Coalesce In Darkness ♡ Frerard

FOURTEEN

Are you ready? I'm ready.

——

The challenge of finding where Gerard had run off to was cut short when Frank passed by Laila as he paced through the halls. The vampire stopped him briefly to tell him Gerard had stormed off into his own chambers with the door swinging shut behind him, but the clicking of the lock was an absent noise amongst all the others of a man making a scene not of strictly anger, but distress evident in the energy exuding from his stance, as Laila had said so. Frank thanked her for the guidance and continued past the steps, down the hall, standing in front of the door serving as a division between himself and Gerard.

Frank bit his lip in hesitation. The last thing he wanted was to argue with Gerard about the same thing, the tender subject of his safety and the lengths Gerard would go to in order to preserve it as smoothly as possible. Frank couldn't deny that, despite the kindness imbedded into the eyes of his vampire, the worst part of him was his selfishness, the need to keep Frank all to himself in order to assure he was safe without putting thought into the things that may have been running through Frank's mind. Frank understood his point of view, and he wanted nothing more but to prevent his vampire from feeling another agonizing experience of loss, but there were some things Frank wasn't willing to allow slip away just for the reassurance of a man he'd truly known for far less time than the other person whose life may have been at stake.

Frank pulled in a deep breath before he laid his hand over the cool brass of the doorknob. Twisting it slowly, he listened to the click of the door opening before he pushed it open and peered inside. At first glance, Frank could tell the glow inside the room was artificial, no lively beams of sunshine seeped through the windows and onto the hard wooden floors that creaked as the man inside paced slowly through the bedroom. The curtains were deep red and thick velvet as they draped over the windows and fell to the ground, like a grand red curtain as a theatre from long ago. The room different from Frank's, being bathed in the gothic shades of elegant plum and blood red, the sheets and the pillows mounted onto a bed fit for a king as it stood on golden frames and bedposts. Candles smelling of fresh pine and sweet apples spread their scent through the air, adding to the golden pouring over the dark walls and flooring from the lamp perched on a wide desk.

Inside was Gerard. Agitated, distressed, clenching his pale fist around an object Frank couldn't decipher what it was until he peered closer and realized what was hanging from his wrist was a string of crystal beads leading down to a small, golden cross-- a rosary wrapped around Gerard's wrist, clenched in his hand, and swinging back and forth like a pendulum in tune with each of his movements. Frank wasn't shocked that the vampire held the ability to hold a holy accessory in his hands, but surprised by its appearance at his arm when he'd never seen such a thing even draped around Gerard's neck. Frank was under the impression that vampires didn't harbor much faith within them when their kind seemed exiled as evil, but now as he puzzled over the rosary's ownership in the pale hands of Gerard, he could easily imagine Gerard having at least a single shred of faith left within him that had him grabbing onto a string of holy beads and clouding his mind with thoughts going unknown to Frank. He wasn't praying, however, and this was clear enough in the way he paced.

"That was quite a scene you made out there." Frank said to announce his presence. He stepped through the door, pushing it behind him until it swung shut with a gentle quick.

Gerard's pacing didn't halt, but slowed, his eyes darting over to Frank once and falling back down to the rosary in his hand. "I wasn't putting on any show as you may think I was."

Frank sighed. Looking at Gerard, anxiousness was creeping up the knobs and contours of his spine, sensing the negatively coursing through the air like a hot current of energy sparking into Frank's flesh and zapping his very core. The creaking of the floorboards did nothing to ease the atmosphere and Frank couldn't take watching Gerard walk back and forth at a slowly increasing speed that started to blur his form in a sea of black and white smudges alongside the winking light of the room's glow flashing over the crystal beads in Gerard's hand.