FicWad

Title from "My Way Home Is Through You" - My Chemical Romance

They were less compassionate, less caring, and darker in general. Frank found himself killing a person after drinking their blood, unable to find the emotion in himself to stop him.

“Look.”

Gerard pushed a newspaper toward Frank one day. An article at the bottom of the page showed two scientists.

“What is it?”

“These two claimed they proved vampires existed and were kicked out. It was a few weeks ago. Says they had been studying cases of vampiranism for years and found a way to kill.”

Gerard stood from the bus stop they’d been sitting at and grabbed Frank’s hand. The next thing Frank knew he was in front of a downtown, abandoned-looking building. He stepped through the barred doors, Frank following confusedly behind him. He pushed through another door into a basement.

“This is illegal… they set this place up after they were fired to continue research…”

Gerard stepped into the room. Inside was a makeshift lab with beakers and cheap monitors set up everywhere. There was a corkboard on the wall and a gun rack on the other.

“Frank… Oh god, I am so sorry…”

Frank rushed to Gerard. He was staring at the pictures pinned to the board.

“No, no, no, no, no…”

Frank roared, ripping the board off the wall and stood clenching his fists at his sides, eyes burning.

On the floor among the scattered remains of the smashed cork lay pictures and notes. Only four were faces Frank recognized; his mother, Alexis, Cody, and his father. There was a red ‘X’ over the first and third of the group, his mother’s saying, “refusal to be interrogated”, on Cody’s written, “inhuman violence’.

“They’re dead…”

Gerard nodded stonily and took Frank’s hand again. They were back at Frank’s house moments later. Gerard stumbled, leaning against the fence to catch his breath, his eyes just slightly less red than Frank’s from exhaustion.

“You… you wanna go in?”

“Yeah…”

Frank opened the door. Furniture was lying everywhere, bullet holes in the walls. Gerard dragged himself into the room behind Frank. They both detected the unmistakable stench of a rotting corpse. Frank trekked into the hall, covering his mouth in horror when he got to the kitchen. Linda’s body was strewn across the table, skin pale and blood-drained. There were bullets in her stomach, blood staining the front of her clothing.

“Oh g-god…”

Gerard nodded silently and clasped Frank’s other hand behind his back. Frank stared for another second before twisting around and rocketing himself at Gerard’s chest, burying himself in Gerard’s arms.

“Please, G-Gerard… Just make it stop…”

“I…”

Gerard gaped at the sight. People couldn’t just get away with that.

“W-What about Cody, Gee?”

Gerard led the distraught boy away from his former house and down the street toward Cody’s. The scene there was similar; a slaughterhouse. His parents were half a decade older than last time Frank had seen them, just like his own mother. They too were dead, the same wounds inflicted upon Linda marking them. Frank found Cody in his bedroom. They entered the room, expecting another bullet-strewn carcass to be bloodily exhibited, but it was worse.

“Oh, fuck…”

Gerard rushed in. Cody was lying, impaled on an overturned desk leg. His lips curled into a snarl, large fangs stuck from his jaw. His skull was strangely shifted, almost as if crushed. Hair bristled lightly from his back, creeping up his neck faintly. His fingers were curled as well, twisting into almost claws, fingernails slightly longer than normal and his eyes a sickly yellow color.

“Fuck…”

Gerard repeated his curse before lifting Cody off the post.

“He’s alive…”

“What? But they-”

“They were wrong. But that can change if we don’t get him out of here.”

Frank helped Gerard lift the man. Gerard held on to Frank’s shoulder and they were back in the hotel. Gerard immediately let go of Cody, his whole body trembling at the energy drain. Frank pulled Cody onto the bed, stripping his jacket and bloody white shirt. The hole went straight through so Frank could see past Cody’s entrails, the crimson stained sheet showing through.

“Oh shit…”

“Yeah, here… Uh, get me a towel…”

Hours later they had bundled absorbent material around Cody’s middle.

“He should be dead…”

“I told you before, he’s not human either.”

Frank sat in the corner on the floor, his face in his knees. Gerard desperately wanted to help him, but found himself at a loss for words.

“He’s in mid-change, apparently he knew.”

Frank nodded and sucked in a breath before standing up, pushing himself into Gerard’s arms again. Gerard let him cry into his chest, his shirt soaking up the wet.

“She’s d-dead, Gerard… Gone…”

Gerard stroked his hair, wrapping his arms around the sobbing boy. Frank’s voice came as I whisper next.

“…it’s my fault…”

“What? No it’s not!”

“Yeah, it is. They were looking for me, don’t you get it? That’s why they had everyone they could possibly find who knew me… why Gerard?”

“I… I don’t know… but I’ll find out. I’ll kill them if they hurt you.”

Mikey burst in the room, his face flushed and sweaty.

“Guy, we have to get out of here. Grab Cody and run.”

Frank jumped up, Gerard in his wake. Cody had returned to looking like a human. A human with a gaping hole in his stomach, but human nonetheless. Gerard stripped off his jacket and put it over Cody, hoisting him to his feet and then into his arms, Frank shuffling off to shove their stuff in the duffel bag on the floor.

“What’s going on?”

“People, I heard them, they know where we are and they’re coming.”

The three ran as quickly down the hall as they could, dragging half-conscious Cody with them. Gerard shoved them all onto the subway and sat down.

“Where are we going?”

Gerard shrugged. Frank frowned.

“Okay…”

Cody was lying over Mikey and Frank’s knees, his head in Frank’s lap. They stayed on the train for almost an hour, not really caring where they were as long as they were away from the hotel. Frank felt sick, he couldn’t focus, like his brain contained nothing more than the swirly mass of colors whizzing by them behind the plastic windows. Gerard noticed and held onto his shoulder reassuringly.

“Why do I feel so wrong?”

“… You were right. Those people were after you, but I don’t know why. I suspect it has something to do with the way you’re feeling.”

Frank groaned. They were kicked off the bus at some stop that looked pretty unfamiliar. Gerard picked Cody back up and they wandered cautiously for another half hour. Mikey gave up and led the three into a furniture store. They hid behind racks until it closed and the lights turned off. Gerard placed Cody on a bed while they sat on the floor next to him.

“What’s going to happen to Cody?”

Frank watched the boy on the mattress stir slightly.

“He’s not immune to injuries, but he has a better chance of surviving than humans…”

“Oh…”