Sleep

The night of the show. Everyone was stressed, the crowd was bustling with chatter and cheers. Frank was the most stressed of them all, he scratched himself the whole time back stage anxiously. It was 7pm by the time they were ready, and it was a full moon.

“We ready guys?” Gerard looked at Ray, Mikey, Bob and Frank. They all nodded. They opened with To the end, they walked out on stage. Everyone was playing their parts anxiously, Gerard’s hoarse voice filled the stadium and the crowd erupted with screaming and cheering. Frank felt confident once he was on stage, all of his worries were gone. He didn’t feel an impending doom like before. They got through a few songs and had a brief intermission while Gerard spoke to the crowd, Frank started to feel dizzy. He nearly fell over and he looked at Mikey. Mikey looked back at him and opened his mouth as if he were gonna say something, but just threw Frank some water. Frank groaned and took a sip. Maybe it was just a headache?

house of wolves started blasting from their amps. Everyone was hyped. Frank felt his vision going dark, he opened his mouth to sing into the microphone but fell to the ground. He hit his head on his mic and it fell with Frank. The ear piercing ringing from the microphone filled the stadium. Everyone stopped playing, Gerard ran over with his mic still in his hand. The crowd gasped. Gerard set the microphone down gently and shook Frank.

“Frank! Frank are you okay?” Ray started to walk over, but Mikey inched himself away. Franks eyes shot open, his pupils were shrunken. His teeth were bared and he was breathing heavily. Frank grew taller and his wolf features were visible to all. Everyone dropped their jaw, Gerard fell backwards, he started to scoot away as Frank stood up. He roared fiercely and slashed at Gerard’s face, taking his eye with him. Gerard screamed with pain, and Mikey dropped his bass and ran over to Gerard. He grabbed him quickly and took him over to the other side of the stage. Security quickly escorted the crowd out of the stadium, within minutes it was empty.

“Holy shit! Gee! Gerard! Oh my god, you’re gonna be okay. We’re gonna get you to a hospital!” Mikey started to panic, he looked at Frank, or what he thought was Frank. Ray held his guitar towards Frank who was trying to claw at him aggressively. As Frank was trying to grab Ray, officers and security tried to get close to Frank but he clawed at them all and ended them quickly. Ray started to lose his strength against Frank but Frank froze. He got weak, he fell to his knees. He shrank to his normal size and only his ears and tail were shown. His clothes were ripped, and he was sobbing softly.
Everything felt like it stopped for a moment.
His guitar fell to the ground next to him,
The hood to his hoodie fell. The music stopped blasting in his ears, Mikey looked at Frank with disgust.

“what are you?” Mikey seemed revolted. Ray looked at Mikey and stuck his hand out. “I knew something was up with you.”

“Now Mikey-“ Mikey pushed Ray and backed away from Frank. Franks ears fell, the light reflected off of his fangs and his eyes shined with tears under the bright spotlight. Gerard looks at Ray, then Mikey, then Frank. Mikey started looking around then looked at the back of the stage, a crowbar next to a fire extinguisher in order to break the glass just a few feet infront of him. Mikey walked towards it and took it in his hands walked towards Frank slowly.

“Mikey..?” Franks voice was shaky, his eyes widened and tears fell down his face. Gerard was frozen, he couldn’t move. Mikey looked at Frank in the eyes.

“You’re a freak. I’ve never seen something like you.” He paused. “I can barely even look at you, look at what you did.” Gerard was on the ground, his hand was on his eye and his breathing was heavy. Ray and Bob ran to his side, but Gerard pushed them away.

“Frank….” Gerard croaked. Mikey looked back at Gerard and his face fell.

“Look what you did to Gerard. You shouldn’t be here. You’re a danger to us, to him.” Mikey pointed his bass at Gerard and Frank held himself and lowered his head. “I knew it. I fucking knew it Frank, I knew something was off but this? Why wouldn’t you tell anyone! You’re not worth being kept around, you’re dangerous. You’re a freak.”

“I’m sorry..” he whispered. “I’m sorry… I don’t know what’s wrong with me, please Mikey.. please…” Frank looked up at Mikey, and he shook his head.

“I’m sorry.” Mikey raised his bass and looked away from Frank. “I can’t let you hurt any of us again, you were a good friend. Until this.”

“Please Mikey, please… don’t do this. We can figure it out.” Frank pleaded, he sobbed as he looked up at Mikey. Gerard looked up to see what was happening, and his face fell. Frank stuck out his hand to Mikey, his hand was shaking. “We can fix it I promise.. I’ll find out how to stop it please…”

Mikey gripped the crowbar tighter. “YOU CANT FUCKING FIX THIS FRANK!” He shouted. “Look what YOU did. You injured Gerard. You hurt him, I thought you cared about him. You can’t fix this, how do we know you won’t hurt one of us next? Or worse, hurt Gerard again?” Frank was shaking violently, all he could do was plead to Mikey.

“It wasn’t my fault… I can’t control it..”

“Bullshit.” Mikey raised the crowbar over his head, Franks expression went dull, his ears lowered and he looked at Gerard across the stage. He started laughing through his tears.

“Frank!” Gerard leaped out towards Mikey and Frank.

“I-“ A crash echoed through the stadium, followed by more, quieter crashes. Blood splattered across the stage, the sound of a body falling filled the room. Gerard’s screams were muffled as he buried his head into his arms. Mikey dropped the crowbar and turned away from Frank, what remained of him. Gerard forgot about how much his face hurt, he was distracted by the pain in his heart.

“Mikey…” Ray stammered. Mikey looked up at Ray, and shook his head. It felt like it all went by so fast.

“I’m so sorry Frank…” Gerard sobbed as he sat up slowly. “I broke my promise….” He wiped the tears from his eye. Ray, Mikey, and Bob looked at him with confusion.

“I promised… I promised you’d be alright. I promised we would figure out what’s wrong with you…” Gerard sobbed. Mikey couldn’t look at Gerard

“I did what I had to.” Mikey whispered.

“You didn’t have to do that. You…you didn’t have to kill him…” Gerard rasped through tears. Emergency responders quickly ran to Frank and Gerard, they were both loaded into stretchers. As Gerard was being put into an ambulance he watched a cloth be draped over Frank and doctors shaking their heads. Gerard felt his heart drop, he’s gone.