“What’s up, Jayce?” Justin asked as he sat in the passenger seat next to JC. Justin looked in the backseat and noticed no one else was with them. “I thought you were getting someone to come with us.”

“I forgot that everyone would be asleep and I didn’t want to waste time by waking up one of our guards,” JC told him as he pulled out of the hotel’s parking lot in the rental car.

“JC, what’s going on?” Justin was puzzled by JC’s behavior and thought that he deserved an explanation, especially after being dragged out of bed. He had actually managed to fall asleep and stay asleep until JC called him.

“Lance, Chris, and Joey are in trouble,” JC said as he pushed a little harder on the gas peddle to make the BMW move faster. He knew that he had to find the others. It was a matter of life and death.

“You are just realizing this now? I was sure that we both knew from the very beginning,” Justin retorted.

“Justin this is no time for your smart ass comments. We need to find them before something bad happens.”

“Like what?”

“One or all of them could die,” JC replied softly, not feeling comfortable talking about the possibility that his brothers could die if him and Justin didn’t make it to them in time.

Justin gasped. “How do you know that?”

JC sighed deeply knowing that he couldn’t lie to Justin because he had never been good at lying. He could try to beat around the bush, but he knew that Justin had a lot of patience and would wait until JC cracked and told him what was bothering him.

“I talked to Lance.”

“You what?! How? I thought that Tom said cell phones weren’t working out there,” Justin questioned.

“They aren’t. I talked to Lance through telepathy,” JC clarified.

“Telepathy?!” Justin exclaimed.

“Yeah, it means to talk to someone through your mind.”

“I know what it means!” Justin snapped and took a deep breath. He realized that yelling at JC wouldn’t help matter.

“Are you sure?” Justin asked and knew it was a stupid question when JC glared at him. “Sorry. I just had to make sure. Wow. How do you think it’s possible for you and Lance to communicate through telepathy?”

“I don’t know,” JC confessed softly. It puzzled him, but he pushed it to the back of his mind, so he could focus on getting Lance, Joey, and Chris out of trouble.

“What did Lance say when you talked to him, JC?”

“He told me that he needed help and couldn’t hang on much longer. I told him to hang on, that I was going to get help. He told me that he would try, but to get there as soon as possible,” JC whispered.

“Exactly where are they? Do you know?” Justin wasn’t sure how him and JC were going to get the guys help if they didn’t know where they were.

“I’m not really sure,” JC admitted. “From what Tom told us, they got lost in the woods and I’m sure that we can find the spot where the bus was by the tire tracks on the road. We’ll just have to look for the guys once we reach those woods and hopefully luck will be on our side.”

“Why didn’t you just bring Tom to show us where it is?” Justin questioned thinking that would’ve been the logical thing to do.

JC paused for a minute before saying, “I didn’t think of that.”

Justin nodded in understanding. JC didn’t ever think straight when he was under pressure, especially if it was about his friends and family.

Justin looked over at JC and saw that he was tightly gripping the steering wheel and that he was doing double the speed limit. That was unusual for JC because he normally never went above the speed limit. This proved how stressed JC was by the situation and Justin was concerned about JC driving.

“Are you sure you’re okay to drive?”

JC looked over at Justin and realized that he was probably making his best friend nervous. “Yeah, I’m okay. I’m just worried about the guys and I don’t want anything to happen to them.”

“I understand, but if you can’t handle driving anymore, let me know and I’ll take over. Okay?” Justin replied.

JC nodded his head and gave Justin a weak smile of thanks before returning his attention to the road. He had to be alert if he was to spot the bus tracks that would show him where the guys were.

JC sped along the highway for three hours before he saw the tire tracks of the bus and pulled off to the side of the road.

“Are you sure this is it?” Justin asked as JC pulled off the highway.

“Yeah, those tire tracks are too wide for a car. It had to have been a bus,” JC explained.

Justin and JC got out of the car and surveyed the woods in front of them for a minute.

“How are we supposed to find the others when we have no clue how deep into the woods they are?” Justin asked.

JC shook his head. “I’m not sure. I was hoping that we would have some kind of a sign that would lead us to them.”

“Well I don’t think we’re going to get that sign for right now anyway. I say let’s just follow the trail until we come to a dead end or a fork in the road and decide which way to go from there,” Justin suggested.

“OK. Lead the way,” JC agreed and motioned Justin to move in front of him.

Justin and JC followed the trail just like Lance, Joey, and Chris did. They ran along the trail, but stopped when they came to a fork in the road.

“Which way should we go?” Justin asked looking at JC. Justin knew that he probably shouldn’t be relying so heavily on JC because JC was most likely ten times more stressed than he was. Though JC’s the one that has the special connection with Lance, not me, Justin reasoned to himself.

JC closed his eyes and thought for a minute. When he opened his eyes he answered, “Let’s go to the left. I have a feeling.”

“OK, let’s go.” Justin wasn’t going to argue JC’s feelings. They had been proven right so far. He just hoped that they would do so again.

They were following the trail when they heard screaming. JC and Justin looked at each other briefly before running as fast as they could on the trail to reach whoever was screaming.

They ran as fast as their legs could carry them. They didn’t stop running until they reached the screaming and the light that seemed to surround them. Justin and JC gasped at what they saw.

Chris and Joey were lying on the ground unconscious, but obviously in pain. The most shocking though was how Lance looked. He was still conscious, but barely. His skin was pasty white and seemed to be turning whiter every minute. It took JC a minute to register why, but he gasped when he did.

Justin had noticed what JC had. “Not again,” Justin muttered referring to last year when they had to deal with ghosts.

Justin had thought for split second that they were Lance’s dead mom and sister, but quickly realized that these ghosts were two completely different people. They were a man and a woman who he had never seen before.

JC couldn’t believe that something like this was happening to Lance again. JC watched as Lance grew weaker and weaker. He seemed rooted to where he was standing.

“Lance!” Justin yelled as he ran over to Lance. He never made it to Lance though because a ball of light was thrown at him by the female ghost, which knocked him back into a tree.

JC snapped out of his shock and ran over to Justin to make he was okay. Justin sat dazed as he tried to shake off the dizziness, but that only made everything spin faster. JC was about to ask what the hell that ghost thought she was doing when two more ghosts appeared.

“Oh no, don’t tell me this is happening,” JC mumbled to himself as he helped Justin stand up.

JC looked up in time to see another ball of light heading straight toward him and Justin. He knew there was no way he could move both Justin and himself out of the way before it hit them, so he braced for the impact he knew he was going to feel. There was no need to brace himself though because the impact never came. Justin and JC looked up to see why and gaped at what they saw.

The ball of light was hanging five feet in front of them in mid-air. The person who stopped it was one of the two ghosts that had appeared only minutes ago. It was Mandy Bass.

“Here, mom, catch!” Mandy threw the ball of light to her mom, Katrina Bass, who caught it and then threw it deep into the woods where it wouldn’t harm anyone.

“What do you think you are doing?” the female ghost snarled.

“I’m protecting my son and his friends from you and your nasty brother. You both should be in hell where you belong,” Katrina answered.

“If you think we belong there so much, then why don’t you make us go?” John taunted.

“I think I will,” Katrina replied. Katrina fought against John and the female ghost. John and the female ghost put up a good fight. They threw balls of light at Katrina, but she dodged every one that came her way and retaliated by shooting lasers at them. These lasers proved to be stronger than the balls of light because they left her opponents weak and unable to make balls of light.

“That should teach you not to mess with my son and his friends,” Katrina told them. “C’mon I’m taking you to where you belong.” With that said, Katrina, John, and the female ghost were gone.

JC snapped out of his shock over what happened and ran over to Lance. “Lance! Are you okay?”

JC leaned over Lance and felt for a pulse. There wasn’t one. JC pushed his feelings aside so as not to panic and immediately started CPR. “Don’t you dare die on me, Lance. It’s not your time yet. C’mon, Lance, breathe. Breathe.”