Unholyverse

~Part 21~

The next day blew. Mikey was so mad at Frank for saying that he was going to quit on them, for not coming to Mikey first, that he couldn't even begin to feel sorry about what had happened with him and Gerard last night. Plus he wasn't even supposed to have heard any of it in the first place, and he felt so guilty it was like a thing coating of dirt all over his skin. Frank kept looking at him like Mikey was the one breaking his heart, which made Mikey mad at Gerard, except then he'd look at Gerard's face and the deep, sleepless hollows under his eyes and then he'd feel guilt wash through him again, so strong it drowned everything out, until he'd remember what Frank said about going home, and then he was mad all over again.

The only time he felt better was when he caught Ray's eyes. It was so weird how things could just change overnight, Mikey thought. Here was this guy who'd gone from being Ray to being Ray, and every time he caught Ray looking at him he had to look away really fast so he wouldn't smile and give himself away. Of course then he'd look back at Frank or Gerard and be plunged back into a whirlpool of gross confusion again. Mikey really didn't deal well with multiple emotions. It made him so uneasy that he wouldn't be surprised if his skin just peeled itself off his body and went crawling off across the floor to get away from the atmosphere in the house. And on top of everything, every time there was a noise outside they all jumped, thinking it might be whoever had been pulling Mark's strings.

"I'm so worried about them," Gerard said in the afternoon, when Mikey was making coffee in the kitchen and trying not to think about Gerard and Frank yelling at each other in there the night before. "The kids, I mean. Who knows what's happening to them?"

Mikey added sugar to the mugs and stirred. "I guess there's not much we can do until necromancer guy makes a move, huh?"

"I wish he'd just get it over with," Bob said grumpily. He was sitting at the kitchen table cleaning his axe and trying not to get in the way of Ray's herbs. "This waiting is such bullshit."

"I'm with you," Ray agreed, measuring something out into a dish. "But the longer he waits, the longer we have to prepare."

Bob made a face. "It's not preparation if we don't know what the hell we're preparing for. It's just sitting on our asses."

Brian came in, folding his phone up. He said, "All right, they're sending cars for us in an hour. Does anyone know where Frank is?"

"I think he's napping," Mikey said quickly, but then Frank appeared behind Brian in the doorway. "Or he's awake."

Brian gave Frank one of those looks that made it obvious he was worried, but didn't want to give anybody an excuse to start yelling at anyone else. "Frankie, you're coming to the show, right?"

Frank nodded and moved wordlessly into the kitchen, cutting a wide berth past Gerard on his way to the coffee.

"I think I'm going to skip it," Gerard said suddenly, looking determinedly down at his mug. "I have a lot of reading to do anyway."

Brian frowned. "Are you sure? What if something goes down?"

Gerard waved his hand. "You can call me. Look, like Bob says, we don't know what we're up against at all, and someone needs to keep hitting the books. I actually think Pete is probably safe for now. We don't want to be caught out."

"Well, okay," Brian said doubtfully. He didn't look at all convinced, but you couldn't argue with Gerard when he'd made up his mind about something, no matter how stupid that something was.

The show that night was way bigger than any of the others had been. "This place is huge," Ray said in Mikey's ear as they peered out from the side of the stage. His hand rested on the small of Mikey's back, and Mikey pushed into it a little. "Ten thousand kids is a fucking lot, dude."