(All characters © of Jhonen Vasquez, whom I'll probably never meet, but still I use his ink babies for this bull)
"The Ways"He sat there, watching SHMEE eat his sandwiches. It was almost comforting to finally see him move. It bothered him more to just hear the talking.
'You know, it feels REAL good to finally get to eat.' His face was messy with peanut butter. Todd smiled at that, then got up and looked through the window.
"You got to sometimes wonder what he went through…with all that stuff in those rooms."
'All you humans tend to be the product of your past, no?'
"Well, yes." He looked back to SHMEE; "its what shapes us into what we are today."
There was dead silence then.
"I guess I'll go down to the basement, and maybe clear out those rooms."
'Have fun.' SHMEE said in between bites.
He returned to the stench, yet already had gotten used to it. Wondering where he was to put all the bodies, he began to un-attach them from their restraints. Some of the bodies seemed to have been dead for long periods of time; they crumpled and broke when moved. Very few were fresh. He came to a few floors down, and shook one of the bodies that had not fully decomposed, yet he couldn't tell if it were male or female. The body opened it's mouth and screamed. He screamed and smacked it with the back of his hand. He heard a snap, and it went lifeless.
It felt like he was down there for days, when he finally came to a room which only held a pair of arms, there was an extremely large hole for a wall. He walked up and looked into it. Not telling how deep it was, he picked up a piece of the wall and tossed it in. There was no sound of it hitting the bottom.
'That's just perfect.' He thought to himself.
Working for hours, he dumped all the bodies he could into the hole in the wall, yet never heard them hit any form of a bottom.
Covered in sweat mixed with rotten flesh, he realized his energy was drained. Finally, after walking many flights of stairs, he got to the house.
'Where the hell have you been?' SHMEE asked.
Todd just grunted, and walked to the couch. There, he plopped down and turned on the TV.
'You've been down there, in those rooms. Haven't you?' He walked up and looked at Todd. His eyes didn't leave the TV, he simply sighed out loud.
"Yeah."
'You never listen to me anymore, do you?'
"I don't see what the big deal is, I was just cleaning out those rooms."
'I told you before… there are things going on in this house. Things that HAVE gone on in this house, and I don't want them to come back to life GODDAMMIT!'
Todd stared at him, that being the first time he ever cursed.
'SEE WHAT THIS HOUSE IS MAKING ME DO!?' SHMEE screamed, then started running around.
Todd got back up and went down the stairs.
He walked all the way back to the room with no wall. He peered deep inside it, expecting to see the bodies piled up. He still saw nothing. A cold breeze seemed to rise from deep inside the darkness. He shivered and walked back upstairs.
There was a knock at the door before he could get back to the couch. He peered through one of the windows, and saw a face that brought back memories. He couldn't pin point it, but he knew it was from his past.
He opened the door, and stared at a tall skinny man. His hair was messy, in odd strands. He was wearing nothing but black. A tiny dog stood by his feet, tongue sticking out in a happy little pant. Todd looked back to the man's face, deep in his eyes. Once he realized who he was, he wanted to slam the door and return to the couch.
"*SQUEE!* …..Pepito?" He stuttered.
"Todd, so nice to see you again." The dog by his side gave out a bark and began to move around. "Silence, Woofles!" The dog stopped.
SHMEE walked to the door. 'Who's ther…oh shit.'
"Hello, SHMEE." Pepito looked down to him, "Nice to see you again after all these years." The two 'guests' walked inside. Todd still watch on in fear and amazement, he stood silent. "Why so shocked, Todd?"
"How did you get here? How did you find me?" He spat out.
"We'll talk about it once you invite me in."
He stepped aside and let him walk in the door.