someone else'll be moving in." Her grin was full of victory and she did a small fist pump in the space the bunk allowed.

As someone who spent a lot of time touring I'd learnt to love the road, visiting somewhere new all the time, different venues, regular flights and countless hotels...there wasn't a single thing I didn't love about the lifestyle of a band dude but Fallyn made me want to sit down and put my feet up. If you told me tomorrow that I could be human again, live happily with Fal's and never play another show again, I think I'd have to take it no matter how much I loved what I've already been doing.

Forever touring, always playing rock music was good, hell it was great but since I didn't get any fun out of whoring myself around with the groupies and I couldn't drink and drug my problems away I could get pretty lonely but I hadn't felt an ounce of that loneliness since she's been with me. Only for the brief time that I thought she was gone and there was nothing I could do to bring her back as a human, vampire or otherwise.

"Fallyn, Mom's on the phone, do you want to talk to her?" Fal's immediately froze when she heard Gerard's voice in the living area then as soon as she realized it was her real mother she made a gesture for me to be quiet and climbed out of the bunk, leaving me lying there, waiting for Gerard to go the hell away so I could resume kissing the girl I loved without his DIY background noise.

"She's on the phone? Now?" I heard her ask, her voice high and nervous. There was no reply from Gerard so my guess was that he nodded and she took the call because the next thing I heard was her softly saying, "hello?"

Since there was nothing I was focusing on I heard the buses engine hiss long before anyone else, I heard the sound of the breaks locking and the tires squeezing as Greg lost control over the giant vehicle that spun and skidded on the quickly flooding roads.

I had seconds, seconds at best to grab Fallyn and clutch her as tightly as possible to me as the bus tipped over, rolling with the sounds of metal loudly screeching. Plates were crashing in the kitchen, luggage went flying from storage and I could hear everyone yelling at the top of their longs, not a one of us knowing what was happing.

But I didn't care about them, I didn't care that I watched my guitar smash against the wall or that I wasn't going to have an easy ride of comfort back to Jersey...all I cared about was her and by the time everything came to a standstill Fallyn was the first thing I felt and saw, clinging to me and shaking from the fear of the crash.

"What happened?" She asked, blinking and looking around trashed interior of what used to be my favorite tour bus.

"I-I don't know," I stuttered, sitting up with her and looking around. It was a little more than trashed interior, the bus was upside down, we were sitting on the roof and the windows were busted with smoke snaking through the ruins. "Are you okay?" I looked at her, noticing the trickle of blood running down the side of her face.

"I'm fine." Fallyn sounded stunned and her eyes were glazed over as she looked around then just as quickly as the crash has happened she jumped up and ran through the bus, towards where the band had last been. "The guys might be hurt!" Refusing to let her go on a one woman search mission through smoking ruins I got bolted after her, listening to her shout their names as she ran along.

"Fallyn!" I was Gerard that called out to her, sounding like he was on the outside of the empty bus and as soon as she heard him she crawled through the living room window and outside. She needs to slow down or she'll get hurt and why the fuck didn't Gerard and Mikey stick around to help her, their sister?

"Gerard, what happened?!" For the first time in forever I was glad to be smaller than the rest of the guys and pulled myself through a different window, getting to my feet in the hellish Blackford street. It was raining, so hard that the raindrops nearly hurt as they pelted my skin in the gale but that didn't mean I couldn't see the wreckage around me.

The bus was totaled and would probably never see another good time again, the same could easily be said for the small town since eight buildings were down in the street, three appeared to have been taken out by some kind of fire maybe and the other five had undoubtedly been ripped apart by the violent winds.

"I don't know! Something must have flipped the bus, we were nearly out of here!" He was shouting to Fal's to be heard through the storm and I pushed forward, hoping I'd find Fallyn before she got herself killed out here, heaven fucking knows what's flying around in all this.

At first I didn't know if this was a hurricane, a tornado, a monsoon or some horror combination between the three...then I saw the cause of the destruction and it was standing with an unnaturally twisted grin and it's arms wide open in the centre of the town square.

Katelyn Sommers.
Fallyn's guardian angel.
With a tornado at her back.

Notes