ISSUE FIVE
Mirror Mirror on the Wall
Vicky is curled up on her bed, leaning against the wall and staring at the contents of the strange shaped case that lies open on the end of the bed. The room in which she has chosen to occupy is almost unchanged from when she had moved in, despite her claims to re-decorate. In one corner lies her suitcase, open, her clothes thrown in it haphazardly, beneath them a few of her favorite weapons, not many. On the broken down dresser sits a bright pink and purple Furby™ next to a beat up, torn picture. The only light is that of a dying lamp of the dresser.
Vicky continues staring at the case which hasn't been opened in the longest time. Vicky can hardly remember the last time she picked it up, it was just another blur of the tornado inside her head. As she watched, the wooden object gleamed, daring her to pick it up, adding to her growing depression, a hollow, empty feeling of total incompleteness that she all too familiar with. The contents of that case represents a time before all the aching pain of her brain had started. For that, she despises the case; and yet she still misses it.
Vicky finally gives in to the glitter of the beautifully crafted violin that sits in the case and picks it up, placing it on her shoulder and grabbing the bow. With a shaky hand, she draws the bow across the strings and a cacophony of evil hisses escapes from the instrument. Vicky tosses the violin back in its case and puts her head in her hands, tears streaming down from behind her sunglasses.
"That was gorgeous! Carnegie Hall material!"
"Shut the fuck up, Ludwig," Vicky sniffs.
"Aw, you're so mean, Vicky," the little Furby™ says. "All this negative energy is detrimental to the creative muses…"
"What muses? I have none."
"Well, with THAT attitude of course not!"
"I haven't been able to play in years…I can't even remember the last concert I played…" Vicky mumbles drearily.
"Then how can you be sure you were any good?" Ludwig comments. Vicky growls, unable to answer.
"I thought I took your batteries out?!"
"Batteries? I don't need no stinkin' batteries!" The Furby™ retorts.
"ARGH! I HATE YOU!" Vicky lunges for Ludwig.
"Hey! Can you say 'anger management issues'? You should keep it down; you might wake your roommate."
"I doubt it. He was pretty damn smashed," Vicky says, standing at the dresser. "Alcohol, ick. It's almost as disgusting as smoking."
"You know, I'm sure he's a very nice person. You two should…"
"EW! Can you say GR-OSS?!" Vicky accents the 'oss'. "I would NEVER go on a date with a social outcast such as him! The mere though disgusts me!"
" 'Social outcast?' Because you're a glowing picture of a perfect social life," Ludwig says sarcastically. "Tell me, when did you last have a real friend?"
Vicky sighs, once again without an answer.
"Devi seemed kinda nice…" Vicky murmurs.
"Yeah, till she's finds out you're a schizo…"
"I'M NOT SCHIZO! I just have issues, there's a difference," Vicky picks up the torn picture.
"Whatever, Psycho, quit whining and accept it! Besides, insanity can be fun!"
Vicky ignores Ludwig, staring at the picture with is missing half, is very crinkled and obviously rather old. On it is a young girl with dark hair, who appears to maybe be a younger Vicky. In the picture she's smiling, a genuine smile, with a motherly hand on her shoulder, the owner's face cut off by the tear. The younger Vicky is also leaning on someone else's shoulder, but that person's face also cut off.
Vicky stares hard at the picture, like she's done a thousand times before trying to remember. But every time it gets harder and harder to remember anything. Another tear trickles down Vicky's cheek.
"Will you get over it Vicky? You're not going to remember anything; you should go out, maybe gruesomely disfigure that mime you saw the other day…" Ludwig encourages.
"Why is it that every time I try to remember somethin' you tell me to go kill somebody?" Vicky questions, still looking at the photo.
"But you always feel better afterwards, don't you?"
Vicky sets the picture down and runs a hand through her hair.
"I'm goin' out ," She declares and grabs her wallet.
"Mime time?" Ludwig says hopefully, but Vicky ignores it and rushes up the stairs and out into the daylight.
~ ~ ~
Johnny sat in the front row of the audience, his eyes closed, letting the gorgeous music wash over him like waves of the ocean. It was the first time in long time that he felt at total peace with himself. The world had stopped and all that existed was the stunning flow of notes that could halt the most chaotic mind.
The stream ended with a flourish and the audience burst in to tremendous applause. Johnny opened his eyes and stood up, joining in the applause.
"That was superb, she's going to go all the way," A male figure to Johnny's left said. "You should take some pointers on work ethic from her, Jonathon."
Johnny snapped his head around to look at the man, but the face was all dark and not a single feature could be made. He had no clue who it was, but he knew he hated him.
Johnny looked around the music hall and suddenly had the realization that he had no idea where he was.
*Is this a dream?* He thought to himself and he dropped his hands to his sides. On stage, someone stood at the front, next to the conductor, a pile of roses at both of their feet. Johnny took a step forward to get a better look at the person, the lights much too bright for him to see. He squinted his eyes but still couldn't see a thing.*Who are you?*
~ ~ ~
Johnny groans, a piercing pain shooting through his eyeballs.
"Fuck, was I shot again?" Johnny says thickly, not anyone in particular.
"Not by a gun. From your breath, I think it was Tequila," Meat says somewhere above him. "Did you have fun?"
Johnny slowly regains a vague awareness and cracks his eyes open a bit but quickly squeezes them shut again, the dull light from the street light blinding. As Johnny wakes up more, he realizes that he's in an extremely cramped place, and very uncomfortable.
"If you're only here to mock me, which you always are, go the hell away," Johnny says, trying to remember where he was without having to open his eyes.
"But Vicky brought me out here specifically to keep you company, I couldn't let her down," Meat says with false sincerity.
" 'Out here'? What are you talking about?" Johnny finally opens his eyes and sees that he's stuck in a rather odd position on the small floor of the back of his car. "How the hell did I get here?"
"Oh you don't remember?" Meat asks innocently. "From what Vicky tells me, it was very humorous…"
Johnny attempts to get up, but quickly gets dizzy and puts his head back down, pricking his finger on something in the process. He reaches for what it was that poked him and pulls up a small decorative dagger necklace.
"What the fuck…" Johnny looks at it and starts remembering what happened. "Shit."
"Aw, how cute, she gave you a memento," Meat says. Johnny growls and tries to get up again, finally succeeding. He practically falls out the car door and starts to drag himself inside, leaving Meat screaming at him from the car.
"HEY! WHAT ABOUT ME?!"
Still clutching the necklace, he slams the door behind him, debating on whether he should give it back or not.
"NO YOU IDIOT! YOU CAN'T DO THAT IN REAL LIFE! URANIUM DOESN'T MELT AT THAT LOW A TEMPERATURE! STUPID!" Vicky screams at the TV and tosses popcorn at it, increasing Johnny's already pounding headache. He growls and turns around to see Vicky sitting upside down on the couch with all her hair shoved up in a hat, throwing popcorn in the air and trying to catch it with her mouth. She misses and the kernel whacks her on the forehead.
"Could you please keep in down, my head is killing me," Johnny says. Vicky looks up, her sunglasses getting hit with a piece of popcorn.
"Well duh, you smashed your head into a chandelier! And then of course there's the whole hangover thing…"
"Which I hold as your entire fault…" Johnny starts to retort, but Vicky ignores him and starts yelling at the TV again.
"OH COME ON! YOU CAN'T WALK INTO A SUB'S NUCLEAR REACTOR! WHOEVER WROTE THIS IS AN IMBECILE!" Vicky screams again, throwing more popcorn at the screen and causing Johnny to wince again. Some of the popcorn misses and reflects off Nny's boot.
"What the fuck are you watching?"
"James Bond. And may I say that it BLOWS and is TOTALLY INCORRECT! But there's nothing else on…well… 'The Fly' is on HBO but that movie isn't very good."
"How can you say that?! Get the hell out of my house!" Nny yells.
"Oh come on! Half the movie is about the guy not being able to find anyone who can screw him long enough!" Vicky says nonchalantly, trying to catch another kernel of popcorn with her mouth.
"But that's not the point! You miss the whole underlying message of the movie!"
"The sequel was so much better!" Vicky exclaims, hotly.
"YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME?! The sequel didn't have half the intellec…"
"Bored now," Vicky says and turns the sound up on the TV. Johnny, quite on edge from the hangover, shoves the necklace he's holding in his pocket, getting quite pissed.
"WHY IS IT THAT EVERY TIME SOMETHING THAT DOESN'T CONCERN YOU COMES UP YOU TOTALLY IGNORE ME?!"
"Uh huh…" Vicky ignores him. Johnny snaps and rips the cord out of the TV. "HEY!"
"I'M SICK OF THIS! I WANT YOU OUT OF HERE NOW!"
"Oh, you think I WANT to live here?!" Vicky snaps back sitting up correctly and making sure her hat was on. "Whoa, head rush… I would leave but I don't have anywhere else to go!"
"Too bad, so sad. SEE YA!" Nny opens the door for her and points the way out.
"I'm NOT LEAVING! YOU WANT ME GONE, YOU'LL HAVE TO KILL ME FIRST!" Vicky stands up, sending popcorn flying everywhere.
"THAT CAN BE ARRANGED!!!" Nny growls, stepping in her face. "AND WHAT IS IT WITH THE FUCKING SUNGLASSES?! YOU THINK YOU'RE COOL OR SOMETHING BECAUSE YOU WEAR THEM ALL THE TIME LIKE A DAMN RAPPER?!" Nny snatches the said sunglasses off Vicky's face before she can stop him. She screams and drops into a fetal position on the floor, whimpering as she covers her face, her hat falling off. Nny stares at her curiously for a moment before registering her new hair color.
"That the hell did you do to your hair?"
"It's my natural hair color, it's the only dye they had at the salon. NOW GIVE ME BACK MY SUNGLASSES!" Vicky screams, not lifting her head to look at him.
"NO! My house, MY RULES! What's the big deal anyway?"
"NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS! GIVE ME BACK MY SUNGLASSES!" Vicky screams again and jumps up, still covering her face, and lunges for the sunglasses. Nny moves them out of the way and trips Vicky sending her crashing to the floor, forcing her to drop both her hands to catch herself.
"Holy shit…" Nny exclaims, dropping the sunglasses once he finally sees her face for the first time without her sunglasses.
"WHAT?! DON'T LAUGH AT ME!" Vicky whines, covering her face again.
"Are you kidding me?"
"Wha? Are you still drunk?" Vicky says, raising an eyebrow behind her fingers. Nny grabs Vicky's wrist and drags her down the stairs and into his room, shoving her in front of the mirror.
"What is this all about, I don't get it Nny." Vicky growls. "This better not be some cruel joke…" Johnny sighs and steps beside her so both of their reflections are caught in the mirror.
"Oh my giddy aunt…"
"This is fucking creepy…"
"Are you kidding?! THIS IS AWESOME! YOU KNOW WHAT THIS MEANS DON'T YOU?!" Vicky jumps up and down.
"No, it's not possible…IT CAN'T BE!"
"YES! THIS IS SO COOL! IT MAKES SO MUCH SENSE!"
"NO…NO…NO! I REFUSE TO ACCEPT IT!"
~ ~ ~
Devi sits on the floor of her drawing room, staring at a canvas, surrounded by miscellaneous brushes and paints. She sighs.
"Fuck."
"That word again! Really Devi, you should enlarge your vocabulary," Sickness says from her own canvas, propped up in a corner.
"Shut up Sickness, you're not helping the situation any."
"I think it's a very nice painting, it really flatters him. But don't you want to take a rest? Maybe go see that mindless Pokémon movie that just came out?"
"Don't insult me, like I'd want to go see that badly drawn crap."
"Ok, so you'd rather sit here and create more of these," Sickness says sarcastically. "You've already done a couple dozen. A few more and you could open your own gallery. Shouldn't you be working on that new cover for 'NERVE'?"
"It started out as that," Devi says despondently. "Fuck."
In front of Devi sits a dark painting of none other than Johnny, exactly the way she remembers him BEFORE he attacked her. Behind the painting are stacks of other paintings with the exact same subject.
"Damn it, I thought I had gotten over this,"
"I think it's cute. Maybe you should give him a call," Sickness suggests. "You can see the Pokémon movie together!"
"Why the hell are you pushing the damn Pokémon movie?!"
"It doesn't involve using…wait a minute…SHUT UP!"
"What?" Devi eyes the doll painting and reaches up to play with her dagger necklace when she realizes it's not there. "Wha…FUCK! Where'd it go?!"
"Where did what go?" Sickness asks, confused. Devi starts tearing the room apart.
"SHIT! WHERE IS IT?!"
"What?"
"MY NECKLACE!!!"
"How am I supposed to know? I'm just a painting… for now anyway…"
Devi ignores Sickness and continues to thrash around her apartment looking for the necklace. 15 minutes later and she walks back into her drawing room, still not having found the necklace.
"Where the hell is it?!" Devi turns and looks at the painting still on the easel. "Fuck…"
~ ~ ~
Devi helped Vicky drag Johnny out to his car, Vicky's injury from Nny making it hard for Vicky to take him out herself. The two girls tossed Johnny unceremoniously into the backseat. As Devi straightened up, she felt something get caught on his boot, but it either snapped or got uncaught, so Devi didn't think another thing of it. Vicky slammed the door shut, just barely missing shutting Nny's foot in it.
"Thanks for the help. So," Vicky chirped. "How do YOU know the mongrel?"
"Um, we were friends a while back…" Devi said, refusing to admit they had gone on a date.
"Really? He has friends?" Vicky glanced over her shoulder at the unconscious Nny. He had fallen off the seat on to the floor of the car.
"Had; we haven't spoken for a while."
"That makes total sense, he doesn't seem to get along with people well," Vicky mused for a moment, then she grinned.
*Creepy smile…* Devi thought.
"It was nice meeting you! We should get together sometime!"
"Um… yeah…"
"Well, I better go. Reverend Meat will probably want to hear all about this!" Vicky said and ran over to the driver's side.
"Who the…"
"BYE-E!" Vicky jumped in, started the car and swerved onto the road, causing a three car pile up at the entrance of the parking lot.
"How the fuck do some people get driver's licenses?"
~ ~ ~
"NO…NO…NO! I REFUSE TO ACCEPT IT!" Johnny yells.
"DUDE! WE'RE TWINS!!!" Vicky exclaims, elated. The reflection reveals two identical round faces with the same blue eyes the only difference being Vicky's longer hair. Vicky's 'natural hair color' turns out to be the exact same blue-ish black "I ALWAYS WANTED A BROTHER! Well, actually I wanted a sister, but I suppose you'll do."
"NO! I CAN'T BE RELATED TO AN IRRITATING, DISTURBED CHEERLEADER WANNA BE!" Nny yells, sitting down in the chair.
"We have so much in common! I can't believe I didn't realize it before!" Vicky chirps, ignoring Nny once again.
"What?!"
"I mean, the same last name, I'm so stupid!"
"I can agree with that…WHAT?! LAST NAME?!"
"Yeah, I told you on the phone when I first called, remember? I said 'I'm Vicky C.' and…"
"How many times do I have to tell you, I DIDN'T PUT THAT DAMN ARTICLE IN THE NEWSPAPER!"
"I mean, from everything Meat told me, it's so obvious…" Vicky ignores him.
"HAVE YOU BEEN TALKING TO THAT FUCKING BURGER BOY AGAIN?!"
Vicky starts bouncing up and down.
"THIS IS SO COOL!"
"I think I'm going to vomit…"
Vicky stops bouncing and glares at Nny.
"WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM?! I finally find a relative and all you can do is whine…"
"No, seriously. I'm gonna…" Nny cuts off and rushes from the room. Vicky hears gagging noises from the next room.
"Ew…YOU'D BETTER CLEAN UP AFTER YOURSELF! I'M NOT YOUR MAID!"