By animeninjaNIPPON
Squee got home at midnight, much to his mother's disappointment. "Oh, you came back."
He pretended not to hear her harsh remark as he trudged to his room, slamming his bedroom door behind him. He felt rather lightheaded, though from the surreal experience that afternoon or from sheer fatigue, it was impossible to tell.
"Goodnight, Shmee," he whispered as he crawled into bed, slowly lowering his eyelids. His eyes flew open again as he noticed that his bear had remained silent. "Shmee?"
He thought he heard Shmee respond, but by this time, his thoughts were scrambled with slumber.
-----
Save for the occasional agonizing scream, house 777 was rather muted the following day.
When Johnny came to, he could remember nothing. "What the fuck happened..." He glanced around. Rev. MEAT was in his spot next to the 8-Ball, with a large slice mark in the center of his head. The figure gave no response, and Johnny assumed that he'd finally fallen silent.
Silent...
"I'm...free?"
He glanced to the left and right, skeptical of the concept of freedom. No, it was too good to be true. He had been a slave for so long...
To celebrate, he sat down and watched TV.
There wasn't much to watch on a Sunday afternoon, so Johnny found himself more entertained by his own thoughts. Well, he would be if his thoughts weren't so confusing...
Squeegee...not like the rest of the mindless population.
He gave me his drink. That was nice of him - but why? No one is ever nice to me without wanting something in return...
That's it! He wants something from me... He is like the rest...only wanting what I don't have to give -
NO! Not him! He's not like that! He wouldn't - couldn't -
Not Squee...he's just - Squee. He's probably only acting that way so I won't kill him -
NO! I could never hurt him! He's so...innocent. Everything I could never be.
"I can't take this shit!" Johnny put his hands over his head in an attempt to stop the flow of disjointed contemplation. He wished his manifestations would come back for a moment - as long as it wasn't his own voice making those horrid statements, as long as he could put a different face on them, maybe it wouldn't bother him as much. He stood up abruptly. "I'm going to go kill that pretzel vendor at the mall."
-----
The mall...he hadn't been there in a while, if ever actually inside. Johnny could only recall that one time when Squee was there...that incidence made him sick. There was an unwritten rule among homicidal maniacs, it was said - no matter how brutal or disgusting their crimes, they never did stuff to their mothers and they never did stuff to children. Johnny couldn't dredge up a single instance in which he had done either (not that he tried to think back); all he knew was, he never hurt Squee. He never had the urge to do such a thing...but there were others that did, and Johnny tried to warn the kid about those people. It was all he could do to prevent Squee from becoming like him.
Johnny stepped into the mall through the automatic doors, impressed with how large the interior of the building was. Once inside, he kept to one side of the mall, musing to himself, "Now, where's that pretzel guy?"
He looked to the opposite side of the mall, where a large art supply store was located next to the Snot Topic. All of a sudden, someone familiar stepped out, looking towards the ground in thought...
End of part nine