“You feeling ok, Lance?”

“Yeah. I’m just waiting for it to cool down before I try to eat some.”

“Stomach hurt?” JC asked. Lance nodded. “Well don’t eat any if you don’t think your stomach can take it. Although, I preferred you would so you will have something in your stomach.” JC had finished his sandwich and Lance had eaten a little bit of his soup.

“Are you finished?” JC stated knowing the answer already.

“Yes.” They had just finished putting the dishes in the dishwasher when the rest of the guys came in.

“Hey. How was your dinner?” JC asked upon seeing them walk into the kitchen and sit down at the table.

“It was good. Joey got stuck in the tunnel again and we had pull him out.” Chris said. Everyone in the room laughed while Joey just blushed. Whenever the guys went to McDonald’s, they liked to goof off in the tunnels. Usually, one of them would get stuck and the others would have to pull him out.

“How are you feeling, Lance?” Justin asked looking over at Lance. He didn’t look too well. Justin decided after looking over at him, that he would do something with Lance later to cheer him up a bit.

“I’m ok, just a little nauseous.” Everyone in the room nodded their head in understanding. There was a long silence until JC spoke up.

“Will you tell us about your dream now?” Lance looked thoughtful for a minute then shook his head. “Why not? It would make you feel so much better.” JC said.

“Come on, Lance. We want to know what’s buggin you.” Chris piped in.

“What makes you think there’s something bugging me?” Lance asked even though he knew that they knew something was going on.

“Oh don’t tell me that there’s nothing going on because we’ve seen the way you’ve been acting the past couple of days. You space out, you’re having nightmares, and you’re getting sick from not eating.” Chris replied. Lance looked over at JC for some help. JC just shook his head.

“You need to tell us, Lance.” JC said.

“But you told me that I could when I’m ready. I’m not ready.” Lance objected.

“Alright. Go lay down for a little bit but your telling us later, got it?” JC allowed. Lance nodded his head.

“I just need to think things through.” JC nodded and Lance headed upstairs. When he left, Joey was the first to speak.

“Why did you go and do that? We had him backed into a corner and then you let him go upstairs. Why, JC?”

“Because I did tell him that he could tell us when he’s ready and I don’t break my promises. It doesn’t matter anyway. We’re going to find out later. Just let him get his thoughts in order.”

“What do we do now?” Justin asked.

“Let’s put in a movie.” Chris suggested and everyone agreed. Nobody was really watching it though. They all were too caught up in their thoughts about Lance to pay any attention to the movie.

Lance couldn’t understand why the guys needed to know. It was his life after all, not theirs. So why care? But they cared whether he wanted them to or not. Not that he didn’t want them to care, he just didn’t want to have to tell them about what he saw and have him think he’s crazy. Lance started getting this idea in his head that maybe he was just seeing things but he knew deep down that he hadn’t. He was just afraid of what they would say after he told them everything. He didn’t know if his brothers would act differently around him.

Lance closed his eyes and fell asleep only to be haunted by another nightmare. This one was probably the worst out of all of them.

In his dream, him and the guys were watching a movie when they heard glass shatter. The next thing they knew, the power went out. When it was switched back on minutes later, there were big men with guns in the room. The guys moved closer together so as not to be separated but they were. The murder that Lance had seen before was there and went over to him. Lance was frozen with fear. All he could think about was how this was his fault and that he couldn’t believe he had found him and his friends. The murder pulled Lance’s arm to get him to stand. Lance had tried to wiggle away but the murder just put an even harder grip on Lance’s arm and whacked him in the back of the head with the gun. Lance winced at the sharp pain.

Finally the man spoke. “You fool. You honestly thought I wouldn’t find out where you lived? I’m not willing to go to jail as you have already found out. I’m here to make sure that doesn’t happen. Do your friends know about it? Do they?” Lance shook his head.

“You’re a liar!” The man shouted.

“No, really. They don’t know. I didn’t tell them.” Lance replied.

“I don’t believe you. So they all have to die.” The guy raised his gun to Lance’s temple and motioned for his men to do the same to the others. The guy began to count to three.

“1…. 2…3!” Once the man reached three all the guns went off except for the one at Lane’s temple. Lance watched his brothers’ expressions right before they were shot. All of his friends had a look of unexplainable fear on their faces. Lance felt so horrible.

“Now it’s your turn.” The man said turning to Lance and was about to shot him when the nightmare ended and Lance shot up in bed. He was sweating and panting from the horrible dream. JC had come into the room right when Lance had woken up so suddenly.

“Are you okay?” JC asked. Lance didn’t even notice he was asked a question until JC was waving a hand in front of his face. Lance snapped out of his daze.

“What, JC?” JC repeated his question to Lance again.

“Yeah, I’m…ok I guess. Just thinking.” Lance replied not wanting to tell JC that he had another nightmare but JC could see in Lance’s eyes that he did and that he was lying.

“Are you ready to talk to us?” Lance thought a minute. He couldn’t really say no because then JC would be worried that something happened. He didn’t really want to tell them but knew that they would drag him downstairs and tie him to a chair if they had to just so he would tell them. So Lance decided to go down freely.

“Yeah, I’m ready.” JC smiled faintly at him and they headed downstairs. Lance sat down on the couch in the living room while JC rounded up the rest of the guys. They all came in and sat down too. JC sat to the right of Lance and Chris was to the left of Lance. Joey and Justin were sitting on the chairs by the coffee table.

“Ok, Lance. Why don’t you tell us what’s going on?” JC suggested. Lance sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. He didn’t know what to say or how to word it without it sounding like he was going crazy.

“Is something the matter, Lance?” Chris asked. “If you’re afraid of what our reaction is going to be, I promise that it won’t be as bad as you think.” Lance nodded and sighed again. It was worth a shot.

“Well ok. Do you remember how I said that my car broke down?” Lance looked around the room and saw everyone nod. “Well, something happened after I filled my gas tank. I heard someone screaming from over by the woods. It turns out that there was a woman being stabbed to death. I was so totally freaked out that I ran back into my car. I didn’t feel right about leaving her without help so I called the police and told them something was going on and to check it out. Then I arrived here.”

Everyone was silent when Lance finished telling them what he saw. Nobody knew what to say. They all were stunned that Lance had seen something so horrific. Lance felt uncomfortable in the awkward silence. He went to leave when JC pulled him to sit back down. Lance complied with a sigh. He knew that there would be more questions.

“Why didn’t you tell us this before?” JC asked.

“I don’t know.” Lance lied. He knew that he had purposely not told them so the murder wouldn’t come after them if he chose to hunt down Lance.

“It feels like your not telling us everything.” Chris said. He had this feeling that there was something more to Lance’s problem than just what he saw.

“I told you everything! What else is there to tell you?” Justin looked at JC and yawned, hinting about his nightmares. Justin didn’t want to speak out for fear of getting Lance mad at him.

“What about your nightmares?” JC asked. JC couldn’t believe that he hadn’t remembered that. He would have to thank Justin for that later.

“What about them?” Lance questioned stuttering a little. It was because of this that the guys knew they found the other half of his problem.

“What happens in them? They must be something horrible to scare you so much.” Joey persisted. Lance sat as still as stone proving that he wasn’t going to talk about it.

“We’re not leaving this room until you tell us.” Chris said. Lance sighed and knew that he would have to tell them. Lance took a deep breath.

“Alright. Well my nightmares are based on what I saw. In every nightmare, he finds me but kills you guys. I’m afraid that it really will happen and that it will be all my fault. That’s what I’m afraid of the most, is you guys getting killed because of me and what I saw. I just wish that he would kill me and get it over with.”

“Why would it be your fault? You didn’t actually see him? Did you?” Justin asked and Lance nodded.

“I couldn’t really make out his features that great since it was so dark.”

“Did he see you?” Joey asked.

“Yeah. He made eye contact with me and told me to leave.” Lance shuddered remembering his icy blue eyes and gruff voice. There was some more silence and then JC said:

“You don’t have to worry about us. We’re all cautious.”

“I know that but I just can’t help to think that one of you will be walking down the street and he will shot you from behind. That’s why I just wished he would kill me so I don’t have to go through this.” Lance replied.

“That would never happen.” JC protested. “You don’t want to die and you know it. You just want an easy way out of this. It’s not right to wish you were dead.”

“I’m just so afraid of what can happen because you never know anymore with how crazy the world is.” Lance paused. “You just never know.” He whispered.