The Ghost of You.

I realized I was shaking when the large man in front of me angled the lamp, the brightness making me look away and down at my hands. They were sweaty; I wiped my palms on my thighs and clasped my hands together, staring awkwardly at my lap. He cleared his throat irritably, causing me to jump slightly.

"Start from the beginning. Tell me everything you remember."

I nodded and creased my eyebrows together, trying to separate the cluster of memories from the past few months. I smiled slightly remembering how the day started.

"W-well, me and, uh, Gerard, we went to check on the house. We were seeing if the decorating was finished. Since we went there a few weeks before, he was adamant that he wanted to move in 'as soon as possible'." I chuckled, remembering when he spoke those exact words to me, and how he used to smile when we talked about moving in.

"He had some sort of...attachment, with it? He was always talking about it, and how excited he was."

I looked up at the large man to see if I was talking along the right lines of information he needed, but he was writing notes.

"Go on," he mumbled when I didn't speak again, pointing the end of his pen in my direction. I nodded and took a deep breath. When I found my train of thought again, I continued.

"He was looking around for the man that was in charge, but he'd gone for dinner, so he dragged me inside the house to take a look around. It looked great; Gerard was ecstatic. I'd never seen him so happy." I paused, then smirked. Of course I'd seen him happier.

"The first room we went in was the master bedroom; the room Gerard and I would be sharing. It had all been set up, furniture and everything.
"I wasn't sure why, but I felt as though I was being watched-" I shuddered, "-It had an eerie presence. Not just our room though. The whole house gave me the heebie-jeebies. I forced myself to brush it off. I tried to convince myself that it was because it was a new house. I was being stupid. I mean, Gerard obviously didn't feel like this; he acted like it was his house already. Like it was our home."

The large man was scribbling religiously in his note pad, but I wasn't entirely sure it was notes he was using it for. He didn't seem to be paying any attention to what I had to say.

"After a while, the man in charge found us and told us they would be packing up soon, and that they were finished. When they'd cleared off we'd be free to move in and do what we wanted. Gerard was immediately wanted to tell the guys. He rang Mikey first, who happened to be with Ray. They told Gerard they'd finish packing up their stuff. Bob owned a big-ass truck-"

"Don't cuss," the man spoke up, causing me to stutter.

"Oh, okay...s-so," I rubbed my forehead. "Gerard called him and he told us he'd meet us at our place the next morning to pick our things up.
"Gerard and I went home, but he seemed different. He seemed almost...distant? He didn't talk to me all night, and when we went to bed, he didn't get in until I'd fallen asleep. I was worried, and it hurt to know that he could just- I didn't know what I'd done, and he turned on me so quickly..."

I trailed off, soon after realizing I was crying quietly. The almost silent patter of my tears on the table was what alerted me, and I quickly pulled my sleeves over my hands, wiping my eyes roughly.

The large man gave me a look that seemed far from sympathetic to me. He sighed, looking away from the blubbering mess that was me.

"Have you had enough?" He asked me bluntly.

"N-no, I can-" I started, but I was cut off when he reached a hand forward, stopping the recording device and hitting his fist off the table, startling me. I jumped and tried to blink away the tears.

"I'm not sitting here listening to you sobbing. You can go," he told me, signalling to the window I didn't notice was across the room. I looked over to see Detective Brown and Sett watching him curiously before they nodded and started to open the door.

"Come back tomorrow before 10. I have better things to be doing."

"I, uh, yeah, o-okay." I stuttered, slightly confused by how rude he was being.

I felt a hand on my shoulder, and I looked to my left to see Detective Brown, a stern look on his face. I stood slowly, nodding a goodbye to the large man who grunted in response. Shakily, I turned and followed Brown and Sett out the small door, wincing at the brightness of the hallway.

"Are you hungry?" Detective Sett asked me quietly, earning a sharp glance from Brown. I shook my head. I didn't feel like eating right now.

"Are you sure? We can take you out before we drop you off at the hospital. Their food isn't-"

"Hospital?" I stopped him. "Can't I go ho-" I hesitated, trying to remember where exactly my home was. Then I realized; I didn't have a home anymore. Not since that night. Now it's a crime scene.

"Well, you'll have to stay there until we can find you somewhere to stay. Besides, they said they should really keep you under observation for a while longer, just until the interviews are done." Brown informed me rather coldly, not looking at me.

I was quiet for a few seconds, before muttering an "okay."
-
I couldn't sleep at all that night. My mind was just one big bubble that had exploded with agonizing memories I wanted so badly to forget. My eyes were clouded over with tears and I refused to eat. Nurses upon nurses came in to check on me, which resulted in me shouting, screaming, crying, and trying to barricade the door with my own body.

As you can guess, that didn't go down well. They had to knock the door down, which landed on top of me. I was too tired to fight back at that point. I let it fall on top of me. When I felt the door being pulled from crushing me, I sighed in relief. And when I felt someone's cold hands slide underneath me, pulling me from the ground, I let my body fall limp and be carried to the stiff hospital bed.

I didn't sleep at first, but I rested. It wasn't exactly what I wanted, but it was better than being awake all night. I ignored everyone that came in. I paid no attention to the doctors talking to me about my decreasing health, or the nurses constantly shoving food at me.

-

"Morning, Mr. Iero!" An incredibly annoying sounding nurse screeched, throwing the curtains above me open and letting the light flood my small hospital room. I decided I didn't like her, and I made a mental note to let her know somehow.

Grunting, I sat up hesitantly, and winced at the sudden pain going through my side. I pulled my shirt up a little and examined a newly formed bruise on my hip. It was different shades of brown and purple, with green lining it.

"Oh, that looks nasty," the annoying nurse told me. I jumped when I realized she was standing right beside me. Yanking my shirt down, I grimaced at her as she began changing my drip. "So, why're ya in here?"

"You're a nurse, shouldn't you know this?" I snapped, feeling extremely irritable this morning.

She just laughed. "Not exactly."

I sighed. "I don't know why."

"You don't know why you're here?"

Wow, this woman was super intrusive. I decided I'd call her Nurse Nosy. She gave me a confused look when I chuckled to myself, but I found that all the more amusing.

"Not exactly. I know why I was sent here at first, but I don't know why they're keeping me here," I huffed, crossing my arms tightly.

"Well, maybe you should find out," she told me joyfully before picking up some paper work and waving bye as she walked out the room. "Bye, Frank!"

"Bye, Nurse Nosy," I muttered, pulling the sheets over my head stroppily.

-

"Mr. Iero, I'm going to have to insist that you come with us immediately," Detective Brown ordered, trying to keep his cool. Underneath his sunglasses I could see he was about to blow his cool. Did I really want to be the one to witness that? Fuck yes.

"No," I told him bluntly. I know, I know. I was being a stroppy teenager. I didn't care.

"Do we have to dress you ourselves and drag you down to the station?"

"Why can't I do the interrogation here?" I pulled the sheets from over my head, staring at him expectantly.

"It's not an interrogation, for starters. And because- well, it's complicated."

I raised an eyebrow, but huffed, defeated. "Fine, just give me a few minutes to get ready."

Brown and Sett both nodded and turned to face the window, but didn't make any movements to leave the room.

I cleared my throat. "Uh, guys?"

Sett turned to look at me.

"A little privacy please?"

"No can do," Sett replied. "Hospital security told us about the door incident last night. We can't take that chance again."

"Fine," I mumbled, grabbing some clothes and walking into the small built in bathroom, closing the door and locking it.

"Damn it, we forgot about the bathroom," Brown sighed.

Chuckling, I turned and began pulling my shirt off. As I reached to grab a clean one from the floor, my smirk faltered, and I froze.

"Wha- i-is..." I stuttered, taking in the scene before me.

"Hi, Frank."

"What are you- h-how are you...here?" I managed to choke out.

"I'm not, you know that."

I had a pain in my chest that felt almost as though my heart was failing me, and I fought to catch my breath, but failed. I felt as though someone had knocked the air out of my lungs with a punch to the gut, and I doubled over, retching and heaving. I had tears falling freely from my wide eyes, and my hands were shaking uncontrollably.

I heard footsteps nearing me as I stared at the floor in disbelief. A hand touched my shoulder, almost in a soothing way, and I flinched away.

"Hey hey, it's okay."

"D-don't touch me," I whispered, voice cracking.

"Shh, it's okay, Frank. You can trust me. I'm not really here, after all. I'm only here because you want me to be."

I felt the same soothing hands wrap around my waist and help me unsteadily to my feet, and I closed my eyes. A tear was wiped from my cheek, and I leaned in to the touch, before opening my eyes again, meeting his beautiful, hazel-green gaze.

The corner of my lips twitched into a sad excuse for a smile, and I managed to say his name before I felt myself unwillingly fall to the floor with a thump, darkness taking over my vision and pulling me down.

"Gerard," I whispered.

Notes

Hey-hey, okay so I'm updating instead of doing important school work:')
I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and please share it around if you know anyone else who'd enjoy it c:
Leave a comment, let me know what you think, or even just talk to me because I'm lonely rn.;-;

Oh yeah, the next chapter (chapter three) will turn into a flashback for the majority of it. It'll be the memories from the house. Trust me, it'll be epic. OoOoOoOooo I'm so freaking excited ffs