Bleeding in the rain

The rain beat down in heavy sheets across the backstreets of New Jersey. Warm blood mixed with cold water ran in small streams, across the pavement, over the curb and down into the drains lining the side of the roads.

A man lay in an alley. The pain was getting worse with each passing moment as the effects of alcohol and drugs wore off. The greatest pain was emulating from the long jagged gash across his forehead where a knife had slashed through his skin almost deep enough to expose bone from underneath.

His life ran in a steady red stream from the many wounds covering his body. He looked up to see an old lady crossing the street to avoid him and he wondered what he had done to deserve this.

They attacked him on His way back from a local bar.

You can practically taste the alcohol coming off him.

They had said.

Easy target.

He couldn't remember much, how did he get here?, where did his brother go?

The one thing stuck in his memory was the colour silver. The silver of a blade glinting under the moonlight. After the blade had been slashed through his skin countless times, it changed colour, stained metallic red.

My brother must be worried right now, must be out looking for me, he thought. But maybe his brother was used to him disappearing, used to being worried sick each time he went missing. Poor Mikey, he thought. He felt like he could have done so much more to be a good brother. Mikey looked after him, told him it was going to be okay when all he got in return a sigh and a suicidal drunk for a brother. Did Mikey even think of him as a brother anymore?

What if he died? Who would know who he was? Would anyone remember him? Who would come to his funeral, no, who would want to go to the funeral of someone who pretty much destroyed any chance he had at a good life?

Who even knew who he was?

I'm Gerard he thought I'm Gerard.

But who would care if Gerard died. The thought of dying scared Gerard, scared him a lot. He found this surprising. He'd spent so long alone in his apartment contemplating how it would end, how he would end it. But now, now he wanted to live, he wanted to see the world and to have a shot at a future, one shot, he deserved that much. He could finally get up the courage to talk to Lindsay. He could get married, have a family, maybe even start a band like he and Mikey had so often dreamt about doing.

The world around him was beginning to blur. If I hadn't gotten drunk he thought this might not be happening. Gerard wondered why this happened, how this happened. He was dying, and why?, because of money and booze. He'd been killed and for the sake of a few dollars. Is that all his life's worth to people?

Gerard didn't want to be remembered as 'the alcoholic from apartment 305', he wanted Mikey to remember him as his brother, he wanted to be remembered as Gerard. He just wanted to scream at the world 'look! Over here I'm alive and my names Gerard' but when he opened his mouth all that came out was a strangled gurgle of blood. Gerard felt cold and wet and miserable.

Help me. Please. Help me.

Cold rain continued to fall from the sky. Minute after minute after hour. Gerard lay there, motionless, waiting for someone to find him, to save him.

**

Mikey ran towards the figure lying on the sidewalk of the New Jersey backstreet. He knelt down in the cold rain the water chilling his legs as it soaked through his jeans. The blood dying them red.

"Gerard!" He shook his brother to try and wake him "Gerard!"

There was no reply.

Mikey stood up and ran in search of a cop. And didn't stop until he found one.

The cop stood up from where Gerard lay and turned around to see Mikey.

"He's dead" the cop looked apologetically towards Mikey.

Mikey sat by Gerard's body for what seemed like hours weeping uncontrollably as the cop reported all injuries into a small black book.

"Did the victim have any medication, mental illness or addiction that we should know about?"

Mikey thought this question through for a while before answering.

"no" was his answer "his name was Gerard, Gerard way, my brother."

The end