Chapter Three: Emma's POV
Sunday, July 24, 2005

The next morning when Johnny came to wake Samantha, Madison, Jade, and I, he showed no traces of the anger of frustration from the previous night's talk with Samantha.

"Come on," Johnny shouted. "GET UP!"

No one stirred. Samantha grumbled and Madison raised a hand into the air and then let it flop, but that was all. Johnny sighed and repeated himself. This time, Jade, still half-asleep, threw a pillow at Johnny.

"Go 'way..."

Rather impatient, Johnny grabbed the back of Jade's shirt and roughly pulled her to her feet. "WAKE UP!"

"CHILD MOLESTER!" Jade shrieked, her eyes opening wide. "GET OFF ME!"

Johnny's face contorted with fury. He released Jade harshly, causing her to stumble backwards a few steps. "Don't you ever say that about me," he growled. "I'd never do that. Not even if my life depended on it."

Sincerely scared, Jade cowered. "Sorry..." she mumbled. "I didn't mean it..."

Johnny ignored her. "Come on – time to go to camp."

"What about luggage?" I inquired.

"Maybe you should have thought of that before!" Johnny said, annoyed. "Just go!"

He shoved the four of us into the front hall while he went off to find his keys. The second he found them – they were lying on the counter in his kitchen – the four of us noticed something in the front hall that made us shriek in surprise.

"What is it now?" he fumed.

The scene, however, was self-explanatory. On the floor behind my friends and I were four trunks, fully packed and ready to go. Johnny's mouth hung open.

"What the f–"

"Creepy, huh?" I interjected. "Well, let's go!"

Johnny shook his head, as if trying to clear his thoughts. "Right. But you're gonna have to help me get this crap into the back of my car."

"Do we have to?" I whined.

"Do you want to keep all of your limbs?"

I kept quiet after that.

It took about an hour to drive to Narragansett, where Naifare was located. Soon enough, though, we reached the camp grounds. The next step was check-in. I was an LIT III, along with my friends, and Johnny was a counselor, of course.

"Let's get all your shit unloaded," Johnny said, walking back to the car.

"But you're a guy," Jade said. "You can't come into the girl's cabin."

"Just shut up and help me." He opened the trunk of his car. As the trunk's door swung open, Johnny froze and saw something that undoubtedly made his blood run cold.

"Shit..." he whispered. "What the fuck are you doing here?"

Sitting atop all the luggage in the trunk was the Burger Boy. I gasped loudly, causing a few heads to turn in my direction. I quickly lowered my head and kept quiet. Stealing another glance at Johnny, I could see that his hands were shaking.

A voice rang out in all our heads, not unlike the one that had come from Shmee the night before. 'Oh Johnny,' it said, 'you never learn, do you? You can't get rid of me. I'll follow you wherever you go. After all, I was the one who brought them here...'

I exchanged a terrified look with my friends. I knew Samantha had heard Reverend Meat speak before, but I certainly never had.

"I don't need your help!" Johnny screamed. It was definitely the work of luck that the parking lot was so far away from the main campus. "I can take care of this all by myself! SO STOP FUCKING FOLLOWING ME!"

"Johnny..." Jade whispered. "What's going on?"

Reverend Meat laughed cruelly. "I thought I made myself clear, Nny. I'll never leave you alone. Not until you learn to feel again."

"I will never feel!" Johnny picked up the plastic Burger Boy and threw him to the ground.

'Johnny, stop it. You can't destroy me.'

Johnny stomped on Reverend Meat furiously. "JUST FUCKING BREAK, WILL YOU!"

"Johnny!" Madison interrupted the brawl between the homicidal maniac and the Burger Boy with her shrill, demanding voice. "What the hell did that thing mean when it said it brought us here?"

Johnny froze and slowly directed his gaze at her. "You...heard him?"

All four of us nodded. Johnny took his foot off the unscathed Burger Boy. "I don't believe it..."

"You'd better," Jade said shakily, "because I know I just heard that thing talk."

Johnny picked up Reverend Meat and threw him into the bushes. "He'll come back." He said this with resignation, fully accepting the fact – at least for now. He allowed his gaze to linger on the Burger Boy for a short moment more before he turned back to the trunk. "Come on, let's get the rest of your shit unloaded."

We all stayed silent as we dragged our luggage to the LIT girl's cabin. Being new to the place, I took the moment to survey my surroundings. The LIT girl's cabin was fairly close to the parking lot, but seemingly far-off from the rest of the campus. There were three cabins for the girls, three for the boys, and then nothing else. We were surrounded by woods. Looking far to my right and down quite a large hill, I saw what seemed to be a tennis court. Not only that, there was a path next to it.

"That path leads to the main campus," Samantha whispered, nudging me. She must have followed the direction of my eyes. "We're in the 'LIT Village', you could call it."

After that short session in campground anatomy, we headed back to the parking lot to greet the arriving campers.

"So..." Jade said, breaking the long-held silence. "What cabin do you have, Johnny?"

"Subbie boys." He didn't sound too happy. I supposed I could understand why, as Samantha had explained the camp hierarchy, which was done by age. And it didn't get any younger than subbie boys. They (and the subbie girls) were the babies of the camp at eight years old. Next came the freshmen, where nine-year-olds and ten-year-olds were generally stuck together. From there on it rose by one year – sophomore, junior, senior, LIT, LIT II, and ending with the LIT III's at age 16.

So I could feel Johnny's annoyance at being stuck with a bunch of small boys. However, I couldn't imagine he would have rather been stuck with a bunch of obnoxious, rowdy, rude, and sex-obsessed thirteen-year-old boys.

That aside, we stood there in silence as the campers came and went, checking in and then getting their heads checked for lice. Finally, we spotted the friendly and familiar face we had all been waiting for.

"Is that...Squee?" Samantha said, squinting her eyes so she could see better.

Johnny hurried over to the bear-holding child, the four of us quickly following, and sure enough, it was Squee. His parents were conversing with Rhoda, the camp director. Neither of them had even done so much as get out of the car. Squee's mother was leaning limp against her seat, looking drugged. The father had his head stuck out the window.

"Now, how long can you take him?" he asked.

"Well...until the end of the trip. That's four weeks."

The father sighed. "It'll have to do."

Squee's mother lifted one limp-wristed hand and waved it around. "Honey, just leave the strange boy and let's go."

With that, the father pulled his head back inside the car, rolled up the window, and let his wife drive away without so much as a goodbye to their son.

Madison stuck a hand into one of the many pockets on her pants and rummaged around. "Wonder if I've got a gun in here..."

"Why?" I asked.

"I'm gonna shoot out their tires for starters, and then..."

Johnny put a hand onto her shoulder, digging his nails sharply into the skin. "We're not here to orphan Squee," he told her in level tones.

"Fucking assholes..."

He has no where else to go. As much as they hate him, Squee needs his parents."

"As soon as this camp session is over, I'm gonna..."

"No. No you're not."

Madison would have loved to argue. It was her nature. But the tone of Johnny's voice made it clear that he was adamant.

Squee waved at his parents as they drove away, unaware of the conversation concerning their demise. Then he turned around to face Johnny.

"Hello, Mr. Scary Neighbor Man. Are you my counselor?"

Johnny blinked. "What?"

"Aren't you the subbie boys counselor, Mr. Scary Neighbor Man?"

Johnny nodded. "Uh huh...but Squee, my name isn't 'Mr. Scary Neighbor Man' here. It's Johnny."

"Um, okay, Mr. Johnny."

"Close enough..." He turned around to face the four of us. "Well, go to your cabin while I get Squee set up."

We were about to be on our way, but something – or rather, someone – held us back. We didn't see them at first, just heard their voice, considerably pre-pubescent, and with a Spanish accent.

"Dad, do you have to leave me here?"

The voice that answered had an even stronger accent. "Of course I do. I have business to attend to in Hell, and if you keep misdirecting the souls of the damned, I'll never get any work done!"

"Dear, just thank Christ we're not sending you to military camp," a woman, presumably the mother, chimed. Her voice was sugary-sweet and cheery.

We all knew who it was, though we could hardly believe it. Slowly, we turned to see a boy Squee's size looking miserable. The icing on the cake – he had horns coming out of his head. His mother was a blonde-haired, cross-bearing woman. She stood next to the father, a handsome, black-haired man in a business suit.

Squee clung to the closest person, who happened to be Samantha. "It's Pepito..." he whimpered.

Samantha patted his head awkwardly. "Um...it'll be okay...I think..."

"But...he'll be in my cabin!" Squee cried.

"So?" I said. Squee's eyes glistened, filling up with would-be tears. I panicked. Thinking fast, I reached into my pocket, pulled something out, and dangled it in Squee's face. "Look! Mr. Acorns will make everything better!"

Jade stared at the squirrel I gripped in my hand. "Um...Emma?"

"Yes?" I replied, grinning widely.

"Didn't you, um, leave Mr. Acorns in Squee's room last night?"

I blinked. "Ohhh yeeeah..."

"Squee, mi amigo! I didn't expect to see you here!"

Squee's face froze in horror, and he made a futile attempt to hide behind my friends and I. Unfortunately, it was too late for him. The son of Satan dragged the Casil boy away by his tiny wrist.

A/N:I would like to take this moment to say that "Madison" has an account on this website. Here she is known as "Sweetbriar". She also helped out quite a lot with writing this fic.