Chapter 34

JC was caught in the throws of a nightmare that had been plaguing his sleep for several nights, but tonight’s dream had a twist that caused his terrified screams to escape the lounge area where he was and carry down the long hallway to Lance.

.

JC found himself standing alone outside in Justin’s backyard at the pool area, wearing his swim trunks with the sun beating warmly down upon his bare back. He brought a hand up to shield his eyes from the sun’s glare and glanced up to see that the sky was a deep, cerulean blue, without a cloud in sight. His gaze then fell to take in the inviting appearance of the cool, blue water in the pool. The gentle sound of the water lapping languidly against the sides of the pool only added to the pleasurable desire to jump into the water. He turned around and saw that several towels and pairs of shoes and sandals were scattered about the patio chairs and on the pool deck. It was always at this point that he would awaken from the dream, but tonight, for some reason, he didn’t.

As the dream continued into unchartered territory, the silence was suddenly punctuated by several loud splashes that sounded very similar to several bodies hitting water.

JC slowly turned to look toward the pool expecting to see the same blue waters that he had seen only seconds before, but much to his horror, he now saw something terrifying. There, right before him, floating face down in the water were the bodies of Chris, Justin, Lance and Joey. Just as their bodies began to sink beneath the surface of the water, JC found himself being able to see underneath the water’s surface without his actually entering the water itself. He watched in fear as his friends slowly sank toward the bottom of the pool, their limbs limp and outspread with clouds of blood floating about their heads leaving a marked trail of their descent.

Suddenly, JC found himself to be in the water with his friends with the ability to not only breathe underwater but speak underwater as well. He reached desperately toward the nearest body, which happened to be Chris’s and was unable to get a firm grip on the older man’s arms. He quickly moved to Justin’s body and found that instead of his body’s weight being lighter under the water, it seemed so heavy that JC could swear that an anchor was attached to his friend. Unable to help Justin, he moved next to Lance, then Joey with the same results…the inability to help any of them.

JC quickly surfaced and began screaming for help but after several frantic moments, none came. He looked down through the water to see that all four of his friends’ bodies were now lying motionless on the floor of the pool. He dove down to them and tried to pull one of them up to the water’s surface, but was unable to. It was as if their bodies were glued to the bottom of the pool.

JC found that he no longer had the ability that he had had earlier to breathe under the water and had to surface before once again diving. He repeated the performance again…and again…and again…and again…until…finally…he became weaker…and weaker…to the point…that he could no longer…surface to draw in…the air that his…lungs were…screaming…for.

JC sluggishly struggled to swim to the surface and found the task to be almost insurmountable and drew in one last breath as his face barely cleared the surface of the water. Since he was unable to keep his face completely above the surface of the water he ended up taking into his screaming lungs as much water as air and began to sputter and cough as he vainly struggled to keep his head above the water….

It was at this point that Lance raced breathlessly into the lounge area to find JC slowly thrashing about, entangled within the lightweight blanket that he had placed over him earlier in the evening. JC’s screams had been replaced by coughing and labored breathing and for a moment, Lance stood in the lounge’s doorway dumbfounded at what he was seeing.

Lance’s momentary stupor was interrupted when he saw JC fall off the couch, narrowly missing the coffee table set in front of the couch. Lance immediately rushed to the couch and pushed the coffee table to the side so that he could kneel beside the now semi-awake JC.

“JC…Jace,” Lance quietly murmured to the shaking young man. The only response that he received was JC suddenly bursting into tears as his breathing became quicker and labored.

“Hey…Jace,” Lance said as he drew JC’s trembling body against him. “You need to slow your breathing down before you hyperventilate.” Lance’s words of warning went unheeded and much to his alarm, he noticed that JC’s lips were beginning to turn a light blue as his lungs struggled to draw in a deep breath.

“Can’t…breathe…can’t…breathe…” JC barely managed to say as his breathing became even more erratic.

“Try to stay calm,” Lance said as he leaned JC’s body against the couch then immediately stood up, raced to a long counter along one of the lounge walls and rummaged through the many drawers in search of a paper sack all the while hearing JC’s breaths becoming even more rapid and shallow. Finally, after going through 3 drawers without luck, Lance found what he was looking for and quickly opened up the bag as he dropped back down to JC who had slid his body down to the floor when he no longer had the strength to sit up.

“I want you to breath into this bag,” Lance said urgently as he placed one hand on the top of JC’s head while pressing the paper sack over JC’s mouth and nose with the other.

In JC’s panicked state, he didn’t realize that Lance was trying to help him and he weakly tried to bat away Lance’s hand, but Lance spoke to him firmly and his feeble efforts ended.

“JC…stop fighting me. This will help…you need to breath in some of your own carbon dioxide…that’ll help slow your breathing down.”

Lance’s words somehow penetrated the fog that had formed in JC’s mind and he stopped his weak struggling and allowed Lance to keep the bag over his face.

Minutes later, JC could feel his breathing begin to ease, and the evening and deepening of JC’s breathing brought much relief to Lance.

“What happened JC?” Lance asked as he continued to hold the bag over JC’s pale face while slowly running his other hand over JC’s head.

“Dream,” JC answered, his voice muffled by the sack.

“Bad one?” Lance asked, already knowing the answer.

JC closed his eyes and nodded his head as a shudder passed through his body.

“Want to talk about it?” Lance quietly asked.

With his eyes still closed, JC shook his head no.

“You know you don’t have to if you don’t want to C,” Lance reassured him quietly. “You do know though, that when ever you are ready to talk about the dream, you can come to me or any one of the others.”

“I know,” JC said looking back up at Lance. He placed one of his hands over the hand that Lance was using to hold the bag against his face.

For several more minutes, Lance continued to quietly hold the bag over JC’s face until he was sure that his breathing had returned to normal and that his coloring was better. While he did this, he watched JC drift off into a light sleep.

“Man…you’re exhausted C…” Lance whispered as he ran his hand over JC’s head once more before deciding that it was time to remove the bag then get JC home so that he could rest in his own bed. It was Lance’s belief that the different surroundings had triggered the nightmare, but in actuality, unknown to him or the others, for that matter, this one just one of several nights that JC had experienced this nightmare. The only difference with tonight was that it had gone on to a new level.

The rustling sound of Lance’s removing the paper sack from JC’s face caused him to awaken with a start.

“Hey…sorry C,” Lance apologized as he once again ran his hand over JC’s head.

“Can we please go home now?” JC asked weakly. He was ready to get as far away as possible from the lounge in the hopes that he could leave the memories of the nightmare there in that room.

“Yeah…” Lance answered as he looked down at his friend. “Do you think you can sit up?” 

JC nodded then cleared his throat as he allowed Lance to slowly pull him up to where he was no longer laying on the floor. The next step was to have him sit on the couch long enough so that Lance had the chance to gather up his things before walking them down the hall to the elevator.

Lance managed to get JC seated on the couch and he made quick work of gathering up the folders that he had brought with him before returning to JC’s side.

“I’m sorry I’ve caused so much trouble,” JC murmured as he allowed Lance to help him stand up.

“You haven’t caused any trouble Jace,” Lance said quietly as he kept a firm grip on JC’s left arm while walking to the elevator.

“It was a bad dream and believe me…I understand what they can do to you,” Lance said as he shook his head at the memory of his recent nightmare that resulted in a concussion and several stitches.

“I know,” JC quietly whispered.

The two remained quiet for the remainder of their journey downstairs into the garage area. Lance did not want to further upset JC and JC was putting his entire being into concentrating on putting one foot in front of the other without falling down. He was totally spent physically and emotionally.

Within a few minutes, Lance and JC had driven through the security gates and were on their way to Justin’s house.

“JC…JC…you need to wake up,” Lance whispered as he gently shook the sleeping man’s shoulder. He had fallen asleep just as soon as they had driven through the security gates and had not stirred during the entire 30-minute drive from Jive Records to Justin’s home.

JC stirred under Lance’s touch and opened his eyes, blinking heavily only to see that they were no longer moving but were now parked in the large garage at Justin’s.

“You think you can make it in the house with just me helping or do I need to go get J or Joe to help?” Lance asked, hoping that JC could make it into the house under his own steam with his help. If he had to awaken Justin or Joey he was sure that questions would be asked and JC probably would not be too happy about that.

“I’m okay…let’s go,” JC said in a voice barely above a whisper.

“I’ll come around to your side,” Lance said. He quickly got out of the vehicle and made his way to the passenger side where JC already hand the door open and was standing shakily, waiting for him. Lance gripped JC’s left elbow and the pair slowly made their way into the house.

“I guess everyone else is already in bed,” Lance whispered as he and JC walked through the kitchen, into the living room toward the stairs.

“Yeah…it’s pretty late…isn’t it?” JC asked.

“Yeah…about 2:00…” Lance answered as he and JC stood at the foot of the stairs.

“Gonna be able to make it?” Lance asked nodding toward the stairs?

“Yeah,” JC said gripping the banister. Lance let JC set the pace while he kept a steady grip on JC’s left elbow.

“Just a few more steps C,” Lance said encouragingly.

“Man…I can’t believe how tired I am,” JC said tiredly. “Was this how you felt last month?”

Lance giggled a little before answering. “I don’t know…Joey carried me like a sack of potatoes up the stairs. I didn’t even know I wasn’t at the office anymore until he and Chris woke me up while getting me ready for bed.”

“Oh…I don’t think I need help with that,” JC said with a smile.

“Good,” Lance answered as they reached the top of the stairs and began to make their way down the long dimly lit hallway to their bedrooms.

The closer the came to JC’s room, the slower his steps became. He didn’t want to go to sleep. Sleep meant nightmares…nightmares meant reliving the past and he didn’t want that…not tonight. Tonight’s nightmare had reached a new level and he couldn’t face that again.

Lance felt a tremor pass through the arm that he was holding and he looked over at JC’s face and saw that it had grown pale.

“You okay Jace?” he asked, his voice full of concern. He stopped walking and turned JC so that he was looking at him directly.

“Um…yeah…I want to go back downstairs…I’m not ready to go to bed,” JC said quietly.

Lance raised his eyebrows at JC then shook his head no. “You need to go to bed JC.” Lance gave JC’s arm a slight tug and they once again began making their way toward JC’s room.

“Lance…” JC began. “I really don’t want to go to sleep…okay. Take me back downstairs…please.” Lance shook his head no and continued his progress with JC offering some resistance.

Lance stopped one again and looked at JC’s face and saw fear written on his face. He suddenly understood what JC had been trying to say to him. He was scared of the nightmares…too scared to sleep.

“Lance…I really don’t want to…” JC began, but Lance interrupted him.

“You know…if you don’t mind…I’d like to sleep in that extra bed in your bedroom,” Lance said. “Joey was snoring last night and I didn’t get much sleep with all that noise going on.”

A slow smile made its way across JC’s face. “Sure…I’ve got no problem with you using the extra bed.”

“Good…let’s get you in there then I’ll get my stuff and get a shower before coming to bed,” Lance said as he and JC entered JC’s bedroom.

JC sank gratefully down onto his bed and watched as Lance pulled a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt from one of his dresser drawers. “I won’t be too long JC…leave a light on for me,” Lance said as he walked out of the room and closed their door behind him. JC stood up and turned on the lamp by the bed then turned off the bedroom lights before slowly changing clothes and crawling under the bedcovers. Having Lance sleeping in his room with him just might be what would keep the nightmares away and he wanted that desperately...just one night in his bed free of nightmares. JC pulled his blankets up to his chest and turned to face the extra bed before closing his eyes.

“Please…God…please let me not have another nightmare tonight,” JC quietly whispered before falling asleep.

Thirty-Five