So Long, Not Goodnight

Chapter Nine

"You look upset, are you sure?" Gerard began to pull on his clothes; his open cut began to bleed through the cotton of his shirt and bloom reminiscent of a carnation pinned to a prom suit. Frank just sighed and pulled on his own clothes. "Yeah... Hey Gee?"

Gerard paused while adjusting his belt. "Yeah Frankie?"

Frank licked his lips and his teeth pulled at his lip ring. "I... Uhm... Fuck..."Frank pulled his arm up and wrang at the back of his neck. "What is it Frankie?" Gerard slid his hands around Frank's waist and laid his head down on his shoulder.

Frank exhaled and leaned his cheek onto the top of Gerard's head. "I..."

Before Frank could say another word, a funeral march began to echo into the room from down the hall as if someone was playing the old pipe organ. Frank and Gerard both jumped at the same time. "What the hell is that?" Gerard gripped tightly onto Frank as the eerie melody grew louder, as if whomever was playing was pushing the keys down harder and harder with every note they played.

Gerard and Frank quickly pulled the rest of their clothes on and slowly peeked out of the door down the hallway that led out to the pews. The organ continued to screech it's eerie song and there appeared to be a rustling sound coming from the pulpit, as if a mass was forming for a service. Frank opened the door slowly and put a finger to his lips and Gerard nodded back in understanding. Gerard followed Frank's lead as they tiptoed down the dark hallway. When they get to the archway between the hall and the pulpit, the organ continued and so did the rustling. To their dismay, there wasn't a single soul in the church. The pews were all back to their original positions, making two rows of benches, there was a symmetrical display of offering candles on a rectangular table on the pulpit where Frank laid hours ago, all lit and dripping with wax as though they were burning for a while. The keys on the organ were depressing on their own like one of those old timey saloon pianos that you wound up and played songs like music boxes. As Gerard and Frank made their way down the steps of the pews, Gerard stopped and a deep rooted panic rose as he noticed that each seat in each of the pews had a newly printed obituary tribute neatly placed, face up with the black ivy pattern of the older and unidentifiable pamphlet that Gerard held in his hands upon entering the sanctuary, only these were legibly stamped with a name that would forever haunt Gerard more than that evil entity they were running from: Helena. Gerard's hands shook as he picked up one of the new booklets from a seat and stared at the bold letters. He didn't want to open the paper booklet but he knew that he had to. The sound of the rustling paper sounded louder than the groan of the organ's pipes as he flipped the page to the inside script. There was a typewritten itinerary of the aforementioned's service behind bloodred tears of text reading "YOU TOOK EVERYTHING FROM ME AND NOW I'M GOING TO TAKE EVERYTHING FROM YOU. EVERY. LAST. THING. I'M TAKING BACK THE LIFE YOU STOLE."

Gerard's hands shook more fiercely as if he had lost control of his muscles and dropped the pamphlet onto the church floor, the words were bleeding. The maroon marker grew darker and darker and saturated the pages so the text was almost indecipherable, pooling the ink and staining the old carpet. The text kept bleeding; an arterial cut emptying with each pulse. The small puddle was beginning to pool almost inches deep. Where was Frank? The walls were oozing ink, as black as the moldy wood window shudders mixing with the red ink. "Frankie?!" Gerard wailed pulling at his hair.

"Gee! I'm coming!" Frank called out from the opposite side of the room.

The black ink began to form ropes, curving and shaping a face on the floor; long black hair, dark eyes that looked tired and cold, thin and fragile lips, and a slender neck. The red ink from the brochure filled the face with spatters of blood that looked at first like small red freckles but then turned to gruesome slices all over the face and neck; at first bright and colorful and then mixing with the black looking deeper and more mangled. The upturned inked lips began to droop and peel away from the phantom face. The eyes sank into the head and filled first with bright red and slowly were engulfed by black. Gerard saw it all happening again in front of him more horrifying and slower than before, stamping each stab more intricately into his mind to stain it there forever. Her hair wrapping her neck like a noose and catching on all the open flesh pulling it more and more open draining more and more blood as the moon waned outside, the yellow of it's glare became the headlights of that dark and gruesome night. It was a small prick of light, a sconce in a mausoleum, and it blossomed and bloomed into a spotlight. Romeo oh Romeo, where art thou Romeo. She was so young. He was so young. She lost it all. He had so much to lose. She was never found. He never told. She died. He lied.

The face slowly seeped into the carpet as if it were never there. Frank rushed up beside Gerard. The walls were bare, the carpet was dirty, but only like it was before. There were no brochures on the pews, no bleeding ink, no Helena. "Gee, what is it? You look like you could use a cigarette." Frank reached into his pocked and held one out to Gerard who took it as fast as it was offered.

"Do you hear that?" Gerard's eyes were wide and bloodshot. "The organ stopped playing."

It was silent and then there was a soft tinkling coming from the front vestibule. Gerard jogged to the front doors. There was an ebony rosary hanging from the door handles, swaying and knocking against the wood. The entire piece was jet black except for the red crown of roses on the host's head. "Was that there when we got here?" Frank asked approaching Gerard from behind.

Gerard blew smoke out from his nostrils. "No."

Frank reached out to touch it and Gerard caught his hand. "Don't!"

Frank slowly let his hand drop back to his side. "What the fuck is going on?" Frank backed away from the doors.

"It's her." Gerard stared at the rosary still swaying.

"Who?" Frank stopped in between the first two pews.

Gerard closed his eyes and tried to keep his breathing normal as he relived it all over again...