#let me know if i need to tag more i've never done this befire

[nyancheetosmusical]

Jeremy meeting the Human Squip (HSAU Ch.1)

Here’s the story alongside some (kinda crappy) illustrations of how Jeremy meets the Squip after he gets a human body through….questionable means.

Slightly graphic descriptions of scars, cuts, stitches, and blood ahead, and some cartoonish drawings of said injuries. If that is an issues for you, be warned.

He knew he had to keep moving, but it was hard. Everything hurt. The world flickered in and out of focus like static. It hurt so bad. Never had he felt so powerless, so not in control. It was a battle simply to get the body to move at all; fighting for control from some silent, unknown source. Nothing made sense. There was just pain.

___

The biting December air hurried Jeremy along. He hadn’t planned on staying at Michael’s until two in the morning, but they had so much to catch up on. Things had started out a little awkward- it had been two months since they’d last hung out- but after Michael ordered a pizza and booted up his N64, the natural rhythm between them returned. All in all-

Jeremy snapped his back, coming to a stop on the path as he fixed his posture. His hands had almost gone into his pockets. With a sigh of relief that he’d remembered in time, Jeremy pulled his hands up- and a sinking feeling overcame him. The Squip was gone; Jeremy was sure of that, Michael even made him drink some Mtn Dew Red with his pizza earlier, just in case. But it seemed that parts of the Squip might be harder to get rid of than others.

“S-shit, man,” he said softly, twisting the hospital bracelet anxiously around his wrist. The sensation of the bracelet passing over the scars the Squip’s “conditioning” had left was oddly soothing; it was like the bracelet was there, then wasn’t, then was, then wasn’t….Now, at 2 AM, on a path in the middle of a public park, was not the place to begin psychoanalyzing the damage the Squip left. With a sigh, he resumed his walk through the quiet night.

A few minutes later, he was stopped by a rustle in the bushes. He had been passing through the back trails of the park, where sidewalks and park benches turned to unkempt forest and stoner hang out spots. As such, you never knew if it was a deer or a pot head that was going to pop out of the bushes. Curious to see what he’d meet this time, Jeremy stepped forward to peer into the bushes.

___

Where was he going? Why was he even bothering to move? Maybe if he stayed still the pain would go away.

No. Keep going. Stop questioning. Keep going. Through here.

Something jabbed into one of the regions of the body that had been burning with an unbearable pain.

Suddenly, agony. What is this? Is this death? Something was screaming. It was the body. Was he screaming too?

___

A muffled, mangled scream interrupted the rustling. Jeremy took a step backwards as pained, dry sobs began to fill the silence the scream had left.

“Hey man, is everything okay in there?” He called out hesitantly. If this was another stoner crying because the price of McChickens went up, Jeremy did not want to deal with it again. The sobbing paused. He shifted uneasily.

“Right, so I think I’m just gonna-”

Without warning, a small dark figure clawed its way out of the bushed and onto the sidewalk in front of Jeremy, causing him to shriek and jump back. “Dang, dude, you almost…” he trailed off as the crumpled mess of a person trembled face down on the pavement, still half in the bushes. It was dark enough that he couldn’t make out much, except for a ripped black jacket, pale skin, and- wait, was that pool of liquid there before? It was dark and thick, and the blue-ish glow of the moon was turning it a blackish-purple…

Oh shit.

Jeremy jumped forward and knelt by the person, trying to flip them onto their back. “Dude, you’re bleeding really bad, what’s-” Jeremy felt the sentence die in his mouth. Before him was a very small boy, not too much younger than himself, shirtless except for that dirty black jacket, shaking like a leaf. That wasn’t the strange part.

The kid’s eyes, sunken deep into a starved face, gave a slight blue glow. Instead of pupils and irises, a single straight black line in each eye searched the world without appearing to see anything. Without warning, the line in the boy’s right eye flickered into a circle. It was tall and clean, like a 0 in a calculator. He didn’t seem to notice though, even when it flicked back into a line.

Both sides of his pale face were crusted in dried blood; moving the hair covering his ears, Jeremy could faintly make out shiny metallic somethings sloppily piercing his earlobes where earrings would have gone. The area had scabbed up, but fresh blood still glittered brightly in the moonlight. “What the..." Jeremy leaned back as a wave of nausea came over him. Doing so let him catch a glimpse of the boy’s chest, and another wave of sickness crashed over him.

Dead center of his chest was the cut out of a perfect, clean outline of a circle. The wound appeared to have trouble scabbing up, as blood and new skin glistened between pathetic clots. Electricity scars, originating from all side of the circle, arced all across his chest in jagged fractures. Below that, over his abdomen was a lengthy cut running side to side across his body, eerily straight and precise. Two similar scars sat on either side of his waist, curving around, presumably to his back. Although they all had been sewn closed neatly, each one was nasty and bruised. The incision on his left had split open, and blood was seeping steadily out.

Jeremy stared in shock. This kid didn’t smell like pot, and these were injuries he had never seen before. And what was with his eyes? Something was really wrong with-

His thoughts cut off as he felt a hand wrap weakly around his wrist. The boy’s eyes suddenly focused, and the right eye became a line.

“J-jeremy Heer-r-r-re….” an unbelievably raspy voice somehow had come out of the boy’s mouth. A pit opened in Jeremy’s stomach. Something was very, very wrong here. He tried to wrench his hand back, but the strange boy’s grasp became vice-like. The right eye flicked to a zero. “H-h..help me….”

“Back off, dude, how do you know my-”

“Jer-er-eremy Heere….” That voice, why did he recognize that voice?

“Dude, you’re really freaking me out-”

“Jeremy H…..he….Hee….Heere….” And instantly, Jeremy froze, his blood turning to ice in his veins. He was falling, a deep fear stirring inside him.

That voice.

It was him.

It was his Squip.

Oh no. Dear God no. This can’t be happening. He can’t be back, he should be gone. Please no, i dont know what youre doing or how youre doing it but please stop i will do anything please just-

“Com-m-me back…” The sobbing snapped Jeremy out of his thoughts. He had stood up and began to back away. The- the thing, his Squip, reached after Jeremy. The glow in it’s eyes began to flicker.

“Jer-r-emy, he-help me…it hurt-t-t-ts….”

“S-stay away from me! I don’t know what you’re trying to do, b-but stop it! You’re supposed to be dead!” The zero in the right eye flipped to a line. Seeming to have ignored the warning, the Squip painfully began to drag himself forward, eyes burning with such pain and fear that, for a moment, Jeremy wanted to run over and- no. No no no. That’s just what he wants. “Get away from me!” Stumbling backwards, his heart began to race. It can’t come back. I can’t lose Michael again. I can’t go back to that.

Still the Squip dragged itself forward, eye flickering to a zero. A thick trail of blood followed.

___

The effort to move was monumental. But it was the only chance.

It had recognized Jeremy’s voice. Jeremy can help. Jeremy can make the pain stop. Jeremy can help.

Jeremy was standing up.

Jeremy was backing away.

Jeremy was going to leave.

“S-stay away from me, man! I don’t know what you’re trying to do, b-but stop it! You’re supposed to be dead!”

Jeremy is leaving

The pain is never going to go away

Jeremy can help

Jeremy needs to help, it hurts and it hurts and it won’t ever stop and w h a t  i s  h a p p e n i n g

move forward

get jeremy

keep

moving

survival is

necessary

“Get away from me!”

A horrible wave of something washed over him, far greater than the pain wracking this body. It took hold, paralyzing him.

Wh

What is

I

I ’ m

___

The Squip suddenly froze, his piercing stare boring into Jeremy. The body still shivered, but seemed like it was paralyzed.

Stay away please stay there…

Jeremy continued stepping back slowly, arms held out front protectively, as if the quaking crumple of a person could attack him at any second. He mustered up the courage to speak.

“Just stay AWAY. I-I don’t need you to be cool or happy or anything anymore. I don’t know how, but you’re still just in my head. You’re not real. So j-just…” He couldn’t do this anymore. He had to go. Jeremy turned to run.

“J-jeremy….I’m sc-scared…”

“I…” that was not what Jeremy had expected. “O-Of what?” he countered, trying to ignore the mix of emotions swirling in his gut.

“It’s….it’s so q-quiet….so alon-n-ne….I fe-feel…”

“No, you don’t ‘feel’, you’re just some stupid computer that’s stuck in my brain and I just want you out of my head, how can you say-”

Jeremy quickly unclenched his fists. Something was wrong. His hands were slick with blood. Thick, dark blood. It was odd, he didn’t think he had any cuts. It was almost as if…

No.

That’s not possible.

There’s no way.

Jeremy slowly turned around. The Squip had collapsed completely into a widening pool of blood.

“Jeremy….everyth-th-thing hurts….please make it-t-t-t stop….”

Without warning, a tear splashed onto Jeremy’s bloody hands, washing away a small splotch of blood. His tear. A tear of anger and fear and worry and worry and confusion and frustration. And he was frustrated. Frustrated he had taken the Squip in the first place. Frustrated what the Squip had made him do. Frustrated how much the Squip had actually hurt him. And now, frustrated that the thing he now feared the most was apparently alive and had a body and he was feeling pity for it.

The Squip seemed like it couldn’t say anything anymore, let alone move. It just lay there, shuddering and whimpering weakly.

Jeremy took a step forward.

And hated himself for it.

He took another step forward and hated himself even more.

This is a terrible idea

Why am I doing this

He deserves this

And yet he did not stop approaching the pathetic little thing that shivered in its own blood.

___

Darkness closed in. It was going to be like this forever, a world of pain, and now the new feeling he had discovered, the first one he had ever felt; fear.

Horrible pain and fear. Forever.

And then he felt the body being turned over gently. And he could see the stars again, this time without a gun pointed at him. And they still glowed and danced with the same beauty as they had before. And it was almost….good.

And the pain was beginning to fade, but so was everything else. He felt the body being grabbed under the arms and carefully lifted off the ground until only the feet were touching.

“J-just so you know, I hate you more than you can imagine.” Jeremy’s voice. It came from somewhere. Jeremy must be holding him. Jeremy came back for him.

And as he felt the body beginning to be dragged along, the Squip for a moment felt something that was not pain or fear.

It was something….

Good.

It was good.