A/N: Oh my god it's been so long. I've been planning on rewriting this and turning it into a well-written piece of art-ish stuff. I guess. Fear not, I will let you know before I do it. And I want to get some of my ideas out, before cracking down on something big.

So here's chapter 4

Chapter 4: House of cards

Tenna stopped by Devi's house today.

"Didja hear?" she said when Devi opened the door.

"Hear what?" she rolled her eyes and sat down on the couch.

"Thirty-seven people died at Taco hell last night."

"WHAT?" Devi's eyes grew wide and her face blanched. "Are you serious?"

Tenna sat down on the back of the couch, her filthy shoes getting their dirt all over the clean cushions. "Yep. Thirty-seven people! Spooky wasn't surprised, but dammit I sure was."

"Was it the same person that killed those kids at the CD cesspool?"

"The cops think it was." Tenna pondered something for a few moments "I'd have to agree. It all matches."

"Tenna," Devi was sheepish about her question, "How did those kids die?"

"They were shot. Why?"

Devi let out a sigh of relief, and Tenna stared at her, confused.

'Good morning!'

Why did this new voice always sound so happy?

Squee rubbed his temples to try and abate his headache. He failed. Maybe if he ate something, he'd feel better.

'Todd,' Shmee was back 'I have a bad feeling about this. You're starting to scare me.'

"What should I do?" Squee had discovered a long time ago that no matter how far away he was from him, Shmee could hear him even if he whispered. "Tell him to go away?"

'That's not going to work. I think we may need to do something drastic.'

"Like what?" Squee was starting to feel Shmee's fear. It was unsettling. "What's going on? What do you know?"

'I don't know,' Shmee said 'But I have a theory.'

"Tell me, please."

'I- I think you might be… possessed.'

' Ha, ha, ha. Good one.' The other voice laughed. 'Not quite right though. Now shut up and go away.'

Shmee was silent after that.

Johnny was really starting to get worried about Squee.

He'd been staying out later, he seemed constantly frightened, and nervous. Like something was not right with him.

So, tonight he decided to get some answers out of the boy.

At around two in the morning Nny made his way to Squee's house. He walked in the front door, which was unlocked, surprisingly. He scoured the house to see if he could find anything.

He was on his way to Squee's father's office on the second floor, when he heard the front door slam. Loudly. He ducked into the room and listened.

"Shmee?" Squee's voice said meekly after a few seconds. "Shmee!" his voice was choked and cracking. "What did I do? Why won't you talk to me? Shmee, don't leave me alone!"

He made a little choked sound, stifled a sob and shouted at the top of his voice, "Don't leave me alone with this monster! Please! I don't like this! Help me!" He lost his vigor, and then whispered, so Johnny could barely hear, "why won't you help me?"

Johnny shut the door and pressed his back to it. He let his weight pull him into a sitting position on the floor. Who was the monster? Was it him? That little scene really shook Nny up.

What was going on with Squee?

Squee buried his face into his pillow and cried for a good five minutes uninterrupted.

But he couldn't stay that way. Hell no.

'See? He abandoned you. Here he was saying he was going to protect you, and now he's gone. G-O-N-E gone.'

"No," Squee whispered, "he didn't leave. You hid him from me. Where is he? Tell me damn you."

'I didn't do a damn thing to your precious little bear. Pfft, not worth my time. Or yours for that matter. Now, my unstable little puppet, get up! The night is young!'

"No." Squee repeated, "I want to sleep. Leave me alone."

'Fine, be that way.'

Squee pulled his pillow over his head and held it there.

Then there was silence.

Nny recovered himself from Squee's little outburst and set to scouring the office.

Wait a sec.

Where was Squee's dad? From what Johnny had gathered from his break-ins, the man never left this place if he didn't have to. Why wasn't he here now?

There was a dark spot on the carpet near the chair, but Johnny couldn't tell what it was in the poor light.

Time to go check on Squee.

He was sleeping. No surprise there. Pillow pressed over his head, blanket pulled high around his shoulders.

There were bandages on the backs of his hands.

That was odd. Johnny took a step closer and examined the band-aids. Some were loose. Johnny, with total disregard for Squee's slumber, pulled them off. Squee didn't wake up, and the marks on his hands were visible.

They were marks Johnny was pretty familiar with. There were four diagonal marks starting at between the thumb and index finger moving down and away. Johnny gently rolled up Squee's sleeve and saw more marks on his wrists and forearms. Clearly signs of a struggle.

Now Nny was even more concerned.

Tess had decided earlier that week that she would take Devi out for the night.

Devi was more than a little stubborn about it. She eventually caved and they were walking down the street guided by only the streetlights and other pedestrians.

"I don't like this…" Devi said, nervously. "Couldn't we have gone out during the day or something? Maybe?"

"No." Tess said, "Hey, look this is new!" She pointed to a building across the street.

"Looks like they finally rebuilt the place." She recognized the location. The place looked so different now, it was a boutique instead of a café.

"rebuilt?" Tess raised an eyebrow.

"Few years ago someone bombed the place. Back when it was still a Starbucks. It's taken them forever to put something in its place."

"Oh yeah." Tess laughed "I remember now. All those people died. Hmm…" She turned and continued down the street "I say good riddance. I've always hated Starbucks."

Devi hurried after Tess, "Can we go home now?"

"No."

"God I fucking hate you."

Squee drifted off to sleep with little effort. Waking back up was the problem.

He was in a dark room, tied to a chair next to a tall lamp that illuminated a 5 foot circle.

"Hi there!" Said a voice from the darkness, a voice that Squee had never heard before.

"Yes, Yes, hello." Said another voice, much like the first, from another spot in the dark.

"Master says your new," Said voice one, "New is always good. So is weak."

"Is he weak?" voice two asked "really? Maybe the Last gave him a warning."

"I doubt that," Said one, "He could've never expected this!"

"Ah! Revenge is sweet, no?"

"yes."

Two sets of footsteps approached. The two voices were hooded figures. Both wore pendants. The one on the left bore a ten-pointed star, while the one on the right the symbol of a many-headed dragon, both pedants were fastened to long, thick black chains.

A third figure stepped forward; he was also hooded and wore a pendant. His was of a key and an oar crossed into a lopsided X. His was on a silver chain. He remained silent, with his head downcast.

"Well, well, well." Said voice one, which belonged to the one on the right. "Let's see… how did he tell us to go about this?"

"Slow and sure." Said the one on the left, "Slow and sure, we don't want him to get away."

Todd found his voice. "Who are you?"

The third figure looked up and stepped forward. He placed his had on Squee's shoulder and took a breath as if to speak. Sadly, before he could, the one on the right grabbed him and pulled him backwards. "Who we are doesn't matter. As long as you do as you're told no one gets hurt."

"Hurt?" Todd whimpered, "Hurt?"

'Yes, hurt.'

"You again!" Todd shouted, "Where are you! Show yourself you- you monster!"

The shadows around him billowed darkly. 'I'm right here.'

Todd swallowed hard. "Show me your face."

A laughter erupted around him and the light grew brighter. The three other figures were gone. The room was small and made of cement which was covered in patches with chain-links and barbed wire. Across from him was a desk, on that desk was a house of cards. But, they weren't paying cards.

They were tarot.

Behind the desk the shadow shifted and squirmed. It took on a vaguely humanoid form; one glowing white eye on right side of its face, a row of large pointed teeth in its mouth, it seemed to be wearing some sort of high collared coat. Around its neck in the only thing that seemed solid was a charm, made of some silvery substance incased in glass. Mercury perhaps. It hung down to the middle of his chest. It was a straight shape that resembled the letter 'P'

' Better?' it asked sardonically. 'You see this? This house of cards. It's very symbolic when you think about it. But not in the obvious way. Yes it does represent your life, sanity, and such, but…' he made a sweeping motion with his arm. And Todd saw the scattered cards on the floor. Some nailed down, others hacked to bits. 'What really matters is how this got here.' Sigh 'I don't want you. But I'm willing to settle for you. Especially after all the effort that was put into you, this'll probably redeem me. And it might just corrupt the right people.'

"corrupt?" Todd sputtered, "Corrupt? What does that mean? What is this? Who are you?"

'That is none of your business. And its best that you mind your own business, and resist as little as possible.'

"Or what?"

The shadow whistled and the house of cards burst into flames.

Squee woke up screaming.

A/N: OMG I love how that dream came out! Chapter 4 WHOO! Omg I just too excited about this. R/R.

Oh, and I just wanted to thank all of those people that added me to their alerts and favs. You people make me feel all warm and fuzzy.

I like the fuzzy.