You're So Dark (Frerard)

6. Tightrope Walk Pt. 1

April 30th 199X

Tales From The Crypt: The First, And Hopefully Last, Time I Gave Thrash Metal A Shot

currently playing: Steady Diet of Nothing (Fugazi)

currently reading: Horace Walpole

June 1st 199X

Shower Thoughts: Why Lit Freaks Are The Actual Enemies of Humankind

currently playing: Music For The Masses (Depeche Mode)

currently reading: Charles Darwin (don't fucking ask)

July 12th 199X

Surviving Summer: How To Explain To Your Friends That Bela Lugosi Is Not In Fact Dead, Just Doesn't Want A Suntan

currently playing: Subsequent Pleasures (Clan of Xymox)

currently reading: Margaret Atwood

August 22nd 199X

Shower Thoughts: Being A Goth Requires Knowing More About Punk Than About Goth (A Brief History of The Damned)

currently playing: Phantasmagoria (The Damned)

honorable author mention: Stephen King

Gerard knows all too well that the time he's spent reading through his old zine articles is a Friday afternoon wasted.

There's nothing there - not a name, not a physical description, not even a hint to where in the Tri-State area he might've resided in. At times, they can even get personal. Still, it's more of a 'today I'll tell you why gothic metal doesn't actually exist' type thing rather than anything you could associate with him at first glance. The interest correlations are obvious, that's certain. Despite that, it doesn't seem nearly enough for someone to recognize him for it. Are black hair dye and ankh pendants that scarce of a styling choice in the New York Metropolitan Area? Who are goth nights at 'The Crowbar' for, anyway? How could Gerard possibly be the only candidate for the part? In Iero's eyes, at that. A guy seemingly deep in the scene. Things just don't add up.

It's an understatement to say he's been on edge over this lately. There's just no way, no way Iero could've simply read a few of those articles and linked them to the fresh face among his senior class. Fresh corpse face? Whatever. What seems even worse but wouldn't if he'd tried being rational about this, is that it truly doesn't make sense that Iero was stalking him, either. In order to do that to someone, you ought to at least know them. Right? And the last issue of the zine was sent out sometime in February this year, before he's moved town. Why does that matter? Well, because it means fucking Frank either stumbled upon an old issue on total accident and connected the dots - highly unlikely - or that he'd been following the zine for a while before he'd met Gerard at all. Option number two still wouldn't answer his question of how the hell he's realized it's him. There's also no way in hell he'd be able to assign the role to Gerard without reading at least a couple, if not all of the articles. What a mind-fuck. But one thing's clear: there's just too little possibility that he'd managed to find Gerard's old address and proceeded to trace his letters that far back. A mailman has been freaked out in the process of finding this out. If anything, now he can say he's checked.