Chapter 1

Four girls whom looked around the age of twelve all sat around a television set at night in their pajamas. They were painting each other’s nails and such, while watching MTV around midnight, when all of a sudden Kurt Loder appeared on the screen. They all looked up expectantly waiting for him to speak.

“We have some breaking news concerning Lance Bass, last living member of the former pop group *NSYNC. About nine months ago he went on a killing spree murdering all four of his group mates, and was then committed to the Florida Hospital for the Criminally Insane, and diagnosed as schizophrenic. We want all viewers in the Florida tri state area to beware of him; he is dangerous and could possibly be armed. If you see him, for God’s sake don’t ask for an autograph, just run and call the police immediately. Thank you, and goodbye.”

“AAAhhhhh! Did you hear that?!”

“Lance is out!” All of the girls screamed in unison, and immediately forgot the warning that they had just heard. One girl looked up from her nail polish, and spoke with a very serious expression on her face.

“You know what? I think he was framed. He is just very misunderstood.”

“Oh, I know. I mean, I met him at a meet and greet once, and he’s really nice. I don’t think that he would kill anybody.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“Totally.” All of the girls nodded their heads in agreement, and stared mournfully at a bookshelf covered with old *NSYNC merchandise. They just sat staring at the dolls, magazines, and posters with tears brimming their eyes, when all of a sudden one jumped up in surprise.

“Did you hear that?!”

“Hear what?”

“I totally just heard a noise from outside.”

“Do you think it’s Lance?!”

“That would be so cool. We could like hide him in here, so that the police don’t find him. Ya know?”

“Oohhh, that would be cool. I bet that he would be like so grateful, and we would be like his best friends, too.”

“Ooohhh. You’re right.” The girls sat watching the window, waiting for something amazing to happen.

“Is he really nice, because I’ve never met him before?”

“Oh yeah, he is like so nice. I bet he’ll be happy to see us, too.” They continued watching the window and squealing at every noise that they heard from outside.

“Maybe he can’t get the window open. I think it’s locked.”

“You’re right. I can’t believe that we didn’t think about that before.” She got up and unlocked the window before sitting back down with her friends. They kept staring at the window, and around one thirty something finally happened. The window opened, and a boot came through to rest on the windowsill.

“Who is it?” One of the girls asked cheerfully. The leg began to pull out of the window, but then stopped as one of the girls spoke up again.

“Is it you Lance, because we’ll make sure that they don’t find you if you stay here with us?” The leg came all the way into the window, and two hands poked over the windowsill, trying to pull up the body behind them.

“Don’t worry, we’ll help you.” Two of the girls went over to the window and grabbed the two hands pulling with all of their strength. Finally after much pulling and pushing on both parts, a disheveled Lance stood in the middle of their room.

“Are your parents here?” He glanced around the room nervously, and his eyes landed on a letter opener, before one of the girls answered him.

“My parents are gonna be back from the party in about a half an hour, but we’ll keep you hidden from them when they get back. I don’t think that they would understand that it wasn’t your fault.”

“Oh really?”

The girl’s parents walked up to the front door and opened it with movies underarm.

“They are going to be so excited when they see that we have these movies for them.” Her father sat his things on the chair in the hallway, and steeped beside his daughter’s bedroom door.

“Holly, are you guys decent?”

Silence.

“Are you guys awake?”

More silence.

“Honey, I’ll take the movies in there. They probably all just fell asleep.” Holly’s mother opened the door, flipped on the light switch and screamed at the top of her lungs before fainting. Her father ran into the room, and stood gasping for air in her doorway. All four of the girls were stabbed to death with papers stapled to their faces. Upon closer inspection by her father it was noticed that each girl had a picture of a member of *NSYNC stapled to her face. One had JC, one had Joey, one had Chris, and Holly had Justin. The only one missing was Lance, and then he noticed a message scrawled across the wall in blood: A life for a life.

Chapter 2