Raise heaven in hell

“When was the last time you ate?” He asks me when I’m sitting in his kitchen. “Um… I don’t know… Yesterday I think?” “God, we have to feed you.” He opens his cupboards, looking for food. “It’s okay, I have food.” I say, reaching to my backpack. “No, you’re my guest; the least I can do is give you food.” He opens his fridge and takes out a pot. “Let me just warm that up for you.” “How do you have electricity?” He smirks. “Solar energy.” “Oh that’s smart.”
I try to grasp what has just happened in the past 10 minutes. I found a human being. He has a house with working electricity. He says I can stay overnight and he’s making me dinner right now. If someone told me that was gonna happen today I’d ask them to tell me another joke.
I look around his kitchen. I’m sitting on a wooden bench attached to the walls. The table is made out of dark polished wood. There’s a candle holder with a half melted candle on it, some pencils, a closed notebook and a mug.
“How old are you?” Gerard asks me when he puts a plate of pasta in front of me. “I’ll be 19 in… two weeks, I think?” I say and attack the pasta. I don’t remember the last time I’ve had it and I’ve almost forgotten how good it is. “I’m 20.” He says and I show him thumbs up because my mouth is full of pasta. Gerard smiles when I finish the plate. “Was it good?” “Yes it was delicious, thank you.” “You’re welcome.” He takes my plate and puts it in the sink, then sits on the other side of the table. “Uh… Can I ask you for a favor?” “Yes what is it?” “When I leave tomorrow, can I get some water?” He looks shocked. “You’re not leaving tomorrow already, are you?” I’m out of words for a moment. Does he think I’ll be staying forever? I do appreciate his hostility but I have to keep moving. It’s the only way to stay alive. Stay alone and keep moving. “Well… I was planning to… I don’t want to be in your way or anything and I have to keep moving.” Gerard shakes his head. “You wouldn’t be in my way. I could use some help here. Just stay here for a bit. Get some rest, gain some weight. It would give you much better chances of survival.” He’s not wrong. I could use a break after four years of constant moving but I have a feeling that breaking my routine will result something bad… but then again I always get this feeling. It’s not like anything bad can happen if I actually get some good night rest and eat warm meals for a few days. “Okay, I’ll stay until my birthday. But only if you’re absolutely okay with it and I won’t be in your way.” An adorable smile stretches across Gerard’s face. Fuck… I run into possibly one of the last humans alive and he happens to be a fucking cutie. I didn’t even notice it before because I was too busy with pasta but he’s actually really cute. The way his messy jet black hair hangs over his eyes… fuck is he wearing eyeliner? I silently curse the gods of eyeliner for making it so look so attractive on dudes. “That would be great! And yes I am one hundred percent okay with it. I wouldn’t turn down any company at this point. Is it okay if you sleep in the guest room?” I nod.
He leads me upstairs. “This is the guest room.” He points to one of the doors. “And here is the bathroom. You make yourself comfortable; I’ll go do the dishes.” He says and walks downstairs again. I open the doors to the guest room. It’s small but really nice; the walls are white, there’s a brown closet in one corner and a big mirror in the other. There’s a bookcase too and I make a mental note to check the books tomorrow. Right now my main interest is a double bed with red duvet. When was the last time I slept in a bed? I take off my backpack, jacket, shoes and pants so I’m only in my boxers and a T-shirt and I crawl into bed. It’s soft and warm and it feels so normal and I almost feel like it’s the time before the glitch erupted. I fall asleep faster than I ever did in the past four years.
“Please. Please just do it!” Gunshot. Thank you. Her motionless body on the floor. I try to run away but I can’t move, I’m frozen there, watching dark blood soak her hair. The gunshot is still echoing around the empty Walmart and I’m just standing there, looking at her body, unable to move. I hear another noise, an ear-ripping scream. Suddenly, a Reaper appears, his eyes dark with insanity and his face smeared with blood and dirt. He lungs towards me and I see something silver shine in his hand. A knife. I could move, I could run or shoot him but I’m fixed to the ground as the Reaper jumps on me, his knife piercing my skin over and over again and he raises his knife above my neck…
I wake up with a start. It’s okay. Just a nightmare. I’m okay. I take deep breaths and try to calm myself down. I wrap a blanket around my shaking body and turn on the light. There’s nobody in the room so that calms me down a bit. I look at my watch. It’s 3 in the morning. I hope I didn’t scream and wake Gerard up. I turn off the light again and try to fall back asleep but it takes me a while.
I wake up to the sun shining through the cracks between the planks on the window. My door is opened; I must’ve forgotten to close it last night. There’s a familiar smell coming from the kitchen but at first I can’t remember what it is. But when I do I quickly pull on my pants and run downstairs almost tripping myself on the way down. “Is that coffee?” I almost yell when I get in the kitchen. Gerard is sitting behind the table in a skeleton onesie, holding a mug and looking at me with a rather startled expression. “How the fuck can you be so alive in the morning?” He whispers. “Where did you get coffee?” “What the fuck…” He mutters to himself. “I didn’t have a cup of coffee for four years so tell me where the fuck is it?” He looks at me, shocked. “For four years?! How did you manage?” He puts his mug on the table and gets up. “Milk or no milk? And how much sugar do you take?” My jaw drops. “Where did you get the milk?” He smiles and runs his hand through his hair, ruffled and messy from sleep. “Would you believe I have a cow?” “No.” He laughs. “Okay I don’t. It’s powdered milk. Just because it’s the apocalypse and all the milk has expired doesn’t mean I’m gonna give up my favorite drink.” “I like your thinking. With milk and one spoon of sugar.” I sit down at the table and look longingly at Gerard’s mug. “Don’t you dare drink my coffee!” He says when he sees me. “I wasn’t planning to!” I lie. He places a coffee mug in front of me. Oh my god it smells so good. I slowly take the first sip. Gerard’s right, how did I manage to live without it for four years? He laughs at my expression. “You look like a happy puppy.” “I feel like a happy puppy.” I say and take another sip. “This is delicious.” “I couldn’t agree more.” He smiles. We finish our coffees in silence. I get up to wash my mug. “Nice onesie.” I sarcastically say. “Oh shut up.” He mutters. “Also no offense but when was the last time you took a shower?” “To be completely honest with you, I don’t remember. When was the last time it rained?” I laugh at his expression. “You can take one. I filter all my water so no there’s no glitch in it. And we need to wash your clothes.” I don’t protest since it’s fairly obvious that my clothes need washing. “Wait why don’t you go get your clothes? And I’ll find you something to wear while these are in the washing.” He says and puts his mug in the sink.
Five minutes later he shows up with some sweatpants, a black T-shirt and a gray hoodie. “Take this.” He gives me the clothes and shoves me to the bathroom. “You still do know how to use showers, right?” “I’m not an idiot.” I mutter and lock the door behind me.
It’s so nice to take a warm shower after such a long time that I never want to get out. After I’ve used up most of the soap bar and probably most of the hot water too, I finally get out. The last time I was this clean is when I found a clean river this August and swam in it. I put on Gerard’s clothes, which are a bit too big but I don’t care. I dry my hair with one of the towels and get out of the bathroom. “Well you certainly took your time.” Gerard smirks from the doors of his room. He’s not wearing the skeleton onesie anymore but an Iron Maiden T-shirt and skinny black jeans which look great on him. “Can I see your room?” I ask and he nods, opening the door wider.
His room is amazing. The first thing is see is a giant Misfits poster on his wall. It’s surrounded by several smaller pictures which I then realize are actually drawings. “Did you draw these?” I ask. “Um… Yes…” he says, looking down. “They’re amazing.” I say. His cheeks turn pink. “Thank you.” He smiles shyly. “You like the Misfits?” “Yes I love them. They’re amazing.” “We have that in common.” I smile. “No way! Really?” His face lights up. “Yes I love them too. And Iron Maiden.” I say looking at his shirt. “That’s awesome! When one of the last human beings alive crashes your place it gets even more amazing when he has a similar taste in music.” He beams. I look around the rest of the room. His bed is on the one side, the black sheets on it piled together at the end of it. His closet is on the other side of his room and next to it his desk which has even more drawings on the wall above it and some crumbled papers on the ground. And in the corner I see them… two guitars, one electric and one acoustic, leaning on a Marshall amp. “Oh my god, you play the guitar?” “I tried to learn but I’m not the best at it.” “Can I play?” I ask and he smiles. “If you can, yes. But only the acoustic one, the amp takes up way too much electricity.” “I haven’t played in four years but I can try.” I say, taking the guitar. I sit on his bed and he sits down next to me and I start picking the strings absent mindedly just to remember a bit how to play. Then I start playing Boulevard of broken dreams by Green day. I try my best to ignore Gerard’s eyes on me and how he mouths the words to the song and how fucking close he’s sitting next to me and how much all of that is making my heart race but in a different way than any Reaper ever made my heart race. My fingers slip on the strings a bit and I shake my head. “I’m out of practice.” “It sounds great.” Gerard says and smiles. Now I feel myself blushing and I look down, turning the guitar pick between my fingers. “I need to hear what the actual song sounds like again.” I say, putting aside the guitar. “Wait here!” Gerard stands up and goes to his desk. He takes his phone and headphones off it and sits on the ground, his back against his bed. I scoot down next to him. He gives me one of his earbuds. Soon after that I hear actual music for the first time in god knows how long. Too long. I close my eyes and let the music take over my head and clear me of my thoughts. I’ve missed this so much. I’ve missed how music can clear all your thoughts away and how free it makes you feel. I open my eyes and see Gerard looking at me, smiling. “That’s cute.” He says. I feel all the blood rushing to my face for the second time today and I look away. I hope he didn’t see that. I close my eyes again as the next song comes on and if I could stay like this, just listening to music with Gerard forever, I would.

Notes

Hey!
So second chapter is done, yay! I hope you like it and all that :)
Nina xx