“We need this.” Chris grabbed an item off the shelf and threw it into the shopping cart. 

“No we don’t,” JC objected a little annoyed as he pushed the cart. Chris had woken him up at ten and needless to say JC hadn’t been very happy. He had just fallen asleep a few hours before that only to have Chris come jump on his bed complaining that Lance didn’t have any food and they needed to go food shopping. JC had agreed because he knew if he didn’t Chris would keep bugging him. 

“Oh! And this too,” Chris said as he ignored JC and grabbed another item. 

“Chris, are you even looking at what you’re getting?” JC asked. 

Chris looked over his shoulder at JC briefly before turning back to the shelf to grab a package of powdered donuts. “Of course I am.” 

“Then explain to me why we need three packages of donuts,” JC said. 

“Variety,” Chris said. 

“Variety?” JC repeated in disbelief. “We don’t need variety.” 

“Says the man who never listens to the same CD for more than a day,” Chris mumbled. 

“That’s different,” JC objected. 

“How?” Chris asked. 

JC paused before he said, “I don’t know, but it is.” 

“Whatever. You can have your music, and I’ll have my donuts. Besides, I got the chocolate covered ones,” Chris said. 

“So?” 

“So you know you’re going to steal some from me later. I got them for you as much as for me,” Chris explained and laughed at the lack of answer he received from JC. 

“Justin wants ice cream,” JC said suddenly as motioned for Chris to lead the way down the frozen food isle. 

Chris turned to look at him with a raised eyebrow. “Okay, random. Where’d that come from?” 

“Lance told me,” JC said. 

“He did?” Chris asked and JC nodded. “When?” 

“Just now,” JC answered. 

“How…That’s right.” Chris slapped his hand against his forehead as he realized what JC was saying. “I forgot about that thing you two have.” 

He just found out about a week ago that Lance and JC were connected telepathically. He hadn’t believed it at first, but Justin convinced him otherwise. He still thought it was weird, but then again things hadn’t been normal with them for a while. There were times where he would catch JC and Lance sitting in a room together not saying anything, but he could tell that they were talking to each other through their minds. He often wondered what they talked about and if they talked about him behind his back. He hoped they didn’t. 

JC’s voice broke Chris from his thoughts. “It’s a thing now?” 

“Very funny, smartass. You know what I mean,” Chris said as he looked back at JC who was smiling. He wasn’t paying attention to where he was walking, which resulted in him walking right into an open freezer door. 

A man who had been getting ice cream gave Chris a weird look. JC burst out laughing. “Real smooth, Chris. Real smooth.” 

“Shut up,” Chris grumbled as he rubbed his aching head, but was smiling inwardly. JC was getting closer to normal now. It was a drastic change from how he had been in the past month. 

JC had been a mess. He had been having nightmares frequently. Chris and Joey had yet to find out just what those nightmares were about, but knew better than to bring it up. JC claimed he hadn’t had a nightmare since he had talked to Justin about them. They had no reason to question it though because they had seen the dark circles under his eyes disappear. 

“Chris!” 

JC’s voice brought Chris back to reality. “What?” 

“Are you coming or are you going to chill here?” JC asked and laughed at his own joke. 

“Wow, JC, you’re hysterical,” Chris said sarcastically as he realized he was still in the frozen food section. “I get to drive. You drive like a grandma.” Chris followed JC to the check out where the cashier began to scan their groceries. 

“I do not!” JC protested. 

Chris looked over at JC and noticed that while he looked tired, he seemed all right. He couldn’t help but wonder if that was true. While JC may not be having nightmares anymore, Chris wondered if he was doing something else to take his mind off of whatever it was that he worried about. He was sure if that was the case his nightmares had something to do with it. He hoped things wouldn’t get as serious as last time.  

Justin sighed as he shifted on the couch where he was watching TV, or at least trying to find something that would hold his interest for more than five minutes. Lance was sitting in the chair next to the couch typing away on his laptop. 

Justin sighed again and Lance looked up from his computer. “What’s wrong?” 

“Nothing,” Justin said as he sighed again. 

“It’s something. You keep sighing every thirty seconds,” Lance said. 

“I’m bored,” Justin replied. 

Lance wasn’t surprised to hear that. They had been finished with the tour for about a week now and Justin probably didn’t know what to do with himself. He was used to constantly moving all day and not having time to himself. 

“So? Find something to watch on TV,” Lance suggested. 

Justin looked over at Lance with a raised eyebrow. “What do you think I’ve been trying to do for the past half hour?” 

“Why don’t you do find something else to do then?” 

Lance cleared his throat before shaking his head. His throat felt scratchy and his nose was stuffy. He knew he was getting sick, but was trying to head it off by drinking as much juice as he could. He must’ve had three glasses in just the past two hours. 

Justin thought for a minute as he watched Lance go back to typing. “Why don’t you?” 

“What?” Lance asked confused as he looked up from his computer again. 

“You’ve been working on that all morning. You should take a break,” Justin said. 

“I need to get this done,” Lance replied as he went back to typing. 

“Seriously, Lance. Take a break with me. JC and Chris should be back soon with food anyway,” Justin said. 

Just as Lance was about to reply Chris and JC came walking through the door, their arms laden with grocery bags. Justin pushed himself off the couch to help, happy for something that would occupy his time. Lance was about to go back to work now that Justin wasn’t bothering him anymore, but decided that it wouldn’t hurt to take a short break. He began to shut down his computer. 

He placed his computer in his office before heading to the kitchen. “Hey, where’s JC?” 

“He went to take a nap,” Justin said as he went to grab one of Chris’ donuts only to have his hand smacked in the process. 

“Don’t touch my donuts,” Chris said. 

“Why is he taking a nap?” Lance asked trying to focus their attention back on him. His first thought that he was just being normal JC who liked to sleep all day, but he couldn’t help think that he might be relapsing. 

“I don’t know, man. He’s JC. He doesn’t need a reason,” Chris answered. 

“He was up late last night,” Justin said. 

“Why?” Lance asked. 

Justin shrugged. “He was writing in his notebook. Probably working on a new song.” 

“How would you know anyway?” Chris asked. 

“I woke up at like four to get a glass of water,” Justin replied. 

“Why were you up at four?” Lance asked. He thought it was odd that both JC and Justin were up at four in the morning. Maybe JC did have a problem and he was confiding in Justin about it. Why else would they be up in the middle of the night? 

Justin looked over at Lance as if he had just grown another head. “Didn’t you hear what I just said? I was up at four to get a glass of water because I was thirsty.” 

“Are you sure that’s the reason?” Lance asked. 

“Dude, what is wrong with your voice?” Chris asked. 

“Nothing!” Justin objected. “Leave me alone!” 

Earlier that week Chris had made fun of Justin’s voice. He had found a rerun of the Mickey Mouse Club on late one night and proceeded to make fun of how girly Justin had sounded back then. He teased Justin all week about how he thought he heard the squeak Justin had when he was younger return to his voice. 

Chris rolled his eyes. “Not you, J. Lance.” 

“What?” Lance asked, just realizing that Chris was talking about him. 

“God, are you deaf now too?” Chris asked rhetorically. “I asked what is wrong with your voice.” 

“Nothing,” Lance echoed Justin’s earlier sentiment. 

“Liar,” Chris said. 

“Well if you knew then why did you ask?” Lance asked getting annoyed with Chris and his pointless questions. 

Chris looked at Lance for a minute. “You’re sick.” 

“No, I’m not,” Lance objected. 

“Yes, you are,” Chris insisted. “You sound nasally, you’re eyes are puffy, and your nose is so red we should call you Rudolph.” 

“I’m fine,” Lance said. 

“No, you’re not. I’m going to get you some medicine.”  

“You don’t have to do that,” Lance objected. 

“I need to drop something off at Joey’s anyway.” Chris turned to Justin. “Can I borrow your car for an hour?” 

“Yeah, whatever,” Justin said as he fished his car keys out of his pocket. Chris stared at Justin in disbelief. He had expected Justin to ask why he couldn’t borrow someone else’s or at the very least threaten to hang him from the rafters if he so much as scratched it. 

“Thanks,” Chris mumbled as he accepted the keys that Justin held out to him. 

He turned to leave the room when Lance said, “Dayquil, Chris. I have too much that I need to do.” 

Chris smirked and left the room. Lance shouted after him, “I’m serious! Dayquil!”  

JC was sleeping peacefully on his stomach in one of Lance’s guest rooms. Light filtered in from the hallway into the dark room as the door creaked open and a figure entered. JC mumbled in his sleep, and the person in the room breathed a quiet sigh of relief when he didn’t wake up. 

The person tried to reach across the dresser that was beside JC’s bed for the object he was looking for when he knocked over a lamp with a loud crash. JC immediately jumped up looking wildly around the room waiting for his eyes to focus. When they did they landed on the figure. 

“Chris! What the hell?!” 

“Sorry.” Chris held up the object he had been looking for. “I came in here to borrow your watch.” 

“Why do you need my watch? There are like five clocks in the house. Go find one of those,” JC said. 

“I lost mine, and I can’t carry a clock with me,” Chris said. 

“Where are you going that you need a watch?” JC asked as he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. 

“I need to drop off something at Joey’s and pick up some medicine for Lance. Justin let me borrow his car for an hour and I probably already wasted five minutes talking to you,” Chris explained. 

“Wait a minute.” JC held up his hand. “Lance needs medicine? What’s wrong?” 

“He’s got a cold,” Chris said. “Looks like shit so I offered to get him some medicine.” 

“Oh,” JC said as he swung his legs onto the floor. “I should go see how he’s feeling.” 

“Are you done talking now?” Chris asked. JC nodded. “Sweet!” 

“Hey!” JC said indignantly to Chris’ back. 

Chris took off running for the front door. A couple minutes later he was on his way to Joey’s in Justin’s new Mercedes that he bought six months ago. Joey was staying with his wife, Kelly, and his daughter, Brianna during their time off since he didn’t get to spend as much time with them as he would like. 

Chris wondered if Joey was still doing well. JC hadn’t been the only one who had suffered in the past month. Joey hadn’t been himself. He had been irritable and grumpy all the time. Eventually they found out it was because Joey felt the need to go out partying and drinking to forget about the traumatic events he experienced two months ago. 

Before the tour ended they managed to get Joey to stop drinking by keeping an eye on him. They had even talked to Kelly and told her about the situation. She had been surprised to hear that Joey had gotten so bad in a short period of time, but agreed to keep him away from alcohol. They assured her that if there were any problems all she had to do was call them and they would be there in ten minutes. Five minutes later Chris pulled into Joey’s driveway and killed his thoughts with the ignition. 

He walked to the front door and rang the doorbell. The door opened a minute later to reveal Kelly. 

“Hi, Chris. How are you?” 

“Good. You?” Chris asked as he stepped into the foyer. 

“I’m good,” Kelly answered. 

Chris looked around wondering why the little girl he considered his niece hadn’t come running. “Where’s Brianna?” 

“She’s over at a friend’s house. We’re going out tonight. Joey’s in the shower getting ready,” she explained as she glanced up the stairs. 

“Well I won’t stay long.” Chris looked up the stairs before asking softly, “How’s he doing?” 

“He’s doing as good as can be expected I guess. We went out last night, but he got all crabby when I wouldn’t let him get a drink. Although that hasn’t been the case when he’s with Brianna. He’s been spending so much time with her, with me, that it doesn’t give him time to think about it,” Kelly said. 

“Good. I’m glad. He--“ Chris broke off when he saw Joey come down the stairs. “Hey, Joe! Look what I got for you!” 

Joey laughed at the object that Chris held up for him to see. “A stuffed monkey? Where the hell did you get that?” 

“The grocery store,” Chris said. 

“The grocery store?” Joey repeated with a raised eyebrow. 

“Yeah, you know, they have that aisle of miscellaneous stuff,” Chris explained. 

“So why a giant monkey?” Joey asked as he reached the bottom of the stairs. He walked over to Kelly and put an arm around her waist. 

Chris shrugged. “It reminded me of you.” 

“Are you implying that I’m a monkey?” Joey asked. 

“Maybe,” Chris said as he smiled impishly. Joey made to tackle him, but Chris backed up into the front door. He looked down at the watch he had borrowed from JC. “Well, what do you know? It’s time to go. See ya!” 

Chris ran out the door hearing Joey and Kelly laughing behind him. He jumped into the Mercedes and peeled out of the driveway. He only had a half hour left to pick up Lance’s medicine and have a little joyride before turning the car back over to Justin. 

He was glad that Joey was doing better. He was by no means back to normal, but he was on his way. Chris couldn’t help but think about how far Joey had come in a short period of time. It was only two weeks ago when they were still on tour that he was bad. 

Chris and Joey were hanging out in the room that they shared. The concert had ended an hour before and they were watching a movie as they came down from their post-show high. Joey got thirsty and walked over to the mini bar to get something to drink. 

“Dude, you cleaned out the mini bar?” Joey asked when he saw nothing in it. 

Chris didn’t even look up from the movie. “Yeah.” 

“Why?” 

This time Chris did look at Joey. He was annoyed that Joey kept trying to pretend he didn’t have a problem. “You know why.” 

Joey sighed in frustration. “I’m not going to get trashed. I just want one drink.” 

“No,” Chris said without any hesitation. He knew that Lance had a point. Joey was worse than they had originally thought and he wasn’t going to get any better if he kept on drinking. 

“C’mon, man. I know you have them stashed somewhere. Just let me have one.” Joey paused before adding, “Please?” 

“All right,” Chris said as he stood up and went into the bathroom. He came back out a minute later and threw a mini bottle to Joey. 

“Thanks,” Joey said as he caught it with one hand. He opened it and threw it back only to scowl after he swallowed. “Damn it, Chris! This is Kool-Aid!” 

Chris shrugged. “You said you wanted a drink. You didn’t say it had to be alcoholic.” 

Joey growled in anger as he grabbed a hold of Chris’ shirt and threw him up against the wall. “You knew what I meant!” 

“Dude, get off me!” Chris yelled as he roughly pushed Joey away from him. He matched Joey’s glare with one of his own.“You aren’t getting any until you can control yourself better. Look at what it’s doing to you!” 

“Whatever. I’m going to bed,” Joey mumbled as he flipped off the lights in their room. Chris knew he wasn’t really tired but trying to piss him off. He wasn’t going to give into what Joey wanted though. He lay down on his bed and began to channel surf. 

Joey had scared the hell out of him that night. Chris had never seen Joey so violent in all the years he had known him. Before that night he knew Joey had a serious problem, but didn’t realize how serious until he had experienced Joey’s anger in action. That was right after they said he wasn’t allowed to drink anymore, so they didn’t have to worry about that phase anymore. Things were looking up now though. He hoped everything got back to normal soon.

Justin opened the freezer and grabbed what he was looking for. He set the half gallon of chocolate chip ice cream on the kitchen table next to his bowl and spoon. He was grateful that Lance had told JC to get him his ice cream. He scooped ice cream into his bowl until it was full. He put the ice cream away and had just sat down at the table when Chris came walking through the door.

“You got Lance’s medicine?” Justin asked as he gestured to the small brown bag that Chris set on the counter by the sink.

“Yeah,” Chris said.

Justin ate a spoonful. “So how’s Joey?”

“He’s good,” Chris said. “Kelly says he still wants a drink occasionally, but I think the worst is over.”

“Good,” Justin said.

“What’s good?” JC asked as he walked into the room.

“Joey’s doing better,” Justin answered.

“Really?” JC looked over at Chris for confirmation. Chris nodded. “That is good.”

“You want to give Lance his medicine?” Chris asked JC. He pulled the box of Nyquil tablets out of the bag and grinned mischievously.

Justin laughed. “Didn’t Lance tell you to get him Dayquil?”

“Huh.” Chris looked down at the box in his hand. “I must’ve grabbed the wrong box.”

“Lance is going to kill you,” Justin said as he laughed at Chris again.

“Yes, but you and I both know that he won’t rest unless we force him to,” Chris said. “So do you want to do it, JC?”

“Yeah,” JC said hardly hesitating.

“Really?” Chris asked, looking surprised. “You’re not going to fight me on this and yell at me for purposely getting him the wrong medicine?”

“No. I agree with you. As soon as you left Lance got back to work. I’ve tried to make him lie down, but he won’t listen to me. He needs to rest in order to get better,” JC explained.

“Well, here you go.” Chris held out two pills in his outstretched palm to JC. JC accepted the pills and headed into the living room. Justin wanted to see how this was going to play out, so he put his now empty bowl into the dishwasher. He walked into the living room in time to see Lance wash the pills down with his juice.

“Thanks, JC,” Lance said as he set his glass back on the coffee table before getting back to work.

JC nodded as he sat down next to Justin on the couch. He grabbed the remote and began to flip through the channels. Justin knew he was just biding time until Lance fell asleep so he could put him to bed afterwards.

Justin looked over at JC just as he yawned, which made Justin yawn. He had almost forgotten how tired he was. He had only gotten a couple more hours than JC did. He wished the horrifying nightmares would stop so he could sleep better. He hadn’t had a good night’s sleep in over a week.

His nightmares freaked him out. It was disturbing to have the same one night after night, especially one so horrible. While he was freaked he was also confused. He didn’t know why he was having the same nightmares JC did. All he knew was that he was tired of waking up in a cold sweat night after night. Last night was no different. He had known he wasn’t going to get back to sleep anytime soon, and that was why he was getting a glass of water.

He had been surprised to see JC up. He had come downstairs to find a light on in Lance’s office so he walked towards it when he saw JC’s reflection in the hallway mirror. He knew JC had been too wrapped up in whatever he was writing that he hadn’t noticed him, so he turned back to the kitchen. He couldn’t help, but wonder why JC had been up. Contrary to what he told Lance earlier he didn’t believe it was because JC was working on a new song. Last night hadn’t been the first time he had caught him up in the middle of the night.

Justin was concerned that JC wasn’t getting enough sleep. He was a little surprised that it had gotten past Lance and Chris considering they were supposed to be keeping an eye on each other. That was the reason for staying at Lance’s. Justin was afraid that JC might relapse. He knew if he wanted to stop that from happening that he would have to talk to JC and see what was keeping him up at night.

Justin had been thinking about talking to JC anyway. He wanted to tell him about his nightmares. He knew that if anyone would understand, JC would. He had thought about doing it sooner, but he had been so sure that the nightmares would go away. That had been about five days ago, and Justin was reaching the end of his rope. He didn’t know how much more of this nightmare he could take.

“Chris!” Lance yelled, effectively snapping Justin out of his thoughts. Justin looked over at Lance to see that his eyes were starting to close on him.

“What?” Chris asked as he walked into the living room.

“Don’t stand there looking all innocent. You know what you did,” Lance said.

Chris pretended to look puzzled. “What did I do?”

“You gave me Nyquil! I specifically asked for Dayquil!”

“Whoa, hold on there!” Chris held up his hands. “I may have bought the pills, but I wasn’t the one who gave them to you.”

Lance looked over at JC waiting for an explanation. JC sighed before he simply said, “You need rest.”

“So you drugged me?” Lance asked.

“I had to!” JC said. “You wouldn’t rest otherwise. If you did, I wouldn’t have had to collaborate with Chris and force you to. Now c’mon let’s get you into bed.”

“I hate you,” Lance said drowsily as JC pulled him out of the chair and pushed him towards the stairs. JC didn’t bother to answer as he led Lance to his bedroom where he made him lay down. Within a few minutes Lance was asleep.

JC sighed as he turned over onto his back. He stared at the alarm clock on his dresser that glared back at him. 3:41 am. He seemed to wake up around the same time every night. He waited four more minutes before he got out of bed to make his rounds.

Every night since they had arrived at Lance’s he would wake up in the middle of the night and check on the guys. While he didn’t have his nightmares anymore, they still stuck with him. Despite what Justin had told him he believed that there was a good chance that the demons could come after them again. He knew it was silly, but he couldn’t sleep well until he checked on his friends to make sure that they were all right.

He made a left out of his room to check on Lance first. He gently opened the door that he had closed earlier to ensure that Lance wouldn’t wake up. JC stood in the doorway for a minute watching Lance to make sure he was sleeping comfortably. When he was satisfied that he was, he closed the door with a soft click and turned back toward the other end of the hall.

JC poked his head into Chris’ room to see that he was sprawled over his bed snoring softly. He quietly backed out of the room. There was only one more person to check on. JC walked past his room before noticing that Justin’s door was open. Immediately it registered as weird to JC because Justin had been sleeping with his door closed lately.

He walked into Justin’s room to find his bed empty. JC felt his heart momentarily stop, but he knew that he should search the house before he freaked out. JC took a deep breath as he stepped into the hall. As he let it out he noticed a yellow light leak out from under the bathroom door.

He walked over to the bathroom and gently pushed the door open. Once the door was open JC’s eyes focused on Justin who was pouring a couple of aspirin into the palm of his hand. He couldn’t help but inwardly sigh with relief. Justin was fine.

“Headache?” JC asked quietly. Justin jumped at the sound of his voice, which caused the pills to go flying and scatter all over the bathroom. Justin turned to look at the source of the voice clutching his chest.

“Jesus, JC! You scared the hell out of me!” Justin whispered loudly so as not to wake the other sleeping occupants of the house.

“Sorry,” JC apologized.

“What are you doing up?” Justin asked as he bent down to pick up the spilt aspirin.

“I was going to ask you the same thing. Headache?” JC knelt down next to Justin to help. A minute later they had the pills back into the bottle except for two that Justin immediately swallowed and chased with water.

Justin nodded as he grimaced. JC knew he hated swallowing pills. “Yeah.”

“Are you all right?” JC asked.

“I have a headache. What do you think?”

“I think you’ve been hanging out with Chris too much,” JC joked half-heartedly.

“That was lame, JC.”

JC shrugged. “It’s almost four in the morning.”

“You should be sleeping,” Justin said.

“So should you.” JC paused for a minute before he asked, “Do you want to talk about it?”

“Talk about what?”

“Whatever it is that’s been keeping you up,” JC said.

Justin thought for a minute before he said, “Yes.”

JC tried not to look surprised. It’s not that he didn’t think that Justin would talk to him. He just thought he wouldn’t agree right away. “Well, let’s get out of the bathroom.”

Justin nodded and led JC to his bedroom. JC followed only pausing for a brief second to turn the bathroom light off. Justin sat on his bed and JC shut the door.

“So what’s been keeping you awake?” JC asked.

“I don’t know,” Justin said.

“What do you mean you don’t know?”

“I don’t know how to talk about it!” Justin said a little loud.

“OK, calm down. We’ll just take it one thing at a time,” JC said as he sat down next to Justin. He thought for a minute. He was trying to figure out what question he should ask first.

“What woke you up tonight? Your headache?”

“Yeah, that was part of it,” Justin said.

“What was the other part?” JC asked.

Justin paused for a minute, and JC waited patiently. He knew better than to push. A minute later his patience was rewarded with Justin saying, “A nightmare.”

“I get the feeling that this wasn’t the first time you’ve had it,” JC said.

“It wasn’t,” Justin admitted.

“What is it about?” JC asked.

“You already know,” Justin said.

JC looked at Justin in surprise. “What?”

Justin cleared his throat as he looked down at his feet. “I’ve been having your nightmares.”

“What?” JC repeated in shock. He thought he might’ve misheard Justin. “Are you sure?”

“Yes, I’m sure. It’s exactly what you told me your dream was,” Justin said.

“How long have you had this dream?” JC asked quietly.

Justin sighed as he thought. “Over a week.”

“I’m sorry,” JC said. He couldn’t believe that Justin had been having his nightmares. They were so terrible. He would never wish them upon anyone.

“Don’t be. It’s not your fault,” Justin told him.

“I know, but I never wanted you to experience what I did,” JC said.

“Why am I having your nightmares?” Justin asked.

“I don’t know,” JC replied.

“Why now? I haven’t had a dream in years,” Justin said.

“I don’t know.”

“What are we supposed to do now?” Justin asked as his voice raised above the low tones they had been talking in.

“I don’t know, Justin!” JC ran a hand through his hair in frustration. He hated not knowing the answers, especially when Justin was freaking out and looking to him for guidance. But he knew that right now the most important thing was to get Justin to calm down and try to get some sleep.

“It’s OK, J. Everything will be all right,” JC said as he put a hand on his shoulder.

Justin pulled away from JC’s touch. “You don’t know that!”

“No, I don’t, but I will find out why this happening,” JC said.

“You promise?” Justin asked with a child-like innocence that JC hadn’t seen in a long time.

“I promise,” JC said. He had no idea how he was going to find out why this was happening, but he knew that he couldn’t let Justin down. He was going to try to figure it out.

JC watched Justin yawn. “You should get some sleep.”

“So should you,” Justin said as he tried to stifle another yawn.

“I will, but I’ve gotten more sleep than you,” JC replied.

“No you haven’t. I saw you up at four last night writing in your notebook,” Justin said.

JC looked surprised. “You did?”

“Yeah.” Justin nodded. “And if I know you, and I like to think I do, you didn’t go to bed for another couple of hours.”

JC looked away from Justin because he knew that he couldn’t deny it. Justin was right, and he knew it too. “What do you write in your notebook?”

“Nothing,” JC said.

“If it was nothing, you wouldn’t stay up all night writing in it,” Justin replied.

JC sighed. “I just write my thoughts in it.”

“Can I read it?” Justin asked.

“No.” JC saw that Justin opened his mouth and said, “And before you ask why, it’s because it’s private. It’s become like my journal.”

“You can talk to me or Chris or Lance,” Justin said.

“I know, but it’s nothing important. If it was, I’d talk to you guys,” JC said.

“All right,” Justin said accepting what JC said…for now anyway. “But I’m going to hold you to that.”

JC nodded. “Get some sleep.”

“You too,” Justin said.

“I will.” JC got up from Justin’s bed. Justin lay down under the covers before JC turned off the light and opened the door. “Good night, J.”

“Good night.”

JC closed the door quietly behind him. He hoped that it would help Justin sleep in tomorrow. He walked back into his room where he grabbed his notebook off of his dresser. Once he had his notebook he went downstairs and into Lance’s study where he turned on a small lamp.

He sat on Lance’s leather couch and opened to the page where he left off. He hadn’t lied when he told Justin his notebook had become like a journal to him. Every night after his rounds he would write in it. Mostly it was whatever his thoughts were at the time. Tonight he was adding his thoughts about Justin having his nightmares.

He was freaked out. He didn’t know how to handle the situation, which killed him because he prided himself on having the answers and taking charge of situations. He just felt awful that Justin was having his nightmares. He felt like it was his fault somehow even though he knew he had no control over what Justin dreamt about.

An hour later JC was done writing and went back upstairs. He checked on each of the guys briefly before heading to his room. Justin had been asleep when he checked on him, which JC was grateful for. Hopefully Justin wouldn’t have another nightmare.

JC lay in bed as he watched the sun rise through the blinds in his room. He heard Lance’s door creak open and knew that Lance was getting ready to start his day. JC found the noise comforting and found himself drifting off to sleep. He seemed to sleep better when he could hear the guys making noise. It made him feel better, especially since he had this pit in his stomach after talking with Justin. He couldn’t help but think that there was a reason all of this was happening.

Chris walked into the kitchen to make himself some lunch. He entered to find Lance making soup. He opened the fridge as he began to look for something good to eat.

“Still not feeling well?”

Lance turned to face Chris as he shook his head. “No. I don’t understand why I’m not. Normally I’m better by now.”

“Maybe you have a sucky immune system,” Chris joked as he abandoned the fridge to look in the cupboards.

“Ha ha, very funny.” Lance rolled his eyes. “I’m serious. This cold feels different. Like I can’t seem to think clearly.”

“Maybe it’s the flu,” Chris suggested.

“In the middle of summer?” Lance asked with a raised eyebrow.

Chris shrugged. “You’re the freak who got a cold in the middle of summer.”

“Is that what you’re going to have for lunch?” Lance ignored Chris’ comment as he gestured to the can of Spaghettios that Chris had found in the back of the cupboard.

“Yeah. Why?” Chris emptied the can into a bowl and placed it into the microwave and set the timer for two minutes.

“Because it’s probably expired,” Lance said.

“It’s not.”

Lance poured his soup into a bowl and brought it over to the kitchen table. “How do you know? Did you check?”

“No. They smelled all right so I think I’m good,” Chris said. Lance looked repulsed at the idea. A minute later the Spaghettios were done and Chris joined Lance at the table.

They ate in silence and Lance used that time to think. He’d gone upstairs a half hour ago to look for a contract he was working on and discovered that JC was still sleeping. He wondered what time JC fell asleep last night since it was almost one o’clock and he still wasn’t up yet.

Lance glanced over at Chris briefly. Lance considered bringing up JC and his sleeping habits lately, but doubted Chris had noticed. Not because Chris didn’t care, Lance knew he did, but because he’d been better than any of the guys at reading JC ever since they’d been connected telepathically. After another minute of debating whether or not he should bring it up or not he decided that it couldn’t hurt to see if Chris was worried.

“JC’s still sleeping, huh?”

“Yeah, seems like it,” Chris said before he shoved another spoonful into his mouth.

“Don’t you think that’s kind of weird?” Lance asked.

“JC sleeping?” Chris pretended to look shocked. “Call the cavalry.”

“I’m serious, Chris.” Lance blew on his soup as he waited for Chris to say something.

Chris sighed as he got up from the table to grab a Pepsi out of the fridge. “He does seem a little tired, but I doubt it’s anything serious.”

“Why not?” Lance asked.

“Because it’s not like he’s been distant like he was earlier,” Chris said. Lance thought back to about a month ago when JC had been the worst. He had spent any free time he had in his room except when they got together as a group. But even then he always had his notebook with him and would hardly talk to anyone.

Lance knew that his behavior was mostly caused by the nightmares he had. He recognized that dreaming about your friends dying is a hard thing to live with and that he must still be affected by it even if he wasn’t having the nightmares anymore. Lance just hoped that JC would open up sooner than before if he was having a real hard time with it.

“What if he’s pretending like everything’s fine, but he stays up at night thinking about it?”

“You think he’s hiding things from us again?” Chris asked as he returned to the table and resumed eating his Spaghettios.

“I don’t know.” Lance paused, remembering what Justin had mentioned yesterday about the two of them being up at four in the morning. “I think he’s been talking to Justin.”

He let his mind wander as he thought back to how jealous Justin had been when he found out that he and JC had become closer. It had been understandable though. He and JC had spent a lot of time together trying to figure out how their newfound ability worked. There was one time in particular where Justin had asked JC if he wanted to shoot some basketball with him and Lance had stepped in saying that he and JC had something they needed to take care of. Justin had walked away saying that he would see if Joey or Chris was interested instead, but it was easy to see that he was bummed. It seemed like that was resolved now though, and Lance was glad. Although he had to admit that it felt weird to not have JC talk to him anymore.

Chris’ voice pulled Lance out of his thoughts. “Well, if he’s talking to someone then he’s fine.”

“I guess.” Lance sighed. “I just wish I could know what was going through his head.”

“You can, can’t you?” Chris asked as he picked up his now empty bowl and deposited it in the dishwasher.

Lance shook his head. “No way, not after last time.”

“Last time?” Chris looked curious. “What happened last time?”

“I wanted to know what his nightmares were about so I read his mind without his permission. When he found out what I had done, he flipped. There’s no way I’m doing that again,” Lance said.

“So what do you want to do then?” Chris asked.

Lance was about to reply but shut his mouth tightly as JC walked into the kitchen effectively cutting off their conversation. Lance and Chris exchanged nervous glances. JC briefly looked over at Chris and Lance before raising an eyebrow as he reached for a chocolate donut.

“Ha! See! What did I tell you?” Chris pointed at the donut that JC began to eat. “I knew you’d steal some of my donuts.”

JC shook his head as he ignored Chris. “What are you guys doing?”

“Nothing much,” Lance said.

“We should do something,” Chris said. “Like basketball.”

“That’s a good idea,” JC said as he finished off his donut. “We haven’t done that in a while.”

“Cool. Are you going to join us or do you have work to do?” Chris turned to Lance who was just now rinsing out his empty bowl and putting it into the dishwasher.

“No. I think I’m going to try to get rid of this thing by relaxing. I can’t focus anyway,” Lance said.

“Are you OK?” JC asked. Lance recognized the concern in JC’s eyes. He knew that his ability to read JC’s feelings was reciprocal. He was quick to ease JC’s worry.

“I’m fine,” Lance said.

“Well, yell if you need something,” JC said to Lance before turning to Chris. “I’ll get Justin and we’ll meet you outside.” He left the kitchen and walked into the living room where he found Justin watching TV.

“Hey,” JC said and Justin looked up from the screen where Kool was advertising the latest flavor of Kool-Aid. “What’s up?”

“Watching TV,” Justin said as he motioned to the TV with the remote that was in his hand. “Sleep well?”

Justin nodded. “Yeah.”

“Good.” JC didn’t really believe that, especially with the way he looked, but he knew that now wasn’t the time to get into it. He paused before asking, “Do you want to play basketball with me and Chris?”

“Sure.” Justin shrugged as he turned off the TV and rose from the couch. “JC?”

“Yeah?” JC asked. He turned around and noticed that Justin wasn’t following him outside.

“About last night…can you…not mention it to the others?” Justin asked quietly.

“Sure, J. If that’s what you want,” JC said. Justin nodded.

“Thanks,” Justin said.

“No problem.” JC threw an arm over Justin’s shoulders as the two of them walked outside where they saw Chris already shooting baskets.

“How do we want to do this?” JC asked as they joined Chris on the court.

“Me and you against Justin since he thinks he’s better than us,” Chris said.

“Whatever. Pass the ball, old man,” Justin said. Chris passed the ball and the game was underway.

The three of them ran back and forth with Chris and JC on defense most of the time. About fifteen minutes later Chris made his first basket of the game. JC looked over at Justin and noticed that he seemed winded, which was odd considering they hadn’t been playing very long.

“Are you all right, Just?” JC asked.

Chris looked over at Justin and noticed that he was breathing heavier than he did when they played basketball. “Who’s the old man now?”

“You are,” Justin said as he grabbed the ball from Chris, ran down the court, and successfully shot a lay-up.

JC frowned again. That was what Justin would usually do when Chris would tease him while they were playing, but it didn’t look like he was having much fun. Justin didn’t tease Chris back and seemed to just be going through the motions. He was beginning to think that maybe he hadn’t gotten as much sleep as JC thought he did. That thought was confirmed when Justin walked over to where JC and Chris were still standing and he noticed that his eyes looked half closed.

“What are you guys doing?” Justin placed the ball on his hip, noticing the two of them just standing there. “Are we still playing?”

“No,” JC said as he shook his head. He knew that he should end the game before Justin got too tired. “I’m thirsty. I’m going to go in to get a drink.”

“Party pooper,” Chris said but followed JC in the house with Justin bringing up the rear.

Later that night JC sat in front of the computer in Lance’s study. He sighed as he continued searching for the meaning behind the nightmares that he and Justin shared. He had decided earlier that the first step in figuring out why Justin was having his nightmares was to find out what they meant.

He had started an hour ago and so far he was getting nowhere. He had begun at Google and typed in “interpreting dreams.” It took him to a website that had a dream dictionary where he could look up the meanings of the different things from his nightmares. The first thing he had looked up was “death” and “die,” which wasn’t useful at all. It said that to dream of friends dying meant that a part of his personality was diminishing.

He had also looked up woods and hadn’t had a lot of luck there either. He managed to find one sentence that was kind of what he was looking for. It had said that the woods symbolized the unknown and unconscious, but that was too vague for JC. He kept searching and currently he was looking up “friends.”

“Friends in your dream foretells of happy tidings from them and the arrival of good news,” JC read softly aloud and then scoffed. “Yeah right.”

He moved onto looking up immobility. He found that to dream that he was immobile signified feelings of being trapped or that he is rigid in his attitudes and decisions. JC sighed in frustration.

“Hey.”

JC jumped in his chair and turned to see Chris in the doorway. “Hey.”

“I’m going to go to bed now,” Chris said as he motioned towards the stairs.

“OK. Goodnight,” JC said as he gave Chris a weird look.

Chris started down the hall before he turned around and walked further into the room. He had originally poked his head into Lance’s study because he had seen the light on, but now he realized that maybe Lance had a point about JC not sleeping enough. “Are you going to bed anytime soon? It’s after two.”

“Yeah, in a little bit,” JC replied.

“You should be sleeping,” Chris said after a few seconds of scrutinizing JC. His eyes were red and he was hunched over the computer, as if he was too tired to hold himself up. Chris could hear Lance in his head saying that something was going on.

“I’m fine,” JC replied as he tried to stifle a yawn.

Chris gave him a knowing look. “You haven’t got a lot of sleep the past couple of days.”

“I’ve gotten enough,” JC said.

“A little more couldn’t hurt. C’mon, let’s go to bed,” Chris suggested.

“I want to finish up here first,” JC said.

“What are you doing anyway?” Chris asked as he moved closer to the computer to look over JC’s shoulder. JC minimized the page he was looking at and Chris raised an eyebrow in surprise. JC never tried to hide something in an obvious way like that.

 “Just looking up a few things,” JC answered.

“Why don’t you save it for morning? The mysteries of the universe will still be there,” Chris said.

“I can’t. This is important.”

Chris crossed his arms as he looked at JC. “What’s more important than your health?”

“Justin!” JC snapped.

“No.” Chris shook his head as he pointed at himself. “I’m Chris.”

JC continued as if he hadn’t heard Chris. “You’ve been so busy watching me to make sure I don’t relapse that you haven’t been paying any attention to Justin.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Chris asked.

JC realized that he’d said way too much after having promised Justin that he wouldn’t say anything. He’d have to direct the conversation away from Justin. “Forget it. It doesn’t matter. I don’t understand why you think I’d do that to myself again. Do you think I’m that stupid?”

He was beyond frustrated with how the guys had been treating him lately. They were always watching him, which had been understandable right after he collapsed. He probably would’ve done the same thing, but his collapse was a couple of weeks ago and he was fine now. However, that didn’t stop him from catching the concerned looks he got every time he yawned or the disapproving looks when he skipped a meal. And that morning he had his suspicions that Lance and Chris had been talking about him in the kitchen.

“No, of course not,” Chris said.

“Then what do I have to do to make you believe I’m fine?” JC asked. He continued on not giving Chris a chance to answer. “Because I am. I’m dealing with it and there’s nothing you can really do to help. I don’t need you.”

Chris took a step back in surprise. He hadn’t expected JC to say that, and he was pissed and a little hurt. He was trying to be a good friend by being there for JC and looking out for him only to have JC say that he didn’t need him. He liked to think that he could help any of the guys with any of their problems and it hurt when they didn’t want him to. Chris knew that he couldn’t push JC to talk to him, but that didn’t mean that he wouldn’t bring this up again later. “Fine. Good night.”

JC watched as Chris left the room and heard the steps creak as he made his way upstairs. Once he was gone JC went back to analyzing the dream. He opened the page again and looked up “demons.”

“To see demons represents ignorance, negativity, distress or your shadow self. It also forewarns of overindulgence and letting lust give way to your better judgment. As a result, your physical and mental health may suffer,” JC read softly to himself.

He groaned as he rubbed his eyes and leaned back in the chair. “Did you really expect it to say that ‘your friends are in danger and demons are after you’?” JC asked himself.

JC sat with his eyes closed for a minute as he thought about his nightmare. Suddenly he sat up and went back to Google. He typed in “symbol, star with a circle around it.” He figured that if Justin was really having his nightmares then he had to have seen the same symbol he had.

JC looked over the links for a minute before clicking on one that sounded like it would show him pictures. He knew that he would be able to pick it out if he saw it. The page loaded and he spotted it right away. He discovered that the star was called a pentagram and served as a symbol of Satan and evil spirits.

JC felt the knot in his stomach return. They’d encountered evil in the past, and JC feared that the recurrence of his dream in Justin’s subconscious might signify another brush with evil in the future. He didn’t believe that these were just dreams anymore--something supernatural was occurring, and it was affecting Justin. The urge to check on Justin mounted quickly. JC shut down the computer.

Once the computer was shut down, JC got up from the leather chair and turned off the lamp. He quietly walked up the stairs and made his rounds. He stood outside of Justin’s door for a second before he opened it and stepped in.

It took a minute for his eyes to adjust, but when they did he noticed that Justin was thrashing about in his sleep. He made the few small steps it took to get to his bed before he shook his shoulder. Justin jumped awake, breathing heavily with tears rolling down his face.

“Hey, it’s all right,” JC said quietly as he sat down on Justin’s bed and pulled him into a hug. “It’s OK.”

JC could feel guilt starting to eat its way through him again. He kept telling himself that it wasn’t his fault, but it didn’t seem to register. He looked down at Justin who clutched him tightly as his body wracked with sobs. JC made a promise to himself at that moment that he would do anything and everything he could to stop whatever this was from hurting his little brother.

Justin sighed softly as the water from the showerhead gently pelted his tired body. He let the water massage his muscles for another minute before he shut it off. He wrapped a towel around his waist and stepped out of the shower. He paused in front of the sink to grab some aspirin out of the medicine cabinet. His head was pounding.

He walked into his bedroom and began to search through his drawers for something to wear. After a minute or two of looking he found a pair of jeans and a blue t-shirt. He quickly changed in the bathroom. As Justin reentered his bedroom for the second time he noticed that JC was still sleeping in a chair next to his bed with his head resting on the mattress.

Justin thought back to when he woke up and first saw JC sleeping next to his bed. He had been surprised, but he vaguely remembered JC coming in last night and pulling him out of his nightmare. This nightmare had been the worst one yet. He thought they would’ve gotten less extreme since he told JC about them, but they seemed to grow in intensity. He didn’t usually wake up crying hysterically like he did last night.

He knew that JC probably recognized that and spent most of the night watching over him, so he didn’t get much sleep. However, Justin was surprised that JC hadn’t woken up while he had been taking a shower. That just proved that JC was really tired.

He sighed as he covered the short distance between himself and JC. He gently picked him up and placed him in his bed. Justin knew that if he left JC sleeping like he was, he would have a neck ache later. He watched JC shift in his sleep and sighed in relief when he didn’t wake up. He pulled the covers up over JC’s legs before he turned to go downstairs.

Justin walked into the kitchen expecting to find Lance and Chris in there, but it was empty. Justin made his way to the living room, but the living room was empty as well. They had to be somewhere. He had passed both of their rooms and Lance’s bed had been neatly made while Chris’ had his blankets askew and a pillow on the floor. He decided to look around the house and started by looking out the window to see if they were in the backyard. They weren’t, so Justin walked down the hall towards Lance’s study thinking that maybe he was feeling better and decided to get some work done. He found that the door was closed and was about to knock when he heard voices.

“You can really find out what JC was doing last night?” Chris asked from inside the room.

“Yeah,” Lance said. The clicking of keys could be heard. “Just give me a few minutes and I should be able to pull it up.”

The voices stopped for a minute and Justin was about to leave when he heard Chris mention him. “He said some things about Justin too.”

“What?” The clicking stopped for a second before it continued. Justin leaned closer to the door. He normally didn’t eavesdrop, but he wanted to hear what JC had said about him.

“That Justin’s not fine and that we’ve been ignoring him,” Chris said.

“What makes him say that?” Lance asked.

“I don’t know. He changed the subject right after that,” Chris said.

“Why would he think that though?” Lance’s voice asked.

Chris sighed. “I don’t know.”

Justin didn’t stick around to hear what else they were going to say. He turned around and hurried back upstairs. While Justin clenched his fists in anger, he couldn’t help but feel hurt and betrayed. He had told JC things in confidence before and JC hadn’t said a word, but for some reason JC had a problem keeping Justin’s nightmares secret and now Lance and Chris would be worried about him when it wasn’t necessary. Justin walked into his bedroom and roughly shook JC.

“Get up!” he barked as he shook JC harder.

“What?” JC mumbled as he wearily opened his eyes to find Justin standing over him.

“You promised!” Justin yelled. “You promised not to tell and you did it anyway.”

“What? What are you talking about?” JC slowly sat up and rubbed tiredly at his eyes. “No I didn’t.”

“Yes you did! You told Chris!” Justin couldn’t believe that JC was trying to deny it. It was one thing for him to say something to Chris, but the least JC could do was be honest with him.

“I didn’t tell him everything,” JC objected.

“No,” Justin agreed. “But you told him enough to make him and Lance think that there’s something going on when there isn’t. Now they’re going to be watching me to make sure that I’m all right.”

“You’ll know how it feels then. To have them hovering over you when there’s no reason to,” JC replied.

“That’s different, JC!” He and the guys had been watchful over JC for his own safety. It was unfair of JC to compare Justin with himself because Justin’s situation wasn’t nearly as serious.

“How?” JC asked.

“We had a reason to watch you. You put yourself in a damn hospital. I’m not stupid enough to do that,” Justin said.

“It’s different when you’re actually going through it yourself, isn’t it?” JC asked. Justin didn’t see how this was relevant and shook his head in confusion.

“I didn’t make the same mistake you did. I talked to you. Told you about my nightmares right away. It took you a month to tell me about them.”

“And did it help? Maybe I’m mistaken, but I think you’re still having trouble sleeping, aren’t you? Who’s to say that talking about them really helped me? Maybe they just went away on their own,” JC said.

Justin frowned as he thought about what JC said. He realized JC was right. Talking about his nightmares had worked for JC. Why wasn’t it working for him? He couldn’t think of a reason so he pushed it to the back of his mind. He crossed his arms as he brought his attention back to argument with JC.

“That doesn’t matter. What matters is that you told me about those dreams in confidence and I kept it to myself. Why couldn’t you do the same?”

JC sighed. “I never said anything about you having nightmares. All I said was that they needed to stop worrying about me because I’m fine. You’re not!”

“And that’s much better? Telling them to worry about me? And what makes you think you’re so fine, huh JC? When was the last time you got a full night’s sleep?” Justin asked, giving JC a knowing look.

“This isn’t about me,” JC replied.

“Well, maybe it should be. These are your nightmares. You said you’d fix this, JC. I don’t want to deal with this crap!” Justin yelled.

“I never wanted you to,” JC said.

“Well, now I have to because Chris knows and he’s telling Lance right now.” Justin glared at JC.

“I’m sorry, J. I know I had no right to say anything. It just slipped out,” JC said. “But I am working on it. I’m doing my best to fix this. I promise.”

“I don’t want you to make a promise that you don’t intend to keep.” Justin turned to walk out of his bedroom. He didn’t want to talk to JC anymore.

“Justin! Wait!” JC grabbed onto Justin’s shoulder to stop him from leaving.

Justin yanked his arm out of JC’s grasp. “Why don’t you go call Joey? I’m sure he’d like to know too.”

Justin stormed out of his bedroom leaving a hurt JC standing next to his bed.

Lance sighed as he sat down at his computer. He wanted to see what JC had been reading last night now that he was alone. When he’d been with Chris a couple of hours ago he had found the list of websites that JC had visited and noticed that they had to do with interpreting dreams. He hadn’t clicked on any of the links though because Chris was in the room with him and he still didn’t know what JC’s nightmares were about. Lance had to tell Chris something though, so he had lied and said that JC hadn’t been looking at anything weird.

JC was really starting to worry Lance. First he found out from Justin that JC had been up at four in the morning a couple days ago and now JC was having nightmares again. At least that was the only explanation that Lance would come up with. He was concerned that JC had just told Chris there was something wrong with Justin to get them off of his back. Lance knew the frustration JC felt when one of them would ask him why he didn’t eat breakfast or if he had slept well.

Currently Lance had the page opened where JC had looked up the meaning of friends dying in his dream. He read the paragraph that JC had earlier and shook his head. He knew that JC probably hadn’t been satisfied with the analysis that was given. It made it sound like his nightmares weren’t a big deal, but Lance knew they were to JC. He was about to open another webpage to look at when a loud voice came from the living room followed by a yelp of surprise.

He immediately closed the website and walked out into the living room to investigate. He found Justin standing in front of the TV with the remote in hand. “What’s up?”

Justin turned to look at Lance. “Chris turned up the TV really loud. It about gave me a heart attack. Damn you, Chris!”

The only response that could be heard was the distant laughter coming from Chris who was in the kitchen. Justin sighed as he sat down the on the couch in his usual spot before he began to channel surf. Lance sat down in the recliner chair next to the couch.

“You’re going to hang out in here?” Justin asked.

“Yeah, I need a break from working,” Lance said knowing that Justin thought it was weird for him to sit and watch TV in the middle of the day. He knew that he would get to the other websites that JC visited later when there weren’t so many interruptions.

Lance reached for a tissue from the box that was sitting on the end table and blew his nose. He still wasn’t feeling better. Even the cloudiness in his mind hadn’t gone away. If it had, he probably would be working. Just then JC walked into the living room and over to where Justin was sitting. Justin didn’t even look up as JC approached him.

“Take this,” JC said to Justin as he extended his hand. There was a pill sitting in the center of his palm.

Justin eyed the pill and gave JC a defiant look. “Why?”

JC sighed. He turned to glance at Lance and Justin followed his gaze. JC gave Justin a knowing look. “Just take the damn pill.”

Justin grumbled to himself, but accepted the pill. He swallowed it dry before he lied down. He continued to watch TV as he waited for it to kick in. JC walked over to the loveseat where he heavily sat down.

Lance watched JC rub at his eyes. He noticed that JC looked kind of upset like something was bothering him. He figured that he should try to find out what. However, since Justin was in the room, he decided to talk to JC telepathically to keep it between the two of them.

 “Are you OK?” Lance asked. 

JC looked at Lance in surprise. “Yeah, I’m fine.” 

“OK.” Lance knew that JC wasn’t going to be very forthcoming if something was bothering him. Lance figured that since they were already communicating this way that it would be a good time for him to bring up the things that were on his mind. “How are you sleeping?” 

“What do you want to say, Lance?” JC asked. 

Lance was surprised at JC’s attitude. JC was never usually that short, which only increased Lance’s suspicions that something was bothering his friend. He answered, “I know that you’re having your nightmares again.” 

“How would you know that?” JC raised an eyebrow. 

“I looked up the sites that you were on last night,” Lance said simply. 

“You’re spying on me?!” JC yelled. 

“Chris told me you were up late last night looking up something. We wanted to know what. So what did you find?” Lance figured that if JC shared any insight that he got from those websites that he wouldn’t have to look at the other websites later. 

JC shook his head. “Nothing and I’m not having nightmares again. I just wanted to see what it meant.” 

“Why didn’t you do that sooner?” Lance asked. He wasn’t sure if he should believe that JC wasn’t having nightmares anymore. Why else would he wake up in the middle of the night? 

“There was no time,” JC said. He paused for a minute. “What else did Chris tell you?” 

“That you think that Justin isn’t fine and that we haven’t been keeping an eye on him like we should have,” Lance said. 

“Chris should’ve kept his mouth shut,” JC muttered. 

“Why? If there’s something wrong with Justin, we should know about it,” Lance replied. 

“Not if he doesn’t want you to,” JC said. 

“Is that what he told you?” Lance asked. 

JC shrugged. “Basically.” 

“So there is something wrong with him?” 

JC glanced over at Justin who was now asleep on the couch. “I’m handling it.” 

“But what’s wrong?” Lance repeated. 

“I can handle it,” JC insisted. 

Lance hesitated before he gave in. He was going to let JC handle it for now, but he was going to keep an eye on both him and Justin. If anything happened to either of them, he would demand an explanation. “Fine.” 

“I’m going to get something to eat. You want anything?” Lance asked as he rose from the chair he had been sitting in. JC shook his head and Lance was about to leave when JC’s voice stopped him.

“Are you OK?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. Why?” Lance looked curiously at JC.

“Just a feeling,” JC said. “It’s probably nothing.”

Lance nodded and left to get something to eat. As JC watched him leave he thought back to their conversation and the feeling that he had. While they were communicating telepathically, he had felt cold and that had never happened before. He wondered what it could be, but no explanation was coming to him so he decided to forget about it for now.

JC pulled himself off the loveseat and walked over to the couch where Justin was sleeping. He took the blanket off the back of the couch and threw it over Justin’s sleeping form. He watched him for a minute to make sure he was sleeping peacefully before he grabbed the remote that had been resting on the arm of the couch and returning back to his seat. He began to look for something on.

Every few minutes JC would look over at Justin to check on him. He hoped that giving Justin that sleeping pill was a good idea. He hadn’t tried them himself and he had been weary of giving them to Justin, but knew that Justin desperately needed the sleep. JC knew that the only reason that Justin hadn’t put up a bigger fight about taking the pill in the first place was because Lance was in the room. He was sure that if Lance hadn’t been there it would’ve taken longer for him to convince Justin to take the pill.

JC sighed as he thought back to the argument they’d had earlier. Some of the things that Justin had said were pretty hurtful. He had been so surprised to wake up to Justin angry and yelling at him. He could see where Justin had been coming from, but that didn’t make the things he said to him hurt any less.

“No!”

Screaming from the couch brought him out of his thoughts. He quickly realized that it was Justin and he jumped off the loveseat and ran over to him. He grabbed a hold of Justin’s shoulders to try to shake him awake when Lance and Chris came running into the room.

“What’s going on?” Chris asked.

“He’s having a nightmare,” JC answered distractedly. Shaking him didn’t work and Justin was still screaming.

“Leave them alone!” JC winced knowing that it was going to make his voice raw later.

“What can we do?” Lance asked.

“Get out. I can handle this,” JC said.

“It doesn’t look like it,” Chris muttered.

JC turned to face them with an angry look on his face. “Get out! I’ll explain everything once he’s calmed down.”

“You better,” Chris said as Lance pushed him into the kitchen.

JC quickly turned back to Justin who still hadn’t stopped screaming. “Stop it!”

JC slapped Justin’s cheeks enough to wake him, but not hard enough to leave a mark. Finally Justin’s eyes shot open as he woke up. He looked wildly around the room as he tried to figure out where he was before his eyes landed on JC. Justin stared at JC for a second before he burst into sobs. JC pulled him to his chest and hugged him knowing that Justin was probably still caught up in the terror of the nightmare.

JC just sat there holding Justin and whispering comforting words in his ear like he had the night before. A few minutes later Justin had stopped crying and fell into an exhausted sleep. JC gently lowered him back against the couch and covered him. He frowned as he watched Justin sleep for a minute before he sighed. He knew that Chris and Lance were sitting in the kitchen waiting for an explanation that he didn’t particularly want to give.

He walked into the kitchen. Chris and Lance’s eyes were on him immediately. He could tell they wanted to ask him a bunch of questions, but seemed to be restraining themselves, for the moment anyway. He sat down across from them.

“How is he?” Lance asked.

“He’s…asleep.” JC paused before muttering to himself, “I can’t believe he woke up. Those sleeping pills are supposed to be powerful.”

“Why do you even have sleeping pills?” Chris asked having heard him. JC should’ve known that he would. He seemed to have a talent for hearing people when they mumbled to themselves.

“I bought them,” JC said. “In case I needed them.”

Chris raised an eyebrow. “Have you?”

JC shook his head. Chris was about to fire off another question before Lance cut in, “Hey Chris, why don’t you go call Joey?”

“But he needs to explain what the hell happened in there,” Chris objected.

“And he will, but Joey needs to be here,” Lance said. Chris sighed, but left to go make the call.

JC barely heard him leave the room. He was wrapped up in his thoughts. He felt horrible that his plan to fix things hadn’t worked. If anything it made them worse. It had been so much harder to wake him this time compared to last time, and it didn’t help that Justin had been screaming in his sleep. He had never done that before.

JC couldn’t believe that the pill didn’t help at all. Those pills were supposed to have knocked him out for hours, but he was only asleep for about twenty minutes. Now he needed to give an explanation to the other guys. He knew that Justin wasn’t going to be happy when he woke up and found out what had happened. At least JC had until Joey arrived to organize his thoughts.

Joey grabbed a couple pairs of jeans and stuffed them into a duffle bag. He thought back to the conversation that he had with Chris a few minutes ago. All Chris had told him was that there was something wrong with Justin and that he should get over there as soon as he could. As soon as he got off the phone with Chris he started packing. He could tell that whatever was up with Justin wouldn’t be resolved by the end of the day.

He wracked his brain trying to come up with what was so serious about Justin that Chris would call him up, but leave out all of the details. That worried Joey. It meant that it was too complicated for Chris to tell him over the phone. He walked into the bathroom to grab his toothbrush and razor. When he came out he saw Kelly standing in the doorway.

“Why are you packing?” she asked before Joey could say anything.

“I’m going to spend a few days at Lance’s,” Joey answered.

Kelly walked into the room and stood next to their bed as she watched Joey pack. “Why?”

“Something’s wrong with Justin,” Joey said as he went through the closet and grabbed a few shirts to throw into his duffle bag.

“How do you know?” Kelly asked.

“Chris just called,” he said.

“Did he say what was wrong?”

Joey shook his head. “No. That’s why I need to go over there.”

“Yeah.” Kelly nodded. “But for a couple days? You’ve spent the past how many months with them and have only been home for a little over a week.”

“I know, but I need to be there,” Joey said.

“You need to be here,” Kelly objected.

Joey sighed as he looked at her. “I am, but I need to see what’s wrong with Justin.”

“Why can’t the other guys handle it?” Kelly asked. Joey knew that he couldn’t tell her the truth about everything he and the guys had gone through at the cabin and later on because there was no way that she would believe him. He might tell her one day, but not now.

“Look,” Joey said as he zipped up his duffle bag and moved closer to his wife. “It’ll only be for a couple of days. I doubt it’ll take longer than that.”

“OK,” Kelly agreed. “Go find out what’s wrong and hurry back.”

“I will,” Joey promised as he kissed Kelly. He walked out into the hallway and called for his daughter. “Brianna!”

There was silence for a minute before he heard her little footsteps pad down the hall as she came out of her room and ran to him. “Daddy!”

Joey scooped her up in his arms and hugged her tight. “How you doin’, Kiddo?”

“Good,” Brianna said. “Come color with me!”

“I wish I could, Bri, but I’m going to see your uncles,” Joey told her as he lowered her back to the floor and kneeled down to her level.

Brianna looked at him with innocent eyes that were filled with curiosity. “Why?”

“Because Uncle Justin isn’t feeling well,” Joey told her.

“Are you going to make him better?” Brianna asked.

Joey smiled at her. “I’m going to try. You be a good girl for Mommy.”

Brianna looked over at Kelly who was standing behind Joey. “I will.”

“Good. I’ll see you in a couple of days,” Joey said. “Now give me one your famous hugs.”

Brianna wrapped her little arms around Joey and squeezed as hard as she could. Joey hugged her in return and kissed her on the forehead as he pulled away from her. “I love you.”

“Love you too,” Brianna said. Joey smiled as he stood up and grabbed the duffle bag that he had set down at the top of the stairs. He walked over to Kelly and kissed her again. “I’ll miss my girls.”

“You better,” Kelly said but smiled as she said it. “Tell the guys I say hi.”

“I will,” Joey said. “I love you.”

“I love you too,” Kelly said. She kissed him one more time.

“I’ll see you soon,” Joey said. He blew a kiss to Brianna and walked out the front door. He slid into his car and pulled out of the driveway.

As he drove down the road he couldn’t help but think that he was going to miss them. He knew that it was only going to be a few days, but he hardly saw them when he was on tour. Now was the time for him to be with them and he was leaving them to spend time at Lance’s. However, he knew that it was important for him to see what was wrong with Justin.

Joey had to admit that he was looking forward to seeing them again. He hadn’t seen them except for Chris who stopped by a few days ago with that ridiculous gift. He knew that the guys didn’t want to interrupt time with his family, but he was starting to miss them. It was only natural after how much time they always spent together. He hoped that whatever was going on with Justin wasn’t too serious.

“I should’ve listened to you,” Chris said as he paced back and forth in the kitchen. Lance watched him as he leaned against the counter.

“What are you talking about?” Lance asked.

“Yesterday when you said something was up. I should’ve listened to you,” Chris said as he continued to pace. “I should’ve pushed JC for more information.”

“Don’t do this to yourself. When Joey gets here JC will explain everything,” Lance said.

“Yeah, but it just feels like I should’ve done something, you know?” Chris asked. He hated himself for not asking JC about Justin last night and letting him change the subject. Chris knew that Justin probably would’ve had the nightmare anyway, but at least he could’ve been more help to him.

“I know, but we always say that. Maybe this had to happen for us to help him,” Lance said.

“But why is he having nightmares now? Our lives have finally gotten back to normal and he had to go and have a stupid nightmare,” Chris said.

“Chris,” Lance started, but Chris cut him off.

“I know it’s not his fault.” Chris began to pace faster. “I just don’t understand. We finally got JC over his nightmares and now Justin’s having some. It’s weird.”

Chris stopped pacing for a minute to look into the living room where he could see Justin still sleeping on the couch with JC sitting on the floor next to him, running his hand through Justin’s short curls. “He sounded so upset. I don’t think I’ve ever heard him that upset before.”

“Me either,” Lance agreed. “We’ll figure out what’s going on and help him through it though.”

Chris nodded as he resumed his pacing. “JC should’ve told us sooner. What was he thinking?”

It was obvious that whatever was going on was something big, and Chris couldn’t believe that JC hadn’t told any of them. He wanted to know about things when they happened, not afterwards when he was freaking out trying to grasp what was going on. He realized there was a possibility that Justin had asked him not to say anything, but JC should know better than to keep something big like this to himself.

“We’ll find out. Just be patient,” Lance said.

Chris was about to reply when he and Lance heard Joey yell, “Guys!”

Chris and Lance walked out of the kitchen and ran into Joey in the hallway with his keys still in hand. The three of them hugged quickly. Lance stepped back and said, “You got here fast.”

“Well, Chris said to get over here ASAP.” Joey paused before he asked, “Now what’s going on? How’s he doing?”

“He’s doing all right,” Lance said. “Everything’s under control now.”

“But what happened?” Joey asked.

“JC’s going to explain everything,” Chris said.

“JC?” Joey looked confused. “What does JC have to do with this?”

“Everything,” Chris muttered.

Lance glared at him, but he didn’t care. JC had been irresponsible by keeping Justin’s problems to himself. Chris was tired of bad things happening to them and finding out after the fact because no one spoke up about it. He understood that they didn’t need to share how they were feeling with the entire group, but it was necessary when they were in danger of physically harming themselves.

“He knew something was up with Justin and didn’t tell us,” Lance told Joey.

“What is up with Justin?” Joey asked.

“Let’s find out,” Chris said as he led the way into the living room. Right away their attention was drawn to Justin sleeping on the couch and JC still sitting beside him. They watched JC continue to run his hands through Justin’s hair for a minute before Joey took the initiative and approached JC.

“Hey, JC,” Joey said quietly so as not to wake up Justin.

JC looked away from Justin to look over at Joey. “Hey, Joey.”

“How are you doing?” Joey asked.

“You guys want to know what’s going on,” JC said, ignoring Joey’s question.

“You’re damn right we do,” Chris replied. Lance smacked him upside the head. “Hey!”

“It would be nice,” Joey admitted.

JC sighed and nodded. “OK.”

“Let’s go into the kitchen so we don’t wake Justin,” Lance suggested.

Everyone agreed. JC slowly stood up, his knees popping from sitting on the floor. Joey threw an arm over his shoulders and the two of them walked into the kitchen. Chris and Lance took up the chairs they sat in earlier while Joey and JC sat across from them at the kitchen table.

“Start talking,” Chris demanded.

“Chris!” Lance smacked him again. “Enough. Why don’t you start from the beginning?” Lance suggested as he looked at JC and tried to smile encouragingly.

“OK.” JC took a deep breath. “Justin’s been having nightmares.”

“About what?” Joey asked.

“Well, uh…they’re the same nightmares I was having.” JC paused. “Exactly the same.”

Chris raised an eyebrow. “Is that even possible?”

“Apparently,” JC replied.

“So if Justin’s having your nightmares,” Joey said, “JC, you never told Chris and me what your nightmares were about.”

“I…” JC started, but trailed off. He glanced at Lance helplessly.

“It’s time to tell them, JC,” Lance said.

“You guys remember that night in the forest when your bus broke down?” JC waited for them to nod their heads before he continued. “Well, it was like that only…you guys died. I watched the demons…

“They…uh…killed you guys one at a time…and there was nothing I could do until I was alone.”

“Demons? I thought they were ghosts,” Joey said.

JC shrugged. “Katrina said they were evil and working for the devil. Demons work for the devil. I just assumed that’s what they were.”

“So Justin’s having these dreams now?” Joey asked.

“Yeah.” JC nodded. “He has for a while now.”

“How long have you known?” Chris asked. He felt bad now for getting on JC’s case. He knew that his nightmares must still be a sensitive subject, and that the rest of the conversation would probably be just as hard. He decided to keep quiet for a little so he wouldn’t come off as rude anymore.

“A couple of days,” JC said.

“And you gave him the sleeping pills to help him, right?” Lance asked before he started coughing. Chris glanced worriedly at him. His coughing sounded worse than it had a couple days ago, but Chris reasoned that he was coughing harder because he was close to getting rid of his cold.

Joey looked at JC in surprise. “You gave him sleeping pills?”

“Yeah. He wasn’t getting enough sleep. I don’t want Justin to do what I—“ JC stopped himself and instead said, “I figured they would’ve helped. Too bad I was wrong.”

“Why didn’t they work?” Joey looked at JC before looking over at Chris and Lance. “What happened?”

“He had another nightmare, but it was worse this time,” JC said before he sighed. “I really wished they had worked. He needs sleep.”

“Why didn’t you tell us sooner? We could’ve helped,” Chris said.

“Because I asked him not to.” The four of them turned their heads to see Justin standing in the doorway rubbing his eyes sleepily.

“Hey, J,” Joey said as he got up from the kitchen table to hug him. “How are you doing?”

“I’m OK,” Justin said once Joey pulled back to look at him.

“Are you sure? It seemed like one hell of a nightmare,” Chris said.

Justin managed a weak smile. “I’m sure.”

“I’ll be right back,” Lance said as he rose from the table and went upstairs.

Chris shot a confused questioning look. He wanted to talk more. Nothing had been resolved, but he realized that what they just learned was a lot to take in. Lance just must need some time alone to sort through his thoughts. Although he remembered that Lance had already known about JC’s nightmares, so it made him wonder if something else was occupying his thoughts. He decided that he was going to take a page out of Lance’s book by going for a drive later to give him some time to think and absorb everything.

“I’m going to go throw my bag in a guest room,” Joey said.

“You brought a bag?” Chris asked in surprise.

“Yeah. I’m going to stay for a couple of days. Make sure everything’s good,” Joey said. He left the kitchen and grabbed his bag that he set by the front door before going upstairs. He threw his bag in the only empty room left. It was when he was on his way back downstairs that he noticed that Lance’s door was half open. He decided to make sure he was all right.

Joey knocked gently on Lance’s door, not wanting to barge in. He heard Lance give his consent to come in and pushed the door open the rest of the way. Lance was lying on his bed with his eyes closed.

“Are you all right, man? You took off pretty quick,” Joey said.

“Yeah.” Lance opened his eyes to look at Joey. “I’ve been sick and I’m still not feeling too well.”

“Well, I’ll get out of your hair. Let you rest.” Joey headed for the door.

“Thanks, Joe,” Lance said.

“Get some sleep,” Joey ordered as he pointed a finger at Lance before laughing and closing the door behind him.

“I’m sorry, J,” JC said. He and Justin were still in the kitchen. Chris had left saying something about how they would need more food if Joey was going to stay.

Justin had mixed feelings about Joey being there. It was nice to see him again because it had been a while. However, he wished it was under different circumstances. He didn’t want Joey to be dragged away from his family because he was having nightmares that didn’t mean anything. He knew that for the next few days he would be watched like never before, especially by Lance and Chris.

 “It’s OK. They must’ve been hounding you for answers. You didn’t have a choice,” Justin said once he realized that he hadn’t responded to JC’s apology. He wasn’t mad at JC for telling the guys about his nightmares. He was sure that Chris and Lance had freaked when they’d seen him having a nightmare. They had to have if they called Joey.

“I always have a choice. I could’ve kept my mouth shut last night when I was talking to Chris,” JC said.

“Look, JC, about that…I’m sorry,” Justin apologized. “I shouldn’t have yelled at you like that. I know it was an accident.”

“No, Justin, I deserved it. I shouldn’t have broken my promise. I had no right to say anything,” JC said.

“They would’ve found out eventually,” Justin replied.

“I tried to help you, J. I really did,” JC insisted.

Justin sighed. “You can’t fix everything, C. I told you because I didn’t know what else to do. I didn’t expect you to magically make them go away.”

“Either way, I’m glad you told me. You didn’t keep it to yourself. You weren’t stupid like me,” JC said.

Justin felt awful. He hated himself for yelling at JC. He knew that JC didn’t mean to mention him to Chris last night. He was glad that JC had caught himself, but it was all for nothing anyway since they all knew now. He had said some rotten things to JC, but saying that he wasn’t as stupid as JC was the worst. Justin knew that as much as he looked up to JC, JC valued Justin’s opinion. That had always made him feel good, especially when he was younger and no one would listen to him. He didn’t want JC to think that he was stupid because he wasn’t.

Justin groaned. “JC, of all the things I said to you…I didn’t mean that. I know now what you went through and why you kept it to yourself. You’re not stupid. I’m sorry I ever said that.”

Justin knew that JC had probably been beating himself up about it all day. JC felt responsible for everyone, so if something went wrong he already blamed himself. It was plain stupid for him to blame JC. He was hard enough on himself without him adding to it.

JC half smiled. “Thanks.”

A few seconds passed in silence before Justin said, “Can I ask you something?”

“Sure. What’s on your mind?”

“Did…” Justin hesitated. “Did your nightmares ever change?”

“No.” JC shook his head. “Why?”

“Because mine did,” Justin said.

“Really?” JC looked surprised.

Justin nodded. “It was…more graphic.”

“How?” JC asked.

“Instead of what normally happens, the demons…they…” Justin paused for a minute to collect his thoughts and actually say it. “They broke your bones…one at a time. I could hear it…and they just kept going. Every time they did it, you guys would scream. I did too. They…they didn’t stop until they…broke your neck.”

The nightmare was still fresh in his mind. He had thought that the nightmares before were disturbing, but those were nothing compared to how graphic it was now. It had been so painful to listen to his friends scream in pain and not being able to help them. He had yelled with them to try to get the demons to stop hurting his friends, but of course it did nothing. There was one thing that Justin didn’t tell JC. He had died in his nightmare too. While he had died before the nightmare changed, this time was more disturbing and he didn’t feel comfortable telling JC about it yet.

“Oh, Justin, I’m so sorry,” JC said as he quickly closed the gap between them and hugged him. As soon as Justin felt JC’s arms wrap around him, he lost control of his emotions and began to cry.

“Why did the dream change?” Justin asked a minute later as his tears started to subside. He knew that JC’s nightmares had never changed so he couldn’t figure out why his had. There had to be some significance, but Justin couldn’t think of what it could possibly be.

“I don’t know, J.” JC ran a hand through his hair. “I don’t know.”

JC rinsed his mouth before he spit out the toothpaste. He ran his toothbrush under the water one more time, turned the faucet off, and put his toothbrush back in the medicine cabinet. Turning the light off was the last thing he did before he walked into his bedroom and pulled the covers back on his bed to slide beneath them. A few minutes passed of him lying in bed before he sighed in frustration. He couldn’t sleep.

JC knew that it was important for him to get a good night’s sleep in order to keep an eye on Justin, but too many thoughts kept him from drifting off. JC still couldn’t shake the feeling that Justin was having his nightmares for a reason, especially now that it had changed so dramatically. And if his concerns for Justin weren’t stressful enough, Lance was starting to worry him as well.

Lately whenever JC spoke to Lance telepathically, a cold, icy feeling washed over him. He wondered if Lance being sick had something to do with it, but that didn’t make much sense to JC. He doubted that Lance was even aware. He sighed again and was about to roll over when Chris walked into his room.

“C’mon,” Chris whispered.

“Where are we going?” JC asked as he got out of bed.

“Downstairs. Group meeting,” Chris answered. JC followed Chris downstairs into the living room where he found Lance and Joey already sitting on the couch. Chris took the remaining seat on the couch, so JC sat on the loveseat.

“I’m guess this group meeting is about Justin since he’s not here,” JC said once he noticed that Justin wasn’t among them. He wasn’t really surprised. He could tell that Chris had wanted to talk more yesterday, but Lance had left the room causing the conversation to end.

“We need to figure out what we’re going to do about him and his nightmares,” Lance replied.

“What can we do about them?” Joey asked. “It’s not like we can make them stop or anything.”

“We can make him see someone,” Chris said.

“You mean like a psychologist?” Joey asked.

“Yeah. It’s obvious talking to JC didn’t help,” Chris said. “A professional will be able to get to the root of the problem.”

“I didn’t see you try to do anything,” JC muttered.

“We didn’t get the chance because you didn’t tell us,” Chris shot back.

“You should’ve noticed without me having to tell you. Because this isn’t the first time this has happened, is it?” JC fired back at him. Joey saw Chris open his mouth to reply, but he jumped in.

“Guys, cool it.” He looked at Chris and then Lance. “You think sending him to therapy will help?”

“It’s worth a try,” Lance said.

JC shook his head. “No, it’s not. Therapy isn’t going to help him.”

“Then do you think we should do?” Chris asked.

JC paused as he tried to come up with some other option that he could lay out there, but he came up with nothing. “I don’t know.”

“Then this is what we’re going to do,” Chris replied. “We can’t just sit here and do nothing to resolve this.”

“I know, but this isn’t going to work,” JC repeated.

“What other options do we have?” Joey asked.

“I don’t know,” JC admitted softly as he lowered his eyes to the carpet and shook his head.

“I’ll set up an appointment with a guy I went to college with,” Chris said.

“He won’t go,” JC said knowingly. He knew that now wasn’t the time to tell them about the feeling he’s been having that something is going on because he didn’t have an explanation that he knew they would be expecting. It seemed that they were willing to send Justin to see a psychologist. JC felt he owed it to Justin to do everything he could to get him out of it because he knew that Justin didn’t need it and he had promised Justin he would try to figure out why he was having his nightmares. “He won’t go willing.”

“Maybe he will if someone goes with him.” JC heard Lance’s thought coming in his head and looked at him in surprise. He sent a thought back to him. “What do you mean by that?” 

“I didn’t mean for you to hear that,” Lance said. 

“What do you mean you didn’t mean for me to hear that?” JC asked. “You looked at me as you said it.” 

Lance sighed. “I just meant that he might go if someone else went with him.” 

“No.” JC shook his head. “You meant that I need therapy.” 

“It couldn’t hurt,” Lance said after hesitating for a few seconds. 

“Why? I’m over it,” JC said. 

“I don’t think so.” Lance shook his head. “You’re up late at night. You’re tense…”

“I’m not!” JC denied. He shivered as he felt the cold seep into his bones. It felt like he was out in a snowstorm in danger of frostbite.

“Yes you are! You’re obviously still bothered by your nightmares. It would do you good to see someone,” Lance said.

JC shivered again. “Shut up!” he yelled as he stood up. He glanced around the room briefly before he swiftly left the room and went out into the hall.

He sighed as he leaned against the wall. He knew he shouldn’t have snapped like that, but he couldn’t handle that chilling feeling anymore. It was unpleasant and creepy the way it affected him so much.

“Are you all right, Jace?”

JC turned around to see Joey standing behind him. “I can’t handle him being in my head anymore.”

“You were talking to Lance back there?” Joey asked as he came to the realization.

“Sometimes I wish we didn’t have this stupid connection,” JC said.

“Why?” Joey asked.

“I’m never alone with my thoughts because he’s always there. Even if he doesn’t say anything to me I know he could easily get to whatever it is that I’m thinking and I hate that,” JC ranted.

“Does he know you feel this way?”

“No.” JC shook his head. “What could he do about it? It’s not like he could just turn it off.”

Silence filled the hall for a minute before Joey asked, “So what did you and Lance talk about?”

JC hesitated before he said, “He wants me to see someone with Justin.”

“And you don’t want to,” Joey said matter-of-factly.

“I don’t need to and neither does Justin. It wouldn’t help him,” JC replied.

“Why are you so adamant to keep him from seeing a psychologist?” Joey asked.

“It’s not something that can be solved through therapy. It’s bigger than that.”

“What do you mean, C?”

JC paused. He knew that Joey probably wouldn’t believe him. “It’s this feeling I have.”

“What kind of a feeling?”

“That this has to do with what we dealt with before,” JC said. Joey gave him a baffled look, expectantly waiting for more explanation. JC continued, “I…this might have something to do with the demons.”

“What?” Joey looked at JC in surprise and then shook his head. “That’s crazy, JC. It’s been two months and nothing’s happened.”

“That’s what we thought before. A year passed, but that didn’t stop that night from happening. It’s going to happen again, Joe. I can feel it,” JC said.

An awkward silence passed between them, until Joey replied, shaking his head, “Lance is right, man. You do need therapy.”

JC’s body tensed and his face turned a shade of red before he punched the wall. He glared at Joey before he went upstairs to his bedroom.

Joey walked out the front door with his duffle bag. He had taken a shower and changed an hour before. He had called Kelly last night after dinner and told her that he would be home sometime after he woke up. After unlocking the trunk, he threw his duffle bag in, and looked up to find Justin standing there.

“You’re sick of us already?” Justin asked.

“Yeah. You guys are a handful.” Joey laughed.

“Who? Me?” Justin put on his best innocent face before he burst out laughing a second later. “Seriously, this was a short visit.”

“I know.” Joey sighed. “I promised Kelly I would be home ASAP. Besides, there’s not much I can do….”

“I’m sorry they called you. It wasn’t a big deal,” Justin said.

“They had every right to. Chris told me how you reacted to your nightmare. I would have freaked if I had seen it too,” Joey replied.

“It’s not a big deal,” Justin repeated.

“Are you trying to convince me or yourself?” Joey asked. He thought back to what JC had said about Justin’s nightmares being related to the demons and wondered how much of his insane theory he had shared with Justin. Either way, Joey had to admit that he would be scared too if he was in Justin’s shoes.

There was silence for a minute before Justin asked, “Can I go with you?”

“Why?” Joey asked looking surprised at the sudden question.

“I’m going crazy being in the house. I need to get out,” Justin complained.

“Why don’t you ask one of the other guys to take you out?”

“Because Lance is sick, Chris is on the phone, and JC is…JC. Please, Joey.” Justin looked at Joey hopefully.

“I don’t know, J. I don’t think it’s a good idea,” Joey said, shaking his head.

“Why not?” Justin asked. “Dude, I’m fine. I can go out and…”

Joey quickly cut in and replied, “I need to get home to Kelly. She’s not too happy with me right now.”

“Why? What happened?”

“She’s been riding me about my drinking. If I even look at a beer, she gets all pissy,” Joey explained. He chose not to mention the disagreement they’d had about him taking off to stay at Lance’s in the first place. He didn’t want Justin to feel any worse than he already did, and telling him that he’d basically triggered an argument between them would have been a horrible idea. However, his frequent absences were provoked. He was beyond frustrated with how he was being treated by her. He’d been doing so well, and as far as he was concerned, he’d earned her trust back. He hated that she wasn’t giving him a second chance.

“She’s just looking out for you. She cares about you,” Justin said.

“I know.” Joey nodded as he turned his back to Justin. “I just wish she’d trust me a little more. I’m not going to do what I did before, you know?”

“J?” Joey asked when there was no reply. He turned around to look at Justin. Justin was just standing there blinking rapidly and squinting, but other than that he looked fine physically. Just as he was about to ask if he was all right, Justin’s eyes rolled into his head as he fell forward. Joey managed to catch him before he could hit the hard, concrete driveway.

“Guys!” he yelled.

Joey gently lowered Justin to the ground beside his car. He had no idea what to do. It wasn’t every day one his friends passed out in front of him in mid-conversation. He decided that if it was something serious then he would stay longer to make sure he was all right and help out.

Less than a minute later JC and Chris came running. “What happened?” JC asked as he kneeled down next to Justin’s body. He quickly scanned Justin’s body for any injuries and as far as he could tell there were none and his breathing seemed steady and even. Letting out a sigh of relief he sat back on his heels.

“I don’t know. We were talking and next thing I know he passed out,” Joey said. “Do you think we should take him to the hospital?”

As soon as the words left Joey’s mouth Justin began to stir. His eyelids fluttered before they opened only to squint from the sunlight. Once his eyes adjusted they moved from each of the worried faces of his friends hovering over him.

“I’m OK,” Justin said as he sat up, pushing away hands that offered to help.

“Are you sure?” JC asked as he stood up.

Justin nodded. “I’m fine.”

“I think we should take you to the doctor’s to get checked out,” Chris said.

“Why? I swear I’m fine. Really,” Justin insisted.

“We’ll see.” Chris looked over at Joey. “Go call the doctor.”

“Why? He’s fine,” JC said.

“It wouldn’t hurt to get him checked out,” Joey replied. It did seem like Justin had no effects from passing out, but he did think seeing a doctor would be a good idea. He was surprised that JC was insisting that Justin was fine. Normally he would be so worried that he would demand Justin get checked out. It made him wonder why JC was so calm and collected right now. He decided he would bring it up later.

“Well, if you’re taking Justin to the doctor, you might as well take Lance too,” JC said sarcastically.

“Lance doesn’t need to see the doctor. He’s just got a cold. Justin passed out,” Chris said.

“But he doesn’t need a doctor.” JC gestured to Justin. “He’s not dizzy, bleeding, or disoriented.”

“Yeah, but he passed out after having a nightmare. Sound familiar to you?” Chris gave JC a knowing look. JC averted his eyes. “Joey, go call the doctor now.”

Joey walked back into the house to make the phone call. He found the number to Doctor Marks’ office in Lance’s study. Doctor Marks was the doctor they used when they were home. They had known him from the beginning when they were first starting out. He was one of the best in Orlando.

A few minutes later he hung up the phone with an appointment. It hadn’t been hard to get one because of who they were, and it didn’t hurt that Doctor Marks didn’t have many appointments today. He headed towards the front door to tell the others that they had an appointment in an hour. As soon as he opened the door, he could hear them arguing with each other. Joey sighed and reached them just as Justin asked, “Who says we have to tell each other everything?”

“I know my memory is supposed to be failing me in my old age, but I seem to recall you being against keeping secrets from each other last month. What happened to that?” Chris raised an eyebrow.

“I changed my mind. I don’t have to tell you everything,” Justin answered.

“When it starts affecting your health, we need to know,” Chris said.

“It’s not affecting his health,” JC replied.

Chris glared at him. “Do I really have to remind you that he just passed out in the middle of the driveway? It’s affecting his health.”

Joey had tried to figure out exactly what they were talking about while they were fighting. He had an idea, but he didn’t know for sure. “What’s going on?”

“Justin was about to tell us what he and JC were going to run off to talk about,” Chris said.

“You don’t have to do this,” JC told Justin.

Justin sighed. “It’s fine. I uh…saw things.”

“If you say you saw dead people, I’ll punch you,” Chris said.

“What kind of things?” Joey asked as he ignored Chris and looked over at Justin. He was kind of afraid of what Justin’s answer would be. It was so weird that Justin had just passed out with no warning whatsoever. Joey was beginning to think that maybe there was more going on than he originally thought. That didn’t mean that he believed JC though.

“I saw myself writing in a notebook,” Justin said.

“That’s it?” Chris asked after a minute expecting Justin to say more. Justin shrugged and gave a short nod.

“How can you dream while you’re unconscious?” Joey asked more to himself than to Justin. He was trying to understand what Justin was trying to tell them. If he paid attention he might be able to better explain what happened to the doctor.

“It wasn’t a dream…not really. I don’t know how to explain it. I just…” Justin looked up at JC helplessly. Joey had never seen him this frightened.

Chris looked at Joey with a questioning look. “Are you sure he didn’t his head?”

“You wanted him to tell you, but now that he has you don’t believe him. Why the hell did you even bother?” JC asked.

“What’s your problem?” Chris yelled.

“All right. That’s enough. We need to go. Doctor Marks is expecting us,” Joey said.

“I’m not going,” JC said.

“Why not?” Justin asked as he quickly stood up. Joey could hear the fear in his voice. It was so weird to see him act like this because even when Justin was younger he tried to never let his fear show. This just emphasized the thought Joey had about what’s going on being bigger then he originally imagined.

JC hesitated for a moment. “Someone needs to stay with Lance. He’s going to want to know what happened when he wakes up from his nap.”

“Then have Chris or Joey stay. Please, JC,” Justin pleaded.

JC squeezed his shoulder reassuringly. “You’ll be fine.” He paused. “We’ll talk later, OK?”

Chris rolled his eyes and pulled on Justin’s wrist. “Yeah, yeah. You’ll get your private talk where you keep more secrets from us.” He yanked hard. “Let’s go, Justin.”

“No.” Justin shook his head. “I don’t need to go. I’m fine.”

“You’re going. Now get in the damn car,” Chris said. He pushed Justin into the passenger seat.

Joey sighed as he got into the backseat as Chris got behind the wheel. He hoped that Chris and JC being separated for a while would give both of them time to cool down. He didn’t know why they were getting on each other’s nerves so much, but they weren’t going to stay mad forever. They were both worried about Justin and that’s why they were snapping at each other.

He could only hope that the doctor would say that Justin was fine. They didn’t need to deal with another member being in the hospital. It was bad enough that Lance collapsed back when they first started, but then JC last month. Joey didn’t want to go through that again and he knew that the others felt the same way. In the back of his mind he could still hear JC saying that the reason all of these things had been happening had been because of the demons. Joey didn’t know what to do with that information, but for now he was going to keep it to himself.

JC watched the car pull out of the driveway and waited until it was out of sight before going back into the house. He sighed as he closed the door and leaned against it. His eyes trailed up the stairs where he knew Lance was sleeping. A minute passed before he pushed himself off the door and walked upstairs figuring that now would be a good time to check on Lance.

JC slowly opened the door so as not to disturb Lance if he was still asleep. He walked into the room to see him lying on his side. Just as JC was about to back out so he wouldn’t wake him, Lance rolled over onto his back and rubbed his eyes tiredly.

“Hey,” he said, pulling himself into a sitting position.

“Hey. How are you feeling?” JC asked as he stepped closer to Lance’s bed.

“Like crap,” Lance admitted.

“Do you need anything?” JC asked.

“No.” Lance shook his head. A second or two passed before he said, “So I take it you’re not mad anymore.”

JC shrugged. He thought back to last night when they had talked about Justin and he had yelled at Lance. It still bothered him that Lance thought he needed therapy, but he knew that he was just concerned and he wasn’t going to hold that against him.

“I didn’t mean to push so hard. I just think that it’d do you good to talk to someone.” He added before JC could rationalize that he’d spoken to Justin, “Someone outside the group. Someone who doesn’t know our situation.”

“And tell them what? That I think I may have PTSD from being attacked by demons? I think they’d have other concerns.”

Lance shook his head in dismissal, as if he didn’t know how to respond to JC’s valid point. “Look, I know you don’t sleep at night anymore. I’m worried about you.”

“I…I just can’t sleep until I check on you guys,” JC confessed after a minute. He figured it wouldn’t hurt to be a little honest with Lance. It wasn’t like he was telling him everything. After Joey’s reaction, he wasn’t sure if he was ready for that again.

“But why?”

JC hesitated. “I just want to make sure that you all are OK. But even then...”

“But even then what?” Lance pressed.

JC took a deep breath before saying, “I can’t sleep in the dark. Even turning a light on doesn’t help. And I don’t end up falling asleep until the sun rises.” JC blushed slightly as he finished. It was embarrassing to admit that he was afraid of the dark.

“This is what I’m talking about,” Lance said. “You might not be having your nightmares anymore, but you’re still not sleeping like you should be. You need to talk to someone. I don’t want a repeat of last time.”

“That’s not going to happen,” JC promised.

Lance sighed. “I know I can’t make you go if you don’t want to. But this can’t keep happening. You need sleep, JC.”

“I’ll try, OK? I can take care of myself,” JC replied.

A few seconds passed in silence as JC paused before he said, “There's something else. Why I reacted the way I did last night with the whole therapy thing.”

Lance nodded in understanding and JC hesitated briefly before he continued, “Could you stop talking to me that way until you’re better?”

“What? Why?” Lance looked at him curiously.

“I get…kind of cold when we talk like that. I think it has to do with you being sick,” JC explained. He didn’t believe that the cold feeling he got was because Lance was sick, but he wasn’t going to tell Lance that. The last thing JC wanted to do was worry him, especially when he didn’t know what was behind the cold feeling.

“I make you cold?” Lance asked in confusion.

“Yeah. It feels like someone took a bucket of ice water and dumped it on top of me,” JC said.

“I didn’t know I was doing that to you,” Lance said.

“I figured you didn’t,” JC replied.

Silence filled the room as JC tried to come up with a way to tell Lance about Justin. The guys would be back soon and he knew that he should fill him in before they got back. JC took a deep breath. “Something happened while you were sleeping.”

“What?” Lance asked.

“Justin…he uh…passed out,” JC said.

“He what?” Lance threw his covers back as he made to get out of bed. “Why didn’t you wake me?”

“It happened so fast. It didn’t occur to me until afterwards,” JC explained. He walked over to Lance and pushed him to sit back down in bed.

“So how is he?” Lance asked.

JC shrugged. “Chris and Joey took him to get checked out by Doctor Marks.”

“I hope he’s all right,” Lance said.

“Me too,” JC said half-heartedly. In truth, JC did hope that Doctor Marks found something medically wrong with Justin. It’d mean that he was wrong in thinking that the demons were behind what was going on. “Well, I think I’m going to let you rest.”

“I’m done resting. I’m going to take a shower,” Lance said.

“Oh, well, I’ll go so you can get one,” JC replied.

JC left Lance’s room and walked downstairs into the kitchen. He immediately began to pace as he continued to think about Justin. He wasn’t comfortable with talking to Lance about Justin, not when he didn’t know what exactly was going on with him. A medical problem would be easier to deal with than the demons, and JC had no idea how they would go about handling that situation. The implication of that thought made him feel weak causing him to plop down into a chair that had been pulled away from the table.

He didn’t want to be caught off guard if Justin turned out to be fine, but he didn’t know how to prepare for that possibility. From what had happened last time it was easy to see that the demons would have the upper hand, and that thought didn’t sit well with JC. There wasn’t a lot he could do to stop anything from happening and that fact killed him. He could only hope that it didn’t come to that.

Chris pulled into the driveway and parked the car. He, Joey, and Justin got out of the car and walked up the driveway towards the front door.

“I can’t believe that lady almost ran me over,” Chris said as he shook his head.

“It was your fault for walking behind her car while she was backing out,” Justin replied, carrying the food in his hand.

“Probably gave that poor woman a heart attack,” Joey said.

“I gave her a heart attack? I was the one who dropped my food,” Chris said.

“But she paid for it, didn’t she?” Justin asked already knowing the answer.

“Yeah,” Chris admitted as he unlocked the door. She had given him the money to go back in and replace the food he had dropped. The three of them walked into the house and made their way to the kitchen, running into Lance as he came down the stairs.

“How is he?” Lance asked Joey.

“I’m standing right here,” Justin muttered.

“Well,” Lance prompted.

“I’m fine,” Justin said.

“Good.” Lance smiled and the four of them walked into the kitchen where they saw JC sitting at the table. He looked up as they walked in.

“I’m fine,” Justin said again before JC could even ask. JC nodded slowly, but didn’t move from his seat.

“C’mon, let’s take the food into the living room,” Joey suggested.

Justin carried the Burger King bags as the three of them headed into the living room. Chris started to follow, but stopped when he noticed that JC was still sitting at the table.

“Aren’t you coming to get some food?” he asked.

“I’m not hungry,” JC mumbled, looking down at his hands.

“Oh no.” Chris shook his head. “You aren’t doing this again.”

“Doing what?” JC asked.

“Starving yourself!” Chris exclaimed. He realized that his voice had risen and glanced behind him into the living room where the other three were. It didn’t seem like they had heard him, but Chris lowered his voice anyway.

“Skipping one meal is hardly starving myself,” JC replied.

“No, but you slept through breakfast. You haven’t eaten anything today,” Chris pointed out.

“You’re doing it again!” JC exclaimed. “You’re focusing on me when Justin’s more important!”

“What are you talking about?” Chris asked.

“Just because the doctor says that he’s fine, doesn’t make everything better. Aren’t you the least bit concerned that Justin passed out for no reason?” JC said.

Chris shook his head. “No. He said that Justin was fine and that he collapsed from stress or exhaustion. We need to get him to relax, which would be a lot easier if you weren’t moping about with your ‘woe is me’ attitude.”

“And his nightmares?” JC asked.

“We’re going to help him through them, but there’s not a lot we can do. But you’ve experienced them yourself making you the best person to help him. You need to be strong for Justin. Help him deal with these nightmares,” Chris said.

A tense moment passed before JC scoffed and shook his head muttering, “Stress and exhaustion.”

“What?” Chris asked.

“It took me a month to collapse from exhaustion, and Justin passes out after two weeks? I find that hard to believe,” JC explained.

Chris shrugged. “That’s what the doctor said. I mean, what else could it be?”

Chris watched as JC looked away. He could almost see him close in on himself and hear the wheels turning in his head as he was thinking. It was obvious that JC didn’t believe exhaustion had been the cause of Justin’s episode in the driveway.

“What? What are you thinking?” Chris asked.

JC slowly brought his eyes back up to Chris and shook his head. “Nothing.”

“Bull,” Chris said. “It’s obvious something’s bothering you. What is it?”

“You won’t believe me,” JC said softly, lowering his eyes again.

Chris pulled out a chair and sat down in it across from JC. “Try me.”

JC hesitated before he sighed. “OK…I uh think Justin having my nightmares and him collapsing today are more connected than we think.”

“What do you mean?” Chris asked.

“I uh…” JC cleared his throat. “I think the…demons are involved.”

Chris raised his eyebrows in surprise. He wanted to tell JC that was insane. That there was no way the demons could be involved because all of that had been dealt with a while ago and that he must be imagining things. Chris thought back to how harsh he had been earlier and knew that he would have to choose his words carefully because JC would freak out if he rejected what he said entirely.

“What makes you say that?” Chris asked.

“I have a feeling that something bad is going to happen,” JC said.

“Maybe you were just having that feeling because you somehow knew Justin was going to pass out,” Chris suggested.

JC shook his head. “No. That’s not it. It has to do with the demons. I just know it. They’re coming back to finish what they started.”

“There’s nothing to finish, JC,” Chris said.

“Yes, there is,” JC insisted. “We stopped them from killing you guys. They probably want to finish it.”

“Even if they did want to finish what they started they can’t because they were sent back to hell,” Chris replied.

“They’re coming, and there’s nothing you or me or any of us can do about it.” JC paused before he whispered, “I think Justin’s their first target.”

Chris looked at him in surprise. “What?” he shook his head. “That doesn’t make any sense. He had nothing to do with the demons the first time. Why wouldn’t he come after me or Lance or Joey first?”

JC shook his head. “I don’t know, but why else would he be having my nightmares? That’s not normal. Then with him passing out for no reason…”

“None of that means the demons are after him. He probably had your nightmares because they were so disturbing, and he probably passed out for some logical reason like heat exhaustion or something,” Chris reasoned.

“If that’s true, why haven’t you had my nightmares?” JC asked.

“Because you told Justin first. And probably told him more than you did us,” Chris said with a hint of bitterness. He was a little jealous that JC felt he couldn’t confide in him and went to Justin instead because he thought they were closer than that. But he realized that he probably wasn’t JC’s first choice to talk to because of how skeptical he was of supernatural things.

Silence filled the kitchen for a minute. Finally JC spoke, “I…I don’t know what to do. I don’t want anything bad to happen to him…to any of you.”

“Nothing bad will happen,” Chris insisted.

“You don’t know that, Chris!” JC objected.

“And you don’t know that it won’t,” Chris replied. He was really worried about JC. It was easy to see that he must have put a lot of thought into this whole demon thing, and that scared Chris. If he needed anymore proof that JC needed therapy, this was it. Lance had told him about his suggestion that JC go to therapy with Justin, and he had agreed when he remembered seeing JC up late the other night.

“Chris, you don’t understand. I’ve had these feelings before and they’ve never been wrong,” JC said.

“When?” Chris asked.

“When we were at the cabin, and then before you and I switched buses and you guys got lost in the woods,” JC explained. “See? Every time I have had a bad feeling, something bad happened.”

Chris looked at JC curiously. “So you’re psychic now?”

“I don’t think so. I just get these feelings and I’m telling you something bad is going to happen,” JC said.

“You already said that,” Chris pointed out.

“Well, you’re not listening!” JC exclaimed.

“Yes, I am.” Chris sighed. “We’ll watch out for each other, all right?”

“We can’t stop it.” JC paused. “I don’t want to lose you guys.”

“You’re not going to lose us, JC. I promise you.”

“I don’t think I could handle it if something bad happened to any of you.” JC paused to rub at his watery eyes. Chris frowned. It seemed like JC hadn’t even heard what he had said. “It would kill me.”

Chris stood up and pulled JC to his feet as well. He wrapped his arms around JC, and he hugged him back. He whispered, “Nothing’s going to happen. Not ever again.” He paused to squeeze JC tighter. “I won’t let it.”

He pulled back after a minute. “Are you all right now?”

JC nodded. “Yeah. I think I’m going to go lie down.”

“OK.” Chris nodded. He didn’t believe that JC was fine because he got the typical response when someone asked him if he was all right. Chris watched as JC walked into the hallway and listened as he softly padded upstairs before he let out a heavy sigh. That was one hell of a conversation and it made him wonder how long JC had kept that bottled up. It was obvious that it had been eating him up inside by keeping it to himself, so Chris hoped that if nothing else, he helped ease the burden that JC put on himself. Even though he knew that JC’s fears probably weren’t alleviated at all.

One thing was for sure was he needed to talk to Lance about what JC just shared with him. He needed someone else’s opinion on it and knew that Lance would be able to give a little more insight in what was going on in JC’s head. While JC had shared a lot with Chris, he knew that JC still probably kept a good deal to himself.

He wanted to find a way to help JC, but for now he was going to eat some lunch. Chris figured that he had a lot of time to figure out a way to help both JC and Justin. No course of action would be taken until he talked to Lance. Maybe Lance could help him come up with a way to help two of their brothers.

“Go fish.”

Joey reached out into the middle of the bed and picked a card to add to his hand. He eyed his cards carefully for a second before he asked, “Hey, how are we doing this? Two of a kind?”

Lance shook his head. “That’s too easy.”

“OK. So three of a kind then,” Joey said.

“But then we’ll have one card floating around,” Lance pointed out.

Joey sighed. “Four of a kind it is.” He had three kings in his hand and could’ve laid them down, but now he needed to pick up one more.

“Do you have any kings?” Lance asked.

“You cheater,” Joey accused as he handed his cards over. Lance laid all four kings down in front of himself.

“I didn’t know you had it. Honest, Joe,” Lance replied.

“I think you’re taking a page out of Chris’ book,” Joey said. Lance just smiled and said nothing.

The game continued. Joey glanced out the window and noticed it was still relatively dark despite the fact that it was almost four o’clock in the afternoon. He had suggested to Lance that they go swimming, but that idea had been quickly dismissed. It had been gloomy all day and looked like it was going to get worse. In the end, they settled on playing Go Fish in Lance’s room.

“Do you have any…sixes?” Joey asked. Lance pulled three cards out of his hand and offered them to Joey. “Dude, I asked for sixes. Not nines.”

“Oh, sorry,” Lance said. He put the three nines back in his hand and offered Joey the one six that he had.

“Only one?” Joey moaned with disappointment. “I change my mind. I want the nines.”

Lance shook his head. “That’s not how the game works.”

“Fine,” Joey said sulkily. Lance laughed.

A minute later there was light knocking on the open door. “Knock, knock, knock.”

Lance and Joey turned their attention to the doorway where Chris was standing. Lance invited him in. “Hey.”

“What are you guys playing?” Chris asked as he sat on the edge of Lance’s bed.

“Go Fish,” Joey said as he watched Lance lay down the rest of his cards. “You cheater.”

“I am not,” Lance replied.

“We’ll see about that. Deal another game,” Joey demanded.

“Did you come in here for a particular reason?” Lance asked Chris, glancing at him briefly as he shuffled the deck.

“No, not really,” Chris said. ”Deal me in.”

Lance passed out seven cards to each of them. He looked to his left at Chris. “We’re doing four of a kind.” Chris nodded and the game was underway.

“I made an appointment for JC,” Chris said a minute later. Joey could tell that this must have been on his mind because he didn’t say much when he first came in, which wasn’t like him.

“I thought you were making one for Justin,” Joey replied.

“I was—I did. But I made one for JC too,” Chris said.

“Why?” Joey asked.

“I called my friend back a little bit ago and told him what’s been going on with Justin and JC. He suggested seeing JC because he says that it sounds like he needs it more being that he hasn’t dealt with happened yet,” Chris explained.

“Well did he say anything about Justin?” Lance asked.

Chris nodded. “He told me that he thinks Justin’s having nightmares now because he never got to deal with what happened. I gave him the overview on everything that happened last month with JC being hospitalized and everything else, and he thinks Justin was so concerned on making sure we were all right that he didn’t allow himself to think about it…until after JC talked to him.” He paused and looked down at his cards. “Got any twos?”

“So what time is the appointment?” Lance handed two cards to Chris.

“Two o’clock,” Chris answered. “And the best part is he’s coming to us, so we don’t have to try to force JC out of the house.”

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Joey asked after a few seconds.

Chris looked over at him. “I thought you were OK with this?”

“I was for Justin, but I’m not sure about JC,” Joey said. Sure he had told JC that he needed therapy, but he hadn’t been completely serious. While it could really help JC deal with what had happened and get him back to normal, it could also make him regress and put his health in danger again. Joey wasn’t sure what would be the best decision. “What do you think, Lance?”

Lance sighed. “I think it would do JC good.”

“What would do JC good?” The three of them turned to see Justin leaning against the doorway.

“Do you know where he is?” Chris asked. Joey could tell that Chris wanted to make sure that JC wouldn’t be coming upstairs anytime soon and overhear them talking like Justin had.

“He’s outside,” Justin said. “So what were you guys saying? What would do him good?”

They quickly exchanged glances before Lance nodded and said, “We were talking about JC going to therapy.”

Justin pushed himself off the doorway, walked over to Lance’s bed, and sat across from Chris. “I don’t think that’s necessary.”

“Me either,” Joey agreed.

“Of course it’s necessary! You should’ve heard the way he was talking earlier,” Chris replied.

“Why? What was he saying?” Lance asked.

“He was talking crazy.” Chris shook his head. “He said the demons are coming back to finish what they started.”

“What?” Justin and Lance said in surprise.

Joey raised an eyebrow. “You mean JC didn’t tell you guys?”

“No,” Justin said and Lance shook his head. Joey couldn’t believe that. He thought for sure that JC had talked to them because they were the ones he normally talked to.

“So he thinks the demons are after us again?” Lance asked.

“Yeah, and he thinks…” Chris looked over at Justin. “He thinks you’re their first target.”

Justin looked curious. “Why?”

“He says your nightmares and you passing out were caused by the demons,” Chris explained. “The whole idea is just crazy.”

“Is it really?” Justin asked. “I mean, considering how bad his nightmares were and how frequent they were. You guys can’t even imagine how terrifying they are.”

“All the more reason for him to go. He needs to talk to someone who’s not involved,” Lance said.

“What makes you think that’s going to help?” Joey asked.

“It’s something we haven’t tried yet,” Lance answered. “I think this could really help him.”

Justin shook his head. “I don’t know. I think we just need to give him some time to realize that his nightmares were just…nightmares and that nothing like that’s going to happen.”

“It’s not just his nightmares though,” Lance said.

“What else?” Chris asked.

“He’s not sleeping. At least not as much as he should be.” Lance paused. “He checks on us every night while we’re sleeping. He says he can’t sleep until he does, but he still doesn’t fall asleep until it starts to get light out.”

Joey gave Lance a curious look. “How do you know this?”

“He told me,” Lance said simply. “I said he should talk to someone, and he wasn’t having any of it. He’s going to flip when he finds out that we’re bringing a therapist to talk to him.”

“That’s why we’re not going to tell him,” Chris said.

“This isn’t going to work. Therapy isn’t the way to solve his problems,” Justin replied.

Chris shot him a look. “What do you propose we do?” Justin opened his mouth to reply and Chris added, “Besides leaving him alone to deal with it. It’s obvious he needs help.”

“I know, but I’m telling you, this isn’t the way to do it,” Justin insisted.

Lance reached out and put a hand on Justin’s shoulder. “I know you’re trying to look out for JC, but we are too. I’m afraid that if we don’t get him some help that we’ll have a repeat of last time.”

Just then thunder could be heard crashing outside. Joey set down his cards, got up from the foot of Lance’s bed, and walked over to the window. He looked out into the backyard and saw that it was pouring down rain. His eyes wandered over to the pool and saw JC sitting on the edge with his legs in the water, seeming to not care that he was getting rained on.

“What is he thinking?” Joey muttered, but the other three had heard him. They threw their cards in the middle of the bed with the rest of the deck.

“What?” Justin asked. He walked over to the window and peered over Joey’s shoulder.

Chris joined the two of them and shook his head when he saw JC. “I told you he’s nuts.”

By this time Lance had joined the rest of them in looking out the window. Joey, who had been standing next to Lance, saw him fall out of the corner of his eye. He quickly turned around to see Lance lying on the floor.

“Lance!” Joey knelt down next Lance. His eyes were still open, but seemed to be fixated on a spot on the ceiling. Joey snapped his fingers in front of Lance’s face and frowned when his eyes didn’t connect with his own.

“What the hell happened?” Chris asked.

Joey shook his head. “I don’t know. He was standing next to me one minute and the next he’s on the floor.”

“What can I do?” Justin looked back and forth between Joey and Chris.

“Get JC out of the rain. We don’t need another sick person to deal with,” Chris ordered. Justin nodded and ran out of the room.

“Help me get him into bed,” Joey said as he lifted Lance’s upper half. Chris grabbed his lower half and together they carried him back over to his bed.

Lance’s eyes were still fixed on the ceiling and didn’t seem to notice that he was being carried. Joey and Chris exchanged worried glances as they lifted his comforter, causing all of the cards to float to the floor. They gently placed Lance on his bed.

“Lance.” Joey tried to get his attention. “Lance!” Finally Lance’s half lidded eyes slowly rolled in Joey’s direction, but weren’t focused on him. “Are you all right, buddy?”

“Joey,” Lance said softly. “What time is it?”

“It’s five thirty,” Chris answered.

“We need to go get ready for sound check,” Lance whispered. Joey and Chris glanced at each other before focusing their attention back on Lance who had sat up and was trying to get out of bed. Chris gently pushed him back down.

Joey placed a hand on Lance’s forehead like he had with Brianna many times before. “He doesn’t feel hot. You should get the thermometer just to be safe though.”

Chris nodded and quickly made the few steps it took to get to Lance’s bathroom. He came back less than a minute later with a thermometer in hand. “Open your mouth, Lance.”

Lance complied and Chris stuck the thermometer under his tongue before telling him to close his mouth. About a minute later the device beeped and he pulled it out of Lance’s mouth. “He’s got a fever, but it’s not too high. 100.”

“That’s not high enough to make him so out of it,” Joey said.

“Well, there’s not really much we can do, but make sure he gets some rest I guess,” Chris replied and Joey nodded, but knew that Chris didn’t believe that Lance was OK and was denying it because he probably didn’t want to believe that something else was happening to one of his friends. Joey couldn’t believe how fast this had been brought on. Lance had been fine a few minutes ago and now all of the sudden he’s delirious with a fever. But then again Lance had been sick for the past couple days. He had really thought Lance had been getting better and now this happened. Hopefully this was the worst and he would be better in a day or two.

Justin opened the sliding glass door and stepped out into the storm. It was significantly darker out than it had been before. Just then a bolt of lightning lit up the entire backyard and his eyes immediately focused on JC. He jogged over to him.

“JC!” Justin yelled, but the thunder drowned out his voice. He might as well have been whispering for what good it did.

He made it to JC and stood next to him waiting for some acknowledgement on his part. But a few seconds passed with no signs that JC even knew he was there. Justin reached out his hand and placed it on JC’s shoulder. The contact got his attention, and he turned his eyes to look up at Justin.

“Let’s go inside!” Justin shouted and motioned to the sliding glass door twenty feet away. He started to walk back towards the house, but stopped when he realized that JC hadn’t been following him. Sighing softly he walked back to JC. “C’mon!”

Justin grabbed hold of JC’s arm and pulled him to his feet before wrapping an arm around his shoulders. He steered both of them back into the house only stopping for a second to close the back door.

“God, you’re soaked,” Justin said more to himself than to JC as he took in his appearance. There wasn’t a dry spot on him. His jean shorts and t-shirt were drenched and heavily clung to his body. JC’s curly hair, that had been made even curlier from being in the rain, dripped water onto the floor.

Justin knew he wouldn’t receive an answer because JC still had that distant look he got when he was in deep thought. His arm shook as JC began to shiver. He sighed as he tightened his hold on JC. “C’mon, let’s get you out of those wet clothes.”

He led JC upstairs and into his room. Justin let go of JC to find some dry clothes for him to change into. After finding a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt, he turned to hand them to JC only to find that he hadn’t moved. In fact, the only movement coming from him was his shivering.

Justin frowned. He had never seen JC act like this before and it scared him. JC had always been the one who they would go to if there was a problem because they knew he was there for them and would do anything he could to help. They thought of him as the rock of the group, the one who held them together, and to see him like this was scary.

Justin dropped JC’s clothes on the edge of his bed and stood in front of him before he lifted the shirt from the hem and pulled it over his head. As soon as the shirt was off of him, JC gently pushed Justin’s hands away.

“I can do it,” JC said.

“OK.” Justin nodded and stepped back. It was a relief that JC had finally said something and acknowledged him. JC grabbed the clothes off his bed before heading into the bathroom to change. He patiently waited for JC to come out of the bathroom because he wanted to talk to him about why he was sitting out in the rain. A minute later the bathroom door opened and JC walked out. “Are you all right?”

“Yeah,” JC said as he rubbed his arms.

“Here.” Justin picked up the blanket that was at the foot of JC’s bed and handed it to him. JC accepted it and draped it over his shoulders before closing his arms to keep the warmth in the blanket. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“About what?” JC asked. He sat down on his bed.

“About whatever it was you were thinking,” Justin said.

JC shook his head. “It’s nothing.”

Justin crossed his arms. “You were sitting outside in the middle of a thunder storm. You were thinking about something.”

“I don’t want to talk about it,” JC said.

“Please don’t do this again,” Justin pleaded. “I’m worried about you, C. I want you to get better.” Justin paused to wipe away the tears that he could feel forming in the corner of his eyes. “I need you to get better. I want things to go back to normal.”

“I don’t know if that’s possible,” JC replied.

“Sure it is. They already are,” Justin said. At JC’s questioning look he continued, “I’m not having nightmares anymore.”

“You’re not?” JC asked, looking surprised.

“No. At least I didn’t have any last night,” Justin said. He was very happy about that fact because that would mean that he was finally getting better. It was weird that he passed out earlier, but he reasoned that was the worst of it and things could only get better from here on out.

“That’s great, J.” JC smiled weakly.

“What’s wrong?” Justin asked. He could see right through JC and his feeble attempts at pulling himself together again. There was something that was bothering him.

JC sighed. “It’s not that easy.”

“I didn’t say it was going to be easy. We’ll help each other out,” Justin replied.

“You’re right,” JC said. Justin looked surprised. He hadn’t expected JC to agree with him. At least not that easily. “Just give me some time to get my thoughts together.”

“OK.” Justin nodded. He looked down at his clothes just realizing that he was still wet. “I think I’m going to take a shower. Get warm.”

JC nodded and Justin sighed before shaking his head. He walked out of JC’s bedroom and closed the door behind him. Just at that moment Chris was coming out of Lance’s bedroom. “How is he?”

Chris looked up at Justin. “He’s got a fever. I think he’s got the flu or something.”

“So it’s nothing serious?” Justin asked.

“I don’t think so. It seemed like it just hit him kind of suddenly.” Chris’ eyes glanced over Justin’s shoulder to the closed door behind him. “How’s he doing?”

Justin sighed. “All right I guess. Something’s really bugging him.”

“We’ll get him through this,” Chris said. Justin knew that he didn’t want to mention therapy in case JC could hear them even though that was pretty unlikely. He couldn’t help but hope that therapy wouldn’t go as bad as he thought it would. Only time would tell.

Time seemed to creep by slowly. Joey watched the grandfather clock in Lance’s dining room swing its pendulum back and forth, filling the room with the sounds of ticking like an arithmetic heartbeat. He sighed softly as he looked down at the chair he was sitting in and continued to trace the intricate design on the arm as he tried to calm his nerves.

It had been decided yesterday after Lance and JC had been taken care of and left in their rooms that they would go ahead with having the therapist come. Joey had no idea what to expect from this because he still didn’t know how JC was going to handle being forced into talking to a stranger. But he was also worried about Justin. They had yet to tell Justin that the therapist would be talking to him too. Joey hoped he wouldn't be too upset when he found out.

Joey knew that this would be good for both Justin and JC in the long run. Yesterday he had had his doubts about whether or not it was necessary for JC to have a session, but once he saw him sitting in the rain, and later hearing about how out of it he had been from Justin, he was convinced that it might be necessary after all. There was obviously something that was still bothering JC that he felt he couldn’t share with the rest of them. However, Joey was sure whatever JC had been thinking was pushed aside once he found out Lance had become sicker.

That was yet another thing that Joey had to worry about. He had no reason to believe that Lance had anything more than the flu except for how fast it had come on. It had seemed like he was getting better and then quicker than the drop of a hat, he had become sicker. Joey wondered how Lance was doing. Hopefully better than last night because he still had been really out of it when he went to check on him before he went to bed. One thing that he knew for sure was that Lance was in good hands; Joey had seen JC walk into his room earlier and knew that he was probably taking care of him.

He wished he could do something to help Lance, but he had accepted that there was nothing he could really do. A few hours ago he had called Kelly to let her know that he would be home later that evening. He wanted to be here when the therapist arrived. Joey wasn’t sure how comfortable he was leaving since so much had happened the past few days, but at the same time he knew that he had to go home to spend time with his family.

Joey leaned on the table and became aware that the table was shaking. He looked over to see Justin’s leg bouncing as he sat on the table. The shaking made him realize that Justin was just as nervous as he was, so he reached out to try to calm him down. When Joey’s hand made contact with his thigh, Justin looked over at Joey and the shaking stopped.

“Sorry,” he said. Justin watched as Joey just nodded and went back to tracing the armrest on his chair. He had to make a conscious effort to keep himself from shaking his leg. It wasn’t so much that he was nervous about what was going to happen, but more that he was impatient. The therapist was supposed to show up in ten minutes and it seemed like he had been waiting for an hour rather than five minutes.

Justin knew that JC wasn’t going to be happy when the therapist showed up and would probably do whatever he could to get out of it. He understood that the guys were concerned. After JC’s escapade in the rain yesterday, Justin had to admit that he was concerned too. But forcing him to talk to someone he didn’t even know was a huge mistake. JC had never been an open book when it came to talking about his feelings, and this was only going to irritate him.

He rubbed his forehead gently. Thinking about this was making his headache worse. An hour ago he had taken some aspirin, but it didn’t seem to be helping. In fact, aspirin never alleviated his headaches anymore. Maybe it was because he had started to take it more often than usual because he always seemed to have one even if it was just a dull throb.

Just then the grandfather clock chimed two times. Justin looked over at Chris who was sitting by the window and saw that he had risen from his seat. That must have meant that the therapist had arrived. Chris turned to look at Justin and Joey.

“Go get him,” he said. Justin nodded as he jumped off Lance’s dining room table and Joey rose from his seat. Together they left the room to go upstairs to retrieve JC.

Chris walked out of the dining room and into the foyer. He opened the door before his friend even had a chance to ring the doorbell. They hugged and it was when Chris pulled away that he noticed how much his friend had changed since college. He looked more like a psychologist with his black dress pants and white collar shirt. Chris almost couldn’t believe this was the same person who had worn baggy jeans and sweatshirts. His glasses made him look more distinguished, especially since he cut off the long hair he had sported when Chris had last seen him.

“Hey, Derek. Thanks for coming.”

“Anything for an old friend,” Derek said, walking through the door that Chris held open.

“I figured I would set you up in Lance’s office. Is that all right?” Chris asked.

Derek shrugged. “That’s fine.” Chris showed him into Lance’s office. “So who am I going to be talking to first?”

“JC. But I have to warn you…I don’t know how he’s going to react to you being here,” Chris confessed. He was nervous because he wanted everything to go smoothly and that all depended on how JC reacted. If JC didn’t freak, it was likely that Justin wouldn’t either.

“I can handle it,” Derek assured him.

Before Chris could reply, JC walked into the room with Joey and Justin behind him. JC had a confused look on his face when he spotted Derek. Chris noticed this and jumped in to introduce them.

“JC, this is my friend Derek,” Chris said.

“Hi,” JC said slowly as he tentatively shook Derek’s hand.

“Nice to meet you,” Derek replied.

“Derek’s a psychologist,” Chris added.

“OK.” JC knew what was going on here. Derek was brought here to talk to him. “Can I talk to you guys for a sec?”

JC turned around and walked out of the study and into the living room. The other three excused themselves and followed him. They walked into the living room to find JC standing in the middle of the room with his arms crossed and a sour expression on his face.

“You brought a psychologist to talk to me?” he asked in disbelief.

“You need to talk to someone, JC,” Joey said.

“No, I don’t.” JC shook his head. “Therapy is for crazy people. I’m not crazy.”

“Well, you’re sure acting like it,” Chris muttered.

“Chris,” Justin warned.

“I’m not crazy,” JC repeated.

“Oh, I think you are. You have this insane idea that the demons are after us again,” Chris said, ignoring Justin’s warning.

“Chris,” Justin said sharper this time.

Chris continued as if he hadn’t heard him. “You’re letting it consume you and you are about this close,” Chris spread his finger and thumb less than an inch apart, “from going completely nuts.”

“Chris!” Justin stepped over to JC and pulled on his arm. He gently led JC out into the hallway.

“You think I’m crazy,” JC spat.

“No, I don’t.” Justin shook his head. “You’re not crazy and I don’t think you need to talk to this guy.”

“You don’t?” JC asked as he dropped his arms to his sides. He hoped what Justin was saying was true because he hated that they thought he was crazy.

“No. I’m on your side, JC. I tried to get you out of it, but there’s nothing we can do about it now. Just go in there, talk to the guy, tell him what he wants to hear, and you won’t have to do anything like this again,” Justin said.

JC sighed. “Fine. I’ll do it.”

He walked down the hall and into Lance’s study where Derek was sitting in a chair next to the couch. After pulling the door shut behind him, he lingered by the door. There was nothing JC wanted more than to run out that door and not talk to this guy, but he knew that wasn’t an option if he wanted the guys to stop hounding him.

“Why don’t you have a seat, JC?” Derek suggested as he watched JC stand by the door.

JC nodded and walked over to the couch to sit down on it. He sat tensely on the edge of the cushion at first, but forced himself to relax back against the cushion behind him.

“So how are you doing?” Derek asked.

“Fine,” JC said. He was going to do what Justin said by answering this guy’s questions and getting out of there as soon as possible.

“Have you been enjoying your break?”

JC nodded. “Yeah.”

“Well, what have you been doing for fun?” Derek asked as he wrote in the notebook that he held in his lap. JC hated that this Derek guy was taking notes on him. It made him feel like a test subject in an experiment.

“Basketball, writing, sleeping,” JC said simply.

Derek sighed. “How do you feel about me being here? I take it from your expression that you’re less than thrilled.”

“It’s nothing personal,” JC said. “I just don’t think I need this.”

“Then why are your friends so worried about you?”

“They overreact. They treat me like a freaking child. I skip one meal and they act like I have an eating disorder.”

Derek laughed lightly before he became serious again. “Chris tells me that you’re not sleeping enough either.”

JC rolled his eyes. “I get plenty of sleep. I just do it in the morning instead of at night.”

“Why do you do that?”

JC hesitated before admitting, “I…I’m a little…afraid of the dark.” JC looked up at Derek and quickly added, “But there’s nothing wrong with that.”

“Does your fear of the dark have something to do with what happened?”

“No,” JC lied.

Derek paused before he asked gently, “Do you want to tell me what happened that night your friends were mugged?”

“Mugged?” JC repeated. What the hell had Chris told this guy? Obviously the truth wasn’t an option because no one would believe them, so he must’ve come up with some scenario. He just wished that Chris would’ve told him so he wouldn’t have been caught off guard like this.

“Chris told me that you and Justin were the ones to find them. What did that feel like?”

“How do you think it felt?”

“I’m sure it must’ve been horrible. But the guys who did it…they were sent to jail, right?” Derek asked.

JC reasoned that in the analogy Chris had created for Derek the guys going to jail must be equivalent with the demons being sent back to hell. “Yeah,” he admitted begrudgingly.

“What is it about the dark that scares you?”

JC would lay in bed every night thinking about the demons. He hated sleeping in the dark because it made it hard to see if there were things lurking in the shadows. Recently he had been reminded of what happened last time he had been caught off guard and had almost been smothered to death by Katrina, and he didn’t want anything like that to happen again. Darkness seemed to bring out his worst fear because it seemed that was when all of the bad things happened to them. JC would lie awake listening to the creepy silence of the house that didn’t seem to disappear until daylight broke and he could hear the guys fighting over the bathroom, and he would jump at every little noise in fear that the demons had returned.

Derek waited for an answer, but a few minutes passed in silence. “What’s your relationship with your friends like?”

“They’re like my brothers,” JC said, relaxing a little. He could handle talking about the guys. It was almost like he was doing another interview for a magazine.

“What about Justin? I hear that you’re especially close with him.”

“I’ve known him since he was a kid.”

“So you look out for him?”

JC nodded. “Yeah, but the rest of the guys too.”

“It must’ve affected you when Justin collapsed, right?” Derek asked.

“It affected all of us.”

Derek nodded. “Of course, but you especially, right?”

JC remembered when he had been in the living room and heard Joey frantically calling for them. Seeing Justin’s still form on the ground had scared him, but it had made him feel guilty too. His first thought had been that he didn’t help Justin like he should have, and that if maybe he had then Justin wouldn’t have collapsed. Then when he came to and mentioned that he had seen some things while he was out, JC knew at that moment that this was a lot bigger than he originally thought and that was when he reasoned that the demons must be the cause behind everything that had happened.

“I failed him.”

“Why do you think that?”

“He came to me with a problem and asked me to fix it,” JC said. He lowered his eyes to the carpet. “And I couldn’t.”

“There’s nothing wrong with asking for help, JC. We can’t handle all of our problems alone,” Derek replied.

“But he asked me to keep it a secret and I betrayed him.”

“How did you betray him?”

JC sighed as he fiddled with his hands. “I was talking to Chris and tipped him off that Justin had a problem.”

“You told Chris because you care about Justin and you wanted what was best for him,” Derek reasoned.

“That’s not how Justin saw it,” JC said. “He felt like I betrayed him. Not that I blame him.”

“I’m sure he doesn’t feel that way.” Derek paused. “But I won’t know for sure until I talk to him.”

“You’re talking to him too?” JC asked looking surprised. He had figured that the guys called Derek to talk to him. But then again they had talked about how they thought Justin needed therapy.

“Is that a bad thing?”

“Yes!” JC said exasperated. “He doesn’t need therapy.”

“You’re friends must think he does. Otherwise I wouldn’t be here.”

“You’re here because I couldn’t come up with a solution.”

Derek raised an eyebrow. “Did they expect you to?”

JC nodded, remembering what Chris had said to him in the kitchen. “Yes. I’m always the one who fixes their problems, and they blame me for not being able to help Justin,” JC said softly.

“You can’t fix everything, JC.”

“I have to try. What if there was something I could’ve done and I did nothing?”

“You can’t keep playing this game. It’s going to kill you. If Joey were to suddenly get into a car accident 5,000 miles away from where you were, there is nothing you could’ve done to help him,” Derek said.

“No.” JC stood up from the couch and began to pace around the room. “There’s always something I can do.”

“Listen to me, JC. There are some things that are out of your control and will happen no matter what. A robber could break into Chris’ house and shoot him.”

“No!” JC tried the doorknob as his heart began to race and found that it had been locked from the outside. His eyes darted around the room. He wanted out and he wanted out now. He couldn’t handle this stranger talking about all these bad things happening to his friends, saying there was nothing he could do about it.

“Yes. You can always rationalize a way to place the blame on yourself. ‘If only I had gotten there sooner.’ ‘If only I called him sooner.’ You can’t go by what if. Lance could get hit by a bus,” Derek said.

“Stop it!” JC yelled as he blindly reached out to grab an item off Lance’s desk and hurled it at the mirror. The glass paperweight collided with the mirror and both shattered into a million pieces.

Derek got up from where he was sitting and tried to put a hand on JC’s shoulder to calm him down, but it had the opposite effect. JC yanked his body away from Derek and roughly pushed him at the same time. Derek stood there in shock.

JC was trapped inside his mind. All he could think about was what had happened that night over two months ago. Derek mentioning all of those situations brought about his worst fear about the guys being hurt, which automatically brought him back to his nightmares. He saw the demons crouch over Lance’s body. He saw them abandon his cold, dead body and attack Joey. He watched the demons attack his friends one after the other and saw their lifeless eyes staring back at him. He couldn’t take anymore and he felt his legs give out and landed roughly on his knees as he began to sob uncontrollably.

He could vaguely hear the click of the door being unlocked and voices, but they sounded so distant. Suddenly a warm body was pressed up against him and began to whisper something in his ear. In his hazy mind, he could’ve sworn that the person who was holding him was Justin. JC gripped him tightly as he continued to cry.

Joey, Chris, and Justin sat in silence in the living room as they waited for Derek and JC to finish talking. It was easy to see that each of them was wrapped up in their own thoughts. Sick of the silence and wanting to take their minds off of it, Joey spoke up, “Did you guys notice that the bathroom sink upstairs clogs?”

“What?” Justin asked in confusion.

“The sink. It takes forever for the water to drain,” Joey said.

“And you’re bringing this up now because…” Chris replied.

Joey shrugged. “Seemed as good a time as any.”

Chris opened his mouth to reply when they heard a loud crash come from Lance’s office. The three of them barely glanced at each other before they ran down the hall and hurriedly moved the chair that had been propped up against the door. They walked into the room only to stop in shock when they took in the scene in front of them.

Lance’s antique mirror that hung on the wall next to his desk was on the floor in tiny pieces along with bigger pieces of glass that Joey recognized as Lance’s paperweight. Joey was a little afraid by this because JC was known for having a temper once he was pushed far enough and the broken mirror was indication that he had been. Joey’s eyes scanned the room for JC and saw that he was on the floor in front of Lance’s desk with his head in his hands and his shoulders shaking with his sobs. Derek didn’t seem to know what to do because he was a good ten feet away from JC and wasn’t making any attempt to approach him. Immediately Justin ran over to where JC was kneeling and wrapped his arms around him to pull him into a hug.

“What happened?” Chris asked as he turned to Derek.

Joey was torn between running over to help Justin calm JC down and staying to find out what caused JC to completely lose it. In the end he decided he would listen to what Derek had to say because he knew that whatever happened had to have been bad if it caused JC to break down like he had.

“I must’ve triggered something,” Derek said, tearing his eyes away from JC to focus on Chris.

“What? What did you trigger?” Derek didn’t answer and Chris pressed. “What did you talk about?”

“I can’t tell you. Patient confidentiality, Chris.”

“Screw patient confidentiality! I want to know what you said to upset him this much!”

Derek sighed. “I made up some hypothetical situations where you guys died.”

Chris’ eyes widened. “You what! What good did you think could possibly come of that?”

“I wanted to show him that some things are out of his control. I was trying to help him,” Derek said.

“Well, you did a good job with that,” Chris said sarcastically. “All you’ve done is make him worse.”

“I can still help him. Just give me a little more time and-“

“No,” Chris said, cutting Derek off. “You’re done here. You’re never talking to him again.”

“If you give me a chance I can fix it,” Derek said.

Chris shook his head. “No. We’ll fix it.” He paused for a minute as his eyes wandered over to JC who was still crying in Justin’s arms before he turned back to Derek. “I think it’s time for you to leave.”

Derek nodded. He walked across the room to leave, but stopped at the doorway and turned to look at his old friend. “Chris, I’m sorry.”

“Get out,” Chris said. Derek turned back around and walked out of the room. Joey heard the front door close and knew that Derek had left. He almost felt sorry for the guy, but it was Derek’s fault for making JC so upset and Joey was pissed. But if he was honest with himself he would have to admit that he was looking for someone to blame other than himself because it was always easier to place the blame on someone else. He felt responsible for pushing the idea of JC needing therapy and he was certainly kicking himself for it now.

Joey focused his attention on JC and Justin who were still on the floor. Justin had managed to get JC to calm down a great deal, but he was still crying. He thought about going over to them, but knew that Justin was taking care of JC and didn’t want to crowd him. Chris and him awkwardly stood there, wanting to help but not sure how. They silently decided that it was better to let Justin handle it. A minute passed before Justin stood up and helped JC to his feet before wrapping his left arm around JC’s shoulders.

“I’m going to put him to bed,” Justin told Joey and Chris as he passed them. The two of them nodded and watched as Justin walked JC out of the room.

Joey turned to Chris. “You were a little harsh with Derek, don’t you think?”

“Are you kidding me? You saw what he did to JC!” Chris exclaimed.

“Yeah, but I still think you could’ve handled it better,” Joey said. Chris had a bad temper with a short fuse, especially where they were concerned. He tended to act first and think later. Joey knew that he would later regret what he had said to Derek, but he needed to cool down first.

“I handled it just fine,” Chris said. Joey nodded and silence filled the room.

A minute later Joey decided to change the subject. “So…what are we going to do now?”

“I don’t know,” Chris admitted.

“Well, we need to come up with something,” Joey said.

Chris nodded. “Yeah, I know.” He thought for a minute before he said, “Maybe I could take him clubbing.”

“How would that help?” Joey asked.

“It would make him relax and forget for a while,” Chris said.

Joey was about to reply when Justin came into the room looking pissed. He pointed at Chris. “I told you this was a bad idea!”

“I didn’t know this was going to happen!” Chris defended himself.

“No,” Justin conceded, “but you didn’t even consider other options. You just said ‘This is what we’re doing’.”

“Well, I didn’t see you offering any suggestions. Besides leaving him alone, which would’ve landed us right back to where we were a month ago!” Chris replied.

“I just want what’s best for JC,” Justin said.

“And I don’t?” Chris replied.

“Apparently not or else you wouldn’t have made him see a shrink,” Justin shot back.

Chris glared at him and was about to respond when Joey spoke up, “All right, guys. That’s enough. We’re going to need to help JC through this and you two fighting isn’t going to solve anything.”

“Sorry,” Justin apologized to Joey, but he was looking at Chris.

“I’m sorry too,” Chris said.

“Good. Now what are we going to do about JC?” Joey asked. “Chris was saying that he could maybe take JC to a club.”

“That’s not a bad idea. Maybe it would help if he got out and let go of things,” Justin said.

“It’s worth a try,” Joey said before he turned to Chris. “So when are you going to take him out?”

“I don’t know. Tonight maybe,” Chris replied.

“You don’t think that’s too soon?” Justin asked. “I mean, today was pretty eventful for him.”

“Well, he’s resting now, right?” Justin nodded and Chris continued, “Then he’ll be good to go tonight. We can’t let him stew over what happened for too long.”

“I guess you’re right,” Justin said.

“I want to go with you,” Joey told Chris.

“No, you should get home and spend some time with Kelly and Brianna,” Justin said.

“But what about JC…and Lance?” JC’s freak out was a big deal by itself, but then on top of that Lance being sick just added to everything. Joey was worried that it would be too much for Justin and Chris to handle, especially since they seemed to be on edge with each other. But then Justin shouldn’t be getting himself worked up over everything because he was supposed to be relaxing and he wouldn’t be able to do that if Chris took JC out clubbing since he would have to take care of Lance. He was worried about Justin taking on too much and becoming stressed again because he didn’t want a repeat of yesterday. That had been scary and wasn’t something he wanted to deal with again.

“We’ve got it covered,” Justin said. “Seriously, man, go home. We’ll call you if anything else happens, all right?”

“All right,” Joey agreed reluctantly. “I guess I’ll hit the road, but I’m going to check on Lance first.”

Chris and Justin just nodded. Joey walked upstairs and made a left to enter Lance’s bedroom. He was lying on his back awake, which surprised Joey. Considering how sick he’d been last night and this morning, Joey thought he’d be sleeping. It didn’t seem like he had gotten any of his color back either; his skin was still very pale. A few steps were all it took for him to reach Lance’s bedside.

“How you doing, Lance?”

“Joey? Why aren’t we in the studio? We have that new song to record today,” Lance said quietly. Joey frowned, upset that Lance was still really out of it.

“No we don’t. It was moved back to tomorrow,” Joey told him. He wasn’t even trying to correct Lance anymore because last night he had tried to explain to him that they were on a break, but Lance hadn’t been able to comprehend it. Now Joey just played along with whatever he said. What Joey thought was really weird was that Lance seemed to be going backwards in time. They hadn’t recorded anything in over six months.

“Oh,” was all Lance said. Joey shook his head as he tousled Lance’s hair.

“I’ll see you later, Lance.” Joey shut the door behind him and grabbed his stuff in the bedroom where he had stayed before he walked downstairs where he found Justin and Chris in the living room. They looked up as he walked in.

“Are you leaving?” Justin asked, already rising from the couch. Chris stood up from the arm of the couch that he had been sitting on.

Joey nodded. “Yeah. I know when I’m not wanted.”

Chris laughed as he clapped him on the shoulder. “What can I say, man? You smell.”

“Gee, thanks,” Joey muttered but smiled. It didn’t last long though and he grew serious. “You guys better call me if anything else happens.”

“Don’t worry, Joe. We got it covered,” Justin said.

“Well, I guess I’ll see you guys later then,” Joey told them.

“Tell Bri her Uncle Chris says hi and that next time he comes over he’s bringing her some candy,” Chris said, pulling away from Joey who laughed.

“We’ll talk to you soon,” Justin said as he hugged Joey.

Joey pulled away and nodded. “You better. All right, I guess I’m out of here.” Justin and Chris walked him to the front door and waved at him as he pulled out of the driveway.

Joey shook his head as he thought about everything that had happened earlier. It seemed like it was one thing after another. First Justin collapsed, then Lance got sick, and today JC lost it during a therapy session. That had been scary because Joey had never seen JC lose control of his emotions like that in all the years he had known him. JC normally had good control over his emotions. Joey wanted to know what exactly those hypothetical situations were that made JC so upset, but he wasn’t sure if he would ever know because JC probably wouldn’t share that information with anyone.

Chris held the phone up to his ear and listened to the ringing as he waited for Derek to pick up. He felt bad about yelling at Derek like he had because he was trying to help and he didn’t know that JC would react like he did. The last thing he wanted was to lose an old friend over something that could have been avoided so he had decided to call Derek to apologize. It took less than a minute for the ringing to stop.

“Hello?”

“Hey, Derek,” Chris said.

Derek sighed. “Oh, hey Chris.”

“I wanted to apologize about earlier. I know that you meant well and had no idea that was going to happen,” Chris apologized.

“I really am sorry about that. I still think I could have helped if I had talked to him more, but I respect your decision,” Derek said.

“What can we do to help him?” Chris asked.

“Just give him some space.” Derek paused before he continued, “Don’t get on his case if he skips a meal unless you haven’t seem him eat all day. And as long as he’s sleeping, it doesn’t matter when he does it.”

Chris nodded in understanding even though he knew that Derek couldn’t see him. Movement caught his eye and he looked up from where he was sitting at the kitchen table to see JC reaching into a cabinet for a glass. “Thanks, man. I got to go, but it was nice seeing you again.”

“Yeah you too. Keep in touch,” Derek said.

“I will,” Chris promised, glancing over at JC who was drinking a glass of water. He wanted to get off the phone before JC left the room to hide in his bedroom because he figured now would be a good time to put his plan into action. “Bye.”

“Bye,” Derek said.

Chris hung up the phone and looked up at JC. “Hey, man.”

“Hi,” JC said quietly.

“How you feeling?” Chris asked.

“Fine.” JC paused before adding, “A little tired.”

“You know I was thinking we should go out tonight,” Chris said.

“Someone needs to stay with Lance,” JC replied. He placed his empty glass in the dishwasher.

“Justin’s going to stay with him,” Chris said.

JC sighed and turned around to face Chris. “I don’t want to.”

“C’mon, we’ve been cooped up in this house forever. This gives you a chance to get out.” Chris saw JC open his mouth and quickly added, “We don’t have to talk about anything. Not if you don’t want to. We’ll just go out, have a couple of drinks, and relax.”

“OK,” JC reluctantly gave in.

Chris grinned at him. “Good. You have a half hour to ready, so you better hop in the shower now. I know how long you take.”

JC rolled his eyes at Chris’ jab at him, but left the kitchen to take his shower. Chris watched him go and couldn’t help but wonder how tonight would go. He hoped he’d be successful in getting JC to let go and relax even if it was only for a couple hours. Sighing he pushed his chair back and rose from the table to find Justin and let him know that him and JC would be leaving soon.

Justin sat at Lance’s bedside. They hadn’t checked on him since Chris had brought him something to eat several hours ago and JC had been resting peacefully, so he had decided to see how Lance was doing. He reached a hand out to grab the washcloth that had been placed on Lance’s forehead to alleviate his slight fever to check to see if it had lessened at all. Justin sighed as he pulled his hand back. It seemed Lance’s skin was still warm, so he rose from his seat to rewet the damp cloth.

He came out of the bathroom a moment later and gently placed the now cold washcloth on Lance’s forehead. As Justin straightened from leaning over Lance, he looked up to see Chris walk into the room.

“We’ll be leaving soon,” Chris said.

“So you convinced him to go?” Justin asked.

Chris nodded as he stood across from Justin. “Yeah, it wasn’t a problem.”

“How soon are you leaving?”

“As soon as JC’s out of the shower,” Chris said. He nodded his head at Lance. “How’s he doing?”

Justin sighed and ran a hand through his curls. “I’m not sure anymore. I thought he would be better by now and he’s not.”

“We’ll give it another day. If he’s not feeling better tomorrow, then we’ll call the doctor,” Chris said.

Justin raised his eyebrows. “You took me to the doctor right away and you’re waiting to see how Lance is?”

“You passed out, Justin. I think that was a bit more serious. Lance just has a cold or something,” Chris replied.

“It’s more serious than a cold, Chris,” Justin said.

“I said that we’ll call the doctor tomorrow if he’s not feeling better. OK?” Chris asked.

“OK.” Justin nodded. Movement by the door caught his attention and he looked over to find JC freshly showered and clothed. “Hey, Jace.”

“Hey,” JC said.

Chris turned around to look at him. “Are you ready to go?”

JC shrugged. “Yeah, I guess.”

“Great. Let’s go,” Chris said, walking towards the door. JC, however, didn’t move.

“Are you going to be all right looking at after him?” JC asked Justin.

“Yeah.” Justin waved him off. “All he does is sleep anyway.”

Chris pushed JC out of Lance’s room and JC had no choice but to comply. Justin followed both of them downstairs into the foyer. As Chris bent down to tie his shoes, JC looked over at Justin.

“Are you sure you’ll be OK?” he asked.

Justin nodded. “Yeah. I’ll be fine.”

“Make sure he gets his medicine. He’s probably due for some more,” JC said.

“I’ll take care of it,” Justin replied.

“See you later, J,” Chris said as he opened the front door.

“If you need something, call,” JC told Justin as Chris gently pushed him out the door.

“I will,” Justin promised. “Bye guys.”

Chris pulled the door shut behind them and Justin watched them get into JC’s car before pulling out of the driveway. Once they were gone, he turned back around to go upstairs to give Lance his Nyquil. Justin didn’t really think that it would help because they had been giving him medicine since he got sick and it didn’t seem to be working. But he knew that JC would ask if he had given him his medicine when they got home so he figured he would do it now. He was able to go straight up to Lance’s room because the package of pills was sitting on his nightstand.

Justin walked into Lance’s bedroom to find him trying to get out of bed. He quickly rushed over and pushed Lance back down into bed. Lance didn’t settle back against the mattress like Justin had wanted him to and continued to struggle against Justin.

“Justin! We need to help JC!” Lance exclaimed as he continued to push against Justin who was trying to force him to lie down.

“Lance, listen to me,” Justin commanded as Lance tried to get out of bed again. “JC’s safe. I promise.”

“No, he’s not. Katrina could be doing something to him right now,” Lance protested.

“Katrina?” Justin repeated confused before he realized what Lance was talking about. He had heard from Joey and Chris about how Lance seemed to be having delusions from the past and he recognized that Lance must be referring to when they had spent a week’s vacation at the cabin. This just further cemented his feelings that Lance needed to see a doctor.

Suddenly Lance fell back against his bed with a cry of pain. He didn’t stay like that long before he tried to sit up to reach his legs. “What’s the matter?” Justin asked, frantically eyeing Lance for any visible injuries worried that something was seriously wrong with him.

“Get it off!” Lance yelled as he continued to reach for his legs and pushed his arms out as if he were trying to push something off of him.

“Get what off?” Justin continued to stare at Lance afraid of what was happening.

“The tree!”

It hit Justin that Lance must be remembering when the tree had fallen on his leg. Knowing that there wasn’t anything he could do to make Lance believe that the tree wasn’t on him, he left Lance’s bedroom and walked a few feet down the hall to JC’s room. He walked over to his dresser and began to look for the sleeping pills that JC had given him a few days ago because he felt that was the best thing he could do for Lance to get him to calm down.

It wasn’t hard to find the pills and Justin immediately swiped them off his dresser before walking back into Lance’s room. He wasn’t surprised to see Lance still reaching for his leg with pain etched on his face. Justin retrieved a glass of water from the bedroom and punched a pill out of the packet.

“Lance.” Justin waited until he had his attention before he continued, “I need you to take these.”

“Get it off!” Lance repeated.

“I will, Scoop, but this will help with the pain,” Justin said calmly. He didn’t want to freak Lance out so he did his best to stay calm.

“OK,” Lance said. Justin handed him the pill and the glass of water. He watched as Lance swallowed the pill and washed it down with the water.

Justin stood by Lance’s feet and pretended to push the tree off his leg. He felt so stupid pushing air, but knew that Lance thought he was otherwise he would have said something. Stealing a glance at Lance who was watching him through half lidded eyes, he continued to go through the motions of removing the tree from Lance’s leg. Five minutes later he stopped and looked up at Lance who had fallen asleep.

Justin straightened up and pulled the covers up to the middle of Lance’s chest. He shut the door softly behind him once he left the room and walked downstairs. Heaving a deep sigh he sat heavily on the couch and stared blankly at the TV. Lance had him even more worried than he had been when he had talked to Chris earlier. Justin knew it wasn’t normal for Lance to have delusions that were so real especially since he wasn’t that sick, but he didn’t know what to do about it. He made a mental note to tell JC about it later.

A sharp throbbing pain intensified in his forehead and Justin reached up a hand to try to massage his temples in an attempt to ease the pain. He figured it must’ve been caused by trying to calm Lance down and worrying about him. If his previous experience with his other headaches had taught him anything, it was that aspirin didn’t help at all, but he didn’t know what else to do. Slowly he stood up from the couch and went to walk into the bathroom to get some aspirin when everything began to spin. Justin reached out to grab onto the arm of the couch to steady himself and tried to stop his vision from swimming in and out of focus by closing his eyes. However, it had the opposite effect and he fell forward onto the carpet.

From where he was dancing with a pretty brunette, Chris could see JC sitting at their table in the VIP section nursing a Rum and Coke. The song ended and Chris excused himself from his dance partner to walk over to JC to try to get him to dance a little and loosen up. He reached the booth where JC was sitting and plopped down in the seat across from him. JC barely looked up at him.

“Having fun?” JC asked, watching the amber liquid slosh around in the glass as he rolled it in a circular motion.

“Yeah. You should get out there, dude,” Chris answered.

“Maybe later,” JC said.

“We’ve already been here for an hour and you haven’t danced at all,” Chris replied.

JC finished off his drink. “I don’t feel like it.”

“OK.” Chris tried not to look disappointed. While he had expected JC to act like this he had hoped that he would let go long enough to have a little bit of fun. “You want to come get another drink with me at the bar?”

“Sure.” JC shrugged. Chris smiled at him and led the way to the bar. He was glad that JC had agreed to at least come over to the bar because there was a greater chance of him striking up a conversation with a woman there instead of moping in the VIP section.

After a minute or two of making their way through the throng of people, they reached the bar. Chris ordered for both of them. “I’ll have a Budweiser and a…Rum and Coke.”

The bartender nodded and placed the two drinks on the bar a minute later. Chris slipped him a twenty. “Keep the change.”

Chris handed JC his drink and turned his back to the bar so he could look out at the people moving their bodies to the pulsing beat of the club. He scouted the floor for a girl that looked like JC’s type. Despite what JC had told him he knew that if he found JC a girl and brought her over to him he wouldn’t refuse her of a dance. Finally he spotted a blonde that seemed to be with a few of her friends, which was good because that meant he would have someone to dance with too.

Chris elbowed JC to get his attention. “Hey, hot girl at two o’clock.”

JC turned around on his bar seat to get a glimpse of the girl that Chris was talking about. He studied her for a minute before he said, “Not bad.”

“Not bad?” Chris repeated. “I find you a hot girl to dance with and that’s all you say?”

“If you like her that much why don’t you go talk to her?” JC asked.

“Because she’s more your type. I’ll go talk to her redhead friend and see if I can get them to join us,” Chris said. He stood up and started to walk towards the dance floor before he turned to look back at JC to ask if he wanted to come with him when he tripped over something that sent him stumbling into someone. Laughing, Chris looked up at the guy that he ran into and spotted a wet stain on his shirt, and he realized that he must’ve spilt his beer on him when he tripped. “Sorry, man.”

“Watch where you’re going, Shorty,” the bigger man growled.

Chris narrowed his eyes. “It was an accident.”

“I’m sick of people like you coming in here thinking you can get away with anything,” the man replied.

“I don’t know where you got that idea, but I suggest you get that stick out of your ass,” Chris said.

The man glared down at Chris. “Are you trying to start something?”

“What if I am?” Chris asked, glaring right back at him.

“Chris, man, I think it’s time to go,” JC interjected as he pulled at Chris’ arm.

“You better listen to your boyfriend,” the man taunted Chris.

Chris stepped up to him to get in his face and pushed him. “You leave him out of this.”

“Keep your fag hands off me,” the man growled as he roughly pushed Chris causing him to fall backwards into JC.

JC steadied Chris before tugging on his arm. “C’mon, Chris.”

“Fine,” Chris said as he allowed JC to lead them away from the bar and towards the exit.

“Sure, kid, run away. You know I’d whoop your ass,” the man called after them.

Chris tightened beneath JC’s hold and JC muttered to him, “Just ignore him.”

It didn’t take long before both of them were outside. Chris turned to look at JC. “Why did you stop me? I could’ve taken him.”

“What are you talking about? That guy was like two times the size of you,” JC said.

Chris waved that fact off. “Size means nothing.”

“That’s what you think,” JC replied and shook his head, a smile tugging at his lips.

“What’s so funny?” Chris asked noticing the small smile that was starting to form on JC’s face.

“Do you realize how ridiculous you looked? That guy was towering over you and you were looking up giving him your death glare.” JC laughed this time. “And your comeback was so lame that it cancelled out the look of death you were giving him.”

Chris wanted to protest, but he realized that it must’ve looked pretty funny and joined in JC’s laughter. “At least I did something. You just stood there.”

“I wasn’t the one who spilt my drink on him!” JC paused before he asked, “What did you trip on anyway?”

Chris shrugged. “I don’t know. Probably his big feet.”

“And you wonder why you get into so many fights,” JC said.

“Hey, it wasn’t like I was trying to pick a fight with this guy. He was the one who got all wound up.”

“You spilled a drink on him, Chris. Did you want him to give you a hug?” JC replied.

“Can you imagine what that would’ve looked like?” Chris laughed harder at the visual he got and JC joined him. He looked over at his friend glad that JC was smiling even if he knew it wasn’t going to last long. It looked like taking him out had been a success after all.

Justin slowly sat up and clutched his head. It seemed that his headache had escalated even more than before. He glanced at the clock on the wall above the TV and was surprised to see that he had been out for almost five minutes because when he passed out in driveway he had only been out for about a minute. Just like last time he had passed out he had seen himself writing in a notebook, but there had been new images too. The new images made his head spin and ache even more.

He had seen himself rush upstairs and run into Chris in the hallway at the top of the stairs. After that he made a left to enter Lance’s bedroom and when he didn’t see him, he walked into the connecting bathroom. His eyes fell upon Lance’s unconscious body lying on the floor surrounded by white pills and tiny shards of glass from the broken mirror above the sink.

Justin didn’t know what to make of what he saw. Lance wasn’t one of those people who committed suicide; he didn’t have it in him. However, Justin couldn’t ignore the nagging feeling that was telling him he had to have seen what he did for a reason. Shaking his head he pushed himself off the floor, but instantly regretted it because standing seemed to have made the pounding in his head even more prominent. He looked over at the clock again to see that it was almost midnight, and he knew that Chris and JC would probably be back soon.

Slowly Justin made his way down the hall and into the bathroom where he opened the medicine cabinet to get some aspirin for his head. As he dumped the white pills into his hand he couldn’t help but think back to what he had seen with Lance. Justin shook his head gently before he swallowed the pills and walked back into the living room to lie down on the couch. He figured that maybe if he lied down he could get rid of his headache and maybe even try to get what he had seen off his mind.

A couple minutes passed before he could hear the front door open and close softly. There were hushed voices and then footsteps that were heading his way before they stopped. Justin slowly opened his eyes to see JC standing in the doorway of the living room watching him.

“Sorry. Did I wake you?” JC asked quietly as if he didn’t want to disturb the silence that encompassed the house.

“No. I wasn’t sleeping,” Justin said equally as quiet. He was trying to keep the noise down so as not to agitate his headache. His eyes slowly took in JC’s appearance and it was then that he noticed that JC had a small smile on his face. “I take it you had a good night clubbing.”

JC shrugged. “It was all right. Chris almost got beat up by some guy that was twice his size.”

Justin gave a weak smile as JC laughed softly. “Sounds like it was a typical night.”

“Yeah.” JC nodded and paused as he looked closer at Justin. “Hey, are you all right?”

“Yeah, I just have a headache,” Justin said. He wasn’t ready to tell JC that he passed out again and what he had seen with Lance, especially since he didn’t know what to make of it. Plus JC was actually in a good mood and Justin didn’t want to ruin it.

“Again? Is it bad?” JC asked concerned.

“Yeah.” Justin saw JC turn around to leave the room and quickly added, “I already took some Tylenol. I’ll live.”

“I’m just going to get you a cold washcloth,” JC said. Justin watched him leave the room and reenter a couple minutes later carrying a damp cloth. JC gently laid the cool cloth on Justin’s forehead before he took a seat in the chair next to the couch.

“You know, I thought I’d stop getting headaches all the time now that my nightmares are gone,” Justin told him, his eyes closed.

“They’re really gone?” JC asked.

Justin shrugged. “Seems like it. I haven’t had any in the past two days.” He opened his eyes to look at JC. “That’s got to be progress, right?”

“Right.” JC nodded. “So you think your nightmares and headaches were connected?”

“Yeah. I always seemed to have one when I woke up.” Justin paused before he added, “Why? Didn’t you?”

“I’m not sure. I mean, I had headaches, but I don’t know if they were from the nightmares or if it was from not eating,” JC said. He thought for a few seconds before he said, “If you’re concerned we can make an appointment to see the doctor.”

“No. I don’t think that’s necessary. Besides, I was just there. You would think if something was wrong, he would’ve noticed,” Justin replied.

JC nodded. “You’re right. Well, I guess I’ll let you get some sleep.”

“Hey.” Justin stopped JC. “Where’s Chris?”

“Upstairs checking on Lance. I’ll be heading up there in a second,” JC said.

“Don’t bother. Lance is sleeping,” Chris said as he walked into the room and stood next to JC. He nodded at Justin. “Hey, J.”

“Hey,” Justin greeted.

Chris frowned as he noticed the washcloth on Justin’s forehead. “Are you OK?”

“Yeah, just a headache,” Justin said. Chris nodded in acceptance.

“Did you give him his medicine?” JC asked, bringing their conversation back to Lance.

Justin sighed. “No, not exactly.”

“Why? What happened?” JC gave Justin a curious look.

“He was really bad,” Justin started. “He thought that we were back at the cabin and you were hurt. Then he thought the tree was on top of him. I tried to calm him down, but he seemed so out of it, so I ended up giving him one of your sleeping pills.”

“He was really that bad?” Chris asked, frowning.

Justin nodded. “He was freaking out trying to get the tree off him. It was so bizarre. I’ve never seen him like that before.”

“Sounds like you handled it well,” JC told him and gave him a small smile.

Justin returned the smile, relieved. He was glad that he hadn’t done anything wrong because he hadn’t known what he had been doing and if it was going to help Lance.

“Get some sleep, man,” JC said.

“See you in the morning,” Chris told him.

“Good night,” Justin said and watched the two of them walk out of the living room. He closed his eyes and was about to drift off to sleep when he heard voices talking out in the hall. That could only be JC and Chris. Justin strained to hear what they were saying.

“I think it’s time we call the doctor,” he heard Chris say.

“OK,” JC said. That seemed to be the end of the conversation because he could hear footsteps and the stairs creak. Justin sighed in relief that Lance was going to get some help. That thought put his mind to ease and allowed him to fall asleep.

JC tucked his legs underneath him as he curled up on Lance’s couch in the study. He opened up his worn notebook to a clean page and uncapped his pen. This was something he would do every night to get all of his thoughts down because it usually made him feel a little better to write down what he was thinking and feeling. Tonight was no exception. After poising his pen for a minute to collect his thoughts, he began to scribble furiously.

 September 15, 2004 

Chris took me out clubbing tonight. It was all right I guess. He didn’t push me to talk about what happened earlier, which was nice. It seems like he’s trying not to get on my case as much. Just now out in the hallway he didn’t say anything when I said that I was going to stay up for a while. It’s a nice change, but I can’t help but wonder how long it’ll last. 

Based on what Chris said to me in the hallway, it seems that I’m not the only one who’s worried about Lance. But I’m not worried in the same way Chris is. He thinks that Lance needs to see a doctor, but he couldn’t be more wrong. There’s nothing the doctors can do for him. Somehow the demons got to Lance and messed up his head. 

I should’ve done something. I should’ve kept a better eye on him. Maybe if I had none of this would’ve happened. But it has and I have no idea how to fix it. I wonder what would happen if I tried talking to Lance now that he’s gotten so much sicker. Will the cold feeling be 10 times worse? Or will something else happen? I’m not sure I want to know. Who knows what would happen if I were to attempt that. 

Justin had another headache tonight. He seems to be getting headaches a lot. We talked about it and he seemed to think that his headaches were connected to his nightmares, but since he’s not having nightmares anymore…I don’t know what to make of that. I suggested that he go see a doctor if he’s that concerned about it because it would almost be better if there’s something medically wrong with him. At least it would be better than the alternative and certainly a lot easier to fix than the demons being after him. But then again I’m not even sure the demons are after him anymore. I used to think so, but lately nothing has happened to him so maybe they gave up on him and moved onto Lance. 

JC lifted his pen off the paper in thought when he heard a loud crash come from upstairs. Immediately he tossed his notebook and pen to the side and quietly rushed up the stairs, taking two at a time. His first thought was that the demons had come and was trying to hurt Chris or Lance. He reached the second floor in a matter of seconds and almost collided with Chris, who had just come out of his bedroom.

Chris looked over at JC. “You heard that?”

“Yeah,” JC said, leading the way into Lance’s bedroom. That was the only logical place the noise could’ve come from because Lance was the only one except Chris who was sleeping upstairs and Justin fell asleep on the couch.

JC walked into the bedroom, his eyes immediately drawn to the bed where he had hoped Lance would be. But he wasn’t and quickly JC searched the room with frantic eyes for any sign of Lance. When it was obvious that he wasn’t in there, JC crossed the room to enter the bathroom. What JC saw as he crossed the threshold to the bathroom made him stop dead in his tracks causing Chris to walk into him.

“Why…” Chris began, but stopped when he stepped around JC and saw what had shocked him.

Lance was lying on the floor unconscious with little white pills and shards of glass scattered around him. Chris quickly realized that the glass had come from the mirror that hung above the sink. His initial reaction was that Lance had become dizzy while trying to get some aspirin and passed out, breaking the mirror as he fell. But as he looked down at Lance he noticed that there weren’t as many pills littering the floor as there should be.

“Didn’t we just buy him a new bottle of aspirin the other day?” Chris asked JC. He realized that if Lance had fallen while trying to get some medicine then there would be a lot more pills surrounding him. But since there wasn’t Chris’ heart filled with dread as he came to the conclusion that Lance must’ve tried to commit suicide.

“What?” JC asked, not having heard what Chris had said. Chris knew that his voice had probably just jarred JC out of the shock that he was in, but also knew that he couldn’t wait for JC to snap out of it completely because Lance needed help.

Chris knelt down next to Lance and pulled him into a sitting position before dragging him over to the toilet. He lifted the lid and tried to lean Lance up against the side of it, but Lance’s body wasn’t strong enough to stay in an upright position. Just when he was about to try something else, he caught movement out of the corner of his eye and saw JC come sit behind Lance and wrap his arms around him allowing his body to sag against his.

Chris gently opened Lance’s mouth and stuck finger far enough down his throat to induce vomiting. Lance’s body shuddered as his gag reflexes kicked in and JC leaned him closer to the toilet as his body lurched. As his stomach contents were emptied, Lance’s eyes blearily opened. Chris sighed in relief as he looked into the toilet to find a good amount of pills. It seemed like they had gotten to him in time before the pills had time to dissolve.

“Guys!” Chris and JC could hear Justin call from Lance’s bedroom, but neither bothered to get up because they knew that Justin would find them in a minute. Chris listened as Justin’s footsteps grew closer.

“What’s going on…?” Justin trailed off and paled as he caught sight of Lance. Chris knew what a shock it was, but he hoped that Justin would be able to help out.

“J, can you get me a wet washcloth?” Chris asked. As he waited for Justin to get the cold cloth, he glanced over at Lance who was slumped over the toilet with JC rubbing his back soothingly. After a minute he looked over at Justin to see if he had the washcloth only to find that he was still standing in the same spot.

Chris sighed as he stood up and walked over to Justin. He gently squeezed his shoulder. “It’s all right. We’ve got this.”

Justin nodded numbly and left the bathroom. Chris grabbed a clean washcloth from the linen closet and ran it under cold water before he kneeled in front of Lance. He used the cloth to wipe the saliva and bile off Lance’s face. Once he was clean, Chris threw the dirty washcloth into the sink to deal with later.

“Are you ready to get him into bed?” Chris asked JC.

JC nodded. “Yeah.”

JC tried to pull Lance into a standing position with him, but was having trouble since he was pretty much dead weight. Chris grabbed a hold of Lance’s feet and helped to lift him off the bathroom floor, making it easier for JC to pull himself to his feet while holding Lance’s upper half. Together the two of them carried him back into his bedroom and carefully placed him in his bed.

Chris sighed and ran a hand over his face. He looked over at JC who sat on the edge of Lance’s bed staring down at their friend. “I’m going to call Joey. Will you be OK with him?”

“Yeah,” JC said. Chris nodded and walked out of the room. He dreaded calling Joey, but knew it had to be done. Briefly he stopped in his room to grab his cell phone before he walked downstairs into the living room.

He pressed speed dial two and listened to the ringing on the other end for the second time that day since earlier that day he had called Derek. The phone answered with a click after the fourth ring. Chris sat on the couch, unsure of how this conversation was going to go.

“Hey, Chris,” Joey said and yawned into the phone.

“Hey,” Chris replied as he pulled the blanket that Justin had slept with out from underneath him. With his free hand he tossed the blanket lopsidedly to the other end of the couch.

There was a slight pause before Joey asked, “What’s up?”

Chris sighed heavily. “You need to get over here.”

“Why? What happened?” Joey asked his alarm and worry coming through the phone line loud and clear. “Is it JC? Justin?”

“I’ll tell you when you get here.” Chris could hear Joey start to protest and added, “You don’t want to hear about this over the phone. Trust me.”

“OK. I’ll be there as soon as I can,” Joey said.

“Drive safe, man,” Chris told him.

“I will,” Joey promised. “See you soon.”

“Bye,” Chris said and hung up the phone. He switched the phone in his hand for the remote that had been left on the coffee table by Justin and began to flip through the channels looking for something to watch to get his mind off what had happened.

The only thing he found that was semi-interesting was a rerun of Jerry Springer. It was one of the numerous episodes where a woman had two male lovers and needed a paternity test to determine who the father of her baby was. As Chris watched the woman argue with her ex-boyfriend, he couldn’t help but have his thoughts drift back to what had happened upstairs.

He didn’t understand why Lance would try to kill himself. With the exception of him being sick, he seemed fine. They had sat down as a group a few weeks ago and talked about what had happened in the woods, and as far as he could tell Lance seemed fine. Of course he had thought that about JC and Justin too. And Joey.

“What the hell is wrong with me?” Chris muttered to himself.

All of the guys had a problem dealing with what had happened except him. Was he that cold hearted that what they went through, what he went through, didn’t affect him? He didn’t think so, but if that was the case why didn’t he have a problem?

He was afraid that there could be a mental breakdown in his future. Back in his college days he remembered learning about how some people dealt with traumatic situations by repressing it and not dealing with it like they should. If this was the case then maybe one day unexpectedly he would wake up and feel the need to drink, starve himself, or commit suicide. But then again, there was nothing wrong with not being overly emotional, especially with everything that was happening now. Maybe it was just as well that he didn’t have a problem because someone was going to have to look after Lance and take charge.

Chris turned his attention back to the TV where Jerry Springer had just announced who the father of the child was and watched as the two men began to fight with each other, trying to throw punches. The bouncers split them up and held them apart. He continued to watch the last fifteen minutes of the show. Once it ended he turned off the TV and walked into the kitchen to get a drink when he heard shouting coming from the foyer and the front door shut.

“Chris!” Joey called. Chris walked towards the front door only to run into Joey in the hallway. Joey was wide-eyed and looked upset. “What happened?”

“Come sit down and I’ll tell you,” Chris said, leading the way to the kitchen. He pulled out a chair to sit in and waited until Joey did the same. Taking a deep breath, he looked into Joey’s eyes. “It’s Lance. He…uh…tried to kill himself.”

Joey’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. He spluttered, “What? How? Why?”

“I don’t know the why, but we found him in the bathroom unconscious with pills around him,” Chris said. “It took a minute to figure out what he did.”

“So you’re saying he overdosed?” Joey asked.

“Tried to, yeah. We had to make him throw the pills up,” Chris said.

“We?”

“Me and JC.” Chris continued, “We got him back into bed.”

“How is he?” Joey asked.

“I think he’s going to be fine.” Chris paused before adding, “JC’s sitting with him now.”

Joey nodded and Chris knew that he was trying to wrap his head around everything that he had told him. A minute later Joey broke the silence. “So what do we do? Should we take him to the hospital?”

“No.” Chris shook his head. “I think he’s OK now. We got to him in time before the majority of the pills dissolved. And he was kind of conscious when we made him puke them up.”

“What was he thinking?” Joey asked looking pissed off.

Chris shook his head. “I don’t know, Joe. He obviously wasn’t as OK with what had happened as we thought if he was depressed enough to want to take his own life.”

“Does he have any idea how selfish that was?” Joey continued as if he hadn’t heard Chris. “He would’ve left us behind to cope with his death. And you know JC would be a mess. We’ve already had to deal with so much. This would’ve put us over the edge.”

“But he doesn’t know about everything that’s happened recently,” Chris protested. “Besides, he’s going to be all right. We don’t have to wonder about what would’ve happened if he’d succeeded.”

“He would’ve if you and JC hadn’t helped him. I can only imagine how JC reacted when he saw him,” Joey said.

“He didn’t react as bad as you’re thinking,” Chris said. “In fact Justin was worse than JC.”

Joey raised an eyebrow. “How?”

“I asked him to get me a wash cloth and he just stood there. Not moving, not blinking, nothing. So I told him we got it and he left. He was really out of it,” Chris explained.

“And how did JC react?”

“He was shocked for a minute, but then jumped in to help me take care of Lance,” Chris told him.

“Really? He didn’t freak out?”

“No, he was fine. I think today was his breaking point. We went out earlier and he had a good time.” Chris paused. “Too bad it couldn’t last.”

“I don’t understand how he could’ve done this,” Joey said.

“Well, he’s been really out of it lately. Maybe he wasn’t aware of how many pills he took.”

“What are you saying? That he could’ve done this accidentally?” Joey asked.

“I think it’s possible. I mean, it had to have taken a lot to get himself out of bed and into the bathroom considering how weak he’s been,” Chris said. “But of course we won’t know what his state of mind was until we talk to him.”

Joey gave Chris an inquisitive look. “Why aren’t you mad?”

“Because it’s not his fault. If anything it’s our fault for not keeping a better eye on him and not realizing sooner that he had a problem. We keep saying that we’re going to look out for each other, but then stuff like this happens,” Chris replied.

“There has to be a reason this stuff keeps happening to us,” Joey said.

“I don’t think there is. Sometimes these things just happen,” Chris said.

“Well, I’m sick of it!” Joey slammed his fist onto the kitchen table. “What did we ever do to deserve any of this?”

“Nothing,” Chris said. He was a little surprised at Joey’s anger, but he couldn’t blame him. It was frustrating having to deal with another problem, especially when they thought they were finally on the path back to normalcy.

“Exactly. It’s been one thing after another ever since we stayed at that cabin,” Joey replied.

“I know, Joe, but there’s nothing we can do about it.” Chris paused before he added, “Maybe this will be the last thing.”

“Maybe,” Joey agreed. He rose from the table. “I’m going to go see Lance now.”

Chris nodded. “I’ll check on Justin.”

Joey and Chris walked upstairs, but went in opposite directions when they reached the top of the stairs with Joey making a left to enter Lance’s bedroom. Chris turned right and walked down the hall to Justin’s room, figuring that’s where he was. He knocked lightly on the closed door and heard light rustling before the door opened.

“Hey,” Chris greeted, taking in Justin’s rumbled clothes and red eyes.

“Hi.” Justin paused before he asked, “How’s Lance?”

“He’s doing all right. Joey just went in to see him,” Chris said. “I’m about to go in too. Come on.”

Justin shook his head. “No.”

“Why?” Chris asked.

“I…I can’t see him like that,” Justin said quietly. “I just can’t.”

“OK.” Chris nodded. He didn’t want to push Justin because he knew that would help since he was so upset. It would be best if he gave Justin some time to himself, but he planned on telling JC about this because he would probably be the best person to talk to Justin. Chris squeezed Justin’s shoulder. “You can see him when you’re ready.”

“I’m sorry,” Justin said.

“There’s nothing to be sorry about.” Chris hugged him. As he pulled away he noticed Justin’s questioning look and said, “It looked like you needed one.”

“Thanks,” Justin whispered as he let of Chris.

Chris clapped him on the shoulder. “Get some rest, dude.”

“OK,” Justin agreed. “Night.”

“Night,” Chris said before he stepped out of the doorway and the door closed gently behind him. He walked down the hall towards Lance’s room to hear JC and Joey talking.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea, C,” Joey said.

“What’s not a good idea?” Chris asked as he walked into Lance’s room to find JC still sitting on the edge of Lance’s bed with Joey sitting next to him. He sat himself down on the opposite edge of the bed.

JC glanced at Joey briefly before he looked over at Chris. “I want to go in Lance’s head.”

“Why?” Chris asked.

“Because I want to find out what’s wrong with him,” JC said.

“We already know what’s wrong with him. He’s depressed,” Chris replied.

“No, he’s not,” JC objected.

“Then why did he try to kill himself?” Chris challenged.

“Something made him do it,” JC said.

“Something made him do it?” Chris repeated. A few seconds passed before a light of realization crossed his face. “You’re talking about the demons, aren’t you? You think they had something to do with this?”

“Well…yeah,” JC admitted.

“What are you expecting to find if you go in there?” Chris asked.

JC shrugged. “I don’t know. I just know that it wouldn’t hurt to look.”

“You can do that while he’s sleeping?” Joey asked.

“Yeah, I think so. It’s not like our connection disappears when we sleep, so I don’t see why I wouldn’t be able to,” JC said.

Joey looked curious. “How are you going to get into his head?”

“I’m not really sure, but I think I need to focus on Lance and picture myself in his head.” JC paused before adding, “But I have no idea what’s going to happen after that. I’ve never done this before.”

Chris crossed his arms. “How do you know it’s even going to work?”

“Lance did it to me to find out what my nightmares were about,” JC said.

Chris nodded. He remembered Lance telling him about that a couple days ago. But Joey looked surprised. “He did?”

“Yeah, so I don’t think I should have a problem getting in,” JC replied.

“OK. Let’s say we let you do this. What if, and that’s a big if, there is actually something…evil in his head. What if something happens to you?” Chris asked.

“That was my point,” Joey spoke up.

“If something does happen, I think I can handle it,” JC said with a look of determination. It was obvious that he had thought this through while he had been left alone with Lance. That wasn’t good because JC was so stubborn that once he got an idea in his head, he had to go through with it.

“But what if you can’t?” Chris pressed.

JC sighed. “You guys are concerned. I get it, but you have to let me do this. I’ve had a feeling that something’s off with Lance ever since he got sick.”

“That could mean nothing,” Joey said.

“Or it could mean everything,” JC countered. “Let me at least try to see if I can find anything. I’m connected to Lance in a way that you guys aren’t. You have to trust me on this.”

Joey and Chris exchanged glances before Chris spoke, “Fine, but we’re going to be in here while you’re in there in case anything happens.”

“OK,” JC agreed.

“How soon do you want to do this?” Joey asked.

“Right now,” JC said.

Joey frowned. “Shouldn’t we wait until morning? Give everyone time to get some sleep?”

“We need to get to the bottom of this as soon as possible,” JC replied.

“Fine,” Chris agreed. He could only hope that this goes as well as JC thought it would because he didn’t want to have something else to deal with on top of everything else. Honestly he didn’t believe what JC had said about the demons being behind Lance’s suicide attempt, but he did believe something could go wrong. Chris just hoped nothing would.

Chris reached into the cabinet to grab a glass, turned on the faucet, and filled the glass with cold tap water. He had excused himself from the room for a minute because he wanted to take some aspirin for his headache. It had started around the time Joey had arrived, and he knew that it was caused by the stress. Chris wanted to try to alleviate the pain in his head so he could be alert for whatever may happen when JC entered Lance’s mind. He had just swallowed the two aspirin that he had grabbed from the bathroom when Joey walked in.

“JC’s getting antsy,” Joey said.

Chris nodded. He knew that JC was probably feeling a mix of anxiousness and nervousness. “I’ll be right there.”

Chris watched as Joey turned around and walked a couple of steps before he turned around. Joey looked at him as he rubbed the back of his neck and asked, “Should I get Justin?”

“No. We’ll just fill him in later,” Chris said.

“Is he all right?” Joey asked.

“Yeah. I just think he’s still in shock,” Chris replied.

Joey nodded and his eyes wandered to the living room. Chris followed his gaze and saw that Joey was staring at the liquor cabinet that Lance kept next to the fireplace in the living room. He sighed softly; he should’ve seen this coming. Last time Joey’s drinking problem had stemmed from wanting to forget about the horrible things that had happened to them.

“I know what you’re thinking and it’s not a good idea,” Chris said.

Joey sighed in frustration. “Why not? I’ve been doing so well I think I deserve it.”

“You want to do it for the wrong reason though,” Chris replied.

“And what’s the right reason?” Joey crossed his arms as he waited for Chris’ answer.

Chris paused for a minute as he thought, but couldn’t come up with anything. Instead he asked, “Why do you want to drink anyway?”

Joey sighed as he dropped his arms to his sides. “Everything’s falling apart.”

“That’s no reason to drink,” Chris said, leaning back against the counter. He felt weird telling a grown man that he wasn’t allowed to drink, but knew that he couldn’t let Joey revert back to how he had been before.

“What? You guys are allowed to drink and I'm not?” Joey asked. “Seems kind of hypocritical of you.”

“We drink to be social. Not to drown our sorrows.” Chris narrowed his eyes slightly. A thing he normally did when he wanted to show that he meant business. “That isn't healthy.”

“I know, but it’s so hard. Everything that’s been happening with you guys. And then everything that’s been happening at home,” Joey replied.

“What do you mean?” Chris asked.

“Kelly and I have been fighting,” Joey admitted reluctantly.

Chris looked surprised. It wasn't often that Joey fought with anyone, so that had to mean it was about something big. “Why?”

“She hasn’t been too happy with me coming here the last few days, which I understand. We’ve been on tour for months, and it probably looks like I’m avoiding her.” Joey paused. “Kelly told me if I was leaving again that I wasn’t allowed back until I was ready to commit myself to her and Brianna.”

“Maybe she’d understand if you told her the truth,” Chris said.

“I've thought about it, but I don't want to get her involved with this demon stuff,” Joey replied.

“Guys!” They could hear JC yell before he showed up in the doorway of the kitchen. He looked at both of them questioningly. “Are you guys coming or do I have to do this without you?”

“We’re right behind you,” Chris said. He and Joey followed JC upstairs and into Lance's bedroom. The conversation between him and Joey would have to wait until later, but Chris wasn't worried. There would be enough to distract Joey from drinking. For now anyway.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” Joey asked as JC sat down on the foot of Lance's bed.

JC took a deep breath before he nodded. “I'm sure.”

“How long do you think this is going to take?” Chris asked.

Joey raised an eyebrow at Chris and joked, “Why? You got a hot date?”

“Maybe.” Chris smiled coyly. He knew that Joey was stalling and couldn't help but play along because he wasn't exactly thrilled about what JC was going to do. If they stalled long enough, it might give JC cold feet and forget about getting into Lance's head.

“I'm not backing out of this, so you guys can quit it,” JC said, twisting his body around to look at them.

The smile fell from Chris' face. He nodded. “Fine. Whenever you're ready then.”

JC once again nodded and took a deep breath. He knew that he had to do this, but it didn't ease the apprehension he felt in the pit of his stomach. His eyes closed briefly as he gathered himself before they opened to focus on Lance. However, his concentration was broken when he heard Chris whisper to Joey.

“Do you think he's in yet?” he said.

JC rolled his eyes before he turned to shoot them a dirty look. “It's hard to concentrate when you're whispering.”

“How was I supposed to know whispering would break your concentration?” Chris paused before he added, “Besides, how are we supposed to know if it worked or not?”

“Yeah, it's not like we've really witnessed your connection before. You two keep that private,” Joey said.

“Just…” JC paused. “Keep quiet, all right? It'll be OK.”

“It better be,” Chris mumbled to himself. JC ignored him as he turned his attention back on Lance who was lying still on his back. He stared at him as he tried to picture himself in Lance's head. A few minutes passed and JC almost dropped his gaze to refocus and try again when a weird, tingling feeling washed over him.

JC looked around the room, not sure if the weird feeling he had meant that it had worked. He was still in Lance's bedroom, which led him to believe that it hadn't. That was until he turned around and didn't see Joey and Chris sitting behind him on the loveseat Lance had in his room.

Just then an alarm buzzed before Lance slowly rolled over and pressed a button that cut off the annoying sound, leaving JC's ears ringing. He watched as Lance rose from his bed before walking into the bathroom and the sound of running water pounding against the porcelain rolled into the bedroom. A few minutes later Lance exited the bathroom clad in only a towel before he went into his walk-in closet before emerging fully clothed. He barely paused as he picked up his keys from the dresser and walked out of the room. Immediately JC jumped up knowing that he had to follow Lance if he wanted to figure out what was going on.

He walked out of the bedroom and instead of finding himself on the landing at the top of the stairs, he found himself in the studio. The five of them were currently behind the thick glass with the big headphones over their ears as they sang into the microphones in front of them. The song they were singing was one that they had recorded over six months ago. JC sighed. While that had been a good day, he was a little confused as to why he was seeing this. Not that he knew what to expect, but this certainly hadn't been it. What the hell was going on?

JC continued to watch the scene play out in front of him exactly as it had happened that day. They had finished the song and began to roughhouse in the booth, gently shoving each other when Lance caught his foot in the stool and fell backwards. With no hesitation JC sprinted a few feet forward to try to catch him only to stumble when suddenly the surroundings had changed. He was no longer in the studio, but in the forest outside of the cabin where Katrina had tried to kill him.

He groaned and closed his eyes. This was the absolute last place JC wanted to be. It was bad enough having lived through it, but being forced to watch it was almost worse. However, he forced his eyes open. It was important to keep an eye on Lance because JC felt that while he seemed to be going through Lance's memories that somehow he would lead him to whatever it was that had caused him to try to commit suicide.

Thankfully he didn't have to watch much because he had come into the memory just as Lance had pushed him out of the way of the falling tree with it landing on his leg. It hurt JC just as much as it had originally to see Lance in pain. Pain that he had felt responsible for. He watched as Lance, who was grimacing in pain, and Katrina exchanged words about her wanting to heal him before Lance finally succumbed to it and lowered himself to the ground.

Katrina approached Lance and reached out a hand to heal him. JC closed his eyes, knowing what was coming. It was bad enough that he was going to hear Lance's bones popping back into place, but he didn't want to see it. There was a pop and JC opened his eyes, reminding himself that he needed to keep an eye on Lance. Only he got a surprise when he opened his eyes to find Lance standing in his bathroom instead of lying on the cold, wet, forest floor.

There was a rattling sound and JC's eyes were drawn to the bottle of aspirin in Lance's hand. He watched as Lance poured two into his palm before he threw them into his mouth and swallowed them dry. Once the pills were down, the cap was placed back on the aspirin bottle before it was set on the marble countertop of the sink. Lance paused as if considering something before he picked the medicine back up and popped the lid off.

As JC watched him down two more aspirin and place the bottle back on the sink, he couldn't help but feel confused. He had no idea what was going on and why Lance had taken more medicine when he had just taken some. It was almost as if he hadn't realized that he had taken the recommended dosage a minute before. This thought was confirmed when once again Lance grab the bottle off the sink and took two more pills. JC frowned as he watched in confused fascination as Lance mechanically went through the motions over and over again.

It was after the fifth time that Lance stumbled. JC reached out a hand as if he could steady his friend when Lance swayed on his feet before his head fell forward and crashed into the mirror. He tried to catch him, but his hands just passed right through him. Realization quickly hit him as remembered that he was witnessing memories of Lance's meaning that there was no way he could interfere. In a way it was almost like he was a ghost.

Lance didn't seem to be hurt though as he caught himself before he could fall. JC frowned as he watched him walk out of the bathroom. It didn't make sense to him that he could just walk out because that was not how the memory had happened. He had realized as he watched Lance consume all those pills that had to have been the way he'd tried to commit suicide. But that would mean that he would've fallen on the floor because that was how JC and Chris had found him after they heard the crash.

Confused JC shook his head, but refused to let Lance get out of his sight for long and hustled to catch up to him. He followed him out into the backyard and next to the pool. Just as JC arrived at the pool he felt a hand on his back before he was hit with icy water. As he struggled to swim to the surface, he tried to make sense of what happened. It was obvious that Lance had pushed him in because there had been no one else around, but then why couldn't he touch him before? His head spun thinking about how complex this was.

“Is he shivering?” Joey asked, his voice nudging Chris into full awareness.

“What?” Chris leaned forward and sure enough JC was shivering. “What the hell?”

“Why's he so cold? It's like eighty degrees outside,” Joey said. He got up and retrieved the blanket that was thrown over the loveseat they had been sitting on before he draped the object over JC's shoulders. But the quaking in his body didn't stop. Joey frowned and looked down. “He has goose bumps.”

Chris quickly rose from where he had been sitting and shook his head. “I don't like this. Something's got to be wrong. We need to snap him out of it.”

Chris snapped his fingers in front of JC's face, but to no avail. He moved onto shaking his shoulders, but ended up with the same reaction. Joey just watched as Chris tried to snap their friend back into reality. It seemed as if nothing was working, which unsettled him.

“I don't know if we can,” Joey said grimly, watching JC's body continue to shiver.

Finally JC reached the surface only to find that his surroundings had once again changed. He had expected to be in Lance's backyard that was surrounded by grass with patio furniture only ten feet away. Instead he was in the lake that he had nearly drowned in at the cabin. JC looked up and found that Lance was standing on the edge with his hand held out and a small smile offering to help him up. JC accepted the help and found himself dripping next to Lance on the grass.

He looked around to take in the woods that seemed like they were closing in on him. JC figured that must be because it was dark out, but he didn't even try to admit that it didn't freak him out. Figuring that he could ask Lance what was going on he turned his head to the left only to find that he had disappeared. JC frowned as he looked around only to jump when he heard deep, sinister laughter.

Frantically his eyes tried to scan the dark woods for a figure or movement, but he couldn't and sighed in frustration. The voice continued to laugh and it grated on his nerves because he couldn't tell which direction it was coming from as it seemed to constantly change locations.

“What the hell's so funny?” JC yelled. He was getting tired of this game and was more than a little freaked out now. “Where's Lance?”

“Around,” the voice said coolly.

“What did you do to him?” JC asked, his eyes still searching the woods for any sign of life. It was very unnerving having a voice talk to him without seeing the body it belonged to.

“I didn't do anything to him, but you did,” the voice replied. JC shivered. He didn't like the sound of that.

“What…what are you talking about? I didn't do anything!” JC shouted as he clenched his fists at his sides. How dare this person, thing, whatever, accuse him of hurting one of his best friends?

“Yes, you did. You got Lance to try to commit suicide,” the voice said.

“No!” JC yelled. “That was you!”

The voice let out its haunting laugh that bounced off the hundred year old trees. “I knew you were smarter than I gave you credit for.”

“Why?” JC asked. “What did he ever do to you?”

“Nothing. Wish I could say the same for you though.”

JC furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. “What?”

“Not so smart after all,” the voice said with amusement. “I used him to get to you.”

“Get to me?” JC repeated.

“I know how much your friends mean to you. I know how you look after all of them and feel responsible for their safety.” JC could almost feel the voice smirk. “I know how guilty you feel about all the bad things that have been happening to them, and you should. It is your fault.”

“Wh…what?” JC choked out. He whipped his head around in all directions wishing desperately that he could see this thing. It stung him because what the demon had said was true. Guilt was a common feeling for him lately.

“I never would've messed with Lance's head if it weren't for you. He was quite easy to manipulate once I weakened his defenses.”

“But why?”

“To hurt you. We figured it would affect you a lot more if we hurt your friends.”

“We?” JC said weakly. He wanted to sit down. This was becoming too much for him to handle.

“You didn't think I was the only one, did you?”

“Every…everything that's happened…”

“All because of you,” the demon finished. JC leaned over as he put his head in his hands. “I must tell you…I knew you were weak, but this is pathetic.”

“Why don't you just take me?” JC asked miserably as he lifted his head. He hated the fact that he was the cause behind all the bad things that they tried so hard to avoid and that still left lingering affects on all of them.

“Where would be the fun in that?” the demon replied. “Not that I could take you even if I wanted to. It's not my job.”

“You're not powerful enough.” JC crossed his arms trying to look tougher than he felt. “That's why you can't take me.”

“I'm plenty powerful,” the demon growled. A lightning bolt flashed in the distance before the sky opened up and a heavy rain began to fall. “You want me to have Lance finish the job this time? I can make him do it.”

“Don't you dare,” JC said as his voice cracked. He listened to the demon laugh.

“Maybe I should do it after all and put him out of his misery.”

JC stepped forward and threw his arms apart. “Take me! I'm what you want.” JC paused and took a breath to steel himself before he said, “Unless you're not strong enough to do it.”

The demon rose to the taunt and lightning struck a nearby tree down followed by a loud rumble of thunder. Just then the dark clouds that had been above JC came swooping down and suddenly everything shifted again so that he found himself back in Lance's bedroom. He barely had time to comprehend what had happened though because the dark clouds rolled out of Lance's right ear and headed right towards him.

JC wasted no time in jumping off the bed causing the blanket that had been around his shoulders to fall to the carpet floor. He continued to back up as the dark clouds continued to advance on him. As his back hit the wall, he tried to recoil into himself as the clouds formed itself into a thin, skeleton-like hand that was reaching out for him. The creepy hand swiped at him and connected with his shoulder causing the demon to vanish instantly.

JC sighed in relief as he slowly slid down the wall before his butt hit the firm but plush carpet. He could see Joey and Chris looking at him in shock out of the corner of his eye, but he didn't make eye contact with them. His heart was still racing and he wasn't in the mood to answer any questions about what had happened. Just as Chris opened his mouth to ask the first dreaded question that JC knew was coming, a moan came from the bed.

“Lance!” Joey exclaimed.

Immediately Joey and Chris rushed over to Lance's bedside. JC listened as Joey brushed the hair that had fallen limply on his forehead and coaxed Lance to come back to them. He knew that he should be over there too, but he couldn't bring himself to get off the floor just yet. His mind and body were still in shock and he needed to gather himself.

A minute later JC slowly pushed himself to his feet. It looked like Chris and Joey had everything under control and had their full attention on Lance, which allowed JC to get out of the room without either of them really noticing. He wanted to get to his room to be alone with his thoughts to reflect on everything that the demon had said. However, as he came out of Lance's bedroom he ran into Justin.

“How's he doing?” Justin asked as he nodded to the bedroom behind JC.

“Good. He's coming around I think,” JC said, looking down at the beige carpet as he rubbed the back of his neck to ease the building tension.

Justin squinted at him. “Are you OK?”

“Yeah, J, I'm fine.” A few seconds of awkward silence passed before JC move forward to step around Justin to get to his room only to be stopped when Justin put a hand on his arm.

“Can I talk to you for a minute?” Justin asked.

JC barely managed to suppress a sigh. He had no idea what Justin wanted to talk to him about and he didn’t really want to anyway, but Justin wouldn’t have come looking for him to talk if there wasn’t anything bothering him.

“My room?” JC asked.

Justin nodded and JC led the way to his bedroom. He sat on his bed and Justin sat next to him. The two of them sat in silence for a minute as JC gave Justin time to collect himself. After another minute passed JC grew tired of Justin not talking when he had been the one who had something to say.

“Are you going to talk or not?” JC snapped.

Justin shot him a surprised, hurt look before he admitted quietly, “I have something I need to tell you.”

“What?” JC asked softer this time. He felt bad for snapping at Justin, but he couldn’t help it when his thoughts were going a mile a minute. But the sooner this conversation was over the sooner he could give the whirlwind thoughts the attention they demanded.

Justin took a deep breath. “I uh…you remember when you and Chris went clubbing?” JC nodded and Justin continued, “Well, I sort of…passed out again.”

JC's eyes widened. “What!”

“There's more,” Justin said quietly.

“What else?” JC asked matching Justin's tone. He had a bad feeling that what Justin was about to say couldn’t be good. The demons words echoed in his head.

“I saw things again.” Justin looked down at the floor. “I saw…Lance commit suicide.”

JC swallowed so hard his Adam’s apple hurt. Now the demons words were screaming in his head. “Everything that’s happened is your fault.” He hadn’t wanted to believe it, but he knew that it was true. Even more with what Justin said.

“JC?” Justin’s voice brought him out of his thoughts and he realized he hadn’t said anything.

“This was before it happened?” JC asked already knowing the answer.

Justin nodded before he looked over at JC. “I heard a crash before I ran upstairs and saw Chris in the hall. Then I walked into the bathroom to find Lance on the floor with pills and glass around him.”

JC sighed heavily, the guilt weighing him down even more. He should’ve recognized something was wrong when he came back and discovered Justin had a headache. “Why didn't you tell me sooner?”

“I didn't know it was going to come true. I thought it was a nightmare.” Justin paused before adding, “I didn't want to worry you.”

JC sat in silence letting what Justin said sink in. His mind screamed that it was too late for that. The pit that had settled in his stomach after the demon vanished grew and threatened to engulf him as Justin’s confession cemented the idea JC had that the demons weren’t finished yet. Finally he shook his head and put a hand on Justin's shoulder. Despite his racing mind and feeling the pressure of everything he knew that Justin needed comforted.

“Next time tell me when something like this happens.”

Justin nodded and said, “There's got to be a reason I saw that before it happened, right?”

“I'll look into it, Justin,” JC promised. Briefly he rubbed his aching head before letting his arm fall back onto his lap.

“Thanks,” Justin said. He titled his head to the side as he looked at JC again. “Are you sure you're all right?”

“I'm fine. Just a little tired. It's been a long day,” JC assured. Justin didn’t need to know what he had learned. None of them did. It was easier to keep it to himself and convince them that there was nothing wrong.

Justin stood up from the bed. “Good night then.” He looked at JC once more before he walked out of the room and closed the door behind him.

“Lance!”

Joey rushed over to Lance’s bedside with Chris following him. He watched as Lance moved slightly as he started to wake up. Out of the corner of his eye he saw JC get up from his position on the floor across the room and leave. Part of him wanted to grab him and make him explain what just happened. But he knew JC would need some time to process before they hounded him with questions, which gave them the time to check on Lance.

Less than a minute later the movement increased and Lance’s eyelids fluttered before they opened. Joey watched as his eyes blinked a few times to adjust to the dim lighting of the bedroom. Finally Lance looked at Joey and Chris before he asked, “What are you guys doing in here?”

“How are you feeling?” Joey asked.

“I’m fine,” Lance said frowning in confusion. “Why?”

“You’ve been sick for the past couple days,” Chris replied.

Lance nodded, sitting up. “Yeah, a cold, but I’m better now.”

“No, Lance.” Joey shook his head. “It was worse than that. You were delusional.”

“I was?” Lance looked surprised and glanced at Chris for confirmation.

“You thought we were doing things that we had already done months ago. You were really out of it, man,” Chris affirmed.

“I don’t remember any of that,” Lance said, a look of fear crossed his face. Joey could only imagine how scary it would be to wake up and not remember anything that had happened in the past couple days.

Joey frowned. “What’s the last thing you do remember?”

Lance thought for a few seconds before he said, “We were sitting here like this talking about JC needing therapy.”

“That was Tuesday. It’s Thursday now, and the therapist has already been here,” Joey replied.

“And?” Lance prompted.

“And we’re never doing it again,” Chris replied.

“What? Why?”

“Because Derek was trying to get through to JC and he had a major freak out,” Joey answered.

“Is he OK now?” Lance asked.

Joey nodded and shrugged. “We think so. Chris took him clubbing earlier to get his mind off it.”

Lance turned his attention to Chris. “Did it work?”

“I think so, yeah,” Chris said.

“So I guess Derek didn’t talk to Justin then?”

“No. JC went in first and Chris threw Derek out after he learned what he’d done to JC,” Joey said. He couldn’t believe they were carrying on a conversation with Lance considering how out of it he had been. Now Lance was sitting in bed and talking to them like nothing had happened.

“Chris,” Lance admonished.

Chris rolled his eyes. “I already called and apologized. Everything’s good.”

“So you’re really feeling better?” Joey asked, eyeing Lance critically. His face had a better color than it had in days and his eyes looked clear and focused.

“Yeah. Whatever I had seems to be gone now,” Lance said. Joey sighed in relief and visibly relaxed. Lance raised an eyebrow as he glanced between Joey and Chris. “Did something else happen while I was sick?”

Joey exchanged an uneasy look with Chris. He wasn’t sure if it would be a good idea to tell Lance about his suicide attempt. Finally he nodded to Chris to go ahead and tell Lance. It would be better to get this out in the open now than to have him find out later.

“You uh…tried to kill yourself,” Chris said.

Lance’s eyes widened and looked at him in shock. “What!”

“Don’t worry. JC thinks that something made you do it,” Joey quickly tried to assure his friend.

“He does?”

The three of them turned to see Justin just inside the doorway. Chris waved him over to Lance’s bed and nodded. “Yeah.” Chris looked back at Lance. “He was convinced that you couldn’t have done it yourself, and he wanted to prove it.”

“How?” Lance asked.

“He went inside your mind. Said that he knew it would work because you’d done it to him before,” Joey said.

“Went? What do you mean ‘went’?” Justin asked confused looking back and forth between Chris and Joey.

“He did it a few minutes ago,” Joey answered.

“What did he find?” Lance asked.

“We don’t know. We didn’t get a chance to ask him. You started to wake up and he left the room. He has a lot to explain though,” Chris said.

Justin leaned forward. “Why? What happened?”

“Well, for starters he was shivering while he was in your head,” Chris said looking at Lance. “And then that thing came out.”

“What thing?” Lance frowned at Chris.

“It was like smoke or something,” Joey said. “It came out of your ear and after JC. The smoke or whatever it was formed itself into a hand and reached out to grab him. As soon as it touch his shoulder though it disappeared.”

“What do you think it was?” Justin asked.

Chris shrugged. “Who knows? It was damn creepy though.”

“We need to talk to JC,” Lance said stating the obvious.

Joey nodded. “The sooner the better I think.”

“Well, let’s go.” Chris started to get off the bed when Justin held up a hand to stop him.

“He’s sleeping. Let’s all get some sleep and we can talk to him tomorrow,” Justin said.

The three of them nodded in agreement and after bidding each other good night, Joey, Chris, and Justin walked down the hall and into their separate bedrooms. Joey was a little worried about leaving Lance alone, but knew that he should try to get some sleep. If anything did happen, he was only down the hall and would be able to run into Lance’s room.

Joey lied in his bed unable to fall asleep. It was partially because he had already gotten a few hours before Chris had called him, but the other part was the wheels in his head were still churning, trying to process everything that had happened in the few short hours since he first arrived at Lance’s. It was bad enough finding out that Lance had tried to commit suicide, but things only worsened when JC went into Lance’s head and drew out some creepy hand that tried to attack him. Though, it obviously had worked, which was a good thing. Lance woke up feeling better than he had in days.

He honestly hadn’t expected anything to happen when JC went into Lance’s head. Shows how wrong he had been. Based on what he saw after the smoke escaped Lance and attacked JC, he had to admit that JC was right about something causing Lance to attempt to commit suicide. At least that was the only reason that would explain what had been in Lance’s mind and why. They wouldn’t know what really happened until they talked to JC.

Thinking back to the creepy hand that reached out to grab JC gave him chills. He could only imagine how it affected JC. It was understandable that he had left the room right away because just watching it had freaked him out. Joey could only hope that JC would talk to them about what happened. They certainly didn’t need a repeat of before. With that thought in mind, he fell asleep.

Down the hall behind a closed door JC too couldn’t sleep. He had been lying on his bed for about an hour not even bothering to try to stop his thoughts. Exhaustion had set in quickly after he finished crying, but he didn’t dare try to sleep. Not while it was still dark. So he gave in to his thoughts.

He knew that he would have to answer questions whenever he decided to come out of his room and face the rest of the guys. It wasn’t a task he looked forward to, but he knew that was going to happen sooner or later. As much as he may want to, he couldn’t stay in his room forever. But he would worry about that later.

As JC watched the early morning light filter the room, he felt his eyes grow heavy. It was much easier to give into sleep now that the sun chased away the dark shadows. Slowly he closed his eyes and fell into an exhausted sleep. However, that sleep didn’t last long because his eyes flew open when he heard a loud banging noise. Quickly his eyes scanned the room for any danger only to sigh in relief when he realized that the air conditioner had kicked on. It must be broken. That thought set his mind at ease and allowed him to fall back asleep.

Another fifteen minutes passed before a creaking noise sounded outside his door. JC roughly jerked awake afraid that maybe the demons were back to finish what they’d started only to realize that one of the guys must be up and had walked past his door. The carpet did nothing to muffle the creak that could be heard if someone stepped on the spot in front of his door. He lied still for a minute, listening for any more noises, and was lulled back into a slumber when none came.

Justin softly walked down the hall not wanting to disturb any of his sleeping band mates. He cringed when the floorboard creaked as he walked past JC’s room, hoping the noise hadn’t woken him. Slowly he walked downstairs trying to find something to do until the others woke up. After getting a couple hours of sleep, he decided that he’d had enough. As soon as his feet reached the bottom of the stairs, he looked to the left and noticed that a soft light was coming from the study.

It didn’t surprise him to find it empty. He walked over to the end table next to the couch to turn off the light. Just as he was about to twist the knob to turn the lamp off, he looked down and saw an open notebook sitting on the couch. Immediately Justin knew that it was JC’s and he must’ve been in the study last night before Lance’s suicide attempt.

Bending over, he picked up the notebook. His first instinct was to close it and set it aside because he knew how pissed JC would be at him for reading what acted like his journal. But he wanted to know what was on JC’s mind that he wouldn’t talk to them about, and he couldn’t help himself. Justin sat on the couch and read through a couple of the most recent entries.

Justin read the most recent entry and was slightly disconcerted that JC hadn’t mentioned therapy at all. It had been a big deal and he was sure that JC would’ve written about it, or at least mentioned it. He was going to keep this in mind for whenever he talked to JC and ask him about it. That thought allowed him to move onto the other entries.

His heart went out to JC as he read through the entries that were filled with guilt for not being able to stop all of the bad things that had happened lately. He was sure that what happened to Lance last night only increased those feelings. Justin wished he would stop believing he was responsible for everything that happened to them, but he knew that was like asking a fish to stop swimming. It was impossible.

With a sigh, he closed the notebook and set it on the end table. He decided that he wouldn’t bring up what he did with JC because he didn’t want to fight with him. Instead he made a mental note to try to get him to talk about his feelings later.

Finally Justin turned the knob on the lamp and let the morning sunlight fill the room instead of artificial light. Deciding that he needed a drink, he walked into the kitchen only to stop in surprise when he saw Joey, Chris, and Lance already at the table drinking coffee. It was only eight o’clock in the morning and they had just gone to bed a few hours ago. They looked up as he came in and greeted him.

“What are you guys doing up?” Justin asked, moving further into the kitchen to grab a glass to fill with water. He didn’t feel like coffee right now.

“Obviously the same thing you are,” Chris answered dryly. Justin nodded. They must’ve not been able to sleep either.

“I assume JC’s still sleeping,” Justin said, taking his glass of water and sitting at the table next to Chris and across Lance and Joey.

“Yeah. We haven’t seen him,” Lance said.

“Think someone should wake him?” Joey asked.

Chris nodded. “Yeah. We need to talk.”

“No. Let him sleep,” Justin said. “We can’t push him.”

“Ain’t that the truth,” Chris muttered.

“He’ll talk when he’s ready,” Lance said.

“How can you be so sure? That didn’t really work before,” Joey replied.

“Yeah, if it had we wouldn’t have had to bring Derek to talk to him,” Chris agreed.

“Why were we even worried to begin with?” Justin asked.

The room was silent for a minute before Lance said, “He wasn’t sleeping.”

“Yes he was,” Justin denied. “He was always asleep when we woke up.”

“But he wasn’t sleeping when he should’ve been,” Lance objected.

“At least he was sleeping,” Justin shot back.

“I don’t know about you, Joe, but I was worried because of his paranoia about the demons,” Chris interrupted loudly. It was then that Justin realized in the midst of talking to Lance he had forgotten Joey and Chris were there.

Joey turned his attention to Chris. “Was he really paranoid? I mean, with everything that’s happened.”

“So you think he’s right?” Justin asked.

Joey shrugged and nodded. “I think it’s a possibility. How else can we explain what happened to you,” Joey looked over at Lance, “and what happened after?”

“Let’s say he’s right. What are we going to do?” Chris asked.

“We’re going to keep an eye on each other,” Lance said.

“But shouldn’t it be over now that you’re better?” Joey asked him.

Lance shrugged. “I don’t know. It probably depends on what JC found out.”

“And who knows when he’ll come downstairs,” Justin replied.

“Well, I’m not going to sit around waiting all day. JC will probably take his sweet time,” Chris said, rising from the table before opening the basement door and making his descent. Not even a minute later Justin stood up and followed him.

Once the two of them vanished into the basement, Lance turned to Joey. “I’m going to get some work done.”

Joey nodded. He had figured that Lance would get to work right away since he hadn’t done anything in a few days. Lance left the room, no doubt going down the hall to his office. After a few more minutes of sitting at the table, Joey decided to get up and go into the living room to watch some TV to occupy his time.

Grabbing the remote off the coffee table, Joey turned on the TV. The picture quickly came alive to show the local news. Joey quickly changed the channel, deciding that he didn’t want to hear about any more bad things happening for a long time. After flipping through the majority of the channels he stopped on the Home Shopping Network to see what they were selling this time.

It turned out they were selling shot glasses of your favorite sports team. As Joey watched them talk about how it was a great addition to any sports fan’s collection it made him want a drink. He knew that Chris was right and that he shouldn’t. But one drink wouldn’t hurt him. With that thought in mind Joey rose from the couch and grabbed a glass from inside the liquor cabinet and filled it with whiskey.

Joey set the glass on a coaster and let it rest on the coffee table. He sat back on the couch and stared at the amber liquid in front of him. As much as he wanted to drink, he knew that if he was caught the guys would be furious with him. But he hadn’t had a drink in a long time and he felt that he deserved it.

Just as Joey was about to reach out and grab the glass to drink he heard a deep voice say, “Eight o’clock is hardly the time to be drinking.”

Joey turned to look at Lance. “It’s after eight.”

“You know what I mean,” Lance said.

“I thought you were working,” Joey accused.

“I was, but I came to get some contracts I’d left in here last time.” Lance paused, taking the opportunity to sit down on the opposite end of the couch. “You want to tell me why you were going to drink?”

“No, not really,” Joey replied.

“Joey,” Lance warned.

Joey held up a hand. “Save it, Lance. I’ve already heard it from Chris.”

“Then why?” Lance asked.

“Because this is what alcoholics do,” Joey answered.

Lance frowned. “You’re not an alcoholic, Joey.”

“Then quit treating me like one!”

Lance was quiet for a second before he said, “We just don’t want you to hurt yourself.”

“I know.” Joey sighed. “But you’ve got to trust me. You can’t keep me from drinking forever.”

“That’s not our intent. We just don’t want you to use alcohol to solve your problems. If this isn’t over and something else happens, we’re going to need you and we can’t deal with problems that could’ve been dealt with,” Lance explained.

Joey nodded. “You’re right. We will go clubbing again, right?”

“Yeah, Joey,” Lance said. Joey couldn’t help but wonder if Lance was just saying that to make him happy and that they would continue to treat him the same way, or he really meant it. Time will tell either way.

Chris’ right hand held the yellow dart with a plastic tip out in front of him as he lined it up with the red bull’s eye in the middle of the board, and his left held the rest of the darts. Lance used to have darts with a metal tip, but after an incident involving a rogue dart breaking a glass that had been in Joey’s hand, it had been decided that plastic would be safer and wouldn’t hurt as much. A small smile tugged at Chris’ lips as he remembered Joey sitting at Lance’s bar to the left of Justin, who had been throwing darts at the time, with a mixed drink in hand and how he jumped up in surprise when the glass broke in his hand.

A sigh of frustration escaped Chris’ lips as his dart that he had released didn’t even come close to hitting the red circle in the middle of the dartboard. He grabbed another dart from his left hand and this time threw the dart at the board immediately. Missed again. Chris let another one go only to have it come a little closer to reaching its target this time. As he let his last dart go, his eyes drifted over to the right where Justin sat on the leather couch sitting in front of the TV. Justin winced as the dart connected with the board.

Chris shook his head as he walked over to the dartboard to pull the darts out and start over. It was obvious from Justin wincing that he had a headache, and it made him wonder why Justin didn’t get up and leave if it bothered him. Maybe he’d had enough of being by himself and was looking for some company.

It was remarkable to think that it had only been last night that Lance had attempted suicide, but it was even more remarkable how quickly they all fell into old routines. It was almost like it was an ordinary day of hanging out at Lance’s house, but Chris knew that wasn’t true. He remembered how Justin had reacted to seeing Lance and how it took him a few hours to work up the courage to check on Lance for himself.

But that was only the tip of the iceberg. It was hard to believe that it was only a few days ago that Justin had passed out in the middle of the driveway and having nightmares. Chris returned to his original spot and began to throw the darts again, but tried to do it softer so he wouldn’t agitate Justin’s headache too much. He spared Justin a quick glance before his right hand forced the yellow dart to go sailing across the room and smack into the dartboard. It used to be so easy to tell how Justin was feeling when he was younger because he could see it all in his face. Now though his face was a little weathered from growing up and it wasn’t as easy for Chris to know how his young friend was doing.

After a few seconds of debating with himself Chris finally asked, “Are you all right?”

Justin raised his eyes to look at Chris. “I'm fine.”

“You're fine?” Chris raised an eyebrow.

“Well, I don’t feel like jumping for joy, but I’m good considering,” Justin said.

“Yeah, I understand, but you kind of freaked me out with that catatonic thing you had going on there,” Chris replied.

Justin shook his head and objected, “I wasn’t catatonic. Just shocked.”

“I was shocked. You wouldn’t even move,” Chris said.

Justin shot to his feet. “You weren’t the one who’d seen it happen!”

“Uh…Justin, I was there. I saw it too,” Chris replied, giving him a confused, concerned look.

“No.” Justin shook his head. “I saw it.”

Chris moved closer to him. “What do you mean?”

“I saw it before it happened,” Justin clarified.

“Like in a dream?”

Justin half shrugged, half nodded. “Something like that.” He paused. “I saw everything. The pills he swallowed. Him hitting his head on the mirror…falling to the ground with broken glass and pills.”

A minute of silence elapsed as Chris took this information in. This was a big deal, and it explained why Justin had been so freaked when he had seen Lance. He hoped that it was a one time occurrence. “Does JC know?”

“Yeah,” Justin answered. Chris nodded. He would talk to JC about this later.

“Speaking of JC…” Chris looked at the clock that hung on the wall above the couch. It was a little after ten o’clock. “Do you think we should check on him?”

Justin shook his head. “He’s probably still sleeping.”

“Did you check on him before?” Chris asked.

“No,” Justin admitted.

“Then how do you know he’s sleeping?” Chris replied. “We’ll just go upstairs and peek into his room real quick.”

“OK, but if he’s sleeping, we leave him alone,” Justin said. Chris agreed and together the two of them walked upstairs to the first floor and continued on to the second floor. A minute later they found themselves standing on the outside of JC’s door.

Chris motioned for Justin to knock. Justin did and waited for a response from inside. When a few minutes passed with no response, Justin turned the knob and gently pushed open the door. Immediately his eyes fell onto the bed where JC was lying on his back with his open eyes staring at the ceiling.

“JC?” Justin asked hesitantly not sure if JC had heard them come in or not. When JC didn’t answer, Justin tilted his head toward the door silently asking Chris to leave them alone. Chris barely hesitated before leaving the room and pulling the door closed behind him.

Justin gently sat on the edge of the bed and asked, “Are you OK?”

Slowly JC’s eyes rolled from the ceiling to land wearily on Justin’s face. “I’m fine,” he said softly.

“I just wanted to let you know that Lance’s doing great. Whatever you did last night helped,” Justin said. He realized that to alleviate JC’s feelings of guilt, he’d have to prove to him how well he’s always taken care of them.

“Really?” JC asked cautiously as if he didn’t believe it.

Justin nodded. “Yeah. Lance says he’s never felt better, and it’s all thanks to you.” He paused. “You’ve always taken good care of us.”

JC looked away. “It’s nothing you guys wouldn’t do.”

Justin moved his head so he was in JC’s line of vision. “Yeah, but you’re the one who does it best.”

JC sighed and faced him. “What do you want, Justin?”

“I just wanted you to know that you did good taking care of Lance,” Justin said. He thought maybe if he was indirect then JC would be more willing to talk.

“You want to talk,” JC corrected, sitting up. When Justin didn’t answer JC continued, “What if I don’t want to?”

“We deserve to know what happened last night. With Lance,” Justin said.

JC crossed his arms. “Well, you’re going to have to wait.”

“What else is new?” Justin shot back as he glared at JC. “You never want to talk about anything when it comes to yourself!”

“I have nothing to talk about. What do you want me to say?” JC asked, standing up.

It was Justin’s turn to cross his arms. “What happened last night with Lance for starters.”

“I don’t want to,” JC said.

“You never want to talk to us, but you’ll write in your damn notebook every night about how guilty you feel about everything that’s happened!” Justin yelled.

“I don’t feel guilty,” JC denied.

“Tell that to the ten pages in your notebook!” Justin fired back only to take a step back when he realized what he’d let slip.

JC narrowed his eyes, his glare intensifying. “What?”

Justin sighed. He thought briefly about trying to deny it, but knew that JC would see right through that. Instead he said, “What do you expect? You never talk to us.”

“I expect you to respect my privacy!” JC paused before he angrily spat, “And you wonder why I never tell you anything?”

“Well, it was either that or wait for you to collapse again!” Justin shot back. The words tumbled out of his mouth so quickly that he didn’t realize what he’d said until he saw JC glare at him. That had definitely been the wrong thing to say.

“Get out,” JC replied icily, pointing to the still open door.

Justin nodded, realizing it was better to leave JC alone to cool off. He turned around once he was outside JC’s room to see JC staring at him with his hand on the door. “I’m sorry, JC.” The only response was the door slamming in his face and the telltale click of the lock.

Lance sat on the couch with Joey in the living room crossword in hand. His work was forgotten for the moment because his thoughts were on the conversation with Joey despite trying to work on the word puzzle as a distraction. It hadn’t surprised him that Joey wanted to drink, especially with everything that had happened lately. But talking with Joey had opened his eyes to see that maybe it was time to let up on him a little.

Lance sighed when he realized he didn’t know what would be the best solution for Joey and turned back to his crossword. He was in the middle of writing in a word when a body jumped on the couch, causing it to dip and the pen in his hand to draw a line up the center of the page.

“Chris!” Lance cried in aggravation, as he glared to his right. But Chris ignored him and watched as Joey flipped through the channels on TV.

“Go back,” Chris said to Joey.

Joey shook his head. “I’m not watching Maury. It’s just like Jerry Springer.”

“But classier,” Chris added.

“No, Chris,” Joey said.

“Let’s settle this the old fashion way then,” Chris suggested. Joey sighed but nodded. Lance watched as the two of them laid their left hands flat in midair and pounded their right fists into their left hand before showing their weapon of choice. Chris chose paper, but Joey had scissors.

Joey smiled victoriously. “I won.”

Chris shook his head. “No you didn’t. You can’t cut my paper. Your scissors are the wimpy ones that can’t cut anything.”

“Even if my scissors were wimpy like the childproof ones you got in kindergarten, they’d still be able to cut through paper,” Joey reasoned.

Chris crossed his arms. “Fine.”

Lance shook his head, not believing how childish his friends could be, before turning back to his crossword puzzle. Before he could get another answer down though, his attention was averted by Justin coming into the living room and heavily sighing as he threw himself into the armchair next to the couch.

“I take your appearance as a sign that talking to JC didn’t go well,” Chris said, breaking the silence that had fallen upon the living room when Justin had entered.

“You went to talk to JC?” Lance asked, looking mildly surprised. He had thought they were going to wait for JC to come talk to them, but then again if they waited for that to happen they’d probably be waiting for a long time.

“J and I went to check on him. He was awake and Justin was going to try to talk to him,” Chris answered before turning his attention back to Justin. “And it didn’t go well?”

“I think I made it worse,” Justin replied.

“How?” Joey asked.

“I let it slip that I read his notebook,” Justin said.

Lance looked more surprised than before. He wouldn’t have expected Justin to do that because from all the years Justin and JC had been friends, Justin knew how much JC valued his privacy. It had been something he really learned when he went into JC’s mind a couple months ago. “You read his notebook?”

“What notebook?” Joey asked.

“The one that he writes all of his thoughts and feelings in. He’s really pissed,” Justin said.

Chris leaned forward with a curious look etched on his face. “What did it say?”

“I think we should respect JC’s privacy and wait for him to tell us,” Lance replied.

“What’s there to respect? Justin’s already invaded his privacy,” Chris pointed out. “Besides, we have a right to know.”

“But-“

“He’s right,” Justin interrupted Lance’s objected. “JC’s already pissed at me. It’s not going to change anything if I tell you guys. Besides, this is for his own good. He’s had plenty of chances to tell us.”

“All right.” Lance sighed and reluctantly nodded. He still felt that what Justin was about to do wasn’t right, but he also knew there wasn’t anything he could do to stop it.

“So what did it say?” Joey asked, repeating the question Chris asked earlier.

“I only read a couple of the most recent entries, and it was all about how he felt guilty about everything that has happened like he could’ve stopped it.” Justin paused. “But there was something missing.”

“What?” Chris asked, voicing the question that Lance was thinking.

“He didn’t write about the therapy session,” Justin said.

Joey raised an eyebrow. “Nothing?”

“Nothing,” Justin confirmed. “I figured he would’ve written something about it.”

“Maybe he didn’t know what to say,” Lance suggested. What he had heard about what had happened, he could easily see that as the case. If he were JC, he wouldn’t have known what to write either just because so much had happened.

“Well, he better know what to say when I ask him about it.” Chris stood up. “I’m going to get him to come out of hiding. He’s been in there long enough.”

“Give him a little more time to cool off,” Lance told him, standing up and put a resisting hand on his chest. “He’ll come around.”

“Let’s hope for his sake he does because if he doesn’t I’m going to pull his ass out of that room kicking and screaming if I have to,” Chris said.

JC angrily paced the length of his bedroom. He couldn’t believe that Justin had invaded his privacy by reading his notebook. Although he knew that it probably wouldn’t have happened if he had put it away. But in the haste of getting upstairs and taking care of Lance, he had forgotten all about the notebook that he had tossed to the side until Justin mentioned it.

Spent from all the pacing he had done, he heavily sat down on his bed. In all honesty JC was madder at himself than he was at Justin because he knew that Justin was just worried about him. He probably would’ve done the same thing if he were in Justin’s position because he knew he would do whatever it took to make sure his friends were OK, even if it meant them being mad at him.

Thinking back to last night, he felt bad that he hadn’t stayed to see how Lance was doing. He just took off without a word to Joey or Chris and left them to deal with Lance. But that guilt was alleviated at the thought that Lance was back to normal. At least something good had come out of the fight he’d had with Justin. It was nice to know that the risk JC had taken going into Lance’s head hadn’t been for nothing.

JC’s eyes fell onto his alarm clock and he sighed. It was going on afternoon and he knew that it was time for him to face the guys. He didn’t really want to, but he had come to the decision that if he really wanted to protect his friends from any more demon attacks he wouldn’t be able to do so from his bedroom. But that didn’t mean that he was looking forward to all the questions they’d have about what had happened, and he knew there was no way he would be able to get out of answering them.

Unlocking the door JC stepped out into the hallway, leaving his bedroom door open behind him. He turned left and walked down the hall before he made another left to descend the stairs. Once his feet reached the cold wood of the foyer, he walked into the office to get his notebook. It was his plan to put it back upstairs where no one else would stumble upon it and read it.

JC found the green notebook sitting on the end table, not the couch where he had left it, which was proof of Justin reading it. His right hand reached out and grasped the thin notebook. Staring down at the rectangular object in his hand, he felt all of his emotions rising up in him before rage overtook him.

Angrily he opened the notebook and began to tear the pages out one by one. His left hand held it while his right hand reached for the top of the page and ripped in a downward motion. JC repeated this motion over and over, moving from one page to the next. He took all of his anger out on the object that held all of his thoughts, feeling, and recounts of the events that had taken place over the last couple years.

It wasn’t fair what had happened to them, and just seemed to be one thing after another. Him almost drowning, Lance breaking his leg, Lance almost died, Justin’s nightmares, Justin passing out…twice, and Lance’s suicide attempt. They never asked for any of it, but that didn’t stop it from happening. It didn’t stop the demons and their hell-bent need to hurt his friends just to torture him. And what for? JC had no idea and didn’t know if he would ever find out. If only Justin knew about this and how it only added on to the guilt he felt.

Not that it was his business anyway. How dare he read his notebook? It didn’t matter that he was worried. That was something private and for his eyes only. JC continued to rapidly tear through the notebook, his thoughts making him pick up his speed. Why couldn’t the guys leave him alone? They were always hovering, making sure that he ate and slept, and fussed when he did neither of those things. If they would stop mothering him maybe he would be able to think and prevent these things from happening. Couldn’t they understand it was his job to protect them?

As he ripped page after page, his breathing and heart rate steadily increased. JC was so consumed by what he was doing that he didn’t realize he was panting so hard that he could barely take in air that would carry oxygen to his lungs, or the sound of footsteps coming down the hall and stopping beside him. Someone gently placed a hand on his shoulder and called his name.

“JC?” the voice JC recognized as Lance said and shook his shoulder. “JC…notebook…let go.”

JC shook his head and tightened his grip on the notebook. He didn’t want to let go of the notebook, if that’s what Lance was saying, because he had to finish tearing apart the thing that taunted him about all of the bad things that had happened. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Lance move only to stand in front of him. Lance’s hand grabbed the opposite end of the notebook and wrenched it out of his hands. JC fought weakly but gave in, the lack of oxygen making his head pound and it hard to focus.

Before he knew what was happening he was pulled out of the study and into the hallway. Once he was in the hallway, he could feel his anger start to melt away, leaving him feeling raw and exposed. Lance stepped forward and wrapped him in a hug. That comfort had been something JC had needed after everything he experienced the night before but denied himself, and it meant even more that it was coming from Lance because it’d been a long time since Lance had been himself.

JC could feel his heart hammering against his chest and his breathing was in tune with it. As he felt Lance rub his back, he could hear Lance whisper, “Got you. Breathe. It…’s all right.”

JC could see Chris, Joey and Justin over Lance’s shoulder. Joey and Chris were looking uneasy as if they wanted to help but didn’t know how to. Justin, on the other hand, was standing back to let the other guys handle it.

“Calm down, JC,” Lance said. “In…out…”

With Lance’s coaching JC could feel his body finally start to return to normal but exhausted at the same time. He felt his knees buckle, his oxygen deprived body too weak to hold him up anymore. But he didn’t fall to ground because Lance lowered both of their bodies to the floor, letting JC rest against the wall.

“Just relax,” Lance told him. JC wanted to refuse, but he was too tired. His anger and lack of sleep left him completely wiped and depleted of energy. He could feel his eyelids close, leaving him to welcome sleep.

“What now?” Joey asked, causing Lance to look up.

“Help me carry him to the couch,” Lance replied. Joey nodded and helped Lance to lift him off the floor. Together they walked the few feet down the hall that it took to reach the living room and gently lowered JC onto the couch.

“What the hell was that?” Chris asked as he and Justin walked into the room.

Lance inclined his head towards the kitchen. “Let’s talk in there so we don’t wake him up.”

The four of them settled themselves around the table. Silence reigned over the white tiled kitchen before Chris spoke up. “Seriously, what just happened?”

“He had some kind of freak out,” Lance said.

“Why?” Joey asked. “I thought overall he was fine?”

Before Lance could answer, Justin cut in. “It’s my fault.”

The other three looked at him in surprise. They watched as Justin brought up his right hand and began to bite on his nails, something he did when he was upset. Lance cleared his throat before he asked, “Why do you think that, J?”

Justin momentarily pulled his hand away from his mouth to answer. “Because I read his notebook and pissed him off.”

“It’s not your fault, Curly.” Chris, who was sitting next to Justin, leaned over and put a hand on Justin’s shoulder. “JC was probably already screwed up before you got to him.”

“Chris!” Lance admonished.

“What? It’s true,” Chris replied.

Justin shook his head. “You saw how angry he was. He completely tore it apart.” Justin looked up at Lance and Joey with misery dripping off his face. “I made him do that.”

“Justin, it really wasn’t your fault,” Joey soothed. “Chris and I were there when he went into Lance’s mind, remember? It was easy to see afterwards that he was freaked out. Nothing you said made him do that.”

“So then why did he?” Justin asked, abandoning biting his nails. Lance was sure that despite their best efforts to make Justin believe that JC’s freak out wasn’t his fault, Justin would probably still harbor some guilt over it.

“Everything probably just caught up to him at once. You know he doesn’t ever deal with anything until he’s forced to,” Lance reasoned.

“So you think maybe seeing the notebook triggered something?” Chris asked, sitting back down.

Lance shrugged. “Maybe.” He paused. “It might’ve even been a combination of that and being in the study again.”

“What does that have to do with anything?” Joey asked.

“You guys said that his therapy session was in the study. It probably brought back memories of it. You saw how he calmed down once we forced him into the hall,” Lance replied. The other three nodded in agreement.

Silence blanketed the room for a minute before Justin asked, “What do we do now?”

“We see how he feels when he wakes up,” Lance said. “This could’ve been a turning point for him and things might get better from here.”

Chris raised an eyebrow. “Do you really believe that?”

“I believe we should hope for the best instead of thinking the worst,” Lance replied.

“Well while JC’s sleeping, I think I’m going to try to catch a few Zs,” Joey said, rising from the table. He left the room without waiting for a reply. Chris watched him leave before he silently stood up and followed Joey.

Chris walked upstairs and down the hall before he reached the bathroom. He knew that Joey would be getting ready for bed. Chris leaned up against the doorway and watched as Joey brushed his teeth. After a minute Joey looked up.

“What are you doing?” Chris asked.

Joey shot him an incredulous look and removed the toothbrush from his mouth to say, “What do you think I’m doing?”

“Dude, you’re spraying toothpaste everywhere,” Chris complained, wrinkling his face in disgust.

Joey rolled his eyes, but resumed brushing his teeth. Once he had spit into the sink and rinsed his mouth out, he turned to look at Chris. “What’s up, man?”

“Seriously, Joey, what are you doing?”

“I’m getting ready for bed,” Joey answered, with a frown. Chris knew Joey didn’t know why he was asking him this and knew that he would have to plunge right into what he wanted to say.

Chris shook his head. “No. I mean, what are doing here? Don’t you think it’s time for you to go home?”

“Are you trying to get rid of me?” Joey asked half jokingly.

“You know you’re welcome here, Joe, but…”

“But what?” Joey prompted when Chris trailed off.

“You should spend some time at home and make things right with Kelly,” Chris finished. Despite the chaos of JC going into Lance’s mind, Lance waking up, and JC’s freak out, he hadn’t forgotten what Joey had confided to him. He wanted to tell Joey to fix this and make things right with his family, but he didn’t want to force him because it wasn’t really his business. But that wasn’t going to stop him from at least suggesting it.

“I want to, but I don’t want to leave you guys alone to deal with everything,” Joey said.

“Deal with what? Everything’s over, but even if it wasn’t we’d call you if something happened,” Chris replied.

Joey hesitated, and Chris knew he was lying about not wanting to leave them alone. Realistically everything seemed to be over now, so there was nothing keeping Joey here except for his unwillingness to deal with his own problems. Chris wanted to tell him that he couldn’t use their problems as an excuse to not deal with his problems, but knew that Joey would come around in his own time and go home.

“I just want to spend a couple more days here. Just to figure out what I’m going to do,” Joey said.

Chris nodded and patted Joey on the shoulder. “All right, but at least think about calling Kelly. OK?”

“OK,” Joey agreed. “You going to get some sleep?”

“Nah, I think I’m going to watch some TV with Justin in the basement,” Chris said, stepping out of the doorway to let Joey into the hallway and get to his room. He clapped Joey on the shoulder one more time and watched him walk into his room.

Once Joey’s bedroom door closed, Chris walked down the hall and downstairs. He poked his head into the living room on his way to the basement and saw Lance curled up on the loveseat sleeping. Grabbing a couple blankets from the hall closet, he walked into the living room to cover Lance and JC with a blanket. Neither of them stirred and Chris left the room as quietly as he entered and wandered downstairs.

His eyes adjusted to the dim lighting that was only provided by the flickering images on the TV and found that Justin was sitting with his left arm propping up his head. It wasn’t until he got closer that he realized Justin’s eyes were closed in sleep. Chris wasn’t too surprised by this because Justin, like the rest of them, hadn’t gotten a lot of sleep and probably tired himself out from beating himself up over his guilt of JC’s freak out.

Chris settled himself on the opposite end of the couch and watched the channel that Justin had left on before he’d fallen asleep because he didn’t feel like getting up to grab the remote to change the channel. Before he knew it, his eyelids felt heavy and he nodded off.

A few hours later JC woke up to the sound of someone running into the coffee table in front of the couch and a mumbled “shit.” Immediately he opened his eyes to find Justin scowling.

“What happened?” JC mumbled as he sat up and rubbed his eyes.

Justin averted his eyes and looked guilty that he had woken him up. “I stubbed my toe when I was picking up the remote that Joey left on the floor!” The last part was shouted to Joey who was in the kitchen.

JC stood up and folded the blanket that he had slept with before he tossed it on the back of the couch. He watched as Justin took the remote and sat himself on the loveseat across the room while avoiding his gaze. As the sleep cleared from his mind, he remembered the fight he’d had with Justin and his ripping up his notebook afterwards. No doubt Justin was probably blaming himself for what had happened and thought JC hated him.

“Justin,” JC said and waited for Justin to look at him before he smiled at him to show that everything was OK between them. Justin smiled back.

“Pizza is on the way,” Joey announced as he walked into the living room with Lance.

“How you feeling?” Lance asked JC.

“I’m fine.” JC saw Lance’s raised eyebrow and added, “Really.”

Lance nodded and JC knew that he was letting it go. For now anyway. “The pizza should be here soon. We got a couple of pepperoni pizzas and Joey got a large with a bunch of gross toppings.”

“They’re not gross,” Joey objected.

“Pineapple and mushrooms are nasty enough alone, but together…” Chris shuddered as he walked into the room.

“What are you complaining about? It’s not like you’re going to eat it,” Joey said.

“Good thing,” Chris replied. JC smiled slightly. It was nice to see that no matter what happened nothing changed with them.

“Is someone going to pick a movie?” Justin asked, rubbing his head slightly. JC noticed and frowned. It was obvious that Justin had a headache, but he wasn’t going to draw attention to it because everyone was in a good mood. Even if he brought up his concerns to the others they might think he was crazy, especially after what happened in the study.

“I am!” Chris ran forward to pick a movie. After a minute of searching, he held up the movie and Justin and Lance groaned.

“Titanic?” Lance asked.

Justin shook his head. “Dude, your movie picking privileges have been revoked.”

“I don’t know why you’re complaining, Lance. This is your movie collection. You obviously like it or you wouldn’t have it,” Chris said.

“I have it because it was a gift,” Lance replied. “From you might I add.”

Chris laughed. “All the more reason to watch it then.”

“No way!” Joey cried.

“We might as well let him put it in,” JC said. “Clearly Chris needs to meet his chick flick quota for the month.”

Chris pretended to look offended. “Dude, I’m hurt.”

Just then the door bell rang. “I’ll get it!” Joey called and headed towards the front door.

While he was doing that Chris put in the movie to get it ready. Joey came back in a minute later and set the pizzas on the coffee table. Lance, who had gone into the kitchen to get plates and drinks, placed those next to the pizzas. Once everyone had a plate of pizza, they started the movie.

JC wasn’t very hungry and ended up nibbling on one piece of pizza all evening while the others stuffed their faces. He knew that he should eat something, but he had this pit in his stomach that wouldn’t seem to go away. Putting food in his system just made him nauseous. The movie was actually holding their attention, which he was grateful for because the last thing he needed was the guys to notice that he hadn’t eaten much. His attention was drawn from his thoughts when Chris and Joey stood up and started to act out the movie as it was playing.

“I’m the king of the world!” Chris shouted, spreading his arms out.

“Hey, why am I the chick?” Joey complained.

“Because you won rock, paper, scissors earlier,” Chris said before he took a deep breath and spoke in a bad impression of Leonardo Dicaprio. “Now…you must never forget me. Don’t let go.”

“I won’t let go, Jack,” Joey said, in a high voice as he gripped Chris’ hand.

Chris yanked his hand back. “Dude! Don’t touch me!”

Joey smirked. “That’s what you get for making me be a chick.”

“Oh yeah?” Chris lunged and wrestled Joey to the ground. JC couldn’t help but smile and shake his head. His friends were one of a kind and seemed to know exactly what was needed to make everything return to normal.

Chris stretched his arm above his head to grab a bowl out of the cupboard. But it was on the top shelf and it was still out of reach even with him standing on his tiptoes. He cursed Justin silently because Justin always put bowls on the top shelf when he unloaded the dishwasher.

“Damn it, Justin!” Chris yelled.

“What’s wrong?” Joey asked as he walked into the kitchen.

“I can’t reach a bowl for my cereal,” Chris said and stepped back as Joey stepped forward to grab the bowl and handed it to Chris. “Thanks.”

“No problem,” Joey replied.

Chris pulled the box of Lucky Charms from the cupboard above the stove and filled his bowl with the sweet cereal. But that wasn’t enough sugar for him. He dumped some sugar from the jar sitting on the counter. As he dug into his breakfast, he looked around the kitchen.

“Where’s Justin?” he asked.

Joey pulled his head out of the fridge and stood up with his leftover pizza in hand. Chris wrinkled his nose in disgust as he watched Joey take a bite and shrug. “In the living room?”

Chris took a few steps forward to peek into the living room and saw Lance sitting in his favorite chair typing with his right hand on his laptop and eating a piece of toast with his left. Lance never could seem to stop working. Chris shook his head briefly before his eyes landed on Justin who was lying on the couch with earphones on, probably listening to one of his new CDs that he got.

“Did you see him take any aspirin?” Chris asked, turning his attention back to Joey.

“Yeah, just a few minutes ago,” Joey said around a mouth full of food.

Chris frowned slightly. “Seems to be getting them a lot lately.”

“It’s probably from all the stress,” Joey replied.

“Yeah.” Chris sighed as he finished off his cereal. As he rinsed his bowl out in the sink, he hoped that Justin’s headaches would become less frequent now that things were getting back to normal. Once the dish was in the dishwasher, Chris walked towards the living room, but stopped when he saw JC sitting on the swing outside through the sliding glass door.

As Chris continued walking into the living room, he wondered how long JC had been out there. It was nearly ten o’clock in the morning and normally JC would still be sleeping right now. But maybe he was finally getting back on his schedule. The other explanation would be that JC still wasn’t sleeping and Chris would be willing to bet that it’d have to do with what happened while he was in Lance’s head.

“Are we ever going to talk about what happened?” Chris asked Lance without preamble, having reached the living room.

Lance sighed, but continued to type away on his laptop with both of his hands, never missing a beat. “We can’t push him, Chris. He’ll talk about it when he’s ready.”

“That’ll be never. Did you know that he’s up already and sitting outside?” Chris motioned towards the window. “How much do you want to bet that he hasn’t been sleeping again?”

“You’re forgetting that he went to bed early. If he still wasn’t sleeping, don’t you think one of us would notice?” Lance replied.

“No because we’re sleeping. Like he’s supposed to be.” Chris paused and crossed his arms. “He needs to talk about what happened.”

“And he will. Just give him a little time and try to be patient,” Lance said.

Chris sighed and let his arms drop to his sides. “Fine.”

Chris turned around and walked out of the living room. He entered the kitchen only to immediately exit through the sliding glass door to join JC on the swing. Gently he sat on the swing and began to rock his feet back and forth in front of him causing the swing to move.

JC, who’d had his eyes closed prior to Chris sitting on the swing, opened his eyes to glare at him. “Quit it.”

Immediately Chris planted his feet firmly on the ground to stop the rocking motion. He’d forgotten that JC didn’t like to be moving when he was in thought. JC turned his attention to the backyard and Chris figured now would be a good time to ask JC what’d happened. Screw what Lance said. JC’d had all of yesterday to think about it and now it was time to talk about it.

“How long have you been up?” Chris asked. It was best to ease into what he wanted to say.

JC shrugged, but didn’t look at him. “About an hour.”

Chris nodded. “Did you eat?”

“No,” JC answered and Chris sighed. JC looked over at him. “I’ll eat later.”

“All right,” Chris said, deciding to let it go. He could still hear Derek in the back of his mind telling him not to smother JC and freak out if he skipped a meal.

“I don’t want to talk about it, Chris,” JC replied, startling Chris out of the silence that had fallen between the two of them.

“Talk about what? I was going to ask you what you wanted to do today,” Chris said, trying to play innocent.

JC glared at him. “Chris.”

“Can you blame me? We have no idea what happened to you while you were in Lance’s head,” Chris said. “I mean, you were shivering the entire time and then that cloud of smoke, or whatever, went after you.”

“It was a demon,” JC replied, looking down at his hands.

“And it was in Lance’s head?” JC nodded and Chris continued, “So how’d you get rid of it?”

“I told it to leave,” JC said.

Chris waited a minute expecting JC to add to that. But after a minute of silence he said, “That’s it? You just told it to leave and it listened to you?”

“Yeah.” JC nodded.

“That couldn’t have been it though because you were in there for a while,” Chris replied.

“I didn’t find him right away. I went through some of Lance’s memories.” JC paused. “I even saw…I saw Lance’s suicide attempt.”

Chris was silent for a minute as he took in that information. He could only imagine how horrifying that was to watch. It made him understand why JC hadn’t been so forthcoming with what’d happened. “And then you met up with the demon?” When JC nodded again he said, “Did it say anything to you?”

JC raised his head to look at him. “No. Why would it?”

“I don’t know, but it seems like you’re not telling me everything. That makes me think it said something to you,” Chris explained.

“Well, it didn’t,” JC snapped before sighing and running a hand through his hair. “Can we stop talking about this?”

Chris wanted to push, but could tell by how upset JC still was that he must’ve been telling the truth about what he experienced in Lance’s head. So he let the topic drop. But that didn’t mean that he would forget about it and never bring it up again.

The silence that fell over them in the backyard didn’t last long because the sliding glass door opened with Joey and Lance stepping outside, a basketball under Joey’s arm. They stopped in front of him and JC. “We want to play a game of pickup,” Joey said.

“And we want you guys to join us,” Lance added.

Chris nodded and stood up. “I’m in.” He looked over at JC. “C?”

JC hesitated briefly before nodding. “All right.”

Together the four of them walked the few feet it took to reach the basketball court that Lance had put in for instances like this. Chris caught the ball Joey passed him and tossed it back to him while they waited for JC to tie his shoelaces. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Justin come towards them with his sunglasses on.

“Hey, Mr. Cool. Want to play?” Chris asked.

“No.” Justin shook his head. “My head hurts.”

JC frowned. “Is it worse than last night?”

The surprise that flickered across Justin’s face reflected the surprise Chris felt at finding that out. He hadn’t realized that Justin’d had another headache the night before. “Yeah, but I took some aspirin.”

“Why don’t you go back inside and lie down?” JC suggested.

“I’m tired of lying around.” Justin paused. “Besides, the fresh air might do me some good.”

JC nodded in acceptance and Justin walked over to the other end of the court to lean against the hoop. Chris turned and looked at Joey expectantly. “Me and Jace against you and Lance?”

“Yeah,” Joey agreed. He moved to stand next to Lance in the center of the court. It went unspoken that Joey and Lance’s team would get the ball first because it had been their idea to play, and Joey had the ball. The game got underway with the four of them running back and forth constantly changing from offense to defense.

Joey and Lance were winning as Chris dribbled the ball down the court and went to pass the ball to JC who was down by the hoop that Justin was leaning against. Chris threw the ball and watched as it hit his teammate in the arm.

“What the hell, JC? We’re not going to catch up to Joey and Lance if you don’t catch the ball,” Chris complained.

JC ignored him and walked closer to Justin, his face etched in a permanent frown. “Are you OK, J?”

It was then that Chris realized Justin looked pale in the bright sunlight and slid off his sunglasses to clutch at his head. Looking behind him, he saw that Joey and Lance had stopped and were watching Justin as well. He turned his attention back to the scene playing out in front of him.

“I’m fine,” Justin said, even as he swayed on his feet. Then before JC could say anything else, Justin’s eyes rolled into the back of his head and his body pitched forward from his dead weight. JC, who’d been a couple feet away, lunged and caught Justin. As JC gently lowered Justin to the asphalt, Chris ran over to them with Joey and Lance on his tail.

“Was it his headache?” Lance asked.

JC shook his head and shrugged. “I don’t know.”

“Should we wait for him to come out of it on his own?” Chris asked, frowning as he looked down at Justin. It was horrible to see Justin like this.

“I don’t know.” JC paused and Chris’s eyes narrowed as he looked at him. It was weird to see him acting so calm when Justin just passed out for the second time within a week. He didn’t seem as freaked as he normally would be and Chris couldn’t help but wonder why. “Maybe.”

Chris looked over at Joey. “How long was he out the first time?”

“Uh…about a minute I think,” Joey said.

“Shouldn’t he be awake by now then?” Chris asked.

JC gently slapped Justin’s cheeks, trying to rouse him. When that didn’t work Lance said, “Maybe we should call Doctor Marks.”

“I’ll do it,” Joey volunteered and ran towards the house.

Once he was gone Chris turned his attention to JC and Lance. “We should get Justin inside.”

They nodded and together the three of them lifted Justin’s body and carried him into the house. Just as they settled Justin on the couch, Joey came walking in with his cell phone attached to his ear.

“Yeah, we just got him inside,” Joey said. He was silent for a minute before he looked over at them. “He says to check that he’s breathing normally and his heart isn’t beating too fast.”

Chris knelt beside the couch and watched Justin’s chest rise and fall. “His breathing seems OK.” He reached out a hand and pressed two fingers against Justin’s neck. “His heart rate’s a little fast, but it’s not too bad.”

Joey relayed that information back to the doctor and listened to the response. He pulled the phone away from his mouth and said, “Doctor Marks says that’s good and it doesn’t sound too serious. Probably exhaustion or the heat again and it’s important to take care of him right now, but that if we can’t wake him up in fifteen minutes to take him to the hospital.”

“I’ll go get a cool washcloth,” JC volunteered and jogged out of the room. About a minute passed before JC ran back into the room with the cold cloth in hand. Chris removed the fingers he’d been dragging through Justin’s curls to allow JC to put the compress on Justin’s forehead.

The reaction was almost instantaneous as Justin’s eyelids started to flutter. “He’s waking up. Thanks for everything, Doctor Marks,” Joey said and hung up the phone.

The four of them watched Justin open his eyes and blink several times. Finally his eyes focused and moved around to look at each of them. Justin tried to pull himself into a sitting position, but was pushed back against the cushions by Chris.

“Take it easy. You were out for ten minutes,” he said.

“I was?” Justin closed his eyes only to open them a second later. “You guys have to stay out of the basement.”

Chris was surprised that was one of the first things he said. He had expected Justin to ask what happened or something to that effect, not warn them to stay out of the basement. What the hell was that supposed to mean? Just as he was about to ask why Lance beat him to it.

“Why?” Lance asked.

Justin’s eyes connected with JC. “It’s just a feeling I have. Something bad is going to happen if we go into the basement.”

“OK,” JC agreed, cutting off Chris who opened his mouth to push more. “We won’t go into the basement.”

“How’s your head?” Joey asked.

“It hurts,” Justin said. “But I think the washcloth is helping.”

“Well, we’re going to leave you to get some rest,” Lance told him and motioned for JC and Chris who were kneeling on the floor to stand up and follow.

“Yell if you need something,” JC said.

“OK,” Justin agreed, his eyes already closed. Chris stood up, but didn’t follow them out of the room. Instead he sat down in the chair that Lance had been occupying only a couple hours ago. He wanted to make sure that Justin was all right considering the scare that they’d just experienced.

Running his fingers through his hair Chris was sure that he had some gray hairs after what had happened over the past couple of days. Having Justin pass out the first time was scary enough, but it was ten times worse this time because he’d actually seen it. But the doctor hadn’t said anything about it being serious, so that was reassuring. He planned to have a talk with JC soon because if his demeanor from earlier was any clue, it meant that he knew something that they didn’t and he had a feeling it had to do with what Justin had said earlier. It was disconcerting hearing his friend talk about the future, and he worried about why Justin believed it so easily.

Chris watched as Justin fell into a deep sleep, but it wasn’t a restful one. Even in sleep it was easy to see the pain that Justin was in from his headache. He wished that he could take away that pain because he hated seeing his youngest friend hurting. A few minutes passed before Chris decided that he’d watched Justin sleep long enough, so he stood up and went to see what the others were up to, hoping that when Justin woke up he’d feel better.

Justin woke up and opened his eyes. It was a little darker in the room, which meant that the sun must be behind the house and it was late afternoon. He sat up and caught the washcloth that fell from his head. Thankfully his head didn’t hurt nearly as bad as it did earlier when he woke up.

He took a minute to look around the room and get his bearings. Quickly he realized that he was alone and he vaguely remembered the guys leaving to let him get some sleep. Justin stood up and walked out of the living room towards the upstairs because he needed to talk to JC and he figured that’s where he’d be.

Justin wasn’t disappointed when he peaked into JC’s room and saw him lying on his bed staring up at the ceiling. He walked in and let JC know that he was no longer alone.

“Hey.”

JC tore his gaze away from the ceiling to look over at Justin. “Hey. How are you feeling?”

“Better. My head doesn’t feel like it’s going to split in half anymore,” Justin said. JC sat up and scooted to the head of the bed giving room for Justin to sit down.

“That’s good,” JC replied.

Justin nodded and silence fell for a few seconds before he asked, “Where’re the other guys?”

“Lance is in his study working and I think Joey and Chris are playing Guess Who in Joey’s room,” JC said.

Justin raised an eyebrow even though he couldn’t help but feel relieved that they hadn’t gone into the basement while he slept. “Where did they find that?”

JC shrugged. “It was at the bottom of one of Lance’s closets. You know how Chris gets when he’s bored.”

Justin nodded because he did. Chris was a force to be reckoned with whenever he was bored and wouldn’t leave anyone alone until he found someone to do something with him. His thoughts were interrupted by JC.

“Was it like last time? When you saw Lance…try to kill himself?”

“Yeah,” Justin admitted reluctantly. It wasn’t one that he wanted to remember because it was horrible to watch. Lance’s suicide was just as bad, but this new one was almost worse because he didn’t know exactly what was going to happen. But it still freaked him out either way.

“What happened in the basement?” JC asked.

“I’m not sure,” Justin answered truthfully after a slight pause. “I didn’t really see much. I could just hear screaming and…uh…felt fear and worry.”

JC frowned. “Do you know when this happens?”

Justin shook his head and brought his left hand up to his mouth to bite at his nails. “No, but I’m not taking any chances.”

“Well, when you last had your…” JC paused. “Vision or whatever it is, how much time passed before it happened?”

“About a few hours, but I had it in portions first,” Justin said.

“What do you mean?” JC asked.

“Well, in the driveway I only saw part of it. It wasn’t until the one in the living room a day later did I see the whole thing,” Justin explained.

JC leaned forward a little. “Do you think you’re going to get another one later where you get more details?”

Justin shook his head. “No. This one felt complete like the one I had in the living room.”

“Then we’ll just stay out of the basement and we should be OK,” JC said.

Justin walked downstairs leaving JC alone with his thoughts. It probably wasn’t the best idea given everything that’d happened, but even before all this demon stuff started JC liked to spend some time alone. He’d offered JC to come downstairs and watch some TV with him, but JC declined and Justin didn’t want to push at that moment.

Over the past couple of days Justin had left JC alone and didn’t force him to talk about everything that had happened because he knew that JC liked to deal with things on his own. But the more that he thought about it the more he realized Lance having a demon in his head, him seeing it before it happened, and now seeing that another bad thing was going to happen seemed to be interrelated. And he was sure that what JC experienced in Lance’s head was important to all of that. JC wouldn’t talk about what’d happened willingly, so Justin knew that they would have to force him to. As he entered the kitchen he found Lance unloading the dishwasher.

“Want some help?” Justin offered.

Lance shrugged. “If you want.”

Justin stepped closer and grabbed a bowl, placing it on the top shelf. As he rubbed a towel over a particularly wet dish, he decided now would be a good time to talk to Lance about JC.

“Have you talked to JC today?” he asked.

“No.” Lance looked up from the dish he was drying to raise an eyebrow at him. “Have you?”

“No. Well, yeah, but not about himself,” Justin said.

Lance placed the glass in the cupboard with the others. “Sounds like JC.”

“Yeah, but he needs to talk to us about what happened,” Justin replied.

“You’re such a hypocrite,” Lance laughed and shook his head.

Justin looked at Lance in surprise. “What?”

“You get so pissed when one of us keeps a secret from you, but as soon as the tables are turned, you don’t hesitate to do the same thing,” Lance explained.

Justin thought about what Lance said and realized that there was some truth to it. A couple months ago he’d tried to get all their secrets out in the open, but that was before he started having nightmares. Being in JC’s shoes made Justin understand where JC was coming from. It made him understand why he preferred to keep his own pain and distress out of conversations. He kind of felt remorseful at the way he’d treated JC and others about their secrets, but thinking back he probably wouldn’t have change anything because he hadn’t really forced JC to talk until after he’d collapsed since his secrets had affected his health. But bringing himself back to the present Justin decided that it’s hard to determine what secrets should be talked about and what shouldn’t. For now, all he knew was that they needed to know what happened.

Justin shook his head, dismissing what Lance said. “I know I haven't exactly been consistent with how I feel about secrets, but this time is different. We need to know what happened.” He paused. “He must know something important if it's screwed him up this much. And maybe if we had all the information, we could put a stop to it.”

“Do you honestly think that if he knew how to stop all of this he would keep it to himself? It must be personal,” Lance replied.

Justin sighed but nodded. It made sense because JC was very protective of them and always tried to fix their problems. But on the other hand, what if he’s got a plan and keeping it to himself, not wanting them to get involved? Knowing that Lance would just dismiss it if he brought it up, Justin instead said, “But aren’t you the least bit curious? I mean, he was in your head.”

“Maybe a little, but not enough to force him to talk. Like I told Chris, he’ll talk when he’s ready.”

“I don’t want to force him, but I still think we need to know what happened,” Justin said.

“Justin—“

“Fine. I’ll drop it,” Justin said, interrupting Lance. “But I am going to ask him about it.”

Lance nodded. “That’s your decision, but don’t be surprised when it doesn’t work.”

Justin reached into the nearly empty dishwasher to grab a spoon and nicked his finger on a knife. Immediately he pulled his finger up to his mouth and sucked on it. “It’s not funny,” he said in response to Lance’s small smile.

Lance managed to school his face back to neutrality and continued drying the damp dishes. Justin removed his finger from his mouth and saw that the bleeding had stopped, but that it left a small cut behind. Deciding he was done helping Lance, he leaned against the counter and watched Lance put the dishes away.

“Is Joey going home?” Justin asked a minute later. He was kind of surprised that Joey was still hanging out with them. He figured that he would’ve went back to his family a day or two ago.

Lance glanced back at Justin as he put the final dish away. “You want him to leave?”

“No.” Justin shook his head. “I just feel like we’re hogging him. He hasn’t spent much time with Kelly and Brianna.”

“Well,” Lance dried his hands off, “I did talk to Chris. He didn’t tell me everything, but he did say that Joey’s having some problems with Kelly right now.”

Justin looked surprised. “Really? I knew he was frustrated with her because she couldn’t trust him not to drink, but I didn’t know it was serious.”

“Yeah, so it would probably be best if you didn’t bring it up unless he does,” Lance replied.

Justin nodded, but before he could say anything JC came walking into the kitchen. JC didn’t spare him or Lance a glance as he opened the fridge and grabbed a bottle of water. He watched as JC crossed back through the kitchen, probably heading back upstairs and knew that now would be the time to hint that he wanted to talk to JC eventually about what’d happened.

“Hey, JC?”

JC stopped in his tracks and turned around to face him. “Yeah?”

“You want to talk later?” Justin asked. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Lance look down and shake his head.

JC stared at him blankly for a minute before he turned and walked away without a word. It was shocking to hear such a blunt approach from Justin, who had pretty much been on his side through most of their ordeal. He had been the one insisting on his behalf that he didn’t need therapy. Being badgered by Justin added to his existing frustration towards his friends. It was getting tiring dealing with them constantly pestering him about what happened the other night.

Walking past the living room, he was almost to the stairs when Chris, who was sitting in the living room, called for him.

JC backtracked and stood in the doorway of living room. “What?”

“Come sit down for a minute,” Chris requested, patting the couch he was sitting on.

JC sighed, but moved forward to sit in the armchair. He figured he might as well see what he wanted or else he’d probably keep bugging him until he gave in anyway. The sooner he got this over with, the sooner he could go back upstairs. But Chris wasn’t talking, his head turned to the TV.

“Can you believe Kurt Loder still does the MTV news? He needs to get a life,” Chris said.

“Just say what you want to say so I can leave,” JC snapped, not appreciating Chris’s attempt to ease into the conversation.

Chris nodded, clearly not fazed by JC’s short temper, and turned his body to face JC. “You didn’t act all that surprised when Justin passed out this morning.” Chris paused. “So what do you know that we don’t? Cause it sure seems like you know something.”

“I don’t,” JC lied. “But even if I did, why should I tell you? I told you about the demons and you didn’t believe me, so why would you now?”

JC rose from the chair and walked out into the hall to leave only to be stopped by Chris’s arm on his shoulder forcing him to turn around. “I’m sorry, man, but it’s kind of a hard thing to believe when your friend tells you something like that.”

“Well, you should have! When I have been known to make up stories?” JC shot back.

“Never, and I said I was sorry. It’s just that the odds of demons actually attacking us is like what, a million to one? I was just going by the numbers,” Chris joked.

“Everything’s a damn joke to you!” JC yelled. His eyes moved over to the kitchen doorway and saw Lance and Justin standing there. He felt something inside of him snap. “I only came down for some water and what do I get? Bombarded with questions!”

“JC,” Chris started, but JC continued ranting.

“Leave me the hell alone!” he yelled and threw his water bottle.

Unbeknownst to JC, Joey had just reached the bottom of the stairs as the bottle went whizzing towards his head. He ducked just in time, however, and bent down to pick it up, looking at it in confusion.

JC, with his attention fully focused on the other three, shouted one final request, “Mind your own damn business!”

JC turned around and stormed passed Joey, grabbing his water bottle out of Joey’s hands on the way. Halfway up the stairs he heard Joey ask, “What the hell did you guys do?”

Lance sat on the couch in the living room with the other guys, except for JC of course. They’d been watching TV for a while, but it didn’t have Lance’s attention. He was wrapped up in his thoughts. It had been scary to see JC yell like that because that rarely happened. Normally when JC felt cornered he’d snap at them, but he never really yelled like he had. Even when he freaked out with Derek he was more upset than angry. JC had a history of getting overly upset and hysterical, but never outright furious. Knowing this, Lance realized that it was probably a good thing that JC let off some steam after everything he’d been dealing with lately.

The real surprise came when Lance tried to talk to JC a little after he went back upstairs. He had sent JC a mental message if they could talk only to be left with the feeling of a door being slammed in his face. Lance attempted to repeatedly send his request to talk, but he could tell that JC wasn’t receiving the message. Normally, even if JC didn’t respond, he could sense JC’s emotional or physical reaction to what Lance had said. But now, he got nothing. It was like their connection had been completely broken. At least temporarily anyway. Lance had no idea it was even possible, but if anyone could figure out how to close off a telepathic connection, JC could.

Part of him wanted to talk to someone else about it, but he knew now wasn’t the time for that. Besides, the others didn’t really know anything about how their connection worked, so they wouldn’t be much help anyway. Maybe when JC wasn’t so pissed, he’d ask him how he was able to do that. Lance relaxed back against the couch and tried to focus on the TV when a loud scream came from the basement.

“Guys!” JC yelled. Lance could hear the fear and panic in his voice. Immediately he and the other guys jumped off the couch. The four of them ran for the basement and down the stairs.

Once his feet hit the basement floor Lance’s mind absently registered that the door slammed shut, but it didn’t concern him because he figured he’d pulled it closed behind in his haste to get down the stairs. Lance stepped forward and looked around the basement. JC was nowhere to be seen.

“Everyone heard him, right?” Lance asked, checking to see if he’d really heard it even though he knew he had.

“Yeah,” Joey agreed.

“Where the hell is he?” Chris asked, coming out of the bathroom.

Then they heard pounding on the basement door and JC yelling through it. “Guys!”

Lance ran up the stairs and yelled through the door. “JC? What are you doing up there? We heard you yell from down here.”

“That wasn’t me,” JC replied. “Now open the door.”

Lance tried the knob only to find that it wouldn’t turn. “It’s locked.”

“Well, then unlock it,” JC said.

“I can’t. It’s stuck,” Lance replied.

“Let me try,” Chris said, pushing past him. Lance backed down a couple stairs to give him some room. Joey came up behind Chris and they watched as Chris continued to jiggle the doorknob. Quiet mumbling could be heard from the bottom of the stairs. A quick look confirmed that it was Justin. Lance walked the rest of the way down the stairs and over to Justin who he could hear clearly.

“Oh shit. Oh shit. Oh shit,” Justin mumbled to himself, blue eyes wide with worry and fear. His body was stiff and tense.

Lance put a hand on his shoulder trying to put him at ease a little. “What’s wrong?”

“What’s wrong?” Justin repeated incredulously. “We’re in the basement!”

Lance realized that he was right. Justin had warned them to stay out and it didn’t even matter that they did because they were in it now. A feeling of dread filled him as he realized that they must’ve been lured down here, but for what reason he didn’t know. But before he could even come up with a plan or try to console Justin, he felt Justin’s shoulder be pulled out from under his fingers and saw him thrown sideways into the end of the bar with a sickening crack.

“Justin!” was the only thing Lance had time to yell before he too was throw across the room. Through some bit of luck he managed to land on his couch, the force causing him to roll onto the floor. As he lied on his stomach trying to get his bearings, he watched as Chris got thrown straight into the back wall and Joey onto the pool table. He could also hear the pounding on the door resume. No doubt JC was probably freaking out.

It took a minute, but Lance was finally able to get everything to focus again and could get on his feet without any real trouble. His attention was drawn over to the pool table where Joey was lying. There was a dark figure hovering over Joey with two inky black hands wrapped around his throat, strangling the life out of him. Joey was gasping and weakly struggling against the smoky transparent figure with red eyes that was trying to kill him. Lance stood, shocked at what he was seeing, but knew that he had to try to do something.

He ran over to Joey and saw that Justin was starting to pull himself off the floor. Lance tried to grasp the demon’s arm to pull him off Joey, but his hand went right through the demon’s arm. Instantly Lance felt déjà vu of when Katrina had tried to smother JC with a pillow, and they couldn’t grab hold of her to stop her either. The demon didn’t spare him a glance. It must not be worried about them being able to stop it.

“What do we do?” Justin yelled.

“I don’t know!” Lance shouted back.

Justin shook his head. “We have to do something!”

They frantically scanned the basement looking for something they could use to help Joey and get the demon off of him, but they couldn’t find anything that seemed like it would help. Chris rummaged through his pockets and ended up pulling a book of matches out of his pocket. “I have matches!” he yelled.

Lance looked at Chris in disbelief. “What the hell are those supposed to do?”

“Do you have any better ideas?” Chris argued, stepping closer to Lance.

“Stop it!” Justin yelled, stepping between them. “We need to help Joey!”

“How are we supposed to help him? We can’t touch the damn thing!” Lance replied, running a shaky hand through his hair. His eyes landed on Joey who was getting progressively paler and his lips were tinting blue from lack of oxygen. He had never felt so useless knowing that he was watching Joey die in front of his eyes.

Just then there was a flash of light and they yelled Joey’s name in unison. Next thing they knew everything went quiet. Lance couldn’t even hear JC beating on the door anymore. When the light faded they saw Katrina Bass forcefully pulling the demon off of Joey before she and the demon disappeared. Immediately Joey let out a gasp and began to cough violently from the lack of air. They rushed over to him and helped him to sit up, which eased the coughing allowing Joey to breathe better.

“Are you OK, Joey?” Justin asked, placing a comforting hand on his shoulder.

Joey nodded, still breathing heavily, but his color was returning. Lance sighed in relief. He had honestly thought he was going to lose his friend and was thankful Katrina became a guardian angel that watched over them instead of the vengeful spirit she’d been because it allowed her to save Joey.

Lance was forced to take his eyes off Joey and look at Chris when he asked, “What the hell just happened?”

“I dragged the demon back to hell and forced it to stay there,” Katrina said as she reappeared on the opposite side of the pool table that Joey was still sitting on.

“Thanks for saving, Joey,” Lance said.

“Yeah, thanks,” Joey croaked, his voice hoarse.

“What’s going on?” Chris asked, bringing Katrina’s attention back to him. “Why was a demon trying to kill Joey?”

Katrina sighed. “The demons have been after the four of you,” her gaze lingered on Joey and Lance, “because they know how much it would affect JC to see you guys hurt.”

The four guys looked at each other with wide eyes in shock. “Why would they want to hurt JC?” Justin asked.

“I don’t know, and I don’t think the demons attacking you know either. They’re just following orders from someone else.” Katrina paused. “Just like I was when I tried to kill JC a year ago.”

“What? How’d you end up with demons?” Lance asked, surprised and afraid of the answer.

“It was before I made it into heaven. I was stuck here because I refused to let go until I got my revenge, so they sought me out and at the time I was so filled with hate and the need for revenge that I agreed. But I couldn’t do it,” Katrina said.

Lance frowned in confusion. “I thought you tried to kill him because you wanted revenge?”

“It’s true that I had strong feelings of hatred and vengeance towards JC, but it was never my idea to kill him. I was bound to the cabin and never expected JC to show up willingly. I was swayed into doing it,” Katrina explained.

“So we were drawn to that camp for a reason?” Lance asked.

“I wish I could say for sure, but if I had to guess I’d say the one in charge of the demons attacking you is responsible for it,” Katrina said. Lance paled at the thought that some evil being was responsible for them arriving at the cabin where they’d almost lost JC. It was unsettling to think that it could’ve planted the idea in his head since he’d been the one to suggest it.

“Who are the demons working for?” Chris asked.

“I don’t know, but I think it’s a devil,” Katrina said.

Justin’s eyes got bigger. “The devil? As in Satan?”

Katrina shook her head. “No. There are many creatures that exist in Hell and I think there are devils that answer to Satan. It seems that a particular one is in charge of what happens to your friend.”

“So this…devil sent a demon to kill Joey?” Chris asked.

“Yes, and I believe there will be others. You all will have to be very careful because I’m sure they will be back,” Katrina said.

“Is there anyway to stop them?” Joey asked roughly.

“I’m sure there must be some way, but you’ll have to figure it out,” Katrina said.

“Can’t you help us?” Lance asked.

“Since I’m a guardian angel now I can’t stand in the way of the devil’s plans. I can protect you, but I don’t know if I can protect JC,” Katrina told them.

“We’ll find a way,” Justin said determinedly.

Katrina smiled softly at him. “I wish you all the best of luck, but I must be going.”

“Thanks.” Lance paused. “For everything.”

Katrina just smiled and faded, leaving them alone in the basement. They exchanged looks of disbelief with each other. What they had just learned was insane. JC had been right. The demons were after them, but wanted to kill him. The only solace Lance could find in the situation is that they still had time to try to figure out what exactly was going on and how to get JC out of the middle of it. Without a word being said, they all agreed not to tell JC what they’d found out. They didn’t want to put that weight on his shoulders because Lance knew that he would feel responsible for everything that happened. More than he did now anyway. Lance just prayed they could figure it all out before it was too late.

Joey followed Lance up the stairs with Justin and Chris bringing up the rear. They opened the door to find JC pulling himself off the floor. He looked relieved. No doubt JC had thought the worst, not knowing what had been going on.

“Are you guys all right?” JC asked.

“Yeah,” Lance said and nodded.

“Speak for yourself.” Chris rubbed the back of his head. “You landed on your couch.”

“What happened?” JC asked concern apparent on his face.

The four of them exchanged looks before Justin said, “A…demon tried to…it strangled Joey.”

JC’s eyes widened and he looked over at Joey, eyeing him critically. “Are you OK?”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Joey said.

JC frowned. “Are you sure?”

Joey nodded. “But I’m really wiped. I think I’m going to go lie down.”

Joey left the kitchen and walked upstairs before he reached his bedroom. He was kind of tired, but he was more upset and shocked than anything. Tiredness was his excuse so the guys wouldn’t have to see how upset he was. Lying on his bed, he stared at the opposite wall, his attention diverted when he heard a knock on his open door. Joey looked over and saw Chris standing in the doorway.

“What’s up?” Joey asked, sitting up and waving Chris into his room.

Chris shrugged, sitting on the end of Joey’s bed. “Nothing.”

“So why are you up here then?”

“I thought you might want someone to talk to,” Chris said.

Joey hesitated, considering telling Chris that he was fine and didn’t want to talk. But he realized if he did that, he’d be no better than JC who they always yelled at for keeping everything bottled up and not saying what was on his mind. He sighed and paused for a few more seconds to gather his thoughts. “I don’t know what to do.”

“About what?” Chris asked.

“About everything.” Joey paused. “I almost died.”

Chris nodded solemnly. “I know.”

“But that’s not even what bothers me.” Joey took a breath before he continued, “What bothers me is that I would’ve died not seeing Kelly and Brianna one last time. I would’ve left them alone.”

“But you didn’t die, and you can still go home and see them. I know things between you and Kelly aren’t great, but maybe this could be your motivation to work things out.” Chris paused. “I know you miss them.”

“I do. I want to go home and fix things, but I’m afraid to,” Joey replied.

“Kelly would understand—“

Joey shook his head and cut Chris off, “That’s not what I’m worried about.” At Chris’s raised eyebrow, he amended, “Well, it is, but that’s not the main thing.”

“Then what?” Chris asked.

“If I go home, I won’t be able to come back. She told me that I had to stay away until I was ready to stay committed to her and Brianna. But I want to be here for you guys. I want to help you figure this out,” Joey said.

“We can handle things here, and we’ll call you if anything happens. You don’t have to worry about that,” Chris replied.

“But what if it happens again? What if the demons come after me again and Kelly and Brianna get caught up in the middle of it?” Joey looked at Chris with worriedly. “I don’t want that to happen, Chris.”

Chris reached with his right hand and placed it on Joey’s arm. “You don’t know that’s going to happen.”

“I don’t want to risk it, but I don’t want to not see them either. I miss them so much. What should I do, Chris?” Joey asked.

“It’s not up to me. It’s your decision,” Chris told him.

Joey nodded. He knew Chris was right. It was his decision, but he wasn’t sure what to choose. Not seeing his wife and daughter was starting to take its toll on him, especially now that he’d nearly died. His chest ached with the desire to see them again, but he knew that he couldn’t leave the guys without this being resolved. And he couldn’t go home for a few days and come back if something happened. Joey knew he couldn’t tell Kelly the truth either, not yet anyway. That left him with only one option.

“I’m going to stay,” Joey said.

Chris nodded, not looking too surprised. “Are you sure?”

“I’m sure,” Joey replied.

“Are you at least going to call her?” Chris asked.

“And say what? That I’m not coming home because I’m afraid that if I do the demons that are after JC will hurt them?”

“You could tell her the truth,” Chris said.

“No, I can’t. She probably wouldn’t believe me anyway.” Joey shook his head. “It’s better this way.”

“As long as you’re sure,” Chris said.

“I am.”

“OK.” Chris patted Joey’s leg and pushed himself off the bed, grimacing as he did so.

Joey frowned. “Are you OK?”

“Yeah, my arm just kind of hurts. I must’ve hit it when I was slammed into the wall,” Chris replied. “But I’m going to leave you to get some rest now.”

Joey nodded and lied back down because he was kind of beat. “Thanks, Chris.”

Chris gave him a small smile. “No problem.”

After Joey and Chris left, it was just the three of them standing in the kitchen. A silence fell over the kitchen and Justin surprised Lance and JC by storming outside, slamming the glass sliding door so forcefully on his way out that it bounced back. They exchanged concerned looks.

“I’ll go talk to him,” Lance volunteered.

JC nodded. “OK. Whatever.”

Lance raised his eyebrows in surprise, but didn’t say anything. He just silently followed the path that Justin had taken outside. JC watched him go, knowing that Lance had been surprised that he hadn’t objected to Lance talking to Justin because he figured that he would want to talk to Justin himself. But the truth was that JC didn’t want to talk to Justin because he didn’t want to see Justin upset, knowing that he was the reason for Justin’s torment.

JC turned around and headed upstairs to check on Joey. He wanted to make sure that he was all right, knowing that his near death experience must’ve affected him a lot. It sure had when he’d nearly drowned in the lake at the cabin. Not to mention he wanted to see with his own eyes that Joey was as fine as he said. He had thought all of them were dead when all the screaming stopped and the basement became eerily quiet.

Reaching the top of the stairs, JC took a right towards Joey’s bedroom. As he neared the door to the bedroom, he stopped when he heard voices. Standing just outside of the doorway and enough to be out of sight, he listened to Chris and Joey talk.

“We can handle things here, and we’ll call you if anything happens. You don’t have to worry about that,” Chris said.

“But what if it happens again? What if the demons come after me again and Kelly and Brianna get caught up in the middle of it?” There was a slight pause. “I don’t want that to happen, Chris.”

“You don’t know that’s going to happen.”

“I don’t want to risk it, but I don’t want to not see them either. I miss them so much. What should I do, Chris?” Joey asked.

JC pushed himself off the wall he had been leaning against, not wanting to hear anymore. He felt even worse than he had downstairs when he’d let Lance talk to Justin. It hurt to hear the agony that Joey was going through having to make the difficult decision if he should go home or not. And JC knew it was all his fault. With a sigh, he walked back downstairs to sit in the living room to wait for Justin and Lance to come back in and make sure Justin was all right.

Lance closed the sliding glass door behind him and walked towards Justin who was angrily pacing back and forth in front of the pool. When Justin turned to continue pacing, his head rose and met Lance’s gaze before he continued pacing. It wasn’t surprising that Justin was upset because he was too. They’d learned so much and it was a lot to deal with in such a short period of time. Justin stopped pacing and turned to face him when he got close enough so they could talk.

“Why does this stuff keep happening to us?” Justin asked, not even giving him time to ask what was wrong.

“Katrina—“

“I know what Katrina said,” Justin interrupted. “It’s just not fair! What has JC done to deserve demons trying to kill him and hurt us? Nothing that I can think of. The man doesn’t even like to kill bugs. So what do the demons and this devil have against him?”

“I don’t know, J,” Lance said.

“Exactly!” Justin made a fist with his left arm and slammed it into his open palm. “If we don’t know, how the hell do they know? Because if JC did something to warrant demons coming after him, he would’ve told us,” Justin ranted.

“Let me see your arm,” Lance said. He’d been watching Justin’s arms move about while he was talking and noticed that the left one looked funny.

Justin stopped ranting and blankly looked at Lance, who was staring at his arm in confusion. “What?”

“Let me see your arm,” Lance repeated.

“Why?” Justin asked, letting Lance take his left arm and look at it. Lance frowned as he turned Justin’s arm around to get a good look at both sides. It was then that it became clear that something was wrong with it. He quickly deduced that it must’ve happened when Justin got throw in the basement, but he wondered why Justin hadn’t brought it up sooner. Surely he had to be in pain.

“Justin, look at it,” Lance said.

Justin looked down, but didn’t give any acknowledgement that he knew what Lance was talking about. “What about it?”

“It’s all red and swollen.” Lance pressed against his arm. “Does that hurt?”

Justin shook his head. “No.”

“Justin, I think your arm’s broken,” Lance said, not believing that Justin couldn’t feel any pain. “You should be feeling some pain.”

“Well, I’m not.”

“C’mon, we have to go the hospital,” Lance told him, letting go of his arm.

“What? Why?” Justin asked.

Lance stared at him incredulously. He couldn’t believe Justin was arguing this because it needed to be fixed, even if his claim that he didn’t feel any pain was true. “Your arm is broken. It needs to be taken care of.”

“But I’m telling you it doesn’t hurt,” Justin said.

“Then you must have a high tolerance for pain,” Lance replied. “Now, let’s go.”

Justin sighed, but followed Lance into the house. JC looked up from the couch he was sitting on in the living room. “What’s wrong?” he asked, noticing the frown on both of his friends’ faces.

“Justin broke his arm,” Lance said.

“Just now?” JC asked, confused.

“No.” Lance shook his head. “He must’ve broken it when he was thrown into the bar.”

“He’s standing right here,” Justin muttered.

“Are you OK?” JC asked.

“I’m fine,” Justin said.

“You’ll be even more fine when we get your arm fixed,” Lance replied, leading the way down the hall with Justin behind him and JC following both of them. They almost made it to the front door when they ran into Chris.

“What’s going on?” he asked.

“We’re taking Justin to the hospital to get his arm fixed,” Lance said.

“It’s broken, no it doesn’t hurt, and yes, I’m fine,” Justin said before Chris could even ask. Lance knew that Justin must be tired of having to repeat himself.

Chris nodded. “I’ll go get Joey.”

A few minutes later all five of them were in Lance’s SUV and were on their way to the nearest hospital with Lance driving. It was a short ride there, and they found a parking spot as close to the ER entrance as they could get, and walked inside. Justin walked up to the receptionist desk and smiled at the nurse.

“Can I help you?” she asked.

“I uh broke my arm,” Justin said.

“Here are some forms you have to fill out,” the receptionist smiled at him and handed him a clipboard with the necessary forms to complete, “Perhaps you can get one of your friends to help you.”

Justin shook his head. “No need. I broke my left arm, so I think I can manage.”

“Well, just fill out the forms, have a seat and a doctor will be with you shortly,” she said.

Justin sat down to the right of Lance and began to fill out the forms. A few minutes passed and Justin groaned. “Why do they have to ask so many questions?”

“It’s not that many, J,” Joey objected. The others looked at him and he added, “I had to fill them out when Brianna got that cold a couple years ago and scared the hell out of me and Kelly.”

“Well, if I have to write anymore my right hand’s going to need looked at too,” Justin complained, shaking his right hand.

“Quit whining and finish filling out the forms,” Chris said.

“But why do they have to ask such stupid questions?” Justin looked down at the form he was currently on. “’Do you do drugs?’ Do they honestly think that even if I did, that I would answer yes?”

“They’re just covering the basics in case someone has some drug in their system that would react badly with any medicine they could be given,” Lance replied.

“But I don’t do drugs,” Justin objected.

“Which they will take note of on your form,” Lance said and tapped the forms. “Finish up.”

“All right, all right.” The waiting room lapsed into silence again as Justin finished the rest of the form. By the time he was done, he only had to wait a few minutes before his name was called. Justin stood up to follow the doctor back into an examination room and Chris tagged along.

Lance sat in the waiting room with Joey and JC while Justin and Chris went back into the examination room. He picked up a magazine off one of the end tables and began to flip through it. The magazine was at least six months old, which made it hard to find something that would occupy his attention and led him to getting lost in his thoughts.

So much had happened in the past few hours and it was all begging for his attention. He didn’t blame Justin for storming out of the kitchen and ranting about it all because he felt the same way. Katrina’s explanation had answered some of their questions, but it also raised some more, all of which Justin brought up outside. It was unnerving to think that some devil had some personal vendetta against JC and wanted him dead.

And to make matters worse the demons wanted to torture JC before they killed him, so they went after them. First it was him with the demon in his head and now they’d nearly killed Joey. Lance didn’t know what they would’ve done if Katrina hadn’t showed up. He was thankful that she had, but it had been kind of weird seeing her again. It had been nearly six months since they’d seen her, and even longer than that since he’d found out she was his biological mother. That thought was still weird for him to think about, but it didn’t freak him out anymore like it had when he’d first found out. He supposed that her helping them and not killing JC had something to do with it.

Speaking of JC, Lance looked to his left and saw that he hadn’t really moved since they’d first sat down. He wasn’t reading anything, just sitting there staring at the wall across the room. Lance looked closer at him and took in the paleness of his skin, which highlighted the bags under his eyes. It made him wonder if JC was getting sleep.

“Are you OK?” Lance asked, figuring it would be easier to talk to him through their connection since Joey was sitting there playing with his cell phone by opening and closing it. The color had fully returned to Joey’s face, which put Lance at ease. It had been disturbing to see Joey so pale and watch his struggles become weaker as the life was chocked out of him. Lance’s thoughts about Joey were interrupted by an empty feeling, which let him know that JC must’ve received his message and closed their connection off again.

“Are you OK?” Lance asked aloud this time since JC blocked his mind from him.

JC tore his gaze from the wall and placed it on Lance instead. “I’m fine.”

“Are you sure? You look like crap, man,” Lance said.

“Thanks,” JC replied dryly.

“Seriously, are you sleeping?” Lance asked.

“Yeah, I’m just tired. It’s been a long day,” JC said. Lance nodded knowing he wasn’t going to get anything else out of him and didn’t want to end up causing a scene by pushing him. Because he knew that once they confront JC about how he takes care of himself, there was a good possibility that it could get ugly. So Lance let it drop, but knew that he would bring it up later with the other guys.

JC sighed and let his head fall back to rest against the wall behind him. He was sitting sideways on the stairs with his back against the wall and his legs stretched out in front of him. It had been about twenty-four hours since the guys had been attacked and they’d taken Justin to the hospital. Justin’s left arm was in a cast and he’d been taking pain killers that made him really drowsy, so he’d spent a lot of the past day sleeping.

But currently Justin was preparing to play video games with Chris in the living room. JC had thought about joining them, but he stayed where he was. Earlier he’d decided that he didn’t want to sit in his room and seclude himself, but he didn’t want to be around the guys either, which led him to where he was now. Sitting on the stairs allowed him to be able to hear everything that was happening on the ground floor and see anyone who came downstairs, but allowed him to stay out of sight.

Just then he heard the back door slide open and Joey and Lance’s voices grow louder as they came inside. From the slight echo, it sounded like they ended up in the kitchen. JC continued to sit there silently listening to the disagreement they were having.

“We need to find out why the demons are after JC,” Lance said.

JC’s heart momentarily stopped at hearing that. He didn’t know that they knew, but figured they couldn’t have found out too long ago. From the sounds of it they didn’t know he already knew and didn’t have plans on telling him.

“And just how are we supposed to do that? We can’t just call up the demons and ask them, and I doubt JC knows. But even if he did God knows he wouldn’t tell us,” Joey replied.

“Joey—“

“I’m sorry,” Joey interrupted Lance. “But we need to act now. Before one of us ends up dead.”

JC paled at the thought as Joey’s words sent him back to when this all started over a year ago at the cabin. Katrina had tried to kill him by attempting to drown him in the lake, suffocating him with a pillow, and making a tree fall on him. Only it didn’t because Lance had pushed him out of the way and ended up breaking his leg. Pain caused by him.

Then a year after that Lance, Chris, and Joey were attacked where they were being drained of their life. In Lance’s case, he’d stopped breathing. He’d been clinically dead for a few minutes. It was only by sheer luck that JC had been able to revive him. More pain caused by him. And he wasn’t even touched when Justin had been hit with that ball of light. It was also all because of him that Joey had taken up drinking in order to deal with what’d happened.

The past few days were even worse. Just thinking about it made him queasy. Justin had passed out three times and saw the future each time. While that was worrisome, it was minor in comparison to the demon in Lance’s head that almost made him commit suicide. Then another demon tried to kill Joey two days later. And it was all because the demons were after him. His friends were continually getting hurt because of him.

Slowly JC stood up and walked the rest of the way up the stairs to go lie down on his bed to try to get his stomach to stop doing flips. As he made his way down the hall, he couldn’t help but think that the guys must hate him. He was the cause of all the bad things happening to them, and he wondered why they didn’t just tell him to leave so they wouldn’t have to worry about demons coming after them. JC wished they would so he wouldn’t have to worry about them dying just because some demons were looking to have a little fun before they killed him. The image of all of them on the ground dead came back to him from his nightmare and before he knew it he dashed into the bathroom where he fell on his knees in front of the toilet.

His stomach muscles clenched tightly and JC felt what little water he’d had earlier rise up his throat. But that was the most that he was able to throw up because he hadn’t eaten in a couple days. That didn’t stop his stomach from trying to expel all its contents though. JC’s body lurched as his stomach muscles continued to churn, causing him to dry heave. Finally after a few minutes his stomach settled, leaving his body weak and shaky with beads of sweat running down his face.

JC didn’t have the strength to pull his body off the bathroom floor. Instead he lied down with his face pressed against the cool tiles, which felt nice against his sweaty head. Before he knew it his eyes closed and his body pulled him into an exhausted slumber.

“I’m kicking your ass!” Justin yelled triumphantly as his right hand pressed all the necessary buttons and his left moved his player.

“You’re taking advantage of a cripple,” Chris said. He had his left arm sitting in his lap with his right hand trying to move his player and press the buttons on the controller that was on the floor at the same time.

“If by cripple you mean old, then yeah,” Justin replied.

Chris glared at him. “No. I meant my arm.”

“You’re not still going on about your arm?” Lance asked as he walked in the room with Joey.

“It hurts,” Chris moaned still trying to punch the appropriate buttons on the controller.

“Oh, come off it, Chris. Your arm is fine. The doctor even said so,” Joey replied.

“He said I have sympathy pains, which implies I’m feeling some kind of pain,” Chris objected.

“You’re feeling a phantom pain. It’s not real,” Lance said.

“Feels pretty damn real to me,” Chris countered.

Justin threw his hands in the air in victory. “Yes! I win!”

Chris looked over at him. “Can I have some of your pain killers, Justin?”

“Your arm doesn’t hurt that bad,” Joey objected.

“Is your name Justin?” Chris glared at Joey before he turned his attention back on his youngest friend, waiting for his answer.

Justin shook his head. “No way, man.”

“C’mon! You don’t even want to take them. Lance and JC had to make you,” Chris said.

“I’m the one with the broken arm, not you,” Justin replied.

Chris stood up, knowing he wasn’t going to get any help from Lance or Joey and pouted. “I know when I’m not wanted.” He left the room and made it down the hall before he yelled, “I’m getting my new video game. I’ll be right back!”

Chris walked up the stairs, his mind focused on getting to his room to grab the new video game he’d brought with him, but had yet to try. As he went down the hall and passed the bathroom, which was a door down from his room, he noticed the yellow glow spilling out into the hallway from the half open door. Instantly all thoughts of his video game were forgotten as he stepped forward to investigate.

When Chris pushed the door open, his eyes fell on the prone body of JC lying on the floor. Immediately he thought the worst. Seeing JC like that took him back to when he’d found Lance in a similar position. But this time there was no broken glass and no pills scattered everywhere. He quickly realized that there were no signs that JC had committed suicide. As Chris crossed the spacious bathroom to where JC lie, he noticed that the toilet seat was up and saw foam. Flushing the toilet, he knew that JC must’ve become physically ill.

“Guys!” Chris yelled, turning JC over onto his back. He felt bad about yelling like that because surely they would remember when they’d thought they heard JC yelling from the basement and it ended up being a trap. But he had no choice because he couldn’t leave JC alone on the floor to go get them. Wrapping his right arm around JC’s shoulders, he managed to get JC into an upright position. JC was just starting to wake when he heard feet coming down the hall.

“Oh my God,” Justin breathed.

“What happened?” Joey walked over and crouched down in front of JC who was half awake. “JC?”

JC blinked heavily. “’m fine.”

Chris laughed bitterly. “Really?” He pulled his arm from his shoulders back a couple inches and, just like he expected, JC fell back into his arm.

“C’mon, let’s you get into bed,” Lance said to JC, walking over to him and slipping an arm around his lower back. After a bit of struggling, Chris and Lance managed to pull JC to his feet with them. They went to take a step forward when JC’s voice stopped them.

“Wait,” he requested weakly, raising a hand to his forehead. Chris suspected that he was dizzy from the altitude change. They gave him a minute to collect himself before they led him to his room and lowered him down onto his bed once Justin pulled back the covers. JC’s eyes closed as soon as his head hit the pillow.

“How did this happen?” Joey asked, quietly.

“Well, I know he probably hasn’t been getting any sleep,” Lance said.

“And I can’t remember the last time he ate.” Chris looked at the three of them. “Anyone see him eat recently?”

Justin shook his head. “I think the last time he ate was when we had pizza.”

“Stupid asshole,” Chris said, looking down at JC. “That was two days ago.”

“We can talk about this later. Let’s let him sleep for now,” Lance said, leading the way out of the room. They all nodded and Chris followed the others, closing the door behind him. He hated that JC had done this to himself again, but he knew there was no way he was going to let JC off the hook so easily this time.

Lance and the other three walked upstairs together. They’d let JC sleep, but now it was time to talk because they knew that the longer they waited the harder it would be. Downstairs they had all decided that JC wouldn’t be the only one to share what he’d been thinking and feeling; they all would. Lance figured they would have a better chance at getting JC to talk that way, and they’d all agreed that if they were going to figure this out together then they would have to get everything out in the open. There would be no secrets this time around.

Chris opened the door and the four of them walked into the room. JC was still asleep, and Lance felt bad for waking him because he knew how exhausted JC must have been. But he could always go back to bed after they were done. They weren’t leaving this room until they got everything out in the open. That much had been made clear when he and the others had talked downstairs.

Lance grabbed the desk chair that was across the room and moved it over to JC’s bedside. He took a deep breath because he knew that this was going to be a long conversation and some things would be hard to hear. Centered, he reached a hand out and gently shook JC’s shoulder, trying not to startle him too much. It didn’t help because JC’s eyes flew open at the contact.

As JC’s eyes wandered around the room, Lance sat back in his chair, waiting for him to get his bearings. Finally JC’s eyes landed back on Lance and he cleared his throat before he asked, “What…what’s going on?”

“We’re going to talk,” Lance said.

JC looked apprehensive. “Now?”

“It’s time, JC,” Joey said, sitting down on the end of the bed.

JC sighed, but slowly pulled himself into a sitting position, mirroring Justin with his back against the headboard and his legs stretched out in front of him. He didn’t say anything to initiate conversation, but they’d expected that.

“I know you don’t want to do this, but you’re not the only who’s going to speak,” Lance said. “We’re all going to say what’s on our mind.” He paused. “So who’s going to go first?”

“What about you?” Chris suggested after a minute of sitting in silence, from the foot of the bed where he was resting on the trunk that Lance kept spare blankets in. “You’re the one who suggested it.”

“I don’t have anything to say,” Lance said.

“Bull.” Chris raised an eyebrow. “You mean to tell me that after everything that’s happened this week and you having a demon in your head that you have nothing to talk about?”

Lance thought for a few seconds before he nodded. “OK. Well, I’m afraid that after what’s happened that the demons are going to take control of my mind again. I mean, what’s to stop it from happening again?”

Lance paused, kind of glad of the unspoken rule they had that whenever one of them was talking that the rest weren’t allowed to speak until the one speaking was done. While what he had to say was hard, he knew that the unspoken rule would make it easier for all of them to share their secrets.

“It’s unnerving to not have control of your body, and I don’t want the demons to make me commit suicide.” Lance looked at each of the guys. “I don’t want them to use me to hurt you guys.”

About a minute of silence elapsed before Joey cleared his throat. He briefly made eye contact with them before he lowered his head, fixing his gaze on the comforter. “You guys should know…I’ll be staying here for a while.”

Joey hesitated briefly before continuing, “I can’t go home because Kelly doesn’t think I’m committed because I haven’t been spending enough time with her and Brianna. She doesn’t want me around.

“So,” Joey let a breath and looked up, “I’m going to stick around.”

Lance wasn’t surprised to hear that because Chris had told him about the same thing. He doubted that Kelly didn’t want Joey around though. She was probably just confused and didn’t understand why Joey was always running over here as soon as they called him. It might be a good idea for Joey to tell her the truth, but Lance was sure Joey must have been afraid of telling her everything and have her think he was nuts. Getting everything out in the open seemed to be working pretty good so far, but there was still so much left.

“Well, what I have to say isn’t really my secret,” Chris started and looked over at JC. “I’m not going to make you say it again, but I’m going to tell the guys. You can jump in and add anything whenever.” He mumbled bitterly, “Because I know you’re still hiding something.”

“Chris,” Lance warned, narrowing his eyes. He saw JC lower his head out the corner of his eye.

“All right, all right.” Chris paused. “JC ran into the demon while he was in your head,” Chris looked at Lance, “And apparently when he told it to leave, it did.”

“That’s it?” Justin asked. Lance was thinking the same thing. Chris had hardly said anything and what he did say left them with more questions than answers. But Lance hoped that JC would shed some light on the subject when he talked.

Chris shrugged and nodded. “Pretty much.” He glanced over at JC and jerked a thumb in his direction. “Unless he has something to add.”

“Chris, stop trying to get JC to talk,” Lance reprimanded.

“I thought that was the whole point of this,” Chris replied.

“We’re all talking. JC will get his turn, but it’s still yours,” Lance said, glaring at him. They couldn’t push JC yet and what Chris was saying wasn’t helping. JC had yet to say anything even if it was to ask a question, but that didn’t bother Lance as long as JC spoke when it was his turn.

Joey turned his attention back to Chris. “What else do you have to say?”

“Nothing,” Chris replied.

“C’mon, Chris, you wouldn’t let Lance get away with that, so you’re not allowed either,” Justin said.

Chris sighed. “I don’t have a problem. Honest.” He paused briefly. “My only problem is worrying about you guys and your problems. So if your problems get fixed then mine will be too.”

Lance wasn’t too surprised to hear that Chris didn’t really have a problem. It took a lot to rattle Chris, but even when something did he dealt with it by putting himself into anything that would take his mind off of it. Chris was as protective of them as JC was, but he showed it in more subtle ways and liked to kind of stand back to observe them so he could figure out the best way to help. But that didn’t mean that he wasn’t afraid of going up to them and out right ask them what was on their mind because Lance knew that he liked to address problems before they got too serious. That was probably what he did when all this stuff started happening over the past few days.

“OK.” Justin sighed, pulling his legs up to bend at the knees and sit Indian style. “Well, I’ve been kind of…passing out lately.”

“We’ve noticed,” Chris said and Joey punched him in the shoulder while motioning him to be quiet.

“You guys think I’ve passed out twice, but…it’s actually been three times. The one in the backyard was the third one,” Justin said. Lance saw his expression of shock mirrored on Joey and Chris’s faces, but not JC. He must’ve already known which really wasn’t too surprising considering how much Justin’s talked to JC.

“When was the second one?” Joey asked.

“The night Chris and JC went clubbing,” Justin said. “But that’s not it.” Justin ran a hand over his short curls. “When I’m out...I see these…things before they actually happen.”

“What kind of things?” Lance asked.

“I saw…your suicide attempt,” Justin looked over at Lance, “a couple hours before it happened. And yesterday…I knew something bad was going to happen in the basement.”

Chris leaned forward on the trunk a little. “So what did you see if you didn’t know exactly what was going to happen?”

Justin shook his head, looking down, and picking at the hole in his jeans. “It’s bad enough watching it the first time…but to see it happen again exactly like I saw it…” Lance noticed that Justin didn’t answer the question, but he took that as his cue for him and the guys to let it go because Justin didn’t want to talk about it anymore since he’d lived through it.

This was the most surprising thing they’d learned so far, although it certainly explained why Justin had warned them so strongly to stay out of the basement yesterday. Justin had known ahead of time that something bad was going to happen and he was doing his best to change the outcome. Too bad that it hadn’t worked.

“I hate these…visions or whatever they are.” Justin looked up at them. “I don’t want to watch you guys get hurt or die…even if it isn’t real. But that’s the thing…so far they’ve all come true.” Justin took a deep breath and sighed. “Who’s to say the next one won’t?”

“How frequently do they happen?” Lance asked.

Justin shrugged. “It depends I guess. The second one came the day after I had the first one. Then the third one was yesterday, so it skipped a day.” He paused. “But it doesn’t matter. I don’t want to have another one again.”

Lance understood that because it must be scary watching these horrible things play out in your mind and then find out that they actually happen. But for some reason he had this feeling that despite what Justin wanted, he won’t be able to stop having any more. Hopefully he didn’t have another one for a while.

Finally it was JC’s turn. Lance hoped that them going before him helped to put JC a little more at ease and make it a little easier to talk to them. As much as he wanted to look over at him, he knew that if they all looked expectantly at JC it would probably freak him out. And Lance was sure he was doing that to himself already.

“I…” JC started after a moment of silence. “Can’t we do this later? I’m really tired and just want to go back to sleep.”

“No. We’ve all talked and now it’s your turn,” Chris said firmly. “You’re not hiding things anymore.”

Lance was glad that Chris spoke up and put his foot down because he knew that he probably would’ve given in if he’d had to make the decision. That would’ve pissed off the others, but Lance felt bad about making JC talk. He knew how much of a closed book JC was, so he sympathized about being forced to open up and talk. But Lance knew that it was necessary with what’d happened earlier.

There was a long pause before JC let out a heavy sigh. “What I’m going to tell you goes along with what Chris said.” He glanced up at Chris briefly before fixing his eyes on his hands. “What he said was right…for the most part.

“I did run into the demon, but I didn’t tell it to leave right away.” JC started to pick at his nails. “It told me some things first.”

There was a pause where he glanced at each of them quickly before he averted his gaze. “It told me that…it said everything that’s happened to us…is my fault.” JC let out a breath and looked at Lance. “It said…it was making you commit suicide because…because it wanted to torture me. I’m the one it’s really after.”

Lance felt his insides freeze. Over the past twenty-four hours he’d been thinking that JC didn’t know anything about the demons being after him when really he’d known a couple days before they did. It certainly helped to explain his behavior over the past few days.

“I didn’t really tell it to leave,” JC admitted. “I told it to just come and get me if that’s what it wanted.”

Joey’s eyes widened. “What?”

“JC!” Justin and Lance admonished.

JC flinched slightly and briefly risked looking at Joey and Chris before lowering his head again. “That’s when it came out…and tried to touch me. But it couldn’t.” He lifted his head and looked each of them in the eyes. “I know this is all my fault.”

“That’s crazy, JC,” Joey protested.

“Yeah, you didn’t ask for this or make some deal we don’t know about, did you?” When JC shook his head Chris continued, “See? It’s not your fault.”

“But they’re after me and hurting you guys in process,” JC objected, as he blinked back tears. “I don’t know what I’d do without you guys. And I don’t want to be responsible for you getting hurt…or killed.”

Justin put his right hand on JC’s shoulder. “We’ll figure something out.”

JC nodded, but didn’t look reassured. It was clear by the silence that followed that JC was done speaking and Lance was expected to say something. Lance took a minute to collect himself because he knew JC probably felt responsible for the bad things that’d happened, but to hear that he was convinced it was his fault was upsetting. But JC always took it to heart when something bad happened to one of them and he could’ve done something to protect them.

After a minute Lance said, “All right. Now we have to talk about what happened earlier.” When no one said anything he turned to JC. “You get all annoyed with us when we’re keeping an eye on you, but as soon as we back off, what do you do? You let yourself go. You don’t take care of yourself.”

Lance saw the looks of surprise on the others’ faces, but he couldn’t seem to stop. “You always want to be the strong one and look out for us. But we practically had to carry you into bed. How strong does that make you?” Lance paused. “I refuse to stand by and watch you relapse again.

“And if there’s something on your mind, talk to one of us. What good is our connection if you keep blocking me every time I want to talk?” Lance sighed. “I don’t want to see you end up in the hospital again.”

“He’s right, Jace. You need to take care of yourself,” Joey said.

“I do,” JC protested.

“No, you don’t. Otherwise I wouldn’t have found you asleep on the bathroom floor after you made yourself sick and we wouldn’t be having this conversation right now,” Chris said.

“You need to get a decent night’s sleep, and you need to eat,” Justin agreed. “We don’t care when you do it just as long as you do.”

“Yeah, we’re used to you sleeping in the afternoon,” Chris teased, trying to lighten the mood a little.

“Seriously, you don’t have to deal with everything yourself. We can figure this out together, but only if we talk to each other,” Lance said. “OK?”

JC nodded, but Lance wasn’t convinced that JC agreed at all. He would never know for sure though because there was no way to know what JC was thinking at any given time. It’d been hard enough just getting him to talk about what’d happened, and Lance knew that even if JC actually was open to having a conversation with one of them he’d never let him into his head again without permission. Not that he was really surprised by this because Lance knew JC liked his privacy and didn’t like to share his thoughts with anyone.

Lance realized that JC’s relapse didn’t happen because he and the others hadn’t been keeping a watchful eye on him, but because JC was getting better at hiding things. That certainly wasn’t good, and he didn’t imagine that it would get any better over time. There was the possibility that he was wrong, but he couldn’t see JC going back to the way it was before. It’d never been easy to get JC to talk, but now it seemed almost impossible, looking at what had to happen in order for them to get him to open up.

Before all this stuff with the demons Lance had never seen JC as someone who was easy to read, and he knew it would be even harder from now on to get a read on how he’s thinking and feeling, especially with JC knowing how to block him from his mind. It worried him that JC had even learned how to block his feelings through their connection. He could only hope that JC wouldn’t be blocking him out anymore.

But if he did Lance wasn’t going to let that deter him from continuing to pay attention to JC and trying to be prepared for whatever what was going to happen. Now that they were all on the same page, he hoped it’d be easier to read the signs when something was bothering JC. If it looked like there was something on his mind, Lance planned to sit him down and get him to talk. He’d even get the guys to help because he knew that Chris would have no problem playing dirty to force JC to talk. But one thing was for certain he wasn’t going to let things get this bad again. No matter what.

Lance was pulled out of his thoughts by a hand on his shoulder and looked up to see Justin standing behind him. “C’mon, Lance,” he said, motioning towards the door. Lance realized that he must’ve  been so engrossed in his thoughts that he didn’t even hear the guys get up to leave.

 Lance nodded and Justin disappeared through the door. He stood up and put the chair back before he crossed the room only to stop in the doorway. Looking back at JC who’d just turned over to go back to sleep. There was a brief pause before he tapped into their connection and asked JC, “You won’t block me out, right?” 

“Yes.” 

“Why?” Lance frowned at JC, wanting to know what his reason was for saying that.

 “I’m trying to sleep.”