(All characters © of Jhonen 'fun loving' Vasquez, who'd probably hate me for these stories, YAY!)

"A New Life"

            "So, what should we do now SHMEE?" Todd walked into the living room and sat on the couch. He stared into the eyes of his bear.

            'What do you mean? I TOLD YOU WE SHOULDN'T HAVE COME HERE! You told me that last weeks burial would be it. It was bad enough you had wanted to visit here in the first place!' His face still in the same grin he had all those years.

             "Well, I DIDN'T THINK HE'D BE DEAD!" Todd threw the bear across the room.  "I mean come on! He was maybe what, 20 when I met him? Ten years couldn't have had that much toll on a man."  'Unless it was all stress.' He thought to himself. He then looked over to where he threw SHMEE. He had landed atop the remains of decayed Styrofoam.  Todd got up and walked over to the pieces.  Two knives were stuck in the wall above the piles; pieces of the Styrofoam still clung to the blades of each.  He could tell they had been painted, but many years ago. 

            "What were these?" He asked himself.

            'You wouldn't want to know.' SHMEE got up and dusted himself off.

            Todd backed up.   "I don't ever remember you moving, SHMEE. Except in those dreams I had when I was younger."

            'Well, this ain't no dream, buddy boy!' He walked back over to the couch.  Todd stared at SHMEE.  'WHAT!? You act like you've never seen something strange.  Compared to the stuff I've had to absorb from you, the subject of me walking should make you laugh.'  He turned the TV on and stared blankly at it.

            Todd sighed and began to explore the house.  He looked down a flight of stairs that must have led to the basement.

            'I wouldn't go down there if I were you!'  SHMEE called out from where he sat.

            Todd ignored his warning and walked down the stairs.  He was greeted by the foul stench of various body fluids and decaying flesh, yet he found the stench to be bearable. 

            The room was dark.  He hit the light, and saw it was filled with corpses, still hanging on various torture devices.  Other rooms held skeletons hanging upside-down, and on walls.  'I'm gonna have to clean this up sooner or later' he thought to himself as he kicked a skull down the hall.  He saw there were more stairs, but didn't want to bother looking down them.  'Who knows how many levels there are to this house.'  He sighed to himself and walked back upstairs.

            SHMEE still sat there watching TV.  'Like what you see down there?' he asked.

            "I don't know." He paused, "I guess."

            'We must leave now!' he got up and turned off the TV.  'You don't know the things that have happened here, and what MIGHT happen, IF WE DON'T LEAVE THIS INSTANT!'

            "What are you so afraid of? Its just a house."

            'And you thought he was just your neighbor. You saw those things down there.  Everything this guy had done, was mainly down there.  You thought he was only trying to scare you when he told you, that little path leading to your house was filled with bodies.'  He began to walk to the door.

            "There's nothing to fear here, SHMEE.  This is better than home anyways."

            SHMEE sighed, and walked back to the couch.  He sat slumped, his eyes got droopy.

            "Aww, what's wrong SHMEE?"  He sat beside him.

            He sat silent, then talked, 'It seems you have no need for me.'

            "Why do you say that?"

            'Well, what trauma is there to absorb now?  You, sadly, will turn into what you hated.  Leaving me as nothing.'

            "What do you mean by that?"

            He sighed 'Nothing' He then got up and walked to the kitchen.  Todd sat quietly till he heard screaming.

            'AAAAAGHHH! HE HAS NO MILK!' SHMEE ran out to the front with a mouth full of peanut butter.

            Todd smiled to himself.  "Don't worry, I'll go over to the 24-7 and get you some, alright?"

            SHMEE gave a grunt of approval and ran back to the kitchen.

            At the 24-7, he picked up a gallon of milk, as well as a Damned Blueberry Brainfreezy.  He was about to walk out when he realized what had happened. The jackass clerk forgot to give him back his change.

            "Excuse me, could you give me my change please?" He asked, and took a sip of the Brainfreezy.

            The clerk just stared at him and went back to reading his magazine.

            "Excuse me!" He hit the edge of the counter with his knee.  The clerk just cleared his throat.

            "Oh you're just begging for it!" He took the milk gallon and slammed it against the clerk's head.  Hopping over the counter, he grabbed one of the candy bars.  Unknowingly, he shoved the bar deep into the right ear of the clerk, his screams stopped once he pushed it all the way in.  He then stood up and realized what he had done.

            He grabbed his Brainfreezy which he left on the counter, and his milk gallon, (which to his luck didn't bust open) and ran all the way back to the house.

            'What took you?' SHMEE said.  He walked over, took the milk gallon out of Todd's hands, opened it, and took a swig.  He then looked up at Todd, and knew what had just happened. 'I guess I have some use after all!' he smiled and walked back to the kitchen.  'Want a sandwich!' he screamed from the table, 'I made them myself.'

            Todd sat at the table, and thought hard about what he had just done.  He realized he didn't feel guilty, sick, or ashamed.

            He just smiled.