Gerard knew who the figure was before he even reached him and anyway why would I have mentioned this meeting if the figure had not have in fact been Frank? To my understanding if the figure had not have been Frank then there would have been no need to include this particular chapter in this story but the mere fact that this chapter has been included hints that the figure was in fact Frank. So yeah…the figure was Frank.

Gerard ran from the edge of the river and along the muddy path before climbing back up the slope which he had slid down. After about 5 minutes an exhausted Gerard reached the old abandoned steel railway bridge. As a child he would have tried to balance on the tracks but this time he heaved himself as fast as he could to where the figure sat. The moon began to show itself in the sky and kept poking the sun out of the way so that it could shine a ghostly light onto the torrent of water below. The grey clouds parted over the forest nearby and bowed out of respect as they passed the nearby cemetery.

"Frank?" Gerard asked, his voice panicked as it travelled briskly along the air.
"Oh…" Frank slurred, keeping his eyes fixed to the movements of the water, "oh, h-hey Gerard. W-what are you doing here?"
"Frank!" Gerard cried urgently, "We need to get you away from the edge. Please don't do it Frank! Please don't die!"
"W-what are you talking about?" giggled Frank, removing his earphones and peering curiously at Gerard from underneath the brim of his hat.
"Don't throw yourself over the edge of the bridge!"
"W-why would I do that?" Frank smiled, "I wasn't going to jump or anything. I wasn't going to die, unless that's what you wanted…"
"No! No! No! I don't want you to die Frank!" Gerard spoke, he wiped the tears from his eyes with a shaking hand.
"W-well that's really fucking nice." Frank giggled again, sweeping his soaked hair behind his ears and he fiddled with his lip ring.
"Why are you here?" Gerard asked, still scared that Frank could fall from the bridge at any second.
"W-Why why are you here?" Frank mocked.
"Because I saw you and thought you were going to jump off the bridge and die."
"Will you stop with the whole dying shit…" Frank slurred, "I was just dangling my legs over the edge and listening to music. G-Geez, you need to fuckety calm down."
"Oh, um, I'm sorry."
"I-It's okay Gee." Frank smiled, patting the space at his side slowly. Gerard sat down tentatively, allowing his legs to dangle over the edge. He refused to look down and instead allowed his tear-shod eyes to stare at Frank.

"So…" Gerard began, swinging his legs gently, "So you just came here to sit and listen to music, Frank…Frank?! Frank, what the fuck are you doing?!"
Gerard broke of mid-sentence as Frank took one of his boots off, stuffed it full of dirt and leaves and threw it into the water yelling 'Cannonball!' Frank smiled at the pathetic splash that it made and cried: "I wouldn't want to be that boot! I hope it makes it to the s-sea!" He giggled with laughter.
"Frank…." Gerard paused until Frank had stopped hysterically laughing.
"What if it is eaten by a shark!" Laughed Frank.
"Frank listen to m-"
"Or a jellyfish!"
"Fran-"
"Or a fish o-or a dolphin or a fucking dinosaur!"
"Frank!" Gerard shouted this time. Frank turned his head to Gerard, a smile brimming from ear to ear.
"Yes Gee." He blinked several times and kept smiling.
"Are you drunk?" Gerard asked, noticing the scent of alcohol which had been bouncing off of his breath as he spoke.
"Um, no." Frank giggled.
"Frank, have you been drinking?"
"Maybe." he grinned, "or maybe not."
"You have haven't you Frank?"
"Yeah." Frank laughed, "hey Gerard you've got a piece of hair dangling over your face and it's really starting to annoy the shit out of me." He reached towards Gerard and moved the said piece of hair behind his ears, before leaning backwards and tumbling into his hysterical laughter again.
"Do you think a boot could swim?!" Frank asked, "but what if it is stolen by pirates?!"
"Oh great…" Gerard muttered to himself, "Listen I'm sorry about the other day when you ran off, I didn't mean to upset you."
"Hm," Frank sniffed, "I suppose it's okay, I mean you weren't to know."
"Know what?"

Frank never replied.

He was too busy staring at the figure that was approaching them, his dark snake skin suit blending into the darkness to leave only the staring eyes to glare at Frank and Gerard. His black hair was soaked in hair gel and was slicked back over his skull, he broke into a run as soon as he saw Frank, his enormous panicked footsteps shaking the bridge and his eyes wide and brimming with worry.

"Frank!" The voice hissed as it rushed towards him, "Frank don't you dare even think about it!"
"About what?!" Frank asked as the figure screeched to halt in front of him.
"Get away from the edge of the bridge Frank, do asss I say!"
"Why?!"
"Because I don't want you to die, for God'sss sssake."
"Why does everyone think that I wanna die?!"
"Because you're sat on the edge of a bridge an-"
"Will both of you just give up with the whole dying shit…" Frank whined, "I can't even sit at a bridge without causing a fuss."
"Ssso wait, you're not going t-"
"No! I'm not going to kill myself, is that okay?!"
"Yesss," the figure hissed, "yesss, that's fabulousss. Death would have wanted you to die."
"Good. Well Death is a dickhead. Who the fuck are you?!"
"I'm Spite." The figure held his hand out and Frank shook it cautiously.
"Oh, I guess you're the one that Evil was on about, another one of those weird creatures that do shit and that." Frank slurred.
"Well, we actually do more than jussst 'shit and that'."
"Sorry," Gerard butted in, "he's a bit drunk."
"I noticed." Spite replied, raising a slug of an eyebrow in Frank's direction.

"Why are you here Spite? As far as I know, neither of us have any dark green behind our eyes." Gerard asked, titling his head slightly.
"You are correct there, I am here to tell you that the time hasss almost come."
"For what?"
"Both of you possess the colour grey behind your eyesss."
"So we can defeat Death?!" Frank butted in excitedly, "we could throw Death of the bridge like the boot, I hope he'd get eaten by sharks."
"Yessss, if you work together then you could defeat Death. They've been awful recently, more have left…" Spite lied, "Death has forced more of usss out, we are alone, they threaten usss, Death ssstarves usss and takesss what isssn't theirsss. I'm sssure you underssstand what I mean."

I believe that now would probably be a great time to tell you that in fact every single word that Spite said in those last few sentences was a lie. In fact, no-one else had left, they are certainly not alone and I have never threatened a single one of them in my whole 'life'.

"Yes." Frank nodded, "of course I understand what you mean."
"But anyway Frank, are you going to be okay? Where are you ssstaying?" hissed Spite, pretending to care about someone.
"Nowhere really." Sighed Frank.
"Nowhere to ssstay? How unfortunate…" Spite glared at Gerard, his eyes reflecting Gerard's fear.
"Um…" Gerard stumbled over his words, "um, Frank…you could stay with me for a bit if you like?"
"Yesss…" Spite sneered, "that would be good, wouldn't it?"
"Um," Frank begun, "as long as there will be no hospital visits and no mentions of alphabetti spaghetti."
"Okay Frank," Gerard said, wrapping his arm around Frank's shoulder.
"Ugh, get off me," Frank shuddered, scooting away from Gerard, "I said I'd stay with you for a bit not that I'd marry you."
"I wish…" whispered Gerard.
"What the fuck was that Gee?"
"Um, nothing, nothing Frank."
"Good."
"Anyway we ssshould get you home Frank." Spite broke through the suffocating silence, grabbing Frank's hands and pulling him to his feet. Spite walked on the left and Gerard on the right and together they led the stumbling one-shoed Frank away from the edge of the bridge.

Notes

Woo! Chapter 8!
So yeah...franks drunk as shit but at least he's alive.
Anyhoo thank ya so much for all the views and if you are reading then thank you. :)
Next update will be in a few days.
-lou