Touch Of Vision

Prologue

They stepped off the bus and into the crowd. Lonnie leading the way through the crowd, followed by Lance, Justin, Chris, Joey, JC and House bringing up the rear. A hand reached out and made contact with JC’s arm and he froze with his eyes closed.

A young girl cowering in the corner while a man stood over her. The man was holding a belt in one hand, slapping it across his other while yelling at the girl.

JC opened his eyes when House gave him a small shove, “Come on C, you can sleep once we get inside.” JC glanced around trying in vain to see the girl he’s seen but she was no where to be found.

The boys all made there way into the hotel and up to their rooms. Once inside his room JC sprawls across the bed and closes his eyes, quickly falling asleep.

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 towards 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.

JC sits up on the bed with a start. He rubs his hands across his face and makes his way to the bathroom. He returns to the bed after washing his face with cold water and sprawls back across the bed, this time however, sleep does not come easily for him.

The boys are making their way out to the bus after a show, a stage hand handing each a towel as they walk by. As JC is handed one, his hand brushes against the other man’s. JC freezes, eyes closing as he’s hit with another vision.

A young man sitting in a foxhole, surrounded by rifflefire and bombs exploding. Just as the man looks up one of his friends jumps into the foxhole with him, blood running down the side of his head.

“Kyle, what happened? Where are the others?”

“We’re it man. No one’s left…all dead.”

JC looks up at the man, smiles meekly, then leans in, “They’re not all dead, one survived, he’s looking for you.” He then continues on his way to the bus to join his friends, shaking off the strangeness of the situation.

As the boys all gather in a room for breakfast Justin looks up as JC enters the room.

“Hey C, you ok man? You look like you’ve been up all night.”

JC looks around the room, tugs his sleeves down a bit and plops down in the nearest chair. “Slept like crap, when I slept at all.”

Lance sits next to him and JC pulls away slightly. Lance frowns, moving to get up.

“You don’t…” Weary blue eyes meet worried green.

Lance says nothing but settles back, making short work of his breakfast.

They all finish their breakfast just as Lonnie enters the room, “Alright kids, time to go.” His eyes wander over each of the boys as they get up and start throwing their plates out, an eyebrow knits in worry when his eyes land on JC but he remains quite for now.

A young girl in wheelchair comes up to the table where the boys are signing autographs, as Joey passes the picture over to JC he closes his eyes and freezes;

A small child is sitting in a car seat, suddenly there is a screeching of tires and crushing sound of metal. The next minute the child is being loaded into an ambulance, tears streaming down the face of a woman standing nearby. A man coming up behind her and wrapping his arms around her waist, both having blood on their arms and faces.

JC jumps a bit as Lance nudges his side and gives him a quizzical look, mouthing, “You ok?”

JC nods then realizes the young girl is still waiting patiently for him to sign her picture, when he looks closely at the girl he realizes she is the one that he’d just seen and smiles at her, quietly sliding the picture back to her.

Lance is sleeping soundly on his bunk as the squeal of tires wakes him. He jumps up, ducking down so he doesn’t smack his head on the bunk above. He makes his way to the kitchen just as the bus begins to roll.

JC jumps up, looks out the back window at the bus following the one he’s riding on. He quickly makes his way to the front, demanding that the driver stop. He jumps off the bus, runs back to the other one, yelling for Lance and Joey to both wake up, demanding that they get up and ride on the other bus til they reach their destination. Both boys are way too tired to argue, they just grab their pillows and follow JC to the other bus.

The boys are all settling into the backroom to watch a movie when the bus slows down and pulls to the side of the road again. They all get up, JC moving to the front of the bus, “What’s going on? Why’d we stop?”

The driver looks up to meet the nervous blue eyes and stated, “The other bus was just hit by a semi. It’s in the ditch about a mile back.”