CORY

"AAAAAAAAAH!"

I shoot up with my eyes wide open. I'm panting heavily, sweating immensely, and my heart is pounding so damn loudly! I'm not sure how long it takes for me to calm down, but that's when I notice something.

The city of R'lyeh…is in ruins! And we're…on the surface! There's no clouds in the sky, the sea is perfectly still, and everyone seems like they've washed ashore, all waking up from the exact same nightmare.

"What…what happened?" I ask aloud. "Did…Did we just…did we win?"

I look around. There's Lisa, Freddy, Lucy, Dina, Max, Jack, Zach, Sonny, Van Helsing, R.L. Stine, Hannah, Grady, Sammy, Mirpo, Sue, Eddie, Morgred, Conrad, Jacklyn, Erin, Marty, Mark, Bigfoot, Sasquatch, Larry, The Seven Deadly Sins, Frankenstein, The Invisible Man, I.G.O.R., the Bride, Kruu, the Gill-Man, Dr Deep, and everyone else in the Midnight Society!

Okay, everyone's still alive…somehow. Wait…where's Lovecraft?

I don't see him anywhere. All I can find is his mask. And when I pick it up, all that's underneath is a pile of ashes. Two and two are put together, as I realize what happened.

"Guess with Azathoth gone, there was no need to keep on living since he fixed his mistake." Van Helsing states. "Thank The One for that."

"The One?" I ask. "Are you sure it was him?"

"You felt it too, didn't you?" He asks in response. "There was something there."

"Yeah…I guess there was."

"So…what happens now?" Dylan asks. "The Menace is no more, Dracula's dead, Slappy's gone for good, and now Fear himself is history! This…doesn't feel right."

"What do you mean?" Max asks. "It's a happy ending, right?"

"No. That's not how my stories end." R.L. Stine states. "There's always some kind of twist. A shocking reveal that ends with a cliffhanger. One last scare."

"Well, where is it, then?" Lisa asks. "Where's the twist?"

Tara's eyes suddenly began glowing green. Once it faded, she seemed to be left in shock.

"What…the…?"

BOOM!

The sound was louder than a thunderous atomic bomb! SOMETHING had struck the city! Like if reality itself had exploded! I jumped, and when I turned, he noticed something just nearby that hadn't been there before.

A crack. A massive crack in reality. It expanded slightly, becoming a doorway into some kind of…blue ethereal area. Everyone went silent for a while.

"Uh…does anyone know where that leads?" Arach-Kid asks.

"I…I don't know!" Erin says, scanning it. "It doesn't lead anywhere in the database! Not the Shadow Realm, not the Mystic Realm, not Nether, not Cyberspace, not the Comic Book Dimension, nowhere! Not even the Void itself!"

"Then…this…this must lead…" Sasquatch realizes. "Outside our own universe…"

"Fear must've damaged the fabric of the universe itself thanks to his actions." Lisa pieced it together. "The One must've been able to repair most of the damage…but not all of it. Which means it's up to us to close these things…somehow."

"There's no telling who or what's gonna come through." Van Helsing says. "And I have NO idea how to shut this thing down. If we're gonna have to stop this next threat from arriving, well, there's only one way to do that…"

"We gotta go in there." I realize. "That's probably the stupidest idea I've ever heard of. Every part of me's screaming for me not to. Which means I obviously am."

"Well, no going back now." Van Helsing states, donning his armor. "See you on the other side."

And with that, he entered and vanished. I'm going next, so I donning my own armor, take a deep breath, then step through. What I see is…wow! It's…amazing to me. So much that I have to dematerialize my whole armor away just to get a better look.

"Woaaaaahhhhh….."

The blue ethereal void is…it's like…it's like…it's like a big library! This is incredible!

"Van Helsing?" I ask. "Hello?"

My voice echoes into the distance. There's no reply. How did we get separated? I only turn on my flashlight and begin walking through the mysterious place.

It's rather absurd! Who made this place?! What's it used for?! Is this seriously the barrier between realities?! Wow…Lisa would be freaking out at this. I bet she already is, as everyone else must've entered already…

"What is this place?" I ask myself. That's when I notice something. A shelf. Full of so many books. I move my hand closer, yet cautiously. The curiosity overtakes me completely.

And then…I hear it. A voice. But it's not like ANY I've ever heard before…

"Clifford!" It calls out. I yelp and stagger back, whipping around.

"W-Who's there?!" I yell. There's no reply. I turn in the direction where the voice came from and follow it. As I keep going, I hear the voice, a little girl, speak again.

"It's story time! You want to hear a Speckle story, don't ya?"

"Who are you?" I ask. "What do you mean by 'story time'? And who the heck is Clifford?!"

There's a slight bark, and a giggle that echoes with the rest of the voices.

"I thought so! He's your favorite!"

Favorite? Is she talking about this Clifford guy or Speckle guy?

That's when I hear it. MORE voices. They echo throughout the area, and I'm once again startled.

"TRA-LA-LAAAAAA!"

"AH! W-What?!"

"Captain Underpants? Is that really you?!"

"Captain…what?!"

"Let's see! Underpants, check! Captain, also check! I'm pretty sure I'm Captain Underpants!"

Hold on…those voices…they're coming from…that bright red book!

"Visser-Three is here."

"What's a Visser-Three?!"

"I can't…change back."

"Half-dog, half-man, all hero!"

"TRAAAAAAP!"

"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."

"I volunteer! I volunteer as tribute!"

"Where's Keith with my blasted coffee?!"

"Science!"

"History!"

"Science!"

"History!"

"Guys?"

"Seat belts, everyone!"

"Please let this be a normal field trip!"

"How do you say 'You Jerk!' in Turkish?"

"Erasmus!"

"ERASMUS!"

"At your service."

"Wait, Erasmus is his NAME?!"

"You…you FAKED it?!"

"The dragonets are coming…"

"Word up!"

"But we're going to need your help!"

"I'm not the milk, and the milk's not me!"

"Current status: The world is cuckoo bananas. Zombies and giganto-monsters have taken over my town. And also maybe the world…"

"Haven't you heard of saying no?"

"THANK YOU! THANK YOU VERY MUCH!"

"Yeah, we may be bad, but we're so good at it!"

"Clifford, no, NO FETCH!"

"Hooray, hooray, hooray!"

"The only reason I didn't tell you is because I'm going alone."

"I can't fight crime without my cape!"

"Predator! Predator city!"

"The Dragon Stone has chosen you!"

"This is for my mother."

"I hate our father!"

"I can't believe I'm still alive! I can't believe-AAAH HAHAHAHAHAHA!"

"What, you've never seen a Lemurian before?"

"I love you, Saphy…"

"I love you too, Ruby."

"Magic School Bus, producer speaking."

"By the Four Fallen!"

"Dinner! Cows! Hurray!"

"Never stand on a swivel chair."

"But danger. But hunger. But danger. But hunger."

"I've got no bars."

"No, I'm buying a paper shredder!"

"Holy Mozzarella!"

"AAAAH!"

"Oops! Silly me! Ex-richest!"

"They can't do this to me! You can't do ANYTHING to a rich person that he doesn't want!"

"Boneville? What's Boneville?"

"And the way out? That's gone too."

I step towards the book, turning off my flashlight and putting it away. I then take the book and stare at it. The cover is…woah. It's an open white book!

Maybe it's because I'm a big bookworm, probably something I got from Lisa, but I go ahead and decide to open it. And once I do…there's a big flash of light!

And I begin to…see things. Images that flash before my very mind!

First, it's a dog. A big red dog. He seems rather…friendly.

Next, there's a dragon. He's flying besides a blue one, in the night sky, enjoying the freedom for the first time before landing in mud.

Woah! That infinity circlet is back again! Then a kid conjures forth a wolf from nowhere! Three more follow with an eagle, a panda, and a jaguar!

There's a sentient school bus, kids who transform into animals, a white cartoon creature running from some rat monsters, kids with dragons and a wizard with a green gemstone, some kind of family crest signs, someone firing red energy from a wand, a girl shooting pixel men with arrows, a superhero wearing nothing but underwear as two boys cling to his curtain cape as he flies, and a wolf, snake, shark, piranha, and tarantula in a car chase from the cops!

There's some kind of police dog man, a boy watching the Titanic sink, a girl entering a mirror, another with an amulet, a humanoid mouse, kids on a strange island after surviving a plane crash, a kid running through Egyptian tombs, a creepy girl in a shadowy house, the same big red dog, but real, in New York, dinosaurs in the Civil War, a kid with a sharp baseball bat fleeing from a big purple monster, a grandma eating various stuff, a little girl evading a croc someone calls Big Al, some kind of babysitters club, dragons in an modern-day arena, a city on wheels pursuing a smaller mobile city, and finally, a humanoid cat running through a city at high speeds, with a blue dragon flying after him at equal speeds!

There's so many things I see happen. Dogs at a volleyball game, the white creature building up a static charge, a dragon spitting venom into another's eyes, time travel, a battle against some evil worm thing, pages flipping back and forth, a massive humanoid wolf attacking a city, the cat boy fighting a black cat man, a girl in blue knight armor clashing swords with a albino witch with green lightning, another white creature, this time with a star shirt, drops his jaw at a betting stand, and some kind of doomsday machine!

I hear more voices. Kids! They laugh and play and read…all while the images fly by me! The fake superhero jumps out of a window and runs off, getting hit by a car and falling over a fence. Meanwhile, the wolf and snake break out of a bank and dash into a car.

"Out of the road, bozo!"

"Why thank you, vehicle person! Ow!"

"Yep, we should probably go get him."

"Guinea pig, huh?"

"It's the Rolls Royce of rodents!"

"Yeah, but it's still a rodent. Don't mind us, just robbing this place!"

The images flash by greatly, before finally, I see one last sight. A little girl. With a pink shirt and short blonde hair.

"That was a great story!" The first voice I heard comes back. "Isn't reading fun?"

The giant canine barks and licks her. She giggles. And then, my vision returns.

I gasp. Woah. Woah. WOAH!

"Whaaaaaaaaaa…."

Wha-wha-WHAT WAS ALL THAT?! Were those other universes?! Fear was really trying to corrupt all of THAT?!

No wonder he wanted to. So many stories…so many heroes…so many worlds! It's almost impossible to believe! I guess we really are one of a kind.

"No way…" I gasp, before taking off running with the book. "LISA! DYLAN! STINE! ANYONE! YOU'RE NOT GONNA BELIEVE THIS!"

Suddenly, I hear a loud BOOM! And suddenly, some kind of blue rift opens in front of me! I yelp and slide, falling into my back with an "OOF!". My mind's spinning like crazy, and I get back up.

"Hello?" I ask. "Is…is anyone there?"

The rift seems to glow brightly. And then…I see something.

A figure comes into view, and he steps out through the rift. I notice the shield he has bears a strange dragon logo. The outermost line is red, like the dragon itself facing upwards, and the rest is yellow. The shield is even on fire, just like the sword!

The boy himself seems rather young. 15, maybe, with blonde hair and blue eyes. And he also has a serious face. Woah…

His magic…I…I've never sensed anything LIKE it before! Who…who IS this guy?!

The boy stops, and notices something. Then, he glares back at me.

"Where did you get that?" He asks.

Huh? Get what?

Wait…right now I'm holding the star-shaped sapphire in my hand! I hold it up and look at it.

"You…You KNOW what this is?!" I ask.

"I know that it doesn't belong to you." He answers.

"A friend of mine found it." I say. "When traveling to my world. He's dead now. But I'm pretty sure that you have NO idea what I'm talking about."

"I don't." He says. "But I DO know one thing. You're not from mine. So if you're ANYTHING like it, you will find no refuge here!"

"Wait, what?!" I ask. "Fear's dead! We beat him!"

He raises an eyebrow, then shakes it off. It's then that his blue eyes become a fiery ruby red, with fire erupting from the sides! His armor catches fire, and fiery draconic wings sprout forth! The mark on his right palm burns brightly as well!

"Okay, well, maybe you're not welcome where I'm from either." I state. "If you wanna do things your way, fine. You'll find I've got a few…surprises."

I hold my amulet, and I say the magic words.

"By the supernatural, the power is MINE TO COMMAND!"

The boy is in shock as the amulet lifts me up, and conjures forth the armor that inserts itself onto me! My armor's wings spread wide as I conjure forth my sword and shield, the horned helmet covering my face before I land and strike a pose.

"Animus magic? But how?!"

"Not sure what this 'animus' bit is all about, but yeah, I'm a master at magic. Now let's see what YOU'VE got, fire boy."

"The name is Ryder Dovahkiin of the Dragonborn, not 'Fire Boy'!" The boy retorts. "You're lucky that Drac's not here, or you'd be in some SERIOUS trouble."

The vampire king? So he's a servant to him?!

"Yeah. I guess I would be. Then again, if only you knew who Cory Waldhorn of the Midnight Society was, you'd probably run. Well, run AWAY, but you're not gonna, are you?"

"You DON'T frighten me. You're not stronger and higher!"

"Fear keeps you alive. But don't worry…you WILL be in for a scare."

We ready our swords, and I enchant mine to emit blue flame just to even the odds. We put our shields away and ready our stances.

And then, we charge.

We leap into the air with our wings, and I feel the very dimensional and universal rift ring and ripple the moment our blades clash!

This…changes…everything…

Smolder's eyes shot open. He rose groggily, shaking himself awake.

BANG!

"ARGH!" He growled. Something was wrong. The cave was NEVER this small! He grunted and shook it off. Once his sight returned, he noticed something.

No claw marks. No bones. No dried blood. This…this wasn't his cave.

"Where…AM I?" He sniffed the air. It was…different. The last thing he remembered was seeing a big ugly octopus monster…and then nothing.

He trotted outside, noticing how it was night. And then, he saw a small figure below him. A human!

"What?! What are you doing here?!" He roared. "Get out! OUT!"

The human ran away in what seemed like a panic, but instead of screaming like he expected, it…squeaked. Like a little mouse.

Smolder was horribly confused. The last he recalled of the Mystic Realm, it couldn't rob humans of their ability to speak. Maybe the merging with the Dream World did this?

Smolder flew into the night, landing on a nearby cliffside to get a better vantage point of his surroundings. There was a lush valley, some plant life, a forest in the distance, shadows of flying dragons the likes of which he didn't recognize, some lake formations, and…and…

"Great balls of fire…"

Smolder felt something in his stomach. A feeling that he wasn't in the Mystic Realm anymore.

Because, unless the merging and chaos caused things to be different, there was not just ONE full moon in the starry night sky…

But three of them…

CAST:

Cory Waldhorn: Brendan Fraser

Lisa Waldhorn: Naomi Scott

Dylan Stine: Himself

R.L. Stine: Himself

Jack Black: Himself

Lucy Dark: Laura Bailey

Grady Tucker: Taylor Lautner

Max Dark: Marsai Martin

Maximum Darkness: Lucy DeVito

Dina Dark: Bryce-Dallas Howard

Larry: James Marsden

Veruca Curry: Joy Tanner

Abraham Van Helsing The Second: Hugh Jackman

Wolf / Vandal: Morgan Freeman

Emily Tucker: Ashly Burch

Hannah Stoneman: Terra Vnesa

Will Blake: John Bernecker

Cara Simonetti: Meredith Henderson

H.P. Lovecraft: Tim Curry

Smolder: Kellen Golf

Arragotus: Fred Tatascoire

Bigfoot / Big: Fred Tatascoire

Sasquatch / Sas: Kelsey Grammer

Fear / Cthulhu: Adin Rudd

The One: Morgan Freeman / Jennifer Hale

The Dunwich Horror / Wilbur Whateley: Jason Rose

The Dark Whisperer: Jason Douglas

The Acolyte: Brad Venable

The Knight: Kevin Micheal Richardson

The Slayer: Joe Doyle

The Executioner: Brad Venable

The Sorcerer: Phil Parsons

The Warrior: Jeff Schine / Sean Shemmel

The Eldritch Elder: Bill Jenkins

Deadites: Sam Raimi

Mysterious Boy: Emile Hirsch