Thirteen years had gone by since My Chemical Romance had last played Drowning Lessons, but after everything that had happened, it felt like it had been far longer.

They released two more albums after Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge, both of which took their career to new heights. They went on tour many times, seeing the world through the windows of tour buses and jet planes. They were the saviors of the broken, the beaten, and the damned, but in the end, they knew it couldn't last.

On March 22, 2013, My Chemical Romance broke up.

After it was all over, the band members went their separate ways, reflecting on their time with the band, starting up solo projects, creating art without their bandmates for the first time in years. Gerard made a solo album, he wrote the comic books he'd always wanted to write, and best of all, he finally kicked his addictions for good. For the first time in a long time, he felt happy and healthy.

But something wasn't quite right. He missed writing songs. He missed performing every night, dancing along to the beat of the drum, listening to the roar of the crowd. More than anything, he missed Ray, Mikey, and Frank. He missed making art with them, and when he talked to Frank about it one night, he felt exactly the same way.

So they decided to give the band another try.

Gerard, Frank, Mikey, and Ray were all sitting in a practice room, plotting their eventual return. They hadn't told anyone that they'd gotten back together yet - right now, the reunion was for the four of them, and the four of them alone - but they knew that someday, they'd take the stage once again.

"We should play something we've never played live before," Gerard suggested. "Like Mastas of Ravenkroft."

"I'd rather play Make Room," Ray said.

"Boy Division is better than Make Room," Frank said.

"What about Drowning Lessons?" Mikey suggested.

The rest of the band looked at Mikey like he was crazy. "What?" Mikey said. "It's a good song, and we haven't played it in a while."

"You know why we don't play Drowning Lessons," Ray said.

"It's cursed," Frank added.

"I know, but it's been a long time," Mikey said. "Maybe it's not cursed anymore."

"I don't think that's how curses work."

"Come on, Frank. What's the worst that could happen?"

"Last time we played it, Gerard forgot the lyrics, and the time before that, your grandmother died!"

"I still don't think she died because we played Drowning Lessons," Mikey said. She was sick for a long time before that."

"And I still don't think we should take our chances with that song," Frank said. "I remember how depressed Gee was after she died, and well...I just don't ever want to see him like that again."

Gerard stayed quiet as his boyfriend and his brother continued to argue about the Drowning Lessons curse. It had been a long time since he'd played Drowning Lessons - hell, it had been a long time since he'd even listened to the song. Most of his memories from the Bullets tour were nothing but hazy fragments now, but he still remembered the day of his grandmother's death with perfect clarity. Maybe the curse was gone now, but he was afraid of what might happen if it wasn't.

"How about this?" Ray said. "We'll do a show for just our friends and family, and if you guys really want to play Drowning Lessons, we can do it then, but we should play a different song for our big return show."

"That sounds good," Mikey said.

"Yeah, I guess I can live with that," Frank said.

"Me too," Gerard said. "Can we please play Mastas of Ravenkroft at the return show though?"

"Maybe," Ray said as he played a few notes on his guitar.

For now, that was good enough.

Eventually, the day came. Frank, Gerard, Mikey, and Ray had set up a makeshift stage in Ray's backyard, and they'd invited some of their favorite people in the world to hear them play for the first time since the breakup. Gerard looked toward the people in the audience, toward his sister-in-law, his ex-wife, his two nieces, his daughter. None of them knew him when he was young. None of them had been around when the band was just starting. None of them had heard Drowning Lessons live before.

Gerard was terrified, but he didn't let that stop him.

"So we've only played this next one live a handful of times before," he said into the microphone as Frank, Ray, and Mikey re-tuned their instruments. "And that's because something goes wrong every time we try. We think it might be cursed, but Mikey likes this song, and we thought you guys might like it too. It's called Drowning Lessons."

There was a smattering of polite applause, and Gerard looked back at Ray, Mikey, and Frank: the three people who had always stood by his side, no matter what. If he had to play a cursed song, at least he was doing it with them.

All of a sudden, they started to play, and between the pounding bass and the roaring guitars, it sounded incredible. A few bars later, Gerard opened his mouth to sing.

"Without a sound, I took her down..."

Playing Drowning Lessons live again was nothing short of magical. They were all far better musicians than they were when they'd last played the song over a decade ago, and their newfound finesse made the song sound even better. They'd had plenty of ambition when they recorded their debut album, but now, they had the skills and the showmanship to match. Gerard listened to his bandmates, mesmerized by the band's sound. Drowning Lessons had never sounded so powerful, so thrilling before.

When the song was finally over, Gerard struck a pose, and the audience cheered loudly. He could hardly believe it. Nothing had gone wrong.

He looked out into the audience, and he saw his daughter smiling. Gerard smiled back, and he saw a look of pure joy etched across her tiny face.

At last, the curse was lifted.