Chapter V: The
Present and The Future
"Let's take a look at a scene from the present then,
if the past is too painful to bear.", Patrick said as
the gray mists around them reformed and dispersed and Lou
and Patrick found themselves at the party the guys all attended
the night before after Patrick had visited them. Lance and
Justin lay quietly on the sofa, their arms wrapped around
each other, and Lance's head resting in the crook of Justin's
neck. JC and Mike sat on the floor beside the sofa, JC sat
behind Mike and had his arms wrapped around his shoulders
and neck and Mike leaned back into JC's chest. JC looked down
and smiled, leaning his head down and kissing Mike on top
of his head.
Chris and Joey sat on another sofa towards the back of the
room, quietly watching TV together, both smiling slightly
as they held each other's hand, unknown and unseen by everyone
else in the room, save the two spirits. Howie and AJ sat together,
chatting quietly with each other and Justin's mother, Lynn
Harless. Kevin sat alone in a chair, his true emotions hidden
behind his solemn poker face.
Nick sat on the loveseat with Brian, his head down and a
sad look on his face. Brian looked over to Nick and sighed,
seeing him so depressed. Brian took Nick's hand and interlaced
their fingers together. Nick looked up and Brian smiled as
Brian leaned over and gave Nick a peck on the lips.
"Merry Christmas Nicky", Brian said then he pulled
Nick into a tight, warm embrace.
"Brian...Frick", Nick said quietly, "I….I
love you."
Brian's eyes lit up and he kissed Nick again with greater
passion. "I love you too, Frack."
Lou watched silently, his face a mask of shame as he saw
the young boys that he violated having such a hard time at
happiness…and mostly because of him. Lou shook his head
and again the scene vanished…..turning again to a gray
mist.
"Spirit…Patrick", Lou asked, "What was
the point in showing me that scene. What bearing does that
have on me?"
Patrick's eyes narrowed slightly, "You needed to see
who was involved with whom at this time…so that the future
would make some kind of sense to you."
"The future. That is what you will show me next?",
Lou asked apprehensively.
"Yes. I am to show you the way the future looks if you
continue down your present path.", Patrick said slowly
to Lou. "These are images of what will be, but are only
as permanent as you wish to make them."
The mists began to swirl, turning dark suddenly, then parting
to see the bright lights of a casino.
"Where are we?", Lou asked as he looked around.
"Caesar's Palace, circa 2025.", Patrick replied
then escorted Lou into a room. Minutes later, the door slammed
open and in staggered a middle aged hugely obese, drunken
man dressed in a skin tight baby blue jump suit.
"God", the man slurred, "I gotta find my shit.
I'm on in like ten minutes."
The man began to paw through his bags until he let out a small
yell and produced a small box.
"Spirit", Lou said as his eyes looked over the
scene, "Tell me this isn't who I think this is."
"C'mon Justin old boy…", the man said as he
looked into the mirror and popped a few pills, "Just
make it through tonights performance."
"Oh my God!", Lou said quietly, "This is horrible.
Justin Timberlake has turned into Elvis's fat twin."
"But wait", Patrick said sullenly, "Let's
watch him perform. This is one night you don't wanna miss….it's
the last night of his performance."
Lou blinked and found himself standing on the side of a stage,
as Justin stood performing, rather badly, some of the new
solo stuff he had done in the last 15 years as well as renditions
of some NSYNC numbers.
"Spirit…where are the other members of the band…what
happened to them in this future?", Lou asked quietly.
"The band lost their case to you. You took their name,
their money and ruined them.", Patrick said solemnly,
"After bankruptcy, Justin had a short lived solo career
and now he is basically a has been hanger-on, living day to
day with his drug and alcohol problems and living off his
job as a lounge singer."
As his performance of God Must Have Spent finished, Justin
turned to walk off stage and collapsed. Lou watched in horror
as the casino EMT's tried in vain to revive him, but the combination
of drugs and alcohol he had taken was too great. Justin Timberlake
was dead at age 45.
The scene faded suddenly then Patrick and Lou found themselves
on the side of a highway. As they stood, Lou watched a sports
car weave towards them and then into the middle of the highway.
Lou yelled as the car sped towards the support of an overhead
bridge, hitting it full on at near 80 miles per hour. Lou
ran towards the car and looked through the window at the passengers
inside. Lou gasped as he realized that there were two men
trapped inside the car. Lou turned to ask Patrick who they
were and the car exploded in a ball of flame. A tear fell
down Patrick's face as Patrick threw a newspaper at Lou's
feet. The headline read, "NSYNC boys go out with a bang.
Fatone and Kirkpatrick die in drunk driving car crash!"
"Chris and Joey", Lou cried, falling to his knees.
The scene turned to gray again and Lou sat sobbing quietly.
"What of JC and that Mike fellow?", Lou asked hopefully.
Patrick shook his head and began to cry himself as the gray
mists turned into a hospital room. Lou walked over to the
side of the bed, where Mike, in his mid thirties, lay gasping
into a ventilator. Sitting on the other side of the bed holding
Mike's hand is a sickly looking JC Chasez.
As Mike stops breathing, JC begins to cry, "Mike...don't
leave me. I didn't mean to screw around on you. I didn't mean
to give you this disease. I should be the dying…not you!"
Lou gasped as he caught the full meaning of JC's words. "Mike
dies of the disease that JC gives him...when he screwed around
on him with another guy."
"Yeah", Patrick said quietly, "Then JC dies
of that same disease two months later…he dies alone…and
grief stricken, believing himself responsible for the death
of his lover as well as himself."
"But what of Lance? Surely Lance lives on....",
Lou pleaded, then turned a pale pale white as he saw the expression
of awful grief and misery on Patrick's countenance.
"He lives...", Patrick replies, his voice, a hoarse
whisper, "May the devil himself take your soul if this
future timeline goes unchanged." As Patrick spoke, the
black mists once again enveloped them and a second later,
Patrick and Lou find themselves in a dark hospital cell. Lou
gasps as he sees newspaper clippings of all the other NSYNC
guys various demises posted to the wall by the bed. Lou shakes
his head then begins to cry as he looks upon the middle aged
blond man sitting on the side of the bed.
"Lance? Is that Lance, Spirit?", Lou asks. Patrick
nods and then pushes Lou closer.
"Dead....dead...dead...all dead....", Lance's deep
voice almost a sing-song quality as he sways back and forth.
Lance stops then grips his head and begins to sob. "They
left me all alone!" Lance reaches under his pillows and
pulls out a long shard of broken glass and he eyes it with
an edgy, almost insane leer. Lance sniffs then dries his eyes
with the back of his hand. "Not alone for too much longer
now." Lance grabs the shard around the middle with his
left hand and grips it tight before swinging it up and bringing
it down into the soft flesh of his upturned right wrist. Lance
grimaces as he pulls the shard back, cutting a wide gash from
his wrist to his elbow. Lance watches the blood spurt out
and nods and then proceeds to repeat the procedure on his
left arm, all the time muttering, "Not alone for too
much longer now."
As Lance slits his wrist, Lou screams and falls to his knees,
"NOOOOO!!! God...NO....Lance...STOP!!!
Lou turns to Patrick and he cries out again, "PLEASE...make
him stop!!" Lou watches as Lance's blood flows freely
to the floor, pooling at his feet. Moments later, Lance's
beautiful green eyes roll back into his head and he pitches
forward falling off the bed and into the pool of his own blood.
Lance Bass, the last surviving member of NSYNC, is dead.
The red glow of Patrick's eyes is muted behind the waterfall
of tears that spring forth endlessly from them, "Lance...oh
Lance!", Patrick whispers shaking his head and then turning
away.
"You LOVED him!", Lou spat as he grabbed Patrick's
arm and swung him around to look into his eyes, "You
loved him and you let him kill himself!"
"I AM DEAD...YOU IDIOT!!", Patrick yelled, "Do
you honestly think for a moment that I wouldn't be with him
and have stopped him if I could have? Lance lost everyone
he knew and loved in his life. He's had to live and see all
his friends and lovers die one by one and was abandoned by
his own family when they found out he was gay.
He's been in this mental hospital for months now....alone....and
now he's ended his own existence to stop his pain and loneliness.
He's dead by his own hand, Lou, and because of that he will
never to be able to be with me in this plane. He's bound to
another place now...and its all because of YOU! I swear Lou,
if this timeline becomes a reality, I will make sure that
your soul finds its just desserts in the deepest, darkest
pit of hell. Even if I have to go there with you to make sure
it happens!"
Lou stared at Patrick a moment longer, shocked by Patrick's
last comments. Patrick then sighs and continues, "None
of this would have happened if the band had stayed together.
NONE OF THIS! But you made that impossible when you took away
their name and forced them into the poor house. You killed
them…every last one of them, just as assuredly as if
you had taken a gun and shot each one of them! Everything
you touch dies, Lou, you're worse than a plague…"
Please...Patrick...Spirit, show me that all is not lost…show
me that I bring some happiness in the future.", Lou begged.
"OK", Patrick said with a small smile, then the
mists began to swirl and turn black. The mists part and Lou
and Patrick find themselves in a dark hospital morgue. Lou
looks up as Lynn, not more than a year older walks in with
a doctor.
"I don't know why I am down as his emergency reference.
But I guess I can identify the body.", Lynn said quietly.
"Thank you Mrs. Harless.", the doctor said, "He
was found at home a few hours ago, dead of a massive coronary.
Lou watched as the doctor walked over to a door on the wall,
opening it and sliding out the covered body inside. The doctor
unzipped the body bag and Lynn smiled and nodded as she recognized
the body.
"That's him allright…that is or rather, that was
Lou Pearlman…well, the late Lou Pearlman, that is.",
Lynn said with a smile.
Lou gasped, "Spirit…this is the only happiness
I bring in the future? By dying?"
"What can I say Lou, you were a prick!", Patrick
laughed, "If I were alive I would be dancing with her
right here in the morgue.
Lou gasped as his perception changed and he realized he was
seeing out of the open eyes of his own dead body. The doctor
began to zip close the body bag and Lou cried out for help.
"You're dead here Lou…no one can help you…no
one would want to help you. You made your bed in this future
Lou…it's time you slept in it.", Patrick said as
the doctor zipped closed the body bag and slid the drawer
back into the cooler, letting the door close.
"NOOOOOOO!!!!!", Lou screamed as the door slammed
shut.
Lou then began to fall and fall and fall in the darkness,
landing finally with a hard thud.
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