The unholy union of a high school AU and a ghost story. Gerard's life takes a strange turn when his family moves to a small town in Vermont and he discovers the locals aren't all what they seem to be. Also includes: unexpected nature walks, murder, pining, improper treatment of crime scenes, a number of bone-related puns, high school bullies, and a short-range shrub named Ferdinand.

Frank Iero, 17 years old, gets injuries randomly, out of the blue. He doesn't do them to himself and no one does them to him, that he knows of. He doesn't know why it happens, how it happens, and who or what is doing it to him. After a bad accident he's determined to find out what is happening, but is quite surprised by the source of his wounds.

It's the lake in November, and the move closer to the ocean, and Gerard's fixation, and Gerard's compulsions like tidal waves dragging him down, and Mikey's more distant than ever: like they're drifting out into the middle of the ocean, whereas Gerard's just stuck there: water turning to quicksand around him, drowning. And it's the letter; Frank finds it on the floor of the boys' bathroom on the first floor. It's dropped in accident, perhaps from a pocket or something, and it's drenched in what Frank hopes is tap water, and the words: scrawled in blue ink are difficult to make out as the words join together in a fuzzy inky mess. The only paragraph legible is the final one, and even still, it barely is: 'I've been underwater for a long time now, but I'm not drowning, I'm beginning to think I can breathe like this, but I can't, I'm gasping for breath, and I have to do this, Mikey, I have to end this myself. I'm going to the lake on the 1st of November, don't wait for me... I'm not coming back.' And the name signed at the bottom is little more than a smudged mess of blue ink, and there's nothing Frank can do about it, but he knows for certain that the one thing he can't do is ignore this letter, and he reminds himself of that as he folds it into his pocket. It's a suicide note, Frank's stupid, but not stupid enough to brush over that fact, and whoever this person is, Frank knows that they most certainly don't deserve to die. And Frank isn't going to let them. Because he's going to find this person; he's got time now at least, and he can save them, he will save them - Frank promises himself that. But one person in a whole school, it's like a needle in a haystack, but he's got time, it's November 1st in thirty days, and he can only hope that it will be enough. He's got one month: the date is October 1st.

Donna and Donald went through a long and horrible divorce, leaving their Children; Gerard and Mikey to pick between parents. Gerard stayed with mom and Mikey went with dad. After about a year, Donna gets a new boyfriend and they get married, leaving Gerard with a new step-brother, much to his despise. But then, Donna gets a horrible phone call one night from the police saying that Frank (Frank's dad) was in an accident and unfortunately didn't make it. She went under extreme depression leaving the two boys with a mother (or step-mother) that was somewhat unstable. So with a mother who was always crying and wallowing in self-pity, will the two boys actually suck it up and talk to each other when there is no one else? And maybe they get too friendly with each other...

"He thinks I have stigmata," Frank said, because what the fucking hell, it couldn't get any worse. He might as well just lay it out. "Oh, well," said Brian into his hands. "Of course." ~ I did not write this story. All credit goes to the author, Bexless on Archive Of Our Own. Link to the original story: http://archiveofourown.org/series/9795