Work Text:
In a hallway inside a suburban home stood an average-looking wall covered in an equally average-looking wallpaper. There was a part of it, however that wasn't so average-looking: a large chunk of the wallpaper, the size of a doorway, had clearly been partially torn but pushed back over in its original place. It was wrinkled, and lumps could be seen under it.
A young adolescent boy approached the unusual spot, and pushed the wallpaper from the bottom-up, revealing a door with locks and chains in front of it.
"Well, let's get this over with. Mom wants a good chunk of stuff out of here by tonight."
~~~
A little boy had entered the room, his eyes wide as he scanned everything in his surroundings.
"This is all so cool!"
He continued to study everything on the walls as he walked over to what ultimately caught his attention the most- the car. When he approached the vehicle, he jumped into the driver's seat and gripped the steering wheel. He began pushing the wheel back and forth, blowing a raspberry with vocalizations imitating an engine.
His fantasy was cut short when suddenly he saw a tall, familiar figure approaching him.
The owner of the car leaned over towards the young child in the seat.
"Pretty cool, isn't it?"
The small boy smiled. "You bet, bro! Can I ride in it, can I?" He inquired eagerly.
His older brother began to roll up his sleeves.
"Yeah... I'll give you a ride..."
"Really?"
A loud yell echoed from the room into the hallway. "GET OUT OF MY ROOM!"
following the shout, the little boy quickly flew out from the doorway and landed face-first onto the floor in the hallway.
He slowly got up, rubbing his face from the pain.
"At least I got to see it for a little bit." he thought to himself as he began to walk away from the entrance to his brother's room.
~~~
The door swung open as Eddy entered the abandoned bedroom, which has now become a storage for various objects that haven't been touched in who-knows-how-long. He took a took a deep breath and sighed as he entered the dusty ruins, memories and emotions filling his mind.
He let out a pained sigh as he headed over to a desk with a couple of junk drawers.
He began with the top of the desk, sorting through the clutter and putting stuff into a box.
A bunch of tools, scrap, magazines, messy pieces of paper and mummified snacks were scattered on the desk's surface. He paid no heed to them-even the chick magazines that would normally pique his interest. He only cared about getting them all into the box and moving on to the next thing. After he managed to get a few things in, he made a pause as something had caught his eye- an empty jar.
~~~
The little boy gazed in fascination at the jar his older brother was holding in his arms, which was filled to the brim with coins and dollar bills.
"Wow, bro! Where'd you get all this money from?"
"Scammed it off some suckers in the neighborhood. It was easy."
The younger brother appeared perplexed. "Scammed? What's that mean?"
"You don't know what a scam is? Man, you're stupid." The teenager rolled his eyes. "It's when you get someone to give you money without having to do much work yourself. Just make them think you've got something they want, take the money, and then leave."
"And how do you do that?" The little one asked again.
"Eh, there's all kinds of ways you can do it. For example, kids like new toys, don't they?"
"Mm-hmm!" The little boy nodded.
"Well, you can just find a broken old toy at the dump, glue it back together, maybe give it some fresh paint, and it'll look just like a new toy. Kids won't be able to tell the difference, and they'll give you money for it!"
"But what if the toy breaks again after they get it?"
"Who cares? As long as you got your cash, it ain't your problem. That's how ya do it." The older boy concluded as he held up the jar triumphantly.
"Oh, well cool. Hey, can I have a quarter? I wanna get a jawbreaker at the candy store!" The younger boy asked his brother, still eyeing the money.
His brother quickly moved the jar away from the young boy's reach. "Pfft. In your dreams. You want dough, you gotta make it yourself like the rest of us." He said as he walked away towards his room, carrying the jar with him.
The little boy looked in his brother's direction as he walked away. "Alright, I will. And you'll be proud of me too, you'll see!"
~~~
Eddy found himself standing still, glaring at the empty jar. He wasn't even sure how long.
Finally, he opened it up, stuffed as much of the other junk on the desk as he could fit inside, closed it and put into the box.
The surface of the desk was clear. Now it was time for the drawers.
Mostly just a mess of papers in here. A few books. Some miscellaneous crap.
He gathered it up in stacks and dropped them into another box, as quickly as he could. No looking back.
Of course, one of the last few stacks he had to get, which included one his brother's old high school yearbook, slipped out of his arms and fell right on the ground, papers spread out everywhere.
But that wasn't caused Eddy to nearly break. It was, rather, what fell out from the yearbook. Something he dreaded to see.
It was a photo of Eddy's brother, next to an unknown girl.
The girl didn't matter. She might as well not even existed in the photo. Eddy's eyes were only on the one standing next to her. All he could think of now was the last time he saw him.
It all played back in his mind. The journey he went on to find him as he was also trying to escape the angry mob of cul-de-sac kids coming after him when one scam went a bit too far. When he finally saw him again after such a long time, believing he was safe at last.
Then how he turned out to be dead wrong, as only more pain and torment would come from his supposed savior.
Then how the cul-de-sac kids ended being the ones that saved him. He still wasn't sure why they did. Didn't they want to kill him?
It did feel good though. To be cared for. To be accepted.
But the events that went on just before that happened kept repeating in his thoughts.
He was still staring at the photo. He didn't even notice his breathing patterns have changed. They became heavy.
Four words were choked out from under his breath.
"You were my hero."
His chain of thoughts were finally broken when he heard the ringing of the doorbell in the distance.
He got up and walked over to the front door, where the noise was coming from. Before he could put his hand on the doorknob however, the door immediately fell over on top of him as Ed ran straight into the house, trampling Eddy under the door.
"CLEAN UP, CLEAN UP! EVERYBODY EVERYWHERE!" Ed sang out at the top of his lungs as he ran further into the hallway.
Double D followed in after Ed. "Ed, you were doing so well..." He sighed as he shook his head.
He looked around, searching for his friend. "Eddy?"
Eddy lifted himself from under the door. "You rang?"
"Oh, hello Eddy. Uh, sorry about that." Double D said as he helped up his shorter friend. "I recalled you mentioning yesterday that your parents wanted you to clear out what remains in your brother's old bedroom. Ed and I wanted to know if you require any assistance."
"Yeah, sure. Knock yourself out. But we gotta get to it, Mom's expecting at least half of the room to be empty by the time she gets home." Eddy responded as he began walking back to his brother's old room as his friend followed along.
"Of course. There's a lot of opportunity that arises when a new room becomes open in a home. What do your parents plan on doing with it once it's cleared?" Double D asked.
"Beats me. Where's Lumpy?"
"Hello!" Ed's head popped out from underneath the hallway rug. "I am a caterpillar!"
"Quit foolin' around. We've got work to do!" Eddy said, less aggressively than his usual tone, as he pulled Ed out from under the rug.
"Alright, in here." Eddy began walking into the room as they arrived at the doorway in-between the torn wallpaper.
"Ally-oop!" Ed was already picking up large pieces of furniture and carrying it out the door.
Double D began collecting pieces that were hanging on the wall, as Eddy returned to the spot he was in before the doorbell rang.
"Need any help with the papers, Eddy?" Double D inquired, looking at the mess on the floor.
"Nope, I'm good, Sockhead." Eddy replied.
Eddy proceeded to collect all of the papers and stack them together, then lastly, he put the photo of his brother and the unnamed girl back into the yearbook it fell out of, and dropped them all into the last box his was loading.
"Who needs you, anyway?" He thought to himself as he closed the lid on the box.