It was the morning of their last concert. The other two concerts had gone well. It almost passed by in a blur because they were trying to keep on schedule. Joey was starting to look a little better. Lance and Chris had kept to their plan. Chris roomed with Joey to make sure that he didn’t try to drink at all.

They didn’t bother to go out to clubs anymore. Instead they would order a pizza and watch movies. Joey was a little crabby at first. He wanted to get a drink and was frustrated when they wouldn’t let him. Even though he wanted to drink, he was already beginning to look better because he was sleeping more and letting his body recover from all the alcohol he consumed. Lance and Chris knew they weren’t out of the woods yet with Joey, but they knew they were getting somewhere.

Lance was hanging out in the living room of the two bedroom suite they were staying in. He was watching TV with Joey and Chris when JC came walking out of the bedroom.

Chris looked up as JC grabbed a water bottle out of the mini fridge. “Sleep well?”

“Actually, yeah, I did,” JC said before he took a drink.

Lance gave JC a knowing look. “See? I told you you wouldn’t have any more nightmares once you talked about them.”

“You talked about them?” Joey asked.

“Yeah,” JC said.

“To who? Lance?” Chris asked.

“No.” JC shook his head. “Justin.”

“Why weren’t we invited?” Chris asked.

JC sighed. “Because Justin was there at the right time.”

Joey looked over at JC. “Do we get to know about them?”

“Not right now,” JC said as he shook his head. Joey and Chris went to protest, but JC added, “It was hard enough telling Justin. Maybe I’ll tell you guys one day, but not now. Besides, I haven’t had a nightmare since I talked to Justin.”

“Really?” Joey questioned. When JC nodded, Joey sighed. “All right. You don’t have to talk about it. Not now anyway.”

“Speaking of him, where is he?” Chris asked.

Lance gave Chris a confused look. “Who? JC?”

“Yes, Lance. I’m staring at JC right now, but I have no idea where he is.” Chris rolled his eyes. “I was talking about Justin.”

“Oh,” Lance said. He turned to JC. “Was he still sleeping when you woke up?”

“Yeah. He was out like a light,” JC said.

“He’s been sleeping in a lot lately,” Joey said.

Lance shrugged. “He’s probably just been tired.”

“Maybe we should wake him up,” Joey suggested.

“I’ll do it,” Chris volunteered.

Justin was in the middle of a dream. His dream had gotten longer over the past couple days. He still had the dream about the forest, but each night he slept he saw something he hadn’t seen before. He was in the forest and saw Lance dead. He then saw something he hadn’t seen earlier. He looked to his left to see Joey and Chris lying on the ground dead.

He was so disturbed by what he had seen. He wanted to figure out what was going on, but before he could even start he felt his whole body shake.

“C’mon, Justy! Wakey wakey!”

His body shook again and Justin realized, as the dream started to fade from his mind, that Chris was jumping on his bed. “Quit it,” he mumbled as he kicked at Chris.

Chris didn’t stop though. He kept on bouncing the bed. Finally Justin sat up and glared at Chris. “Who the hell gave you sugar this early?”

“It’s not that early, dude. Besides, I don’t need someone to monitor my sugar,” Chris said.

“Yeah, right,” Justin said. “Now, get out so I can get changed.”

“Good morning to you too,” Chris said, but he left the room whistling. He always had fun waking up Justin, especially since he was so grumpy when he first woke up.

Justin came out into the living room ten minutes later to find a service cart and Joey and Chris helping themselves to it. He walked over to the cart and poured a bowl of Apple Jacks. JC and Lance then grabbed themselves some breakfast. The five of them sat in front of the TV, eating a quiet breakfast.

They were just finishing up when JC said, “Can you believe tonight’s the last night of the tour?”

“It’s about time,” Justin said. “It feels like this tour has lasted forever.”

“We should go out after the concert tonight to celebrate,” Joey suggested.

The rest of the guys looked at each other before simultaneously saying, “No.”

“Why not? I haven’t had a drink in a few days,” Joey said.

“And it’s going to stay that way. Besides you promised Kelly that you wouldn’t party anymore,” JC said.

“Why do you feel the need to drink anyway?” Lance asked.

Joey sighed. “It makes me feel calm. It helps me to forget about things.”

“Forget what things?” Chris asked.

“Are you guys stupid? You know what,” Joey replied with a hint of annoyance.

“That night,” Justin said as it dawned on him.

“Yeah.” Joey nodded. “A lot happened that night. It was so scary. I mean, those…things showed up out of nowhere and…We could have died. To think about how close we all were…”

“You could’ve come to us,” Lance said. “You didn’t have to drink to make yourself forget.”

“Well, I didn’t want to have nightmares like nightmare boy over there,” he said as he looked over at JC. JC grimaced at the nickname. “Besides, none of you bothered to talk about it.”

“Boo hoo. That’s a crappy excuse,” Chris said.

They all turned to look at Chris in surprise. “Harsh much?” Justin asked.

“No.” Chris shook his head. “If there was something bothering me I would talk to you guys about it.”

“Well, is there?” JC asked.

“No, you guys are the ones screwed up. I’m just being my normal self,” Chris said.

“Are you sure?” Lance asked. “I mean what we went through was pretty traumatic.”

“Yeah. I mean, sure what happened was some freaky shit, but everything turned out all right,” Chris said.

“Yeah, but it probably wouldn’t have if Justin and JC hadn’t shown up,” Lance replied.

“How did you guys find us anyway?” Joey asked as he looked over at Justin and JC. Justin gave Lance and JC a look that clearly said that this was theirs to explain.

JC took a deep breath before he answered Joey’s question. “Lance showed me where you guys were.”

“What?” Joey asked, not fully understanding.

JC looked over at Lance for some help. “I talked to JC and told him we needed help.”

“But how could you do that? I thought the phone lines were down,” Chris said. JC and Lance exchanged looks at that.

“Well, JC and I…are kind of telepathic,” Lance said.

“What?” Joey asked in surprise.

“Yeah, that was kind of our reaction,” JC said.

“I don’t believe you,” Chris said. The guys all looked over at Chris in surprise. “You guys can’t be telepathic. It’s not possible.”

“Apparently so is having demons come after you,” Justin pointed out.

Chris sighed as he nodded. Justin did have a point. “So did you guys have this before that night?” Chris asked.

Lance shook his head. “No. That was the night it started.”

“So you’ve known about this for over a month?” Joey asked, and Lance and JC nodded. “Why didn’t you tell us sooner?”

“We weren’t sure if it was going to last or if it was a fluke thing,” JC explained.

“Wow,” Joey said.

“Are you two keeping anything else from us?” Chris asked, his eyes narrowing slightly.

“No, that’s it,” Lance said.

“That’s not true,” Justin objected. They all turned to look at him inquisitively. “You haven’t told us why you’ve been working so much.”

Lance looked over at Justin confused. “Why are you bringing this up? Working hasn’t affected my sleeping habits, and I’m not overworking. Why do we need to talk about it?”

“Because about a week ago you had said that working keeps your mind off of things. You need to talk about it,” Justin said.

Lance sighed as he remembered. “It’s about what happened. You were right,” Lance said as he looked over at Joey. “What happened was scary. I mean, there were these two…demons who could…I don’t know, but it felt like they were literally sucking the life out of me. I had been so scared when I saw what they were doing to you two.” Lance looked at Chris and Joey.

“Then I jumped between you guys and had them turn on me instead. It was such a weird feeling. It was like this invisible force pulling on you, and I couldn’t breathe. You guys are lucky you didn’t experience that,” Lance said as he looked over at JC and Justin.

“We might not have experienced the same thing, but we were just as scared,” JC said.

“Yeah, JC was a real worry wart.” Justin laughed, but they knew that he had been just as worried.

JC looked over at Lance. “I had never seen you so white. Not even that time you collapsed when we were with Lou. Then you weren’t breathing…I was so afraid I was going to lose you.”

“For a minute I thought…I thought I wasn’t going to make it,” Lance said as he thought back to that night. “It was like I could feel my soul leaving my body.”

“I was so relieved when you started breathing again. I didn’t…don’t want to lose you. Any of you,” JC said as he let his gaze linger on each of the guys.

“You won’t,” Joey assured.

“Yeah, we’ll be here to annoy you for a long time,” Chris added.

JC laughed. “Good.”

“I think we should spend break together,” Justin said. “To make sure no one relapses.”

“Where?” JC asked.

“Lance’s house!” Chris suggested.

“My house?” Lance asked in surprise. “Why my house?”

“You’ve got the huge backyard. Besides, it’s payback for making me room with Joey,” Chris said.

“Hey! I’m not that bad!” Joey objected.

“You snore loud enough to wake the dead,” Chris joked.

“I do not!” Joey said indignantly.

“Sorry, man, but it’s true,” Justin said.

JC saw where this was going and butted in before it could go any further. “So we’re staying at Lance’s?”

“Yeah,” was the answer that was received.

“Is this OK with you?” JC asked Lance.

“Yeah, I don’t mind. I haven’t had anyone over in a long time,” Lance said.

“What about me?” Joey asked.

“What about you?” Chris mocked.

“Do I have to stay at Lance’s or am I allowed to go home?” Joey asked.

“You’re allowed to go home,” Lance answered.

“No, he’s not,” Chris objected. “He’s stuck with us forever and ever and ever…”

Justin laughed. “Go spend time with Kelly and Bri.”

Joey smiled at the thought. “I’ll be glad to see them again.”

“I bet,” JC said. “It’s been a long time.”

“Yeah, but in a few hours the concert will be over. I’ll see them soon,” Joey said.

“Speaking of which,” Lance said as he looked at his watch, “We need to get a move on. We have a photo shoot and then sound check.”

They all got up from where they had been sitting and made their way to the room where the photo shoot was going to take place. It ran over an hour and they immediately made their way to the stage for sound check.

The sound check went off without a hitch, which was a good sign. Normally if they had a good sound check, the concert went just as well. That night when they stepped onstage they were all happy. They were going to have fun with this show since it was their last one for a while.

The show went perfectly. The crowd was so happy to see them and had so much energy that the guys used in their performance. They even did a two song encore at the end. They hadn’t enjoyed a concert this much in a long time.

They all caught a flight immediately afterwards to Orlando. The plane landed, and they were in Orlando by midnight. There were two vans waiting. One to take Joey home to his family and one to take the rest of them back to Lance’s house.

“Home sweet home,” Lance said as he opened the door. Justin, JC, and Chris followed him in. The four of them dropped their bags right inside the door with a sigh of relief.

Chris heard what Lance said and broke out into song. “Home, home on the range. Where the deer and the antelope play.”

Justin laughed and joined in. “Where seldom is heard a discouraging word. And the skies are not cloudy all day.”

Justin and Chris bust out laughing when they finished with JC and Lance joining in. “You guys are crazy,” Lance said.

“Yeah, but you love us anyway,” Chris said before he changed the conversation completely. “Which room is mine?”

Lance shrugged. “Whatever.”

“Sweet! I call Lance’s room!” Chris yelled as he ran up the stairs.

“No you don’t! You can’t sleep in my room!” Lance called out to Chris as he ran after him.

“Are you all right, J?” JC asked. “You seem a little out of it.”

“I’m just a little tired,” Justin said. He and JC had begun to walk the stairs.

“Well, get some rest then. I’ll see you in the morning,” JC said.

They exchanged “good nights” before they went into their separate rooms. All was quiet, which meant that Lance had either managed to get Chris out of his room, or just let him have it. Justin figured Lance managed to get Chris out, but at a price.

Justin lay down on his bed, but didn’t fall asleep right away. He didn’t really want to sleep because he knew that he would have that dream again. He managed to stay awake for about an hour before he fell asleep and began to dream.

He was walking in a forest, just like he had in his other dreams. He walked up to a certain spot before he felt himself stop. He wanted to keep exploring, but it seemed like he was rooted to where he was standing. He watched as two faint lights came closer and closer. Finally he saw what they were. They were the two demons. 

They moved to Justin’s right where he noticed Lance laying on the ground. He watched as Lance’s body was raised in the air a little and him grow weaker and weaker. It looked like the demons were taking the life from Lance. Finally after a few minutes Lance’s body slumped. Justin just knew at that moment that he had lost a friend. 

The demons didn’t stop there though. They moved onto Joey. Justin had to watch as they did the same thing to Joey as they did to Lance. He tried to move, but he wasn’t successful. Then, just like Lance, Joey was dead. 

The demons just kept right on moving. They turned to Chris and continued the same process with him. Justin struggled even harder this time, but it only resulted in making himself tired. Before he knew it Chris was gone too. 

Finally the demons turned to the last person…Justin. He struggled once more as he was forced to watch these demons do to him what they had done to his friends. There was nothing he could do. He was dead. 

Justin woke up.