Disclaimer: I don't own anything MCR-related, 'cus I wouldn't be sharing them if I did. ^_~

Email: EverNight1788@hotmail.com

***

"Come back here, you deviant little slut!"

Hearing this, even all the way down in his room, Gerard knew that Lili was in trouble. He hurried to the front door and swung it open as his and Mikey's friend and neighbor came running wild-eyed towards him. She hurried inside and Gerard slammed and locked the door quickly before turning to his shaking friend.

"Hey, are you all right?" he asked gently. "Lilith?"

The ebon-haired girl nodded unsteadily. "He didn't get me this time. Can I stay a while?"

"You know you can," replied Gerard with a smile. Lilith smiled back gratefully and gave him a light hug. Gerard returned the hug. "Wanna play some video games?"

Lilith grinned. "Always." They went into the Way living room where Mikey was already blasting the hell out of some zombies. He looked up as the pair entered and smiled.

"Hey Lil, how're you doing?" he asked. Lilith smiled.

"All right, I guess." She dropped down on the couch next to him, knowing she was welcome in the Way house anytime, since both Gerard and Mikey and their parents had told her so numerous times. She sighed in relief and gazed around. It was a weird family room, but she liked it. It was different. It was comfortable. It helped her to forget the real reason she was there.

Lilith sighed and pushed her black hair out of her eyes. Violet eyes. Unnatural eyes. Inhuman eyes. It was the sight of those eyes that had made her mother, a foot-washing Puritan, abandon her at birth, giving her only the name 'Lilith'. The name of the queen of demons.

Well why the hell not?

Lilith's father was a councilman in the town, a very important member of society. Because of this, he was free to abuse Lilith as much as he pleased and never worry about repercussions. She didn't even try to hide her bruises and cuts, or lie about where they came from. What was the point? Everyone knew the truth anyway. It was just that no one had the authority, or the balls, to do something about it. So Lilith suffered openly with no hope of help for at least three more years when she'd turn eighteen and be able to get the hell out of New Jersey and away from her father.

"Will you raise me up, will you help me down?

Will you get me right out of this godforsaken town?

Will you make it all a little less cold?"

"I can do that," Gerard sang in response. Lilith looked at him and he smiled. "I can do that."

"Score!" yelled Mikey, blowing up a warehouse full of zombies. Lilith just smiled at Gerard and mouthed "Thanks," before turning back to the game. Gerard smiled at Lilith for a moment longer. She really didn't deserve what she went through, but there was nothing he could do. He was just a seventeen-year-old kid, Mikey's weird, introverted older brother. No one wanted to listen to him.

Well they'd change all that one day.

The trio played video games for a while longer, variously blasting zombies, aliens, and bad guys with mustaches to pieces before getting bored. Gerard showed the two his newest drawings, Lilith offered some opinions on ideas for comics, and Gerard drew pictures she dictated with meticulous detail while Mikey watched, fascinated by his brother's talent.

"Hey, could you draw me with one foot on my father's dead body, holding a bloody machete in one hand and his severed head in the other?" Lilith asked with a wicked grin. Gerard and Mikey both returned the grin as Gerard started drawing the picture, glancing up at Lilith from time to time to capture her features properly. Within fifteen minutes it was finished. Gerard signed it and handed it to Lilith with a flourish. She laughed and accepted the paper as though it was a priceless treasure. She smiled up at the Way brothers.

"What would I do without you guys?" she asked.

"Be glad you don't have to find out," answered Mikey, hugging Lilith lightly. Just then Donna Way came into the room.

"Hey honey, you want to stay the night?" she asked Lilith. "I'll set up the couch in the family room for you."

"Thank you, Mrs. Way, but I think it's better if I go home," said Lilith, though it was clear she wanted to stay. "My dad's mad enough. Better not to rub salt into the wound, y'know." Mrs. Way nodded sympathetically before closing the door again. Lilith glanced at Gerard's clock - a black resin dragon with outstretched wings gripping the round clock face in its long talons, which she had given him for his birthday - and sighed. "I have to go."

"You do realize that it's virtually impossible for you to overstay your welcome here, right?" asked Mikey. Lilith nodded unhappily. Mikey sighed and hugged Lilith. "Come over after school tomorrow, OK?"

Lilith looked up at him with a smile. "Definitely. I'll tell Lucifer that we all got paired up to work together on a project or something." She usually referred to her father as some form of the Devil, so the Ways knew who she was talking about. Gerard hugged her good-bye and the brothers walked her to the door.

"We're gonna get out of here someday," Gerard said reassuringly. "As soon as we're outta high school, we'll all get out of here. I'll get an apartment in New York or something and we'll all escape." Lilith smiled.

"I really can't wait." Waving, she slipped into the crisp night and towards her house next door. The brothers watched her go, shutting and locking the door once she was completely out of sight.

The next day in school, the Way brothers were in for a nasty shock when they saw Lilith: her lip was split and swollen, and her left eye was encased in a purple-red shiner.

"What happened?!" yelped Mikey. Lilith looked at him and then Gerard.

"He found the picture," was all she said. Gerard grimaced as he and his brother hugged their friend tightly. "He says I'm never to see either of you again. I say he can go fuck himself. I'm sick of this shit. I really am. Guys, I'm getting tired of living."

"No, don't say that!" said Gerard sharply. "You've got us. We'll never let you go, ever. We're going to escape from here, remember? We're going to get out. We'll take care of you 'til then. Just hold on, OK? For us?" Lilith managed to smile.

"Alright. Just because it's you guys," she replied. The rest of the day they stuck together as much as they could, given their different classes. Mikey and Lilith were in a few of the same classes because they were only a year apart, but Gerard was in all different classes from them. Still, they had lunch together. That was usually an enjoyable time for them, all of them laughing and making jokes, talking about their escape plan. But that day Lilith was unusually quiet and reserved. She was never shy around Gerard and Mikey, but she was acting like she did the first day she met them: like a cornered rabbit, eyes darting around for an escape from human contact.

"Hello? Anybody in there?" asked Mikey in her ear. Not loudly, just there. Lilith shook her head. Mikey frowned, exchanging concerned glances with his brother. "Hey, what's wrong?" he asked, slipping his arm around her shoulders. Lilith sighed and looked up at him and Gerard.

"You guys " she said hesitantly. "You know I love you right? You're my only family. You know that I'd never want to hurt you."

"Lili, you're scaring me," said Gerard. "You're not going to-"

"Good God, Gerry, you think I'm such an unprincipled character," said Lilith with a dismissive wave of her hand. "I'm not going to off myself, I swear. I'm just afraid that one of these days Charlie is going to do it first." Charlie - Charles - was her father's name, and how she addressed him when speaking to him directly.

"Lilith," said Gerard firmly, "we will never let that happen. Ever. Don't be afraid of him." Lilith smiled.

"I guess you're right, as usual." She opened up after that, but there was still something wrong about her attitude. Still, she was an odd duck, as the saying goes. Even Gerard and Mikey couldn't figure her out completely, just better than anyone else. At the end of the day Gerard drove them home in his little Subaru, dropping Lilith at her driveway. They didn't want to risk another assault from her father if he found out she went to the Way house again when he said not to. To the brothers' surprise, Lilith kissed them each quickly on the cheek before giving them a sad smile and leaving. The boys shared uneasy looks. Something was going to happen that night. And it was not going to be good for anyone.

The wail of police sirens woke Gerard and Mikey late that night. Pretty much used to the sound, the two turned over and tried to sleep again.

That is, until they realized the sirens were right outside their house.

Both boys jumped out of bed and rushed outside. Police cars and ambulances were parked outside Lilith's house, policemen questioning everyone around. The boys ran to see what was happening.

"What's going on?" Gerard asked one of the officers. The man looked at him sadly.

"Did you know the girl who lived here?" he asked.

"What do you mean, 'lived'?" demanded Mikey shakily. "What happened? Where's Lilith?"

"We don't know," answered the policeman heavily.

Gerard's eyes widened. "What's going on? I want to see what's happened in there!" Without waiting for permission he ran into the house, Mikey close behind. They ran to Lilith's room and stopped dead in abject horror at what they saw. The entire room was drenched in blood. There was blood soaked into the rug, dripping down the walls, seeping into the cracks between the floorboards. No one could lose that much blood and live. There was no doubting it: Lilith, their best friend, was dead.

The Way brothers screamed.

The next few weeks were hard on the Way family. They had all liked Lilith very much, and her death was hard to accept, especially since Gerard and Mikey had seen the murder scene. They could practically hear her screams in that blood-drenched room. Her father had finally been convicted, only now it was too late to do any good. He confessed to the abuse, but insisted he had nothing to do with her death. Yet he couldn't explain the bloody crowbar - the presumed murder weapon - with his fingerprints on it found under his bed. The jury was merciless. It brought no comfort or closure to either of the Way brothers, who had loved Lilith as a friend and a sister. They had been planning on going to a college together, so close was their friendship. They had thought that nothing would ever tear them apart.

'This must be God's way of sticking His Almighty Middle Finger up at us,' Gerard thought despondently, taking a deep drag on his cigarette and sighing as he knelt in front of Lilith's memorial site. She had no grave; her body had never been found. Instead there was a grave marker with a picture of Lilith set into it and a small candle burning set in Lilith's favorite place: under a group of birch trees in the park where she had met Gerard and Mikey.

The picture on the stone smiled at Gerard, who scowled back. Lilith wouldn't have liked it; it was too fake. The smile wasn't genuine at all. It was her last school picture, and Lilith had always said that no one looks good in a school photo.

"Where are you, Lil?" muttered Gerard. "Did he do this to you? Did he finally fucking do it? Did that son of a bitch murder you?" The picture didn't respond, of course, just smiled sweetly. Gerard sighed again. "I brought you a present," he said, laying a bouquet of flowers on the makeshift grave. "Orchids. Your favorite. See, I told you I wouldn't forget." He felt a hand squeeze his shoulder and he sighed once more. "Hey Mikey."

"Hey." Mikey sat on the ground next to his brother. "You OK?"

"No," answered Gerard. "Nothing's been OK since Lilith well, you know. Since all that. I miss her."

"I know," said Mikey sympathetically, pulling his brother into a hug. "I miss her too. This wasn't supposed to happen. It wasn't supposed to be this way." Gerard hugged his brother back, unable to look away from the smiling countenance of his best friend on the cold grey stone.

"I wanted to ask her to go to prom with me," he said softly. Mikey looked at him in surprise. Gerard looked back mournfully. "I really did. I wanted her to be my date."

"You never said anything," said Mikey wonderingly. "Not even to me." He paused thoughtfully for a moment before asking, "Gerard did you ?"

"I wanted to," said Gerard. "I wanted to love her. I liked her a lot, so I wanted to see if she wanted to try going further. It felt right when I thought about it. But now-" His voice broke and he stopped, breathing deeply to keep from crying. He would never cry in front of Lilith. He rubbed at his eyes furiously, trying to keep the tears back. Mikey hugged him again.

"She would have," he said gently. "She had a crush on you for a while." Gerard looked up at his younger sibling curiously.

"How do you know?" he asked.

"She told me," Mikey answered. "She asked me to keep it a secret, unless there was a way to set the two of you up together. It seemed like a good idea to me - don't get me wrong, I loved her as a friend, but she was more your type than mine for a romantic relationship - but I couldn't tell if you were interested or not and asking outright would have made you suspicious."

Gerard sighed yet again, his heart heavy with emotions. "We could have been something, y'know? We were supposed to get away together, you, me, and her, get out of this godforsaken town and find something better."

"I know," said Mikey gently, hugging his brother. "And she'd want us to do that, don't you think? Even though her dad's in prison now and she doesn't have to be afraid for us, she'd want us to escape like we always planned to."

"Yeah," said Gerard, "she would. I know she would. I just don't want to leave her yet."

"When we're ready, we'll go," Mikey answered simply. "We'll go together."