text: [Themes: modern, horror, serious]
  
  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.
  
  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.
  
  > insist that he stay
  Weird or not, you're not going to just let him potentially get shot.
  
  "Johnny! You can't go out the front door! Look, just lie down on the couch okay? You can sleep here. It'll be all right." You say getting up and grabbing his arm.
  
  Johnny stares at your hand and then at your face.
  
  "Do you mean it?" Johnny asks.
  "Of course, I can't let you go out there and get shot. I mean if you still want to leave then at least wait until its night and you've had some sleep." You answer.
  "You're so...so perfect..." Johnny remarks and starts to head back towards the couch.
  
  You help Johnny back to the couch, and when he lies down he falls asleep almost immediately.
  
  "I...love you Suzy..." he says as he drifts off.
  
  Well there was nothing ambiguous about that. You start wondering if you should have your head examined for possibly enabling a possibly mentally unstable guy who's more than a little obsessed with you.
  
  "(Sigh) What the hell is wrong with you Suzy? First it was a cultist, now it's this stalker. Are you deliberately picking crazy people as potential boyfriend material?" you say to yourself.
  
  You stand over Johnny watching him sleep for more than a few minutes trying to figure out where you actually stand with this guy. As you do so you never noticed how cute he really is before. It's true that he's somewhat average looking, but maybe it's due to him being in a more vulnerable position that he's coming off as more attractive and not creepy.
  
  Not knowing what else to do, you turn down the TV (Which is blaring a Ground Zero infomercial as usual) and leave Johnny to sleep. You stop in the kitchen first in the hopes of maybe finding food before returning to your own room.
  
  "Wow, this place was a mess last night. How the hell did he get it so clean?" you say as the kitchen is indeed much tidier without drunken fools and broken tables lying on the floor.
  
  When you open up the refrigerator, you surprisingly find another pizza box, which has been marked with a note saying "Property of Suzy, don't touch!" Johnny must've ordered another one for you last night in case you got hungry later. That was pretty thoughtful, but what surprises you even more is its completely intact.
  
  "He probably was acting like a guard dog all night near the refrigerator in case someone tried to eat it." You laugh to yourself.
  
  Grabbing cold pizza and an unopened drink you head back to your room and lock the door.
  
  Still wondering about them, you call up Julie, Donna and even Peter, but you get no answer from any of them.
  
  Just as you briefly pondering about calling Kelly too, you hear a loud banging on a door. Not the door to your room, but somewhere in the house. Upon exiting your room, it sounds like its coming from the front door.
  
  You remember that the loudspeaker from earlier did say there was going to be a government representative coming to visit the houses in the neighborhood.
  
  You enter the living room and find Johnny awake again. He still looks pretty tired.
  
  "Wha...what's going on?" he asks, rubbing his eyes.
  "I think it's the government rep." you say, then you run over to the door and check through a window and see a well dressed man and one soldier at the door. You grab the handle...
  
  "Wait, you're just going to let them in?" Johnny asks.
  "Well I doubt if they're going to just go away. What can we do? Barricade ourselves in until they bash the door down? I don't like it either, but it isn't like we have too many options. Besides I don't have anything to hide, do you?"
  "No." Johnny replies.
  "Well there you go then, we might even be able to find out some answers too."
  
  You open up the door.
  
  "Greetings miss. I'm Mr. Zoll and I've been assigned to be the government representative for this area. May we come in?" Mr. Zoll asks, though it's pretty obvious that this is more of a polite formality rather than asking permission.
  "Of course." You answer and let Mr. Zoll and his soldier companion in.
  
  When you turn around you see that Johnny is sitting up on the couch, but is propping his head up on the armrest. He's still really sleepy so you're not surprised to see a bit of a scowl from him. You just hope the others don't take it the wrong way, but you figure as long as you're polite and upfront, you shouldn't have too many problems.
  
  Mr. Zoll sits on the chair while his soldier buddy stands nearby (eyeing Johnny mostly) you sit on the other side of the couch with a space between you and Johnny and ask what all this is about.
  
  "My name's Suzy, and that's Johnny over there. So how can we help exactly?" you ask.
  "Well, before we start I know this isn't an ideal situation. You're probably already concerned about what's going on and why this town is under marshal law in the first place." Mr. Zoll answers.
  "It is all a bit worrying." You reply.
  "I'm sure. Unfortunately I can't talk about it too much, however I'm sure you're aware that this town has experienced a vast increase in criminal activity and rioting. More than your police force can handle. So until we get the situation under control again, we're here to stay."
  "Well we certainly can understand that. We haven't experienced any criminal activity in this neighborhood though, well at least not to my knowledge."
  "Hmm, yes this is one of the quieter ones. Some places I'm hearing about are pretty bad. Anyway I'd like to ask a few questions before deciding if we need to search this house further."
  "Oh. Um, okay then. We have nothing to hide."
  "Good glad to... hear it." Mr. Zoll says glancing over at Johnny who is still alternating between being sleepy and unhappy about being awake.
  "So which one of you owns this place?"
  "My friend Julie."
  "Oh? Neither of you are the owner? Where is this Julie?"
  "Uh, don't know. She skipped out on her own party yesterday and never came back home. Isn't that what you said Johnny?"
  "Hrm. Yeah." Johnny mumbles.
  "I see..." Mr. Zoll says studying Johnny though you don't know why. It's making you nervous though.
  
  "Is this man your boyfriend?" Mr. Zoll suddenly asks.
  "Um...yes! Yes he is. He hasn't had much sleep. You see we had a party last night and he stayed up late cleaning up. He really shouldn't have, but that's just how he is!" you nervously laugh being completely caught off guard by the question.
  
  In your mind you already are regretting saying that since you've sent out more than enough mixed messages to Johnny. Though when you look over at Johnny he doesn't make any facial signs of a positive or negative nature, he's too busy on struggling to stay awake.
  
  Mr. Zoll is now looking at you a bit mistrustfully. He thinks something is wrong and now that you're shifting a bit uncomfortably, he starts to think you're covering up something even though you aren't!
  
  "Okay, you know what. I think it'll be easier to just give a brief search of the house." Mr. Zoll says standing up to say.
  "Um, all right then. We have nothing to hide as I said." You say. Johnny slightly awakens a bit at this remark, but otherwise he continues to say nothing.
  
  Mr. Zoll tells his man to go take a quick look through all the rooms while the three of you stay in the living room. The soldier nods and follows his orders. He first goes upstairs and looks through. You half expect him to find a stash of drugs in Julie or Donna's room, but he either doesn't or that isn't their primary concern.
  
  Next the soldier comes back downstairs and searches the ground floor, but once again finds nothing that is going to get you into trouble. Johnny briefly turns his head to watch the soldier as he moves back and forth up and down the hallway.
  
  "Searched everywhere sir, well except the basement." The soldier says when he comes back.
  "Well you might as well search that too." Mr. Zoll remarks.
  
  The soldier nods and heads back towards the hallway. Johnny doesn't look at the soldier this time, he just closes his eyes.
  
  You hear the door open to the basement and then a few footsteps going down, then all of a sudden...
  
  "Oh shit! That basement has a bad step!" Johnny exclaims and goes running down the hallway and shouts at the soldier.
  
  Mr. Zoll gets up and starts to yell at Johnny to come back and you call out to him as well. This is soon followed by both the soldier and Johnny yelling and then the sound of someone falling down the stairs.
  
  At this point you and Mr. Zoll both run towards the basement and there you see Johnny in the stairwell and the soldier crumpled in a heap at the bottom. His neck doesn't look like it's supposed to be twisted that way.
  
  "I...I tried to stop him from falling..." Johnny exclaims looking distressed.
  "His fucking neck is broken! I can see it from here! You killed him!"
  "I didn't! I tried to save him! I shouted about the step!"
  "Bullshit! And YOU'RE lying too!" Mr. Zoll says pointing to you as well. "Something fishy is going on here and I dunno what it is, but BOTH of you are going to pay for it!"
  
  Mr. Zoll reaches for something in his suit pocket...
  
  Panic washes over you and it's in situations like this that sometimes people either freeze up or make a rash decision.
  
  > do nothing
  The panic is overwhelming and you completely freeze up. Even when Mr. Zoll pulls a pistol out of his pocket you still do nothing. It's like the next few moments are in slow motion to you.
  
  You watch Johnny attempt to run up the stairs, but Mr. Zoll turns quickly and fires two shots, one in Johnny's chest and another in his head. Johnny falls backwards down the stairs and his body falls in heap on top of the dead soldier.
  
  You don't even scream when seeing this, but your crippling frozen panic ends and you instantly make a run for it. Mr. Zoll attempt to grab you, but you're too fast.
  
  You actually get to the front door before you hear Mr. Zoll tell you to halt or he'll fire. You can't stop though, you're too afraid for your life.
  
  Upon opening the door, you feel a piece of hot lead going into your back and then another.
  
  You slump face first onto the front porch. Tears in your eyes and screaming from the pain you attempt to drag yourself forward, but it's all for naught. Mr. Zoll casually walks up to you and ends your suffering with a final bullet to the head.