Inertia [4/14]
Title: Inertia [4/14]
Author: periculosa
Pairing: Frank/Gerard
Rating: R
Disclaimer: Fake.
Summary: The faster you're going, the harder it is to stop. Inspired by Gerard's recounting of the making of The Black Parade, more specifically, the time the band spent at the Paramour estate in LA. "Now comes one of the hardest parts. I'm not going into too much detail about what happened and perhaps I never will. But there comes a time when you need to be much more than a friend, a band mate, or a brother. You have to learn to be there for each other in ways you never knew existed, face things you never had to face together." -Gerard Way.
Notes: As some of you have already noticed, I’m making this as realistic as possible. That having been said, I did some research about the Paramour, and found quite a few pictures, as well as some videos (which, admittedly, weren’t too helpful, as they were more about Papa Roach than the Paramour). I know that the point of writing is to create a picture in the reader’s mind, but if you’re curious as to what these things really look like, here are a few photographs: outside the house (one | two), live room, kitchen, bedrooms (Gerard’s | Frank’s | Bob’s). Of course, I did use my imagination for several aspects of the house. Also, a lot of information for this story was learned from the book that came with The Black Parade Special Edition, mostly from Gerard’s account, but some from Mikey’s. Lastly, if you’re curious about the Paramour (or the Canfield-Moreno Estate, as to which it is sometimes referred) and its history (which may or may not play into the plot), check out the Wikipedia article.
| 01 | 02 | 03 |
'Cause I love all the poison away with the boys in the band.
It was fucking freezing inside the estate. The second Gerard walked in, he wished he hadn’t; it wasn’t a particularly cold day, but the house was like an icebox-it trapped all the cold air inside.
Bob had parked the car at the foot of the hill that the house sat atop, and the five of them had made the trek upwards. It was not at all pleasant; although it was only two-thirty in the afternoon, the sky was overcast and their surroundings were dark. It had even started to drizzle on the way there, and as they walked up the hill, the rain had picked up considerably. Gerard had groaned, remembering that it somehow managed to rain every time they were in LA. Mikey had whimpered when a crack of thunder resounded across the landscape, followed closely by a flash of lightning that struck right above the estate. Gerard tried to forget Mikey’s small noise, and had resisted the urge to wrap him in an embrace.
The caretakers of the house, they had been told, would bring up their bags before they left. Gerard hadn’t felt completely comfortable letting others carry his bags for him, but he was so tired and jetlagged that he really couldn’t argue.
When they reached the enormous doors of the mansion, they opened before they even got the chance to knock, revealing a middle-aged man wearing charcoal slacks and a crisp black button-down shirt. He had a full head of brown hair, but it was cropped close to his scalp on the sides. His face was very open and honest, and Gerard decided that he liked him.
“You must be the band,” the man said, and it wasn’t really a question, but four of them nodded anyway. Mikey, Gerard realized, was not even paying attention to what was going on, in favor of gazing warily at the upper windows of the house. The man beckoned them inside, shutting the door behind them. The sound of it closing echoed through the immense foyer.
“My name is Jeff, and I’m one of the caretakers of this place,” the man said, holding out his hand for Ray to shake, since he was the closest.
“Nice to meet you, I’m Ray,” he said politely. The rest of them introduced themselves and shook Jeff’s hand in turn, finding it difficult to speak while their senses were overwhelmed by the vastness of their surroundings. Gerard was transfixed by the minute detail in everything, right down to the design splashed across the marble floor.
“Alright then,” Jeff said, clapping his hands together a single time once he knew everyone’s name. “As I’m sure you’ve noticed, this place is huge, and you’re going to need to get to know it a bit before I can leave you to your own devices.” As he spoke, he walked towards a towering doorway, his shiny shoes clacking against the floor and his voice echoing. Gerard followed him eagerly, somewhat embarrassed by his dirty sneakers; the squeaks that the wet soles made rang painfully in his ears. He turned his head to assess how the others were taking this; Bob looked utterly bemused by the entire situation, Ray looked attentive and a little wary, Mikey looked completely nonchalant, and Frank looked nothing short of ecstatic.
“If you’ll follow me,” Jeff was saying, still walking, “We’ll begin the tour with the ballroom.” Gerard found himself shocked that there was a ballroom, but nevertheless, he followed the others as Jeff led them through the huge archway.
The room they found themselves in was among the biggest Gerard had ever seen; it was almost twice the size of the recording studio they had been in the past few months, but it was within a house. The ceiling was so high up that Gerard found himself getting dizzy attempting to look at it, irrationally afraid that one of the several chandeliers hanging above them would fall. Looking down, Gerard saw that the floor was marble, much like in the foyer. It was mostly black, with white swirls bleeding into the dark color, and it reminded Gerard of pouring cream into black coffee without stirring.
The room was mostly empty, which unnerved Gerard a bit-the only furniture it had was a table in one corner, and a large piano in another. The walls of the room were cream-colored, and there were large, elaborate paintings adorning them. The windows were huge, but shrouded by thick, red curtains that gave the room an eerie darkness. There was a glass door in between the two windows, the same shape and size as them.
“This is the ideal room for practice, I would imagine,” Jeff was saying, observing the reactions of the others rather than the room itself. “We’ve had bands here before, and they either set up their equipment in here or in the live room. The acoustics are supposedly amazing.” Jeff was, of course, correct-in the room, sounds echoed in a way that was very conducive to playing music. Gerard quickly glanced at Ray, who looked nothing short of thrilled.
“We’re going to head into the kitchen now, right this way.” Jeff began walking again, towards another, smaller archway. Gerard could see a light orange color reflected through the doorway, and was instantly enamored with the entire house. Even if it was creepy.
The kitchen was much smaller than the ballroom, but still enormous. There was a deep orange refrigerator, and a row of windows that lay above a white countertop. The floor of this room was a heavily polished wood, but it had a red area rug covering part of it.
“You’ll find that the refrigerator is stocked with all sorts of food,” Jeff said, opening the door to demonstrate. “The freezer, too. Also, that cabinet over there has canned goods.” Jeff crossed the room and opened said cabinet, displaying a wide array of soups, canned vegetables, and other such things. “Of course, this isn’t going to last the entire time you’re here-there’s a small town with a supermarket about a half hour down the road.
“Anyway, you can find glasses and dishes in here,” he continued, pointing to the adjacent cabinet, “and pots and pans down there, as well as the garbage,” he finished, indicating the cabinet underneath the countertop.
Next, Jeff showed them the dining room, which had several polished candelabras and an obscenely large table. Gerard knew he would feel entirely foolish sitting at it, especially if they decided to spread out; they’d need to shout their conversations across the wide expanse of the mahogany wood.
After that they saw the billiard room, which reminded Gerard of the movie Clue. He remembered the scene with the maid, and suddenly, he was a little frightened by his surroundings. There was definitely something eerie about the place; Gerard kept thinking of The Shining, with the long twisting hallways, the sudden turns, and the cavernous rooms. He shook off his irrational fear as they headed into the exercise room, which was equipped with several machines and a stereo.
The bathrooms were all very large, which was no surprise, but kind of unsettling all the same. Being in them felt like being somewhere in public, with all that open space, and Gerard generally liked to believe nobody was looking at him when he was in the bathroom. They were very luxurious, though, and also numerous; on the first floor alone, there were three. Two out of those three had both a shower stall and a huge bathtub, and looking at them made Gerard want to clean himself, just so he could use them. Everything seemed to shine with an untouched sort of aura.
After that, Jeff led them back outside into the rain through the ballroom, and Gerard was greeted by the sight of a huge pool. It was big enough to be a public one, but obviously, it wasn’t. Gerard almost felt dizzy looking at it, the lines of the edge converging as he stared straight down and towards the other side. The surface of the water was tumultuous, the rain coming down hard and causing the ripples to run into each other until the pool was one big splashy mess. They turned to the left, walked a bit, and soon found themselves at the base of what appeared to be a stone tower. All five of them made noises of astonishment, rushing towards the doorway to peer inside.
“I guess you like it,” Jeff said, raising his voice over the sound of the rain crashing into the pool. “This tower was the only thing left completely undamaged after the earthquake of ’87. So, what you see now looks exactly the same as it did in 1923, when the mansion was built. The history of this place is actually quite fascinating, and I’ll tell you more later if you like.” Gerard nodded, quite curious about what went on here so many years ago, but was quickly distracted by his desire to look inside the tower. He rushed forward and popped his head into the doorway, shoulder-to-shoulder with Bob, who apparently had the same idea.
The inside was dark and dank, but not unpleasant. All Gerard could make out was the beginning of a winding staircase somewhere in the middle of the cavernous entranceway. However, just moments after his eyes were able to focus on it, he found himself being leaned on by Frank as he tried to get his head far enough between Gerard and Bob so that he could see. Gerard laughed, his nose scrunching up as he did so, and then he backed off so Frank could look inside. Ray stood behind and was able to peer over Frank’s shoulder, and Mikey kept his head down, trying to get as little rain as possible splashed across his glasses.
When the rest of the guys were done looking inside, they turned around and headed back towards the house. Frank slung his arm over Gerard’s shoulders as they walked, looking straight up into the sky and letting the raindrops fall heavily on his face. Something turned over in Gerard’s stomach, but he didn’t want to think about what it was, or why it hurt and felt good at the same time.
“Some tower there, huh?” Frank said, musing aloud, and perhaps expecting an answer. Gerard just smiled at him, shaking his damp hair out of his eyes with a quick flick of his head.
Once they were done with the majority of the ground floor, Jeff led them back to the foyer and through another doorway that they hadn’t been through yet. “Now, we’ll go into the live room to discuss your sleeping arrangements. Right this way, boys…”
Through the doorway was yet another gigantic room; the floor was a heavily polished wood, but mostly covered by an oriental rug. There were four comfortable-looking sofas around the room, as well as a glass coffee table, several intricate sculptures, a piano, a few armchairs, and three chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. Despite all these things, however, the room still gave off the impression of emptiness.
Jeff sat down on one of the deep-red sofas, and gestured for the band to do the same. Gerard opted to sit on the one opposite, and Frank and Bob followed him. Mikey sat on a footstool, and Ray on the armchair that went with it.
“Now,” Jeff started, crossing one leg over the other and addressing the entire group, “how do you want to do this? There are eight bedrooms, but we are actually in the process of renovating three of them. Well, four, but we rushed the fourth one along because we knew there would be five of you. Anyway, there shouldn’t be any problems, but you still have to figure out who will be sleeping in which. So would you like me to give you a tour, and you’ll figure it out later? Or would you like to choose at random, and let me show you afterwards?”
Gerard exchanged glances with the others, and they all shrugged. “Well, I think it’d be easier if we just picked randomly,” Gerard said. Ray quickly nodded in agreement, but the others just kept looking at him, waiting for an explanation. “Otherwise, we might argue over the rooms, and it’ll take too long. So we should just pick, and that’ll be it.” The others muttered to each other for a few moments, but eventually agreed.
“I should mention,” Jeff said, holing up a single finger, “that there are two wings. You may have noticed that the house is shaped like a horseshoe?” Everyone nodded. “Well, there are four bedrooms in each wing, but in the East wing, two of those bedrooms are unavailable, and one of the ones that isn’t is all the way at the end of the wing, fairly isolated from the other rooms. Is there anyone who would rather not have that room?” Gerard looked around at everyone else, and they all just shrugged at one another.
“Alright then,” Jeff said agreeably, reaching into his pocket and withdrawing a small notepad and a pen. Gerard couldn’t see what he was writing, but he scribbled briefly on each page, then ripped it out, folded it, and proceeded to the next. After a few moments, he had five little squares of paper, which he tipped into an ashtray that was sitting on the table next to the couch. He then handed the ashtray to Frank, who picked a paper and passed it to Gerard. Mikey was the last one to pick.
When Gerard unfolded his paper, all he saw was a hastily scribbled ‘3,’ and he hoped that Jeff knew what he was doing.
“Okay. Each of you has a paper with a number. The number you have corresponds with a room. If you’ll follow me,” he said, rising, “I’ll show you where each of you will be staying.”
They went across the room to a large and carpeted spiral staircase that seemed to go on forever. Gerard looked straight up while standing at the base, and couldn’t see anything but shadows at the top. Jeff looked unconcerned, and mounted the staircase, expecting the five of them to follow. Ray went first, followed by Gerard and Frank, then Bob, who muttered something encouraging to Mikey in order to get him to follow.
Once Jeff reached the top of the staircase, he stepped aside and waited for the five of them to file out. When they were all standing in a group, Jeff cleared his throat. “We are in the middle part of the house at the moment,” he said. “As you can see, the hallway turns on either side. This is the part of the house where the East and West wings meet, and two of you will be sleeping here.”
There were three mahogany doors in the hallway, all of them closed. Jeff approached the first one and opened it, stepping inside and out of the doorway so that the rest of them could file in. Gerard’s eyes widened upon walking in; everything was a bright color. There was a queen-sized bed with a deep pink comforter and orange pillows, as well as a colorful rug and floral patterned curtains over the massive window. The dresser was huge, and adorned with statuettes and cloth flowers. “Who has the paper with the number four?” Jeff asked, looking at them.
“I do,” Frank said, brandishing the paper in question.
“Well, congratulations, this is where you’ll be sleeping,” Jeff said with a smile. Gerard laughed; the bright colors fit Frank perfectly. Sure enough, a quick look at Frank confirmed that he was pleased with his sleeping quarters.
“Let me show you around a bit before moving on to the next room,” Jeff said, stepping in a bit further. “First of all, this window isn’t really a window-it’s a door.” He walked up to it and parted the curtains, tucking them behind metal holders that stuck out from the wall. There was a simple lock in place that held the doors together from the inside, and Jeff unfastened it deftly and pushed the doors open without much effort. Once they were open, he stepped outside and onto what appeared to be a balcony. It was still raining hard, but Jeff didn’t seem to care. “Come on out here, let me show you the view.”
They all filed onto the balcony, and surprisingly, all six of them were able to stand shoulder-to-shoulder without much crowding. The view from where they stood was nothing short of breathtaking-they could see off the grounds of the house into the distance, and the horizon was clearly visible. Gerard was sure that it would be quite a sight to behold during sunny weather.
“As you can see,” Jeff said, “there are two other glass panels here.” He pointed to the one next to the door they just came out. “That one is a door as well, and behind it is another bedroom. But that one is just a window, and it’s in one of the bathrooms,” Jeff said, pointing to the third window. Gerard shook his head silently at this-again, he felt like the bathrooms in this house were more for show than for actual use.
“Anyway,” Jeff started, turning around, “we can head back inside now to see the rest of the rooms.”
They walked back into Frank’s bedroom, then back into the hallway and up to the next door. “As I said before, this is another bedroom. Who has number three?”
“That would be me,” Gerard said, stepping forward with interest. Jeff smiled and opened the door, letting Gerard go in first. This room, like Frank’s was also very colorful, but purple dominated it instead of pink; the walls were a deep, royal purple, and so were the pillows of the bed. The sheets were white and covered in ruffles, and looking at the bed made Gerard feel his jetlag; suddenly, he wanted nothing more than to lay down.
The room was very nice, and Gerard felt that it suited him, as the color purple always relaxed him. The curtains over the glass door were deep red, much like the ones in the ballroom, and Gerard wanted to touch them. Instead, he just kept looking around the room, because there was so much to take in. There were several wall decorations that added to the atmosphere, and the room had an even bigger dresser than Frank’s did.
Jeff observed him as he took in the room, and smiled at the overwhelmed look Gerard had on his face.
“Nice, right? This room is pretty much like the last one. The only major difference structure-wise is that you have a walk-in closet.” Jeff crossed the room and opened a door, and sure enough, there was a dark closet that looked huge.
“Perfect for your many jackets, Gee,” Ray said, and Gerard shoved him playfully with one arm. The other guys laughed, but Jeff just smiled and raised an eyebrow.
“Alright then, I suppose we’ll head for the East wing next,” Jeff said, leading them out and stopping briefly in front of the bathroom so they could peek in quickly.
“This is actually one of the rooms being renovated,” Jeff said after they turned a corner and wound up in front of another door. He opened it so they could look, and the strong smell of fresh paint assaulted Gerard’s senses. “As you can see, there isn’t much furniture in there-it got old, and it’s about time to replace it. Also, we recently re-painted, and after you leave we’ll be expanding that window over there.” There was a piece of plywood nailed over what Gerard could only assume to be an opening in the wall.
The next room was Bob’s. It was all rusty colors and bold lines, and it had a balcony much like Gerard’s and Frank’s did, but facing in a different direction. The room would be easily filled with light, and Gerard knew that Bob would like that. He seemed pleased enough; he even tested out the bed, albeit unwillingly-Frank pushed him onto it when he wasn’t paying attention. Bob had yelled, “Frank, you fucktard!” at which point Frank let out a high-pitched laugh, and Jeff wound up raising his eyebrows again while the others hooted with laughter.
After Bob’s room there was another unnervingly large bathroom, followed by Ray’s room. His room had very earthy tones, and a lot of wood furniture. There was no balcony, but there was a window with a comfortable-looking recliner in front of it, and Ray looked as if he were fighting the urge to sit on it at that very moment. From the chair, he would be able to see a bunch of trees, and Ray was always someone who liked to look out the window on the tour bus just to watch the scenery pass by, so it was perfect.
At this point, they had reached the end of the hallway, so they doubled back past all the rooms they had already seen to go to the West wing, and more specifically, Mikey’s room.
Before they got to it, however, they passed another closed room and a bathroom, then stopped at the library. Gerard was amazed by the sheer amount of books, and he had no idea people had private libraries that big. It was so inviting, and he knew it would be a perfect place to spend some time alone. But at the same time, it was also very creepy; all the bookshelves gave him the feeling that they weren’t alone, like someone else could be lurking in the shadows. But, there were comfy leather armchairs, so he figured he’d take the risk.
There were also a few small desks scattered here and there, and Gerard was surprised to see that there were Internet cables at some of them. “Whoa, this place is connected to the Internet?” Mikey asked, and everybody’s head turned in his direction because it was the first thing he had said in a very long time.
“Yep, just a few years ago the cables were installed. But I should warn you: I hear the service is really frustrating. It doesn’t always work, and even when it does it’s very slow,” said Jeff.
“Oh,” Mikey replied, but only looked slightly put out. Gerard knew that Mikey liked to email his friends whenever he got the chance-it was one of the ways that he dealt with stress.
When they continued on, they passed yet another closed room before finally reaching Mikey’s. “This is the master bedroom, actually,” Jeff announced once they were in front of the door, “but it’s not in great shape at the moment, as we haven’t finished the renovating yet.” He opened the door, and everybody stepped in, Mikey trailing behind and looking nervous.
The bed was huge-bigger than in any of the other rooms, in fact. The color scheme of the room seemed to be mostly black and white, but the walls were dark blue. The lighting seemed to be the biggest part of the renovations, because there was a large hole in the ceiling that revealed a tangle of wires. There was a fixture much too small for the hole, and on it was a single light bulb. When Jeff flicked a switch to turn it on, the room was lit up with an eerie blue glow. There was another lamp on the bedside table, but it was small, and Gerard got the feeling it wouldn’t do much to improve the lighting situation.
Mikey looked pretty impassive about the whole thing, but Gerard could sense his trepidation. Mikey had a knack for picking up things that other people normally wouldn’t-some would call it paranoia, but Gerard just thought he had good intuition. So, Mikey’s unease didn’t do much to ease Gerard’s own.
“I don’t know if anyone told you, but this house was actually built for a silent film star from the 20’s and his wife,” Jeff started, and everyone perked up to listen to him. They were all incredibly curious about the house, and what it had been used for in the past.
“Antonio Moreno, I believe his name was, and his wife was a rich socialite by the name of Daisy Canfield. True, large parts of the house had to be rebuilt after that earthquake I mentioned earlier, but I’d imagine this was their bedroom when they lived here.”
“Yeah?” Frank said, looking around. Gerard could have sworn he felt some sort of breeze brush past his cheek, but he didn’t dwell on it. Even if it did make the little hairs on the back of his neck stand up.
“Indeed,” Jeff said, nodding. “That’s not the most interesting part, though. Again, I don’t know if you’ve heard, but there are some stories that go around about this house. Folklore, really, but it’s interesting nonetheless. Some strange goings-on have occurred here, ever since Daisy Canfield died.” Gerard shot a look at Mikey, and saw that he looked simultaneously frightened and riveted. “As it turns out, her car went right off Mulholland Drive one day, and needless to say, she was killed in the wreck. Nobody really knows what happened that day-some think it was murder, others say it was a freak accident. Either way, the real folklore is the rumor that her ghost haunts this place.”
Ray laughed nervously. “Do you believe that?” It wasn’t a condescending question, just genuine curiosity.
“I’m not sure,” Jeff said thoughtfully. “I’ve experienced some strange phenomena living here, but others have claimed to have experienced some far stranger ones. There’s definitely something odd about this place, and it manifests differently for everyone. I guess you’ll just have to see what happens and figure it out for yourself.” Jeff winked at them, and Mikey’s eyebrows were so far up that they disappeared under his bangs. Mikey was always into supernatural stuff, so Gerard knew that this would either fascinate or terrify him.
It was silent for a while, but not in an awkward way-everyone was sort of just processing what Jeff had just told them. A few moments passed, and the distinct sound of a car door slamming jolted them from their thoughts.
Jeff looked at his watch. “Oh, that must be Peter, the other caretaker. I’d better go down and help him take your bags up.”
“We’ll come, too,” Bob offered, never one to allow people to wait on him. The rest of the guys nodded, but Gerard groaned inwardly at the prospect of lugging his huge bags up that hill.
They walked downstairs and back to the billiard room, where Jeff exited through a door they hadn’t seen before. He walked outside and looked around before turning towards them and laughing. “Did you guys park all the way down the hill?” Bob nodded. “I’m so sorry, I should have had someone tell you about this entrance.”
Sure enough, they looked outside and saw that there was more road only a few yards away. Gerard groaned, realizing they had made their long trek upwards for naught earlier.
The guy that had picked them up at the airport was there, and he was in the process of dragging one of Mikey’s heavy bags out of the trunk. Thankfully, it had wheels, so he was able to set it down after the initial heave. “Let me help you with that,” Bob called, jogging over to him to take the bag and begin walking back towards the house with it. The guy (Peter, Gerard assumed) smiled at him gratefully and thanked him.
“I guess we’ll put them in the live room for now, and we can sort them out later?” Bob asked. The rest of them shrugged, then walked over to the car to start taking their bags out.
After ten minutes of back-and-fourth between the car and the live room, the seven of them managed to get all the bags out of the car. Then, they all sat down on the sofas to rest while Jeff and Peter tried to figure out if there was anything else they needed to tell them.
“Oh!” Peter said finally, holding up a finger. “Your manager called me about an hour ago. He wanted me to tell you that your gear will be arriving tomorrow, and that you can set up then. He also wanted me to remind you to rest today, because you must be really tired from the plane ride.”
“Thanks,” Gerard said. “We’re kind of used flying actually, but I guess we are pretty tired.” Frank nodded emphatically and Mikey tried to stifle a yawn.
“Okay, we’re going to get going pretty soon, but I just wanted to mention a couple more things,” Jeff said, uncrossing his legs and moving forward on the couch a little. “First of all, the cell phone reception here is absolutely terrible, if not nonexistent. If you want to use your phones, you’ll have to walk a bit down the road. It must be a dead-zone over here or something, because it doesn’t matter what kind of phone you have-it just won’t work.
“That being said, there are a few landlines around the house. They’re kind of flaky, especially in the rain, and they’ll only work if you use a calling card. We left a few on the dining room table, and if you run out, you can buy more in town. And remember, if you have any questions or problems, you can contact either Peter or myself.” Jeff and Peter got up from the couch, and Gerard stood up to bid them farewell. They all shook hands and exchanged thank-yous and goodbyes, walking back towards the billiard room, outside which Peter had parked his car.
“Alright boys, we’ll see you in two months!” Peter said with a smile and a wink, and then all at once, they were in the car, then just completely gone.
Gerard realized somewhere in his head that he was completely alone with his four best friends, and it felt far weirder than it should have.
[//]
That first night, they all went to bed at eleven, but Gerard was pretty sure that none of them fell asleep right away. It was so strange being in such a lavish room-for some reason, it felt nothing like a hotel, even though it should have. It was more comfortable, but less comforting at the same time. Hotels were something Gerard was used to; he was used to upping at leaving, and settling down in a different room every night. For some reason, this was so completely different. Perhaps because it was much larger than any hotel he would have ever stayed in, or perhaps it was just because he knew he would be there for more than a couple nights. Either way, he found himself lying stiffly underneath the covers, trying to fall asleep to no avail. Every ten minutes or so, he’d notice that his brow was furrowed, and he’d have to make the conscious effort to relax it before he could go back to trying to fall asleep. Somewhere amongst all this, he vaguely registered the sound of a door somewhere close by opening, but he just assumed that someone was using the bathroom.
After about an hour of lying perfectly still and not sleeping, Gerard decided that he needed a cigarette. Thankfully, he had the foresight of placing a flashlight on his bedside table, so he was able to locate his shoes, cigarettes, and lighter without much difficulty. He didn’t want to smoke inside the house, because Ray would kill him if he smelled it, so instead he tried to find his way to the ballroom so he could exit through the door near the pool.
It took him longer than it should have, but in all fairness, it was a rather large house. He made a couple wrong turns, but eventually he reached his destination, belatedly realizing that his room was pretty much directly above it.
Keeping the beam of his flashlight trained on the ground, Gerard looked around for some sort of awning he could stand under while he smoked. The rain was still falling hard, and he didn’t fancy the idea of trying to light his smoke in that kind of weather. He eyed the stone tower warily for a moment before deciding to take the chance.
He entered cautiously, jumping at every little movement he saw out of the corner of his eye. The tower was constructed in a way that allowed very little light in past the entrance, so Gerard was very thankful for his flashlight indeed. Keeping a careful eye on his feet, he climbed the staircase, unconsciously counting the steps, perhaps just to fill his head with noise so he wouldn’t get too scared.
When he reached the top, he let out a sigh of relief, but it quickly turned to a gasp when he saw something move from across the room. He had about two seconds of panic before whatever it was called out to him.
“Jesus Christ! You scared the shit out of me, Gerard!” It was Frank, sounding every bit as flustered as Gerard felt.
“Fuck, I’m sorry,” he said, laughing to relieve the tension in his body. “I had no idea you were up here.”
“Yeah, well you weren’t the only one who couldn’t sleep,” Frank answered, folding a leg underneath him. He was sitting on a bench, and had been facing the solitary window until Gerard walked in. “This place is fucking creepy, man.”
“I know,” Gerard muttered. “Do you mind? I wanted to have a smoke, but it’s pouring out there.”
“Nah. I was just thinking,” Frank answered, shifting back towards the window. Gerard walked over at sat next to him.
“Well thank goodness for that. I’m pretty sure I’ve walked in on worse.”
“Worse than thinking?” Frank laughed. “Impossible.” Gerard stuck a cigarette between his lips and shielded the end as he tried to light it. He had to flick his lighter open a few times, but eventually, it lit up. He took a long drag, blowing it out slowly and watching Frank out of the corner of his eye. Frank was looking out the window of the tower, and Gerard took a moment to appreciate the strange sort of beauty that the rain held when light was selectively refracted by the individual drops; it looked like a wall of sparks falling in front of the window, dissipating as soon as it passed.
“I have a weird feeling about this place,” Gerard said quietly, his legs crossed and one of his arms resting on his elevated knee. He didn’t look at Frank.
“You’re not alone, man,” Frank said, shaking his head. “But I think it’ll be good for us, you know? We write really moody music, and doing that is way harder in a fancy studio in New York.”
“I guess you’re right,” Gerard conceded reluctantly. “But either way, I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.”
There was a strange sort of tension between the two of them at that moment. Gerard remembered it well, from that night they had spent on the couch in Gerard’s apartment a few days earlier; it wound a spring somewhere in Gerard’s chest, tight but not unpleasant.
Frank tilted his head, and let it rest on Gerard’s shoulder. He nearly jumped at the unexpected contact, but instead just breathed sharply, jerking his hand to his mouth so he could take another puff. When his hand returned to his lap, Frank reached over and snatched the cigarette from him, taking a long draw before holding it out for Gerard to take back. There was something oddly intimate about this gesture, and Gerard felt extremely uncomfortable all of a sudden. He felt heat being trapped beneath the collar of his shirt, and he may have even felt a sharp twist in the pit of his stomach.
When Gerard reached out to take his cigarette back, Frank’s fingers brushed his, and suddenly he was ridiculously light-headed. He felt like he was an outsider, passively observing the Movie of His Life, like he had no actual control over what he was doing, and like everything that was happening wasn’t really happening to him, or at least not at that moment. Perhaps sometime in the past or future, but not at that moment.
They were very still for several minutes, and a significant portion of Gerard’s cigarette burnt out on its own before he had the presence of mind to smoke it. Most of the space in Gerard’s head was taken up by frantic and mostly nonsensical thoughts, and the sound of Frank’s breathing (soft, even, calm, steady) filled the rest. Gerard’s free hand was slowly rising, poised and ready to rest itself on the spot just above Frank’s hip, but Gerard’s head was telling it not to, because maybe he was reading too much into this, or maybe Frank would if he went through with the action. Eventually, the hand won over Gerard’s thoughts, and Gerard heard more than saw Frank smile.
Gerard’s head rested against Frank’s, and the silence became more comfortable as Gerard told himself to stop thinking so much and he reluctantly obeyed.
When Gerard was done with his cigarette, he let the smoldering butt drop to the floor, and he smothered it with his shoe without moving any other part of his body. Free from the cigarette, Gerard’s right hand rested on his leg, and was soon covered by Frank’s hand. Frank played with his fingers absently, and Gerard felt his heart pounding in his throat for a few moments before he accepted it and calmed down.
Gerard quickly lost track of the time; the rain didn’t fall any harder and the tower didn’t get any darker, but Frank did seem to get warmer with a comforting and sleepy heat, and Gerard was completely okay with that.
[//]
If you like the idea of the Paramour as a setting for a fic, you should probably check out Sun Shower, a standalone I wrote a couple weeks back. I consider it a sort of alternate plotline to this story, I suppose. It definitely takes place in Inertia-verse.
chapter five
Author: periculosa
Pairing: Frank/Gerard
Rating: R
Disclaimer: Fake.
Summary: The faster you're going, the harder it is to stop. Inspired by Gerard's recounting of the making of The Black Parade, more specifically, the time the band spent at the Paramour estate in LA. "Now comes one of the hardest parts. I'm not going into too much detail about what happened and perhaps I never will. But there comes a time when you need to be much more than a friend, a band mate, or a brother. You have to learn to be there for each other in ways you never knew existed, face things you never had to face together." -Gerard Way.
Notes: As some of you have already noticed, I’m making this as realistic as possible. That having been said, I did some research about the Paramour, and found quite a few pictures, as well as some videos (which, admittedly, weren’t too helpful, as they were more about Papa Roach than the Paramour). I know that the point of writing is to create a picture in the reader’s mind, but if you’re curious as to what these things really look like, here are a few photographs: outside the house (one | two), live room, kitchen, bedrooms (Gerard’s | Frank’s | Bob’s). Of course, I did use my imagination for several aspects of the house. Also, a lot of information for this story was learned from the book that came with The Black Parade Special Edition, mostly from Gerard’s account, but some from Mikey’s. Lastly, if you’re curious about the Paramour (or the Canfield-Moreno Estate, as to which it is sometimes referred) and its history (which may or may not play into the plot), check out the Wikipedia article.
| 01 | 02 | 03 |
'Cause I love all the poison away with the boys in the band.
It was fucking freezing inside the estate. The second Gerard walked in, he wished he hadn’t; it wasn’t a particularly cold day, but the house was like an icebox-it trapped all the cold air inside.
Bob had parked the car at the foot of the hill that the house sat atop, and the five of them had made the trek upwards. It was not at all pleasant; although it was only two-thirty in the afternoon, the sky was overcast and their surroundings were dark. It had even started to drizzle on the way there, and as they walked up the hill, the rain had picked up considerably. Gerard had groaned, remembering that it somehow managed to rain every time they were in LA. Mikey had whimpered when a crack of thunder resounded across the landscape, followed closely by a flash of lightning that struck right above the estate. Gerard tried to forget Mikey’s small noise, and had resisted the urge to wrap him in an embrace.
The caretakers of the house, they had been told, would bring up their bags before they left. Gerard hadn’t felt completely comfortable letting others carry his bags for him, but he was so tired and jetlagged that he really couldn’t argue.
When they reached the enormous doors of the mansion, they opened before they even got the chance to knock, revealing a middle-aged man wearing charcoal slacks and a crisp black button-down shirt. He had a full head of brown hair, but it was cropped close to his scalp on the sides. His face was very open and honest, and Gerard decided that he liked him.
“You must be the band,” the man said, and it wasn’t really a question, but four of them nodded anyway. Mikey, Gerard realized, was not even paying attention to what was going on, in favor of gazing warily at the upper windows of the house. The man beckoned them inside, shutting the door behind them. The sound of it closing echoed through the immense foyer.
“My name is Jeff, and I’m one of the caretakers of this place,” the man said, holding out his hand for Ray to shake, since he was the closest.
“Nice to meet you, I’m Ray,” he said politely. The rest of them introduced themselves and shook Jeff’s hand in turn, finding it difficult to speak while their senses were overwhelmed by the vastness of their surroundings. Gerard was transfixed by the minute detail in everything, right down to the design splashed across the marble floor.
“Alright then,” Jeff said, clapping his hands together a single time once he knew everyone’s name. “As I’m sure you’ve noticed, this place is huge, and you’re going to need to get to know it a bit before I can leave you to your own devices.” As he spoke, he walked towards a towering doorway, his shiny shoes clacking against the floor and his voice echoing. Gerard followed him eagerly, somewhat embarrassed by his dirty sneakers; the squeaks that the wet soles made rang painfully in his ears. He turned his head to assess how the others were taking this; Bob looked utterly bemused by the entire situation, Ray looked attentive and a little wary, Mikey looked completely nonchalant, and Frank looked nothing short of ecstatic.
“If you’ll follow me,” Jeff was saying, still walking, “We’ll begin the tour with the ballroom.” Gerard found himself shocked that there was a ballroom, but nevertheless, he followed the others as Jeff led them through the huge archway.
The room they found themselves in was among the biggest Gerard had ever seen; it was almost twice the size of the recording studio they had been in the past few months, but it was within a house. The ceiling was so high up that Gerard found himself getting dizzy attempting to look at it, irrationally afraid that one of the several chandeliers hanging above them would fall. Looking down, Gerard saw that the floor was marble, much like in the foyer. It was mostly black, with white swirls bleeding into the dark color, and it reminded Gerard of pouring cream into black coffee without stirring.
The room was mostly empty, which unnerved Gerard a bit-the only furniture it had was a table in one corner, and a large piano in another. The walls of the room were cream-colored, and there were large, elaborate paintings adorning them. The windows were huge, but shrouded by thick, red curtains that gave the room an eerie darkness. There was a glass door in between the two windows, the same shape and size as them.
“This is the ideal room for practice, I would imagine,” Jeff was saying, observing the reactions of the others rather than the room itself. “We’ve had bands here before, and they either set up their equipment in here or in the live room. The acoustics are supposedly amazing.” Jeff was, of course, correct-in the room, sounds echoed in a way that was very conducive to playing music. Gerard quickly glanced at Ray, who looked nothing short of thrilled.
“We’re going to head into the kitchen now, right this way.” Jeff began walking again, towards another, smaller archway. Gerard could see a light orange color reflected through the doorway, and was instantly enamored with the entire house. Even if it was creepy.
The kitchen was much smaller than the ballroom, but still enormous. There was a deep orange refrigerator, and a row of windows that lay above a white countertop. The floor of this room was a heavily polished wood, but it had a red area rug covering part of it.
“You’ll find that the refrigerator is stocked with all sorts of food,” Jeff said, opening the door to demonstrate. “The freezer, too. Also, that cabinet over there has canned goods.” Jeff crossed the room and opened said cabinet, displaying a wide array of soups, canned vegetables, and other such things. “Of course, this isn’t going to last the entire time you’re here-there’s a small town with a supermarket about a half hour down the road.
“Anyway, you can find glasses and dishes in here,” he continued, pointing to the adjacent cabinet, “and pots and pans down there, as well as the garbage,” he finished, indicating the cabinet underneath the countertop.
Next, Jeff showed them the dining room, which had several polished candelabras and an obscenely large table. Gerard knew he would feel entirely foolish sitting at it, especially if they decided to spread out; they’d need to shout their conversations across the wide expanse of the mahogany wood.
After that they saw the billiard room, which reminded Gerard of the movie Clue. He remembered the scene with the maid, and suddenly, he was a little frightened by his surroundings. There was definitely something eerie about the place; Gerard kept thinking of The Shining, with the long twisting hallways, the sudden turns, and the cavernous rooms. He shook off his irrational fear as they headed into the exercise room, which was equipped with several machines and a stereo.
The bathrooms were all very large, which was no surprise, but kind of unsettling all the same. Being in them felt like being somewhere in public, with all that open space, and Gerard generally liked to believe nobody was looking at him when he was in the bathroom. They were very luxurious, though, and also numerous; on the first floor alone, there were three. Two out of those three had both a shower stall and a huge bathtub, and looking at them made Gerard want to clean himself, just so he could use them. Everything seemed to shine with an untouched sort of aura.
After that, Jeff led them back outside into the rain through the ballroom, and Gerard was greeted by the sight of a huge pool. It was big enough to be a public one, but obviously, it wasn’t. Gerard almost felt dizzy looking at it, the lines of the edge converging as he stared straight down and towards the other side. The surface of the water was tumultuous, the rain coming down hard and causing the ripples to run into each other until the pool was one big splashy mess. They turned to the left, walked a bit, and soon found themselves at the base of what appeared to be a stone tower. All five of them made noises of astonishment, rushing towards the doorway to peer inside.
“I guess you like it,” Jeff said, raising his voice over the sound of the rain crashing into the pool. “This tower was the only thing left completely undamaged after the earthquake of ’87. So, what you see now looks exactly the same as it did in 1923, when the mansion was built. The history of this place is actually quite fascinating, and I’ll tell you more later if you like.” Gerard nodded, quite curious about what went on here so many years ago, but was quickly distracted by his desire to look inside the tower. He rushed forward and popped his head into the doorway, shoulder-to-shoulder with Bob, who apparently had the same idea.
The inside was dark and dank, but not unpleasant. All Gerard could make out was the beginning of a winding staircase somewhere in the middle of the cavernous entranceway. However, just moments after his eyes were able to focus on it, he found himself being leaned on by Frank as he tried to get his head far enough between Gerard and Bob so that he could see. Gerard laughed, his nose scrunching up as he did so, and then he backed off so Frank could look inside. Ray stood behind and was able to peer over Frank’s shoulder, and Mikey kept his head down, trying to get as little rain as possible splashed across his glasses.
When the rest of the guys were done looking inside, they turned around and headed back towards the house. Frank slung his arm over Gerard’s shoulders as they walked, looking straight up into the sky and letting the raindrops fall heavily on his face. Something turned over in Gerard’s stomach, but he didn’t want to think about what it was, or why it hurt and felt good at the same time.
“Some tower there, huh?” Frank said, musing aloud, and perhaps expecting an answer. Gerard just smiled at him, shaking his damp hair out of his eyes with a quick flick of his head.
Once they were done with the majority of the ground floor, Jeff led them back to the foyer and through another doorway that they hadn’t been through yet. “Now, we’ll go into the live room to discuss your sleeping arrangements. Right this way, boys…”
Through the doorway was yet another gigantic room; the floor was a heavily polished wood, but mostly covered by an oriental rug. There were four comfortable-looking sofas around the room, as well as a glass coffee table, several intricate sculptures, a piano, a few armchairs, and three chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. Despite all these things, however, the room still gave off the impression of emptiness.
Jeff sat down on one of the deep-red sofas, and gestured for the band to do the same. Gerard opted to sit on the one opposite, and Frank and Bob followed him. Mikey sat on a footstool, and Ray on the armchair that went with it.
“Now,” Jeff started, crossing one leg over the other and addressing the entire group, “how do you want to do this? There are eight bedrooms, but we are actually in the process of renovating three of them. Well, four, but we rushed the fourth one along because we knew there would be five of you. Anyway, there shouldn’t be any problems, but you still have to figure out who will be sleeping in which. So would you like me to give you a tour, and you’ll figure it out later? Or would you like to choose at random, and let me show you afterwards?”
Gerard exchanged glances with the others, and they all shrugged. “Well, I think it’d be easier if we just picked randomly,” Gerard said. Ray quickly nodded in agreement, but the others just kept looking at him, waiting for an explanation. “Otherwise, we might argue over the rooms, and it’ll take too long. So we should just pick, and that’ll be it.” The others muttered to each other for a few moments, but eventually agreed.
“I should mention,” Jeff said, holing up a single finger, “that there are two wings. You may have noticed that the house is shaped like a horseshoe?” Everyone nodded. “Well, there are four bedrooms in each wing, but in the East wing, two of those bedrooms are unavailable, and one of the ones that isn’t is all the way at the end of the wing, fairly isolated from the other rooms. Is there anyone who would rather not have that room?” Gerard looked around at everyone else, and they all just shrugged at one another.
“Alright then,” Jeff said agreeably, reaching into his pocket and withdrawing a small notepad and a pen. Gerard couldn’t see what he was writing, but he scribbled briefly on each page, then ripped it out, folded it, and proceeded to the next. After a few moments, he had five little squares of paper, which he tipped into an ashtray that was sitting on the table next to the couch. He then handed the ashtray to Frank, who picked a paper and passed it to Gerard. Mikey was the last one to pick.
When Gerard unfolded his paper, all he saw was a hastily scribbled ‘3,’ and he hoped that Jeff knew what he was doing.
“Okay. Each of you has a paper with a number. The number you have corresponds with a room. If you’ll follow me,” he said, rising, “I’ll show you where each of you will be staying.”
They went across the room to a large and carpeted spiral staircase that seemed to go on forever. Gerard looked straight up while standing at the base, and couldn’t see anything but shadows at the top. Jeff looked unconcerned, and mounted the staircase, expecting the five of them to follow. Ray went first, followed by Gerard and Frank, then Bob, who muttered something encouraging to Mikey in order to get him to follow.
Once Jeff reached the top of the staircase, he stepped aside and waited for the five of them to file out. When they were all standing in a group, Jeff cleared his throat. “We are in the middle part of the house at the moment,” he said. “As you can see, the hallway turns on either side. This is the part of the house where the East and West wings meet, and two of you will be sleeping here.”
There were three mahogany doors in the hallway, all of them closed. Jeff approached the first one and opened it, stepping inside and out of the doorway so that the rest of them could file in. Gerard’s eyes widened upon walking in; everything was a bright color. There was a queen-sized bed with a deep pink comforter and orange pillows, as well as a colorful rug and floral patterned curtains over the massive window. The dresser was huge, and adorned with statuettes and cloth flowers. “Who has the paper with the number four?” Jeff asked, looking at them.
“I do,” Frank said, brandishing the paper in question.
“Well, congratulations, this is where you’ll be sleeping,” Jeff said with a smile. Gerard laughed; the bright colors fit Frank perfectly. Sure enough, a quick look at Frank confirmed that he was pleased with his sleeping quarters.
“Let me show you around a bit before moving on to the next room,” Jeff said, stepping in a bit further. “First of all, this window isn’t really a window-it’s a door.” He walked up to it and parted the curtains, tucking them behind metal holders that stuck out from the wall. There was a simple lock in place that held the doors together from the inside, and Jeff unfastened it deftly and pushed the doors open without much effort. Once they were open, he stepped outside and onto what appeared to be a balcony. It was still raining hard, but Jeff didn’t seem to care. “Come on out here, let me show you the view.”
They all filed onto the balcony, and surprisingly, all six of them were able to stand shoulder-to-shoulder without much crowding. The view from where they stood was nothing short of breathtaking-they could see off the grounds of the house into the distance, and the horizon was clearly visible. Gerard was sure that it would be quite a sight to behold during sunny weather.
“As you can see,” Jeff said, “there are two other glass panels here.” He pointed to the one next to the door they just came out. “That one is a door as well, and behind it is another bedroom. But that one is just a window, and it’s in one of the bathrooms,” Jeff said, pointing to the third window. Gerard shook his head silently at this-again, he felt like the bathrooms in this house were more for show than for actual use.
“Anyway,” Jeff started, turning around, “we can head back inside now to see the rest of the rooms.”
They walked back into Frank’s bedroom, then back into the hallway and up to the next door. “As I said before, this is another bedroom. Who has number three?”
“That would be me,” Gerard said, stepping forward with interest. Jeff smiled and opened the door, letting Gerard go in first. This room, like Frank’s was also very colorful, but purple dominated it instead of pink; the walls were a deep, royal purple, and so were the pillows of the bed. The sheets were white and covered in ruffles, and looking at the bed made Gerard feel his jetlag; suddenly, he wanted nothing more than to lay down.
The room was very nice, and Gerard felt that it suited him, as the color purple always relaxed him. The curtains over the glass door were deep red, much like the ones in the ballroom, and Gerard wanted to touch them. Instead, he just kept looking around the room, because there was so much to take in. There were several wall decorations that added to the atmosphere, and the room had an even bigger dresser than Frank’s did.
Jeff observed him as he took in the room, and smiled at the overwhelmed look Gerard had on his face.
“Nice, right? This room is pretty much like the last one. The only major difference structure-wise is that you have a walk-in closet.” Jeff crossed the room and opened a door, and sure enough, there was a dark closet that looked huge.
“Perfect for your many jackets, Gee,” Ray said, and Gerard shoved him playfully with one arm. The other guys laughed, but Jeff just smiled and raised an eyebrow.
“Alright then, I suppose we’ll head for the East wing next,” Jeff said, leading them out and stopping briefly in front of the bathroom so they could peek in quickly.
“This is actually one of the rooms being renovated,” Jeff said after they turned a corner and wound up in front of another door. He opened it so they could look, and the strong smell of fresh paint assaulted Gerard’s senses. “As you can see, there isn’t much furniture in there-it got old, and it’s about time to replace it. Also, we recently re-painted, and after you leave we’ll be expanding that window over there.” There was a piece of plywood nailed over what Gerard could only assume to be an opening in the wall.
The next room was Bob’s. It was all rusty colors and bold lines, and it had a balcony much like Gerard’s and Frank’s did, but facing in a different direction. The room would be easily filled with light, and Gerard knew that Bob would like that. He seemed pleased enough; he even tested out the bed, albeit unwillingly-Frank pushed him onto it when he wasn’t paying attention. Bob had yelled, “Frank, you fucktard!” at which point Frank let out a high-pitched laugh, and Jeff wound up raising his eyebrows again while the others hooted with laughter.
After Bob’s room there was another unnervingly large bathroom, followed by Ray’s room. His room had very earthy tones, and a lot of wood furniture. There was no balcony, but there was a window with a comfortable-looking recliner in front of it, and Ray looked as if he were fighting the urge to sit on it at that very moment. From the chair, he would be able to see a bunch of trees, and Ray was always someone who liked to look out the window on the tour bus just to watch the scenery pass by, so it was perfect.
At this point, they had reached the end of the hallway, so they doubled back past all the rooms they had already seen to go to the West wing, and more specifically, Mikey’s room.
Before they got to it, however, they passed another closed room and a bathroom, then stopped at the library. Gerard was amazed by the sheer amount of books, and he had no idea people had private libraries that big. It was so inviting, and he knew it would be a perfect place to spend some time alone. But at the same time, it was also very creepy; all the bookshelves gave him the feeling that they weren’t alone, like someone else could be lurking in the shadows. But, there were comfy leather armchairs, so he figured he’d take the risk.
There were also a few small desks scattered here and there, and Gerard was surprised to see that there were Internet cables at some of them. “Whoa, this place is connected to the Internet?” Mikey asked, and everybody’s head turned in his direction because it was the first thing he had said in a very long time.
“Yep, just a few years ago the cables were installed. But I should warn you: I hear the service is really frustrating. It doesn’t always work, and even when it does it’s very slow,” said Jeff.
“Oh,” Mikey replied, but only looked slightly put out. Gerard knew that Mikey liked to email his friends whenever he got the chance-it was one of the ways that he dealt with stress.
When they continued on, they passed yet another closed room before finally reaching Mikey’s. “This is the master bedroom, actually,” Jeff announced once they were in front of the door, “but it’s not in great shape at the moment, as we haven’t finished the renovating yet.” He opened the door, and everybody stepped in, Mikey trailing behind and looking nervous.
The bed was huge-bigger than in any of the other rooms, in fact. The color scheme of the room seemed to be mostly black and white, but the walls were dark blue. The lighting seemed to be the biggest part of the renovations, because there was a large hole in the ceiling that revealed a tangle of wires. There was a fixture much too small for the hole, and on it was a single light bulb. When Jeff flicked a switch to turn it on, the room was lit up with an eerie blue glow. There was another lamp on the bedside table, but it was small, and Gerard got the feeling it wouldn’t do much to improve the lighting situation.
Mikey looked pretty impassive about the whole thing, but Gerard could sense his trepidation. Mikey had a knack for picking up things that other people normally wouldn’t-some would call it paranoia, but Gerard just thought he had good intuition. So, Mikey’s unease didn’t do much to ease Gerard’s own.
“I don’t know if anyone told you, but this house was actually built for a silent film star from the 20’s and his wife,” Jeff started, and everyone perked up to listen to him. They were all incredibly curious about the house, and what it had been used for in the past.
“Antonio Moreno, I believe his name was, and his wife was a rich socialite by the name of Daisy Canfield. True, large parts of the house had to be rebuilt after that earthquake I mentioned earlier, but I’d imagine this was their bedroom when they lived here.”
“Yeah?” Frank said, looking around. Gerard could have sworn he felt some sort of breeze brush past his cheek, but he didn’t dwell on it. Even if it did make the little hairs on the back of his neck stand up.
“Indeed,” Jeff said, nodding. “That’s not the most interesting part, though. Again, I don’t know if you’ve heard, but there are some stories that go around about this house. Folklore, really, but it’s interesting nonetheless. Some strange goings-on have occurred here, ever since Daisy Canfield died.” Gerard shot a look at Mikey, and saw that he looked simultaneously frightened and riveted. “As it turns out, her car went right off Mulholland Drive one day, and needless to say, she was killed in the wreck. Nobody really knows what happened that day-some think it was murder, others say it was a freak accident. Either way, the real folklore is the rumor that her ghost haunts this place.”
Ray laughed nervously. “Do you believe that?” It wasn’t a condescending question, just genuine curiosity.
“I’m not sure,” Jeff said thoughtfully. “I’ve experienced some strange phenomena living here, but others have claimed to have experienced some far stranger ones. There’s definitely something odd about this place, and it manifests differently for everyone. I guess you’ll just have to see what happens and figure it out for yourself.” Jeff winked at them, and Mikey’s eyebrows were so far up that they disappeared under his bangs. Mikey was always into supernatural stuff, so Gerard knew that this would either fascinate or terrify him.
It was silent for a while, but not in an awkward way-everyone was sort of just processing what Jeff had just told them. A few moments passed, and the distinct sound of a car door slamming jolted them from their thoughts.
Jeff looked at his watch. “Oh, that must be Peter, the other caretaker. I’d better go down and help him take your bags up.”
“We’ll come, too,” Bob offered, never one to allow people to wait on him. The rest of the guys nodded, but Gerard groaned inwardly at the prospect of lugging his huge bags up that hill.
They walked downstairs and back to the billiard room, where Jeff exited through a door they hadn’t seen before. He walked outside and looked around before turning towards them and laughing. “Did you guys park all the way down the hill?” Bob nodded. “I’m so sorry, I should have had someone tell you about this entrance.”
Sure enough, they looked outside and saw that there was more road only a few yards away. Gerard groaned, realizing they had made their long trek upwards for naught earlier.
The guy that had picked them up at the airport was there, and he was in the process of dragging one of Mikey’s heavy bags out of the trunk. Thankfully, it had wheels, so he was able to set it down after the initial heave. “Let me help you with that,” Bob called, jogging over to him to take the bag and begin walking back towards the house with it. The guy (Peter, Gerard assumed) smiled at him gratefully and thanked him.
“I guess we’ll put them in the live room for now, and we can sort them out later?” Bob asked. The rest of them shrugged, then walked over to the car to start taking their bags out.
After ten minutes of back-and-fourth between the car and the live room, the seven of them managed to get all the bags out of the car. Then, they all sat down on the sofas to rest while Jeff and Peter tried to figure out if there was anything else they needed to tell them.
“Oh!” Peter said finally, holding up a finger. “Your manager called me about an hour ago. He wanted me to tell you that your gear will be arriving tomorrow, and that you can set up then. He also wanted me to remind you to rest today, because you must be really tired from the plane ride.”
“Thanks,” Gerard said. “We’re kind of used flying actually, but I guess we are pretty tired.” Frank nodded emphatically and Mikey tried to stifle a yawn.
“Okay, we’re going to get going pretty soon, but I just wanted to mention a couple more things,” Jeff said, uncrossing his legs and moving forward on the couch a little. “First of all, the cell phone reception here is absolutely terrible, if not nonexistent. If you want to use your phones, you’ll have to walk a bit down the road. It must be a dead-zone over here or something, because it doesn’t matter what kind of phone you have-it just won’t work.
“That being said, there are a few landlines around the house. They’re kind of flaky, especially in the rain, and they’ll only work if you use a calling card. We left a few on the dining room table, and if you run out, you can buy more in town. And remember, if you have any questions or problems, you can contact either Peter or myself.” Jeff and Peter got up from the couch, and Gerard stood up to bid them farewell. They all shook hands and exchanged thank-yous and goodbyes, walking back towards the billiard room, outside which Peter had parked his car.
“Alright boys, we’ll see you in two months!” Peter said with a smile and a wink, and then all at once, they were in the car, then just completely gone.
Gerard realized somewhere in his head that he was completely alone with his four best friends, and it felt far weirder than it should have.
[//]
That first night, they all went to bed at eleven, but Gerard was pretty sure that none of them fell asleep right away. It was so strange being in such a lavish room-for some reason, it felt nothing like a hotel, even though it should have. It was more comfortable, but less comforting at the same time. Hotels were something Gerard was used to; he was used to upping at leaving, and settling down in a different room every night. For some reason, this was so completely different. Perhaps because it was much larger than any hotel he would have ever stayed in, or perhaps it was just because he knew he would be there for more than a couple nights. Either way, he found himself lying stiffly underneath the covers, trying to fall asleep to no avail. Every ten minutes or so, he’d notice that his brow was furrowed, and he’d have to make the conscious effort to relax it before he could go back to trying to fall asleep. Somewhere amongst all this, he vaguely registered the sound of a door somewhere close by opening, but he just assumed that someone was using the bathroom.
After about an hour of lying perfectly still and not sleeping, Gerard decided that he needed a cigarette. Thankfully, he had the foresight of placing a flashlight on his bedside table, so he was able to locate his shoes, cigarettes, and lighter without much difficulty. He didn’t want to smoke inside the house, because Ray would kill him if he smelled it, so instead he tried to find his way to the ballroom so he could exit through the door near the pool.
It took him longer than it should have, but in all fairness, it was a rather large house. He made a couple wrong turns, but eventually he reached his destination, belatedly realizing that his room was pretty much directly above it.
Keeping the beam of his flashlight trained on the ground, Gerard looked around for some sort of awning he could stand under while he smoked. The rain was still falling hard, and he didn’t fancy the idea of trying to light his smoke in that kind of weather. He eyed the stone tower warily for a moment before deciding to take the chance.
He entered cautiously, jumping at every little movement he saw out of the corner of his eye. The tower was constructed in a way that allowed very little light in past the entrance, so Gerard was very thankful for his flashlight indeed. Keeping a careful eye on his feet, he climbed the staircase, unconsciously counting the steps, perhaps just to fill his head with noise so he wouldn’t get too scared.
When he reached the top, he let out a sigh of relief, but it quickly turned to a gasp when he saw something move from across the room. He had about two seconds of panic before whatever it was called out to him.
“Jesus Christ! You scared the shit out of me, Gerard!” It was Frank, sounding every bit as flustered as Gerard felt.
“Fuck, I’m sorry,” he said, laughing to relieve the tension in his body. “I had no idea you were up here.”
“Yeah, well you weren’t the only one who couldn’t sleep,” Frank answered, folding a leg underneath him. He was sitting on a bench, and had been facing the solitary window until Gerard walked in. “This place is fucking creepy, man.”
“I know,” Gerard muttered. “Do you mind? I wanted to have a smoke, but it’s pouring out there.”
“Nah. I was just thinking,” Frank answered, shifting back towards the window. Gerard walked over at sat next to him.
“Well thank goodness for that. I’m pretty sure I’ve walked in on worse.”
“Worse than thinking?” Frank laughed. “Impossible.” Gerard stuck a cigarette between his lips and shielded the end as he tried to light it. He had to flick his lighter open a few times, but eventually, it lit up. He took a long drag, blowing it out slowly and watching Frank out of the corner of his eye. Frank was looking out the window of the tower, and Gerard took a moment to appreciate the strange sort of beauty that the rain held when light was selectively refracted by the individual drops; it looked like a wall of sparks falling in front of the window, dissipating as soon as it passed.
“I have a weird feeling about this place,” Gerard said quietly, his legs crossed and one of his arms resting on his elevated knee. He didn’t look at Frank.
“You’re not alone, man,” Frank said, shaking his head. “But I think it’ll be good for us, you know? We write really moody music, and doing that is way harder in a fancy studio in New York.”
“I guess you’re right,” Gerard conceded reluctantly. “But either way, I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.”
There was a strange sort of tension between the two of them at that moment. Gerard remembered it well, from that night they had spent on the couch in Gerard’s apartment a few days earlier; it wound a spring somewhere in Gerard’s chest, tight but not unpleasant.
Frank tilted his head, and let it rest on Gerard’s shoulder. He nearly jumped at the unexpected contact, but instead just breathed sharply, jerking his hand to his mouth so he could take another puff. When his hand returned to his lap, Frank reached over and snatched the cigarette from him, taking a long draw before holding it out for Gerard to take back. There was something oddly intimate about this gesture, and Gerard felt extremely uncomfortable all of a sudden. He felt heat being trapped beneath the collar of his shirt, and he may have even felt a sharp twist in the pit of his stomach.
When Gerard reached out to take his cigarette back, Frank’s fingers brushed his, and suddenly he was ridiculously light-headed. He felt like he was an outsider, passively observing the Movie of His Life, like he had no actual control over what he was doing, and like everything that was happening wasn’t really happening to him, or at least not at that moment. Perhaps sometime in the past or future, but not at that moment.
They were very still for several minutes, and a significant portion of Gerard’s cigarette burnt out on its own before he had the presence of mind to smoke it. Most of the space in Gerard’s head was taken up by frantic and mostly nonsensical thoughts, and the sound of Frank’s breathing (soft, even, calm, steady) filled the rest. Gerard’s free hand was slowly rising, poised and ready to rest itself on the spot just above Frank’s hip, but Gerard’s head was telling it not to, because maybe he was reading too much into this, or maybe Frank would if he went through with the action. Eventually, the hand won over Gerard’s thoughts, and Gerard heard more than saw Frank smile.
Gerard’s head rested against Frank’s, and the silence became more comfortable as Gerard told himself to stop thinking so much and he reluctantly obeyed.
When Gerard was done with his cigarette, he let the smoldering butt drop to the floor, and he smothered it with his shoe without moving any other part of his body. Free from the cigarette, Gerard’s right hand rested on his leg, and was soon covered by Frank’s hand. Frank played with his fingers absently, and Gerard felt his heart pounding in his throat for a few moments before he accepted it and calmed down.
Gerard quickly lost track of the time; the rain didn’t fall any harder and the tower didn’t get any darker, but Frank did seem to get warmer with a comforting and sleepy heat, and Gerard was completely okay with that.
[//]
If you like the idea of the Paramour as a setting for a fic, you should probably check out Sun Shower, a standalone I wrote a couple weeks back. I consider it a sort of alternate plotline to this story, I suppose. It definitely takes place in Inertia-verse.
chapter five