On Thursday’s General Hospital:

The sun began to rise on the Black and White Ball and the storm that had stranded its guests began to subside, but the nightmare was only beginning.

Alone in the cave, Johnny opened up to Lulu about his tumultuous past with his father, including how the man had killed his uncle's family when he had run away to them several years before. He apologized for picking her up when she was hitchhiking, and promised it would not be her who died at dawn.

It would seem that an incident that Sonny and Jason had attributed to a mob war killing was actually centered on Johnny, proving even further that Anthony is totally obsessed with his son, and that it has really been Trevor Lansing spinning events to keep Zacchara feared and himself in charge. I have yet to completely decide if Johnny is all he appears to be, however.

Jax and Carly heard Nikolas screaming in the ballroom and went to investigate, leaving Jerry, armed with a gun, to rest. They found Nikolas cradling Emily's dead body in his arms and, in shock, rambling incoherently for her to wake up. Jason also heard his screams and rushed to help. Devastated by what he found, he and Carly tried to get Nikolas to release her body without success.

Not knowing what else to do, Jason went to the stable to get Liz to help with Nikolas. Before returning to the house she searched the stable and came up with a horse tranquilizer to use on Nikolas. Meanwhile, Jerry exchanged gunfire with Zacchara, before he escaped to the study where Sonny and Kate were held up, and collapsed from his wounds.

Jerry told Sonny that something was terribly wrong in the ballroom with Nikolas and Emily and Kate said she would stay with Jerry, and insisted Sonny check on the two. Sonny learned Emily had been killed, presumably by Zacchara since Nikolas' face was bruised from a fight, and fell to his one-time lover's side, assuming responsibility for her fate.

Tyler Christopher gets major kudos for his expert execution of a thoroughly devastated Nikolas. In fact, all involved with this initial mourning did an outstanding job. Even though it seemed apparent Emily didn't die at Nikolas' hands, I'm willing to bet he will blame himself, evidenced by the memory flash. Of course, he was zoned out on some pretty heavy tranquilizers designed for horses at the time. He's lucky he's only hallucinating and not comatose.

It looks as if this nightmare of a social event is far from being over. Sonny returned to an unconscious Jerry and a missing Kate, who Anthony is holding and threatening to kill in retaliation for Sonny coming to his home. Lulu discovered Johnny's cut hand and questioned how it happened, while Carly and Jax stumbled across a device used to piggyback cell calls on another phone's transmissions, proving the text-message killer was among them at Wyndemere.

Coming Up…

While trying to rescue Kate, Sonny gets shot. Luke suffers another heart attack. Will Carly be the next victim?