JC sighed and let his head fall back to rest against the wall behind him. He was sitting sideways on the stairs with his back against the wall and his legs stretched out in front of him. It had been about twenty-four hours since the guys had been attacked and they’d taken Justin to the hospital. Justin’s left arm was in a cast and he’d been taking pain killers that made him really drowsy, so he’d spent a lot of the past day sleeping.

But currently Justin was preparing to play video games with Chris in the living room. JC had thought about joining them, but he stayed where he was. Earlier he’d decided that he didn’t want to sit in his room and seclude himself, but he didn’t want to be around the guys either, which led him to where he was now. Sitting on the stairs allowed him to be able to hear everything that was happening on the ground floor and see anyone who came downstairs, but allowed him to stay out of sight.

Just then he heard the back door slide open and Joey and Lance’s voices grow louder as they came inside. From the slight echo, it sounded like they ended up in the kitchen. JC continued to sit there silently listening to the disagreement they were having.

“We need to find out why the demons are after JC,” Lance said.

JC’s heart momentarily stopped at hearing that. He didn’t know that they knew, but figured they couldn’t have found out too long ago. From the sounds of it they didn’t know he already knew and didn’t have plans on telling him.

“And just how are we supposed to do that? We can’t just call up the demons and ask them, and I doubt JC knows. But even if he did God knows he wouldn’t tell us,” Joey replied.

“Joey—“

“I’m sorry,” Joey interrupted Lance. “But we need to act now. Before one of us ends up dead.”

JC paled at the thought as Joey’s words sent him back to when this all started over a year ago at the cabin. Katrina had tried to kill him by attempting to drown him in the lake, suffocating him with a pillow, and making a tree fall on him. Only it didn’t because Lance had pushed him out of the way and ended up breaking his leg. Pain caused by him.

Then a year after that Lance, Chris, and Joey were attacked where they were being drained of their life. In Lance’s case, he’d stopped breathing. He’d been clinically dead for a few minutes. It was only by sheer luck that JC had been able to revive him. More pain caused by him. And he wasn’t even touched when Justin had been hit with that ball of light. It was also all because of him that Joey had taken up drinking in order to deal with what’d happened.

The past few days were even worse. Just thinking about it made him queasy. Justin had passed out three times and saw the future each time. While that was worrisome, it was minor in comparison to the demon in Lance’s head that almost made him commit suicide. Then another demon tried to kill Joey two days later. And it was all because the demons were after him. His friends were continually getting hurt because of him.

Slowly JC stood up and walked the rest of the way up the stairs to go lie down on his bed to try to get his stomach to stop doing flips. As he made his way down the hall, he couldn’t help but think that the guys must hate him. He was the cause of all the bad things happening to them, and he wondered why they didn’t just tell him to leave so they wouldn’t have to worry about demons coming after them. JC wished they would so he wouldn’t have to worry about them dying just because some demons were looking to have a little fun before they killed him. The image of all of them on the ground dead came back to him from his nightmare and before he knew it he dashed into the bathroom where he fell on his knees in front of the toilet.

His stomach muscles clenched tightly and JC felt what little water he’d had earlier rise up his throat. But that was the most that he was able to throw up because he hadn’t eaten in a couple days. That didn’t stop his stomach from trying to expel all its contents though. JC’s body lurched as his stomach muscles continued to churn, causing him to dry heave. Finally after a few minutes his stomach settled, leaving his body weak and shaky with beads of sweat running down his face.

JC didn’t have the strength to pull his body off the bathroom floor. Instead he lied down with his face pressed against the cool tiles, which felt nice against his sweaty head. Before he knew it his eyes closed and his body pulled him into an exhausted slumber.

“I’m kicking your ass!” Justin yelled triumphantly as his right hand pressed all the necessary buttons and his left moved his player.

“You’re taking advantage of a cripple,” Chris said. He had his left arm sitting in his lap with his right hand trying to move his player and press the buttons on the controller that was on the floor at the same time.

“If by cripple you mean old, then yeah,” Justin replied.

Chris glared at him. “No. I meant my arm.”

“You’re not still going on about your arm?” Lance asked as he walked in the room with Joey.

“It hurts,” Chris moaned still trying to punch the appropriate buttons on the controller.

“Oh, come off it, Chris. Your arm is fine. The doctor even said so,” Joey replied.

“He said I have sympathy pains, which implies I’m feeling some kind of pain,” Chris objected.

“You’re feeling a phantom pain. It’s not real,” Lance said.

“Feels pretty damn real to me,” Chris countered.

Justin threw his hands in the air in victory. “Yes! I win!”

Chris looked over at him. “Can I have some of your pain killers, Justin?”

“Your arm doesn’t hurt that bad,” Joey objected.

“Is your name Justin?” Chris glared at Joey before he turned his attention back on his youngest friend, waiting for his answer.

Justin shook his head. “No way, man.”

“C’mon! You don’t even want to take them. Lance and JC had to make you,” Chris said.

“I’m the one with the broken arm, not you,” Justin replied.

Chris stood up, knowing he wasn’t going to get any help from Lance or Joey and pouted. “I know when I’m not wanted.” He left the room and made it down the hall before he yelled, “I’m getting my new video game. I’ll be right back!”

Chris walked up the stairs, his mind focused on getting to his room to grab the new video game he’d brought with him, but had yet to try. As he went down the hall and passed the bathroom, which was a door down from his room, he noticed the yellow glow spilling out into the hallway from the half open door. Instantly all thoughts of his video game were forgotten as he stepped forward to investigate.

When Chris pushed the door open, his eyes fell on the prone body of JC lying on the floor. Immediately he thought the worst. Seeing JC like that took him back to when he’d found Lance in a similar position. But this time there was no broken glass and no pills scattered everywhere. He quickly realized that there were no signs that JC had committed suicide. As Chris crossed the spacious bathroom to where JC lie, he noticed that the toilet seat was up and saw foam. Flushing the toilet, he knew that JC must’ve become physically ill.

“Guys!” Chris yelled, turning JC over onto his back. He felt bad about yelling like that because surely they would remember when they’d thought they heard JC yelling from the basement and it ended up being a trap. But he had no choice because he couldn’t leave JC alone on the floor to go get them. Wrapping his right arm around JC’s shoulders, he managed to get JC into an upright position. JC was just starting to wake when he heard feet coming down the hall.

“Oh my God,” Justin breathed.

“What happened?” Joey walked over and crouched down in front of JC who was half awake. “JC?”

JC blinked heavily. “’m fine.”

Chris laughed bitterly. “Really?” He pulled his arm from his shoulders back a couple inches and, just like he expected, JC fell back into his arm.

“C’mon, let’s you get into bed,” Lance said to JC, walking over to him and slipping an arm around his lower back. After a bit of struggling, Chris and Lance managed to pull JC to his feet with them. They went to take a step forward when JC’s voice stopped them.

“Wait,” he requested weakly, raising a hand to his forehead. Chris suspected that he was dizzy from the altitude change. They gave him a minute to collect himself before they led him to his room and lowered him down onto his bed once Justin pulled back the covers. JC’s eyes closed as soon as his head hit the pillow.

“How did this happen?” Joey asked, quietly.

“Well, I know he probably hasn’t been getting any sleep,” Lance said.

“And I can’t remember the last time he ate.” Chris looked at the three of them. “Anyone see him eat recently?”

Justin shook his head. “I think the last time he ate was when we had pizza.”

“Stupid asshole,” Chris said, looking down at JC. “That was two days ago.”

“We can talk about this later. Let’s let him sleep for now,” Lance said, leading the way out of the room. They all nodded and Chris followed the others, closing the door behind him. He hated that JC had done this to himself again, but he knew there was no way he was going to let JC off the hook so easily this time.

Lance and the other three walked upstairs together. They’d let JC sleep, but now it was time to talk because they knew that the longer they waited the harder it would be. Downstairs they had all decided that JC wouldn’t be the only one to share what he’d been thinking and feeling; they all would. Lance figured they would have a better chance at getting JC to talk that way, and they’d all agreed that if they were going to figure this out together then they would have to get everything out in the open. There would be no secrets this time around.

Chris opened the door and the four of them walked into the room. JC was still asleep, and Lance felt bad for waking him because he knew how exhausted JC must have been. But he could always go back to bed after they were done. They weren’t leaving this room until they got everything out in the open. That much had been made clear when he and the others had talked downstairs.

Lance grabbed the desk chair that was across the room and moved it over to JC’s bedside. He took a deep breath because he knew that this was going to be a long conversation and some things would be hard to hear. Centered, he reached a hand out and gently shook JC’s shoulder, trying not to startle him too much. It didn’t help because JC’s eyes flew open at the contact.

As JC’s eyes wandered around the room, Lance sat back in his chair, waiting for him to get his bearings. Finally JC’s eyes landed back on Lance and he cleared his throat before he asked, “What…what’s going on?”

“We’re going to talk,” Lance said.

JC looked apprehensive. “Now?”

“It’s time, JC,” Joey said, sitting down on the end of the bed.

JC sighed, but slowly pulled himself into a sitting position, mirroring Justin with his back against the headboard and his legs stretched out in front of him. He didn’t say anything to initiate conversation, but they’d expected that.

“I know you don’t want to do this, but you’re not the only who’s going to speak,” Lance said. “We’re all going to say what’s on our mind.” He paused. “So who’s going to go first?”

“What about you?” Chris suggested after a minute of sitting in silence, from the foot of the bed where he was resting on the trunk that Lance kept spare blankets in. “You’re the one who suggested it.”

“I don’t have anything to say,” Lance said.

“Bull.” Chris raised an eyebrow. “You mean to tell me that after everything that’s happened this week and you having a demon in your head that you have nothing to talk about?”

Lance thought for a few seconds before he nodded. “OK. Well, I’m afraid that after what’s happened that the demons are going to take control of my mind again. I mean, what’s to stop it from happening again?”

Lance paused, kind of glad of the unspoken rule they had that whenever one of them was talking that the rest weren’t allowed to speak until the one speaking was done. While what he had to say was hard, he knew that the unspoken rule would make it easier for all of them to share their secrets.

“It’s unnerving to not have control of your body, and I don’t want the demons to make me commit suicide.” Lance looked at each of the guys. “I don’t want them to use me to hurt you guys.”

About a minute of silence elapsed before Joey cleared his throat. He briefly made eye contact with them before he lowered his head, fixing his gaze on the comforter. “You guys should know…I’ll be staying here for a while.”

Joey hesitated briefly before continuing, “I can’t go home because Kelly doesn’t think I’m committed because I haven’t been spending enough time with her and Brianna. She doesn’t want me around.

“So,” Joey let a breath and looked up, “I’m going to stick around.”

Lance wasn’t surprised to hear that because Chris had told him about the same thing. He doubted that Kelly didn’t want Joey around though. She was probably just confused and didn’t understand why Joey was always running over here as soon as they called him. It might be a good idea for Joey to tell her the truth, but Lance was sure Joey must have been afraid of telling her everything and have her think he was nuts. Getting everything out in the open seemed to be working pretty good so far, but there was still so much left.

“Well, what I have to say isn’t really my secret,” Chris started and looked over at JC. “I’m not going to make you say it again, but I’m going to tell the guys. You can jump in and add anything whenever.” He mumbled bitterly, “Because I know you’re still hiding something.”

“Chris,” Lance warned, narrowing his eyes. He saw JC lower his head out the corner of his eye.

“All right, all right.” Chris paused. “JC ran into the demon while he was in your head,” Chris looked at Lance, “And apparently when he told it to leave, it did.”

“That’s it?” Justin asked. Lance was thinking the same thing. Chris had hardly said anything and what he did say left them with more questions than answers. But Lance hoped that JC would shed some light on the subject when he talked.

Chris shrugged and nodded. “Pretty much.” He glanced over at JC and jerked a thumb in his direction. “Unless he has something to add.”

“Chris, stop trying to get JC to talk,” Lance reprimanded.

“I thought that was the whole point of this,” Chris replied.

“We’re all talking. JC will get his turn, but it’s still yours,” Lance said, glaring at him. They couldn’t push JC yet and what Chris was saying wasn’t helping. JC had yet to say anything even if it was to ask a question, but that didn’t bother Lance as long as JC spoke when it was his turn.

Joey turned his attention back to Chris. “What else do you have to say?”

“Nothing,” Chris replied.

“C’mon, Chris, you wouldn’t let Lance get away with that, so you’re not allowed either,” Justin said.

Chris sighed. “I don’t have a problem. Honest.” He paused briefly. “My only problem is worrying about you guys and your problems. So if your problems get fixed then mine will be too.”

Lance wasn’t too surprised to hear that Chris didn’t really have a problem. It took a lot to rattle Chris, but even when something did he dealt with it by putting himself into anything that would take his mind off of it. Chris was as protective of them as JC was, but he showed it in more subtle ways and liked to kind of stand back to observe them so he could figure out the best way to help. But that didn’t mean that he wasn’t afraid of going up to them and out right ask them what was on their mind because Lance knew that he liked to address problems before they got too serious. That was probably what he did when all this stuff started happening over the past few days.

“OK.” Justin sighed, pulling his legs up to bend at the knees and sit Indian style. “Well, I’ve been kind of…passing out lately.”

“We’ve noticed,” Chris said and Joey punched him in the shoulder while motioning him to be quiet.

“You guys think I’ve passed out twice, but…it’s actually been three times. The one in the backyard was the third one,” Justin said. Lance saw his expression of shock mirrored on Joey and Chris’s faces, but not JC. He must’ve already known which really wasn’t too surprising considering how much Justin’s talked to JC.

“When was the second one?” Joey asked.

“The night Chris and JC went clubbing,” Justin said. “But that’s not it.” Justin ran a hand over his short curls. “When I’m out...I see these…things before they actually happen.”

“What kind of things?” Lance asked.

“I saw…your suicide attempt,” Justin looked over at Lance, “a couple hours before it happened. And yesterday…I knew something bad was going to happen in the basement.”

Chris leaned forward on the trunk a little. “So what did you see if you didn’t know exactly what was going to happen?”

Justin shook his head, looking down, and picking at the hole in his jeans. “It’s bad enough watching it the first time…but to see it happen again exactly like I saw it…” Lance noticed that Justin didn’t answer the question, but he took that as his cue for him and the guys to let it go because Justin didn’t want to talk about it anymore since he’d lived through it.

This was the most surprising thing they’d learned so far, although it certainly explained why Justin had warned them so strongly to stay out of the basement yesterday. Justin had known ahead of time that something bad was going to happen and he was doing his best to change the outcome. Too bad that it hadn’t worked.

“I hate these…visions or whatever they are.” Justin looked up at them. “I don’t want to watch you guys get hurt or die…even if it isn’t real. But that’s the thing…so far they’ve all come true.” Justin took a deep breath and sighed. “Who’s to say the next one won’t?”

“How frequently do they happen?” Lance asked.

Justin shrugged. “It depends I guess. The second one came the day after I had the first one. Then the third one was yesterday, so it skipped a day.” He paused. “But it doesn’t matter. I don’t want to have another one again.”

Lance understood that because it must be scary watching these horrible things play out in your mind and then find out that they actually happen. But for some reason he had this feeling that despite what Justin wanted, he won’t be able to stop having any more. Hopefully he didn’t have another one for a while.

Finally it was JC’s turn. Lance hoped that them going before him helped to put JC a little more at ease and make it a little easier to talk to them. As much as he wanted to look over at him, he knew that if they all looked expectantly at JC it would probably freak him out. And Lance was sure he was doing that to himself already.

“I…” JC started after a moment of silence. “Can’t we do this later? I’m really tired and just want to go back to sleep.”

“No. We’ve all talked and now it’s your turn,” Chris said firmly. “You’re not hiding things anymore.”

Lance was glad that Chris spoke up and put his foot down because he knew that he probably would’ve given in if he’d had to make the decision. That would’ve pissed off the others, but Lance felt bad about making JC talk. He knew how much of a closed book JC was, so he sympathized about being forced to open up and talk. But Lance knew that it was necessary with what’d happened earlier.

There was a long pause before JC let out a heavy sigh. “What I’m going to tell you goes along with what Chris said.” He glanced up at Chris briefly before fixing his eyes on his hands. “What he said was right…for the most part.

“I did run into the demon, but I didn’t tell it to leave right away.” JC started to pick at his nails. “It told me some things first.”

There was a pause where he glanced at each of them quickly before he averted his gaze. “It told me that…it said everything that’s happened to us…is my fault.” JC let out a breath and looked at Lance. “It said…it was making you commit suicide because…because it wanted to torture me. I’m the one it’s really after.”

Lance felt his insides freeze. Over the past twenty-four hours he’d been thinking that JC didn’t know anything about the demons being after him when really he’d known a couple days before they did. It certainly helped to explain his behavior over the past few days.

“I didn’t really tell it to leave,” JC admitted. “I told it to just come and get me if that’s what it wanted.”

Joey’s eyes widened. “What?”

“JC!” Justin and Lance admonished.

JC flinched slightly and briefly risked looking at Joey and Chris before lowering his head again. “That’s when it came out…and tried to touch me. But it couldn’t.” He lifted his head and looked each of them in the eyes. “I know this is all my fault.”

“That’s crazy, JC,” Joey protested.

“Yeah, you didn’t ask for this or make some deal we don’t know about, did you?” When JC shook his head Chris continued, “See? It’s not your fault.”

“But they’re after me and hurting you guys in process,” JC objected, as he blinked back tears. “I don’t know what I’d do without you guys. And I don’t want to be responsible for you getting hurt…or killed.”

Justin put his right hand on JC’s shoulder. “We’ll figure something out.”

JC nodded, but didn’t look reassured. It was clear by the silence that followed that JC was done speaking and Lance was expected to say something. Lance took a minute to collect himself because he knew JC probably felt responsible for the bad things that’d happened, but to hear that he was convinced it was his fault was upsetting. But JC always took it to heart when something bad happened to one of them and he could’ve done something to protect them.

After a minute Lance said, “All right. Now we have to talk about what happened earlier.” When no one said anything he turned to JC. “You get all annoyed with us when we’re keeping an eye on you, but as soon as we back off, what do you do? You let yourself go. You don’t take care of yourself.”

Lance saw the looks of surprise on the others’ faces, but he couldn’t seem to stop. “You always want to be the strong one and look out for us. But we practically had to carry you into bed. How strong does that make you?” Lance paused. “I refuse to stand by and watch you relapse again.

“And if there’s something on your mind, talk to one of us. What good is our connection if you keep blocking me every time I want to talk?” Lance sighed. “I don’t want to see you end up in the hospital again.”

“He’s right, Jace. You need to take care of yourself,” Joey said.

“I do,” JC protested.

“No, you don’t. Otherwise I wouldn’t have found you asleep on the bathroom floor after you made yourself sick and we wouldn’t be having this conversation right now,” Chris said.

“You need to get a decent night’s sleep, and you need to eat,” Justin agreed. “We don’t care when you do it just as long as you do.”

“Yeah, we’re used to you sleeping in the afternoon,” Chris teased, trying to lighten the mood a little.

“Seriously, you don’t have to deal with everything yourself. We can figure this out together, but only if we talk to each other,” Lance said. “OK?”

JC nodded, but Lance wasn’t convinced that JC agreed at all. He would never know for sure though because there was no way to know what JC was thinking at any given time. It’d been hard enough just getting him to talk about what’d happened, and Lance knew that even if JC actually was open to having a conversation with one of them he’d never let him into his head again without permission. Not that he was really surprised by this because Lance knew JC liked his privacy and didn’t like to share his thoughts with anyone.

Lance realized that JC’s relapse didn’t happen because he and the others hadn’t been keeping a watchful eye on him, but because JC was getting better at hiding things. That certainly wasn’t good, and he didn’t imagine that it would get any better over time. There was the possibility that he was wrong, but he couldn’t see JC going back to the way it was before. It’d never been easy to get JC to talk, but now it seemed almost impossible, looking at what had to happen in order for them to get him to open up.

Before all this stuff with the demons Lance had never seen JC as someone who was easy to read, and he knew it would be even harder from now on to get a read on how he’s thinking and feeling, especially with JC knowing how to block him from his mind. It worried him that JC had even learned how to block his feelings through their connection. He could only hope that JC wouldn’t be blocking him out anymore.

But if he did Lance wasn’t going to let that deter him from continuing to pay attention to JC and trying to be prepared for whatever what was going to happen. Now that they were all on the same page, he hoped it’d be easier to read the signs when something was bothering JC. If it looked like there was something on his mind, Lance planned to sit him down and get him to talk. He’d even get the guys to help because he knew that Chris would have no problem playing dirty to force JC to talk. But one thing was for certain he wasn’t going to let things get this bad again. No matter what.

Lance was pulled out of his thoughts by a hand on his shoulder and looked up to see Justin standing behind him. “C’mon, Lance,” he said, motioning towards the door. Lance realized that he must’ve  been so engrossed in his thoughts that he didn’t even hear the guys get up to leave.

 Lance nodded and Justin disappeared through the door. He stood up and put the chair back before he crossed the room only to stop in the doorway. Looking back at JC who’d just turned over to go back to sleep. There was a brief pause before he tapped into their connection and asked JC, “You won’t block me out, right?” 

“Yes.” 

“Why?” Lance frowned at JC, wanting to know what his reason was for saying that.

 “I’m trying to sleep.”