This is going to be a weird story, just to give you a heads up.

I don't expect any of you to get what I'm trying to explain in this first chapter, so feel free to ask me questions. I'm here to help. But really, my Mind makes very little sense anyway. Just go with it, I guess. Haha.

Also, I need a little help filing this correctly. I'm not just sure where to put it to get the most views, so if you have any ideas, PLEASE let me know.

Also, check my profile for the FULL list of all fandoms present in this story. ALSO, PICTURES OF ALL IRL PEOPLE ARE ON MY PROFILE. Including me (not the best representation though). Most names have been changed to protect identities and such.

Anyway, please tell me what you think! I'm dying to know.

Enjoy!

I remember when all this madness started being real very specifically. The exact moment when my thoughts stopping living only behind the gates of my mind, I mean. Because it wasn't gradual a slow meshing of worlds; it was immediate. This moment was once I went through the little door.

It was my first day back to college after winter break. I had the mini-fridge pulled out to reveal the only way to access the space under my bed. I had just plugged in all the cords that had been left to hang freely over break and my mini-fridge whirled into life. The sound startled me and my head bumped against the underside of my bed. Blowing my orange bangs out of my face and cursing colorfully, I started to back out of the narrow space. I leaned back on my heels and rubbed my hands together to free them of whatever carpet-crud was stuck to them. Just as I was pushing the mini-fridge back into place, the sound of peeling tape met my ears.

"Don't fall behind the bed." I told my Coraline poster as it threatened to part from the wall. But it didn't listen, disappearing into the blackness I'd just closed off.

"You gotta be shitting me." I grumbled as I once again moved my mini-fridge aside, "Where did you go, you son of a bitch?"

I finally found the poster in the farthest corner of the underbed space. How did it get all the way over there? I had never been this far back before, and it was then that I saw a square little door sitting along the wall, hiding in a shadow. Immediately intrigued, I reached for the knob, intending to open it. Until I remembered the poster in my hand. Looking down at the image of Coraline and the Cat staring into the eerie glow from the door to the Other World made me rethink myself.

"Best to let it be." I decided, once again crawling out into the light, poster in hand, "It probably just leads to Parker and Charlie's room anyway."

But that poster had other ideas. That same night, despite being reinforced with the maximum amount of tape I would allow, the same poster once more fell behind my bed and, disregarding physics yet again, trapped itself halfway in and halfway out of the crack between the little door and the floor.

"You little bastard, what do you want from me?" I said as I looked at it. Pulling it free from the door, my mind turned, "You're trying to tell me something, aren't you?" But was this a message or a trap? Only one way to find out. Gripping the knob, I pulled the door towards me. Semi-darkness greeted me from the other side.

I didn't hear any voices, so I crawled through the door, taking care to shut it quietly behind me. I didn't want my roommate Katie finding it open and me missing. I emerged into an apparently unused and empty dorm room. This couldn't be Parker and Charlie's room then. But it also didn't look any different or in any means improved from normal dorms in any way; so I don't think I was in the infamous Other World either.

"I am confused." I said to myself, but decided to explore anyway. I screamed as I opened the door to the hallway; two teenage boys were standing opposite the door, as if expecting me. One was tall and brown-haired, with this ridiculously big army coat hanging damn near his knees. The other was shorter, his blond hair hitting around his shoulders; he tripped over the loose shoelaces of his Chuck Taylors when I yelled.

"Oh, sorry." I said, covering my heart, "You scared me. Excuse me." I said politely as the taller one pushed his glasses farther up his nose with the palm of his hand. I didn't give much thought to them as I continued out of Stratford House 7 and into a strange sight.

There was no snow on the ground, and the sun was sitting in a clear blue sky. Had I gone ahead in time to the summer by going through the little door? I guess that would explain why my neighbors' room looked deserted, and why no one else from the other thirteen Stratford Houses was outside enjoying the nice weather. I only noticed that the two boys had followed me when I had finished climbing the hill which the main University of Cincinnati campus sat on.

"Um, can I help you?" I asked them, trying to remain polite. Oh God, what do I do to get them to go away? I really didn't want to get mugged and/or raped. The tall one tried to push his glasses up again, but since they wouldn't go any higher it just sort of looked like he smacked his forehead. Then something stirred in my thoughts, a crazy idea.

"Do I- know you two?" I asked, crossing my arms over my chest, "What are your names?"

"Tom Henderson." Replied the tall one quietly.

"Sam Hellerman." Said the other with this devilish little smirk that made me slightly uncomfortable.

"You're kidding." I said, the names solidifying my absurd suspicion, "The Tom Henderson and Sam Hellerman? As in, the two main characters from King Dork, aka my favorite book of all time?" Maybe I expected them to laugh it off and admit the prank, or even for them to give me looks of complete misunderstanding. I certainly didn't expect them to nod.

"We're her favorite." Sam said cheerfully, elbowing Tom in the ribs, "Wait til the Hogwarts kids hear that!" What did he just say? No way.

"Bullshit." I said, turning around quickly and nearly running into another person.

"Whoa, watch it." A familiar voice said to me as I stumbled back a few steps. However, the face didn't match the voice. I was looking at some dirty hobo in a huge, goofy, blue top hat with a bright white beard quite in opposition to the thick black hair on his head.

"Who are you?" I asked, getting freaked out and more severely confused by the minute.

"I am your Wizard Mentor!" The hobo said, throwing out his arms in a grand gesture, "I am here to help you on your journey through your own Mind."

"My what?" I demanded, clutching my head, "I really have gone crazy, haven't I?" Just then the ground immediately in front of me split apart and what looked like a flat screen television rose up to my eye level from the blackness below.

"Accept gradualreport advice on the topic of 'crazy'?" A cool voice asked me. I just stared at it, lost for words.

"Uh." I uttered, "Sure." This caused the monitor to click into life and play a YouTube video from the gradualreport's channel called "I'll show you CRAZY".

"What is this?" I asked myself.

"So glad you asked!" My... Wizard Mentor said cheerfully as he came to stand beside me, "Anytime you're feeling confused, you can call for a terminal and play one of these videos. You're familiar with them right?"

"Uh, yeah." I said hesitantly, "But I've never used them as real advice. They don't usually apply to me."

"Oh, well everything and anything can apply here. You control this place." My Wizard Mentor told me.

"So... this place," I started, looking at him critically, "Is my own Mind?" He nodded.

"Everything you think about exists here in its own little world. It just happens to look like your college campus." He explained.

"Why?"

"The hell if I know. It's your Mind." He said, shrugging. I smiled a little.

"Who are you?" I asked, intrigued.

"Cuz, I'm hurt!" He said, pulling off the fake beard.

"Quade!" I exclaimed, finally recognizing my older cousin, "Why are you dressed like a homeless Uncle Sam though?"

"It was the best I could do!" He said defensively, reattaching the fake beard, "And I do not look homeless." I just shrugged in return, smiling at my cousin.

"So," I continued, wondering something, "Are you the only in-real-life person here, this place being only full of fandoms?" I asked, jerking a thumb in the direction of Tom and Sam.

"It's whatever you want." He replied simply. I put a hand over my mouth and the other on my hip, thinking.

"What if I say my cell phone-" I pulled it out of my jeans pocket, "Acts as a line between my Mind and the real world? And calling someone takes them here!" I ended excitedly, not waiting for an answer before dialing my best friend Ashley Vaughan's number. And sure enough, on the first ring, she popped into existence.

"It's whatever you want." Quade repeated as I laughed disbelievingly and ran to hug my bemused friend.

"But of course there will be the ones simply on my thoughts walking around. Anything I think happens here, comes into existence." I continued quickly, growing excited. It was then that I noticed Parker Graph and Charlie Gray walking across the McMicken lawn, "Those are my neighbors. I was thinking about them before I went through the door." I explained to everyone present.

"We know." Said Quade, Tom, and Sam.

"We live in your Mind." Sam cut in, "We know everything about your life."

"Uh-"

"Not everything." Tom interrupted quietly, "Just what you think about."

"Which is everything." I said, suddenly horrified and faintly embarrassed. He just shrugged. No way can they know everything I know. That means… My eyes widened as I remembered my ridiculous attractions to fictional characters. Sam just winked suggestively at me and Tom blushed madly. Oh fuck. But nothing more was said on the subject, apparently for my sake.

"Ariel Leather Red." A voice finally interrupted my silent thoughts (which appear in the sky above me in the form of little paper airplanes, I believe). It was Ashley. I gave her a look to ask what was wrong, "Where am I?"

"Do the people I bring in manually not get filled in on any of this?" I asked incredulously of Quade, who just held up his hands.

"I don't make the rules here!" He said defensively before vanishing in a cloud a blue smoke.

"Coward!" I yelled.

"You could just imagine everyone you bring here yourself being told about it." I heard Tom suggest, "Anything's possible. It doesn't have to make sense."

"My Mind doesn't usually." I said nonchalantly, observing my paper airplane thoughts as I imagined exactly what Tom suggested. And before I knew it, Ashley's glare had changed into a clear look and a huge smile.

"Yayo!" She screamed, running to hug me.

"I missed you too, Ash." I said softly.

This could be the best thing to ever happen to me. This could be exactly what I need: a world I can control and make into what I want. I can make the rules, and make things fair for everyone. I could exist without fear and pain and heartbreak and everything else that drives me crazy. Everything that drove me here in the first place, I guess. I could be free from all that. And I would be.