Safe?.... Hardly! (Re-edited for easier reading)

"There now... let's begin..."

Gerard wanted to scream, no, he needed to! The pain was worse than anything Bert had ever done to him before, and he couldn't even pass out! The ball-gag prevented him from making more than gagging noises, and, whatever Bert injected him with, stopped him from slipping into a blissfully unaware unconsciousness!

Just the thought of that needle digging into his pale skin made his blood run cold and his flesh crawl.

Gerard had had a deep everlasting fear of needles ever since he was a kid of about 9 or 10.
His mother had taken him to the doctor's, as he had been quite ill lately, and she was getting worried.
The doctor, an elderly man with pure white hair and a permanently pissed off expression, had shooed Gerard's mother from the room, mumbling that he needed to do blood tests. Once she'd gone, he'd called on a very young doctor in training. Gerard didn't think he could be older than 18, and the old doctor told him to get on with it.
8 attempts, and a lot of tears later, the blood was finally out, and Gerard was scarred for life!

Bert had his favourite lighter in his hand now, a small silver one, with his initials engraved on one side. A gift from Gerard their first Christmas together!
Smirking down at Gerard's sweating, shaking form, he set about his task.

Bert had decided that the first thing he'd do was to burn off every hair on Gerard's frail body, starting with his right leg.
He began at the ankle, dragging the small flame along his skin. Gerard's whole body tensed and writhed to try to escape the pain, his eyes rolling back in his head, and his back arching, well, as much as the restraints would allow.
Bert didn't care to be careful with what he was doing, and often he brought the lighter just that little bit too close, and the skin would start to redden and bubble.
Gerard's tear stained face contorted in agony as Bert moved higher and higher up his thigh, retracing his tracks frequently when he missed a spot, or the hair there was particularly stubborn.

Bert licked his lips in anticipation of the main event, Gerard's happy trail and his pubes! He was almost salivating at the thought of the faces Gerard would pull when the time came, and was definitely considering removing the gag from his mouth, just so he could hear the noises he'd make. Would he cry and whimper? or just go ahead and scream? But first, the other leg!

Bert finished with the right, and turned round (he was standing in between Gerard's forcibly spread legs) to start on the left, again at the ankle.

Unable to pass out, Gerard continued to writhe and whimper through the entire ordeal, and by the time Bert had finished his left leg, he was silently praying for death to take him.

"Bye bye happy trail!"

Bert sung, a wicked giggle erupting from his lips.
Gerard's eyes widened... then slammed shut as the flame met with his soft belly, scorching the hairs, and leaving a rude red mark in its wake.
He whimpered and whined as Bert got closer and closer to his most sensitive of areas. He really didn't believe he could take much more of this, and then... It stopped! Opening his eyes, he thought for a moment that Bert had given up with the whole "flaming pubes" thing, but no!

Bert placed the burning hot lighter on Gerard's already raw stomach, causing him to whimper pitifully, then he left his position between the painful blistering legs, and moved up along side Gerard's head.

"Are you having fun yet?"

He teased, then he reached behind his victims head, and undid the ties that held the ball-gag in place, and removed it.

"There, that's better, isn't it? Now I can hear you!"

He grinned, leaning forward and smashing his mouth to Gerard's, forcing his tongue inside, before pulling it out, and biting down hard on his bottom lip, hard enough to make it bleed profusely, and make Gerard cry out in pain and distress.

"P.p.p...p.please, B.Bert..."

Gerard begged, his voice no more than a whisper.

"P.please s...stop?"

Fresh tears slid down salt burned cheeks, and soft whimpers left his lips.
Bert stared down at him with a look of pure disgust.

"This is your punishment Gerard! You have to take your punishment!"

And with that, he returned to his previous place, between Gerard's legs, and picked up the now cool lighter, flicked it on, and began again.

Gerard screamed til he lost his voice, the pain overwhelming his mind, and driving him towards madness. As his mind started to crack, he began to see things. It started as dark shadows sliding across the walls, but after a while, the shadows started to solidify, they became people! Standing in the dark corners, just out of view, but then one of them stepped forward, into the light, it was Frank!

Now, Gerard knew that it wasn't really him, that he wasn't actually there, but, just seeing him gave Gerard some hope, some strength, and will to carry on.
This was his fractured mind protecting him, distracting him from the horrors that Bert was visiting on him, and, even if these were only hallucinations, he was glad they were there all the same.

Bert had finished with the lighter now, having removed, with prejudice, every last hair on Gerard's thin body, and had placed it on the toy table, where it had lived for the past year and a half, ever since he had first dragged Gerard down those steps.
Then he picked up the knife!! ...

It didn't really get the response he was expecting, in fact, Gerard didn't even react to it! That was when Bert realised that Gerard's mind was gone.

"FUCK"

Bert swore.

"You're no fun!"

He huffed, then decided to play a little anyway, and began carving words into Gerard's smooth, pale chest. 'Slut' 'whore' 'pathetic' 'ugly' and 'fat' all appeared in bloody letters in his skin.
As the blood started to evacuate his body, the tiny part of Gerard's mind that was still intact screamed at him to beg for help, but he didn't, couldn't, and as he faintly heard Bert stomp back up into the house above, closing the door behind him, he knew his time on this Earth was over! He would never get to see his family again, Mikey, oh God, how would Mikey cope when he found out that Gerard was gone? And then there was Frank!
Gerard was pretty sure that Frank would be just fine, after all, he had other friends, and he most certainly didn't feel the same way for Gerard, that Gerard felt for him. But he would have loved to have seen him one more time, heard his cute little pot laugh, seen his smile... you know, the cheeky one that looked like his whole face might split in two, the one that could light up the darkest room, the one that warmed Gerard's heart each time he was graced by it.
But that wouldn't happen! Gerard knew he was dying, he wasn't afraid of it, he just regretted not speaking up, not telling Frank about what Bert did, and not telling him how he felt.

Gerard's head was spinning now, as he heard his heartbeat getting slower in his ears. He'd long since run out of tears, and as his vision began to fade to black, he whispered just one word into the silent room-

"Frankie!"

Then everything was black, gone...lost!

Gerard didn't know how he'd survived that day, but now 1 year and 27 days later, tied to a wooden chair, naked and afraid, he kind of wished he hadn't!

Notes