I still exist and stuff. i'm still going to write this, i mean, how can i not? i love squee too much. i was pouting in my corner of loneliness and decided to work. enjoy(:

The Vanishing Act

Todd kept his hands shoved in the pockets of his dark jeans, keeping up with Pepito's gait. The boy always had this way about him; completely confident and not afraid to show it. It was a wonder how the two became friends. But, then again, Todd always had been the weird one. Who else would befriend a boy with horns poking out of his head, shouting that he was the anti-Christ?

So, it was natural that Todd walked in a calm manner while Pepito tended to walk as though the ground was actually just moving underneath him and he was simply walking in place. Todd would bet that Pep would probably think that if someone posed the idea to him.

"I can't believe it, man, we're out of high school," Pepito breathed, breaking the easy silence that had sprouted between them. Pepito cast a sideways glance at Todd, who broke into a grin.

"Not out of school, though," Todd said, knowing he was being a Debbie Downer, "still gotta go to college."

Pepito scoffed. "No one has to go to college." He looked down at his black shoes for a moment, pondering. "I mean, look at me. All I have to do with my life is Hell's paperwork, and Dad does most of it, usually." He pursed his lips before adding, "I can really just puppy-dog-eyes my way with him."

"For the devil, your dad is such a pushover," Todd laughed. "Is that really what you want to do, Pep?" Todd wondered, flicking his fringe out of his eyes to look at his friend. Pepito was transfixed with the ground.

"I'm not sure. I mean, I'll go to college, because I know you are. I just don't know what I'm really going to do," Pepito's voice seemed to lack his normal cheer, and Todd wanted to say something, but Pepito brightened instantly, a mirthful smirk on his face, "Besides! How are you going to get there without me to drive you?"

Todd groaned. It was no secret that Todd and Jill shared a car, and not a particularly good one. Jill was a nurse and acquired quite a nice income, but she saved most of her money all of Todd's life to pay for him to go to college. This resulted in them not ever replacing the car. Jill had driven the same car all his life, since the very day she took him home.

More commonly referred to as Melted Steering Wheel, the car was in pretty awful condition. It was an old, black Toyota Camry from some year that Todd didn't have the initiative to try and find out. Everything worked on it, and it ran, but sometimes the things that worked would stop working for no reason. The radio, for one, seemed to have a mind of its own, and the steering wheel, obviously, had its hang ups.

Pepito had been giving Todd rides to school ever since he could drive, and taught Todd how to drive as well. It was probably a good thing that Pepito was going to college, because, with Jill's hours, Todd wasn't sure how sharing a vehicle was going to pan out. Pepito's car never died suddenly, either. That was always a plus in Todd's book.

"Ugh, don't remind me," Todd mumbled, training his vision on the ground. "At least we both got accepted into the same college." He raised his eyes to look at Pepito's soft green ones. (a/n lol, made that up on the spot.)

"Yeah, lucky we both got accepted into the same college that's only twenty minutes away!" Pepito smirked, "I'm not sure I'd be willing to drive any further. For you, I would drive anywhere, but just knowing I would be driving there to be lectured at? Not my style, amigo."

Todd just nodded, not exactly sure what to add to that statement. He turned his eyes back toward the ground, feeling a little lost in thought. He felt like he should have a stronger sense of freedom now that the official school day was over.

"Maybe after I get my diploma and I'm really, truly done with that place, I'll feel more celebratory." He mused, not quite believing himself. He could just feel something, almost place the name, but it was like a lightning bug in the middle of the night sky; so bright and obviously visible, but so much more difficult to catch without just a fragment of sunlight.

Sucking his lower lip into his mouth, he began to nibble on it thoughtfully. He wanted to say something, anything to fill the silence for Pepito, but the other boy knew him so well by now that he didn't seem bothered. It was just as well; Todd just had a million things on his mind and nothing to say. Nothing on his mind would stay, either; it was a constant blur of thoughts that didn't appear to have a consistent image or an end.

For the majority of the time, Todd kept his eyes glued to the colliding concrete sidewalk, feeling an easy silence settle, but every step he took, he felt more of that unnamable essence jumping in his veins. Only after they had crossed a familiar road did Todd look up, and what he saw made him stop dead in his tracks.

"Amigo?" Pepito asked, having walked a little further before noticing the absence of matter by his side. He stopped and turned to face Todd, questions etched across his face.

"Hold on," Todd murmured, unable to stop gawking at a scene unfolding in front of him. He was mystified by a ridiculously skinny man dressed in black who appeared to be giving a beggar a hard time. Todd's eyes followed his movements like a connect-the-dots as the man angrily sucked his brain freezy.

That strange feeling in him apparently kicked into overdrive in those few moments, because his heartbeat began to pound in his head, and the anticipation he'd been experiencing all day teetered at a precipice, nearly satiated just by this stranger.

An awfully familiar stranger.

The man had turned away by now and was walking off before Todd regained his composure. His eyes snapped over to look at Pepito. The confused boy was staring at Todd and then the man, as if it was some puzzle he could solve if he just looked at it a little longer.

"Who is that? And why are you looking at him like that?" Pepito voiced, bringing Todd completely back to awareness.

"I think I, wait- looking at him like what?" Todd said rapidly, having already decided to follow the man, headed in the same direction and left Pepito behind him.

"What is going on with you, Todd?" He asked, completely dumbfounded, jogging to fill the gap that had sprouted between them at Todd's quick departure. "You look like you want to cut him open and analyze his insides or something creepily equivalent." Pepito answered.

Todd grimaced, "No, no, I think I know him. Maybe. I don't know. He just looks really familiar." He said each word as fast as he could, speeding up his pace so that he wouldn't lose the man, who seemed to be lurking more in and out of shadows instead of walking clearly on the sidewalk.

"Okay, so why are we following him? And what about our brain freezies?" Pepito sounded crestfallen, but quickened his walk to match Todd's.

"Forget the brain freezies! This is more important right now! We'll get them on the way back," Todd grumbled. He slowed down only a little when they had gained serious ground, merely a couple of yards away from the man. Now Todd focused more on being quiet, still unsure if he knew the man or not. The lightning bug was back, brighter than ever, but fluttering just above his outstretched arms.

Pepito followed behind Todd silently, the situation completely bizarre to him. Every so often Todd would stop in his tracks and crouch, locked onto his target. There was something about Todd that was strangely reminiscent to a hunter stalking its prey, and Pepito wasn't sure he liked the looks of the prey, or where this was going.

At one point, Todd stopped so abruptly that Pepito nearly bumped into him. This caused Todd to stagger forward a step, kicking a pile of pebbles. The sound echoed through the virtually barren streets, causing their target to freeze.

Todd's heart hammered in his chest fearfully, and he quickly pulled Pepito over to the grass behind a row of bushes. Had the situation been less frightening at the moment, he would have laughed at how conveniently placed the bushes were. He could have bet at that moment that he had highly evolved escapist instincts.

With wide eyes, Todd monitored the man as he tossed his drink down. His breathing hitched as he watched the man slide a knife into his hand and conceal it under the sleeve of his jacket. The man did a 360 look around, narrowed his eyes, and continued his previous path.

"I really don't want to know why you would know this guy, Todd," Pepito breathed when the man had progressed quite a ways away from them. Todd wasn't sure what to say to Pepito, but under his trepidation, he still felt compelled to follow him.

Slowly, Todd emerged from the bushes and began his earlier task, but at a much more cautious rate. Now that his initial excitement had turned to apprehension, he planned to be tremendously careful about his steps now.

Pepito, like a ridiculously loyal friend, followed. He was either not questioning because he knew Todd was determined to do this, or he was still speechless from the shock. Todd wasn't going to consider Pepito's motives at this moment; tailing that man was much more important… and his voice was probably really weak from the shock, too.

The process seemed unbearably slow compared to the near-running they had been doing earlier, but there was too much alarm to stray more than a block behind the man. They kept darting behind bushes, trees, and even other people's cars. No way were they going to make a mistake again, it was just too dangerous, especially having the knowledge that a knife was safely obscured by the sleeve of the man's jacket.

As they surged forward, the neighborhood became increasingly shabbier. Houses were falling apart or leaning to one side, all of them looking like someone took a cookie cutter and smashed out identical houses and thought of new ways to destroy them. It all seemed familiar, making Todd's head spin.

Ultimately, they came to a stop just a corner away from the man. Hidden behind a worn-down privacy fence, they watched him turn and walk straight into an empty house lot. Todd felt his stomach lurch sickeningly when he realized just where the house was, and almost simultaneously, it all made sense to him.

"Nny," Todd whispered, his body visibly shaking now. He did know this man, his knives, his walk, and his talk. It was his scary neighbor, the one he had nightmares about, the one he cared about still. Johnny was the man who always needed band aids and bactine, who had once saved him from something he still couldn't grasp, and had been one of the first people to care.

"Who? Todd, amigo, you're shaking really bad," Pepito hissed, frantically looking Todd up and down and then glancing at Nny, as if that could somehow solve the problem.

"He… He was my neighbor. He's that man I told you about," Todd replied. The response felt almost automatic, like he wasn't in his body at the moment. He was spellbound by Johnny. The strange anticipation he felt had ostensibly dissipated, leaving him now with aching curiosity and a handful of fireflies.

Todd wanted to walk out there, to talk to Johnny, but something was holding him back, something that wasn't just the physicality of Pepito or the fear of Johnny's concealed weapon. Todd began to chew on his bottom lip, eyes not leaving Johnny for an instant. Just as he thought he couldn't fight the urge any longer, Johnny was climbing inside his old house.

"He's gone, let's get the fuck out of here," Pepito growled, yanking Todd in the opposite direction of Todd's old home, determined to get them as far away from Johnny as possible. As far as he was concerned, this man was not good news, and he didn't want Todd to get involved in any of that fucked up shit.

"Okay," Todd agreed, his voice still sounding mechanical. He kept throwing glances back at the corner, causing Pepito to keep a steadying hand on his shoulder, urging him forward.

"Let's just go get brain freezies," Pepito said softly.

It was in that moment that Todd realized he didn't care how fucked up it was, or what any of the potential dangers could be; he had to talk to Nny again, and he resolved to do just that.

Now tell me you love me ;D