“Hey Lance.” Justin spoke into the silence of the room with everyone lost in their own thoughts. They seemed to snap out of it once he spoke. Lance looked at Justin, his eyes dull and tired.

“Yeah?” Lance questioned staring into Justin’s blue eyes.

“I was wondering if you wanted to….play Life or Monopoly or something.” Justin suggested. Everyone noticed Lance’s eyes light up a little. Justin knew that this was a good way to get on his good side. They all knew that Lance liked to play Life and Monopoly; they were his favorite games. JC felt grateful that Justin was going to get Lance’s mind off things for a while.

“Really?”

Justin nodded. “There’s nothing to do and I don’t feel like swimming, so I figured why not.” Everyone knew that half of the reason Lance accepted was the fact that he didn’t want to be sitting there any more.

“Sure I’ll do it. Anybody else want to?” Lance asked. Chris looked at JC and saw that he wanted to talk some more by his facial expression. Chris shook his head at Lance’s question. Although he did want to, he felt that JC needed to talk and he would see what’s eating him, even though he had a pretty good idea.

“I’ll play with ya’ll.” Joey said as he stood up. “You sure you guys don’t want to?” Joey questioned looking at Chris and JC.

“Not right now. We might later.” The three nodded and headed for Lance’s room to play the games. Once they were gone Chris said, “What’s eating you Jace?”

“I just can’t believe that Lance saw something like that and then waited a couple days until he told us. He probably wouldn’t have even told us if we didn’t drag it out of him and force him to tell us.” JC replied.

“I see what you mean, but he might have told us.” Chris said.

“Yeah, he might have but there’s that other half that says he wouldn’t have so I don’t know. Then the fact that he wished he was dead. I just…..I could never see him killing himself, you know? He knows that he has a lot to live for, so I’m just worried why he’s thinking these thoughts.”

“Exactly. He does know that he has a ton to live for. He knows that he’s loved. It’s what you said, he just wants the easy way out. I don’t think he would ever actually carry out killing himself. He knows that it would be hard for his family to bear and he hates to see his family hurt.” Chris explained.

“I know. I keep telling myself that. I’m just worried about him. He’s different since he’s seen that murder.”

“We all are worried about him but we can’t let him know that. That might have been part of the reason that he wasn’t going to tell us because he knows that we would make a big deal out of it and bug him to death making sure he was ‘ok.’ And yeah, he’s different but wouldn’t you be if you saw a murder? Seeing horrific things really changes a person. So don’t worry about him too much. Let him come to us for help if he feels he needs it.”

“You’re right Chris. Knowing me I probably would bug him to death.” JC said as he chuckled lightly.

“Well, duh. I’ve only known you for forever.” Chris said jokingly and then said, “He was smiling when he left the room anyway. That’s always a good sign.”

“Yeah. I’m glad that Justin is doing that with him. He really needed that. It’s good that he’s getting his mind off of things for a while.”

“Yes, I agree. Let’s go join them. You need to stop thinking about this too.” Chris replied as they both headed upstairs. They opened the door to Lance’s room and saw all three of them lying on the floor on their stomachs playing monopoly.

“Hey guys.” Lance greeted as he noticed them in the doorway. Lance and Joey moved over from where they were laying to make room for JC and Chris. JC sat next to Lance and Chris next to Joey.

“Who’s winning?” Chris asked even though he probably knew who it was.

“I am!” Justin replied. Chris and JC looked at him.

“Really?” JC asked.

“Nah. Lance is still the champion. He’s whooping our butts.” Everyone looked over at Lance he had a grin on his face. He noticed them staring at him.

“What? I can’t help it that I’m this good.” Lance replied.

“You sound like Justin.” Joey replied and they all laughed. They finished up their game and now put in a movie. It was going on 8 o’clock.

“I think we should go and pick up some Chinese. I’m gonna order it. What does everyone want?” JC suggested and got everyone’s order. He came back in the room a few minutes later. “Does anyone want to ride with me to pick it up?”

“I will.” Lance said from where he was sitting on the couch.

“Alright let’s go.” JC said as they headed to the door. Lance got in the passenger’s seat and JC in the driver’s. JC pulled out of the driveway and once they were on the road looked over at Lance. He was looking out the window but still had a smile on his face. This made JC smile too.

“Who ended up winning Life?” JC asked as he was watching the road.

“Joey did, which surprised Justin and me. We weren’t expecting him to win because he was so far behind. He still managed to do it though.” Lance answered.

“I’m surprised you didn’t win. You’re the Life champion aren’t you?” JC commented with a smirk. Lance’s smile got bigger.

”Well he had the best job in the game. He was a doctor. If he hadn’t won I probably would’ve though.” JC nodded as he stopped at a red light. The city was always very nice when it was lit up at night.

“I love this city.” JC said. Lance nodded.

“It is very pretty. People say they like Las Vegas the best. It’s really cool but there are too many lights. It’s nice to be able to look up at the stars in the sky.”

“Yeah, it is.” The light turned green and they went up the road another half mile and pulled into the outlet.

“You just wanna wait here?” JC asked. Lance nodded. “Alright. I will be back in 5.” Lance was just looking absentmindedly out the window when he saw something that caught his eye. It was a shadow of a person next to the outlet in the dark. Lance wondered who it could’ve been. He didn’t know why anyone would stand in the shadows. A horrible thought donned on him; maybe it was the murderer. Could he have really followed Lance? He began to think these ideas, letting himself get carried away with his thoughts.

Could that be him? It’s hard to tell in the dark but then again I never really saw him good to begin with. What if it is him? Is this some kind of warning or something? Would he give me a note to let me know he’s watching my friends and me? Something really weird happened. Lance couldn’t explain it. He got this feeling in his stomach like something could go wrong. Lance shook off the feeling as just nerves but the feeling wouldn’t go away. Could this be a sign of something bad that’s going to happen? Lance wasn’t expecting an answer but got one. The weird part was that it was coming from him. Maybe, maybe not. It would be a good idea to keep an eye on your friends. Lance was afraid of answering himself. It was a very weird thing to happen. Oh God, he thought. Maybe the bad half of my conscious is coming out. His mind swirled with all the bad thoughts that could happen and how he could do nothing about it. He paled as he thought about these horrible things. Lance decided to make a promise to himself that he wouldn’t tell the others of these things, they would think he’s crazy and that he would keep a close eye on them the whole time.

Lance had no more time to think about it because JC jumped into the jeep. JC looked over at him and noticed that Lance wasn’t smiling any more and he was paler than before.

“Are you alright?” JC asked. Lance looked at him and nodded.

“I’m fine. I just saw something that freaked me out.”

“What was it?” JC pushed as he pulled out of the parking lot and headed for his house.

“Nothing. I just saw something move in the shadows. It must have been a cat.” Lance winced as he lied. He had to get better at this lying thing.

“Ok.” JC said not really convinced but hearing Chris’s words echo through his brain. He shook his head. He hoped that Lance would tell them more. He couldn’t understand why Lance wasn’t telling them everything from the very beginning. The rest of the car ride was silent. Both lost in their own thoughts. JC’s was about Lance and what he and the rest of the guys could do to help him. Lance’s were about all the bad things that could and might happen and how he had managed to come up with these thoughts when he never had any kind of these thoughts before. They reached JC’s house and walked into the kitchen where Lance sat down at the table. Soon everyone else joined them.

“I’m starving. The food smells great.” Joey said as he sat next to Lance. Everyone got what they wanted and we’re eating their food. Lance was eating but he was still wrapped up in his thoughts. The guys knew something was bothering him but didn’t want to bring it up in fear that it would just make Lance want to tell them less. So they talked about something else instead.

“Hey Lance. Do you know what you’re taking when you get back to college in the fall?” Chris asked.

“I’m going to take some more business courses. I want to have my own business.”

“Oh, really? What kind of business do you plan on having?” JC asked.

“I was thinking either an ad company or a company that helps get new artists coming out a chance to get onto main stream radio, something like that.” Lance replied.

“That sounds really cool! I think you should go with the music one.” Justin said.

“Maybe. We’ll have to wait and see.” Everyone by that time had finished up eating and they all headed upstairs to get ready for bed. They wanted to get out kinda early tomorrow and go do something. Lance had already taken a shower and he was in his room listening to his Walkman when JC walked in from being in the shower. Lance took off his headphones.

“Enjoy your shower?”

“Yeah. It felt good.” JC answered and Lance nodded.

“You sure you’re feeling ok?” JC asked still concerned about earlier. He hadn’t gotten a chance to talk to Chris and it was too late now. It was 2 am.

“Yeah, I’m sure. I’m just tired.” JC couldn’t argue with that. Lance needed the sleep. He had hardly gotten any sleep the past couple of nights with his nightmares. JC decided he wouldn’t give Lance a hard time about it anymore until he talked to Chris and figured out what to do. JC also reminded himself to have the other guys come too so he could explain more to them and they could sort this thing out together. The only problem was getting Lance out of the house.

“Good night, JC.” Lance said as he settled into his bed.

“Night, Lance.” JC sighed as he rolled over in his own bed. He wished there was something that he could do to help Lance. Unknown to JC, Lance wasn’t sleeping. He was still shocked by the thoughts that he had been getting. Once JC and him got home, he pushed away those thoughts but they always ended up coming back. There’s no way he could tell the guys about this. They would definitely never leave him alone if he told them this.

Lance soon fell asleep, to his disappointment. He had hoped that he wouldn’t fall asleep especially now since he was getting those thoughts. He knew that he would have to be very careful and keep a watchful eye. He slept peacefully for about an hour when he fell into yet another nightmare. To his surprise, he didn’t wake up JC when he sprung up in his bed. He sighed with relief. He didn’t need the guys knowing about anymore of his nightmares. He knew he would have to do something soon in order for these nightmares to go away.

He pulled his Walkman into his lap and put in some sounds of the ocean. He imagined that he was at a tropical island where nothing bad happened. Where there were no killers, threats, and people worrying. That all the people were just relaxed and he was sitting on the soft, sandy beach listening to the waves as they washed up on the beach and the sea gulls fly over head. He wished he was there, in this wonderful place but he was sucked back into reality when he heard a window crash...