Tics and Ticking-A TicciWork story!

First Date

December 30th 2013 11:45 p.m.

"So...what are we?" The question came from nowhere nights later as the two laid on the couch of the cabin's living room. By this point, everyone else was either sleeping or out in a mission. She thought for a moment about the question.

"Do you want to start dating?"
"Yeah."
"Alright."
"Okay."
Silence ensues. "Do....we go on a date?" Toby looks around. "Not many options for serial killers, is there?" He says, with a whistle and a chirp. Clockwork begins to ponder.

January 4th, 2014 2:00 p.m.

Toby had just gone out on a mission, he'd be gone for a couple hours at least and this was the perfect time to set up their date. Clockwork ran down the stairs, skipping a few steps when she jumped down onto the floor and took off speeding into the kitchen.

"What the fuck are you running around for?" Jeff, sat in the dining room portion of the room, hissed with BEN sat next to him. "I got a date tonight." She said, climbing onto the counter to open the top cabinet to take down the popcorn packets. She reaches into the back and pulls out a few packets.

"Can I help?" Sally tugs at Clockwork's sweater and looks down at the young girl then nods. Sally, despite being a ghost who is more than able to float, decides to climb up on the counter. "The popcorn maker is in the cabinet to the left!" Sally informs and Clockwork grabs it from where it is, promptly placing it onto the counter.

Sally takes one of the packets and opens it. "Do you know if we have any horror movies?" She asks as Sally pours the packet into the machine. Sally nods. Clockwork takes a bowl from the dish rack and places it where it belongs, "We got all sorts of them. Jeff likes them so he always takes them from his victims." Lulu appears from behind, making Clockwork jump, Sally waves, "Hi Lulu!" She smiles.

Clockwork turns to the fridge and takes out a bit of butter. She walks to the stove and melts the butter.

Clockwork continues making the popcorn, the machine is loud and annoying but it causes her not to be able to hear Lulu and Sally as they whisper amongst themselves.

The popcorn finishes and Clockwork fills it with salt and melted butter then shakes it up. "Thanks for your help." She begins to walk into the living room. "Don't blow it." Jeff chimes in. "Or do." BEN snickers.

She scans the shelves for movies before coming across "Hereditary" and pulling it off the dusty shelf. She puts the movie on the coffee table and  plops down on the couch. She spots the DVD player. "How do we have any of this shit?" She thinks to herself.

Sally and Lulu come in, BEN and Jeff behind them, they all sit. "You know that I'm kicking you out the second my date starts and don't you fucking touch that popcorn." Jeff rolls his eyes, "Yeah yeah," he takes a handful of popcorn. "Why are you dating anyway? You're serial killers...I mean, we all are." He corrects himself, "But still, how do you have any capacity to love someone else?" He asks.

"I like him and he likes me, as annoying as that was at the start. It feels nice to have normalcy." Jeff raises an eyebrow, "And what happens if you break up?" BEN asks. "Give her a break." Sally interjects, "I mean, I know we're all killers but isn't romance so nice anyway?" Lulu adds, "It can be beautiful and sweet, even with a little murder on the side!" She explains, her voice is sweet and very girly.

Clockwork cringes, she agrees wholeheartedly but it still embarrasses her. "That was the grossest thing I've ever heard." Jeff groans. "Yeah, that sounded pretty dumb." Toby comes in behind Hoodie and Masky, the three of them all covered in blood.

"So, what's going on?" He walks over to the kitchen and begins to wring out his sweater over the sink after taking it off. "Does he not know it's your date night tonight?" Lulu asks, turning her head up at Clockwork from her seat on the floor, "It's a surprise." she whispers back. When Toby nears the living room, Lulu and Sally grab Jeff and BEN by their arms and run off. 

A sudden pit of nervousness starts to overwhelm her when she realizes they're alone now. Her face goes beet red. "Where did everyone go?" Toby looks around, "Uh, they...just left I guess!" overcome by her emotions, she smiles awkwardly. "You're all red." he remarks, 

"Well, this is a date."  

"It is?"

"I was hoping so."

Silence ensues. "It was SO much easier when it was all hands on." she thinks, "I picked out a movie for us." she shuffles to pick it up off the table and opens the case. "It's horror." she tells him, starting to find herself back in her element. "I've never seen a horror movie before." the second those words hit her ears, her jaw gapes. "There's a lot of things I've never done." he laughs, nervously. "Well," she kneels in front of the DVD player and pops the disk from the case, "I hope this is a good first introduction to horror." she places the DVD inside and listens to the familiar of the machine reading the disk. 

Clockwork presses play on the player, turns off the lamp behind the couch and sits herself down on the couch. The movie starts...

20 minutes in and nothing bad has happened yet, "When does this get scary?" he asks, munching the popcorn in-between them. "Soon." She says, eyes glued to the screen as the main characters sister gets into the car after eating the weed brownie. The two remain silent as the scenes go on.

Smash

The scene arrives, Toby drops the popcorn he held onto the floor. He's silent. Moments pass. "Clockeye." He struggles, grabbing her shoulder. "Turn off the movie." She snaps out of her trance the movie put her in and looks at him. "Please turn it off." He's shaking. She does as he asks.

"Are you okay?" She asks, putting a hand on his trembling shoulder. "No- I-I'm okay. It's okay." He stutters. She wraps her arms around him. "What's going on?" She asks, peering up at him. He looks to the side.

He sighs, "My sister died in a car crash." He admits. "I'm sorry I never told you." He twitches. She'd figured, he'd hinted at that several times and she felt like an idiot for not noticing. "That was an awful idea, I'm sorry." She snuggles herself closer to him, their arms wrap tight around each other.

The blue light of the TV's DVD menu screen illuminates them as they hold each other. Toby's shaking gradually stops and he kisses her forehead, she smiles a little.

"You know, I've never been on a date before."
"Me neither."
"Really? Didn't you date that guy?"
"I guess but..."
Clockwork stops mid sentence to think about what to say next. "I used to just go to his house and sit around, he tried to get me to go on dates but I literally couldn't fathom romance." She laughs.

"Why did you do this for me then?" He asks. She thinks for a minute, "I wanted to show you that even in this crazy situation where we're serial killers with no empathy left for humanity, we can at least have a bit of normalcy together." She explains, he listens. "I never had any normalcy," he laughs.

"Thank you." He smiles and it makes her heart pound. "I love you." She responds, getting on her knees to get closer to him. They kiss quickly, "I love you too." He says. Hands held tightly, they stand and head upstairs.

They make their way to Clockwork's room and lay on her bed for a few minutes, staring at the ceiling. Arms wrapped around each other, she falls asleep much earlier than him...