JC sat on his bed with his legs crossed and was hunched over his laptop. He’d brought it with him, but hadn’t touched it since he’d arrived at Lance’s house. Originally he had it so he could mix songs on his computer without having to go into the studio, but now he was using it to do a little research of his own. Yesterday he’d heard Lance telling Joey about the kinds of things that he’d found like summoning demons, and that’d given him the idea to look into it.

Summoning the demon seemed to be the only thing that would work in getting the demons to stop hurting the others. JC appreciated the effort that Lance was giving to finding a solution, but he could only see one solution, and that was for him to summon the demon that was after him and give himself up. Earlier that afternoon he’d found a couple different websites that described some summoning rituals, and he ended up settling on one that sounded the easiest because there were some that involved rare herbs that he wouldn’t be able to get easily. Currently he was going over the notes that he made of the ritual to see what ingredients he would need when he went to the store and was crosschecking them with the information on the website that he bookmarked to make sure that his notes were correct.

It originally hadn’t been his intent to look into summoning rituals so quickly, but after Justin’s latest vision he knew that he must do this as soon as possible. There was no way that he was going to let those demons kidnap Justin and since he had no idea when it was going to happen he was going to get his supplies and do this ritual tonight. It sounded simple enough so he figured it wouldn’t take more than a half hour. All of the pain and trouble they’ve been put through, especially the guys will end tonight. JC was nervous about what he was going to do. Dying scared the hell out of him, but it would be worth it to know that nothing bad would happen to his friends anymore because of him. That was the only thing keeping him from backing out of it.

JC sighed as he closed his laptop and set it on his desk, mentally going over the list in his head. Chalk and candles. That’s all he needed to finally put an end to all of this. JC glanced at the clock and saw that it was nearly eight o’clock. Time to go because the sooner he got this over with the better it would be for everyone. He knew the guys would be pissed when they found out what he did, but it was better than them dying.

JC walked out of his room, turning off his light on his way out. He made it downstairs and into the foyer without running into any of the other guys. It would be a lot easier for him to go shopping for the things he needed if they didn’t know because he didn’t want to answer the questions that they would ask him about why he was going out. His plan was to be gone and back before they even knew he left. Opening the closet by the front door he bent down and slipped on his tennis shoes.

“Where you going?” a voice above him asked and JC’s heart skipped a beat. He looked up surprised to see Justin standing there. Quickly he rose to his feet.

“God, J, you scared the crap out of me,” JC said. “What are you doing sneaking around in the dark?”

“I wasn’t sneaking. You were the one who didn’t turn on any lights.” Justin paused before he repeated his question, “Where are you going?”

“Out,” JC said simply.

“Out where?” Justin asked.

JC sighed. “I need to pick up a few things.”

“Can I come?”

“I don’t think so, J.”

Justin frowned. “Why not?”

“Because you can’t go into the garage,” JC said.

“I won’t have to if we take my car. It’s already in the driveway,” Justin replied.

It was JC’s turn to frown. He really didn’t want Justin to come with him because he knew that Justin would ask him questions about what he was buying and that was why he’d been trying to sneak out. Not to mention it would be hard to ditch him after he got back and would want to return to his room to do the ritual. But part of JC did want Justin to come because it’d be one last thing he could do with Justin before he summoned the demon. As much as he wanted it and to say goodbye to the rest of them, he knew he couldn’t because it would make them suspicious. They had been his friends for so long that he considered them more like brothers than anything, and it hurt that he was leaving them like this even if it was for the best.

“You should really stay here. I won’t be gone long.”

“But I’m bored.” Justin paused. “Besides, it’s supposed to happen in the garage, right? So I’d be safer away from the house.”

JC wanted to argue some more, but he couldn’t disagree with what Justin had said. Logically speaking he would be safer away from the house, and that was what was important. It didn’t matter that Justin would be asking him a bunch of questions because he would know that he was safe with him.

As if Justin could sense that JC was leaning towards giving in he added, “I’ll even let you drive my car.”

“You can’t drive anyway,” JC said.

“Like my cast hinders my ability to drive. Most of the time I drive with one hand anyway.” Justin smiled and held up his keys. “C’mon, C. You know you want to.”

JC sighed pretending to be annoyed, but couldn’t stop the small smile that tugged at his lips. Justin hardly ever let anyone drive his car besides him, and he understood how excited Chris had been last week when Justin had given him permission. “All right. Let’s go.”

Together the two of them walked out the front door and down the walkway towards the driveway. As Justin walked around to the passenger side of the car, he tossed JC the keys, which he caught with one hand. With a press of a button the doors were unlocked and they slid into their seats. JC buckled his seatbelt and checked to make sure the driveway was clear before he started to back out.

“So where are we going?” Justin asked, snapping his seatbelt into place with a click.

JC brought his head back forward and threw the car into drive. “Wal-Mart.”

Justin nodded and started flipping through his CD collection before settling on Cold Play’s debut album. The melodic, rhythmic sounds poured out of the speakers as JC drove down the main road that would take them into the heart of Orlando. They were nearly halfway there when Justin groaned and said, “God, how long does it take to get to Wal-Mart?”

“It’s only been ten minutes,” JC replied.

“That’s how far I  live from Wal-Mart. Why does Lance have to live so far?” Justin complained.

JC rolled his eyes. “We’re almost there, Just.”

Sure enough almost ten minutes later they pulled into the parking lot. JC barely killed the ignition before Justin jumped out of the car. He shook his head as he got out and locked the car with the remote before shoving the keys in his pocket. If it wasn’t obvious earlier that Justin was bored, it was now. Together they walked across the parking lot and into the store. Justin went to get a cart and JC grabbed his arm.

“We don’t need a cart,” he said.

“Why?”

“Because we’re not getting that much,” JC answered.

“So what are we getting?” Justin asked.

“Candles,” JC said, leading the way to the aisle with house décor where the candles would be.

“Candles?” Justin repeated with a disbelieving look on his face. “Why do you need candles?”

JC shrugged, looking for black candles because that was what the ritual called for, but he didn’t see any. But they did have dark blue, which the website said could replace the black ones if they couldn’t be found. “They’re good to have in case the power goes out.”

“So are flashlights,” Justin countered.

“I like candles,” JC said, grabbing six of the dark blue candles off of the shelf and tucking a few under his arm.

“You want me to get a basket?” Justin asked, gesturing to JC’s full arms.

JC shook his head. “No, I’m good. I just need chalk and I’m done.”

“What do you need chalk for?”

JC sighed as he walked over to school supplies. It was frustrating having to come up with a bunch of answers to satisfy Justin’s curiosity, but he had expected this. “I’m teaching a class,” he said sarcastically.

“Good one, JC.” Justin laughed. “Tell me the real reason.”

“No. It’s none of your business.” Before Justin could reply JC held two candles out to him and said, “Hold these for a sec.”

Justin accepted the candles with a sigh and JC picked out a box of white chalk with his free hand. With his supplies in hand he turned to Justin and asked, “Do you need anything while we’re here?”

“I think we need some more aspirin,” Justin said, heading towards the pharmacy part of the store. He stood in front of rows of aspirin and adjusted the candles to sit in the crook of his left arm so he could grab a bottle with his right hand. “We should really buy a share in Tylenol.”

“Why?” JC asked.

“Because we use so much of it. There’s no way our stock would go down,” Justin said.

“Let’s go checkout.” JC motioned with his head towards the front of the store, changing the subject. He knew Justin was only half kidding because it was true. Over the last couple of weeks, a lot of aspirin was consumed by Justin, Lance, and now Chris. It would be nice when this would be all over and none of the guys would be stressed or feeling pain anymore.

Waiting in line they didn’t talk much as they were trying to keep a low profile. Normally they didn’t get much attention when they went shopping in the evening or early in the morning, but it didn’t hurt to be cautious. As much as they loved their fans, they wanted to try to be as normal as possible. A few minutes later their purchases were paid for and they were on their way out without any incident.

JC carried the bag of purchases in one hand while the other fished for the keys in his pocket. He’d just managed to pull them out when one of the bag handles that was on his hand slipped off his fingers causing one of the candles to fall out of the overfull bag. Groaning, JC shoved the keys back into his pocket and silently griped about lazy baggers who threw everything into one bag as he chased after his runaway candle. There were footsteps behind him and he knew that Justin was following him.

“C, just leave the candle. You got like five more,” Justin said.

“It’ll just take a second,” JC replied, still chasing after the candle, but starting to slow as it rolled to stop into one of the dark, empty garages of the auto care center. In the back of his mind it registered that it was weird that it hadn’t been closed up, but he shrugged it off.

He’d just bent down to pick up the candle when he heard Justin mumble, “Oh shit.”

“What?” JC asked concerned at the scared face Justin was displaying when he turned around.

“We need to leave. Now,” Justin said.

JC nodded and immediately stood up, the candle forgotten. Justin seemed freaked out and that tipped him off that something wasn’t right. He was going to trust Justin’s instinct and get out of here before something could happen. They hadn’t taken more than a few steps when all of the sudden the darkness seemed to thicken. But when he noticed two pairs of red eyes he realized that it was demons.

Justin’s eyes widened as the two demons on each side of him grabbed his arms. “JC!”

“Justin!”

JC ran forward, his bag slipping from his fingers as he reached out to grab Justin away from the demons. But just as his fingers skimmed the fabric of Justin’s shirt, the demons disappeared taking Justin with them.

Lance let out a frustrated sigh. He was starting to lose patience with the research because he still wasn’t finding anything that would be really useful. But he wasn’t going to quit, not until he found a solution. Sitting in the living room with Chris and Joey, he looked over at the movie that they’d managed to find on TV.

“You want me to take over?” Joey asked, gesturing to Lance’s laptop.

Lance shook his head. “No, that’s OK.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah,” Lance told Joey. “I’ve got a rhythm going.”

“Let me know if you change your mind,” Joey said, turning his attention back to the TV.

Lance looked back down at his screen and hit the back button to send him back to the search results page. But before he could see another website he heard someone call his name. It took him a minute to realize who it was.

“JC?” Lance had heard the front door close about an hour ago and knew that JC and Justin had left because he’d heard them talking before they left when he’d gotten up to get a drink.

“Lance!”

Lance frowned at the panic he could hear and the anxiety he could feel from JC. “What’s wrong?” 

“Justin…gone…couldn’t stop…demons,” JC said.  

Lance paled as JC’s words sunk in. They’d tried to prevent it from happening. Justin had stayed out of the garage and yet he still had been taken. Immediately Lance closed the lid and set aside the computer by the phone. He knew they would have to leave right away to pick up JC because it sounded like he was in no state to drive back.

 “JC, where are you?” Lance asked. 

“Wal-Mart…garage.” 

“All right. Go stand out front and we’ll come get you,” Lance instructed. There was no answer from JC so he added, “OK?” 

“OK,” JC agreed, shakily. 

“Lance!” Chris cried.

Lance blinked and stood up. “What?”

“Joey asked you a question like ten times,” Chris said.

“We need to go,” Lance told them, brushing off what Chris said.

“Why?” Joey asked.

“We need to pick up JC,” Lance said.

Joey frowned. “What happened?”

Lance sighed. “Justin was kidnapped.”

“What? How did that happen?” Chris asked.

“His vision must not have been in my garage,” Lance said. “But we can talk more in the car. JC’s freaking out right now.”

“I’ll drive,” Chris volunteered as he grabbed Lance’s keys off the key hook in the hallway.

The three of them entered the garage with pretty much no hesitance because it hadn’t been the location where Justin was kidnapped. They quickly got into Lance’s SUV and backed out of the garage. There was no time to lose. Once they got back with JC they’d have to figure out a way to get Justin back.

“Where are we going?” Chris asked, looking in the rear view mirror at Lance.

“Wal-Mart,” Lance said.

Joey turned around from the passenger seat with a questioning look on his face. “What were they doing there?”

“Shopping.” Lance shrugged. “I think JC needed some things.”

“And Justin went with him?” Joey asked.

Chris glared at him. “What the hell do you think?”

“Chris!” Lance admonished, seeing the hurt look on Joey’s face. He knew that they were all on edge, but that was uncalled for. Joey was just trying to figure out what’d happened. For Chris’s credit he sighed, but didn’t say anything else.

The rest of the drive was very tense. Lance wondered where Justin was right now. He could only imagine how terrified Justin must be. But from what Lance heard when JC was talking to him, Justin wasn’t the only one who was scared. With that thought in mind, he reached out in his mind and couldn’t feel JC like he had before. That worried him.

Lance leaned forward in his seat and said, “Drive faster, Chris.”

Chris didn’t say anything, but pressed his foot down harder on the gas pedal. It only took a few more minutes and the car pulled up in front of the store. JC was standing right by the front door off to the side. Lance unbuckled his seatbelt and told Chris, “Keep the car running. I’ll get JC, and Joey will drive Justin’s car back.”

Lance opened his door the same time that Joey did. They walked over to JC and Joey put a hand on his shoulder. “Hey, Jace.” When there was no answer Joey continued, “Do you have the keys?”

Silently JC dug into his pocket and pulled out Justin’s keys. Joey took them and turned to Lance. “I’ll follow you guys.”

Lance nodded, watching Joey go out of the corner of his eye as he turned his attention to JC who hadn’t really said anything. Looking around he noticed there were some shoppers coming in and out of the store and decided that he should at least get JC in the car before he tried to find out exactly what happened. The last thing they needed was to be recognized or for a fan to overhear them on top of what they already had to deal with.

Gently he rested his hand on JC’s back to guide him to the car. Lance pushed him into the backseat and scooted in next to him. Once he pulled the door closed, Chris threw the car into drive and moved forward. Turning so he was facing JC, Lance focused all of his attention on him.

“JC, are you OK?” When there was no answer Lance commanded gently, “JC, look at me.”

Slowly JC tore his eyes away from the carpeted floor to meet Lance’s green eyes. “Are you OK?” Lance repeated.

“Yeah,” JC said quietly.

“What happened?”

JC took a shuddering breath and looked down again. “I…we…Justin…demons grabbed…too fast…”

“All right. Calm down,” Lance said, putting a hand on his shoulder to try to calm JC and stop his stuttering and heavy breathing.

“But…Justin…” JC’s breathing continued to speed up and tremors started to wrack his body.

Lance frowned as he ducked his head and saw that JC’s eyes were a wide, shocking blue. “Chris, pull over,” Lance said, meeting his eyes in the rear view mirror.

Chris put on the right turn signal to let Joey, who was driving behind them, know that they were going to pull off to the side. A minute later the car stopped on the side of the highway, and Lance jumped out of the car, pulling JC with him. Once they were out of the car JC’s knees buckled, forcing Lance to wrap his arms around JC and gently lower him to the ground. He gripped JC’s shoulders and tried to get JC to look at him.

“JC? You with me?” Lance asked, but didn’t get an answer. Not that he expected one because JC was panting with effort to breathe and his lips were still moving as if he were trying to talk but no sound was coming out.

The sound of a car door closing could be heard and Joey walked over to them asking, “What’s going on?”

“He’s hyperventilating,” Lance cried.

“What are we supposed to do?” Joey asked, worriedly.

Lance sighed and taking one hand off JC’s shoulder to run it through his short, spiky hair. “We need to calm him down.”

“How are we supposed to do that? I’m barely calm myself,” Joey replied.

“I know, but we need to get his breathing slowed down.” Lance was freaking out himself, but was trying to stay calm because someone needed to try to keep everything under control. He turned his attention back to JC. “C? You need to take a deep breath and calm down.”

They waited a few seconds with baited breath to see if he would, but he didn’t. Joey knelt down next to JC and put a hand on his back, rubbing it gently. “You’re OK. We’ll get Justin back.”

“Son of a bitch!” Chris yelled and kicked the tire well of Lance’s car. Lance frowned at him briefly before he turned his attention back to JC. He knew that Chris was pissed and frustrated at what was going on, but right now their main concern was getting JC to breathe regularly again.

Lance gently forced JC to look into his eyes and said, “We’ll figure something out. Justin will be all right. You’ll see.”

The wild look in JC’s eyes was starting to dim a little and Lance continued to comfort him with the help of Joey. After a few minutes, JC’s breathing had finally slowed and he was out of danger from asphyxiating himself. They both sighed in relief and got back into their cars. When they were pulling into Lance’s neighborhood he noticed that JC’s breathing had slowed to an alarming rate.

“JC?” There was no response even when Lance reached out and pinched him. He frowned for what seemed like the tenth time in the last half hour.

Chris groaned from the front seat. “What now?”

“His breathing’s really shallow and he’s not responding,” Lance said.

“Figures,” Chris muttered as he pulled into the driveway and killed the engine.

Lance shook his head and glared at Chris’s back as he got out of the car without offering to help with JC. “C’mon, let’s get you inside.”

Lance pulled on JC’s sleeve and exited the car. He led JC into the house through the front door that Chris left open. As he sat JC on the couch, he could hear the front door close and knew that Joey must’ve come in. That thought was confirmed when Joey walked into the living room and looked concerned when he saw JC sitting on the couch blankly staring at the wall.

“What’s the matter?” Joey asked.

“His breathing’s too slow.” Lance paused, thinking back to his first aid class. “I think he might be going into shock.”

Joey took a seat on JC’s left since Lance was on his right. “So what do we do?”

“We need to snap him out of it somehow,” Lance said.

“What’s the point?”

Lance’s head snapped up at Chris’s snide comment. “What’s the point?” he repeated. “JC could die if we don’t get his breathing under control.”

“And Justin could be dead already,” Chris shot back.

“So one friend means more to you than the other?” Lance asked, glaring at him.

Chris was momentarily stunned, but it didn’t last long. “No, but you’re acting like you don’t care about Justin. Like he just went out for a walk and will be back in an hour.”

“I can’t believe you just said that,” Lance said, lowly. He couldn’t believe that Chris was capable of saying something like that to him considering the circumstances. “My mind is spinning with the possibilities of what’s happening to him right now, and I’m scared shitless. But I’m trying to keep it together because we can’t all be freaking out.”

“We need to help Justin,” Chris objected.

“We can’t help him right now, but we can help JC. And I’m not going to sit back and let him die while we try to figure out a way to get Justin back, especially when we have no idea where to start,” Lance said.

“But we’re wasting time!” Chris protested.

Lance glared at him and said sarcastically, “Sorry JC’s health is such an inconvenience.”

“Well, we wouldn’t even have this problem if he hadn’t gone to the store for God knows what,” Chris replied.

Lance shot a concerned glance at JC, worried about how much he heard, before he roughly grabbed Chris’s arm and dragged him into the kitchen. Once they were in he immediately let go of Chris’s arm and crossed his over his chest. “How could you say those things in front of JC like that?”

“Like he even heard me,” Chris muttered.

“And what if he did?” Lance challenged. “You know he has a tendency to blame himself for everything, and you have to go and make it worse.”

“Well, excuse me for saying what’s on my mind.” Chris paused slightly before adding, “You know you’re thinking the same thing, so I don’t know why you’re ragging on me.”

“I am not thinking that. That thought never crossed my mind,” Lance objected, icily.

“Think about it. If he hadn’t left then Justin would still be here right now instead of wherever he is with the demons hurting him.”

“Are you in pain right now?” Lance asked.

“No--”

“See?” Lance interrupted. “He’s fine.”

“Yeah, but for how long? We could lose him,” Chris replied.

“We could lose JC too,” Lance snapped. “We should be thankful that he wasn’t kidnapped too.”

“And why is that?” Chris stepped closer to Lance. “I want to know what happened exactly. Why the demons took Justin and not JC too.”

Lance sighed in exasperation. “We know that Justin was kidnapped. What good would it do to find out the exact details?”

“It would make me feel better,” Chris mumbled.

“Yelling at him isn’t going to get Justin back any sooner,” Lance said.

“But this wouldn’t have happened if JC had stayed put,” Chris objected.

Lance rolled his eyes. “Oh, come off it, Chris. He had no idea that was going to happen because we all thought it was going to happen here.”

“What do you suggest we do then?” Chris asked. “We have no idea where they took him.”

“We’ll just…have to sit down and try to figure out what our plan of action’s going to be,” Lance said. “But first we need to help JC.”

Joey could hear Chris and Lance arguing in the kitchen about JC and whether or not Justin was in pain. Chris admitted that he wasn’t in pain, but it made Joey wonder what exactly the demons were doing to Justin if they weren’t hurting him. He knew from what had happened to him last week what they were capable of. It’d been almost an hour since Justin had been kidnapped and he may not be in pain right now, but Joey wasn’t sure it was going to stay that way because he couldn’t see the demons taking Justin and then not doing anything to him. Unless Justin was already dead. Joey shook his head. Surely if he was, they’d know about it because while Lance and JC were telepathic with each other one of them would’ve sensed if Justin died because of their psychic ability. But maybe JC did sense it and that’s why he was so freaked.

Joey turned his head to look at JC and didn’t like what he saw. JC’s lips were starting to turn blue, probably from the lack of oxygen since his breathing was still so slow, and his eyes were half open with a glossy, glazed over look to them. It was scary to see him like that, and he knew that he had to continue to try snap JC out of it.

He leaned closer to JC and said, “JC? Can you hear me?”

Joey snapped his fingers in front of JC’s face, not really expecting a reaction so he wasn’t disappointed when there wasn’t one. But he didn’t give up. “C’mon, JC. We need you here. You need to help us find Justin.”

Sighing, Joey leaned back against the couch. He’d been hoping that talking about Justin would’ve made him come out of it. Now he was at a loss as how to help JC. Silence filled the room again making it easy to hear Lance and Chris’s continuing argument. Joey wished they wouldn’t fight because who knew if JC could hear it. And really this wasn’t the time to fight. It was the time when they were supposed to ban together and figure out a way to help Justin. Joey was scared as to what was going to happen and wanted a hug, but since Lance and Chris weren’t in the room he reached out, threw an arm over JC’s shoulders, and pulled him close. He was surprised when JC actually responded by weakly hugging him back and moaning, “Justin.”

“Guys,” Joey called as he held onto JC who was crying on his shoulder.

Both Lance and Chris came back into the room and turned their attention to the couch to see JC crying in Joey’s arms. Lance let out a quiet sigh of relief, and even Chris looked a little less tense. After a couple minutes of crying, JC leaned back against the couch, but didn’t pull away from Joey. That was a good sign. One crisis was averted, but now was the hard part. They needed to figure out a way to get Justin back and they had no idea how to go about it. Joey now understood how helpless the guys must’ve been feeling when he was being strangled and prepared himself for a long night.