" “Why must it be this way?”, the boy whispered to the moon. “Why couldn’t you stay?” The stars one after the other blinked at him, silently answering him in a language he could not understand. He turned his head down, closing his eyes tightly to stop the tears from escaping. Gerard always told him not to cry. Hugging his knees tightly to himself, he trembled and shivered; it was a chilly night, and he was not accustomed to being all alone, without his friend there to keep him warm. “I never wanted to leave you”, a soft, familiar voice whispered in his ear, gentle breathing ghosting over his skin. The boy jumped at the sound and looked around, and nobody was there. Gerard was not there. And he buried his face in his hands and closed his eyes again, and this time let the tears flow freely down his face. He could not take this; he just wanted to get away, he just wanted to feel sane again. But he could not; not without Gerard.

“Yes, you can”, the wind whispered in his ear again, whirling and dancing in its chilly ballet around him. “No, I can’t!”, he snapped at nothing, turning his head up towards the sky again. The moonlight made his tears look like liquid glitter on his skin, but no one was there to see the beautiful glistening and glowing. The boy shook his head angrily at the moon, it was only taunting him. It made him go insane. “I can’t, I love you! I love you, Gerard”, he cried and choked on his sobs, every tear cutting like a knife through his heart. He did not want to have to think about this, he did not want to have to face the fact that his friend was forever gone, he just wanted to wait in peace and he wanted Gerard to finally turn up, sit down beside him and wrap his arms around him, like he always used to do before demanding that the sun would rise from its hiding place. He did not want to be reminded that this time he was waiting for nothing, that this time he was waiting in vain.

“I love you too”, the wind assured him, and the breeze changed direction and wrapped itself around him, warming him from the inside out. And the boy knew that Gerard was telling the truth; he knew that even though he was left alone, he could still count on Gerard to be there, to watch out for him, to love him. And he wished he could still count on Gerard to make the world keep turning, to make the sun keep rising in the mornings, to make his heart keep beating, but he knew that it was too much to ask. He knew that it was not possible.

“You’re right”, breathed the voice in the darkness surrounding him. “I can’t do that.” And the boy shook his head sadly again and sighed at the moon, knowing that he would have to stay here forever through the never ending night, waiting along with the stars and the moon and the Earth for someone else to put them out of their frozen state; to allow the show to begin once more. And he knew that there would not ever be anyone else, for there was no one like Gerard.

“You’ll make it through”, said the wind, and that was it. He waited. "