Lance's Dream (Part Two)

Later that night, when they were all back on the bus and preparing for bed (each of the guys in their own bunk, except Joey, who had given up his bunk for the night so that Kori could have a bed), Lance burrowed down into his bunk as Justin turned out the lights. Lance told himself that he should have told Kori how he felt, he should have been braver about it. He called himself an idiot for not telling her.

Oh, well, I suppose there’s no point in it anyway, she’s two years younger than me, plus, we probably wouldn’t actually get to be together at all. It’s just as well, he thought sadly. He settled down in his bunk and was sound asleep within moments.

* * * * *

Lance rubbed his eyes. Everything was blurry. He blinked a few times, and his eyesight cleared in a few moments. He felt so tired. And his stomach… It hurt so much…

Lance stumbled out of his bunk, clutching his stomach. It hurt so badly. He looked over at his group mates’ bunks. They were empty.

Oh, no, he thought frantically. Please don’t tell me I woke up late and slept through the photo shoot!

He walked over to the end of the bunkroom and opened the door. The minute he did, he heard a blood-curdling scream. He ran out of the room and into the TV room. He glanced out the window at the dark night sky and saw that they weren’t moving.

That’s odd, he thought. Suddenly, there was another pang of pain in his stomach. He slowly walked to the door leading outside and nearly fell down the steps. He saw that they had stopped right in front of an old motel. There was a light on in one of the rooms on the second floor. He stumbled over to the entrance of the motel, opened the double doors, and lurched forward, falling to the floor.

What is going on here? he thought. I feel so disoriented.

He stood up carefully and saw something move out of the corner of his eye. He turned as he felt another sharp pain in his stomach. He saw JC standing in the corner with his back turned to him.

“JC!” he called out. He started toward his friend, but stopped short when he heard a low growl. JC turned around – AND WAS A WEREWOLF!

Lance’s eyes filled with terror. His heart began to pound with fear. “JC?” he whispered.

The creature that JC had become let out another growl. Not knowing what else to do, lance turned and fled from his friend.

What’s happening to me? What’s happened to JC? Poor Lance was terrified.

He ran up the stairs and went into the room in which he had seen the light turned on from outside. What he saw there startled him.

It was Chris, only… He looked very different. He was wearing an old-fashioned suit, tortoise-shell glasses, and his hair was pulled back into a neat ponytail – with no dreadlocks.

“Chris?” he asked timidly. A confused look came over the older man’s face.

“Excuse me? Who is Chris?” he asked. This puzzled Lance even more. Without saying a word, Lance ran from the room, but not before he noticed the Chris look-alike drink a strange green liquid from a small vile…

Lance wandered aimlessly through the hall. He was more confused than ever, and his stomach was still bothering him. In fact, now the pain was even more intense. What was happening to him?

He licked his lips nervously, and when he did, he noticed something very strange about his teeth. What was this? Did he have…? Fangs? His hands flew to his mouth and he felt his teeth. Yes, he did have fangs! Oh, Lord, what was happening to him? His stomach ached even more now, and suddenly he realized what the pain was. He was hungry.

For blood.

* * * * *

Lance shook his head. This can’t be happening! he thought frantically. I’m turning into a vampire! He heard the same low growling he had heard when he had run into “JC”, or at least, the thing JC had become. He ran back to the room he had found “Chris” in, and found him in the floor, moaning in pain.

“Chris?” Lance asked worriedly.

“Get away!” the older man gasped. “Save yourself!” And, stupidly, Lance just stood there, watching in terror as “Chris” turned into a hideous monster with slightly greenish-tinted skin with massive cuts and bruises all over his face, long, jagged finger nails, messy hair – no longer pulled back into a neat pony tail – and yellow, uneven teeth. Lance trembled with fear. The creature turned slowly and looked at him.

“He told you to get away!” he cackled in a low, gravely voice. “You didn’t listen! Stupid boy!” The creature lunged, and Lance jerked away just in time before the thing’s claws raked across his chest.

“You didn’t listen!” he repeated. “Dr. Jekyl told you to get away. But you didn’t! Now you must face Mr. Hyde!”

Lance’s eyes widened in fear. What the – Chris? Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde? What is going on here?

Before he had a chance to even begin to come up with an explanation, the creature lunged again, and Lance spun away, using one of the dance moves from “I Want You Back”. He did a few more moves, escaping the insane creature by a hair, and locking him in the room in which he had been found as the Chris-like Dr. Jekyl.

As he ran down the hall towards another room with a light, he thought to himself, Thank God for choreography!

He ran into the room and slammed the door shut, and immediately regretted it.

On a stone table was a motionless Joey, with bolts coming out of his neck! Frankenstein’s monster! Lance thought. But… It’s Joey!

Lance looked around the room. The floor was made of stone, the stone table was in the center of the room. There were small wooden chairs around a smaller stone table covered with beakers and test tubes.

What kind of hotel is this? he thought as he looked at the strange furniture. His head snapped up as he heard a terrible scream. He jerked the door open and ran to the top of the stairs. What he saw made his heart pound with fear. The werewolf JC was attacking a young girl.

That young girl was Kori.

* * * * *

Without even thinking, Lance clamored down the steps and leapt on JC, knocking him to the ground. Kori scrambled away and curled herself up into a ball, trying to make herself as small as possible.

“Don’t touch her!” Lance shouted angrily.

JC growled. “She’s mine! You can have what’s left of her when I’m finished!”

“Leave her alone!” Lance said, unconsciously baring his new fangs.

“You should be grateful that I’m being generous enough to give you that much!” JC yelled. He struck at Lance, and his long claws raked across his chest, drawing blood. Lance cried out in pain. He fell back, shocked that JC would do that to him. What was happening to him? JC was one of his best friends!

Why had he started fighting with him? Because he hurt Kori. Lance thought angrily. He turned back to JC and saw him walking slowly toward Kori, who was pressed into the corner. Lance’s eyes flashed with anger, and with a new surge of energy, he lunged forward, grabbing the back of JC ripped, torn t-shirt and pulling him away from Kori.

JC whipped around and raked his claws at Lance again, but Lance jumped away just in time to escape another dangerous injury. Then Lance realized that JC had backed him into a corner. He glanced at Kori, who was still backed into the other corner. She was shaking with fear.

Lance frantically looked around for something to fight JC back with. He grabbed a candlestick from a dusty old table beside him and swung it at JC, hitting him in the side of the head. JC howled in pain and fell to the floor. Seeing this as an opportunity to escape, Lance grabbed Kori’s hand and ran.

They ran up the stairs and into a room. Unfortunately, Lance had forgotten that it was the room with the “Joey Frankenstein”. And what was even more unfortunate, the monster was beginning to awaken. The minute Kori saw the monster, she backed up against the wall and squeezed Lance’s hand. Lance pulled her closer to him and whispered to her, "We need to get out of here!”

Kori nodded her agreement. Lance grabbed her hand and pulled her into a closet. Without turning on the light, he whispered, “Are you all right?”

“Uh-huh.” came her shaky reply. “What about you? He hurt you! You’re bleeding!”

Lance touched his chest and felt blood on his hand. He made a face of disgust and reached out, turning on the light. He immediately saw Kori’s worried face. He looked down at his chest and checked the injury from JC’s claws. He was glad to see that they were only scratches, barely breaking the skin.

“It’s okay.” he said. “They aren’t deep. Just scratches.”

“Does it hurt?” she asked.

He nodded. “A little bit.” Not to mention my stomach still hurts, he thought, fighting off another hunger pang. He glanced at Kori and felt his mouth begin to water. What the-? No! Kori’s my friend! I care about her! I can’t drink her blood! He pushed the awful thought out of his mind.

Kori looked around the closet. Finding a scarf, she grabbed it and said to Lance, “Pull your shirt up for a second.” He looked puzzled, then did as she told him. She wrapped the silky scarf around his chest, covering the scratches. She pulled a barrette out of her hair and secured the scarf around Lance’s back. Then she looked around and pulled a black long-sleeve button-down shirt off a hanger.

“Put this on,” she said. “Your shirt is covered with blood.”

He switched shirts, then leaned against the door, straining to hear what was going on in the other room. He heard the large monster stomping around and groaning. He pulled away from the door.

“Okay,” he said, trying not to look at Kori as another hunger pang hit him. “Any ideas on what to do next?”

Kori shook her head. “How about we just open the door and run like crazy?”

Lance shrugged. “Works for me. What have we got to lose?”

“Our lives.” Kori whispered.

He looked at her for a second and wished he had the courage to tell her how he felt about her. He sighed, frustrated with himself, and, placing his hand on the doorknob, he whispered, “You ready?”

She nodded, and as yet another pang of hunger struck him, he jerked the door open, grabbed Kori’s hand and ran. Joey saw them and began to lumber after them, angry sparks shooting from the bolts in his neck. Lance ran to the door leading to the staircase. He opened the door and pushed Kori ahead of him.

“Kori, run!” he yelled.

Kori ran a few paces ahead of him. He turned back to look behind them. It was a good thing that Joey was a very slow, clumsy monster! At that moment he heard Kori scream, and then he heard a terrible laugh. He turned to see Chris – Mr. Hyde – grab Kori and pull her into a dark room. Lance rushed after them, calling Kori’s name.

“Lance!” He heard Kori screaming for him. “Help! Lance! Please! Help!”

“Hang on, Kori, I’m coming!” he shouted back. He had caught up with them, but Chris wasn’t about to give up his victim so easily.

“Let her go.” Lance growled menacingly. “Fine!” Chris said, and he threw Kori against the wall, knocking the wind out of her so badly that she couldn’t move. Lance’s eyes glowed red with the anger of an enraged monster. Ignoring his hunger pangs, he lunged for Chris, aiming for his throat. Chris blocked Lance from his throat, but Lance still got a hold of him and shoved him back and pinned him against the wall. Chris cried out in pain as his head thudded against the wall. He brought his knee up and kicked Lance’s legs out from underneath him. Lance fell to the floor, and Lance kicked him in the side. Lance reeled in pain.

“No!” Kori screamed. She pounced on Chris’ back. Chris staggered forward, almost falling on top of Lance, then threw Kori off. Kori landed flat on her back. She rolled over to her stomach and picked herself up. She shoved Chris away from Lance. Chris lashed out and struck at her with his claws, barely missing her arm. She shoved him away again and helped Lance stand up. Lance kicked at Chris and Chris backed away.

“Go on ahead of me, Kori,” Lance said.

“Are you sure?” Kori asked.

“Yeah,” Lance said. “But if anything happens, SCREAM!”

Kori grinned. “I think I can handle that.” She smiled at him, then took off out the door, leaving Lance to take care of Chris. She ran down the hall and down the stairs, and past JC, who was still howling on the floor, holding his furry paw over the spot on his head where Lance had struck him with the candlestick. She hesitated for just a moment as she ran past him, then pushed on, running to a door that led to a staircase. The staircase led down to the basement. She ran down the long flight of steps and turned the light on. She looked around the basement. It was dank and musty. In one corner there was a long black box that somewhat resembled… A coffin… Her eyes widened in fear when she realized that it was a coffin! She backed away from the long box. She kept backing up until she felt herself back into something. She slowly turned around and looked at what she had backed into. It was a sarcophagus!