Joey sighed as he pulled a chair out and sat down across from JC at the kitchen table. They’d just gotten back nearly fifteen minutes ago and decided to get to work purifying some weapons with the herbs that Sydnie had given them. Apparently it was a lengthy process, so they figured the sooner they got started on it the better. He glanced at the other end of the table where Justin and Chris were pulling smaller plastic bags out of a brown paper sack and setting them around the table.

There was movement out of the corner of his eye and Joey turned to see JC moving his Leo pendant back and forth across the thick black cord. Ever since he’d put it back on at Sydnie’s he’d been playing with it. Joey wondered if it felt different now that it had protection spells on it, but he quickly dismissed that thought. JC was probably just messing with it more because it brought to the forefront of his mind something that he never thought about.

“So what are we going to use as weapons?” Justin asked as he opened a bag and brought it up to his nose to smell it only to recoil in disgust.

“I figured we’d use knives,” Lance said, pulling his cutlery set out of a drawer and setting it in the middle of the table.

Joey leaned forward and reached out to pick up a particularly large knife. He held it up and looked at it as he slowly turned it with his right hand. “This is pretty nice.”

JC glanced up and immediately flinched before pulling away from the table. “God, Joey. Get that out of my face,” JC muttered, glaring.

“Someone’s moody,” Joey said, but acquiesced and set the knife back in its case. He hadn’t meant to freak JC out like that, especially knowing how he felt about sharp objects. But normally JC wouldn’t get such an attitude about it.

Joey wasn’t too surprised by JC’s behavior though because he’d been kind of miserable ever since he’d come back into Sydnie’s house with Justin. He didn’t say much, but he didn’t put up a fight about the necklace again when Chris had handed it to him either. JC just put it on without a word, so Joey knew that whatever Justin had said to him must’ve had some kind of impact.

They’d left shortly after that with a bag full of different herbs and instructions on how to purify the weapons. Joey ended up driving because Lance wasn’t ready to drive three hours again so soon. He’d driven nearly fifteen minutes before the silence became unnerving, and he turned on the radio to serve as a distraction. When they’d made it about halfway he’d exited so they could grab dinner, especially since they’d skipped lunch because of their impromptu trip.

He and Chris had tried to lighten the mood by making jokes about the hick town they’d ended up stopping in. Justin and Lance ended up smiling and joining in on the conversation about some of the weirdest places they’ve ever been to, but JC had just sat there quietly eating his food. When they were nearly finished Justin had asked JC if he’d taken his medicine at all, and JC admitted that he hadn’t and that he’d just have to skip it. But Joey had to resist the urge to laugh at the disgruntled expression on JC’s face when Lance pulled the bottle of pills out of his jacket pocket.

“So we have to peel all of these…things?” Justin asked as he reached his good hand into one of the small plastic bags, pulling Joey out of his thoughts about JC.

“That’s what the directions say,” Lance said, glancing down at the sheet of paper from where he was sitting on Joey’s right.

Justin groaned. “This is going to take forever.”

“Only for you gimpy,” Chris teased.

“Yeah, but that also means that I have to do less than you,” Justin replied, smirking as he saw Chris sober at that.

There were no further objections as they all pulled a bag of herbs closer to them and began to work on peeling the waxy green shells off the seeds. Except for JC who just sat back in his chair and watched them. Joey knew why JC wasn’t helping, but he still wished that JC would pull himself out of the funk he was in and pitch in.

A few minutes later JC muttered, “This is ridiculous.”

“What?” Lance asked, tilting his head. Joey figured he must not have heard JC. Though, he couldn’t see how because Lance was sitting just as close as he was. But then Joey realized he’d probably just been too focused on what he was doing to have heard.

“This is ridiculous,” JC said, raising his voice. “I mean, purification herbs? You really think if you douse some knives in them it’ll be able to kill the demons?”

“That’s what Sydnie said,” Lance replied.

“Well, then, hell. Why don’t we just soak ourselves in it? That way we can kill the demons with our bare hands.” JC cut his hand through the air as if to demonstrate. “It’d be like a karate movie.”

JC abruptly picked up the bag that Joey had been working out of and examined it. Before Lance could say anything he continued, “And what the hell is this exactly? I don’t know about you, but I don’t think oregano’s going to save you from anything. Except maybe bland spaghetti sauce.”

Joey couldn’t help but laugh at that and Justin quickly joined him. He knew he shouldn’t be laughing because JC wasn’t making a joke. But it was hard not to. Chris had even cracked a smile. The only one who wasn’t amused in the slightest was Lance.

“If all you’re gonna do is ridicule it, then just leave,” Lance said, glaring at JC annoyed.

“Fine.” JC rose from the table, letting the chair screech a few inches across the linoleum. “I need some air anyway.”

As soon as the sliding glass door closed behind JC, Chris said, “You see that attitude? This is what I’ve been trying to tell you guys.” The smile that’d been on his face was replaced with a scowl.

“He’s just frustrated,” Joey said.

“Why? It’s not like he’s been doing anything to help,” Chris replied.

Joey sighed. “He wants to protect us, which isn’t anything new.”

“Yeah, well, that doesn’t give him the right to be an asshole about it,” Chris said.

“He doesn’t mean to be,” Justin spoke up, sitting on Chris’s right. “Joey’s right. He’s just worried about us and wants to make sure that we’re protected.”

Chris shook his head. “Look, I know that he’s got you guys all twisted around to believe that he’s in this. But after what just happened and the fight at the psychic’s…how can you still believe that he’s in it?”

“But those were different than the other fights that we’ve had with him,” Lance objected.

“How?” Chris demanded.

“He’s arguing with us about how we’re gonna stop the demons, not why. It’s a good sign that he’s getting frustrated because that just proves that he doesn’t want to die,” Lance explained.

“And he doesn’t want us to go in without knowing that we’ll all come out alive,” Justin added.

Chris’s eyes narrowed slightly. “But how can you be sure? He could just be telling you what you want to hear.”

“He talked to me in the car,” Lance said.

“Uh…dude, we were in the car and he didn’t say anything.” Joey caught the exasperated look Lance was sending him and nodded in understanding. “You meant through your connection.”

Lance nodded. “I asked him if he was OK and he actually answered me instead of ignoring me or blocking me. He’s actually letting me back in.” He paused briefly. “That makes me believe that he’s coming around.”

Chris didn’t say anything, but he couldn’t even if he wanted to because the back door slid open and JC walked in from where he’d been standing out on the patio. Right away Joey noticed that JC looked a little more relaxed and less tense than he’d been all day. He still wasn’t in a good mood, but it was definitely an improvement. Getting some air had done him some good.

JC looked at each of them briefly before he lowered his eyes to the floor and shoved his hands into his jean pockets. “I’m sorry for yelling,” he mumbled grudgingly. There was a slight pause and he looked up at them, eyes locking with Justin before settling between Lance and Chris. “I’m just really nervous. We’re taking a big risk by doing this and I want everything to go perfectly.”

“We know that you’re just being your normal annoying self,” Chris said dryly, but there was a teasing smile that belied his words.

A few seconds passed before JC asked hesitantly, “What can I do to help?”

“Pull up a chair and grab a bag,” Lance instructed. JC just nodded and moved forward to sit in the chair that he’d vacated minutes earlier. He reached out to the middle of the table and pulled a bag of herbs closer to him before he began to peel each individual one.

There wasn’t much to say to carry them through the next six hours. Occasionally they would talk about stupid stuff like the types of things they wanted to do for their next album. Joey had been slightly surprised to learn that JC had been working on some stuff by himself. For the longest time JC hadn’t seemed interested in music since he didn’t even think he’d survive the demons. It’d felt kind of odd to talk shop while they were doing something so bizarre, but Joey figured that’s why it’d been brought up; they needed something normal to take their mind off it.

Chris reached across the table to grab a few out of Justin’s bag. He wasn’t as close to being done as the rest of them since his cast slowed him down. But as Chris retracted his arm, it bumped into his can of Pepsi, causing it to fall over and the contents to dump right into Justin’s lap.

“Chris!” Justin complained loudly, jumping up and righting the can while glaring at his oldest friend.

Chris feigned innocence. “What’s the matter, Justy? Did you have an accident?”

“Not funny,” Justin growled as Joey and Chris laughed. He sighed and looked down at the large wet spot. “I think you ruined my favorite jeans.”

Chris rolled his eyes. “Don’t be such a diva. You have like twenty others just like it.”

Justin glared at him one last time before he turned and headed for the stairs, mumbling under his breath about assholes as he went. As Joey took his eyes off Justin’s retreating form, his attention was drawn to JC who asked, “Headache?”

At first Joey thought he was talking to him, but quickly realized that he was looking at the head of the table where Chris was sitting. He turned his head to the right and frowned as he watched Chris massage his forehead with his left hand. That couldn’t be good, and clearly JC agreed if his concerned tone was any indicator.

“Yeah, but it’s no big deal,” Chris said, dismissing it with the wave of his hand as he pulled it away from his head.

JC sighed in exasperation before he pushed himself away from the table and started down the hall. Just as he stood up Chris cried out and clutched his head as he leaned forward in his seat. It lasted for a few seconds before Chris’s features relaxed, signaling that the brief period of intense pain had passed. Joey opened his mouth to ask if he was all right when there was a loud thud above them.

Without another thought the three of them simultaneously shot to their feet and hustled for the stairs, taking them two at a time. JC was already almost at the top of the stairs since he’d left the kitchen sooner. Joey followed Lance into Justin’s room and sighed heavily as he spotted Justin out cold on the floor.

“Help me get him into bed, huh Joe?” Lance gestured to Justin as he bent down. Joey stepped forward and picked Justin’s upper body off the floor the same time as Lance lifted his legs. Gently they picked him off the floor and placed him onto his bed. They’d no sooner let go of him when he suddenly began to thrash about wildly.

“What the hell’s going on?” Chris asked, frowning.

Lance shook his head as he leaned over Justin and rested a hand on his leg. “I don’t know.”

Joey was just as concerned as the others were, but at the same time he knew that he had to try to get Justin to calm down. If nothing more than the simple fact that it would freak him out less. So he sat down next to Justin with his right leg hanging off the edge of the bed and began to run a hand soothingly through Justin’s curls while his right held down Justin’s right arm. They couldn’t have him freak out so much that he fell out of bed and hit his head or worse.

“It’s OK, J,” Joey whispered as he lowered his head so his mouth was next to Justin’s ear. Chris came on the other side of the bed to hold down Justin’s other flailing arm while Joey continued running a hand through Justin’s hair and whispering assurances to him, hoping that somehow Justin could hear him or at least feel more at peace. Lance gently squeezed his leg gently to aid in comforting him. After a minute, Justin finally calmed and fell still.

“What the hell was that?” Chris asked, sitting on the other side of Justin towards the end of the bed.

“It seemed like he was having a nightmare,” Lance said.

“Yeah, but he wasn’t. It was a vision,” Joey replied.

“I know, but that was a lot like the nightmare he had two weeks ago,” Lance said.

Joey stared at Lance in disbelief. “That was only two weeks ago?”

So much had happened in the past two weeks that it felt like it’d been a lot longer. But for how much time had passed, Joey could still remember getting the call from Chris telling him that something was wrong with Justin and that he should come over. Though, in comparison to what was going on now, Justin having a nightmare was nothing. And that was before they even knew that the demons were after JC or that Justin’s nightmares would turn into visions. Everything had seemed so normal then.

Chris’s eyes swiveled to JC who was leaning against the wall over by the window. “You got an opinion on this?”

Joey’s attention was drawn to him as JC pushed himself away from the wall and moved to stand at the foot of Justin’s bed. In the midst of trying to calm Justin down, he hadn’t really noticed that JC wasn’t helping. But Joey figured that he didn’t want to crowd Justin, especially since the three of them were taking care of him.

“His nightmares were pretty intense, so it only makes sense for his visions to be too,” JC said after a moment of silence.

“That’s just not natural though. I mean, he was completely out. He shouldn’t have been able to move like that,” Lance said.

Joey nodded. “It almost looked like he was having a seizure.”

“He wasn’t,” JC assured.

“But what if he was? Or if it happens again? We could just think he’s having a vision, but it’s actually something serious,” Lance said. “I mean, how do we tell the difference?”

“Well, who even says that he’s going to have these visions after we get rid of the demons?” Chris asked.

“His visions aren’t caused by the demons,” Lance said.

Chris frowned. “How do you know?”

“Because the demons can’t hurt JC and he was injured in the car accident,” Joey explained.

JC just nodded slowly. “I’m not surprised. The demons wanted to know where the visions came from. So why would they ask if they already knew?”

“That still doesn’t solve our problem about telling the difference between visions and medical problems,” Lance pointed out. “What if he faints because he’s sick and we don’t do anything about it because we think it’s a vision? What if he needs a doctor? How will we be able to tell the difference?”

“Chris’s headaches,” JC said simply. “If Justin passes out when Chris doesn’t have a headache, then we know it’s not a vision.”

Joey nodded and returned his attention to Justin. He’d almost forgotten that Chris’s headaches were connected with Justin’s visions, even though Chris’s head had started to hurt just before Justin’s vision a little less than a week ago. Lance had made some good points, but they couldn’t really take that into consideration just yet. There was so much more that they had to worry about and Joey had a feeling that it was only to get worse once Justin woke up.

Nearly a half an hour passed with the entire room encased in anxiousness and worry that seemed to radiate off everyone as they waited for Justin to wake up. It was certainly disconcerting that Justin was still out because in almost fifteen minutes an hour would’ve passed since they found him on his bedroom floor. Not to mention they had to worry about what exactly it was that Justin had seen to make him lash out like he had.

As if he knew that Joey was thinking about him, Justin elicited a soft groan as he started to come to. There was a collective sigh of relief as his eyelashes fluttered before opening to reveal blue. Justin’s eyes quickly glanced around the room before they widened and he abruptly flew into a sitting position.

“Oh my God!” he exclaimed.

“Whoa! Take it easy,” Chris said, gently pushing against Justin’s chest to get him to lie down again.

“Oh my God,” Justin repeated, but he let Chris push him back down.

“It’s all right, J,” Lance soothed as he leaned forward in the desk chair that he’d claimed while they were waiting to rest a comforting hand on his leg. “Can you tell us about what you saw?”

Justin swallowed roughly so that his Adam’s apple bobbed. “I…we…I think we were at the cabin.” There was a slight pause. “The demons were there.”

Joey looked up as JC came forward and knelt down next to Justin’s bed, reaching out to grip his right hand with his own. Justin took a deep breath and squeezed JC’s hand. It was times like these when Joey was able to see the strength that JC often gave to all of them, especially Justin.

“They…they broke…our bones. It just kept going on and on. They didn’t stop. And the…the screaming…it was horrible,” Justin explained brokenly, tears streaming down his face. He sniffled, but didn’t dare let go of JC’s hand to wipe them away with the hand that wasn’t covered in a hard cast.

“And they didn’t stop. At least not…not until they…broke…our necks,” Justin hiccupped as he tried to hold back a sob.

“Shh…” Joey began to run his hand through Justin’s hair like he’d done earlier. “Why don’t you try to get some sleep?” he suggested after a few seconds.

“No…” Justin moaned.

“You’re exhausted, J. Get some sleep,” Chris said.

“But—”

Chris shook his head. “Nothing’s going to happen. We’re not planning on going anywhere anytime soon, all right?”

Justin’s eyes sought out JC’s and JC nodded his confirmation. “You’ve got nothing to worry about.”

Justin seemed satisfied with that and his red tinged eyes began to close as Joey continued to stroke his curls. The four of them quietly watched as his breathing evened out, signaling that he’d relaxed and fallen asleep. JC gently slipped his hand out of Justin’s and straightened to grab the covers at the end of the bed, motioning for Chris to stand for a second to allow him to pull them over Justin. Once Justin was tucked in, JC turned his attention to the rest of them.

“You know you can’t go, right?”

“Neither can you,” Chris pointed out.

JC shook his head. “Justin sees his visions from my point of view, remember? He saw you guys die. Not me.”

“But he didn’t say that you lived either,” Lance said.

“If I died, then how would he have seen you guys die?” JC challenged.

“It could’ve happened after us,” Chris said.

“That’s not really the point, guys,” Joey spoke up, trying to steer the conversation in a better direction. He didn’t really like where it was headed. It was really morbid to talk about death, especially in such a cavalier way.

JC sighed. “You guys still aren’t going.”

“You have no right to tell us what to do,” Chris said.

“I have no right?” JC repeated with barely concealed anger.

“Well, you didn’t exactly include us in your decision to off yourself to the demon, did you?” Chris retorted.

“Chris!” Lance reprimanded. “We’re not going to fight about this.”

“Like you have any room to talk. You pick fights with him about the stupidest stuff. I think I’m entitled,” Chris said.

Joey glared at them. “Guys, knock it off. We have enough to deal with without you adding unnecessary drama.” He took a deep breath. “Now what if we tried to stop it from happening somehow?”

“You can’t stop it from happening,” JC said, knowingly. “Every single one of Justin’s visions has come true.”

“Well, we just won’t go to the cabin,” Lance replied. “If we don’t go to the cabin, then it can’t come true.”

“We always say that. We swore we’d stay out of the basement, out of the garage, and that we wouldn’t get in the car. But something always happens that gets us in those situations,” JC insisted.

“Yeah, but it’s not happening around here for once. The cabin’s like what? Two hours away? There’s no reason for us to go there on accident,” Joey said.

JC shook his head. “That’s not going to work.”

“How do you know?” Chris asked. “As long as you don’t go sneaking off to the cabin, then we shouldn’t have a problem staying away.”

“You’re not listening to me. It doesn’t matter what precautions we take because it’ll happen anyway.” JC paused. “And why can’t I go?”

Chris stared at him incredulously. “You can’t be serious.”

“There’s no point in all of us dying. And I’m not even saying that I will die. I can take those weapons and I’ll have my necklace…”

Chris scoffed. “Like you’d actually fight against the devil. You’ve been so adamant about giving up.”

“That was before,” JC said.

“You’re not going,” Lance replied.

“But if I don’t go then this’ll never end,” JC protested. “We can’t stay away forever.”

“Then we’ll go as a group and beat it together.” Lance looked JC in the eye and said firmly, “You’re not going by yourself.”

JC sighed and lowered his head defeated. “I just don’t know what else to do. We need a plan that’ll work.”

“What if we do nothing?” Joey asked after a second.

Lance raised an eyebrow. “Nothing?”

“Yeah, you know. We stay away from the cabin and just go on with our lives,” Joey said.

“So you’re saying you want demons to come after you the rest of your life?” JC asked with a sour expression on his face.

“Well, no, but no one would die,” Joey said.

“You don’t know that. The demons could actually be successful in killing one of you. What then?”

Joey let out an aggravated sigh. “I don’t know.”

“We should wait,” Lance suggested.

“Wait?” Chris repeated. “What good’s that gonna do?”

“Well, all of Justin’s visions have happened within twenty-four hours, so if we just give it a day then we should be OK,” Lance explained.

“What if the time’s gotten longer and it’s more than a day?” Joey asked.

“Then we’ll wait like three days,” Lance said.

“And what if Justin has another vision? It could be a never ending cycle,” JC pointed out.

“Well, waiting for at least a few days will give us a chance to come up with a flawless plan,” Lance said.

“All right,” JC sighed. “But if Justin has another vision…I’m going. Because there’s no way I’m going to let something else happen.”

Joey saw JC’s firm face and knew that he meant what he said. He just prayed that Justin didn’t have another vision. But even if he did, they wouldn’t let JC go. That was for damn sure. They weren’t putting all this effort into saving his life just to lose him in the end.

Chris walked up the stairs after JC and Lance. It was going on five o’clock in the morning and they had just finished purifying the weapons with the weird milky liquid they’d gotten once they boiled the seeds of the herbs into the water. After they’d decided that they’d stay away from the cabin for a couple days to wait out the vision, they’d left to finish the purification since they were so close to finishing. Except for Joey. He’d stayed with Justin because it’d gone unspoken that he shouldn’t be left alone.

Once Chris turned the corner he saw JC go into his room. He glanced down the hall and saw Lance just reaching Justin’s door. More than likely he was going to check on Justin and talk to Joey before he went to bed. Chris stopped just before JC’s door for a moment as he considered talking to him.

It was late and they were all exhausted, but so much had happened earlier that day. And JC had been miserable all day. Not to mention now that Justin’d had another vision he was probably going to obsess over it like he usually did and end up not sleeping again. He might even be planning to leave despite the fact that he agreed not to just a couple of hours ago in Justin’s room.

Without another thought Chris stepped forward and entered JC’s room, closing the door softly behind him. He paused and watched as JC, already dressed for bed, turned down his bedcovers. “Are you OK?” he asked.

“Yeah,” JC said quietly, glancing over his shoulder at Chris as he moved one of the pillows to the trunk. The action was a usual bedtime activity for JC because he only liked to sleep with one pillow despite its size or how it was stuffed.

“You know we’re not going to let you go, right?” Chris asked, walking further into the room.

“I know,” JC said, nodding slightly as he sat down on his bed. “Hell, I want you guys to stop me.”

Chris raised an eyebrow in his direction, taking a few steps closer to JC. He hadn’t expected JC to say something like that.

“What do you mean?” he asked.

JC sighed. “I don’t want to sacrifice myself, Chris. But if you guys don’t stop me, I know that I’ll do it anyway.” 

Chris frowned. “Why?”

Instead of answering, JC said, “You know how long I’d been planning to summon the demon before I did it?” JC didn’t wait for Chris to answer as he continued, “I’d been thinking about it ever since you guys found out. Ever since you started researching.” 

Chris was surprised to hear that he’d been planning it for so long. Thinking about it he knew that it had to have required some planning beforehand because it wasn’t something that could be done spontaneously. But he’d never suspected that it’d been on his mind for days before he actually tried to summon the demon.

“But I didn’t do it until after Joey ‘cause I was scared. I didn’t want to die, but I knew that it was the right thing to do,” JC confessed. 

“Dying is never the right thing to do, Jace,” Chris told him firmly. “Never.” 

“Yes, it is. And I knew that it would be better for all of us if I ended it myself.” JC glanced down at the floor where some residual chalk had been left behind. He had a faraway look as if he were remembering before he snapped himself out of it and brought his eyes up to meet Chris’s. “But that doesn’t mean I wasn’t relieved when Joey stopped me.” 

Chris shook his head. “You’re not fooling me, man. If you didn’t want to do it, you wouldn’t have done it. You don’t try to commit suicide unless you want to die.”

“I don’t want to die!” JC cried, his voice rising in volume. But it wasn’t in anger like Chris had expected. It was full of anguish.

JC put his head in his hands. Chris was momentarily stunned. He’d figured that JC would get all pissed off with what he’d said instead of getting upset. Finally he shook himself out of his stupor and walked over to sit next to JC, wrapping a comforting arm around his shoulders.

“I don’t understand,” Chris said softly, trying to be gentle because it wasn’t often that JC got upset like this. “If you don’t want to die, then why have you been acting like you don’t care? Why do you want to give up?”

JC dropped his hands and drew in a shaky breath. “I just…I don’t see myself making it out of this.”

“Why? We’re closer now than ever to finding a way out for all of us,” Chris said.

“It doesn’t matter,” JC said, slowly shaking his head. “Justin’s visions always happen exactly the way he sees them.”

“Not this time,” Chris told him with conviction. “We’re going to stay away from there and figure out a way to end this for good without anyone dying.”

“I’d rather it be me,” JC said, staring down at his hands as if he hadn’t heard Chris.

Chris sighed in frustration. The last time he had seen JC like this had been nearly two weeks ago. He had tried to talk him out of the crazy notion he had that the demons were after them. It was one time Chris really wished he hadn’t been wrong. But, just like last time, he knew to tread carefully when JC was this emotional.

“I don’t want you guys to die,” JC added a few seconds later.

“We don’t want to die either. But we definitely don’t want you to die for us,” Chris said.

JC turned his head. His watery eyes met Chris’s. “How would you feel knowing everything that’s happened is your fault?”

“It’s not your fault,” Chris said, preventing the urge to roll his eyes. It was annoying to have to repeatedly tell JC the same things over and over again. “If you want someone to blame then blame your mother.”

“I can’t blame her,” JC replied, averting his eyes back to his lap.

“Why not? She’s the one who made that deal and started all this crap.”

“She was young,” JC defended weakly.

Chris shook his head. “Don’t hand me that. She was twenty-one. More than capable of making good decisions. I mean, hell, you were probably more mature at seventeen than she was when she made that damn deal.”

“She’s my mom,” JC said.

“No, she’s not. Karen’s your mother. She loves you and has taken care of you. Alison may have given birth to you, but she’s not your mother,” Chris insisted.

“Stop it,” JC requested quietly, but it wasn’t one that Chris was going to heed. At least not until he got it through JC’s head that he wasn’t to blame for what’d happened and that all of the blame lied with Alison.

“She wasn’t a mother. A mother would never put her child in danger, which is exactly what she did when she had you—”

“You’re saying I shouldn’t even be alive?” JC interrupted, still not looking at him. But Chris saw a tear fall.

“No. God no,” Chris assured quickly. “I’m just saying that it’s her fault you have this devil and its demons after you. And then she took you to the cabin…I mean, you heard Sydnie. It was risky, but she didn’t care.”

“Just stop it,” JC pleaded desperately as another tear fell.

“She got what she deserved, but you…You never deserved any of this.” Chris paused. “You need to realize that you did nothing wrong. She’s the one who started this, so she’s the one to blame.”

There was silence for a minute as Chris allowed JC to take that in. JC sniffled before he said, “It doesn’t matter anyway. It’s going to end with me.”

“But ending it doesn’t mean you have to die,” Chris pointed out.

“If I don’t, you guys will,” JC said. “And I just wouldn’t be able to live with myself if that happened.”

“And you think we would?” Chris asked. “We’d be a wreck.”

“You’d have each other.”

“But we wouldn’t have you,” Chris stressed. “Justin would be devastated. He needs you.”

“He’d have you guys,” JC said quietly before he sniffled loudly.

“We wouldn’t be able to comfort him. We’d be falling apart right along with him.”

“Maybe at first. But after time, things’ll get better,” JC said as more tears ran down his cheeks with some splashing onto his cotton clad legs.

Chris stared at him. “Do you really have that low an opinion of yourself? You think you’re not important to us?” When JC didn’t say anything he continued, “Well, I got news for you. We’re always going to need you. You can’t expect us to just move on with our lives and act like we don’t care because we do.”

“I can’t do this anymore,” JC said brokenly. “I can’t sit back and watch you guys get hurt.”

Chris squeezed him tighter. “You don’t have to. We’re ready to kick some demon ass.”

JC raised a shaky hand to try to wipe his tears away, but there were too many. “I’m just tired. I’m tired of being afraid and not being able to sleep.” He raised his head to look at Chris and couldn’t squelch the tremor in his voice as he whispered, “I just want it to be over.”

Chris pulled JC closer so that his head was resting on his shoulder and he wrapped his arms around his shaking friend’s back. The action must’ve severed the small amount of control JC had over his emotions because he let out a gut wrenching sob and cried even harder.

“It’s all right,” Chris whispered soothingly into his ear. “I’m not going to let anything happen to you or the rest of the guys. I promise.”

JC didn’t say anything, but continued to cry and cling to Chris. In response, Chris just held him even tighter, providing JC the strength and comfort that he offered to any of them when they needed it. It broke his heart to see JC like this.

Any doubts that he still had about JC wanting to survive were gone. The words of the guys from earlier that evening came back to him and he realized they were right. JC didn’t want to die, but he didn’t exactly know what to do about it either.

Chris felt horrible for suspecting JC of lying to them and being up to something. Everything he’d done over the past month was understandable after hearing about how much all of it bothered JC. He was going to make a point of being more sympathetic now that he knew the truth.

JC slackened against him and Chris realized that he must’ve cried himself to sleep. Gently he pulled away from his younger friend and lied him down on the bed. He pulled the covers over him and hesitated for a moment as he saw how vulnerable JC looked. Without another thought he lied down next to him and rested his left hand on top of JC’s right to show that he was there for him. As Chris’s eyes slid closed, he swore to himself that he’d protect JC no matter what.