"Who the ever living fuck are you?!" Gerard half yelled, half stuttered through a scared tone. He backed from the black haired figure who sat so casually on his bed, until he felt the wood of the door touch his back.
"No need to be so rude Gee, is there? I think you know who I am." The figure said plainly, dragging a hand through his hair and sighing.
"You're Frank?" Gerard stuttered in disbelief.
"Yes."
"What are you doing in my house?"
"Waiting for you to come home from school."
"Tell me what you really want or I'll kick you out, okay?!" Gerard shouted, his hands began to shake as he moved the damp red hair from his eyes.
"Now then Gerard, that's no way to talk to your guest is it?"
"You are not my GUEST! YOU ARE DEAD!"
"Hm..." Frank sighed, looking to the floor a little disappointed.

He got up from the bed and walked ever so slowly towards Gerard. He looked similar to the picture that had been shown in the assembly a few weeks earlier. Black hair hung about his face, damp as though he had recently been out in the rain, his skin was as pale as the full moon and his eyes were filled with a mixing palette of colours. He wore a slightly over sized black tee-shirt and a checked black and white shirt over as if it were a jacket. Bracelets and elastic bands wrapped around his wrists and he wore a pair of greyish skinny jeans and old trainers. All at once Gerard noticed something strange about him, it happened suddenly and Gerard found the fear that was lurking miserably behind Frank's eyes. All at once he realised how vulnerable and lonely the smaller boy looked and regretted shouting at him at all as tears began to well up in his eyes.

"S-sorry Frank..." Gerard begun, walking cautiously into his room and sitting on the edge of the bed, "I didn't mean to shout, just a little surprised to find you in my house, that's all..."
Frank didn't say a word, only sat down next to Gerard and let his head fall into his hands.
"Um...so..." Gerard began, "why are you here?"
Frank didn't flinch and just sat as though he had never even been asked any question.
"It's okay Frank. I just want to know why you are here?"
"Because I need your help..." Was all that Frank managed to stutter, he kept his eyes glued to the ground and refused to make eye contact with Gerard.
"Why? What's wrong?"
"Because they are after me." Frank stumbled over his words even more, "they are after me...they will find me..."
"Who?" Gerard asked.
"I don't know. People. There's someone out there Gee..." He immediately looked up to Gerard and began to tremble, "there is someone out there who is starting to take people and I think kill them. I don't know who they are Gerard or why they are doing it but I know that they want me, they want to take me away and I need your help. I don't know what to do..." He sobbed, breaking down into tears and hugging his knees.

"It's okay Frank..um—"
"W-why did you think I was dead Gee?"
"Well..." Gerard paused, thinking what words would be best to use in the situation, "well, you went missing about 8 months ago, right?"
Frank nodded, "I had to, my mum and dad w-well um, and then well, erm...never mind..."
"Well, they found a body Frank, washed up a few weeks ago at the side of a river, they thought it was you, they thought you'd committed suicide."
"Oh..." Frank sighed, "oh okay."

"But you're alive!" Gerard cried, "we should tell the police and school and friends and your mum and dad an—"
"NO!" Frank managed to yell through tears, "they don't need to know! Maybe the people who are after me think I'm dead then, I don't want to people to know or to ask where I've been, I don't want attention, okay?!"
"Okay then..." Gerard sighed, "what can I do to help you?"
"I need a place to stay Gee, just for a little while."
"And why have you come to me of all people?"
"I've seen you around Gerard, in the park, and I saw you sneaking around my old house. I figured you at least cared about who I was. Now, do you think you'll be able to help me?"
"Yeah, um, well. I'm not sure how my mum would take to letting a supposedly dead boy stay in her house."
"Oh...she doesn't need to know."
"And we don't have any spare roo—"
"It's cool, attic?"
"Yes bu—"
"I'll take the attic, thanks so much Gee..." Frank smiled, pulling himself to his feet before helping Gerard to his.
"How can I be sure to trust you?" Gerard asked, still wary of the figure that was stood in front of him, the boy that he once thought to be dead.
"I'm on the run from people who probably want me dead Gee, I need help and a place to stay for a little bit, there's nothing I can say to make you trust me other than th—"

The front door of the house opened and both the boys heard a woman walk into the kitchen.

"Hello Gee!" The woman called.
"Hiya mum!" Gerard quickly called back, "Shit! Frank, it's my mum, what the fuck do we do with you?"
"I said I'll take the attic..." Frank whispered back, smiling gently.
"But Frank, I don't really know who you are an—"
"Who are you talking to up there honey?" Gee's mum called up the stairs.
"Um no one mum..."
"I either stay in your attic for a few nights or your mum finds out about me. Which one?" Frank stated, trying to hide a smile of glee as he headed out onto the landing.
"Okay well...." Gerard whispered, anger hinting slightly through his voice, "well...get in the fucking attic then..."

With that he pulled down the stairs to the attic on the landing outside and ushered Frank up them before Frank seemed to disappear into the darkness, the hatch was shut just before Gerard's mum reached the top of the stairs.

Notes

Hello again. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, though it was a lot of speech but I hope it was okay. Thanks for reading. :)
-lou