Traumatize thy Neighbour
The room was dark, the only light that shone was that of the bulb in the hallway. Standing in the doorway of the dark room was a small boy who looked about the age of five. His short black hair was ruffled a bit. He wore pin stripe P.J.'s with a pair of white socks. Clutched in his arms was a teddy bear that looked quite old and ratted.
"Mommy?" he asked quitely. "I heard a noise." he whimpered as a tear welled in his left eye.
There laying sideways on a large bed, with the covers over her awkwardly, was a woman. The small boy couldn't see his mother's face from where he stood, but her voice could be heard. "Mommy's ignoring you honey. Go bother your father, he's in his study." she spoke softly, but in an uncaring voice.
Still whimpering the boy clutched his teddy even harder now. He turned to walk back out of his mother's room and whispered to his teddy. "C'mon Shmee. Daddy will help us." He made his way out of the room and down the hall. As he reached the head of the stairs, he heard a loud KRASH! which caused him to run down the flight and to his father's study. Slowly he reached up and opened the door.
"Daddy, I'm scared. I heard noises! Daddy?"
This room was dark too and would've been been pitch black had it not been for a single light. It was shining on a man, the boy's father, hunched over a small desk with a computer on it and papers strewen about. The father was sitting on a rather uncomfortable looking computer chair, holding his head. "Son, we just moved here. You're just not used to the sounds of our new house." he said in a somewhat reassuring voice.
"I'm busy working right now. Working..." he said softly, trailing off for a moment before speaking again. "That's all I seem to do now. I have to work to keep you alive. To feed you. I haven't smiled once since you were born." his tone had changed to a more depressing one as he spoke to his son. "Go to sleep." he said.
"But I caaan't! I don't have any curtains on my windows and I feel like 'things' are watching me! Please, Daddy, it's scary here. Shmee hears sounds." the boy protested and pleaded.
The father sighed and turned his head slightly to face his son as he spoke. "Your presence tires me. Go to your room and stay quiet or the 'things' will hear you." he instructed.
"But Shmee..."
"Go to sleep."
The boy stood there for a moment, whimpering against and clutching that teddy bear. Soon he lowered his head, speaking softly over his whimpering. "Yes Daddy."
He turned and exited the room, heading back through the dark house and up the stairs. As he walked he spoke to his Shmee, speaking comforting, but yet disturbing words. "Let's go to my room, Shmee. We'll hide under the covers abd maybe fall asleep before we die."
The boy was at the top of the stairs and made his way to his own door. Reaching out he turned the door knob, speaking again. "Here we are Shm... Uh..." he trailed off. The light that had flooded the room from the hallway showed a scary sight for any youngster. The window to his room was smashed and glass laid about his room. Working up what little courage he had left, he walked to him window and whimpered more then he had yet. All he could say was 'Mommy' as he stared outside.
Then there was another loud SMASH! which caused the boy to turn about is fear. His arms were wraped so tightly around Shmee's neck, that if he was a living creature, he would have surely suffocated by now. Walking out of his room he burried the lower part of his face into the back of the bears head. "The bathroom, Shmee. There is something in the bathroom." he said, making his way towards the echoing sounds of craching and shuffling.
He now stood at the bathrooms door and held Shmee out in his arms. 'Lets be brave, Shmee. We have to protect Mommy and Daddy." he said to Shmee. After a second when looking at the bear, he tilted his head. "Huh?" he asked confused. "No, you're wrong Shmee. They aren't bad people. They love me. They don't really mean it when they tell me to get kidnapped." he said to the bear.
For the fourth time this night he slowly reached for a door knob and turned it. As he pulled the door open, he saw a box fly and land on the ground, nect to some other boxes, pill bottles and a bar of soap. And then a loud shout.
"WHERE THE FUCK IS THE BACTINE?"
The demanding question came from a male, pilfering the bathrooms drug cabnit.
The boy let out a small 'squeek' sound and dropped Shmee on the bathroom floor. This caused the boy to catch the attention of the male and he turned around. "Oh... Hello." he said politely.
"My name is Johnny, but you can call me 'Nny' for short." he said with a sadistic grin. "And who might you be?" he asked now coming to a knee in front of the boy.
The boy let out a small 'squee' sound as he had no reply to this strange, scary man.
"Squee huh? Well okay. I don't mean to intrude, Squee, but where do you keep the Bactine? Some of this blood is mine." he asks in the same polite tone. Nny didn't wait for Squee's reply and turned back to the cabnit. He rifled around for a quick second before his hand wraped around a small bottle. "Wait, I found it. Yeah, that's it." he says pulling the bottle out and uncapping it.
"Damn! That one really put up a struggle! Sracped me up like a cat on crack!" he says pouring the bottle over his head, allowing the stinging liquid to coat and disinfect his facial wounds. "Nothing quite brings out the zest for life in a person like the thought of their impending death." he says with a pleased sigh.
Turning back towards Squee, Johnny pulls out a dagger with a dip near the end. Now with that same sadistic grin he speaks to Squee. "I see by the looks of you, that you understand."
All Squee could do was look up at Johnny with a horrified face.
Putting the dagger away Johnny spots Shmee on the floor, surrounded by the spilled contents of the cabnit.
"Hey! Who's your friend there?"
"Um... That's Shmee."
Smiling pleasantly Johnny bends over and picks up the stuffed animal. Holding him out at arms length, he examines the bear. "Well, hello there Shmee. Nice to meet you. I am Nny" he says greeting the stuffie.
"So you're Squee's little friend, huh? Weeeell you certainly are a cute little bear-bear! Yes you are! Yeeeesss you are!" he says with a small giggle. Squee too had let out a small childish giggle, the first he had all night.
Squee was starting to not be as afriad of Johnny, even if he was an intruder into his home.
Nny began responding to Shmee, much in the same fashion as Squee had earlier, as if he was talking to him. "Hmm? What's that Shmee? Mmhmm. Yeeess. Hmm? Yeah. Really? Uh. Huh. Okaay. What? Hmm... WELL FUCK YOU MR. BEAR! YOU SPEAK LIES! LIIIIES! Stuffed with pure venom, you vile, lint infested bastard!" Nny shouted at Shmee.
Now Squee stood in horror of the intruder. He couldn't belive what he was hearing and seeing. How could someone change moods so quickly and easily? He didn't understand, that and the language Nny was using, it hurt his virgin ears.
Nny shoved Shmee again the bathroom wall and continued to shout at him. "How many more, like you, are there! How many more! You can't even imagine the things I've endured! And always at the hands of shit like you! You don't know the truth!"
Nny had now pulled that dagger back out and started thrusting it into Shmee's body. 'CHK! CHK! CHK! CHK! CHK! CHK!' was the sound of each thrust as it easily peirced the bears body and sunk through the drywall a bit.
Blinking Nny suddenly stopped. He let the remains of Shmee fall to the ground and looked down at Squee. "Oh... Um..." he said and picked Shmee back up and handed him to Squee.
Putting his dagger away again he also slipped his hands in his pocket. With his head lowered a bit he began walking out of the bathroom. "It's getting late. I should go now. I'm so away, I need to be out. C'mon, you can walk me out." he says in a casual voice, as if nothing was really wrong.
Unfortunately what Nny didn't realize was, there was something wrong. Something very wrong. Squee looked down, horrified, at the the remains of his best friend. He followed Nny back to his room in silence. In there Nny had stopped at the window and picked up a peice of glass. Lokking back at Squee and held the glass out for him to see.
"Hey, sorry about the window, but I noticed it was locked. I don't suggest you ever do that again. Well..." he trailed off for a moment. "Later and thanks for the disinfectant. It's been nice talking." he said as he hopped up on to the windowsil and looked back at Squee. "But we'll have plenty of time for that, after all..." he said, leaning back in with that sadistic grin on his face.
"We're neighbours now." he said and vanished down into the night.
Squee whimpered for a moment before crying out to his parents. "MOMMY! DADDY!"
"I don't hear you honey."
"You ruined my life!"
This was all he got for a responce and slowly and very scared, he slipped over to his bed. There he tucked himself and the remains of Shmee under the blankets. Hopefully to fall asleep before they die...
The End
This Fanfic is a novelization of the first comic in the JTHM Director's Cut Edition. Johnny The Homicidal Maniac and all other character's are © of Jhonen Vasquez.