A Negative Mind

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Disclaimer: All belong to JV.

Chapter 3: The InFEstATioN

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"Deeeeeeeeevii…."it bellowed coldly. "Come back to meeee…..immortalize the moment….with….meeee……Wee can diieeee…together…"

"Deviiiiii….."

"Devii…"

"Devi…Devi?"

Devi blinked, her eyes large and bloodshot. She felt as if she hadn't slept for days. And for good reason too. She hadn't.

"Devi? Are you alright?" She glanced at the young man sitting beside her, his large eyes, full of worry and something else she was capable of putting her finger on. He ran a hand through his unruly mess of hair and asked again, this time a little more impatiently, "Devi. Are you okay? Say something."

Devi bit her lip, her cheeks turning an unmistakable shade of bright red. "I…I'm fine…I just…Where am I, again?"

The young man, raised a thin eyebrow, and began to impatiently tap his fingers against the wood of the table. "Well…you're with me…Johnny…aaaaaannnnddd…"he glanced up at her, his eyes filled with hurt. "We're on a…" he hunched over childishly, "a date."

His tone was hesitant. Devi guessed he was completely nervous about this whole thing, this…date. She gained her wits quickly, not wanting to hurt the poor boy's feelings. "I was only joking. Lighten up, Johnny." the name sparked something in the back of her mind that made her eyes widen, but she shrugged it off in an instant before Jonathan could notice.

A small smile defeated his frown, and he looked away, blushing slightly, his hands clasping one another near his jaw, elbows resting on the table. He glanced back, and the look nearly made his date melt. His gaze was so intense, so gorgeous.

Devi tried to resist. So…I'm on a date…with this guy. But he's so innocent, so adorable, so…so…" She snapped back out of her faze. "Oh... Right, heh heh. I was just joking with ya," she laughed in a fake manner before glancing down at her menu. "So, what are you having?"

Johnny appeared thoughtful, raising a thin finger to his lip as he reviewed the choices. "Well," he replied hesitantly, "I'm actually not all that hungry. Maybe its my nerves…" He looked away, slightly embarrassed. "Sorry."

Devi couldn't help but smile. "You know what? I'm not really hungry either. But I think that's because of all the popcorn from the movie. We probably should've seen the movie after dinner, you know? Like normal dates."

Johnny head snapped to attention. "Do you want this to be a normal date?" He looked slightly offended.

"What?" Devi needed to save this conversation, and quick. "No, or course not-I mean, isn't it normal already…I mean-" she took a deep breath. "What I'm trying to say is, that I like the way this date is going already. There's nothing I want to change about it…except…"

Johnny listened intently. "What?"

"I think we should go look at the stars…"

"NO!" Devi sat straight up, frantically looking about. "No stars! No stars!"

Finding herself sitting upon the floor of her grungy apartment, she closed her eyes, letting the tension seep away….and then return as she remembered the occurrences just before her blackout.

Eff…that little fucker. And Sickness. How dare that thing bring some Styrofoam virus into her life. As if she didn't have enough to deal with already. Speaking of which….

"Eff? Eff, where the hell are you?" Devi rubbed at her aching skull. "Where's Sickness? What the fuck have you two been doing?"

"Why, Devi," Eff's voice floated from the darkness. "We haven't been doing anything. Oh, I must admit, though, in the duration of your sleeping peace, Sickness encountered a little accident."

Something came out from the shadows, rolling across the floor like a rogue ball, and Devi stepped back when it came to her feet. Cautiously she reached down, and picked up the object. The sight caused her to gasp in both disgust and surprise and she dropped the thing instantly.

"Sick…Sickness…?"

The head found its way to where Eff was now standing in the open. He clasped it tightly in his hand and raised it up for Devi to see. "Very tragic, you know. One minute, we're in the middle of a wondrous conversation, and the next thing I know, I'm tearing her head off." He giggle for a moment, before becoming quite serious. "The little bitch had it coming. Fucking questioning my authority, when it was she who asked me for help!"

He kicked the head across the room; where it landed, Devi could not say. She stared at the little Styrofoam figure as if he had gone mad, and backed into the door. "Oh don't you dare crawl away from me, Devi. You're in this up to your neck now, girl. Its already happening. I can feel my body becoming more whole. Fuller."

"Oh my God," she breathed, closing her eyes. "Your insane. You're fucking insane!"

"No, no, my dear," Eff answered, pleasantly. "You appear to be the one who's insane, or at least you will be in a matter of hours. You're like a fucking insanity gold-mine. The intense negative waves of craziness are just flooding out of every pore! And the more intense your insanity develops, the more real I become. If things keep going my way, I'll be human in no time!"

"So that's what this is?!" Devi shrieked. "You're fucking with my brain just so you can be human! So what then? You're human! And then what?! Are you just going to waltz right out of here and kill people, just like Nn-" She stopped short, nonchalantly waiting for the creature to reply.

Eff frowned. "Well, that's up to you, Devi. You're being given a golden opportunity here; after all, you're going to be crazy anyhow. Might as well have a friend in all of it. But…judging from the pet names you still carry around for our old friend, Johnny, perhaps you'd prefer his company over mine…" He stared at her in an unsettling sort of way; goosebumps trailed her arms. "I hope that isn't the case…"

"You…you knew Johnny?" She asked, attempting to change the subject. "But you told me you only knew of him from some random memory in my head. More lies?"

"Of course not. Johnny was our boy," Eff informed, quietly. "In fact, the only reason he attempted to kill you at all was because of us. Well, really it was just me." He turned to her, staring at her with Johnny's longing gaze. "He loved you, you know. Cared for you more than anyone else in the world. Probably still does. Its only because he lacked control that he went out of his way to do you harm."

Devi rubbed her scalp and headed towards the couch, frustration pounding against the walls of her skulls.

"Come now, Devi. I want to play with you…" Eff giggled, wrapping himself around her neck. His cold Styrofoam arms made her jump and she grabbed a hold of him, tearing him away and throwing him on the floor. He landed with a tiny thump and proceeded to laugh. "Oh, I can see why he liked you so much."

"Which reminds me," Devi hissed, standing in front of him. "Earlier, you said that we were 'acquaintances,' but I never don't recall ever meeting such a disgusting little bastard as you. Explain."

"You don't remember me," Eff whimpered sadly, looking wounded. "I'm-I'm crushed. I can't believe that you would have forgotten something as memorable as that man's face flying towards my counterpart and I and hitting that mirror. You really beat the shit out of the boy. It took him quite a while to recover of all the damage you did. But he did serve some purpose to us that night, infecting you with his disease."

"So…you're saying Johnny's insanity is contagious." Devi whispered. "Did he only infect me, out of all those people? Or was there someone else?"

"You remember Todd, yes? What am I saying, of course you do."

"That poor boy who lived next door to…yes, I remember," Devi replied, feeling a shudder run up her spine. "But I don't see how he has anything to do with you."

"Well, its quite humorous, you see," Eff chuckled. "He's sick. Sick as you are. Tainted by the very virus that consumes you. It wasn't long before that whole incident of his parents being horribly murdered that my other half and I realized this. It occurred just before our boy came home."

Devi eyed him suspiciously, sitting on the couch. Her hand clutched tightly to the arm without her even knowing that she had done it. "What did you do to him?"

"Oh, it wasn't I that chose him, you see. It was the Master," Eff explained, the malicious grin still plastered to his pale face. "The Master wants something to feed off of. An insanity to eat and eat and eat until he can break free. He saw something in the boy, and when he last journeyed into Johnny-boy's quaint little home in search of his bear, that's when we realized how right the Master was."

Devi paled. "Ugh, you're really freaking me out. Can you shut up with your unpleasant lies, if only for a little while. I'm tired of you."

"Lies!?" Eff seemed appalled at such an accusation. "Perhaps if there were some kind of benefit from doing so, then I would. But what good can come of my lying at the moment? Nothing. I'm surprised at you, Devi. I thought you knew better. Tsk tsk."

"Then what exactly did you do to Todd?" Devi demanded. "If you hurt him, I swear to God…"

"Now why on Earth would I fucking hurt him?" Eff snapped. "The Master needs him. Alive. Todd isn't exactly insane; yet, anyhow. But if the plan goes right, he'll be as sick as Johnny C. by his mid-teens. 16 is the goal. We still have a long while to wait however….so we needed to draw the insanity from another source."

Devi gulped audibly. She felt as if the room had grown ten times bigger. It was as if she was shrinking. "And what source might that be?" she asked, though already knowing the answer.

Eff smiled pleasantly, taking a seat next to her. He seemed to be growing. He was bigger now than he had been when he first arrived. And his 'skin' was darker. Not in a dirty way, but it appeared to be fleshier looking than before. "Why, you of course. But you already knew that didn't you? Such a smart girl."

"So…is your master feeding off of me now?" She asked, trying to sound more annoyed than frightened.

A flash of guilt could be seen on his face, there for only a moment, but Devi saw it. "Er, no. The Master doesn't know of your predicament. He doesn't know you're completely sick yet, and I wouldn't tell him if you were, either. I need you more than he does."

Devi scooted as far to the end of the couch as she could. "What for? What's so important that you need me? Are you going to eat my brain too, like Sickness? Or do you need me dead?"

Eff sighed in annoyance. "Nothing like that. Well, actually it does require the use of your brain, my dear. I need your insanity; your imagination. I need to be real. Its already working."

The woman growled, making an attempt to grab the little bastard and throw him out the window, but Eff effortlessly dodged her and jumped down to the floor. Devi stood, her fists clenched, his previous words clinging to her brain, shadowing any potentially intelligent thought she may have had.

"I want you out of my life!" she shrieked, lunging at him. He dodged her again, chuckling to himself and taunting her with obscene gestures. "I'm not going to become your little sickening insanity slave! I'm not going to let you force me to kill people! I AM NOT GOING TO BE JOHNNY!! GET OUT OF MY FUCKING LIFE!!"

"You forget one thing, Devi Dearest!" Eff cackled, suddenly leaping onto her shoulder and grabbing at her hair. "Its not your life anymore! Its MINE!" He gave her hair a righteous tug as he leapt off her shoulder, pulling her back. And back, and back. Until she fell against the floor. And didn't move.

She found herself exhausted, in pain, hurt. Her breath was rapid, her limbs sore, and she could swear that a large chuck of hair had been ripped right out of her scalp. She was unable to move, and Eff stood above her, that malicious smile, again, set across his cracked features.

"Go…..away…..leave me…alone," Devi choked out between breaths.

"You don't get it, do you?" Eff sneered, stroking the side of her face with his cold hand. Strange…..were those fingers….or at least would they be fingers soon? Fear struck her swiftly and hard. He was right. He had the upper hand. As long as she was controlled by her insanity, whether it was a lot or a little, she would be the victim and he would keep growing.

"No…you do get it now, don't you?" he smiled, still stroking the side of her face. "That look of fear and realization. Oh yes, you understand now." He bent down so that they were nose to 'nose'. "Why must you keep fighting me? Think of it: Once I'm real, I will stay at your side. You won't have to be alone anymore, and I won't have to return to my Master. We'll be free, living life without consequence, without fear. If anyone tries to get in the way of that, we'll simply do away with them, destroy them."

Devi's eyes widened.

"Kill them."

Wider. Fearful.

"And we'll be together. Think of it. Just you and me." Eff drove the idea into her mind, beating it into her at every opportunity. "Now, doesn't that sound nice?"

Devi felt her head nod, unknowing whether or not she had done that herself or if Eff had made her. Darkness took over once again, and Devi could feel fear all around her. At least she had one thing to be thankful for: she was getting a lot of sleep.

Eff watched her fall away into darkness, laughing to himself about that whole thing. It was working out nicely. The process was much quicker with Devi than it had ever been with Johnny. He supposed that this was because Devi had no one to help her as Johnny did with Nailbunny. Devi had no exterior voice of reason; she was alone. And also, Johnny had a severe problem with ADD it seemed, while Devi had a wonderfully on track mind.

Eff was loving this, knowing that he'd be real in no time. That is, until Devi uttered a single word through her darkness, a word that caught the Doughboy's attention, one that angered and worried him. It was something he would have to resolve.

"Nny…."

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A/N: Sorry, haven't updated in a long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long time. I hope this ending doesn't seem rushed, but I felt bad for not continuing it when I should've, so I apologize.

Also, this chapter has a couple references from the first story If Only I Could Dream. So if you don't understand and you'd like to, read that or skim it, or ask someone who's already read it.

Enjoy. :D