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.