“What the hell’s wrong with you?” Joey asked. They were driving down the highway towards Walgreens to get the medical supplies they needed to fix up JC’s hand.

“Don’t start, Joey,” Lance warned.

“Don’t start?” Joey glanced over at him in the passenger seat. “You freaked on him in there.”

“And for a damn good reason too. Or did you forget that he was going to kill himself?”

“I’m not saying he doesn’t deserve a good ass kicking. Because he does. But you could’ve at least checked to see if he was OK before you went flying off the handle,” Joey said.

He was upset at what JC had tried to do too, but concern took precedence over anger. The most important thing was making sure that he wasn’t severely injured. It seemed that Lance forgot that and let his emotions take hold. Joey wanted to yell and freak out too, but he knew that there’d be time for that later.

“He’s fine,” Lance said.

“No, he’s not. His left hand is sliced open.”

“Which was entirely his fault,” Lance replied. “He’s the one who felt the need to cut his hand.”

Joey sighed. “That’s not the point.”

“Then what is?”

“You’re not supposed to jump on him right away.” Joey paused briefly. “You seem to be doing that a lot lately.”

Lance held up a hand. “I’ve already heard it from Justin.”

Joey glanced up in the rear view mirror to Justin in the backseat, but Justin was staring out of the window. He had talked to Justin the other day about Lance’s offer to go into JC’s head without permission and the many fights that had broken out between Lance and JC. They had shared how concerned they were about all of the fighting, and Justin seemed especially bugged by it. So it wasn’t surprising that Justin had confronted Lance about what they’d talked about.

“Well, clearly it didn’t sink in,” Joey muttered.

“And apparently telling JC that we’d figure something out didn’t either,” Lance replied.

“Stop making this about JC. We’re talking about you.”

“Well, we should be talking him. He’s the one that tried to summon the demon to kill him.” Lance paused and mumbled, “Not that it would’ve worked anyway.”

Joey took his eyes off the road for a second to frown at him. “What do you mean?”

Lance sighed. “The demons can’t hurt JC. Not yet, anyway. There are rules they have to follow, which means they have to wait until a certain thing happens before they can touch him.”

“How do you know?” Joey asked.

“Katrina told me.”

Joey looked at Lance surprised. “When did you talk to her?”

“Yesterday,” Lance said simply.

Joey saw Justin roll his eyes in the rear view mirror. It seemed that he was agitated about it. Not that Joey could blame him because he would’ve thought Lance would’ve told them if he’d gotten any new information right away.

“Did she say anything else?”

Lance glanced over at him. “She said that he has this mark that only supernatural things like her and demons can see. But she doesn’t think he had anything to do with it.”

“Why not?”

“Because his mark is faint and she says it can be passed on through other generations. The only problem is that there’s no way to know for sure if it started with his mom or not,” Lance explained, a hint of annoyance creeping up into his voice. It sounded like he’d already given this explanation and didn’t really want to do it again.

“But how do you know for sure that summoning the demon wouldn’t have worked? What if that was the thing they were waiting for?” Joey asked.

Lance hesitated for a minute before he said, “No, that doesn’t make sense. If they’ve been after JC ever since his mother died then how would they have know that he’d meet us? It wasn’t until a couple of months ago that they even started to hurt us, so they couldn’t have possibly known that it would bother JC enough to make him want to summon them.”

“Then what are they waiting for?”

Lance shook his head. “I don’t know, Joe.”

Joey glanced at him briefly. Lance seemed calmer now, and Joey could only hope that it’d stay that way. He was sure that a large part of the reason why he was calmer was because he was probably thinking about JC could die if they don’t find a way to stop the demons. But then again Justin probably was too. That was when he realized that Justin had been really quiet.

“Are you OK, J?” Joey asked, looking up into the rear view mirror.

Justin, who’d gone back to staring out the window, briefly locked eyes with him. “’m fine,” Justin mumbled.

Joey knew that wasn’t true, but didn’t want to push it. Justin would talk when he was ready. And he didn’t want to bring it up, especially now that they’d just pulled into the parking lot of Walgreens. They couldn’t be talking about anything that’d happened once they were inside in case someone overheard them. Joey killed the engine and sighed. Hopefully they could get in and get out with the necessary supplies without being recognized.

Chris sat next to JC on his bed with the towel still pressed against JC’s bleeding hand. He lifted the towel and searched for a side that wasn’t saturated with blood. When he found one he folded the towel over to that side and pressed down hard. Both to staunch the bleeding and out of anger.

JC grimaced in pain and Chris briefly looked up at him. “That’s what you get for cutting up your hand.”

After a moment of silence, Chris asked, “Are you all right?” He wanted to make sure JC didn’t need to see a doctor and that he wasn’t in too much pain or losing the feeling in his hand.

“I’m fine,” JC said softly.

Chris eyed him critically to see if he was lying. He had black circles under his eyes, which were starting to become a common thing again. His face looked a little pale, but it was probably from the very idea that he’d cut himself with a knife. Chris knew how queasy JC was when it came to stuff like that. But overall, he looked relatively fine.

“What the hell were you thinking?” Chris exploded. He’d been waiting to do this ever since Lance had announced what JC had planned. It hadn’t seemed appropriate until now. Before it had been chaotic with everyone speaking at once and their worry for JC’s wellbeing. Now, he could scold JC guilt free since he appeared to be all right.

“Let’s forget for a second that you were going to offer yourself up on a platter to the demons even though we’ve sworn to you that we’ll find a solution.” Chris shook his head. “Forget that. You were going to kill yourself.”

Chris glanced up at JC and wasn’t surprised to find that he was avoiding eye contact, choosing to stare at his comforter instead. But Chris continued, “I know you think you were doing this for us, but the only thing you would’ve done was left us a mess. There’s no way we would’ve been able to carry on without you and it probably would’ve torn us apart. Is that what you want?”

There was no response, but Chris saw JC’s shoulders hunch forward and his head lower out of the corner of his eye. He was almost finished. There were a few more things he needed to say and get across to JC.

“And I don’t know why the hell you had to cut your hand and I don’t want to know. But you’re never pulling something like this again. You hear me? It’s not happening so you might as well accept that we’re with you to the end.”

Silence fell over the room, leaving both of them to their thoughts. Chris didn’t feel as good as he thought he would after he was done yelling at JC. It wasn’t that he wanted to yell at JC, but he thought if he let out some of his anger it would help clear his mind so he could give focus on taking care of his friend. Instead, he was tense and had a headache. He figured it was probably from the stressful events of the day with the fire, taking Joey to the hospital, and now dealing with JC.

With a sigh Chris looked away from JC and let his eyes wander around the room until they caught something white laying on the floor. Chris reached out with his left hand to pick up the sheet of paper since his right was still applying pressure to JC’s wound. He read the note and looked up at JC when he’d finished.

“This was how you were going to leave us? A note?” he asked in a low voice.

Chris was done yelling. JC might deserve it, but he certainly didn’t respond well to it. They needed to talk about what happened, so Chris was trying to keep himself calm. Part of him was even more pissed at JC, but another part of him wasn’t surprised. It sounded like something JC would do.

“I didn’t have a choice,” JC said quietly, still refusing to look at him.

“Of course you did. You chose to lay down and die instead of keep on fighting,” Chris replied. “And that’s not you, Jace.”

JC finally met his gaze and Chris couldn’t help but notice how defeated he looked. “I couldn’t say good bye,” JC said as if he hadn’t heard what Chris had just said.

“So you left a note.” Chris paused. “Do you have any idea how pissed and upset we would’ve been to find you dead and the only thing you left behind was a note?”

“I was doing it for you.”

Chris sighed and rubbed the tense muscles in the back of his neck. “Look, C. I know in that whacked out mind of yours you thought you were doing the right thing. That we’d be better off without you.” He stared into JC’s eyes to make sure he got his point across. “You’re wrong.”

“But—”

“No.” Chris shook his head. “If we didn’t want you around, we wouldn’t be fighting so damn hard to keep you alive. I want you to promise me that you’ll never try something like this again.”

Chris was looking at JC expectantly when the pain in his head intensified, causing him to grip his aching head. After a minute the sharp pain dulled to a continuous throb that was more manageable. When Chris raised his head he was met with the worried gaze of JC.

“Chris?”

“Justin’s about to have a vision. You need to warn Lance,” Chris said, remembering what’d happened at the club last night after his headache had gotten worse.

JC nodded and for the second time that night, Chris saw just how Lance and JC’s connection caused them to retreat into themselves and stare unblinkingly at nothing. Twenty seconds later JC’s eyes refocused and landed on Chris’s. Worry was just radiating off of JC.

“Justin’s already passed out,” JC said.

“Shit.”

This wasn’t good. Chris had no doubt that Joey and Lance would be able to take care of Justin, but he was worried about other people. Were they still in the store? He hoped not because that would just open another can of worms. But even more upsetting was the fact that Justin was having another vision when he’d just had one the day before. The visions had been happening more and more frequently, which meant one thing. They were running out of time.

The three of them walked into Walgreens. A quick glance told them that there weren’t many people shopping at nine o’clock at night. They started walking towards the aisle with first aid supplies when a girl with a red vest came up to them.

“Can I get your autograph?” she asked, smiling at them. “Normally I wouldn’t ask, but it’s such a slow night.”

Lance was the first to recover and returned a smile. “Sure. We’d be happy to.”

“I just love you guys. Your music is amazing,” she gushed as Lance scribbled his name across the paper.

“Thank you,” Joey said, taking the notepad Lance offered for him to sign.

“I’m Ashley,” the girl told them as if she just forgot she hadn’t introduced herself.

Joey subtly elbowed Justin in the side to snap him out of his gaze. Immediately Justin took the proffered notepad with the pen and forced a smile at her. “It’s nice to meet you,” he said.

“What happened to your arm?” she asked, just now noticing the cast on Justin’s left arm.

Joey and Lance exchanged glances. This wasn’t something they’d thought about before, probably because they didn’t expect to run into fans while Justin had his cast. Justin wasn’t offering any explanation so Joey jumped in, “He was horsing around with Chris. You know how they get.”

“But how did you break it?” Ashley pressed, looking at Justin, who was signing his name.

“It’s kind of embarrassing,” Justin lied. “I’d rather not say.”

She smiled at him. “You can tell me. I won’t say anything.”

“I’m sorry, but we need to go,” Lance said, trying to wrap this up and avoid any more awkward questions.

“Thank you so much,” Ashley said as Justin handed the notepad and pen back to her. Thankfully she didn’t push the issue about Justin’s broken arm any further.

Lance nodded and smiled. “You’re welcome.”

“We’ll see you around,” Joey said, winking at her, causing her to blush and giggle.

Together they walked away from the fan. Lance glanced back over his shoulder to see that she had returned to her station at the check out counter. He mentally sighed with relief. That hadn’t been as bad as it could’ve been.

They made it to the aisle they were looking for without any more interruptions. Lance spotted the gauze at the end of the aisle. “I’ll get the gauze,” he volunteered.

Lance walked to the other end and grabbed a package of gauze without really looking. It was all pretty much the same. He walked back down to where Joey and Justin were to find that Joey was holding two different brands of peroxide in his hand.

“Which one?’ Joey asked, turning around to face Lance.

Lance glanced over at Justin to see if he had an opinion, but Justin was just standing there staring at the floor. Probably still upset about what’d happened. It was understandable, especially since Justin was so close to JC.

Knowing Justin wasn’t going to offer an opinion Lance turned his attention back to Joey, who was waiting for an answer and shrugged. “It doesn’t really matter, does it?”

“I don’t know. I mean, there has to be some difference. Why else would they price them differently?”

“The brand names probably,” Lance said.

“Well, do you recognize one?” Joey asked.

Lance rolled his eyes. “I don’t buy peroxide that often.”

“Clearly or else we wouldn’t be here,” Joey muttered.

“Just pick one, Joey,” Lance said, annoyed.

“Guys,” Justin moaned softly.

They turned around just in time to see Justin stumble before his eyes rolled to the back of his head and his body pitched forward. Lance barely managed to catch him before he could crack his head off the linoleum. Before he could think about what he and Joey were going to do, he got a message from JC.

Lance rolled his eyes and scoffed. “Thanks for the warning,” he returned sarcastically.

“What are we going to do?” Joey hissed, bringing Lance back to the matter at hand and breaking the connection with JC.

Lance looked around and was relieved to see the aisle was still empty. “Well, it doesn’t look like anyone saw.”

“Yeah, but we have to get him out of here,” Joey said.

Lance nodded and stood up from his crouched position. “I’ll distract the cashier and you carry Justin out.”

“No,” Joey objected, shaking his head. “You suck at distractions.”

“Then you do it and I’ll carry Justin to the car,” Lance said.

Joey snorted in disbelief. “You’re not strong enough to carry him.”

“Fine.” Lance sighed. “Get Justin to the car. I’ll pay for the stuff and meet you out there.”

Joey nodded and bent down. He placed one arm under Justin’s shoulder and the other one under his legs before he slowly lifted him off the cold floor. Lance exchanged a concerned look with Joey before he led the way to the front of the store. Immediately he walked up to the cashier in hopes of catching her attention, so she wouldn’t notice Justin.

“Hello again,” Lance said, trying to smile at her, but her attention was on Joey carrying Justin out of the doors they’d entered less than a half hour ago.

“What’s wrong with Justin?” Ashley asked.

Lance cursed inwardly. “Oh…he’s just…not feeling well.”

“Is he going to be OK?” She frowned as she rung up his purchase. “What’s this for?”

“He’ll be just fine. Probably just the flu or something,” Lance said, trying to reassure her and not sound extremely rude at the same time. It was sweet that the fans cared so much, but at times like this it was very inconvenient.

“Well, I hope he feels better,” she replied as she handed him his change and a bag that now held the gauze and peroxide.

“We appreciate your concern and I’ll be sure to pass along your well wishes to Justin.” Lance forced a broader smile. “It was nice meeting you.”

He ducked out of the store before she could say anything else. Quickly he walked across the parking lot to where they parked the car and jumped in, tossing the bag onto the floor at his feet. Lance turned around in his seat to check on Justin and was satisfied that he looked all right sprawled out in the backseat. The car moved forward as Joey threw it into drive.

Now that he was out of the store he could let his thoughts wander to what’d happened. It came on pretty suddenly, but then again, his visions usually did. Lance sat up a little straighter when he remembered that JC had sent him a warning and was probably worrying about Justin. He needed to at least let him and Chris know that they were on their way back.

“We’re on our way home,” Lance said.

“Are you OK?” Joey asked, glancing over at him. “You look tense.”

“Gee, I wonder why,” Lance said sarcastically. He ran a hand over his face. “Sorry, Joe. It’s just…we’re so screwed.”

“She see?” Joey asked.

Lance nodded. “And she was asking me all these questions.” He sighed again. “It’s going to be all over the place by tomorrow.”

“Maybe she won’t tell,” Joey suggested, hopefully.

“I don’t know what world you’ve been living in, but when people see a celebrity pass out they don’t keep quiet. They tell anyone and everyone,” Lance said.

“Let’s not jump the gun just yet,” Joey replied. “We’ll wait and see what happens.”

“All right,” Lance agreed grudgingly. He knew what was going to happen. It would be all over the news before tomorrow was over. There wasn’t a doubt in his mind.

A minute passed in silence before Joey said, “Stop it.”

“Stop what?” Lance asked.

“Thinking about it. It’s going to get you all riled up.”

“So?”

Joey took his eyes off the road for a second to look at him. “I don’t want you getting all on JC’s case when we get back.”

“Why not? He deserves it,” Lance said.

“Because we already have enough to deal with without you adding a fight to it,” Joey replied.

Lance crossed his arms and gave in, “Fine.”

Five minutes later they pulled into the driveway. Immediately Lance jumped out of the car and went around to the other side to help Joey. Together they managed to get Justin in Joey’s arms. Lance ran ahead of them to unlock the door and hold it open for them.

Once they were inside, they headed straight for the stairs to put Justin to bed. Lance led the way to make sure it was clear. They passed JC’s room and out of the corner of his eye Lance saw JC and Chris start to rise off the bed.

“Stay put,” Joey instructed with a grunt as he shifted Justin’s weight in his arms. “We’ll be back in a minute to explain everything.”

They reached Justin’s room and Lance pulled back the covers. Joey gently lowered Justin to the bed and covered him with the blankets. He glanced up at Lance who was staring at Justin with a frown on his face.

“Stay with Justin.”

Lance looked up. “Why?”

“Because I don’t trust you with JC just yet. And Justin should have someone here when he wakes up,” Joey said, grabbing the bag out of Lance’s hand that he’d brought in with him.

For a moment it looked like Lance might argue, but instead he nodded and sat on the edge of the bed at Justin’s feet. Joey glanced at them briefly before he walked into the hall and down to JC’s room. As soon as he walked in, he was met with worried gazes from both Chris and JC.

“How’s Justin?” JC asked.

“He’s…still out,” Joey said, taking JC’s hand into his and nodding at Chris to remove his hand. “Lance is sitting with him.”

“What happened?” Chris asked. Joey removed the towel and winced at the look of the gash across JC’s palm. He reached into the bag and pulled out the bottle of peroxide.

“We were trying to decide what peroxide to get when Justin stumbled a bit and then just…passed out,” Joey said, dumping some of the peroxide onto JC’s hand. JC hissed in pain and tried to pull his hand away, but Joey held it firmly. He leaned forward and gently blew on it to alleviate the burning sensation.

“Did anyone see it?”

Joey nodded in response to Chris’s question as he tried to wipe away the blood. “There was this chick that worked there and came up to us and asked for our autograph as soon as we walked in the door. Lance said she saw me carrying Justin out and was asking a ton of questions.”

“That doesn’t sound too bad,” Chris said.

JC winced slightly as Joey wrapped the white gauze around his hand. “She’s going to tell. It’s going to spread like wild fire,” JC said.

“That’s what Lance was saying, but I told him we should wait and see. It might not work out like that,” Joey said.

Before JC could protest, Lance came walking into the room. Lance glanced at each of them briefly before he said, “Justin woke up.”

“How is he?” Chris asked.

Lance shrugged. “Tired. He went right back to sleep.”

“Did he say anything?” Joey asked, throwing the bloody towel in the bag and standing up.

“Yeah.” Lance looked at JC and Chris. “He said that you two get into a car accident. So neither one of you can leave this house.”

“That sounds easy enough,” Chris said.

“I mean it, Chris. You’re not allowed to drive. And JC,” Lance glanced over at JC, “You’re not allowed to be a passenger.”

“We got you,” Chris assured. “You know, there’s no way we can screw this up. I mean, the other stuff couldn’t be avoided, but not leaving the house?” Chris waved a hand in the air. “Piece of cake.”

“Let’s hope it stays that way,” Joey said before he let out a yawn.

“I’m worried about Justin,” Lance said, leaning against the dresser. “He’s passed out longer and longer with each vision he has.”

“How long was he out this time?” Chris asked.

Lance glanced down at his watch. “Twenty-nine minutes.”

Joey looked at him in surprise. “You counted?”

“Yeah.” Lance nodded. “I’m afraid this could end up being something serious. I mean, passing out all the time can’t be good for him.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” JC muttered, shaking his head.

Lance narrowed his eyes at him. “Got something you want to say?”

“You bring this up every time Justin has a vision,” JC said, meeting Lance’s eyes.

“Not every time,” Lance replied.

“Well, it feels like it,” JC mumbled.

Lance opened his mouth to reply, but Joey stepped in. “What do you want us to do?” he asked, his attention focused on Lance.

“Take him to the hospital. Get tests run. Something.”

“And tell them what? That he’s passing out all the time? Because we know there’s a reason behind it that doctors won’t understand,” JC said.

“Well, we have to do something. We can’t just keep assuming that he’s going to be fine,” Lance replied.

“So we should make him miserable and freak him out by running a bunch of tests?” JC shot back, glaring at Lance.

“Guys.” Joey stepped forward with his right hand in the air, signaling them to stop. They didn’t need JC and Lance fighting right now. “We all just need to calm down. There isn’t really anything we can do right now.”

Lance sighed. “So what do we do?”

“We keep an eye on him for now. If he gets worse then we’ll figure out something,” Chris said.

“But it’s already gotten worse. This is the second day in a row that he’s had a vision,” Lance pointed out.

It was Joey’s turn to sigh. “So far he’s woken up on his own after each of them, so I think he’s all right. But right now all we can do is take care of him.”

There wasn’t any disagreement and the subject was dropped. A heavy silence fell over the room until it was broken by Joey yawning.

“Why don’t you go to bed, Joe?” Lance suggested, seeing the movement. “You’ve had a long day.”

Joey eyed them wearily. He didn’t really want to leave both of them alone with JC without anyone to act as a buffer and step in if need be. “I don’t know…”

“We’ll be fine,” Chris said. “Get some sleep. You look like crap.”

“Gee, thanks,” Joey replied sarcastically before he sighed. “All right, but yell if you need something.”

Chris and Lance nodded and watched as Joey left the room. Once he was gone, Chris turned to Lance. “You should get some sleep too. I can watch over Jace.”

“That’s not necessary,” JC said, overhearing them. Chris glared at him and JC sighed.

“What about you?” Lance asked.

“I’m cool,” Chris said. “Besides, there’s no point in both of us being awake.”

Lance nodded. “But I’m going to come relieve you in a few hours.”

“OK.” Chris glanced over at JC as he pulled up a chair once Lance had left the room. “You should get some sleep too.”

“Chris—” JC tried to protest.

Chris shook his head. “You won’t be spending any more time alone. And,” Chris added when he saw JC open his mouth, “If you have a problem with that, then you shouldn’t have tried to kill yourself.”

JC sighed again, but slid underneath his covers. Chris watched as he struggled to fight sleep, but eventually his body gave in. He wasn’t surprised. His hand had to hurt like a bitch and from what Lance had told them earlier that day when they planned on snooping through JC’s stuff, he hadn’t gotten a lot of sleep the night before either.

Chris rubbed the back of his neck as he thought about everything that’d happened since then. The fire, JC, and now Justin having a vision. About him and JC getting into a car accident. It made him anxious to think about it all because everything seemed to be happening at a quicker pace than before. He wondered if the demons were behind that. It would make sense because it would be too late for Chris and the guys to save JC. Hopefully it wouldn’t happen that way.