by silverluna
Chapter Nine
~*~
He awoke to layered darkness. Immediately, his throat dropped and threatened to close. Why can't I remember? Do I really know who I am? Lance shuddered at lost memory and of cold. What have I done? Who was whispering in my ears as I slept? Was it...myself? He blinked several times, trying to adjust his eyes to the blinding dark. Inside, he felt scarred and worn. He felt as if someone unseen had been filing away at his heart. Inside, he felt the blood smear all over him. What have I done? his inner voice repeated. More than a few times he had awoken to his own voice muttering things, things which he did not understand.
He felt almost a psychic urge that there was approaching danger, that his unconscious mutterings had put someone in danger. Someone he called...a brother....
No. It can't be, he tried to make himself believe. They never mentioned anyone else.
Time spread over him like a blanket, like a river which he was smothered in and drowning. It impatiently tapped a watch and urged him to pay attention. But he was drifting. He was in a desert and stars punctuated the canopy of night. The canopy of nothing. Please help me, he pleaded silently. I don't know what to do. Time passed over him and wrapped itself around him and unraveled, and he was left alone without being sure how much time had gone over his head. He squinted, trying to remember. Anything. What did the sun feel like on his face? What were the names of his second family? Why did he feel such a strong connection to the past?
I have to get out of here, Lance thought. I've got to warn them. He was forcing his eyes to stay open. He was afraid to sleep now. He was afraid that if he slept, the other piece of him would awaken and sing to the waiting ear whatever it was that would become dangerous.
The door opened. He didn't move. He really couldn't, still being chained to the same chair. A silhouette approached darkly. The shadow figure's hand held a syringe. Jet hair swished, but Lance's eyes were glued to her hand.
"Tricky tricky tricky tricky," Little Flower muttered. She pushed Lance's sleeve up. Jet hair swished violently as she fought with Lance, who was wiggling, to find a vein. "Gotchya," she said finally, pushing the long needle into his arm. She squeezed and whatever the syringe held emerged in Lance's body.
He freaked out. "What—what did you just do?" he muttered, still struggling.
"Just a little something to help you...relax." Her eyes were glaring.
He winced as a fire shot through his arm. A straggled cry escaped.
"Call him by name," a voice was whispering. "Call him by name."
Lance felt himself mind-tripping to a recent past event. He was distanced yet close, standing there in Janus' office. He was observing as Little Flower leaned to Alexander and whispered something. They suddenly looked in his direction, and horrified, Lance stepped back, falling into a black hole. He felt almost weightless, yet knew he was falling. He was Lance in Wonderland. Or something. There was only blackness with the occasional flash of hallucination around him. Red rain began to drizzle down the inside of the black tunnel. Lance felt himself being almost magnetically pulled towards it. He fell into red. His eyes were open and he started screaming.
~*~
There was a massive crowd. Hovering, hanging, dangling all over the sidewalks. They were wearing masks, laughing. They were a giant wave in the tiny sea of the Vieux Carre. It was almost like Maudi Gras, this carnival street parade.
Joey, Justin, Chris, and JC were trying to stay together. Key word trying. It was dark, close to midnight. They had freaked when they saw what was going on. They didn't want to be here, but they had received anonymous information by telephone that someone here knew about Lance's disappearance. They had been given instructions wear they were supposed to find this person, who was hiding in the sea of the street parade in Crescent City. The Wet Grave.
"And don't bring those big guys," the man had hissed into the phone, obscuring his voice. Justin had taken the call. "If I see them anywhere near you, or even if I don't, you ain't getting nothing, understand?" Justin was scared for Lance, and felt partially responsible for Lance's abduction, though he hadn't told this to the others. He'd agreed, but JC was suspicious.
"Deal is done, man. Do you want to know about Lance or not?"
So they went. Alone.
Justin clutched Chris' arm. "Look over there," he murmured, pointing somewhere.
"What? I can't see," Chris grumbled, squinting into the crowd. A thousand masked faces squealed in a dreary haze.
"Where?" Joey demanded, pushing ahead to try to see what Justin was pointing at.
Somehow JC had misplaced his brothers. He'd been shuffled to one side, pushed into flamingos and demons and made-up spirits. He tried to call out to Justin or one of them but his cries were eaten by the crowds.
Something gripped his arm. Tight. Aniexty prickled over his skin, his heart beginning to race. He tried to jerk away. The hand held.
"Mr. Chasez, I think it's best if you come with us," a calm yet demanding voice said in JC's ear.
JC's mind screamed. No! I've got to get away! "Let go of me!" JC ordered, kicking behind him. He struck something and experienced momentary freedom. He took advantage.
Frantically, he scurried through the crowd. There were hands on his ears, his hair, his waist. Beautiful women were whispering and screaming, "Stay with me! Stay with me!" He wrenched himself free, with each breath becoming more frightened. He had to get to the guys. His heart was beating so fast and so hard that he was sure the man who had grabbed him could hear it over the crowd's jittering laughter and jazz music flowing down the streets.
"Justin!" he yelled. "Joey! Chris!" He tripped on a jagged piece of pavement. He half bent forward.
An iron strong hand gripped one of his arms, wrenching it halfway behind him. JC winced and cried out. "You can run, but I'm not letting you go," a man's voice threatened.
JC felt something jab into his side. "No!" The item pressed harder. Even over the banter and music, he could hear the sound of his heart. The terror. The sound of a hammer cocking. JC froze, shaking. "Guys! Help!" he screamed without thinking.
"Shut up!" The man's tone was dangerous. He pulled JC up, dragging him into the oncoming brunt of the crowd's motions. He was at a disadvantage, going against the flow. Even at gunpoint, JC tried to pull away. He couldn't let this man take him. He had to get away....
JC's forehead felt prickly. I can't get lightheaded. I can't let him take me. He blindly reached out with his free hand. His fingers closed around white feathers; someone dressed as an angel. He gripped it tighter and wouldn't let it go.
"Hey!" the angel yelled, reacting to the sudden movement. The force of JC's assailant pulling him at spun her around. Her face was masked with dark and make-up.
"Please, I need help," JC whispered.
"Get off me, man!" the angel cried. The kidnapper was dragging JC and the young woman now.
"Please," JC whispered desperately. "This guy is trying to kidnap me." Her eyes seemed to widen at that comment. "Please, if you could just call the police or—"
"Dude, I don't know what you're on, but if you don't let go of me, I'm going to scream."
JC began to tear the wing from her shoulder. She screamed as promised. As her shriek cut through the crowd, JC prayed for attention of some kind. The man with the gun violently wrenched JC backwards, and the angel slipped from JC's grasp and was eaten by the crowd.
"Listen, kid, you aren't getting away. No one's going rescue you. You belong to us now," the man rasped matter-of-factly.
JC felt sick. His horror was growing. The crowd swarmed, threading and binding. JC looked up. His heart began to beat doubly fast. Justin? Was that Justin's face he was seeing? The man was cursing under his breath. The crowd wasn't letting him through.
JC stomped on the man's foot. He knew it was risky, because of the gun at his side, but he knew that he had to try. Chris? Was that Chris? JC half fell to the ground. As soon as he felt the gun slip away, JC dove to the ground into the crowd. He heard the man yelling, and was terrified. His breath was coming through in thick rasps. He crawled on the ground, bumping into people's legs. His sweat poured into the night. After crawling on his hands and knees in his attempt to escape, he finally struggled to upright himself, his head reeling with adreadline and fear. He pushed through the crowd. Someone grabbed him by the shoulders. A scream caught in the back of his throat escaped in a whimper.
"JC! Oh my God!" It was Joey's voice. "You're so pale!" Joey's eyes widened. "God, you're shaking.
"He's going to come back, Joe," JC bubbled out in a panicked voice.
"What? Who?"
His eyes shone. "Joey, please!" JC was near tears. His voice was high pitched like a child's.
Joey pulled JC towards the flow of the crowd. "Come on, C." JC gripped Joey's arm tightly. "Hey, I've got you, C."
"He could come back." JC shot a glance behind him. The crowd was blinding vision like strobe lights, like hallucinations.
Joey felt JC trembling at his side. What happened to him? Joey wondered. He looks so pale. He's acting terrified. Joey hustled JC through the crowd to an opening by a building where he told Chris and Justin he would meet them. They'd been looking for JC.
"Where are they? He probably got them." Tears rolled down his cheeks.
"JC, no, no," Joey gasped. He stopped, pulling JC aside. JC slumped against the building, still shaking. "JC, what happened to you?"
"Joey," JC began, "I tried to—he—he had a gun."
"What?" A terrible thought went through Joey's mind. JC had been threatened with a gun?
"Joey." JC wiped some stray tears. "Some guy tried to—abduct me." As soon as the words left his mouth, his knees buckled.
"Whoa," Joey uttered, wrapping his arm around JC's waist to steady him. "Abduct you?" Joey repeated, slowly.
JC nodded, taking a couple deep breaths.
"Did you see—"
"Joey!" JC looked up. Justin and Chris were approaching. JC inwardly sighed with relief.
"See, they're safe," Joey whispered.
JC shook his head. "We aren't safe here."
"You found him," Chris said. "Whoa, JC. Are you okay?" he asked, scrutinizing JC's face.
Justin peered at him. "Man, you're shaking," he said softly.
Joey's face was grim. "JC almost got kidnapped," he reported.
Justin and Chris gasped. "What?" Chris managed, shocked.
"What happened, Josh?" Justin asked, looking his frightened brother in the eyes.
"I lost you guys," JC began. "I was looking for you and then this man grabbed me from behind. He said my name, and told me that I had to go with him." Justin, Chris, and Joey were exchanging scared glances. JC's heart was still beating rapidly. "I kicked him, and tried to run, but I tripped. He caught up to me and grabbed me again. This time, he twisted my arm behind me and" —still feeling the steel— "he pressed a gun to my side. He started dragging me away."
Chris, Joey, and Justin's chests were tightening with aniexty as JC spoke. Justin thought a moment. "JC? I thought I saw you a little while ago. I heard this girl scream, and when I looked in that direction, I swear I saw you, but then your face disappeared."
JC sucked a few swallow breathes. Angel of mercy. Or pity at least. "There was a girl wearing an angel costume. I grabbed her wing and asked for help. She thought I was high and screamed. I was hoping she'd draw some attention to me."
"How did you get away?" Joey asked quietly.
"I was scared but I knew I had to make a break for it. I stomped on his foot and struggled and it threw him off balance. I dove under the crowd, and then ran into Joey."
"Literally," Joey stated.
JC paused, his lips trembling. "He's still here. He's going to try again."
"No. No, JC," Joey soothed. He slung his arm around JC's shoulder.
"But he told me that I was all alone and no one was going to rescue me. He said that I 'belong to them.'"
The three of them shivered while JC stood still, too afraid to move. "Well, it's a lie," Chris began. "You aren't alone, you were rescued, and you don't belong to them. You belong with us."
JC nodded, trying to be brave.
"We're getting out of here," Joey said definitely. "JC's right. This place isn't safe."
"What about Lance?" Justin began.
"I don't think this was actually set to give us information," Chris responded. "I think it was a set up to kidnap JC or one of us."
Justin shot a glance at JC. He was trembling and looked sickly pale. "Yeah. Okay," he replied, realization setting in. It's my fault once again. I must be cursed or something....
They huddled around each other. "We are not telling Lonnie or Dre or the police about this."
"What?" Chris asked Joey, startled.
"No. We weren't supposed to be here. If we tell, we'll be under house arrest, and we won't be able to find out anything about Lance, or now, this guy that tried to abduct JC."
"You think this is related to Lance's kidnapping?"
"I wouldn't be surprised."
JC in the middle of them, they walked back to their rental car. Vicious and terrified thoughts were churning through each of their minds. JC was thinking about how he should insist that they should tell someone, because he was scared that whoever did this would try again. But then he realized the police had turned up nothing so far, so it would basically be pointless and they all would get in a lot of trouble with Johnny when he found out. JC hoped that their initial silence now would help Lance out soon.
Joey slid into the driver's seat, and immediately locked all of the doors. Justin sat in the back with JC. JC had taken several deep breaths, and appeared to have calmed down a little, on the outside at least. Joey maneuvered the car through the crowd worn streets. Faces plastered themselves up against the windows. JC nearly became hysterical before he could stop himself.
"JC," Chris mumbled over his shoulder, "it's okay. You're safe now. The doors are all locked. Nothing's coming in."
JC paused, feeling that something had already come in that he couldn't control or understand. He sat up suddenly, his breath quickening. "Oh my God, oh my God," he panicked.
"What?" Justin asked. "What is it?"
"I—I didn't see his face Justin," JC said, trembling.
Chris felt a bowling ball drop from his throat into the pit of his stomach.
"I didn't see his face. He could be anywhere. He could be anyone." A bunch of faces smudged up by JC's window. He screamed, pulling back. He fell against Justin, who gripped him firmly.
Come on, be strong for JC. Lie and stay you think this will turn out okay. "We've got to stick together. We're not going to let anyone hurt you."
"But Lance—we were all together and still—we couldn't protect him."
"But we didn't know then, C. We do now."
"JC," Joey said, still focusing on the darkness, "we're going to find him. And we're going to find the bastard that tried to take you. Chris is right. How could we have known something like this was waiting for us here?"
"Should we really keep this from everyone? I mean, is that really the best of ideas?" Chris pondered.
JC's voice appeared out of the silence. "Yes." Everyone froze, surprised that serious JC would agree to "withhold" something from the authorities. "There's no other way. If we try to tell the police, God knows what will happen to Lance." Or what already has....
"We just have to be extra careful in the future," Justin said.
Joey cursed under his breath. "This is some dangerous shit. We're in a lot of serious trouble, and I have no idea who we can go to for help."
"Maybe there isn't anyone," Chris offered vaguely. "Maybe we're supposed to figure this out ourselves."
"But these are our lives—"
"Exactly. Sometimes we just have to fight back ourselves."
"How are we supposed to fight the unknown?"
JC stared out the window, beginning to calm as an eerie feeling washed him. His eyes were mere slits when Joey pulled the car into the hotel parking lot. Justin patted JC's cheeks, trying to wake him.
"He's asleep? Almost kidnapped, and he can sleep?" Chris muttered softly.
Justin shot Chris a mean look that said, "Shut up."
As JC stirred, he thought about what their bodyguards and personal would say about their absence. "Guys," he began. They stared at him and waited.
~*~
"Wandering around the hotel, what we you thinking?" Lonnie demanded. Dre looked pissed as well. "Especially without telling us?"
Joey, Chris, Justin, and JC tried not to flinch. Coming back to the hotel had affected JC more than he thought, and he sat scared and white faced as their bodyguards chewed them out for their "misadventure" of "hotel wandering."
"Sorry, Lon. We got restless," Justin tried.
"Yeah. The police haven't told us anything."
As the three of them tried to explain, JC felt himself becoming distant from sound. He could still hear it, but it was as if he were being peeled from the actual embodiment of it.
"We were down in the arcade for a while, Dre," Chris lied. "It was helping to take our mind off of—well, everything—"
It was kind of like falling asleep, but this place was different. He was becoming exceedingly pale and shaken. A phantom hand was gripping his shoulder. "You belong with us," a voice was saying deep within his subconscious.
Lonnie looked in JC's direction, wondering why he was silent for so long. "JC? Are you alright?"
JC looked up too quickly and things around him began to blur. He opened his eyes wide and forced his mind not to float. "There's—something I need to tell you. The guys are trying to cover for me, but I guess it's something you might want to know."
The others started, and tried not to look horrified.
JC chose his words carefully, knowing he had full attention. Anyway, what he was about to say was basically true. "I kind of—passed out. In the lobby." It almost seemed true.
Justin, Joey, and Chris inwardly sighed with relief. Though, come to think of it, JC did look awfully pale....
Dre got the hotel doctor on the phone.
"We weren't going to tell you because I was kind of embarrassed and I thought it was nothing, but just now I started to feel kind of funny again."
"Did you eat anything today?" Lonnie asked, concerned.
JC nodded, and felt sweat trickling down his skin. I guess I was more scared than I thought, he gulped.
"Sorry we left without telling you. We just wanted to walk around a little," Joey continued.
"I'll let it go this time, but there won't be a next time, got it?" Lonnie said, raising an eyebrow for emphasis.
They all nodded, thinking the same thing: He bought it. They eyed each other, trying not to dwell on the danger that had almost swallowed another one of them whole.
The doctor came in and treated JC for his fear, though he wrote it off as stress and aniexty, and gave him a mild sedative to help him sleep.
JC wondered what dreams would come.
~*~
I am falling out of myself. I am falling out of myself. I am falling out of myself. I am falling out of myself. I am falling out of myself. I am falling out of myself. I am falling out of myself. I am falling out of myself. Let me out let me out let me out—
Where was this voice coming from? Who was uttering these phrases? He tried to focus. He tried to search the deep recesses of his mind. Long tangled tresses or vine deterred his progression. Veins protruded and throbbed. He was lost in the jungle of his subconscious. A shadow figure loomed somewhere. He could sense it but that was all. He felt unsettled. His heart was thumping in his chest cavity. He felt very close to that place. He covered his ears, trying to block the sound. A twisting voice twined with the sound. He didn't understand the words, but he tried to see. He tried to see....
"Noli me tangere," ("Don't touch me,") she whispered at the gnarled man with the looming face as he reached for her.
His hand floated in mid air. "You think this is over?" he snarled. His arm shot out, encircling her by the shoulder. She cried out.
Lance felt himself being present at the time this was taking place. The time was musty and yellowed, and the young woman he was half seeing wore a long dress that only those of the 19th century wore. He couldn't comprehend her facial features nor could he see the face of the man with whom she was arguing. He could sort of see, but at the same time, he couldn't. The room shook and echoed with a deep, booming voice. The glass diamond shaped chandelier swung and clattered. It didn't fall.
"I believe the lady said not to touch her." Lance heard this voice but could see no one else in this room. He felt what should be their eyes on him. The edges blurred and Lance could almost make out everything.
The gnarled man's face was streaked with anger. The young woman's face softened. The young woman whispered a name. Lance was unsure whom she was addressing. "Beaurguard."
Lance froze. Literally. Ice began to tease his toes, his legs, and soon he felt it traveling up to his heart. His lips turned blue and his face froze in an _expression of horror. He fell away....