Author's Note: YAY ANOTHER CHAPTER! Sorry for the delay, but school got in the way.
Mr. Eff: And laziness.
Me: Yeah, that too.
D-Boy: And rock concerts.
Me: Oh, I guess there's that too... Anyway, I found a way to make it up to you guys. Hey, where's Nny? I need him here.
Nny: I'm right here.
Me: Good. I went shopping with my best friend Selena and we got you three the best gift ever! SELENA BRING THE PRESENTS!
Selena: *walks in with a paper shopping bag from a department store and pulls out three fuzzy, pink sweaters* Here they are! Surprise!
Me: SURPRISE! Just for you!
Selena: And don't worry about how much we spent on these. They were on sale.
Me: Clearance to be exact!
Nny, Mr. Eff, and D-Boy: ...
Me: Well, while we try to get them to try their pink, fuzzy sweaters on, go ahead and read this new chapter. I'll do the disclaimer today, I guess. I do not own JtHM, just this plot and any OCs that pop up. Yup.
Johnny stood in front of his former house, gazing upon it for what would surely be the last time. The icy wind that blew around him turned his blue black hair into an inclement sea and the overcast sky above foreshadowed an imminent storm. Despite the chill in the air, he remained as still as a statue.
Yellow caution tape segregated the house from the rest of the neighborhood. Police officers were constantly coming in and out of the crime scene. The windows showed no sign of a single soul ever living in the residence. Quite a peculiar thing it was, how little time it took for the house to appear abandoned.
Johnny's eyes began to glisten with fresh tears. He could have sworn he had shed the last of his tears hours ago. As a lone tear trickled down his cheek, he knew he had just proved himself wrong. His thin body began to tremble as a sob threatened to escape. He did his best to hold it back, to be strong, but it was an impossible task. Slowly sinking to the ground, he allowed more tears to fall. With his knees to chest and his head buried in his knees, he began to sob once again, his body shaking violently.
Johnny was still trying to process the fact that he would never see his parents ever again. The whole situation just seemed so unrealistic, like a nightmare that was impossible to escape. His heart ached for his loving parents. It was all just too much to bear.
Johnny felt someone tap his shoulder. He sniffed and wiped his eyes with a black sleeve. He knew it was a police officer. Whether they were asking him questions about the murder or expressing their "sympathy", they were coming up to him all day. All he wanted was to be left alone, but he knew that was not possible at the moment. He looked up with glistening eyes at the unfamiliar police officer.
"Hey, kiddo," he said in a kind, gentle voice. "Your aunt is here to pick you up."
Johnny glanced over his shoulder and saw a beat up, white car parked on the other side of the street. Next to the car stood a dark haired, pale woman conversing with a police officer. Another police officer was putting boxes with Johnny's possessions into the trunk of the car.
Johnny bit his lip as his heart sank to his stomach. It was his aunt, Vera, just who he had expected. His parents were never quite fond of her, and neither was he. The thought of living with her made Johnny uneasy.
As if sensing Johnny's uneasiness, the police officer knelt down, placed a hand on the little boy's shoulders, and said, "Good luck, kid."
"Thanks," Johnny replied with a small smile.
"No problem," the police officer said as he ruffled Johnny's hair. He then got up and walked away.
Shortly afterward, Johnny began to hear the familiar click, click, click of high heeled shoes coming towards him. He kept his gaze on the concrete sidewalk in front of him as the clicking came closer. His heart began to beat faster in response to the slight fear of the woman he knew was waking towards him. Soon, a woman's pale feet clad in shiny black heels stopped right in front of Johnny. Cautiously, he glanced up to see his aunt standing above him. Her facial expression was full of sympathy and her hands were over her heart.
"I'm so sorry for your loss, Johnny," Vera said in a gentle voice.
Does she mean it? Johnny thought to himself.
"Oh, look how shaken up you are! You're trembling as you have just seen a ghost. Poor thing."
Johnny hadn't realized he was trembling until then. It was true: he was shaken up. How could he not? He had just witnessed his parents' demise. He had a feeling the gory images would be burned into his mind forever.
"Come on, sweetheart, let's go home," Vera said as she held out a hand to help Johnny up. Johnny grabbed her hand allowed his aunt to help him up.
Sweetheart? he thought. Since when was she so nice? You see, Vera wasn't the nicest person out there. There was not a moment that Johnny could remember were Vera was not rude to him or to his parents.
The two began walking towards Vera's old car. As they crossed the street, Vera held Johnny's hand. The kindness emitting from her was strange to Johnny.
"Now don't you worry about a thing, Johnny," Vera said as she unlocked the car and opened the back door for Johnny. "Your stuff is boxed up and in the trunk, you will still be attending the same school, and the police seem to have all the information they need from you."
Johnny nodded and slid into the back seat. Vera shut the door for him and then made her way to her seat. She placed her car keys into the ignition and turned it. The car started with a long groan. For a second, Johnny feared that the car would not start. He felt a wave of relief wash over him as the car started to move. Johnny rested his head back and closed his eyes. He soon felt himself drift to sleep.
"Get up!"
Johnny eyes opened his eyes and gasped. He looked around at his surroundings and found himself in an unfamiliar car in an unfamiliar neighborhood. He began to panic, but he then realized that he was in his aunt's car which was parked outside her town home.
Johnny rubbed the sleep from his eyes with his fists. A repugnant stench soon made its way to his nostrils; it was the smell of alcohol. Crinkling his nose and glancing around, he realized the interior of the car was filthy. Wine stains, coffer stains, soda stains- all were found throughout the car. Trash from fast food restaurants scattered the floor.
I must have been really tired to not notice this, he thought.
"Hey, I'm talking to you!" he heard his aunt yell. Immediately, he looked at her and gave her his full attention. Vera had her usual scowl rather than the fake smile she had given the police officers.
"Good, you're awake. We're here, so get out of the car."
Obeying, Johnny quickly took off his seat belt and got off the car.
That's more like the Vera I know, Johnny thought.
Vera got off the car soon afterward. "Help me get your stuff from the trunk," she said as she walked over to the trunk of her car. With a twist of another key, she opened the trunk to reveal Johnny's possessions. Vera picked up the first box she saw and walked towards her town home, carelessly leaving Johnny behind.
Johnny walked over to the trunk and peered inside at his boxed possessions. He glanced at the boxes, each labeled in his own sloppy, childish handwriting. A box labeled "art supplies + Teddy" caught his attention. With a weak smile on his face, he reached into the trunk and grabbed the box. His art supplies were the most important objects to him. He then walked towards his aunt's town home, or what he now has to call "home".
Not to his surprise, Johnny discovered that her condo was just as bad as the interior of her car. He stood in the living room by the stairs to the second floor. The room had little more than a sofa, a coffee table, and a TV. On the coffee table sat multiple empty bottles of alcohol. The room had the same stench of alcohol as the car did and something else Johnny couldn't put his finger on.
"Hurry up and come upstairs!" shouted Vera the top of the stairs.
Johnny nodded, though Vera would not see it, and ran up the stairs. When he reached the top, his aunt pointed a bony finger towards one of the two bedrooms.
"That's going to be your bedroom," she said. She then walked into the room and dropped the box she carried onto the ground. Johnny quietly followed her into his new bedroom. The room contained a bed without any sheets, a nightstand right next to the bed, a lamp on top of the nightstand, and a dresser.
"You can start unpacking this while I get the rest of your stuff up here," Vera said.
"Thank you," Johnny said in a barely audible voice. He went over to the box his aunt dropped, which was labeled "clothing", and began to open it. Vera started walking out the room, but turned around as she reached the doorway.
"You don't talk much, do you?" she asked, surprised that Johnny was so calm and quiet. It was not as if she ever seen him shouting and running all over the place, but she had expected to see a small, sobbing mess.
Johnny kept his gaze on the box and shrugged. Vera decided not to let this bother her and left the room.
"Hey, kid, I'll be out for a bit. Dinner's in the fridge if you get hungry."
Johnny, who had been finishing putting his sheets on his bed, looked up to see his aunt standing in the doorway of his room. She wore a black mini dress with a halter top and black stiletto shoes.
"You… you're leaving me alone?" Johnny asked, surprised she was going out when her sister had died just last night.
"Didn't you hear me?" Vera asked, putting her hands on her hips. "Yes, I am. Don't open the door to anyone and don't leave the house, understand?"
Johnny nodded as he watched his aunt leave them room. He stood there as if he was frozen until he heard Vera's car start and drive off.
"Am I the only one who's upset?" Johnny whispered.
Vera was not fit to be a mother, even less so a legal guardian. The twenty-nine year old liked to spend her nights drinking and getting high in bars or in the comfort of her living room. Because of these habits, she appeared to be ten years older.
I don't want to be alone…
Johnny walked over to his box of art supplies. He had put everything in the box on the dresser except for his teddy bear. He picked up the toy and hugged tightly.
"At lease I have you, Teddy," he whispered, closing his eyes. Johnny felt a tear escape his eye lids and run down his cheek. The last thing he wanted was to be all alone, though he preferred to be lonely than to be with his aunt.
Johnny turned around to face his nightstand. On the nightstand was picture frame with a photograph that he cherished. He picked it up and looked at it with a small smile. It was a photograph of him with his parents out in their backyard last summer. His parents were alive and full of energy. The three of them had a big, bright smile and twinkling eyes. He would never have a moment like that ever in his life. The thought made his smile disappear and more tears fall. Johnny clutched the picture with his teddy bear and crawled into bed. He rested his head on his pillow and pulled the navy blue sheets over himself. He allowed the tears to slowly fall. His stomach began to growl, but he ignored it. He felt too sick to eat anyway. Before he knew it, he had cried himself to sleep.
Yeah, this was more of a filler chapter than anything. I'm not really pleased with it, but I'm just so tired of writing this. I wanted to have this uploaded since December, but I only had a paragraph done at that time. Don't expect another chapter before June. I have projects I need to work on and state testing is coming up. *sigh* On a better note, I have an idea of how I want to start the next chapter, so it should take less time to write. Oh, and Selena was able to get the Doughboys in their fuzzy, pink sweaters. I had to give Johnny a cherry brain freezie to get him into his.
Selena: Oh, look how adorable you three look!
Mr. Eff: I want to kill you two!
D-boy: Yes, go kill yourselves for this atrocious crime!
Nny: I would kill you two, but Alicia gave me a freezie. I'll spare your lives today.
Me: Heh heh, thanks. HEY YOU SAID MY NAME!
Nny: Sorry?
Anyway... REVIEW! Critical criticism is welcomed open arms. I promise the next chapter will be better and things will pick up. I'm getting all excited now x] Remember to review! Oh, how I love reviews! Review or... eh I got nothing.