Part 7
They didn’t sleep.
Not a wink the entire night.
He just couldn’t close his eyes and even
try. Every time he did, he thought he heard a noise, or felt a touch. Inevitably,
they just ended up awake. Their eyes pushing against the exhaustion , and their
brains struggling to keep touch with reality.
When they finally got their fire going
again, they discovered little piles of sticks surrounding them in some
haphazard circle. It had been enough to freak Justin out. Chris had just gotten
mad and kicked the sticks away claiming Backstreet was trying to find a way to
get back at them.
JC was trying to reconcile the whole thing
knowing the reality was somewhere between the supernatural and anything the
Boys could come up with.
“What was that?” Justin asked sitting up
for the millionth time.
“The breeze.”
“No, it wasn’t. You said it was the breeze
last time.”
“Justin!” Chris finally whined. “Justin,
give it up. There is nothing out there. Nothing. Just your stupid imagination
getting the best of you.”
“I do not have a stupid imagination,”
Justin whined back.
“You won’t ever have an imagination again
if we don’t get some rest,” JC said.
“Yeah JuJu,” Chris said. “First it was the
rain that never fell, then it was JC’s gas problem, and now it’s your whining.
Why don’t you just sleep?”
“I don’t have a gas--,” JC started.
Justin rolled his eyes and cut him off.
“Oh, like I haven’t tried that.”
“Well try it again,” Chris said.
“Okay,” Justin said with fake enthusiasm.
“I will. Hang on.” He just sat there staring at Chris the whole time.
Chris scowled. “Know what would work? If I
threw big rock at you and hit you upside the head.”
“Why don’t you just--!”
JC cut him off this time. “Why don’t you
just both stop it? There is nothing out there that can hurt anyone, but Justin
man, if you can’t sleep then you can’t. What can we do? Nothing. I’ll stay up
with you if I have to. Chris go to sleep.”
“Oh thank you, oh gracious JC,” Chris
muttered. “You’re a kind and benevolent leader.” He bowed his head
dramatically.
“Shut up,” JC said through his now
clenched teeth.
Chris shook his head and laid down on his
side once more to try and get some sleep. He couldn’t believe how ridiculous
things had gotten. They had just been trying to scare stupid Nick. Justin was
over-reacting because he felt guilty.
JC looked up at Justin who just shook his
head.
“Jerk,” he mouthed.
JC sighed. Justin and Chris were polar
opposites. They hated each other as easily as they got along.
“Wanna talk?”
Justin shook his head. “I wanna go home.”
“Well, that’s not gonna happen right now,”
JC pressed a smile.
“I know,” Justin shrugged. “But I just
thought I’d whine about it. That way I could annoy Chris. You know how I love
annoying Chris.”
They heard Chris sigh and suddenly start
to snore loudly.
JC chuckled.
“You really think nothing’s out there?”
Justin asked. “Seriously?”
“I don’t know, Curly. Could very well be.
It’s a big world, and who really knows. But what’s the point of worrying about
that? Don’t we have enough with what’s right in front of us?”
Justin shrugged. There was some truth to
that, but it was just easier to give into the possibilities of what could be.
“I mean, I don’t understand you guys. It’s
bad enough that we’re stuck here, fighting with each other, and you have to
invent things to make everything worse.”
“I did not invent piles of sticks,” Justin
said,
“Yeah, but you guys aren’t making this any
easier. Didn’t you learn in fifth grade that the boogie man does not exist? You
guys really need to--.”
“What do you mean ‘you guys’? Who is ‘you
guys’?” Justin asked sitting up straighter.
“You and Nick,” JC said. “You and Nick are
just--.”
“Hey, hey, Nick and me nothing,” Justin
said. “Enough with the comparisons. We are nothing alike and never will be.
Just because you--.”
JC was already shaking his head.
“Stop wagging your head,” Justin said.
“It’s true. We are nothing alike. He’s an idiot asshole that can’t take care of
himself, and I... I...,” Justin searched for words. “I’m not.”
“Whatever, JuJu,” JC said and heard a bird
call in the distance. “The sun’ll be rising soon.”
Justin looked around. “Yeah?”
“Yeah buddy, you made it.”
“Well that’s only if really bad things
only happen at night.”
JC leaned back to look at the now-inky
blue sky. “Well, things can’t get much worse during the day.”
--
Kevin couldn’t believe it. Nick had
knocked out a couple of hours after they got back from camp, and he hadn’t
heard word one from him the whole night. He tried his damndest
just to snooze and not fall into deep sleep the entire night. It was beyond
difficult for him because he just loved to sleep, but long ago he’d come to
accept that he’d do anything for the guys. Foregoing sleep one night (er, two,
maybe three nights) was not that big a deal.
The kid just must have been that
exhausted.
He caught himself thinking of Nick as a
kid and stopped. He was no kid.
“Morning Kev.”
He looked up surprised that he hadn’t
heard anyone else around.
“Steven?” he asked sitting up and rubbing
the sleep from his eyes. His joints popped in that orchestra of soreness.
“What’s going on?”
“You guys ready for your immunity
challenge?” he asked.
Kevin was still squinting against the
bright sun. “Yeah, but um, so early? What on Earth are we doing?”
“We’re traveling,” he said. “Get Nick up.
I’m gonna go get NSYNC, so meet us on the main beach.”
“Traveling?”
“I’ll explain everything. You guys eat
something, and we’ll get going. It’s a long hike up, okay?’
What else could he do? He ran a hand
through his longish, messy hair and rubbed his stubbly cheeks.
“Yeah, okay. We’re coming.”
He watched Steven disappear into the
jungle then glanced back Nick who was still asleep with his back to him.
“He gone?” Nick mumbled.
“You heard him?”
“Um-huh?”
“Ignoring him?”
“Yeah,” he said with a sigh. “Can I go
back to sleep?”
“Nopes,” Kevin
said pulling himself up. “We’ve barely got time to get some food and wash up.
We’re going on some kind of hike. C’mon, Nicky. Let’s go.”
Nick finally rolled over and let the
reality hit him. It was down to Kevin and him. If he had to have predicted this
ending, it would have looked much like this. He knew Kevin was definitely the
strongest of the five. Nick, however, felt like one of those stubborn weeds
that shot up right after being plucked. Somehow or another, they were the ones
who were always left standing. Maybe it was the big brother in both of them.
They got up, washed up and ate in less
time than they ever had.
“Well, it’s got to be one of the last
challenges,” Kevin was saying. “It’s not like they’re expecting us to vote each
other off. And if we lose, how are they gonna pick who goes?”
Nick frowned as he finished his banana. “Then
we can’t lose, right?” He tossed aside the peel and got up to follow Kevin back
into the jungle. “No way, no how. We can’t lose. We can’t.”
Kevin glanced back at him and noticed that
he seemed much more animated than he had in the last few days. But that was
Nick for you. He could be down and out about something, then just find it
inside of himself to get up and keep going. He’d seen him do it countless of
times onstage. They all had.
“You guys doing okay?” Steven asked Nsync, who looked
all but okay.
“We’re fine,” Chris muttered.
“What do you care?” Justin asked with a
pout.
JC sighed hard. “Yeah, we’re fine.
Everything’s fine. What could be taking the guys so long?”
“Nick’s probably eating,” Chris said. “You
know how long that could--.”
“That joke is soooooooo
old,” Justin told him. “It’s like as old as your underwear.”
Chris’ eyes widened then narrowed. “Shut
up, JuJu. Why are you pissing on me today?”
Justin shrugged. It had been a long night,
and he had no idea why he was doing anything anymore.
“Guys,” JC warned.
Chris scowled at Justin, and he returned.
That was life with them.
Steven stared wondering how these any of
these guys ever got so popular. They were no different from his bickering
little brothers.
“Hey,” Kevin greeted as he and Nick appeared
through the bushes. “You guys been waiting long?”
“No, you’re right on time,” Steven said
glancing up at the early-morning sun. “Let’s go.”
“Where are we going?” Chris asked.
“Yeah. And why do we have to leave so
early?” Nick wanted to know.
“I’ll tell you on the hike up,” Steven
said. “It’s going to be a really long day.”
JC shrugged at Justin who seemed as lost
as everyone else.
Kevin pushed through four and pulled Nick
along with him. “Let’s go.”
“Guess Brian’s gone,” Justin whispered to
JC. “My money was on Nick.”
“Shows how much you know, Curly. Guess
Brian needed to get home to the old ball and chain.”
“You means balls of silicone?” Justin
giggled.
“Talk about old jokes,” JC said rolling
his eyes. “Why don’t we try keeping the peace for once, huh?”
Justin frowned. He enjoyed fighting the
war against the Backstreet Boys. Unfortunately, his partner in that war was
getting more annoying by the minute.
“Yeah, okay. All right. Fine.”
“Preacher-boy gone?” Chris asked catching
up to Nick.
Nick took a double take to make sure that
was the oldest member of NYSNC talking to him.
“Brian?”
“Yeah, that’s his name? Brian?”
Nick nodded as he caught Kevin glancing
back at them suspiciously.
“Yeah, we voted Brian out last night.
Why?”
Chris shrugged. “Just curious.”
Nick gave him a funny look and shrugged as
well. He didn’t really want to fight with Chris. He didn’t even really want to
talk to him, but here he was trying to be civil. Well, civil in a Chris way.
“Well, it was better like that,” Nick
began. “He was missing home and all.”
“He was? Well then again, who isn’t?”
Chris smiled. “Did you guys hear anything funny last night?”
“Funny how?”
“Funny like wind and flapping sounds. Like
a huge bat?”
Nick shook his head. “A bat?”
“Yeah. We heard this thing flying over us,
and it blew our fire out. It was pretty freaky.”
Nick bit his lip and almost hoped Kevin
wouldn’t be listening. The guys had never really let him tell them what he
experienced that night. They were too caught up making him feel better, making
him forget.
“Is that what you heard?” Chris asked.
“Flapping? No, it was more like
screeching. I don’t remember too much now.”
“Well, I was asleep, or trying to sleep,”
Chris said shooting Justin a look. “Then I heard all this flapping. When I woke
up, those two were hugging each other and didn’t even know what to do. Justin
was so hysterical that--.”
Nick was laughing, so Chris stopped.
Getting on Justin’s bad side for a little was typical, getting on his shit list
for life would be deadly to anything they wanted to do.
“I was pretty upset too,” Nick said
slowing his pace so Kevin would go up ahead of them. “I just remember finding
this strange, black lump and hearing all that screeching. Suddenly, the air was
colder and the wind was blowing harder. Next thing I thought I saw it move and
ended up stepping all over these--.”
“Little piles of sticks?” Chris asked.
Nick stopped walking and looked at him. He
had told himself that it hadn’t really happened. Brian had practically convinced
him that it had all been his imagination. Things like that didn’t happen in
real life. He watched too many scary movies and this was the result. Brian even
had him feeling guilty for being scared.
Nick nodded. “Little piles, yeah. Is that
what you saw?”
“They were all over the place. I just
kicked them the hell away. JuJu was all upset screaming bloody murder while JC
kept trying to explain it all way. I think we pretty much decided it was you
guys, but really,“ Chris sighed. “We all knew you were at Tribal Council, so I
knew that couldn’t be it. But I wasn’t about to sit there and try to figure out
what they were.”
They eyed each other. Here they were the
direct opposites of their respective teams and they only ones who seemed to
take the time to think through their supernatural experiences.
“Think it’s them?” Nick asked pointing
with his chin toward Steven. “Think they’re trying to freak us out?”
Chris shook his head. “If it is, they have
some awesome special effects guys.”
“What? Don’t tell me you two are thinking
of getting together to form the new Milli Vanilli,” Justin said as he and JC passed him up.
“Yeah, jealous I didn’t choose you?” Chris
asked without missing a beat.
Nick noticed how JC just seemed annoyed.
He didn’t blame him, but it made him kind of happy that they were fighting.
“Nick?” Kevin called when he saw him
surrounded by Nsync.
“There’s your mommy,” Chris said. “Maybe
he wants to be your daddy now.”
And just like that Civil Chris was gone.
Nick tilted his head confused.
Chris was already pretending to make a
spanking motion.
“Who’s your daddy? Who’s your daddy?”
Chris called as Nick made his way around him to catch up with Kev.
“What’d he want?”
“Nothing, Kev,” Nick said with a shrug.
“Just to make conversation.”
“Him make conversation? I think he’s the
most idiotic of the five. A couple less IQ points, and he’d be retarded,” Kevin
said. “C’mon, you might be interested in what Steven was telling me.”
“Steven was telling you something
interesting?” Nick asked. “And you were listening? I guess I wasn’t the only
one talking to a retard.”
Kevin chuckled. “Really. He was telling me
about this legend on the island. It might explain what you saw, or think you
saw.”
“Kev, I know what I saw.”
“What’d you see?” Steven asked having been
listening to the conversation the whole time.
Nick hesitated and even looked at Kevin.
They had been making war with this guy for days now. He wasn’t too sure he was
ready to drop it.
“Piles of sticks?” Steven asked as he
stepped over the brush and rocks that littered their path. “All thrown together
like in a circle?”
Nick nodded apprehensively.
Steven shook his head. “See? I knew it. I
knew it had begun. We should have been more careful.”
“What’s begun? What are you talking
about?”
Steven clicked his teeth and Kevin caught
Nick’s arm to roll his eyes at him. Nick understood. He didn’t want him to
trust this guy, but he wanted to hear what he had to say.
“There’s a legend on the island, Nick.
People say it’s haunted. This is one of the most beautiful places in the whole
world, but have you ever wondered why it’s not inhabited? No one will live
here. No one can live here.”
“What do you mean they can’t?” Kevin
asked. “What? Do they get run off or what?”
Steven cleared his throat and looked at
them. He knew the last thing these guys wanted was to trust him, so he was
careful with what he said. “It’s a legend.
“What’s the legend?” Nick asked.
“That there’s a spirit here. A really bad
one.”
Kevin noticed how the other guys had
caught up to them as well and were all listening.
“What does this spirit do?” Chris asked.
“What do the little sticks mean?”
Steven sighed and continued the upward
hike toward island peaks. “It’s a long story, guys. It has to do with a tribe
that lived here a long time ago. They had many beliefs and among them were
making human sacrifices to the gods.”
Kevin shook his head.
JC was a few steps behind him doing the
same thing.
“Human sacrifices? Like virgins?” Chris
asked.
“Virgins, kids, warriors, whatever the
gods wanted. It’s a different way of seeing life guys,” Steven said. “But
that’s not what makes this place cursed.”
“Cursed? I thought he said haunted?” JC
asked but no one heard him.
“Then what happened?”
“Who made it cursed?”
“Just spill!”
“The sacrifices were in the hands of the
island priest. The last one known to the tribe was a little off,” Steven said.
“He didn’t exactly follow the sacred rules for sacrifices.”
“What’d he do?” Justin asked. “Start
sacrificing people on Wednesday instead of Monday?”
“No, he ate them,” Steven said.
“What?” Nick’s already big eyes were huge.
“He ate them?”
Steven nodded. “Legend has it that the
sacrifices were held on the peak of this mountain. The victim was thrown to his
or her death. A pile of rocks was given to the family to symbolize their
sacrifice for the good of the tribe. It was supposed to be a thank you gift
from the gods. It meant a lot to each family to have given something so
precious to keep the gods happy. They didn’t just see it like a pile of rocks.”
Nick caught himself looking over at Chris
who looked more nervous than he felt.
“Well, this guy wasn’t performing the
sacrifices the way the gods had asked for them, and they punished him,” Steven
said. “And the whole island too. Every night after a supposed sacrifice someone
would turn up dead. The islanders were scared thinking that they had lost the
god’s favor, so they turned over more victims to the shaman. He only gave in to
his sickness and never performed the sacrifices though he said he did. But no
one could understand how so many people were just dying. No explanations. It’s
said that the gods finally got tired and unleashed a storm that killed almost
all the islanders. The ones who lived are the ones who told this story which
got passed down through the generations. And they said was that when they came
to, they were surrounded by little piles of sticks. The shaman hadn’t been
killed in the storm, but he had plummeted to his death off the sacrificial
mountain. After going through what was left of his shack, they discovered that
by eating the gods’ offerings, he was trying to become stronger than the gods
themselves.”
Steven’s words rang through the awkward
silence that encompassed them.
“And the strangest thing was that the
survivors say that the island was full of these little piles of rocks. It was
like the gods were trying to thank the islanders for their lost sacrifices.”
Justin, Nick and Chris were enthralled by
the story.
“But you said something had started,”
Kevin said. “What’s started?”
“The revenge,” Steven said. “It’s said
that the shaman still wants to be stronger than the gods. He’s still looking
for his victims to attain his goal. Even though almost the entire population
was destroyed because of him, he doesn’t seem to want to give up. So, I’m not
sure that we’ll be able to complete the next challenge as we had planned.”
“That story has a million holes in it,” JC
said. “Why are the sticks appearing now? Everyone died and they still--.”
“It’s folklore,” Steven said. “There
aren’t explanations for all the happenings.”
“What do you mean about the challenge?”
Kevin asked. “Unless you’re gonna throw us off the sacrificial mountain, what’s
the problem?”
Steven sighed. “You’ll see. The production
guys are still making some last minute decisions. Let’s just get up to the
right place.”
Steven started on the uphill climb toward
the fatal mountain.
--
“I drew the short stick, Kev. You know I
did.”
Kevin barely glanced up as the infrared
equipment was adjusted to his shirt.
“Kev?” Nick tried again.
“What? What do you want, Nicky? You want
to do this? You want to spend the night in there?”
Nick nodded though he really didn’t.
“Well, too bad. They’ve already fitted me
for the equipment, and it’s too late.”
“Kev,” he whined more quietly than he ever
had. “Kev!”
Kevin laughed. “Frack, it’ll be fine. Why
on Earth do you want to go in there? Why do you even want to think about that
crap? I don’t believe in it. It can’t hurt me, and I’m not scared.”
“But it’s not fair. I drew the short
stick,” Nick reminded him.
Kevin smiled and leaned closer to him.
“Hush. Stop saying stuff about short sticks around those guys.”
Nick acknowledged that it felt good to
laugh. He hadn’t laughed in a very long time.
But his happiness didn’t last very long.
He looked over Kevin’s shoulder at the dilapidated shack where he would be
spending the night.
The next immunity challenge was an
elementary school dare: to spend the night in a haunted place. Nick still
couldn’t believe that after everything they had already been through, mental
torture was going to be added to the list. He would rather eat a million
squishy bugs to even begin to think about spending the night in that place.
“Well, our production guys have checked
out the night vision equipment, which is what we were worried about, and
everything is in working condition,” Steven announced. “We’ll be able to
complete the challenge as scheduled guys. One member of each tribe will spend the
night in the shaman’s old shack. Whoever leaves the haunted shack before
sunrise loses the challenge.”
“What if we both stay?” Chris asked as his
night vision camera was adjusted.
Nick’s eyes grew when he realized he had
ended up in the challenge as well. It was better that Kevin go then. If it had
been him and Chris they would have ended up scaring each other to death, and no
one would have won.
“We have a tie breaker,” Steven said
simply. “Guys ready for dinner?”
The climb had taken most of the day, and
everyone was exhausted.
“Couldn’t we have chosen who was going
back at camp?” JC asked. “Why are we all here right now?”
Steven smiled. “Well, we thought you guys
could use a good dinner. And that that you’d want to be there for the guys in
the shack. The production crew barbecued some burgers for you. And, guess what?
We’re all spending the night not a hundred yards away here.”
It was just as well for Nick. If Kevin was
sleeping up at the shack, it meant that he’d have to sleep alone. And that
would have been scary enough.
“Burgers, huh?” was all Kevin had to say.
“Some kind of last meal offering?” Justin
asked. “What if something happens to them in there? Have you guys checked it
out?”
“Actually, we have. But come get your
dinner, and we’ll talk about it.”
In good scary story fashion, Steven waited
until it was dark out and until everyone had settled around the fire to speak.
“I know that I’m not the most trustworthy
person in the world to you guys,” he began with a sigh. “But I hope you believe
what I’m about to tell you because it’s true. Yes, we checked out the shack
before bringing you guys up here. But we checked it out weeks ago when we first
agreed that this would be one of the challenges. I was supposed to tell you the
story, and then one of you would spend the night there.” He pointed toward the
small, barely-standing shack in the shadows. “We left cameras in here for the
night, and when we checked the footage, there was nothing as you can see.” He
reached forward and played a tape of shadows, changing light patterns and
stillness in fast-forward. “When we got wind of what had happened to Nick and
to all of Nsync, we decided to check out the shack
again before letting you guys spend the night. This is the tape.”
Dramatically, he popped in the new tape
and pressed play.
“Everything started out normal until we
got to this.”
The entire shack was different. The lights
that had been there before were gone. Suddenly, one light seemed to glow and
illuminate the entire, grass wall. The light flickered and grew until a strange
shadow seemed to form.
Nick squinted trying to find something
familiar about it. Something that might explain what everyone else was already
silently glaring at.
“It moved,” Justin said. “Did you see?”
“It didn’t move,” Chris said.
“Rewind,” Kevin ordered.
Steven was already doing just that.
“Justin’s right. It moved. But keep watching.”
The form did move very slightly, almost
like it was taking a shallow breath, then everything went black.
“Our equipment stopped working then,”
Steve said. “That last image was filmed at
Chris swallowed hard and looked at Kevin
who didn’t seem the least bit fazed.
“What happens if we forfeit?”
Kevin snapped to the sound of Nick’s
voice.
“We’re not---!” Kev began.
“You lose,” Steven said with a shrug. “And
if Nsync lost that would be all right. But if you
guys lost that means you’d only have one person left. “
Kevin pulled on Nick’s shoulder and shook
his head. Nick tried to find that same confidence in himself.
“But Kev--,” he began.
He shook his head with more force this
time.
Nick bit his lip into silence while Justin
and JC looked worriedly at Chris. Chris made himself smile.
“It’s gonna be fine,” he said with a
shrug. “Kev’ll protect me. Right?”
Steven chuckled. “It’s probably nothing,
guys. I mean, it’s just one night, and you can always get out. It’s not the
last challenge by any means. If either of you feels unsafe at any time, feel
free to step out. Our production guys will be monitoring what your cameras are
picking up all night long. It really is very safe.”
“Why don’t you stay with them?” JC asked
Steven.
“I’m not the one here to prove which
boyband is best,” Steven said almost smugly.
Kevin smiled. “Good for you. Because if
you were, your band mates would have pushed you off the sacrificial mountain
long before the first Tribal Council.”
Justin actually laughed first.
It only took that for Nick, JC and Chris
to crack up as well.
“You’d be the gay one,” Chris said.
“Everyone on the internet would be saying, ‘Oh, Stevie’s
gay.’”
“No,” Nick said. “You’d be the one who
couldn’t dance. You’d be tripping the other guys on stage.”
“And can you just see the rest of his band
now?” JC asked. “Regis Philbin would probably be in
it.”
“And that guy from Wheel of Fortune,”
Justin laughed.
“How about John Madden?” Kevin asked. “He
could be in your band.
“You’d need a crazy guy,” Chris said.
“Someone to dye his hair. How about that guy from the news with the funny
hair?”
Justin rolled his eyes. “They all have
funny hair.”
“The red hair,” Chris prodded. “The
toupee.”
Kevin snapped his fingers. “Ted Koppel.”
“Yeah,” JC laughed. “Him and George from
Seinfeld. That would be your boyband.”
Steven tried to keep a straight face while
they hurled their harmless insults at him. He couldn’t remember ever being so
hated.
“Well, look at that, it’s time to start
the challenge,” he said trying to sound casual. “You guys ready?”
“Been ready,” Kevin said standing and
wiping is hands on his shorts.
“I’m good,” Chris said staying in his
place. “Wait. Wait. Hang on.” He let out a loud burp. “There. I’m ready.”
Nick stayed in his seat and stared at the
fire while he muttered a silent prayer.
Please God. Please. Please don’t let
anything happen to him. I’ll do anything. Anything for him not ever feel as
scared as I did. I can handle being scared, but that’s not even a possibility
for him.
“The shack’s bigger than it looks,” Steven
said. “We’re sending you in with sleeping bags if you decide to sleep. Remember
that we’ll be monitoring everything tonight, so there’s nothing to fear.”
“Easy for you to say,” Chris muttered when
he finally stood up. “Good night guys.”
“Night,” Justin called.
“Hang in there, Chris,” JC said sending
him a smile.
Nick finally realized he was going to be
alone with the two of them. Maybe Kevin would still let him trade places with
him.
“Kev?” he said getting up.
“Yeah Nicky?” Kevin asked grabbing the
sleeping bag Steven was offering.
“Kev, are you sure?”
He looked at Nick’s worried face and nodded. “I’m sure. You’re not gonna do
this, and I have no problem with it. You know I can sleep anywhere. I won’t
hear a thing when the shaman comes to eat Chris.”
Nick chuckled but found little comfort in
those words. “Okay Kev.”
“Okay Nicky. Good night, and don’t let
those guys get to you.”
He nodded and pulled Kevin into a hug.
“Good night.”
“Remember,” Steven said. “If anything
happens at all, feel free to come out. Anything at all. Otherwise guys, this is
good-night.”
“Yeah ‘night,” Kev called and turned
toward the shack.
“Later guys,” Chris waved at his band
mates. “You guys, ... um... keep ... You guys keep warm.” He smiled tightly.
“It’ll be fine, Kirkpatrick,” JC said.
“Just hang in there, and remember that we’re here.”
“And thank God for that,” Justin muttered
then smiled up at Chris. “You’ll be fine, bro. Just don’t fall asleep. Whatever
you do, don’t fall asleep.”
“Ha!” Chris cackled. “You are sooooooo funny. Just way too much, dude.”
Kevin stopped short of the door and looked
back at him. “Chris, I’m going in now. You can stay out there and come in on
your own later. Don’t worry. I’ll try not to freak you out when you stumble on
stuff in the dark.”
“No. No, I’m coming,” Chris called. “I’m
there. Later guys. Good night.”
And with that, they were gone.
--
Justin was laughing.
JC was laughing.
Nick was trying to pretend he wasn’t
wondering what they were laughing about. And he was starting to wonder who was
facing the biggest challenge. Kev, who wasn’t scared of anything and was
probably already asleep? Or him who hated those two idiots and had no clue how
he was going to make it through the night?
He was stuck in a relatively large tent
with them, and for the first time felt sheltered from the elements, but not the
enemy.
“You okay there, Nick?”
He pulled away his eyes from the wall to
look at them. “Yeah. I’m fine. You guys aren’t tired?”
“I wanna know what Chris is doing,” Justin
said. “He’s probably crying in the corner already.”
“No,” JC laughed. “He’s probably got Kevin
in a choke hold and he’s screaming, ‘Help me! Save me!’”
They both laughed at that, and Nick shook
his head. He hated the thought of every being as scared as he had been. Though
he was the one always looking around for ghosts and aliens, he never considered
the actual possibility of ending up close to anything supernatural. He even
wished he’d never called it upon himself.
But it was easy for JC and Justin to
laugh. They had each other. If Brian was around, he’d be laughing up a storm
too.
“You don’t think anything will happen to
them?” he asked as he finally allowed himself to stretch out in his sleeping
bag.
“Like the Boogie Man will come and get
them?” Justin asked pulling off his bandana to reveal his still bright-red
hair.
Nick actually felt his face get red as
well. In his life there were a lot of things he’d like to take back. This was
not one of them, but he did feel a twinge of guilt.
“No,” Nick said. “But it’s gotta be scary
to be in there.”
“I think it’s them. The show producers,”
JC said. “They’ve done nothing but make things harder on us since we got here.
Of course they’re gonna scare them in there.”
“The question is how,” Justin said
quietly. “And can they take it.”
JC chuckled. “Chris is a chicken, and you
know that. So be prepared to go home if we lose, Curly.”
Justin’s mouth dropped. “Me? You’re
sending me home? And you’re letting Nicky boy know?”
Of course, JC was already laughing, and
Nick twisted his mouth trying to gauge their honesty or their game. He wasn’t
sure which.
“Well, it’s between you and Kirkpatrick,
and I guess I’ll have to choose...,” JC dropped off dramatically and looked up
at the tent ceiling. “Hm, I guess I have to think about it. Good night, you
two.”
He climbed inside his sleeping back and
turned his back to them.
Justin pushed his chin up clicked his
teeth shut.
Nick found himself laughing and thinking
about how much they were treated alike. The guys loved to tease him, and even
though he had grown up, never missed an opportunity to do so.
“We’ll see about that, mister,” Justin
said through clenched teeth. “Maybe Kirkpatrick and me will vote you out, and
then where will you be, Mr. Chasez? And then where will you be, huh? Huh? Huh?”
Justin leaned over and poked JC in the
head. JC just batted him off like he was an annoying fly.
Nick sighed and pulled himself up and out
of his bag.
“Where are you going?” Justin asked
watching him cross the tent and try not to stand up straight.
“I’m gonna go see if they’ll let me look
into the video feed they’re getting,” Nick said.
“Really?” Justin asked popping up as well.
“I’m coming with. Later, Mr. Chasez.”
JC turned around to watch the two
“blondes” disappear through the loose flap. Well, what didn’t kill them would
make them stronger.
--
Kevin squinted around the darkness. He
placed his hands on his hips and tried to make out anything, a wall, some old
furniture, anything. But all he saw was black.
“How the hell are we supposed to move
around in here?” he asked just as Chris caught up to him.
“Man! It’s dark,” Chris said loudly.
“Hello? Anyone out there?”
Kevin chuckled. “Yeah, the spirits are
gonna come out now. Shut up already.”
The moonlight above their heads finally
seemed to find its way through the poorly thatched roof. Kevin was able to make
out the wall a few feet in front of him, the dirt floor he was standing on and
a long, dark strip of shadows that seemed to lead to another room.
“Who the hell could live here?” Chris
asked in a different tone. “It stinks.”
Kevin had to admit that there was a smell,
but he couldn’t quite place it.
“It’s just that it’s old,” he said with a
shrug. “Old places stink.”
“Like your grandma’s house?”
Kevin turned around to him wondering if
that was a low blow against his lovely grandmother.
“I meant that as in a universal you. It
could be anyone’s grandma,” Chris explained. “You know how old houses have a
smell? Like that.”
Kevin shook his head and continued a few
more feet inside. He had already told himself that the only thing that could
drive him out of the shack was Chris Kirkpatrick himself, and he was not about
to allow that to happen.
“Where do you want to sleep?” Chris asked
looking around.
Far away from you, Kevin thought but kept
his mouth shut. “I don’t care. I can sleep anywhere.”
“Anywhere?”
He dropped his sleeping bag. The motion sent bits of dust flying up from the
dirt floor.
“Yup,” he said. “I have slept on planes,
buses, taxis, helicopters, backstage, you name it, I’ve
slept there. Nothing ever bugs me.”
“Well, this place is good,” Chris said.
“You don’t mind me sticking around, do you?”
Kevin shrugged. “Do whatever you want.”
Just as Chris dropped his bag, a strange
echo was heard from the other room.
“What was that?” Chris asked.
Kevin shrugged. “I didn’t hear a thing.
What’d you hear?”
“Um, a sound,” Chris said. “Just a sound.”
Kevin just nodded and started opening up
his sleeping bag.
“There it is again,” Chris whispered.
“You’re hearing things, dude,” Kevin said.
“It’s probably just the wind.”
“That’s what we told Justin,” Chris said
finally admitted.
“Oh okay,” Kevin said. “Good night.”
Chris blinked.
Shit.
Shit.
“Um, yeah okay. Night.”
Kevin actually smiled to himself as he
rolled over. He didn’t hate this guy enough to scare him anymore. But he disliked
him enough not to help him. And it wasn’t like he was able to drop off just
like that. He laid there for a very long time listening to his own breathing,
to the shorter breaths that Chris was taking and to the funny-sounding “wind”
that never seemed to stop.
Nick and Justin had found just the right
victim to let them watch the video the production crew was receiving from the
shack.
“You guys aren’t supposed to be back
here,” she said when she saw them enter the production tent.
But both guys had noticed the exact same
thing. Her skin flushed bright pink when she looked at them. And didn’t seem
too sure which of them to look at more intently.
“So what’s your name?” Justin asked
stepping forward right away.
She cleared her throat. “
“
“
And that was it.
“Alice Ashley,” she smiled. “Just Alice
Ashley.”
“That’s an odd last name. I thought Ashley
was like a given name,” Justin said gently taking her elbow. “But it’s your
last name?”
She nodded. “My last name.”
Nick stepped past both of them and toward
the monitors that flickered on the other side of the tent.
“
“I was not snoring,” Justin said. “That
must have been JC because I can’t sleep either.”
“Um well...,”
“Just for a bit?” Nick asked. “C’mon. I
know you can do us this one favor.” He put his hands together in a praying
motion. “Please. Please?”
“Please?” Justin added for good measure.
She cleared her throat more forcibly this
time. “Um yeah... okay, but just for a little while.”
“Thank you,” Nick said squeezing her
shoulders. “You’re really great.”
Justin leaned in and kissed her cheek.
“You are. You’re the best. Now what do all these little TV’s do?” he asked
innocently.
“Well, this one is the one attached to
Kevin, and it’s been dark for awhile,” she said. “We can hear him breathing
evenly, so we think he’s asleep. This one is Chris’s.”
That monitor flickered dark then shadowy
and dark again.
“I think he’s just looking around,” she
said. “It hasn’t been still for more than a few seconds.”
“He’s freaked?” Justin asked leaning in
closer to the monitor.
She shrugged. “Maybe.”
“Has anything odd appeared?” Nick asked.
“Odd like?” she prodded.
“Odd like shadows, noises, strange
lights?”
“No, but it hasn‘t been that long,” she
said.
“Can we wait?” Justin asked. “With you, I
mean. It’s not like we’re gonna get any sleep anyway.”
What could she do? She shrugged. “Um, yeah
okay. But don’t tell anyone.”
“No one,” Nick smiled.
“Not a soul. It’s our secret.”
She smiled.
Hours seemed to pass right by with them in
front of her. She couldn’t get enough of just listening to them talk about
nothing.
“Do you two really hate each other?” she
finally let herself ask.
Nick smiled and looked at the floor.
Justin smiled and looked up at Nick,
“Well--,” he began.
“What was that?”
“What?” Justin asked.
“Rewind!” Nick was already saying.
“It was a light,” she said. “It just
zoomed by.”
“Rewind,” Nick said again. “Just, just
rewind.”
“Wait. Let’s see if it happens again,”
Justin said.
Chris’s monitor was flickering probably
because he was moving so fast or trying to get his bearings.
“Can we hear him?” Justin asked.
All they heard was Chris’s quick, short
breaths.
“Oh my God.... Oh my God,” he panted.
“What was...? What was...that?”
“There. I got it,” she said. “Look.”
A tiny light flashed right across the
monitor leaving a murkier darkness behind.
“Oh my...,” Nick trailed off into a
whisper.
“That was the equipment,” Justin said. “It
was the equipment.”
“I don’t think he’d be freaked out if it
was,” Nick said squinting at the live monitor then at the video they had
rewound. The lights went by in slow motion on the video, and didn’t seem to be
coming from the stars or the moon, or Chris’s equipment.
“I think he’s scared,”
The live feed had a different angle, and
apparently, Chris had stood up and was looking around cautiously.
Nick was wondering where Kevin was and how
he could sleep through all of that. His monitor was still pitch black, and his
sound only recorded breathing.
“I’m gonna go look around,” Chris said to
no one in particular. “I can’t just lie there waiting for it to get me.”
“No Chris, don’t,” Justin said to the deaf
TV screen.
Nick shook his head and bit his lip. He
should have just stayed in that spot. But then again, he wasn’t sure he himself
would have gone to investigate. It was just better to know.
“... damn firefly,” Chris was muttering.
“That’s what it was. A stupid, damn--.”
Everything went silent as Chris seemed to
stop moving.
“What are you getting?” Justin asked
practically breathing in the monitor.
“Move your big head,” Nick said gently
pushing him out of the way.
“Hey!” Justin protested.
Then they heard it. It was a strange, soft
screeching noise almost like that of a hurt, scared animal.
“Oh my God,” Nick whispered. “That’s it.
That’s what I heard that night. That’s what I followed to the--.”
He was cut off by Chris’s words. “... hell
is that?” he was asking. “If this is your idea of a joke, Steven, it’s not
funny. I’m not freaking scared.”
“Steven’s asleep,”
“Then what is it?” Justin asked. “And how
come only he can hear it?”
“If Kev’s asleep, he’s dead to the world,”
Nick said.
Justin’s eyes widened. “Well, as long as
he’s not just dead.”
Nick’s head snapped to him , and he made
himself bit his lip to stay quiet. Justin was just scared for Chris. If Nick
listened hard enough, he could hear Kevin practically snoring in the audio. He
was fine.
“What’s he doing?”
“He’s going somewhere,” Justin noted as he
seemed to pass through bits of dim light and darkness. “Where is he going? Is
he getting out?”
“Doesn’t look like it,” she said. “I think
he’s going further inside.”
“This is how scared I’m not,” Chris’s
voice came over the speaker. “I’m so not scared that I will go in here. In the
deepest, darkest room of the shack.”
“Aw Chris,” Justin muttered.
Nick crossed his arms over his chest
chewed on his lip. God only knew what he was in for.
--
Chris pushed his way past a few obstacles
that blocked his path to the back room of the shack. This place had an even
stranger smell than the front room. But his eyes had a thought time adjusting
to the brighter light this room seemed to possess.
He looked up to find no ceiling and an
expanse of stars above him.
He smiled. What could happen to him under
all that bright moonlight and those stars?
“See? See how fucking un-scared I am,” he
taunted. “I could stay here all--.”
He stopped talking when his eyes adjusted
to the light and he was able to see something on the grass wall in front of
him. They were swirls, shapes, funny letters and shapes.
“Some freaked out alphabet,” he said. “God
knows what....”
Then he leaned in closer, even though he
didn’t have to because he knew. It explained the smell, and made everything
very clear. The scribbles were all written in blood.
“Oh shit,” he hissed. “Shit. Shit. Shit. What the crap...? What the hell...?”
He stumbled backwards and landed on the
floor. His hands reached for something, anything that could help him up, but
all he found was the dirt floor.
He blinked as the panorama before him
widened, and he tried to make out some of the symbols, but it was impossible.
There was no rhyme nor reason to the shapes or funny letters.
An airy familiar, flapping noise reached
his frigid ears and the rest of him froze. He knew that sound.
Desperately, he looked around the shack
and spotted something he hadn’t seen in the upper-right corner. It was a
strange lump. A strange, black lump. A strange, black lump that had eyes.
Chris gulped, then he gulped again because
the scream was still caught in his throat.
“Oh...,” he managed to say. “Oh...oh... my
God...” but the rest of the prayer was still stuck in his throat, just like the
scream.
He screwed his eyes closed against any
more movements or revelations, but his ears just wouldn’t cooperate. Because
then it started to screech. It was that same strange screeching Nick had
described to him earlier.
He then remembered Nick’s scream in the
jungle that night, and seemed to hear it again. Only it wasn’t in his head, it
was in the shack. He was the one screaming so loud, and so hard, that his head
rattled.
He backpedaled against the sounds, the
visions, the sheer fear of being in that damn place.
Screw Nsync.
Screw Backstreet Boys. Screw the whole damn, fore-saken,
stupid island. All he wanted was to be safe.
He was on his feet and running toward
where he thought the door was only to get caught. He was caught, and he
couldn’t move. His feet scratched against the floor but he went nowhere.
He made himself stop and look. If this
thing was going to kill him, he had to see it. He had to look.
The lump hadn’t moved, but it had grown
and was encompassing the strange swirls on the wall.
“Chris?”
He dropped to his knees at the sound of
Kevin’s voice.
“Stop! Stop! Stop!” he yelled covering his
head with his arms. “Make it stop.”
“Chris, there’s nothing there,” Kevin said
gently and unhooked his T-shirt from the stray twig that caught it. “Hang...
hang on,” he called.
But Kevin was tackled and landed on his
backside, as Chris ran right past him and out of the shack.
Kevin looked over his shoulder at Chris’
now disappearing back.
“You try to help people and you get run
down,” Kevin said through his gritted teeth. He turned back around to inspect
the room and saw nothing that would cause the crazy reaction he’d just
witnessed in Chris. But Chris was just unbalanced, so he didn’t need reasons to
act the way he did. “Let’s go see what NSYNC’s crying
over now,” Kevin grunted.
Before he could leave, he was pushed back
down.
--
“Ow!” Chris yelled as he tripped and fell roughly into the ground. He looked
around, recognizing the outside of the shack.
“Chris! Chris!”
Chris looked around confused. Was that
Justin?
“Chris!”
“Justin?! Justin!”
And there it was. For a split second,
Chris saw the lump again. But the second he blinked, it was gone.
“Chris!” Justin yelled again, trying to
pinpoint Chris’ location. It was pitch black out there.
“Over here!” Chris yelled, wildly looking
around for hints of the lump. Chris suddenly turned to look over his shoulder
at the opening of the shack. “Shit, Kevin. I left Kevin in there. Kevin!” Chris
yelled. “Kevin!” Chris was the last one to ever care about the Backstreet Boys,
but he couldn’t deny the pit of worry settling in his stomach. If something
happened to Kevin, he’d never forgive himself. “KEVIN!” Chris sighed when he
saw a figure coming out of the shack. “Kevin, I’m sorry I just left you, but
did you see-”
“Kevin?” a strange voice asked. It lifted
a limp figure in it’s arms and dropped it in front of Chris. “You mean him?” it
cackled.
“JUUUUSTIN! KEVIN! NOOO!” Chris screamed,
scrambling to get to his feet.
His feet slipped on something and he was
back on the ground. “NOO!”
“Chris! Chris!” Someone was shaking him.
They were shaking him so hard he could feel his teeth snapping against each
other, but his eyes were frozen on the cackling figure in front of him. The
cackling figure who’s laugh was starting to sound like Kevin’s.
“He impersonates!” Chris yelled
hysterically, trying to get up, but slipping again.
“He’s laughing like Kevin!”
Chris was suddenly aware of the person
shaking him.
“That’s because it IS, Kevin, Chris. Are
you okay, man?”
Chris turned, finally acknowledging
Justin. Justin bit his lip as he took in Chris’ disheveled and petrified
appearance.
“It’s not Kevin! Run, Justin! Nothing can
happen to you! Look at what happened to Kevin!” Chris yelled, reaching for
Kevin’s body. His eyes narrowed when “Kevin” was a lot softer than he
remembered him being. Chris lifted “Kevin” and found that “Kevin” was an empty
sleeping bag. Kevin really was the one laughing.
“You son of a bitch!” Chris yelled, trying
to get back again. He fell back down.
“I’m the son of a bitch?” Kevin yelled.
“You knock me down when I go back there trying to see why you’re freaking out
and I’m the son of a bitch?” Kevin continued to laugh. “And then you go and
push me back down, you jerk!”
“What?!” Chris yelled. “I didn’t push you
down! I was outta there after I tackled you!”
Kevin shook his head. Chris was probably
just trying to freak him out.
“It’s NOT gonna work, Chris.”
“I can’t believe you just did that to me!”
Chris yelled, still on the ground. “I thought you were de-” Chris stopped, not
wanting to say the word ‘dead’. Not out there on that cliff, in the dark, with
black lumps laying around.
Kevin started laughing at Chris again, and
Chris tried to get up to show king of the Amazon a thing or two. His tennis
shoes slipped on something again, sending him back onto the ground.
“Why can’t I get UP?!” Chris yelled.
A flashlight suddenly illuminated the
ground and Kevin stopped laughing.
“Shit,” Nick muttered.
Kevin barely noticed that Nick had gotten
there. Only one thing had his attention.
The entire ground was covered with rocks.
They were everywhere.
Kevin heard Chris take in a breath.
“Aren’t these supposed to signify a
sacrifice?” Chris whispered.
“Shit,” Nick muttered again. He REALLY
needed to expand his vocabulary.
“Shoot,” he said. Oh, yeah. Muuuch better.
Justin couldn’t even force any words out
of his mouth, so he gulped instead.
“But no one was sacrificed,” Chris said.
“Not yet.”
Everyone turned around to see Steven.
Chris looked between Kevin and Steven.
He didn’t know who he should try accusing
first. He knew who he wanted to accuse, so he might as well have some fun.
Besides, maybe a fight would help distract people from the wet, faint yellow
spot on his white shorts.
“You did that!” Chris yelled, pointing at
Kevin. “How else could you have slept through all that? You were faking, and
you set it up!”
Kevin’s jaw dropped. “Set what up, Chris?
There was nothing in that room!”
Nick and Justin looked at Kevin.
“Kev, there was paint all over the walls.
With weird symbols,” Nick said.
“How do you know?” Kevin asked Nick. Nick
couldn’t be in on this, could he?
“We’ve got it on video. We were watching
the feed from the monitors,” Justin said, looking at Kevin suspiciously. If he
was responsible for scaring Chris, he would kill him.
“You weren’t supposed to be in there!”
Steven said.
“It wasn’t paint!” Chris yelled, ignoring
Steven. “It was blood. The weird smell...it was blood.”
Nick felt his eyes bulge and his heart
rate quicken. This could NOT be good for his blood pressure. He was too young
to die from a heart attack.
“B-blood?” Justin repeated.
Chris felt the fear seep back into him as
he watched Kevin. The look of realization suddenly hitting Kevin’s face looked
too real for him to be faking it.
“You’re right. That smell was blood,”
Kevin said, clicking. “I couldn’t pinpoint it, so I just let it go.”
“It was you!” Chris yelled again.
Kevin’s face suddenly scrunched into
confusion. “But there’s nothing there now, Chris. If you guys all say that you
saw these weird symbols, then where did they go because there’s nothing there
now.” Kevin refused to admit it, but a weird feeling was overtaking his chest.
Fear? “We were the only ones in the room, Chris. If you saw all that right
before I went in, how could it just disappear?”
“One way to find out,” Justin said, taking
the extra flashlight from Nick.
Nick was already shaking his head.
“No, NO!” Chris yelled. “I’m not going
back in there. Especially not now. Go to the feed and look for it there. Don’t
go in there. You’re NOT going in there, JuJu!”
Chris looked at Kevin and Nick. “None of
you are.”
“Oh, but I can?” Steven spoke up, annoyed.
“You can go to hell,” Chris spat. “This is
all because of you. It was probably you, huh?”
“I already told you-” Steven started.
“The curse!” Chris finished. “Where the
hell did all these rocks come from, Steven?! Huh?! I saw that lump out here!
The one Nick had been talking about! I heard the screeching sound that Nick
described! It WASN’T my imagination!” Chris almost wished he hadn’t said it in
front of Nick. Nick seemed to turn white at the mention of what he had probably
hoped was a hallucination.
“JC,” Nick said. “That lump is out here,
and we left JC in the tent...”
“Alone,” Justin finished. The word wasn’t
even out of his mouth before he was already running back to their camp. Nick
was right behind him, and Kevin was behind Nick. Chris was too scared and
worried about everyone so he took off behind Kevin.
Steven looked back at the shack and
smiled. He thought they had agreed not to pull jokes on the boybands, but maybe
the producers had decided to, anyway. The legend was in fact, true. He didn’t
believe it, though. It was just some stupid folklore. He just thought it would
help spice things up for them if the guys were scared.
Steven’s smile disappeared. He blinked
repeatedly, taking staggering steps back.
A black lump was watching him. His eyes
couldn’t decipher the shape against the night, but what he could see clearly
was enough to send him running back with the guys.
No matter how much he tried, he couldn’t
get them out of his mind.
The eyes that turned green. And the scary,
glowing smile that spread across it’s face.
***
