Chris and Lance ran into the entrance of the woods when Lance suddenly stopped and Chris slammed into him from behind.

"What did you stop for?" Chris asked.

"We can't just go running off into the woods. Look where it got us last time. Besides, we don't even know what direction his scream came from," Lance explained.

Chris sighed. "I guess you're right. What do you think we should do then?"

"Well it seems the scream was a one time thing, so we're just going to have to pick a direction and follow the trail until it ends or we see Joey."

"Why don't we just split up? It'll take less time and we'll be able to search more of the area."

"Do you really think that's wise, Chris? If we split up there's a greater chance that one of us will get lost or meet whatever it was that made Joey scream. I think it's best if we stick together."

"Yeah, I guess you're right. Which way should we go first?"

Lance looked around and thought for a minute. "Let's take the trail to the right. If Joey's not on that trail, then we'll come back and try another one. We'll try to cover as much area as we can before dark."

"OK." Chris led the way to trail on the right with Lance following behind. They walked the trail for two hours before they finally reached a dead end.

"I guess we'll have to turn around and keep looking," Chris said and Lance nodded in agreement. When they reached the entrance to the woods again, they took the path opposite the one they came out of.

They followed that trail until they reached another dead end and saw no sign of Joey the whole time.

Lance sighed. "That leaves us with one trail left to try." They once more made to the opening of the woods and took the last trail. They had found nothing on this trail either, so they turned around to reach the camp before dark.

Chris and Lance sat down and ate the berries that they had picked early that day.

"I can't believe we couldn't find him," Lance said.

"I know. It's weird. You'd think we would have ran into him at some point," Chris replied.

"Well maybe he went off the trail and couldn't find his way back to a trail," Lance suggested.

"Maybe. I hate to think about what made him scream."

"Me too. I really hope he's okay," Lance agreed.

Chris sighed. "It feels so weird without Joey or even the rest of the guys. I wouldn't usually admit it, but I miss Justin and how annoying he can be."

"I know what you mean. I miss all of them and now we've lost Joey. I was lost to begin with, but now I'm even more lost than before. I know that everything happens for a reason, but I just can't find a good enough reason for God to take us from three of our brothers and stick us in the middle of nowhere. It's not fair."

"I agree, Lance. It's not fair, but there's nothing we can do about it. God knows it'll all turn out in the end."

Lance turned to Chris. "What if it doesn't? What if we never find Joey? What if we never see Justin or JC again and die in this forest?"

Chris gaped at Lance. He had never heard Lance question his faith before. He was always very religious and to see him question his faith and being pessimistic was so unusual.

Finally after a few minutes of opening and closing his mouth, Chris said, "Lance, how can you think that? We're going to get out with Joey and see Justin and JC again. I've never known you to be pessimistic. What made you change?"

"Gee, I don't know. Maybe it was getting lost in the middle of nowhere with two of my friends, one of which isn't sitting with us," Lance replied.

"I understand you're upset, Lance, but I promise you that we're going to make it out and everything will be right again." Chris saw Lance hesitate and about to speak when Chris cut him off. "I know that you don't have faith in God anymore, but have faith in me, your best friend. You know I'd never let you down and I don't plan on starting anytime soon. Tell me that you trust me and you promise you'll have faith in me and what I said."

Lance thought a minute before he said, "I promise."

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Joey leaned against a tree, very weak from running and what had happened to him hours ago. He sighed deeply as he recounted the events that took place after he left the camp where Lance and Chris were.

He had decided to take the trail in front of him to look for something to eat that would be more filling than berries. He hadn't seen any animal that they could hunt for food.

"What kind of a forest is this?" Joey asked himself. "It's like this forest is dead, but not."

He remembered from biology in high school about the food chains and animal life in forests. As we walked the trail he thought it was odd that he saw no animals, but all the trees and plants were a dark green meaning that they were healthy.

"There must be something in this forest that would scare all the animals away. Or maybe they're just hiding deeper in the forest," Joey said to himself.

It was then that he heard a twig snap. He paused because that was the first sign of life he had heard since the encounter with the bear. He heard another twig snap and realized that whatever was making the noise was coming closer.

Joey turned around and saw something that made him stumble backwards and fall down to the ground.

He blinked and shook his head. "I'm seeing things. I must be. There's no way I could've seen a ghost."

But sure enough when his eyes focused again, there the ghost was standing in front of Joey. He took in the ghost's features for the first time. It looked to be a guy about Joey's age with brown hair and brown eyes that weren't as deep as Joey's. The guy had on jeans and a red t-shirt.

After a few more minutes, Joey had finally drawn up enough courage to ask, "Who are you?"

The ghost smiled. "My name doesn't really matter, but since you asked…It's John, but you can refer to me as your worst nightmare."

With that said John fixed his gaze on Joey and didn't let it leave Joey's face. Then he inhaled deeply, but he didn't exhale. He kept on inhaling. Joey screamed out in agony as pain filled his body. His body felt like it was being stabbed and was on fire.

Joey realized as he grew weaker that John must be sucking out his soul, tearing away the life from him. Joey forced himself to turn his head away and break the empowering connection that John had on him.

Joey felt the connection weaken and he wasted no time in running as fast as he could away from John. He couldn't run as fast as normal in his weakened state, but he pushed his body forward. He knew that if he didn't get away from John that his soul would belong to John and he would be a goner.

Joey ran for a solid hour before he turned around to find that John was no longer following him. He had succeeded in losing him. That was where Joey stopped and leaned against a tree not being able to stand any more.

He knew that he was lucky to be alive and sent a silent prayer of thanks to God. He made sure to add that he wanted God to watch over his brothers and not let Chris or Lance experience what he had a taste of.

Joey sat there wishing that he had never thought of looking for bigger game or that he at least hadn't gone alone. No don't wish that. If you would've had Chris or Lance with you, they would've experienced the same thing, Joey reprimanded himself.

Joey knew that this would be where he was sleeping tonight because he couldn't drag himself to a different location, much less the camp where Chris and Lance no doubt were. The thought then occurred to Joey that Chris and Lance probably heard him scream and spent most of their day searching for him. He felt bad because he knew that Chris and Lance were probably worried about him.

His thoughts then traveled to Justin and JC. There was no doubt in his mind that Justin and JC were driving themselves crazy waiting to hear something about their three brothers. Joey knew that JC must be blaming himself and Justin trying to hold everything together. Justin was strong like that and that's what made him such a good friend. He was always there for everyone.

Joey was snapped out of his thoughts by a sound to the left of him. He lazily turned his to the left and didn't see anything, so he took it as him being tired and hearing things.

That was until he heard the noise again. Only this time it was on his right side. He turned his head to the right and saw nothing. When he turned his head to face forward though, he saw something that he would never forget.

A ghost stood before him, but instead of it being John, it was a woman. She had long red hair and green eyes that were much sharper than Lance's. She was in a white, silk dress that went down to her feet. It was when he was looking down at her feet that he noticed she was floating in mid air, not standing like he had originally thought.

For a minute Joey thought that she was an angel who had come to help him, but soon found that he was wrong.

The woman went up to him and went to run her long nail down his face, but her finger went right through him instead. This action sent a thousand shivers down his spine and his body felt as though it had ice running through his veins, not blood.

"What's the matter? Don't you like me?" the woman whispered in Joey's ear, which sent another sensation of shivers through his body. She laughed as she saw him shiver.

"Don't worry. I'm not going to do anything to you. Yet." She laughed wickedly and Joey screamed.