Turn Off The Dark (Frerard)

Part Thirty

-Gerard's POV-

Weirdly, I remembered exactly where I was going to get there. All the way down Pine, cut through the trees. Hop the fence, cut through the backyard of the third house, diagonally cross the street, two houses down, and there it was. And weirdly, I wasn't afraid.

I climbed the front steps and firmly knocked twice.

Immediately a dog inside began to go berserk, and I heard the sound of pounding paws and then claws on the inside of the door. And then the voice.

"Down, Nitro! No, Nitro- go, go outside!"

The dog whined but scurried away.

The door creaked open, and I almost laughed out of joy.

His hair was still long, just the way I remembered, and he still looked just as punk as ever, complete with a nose ring, a backwards baseball cap, and a bright band tee.

"Victor Fuentes" I stated.

It took him a second, but when he made the connection he broke out into a wide smile.

"Son of a bitch. Gerard Way. It's been years!"

He sounded excited, and that made me smile.

"You grew" I said, stating the extremely obvious, and Vic laughed.

"Yeah, a bit. Come on, come in. What brought you out of the woodwork? Last I heard of you was- was the whole thing with Mikey." he shut the door behind me and I looked down at the blue shag rug.

"I've been around. Sort of. It's hard to explain. Actually, about that- I need to ask a favor, and I couldn't think of anybody else to turn to."

"Sure man. But first, you gotta tell me where you've been."

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It took about an hour, give or take, to get Vic up to speed on what had happened since I last saw him. Thankfully, I was able to skip a huge portion that consisted of nothing but lying around my apartment for several years on end. Eventually, I reached the bit about running into Maynard again.

"And you think he wants to pin it on you because of the shit before?" Vic cracked a Red Bull, and I nodded.

"He's made it pretty clear. But it honestly wasn't me. Or Frank. And I can't explain why to him."

Vic nodded. "I understand." He put his feet up on the low coffee table. "So what do you need from me?"

I took a slow breath.

"I need you to help me get rid of Maynard."