Chapter Text
Todd Casil held out a mitten-covered hand to catch some of the snow and watched carefully as it melted into the wool. No pain. "See Shmee! It's not acid, it's just regular water!" The little boy held out him damp mitten for the teddy bear to inspect. It stayed perfectly still, grinning at him.
"SQUEEGEE! SQUEEGEE!"
Todd turned around to see a thin man grinning and waving wildly at him. It was The Scary Neighbor Man! "Squee!" He was frozen in terror as he watched the man run towards him. He seemed to have prepared for the snow, wearing a hoodie, gloves and one of those hats that also keep your ears warm, which he had to stop and fix because of all of his flailing.
Finally, he reached Todd and continued to grin at the boy with a slightly manic look in his eyes. "So Squee, you like the snow?" The little boy could only stare up at his homicidal neighbor in terror. What should he say? What if he killed him if he didn't? What if he killed him if he did? All Todd could do was whimper in reply. Luckily, his insane neighbor didn't seem to really notice.
"Ha! Yeah, me too. I remember when it didn't snow." He stopped to look around at the rest of the snow-covered park. "But I like the snow well enough. Though I remember this one time—I remember it was a Tuesday because some aliens came and stole my hotdogs—but this little weenie dog use to try to devour my ankles. It would hide behind this log and when it came out it would have this walnut in its mouth. In the snow it would look like it didn't have any legs because it was so short—heehee—but this one time…"
Todd's neighbor continued to go on about…well, Todd didn't know what he was talking about, but he seemed to be distracted. So, he turned back to the snow, ignoring Shmee's whispered comment to put The Scary Neighbor Man on fire, and started to gather it to build a snowman. Todd had never built one before, but he'd seen kids on TV do it. He glanced back to his neighbor, who was rambling on about a monkey now, and wondered if he would want to help. Sometimes he was nice and not too scary so maybe he would. Oh. There was something under the snow. He leaned down and started to brush the snow away.
"…anyway, so then these meese came out and…Squeegee?…You shouldn't really dig there. I kind of put a…Squee?" Todd had stopped listening. There was a cold, dead, hand under the snow. And probably more if he pushed more of it away. A cold, dead…There was a short moment of calm before…
"SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!"Todd grabbed his bear and ran. He ran as far and as fast as he could from his scary neighbor and the dead body, but he could still hear him even from the other end of the park.
"Okay! Bye Squeegee! Merry Christmas!"