Abruptly the soft sounds of song coming from the piano stopped and Lance turned around, a frown upon his lips. �A s�ance,� he questioned.
�Yes, a s�ance,� reassured Chris. �You know, where we all sit in a circle and call the spirits from the netherworld?�
�No, I wouldn�t know that, Chris,� replied Lance curtly. �A s�ance is witchcraft and that�s evil and I wont have any part in it.� He stood up and made his way to the door.
�Oh come on, Lance, it�s not serious,� argued Joey. �Just sit down and join us, man.�
�Joe, I�m not going to compromise what I believe in just to coddle Chris. I ain�t judging you guys but I won�t participate in it,� he commented.
Justin went to protest but JC squeezed his shoulder to keep him quiet. �It�s all right, Lance. You don�t have to do anything you don�t wanna do.�
Lance smiled. �Thanks, Jayce. I�ll just go up to my room and finish unpacking. Y�all have fun�or whatever.�
When Lance walked past Chris to go upstairs, Chris softly bawked like a chicken until Joey kicked him and glared. When Lance left Chris went and stood in front of the fire. �Are y�all up for this or not?�
�Sure, man, what harm could it bring,� replied Justin.
Chris looked down at JC and Joey and they nodded in agreement. �All right, we need to move the couch and two chairs back to make room.�
�Room for what?� asked Joey as he stood up. Justin helped him push the couch back while JC went and moved the other two chairs.
�The protection circle,� answered Chris. He let the coil of rope fall to the floor and set the candles on different ledges around the room. He went over the fireplace and grabbed a match, striking it and going back around to the candles to light them. He blew the match out and quickly placed the coil of rope in a large circle in the middle of the room.
�What�s it for?� asked Justin.
Chris sat down just inside of the circle and motioned for the others to follow suit. When they sat down he explained, �A protection circle is an important element in the process of calling the quarters or in our case calling upon spirits of the dead.�
�How do you know all of this stuff?� asked JC, shocked Chris knew anything about s�ances or how to run them.
�College. My roommate was Wiccan and explained a lot of stuff to me. Sometimes a few of his buddies would come to cast spells or do s�ances and after awhile he asked me to join and I figured why not,� he explained with a nonchalant shrug of his shoulders.
�I never knew you practiced this,� exclaimed Joey.
�I don�t. I�m not a regular practitioner of witchcraft but I know my way around,� explained Chris. Justin opened his mouth to ask a question when Chris cut him off laughing, �No, Jup, they don�t have broomsticks.�
Justin blushed and ducked his head, embarrassed at his stupid question. JC rubbed his shoulder reassuringly as the guys laughed.
�So, what exactly do we do,� asked Joey. He ducked his head and snorted out a short laugh. �Don�t tell me we hold hands and sing koombya.�
Chris rolled his eyes and punched him in the arm. �No, lunkhead. First we all close our eyes and clear our thoughts and even out our breathing.�
They all got as comfortable as they could on the hardwood floor, their legs crossed beneath them, hands on their knees. One by one they closed their eyes and slowed their breathing until they were all in tune with one another.
�The next step is to assure our safety. It�s a protection orb, basically something we conjure with our minds,� Chris explained softly. �To do this you imagine a small ball of light in the middle of the circle which symbolizes goodness which will protect us from any evil spirits we may accidentally conjure up.�
Joey shifted and tried his hardest to concentrate as his mind kept wandering. It shocked him that Chris knew so much about this. Chris was by no means stupid or intelligent but it surprised him because he rarely showed his knowledge of anything outside the group.
JC emptied his mind of all thoughts and concentrated on breathing smoothly. A shiver wracked his body despite the raging fire and the sweatshirt he had put on earlier. He quickly pulled the sleeves down, covering his cold arms and went back to concentrating on the light in the middle of the room.
Justin pursed his lips and wrinkled his forehead. He wasn�t interested or disinterested in contacting the netherworld, as Chris put it, but he was getting bored, very quickly. His butt hurt from sitting on the hardwood floor and if something didn�t happen anytime soon then he was going to leave.
Chris breathed slowly in through his nose letting the air out through his mouth as he concentrated on stretching the small ball of light till it enveloped them in a small orb. He softly instructed the others to imagine so. It had been awhile since he�d done a s�ance so it was taking a lot of energy out of him. Finally when the ball was stretched to it�s capacity and he was sure they had finally connected he spoke�
~*Upstairs*~
Lance took off his silver cross and placed it on the top of the dresser. He went over to his suitcase and pulled out his toiletries and pajama pants before going into the adjacent bathroom to take a shower. He turned the faucet on, testing the water and when it was to his liking he switched it to the shower and pulled the curtain closed. He went over to the sink and took out his contacts and brushed his teeth before getting undressed and hopping into the shower.
A little while later after the hot water turned luke warm and he was freshly clean, he climbed out of the shower and changed into his pj�s and slipped his glasses on. He walked into his room, rubbing his wet hair with a towel, and opened his suitcase. Humming under his breath he grabbed his shirts and pants and hung then up in the closet. He tossed the towel on his bed before grabbing his underwear and socks before going over to the dresser.
He pulled open the top drawer and disposed of his undergarments and closed the drawer. He turned away to put his suitcase under the bed but stopped in his tracks. He turned around slowly and looked at the wall above the dresser, where his cross necklace currently hung upside down. No hooks, pins, or nails held it up. It hung in mid air as if an invisible hand held it there.
Lance opened his mouth and yelled in anger, �DAMMIT CHRIS!�
~*Downstairs*~
��tell us what happened that night,� asked Chris gently. �Tell us why you were murdered, what prompted your son to kill you and himself.�
For minutes they had been sitting there, Chris softly asking question after question. His inquiries fell on deft ears and dissipated into thin air, no answers being offered. Justin was getting frustrated and was seconds from getting up and leaving while Joey and JC sat there patiently waiting until Chris decided to give up.
Faintly Chris heard his name being called and he concentrated harder, hoping it was finally an answer coming.
Lance came running down the stairs, fury burning in his eyes. His blood boiled and he was so angry his arms were shaking. He quickly made his way to the family room, where he saw the other four sitting quietly in a circle. He strode over to Chris and grabbed him by the cuff of his shirt and yanked him up.
Chris yelped in surprise as his concentration was broken and his energy was pulled away. His body was drained and he looked around in surprise and was so out of it that he didn�t realize that Lance was pulling him up the stairs with the other guys trailing soon after.
Lance drug Chris into his room and forced him to look at the cross hanging on his wall. �What the fuck do you think you�re doing?�
�Huh?� came Chris� confused reply.
Lance threw his arms up and growled in frustration. �Fuck! You asshole! You had to come up here and fuck with my cross, my beliefs, just because I wouldn�t play along with your stupid s�ance.�
Chris blinked and looked around, still gathering his bearings. �What are you talking about?�
Lance pointed at his cross hanging upside down on the wall and said stonily, �That!�
Chris looked and his eyes widened. �Holy shit! I didn�t do that.�
�Bullshit!� exploded Lance.
�No, Lance, he didn�t do it,� argued Joey.
�I swear to you that I didn�t do that,� exclaimed Chris. His face was completely serious and he looked Lance straight in the eye.
�Lance, Chris was downstairs with us the whole time,� said Justin. �He never once left the room.�
Lance crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes. �This is just some stupid prank y�all are playing on me. Well, haha, it isn�t funny.�
�Lance, I�m telling you, I didn�t do that! How would I be able to make it stay there without a pin or something?�
�Magnets,� came his curt reply. Chris looked at him and he snorted angrily. �Who�s to say you didn�t have some people come in and rig the house so that it wasn�t your personal fun house so that you could play jokes on us the whole time we�re here.�
�Lance, that�s grasping for straws and you know it,� argued JC calmly. Lance was beyond pissed and he knew better than to raise his voice and start arguing. Approaching this calmly was the best thing to do. �Chris wouldn�t do something like that.�
Lance sneered and went over to grab the Bible he had placed on the nightstand earlier. He grabbed a pillow and blanket and walked over to the door. �He�d lie and y�all would swear to it. I�m not sleeping up here so that I can have Chris play some practical joke on me during the night. If you need me, I�ll be sleeping in the living room.�
The guys stood there quietly before retreating to their own rooms, silently deciding that it was best to just leave the situation alone and go to sleep. Chris was angry because he thought the others believed Lance, Joey was angry because Lance was angry, JC was worried about his friends� sanities since they were all going to be cramped in a house for the rest of the week and it had suddenly become so much smaller; Justin, Justin was angry because that�s what he thought he was supposed to feel.
Chris lay in his bed, hands linked behind his head, as he listened to Joey softly snoring in the bed next to him. He couldn�t blame Lance for being mad at him because given the chance he probably would have played a joke on him like that. Only problem was, when he was caught he fessed up. It just pissed him off that Lance wouldn�t believe that he truly did not fuck with his cross, that was something he wouldn�t do since he knew how important Lance�s faith was to him.
Suddenly Chris bolted upright in bed as he realized something. He hadn�t closed the circle. Fuck. It was the first thing he had learned from his old college roommate. Never leave the circle open because only God knows what could come through once it was left open for so long. Fuck.