Whoop-dee-doo, another chappie! Lots of focus on Nny, Donnie and Carrie this one, I'll prolly give the others a bit more screen time next chapter. I still have no idea where I'm going with this, but I'm loving every minute!
Nope, still don't own these guys. Try me next week.
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Eating dinner at the Raunchy Horse was doubtlessly a unique experience. For one thing, it was the only communal meal of the day. Coffee and sometimes doughnuts were usually in the kitchen in mornings, but people had to fend for themselves during lunch. Dinner was more or less the only time everyone would be in the same place at the same time. And as one walked around the table during dinner, the absurdity of the company there was really flung into the light. First, there was Bobby-Jo, who laughed like a hyena, chewed gum while eating, and salted everything, including her dessert. At the moment, she was engaged in an animated conversation with a few people, though she appeared to be the only animated one.
Next to her was Johnny C. Nny ate like a devout Buddhist, taking only what he needed, which for him, wasn't much. He had a black eye and a few cuts on his face. But if Nny's wounds looked bad, sitting next to him was the epitome of the expression, 'You should see the other guy.'
Bandaged like the invisible man, with pain restricting his movements, was Edgler Foreman Vess. In sharp contrast to Nny, Edgler ate his food with gusto, smacking and savoring everything. Animal grunts of pleasure erupted occasionally from his lips, bringing further disgust from the thin man next to him. He attracted attention while eating on a normal day, but he was even more of a spectacle now: The gauze wrapped around his head like a sweatband was caked in dry blood, and he had clearly made no attempt to remove the twisted shard of metal embedded in his shoulder.
Next to him, Nny was muttering something about cheap knives, and what he intended to do to the owner of a certain pawn shop. The fact that Edgler was apparently enjoying his pain irritated him further.
One more seat down was Willard, not-so-discretely slipping bits of his food to a friend up his sleeve. Every few seconds he would throw a glare of intense, primal hatred at the man seated across from him. This man was ignoring both Willard's stares and his own food, and was concentrating on trapping a gnat he had found flying around the room.
Between Renfield and Bobby-Jo, if we are going in a counterclockwise direction, (should I draw a diagram?) was a very anxious Joe-Bob, who sniffed and inspected each bite of food carefully. He shot wary glances at the two teenagers across from him, (but next to Willard,) who were engaged in shy, halting conversation. Donnie laughed at something Carrie said, but realized she hadn't been making a joke when, a second later, the salt shaker exploded. The next few moments between them were awkward.
Finally, between Carrie and Renfield sat the newest member of this group, Norman Bates. He sat like a man finally at peace, eating his food slowly, a casual smile on his face.
"...And you should have seen the look on that little dog's face! It was PRICELESS!" Bobby-Jo nearly choked on her chewing gum from laughter.
Willard looked across at her and smiled the sort of smile you smile at someone when you're secretly praying that God will open up the ground and swallow the person you're smiling at whole, just to get her to stop talking.
Next to him, Donnie spoke to Carrie with awkward ineloquence. "So.. do you like horror movies?" he asked.
Carrie looked a little like a stunned bunny. "I've... I've never even seen one before."
"Oh." Donnie said, embarrassed. He looked down.
"But I'd like to." Carrie recovered.
"Oh! Well, uh... Dead by Dawn is playing in town tonight. Um. Do you wanna?"
"I... well... yes."
"Great! Great..." He gave a half-chuckle, half-sigh of relief. He smiled, paused and fiddled with his food a while. "...Can you drive?" he asked suddenly.
Carrie shook her head. "Can you?"
Donnie did likewise. "The judge said I can't until I'm twenty-one." He looked ashamed.
"Why not?"
"I... sorta burned a building down."
"Really?" Carrie became excited, "Me too!" The two of them laughed.
Meanwhile, Bobby-Jo paused in tormenting Willard with her conversation. "Mmph, scuze me a minute, I need to visit the urination station."
Joe-Bob grabbed her arm as she got up. "Don't leave me alone here!" he cried.
"I've got to!" she said, wriggling out of his grasp. "I'll only be a second."
"Take me with you!" He pleaded in a whispering voice.
"No, silly, I need to use the bathroom!"
"It's nothing I haven't seen before!"
"NO! Now leggo!" Bobby-Jo walked off. Joe-Bob turned helplessly back to the others. Norman smiled at him unnervingly.
"You know, if you pick at that, it's only going to get worse." Norman said, turning to Edgler.
Edgler was, between bites, digging his nails into his shoulder wound and giving tiny whimpers of pleasure. "That's pretty much the idea." He agreed. Nny muttered something under his breath and his eye twitched.
"GOT IT!" came a shout from Renfield. Silence fell and everyone turned as he thrust the gnat into his mouth. Conversation started up again quickly.
Donnie and Carrie spoke back and forth a little, then Carrie turned to Nny. "Mr. C?" she asked.
Nny turned. "Yes?"
"Do you like movies?"
Nny almost laughed, but didn't. "To an unhealthy degree. Why?"
"Well, we can't drive and... we wanted to know if..." she paused.
"...We could bum a ride off you?" Donnie suggested.
Nny looked thoughtful, then cast a glance at Edgler, still slurping up his food. He turned away in disgust. "Okay. Let's go." He stood and pushed his plate away.
"May... may I have the, uh, rest of that?" Willard asked meekly, indicating Nny's plate, still mostly full. Nny nodded and pushed it over to Willard, who smiled and nodded thanks. As Nny left with Donnie and Carrie, Willard pushed Nny's food onto his own ample leftovers, and excused himself to his room.
"...But can't you see the love you feel for your mother is a delusion?" Edgler was lecturing Norman on his own personal philosophy. "You only take pleasure in the things she does for you. You could get anyone else to do those things."
Norman shook his head darkly. "No one could do as much for me as she has."
Joe-Bob attempted a little conversation. "Will we, uh, ever get to meet your mother, Norman?" He asked.
Norman's eyes glinted dangerously. "*You* might." He said.
There was a pause. "Bobby?" Joe shouted at the bathroom quite a bit louder than was necessary, "You okay in there?!"
Renfield's chair tipped over as he reached after a fly, causing a loud crash that made Joe-Bob flinch. Bobby-Jo finally came out of the bathroom, much to Joe-Bob's relief.
"Sorry Joe, I- Where is everyone?"
"The movies I think. Listen, I have to use the bathroom now." He got up and ran out of the room. Shortly thereafter came the sound of a car driving away with extreme haste.
Later, in town, the two teenaged sociopaths were enjoying the movie immensely. At first, Nny had been watching it as well, -seated at a respectful distance, therefore giving them privacy. But a few minutes into the movie a man who had been talking very loudly left to use the bathroom, and Nny had followed him. Forty minutes past without a sign of either returning, but neither Carrie nor Donnie felt worried. The nervous agony of asking each other there had passed, and they sat, occasionally chatting quietly, but mostly in comfortable silence.
But romantic bliss is hard to come by in a CryingChild fic, and within minutes the high-pitched whine of police sirens was heard from the distance. The walls of the theater were paper-thin, and even with the movie playing, they could hear the wail. Both adolescents immediately became tense at the noise, it really seemed to be headed for the theater.
"I think we should probably leave." Donnie suggested.
"Why?" Carrie asked, showing that despite everything, she retained a lot of naivete, "We didn't do anything here." Her eyes widened as she recalled the man Nny had gone after. "Oh." They hurried out quickly.
Sure enough, Nny was literally dripping blood when they met up with him outside. "Hi." He said, casually. "I lost my ticket stub, so I decided to just wait for you."
"We have to get out of here!" Donnie said bluntly.
"Why?" Nny asked. The sirens grew louder. "Oh. Don't worry, that's not for me. I don't think I can ever be caught."
The other two exchanged a look, then shrugged. After a little persuasion on their parts, the three of them got into Nny's run-down grey car and sped off into the night.
Several miles down the road from them, Joe-Bob was enjoying a Twinkie in a nearby convenience store. Okay, perhaps 'enjoying' is to strong a word to describe anyone eating a Twinkie. But suffice to say he was eating a Twinkie and trying to come to terms with his life.
"Okay, you know, things are actually going good for you." He said to himself. "Yeah, you've got a great, strong, intelligent woman at your side, a secure job and roof over your head, and seven murderers under that roof." Joe-Bob whimpered. "Give me another Twinkie, would you?" He asked the cashier.
"Sure thing mister! Say, are you by any chance insane?"
"Me?! Are you kidding?"
"You've been talking to yourself for the last twenty minutes."
"Listen, I'm a strictly sound minded person..."
"You've been muttering about Freddy Kruger trimming your bushes."
"And *you,* my friend, don't know what real insanity is."
"I don't know what tripe is either, but I still eat it on toast every morning."
"In that case, it's probably best you don't know what tripe is. Can I just have another Twinkie?"
"Sure, sure. Here you are." He relinquished the semi-snack cake. "The reason I ask is I just heard over the radio, someone was stabbed to death at the dollar movie theater."
Joe-Bob's eyes widened. "Was the theater playing Dead by Dawn?"
"How the hell am I supposed to know? But there's only one theater in this town, so it's probably the same one you're thinking of." Joe-Bob's body went stiff. Another huge bead of sweat burst over his head. "Aww, geez..." said the cashier, "I just mopped that floor!"
The full force of everything that had been going on recently touched something deep in Joe-Bob's chewy center. He squeezed his Twinkie flat, squirting creme filling everywhere. His arms flailed wildly, and he ran screaming out of the store, destination unknown.
Meanwhile, Nny's driving style was making his passengers nauseous. Worse still, as he sped across the bumpy, uneven road, he was getting thoroughly lost, as most people who are used to city driving do when transferred to a rural area.
"Where are we?" Carrie asked.
"I have no idea." Nny replied testily.
"Well, what does that sign say?"
"It's practically been blown to the ground, I can't read it. Go out and see for yourself if you want to know."
"Fine." The car stopped, Carrie exited and walked over to a road sign that was in an advanced state of disrepair, some yards away from the car. As she crossed the road to reach it, another car filled with people who had clearly been drinking too much came barreling out of nowhere. Carrie just barely had time to turn before it was inches from her.
"Nooooooo!" Donnie screamed, in a tone of voice usually reserved for bad actors. Carrie didn't even flinch as the car suddenly flipped right over her head. The power of her mind lifted the car off the ground, spun it in the air, and brought it to a gentle landing upside down behind her, whereupon it's gas tank caught fire.
Donnie rushed out of the car. "Carrie! I was so afraid for you!"
"Dear God!" Screamed someone in the car. "We're really burning in here!"
"I'm all right, really." Carrie replied.
"Thank God no one was hurt." Donnie breathed.
"Help! Somebody help, we can probably still survive if we geet medical attention, fast!"
Donnie looked somber. "Carrie... it hurts to say this but... when I saw that car headed to you, it brought up so many painful memories."
"Oh, thank goodness, this nice skinny man will help us to- Oh God, he's stabbing us! Help! Help!"
"What are you trying to say?" Carrie asked, her eyes fearful.
"I like you, but... well, I don't know if love is right for me." Carrie's eyes went wide and her breathing quickened. "I have too many problems as it is. And my girlfriends have a habit of dying, I don't want that to happen to you."
"Why is no one stopping this?! Dear Lord, my organs!! Aaa... aa.. ergh..."
Carrie looked aghast. Tears formed in her eyes, and she looked ready to do something drastic. But her memory suddenly brought her back to the night of her senior prom. Could she really say her luck in love had been any better? Much of her anger faded, and what remained of it disappeared after the flaming car behind her mysteriously crumpled in upon itself. "I understand." She said.
"You two okay?" Nny asked, walking up to them. By now he had so much blood on his clothes the white parts were almost uniformly red.
Donnie looked at Carrie for conformation, and she nodded. "Yes." She said.
"We've just decided not to go together anymore." Donnie added.
The three of them talked as they walked over to Nny's car, then sat on it watching what remained of the burning wreckage and charred corpses. "That's probably for the best. In my experience, love can only lead to suffering. Best to avoid it in the first place, and spare yourself the agony later."
"Do you really think that's always true?" Carrie asked.
"Absolutely." Nny replied. "I can't think of a single couple that hasn't been driven over the brink by their relationship."
"What about those two who run the boarding house?" Donnie countered, "They're in a relationship, and they seem pretty stable."
At that point, Joe-Bob ran past them with a destroyed Twinkie in one hand, screaming gibberish and tearing at his hair.
Nope, still don't own these guys. Try me next week.
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Eating dinner at the Raunchy Horse was doubtlessly a unique experience. For one thing, it was the only communal meal of the day. Coffee and sometimes doughnuts were usually in the kitchen in mornings, but people had to fend for themselves during lunch. Dinner was more or less the only time everyone would be in the same place at the same time. And as one walked around the table during dinner, the absurdity of the company there was really flung into the light. First, there was Bobby-Jo, who laughed like a hyena, chewed gum while eating, and salted everything, including her dessert. At the moment, she was engaged in an animated conversation with a few people, though she appeared to be the only animated one.
Next to her was Johnny C. Nny ate like a devout Buddhist, taking only what he needed, which for him, wasn't much. He had a black eye and a few cuts on his face. But if Nny's wounds looked bad, sitting next to him was the epitome of the expression, 'You should see the other guy.'
Bandaged like the invisible man, with pain restricting his movements, was Edgler Foreman Vess. In sharp contrast to Nny, Edgler ate his food with gusto, smacking and savoring everything. Animal grunts of pleasure erupted occasionally from his lips, bringing further disgust from the thin man next to him. He attracted attention while eating on a normal day, but he was even more of a spectacle now: The gauze wrapped around his head like a sweatband was caked in dry blood, and he had clearly made no attempt to remove the twisted shard of metal embedded in his shoulder.
Next to him, Nny was muttering something about cheap knives, and what he intended to do to the owner of a certain pawn shop. The fact that Edgler was apparently enjoying his pain irritated him further.
One more seat down was Willard, not-so-discretely slipping bits of his food to a friend up his sleeve. Every few seconds he would throw a glare of intense, primal hatred at the man seated across from him. This man was ignoring both Willard's stares and his own food, and was concentrating on trapping a gnat he had found flying around the room.
Between Renfield and Bobby-Jo, if we are going in a counterclockwise direction, (should I draw a diagram?) was a very anxious Joe-Bob, who sniffed and inspected each bite of food carefully. He shot wary glances at the two teenagers across from him, (but next to Willard,) who were engaged in shy, halting conversation. Donnie laughed at something Carrie said, but realized she hadn't been making a joke when, a second later, the salt shaker exploded. The next few moments between them were awkward.
Finally, between Carrie and Renfield sat the newest member of this group, Norman Bates. He sat like a man finally at peace, eating his food slowly, a casual smile on his face.
"...And you should have seen the look on that little dog's face! It was PRICELESS!" Bobby-Jo nearly choked on her chewing gum from laughter.
Willard looked across at her and smiled the sort of smile you smile at someone when you're secretly praying that God will open up the ground and swallow the person you're smiling at whole, just to get her to stop talking.
Next to him, Donnie spoke to Carrie with awkward ineloquence. "So.. do you like horror movies?" he asked.
Carrie looked a little like a stunned bunny. "I've... I've never even seen one before."
"Oh." Donnie said, embarrassed. He looked down.
"But I'd like to." Carrie recovered.
"Oh! Well, uh... Dead by Dawn is playing in town tonight. Um. Do you wanna?"
"I... well... yes."
"Great! Great..." He gave a half-chuckle, half-sigh of relief. He smiled, paused and fiddled with his food a while. "...Can you drive?" he asked suddenly.
Carrie shook her head. "Can you?"
Donnie did likewise. "The judge said I can't until I'm twenty-one." He looked ashamed.
"Why not?"
"I... sorta burned a building down."
"Really?" Carrie became excited, "Me too!" The two of them laughed.
Meanwhile, Bobby-Jo paused in tormenting Willard with her conversation. "Mmph, scuze me a minute, I need to visit the urination station."
Joe-Bob grabbed her arm as she got up. "Don't leave me alone here!" he cried.
"I've got to!" she said, wriggling out of his grasp. "I'll only be a second."
"Take me with you!" He pleaded in a whispering voice.
"No, silly, I need to use the bathroom!"
"It's nothing I haven't seen before!"
"NO! Now leggo!" Bobby-Jo walked off. Joe-Bob turned helplessly back to the others. Norman smiled at him unnervingly.
"You know, if you pick at that, it's only going to get worse." Norman said, turning to Edgler.
Edgler was, between bites, digging his nails into his shoulder wound and giving tiny whimpers of pleasure. "That's pretty much the idea." He agreed. Nny muttered something under his breath and his eye twitched.
"GOT IT!" came a shout from Renfield. Silence fell and everyone turned as he thrust the gnat into his mouth. Conversation started up again quickly.
Donnie and Carrie spoke back and forth a little, then Carrie turned to Nny. "Mr. C?" she asked.
Nny turned. "Yes?"
"Do you like movies?"
Nny almost laughed, but didn't. "To an unhealthy degree. Why?"
"Well, we can't drive and... we wanted to know if..." she paused.
"...We could bum a ride off you?" Donnie suggested.
Nny looked thoughtful, then cast a glance at Edgler, still slurping up his food. He turned away in disgust. "Okay. Let's go." He stood and pushed his plate away.
"May... may I have the, uh, rest of that?" Willard asked meekly, indicating Nny's plate, still mostly full. Nny nodded and pushed it over to Willard, who smiled and nodded thanks. As Nny left with Donnie and Carrie, Willard pushed Nny's food onto his own ample leftovers, and excused himself to his room.
"...But can't you see the love you feel for your mother is a delusion?" Edgler was lecturing Norman on his own personal philosophy. "You only take pleasure in the things she does for you. You could get anyone else to do those things."
Norman shook his head darkly. "No one could do as much for me as she has."
Joe-Bob attempted a little conversation. "Will we, uh, ever get to meet your mother, Norman?" He asked.
Norman's eyes glinted dangerously. "*You* might." He said.
There was a pause. "Bobby?" Joe shouted at the bathroom quite a bit louder than was necessary, "You okay in there?!"
Renfield's chair tipped over as he reached after a fly, causing a loud crash that made Joe-Bob flinch. Bobby-Jo finally came out of the bathroom, much to Joe-Bob's relief.
"Sorry Joe, I- Where is everyone?"
"The movies I think. Listen, I have to use the bathroom now." He got up and ran out of the room. Shortly thereafter came the sound of a car driving away with extreme haste.
Later, in town, the two teenaged sociopaths were enjoying the movie immensely. At first, Nny had been watching it as well, -seated at a respectful distance, therefore giving them privacy. But a few minutes into the movie a man who had been talking very loudly left to use the bathroom, and Nny had followed him. Forty minutes past without a sign of either returning, but neither Carrie nor Donnie felt worried. The nervous agony of asking each other there had passed, and they sat, occasionally chatting quietly, but mostly in comfortable silence.
But romantic bliss is hard to come by in a CryingChild fic, and within minutes the high-pitched whine of police sirens was heard from the distance. The walls of the theater were paper-thin, and even with the movie playing, they could hear the wail. Both adolescents immediately became tense at the noise, it really seemed to be headed for the theater.
"I think we should probably leave." Donnie suggested.
"Why?" Carrie asked, showing that despite everything, she retained a lot of naivete, "We didn't do anything here." Her eyes widened as she recalled the man Nny had gone after. "Oh." They hurried out quickly.
Sure enough, Nny was literally dripping blood when they met up with him outside. "Hi." He said, casually. "I lost my ticket stub, so I decided to just wait for you."
"We have to get out of here!" Donnie said bluntly.
"Why?" Nny asked. The sirens grew louder. "Oh. Don't worry, that's not for me. I don't think I can ever be caught."
The other two exchanged a look, then shrugged. After a little persuasion on their parts, the three of them got into Nny's run-down grey car and sped off into the night.
Several miles down the road from them, Joe-Bob was enjoying a Twinkie in a nearby convenience store. Okay, perhaps 'enjoying' is to strong a word to describe anyone eating a Twinkie. But suffice to say he was eating a Twinkie and trying to come to terms with his life.
"Okay, you know, things are actually going good for you." He said to himself. "Yeah, you've got a great, strong, intelligent woman at your side, a secure job and roof over your head, and seven murderers under that roof." Joe-Bob whimpered. "Give me another Twinkie, would you?" He asked the cashier.
"Sure thing mister! Say, are you by any chance insane?"
"Me?! Are you kidding?"
"You've been talking to yourself for the last twenty minutes."
"Listen, I'm a strictly sound minded person..."
"You've been muttering about Freddy Kruger trimming your bushes."
"And *you,* my friend, don't know what real insanity is."
"I don't know what tripe is either, but I still eat it on toast every morning."
"In that case, it's probably best you don't know what tripe is. Can I just have another Twinkie?"
"Sure, sure. Here you are." He relinquished the semi-snack cake. "The reason I ask is I just heard over the radio, someone was stabbed to death at the dollar movie theater."
Joe-Bob's eyes widened. "Was the theater playing Dead by Dawn?"
"How the hell am I supposed to know? But there's only one theater in this town, so it's probably the same one you're thinking of." Joe-Bob's body went stiff. Another huge bead of sweat burst over his head. "Aww, geez..." said the cashier, "I just mopped that floor!"
The full force of everything that had been going on recently touched something deep in Joe-Bob's chewy center. He squeezed his Twinkie flat, squirting creme filling everywhere. His arms flailed wildly, and he ran screaming out of the store, destination unknown.
Meanwhile, Nny's driving style was making his passengers nauseous. Worse still, as he sped across the bumpy, uneven road, he was getting thoroughly lost, as most people who are used to city driving do when transferred to a rural area.
"Where are we?" Carrie asked.
"I have no idea." Nny replied testily.
"Well, what does that sign say?"
"It's practically been blown to the ground, I can't read it. Go out and see for yourself if you want to know."
"Fine." The car stopped, Carrie exited and walked over to a road sign that was in an advanced state of disrepair, some yards away from the car. As she crossed the road to reach it, another car filled with people who had clearly been drinking too much came barreling out of nowhere. Carrie just barely had time to turn before it was inches from her.
"Nooooooo!" Donnie screamed, in a tone of voice usually reserved for bad actors. Carrie didn't even flinch as the car suddenly flipped right over her head. The power of her mind lifted the car off the ground, spun it in the air, and brought it to a gentle landing upside down behind her, whereupon it's gas tank caught fire.
Donnie rushed out of the car. "Carrie! I was so afraid for you!"
"Dear God!" Screamed someone in the car. "We're really burning in here!"
"I'm all right, really." Carrie replied.
"Thank God no one was hurt." Donnie breathed.
"Help! Somebody help, we can probably still survive if we geet medical attention, fast!"
Donnie looked somber. "Carrie... it hurts to say this but... when I saw that car headed to you, it brought up so many painful memories."
"Oh, thank goodness, this nice skinny man will help us to- Oh God, he's stabbing us! Help! Help!"
"What are you trying to say?" Carrie asked, her eyes fearful.
"I like you, but... well, I don't know if love is right for me." Carrie's eyes went wide and her breathing quickened. "I have too many problems as it is. And my girlfriends have a habit of dying, I don't want that to happen to you."
"Why is no one stopping this?! Dear Lord, my organs!! Aaa... aa.. ergh..."
Carrie looked aghast. Tears formed in her eyes, and she looked ready to do something drastic. But her memory suddenly brought her back to the night of her senior prom. Could she really say her luck in love had been any better? Much of her anger faded, and what remained of it disappeared after the flaming car behind her mysteriously crumpled in upon itself. "I understand." She said.
"You two okay?" Nny asked, walking up to them. By now he had so much blood on his clothes the white parts were almost uniformly red.
Donnie looked at Carrie for conformation, and she nodded. "Yes." She said.
"We've just decided not to go together anymore." Donnie added.
The three of them talked as they walked over to Nny's car, then sat on it watching what remained of the burning wreckage and charred corpses. "That's probably for the best. In my experience, love can only lead to suffering. Best to avoid it in the first place, and spare yourself the agony later."
"Do you really think that's always true?" Carrie asked.
"Absolutely." Nny replied. "I can't think of a single couple that hasn't been driven over the brink by their relationship."
"What about those two who run the boarding house?" Donnie countered, "They're in a relationship, and they seem pretty stable."
At that point, Joe-Bob ran past them with a destroyed Twinkie in one hand, screaming gibberish and tearing at his hair.
