Disclaimer: Johnny C (and all related) is property of the great comic artist; Jhonen Vasquez.

Authors Notes: Once I posted the previous chapter, I remembered that Johnny wasn't wearing a shirt (I'd forgotten that little plot point halfway through writing the chapter) - and I technically wrote him going out to see a movie in only a pair of pants. How about you guys just pretend that he got dressed, then left? That would make me feel better.

Devi found amusement in Tess and Johnny's conversation - when they first began walking towards the theater, Johnny had started rambling off the different constellations, and had somehow managed to rope Tess into quizzing him on them. The conversation had lasted for a good ten minutes before they -being Devi herself, Johnny, and Tess- began to pass by people. And that was when Johnny became quieter than what he'd been at Devi's house. Devi knew Johnny didn't like people. But she had figured it to be more of a social uncomfortablility, because if he got to talking with people -who treated him normally- he would be rather interesting to talk to. The conversation about the constellations, for example.

But at this time, Johnny was not speaking. He was walking, hunched over slightly with his hands in his pockets and generally looking as though he wanted the rest of the world to disappear. And when the group of strangers they passed by spoke up, she began to realize why.

"Hey, check out that wacky-looking bunch." The two girls paused as Johnny froze, twitching his hand in a manner that Devi knew did not bode well. Well, it was decidedly less so seeing as Johnny had no knives, but still. If his previous murders where anything to go by, he did not necessarily need knives to kill people. But Devi caught him glancing at her, and she let out a quiet sigh of relief as he took a step forward, grumbling death-threats angrily under his breath but otherwise not paying the men any attention. However, just as the painter thought that she'd manage a night out with friends without death being involved, the group spoke again.

"Yo, check it out. That dude is the only guy." Another man spoke up, chuckling.

"Means he'd gotta be gay. Dudes a fag, bro." Johnny froze again, and Devi turned to Tess, who was watching Johnny worriedly. Turning back to the maniac, Devi watched him look over at the group of males, only to get hit in the face with a -thankfully- empty coffee cup. Devi could've throttled the men for being so stupid, but Johnny had beaten her to the punch - he had dove forward, gripping the man who had first spoken by the throat. His friends had taken off, screaming that black-haired man attacking their friend was insane; which he very well was. Johnny was shaking the man, gripping his hands tightly around the now-victims throat as he spoke.

"Now, normally I don't resort to this sort of physically violent method when I try to kill somebody, but taking into consideration my current state of affairs and how I am distinctly lacking in weaponry, I think I can make an exception tonight." The man stared at Johnny in terror, and just as the maniacs hand began to tighten harder, Devi ran forward.

"Stop it Johnny!" She gripped his arms from behind, and the simple act of grabbing him disturbed Johnny's momentum enough for his grip on the man's throat to falter. The man pulled away, holding his neck and tearing off in the same direction his friends had gone. He turned to her, obviously about to yell, but seemed to remember who exactly he was with, and turned again, not saying a word as the group continued on it's way.

"Johnny." He heard Devi say. "You can't kill people." He scoffed lightly, hands back in his pockets.

"You must have me mistaken with somebody else then. I'm perfectly capable of murder. I have been doing it for almost three years, may I remind you."

"You know what I mean, Johnny." She sighed. "If you want my help in this, you've gotta get a better grip on your anger. It's a fact of life that not everyone on this planet is gonna like you enough to treat you well." Johnny narrowed his eyes. He hated to admit it, but Devi was right. Not everyone like him, so those people, good people or not, would not treat him like a friend.

"Hey look!" Tess exclaimed, breaking the awkward feeling in the air as they neared the Theater. "The new Wormhole Extreme movie is out." Johnny glanced at Tess, then back at the Theater, staring at the poster Tess was referencing.

"The original was better, by far" He said, quickly forgetting the serious topic he'd just been on with Devi.

"Yeah, and the new series they've got going; Wormhole Universe? It's absolute crap. I mean don't get me wrong, it's a good idea, but..." She turned to him. "Did you know they've been using the same writers since Wormhole Extreme first came out? That's why it's been losing so many fans that were otherwise completely loyal to the series." (1) Johnny's eyes widened in interest as they entered the theater.

"Really?" Devi sighed.

"Okay, if you two are done talking about shows I'm certain neither of you watch, let's pick out a movie." Devi stared at them expectantly. "That is what we came here for, right? To watch a movie?" Tess chuckled.

"Alright, calm down. We were just talking." The trio moved over to where the theater was showing off the movies it played, reading the titles.

"That 'New Nightmare' movie looks good." (2) The maniac grinned. Perhaps by watching it, he would learn new ways of torturing people. Ways that didn't involve him kidnapping them and eventually their death.

"No way." Devi said flatly. "There's no way I'm letting a homicidal maniac watch an 'R' rated horror flick." She turned to him, arms folded across her chest. "I'm trying to get you to stop killing, not inspire new methods." Johnny groaned quietly in disappointment as Devi turned to Tess. "Anything you see that you feel like watching?" The girl shook her head.

"Not really. I'm good with most of these films, I've been meaning to see most of them for a while now. But 'New Nightmare' does look good - horror movie villain that kills people in their dreams escapes out of his movies and into the real world? I'm good with that." Devi sighed, glaring at Johnny as the man grinned. She was two against one, and Johnny knew it.

"Okay, what about..." She scanned the list again. "Independence Day?" Johnny raised an eyebrow, confused.

"What's it about...?" Reading the short description, Devi grinned. Johnny would love this.

"Aliens trying to take over the earth." Johnny's eyes widened, and Devi found herself grinning at him. Johnny had a thing about aliens - when in his less lucid moments (though she was currently beginning to doubt that most of anything he said was a lie), he would rant about them having come down and kidnapped his kid neighbor, -Todd- then later on, the boy's parents. He had even told her that he had painted 'LAND HERE' in big, thick, ink-black letters on his roof. Yes, anything with aliens in it would have Johnny by the throat.

"Really? Do we win, or do the aliens?" Devi chuckled at the childlike -yet still very crazy- excitement in his eyes.

"I don't know, we haven't watched the movie yet." He bounced up and down once before pulling her towards the ticket counter.

"Well, come on! Let's buy the tickets already! I need to know how these aliens die; their weakness, so I can write it down for later!" Tess raised an eyebrow as she followed the two along.

"What do you mean?" Johnny turned to glare at her, pausing in his attempts to drag Devi to the Ticket stand.

"I have to learn the weakness of this particular alien species - so then, if they decide to come to Earth, I'll know how to kill them!" Tess stared at him.

"You do know this is a fictitious movie, right? As in not real?" Devi shook her head as Johnny sighed, rushing off to buy the tickets himself. Tess turned to the painter. "Is he serious?"

"About as serious as the military under full alert. I don't know where it stems from, but he really does believe that malevolent aliens will come to earth, and attempt to take over." She chuckled airily as she continued, remembering an incident from before his attempt to kill her. "I made the mistake of asking him about it once, and wound up the student in some twisted lesson about aliens. It took me three hours to get him to stop talking." Tess laughed disbelievingly.

"Really?"

"Yeah, he's completely serious about it - anything that has something to do with aliens, he's gotta watch it, or read it, so he can lock it away in his head just in case they come down and attack." Tess gazed over at the maniac, who was currently waiting patiently in line to purchase the movie tickets.

"How'd you figure this out?"

"He mentioned it somewhere in his alien history lesson." She chuckled, watching Nny fumble around his pockets for the appropriate amount of money with which to buy their tickets. "Oh yeah, did I mention I was working at the time?" Tess only laughed, turning when Johnny ran up to the two girls, waving the tickets as he grinned silently. He opened his mouth to speak, but was interrupted as a crushed soda can bounced off the back of his head, causing the grin he had previously been wearing to vanish, replaced with an irritated frown. He turned around, tickets still held tightly in his hands, trailing his eyes across the room as he searched for his assailants. He began to growl quietly when he spotted them; a group of ignorant-looking highschoolers chuckling amusedly at him, one of the boys looking smug as he sipped from another soda. The boy turned and spoke to his friends, but despite not being able to hear them, Johnny seemed to get angrier and angrier.

0o0o0o0

Devi could almost literally see a fire ignite in Johnny's eyes as he caught sight of the teens. He'd already been assaulted tonight, but had not been allowed to relieve the resulting anger and irritation, so he would've been very easy to set off again. She placed a hand on his shoulder and squeezed gently. Johnny turned to look at her, eyes pleading her to let him harm them in some way.

"No, Johnny. You do, and I'm gone for good this time." He growled, but not at her. Still holding onto him -to make sure he didn't do anything- she led him to their showing. But not, however, before Johnny managed to make a slicing motion over his neck and pointing at the teens, in lieu of a threat. The group laughed, mocking him as he disappeared into the show room. (3)

0o0o0o0

Devi did not expect her maniac roommate -was he her roommate, now?- to sit through the movie. In fact, she had been reasonably surprised when he did not get up, not even after a half an hour. She did notice, however, the highly irritated look in his eyes that said to her he was not paying any attention to the movie at all. Which rather surprised her, considering how excited he had been to get into this movie.
Halfway through, she was both surprised and not surprised to see him get up slowly, muttering to her with a hidden, yet still quite detectable tone of anger in his voice.

"I have to... go to the bathroom." Devi narrowed her eyes, suspecting his true intentions were to find the boys from before, and hurt them. But with no definitive proof, she couldn't exactly keep him there. What if he really did need to go to the bathroom?

"...Fine." Hands once more in his pockets, he hurried out of the way of the other people watching the movie, vanishing as he turned the corner out of the room and back into the lobby. Devi sighed. She just knew she was going to regret this.

0o0o0o0

By the time the movie had finished, Johnny still had not returned. Tess had pointed this out not long before the credits had begun to roll; he had been gone for at least forty minutes. She had told the girl that she was pretty sure she knew why. She knew what to expect: blood, gore, internal and very vital body-bits splattered everywhere. Knowing by this point that Johnny had left in order to kill the teenagers unrestrained, the two girls left before the movie was completely done - a big crowd was the last thing they needed.

"So... what kind of gore should I expect...? Freddy Kreuger after a big spree, or careful kills with little mess?" Devi shook her head.

"I don't know. But he might still be angry when we get him, so be careful." They headed out into the lobby, Tess following closely behind Devi, expecting to see a very pissed-off psychopath. Instead, what she saw was Johnny, kneeling above a corpse with a bloody popcorn scoop held tightly in his fist, other mutilated corpses strewn randomly around him. He was pounding the scoop into the very-dead teenager quite hard, looking absolutely murderous. Until he saw the two girls staring at him.

The scoop fell to the ground with a light thud, and he stared at Devi with a look of complete terror in his eyes. She strode closer, folding her arms as she neared him. Johnny, looking as though he was about to get gutted, himself, tripped over the corpse in an attempt to get farther away from Devi.

"I-it's not what it-" He raised his hands as though in an attempt to keep her calm, but was cut off mid-sentence as Devi's heel collided with his head, sending him crashing backwards into the nearby concession stand. He grunted at the impact, but remained still, blood trailing slowly down his face from the area she had kicked, crawling down between his eyes.

"Dammit Johnny." Devi muttered, walking closer. Tess followed, looking shocked by the bloody mess in the center of the lobby.

"What now?" Tess managed to get out, looking over at the girl. Devi sighed again before speaking.

"We take him back to my place and fix him up... I promised him I wouldn't run away again. As must as he infuriates and sometimes terrifies me, he needs somebody." She hefted the unconscious maniac up, his arms and upper torso hanging over her shoulder and dangling across her back. "Johnny's been alone for as long as he can remember. He hates people, but he hates being alone just as much. For me to toss him out now would only break him more." She motioned for Tess to follow. "And plus" She said, grabbing the popcorn scoop -it was evidence of Johnny being the killer, that the police didn't need- "I'm the only person he trusts enough to tell his darkest secrets to."

The walk back to her car was quiet, the only noise being Johnny breathing uneasily in the back seat of the car as they drove back to Devi's apartment. It was evidence of either bad dreams, or injuries worse than she'd thought.
Devi sighed. She didn't know what to do. It was practically in Johnny's nature to kill, to murder.

So what, exactly, would it take; to drive a demon away from sinning?

(1) - Bonus props times a thousand for those of you who recognize the topic Tess and Johnny are talking about. (it's a real show, just under a different name) Also - the opinions they express about the show are my own. Please don't flame me about them. Oh yeah, the 'writers' thing Tess brings up? It's true. The bit about 'fans', as well.

(2) - Reference to the Nightmare on Elm Street movie under the same name. Also, a little fun-fact; this particular movie was released in 1994 - right around the time the JtHM comics were being published. Meaning, it would be at least relatively new to theaters in Johnny's time period.

(3) - I can't remember what the different rooms in the theaters are called.

0o0o0o0

This is going to be the last update for probably all of my active stories for a while - while I will be planning out next chapter for the last few days of October, I will be thoroughly occupied for the entirety of November. I am participating in National Novel-Writing Month (otherwise known as NanoWrimo. You can find more info at 'Nanowrimo. org'), meaning you can probably expect the next chapter to be finished and uploaded sometime around mid-December.

I apologize beforehand for the long wait.