We were almost done with the tour. The last stop is here in Maryland in Jc’s hometown. Right now we are on the way to his house. I am kinda of nervous of meeting his parents. What if they don’t like me? What if…Stop! I told myself. Everything is going to be fine. We pulled into his driveway and Lance put the car in park.

“Just be yourself and I know they will love you.” Jc said encouragingly. I didn’t really believe him though. We stood in front of the door while Joey rang the doorbell. The door opened and a plump, friendly looking woman stood before us.

“Jc! Welcome home!” she said enthusiastically.

“Hi mom.” He said overjoyed to be home and able to see his family again. As we walked in she gave me a questioningly look like who are you and where did you come from?

“Jc, who is this you brought with you?” she questioned curious as to why there was someone that was way younger than her son standing in her kitchen.

“Well mom, she is my daughter.” Jc said after clearing his throat. She looked shocked and was about to protest when I jumped in.

“I really am his daughter. He adopted me after my family was brutally murdered. He has been taking very good care of me and I hope you give me a chance to prove that I am a good kid.” I said hoping some of this sounded good. I looked around the room. Mrs. Chasez had her husband’s arm wrapped around her shoulders.

“Well of course I will give you a chance. Everyone deserves a chance.” She turned to Jc. “Why didn’t you consult me about this or tell me before now?”

“I figured she needed me and felt drawn to help her. Plus I thought you would approve even if I did ask you.” He said looking at his mother the whole time.

Her face softened and she stated, “You know me too well, Jc. You know your dad and I back you in all of your decisions.”

“Thanks mom.” He said glad that his parents were ok with this. Since we had some time before sound check and the concert, we decided to hang there. Basically Jc wanted me to bond with his parents and we did that well. I helped his mom bake and his dad taught me more than I would ever want to know about computers. So it was a good afternoon. We said our good byes and thank yous for the food.

We had reached the venue just in time for the sound check. The concert was great! I could tell the guys had a lot of fun but was glad that the tour was over with and they could begin to relax. We ended up flying back to our house in Orlando. You could tell everyone was glad to be minutes from being home. We pulled into the driveway and the bodyguard offered to take our bags inside. We told him to go home and spend time with his family and that we would see him in a week.

We unlocked the door and stepped inside. It felt good to be home. We were about to flip on the lights when all the sudden we heard this voice that sounded close by. The guys automatically going into protective mode made circle behind me. Jc, Joey, and Chris were in front of me and Lance and Justin were on the sides of me. No one was behind me. All the sudden I was pulled from behind and Lance was the first to notice.

“Uh guys…where did Jasmine go?”

“What are you talking about she is right here…” Justin said and turned to see that I wasn’t there.

They were looking all around. I could feel the stairs under me and the guy had his arm around my neck. They were still trying to figure out where I went when they heard the voice again. “Your circle wasn’t very good now was it? I mean I easily took her from behind.”

“Where is she?” Jc asked stunned that this was happening.

“You want to see her?” the voice questioned. They all said yes and automatically the lights came on. All eyes turned to land on me with the guy’s arm around my neck. Before they had time to react, 5 of his men grabbed their arms to refrain them from reaching me. When they first saw me they could have cared less who the guy was but now they were curious.

“Who are you and what do you want with her?” Joey boldly asked.

“Oh that’s right. You don’t know who I am. I am the person that killed Jasmine’s family.” He said half amused at what was going on.

“Let her go.” Chris demanded.

“I can handle this myself.” I stated somewhat calmly.

“You are in a headlock. I don’t think you can handle this.” Jc said while starting to get mad at me for thinking I can handle this again and that he couldn’t help me.

“I’m still thinking. Give me a minute.” I said to more to myself than to him. I decided to try something. I lowered my center of gravity and stepped on his toe. Fortunately he let me go. I gave a look that showed Jc the determination I had.

“That was pretty good.” The man said to me.

“What do you want?” I asked scared of what the answer would be.

“At first I wanted you to die but now I came up with something better. I figured I could just let you suffer again by killing your friends.” He said knowing that he backed me into a corner. “Or if you want, you can give up your life for theirs. It’s your choice.”

I knew that I didn’t want to have them killed. I would rather die than have them die. Lance entered my thoughts and saying “Let him kill us. You should live. You are so young. You have your life ahead of you.”

“Ya, we have had a lot of fun! We have had a life most don’t have.” Jc said trying to get me let them get killed. I had decided long before they talked that I was going to give my life up for theirs.

“You can take my life but only if I lose the fight to you. If I win then I get to keep my life and they get to keep theirs’ too.” I bargained hoping to get some more time to fight for my life.

“Deal. Let’s begin shall we.” He said. I took one last look at them before I began and I could tell this is not what they wanted me to do. I turned around to face him. I ran full force toward him and knocked him down on his back. He hit me a few times in the stomach but I endured the pain. We ended up rolling on the floor trying to punch each other. He gathered some strength and threw me from on his body. My right leg hit hard against the wall. You could hear the bone shatter from the force of the throw. I felt weakened by this but was determined not to give up.

I dragged myself up but failed miserably. He walked by me and I tried to grab onto his legs to make him lose his balance and fall over. Unfortunately it didn’t work and he kicked my left arm into the wall just as hard as he did the leg. I basically couldn’t move now.

I looked up at him at he smirked “I guess I won. I hope you have a nice afterlife.” He then fired the gun at my stomach. I guess he wanted me to die an agonizing death. I was loosing a lot of blood and because of it and all the pain I was in, I was deathly pale. I heard him call his men to get up and leave. So they left the guys and me. They instantly ran to my side.

I could hear them shouting out scared and confused orders. As things were starting to become fuzzier, I was thinking back to everything that had happened seconds ago. I felt that I had done the right thing. My last thought was that I loved them and then everything around me went black.

continued