Date: Fri, 15 Jun 2001 21:44:53 -0400 (EDT) From: Rune Therain Subject: Shadows of the Past 6 Sorry about how long it took me to do these notes. I got a little side tracked. I'm pretty sure that I'll get chapter seven done this weekend, but eight will be a little while after that. Next week's full of tests and assignments, so it'll be hard to sit down and write. Anyway I've got this chapter out, and for the time being that's what matters. Let me know what you think of it. You can reach me at either Mist_dark@hotmail.com or Mist_dark@yahoo.ca This story is in way supposed to reflect anything about the members of Nsync. If any of them are gay I don't know about it. If you are too young, or it's illegal in your area to be reading this, I'd leave. If homosexual themes offend you, then you are really in the wrong place. That's all I'm going to put for now. Once again let me know what you think of it. Until next time, Rune CHAPTER SIX Chris and Cody were both wide awake by the time the others had surfaced from their bedrooms. Not only were the two of them awake, they'd both showered, ordered breakfast and were drinking their first cups of coffee. They wore slightly amused expressions at the looks on everyone else's faces. "You two look happy," Joey commented. He looked slightly smug as he said it. He flashed a knowing look at Deana and Sean. "We both slept well last night," Chris said. "Really?" Justin asked. "Sleep is always better when you can do it with someone you care about," Cody smiled. "I know it," Deana said. "You two got together last night didn't you?" "No," Chris said simply. He took another sip of his coffee and set the mug down. "Breakfast should be here shortly." "What?" Josh asked in confusion. "Then who did Cody sleep with last night?" "With Chris," Cody said. A knock came at the door and Sheryl was standing there with a cart of food. "Hello, may I help you?" "Just thought I'd drop this food off," she said. "That and wish the guys good luck on tonight's concert. Can I come in?" "Sheryl," Justin smiled. "Come in, you're just in time for breakfast." "I noticed," she said as she wheeled the cart of food into the room. "I didn't think just anyone could order this much food." She kissed Justin lightly and turned to the rest of the guys. "I can't stay long. I've got an appointment with my editor shortly and he hates it when I'm late. I just dropped by to wish you guys luck on your concert tonight." "Thanks," Josh said. "Will you be there?" "Unfortunately no," Sheryl sighed. "Business and all. But I'll try to be there after the concert." "What do you do?" Deana asked. "And I'm Deana by the way." "Nice to meet you Deana," Sheryl extended her hand and quickly introduced herself to the bodyguards. "These guys aren't very good at introductions are they?" "Nope," Sean said. "But to answer your question, I'm a poet. Though there's some question to my skill." She laughed. "My editor sees promise, but I haven't been published yet." "Can I read some of your work?" Sean asked. "I'm an amateur writer, I might get some insight for my own work." "To be perfectly honest, I'm an amateur too. My editor just thinks I can be a professional." Sheryl looked at her watch. "I've got to go. I'll see you guys later." She kissed Justin again and almost bolted from the room. "She seems like a nice girl," Cody commented. "She is," Justin said. "And you're avoiding the questions." "He's right," Joey said. "If you guys didn't get together last night then why did you sleep together?" "We've been together since before lunch yesterday," Cody answered. "When?" Deana asked. "We would have noticed it in the car, and you certainly didn't do anything at lunch." "Remember when I had to go back from my wallet?" Chris asked. "And how Cody stayed behind with me?" "No," Sean said. "I don't remember that." "Well that probably explains why you didn't know we were already together," Cody said. "He has a poor memory for things like that." "Wait a minute," Lance said. He never said much until he'd had his first cup of coffee. "I gave you your wallet at the restaurant. You gave it to me the night before so you wouldn't lose it." "You lie," Deana said. The indignation at being caught up in their little tale was clear on her face. "You did get together last night." "Guess they caught us," Cody said. "Much faster then I thought." "True," Chris said. "I thought we'd be able to carry on like this for a while yet." He shrugged his shoulders. "Have to admit it was fun though." "Why the little story?" Justin asked. "Because you didn't have to give us that little push," Chris told his friend. "We would have gotten together regardless. Consider this a little warning to keep your noses in your own business." "We will get you for this," Deana warned. She took a glass of orange juice, drained it, and slammed it down on the table. "Consider yourselves warned." "How long do these meet and greets last?" Cody asked Lance. "I'm just not comfortable with all of these prepubescent girls seconds away from ripping your clothes off." The blonde laughed quietly. "They usually last about half an hour. It's almost over. And for a bodyguard you're easily scared." "I'll face down a mob of pitchfork-wielding villagers before I'd take two prepubescent girls." The bodyguard told him. "They just creep me out." Lance laughed again and turned back to finish the meet and greet. There were about thirty girls in the room and about five guys. Since only one of the guys seemed remotely interested in the group he assumed the others were chaperones. The one guy that was interested was interested for the musical aspect of the group rather then the members themselves. He and Josh were deeply involved in conversation with a few of the girls clustered around trying to act interested. The chaperones were very interested in Deana and she had her own little fan club forming. The rest of the singers were surrounded by their own little collection of girls. When Lance returned from his conversation with Cody he was surrounded by the ones that had been patiently waiting for him. The meet and greet wrapped up about ten minutes later. The guys finished up their conversations and sent the group off to enjoy the concert. Once the last of them filed out Cody visibly relaxed. He conversed for a few moments with Sean and Deana before turning to the group. "I'm sure you're familiar with this sort of thing," he started. "But we'll I'll go over it anyway. Since there are only three of us, we'll position ourselves accordingly on the stage. Deana will be on stage left. Sean and I will be on stage right. You make more of your exits on that side and there are more people there. When you slip off to make costume changes one of us will accompany you." "You're good," Justin said. "Most people don't think about covering both sides of the stage." "We try to be good at our jobs," Deana smiled. "Besides you guys are just way to cute to be allowed to get hurt." Josh blushed. "Glad you think that." "It's our job to think that way," Sean said. "But I don't think you're overly cute." Chris gave a dramatic sigh. "I guess we'll just have to work on that." "We can harass our bodyguards later," Lance said. When it was this close to concert time he became very business-like. He had the adrenaline rush that the others had, he just focused it differently. He opened the door and motioned for everyone to go through it. "We have half an hour until the concert starts." The concert went flawlessly. Everyone was where they were supposed to be at the time they were supposed to be there. The guys gave one of their best performances to date. The crowd thoroughly enjoyed themselves and were disappointed when it was over. The guys would have liked to keep performing, but they knew they would crash soon. Adrenaline can only sustain you for so long. True to her word Sheryl met them after the concert. She was standing with Cody and Sean when the guys came off the stage for the last time that night. She threw herself into Justin and gave the blonde a quick kiss before wrinkling her nose. "You need to shower," she said. "Now." She glanced at the other guys. "And so do the rest of you." She pulled herself away from Justin and wiped the front of her shirt. "This smell isn't going to go away is it?" "Not until you wash the shirt," Chris told her smugly. He and Cody led the way to the dressing room. "It's not a good idea to touch any of us until we've showered and changed." "I'll keep that in mind for next time," she muttered. Sheryl and the bodyguards chatted amongst themselves while they waited for the guys to finish showering and changing. All of them were vocal about the guys showering before even coming close to them. "So what do we do now?" Justin asked as he came out of the shower. He'd been the last one to reach a shower and no one listened to his complaining on the subject. He'd finally given up vocalizing and gone to muttering. "We could go out," Joey offered. "But," Lance interrupted. "We couldn't stay out too late. We have to leave at two tomorrow so we can't sleep in. There's too much stuff to do." "Always the businessman," Chris muttered. "What about going out until one. Getting back to the hotel and then going straight to bed?" "That works," Josh said. "We can cover all of our bases that way." "Then it's settled." Justin said. "How are we traveling?" "I took a cab," Sheryl said. "Well," Sean sad. "There's my car and Lance's. We could probably squeeze you into mine Sheryl. I think there's a third seatbelt somewhere in the back." "Why doesn't the sound comforting to me?" She asked aloud. "Okay that fits me into one car, and I'm assuming Sean into one as well." "I'll take Chris, Cody, And Josh in mine. Deana, Justin and Joey can go with you Sean." Lance smiled smugly. "What would you guys do without me?" "I can think of a few things," Joey said with a straight face. "I'm so glad those thinking lessons have worked out for you Joey," the blonde shot back. "Yep. It was expensive, but it was worth it in the end. Got my diploma last week." Joey grinned and then darted through the door with Lance hot on his heels. "I think the rest of us can take a slightly relaxed pace," Deana said. "I do love running, but not that much." The remaining people in the room nodded their agreement and made their way to the cars much slower then Lance and Joey did. "Shhh," Cody said. "You'll wake everyone up." "I don't think so," Chris said. "They all sleep like rocks after a concert." He walked across the room and turned one of the bedside lamps on. "It's one of the things that's good about sleeping after a concert. You sleep really well. Besides I think the club really tired them out" "You don't look tired," Cody said. "That's because I've had distractions," Chris said. He grinned at his boyfriend and then sat down on the bed. "Do you want me to stop distracting you?" Cody asked. He returned Chris' grin and then went to stand in front of him. "Not a chance," Chris replied. The singer stood and wrapped his arms around Cody's waste. "I don't mind your distractions at all." He pulled the bodyguard into a passionate kiss and then leaned backward to drop them both on the bed. Cody broke the kiss and stared at the man beneath him. "Now who's being distracting?" "Upset?" Chris asked. He started working at Cody's muscle shirt and pulled it over the man's head. "Are you sure?" Cody asked. The heat was starting to build in the Cody and it was visible in his eyes. "Positive," Chris assured him. He didn't notice the look in Cody's eyes because he was exploring the man's chest. Aside from the wing-like tattoos on his back, Cody had several others. An Egyptian style eye was below his left nipple and an ankh was above the right nipple. There was a circled pentacle and a series of lightning bolts that formed a triangle on either side of his lower back. What caught Chris' eyes though was a tiny Celtic cross just above Cody's left hip. But it didn't look like a normal tattoo because of its colour. It was the most vibrant shade of purple that he'd ever seen in a tattoo. It almost looked like a birthmark. "Wow." "That's it?" Cody asked. "Wow? I was expecting something more then that." "Sorry," Chris apologized. "Just didn't know you had that many tattoos. They're beautifully done." "Thanks," Cody said. "I've spent a lot of time getting them done." He leaned over Chris and pulled off his shirt. "But let's see what you've got to offer." Josh stood in the middle of a darkened forest. Clouds covered the moon and the trees were shrouded in mists. Now and again howling could be heard in the distance. He shivered. This wasn't the first time he'd had this dream. It started the night after Chris and Lance's attack. The howling came again, only this time it was closer. He shuddered in fear and started running away from the howling. He knew it wouldn't do any good, but he felt he had to try. He'd done the same thing every night since the dream had started. He'd run. And the howling had caught up to him. He never remembered what the howling was, or what it did to him, but he knew it would catch him. It always did. "Josh," a voice called through the mists. He stopped running. He didn't remember anyone calling out to him before. It had always just been him and the howling. He looked around to see where it had come from. A shadowy figure could be seen a couple of yards off to his left. "Josh?" The voice called again. "Are you there?" "Who are you?" Josh called. The figure came closer and Josh saw that it was a woman about thirty. Her blonde hair spilled around her shoulders and down the back of her plain white robe. "We have to hurry." She said. "I don't have enough power to stop the other one." "What?" Josh asked. "The Oracle will explain Josh," the woman told him. "But we have to hurry. I can't keep this dream stable for very long." Josh was about to ask another question when the world around him melted away. When it came back into focus they'd changed locations. The forest had been replaced by a stone-hall. Giant pillars rose to the ceiling. He looked up but couldn't see where they connected to the ceiling. Braziers held fire and gave light to the room. At the far end of the hall was a white robed figure sitting cross-legged between two more braziers. "Go to him," the woman told him. "We don't have much time." Josh shrugged and started toward the figure that he assumed to be the Oracle. He wasn't really sure why he did it. He was just glad for the change in scenery. This hall was a welcome change from the forest nightmare he'd been having. "I apologize for the methods of which I have used to contact you," the Oracle said. His voice was almost a whisper, but Josh easily heard it. "But we have little time to work with. The Moving day is so close that we had little choice." "Moving day?" Josh asked. "Where are we? Who are you?" The Oracle held up his hand. "I promise that your questions will be answered in time, but for now listen. The Dreamer has you and your friends under a spell. I would have contacted them as well, but they are too close to the Dreamer. I will do what I can to break the spell, but it is not my power to do that. Events have been put into motion that are beyond our control. Your trusts will soon be put to the test. Do not jump to conclusions. It will be a difficult test, but all might rest on your reactions." Josh wasn't sure why, but the Oracle intrigued him. He was curious about the situations the other man was talking about. "Why me? Why my friends. What did we do?" The Oracle laughed softly. "We have no choice in what Fate lays before us. We can only accept it. But it is not you that have been chosen by fate. You are wrapped up in this merely by association." The Oracle was about to say something more when the hall shuddered violently. "Josh. Heed my words. I have sent my aid, trust in it. But beware the Dreamer." The hall dissolved and Josh sat up in bed drenched in sweat. TBC So? What did you think? Details. Come one, you know you want to send me e-mails. I'll try to get seven out as quickly as possible. Rune