Feeling disorientated was certainly something unavoidable in Frank's situation, as he sat there, just a little unsure whether what he saw was real or not, but from the way Lindsey's voice seemed to physical pierce his eardrums, he reckoned that it was.

Although, he reckoned he'd rather live in a reality where Lindsey wasn't yelling at Gerard, and simply for turning up again.

Frank had already figured out that he was going to grow to hate his life as long as he was in the vicinity of the two of them together. Maybe this was why Mikey was such an angsty bitter piece of shit.

Speaking of Mikey, their less than casual argument, had left him sat with Mikey, with Ray at class, and Alicia having gone out for a walk, or maybe just to get away from it all, however Frank was stuck here, due to the fact that he was in danger, even though everyone kept lying to him and insisting that he was going to be fine, and he honestly didn't know which of the two he'd rather believe.

"Is it alright with you if I go and punch one of them in the face?" Mikey broke their silence, leaving Frank to laugh a little, his eyes widening, until he came to conclude that Mikey was actually deadly fucking serious, and sat there, stunned and thankful at least that it wasn't him who was going to get punched in the face.

"Uhh... yeah... if that's gonna make them shut up..." He trailed off, blushing a little.

"Not gonna punch you in the face, not today, stop looking so scared." Mikey rolled his eyes, getting to his feet. "Are you going to insist that I don't punch Gerard as not to fuck up his pretty little face? Because I think Alicia might mind me punching Lindsey, and honestly, I'm much more intimidated by Alicia than I am you."

At this point, Frank looked him dead in the eye and asked him, "did Alicia kill four people?" And then took a moment to wonder why Mikey didn't particularly like him.

Mikey rolled his eyes, "what the fuck is your problem?"

Frank let out a sigh, "the whole going to die shit, you know?"

"Yeah, whatever." Mikey shook his head, "still fucking punching Gerard, try fucking killing me, Frank."

"I wasn't going to." Frank added, his eyes widening a little.

"Then why did you say that? Threatening me?" Mikey narrowed his eyes a little.

"I wasn't threatening you... I was just... just saying... those four people were an accident. I don't want to... I don't want to cause any damage. But punch Gerard, punch whoever you like, I don't mind." And Frank didn't, because they'd both lied to him.

"How about I punch them both?" Mikey suggested, grinning a little: seeming to get just a little bit more enjoyment out of this than he should be.

"Go for it." Frank shrugged it off, brushing his hair away from his face, and watching as Mikey made his way over to where Gerard and Lindsey were caught up in their argument and punched Lindsey, and then Gerard in the face.

"What the fuck?" Lindsey exclaimed, stumbling backwards, leaving Frank to watch in disbelief as within seconds, the bruised skin upon her face began to fade away and her face returned to normal.

"Stop fucking arguing." Mikey snapped, turning to Gerard, whose face hadn't recovered so miraculously quickly, but who in fact had a nasty bruise across his cheek, but indeed look just as displeased as Lindsey did.

"How did your face do that?" Frank exclaimed before he could stop himself, fixated upon Lindsey from across the room.

"Well, Frank, there's this little fucking thing called magic, and I would teach you how to use it if everyone else would just fuck off." She let out a sigh, glancing at Gerard and Mikey.

"Why do we need to fuck off?" Mikey asked, "does this mean I can leave and you won't bother me again?"

"Why the fuck did you punch us- you can't hit girls- you can hit people-"

"Oh for fuck's sake, Gerard, don't give me that you can't hit girls bullshit, you know where that originates from? The belief that girls can't fight back, and believe me, I can fucking fight back-"

"Do you two seriously manage to get into an argument about everything?" Mikey shook his head in disbelief, "look, Gerard, come on, let's go."

Gerard looked as if he was about to complain, but instead just let out an odd kind of strangled noise before following his brother out of the room.

"I don't want to get you angry with me, Frank," Lindsey began as soon as they'd left, "but don't get too close to Gerard, okay?"

Frank looked down, trying to avoid the fact that her face was deadly serious, smile free: the truth, no bullshit - he knew that now, and perhaps there was more to Lindsey, perhaps there was more to Gerard too, well he knew there was, he just didn't know how much.

In fact, there were an awful lot of things Frank didn't know about either of them, about the both of them, about the two of them as a finger. However, these were the things he assumed Mikey knew, and Mikey walked around looking largely homicidal most of the time, so Frank wondered if it was simply better off that he didn't.

"Yeah, so could we actually get started?" Frank suggested, getting up off the sofa, "because whatever, can we just... maybe I'm going to die, maybe I'm not - it's whatever, I want to do something."

"You sound awfully calm about it all." Lindsey noted with a raised eyebrow.

"Well, I mean, having to listen to you two argue for extended periods of time can drive anyone to all kinds of insane thinking."

She laughed a little at that, making her way over to Frank and opening a book that Ray had left out on the table, "so okay," she flicked through it a little, "so, okay, this book is a pile of bullshit," she closed it and turned to face Frank, meeting his eyes, "I'll just teach you the best I can."

"You seem to know what you're doing, so that's fine," Frank lips parted into an awkward smile.

"Only seem to?" Lindsey laughed a little, "should I start getting offended?"

-

It hadn't turned out to be as complicated as Frank had imagined it to be - magic, that was, at least the simple stuff, not like setting fire to buildings and shit, but things like moving cups, and oddly enough, for the first time in his life, he seemed to find himself to be naturally talented at something.

Lindsey had explained that it was really all about focusing your mind, and clearing it of everything else before focusing really strong on what you wanted to happen - apparently it was down to influence, and that everyone had much more of an effect on the world that they would like to think, and well, some people could focus and use that influence.

And when she'd explained it like that, it didn't sound quite so bizarre anymore.

Because okay, Lindsey was not also extremely talented when it came to starting arguments and disrupting everyone's life, but at magic and also teaching it; she actually knew what she was talking about, and once given the opportunity to, was more than inclined to help Frank understand it too.

Frank had just managed to get the cup she'd placed down on the table to move back and forth slowly, and was perhaps excessively proud of himself for it, but honestly, he hadn't even thought this kind of shit was possible before people had starting dying, so you had to see where he was coming from.

"You should try lifting up now," Lindsey suggested, watching the cup as Frank focused upon it, "it's gonna take more effort, at least the first time, because well, this all becomes so much easier once you've gotten used to it, like at some point, it just about becomes natural. I'd say, mostly, well for the easier things, it's like that for me."

And Frank let out a gasp as the cup moved up off the table, "fuck," he exclaimed, his eyes widening a little as it hovered just a few centimeters away from the table.

"How long can you hold it there?" Lindsey asked him, smiling, and watching as he struggled a little, before the cup fell back down onto the table with an awkward clatter.

"Not very long." Frank told her, leaning back against the sofa and letting out a sigh.

"Well, it's fine, it's all just practice. Most simple things are like that, just focusing your mind, and then there are actual spells with ingredients and shit, but those are like... they're generally bad shit, I wouldn't go into them, because you need to make up for things in the planet and the way the world works - it's logical, say you give yourself immunity to poison or whatever, you need to make up for that with your spell, so the ingredients aren't the most fun things in the world..." she trailed off, letting out a sigh. "But, you're doing good, just practice little things in your daily life, like try and get a pencil to move across the room to you instead of going up and getting it, you know?"

Frank nodded, before meeting her gaze, "have you ever done one of those spells?" He asked, before he could quite talk it into himself that it might have been a bad idea.

Lindsey let out a sigh, raising her eyebrows at Frank, "you notice shit, I'll give you that." She nodded a little, "twice."

"What did you do?" Frank asked, his eyes widening a little. "Was it dangerous?"

She nodded, "see, I'm not just a pretty face, hell, I'm not even really that. You see you saw my face heal itself earlier? Well, this is a pretty face, this is the face I had when I was seventeen and will have for the rest of my life - it's superficial, really, but I... when I was eighteen... something happened and I got this really fucking ugly big scar down my face, and it could be stitched up, but it was always visible and I couldn't fucking deal with people staring at it." She let out a sigh, turning away a little.

"Oh..." Frank nodded slowly, "and the other time?"

Lindsey let out a sigh, brushing her hair away from her face, "far less superficial, I'd say. It was some... some really fucked up shit, honestly, but it's not my shit, I just helped someone solve it a few years ago, when I was nineteen, so, I can't talk about it. I don't think you'd want to hear about it either, honestly."

"Yeah... okay." Frank nodded, pulling the cup off the table again, "I'm totally getting better at this, though."

"Yeah," Lindsey smiled, nodding, "you totally are. Hey, sorry for causing so many arguments, I just... I don't like Gerard, and it was easier to forget about when I wasn't spending time with him. And I don't really like that other people just seem to love him."

"You loved him once, though, you dated him." Frank told her, "and now you hate him. I guess it wasn't a fun break up."

She shrugged at that, "something like that." She shrugged a little, "don't let him fuck you over- hey, look, if there's gonna be fucking involved, you fuck him over- sorry, I don't really know what I'm saying anymore."

Frank let out a sigh, "can't fuck him, though- not that I, I just... don't have a dick." He let out a sigh, looking up at Lindsey, "I was born a girl. He knows, and it's cool, I mean, I'm kind of used to it by now, I just, I don't know, it really sucks you know. I'd give anything to just be a normal fucking guy... can you do that... like with magic?"

"And I thought I told you not to go there." Lindsey narrowed her eyes a little.

"And yet you did. Twice." He reminded her, brushing his hair away from his face, "there is, isn't there?"

"Probably." She told him, "I haven't specifically looked into it, but-"

"And... is there... is there one to bring someone back to life?-"

"Do not go there." She stood up, raising her voice, "do not fucking go there, I've been there, but honestly, no, Frank, no."

"So that's what you did-"

"It was someone else's mess, I was just helping clean up, and honestly it wasn't fun, you know? The whole keeping things in balance thing - a life for a life. Don't go there." She met Frank's eyes, "you've caused enough shit as it is."

"Gerard promised me he'd help get Jamia back." Frank told her.

"And that's why I don't like him - he makes promises he can't keep, he puts people in danger, and he ruins people's lives." She let out a sigh, running a hand back through her hair.

"I've got to get to class soon." Frank muttered, "do you think we can run the risk of me dying outside this room?" He laughed a little.

"I think we'll be alright," she nodded, "anyway, I doubt you're really in any sort of direct danger right now," she added with a smile.

-

Frank was a little late to class, which had come as a result of walking really fucking slowly for a great portion of the journey because he'd found himself with this unshakeable feeling that someone was specifically following him, and following him with intent, and far from good intentions.

It was an all over kind of body chill as his whole body screamed at him to just go and fucking hide somewhere, to run even, to run back to Lindsey, of all people, but he had to get to class, because he was here to actually learn something not to freak out over things that may or may not be real, because Frank didn't honestly know anymore - his mind certainly wasn't doing him any favors by seeming to skip in and out of daydreaming and reality, leaving him a confused mess as he tried to put the pieces of what had and hadn't happened back together.

He still found himself fucked up over that dream, or whatever it had been: the storm, and the hilltop and Gerard, and of course, the figure. He'd never been one to really think deeply into the meanings of dreams and other such things which he'd declare as nonsense, but now, as the world crumbled around him, he found himself even more than just curious, but so determined to make sense of it all that he resulted to perhaps less than logical solutions, but really what was logic and common sense anymore when he'd just caused a cup to levitate as Lindsey Ballato had hinted at bringing someone back from the dead.

She had declared that it was simply something Frank hadn't wanted to know anything about, but that was bullshit - fucking plain bullshit, because Frank wanted to know everything - Frank wanted to know if that was maybe why Gerard was so angry at her, or if Gerard didn't know at all, if it was irrelevant.

He wanted to know something, anything, honestly.

As Frank made it to class, however, a weight seemed to lift off his shoulders and he began to feel less cold: the presence of any such figure or being following him suddenly at the back of his mind, leaving him free to worry and fret about Lindsey and Gerard as he sat down and attempted to pay any attention to what his teacher was actually saying.

Frank wondered if he was going to fail college at this rate.

Frank wondered if he even cared anymore, because suddenly, all this bullshit didn't seem anywhere near as significant as Lindsey and Gerard, and the power to make cups hover, and the figure that seemed to be following him, and the death of his girlfriend, and the imminent threat of his own death.

And unsurprisingly, the thing he found himself caring most about, out of all the above was what Gerard thought of him, and as to whether he was angry since he'd agreed with Lindsey, and had let Mikey punch earlier that day.

Frank wondered if he should keep prioritising Gerard, just because he'd been nice to him, and seemed to give just a bit more of a shit than everyone else did. He wanted to listen to Lindsey, but he didn't know why, and he didn't know why he should, but he felt like there was little point in her creating all this shit for no other reason than to just lie to him.

But then that would mean that Gerard was lying to him, and that was not an idea that Frank found himself entirely comfortable with, because he'd put what was perhaps an unfortunate amount of trust in Gerard Way, no matter what he'd done.

And after all, that trust hadn't come from nowhere, had it?

Gerard had earned it, because Gerard had been there for him, Gerard had been nice to him, and Frank had needed that.

And Frank needed than especially in that moment as he sat in class, somehow growing aware of a presence in the corner of the room: familiar, yet so unfamiliar, uneasy to make out, and seeming to emit the cold of the artic itself - everyone's favourite unexplainable, and of course, abhorrent, figure.

And then came a familiar light headed sensation as Frank laid his eyes upon it, and Frank only had about a second to recognise what was happening before his head hit the classroom floor with a thud and his eyes began to close.

-

hey pals hope u liked this chapter kinda got the plot more together now lmao vote & comment if u want lov u