So Long, Not Goodnight

Chapter Forty-Three

The ground sounded like it was sucking at the soles of Frank's shoes as he made his way to the porch steps, trying to slurp him into the sea beneath the lawn and whatever lie beneath. As he slowly made his way to the railing, he made sure to peek over his shoulder at the empty forest a stone's throw away. The bottom of his sneakers had an entire layer of brown and mossy green muck, the rest of the canvas sopping wet releasing puddles as he put his weight into his steps, the sodden wood slick beneath him as if he was skidding over an ice rink instead of walking up porch planks. Helena watched as he made his way carefully up towards the door, not breaking eye contact even as he huddled over to tear each shoe and sock off his feet before Helena moved Gerard's body aside granting him entrance. He hid his shivers as he shook some of the rain from his body inside the den as Helena slid the porch door closed, latching the lock and checking to be sure it held. "Where is Gee?" Frank spat through gritted teeth, feeling a new anger towards the entity that he wasn't sure was as pure and innocent as he initially thought. 

"He's sleeping," Helena tapped the side of Gerard's forehead. "It's just you and I, Frankie."

"What the fuck was that?" Frank's arm sprung out at his side, gesturing outside. 

"I don't quite know... Not really..." Helena looked out at the storm outside. 

"Well you better get to remembering!" Frank slicked his hair back with both hands, eyes aflame.

"I do remember that it was always so close in purgatory... Those eyes... Watching me..." Helena shook Gerard's head. "But not here... I was safe here... But now..."

"Stop!" Frank shouted. "He is safe here. This," Frank opened his arms wide at their surroundings. "This is safe! I made sure of it..."

As he looked into her eyes, it all became so clear as it should have been from the start. Especially after all day without any issues until they came back home. He remembered explaining to Gerard the significance of salting the barrier and blessing every room to keep anything that meant them harm from entering. Ever since she became trapped in Gerard, it was making him sick just being here because she meant him harm. "You," Frank stalked over towards Helena. "You told me that you never wanted to harm him. That you were thankful for him. You LIED!"

The reminiscent thought of Gerard's story, his nightmare of Helena telling him that he had lied... When she was the one that was lying all along. "You lied!" Frank snarled, his nose scrunched in disgust. 

Helena twitched at his words that wounded her like bullets. "I... I..." She sputtered. "I didn't mean to... I can't help it... I don't want to!" 

"Why should I fucking believe you?" Frank was almost in her face as she backed away and found herself stuck between Frank and the wall of the den and the kitchen. 

"He makes me," Helena's voice lurched. "He... Controls me."

"Who does?" Frank scours over her face for hidden clues in her quivers and shivers.

"He stole something from me and is," Helena closes her eyes, Gerard's shoulders slumping against the drywall. "Using it to do things. I can't stop them. As long as he has it, I can't leave and he can conjure me into doing whatever he wants."

"I don't know what happened, it was like I didn't have any control." The words rang out to him from when Gerard had almost died from cutting his throat open in the chapel. The frustration as Gerard had searched through every crevice of his mind to try to find some speck of remembrance of what he did to find absolutely nothing. Gerard's neck still had a pale scar from his skin stitching him back together, Frank watched his Adam's apple flutter under it as though it was playing jump rope. Helena's eyes drifted backwards, jamming Gerard's head against the wall with a heavy thud, as his body slid to the floor. "Helena!" Frank fell to his knees, holding Gerard's jaw in his hand and thrusting it upwards but there was no color in those eyes; not Helena's, not Gerard's, just a whiteout as black slithered from the corners and washed up from his tear ducts. "Helena! What the fuck is going on?!"