AN: Here's the end folks. Thanks to everyone who's been reading this from the beginning. Sorry this chapter is a tad short, but this was my plan from the beginning.
I hope you all have a Happy Holiday.
~The Archer
ISSUE 19
In Dreams…
Devi's head spins as the world reforms around her for the final time, the quasi lit room reappearing in front of her, the same Cheshire cat smile still plastered on "The Boss's" face. Johnny lies in the same position as before the flashback, though is no longer sobbing and twitching. He simply stays in his curled up position, his weapon not far away.
A low, spine tingling chuckle sounds from The Boss.
"Poor little Victoria befell a similar fate," The Boss eloquently speaks as though he is depicting the end of a child's faerie tale. "Alas, she never told what had befallen her father. He ended up, of course, a missing person who no one really missed at all. Vicky, suffering a terrible post-traumatic disorder at witnessing such a scene quickly lost her scholarship as her grades, and magnificent playing, dropped. And to be able to continue paying for her education…she came to me for a job."
The Boss chuckles again.
"You…bastard…" Johnny finally croaks out, sitting up. Devi looks over to see him, tears streaming down his anguished face, eyes shooting daggers and mouth dripping venom as he heaves each breath in and out. His hand slides slowly over the smooth floor as he reaches for his knife.
"Aw, what's the matter, Johnny boy?" The Boss taunts him, amused. "You didn't like that little movie? I think I have some Oscar winning scenes in there! I was debating on sending it to the Academy!"
"You think…you can FUCK with people's lives just like that?!" Nny's voice growled as he suppressed his anger, waiting for the right moment.
"As I told you before, I did not 'fuck' with your lives! You have your alcoholic madman of a father to thank for that! Had I not saved you, you would have been dead by now!"
"Saved me? FROM WHAT?! Living a real god damn life?!" Nny's anger was slowly getting the better of him.
"I saved you from the traumas that are the outside world! Without my protection, you would've been in a gutter by now! You were a weakling when I found you and I sculpted you into something more!"
"WHAT ABOUT MY SISTER?!"
"That you have yourself to blame for! She would not have known about NERVE if it weren't for you. It just so happens I was opening a musical extension to my business…"
"SHE DIDN'T DESERVE THIS!"
"Well, you have to break a few eggs to make an omelet."
Johnny's ferocity brakes like a dam and his anger radiates in waves as he leaps up and rushes the invisible shield, knife in hand. It shatters under the force of impact (though whether by Nny's design or the Boss's, one can not tell.) Johnny swings his arm up as he approaches the throne, creatures scrambling out of the way as Nny prepares to cleave The Boss's head from his shoulders.
The Boss grins and stands as Nny approaches him. At the last possible second he seizes the stampeding Johnny by the throat and hoists him into the air. Nny drops his knife, struggling for air.
"A feisty one, are we?! Too bad, I had always wanted a knowledgeable underling."
The Boss steps forward into the light and as Devi takes in her first real look of him, a blinding light flashes in the room, overriding all sight, sound and feeling.
~ ~ ~
"Wake up…wake up, Johnny…"
Johnny sits bolt upright with a scream from a dead sleep then falls off the couch, covered in cold sweat. He lies on the ground for a moment or two breathing rapidly and eyes darting around to take in his surroundings.
After the realization hits that he is home, he sits back up, holding his throbbing skull.
"Did you have a nice dream?" Reverend Meat asks from his spot on the coffee table.
"Fuck you," Nny spits out at him. "Shit, I hate sleep…"
"Well, you slept for quite awhile. I wasn't sure if you were going to wake up."
Johnny looks outside. The sun is setting and he can not seem to remember when he fell asleep, of course that was not all too uncommon as sleep always confused the hell out of him.
"Damn it…I hope she hasn't trashed the house…" Johnny mutters as he stands.
"Who?"
"Vicky! Who else?"
"Who's Vicky? You've named one of your toys?"
"NO! My sister, you fook!"
"You really must have hit your head. You don't have a sister."
"Nice try, Burger Boy, We were supposed to go to n…to…shit, why can't I remember?" Johnny scratches his head, straining to recall their plans.
"That certainly must have been some dream."
"No! She wasn't part of…" Johnny pauses and looks around. There are no purple paint splatters, no signs of his sister anywhere.
With a confused look on his face, Nny stumbles away from the couch and makes for the downstairs, Meat calling out with obviously false worry after him.
As Nny gets closer to his destination, he starts picking up more speed, trying to file through the memories in his head. The memories, however, are twisting and melting, fading into his dream. And his dream in turn is slowly slipping from his mind like sand through an hour glass.
Johnny stops in front of what he believes is his drawing room door. He pauses with his hand on the knob for a moment, and then pushes the door open. It swings in with little resistance.
The room is bleak, undecorated and blood stained, just like every other room in his house. Nny, positive that there had once been something in there, rushes across the room to the adjoining room, but it was empty too.
"I could've sworn…fuck, I hate sleep," Nny turns to walk back upstairs, the dream having completely faded. "Me, have a twin…I need to kill something…"
Nny stops and stoops to pick up something that catches his eye. He stands back up holding a pair of silver rimmed sunglasses. He puts them on and smiles, all uncertainties from his recent bout of sleep gone.
"I wonder what the football team is up to…"
As Nny leaves and closes the door behind him, two rats with sparkling eyes dart through a large hole in the wall, each carrying the halves of a torn photograph in to the dark.
END