I was all hot and sweaty from the nightmare I had. It was the shooting again but this time everything seemed to move in slow motion. I couldn’t believe that I just sat there and did nothing!! I was trying to fall back to sleep but found out real quick that I wouldn’t be able to cuz every time I closed my eyes; I saw it again. Once coming to this conclusion, I decided to head to the kitchen area on the bus and get something to drink and curl up on the couch. I was sitting there drinking my hot chocolate, when all of the sudden I heard some foot steps. I turned and saw Chris coming my way. Gee, I hope I didn’t wake him I thought.

“Couldn’t sleep?” He asked while yawning from not getting enough sleep.

“No.” I stated calmly hoping that he couldn’t tell that I wasn’t sleeping too well. He sat down beside me on the couch. He looked me right in the eyes and I kinda shrank from his stare. I wanted to know why he staring at me so intently.

“Why are you staring at me?” I asked pointedly.

“I have something we can do. You tell me what your nightmare was about and I will tell you why I was staring at you.” He said trying to get me to open up to him.

“How on earth did you know that I had a nightmare?” I asked curious as to how he could figure that out by staring at me.

“I could see it in your eyes. You could be the best person at hiding your feelings but when someone takes a good look into your eyes, they can tell what’s bothering you.” He said wisely. I looked at him and figured that there was no harm in telling him.

“Ok, my nightmare was exactly the same as the night that my family got killed. It was all in slow motion and I saw myself doing nothing! I didn’t even try to stop them! I should have done something other than listen to my dad and leave them like that! I should have died! My sister was too young to die.” I said full of mixed up emotions that I have been holding in ever since I wound up at their house. Chris moved closer to me in order to comfort me while I cried.

“It’s not your fault. You did what your father told you to. There is no way that you could have prevented what happened. It would have happened to you to if you did not obey your father.” Chris said trying to get me to see that it was not my fault. After another 15 minutes of convincing me that it wasn’t my fault, he made me lay down with him on the couch. I began to dose off. Little did I know that it wouldn’t be for long…..

I was awake but I don’t think Chris knew since I had my eyes closed and tried not to move. I was awake only cuz of another nightmare. I had finally relaxed and was about to dose off again when I heard Jc yelling Chris’ name. Why do they have to yell each other’s names? They are only one a bus. It’s not like they are in the Taj Mahal. I thought.

Jc came walking into the living area and said “Why is she sleeping on the couch with you?”

“She had a nightmare and I finally got her to go back to bed.” Chris said even more tired than before since he had stayed up all night. I listened to Chris tell Jc about my dream.

“I can’t believe she thought all that.” He said kinda surprised that I was still hiding things from them.

“She totally broke down. I guess she was holding her emotions in too long and she had reached the breaking point.” Chris explained. I had then decided to open my eyes. I had enough of them talking about me and knew it would stop once I woke up.

“Morning.” Chris and Jc said in unison.

“Morning. Do we have any cereal? I am hungry.” After I had finished saying that, they both were grinning from ear to ear happy that I was finally going to start eating again. We ended up in Brooklyn, New York. We all had decided to go to Joey’s home that he had in the city.

We were all doing our own things now that we weren’t on the bus anymore. Lance was working on Freelance stuff again. Joey and Chris were battling it out in a video game war. Jc was writing more songs up in his room and I was sitting reading a book. I looked up at the clock. It was nine. They guys had gone to sleep, except Joey. He was in the kitchen getting a snack. I thought I heard a window open in the room across from me put blew it off as nothing. I heard Joey coming up the stairs and walked around the corner but stopped when I thought I saw something. I yelled at myself for being so paranoid.

When Joey reached the top of the stairs, a shadow moved out from the wall. It looked like the shadow of a man. Joey turned his back and that’s when I saw the shadow getting in position to push him down the stairs. I screamed Joey’s name and he turned just in time to see what was coming. Unfortunately, he still lost his balance when the shadow pushed him. I watched him fall down the stairs and land on his left arm. I looked to where the shadow was and it was gone. Never the less, I went and called 911 and ran upstairs to tell everyone.

We were all home now and tired. Joey had to go the hospital. Fortunately he only broke his arm and he could still perform. He had this big bulky cast on that we all signed. The doctor said he is not allowed to strain his arm. So now we were all sitting in the kitchen trying to figure out who did this to Joey and why they would push him down the stairs.

All of the sudden it donned on me! “Guys, I think I know who the shadow was and what he wanted with Joey.” I said astonished it took me this long to figure it out.

“Who?” Joey asked.

“The guy that killed my family. I guess he was trying to seriously injure you Joey. The only thing I don’t get is why he isn’t coming after me.” I said still baffled with the last part of the puzzle.

“Ya, that is really weird.” Justin said. Like all of us he had no clue as to why any of this happened. I was determined to find out why though. He is not going to get rid of another family I said promising that I would keep a closer eye on them and make sure nothing else happens.

continued