The Fabulous Kill Boys

Now dragged fully into the centre of the room, Frank was dropped in front of Gerard. He could see Frank’s cut and bruised face, his arms black and blue from both the beating he had taken and the ropes cutting into his flesh. Gerard, more than anyone, knew how tightly Melanie could tie someone. He’d felt it before, he was feeling it now; he hadn’t lost sensation in his hands yet, but he suspected that he would within an hour or so if he couldn't escape and it seemed likely that Frank’s arms may already have lost feeling.

“Frank?” Gerard spoke quietly, partly out of that unfamiliar feeling of guilt and partly out of not wanting to add to Frank’s pain.

Frank tipped his head to the source of the voice. He knew it was Gerard, he had heard him screaming only moments before, but as his eyes focused on the man he had grown to love, they misted over as what he had suspected was now confirmed. Seeing Mikey suspended from the ceiling by his wrists and Gerard bound to a chair only served to heighten his sense of helplessness. He felt that it was just about possible that Gerard would survive - if what Melanie had said about him was true, it was possible that they needed Gerard. But they did not need himself or Mikey and it seemed likely to him that in order to, as she had put it, bring Gerard back under control, that they would be murdered in front of him.

“Frankie?” Gerard repeated as Frank simply stared up, considering their predicament.

Unable to speak, due to the gag, Frank merely offered a light nod to confirm that he was all right, relatively at least.

“What do you want?” Gerard asked of Melanie in a subdued tone.

Melanie smiled; Gerard knew her well. She had them all gathered now and she had stopped torturing them, or at least paused. She wanted something. She wanted either to do something dramatic that required a build up, or she wanted something from him. When she bent to remove Frank’s gag, he guessed it would be the latter.

Frank coughed violently as the cloth was pulled roughly from his mouth. Acid tried to force its way up as he retched at the motion before managing somehow to calm his breathing and swallow with what little moisture he could summon into his mouth. As he glanced up once more, he saw Gerard and Mikey staring worriedly down at him.

“I’m okay,” he whispered, barely able to manage more.

Melanie walked behind Frank and pulled his head up by his hair, forcing him to look at the Way brothers, pushing her knee into his back to force him upright, giggling manically in his ear.

“Now, since I’m in a merciful mood, Frankie, I’m going to let you choose which one of your sweet, little fuckbuddies I’m going to give a black eye.”

Melanie spoke softly in his ear but loud enough that Mikey and Gerard could hear her. Frank shook his head and bit his lip when Melanie pulled his hair harder.

“Don’t…Call me…Frankie.”

He spat through gritted teeth and Melanie sighed, giving him a shove so he fell back onto his side. She walked over to Gerard and picked his head up, smirking.

“Looks like I get to hit Mikey again, you’ve already got a black eye, baby.”“Leave Mikey alone, Melanie!”

Gerard glared at her and Melanie seemed to be considering it for a moment before smiling cruelly.

“No.”

Melanie let Gerard go and skipped over to Mikey, standing on her tiptoes so she could whisper in his ear.

“Tell me, baby cakes, does it hurt knowing?”“Knowing what?” Mikey asked, his curiosity getting the better of him.
Melanie smiled and stepped behind him, resting her chin on his shoulder.

“Knowing that while Ray & I have been having our fun with you, Gee here was pretending to be the concerned big brother and having his own fun with Frankie.”

Mikey looked to Gerard, his eyes full of disbelief. Gerard licked his lips and took a deep breath.

“I…I didn’t mean to fall for him Mikey, I swear! I wouldn’t intentionally do that to you.” Gerard lowered his eyes before adding: “Not again.”
Mikey shook his head and chewed his lip as he considered his brother’s words.

“It’s… it’s okay, Gee. Me and Frankie… we’re just friends. I mean, we fool around sometimes sure, but it’s just that. I… I’m not the one you need to apologise too though.”

Melanie watched the exchange between the two brothers and followed their eyes when they both turned to look at Frank.

“How do you feel, Frankie, knowing that Gee was using you? Distracting himself from knowing that his dear, sweet, innocent little brother was being tortured by his partner in crime?”

Melanie paused for dramatic effect and pulled Frank back to sitting and smiled wickedly in his face.

“…and the girl he lets dominate and beat him.” She taunted.
“I wasn’t using you, Frankie, I promise. That’s just what I told them,” Gerard insisted, his voice clipped and urgent.

Sauntering back to Mikey, Melanie grabbed a handful of his hair and pressed her lips against his. Mikey squeaked in surprise and tried to pull away but he was helpless against her; hands secure above his head, legs not strong enough to try and kick her. Melanie continued to giggle manically when she licked Mikey’s cheek and pulled away.

“You asked me what I want, Gee? Well, it’s simple, this is the man you claim to love, and by all accounts he feels the same, but he barely knows you, does he?”

Gerard’s eyes widened and he looked up quickly, glaring at her. He felt his mouth dry almost as much as Frank’s had as he anticipated her next words.

“I think it’s only fair that he knows what you’re really like,” she smiled sweetly. “Don’t you?”
“Before you kill us, you mean?” Gerard narrowed his eyes.

Melanie walked to stand behind Gerard and leaned down so that her lips almost brushed his ear as she spoke, sending a shiver down his spine.

“Oh, I don’t know, Gee, when you tell dear little Frankie what you’re really like, he’ll be so repulsed by you that he won’t want to spend another second with you anyway. If that’s the case, you might as well go back to being your usual submissive self doing exactly what we tell you to,” she grabbed his chin and forced him to turn to look at her as she moved to his side raising her voice in anger, “and no more than that!”
“You think I'm going to try to make Frank hate me so that you won’t kill me?”
“Well, that’s one possible outcome, I'm not going to make any guarantees of course,” she laughed.
“I’m not interested in saving my own life if it still means them losing theirs,” Gerard announced defiantly.
“Don’t you understand, Gee?” She hissed in frustration. “I'm offering you a way out of this. You were happy to let us kill Mikey before and now Frank knows about you being a murderer, he’s not going to want anything to do with you, so we might as well kill him. But you, you don’t need to die. Don't you get that?”
“I’m not going to let you hurt Mikey or Frank to save myself,” he replied, glaring up at her.

Pushing his chin away, Melanie screamed in frustration before turning sharply and landing a vicious kick to Frank’s side, eliciting a loud cry of pain and leaving him gasping for breath.

“No!” Gerard and Mikey cried almost in unison, both struggling uselessly against the ropes holding them, trying to go to his aid.
“You see, Gerard,” she snapped. “Your noble stand isn’t going to save them. Don’t you get it? They’re still going to die. The question is, are you going to die with them?”
“What do you want me to tell them?” Gerard asked quietly.
“Gee?” Mikey gasped.
“Better,” Melanie smirked. “Well, first, I want you to tell them what you did to Mikey’s ex, Pete.”
“What does she mean?” Mikey’s voice came out as a whisper. “Gee, what did you do?”
“You see? Even they want to know,” she laughed.

Gerard licked his lips. It was important to him to get the most possible from whatever bargain he was able to make. It seemed unlikely that she would give much; there was little she couldn't tell them herself if she wanted to. It was just the added pain of making them hear it from his own lips that she found most satisfying.

“I’ll do it if you agree not to kill or torture Mikey or Frank.”
“Oh, how adorable!” She laughed scornfully. “You’re trying to bargain for their lives? You? The Belleville Butcher!”

Frank’s eyes widened at the words. She had told him already, but somehow he had managed to dismiss what she had said in so far as it related to Gerard, outright refusing to believe it. The fact that he was now sitting there with his lips pursed and his shoulders hunched, not denying it, felt like a blow to his stomach.

“All right, I'll take you up on that. You tell them all the gory details and I'll let them go.”
“And Gee,” Frank managed to get some of his voice back.
“No, he stays,” she laughed again. “Besides, once he’s finished telling you, you won’t want him near you anyway!”
“I’ll be the judge of that,” Frank replied sternly.
“Don't believe her, Gee! She’s a liar, that’s all she does.” Mikey called, having been on the receiving end of her lies many times, he had no faith in her promises at all.
“I don't,” Gerard glanced up at her, a faint smile on his face. “I asked you not to hurt them. I knew that was the best case scenario. You're never going to let them go. Did you honestly think I'd believe you? I'm not going to do what you want just to satisfy your needs.”
“What if I want to know?”

Gerard looked down to see the pained expression on Frank's face.

“You... you don't want this, Frank, trust me.”
“How can I if I don't know you? Tell me.”

Melanie smirked cruelly as Gerard chewed his lip cautiously. He didn’t want to upset Frank, he especially didn’t want it to be the last thing he heard before he died and yes, there was a very great part of him that didn’t want to hear Frank’s repulsion and rejection. Melanie settled herself in a chair, making herself comfortable as if she were about to watch a movie.

“Well, they do say confession is good for the soul, Gerard,” she chuckled.

Gerard nodded.

“Do I want to hear this?” Mikey asked quietly.

Gerard nodded again, taking a few deep breaths before finally speaking.

“I think it’s best,” he sighed. There was part of him that wanted to express his rage with the world and everyone in it, not in a gloating way, not even in a cathartic way. The two people he cared most about in the world were in the room and he needed to be honest with them, even if - and it seemed likely - it was the last thing he did.

“It started a little over five years ago when Mikey was dating Pete. He was very good looking, very charming and believe it or not Mikes, I was really happy for you. One day, he came to my house; he was in floods of tears saying that he’d had a huge row with you and that you never wanted to see him again.”
“So you slept with him?” Mikey interrupted.
“Please, Mikey, it wasn't like that. Well, not quite. Let me finish. He was so upset, apparently, and so hyper I didn't think that giving him a coffee was a good idea, so I made some hot chocolate to calm him down. It seemed to help and before long he was leaning against me and we were both dozing off on the couch. When I woke up, it was something like two hours later, I was lying on the floor naked, my hands tied to the table legs and he was straddling me. He was telling me everything he would do to me, everything he could do to me and… and I succumbed. Later I found out that he was still with you Mikes, but by then… I was… I was his. A few months later, I discovered that he was cheating on me, but not just that. He had cheated on you too, for a year, with the same guy. I was furious, for both of us. He’d made fools of both of us Mikey and I just snapped.”
“What did you do?” Frank asked, knowing that he had assumed that Gerard had convinced Pete merely to leave town and never contact Mikey again.
“He said he was going to go back to you, Mikes. That you’d never believe me if I told you what he’d done.”
“It’s true, I wouldn’t have,” Mikey shook his head.
“He was going to break your heart, again! I couldn’t let him.”
“What did you do?” Frank asked again, his voice quiet and subdued.
“I killed him,” Gerard finally admitted.

Melanie coughed lightly.

“Confession is only good for the soul when you tell the truth, Gerard.”

“All right!” Gerard snapped. “I killed him, slowly, painfully. I dismembered him while he was still alive. I obliterated his face with my knife! His cruel, self-centred, narcissistic face! I hated him for what he’d done and I took him apart. That’s… that’s how I met Ray. He’d been hired to torture and kill him - actually by the guy Pete was cheating with. I guess he’d found out about me, or maybe even someone else. But I got to him first and Ray caught me toward the end. We talked. He didn’t like to kill, I was new to it but I didn’t tell him. We struck up an arrangement.”
“So you murdered Pete?” Frank asked quietly.
“He was the first victim of the so-called Belleville Butcher.” Gerard replied, looking down at his knees, trying to avoid Frank and Mikey’s gaze.
“And you started working with Ray because he caught you at it?” Frank asked.
“Yeah.”
“So, if he hadn’t, you might never have killed again?”

Gerard raised his eyes, finally meeting Frank’s sympathetic stare.

“I don’t know,” he admitted honestly. “It changed me, definitely,” he shrugged. “But I… I’d do anything… be anything for you, Frank.”
“Do you enjoy it?” Frank asked, the words catching in his throat.
Gerard thought about the question. It wasn't as straightforward as a simple yes or no.
“Some are easier than others,” he shrugged. “Often after Ray’s finished, you can see it’s almost a relief for them. Others, like with Pete, I… I get these rages.”
“Do you have to kill?” Frank asked. “Is there something that drives you?”
“No,” Gerard shook his head, glad to be able to answer a question definitively. “It was just a job.”
“Was?”
“I just want to be with you,” he smiled lovingly. “I’d do anything for you.”

Frank smiled in return, their eyes meeting in a tender exchange, but Melanie was livid.

“What the fuck! He just told you he’s the fucking Belleville Butcher and you’re okay with that?!” She screamed at Frank, furious that her plan to make Gerard repellent in Frank’s eyes had failed.
“He was.” Frank continued to stare at Gerard, his expression one of acceptance and love.

Dragging Frank into a sitting position, Melanie rained blows on him, livid and no longer holding back her intense anger.

“No!” Gerard screamed, once again struggling to no avail. “Leave him alone! It’s me you hate!”

Throwing Frank back to the floor, now barely conscious, Melanie drew herself up to her full height and turned on Gerard, her expression as dark as a thunder cloud.

“Oh, don’t worry, Gerard,” she sneered, her eyes wild with fury. “I’ll make you suffer, don’t you worry! Through him,” she landed another kick to Frank’s side before continuing in her rage. “Through him!” She pointed at Mikey. “And, then you! I’ll tear you apart with my bare hands. They’ll think the Belleville Butcher’s upped his game by the time I've finished with you three! Do you hear me, Gerard? You’re all going to die. Slowly, painfully and you’re going to watch them go first. I'm going to make you beg me to kill them, just to end their suffering! And then, if you’re lucky, I'll kill you!”

Melanie picked up the discarded baseball ball and took another swing at Mikey with it, hitting him hard in the thigh and frowning when he didn’t really react.

“Leave Mikey alone, Melanie!”

Breathing hard, Melanie kept hold of the bat with one hand and walked over to the cabinet that had contained Frank and pulled out a roll of duct tape, tearing a strip off and stalking back over to Gerard.

“You talk too much, Gerard. I’ve always said that about you, that’s why I always put a gag in your pretty mouth when we play.”

Melanie shoved the tape over Gerard’s mouth and slapped him hard across the face before turning back to Mikey.

“Now, little Way, are you going to make the sounds I want you to make, or do I need to gag you too? I think you’d look so pretty with something in your mouth.”
“You… you really are… in-insane… aren’t… you?”

Turning around with a smile playing on her lips, Melanie looks down at Frank, picking his head up with his own baseball bat until he was looking her in the eye.

“Thank you for this, Frankie. I really appreciate this fine piece of wood, it’s useful for inflicting pain. Now, please be quiet. I don’t want you talking over Mikey screaming.”

Melanie leaned over and pinched Frank’s cheek, slapping him and going back to Mikey, smiling and hitting him in the stomach with the bat and sighing as Mikey groaned in pain, a groan wasn’t what she wanted to hear though.

“Hey, Gee, think I could break Mikey’s arm if I hit him hard enough with the bat?”

Melanie giggled to herself and brought the bat down hard across Mikey’s knees and he screamed.

“That’s the sound I was looking for!”
“Melanie… please. Just let us go… please. We’ll do anything…just…”

Furious at yet another interruption, Melanie took a swing at Frank with the bat, catching him hard in the shoulder and spitting on him afterwards.

“For the love of GOD, SHUT THE FUCK UP!!! I should just gag you all and leave you down here to fucking starve to death!”

Viciously swinging the bat at Mikey again, Melanie hit him over and over until he stopped screaming and just whimpered in pain, unable to scream anymore.

“I should kill you, Gerard, at least I’d get some practice in. Is this what betrayal costs nowadays?”

Melanie gestured to Mikey and Frank, abandoning the bat, straddling Gerard’s lap and ripping the tape from his mouth.

“Killing me won’t make you feel any better about yourself, babe. You’ll never be anywhere near as good as me at this sweetheart.”
“Babe? Sweetheart? Are you forgetting your place in all of this? You didn’t get to call me those things when I was fucking you, what makes you think you can call me those things now that we’re not?”

Melanie scoffed and climbed off of Gerard, picking up the bat again and laying it on the table, admiring it a little fondly and schooling her face to calm and turned around. Melanie pulled her knife back out and waved it in Mikey’s face, smiling at the little whimpers he made as she got closer.

“Hey, there we go! You taste nice and salty now, baby cakes. Wait… are you crying? Aww Gee, I made your little brother cry.”
“You’ll be the one crying when I get out of here, Melanie. I’m going to make you suffer, and make you regret ever touching Frankie.”

Lowering her knife, Melanie smiled dreamily at Mikey and licked his cheek to his ear.

“You hear that, Mikey? Gee is going to make me suffer and regret ever touching Frankie. Guess you know where his loyalties still lie.”

She said it loud enough that Gerard and Frank could hear and walked over to Frank, landing a solid kick to his ribs. Frank grunted and swore and Melanie giggled, going back to Gerard and sat on his lap again.

“You’d have been nothing without Ray.”
“Is that so?” Gerard cocked his head and smirked playfully.
“Yes, that’s so. He told me how reckless you used to be,”

Melanie moved closer to Gerard so he couldn’t look away.

“Did he? And what did he say?”
“Do you really need to hear it? You just said yourself that he caught you killing Pete. You were careless.”
“I was in a blind rage.”
“He had to teach you how to do reconnaissance, how to scope out a scene for a murder or kidnap. You didn’t know any of that.” She continued, twirling a piece of his hair.
“Ah, well, clever guy, Ray.” Gerard smiled, softening his eyes as he looked up at her. “There’s one thing he could have spent more time on though?” He added softly as she drew nearer.
"And what would that be?"
“Well, perhaps he should have been teaching you more about risk instead of fucking you.”

He replied, smiling seductively and getting amused as Melanie pouted at him.

“Oh? And why might that be, Gee?”

Smirking conspiratorially, he jerked his head back, encouraging her to lean in so he could whisper. Obligingly, Melanie leaned in, teasingly, enjoying the quiver of his lip as hers almost brushed against them. Gerard swung his head forward in a vicious head butt, connecting violently with Melanie’s forehead and nose. Immediately, her eyes rolled back and she fell backwards, her knife clattering to the floor.

“I think you answered your own question, sweetheart.”

Gerard scoffed, ignoring the pain shooting across his eyes from the bruises forming across them.

“Frankie, can you reach the knife? Be careful, the blade is really sharp.”
Frank shuffled and dragged himself across the floor as quickly as he could despite what he suspected were cracked ribs and carefully moved the knife up to his hands.
“Good Frankie, good. Now bring it over here, quickly. Don’t want the little bitch waking up before we’re ready now do we?”
“Gee… what are you gonna do with her?”

Gerard ignored Mikey’s question as he carefully angled the knife, that Frank had passed to him, to cut the rope tying his hands together. Grimacing as he first cut his thumb, he edged the blade lower and found the rope - he had never in his life been so grateful that Melanie preferred rope over chains or handcuffs. Once he had his hands free, Gerard cut the ropes to release Frank from their painful grip and pulled him into his arms, kissing him passionately and carefully, trying not to hurt him.
“You’re gonna be okay, Frankie. She can’t hurt you now.” Frank squeezed Gerard tighter, wincing but keeping his sounds of pain firmly behind his teeth. “I thought she was going to kill you, both of you.”

Gently, Gerard pulled Frank up from the floor and eased him into the chair he was previously tied to before lowering Mikey’s hands down so he could untie him.
“I’m so sorry, Mikey. So sorry. You alright?”
“Frankie.” Mikey stumbled to Frank’s side and puts his cuffed wrists around his neck, hugging him tightly and breathing in the familiar scent of his best friend.
“I got you, Mikey. You’re okay.” Frank whispered back.
“Frankie.” Mikey repeated, pressing a quick kiss to Frank’s lips and Frank smiled, hugging the younger tightly.
“Gimme your hands Mikey, I need to get those cuffs off you.” Gerard encouraged.
Mikey reluctantly eased himself away from Frank and offered his hands to Gerard, rubbing the red circles around his wrists once the cuffs were off.

Melanie groaned and the three turned to look at her, rising and forming a loose circle around the semi-conscious woman. Melanie’s eyes fluttered open and she grimaced at the pain in her forehead and the wave of nausea, swallowing harshly when she realised she was surrounded. Surrounded by two pissed off and angry looking Ways, and a somewhat conflicted looking Iero.
“What should we do with the bitch? I think we should tie her up.”
Melanie yelped as Mikey found strength in his anger to drag her to her feet by her hair and held her wrists tightly behind her back. Melanie looked at Gerard, her eyes wide and frantic and she pulled against the strong grip Mikey had on her to no avail.
“Gee… baby… please. You… you don’t want to hurt me. Take your brother and Frank and go. I… I won’t stop you. I don’t even care.”
She whimpered as Gerard raised his arm as if he was going to backhand her. Gerard ignored her begging and looked proudly at Mikey.
“Yeah, tie her up.” Gerard smiled, a sickly cruel smile. “Something like how she had Frankie tied, then we’ll attach her wrists to the pulley.”
“Gee…?” Frank spoke softly, unsure how his words would be received. “Won’t that dislocate her shoulders?”
Gerard’s smile widened as he turned to look at Melanie’s terrified expression.
“Well yes, I imagine it will.” He raised his eyebrows. “I want Ray down here. I want him to see, amongst other things.”
“No!” Melanie cried in panic. “I’ll warn him, you won’t…”
Gerard gripped Melanie’s throat with one hand, dragging her toward the chair and with the other snatched up the pile of ropes that had held Frank firmly only minutes earlier, pushing them into Mikey’s hands.
“No,” he shook his head slowly as he pulled his knife from it’s sheath and placed the cold blade against her cheek, with the point plucking at her lower eyelid. “No babe, you’ll be too busy screaming to warn anyone.”

Gerard kept his hand around Melanie’s throat to keep her still, while Mikey tied her hands behind her back. Occasionally Gerard squeezed painfully, grinning as he did, his eyes fixed in an unnerving thousand yard stare.
“Gee…” Melanie started, cut off when Gerard slapped her hard across the face. Mikey smirked as he tied the rope tight enough that it cut into the fragile skin around Melanie’s wrists. “…please.”
“Please what sweetie? You’re not going to be able to talk yourself out of this. That would require me giving a damn about you, and I don’t. You’re nothing to me.”
“I…I’m not afraid of you, Gee.” Melanie said shakily but she lacked conviction and Gerard knew it. He laughed, a slow condescending laugh and Melanie squirmed in Mikey’s grip.
“I finally figured out who had all the power in our relationship, Melanie.”
“We never had a relationship, Gee.”
“We had one of sorts, and I had all the power.”
“You!” She scoffed. “The things I did to you and you think you had any power?”
“Yes, of course.”
Gerard put his arm around Frank and took a step closer, but not close enough that she could reach him. He wasn’t about to fall for his own trick.
“I wanted you to do those things and I let you do them. If I hadn’t let you, you couldn’t have done a thing to me. Like now, for instance, you have no power over me, you can’t do a thing to me. Oh, but I can hurt you and babe,” he paused, turning to kiss Frank before looking back grinning broadly, “you are afraid.”

“Frankie…please…you don’t want them to hurt me, do you? There’ll be blood on your hands too if you just stand here and let them do this.”
“Shut your mouth, Melanie. You don’t get to talk to him.” Mikey spat, moving closer and briefly pulling her head back by her hair.
“You know, I never realised how much of a manipulative little bitch you actually are.” Gerard snapped, as Mikey landed a back handed blow across her cheek.
“Mikey!” Frank cried automatically.

Melanie turned her head back, licking the blood from the corner of her mouth and smiled briefly at Gerard at Frank’s response.

“You have to stop thinking of Melanie as a blushing flower, Frankie. This little psycho bitch deserves everything she gets, and then some. You have to trust me when I say we’ll be okay. Ray will do whatever he can to protect her, and we have her. We’re the ones with all the power here.”

“I don’t think she’s a blushing flower!” Frank snapped. “I can see what she’s really like… and I have the bruises to prove it! But I just… should we… I mean… I don’t know what I mean.” He frowned. “Can’t we just call the police?”
“And get Gee arrested?” Mikey cut in. “Is that what you want?”
“No!” Frank pushed his hand through his hair. He didn’t want to kill anyone, but he felt he was being pushed by two people he loved to do just that.

“We’re not going to kill her, if that’s what you’re worried about. Death would be too easy for her. She deserves to suffer, and to continue to do so for a very long time.”
“Um, okay, yeah. I was worried about that.” Frank admitted.
“I wanna kill her.” Mikey chimed in, to Frank’s distress.
“No, trust me on this.” Gerard grinned manically, turning back to look at Melanie. “We have much more entertaining options available to us.”

Notes

Hello, lovely readers! Here is the penultimate chapter. We hope you like it, it's been fun to write :D

Take care xx