Why was he here? Oh right, because finally the post office had called his cell phone and told him that his mailbox was full. The mail man refused to deliver any more mail to him unless he came and emptied the fit to burst mailbox. So there he was, at the box, the key to it in his hand. He slipped the faded gold key into the lock and turned. Releasing the lock holding it all back, the pressure that had built up from all the mail forced the door open. A week's worth of mail came pouring out of the box and to his feet. Edgar picked it all up and started fitting it under his arm. He barely managed to close and lock the thing again without dropping all of his mail.

Edgar glared up the stairwell at the second floor apartments. His apartment was 2B. He could see it from there. All of his belongings were in there. Why couldn't they just magically appear in the trunk of the car so he could take them back to Nny's house? Why did he have to go up there to get them? It was frustrating, that's what it was. He wanted his things, he did. But he felt that if he went up those stairs and entered his apartment reality would come crashing down on him. There was also the point that if he brought all his things back to Nny's everything would suddenly become more real too. Edgar assumed that he and Nny 'lived together'. Technically they did. He'd been there a week already and hadn't left. But did that constitute the term 'living together'? That could, in all reasonability, be an exceptionally long sleepover. But why on earth would he have a 'sleepover' at Johnny's house? They hardly talked to each other! They were making personal compromises for each other and Edgar was still trying to reason out whether or not he lived there. He sighed.

Instead of going up the stairs he inevitably turned away and headed towards the sidewalk. That's where he'd parked Nny's car. He hadn't even known that Nny had a car until nearly twenty minutes ago. It wasn't like he hadn't noticed the driveway next to the house. It wasn't like he hadn't walked down it once upon a few days ago and seen the garage door. He just hadn't thought there would actually be a car in it. Whenever Nny and him had ever gone out together they'd always walked. Edgar had figured there was probably piles of mutilated corpses in the garage and that it'd be better if he'd just steered clear. Finally, however, he'd had a thought while lying on the bed staring at the alarm clock. He'd still had roughly two hours before he had to pick up Todd from school. He hoped that he could find a way to go out and buy a table and other assorted furniture that Johnny seemed to lack. Edgar didn't want to have to make Todd sit on the counter to eat his meals all the time. It was then that he realized that he'd never actually checked the garage for a car, and so promptly went and did so. Lo and behold, there really was a car in there. It was old, squat, and portly like a senior citizen. There were blood stains on it but other than that it didn't seem all that worse for wear.

"Hey, where are the car keys? I wanna go pick up some things at the mall after I pick up Todd." Edgar had asked Nny nonchalantly after finding him within the deeper bowels of the basement.

"I think I left them in the cupboard under the sink, in the bathroom." He'd responded.

That was that. Now, twenty minutes later he was sitting in the driver's seat tossing his mail onto the passenger's seat as he went through it. About halfway through it all he came upon the envelope he was dreading seeing. It was a letter from his work. They'd probably fired him. He hadn't gone in four work days in a row. Surely they'd fired him. Did he really want to open this? No, not really. Edgar grabbed the whole pile of mail and tossed it into the surprisingly immaculate backseat. He still had a while before Todd got out of school so he decided to head over to the local Bulls-eye store and check out their cheap furniture. There wasn't time for an extensive ogling of all the matching armoires and area rugs. He only really had a little over an hour or so before he had to go over to P.S. 8. Getting around was much easier now that he could drive. Edgar was really surprised that Nny actually let him use the car. But then again, he also should have been surprised that Nny didn't kill that one guy in the grocery store. Hmm, oh well.

Edgar grabbed a cart and leant heavily on the handle bar as he shuffled through the automatic sliding doors. They'd turned the air conditioner on full blast and it made him shiver. Nny's clothes were quite threadbare, (he found out) and didn't provide much warmth at all. As he was heading to the furniture department Edgar noticed that people were staring at him. Again. He leered back, putting forth as much distaste as possible. Still, as the people passed, his glares did nothing so he gave up. Instead he swerved onto the first of four or so furniture aisles and returned to his original mission. Hmm. That could work. How much was the stupid thing? A little over $200? Whatever. He didn't care anymore. If he really wanted something he could always ask Nny to help him steal it. No one dared to stop Nny if he wanted something. The same warped reality of burying limbs in one's front yard not being odd also applied to Nny's ability to not pay for things he wanted. He reached down to grab the box of furniture and attempted to lift it into his cart. Oh this was not gonna work. He glanced around, hoping to find some burly steroid cruncher to lift it for him. Aha! There was one.

He maneuvered towards the teen standing a few aisles away and cleared his throat politely. Probably a quarterback…or a wrestler. Edgar thought. All tight, overly gratuitous muscle and a too small red polo. The poster athlete spared a look for Edgar and said, 'what?' Edgar explained that he needed some help lifting a table set into his cart and the boy snorted. What was so funny about this? Edgar didn't bother to ponder it and merely led the way back to his cart. 'This one?' he gestured and Edgar nodded. Together they managed to lift the thing and put it into the cart. After Edgar picked out a few chairs to fit onto his cart too, he thanked the employee for his help. But after the words had left his lips he froze. 'Yes Ma'am' was the reply he received. He wasn't sure what it was inside him that snapped. An hour later when he was picking up Todd from school he still wouldn't be able to explain it.

The feel of that idiot's blood on his hands was disturbingly enjoyable. Slamming his face through the glass door on a cabinet was the most fun he'd had in months, perhaps years of his life. Then, watching the boy fall to the floor with pieces of glass stabbing into his face all over he'd felt downright euphoric. He'd pushed his cart to the front, bought his furniture. Calmly he'd requested a rather smartly dressed man to help him load his purchases into the compact car. Then he'd driven to the bookstore, bought a book of crossword puzzles and gone to Todd's school. There he sat, in the parking lot by the main office door doing crossword puzzles until he heard the bell ring. That was when he'd set the book on the passenger seat and entered the school to go search for Todd. He'd been less than successful.

"Excuse me sir…but um, you're looking for Todd, aren't you?" A shaking, nearly bald old woman from behind the office counter asked.

Edgar turned to face her. He recognized her from that morning. She'd been the one to protest handing over the paperwork to Johnny…who'd then sliced off most of her hair. He smiled widely and nodded. He asked her if perhaps she could call him over the intercom. She muttered under her breath a 'yes' and reached for the phone. As she called Todd's name over the intercom for him, Edgar's mind dwelled not on his earlier act of violence. No, he was more worried about the dinner tomorrow night. He really, really didn't want to go. There he would once again be faced with Barbara. Edgar was sure he needed to get over it. After all, her son was a friend of Todd's. That surely counted for something. Todd would probably be spending a good deal of time over there and perhaps Pepito at their house. Gosh they needed to clean things up. He had a lot of things to do.

"Mr. Edgar?"

Edgar whirled around. Todd stood a foot or so away, looking up at him with a smattering of different expressions upon his face. "C'mon Todd, time to take you home."

The boy smiled shyly, "T'ank you for coming to get me."

He skipped over to Edgar and took his hand. Out the front door they went and then over to the car. Todd clambered into the front seat and put on his seat belt. Then he looked around, examining the boxes with chairs in them resting in the backseat. The first thing out of Todd's mouth was, 'did scary neighbor man steal this car?' Edgar found he didn't actually know. He told Todd that he found the car in the garage and that was all he knew. The boy nodded in acceptance and leaned back into the chair.

"So…you know a boy named Pepito at school right?" Edgar asked casually.

Todd wrinkled up his nose. "Um…I guess. I go over to his house sometimes."

"Well, his mom and dad are friends of Nny's and they've invited us all over for dinner tomorrow night."

"What did scary neighbor man say?" Todd squealed.

"He agreed, so now we're going." Edgar didn't bother trying to hide his disappointment.

"But why would he do that? I mean…I…" Todd trailed off in distress, "I like Pepito…I guess, but his parents are weird. Did scary neighbor man tell you that Pepito's dad is Satan?"

"Is he that bad?" Edgar laughed.

Todd squirmed in his seat, "No, he's actually very nice. He likes to be called Juan. It's just…he takes off his human disguise when he's at home. It's scary."

Edgar rolled his eyes and nodded, as though to say he understood. Todd was obviously traumatized both by Johnny and by his parents. Anything he said was most likely unreliable. But, then again, he'd told his parents numerous times about Nny and they'd thought the same thing. Hmm. They pulled into the garage, and little Todd hopped out, scurrying on into the house. Edgar stayed behind and started taking the chairs in one at a time. Inside, Johnny was sitting on the beaten up couch watching TV. As Edgar began setting down the boxes near the kitchen entry way, Johnny looked up.

"What did you get now?" He grumbled.

"A table and some chairs, so Todd doesn't have to eat his breakfast on the counter all the time."

Johnny made a noncommittal noise in the back of his throat. But, he still stood up and went to help him bring in the table. It was quite laughable, the two of them trying to move it. Nny was downright skeletal with no muscle to his name. Edgar was a little better built but this thing was heavy. They barely managed to get it in the house. After that Edgar had to slide it across the floor over to the kitchen. He went back out to shut the garage door and lock it. Then he chucked the keys and his wallet onto the coffee table. He collapsed onto the couch next to Johnny and stared absently at the TV, not really watching the show it flashed.

"You have blood on you."

Edgar jumped slightly and turned to look at Johnny, who was still gazing at the TV screen. He'd been debating all the way home on telling him about it. About punching that moron…and getting glass in his face. But, he didn't know if he'd killed him or not. He looked quite alive when he was screaming and writhing on the ground. But that was just when he left. He might be dead now; maybe no one had cared enough to take him to the hospital. No. If he killed someone, actually, truly killed them, he was becoming Nny.

"Shoved an idiot's face through a glass cabinet…after punching him. I think his nose bled on me…" Edgar reluctantly admitted.

"Before or after you picked up Squee?"

"Before."

"What did he say to you?"

"Yes, ma'am. When I thanked him for helping me move those boxes into my cart."

Johnny snorted, got up and went down the hallway. By the slam of the door, Edgar guessed he'd gone into the basement. He reached for the remote, grabbed it and turned off the TV. Before he got started on constructing furniture he wandered towards the bedroom. Sure enough, Todd was lying on his back in the middle of the bed, Schmee at his side. His head snapped up and his eyes locked onto Edgar as soon as the door opened. But once he realized it was only Edgar, not Nny, he let his head fall onto the bed.

"Do you have any homework to do? I barely remember what elementary school was like." Edgar mumbled.

"No, we do all our work in class." Todd answered.

Edgar paused. He didn't want the kid to just stay in here alone doing nothing. That couldn't be good for him. "Well, do you want to come help me put all that furniture together?"

"Okay."

Later that night they'd finished putting everything together. Granted they did get lost a few times. One furniture construction illiterate man and one seven year old were bound to have problems. But, eventually at around seven in the evening they were set to have dinner. Edgar moved around the kitchen picking up things here and there. Todd was sitting in his chair. He claimed it shortly after he'd finished building it by himself. Edgar had allowed the boy to cut a small notch in it. He didn't really see the problem with it, as long as he didn't make it unrecognizable.

"What are we having for dinner, Mr. Edgar?" Todd chirped.

"I'm still deciding but I'm leaning towards spaghetti. What do you think?" he replied.

"Spaghetti!"

Edgar chuckled. He began gathering the things he would need to make spaghetti for the three of them. In the meantime, Todd maintained a steady conversation with him. Edgar noted this was the most he'd heard the boy talk since he'd met him. It was good thing that he was loosening up enough to talk with him like this. It was just an assumption on his part, but Edgar guessed he was the most normal person Todd had ever met.

Once he'd set up the noodles to boil, all there was to do was wait. He'd put in enough for Nny to eat with them. He probably should go and find him and see if he wanted to join them.

"Todd, could you make sure the noodles don't boil over? I'm going to go find Nny and ask him if he wants to eat dinner with us."

"Do you have to?" Todd moaned woefully.

Edgar paused in the doorway to the kitchen. Todd was truly terrified of Johnny, and with good reason. But now that he'd agreed to never hurt someone in front of todd…there really was no reason for that fear to continue. He tured around and took a seat at the table across from Todd.

"You know, he made a deal with me the other day, Todd, concerning you." Edgar began.

"W-what was it? Did I do something wrong? I'm sooo-"

"No, you didn't do anything, Todd don't worry." Edgar assured him. When it looked like the boy had calmed down he continued on, saying, "He promised he would never hurt anyone in front of you, ever, and that he would keep all of that in the basement."

Well, so he was bending the truth a little. Nny had never used the words 'I promise'. Nor had he specified that he would in fact keep the violence away from Todd. But that very morning he'd kept the boy from going into the kitchen where his mother lay dead on the floor. He'd also asked Edgar if he'd hurt that idiot before or after he'd picked up Todd. He was making progress. So he wasn't really lying.

"R-really?" Todd murmured, "He said he would?"

"Yes, he did. You know that he would never hurt you, either. In his own twisted way, I think that he just wanted to keep you safe." This…was also mostly true. Edgar was making lots of inferences. But, obviously, Todd had never joined the ranks of Nny's victims. Nor, Edgar had noticed, did Nny ever harm children. His prey consisted entirely of adults.

"Squee…" Todd whispered.

"Think of it this way Todd, he's probably quite horrendously insane," Was it sad that Edgar was now quoting the bastard? Probably, "and he cares about you. Do you think he knows how to take care of somebody like a normal person would?"

Edgar received a sigh and a reluctant 'I guess you're right'. So he stood up, told Todd to mind the spaghetti and that he was going to find Nny. He didn't make it very far. Edgar barely turned around the corner to head towards the basement and found Nny leaning against the wall. He didn't look all that disgruntled, just pensive. Edgar didn't see a point in asking him the question he'd wanted to find him for, if he'd just heard that entire conversation. Why else would he be just standing in the hallway like that if not to eavesdrop? So leant up against the wall next to Nny and waited for him to say something. After a few minutes of silence, Nny simply said, 'you trust easily'.

"So it would seem." Edgar retorted calmly, "Would you rather I not trust you?"

Nny didn't have anything to say to that. He pushed himself off of the wall and coolly brushed past him towards the kitchen. Edgar followed him, not wanting to push the issue any farther than that. He didn't want to start an argument, not in front of Todd at least. Maybe they could reserve all their fights for while he was at school? He was over thinking all of this. In the kitchen Todd had pulled a chair over to the stove and was standing on it so he could watch the boiling water. Nny sat down in the chair to Todd's right and to Edgar's left. When Nny entered the room Todd visibly tensed, but after a few minute he was forcing himself to calm down. Edgar took over the cooking, while handing plates and silverware to Todd for him to put on the table.

When all was said and done, and they sat down to eat Edgar felt surprisingly relaxed. He expected Nny to sit there, not touching his food and glaring at them. Instead he dug in, going so far as to take seconds. After dinner he scurried off to the basement. Edgar didn't really mind. He wasn't expecting miracles, like Nny asking to be excused or helping with the dishes. That would be like asking for world peace. Both equally as laughable and unlikely. Edgar ending up cleaning out the tub, and the rest of the bathroom for that matter, so that Todd could take a bath and so on before he went to bed. Before Todd went into the bathroom however he asked Edgar to venture over to his old house with him.

"I need to go get my clothes, they're still over there." Edgar nodded and followed along.

The door remained unlocked, so they meandered in turning on the lights as they went. Edgar marveled at the normality of the house, its décor and the fact that he knew there was a dead woman in the kitchen. He stood in the corner of Todd's old room watching him pick out armfuls of clothes from his dresser. Every once in a while he would hand a pile to Edgar to hold while he picked up a toy or two. For all of the loathing his parents expressed towards him, Todd wasn't dressed in rags. He had toys of his own; he had books, and movies. The only things really missing were parents that loved him. Instead he had the hateful scumbags that Johnny had killed yesterday night. After Todd decided he'd gotten everything he wanted for now they returned to the house. Edgar put Todd's clothes in the two empty drawers on the left side of Nny's dresser. The toys were put on top of it, and Edgar ushered Todd into the bathroom to get ready for bed.

Finally, at around nine thirty Todd crawled into bed, squeaky clean and in his pajamas. Edgar shrugged off his shoes and socks and too slid under the covers.

"Goodnight Mr. Edgar." Todd mumbled.

"'Night Todd."

A few hours later, Edgar felt a nudge both in his back and to his front. Conflicted, he wasn't sure where to move to. In the end he rolled over and scooted in that direction. A squeak echoed and he moved back, squinting at the space in front of him. He'd taken his glasses off and set them on the bedside table. But there appeared to be a smallish blob on the bed by him who was now cuddling against him for warmth. He wrapped his arms around the blob and quickly rolled them over to be facing the source of the other nudge. Edgar stared in front of him and saw the nudge. It was handing him his glasses. Edgar took them and placed them on his face. He noted with mild irritation that the alarm clock said it was nearing midnight.

"What is it Nny?" He mumbled groggily, eyes closed behind his glasses.

"I want a cherry freezy."

"So go get one."

"Come with me. We can bring Squee."

"We're sleeping."

"Ew."

Edgar opened his eyes and glared at Johnny who lay on his side in front of him on the bed. He was staring intently at the little Todd who was curled up against Edgar's chest snoring lightly. A few minutes later he groaned and flopped onto his back muttering, 'yes, yes, sleeping now, okay'. Edgar took his glasses off and handed them to Nny who then put them on the nightstand it sounded like. A hand closed around Edgar's wrist, and he closed his eyes, relaxing completely.

"Why do you sleep?" Edgar's eyes snapped open and he glanced up at the blob that was Nny.

"Because as a human my body needs to recharge, sleep is one of the ways it does this. Also, R.E.M. sleep makes sure I remember what goes on in my life."

"Really? Sleep makes you remember things?" Nny questioned, "I never understood why people slept. Logically your body can in fact function for at least four or so days without sleep. So if you really wanted you could only sleep for one day a week. I mean, we spend so much time out of our lives 'recharging' as you called it. What a waste!"

"It's your brain's way of recording what's been happening for the past few days to long term memory. Sometimes your dreams don't really make sense, but if you notice sometimes the little details of them can be related to something you did a few days ago." Edgar sighed as he was becoming more and more awake.

"Hmm. I guess I just don't sleep often enough for me to notice that. I don't like the feeling I get after I wake up, so I just don't go to sleep."

"What feeling is that?"

"I feel like I can't tell if I'm in the same reality I fell asleep in, or if anything's the same as it was before. I can't prove for certain that I actually fell asleep, or if maybe everything that happened before I 'fell asleep' was a dream or…" He trailed off, leaving Edgar to wonder how anyone could let something like that bother them.

"No wonder you're crazy."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Nny growled.

"If you think like that all the time, it's bound to drive you crazy. I mean. To just continually not accept things as they are, and to question in such away."

"How can you just accept? Why don't you question?"

Edgar opened his eyes, now far more awake then he wanted to be. He stared straight ahead at where he knew Nny's face was. He could tell because the blob was turned, blinking at him. Edgar leaned just a little forward, almost having to prop up on his forearm to grab his glasses. He slipped them on and then eased back down on the bed. Nny was facing him, gazing at him intently, waiting for an answer. His eyes were different than usual. They were more rational looking somehow. His whole face was set into a serious expression, not at all manic. Edgar thought about it for a minute, why it was exactly he accepted. Why didn't he question?

"I've never really known anything else besides acceptance. I've been invisible all my life; I guess that I never thought to ask questions because nobody would hear them anyways. What was the point if no one would answer me?"

"I'm going to go get a cherry freezy."

"Okay."

"You can go back to sleep now." Johnny pulled Edgar's glasses off of his face and set them on the nightstand.

"Thank you."

The next day, as soon as Edgar walked out of the bedroom to use the toilet he was pounced on. Nny stood before him waving a piece of paper around as thought it was the most important thing in the universe. He grumbled tiredly 'gimme a minute' and shuffled into the bathroom to relieve himself. Just after he flushed Nny burst into the bathroom babbling insanely at him until Edgar grabbed the paper out of his hands and stared at it. It was a check to him, from his work, for his twice his usual salary. That was odd. He asked Johnny where he'd found this as he wandered towards the kitchen to get some breakfast going.

"You left your mail in the backseat. While I drank my freezy I went through all of them. They looked to all be junk, but I opened this one and money came out!"

Edgar rolled his eyes and asked Johnny to fetch him the envelope and the letter that came with the check. He did so, leaving Edgar to a brief respite. In the momentary silence he heard the bedroom door open, a few soft footsteps and then the opening and closing of the bathroom door. After that the front door opened and shut rather loudly and Johnny sped into the kitchen, depositing the requested items on the counter. Edgar picked up the letter and read through it. He'd been promoted. He now had a secretary, who'd kindly moved his things into his new office. He had an office? He hadn't been to work in days, no call in or anything. But according to his letter, his performance at work the past few days had been exemplary and that it was high time he'd be promoted. Edgar shook his head and fixed up three bowls of cereal and a few glasses of milk. Johnny sat down at the table in the same spot as before, taking the cereal offered to him, and the glass of milk.

A weary looking Todd appeared in the doorway, rubbing at his eyes. "G'morning Mr. Edgar, G'morning Nny."

"Hello Squee." Nny replied after swallowing his bite of Marshmallow Matey's.

Todd padded over to his seat and climbed up onto it. Edgar set down a bowl of cereal and a glass of milk in front of him before taking his own seat. For a minute or two they all ate their breakfast quietly, not talking. Edgar and Todd, both having just woken up weren't eager to start conversation. But Nny, who never slept was as awake as ever. He glanced between his two housemates, looking downright twitchy. After a while he clearly couldn't take it anymore. He turned to Todd, beaming. The boy didn't even have the energy to be fearful, so he merely stared back, glassy eyed.

"Squee, did Edgar tell you that we're going over to Pepito's house for dinner tonight?"

"Yes."

"Oh good, I wasn't aware that you knew him at school until his mother Barbara told me. You know, I'm a friend of the family. I met Senor Diablo a few months back when I killed myself."

"Really?" Todd perked up, "Why are you alive again?"

"Well, it's a kind of weird story actually…" Edgar barely listened as Nny elaborated a story that was hardly believable about how he met Pepito's father 'Senor Diablo' who was really Satan. Squee nodded, intrigued, and then explained his first time over to the house.

"Oh, he did that whole offer of eternal glory bit?"

"Yeah, it was scary."

"Ah, good ol' Juan cracks me up whenever he does that. He can't actually recruit me you know, cuz I'm the waste lock."

"Yeah."

Edgar stood up, collected the dishes and quickly washed them out and dried them. As he put them away he found that the other two were staring at him. "What?" He grumbled.

"Whaddya wanna do? We have till seven." Nny asked plainly.

"I was thinking of building a wooden tub like thing that I could line with a garbage bag. Maybe put it out in the living room for you to put the limbs in, instead of the tub that way I don't have to keep cleaning it out for Todd and I."

"Limbs?" Todd squealed.

Nny and Edgar ignored him, both staring at each other.

"What?" Edgar finally asked.

"I swear, every time you open your mouth it sounds like you're vomiting up episodes from the home improvement channel."

TBC…