Bloodstained Bathtubs and an Absence of Death (Frerard)

14 - Time For A New Victim

When Frank and I returned back home, he went straight to bed. After all the chaos he had gone through I didn't expect him to do much more than that for a while. I was glad about it though. With him occupied with sleeping, I could have some time to myself to think. Which, for some reason, I wanted to do a lot of lately.

I really didn't think this was how things would play out. Not even an hour ago, I had given up all hope. I loved Frank so much at this point that I was willing to get arrested and possibly killed if that's what he wanted. I was a murderer after all. I probably deserved it. Yet, here we were. If Frank was still willing to be with me now, then surely I wasn't as bad as I thought I was.

And you'd think after confronting Frank and explaining everything to him, I'd feel much better. After all, things were resolved. Yet somehow, things were starting to feel off. I felt dissatisfied.

The whole situation we were in reminded me of torturing and killing a victim honestly... but I never got to the killing part. At this point, I obviously didn't want to kill Frank. But I certainly wanted to kill someone. When I had murdered Bob, I had felt so alive. Sadly though, it was brief, and not in my preferred environment. I wanted more... How I'd love to just sneak into someone's home and trap them in there with me, chasing them around to dead ends and making them truly fear their life.

Nothing was stopping me now. I was back in the game. But the only question was, who? Who was my next victim?

Suddenly, Mikey walked into the living room where I was sat in deep thought. I smirked. Maybe the answer to my question stood right before me.

At first, he shot me a dirty look in response to my stare. He must've still been mad about our fight. However, after a moment, his expression faded, and he seemed to calm down.

"I was wondering where you were," he said, hanging his head. "I needed to apologize about the other night. I overreacted a bit. What happened to me and Ray at the party wasn't your fault. It just so happened him and I were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Besides, I'm not your responsibility."

Oh, but I'll be responsible for your death before long...

"I'm sorry," he concluded, before reaching down and wrapping his arms around me. I tensed up for a moment as he hugged me, but soon, I put my arms around him as well. Damn it, why did he have to be such a good brother?

"Do you maybe want to go out to lunch? Preferably without Frank and Ray? I feel like we need to spend some time together. We've both been kind of distant".

I raised an eyebrow at him. The fact that he was asking me this was slightly concerning. He used to ask to do things with me all of the time. He always wanted us to take part in some "brotherly bonding", but I had always declined. Eventually, he had given up with asking at all. Except for now, apparently.

I sighed, "Okay".

I could tell Mikey was surprised by my answer, but he didn't ask any questions, most likely out of the fear that I'd change my mind.

So, Mikey ended up taking us to a soup and sandwich shop close by. After getting our food, we sat quietly across from each other for a while. I guess neither of us knew what to say. I didn't mind though. The less talking, the better.

Eventually though, Mikey spoke up- thankfully about something interesting, "So, how are things going between you and Frank? It seems like you guys have been spending a lot of time out together".

I tried not to break a sweat at the possibility that Mikey happened to be awake at the ungodly hour of night that I had trapped Frank in my car and put him in a chokehold until he passed out. Surely he would've looked more concerned if he had actually seen the whole event go down, but thankfully, he only continued sipping at his soup.