Cool. I don't like the yellow background but the characters are great. The background looks a little out of place in the picture. I don't know though if no background would be better or if you should just change the color to like... purple or dark blue... something darker and creepier.
the yellow background works. the "innocent" character inthe forground is holding a lit match, and the yellow background seems to stem from the match and incorporates all the "nastys" that come along with playing with "fire". just a thought.
Ok, I see a guy in a dark room, by himself. He lights a match, and it turns out he's not alone in the room.
The 'scratchy' sort of crosshatched background doesn't seem to do it for me. My suggestion would be keep with the relatively smooth / circular designs of the characters, have a circular area of background light ( 'break' the circle so it looks like it's lighting a wall and a floor maybe ? ), and then light the actual characters from the front. Just a two tone shade would do the trick.