Survival Of The Fittest

Chapter 6 - June - Freedom is a Packet of Chewing Gum for Yourself

It was over.

He survived this bullshit for too long, but things weren't going to change.

He was done with middle school.

He was graduating.

The ironic part was that it seemed like his school couldn't arrange to do a graduation ceremony, because they hadn't figured out how to do a ceremony without adjusting to protocols. His mother was disappointed, but there was nothing she can do for her son. Their solution was to do a drive-by graduation event to which everyone can take their kids to get their diplomas.

Mortimer didn't care.

They got him in some formal clothing and then had his picture taken. His father was there, too. It was an important event, so it was the whole family if you ignore the divorce. Mortimer shook his sanitized hands with his fellow teachers, before he got himself his yearbook. A yearbook that was kept among the other yearbooks to serve as memory lane, but there was nothing significant about the yearbook. Mortimer flipped through the pages of his yearbook to see that some random kid was listed as the "class clown". It could've been worse. Could've been some kid that Mortimer hated, but he can't be a clown, could he?

The thing is...

Almost nothing changed.

It was summer, but the family had no plans to travel anywhere.

There was 4th of July with his dad, but nothing interesting. It was almost the same as before.

The internet drama of the month was also stagnant. It was nothing but 24/7 Twitter bullshit with some community going on with harassment with their excuse of activism. Why hadn't they made Twitter only available to people above 18+? They were practically having kids indoctrinated onto the hellfest. All of those blue birds were no different than the conservative podcast hosts who can't even debate against college professors.

No other significant problems were being solved. They were just being given cake sprinkles to look presentable.

Mortimer got his chance to play some Animal Crossing New Horizons on the Nintendo Switch, though he wasn't a fan of the game. His mother and sister were the ones who were die-hard for the game after it came out. He could still be chill with Tom Nook, even if people call him greedy. Hey, maybe he should take in that corporate mindset that Tom Nook had. He was getting stripped of his money.

He can't become some submissive and breedable loser, however. He needed to be a badass.

...

Somehow.

He was thinking of the ways, while he was watching and admiring Attack of the Clones that was on TV. He forgot how the prequels were better than the new sequels. The money that he had left was something that he was saving up, but all he can convince his sister to get for him while she was at the grocery store with his mother was a packet of stick gum.

Mortimer inserted some pink chewing gum into his mouth, like he was Roddy Piper.

How was he going to get more gum? He can't go into the so-called bubblegum mines for more.

He was supposed to train himself to be epic.

He was needed to kill and embrace chaos, damn it!

Freedom truly was a packet of chewing gum for yourself...

Chapter 7 - July - Fear Street: The Boy Downstairs

Set the scene.

July 2021.

Important month. Netflix gets Mortimer's lips caught in their fishhook.

Fear Street movies all going on for a summer release for July 2021.

The horror fan of Mortimer cannot say no.

Get that modern book cover that pays homage to original book series.

"The Boy Downstairs"

The title of the book.

Read the story from the beginning.

---

There was nothing yet like staying with the old man at his place and watching The Purge: Anarchy and The Purge: Election Year on Syfy channel, before the fireworks occurred and while waiting for the horrendous 4th of July to die down. Mortimer and his sister did sleep at his father's place before, but there was only the air mattress. Fireworks littered the skies and Mortimer and his father sat at tailgate foldable chairs on the street, getting a good view of the colorful explosions in the night sky. Mortimer got his extra dose of diet Pepsi caffeine to keep himself awake in the summer night.

Now, this was all a rumor, but Mortimer heard that someone came to the bank with a negative balance in their bank account. The reason was that they got scammed by trying to pay for one of those so-called inclusive dating sites for trans people. It sounded like a wild piece of gossip, but Mortimer wanted to groan at how preposterous things were being with how online politics had become. Erm, well. He can't try to reason with shit. Not his priority.

He was still hyping himself up for the Fear Street trilogy, though.

The Forever Purge had interesting ideas, but it was more focused on its speculative aspects, but nothing else.

Mortimer was set up in the living room, already watching Fear Street Part One: 1994. He was taking it all in for himself, seeing the easter eggs in the beginning and enjoying the chemistry of the sapphic love story in the plot. He needed to have a note to self. He should nab a Fear Street book from the bookstore to get some vibes for October. Best bet was probably The Prom Queen, since he was going to be in high school somewhere.

Mortimer was well into the scene where a girl gets her face slammed against a cake and then with some glee from Morty, having her head be put through a industrial bread slicer. Oh hell yes! Mortimer later thought of also getting Halloween Night 1 and 2 from the Point Horror series, he was going to be cooking with his new reading material!

THUMP THUMP THUMP

Something loud was happening at the stairway outside of the apartment. He heard chatter from behind the front door, though his mother was currently in the bedroom to notice it. There were kids. Loud kids. He only knew about his next-door neighbor, who did have kids have her own, but these kids were just not caring about their vocal levels. Did they even need to stomp as hard as possible, wherever they walked?

Jeez.

You see, we call this foreshadowing...

It was the middle of the week was when he was watching Fear Street Part Two: 1978. When he saw the sex having and dope smoking couple, he knew they were going to die. Nice taste in the band, The Runaways, though. Mortimer thought that he can enjoy some peace and quiet to himself, until-

THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP!

Again?

Mortimer paused the film on the TV. Even his mother can hear the kids going crazy, to which she tried to tap at the ceiling with a broom to quiet them now. But after a while, the thumping came back. His mother had to get the headphones on, since she knew that she can't deal with their shit.

Apparently, his mother encountered the upstairs neighbors before. They were obnoxious types. With obnoxious kids.

Though, he can try to reason with them himself.

Mortimer got into proper clothes and went upstairs to where the kids were going at it. He knocked at the door of the apartment for it to be answered by some snobby looking guy. "Can I help you?" Mortimer looked behind him to see the kids were watching Fairly Odd Parents on full blast.

"Erm uh yes-Hi. I'm from downstairs and you may have met my mother, though could you please have your kids not get so rowdy? They have been stomping around and making noise throughout the evenings lately." Mortimer tried to act honest and have some dominance.
"It's just kids being kids. No need to nitpick." the father was about to close the door, but Mortimer got his foot ready.

"Can't you get them to consider that there are some other people that need some peace and quiet. I get that it's been hard for them for a while, but there's other people trying to enjoy their summer break without getting google-eyed." Mortimer said to him.
It looked like the father was convinced by Mortimer, until the mother appeared behind the former. "Honey, what are you doing with that delinquent?"
"Excuse me?" Mortimer leaned past the father to look at his wife.

A henpecked husband. The sign of a miserable marriage, before one of them throws the other off a cliff to get the insurance money.

"I've seen you around here, causing trouble. You even dressed as a punk!" the wife said to him. Mortimer can see the kids going over to their bedrooms, leaving the TV on. A dysfunctional marriage with kids was a recipe for disaster. Guessing the kids had to listen to Kidz Bop for how insufferable their mother was.
"Everyone wears black. It's not like there's a dress code."
"He's here, because of the noise level, sweetie.." the husband tried to chime in, but-
"He's the one making noise around here. They ought to impose martial law around here from creeps like you."
"How am I a creep? I'm not even an adult. I'm 14." Mortimer said, getting annoyed but was stoic and displeasured from how the wife was getting under his skin.

"I know how it is for boys like you! First, you don't respect your surroundings. Next thing you do is start spiking girls' drinks!"
"...Can't you just get your kids to be quiet?" Mortimer now knew why his mother failed to convince the neighbors upstairs to quiet down.
"We don't reason with hoodlums!"

Mortimer got the door shut at his face.

"So much for the friendly fucking neighborhood..."

It seemed like Mortimer's other neighbor from next door went upstairs to reason with the neighbors above them. Pretty much, Mortimer and his mother and sister let out a sigh of relief. He did disclose lightly to his mother that he was called a hoodlum, but his mother knew that he went upstairs himself and that it would be expected. Though, not of that severity that made her blood lightly boil.

Throughout the month, a babysitter started to show up at the apartment, since it seems like the parents were going somewhere while the kids were alone. Mortimer's mother spoke with her to mention the chaos with the kids, hoping that she can attempt to reason with them to behave. His mother trusted her. College-aged and she was supposed to be a medical student from the same community college that his mother went to for getting her job at the hospital.

Mortimer believed that he can relax in peace, since he didn't need to be concerned about some noise complaints.

He could've went to a dollar store to try to buy a rubber snake to scare the kids into silence, but the mother was a real Karen, so he couldn't try it.

He wanted to watch the third Fear Street movie, but he wanted to wait it out until Old came out. Yes, it was from M. Night mixed-bag Shyamalan, but Mortimer knew that Split was alright in his books to be decent.

Ok, Old was meh.

Yeah, he liked how it was about a beach that had different rules of time, but he should try to see what the deal is with the source material Sandcastle.

Seeing the graphic novel cover of a woman with her nipples ready had Mortimer about to buy the e-book cover to be safe...

...That was until Mortimer remembered that comic book torrent site and decided to read Sandcastle from there.

Like what's the whole deal with the book-

Oh.

Oh...

Well.

So it turns out the graphic novel has a much darker tone than the film, along with being more explicit. Bleaker story and bleaker ending. There's no explanation on why the beach ages them and why they are trapped there. Everyone is dead from old age or other means. The only one to survive is a baby that is aged up to be a middle-aged woman with the mindset and cognitive ability of a toddler, building a sandcastle, before she would presumably die offscreen from aging.

Now, he needed something to get the icky stuff out of his head.

What is there that he can find to-

Oh, this was hilarious and wonderfully unhinged now.

"YO BRO, CHECK OUT THIS FUNNI MEME, AMIRIGHT?!

He should really stop shitposting on Fanfiction.net on his deranged ramblings on doing the most cursed crossovers imaginable, but he needed to write some shit when summer was going to be a slog for him.

He even presented his 70's and 80's music tracklist for the fanfic pitch, before some other users assumed that he had schizophrenia.

It was worth a try.

It was during a sudden stormy evening while his sister was out with friends and his mother was elsewhere to possibly hang with friends. This left Mortimer alone, while the summer clouds at night gave a gloomy atmosphere. Perfect for allowing him to catch up on the Fear Street movies, now that he was going to watch Part Three: 1666.

From his observations from the last movie, there was something brutal and heartbreaking with seeing the Berman sisters be killed together by being hacked and stabbed a lot. The Fear Street trilogy did have a lot of weight to it, that's for sure. Mortimer got the third movie set up on Netflix, so that he can see how they do the last part. Things were going well for the movies, so hopefully this doesn't disappoint him.

He thought he heard noises upstairs, but he believed that the babysitter was going to keep those kids company.

Mortimer had a bowl of popcorn, munching on every kernel while he was watching the eyeless pastor having killed 12 kids in the church. A pile of eyeballs in the center, oh this was so good.

He looked at this scene of tension that was building up. Hell yeah, this was definitely going in his catalog-

THUMP THUMP THUMP!

Mortimer himself got jumpscared from upstairs. He thought the floor above him caved in, but some of the popcorn ceiling might have shed itself a little.

What the hell?

THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP!

There was a shit load of noises from the stairs and above. Where the hell was the babysitter?

Mortimer made sure that he got himself some clothes on, when he checked through the peephole. There were a ton of kids. Not his next-door neighbor's kids, but a bunch of random kids going up the stairs.

"Oh no..."

Mortimer left his apartment and immediately heard what sounded like party music. He followed some of the kids to see that upstairs above his place, there was a birthday party happening.

"...Aw crap!"

From the open door, he saw the mother of the kids again. He immediately went downstairs before she got the chance to notice him.

---

He tried to turn up the volume on his TV, but every jolt of it he gave, it sounded like the noise upstairs got louder. He sent a text to his mother, but she wasn't going to be coming home in 2 hours. She was definitely with friends and he doubted that his sister was going to come up with an excuse to stick with her friends herself to avoid the bullshit back at the apartment.

He couldn't enjoy watching the film, not when he had screaming gremlins trying to ruin his concentration. It was getting to the whole plot twist with the Goode family and now he couldn't do shit.

He paused the film and tried to play some music to drown things out.

Unfortunately, he picked the worst song that only worsened his mood.

Rush E.

Almost on cue, Mortimer thought he saw something fly down past his window. Then another. Mortimer went over to see what was going on, until he made a realization that the kids above him were chucking ice cream down onto the street below. It wouldn't have been a problem, save for some cars there parked, along with Mortimer's bike also there.

"Oh no you didn't!"

Mortimer got out of his apartment to head downstairs, scrambling to make sure that the tarp was properly on. His foot missed a step near the landing and Mortimer slipped backwards, nearly tumbling down. Mortimer got outside to check on his bike, where some chunks of vanilla ice cream had splattered against the tarp. He lifted the tarp up to see if his bike needed to be cleaned, but there was no spots.

Until...

SPLAT

Mortimer felt something cold and wet strike his head. He immediately jerked his head up to see some damn brat gave him a mocking grin to him, before he chucked another glob of ice cream at him.

Somehow, Mortimer just lost it.

"YOU FUCKING BRATS! I GO UP THERE AND CUT OUT YOUR DAMN EYEBALLS FOR THE SNAKES!!! YOU HEAR ME!?"

Suddenly, there was the sound of thunder. As part of another cue, Mortimer felt something else cold against his head and face that wasn't ice cream. Rain. It began to start a downpour, much to Mortimer's displeasure, since he was getting soaked. Mortimer could only throw his hands up in anger.

The landlord had to be called in and almost a week later, the family upstairs just decided to move to another apartment that wasn't here at Skyline Heights.

"Unfriendly for kids", they claimed.

Now, there was definite relief.

It could've been relief for the summer....

...until Mortimer's mother and his next-door neighbor heard that there was the chance that one or two of the kids at that birthday party were positive for COVID.

Mortimer started to laugh when he heard the news.

---

It's not a thread without a songpost...

Sing along, folks.
202.2 CHILLER FM:
Radiohead - Paranoid Android

Please could you stop the noise?
I'm trying to get some rest
From all the unborn chicken
Voices in my head

What's that? (I may be paranoid, but not an android)
What's that? (I may be paranoid, but not an android)

When I am king
You will be first against the wall
With your opinion
Which is of no consequence at all

What's that? (I may be paranoid, but no android)
What's that? (I may be paranoid, but no android)

La-la-la-la-la-la
La-la-la-la-la-la
La-la-la-la-la-la
La, la

Ambition makes you look pretty ugly
Kicking, squealing, Gucci little piggy

La-la-la-la-la-la
La-la-la-la-la-la
La-la-la-la-la-la
La-la-la

You don't remember, you don't remember
Why don't you remember my name?
Off with his head, man, off with his head, man
Why don't you remember my name?
I guess he does

Ah, oh, oh, oh
Oh, oh, oh, oh
Oh, oh
Oh, oh

Rain down, rain down
Come on, rain down on me
From a great height
From a great height, height
Rain down, rain down
Come on, rain down on me
From a great height
From a great height, height

That's it, sir (rain down)
You're leaving
The crackle of pig skin (rain down)
The dust and the screaming (come on rain down on me)
The yuppies networking
The panic, the vomit (from a great height)
The panic, the vomit (from a great height)
God loves his children
God loves his children, yeah

((Mortimer Schaub Memory Thread 2 concluded))