Justin walked out of Orlando Regional Medical Center with JC on his left. He’d woken up earlier that morning to find out that he had a doctor’s appointment to get his stitches taken out, and he felt elated at the idea. His stitches had been driving him crazy the past couple of days, so he was glad that JC had followed through with making an appointment like he’d said he would yesterday.

JC had volunteered to drive and there had been no objections from Lance who had been the only other one up at the time since they’d had such a late night. Justin had suggested they take his car and JC hadn’t disagreed. When they’d arrived at the hospital they had gotten in to see the doctor almost immediately. The doctor had quickly examined Justin’s stitches to make sure that it would be OK to take them out and once he was satisfied he’d grabbed a nurse to help remove them.

The whole process didn’t take more than a half hour and once he’d finished the doctor said that Justin was free to go. But Justin had stopped him to ask when he could get his cast off. The doctor had chuckled good-naturedly and said that it wouldn’t come off for at least another week. That news made Justin frown because he couldn’t stand having his cast on anymore. It was becoming more and more itchy everyday. Not to mention it was a pain trying to do things one-handed, like when he was trying to peel the shells off the herbs last night.

Part of Justin felt bad that he hadn’t been able to help the guys finish the purification since they all looked pretty tired, but he hadn’t had a choice in the matter. He had no control over when his visions happened. Though, he often wished he did. Or at least had the ability to stop them from happening.

Lance and JC had assured him that they weren’t going to go anywhere near the cabin for a couple of days at least, and that they’d use that time to get a more solid plan. That made Justin feel a little better, but he couldn’t help feeling at least a little nervous because every one of his visions so far had happened exactly like he saw it. And he was afraid that it was going to happen again.

And what was even more unsettling was the fact that he’d seen his vision before. The first time he’d seen the demons kill them was a couple of weeks ago when he’d had that nightmare. Justin wasn’t sure what to make of that and whether or not it could’ve been an early vision, even though he was pretty sure it wasn’t. It just felt weird that his vision was the exact same thing that he saw in that violent nightmare.

No detail was out of place. Just like before, he stood frozen and was forced to watch the demons break every one of his friends’ bones. The screaming and the way everything around him fell quiet once the demons snapped their necks. It was just as violent and just as graphic. Almost to the point where it made Justin sick.

He wanted to talk to JC about what he’d realized because he knew that JC would understand. But at the same time Justin didn’t want to make a big deal about it by just bringing it up. However, if the opportunity presented itself, then he wouldn’t hesitate to bring it up.

Two loud beeps brought Justin out of his thoughts and he looked around. They were in the middle of the parking lot behind the hospital, walking towards his Mercedes that had just flashed its lights in response to JC hitting the button that turned the car alarm off. Justin realized that he must’ve been blindly following JC as he’d been occupied by his thoughts.

JC glanced over at his shoulder and Justin offered him a smile. He knew that JC probably recognized that he’d been lost in his thoughts, especially since he kind of unconsciously slowed, forcing JC to lead. But Justin knew that JC wouldn’t say anything to him because he probably figured that if he wanted to talk then he’d say something.

Justin pulled open the door and slid into the passenger seat once JC unlocked the car with the press of a button. He clicked his seatbelt into place as JC turned the key and the engine roared to life. As JC backed out of the parking space, Justin grabbed his CD case and flipped through until he found an old mixed CD. After ejecting the Coldplay CD, he put in the mix and sat back in his seat.

They’d been driving down the main road through Orlando with Justin’s mix playing in the background for nearly five minutes when JC glanced at him and asked, “You want to go back to my place?” There was a slight pause before JC added, “I have some songs I wanted to work on.”

“Sure,” Justin agreed readily, smiling.

Last night when they’d talked about the next album, it’d been nice to hear that JC had been working on some new material. But it was even better hearing JC say that he wanted to work on it because that meant that he’d gotten just as excited as Justin. JC was finally looking ahead, and that was a great feeling.

“We can even work on some of our stuff if you want,” JC said.

“Definitely,” Justin replied, nodding. His knee began to bounce in excitement. It’d been a long time since he and JC sat down to work on stuff together. They’d gotten some great ideas and it’d be fun to expand them. But then his face fell in sudden realization and he said quietly, “Oh.”

JC took his eyes off the road to look at him. “What?”

“We don’t have any of our stuff with us,” Justin said. He’d just remembered that all of the notebooks they’d been writing ideas in were back at Lance’s.

“Actually,” JC began, “I brought them with me.”

Justin frowned at him in confusion. “If you wanted to do this, why didn’t you just ask me sooner?”

JC returned his attention to the road and shrugged. “I’m asking you now.” He paused. “But if you don’t want to—”

“I do,” Justin interrupted, offering him a smile.

“OK,” JC said, giving him a small smile in return.

The rest of the drive was relaxed as they turned up the music and sang along to almost every song they heard. Ten minutes later JC turned into his driveway before he parked the car and grabbed a pile of notebooks off the backseat. They got out and crossed the short distance to the front door. JC unlocked it and let Justin in, pausing only briefly to turn the alarm off before he led the way to his private studio that was set up in his basement.

As Justin slowly descended the stairs, he couldn’t help but look around. He hadn’t been in JC’s house in months. Straight ahead was the mixer with the soundproof recording booth directly behind it. Through the glass Justin could see a guitar propped up against the wall and a baby grand piano sitting just below a microphone that hung from the ceiling.

On either side of the room was a book shelf, but holding books wasn’t its purpose. It held stacks of notebooks and rows of jewel cases that Justin knew were used for recording songs and laying down instrumentals. And there were large speakers nailed to the wall around the room for a surround sound effect. The last time he’d been in here it was messier, but Justin figured that JC must’ve tidied up the place before he left for tour since he hated leaving his house a mess.

JC sat down in the swivel chair that was placed in front of the mixing board while Justin sat down across from him on the couch that was pushed up against the wall. The couch was a really soft leather that Justin just seemed to sink into. He knew that was probably the reason JC had picked that couch because he needed something comfy to sit on since he spent so much time there. And on a few occasions Justin had actually found him asleep on that couch.

“Here.” JC threw a couple of notebooks and they landed in Justin’s lap. “We should probably pick one that we want to start with.”

Justin smiled at him and nodded. He grabbed the notebook that was on top while placing the other one on the couch next to him. Immediately he opened it and began to flip through pages looking for a good song to start off with.

A half an hour later found them with JC sitting on the couch next to Justin, their heads bent as they focused on the song they’d picked. They’d gone through a couple of notebooks looking for any that had a good start and the potential to expand on it. Eventually they’d pulled out a couple that they wanted to work on before the day was over, but settled on one to start off with.

“How about we move this verse up?” JC suggested as he drew an arrow from about the middle of the paper towards the top.

Justin nodded and grabbed the pencil out of JC’s hand. “Then we could have the chorus repeat before hitting the bridge.”

JC’s eyes moved down the page and he began to hum a melody. Justin tapped the pencil against the paper in time with it. When they reached the end of the song he looked over at JC and said, “I think that’s perfect. It has kind of a down beat, but then picks up in the chorus.”

“It’s a good start I guess,” JC said, shrugging. “Needs some work though.”

“It has some rough edges, but we’ll smooth them out later,” Justin replied, smiling. He loved working with JC and watching him work because he just got so into it. Everything had to be perfect or else he would obsess over whatever it was that was bothering him until it was fixed. It was always so rewarding to work with someone who felt as passionately about music as he did.

“I’ve got a song I’ve been working on and I want to run it by you.” JC looked up at Justin. “Is that cool?”

“Yeah, lay it on me,” Justin said.

JC nodded and got up to mess with the mixing board to prepare for the song. Justin watched as he grabbed an empty jewel case with a blank CD and popped it into the drive in the mixing board. He was curious to see what JC had come up with because normally he always shared his songs with Justin to get an honest opinion. The last time he hadn’t was when they’d first gotten back from the cabin. Justin could clearly remember when he’d found the songs that JC had written about what’d happened that summer.

 “JC?” Justin called out as he opened the basement door. He’d rung the doorbell, but there’d been no answer. So he’d just let himself in with the key he had, figuring that JC was busy in the studio, lost in his music and hadn’t heard it. But there was no answer. 

When Justin reached the bottom of the stairs he knew why. It was empty. They’d planned on meeting to work on some songs for the new album and had split up from Jive. But it looked like Justin had beaten JC there. 

That didn’t bother him though. He’d just hang out until JC got there and they could get to work. Justin took a seat in front of the mixing board and began to fiddle with some of the controls. It was then that he’d stumbled upon some tracks that had been recently modified. A quick look at the CD drive with the blinking light signaled that there was indeed a CD in. He figured JC must’ve accidentally left it in the last time he was there. 

Justin glanced over his shoulder to see if JC had arrived yet. He had a pretty good idea what he’d hear if he hit play because JC had been busy writing songs ever since they’d gotten back from the cabin nearly three weeks ago. But he’d yet to share them with anyone. Justin knew that he’d be in a lot of trouble if JC caught him, but he couldn’t help himself. He wanted to know what JC had been writing. So without another thought he pressed play. 

Immediately he was surrounded by JC’s voice with the accompaniment of an acoustic guitar. Justin was in awe at what he heard. This was amazing. He couldn’t believe that JC had been holding out on them. 

The fourth track on the CD just began to play when all of a sudden it stopped. Justin looked up and nearly jumped at the sight of JC. He couldn’t believe that he’d been so wrapped up in what he was listening to that he hadn’t heard JC come down. One look at JC’s sour expression and stiff body language told Justin that he was pissed. 

“You done snooping through my stuff?” JC asked, his arms crossed over his chest. “

I didn’t mean to. You weren’t here and I just—” 

“Thought you could go through my stuff,” JC finished for him. 

Justin shook his head furiously. “No. I just thought I’d mess around a little, you know? While I waited for you to show up. And then I found a CD you left in the board.” “

You had no right, Justin. If I wanted you to listen to that, I wouldn’t have kept it from you,” JC said, glaring at him. 

“You’re right, C. I screwed up,” Justin said. “But these songs are amazing. You’ve got to put these on the album.” 

JC hit a button that ejected the CD. “No.” 

“Why not?” Justin asked, frowning. 

“Because I don’t want them on there,” JC said. 

“JC, quit being so stubborn. These songs are the types of things we should be singing about. Not girlfriends and breakups. And we’ll finally get the respect we deserve,” Justin replied. 

“We’re already respected.” 

“Then we’ll be even more respected,” Justin insisted. “C’mon, C.” 

“No, Justin,” JC said firmly. “Now just leave it alone.” 

But he didn’t. Justin had continuously pushed JC to put those songs on the album and looking back now he regretted it. He was a horrible person for trying to force JC to put such personal songs out there for the public, especially to further their career. After everything that JC had gone through, Justin should’ve been more sympathetic about it.

“Are you ready?” JC asked, pulling Justin out of his thoughts.

“As long as you are,” Justin said, getting off the couch to sit in the chair that JC had vacated, so he would have easy access to the mixing board.

JC walked into the booth, closing the door behind him. He walked over to the piano and sat down on the sleek black bench. When JC nodded at him, Justin pressed the button and the red light bulb above the door to the booth glowed red, signaling that they were recording. Justin watched as JC’s hands moved gracefully across the ivory keys creating opening notes that were slow and beautiful in an almost haunting way before he started singing and his voice surrounded him.

Staring out, depressed about
What words I have to plead
So torn apart

Shattered by impressions of
Confessions in defeat
My broken heart 

Justin immediately recognized that this was going to be a song about what they’ve been going through. The first line had been a dead giveaway because JC had been battling with feelings of depression ever since he’d found out that the demons were after them because of him. He always knew that what had been going on affected JC a great deal, but he was sure that by the end of the song he’d have a greater understanding. Even though at the moment he wasn’t exactly sure what to make of the fact that JC was still feeling so depressed and what it meant for the future.

Justin leaned forward slightly in his chair as he watched JC belt out the notes, his voice almost breaking with the raw emotion that it held as his features tightened and his fingers continued to press down on the keys. His eyes were closed as he completely lost himself in the music. That was something that Justin always marveled over. JC was such a reserved person and didn’t like to talk to them about his feelings, but he let all of that go when he sang.

Singing was the one time when JC was completely vulnerable and poured his heart out, which was probably why a lot of the emotional songs didn’t make it onto their albums. Justin couldn’t help but wonder what JC’s intention was with this song. If it would be one of the few that went on the album or if it was just one that only he and the others would hear. Briefly he thought about bringing it up to JC when he was done, but dismissed it. If JC wanted others to hear it, then he’d say something.

As Justin watched JC’s hands glide across the keys even though his eyes remained closed and only opened every few lines or so, he couldn’t help but think that JC was an amazing songwriter. It was something that he’d always known, especially from working so close with him. But when he heard songs like this Justin just had to take a step back and admire how JC managed to put all of his feelings into a song no matter what the subject matter and at the same time have it be so general that anyone could relate to it.

Justin stared transfixed as JC continued singing, oblivious to anything around him. Nearly two minutes later, the last note of the song faded and JC opened his sapphire eyes, meeting Justin’s own azure ones. They were watery with unshed tears that JC wiped away with the back of his hand. But Justin didn’t say anything because he’d been able to hear to the emotion in the song and knew that everything that’d happened as of late had been really hard on him.

Justin stopped recording and immediately flipped the switch that would allow JC to hear him and said, “That was beautiful, Jace. You really outdid yourself.”

JC smiled softly before he changed the subject, “You want to take a break? Get a drink or something?”

“Sure,” Justin agreed, shrugging before flipping the switch off. As he watched JC gather some music sheets and his notebook, he couldn’t stop himself from thinking about that song.

After listening to the whole thing, he was left feeling kind of confused. There was still a huge part of him that believed the song was about everything that JC had been feeling about the whole situation with the demons. But at the same time it felt like there were other pain ridden moments from his life that’d been thrown in because at some parts of the song it almost sounded like he was singing about the terrible heartbreak of a girl leaving him.

One thing was for sure; JC had to have been very down when he wrote this song because it just radiated loneliness and helplessness. Though, the song repeatedly said that days would go by and things would get better, which showed hope. It was almost as though he felt like he was drowning in what was happening, but there was a realization that things would get better. Justin was sure that was a true reflection of what JC had been feeling, which made him feel at ease knowing that JC understood things would get better once the demons were gone.

The door to the booth opened and JC walked out with his papers in his right hand. Justin suddenly remembered something and asked, “Hey, what’s it called?”

JC deposited the stack of papers on top of one of the shelves by the door, his back to Justin. “Dear Goodbye,” he said.

Justin’s heart momentarily stopped. Had he been wrong about JC being hopeful and looking towards the future? It sounded like it. JC thought that he was still going to die, despite the fact that they’d been working ‘round the clock to take measures to prevent that. And this was his way of saying goodbye.

Immediately Justin shook himself as his mind desperately searched for what the song title really meant. Maybe JC wasn’t saying goodbye to them, but to how things had been lately now that they were so close to ending everything with the demons. Or maybe he was saying goodbye to the person that he used to be because changing was a hard thing to avoid with everything that they’d gone through. Either way it showed that he was ready to move on from this part of his life and really start living again without the constant worry and fear.

The song was about saying goodbye to everything that’d happened. That had to be it. JC would never give up. Not when it meant leaving them behind.

A soft creak alerted Justin that JC was walking up the stairs, so he pushed away his thoughts about the title and followed. Justin reached the top, coming into the kitchen as JC walked over to the fridge.

“Water all right?” JC asked, glancing at Justin over the fridge’s open door. “I haven’t been home in a while, so I don’t have much.”

“Yeah, that’s fine,” Justin said as he pulled out a chair and sat down at the table. His eyes wandered around the room. JC’s kitchen was very clean and the afternoon sunlight seemed to make the white appliances glaringly bright.

JC walked over to him and handed him a bottle of water, while keeping one for himself before he casually leaned back against the island that had an empty wire basket sitting in the middle. Justin figured that was where JC probably kept his fruit because that was something he liked to snack on. But the basket hadn’t been refilled since he hadn’t exactly been home to do any food shopping.

They sat in companionable silence as they drank their water. Justin usually liked moments like this because it was comfortable and neither of them felt like they had to say anything unless they wanted to. And he did.  He wanted to talk to JC about his nightmares and now seemed like as good as time as any.

Sure, he would’ve preferred if JC had brought up last night himself so that Justin could just tack on what he wanted to say. But he knew that wasn’t going to happen. If he wanted to talk about his vision, then he was going to have to be the one to initiate the conversation.

Now all he had to do was figure out the best way to bring it up. The last thing Justin wanted to do was freak JC out by just blurting it out. But he wasn’t exactly sure how to lead into it with something else. That’s why part of him had been hoping that JC would say something about it.

But after a minute or two of agonizing over what to say, Justin decided to just go for it. “I’ve been thinking,” Justin started slowly, looking up at JC from peeling the label off his water bottle, “about my visions.”

“What about them, J?” JC asked, leaving his water on the island as he came closer and sat down at the head of the table.

Justin took a deep breath. He knew that it was now or never. This was his chance to talk to JC, who was willing to listen to him. That was one thing he could always count on and it made him feel a little better about bringing it up.

“I think they might’ve started sooner than the one I had about Lance,” Justin said.

JC frowned. “Why would you think that?”

“Because this last vision…it’s exactly what my last nightmare was. I mean, every little detail matched.” Justin paused. “It just got me thinking…what if that was an early vision?”

“I don’t know about that, Justin…”

“Well, couldn’t it have been some kind of warning then?” Justin leaned forward in his chair, his water bottle forgotten. “I mean, it would make sense, right? Why else did I get the exact same nightmares you had been having?

“It’s almost like somehow your nightmares transferred to me and then they morphed into these visions. It’s really kind of freaky, you know?”

JC looked down at his hands as he traced the grooves in the top of the table. Justin frowned as he could practically hear the wheels turning in JC’s head. He knew that JC was probably going to blame himself for Justin having these visions, especially now that they were pretty sure they had to have stemmed from the nightmares that JC somehow passed onto Justin. And that wasn’t what Justin had wanted by telling him.

“I don’t want you to think this is your fault, all right? Because it’s not, Jace. I mean it. I was just throwing it out there to see what you—” Justin broke off mid word as he looked over at JC and saw that he looked like he was a million miles away. “JC?”

“Sorry,” JC said after his eyes focused on Justin. “Lance wants us to come back.”

“Oh,” Justin said. If Lance was talking to JC through their connection, then it made sense why JC had zoned out there for a minute. He glanced at the analog clock that hung on the wall above the phone and noticed that they’d been gone nearly three hours. No wonder Lance contacted JC. They probably didn’t know anything about JC’s plan to stop at his house for a while.

They rose from the table and threw away their empty water bottles before they wandered back down into the basement to gather their things. Justin grabbed the various notebooks that had ended up scattered around the room, while JC ejected the CD that his song had been recorded on. Once they were sure they had everything, JC led the way back up the stairs.

Justin took one last look to make sure they hadn’t forgotten anything before he climbed the stairs after him, feeling better than he had in a long time. They’d talked about his visions and even though JC hadn’t said much, it made him feel better to get it off his chest. But what was even better was that they’d gotten to work on some music together and it’d been JC that had suggested it. The future was looking brighter than it had in a long time.

Joey sighed as he watched Justin navigate his way through yet another demon related website. They’d been at this for a little over an hour now and Joey already wanted to take a break. He couldn’t believe that JC and Lance had managed to find anything out through the Internet because there were some crazy people out there, which made it a lot harder to find some factual information.

One quick look at Justin told Joey that he wasn’t the only one who was growing frustrated. But he would gladly take frustration over the fear and vulnerability that he’d seen on Justin’s face last night. Though, he understood why when he’d heard about how graphic the vision had been.

Joey had spent the night with Justin because of how upset he’d been, while the others had left to finish the purification ritual. Part of him had felt bad that he hadn’t been able to help, but he knew that he couldn’t leave Justin when he’d been so terrified. He’d watched Justin sleep for nearly two hours before Lance had come to check in.

He’d asked how Justin was and Joey had told him that Justin hadn’t awoken or even stirred since they’d left. Lance had suggested that they both get some sleep, but Joey hadn’t wanted to leave Justin alone. Eventually Lance had persuaded him that if Justin hadn’t been sleeping restlessly then he’d be fine, and that even if he wasn’t they’d be a few doors down. Joey still hadn’t wanted to agree, but he’d been nodding off throughout his watch over Justin and he’d felt exhausted.

As a result, he’d slept until almost noon. That’d been when he found out that JC had taken Justin to the doctor’s to get his stitches out, and after lunch they’d decided to get a jump on trying to fix the flaws that still existed in their plan. They’d been at it until Justin and JC had returned and they’d taken a break for dinner. And that’d been nearly two hours ago.

“Check this out,” Justin said, nudging him in the side and gesturing to the screen in front of them, effectively pulling him out of his thoughts. Joey leaned forward and saw that Justin had stumbled onto a quiz that would determine what kind of demon someone was.

Joey chuckled softly and shook his head. “People are crazy.” His eyes narrowed slightly as he saw Justin click on the quiz and then another link that took him a main page with what looked like hundreds of quizzes to choose from.

“What are you doing?” Joey hissed, glancing up at the other three to see if they’d noticed they weren’t researching anymore.

 Lance had momentarily abandoned his laptop and was crouched down next to Chris and JC who were sharing Chris’s since Joey and Justin were using JC’s. The three of them were talking quietly as Chris pointed at the computer screen. It looked like maybe they’d found something, which would explain why Lance had gone over to them. But Joey couldn’t remember hearing JC or Chris say something. He rationalized though that they’d probably just motioned for him to come over when they’d caught his attention.

“I’m bored,” Justin said, simply, bring Joey’s focus back to him. “I just need a quick break.” He paused briefly. “I’ll let you do the first one.”

“All right,” Joey agreed reluctantly. He knew they should still be researching, but a small break might do them good. Besides, they might be able to get away with one or two since the guys were still talking amongst themselves.

Justin clicked on one and Joey smacked him in the arm, shaking his head. “No way, dude.”

But Justin chose not to listen and clicked on it anyway. He gestured to the computer screen that had five questions listed that would determine what type of fairy he was. Joey sighed, but pushed Justin’s hand off the touchpad so he could answer the questions. It was a stupid quiz, but exactly what he needed at that moment.

Joey hit the continue button and as they waited for the page to load, he looked up at the guys again and noticed that Lance had gone back to his chair. Apparently what JC and Chris had found ended up not being solid for one reason or another. But then the page loaded, and he and Justin had to hold back a snicker when they saw the result.

There was a huge picture of a blue fairy that was apparently the wish fairy. Beneath that was a sentence that described how hopeful and positive he was, which wasn’t far from the truth. But the picture was what it made so funny.

As Justin looked for another quiz to take Lance’s phone rang. Joey watched as he sighed and pulled it out of his pocket to answer it. Without a word Lance rose from the chair with one hand holding the cell phone to his left ear while his right balanced his laptop. Once he was gone Joey returned his attention to Justin and saw that he’d found a quiz.

He watched as Justin began to fill out the questions. One asked him to select a few adjectives that described himself. Justin immediately selected ‘fun’ and ‘intelligent.’ Joey unselected the latter and Justin glared at him.

“I’m smart,” he protested quietly.

Joey smirked at him. “Keep dreaming, kid.”

Justin’s glare intensified, but he otherwise ignored Joey, forcing his hand away from the touchpad and reselecting it. The next question asked to pick at most three hobbies. Justin immediately clicked on ‘singing/playing an instrument’, ‘listening to music’, but then he hesitated.

“Well, I don’t know what ‘haning out with friends’ is,” Justin mumbled to himself before he clicked on ‘sports.’

Joey thought he’d misheard Justin, but he looked closer and sure enough the person who created the quiz had bad grammar. Though, the real problem came when Justin reached the last question, which really wasn’t a question at all because while it asked if he would leave the person a message, yes was the only answer.

“But I don’t want to leave you a stupid message,” Justin whispered harshly.

Joey rolled his eyes. “Real nice, J.”

Joey glanced up to see if they’d grabbed Chris or JC’s attention, but JC’s eyes squinted at the screen as he frowned. Chris was still reading over his shoulder and reached out an arm, probably to scroll, causing JC to sigh and shoot Chris an annoyed look.

“I wonder what would happen if I didn’t answer it,” Justin mused to himself before he tried it only to let out an outraged cry when a page appeared, saying that there was a question that hadn’t been answered.

“Just let it go, J,” Joey said, laughing as he did.

“But I want to know who I am in the group!” Justin whined, clicking back to the page and refilling in all of his answers to get his result.

“What’s going on?” Chris asked, looking up from his laptop where he was sitting across the room on the loveseat with JC.

“Justin found this quiz site and nearly had a coronary when they wouldn’t let him skip a question,” Joey said.

“I won’t have a great day you bitch!” Justin exploded before he turned to Joey. “Maybe I should leave her a message telling her how crappy her quiz is.”

Joey sighed and pulled the laptop away from Justin. “I think that’s enough quizzes for you.”

“I want to do one,” Chris said, handing his laptop to JC before he came over and knelt next to Joey on the floor.

They found a quiz for him to do and Justin leaned over Joey to select the answers for Chris. The first question was to describe himself by selecting a list of adjectives and Justin immediately started picking some for Chris, who agreed with most of them except for the last one.

“I’m more smart and intellectual than angry and hot tempered,” Chris argued.

Justin scoffed. “Whatever. You have the worst temper out of anyone here.”

“No, I don’t,” Chris denied, but Justin ignored him as he started selecting answers for the next question. “Hey! I don’t yell at other people all the time!”

“Unless their name’s JC,” Justin countered. Joey looked up to see what JC’s reaction was to that and was surprised to find that he was smiling. It was nice to see JC smiling again even if he wasn’t participating in the fun.

“So what’s my result?” Chris asked, squinting at the screen. Joey figured he couldn’t really see it because Justin had turned it at an odd angle so that the light from the lamp that sat on the end table caused a glare.

Joey scanned it and said, “Apparently you have a lot of anger that you need to let out. Their advice for you is to go scream in a pillow and punch it around.”

“Well, I am angry after reading that,” Chris said. “I’m nothing like that.”

“That’s not what the quiz says,” Justin pointed out.

“Only because you guys tipped it that way, saying that I like to yell at people and I have a bad temper,” Chris replied.

“That’s because you do!”

“Oh yeah?” Chris raised an eyebrow as he grabbed a pillow off the couch and began to whack Justin in the shoulder with it repeatedly.

Laughter echoed through the room as Justin held up his right arm to defend himself and tried to ward off Chris. “Stop it!” he tried to command, but he was laughing too hard.

“What the hell are you guys doing?” a steely voice asked from the doorway, immediately stilling their actions. Joey raised his eyes up to see Lance standing there with his arms crossed, looking very pissed.

“We were…uh…just taking a little break,” Joey said.

“Well, break’s over,” Lance replied, coldly. “I thought you guys would take this seriously considering that our lives depend on it, but I guess that’s just too hard for you.”

“We are taking this seriously,” Chris said, tossing the pillow back onto the couch and rising to his feet.

Lance glared at him. “It sure doesn’t look like it from where I’m standing.”

“Then maybe you need to take a few steps back and pull that stick out of your ass,” Chris replied.

“Guys! That’s enough!” Joey interrupted before a major fight could break out. He looked at Lance. “We’re going to go back to researching, all right? But don’t think that just because we take a little break that it means we care any less than you do.”

Lance sighed and nodded before he said grudgingly, “I’m sorry.”

A tense silence fell over the room as Lance and Chris retook their seats. Joey glanced at Justin and noticed that he’d closed the quiz site and gone back to the original search results they’d been sifting through. Then his gaze traveled across the room to JC who was no longer smiling, but had a frown etched on his face as he looked at Lance out of the corner of his eye. It was obvious that JC was upset that Lance had come in yelling at them, especially when they’d been having some much needed fun. Because Joey had a feeling that it probably wouldn’t be something that they’d see again for a long time.

JC sighed softly, tucking his hands behind his head as he lied in bed. It wasn’t late. Only going on ten thirty, but the house was quiet. They’d researched for a few more hours up until nearly an hour ago. Chris had made a crack about how they must be getting old, going to bed before ten o’clock. But everyone was exhausted. The night before had been quite an ordeal.

Justin’s visions always unsettled him, but particularly the one from last night. He’d made the connection back to the nightmare that Justin’d had, but he hadn’t wanted to say anything because it’s not like it would’ve changed anything. It wasn’t something that the guys needed to know. But Justin had made the connection too.

While JC hadn’t wanted Justin to make the connection, he wasn’t surprised that he had. Justin always seemed to think about his visions, especially after one happened. After all, he’d been the one to point out that all of them had been from JC’s perspective. But JC had purposely avoided talking to Justin about anything that’d happened the night before with his vision because he didn’t want to encourage Justin always coming to him.

Though, last night had been the proof that he’d needed that the guys would take care of Justin. He’d purposely stood back and let the others get Justin into bed, calming him down when he’d started to thrash about. JC wasn’t worried about leaving Justin because he knew that the others would help him.

JC glanced at the clock and sighed again. Only a couple minutes had passed since he last looked. He was waiting for the right moment when he knew all the guys would be sleeping, so he could sneak out. The cabin was only a couple hours away, so JC knew that all of this demon stuff they’d been dealing would definitely be over before sunrise.

He’d wanted to leave last night, but he hadn’t been able to because Chris had fallen asleep with him. JC had been kind of surprised that he’d cried himself to sleep. That wasn’t something that he’d planned. All of his emotions that he’d been repressing just seemed to bubble to the surface. Everything that he’d told Chris was true, but he knew that’s not how Chris would see it once he found out that he’d left.

The guys were going to flip when they found out what he did, but JC knew he was doing the right thing. Even though he felt guilty for knowing that he’d be the cause of their pain. But he’d already made peace with what he was going to do because it was the right thing to do.

He’d said goodbye to the others even if they weren’t aware of it. This time made him feel more at peace about it all because when he’d been prepared to end it by summoning the demon he’d been upset that his last few moments with them had been spent fighting.

But not this time. JC had been so happy that he and Justin had been able to spend a few hours doing what they loved. He couldn’t have asked for anything better. And then watching the exchange between Justin, Joey, and Chris as they took quizzes. It’d been so nice to see them goofing around because it’d been a while since he’d seen any of them really laugh and enjoy themselves. The only downer had been that Lance had come in and yelled at them for having fun instead of joining in like JC would’ve liked.

But then he wouldn’t be Lance if he had because out of the five of them, Lance and JC were the ones to hang back, watching them joke around instead of joining in on the fun. At least right away and today had been no exception. Despite the yelling JC had enjoyed the time that he’d spent with them. It was definitely a better goodbye than last time. That was for sure.

JC looked at the clock again and noticed that five minutes had elapsed. Without another thought, he pushed himself to a sitting position before swinging his legs down to the wood floor. He was pretty sure that the guys should be sleeping by now, but even they weren’t, he was prepared. Sweatpants were pulled over his jeans and he was wearing a simple t-shirt, so it wouldn’t look like he was leaving. That’d been the problem with the last time he’d tried to sneak out to get his supplies from Wal-Mart because Lance had called him on wearing jeans.

Raising his hands to the back of his neck, JC undid the knot of the cord of his Leo necklace. The weight on his chest lightened as he pulled it away from his body and set it on the top of the dresser. He knew that he couldn’t go to the cabin with the necklace on just in case the protection spells on it would work.

JC walked out into the hall and made a right. He wanted to check on his friends one last time. The first room he reached was Justin’s and he was sleeping soundly. As JC lingered in the doorway for a few seconds watching his youngest friend and seeing the innocence that still existed after all these years, he could feel his eyes start to tear up. That was when he knew he had to get out of the house before he backed out of leaving, or started sobbing in the middle of the hallway and woke everyone up.

Turning around, JC made his way down the opposite side of the hall to check on Joey and Chris. A quick peek in both of their rooms found that they were sleeping with the occasional snore like he’d expected. But it didn’t ease the ache in his heart as he knew that this would be the very last time he’d be seeing them.

As JC approached Lance’s room, he wasn’t quite as sure that Lance would be sleeping because he was a light sleeper. But as he poked his head in, he had to hold back a sigh of relief as he saw that Lance had his back facing the door and deep even breaths could be heard, signaling that he was asleep. Though, JC knew that he wasn’t home free yet.

He slowly and quietly walked down the stairs, or as quietly as he could since the stairs creaked. Wincing, JC forced himself to try to walk softer and try to find a spot to step on that wouldn’t creak. Once he made it to the bottom he let out a sigh of relief before he grabbed his shoes that were still sitting next to the front door from when he and Justin had gotten back nearly eight hours earlier.

JC quickly slipped on his shoes and walked down the hall towards the kitchen. He knew that he’d be able to sneak out easier if he used the back door since the front door made noise because of how heavy it was. Very slowly and cautiously as to not make any unnecessary noise, he flipped the lock off the sliding glass door.

His right hand slid the door open just enough for his skinny body to fit through. JC sidestepped out onto the patio. He paused for a second to look up at the house one last time before he carefully closed the door behind him.