Suzy’s Strange Saga

You wake up to the hum of a vacuum passing the outside your door. You shake your head, because you know who that probably is.

You check your phone for the time and see that you’ve slept through the morning as usual and nobody has called.

As you go through your bathroom routine of brushing your teeth and such, you ponder on whether or not you should check how trashed the house is or just stay in your room and not deal with it.

Ultimately you decide to check despite not really wanting to. Besides Johnny is obviously out there and you’re going to have to do something about him.

You exit your room and find that the hallway is fairly clean and the hum of the vacuum is now coming from the living room.

“At it again are you Johnny?” you say walking into the living room. The living room is spotless and you notice that unlike the last time you don’t see anyone flopped out on the floor or sofa.

“Hi Suzy, did you sleep well last night?” Johnny asks while turning off the vacuum.
“Yeah. So did Julie ever come back?”
“Nope, I never saw her again. Guess she might’ve stayed the night somewhere else.”
“(Sigh) I see. Is there anyone else here?”
“Nope, you’ll be pleased to know that I eventually managed to kick everyone out of the house, of course some just left anyway, but I figured you’d be glad to not have your home resemble a flophouse when you woke up.”
“Wait, so are you telling me there’s nobody else here?”
“Nope, except me of course.”

That makes you feel a little uneasy.

“Uh…okay…” you say and start backing away a bit. You briefly wonder how fast you could run to the back door and escape and then you wonder if you could run into your room and grab that pistol that’s still in Julie’s dad’s desk.

Johnny already senses your distress.

“Shit. I’ve done it again. I’ve made you uncomfortable. I’m sorry Suzy, I just…I dunno. I don’t mean to be creepy, I just wanted to make things nice for you.” Johnny says and actually starts walking backwards from you in an effort to put you more at ease.

“Johnny, I know you mean well and I know that you like me, but like I said, I’m just not ready for anyone right now.”
“I know, I know, I know you said so before…but how can I win your heart if I don’t continue to try? Couldn’t we at least just talk more? I mean we really haven’t gotten to talk a lot one on one with just us around.” Johnny says.

“Johnny…” you start to say, but then you’re interrupted from something loud outside.
“What the hell…” Johnny says and walks over to one of the windows to peek.

“Holy shit, there’s a bunch of military guys, a couple of military trucks and even an A.P.C. coming down the street!” Johnny remarks.

At first you can’t believe him, but that soon disappears when a loudspeaker is heard.

“ATTENTION! THIS TOWN IS UNDER MARSHAL LAW AND THIS NEIGHBORHOOD IS NOW UNDER WATCH BY THE U.S. NATIONAL GUARD. A GOVERNMENT REPRESENTATIVE WILL SOON VISIT ALL OF YOU AND ASSIST IN ANYTHING THAT YOU MAY NEED DURING THIS STATE OF EMERGENCY. STAY IN YOUR HOMES. DO NOT COME OUT FOR ANY REASON. FAILURE TO DO SO MAY RESULT IN THE USE OF LETHAL FORCE.”

Well that is certainly something you didn’t expect. You also don’t know what you’re going to do. Why is this town under marshal law? What the hell is going on?

While you’re not sure of why this is happening, Johnny has some thoughts on the matter though.

“Wow, I really hope this isn’t something serious, like some biological weapon or something…but then I’ve been watching the news while vacuuming and there’s been no emergency broadcast about such a thing or anything. Just those Ground Zero infomercials, which have been increasing as of late.”

Johnny turns back to you.

“Well anyway, I suppose one upside to all this. With us being stuck inside, we can talk and get to know each other better like I was suggesting before.” Johnny remarks.

While Johnny has been just slightly on the side of creepy there actually is no proof that he isn’t just someone that lacks proper social skills and is a bit head over heels for you. And considering your last boyfriend was going around sacrificing people and could be very outwardly charming and charismatic, the way someone acts isn’t necessarily who they really are deep down inside.

Maybe if you did get to know Johnny a bit better, you might feel different. Not ready to spread your legs different, but if you like what you hear he might actually make that step towards “winning your heart” as he put it. (Something about that phrase sounded so quaint that it actually was endearing)

“Oh…all right. It’s not like I’ve got anything better to do at this point, but I’m warning you, don’t get the wrong impression. This isn’t a date or anything.” You say.
“No, no, I got it. I just want a chance that’s all.”

After you sit on the living room couch and motion that he sit in the chair you begin.
“Okay then…well what should we talk about first? It isn’t like I’m usually that much of a conversationalist myself.” You say.
“Well what do you like?” Johhny asks.

A general question, but a perfectly reasonable one for getting straight to the point on wanting to know more about someone.

The funny thing is there isn’t much about you to know. Since you don’t get out much, you don’t DO much. The only time you did get out a little more was when you were with Bobby, and you can’t very well talk about shit you did with your ex.

So you mention hobbies such as watching movies, playing games, and reading shit on the Internet. (You leave out masturbation) Sounds like a pretty dull life to the average person, but Johnny doesn’t seem to care.

“You don’t find what I said boring?” you ask.
“Simple perhaps, but I wouldn’t say boring. Are you happy?”
“Well I was happier when I could live in my basement and not have to deal with the rest of the world, and it would’ve been nicer to not have to put up with Kelly, but yeah I suppose I was happy just living like that.”
“Then that’s all that matters. Me? I’ve been sort of drifting from place to place ever since I left home. To be honest it would be nice to have some place to call a permanent home, but something always happens and I end up having to move on again. As you might aspect I’ve had several lines of employment, I’m not rich but I suppose I at least know a little bit of everything to make a living.”
“Sounds like you’ve had way more luck in that department at least. I’m flat broke and can’t even get a job. So why did you leave home in the first place?”
“It was time. Really don’t want to go back either. Not fond of the memories… so hey did you hear from your sister? I mean did she call or leave a message or something?” Johnny asks, changing the topic.
“Nope, and now with this marshal law thing going on, I’m a little concerned about her. Julie too. Who knows where the hell either of them are. I’m even wondering if I should call my brother Peter to see if things are all right with him, though I imagine he’s probably fine.”
“You have a brother too? Wow, two sisters and a brother. You have a big family.”
“I actually had an older brother Ben as well, but he died.”
“Oh? Sorry to hear that. Should I ask how?”
“He killed his family and then blew his brains out in our house.” You say.
“Wait…what? Why?” Johnny says a bit off guard.
“Well I wasn’t there for the final show, but he apparently thought the government was coming to get him and that it would be better if he killed his wife and son rather than they get captured and brainwashed. Something like that. He always was paranoid and just got worse as he got older.”
“I see. And you say there was no truth to his stories about the government?”
“Of course not.”
“Are you sure? I mean just because you’re paranoid, doesn’t mean that they aren’t still trying to get you.”
“Pretty sure if he was that much of a threat to the government they would’ve assassinated him long before he killed himself. And even if they were out to get him, there wasn’t any need for him to kill his wife and kid.”
“Well I guess I can just see it from his point of view. He genuinely believed in his mind that the government was going to get him and seeing it as a losing battle and not wanting to lose those he loved to the enemy, his act of killing them was out of love. Kind of romantic really.”

Johnny is so deadpan, you think he’s attempting some sort of dark humor, but you realize he’s being completely serious. Somehow you’re not really surprised.

“…yeah well I’m just glad he didn’t love me then…” you remark.
“I’m glad that’s the case too.” Johnny says with a smile.
“So what about you? You said you had a mother and an older sister.” You ask.
“Oh them. Eh, not much to tell I suppose. Like I said yesterday, your younger sister sounds very much like my older one, and your older sister sounds very much like my mother.”
“You mother participated in illegal underground fight clubs and roller derby races?”
“No. Wait, your sister really does all that?” Johnny asks.
“Yeah, so what makes your mom so bad?”
“Very domineering. Verbally abusive, sometimes physically. Emotionally too I guess.”
“What about your father?”
“Dunno, never knew him. Took off before I was born. My sister is only one year older than me, so she doesn’t remember him either. Just know that my mom hated his guts. Didn’t keep any pictures of him. What about yours?”
“Eh, he was a travelling lightning rod salesman, so it was like he was never home. When mom died of the flesh-eating virus though he was practically home all the time and just gradually drank himself to death over the years. Still wasn’t really there for any of us.”

Johnny nods and continues the conversation.

“After hearing about your family…I’m starting to wonder if I really had it all that bad and perhaps I just think I did.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well like I said, my mother was very domineering, but I pretty much did what my mom said. I mean I hate to say I was a mama’s boy, but I didn’t really step out of line compared to my sister.”
“Heh, sounds a little like me. Did pretty much what my mom told me too though she was the nicest one in my family. She probably was a little too sheltering of me though.”

You go on a bit more about your mother since you’re actually enjoying remembering the good times you did have with her. Johnny listens intently. Most of the time he looks like he’s displaying happiness because you’re mentioning positive memories, but sometimes you catch a glimpse of him looking away from you as if he’s in another place.

“She sounds like a very nice person and I can see where you get your kind qualities from. Sorry to hear that she died in such an awful way…just yet another example of how you’ve overcome so much hardship in your life.”

Now Johnny looks as if he’s completely gone to another place. He stares downward vacantly, if he was staring in your direction, you’d feel like he would be staring through you.

“Johnny? Johnny? You with me?” you say.

Takes him a few moments, but eventually he answers.

“I’m not feeling…myself… I should go.”
“What? Go? Where are you going to go? Are you sick?”

Once again Johnny doesn’t answer right away.

“Yes.” He answers.

The monotone voice he answers with, isn’t exactly relaxing and you get the strong impression when he acknowledged that he’s sick, he didn’t mean physically.

He starts to get up, and he wobbles a bit. At first you think maybe he is physically sick, but then he also said he was tired. Considering he was cleaning up earlier, he probably never went home and stayed up all night again.

“Johnny you can’t go out there, especially in your condition. The National Guard is out there, remember?”
“I’m not worried about some weekend warriors, I can be stealthy when I want to be. I’m just glad you gave me a chance Suzy, but I fear I’ve wasted your time. I’m sorry.” Johnny says and then attempts to walk out the front door, but his balance isn’t the best.

You aren’t sure what’s going on with Johnny right now, but it’s even weirder than usual.