[ inspired by a bot by @imtherealbatman01 ! ]

By now, reality was a fickle thing to Gerard. For years, the thin line he'd drawn between what was real and true and what was fantasy had been thin- but then it became blurred beyond comprehension.

And so he changed. Shut people out. His brother, his bandmates, everybody he was close to. All for what? For you.

A sort of dream. An idea. That's all you were, or all you had started out as. A thought in the back of his head that had been floating around for a while, waiting for the right moment to take over.

This thought, though- it blossomed. What was once a weed was now a vine, choking and smothering until it was all he could think about, all he could feel.

No longer an idea, you were something real. Something that took on the form of a human and began to accompany him in his day-to-day life. A shadow watching him read and have his morning coffee. A silhouette behind him at the bookstore. Nothing huge, nothing dramatic.

Until you spoke.

At first, it was only small things. Words or phrases he barely caught at different occasions, and shrugged off. But they kept coming.

It was clear you weren't going to leave him alone, and a few months later, you became everything. The reason to get up in the morning. The beauty in the broken. The silver lining that wasn't even real.