"G-gee?!" I heard a surprised voice speak as its owner knelt down by my side, "G-gee what's wrong?!"
Mikey shook me gently as he tried desperately to get me to peel my eyes from the floor, but I refused. I didn't want to look at anything else but this small patch of mudded grass, the spot where Frank had been last...but he was gone.
"G-Gee what's happened?" Mikey asked again.
I shrugged my shoulders, barely having enough energy to form words and spit them out, I never make any sense to anyone anyway so why should I even try. My stomach seemed to boil its contents as my lungs seemed to shrink so that I struggled for air. My vision became slightly blurred, just so that everything seemed slightly out of focus and Mikeys voice became low and distant. Being under water is the best way that I can describe this, drowning and watching the surface slowly slip from your grasp.
"G-Gee?!" I heard Mikey whisper from a million miles away. I tried to reply but clutched my stomach as I threw up to my side.
"G-gee?!" Mikeys blurred outline asked me. "It's okay. I w-will look after you."

I saw a hand reach into the water and desperately cling to my hand, heaving me up through the swirling currents of the water. My lungs gasping for air with my ribs screaming and crushing my body but the arm led to a body who was pulling me to the surface. My head broke the surface and I took in all of the air and relaxed as I floated on the surface of the water with the sun rays dancing onto my skin. The person still gripped me as they pulled me onto the boat that floated peacefully along the water. I instantly recognised the face as belonging to my brother.
"Mikey...what are you doing?" I asked as I sat on the deck of the boat.
"Um, well, um, I-I helped you up from the floor, a-and you are now s-safe in my car." His voice spoke softly but broken.
"Wait what? A car?!" I snapped back into reality. There was no boat or water or Mikey on a boat or me still soaked from the water. There was no sun (for the time being), I was indeed sat in Mikey's car in the car park with my head resting against the window and a worried Mikey sat next to me. Hm, maybe the whole boat thing was just a giant metaphor but anyway...I'm in a car now not a boat.
"Sorry." I whispered, clutching my head and turning back around to face Mikey. The car was still in the car park, still parked and it was still a car. Mikey smiled gently at me, his quiff still falling slightly to the right hand side but this time I knew that the darkness under his eyes wasn't from smudged eyeliner...not anymore. He tapped his fingers against the steering wheel and looked towards me.

"Are y-you okay Gee?" He asked.
"Frank has gone." I said after taking a deep breath.
"W-where has he gone?" Mikey stuttered, but unlike Liam would he wasn't mocking me. No. He actually understood.
"I don't know but he has left me."
"Has he left y-you on purpose or did he h-have to go?"
"He had to leave."
"And do y-you miss him?"
I nodded glumly.
"Is h-he ever coming back?"
"I don't think so..." I whispered.
"Come here g-gee!" Mikey sighed, pulling me into his chest and hugging me, I hugged back as I realised that I had Mikey now. I had a brother. I had a friend. I simply melted into the hug and felt some of my worries vanish.

"Where will we go now?" I muttered into his ear.
"I dunno.." Mikey replied, still holding onto me for dear life.
"I don't want to go home." I spoke, well I wanted to make that clear, "I mean I don't want to go back to mum and dad not yet anyway."
"Okay g-gee. We won't go home."
"Then where?"
"W-we could always go and visit Ray, he's still a close friend of m-mine and he has a place w-we could stay at."
"Ray? Oh, I remember Ray. He had the afro and he was one of the few really nice people that I can remember."
"Y-yep! That's Ray. Shall w-we go there?"
I nodded.
"Okay then."

Mikey managed to release just one arm from our hug and shoved the keys into the ignition which made the car rumble and shake slightly. I wasn't going to let Mikey out of this hug easily, even if he was driving so I put the car into first gear and watched as Mikey smiled and allowed the car to move slowly.
I didn't even want to look at that place that I'd been trapped in for what felt like years. I didn't want to remember that place, the four white walls of Room H271, Liam, Creature: the list could go on. But I was too focused on hugging Mikey, jumping slightly when he'd tell me to change gear for him. It was like we were small kids again, one of sat in the front of the car with mum driving when she'd let us change the gears as she drove. But now it was my little brother driving and I'd never felt safer.
Street lamps and the occasional car flashed along the dark almost empty roads as we put more distance between it and me. It was then when I realised that it could only get better.

---

Sitting here I realise that Frank maybe wasn't so real as I first thought. And I know that I could be wrong about Frank. Maybe Frank was just a hallucination or a way of my brain coping with loneliness. Maybe he was just all in my head. If he is as real as me then maybe I am not so real after all and I always wanted Frank to forever be by my side but maybe that was never going to be allowed. Because Frank was never really in this world, he was in my mind, and my mind is a dangerous world and I'm glad he escaped. Frank was there for me when others couldn't reach me, and I won't be able to survive without him but I will be able to survive with Mikey. Frank helped me escape and now I am free, not just free from Room H271 but also free from my mind. I will miss Frank of course, I'll miss him everyday but I have to keep on living even if it is just for him, for me, for Mikes.
The future will be strange without him next to my side but it will get better. I look to my side to see Mikey who turns and smiles at me gently, yes, it will get better.

"Y-y okay Gee?" He asked, smiling back at me.
"Yeah..."
"Y-you sure?" He asked, sounding more concerned as his voice continued.
"I...I think I've figured something out Mikey.." I mumbled, looking out the window and watching as a single drop of rain ran down the side of the frosting glass.
"W-what?" Mikey asked, tilting his head slightly to one side.
"It's only now that I realise who Frank really was. Frank was me, Frank was my hope to try and escape. And Creature was acting as depression, trying to pull me down into its depths. Depression took my hope away from me and almost took me with my hope but Frank showed up at the last minute to save me. And I no longer need Frank because I no longer need the hope to escape. I just need the hope to keep on living Mikes, and I think that that is you?"
"M-me? Your reason t-to live?"
"Yes Mikes. You. My brother." I smile as I hug him. He pulls me back into another hug as we pull up onto Ray's rather familiar looking driveway.
"Mikes? What will we do?" I asked as his warmth flooded into my skin and I almost felt my heart rate slow.
"W-well we have a band. W-we really want y-you to join, if you like. W-when you are feeling better."
"Really?" I smiled, "I'd love to play music again! It would take a while to get used to it again! But I'd love to Mikes!"
"W-we'd love to have you back Gee! W-we have a rhythm guitarist too."
"Oh cool!" I allowed a giggle to take over my body, "what's their name?"
"Frank..." Mikey smiled, "his name is Frank. W-would you like to meet him??"
A grin took over my face and I nodded my head.

As we walk to the front door I think of the future and I know that with Mikey by my side I will survive. But still I think of this 'new' Frank, and wonder if he'll be anything like the Frank that I knew.

Notes

Hello for the last time. I'm really sad that this is the last chapter. Despite the sadness I tried to show how Gerard feels as though he can be happy in the future. I'd like to take this moment to thank you so much for your continuous support and comments that have made me enjoy writing this story so much. I'm not bothered if 1 person or 1 million people read this, all I'm bothered about is wether the people who do read it enjoy. So thanks once again and I'll see you around. :) x
-Lou