(JOHNNY'S POV) (5 months later)
Johnny opened his eyes and moaned, angry that he was found sleeping, once again. Pulling half of his body from the ground, he bent forward in a familiar position, and let his eyes scan his room.
Bits and pieces of debris lay strewn around the room, cluttering the area around him. Over to his left was a shelf, untouched and whole, with a Bub's burger boy sitting atop of it.
Hmmm… the world still exists. I must still, be alive.
"HELLO-O-O-O?... HELLO?... Hmmm… No answer. No voices. No doughboys… NOTHING. It's just me."
Getting up from his place on the floor, Johnny steadied himself and looked back to the burger boy, "It' s so quiet now, huh?" Johnny widened his eyes, and cupped his chin in his hand as he looked to the talking decoration. "Just me and a talking Bub's burger boy…"
Crossing his arms over his chest, Johnny walked around the room, testing his leg joints, and continued on, "or is that just my voice I'm hearing? How can I tell? I'm not used to this – being in control…"
Johnny walked over to his window, stepping over the piles of wood and other assortments of useless things, adding, "I wonder if I'm still crazy…"
Johnny's mind flipped to a cheerleader whose legs were sawed off in a brutal fashion. Smirking, Johnny put his hands to his hips, an air of victory flooding within him. "OKAY. That answers that. Still, I feel so strange… Unfettered! Things can be different, now. This is big! I must think this out. It's important. I'm at the threshold of something grand and NEW."
Johnny looked up to the stars outside, and his excitement faded as he thought back to Madeleine, who had been his bestest, bestest friend… but died, not keeping the promise to continue eating. She had died due to a severe stage of anorexia, shutting down her organs and her heart… or so he heard.
Johnny's eye twitched and a breeze blew in from the window, and cooling Johnny's unnaturally bald head. Nny raised an eyebrow and he laid a hand on the top of his head, feeling two tufts of hair fall onto his forehead.
He remembered back to Mr. Satan, who was disguised as a horrid cheerleader, and recalled that he had mentioned that his hair would fall out.
Of course, he didn't quite believe that he had died at all, and he just considered it all was just a nightmare, in which he sleep-shaved his hair off. His hand retreated back to cross over his chest in a self-conscious manner and he turned around.
Looking over to the burger boy on the shelf the decoration had started speaking. "Pssst! Hey, nny. It's been a while since you've eaten anything. Don't you want to go out? Maybe get some Chinese?"
Looking at the burger boy up and down, Johnny's eyes narrowed in suspicion and curiosity. Heading to the decoration, he leaned against the shelf and looked over to it, "hey… I've been meaning to ask you- who are you?" You're the only thing here that can talk, but you don't sound like one of the doughboys."
The shiny plastic of the decoration glinted in the light of the room, "doughboys- nothing but here manifestations of a manifestation. You're awake now, Nny, and I'm no dream. I live inside of you."
Johnny bowed his head in conclusion, "so the, you are like the doughboys."
"Hardly. See, I'm holding up a giant hamburger." Johnny, still not convinced replied in an, "ah."
The conversation continued on and the tension between them grew steadily stronger along with fury lighting up in Johnny's eyes. Oh, was he TIRED of being a FLUSHER. He wanted OUT of this! He was DONE!
"Dream or not, I just got through being a slave. The last thing I need now is to quarrel with my own organics. It should go willingly. I should own it! I have my freedom." Johnny stated with slight irritation in his voice, but Reverend Meat continued on with loud finality, "NO SUCH THING! NO SUCH THING!"
"I'M A SLAVE TO NOTHING YOU LITTLE BURGER EATING KIND OF MEATY GUY! NOTHING!" Johnny yelled with anger pulsing through him.
"There is no choice. You are always a slave to something…"
He had ENOUGH of this.
Sighing, Nny started heading to his closet to retrieve his coat. Shrugging on the covering, Johnny headed downstairs and into the dark cell below.
(5 minutes later)
Crawling out of the tunnel between Squee and Johnny's house which was filled with rotting corpses, he crawled up from the basement, and stealthily walked through the halls of Todd's home until he finally reached Squee's bedroom. Opening the door, a flood of light infiltrated the room, waking up a sleeping Todd and Shmee.
"Psst! Pssst! Hey, Squeegee! Wake up, it's me."
Moments passed, Johnny finally making up his mind about where Johnny was to go. He mentioned about leaving, and the holiday he was going on, warning Squee that Squee would have to live without the shortage of help that Johnny gave him. Unfortunately, Todd's father interrupted, and forced Johnny to knock him out cold and give the father permanent blindness.
Johnny continued to talk about how they should keep up with the secret meetings every now and then, bringing up the case of his father and the capabilities of blindness, all the way to learning ninja moves and monkeys. Jonny added, close to the end of the nighttime meeting, "I'm going out the window this time, okay? The underground tunnel's gotten a bit thick with corpses… Good luck, Squee. SLEEP TIGHT."
Ending with that, Johnny closed the window and shivered.
A blanket of snow was laid out on the ground, his steel-toed boots crunching through the compacted snow beneath him.
Looking up, Johnny tugged his coat tighter around his thin body as he gazed at the sparkling stars above; the Big Dipper, Little Dipper, Aires… Johnny looked back down to his surroundings as he trudged farther through the snow towards his destination.
It was several minutes later that Johnny finally reached the gates of the cemetery, entering in silence and respect as he weaved through the graves and headstones.
Meeting with his own parent's graves first, he looked over the smooth, buffed headstones; the epitaphs and letters were covered with a thin layer of snow. Johnny wiped the cold fluff away with his hand, and backed away, looking at the two graves that lay beside each other; just two, regular, square shaped stones.
Johnny rubbed his neck as he stared at the stones, a strange onset of sorrow creeping through him. It wasn't a flood of suffering that was thrown upon him, it was just a twinge of depression that pricked at his heart. He never fully knew his parents; he was only a child when he lost them to a murderer who intruded on their house, slaughtering them in a gruesome act.
Shuddering from the chilly wind that bit against his skin, he buried his face into the collar of his coat, supplying himself with what little warmth he had.
"I could just be…. Talking to myself right now but, fuck… It really is Hell being alone…"
Johnny stayed there for several more moments before continuing on through the assortment of headstones. Until he stopped at the family he was searching for.
But…. Surely Madeleine would be buried alongside her family….wouldn't she? Johnny's eyes scanned the area around but came to no avail in search for her grave.
Johnny's eyes narrowed and he left the cemetery, slipping on a slab of ice on the sidewalk. His face slammed onto the pavement, but it did no damage to him as he got back up, brushing the snow off of his body.
Johnny headed through several streets, passing carolers and donation Santa's.
Not noticing the slight cloud cover, Johnny was welcomed with small snow flurries blowing in the air. But, instead of enjoying the fluffy snow bits, he entered a large hotel building, eyeing a familiar elegant fountain which was turned off due to the pipes freezing over.
Heading toward the counter on Johnny's right, he consulted a woman consisting in her thirty's. She smiled as Johnny headed toward her, a shine of hope in his eyes. "Merry Christmas," she greeted.
"Hey, I'm not here to take a room, I just need to know if a Madeleine K. is signed in at the hotel…" Johnny rubbed his hands together before stuffing them into his pockets.
The woman typed away, searching for any results that led up to Madeleine's name.
"No, sir. I'm sorry, but she just moved out a few weeks ago." The employee frowned slightly, as seeing that she could not help her customer.
"What? Does it list where she went? Or where she is now?"
(MADELEINE'S POV)
Inside of an apartment sat a girl dressed in a black tank top, green and pink spotted, festive pajama pants, a black, fluffy bathrobe and festive reindeer slippers. Her black hair curtained her face as she sat, bent over her sketchpad, eyes and face intent and serious as she sketched out a drawing of the cliff that looked out upon the city.
Surrounding the young woman was a coffee table which held more sketchbooks, a large novel which was untouched, and a cup of steaming coffee. A plate of store-bought cookies sat at the opposite corner of the table, farthest away from her. Over in the corner of the room sat a rather small, silver Christmas tree lined with several smaller, delicate ornaments which hung off its branches. No presents hid under the tree, awaiting to be unwrapped.
A stereo which was sitting upon a small desk was playing classic Christmas carols; a CD disk set on replay.
A lamp sat beside the determined artist, giving the room a milky glow, giving the room a homey, comforting look. Madeleine was close to finishing her sketch… just add some shading here… erase an error there… draw one more-
The shrill sound of her doorbell rang out, stating that a visitor was standing at her door.
Damn carolers.
They would NEVER FUCK OFF; they just kept coming… expecting me to enjoy their uneven and horrid voices all in one song. It drove her insane hearing the noise that came out from their mouths as they tried to hit the key.
Setting her pencil and sketchbook aside, she got up from her place on the couch and sulked to the door, and turned the knob, "how many times do I have to fucking TELL YOU, I DON'T WANT ANY DAMN-"
Madeleine stopped abruptly, gawking at her visitor.
He couldn't be… here. No, it was just a dream. Yeah. A fucking dream.
"…J…Johnny?"
(AUTHOR'S NOTE)
Yay. Submitted my first chapter for the story! If you haven't already read the first story, it's called, An Unstable Friendship . Be sure to read that first, so you can get a better grasp on the story line.
Hee. I meant to start of this story with Johnny waking up/ resurrecting. I didn't add the trip to heaven an hell, because I would have had to add the scene where Johnny kills himself and so forth and so on…
I personally found those scenes dull; it took away from the plot of THIS story.
Yes, I know, this chapter is a little…. Choppy, but it will all fill out later in the story… so no worries.
I stayed up all night writing this for you, so put on a smile, and lets make this pleasant. (:
The BOLD writing are specific quotes from the comic issues… and none of it belongs to me… which leads me to the DISCLAIMER!: Johnny and any JTHM characters (Reverent Meat and Squee… and Nny's parents) belong to Jhonen Vasquez. Only I own Madeleine/ Maddie.
Review… your reviews are GOLD; PRICELESS to me. So… if you would… please review. I respect any and all of your opinions, so please, don't be afraid to message me or review what you think of the story.
I love you ALL for the support you give me. Makes me tear up…
"Damn! Hell makes a yummy bagel."
-Johnny the Homicidal Maniac/ Jhonen Vasquez
