Belonging

Somebody make me feel alive and shadder me

Heels click loudly on the marble outside the ratty door. From the outside, its polished and clean surface shines in the dark kitchen.

The sound stops as someone outside opens the blinds, light flooding the big room.

Gerard perks up, resting his hands against the uneven surface and watching the light appear underneath the crack between the door and the floor. He holds his breath, watching as the shadow of feet obscure the light.

The silence is heavy for the next seconds. A pale hand rests on the door nob on the outside. Gerard scuffles closer to the door, resting his ear against the wood.

The door is yanked in, bright light flooding the basement in golden and harsh sweeps. Gerard shields his eyes, crouching low before the person standing before him.

A black stiletto pushes against his chest lightly, pulling back and swinging with enough force to knock Gerard back. He shrieks, his eyes snapping open as he tumbles over himself and falls back down the stairs with the momentum. The stairs slow his fall. So, by the time he's around the bottom, the teen only lazily rolls down, eyes closed again and hair fanning out in a dark halo when his lands flat at the bottom, back to cement.

Donna, watches him silently fall from the door way, flipping on the big lights from the switch outside on the wall and leaving the door wide open.

Gerard heaves, rolling over and spitting up crackers from however long ago he had food. His mouth tastes sour, and the lights hanging from the high ceiling are big and much too bright, stinging his eyes.

Donna walks down the stairs leisurely, a folder under her arm, a big bottle of water, and a solo cup in her hand.

"Sit up." Gerard groans, rolling over slowly and pulling his aching body up. "We're going to play a game." She murmurs.

Her son squints up at her, hair mused and pink hoodie tinged with the dirt and dust that collected on the basement floors.

"CHAIR!" She screams. Seconds pass before a small omega comes down the stairs, carrying a fold out chair. She's maybe eighteen. Gerard's never seen her in the house before. Brown hair sticks out of her head in short, uneven tuffs, looking as if someone cut it recently.

She pulls the chair down the stairs, loud thumps echoing. As the omega folds it out, Gerard tries to catch her eyes, he can't and before long she's scurrying away and Donna is sitting down. He watches the pink dress she wears flutter out of existence around the corner of the door.

"Now." Donna says, dragging Gerard's eyes back to her. He zones in on the water bottle in her hand, swallowing drily and watching as she holds it to her chest and flicks through the papers inside. "You name the person, you get the water."

She holds up the first photo. Gerard shakes his head. She sighs, flicking the lamented page behind her and letting it glide through the air.

The stack is thick, and Gerard lets his eyes droop as she raises another photo, leaning heavily on his arms as his head falls in between his shoulders. His hands burn with the cold of the cement floor.

"Good boy Gerard, very good." What Donna says is fuzzy, and the teen doesn't respond, his stomach gurgling.

Donna opens the water, filling the solo cup up half way and reaching out to set it down in front of Gerard.

He doesn't look up, hiding behind his hair. Lyn-z's dirty sweater swallows him.

"Oh come on now." She smiles, setting her things down and walking up close enough that Gerard can see her heels underneath his hair. Donna tips his head back, cradling Gerard's jaw tight enough that small crescent moons appear in his pudgy flesh from her nails.

Gerard keeps his eyes closed, letting Donna open his mouth and slide the cup rim between his lips. The water is cold, and washes away the hot scratch that had developed down his throat.

When the water slows, Gerard's eyes flutter open, dull. Donna takes the cup back with her, refilling the solo cup and picking up the picture of Bert again.

"You bowed just like we told you." She smiles. Gerard shakes his head, realizing why he got the water.

"It...hurts." He whispers, head dropping again. Donna smiles, assuming it has something to do with the picture of Bert.

"Must have to do with the moon. Only a week away." Gerard lays back down, closing his eyes.

Donna gets up, yelling something up the stairs and leaning down to place the water bottle next to a sleeping Gerard.

*

Gerard flips the pen in between his fingers. His mother left it for him, along with a sheet of paper. Two columns formed a T-chart on the white surface, many names in tiny font with corresponding lines on the other side. He was to write each members' status from memory next to their names.

A tray of crackers and the half empty water bottle sit close to Gerard. His mother brought down more food with the paper and pen, and Gerard would have eaten it all if he could. She gave him a lot for someone who had been kept starving for a week, on the verge of death from dehydration.

It's a back pen, simple ball point. Gerard recognizes from one of the banks back in Cali. He lays on his back, the big and now illuminated basement spreading out around him.

Unscrewing the shaft without a sound, he pulls out the ink tube, throwing the plastic and spring behind him somewhere. They land with an echoing crack.

He bends the tube slowly, face emotionless as beads of ink well at the break that forms in the plastic. Gerard dots it on his fingers, the chemical smell bringing back memories of drawing in his basement room with Lyn-z.

His chest aches as he drags his finger at random across the cement floor, coming back to cover his finger in ink again every so often.

Gerard closes his eyes, left hand sticky and black.

                                       *

HEYO! A bit of a longer chapter because the last one was so short.

The full moon chapter will be coming up shortly, so I hope everyone is as excited as I am.

Votes and comments are always appreciated. I'll see you peoples soon!