Alright, this story ignores the end of JTHM, in which Johnny begins his search for the cold. He does, however, leave in the way he did, going away for a while. Set after JTHM, Squee, and I Feel Sick.
New Resident of House 777
Chapter 01: Johnny's Return
Todd Casil awoke in a cold sweat, brought out of his sleep by a tap on the window. He instinctively pulled his stuffed bear, Shmee, closer. He climbed out of his bed and went to the window to see who was there. He prayed it wasn't the crazy neighbor man. Last time he had come over during the night… the boy couldn't eve think about it without going pale.
However, it turned out to be someone he hadn't seen in nearly three and a half years. "Johnny!" he shouted, almost jumping through the window as he lifted it. The sickly looking Nny held him back.
"Glad you aren't so scared of me anymore. That's an effect I've lost since leaving town. Of course that's probably because I haven't murdered anyone since then. Anyway, you look good, not so little anymore Squee." The boy in question was now much taller, his arms and legs lankier. His hair had also grown out a little more. Nny smiled, seeing the boy's teddy bear still with him even though he was twelve now.
"You still look sick." Todd laughed. The man was still thin as a pencil, covered in mostly black, and there was the yellowish hue to his skin. The only difference was that his hair had grown back, and the two locks he had before were still in place. "I really missed you, Johnny."
"Really? You always seemed to hate it when I came around."
"That was before he came around." Todd said, his eyes shooting to the ground.
"He?" Johnny looked to his house, remembering how someone had changed the locks. Correction: Someone had added locks to his house. Could someone new have moved in.
"This guy's a maniac, Johnny."
"Didn't you used to describe me like that?" Johnny chuckled, but Todd just continued darkly.
"He's worse than you were Johnny. He doesn't even have delusions that what he is doing is right. He just says he does it cause he thinks killing is damn fun. He even kills kids like me. At least the people you killed were bad. Like that guy behind the mall."
"Yeah. Bad." Nny said, remembering a handful of good people, like Edgar and his attempts on Devi and Tess.
"But this guy…" there were tears in Todd's eyes. "Is evil."
Johnny turned his attention back to his former residence. Could there really be a new flusher? If he had really gone to hell and met Satan, then the Thing Behind the Wall should be gone, flushed away when he died. Or did someone plunge it up? Or had it crawled back up the drain itself?
Leaving the toilet references behind, he looked to Squee again. "Listen, buddy, I'm going to see what's going on. I'll be back in a little bit." Johnny stood up, beginning to walk towards his house.
"Good luck, Nny!" Squee shouted after, the former homicidal maniac smiling, remembering his saying that to the boy over three years ago. As he approached his door, he looked down to see a Welcome Mat.
"Festive." Nny said, raising a brow. He then put a finger on the doorbell, then pulled it back. This could decide if there really was a new slave to that cursed Wall. He remembered always having someone hooked up to the electrical appliances, using their screams of pain as a doorbell. He wondered, now that he would be looking at the psychopath he had once been, if that's what was waiting for him, if he'd be able to see how sad and crazy he'd been. He pushed the doorbell.
"AAAAAARRRGGGGHHHH!"
"Well, I guess that's a 'Yes' on the new homicidal maniac thing." Johnny heard a few clicks before the door opened. What Nny found standing before him was someone reminsent of himself. It was a very, very thin boy, probably no older than twenty-two, wearing a baseball cap, a green leather jacket, and black jeans. Oh, he was also wearing a good deal of blood and a very evil smile.
"May I help he you?" he asked in a scratchy voice.
"Uh, unless you specialize in something other than horribly murdering people, I seriously doubt that."
The guy's smile dropped. "How do you know what I do? I kill anyone who knows what I- wait. I know you." He disappeared into the house, Nny deciding to follow. As he stepped in, a knife flung down. Aimed for his head. Johnny, having expected this, pulled out his own knife, the only one he had taken with him three years ago. As the blades met, a foot came up, kicking Nny to the ground.
"Didn't expect that." Johnny said, jumping to the side as the knife shot down, burying into the wooden floor. "Can I ask why you want to kill me?" he asked, kicking his attacker away from the knife he was trying to pull free. "Just cause I used to live here?"
"I know why you're here! You want the power you gave up!"
"Power?" Johnny almost laughed out loud at this remark. "You call being a slave to that Wall power? How stupid are you?"
"Shut up! The Wall Creature, it told me how ungrateful you were. It gave you the power to do whatever you wanted here on Earth, just for blood. And you gave it all up."
"Gave it up? You do realize you're only a lock. IT let's you kill, oh yeah, but it waits for when you become a suicidal psycho, then it helps you down the path towards killing yourself, so it can be free. But in the end, it just gets flushed into oblivion along with you. You're nothing but a Flusher."
"Wrong, Johnny." Nny's eyes went wide hearing the voice he heard. He turned around to see a pair of swirling eyes about two feet off the ground, surrounded by darkness. "Things are different now." Out of the darkness stepped Psycho Doughboy.
"Damn."
To Be Continued
