Chapter One: General POV
Saturday, July 23, 2005

The four of them sat in the garage, flipping through comic books. Two of the girls, Jade and Madison, skimmed through the comics as the two others, Emma and Samantha, recounted what seemed like fairy tales. Eight months, and Jade still refused to believe it had really happened – getting sucked into the worlds of your favorite book or TV characters only happened in movies and fanfiction. She was convinced that the two had either been smoking something powerful, or spent too much time in the UV rays. Madison, however, was a different story.

"Jade," she said, after Jade once again denounced Samantha and Emma's tale, "come on, just think about it. How do you explain them suddenly wearing different clothes and finding knives in their frikkin' pockets? Do you really think they would kill a fucking nun for no reason at all?"

"Correction," Emma interrupted. "I didn't kill her. That was Samantha."

Samantha frowned, chagrined. "No way I was getting sent to juvi."

Emma shrugged. "I probably would have gone with you."

"That wouldn't have made it much better."

"Whatever, whatever," Madison said, waving a hand. "Come on guys, we've got a skeptic to convert here."

Jade crossed her arms, her eyes narrowed. "Fine. Give me some proof. Show me the clothes or the knives."

Samantha and Emma cast sidelong glances at one another.

"Listen, Jade..." Samantha started.

"We had to get rid of all those. They got us in enough trouble."

"Fine then," Jade said, pointing her nose in the air. "No proof, no belief. You and Sammi are probably just plain crazy. I mean, things like ghosts and supernatural evil I can believe, but being sent to some comic book world sounds like psycho dream-sequence material."

Madison's eyes opened wide. "I just got a brilliant idea!" she exclaimed.

"What?" Emma inquired.

"I bet Jade would believe you if we went back..."

Emma rolled her eyes. "Right. And how do you propose we do that?"

"Well, what did you do last time?"

Samantha shrugged. "It just...happened. Nny said he wanted to save us. He said the only way to do that was to get our revenge, but in his world, so no one would actually get hurt. The idea really seems kind of farfetched now, but there's a fat chance I'll ever find out what he was really going for." She sighed. "In any case, he doesn't know I let him down the moment we returned."

Madison gave her a meaningful look and stood up. "Well, if that's the story he wants to go by, it's obvious you aren't safe yet. Come on, Jade!" She grabbed onto Jade's wrist and ran around the garage. "I'm insane! Nny, save me from insanity!"

Samantha crossed her arms and gave Madison a hard glare. "That's not going to work."

Madison immediately stopped running and released Jade's wrist.

"Just forget it," Jade said, sitting down.

Emma yawned, closing I Feel Sick. "We're going to camp tomorrow..."

"Way to change the subject, Emma," Samantha said.

Jade and Emma had never been to the camp before. However, Samantha and Madison were practically veterans. Jade and Emma had no idea what they were in for, though they had heard the horror stories.

"Wait a minute," Madison said suddenly, her eyes brightening. "I just had another amazing idea!"

"I thought your last one was brilliant."

"Shut up, Emma! Listen." She turned to Samantha. "Lots of the people at camp drive us absolutely nuts, right?"

"Uh huh..."

"And Jade and Emma are a lot like us. So people like...Casey and her bitch friends would probably drive them crazy too, right?"

"Yeah..."

She sat down, grinning deviously. "I've learned a very valuable equation just now. Casey and her bitch friends plus us equals insanity. The possibility of previous insanity plus a very freaky wish equals previous event. The first insanity mentioned plus previous event equals us going to cartoon land. Us going to cartoon land equals proof for Jade's skepticism."

The others stared at her silently.

"Wait, I get it!" Emma exclaimed. "If we divide the change in y over the change in x, we get the slope!"

Madison paused. "...No. It means we go to Nny's world! Look, Sammi and Emma only got rid of the people who tortured them during the school year. Camp is a whole different story. So Nny isn't finished saving you yet...and he always finishes what he starts."

Samantha picked up the JtHM Directors Cut and looked at it curiously, and then handed it to Jade.

"Here, you do the honors."

Jade took a deep breath. "All right...here goes nothing."

She opened the book.

A breeze started through the garage door. Samantha and Emma began to get nervous.

"You...again...not..." Broken words sounded through the air, drowned out by the whistling wind. The wind blew fiercely and they heard the words again.

"You again? And please don't tell me you've got friends. Shit...I was hoping I was wrong."

A huge pile of leaves blew into the garage, slapping at the girl's bodies, blinding them. They flailed their arms helplessly, trying to tear the leaves from their faces. When everything settled down, it was apparent that there was something seriously wrong.

"We're...here," Samantha said with wonder.

"What do you mean here?" Jade had her eyes squeezed shut.

"Open your eyes!" Emma yelled. Jade did so reluctantly.

"Proof enough?" Madison asked smugly.

Jade's eyes widened.

For a momnent they all stood, awing over the disturbing and 2-dimensional surroundings. Jade and Madison had to take a few steps to get used to it. Then Jade straightened.

"Guys..."

"Yeah?" Madison said, reaching into her pocket and finding a lighter.

"What happened to your dad?"

"What?" she asked, not really listening. "That's nice." She looked up. "Wait a minute! What happened to my dad!"

"Don't worry," Samantha said reassuringly, "our parents are safe back in the 3-dimensional world."

"Wait a minute...if our parents don't exist..." Emma looked around. "Where did we come from!"

There was along and awkward silence. "Emma...this is not the time for theoretical crisis..." Madison warned.

After a moment of discussion, they decided it would be best to gather up their things and head off. Within minutes they were on their way down the street with absolutely no where to go.

"Man, how are we gonna get to camp?" Emma moaned.

"Isn't that the least of our concerns?" Samantha said, rolling her eyes.

"I think my biggest concern right now is walking around with a pyromaniac with a lighter, and a highly paranoid schizoid with a sword," Jade muttered.

As they traveled down the empty, gray streets of the worse parts of town, there came a loud, anguished scream. They couldn't tell which house the scream had come from, but it definitely sounded like someone was hurt.

"I kind of like the sound of that." Madison grinned.

"I've caused screams like that," Samantha said, smirking.

"Well, you know what, guys?" Jade said. "I don't like the sound of that!" She clung to Emma. "There's crazy people around here! Save me!"

Emma screamed as she ran forward, Jade clinging to her waist. "Let go of me! Everything's going to be okay!"

Samantha and Madison followed their two insane friends down the middle of the street at a dead run. Emma and Jade veered off to the side, heading straight for a solid, stone wall.

"You fucking idiots!" Madison screamed. "You're gonna run into the church!"

Just as Emma and Jade were about to crash into the wall in their insane frenzy, a thin arm shot out and grabbed Emma by the collar, yanking the two of them back.

Samantha screamed. And so did Madison – just for the sake of screaming.

Jade slid to the ground and Emma stared into the face of her 'savior'.

"Nny...?"

A tall man with blue-black hair stared back at her.

"You stupid bitch." He let go of her sharply. "You were going to run straight into a fucking wall."

"Nny?" Jade and Madison chorused.

"Are you even fucking listening to me?"

"Whoa." Madison reached out an arm, almost touching him, and then drew back. "So you're Johnny C.?"

Johnny glared at Samantha and Emma. "You told them about me?" Johnny obviously didn't realize that thousands of people knew of him and his murderous escapades.

Samantha attempted to put on an innocent face. "But, uh, Nny...they're my friends! Be nice!"

Johnny sighed and put a hand to his head. "What the fuck am I gonna do with you?" It sounded as if he were reprimanding a little girl.

"So...why are we here again?" Emma asked, masking her excitement. Johnny had absolutely no idea how pretty much his entire fan-base adored him.

"Why do you think? I'm not done with you yet. However, I didn't think two more people would be coming along this time."

"We must really be on the edge, then," Samantha commented, shaking her head.

"No shit." He turned to Madison and Jade. "So who are you, anyway?"

"Madison."

"Jade."

Emma had a contemplative look on her face, like she was immensely confused. "So wait a minute, Nny...how are you going to keep an eye on us at camp?"

Johnny grinned, his mood seemingly lifting. "I'm going to be a counselor, of course."

"Johnny," Jade said, looking at him quizzically, "how did you get the position as counselor? We just got here..."

"I have my ways."

"All right, anyway," Samantha said, changing the subject, "are we staying at your house tonight? Our parents kind of don't exist."

"Yeah, I know," Johnny said quietly. "We've done this before, remember?"

Jade blanched. Though she had not-so-secretly dreamed of having a wild love romp with Johnny quite a few times, she wasn't so eager to stay at a house with hundreds of dead people in it.

"We're gonna stay in your house? You've got...dead people hanging from the ceiling! Doesn't it smell in there?"

"Jade, calm down." Madison firmly put a hand down on her shoulder.

"Calm down!"

Finally, after much convincing, Jade agreed to stay at the house of the homicidal maniac. Johnny led them to his house almost a block away. Jade was the last to step in when the door was opened for her, and when she did so, she did so cautiously, and then sniffed the air.

"Do you use Lysol?"

Johnny narrowed his eyes, annoyed.

Emma poked Jade lightly. "Jade...don't mess with the homicidal maniac!"

"You're practically one too, you murderer!"

"Okay, calm down, Jade," Madison said, and flopped onto a chair. "So...where are we gonna sleep?"

Samantha shrugged. "Last time we slept in the living room."

"There aren't any...dead people in there, are there?" Jade asked, shuddering.

"No," Johnny said. "In my house, you can take the term living room quite literally."

They all left the matter at that. Samantha and Emma re-explored the house while Jade and Madison gazed at their new surroundings in wonder. Jade looked outside at the sign on the front lawn – "Keep off the loose soil".

Johnny stood in the middle of the room and raised his arms unenthusiastically.

"Welcome to heaven."