DISCLAIMER: I am not Lord Vasquez.

AUTHORS NOTES: I very much enjoyed writing this - got the idea listening to 'The War Was In Color', by Carbon Leaf, which you can find on Youtube. Not much else I can say without spoiling the ending.

I do apologize, however, for this being as short as it is - most of my stuff tends to be around double this length, but I like this as it is. Plus, chapter length should not determine quality straight-off.


It was late when he got there – later than what he'd agreed upon years ago with Johnny. Not that the maniac could intervene with his work, even if he wanted to. For one, Todd was a writer -of fantasy and science fiction and horror and romance... everything his mind could conceive-. The only way Johnny could make Todd's working life better was by shoving inspiration directly into his brain. And though Todd knew Johnny was capable of many things, generating inspiration was not one of them. Well, for his horror novels, it was, but he was writing a sci-fi/romance currently – definitely not Johnny's area of expertise.

"You're late." He heard Johnny say as the man appeared, seemingly from nowhere. Todd smiled, very used to this by now, placing the box he'd brought with him down onto the grass.

"I couldn't help it, Mr. Johnny" Todd said, still sounding like a child even at 24 years old. "Traffic was hell." This time, Johnny laughed.

"Like you would know."

"Like you wouldn't." And then things fell into routine – cliché questions that were asked every time, on every visit.

"So what's going on with you, Squeegee? You keeping fit, healthy? Safe? Still questioning sleep and avoiding the sickness of humanity as much as you can?" Todd nodded.

"Not much has happened this week." Todd started, sitting down, Johnny doing so as well. "Pepi has been busy with his dad a lot, and Shmee eats any mind monsters that come near me." Johnny rolled his eyes at the mention of Todd still having the bear from his childhood. The boy was twenty-four years old. Most people would have ditched their toys by now, but Todd was not most people. Thankfully. As much as he hated to admit it, that bear was saving Todd's life. "I've started talking walks around the city, and sleep comes to me only every other day, as usual. As for avoiding humans, I try. Can't do too much, what with my job involving interaction with them, but you know..." Both males were silent for a moment before the maniac spoke.

"Hey, Squee?" Johnny asked, gazing at his friend. "Am I scary?" Todd blinked, surprised by the question. Taking Todd's look as confusion, Johnny continued. "Like, when you were little, when I still lived in seven-seven-seven, did I scare you?" Todd looked down at the ground. This was an easy answer.

"... You did." He smiled. "You terrified me, even your best attempts at being friendly set me up for some seriously terrifying nightmares. When I managed to get to sleep at all." When he turned back to the maniac, he was not surprised to see him looking more than a little upset, staring at the grass. "But the thing is, as much as you scared me, Johnny... You were my only friend. Well, besides Pepito, but I didn't meet him for months, almost a year after you left town." Todd waved a hand dismissively at his own words, continuing. "Anyway... Johnny, you terrified me, but you were my only friend for the longest time." Todd smiled when the maniac man sitting next to him looked up, a happy look in his chestnut eyes, and the barest hints of a smile on his face. "And to be completely honest, you saved my life, more times than you know. That pedophile at the mall was the obvious one, sure, but whenever you took me out for food – I don't think you ever realized how little I actually ate."

"I did." Johnny said, nodding. "I knew your parents were fuckers, and I watched them. I knew they didn't feed you regularly, so when you didn't get to eat enough, I took you out." He turned to his friend. "It was the least I could do." Then Johnny's eyes caught sight of the box; the little, brown, weather-beaten and dusty thing that Todd had sitting close to him. "Whats that?" Todd grinned.

"I don't know for sure. But I found it in your old house – locked up behind a false wall covered in dried blood." Johnny's eyes widened. The Demon's wall? The one he'd always painted, it'd had something behind it other than the monster? Something tangible and real and his?

Slowly, Johnny reached out to it, not paying attention to how Todd was watching him, how he looked eager, just as curious as Johnny to see what the box contained.

The box wasn't locked, but it was held shut by two clamps, rusty, and stiff from obvious disuse and neglect. Johnny had no idea what the Wall Monster could have possible seen fit to hide from him for so many years, but he was damn curious.

It took a few tries to get the clamps to open – that the box had been hidden behind a wall for who knew how many years, a wall that had been essentially saturated with blood and kept dripping wet for an equal amount of indiscernible length, made sure that the metal would be tough to move. But, open they eventually did. However, Johnny didn't lift the lid. Did he really want to know what his wall-monster had been hiding for so long? He looked to Todd, silently asking for his opinion.

"I think you should open it. I mean, seriously, what do you have to lose?" Todd gestured around them, and Johnny nodded slowly. Todd had a point. At this point in time, what did he have to lose?

Slowly, the lid was lifted, revealing something odd in how ordinary it was – pictures. Photographs of varying age, letters, a few random items... It looked like some sort of time capsule. Todd looked to Johnny for answers, who seemed as lost as he was.

"I... I don't... None of this. I don't remember any of this, except..." He picked up a photograph. If Todd was right, it looked as though it was from Johnny's teenage years. If that skinny black-haired kid off to the side was Johnny. He was surrounded by three people, two females, and one male. One of the girls was behind him, looking like she was attacking Johnny's hair, who was hunched over as he tried to get her to stop, trying to twist around and reach her. The second girl was standing in front of the other male, who was taller than she was by almost a foot. The male was holding the camera out, if the weird arm position was anything to judge by, and everybody was smiling. Even the younger Johnny.

"It looks like you." Todd commented, looking away from the picture and at his friend. Johnny remained still, not looking away from the image.

A few moments of silence, and something flickered behind Johnny's eyes – then he spoke.

"These people..." The maniac muttered quietly, touching a finger to the image. Johnny smiled faintly, seeming to take in the rest of the image. From Todd's point of view, they must have been Johnny's friends before everything happened to make him crazy. The maniac turned to look at Todd, appearing pleased. "Thank you Squee. I can't say I remember anything from... before, but if my Wall-Monster was hiding them, these things must be precious to me." Todd nodded, standing up as he noticed the time – he had to go.

"Johnny, I-" But the maniac cut him off, waving a hand at his friend dismissively.

"Yes, yes. I know. You can't be seen having a conversation with empty space, can you?" He leaned against one of the many stones jutting from the ground. "People just don't like it when other people talk to the air. And you've got your novels, your... your due dates." Todd sighed, but was grinning.

"Johnny, you know just as well as I do that if I don't get the novels in on time, I don't get paid. And unlike you, I need to eat to live." Johnny waved his friend away, carefully closing the box and pulling it closer to the stone he had previously been leaning on.

"Shoo. Go live. I'll just sit here, watching my own corpse decay away. Alone." Todd raised an eyebrow, smiling.

"I'll bring you a freezie tomorrow? I know you don't need to eat, but..." The maniac's eyes lit up.

"Ooh! Make sure it's cherry!" A laugh, and Todd nodded, walking back towards where his car was parked.

"Definitely. See ya tomorrow, Nny!" Todd waved at his friend, looking back out at the graveyard and watching as the now semi-transparent maniac faded away into nothing again, leaving the space above his grave empty, the only signs somebody had been there being two impressions in the grass on the raised mound that signified where the coffin lay.

Todd didn't flinch at these things anymore – this was normal. And to be honest, he'd experienced far more weird and supernatural things than talking to the ghost of a serial killer.