Lance sat just outside of Chris’s room with his back resting against the wall. When they’d first gotten back from the club an hour and a half ago, they’d immediately put Justin to bed. It wasn’t long after that they all decided to go to bed. Lance was the exception because he remembered that one of them had planned on keeping an eye on Chris to see if he really did sleepwalk and visit Joey. Justin wasn’t up to doing it since he was in bed sleeping off the effects of the vision, which only left him since JC didn’t know anything about what was going on with Joey. So he’d settled himself in the hall with the articles and a flashlight, using that time to see if anything new jumped out at him now that he had more information.

A low creak made him look up, and he found that JC’s door was slowly opening. Lance frowned wondering why JC was awake. His frown deepened when he saw JC make a left out of his room, towards the stairs.

“Where are you going?” Lance asked, shinning his flashlight onto JC.

JC jumped and quickly turned to look at him with wide eyes. “Uh…the bathroom.”

Lance raised an eyebrow, lowering the flashlight a little, but enough that he could still see JC. “In your jeans?”

“I fell asleep in my clothes,” JC said with a shrug. “I must’ve been more tired than I thought.”

Lance wasn’t convinced. It wasn’t as if JC never fell asleep in his clothes because he did, especially some of the nights while they were on tour as he waited for one of the showers to open up. However, Lance felt certain that JC hadn’t fallen asleep at all because he knew how JC got after Justin had a vision of something terrible that was going to happen. He would get himself all worked up over it because he couldn’t stop thinking about it.

But before Lance could call him on this, JC asked, “Why are you up?”

“I got an email from FreeLance that I need to make a decision about this contract by tomorrow morning, so I’m going over it again,” Lance said, thinking quickly. He figured that was a good excuse. Sometimes it was good to have the reputation of a workaholic.

“And you’re in a dark hallway with a flashlight instead of your study because…”

“I was tired of being in there,” Lance said. JC didn’t say anything, but nodded in understanding.

After a brief pause, JC started walking down the hall in the opposite direction he had originally been going before Lance had startled him. The flashlight coupled with the little light they kept on in the hall at night so they wouldn’t have to blindly stumble to the bathroom allowed him to take in JC’s appearance as he walked down the hall towards the bathroom. His hair was sticking up all over the place, which gave the illusion that he had been asleep, but Lance knew that it was more than likely because he’d been messing with his hair, something JC did when he was upset. Not to mention his eyes looked a little red, which could be from tiredness or crying. Either way Lance knew that he couldn’t let JC go back into his room without getting him to talk.

“I don’t believe you,” Lance said, voicing his earlier thoughts.

JC stopped and looked down at him. “What?”

“You didn’t fall asleep in your jeans,” Lance told him.

“I’ve done it before,” JC replied.

“Yeah, but I know you, JC, and I know that you weren’t sleeping. You’ve probably been up this whole time obsessing over Justin’s vision,” Lance said, giving JC a knowing look.

JC lowered his eyes to the carpet, but didn’t say anything to deny it. Lance sighed, knowing that it was going to be damn near impossible for him to get JC to talk about it, but he was going to try. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“No,” JC said, quietly but with a hint of firmness.

“I want you to talk to me, JC,” Lance replied. “It’ll help you sleep, which is something that you need. Otherwise, I’ll have to give you a sleeping pill again.”

“You shouldn’t have even done it in the first place!” JC snapped, his voice rising in volume.

“JC, the others are trying to sleep,” Lance said quietly.

“Well, you’re the one who brought it up,” JC replied, lowering his voice a fraction, but it was still too loud in the deadly silence of the hall.

“Do you honestly think I got satisfaction out of drugging you?” Lance asked.

JC crossed his arms and said coldly, “I don’t know. Did you?”

“Of course not! I didn’t want to, but I was looking out for you.”

“I don’t need you to look out for me. I’m not some little kid who needs his mom’s hand to cross the street,” JC said.

“Then stop acting like it!” Lance shot back. Inwardly he recoiled, not believing that he had just said that because JC was so far from being a child. If anything, it was the other way around. Normally JC was always the one to look out for the rest of them, which had earned him the nickname ‘Big Daddy.’ It sucked when they fought and Lance hated it, but he couldn’t stop his anger at JC being so secretive and stubborn about getting help from pushing the conversation further.

While Lance hated it when he and JC fought, Joey hated it even more. Joey lied in his bed, staring up at the ceiling. He hadn’t been able to sleep because he was terrified about the fire. When the guys had filled him in while they were in the car, he almost couldn’t believe it, but so far all of Justin’s visions had come true. That was what made them so scary because so far there hadn’t been a way to stop them. Joey knew that the other guys would do everything they could to prevent it from happening, but he couldn’t stop the pit in his stomach that formed at the thought he might die.

But his thoughts about the fire and death were interrupted by the fight between Lance and JC out in the hall. It wasn’t hard to hear them because he was just a few feet down the hall and his door was open a crack. Joey sighed as their angry voices carried down into his room.

“You can’t go into your room. We’re not done talking yet,” Lance said.

JC let out a humorless laugh and hissed, “Watch me.”

“If you do, I’ll just go into your mind and continue it there,” Lance replied.

“I’ll just block you,” JC retorted. “I’ve gotten pretty good at that.”

Then suddenly a door slammed, causing the noise to reverberate through the quiet house and bounce off the walls before an eerie silence settled. Joey let out another heavy sigh. It was starting to worry him that JC and Lance were fighting so much. Although he guessed he should’ve expected that because with the growing tension, it was hard not to let it interfere with their relationships. And it had only gotten worse since Lance had drugged JC. Joey didn’t figure that their fights would stop anytime soon, no matter how much he wanted them to because their fights never got resolved, which made it easy for them to just jump right back into it again.

Joey let his eyes flick from the ceiling to the doorway and back again only to bring his attention back to the doorway. He thought he’d been seeing things, but no, there was Chris. Or rather something that looked like Chris because Joey was confident that it wasn’t his friend; he trusted Lance to do his job and knew that Lance wouldn’t let Chris out of his bedroom. Wearily, Joey eyed the…whatever it was.

“I know you’re not Chris,” Joey said.

“Yes, I am,” the Chris look-a-like replied.

Joey shook his head. “No, you’re not. You’re a…figment of my imagination…or a…an apparition.”

Despite what Joey said, he didn’t really think he was imagining it. He might’ve a couple of years ago, but after everything that’s happened, it wasn’t hard to believe that he might be seeing a ghost or something similar. After all the demons were after them, what was one more supernatural being?

The apparition didn’t seem to want to argue though because it said, “You haven’t been doing your job.”

“What job?” Joey asked.

“You need to keep a better eye on JC.”

Joey rolled his eyes. “Yeah, you’ve said that before.”

“He’s up to something and you must stop him before it’s too late,” the apparition said.

A look of confusion crossed Joey’s face. “What? What’s he up to?”

“A way to end it all.”

“What?” Joey repeated. This was all very unsettling and he wasn’t even sure what to take at face value because he didn’t know what the thing’s intentions were.

“There is a way. Something that JC’s not seeking,” the apparition repeated.

Joey leaned forward a little, curious. Was it possible that there really was some way to stop the demons? He hoped so. “How?”

“You must go back to the cabin.”

“The cabin? What’s so significant about that?” Joey asked.

The apparition didn’t answer, but disappeared right before his eyes, leaving him staring at the spot where it had been. “Damn, that was creepy,” he muttered to himself as he rubbed at his eyes.

There was too much to process. The apparition hadn’t said much, but it had said enough to get Joey wondering about JC and if going to the cabin was really the solution to making it all stop. One thing Joey did know was that he had to go tell Lance, so he wouldn’t have to wait in the hall to watch Chris anymore.

Joey slid out of bed and stepped out into the hall. He quietly walked over to Lance and put a hand on his shoulder. Immediately Lance jumped, but sighed in relief when he looked up and saw Joey.

“God, Joey. Don’t sneak up on people in the dark.” Lance paused. “What are you doing out of bed?”

“I need to talk to you,” Joey said and motioning for Lance to stand up.

“What about Chris?” Lance asked, pulling himself to his feet.

“It’s not him,” Joey said.

Lance looked surprised. “What? How do you know?”

“Because it showed up again and vanished into thin air. It must be a ghost or something.” Joey glanced around the hallway. He didn’t want JC to overhear any of what the apparition had said, especially since voices in the hall seemed to carry if you talked over a whisper. “Can we talk in my room?”

Lance nodded and Joey led the way back to his room. Once Lance crossed the threshold, he closed the door with a soft click. Joey walked over and sat on his bed next to Lance.

“So it came?”

“Yeah. It just appeared out of nowhere,” Joey said.

“Did it say anything?” Lance asked.

Joey nodded. “It brought up the cabin.” He glanced over at Lance. “It said that we had to go back there to end all of this.”

There was a moment of silence as Lance absorbed it before he looked over at Joey. “Anything else?”

“It talked about JC again and said that we need to watch out for him,” Joey said.

Lance frowned. “That’s what it said before.”

“I know, but it seems to think that JC’s up to something. It told me we have to stop him before it’s too late,” Joey said.

“Too late for what?”

Joey shrugged. “It didn’t really stick around long enough to let me know.”

“Well,” Lance hesitated briefly, “I could go into his head and find out what he’s doing.”

“No,” Joey disagreed quickly. “He’s already pissed enough at you. No need to add fuel to the fire.” He paused. “Maybe…maybe if we snoop through his stuff.”

“Someone would need to distract him,” Lance said.

“So you agree with going through his stuff?” Joey asked, a little surprised. Normally Lance made sure to respect JC’s privacy, which really made his suggestion about going into his head out of the norm for him. Joey didn’t really want to go through JC’s stuff, but if this apparition was right and JC was up to something, they needed to know what in case he planned on doing something stupid.

“Yeah, we need to find out why this ghost keeps warning you about JC,” Lance said. He glanced down at his watch. “But that won’t be until tomorrow, so I’m going to get some sleep since I don’t have to keep an eye on Chris now.”

“Wait,” Joey demanded as Lance stood up to leave. “What are we going to do about the cabin?”

Lance sighed and faced him. “We’re going to wait because I don’t know if I trust this thing yet.”

Joey nodded and Lance left the room after bidding him good night. He fell back onto his bed with a sigh. Why was it that everything had to be so complicated? They shouldn’t have to alienate each other and go through each other’s stuff because they were suspicious. Joey wished that things could go back to the way they’d been before all of this stuff started happening, but he knew that wouldn’t happen for a while. At least not until they found out if the apparition wasn’t feeding them false information.

The next day Justin and Joey walked down the hall before entering JC’s room. Right away they started opening drawers as they searched his room for anything that might tell them what JC was up to. Earlier that day Lance and Joey had filled him and Chris in on what the apparition had said to Joey when it visited him for the second time, and that they had decided to go through JC’s stuff to see if they could find out what the apparition might’ve been alluding to.

Justin hadn’t really wanted to at first because one of the worst things anyone could do was go through JC’s personal things. But in the end he’d agreed because he was afraid that if JC was up to something then it probably wasn’t good. Chris had been volunteered for distracting JC while he and Joey went through JC’s things since Chris was the most firm with JC and would keep him busy. Lance was just going to sit in his office, so it wouldn’t seem suspicious like it would’ve if all three of them had been in JC’s room.

“This is so wrong,” Joey said, shaking his head as he sifted through one of JC’s drawers.

“Weren’t you the one who suggested it?” Justin asked, knowingly.

“The sooner we get what we came for, the better,” Joey replied, not answering Justin’s question.

Justin knelt down and looked under JC’s bed. “Aha!” He reached under before he sat back up, holding JC’s laptop in his hands. “I’m going to take this to Lance,” Justin told Joey.

Justin carefully carried JC’s computer down the stairs. Once he reached the bottom, he quickly glanced in both directions to make sure there was no sign of JC. Satisfied, he walked into Lance’s office and set the laptop on the desk. It’d been decided earlier that if they found JC’s computer they would give it to Lance to look at since he knew the most about computers and could possibly find something useful.

“All right.” Lance opened the lid of the computer and pressed the button to turn it on. “Let’s see if JC put anything on here.”

Justin stood there awkwardly, not sure what to do with himself. He still felt uncomfortable with this because it felt so wrong. However, he knew that they had to see if there was any truth to what the apparition had said. Moving forward a couple of feet put him right behind Lance and in perfect view of the computer screen. Justin watched for a few minutes as Lance opened different folders and documents before he found something.

“Well, it looks like he has some files that are locked. Maybe there’s something in there,” Lance said.

“Do you think you can get into them?” Justin asked.

Lance made a face. “I’m not a hacker, but…I can try some passwords and see if anything works.”

Justin didn’t say anything, but he just knew they were going to hell for going through JC’s stuff and trying to hack into his computer.

JC sat curled up on one end of the couch, while Chris was on the other. His attention wasn’t on the TV like Chris’s was, but on the notebook in his lap. He was putting the finishing touches on the letter he was going to leave for the guys. When he performed the ritual later, it was going to sit in plain sight for them to find. There was no way he was going to be able to say good bye properly to all of them without making them suspicious. But he knew he had to say something, so he wrote a letter to them explaining why he did it and that he loved them.

A few minutes later he finished and sat back against the couch. It’d been really hard to write, but he knew that it was necessary because the guys would want an explanation. Now all he had to do was get his items at Wal-Mart again since they’d been left behind last time.

JC had tried to sneak out last night after they’d gotten back from the club and everyone went to bed, but he’d been caught by Lance who had been sitting in the hall. It’d surprised and frustrated him at the same time because he had planned on leaving and being back long before any of the guys would’ve noticed that he’d been gone. Instead he had ended up fighting with Lance, which had been so depleting. He hated fighting because it made him feel so tired and emotionally drained. But it especially bugged him now that he’d been fighting with one of his best friends considering that he was going to die before the day was over.

Though, no matter how he felt, JC knew that he couldn’t dwell on it because there were still things that needed to be done. He quickly glanced over at Chris, who’d been sitting with him for the last half hour. Under normal circumstances that wouldn’t have been weird, but JC hadn’t been left alone at all today so he knew that he was going to have to figure out a way to sneak out of the house without any of the guys knowing.

JC pictured his room, trying to see if there was a safe way to sneak out of the window. There was a small ledge beneath his window, but from there it was at least a ten foot drop, which he didn’t like the idea of. With that idea dismissed, he came up with a slightly better one. He could go out back and when none of the guys were looking, sneak around to the front where the driveway was and leave that way. After a moment of contemplation, he decided that was the best idea he had. But first he needed to get his wallet from his room and put his notebook away, so he stood up.

“Whoa!” Chris said, standing up too when he’d seen JC stand up. “Where you going, man?”

“Upstairs,” JC said, simply and started to walk towards the hallway.

Chris stood in front of him. “You can’t go upstairs.”

“Why not?”

“Because…because you have to play a video game with me.” JC opened his mouth to decline, but Chris quickly cut in, “C’mon, man. I haven’t had a chance to try my new game yet. I’ll even let you win.”

JC smiled slightly. “Maybe next time, Chris.”

“Baywatch is on,” Chris blurted.

“I don’t watch Baywatch,” JC said.

“Well, you should,” Chris replied. “I mean, c’mon Jace, hot chicks running half naked on a beach? It doesn’t get any better than that.”

JC sighed and shook his head as he walked down the hall before turning to go up the stairs. He heard footsteps behind him and knew that Chris was following him. “I don’t know why you want to go upstairs to your room!” Chris shouted from behind him.

JC turned to look back at him and give him a curious glance. “What’s all the shouting about?”

“Nothing! I’m just in a shouting mood!” Chris yelled.

JC gave him a funny look, but continued up to his room. He turned the corner and stopped in the doorway when he saw Joey closing one of his drawers. “What are you doing?” JC asked, slamming the notebook on the dresser that was inside next to the door. The sound of his voice and the loud slap of the notebook caused Joey to whip around to face him with a guilty look on his face.

“I…uh…I’m…”

“You’re what, Joey?” JC stepped forward into the room only to have the door slam shut behind him. Immediately he turned and tried the doorknob, but it wouldn’t turn. His anger disappeared as fear started to set in. “Oh, God.”

“What?” Joey asked.

“Joey,” JC started, hearing pounding on the door and Chris yelling for them to open up, “It’s happening.”

It took Joey a second to comprehend what JC had meant, but when he did, his face paled. There wasn’t any time to wonder what they were going to do though because suddenly a demon appeared behind Joey. JC stepped forward so he was right next to Joey when the demon laughed, the sound causing chills to run down JC’s spine. Before he could say anything the demon’s smoky body moved up towards the ceiling where it dispersed itself. The black smoke quickly turned to red hot flames that spread across the ceiling and down the walls, so that the whole room was engulfed.

“What are we going to do?” Joey cried.

“I don’t know!” JC yelled.

JC and Joey watched as the fire continued to spread all around them and move closer to the center of the room where both of them were standing. Thick, black smoke filled the room from all the fire. There was no escape.

“Joey! JC!” Justin shouted as he pounded on the door.

“Would you quit pounding on the freaking door? It’s not doing anything!” Lance shouted.

Justin turned to look at him. “What the hell can we do?”

“We should call 911,” Lance said, motioning to the smoke that drifted out from underneath the door. He dug his phone out of his pocket and looked up when he saw a body collide into the hard door. “Chris! What the hell are you doing?”

“Trying to break the door down.” Chris backed up and rammed into the door again, muttering, “What does it look like?”

“You’re going to hurt yourself,” Justin said as Lance talked on the phone with an emergency dispatcher.

“I don’t care!” Chris shouted. It’d been several minutes since the door first slammed shut and he’d called for Justin and Lance. Who knew exactly what was going on just on the other side of the door? All he knew was that there was a fire, and as he threw himself into the door again, he desperately prayed that he wouldn’t be losing two friends today.

JC knelt on the floor; Joey’s back resting against his chest. The room had become so thick with smoke that he wouldn’t have been able to see a thing if it hadn’t been for the flames, which continuously licked their way closer to him and Joey. He felt Joey’s weight sag against him even more and knew that he was getting worse.

The smoke had gotten to Joey rather quickly from the rapidly filling room, which caused him to breathe it in and make him cough. His coughing had gotten worse and worse with barely any time for him to get a breath in before another round would start up again. The lack of oxygen made his legs give out on him. JC caught him to prevent him falling and getting burned by the steadily approaching fire.

That’d been a couple of minutes ago, and JC knew that he had to do something to stop the fire from spreading further so he could Joey help before it was too late. But he quickly realized there was nothing he could really do, especially since Joey was resting against him. If he moved, then Joey would surely fall into the fire. As the flames came another foot closer, JC reached around Joey to pull his legs in trying to make sure he didn’t get burned.

“Why don’t you leave him alone?” JC shouted. It was the only thing his panicked mind could think of. “Hurt me instead you bastard!”

A set of red eyes in the middle of ceiling became brighter and the fire moved even closer. JC was horrified to see that the fire was mere inches away from Joey, so he did the only he could. He threw his body in between the fire and Joey’s left side. It barely registered in his mind that he was about to touch the fire. Not that it would’ve made a difference even if he did since he didn’t seem to be affected by the fire. The proof was that he wasn’t weakened like Joey. However, when his left leg fell onto the flames, his entire body felt like he’d just jumped into a frozen lake. JC gasped at the intense cold feeling, but it disappeared along with the fire.

Not even a second later, the door flew open and JC looked up to see Chris rushing into the room with Justin and Lance right behind him. The three of them crowded around him and Joey, who was half lying against his chest. “Are you guys all right?” Lance asked in a rush.

“Joey needs help,” JC said quietly. “He breathed in a lot of smoke.”

“It’s all right. The fire department’s on their way,” Lance replied.

Chris glanced over at him. “Doesn’t really matter now, does it?” He looked over at JC. “What the hell happened?”

“Chris, leave it alone for now,” Lance said.

“Leave it alone?” Chris repeated and gestured to the room. “Look around. There’s not a trace of fire damage, yet we know there was one. Care to explain that?”

Joey hissed in pain as Justin gently ran a finger over his right arm, drawing their attention back to him. “Looks like he burned his arm,” Justin said.

JC momentarily blanked out at that. He’d failed; he hadn’t been able to keep Joey safe. Sure, he’d stopped the demon from killing him, but his arm was burned and he couldn’t seem to breathe properly. That was failure in JC’s book. It was even worse that he hadn’t been affected by the fire at all because at least then he wouldn’t be feeling as guilty. JC reasoned that it was because the demons weren’t able to hurt him. At least physically because constantly seeing his friends in danger and hurt was worse than anything the demons could do to him.

“JC!”

Justin’s voice snapped him out of his thoughts, and he slowly brought his eyes up to meet Justin’s. “Are you OK?” Justin asked.

JC nodded slowly. “I’m fine.”

“Are you sure? Chris is taking Joey to the hospital to get checked out. Maybe you should go with him,” Justin suggested.

“I’m fine,” JC said more firmly this time as his mind cleared.

“C’mon, Joe,” Lance said putting an arm around his shoulders like Chris who was on his other side. Together they pulled him to his feet and they left the room with Justin close behind them.

JC stared at the doorway they’d just walked through before he jumped into action. He knew that it was now or never. The ritual was going to be done tonight. To hell with escape plans. He was just going to leave and the others weren’t going to stop him. With that thought in mind, he grabbed his wallet and roughly shoved it in his back pocket before he rushed downstairs. His shoes were on in a matter of seconds and he was just putting on his coat when Justin and Lance walked back into the house.

“Where are you going?” Lance asked.

“Out,” JC said, shortly.

“Out where?” Lance pressed.

“For a drive.” JC paused. “I need to be alone.”

“I don’t think that’s such a good idea. Let me come with you,” Justin said.

JC shook his head. “No. I’ll be back soon.”

“JC, you can’t just leave. What if—”

“Something happens to me?” JC finished for Lance and laughed bitterly. “The demons can’t hurt me, so I think I’m safe.”

“JC,” Justin started.

“I’ll be back in a few hours,” JC said stiffly and walked out the door. Quickly he got into Lance’s car that he swiped the keys for and pulled out of the driveway. As he drove away from the house and towards Wal-Mart for the second time that week, JC knew there was no doubt in his mind that he was doing the right thing. By the end of tonight he would cease to exist and the guys won’t be in any more pain.