AN: This is my first attempt at any sort of band fanfiction, so I really hope it isn't too awful. :P Anyway, I think that The Black Parade is just such a heartfelt and powerful album that tells such a heart-wrenching story that I figured it would be worth it to write about it! Enjoy!
"Climb up on my shoulders, William! You'll be able to see them!" The young boy wiggled excitedly over to his father, his tiny hands curling around the older mans calloused fingers as he was hoisted up onto the broad platform provided by his father's shoulders. He nearly fell off when the moment he'd dreamed about came into view.
"Look, daddy! The marching band!" William squealed as he watched the floats enter the town square, followed by the marching men dressed in gold and crimson, their brass instruments high in the air, ringing out a bright fanfare. They circled the street several times, exerting all the discipline and professionalism that William admired so much. The 7-year-old had waited months to save up enough money to go to the city and see the military band and finally he was there. Nothing else mattered in the young boy's eyes as he listened to them play their well-practiced tunes, each leg in step with the one next to it. In William's eyes, they weren't just men, they were heros. Everything he wanted to be.
As they made their way back down the dirty path down to their old farmhouse, William swore he could still hear the ringing of the horns in his ears and the scent of grease and cotton candy in the air. "One day.." he thought to himself as his father opened the rickety gate, "I'll join the parade..."
"Did it work?" William shook his head weakly, coming out of his memory as he focused on the expressionless woman in front of his hospital bed. He'd nearly forgotten she was there, that she was supposed to be helping him cope with his condition. She was probably the most useless person for the job.
"Uhm.. I think so.." She was referring to the strategy she'd given William to ease the pain. He was supposed to imagine his favorite memory and try to focus on that instead of all the IVs and the treatment. However, he wasn't sure how much it would help as he hurled his life out into a cold metal bedpan as the side-effects of the chemotherapy. He didn't have much of a choice though. In the months since he had been diagnosed with brain cancer due to a tumor the size of a golf ball growing just beneath his cerebellum, his family had decided it was necessary that the only way to deal with the loss was to seek psychiatric help instead of being there for him as a family. Every since his father passed, this was how everything worked..
"Good. The doctors predict you could pass at anytime so it's best if you keep thinking of those positive moments." With that, she was gone. William nearly laughed at her complete lack of sympathy and remorse. She said it like it was nothing! It was his life! Everyone had been tip-toeing around him and the truth and now that it was finally close, here he was. Alone and dying. Just like he had been since his father died when he was barely 10 years old. He was barely out of high school his life just beginning, yet it was ending instead. He had tried for months to come to terms with it but he just couldn't. He'd lived such a short sad life, it made him wish he'd never even been born in the first place. There were so many things he'd wanted to do! He glared at the stark white walls, the beeping of his IV piercing his eardrum merciously as he started to wish if it were going to end, it would just end already. He suddenly realized how sick of this prison of a room his was.
It was then that he felt his breath hitch in his throat and suddenly he could no longer feel his limbs. No, no, no.. I'm.. I'm not ready! I'm scared! He wanted to scream out, he was suddenly regretting how much he'd wished to die as he felt himself slowly shutting down, the lights dimming in the room.. or maybe it was his vision.. and just as simply as it had started, it was over.
The room was back to normal. Had he even died? Had he been dreaming? There's no way! It had felt.. so real! As he thought to himself, he failed to notice the odd crack in the corner of the room, seeping a strange black oily substance down the bland wall. As soon as he saw it, the walls crumbled to the ground before him, causing him to cower back into his hospital bed. When he looked up again, he couldn't believe his eyes.
Beyond the walls sat a grey land, littered with hills of what appeared to be various trash and gadgets. Beyond those lurked a cold, grey skyline with eerie buildings which the mere sight of sent chills down William's spine. They billowed thick black smoke and the area appeared to be some sort of war-zone. Yep. I'm dead. He very slowly made his way from the gurney and tottered for a moment due to the weakness of his thin legs among the ashes that blanketed the ground. He realized with embarrassment that he was still in his flimsy hospital gown and suddenly wished he'd changed before he died. Then he realized how ridiculous he sounded.
He wondered slowly around the heaps of junk, nothing colorful in sight, just greys and blacks as far as the eyes could see. There was no noise either, besides that of a slight breeze rustling the various items that happened to be loose on top of the piles along with ash. He felt his stomach twist in horror. This was it. This was the afterlife. It was nothing but a dreary world in which he would wander alone and lost for all eternity. Not only had he been cursed in life but also in death. He was ready to just curl up and never move again. Then.. he heard it.
The same sound he had been so keen to hear years ago drifted eerily in and out of his ears, coming from farther off in the wasteland. He rushed forward, trying not to trip over his clumsy legs. He rounded a large pile of trash and was greeted by the most wonderful sight.
It was The End.
AN: Well, that was rather vague and I feel like I tried to cram a whole lot into a very small chapter.. Crap. :/ Pleeease please lemme know what you all think! It's your feedback that keeps me improving! Much love!
-Roxy Lynn.