The silver bullet went though the air like rocket speed, heading in Mikey's direction, missing him by less than an inch. Breathing heavily, the two men lay in the dust, unclear whom of them was more shocked by what just happened.
Gerard's pov:
I lay there, on the floor, on top of Frank, not yet fully realising he just tried to kill my brother, and, even worse, Why.
All I knew was that my instincts took over, and all i wanted to do, was keeping my brother alive.
We lay there, still for what seemed to be centuries. None of us able to move.
I couldn't move because of the shock,
the adrenaline that was rushing through my body and the disbelief that my brother was really turning into a one of those creatures I was born to kill.
I looked up at Mikey, to watch him in horror. All the muscles in his body were contracting, while his face was full of agony. He opened his mouth, spread his eyes wide open, and exclaimed a scream that the entire zone must have heard. Then I saw it. Two fangs, shining in the burning sun. I started realizing, he was out here, aday, in the sun, and ran up to him, taking him by the arms, and screaming:
'You have to get out of the sun! Get out! Come with me! Please Mikey!'
Frank crawled up, running my direction, helping me to drag Mikey into the shadows of the house we just turned to a ruin.
Kneeling down right next to him, I looked in his now crimson eyes.
'Mikey... are you there? Can you hear me?' I asked desperatly.
'Loud and clear, Gerard...' he said in between his panting breaths.
I felt a hand touching my shoulder, slightly pulling me his side. While Miora took over the care of Mikey, Frank pulled me with him.
'You do know what this means, don't you?' He asked, the worry was easy to recognise in his beautiful bright eyes.
'I do. I do but I don't want to. I don't WANT to see what this is all about.' It was true, I knew that, according to the rules of the FKJ's, we had to kill Mikey.
We had to kill the always brave killjoy, who had fought and slaughtered so many vampires, but now... became one himself.
'Then you know we should kill him. You know we should end his life here.' My heart skipped a beat.
'Please.' I pleaded 'Please Frank, Mikey is strong. He's strong enough to fight this. He'll know how to fight his other half. I know he can defeat the sunlight!'
'It'll dust him out! It will kill him before he can even pull out his gun! You know how hard the demons are Gerard. I have heard your story. I know your past.
I know what happened to Bert.'
Using those words, it felt like Frank put his ice cold hands into my chest, and ripped out my heart. Bert.
Just the sound of his name. Just the thought of his face. It brought so many memories back. Memories I had tried to forget. How he stood there in front of me. A proud killjoy. He had slaughtered more vampires than most of us together. His braveness was overwhelming. His heart was big enough to keep us all safe.
I remembered waking up next to him. Looking into his eyes as he was already wide awake hours before me. The nights full of passion and the nights full of tears, as one of our friends had been defeated.
I remembered that one morning, where I was stubborn enough to leave the house on my own, because I had heard Ray, my best friend, was captured.
How I stood there, with the gun in my hands, ready to pull the trigger, until Bert suddenly tackled me to the ground, making me miss a bullet by just a fraction of an inch.
I remembered how he crawled back up, got caught by one of the vampires, and got bitten before I could do anything about it.
I remembered how he tried to fight his demons. How he tried to keep himself on our side. How I found him one night, in my bedroom.
A girl in his arms. His chin full of blood. His bright crimson eyes lurking for blood. I remember how he tried to catch me, when I screamed his name.
'Bert, It's me! Gerard! Please Bert! Come back. I love you. I love you so much.'
When his eyes became their normal colour, as I said his name. How he then fell on his knees, begging me to stake his heart.
How I ran away crying, To come back and find his lifeless body on the floor.
'Leave Bert out of this.' I snatched at Frank. I couldn't bear thinking about him one more second. I couldn't stand the fact his smell had left my world.
Frank's POV:
I knew it wasn't really nice of me to remind Gerard about Bert. Everybody knew his story though.
Everybody looked up to the great Killjoy BatteryPoison, like Bert's name used to be.
I knew it would kill Gerard to think about him again. But it was the only way to make him understand that, IF we kept him alive, nonethelles what docter Death Defying would say about it, it would be extremely hard, if not impossible, for Mikey to fight these demons.
I didn't want to be the murderer of his brother, but somebody here had to stay real.
I looked into Gerard's beautiful hazel eyes, and saw a sea of pain there. He could swallow, but it would not make his sea level go down. I knew he couldn't risk another loss, so soon.
What he and Bert had, was unique. It was not just a brotherhood, it was not just a love. It went far beyond passion. It went far beyond what a heart could take. Far beyond anything I had ever felt.
And right here in front of me, stood a man crashing down. Could I really do that to him? Could I really tear open the wounds again? Those wounds that weren't even close to healing?
But what would be worse? Protecting him from more pain, from seeing his brother turn into a monster. Or protecting him from seeing his brother die in front of his eyes, by my gun.
I decided I should let the dices of fortune roll, and I nodded.
'We'll give Mikey the advantage of doubt. We'll treat him as well as we can, and we'll try to do things better than in the past.' I said, out loud.
and then I added, very silently, so only Gerard could hear; 'and I don't want to put you through that same pain again.
I turned around to face Mikey and Miora, when his soft hand touched the skin on my shoulder. I felt a shiver go up my spine, one long lost butterfly fluttering around my stomach, as he whispered very close to me; 'Thank you. I'll never forget this.'
Stand o'fucking tall, don't let them see your back and take my fucking hand and never be afraid again.