Even Lights Can Fade Away

The beep of my alarm woke me up with a start. I hit the snooze button quickly and glanced over at Gerard who was still asleep, cocooned inside a heap of blankets, his mouth hanging open slightly. He looked adorable, sleeping peacefully.

Almost peacefully I corrected myself with a frown. Last night he had had another nightmare once again. I still wasn’t able to coax the form of the nightmares out of him yet, but I wasn’t pushing too hard. He was already shaken up about them enough; he didn’t need me forcing answers out of them.

That didn’t mean I was going to sit on the sidelines and do nothing though. I was going to do the only thing that I figured I had left to do. Go to the one person who has known Gerard the longest and whom he might trust even more than me. I was going to see Mikey.

I got out of bed and stretched before padding off towards the kitchen in search of blood. I pulled one out of the freezer, frowning as I realized there were only three more left. That wouldn’t last us much longer. I needed to get ahold of Jamia.

Jamia is my blood supplier as I call her. Even after the awkward amount of time we dated we still remained friends and kept in contact as I had explained to Gerard. It actually wasn’t long after meeting him at the music store, that Jamia called me telling me about her new job she got at Red Cross. Of course at the time I didn’t know that Gerard was a vampire. After I did find out though I convinced Jamia through hours of countless pleading and begging to get me a monthly supply of blood so that Gerard wouldn’t have to feel so bad about feeding off of humans, even if he didn’t kill them. We worked out an agreement at last with a “don’t ask don’t tell” kind of thing. She wouldn’t ask what the blood was for, and I wouldn’t ask how she snuck it away.

All in all it seemed to work. The only reason that Gerard didn’t know who was supplying us was because I thought he would get jealous and insecure. Especially after he knew that we dated at one point in time. One day I would probably tell him, but until I feel like he’s ready he’ll stay in the dark.

I heated up the blood in the microwave until it was warm enough to resemble fresh blood. Of course it wasn’t as good as fresh blood as far as Gerard’s told me, but it was still pretty good and I decided I would deal.

It’s kind of like when I was human and a vegetarian I mused to myself taking a small sip. I’m still choosing to give the best up for what I feel is morally right. I grinned to myself. Now I was comparing myself to Edward Cullen, the sparkling vampire from a teenage girls romance novel. Then again I feel like my situation fits Bella a lot more. Dear God, let’s pray I don’t get pregnant.

I wrinkled my nose in disgust, wondering why my thoughts even went there to begin with.
I continued to drink my blood at a leisurely pace until I had drained the entire packet. Gazing wistfully at the packet and wishing for more, I moved to throw it into the trashcan.

Done with my breakfast I slipped back into the bedroom, quickly grabbing clothes before sliding back out to get changed in the bathroom. I threw my pajama pants into the laundry hamper and splashed some water on my face, gazing into the mirror.

Probably the oddest thing I had to get use to was the change in eye color. No longer were my eyes their normal hazel. Now it was a shade of hazel flecked with red. I never really noticed my eye color when I had looked into the mirror as a human. I didn’t think I noticed it a lot, but the second it changed it seemed to stick out to me.

I shrugged and walked out of the bathroom, grabbing a hoodie and heading out the door. It didn’t take me long to reach the parking lot and hop into my beat up Trans Am. I mean I loved the crappy thing to pieces but sometimes on the road it could get a bit scary.

I started the ignition and pulled out of the parking lot and into the busy morning street. The drive to Mikey’s house was done in an almost auto pilot daze; my thoughts concentrated more on Gerard than actual driving.

What if Mikey didn’t know anything about what was going on with Gerard? Actually, come to think of it, had Mikey even been in touch since I woke up weeks ago? I thought as hard as I could, but no time would come to mind. Hell, I couldn’t even remember a single phone call.

Gerard and Mikey were as close as sibling could be though. Why would he suddenly just stop coming by? Was it me? Did I do something to upset Mikey too? I felt sick to my gut. I sure hoped it wasn’t because of me.

Sooner than I realized I was pulling up in front of the younger Way’s house. Immediately I could tell something wasn’t right. The grass was overgrown and messy, making the front yard look forgotten and abandoned. Daily newspapers and mail lay strewn carelessly across the front porch, unseen partly due to the tightly locked windows and light blocking curtains.

I ran a hand through my hair nervously and bit down on my lip ring. Maybe he just was in a lazy mood lately? But I knew Mikey Way, and he would never let this happen to his front yard.

I approached the front door almost cautiously, picking up the mail and newspapers as I went. By the time I got to the door my small arms were full and I was struggling not to drop any. I kicked the door lightly in place of knocking, balancing on one foot.

I was complimenting my ability to hold all those papers and balance on one foot when the door swung sluggishly open, and an even more sluggish Mikey Way appeared.

He looked as if he had been wearing the same clothes for at least a week now and I could smell him even from where I was. He had deep bags under his eyes and carried himself hunched over as if too much weight were on his shoulders. I peered past his scrawnier-than-usual self and into the house. The entire inside looked trashed. What looked to be beer cans covered nearly every surface and there was shattered glass everywhere.

“Hey Mikey what’s going on?” I asked concern seeping into my voice as well as my facial expression. He shrugged emotionlessly and shuffled to the side, letting me get past and into the house.

It was even more of a mess on the inside. The carpet was stained in so many places with beer and what I could only hope wasn’t blood. Something in my gut told me it was though. On further inspection of the kitchen I found his fridge full of rotten food, and the pantry in just as bad a shape.

“Mikey dude, when was the last time you ate?” I demanded, resting my hands on my hips and glaring at him from the middle of the kitchen. He just shrugged again, turning his eyes to the floor uninterested.

I walked over to him and shook him, trying to jar him from this no caring state he was in. I just wanted him to tell me what was wrong.

“C’mon Mikey!” I pleaded trying to keep the shaking gentle but getting more desperate as more time went by without a response. “Just tell me what’s wrong!”

Finally he looked up at me with bloodshot tear filled eyes.

“He’s gone, he’s gone, he’s gone, he’s gone…” He just kept on muttering to the floor. “He’s gone, he’s gone, he’s gone!” With a sob he threw himself on me, collapsing and folding himself into my arms. I stood stunned for a moment before wrapping my arms around his fragile body.

Looks like I wasn’t going to be talking to Mikey much about Gerard today.

Notes

So did you all miss me? I'm so sorry it took so long. I deleted the authors note but I was going through a really hard time and I just didn't have the motivation to write. I'm back now though and I've already gotten half of the next chapter done. Thank you guys all so much and I'll hopefully have the next chapter posted in the next few days.