Finding a Way | Adopted by Gerard Way

Reality or Nightmare

Quick A/N: I wanted to title this one 'Awake or Asleep, Reality or Nightmare? It's All The Same Shit When It's 2AM' but that was too long...

Gerard's POV

I'm too worried about Evelyn to sleep. She's completely refusing to come out of her room, and ignoring my attempts at communicating with her.

She wouldn't even pick up her phone.

Obviously, I've never been in her shoes. I've lost someone before, so I understand that pain. What I mean is, she spent two years with those people. They weren't really her family, but they were the closest thing to a family she'd ever had at that point. And now they're gone. All of them.

I still can't shake off the feeling that there's something else going on, though. Something that she's not telling me and this hell of a situation is only making it worse.

The thought of her ever feeling afraid or incapable of confiding in me for any reason kills me, but I can't say I don't understand. What teenager wants to tell their parents every little thing? I didn't.

It must be two in the morning, early on Monday, when I hear her scream. I don't realize what it is at first, but at the second scream I'm up and rushing to her room, not even thinking to knock.

In the faint moonlight, I can see tears are streaming down her face, but she's asleep. She has her blanket in a death grip at her sides and she's shaking her head wildly. "NO!" She shrieks.

I run over to her and shake her shoulder to try and get her to wake up. "Evelyn? Wake up."

She lets out another ear piercing scream, crying harder now, "Gerard?!"

"I'm here, Darling. Come on, wake up."

"D-DAD?! N-NO!" The pain in her voice doubled at that last word, which is the exact moment she bolts upright, finally awake. She looks around frantically for a second, even staring at her hands as though to make sure she's real, before her bloodshot eyes finally land on me. I watch as she breaks down into a fit of heart wrenching sobs, worse than when she was still asleep.

"It was just a dream, Eve. You're okay," I say while pulling her into my arms.

"I- I thought... I thought you were—" She can't finish her sentence.

"It was just a dream," I repeat myself, wrapping my arms around her small body even more tightly.

"But- but it was so... it was so real."

"Shhh, Evie. It wasn't real, you were asleep. I'm here, you're okay now."

She stops trying to talk, but still cries into my chest. The sobs die down eventually. She must be exhausted by the time she takes a deep breath and speaks again, her voice small and hoarse. "You were dead."

I suck in a breath. "I'm okay, Eve. It wasn't real."

"But it felt so real," she says shakily. "We were in a car and then... and then... I don't know, everything went black. I just heard glass breaking and then my ears were ringing. W-when I could see again you- you were..." She trails off then, but I can guess what she was going to say.

"I'm here now, I'm okay. We're both okay. It was just a dream, remember?"

"A nightmare," she mumbles.

"Yeah," I say under my breath, "A nightmare."

Evelyn's POV

Everything, every part of that nightmare, was so vivid I could've sworn it was really happening. The dashboard felt solid beneath my feet where they were propped up, the music blasting from the car speakers was clear (the song that was playing was Sugar, We're Goin Down by Fall Out Boy), even the sun shining in my eyes was blinding until my dream-self put the visor down.