Joey walked into the living room with Justin just as Lance sat JC on the end of the couch closest to the door. He took a few steps before heavily sitting on the loveseat that was angled perpendicular to the couch that JC was on. Glancing over at JC, he frowned at his friend. It was a little after eleven o’clock, which meant that nearly twenty-four hours had passed since the accident when JC first fell into shock. In a couple more hours, they might have to call one of the specialists on the list the doctor had given them.
Hopefully it wouldn’t come to that, but as much as he didn’t want to admit it, Joey didn’t think it was very probable. Lance shifted on the couch before he fell against the cushions with a sigh. Judging by Lance’s grim expression, Joey wasn’t the only one feeling that way. Justin’s worry about JC staying like this forever from yesterday came to him, and he couldn’t help but reciprocate that feeling.
None of it made any sense. According to the doctor, JC should have come out of it now that Chris was better, but so far there hadn’t been anything. Why was that? Was JC really that far gone that he wasn’t able to bring himself back? Joey hoped not because that would certainly complicate things. Even more so than they already were.
Justin yawned from the other end of the couch, resting his head against his hand that was propped up on the arm. The small exhale of air cut through the silence that enveloped the living room, but only for a second, allowing everything to become still and quiet once again. It was so quiet that Joey could hear Chris in the hall talking on the phone to his mom. He’d been on the phone with her ever since they’d left the hospital nearly forty-five minutes ago, trying to convince her not to fly out to see him. And from the sounds of it, he was really having a rough time with it.
Joey didn’t blame Bev though because his mother would’ve pitched a fit if something like that had happened to him, demanding that she see her son. It seemed that no matter what the situation, mothers would always worry about their children. Though, she was definitely within her rights as his mother considering he’d been in a coma.
How Chris even came out of it was a mystery to Joey. He’d just been sitting with Chris and talking to him about how much they needed him, only to have him wake up just minutes after that. It’d nearly shocked him to his core hearing Chris call out for them after he’d collapsed. There was nothing that Joey could use to describe what’d happened to either of them.
His collapse had been almost as surprising as Chris waking up because he hadn’t seen it coming at all. He’d just stood up to take the coffee cup out of Lance’s hand when his legs gave out on him. At the time he was too concerned with making sure Chris was all right to consider what’d happened. But now that Joey stopped to think about it, he had no idea. It couldn’t have been too serious though because the guys hadn’t acted too worried when they woke him up earlier that morning to leave the hospital, and he’d felt better after getting some sleep. The important thing was that Chris was better and he wasn’t going to argue with that.
As if Chris knew that Joey was thinking about him, he stepped into the room, pocketing his phone in the process. No one made a move to greet him or even acknowledge his presence. Joey felt eyes on him and briefly met Chris’s gaze before Chris looked away and glanced around the room at the others.
Chris turned and covered the couple of feet of carpet so he stood directly in front of JC. He stood there for nearly half a minute before he brought his left arm up and slapped JC across the face. The action caused a muscle in JC’s cheek to twitch in a half wince.
“Chris!” Joey cried, jumping to his feet at the same time as Justin and Lance.
Chris didn’t say anything, but raised his arm again only to have Lance forcefully grab hold of it. With a furious expression on his face, Lance dragged Chris the few feet it took to be in the hallway just between the kitchen and living room. Joey followed with Justin wanting to know what caused Chris to do such a thing because he wasn’t typically someone to hit people for no good reason.
“What the hell’s wrong with you?” Lance demanded angrily.
“Nothing.” Chris yanked his arm out of Lance’s grip. “I was trying to snap him out of it.”
Lance crossed his arms. “By slapping him?”
“It got a reaction, didn’t it?” Chris replied, knowingly.
“So did touching him and saying his name last night,” Justin pointed out. Joey was kind of surprised to hear that they had tried to pull JC out of his shocked state, and that it’d worked to some extent. It sounded like they’d tried to something while he was sleeping after all.
“Which was like twelve hours ago. In a couple of hours, it’ll have been twenty-four hours, and you know that we can’t call a specialist. It wouldn’t do anything. Hell, it’d probably make him worse. Not to mention he needs to take his medicine, which is damn near impossible when he’s practically catatonic. It’s up to us to snap him out of it,” Chris said.
“There’s got to be a better way than hitting him though,” Joey replied.
“Well, if any of you have a better idea, I’d be happy to hear it,” Chris said. “But we’ve got to do something.”
There was a pause before Lance said, “We should leave him be.”
Chris rolled his eyes. “’Cause that’s really been working in our favor so far.”
“He’ll come out of this. Like you said, he’s reacted, which means he’s still in there and probably fighting for control again,” Lance said.
“So what do we do then?” Justin asked.
“We need to come up with a plan for getting rid of the demons because you know that when JC comes out of this he’ll be blaming himself even more for what’s happened and want to end it the quickest way possible. So it would be useful if we were a step ahead of him and at least had a plan in the works,” Lance suggested.
Joey nodded. He agreed with Chris that they should do something to help JC, but Lance did have a point. Keeping the demons from killing JC had been their main concern until they got sidetracked by the car accident. But now was time to focus again. It was another way to help JC. And if Lance believed that JC would come out of it on his own, then Joey was going to trust him.
“Fine,” Chris relented and headed for the kitchen. Joey watched him go, knowing that Chris just wanted JC back to normal. But sometimes his intentions weren’t the best even though he meant well. He could relate to wanting to do something to help though and hoped that coming up with a plan would make Chris feel like he was accomplishing something.
“All right,” Lance began once the four of them were sitting around the kitchen table. He glanced at each of them. “We should probably start with what the demons are waiting for. If we can figure that out, it’ll be a lot easier to come up with a workable plan.”
“How do we know they’re waiting for something?” Chris asked.
“Lance talked to Katrina a couple days ago,” Justin said.
Chris turned his head to the left towards the head of the table where Lance was sitting. “You did.”
“Yeah.” Lance sighed before glancing at Justin and Joey. “Will one of you tell him? I’ve already explained it twice.”
“The demons have certain rules they have to follow before they can kill someone. Typically they target people who have a supernatural mark,” Joey explained, trying to remember everything that Lance had told him when he’d first found out.
Chris frowned. “And JC has this mark then?”
“Yeah.” Joey nodded. “And it’s pretty probable that he got it from his mom since it most likely started with her.”
“Is there any way that something related to her is what they’re waiting for?” Chris asked.
Lance tilted his head. “Like what?”
“I don’t know. Maybe something that happened before she died that could happen again,” Chris suggested.
“I guess it’s possible, but there’s no way we’d be able to find that out,” Lance said.
There was a slight pause before Justin said, “What about the cabin?”
“What about it?” Joey asked.
“Well, the ghost had said the cabin was the way to end it. I know we were weary about trusting it, but it was right about JC,” Justin said.
“So you think we have to go back to the cabin to get rid of the demons?” Chris asked.
Justin shrugged and nodded. “It’s the best thing we have to go on right now.”
“All right.” Lance sighed. “Let’s say we do go to the cabin. We can’t just go without some way to kill the demons or at least slow them down.”
“How are we supposed to do that when we don’t even know how JC’s mom died?” Joey asked.
“Well, from what we found at the library it sounded like she just kind of dropped dead,” Lance said.
“There has to be something we’re missing. I mean, with how weird her death was it has to give us some kind of clue.” Justin glanced around the table. “Right?”
Chris sighed and rubbed at his chin. “It’s not that I don’t agree with you, but there’s no way we’ll ever really know what happened. You guys even said the cops couldn’t find anything.”
“The cops weren’t exactly looking for demon involvement though,” Joey pointed out.
“Yeah, but any evidence that might’ve been there is long gone. As cheesy as it sounds, she died with the truth,” Chris said.
Lance nodded. “You’re right. We’re not going to find anything out from the time after her death, but maybe there’s something we missed from before she died.”
“No way.” Joey shook his head. “You and Justin were at that library for hours and barely managed to find out what you did. There’s no way you could’ve missed something.”
“Maybe it’s worth checking again. We’re going to have to do more research anyway to find a way to stop the demons,” Lance said.
Chris raised an eyebrow. “You really expect to find something like that in a book?”
“It wouldn’t hurt to look. There could be some protection spells or rituals that we could do when we get to the cabin,” Lance said.
“Guys,” Justin interrupted with a slight waver in his voice. Immediately their attention swung over to him. “Where’s JC?”
Joey turned to look into the living room and sure enough, it was empty.
JC watched as Lance dragged Chris away from him with Justin and Joey following them out into the hall. There was some residual stinging in his cheek from when Chris’s hand had connected with his face. He couldn’t believe that Chris had slapped him, but he knew that it had to have come from desperation.
It had to have been a long time since he’d retreated into his mind. JC remembered when Justin’s contact with him had managed to break through the haze. He’d been able to see his surroundings, but that was the extent of his awareness. That was why he hadn’t answered Justin when he talked to him.
But that felt like so long ago. JC had no idea how long it’d been since he first got the news about Chris being in a coma and holed himself up in his mind. Though, if his exhausted body was any indicator, it was probably at least twelve hours. Which meant that Chris’s actions were completely understandable. There was no doubt in JC’s mind that the guys had to be worried.
It killed him to think that they were obsessing over him because he hated making them worry. That was why he’d always made it his job, so they could just relax without stressing about everything. JC wanted to come around, but it was hard. His mind felt cloudy and heavy. He wished there was some way to speed up the process, but knew he’d just have to let it run its course.
“Demons…rules…kill.”
JC slightly titled his head as he heard the voice. It sounded like Joey, but he couldn’t be sure because it felt like he was underwater. He wasn’t surprised that he was growing more aware, but he pushed to continue. If the guys were talking about the demons, he wanted to know exactly what was being said.
“The cabin?”
His forehead wrinkled in confusion. JC had no idea why they would be talking about the cabin, but there had to be some reason. He tried to clear the fog out of his mind, so he could focus easier.
“You think…have to go back…to cabin…get rid of demons?”
JC’s eyes widened. They thought they had to go back to the cabin to get rid of the demons? It still didn’t make a whole lot of sense to him. Though, he supposed it was a possibility since they wouldn’t even be in this situation if it hadn’t been for them taking a vacation at that cabin over a year ago. As he worked his mind furiously trying to keep up with their conversation, his mind continued to focus and dissipate the haze that had settled there.
“How are we supposed to do that when we don’t even know how JC’s mom died?” Joey asked.
JC was so confused and surprised at the seemingly randomness of the question that it barely registered that he’d heard it as good as he had before. What were they doing talking about his mom and saying that she was dead? The last time he talked to his mom she was expecting a visit from Heather. That led him to wonder if the guys knew something he didn’t, but he quickly dismissed that thought. His mom was fine.
“Well, from what we found at the library it sounded like she just kind of dropped dead,” Lance said.
The library? When had they gone to the library? And what did his mom have to do with the demons? JC felt his breath catch in his throat as he realized they had to be referring to his birth mother. He’d been too young to really remember her when he’d been adopted, so he hadn’t known anything about her or his birth father. Wanting to know exactly what the guys had found, he focused his thoughts on Lance and started with trying to pull up memories of him researching.
JC saw Lance and Justin in the library searching databases about his birth mom and printing out news articles they’d found. He also saw flashes of different memories where the guys researched and discussed his birth parents. Then there was an image of Lance on his cell phone conning his mom into sending his confidential documents, most importantly his birth certificate, to Lance’s study.
As JC watched these memories and took in all of the information that the guys had been keeping from him, he felt his anger spread throughout his body. Finally he pulled out of Lance’s head, not believing that they’d gone behind his back like that. If he hadn’t witnessed it through Lance’s memories, he wouldn’t have believed it because they normally always respected each other’s privacy. And to hear that they researched his birth parents, something he knew pretty much nothing about, had him fuming with anger.
Suddenly he stood up with a purpose and swiftly but silently strode down the hall and into Lance’s study. Immediately he began to open drawers, searching for the papers that Lance had printed out about his birth parents. He wanted to see it for himself. There was nothing in the desk drawers, but JC found what he was looking for in the third drawer of the filing cabinet at the bottom.
JC scanned the articles, reading about his mother being a well-known classical musician up until her sudden death. There wasn’t nearly as much on his father, but reading about how he tragically died in a car accident was more than enough. It was only after he’d read through the articles that he’d noticed the notes and questions that Lance had made in the margins. That just fueled his anger even more.
It was bad enough that they went behind his back to research his parents, but they purposely kept him out of the loop. Taking notes showed just how long they’ve known about it, and that they had never had any intentions of telling him. JC gripped the papers so tightly that the edges crinkled. What they did was inexcusable and they were about to be very sorry that they kept this from him.
“He couldn’t have gone far,” Lance said, rising from his chair. Almost simultaneously the other three rose to their feet and turned to follow Lance into the living room. They hadn’t taken more than two steps when they heard a voice.
“Looking for someone?”
Instinctively they jumped at the sudden appearance of the voice in the quiet kitchen that almost seemed to reverberate off the walls. They pivoted on the spot and saw JC leaning in the doorway that led to the dining room with his arms crossed tightly against his chest and his left foot crossed over his right. While his posture looked relaxed and casual, his face was the exact opposite. His expression was stone cold, almost emotionless except for the occasional tick in his jaw, and his eyes were so icy that they were a brilliant shade of blue.
However, Justin didn’t really notice because of his relief at seeing JC walking, talking, and looking relatively normal. He’d been so afraid that JC wouldn’t come out of it, despite the small amount of progress that they’d made in getting him to react. Justin stepped forward to hug his friend because the past twenty-four hours had been such an ordeal that it was a huge weight off his shoulders to know that it was finally over.
Justin sighed and could practically feel all of the stress about JC leave his body. He smiled and said, “JC.”
When Justin was within a foot of JC, he reached out an arm to grab onto JC’s shoulder and pull him into a hug. But that gesture wasn’t received well because JC took a step back out of Justin’s reach, his eyes narrowing in anger. The smile on Justin’s face slipped into a wince almost as if JC had hit him or said some biting barb. Justin barely registered that he’d taken a step backwards and lowered his eyes to the floor. He couldn’t look at the angry man that seemed to have replaced his levelheaded, easygoing friend.
“What the hell’s your problem?” Lance asked, glaring at JC. It was a little surprising to see Lance jump on JC right away, but Justin knew that he probably hadn’t liked the way that JC just treated him.
Justin dared to take the briefest glimpse of JC out of the corner of his eye, waiting to see what his reaction would be. He’d expected a fight to immediately break out, but there was nothing. JC hadn’t even so much as flinched at Lance’s accusation.
“What’s a matter, Jace?” Joey asked, calmly. No doubt he was most likely hoping that being calm would have a better effect on getting JC to talk to them because clearly something was up. JC didn’t get this angry for no reason.
But again there was no response. JC just continued to stare at them icily as he leaned casually inside the doorway. Justin could see Chris’s leg bouncing with impatience as they waited for an answer. Finally after almost another fifteen seconds had passed, Chris lashed out.
“Would you freaking say something?” Chris snapped.
“I can’t believe you guys,” JC finally said, his voice dripping with barely controlled anger and a hint of disbelief. He pushed himself off the doorjamb and took a step, so that he was actually standing in the kitchen instead of in the doorway.
Justin pulled his head up to look at JC, trying to gauge what they could’ve possibly done to put JC in such a state. It wasn’t often that anger this intense arose in JC, and when it did, typically it wasn’t directed at them. Justin glanced over at the other three, worriedly.
“What?” Joey asked.
In the blink of an eye, JC had moved so that he was standing in front of the table and unfolded his arms before slamming the stack of papers that he’d had in his hands forcefully against the table. “Is there something you want to tell me?” he asked.
The loud noise made Justin jump for the second time that evening before his eyes traveled down to the papers. A familiar article title caught his eye along with Lance’s handwriting, and Justin swallowed so hard that he felt like he had a golf ball lodged in his throat. He slowly looked up at each of the guys and could tell that they were as stunned as he was.
However, Lance’s expression didn’t stay that way for long. His shock quickly changed over to anger. It was his turn to narrow his eyes and cross his arms over his chest. “What the hell were you doing going through my stuff?”
“Finding out the truth since clearly I can’t trust my friends to tell me themselves,” JC said.
“You had no right to—”
“To find out about my birth parents? I know nothing about them. You guys find out, but decide not to tell me. I mean, did it ever cross your mind that I might want to know what happened to them?”
“We weren’t sure if you knew anything about them or not, but it wasn’t like we could ask you,” Lance replied.
JC glared at him. “So you drag my mom into it and make her do your dirty work for you?”
Lance frowned at him in confusion. “Why are you just bringing this up now?”
“What are you talking about? I just found out like five minutes ago,” JC said.
“How?” Lance demanded.
JC smirked at him. “You might want to learn how to block your mind better.”
Lance’s jaw dropped. “You’re such a hypocrite! You got all pissed at me when I invaded your privacy, but then you turn around and do the exact same thing to me?”
“It’s not my fault that you can’t block me worth a shit,” JC replied, his smirk growing.
“Because I don’t know how!” Lance snapped. “I don’t even know how you figured it out!”
“Well, it’s a lot easier when someone,” JC glared at him, “won’t ever leave you the hell alone constantly asking if you’re OK or want to talk.”
“So you’re pissed that I care about you?”
“I’m pissed because I can’t ever have two seconds to myself! I get enough of you guys constantly riding me about every little thing without you doing it in my head too!”
“What about the promise you made that you wouldn’t block me as much?” Lance asked.
JC pointed an accusing finger at him. “I never said that. You must’ve not been listening.”
“Oh, I’m sorry,” Lance said sarcastically. “I thought I could trust my friend to stop keeping secrets from us, especially with the track record you have of ending up sick.”
“Who’s being a hypocrite now? I shouldn’t have had to go digging into your mind to find out what the hell you’ve been keeping from me over the past week!” JC shot back.
“We didn’t have a choice,” Chris said, loudly as he stepped forward. He had just been standing there along with Justin and Joey watching Lance and JC go at it. Justin wanted to say something to stop the fight, but he was afraid of JC right now. It was scary to see him so pissed and direct it at someone who was close to him. “You didn’t want any part of the whole researching a way out.”
JC crossed his arms over his chest again and turned his glare on Chris. “That didn’t give you the right to go behind my back.”
“We were just trying to help,” Joey said.
“Well, it doesn’t exactly qualify as help if the person you’re doing it for refuses it,” JC replied.
Chris rolled his eyes. “What did you expect us to do? We’re not going to let you go without a fight.”
“I expect you to tell me the truth!” JC snapped before he paused. “And by the way, did you ever stop to think that maybe I’m not the only one who needs your help?”
Joey frowned. “What do you mean?”
“You’re so focused on saving me that you blow Justin off every time he wants to talk.”
“That’s not true,” Lance denied.
“Well, that’s what he told me,” JC said.
Immediately three pairs of eyes swung to meet Justin’s. “Is that true, Justin?” Chris asked.
“That’s…not exactly what I said,” Justin said, averting his eyes to look down at his feet as he toed the tile.
Chris looked at him expectantly. “Then what exactly?”
“Sometimes it’s just nice to get some stuff off my chest,” Justin said.
“You can talk to us,” Joey replied. “We listen to you.”
“If that’s true then why did you make him lie to me?” JC asked.
Lance frowned at him. “What are you talking about?”
“He came to me wanting to talk about his visions. Told me how he’s been seeing them through my eyes. Apparently he’d wanted to for a while, but you guys wouldn’t let him,” JC said.
“Justin!” Chris hissed. “You weren’t supposed to say anything.”
“I’m sorry,” Justin apologized meekly.
“Don’t get mad at him. He didn’t do anything wrong,” JC replied. “And, you know, this is the second time that you’ve done this to him.”
“Done what to him?” Lance asked.
“Ignore him! Back when he was having nightmares you didn’t even realize it. I had to tell you guys what was going on,” JC said.
“Because we were looking out for you!”
JC took a step forward. “Exactly! You’re never concerned about anyone but me. Don’t you realize what Justin’s going through? How scared he is?”
“Oh and you do?” Lance replied snidely.
“Yes because unlike you, I actually listen when he wants to talk. I don’t force him to lie.”
“But we had an agreement,” Lance said, frowning at Justin. “It was part of the plan.”
“You mean the one meant to keep me in the dark? I saw all those secret meetings you guys had.” JC narrowed his eyes. “That’s the real reason you drugged me, isn’t it? To get me out of the way?”
“No!” Lance protested loudly. “I did it because you weren’t sleeping.”
“You mean that’s the excuse you’ve been going with.”
Lance rolled his eyes. “It’s not an excuse! It’s the truth!”
“So you’re saying that it was just coincidence that I was conveniently knocked out for hours allowing you guys to research my birth parents?”
“What the hell does it matter why I drugged you?” Lance fired back.
“I want to know what type of person I’m dealing with,” JC said.
“The type who’s got a plan to save your life!” Lance snapped.
JC scoffed. “Great plan.”
Chris glared at him. “Like you had a better one.”
“At least mine had a definite way to end it.”
“Yeah.” Chris nodded. “By killing yourself.”
“And where have you guys gotten besides looking up my family history?” JC glanced at each of them. “Nowhere.”
Lance shook his head. “You’re a selfish bastard.”
Joey and Justin’s eyes widened in surprise. “Lance…” Joey started.
“We’ve been busting our asses researching a way to make sure you live through this and you are just so ready to give up and kill yourself,” Lance continued as if he hadn’t heard him.
“If anyone’s selfish, it’s you guys. You want it all to be over, but when I come up with a way to end it, you won’t let me go through with it.”
“Because it’s ludicrous to kill yourself for no reason!” Chris exclaimed.
“You guys keep saying how crazy I am for trying to summon the demon, but put yourself in my shoes. You know that you’d sacrifice yourself in order to save the rest of us,” JC said.
“Only as a last resort. We wouldn’t do it prematurely just because we aren’t patient enough to wait for a working plan,” Lance replied.
“Excuse me for not wanting to watch my friends get hurt continuously because a bunch of demons are after me! If you would’ve let me finish the ritual, it would all be over!”
“So would your life!” Lance yelled.
“Well, maybe that’s what I want!” JC snapped.
Lance’s eyes narrowed. “You know what? Maybe you should.”
JC frowned in confusion. “What?”
“If you want to off yourself so bad, then who the hell are we to stop you? Clearly you’re going to fight this every step of the way, so maybe you should kill yourself! It certainly would be a lot easier to deal with!” Lance yelled, taking a step closer to JC.
“Lance!” Joey threw himself in between Lance and JC.
Chris grabbed onto Lance’s arm and pulled him away from JC. Lance shrugged his hand off, but moved forward as Chris forcefully pushed him towards the sliding glass door. The two of them walked outside with Joey right behind them.
Once they were gone Justin immediately turned his attention to JC who was standing with hunched shoulders and a dejected expression that was still mingled with some shock. What Lance said had been shocking because of the harshness, but Justin knew that there was no possible way that Lance could’ve meant it. But by looking at JC, it was clear that he didn’t feel the same way.
“He didn’t mean it, JC. You know he didn’t mean it. You could even check if you wanted to. He’s probably thinking about what an awful thing that was to say to you. There’s no way he said that intentionally,” Justin rambled.
“There has to be at least some truth to it,” JC said quietly, slowly lowering himself into a chair. “Otherwise he wouldn’t have said it.”
“If he really believed that and wanted you to kill yourself, then why would he go to such lengths to research a way out? He’s been the one really pushing the whole research thing. That’s not something he would do if he didn’t care,” Justin said.
JC sighed and shook his head. “He’s right.”
“No.” Justin took a few steps forward so he was standing directly in front of JC. He put a hand on his shoulder, the contact forcing JC to look up at him. “He’s not right because he didn’t even mean to say it. You’re not leaving anyway. You promised me that you’d stay and you never break a promise.”
“Justin…”
Justin really looked at JC and wasn’t surprised at what he saw. JC looked weary and exhaustion was prominent in his slumped form. There was pain in his eyes that Justin knew wouldn’t go away on its own because it was the kind that cut deep and lived deep inside of JC since he refused to share it with anyone. He looked so defeated and Justin knew that he had to convince him that everything would get better.
“JC,” Justin sighed and sat down in a chair facing him, “I know that things haven’t gone our way lately, but you have to believe that we’ll make it out of this all right.”
“Why?” JC asked.
“Because we’ve come out of every attack alive. That’s got to say something, right?” Justin saw JC’s skepticism and continued, “I didn’t believe it at first either. When we first heard about Chris being in a coma I thought that was it. There was no way he was going to pull through. But he did. So you gotta believe that we’re going to make it out of this too.”
“I don’t want to lose you guys,” JC said quietly, his eyes in his lap as he picked at the hole in his jeans at the knee, making it bigger.
Justin leaned forward and put a hand on top of his, stilling the action and causing JC to meet his eyes. “You won’t.”
“But—”
Justin shook his head. “It’s not going to happen. We’re not going to just go after the demons without any way of making sure we come out of it together. That’s what the research is for. Give us some time to come up with a plan before you give up completely.”
“I don’t know if I can,” JC said.
“Yes, you can. You keep saying that we need to put ourselves in your shoes, but you should put yourself in ours. You’re our best friend and losing you isn’t an option. There’s nothing we wouldn’t do for you and that includes protecting you from demons,” Justin said, firmly.
“I don’t want you to.”
Justin sighed. “JC, I know it’s hard for you to let go of the role as protector and accept help, but to be honest…it would be a lot easier to find a solution if you didn’t fight us so much. We’re doing this the best way we know how, but we could really use your help.”
“OK.” JC nodded slowly after a minute of silence. “I’ll help.”
Justin straightened up in his seat, his eyes wide and hopeful. “Really?”
“Yeah. I didn’t want any part of it before when you guys didn’t have any direction and were just looking up bogus websites. But if you actually have a plan, then I want to be part of it,” JC said, looking down at the hole in his jeans before raising his head to look at Justin.
Justin smiled and clapped JC on the back. Things were finally looking up. JC had come out of his shock and, even better, onboard with researching a way out. He never thought they’d get to this point, but now that they have, he could finally let himself relax. They would have an easier time with everything now that they had JC’s cooperation.
“What the hell were you thinking?” Chris demanded. “You don’t say something like that to someone who’s suicidal!”
Lance winced at that. “I didn’t mean to. It just kind of slipped out.”
Chris crossed his arms. “You don’t just let something like that slip.”
“Like you would’ve been able to control yourself. You have a worse temper than I do,” Lance said.
“Not lately,” Chris replied. “And I know how to bite my tongue when it’s necessary, especially when I know that saying something like that will just make JC want to kill himself even more.”
Lance sighed and rubbed his forehead. He looked up at Chris. “Do you think he’s going to?”
Chris paused as he took in Lance’s features. He looked genuinely upset that he’d said such a horrible thing, and Chris knew that he hadn’t meant it. There had been too many times when he’d said something out of anger, so it was easy for him to understand why Lance had said it. JC had gotten very good at pushing Lance’s buttons.
“No. He knows you didn’t mean it, and I’m sure that Justin’s trying to smooth it out,” Chris finally said.
Lance nodded slowly. “I can’t believe I said that.”
“It was an accident,” Joey said, placing a hand on Lance’s shoulder.
“He just gets me so mad sometimes, you know?”
“JC can have that effect on people,” Chris half-joked with a small smile.
Lance sighed again. “Everything’s screwed up.”
“It’s not that bad,” Joey said.
Lance shot him an incredulous look, but Chris jumped in before he could say anything. “He’s right, Lance. JC might be pissed now about being kept in the dark, but he’ll get over it.”
“He’ll probably hold it over my head. Just like with the sleeping pills,” Lance said.
“This isn’t your fault,” Joey replied. “We all made the decision to not tell him.”
Chris glanced over at Lance. “And that didn’t give him the right to go through your mind like that.”
“Yeah, well, clearly he didn’t agree,” Lance replied bitterly. He paused. “I think the thing that bothers me the most is how damn smug he was about it. I don’t understand how he can block me, but I can’t do the same to him.”
“I’m not really surprised he figured it out,” Joey said.
“Why not?” Chris asked.
“He kind of,” Joey looked at Lance, “hates your connection.”
Lance frowned. “Really?”
“It’s not about you. I think it’s just the idea of it. He hates that you always have access to his thoughts. You know what a private person he is.”
“So you think that’s how he figured out how to block me? Because he wanted to?” Lance asked.
Joey nodded. “His privacy’s always been very important to him.”
“How long has he felt like this?”
“For a while now.” Joey saw Lance’s frown deepen and quickly added, “He didn’t want to say anything to you because he knew you couldn’t do anything about it.”
“So then he just dealt with it himself.” Lance sighed heavily. “It used to be such a cool thing at the beginning. We talked to each other all the time. Now I’m lucky if he doesn’t block me, let alone actually say something.”
Joey squeezed his shoulder. “Give him some time. Maybe once everything’s kind of died down he won’t do it as much.”
“He shouldn’t be doing it all,” Chris said. “I mean, him blocking Lance just makes it even harder to know exactly what he’s thinking.”
Just then the back door could be heard sliding open and the three of them turned to see Justin and JC stepping out into the backyard. Chris glanced over his shoulder at Lance who had averted his eyes to the grass before he looked back at JC. It seemed that they both were a lot calmer than before, which gave Chris hope that another fight wouldn’t break out. Watching them go at it was unsettling because they never usually fought like they had in the kitchen.
“I’m sorry,” JC said quietly with his hands in his pockets.
Lance nodded his head, raising his eyes to meet JC’s. “Me too. I never should’ve said something like that. I didn’t mean it, you know?”
“I know,” JC said, giving Lance a wan smile, which he returned.
The backyard lapsed into silence. There was a slight buzz as a bee flew past, and off in the distance they could hear someone mowing their yard. Joey glanced at Chris who shrugged. It wasn’t surprising that no one volunteered to say anything, especially JC and Lance. Just because they apologized didn’t mean they were ready to necessarily hold an entire conversation.
“What now?” Joey asked, breaking the awkward silence.
“We should finish talking about our plan,” Justin said.
Lance glanced over at JC before returning his focus to Justin. “I don’t know, Justin…”
“No.” Justin shook his head, having seen where Lance was looking. “It’s cool. JC wants to help.”
Three heads swiveled to JC in surprise. “Really?” Chris asked.
He’d expected JC to answer, but Justin jumped in instead, nodding his head enthusiastically. “He said that he didn’t want to before since we didn’t have any idea what we were doing. But now that we have a direction and are coming up with a workable plan, he wants to be part of it.”
Joey and Lance exchanged doubtful glances. They didn’t say anything, but just nodded. Clearly they didn’t know if they should really believe JC, but they didn’t want to vocalize it. If JC was really in this, then they most likely didn’t want to piss him off by accusing him of lying.
“I guess we should sit down then,” Chris said cautiously, his eyes still on JC who had yet to say a word about it. He was going to go along with it like Joey and Lance, but he was going to keep an eye on JC. Something about this felt funny and Chris wanted to figure out what.
The five of them walked the few feet over to Lance’s patio furniture and settled themselves around the table. Chris sat down across from JC since it would give him the best vantage point to watch him. Once they were all sitting, Lance sighed and glanced around the table.
“Well, the last thing we were talking about was what we’re going to do when we get to the cabin,” he said.
“Did we come up with anything or were we just trying to come up with ideas?” Joey asked.
“Weren’t you saying something about looking up rituals or protective spells?” Chris asked Lance.
Lance nodded. “I figure it couldn’t hurt, but I was also going to,” He paused briefly glancing over at JC uncomfortably, “I wanted to see if there was something else we missed about JC’s mom’s death.”
“Like what?” JC asked, looking up at Lance briefly before returning to running his finger down the curve of the armrest.
“Honestly, I don’t know. It just feels like we’re missing something,” Lance said.
Joey leaned forward a little in his seat. “But we still need an actual plan of action, right?”
“Yeah, but we don’t know what’ll work,” Justin said.
“I still say that in order to get a working plan that’ll kill the demons we have to know what exactly happened at that cabin rental place,” Chris said.
“Let me go get the papers and we can see if there’s something Justin and I missed the first time,” Lance suggested, rising from the table. He turned and jogged back into the house only to return a minute later with a stack of papers in his hands.
Without a word, Lance sat back down and began to read over an article. Chris leaned to his left, so he could read over his shoulder. After a little over a minute, Lance snapped his head up, connecting with Chris’s forehead.
“Geez, Bass. You trying to kill me?” Chris griped, rubbing his now sore forehead.
“Sorry,” Lance apologized halfheartedly before he smacked the papers he was still holding. “I think I’ve got something.”
Justin tucked his left foot underneath himself before he leaned forward anxiously. “Yeah?”
“I think I was there,” Lance said.
“Seriously?” Joey asked, eyes widening slightly.
Lance nodded. “It doesn’t mention last names, but it talks about Mandy’s drowning and Katrina committing suicide. We must’ve been there for a vacation or something.”
“OK, but that doesn’t mean you saw anything,” Chris pointed out.
“I think I did,” Lance insisted. “Katrina told me that she committed suicide after my dad took me over to JC’s mom, so she could watch me while they made arrangements. And Alison,” Lance looked briefly up at JC before down at the papers, “your mom, died sometime after that.”
“How old were you though? Like a year?” Joey asked.
