Author's Notes: I LIVE!!!!! Yeee!! More! I think this is the longest ongoing fic I'm ever gonna have, ha. Finally! Devi and Tenna! Woo! Finally- plot development! Yeah! Wow, speaking in exclamation points is catchy. But, that's not the point! AGGH! There's another one! EEE! They're stalking me!! GET THEM AWAY!!!! ::bats exclamation points away frantically and falls over::
Disclaimer: Sh'yeah, right, I own them. ::rolls eyes:: Or not. Everything belongs to Jhonen but Angel and the plot. The Child-Snatcher bit was inspired by a Dreamtime panel in Squee! #2.
Desires Of The Mind
Nny'sFallenAngel
Chapter 3: Reunions and Strange Coincidences
Squeek. Squeek. Squeek. Squeek-squeek.
Devi dropped her paintbrush in the water, watching the blue paint come off the brush in spirals and waves. If she concentrated hard enough on the patterns in the water, the sound of her own thoughts could almost drown out the-
Squeek. Squeek. Squeeeek. Squeek. Squeeky-squeek.
Fuck. That's it.
"Dammit, Tenna!" Devi yelled, her patience at it's end. "If you squeak that goddamn thing one more time, I'm gonna donate it to the pound as a chew-toy!"
She listened. Silence.
Then, quietly, in the next room: "She didn't mean it, Spooky."
Devi clutched at her temples, and tapped her head lightly on the wall. Lightly, because she didn't want to give herself a concussion, but considering her roommate's obsession with that damn toy, maybe that would do her a favor. Hmmm... there was an idea. Surely they wouldn't let that thing into a hospital...
Seriously considering the pros and cons of a self-inflicted concussion, Devi was momentarily distracted by the phone ringing. Hopping onto the couch, she reached over and picked it up on the fourth ring.
"City morgue," she said.
"Yeah, uh, I'd like to order a male cadaver for the medical school dissection this week? Preferably a porn star, yeah. Do you have any dead porn stars?"
Devi smiled. "No, sorry, but we're due for a shipment of male models day after tomorrow, you can come by and pick one out."
"Awww... oh, well, I guess a model'll have to do... thanks for your help." The person on the line giggled. "So, what's up, Devi?"
Leaning back, she replied, "Not much. Tenna's been trying to see how close she can get me to the line between sanity and insanity and not push me completely over. How's it going with you, Angel?"
"Eh, I can't complain. I mean, I've got a weird guy on my case warning me never to go out after dark again, or else the really bad things'll get me, but other than that..." Angel trailed off.
Devi snapped to attention at that. "What? What weird guy?"
"Just this one guy who held me up a while ago," she replied nonchalantly, nevertheless enjoying the effect her words had had on Devi. "Warned me that there were worse things out there than him, and that he wasn't really threatening me, he was trying to protect me, that kind of stuff."
"What did he look like? How old was he?" Devi asked, somewhat panicky.
A short silence, and then Angel replied, "I couldn't see him very well, but he looked to be about my age, tall, blue eyes, black spiky hair with some dyed color in it- I couldn't tell which color, it was dark. Something like that."
"You're okay, though?" Devi breathed a silent sigh of relief at the non-Nny description.
"Yeah, I'm fine. He didn't really hurt me."
"...Did you thank him?" Devi said after a moment's thought.
"Um, no, not really. I was a bit stunned. Should I have?"
Devi sighed. "I don't know. Maybe, maybe not. But he was right, there are worse things out there than him."
There was an uncomfortable silence on the other end. "Yeah, I guess so," Angel replied.
Devi changed the subject rather abruptly. "Sooo... how's Aunt Ramona?"
"Mom? She's okay. Speak of the devil, hold on... what, Ma?" Angel said, obviously talking to her mother. "It's Devi. Yeah, she says hi. Yeah, I'll tell her. Mom says hi back, Devi."
Devi smiled. "We really should get together for dinner sometime soon. You guys are the only family I can actually stand for more than a few minutes at a time."
"That _is_ something to celebrate," Angel agreed. "You want to go out tonight? You, me, and Tenna. We could have a girl's night out, or something."
"I really don't think so, Angel. I mean, the weather report is supposed to suck-"
"Aww, come on Devi," Angel interrupted her. "You've got to get out of that apartment sooner or later. You _know_ you'll kill Tenna if you stay much longer in there with her, and that's a loss the whole world'll mourn. Please? Do it for your favorite cousin?"
"You're my _only_ cousin," Devi replied, rolling her eyes.
"Okay, do it for your only cousin," she amended amicably.
"Hm, let me ponder that for a moment... no."
"Devi! Please! I've got to get out of this house!" Angel pleaded.
"Ahhh, so, the truth comes out!" Devi said triumphantly.
Angel sighed. "Yes, yes, I'm just using you and Tenna to get out of the house because Mom said I need adult supervision when I go out at night."
"And what about your weird scary guy's warning?" Devi queried.
"... if he cares so much, he'll find me again," Angel replied after a moment's hesitation.
Devi raised an eyebrow. "You like him?!"
Angel snorted. "Yeah, ours is a forbidden love," she replied sarcastically. "I never said that I liked him."
"B-u-double l shit, Angel, I can read between the lines. Pursuing a relationship with an umthug is _not_ very advisable, little cousin. I would not recommend it. Besides, aren't you seeing that Todd guy?"
"As well as I can 'see' him over the phone," Angel grumbled. "Besides, who said I was going to 'pursue a relationship' in the first place? I'm not pursuing. What I'm doing is the opposite of pursuing. Call me... the anti-pursuer of relationships with scary dudes. Or you can call me Ishmael, and I can tell you all about this big-ass white whale and this crazy guy who's obsessed with killing it..."
"Mmhmm," Devi murmured, not convinced at all. "Well, okay. We can go out, maybe to a club or something, drive around for a while. As long as it's okay with your mom first."
"Thank you! You're the greatest, you know that?"
"It's been said," Devi responded wryly.
*******
Squee lazed about on the floor of his room, idly picking at the rotting happy face wallpaper that still inhabited the walls. His eyes closed sleepily, and he yawned. A real rainstorm had kicked up outside, lightning, thunder, wind, the whole nine yards. The rain pounded at the rickety roof, dripping in in some places, and the house rocked back and forth comfortingly as it was buffeted by the winds. He checked his watch, and moaned slightly. It was barely ten past ten, and he was already getting sleepy, not to mention bored. In the next room, his mother sobbed quietly, providing a nice counterpoint to the steady rhythm of the storm. He closed his eyes and allowed his mind to wander free... bump.
His eyes snapped open.
There was another small thump from his closet.
Curious, he got up, and cautiously approached the noise.
Thump, bump, crunch crunch crunch.
He reached for the door knob, his fingers trembling almost imperceptibly. His hand hovered over it for an instant, and he swallowed slowly, mentally preparing himself for anything he might find on the other side of the door, before grabbing it and pulling it wide open.
The Child-Snatcher looked at him, big eyes wide open in consternation as it chewed slowly on the toddler in its mouth. It swallowed, then, looking anxiously at Squee, whispered, "I making too much noise?"
Squee stood there, dumbfounded, both eyebrows nearly disappearing into his hairline. It occurred to him that he had been asked a question. "Uh... yeah. A little."
It blinked at him and pulled another kid from the bunch it carried. "Sorry."
He nodded. "S'okay..." Squee closed the door, still in slight shock, and decided it was a good time to go over and see what Johnny was doing.
As he was hopping the fence that divided his yard from Johnny's, Squee suddenly had it. The very thing! What a way to jumpstart his system!
Nny jumped, startled, as a drenched, dripping, wild-eyed Squee burst through his front door, accompanied by an impressive flash of lightning. His eyes, already big, seemed impossibly large with evident emotion, and he grinned at Johnny happily. An especially loud rumble of thunder punctuated his expression.
"You have the look," Nny remarked, only slightly impressed by the theatrics, "of a person who thought he'd ran out of nachos, then discovered a hidden underground nacho cave." He poked at the roach on the floor in front of him with his dagger.
Slightly thrown off by this Johnny-ism, Squee pushed his wet hair out of his eyes, a bit of confusion obvious in his eyes. "Umm.. yeeaah... But anyways, Nny: I've had the best idea I've had in a while. Something... different."
Johnny looked up from teasing Mr. Samsa with a knife point, curious. "Pray, do tell."
"How do you feel about... going to a club?"
Nny lifted an eyebrow in response, nodding his head and grinning slightly to show his approval. "Sounds good. Surprisingly good."
He picked himself up off the floor, and slung his trenchcoat on. Squee accompanied him downstairs, picking out some essentials and slipping them into his coat pockets as Nny did the same. The left the house together, two dark shapes fading into the deeper black of the storm.
"By the way, Squeegee, that was an _exceptional_ entrance."
A modest shrug. "I do what I can."
Beat. "Nny?"
"Yeah?"
"... There's a monster in my closet."
"... Neat."
*******
The techno song pounded deep into their bones and eardrums as Devi, Angel, and Tenna flailed about frantically on the dance floor, trying to simultaneously dance and resist the conflicting surges of people trying to either get on or leave the dance floor.
Tenna fanned her hand across her face, breathing hard. "I'm gonna go get a drink, you want something?"
"Nothing for me, thanks," Angel yelled over the noise.
Devi only shook her head no, too immersed in the beat. The two girls continued to writhe and thrash on the dance floor as Tenna fought her way to the bar, too into the music to notice the dark shape climbing up the gigantic amp, or the second dark shape entering the DJ booth.
Nothing seemed any different for a few seconds, and then all of a sudden, the bass got turned up. Way up. Those closer to the amps were brought to their knees as the crushing waves of sound swept over them. Angel cried out in pain, palms pressed over her ears, and Devi dragged her backward, forcing a way through those that were cringing or twitching in agony on the floor. The lightbulbs that provided the dim light in the club shattered, raining sharp glass on those underneath them, and the club was pitched into darkness. The volume kept increasing, until the walls started to crack in places and people started to burst blood vessels in important places, beginning the horribly slow process of bleeding to death internally. Some people's heads exploded, the pounding sound waves were so strong. Devi pushed Angel down behind the bar, and crouched down herself. Tenna quickly joined then, hands over her ears as well.
Suddenly it stopped.
The silence, in comparison with the din that had been occuring moments before, was deafening, broken only by the whimpers and sobs of the wounded, and the gush of blood from the already dead.
"Ugh... ow... wha- what happened?" Angel said, rubbing her head and trying to get up on one knee.
"I don't-" Devi started to reply, when one small light flicked on directly over the amp and two dark shapes seemingly appeared out of nowhere on top of it. She stifled a gasp as the taller shape stepped forward into the light, and revealed a face that was unmistakable, even after all these years. The circles under his eyes were darker, and his hair now had two longer spikes sticking out of the rest of it, somewhat reminiscent of antennae, but the face was the same.
It was Nny.
"Hey, Devi," Tenna whispered. "Isn't that-"
"Johnny!" Angel burst out, shocked. "I know him! He's the one that introduced me to Squee!"
"Shhhh," she whispered back harshly, somewhat surprised at both the fact that her cousin knew the homicidal maniac, and the flood of emotions welling up inside of her. None of them was the hate that she had expected. Rather, she was hit by a rush of shock at seeing him for the first time in years, slight anger to know that he was still up to his old tricks, and a feeling she couldn't quite figure out. It felt curiously like relief.
A slightly shorter, definitely younger boy that Devi didn't recognize stepped into the light beside him, eyeing the crowd. His eyes were large, almost too blue to be believed, and there was an impressive scar that ran parallel underneath both eyes and over his nose. His son? Devi wondered, with a stab of... jealousy? No, of course not.
Angel made a noise Devi couldn't identify. "That's him! That's the one that held me up that one time!"
The younger boy stepped in front of Nny, crouched down and clutched the edge of the amp in both hands in the manner of a gargoyle on a cathedral roof. He stared down at the bloody mess on the floor impassively, then turned his eyes on those that were still alive. His gaze flicked back to Johnny. Devi waited expectantly for the longwinded speech that was so characteristically Johnny, but was surprised when he smiled pleasantly, almost sanely, at the boy in front of him.
"I love that song," Nny said, conversationally. "I liked it before the band actually ever became famous, but then when they hit that one gold streak, suddenly everyone was their biggest fan." He finally looked at the crowd, stepping forward and to the side around the crouching boy, and raised his voice to them. "Is everybody enjoying the music? Having a good time?"
Whimpers and moans, sobbing and tears answered his question.
He grinned at the mass of people below him, and threw open his trenchcoat. Several people gasped, others just stared in horror, others began to back up and search for a way to run, because contained within were the most knives and sharp implements any of them had ever seen concealed on one person before. He detached a few from his person, and tossed the boy a pair of foot long scythes, keeping two fourteen inch hooked blades for himself. The boy stood slowly, a malevolent grin spreading across his face that scared everyone worse than the sight of the blades had.
"Oh my God," Angel breathed, stunned, "they're going to kill everybody."
Tenna shuddered.
Johnny paused, as if he meant to say more. Then, with one fluid movement, he flipped forward off the twenty-five foot high amp, and landed on a man's shoulders with both feet, crushing him. Blood squirted and intestines exploded, spattering Johnny.
For a second, no one moved, shocked.
Then everyone went apeshit.
Everyone was running, screaming, trying to escape through doors that had been locked and chained from the outside. Angel, Devi, and Tenna stayed where they were, trying to keep an eye on both of the killers at once. In the younger one's case, this wasn't hard to do, as he had remained on top of the amp so far, watching Johnny with a smile on his face.
Devi shuddered. The boy gave her the creeps. He was so cold, it was like he wasn't even human. Like he didn't view them as human, either. And that scar- she'd never seen one like it. It unnerved her.
Keeping an eye on Johnny, however, was a bit of a problem. He moved almost too fast to see, and with a fluid grace and strength that startled her. Sometimes, the only way they knew where he was was by listening for the screams of pain and looking for the fountains of blood. If not for the vicious acts he was engaged in at that moment, she could've admired the way he controlled his body. There was little or no wasted movement to his actions.
Behind her, Angel gasped. "He's gone."
Devi's eyes shot back up to the amp. The boy was gone, it was true, two long rips in the amp's speaker cloth showing how he had gotten down so quickly. "Where is he?" She looked around for him quickly.
"I don't see him," Tenna said, breathing a little faster.
They heard screams and the unmistakable sound of ripping flesh behind them, but the second they turned, he had gone already. What was left of a man and a woman were on the floor amid puddles of blood and gore. The younger one's style was a bit different, employing a spinning flailing motion that employed nearly all his limbs, all the more deadly for his flexibility and speed. Devi winced as the boy ducked and spun around violently, eviscerating one person while pulling off a spinning back kick, breaking another's jaw. As he came up again, he caught the second person in the brain with both scythes, pulling them out in a spray of blood.
"They're trading off each other, look," Angel said, nudging Devi. Johnny was back on the amp, swinging his legs back and forth like a happy little boy. His clothes were spattered with blood, and his face was smeared with it on one side, and he nodded his head, watching the younger boy take his turn on the crowd. "It's a game."
"There he is," Tenna said, pointing. Devi and Angel looked, right in time to see the boy simultaneously gut and run a frat boy through, and with strength that startled them all, lift the twitching body almost a foot off the floor, still impaled on the blade. It sliced through the still living body like butter, and the corpse dropped to the floor, gushing blood.
Johnny clapped, standing up from his sitting position. "Nicely done, Squee, really artsy. Was that the last of them?"
Angel felt her insides grow numb. Squee? Her Squee? It couldn't be... but then, hadn't that been the very thing she'd been dreading? It made perfect sense that that would be Squee.
The boy straightened up, wiping the blood off his blade. "Looks like it, Nny." He glanced around, and smiled, a genuine smile. "I'd like to congratulate you on a job well done, mi amigo."
It _was_ him. Angel couldn't believe it. The voice- why hadn't she recognized it in the first place? She stood up, angry as hell, picked up a large steak knife from the box of kitchen utensils under the bar, and threw it at him with all her might.
"Angel!" Devi and Tenna exclaimed.
"Squee!" Nny yelled.
Squee, caught off guard, reacted at the last minute and blocked it, deflecting the knife by hitting the flat of the blade with the back of his wrist and pushing it away from his body. It ricocheted off into the darkness and clattered as it hit the floor. Squee, narrowing his eyes angrily, stared at the person who had thrown the knife.
He went white as a sheet, his eyes widening in disbelief, and his face went slack. "Oh, no..." he managed to squeak.
Johnny followed his gaze. "Uh oh-"
She vaulted over the bar, landing on a corpse with a loud squishy noise, her face a mask of female fury. Johnny cringed as she, wrenching herself out of the dead body's chest cavity with a hollow crunch, marched over to Squee and punched him, a hard right cross straight to the cheekbone and a stinging left that cracked him right above the nose. Angel continued the assault, yelling at him, while Squee managed to block most of the hits, taking the ones she landed without complaint.
"I can't believe you _lied_ to me!! You told me so many things about yourself, you told me you'd told me everything there is to know, and I trusted you, and it was all _lies_!! If that weren't enough, then you pull that _crap_ on me the other night- let go of me!!"
Devi and Tenna had run after her as soon as she had landed that first punch, and by now had reached the both of them. Devi had thrown her arms around Angel, trapping her arms to her sides and restraining her. They hauled her a good distance away from Squee, sitting her on a bar stool. She sat there and fumed silently, occasionally glaring at Squee.
Johnny had slid down the amp's side and gone to check on him. He was getting quite a bruise where Angel had landed that first good punch, and his nose was bleeding steadily.
"Damn, Squee," he said softly, pressing a napkin to the nose and tilting his head back, "you really know how to pick'em."
"Id it brokeh?" Squee asked, his eyes closed and not bothering to point out that it had been Nny who convinced him to call her in the first place.
Nny felt the bridge of the nose, running his fingers expertly along the cartilage and applying slight pressure. Squee twitched once. "It's not broken, just a little bit bruised. Keep your head back, that should stop the bleeding in a few minutes."
Devi watched him tend to Squee out of the corner of her eye, intrigued by the image of Nny being tender. She watched him a little longer, torn between running as far away as fast as she possibly could, or... not. He'd tried to kill her, he'd nearly driven her into becoming a hermit, he'd been the finishing blow to anything that could have possibly resembled her social life, and yet there she stood, amid nearly seventy mutilated corpses... *not* hating him. Devi couldn't understand herself.
Your friend thought he could fight, too...
Sickness' words of long ago echoed through her head, making her wonder: what sort of things could have driven him to such madness? And why hadn't he been able to fight them, when she had?
She took a tentative step toward him. He heard the rustle behind him and whirled around, knives pulled out and locked into a defensive position. He was unmistakably ready to protect the boy.
Devi smiled inwardly. He really _had_ changed. There was a new awareness, an umsanity that was in his eyes tonight that had replaced the mindless fervor he'd been in that fateful night ten years ago.
Nny's eyes opened wide in shock as he recognized her, and he dropped a knife. He straightened up, mouth agape, and backed up, nearly tripping over Squee in the process. Devi followed him as he stumbled backwards, never getting closer than fifteen feet, give or take, but never letting him get further away, either.
Angel and Squee were quiet, watching them with interest, not really understanding what was going on, but knowing that it was something big. Tenna also kept quiet, though not really for the same reasons. On the inside, she was cheering Devi on ecstatically.
Johnny finally stopped his backward flight, although he stayed in a slightly defensive position. He hadn't forgotten what had happened last time... but he was also thrilled that Devi was the one seeking him out instead of the other way around.
She allowed a slight smile to come to her face, and he relaxed visibly. Devi nudged a corpse with the toe of her boot, almost shyly.
"Still trying to immortalize the moment, Nny?"
*******
Fin (for now!!)
Ooh, somewhat of a cliffhanger... I know, this ending's weird, but don't worry! The next one won't take as much time as this one did, now that I have all the main characters in the same place, at least. Maybe next chapter will actually have some of the plot development soon... well, one can only hope, eh? I swear, I am going somewhere with all this. Stick with me, and you'll see! Please please review and tell me what y'all think, please?
Oh, by the by... umthug and umsanity? um- means maybe, almost, not quite, not sure, so umsanity- almost sanity, sorta. Picked it up off one of my friends ^_^;; now I can't seem to stop using it.
Disclaimer: Sh'yeah, right, I own them. ::rolls eyes:: Or not. Everything belongs to Jhonen but Angel and the plot. The Child-Snatcher bit was inspired by a Dreamtime panel in Squee! #2.
Desires Of The Mind
Nny'sFallenAngel
Chapter 3: Reunions and Strange Coincidences
Squeek. Squeek. Squeek. Squeek-squeek.
Devi dropped her paintbrush in the water, watching the blue paint come off the brush in spirals and waves. If she concentrated hard enough on the patterns in the water, the sound of her own thoughts could almost drown out the-
Squeek. Squeek. Squeeeek. Squeek. Squeeky-squeek.
Fuck. That's it.
"Dammit, Tenna!" Devi yelled, her patience at it's end. "If you squeak that goddamn thing one more time, I'm gonna donate it to the pound as a chew-toy!"
She listened. Silence.
Then, quietly, in the next room: "She didn't mean it, Spooky."
Devi clutched at her temples, and tapped her head lightly on the wall. Lightly, because she didn't want to give herself a concussion, but considering her roommate's obsession with that damn toy, maybe that would do her a favor. Hmmm... there was an idea. Surely they wouldn't let that thing into a hospital...
Seriously considering the pros and cons of a self-inflicted concussion, Devi was momentarily distracted by the phone ringing. Hopping onto the couch, she reached over and picked it up on the fourth ring.
"City morgue," she said.
"Yeah, uh, I'd like to order a male cadaver for the medical school dissection this week? Preferably a porn star, yeah. Do you have any dead porn stars?"
Devi smiled. "No, sorry, but we're due for a shipment of male models day after tomorrow, you can come by and pick one out."
"Awww... oh, well, I guess a model'll have to do... thanks for your help." The person on the line giggled. "So, what's up, Devi?"
Leaning back, she replied, "Not much. Tenna's been trying to see how close she can get me to the line between sanity and insanity and not push me completely over. How's it going with you, Angel?"
"Eh, I can't complain. I mean, I've got a weird guy on my case warning me never to go out after dark again, or else the really bad things'll get me, but other than that..." Angel trailed off.
Devi snapped to attention at that. "What? What weird guy?"
"Just this one guy who held me up a while ago," she replied nonchalantly, nevertheless enjoying the effect her words had had on Devi. "Warned me that there were worse things out there than him, and that he wasn't really threatening me, he was trying to protect me, that kind of stuff."
"What did he look like? How old was he?" Devi asked, somewhat panicky.
A short silence, and then Angel replied, "I couldn't see him very well, but he looked to be about my age, tall, blue eyes, black spiky hair with some dyed color in it- I couldn't tell which color, it was dark. Something like that."
"You're okay, though?" Devi breathed a silent sigh of relief at the non-Nny description.
"Yeah, I'm fine. He didn't really hurt me."
"...Did you thank him?" Devi said after a moment's thought.
"Um, no, not really. I was a bit stunned. Should I have?"
Devi sighed. "I don't know. Maybe, maybe not. But he was right, there are worse things out there than him."
There was an uncomfortable silence on the other end. "Yeah, I guess so," Angel replied.
Devi changed the subject rather abruptly. "Sooo... how's Aunt Ramona?"
"Mom? She's okay. Speak of the devil, hold on... what, Ma?" Angel said, obviously talking to her mother. "It's Devi. Yeah, she says hi. Yeah, I'll tell her. Mom says hi back, Devi."
Devi smiled. "We really should get together for dinner sometime soon. You guys are the only family I can actually stand for more than a few minutes at a time."
"That _is_ something to celebrate," Angel agreed. "You want to go out tonight? You, me, and Tenna. We could have a girl's night out, or something."
"I really don't think so, Angel. I mean, the weather report is supposed to suck-"
"Aww, come on Devi," Angel interrupted her. "You've got to get out of that apartment sooner or later. You _know_ you'll kill Tenna if you stay much longer in there with her, and that's a loss the whole world'll mourn. Please? Do it for your favorite cousin?"
"You're my _only_ cousin," Devi replied, rolling her eyes.
"Okay, do it for your only cousin," she amended amicably.
"Hm, let me ponder that for a moment... no."
"Devi! Please! I've got to get out of this house!" Angel pleaded.
"Ahhh, so, the truth comes out!" Devi said triumphantly.
Angel sighed. "Yes, yes, I'm just using you and Tenna to get out of the house because Mom said I need adult supervision when I go out at night."
"And what about your weird scary guy's warning?" Devi queried.
"... if he cares so much, he'll find me again," Angel replied after a moment's hesitation.
Devi raised an eyebrow. "You like him?!"
Angel snorted. "Yeah, ours is a forbidden love," she replied sarcastically. "I never said that I liked him."
"B-u-double l shit, Angel, I can read between the lines. Pursuing a relationship with an umthug is _not_ very advisable, little cousin. I would not recommend it. Besides, aren't you seeing that Todd guy?"
"As well as I can 'see' him over the phone," Angel grumbled. "Besides, who said I was going to 'pursue a relationship' in the first place? I'm not pursuing. What I'm doing is the opposite of pursuing. Call me... the anti-pursuer of relationships with scary dudes. Or you can call me Ishmael, and I can tell you all about this big-ass white whale and this crazy guy who's obsessed with killing it..."
"Mmhmm," Devi murmured, not convinced at all. "Well, okay. We can go out, maybe to a club or something, drive around for a while. As long as it's okay with your mom first."
"Thank you! You're the greatest, you know that?"
"It's been said," Devi responded wryly.
*******
Squee lazed about on the floor of his room, idly picking at the rotting happy face wallpaper that still inhabited the walls. His eyes closed sleepily, and he yawned. A real rainstorm had kicked up outside, lightning, thunder, wind, the whole nine yards. The rain pounded at the rickety roof, dripping in in some places, and the house rocked back and forth comfortingly as it was buffeted by the winds. He checked his watch, and moaned slightly. It was barely ten past ten, and he was already getting sleepy, not to mention bored. In the next room, his mother sobbed quietly, providing a nice counterpoint to the steady rhythm of the storm. He closed his eyes and allowed his mind to wander free... bump.
His eyes snapped open.
There was another small thump from his closet.
Curious, he got up, and cautiously approached the noise.
Thump, bump, crunch crunch crunch.
He reached for the door knob, his fingers trembling almost imperceptibly. His hand hovered over it for an instant, and he swallowed slowly, mentally preparing himself for anything he might find on the other side of the door, before grabbing it and pulling it wide open.
The Child-Snatcher looked at him, big eyes wide open in consternation as it chewed slowly on the toddler in its mouth. It swallowed, then, looking anxiously at Squee, whispered, "I making too much noise?"
Squee stood there, dumbfounded, both eyebrows nearly disappearing into his hairline. It occurred to him that he had been asked a question. "Uh... yeah. A little."
It blinked at him and pulled another kid from the bunch it carried. "Sorry."
He nodded. "S'okay..." Squee closed the door, still in slight shock, and decided it was a good time to go over and see what Johnny was doing.
As he was hopping the fence that divided his yard from Johnny's, Squee suddenly had it. The very thing! What a way to jumpstart his system!
Nny jumped, startled, as a drenched, dripping, wild-eyed Squee burst through his front door, accompanied by an impressive flash of lightning. His eyes, already big, seemed impossibly large with evident emotion, and he grinned at Johnny happily. An especially loud rumble of thunder punctuated his expression.
"You have the look," Nny remarked, only slightly impressed by the theatrics, "of a person who thought he'd ran out of nachos, then discovered a hidden underground nacho cave." He poked at the roach on the floor in front of him with his dagger.
Slightly thrown off by this Johnny-ism, Squee pushed his wet hair out of his eyes, a bit of confusion obvious in his eyes. "Umm.. yeeaah... But anyways, Nny: I've had the best idea I've had in a while. Something... different."
Johnny looked up from teasing Mr. Samsa with a knife point, curious. "Pray, do tell."
"How do you feel about... going to a club?"
Nny lifted an eyebrow in response, nodding his head and grinning slightly to show his approval. "Sounds good. Surprisingly good."
He picked himself up off the floor, and slung his trenchcoat on. Squee accompanied him downstairs, picking out some essentials and slipping them into his coat pockets as Nny did the same. The left the house together, two dark shapes fading into the deeper black of the storm.
"By the way, Squeegee, that was an _exceptional_ entrance."
A modest shrug. "I do what I can."
Beat. "Nny?"
"Yeah?"
"... There's a monster in my closet."
"... Neat."
*******
The techno song pounded deep into their bones and eardrums as Devi, Angel, and Tenna flailed about frantically on the dance floor, trying to simultaneously dance and resist the conflicting surges of people trying to either get on or leave the dance floor.
Tenna fanned her hand across her face, breathing hard. "I'm gonna go get a drink, you want something?"
"Nothing for me, thanks," Angel yelled over the noise.
Devi only shook her head no, too immersed in the beat. The two girls continued to writhe and thrash on the dance floor as Tenna fought her way to the bar, too into the music to notice the dark shape climbing up the gigantic amp, or the second dark shape entering the DJ booth.
Nothing seemed any different for a few seconds, and then all of a sudden, the bass got turned up. Way up. Those closer to the amps were brought to their knees as the crushing waves of sound swept over them. Angel cried out in pain, palms pressed over her ears, and Devi dragged her backward, forcing a way through those that were cringing or twitching in agony on the floor. The lightbulbs that provided the dim light in the club shattered, raining sharp glass on those underneath them, and the club was pitched into darkness. The volume kept increasing, until the walls started to crack in places and people started to burst blood vessels in important places, beginning the horribly slow process of bleeding to death internally. Some people's heads exploded, the pounding sound waves were so strong. Devi pushed Angel down behind the bar, and crouched down herself. Tenna quickly joined then, hands over her ears as well.
Suddenly it stopped.
The silence, in comparison with the din that had been occuring moments before, was deafening, broken only by the whimpers and sobs of the wounded, and the gush of blood from the already dead.
"Ugh... ow... wha- what happened?" Angel said, rubbing her head and trying to get up on one knee.
"I don't-" Devi started to reply, when one small light flicked on directly over the amp and two dark shapes seemingly appeared out of nowhere on top of it. She stifled a gasp as the taller shape stepped forward into the light, and revealed a face that was unmistakable, even after all these years. The circles under his eyes were darker, and his hair now had two longer spikes sticking out of the rest of it, somewhat reminiscent of antennae, but the face was the same.
It was Nny.
"Hey, Devi," Tenna whispered. "Isn't that-"
"Johnny!" Angel burst out, shocked. "I know him! He's the one that introduced me to Squee!"
"Shhhh," she whispered back harshly, somewhat surprised at both the fact that her cousin knew the homicidal maniac, and the flood of emotions welling up inside of her. None of them was the hate that she had expected. Rather, she was hit by a rush of shock at seeing him for the first time in years, slight anger to know that he was still up to his old tricks, and a feeling she couldn't quite figure out. It felt curiously like relief.
A slightly shorter, definitely younger boy that Devi didn't recognize stepped into the light beside him, eyeing the crowd. His eyes were large, almost too blue to be believed, and there was an impressive scar that ran parallel underneath both eyes and over his nose. His son? Devi wondered, with a stab of... jealousy? No, of course not.
Angel made a noise Devi couldn't identify. "That's him! That's the one that held me up that one time!"
The younger boy stepped in front of Nny, crouched down and clutched the edge of the amp in both hands in the manner of a gargoyle on a cathedral roof. He stared down at the bloody mess on the floor impassively, then turned his eyes on those that were still alive. His gaze flicked back to Johnny. Devi waited expectantly for the longwinded speech that was so characteristically Johnny, but was surprised when he smiled pleasantly, almost sanely, at the boy in front of him.
"I love that song," Nny said, conversationally. "I liked it before the band actually ever became famous, but then when they hit that one gold streak, suddenly everyone was their biggest fan." He finally looked at the crowd, stepping forward and to the side around the crouching boy, and raised his voice to them. "Is everybody enjoying the music? Having a good time?"
Whimpers and moans, sobbing and tears answered his question.
He grinned at the mass of people below him, and threw open his trenchcoat. Several people gasped, others just stared in horror, others began to back up and search for a way to run, because contained within were the most knives and sharp implements any of them had ever seen concealed on one person before. He detached a few from his person, and tossed the boy a pair of foot long scythes, keeping two fourteen inch hooked blades for himself. The boy stood slowly, a malevolent grin spreading across his face that scared everyone worse than the sight of the blades had.
"Oh my God," Angel breathed, stunned, "they're going to kill everybody."
Tenna shuddered.
Johnny paused, as if he meant to say more. Then, with one fluid movement, he flipped forward off the twenty-five foot high amp, and landed on a man's shoulders with both feet, crushing him. Blood squirted and intestines exploded, spattering Johnny.
For a second, no one moved, shocked.
Then everyone went apeshit.
Everyone was running, screaming, trying to escape through doors that had been locked and chained from the outside. Angel, Devi, and Tenna stayed where they were, trying to keep an eye on both of the killers at once. In the younger one's case, this wasn't hard to do, as he had remained on top of the amp so far, watching Johnny with a smile on his face.
Devi shuddered. The boy gave her the creeps. He was so cold, it was like he wasn't even human. Like he didn't view them as human, either. And that scar- she'd never seen one like it. It unnerved her.
Keeping an eye on Johnny, however, was a bit of a problem. He moved almost too fast to see, and with a fluid grace and strength that startled her. Sometimes, the only way they knew where he was was by listening for the screams of pain and looking for the fountains of blood. If not for the vicious acts he was engaged in at that moment, she could've admired the way he controlled his body. There was little or no wasted movement to his actions.
Behind her, Angel gasped. "He's gone."
Devi's eyes shot back up to the amp. The boy was gone, it was true, two long rips in the amp's speaker cloth showing how he had gotten down so quickly. "Where is he?" She looked around for him quickly.
"I don't see him," Tenna said, breathing a little faster.
They heard screams and the unmistakable sound of ripping flesh behind them, but the second they turned, he had gone already. What was left of a man and a woman were on the floor amid puddles of blood and gore. The younger one's style was a bit different, employing a spinning flailing motion that employed nearly all his limbs, all the more deadly for his flexibility and speed. Devi winced as the boy ducked and spun around violently, eviscerating one person while pulling off a spinning back kick, breaking another's jaw. As he came up again, he caught the second person in the brain with both scythes, pulling them out in a spray of blood.
"They're trading off each other, look," Angel said, nudging Devi. Johnny was back on the amp, swinging his legs back and forth like a happy little boy. His clothes were spattered with blood, and his face was smeared with it on one side, and he nodded his head, watching the younger boy take his turn on the crowd. "It's a game."
"There he is," Tenna said, pointing. Devi and Angel looked, right in time to see the boy simultaneously gut and run a frat boy through, and with strength that startled them all, lift the twitching body almost a foot off the floor, still impaled on the blade. It sliced through the still living body like butter, and the corpse dropped to the floor, gushing blood.
Johnny clapped, standing up from his sitting position. "Nicely done, Squee, really artsy. Was that the last of them?"
Angel felt her insides grow numb. Squee? Her Squee? It couldn't be... but then, hadn't that been the very thing she'd been dreading? It made perfect sense that that would be Squee.
The boy straightened up, wiping the blood off his blade. "Looks like it, Nny." He glanced around, and smiled, a genuine smile. "I'd like to congratulate you on a job well done, mi amigo."
It _was_ him. Angel couldn't believe it. The voice- why hadn't she recognized it in the first place? She stood up, angry as hell, picked up a large steak knife from the box of kitchen utensils under the bar, and threw it at him with all her might.
"Angel!" Devi and Tenna exclaimed.
"Squee!" Nny yelled.
Squee, caught off guard, reacted at the last minute and blocked it, deflecting the knife by hitting the flat of the blade with the back of his wrist and pushing it away from his body. It ricocheted off into the darkness and clattered as it hit the floor. Squee, narrowing his eyes angrily, stared at the person who had thrown the knife.
He went white as a sheet, his eyes widening in disbelief, and his face went slack. "Oh, no..." he managed to squeak.
Johnny followed his gaze. "Uh oh-"
She vaulted over the bar, landing on a corpse with a loud squishy noise, her face a mask of female fury. Johnny cringed as she, wrenching herself out of the dead body's chest cavity with a hollow crunch, marched over to Squee and punched him, a hard right cross straight to the cheekbone and a stinging left that cracked him right above the nose. Angel continued the assault, yelling at him, while Squee managed to block most of the hits, taking the ones she landed without complaint.
"I can't believe you _lied_ to me!! You told me so many things about yourself, you told me you'd told me everything there is to know, and I trusted you, and it was all _lies_!! If that weren't enough, then you pull that _crap_ on me the other night- let go of me!!"
Devi and Tenna had run after her as soon as she had landed that first punch, and by now had reached the both of them. Devi had thrown her arms around Angel, trapping her arms to her sides and restraining her. They hauled her a good distance away from Squee, sitting her on a bar stool. She sat there and fumed silently, occasionally glaring at Squee.
Johnny had slid down the amp's side and gone to check on him. He was getting quite a bruise where Angel had landed that first good punch, and his nose was bleeding steadily.
"Damn, Squee," he said softly, pressing a napkin to the nose and tilting his head back, "you really know how to pick'em."
"Id it brokeh?" Squee asked, his eyes closed and not bothering to point out that it had been Nny who convinced him to call her in the first place.
Nny felt the bridge of the nose, running his fingers expertly along the cartilage and applying slight pressure. Squee twitched once. "It's not broken, just a little bit bruised. Keep your head back, that should stop the bleeding in a few minutes."
Devi watched him tend to Squee out of the corner of her eye, intrigued by the image of Nny being tender. She watched him a little longer, torn between running as far away as fast as she possibly could, or... not. He'd tried to kill her, he'd nearly driven her into becoming a hermit, he'd been the finishing blow to anything that could have possibly resembled her social life, and yet there she stood, amid nearly seventy mutilated corpses... *not* hating him. Devi couldn't understand herself.
Your friend thought he could fight, too...
Sickness' words of long ago echoed through her head, making her wonder: what sort of things could have driven him to such madness? And why hadn't he been able to fight them, when she had?
She took a tentative step toward him. He heard the rustle behind him and whirled around, knives pulled out and locked into a defensive position. He was unmistakably ready to protect the boy.
Devi smiled inwardly. He really _had_ changed. There was a new awareness, an umsanity that was in his eyes tonight that had replaced the mindless fervor he'd been in that fateful night ten years ago.
Nny's eyes opened wide in shock as he recognized her, and he dropped a knife. He straightened up, mouth agape, and backed up, nearly tripping over Squee in the process. Devi followed him as he stumbled backwards, never getting closer than fifteen feet, give or take, but never letting him get further away, either.
Angel and Squee were quiet, watching them with interest, not really understanding what was going on, but knowing that it was something big. Tenna also kept quiet, though not really for the same reasons. On the inside, she was cheering Devi on ecstatically.
Johnny finally stopped his backward flight, although he stayed in a slightly defensive position. He hadn't forgotten what had happened last time... but he was also thrilled that Devi was the one seeking him out instead of the other way around.
She allowed a slight smile to come to her face, and he relaxed visibly. Devi nudged a corpse with the toe of her boot, almost shyly.
"Still trying to immortalize the moment, Nny?"
*******
Fin (for now!!)
Ooh, somewhat of a cliffhanger... I know, this ending's weird, but don't worry! The next one won't take as much time as this one did, now that I have all the main characters in the same place, at least. Maybe next chapter will actually have some of the plot development soon... well, one can only hope, eh? I swear, I am going somewhere with all this. Stick with me, and you'll see! Please please review and tell me what y'all think, please?
Oh, by the by... umthug and umsanity? um- means maybe, almost, not quite, not sure, so umsanity- almost sanity, sorta. Picked it up off one of my friends ^_^;; now I can't seem to stop using it.