Chapter 1
Gerard stomped into the bedroom, slamming the heavy metal sliding door shut before slumping into the pile of junk on his bunker. He didn't bother kicking off his wet muddy boots or flinging off his rain soaked clothes. He rested his chin on his folded arms and watched a small pink drop fall onto his wrist from his red greasy hair that was glued to his forehead. He tried to suppress the tears that were almost overflowing from his stinging eyes by shutting them tight, only some tears managed to escape and slid down leaving clean streaks on his dirty face. The bus was warm, but the cold wet clothes uncomfortably hugged his skin causing his body to convulse in tremors. He didn't care though, he felt numb to everything. To the murmurs of the TV left on in the "living room", to the low rumble of the heater, to the smell of humid clothes and smelly socks.
He decided to concentrate on his breathing that was still shaky, not so much from the cold, but from the conversation he had just had on the phone with his wife or whatever she was now. A shot of pain ran through his chest on that last thought. The news had broken him into two even though somewhere deep inside he had expected this day. He remembered being that broken teenager, that hopeless druggy, the underdog,
The nobody.
He thought of his daughter, what would this mean for her now? She was so young...and so innocent. So unaware of how sad and cruel the world she was growing up in. He wanted to protect her, to shield her from all the unhappiness he felt. Another broken family,
Another statistic.
He thought of the moments where he thought his life had turned around, the moments where he was no longer that same person, but a new person altogether, or maybe the best version of himself, he didn't know. He was happy, genuine happiness that was not being manufactured by a fucked up beverage or a pill. Now he felt lower than ever,
More dead than alive.
Everything he had created, from his fresh new outlook on life to the bright messages he sent out to his fans was crushing into pieces inside him,
Then his body stopped shaking and the other bunks with heaps of stuff slowly went black.