Chapter 11

By Kritter

Kevin shifted the burden in his arms slightly, trying too ease the weight of his youngest brother onto his left arm rather than his right. It had been years since he'd tried to carry Nick like this - the boy had grown into a man who was simply too tall and bulky to be carried efficiently by someone of Kevin's size. Nevertheless, when he had seen the blond laying in a heap on the ground, the only thing he could think of doing was getting the boy away from whatever force was attacking him, just as he had done ten years ago.

Ten years ago. How he'd forgotten about that terrifying night, he'd never know. But, in that moment when a pair of slimy, ice-cold hands had grabbed his shoulders as he slept and dragged him somehow out of his body, it'd been brought back to him, clear as day, and it was like he'd never forgotten at all.

All this walking was killing him, and it wasn't like he was getting anywhere either. The countryside, if it could be called that, was notable for its sheer lack of anything, and that hadn't changed at all. By Kevin's estimation, he had been carrying Nick for almost a half hour, and the landscape of.wherever they were seemed remarkably similar to the place where he had first seen Nick.

And Howie. And AJ.

Kevin shook his head, trying to erase the look of horror and fear that he had seen on their faces when he met their eyes through that damned clear wall. They'd actually recoiled from him, and maybe that hurt more than seeing Nick, laying motionless on the ground again.

What had they seen that had scared them so much? Or, perhaps the better question, what had they seen in him?

And had Howie really been glowing? Because people generally didn't glow, but he could've sworn that Howie had been giving off some sort of light. Of course, not much made sense in this place.

Like that lamppost up ahead. What a lamppost, of all things, was doing in a place like this, he couldn't quite grasp. But, never the one to look a gift horse in the mouth, he quickly covered the ground to it. Any light in this place seemed like a blessing.

Nick's weight shifted again, but Kevin hadn't done anything this time, and he looked down to see Nick tossing his head lightly. He smiled a little; at least something good could happen in this place. Moving as smoothly as he could, he lowered to young man to the ground, making a vain attempt to pillow some dirt under Nick's head, but the ground was oddly sleek, much like glass, so Kevin gently cradled Nick's head in his lap. Then, Nick began to moan slightly, and Kevin idly brushed his blond hair, trying to provide some sort of reassurance in Nick's restless slumber.

At least he had Nick, he rationalized. Brian was God knows where, and AJ and Howie, well, they'd been scared of him. And sure, maybe he should've walked towards the two of them and tried to work whatever it was out, but their fear had scared him. Kevin had never known AJ to be scared of much of anything, and the fact that he was scared of Kevin himself, well, he just wanted out of the situation. There was some lost connection between them in Kevin was scared of AJ because AJ was scared of Kevin, and Kevin had lost enough people he loved and he didn't want to lose AJ too.

It didn't make much sense, but not much did right about now.

All of a sudden, Nick's eyes slammed open, and the blond sat up, wildly swinging his head around as if searching for something. Kevin reached for him, but Nick threw his arms out, battling wildly against something Kevin couldn't see.

"Nick!" Kevin called, frantically trying to pull Nick back into whatever reality this was. "Nicky, hold up!"

Nick gave no sign that he heard Kevin's voice, so Kevin tried again. "Nick! Look at me, kid. It's Kevin. C'mon Nick, please!"

Nick stopped flailing, but continued looking around wildly. "Kev?" he said, voice cracking slightly. "Kevin, that you? Where are you?"

That was puzzling. He was practically on top of the kid. Still, the kid was half scared out of his wits and the nearby light didn't provide that much illumination. He supposed it wasn't shocking that Nick didn't recognize him immediately. "I'm right in front of you, Nicky. Calm down, okay? Just focus on me. It's all right." He put a hand on Nick's knee.

Nick practically jumped out of his skin. "Shit! Where are you? Where are you?!" His hands groped blindly until they met Kevin's own. "Kevin? Oh God.I can't see you.what the hell? I can't see you!"

Nick's hands worked their way out of Kevin's grasp as Kevin sat their stunned, running their way up over his shoulders and onto his face. Nick couldn't see him. Nick was somehow blind. This couldn't be happening, couldn't be real. Nick was.

Nick was still talking.

".and I know it's you and not an Evil Kevin but don't ask me how I know that, but it's like with A.J. and I can tell and there's your nose and eyebrows and hair and oh God Kev, it's dark and I hate the dark an.."

Kevin clamped a hand over Nick's mouth using the other to guide Nick's hands away from his face, hushing the boy so that he might get a word in edgewise. "Hey, whoa there Nick. Breathe for a second." He slowly removed his hand from Nick's mouth, trying to look anywhere but the sightless blue eyes. "Okay, slowly this time. You can't see...anything; is that right?"

"Uh-huh. And it's dark and you know how much I hate the dark because all sorts of things could come and get me and."

"Nick!"

The blond stopped short and then threw himself at where he guessed Kevin to be, missing by a little, but Kevin knew what Nick wanted and pulled him into an embrace. "Oh God, Kevin, I don't know what's wrong and I'm so scared."

"Okay, that's okay." Kevin said as he ran his hands lightly down Nick's back. And really, it wasn't okay, wasn't okay at all, but Nick was worked up enough as it was - being trapped in the dark was practically the kid's worst fear - and he didn't need Kevin's panic on top of his own. "When did you, um, when did this happen?"

Nick shifted, burying his face into Kevin's shoulder. "I don't know. I could see out there and then here I couldn't. But I just thought it was dark, so I yelled but no one came, and then I heard someone banging and I found something that felt like I wall and I banged back." He sighed. "Then something grabbed me and I guess I blacked out, because then I woke up and you were here. But I couldn't see anything for all of that." He pulled himself out of Kevin's hug, but left a hand on Kevin's leg, as if to keep track of where he was. "What's wrong with me? And where are we?"

Kevin frowned. "I wish I knew either of those answers, Nicky. I really, really do."

***

In a scene eerily reminiscent of the "Everybody" video, Brian awoke with a start, pawing frantically at his arms, trying to get the Evil Demon Not-Nick off of him when.huh?

Okay, this really was strange. Last thing Brian could remember, he was being mauled by one of the demon things, his soul being brutally ripped out of his body, so how did he end up on what appeared to be the "Everybody" set, in that same itchy bed with the cheap, scratchy sheets, same not-quite-dry but still somehow musty paint smell, same cheap "moon and lightning" window effect and everything.

Pushing himself out of the bed, he frowned as he examined his left hand. There, on the palm, was a lightly bleeding gash. A dream, he thought. It had to have been a dream. He ripped a piece of the scratchy sheet and wrapped it around his hand before feeling a distinct need to scout out his surroundings. He wandered out into the hallway, and he felt a distinct shock. This wasn't real, it couldn't be. This.place was only a soundstage in LA, and it was only a set, not a full building.

So this couldn't be real, it just couldn't. No matter what his senses were telling him.

The hallway opened up into a landing. Apparently, the room Brian had woken in had been on the second floor, and Whoa. He would've sworn he was just on the second floor landing, which he now saw above him, and not the ballroom floor where he now stood. What the hell was going on?

"Well, you're close, but it's not exactly hell."

"What? Huh?" Brian spun around, looking for whoever had just spoken, but there was no one. Or, maybe more appropriately, there was nothing.

"Nah, I think you were closer on the first one."

"Okay," Brian scowled, trying to intimidate the speaker, wherever it was. "I don't know who you think you are, but the least you could do is come out and say.whatever it is you want to say to my face."

"I already am." The voice seemed quite amused by Brian's frustration. "You 're just not looking hard enough."

Brian sighed. "What do I need to look for then? I've already been to hell on this trip. Are you gonna jump out of the walls this time?"

"I already told you, it's not quite Hell, at least not in the sense you're thinking of." The distinct sound of feet hitting the ground sounded. "Now, turn around and really look."

Brian turned and nearly jumped out of his skin. "Shit!"

There, standing not two inches from his nose, was Chris Kirkpatrick. But no, he couldn't be, but still.

"Chris, what the hell are you doing here?"

Chris smirked, just a little. "Again, not hell, and, well, to be truthful, not exactly Chris."

Brian stumbled back, tripping over a chair leg that he could've sworn hadn't been there a moment before. "But you are.I mean, you're Chris, but no, you can't be. And you look like, but how would you be here?"

The Chris-thing laughed. "You wanna try making a coherent sentence out of that? Not that I couldn't listen and figure it out, but it's more fun this way."

"Listen to what?" Brian was now thoroughly confused and more than a little angry. "And stop being so damn smug." Then, almost as an afterthought, he added "Who are you then, and why do you look so much like Chris?"

"My name," the thing replied, settling into what looked like the chair AJ had sat in during the.oh. He got it., "is Chaucer, and I don't really know why I look so much like this Chris person." Chaucer shrugged. "It's your idea, buddy, not mine."

Brian sank back on to, a sarcophagus? What the heck? He glanced over his shoulder, and saw that he and Chaucer were no longer in the open room with the chairs, but somehow in a basement filled with stank smelling straw and dried bandages. "This," Brian gestured to the room around him, "Is my idea? Um how? And, while you're at it, why? And where did the other room go? And yeah, so your name is Chaucer, but that doesn't answer my question."

"Do you always have this many questions?"

Brian glared at the other man but didn't answer.

"All right. Geez, you're a tough crowd." Chaucer leaned back against the wall. "This," and he waved his arms around in a mockery of the movements Brian had just made, "is all your idea. Somewhere, deep within that little head of yours, this place has some sort of meaning to you. I don't know why, that's up to you. This," he gestured to himself, "is because you think he looks vaguely like an elf. And because I thought the beard horns would be fun. This,"

And all of a sudden, Brian and Chaucer were in a room with an open coffin, lined with silk and fit for any self-respecting vampire, "is because it's fun and because I can."

"And as for me," Chaucer disappeared in a puff of smoke and a man clad in a white robe took his place. "Do you recognize me now?"

Brian did recognize him. It was the same man who had taught them how to defend themselves against the demon things, the man who had given Nick his charm bracelet. He was immeasurably glad to see at least this familiar face.

Then, a chilling thought struck. "How do I know you're who you look like?" Aware of how silly that sounded, Brian tried again. "How do I know you're not one of those.those soul stealing things?"

Chaucer, because Brian really didn't have a better name for him at this point, sighed. "Brian," and Brian was suddenly very conscious that he'd never introduced himself. "Brian, look at me. Look into my eyes if you 're not sure. Touch my hand, whatever. You just have to trust me on this one, okay?"

Brian looked long and hard at the man. He certainly looked like the man who'd come to them so long ago, but then again, Fake Demon Nick had, in his dream at least, looked like Nick, and who was to say that visit 10 years ago had been with good intentions, anyway?

Chaucer rose and went to kneel in front of Brian. "Look, I know your whole world has been turned inside out, and you can't tell up from down and back from front, but you're going to have to trust something eventually. Let that be me."

He stood. "Somewhere deep inside you, beyond where see and hear and touch, you want to trust me, and that's because you know that I'm telling you the truth. All these things, these places, all these games I'm playing with you, that's just the surface. Look inside."

So Brian did. He tuned out the musty smell of the room and the scratchiness of the chair on which he sat and the howl of the wind and tried to focus on what he knew was real. There wasn't much, he realized, not much at all. But there was enough.

He knew he was real, and he knew his brothers were in trouble. He knew that, wherever he was, he had to be careful. And he knew that somehow, some way, he would find his brothers and they would win.

He knew that, beyond a shadow of a doubt.

He heard Chaucer laugh, so he opened his eyes that he didn't realize he had closed. Wait, no. They were still on the stupid set, or whatever it was. This time, they were in a laboratory, much like the one Kevin had used when dressed as the strange Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde lizard thing. This wasn't, couldn't be right.

Yet Chaucer, who had changed to look like Chris again and was perched precariously on top of a cabinet full of nasty looking tools, still laughed. "Nice choice," he commented with a smile. "Very Stevenson of you, but very appropriate."

Brian scowled again. He'd had quite enough of Chaucer's doubletalk. "All right. I don't know what the hell you're trying to tell me with this.charade, but it's not funny and it's not real. None of it! You're not Chris and this is just a set, but my brothers are out there, fighting God knows what, and all you can do is sit here and laugh! It's not funny, not at all, and if you're not going to help me, then just leave and I 'll figure it out myself!"

Chaucer stood, suddenly sober and very intimidating. "You're more right than you know." He paced the small room, never breaking eye contact with Brian. "This isn't real, and that's the point. Not much is real here, and it's your job to find out what is."

"Everything about this room feels real to you, does it not? And so did the room where you woke up, and the room where we were two minutes ago. All your senses, your smell, your touch, your sight, tell you that we' re standing in a room straight out of one of your videos. Everything about me told you that I was this "Chris" fellow, but there was a little voice telling you that it couldn't be."

Suddenly, he was the man in the white robe again, without the theatrics of the smoke this time. "You say you want to save your brothers. That's fine, great in fact. But you can't do it on your own, and you know that. You wouldn't be here if you could."

Brian stayed silent, absorbing the words.

"You are the method, but not the key, Brian. This," he waved his arms, and the room disappeared, melting into a blackness that seemed impossibly deep with the only visible things being Chaucer and Brian, "was not real, but it felt that way to you. A lot of things feel real, Brian." An miniature image of the attic in his nightmare appeared in the blackness. "A lot of things."

"But, I don't understand. So things aren't real here."

"Things are real here, but not the things you think. Things seem real, not just to you, but to your brothers as well, and they simply can't be. You'll know."

"How?"

"Listen. Not with your ears, like you've been trained. But with your heart."

"Oh. And, uh, not to seem ungrateful or anything, but why me? Why not Kevin or Howie or someone?"

"Do you remember what Desi said when you leapt into the vortex?"

"Desi?"

Chaucer sighed. "Fine, have it your way. Do you remember what Desidemona said when you jumped into the vortex?"

Brian thought back through a haze of memories, and came upon a vague recollection. "Stuff about not being able to go in, well, here I guess, whole and willingly. Something like that."

Chaucer nodded his head forward, letting the implications of what Brian had remembered sink in.

Then, the memory hit Brian almost like a Mack truck. "No one can willingly enter the vortex with their body and soul still as one," he said quietly. "But that means I."

He didn't know how he knew, but Brian realized that somehow, someway, he was going to be the one to bring them back together. He wasn't going to get them out - someone else was going to be that particular piece of the puzzle - but it was his job to reunite the five of them.

Brian bit his lip, slightly unsure of himself. "I can't do this alone."

Finally, a kind smile from Chaucer, and suddenly the image of the attic faded into Nick's old charm bracelet, the one that had been stolen when the kid was 15. "'With this charm I beseech thee, out of sight and out of me.'"

".Bind our blood this chant hold may ward all harm and evil at bay.'"

Brian took the surprisingly heavy bracelet in his hand.

"I have to find them, don't I?"

"Yes, you do."

Brian noticed that Chaucer had begun to fade into the blackness, but, strangely, he wasn't scared. "You have to go? I thought you would be with me."

"For the moment. I'll be back."

Brian started to smile, then frowned a little. "How will I know what to do?"

Chaucer was nothing more than a Cheshire cat-like grin now. "You'll have all the pieces, Brian. Just put them together."

"Together." almost an echo, and then he was gone.

Brian looked around and realized that he couldn't see anything at all. He was alone. But not for long, he added internally. In the distance, he thought he could see a speck of light, and he set off towards it.

He clasped the bracelet around his wrist and smiled. For the first time in a while, he felt the strength of his brothers join with his own. They were going to beat this. Whatever this was.

***

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