Date: Sun, 5 Aug 2001 21:05:43 -0700 (PDT) From: Casstes Jem Koub Subject: "Not All Stars Burn Like the Sun" Chptr 1 Disclaimer: This story is a work of pure fiction and is not intended to imply anything about the true sexuality of Nsync or their personal lives, nor does it speak in anyway on behalf White Wolf Industries or its affiliates. Vampires aren't real and if they were I don't think they'd bother too much with Nsync. Then again... Authors Note: Hi all. I've been coming to `Nifty' ever since I had gotten my computer back in 99'. The archive and the authors have given me many memorable times. This story is my thank you to them. This being my first story I would love any feedback, critical or otherwise. Warning: This story does contain vampires and everything that goes with them including their detached view on humanity. The first chapter of this story contains only sexual innuendos this will definitely change in the coming chapters. That being said, on with the show... Not All Stars Burn Like the Sun The night was sultry. It held a damp kind of warmth that played lusty games on any young lover willing to spare belief. Jacob, however, had no belief to spare. The boy, turning man, sat deep in his confusion. He knew his world was leaving him. He knew all to soon the walls would buckle and all the little tin solders that were his life would stand steadfast no longer. He watched through parted fingers and wide eyes as the ally twisted and bent around him. "Why?" He clasped his hands tight to his skull. "Why did this happen? Why now? Why me?" His timid whimpers escaped on burdened breath. The ally in which he sat was a wet and dirty place. Jacob looked down at his hands. Blood. Of course there was blood, there had to be. He turned his head to the sky and let out an angry cry. "You said you would never leave!" He beat his hands in the puddle besides him covering his sleeve with muddy water. "You said you would never leave..." This came as only a whisper. "Thank you everyone for coming. I hope you all enjoyed the show as much as we did. Till next time. Peace." It was electric. Justin could feel the surge through his whole body as his voice boomed across the stadium. They had preformed in countless concerts and yet he still couldn't handle the sheer volume of raw emotion that the crowed sent at them. Giving a quick wave `Good bye' Justin and the rest of Nsync started a slow trot that took them off the stage and out of line of sight from the crowed. "Good show guys. Real good show." The tech. manager Charlie Ruben greeted the guys. He was a tall skinny man with a mock of brown hair that sat uncontrolled behind a receding hairline. "Nice guys, you really wowed em' tonight. OK. Well you'll be happy to know the problem we had before is fixed so your all done and Mark says you can go on to the dressing room. The Nsync boys toweled off and grabbed some water before fighting over the volume of the fans. Chris spoke first. "Where is Mark? He's usually all over us after a concert. `Sign this' `Quote that' `Can't leave, ever!'" The guys gave an exasperated laugh. "He had to go take care of some label stuff. He sent the word ahead for you all to just go on to the hotel." The exhausted boys of Nsync nodded their appreciation to the crew and headed to the dressing room to shower up and go. Joey was the first to the dressing room door. Opening it he stood back for a moment. "Wow, guys come take a look at this." His expression was that of awe and childish joy. Joey followed by J.C., Justin, Chris and Lance walked into the room all sharing the same dumbfounded looks. The room was covered with flower arrangements of all kinds. Roses, carnations, lilies and violets in all manors of styles and colors filled the room with a florid life. "Its wild." Lance said removing his dress coat. J.C. and Justin followed suit by removing their outer clothing. "I know. I mean we've had flowers and stuff sent to us before but not like this. Is security even allowed to let this much stuff through?" Chris questioned as he too began to get out of his clothes. It was a casual type of undress. No worries and no fears, it was too normal. Seeing each other naked was just part and parcel of the lifestyle. "This is great don't you think?" Justin chimed in. "Look at all this. `Always the best, love J.', `Forever a fan, love J.', `Your angels on earth, ...'" Justin stopped for a moment cutting off the last part of the card he was reading. "What's it say Curly?" J.C. asked. "'Love J.'" Justin looked at the others a bit bewildered. "They probably came in groups. You know? To make them easier to move." He chuckled at his edging paranoia, which was quickly pushed over the danger line. "No Justin I don't think so." Lance said. "All these over here are from `J' too." "Yeah. This batch over here." Chris added. "These are from Jen also." The guys turned to him with an odd look. "Jen?" They said, almost in unison. "Some girl sent us all these?" Joey asked. Chris shrugged. "Well I don't know but I can dream can't I?" He said fluttering his eyelashes. Lance gave him a wry look. "Come on now, this is kind of serious. Some person sent us a room full of very expensive flowers. Not just a bouquet or a vase, an entire room. We can barley move around in here." The guys nodded their agreement as they waded around in the room preparing for their showers. "Look it was probably some company or some save a something foundation just showing its appreciation." Justin said as he wrapped a towel around his bare slender body. He walked off to the showers throwing a comment over his shoulder. "We give enough to those things to get something back." The hypnotizing movement of Justin's legs under the towel was almost enough to pull J.C.'s attention away from the problem at hand. Shaking it off J.C. grabbed his own towel and shucked his boxers before hurrying after Justin replying. "Justin's probably right. Look whatever it is let's stick it with Mark and have him deal with it later. If we hurry up we might actually get to go out to night." Chris turned to Joey with a goofy smile. "'G' dad you think maybe I could borrow the car tonight? I got a hot date." Joey elbowed him in the side and walked into the showers without giving him an answer. Chris soon followed. Lance sat alone in the dressing room as the others showered. He had always felt uncomfortable about it but that wasn't the reason tonight. Lance sat alone and held one of the flower cards in his hand. He had fans and he had sponsors but this was different. He looked out over the groups of flowers and smiled. `Somebody must really care.' He thought. Lance held the card for a moment more then placed it on the table and walked to join the others in the shower. Flashes of light broke through the ebony darkness of his mind. `Was the pain going to end?' he thought. A retch, a scream, more pain more torment. "Why is this happening to me?" Jacob, now crouching, threw himself backward hitting his head on the ally's hard wall. More blood. He slumped to the ground a crumpled pile of a boy. Yes a boy, not more than twenty-one years old. At that age you are still certainly a child. And Jacob's screams were just that the painful outcries of a child. "It will pass you know." It was a statement more than a question. Jacob looked up. There standing before him was just a thought of a person. Just a memory of what life was once like. His mother, but he could barely see her now. Her hollow form moved in and out of sight like waves washing on a shore. "Mom?" Jacob asked. She had died almost three years ago. That's when the depression had started. The form of his mother floated inches above the ground. The whole ally was silent and Jacob felt that slightest breeze would blow her away. "Mom, I'm hurt mom. Real bad. I'm... I'm bleeding but I don't know why. Mom?" He waited for her to respond but she did nothing. "Mom why won't you talk to me? I don't understand. Why would you come back and not talk to me? I love you." The vaporous form of Jacob's mother swayed with pain all its own. "I know dear." Jacob shivered; her voice was like a cold wind. A dead wind. "It hurts now but it will get better." Jacob reached out for his mother but passed through her as if she were not there. "I don't understand." He began to cry. Jacob sat back almost `Indian style' on the ground with his head in his hands. His mother moved close to him. "You have been chosen." Her voice was soft as any and came out like a strained whisper. "Chosen for what?" Jacob looked up and cringed back as his mother lent over and placed her spectral hand on his forehead. "Do not be afraid my son. I am with you." A flash of light ran all through his being touching his every neuron and caressing him in the most private of places. Jacob fell, down through the trappings of society and landed on a pile of bare reality. The streetlights glimmered over the inconspicuous Nsync limo as it headed down a vacant New York street. "Do we really have to be driven around in this? What the hell do we have our own cars for?" Justin sat back in the seat a bit irritated that Mark made them take the limo. Lance shot Joey an `I'll take care of this one' look. "Mark was just a bit worried about the weird flowers and the tech. Problems. Too many stupid things in one night." Justin sat up and made himself a drink from the mini-bar. "Too many things happened? Two things happened. Count them two." Holding up two fingers Justin continued. "This is ridiculous. I mean they were like isolated incidents also. So a couple of gears broke and we were stuck on the platform a little longer than normal. So some company sends us flowers. So what? That's no reason to send us out with goon squad." Justin sat back drinking his vodka tonic. The goons he was referring to were Lawrence their driver and Bill the bands personal bodyguard. "I feel like were in some bad gangster flick." "Well whatever. So we have to take the limo big deal. It makes Mark happy and he's off our backs now." Joey said picking up the slack throwing in a bit of common sense. "Besides we're here already. Let's just go have a good time. We don't have anything to do tomorrow and I don't want to waste a free night. Joey was the first out of the car. He was wearing a waist long leather jacket that covered a black designer tee shirt. His pants were a nice swirl of black and white leather. The outfit was made complete with a nice pair of boots and a hat that could easily be mistaken as something from the set of `Wild Wild West'. "Where's your shootin' iron Tex.?" Chris asked as he left the car. Chris had gone simple, nice denim pants, a white tee shirt with an open button down and black shoes. Lance followed dressed in his usual casual suit. J.C. came after in something that had to be a mixture of velvet, leather and silk. He laughed at the comment hidden behind his over exaggerated sunglasses. "Hey, your just jealous of my sense of style." Joey defended. "Your right Joe." Chris shot back. "I always wanted to live out on the range." Throwing himself into Joey. "Take me you big sexy cowboy. I'm yours. Let's ride off into the sunset." Joey pushed him away laughing. "Quit it you goof." Chris gave a look of mock hurt. "Aw, come on. I'll let ya' brand me." Joey, Lance and J.C. broke out into laughter as Justin climbed out of the car. "What's going on?" Justin asked with a naive look. Lance turned to him with an answer but Chris cut him off. "We're playing `Little fag on the prairie'." Justin rolled his eyes and pushed past the others. "Your such a loser." Justin, clad in tight black jeans with a black tee and silvery over shirt, walked confidently away from the still laughing group. "Such losers, huh? What was that?" He muttered to himself. Justin stopped halfway between the parking lot and the back entrance to the club. "I know I just saw something." He walked casually over to the trashcans lining the back wall. The club itself was adjacent to another building making the parking lot they were in a kind of alcove. Justin walked a little slower as something began to shake the cans. "Who's there?" Justin jumped as one of the cans was tipped and rolled his way. "Jesus! Guys come here." The others rushed over forgoing their bantering. "What's up Curly?" Joey asked, the first to arrive. Justin just stood there and pointed at the toppled cans. Finally he muttered. "There behind the trash cans, a boy, I think... I think he's dead." "Has it been two years?" Jacob spoke to no one in particular as he looked out over the city. He was perched upon the back end of the roof of his favorite nightclub. It was a social breeding ground nestled nicely in the Upper East Side. Real ritzy, even for New York, but it had a sense of punk to it that Jacob couldn't resist. At his side was this evening `craze'. An up and coming artist that was still to `green' to be missed. Playing gently with the boy's short mess of hair Jacob thought on the moment and their earlier conversation. Deciding to throw the boy a rope he spoke. "You sure you don't want to sign?" The boy looked up at Jacob with a bit of a frown. "I told you, my dad doesn't want me to make any commitments and I really don't want to either. It does sound like I nice deal and I'm sure it would be great for me but I just don't feel good about it right now and besides I just got out of high school. I was thinking about taking the year off and then maybe art school or something." Jacob smiled and shrugged. "No problem, just making sure." `I know you signed with Lexington already you spoiled stupid shit.' Jacob thought to himself as he stood up. `Why are people so ignorant. Lexington is going to bleed you dry and fuck me in the process. Your cute kid, but not that cute.' Jacob took the boy's hand and led him to the edge of the roof. Jacob had held enough galleries in this place to earn him the life long VIP treatment, and the fact that he had more ways to black mail the owner than Cuba had cigars didn't hurt either. `Humans are too easy', this was a statement he used on all to often. The phrase would pass his lips early tonight as he and the boy got dangerously close to the edge. Looking over the side the boy took a quick breath. "Scared?" Jacob asked. The boy nodded. `Yeah it's written all over your face. Everything scares you. You talk big kid but you never worked a day in your life.' Jacob leaned in with his lips pursed for a kiss. The boy hesitated for a second then moved forward to complete the act. Jacob's lips ran chills through the boy's whole face. The boy shivered in Jacobs embrace. "I can smell your fear little boy." "Ouch!" The boy pulled back and brought his hand to his lip "You bit me. You sick fuck, you bit me." The boy turned to walk away then whirled around to face Jacob who stood at the edge of the roof looking rather annoyed. "My father was right. You and your business are just a flash in the pan. You'll be gone in a year. God I must be so fucked up right now." The boy began to giggle. It felt good to tell some one off. He'd never done it before. He had always been too scared, but this was a rush. "What's it feel like Jacob, I want to know? What's it feel like to be a poor nobody? How'd you start your business anyway, if you can even call that two bit shame a business? What'd you knock over a liquor store? No, I know. You must have sucked some pretty serious cock, right? I bet you even sucked my dad's. Ew, god and now you were going to' suck mine. Your pathetic." Jacob never showed new artists his real offices. He didn't want people there that expected too much. He showed them the garbage, the trash and the bottom of the barrel. If they still wanted the job after that he knew they would pour their heart and soul in to it. That was his secret to two years of success. But now this boy wasn't playing ball, hard or otherwise. "I would have made you big kid but you screwed up. You proved to be just like your daddy, a nasty, scared and stupid little creature dragged around by your own deluded self worth. Yeah you must really be fucked up and I'm sorry because it's not your fault so I'm going to be nice and let you walk away. Go on, run home to your father. Let him take some more of those pictures and get so trashed that you believe him when he tells you its art. Be proud, old men line up round' the block to buy your daddy's `art'." Jacob's tone was matter of fact and it cut the boy deep. Humans were easy; they wore their buttons on their sleeves. Right out in the open for anyone to push. The boy, who had been walking away, turned to face Jacob. There was a silver gleam in his hand. A knife. Jacob watched with a sigh as the boy stumbled over to him with a twisted anger on his face. "You shut the fuck up! You don't know anything. You know nothing. You're a stupid piece of faggot shit and you'll die and you'll fucking burn!" It was a four-story drop from the roof of the club to the trashcans below. It was more than enough to kill a 'suicide case', or so the cops would speculate. Jacob gave a look over the side to check for movement before he turned and walked inside. He was attending a business meeting tonight and needed to feed before his clients showed up. ***************************************************************************** Well there we have it. I hope you all liked and I'm sure you'll let me know if you didn't ;-). TyrentOall@yahoo.com Till next time happy readers, look to the stars but don't stare at the sun!