Chris was staring at the fire with a pensive look on his face. He had been like that since he and Lance had gotten back. He was still really unsettled with what Lance said earlier and tried to think of anything and everything to get the three of them out of this mess. Try as he might, he couldn’t come up with a solution that wouldn’t involve getting into more danger. Tired of rattling his brain, Chris stood up and rolled his neck and shoulders to try and ease the tension that had settled there.

Chris looked up to see Lance sleeping. “It’s about time he got some sleep,” Chris muttered to himself.

Chris was getting ready to lay down himself and try to sleep when he heard another scream. He knew that it could only come from one person and that person was Joey. Chris looked back over at Lance to see if he was still sleeping. He wasn’t.

“What are we going to do, Chris? This is the second time in one day that we heard Joey scream and yet we can’t find him. Something’s got to be wrong,” Lance said.

Chris sighed as a billion thoughts raced through his head before finally settling on one.

“You’re right, Lance. Something’s wrong and I’m going to find out what.”

Lance stood up and rushed over to Chris. “You don’t mean you’re going to out there by yourself, do you?”

“As a matter of fact, Lance, I do. We need to find Joey and find out what’s wrong.”

“But…” Lance started, but Chris interrupted.

“But nothing, Lance. I know what you’re going to say. You’re going to say that I shouldn’t go out by myself and what will happen if we split up, right?” Chris waited for Lance to nod his head and he did. Chris continued on, “But I need to do this, Lance. You’re worried, I’m worried. I know this isn’t going to be easy and I know that I’ll probably get us into more trouble by trying to find Joey, but I’m willing to take that risk. You know why?”

“Why?” Lance asked.

“Because I’m absolutely positive that no matter how bad this all gets, all three of us are going to make it out of here. You didn’t forget my promise, did you?”

“No,” Lance replied softly.

“Then that’s all you need. I’m going out to look for Joey. You just stay here in case he comes back to camp. We’ll all get out of this and I’ll see you soon. OK?” Chris looked at Lance knowing how scared he was. Heck he was scared too, but he knew he had to do this.

Lance bit his lip. He had this feeling that something bad was going to happen if he let Chris go, but he knew that Chris was too stubborn to listen once he had his mind set on something.

“OK, Chris. Just do me one thing.”

“Just one?” Chris joked.

Lance half smiled. “Just please be careful.”

“Hey, no problem. You can count on me. I’ll see you soon, Lance,” Chris replied before heading into the woods.

Lance sighed heavily as though the weight of the world was on his shoulders. He just couldn’t help but feel that all of them wouldn’t be making it out of the woods.

______________________________________

Chris wandered around through the woods blindly. He cursed himself as he ran into another tree.

“Another brilliant idea of mine. Let’s look for Joey in the middle of night while the woods are pitch-black. Way to use that brain of yours, Kirkpatrick,” Chris mumbled to himself.

“Well you never we’re the brightest crayon in the box.”

Chris whipped his head around to see Lance standing behind him with a small smile on his face.

“Dude, what did you do that for? You scared the hell outta me!” Chris exclaimed not bothering to keep his voice down.

“You didn’t really think I’d let you go alone, did you?” Lance asked.

“But what about staying at the camp incase Joey comes back?”

“I think it’s safe to say that Joey’s screams indicate that there’s no way he’d make it back to camp alive.”

“You really need to stop thinking so negatively, Lance,” Chris said.

“I know, but I can’t help it. I’ll feel a lot better once we’re out of here.”

“I don’t blame you one bit. C’mon, let’s go find Joey.” Chris and Lance walked along in comfortable silence. They still really couldn’t see much, but they both felt better knowing that they weren’t alone in the dark, scary forest.

They had been walking for a couple of hours and were about to stop and rest when they heard a crack and a cry of pain. Chris and Lance both looked at each other and knew that Joey had been what cried out in pain. Neither of them had heard him cry out in pain like that except for the time he hurt his leg and couldn’t do the shoot for “Pop”.

“What do you think caused him that amount of pain?” Lance asked Chris frightfully.

“I don’t know, but let’s go find out and see if we can help.”

They made their way over to the right off of the trail where they can still hear Joey gasping and crying out in pain. They wouldn’t have even been able to see Joey if it wasn’t for the moonlight that peeked through the trees. What they saw made their stomachs turn.

They saw the ghost that Joey had encountered hours before they had shown up. The ghost that looked so transparent in her white gown seemed to be concentrating on Joey and they could tell that it was causing Joey an immense amount of pain. Though they couldn’t tell exactly how this ghost was causing it. The ghost noticed that she had visitors and stopped concentrating on Joey to focus on her intruders.

Lance took a step back when he saw her gaze land on him and Chris. Lance would’ve taken more steps back, but Chris’s hand on his shoulder stopped him. Lance took a deep breath to calm himself. He knew that he had to be strong because Joey was hurting, but seeing a ghost in an unfriendly way brought all the memories of what happened at the lake back to his head.

“What were you doing to him?” Chris asked. He had worked up a lot of courage to ask such a simple question, but he knew he had to because Lance was too scared to do it.

“Me? Why nothing really. Just replenishing myself,” the female ghost replied.

“Why?”

She looked at Chris. “Do I really need a reason? I haven’t had fed on someone in so long.”

Chris looked at her dumbfounded and Lance stood shocked. He couldn’t believe that this was all happening and it was too much like what happened last time. Just then Lance heard a sucking noise behind him and saw Chris jerk as if being pulled. It was because of this that Lance noticed the male ghost, John. He knew that whatever John was doing to Chris wasn’t a good thing.

“Ah, brother. There you are. You remember how this works, right? You suck out the soul and I suck out the life.”

“Of course, how could I forget?” John and his sister both went back to work with their victims. Lance knew he had to do something and quick, so he did the first thing that came to mind. He ran in a straight line and jumped between Chris and John and the female ghost and Joey.

Both ghosts were angered that this kid interrupted their plans, so they both turned and worked on sucking the soul and life out of Lance. Lance tried as hard as he could to fight it. He could feel his body being pulled toward John, while he felt all his energy and emotions drain out of his body as if he were bleeding.

I don’t know how much longer I can last. I need help. Someone help me. I can’t hang on much longer. I need help, were the thoughts racing through Lance’s mind. He hoped that somehow someone could answer his plea for help. He was surprised when someone did.

_____________________________

JC ran his fingers through his long curly hair. It normally wasn’t that curly, but he had just gotten out of the shower and didn’t want to dry his hair. He had decided that he would take one after tossing and turning in bed for another couple hours. He knew it was pointless to go and try to sleep. He would just be unsuccessful again.

“I wish there was something I could do. I feel so useless,” JC said to himself.

Justin had met with him earlier that day so they could go to lunch after they had met with Johnny, who had no new info on the whereabouts of Lance, Joey, and Chris. Johnny still had people searching high and low, but so far there was no trace of any of his three brothers.

JC paced for a little in his room before he went out on the balcony to sit. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t clear his head. He just had this feeling that something bad was happening and the guys were so scared. This made JC feel horrible because there was nothing he could do about it. He always took it upon himself to look out for his brothers and now when they needed help the most, he couldn’t be there. This whole situation was tearing JC up and he knew the only way it would end is when Justin and him are united with the other three.

“Where are you guys?” JC softly asked, his voice being carried by the wind.

Just then JC heard something, something that sounded a lot like Lance. JC shook his head. There was no way he could hear Lance. Lance wasn’t anywhere near him, but he heard the voice again. JC looked around to make sure no one was trying to play a trick on him. It was the third time the voice spoke that JC realized the voice was in his head. But how could that be? JC wasn’t really sure, but listened for the voice anyway.

“I can’t hang on much longer. I need help,” the voice in JC‘s head said. This time JC was certain that it was Lance and didn’t know how it was possible, but then thought of telepathy. If this was true, then that meant JC could communicate with Lance as well.

“Lance, if you can hear me, I’m getting help. Just hang on. I’ll be there as soon as I can. Just hang on.”

JC paused for minute waiting to see if Lance had gotten the message and would respond.

“I’ll try, C. Just get here soon.”

He sighed in relief when he heard Lance reply. That meant there was still hope for Lance, Chris, and Joey, but only if he acted quickly.

“I’ll be there, Lance. Just hang on. Fight it.”

JC knew that Lance wouldn’t respond anymore to save his strength for the fight against whatever it was that he was fighting. JC knew there was no time to lose, so he raced into the hotel room and called Justin.

JC didn’t even wait for Justin to say ‘hello’, he launched right into it. “Get your ass up and meet me at the car. I’ll grab someone to come with us. Just hurry.”

JC hung up and ran out the door. He knew he would have to be as quick as possible if he wanted his three brothers alive.