Murders In The New Morgue

a.n. Can you tell i’ve written this at like 4am

I suddenly awoke to the TV still on, and I groaned before rolling off of the couch I was sleeping on and looked towards the TV.. It was turned to the news, and I jumped a little bit when I saw Mikey sat on the ground a couple feet away from me, his eyes glued to the TV as he held a bowl of half-eaten cereal and a spoon in his hands, glasses slightly askew on his messy bedhead as the clothes he had on were baggy and very unfamiliar. I yawned loudly and looked towards the screen to see what Mikey was looking at.

“Breaking news!” The reporter said suddenly, shuffling a couple papers as she tried to hide a scared expression, and I knew this could be big. “It seems that the so called Madman of New Jersey has struck again, this time killing a couple and their dog in their home last night.” The reporter went on to say the general area of the killings, and my eyes widened as I realized that was near here.

“Damn… that’s not that far off!” I said, blinking a little. Mikey just grunted slightly in response as he spooned some cereal into his mouth, his eyes never once leaving the TV screen.

“The police investigation has yet again turned up empty-handed. If you have any leads about the Madman of New Jersey, or any information whatsoever about him, please don’t hesitate to call the police immediately. There is a $5,000 reward for any information or leads to this killer, so please, call now.” The reporter said, shuffling her papers around once more. “And now back to regularly scheduled programming.”

I focused my attention back into reality as the channel switched back to normal news, feeling a little bit uneasy about this whole situation.

“That’s pretty weird.” I said, and Mikey once again grunted in response as he got up and put his now-empty dishes in the sink. I stood up and out of the couch, grabbed something to eat, and followed Mikey down the living room and we soon split off in our separate ways to get ready for school, hearing Mikey’s light footsteps down the stairs and to the basement sparked some envy within me. I don’t know man, I was always slightly jealous that Mikey got the whole basement to himself. I would be less jealous if he let anyone down there, but nope. He doesn’t let a soul other than himself down into the basement.

Which is kinda okay, because I’ve always heard weird noises come from own there. No, not like Mikey’s jacking off or some shit like that, get your mind out of the gutter. It’s more like little shrieks and light screams of terror, and I’ve always brushed it off as like he’s watching a horror movie or something along those lines, but that explanation just seems a bit… off to me. A bit wrong. Although, I can’t really do anything about it, because once again, he doesn’t let anyone down there so I can neither prove or disprove this theory.

Which reminds me, I attempted to go down there once a couple years back, thinking that he had gone out or was sleeping or something that was distracting him, and that since I was the older brother in the family, he would eventually let me down into the basement. But no. Just as I was coming down the stairs and just as I was laying my hand on the doorknob, Mikey appeared right beside me, making me jump back. He did not make any noise coming down the stairs, or really any noise at all, which scared me a little bit. He was like a ninja.

He calmly questioned me about what I was doing down here and why, to which honestly I didn’t answer truthfully (because who would), coming up with some lie about how I thought I heard something from down here, and was just investigating. I could tell Mikey didn’t believe a word I said, even though he had a poker face professional poker players would be proud of. But his eyes were a totally different story from his voice and general expression. They shone with faint anger, but definite rage. You might think that rage and anger are the same thing, and they are much alike, but they are so much different when you have seen Mikey’s eyes from that moment in time.

You could tell he did NOT want anyone down there.

I ended up quickly retreating back up the stairs and to my room, to which Mikey didn’t follow and I heard the slam of the basement door soon after I entered my own room.

I bit my lip as I thought about that moment, and how Mikey was just weird after that. Always down in the basement and only coming up for school and for food. I think there was a bathroom down there, so that lessened his visits to the surface (as I like to call the main floor). But then he went out one night, saying he needed a night out on the town, and came back quietly giggling a little bit every now and then. He came up to the surface a lot more often, joining me and our parents for dinner and the like. But then, after a long stretch of silence from the Madman of New Jersey, he struck again that very same night. I found it very uncanny, but coincidental anyways. I hugged Mikey after I heard about the recent murders, wanting to keep him safe from the Madman. My brother may be strange, but I love him anyway.

I pulled out some clothes (A random black band tee and black skinny jeans in this case) from the dresser, and quickly threw them on before heading to the bathroom to fix my face and hair situation. I looked into the mirror and almost cringed at how shit my hair looked, and I picked up a comb and ran it through my long-ish black hair, and put some eyeliner on before heading out of the bathroom and grabbing a jacket from my own room along the way back to the living room. I snatched my backpack and threw some random school shit in it, remembering to pack a pencil because not having one in Arts could be disastrous. Believe me, I know.

I hoisted my backpack onto my back and walked down the stairs to the front door, trying (and failing) to replicate Mikey’s feather-light steps that made little to no noise on the squeaky hardwood stairs. But, my ‘light’ steps ended up making more noise than my actual steps, to which I shrugged and hopped down the rest of the staircase to the front landing. I turned around and quietly walked down the set of stairs down to the basement, intent on letting him know I’m leaving and he should probably hurry up.

I reached the door to the basement and I knocked on it, hearing something clatter to the ground and a noise of discontent. I smiled a little bit, and knocked again.

“Hey, um, you should probably hurry up, as I’m leaving. You have school you know.” I said slightly matter-of-factly, and then the door opened for I swear less than a second before closing shut and a black-ish figure zoom out of the basement, and suddenly I noticed Mikey resting against the wall on the landing, looking at me with a mixture of ‘I’m already here’ and ‘really?’ I smiled a little bit and walked up the stairs to the front landing where Mikey was.

“How are you so fast?” I asked, a joking tone hinting at my voice, and he shrugged before opening the door to the outside, and I felt cold morning air rush into the house and I cringed at the cool temperature, before heading outside and hearing Mikey shut the door as he followed me suit.

“You ready?” I turned around and asked, and he quickly adjusted his glasses a little and his blonde-tan hair before nodding curtly. I flashed him a thumbs up before turning around again to face the street right outside our house, and to hear the chugs of the school bus turning to corner towards the cul-de-sac where we lived. It’s yellow body letting out exhaust every now and then, that spiraled up and out of the back and into the sky. I grimaced a little at the sight as it drew near our house, the grumpy bus driver scowling at the rest of the high-schoolers situated in the back no doubt making a ruckus.

Mikey stood on the edge of the curb as the bus reached us, stopping right outside our lot. As soon as the doors opened, I ran over and hopped in, sitting in the first open seat I saw, and watching Mikey as he made his way to the very back, everybody’s eyes on him as the bus went silent. Mikey’s eyes rested on a couple people, and I saw them flinch a little bit as he made eye contact for a fraction of a second before looking away. Mikey wasn’t popular or anything in the high school we went to, more like the outcast/the extremely strange person who has no friends and who nobody ever approaches, other than his own brother, who also doesn’t talk much, and has the ultimate poker face. It’s weird, but Mikey didn’t seem to mind. He seemingly likes to be alone, cut off from the rest of the people.

Mikey walked down the aisle and sat at an open seat at the very very back, away from everyone else, and put in some earbuds and stared out of the window as the bus started to move again, jostling the rest of the students around and Mikey giving no fucks. I pursed my lips slightly as I focused my attention back on the front of the bus as I saw the flashing colours of the neighborhood fly by, and heard the light buzz of people conversing gradually fill up the bus once again as the bus drove past the houses of the neighborhood.

I sighed and pulled out my sketchbook and pencil, and sketched some random crap that was in my head at the moment, which was a man with big bell-bottom jeans and a general western look, with the hat and boots. Hell, he even had a whip and a gun to match his general look!

I smiled, knowing that if I put this on a canvas and splashed some colour on it, it would look fantastic. I wrote a little note to myself to think about this idea, and worked on it a little more. But as I was working on it, I did not notice the bus stop and someone climb onto the bus and walk down the aisle to stand over my shoulder for a little bit.

“Wow.” I have never shut my sketchbook that fast in my entire life as I recognized this guy’s voice from the first word. I heard the guy cock his head (don’t ask why I just heard it) and sigh.

“You know you are really good at drawing.” I looked up to see the one and only Frank Iero standing over my shoulder, and I swear my heart did an Olympic-worthy backflip at the sight of him.

I’ve had a minor crush on him for several years, and that crush has only just started to grow. Seeing him talk to me so suddenly was a little startling to me, and made my heart do front flips in my chest.

“Also, everywhere else is taken,” Except for the seat near Mikey, but nobody sits next to him. “So may I please sit next to you?” Frank asked, and I could tell he could feel eyes on him, as the bus driver was just waiting for him to sit down so they could finally leave.

I gulped as I looked around, and it just so seemed that Mikey and I had grabbed the last open seats, and I looked back at him and nodded, feeling my heart do more Olympic gymnastics as he climbed over and sat down in the seat next to me, glancing out the window every now and then as I felt the bus jolt and move and then we were cruising along the road towards the next bus stop.

“So, have you heard about the Madman of New Jersey?” Frank suddenly spoke up, looking over at me. I nodded sheepishly, slightly nervous that if I talk, I might fuck up something and he will move away from me.

“But I mean, who hasn’t?” I said out of the blue, and Frank nodded and continued to stare out of the window. “He or she is a famed serial killer and has been on both local and national news. Of course I would know about the Madman.” I said, looking over at Frank and just letting my eyes travel down his mohawk-like hairstyle down to his strong-looking back and his bulletproof vest down to his ass-

I reluctantly stopped myself there.

“Yeah I guess so. But seriously though, that person is scary. Slashing at their eyes to carve X’s in them, just mutilating their bodies sometimes, and avoiding the police like a motherfucker.” Frank said, looking back over at me. “It kinda makes me nervous of when they’re going to strike next, because the last killings were so near my house that we are actually thinking about moving.” Frank said, and worry started to settle in my being as I heard those words. I really did not want to have to see him go.

“But I don’t think we will, as we do not have the money to do so.” Frank said, chuckling a little bit, and I smiled softly as the worry started to disappear, as I learned that I wouldn’t see him go anywhere just yet.

“Haha yeah, but that is a little freaky, knowing that some couple and their dog were murdered likely just a couple blocks away.” I said, remembering what the reporter said on the news Mikey and I watched this morning.

“Exactly.” Frank said, chuckling a little bit more.

We just sat in silence for a while, and not the uncomfortable, awkward, and just plain uneasy silence, but the light, cheery, and generally comfortable silence that felt right in this moment in time.

“I must ask, what is your name?” Frank asked, and I frowned a bit at the fact that his didn’t know my name/forgotten it, but I shrugged it off anyways. Some people just have horrible memory.

“Gerard.” I said, and Frank nodded and held out his hand.

“Frank. Nice to meet you.” Frank said, and I grabbed his hand gently and shook it, feeling jolts of electricity run up my arm and dazing me a bit. I let go, immediately regretting it and wanting to place my hand in his once again. But, that would be creepy and a bit fast, so I refrained from doing so.

I smiled at him as his hand hit the hard bus seat in the space between us.

“Nice to meet you too.” I said, not telling him that I already knew his name. He’s one of the more popular people of the school, not really the top notch ultra-popular jock who has all of the sluts latched onto him, a lot less than that, but still pretty popular with both the girls… and the boys.

As you can tell.

“So, on this highway to Hell, I want to get to know you more. I don’t know, but I’m getting the feeling that we have a lot in common.” Frank said, looking over at me and narrowing his eyes. I caught the AC/DC reference he made, and I chuckled a little bit, only for it to be stifled under his gaze.

“I see what you did there.” I said, and Frank smiled as his gaze softened. I smiled as well, as Frank’s smile was sort of contagious.

“I like you already.” Frank said, and my heart and my stomach both did double backflips inside of me at his words.

“U-Uh, thanks.” I said, and Frank raised his eyebrows.

“So, what is your favourite colour?” Frank asked, his soft gaze turning into a more questioning one as he narrowed his eyes again, his head leaning against the window.

“Black… I guess.” I answered, and Frank smiled evilly, as he then started an onslaught of questions, firing them at me like a machine gun. Although, he did let me answer in between.

~~~

“I like cheese wiz, it’s good.” I said, and Frank nodded as he looking out the window to the outside world. It was a rather long route this bus took, so we had a lot of time to talk.

“Do you have any siblings?” Frank asked, not looking at me, and I bit my lip as I nodded.

“Yeah, one. His name is Mikey-”

“Mikey Way?” Frank said, cutting me off as he turned to sort of stare at me, his greeny-hazel eyes boring into my own. I gulped and nodded, and Frank took his eyes off of me and looked at his shoes.

“Uh, yeah, Mikey Way.” I said, and Frank shivered slightly, and I looked at him with a worried expression on my face.

“What’s wrong? Do you have something against my little brother?” I asked, sharpness edging at my tone of voice, and Frank quickly shook his head as he noticed I was getting slightly defensive over Mikey. I mean, he’s my little brother, so why wouldn’t I?

“Oh no, not that, it’s just… he’s pretty strange.” Frank said, and I pursed my lips a little bit at his words. “Not to offend you or anything he’s just kinda… unapproachable I guess, without some major consequences.” I nodded, knowing that Mikey could be pretty weird at times.

“I’ve seen him be more terrifying than any other person I’ve met, with a stare that could kill and an expression to match as he faced off against bullies.” Frank noted, sighing a little bit. “He’s pretty scary when he wants to be.” Frank said, and it slightly annoyed me that Frank spoke like he knew Mikey personally, but I brushed it off as Frank could know him personally, or know enough about Mikey to say these things.

“Yeah, I know. Mikey can be bloody terrifying.” I said, and Frank nodded.

“Sorry if I offended you, because just from how you are acting I can tell you are pretty protective.” Frank said, shooting me a smile. I shot an apologetic look back at him and looked down at my shoes, twiddling my feet.

“It’s okay. I’ve been told I’m a defensive and protective person so… yeah.” I said, not really knowing what to say next.

We sat in another silence, but this time, it was a little more uncomfortable than last time, like it was just waiting for one person to speak. We were both waiting for each other to speak, but we didn’t really know it then.

“So,” I said, slightly startled a bit as something suddenly came out of my mouth. I was expecting to stay in the somewhat awkward silence for the rest of the ride to school, but obviously my body had other ideas.

“Yeah?” Frank asked, taking his head off of the window and looking at me again, his greeny-hazel eyes soft and gentle, quite like a doe actually.

“Now that I’ve told you about me, I want to know more about you.” Words seemed to almost tumble out of my mouth, as I knew I was used to people asking me questions, and not me asking them questions.

“Alright, seems fair.”

~~~

We soon arrived at school, the bus skidding to a stop as we quickly hopped out of the bus, still talking about the questions I asked him earlier and some other topics we stumbled across.

“I know right!” I exclaimed suddenly, earning me a couple of stares from the passerby, and a short laugh from Frank.

“Exactly.” Frank said, his soft gaze looking towards the gates of Hell- I mean, the front doors to the school. Frank was already attracting stares, and was stopped several times on the way here, which I found quite annoying, but oh well. He dismissed them politely and we quickly returned to our conversation.

“Right, what is your first period by the way?” Frank asked, turning to me.

“Uh, Mr. Aethen.” I said, and Frank nodded and sighed in dissaproval.

“Damn…” He swore under his breath. “Well, I think we may have the same lunch together,” There were two lunches in our school, and the lunch you were in depended on your fourth period teacher, and we both had the same fourth period teacher.

“Yeah, I’m looking forward to it.” I said, and Frank laughed a little bit.

“Same.” Frank said, and he yawned before shuffling his feet around.

“Well, I have to go.” He said, and I frowned slightly. “See you soon!” Frank said, before entering the hallway and disappearing into the crowd. I waved at him as I saw him go, and I smiled, feeling my heart jump around a little inside my chest. He finally knew I exist, and seemed to like me, as a friend of course.

And he is most likely straight. I mean, come on. He has dated only girls, and also this is a huge assumption to think he is straight, he has messed with guys in the past, so that complicates things a little bit.

I quickly dropped the matter as I walked into the crowd, only turning around when I felt a pair of eyes boring into my back like drills. I looked behind me to see Mikey just staring at me, an unreadable expression on his face, and his eyes not showing much else. But they looked kinda like he was studying something, like a textbook for a test or quiz through his white and black rimmed glasses. It was definitely strange, but when he noticed I was looking back at him he let out a short breath through his nose and walked away and disappeared into the stampede of students.

I gritted my teeth as I looked at the stampede, trying to pick out the familiar head of blonde-tan hair that was my brother, but was obviously unsuccessful. So I myself disappeared into the crowd of students walking through the double doors, and headed over to my locker to throw my stuff in there before class started.

I walked through the crowd of students and to my locker to see my friend Pete already standing there, seemingly waiting for me. I smiled a little bit and quickly jogged over to him, his face lighting up as he saw me.

“Gerard! He was looking down at his phone, seemingly texting somebody, but when I reached him, he looked up at me as he quickly slipped his phone into his pocket and waved at me.

“Hello Gerard!” Pete said, smiling a little bit at me. I waved back as I focused on getting my locker open, turning the dial towards the correct numbers and entering the code to my locker.

“Hey.” I said, still turning the dial as I messed up the code.

“So, I was thinking, how about the group have a little get-together or something over the weekend?” Pete asked, and I looked back up at him and shrugged. Sounds like a good idea, but the last one we had we were at Pete’s house and Pete broke something very valuable and was grounded for several weeks, so that put off having one of those events for a little while.

“Who’s house?” I asked, trying once again to push up the final lock to the locker, but it failed and I had to start all over again.

“Um, not mine because I’m not allowed to have get-togethers, not Patty’s” Patty was Pete’s rather affectionate nickname for Patrick, another person in our group of friends. Strangely, Patrick didn’t let anyone else call him Patty. He only let Pete call him by that name, and I definitely shipped it. Pete had other nicknames for Patrick which are lesser-used than Patty, including ‘Pattycakes’ and ‘Trick’, and again, Patrick only let Pete call him by those names. “Because he says he’s still unpacking and everything is messy, you know, from that one trip he went to for a couple weeks. And not Ray’s because for one reason or another, so that leaves you.” Pete said, looking at me and narrowing his eyes, as if expecting me to say a reason that meant that we couldn’t have our get-together.

“Sure, but maybe in a few weeks.” I said, and Pete fist pumped the air in success.

“Yes!” He said, looking back at me with bright eyes and a big smile. I tried to open my locker again, and it worked, and I quickly put some unnecessary items in there before slamming the locker shut and giving Pete a smile.

“Alrighty then.” Pete said, stepping over to stand by my side. “Shall we?” He said, gesturing the emptying halls as students filed into their classrooms, and I nodded and we walked towards our first class, as we had most of our classes together.

We both entered our first class, and sat down in our seats, just waiting for the school bell to ring, sounding that school had started.

~~~

“Ugh.” I groaned as the end of class bell rung, and I quickly moved towards my locker to grab my lunch. I had sat through four periods, the only time I got to stretch my aching limbs was during passing period, where students could go to their locker and get stuff, and migrate towards their next class.

I met Pete outside my locker, and Patrick as well as he was standing right next to Pete. He was wearing a cute little fedora and basic t-shirt and pants and holding some schoolbooks.

I opened up my locker as I heard them talking, quickly grabbing my lunch and stuffing some unnecessary items back into my locker, accidentally eavesdropping on Pete and Patrick’s conversation a little bit.

“You have any idea who he is?” Pete asked, his tone kinda questioning.

“If I did, I would be going straight to the police.” Patrick said, and I heard the shuffling of books as Patrick probably hoisted them to a more comfortable position in his arms.

“True true…” I heard Pete sigh slightly, and then shuffle his feet around. “The Madman is scary, isn’t he?” Oh, so that’s what they were talking about, the famed Madman of New Jersey. His signature is two brutal X’s over his victim’s eyes, slashing right through the eye area. I’ve seen pictures of the bodies, and let’s just say I don’t ever want to see them ever again. It was disgusting, how mutilated their eyes were. It looked like a soup-like consistency, and just… ew. Not to say the body wasn’t damaged, the pictures I’ve seen the bodies were completely cut to ribbons. Disturbing, and nearly made me puke.

Actually, it did, and Mikey looked a little uncomfortable as he patted my back and I puked my guts out and into the toilet. I was never really good with these gory pictures, not having an iron stomach myself.

“Yeah, he is. I wonder when he is going to strike next. It’s kinda unnerving to think about those kinds of things with a wild and probably crazy and insane killer on the loose, to be quite honest.” Patrick said, and I put away my books back into my bag as I listened in some more. “It’s kinda sick, seeing how some people get their kicks out of senselessly murdering people. And it seems at random as well, as if the person doing this does not have any grudge or anything to explain why they were murdering them. That means, who ever this Madman is, they are doing it for the fun of it.”

Now that sent chills down my spine.

“Ooh, I felt that.” Pete said, and I slammed the locker shut and stood up, facing them as they finished up their conversation.

“Sorry to interrupt.” I chuckled a little bit as they looked at me funny, Patrick’s eyes especially piercing. I cleared my throat and raised a fist in the air. “Let’s go!” I said in a Mario-like accent, and Pete started to smile a bit.

“A definite improvement from the earlier more morbid conversation.” Patrick whispered to Pete as we walked towards the lunchroom, avoiding the crowds of other students gathered around lockers and classrooms and such.

-~-~-

We walked up to the very back of the lunchroom, where only a couple other people were sat. The group, some nerds and other outcasts, and then Mikey, who was sitting all alone at the table adjacent from ours. He had his earbuds in as he listened to music probably from his phone, which he wasn’t allowed to do, but he was such a good student I don’t think any of the teachers gave a shit.

I waved to Mikey, who turned his head to look at me, before looking away and proceeding to let his cold eyes scour across the lunchroom, where he was sat transforming into a sort of lookout post or a throne or something that raised him up high, so he could see everything through his white and black glasses and blonde-tan hair that sometimes fell in front of his eyes..

I sat down at the table next to Ray as Patrick and Pete sat across from us, Pete sitting pretty damn close to Patrick, his gaze soft as it landed on Patrick.

“Hey cutie.” Pete said as he looked over at Patrick, and Patrick lightly shoved his shoulder as Pete started to giggle a little bit, Patrick not looking amused at all really.

“Honestly,” I said, and both of them perked up to look at me as I made a heart with my fingers and in my vision put the heart around them, almost like a picture frame. “I ship it.”

And as I said that, Patrick’s annoyed expression turned almost murderous as he stared right at me, his green eyes sparking with anger. I started to laugh as I put the heart away and brought out my sandwich out of my lunch.

“I’m just kidding!” I said, and Patrick’s stare softened back to it’s original state, and Pete snorted a little bit.

“So, what shall be today’s topic of conversation?” Ray asked, and I shrugged.

“The Madman, or is that already been discussed too much?” I asked, and suddenly I felt someone plop down next to me, and I didn’t even need to turn and see who it was just because of Pete’s jaw drop and Patrick’s eyes widening slightly.

And I could also tell by the sweet scent that he seemed to always carry around with him. It smelled of dogs, Christmas (like peppermint candy canes and cinnamon), and just… warm.

It was none other than Frank.

“You guys look like you’ve just seen a ghost!” Frank joked, his soft laughter echoing in my ears. Oh how I loved hearing his laughter.

“Oh, uh, sorry.” Pete said, brushing some of his fringe out of his face as he looked at Frank with still a little bit of surprise still hidden in his eyes. “Just a little bit of a shock, you know?” Pete said, scooting even closer to Patrick, who surprisingly didn’t seem to mind at all.

I definitely shipped it, but I am never going to say that because Patrick might actually kill me.

“Well,” Frank said, trailing off a little bit, his hazel eyes looking down at his chest, then looking back up, only this time at me. “I met this rad dude on the bus,” I met his eyes and we just looked at each other for a couple seconds, and I eventually had to look away because I could feel my cheeks start to heat up. He looked back at the others with a soft smile on his face and I looked down at my lap as he continued to speak. “And we started talking, and I have concluded that I like this guy.” Frank said, obviously meaning ‘like’ as in a friend sort of way, but I couldn’t help but blush even more as I kept my face down hoping that my hair would help hide my reddened cheeks.

“Oh really?” Pete asked, and I looked up to see him shrug. “Well, welcome to our table of coolness. We have the very special Patty, or as most people call him Patrick,” Pete gestured to Patrick, who smiled a little bit and waved.

“We have myself, who is gay as fuck and pretty flirty as well.” Pete said, adding in a sly smirk at Frank, who laughed a little bit. I started smiling as well.

“We have the one with the amazing ‘fro, also known as Ray.” Pete said, gesturing to Ray, who just looked up at Pete at the sound of his name.

“And then we have the one and only Gerard!” Pete said, gesturing to me as I looked at him with an amused expression adorning my features. “An awesome and pretty rad dude, a damn good singer, and one hell of an artist.” I started blushing again as he said those things about me, hoping again that my hair would hide my reddened cheeks.

“Oh, stop it you.” I said bashfully, flicking my hand at him as a gesture to stop. Pete laughed a little bit and shook his head.

“It’s all true little guy.” Pete said, reaching over and poking my red cheek with his index finger and I playfully slapped it away.

“Hey! You’re the little guy here.” I pointed out, and Patrick, Frank, and Ray started to laugh as Pete’s eyes grew almost playfully angry as he had an exaggerated frown on his face.

“Oh really?” Pete said, his angry eyes turning darker as his voice grew suggestive, a smirk replacing his frown as he playfully and flirtatiously winked at me. I almost reached over and slapped him as I realized what he was talking about, a surprised-angry expression on my face.

“Peter Lewis Kingston Wentz the Third I swear to God!” I said with mock disgust, and Frank started laughing even harder, to the point where tears were almost leaking from his eyes.

“T-This is g-great!” Frank said in between his laughter, and I smiled at him.

“Honey, this is nothing.” Pete said, looking at Frank, and it was then Frank leaned over the side of the table and started coughing and hacking like crazy, like he was having a fit of some sort. His mohawk whipped in the air as he tried to breathe, and I looked at him with worry as he kept coughing his lungs out.

“Hey, are you alright?” I asked, and Frank nodded, still coughing, but less harshly this time.

“I’m alright, I think.” Frank said, his voice hoarse, and I gulped as I heard it. Fuck.

“Well that’s good. I was worrying for a second.” Ray suddenly spoke up, a little smile adorning his face as he looked at the rest of us, his eyes mostly resting on Frank as he recovered and sat back up. He then looked back over at Pete, who shrugged, and then Ray turned away as he fell back into his own little version of reality.

Basically, he lost interest.

“So,” Patrick said, adjusting his fedora. “What are all your favourite bands? Excuse me for my bad memory, I just need a refresher.”

And we jumped into conversation.

~~~

I returned home from school after a long day, lunchtime being the only fun thing. Even Art wasn’t fun, as the substitute was an asswipe and wouldn’t let me finish my drawing I was working on, you know, the western looking one I had an idea for.

I had to stay after school for a couple hours when the regular teacher came back, and she helped me with my ideas.

I threw my backpack against the side of the kitchen counter facing the living room, and walked over and practically threw myself onto the couch, grunting a little bit as I had a rather soft landing on the cushions. I lay there for a while, with my head resting on a pillow and my right leg hanging off of the side along with my right arm, and I looked around the living room at all of the different things. He family photo on the mantle, the painting of of dancing skeleton on the far wall I had always found to kinda creepy, the coffee table in front of me with engravings and scorch marks, until my eyes suddenly snapped to a binder sitting in the corner. It was a black messenger binder, which was obviously in use because of the I think it was Math worksheet hanging over it, as I did see some various Math problems on it.

I got up and out of my position on the couch and walked over to it, picking it up and inspecting it. It was quite heavy and not like really any binder I’ve seen. It had a messenger strap on it, made of a hard cloth-like material, and was just weird.

I opened it up to see several school notebooks and composition books with incredibly neat and fancy script handwriting on the front of the covers. I took a look at the handwriting and read through it, to be mildly confused as to why it was left here.

All of them read Mikey Way in fancy and loopy handwriting, with the subjects the notebooks were used for underneath.

Why would this be left here?

I should probably go return it…

But something inside me rejected that idea, and it was the curiosity that fueled it.

But there could be something in there… you know the secrets that people keep from you?

I knew it was stupid, I knew it was dumb. I knew it was an awful idea, and I knew I wasn’t going to find anything in here.

Before my mind could protest, I shut the binder and used the zipper on the sides to close it up, deciding to return it as it is obviously Mikey’s. I walked over and down the stairs, landing on the door area with a satisfying thump. I turned around to almost jump back in fear as I saw Mikey standing at the bottom of the stairs to the basement, staring right at me through his glasses, the door to the actual basement slowly closing. I quickly looked in there, to see nothing really, the lights were all turned off. But I wasn’t allowed much of a look-see, as Mikey slammed the door shut before my eyes could focus in on what’s inside.

“Do you need anything?” Mikey said, his sort of deep (it was a weird combination of high and deep). His voice never failed to surprise me, because he was normally very quiet and didn’t speak much, so I didn’t hear it very often. I shook my head and held out the binder.

“Is this yours?” I asked, and Mikey nodded, pushing up his glasses and hopping up the stairs, his eyes never leaving me. It was kind of creepy actually, having someone watch me for whatever reason. Even in the dim light I could see Mikey’s eyes sort of glow with some emotion I could not put my finger on. I pursed my lips as Mikey reached the top of the stairs and slowly reached out the grab the binder, and then once his fingers touched it, he quickly snatched it out of my hands and ran as fast as he could down the stairs, and went into the basement all in record time.

I stood at the top of the stairs for a little bit, wondering what the contents of that binder where. Was it schoolwork? Why am I even bothering to think about this? Of course it’s schoolwork!

But the way Mikey looked, kinda pointed to that the binder was something of great importance to him, so the question still bugged me.

Was it? Or was it not?

Notes

cliffhanger oOoOoOooOoOooOO

spoiler the binder will be pretty important at the end

yez

ugh i need to fucking update something other than this blegh

let me know if you guys like this story! I can see my writing style has changed a little bit, and I'm kinda using that for this one. Idk about the others tho, lmao

bai