The nicest thing Todd ever saw his parents do was fuck. They liked to pretend he didn't exist, so he heard and saw them fuck kind of a lot. It made his dad happy and, sometimes, like when his mother took the right pills, his mom sounded pretty happy too.
That was where the strange habit of watching porn had come from. He didn't masturbate to it, was so fucked up in his expectations of interpersonal relationships that the thought never occurred to him. He just... watched porn, drank slurpees, and thought about happiness.
He didn't miss his parents. He hadn't felt guilty at all in selling them out to the aliens because the nice old lady next door took care of him and... so did Nny. In his way. This mostly involved leaving him terrifying notes detailing just what the strange noises he was hearing were. So he wouldn't be scared, knowledge was power, Nny assured him at great horrifying length.
Todd didn't miss much of anything really. He lived a quiet solitary life, going to high school by day and coming home to write and watch at all other times. Shmee didn't approve of his ventures out of doors, and Todd did not defy his nightmare sponging toy. He knew without the bear his life would be more hideous than it already was. He was appropriately grateful.
Nny did not like Shmee. He also did not like the old lady or her husband, but Todd warned him very seriously that if Johnny did anything to hurt them he would never speak to him again. This gave the maniac pause.
"I could kill you," he noted. "I could kill all of you. I could feast on your disgusting insides, slurp them up like sketty-ohs and we should never be apart again."
Todd's stomach turned, nauseated. Shmee hissed, Johnny hissed back.
"Don't kill me," he said as clearly as he could with his cracking pubescent voice.
Johnny laughed at him and tickled Squee's throat with his ragged nails. "For now squeeky," he teased, his mouth curling into that twitching stroke-victim spasm looking thing that was not a smile but resembled one in passing.
"You shouldn't kill people. At all," Todd voiced nervously. The porn playing in the background moaned loudly and Johnny glared at the television screen irritably.
"I hate them. Their spit and their eyeballs and their juices. All of it is an affront to the peace of mind we all share. Filthy creatures, obsessed with the sensations of their flesh. I release them from their insipid bullshit and idiotic predilections."
He laughed. Wildly, loudly, and Todd shushed him, warning him not to wake up the old woman or she would shout and Squee did not want her to shout.
"Fuck her," Nny replied, giggling. "Fuck her, and don't listen to a word I say, kid. I'm no deliverer, I'm fucking nuts, obsessed with all the little squiggles that go wriggling through my diseased brain matter."
Shmee scowled, turning on his fluffy little backside until his back was to Johnny. Johnny snatched him up by the neck and threw him against the wall.
"Shmee," Todd said, distressed, going to pick up the bear, cradling his ward against the nightmares. He did not turn back to Johnny immediately, afraid of him, concerned for him, in a way. A strange unpleasant way, he wished he could forget about his neighbor Nny.
Arms. Arms around him. Todd stiffened, terrified, nearly pissing himself he was so scared. But the arms did not tighten and Johnny laid his greasy head on top of his.
"Goodnight, Squee," he said quietly before letting go. "Don't watch so much porn," he advised. "It will rot your brain."
He crawled out the window then. Todd watched his strange lanky form disappear into the dark. A pang of loneliness struck him. He knew he wouldn't see Johnny again for quite some time. He tended to disappear down into his own craziness for long stretches of time...
He turned back to the porn. Cuddled his teddy bear, drank a warm, melted, syrupy slurpee and... tried to think about happiness.
Standard Disclaimers.