Beyond the junkyard lay the edge of the universe.
However trivial it sounded, he knew it was real, because he had bared witness to it.
The edge of the universe was an engulfing black emptiness that seemed to pull at your vision and draw you in until you were just on the brink of madness.
And the brink of madness, was something that he knew well. The engulfing darkness had seemed to swallow him up, wrapping around his body like a blanket, levitating his limbs and tucking his head in its emptiness. His limbs shook and his body grew cold. It coaxed him and explained that this is the way things were; there was no alternative. It had to be done.
He was so very tired, his body at first refused this new order, but slowly succumbed to its over bearing power. He was almost gone until the last of his vision gave him a figure, appearing on the horizon.
There he was. Oh, god, it was HIM...
His savior appeared on the horizon and fought the darkness, pulling him out of the abyss. It was he who took him back from the edge of the darkness, and nursed him in his eternal warmth. It was he that brought him back to reality and cradled him and guided him back to the universe. It was he that comforted him the day the Cul De Sac, and the universe, went silent.
And silence, there was.
For many days, and many nights.
There were no children, not anymore.
There were only shadows that danced and sang and flooded the empty hallways of the empty homes.
A barren wasteland was all that remained of the Cul De Sac, less than a shadow of its former self.
Something else was wrong, and he knew it.
But Plank had comforted him and told him that this is all that they needed.
This is all they ever needed, the two of them.
Johnny accepted this, but at times grew weary of Plank's company, despite the things Plank had done for him. He made a new friend...someone that he knew before, someone that could do things that Plank could not do. Someone like Nazz, whom had watched him from afar, with her bright, blue eyes. Nazz possessed a beauty beyond words; she was simply captivating. And it was to his blessing that she sat just across the table from him, sipping her tea and smiling at him with those gleaming white teeth.
"Do you like your tea?" Johnny mused, smiling as he took a sip from his own cup. He had never brewed tea before, as he had never had the opportunity to entertain a woman. But today...things were going to be different. Today, things would change for Johnny.
"It looks delicious," Nazz replied with a smile. She followed Johnny's movements with those stunning eyes as his arm elevated, up and down, in the drinking motion. Johnny returned her gaze and cleared his throat. Something about her posture made him uncomfortable.
"What's the matter?" he asked, leaning forward on the table. This was the part that he let her dispense her woes, her dreams, her wonders, unto him. It was now that she would come to him for comfort, and he would give to her all the love that he could possibly give. She would find sanctuary in this; Kevin no longer played a factor, and neither did Rolf or any of the other boys. It was only him and Nazz.
"I..." she said softly, her beautiful eyes lowering from him to the tea cup. "I...I don't have any arms to pick up the cup."
Johnny realized now that he had been very rude.
Something had happened to Nazz's body, as it had become crippled; what appeared to be an explosion from just below her left breast had ripped her body to pieces. The destruction of this had ripped apart her rib cage and most of her chest, leaving fragments of bone and muscle tissue in the wake of her upper body. Her face, her beautiful face...had been reduced to a shadow of its former self. The explosion had ripped apart the lower half of her mouth, ripping it into shards and patches of skin, giving her a jagged, pumpkin-face grin. The muscle tissue had cauterized in the explosion leaving the remaining skin a deep, blood red. Amazingly, her cheeks were still rosy and her eyes were still as alive and bright as the day he had first seen her. To assist her prior, he had allowed propped her up on stacked books, holding her in place in front of the tea cups.
What was left of her arms were stumps that ended at the elbows, with fragments of bone puncturing out from the skin. Johnny had been very rude not to assist her in tasting his delicious tea; he proceeded to correct this fault.
Nazz sipped it lightly and smiled when he removed the cup from her lips.
"It's wonderful," she replied, looking up at him with those beautiful eyes. Johnny found himself captivated by those eyes once again, and the urge to kiss her crossed his mind. But he had to stop himself...he would continue to be rude had he attempted this, and besides-the darkness wouldn't stop for a kiss. Plank wouldn't wait for a kiss. During his time of being a proper host, Johnny had almost forgotten Plank, whom he could feel was very upset with him at the moment.
Johnny excused himself from the room and entered the long hallway, making careful note to creep along the hardwood floor, in case his friend was napping. At the end of the hall he opened the door quietly, watching light from the hallway spill into the room. The light washed over his friend, whom stared at him in disgust from the opposite end of the room.
"How dare you," Plank rasped, his voice as dry and hoarse as the day they had first met. "Who's in our house?"
"Nobody," Johnny flustered, leaning against the doorframe. He wasn't going to win this argument.
"Liar." Plank hissed, his stare colder than the dead of winter. His steely red eyes locked onto Johnny's face with a deafening eye contact. "It's that bitch...that blonde haired bitch from down the street, isn't it?"
Johnny hesitated.
"ISN'T IT!" Plank demanded, his voice shattering the silence of the house.
"I like her!" Johnny wailed. "I really like her, and you know, it's not-"
"Aren't you a Casanova," Plank mused, his every word cutting Johnny like razors. "Bringing that BITCH back to our home...the goddamn place where I RAISED you. And you...you leave me in the *CRAG*ING DARK about it. YOU KNOW how I hate the darkness...I know how you hate the darkness...I should have let it eat you alive, you horrible piece of-"
"SHUT UP!" Johnny cried, tears streaming down his face. "SHUT UP! I like Nazz and there's
nothing you can do about it! Not you, not the darkness, not even..." by now Johnny had slumped to the floor, a pathetic sobbing mess. Tears cascaded down his cheeks and dripped onto his white shirt. His toes curled inside of their sandals. His outfit suggested a laid back lifestyle, but his life was anything but relaxed. His life was a constant torment, especially now. When the Cul De Sac first went silent Johnny thought this was a welcome invitation to enjoy Plank's company without the jeering of the children. He had gotten his wish, but now Plank was the one making his life miserable. Johnny hated conversation; he despised it in the most horrid way possible. It was only Plank with whom Johnny could converse with on a degree of normality.
And now Plank was angry with him. This wasn't the first time this had happened. Johnny had lost count in the times Plank had lost his temper. But what always struck him was that Plank was right. Even now Plank was right. Plank had told him that the two of them shouldn't waste their time on trivial things; girls being the top of the list. What mattered to them now was survival. Survival in the empty Cul De Sac meant biding your time and looking for opportunity.
The darkness had reached the junkyard, and its cancer was slowly leaking in to surround the Cul De Sac. He could feel it in the back of his mind; a steady pulsing in his brain. It was that feeling of impending doom: a dark feeling of bleak hopeless from which he could not escape. Johnny knew it would soon engulf the Cul De Sac, though he didn't know how long he had. It was up to him and Plank to make sure that they were not around when this happened.
"Calm yourself, now," Plank coaxed, his voice now soothing and warm. Johnny knew Plank never liked to see him so upset. "Calm yourself. Double Dee...that's the name you were about to say, isn't it? Eddward?"
"Yes," Johnny responded. "Double Dee. It's him...he's the reason for all of this."
"Then you know what we have to do," Plank said. "It's..necessary for us."
Johnny nodded, wiping his tears. "I know," he whispered. "What shall you have me do?"
"My name is Eddward.
There was a time in which I was referred to as Double Dee.
I have no particular preference, you may address me as the opportunity arises.
That being said, I believe there comes a time in every man's life when he has to set his priorities, and adjust himself to fit this new lifestyle. For many a men, this may be something along the lines of winning an award, winning a contest...in my case, it was eliminating all of those whom had annoyed me and abused me over the past several years of my life. The following is a written confession to whomever may find this.
At 12 noon on a hot summer day in The Cul De Sac, I, Eddward [Double Dee] assumed the grisly murders of Kevin, Sarah, Jimmy, Nazz, Ed, Eddy, and Rolf. I did this out of free will; this was a goal that I had set for myself within a certain time period and it was something that I did as a kind of tribute to myself. I proved to myself that I...
...
Pardon me, I have blood on my shirt."
It never failed.
Eddward kept an attitude that was nothing short of professional. Even in the event where there was nobody around to inspect his attitude, he kept even his writing appropriate. He figured if anyone were around to read this, they would at least be able to assume that he wasn't some mindless killer. The thought alone haunted him at night. No, no...this was something that was the upmost importance. He had no idea who was going to read this; as far as he knew there were only a few people left on this miserable slab of land, and as far as they were concerned, they probably weren't likely to judge him based on his writing.
Eddward stared down at the splotch of blood on his shirt, perfectly aligned right in the middle of his chest. For a moment in his silence he didn't believe it was there; for a moment he assumed that he was simply losing his mind, and that all the preparation he had undertook to prevent this sort of thing from happening again was stressing out his mind. But no, the blood remained on his shirt and he continued to sit there foolishly, staring at it.
No matter. He knew whose fault it was and they would pay. Quickly and silently he removed his shirt and replaced it with a fresh one. After folding the soiled fabric over his shoulder he entered the basement, taking careful note to close the door behind himself quietly. Marie was still asleep upstairs.
Over the past few days the basement had become Eddward's workshop. Lining the walls were tables filled with vats of chemicals, stacks of files and notes and dirty chalkboards. The basement was a mess, but it was all this that illustrated his progress. Throughout the last few days, Eddward had been spending much time studying the human body and the effects of prolonged stress on it. While the basement was a laboratory, it was also reserved as a room of war and an interrogation centre. Since Marie had "moved in", all his weapons and equipment had been moved down here to house Marie's eclectic 'taste' upstairs. (Mostly sleeveless t-shirts and other trailer-equipment). While half of the basement was a professional working environment, the other half, the area behind the staircase, looked nothing short of a slaughterhouse.
There was a steady decline in the floor, Eddward attributed to this as a fault in the construction plans of the house. However, in light of this predicament, it had served well to funnel the blood to the drain located at the lowest point, in the center of the floor. It was here that he housed Kevin and Jimmy, or at least, what was left of them. Over the past few days Kevin had been subject to many of Eddward's experiments, and he had proven to be a worthwhile study. Kevin's athletic body, no stranger to stress, had shown significant progress in his experiments, and now as he looked down on Kevin's withering frame, he smiled forcibly.
His smile was forced, because there was a blotch of dark red on his favorite shirt. This stain was not going to come out. At least not now, after he had gone so long from noticing it. He looked down at Kevin, strapped to a long table, with an IV cord feeding nourishing liquid into his body. From all prospects Kevin looked like the victim of gang violence; his clothes had been removed except for his boxer shorts, now stained a variety of colors from leaked bodily fluids. His right leg had almost been completely removed, with bandages wrapping around the cauterized stump just under his hip. His left leg had been slit open, glistening wet muscle tissue revealed under the heat lamp Edd placed over the boy's body. Kevin's body had become Eddward's masterpiece of numerous lacerations and burns and other instruments of torture, and it was the finishing touches on his legs that completed the piece.
This was no longer torture, no. Eddward had taken out all his aggression days ago.
Now this was a matter of blending science and art.
"Wake up," Eddward said softly, shaking Kevin's shoulder. The boy's head lolled around lightly, his face drained of color. "Wake up." Eddward repeated, a little more firmness in his voice. It took another minute of shaking before Kevin came to, his sunken eyes retaining a dull glow that they once had. He didn't speak, he simply stared at Eddward and blinked.
"Do you see this?" Eddward asked, unfolding the t-shirt to reveal the splotch of blood. Kevin's eyes fluttered momentarily, and Eddward took this as his response.
"I go through so much work to prevent this from happening," he sighed, moving his hands up and down Kevin's body. His fingers danced along Kevin's pale skin, observing without seeing as you would a statue. "Yet you continue to disappoint me."
Kevin blinked again, his lips dry and pasty. His tongue danced softly behind his lips. Eddward knew that his mind was active, although it may be cloudy and illogical after all the stress his body had endured. He was, however, still alive (to some degree) and Eddward was intent on making him understand the error of his ways.
"Your blood," he continued. "Spurt this onto me...I can attribute this to the high volume of sports drink you may have consumed..all that built up sugar in your system, or at least, lack there of..this is just a theory, but regardless...your blood spurted on me, even though I was wearing plenty of protective, surgical gear to prevent this from happening. Now, this sort of thing can NOT...WILL not, stand." His eyes moved down to Kevin's left leg, the open laceration most likely infected.
"There's some tissue in here," Eddward stated softly, running his fingers along the open cut. "That I can cut, that will not allow you to use this leg again."
Kevin's eyes widened slightly but otherwise there was no response.
"Now I'm a decent man," Eddward continued. "In fact, I'm a professional. I'm willing to let this all go if you will simply apologize."
His words hung in the air as he returned his gaze to Kevin. He had stated his case and now it was up to Kevin to decide. The boy returned his gaze with a vacant stare. The silence in the room was deafening. Eddward had grabbed his scalpel and was proceeding to touch it down to the muscle tissue when Kevin coughed.
"K...k...kill...me..." he wheezed quietly, his head bobbing back and forth like a drunk. "...kill...me..."
Eddward grinned and lifted the scalpel from the skin.
"Sorry, dear subject, but I can't do that. It wouldn't be in the best interest of science. You DO want to help further the scientific community, don't you?"
"Leave him alone!" a small voice whined from the corner.
Eddward turned his attention to Jimmy who sat, locked in a dog cage in the corner. He had almost forgotten about the boy.
"Jimmy," Eddward said in an impatient tone. "Me and Kevin are speaking, it's impolite to interject."
"Leave him alone," Jimmy repeated, shifting his weight uncomfortably in the cage. His legs were still broken and Eddward had not given him and sedatives to relieve the pain, only some bandages. The bleeding had stopped, but there was still a sickening crunch every time Jimmy shifted his weight to reduce the pain of his new sitting position.
"Please," Jimmy squeaked, his face pressed against the bars of the dog cage. "You've got what you wanted...just...please...let us go...we need to go.."
Eddward smiled and approached the trembling, feeble Jimmy. He knelt down and waved the scalpel in front of Jimmy's face.
"Now why would I do that?" Eddward asked. "In the aftermath of war, the victor may dispense of his enemies as he pleases."
"I'm not afraid of you anymore," Jimmy hissed, his face flinching slightly. "Because I've seen something more horrible than you."
"Oh, and what is that?" Eddward mused, intrigued by Jimmy's fluctuation into confidence.
"It's coming right here," Jimmy continued, the look in his eyes as dark as the depths of the ocean. "and I've seen it. It's a horrible, scary darkness that's eating everything. It's eaten most of the junkyard, and the woods, and it's surrounding us. It can't be stopped."
Eddward laughed, for the first time in years and felt the burn in his stomach from doing so. His stomach muscles were not used to such a motion, at least not anymore.
"A 'darkness'?" he asked. "And where exactly did you see this? you haven't exactly been 'out and about', have you, Jimmy?"
"In my dreams," Jimmy replied, looking away. He knew this sounded insane, and in turn could not maintain eye contact because of it. His gaze turned to the floor. "In my dreams I see it. It's everywhere. There's arms in the darkness and they reach out and grab for me, there's splotches of black that stretch the rest of it across the land. It's eating everything." He looked up at Eddward with genuine fear in his eyes. "If Kevin wants you to kill him, please do it. While you're at it," he flustered for a moment, seeming almost embarrassed. "You oughta kill me too."
Eddward bit his lower lip and looked back at Kevin, whom had fallen unconscious again. He returned the scalpel to his bench without saying a word and went upstairs, making note to turn out the light as he exited the basement.
"It's about time you got back," Marie purred, her slim form outlined with bedsheets. "I've been waiting for you all morning."
Edd flinched slightly. Of all his studies, dirty talk was not one of his subjects.
Instead he crossed the room, much to Marie's dismay, and began pulling on his armor.
"Where are you going?" She pouted, holding the bedsheet up to her nude chest.
"Out," Was his response. "I need to check something out at the junkyard."
"The junkyard? what the hell...?"
Edd shot her a quick smile and leaned in to give her a kiss.
"I won't be gone long, I promise,"
As he exited the room, he turned and said, "and then I'm gonna play with your kitty all afternoon."
The silence that the darkness brought was deafening.
It rolled over the hills and the grass and the rocks. It consumed the wastes within the Junkyard and with darkened arms was reaching out to the borders beyond the junkyard, inches at a time. The darkness gurgled and bubbled, small bubbles of black ink popping and bubbling inside the ooze. It colored the sky gray before turning it to black and as you would watch, everything turned to nothing.
Thick splotches of black pattered the ground before Johnny's feet and he was afraid. He hesitated, taking a step back when Plank growled.
"We wait. We do not move," he hissed. Johnny swallowed hard and obeyed. He wasn't sure what Plank's initial plan was; he instructed Johnny to wait at the junkyard, just on the edge of the darkness. It was almost impossible to stand still. In the quiet wake of the afternoon sun, Johnny could almost hear the darkness trying to make a sound. As he looked deeper into the splotches of ink, he thought he could see eyes-dozens of them, staring back at-
"There!"
Johnny looked and saw Eddward coming over a crest of garbage to his far right.
"What do we do now?" Johnny asked, ducking behind a pile of garbage.
"Now," Plank said, the penciled grin on his face stretching. "We go to Eddward's home."
"Jesus."
Eddward lowered his binoculars and sat back on his haunches. Jimmy, in all his panicked anecdotes, was right. There was a cloud of dark matter that was consuming the junkyard...and it was moving. Eddward bit his lower lip and thought for a minute. In his mind he reviewed over all the quantum theories he had read of and all aspects of physics that he knew of. Nothing quite matched to what this was.
Was it a blackhole?
Was it a portal?
Was it...ink?
He decided to go in for a closer look, despite his better judgement, and readied his backpack. Sliding down the mountain of garbage, he carefully made his way over to the edge of the pulsating blackness. On closer inspection, he noted that it had the appearance of ink, with the consistency of jello. Pulling a test vial from his backpack, he scooped some of the black liquid into it and proceeded to jot down a couple notes into his notebook. With as active as it was with the bubbling and pulsating, the liquid made no noise as it seemed to eat away at the ground and apparently the rest of its surroundings.
Eddward didn't know if he should be concerned or overjoyed at the fact that he may have stumbled across such an unusual substance. What Jimmy had said was right...it was moving, and it did appear to be eating everything underneath and around it. He looked on either side of himself and saw that the liquid stretched on for miles, seeming to encompass the Cul De Sac and its surrounding areas. What really struck him was WHY.
Why was it here?
Why was it doing this?
Who or what created this, and WHY?
Taking a few steps back, Eddward reached into his backpack for more tools. It was time to figure out how fast this was closing in on the Cul De Sac.
Eddward's house was as quiet as the rest of the homes inside of the Cul De Sac. The only difference was that it was colder. Not just the temperature, but the atmosphere gave off an eerie tingling sensation that sent a chill down Johnny's spine. Plank had instructed Johnny to use his time wisely; while Eddward may be intrigued by The Darkness, there was no guarantee he that he wouldn't come back soon. Johnny wasn't quite sure what he was looking for as he opened drawers and searched countertops. This is why Plank was "the brains" of the operation.
Plank told Johnny to find anything of use that would reveal a weakness of Eddward. While he hadn't been specific, Johnny assumed physical tools such as a sharpened broom stick or a gun would be of service to him. He set Plank on the couch in the living room and searched the kitchen for anything that might aide him in this quest to punish Eddward.
Opening drawers and digging through kitchen utensils didn't prove to be of any worth, the only thing he found was a kitchen knife with a long blade. Johnny held the blade in his hands, testing its weight, and stabbing at imaginary enemies around him. He had never stabbed anyone before, let alone even watched violent movies. He had always lived a relatively sheltered life, under the assumption that he would never need to know such skills. In the back of his mind he prayed the Eddward would feel remorse for his sins and kill himself, rather than Johnny have to do it for him.
He was about to search the basement when he heard a noise from upstairs. His heart raced as panic overtook him for a moment, but Plank was on watch at the front door and hadn't said anything. There was someone else in the house with them. Slowly he crept up the stairs, the knife held ready in his nervous hands. The staircase curved slightly and Johnny peeked over the rounded edge to the dim hallway. The noise appeared to be coming from Eddward's room. His heart pounding inside his chest, Johnny stepped up the last stair and made his way to the Eddward's door frame, holding himself tight against the wall. He wasn't exactly sure what he was going to do, but if he didn't do anything he knew Plank would be displeased. It was the moment of truth.
He peeked around the corner and his eyes fell upon Marie, who lay strewn in the bedsheets, sound asleep. She had an uncanny, rythmic snore that had scared him so badly. Biting his lower lip, he approached her. Still a little unsure of himself, he noticed he was sweating profusely upon discovering that she was naked beneath the bedsheet. A light breeze made the curtains billow and in turn chilled Marie, whom in her sleeping form, rolled over and revealed her rounded, white ass. Johnny felt as if he were about to pass out from how hard his heart was beating. He felt a tingling in his body that was foreign to him, and as he came closer to Marie, the tingling grew stronger. Almost so much that it began to overwhelm him.
He had to touch her.
...but what if she woke?
What then?
He couldn't possibly...kill her, could he?
"I know what you're thinking."
Plank lay propped against the wall next to the entryway. Johnny cast a quick look back in his direction, beads of sweat running down his face.
"I wasn't...I mean...I wasn't going to.."
Plank's voice was hoarse and dry, the monotone behind it rising up over the noise of Marie's snores. Johnny was frightened that he may wake her.
"She is Eddward's weakness. Desecrate your enemy's greatest treasure, and they will not have the means nor the motivation to battle."
Johnny swallowed hard and looked upon Marie's nude frame, the small of her back covered by a thin bedsheet. Her beautiful blue hair lifted slightly in the breeze. Johnny had never seen her so close before, her beauty rivaled that of Nazz.
"Do it, faggot," Plank rasped. "You know what to do."
Johnny gave Plank one last, helpless look, and turned his attention to Marie. She was still sound asleep, despite Johnny's pounding heart which he felt must be making echoes outside of his body. Slowly he unbuckled his pants and stripped down to his underwear, making careful note to kick the sandals off. His toes felt strange on the carpet; he rarely took the sandals off. Slowly he climbed onto the bedframe, trying desperately to manage his weight so as not to wake her. Once he was hovering right above her, he pulled off his shirt and wrapped it around her face. He couldn't bear to look at her while he did this.
"Mmmmphh...? Double Dee?" Marie murmured beneath the white fabric of his shirt. Johnny only responded to the method in which his natural male instincts told him to; slowly and lovingly he began to kiss her neck, relishing the taste of her pale skin.
"Oooo, Double Dee...this is kinky..." Marie giggled, only the small of her lower chin uncovered by the shirt. Johnny lifted the shirt slightly to reveal her upper lip and kissed her deeply, his tongue lolling inside her mouth, rolling over hers. He felt clumsy as he ran his hands over Marie's body, all the while trying to keep his balance above her. She made a movement that beckoned for her to roll on top of him, but he wouldn't allow it. As long as she thought he was Eddward, he would be able to do this pain-free. He kissed the small of her chin and moved down to her jugular, licking her adam's apple and moving to the side of her neck. He didn't know much about kissing, nor making love for that matter, he only assumed what he was doing was satisfactory, in accordance with Marie's moans.
Marie's body moved in synch with his kisses, rocking back and forth against the mattress, her stomach rising to match the curve of his, and then lowering again. It formed a smooth pattern in which they rose up and down, Johnny with his free hand, grabbing and squeezing her petite ass. Marie moaned in ecstacy as Johnny became a little more adventurous and slipped off his boxers, feeling the tingling in his body conform to a solid mass that throbbed before him.
"Double Dee...please..." Marie moaned, her inner thigh rubbing against Johnny's erection. Johnny looked around, almost helpless, as he tried to buy himself time by kissing and licking her erect nipples. He wasn't sure what to do now...nobody had ever quite instructed him how to..
Then it all happened at once; Marie moved her body toward him and slid into him, her mouth opening and holding in such a way that Johnny had never seen before. She shrieked in ecstacy and hugged him tightly, using her legs to bob up and down on his erect penis. Johnny felt a tidal wave of pleasure wash over him as he felt the warmth of Marie's body onto his, the overbearing sensation enveloping him in a moment of passion. Marie's shrieks became louder and matched that of Johnny's cries of joy as their two bodies began to peak, the unfamiliar feeling rising inside of Johnny's body, instinctively making him pull out of her, his throbbing penis spurting a strange white liquid onto her stomach, and Marie appearing to wet the bed in synch with him.
Johnny fell back slightly, his whole body suddenly near exhaustion. Marie collapsed to her back, panting heavily. The two lay there for several minutes, each of them breathing as though they had run a marathon. Johnny rolled over and saw Plank, still leaned against the doorframe, saying nothing. The eerie grin on Plank's face had seemed to grow wider as they locked eyes; Johnny had to look away. It was one thing to make love, but for his best friend to watch? Even Johnny felt a little shame in that. Though he wasn't Eddward, and this was not his place to be touching Marie, he felt they should have at least a little privacy.
His gaze turned to the knife, which had been sitting on a small nightstand at the foot of the bed. He eyed it carefully; analyzing the way the blade curved and gleamed in the light of the afternoon. He almost didn't hear Marie sit up.
"I'm glad you made me wait, Double Dee," she smiled, removing the Johnny's blindfold. "It..."
The two of them froze, eyes as wide as dinner plates locked on each other. That familiar feeling of panic rose in Johnny's chest as Marie's lip quivered. He couldn't tell if she was about to talk or scream. In one fluid motion Johnny swung the knife across Marie, slitting her at the throat. He didn't realize Marie's eyes could get wider as she realized what happened, blood spurting across Johnny's face and the bed. Marie's eyes rolled to the back of her head and she fell on her back against the mattress, blood oozing steadily out of the deep cut.
Johnny dropped the knife and looked at his hands, already stained a dark red. His mind went blank for a moment and he sat on his knees, the blood from Marie beginning to soak his body. He tried to make words, but it only came out as yelping fragments of panic. He pulled himself away from Marie's stiff body just in time to notice Eddward standing in the doorway, his mouth hanging open in shock.
"What..." Eddward's voice was a whisper, quickly elevating to a roar. "WHAT DID YOU DO?"
He continued to stand in the doorway as Johnny scrambled off the bed and held the knife out in front of himself. He wet his lips nervously, watching Eddward from the doorway. His mind raced; he was nude, caked in blood and other bodily fluids, Marie was bleeding to death on the bed and now Eddward was here, standing in the doorway with his face strewn into a sort of twisted horror.
"JOHNNY," Was all that Eddward rasped.
"Kill him!" Plank roared. "Kill him now!"
Johnny faultered for a moment. He felt guilty over the murder of Marie...that wasn't part of the plan. While Eddward was responsible for slaughtering the entire Cul De Sac...Marie had nothing to do with this.
"SHUT UP!" Johnny screeched, shaking his head. "SHUT UP! I CAN'T DO THIS!"
Eddward, despite his rage, looked down to the floor to see Plank propped against the wall.
"You mother*crag*er..." He hissed, rearing his leg and bringing it down, using the leverage of the wall and the floor to snap Plank in half.
"NOO!" Johnny yelped, raising the knife. His confused, blank expression had instantly turned to a twisted rage. "I'LL KILL YOU!"
Eddward braced himself as Johnny sprinted toward him with the knife. Johnny took a wild swing, his weight and clumsly legs throwing him off slightly, allowing Eddward enough room to duck underneath the blade and come up behind Johnny, grabbing the knife hand and locking it behind his back.
He slammed Johnny against the wall and pounded the boy's head into the wallframe several times. Johnny's vision clouded and Eddward let him go briefly, just enough time to grab the knife off the floor.
"WHY DID YOU KILL MY GIRLFRIEND, YOU..you..." Eddward felt his rage deteriorating. All he could think about was Marie's lifeless form on the bed, how he would have to bury her, the love of his life, and how long it would take to get the blood stains out of those sheets. He collapsed on the floor next to Johnny in a stupor.
"b...because..." Johnny whimpered, his head lolling dumbly back and forth. "because...you were the reason...the darkness..."
Eddward rolled over and sat on top of Johnny's chest, pinning his arms with his knees. He held the knife close to Johnny's throat.
"What about 'the darkness'?" Eddward hissed. "What the *crag* does that have to do with anything?"
Johnny's eyes rolled into the back of his head, his head suddenly jerking forward. His voice turned hoarse and dry...sinister, even.
"You killed the children, you upset the balance," Johnny responded, his voice an uncomfortably dry monotone. "You upset the balance, and now the darkness takes over. The children were a self-sustaining substance in this world, and you got rid of it. There's no reason for this world to exist without the children, so it's being erased. GONE."
"That doesn't make any sense," Eddward replied angrily, trying not to be offset by Johnny's change in character. "Why would a.. 'darkness' come if I killed some people?"
"You don't have to understand it," Johnny rasped. "You only have to accept it. You destroyed the reason for this world's existence...you must face the consequences."
With a cry of rage Eddward brought the knife down on Johnny's head, the knife sticking crudely in the back of his throat. Then Eddward fell back on his haunches and sobbed. He sobbed for what felt like hours, feeling shame and remorse for everything he had done. Maybe what Johnny had said was true; while Eddward was theorizing that the darkness was a random anamoly, what Johnny had stated about the darkness being a force to reset 'the balance' made more sense. Eddward remembered studying physics and balance in nature. For every action, there is a reaction. In turn, when one balance is upset, something occurs to offset it, which realigns the balance for better or worse. When Eddward had killed the Cul De Sac, he may have well signed the doomsday contract for his own little world.
Eddward looked up and saw that the darkness was bleeding its way in through his window.
"My name is Eddward, [Double Dee]. Normally I would have thought out and prepared a more formal introduction for myself, but time does not permit that. In the past few days I have lost my friends, and lover, to my own hand. It is a decision that I must live with, for better or worse, for the next several minutes, at least until I get up the gull to punish myself for my sins. I had hoped that this memoir may have been used as a future reference for someone other than myself, but as I can see now, that is not the case. If for some reason, someone may be reading this, by the time you reach this sentence, I will be dead. Hopefully my blood will make a fitting final signature on this page. Thank You.
Sincerely,
Eddward Double Dee."