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“I don’t love you like I did yesterday…” Gerard and Ray murmured the newly-written song, trying to find the perfect pitch to harmonize in. You sat by your drum set, watching them and looking around the old basement (which had been fashioned into a modern recording and rehearsal studio). The walls were padded with foam, though the floors were still their old 1920s cracked grey cement. Even if it looked scruffy and old, it had something to it, the whole mansion did. But, even if the mansion was gorgeous and luxurious, it was incredibly haunted. You would hear whispers and footsteps once the lights were off, and things were even moved; glasses and vases falling and shattering, all your clothing being strewn out on the floor when you woke up in the morning, it was usual.
All of you suspected, or rather knew, that this house was haunted. Even Frank, who did not believe In ghosts, was convinced there was some otherworldly entity in the house. You weren’t only mentally impacted, but also physically. Gerard, for instance, would come downstairs in the morning with the worst eye bags you’d seen, and he usually wasn’t one to have the clearest skin or the best sleep, but the dark purple rings under his eyes showed something else. He didn’t talk about it for a while, you weren’t sure why, but when you asked him about it he explained these crazy night terrors that were as realistic as could be. He’d broken down crying in front of you and Ray while explaining the horrible things that he saw. Something about people dying and flames, it wasn’t all too coherent through his deafening sobs… Poor boy.
“Hey, I say we call it a day.” Gerard suddenly called, pulling you out of your thoughts. He tended to take the lead in most of these packed rehearsal days. “You guys did well. Let’s order some food,”
You smiled In his direction as you stood up from your seat, though you flopped right back down when you felt your knees cramping from the stiffness. You’d been sitting down and using your feet to drum all day, so it wasn’t weird that you let out a piercing groan of pain.
“Hey man, are you all right?” Frank tilted his head as he looked at you while setting down his guitar and powering off all of his equipment. You nodded and tried to get up a second time, though you felt your legs cramp up again as your position changed. You grimaced.
“I’ll take you upstairs.” Gerard bolted toward you protectively and casually swept you up in his arms. You smiled softly and held onto him, though simultaneously trying to cop some of his body warmth. He softly hummed a tune as he carried you up and out of the basement/ studio, his boots tapped rhythmically against the marble floor and echoed while he swiftly made his way to the main lounging area and placed you down on the oh-so-soft red velvet sofa. You smiled up at him and muttered a soft “thank you”.
You watched as the other three guys stumbled into the room, with Mikey following up behind with his phone pressed to his ear.
“Uh-huh… one cheese, one pepperoni,” He looked up at you and Gerard and covered the microphone on his mobile. “What do you guys want?”
“Uh… pepperoni for me too.” Gerard smiled and plopped down next to you. You wobbled softly, but the balance was evened out when Frank sat on the other side.
“Pineapple for me, what do you want?” Frank turned to you. You shrugged softly.
“Pineapple for me too, I guess.”
Mikey grimaced. “All right, so another pepperoni pizza and two pineapple pizzas, one of those without ham.” You giggled when he customized the order a little, knowing that Frank didn’t eat meat. “Yup, thanks.” Was the last he said before snapping his phone shut and shoving it in his back pocket.
~~~~
You peacefully ate pizza with all the other guys, and even turned on the television, which you didn’t do often due to the annoying echo in the house which the TV speakers obviously weren’t immune to. You’d been slumped against Gerard for the most part, though you switched to Mikey when he took Frank’s place since he’d gone to bed early. He had his lanky arm slung around your back while he lazily ate, his glasses had slid down his nose slightly, though he didn’t seem to care about it.
“Mikes?” You hummed, looking up at Mikey, who didn’t return your gaze but hummed softly to let you know that he was listening. “I think I’m gonna go to bed, it’s getting late.”
Mikey finally turned his head and rested his hazel eyes upon you. He smiled softly as he patted you on the head. “G’night, bub.” He murmured as you stood up. You waved at the others and got two soft goodnight wishes from Gerard and Ray.
You dragged yourself through the comically large and dim-lit house, making your way toward the red-carpeted stairs, leading up to the top floor where all your bedrooms were. Yours was the last one down the slightly curved hall; the 6th door since there was one disconnected bathroom for some reason. You trudged up to your door and pushed it open with a hint of fright. You never knew if something or someone was going to pop out of the opening. Luckily, none of your stuff had been broken or messed with in any way, not that you could tell, at least.
You kicked off your shoes and slung them against your closet lazily, which emitted a hollow thud. Your pajamas were still on the floor from the morning, so you made quick work of tugging your sweaty clothes off and putting on your comfy pajamas. The last thing you had to do before heading to bed was shut your curtains, which you weren’t very fond of since you swore you saw a figure behind it once. You walked across the room and closed your eyes as you grabbed either side of the curtains, tugging them shut in one quick move before turning around and getting into bed. Your head was empty as you stared at the off-white ceiling, which you could only see because of a few rays of moonlight shining through the cracks of your curtains in the first place.
After about a minute of mindless staring, you shut your eyes, enjoying the silence that fell over you. You could only hear your own breathing and heartbeat, along with the soft muffled thoughts in the back of your head, though you didn’t pay too much attention to them for fear of growing anxious and not being able to sleep properly.
You sighed as you felt yourself getting closer and closer to falling asleep, and it didn’t take long for your body to go limp as calmness took over you. Your breath was steady and your mouth opened ever so slightly as you dreamed of something weird, something with dogs and rollercoasters…
You slept for about an hour until a sound woke you up. All memories of your dream vanished almost instantly as your heart began beating, seemingly irrationally. You were confused as to why you’d woken up so suddenly and why you felt panicked, though soon your questions were answered with soft footsteps, they sounded like they came from the foot end of your bed, like someone was pacing around. You figured it could’ve been one of your bandmates, so you opened your eyes and tilted your head toward the spot where there should have been a person.
Nothing. Not even a shadow. The footsteps stopped as if what was pacing around had noticed you being awake. You swallowed thickly as you stared, even dared to look around the room for any sign of life. But there was nothing. You were spooked, obviously, but you needed your precious sleep, so you closed your eyes back up and positioned yourself to comfort. You forgot about the instance pretty quickly, due to how sleepy you still were. You even convinced yourself that you were somehow still dreaming to calm yourself down. You were good for another twenty minutes or so, but the same footsteps pulled you back out of your sleep. This time they sounded like they were coming from the left side of your bed, eerily close to your mattress. You shot up and opened your eyes in the direction swiftly, hoping to catch something if it were standing next to your bed.
Again, nothing.
You rubbed your eyes and shook your head, once again scanning the room for anything, anyone. But it seemed to be completely devoid of life except for you. You were about to attempt to sleep a third time, but your door slowly swung open and caught your attention. You expected to see Ray or Gerard standing in the hallway since they often came to check on you before going to bed, but there was nobody. You shook your head and stared for a little while, then decided to lie down and tug your blanket up over your head.
that’s safe, right?
Wrong, apparently. You heard footsteps nearing your bed, though they weren’t nearly as light and ghostly as the ones before. It sounded like someone was stomping on your wooden floor with heavy, steel-toe work boots. The noise got closer and closer, and the entity seemed to be stomping louder, marching, almost. The noise stopped as you balled up under your sheets, though it was soon replaced by a raspy whisper right next to your ear.
“Fatality is like ghosts in snow”
You shrieked and instinctively punched where the sound was coming from before whipping your head out of the safe blanket cover. You felt a sudden drop in temperature as you peered around, your heart racing and your breath eradicating. You could think of nothing else besides jumping out of bed and running out of the room, so that was exactly what you did. Once again, you looked around your room, from the hallway this time. You huffed as you started walking along the carpeted floor, wanting to find the nearest room that you could hide in. The room nearest to yours was Frank’s, and you could still see a light coming out from under his door. You opened it up and walked into Frank’s bedroom. He looked up from the book that he had been (apparently) reading.
“Hey, what’s up? Gerard said you fell asleep a little while ago.” He tilted his head, investigating your heavy-heaving chest.
“There was a--something- something was in my room.” You muttered through your panic.
“Hey, hey,” Frank patted the bed beside him as he noticed your distress. “Come sit, bub, what happened?” You quickly made your way to his bed, sitting beside him and letting yourself slump against his shoulder. You explained the entire situation while he rubbed your back gently, trying to calm you down the best he could.
“You can just sleep in my bed tonight.” He murmured softly, scooting closer to you to warm your slightly cold body up.
“Thanks…”
“You want a back rub?” Frank offered, seemingly out of nowhere. You shot him a confused look before shrugging and turning your back to him. He brought his hands to your upper back and they were warm as they kneaded all the tension from your shoulders and your back with his skilled fingers. You leaned into him appreciatively and hummed softly, your breath and heart rate slowly settling down again. You could hear him humming a soft song while he massaged you, and he giggled softly as you melted into his touch. The adrenaline wore off and your sleepiness returned steadily. He kept going until he noticed you going a little limp, then told you to turn back around. He giggled as he saw your heavily lidded eyes, aching to fall asleep.
“You’re adorable when you’re all sleepy, you know that?”
You shook your head dismissively.
“Awe, come on. You’re cute and you know it.” He cooed. Usually, he would only coo at you like that if he needed something from you, but this wasn’t the case right now.
“I never get to call you cute.” You opened your eyes a little further to stare at Frank, who stared back adoringly. “You’re cute too, Frankie, admit it.”
“Nope.” He shook his head and furrowed his eyebrows to mimic an angry expression, though he was just joking and exaggerating. “You know when you borrow my shirts? Cutest thing ever.”
Frank watched as your cheeks flared up a pale red color, and he could only giggle at your flustered state.
“Well, you know what?” You retorted. “I think you look cute when I have to cover your fingers in band-aids after you’ve cut them on your guitar.”
“Hey, that’s not even cute.”
“Yes, it is.” You smiled innocently, looking down at Frank’s tattoed hands.
“Fine,” Frank rolled his eyes. “If I let you call me cute, will you sleep?”
You nodded.
“All right, go ahead then.”
“Awe, Frankie, you’re the cutest!” You chuckled, leaning over and pressing a kiss to his cheek. His cheeks changed color too, now matching yours.
“Go sleep, you little shit,” Frank laughed softly before returning the kiss and basically shoving your back down onto the bed. He clicked off the lamp on his side table before tucking you in and pressing up against your back. He wrapped his arms around your protectively and fitted you into his curved figure perfectly, even if he wasn’t the tallest person. You happily snuggled into him and let his body warm yours up before the two of you dozed off to sleep.