He's Changed...I Swear

Chapter 2

I stared at it, a mixture of shock and fear written clearly on my face. That thing, the thing that caused the most awful week of my life so far, the thing I killed, was sitting at the end of my bed. Just sitting there! I was frozen for a good minute with questions swimming through my mind a mile a second. ‘How is it still here? Why is it still here? Why isn’t it doing anything? Am I just in some twisted nightmare? How can I wake up? How can I get rid of it?!’

“Jeremy? Are you all right?” The SQUIP’s voice broke me out of my state of shock. My breath quickens and my heart starts pounding in my ears.
“Jeremy, please calm down-”
“Shut up!” I yelled, backing up against my bed frame. “Just shut up. You- you're not real. You’re not really here. I-I-I’m just dreaming.” My eyes darted around the room, looking for something, anything, to prove myself right. They landed on a half-empty bottle of mountain dew code red, sitting on the nightstand. I shuffled to my right and grabbed the bottle as I said shakily, “A-a-and even if- if I’m wrong,”
“Jeremy wait-”
“this- this’ll kill you forever.” I unscrewed the cap, letting it fall out of my quivering hand as I brought the bottle to my lips. Right as I was about to take a nice big swig of the citrusy drink I felt a hand wrap around my wrist and, along with it, a shock of fear ran through me. I stared straight ahead and electric blue, (fearful?) almost glowing eyes stared back at me. The sound of my pulse was deafening. ‘This is it. He’s gonna kill me. He’s gonna kill me and use my dead body to take over the world.’ I started hyperventilating. 
It started, with a voice that was just as shaky as my entire body, “Jeremy, please. I beg of you. Just calm down. I can explain everything, just take a deep breath and put the mountain dew down.”

I continued to stare, gripping the bottle in my hands like it’s my only protection because it kinda is. An eternity passed with me just staring, shaking, wishing that it was just a dream, wishing I were just dead. I only mustered up the courage to do something when I felt the hold on my wrist loosen a bit. I gulped although my mouth was bone dry as I sputtered out, “Wh-why- why- why shou-ld I trust y-ou?..” I felt the bottle crinkle and the luke-warm soda spill on my hands. The SQUIP retracted its own hands when the liquid ran over them. He shook it frantically, panicked? But once he saw that the red didn’t do anything to him, he calmed down. I did too. This, this wasn’t the way my SQUIP acted. Even when he was about to disintegrate temporarily (can’t really say die anymore) he wasn’t this reactionary. Something weird is going on. And whatever that is is making him a lot less intimidating. My breathing started to settle when he finally answered my question. He said, drying his hand with his shirt, “I don’t expect you to trust me, but I hope you believe me when I say I have been stripped of my control over you. I have as much power over you as your average peer. I also am here to explain.” He looked at the bottle then at me. I hesitated. I did want some answers. I couldn’t help but think this is a bad idea as I slowly recapped the sixteen-ounce bottle and placed it back on the bedside table. Though it was still within arms reach of me, the fact that it was out of my hands seemed to put him at ease. So he started his explanation, “During your night of euphoric intoxication you unknowingly drank some regular mountain dew. Usually, that wouldn’t do much. A static feeling in the back of your throat at most, but, considering you didn’t directly drink the mountain dew red during the play, it merely severed my connection to your brain rather than destroying the entirety of my quantum computer, so the mountain dew was effective in rebinding that lost connection. In the time I was temporarily disconnected the mountain dew red you continued to consume after the play only served to damage the key components that gave me the ability to manipulate your nerve system, senses, muscle movements, etcetera.”
There was a pause. “Could you maybe put that in human?” I kinda asked, kinda demanded. 
He blinked a couple of times almost confused before saying, “Essentially the mountain dew you drank reconnected you and I, but now I’m merely able to appear to you, or others if I please, and manipulate electronics.” I nodded tiredly. The initial adrenalin that came from seeing the SQUIP had worn off, it was safe to say I was completely down from my high by now, and this was a lot of information to take at 3:33 am. I still had a lot of questions and still really want to just end it already, but I just ran my hand down my face to get rid of a bit of the exhaustion. 
I said with a yawn, “Alright, I’m way too tired to think about what to do with you right now so this is what we’re gonna do: Imma call Michael tomorrow, we’ll ask you some shit, and then decide what to do. For now, you’re just gonna sleep on the floor. Don’t touch anything, don’t even look at anything. I’m gonna get a solid, what, five hours?”
“You really should get at least eight hours. Your current sleep schedule is very unhealthy. You should-”
“Oh my god! Just shut the fuck up!” I groaned loudly. The SQUIP visibly stiffened and backed up a little bit. He tipped his head down a bit and muttered, “My apologies Jeremy.”
That made me feel a little guilty. Ever since a year ago I haven’t liked hurting people even if they deserve it. I sighed, “Look, I’m sorry. I’m just really tired and stressed and things are weird. I’m just gonna get some sleep and we’ll work things out in the morning, kay?” I didn’t wait for an answer before laying down and making myself comfortable in my bed, cuddling in my comforter as my head hit the pillow. I don’t know if it was just because I was really tired or what but the pillow felt extra soft. I felt the weight shift off the mattress and the slight creaking of floorboards as the SQUIP moved down to the floor. I tossed him down a spare blanket already half asleep. I muttered, “Night.” I heard him reply, but I wasn’t able to make out any clear words. Before I was out I thought to myself, 'Stupid tic tac.'
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