"We may all deserve hell, but some of us deserve it sooner than others” - Seth Grahame-Smith

---

Gerard recoiled a little with my obvious disgust, which I found a little unsettling, I mean we were standing in a basement coated in pints of blood and had witnessed two dead bodies burst into ash, but me being angry was enough to set Gerard on edge. He didn’t say a word when he turned away and left the small room, then proceeded through the dark and up the stairwell. The mood upon making our exit was of total contrast to that of when we arrived. There was nothing that could appear from the shadows to strike us down, and so we had nothing to fear, but each step was as apprehensive as they had been when we arrived. It wasn’t as though we wanted to stay, but there was the concern, the paranoia that never seemed to release us from its malevolent grip, still lingering around our beings – making getting out of this house twice as hard as it should have been.

I guess although we were trudging through a basically haunted house, I did just find myself in the midst of romantic-end-of-action-movie love scene, which made me feel a little queasy but also totally satisfied. I let out a small snort of laughter causing Gerard to look at me like I had finally fallen into insanity.

“What?” he asked once we stopped at the top of the stairwell.

I smirked and nudged his shoulder lightly, “love huh?”

A light shade of red engulfed his cheeks, “shut up,” he mumbled.

I let out a small giggle at his expense, “how’d you know that would work?”

“I didn’t,” he said turning away and moving along the corridor.

I was dumfounded for a moment, “wait, what?”

“I didn’t know it would work, besides the whole ‘love’ thing didn’t’ really have anything to do with it,” he turned back at me and smiled, “I just wanted something dramatic to say before I kissed you.”

I crossed my arms in mock superiority, “oh really? And you just knew that kissing me would do the job?”

Gerard shrugged but his smiled widened showing off his irregular teeth, “he preached a lot about his enemy’s weakness were his strengths, so I thought that the same principle applied to me as well, and considering he was incapable of feeling emotion, I thought maybe a declaration of unadulterated emotion would cause his demise.” Both of us burst into a small fit of laughter, our happiness echoing through the empty halls. “It was kinda’ like in your comics, y’know - the hero falls in love with the girl at the end.”

I feigned offence, “are you calling me a girl?”

Gerard pondered for a moment, “hmm maybe.”

“Bitch,” I teased and entwined his fingers with mine before dragging him alongside me down the hallway.

I was one step away from escaping the house and allowing the night air to once again cradle me in its icy embrace, but Gerard tugged on my sleeve stopping me before I had the chance. He pulled me back and I let go of the front door letting it slam in my face, before huffing in annoyance.

“Gerard what are-“he placed a fingertip over my mouth, successfully shutting me up. We stayed frozen in that position as Gerard moved his eyes around slowly and squinted. I opened my mouth to speak again, but a quick glare from Gerard made me think better of doing so.

He leant in close and whispered, “you hear that?”

I waited for a moment, and listened closely, “nope, nothing. Gerard can we just-“

“Then! did you hear it just then!” Gerard looked at me like I was the one who was freaking out over a sound.

I looked at Gerard in complete shock when I heard a litany of small whimpers and cries come from a small door that Gerard and I had completely overlooked.

“Is, is that a person?” my voice was hushed as we crept toward the small door.

Gerard knelt next to the door, “it’s the dumbwaiter,” he said before tapping the door gently, “hello?”

A desperate moan and muffled cry came through as a response and Gerard wasted no time in wrenching the door open. I was prepared to see a lot of things when that door open but a bound and gagged Ray Toro was not one of them. Purple and blue bruises mottled his skin and dried blood was cracked in streams along his face and torso. I quickly pulled Gerard away from Ray’s mangled body, I was certainly not going to start trusting him again because he was injured.

“Frank! What are you doing?” Gerard tried to wriggle out of my grip, “Frank! Let me go.”

I turned to Gerard and glared, “I’m keeping you away from this sadistic asshole, that’s what I am doing.”

“Wh-what are you talking about?” Gerard asked shifting his gaze between Ray and I.

“Ray! This is fucking Ray!”

Gerard looked utterly perplexed, and a little frightened, “but – but he said Ray was with Mikey? How can he be here?”

I didn’t get a chance to reply as insistent muffles and groans sounded around the gag in Ray’s mouth.

“Frankie, you gotta’ untie him, he might know where Mikey is,” Gerard tugged on the side of my jacket, looking crestfallen.

I had to physically force my hands to untie the filthy rag secured around Ray’s head and had Gerard not been staring at me with his damn pleading eyes, I wouldn’t have done it at all. I muttered expletives as my fingers fiddled with the knots, cursing Ray, his family, even his stupid hair that got in the way of everything he did – and now was pissing me off beyond belief as it was tangled within the knots.

“I’m not untying your hands, so don’t even bother asking,” I spat at him as I pulled away the cloth.

His whole body lurched forward as large gasps of air were sucked into his lungs. He coughed a few times only to resume with another gulp of air seconds later. I shuffled away, even with his hands tied, Ray was unpredictable.

“Jesus man, you haven’t been in there that long,” I said as his coughing didn’t ease up after a few minutes.

Ray looked at me incredulously with his lips pursed in anger, “that long? Haven’t been in there that fucking long! I’ve been in there all week you fucking asshole!”

I flinched back a little as he seethed at me, “b-but that’s impossible, you’ve been at school all week, and you’ve been a real ass all week too.”

“No I haven’t, I’ve been locked in a dumbwaiter all damn week,” Ray huffed and wiped his hands over his face, “fuck, I’m sore and I’m tired and I’m not ready to deal with any doppelgänger shit right now.”

Gerard scurried forward, “well too bad, because you – he - it has Mikey!”

“Really Frank? One week you’re left alone to take care of Mikey and this shit happens,” he raised an eyebrow as he switched his gaze from me to Gerard, “and who the hell is this?”

“That’s Gerard, Mikey’s brother,” I said nonchalantly.

“Mikey doesn’t have a brother?”

“Well he does now. Look, can we discuss this once we’re out of this house, Mikey is currently somewhere with a malevolent-evil-doppelgänger-thing of you, so we should probably get moving.”

Ray nodded, “yeah, right, okay. Mikey – uhm – yeah let’s just go,” stumbling over his words he pulled himself up from the ground.

I followed and hoisted Gerard along with me. We dusted off our jeans and let small clouds of brown flecks dissipate in the air. When I looked back up I noticed Ray staring at Gerard and I with his mouth slightly agape. I put my hands up to my face, feeling to see if there was something out of place before asking, “what?”

Ray’s hands gesticulated wildly for a moment, “you, you’re covered in blood? What the hell happened?”

I groaned and quickly began towards the front door, “the guy who is behind all this weird shit killed one of my friends, and then just some stuff happened and he basically exploded, okay. I’ll explain later, now come on, we don’t have time to talk about this.”

I threw the door open and held it in place while Gerard and Ray quickly scurried out of the house and disappeared into the darkness. Despite the untamed frenzy of vines, branches and other foliage, we moved swiftly through the night. The familiar ominous feeling that lingered in the air, despite all that had happened, remained, keeping us all on edge. Whatever it was that was doubling as Ray most definitely had Mikey, and there was a fairly high chance that he-it could be in the forest watching our every move. Our footsteps echoed through the dead silence and Gerard shuffled closer to me with every step eventually wriggling his fingers so they could wrap around mine.

The three of us almost stumbled out from the clutches of the trees and allowed the feeling of enclosure to dissipate as we breathed in air not thick with the scent of dirt. A light pink-orange glow peeked above tiled rooftops as sunrise encroached and the light of the upcoming day began to settle on the neighbourhood.

“So,” Ray started, “where do you suppose we start looking?”

Gerard looked up at me with tired, expectant eyes. There’s only one place left to look, “we’ll go to his house, we never came home last night, so god knows my mother will be fretting like mad about us, her and Donna ae most likely at my place.”

“Well it’ll take us at least ten minutes, care to explain what the hell happened while I was gone? It’ll give us something to keep our minds busy while we walk,” Ray smiled slightly before stepping off the grass and onto the sidewalk.

Gerard squeezed on my hand lightly and tugged as he moved alongside Ray. I sighed and cleared my throat before beginning, “Well it kind of all started when Mikey and I went for a walk after brunch…..”
~*~ “…and then we found you stuffed into that dumbwaiter,” I finished in perfect timing with arriving out the front of Mikey’s house. Gerard had interjected throughout the story but even down to the description of Bobs’ death Ray didn’t once change the bleak look almost etched into his face.

“You know this sounds like a terrible horror movie plot line,” Ray said staring up at house, “not to mention, that Mikey is missing, there’s a possibly demonic version of me holding him captive, and at 7am in the morning the Way household is dead silent, something isn’t right.”

“Or they’re just not home, Donna and Don probably stayed with my parents for the night.”

Gerard hummed a little as his eyebrows knotted in thought, “Donna and Don, those names are so familiar. You said they’re Mikey’s adoptive parents right?”

“Uh, I think so, he never spoke much about their situation. We can figure it out later, yeah?” Gerard nodded as I brushed my lips lightly over his temple, before heading up the front porch steps after Ray.

“You think we should knock or..?” Ray trailed off shuffling awkwardly in front of the door.

I shrugged, “I’ve never knocked before, not going to start now,” I wrapped my hand around the icy brass knob and pushed the open the door.

A gush of fetid air swelled from within the house blowing the hair from my face. We all gagged on the pungency and I used the sleeve of my jumper to cover my mouth and nose in a failed attempt to reduce the scent. I ignored the increasing burn of my nostrils as I slowly stepped into the house, everything was normal, except for the smell.

Ray coughed as we moved further into the house, “Christ, what is that smell?”

Another small breeze whipped tendrils of hair away from my face, and Gerard took and awkward step forward.

“The air is coming from down the corridor, Frank where does this hallway go?” he asked raising his nose and feeling the brush of the air caress his face.

Ray spoke up before I had the chance to formulate and answer, “It’s his dad’s office, right?”

I nodded as Ray moved forward. We stepped silently down the hallway side by side only stilling when we were faced with the oak door. A low moan dripped through the door bringing with it another wild gust of air that seemingly blew from nowhere. A loud slam made us all jump and spin quickly to see the front door now closed, and a small click followed as the latch slid into place successfully locking us inside the house. The light-bulbs lining the hallway began to crack and shatter, letting shards of glass rain over our bodies leaving small slices along the skin. We huddled closer together the blood dripping along our skin making the close proximity damp and sticky as the scarlet mixed together.

I cursed under my breath, “Whatever it is, I think we pissed it off.” I felt Gerard’s hand latch onto my upper arm and squeeze tightly, his fingernails digging into the skin and beginning to tear through. I hissed, “Ouch, Gerard stop, you’re hurting me.”

Gerard looked up at me confusedly, “Wha- I, I’m not touching you.”

I felt my stomach churn and heave with sheer terror as I peered down to see to deformed hands tightly wrapped around my upper arms. Yellowing fingernails, at the end of rotting slender fingers with flesh peeled back exposing flesh and tendons, dug deeply into the pale skin splitting it with ease. A guttural scream scraped its way from the back of my throat as I tried to squirm free of the grip. The fingers only tightened and a forced ripped my entire body backwards into the cramped office. Loud noises erupted from my throat as I tried to launch forward toward Gerard’s outstretched arms but his figure was replaced by mahogany wood and a loud slam as the door closed in my face.

Ignoring the pain form the gaping holes in my arms that were leaking with blood I ran forward and bashed my fists against the door yelling, “Gerard! Are you okay? Stay with Ray!”

A small muffled response came, “I’m fine, Frank, what’s happening are you alright? The door’s locked from the inside!”

I ran my fingers over the brass handle searching for any small latch or contraption in a terror stricken frenzy, my forehead was slick with perspiration as my breathing increased, “no, no, no, no, NO! There’s nothing. Oh god, no.” The rumble from Gerard’s banging stopped. I placed my ear up against the wood. Nothing. Silence.

“No! Gerard! Gerard! Gee! Ray! Raymond fucking Toro! Can you hear me!?” I felt my lip begin to quiver but quickly sunk my teeth down to stop it. Not a chance in hell was I about to cry, not now.

A low moan sounded from behind me. My breath hitched in my raw throat as I maneuvered my body around so that my back was still pressed up against the oak. I let out a small wail as my eyes laid on Mikey’s body. His slender frame was secured by rope at the wrists and ankles to the edges of his fathers’ desk. His skin was inflamed, red and angry, around the dozens of gashes across his bare chest. The usual milky white was besprinkled with the richness of the crimson, and black liquid dripped from the corner of his parted lips. Another low rumble reverbed throughout the room and I tore my eyes from Mikey’s face to the ghastly figure hunched over his bound body. Its hands were held above its head in a summoning manner.

The myriad of candles lining the room and the table cast shadows to hide his complexion, and his figure flickered on the wall behind him. I pushed back farther against the door as I examined the distorted and haphazardly drawn symbol of an anthropomorphic horned beast adorned with human features, scrawled with the black liquid across the white of the wall.

The cloaked clad figure raised its hands higher and began to mumble in a language I couldn’t decipher, “Nego Dei et omne sanctum. Hoc sacrificium pro vobis est. Eius sanguis est tua sunt. Ut iússisti.”

Mikey’s body began to writhe in throes of pain. His back arched from the desk and he cried out with a piteous scream, more black erupted from his mouth choking the onslaught of tortured screams. The figure continued to raise his voice as he chanted, “Nego Dei et omne sanctum. Hoc sacrificium pro vobis est. Eius sanguis est tua sunt. Ut iússisti.”

I felt my knees buckle seconds before the floor was rushing up to meet me. My head bounced as it slammed against the wood flooring. Mikey’s cries and his contorting body with the figure above with its hands stretched to the heavens began to warp and blur. My head was thrumming and I felt the warm trickle of blood seep from my nose, my ears, my tear ducts and the taste of bile rose from the back of my throat. I gagged and coughed spluttering the black ooze on the flooring below me.

The small clink of metal captured my dazed attention as my hand fell beside me. I felt around and gripped tightly when the cool sting of metal hit my fingertips. Using my last seconds of energy I pulled my hand in front of my eyes and examined the small ring and chain in my palm. The tiny inscription of G.W stood stark against the shine of the silver. The memory of Gerard’s necklace, me passing out, and how he controlled it with his mind rushed through my deteriorating brain.

I took one last glance at Mikey’s body and the figure, before closing my eyes and cradling the ring to my chest. I thought of Mikey. His stupid glasses and awkward knees. Of bob. His piercing blue eyes and rosy cheeks. Of Ray and his mass of hair. Of my parents. And lastly, I thought of Gerard. His lips, his smile, his tear stained face when we first met, how desperately he wanted his brother back and how I was going to bring Mikey back.

The pull of the ring wrapped around my brain, taking hold of my thoughts and senses in its tight embrace. I lost all control, and was unaware and lax as the words slipped from my cracking lips, “Ex hoc nunc usque ad diem iudicii, vobis erit ad exterminandum, et nunquam mos vos reditum.”

Notes

HELLO! I am so sorry for the wait, but hopefully it was worth it! Not a huge chapter, but it's busy, and there's some stuff happening, so hopefully that makes up for it. I have not proofread so my apologies for that and the Latin as far as I checked was correct but chances are it isn't - believe it or not i don't speak latin.
anyways, sorry again, but thank you for reading, and please feel free to leave a comment!
xx