BMC Oneshots

The Ballad of Jeremy Heere (1/8)

Oh boi, if you haven't heard, I'm takin over a story from an amazing friend so this part and the next are gonna be the pre written ones and maybe I'll update it bi-weekly or just weekly to get back into writing! The first 2 will be posted today and then I'll pop back in either next Saturday or the one after

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Chapter 1: The Hangover Cure 

WARNINGS: Murder (Via Poisoning); Mentions of Weaponry; Brief Mention of Marijuana Usage and Underage Drinking
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Inspiration: "The Ballad of Sara Berry" from "35mm: a Musical Exhibition"
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I know this isn't technically a short story because it's gonna be 8 chapters long, but this is my book and I'm gonna post it in here, anyway.
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PART ONE: The Hangover Cure
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Jeremy had always wondered what it took for someone to snap. It was likely residual curiosity from Michael's slightly disturbing fascination with the dark and deranged, but there was still always that echo of "Why?" in the back of his mind whenever he heard or read about disgusting displays of cruelty orchestrated by his own kind. Not that he sympathized with them or approved of their actions; he just wondered what made them think it was all okay.

It wasn't until he was standing outside of the double doors to his senior prom that he realized that pressure was definitely a cause for one to traverse into insane territory. Tremendous pressure, for months on end. Pressure that made you push the people you loved away, pressure that made you hate them, pressure that made you hate yourself more, pressure that made you prioritize what were really the most trivial things to impress the most extraordinarily unimportant people.

Pressure that made you thirst for the blood of everyone who doubted you, who held you back.

Jeremy had never been the violent type. Sure, he played gory video games and watched TV shows where people beat the everloving hell out of each other for sport, but that didn't mean he enjoyed inflicting harm on his peers. Given, he had the occasional urge to deck someone (usually Rich) right in the face, but not only was he all too aware that the repercussions would be severe, he also felt guilty for so much as bumping into someone in the hallway. So, anything more than a playful punch on a friend's arm was usually out of the question.

Still, these were extreme circumstances. At least, that's what the squip told him.

So many months of hard work had been squandered by one stupid desire, one stupid mistake. The squip had insisted that achieving his goal was going to be easy, as the past year or so had been. All it would require was dedication and minimal effort on Jeremy's part.

The title of "Prom King" was supposed to be his.

He hadn't cared in the least about being prom king before; his initial plans for the evening had been getting stoned in the Mells' basement and bitching to Michael about the girls of their generation and how unlovable he was, but that was before the squip came into his life, and the squip told him to become prom king. It pushed him to achieve the title once senior year rolled around, so much that the idea began to appeal to its host more and more. The promises of even more glamour and popularity looped him in and made him the squip's willing slave.

After all, the squip had guaranteed him a victory.

But then Jake Dillinger went and got into that wreck.

Jake had never done poorly when it came to positive publicity, having reached a legendary rank on the high school social hierarchy by the time 10th grade appeared on the horizon, but when the news spread like wildfire that he had been the victim of a car accident that took his leg, his fame skyrocketed once again. All anyone wanted to talk about was Jake this, Jake that, everyone gushing over the boy out of pure pity rather than genuine sympathy. The abrupt shift in attention irked the squip, warnings constantly flashing through its technologically advanced mind, but Jeremy tried his hardest to sympathize with Jake and his situation, also trying to understand that the excess attention being focused on him was deserved.