Touch of Vision

Chapter Two

The young girl cowering in the corner while a man stands over her. He’s holding the belt in the same hand, slapping it across his other hand, yelling. The man moves toward the girl. The belt snaps in the air, then comes down and across the girls legs, arms everywhere. The man continues to yell, telling the girl she’s a whore, that she’s worthless, useless and more trouble than she’s worth.

When the belt stops bright blue eyes peek out from behind bloody arms only to close quickly before the belt hits again.

“What’d I tell you? Did I not tell you to never look at me? I guess we can add stupid to the list. You’re the worst fucking child in the world. I’ve no idea why I put up with you. If it weren’t for the money, you’d be dead you know that?” The man kneels down next to the small girl, “You’re dead already. Doesn’t matter if they pay or not, and I can’t wait.” The man walks away, cold laughter ringing in the girl’s ears and she cries herself to sleep once more.

JC strolls into breakfast that morning looking worse than he had since before the Pheonix incidents. Lance looks up from his paper, takes one look at his friend and nudges Justin with his foot, nodding towards JC mouthing, “Looks like another one.”

Justin turns to look at his best friend and instantly springs to his feet, “Jayce?”

JC drops into the nearest chair, looking at his friends and then dropping his head against the back of the chair, closing his eyes, “I don’t wanna talk about it guys, just please don’t ask. Not yet, ok?” He lifts his eyes and makes eye contact with the youngest member.

Justin drops to the floor in front of JC, “When ever you’re ready Jayce. We’re here for you, ok?”

Ruffling the curls on Justin’s head, JC gives a small smile, “You’ll be the first one to know ok Curly.” He lifts his head and something on the paper Lance has discarded catches his eye. He stands, moves to the table and picks up the paper, starring at the small child in the picture. Not saying another word he turned around, taking the paper with him and left the room. Leaving four completely confused friends in his wake.

Three weeks later, Joey and Lance are sitting on their bus, when Lance’s phone rings.

“Hello?”

“Is this Lance Bass?”

“Um…Who is this?”

“Oh…sorry, this is Agent Sanchez.”

“Yeah, this is Lance. What can I do for you?”

“Um…well…Mr. Chasez wouldn’t happen to be with you would he?”

“Not exactly…he’s on the other bus. Why?”

“Where is your next stop? Would it be possible for me to meet with him? It’s quite important.”

“I…I suppose so, we’re on our way to Minniapolis. We should be there by morning.”

“Great. I’ll meet you there.”

The buses pull in, the boys all get off and make it up to their rooms. Lance follows JC into his room, waiting til JC is sprawled across the bed, “Jayce…”

Not even bothering to open his eyes, JC grumbles, “What Lance?”

“Um…well…Agent Sanchez called while we were…”

“He did? When?” JC is suddenly wide awake, “Is he coming here?”

“Uh…yeah, actually…were you expecting him?”

“Sorta…I had a dream about him this morning on the bus. We were here,” he looks around. “In this very room, in fact.”

“Really?” Lance stands in the doorway for a few minutes thinking, then moves further into the room, “Jayce?”

JC sighs quietly, “What is it Lance?”

“Well, I was just wondering, now I’m not even gonna say that I understand how you knew what was going on in Pheonix but it seemed like you were always touching something to get these, for lack of another word, visions, but now you’re saying you dreamed about Agent Sanchez…What’s that all about?” Lance rambles.

JC smiles at his baffled friend and pats the bed next to him, “I’m not sure actually. All I know is, most of the time I do have to be touching something to activate them, the visions, (Lance nods) but…for some reason, I had this dream last night and now he’s here…I don’t remember much else other than what I’ve already told you about though so…guess we’ll find out together what he’s here for. Where are the others? It might be a good idea if we’re all together for this.”

“I’ll go round them up. Why don’t you give Sanchez a call?”

The five men are all gathered in JC’s room awaiting Agent Sanchez’ arrival, Chris being the last to arrive in the room, “Ok, so what’s up? What was the emergency that I had to drag my beat old ass down here for?”

JC turns from the window he’d been staring out, exhales a deep breath and walks across the room, “No clue man. Sanchez wouldn’t say why he was here, just that it was very important that he talk to me and,” he looks down at his feet, “I’d really feel more comfortable with you all here when he shows up.”

Chris stops dead in his tracks at the tone in JC’s voice, it was enough to make the hair on the back of his neck stand on end and send a chill down his back. He quickly made his way to JC and wrapped an arm around him, “Well then…can I crash on your bed then til he shows?” Raised eyebrows and a grin to rival a Cheshire Cat were enough to get a small smile from the younger man.

“Yeah, go ahead old man.”

Chris ruffles JC’s hair and flounces across the bed that isn’t already full of Joey and Lance. JC walks back over to the window and returns to watching the clouds pass by.

Justin jumps up from the floor where he’d been playing Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2003 and answers the door as soon as the knocking starts. “Afternoon Agent Sanchez, how’re things going?”

“Not too bad Justin? Right?”

“Yep, come on in. Jayce’s been waiting for you.”

“He has?” Sanchez follows Justin in and grins as he spots the others in various states of sleep. “Guess you guys really are as close as you say in all those interviews huh?”

Joey, Chris and Lance all sit up and watch as Sanchez walks in, eyeing the woman with him but all remaining quiet.

JC turns once again and smiles as his eyes land on Sanchez, “Agent Sanchez. It’s good to see you again.”

“It’s good to see you again too Mr. Chasez, I just wish it were under better circumstances.”

“Please have a seat. Who’s your friend?”

“Well, this is Kasandra Jackson, she’s based out of the Seattle office.”

Kasandra stands, “When I saw the file on the case where you helped Sanchez here, well, I called him as soon as possible. I’m hoping you can help us like you did him.”

“What exactly is it you need his help with,” Lance states, stepping between Agent Jackson and JC. “No touching unless he initiates it.”

“I’m sorry.” She stops and glares at Lance, “But I can not disclose the information of this case with anyone other than Sanchez, who already has all the details and Mr. Chasez, if he agrees to help out.”

JC reaches a tentative hand out, placing it on Lance’s shoulder:

“Joe get down. You’re gonna get hit.” Lance screams from behind the patrol car he’s hiding behind.

A light nudge in the ribs from Lance brings JC back quickly. He glances at Lance with a weary look then turns his attention back to the two agents. “Look Agent Jackson, I don’t know how much you saw in that file and to be honest, I really don’t care. You want my help, they stay.” He indicates to his friends, “Whatever your here for, I need them and there support or I won’t be any good to you.”

“We promise to be on our best behavior.” Chris states, smiling brightly.

Agent Jackson looks closely at each boy then returns her gaze to JC, “Fine. They can stay.” She sighs and walks towards the table, placing a file on it, “I was hoping you could help us find this man. Hopefully before he kills anyone else.”

JC walks over to the table then glances up at Sanchez, then sits in a chair and places his hands on the file:

A tall man with dark, almost black, hair walks into the bar and takes a seat at the end of the bar. He orders a drink then turns to watch a couple of men playing pool, silently sipping on his drink. He sits there for a few minutes then gets up and walks over to the smoky area. He whispers to one of the men standing nearby then walks towards the door.

(Suddenly the scene jumps to a darkened street)

“Well well, look what we have here,” a short stocky man snickers.

“Don’t know man, but he’s obviously in the wrong part of town,” states a taller, scruffy looking man from the rear.

“Perhaps we should show him what happens to his kind when they wander too far into the our neighborhood,” a third man states.

JC looks up from the file, that he hadn’t even opened yet, and looked from one agent to the other, “What exactly do you need my help with? I don’t understand.”

Agent Jackson walks over and flips open the folder, “We’ve been looking for this man (she points to a picture in the file) for the last three years. He seems to have disappeared two weeks ago and no one seems to know what happened to him.”

“I still don’t understand. This one seems pretty cut and dry to me, why bring someone like me in?”

“Jayce,” Justin cuts in, “What did you see? When you…you know…touched the file?”

Puzzled, JC looks at Justin, “What?”

“You went into one of your…well, you got that look that you always get when you’re having one of your visions. What did you see?”

“I saw a man enter a bar, then it jumped to him being surrounded by some men by the docks, they were threatening him. I think, sounded like it anyway.” JC looks closely at the picture again, “Oh my…this (he places a finger on the picture), he’s the man I saw.” He looks up at the agents, “You aren’t gonna find him alive.”

Both agents look at the young man, then Sanchez walks over, “Are you sure?”

“Pretty sure, you don’t meet men like he did and live to tell about it.”

Lance walks over, “JC, did you see him…”

“No, I didn’t see him die,” JC shakes his head then closes his eyes, “I can’t be sure.” He opens his eyes, opens his mouth to say something but is interrupted by Chris.

“Wait, let me guess. We’re gonna be making a trip to Seattle?”

JC turns and smiles, “You guessed it Christopher.”

JC leads the way down the dock, looking closely at the buildings trying to identify one that had appeared in his vision.

Agent Jackson whispered to Agent Sanchez, “You sure this kid knows what he’s doing? This is the 10^th dock we’ve searched tonight and we haven’t found squat.”

“Give the kid a chance. If anyone can find him, he will.”

“There, that one.” JC states as he walks towards a large building. He places his hand on the building then turns, kneels and picks up a pipe that was lying on the ground.

“Well well, look what we have here,” a short stocky man snickers.

“Don’t know man, but he’s obviously in the wrong part of town,” states a taller, scruffy looking man from the rear.

“Perhaps we should show him what happens to his kind when they wander too far into the our neighborhood,” a third man states.

“I…” The man stammers then tries to make a run for it.

“Where you think you’re going fancy pants?”

The man stops and stands, lifting his chin, “Do what you will, but just so you know, people will be looking for me if I…”

“Don’t give a damn who you are, you’re on our turf. That’s all the reason we need” the thin scruffy man states as light glints from the knife he’s turning in his hand. He lunges towards the man but completely misses, finding himself face first on the ground.

The short stocky man steps up, pistol in hand and shoots the well dressed man in the temple. His face splattered with blood, he helps his friend up and turns towards the third man in their group. “Now what do we do with him?”

“Throw him over, no one will me looking for him in there. He may have been telling the truth about people looking for him, we don’t need anyone else coming down here. Bad enough he was here.”

“Yeah, said the thin one, now we’re gonna have to move. If someone does coming looking for that bastard, we don’t want them to find us instead. Go get her ready, John you get us some transportation. I’ll take care of our new friend.”

JC walked to the edge of the dock and peered down at the water, “The man your looking for was thrown over here.” He then turned back and looked at the building, “There is something else going on here that has nothing to do with him though. I’m not sure what it is but I can feel it in the air.” He walks down the dock a bit more, his four friends close on his heels.

Justin rushes to catch up with his friend, “Jayce, what is it?”

“I’m not sure J. Something’s going on or was going on when that man…when they killed him.”

“What’d you see Jayce?” Joey asks.

“Man this place gives me the creeps,” Lance whispers, a cold chill running down his back.

“Those men…the ones that killed the guy they’re looking for, they said they had to move. Didn’t want anyone to find them if they came looking for him. Then one of them told one of the others to ‘Go get her ready’.”