Thanks to enough reviewers, this story will be posted in its entirety (well, maybe minus one pointless chapter). Thank you for your time.
And a special thanks to Yeyana Valentine and Teya Yashitoda, without whom this chapter would not have been posted!
Disclaimer: I don't own JTHM, Squee, or any of these songs.
This is one of my first times writing Nny, so he's probably OOC.
Note: If you really want to read part five, just e-mail me and I'll send it to you. (Though I doubt anyone will…)
Counting Bodies Like Sheep to the Rhythm of the War Drums,
Part Six:
Come Undone
You are mine. A dream made breath and bone. A dream of perfection and hope. He hadn't realized it, but he's been waiting for this situation to show itself for his entire life. I am yours. Everything I have to give, I give only to you.
Now all he had to do was mold Todd into the perfect partner, the perfect being. Nny knew it would take time. Maybe even a little training. But none of that mattered, now that the undoing of Todd Casil (or Lical, take your pick) had begun.
---
"Who do you need?"
"You."
"…Who do you… love?"
"You, always you."
Moments like this were so endearing to Todd, these uncertain questions about anything and everything about their relationship. 'Where do we go from here?' was popular too. The sheer innocence that his 'scary neighbor man' of yore could possess was astounding.
---
Todd felt… odd. In a good way he supposed. He felt free. He hadn't been to school in over a month, and neither had Nny, besides a quick stop to get his paintings (in which several students lost their lives). Ah yes. The murder. It was a part of their daily lives now. Idiotic person makes a joke. Idiotic person is warned. Idiotic person is dispatched, usually in a horribly messy way.
And such was the ritual of their lives.
---
Todd and Nny walked down the street, daring to hold hands in public view. Swinging their entwined fingers back and forth, they were oblivious too all the stares. That is, until they passed a group of tough looking guys.
One of them, obviously the leader, whistled at Nny like he was calling a dog.
"Hey fag, I'll give you five bucks if you suck my dick! You look like the type… You're all cocksuckers." And then he and all his friends laughed obnoxiously.
Who dared insult his beloved? Who would dare? Knowing that not only one homicidal maniac was part of the relationship, but two! Todd whipped around, growling angrily,
"You'll regret that long before I'm done with you." Fishing around in his bag, Todd came up with a spork. Shrugging, he turned his attention back to that one. Like lightning, he swung his arm forward, effectively lodging the spork in the man's eye. He shrieked, and Todd scowled, as it sounded just like a little girl. "Not so strong now, are you?" He then proceeded to use the spork to propel the man's eyeball out of its socket and into the street, where it was promptly run over by one of the passing cars, releasing a clear jellylike fluid. Todd's lip curled in disgust. He hadn't developed the same abhorrence of bodily fluids that Nny had, but that was just pathetically stupid. "Pitiful, just pitiful. One would think you'd have fought back by now." And indeed, the man hadn't. "What's your name?"
"D-Derrick! Please don't hurt me anymore, I've learned my lesson! Honest!"
Todd leaned closer, grabbing Derrick's hair to hold his attention.
"I always finish what I start you insignificant maggot! You haven't 'learned your lesson' quite yet… And I only wanted you name so I could add it to the list of people I've killed."
Nny raised an eyebrow.
'He keeps a list?' he thought, slightly amused. Then he broke from his thoughts and resumed watching the show.
Todd kicked Derrick sharply, making the man grunt as the wind was knocked out of him… Repeatedly.
"Ooh, that looked painful." Nny gave a mock wince in 'sympathy'. Then he laughed hysterically at his own joke, mentally, of course.
And then Todd, in a surprising show of strength, rammed the spork- a mere piece of plastic- smack dab into Derrick's right lung. Almost immediately the man coughed up a spray of blood, and Nny was reminded of his death. He gave a small cough and a large spray of blood left him, the wound on his stomach forming small, yet numerous droplets of crimson on the floor around him. Nny shivered. Suddenly, this wasn't so amusing any more.
Todd was quick to retract the spork, but jammed it right back into Derrick's body the next second, this time straight through his neck. And then again. And again. A never ending string of stab, retrieve, re-stab. Todd was laughing; laughing like he was becoming some sort of madman. And then it was over. Derrick was dead, he would feel no more.
Breathing heavily, Todd turned to smile widely and Nny, glad to have avenged him.
The man's buddies were awestruck, how could this… this kid take out their boss? Not wanting to be next, they all ran like the devil was on their heels.
Nny was awestruck as well. Was this what he wanted? This monster, a replica of himself? No. Todd wasn't a monster. How could he have ever thought that, even for a second? He shook his head to clear his thoughts and grabbed Todd's' proffered hand, walking down the street once more, this time without incident.
---
They were both now able to stay apathetic to the screams, crying, and pleading of their victims. And Todd had even begun to look forward to the doorbell guy's pained shouts. Todd was free, in every sense of the word, and not just a little wild. In fact, Nny's original goal of having Todd be 'wilder than the wind' had been surpassed. Why then, did every time Nny saw Todd's morbidly gleeful face, he wanted to cry?
Nny wasn't sure what he wanted anymore.
---
Todd felt like he was falling apart at the seams, just like Shmee. He felt as though he was losing his humanity bit by bit, and there was nothing anyone could do to stop it. His heart had been shattered into many tiny pieces that Nny was stealing day by day, night after night.
And he wasn't entirely sure he didn't like it.
---
They fought together like the stars and the moon. A whirling tornado of double-backed blades, cutting a wide swath through the current residents of the café down the street. They could go on forever… The walls were absolutely covered in crimson blood, bringing back to Nny's mind those old days where he'd kept his wall the same way.
The café sufficiently cleared out of the living, they both stepped out into the warming sunshine. Then Todd noticed it and got a strange urge. He gave in, taking up Nny's hand, looking into his questioning eyes before taking one bloodstained finger and licking it clean. He repeated this with the next few digits, never breaking that unwavering eye contact. It was an utterly submissive gesture- funny how he was such with all things except where it really counted. But Nny didn't mind. Was this real? This tender moment of loving question. To Todd, it was as if he were getting magic off of his beloved's fingertips, not the blood of the deserving.
Finished now, he smiled, the blood on his teeth and lips giving him a shocking appearance.
"This will last forever! This supreme feeling of life!" he shouted, triumphantly.
Todd's words rang something in Nny's mind, but he wasn't sure what it was, until it all came rushing back, from nicer times:
"This won't last forever you know. I can feel it, and I know you can too."
Todd looked downwards.
"I know."
How did things degenerate so? Into this mess of villainy and violent love?
Nny felt like he could cry, then.
---
He could see it now. Everything that had happened and everything that would be.
Everything.
And he saw where he went wrong. Oh so very wrong… Why hadn't he seen it sooner? And now it was too late. Too late to fix his mistake.
---
"Squee, let's go somewhere. Tonight."
"Alright, where?"
"Hmm, I was thinking the old Norr Hotel. We could watch the people and the stars go by… Wouldn't that be nice? And perhaps, just perhaps, I'd bring my bow and we could take a few of them out."
Todd laughed gleefully.
"Can we bring the poison tipped arrows? In case they survive?"
Nny smiled, sadly.
"Whatever you want… Whatever you want…"
---
Elevator going up, up and up, higher and higher, all the way to the roof. Todd was looking forward to the night's murderous activities, and Nny… Nny was looking forward to something else. Something he had to do.
"It's beautiful…" Nny commented, upon seeing the sunset's wondrous colors.
"Yeah, but not as beautiful as you."
"Hmm." Nny made a noncommittal noise of acknowledgement. He was distracted by his impending task. Then, he stood up, walking away from Todd, who was still lying down, next to the forgotten bow and arrows. Todd couldn't have stopped him, even had he known what Nny was up to.
Fifteen stories high, Nny jumped.
His last thought:
'I've failed him…'
Then he was nothing more than another corpse. Another statistic.
"We'll die together, I won't allow anything else. We'll burn like fading stars, burning as we fall, not going out without a fight. Heaven's lights dance for us…"
And what had ever happened to that? That promise that they would be together in all things, life or death?
"I've failed him…" Todd said, hesitantly, wondering at how large the circle of blood around what was once his lover was. "I've failed him! What went wrong?" He shouted to the world, shouted at its cold apathy. Above, the stars glowed like his burning dreams.
---
Todd carried his beloved's body through the cold light of morning, carried it back to what was once their house. The 'heaven house', 777. He kicked open the door, kneeling to lay Nny down of the moth-eaten sofa, hot angry tears flowing down his face.
Then he screamed, crying out all his mind-breaking anguish.
---
It was his birthday that day.
Happy Birthday.
Happy-fucking-Birthday.
What was so great about it? Another year closer to death.
Just peachy.