Onyxx: Okay. This... this is it. I mean it. It really is.

Gerry: Wh-what? What do you mean? You can't be serious!

Onyxx: Ger, I'm sorry. But this series is going nowhere.

Gerry: … DRACULA! Help me talk some sense into this girl!
Onyxx: Dracula can't help you. He's stuck in his world forever now, remember?

Gerry: But... but... but...

Onyxx: We all knew this series had to end sometime. Now is that time.

Gerry: (sigh) I understand... but what's your plan for this misadventure?

Onyxx: Well, as you'll notice, "Humor" is not one of the genres this time.

Gerry: … No funny?

Onyxx: Plenty of funny, but mostly dramatic and very, very sad.

Gerry: Wha... what... WHYYYYYY.

Onyxx: You know why. It's gotta end.

Gerry: (grumble) Fine.

Onyxx: And now, my loyal, wonderful readers, I give you... The End.

Chapter One:

Thirty years after the events of "The Twin Brother I Never Had"

I nearly fell over, still in shock, as Em led me out of the doctor's office. Could it really be over now? Everything I'd ever known... was coming to an abrupt end.

Emmy wouldn't look at me, but I could tell she was crying anyway. I stopped walking and made her face me.

"Hey," I said softly, my voice breaking with my own tears. "Don't cry for me. I lived a good life."

Emmy's face wasn't the canyon of wrinkles mine had become—she was still about twenty years younger than me. Her lower lip quivered, and she immediately began to wail as she wrapped her arms around me.

I pulled her close, wishing somehow I could stay just a while longer so we could be together.

My Scottish accent was still quite prominent, though I'd lived most of my adult life in the country I now call home—the U.S. We'd still visited my mum a lot, though, until finally I'd gotten too... and I hate to say this... feeble to travel from New York to Paisley every other month.

"Gerry," Emmy whispered, sobbing. I closed my eyes and rested my cheek on the top of her head.

We drove home, and I went straight to the bathroom mirror. I grabbed a magazine from my photoshoot with Jen Aniston and looked at the photo, then at my reflection. Tears fell down my face as I realized I should have lived more when I had the chance.

I could have slapped myself for that thought. I lived a wonderful life. How many actors get to meet and talk to one of their favorite roles from a movie? How many actors get to meet all of their characters and have them invade their home at Christmas just to sing to you or give you a big celebration for your fiftieth birthday? Sure, some other actors got to meet their characters—Christine came to Em, Father Something-or-other came to Jason Scott Lee, and Raoul came to Patrick Wilson—but none of them got the chance I had. I have a newfound brother in Erik, the Phantom of the Opera, because I was blessed—or cursed—with him for life. We've been close since... God, has it really been that long?

Thirty years can change a lot for a man.

Not only do I have a newfound family, but I was blessed with one of my own. Em and I were drawn together by that event thirty years ago, and our relationship started a year after that. We were married, and we've raised two beautiful children. My son and daughter have kids of their own now, and they're persuing their own careers. Erik, my son, is into acting, and Chris, my daughter, is currently recording an album. I couldn't have asked for a better life.

I threw the magazine in the trash and walked into the kitchen, and can you imagine my surprise to find the last person I expected standing there? Much less with gray hair?

I would have run over to him, and I'm sure he would have as well, but both of us really had to sit down before our backs gave out. I pulled Erik to a chair at the table, a grin spreading across my wasted face.

"What the hell are you doing here?" I asked, shaking my head.

"What do you think?" He smiled back, and with a relieved sigh, leaned back in the chair. "I came to see you, Gerry."

"Why?" I narrowed my eyes at him, confounded. Did he know...?

"Gerry..." Erik began, taking one of my hands as if he was about to tell me something really bad. "I'm dying."

I laughed suddenly, and he looked confused.

"Damn it to hell," I said, patting his shoulder. "I am, too."

Erik looked shocked. "You're...?"

"Cancer."

"Me, too," he said. "Good Lord."

I smiled weakly at my old friend. God, we'd been together forever. Thirty years. Almost half my life.

Christine and Emmy were in the living room, and Erik had even brought his children along from the fantasy world. I pulled him into a brotherly hug.

"I came because I wanted to spend the rest of my life with the ones I love the most," Erik said quietly, and I felt tears drip onto my shoulder.

I patted his back, trying to hold back my own. I couldn't. "Erik... I just wish we could go back and relive all of the things we did together," I whispered.

After all of the shit I've been through, after everything that has happened to me, you'd think I'd learn to be careful what I wished for.

Onyxx: Like I said, much less humor. Don't worry, it will get funny.

Gerry: YOU MADE ME OLD.

Onyxx: Like I said in the Christmas thing, Ger.