Of Vampires And Rock Stars (Ch 20)

Aug 01, 2008 23:29

Title: Of Vampires And Rock Stars (Ch 20)
Author: seraph05
Rating: PG-13
Fandom: Largely Fall Out Boy with My Chemical Romance and appearances from The Academy Is…’s William Beckett, Gym Class Heroes’ Travis and Panic! At The Disco’s Brendon & Ryan.
Warnings: Light Swearing
Pairing: Patrick/Pete, Brendon/Ryan, Frank/Gerard
Disclaimer: Despite using the names of some off the men I adore and respect most on the planet I do not own them, this is not for profit just for enjoyment.
Summary: “Pete, what’s wrong?” Patrick said, keeping his voice warm despite the alarm inching up his spine.

Chapter 1 - Just Another Night…
Chapter 2 - No Rest For The Broken The Beaten Or The Damned
Chapter 3 - Being A Living Sacrifice Is Better than Living a Lie
Chapter 4 - The Unraveling
Chapter 5 - The Ghost Of You Will Always Haunt Me
Chapter 6 - Anagnorisis
Chapter 7 - The Best Laid Plans…
Chapter 8 - The Ivory Tower
Chapter 9 - The Joker And The Thief In The Night
Chapter 10 - Home Is Where The Heart Is
Chapter 11 - Chaotic Souls And Dancing Stars
Chapter 12 - So Kiss Me Goodbye, Honey I’m Gonna Make It Out Alive
Chapter 13 - Calm Before The Storm
Chapter 14 - Release The Bats
Chapter 15 - The Music Or The Misery
Chapter 16 - Take This To Your Grave And I’ll Take You To Mine
Chapter 17 - It’s Almost Here
Chapter 18 - Dead.On.Arrival
Chapter 19 - Goodbyes To Paralyse



Chapter 20 - Saturday

Patrick felt the soft weight of his doona resting on him as he rose to consciousness. The next sensation was light on the lids of his eyes and he turned away from it with a groan. His palm felt the fabric of the mattress beneath him. He waited as his brain reluctantly began clunking to life through the drowsiness. He reached for his glasses and put them on, squinting around the room. Patrick glanced over his shoulder towards the light with a confused frown.

“Ah, lamp,” he murmured at the object on his bedside table beaming down on him “must’ve left it…on,” he reached over, turning it off with a click and lay back down. As Patrick took off his glasses, he noticed something in the hall. There was a dim glow colouring the hall, unlike lamps or the overhead lights. Patrick blinked, trying to think what it might be. Eventually, curiosity got the better of him and, shoving his glasses back on, he got out of bed. He grabbed a hoodie off the back of his desk chair, then ventured out. Patrick’s feet made the old wooden boards creak as he headed down towards the half destroyed gym and front room. The vampire hunting senses he’d developed over the years began to pump adrenaline through his body. When Patrick reached the door of the gym, he peered in, eyes watering and squinting. Light was beaming through the huge gaping holes that had been made by the furious battle and only then Patrick realized it was day. It was beautiful the way the gold touched the floor, splashing shadows and picking up the flecks of auburn in the wooden boards.

Patrick took a few steps closer and leant against the doorframe crossing his arms. He looked over the space in all its new glory and let his eyes adjust. Half of the room was still nearly completely in darkness though Patrick wondered if the vampires of their motley crew would ever be able to sleep there again. From the length of the shadows and the hue of the light, Patrick could tell it was late in the day and he wondered if it had only been a few hours since he’d been asleep. Despite the dimness of the light, the rarity of viewing such an event made it harder to look at. With a yawn and a stretch he decided to return to bed, knowing everyone else wouldn’t be up for hours yet. As he spun round to retrace his steps down the hall, something caught his eye. There was a black blur in the front room through which light was also trailing. Cautiously, Patrick approached the door but by the time he was within a few paces of it a voice made him jump.

“It’s just me.”

Pete was standing, inches short of the light coming through the broken windows of the front room. He seemed to be tentatively watching the garden, though there was nothing much in the way of flora especially after the battle.

“Jeez man!” Patrick sighed heavily, entering “You gave me a heart attack!”

He looked over his shoulder, wide rimmed dark glasses covering his eyes.

“Are those Gerard’s?” Patrick asked, quirking an eyebrow as he sat down on one of the couches nearby.

“Yeah, I nicked ‘em” Pete replied with a wicked grin “I can’t look at the sun without them but…with them I can look at it and be near it, neat huh?”

“It’s surprising what a lick of Way vampire blood’ll do.” Patrick said with a nod.

“More like a litre.” Pete commented thoughtfully, looking back to the garden “It’s just like I remember.”

“Day?” Patrick asked, knowing the answer.

“Yeah” Pete answered, giving Patrick an unusually straightforward reply, tone slightly in awe. They sat for a while just enjoying the fresh breeze; there was a strange air of peace in the room, the pair regarding something missing for too long in their lives; a simple summers afternoon. The rubble barely fazed them.

“It’s Sunday, you know. I can’t believe you slept for like, two days.” Pete said with mocking tones, enjoying the look of surprise on his best friends face.

“No! Really?” Patrick said, looking around as though there might be a clock or calendar to confirm this. After a moment or two, Patrick decided to believe Pete adding “well…you know me, I can sleep anywhere.”

Pete leaned forward inspecting Patrick’s face.

“You look like shit.”

Patrick gave Pete the finger and a pleasant smile.

“Come on Tricky, lets have some coffee,” Pete suggested grabbing Patrick’s hands, the hand that he was being flipped off with first, and pulled him to his feet.

“Wow coffee, I’d almost forgotten it existed.” Patrick said forgetting the previous comment as he followed Pete across the corridor and into the gym.

“Blasphemy!” Pete exclaimed, pausing only to point disapprovingly in Patrick’s face, then moved on to the kitchen table.

“I was a little caught up in apocalyptic battles and dying best friends to remember the existence of coffee,” Patrick snapped back, plonking himself onto one of the seats around the breakfast table while Pete began the ritual.

“That’s no excuse, coffee is forever. Coffee, diamonds and rock.” Pete explained, pouring powdered beans into the machine.

“Freddie Mercury would be proud to hear you say that.” Patrick replied.

“Him and the glam rockers.” Pete agreed with a snigger, watching the crème’ seep into his cup.

“So it’s Sunday, huh? I must have missed so much. What happened on Saturday? Did anyone find Eric and Matt?” Patrick asked, “I fell asleep before Disashi came back from his search.”

“Yeah actually Disashi did eventually find them,” Pete said spooning sugars into their cups and stirring “When you fell out of the school and Andy was on the ground, Joe had also come under Brendon’s control. He was alone on the top floor with Matt because Gerard was on the roof. Matt told us Joe just went rigid and then turned on him. He shot Matt with a stake, pinning him to the wall and then came downstairs.” Pete handed Patrick a cup as Patrick gasped.

“Eric saw him running down the stairs when I was trying to keep you from falling. It was only after I jumped out that Eric said he got suspicious about what had happened upstairs. Once he had regained enough strength to move, he went up to check on things and found Matt staked to the wall. He was in bad shape but here’s the weird thing…” Pete said, curiosity changing his tone “He wasn’t staked in the heart, he was staked in the stomach. No doubt it was a bad wound but it wasn’t fatal.”

“Brendon could have killed him but he didn’t.” Patrick mused, sipping carefully at his hot coffee.

“Mmm” Pete hummed with a nod “It could have been that he was waiting for further orders, or keeping Matt for some later purpose, but having witnessed first hand what he was capable of I think he meant to leave him alive.”

“He seemed pretty torn during the battle.” Patrick commented.

“He might have joined us,” Pete said, his voice fractured with remorse, going quiet for a minute before continuing “Anyway, as I was saying, when Eric found Matt he was in a really bad way and since they were out of blood, Eric did what we did, he gave Matt some of his. He pulled him off the wall, took the stake out and gave him some of his blood. By the end of it they were both unable to move and remained there until Disashi found them.”

“How are they?” Patrick asked worriedly.

“They’re fine. Yesterday we all went hunting, the strongest of us heading the way. Gerard, Travis and me rounded up the first few victims until Matt and Eric were good to hunt on their own. We killed no one. Our first was actually a cow in a paddock not far from here, just to give those two enough juice to keep up.” Pete replied with a titter.

“So you’re not a vegetarian vampire anymore?” Patrick questioned, eyebrows raised. Pete put his hand over his heart, stifling a look of shock and managed to wrestle it into some from of seriousness.

“I, Pete Wentz, do solemnly swear to go back to drinking the lovely tomato red blend that keeps me fit, healthy and sin-free.” Pete recited as if he’d practiced it “Good?”

Patrick knew it had been a necessity; every vampire in Ivory Tower had needed a good amount of human blood after what they’d been though. All the same he was pleased to hear Pete’s promise to return to the blend, no matter how unsatisfying he knew it must be when compared to blood.

“Good, I don’t know if it’ll keep you completely sin free though, I don’t think anything could do that, dude.” Patrick responded lightly.

“I guess it’d have to be a miracle to pull that off,” Pete laughed.

“What else happened on Saturday?” Patrick asked.

“Andrew came over.” Pete said, face lighting up; smile as bright as the sun outside.

“Aww that’s great! Where is he?” Patrick said, face quickly matching Pete’s in elation.

“He’s in Joe’s room for the moment; brought his stuff over and everything, he was so excited to see all of us, it was fantastic,” Pete beamed “I spent a lot of yesterday just catching up with him before we went hunting. He decided to stay at the house with Andy, Joe and you to get settled in and chill out.”

“Fair enough,” Patrick said, “I can’t wait to talk to him.”

“You’ll get to chat tonight; we have a lot to talk about,” Pete said, the cheer in his voice dulling.

“Oh yeah?”

“We’ve been talking a bit about Ivory Tower and whether we should stay here,” Pete said, giving the gym a look over.

“I see,” Patrick said softly.

“It’s in a wreck and none of us think we can fix it. Gerard thinks it might even be a bit unstable. All the same we agreed to wait till you woke up to make any decisions,” Pete explained, gulping down another mouthful of coffee.

“Thanks,” Patrick replied tone grateful.

“No problem.”

“We’ve been here so long…” Patrick said, melancholy evident behind his expression. Memories of all the good and bad times they’d spent in this place flared at nearly every object Patrick’s gaze gently touched. The sticky taped stereo Joe had knocked over at his birthday bash last year sent a chuckle though him. There was the bit of carpet that was singed over near the weapons desk from when he had been trialing the flamethrower. The movie posters for the handful of movies that had been screened over the past year adorned the wall near the wrestling mats, reminding Patrick of all the nights the four of them had snuck into town to watch them. The small bat skull he’d found carved into the wall next to the TV, Pete never had told him why he’d done it. The couch he’d lay in for weeks after he’d sprained his ankle badly while the others went out hunting and occasionally brought back DVD’s made him cringe. However the couch also made him smile for the days they’d fallen asleep watching monster movie marathons. He skipped over the phone all together, so much good and bad and come from that. The coffee table where he’d bet a new hat against one of Andy’s shirts in a scrabble tournament and had lost dismally - he’d become better at scrabble since then. This had been their refuge, their haven and it had protected them countless times. It had been the Clandestine’s home. In some way, it seemed poetic that it had been destroyed for the final battle, like it’s purpose had been fulfilled. All the same Patrick felt he would miss it.

“I heard you.”

Pete’s voice brought Patrick back from his wandering thoughts. He found Pete had pulled Gerard’s sunglasses up to rest on top of his head. He was staring into his mug watching the last mouthful at the bottom, pivoting it so it swirled. His dark eyes were murky with a different kind of memory than Patrick’s. He stopped twirling it.

“Huh?” Patrick asked, confused.

“I heard Andy and Joe…telling me not to go. I heard everything you said and I couldn’t do anything.” Pete replied, voice low.

Patrick wondered when they would get to this. The night had been so hard for all of them and they’d scarcely had enough energy to make it to bed, let alone reunite. Once Patrick had given Pete his blood, he’d almost gone straight to bed. Joe and he had eaten Skittles and had to settle for only that. Andy had fallen asleep before they’d even started on Pete. None of them had gotten a chance to talk to each other. It was only now that Pete had a chance to tell Patrick anything.

“I wanted to tell you that I was alright but I could only think the words you know, I…I couldn’t speak…to hear you all talking like that and not being able to do anything about it, I didn’t want you to have to go through that and…” Pete stopped pondering his next words and whether he should speak them. The last sentence hit Patrick like a bucket of cold water “I heard you scream.”

Patrick remained silent, trying not to remember the sound. He hoped he’d never make it again.

“I’m really sorry I freaked you out,” Pete’s voice was frail and filled with guilt; he understood how bitingly devastated Patrick had been.

“Oh Pete, it’s ok, it wasn’t your fault” Patrick said gently “If you could have avoided it you would have and you don’t have to apologize, it simply had to be done. All that matters is you’re alive and we defeated Beckett.”

Patrick was surprised when Pete didn’t return to ease but hunched further into grief, shaking his head. He looked like he was about to cry.

“Pete, what’s wrong?” Patrick said, keeping his voice warm despite the alarm inching up his spine.

“There’s something else,” Pete sniffed, hand travelling to comb into his black hair “Dirty’s dead.”

With those two words it felt like Patrick’s body had detached from his brain and he sat in shock unable to speak.

“Travis said that it must have happened during the battle, one of the Dandies, probably Beckett...you know...and then just left him lying there on the ground. No one saw it happen but Beckett said he would...” Pete continued, pausing as he explained, the words not coming easily “We’ve organized a funeral on Tuesday night for Ryan, Brendon and Dirty. Gerard is going to get some coffins from the Way Estate tonight”

For some reason it didn’t hit Patrick. He didn’t break down for his fallen comrade; he could barely conceive it. He and Pete sat wordless in the half light, half dark room that once was their home, Pete composing himself, Patrick remaining quite still. Though Pete was there for Patrick to let the sorrow take him, it wasn’t until he saw Dirty, Ryan and Brendon motionless in their open coffins that he spoke, wept and mourned over Dirty one of their oldest, dearest friends.

* * *

It had been a few hours since the last of the group, Pete, had gotten up and joined the rest of the household relaxing in the gym. It was like a lazy Sunday morning, a few were still in their pajamas and breakfast had been eaten slowly, mouths remembering how take a leisurely pace. The chatter had quieted, replaced by the TV and occasional blipping of a handheld game.

Andy was sitting on the couch flipping through a brand new comic he had proudly purchased at the store a few hours ago in setting sunlight. Joe sat cross-legged on the other end tuning and picking his guitar strings. Patrick sat in the comfy armchair reading the newspaper. Travis was fighting with the punching bag in the sparring area. Gerard was sitting, legs crossed, feet up on the kitchen table, contentedly sketching. Matt and Eric were lying on the carpet watching TV and Andrew was playing on his PSP. Pete was mixing up his blend for his first meal of the day.

All of a sudden a huge chunk of the wall with the large holes in it collapsed making all of them jump, profanity escaping the shocked group. They stared wildly at the wall and coughed as the plaster blew through the room.

“Awww man come on!” Travis exclaimed kicking the punching bag in one last time in frustration before joining the group in the main part of the gym.

“Fuck,” Pete gasped half slumping on to the mixing table “That scared the hell out of me!”

Everyone finished dusting themselves off and clearing their lungs before Joe spoke up.

“So.”

Everyone turned to him through the white smoky debris.

“Maybe we should talk about leaving.”

Despite the comedic circumstances the mood of the room dampened.

“Already…I mean we defeated the Dandies just a bit under two weeks ago, is there no down time?” Matt complained.

“And it’s only been a week since the funeral,” Eric said switching off the TV so the inane screaming commercial died in the air “a little respect for the dead and the grieving.”

“Yeah I think this is the first night where we’ve all been fairly together, isn’t it? Where none of us have been pissed off or upset or out visiting family and now we gotta plan a move?” Matt continued voice laced with disappointment and agitation “Can’t we just take it easy for a while?”

“Look the timing isn’t good. But lets face it, when will it ever be? We will always have things to do, things to plan and there is still the occasion vampire out there. And no matter when we leave, Dirty and the others will still be here. We can’t change that. We want to be close to them but at some point we’ll have to be practical and you guys can’t hang out with us during the day with Ivory Tower in the state it’s in,” Patrick explained “and we can’t fix that.”

“So no-one tried to be a builder before they decided Rock Star was a better vocation?” Andrew asked, staring around.

He was met with several shared glances and then a general shaking of heads.

“Not us but you know that.” Pete said, speaking for Fall Out Boy.

“Nope,” Travis shook his head “We didn’t.”

“Not me,” Gerard replied, combing some of his long black locks that had since grown out through the short white cut, behind his ear “Can you really picture me in a tool belt and overalls?”

“No I suppose not,” Andrew said sighing.

“Even if one of us was, this house is beyond repair. It was falling apart when I got here.” Gerard said.

“It was falling apart when we got here,” Pete said adding weight to Gerard’s point, “We were impressed the lights and water were still on.”

“Even if we got builders and contractors in, they’d probably just tell us it would be better to knock it down and re-build it.” Joe said pensively.

“I have had an idea though,” Gerard continued “I’ve been thinking about it for a while.”

“Yeah?” Travis asked when Gerard took and extended pause “What is it, yo?”

“I thought I might not ever want to go back to the Way Estate after what had happened there and what those Dandies have done to it,” Gerard said, twirling the pencil in his fingers “But after going there and seeing it, remembering what it was like and realizing it was mostly the same as when I left it…I thought, it’s my home you know, it belonged to my family and they loved it, I think they would want me to take it back if I could and maybe with you there, it might bring some of the life back to it.”

All around, cautious faces lit up with hope.

“Would you really be okay with that Gerard?” Joe asked.

“I mean, we’d be happy to if it’s okay by you” Andy said, looking to his friends for confirmation.

“Yeah I am,” Gerard said, voice firmer “All of you can stay for as long or shorter time as you want, it’s got heaps of room and fantastic protection from the sun.”

“Sounds awesome.” Patrick said gratefully.

“Absolutely.” Eric and Disashi agreed.

“When should we head out?” Travis asked, taking a seat on the kitchen table.

“Well we’ll have to pack everything up so what, 3 days 4 days?” Joe speculated.

“Four days sounds about right.” Pete said with a nod.

“If you all don’t mind, I think I’m gonna head up to the mansion now and check the rooms,” Gerard’s voice twisted with discomfort as he put the sketch pad Pete gave him down on the table “Make sure they’re ready for when you get there.”

Patrick prepared to protest, as he knew what horrors had been committed in the rooms of that house and the state some of them might be in. In his minds eye he could see Gerard opening a door to find a room painted not with the elegant white that it had been when he left but a dirty blood splattered red. Gerard had seen plenty of gore in his time but this was his home, one of the few places left in the world where it might hit him like it would a normal person. However Travis spoke up before Patrick could.

“I’ll come with you, man.” Travis offered simple and plain, stunning everyone in the room but Gerard, who just gave Travis an appreciative thanks. They all stared speechless while Gerard dusted the white plaster powder off his jacket, as though nothing was amiss in the end of the war between Travis and himself. In the commotion, their comrades hadn’t noticed the ease between them till now.

“You coming?” Travis added looking casually to his band mates.

“Uh yeah sure, Travi” Matt said, after he had wrestled the surprise away from his face.

“With you man, why not?” Disashi replied.

“I think I’ll stay here and help these guys pack,” Eric declined “The move’ll probably go faster that way.”

“Sure man, call if you need anything,” Travis said with a toothy grin as he jumped back to his feet “We’ll probably be back and forth grabbing some stuff anyway.”

“Alright, see you soon Travi” Pete called, holding out his fist to which Travis gave a light punch, giving the rest of the gym’s inhabitants a wink as a farewell. They all said their good byes as the three vampires left through the now non-existent wall that used to face the front yard.

“I can’t believe it’s happening,” Andy commented, brushing the last of the white off his comic book “We’re finally moving.”

A/N: dear all this chapter has taken me over an hour to post. my brain is doing the thing where it's starting to feel like it's melting out my ears. i was very tired when i started. i wanted to post the last chapter (now split into 20 and 21) all at once but i'm too tired. i'll do it tomorrow asap. swear. to tell you the truth i really, really wanted to post them together because they are supposed to be one so don't lose the mood at the end of the chap if you read it before 21 is up. thank you love C
p.s. i'm so, so sorry for saying it would be the last chapter for the last three chapters i was not trying to mess you around...i guess i'm just a really bad estimate...somehow i think the fact that i kept posting after i said i wouldn't wouldn't bother you guys too much. All the same 21 IS the last chapter. i should know i have already finished it.

travis mccoy, andy hurley, pete wentz, panic at the disco, gym class heroes, joe trohman, brendon urie, ryan ross, patrick stump, my chemical romance, gerard way, frank iero

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