He Who Doesn't Believe Is Aggrieved ☆ FRERARD

Chapter 5

It was a miracle that Gerard was able to go back to sleep that night. But what they encountered at sunrise certainly made him want to stay asleep. 

When Gerard opened his eyes, he saw Benedict Wilson right in front of his face, and his first instinct was to punch it. The good thing was that it was only a framed photograph, but the bad thing was that Frank's face was right behind it. 

"Ow, dude, what the fuck?" Frank groaned, throwing his head back and pushing the photo frame away. "What was that for?" 

Gerard rubbed his eyes, ignoring Frank's annoyed rambles, and stepped out of bed. He swallowed nervously, taking in every inch of their bedroom in fear and confusion. All the photographs in the cardboard box he'd found previously had been laid out all over the room. He couldn't take a step without tripping over one and landing on another two. 

"Did you do this?" He asked, quickly turning to stare at Iero who had the blanket pulled over his face to block out the sunlight from his tired eyes. 

"Do what?" he grumbled, almost incoherently. "Deserve to be punched by you? No, I don't think I did." 

"I didn't mean to. I'm sure you'd do the same." Gerard couldn't help but stare at the photos scattered on the floor like mouse-traps. 

"You're sure I'd punch myself? Maybe you should go back to bed…" Frank yawned and curled into a ball, gathering the sheets around his body like a cocoon.

"Dude, look!" Gerard attempted again to get Frank's attention, spreading his arms to gesture to the photos everywhere. 

Frank grumbled again but didn't listen to Gerard. 

Gerard hopped over the photos and pulled the sheets off of Frank. "Look!" he demanded. 

Frank groaned and rubbed his eyes. "Fine," he gave in. Once his eyes cracked open, he saw the photos. "You really like these photos, huh?" He looked back at Gerard briefly then buried himself in the sheets again. 

"I didn't put these here!" Gerard groaned, "Frank, there's something really weird going on and I don't understand it." He began nibbling at his nails, nervously looking around him. 

"Sure, you did. Maybe you did them when you were sleepwalking last night," Frank suggested, finally starting to pay a little more attention to him. 

"I-I wasn't sleepwalking. I remember everything." Gerard stared at Frank with a blank expression. 

"Well, you weren't making any sense. You started going on about our neighbours or something, I think. I can't really remember." Frank shrugged. 

"No, that was you. I was talking about your doppelganger." Gerard raised his eyebrows. He couldn't really blame Frank for his misrememberance since it was pretty unbelievable and nobody really remembers things well when they're woken up abruptly. 

Frank shook his head and pressed his lips together as if to say he didn't understand. 

Gerard sighed. "Well, can you help me clean up this mess? I don't want photos of these ancient fucks lying around like they still own the place." 

"Oh, yeah," Frank agreed, getting out of bed and starting to collect the photos. 

Gerard did the same. "Do you think this place is haunted?" he finally asked since the question had been lingering in his mind for far too long. 

"Seriously?" Frank looked at Gerard. "Ghosts simply just don't exist. Sure, lots of weird things have been happening and you've been seeing things, but there's a logical explanation to everything. If I can't see it, it's not real. At least that's what I believe." He placed a handful of photos back into the box. 

"I see..." Gerard thought about Frank's words. He had a point. You couldn't really prove that something existed if you hadn't seen it. But if that Frank double was actually a ghost, then they were real. Although, there were many factors that could act as an explanation for it. He was tired, just had a nightmare, felt weird, etc. Maybe he imagined the whole thing during some anxiety-induced panicked frenzy from the aftermath of his nightmare. He couldn't say for sure whether it was really a ghost, but he did know that it terrified him deeply. 

"What about you?" Frank returned the question after wondering why Gerard's response was so short. 

"Oh...uh, I don't know. It does seem bizarre but, I don't know, maybe they are real." Gerard shrugged, collecting the last of the photos and placing them back in the box. 

"Yeah, I can see where you're coming from. Just try not to think about it too much, okay? You seem more anxious than usual," Frank noticed, making the bed. 

"I won't. Thank you." Gerard found himself nibbling at his lip. "Let's do something fun today. Y'know, to calm us down." 

"Good idea. We can go to the movies," Frank suggested, his face brightening. 

Gerard grinned wide. "Yes, and then we can go to Barnes and Noble. I'd love to get a new comic." 

Frank swallowed. "Uh, sure, yeah, you can get a comic. I-I'll just get a novel." 

He didn't really like comics.