Joey walked into his darkened apartment, tired after long a Monday in the studio with the rest of the members of Nsync. The group was busy working on some new songs that might make up a future album and they had been spending long hours in their efforts. His exhaustion did not just come from the hard work though. He had been having some trouble getting a good night�s sleep the last 2 or 3 nights because of nightmares. The nightmares all held a certain pattern. In each one, he watched his friends being attacked in one way or another and he was totally helpless to stop what was happening.
Joey sighed heavily as he dropped onto the couch and picked up the television remote. Quickly, he flipped through countless channels, hoping to find something interesting to watch. Even though his body was screaming for sleep, his mind just could not handle the chance that the nightmares would return once he would go to bed. The television was just a distraction for him until he would no longer be able to fight the need for rest.
Finally, an hour later, Joey could no longer ignore the fact that it was time to get to bed. He ran a weary hand through his hair and over his face while switching off the television and began to make his way down the hall to his bedroom. As he passed the bathroom, he decided that a shower could probably kill another 20 minutes or so, putting the possibility or inevitability of nightmares further away.
After entering the bathroom, he reached into the shower and turned the hot water on full blast. As the water was heating up, Joey slowly pealed off his clothes, dumping them unceremoniously into a pile on the bathroom floor. He stepped into the shower and stood under the scalding water in hopes that it could burn away the memories of the previous nights.
Joey continued to wearily stand against the wall of the shower allowing the water to slowly relax his tired body further until he was no longer able to stand. He slid his drained body down the wall of the shower until he was sitting on the floor. He remained there until the water began losing its heat. Joey reluctantly turned off the stream of water and exited the shower to dry off. After wrapping the towel around his hips, he left the bathroom and walked down the long hallway toward his bedroom with dread. He had never really been one to feel fear, but the nightmares were beginning to change his outlook on things�on himself and he didn�t like it one bit.
Once in the room, he dried off, and put on a pair of boxer shorts and t-shirt, then turned down the covers to his bed. Slowly Joey lowered himself onto its soft surface and drew the covers up to his chest. Reaching over he grabbed an extra pillow to hold in his arms in an effort to find some comfort. He rolled to his side, reached out to switch off the lamp on the nearby nightstand and closed his eyes, praying for sweet dreams.
Early into his sleep, Joey began to slightly twitch his arms and legs. The pillow that he had been hugging was pushed to the floor as he began to slightly turn his head left then right as his breathing became more rapid. He moaned quietly as the nightmare began to unfold before him.
Joey found himself standing in a neighborhood park watching a familiar young man sitting quietly on a park bench enjoying the solitude as the sun ended its slow descent into the horizon. The setting sun lazily caused long shadows to spread their dark ink across the ground and lengthen as time slowly passed.
Joey smiled at the scene as the last bright remnants of the sun cast a glow on the golden curls of his friend Justin. The soft, evening breeze flowed around the curls, causing them to sway languidly against the darkening sky as bold colors of reds and purple flashed brightly only to slowly fade into blackness. All was seemingly peaceful, tranquil.
Unnoticed by both young men, a figure silently stalked through the trees watching them closely as he skillfully turned a large butcher knife in his hand. As Joey continued to watch his young friend he caught movement from the corner of his eye and whipped his head around to see what it was. The figure stopped in its tracks and looked directly at Joey then toward Justin.
�That is the one,� the figure said as he again brought his gaze back to Joey then pointed toward Justin.
�That is the one.�
Joey suddenly realized what the man�s intentions were and desperately tried to warn his friend. He opened his mouth to scream his words of warnings, but nothing came out. Grabbing at his throat, Joey made another attempt, but had the same results. He then tried to run to his friend, in an effort to protect him�to put himself between the intruder and Justin, but found that he was rooted to the ground, unable to take a single step.
Stealthily, the darkly dressed man moved from the lengthening shadows of the trees onto the sidewalk behind the bench. Joey watched in silent horror as the man moved, pulling a woolen ski mask over his face in an effort to conceal his identity. He could hear the attacker�s breathing quicken in anticipation of what he was going to do as well as his quiet chuckling as the man spoke to himself of how easy this one was going to be.
Inwardly, Joey was screaming for Justin to turn around and run. Just as the shadowy figure was within a few feet of Justin, the young blond turned to face Joey and gave him a beautiful smile while waving a greeting at him, never seeing what was about to happen.
Without warning, the attacker crept up behind the young man and quickly clapped a hand over his mouth shutting off any screams of terror. Joey watched as Justin�s hands flew to grasp the arms that were pulling at him, but his efforts were all futile.
The attacker lifted the young man�s struggling body awkwardly over the back of the bench and thrust the knife under his chin, grazing his neck.