*Disclaimer - I do not own any of the members of 'N Sync (nor would I ever really want to) they belong to their respective owners. I do, however, own all fiction characters such as Mike, Devon, Ashley, Katie and Rachel. Leigh and Angel belong to Morgana and I. Don't copy our stuff... and we won't copy yours. Thanks.

Everyone huddled together in the living room, shocked by what had happened in the mansion that night. This had all started out as a short vacation to help relax them before they had to continue with the tour and the recording of the new album, now it was filled with terror; the tour would go no further and the album process would hault. They had lost two of their friends to a ghost in a matter of hours. They would never again hear Mike's sarcastic barbs and hear JC's infectious laughter. They would never again see the couple cuddled together on the couch in the tour bus, whispering to one another secretively.

JC had been found floating face down in the mansion's hot tub. They had suggested that a dip in the hot tub would be relaxing and would calm his nerves, if only slightly. No one knew anything like this would happen. No one could possibly guess what would happen next. Mike had been found in a hall closet, her hair pure white, almost as if she had been frightened to death.

Most of them were filled with dread and apprehension of the impending twilight hours. With every noise, they all jumped, eyes searching for the culprit in the darkened room. Finally, one by one, they started falling alseep sacked out around the lining room. The night was filled with nightmares and silent fears of what could happen to them while they slumbered. On more than one occasion, someone would wake up from a nightmare, a scream dying on their lips. Finally, the blessed sun started to rise in the east, filling the room with a cheerful yet somber glow. Justin sat up, careful not to jostle Katie awake, and rubbed his face with a silent sigh. Chris, too, was already awake. Justin glanced around the room and noticed that a tray had been set on the table. On the tray was orange juice and various other breakfast items. Justin grimaced slightly when his stomach growled loudly, signaling his hunger. None of them had eaten since lunch the day before.

"How'd you sleep, old man?" Justin mumbled as he poured himself a glass of orange juice. Chris shook his head silently.

"Not well. How about you?" Chris returned the question as he glanced around the room, eyes resting on the doorway for a moment.

"About the same. Kept getting up in the middle of the night, hearing strange noises." Justin answered as Katie's eyes slowly opened and focused on him. He smiled down at her, caressing her flushed cheek for a moment before turning back to Chris.

"I know what you mean." Chris mumbled with a nod, glancing out the window.

"Did Leigh already leave?" Katie yawned as she sat up and leaned against the couch for support.

"I think so." Chris nodded in answer. Katie smothered another yawn behind her hand as she climbed to her feet.

"I'll be right back. I need to use the... erm.. I'll just be right back." Katie mumbled, turning a couple of different shades of red. Justin nodded with a grin, watching her leave the room to find the bathroom.

"It almost seems as if last night was a dream." Devon stated suddenly, opening her bloodshot eyes to the new day.

"We should call the authorities. Get in contact with the police or something." Lance mentioned as he sat up, pouring himself a glass of orange juice.

"I've tried already. The phone doesn't work." Chris shook his head with a sigh. "Lets just hope that Leigh talks to them while she's on the main land."

Everyone talked idly for a few minutes, trying to wake their muddled brains and exhausted bodies. They cautiously munched on the various breakfast items that had been set out for them, waiting for Leigh to get back to the house. Justin took a sip from his glass, taking note of how sweet it tasted for orange juice. Katie stepped back into the room, looking a little more refreshed than when she stepped out. She walked over to the couch and took a seat next to Justin. He handed her a glass and she drank thirstily. Chris stood up suddenly, stuffing his hands into the pockets of his pants.

"I'm gonna go do something with JC's...," he muttered before leaving the room. He walked outside and around the back of the house to where the swimming pool and hot tub were located. The hot tub, long since shut down, was silent and JC's body was nowhere in sight. Chris made a face to himself, shaking his head.

"Where in the hell..." his voice trailed off as he looked around. Maybe someone had moved him out of the hot tub. Still, there was no sign of the body anywhere. He suddenly had the feeling that he was being watched. He glanced around, noting that there was nothing out of the ordinary on the grounds. On a whim, he glanced up at the attic windows and saw a distorted face of someone he knew. JC? He shook his head, glancing up at the window again, but nothing was there. The hairs on the back of his neck prickled and his insides churned with apprehension.

"You're going crazy, Chris. JC is dead. He's not up in the attic." he mumbled to himself as he rushed back into the house. Everyone turned to him expectantly as he stepped into the room.

"His body's gone." he shrugged as he flopped down on a chair in the corner, brooding. The sound of someone walking upstairs caught their attention, causing everyone to look up at the ceiling.

"Okay. I've changed my mind about this place. I don't like it here." Devon sighed, paling slightly. Lance climbed to his feet in a rush, glancing towards the doorway.

"I'm gonna go look around up there." he stated much to Rachel's dismay.

"Don't you watch horror movies?! You never go upstairs. You'll be the next to..," Rachel shook her head, grabbing Lance's hand.

"Honey, we're not in a horror movie. This is real life. Not fiction." Lance reassured her, leaning down to press a kiss on her lips.

"This is real life alright. Real life where two of us are already dead." she retorted, causing some nervous laughter among the rest.

"I'll be fine. I promise." Lance smiled down at her before disappearing up the stairs. He climbed each step slowly, keeping a lookout around him so nothing would jump out of the shadows to scare the devil out of him. Finally he reached the second floor. Nothing seemed amiss as he strolled down the hallway, opening the door to each room to look inside. Each of the bedrooms were empty and silent, that alone was making his skin crawl with barely subdued fear. Once he checked all the rooms on the second floor, he made his way back to the staircase to go up to the third floor. There were only a few rooms there, but he wanted to check them anyway. Just in case something was going on that they needed to know about. He opened up the first door and noticed it was the room that had been given to JC and Mike. All of their belongings were gone and nothing remained of them. It was if they had never set foot in the mansion. He shook his head, his heart thudding heavily in his chest as he left the room, shutting the door behind him. He moved to the next door and opened it. This was Leigh's room. He stepped inside and noticed that it was bare except for a few pictures on the dresser mirror with a newspaper clipping. He walked over to the dresser and gazed at the pictures for a moment.

"Leigh has a twin?" he made a face, taking a closer look at the picture. He turned his gazed to the news paper article.

Thornstone Girl Escapes Mental Hospital
Angel Thornstone of Thornstone Island, Florida, escaped yesterday morning from the Sunnydale Mental Institution. Workers at the hospital found her room empty when they delivered breakfast to her. Eight years ago, the young woman was committed for murdering her two older brothers, Lee (16 years old) and Marc (nineteen years old), and her younger sister Angelique (14 years old) in what is known as the most grusome murder the island and main land has ever seen.
Angel was brought to the mental institution just after she committed the grisly muders and just after her twin, Amanda committed suicide. She is very dangerous, so if you see her, please don't approach her. Call the police and give the whereabouts of Angel.

The article went on to explain about her family and how the Thornstones owned most of the main land and all of the island. It also said that mental illness ran in the Thornstone family. Gage Thornstone himself, had committed many hateful crimes against various people, though he had never served prison time for any of them.

Lance shivered slightly and turned towards the door. He suddenly had the desire to leave the room and return to where everyone was waiting for him downstairs. He hurriedly left the room, making sure the door was closed behind him before he made his way back to the staircase. Wait a second. It said Angel had only one sister, a younger one. Because her twin killed herself. And she killed Angelique, so that would mean... Leigh is Angel and she's just using her brother's name as a cover. The news paper was dated August 8, 1995. He shook his head as his mind whirled at a thousand miles an hour, trying to place all the facts into a story that would explain what was going on in the mansion.

He stopped off at the bathroom to splash some cool water on his face to calm his runaway thoughts and heart. He turned the faucet off and sighed at his reflection in the mirror. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a whir of movement. He spun around on his heel, heart jumping into his throat. Nothing was there. Just your mind playing tricks on you kid. Nothing to worry about. This place would freak out even Stephen King. He shook his head, grabbing a towel to dry his face with. Moments later, he opened his eyes to see a figure in a black cape standing in front of him, a huge hood covering it's facial features and hiding the identity from him.

"Shit." Lance gasped, stumbling backwards against the sink. The figure stepped closer to him, a makeup brush in it's hand. It raised it's hand, using the brush as a weapon.

"No." Lance shook his head, his face paling to a ghostly pallor. The figure lunged at him, aiming the brush at Lance's eye.

Katie glanced over at Justin, eyebrow raised in curiosity. His breathing had become labored and he held a hand to his chest. She reached over to him and placed her hand on his knee. Chris, Devon, Rachel, Joe and Ashley all looked on with trepidation.

"Justin? Are you okay?" Katie whispered, shifting closer to him. Justin gazed at her, all his fine motor skills vanishing. He opened his mouth to say something, but no words would come out. His tongue and lips wouldn't form the words. There was something seriously wrong. His heart thudded painfully in his chest and he was glancing around the room wildly. He tried to lift his hand to Katie's face, but his limbs felt like lead that he couldn't budge. He rested his head back on the arm of the couch, eyes rolling to gaze up at the ceiling.

"What's going on? Justin?" Katie glanced over at Ashley, who was the medical student. Ashley took Justin's forearm into her hands, checking for a pulse. Ashley closed her eyes, concentrating for a moment then shook her head.

"He doesn't have a pulse." she sighed.

"Why aren't you doing CPR or something?" Katie demanded, her eyes widening with shock.

"Because this is a classic drug related thing. His lungs won't work on their own, they have to be constantly prompted and we just don't have the material for that here." Ashley explain, tears filling her brown eyes. She had loved the kid like a little brother. Rachel jumped up and started pacing the room.

"Where's Lance? It shouldn't take this long to go upstairs and come back down." she raised her eyes to the stairway as if expecting her boyfriend to come strolling down any second.

"Okay. This is getting too freaky. Even for me." Devon mumbled, sitting next to Chris.

"What the hell is going on? We're dropping like flies!" Katie demanded, pacing the room like a caged animal.

"I feel like I'm trapped in a really bad Wes Craven movie." Rachel started for the doorway to walk upstairs.

"Wait!" Chris yelped, stopping Rachel in her tracks. "From now on, no one goes anywhere alone."

"I hear that." Joe nodded enthusiastically. The others nodded in agreement.

"Now, we'll all go upstairs. Two to a group. Each group will check one room at a time." Chris took command of the situation. Everyone nodded and started on their tasks. Joe took the lead up the stairs, walking slowly and carefully, keeping an eye out for anything out of the ordinary. Rachel glanced down at her hands and noticed that they were trembling, so she stuffed them into the pockets of her jeans. They split up into three groups. Joe and Ashley searched one side of the hall, Chris and Devon searched the other while Katie and Rachel went on to the third floor to look up there. After a half an hour, they all met back downstairs in the kitchen.

"We found nothing." Chris sighed, leaning back against the counter.

"Same here." Joe mumbled with a shake of his head.

"He couldn't have just disappeared. Things like that just don't happen." Rachel shook her head, hysterical laughter bubbling up in her throat.

"Calm down, Rach. He's in the house somewhere." Chris placed a comforting hand on the young woman's shoulder.

"Yes, but..is he alive?" Rachel demanded, raising an eyebrow, too frightened to think about Lance somewhere in the house, his life draining from him.

"He is." Chris nodded with more conviction than he felt. Rachel sighed, head hanging with her eyes closed.

"I hate to breech a touchy topic, but, don't you think we should do something about Justin's body?" Ashley inquired softly, tredding on thin ice. Everyone fell silent once again, wondering how in the hell all of this could have happened in a little more than twenty-four hours. Three, possibly four, people were dead and no one knew who or what was murdering all of them. Another question rang in their minds. Who would be next?

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