Bloodstained Bathtubs and an Absence of Death (Frerard)

2 - The Abnormal Victim

"Who's that?" A voice questioned from behind me. Shit. I could have sworn I closed the door behind me this morning after I had gone to get myself some coffee from the kitchen...

Turning around in the chair that was sitting alongside my bed, I offered a pleasant smile to my younger brother. I imagine it must've looked strange from his perspective- me, a distant loner, sitting next to my bed that contained a stranger who was fast asleep. I had to admit, it was honestly a bit out of the ordinary to begin with.

"A friend," I replied, turning my back to him once again. "I met him last night at the bar". I paused, trying to think of as many details I could lie about to make the situation sound believable. "I started talking to him just for the hell of it. He ended up drinking too much though, so I decided to let him stay the night with me".

My brother approached cautiously, taking a glimpse at the man in my bed. He still seemed to be processing what I was telling him.

"Did you ask him, or just, you know... bring him home with you?" He asked, refusing to take his eyes off of the stranger.

"Mikey, what does it matter to you?" I asked as I leaned in front of his line of vision to redirect his eyes. "This is no big deal. Once he wakes up, I'm sure he'll be on his way. He seemed like a nice guy, and I just wanted to make sure he didn't end up getting killed by drunk driving or anything last night". I had to hide the smile that came to my face at that. The irony was just too much.

"What's his name?" he questioned, attempting to glance around me at the bed again.

I groaned, "Frank- Frank Iero. Happy now? Or are you not done interrogating me yet?"

"Sorry, it's just..." he trailed off. He bit his lip, thinking to himself for a silent moment. "Last time I checked, you don't really... like other people. Especially not strangers".

I scoffed, "That's not true. I tolerate you and Ray just fine".

"Yeah, tolerate," he repeated, finally stepping away from where Frank was sleeping soundly under the covers.

"Oh Mikey, you know I love you," I called after him, smirking to myself as he finally left the room.

Once he closed the door behind him, and I was sure he wasn't planning on coming back in anytime soon, I abandoned my spot on the chair to sit on the bed next to Frank instead.

My younger brother, Mikey, was one of my two roommates. The other was a friend to both of us- Ray. Neither of them knew what I liked to do in my spare time. They both knew I was very strange, but what they didn't know, however, was that I was the mysterious man behind all of the murders that had been occurring around the city recently. Some days I'd be out all night, but half of the time they didn't even notice. As long as I remembered to wash the blood off of my hands before I returned home, they didn't suspect a thing.

I was starting to wonder how long Frank would sleep for. I was getting fed up with it really. I had to be there when he woke up so I could deal with him if he were to freak out, but he was barely even stirring. I didn't want to spend my whole day watching him, even if he was quite pleasing to look at.

At about 11:00 am I couldn't take it anymore. I always got up early, so this was making me lose my mind. Enough with letting him get his beauty sleep, I was going to wake him regardless of whether or not he needed more time to rest and heal from the wounds I had given him.

After shaking the living daylights out of him, Frank lazily rubbed his eyes and inspected my bedroom with curious eyes, until he spotted me to his left. Suddenly, nothing else interested him. He studied me from head to toe, while I nervously waited for him to recognize me. I stayed close- I had to be ready just in case he was to scream or attempt to escape, which would be easy now that he was sober, or else we were going to have a big problem.