Chapter Text
Heavy.
He felt so heavy. But all at once like he was floating on thin ice. Thick as a sinking ship drowning to the depths but hollow like a bird’s bones. His insides were air all wrapped in metal sheets. Suffocating from the weight of his own body. This was dying he realized. This is what it felt like. Floating and falling all at once. Waiting, just waiting for some kind of impact to wake you up or knock you out.
Gerard blinked his eyes open, feeling as though they were practically stitched shut. Everything was sore and aching and he couldn’t remember how he got here. Or really where “here” was. He sat up some with a loud groan, rubbing at his head. He tried to gurgle out a strained “the fuck?” but found his throat was swollen and dry. The words coming out as a choked grunt.
He cracked his neck back and forth, the bones popping and he slowly stood, feeling each joint twitch and creak back into place. Gerard looked around, palming at his eyes. He was in a room, he realized. Pale, cream colored walls, a scatter of chairs and couches. Side tables and a desk at the end, with no one there. It looked like the waiting room to a doctors office. Gerard shuttered. He always hated waiting rooms.
“You gonna stand there all day like a baby lamb, sweetheart or are we gonna get this show on the road?”
Gerard jumped, with a squeal, loud and girlish that loosened the thick dust coating his throat. “What the fu- what the hell!” He exclaimed turning around. But when he whipped the other way there was no one else there. Only him still standing alone in the room. “Great.” He muttered, running a hand through dark hair. “I’m fuckin’ hearing voices now.”
Suddenly he felt a hand clamp on his shoulder, ice shooting down his spine. Someone pressed up against him, their cold breath against his ear. “Hearing voices is one of the many signs of insanity, you know?”
He moved like he’d been electrocuted, shooting back from the person and turning to shove them away. His hands made contact with someone’s chest but they didn’t budge. Gerard looked down only to be faced with messy hair, bright hazel eyes and the biggest, stupidest grin he’d ever seen. He paused before dropping his hands. Typically his heart would be beating madly inside his chest but right now he couldn’t feel a thing.
“Sorry about that.” The person said, his grin fading into a sheepish smile. “Sometimes you gotta get that blood pumpin’ again one way or another. So to speak.”
Gerard opened and closed his mouth, probably mimicking a fish out of water. He was at a complete and total loss of words, trying to think of the right thing to say, ask or hell just anything. Any sentence. He however settled on a simple yet straight to the point “what the fuck is going on?”
The guy in front of him smiled wide, all teeth. “You’re dead!” He shouted throwing his arms in the air. He said it in the same tone someone would yell happy birthday to another person and Gerard could only stare confused.
“Excuse me?” He asked, shaking his head. He knew something felt off but no surely he couldn’t be dead. He thought he had pulled himself out of that.
“Dead, deceased, kicked the bucket, pushin’ daisy’s, taking the long nap, entered the void, said goodnight to the moon one final time-”
“I know what dead means!” Gerard cut him off, rubbing at his forehead frustrated. “But I can’t be dead I’m- I- well just look at me do I look dead to you?”
The man tapped his chin, head tilted to the side as he seemed to consider this. “Yes. Absolutely.” He finally settled on. Gerard let out a frustrated cry before sinking to the floor. He ran it over in his mind. Dead. Dead. Dead. He was dead. He drew his knees up to his chest burying his face in his arms. He didn’t cry or complain, just sat there quietly. Willing this entire thing to just end.
Suddenly he heard the guy cough into his hand and Gerard looked up at him with a glare. “So uh, I know you’re probably like adjusting to the whole “yep I’m dead as a doornail” thing but I’m sort of on a tight schedule and I-”
“Tight schedule?” Gerard asked, “What do you mean? And who the hell are you?” He realized just then that he had no clue who this guy was. Just showing up out of nowhere in an empty waiting room, proclaiming him dead.
“Oh right! Sorry forgot to introduce myself.” He shoved his hands in the pockets of his hoodie rocking on his heels. “I’m Frank. Your grim reaper. I’m going to be your guide into the afterlife!” He brought one hand out giving Gerard a thumbs up, the ridiculous grin still stretched across his face.
Gerard stood up, crossing his arms over his chest. “Wait so you killed me?” He snapped accusingly. “And what kind of gatekeeper of death wears jeans and a-” he glanced down to Frank’s jacket “a fucking Misfits hoodie. There’s no way you’re the grim reaper.” The words alone sounded ludacris coming out of his mouth.
Frank huffed, clearly annoyed. “First of all I didn’t kill you, idiot. That was your own stupid mortal doing. And second if I wasn’t a grim reaper could I do THIS!” He shoved his hand in Gerard’s face who only drew back a bit before glancing up to Frank with a deadpan expression.
“Uhm-”
“Whoops sorry wrong hand- THIS!” He pocketed his hand before grabbing Gerard’s face with the other one. Gerard rocketed back as soon as the bone made contact with his skin. He let out a yell swatting away Frank’s skeletal hand. Frank cackled mischievously as he waved his fleshless fingers at Gerard, the bones popping in response.
“What the fuck happened to your hand?” Gerard asked, horrified.
Frank shrugged as he laced his fingers together cracking them. “Happens the more souls you take into the afterlife. See I’m still kinda new at this so I’ve got most of my mortal body left.” He pulled his sleeve up to reveal that his right arm, up to his elbow, was completely skeletal. The rest twisting and fading into tanned flesh.
“So I’m dead.” Gerard began as he tried to collect all the information together. “And my grim reaper is some punk named Frank?
“God you’re a sassy one. So full of vinegar.” Frank retorted. “You know most people just sit and cry for a little bit then haul their ass up and follow me down that yellow brick road into...salvation?” He questioned as he looked Gerard up and down. “Maybe damnation. I don’t really decide that.”
Gerard snapped his head up. “Wait so you mean I could end up going to hell?!” He took a few more steps away from Frank, backing into a chair. Gerard could feel wave after wave of panic bubbling up in his throat, his breath coming out in short, strangled gasps. He never considered himself a believer of much of anything but that all changed the moment Frank showed up. Now it felt all too real. All those stories of hell, all the different variations of endless torture. “No way. No way am I going.”
“Calm down, dude.” Frank said, his voice strained but trying desperately to sound put together. “Look you seem like an okay guy. It’s only the real nasty bastards that get the pit. Turns out God’s pretty chill about a lot of things.”
“But I don’t even believe in God!” Gerard cried as he started pacing back and forth. “I mean I didn’t when I was alive-” shit that sounded weird to say. “But now I don’t- I don’t know.”
“Hey if it makes you feel any better I didn’t either and now look at me.” Frank said pointing at himself and smiling.
“That definitely does not make me feel better.” Gerard replied back flatly. He sighed and finally stopped pacing long enough to look around him. They were still in the same, plain waiting room. “So what is this place? Purgatory?” He asked, looking back to Frank.
Frank who only nodded some, glancing around the room as well. “Kind of. Well this is your purgatory anyway. Everyone conjures up something different. I’ve shown up in a field, a bar, one time it was in this, like, Western reenactment place. That was pretty cool.” Frank seemed to smile fondly at the memory.
Gerard looked over to Frank in disbelief. He couldn’t believe this was really his grim reaper. The one who was supposed to be his mystical, all-knowing caretaker that guided his soul into the great beyond. Some young kid in band merch with a bad hair cut.
“So, I mean, what would happen if I didn’t go then. Just stayed here.” Gerard shrugged. And really what was stopping him from leaving? Would Frank somehow manage to throw him over his shoulder and force him into the “great big shining light”?
“Oh.” Frank’s eyes widened as he shook his head slowly. “You don’t wanna do that. You’ll go insane. Your soul will rot until its nothing but a wrathful spirit cursed to walk purgatory for all eternity.
Gerard pursed his lips. “Ah, well. That doesn’t sound exactly pleasant.” Frank nodded in agreement and the two fell into silence. He didn’t know what to do. Frank made it seem like it was no big deal. Go with him, get to the afterlife, call it a day? But Gerard had so many questions, worries, fears. Surely he wasn’t the only one who was concerned about this shit. “Can’t I just like- can’t I just think this over? You can go reap some more souls and come check in later or something?”
Frank sighed and scratched the back of his head. “No can do.” He said a little sadly. “Once you make contact it’s sort of against the rules to leave a soul unattended.”
“Who knew the after life had so many fucking rules.” Gerard grumbled, clearly annoyed.
“Well that’s really only the main one. Everything else is a bunch of unspoken rules.” Frank said, flicking a strand of hair away from his face. And then Gerard had a thought. A little bit crazy if he had to say but maybe it could work.
“So you can’t leave a soul unattended, right?” He asked, stepping closer to Frank.
“Right.” Frank replied, narrowing his gaze curiously towards Gerard.
“Well then how bout this. You give me some time to think this over and I’ll just...hang out with you.” He shrugged his shoulders as though he were asking Frank to hang out at the mall or something rather than wander around with a grim reaper through purgatory. “You can carry on with all your...afterlife bullshit duties and you won’t even notice I’m there.”
“I don’t know…” Frank trailed off, shifting nervously on his feet.
“Are there rules against that?” Gerard asked.
“Well no but-”
“So what’s the problem!” Gerard grinned. He was literally cheating death right now and he had to say it felt pretty great. “God gonna strike you down with a lightning bolt if you disobey?”
“Please,” Frank rolled his eyes. “That dudes not my boss. I just make the deliveries to him.” He sighed as Gerard stared expectantly. Frank finally gave a loud groan, giving in. “Alright, alright fine. You can come. Only cause I like you. But you gotta like...be on your best behavior and shit. Don’t say anything.”
“Definitely. You got it.” Gerard nodded. Frank held out his hand, the one that still had flesh attached.
“Ready to go then? I got an appointment with some kid who just got himself killed trying to show off to his friends. Something tells me he’s not gonna be too happy.” He grumbled some at the thought but Gerard just took his hand, fingers lacing together.
“After you.” He said, motioning towards the only door in the room. Frank grinned as the door in front of them began to glow softly. He reached for the door knob, pulling it open. The light that radiated in front of them was warm and gentle, seeming to reach out to Gerard. The two looked at each other, Frank with a half grin on his face and Gerard smiling lightly before they turned back and stepped into the light.